Category: Worldwide

Former president Donald J. Trump seems to be trying to inch his way back into the public eye. After being acquitted by the Senate for inciting the failed MAGA coup, he turned around and released a wild statement in which he blasted the person he helped save him from conviction — Mitch McConnell — whom he called an “unsmiling hack.” It was a classic Trump move. But the truth is his legal and economic futures are in danger, and on Tuesday he was hit with another headache: The NAACP is suing him and Rudy Giuliani for violating a law dubbed “The Ku Klux Klan Act.”

According to The New York Times, Trump and his personal attorney are accused of violating what’s officially known as the Enforcement Act of 1871, which includes “protections against violent conspiracies that interfered with Congress’s constitutional duties.” The lawsuit, which was filed by the NAACP, accuses not only Trump and Giuliani but also the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, a militia group, of inciting the violent riot at the Capitol, with the intention of stopping Congress from certifying the 2020 election.

The law is also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act because it was originally enacted to combat the KKK and other white nationalist groups, who had targeted black people in the years following the end of the Civil War.

For those keeping track, this is yet another legal hurdle Trump must face as a newly private citizen. New York State is investigating his financial dealings, while the state’s attorney general is looking into whether his company misstated assets to get bank loans and tax benefits. And then there’s Georgia’s D.A., who recently launched a formal investigation into his (and Senator Lindsey Graham’s) alleged election interference there.

The NAACP filed the lawsuit on behalf of Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi representative, who says he spent three hours hiding on the House floor while overhearing “threats of physical violence against any member who attempted to proceed to approve the Electoral College ballot count.” He also says he wouldn’t have brought about the suit had the Senate voted to convict Trump.

(Via NYT)

Max Wade, the kid who stole Guy Fieri’s yellow Lamborghini in 2011, while he was still in high school, just had his prison sentence reduced by 10 years.

Wade had been sentenced to 21 years to life back in 2014. Of course, the lengthy sentence wasn’t on account of stealing Guy Fieri’s car, which Wade pulled off by rappelling into the car dealership and driving off with the banana yellow Gallardo with the “GUYTORO” license plate, which he had parked in a storage locker for more than a year.

Wade was actually caught after a separate 2012 incident in which he pulled his motorcycle alongside a truck with two people inside and fired five shots into it, hitting neither. He was convicted on one count of attempted murder for the incident (this writer was actually in the court the day Guy Fieri testified).

Wade, 17, fired five shots into a pickup truck that was occupied by Landon Wahlstrom of Mill Valley and Eva Dedier of Terra Linda. The teenage couple escaped with minor injuries from flying glass.

Authorities alleged that Wade, who sold fake IDs to Dedier and other teens, was infatuated with Dedier and planned the shooting after learning of her relationship with Wahlstrom. [Marin Independent]

Using surveillance footage from Golden Gate Bridge cameras, police tracked Wade’s motorcycle helmet to the store that had sold it, tracing it back to Wade, and eventually tailing him to his storage unit. Wade tried to pull a loaded handgun from his waistband before he was tackled by police. Inside the storage unit, police found the Lamborghini, along with a replica police uniform, guns, ammunition, and radio signal jammers.

At one point, two of Wade’s associates attempted to bust him out of juvenile hall with a sledgehammer before his 18th birthday. Prosecutors later alleged that Wade had planned a jewelry heist complete with a getaway via helicopter. Grand plans, to be sure, but supposedly he had the specific helicopter picked out.

This week, The Marine Independent Journal reported that a judge had reduced Wade’s prison sentence by 10 years.

The ruling came after Wade’s lawyer, Charles Dresow petitioned the court to reconsider Wade’s sentence under Senate Bill 620, which gives judges discretion on whether to add extra time for gun offenses. Gun penalties, which can increase prison sentences by up to 25 years, were mandatory before SB 620, which took effect in 2018.

Wade’s extra time for the gun offense was reduced from 20 to 10 years, and he’ll now be eligible for parole in 2025. Of course, “eligible” doesn’t mean he’ll actually be getting out, though things seem to have a way of working out for Wade thus far. Sadly, it doesn’t sound like Fieri was present for Wade’s most recent court case, robbing us of the chance for another incredible courtroom sketch like this one. In a case that’s already given us that incredible sketch and this terrible rap song, who knows what the next few years will bring?

Draymond Green made waves on Monday evening, launching into a spirited rant about the “bullsh*t” double standard he believes is in place when evaluating NBA organizations when compared to players. The subject at hand was the treatment of players when they want to be traded when compared to when a team wants to move on from a player, and the discussion arrived on the same day the Cavaliers decided to sideline Andre Drummond and Blake Griffin the Pistons agreed not play to play Blake Griffin until a resolution could be found.

In advance of TNT’s doubleheader on Tuesday, Dwyane Wade shared agreement and support of Green’s statements, saying “I definitely agree” at the outset of a thoughtful, interesting answer.

“What it boils down to me, it’s no communication and there’s no respect,” Wade said. “The organizations are not looking at these players and just having respect for them, for who they are as men, for who they are as players.”

Later in the answer, Wade indicated the simple sentiment to a team to “have the simple conversation with a player” and went on to put things in further context.

“Players get booed when they come back when they leave in free agency, and organizations get celebrated when they give you a video when you come back after they’ve traded you,” Wade said. “I agree with Draymond. It is definitely a double standard.”

It will be interesting to see if anything changes with the standard operating procedure for organizations in these circumstances. Still, Green kickstarting the conversation is ultimately a good thing, even if many don’t agree with him at this point in time.

Lil Baby and Lil Durk have collaborated on a few occasions over the years, mostly on Durk’s projects, the most recent one being “Finesse Out The Gang Way,” off his 2020 release The Voice. The two also worked together on “3 Headed Goat” from Durk’s Just Cause Y’all Waited 2, but fans have requested they do more together. Apparently Lil Durk caught wind of this demand, and now he’s teasing a possible project on his Instagram story.

Lil Durk reposted an Instagram poll from a fan that said “Durkio x Lil Baby Tape?” with the options of “Yes” and “No.” He captioned the Instagram story post and said, “I ain’t see this but thissssssssss @lilbaby_1,” with a group of fire emojis. He also tagged Lil Baby to ensure that he caught wind of what their supporters want from them.

If the album arrives at some point in the future, it would not be the first time Lil Durk or Lil Baby were a part of a joint project with another artist. In 2017, Lil Durk dropped Supa Vultures with Lil Reese and Bloodas with Tee Grizzley. The following year, Lil Baby teamed up with Gunna for Drip Harder, a project that also saw a contribution from Durk on “Off White VLONE” with Nav.

Tuesday marks the three-year anniversary of Nipsey Hussle’s debut album, Victory Lap, which found the Slauson rapper take a moment to reflect on all the things that occurred during his decade-long rise, including his many celebrated mixtapes like The Marathon, Crenshaw, and Mailbox Money. Many fans took to social media to share their favorite songs from Victory Lap. Lauren London, meanwhile, who began dating Nipsey back in 2013, hopped on Instagram to reveal a fun fact about the rapper’s debut album.

“Fun fact: the voice that says ‘victory lap’ on the album is me,” she wrote. She also added that her son Kross was “on my hip” as she recorded the vocals for Victory Lap. Her voice can be found at the end of the album’s title track, with Stacey Barthe, and on “Real Big,” with Marsha Ambrosius. London also starred in Nipsey’s video for “Double Up,” featuring Dom Kennedy and Belly, where she plays the role of a former love interest to Nipsey.

The news arrives after M1 and Stic.Man of Dead Prez revealed that Nipsey intended to remake their classic 2000 album Let’s Get Free to complete his record deal with Atlantic.

Nipsey Hussle is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Steve Bannon, who reeceived a pardon from Donald Trump before his administration ended, is already planning the former president’s political future — Even if he isn’t sure he’s fit to hold office at all. But unlike most people, he doesn’t think it should be another run at the White House in 2024.

The former Trump advisor apparently wants his former boss to run for office in 2022, not two years later when the White House may be up for grabs again. And the plan is for him to become a congressman, then apparently take Nancy Pelosi’s job. According to Newsweek, Bannon appeared at a Republican event in Boston over the weekend and laid out his grand design for Trump’s political future.

Speaking to a group of Boston Republicans on Saturday, Bannon laid out a longshot plan for Trump to return to Washington, D.C.—but not directly to the White House, The Boston Herald reported. Instead, Bannon wants Trump to run for a seat in the House of Representatives in 2022 and then manage to take the role of Speaker of the House away from Democratic Representative Nancy Pelosi of California.

“Trump is a disruptor, but he has a long-term vision because I absolutely believe in the marrow of my bones that he will be our nominee in 2024,” Bannon told the GOP group in a speech. “He’ll come back to us. We’ll have a sweeping victory in 2022, and he’ll lead us in 2024.”

While it’s actually not a bad plan, it seems extremely unlikely it’ll be one that interests Trump. Trump’s blog post of a statement about Mitch McConnell made it pretty clear that Trump wants to lead the Republican party, not from a House seat but as the figurehead once again in charge of the whole thing. Despite his penchant for holding grudges, the actual work of being a congressman — much like the work of being president, which he routinely ignored — seems unlikely to be of much interest to him. The other part of this plan, taking Pelosi’s job, would require Republicans to win back the majority in the House of Representatives, which they hope to do in two years.

It would be, however, extremely easy for Trump to win a seat in the House of Representatives. Republican stronghold districts seem to elect any QAnon lunatic they can find these days, so Trump can find a district in Florida and make that happen relatively easy. But what Trump seems to want to do these days is post on social media, which he absolutely cannot do, even if he were to be Representative Trump someday.

Questlove is one of the industry’s most celebrated musicians. His acclaimed band The Roots have been repeatedly nominated for Grammys. They have a street named after them in their hometown of Philadelphia. His new film Summer of Soul won the Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance Festival. Despite all his accomplishments, the drummer and DJ said that some of today’s rappers don’t always know who he is.

One example happened on a recent episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, on which Questlove and The Roots have long served as the house band. In a recent Rolling Stone profile on Jimmy Fallon, Questlove told the publication that Cardi B had no idea who he was when they met. “I definitely know that Cardi B thought I was NBC security when she first came on the show,” he said with a laugh.

Then again, Questlove isn’t always down with the kids. He recently said that Tyler The Creator was “the last guy who truly did his homework” within hip-hop. He did admit, however, that Tyler has more appreciation for rappers who’ve come about in the last decade.

Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The south is currently undergoing a freak winter storm, with states like Texas, Oklahoma, and Arizona experiencing the coldest and harshest weather in decades. As of this writing, 23 people have died and millions are without power. Most of the latter live in Texas, where outages have lasted hours or even days. It’s a horrifying situation — and a reminder that some Republican lawmakers in these states weren’t exactly empathetic last summer, when California was suffering power outages.

One of them was Dan Crenshaw, the Texas representative who sometimes tries to take a measured and mature stance and other times makes mini-movies in which he fantasizes about leaping out of airplanes and beating up antifa. As the western state was plunged into an energy crisis, he thought it was time to take action — which is to say to mock AOC and the Green New Deal gang.

So when Crenshaw’s constituents were suddenly experiencing their own energy crisis, people couldn’t help but remind people about his callous words.

And then there was, of course, Ted Cruz, currently the most frequently mocked member of the GOP. One of his old tweets also resurfaced, in which he too tried to pin California’s woes on the left.

While a lot of people dunked on Crenshaw and Cruz, and deservedly so, some took the high road, hoping it would be a teachable moment — albeit for a group of lawmakers who tend to not learn.

Hang in there, Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona, and anywhere else dealing with unusually cold temperatures and snow. And we hope you one day get politicians who don’t belittle the suffering of others.

The Minnesota Timberwolves will not have the services of D’Angelo Russell for the next few weeks. According to a report by Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Russell needs to undergo a procedure on his left knee to remove a loose body, and as a result, he’ll spend the nest 4-6 weeks on the mend.

Shortly after, the news was confirmed by the team.

It’s an absolutely brutal turn of events for the team, which just got Karl-Anthony Towns back into the lineup following a bout with COVID-19. Russell has started 19 of the 20 games in which he’s appeared this season — he hasn’t appeared in four of their last five tilts, and the one time he did take the floor, he played less than six minutes — and has averaged 19.3 points and 5.1 assists in 29.2 minutes a night while connecting on just a hair under 40 percent of his attempts from three.

In his stead, Minnesota will presumably turn to the stead hand of Ricky Rubio, who has been pinch hitting in the starting lineup with Russell out. Regardless of whether he’s out for the low-end of that projection or he misses all six weeks, the implication would be that Russell won’t be able to return to the floor until after the All-Star break.

This year, our official Mardi Gras cocktail is the classic Bloody Mary. It’s spicy, full of umami, and has just the right hit of alcohol to be both an after-work sipper or an eye-opener during a late-morning brunch. And with Mardi Gras being an at-home celebration this year, you’re going to need a cocktail or two ready to mix up for your own bacchanal.

The thing with the Bloody Mary is that it has about a million variations/recipes. While the main riffs are pretty straightforward (think a Canada’s Caesar with Clamato or Mexico’s Michelada with beer instead of vodka and Clamato in place of pure tomato juice), a lot of variations go out of their way to be over the top. Granted that’s mostly with absurd garnishes but I’ve seen recipes that ask you to make garlic reductions and source random radishes only grown far, far away.

That feels like overkill. It’s a drink, not a science experiment.

The Bloody Mary below leans towards classic flavors and keeps it simple. The important thing to remember with Bloody Mary preparation is to make this your own. I like mine fairly spicy, peppery, and full of a lot of celery salt (but not on the rim). I also like a touch of clam juice in there, to give a light nod to our mixing brethren up in Canada.

That’s just me, though. Treat this recipe as a starting point and dial in your Bloody Mary based on your tastes and palate. Let’s get mixing!

Bloody Mary

Ingredients:

• 2-oz. vodka
• 6-oz. tomato juice
• 1 barspoon clam juice from a jar of clams
• 4 dashes Worcestershire sauce
• 4 dashes Tabasco
• 2 dashes Habanero Tabasco
• Lemon juice from 1/2 of a lemon
• Salt
• Black pepper
• Celery salt
• Celery stalk
• Ice

A few quick notes. Always pre-chill your vodka. I always keep a bottle of Stoli in the freezer with my ice. You really want to start with an already ice-cold base of vodka. It brings a softer texture and blends with the drink much better.

Next, make sure your tomato juice has spent the night in the fridge. As with the vodka, you really want to start with already cold ingredients. This will help the texture of the drink hold and not get watered down. That is the ice will cool and mix the drink without severe melting (you’ll see what I mean below).

Lastly, use whatever hot sauce you like. I like a vinegar forward hot sauce in the cocktail and a genuinely hot chili-forward hot sauce on the top that’ll make my lips buzz when I take a sip. When I have it, I use Valentina’s — usually with the standard hot sauce in the cocktail and their Extra-Hot on top.

What You’ll Need:

• Pint glass
• Barspoon
• Pairing knife
• Juicer
• Jigger

Method:

• Fill a pint glass with ice.
• Add the vodka, clam juice, lemon juice, a large pinch of salt, two shakes of celery salt, a few cranks of black pepper from a mill, and four dashes of both Worcestershire and Tabasco.
• Top with tomato juice and stir (from the bottom up, rotating the ice) until all ingredients are fully integrated and the glass starts to chill.
• Top with ice if needed and add two dashes of Habanero Tabasco and two more shakes of celery salt.
• Garnish with a celery stalk.
• Serve.

Bottom Line:

This was a much-needed eye-opener during my day-off lunch. There’s a beautifully silken texture to the cocktail that’s counterpointed by sharp spice, pepperiness, and deep umami. The touches of lemon and clam lurk just beneath the surface. The suprise with a good bloody is always how refreshing it is, and this nailed that aspect.

If you look at the photo below, you’ll see the look of the cocktail you want to aim for. The black pepper should be suspended in the body of the drink. That won’t happen if you’re using room temp vodka and juice. The drink will get too watered down and everything will drop to the bottom of your glass — no one wants that.

Since it’s already Fat Tuesday, you better get your vodka in the freezer and tomato juice in the fridge ASAP.