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President AOC? It’s theoretically possible.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez dropped by The Late Show on Tuesday to discuss, well, there’s a lot to discuss at the moment. That’s why the congresswoman appeared in three segments. In the first video, AOC discussed the Jan. 6th Committee hearing and that “those who specifically sought pardons for themselves should be expelled from the US House of Representatives,” she told host Stephen Colbert. In the second video, she implored Joe Biden and fellow democrats to expand the Supreme Court and end the filibuster in the Senate, especially in the wake of Roe v. Wade getting overturned. In the third, Colbert asked Ocasio-Cortez whether she would consider running for president.

“You know, I know somebody who’s going to turn 35 about a month before the election in 2024,” he said. “Is that job appealing to you at all? Theoretically.” AOC replied, “I think that we need to focus on keeping a democracy for anybody to be president in the next couple of years and that’s my central focus is helping the people of this country right now.” So, it’s possible? “You’re getting me in trouble,” Ocasio-Cortez said while laughing. “I don’t know about all of that.”

Can you blame her? AOC faces competition from an octogenarian and Howard Stern.

You can watch The Late Show interview above (and read her abortion access guide here).

Joe Rogan is already backing a candidate in the 2024 presidential election. While referring to Joe Biden as a “dead man as a president,” Rogan told guest Gina Carano that he’s throwing his support behind Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for the way he handled the COVID-19 situation. Rogan, who faced a considerable amount of blowback for his controversial opinions on the pandemic, is unsurprisingly a fan of DeSantis refusing to shut down the state or issue vaccine mandates.

It’s essentially been a free-for-all down in Florida (which routinely made it one of the highest states for COVID cases), and Rogan would like to see that kind of thinking go national. “I mean, what he’s done for Florida has been admirable,” the podcast host told Carano before, once again, dipping into the COVID controversy. Via Mediaite:

“I feel like what he did for Florida, a lot of people gave him a lot of grief, but ultimately he was correct,” Rogan said. “He was correct when it comes to like deaths, he was correct. And when it comes to protecting all vulnerable populations, he was correct in terms of distribution of monoclonal antibodies.”

“He was furious when the government tried to pull those, they were trying to pull very effective treatments. You know, he is not perfect. He’s a human being, but, um, what he’s done is stand up for freedoms,” he continued.

Of course, what Rogan leaves out is that, again, Florida has had significantly high cases of COVID-19 and that’s with allegations that the state has been underreporting data. But Rogan’s adventures in commenting on the pandemic have routinely blown up in his face. After causing music legends like Neil Young and David Crosby to leave Spotify earlier this year, Rogan promised to do better about not spreading misinformation. Hours later, he got caught sharing a debunked article about ivermectin being an effective treatment for COVID. It’s not.

(Via Mediaite)

At the top of 2021, The 1975 revealed they were working on a new album. At the top of this month, they teased that a new album is coming soon. Now, they’ve pulled the curtain back further by unveiling a number of new tidbits about the upcoming LP.

Yesterday, the band revealed a single called “Part Of The Band” is coming on July 7 and shared the song’s lyrics. Now, some fans are noting that they’ve received postcards from the group, which unveil the tracklist for the new album, which is called Being Funny In A Foreign Language.

The album seems similar to its predecessor in at least one way — it kicks off with a song titled “The 1975,” as have the rest of the band’s albums — but different in another key metric: it has just 11 tracks. That makes it, in terms of number of songs, the band’s shortest album by far: 2018’s A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships had 15 tracks, while 2020’s Notes On A Conditional Form is the group’s most densely packed LP with 22 tracks.

Find the Being Funny In A Foreign Language tracklist and “Part Of The Band” lyrics below.

1. “The 1975”
2. “Happiness”
3. “Looking For Somebody (To Love)”
4. “Part Of The Band”
5. “Oh Caroline”
6. “I’m In Love With You”
7. “All I Need To Hear”
8. “Wintering”
9. “Human Too”
10. “About You”
11. “When We Are Together”

“She was part of the airforce
I was part of the band
I always used to bust into her hand
In my imagination
I was living my best life
Living with my parents
Way before the paying penance and verbal propellants
And my cancellations

And I fell in love with a boy,
it was kinda lame
I was Rimbaud and he was Paul Verlaine
In my imagination
So many cringes in the heroin binges,
I was coming off the hinges,
Living on the fringes of my imagination

Enough about me now
‘You gotta talk about the people baby’

Now I’m at home — somewhere I don’t like
Eating stuff off of motorbikes
Coming to her lookalikes

I can’t get the language right
Just tell me what’s unladylike

I know some Vaccinista tote bag chic baristas sitting in east on their communista keisters writing about their ejaculations

I like my men like I like my coffee – full of soy milk and so sweet it won’t offend anybody whilst staining the pages of The Nation

A Xanax and a Newport
‘I take care of my kids’ she said

The worst of inside of us begets that feeling on the internet
It’s like someone intended it
A diamond in the rough begets the diamond with a scruff you get

Am I ironically woke? The butt of my joke? Or I am just some post-coke, average, skinny bloke calling his ego imagination?

I’ve not picked up that in 1,400 days and 9 hours and 16 minutes babe – it’s kind of my daily iteration.”

As of Friday, June 24, I — along with every other menstruating person in America — no longer have federally protected rights to my own body. The Supreme Court has officially voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, which has protected citizens’ constitutional right to an abortion for the past 50 years. Now, women in about half of the US states will no longer have access to safe, legal abortions, and they may have to go to incredible lengths just to take control of their reproductive organs. The Handmade’s Tale references have become so on the nose that they’re beyond cliche.

But despite the anger and confusion that we feel toward the Supreme Court‘s decision, there is still hope moving forward. The best thing we can do is take action, whether that means attending protests, spreading awareness, organizing, voting our asses off, and/or donating to organizations that are fighting to keep abortions safe and accessible in every state. In fact, donating to trusted abortion funds and support groups is one of the best things you can do right now. Below, we’ve compiled a list of several national abortion funds and listed their scores on Charity Navigator.*

*A score of 75 or above indicates a passing level of efficacy, endurance (the non-profit is likely to last), and financial health.

National Abortion Federation

The mission of the National Abortion Federation is to unite, represent, serve, and support abortion providers in delivering patient-centered, evidence-based care. This organization provides direct service to patients who need help accessing abortion care through a toll-free, multi-lingual hotline for abortion referrals and financial assistance. Every dollar donated to the patient assistance funds goes directly to helping patients access the abortion care they need — including procedure costs, travel-related expenses, translation services, child care, and more.

Charity Navigator Score: 95.32

Keep Our Clinics

The Keep Our Clinics campaign is the Abortion Care Network’s latest effort to protect access to care and support independent clinics across the country. It’s a fundraising campaign for independent abortion clinics across the US. Your donation helps independent clinics keep their doors open so they can provide abortion care, and your funds go to making necessary security improvements, replacing and updating medical equipment, covering legal costs to maintain compliance with politically-motivated regulations, clinic building maintenance, and repair, and more.

Charity Navigator Score: 100

Women’s Reproductive Rights Assistance Project

Women’s Reproductive Rights Assistance Project (WRRAP) is the largest national, independent, nonprofit abortion fund. it helps bridge the financial gap for women who seek an abortion or emergency contraceptives by providing funds directly to pre-screened, pre-qualified health clinics and doctors across the nation. The organization’s telephone hotline operates five days a week and works directly with over 700 clinics, hospitals, and doctors.

Charity Navigator Score: 87

The Brigid Alliance

The Brigid Alliance books, coordinates, and pays for travel and other expenses associated with abortion, serving as a trusted point of contact for every step of the journey. The organization does this through direct support and in collaboration with its network of partners. It’s a referral-based service that provides people seeking abortions with travel, food, lodging, child care, and other logistical support. The Brigid Alliance prioritizes clients beyond 15 weeks of pregnancy for whom it’s generally more expensive and harder to find a provider near home.

Charity Navigator Score: 100

National Black Women’s Reproductive Agenda

The National Black Women’s Reproductive Agenda is a national and state partnership designed to amplify and lift up the voices of Black women leaders at the national and state levels in an ongoing fight to secure reproductive justice for all women and girls. It partners with eight Black women’s Reproductive Justice organizations to educate and mobilize Black women, femmes, and girls on issues such as abortion access, contraceptive equity, and comprehensive sexuality education.

Charity Navigator Score: 100

Center for Reproductive Rights

The Center for Reproductive Rights is a global human rights organization (across five continents) of lawyers and advocates who ensure reproductive rights are protected in law as fundamental human rights for the dignity, equality, health, and well-being of every person. The organization uses litigation, legal policy, and advocacy work to transform how reproductive rights are understood by courts, governments, and human rights bodies.

Charity Navigator Score: 90.28

Planned Parenthood

Planned Parenthood is on a mission to ensure all people have access to the care and resources they need to make informed decisions about their bodies, their lives, and their futures. As a leader in sexual and reproductive services, the organization serves the diverse needs of local communities through a national network of more than 600 health centers across the US.

Charity Navigator Score: 90.05

NARAL Pro-Choice America

NARAL Pro-Choice America is a rally organization that mobilizes to protect freedom and fight for access to abortion care, birth control, paid parental leave, and protection from pregnancy discrimination. It works to educate citizens, lawmakers, and other influencers about the dangerous effects of anti-choice policies and the threat of anti-choice misinformation, and its member-driven campaigns have propelled political and cultural change at every level.

Charity Navigator Score: 91.45

Hosting Jeopardy! is all but officially a job for more than one person, but as current co-host Mayim Bialik has detailed, sometimes that situation doesn’t feel too great when fans get critical. Bialik, who served as a guest host in the wake of Alex Trebek’s death and later signed on to co-host the show with Ken Jennings on a more permanent basis, has gotten some tips on the job in the months since she and Jennings took control of Season 38.

She’s also gotten plenty of attention from eagle-eyed viewers, who even noticed when she repeated an outfit during two different tapings. And while some of that attention to detail has been positively met by Bialik, she recently admitted that it’s been tough to be compared to other hosts.

As Newsweek pointed out, Bialik spoke on her podcast recently with Justin Long about how fans have treated her in the months since she took the co-hosting reigns. The actress has spoken about how passionate fans of the show are, but it doesn’t always mean they have nice things to say about her work.

Actor and comedian Long broached the subject, when he asked Bialik if she was ever made aware that she was favored over Jennings by Jeopardy! fans.

“Sometimes,” Bialik responded, adding that “sometimes I get, ‘We don’t prefer you to Ken.’”

Noting how celebrities are often seen, Long said: “Isn’t that wild—well, it’s probably the only profession that I can think of, or maybe politicians—where people will tell you deeply insulting things but with a big smile?”

That’s pretty tame compared to what else is out there when it comes to anonymous online criticism. When you’re vying for a gig hosting one of the most beloved game shows on television, criticism is inevitable. And fans do have their favorites, even if they didn’t do very well hosting, either. But you have to feel for Bialik, who wasn’t responsible for how Jeopardy‘s executive producers have conducted their very public search for a true Trebek replacement. Neither Jennings nor Bialik wanted to make it a competition, and neither of them rigged the game for Mike Richards in the first place. All they’re trying to do now is their jobs, even if that’s inevitably going to make some trivia fans upset regardless of who gets to host Jeopardy!

The brotherly rivalry between Loki and Thor was a major theme in the early MCU movies until Loki’s death in Infinity War, though is anyone in the Marvel universe really dead, after all? Either way, Loki is absent from the upcoming installment Thor: Love And Thunder, (though Matt Damon’s Loki will probably appear, which is just as good) and Chris Hemsworth seems a little salty about it!

When asked about the lack of Hiddleston, Hemsworth confirmed that the actor hated them and refused to be in the movie. “He didn’t want to be involved. He said ‘I hate all of you, and in particular me,’ and I was like, that’s a shame. And that’s it. I mean, how many times can we kill him? Three? Four?” Hemsworth (presumably) joked. Hey, we don’t know what these stars are like in real life! Maybe they have actual beef. But probably not. Maybe he just didn’t want to see Thor’s butt in person.

Hemsworth added, “We love Tom. He’s just dead. Not him, but the character of Loki.” Co-star Taika Waititi chimed in, “He’s dead to us,” and Hemsworth concluded, “He’s obviously dead to us, as far as friendship goes.”

Though Loki won’t be in Love And Thunder, Disney+ has confirmed there would be a second season of the hit show Loki, which means there is still a potential for an on-screen reunion after all. Thor: Love And Thunder hits theaters on July 8th.

(Via CinemaBlend)

Over the past couple of days, the prevailing sentiment regarding Jalen Brunson’s unrestricted free agency has swung from the Dallas Mavericks retaining him, despite the New York Knicks’ pursuits, to the Knicks landing the 25-year-old point guard on a lucrative, long-term deal worth roughly $110 million across four years.

Dallas losing Brunson would be a major blow to a team weeks removed from a Western Conference Finals appearance. Brunson is the Mavericks’ best shot creator behind Luka Doncic and, arguably, their second-best player overall.

As such, reports from Tim Cato of The Athletic and Marc Stein indicate that Dallas may look to negotiate a sign-and-trade with New York to potentially soften the blow of Brunson’s potential departure.

“The Mavericks’ players and executives have understood the increasing likelihood of Brunson’s departure as an unrestricted free agent in past weeks. (Last Thursday, Marc Stein had the offseason’s first substantial report on the possibility.),” Cato wrote. “Within the Mavericks’ organization, conversations have shifted from re-signing Brunson to replacing his production, as well as the possibility of a sign-and-trade deal involving Brunson that could at least prevent Dallas from losing him for nothing.”

Stein, meanwhile, has been among the most plugged-in reporters when it comes to Brunson’s summer plans. His report is in lockstep with Cato’s, in which he wrote “the Mavericks don’t expect to be able to sway Brunson” and a sign-and-trade “is more likely.”

Since Thursday’s NBA Draft, New York has offloaded a trio of veterans in Kemba Walker, Alec Burks, and Nerlens Noel, sending all of them to the Detroit Pistons. Walker was dealt last on the night of the NBA Draft in a deal separate from Tuesday’s involving Burks and Noel.

Brunson is an excellent point guard whose scoring prowess and dribble-drive game would bolster a lackluster New York offense. Last year, he averaged 16 points on 58 percent true shooting during the regular season. Amid Dallas’ surprise run to the Western Conference Finals, he notched 22 points on 55 percent true shooting, including four games with 25 or more points.

Republicans are gaslighting you! That’s the big takeaway Seth Meyers had for viewers on Tuesday night, when he featured clips of the many ways conservative lawmakers and media outlets are trying to spin the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade seem like it’s no big deal.

While tens of thousands of people took to the streets to protest the Supreme Court’s decision to strip women of the bodily autonomy the Constitution has given them for the past 50 years, Republicans have been cooking up all sorts of excuses to explain why disagreeing with the court’s decision is an extreme overreaction on the part of protestors. And despite the fact that an overwhelming majority of Americans—Democrats, Republicans, and otherwise—had no desire to see the near-50-year-old ruling overturned. As Meyers explained:

Americans are understandably outraged that a rogue court just decided, on a whim, to shred abortion rights purely because it could. And went even further, essentially announcing through Thomas’ concurrence, that it would target contraception, marriage equality, and privacy next. And yet the shameless weirdos on the right, instead of confronting the reality for millions of Americans who’ve just lost a fundamental constitutional right—putting their health at risk and relegating them to second-class status—chose absurdly to accuse pro-abortion activists of staging riots.

Yet when those same people aren’t lying and accusing the left of doing the very things that the right has actually done (like, say, stage a violent coup because they disagreed with a decision), Meyers says they’re busy “gaslighting everyone into thinking nothing has actually been banned.”

The line many Republicans, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, are trying to take is that the Supreme Court didn’t outlaw abortion—they just made the decision about whether or not abortion should be legal back to the states. Meyers played a clip of Sean Hannity and Marco Rubio going back and forth about how “nothing’s been banned,” which caused Meyers to kind of lose his sh*t.

Nothing’s been banned? Are you insane? This is the sh*ttiest Jedi mind trick I’ve ever seen. Of course, with a Jedi mind trick you usually need to be able to project calm, and Hannity isn’t capable of that… Thirteen states have trigger laws that either made abortion instantly illegal as soon as the decision was handed down, or will make it illegal very soon. And there are several more states that are likely to join, meaning all or most abortions could soon be illegal or severely restricted in at least 20 states, if not more.

This ruling was not theoretical. It put millions of women and people who could become pregnant in jeopardy immediately. These guys don’t issue hypothetical rulings. It’s a rogue court hellbent on remaking America as an authoritarian, right-wing theocracy.

And a court, Meyers helpfully reminded us, that counts two men “who have credibly been accused of sexual misconduct” among its members.

You can watch the full clip above.

Even Republicans don’t think Democrats are doing enough to protect women’s rights in the wake of the Roe v. Wade reversal.

In a Puck article from (excellent) reporter Julia Ioffe, GOP folk in D.C. were “shocked at how little the Democrats were doing to fight them” following the Supreme Court’s decision, especially considering they have majority control in both the House and the Senate. According to Ioffe, one Republican aide said, “If I were the libs, I would be putting forward a flurry of legislation like making birth control free and widely available. If you say it’s not widely enough available, go after that, cover the gaps. Don’t go for the really big stuff, just split the G.O.P. conference as much as you can, force people to vote. If the goal is really protecting women or advancing legislation that could actually pass, then take every potential approach you can.”

While the Republicans Ioffe spoke to are trying not to “gloat” over their pro-forced-birth win in the courts, they are scratching their heads over the Dems inaction on an issue a majority of the country supports them on. In a PEW poll, 61% of Americans believe abortion should be legal in some form. Currently, dozens of lawsuits in trigger-ban states are pushing to keep abortion access a fundamental health right for women with judges blocking statewide bans in places like Louisianna, Utah, and Texas. All over the country, people and organizations are fighting the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade but in Washington, Dems seem to be disorganized and performatively helpless, using the reversal to harass voters for more campaign donations instead of presenting any meaningful strategy that would actually help their base.

“If you’re so worried about infant life, in other words, let’s have a vote on free diapers and free childcare,” Ioffe suggested in her report. “If you say it’s not a gun issue but a mental health issue, let’s vote on funding the shit out of mental health.”

It seems everyone, including the GOP, has a plan for moving forward except the current party in power who would apparently rather recite poems and sing “God Bless America” on the Capitol steps than actually doing something in their capacity as elected officials with control of both the executive and legislative branches of the federal government.

(Via Puck News)

Thanks to starring alongside Johnny Depp in 2015’s Black Mass, Dakota Johnson found herself being roped into the actor’s highly contentious defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard. Johnson would like to be left out of that conversation, please.

In a sprawling new profile for Vanity Fair, Johnson has addressed the situation for the first time, which all started because of a YouTube video that’s racked up over three million views. In the viral red carpet clip titled, “The EXACT moment Dakota Johnson KNEW Amber Heard was VIOLENT towards Johnny Depp,” the actress is seen looking at Depp’s injured finger, which he’s alleged is the result of Heard throwing a bottle at him despite contradictory evidence that he injured himself.

Regardless, Johnson did not come to realization that Heard was violent during the red carpet moment, and she wants out of the whole thing:

Johnson has seen the video. “I was like, ‘For the love of God, why? Why am I involved in this?’” she says, shaking her head. “I don’t remember that at all, but please, take me out of this. Don’t let this go further. Can you imagine, oh, my God, if I was called to the witness stand? I can’t believe that people are watching [the trial] like it’s a show. It’s like it’s a courtroom drama and my heart breaks. It’s so, so, so crazy. Humans are so f*cking weird. The internet is a wild, wild place.”

After opining on “cancel culture” while carefully not choosing a side in the Depp vs. Heard debate, Johnson ends her thoughts with a blistering critique of Twitter.

“Twitter makes up like, what, 12 percent of the world?” Johnson said. “I mean, some of these people can’t even spell.”

(Via Vanity Fair)