In a now-deleted tweet, President Trump engaged in one of his favorite pastimes on Wednesday—accusing another elected official of committing a crime on Twitter.

This time, the object of his accusation was Michigan’s “rogue” Secretary of State, Jocelyn Benson. The crime? Trump accused her of “illegally and without authorization” sending absentee ballots to 7.7 million people in her state. He threatened to withhold funding to Michigan saying, “If they want to go down this Voter Fraud path!” (Ahem, is “voter fraud” a proper noun, sir?)

Benson responded to Trump’s tweet in the best way possible—she fired back with facts and a reminder of her name.

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“Hi!” she wrote, with a wave emoji. “I also have a name, it’s Jocelyn Benson. And we sent applications, not ballots. Just like my GOP colleagues in Iowa, Georgia, Nebraska and West Virginia.”

Jocelyn Benson/Twitter

The president was roundly called out for being so inaccurate. Trump partially corrected his previous tweet two-and-a-half hours later, only adding the word “applications,” but but still falsely claiming the mail-in voting broke the law.

The president seems hell bent on making people believe that mail-in voting is “ripe for fraud” and that making it easier for people to vote by mail is somehow beneficial for Democrats. Let’s not forget he voted by mail in Florida in March. Or that Washington and Oregon, who have had all-mail-in voting for years, both have Republican Secretaries of State overseeing their elections. Voter fraud, despite claims to the contrary, is a statistically insignificant occurrence—and a bipartisan one at that.

Benson, again, responded with the facts. And again, she reminded him that she has a name.

“Hi again,” she wrote. “Still wrong. Every Michigan registered voter has a right to vote by mail. I have the authority & responsibility to make sure that they know how to exercise this right – just like my GOP colleagues are doing in GA, IA, NE and WV. Also, again, my name is Jocelyn Benson.”

Benson insisting that President Trump call her by her name may seem like a small thing, but it’s not. In fact, it might be the most powerful part about her responses. The president has a habit of not referring to women he doesn’t like by name, instead making up childish nicknames for them or simply omitting their name altogether. It’s a power play of sorts—one that Benson expertly diffuses in her tweets to him.

As political historian Heather Cox Richardson pointed out on Facebook:

“From Moby Dick’s famous beginning ‘Call me Ishmael’ to the fear in the Harry Potter books of calling the evil Voldemort by name, invoking someone’s name makes them a power to be reckoned with. In this case, a woman doing her job, insisting on reality that interrupts Trump’s narrative, repeatedly demands that he use her name.

It’s a powerful moment. At a time when senators and government officials appear to have ceded their power to Trump, it is ordinary Americans like Jocelyn Benson, ordinary women like Jocelyn Benson, who are standing up to him. ‘Hi!’ she wrote. ‘I also have a name.’

Indeed she does. That’s exactly what the president is afraid of.”

Strong, smart and self-respecting women who don’t peddle “alternative facts” are Trump’s kryptonite. He doesn’t know what to do with them, other than attack them with false claims and nicknames. In the space of two tweets, Jocelyn Benson managed to not only correct the president’s falsehoods, but also show that she’s not going to let him play that game. It’s ridiculously unfortunate that government officials have to battle lies from the president on Twitter, but since that’s how he’s chosen to communicate, that’s where it has to happen.

Of course, Benson’s office also issued official statements on the matter, because despite appearances, governance is not actually done over Twitter. The Department of State wrote:

“President Donald Trump’s statement is false. The Bureau of Elections is mailing absent voter applications, not ballots. Applications are mailed nearly every election cycle by both major parties and countless advocacy and nonpartisan organizations. Just like them, we have full authority to mail applications to ensure voters know they have the right to vote safely by mail.”

We need to see women standing calmly and confidently in the storm, providing factual, low-key fierce rebuttals to the blatantly false accusations that keep flying from the president’s fingertips.

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No-regret finds.

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You know you’re bored!

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“Let this be clear, I’m not not a feminist.”

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Phil Jackson is not the first to compare basketball to jazz, but by 1998, as the Chicago Bulls sailed toward their sixth championship, that team looked closer to a fine-tuned jazz combo than nearly any basketball team to take an NBA court. In the final companion episode of Detail on ESPN+ put out in conjunction with The Last Dance, Jackson shows how this latter era of the Bulls’ dynasty gutted out wins based on a shared tempo and passion rather than athletic excellence.

This is Jackson’s second episode of the companion series. In the first, he outlined the basic tenets of the Triangle offense as Chicago ran it. This time around, Jackson walks through Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals, a game Jackson admits was an unlikely Bulls victory in Salt Lake City, and how Scottie Pippen’s gutsy play and Michael Jordan’s clutch performance took the game home.

It was Toni Kukoc who had the hot hand going into Game 6, so the Bulls ran several simple Triangle sets early to get him started. Kukoc scored 10 easy points in the first half, attacking the mismatch he posed for Karl Malone.

“One of the options in (the Triangle) that’s kind of like jazz, is you can take off on the various themes and take off on your own little music runs if you want to, as long as you know what the melody is,” Jackson says. “The Triangle offense is a little bit like that.”However, with Utah up four going into the half, it was Chicago’s defense that had to lock in down the stretch. Malone was 8-for-11 from the field for 20 points in the first two quarters, prompting a couple fantastic observations from Jackson on the Mailman:

• “Karl has a knee lift that’s threatening. It’s probably taken out a few teeth and a few jaws. … Karl’s probably caused as much stitches as anybody in the NBA.”
• Also, Jackson notes how Malone traveled nearly every time he lifted off for his turnaround jumper from the post. Rather than pivoting to his back foot to create space, he stepped backward — a travel.

It’s clear Jackson respects Malone and John Stockton, but doesn’t seem necessarily to think much of the Jazz offense, which repeatedly uses the same screen and cut combination to free up Malone on the block with guards in motion around him. That made it pretty easy for the Bulls to lock in defensively when needed. There’s a reason the Jazz never took them to a Game 7.

Still, Chicago entered the fourth quarter down five. Jordan’s legs were falling out from beneath him. Chicago was staring down an elimination game in the Finals for the first time ever.

A few things led to Jordan’s legendary shot over Byron Russell that are often forgotten. A Howard Eisley three-pointer got called off because officials said it was let off after the buzzer, but regular game tape proves otherwise. Jackson believes the missed call was a result of bright camera flashes let off by media at every buzzer that blinded those on the court. Not that explains away the Bulls’ six championship, though. Jackson brushes it off: “Well, so be it.”

The next forgotten detail is that the Bulls specifically liked to play defense in front of their bench in the second half, and Jackson says he and Jordan discussed throughout the series the last-second rotation that resulted in Jordan stealing the ball from Malone in the post. They were to keep it as a break-in-case-of-emergency tactic. Defending in front of their bench, the Bulls were able to organize themselves and some sort of mental messaging took place between coach and superstar that triggered the Jordan ball-slap and the worst moment of Malone’s career.

Then, the shot. Says Jackson: “It was as quiet as a church on a Sunday night here in Salt Lake.”

Jordan runs the same spread isolation set that gave him a layup the last time down the floor, uses Russell’s momentum against him, pushes off into a reverse crossover, and sinks one of the defining shots in NBA history.

The final forgotten detail is that the Jazz had absolutely no clue what to run with five seconds remaining in a Finals game. Really, this happened! Everyone knows Jordan smashed the Jazz into a TKO with his shot over Russell, but it’s never mentioned that Utah had plenty of time to parry the blow and take Game 6. Instead, Stockton fires up a long pull-up three with time left on the clock. No chance. Game over. Era over.

“Their last shot is one that kind of surprised us,” Jackson says. “They don’t have enough time to get into what they want to do.”

In the end, this was the difference between Chicago and Utah. The Bulls had Jordan, the NBA’s preeminent soloist and a backing band of excellent role players and a system that held the groove together. The Jazz had one strong melody, a fiercely stubborn conductor in head coach Jerry Sloan, and no creativity in the moments that necessitate force of will and individual greatness. It’s why Chicago went 2-2 in the two championship bouts, and Utah is remembered as one of the greatest squads never to get theirs.

Previously on the Ins and Outs of AEW Dynamite: The Inner Circle put out a hit on Matt Hardy’s favorite sentient drone, Mike Tyson was revealed as a special celebrity guest for Double or Nothing, and Sammy Guevara revealed that he has no neck. Well, he has no neck now.

If you’d like to keep up with this column and its thinly veiled Best and Worst format, you can keep tabs on the Ins and Outs of AEW Dynamite tag page. You can keep track of all things All Elite here.

Follow With Spandex on Twitter and Facebook. You can also follow me on Twitter, where everything and everyone is terrible.

And now, the Ins and Outs of All Elite Wrestling Dynamite for May 20, 2020.

In Your House: Floridian Stampede

Let’s start off the column for Double or Nothing’s “go-home” show with the biggest news of the week: The Young Bucks and Hangman Adam Page are back, just in time for Saturday’s “Stadium Stampede” match. It must be nice to have unfettered use of an NFL stadium, huh? It’s at least a good visual for when you need to shit or get off the pot with Blood and Guts but can’t do it any time soon with a plague on.

Last week the Inner Circle assassinated Vanguard-1 with a baseball bat, and it worked so well that this week they use Sammy Guevara’s main event match against Matt Hardy as a distraction to be like, “Hey, what if we do that bat murder to a PERSON?” With Hardy not being an official member of the group, Cody busy doing his Lance Archer thing, and the Bucks and Hangman off either dealing with injury or trying not to get sick, it only made sense to target The Elite’s Kenneth Ellen Omega. But it turns out that the Bucks and Hangman I guess scouted the Inner Circle’s plans and decided to lie in wait in various places around TIAA Bank Field to hatch a surprise attack while Omega got held against the goal posts and shit-kicked. Don’t think about it. The good news is that while we aren’t going to get a proper War Games match seemingly ever again, we confirmed that Jackson and Jackson are gonna dive off an empty stadium full of ledges and surfaces, and that Adam Page has got a hell of a hundred-yard dash:

Hangman came barrelling into the stadium like …

… or, if you’d prefer …

I’m sure somebody’s already put the Chariots of Fire music behind it. A Dynamite with the Bucks and Hangman is better than a Dynamite without, love them or hate them, and if AEW’s truly dedicated to having its promotion be the spiritual successor to World Championship Wrestling, I look forward to those three beating down Omega and Hardy at Double or Nothing and joining the Inner Circle.

(That’s a joke, by the way.)
(WCW really ruined me, you know.)

All In: Horse Vs. Snake

It’s not exactly a duel of DDTs in 1992, but we finally got to see Arn Anderson and Jake Roberts exist in the ring together at the same time. It’s a dream moment, for sure, and it’s all in service of adding more fuel to the fire for Cody Rhodes vs. Lance Archer ahead of Saturday. That rivalry already involves a new arriving star, a tournament for a new championship belt, the violent bloodletting of Cody’s brother, and dramatic vehicle entrances. Might as well let two of the best to ever do it do what they do and create compelling television from office chairs on either side of Tony Schiavone.

It’s honestly a shame that we can’t get these two in the ring against one another, at least not until Mohammad Bin Salman Al Saud gets really into Being The Elite, books Full Gear in Riyadh, and needs a main event. I really hope Jake and Mike Tyson interact at Double or Nothing, though. Jake once more or less no-sold (or at least “pro wrestling” sold) several clean punches to the face from Muhammad Ali to keep his heat because Ali was only there for a night, so I’d love to see Tyson uppercut a 64-year old Jake Roberts flush in the chin only for Jake to calmly stumble backwards and lean against the ropes.

Somewhat In: Force Ten

In other top of the card news, AEW World Champion Jon Moxley wants to get his belt back from Longhorn Steakhouse The Monarch The Exalted One Mr. Brodie Lee, and tries to do so by leveraging the well-being of Brodie’s top henchman, “10.” You can tell he’s the best henchman because he doesn’t wear a shirt. No, I don’t know how they employ Shawn Spears and haven’t had him interact with 10 yet.

Anyway, Moxley defeats 10 in a lightly competitive match that presents Moxley with a “challenge” without it ever really being challenging, and performatively announces that he’s going to break 10’s arm if Mad Men Bray Wyatt doesn’t play ball. Brodie pops in on the video screen all, “I’ve known that guy for like three weeks you proletariat
scumbag, go ahead, break his arm, see if I even care.” Moxley, effectively called on his bluff, goes through with it. And he does it in that funny pro wrestling way where you hit an object with an object and that’s supposed to make it hurt more, like how WWE thinks putting a ladder on somebody’s leg and hitting the ladder with a chair hurts more than just hitting someone in the leg with a chair or ladder.

The match on Saturday should be fun. With Chris Jericho, Jake Hager, and Brodie Lee taken care of, which former WWE star will become number one contender next? Maybe they can get Bad News Barrett on loan from the NWA?

All In, And Then Oh My God All Out: Orange Cassidy Vs. Rey Fénix

Orange Cassidy versus Rey Fénix was absolutely my match of the night. I love both guys, am keenly aware of Orange’s low key wrestling excellence, and have missed Fénix looking at a basic in-ring scenario and thinking, “how can I make this as confusing and dangerous as possible?” It’s a great combination: a guy who will surprise you with his wrestling acumen against a guy who will surprise you by wrestling like he wrestles and living.

It’s all well and good until the ending, which is a pier-six brawl and at least 75% of a donnybrook involving the competitors in Saturday’s “casino” ladder match. On paper, it’s an excuse for a bunch of cool high flyers to hit high-flying moves. In practice, it’s kind of a damn car wreck. There’s a whole pod of people at ringside brawling, and they can’t seem to catch ANYBODY. The worst is Fénix, possibly because of the high degree of difficulty. Who needs hips and a tailbone, anyway?

If that’s not bad enough, Colt Cabana tries to follow it with an Asai moonsault of his own and ALSO gets more ground than bodies. Then Orange Cassidy and the Best Friends to the Ant Hill from Chikara*, and Orange almost overshoots the entire group. If not for Kip Sabian’s shoulder he probably would’ve smashed into the ground, too. It’s so bad the title of the video is, “ORANGE CASSIDY VS FENIX AND THE BODIES HIT THE FLOOR.”

* (also, Chuck Taylor participating in an Ant Hill just seems wrong)

Note: I don’t think it’ll happen at Double or Nothing or anything, but I sure hope AEW jumps on Drew Gulak’s free agency and gets the Gentleman’s Club back together. Not that I want every former WWE guy to show up in AEW, but we need to know what Orange thinks about the most recent several Fast & Furious movies.

All Out: Dental? Damn.

Continuing the theme of accidental injuries, Nyla Rose teams up with Dr. Britt Baker DMD to take on Kris Statlander and apparently eternal number one contender Hikaru Shida in a tag team match. In case you missed it, Statlander and Shida decided to do a blind, double-team Death Valley Driver to Rose ONTO Britt Baker in the corner with their backs together so they can’t communicate or see what the other person’s doing, and … it didn’t go well.

That’s 200 pounds of Nyla Rose falling sideways and getting slammed onto Baker’s leg (and kicking her in the face, for good measure). She’s able to get out of there pretty quickly and sits out the remainder of the match, but the damage is done. The early reports are a “pretty serious knee injury,” which is heartbreaking, especially considering what an MVP Britt’s been to the show during quarantine. If she ends up missing any time, I hope they let her keep doing character vignettes, if only for a scene where a dentist mandible-splains her own knee injury to an orthopedic surgeon because she’s also a doctor, thank you very much.

Also On This Episode

MJF defeats Marko Stunt, who manages to get through an entire episode of Dynamite without being thrown to Hell by a giant. He does get punched in the face with a diamond ring, however, and has to be bailed out by a dinosaur. Marko’s so small he makes MJF look like Wardlow, and makes Wardlow look like Lance Archer. Note: MJF is billed at 6-feet tall and Wardlow’s billed at 6-2, making them a living version of the “6-foot versus 5-foot-11” meme.

MJF will have to face Jungle Boy, literally a friend to big and small, at Double or Nothing. What happens first: Marko Stunt scoring an upset over someone three times his size, or Jim Ross getting through an entire Jungle Boy appearance without calling him “Jungle Jack Perry?” He’s going to get that name changed or he’s gonna die trying. Boomer Jack Sooner.

Darby Allin is still expressing himself through student film. My favorite AEW character is the nihilistic skateboard kid who can only communicate via Mirror Father Mirror.

Randy News Network senior numerology correspondent Shawn Spears sends in a video to announce that Dustin Rhodes has retired, and that he’s challenging him for Saturday, which is how retirement works. He also makes fun of Dustin’s past drug addiction, which is pretty out of nowhere. Who let Shawn Spears have his own news network? Is Tully Blanchard the only one who watches it? I’m not even sure Tully’s watching it at this point.

PAC is back, thank God, and sends in a video promo from Johnny Gargano and Candice LeRae’s dining room. I’m hype for him to show up in the Casino ladder match unannounced, take his Death Triangle mate’s spot due to a particularly nasty case of broken lower half, and win the next shot at the AEW Championship. “PAC” is the answer to the earlier question. It’s also the BEST answer!

All In: Top 10 Comments Of The Week

The Real Birdman

“Yayyy!” – Dark Order Member 11

AddMayne

United States Presidential Debate (2020)

BigD_TVF

Being able to kip up with your hands in your pockets just ain’t right.

Some of us can’t even sit up from the floor without rolling over and grabbing onto at least 2 sturdy pieces of furniture.

mikeybot

TIL – In AEW if you fail your sneak attack roll, you lose you entrance music

Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer

MJF is the best 1980s heel remastered for 2020.

Clay Quartermain

Spears does have that basic cable blandness down pat

Pdragon619

I’m the same age as Sammy Guevara, I like to believe that we both helped contribute to making this one of the greatest generations of wrestling ever. Him with his infinite potential, and myself with my infinite nitpicking pushing these athletes to be even better.

Endy_Mion

Dark Order’s human furniture store gonna get a stimulus check anytime soon? Or is our government truly that out of touch with what the people need as essentials?

SexCauldron

Seeing the Butcher and Blade in street clothes is like seeing a teacher outside of school

Mr. Bliss

I do need a commercial from the Dark Order letting us know they think essential workers are heroes.

That does it for this week’s column. Thanks for reading about Dynamite! Leave us a comment below, give the column a share on social media, and make sure you’re here this weekend for Double or Nothing, featuring:

• action-adventure husband Jon Moxley taking down an incel cult
• Bloodless and Gutsless
• a TNT Championship Tournament finals in which everybody dies
• Hikaru Shida hopefully doing something with her four months of number one contendership
• a ladder match in which nobody gets caught, ever

… and so much more. See you then!

Since he started making music, Kevin Parker has honed his sound with Tame Impala. The singer started as a psych-rock project with his debut album Innerspeaker and has since undergone a poptimisiom pivot complete with stadium-ready production on his most recent release, The Slow Rush. With a newfound perspective, Parker reflects on his debut release on the 10-year anniversary of Innerspeaker and hints at what’s to come.

Getting personal in a post on Instagram, Parker wrote that his album’s anniversary made him emotional:

“This version of the cover was 1 version out from the final, but i found it the other day for the first time since 2010 and it makes me very emotional to just look at because it reminds me of what I was going through about a week out from finishing and signing off on the whole album, which scared the shit out of me and at the time seemed like an insurmountable task. Little did I know that was the easiest it was ever going to get.”

Along with thanking fans for their continued support, Parker hinted that he has something exciting in the works, writing: “Announcement of something very special coming v soon.”

Just ahead of Parker’s recent release, the musician spoke with Uproxx and reflected on each of his projects. Detailing Innerspeaker, Parker said he feels disconnected from the album in some ways: “For what that album means to my fans, it belongs more to them than it does to me. I almost don’t feel like it’s me that made that. It feels like someone else.” Parker continued by saying he wasn’t as confident about his music back then: “I was a shy person. I was shy personally and musically. The fact that everyone thought it was a band is an example of how shy I was musically. I didn’t even want to tell people that I made the whole thing by myself.”

Read Parker’s full statement above.

The Slow Rush is out now via Modular. Get it here.

The floodgates are open for pro athletes seeking out ways to get back to training, and as the NBA arranges initial plans to finish out the 2019-20 season, perhaps no one is more determined to get back on the court than LeBron James.

The Lakers star and MVP candidate has been particularly vocal about his desire to play out the season, and was even part of a call with other superstars to present a united front in support of this outcome last week. Now, James is reportedly arranging workouts with his Lakers teammates in a private gym somewhere in southern California to get ready for the season, according to Shams Charania of Stadium and The Athletic.

This is the type of situation the NBA was trying to avoid. Charania adds that James’ private workouts are operating under the same guidelines as official NBA workouts across the country, but suffice to say it’s hard to imagine that James hired a Chief Hygiene Officer. Charania also reports that all players who are joining James for workouts are being tested before joining him on the court. Testing for COVID-19 is widespread in California, where local officials have said anyone who wants a test can get one, so the simple act of getting tested before playing basketball is nothing major. But the NBA has been careful not to appear to be operating on a playing field above the rest of the public.

The news is especially peculiar considering the Lakers opened their El Segundo practice facility on Monday in coordination with local officials. Why James is hosting separate workouts that use more resources and are not happening within the regulations the NBA put out is a symbol of James’ power in the league, but also the challenges of governing a large body of wealthy athletes spread out over the country at this time.

The NBA will reportedly begin working with teams in early June to bring players back to their home markets, effectively cutting out odd arrangements like the one James has created. But for now, the King is hungry for his fourth ring, and is readying himself individually for when the time comes to compete again.

Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman was nominated for 10 Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actor for both Al Pacino and Joe Pesci. Unfortunately, the Academy was not a friend of Hoffa, and the film failed to win a single trophy. Still! Ten Oscar nominations is pretty good — that’s [checks notes] 10 more than Grandma’s Boy was nominated for (it was robbed). Netflix hopes to have better success with its next prestige project from an all-time acclaimed director: Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods.

Both films — one about a truck driver who becomes a hitman, the other about four African American veterans returning to Vietnam (guess which one is which!) — are reliant on flashbacks, but with a key difference. “I was not getting $100 million to de-age our guys,” Lee told the New York Times, adding, “I think we were able to turn a negative into a positive.”

Notably, the actors, all over 50, play themselves in the flashback sequences, without any de-aging makeup or digital effects. According to notes about the film sent to the press, this was meant to illustrate the bloods’ “living memories,” how “current dilemmas and even ailments color recollections of their former selves.” (Via)

There better be at least one scene of Isiah Whitlock Jr. eating ice cream, though. Da 5 Bloods, which also stars Chadwick Boseman, Delroy Lindo, Clarke Peters, Norm Lewis, Jonathan Majors, and Paul Walter Hauser, premieres on Netflix on June 12.