Category: News

The Supreme Court has issued its ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson, a decision that we knew was coming and that overturns 50 years of precedent in the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.

Roe v. Wade is widely known for upholding the right to an abortion, but it also upheld an individual’s fundamental “right to privacy” (in the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution). In a 7-2 opinion (written by a lifelong Republican justice, for what it’s worth), the Supreme Court decided that the right to privacy and liberty covered the right to abortion.

In the decades since Roe, people have rehashed all kinds of questions surrounding abortion: the nature of life and personhood, bodily autonomy, the rights of the unborn and more. And in those debates, we’ve lost the core of what the Roe ruling was really about—the right to privacy in our medical decisions, which affects each and every one of us.

The one question we should be asking, fellow Americans, is this:

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Should the government have the authority to access someone’s private medical and sexual history to investigate, judge, intervene in and/or prosecute their healthcare decisions?

That’s the question. That’s the debate. And I don’t know anyone in their right mind who would answer that question with “yes.”

In the Dobbs opinion, Justice Alito wrote, “It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.” Is it, though? Is government overreach just fine and dandy at the state level? Should elected representatives really be given the authority to determine people’s medical needs? I don’t think so.

Make no mistake—abortion is sometimes medically necessary to save the life of a mother or prevent undue suffering of an unborn baby. If it’s sometimes necessary and the law acknowledges and allows for that, then the law would have to make the determination of whether or not it’s necessary in each and every case. Not doctors, not the person carrying the baby, but representatives of the law. Investigators would have to delve into the personal, private medical records of patients to decide if an abortion was legitimate or not.

Who really wants that kind of government interference in their healthcare decisions?

If there are exceptions in state abortion laws for rape or incest, now we’re looking at investigations not only into someone’s medical records, but also into someone’s sexual history. After all, anyone can claim they were victims of rape or incest. Such allegations are notoriously difficult to prove, so now we get 1) a slew of false accusations by women desperate to be able to get an abortion, which harms both real victims and innocent men, and 2) even more invasive investigations by the government into extremely private and painful matters.

I don’t personally need a right to an abortion at this point in my life. There is almost no chance I will ever get pregnant again, and I can’t imagine having an abortion even if I did. I do, however, need a right to privacy in my own medical care. That’s what’s being lost here.

I also don’t begrudge anyone their belief that abortion is always wrong. I can actually understand how people get there, though I disagree. So by all means, debate the ins and outs and rights and wrongs of abortion all you want. Go out and hold up signs and preach to the masses and try to convince people to make different decisions. Set up pregnancy support clinics. Educate people about birth control or abstinence or whatever you believe is moral and right.

But allowing the government to legislate it is wrong. After all, the question of when life begins is fundamentally a religious or philosophical question, and we live in a country where we do not establish a religion. (It’s literally in the first line of the First Amendment of the Constitution. And besides that, abortion access is a religious requirement in some faiths, so religious arguments for and against access are moot, legally speaking.)

We don’t live in a black-and-white world. Every single pregnancy is a unique situation with a million different variables. Speaking in generalities is simple, but individual cases are nuanced and complex. Should the 11-year-old who has been raped and impregnated by her brother be forced to carry and bear his child when her own body hasn’t even reached full maturity? Should the mother whose water broke prior to viability and who has a life-threatening infection, necessitating an abortion to save her life, now have to go through a painful investigative process to determine whether she’s a criminal under the law? Should a pro-life Congressman with means be able to access abortion for the mistress he impregnated because he can afford it, all while trying to remove access for the rest of us?

You could say those are exceptions, but who makes that determination? Who gets to say what counts as an exception or not? Who gets to decide the criteria and determine who meets that criteria? Politicians most of us wouldn’t trust to watch our dog? Is that really what we want from our government?

And what about the notion that abortion bans save lives? Do the lives of pregnant women not count? Not only will people risk their lives seeking dangerous unregulated abortions, but we could also see an increase in suicides in women who feel trapped in an impossible situation. In El Salvador, where abortion is banned with no exceptions, 3 out of 8 maternal deaths—more than one-third of mothers who die—are pregnant teens who die by suicide. Please read that twice.

The U.S. also has the highest maternal mortality rate among developed nations. And Texas specifically, where some of the most stringent abortion laws are being enacted, topped the developed world for maternal mortality as of 2014. Pregnancy and childbirth are not without risk, especially in this country.

But none of that, sadly, is even relevant to the central question:

Should the government be granted the authority to dive into someone’s private medical and sexual history to investigate, judge, intervene in and/or prosecute their healthcare decisions?

Or more specifically:

Should the government—the random fellow citizens we elect on occasion—be granted the authority to access someone’s personal medical and sexual history to determine the circumstances of a pregnancy and judge whether the healthcare decisions surrounding it are valid?

The answer is no. Obviously, no.

At this point in my life, I don’t need the right to an abortion. But I do need the right to privacy in my personal healthcare decisions. We all do. That’s what Roe guaranteed. That’s what we have lost.

Typically outspoken in her political beliefs, Cardi B shared a video of herself dancing this morning, seemingly unaware of the overturn of Roe v. Wade. She eventually caught wind of the news, however, trolls had already begun flooding her mentions.

In response to someone trolling her, who has since deleted their tweet, Cardi posted a video, in which she claims she had just woken up, but even if she had spoken out, she feels she would’ve received hate regardless.

“Every single time that I talk about political sh*t, y’all get me f*cking dragged,” she said. “So shut the f*ck up, you hear me? Matter of fact, just a couple of weeks ago, I talked about, ‘Hey, watch, we’re entering a recession. When is the government gonna talk about we entering a recession?’ Y’all know what you told me? Mind [your] business, you’re rich.’ Matter of fact, every time single time that I talk about something that’s going on in the community, y’all tell me to mind my business, so suck my d*ck.”

While Cardi was met with much support from her fans, she received a large amount of vitriol from trolls, some of them even went so far as to attack her three-year-old daughter, Kulture.

“Your daughter is literally autistic,” wrote one troll, “and you’re on stan Twitter instead of making sure she’s not sticking her fingers in outlets.”

“My daughter is not autistic…You can’t call her ugly so y’all have to diagnose her with something,” Cardi replied. Go play in traffic b*tch.”

Another troll claimed Cardi was acting immature and insisted that rappers like Megan The Stallion wouldn’t spend their time hitting back at trolls online.

“You’re 30 years old, even Megan [who’s] younger than you not on the internet acting like a miserable child,” they wrote.

Cardi responded: “30,40,50 …Don’t bring my kids up on sh*t…This is all because I put a video of me dancing and y’all wanted me to talk about rod vs wade …WHY YALL BRING UP KIDS FOR? Wtf my kids gotta do wit y’all misery?”

Despite the hate she received earlier, Cardi refuses to be bothered. She later quoted Beyoncé, saying “You won’t break my soul …THATS ON GANG!”

Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Still riding the highs of her steamy queer anthem, “Boyfriend,” Dove Cameron is basking in her powers on her new single, “Breakfast.” On her latest, Cameron channels her feminine mystique, leading herself on the journey to her own fate.

Delivering chilling vocals over a haunting, plucky, string-driven track, Cameron proclaims, “I eat boys like you for breakfast,” not letting a man distract her from her own greatness.

“I got tired of this pervasive and constricting male-dominated energy all around me making me feel like I was somehow set up to lose a game I didn’t even want to play,” said Cameron in a statement, “so I’ve been writing songs that allow me to take up space, to stop diminishing my power and to explore the fullness of who I am in a new and sexy way. ‘Breakfast’ is just the next step in me finding my voice through my music and getting a little energetically weird.”

In addition to putting out new music, Cameron is also in the process of filming the second season of Apple TV+’s series, Schmigadoon. She will also star alongside Issa Rae and Ashton Kutcher in the B.J. Novak-directed film, Vengeance, which is set to premiere in theaters next month.

Check out “Breakfast” above.

Closing off Pride month and leading into her new era with a bang, Hayley Kiyoko has dropped “Deep In The Woods,” the much-anticipated follow-up to her sophomore album Panorama‘s lead single, “For The Girls.”

On “Deep In The Woods,” Kiyoko tells a queer love story, chasing the joy she found in a brief encounter. Over a chilling instrumental, Kiyoko sings, “Baby I / I know I met you in another life / You’re unforgettable / It’s like you’re my dream, my deja vu, a ghost / You’ll be right there, wherever I go.”

The song is produced by Danja, along with Kiyoko’s frequent collaborators, Pat Morrissey and Kill Dave.

“‘Deep In The Woods’ is a song that captures the feeling of instant connection, as if you’ve known someone forever even though you’ve only just met,” said Kiyoko in a statement. “It feels as if your entire being is haunted by their presence wherever you go. It’s that instantaneous moment of knowing you are willing to do anything to be with the one you love.”

Check out “Deep In The Woods” above.

Panorama is out 7/29 via Atlantic. Pre-save it here.

Hayley Kiyoko is a Warner Music Artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The Charlotte Hornets were left without a coach going into this year’s draft after Kenny Atkinson reneged on his commitment to become the team’s head coach. Many thought the other reported coaching finalist, Mike D’Antoni, would fill the coaching position and turn the LaMelo Ball Hornets into a zoomer-charged version of the seven seconds or less Suns.

However, on the morning of the NBA Draft, Marc Stein reported that a possible reunion with former head coach Steve Clifford was in play for the Hornets.

One day later and Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reports Clifford will, indeed, return to Charlotte.

Clifford coached the Hornets for five seasons and was fired at the conclusion of 2018. He then went on to coach the Orlando Magic for three years and spent this past season out of the league.

Throughout his tenure in both Charlotte and Orlando, Clifford installed air-tight defensive systems that pulled both franchises out of the metaphorical NBA gutter to a level respected competition. He even pushed the Hornets into becoming a top-5 defense early in his tenure and led the franchise to two playoff appearances.

Clifford inherits a much more talented roster than the one he left in 2018 with Ball on a path for stardom and, potentially, a Miles Bridges extension on the horizon. Charlotte finished 22nd in defense last season and that will be Clifford’s primary focus this season — Charlotte’s selection of Duke center Mark Williams in the draft should go a long ways towards shoring up that defense.

There is no end in sight to the waves of citizens and artists who are voicing their disdain for the Supreme Court’s partisan decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. And why should there be? Denying abortion and reproductive rights to women in many US states is something that millions of women and families will have to deal with for years to come. The critiques will not be devoid of nuance as we continue to process what the future looks like in light of this, and Jack White just posted a lengthy statement on Instagram directed mainly at former president Donald trump.

“The two party system by proxy puts this clown in a position to pick THREE conservative supreme court justices, THREE,” White said in reference to Trump. “And now these three judges, completely disinterested and unaffected by what the actual majority wants and needs, have just taken the country back to the 1970’s to start all over again fighting for women’s rights.”

His passionate and reasoned statement ended with perhaps the biggest shot fired at Trump: “I hope your dad is smiling and waving down on you from heaven, while his other hand holds a record of all the abortions you secretly paid for behind closed doors. ”

Read White’s full statement below.

“Congrats America! Let’s start at the beginning; life isn’t black and white, but it is in a two party system! That concept allows the chance for one of the parties to promote a professional wrestler of a “politician” with absolutely no experience in govt., who cares only about his own ego, who uses christianity (of which he isn’t one) to propel his career at the expense of those christians (and the rest of us all), who uses patriotism as a dog whistle for racism and fear etc., and all of this goes unchecked because the OTHER party doesn’t have enough of a majority to keep this person from slowly destroying any progress we’ve made in this country . So then this is what happens: the two party system by proxy puts this clown in a position to pick THREE conservative supreme court justices, THREE. And now these three judges, completely disinterested and unaffected by what the actual majority wants and needs, have just taken the country back to the 1970’s to start all over again fighting for women’s rights. I can’t beleive i just typed all of that out and it’s all true, is this a bad movie? Congrats republicans, you beat hillary (yeah! fuck free health care too!) so that this unchecked egomaniac could take us down the worst, regressive path to the point of an insurrection in our capital building threatening the lives of the vice president and congress members, and in turn made our govt. an embarrassment to the entire world (of which you’re all still living in fear of his “wrath” and STILL defending this monster.) yeah! You and your Ar-15’s are one step closer to heaven! Congrats democrats, your weakness in allowing trumps illegal activities to go unpunished during his entire term lead to this. Fillibuster anyone? Your “majority” in govt. is useless. Rewind the tape to how we got here, a third political party of ANY shape or platform breaking up this left/right, them/us nonsense would’ve prevented this before it even started. Think about it. Well trump, you took the country backwards 50 years. I hope your dad is smiling and waving down on you from heaven, while his other hand holds a record of all the abortions you secretly paid for behind closed doors. -jack white”

It’s quite the parallel universe that today in America, citizens everywhere are lamenting the Supreme Court’s controversial decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, thus denying legal abortions to American women in many states, while in the UK, the biggest music festival celebration of the year, Glastonbury, is currently happening. It’s been quite the juxtaposition on the Twitter timeline to see Americans tweeting their grave displeasure with the Supreme Court and America as a whole, while Europeans are over the moon at performances from acts like Wolf Alice, Idles, and Phoebe Bridgers.

But Bridgers has connected these timezones in triumphant fashion. During her Glastonbury performance, she paused to speak to the audience and glow in the moment, but also be totally open about how torn she feels right now. “In all honesty, it’s like super surreal and fun. But I’m having the sh*ttiest day,” she began, before asking, “Are there any Americans here?” When a small, but audible section of the enormous crowd cheers, Bridgers then asks, “Who wants to say F*ck the Supreme court on three?” The roar grows louder and she immediately revs her engine: “One, two, three…F*CK THE SUPREME COURT!!!”

Americans, Europeans, and other internationals at the music festival all joined Bridgers in this bittersweet moment of catharsis. Bridgers then put a final bow on it before jumping into her next song: “F*ck that sh*t. F*ck America. Like…f*ck you. All these irrelevant old motherf*ckers trying to tell us what to do with our f*cking bodies. Ugh. F*ck it.”

Evan Rachel Wood might be in the midst of promoting the new season of Westworld, but that doesn’t mean she can’t show off her pretty impressive vocal skills. While stopping by The Tonight Show on Thursday, Wood not only opened up about her upcoming role as Madonna in Roku’s Weird Al Yankovic biopic, but she gave the audience a taste of how well she can channel the iconic girl by belting out a performance of “Material Girl” at Fallon’s request.

According to Wood, she’s become prone to using her Madonna voice to “disarm” interviewers. As for taking on the iconic role, she felt much better playing the singer in the Weird Al movie than the full-fledged Madonna biopic that stars Julia Garner in the coveted role, which she deemed “too much pressure.” Regarding her casting, Wood added, “Honestly, like I thought I was gonna take a break the rest of the year, and then I got an email and the first thing I read is ‘You’ve been offered the role of Madonna,’ and I just burst out laughing like…. you just spit your drink out when you read that. Like, you’re not expecting that as a Tuesday.”

As for when you can see Wood play Madonna in Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, Roku has yet to provide a release date for the biopic that stars a surprisingly ripped Daniel Radcliffe in the title role. However, the film is scheduled to premiere some time this year, which is already halfway over, so the wait shouldn’t be too long.

(Via The AV Club)

If you haven’t been hipped to Domi & JD Beck yet, a good primer is the keyboardist and drummer’s four minute tribute to Madvillainy. The two classically-trained prodigies are well-versed in the finer points of jazz, as much as they are dexterous hip-hop instrumentalists, and it made them one of our artists to watch last month. Signed to Anderson .Paak’s Apeshit Records, the pair have just announced their debut album, and it’s set to feature appearances from Snoop Dogg, Busta Rhymes, Herbie Hancock, Thundercat, Mac DeMarco, and of course, Paak.

At 21 and 18, respectively, Domi and Beck are already at the top of their game — they even co-wrote Silk Sonic’s hit “Skate.” But it’s what they do with their own work that showcases why they’re true game-changers ushering in the next era of jazz music. Take their latest single “Whatup,” a spaced-out number that starts with Domi’s unassuming keys, that quickly give way to Beck’s frenzied snare-dominant drums, before they keyboard shoots straight to another dimension.

There’s a lot to like about this duo, who represent a glimpse into the future of jazz. And it’s their well-rounded approach that isn’t confined by any boundaries — neither stylistic nor academic — that’s going to keep them rising deeper into mainstream consciousness.

Listen to “Whatup” above and check out the album art and tracklist for Not Tight below.

1. “Louna’s Intro”
2. “Whatup”
3. “Sile”
4. “Bowling” (feat. Thundercat)
5. “Not Tight”
6. “Two Shrimps”(feat. Mac DeMarco)
7. “U DOn’t Have To Rob Me”
8. “Moon” (feat. Herbie Hancock)
9. “Duke”
10. “Take A Chance” (feat. Anderson .Paak)
11. “Space Mountain”
12. “Pilot” (feat. Snoop Dogg, Busta Rhymes, Anderson .Paak)
13. “Whoa” (feat. Kurt Rosenwinkel)
14. “Sniff”
15. “Thank U”

Not Tight is out on 07/29 via Apeshit/Blue Note Records. Pre-order it here.

A new report by Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN laid out how things are currently going as Kyrie Irving and the Brooklyn Nets talk through a potential contract extension. Irving has a player option for the 2022-23 season, but reports in recent days indicate that he might not return to Brooklyn this year, with teams like the Los Angeles Lakers interested in bringing him on board.

Wojnarowski’s report on NBA Today certainly makes it sound like things are not going particularly well if Brooklyn wants to keep Irving around, going as far to say that the situation is getting “acrimonious” and raising concerns about Kevin Durant’s future, too.

“The concern right now for, I think, the Nets organization is negotiations — listen, people try to gain leverage,” Wojnarowski said. “If you’re Kyrie Irving, you are trying to get the Nets to give you a longer-term deal with more guaranteed money than they want to give, the Nets are trying to go in the other direction — shorter deal, incentivized, because he just hasn’t been on the floor as much as they’d like the last couple years.

“This is getting acrimonious, and I think that’s the concern when you look at not just Kyrie Irving’s future in Brooklyn, but Kevin Durant’s future and whether they can hold this thing together right now,” Wojnarowski continued.

A report on Thursday from Shams Charania of The Athletic indicated that the expectation is Irving is not going to stick around in Brooklyn, but this certainly makes it sound like the two sides are trying to figure something out. The problem, however, is that it doesn’t look like either side is close to what the other one wants.