Category: News

Last week, Ted Cruz — perhaps the most dunkable person in the Republican party — stepped in it again. Oddly, it started with him doing the right thing. The Texas senator made the honest mistake of referring to those who stormed the Capitol building as “domestic terrorists.” Tucker Carlson got mad. Cruz tried to make amends by pulling a 180, groveling on Carlson’s show, claiming he misspoke. Carlson didn’t buy it. And neither, on Sunday, did Jake Tapper.

The CNN host dedicated a segment of his latest State of the Union to debunking Cruz’s mea culpa while torching him for even trying to make it.

“The thing is, it wasn’t sloppy phrasing,” Tapper said, pointing out that the lawmaker had called the attack “terrorism” at least 17 times, in both written and spoken remarks. Tapper then cited the FBI’s definition of domestic terrorism: “violent criminal acts committed by individuals and/or groups to further ideological goals stemming from domestic influences such as those of a political, religious, social, racial or environmental nature.”

“That, of course, is what the attack was, violent and criminal to further a domestic ideological and political goal, specifically to stop the counting of Electoral votes to prevent Joe Biden from becoming president,” Tapper pointed out.

He then pointed out that Cruz was one of the Republican politicians who gave the insurrectionists reason to violently storm the Capitol:

“Now, what’s odd is that Cruz is voicing opposition to the activity of January 6th, because they were in part inspired by his actions, by his role, and that of Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley, objecting to the electoral votes for Joe Biden which was part of the twisted kabuki theater and incited the very people who attacked the Capitol, ransacking desks in the Senate chamber including Cruz’s desk.”

You can watch Tapper’s segment in the video above.

(Via Raw Story)

Cardi B and rapper Cuban Doll haven’t seen eye-to-eye in recent years. Another example of their beef came on Saturday after the two rappers exchanged words on Twitter. It started after a Nicki Minaj fan account posted a screenshot from Cuban Doll’s Instagram Story which depicted Doll in a leopard print outfit for an upcoming music video. The image was placed next to one of Minaj in a leopard wig, suggesting that Cuban had been inspired by Minaj. A Cardi B fan account then shared an old video of Cardi showing love to Cuban. This is when Cardi herself jumped into the conversation.

“Ask me why they hate me … THEY DON’T HAVE A REASON, JUST BANDWAGONING,” Cardi replied in a now-deleted tweet. “It’s Cool tho, everyone that ever hated never succeeded.”

Cuban issued a quick response which launched the rappers into a full-on Twitter beef. “Girl Sdfu !!!!! We never had a problem you dry tweeted that sh*t bout me,” Cuban tweeted. “Me & you ain’t been cool offset was tryna fuck me.” In an additional tweet, which she later deleted, Cuban added, “Don’t play victim… THATS WHAT WE NOT FINNA DO.”

Cardi countered Cuban’s victim claims and said she was the one that started the war of words. Cardi shared screenshots of tweets from Cuban that seemed to throw shots at Cardi’s past marital issues with Offset.

“I pray a man don’t marry me just to cheat on me. That’s next level OD DISRESPECT,” Cuban wrote in the now-deleted post. She also added, “I could never be inspired by someone I don’t listen to. Simple stop trying to force that on me.” Cardi shared the screenshots and wrote, “You started this whole sh*t wit those two NOW DELETED tweets being shady about the inspiration and then my husband. Now that I respond I’m wrong?” After Cuban called Cardi a “bully” and claimed she was getting attacked over her leopard outfit, Cardi issued another response to set the record straight.

“It was never about clothes I never shaded you,” she wrote. “You put these two tweets up and then deleted them and now you talking about I bullied you ?” Cuban defended her tweets and said they were not about Cardi and Offset, but also noted that she does not feel inspired by Cardi. “You can’t get mad I said I don’t listen to your music !?” Cuban wrote. “B*tch it’s been years the husband tweet was not bout u ! It’s just got that’s made u mad girl bye your werid.”

Offset’s 2018 cheating scandal was eventually brought up during the rappers’ beef when Cardi shared screenshots between her and Cuban, who denied knowing about the situation until it was posted online. Cardi also posted Cuban’s TMZ interview in which she denied knowing Offset at the time. “This is you as well LIKE I SAID,” Cardi wrote. “Don’t try to act victim cause I reply to those deleted tweets you was directing at me.Just tell your label to pay me for the promo.”

Cuban still insisted that “your husband tried to f*ck me” while doubling down on claims that she was not inspired by Cardi, who claimed that Cuban could not “keep up with ya own lies.” Finally, the two ended things by seemingly agreeing to disagree, but not without throwing out final shots. “Deleting those tweets.. it’s bad for business and I’m done helping out the needy,” Cardi wrote. “I want to apologize to my fans. I know y’all get upset when I give attention to germs.” Cuban shared her tweet writing, “Don’t need no attention from no rat ass h*e.”

Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Even if Donald Trump does not run for president again in 2024 (and even if Democrats stop him from doing so), we’ll still be living with the consequences of his actions for years, decades, maybe generations. But some are more destructive than others. In a new interview with The Daily Beast, Stephen Marche, author of The Next Civil War: Dispatches from the American Future, detailed a “genuinely insane” decision he made while in office that could end with one of the planet’s biggest cities devastated.

Marche pointed to a move his administration made in February of 2020, when they abruptly halted a project to erect a seawall around New York City to protect it from dangerous storms, such as Hurricane Sandy in 2012 or Ida over the summer. At the time, Trump mocked the plan, which would have cost billions of dollars, on Twitter, less than a year before he was booted from the platform.

Back then, The New York Times reported that, while Trump “cannot single-handedly cancel a Corps project,” the “unusual” cancelling of the project led to suspicion that politics had played a hand.

While speaking to The Daily Beast, Marche claimed that another major storm, like Sandy, would not be good for the nation’s most densely populated city.

‘The models when a hurricane hits New York are incredibly strong, ” he said. “Miami and New Orleans are very nice towns, but New York is New York and 88 percent of the world’s international currency goes through, it’s still the capital of the world really.” He added that NYC is “also unrebuildable,” saying, “When it floods, the density of the infrastructure is so thick that, unlike Miami or Houston or New Orleans, they won’t won’t be able to rebuild it.”

Both Marche and reporter Molly Jong-Fast agreed that the decision to end that project was “genuinely insane.” So, thanks again, Trump!

(Via The Daily Beast)

The Denver Broncos, for the second straight year, brought up the rear in the AFC West, finishing 4th in the division at 7-10 after their 13th consecutive loss to the Kansas City Chiefs on Saturday.

Denver boasted one of the league’s best defenses, allowing the third fewest points and 10th fewest yards in the league, but as has been the case since the Peyton Manning era, the offense was woefully bad (22nd in points, 19th in yards). While Teddy Bridgewater raised their floor a bit, the quarterback situation remains an issue, but they operated an offense that simply wasn’t very inspiring and seemed more aimed at not losing games than trying to win them.

As always, that comes back to the head coach and after three seasons and no tangible improvement in record, Vic Fangio found himself out as Broncos coach on Sunday morning.

Fangio went 19-30 in his three seasons in Denver, never producing an above-.500 record, as the former longtime defensive coordinator in the league got the defense up to speed quickly, but never had the offense to match. Part of that was the QB situation, which Fangio pointed to bluntly after the loss on Saturday as he seemed to know that his time was up and was no longer interested in sugarcoating things.

As for who the Broncos will target, it feels like a safe assumption they’ll be looking more towards the offensive side of the ball, as that’s just how things work in coaching searches when you fire a defensive guy whose teams played uninspired offense. That won’t matter a lot if they don’t, as Fangio noted, have a quarterback in town who can raise their standard of play on that side of the ball, but to win the press conference, they will almost assuredly go with someone with an offensive background.

First, Doja Cat had to cancel one of her last appearances of 2021 due to Covid-19, now, the pop star has got crazed fans calling in threats to her shows. Doja was slated to perform a free show in Indianapolis today, but the show was briefly interrupted by the threat of a bomb and police cleared the area outside Monument Circle where fans had gathered for about 20 minutes while they investigated. Doja was slated to perform an outdoor show in downtown Indianapolis as part of the College Football Playoff national championship festivities, but a man making threats about a bomb almost derailed the set.

According to IndyStar, around 5 PM, a man made a threat about an explosive device. He is now in custody and police are investigating, but so far no bomb or evidence of one has been found. “A fan wanted to advance in line so he exercised very poor judgment and told those around him in line he had a bomb in his backpack,” Deputy Chief Joshua Barker said in a text message to IndyStar. “Someone did the right thing and alerted IMPD. The backpack was clean.”

Fans posted shots of just how packed the area was for the rapper’s performance, as well as some shots from the show, which went on as planned. Check them out below.

The Boston Celtics got a measure of revenge on Saturday night against the New York Knicks. After blowing a 25-point lead against the Knicks at Madison Square Garden earlier this week, the Celtics welcomed them to Beantown and ran them off the floor, picking up a 99-75 win at TD Garden.

Jaylen Brown led the way for Boston on the night, registering his first career triple-double with 22 points, 11 rebounds, and 11 assists. It earned praise from former Celtic and current ESPN analyst Kendrick Perkins, who implied the team won despite a less-than-stellar game from Jayson Tatum.

Tatum had an ok night — he scored 19 points in 29 minutes of work — but still, Perkins felt the need to mention him. After catching wind of Perkins’ tweet, Tatum responded and expressed that he wasn’t a fan of Perkins bringing him down as a way to uplift his teammate.

Perkins would go on to respond to Tatum’s tweet — which, it should be mentioned, Brown retweeted — saying that bringing Tatum down was not his intention. Instead, he just wants to see if the two guys can co-exist on the floor together.

It’s a bit of a weird stance for Perkins to take, since it’s not like Brown and Tatum just became teammates this year for the first time and they do have a history of winning basketball games alongside one another.

Week 18 of the 2021 NFL season kicked off on Saturday afternoon with an AFC West tilt. The Kansas City Chiefs, still in contention for the 1-seed in the AFC, traveled to Denver to take on the Broncos, and while they’re unable to qualify for the postseason, the team was playing for pride due to the fact that they’ve lost their last 12 games against the Chiefs.

It looked like Denver was well on its way to making that happen — the team boasted a 21-20 lead in the fourth quarter and faced a second-and-2 from its own 9-yard line. The Broncos called for a handoff to Melvin Gordon, who wanted to rumble forward and pick up the first down. Unfortunately for him, Melvin Ingram had other ideas, as the Chiefs’ linebacker did not get blocked and strolled right into the backfield and blew things up.

Gordon barely had time to get his hands on the ball, so when Ingram pummeled him, rookie linebacker Nick Bolton was able to scoop things up. Thanks to a business decision by former college teammate Drew Lock, Bolton was able to sprint 86 yards to the end zone to give Kansas City the lead.

Upon getting the football back, the Broncos, facing a 28-21 deficit in the fourth quarter, marched down the field and kicked a field goal on fourth-and-9 from Kansas City’s 13.

Earlier this week, The Tennessee Bureau Of Investigation (TBI), U.S. Marshals, and the Memphis Police Department identified a suspect in Young Dolph’s murder, which took place back in November. The agencies identified Justin Johnson as the person responsible for Dolph’s death and put out an arrest warrant. They seek to charge him with first-degree murder, criminal attempt of first-degree murder, and theft of property between $10,000 and $60,000. Officials offered $15,000 for information leading to his arrest, but that money won’t be given out as Johnson announced that he will turn himself in in a couple of days.

“Turning myself in Monday @201,” Johnson, aka Memphis rapper Straight Drop, wrote in a post to the Instagram account @straightdroppp. “I’m innocent. I’ll be back sooner than you can blink.” Johnson also shared a video of local news coverage about his arrest warrant on his Instagram page. “Next time post the REAL,” he wrote. “BS ass Blogs.”

After officials identified Justin Johnson as a suspect in Dolph’s murder, fans of the late rapper found multiple pictures of Johnson standing beside Dolph. In some cases, Johnson could be seen wearing a chain that read “PRE” — the acronym for Dolph’s Paper Route Empire label. Despite having the chain, Johnson was never listed as an artist on Paper Route Empire.

Trump hasn’t officially announced that he’s running for president for a third time, but the party he seized in 2016 still seems to be cool with a failed blogger who now lives in resorts. Meanwhile, his successor, Joe Biden, claims that competing against him again would be fun. His former lawyer, Michael Cohen, doesn’t think he’ll do it. Others, though, are not happy that a serial liar and almost-insurrectionist could be back in the White House.

As per The Hill, a handful of Democrats have been quietly exploring a way to prevent Trump from running again. Their solution? The 14th Amendment, specifically Section 3, a Civil War era addition that bars anyone from holding “any office” in the United States if they “have engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the nation.

How likely is that Democrats may use this nuclear option? “If anything, the idea has waxed and waned,” said Harvard Law School constitutional expert Laurence Tribe. “I hear it being raised with considerable frequency these days both by media commentators and by members of Congress and their staffs, some of whom have sought my advice on how to implement Section 3.”

Among the lawmakers who’ve floated using the 14th amendment are representatives Jamie Raskin, Jerry Nadler and Debbie Wasserman Schultz. The move has been discussed as early as after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, which Trump is accused of starting. Back then, he said the procedure would require “more research.”

Meanwhile, Trump has been alternately fuming about Joe Biden’s speech on the anniversary of the Capitol attack and continuing to downplay it. The former president has a lifelong habit of evading any serious punishment, so perhaps those with the power to stop him from returning to D.C. might want to speed up that research.

(Via The Hill)

It’s official: Klay Thompson will play in an NBA game on Sunday. Thompson, who has not stepped on the floor for a game since Game 6 of the 2019 NBA Finals against the Toronto Raptors due to a pair of major injuries that have cost him each of the last two seasons, announced on his Instagram account that he will play in the Golden State Warriors’ game against the Cleveland Cavaliers at Chase Center on Sunday evening.

Thompson told the world that he’s on his way back via his Instagram account, where he shared the famous clip of Bill Murray showing up in Space Jam and giving the Tune Squad a late boost in its game against the Monstars.

“How I’m pulling up to chase tomorrow, Bill Murray is my spirit animal,” Thompson wrote. “IM SO EXCITED TO SEE YALL DUBNATION ! LETS GET IT”

The Warriors confirmed the news by posting a video of Thompson saying he’s back.

Thompson suffered a torn ACL during that aforementioned Finals game against the Raptors, which meant he did not take the floor during the 2019-20 NBA season. While working to get back onto the floor in 2020-21, Thompson tore his achilles, and as a result, Sunday will mark 941 days since the All-Star guard has last appeared in a game. It had previously been reported that Thompson and the Warriors circled the game against Cleveland for a return.