Even before he recorded a violent and disturbing campaign ad in which he hunted RINOs, or Republicans in Name Only, with shotguns, Eric Greitens was bad news. He used to be the governor of Missouri…until he resigned in disgrace following a flurry of disturbing accusations, including sexual misconduct. But if you were worried he’d wind up in the Senate, don’t worry because he got his butt handed to him in the primary.
As per NBC News, Eric Schmitt, the state’s sitting attorney general, handily clinched the Republican nomination for the Senate seat soon to be vacated by GOP lawmaker Roy Blunt. His predecessor in his current role was no less than macho man Josh Hawley. His positions aren’t much better. He wants to overturn the Affordable Care Act, he’s been against public health restrictions during the pandemic, he’s against protecting LGBTQIA+ people from workplace discrimination, and more.
Still, at least he doesn’t openly fantasize about hunting down people he disagrees with for sport. As of this writing, The New York Times reports that Schmitt has nabbed 46% of the Republican vote, while Greitens came not in second but in third, with only 19%. Schmitt will now face the winner of the Democratic primary, which will either be Trudy Busch Valentine or Lucas Kunce. Thus comes the end of a bizarre GOP primary, which featured such highlights as Donald Trump having to choose which Republican Eric to endorse, only to go with…both of them.
While there were some uninspiring moments during the 2022 NBA playoffs, the first round matchup between the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Memphis Grizzlies was highly entertaining. Eventually, the Grizzlies prevailed, in part by making fewer mistakes than the Wolves.
Minnesota standout Anthony Edwards is seemingly baffled by what transpired. In fact, he recently spoke to Zion Olojede of Complex and indicated a belief that the Wolves “handed” the series win to Memphis.
“Man, I feel like we handed it to them, man. It was like taking candy from a baby, and they took the candy,” Edwards said. “We had every game won, man, and I don’t know what happened. I don’t know what happened.”
This is not hard to believe, especially when considering the factors in play during the series. Game 3 is the shining example when the Wolves blew two different 25-point leads before losing a pivotal contest. On the whole, Minnesota held a halftime lead in the majority of games during the series, and the Wolves were mistake-prone throughout the contest.
It wasn’t as if Memphis was a fully playoff-tested team when the series began, but the Grizzlies did benefit from a young Minnesota team that may not have been quite ready to win a series like that. Of course, the future is bright with Edwards, Karl-Anthony Towns, and the newly acquired Rudy Gobert on board, and expectations are sky-high for the Wolves this season. Beyond that, Edwards is always candid and refreshing in his public comments, and this is an example of that.
Directed by Theo Skudra, the video opens with a massive crowd hyping up Drake as he walks onto the stage. It then follows him in cars, parking lots, airports, clubs, and even on boats. The words “Free YSL” appear across the screen for a brief moment, referring to the ongoing racketeering case against Gunna’s label that has Gunna, Young Thug, and 28 other members hit with several federal charges.
Shortly after unleashing the LP, the rapper mentioned on a radio show that he has lots more projects that will be arriving soon. “Me and Kenzo have a book coming out this year. Yeah, we have a book coming out this year, a poetry book. So I hope you guys tune into that, too, because that’s going to be some sh*t.” He added, “I got another Scary Hours pack coming, too, in a little bit. Maybe not, like [laughs]… maybe not right now; I need you to just take this [Honestly, Nevermind] in right now. But I have a Scary Hours, I’m gonna slap some head tops off with a Scary Hours pack.”
Last month, the filmmaking duo who made Everything Everywhere All At Onceshot down a rumor that they’d be doing a sequel, in which Michelle Yeoh’s multiverse-tripping hero gets radicalized by social media and has to be rescued by her daughter. Sorry! But here’s something probably better: Its directors just scored a big deal to make more original stuff.
As per The Hollywood Reporter, directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert — who collectively go by “The Daniels” — are signing a five-year exclusive partnership with Universal. It’s the same deal they cut with Jordan Peele back in 2019, after he’d gifted them with both Get Out and Us. (Nope is his first big movie out of the deal.)
The news comes as Everything Everywhere All At Once continues to rake in the bucks, some 19 weeks into release. It’s still in the top 20, and its North American haul is approaching $69 million, and it’s nearing $100 million worldwide, making it the biggest hit for indie label A24.
The Daniels’ previous film together wasSwiss Army Man, which garnered a lot of attention in 2016, probably because it starred Paul Dano as a sad man who befriends a farting corpse played by Daniel Radcliffe. Who needs an Everything Everywhere sequel when they know their way around original ideas.
Emu’s are interesting birds that kind of look like an angry ostrich with different feathers. Thank goodness they don’t fly because that would be terrifying to witness while driving across a bridge or trying to take your pooch for a walk around the neighborhood. But an emu named Karen is terrifying enough without the gift of flight. This emu who wears the moniker “Karen” proudly seems to have it out for her owner, the Useless Farm Lady who runs the Useless Farm that Karen calls home and posts about their interactions on the TikTok. It seems that every time farm lady turns her back on the fuzzy bird, Karen sees it as her opportunity to strike.
Though it’s not clear what Karen would do if she got her beak on the farm lady. Karen gets caught every time, partly because she’s not in the least bit quiet and I’m not totally sure stealth is a word I’d use for a bird the size of an SUV. Farm lady seems to have the patience of a thousand monks when it comes to Karen’s shenanigans. But interestingly enough, Karen isn’t the only one trying to delete farm lady from the farm. There’s also a silkie chicken named Brad that chases the farm lady around when Karen is in her pen.
I live for Karen’s little yellow calming hat. Literally.
Maybe it’s a team effort but it’s truly biting the hand that feeds you in probably the most entertaining way. Of course we don’t know why several of the animals have a plot against the farm lady and animal experts always claim that animals don’t hold grudges. Pretty sure farm lady would beg to differ. In their defense, she does dress them in silly hats and wigs which could be the source of animosity if animals could seek revenge.
Replying to @tonia_j every day, i am inspired and motivated Karen’s tireless dedication.
If the Useless Farm animals have it their way, farm lady better continue to sleep with one eye open because Karen is coming and she doesn’t skip leg day.
Texas-native rapper Erica Banks recently dropped her new album Diary Of The Flow Queen. Today, she’s back with a new music video for the track “Trick.”
The video goes well with the song, which is a relentlessly confident anthem with a catchy beat. It takes place at a strip club and is full of cash, smoke, and skin. The press release states that it “might just be her wildest and definitely most bodacious video yet,” and it’s not wrong.
Last year, Banks went viral with her hit “Buss It,” which was so massive that DaBaby’s label Billion Dollar Baby Entertainment offered to take her on. She turned it down. “I had already turned everybody down,” she said in an interview. “I personally did not sign with DaBaby because I was very excited, it was my second offer, I was like, ‘Hell yeah.’ I was about to get all the planning done. But then I called my mom, like, ‘This is what I’m about to do, I’m about to go sign with DaBaby.’ She’s like, ‘Oh no, we need to slow down. This is only the second offer. We’re not gonna just jump on whatever.’”
Watch the video for “Trick” above.
Erica Banks is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
On last year’s Far In, Helado Negro’s Roberto Carlos Lange reflected on his journeys around the world and across the US that helped shape the artist he is today. The Ecuadorian-American grew up in South Florida and the track “Agosto” especially harkens back to the senses of his hometown. Featuring Puerto Rican duo Buscabulla — who were recently featured on Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti, on the gorgeous “Andrea” — the track now has a surreal video to accompany Lange’s the lush soundscape.
What begins as a reflective focus on Lange sitting on a couch, soon zeroes in on a painting behind him of a beach. The camera zooms in on the scene, making the whole visual construction feel like a pointilist landscape. The lens crashes into the ocean blue of the painting and the new reality is now the water, where Buscabulla’s Raquel Berrios is swimming underwater. The video’s vantage point shifts from under to above water, prodding at the blissful release that Lange paints with summer on the shore. It’s a beautiful clip for the serene song from Helado Negro.
Watch the video for “Agosto” above and check out Helado Negro’s 2022 tour dates below.
08/03 – Central Park SummerStage – New York, NY *
08/20 – Regent Theater – Los Angeles, CA #
08/21 – The Glass House – Pomona, CA #
08/23 – The Ritz – San Jose, CA #
08/24 – 08/Hall – San Francisco, CA #
08/26 – Revolution Hall – Portland OR &
08/27 – THING Festival – Port Townsend, WA
08/29 – Mohawk – Austin, TX %
08/31 – Granada Theater – Dallas, TX %
09/01 – HOCO Fest – Tucson, AZ
09/04 – ALLCALL Music Festival – Traverse City, MI
11/05 – Primavera Sound Festival – Sao Paulo, Brazil
11/07-11 – Primavera Sound Festival – Buenos Aires, Argentina
11/07-11 – Primavera Sound Festival – Santiago, Chile
* with Silvana Estrada & Doris Anahi
# with Kacy Hill
& with Lido Pimienta
% with KAINA
Mezcal is expensive. Whether you’re talking about the most artisanal bottles or the cheaper beginner-friendly expressions, if you’re drinking mezcal it’s probably hitting your bank account a bit harder than your tequila habit. But don’t let that more expensive price tag dissuade you — because mezcal, with its savory and smokey flavor notes and small batch production methods, is truly something special.
And right now we’re living in a bit of a mezcal renaissance. A mezcal-issance, if you will.
Since 2017, mezcal consumption in America has been on a steady growth path with exports increasing year after year. The global Mezcal market is currently worth $241.3 million according to Market Reports, projected to be worth nearly double by 2028. Just 15 years ago you’d be lucky to find a bottle of mezcal at your supermarket or corner store — today, mezcal demands the sort of shelf space usually reserved for gin, rum, or American whiskey (not quite as much as bourbon or tequila… yet).
So where do you start if you’re new to Mezcal? We think bottles priced between $30-$70 are the sweet spot for beginners, so we grabbed eight and put them to the blind taste test.
Methodology
For this tasting, we mostly focused on Espadín mezcals, which generally fall within that $30-70 price range and are the most common variety on the market. We generally stayed away from reposado and añejo expressions, focusing instead on joven — which should taste better in this price range. If you’re buying an añejo mezcal for $30, beware!
Here is our class:
Agua Magica Mezcal
Cutwater Mezcal Joven
Dos Hombres Espadín Mezcal
Lejana y Sola Mezcal
Madre Espadín Mezcal
Mezcal Amarás Cupreata
Mezcal Amarás Espadín
Montelobos Mezcal Espadín
Let’s see how things shake out!
Part 1: The Tasting
Taste 1:
Dane Rivera
Pleasantly sweet on the nose with an agave-forward flavor. Hints of caramel, tropical mango, and apple skin color the smokey wood flavor with a nice burning finish.
Taste 2:
Dane Rivera
Sweet honey greets you before settling into a strong savory flavor. Roasted agave and wood dominate with a burning smokiness and a mouthwatering savory aftertaste. This one really had me salivating.
Taste 3:
Dane Rivera
Surprisingly sweet and fragrant on the nose. This one presented itself with a burst of vanilla and roasted agave before revealing fruity tropical notes, cocoa, and leather with a peppery bite and a smooth herbal finish. Really nice and bright… I love this one.
Taste 4:
Dane Rivera
Warm chocolate and smoke with a savory aftertaste. This one is really nice and smooth and another taste that had my mouth watering thanks to its sumptuous mouthfeel.
Taste 5:
Dane Rivera
Very herbaceous with a fresh grassy flavor with a bit of almond and sports a soft mouthfeel, and a sweetened finish. It’s very buttery and floral and is dangerously easy to drink.
Taste 6:
Dane Rivera
Butter on the nose with some sweetness lurking deep in there. On the palate, it’s chocolate forward with strong smokey notes peppered with citrus and mango. The aftertaste is spikey and earthy on the tongue but it goes down smooth on the throat in this very pleasant and luxurious way.
Taste 7:
Dane Rivera
Bitter and flat on the nose, the smell doesn’t jump out it just kind of sits in the glass. Very different than every other tasting so far. The flavor hits you with a rush of caramel on the initial taste bit settles into a sort of chemical and metal flavor that comes across as very off-putting.
From my notes: “A real shipwreck in a sea of great mezcals.”
Taste 8:
Dane Rivera
Buttered popcorn and sweet vanilla greet you on the initial taste. The body is very earthy and peppery with a subtly sweet lift on the backend. It tastes really good, but ultimately nothing special.
This one surprised me. I’ve had Cutwater’s Mezcal several times and generally, my experience with it is that it’s a fine mezcal, but tasted against the competition and this one just didn’t have any life to it. It was easily the weakest of the lineup. Cutwater makes this mezcal by. roasting agave sourced from Durango Mexico in traditional rock pit ovens.
The Bottom Line:
Blunt and lifeless. For the money, there are several bottles that offer a much richer bouquet of flavors.
Made from agave sourced from the foothills in Oaxaca Mexico, for the price, I think this stuff is generally pretty good but it couldn’t hold its own against the competition. Madre uses a single varietal, offering what the brand calls a “full-spectrum flavor of Espadín,” but in its simplicity, the flavor failed to really wow us.
The Bottom Line:
A great decent beginner’s mezcal. Earthy with a sweet aftertaste that makes it remarkably easy to drink.
Handcrafted from epsadín agave eight years in age sourced from the mountainsides of Tlacolula Oaxaca and cooked in conical stone ovens, this San Francisco Worlds Spirit Gold winner is way tastier than its price would suggest. This might have landed in the middle of our list, but it’s a significant step up from the bottle that proceeded it.
The Bottom Line:
Very expressive and full of character with a nice balance between sweet and smokey notes.
Dos Hombres is perhaps best known as Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul’s brand, but fear not — the Breaking Bad boys did their homework. This isn’t a simple vanity project, it’s good stuff. The mezcal is made from a blend of espadín agave hand-selected from the hillsides of Oaxaca roasted in earthen pits and baked for four days, resulting in an award-winning (SF World Spirits Competition and New York International Spirits Competition) flavorful mezcal
It might’ve landed in the middle of our ranking, but just by a hair.
The Bottom Line:
Walter White and Jesse Pinkman boys have proven themselves in the world of artisanal mezcal. A. bouquet of flavors that never gets boring and is perfect for slow sipping or mixed in a cocktail.
Not only was this the priciest bottle in the line-up, but it’s also the only one that utilizes the rarer Tobalá agave. but it’s just not to my tastes. It’s bright and citrusy with the subtlest smoke on the backend that makes it very. easy to drink. Agua Magica is a joven mezcal made from an ensemble of espadín and tobalá agave sourced from San Juan Del Rio Oaxaca and prides itself on its seed-to-bottle production process. The bottle design made me want to rank it higher, but overall it came across as too sweet to win me over.
The Bottom Line:
Sweet smooth and bright. If your general feeling towards mezcal is that it’s too smokey, give this one a try, it’ll win you over. I think this would’ve ranked higher mixed in a cocktail, but as a sipper it’s a bit too sweet for me.
This was the real surprise of this blind taste test. Monteobos is a very affordable brand, but for the price, this bottle packs so much flavor and is punching way above its weight class. This joven mezcal is crafted from organic espadín agave sourced from Oaxaca and Puebla roasted in underground fire pits and small batch distilled. The brand is the brainchild of Ivan Saldaña, who holds a Ph.D. in botany, and agave specialist Don Abel López Mateos, a fifth-generation Mescalero. You can really taste the expertise, this duo knows what they’re doing.
The Bottom Line:
The best bang for your buck, this mezcal is mouthwatering and savory with a warm chocolate finish.
Lejana y Sola’s mezcal is made from a blend of espadín and rare cuishe agave sourced from the hills of Oaxaca. This smokey and sweet mezcal is distilled in a small family-owned palenque in Lachilá using an old-school artisanal electricity-free crafting method that involves roasting the agave in stone-lined puts and crushing the juice using a horse-drawn tahona before it’s fermented in wooden tanks and doubled distilled in copper alambiques.
I’m a sucker for mezcals that get the salivary glands going crazy and this bottle really delivers on that front.
The Bottom Line:
Savory and mouthwatering with a honeyed smokey flavor. A single sip of Lejana y Sola will have you drooling for more.
This one wins because for the price this is the most unique mezcal you’re going to find. That’s because unlike the other mezcals in this ranking, this is the only one made from cupreata agave grown for 13 years in Tixtla Guerrero. Cupreata is rarer than espadín and is grown in the wild, which gives it this very interesting floral flavor that constantly shifts on the palate and registers as both familiar and unique at the same time.
This mezcal has taken multiple awards home, including being named the best in show at San Francisco’s World Spirits Competition. It’s well deserved in our opinion — this one stood as the clearer winner.
The Bottom Line:
Sweet, fragrant, tropical, smokey, Mezcal Amaras’ Cupreata is a lot of things at once. A constant chameleon of flavors that is as bright and floral as it is leathery, smokey, and savory. It always offers something new with every sip and we can see it working as a flexible base for a lot of different mezcal-based cocktails.
Dreams come in many shapes and sizes. For Keely Petitt, it was a vision of becoming a pilot just like her mom, Captain Holly Petitt. That wish recently came true, and was made all the more special as mom and daughter took to the skies together.
A statement released by Southwest Airlines shared that Holly began as a flight attendant fresh out of college, where she first discovered her passion for flying. She pursued getting certified and taking flight lessons all while being a full-time mom, and her children quite literally grew up around the “ups and downs” of aviation life.
Captain Holly Petitt and her daughter, First Officer Keely Petitt, piloted a flight from Denver to St. Louis. https://t.co/22WmhwXoGn — FOX 5 Atlanta (@FOX5Atlanta) July 31, 2022
Keely knew she wanted to follow her mother’s footsteps at the age of 14—earning her pilot license and landing an internship for Southwest in 2017.
Though working for Southwest has “always been the end goal” for Keely, she had no idea that on July 23 she would end up co-piloting Flight 3658 with her mom, Holly. The mother-daughter duo flew together from their home town of Denver, Colorado, to St. Louis, Missouri—a historic first for the airline.
“They’re breaking barriers and empowering women of all ages to pursue their dreams in aviation, and pun intended, reach for the skies,” Southwest wrote.
As for Captain Holly, having her daughter as first officer has been a “dream come true.”
“First, I found this career and fell in love with it, and then that one of my kids fell into this and in love with this career too. It’s surreal,” she reflected.
Holly posted a touching message on her Facebook, sharing how much the moment meant to her.
“The much anticipated maiden voyage as the first mother daughter team at Southwest Airlines has arrived! It’s been a very emotional morning for me. One moment you are holding this tiny little premature baby in your arms and in a blink of an eye she is sitting next to you on the flight deck of a Boeing 737 jet! I love you to the moon and back, Keely Petitt!” the captain read, alongside a photo showing Holly and Keely smiling in their matching uniforms.
Though having a mother-daughter pilot team is a first for Southwest, this is not the first story of its kind. Back in 2020, Captain Suzy Garrett and her First Officer Donna Garrett became the first mother-daughter pilot pair for SkyWest Airlines.
That doesn’t make this occasion any less heartwarming, though. And if moms and daughters co-piloting is becoming a trend, we’re more than ready to see it take off.
But why stop there? Alaska Airlines also recently announced that identical twin brothers finished flight simulation training and have plans to fly together as well. Piloting can quite easily become a family business, it seems.
Congratulations to Keely and Holly for pursuing their dreams and making our hearts soar. You’re proving that perhaps the sky isn’t the limit after all.
Getting to the truth in politics is challenging as it is and it’s hard enough just to get people to vote. The last thing we need is to have voters receive direct messages telling them that voting YES on an important ballot measure will do exactly the opposite of what it will do.
Yet that’s what has been happening in at least one state.
In its current election, Kansas voters are being asked to vote for or against an amendment to the state’s constitution that would impact abortion laws. The Value Them Both Amendment says that there’s no constitutional right to an abortion and would grant legislators the authority to regulate abortions. According to NPR, it’s the first ballot measure on reproductive rights in the U.S. since the Supreme Court’s decision that overturned Roe v. Wade.
The night before the election, people in Kansas started reporting text messages that sounded very much like they came from a pro-choice source. “Women in Kansas are losing their choice on reproductive rights,” the texts read. “Voting YES on the Amendment will give women a choice. Vote YES to protect women’s health.”
However, that’s exactly the opposite of what voting yes would do. Voting yes on the amendment would open the door to more restrictive abortion laws. Voting no means keeping current regulations.
The texts came from several different 888 numbers and did not disclose who they came from.
u201cThis is as dirty as you can get. The anti-abortion coalition is sending out a last minute mass text to Kansas pro-choice voters blatantly lying about the abortion amendment so they vote the wrong way. nAlso, they don’t identify themselves which is a federal violation.n#kslegu201d
The texts are pretty clearly meant to confuse pro-choice voters into voting for the amendment, telling them that a yes vote would protect women’s reproductive rights when the opposite is true. It’s blatantly misleading, but according to the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission, it’s not illegal.
u201cFirst, under current law, text message advocacy about constitutional ballot initiatives does not require paid-for disclaimers.u201d
Not only do text messages about constitutional ballot initiatives not require disclaimers informing receivers of who has paid for them, but there’s also nothing in the current statutes that addresses misleading wording. Lovely.
u201cThe Legislature handles updating and amending these statutes. We often work with the Legislature on these items when asked. If you believe a statute needs correction or amendment, of course feel free to reach out to your legislators.u201d
According to KMBC, the service Twilio disabled the user’s account from sending out any more text messages as distributing disinformation is against the platform’s terms of service. But the damage has already been done.
Naturally, people should read the ballot thoroughly before they vote and not just follow what some text tells them. However, ballots can be confusing. Language can be vague and/or biased, littered with legalese or contain muddled positives and negatives so voters aren’t always clear on what they are voting for or against.
The Kansas amendment measure is confusing as it is written. Check out the language used on the ballot, as shared by The Guardian:
Explanatory statement. The Value Them Both Amendment would affirm there is no Kansas constitutional right to abortion or to require the government funding of abortion, and would reserve to the people of Kansas, through their elected state legislators, the right to pass laws to regulate abortion, including, but not limited to, in circumstances of pregnancy resulting from rape or incest, or when necessary to save the life of the mother.
A vote for the Value Them Both Amendment would affirm there is no Kansas constitutional right to abortion or to require the government funding of abortion, and would reserve to the people of Kansas, through their elected state legislators, the right to pass laws to regulate abortion.
A vote against the Value Them Both Amendment would make no changes to the constitution of the state of Kansas, and could restrict the people, through their elected state legislators, from regulating abortion by leaving in place the recently recognized right to abortion.
Shall the following be adopted?
§ 22. Regulation of abortion.Because Kansans value both women and children, the constitution of the state of Kansas does not require government funding of abortion and does not create or secure a right to abortion. To the extent permitted by the constitution of the United States, the people, through their elected state representatives and state senators, may pass laws regarding abortion, including, but not limited to, laws that account for circumstances of pregnancy resulting from rape or incest, or circumstances of necessity to save the life of the mother.
That’s not a simple yes or no choice the way it’s worded. “Do you want the state to pass restrictive abortion laws? Yes or No?” would be simple. The way this is written, you have to unravel language that’s pretty clearly written to favor the amendment while also deciphering what it is you’re actually voting for or against.
The text messages telling pro-choice people to vote yes because it will protect choice are 100% wrong and almost assuredly designed to confuse voters even more than the ballot already does.
It’s a good reminder to ignore political messaging and to always read ballots carefully so that we know what we’re voting for. Some people will go to extreme dishonest lengths to score a political win, so we must stay diligent as we exercise our civic right, privilege and responsibility.
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