GoneTrending

I almost didn’t create this post this week.

As the U.S. reels from yet another horrendous school massacre, barely on the heels of the Buffalo grocery store shooting and the Laguna Woods church shooting reminding us that gun violence follows us everywhere in this country, I find myself in a familiar state of anger and grief and frustration. One time would be too much. Every time, it’s too much. And yet it keeps happening over and over and over again.

I’ve written article after article about gun violence. I’ve engaged in every debate under the sun. I’ve joined advocacy groups, written to lawmakers, donated to organizations trying to stop the carnage, and here we are again. Round and round we go.

It’s hard not to lose hope. It would be easy to let the fuming rage consume every bit of joy and calm and light that we so desperately want and need. But we have to find a balance.

When we have inhumanity violently shoved in our faces, we have to be reminded of our humanity. When we’ve witnessed the worst of us, we need to see who and what we can be at our best. When senseless, heinous acts turn the world upside down, we need to be reminded of what it looks like right-side up.

These weekly roundups of joy often include gratuitously adorable animal videos and such, and I would argue that there’s a place for such lightheartedness under normal circumstances. But this week, I want to focus on us, on the goodness and beauty of everyday humanity. To remind us of what we’re supposed to be—and what we still are—despite the horrors perpetrated by a handful of people.

If you’re looking for reminders of our humanity right now, whether it’s people doing good or good things about people, here are some simple things to get you started.

1. The beauty of forming unexpected connections with perfect strangers.

u201cOne man at this coffee shop just sneezed, the guy next to him said bless you, he said thanks and asked u201chey, what are you working on?u201d and now they are discussing Roman history in depth, both delighted with their new friend, itu2019s the most beautiful thing Iu2019ve ever seen???u201d

— Lucy Huber (@Lucy Huber)
1652800251

And after their chat, they made plans to get together again. More friendship meet-cutes like this one, please.

2. Man uses TikTok to offer ‘dinner with dad’ to any kid that needs one, even adult ones.

@yourprouddad

Happy Sunday❤️. Is school out for you??

Humans also help out strangers—even ones they’ll never actually meet. Summer Clayton is the “father” of 2.4 million “kids” and he couldn’t be more proud. Read the full story here.

3. Andy Grammer and PS22 remind us of the power of music, especially when we make it together.

And they did it with a sweet song about being there for one another, no less.

“Children singing has such a special power,” wrote Grammer in his Facebook post. “I personally choked up multiple times throughout the day. The unbridled excitement and giddiness of an elementary school mixed with the sincerity and reverence they brought to this song was too much for me to handle.”

4. Humans help out struggling penguin babies with adorable stuffed surrogates.

See on Instagram

Zookeepers have stepped in to help care for the newest inhabitants of the zoo’s Penguin Beach after it was discovered their parents were struggling with caring for them. The keepers have become the penguins’ stand-in parents, hand-rearing the little penguins in the zoo’s nursery and using stuffed surrogates for the babies to snuggle with.

Read the full story here.

5. The messages from this grandma, reminding us of the beauty of loving family bonds.

See on Instagram

“I love you from Einstein bagels!” “I love you from my front room!” So sweet. Click the arrow to scroll through. You won’t be sorry.

6. The way humans get silly together when we’re bored.

u201cMeanwhile at the airport.. ud83dude02u201d

— Buitengebieden (@Buitengebieden)
1653155314

The way we find fun with friends is one of the best things about us.

7. And the way we find creative ways to make ourselves laugh.

See on Instagram

Why is anthropomorphizing vegetables so hilarious?

8. The human instinct—and ability—to express ourselves through dance is just amazing.

May 25 was National Tap Dancing Day, so seems like a perfect time to dust off the “Tap” Challenge Scene with some of the most iconic tap dancers in the history of Hollywood. Look what humans can do. It’s a marvel.

9. The utterly pure, gushing expression of love from this wee one to their baby sister.

See on Instagram

We are wired to love. See babies for proof.

10. And this reminder of life as it should be—and can be—for our kids.

u201cThe teachers at the school nearby are throwing an outdoor kindergarten dance party with the music turned all the way up (they usually only do this on the last day of school). They look exhausted. The kids are, and I cannot stress this enough, DELIRIOUS with joy.u201d

— Sara Benincasa (@Sara Benincasa)
1653500374

I hate to yank us back to the present reality, but this is such a beautiful and fitting response to it. In the midst of our grief, we can create a space for joy and revel in it. Turn up the music. Let those babies dance till they’re delirious.

It’s what humans do.

As we navigate the awful, let’s keep looking for and lifting up and sharing the good.

Take care, everyone.

In the wake of any mass tragedy like the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas earlier this week, total transparency is key to understanding exactly what transpired and finding ways to make sure a similar situation doesn’t happen again. At least that’s the way one would hope and think bureaucracy works. But as we’ve discovered over the past several days, officials both in the city of Uvalde and the state of Texas more generally don’t seem to have put a premium on honesty—to the point where even Tucker Carlson has called lawmakers out.

Now, with the help of eyewitness testimony and videos filmed at the scene of Robb Elementary School, the truth about what went down between law enforcement and the 18-year-old gunman who killed 21 people, including 19 kids, the truth is slowly coming to light—and, as Mediaite reports, it’s not pretty.

Originally, the story we heard was that a gunman arrived at the school on Tuesday morning and, after crashing his truck, immediately engaged with an armed school resource officer and, as a result, dropped a black bag full of ammunition before making his way into the school. Well, it turns out that wasn’t true. In fact, we’ve now learned that the gunman was in the school for approximately one whole hour before police even entered. On Thursday evening, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer attempted to get to the truth of the matter while discussing the tragedy with Texas Department of Public Safety Lieutenant Chris Olivarez.

Blitzer didn’t mince words when he asked Olivarez whether he thought it was “a mistake” that on-the-scene officers decided to wait an hour for a backup tactical team before attempting to enter the school and stop the shooter. The officer gave a very long and convoluted answer that explained how many officers entered the school, and who did what, but didn’t account for any timing. So Blitzer pushed again:

Blitzer: Don’t current best practices, don’t they call for officers to disable a shooter as quickly as possible, regardless of how many officers are actually on site?

Olivarez: Correct. The active shooter situation, you want to stop the killing, you want to preserve life. But also, one thing that of course the American people need to understand is that officers are making entry into this building. They do not know where the gunman is. They are hearing gunshots. They are receiving gunshots.

At that point, if they proceeded any further not knowing where the suspect was at, they could’ve been shot, they could’ve been killed, and that gunman would have had an opportunity to kill other people inside that school.

Yes, you read that correctly: Police waited an hour while a gunman was in the school killing children because, had law enforcement entered, “they could’ve been shot.”

As Mediaite wrote: “One girl inside the room reportedly bled for an hour after she was shot. She died at a hospital. It is unknown if that hour might have saved her life.”

You can watch the full video here.

(Via Mediaite)

Kanye West’s fashion endeavors continue to elevate. His latest collaboration with Yeezy, Gap, and Balenciaga has added another layer with a new global drop that’s available now. The latest release, previewed in Ye’s “Life Of The Party” video, was delayed due to the tragic school shootings in Uvalde, Texas. The Yeezy Gap Experience engineered by Balenciaga includes t-shirts, hoodies, joggers, caps, and other products featuring the signature design elements of the collaboration.

The campaign has been utilizing virtually rendered avatars, but fans do note they have seen the Donda artist wearing a flame embroidered cap that has piqued their interest. The Yeezy Gap Engineered by Balenciaga collection is now available to shop via Yeezy Gap, Farfetch, Luisaviaroma, and Mytheresa. This news comes on the same day Ye released a posthumous collaboration with XXXTentacion titled “True Love,” which accompanies the documentary Look At Me focusing on XXXTentaction’s life. Kanye West is also participating in the reimagination of McDonald’s iconic packaging alongside Naoto Fukasawa.

Ye can’t stop making headlines, but this is a well-received set of news. It is a major collaboration that could open the door for more fashion innovators down the road. Check out some more of the products available for purchase in the pictures below.

Three days on from the Uvalde, Texas elementary school shooting, many of us are still trying to wrap our heads around the tragedy. While some call for compassion and understanding for the families of the victims, others are calling for action. However, the government representatives for the state of Texas have offered little in the way of solutions or useful suggestions beyond “arming teachers” — because that’s certain to work out (he wrote with as much sarcasm as he could muster.

Even rappers are tired of the non-response. 2 Chainz, who has three elementary-aged children of his own, vented his frustration with Texas Senator Ted Cruz, posting on Instagram taking the politician and his peers to task for their less-than-helpful takes. Cruz suggested that limiting school entries could be a way to prevent school shootings — instead of just, y’know, penning in potential victims and making it easier for a shooter to inflict damage and prevent authorities from intervening.

“These politicians, some of you n****s is dumb as f*ck,” Chainz said, not holding back. “Just ’cause you put a suit on… let me tell you something. The suit is the biggest cap in the world. When n****s be having on suits, man anybody wearing a suit, they think you put on a suit you supposed to be more intelligent. Man, I’ve been listening to some of you politicians and some of y’all n****s dumb as f*ck. That n****a Ted Cruz said, ‘Lock the back door next time.’ He said to prevent what happened, have the back door locked.” He ended the video with an expression of exasperated disbelief.

Only one thing is certain; this is a problem unique to the United States, as pointed out by a Sky News reporter directly to Cruz’s bewildered face. Until we do something differently, that may be unlikely to change anytime soon. Watch 2 Chainz’s reaction below.

Rootin’ tootin’ Lauren Boebert tried hard (with her comparison of the 9/11 and gun control issues) to make the most absurd cable news statement of the past 24 hours. Her demonstration of Second Amendment love, though, may have been topped by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who popped by Fox News to chat with former Real World star (and ex-congressman) Sean Duffy about the Texas school shooting that left at least 19 children dead.

The overriding issue, to McCarthy (who freely accepts NRA donations), isn’t guns. He’s not taking any issue with how easy it was for an 18-year-old gunman to purchase two assault rifles with ease. Instead, McCarthy believes that there are simply too many doors in this world. Schools must be safer, and that really means (to this lawmaker) that most doors should be eliminated. Use those Covid-19 funds to build brick walls instead, McCarthy is arguing.

The #DoorControl hashtag from journalist Aaron Rupar says a lot here here.

Truly, it’s a heck of a swing, and it’s hard to believe whether McCarthy actually believes himself. But dang it, he found a talking point, and he’s not letting go of it. As Ben Fowlkes pointed out on Twitter, McCarthy’s got the poker face game going on strong.

This weekend’s NRA conference in Texas promises even more bombastic GOP behavior to come.

Top Gun: Maverick was already projected to be the biggest opening of Tom Cruise‘s career, and it seems to already have a missile lock on that target before the holiday weekend has started. According to the latest box office receipts, the Thursday showings for Top Gun: Maverick are the highest preview sales ever recorded for a Memorial Day weekend. They’re also an all-time best for Paramount, which has to be very glad they gave into Cruise’s demand to hold onto the film and not release it on streaming.

The previous best Memorial Day preview for Paramount was Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen all the way back in 2009, and surprisingly, the all-time titleholder until now was the critically panned Solo: A Star Wars Story, which caused a collective freakout on the direction of the franchise that’s still happening to this day.

Via Deadline:

On a Thursday preview basis, that’s the best Tom Cruise has ever seen, blowing away the $6M previews from 2018’s Mission: Impossible – Fallout. Industry projections earlier this week believe that a $100M+ four-day is in store at 4,735 theaters, which of course would make it the best weekend opening ever for Cruise. At that preview level, Top Gun: Maverick will feasibly outrace that projection; note that good word of mouth should spread to adults thus clicking ticket sales higher. Cruise’s record 3-day (in an elongated Independence Day week launch) belongs to Paramount’s 2005 Steven Spielberg sci-fi movie War of the Worlds at $64.8M.

During the pandemic, Cruise personally called theater owners and reassured them that help is on the way with both Top Gun: Maverick and Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning: Part One coming down the pipe. So far, it appears the actor is delivering on that promise and cementing his status as one of the biggest box-office draws of all time.

(Via Deadline)

If we’re being honest, one typically doesn’t need to look too far to find a reason to criticize Ted Cruz and his inane “ideas” for solving just about any crisis. (Freezing cold with no heat or electricity? Fly the family to Cancun!) But the senator from Texas seems to really be outdoing himself this week, in the wake of the attack on Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. On Thursday night, Seth Meyers was more than happy to list all the reasons why Cruz’s reaction to the deadliest school shooting in a decade makes absolutely zero f**king sense.

While, as Meyers stated, the fact that America has more mass shootings than any other country in the world by far because we have more guns “should be blindingly obvious to anyone with clear eyes and a conscience,” the one exception he makes is for “the craven ghouls who refuse to even acknowledge America’s gun crisis.” That would include Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, who thinks that “turning to God” is the only way we can stop these mass killings. Patrick has also hopped aboard the “one door” solution that Cruz has idiotically proposed, in which any school would and should only have one door that people can use to enter and exit—and that an armed guard should be stationed there. Or, as Meyers puts it: “Just get rid of doors!” On Thursday, he had a lot more to say about this utterly imbecilic proposal:

I’m sorry, you don’t want gun control but you want DOOR CONTROL?!

Why stop at one? Why not just outlaw doors altogether, then no one would need keys. To get in your house, you just have to climb up to the roof and slide headfirst down the chimney. REALLY! You REALLY think one door is a good idea? Then how ‘bout you try it first. One door for the Senate. You can all line up to go in every day—which Ted Cruz might not think is bad, but it’s a f**king nightmare for whoever has to stand next to Ted Cruz…

Just spitballing here, but maybe run this idea by a fire marshal first and see what they have to say about it. Because, famously, nothing bad has ever happened when there’s only one way in and one way out of a crowded building. Can you imagine what would happen if someone in an office, say, with only one door yelled ‘Fire!’? Or, worse still, ‘Ted Cruz is in the breakroom!’

Meyers is convinced that these “obviously aren’t serious ideas,” but instead “pathetic excuses” from the greediest and most shameless politicians who would rather keep cashing big checks from the NRA than doing something—anything—to save America’s children.

You can watch the full clip above.

This is the year of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs comeback. The band’s last album was 2013’s Mosquito, but they’ve been announcing shows and teasing music, and today they’ve finally announced their first new song in nine years arriving Wednesday, June 1. It’s titled “Spitting Off The Edge Of The World,” and it features Perfume Genius.

The “Maps” performers are hosting an event in Brooklyn tomorrow for a video preview of the song. It will be airing all day at a new event space called Main Drag Music. “To view video you must relinquish your phone during the screening but will get it right back,” the Eventbrite page reads.

When announcing New York City and LA shows a couple of months ago, the band posted: “It’s with true life-affirming pleasure to announce our two headline shows in our two hometowns NYC AND LA,” Karen O said in a statement, “supported by two wildly gifted bands Japanese Breakfast and The Linda Lindas at the Hollywood Bowl, with The Linda Lindas supporting in Forest Hills and our other support TBA soon! Representin’ a few generations yo! Cannot wait to see you there! New music! New Era! And New Home with Secretly Canadian! Much to celebrate!“

The Golden State Warriors will play for an NBA championship for the sixth time in eight years. Golden State won Game 5 over the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday evening to secure their standing as the champions of the Western Conference. Now, they’ll have to sit back and wait to see if the Boston Celtics or Miami Heat meet them.

Steph Curry was excellent against the Mavericks and earned the Western Conference Finals MVP award for his troubles. In the aftermath, ESPN’s Mike Greenberg posed the following question on Friday morning’s edition of Get Up!: “If he adds that Finals MVP, if they win another championship — I think we have all generally, universally considered LeBron James to be the defining player of this generation. Could Steph Curry have something to say about that here?”

Patrick Beverley was among the folks who were tasked with answering that question, and while he said James has set the bar ultra high, he thinks Curry would deserve to be in that conversation.

“I believe so,” Beverley said about Curry’s case as the defining player of this era if he goes on to add to his trophy case. “And that’s not to discredit, obviously, what LeBron has done in the league, and what he’s still doing, and his legacy. He set the bar extremely high.

“But you’ve got to give Steph Curry a lot of credit, man, he’s 6’1, 25-5-5 average in the playoffs, shooting over 43 percent, back to the chip again, six out of eight times,” Beverley continued. “His resume, scoring titles, most three-pointers hit ever, his resume is elite, so you have to put him up there.”

Vince Carter pushed back a bit on Curry needing a Finals MVP due to the circumstances under which the distinction was given in 2015 (Andre Iguodala) and during their other two title wins — Kevin Durant got it, but Carter argued “Steph took a back seat to KD to allow him to be the KD they needed to win back-to-back years.”

“We, on the outside, felt like, ‘Man, he deserved that trophy as well,’ but he’s an unselfish superstar and it was about empowering everybody else and making sure everybody else is able to do their job to be great to win championships,” Carter said. “So I think if they’re able to pull this off and win these four games, he will hold that trophy. And it’s not disrespecting LeBron, I think now you’re saying Steph needs to be talked about for this era and generation like we do LeBron James.”

The entire conversation caught the attention of Draymond Green, who praised Beverley and added his take on Curry’s place in this conversation.

Gun-loving Texas governor Greg Abbott canceled his appearance this weekend at the National Rifle Association’s annual convention in Houston, less than 300 miles from the sight of the school shooting that left 19 kids dead. So did Dan Patrick, the lieutenant governor of Texas, and performers Don McClean and Lee Greenwood. But “stepmom porn” fanatic Ted Cruz still plans on attending, as does former-president Donald Trump, who clumsily hyped his “interesting” speech during an interview on Friday.

“I’m making a speech tomorrow at the NRA in Huston and it’ll be very interesting,” he told far-right radio host Sebastian Gorka, who served as Deputy Assistant to the President (until he resigned) during Trump’s time in the White House. “And so yeah, interesting time to be making such a speech, frankly.”

“Interesting.” You can always count on Trump to accurately read the room.

After revealing the rest of his weekend plans (he’ll be campaigning against Liz Cheney and not watching The Bob’s Burgers Movie or Top Gun: Maverick, like a normal person), Trump continued, “But on Friday night, I’ll be in Houston. And we’ll be making a speech and discussing a lot of the things which you would agree to, and you know, you have to protect, you have to protect your Second Amendment. You have to give that Second Amendment great protection, because without it, we would be a very dangerous country frankly.” The families who lost their kids this week might disagree with you.

You can listen to Trump’s interview below.