Category: News

In anticipation of the upcoming third entry of Kid Cudi’s Man on the Moon project, Man on the Moon III: The Chosen, Cudi surprise-announced his latest collaboration with Adidas to the internet last night and dominated late-night Twitter sneaker discourse. The new collab, an original sneaker silhouette known as the Vadawam 326, follows Cudi and the Three Stripes’ Bill & Ted Artillery Hi drop from last month. This time, the team has put together a mid-rise silhouette that (unsurprisingly) looks fit for a futuristic runway.

The Vadawam sports an upper of overlayed premium leather, with mid-foot windows, hairy suede accents, wide-spaced laces, and a trio of alternating straps. If Elon Musk tries to put these on a future SpaceX astronaut no one will be shocked. Trefoil branding at the tongue and the Cudi x Adidas insignia on the heel complete the design, which sits on a Torsion cushioned heel for added comfort.

The Vadawam was named for Cudi’s daughter and features a digital print “326” embellishment on the sneaker’s outer collar, a reference to Vama’s month and day of birth. It’ll drop in two colorways, a White/ Ecru Tint, Easy Yellow iteration, and a Core Black/ Night Grey/ Solar Pink makeup.

The sneakers are scheduled to land from orbit on December 17th for a retail price of $180. Pick up a pair at the Adidas webstore or select Adidas retailers like Foot Locker on December 17th.

Down in Texas, Ted Cruz declared that he was ready and willing to embarrass himself in front of the Supreme Court, if the justices granted certiorari in a case brought by the Pennsylvania GOP. All of that’s fancy legal language that doesn’t even matter because the Supreme Court unanimously threw Trump under the bus and refused to hear the state GOP’s arguments to overturn election results. And the core issue that matters right now, really, is that Ted Cruz is one of many Republicans who who are putting it all on the line to stand up on behalf of Trump’s (false) “election fraud” whining. Cruz is doing so despite Trump taking shots at Ted’s wife and branding him as “Lyin’ Ted.”

None of Ted’s current sacrificial attitude toward a losing president makes much sense, but Ted is not alone. On Thursday afternoon, over 100 GOP U.S. House members signed onto what Jake Tapper called a “deranged” lawsuit out of Texas. These lawmakers want the Supreme Court to overturn Joe Biden’s presidential victory (while they allege widespread voter fraud in four battleground states), and on Friday, CNN analyst John Harwood spoke to the ridiculousness of the situation. Harwood assessed the situation as one of fear for these lawmakers, who believe that Trump or his followers will trash them, and they’ll do anything to avoid such a situation. Via Mediaite:

“What we’re seeing, Kate, is a demonstration by House Republicans of the extent of the rot inside the Republican Party right now. These people know what Donald Trump is, as Ted Cruz said in 2016, he’s a pathological liar. Marco Rubio called him a con artist… These are people who if Donald Trump said, ‘I’m going to trash you on Twitter unless you go smack your mom in the face,’ they would go smack their moms in the face and try to explain it to them afterward.”

Well sadly, Harwood is probably not wrong (and I’m not even talking about when Cruz elbowed his wife in the face because, obviously, that was an accident, and I’m taking that out of context if only to remind you that, yes, Ted Cruz once elbowed his wife in the face in front of the world). Yet as Harwood states, this matter is very serious because those 106 Republicans are “smacking American democracy in the face.” Yep, he said it.

(Via CNN and Mediaite)

Cyberpunk 2077 is finally out, and it’s a game with a lot of musical involvement. In a similar way to Grand Theft Auto 5, Cyberpunk has in-game radio stations that play music regularly, for which some artists recorded new songs. Grimes’ role in the game goes deeper than that, though, as she plays a pop star character named Lizzy Wizzy.

In addition to the first volume of the game’s soundtrack that released today, Grimes dropped a new DJ mix based on the game, and it features a new song by her, “Delicate Weapon.” The track only gets officially released with the soundtrack’s second volume next week, but since it appears in the mix, the whole thing is available now. It’s right in Grimes’ wheelhouse, as it’s a piece of dark electronic pop that makes use of atmospheric elements, include airy vocals.

This is her second song from the game, as she previously performed and released “4ÆM.”

In 2019, Grimes offered a spoiler-filled description of her character, saying during a livestream, “I play a pop star who committed suicide on stage, and they had to quickly come and perform emergency surgery and replace her whole body with cybernetics while she was dead for an hour. And then she finished the show as a cyborg. One of the greatest pieces of performance art ever made.”

Listen to “Delicate Weapon” above.

If you didn’t know, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez often uses her social media to educate and update her constituents on everything happening in Washington. Sometimes that means live-streaming Among Us on Twitch while encouraging people to vote. Other times that looks like AOC hosting a Q&A on Instagram Live while crafting a tasty meal.

The Congresswoman revived her popular cooking segment last night after taking a bit of a hiatus from sharing recipes and reform updates with her fans and while she gave us some great insight into the latest COVID relief bill, she also shaded her critics who have taken to labeling her “radical” in the press:

“Shoutout to my fellow radicals in the United States who believe crazy things like a full-time job should be enough for you to live and believe in crazy radical things like if you kill someone there shouldn’t be impunity. And also who believe really crazy radical things like you should get a stimulus check without having to bail out a corporation for it. Or that you should get a stimulus check without your employer, you know, if you work for one of these huge conglomerate employers sending you in harm’s way and being completely immune from any accountability for it.”

She went on to call out her detractors who prefer to weaponize her support of raising the minimum wage rather than actually crafting any kind of concrete plan to tackle the growing pay gap in this country.

“You know, shoutout to my fellow radicals who think that we should live in a humane advanced society and that we shouldn’t be under the thumb of a $7 minimum wage and racist systems. Because, I don’t know, that just benefits the people who already are in power to be in power. So, you know, shoutout to my radicals,” she added.

Of course, AOC did all this while cheekily sporting a Tax The Rich sweatshirt, just the latest piece of fashion that’s drawn criticism from her opponents. Republicans famously blasted her Vanity Fair cover earlier this year, claiming she was a hypocrite for donning a $1,400 pantsuit for the spread. Of course, they seemed to not understand how styling magazine shoots really work and believed all of the clothes AOC wore for the shoot were her own. They’ve also griped about the cost of her haircuts over the years, something AOC acknowledged when firing back at Texas Congressman Chip Roy on Twitter earlier today.

Maybe instead of focusing so much on what AOC is doing (and wearing), these politicians can turn their attention to the millions suffering as the pandemic continues to endanger our economy and claim thousands of lives each day? Just a thought.

After announcing a virtual avalanche of new Star Wars and Marvel series coming to the platform over the next two years, Disney+ revealed that it will be raising its subscription prices for the first time since the streaming service launched in November 2019. However, the good news is that the price increase is relatively small, and still makes Disney+ considerably cheaper than competitors like Netflix and HBO Max. (Disney owns Hulu, so that doesn’t really count.) Via Gizmodo:

U.S. subscribers can expect their monthly fee to jump from $7 to $8 starting on March 26, 2021. Disney’s package deal with Disney+, ad-supported Hulu, and ESPN+ will also increase from $13 to $14 a month. It wasn’t immediately clear whether subscribers in other countries can expect future price hikes for either Disney+ or the Disney Bundle.

The price increase also arrives on the heels of Disney+ hitting 86.8 million subscribers as of December 2. The company previously reported that it had 73.1 million subscribers as of October 3, so that’s a 13 million increase that can most likely be traced to the season two premiere of The Mandalorian, which has been a massive hit for the burgeoning streaming service.

As for the value to subscribers, the price increase will happen just as Disney+ finally starts to offer Marvel series after the pandemic pushed back the premieres of WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Those series will debut in January and March, respectively, with Tom Hiddleston’s Loki series following closely behind at an unspecified date. And judging by Disney’s numerous Investor Day announcements, the platform won’t be falling short on Marvel content anytime soon.

(Via Gizmodo)

Since the beginning of the pandemic, guidelines and restrictions and mandates have come at us in a dizzying fashion. Each state has done things differently, and in most states each county has its own approach as well. And while some of the mitigation measures make perfect sense, others seem questionable or downright silly.

Some criticisms are certainly legitimate. Allowing certain indoor gatherings while closing down outdoor park spaces, for example, is an approach that has been panned by prominent experts in epidemiology who rightly point out that outdoor spaces are safer. But that doesn’t mean that all measures that seem odd to us aren’t based in solid reasoning.

A nurse on Facebook offered a response to a post that’s been going around asking why certain measures have been put into place when the people who are charged with carrying them out don’t know how to explain them. Marking her answers to the points with two asterisks, the nurse explained why what might seem illogical from a lay perspective actually has solid grounding in virology expertise.

“This has been making its rounds, so we decided to provide some answers:

Me AT GROCERY STORE:

Why is there plastic on the payment keypad?

Cashier: to protect people from Covid.

Me : but isn’t everyone touching the plastic keypad the same way they would the regular keypad?

Cashier: no words. Confused look.

**cashiers generally do not study virology, epidemiology or public health. This is the wrong person to ask.

Answer: less porous plastic coverings over key pads offer a surface that is more easily sanitized without risking damage to the mechanisms of the machine by harsh liquid chemicals. The plastic coverings are supposed to be wiped at close intervals of time to reduce the fomite transmission of virus.

Me : Why Dont you pack the grocery bags anymore?

Cashier : Because of covid 19 to reduce the spread of catching or spreading the virus.

Me : But a shelf packer took it out of a box and put on the shelf, a few customers might of picked it up and put back deciding they Dont want it, I put it in my cart then on the conveyer belt, YOU pick it up to scan it.. But putting it in a bag after you scan is risky??

Cashier : no words, confused look

**cashiers generally do not study virology, epidemiology or public health. This is the wrong person to ask.

Answer: having no grocery bagger, an infection reduction strategy employed by many places does eliminate 1 person’s set of hands on the groceries, which is somewhat helpful, however the real reason to eliminate the bagger position is to reduce the risk to the cashier and the bagger. While customers move through the store quickly, reducing their exposure time, a checker and a bagger standing at close proximity for hours (even masked), increases employee exposure risk. This risk can translate to employee outbreaks, reducing the workforce for the company. Spreading employees out, or reducing the numbers of clustered employees prevents the spread of infection within a store’s workforce.

Me AT DRIVE-THRU

Server: (holds a tray out the window with a bag of food for logical friend to grab)

Me: why is my bag of food on a tray?

Server: so I don’t touch your food because of Covid.

Me: didn’t the cook touch my food? Didn’t the person wrapping my food touch it and then touch it again when placing it in my bag? Didn’t you touch the bag and put it on the tray? Didn’t you touch the tray?

Server: no words. Confused look.

**drive-thru servers generally do not study virology, epidemiology or public health. This is the wrong person to ask.

Answer: the food is touched by the cook, and then by the person who wraps and bags the food. The wrapper/bagger then places the food onto the servers tray, and the drive-through server only touches his/her tray instead of the bag, eliminating one set of hands on the bag for the customer, but more importantly eliminating the need for the server to touch anything other than their own tray for the day. This protects the amount of hand to hand contact the server has with others throughout the day as well as the recipient of the food.

Me in SOCIETY

Society ; If you cough or sneeze do it in your elbow or sleeve,

Also society : Dont shake hands or hug anyone or you will spread the virus..

To greet people do an elbow tap instead.

Me : Elbow tap ? Isn’t that where you tell people to sneeze or cough? into their elbow? Now you want people to tap each other with that elbow

wouldn’t it be safer to sneeze into elbow and shake hands like we did before Covid

**Answer: these 2 infection control measures are really supposed to be taken in separate. Hands are the primary germ spreaders, almost everyone understands that. When we cough or sneeze into our hands, and then touch other surfaces, we are likely to spread these germs and possibly make others ill. If you do have to cough or sneeze, using the inside aspect of your elbow, a surface that you are not likely to utilize in other activities is less likely to spread germs. However, if you are frequently coughing or sneezing into your elbow, you should not be in public greeting anyone at all, whether it’s with a handshake or an elbow bump. You should be at home, away from others.

Me AT RESTAURANT:

Hostess: ok, I can seat you at this table right here (4 feet away), but I will need you to wear a mask to the table.

Me: what happens when I get to the table?

Hostess: you can take off the mask.

Me: then it is safe over there?

Hostess: yes.

Me: are those fans blowing above the table? Is that the air-conditioning I feel? Is the air circulating in here? Hostess: no words. Confused look.

**hostesses generally do not study virology, epidemiology or public health. This is the wrong person to ask.

Answer: wearing your mask while walking with the hostess to your table protects you, the hostess, and others who you may breathe, sneeze or cough on en route to your table. Once at your table you should be seated six feet or more away from other guests who are not part of your party. Your party should only consist of members of your own household who you routinely gather with unmasked. Air conditioning, ventilation and fans help disperse and recycle air that may contain virus evenly throughout the space, to be eventually filtered. While stagnant air sits for long periods of time with high concentrations of virus, well-circulated air allows diffusion of the virus into concentrations less likely to cause infection in individuals nearby. Since a certain concentration of virus uptake is needed to make someone ill, this is an effective mitigation strategy that is proven by studies showing less viral transmission among people in well-ventilated spaces.

SOCIETY : You are not allowed to stand and drink at the pub you have to sit down.

**Answer: same as the restaurant scenario. Standing around a bar in close proximity to people that are not from your household leads to the spread of the virus into other households who then spread it to each other. Preventing the mingling of households is the object here. ETA: having patrons sit, also protects the bartender & other staff from being surrounded by a wall of unmasked customers.

But at the shopping centre you are not allowed to sit down, all the chairs are roped off.

**Answer: shopping for essentials should be limited to getting what you need in the quickest period of time reasonable. Eliminating the option to linger in public by eliminating seating areas reduces the amount of people in a single area at a time which reduces transmission.

Who thinks this stuff up?

**Answer: Virologists who study the makeup and behavior of viruses, epidemiologists who study the infectious behavior of pathogens, and public health officials who study public behavior and modification strategies as they pertain to health and safety.

Life is hard for logical people right now. We are being raised without the ability to process and execute logic

**Life is hard for everyone right now, but a lot of us are making it harder by assuming that “logic” is the same as expertise. “

While it’s not a bad idea to ask questions about what we’re being asked to do, it’s a good idea to actually ask people who have the ability to answer those questions from a place of knowledge and experience. Simply saying “it doesn’t make sense” doesn’t mean that it doesn’t, and we’d all be better served if we posed our questions to those qualified to answer them.

Brandon Bernard, 40, was executed at 9:27 pm Thursday night at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana for a crime he committed when he was 18.

“I’m sorry,” Brandon Bernard said, opening his three-minute speech that would amount to his final words.”That’s the only words I can say that completely capture how I feel now and how I felt that day.”

In 1999, Christian Vialva and three teen boys car-jacked Todd and Stacie Bagley in Killeen, Texas. The Bagley’s were thrown in the trunk of their car and both were shot in the head. Bernard was not present for the abduction but was tasked with setting the car on fire to destroy the evidence.

Bernard believed that both of the Bagley’s were dead, but Stacie was still alive in the trunk when Bernard set the car ablaze.

Vialva was executed for his involvement in the crime in September.

The Supreme Court Thursday night declined to intervene in Bernard’s case. Although three justices, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Stephen Breyer said they would have granted the application to stay the execution. Five of the jurors in the original case have since changed their minds saying that they want his sentence commuted.

The trial became a cause celeb when Kim Kardashian West, daughter of famed attorney Robert Kardashian, advocated on Bernard’s behalf on Twitter.

Bernard clearly was a participant in a brutal act of violence and terror. But he was a teenager at the time and his involvement in Stacie’s death was unintentional.

Bernard’s death was completely avoidable because there had been a 17-year moratorium on federal executions until U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr reinstated them last July.

Barr said in a 2019 statement that “we owe it to the victims and their families to carry forward the sentence imposed by our justice system.”

Since there have been nine federal executions and four more are scheduled to take place before Trump leaves office on January 20.

Trump has been completely silent on all of the executions.

According to a former Trump senior staffer, he has no problem with using the most brutal form of state power on American citizens. “If it were up to him, we would return to the old days where it was eye-for-an-eye, tooth-for-a-tooth — or we would forget about proportionality altogether,” the former official told The Daily Beast in July. “He would talk about lining up drug dealers and gang members in front of a firing squad.”

via Tommy Woodard / Flickr

The administration’s decision to go forward with the executions is also a break from historical norms. The federal executions are the first to have occurred during a lame-duck presidency in 130 years.

The state-sponsored killings are also completely arbitrary being that when Joe Biden takes office he vows to end them. Biden “opposes the death penalty now and in the future,” press secretary TJ Ducklo said.

While it’s easy to come to the conclusion that some acts perpetrated by humans are so heinous they should be punishable by death, capital punishment makes a very damning statement about the state that wields it and its citizens.

It’s a statement that some humans are irredeemable and cannot be forgiven. It says that our criminal justice system is ultimately about punishment, not reform. It says the only way to enact justice for some victims is through violence.

The death penalty tells people that murder is wrong unless it’s carried out by the state.

Ultimately, as long as the criminal justice system is administered by humans it will be fallible. It’s proven to be racist and there are over 170 cases of people being sentenced to death for crimes they didn’t commit since 1973. According to the ACLU, it isn’t even an effective crime deterrent.

Why should American citizens continue to empower such an unreliable system make the ultimate judgment on a person’s life?

Oakland rapper Guapdad 4000 has developed a reputation for being one of the funniest personalities in hip-hop — as befits his entry to the game via some truly hilarious social media clips. Between his social media and clever music video treatments, every Guapdad release is guaranteed to be a side-splitting experience and his latest video is no exception. Remixing his new single “Alpha” with Flint, Michigan rapper Bfb Da Packman (who you’ve probably seen in his own gut-busting “Northside Ghetto Soulja” video), Guapdad turns into an eye-popping performance as “Permit Patrick,” a riff on the recent phenomenon of “Karens” running rampant.

As the two rappers throw a truly ridiculous party for their latest video shoot, Guapdad — in full “whiteface” as a busybody suburbanite — interrupts the festivities to demand some paperwork. Considering how many of his videos involve him trying to “finam” his way into a video shoot, it’s a smart departure that continues his gift for giggle-inducing sight gags and improvisational humor.

Thanks to “Alpha,” Guapdad is ending his year on a high note after raising his profile considerably with his Falcon Fridays releases and Rona Raps Instagram videos. Along with the hysterical video for “Lil Scammer That Could” featuring Denzel Curry, his star turn on the Dreamville Revenge Of The Dreamers III compilation (including the video for “Don’t Hit Me Right Now“), and the Platinum Falcon Tape and Platinum Falcon Returns EPs, the Scamboy is heating up heading into the new year.

Watch the “Alpha” remix video above.

Bruce Springsteen started releasing music in the early ’70s, so you’d think that at some point between then and now, he would have recorded a Christmas album, as many artists do. That’s actually not the case, though, as Springsteen doesn’t have a single holiday collection to his name. During a new Tonight Show interview, he gave a rock-solid reason for why he hasn’t made one.

During his chat with Jimmy Fallon, Springsteen was asked if he has ever thought about recording a full holiday album, and he explained why, although he has had interest in the idea, it hasn’t happened yet:

“I’ve tried to… we did some big Christmas shows in Asbury Park for a while and I tried to piece together something from those shows, but I didn’t really have… we’d have to go in the studio. The thing is, you only want to do it around Christmas time, but you don’t want to do it then either, because it’s around Christmas time and you don’t feel like working. Then Christmas time goes away and you gotta do it in the summertime when you just don’t feel like it. So, we haven’t gotten around to it. Maybe one of these days.”

Springsteen has a few holiday songs he’s recorded in studio, though. For the 1987 compilation album A Very Special Christmas, he contributed a rendition of “Merry Christmas Baby.” He also released a cover of “Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town” as a single in 1985.

Watch clips from Springsteen and Fallon’s chat above and below.

It’s the week before Christmas. You hear a knock on the door. “UPS.” You think, “Oh good, the socks I bought for Dad are here.” You open the door. It’s not socks. It’s a white box with a lovely and expensive-looking bow around it. You read the note attached it. “Warmest wishes to you this Holiday Season.” It’s signed, “Tom Cruise.” You open it, expecting to see a prank gift from your friends, like a copy of Jerry Maguire on VHS. Nope. It’s a cake, and it’s actually from Tom Cruise. This is a reality for the lucky few who are gifted a dessert from the Mission: Impossible star around the holidays.

But not just any dessert!

“It has become one of those odd Hollywood pastimes: Celebrities and industry people contemplating who’s on Tom Cruise’s holiday list and who’s received the special holiday cake that he’s become known for,” the Mercury News reported, adding that the actor prefers to send “a white chocolate coconut Bundt cake made by Doan’s Bakery in Woodland Hills.” Recipients include Interview with a Vampire co-star Kirsten Dunst (“It’s the best coconut cake I’ve ever had in my life”), Mission: Impossible – Fallout‘s Henry Cavill (“It’s the most luxurious, unhealthy cake”), and The Rosie O’Donnell Show host Rosie O’Donnell, who wrote on Instagram, “Christmas is here when tommy’s gift shows up.” Basically anyone who’s interacted with Tom Cruise ever.

A few have even shared their bounty on social media.

It appears Karmel, the co-head writer for The Late Late Show is on Cruise’s cake list, because the actor poured liquor into his mouth once? Look, I don’t ask for much, but Tom Cruise, if you’re reading this, please send me a cake. I feel the need… the need for cake. (If you send me a cake, I promise to never make that joke again.)

(Via the Mercury News and US magazine)