A federal report details how a potential “super-spreading event” in Chicago likely infected 15 people at two family gatherings, three of whom died of COVID-19.
Quarantined Americans continue to obsess over Tiger King, the Netflix doc series about zookeeper-turned-convict Joe Maldonado-Passage, aka Joe Exotic, who’s currently serving a 22-year jail sentence on a number of convictions, including murder-for-hire. Among Joe’s many, many colorful qualities is that he’s been seeking a pardon from outlandish and possibly dangerous figure: Donald J. Trump. And on Wednesday, someone finally asked the president about a man whose story was too disturbing for Larry David.
Trump is asked about a pardon for Joe Exotic of Tiger King.
Trump: “I know nothing about it…he has 22 for what? What did he do?”
Trump to the reporter asking/explaining: “You think he didn’t do it? Are you on his side? Are you recommending a pardon?”
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 8, 2020
As per Deadline, the question was posed during the president’s daily coronavirus press conference by The New York Post’s Steven Nelson, who asked if he’d given a though to pardoning one of the most-watched stars of the quarantine. Alas, Joe may have to wait a bit longer for a pardon.
“I know nothing about it. He has 22 years for what? What did he do?” Trump asked Nelson. When the reporter listed his crimes but added that Joe still claimed innocence, the president replied, “You think he didn’t do it? Are you on his side? Are you recommending a pardon?” Finally he broke out an old Trump chestnut: “I’ll take a look.”
At least there’s one bit of closure here: Donald Trump has not yet watched Tiger King. He’s been trying to belatedly solve a pandemic, so he may not having time for a seven-episode show, though he’d probably admire how Joe underpaid his staff. We’ll see what comes first: a pardon for Joe Exotic or widespread national testing for COVID-19.
(Via Deadline)
To close out 2019, Trippie Redd shared the fourth installment of his A Love Letter To You mixtape series. Laced with 21 songs, the project proved to be his most successful release, debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard album charts with 104,000 in first-week sales. In February, Trippie shared the deluxe version of the album, featuring 8 new song. One of those was “Yell Oh,” a collaboration with Young Thug, which proved to be the fan-favorite. Nearly two months later, Trippie Redd returns with a video for the song.
Attempting to “illustrate the various nightmares that result from the illicit use of drugs,” as reads the disclaimer at the start, Trippie Redd and Young Thug are portrayed as claymation figures. The rappers hit the road after spending time at a strip club, tearing through the city, all while snatching diamonds from a restricted area. They also escape from the police thanks to oversized Percocet pills, and stop by a gas station to pump their car with Promethazine, as well as purchase some alcohol.
Unbeknownst to Trippie and Thug, their journey has caused a stir in the city, bringing large amounts of attention to them both. Shortly after pulling over by a lake for a quick breather, a swarm of “Opps” surround them, firing at them. Trippie and Thug are able to escape from the ambush and head back on the road. Unfortunately, their luck soon runs out during their high-speed getaway as they fall into the mouth of an underground monster.
The video comes just a month after Trippie was sued by Three 6 Mafia for an uncleared sample of their song “Hit A Muthaf*cka,” which he used in his A Love Letter To You 4 track “Death.”
Watch the video for “Yell Oh” above.
Like its predecessor, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, opinions have been running hot ever since The Rise of Skywalker hit theaters in December as rabid fans have continued to argue over the film’s various strengths and weaknesses. Each time a cast member or filmmaker chimes in with their thoughts, the fan fighting only kicks up a notch, and that’s sure to be the case with Domhnall Gleeson weighing in on the fate of his character General Hux.
(Spoilers for The Rise of Skywalker ahead.)
Not far into the film, Hux is revealed to be a spy for the Resistance. Although, his motivation isn’t to aid the galactic freedom fighters, but to essentially stick it to Kylo Ren. Unfortunately for Hux, his betrayal is quickly snuffed out, and he’s gunned down by General Pryde (Richard E. Grant) who becomes Ren’s new right-hand Imperial officer. Star Wars fans enjoyed the exciting reveal and wish they could’ve seen more of the traitorous Hux scheming behind Kylo’s back, and apparently Gleeson feels the same, according to a new interview with IndieWire:
“It would’ve been nice to stick around a little bit longer, for sure,” Gleeson said in a recent phone interview. “It would’ve been nice to see the spy thing play out a little bit, but J.J. [Abrams] knows what he’s doing, and I heard a kind of gasp in the cinema when it happened, so I guess he was right.”
While Gleeson would’ve liked to have more screen time, it did soften the blow that he was replaced by Grant whose work he’s admired for a very long time. “There are a lot of worse people to bow out to,” Gleeson said. The actor is also aware of the limitations of trying to fit several epic storylines into one movie. “There’s always stuff that you would like to see more of, but you can’t have a 17-hour film, I’ve been told. Apparently that’s not allowed, so I was happy with what was there.”
(Via IndieWire)
Happy NXT TakeOver day! Kind of!
Welcome to this week’s Wednesday Night Wars open discussion thread. This week we’ve got the USA Network approximation of NXT TakeOver featuring a number one contender ladder match for the women’s division and Johnny Gargano versus Tommaso Ciampa in a match four years in the making, against an AEW Dynamite that includes the first match in the TNT Championship tournament, Britt Baker vs. Hikaru Shida in a match about a sandwich, and more.
On tonight’s cards:
AEW Dynamite
- TNT Championship Tournament Match: Cody vs. Shawn Spears
- Hikaru Shida vs. Dr. Britt Baker
- Best Friends vs. Kenny Omega and his best friend Michael Nakazawa
- Brodie Lee in action
- Chris Jericho on commentary
NXT
- Johnny Gargano vs. Tommaso Ciampa
- NXT Women’s Championship Number One Contender Ladder Match: Candice LeRae vs. Mia Yim vs. Io Shirai vs. Tegan Nox vs. Dakota Kai vs. Chelsea Green
As always, +1 your favorite comments from tonight’s open thread and if we get enough of the good shit, we’ll include 10 of the best in tomorrow’s Best and Worst of NXT and AEW reports. Make sure you flip the comments by selecting “newest” in the drop down menu under discussion, and enjoy the show!
The goalposts have really been moved on what one would call a vacation these days. To call something a vacation it used to require a trip on an airplane or at least a car ride of more than five hours.
Today, things are different.
In April 2020, a trip to the liquor store to pick up some milk or Snickers bar feels like a getaway. It makes the good ol’ days when we could come and go as we please seem like some type of illusion.
Lithuanian traveler, writer, and journalist Liudas Dapkus, invited people to relive their adventures abroad by recreating their favorite travel photos in their homes.
In many of the photos people are wearing the same clothes and standing in the same positions, but the background isn’t quite as picturesque.
People have been posting their photos under #quarantinetravelerchallenge.
Liudas kicked off the challenge with a photo of himself holding his Maine Coon, Česlovas. In the original 2018 photo taken in Queensland, Australia, Liudas is holding a koala.
Liudas’ post inspired some great attempts to relive some great travel moments, but they all fell short of the original glory.
The toilet photo was just slightly less dangerous of an undertaking.
That lake looks a little tough to water ski on.
The second photo is slightly less of a religious experience.
No danger of being bitten by a monkey in photo one.
Photo number two kinda sucks.
Wrong species, ma’am.
via Gabrielė Štaraitė /FAcebook
Nope.
She didn’t even have the enthusiasm to jump.
We know Hollywood Blvd. when we see it.
Well, we hope she at least has the memories.
This dude’s towel origami needs some work.
it’s hard to surf when you’re 35 feet above sea level.
The smile is the same, but the background is not.
The water pressure is slightly different in photo number two.
