Category: News

Barack Obama has been making the rounds doing numerous interviews on late night television and beyond as he promotes his new book, and on Sunday, he’ll be joining the number one show in late night, sitting down with Showtime’s Desus & Mero as their latest (and arguably most) illustrious guest.

On Monday, Showtime offered a teaser of the interview showing the two hosts meeting Obama for the first time for their sit down and the former president came well equipped to riff with them. Obama, a lifelong Bulls fan, opened things by roasting the pair’s skills on the basketball court from their previous efforts in hooping with Corey Booker, and put the dagger in them by proceeding to drag their beloved Knicks into it by saying they are probably still good enough to play for the team in Madison Square Garden.

It’s a pretty tremendous opening that certainly sets the tone for what should be one of Obama’s most light-hearted and fun interviews he does on his book tour, as Desus and Mero react as you’d expect with a bit of shock at Obama coming that hard at them out of the gate and enjoying every moment of it. Desus’ “good luck with your little book” was spectacular and one would expect the rest of the interview will be highly entertaining as well. Just don’t expect the hosts to willingly steer the conversation towards the Knicks too much more after this opening shot fired.

40 Years A Prisoner (HBO, 9:00pm EST) — This documentary follows an enduring battle for justice by Mike Africa Jr, who moved to exonerate his parents after they were imprisoned as part of the revolutionary, back-to-nature group MOVE following a law enforcement 1978 raid on their Philadelphia commune. Eyewitness accounts and archival footage trace the steps of the controversial raid four decades later.

Mr. Iglesias: Season 3 (Netflix series) — Stand-up comic Gabriel Iglesias returns as the good-natured high school teacher who’s no longer the student at his alma mater. Unfortunately, he’s antagonized by a bullyish assistant principal, who seems dead set against helping the children reach their full potential.

Swamp Thing (CW, 8:00pm EST) — The creature saves Avery when he attempts to confront it while trekking through the swamp. As it turns out the tuber-guy makes a pretty good nurse.

Tell Me A Story (CW, 9:00pm EST) –Simone’s got mixed feelings about her step-family as Olivia interrogates Tucker, and Simone’s relationship with Jackson gets tested..

Big Sky (CW, 10:00pm EST) — The Ryan Phillippe-starring series continues with a criticism of how the girls’ disappearance was investigated, while team members regroup to showcase individual strengths.

The Late Show With Stephen Colbert — John Dickerson, Emily Bazelon, David Plotz, Greta Van Fleet

Jimmy Kimmel Live — Tim Allen, Stacey Abrams, Ari Lennox

The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon — Taraji P. Henson, Chloe Fineman, Finneas

The Late Late Show With James Corden — Meryl Streep, Billy Eichner

In case you missed these weekend highlights:

Your Honor (Sunday, Showtime 10:00 p.m.) — Bryan Cranston’s intense (although uneven) limited series faces inevitable comparisons to Breaking Bad, and for sure, Cranston’s character executes his most Walter White-like maneuvers since Heisenberg left the building with AMC’s 2013 “Felina” finale. Some The Wire vibes and Defending Jacob vibes resonate throughout as well, and here he’s playing a sort-of everyman (albeit one with more power than Walt), who tangos with the criminal underworld after making an incredibly bad decision that quickly sets off a series of even worse decisions, eventually leading to a sh*tload of collateral damage. And a lot of Panic Faces.

Big Mouth: Season 4 (Netflix) — One of TV’s funniest shows is back to drum up anxiety, courtesy of Tito the Mosquito (who will be voiced by Maria Bamford), in addition to all the hormone monsters that you dearly love. Newcomer voices on the series include Ayo Edebiri replacing Jenny Slate as Missy, along with Zach Galifianakis, Seth Rogen, Josie Totah, Lena Waithe, Quinta Brunson, John Oliver, Sterling K. Brown, Paul Giamatti, Maya Erskine, and Anna Konkle.

The Los Angeles Clippers were supposed to be the prohibitive favorites to win the title last season. And they were, right up until they blew a 3-1 lead to the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference semifinals and cleared a path for their in-arena rivals to raise yet another championship banner inside their shared arena.

Doc Rivers, who spent seven seasons with the Clippers but had never made it to the conference finals, was the obvious fall guy. His ongoing inability to get them over the hump made his departure inevitable. But his absence doesn’t mean that everyone has quite moved on. Just this week on the All The Smoke podcast, Paul George complained that Rivers had misused last season.

He also criticized Rivers’ coaching and decision-making, particularly during the Denver series. Rivers has apparently heard that criticism, and in response, has reminded George that the person who’s currently filling his seat, new head coach Tyronn Lue, was right there on the sidelines with them and that George can likely expect more of the same next season.

Via Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer:

“Hey, listen, I enjoyed coaching him,” Rivers said of George. “So not a lot to say there. Ty Lue was sitting right next to me. So he better hope it’s not adjustments. It ain’t going to be much different.”

Rivers chuckled while lightheartedly mentioning Lue, his close friend, before continuing by saying: “Listen, we lost the game, and I think everybody needs to take ownership. [Me] obviously. We can always do better. Players can play better. So as far as I’m concerned, I’ll leave it there.”

Rivers’ response also comes in the wake of a new report claiming that George’s own teammates were resentful of the preferential treatment he enjoyed last season despite the fact that, in their estimation, he’d done little to deserve it.

Lue, George, and the Clippers have plenty of work ahead to get on the same page if they want to contend this season, while Rivers faces a similar set of challenges in Philadelphia as he tries to get the Sixers to live up to their full potential.

(The Philadelphia Inquirer)

For the last four years, the only place you could listen to Chance The Rapper and Jeremih‘s Christmas album, Merry Christmas Lil’ Mama, was on SoundCloud. While that isn’t too much of a problem for fans who like to listen to music on their computers, it did make it hard to add the songs to playlists or take them on-the-go. However, that soon changes as the two Chicago institutions have announced the ultimate gift for fans: Merry Christmas Lil’ Mama is coming to all streaming services — Apple Music, Spotify, and Tidal — this Friday, December 11. Chance made the announcement in an excited tweet complete with an elaborate trailer:

The collaborative mixtape was initially released on December 22, 2016, with a Re-Wrapped reissue arriving a year later. Eschewing traditional covers or Christmas carols, the two Chicagoans instead opted to craft nine original songs — then ten more on the reissue — celebrating the season with bouncy raps and cheerful melodies. The tape features appearances from other Chicago artists such as Hannibal Buress, King Louie, Noname, and Valee. The duo released the music video for one song, “Are U Live,” last week after holding onto its Cole Bennett-directed video for nearly three years.

Merry Christmas Lil Mama hits streaming services for the first time this Friday, 12/11.

After Donald Trump announced a “vaccine summit” for Tuesday, the event turned out to be anything but as the president spent most of the time falsely claiming that he won the presidential election instead of staying focused on the vastly more critical issue of getting a coronavirus vaccine to the American public. Although, when Trump did address the increasing pandemic, it was to oddly cheer the growing number of infection rates, which for the record, is not a good thing. More Americans getting COVID is bad. Very bad. Via The Daily Beast:

“I hear we’re close to 15 percent. I’m hearing that, and that’s terrific,” Trump said of the percentage of Americans who have contracted COVID-19.

He appeared to be referencing the increased likelihood that a rising infection rate would bring the country closer to so-called herd immunity, which would effectively stop the virus from spreading because there would be no potential carriers to which it could go.

As The Daily Beast notes, medical experts have repeatedly warned that achieving herd immunity would require at least 70% of Americans to be infected with COVID-19. Considering the country is only just now nearing a 15% infection that has already left over 284,000 people dead, reaching herd immunity would result in a catastrophic death toll of well over a million.

Unfortunately, herd immunity wasn’t the only conspiracy theory that Trump spread during the summit. When asked about why the incoming Biden Administration wasn’t being included in the vaccine distribution plans, Trump claimed that actually he won before pleading for the Supreme Court to overturn the election results.

“We were rewarded with a victory,” Trump said via Mediaite. “Now let’s see whether or not somebody has the courage, whether it’s a legislator or legislatures or whether it’s a justice of the Supreme Court or a number of justices of the Supreme Court. Let’s see if they have the courage to do what everybody in this country knows is right.”

(Via The Daily Beast, Mediaite)

It may have been a box office disappointment (even though it made over $370 million worldwide) with a terrible title, but Edge of Tomorrow is a super fun movie. It’s easily Tom Cruise’s finest non-Mission: Impossible starring role this decade, and it’s one of Emily Blunt’s best performances, too. (I’d say it’s her best, but that’s obviously The Devil Wears Prada.) There’s been talk of a sequel to Edge, which was later retitled to Live Die Repeat, since it was released, but scheduling has been difficult, with Cruise hanging out on speeding trains and Blunt cruising the jungle with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

But the A Quiet Place Part II star offered a “promising” update on the script.

“It’s really promising and really, really cool. I just don’t know when everything’s going to sort of align,” Blunt told the Hollywood Reporter. “Between all of our schedules, it would just have to be the right time. But there is something in the works, for sure, that’s a great idea. A great idea.” Now that’s some good news.

Mission: Impossible has many sequels (which keep getting better). Top Gun is getting a sequel (it was supposed to be out by now). Even Jack Reacher got a sequel. Why not Edge of Tomorrow? If only for its working title, Live Die Repeat and Repeat. That’s the kind of bold choice that Now You See Me 2 refused to make, and suffered for it. I would also accept Edge of 2morrow.

(Via the Hollywood Reporter)

Group H of the Champions League featured a pair of matches on Tuesday, a highly-anticipated tilt between Red Bull Leipzig and Manchester United, and a match between Paris Saint-Germain and Istanbul Basakeshir that seemed like a formality for the French side. But due to an incident in the second match, it became the center of the football world, as players from both teams walked off the pitch due to a racist incident between the fourth official and a member of Istanbul’s staff.

According to reports out of France, the official used a racist term while addressing Istanbul assistant Pierre Webo, who is Black, and addressed the official upon getting a red card. It also led to a confrontation between the official and Istanbul striker Demba Ba, who is also Black and questioned the verbiage used by the official.

Istanbul players were unhappy with the incident, which led to them walking off the pitch. In a show of solidarity, players for PSG — whose star player, Neymar, has alleged being on the receiving end of these sorts of racist remarks in the past — did the same.

Istanbul tweeted out a statement in staunch opposition to racism in football.

The match, per reports, is slated to resume at 4 p.m. EST, with the fourth official being moved off of the pitch.

Three years ago, Chris Kennedy and his family moved to the Lakewood neighborhood of North Little Rock, Arkansas. Every holiday season he has placed a seven-foot-tall Black Santa Claus on his lawn alongside his other decorations.

Kennedy believes the Black Santa Claus decoration is empowering for his five-year-old daughter.

“Our thing is about representation for our daughter, seeing herself in everything and knowing that she can do whatever she wants to do and she’s not going to be limited by her color,” he told Good Morning America. “The Black Santa is something I wanted my daughter growing up seeing.”

“She doesn’t even question seeing a white Santa Claus, because we’ve always told her that’s what he looks like in other people’s houses,” Kennedy added. “For other people, Santa is a representation of them.”

However, this year the Black Santa Claus would come to represent more than Kennedy ever intended.

On November 23, he received a letter in the mail from an angry racist demanding he remove the Black Santa Claus from his lawn. The letter claimed to be from Santa Claus and his homeowners’ association.

via Chris Kennedy / Facebook

“Please remove your negro Santa Claus yard decoration,” the letter reads. “You should try not to deceive children into believing that I am negro. I am a caucasian (white man, to you) and have been for the past 600 years. Your being jealous of my race is no excuse for your dishonesty. Besides that, you are making yourself the laughing stock of the neighborhood. Obviously, your values are not that of the Lakewood area and maybe you should move to a neighborhood out east with the rest of your racist kind.”

The letter was accompanied by a photo of Santa Claus making a thumbs-down gesture.

via Chris Kennedy / Facebook

Kennedy was obviously incensed by the letter and so he read it on Facebook Live. He then contacted the local police department and post office to see if they could track down the racist.

Within a few hours, Kennedy was surprised to receive messages of support on Facebook from people he had never met.

A week later, the family began noticing Black Santa decorations around his neighborhood.

“I just started seeing them pop up in the neighborhood,” he said. “The bright side of everything was the neighbors’ response.”

via Chris Kennedy / Facebook

via Chris Kennedy / Facebook

Since the incident, the Kennedy’s have received Black Santa Claus gifts and countless messages of support. When people asked how they can help, he told them to donate to the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Arkansas. The nonprofit offers housing to the families of sick children.

So far, the donations have covered over 200 nights of housing.

The homeowners’ association has denied any connection with the letter and is proudly displaying a Black Santa Claus at its headquarters that was donated by a resident.

“To try to falsely blame us and say that those are our views was pretty upsetting,” Evan Blake, director of the homeowner’s association, said of the racist letter. “We support Chris completely and everyone else in Lakewood too and [adding a Black Santa Claus to the holiday display] is just something else we can do to show our support.”

Kennedy is still upset about the letter but has been encouraged by the reaction his family has received after the incident.

“I’m not happy that it happened, but I’m happy that the conversations are being had,” added Kennedy.

When people talk about teacher salaries, they often talk about teacher schedules—or what they think are their work schedules. Depending on where you live, school hours might go from 8:00 to 2:30. And teachers are usually contracted for around 180 days a year. With a 6 or 7 hour work day and summers and holiday breaks off, aren’t teachers making decent money for the hours they work?

Umm, no.

The assumption some people make is that teachers only work their contracted hours, but that’s simply not true for most teachers. One teacher broke down the extra hours she puts in beyond her contract and estimated that she actually works 42 hours a week, and actually works 250 days per year. That’s a pretty normal, full-time job, for which she only gets paid part-time wages. Scholastic reported that a survey of 10,000 teachers found that most work 10 to 11 hour work days, with those who advise extracurricular activities clocking even more than that.

Salaries for teachers vary a lot by state, but according to Business Insider, in the majority of school districts starting salaries for a new teacher is less than $40,000 a year. In 300 districts, it’s less than $30,000. If we consider that teachers do work full-time hours, that’s less than the proposed $15 per hour we’ve seen proposed as a minimum wage.

My brother currently works as an art teacher. I’ve seen his pandemic hybrid school schedule—in addition to photos of him up planning at 1:30 am—and it’s absolutely bananas. Having been a teacher myself, I’m familiar with the amount of work teachers put in beyond school hours—and not just in terms of time, but in emotional labor.

Teaching itself—as in instructing students on how to write essays, how to do algebra, how to analyze history—is somewhat of a challenge with dozens of unique students, but that’s not really the hard part of teaching. The hard part is caring about those dozens of students on a personal level, advocating for them in a system of standardization and testing that doesn’t acknowledge their unique gifts, dealing with parents who take out their parenting frustrations on the school, and feeling like society doesn’t value your work even though you know it’s vitally important.

And the real kicker is that the system would suffer greatly if teachers only worked the hours they are paid to work and only used the resources they are provided. We’ve created a culture in which teachers are expected to work sacrificially, which is ridiculous. Teachers are skilled professionals. They deserve to be paid as if their time, knowledge, skills and experience are exceptionally valuable because they are.

Of course, there are plenty of jobs where people work beyond their expected work hours. But such jobs usually come with bonus incentives or high-paying salaries or some other perks that make up for it. It’s like teachers are expected to see the rewarding nature of working with kids as enough—but that expectation doesn’t account for the fact that working with kids is as stressful as it is rewarding.

Sometimes it feels like we as a society take advantage of the fact that teachers care so much. Generally speaking, people who go into teaching do it for the right reasons—to help kids learn and grow. It’s a job that requires an emotional investment in order to do it well. We know that good teachers are going to be good teachers whether we pay them well or not. They’re going to put in the hours and make the sacrifices regardless, and our system exploits that dedication in so many ways.

I’ve worked in a lot of different jobs, and teaching in a public school was by far the most challenging work I’ve done. I loved it, but it was hard. I know a man who worked as a garbage collector and in sawmills and the logging industry for 30 years before he became a high school math teacher. He says teaching is the hardest job he’s ever had. Long hours, 6 to 7 days a week. Rewarding and meaningful work, of course, but definitely not easy.

It’s time to stop expecting the work itself to be the reward and acknowledge that teachers deserve not just decent but competitive incomes. Teachers shouldn’t have to be saints or martyrs—they deserve to have their work recognized with salaries that reflect their real value. I haven’t taught in a classroom in more than two decades, so I have no skin in the game myself in saying that I think teachers should be paid bucketloads of money. Not just the average for their education and skill level, but beyond it.

In paying teachers extremely well, we would retain more good teachers who leave the job for financial reasons and we would recruit more top people to the profession. We would show as a society that we truly value education and see it as the best investment in the future. And we would all be the better for it.

One way to track a musician’s success is through their brand deals. Many rappers, like Travis Scott and Tyler The Creator, choose to collaborate with shoe companies like Nike and Converse. But Post Malone has taken a different route, instead opting to continue his partnership with Crocs.

Despite being a divisive style, Malone’s fans were in a frenzy to get their hands on a pair of his Crocs. The shoes were released Tuesday and instantly began trending on Twitter as interested customers waited in long online queues trying to score a pair.

Along with debuting a line of shoes, Malone has been up to a lot in 2020. On top of being the top-charting artists for a second year in a row, Malone got into the wine market with his own brand of rosé, dropped a collection of sunglasses in collaboration with Arnette, and even started his own celebrity beer pong league.

Speaking to Uproxx in a recent interview, Malone said he’s surprised that his music charted so well in 2020 despite not releasing an album this year. “I can’t believe this many people still want to hear my sh*tty songs,” he said. “It’s crazy with all the talented artists and all the massive records out over the past year or so. For me to have a song on the charts that long is just unbelievable.”