Category: News

Ever since November, president-turned-failed blogger Donald Trump has been pushing baseless accusations of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election. Even Ivanka and Jared are reportedly sick of hearing about it. This probably won’t stop him, but a Republican-led investigation in Michigan — one of the main places he’s accused of helping “steal” his election — has released their conclusion. And it turns out they found bupkis.

As per CNN, a report, again conducted by Republicans, concluded there was “no evidence of widespread or systematic fraud” in November. Among the wild claims they debunked included, as per CNN: “that deceased people or non-residents voted in the election, voting tabulators were compromised, ballots were harvested, ballots were ‘dumped’ at the TCF Center in Detroit, and votes for Trump in Antrim County were switched.” Also proven false: that former Michigan residents had also voted.

There were, however, some instances of voting irregularities. They go as follows:

According to the report, there were two cases in Wayne County where an individual appeared to have voted but was deceased. One was a clerical error in which a 118-year-old man shared an identical name with his son. The other was a 92-year-old woman who died days before the election.

The report emerged after Michigan Republicans proposed bills to overhaul the state’s election laws, including requiring IDs and restricting hours for dropping off ballots. (Governor Gretchen Whitmer is expected to veto them.) It also dropped the day after a Democrat-led attempt to push back against such measures was filibustered by Senate Republicans. The latter claim they’re simply trying to protect the integrity of elections; the latter accuse them of simply trying to limit the number of people who can vote after a record turn-out.

But the Michigan Republicans who conducted the investigation did not take it lightly, nor were they amused by the baseless claims former president Donald J. Trump, as well as a large number of his party, continue to make.

“Further, the Committee is appalled at what can only be deduced as a willful ignorance or avoidance of this proof perpetuated by some leading such speculation,” the report read, adding, “The Committee strongly recommends citizens use a critical eye and ear toward those who have pushed demonstrably false theories for their own personal gain.”

(Via CNN)

Usually, when a universally beloved rapper like Megan Thee Stallion releases a seismic new single such as “Thot Sh*t,” her most recent effort that already has conservatives shaking their proverbial fists, creators on TikTok have a field day inventing viral dance challenges that then become emblematic of a song’s success. It’s worked for Cardi B, with both her songs “WAP” (which also features Meg) and “Up,” and it’s worked for Doja Cat, whose “Say So” and “Streets” were subjects of inescapable dance crazes (and sultry backlit boudoir shoots).

However, there has been no skyrocketing trend for “Thot Sh*t,” which by most accounts is already every bit as popular as any of Megan’s other hits. According to Mashable, that’s because Black TikTokers are now refusing to create one, citing the tendency of non-Black users to co-opt and water down their efforts, which tends to lead to the aforementioned trends. With Black TikTokers — the originators of many of the most popular dances — “striking,” none the videos under the “Thot Sh*t” sound have taken off as in the past.

Observers have noted the discrepancy in attention since the app’s explosion in popularity a couple of years ago. While influencers like Addison Rae, Charlie D’Amelio, and others receive mainstream exposure and opportunities for essentially copying the already popular dances, the originators tend to go overlooked. See: The NBA’s 2020 All-Star Weekend, where the “Renegade” challenge to K Camp’s “Lottery” was in evidence throughout the broadcast, but Jalaiah Harmon, the 14-year-old who choreographed it in the first place, was nowhere to be found.

Of course, Twitter users took note of the dearth of content, and the results… well… you can see them below. What’s the solution? Ultimately, that will have to be left to the content creators themselves, but for one thing, it would seem all the record deals, television appearances, and paid performances should ultimately be going to the folks who form the engine that drives TikTok and turns hits into ubiquitous pop cultural phenomenons.

Just in case you weren’t quite feeling your age today, we’re here to really rattle those ol’ bones and tell you the Nintendo 64 has officially turned 25 years old. Yes. 25 years old. While it seems like just yesterday we were grasping that strangely-pronged controller in our hands, it’s been some time since the console launched and helped revolutionize gaming. In celebration of this iconic console’s 25th anniversary, let’s talk a short stroll down memory lane and look at it’s top five games.

5. Banjo-Kazooie

While Rare made a lot of incredible games for the Nintendo 64 and I will die on the hill that Diddy Kong Racing is the best kart-racing game ever made, out of all its titles Banjo-Kazooie is the one that deserves a spot on this list (sorry, Perfect Dark). The late 90s and early 2000s were a golden age for the mascot platformer. We got Spyro, Crash, Ratchet and Clank, Sly Cooper, Jak and Daxter, Rayman, and countless others. However, as the one that seemingly started the wave, Banjo-Kazooie holds a special place in many a’ 90s kids’ hearts. With fun puzzles, a non-linear game design, and gameplay that quite simply a blast, the game deserves all the praise and accolades it gets.

4. Goldeneye 007

While Goldeneye 007 isn’t the greatest selling Nintendo 64 game of all time or the first first-person shooter, it is the greatest selling 64 game in the United States and indisputably had a massive impact on the shooter genre. For those playing on console, Goldeneye was the definitive FPS in the late 90s, boasting a fun single-player campaign, up to four player co-op, and an incorporation of stealth into the genre that helped popularize it as a whole. In addition, it added precision aiming, making the gunplay — at the time — cutting-edge.

3. Super Smash Bros.

There’s a lot of argument over what the definitive fighting game series is, but when it comes to which one is packed with the most fun and wild crossovers, Super Smash Bros. takes the cake easily. Super Smash Bros. on Nintendo 64 is the first entry in the series, and kicked off the popular saga that is still going strong even today and for good reason. I mean, how many series let you take on Solid Snake as Pikachu, or fight Sephiroth as Link? Just one. Much like Goldeneye, this game changed couch co-op gaming forever and became a go-to game for family game nights, social gatherings, and after-school hangs.

2. Super Mario 64

Of course, we can’t properly celebrate the Nintendo 64’s anniversary without also celebrating its big launch title: Super Mario 64. The first 3D Mario game, Super Mario 64 elevated not only the series, but platformers as a whole. Despite being the first game on the console, it’s remained the best-selling Nintendo 64 game of all time, with more than 11 million copies sold by 2003. While the game’s at times shoddy camera kept it from attaining the coveted “Greatest Game of All Time Award” and the top place on this list, it paved the way for the next game we’re going to talk about, which holds both.

1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Ocarina of Time might not have been the Zelda game that started it all, but it certainly is the one that changed it. Much like the Nintendo 64 itself, Ocarina was a revolution. It introduced 3D graphics to Zelda and lock-on targeting systems to gaming, now a staple of the action-adventure genre. Widely recognized for its achievements in storytelling, gameplay, visuals, and, well, everything, it is the highest-rated game on Metacritic and has won the “Greatest Game of All Time” accolade at Edge, Entertainment Weekly, IGN, Nintendo Power, Game Informer, and countless other outlets.

So what do you think? Did you miss out on playing any of these classics or think something else deserved to be up here? Be sure to share your thoughts below!

Davina Agudelo was born in Miami, Florida, but she grew up in Medellín, Colombia.

“I am so grateful for my upbringing in Colombia, surrounded by mountains and mango trees, and for my Colombian family,” Agudelo says. “Colombia is the place where I learned what’s truly essential in life.” It’s also where she found her passion for the arts.

While she was growing up, Colombia was going through a violent drug war, and Agudelo turned to literature, theater, singing, and creative writing as a refuge. “Journaling became a sacred practice, where I could leave on the page my dreams & longings as well as my joy and sadness,” she says. “During those years, poetry came to me naturally. My grandfather was a poet and though I never met him, maybe there is a little bit of his love for poetry within me.”

In 1998, when she left her home and everyone she loved and moved to California, the arts continued to be her solace and comfort. She got her bachelor’s degree in theater arts before getting certified in journalism at UCLA. It was there she realized the need to create a media platform that highlighted the positive contributions of LatinX in the US.

“I know the power that storytelling and writing our own stories have and how creative writing can aid us in our own transformation.”

In 2012, she started Alegría Magazine and it was a great success. Later, she refurbished a van into a mobile bookstore to celebrate Latin American and LatinX indie authors and poets, while also encouraging children’s reading and writing in low-income communities across Southern California.

When the pandemic hit in 2020, she decided it was time to do even more to serve people during these difficult times.

“It became clearer to me that the lack of representation in the book publishing industry for BIPOC/LatinX writers & poets had to change,” she says. “I want to be an agent of change in the publishing industry and contribute to its transformation.”

She created Alegría Publishing to nurture and produce works by indie LatinX storytellers and expanded the mobile bookstore to celebrate BIPOC/LatinX writers and poets, as well as the books published by Alegría publishing. And one day she hopes that she can take the bookstore across the United States and discover even more emerging writers.

Today, Agudelo also mentors indie authors two nights a week through the Alegría Writing Collective for LatinX writers. “They rock my world every class,” she says.

“The amount of talent in our community pushes me to keep growing our company so the world can read their work and remember their names.”

Agudelo has made it her mission to empower women and her community. “My career has been such a blessing filled with magical milestones and I never take these moments for granted,” she says. “There is nothing like being able to make a woman’s dream of publishing their first book and bring it to life. Watching their reaction, when they look at their book for the first time is priceless.”

“As women, we are naturally powerful, we just have to keep reminding each other of our power.”

Agudelo is one of Tory Burch’s Empowered Women this year. The donation she receives as a nominee is being awarded to The Sims Library of Poetry, which is the first black-owned poetry library in California.

“Hiram Sims, its founder, started lending books to his university students out of this suitcase after mandating that they read one book of poetry a week. As demand grew, his suitcase library was forced to seek a larger home,” says Agudelo. “Their mission is to serve, educate, and foster a love for poetry, especially for marginalized people of color in the community of South Los Angeles.”

To learn more about Tory Burch and Upworthy’s Empowered Women program visit toryburch.com/empoweredwomen. Nominate an inspiring woman in your community today.

Jacob Chansley, a.k.a., the “QAnon Shaman,” wouldn’t have dressed up like he did for the January 6 insurrection (in the so-called “Chewbacca Bikini” outfit) if he didn’t want theatrics, and he’s certainly getting them. His attorney, Albert Watkins, happens to be the source of much attention directed towards his client, and that’s because, well, Watkins doesn’t really seem to respect or like his client? It’s strange.

As Chansley remains in jail, Watkins keeps talking to the press. First, he reasoned that his client meant no harm while helping to storm the U.S. Capitol because he saved some muffins from fellow MAGA enthusiasts. Watkins then threw out a pretty brutal description for both Chansley and the rest of the mob, calling them “all f*cking short-bus people.. with brain damage, they’re f*cking ret*rded.” Not great! Watkins also decided to (for unknown reasons) visit with CNN’s Chris Cuomo about grooming products and mental health while arguing that his client tried to keep the peace inside the mob.

Watkins latest legal shenanigans involve blaming the rampant divisiveness of the U.S., and in short, he says that all Americans are to blame for his client’s plight:

In a court filing seeking Chansley’s release from jail while he awaits trial, his lawyer, Albert Watkins, said the attack was the direct result of the divisive U.S. political climate.

Watkins said his client has become “inextricably and in perpetuity linked to an event which will become known not as a day of infamy, but as a day on which our nation was compelled to commence bellying up to the bar to acknowledge each of our roles in permitting, fostering, tolerating, endorsing or ignoring without action an ever increasing barrage of divisiveness, intolerance, untruths, misrepresentations, and mischaracterizations through an unrelenting multi-year propaganda odyssey.”

Yet partisan politics in the U.S. (and resulting ugliness) is absolutely nothing new. Watkins previously insisted that Trump “groomed” his followers to be rabid conspiracy theorists, which is not nearly as far fetched as blaming all Americans for what Chansley allegedly did. Speaking of which, he faces six federal charges, which include violent entry as well as disorderly conduct related to the insurrection. Considering that an alleged Oath Keeper pleaded guilty (on Wednesday) for his acts on January 6, more dominoes (including the QAnon Shaman) could react accordingly soon. In other words, Watkins’ maneuvering can’t last too much longer.

(Via Reuters & CNN)

It’s been a rough few weeks for Ben Simmons. The Philadelphia 76ers’ All-Star point forward was a shell of his usual self during the team’s 4-3 series loss to the Atlanta Hawks in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. It got to the point that he received rare public criticism from Doc Rivers and Joel Embiid, while long-simmering questions about whether or not he should be traded have boiled over.

And now, teams in other sports that head to the City of Brotherly Love are getting in on the fun. The Washington Nationals are in Philly to take on the, well, Phillies. The home side found itself up, 5-2, in the top of the fifth with Kyle Schwarber up at the dish for the Nats.

The 0-1 pitch ended up being a curveball right in Schwarber’s wheelhouse, so he hit it into the stands. Now, there were two men on base, meaning this was a three-run home run and if you really can’t figure out where the Nationals’ social media team is going with this, well, yeah.

Of course, the Nationals are probably the one team that can’t have too much fun with this, as the only team the Sixers beat this postseason was the Washington Wizards. But at the same time, all’s fair in the world of trash talk so long as you can back it up, and Schwarber certainly did that.

While many are looking forward to the smooth return of large-scale music festivals, one Kentucky event is perhaps an example of a worst case scenario. Redneck Rave, an event described “America’s wildest and craziest country party,” drew thousands of excited festivalgoers in an Edmonson County town so small that it doesn’t even have a stoplight. Chaos ensued during the event, resulting in reports of strangulation, throat slitting, broken bones, mass drug possession arrests, and more.

According to a report from the Kentucky news outlet Lexington Herald-Leader (via CoS), organizers made good on their promise that the Redneck Rave would include “mud, music, and mayhem.” The Edmonson County sheriff’s office oversaw safety measures at the event, but weren’t able to stop attendees who allegedly “committed assaults, severed fingers, got impaled and became so intoxicated they were ill.”

Sheriff Shane Doyle described how the police department didn’t have enough personnel to stop illegal activity, so their goal was to instead contain it. “They were going to do what they were going to do,” Doyle said. “We wanted to be good hosts … but we also wanted them to be good neighbors and visitors.”

But police knew they were in over their heads when the first Redneck Rave concertgoer arrived. “The first vehicle that came through, we found meth, marijuana, and an open alcohol container,” Doyle said. “And then one of the occupants had two active warrants. We were like ‘well, this doesn’t bode well for the weekend.’”

By the end of the weekend, 48 people were hit with charges spanning from drug possession to assault and strangulation. Doyle also noted that one attendee had their throat slit by another. “They were intoxicated, they got into a fight, one of them slit the other one’s throat and then fled into the park,” Doyle said.

Yet another person was the victim of a horrendous accidental injury. Apparently, they were riding in an ATV-style vehicle when they drove over a log that went through the floorboard and impaled them in the abdomen. “When it tried to come out through his back it was stopped by a steel plate behind his seat,” Doyle said. Paramedics were quick to the scene but eventually decided it was safer to leave the log in the victim than try to remove it before they were flown to the hospital. Thankfully, Doyle said they weren’t aware of any deaths that took place this year.

Read the Lexington Herald-Leader‘s full report of the Redneck Rave here. H/T to Consequence Of Sound.

Game 2 between the Suns and Clippers was a wild one, with Phoenix seemingly in control throughout but never able to put significant separation between them and L.A., who hung around until they were able to take a late lead at 103-102 after a Phoenix turnover led to a Paul George layup on the other end.

While the end of the game was fraught with reviews and stoppages, it still managed to deliver one of the best finishes of the year as the Suns drew up an incredible game-winning lob play with under a second to go, with Jae Crowder making a perfect pass to Deandre Ayton, who was sprung loose by a screen from a bloodied and beat up Devin Booker. It was an outstanding play and the clock for some reason ran from 0.9 to 0.0, leading to the buzzer sounding and pandemonium on the court. Ayton and the Suns weren’t sure whether to fully celebrate, Clippers players were dumbfounded and confused, not knowing the rules in that situation that mean there can’t be basket interference on an inbounds pass, and in the midst of it all, Booker caught a shove from a frustrated DeMarcus Cousins that went unnoticed on the floor by the referees.

On Wednesday, the league went back to the video and saw that Cousins had indeed shoved Booker to the point of earning some sort of penalty, assessing him a postgame technical foul.

It is a decision that won’t impact much of anything beyond Cousins paying the standard fine for a technical foul. It’s the right decision by the refs, but for Cousins and the Clippers it could’ve been disastrous in the moment. Had the play somehow not counted (which L.A. players believed could be the case in the momnet), time been put back on the clock as it was, and they called that on the floor as they should’ve, Booker would’ve had a free throw to tie the game — and he should’ve had a free throw to put Phoenix up two rather than just one.

Of all the things that Cardi B has accomplished — her seemingly endless stream of No. 1 hit singles (which now includes “Up,” her burgeoning film career (which will extend to the next few Fast and Furious films), and her many, many business partnerships — the one she seems the proudest of is being a mother to the soon-to-be three-year-old Kulture.

Motherhood is also one area in which she’s very outspoken and quick to clap back when criticized, whether it’s over her “raunchy” tweets or not letting her daughter listen to her music (the kid is, again, a toddler). However, Cardi was the person doing the criticizing a day ago, when she popped up in the comments of an Instagram post that aggregated a viral tweet.

The tweet in question read, “My daughter does not come before my husband,” a sentiment to which Cardi took issue. In the comments, she wrote, “And these be the b***** that god forbid they daughters get molested by their ‘husband’ ‘boyfriend’ they won’t believe them their kids, take their words and will hate their daughters cause of the truth and the men be knowing that and take advantage.” Another post highlighting Cardi’s response on gossip account @hollywoodunlocked received nearly 85,000 likes, with many of the commenters agreeing with Cardi. You can see that post below

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

Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-FL) got absolutely wrecked by General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, who fired back at the Republican politician’s notion that embracing critical race theory has somehow weakened the military by making it “woke.” Milley made his remarks during a House Armed Services hearing on Wednesday, and he made it a point to tie the need to study America’s racial history with understanding why the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol building occurred during a Donald Trump rally. The general also called Gaetz’s attack on the military “personally offensive” and scoffed at the term “woke.”

You can see his comments below along with a stunning cut to Gaetz at the 1:40 mark where the congressman can be seen shaking his head at Gen. Milley’s now-viral response:

Via Politico:

“I want to understand white rage — and I’m white,” Milley told lawmakers “What is it that caused thousands of people to assault this building and try to overturn the Constitution of the United States of America?

“I’ve read Mao Tse Tung. I’ve read Karl Marx. I’ve read Lenin. That doesn’t make me a communist,” Milley continued. “So what is wrong with understanding, having some situational understanding about the country for which we are here to defend?”

As for how Gaetz was even present for the hearing, given his mounting legal problems, that’s another issue. The congressman could be facing sex trafficking charges as early as July after his former friend Joel Greenberg reaching a plea deal with prosecutors. That deal reportedly provided federal investigators with the names of several women, who are being interviewed about their alleged interactions with Gaetz.

(Via Politico)