Category: News

Despite the election being over for a full month now, Donald Trump and his surrogates are still attempting to overturn the results of Joe Biden’s victory in various courts around the country. The latest flailing attempt is more than 100 Republican lawmakers insisting that the Supreme Court take up a challenge to legally cast votes by mail, or something of the sort.

Regardless, as the losses pile up and Trump supporters get more desperate, the lawsuits are getting weirder. Say what you will about whether demanding election results get overturned damages the fabric of democracy or is a coup and all that, but pretending to represent states that don’t exist certainly at least qualifies as bizarre.

Reporters on Friday noticed lawyers had filed briefs where they claimed to represent new states that “support” the filing that Republican lawmakers supporting Trump had previously filed. Those states, called “New California” and “New Texas,” immediately started trending on Twitter as people reacted to the wild news.

As Business Insider reported Friday, the states are actually “states in waiting” according to the lawyer who represents both of them, as they’re hoping to break away from existing states they feel are being unfair about upholding the results of a democratic election, among other things.

The amicus brief for the fake states was filed by Robert E. Thomas III, an attorney with an address listed in Nevada who is a member of the state bar in California, a state that is real.

Thomas told Insider in an interview that New Nevada and New California are “new states in waiting,” and that each is a registered 501(c)(4) organization attempting to form new states using the proper Constitutional process. He said states like Pennsylvania administered their elections in a way that’s “arbitrary and capricious.”

“The Supreme Court gives states in a case like this an absolute right to intervene,” Thomas said. “And we regard ourselves as one of those states with an absolute right.”

It’s a very real attempt to undermine the election for a very imaginary reason. But the name “New California” also had a lot of people thinking about something far more apocalyptic, mostly because it sounds a lot like something from the Fallout video game series, the New California Republic.

New California Republic shows up in basically every Fallout game, though the newest title, Fallout 76, has a setting firmly in post-apocalyptic West Virginia. But with the way this year has gone, it’s not a surprise that plenty of people thought about the end of the world when “New California” started trending on Twitter.

Kyrie Irving received a fine from the NBA on Thursday evening following a statement he put out in which he made clear he did not want to speak to the media. Like most things involving Kyrie Irving, his release led to a number of takes and a lengthy dialogue about the relationship that NBA players have with the media.

Irving responded to his fine on Friday on his Instagram with a quote by Malcolm X and a statement about how he wanted the money from his fine going towards “marginalized communities in need.” He ended with a pair of sentences that drew a ton of attention, writing that, “I do not talk to Pawns. My attention is worth more.”

His use of the word “pawns,” believed to be an indictment of the media, drew a ton of attention. Elsewhere in the world of basketball, it spurred a question to Kevin Love by a member of the Cleveland media. Love, a former teammate of Irving, was as candid as ever in his response, and explained why he had an issue with the verbiage, even if he understands the point that Irving is making.

“I think that calling anybody a pawn is a sure sign of disrespect, and I understand where Kyrie is coming from in trying to better a number of people’s lives, but I’m just not a divisive person,” Love said.

Love also recalled something he was told by Flip Saunders, his former coach in Minnesota, who told him “everybody has a part to play” in the NBA ecosystem.

“To call you guys, or, listen, anybody pawns, I’ve just always felt … I’ve always taken Flip’s words to heart,” Love said. “Everybody has a part to play, this is you guys’ livelihood. I’m thankful that we’re all working, you guys are all working, I think this goes without saying right now.”

The whole comments are worth listening to, as Love tries his best to cut through the discourse around Irving and give a straightforward answer. The pair, of course, were teammates in Cleveland from 2014-17, where they won a championship.

Everyone has that person in their life who “always plays the victim.” When something goes wrong it’s “never their fault” and if you try to challenge them on the issue they get all “high and mighty” on you.

They’re the type of person who does something wrong then tries to paint you as being the real problem for calling them out. Because their bad deed was just them making things even.

These people can be impossible to deal with because they’re never wrong. This mentality also stunts their developmental growth, because when you’re never wrong, you don’t have to change a thing.

A recent study by Israeli researchers Gabay, Hameirio, Rubel-Lifschitz, and Nadler has found that the “victim mentality” is a real and stable personality construct that influences how people make sense of the world around them.

These constructs are powerful to us because we use them to predict and anticipate events and, in turn, they influence our thoughts, behaviors, and feelings.

According to research, the victim mentality or, as they call it, “Tendency for Interpersonal Victimhood,” or TIV, is a stable construct that people can carry with them throughout their lives.

It’s defined as “an ongoing feeling that the self is a victim, which is generalized across many kinds of relationships.” That’s why your friend with the victim mentality always plays the victim and everything that happens in the world is an affront to them.

Researchers say there are four main components to TIV:

Need for recognition – whereby individuals have a high level of need for their victimization to be seen and recognized by others

Moral elitism – seeing oneself as morally pure or “immaculate,” and seeing those who oppose, criticize or “victimize” oneself as completely and totally immoral and unjust

Lack of empathy – having little empathy or concern for the suffering of others, because your own victimhood is so much greater than the suffering of others. Also includes an entitlement to act selfishly or harmfully towards others, without recognizing their pain or experience

Rumination – a strong tendency to brood and remain extremely fixated on times, ways, and relationships where they experienced victimization and being taken advantage of

A person who has TIV may be very vocal about their victim status whether it’s caused by societal issues, a personal problem, or something they’ve fabricated. They believe their status affords them moral superiority to others and allows them to behave in ways that are unassailable.

“How dare you judge me? I am a ______ .”

People with TIV are also more likely to try to seek revenge on those who’ve aggrieved them.

This type of person is defined by, and clings to, their perceived trauma and weaponizes it against others. Scott Kauffman of Scientific American says that people can develop TIV without even “experiencing severe trauma or victimization.”

Kauffman believes that people who have experienced trauma are capable of using it for healthy personal growth instead of unhealthy self-aggrandizement.

What if we all learned at a young age that our traumas don’t have to define us? That it’s possible to have experienced a trauma and for victimhood to not form the core of our identity? That it’s even possible to grow from trauma, to become a better person, to use the experiences we’ve had in our lives toward working to instill hope and possibility to others who were in a similar situation? What if we all learned that it’s possible to have healthy pride for an in-group without having out-group hate?

By coming to the concrete realization that this form of victim mentality is real it gives sufferers a greater ability to realize that they are living with an unhealthy personal construct that can be altered. It also gives those of us who have to deal with these people a better way to understand these frustrating people.

Adult Material (HBO Max) — Hayley Squires stars as a well-known British porn star who lives in the spotlight while also juggling motherhood. Rupert Everett plays her old colleague, with whom she navigates the Internet’s porn revolution, and they search for innovative ways to put a fresh spin on all things erotic. WarnerMedia’s streaming service acquired this drama series, which is currently airing on the U.K.’s Channel 4, from Banijay Rights.

The Prom (Netflix film) — Ryan Murphy’s relationship with Netflix keeps on giving, this time with a neon-bedazzled Broadway adaptation, which stars Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, and James Corden. The three help shake up the prom at a small Indiana town after a teen faces bigotry while attempting to attend her high school’s biggest dance with her girlfriend. Also, glitter, glitter, and more glitter, all in service of inclusion.

The Mandalorian: Chapter 11 (Disney+ series) — The bounty-hunting Star Wars series does something that it’s never done until now: give Baby Yoda a break. Don’t worry, the little guy will be back in action soon, but people still have mixed feelings.

High School Musical: The Musical: The Holiday Special (Disney+) — Based upon High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, this special features all-new musical numbers for Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Year’s Eve/Day. Stick around for a sneak peek at Season 2.

Ava (Netflix film) — Jessica Chastain stars in this spy action-thriller, along with Colin Farrell, who plays her character’s handler. Chastian is a globe-trotting assassin who is somehow attempting to reunite with estranged relatives, and everything gets to be a bit too much. Oh, and John Malkovich is along for the ride.

Small Axe (Amazon film collection) — It’s week four of five for this batch of Steve McQueen-directed movies. The stories, set in London’s West Indian community, will explore the endurance of the human spirit despite setbacks from discrimination and rampant racism, all set from the late 1960s to the 1980s.

Here’s the rest of this weekend’s notable programming:

SNL (Saturday, 11:29 p.m.) — Host Timothée Chalamet and musical guest Bruce Springsteen.

Supermarket Sweep (Sunday, ABC 8:00 p.m.) — Leslie Jones and every bit of her enthusiasm will host contestants in this revival of the grocery-shopping game show.

Pandora (Sunday, CW 8:00 p.m.) — Can Jax save the entire universe from utter destruction before it’s too late? Xander’s also pursuing some redemption while the Ancients prepare for final judgment time.

The Outpost (Sunday, CW 9:00 p.m.) — Tobin’s loyalty isn’t looking so great while Yavalla’s tested by a confrontation, and Talon and Zed must carry out an assassination.

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. This week, his character is Panic-Cranstoning over an alibi for his son and pulling off unorthodox favors in the process.

Shameless (Sunday, CW 9:00 p.m.) — The Gallaghers are dealing with the pandemic in their own way on Chicago’s South Side, and this week, Kevin and V are trying to breathe new life into their pot business while Carl’s first day as a cop isn’t anything like he expected it to be. (I’m still holding out for these things to happen, by the way).

In case you missed these recent picks:

Euphoria Part 1: Rue (HBO Max) — Need a little Zendaya to tide you over before the show returns (at an undetermined date) for Season 2? The Emmy award winner returns for the first of two special episodes. This one officially lands on HBO on Sunday, but you can catch it early already, only on HBO Max. Rue’s relapsing and ends up in a diner whilst contemplating life after Jules leaves her along at the train station following their winter formal.

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.

Hardy Boys (Hulu series) — The beloved detective book series gets the reboot treatment with Frank (Rohan Campbell) and Joe (Alexander Elliot) leaving the city for their parents’ hometown following a tragedy. What seems like a quiet summer grows more intriguing when they stumble upon some key evidence.

Taylor Swift is infamous for hiding Easter eggs in her songs and videos so that fans can decipher her next move. She even admitted to leaving hints in the lyrics of her album Folkore this summer. So after releasing the surprise LP Evermore Thursday night, fans think that Swift has left a subtle clue pointing to yet another secret release.

It wasn’t long after Evermore‘s release that fans were already beginning to suspect a third album was in the pipeline. The main theory stems from Swift’s album artwork. In a black-and-white photo of the singer standing in front of a tree, the word “woodvale” can be seen written in the top corner. This led fans to speculate that Swift is gearing up to drop a third surprise release, this time titled Woodvale.

On top of the world “woodvale” appearing in images, Swift herself said that she “couldn’t stop” writing songs during her recording sessions, which could mean she’s sitting on a lot of unreleased material. Alongside the release of Evermore, Swift wrote: “To put it plainly, we just couldn’t stop writing songs. To try and put it more poetically, it feels like we were standing on the edge of the folklorian woods and had a choice: to turn and go back or to travel further into the forest of this music. We chose to wander deeper in and my collaborators and I are proud to announce that my 9th studio album and folklore’s sister record is here. It’s called evermore.”

Check out fans trying to decode Taylor’s next move above.

Evermore is out now via Republic. Get it here.

Matt Smith is becoming TV’s go-to prince. He portrayed Prince Philip on The Crown, where he was nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series at the Emmys, and he’ll play Prince Daemon Targaryen in the Game of Thrones prequel series, House of the Dragon. Described as a “peerless warrior and a dragonrider,” Daemon “possesses the true blood of the dragon. But it is said that whenever a Targaryen is born, the gods toss a coin in the air…” He is the younger brother of King Viserys, played by Paddy Considine in the show, and was born some 200 years before Daenerys.

HBO revealed two more additions to the House of the Dragon cast on Friday: Olivia Cooke, who was fantastic in Sound of Metal, as Alicent Hightower, and Emma D’Arcy (Truth Seekers) as Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen. Alicent is “the daughter of Otto Hightower, the Hand of the King, and the most comely woman in the Seven Kingdoms. She was raised in the Red Keep, close to the king and his innermost circle; she possesses both a courtly grace and a keen political acumen,” while Princess Rhaenyra is “the king’s first-born child, she is of pure Valyrian blood, and she is a dragonrider. Many would say that Rhaenyra was born with everything… but she was not born a man.”

No dragons have been announced yet, but we know they’re coming.

Of all the sentences I never imagined myself writing, “Barack Obama does a dramatic reading of Eminem’s ‘Lose Yourself‘” would rank pretty high on the list — if I had one, that is. And yet, it’s the one I find myself still not quite believing I did write, so I have to write it again.

Former President of the United States of America Barack Obama — the first Black President in the nation’s 250-year history — did a dramatic reading of Detroit rap star Eminem’s 2002 record-breaking, 8 Mile soundtrack hit “Lose Yourself.” Here it is. Gaze upon it in wonder.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CIq1VEyppDL/

It’s okay if you need to take a minute after watching that. Because you should. If ever there were two polar opposite personalities in this wild world of ours, they would definitely be Barack Obama and Marshall Mathers. The cool-headed, measured former Head of State of the US and the foul-mouthed rap rebel certainly don’t seem like they have much in common. To be fair, it’s only the intro, but it implies that there’s more to come, and the mind reels at the possibilities

But the unifying element in this connection is the fact that Barack Obama used the song during his 2008 presidential campaign. As he explains in the video above, it helped him get hype as its underdog story was one he could relate to as a one-term Senator running for the highest office in the land. Especially as a Black man in a very, very whitewashed arena (Joe Biden’s using the song now). There are some pretty obvious analogs here, but the important thing is:

Barack Obama did a dramatic reading of Eminem’s “Lose Yourself,” and it is glorious.

Watch it above.

“Turning the hood into its own Beverly Hills,” says Watts rapper, producer, songwriter, and community activist STIX. “That’s the ideal community to me.”

When pushed, he expands the idea further.

“A community where people who look like me, whether they be black or brown, or come from a financial situation like I grew up in, whether they are white, Jewish, Indian, immigrant, non-immigrant, LGBT, doesn’t matter — a community where we can all live in one place and have the resources and opportunities available to stimulate our own economy and provide resources and opportunities.”

Centralized communities where people help and care about one another? Where mega-conglomerates aren’t able to leverage the promise of convenience against more empathetic concerns like supporting local businesses? It’s a powerful vision and one which STIX has been chasing throughout his 16-year career. And while rap is often the medium for his message, his social justice mission stays front and center.

“Moving out of the hood is always the goal,” he says. “But why don’t we gentrify or own neighborhoods, wholesale? When we move out of the hood we pay property taxes, those property taxes go to schools that don’t target the people I just spoke about. Then you’re paying the salaries of police and politicians who don’t focus on the needs of those people I just spoke about.”

Talk is easy, but STIX is one to practice what he preaches. Despite early hip-hop success working with Bobby Valentino, tours with Top Dog Entertainment’s Jay Rock and Reason, and acting as the chief architect behind Iggy Azalea’s Ignorant Art mixtape, he hasn’t left the south LA neighborhood he grew up in.

“My neighborhood is a big inspiration behind why I do what I do today,” he says. “I used to see what I didn’t have and I would feel like if I had resources to this, or access to that then I’d be rich. I want to end that cycle for other young individuals who are growing up in places like where I grew up. Make it so they don’t have to say that. So they have the resources and opportunities to make something of themselves.”

That mindset motivated STIX to start the non-profit foundation Think Watts, which places a major emphasis on community mobility and building bridges between the residents in low-income neighborhoodss and professionals in the corporate world.

“Our main mission is to supply the community and low-income communities with education and economic development in regard to financial literacy, entrepreneurship, arts programming, job training, sports pathways, with a subsidiary focus on permanent support of transitional housing for the homeless, and preventing recidivism. My mission is to help those in need and identity what those needs in these communities are and supply them with it via my relationships or my impact with music.”

That adds up to a massive task, obviously, but STIX has a natural ability for pulling the right minds together to get things done. He developed the skill when his primary focus was on rap — grabbing producers and completing an entire album with Bobby Valentino in just three days. More recently, he did it in his CLIO Award-winning advertising work with the Watts Rams.

“Hip-hop is an expression,” he says. “I utilize it as that tool that the streets use to communicate, and I use imagery and innovative content and a message that the corporate world would try to articulate. I bring those together to create something. Every time I create those partnerships, I make sure they do something for the community… [in the case of the Watts Rams] kids growing up without opportunities now have access to a free Pop Warner team that’s coached by the police.”

STIX followed up that work with a song debuted by the NFL’s LA Rams on Monday Night Football, which spoke about racial and social injustice, as well as police brutality.

The realities of 2020 have, unfortunately, put some of the Think Watts community projects on hold. But STIX didn’t let the pandemic stop his mission. Instead Think Watts has pivoted towards doing more food distribution, throwing grocery drives, and even offering rental assistance to low-income families. STIX stresses the importance of offering support now more than ever, in the face of a pandemic that has disproportionately harmed black and brown communities nationwide.

In 2021, much of his focus will be on education, with Think Watts offering community programming around financial literacy, entrepreneurship, coding, and job training. For STIX, courses like these are an outgrowth of his efforts to build bridges between communities of color and the corporate world.

“The corporate world talks at people, not to them,” he says. “What I try to do is be the messenger between both… and be a force for good.”

TMZ reports Lil Wayne has pled guilty to illegally possessing a loaded weapon after his plane was searched at the end of 2019. He’s due back in court for sentencing next month and could receive up to 10 years in prison because of his existing criminal record — he was convicted of a felony gun charge in New York in 2009.

Federal agents were supposedly tipped off to a gun on Wayne’s plane at the Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport on December 23, 2019 and officers found a gold-plated Remington 1911, .45-caliber handgun in Wayne’s bag after he advised them that he was carrying. The bag also allegedly contained cocaine, ecstasy, and oxycodone. According to TMZ, Wayne has a good chance of receiving a more lenient sentence than the maximum 10 years because of his cooperation — federal prosecutors apparently recommended a lighter sentence, but it’s still up to the judge.

Meanwhile, Wayne’s been the subject of plenty other attention-grabbing headlines to close out the year. Although he received praise for the third installment of his No Ceilings mixtape series thanks in part to the “BB King Freestyle” featuring Drake, he also received criticism for shouting out Donald Trump on “Life Is Good” after previously co-signing the defeated incumbent’s last-ditch campagin efforts.

Although they’ve been relatively quiet musically this year, hip-hop’s resident “boy band” Brockhampton hasn’t been lollygagging around. Today, they announced the relaunch of their clothing collection, succinctly titled Gay. The group previously joked around about “pushing the gay agenda” when they signed to RCA Records in 2018, and their clothing collection’s tongue-in-cheek name reflects a similar wicked sense of humor.

The line, “intended to further represent and empower the LGBTQ+ community in mainstream media and retail,” will be available at Zumiez and range from $9.99 to $71.95, including t-shirts, a hoodie, and a hat. The group also released a digital lookbook, creative directed by Kevin Abstract (naturally) and shot by Ashlan Grey. The models in the lookbook are activists from GLAAD’s Youth Engagement Program.

Although they haven’t put out much music in 2020, there was a short span of time toward the middle of the year when they shared a string of singles, beginning with the early May release of “Things Can’t Stay The Same” and “N.S.T.” They followed up a week later with “M.O.B.” and “Twisted,” then finished off the run with “Baby Bull,” “Downside,” and “I.F.L.” Since then, though, they have deleted all the tracks from their YouTube profile, leaving “Sugar” as their most recent track.

Check out the lookbook for Gay below.