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Last week it seemed like one of the Republican party’s newest stars, Navy SEAL-turned-Texas representative Dan Crenshaw, might be the latest to be taken down. Newsweek reported that he was involved in an “orchestrated campaign” to disparage a female veteran who had alleged sexual assault at a V.A. facility. It’s damning news, if true, but Crenshaw isn’t simply pretending like it’s not a big deal. Mere days after the report, he dropped a new campaign video where he pretends he’s a big time action movie star.

Crenshaw — who lords over a cartoonishly gerrymandered district and who rose to fame after being made fun of by Pete Davidson — wasn’t campaigning for himself. He was campaigning for David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, the two Republican incumbents battling to retain their Senate seats, which, if both are lost, would flip the legislative body blue. Crenshaw has done easily mocked action movie-style campaign videos before, including one where his missing eye has superpowers. This one, however, earned him even more scorn.

The video begins with Crenshaw being summoned away in the middle of an acceptance speech, informed by government agents that his help is needed. He strips out of his suit, revealing some warrior attire. He then gets in a plane, leaps out of it à la Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible — Fallout, and lands heroically on a vehicle peopled by antifa, who, by the way, are not an organization, no matter how many times Republicans say they are.

The low production values, the unconvincing attempts to turn Crenshaw into a cross between Ethan Hunt and Thor, the silly portrait of anitfa, the arrival mere days after heinous allegations — all conspired to make him a figure of fun over social media.

https://twitter.com/waltshaub/status/1338279889795952646

Some compared it to Threat Level Midnight, the hilarious spy fantasy written by The Office’s Michael Scott.

https://twitter.com/waltshaub/status/1338282944851570690

Some found it the year’s weirdest campaign video.

Others pointed out some plot holes.

Many mocked Crenshaw’s action star aspirations.

And some called him out for what he really is.

Of course, Perdue and Loeffler could really use the help. He was so scared of his opponent that he skipped out on their last debate, while she robotically repeated buzzterms like “radical leftist” during hers. Then again, if Crenshaw really did help smear a woman reporting sexual assault, maybe ludicrous campaign videos are the only places left where he can be the good guy.

CNN’s Jake Tapper has never been one to praise outgoing president Donald J. Trump. Quite the contrary. But on Sunday — mere days after slamming the GOP House for letting a “deranged” lawsuit make its way to the Supreme Court, where it died a quick death — he decided to change that, sort of. Tapper used the end of his program with a monologue in which he offered Trump thanks. Again, sort of.

It began, seemingly, in earnest. Tapper cited some “legitimate achievements” from his presidency, among them Operation Warp Speed, which indeed led to a vaccine being quickly approved and whose first batches have already been dispensed. (Tapper didn’t mention that Trump’s administration, many of whom have recklessly caught COVID-19, were among the first recipients.) He said he’s “rethought trade deals,” “reimagined peace in the Middle East,” and for bringing some service members home, “even if his follow-through has been rather wanting.”

Once Tapper got that out of the way, his tone changed to sarcasm. The remainder of his monologue laid out the many ways Trump has, by challenging democratic, inadvertently exposed cracks in a system largely based, he said, “on the honor system” — ones that could have been even more thoroughly exploited by a more focused conman. “A government upheld upon the honor system only works if everyone involved…has honor,” Tapper said.

Tapper then moved onto the events of the last week, when his legal team, plus a bevy of Republican lawmakers, pushed that aforementioned lawsuit against key battleground states that have already certified their elections for Biden. “It was a clownish legal brief based on conspiracy theories and outright lies,” he said. “And 18 state attorneys general, some U.S. senators, and a majority of the House Republican caucus, 126 members, supported it.”

Thus, in Tapper’s estimation, Trump “did us a favor by exposing these elected officials.” He then described those supporters as “definitionally people who signed on to a desperate desire to subvert the will of the American people, to disenfranchise voters in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan based on lies and conspiracy theories, putting an immoral and corrupt power grab above democracy.”

The GOP has largely kept quiet over the last month-plus since Biden was declared winner, which has seen Trump and his minions make baseless accusations of voter fraud and been shot down in dozens and dozens of court cases. But when the Trump team filed that DOA lawsuit, he forced them to expose their real selves:

“Many Americans hoped that most Republican officials, while they agreed with Trump’s policies, did not like the uglier parts of his style, his willingness to lie or smear to achieve his ends. But President Trump made House Republicans go on the record … He made them stand and be counted, and 126 of them, including Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy and Republican Whip Steve Scalise, they actually signed their names to this, this unconservative, undemocratic, unAmerican, mendacious joke of a lawsuit that would disenfranchise millions of their fellow Americans.

“These House Republicans raised their hands … They said: Sign me up. The hope that most Republicans in the House were better than this — that has been destroyed. For those of us who believe in standards and norms and the U.S. Constitution, we need to thank President Trump for bringing this fact to light.”

Then again, maybe no one needs to thank Donald Trump for a thing.

He was a spy who became one of the great spy novelists, bringing realism, technical accuracy, and a weathered sense of what the job does to you to a genre often overrun with sexy Bond-like fantasy. And after a long and storied career, John le Carré has passed on, reports The New York Times.

Born David John Moore Cromwell, le Carré didn’t have the rosiest childhood. His mother abandoned him as a child, and his father was a low-level conman with ties to the infamous Kray brothers. He developed an interest in the secret ways the world really works, which led him to work at both the MI5 and the MI6, the twin secret service agencies in England. Those experiences helped shape his books, including his third, 1963’s The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, which became his breakthrough.

That book was his also le Carré’s third to feature George Smiley, the career intelligence officer who became his most consistent character and most famous creation. Smiley isn’t always the main star of his books, and he was the opposite of a dashing spy. He was cold, calculating, ruthlessly efficient. He appears in a number of le Carré’s most celebrated works, including The Looking Glass War, The Russia House, and perhaps his most famous work, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

Like many in his field, le Carré saw his books turned into movies, starting with The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. Released in 1965, it’s as stark and unforgiving as the novel, starring Richard Burton as an agent sent to sow discord in East Germany. Where Thunderball, the 007 entry released the same year, reveled in imperialist fun, the le Carré film showed that espionage work ran counter to true democratic ideals.

More adaptations followed. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy was turned into both a 1979 miniseries, starring Alec Guinness as Smiley, and a 2010 movie, where Gary Oldman memorably took over. The Little Drummer Girl was made into both a film in 1984, starring Diane Keaton, and a miniseries in 2018, with Michael Shannon, Alexander Skarsgard, and Florence Pugh. The film of The Tailor of Panama actually roped in then-Bond Pierce Brosnan to play a crooked, roguish spy, while the movie of The Constant Gardener netted Rachel Weisz her Oscar in 2005. The Night Manager was turned into a well-received TV show in 2016, with Tom Hiddleston and Hugh Laurie.

Le Carré wrote right up to the end. His final novel, or at least the last one released before his death, was Agent Running in the Field, from last year. Throughout his life and career, he wrote page-turners that helped readers better understand how the world works, about the forces that control our lives from behind a veil, about the often broken people who make it all run. Without him, we’re bound to understand less.

(Via NYT)

Cameo has become an incredibly popular way for people to celebrate things by paying famous people to record a personal message for someone. That is, at least, what the entire site was built off of, but sometimes people use it to play jokes on their friends or, apparently, break up with their significant other in maybe the least personal way possible (but also the funniest to the objective viewer).

On Sunday, a video made the rounds showing Bruce Buffer, the legendary UFC ring announcer known for his very animated theatrics and his “IT’S TIIIIIMMMMMMEEEEEE” catchphrase, offering a message to some poor woman named Kayleigh (Kayley?) to “move on.”

I have to appreciate how all out he goes for this video, as you really get your money’s worth out of a 14 second video with Bruce. He has the full tux jacket and bow tie look going for this one — although that’s apparently not standard — and does not mail in the “IT’S TIIIIIIMMMMMMMEEEEEEEE” in any way. I mean, it is the same as you’d expect ahead of the main event in the Octagon on a big fight night in Las Vegas. I appreciate that, because Bruce Buffer Cameo’s are not cheap. Apparently telling Kayle[igh/y] it was over was worth $299 to whomever paid for this video, which really tells you how bad things were going in this relationship.

I love that he says he only films in a tux if he’s already in a tux at the time, and the reason why he was able to do this one in his tux is that he apparently chose to film this before going to work at UFC 256 because (as you can see from the above image from fight night) he is in the exact same fit. What a legend.

Also, Sorry Kayle[igh/y], but at least you’ll always have a strong story for your worst breakup ever.

When the Washington Football Team dropped its Redskins nickname it seemed to indicate the long overdue shift in the world of sports where monikers that were offensive to Native Americans and indigenous people would finally be dropped even at the highest levels of professional sports.

Given how staunchly opposed Dan Snyder was to changing Washington’s name, it indicated that the pressure to get rid of names in that same ilk would be on the way out. As soon as Washington became the Football Team, all eyes turned to Cleveland’s baseball team, where the same groups that have long called for a name change from their Indians nickname. Cleveland has steadily gone away from using the highly offensive Chief Wahoo logo, but hadn’t shown much interest, much in the way Washington hadn’t, in changing its name. However, that will change soon according to David Waldstein and Michael S. Schmidt of the New York Times, who report an announcement that the team will change its name is coming very soon.

Following years of protests from fans and Native American groups, the Cleveland Indians have decided to change their team name, moving away from a moniker that has long been criticized as racist, three people familiar with the decision said Sunday.

…

One of the people said Cleveland planned to keep the Indians name and uniforms for the 2021 season while working to shift away from it as early as 2022.

As noted in the Times report, there are plenty of logistical hurdles to clear in changing the name, including working with apparel partners and sponsors, which is why they may keep the name and uniforms for next season — although the Football Team successfully pivoted away from their name in a rather swift turnaround that would indicate Cleveland could probably do the same if they so wanted to. Still, even if it isn’t until 2022 it’s a welcome change and one Cleveland fans have seemed to expect in recent years, regularly discussing name change options on social media — Spiders is a particularly popular option.

We’ll see how the team goes about its rebrand and renaming, but it’s progress even if overdue.

Offset isn’t entirely on board with the upcoming coronavirus vaccine. The rapper was recently stopped by TMZ and questioned about the new medical development, which, should everyone take it, would give people the herd immunity to start getting life back to normal. But it turns out Offset is among the skeptics, saying he “doesn’t trust” it. He had other concerns as well, saying that treatment would be prioritized to the upper class as opposed to the general public. All of this caused people on Twitter to weigh in on the rapper’s comments.

One simply asked, “Who in the heck cares if he gets it or not?” while another questioned how he could eat a McRib from McDonald’s but raise concerns with the vaccine. “Why you would even ask him is beyond me,” another wrote. “I want to know wtf gets their medical advice from Offset?”

On the other hand, some seemed to agree with Offset or they at least understood his fears with the virus. One responded to the rapper’s comments on Twitter and said, “I hear ya offset” and another said, “Same bro I’m let y’all be the test dummies.” A third comment simply said, “I agree with him” with a laughing emoji.

You can watch Offset’s response to the COVID-19 vaccine here and see other responses from folks on Twitter below.

For a year and a half we have anticipated what the Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant combination would look like in Brooklyn as the two have been teammates since July 2019 but finally got on the court together on Sunday afternoon in a preseason tilt with the Washington Wizards.

Washington was sitting their two stars, meaning we were not treated to a Russell Westbrook vs. KD showdown, but there was still plenty of intrigue into seeing Brooklyn’s stars playing together for the first time. It didn’t take long for them to show why they figure to be a lethal offensive pairing, as they combined for 33 first half points against, admittedly, one of the league’s worst defensive teams. Still, it was great to see both Durant and Irving getting going, and especially seeing Durant look an awful lot like his old self coming off of the Achilles injury.

The biggest question for Durant wasn’t whether he’d be good offensively, but more if he’d have the same burst off his first step and he answered that in a big way in the first minute of the game with a blow-by drive for a dunk.

Even if he isn’t quite as quick as he was pre-injury, Durant is still among the best at getting to his spot and once there, defenders have no chance of getting a strong contest on the 7-footer’s jump shot. That was likewise on display as he piled up 15 first half points.

As for Irving, who missed much of last year with a shoulder injury, he was dynamic, showing off his dribbling skills and ability to, likewise, get to his spots and hit shots — as well as set up his teammates with good looks.

The two even showed a little of their connection that the Nets hope will foster into one of the league’s most dynamic 1-2 combinations.

Kyrie had 18 points and four assists in the first half, as he and Durant likely will see most of the second half from the bench as Steve Nash called for them to play around 20 minutes each in the preseason opener and they each played 17 in the first half. The Wizards are not the ideal litmus test for how a team will look against a solid NBA defense, but this was more about seeing if Irving and Durant looked back to their usual selves coming off injuries and that, no matter the opponent, certainly appears to be the case.

Also, for those wondering, it didn’t seem like Irving’s request for four post touches per half was granted, but the Nets offense still looked spectacular.

Christopher Nolan has been on a righteously angry tear recently, laying into Warner Bros. — who’ve distributed his movies going back to Insomnia, in 2001 — for their controversial new deal with HBO Max. He’s absolutely livid that the studio is releasing its entire 2021 film slate on the streamer the same day they hit theaters — a decision he thinks is short-sighted and which could impact the future of big budget filmmaking, and the large crews they employ. But he’s not all sturm und drang. For instance, the brainiac auteur blurted out what may be the most relatable thing he’s ever said: He’s a big fan of Fast and Furious movies!

As per IGN, Nolan — whose Tenet, which underperformed in the midst of a once-in-a-century pandemic, was no doubt partly responsible for Warner Bros’ brash decision — was a guest on MTV’s Happy Sad Confused podcast. He apparently wound up being more happy than sad or confused, getting so comfortable that he confessed to have a big soft spot for a franchise that’s as gleefully dumb as his are stubbornly smart.

But there’s one he preferred more than the other seven titles, and it’s the one that has more cult appeal than the rest. “I’m sort of an original recipe [guy],” Nolan said on the podcast. “I mean the Rob Cohen original. But I’ve got a very soft spot for Tokyo Drift, actually. And then the skill as Justin Lin’s iterations, as they got crazier and bigger and crazier and bigger, they became something else, but something else kind of fun.”

He continued:

“The fun thing about those movies is even as they’ve gotten bigger and bigger and bigger, as sequels have to do … everyone always complains that sequels get bigger but we’re the people making sequels get bigger, we do want them bigger, you don’t want them smaller, it’s the Alien 3 lesson that [David] Fincher learned. You can do it but it’s not going to make anybody happy, even though personally I love that film, a lot more than he does in fact.”

So Nolan is also a fan of David Fincher’s Alien 3! And his razor sharp mind was evidently not broken by a franchise featuring skydiving cars and the planet’s longest runway. That said, he did admit he was an “original recipe guy,” preferring the more stripped-down and realistic (so to speak) entries. It’s nice to see some big name love for Tokyo Drift, the threequel and something of an outlier in the franchise, even if it did introduce a major fan favorite, namely Sung Kang’s Han Lue. Left brain filmmakers whose movies are sometimes as complicated as a Saturday New York Times crossword: They’re just like us!

(Via IGN)

Republicans have been saying the quiet part out loud for much of the Donald Trump presidency, as though his brash, bull-in-a-china-shop approach freed them, making it okay to say some more questionable things they traditionally tried to obscure. That’s gone double for the 2020 election. Back in April, when it first became clear that the pandemic would necessitate a dramatic rise in mail-in ballots to safely hold an election, Trump himself came right out and blasted the quiet part, saying that if everyone mail-in voted — i.e., if it was easier, or at least not hard, for everyone to do their civic duty — “you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again.” Half a year later, he lost re-election to Joe Biden.

Now Newt Gingrich is effectively repeating the president’s gaffe. The former House Speaker — one of the Clinton era’s most formidable Republican boogeyman, who occasionally makes waves these days as a commentator — took to Twitter Sunday to blast the efforts in Georgia to make voting in the upcoming pair of Senate runoff elections easier and less dangerous.

“Why is Georgia Secretary of State Raffensperger working so hard to add drop boxes and take other steps to make it harder for Republicans to win,” Gingrich wrote. “Is he really that intimidated by Stacey Abrams?”

As with Trump’s remarkable statement back in April, it’s a marvel of undisguised villainy, unambiguously stating that it’s “harder for Republicans to win” when it’s easier to vote. After all, those voting for Republican candidates could use those drop boxes, too. Then there’s the dog whistle business about Stacey Abrams, the former candidate for governor in Georgia who helped turn out the vote in November and is doing the same thing for the runoff election on January 5.

But most people glommed onto the first part — the one where Newt admitted that when more Americans vote, Republicans tend to lose.

Others brought up Newt’s checkered past, too.

Georgia’s Senate run-off happens on January 5. It’s been a rocky road to get there; just last week there were two key debates — one where the Republican incumbent didn’t even show up, another where the Republican incumbent inspired a deadly drinking game.

Eminem fans have once again grabbed onto a conspiracy theory, this time centered around the Detroit legend’s 2020 album Music to Be Murdered By. The rumor is that Eminem is preparing to release a “B-side” edition of that album on December 18. After catching wind of the theory, rapper and good friend of Eminem, Kxng Crooked took a moment out of his Sunday to respond to the rumors.

People had asked Kxng Crooked — who appeared on the original version of Music to Be Murdered By — to confirm the rumors about the new edition. Unfortunately, he didn’t have much to say. “Dear Stans,” he wrote on Twitter, “I can absolutely not confirm ANYTHING that has my logo on it. Sorry guys.” However, he included something strange: a picture of a tracklist that’s been circulating around, inspiring the rumors involving the “B-side” edition.

Was he trying to mess with people? Either way, he seemed to be effectively admitting he could neither confirm nor deny the rumor. The questionable tracklist includes 12 songs, with guest appearances from Cordae, Royce Da 5’9,” Bon Iver, Westside Boogie, Phoebe Bridgers, Ant Clemons, Skylar Grey, and more.

One other curious note: The document bills Cordae and Westside Boogie under their former names, “YBN Cordae” and “Boogie” respectively. Since they both changed their names earlier this year, that suggests the document may be a fake.

You can read Kxng Crooked’s tweet above and check out some of the conspiracy theory tweets below.