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Marjorie Taylor Greene Claims Bill Gates Will Make Everyone Eat ‘Fake Meat’ Made In A ‘Peach Tree Dish’

Marjorie Taylor Greene recently avoided the fate that befell Madison Cawthorn, which leaves her plenty of time to do what she does best: dropping deranged conspiracy theories. The Georgia lawmaker, who’s angry that people don’t think she’s smart just because she thinks Nancy Pelosi runs a “gazpacho police,” went on her podcast to warn people about something that will definitely happen: The government, she claims, will force you to eat “fake meat” that Bill Gates made in a “peach tree dish.”

“You have to accept the fact that the government totally wants to provide surveillance on every part of your life,” Greene told her followers. “They want to know when you’re eating,” she continued. “They want to know if you’re eating a cheeseburger, which is very bad because Bill Gates wants you to eat his fake meat that grows in a peach tree dish.”

And what happens if you don’t eat this non-meat made by the co-founder of Microsoft? “You’ll probably get a little zap inside your body and that’s saying ‘No, no. Don’t eat a real cheeseburger, you need to eat the fake burger, the fake meat, from Bill Gates.”

But that’s not all. “They probably also want to know when you go to the bathroom and if your bowel movements are on time or consistent,” Greene added. “I mean what else do these people want to know?”

It’s a perfect Greene gaffe: a kooky conspiracy theory told with a surreal confusion of words. Social media made much of her decimation of the term “petri dish.”

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They met over a shared diagnosis. Their love shows what’s possible for people with multiple sclerosis.

In most ways, Jaime and Bruna are an average couple. They share a love of literature, writing and music. They enjoy spending time at the beach with their dog and 5-year-old son, Francisco. Bruna affectionately refers to Jaime as “Jota”—a nickname based on the letter J in Portuguese. They have a solid network of friends and family in their small, coastal Brazilian town.

But this husband and wife team also have something more unique in common—they both have multiple sclerosis.

Bruna and Jaime love spending time at the beach in their small Brazilian town.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic disorder affecting more than 2.8 million people worldwide. With MS, the immune system attacks the central nervous system, primarily targeting myelin—a fatty substance that insulates nerves—which affects the way nerves conduct electrical impulses to and from the brain. Symptoms of MS can include blurred vision, weak limbs, tingling sensations, unsteadiness, memory problems and fatigue. It impacts more women than men and no one knows the exact cause.

Bruna was diagnosed with MS when she was only 14 years old after seeking medical attention for tingling in her arms.


“It was a little scary because my doctor didn’t say the name of the disease,” she says. “He wrote it on a piece of paper and passed it to my mom. It was very difficult, because I thought it must not be a good thing if he couldn’t speak it out loud.”

She looked up multiple sclerosis on the internet when she got home from that doctor’s appointment and came across a website with inaccurate information stating that people diagnosed with MS only have about 10 years to live.

“It was shocking,” she says. And it was wrong. Bruna is now 35 and living well with MS.

Jaime found out he had MS in 2012 at age 28, but instead of a shock, he says his diagnosis came as a relief. He’d been having trouble walking and running and experiencing weakness for a few years, so he was glad to finally have an explanation for what was happening with his body.

For both Bruna and Jaime, their diagnosis was their first contact with MS. “That was one of the reasons I started my blog,” says Bruna, “because I didn’t want anyone else to go through this situation.”

Jaime and Bruna actually met through Bruna’s blog. After he was diagnosed, Jaime began researching MS and came across posts Bruna had written about doing her doctoral studies while living with MS. Jaime was working on his master’s degree at the time and wanted to ask her questions about being in academia with a chronic disease. Soon, they were emailing every single day, sharing little details of their lives. Six months after their first email exchange, they finally met in person.

The years since have been filled with love, marriage, a child, mutual caregiving and advocacy for people with MS and other chronic diseases.

Despite the fact that we live in the information age, misconceptions about MS abound. In Brazil, the word “sclerosis” is incorrectly associated with dementia and old age. “People don’t understand how we both have ‘sclerosis’ and have a doctorate and have a child,” Bruna says. “They think that sclerosis is dementia.”

Having their son, Francisco, has prompted a lot of questions from people who don’t understand that disability doesn’t mean being completely limited in ability.

“When I was diagnosed, we believed—and science believed—that people with MS couldn’t have children, [that] it was not appropriate to have children with MS,” says Bruna. “But when we decided to have a kid, we were very passionate that we were capable of educating our child.”

“People don’t believe that we can be a mom and dad with chronic disease and disability,” she says. “But I think it’s difficult to be a mom and dad for everybody.”

Jaime with son Francisco.

Jaime says people will ask how they were able to conceive a child, assuming that his using a wheelchair meant that they were unable to have sex—one of the many erroneous assumptions about people with disabilities.

There’s a wide diversity in what MS looks like and what it means for a person’s abilities, and the spectrum is exemplified in Bruna and Jaime’s experiences.

Bruna has relapsing remitting MS (RRMS), which is the most common type of MS. (About 85% of people with MS are initially diagnosed with RRMS.) Though symptoms can come and go, for the most part, Bruna can live and function as most people without MS would.

Jaime, on the other hand, has primary progressive MS (PPMS), where individuals experience a steady worsening of symptoms from onset without periodic relapses and remissions. Jaime has progressively lost function since his diagnosis. Today he is quadriplegic and his ability to speak has been hampered. Bruna serves as Jaime’s primary caregiver, but they also get a lot of help from friends and family that live nearby.

Knowing how vital it is to have such support, Bruna and Jaime have worked hard to create a community for people with chronic disease. Bruna serves as vice president of an MS advocacy group called Amigos Múltiplos pela Esclerose—“Multiple Friends of Sclerosis”—which provides information and support for people with MS and their loved ones. She also works as general manager of Chronical Day by Day (CDD), a patient association that provides reliable, accurate information about health, access and quality of life for people with chronic diseases.

Bruna with son Francisco.

“We have to create some stories and narratives so that it’s not the end of life—it’s a different way of life,” Bruna says. “We can live in a good way, even if we have a disease like MS.”

Bruna shares that having MS herself has made her a more respectful caregiver for Jaime. She says Jaime acts as her caregiver as well—it just looks different. For instance, he’s been teaching her to play the guitar, even though he’s not able to play himself anymore. She pushes him to do the things he can still do. They both refuse to see themselves as victims.

Jaime (right) teaches Bruna (left) to play the guitar. Jaime taught guitar lessons prior to becoming quadriplegic.

Bruna says people often write to them after a diagnosis and ask if they can have a normal life, and they always say that it’s a process to learn about their new body, and everything will change, but life with MS can be good. “It can be better than it was,” she says.

The biggest thing Bruna and Jaime want people to know is that having MS doesn’t mean they can’t have a full life; it is simply a part of their life.

“A diagnosis of MS or any other diagnosis doesn’t define us,” says Bruna. “It’s part of who we became, but it’s not what we are.”

May 30 is World MS Day. To learn about how to get involved, visit https://worldmsday.org/.


MAT-GLB-2201776-v1.0-05/2022

This article was sponsored by Sanofi. Jaime and Bruna were compensated for their participation in the development of this article.

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What’s Popular On Streaming Right Now

Multiple times per week, our TV and film experts will list the most important ten streaming selections for you to pop into your queues. We’re not strictly operating upon reviews or accrued streaming clicks (although yes, we’ve scoured the streaming site charts and ratings) but, instead, upon those selections that are really worth noticing amid the churning sea of content. There’s a lot out there, after all, and your time is valuable.

TIE: 10. Flight Attendant (HBO Max series)

The Big Bang Theory never really let us know what Kaley Cuoco was capable of doing, so she’s showing us now by pulling off double duty as leading lady and executive producer. This season quadruples down on the Cassie chaos even though she really meant to calm the heck down and stop boozing herself into murder scenes. The good news, as well, is that Zosia Mamet and Griffin Matthews return as sidekicks while Rosie Perez steals focus, although there is plenty of room here for everyone to shine.

TIE: 10. George Carlin’s American Dream (HBO Documentary Film streaming on HBO Max)

The legendary comedian receives the deep-dive treatment of his expansive career, which included hundreds of stellar standup sets, nightly talk show gigs, and countless comedy specials. His 2008 death still hits like a freight train and feels like almost yesterday in comedy years. Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio direct together, and expect to see a thorough examination of the controversial parts of Carlin’s career and his more private struggles. Several leading comedy voices (Stephen Colbert, Jerry Seinfeld, Bill Burr, Chris Rock, and more) also join the discussion.

9. The Lincoln Lawyer (Netflix series)

No one really asked for this series remake of the Matthew McConaughey film (adapting the Michael Connelly bestselling books), which makes it even better to realize that this is actually a very good show. The David E. Kelly-production touch certainly doesn’t hurt! Manuel Garcia-Rulfo picks up Mickey Haller’s mantle out of the backseat of his car, all while he travels through Los Angeles on an idealistic legal crusade. Neve Campbell co-stars, and the show glides through unorthodox procedural jaunts as Haller tackles murder cases and mysterious developments aplenty.

8. The Northman (Focus Features film streaming on Amazon Prime)

Who could resist a naked volcano fight starring Alexander Skarsgård? He heads into viking mode with Robert Eggers at the helm, and the cast is absolutely incredible, including Anya Taylor Joy, Nicole Kidman, and Ethan Hawke. There’s ripped Skarsgård and a Shakespearean quest and vengeance and heavy-metal fury. When you’re done there, maybe head back into Eggers’ library (including The Lighthouse and The Witch) and marvel at his ever-expanding vision as his career continues.

7. Love, Death + Robots (Netflix series)

It’s time for more NSFW robots gone wild with the continuation of David Fincher and Tim Miller’s adult-animated anthology series. The show originally billed itself for “messed up audiences only” and continues to deliver upon that promise, all while exploring countless genres (including sci-fi, horror, fantasy and comedy) and weaving in and out of anime styles like gangbusters. It’s both entertaining and thought provoking, as well as enormously easy to binge.

6. Hacks (HBO Max series)

Mean Jean Smart is the best Jean Smart, so get caught up on what her Deborah Vance is doing to Hannah Einbinder’s Ava as they attempt to conquer the comedy world. Jean’s got a chainsaw too, thank goodness, and god only knows how she’ll up the curmudgeon ante before this season ends. They didn’t leave their frenemy vibe behind in Vegas, and life on the road is even messier with these two hate-lovable ladies at the forefront.

5. The Staircase (HBO Max series)

Get ready for impending finale time with Colin Firth putting forth a master class and (arguably) the best performance of his career. Here, he’s incredibly layered as Michael Peterson, who served plenty of prison time for the death of his wife, Kathleen, under incredibly mysterious circumstances. Parker Posey also does the thing, crushing her character’s courtroom game and chomping on metaphorical upholstery, and Sophie Turner gets to really leave Sansa Stark behind in this dramatization of the O.G. true crime series. Is it owl time yet, y’all?

4. Angelyne (Peacock series)

Bye bye, Fiona Gallagher. Emmy Rossum underwent an incredible physical transformation to portray the Los Angeles billboard queen, and she also dives emotionally deep into Angelyne’s earlier life to dig into why, exactly, the quest for reinvention took over her life. The show accomplishes plenty in its examination of both fame in trauma, although it takes a little too long to get there. Still, it’s totally worth the watch.

3. Better Call Saul (AMC series on AMC+)

Mid-season finale time happened this past week, so catch up and get ready for this prequel series to slam right into the later Breaking Bad timeline. There’s that code to be cracked and cute doggos and the question of whether or not to freak out about Kim Wexler, and we are truly lucky to have this universe and all of the nail-biting stressors that arrive along the way.

2. Obi-Wan Kenobi (Disney+ series)

A surprising character arrived already in Disney+’s newest Star Wars series. Ewan McGregor returns as the title character, of course, and this show takes place a decade after Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith‘s events. Obviously, this ain’t the The Baby Yoda Show, but there will still be Obi-Wan, trying hard to shake the downfall of his BFF. Hayden Christensen will return to Anakin Skywalker after he went to the dark side and become and evil Sith Lord. Yep, streaming services are truly incredible.

1. Stranger Things (Netflix series)

After much delay, Millie Bobby Brown, Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, and more return for real horror in Hawkins, Indiana. The Duffer Brothers are preparing to bring this one home, but not yet, and get ready for some very lengthy episode runtimes. Robert Englund will bring some Freddy Krueger flavor, and if you need to catch up (because it’s been awhile), here’s what you need to know to catch up before watching Season 4.

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The Celtics Fought Off The Heat In Game 7 To Reach The NBA Finals

The Eastern Conference Finals has been an incredibly strange seven-game series in that most of the games weren’t competitive, and yet the Celtics and Heat both managed to pick up three wins to force a winner take all showdown in Miami on Sunday night.

Early on, it looked like we were headed for yet another blowout as the Celtics darted out to a big lead, thanks in large part to smothering defense sparking their offense in transition. Twice in the first quarter, Al Horford produced a turnover via a great closeout that led to a Jaylen Brown bucket on the other end as Miami struggled to meet the intensity of Boston early on.

Brown capped off a strong opening quarter with a step-through runner that helped push the Celtics out to a 15-point advantage going into the second quarter, as Miami looked discombobulated on both ends.

Boston would maintain that advantage for most of the second quarter, leading by 16 with just under five minutes to play before Jimmy Butler took over to pull the Heat back to within six, somehow, at the halftime break.

Butler finished the half with 24 points, as he and Bam Adebayo (11 first half points) were just about the only bright spots for Miami and kept the Heat within striking distance of Boston. The Celtics likewise got big first halves from their stars, as Brown had 15 and Jayson Tatum had 13 in the first 24 minutes, but the difference early was the contribution of the “others” as Marcus Smart and Derrick White combined for 17 to give the Celtics a needed lift from the backcourt. For Miami, their “others” had just 14 points on 3-of-17 shooting, and it was clear that for the Heat to close the gap completely in the second half that had to change.

After a good start, Miami suddenly found itself down 14 again midway through the quarter as Marcus Smart got it going for Boston, knocking down a pair of triples off Brown assists that (coupled with a Max Strus three that got wiped off the board for stepping out of bounds) further extended Boston’s advantage in role player production.

However, as quickly as Boston opened things up, the Heat closed it back down to a couple of possessions with a 7-0 run of their own, capped off by the welcome sight for the Miami faithful of a Victor Oladipo three.

Miami opened the fourth quarter on a quick 5-0 run to cut the deficit to just three points and suddenly it felt like the Heat might actually pull things even as the building was rocking after a Bam Adebayo lob finish.

Boston would reestablish order thanks to some tremendous shot-making by Tatum that pushed the lead back to double digits and, seemingly, it looked like they had taken the best punch of the Heat.

However, Miami would again make a run, pushing their way to within two after big buckets by Lowry and Max Strus.

After a Marcus Smart runner missed, the Heat had the ball with 20 seconds to play and a chance to tie or take the lead. Jimmy Butler decided to take a pullup three rather than attack the rim in transition or pull it out for one final play, and after a sensational 35-point game where he never sat, he couldn’t muster anything more than the front rim.

Two Smart free throws put Boston up 100-96 with 11 seconds to play, and Miami saw Strus miss a pair of desperation threes (with a foul on a rebound in between), with the clock eventually running out on Miami’s comeback bid.

It was a valiant effort from a clearly banged up Heat team, led by Butler’s 35 points and nine rebounds, with Bam Adebayo showing up when they needed him with 25 points and 11 boards. However, the Heat could not overcome a 6-for-30 night from three-point range despite their best efforts, as long droughts (including a four minute stretch in the fourth without a bucket) plagued them throughout the series.

For Boston, Brown (24 points, six rebounds, six assists) got things started and Tatum (26 points, 10 rebounds, and six assists) closed things out, with a big lift from Smart (24 points, nine rebounds, five assists) to push them over the line. They’ll now have three days to rest and get ready for the Golden State Warriors who have been sitting at home since Thursday, with Draymond Green’s proclamation they’d face Boston coming true (maybe two days later than anticipated).

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Chris Buescher Flipped His Car Multiple Times In A Scary Wreck In Charlotte

The Coca-Cola 600 is not considered one of NASCAR’s more exciting races, as the longest race of the season is often a war of attrition and track position. However, this year with the new car, that changed fairly dramatically, as Charlotte Motor Speedway gave drivers fits as there were a number of wrecks on Sunday night as NASCAR’s best tried to make their way through 400 laps at the mile-and-a-half track.

Some of those were single car spins, but there were also some “big ones” that are usually reserved for superspeedway racing after restarts when the cars were bunched up in packs. One of those came with 55 laps to go when Daniel Suarez got spun by Chase Briscoe and found himself spinning through the middle of the track with some cars unable to avoid him, including Chris Buescher who slammed into Suarez and got sent into the new turf infield (that is no longer grass).

There, Buescher hit something that popped the front of his car up in the air and caused him to flip over violently multiple times before coming to rest on his roof.

Thankfully, Buescher was able to exit the car under his own power and NASCAR announced shortly after the wreck that he had already been evaluated and released from the care center.

That is a testament to the new car’s safety mechanisms, but there’s certainly some questions to be asked about what led to the car jumping up like that and flipping. The turf was added to keep cars from digging into the ground and getting torn up, which was successful, but they’ll need to take a look at the drains or whatever caused this in the future to avoid a repeat of this scary scene that luckily everyone emerged from unscathed.

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Harry Styles’ ‘Harry’s House’ Goes No. 1 With The Biggest First Week For A Male Singer In Six Years

There’s no doubt that Harry Styles is a superstar. He made that very clear with the release of his sophomore album Fine Line which, at the time, made for his third consecutive chart-topping album. It also made for the biggest first week by a male pop singer since Justin Bieber’s Purpose in 2015. With all of that in mind, it was expected that Harry was going to have another huge first week when he announced his third album Harry’s House back in March. Now that the album is here, we can confirm that Harry’s House indeed had a massive debut and the biggest of 2022 so far.

For the Billboard 200 chart dated June 4, 2022, Harry Styles’ Harry’s House debuted at No. 1 thanks to 521,500 album units sold in its first week. That number is comprised of 189,000 streaming equivalent album units thanks to 246.96 million on-demand official streams of the album’s songs. Harry’s House also registered a whopping 330,000 in pure album sales thanks to 182,000 vinyl sales which also gives Harry’s House the largest week for an album on vinyl since 1991. It beat out the previous record of 114,000 that was previously set by Taylor Swift’s Red (Taylor’s Version).

With its first-week total of 521,500 album units sold, Harry’s House becomes the fourth album in the last 18 months. It joins Adele’s 30 (839,000), Swift’s Red (Taylor’s Version) (604,500), and Drake’s Certified Lover Boy (612,500).

With its first week total, Harry’s House now has the biggest debut by a pop singer since Justin Bieber’s Purpose in 2015. Bieber’s album went No. 1 thanks to a first week total of 649,000.

You can revisit our review of Harry’s House here.

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Saint-Etienne Fans Stormed The Field And Threw Flares At Players For Losing In Penalties To Get Relegated

Relegation is one of the most unique aspects of international soccer compared to American sports, as the teams the finish at the bottom of the league will be sent down to a lower league (while top teams are promoted up). Relegation can cost clubs millions (and in some extreme cases, cause them to shut down entirely) and fans who want to watch their team in the top flight are suddenly no longer offered that opportunity.

In France, the bottom two teams in Ligue 1 are automatically relegated to Ligue 2, but the 18th place team must play a two-leg playoff against the third place team from Ligue 2 for who gets to play in the top flight of French soccer next year. This year, those two teams were AS Saint-Etienne and AJ Auxerre, and Sunday saw the two teams play to a 1-1 draw for the second time in Saint-Etienne’s home stadium, leading to a tense penalty shootout. Auxerre won that shootout 5-4 to make the leap up to Ligue 1, while Saint-Etienne will spend next season in Ligue 2, and their fans were, unsurprisingly, displeased by this outcome.

Because this is European soccer, those fans were armed with flares and they stormed the pitch, chasing their own players off the field and into the tunnel, chucking lit flares at them as they scurried to safety in an absolutely insane scene.

Relegation battles produce some crazy scenes, but this is a new one with fans firing flares at players. As someone not steeped in soccer tradition, fans having flares in the stands at soccer games (and sometimes European basketball games) has always been absolutely wild to me, but particularly so if stadium security has no chance of stopping them from getting on the field.

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Dan Crenshaw Bafflingly Insists That AR-15s Aren’t Really ‘Weapons Of War’ Right Before Admitting That The US Military Actually Does Use Them

Since the tragic gun massacre in Uvalde, Texas, which took the lives of 19 children and two adults, Republicans have been making the rounds to offer solutions. Do they support measures that would make assault rifles more difficult to obtain? No. Instead, they’ve floated practically every other solution except that, some blaming doors, not guns. And then there’s Lauren Boebert.

On Sunday, Dan Crenshaw, who’s tried to paint himself as a more sensible — or at least non-MAGA — Republican, offered his help. The Texas lawmaker went on CNN, where Dana Bash tried to glean what provisions he supports. The answer: not many. He didn’t approve of background checks, nor regulating gun shows, nor raising the gun purchase age to 21. He didn’t even like red flag laws, which would strip firearms from those deemed dangerous. What’s more, he poo-poohed the idea of a correlation between gun ownership and gun violence.

Crenshaw even rejected the depiction of AR-15-style weapons, which the Uvalde shooter legally obtained and used.

“I don’t really classify these as weapons of war,” Crenshaw averred — only to contradict himself with the very next thing he said. “We used them, but they’re more our self-defense weapons. I would say that if a SEAL team or an infantry unit goes on offense, they’re using much, much bigger weapons that are not available to your common civilian.”

Crenshaw also added that the military uses M4 carbine rifles, which he admitted “are an AR-15-style weapon,” used “mostly for self-defense and for very close quarters type of combat.” He added that “they have capabilities that your civilian rifles do not.”

So there you have it. Crenshaw doesn’t support restricting civilian access to guns even he admits are used by the military. Even if there are deadlier weapons than the AR-15, even the inventor of that gun, his family said, did not approve of it in civilian hands.

Then there’s the fact that marines have to do annual training, lasting two weeks, to prove they’re competent enough to handle such dangerous weapons, as this former rifle and pistol coach in the marine corps once pointed out while arguing that civilians can obtain deadly weapons easier than the military:

Maybe instead of doing something to help civilians from gun violence, Crenshaw can record another amped-up video of him beating up libs as though he was Tom Cruise. After all, they are about the same height.

(Via CNN)

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George Carlin’s Daughter Says He Would ‘Roll His Eyes’ At Today’s Far Right: ‘Lifelong New Yorkers Hate Donald Trump’

There’s a new documentary on HBO about George Carlin, the pioneering and highly influential stand-up, who in the ‘70s helped usher in a new and more profane style of comedy. He’s been talked about recently for other reasons, too. When it was revealed the right-leaning Supreme Court were on the verge of overturning Roe v. Wade, many shared his opening salvo from 1996’s Back in Town, in which he tears into Republicans’ inconsistent and illogical hatred of abortion rights.

Nevertheless, Carlin has often been championed by those on the far right as one of their own (at least when he absolutely wasn’t). His comedy, they argue, was about freedom of speech, mistrust of authority, even against environmentalism. (Though to be fair, his lengthy bit on the latter is really about how the planet is trying to get rid of pesky humankind, not that we aren’t making it unfit for the species’ survival.) There’s one person who isn’t buying that: his own daughter.

Kelly Carlin, one of the executive producers of George Carlin’s American Dream, recently went on the podcast The New Abnormal.

“Before he died in 2008, and Hillary was running, my dad was like, ‘You know, it’ll be good. Hillary [Clinton] will get in there and she’ll get some people some jobs.’ I mean, of course he leaned that direction. My dad was a lifelong New Yorker and lifelong New Yorkers hate Donald Trump,” Carlin said. “It just always shocks me when these Trumpers wanna claim him.”

She also laid into the way today’s GOP loves to paint themselves as victims, even trying to popularize white supremacist conspiracy theories about a “great replacement.” “The far right would like to say that they’re the minority now, but [George Carlin] would roll his eyes, because we know where all the wealth and the power is,” she explained. “That was the core, the deepest, deepest core of my father’s moral center from day one of his life.”

Anyway, sorry, Republicans who think George Carlin is speaking to them, even in death. He ain’t.

(Via The Daily Beast)

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Tom Cruise Had By Far The Best Opening Weekend Of His Career With ‘Top Gun: Maverick’

There was a period, in the mid-aughts, when people turned on Tom Cruise. He started speaking openly about Scientology (and even tried to recruit Seth Rogen into the fold). He railed on psychiatry. He jumped on sofas. Suddenly films starring the biggest movie star in the world were underperforming, or worse. He’s fought hard to get back on top, in part by almost killing himself to entertain. And now, in 2022, he has the biggest opening of his career.

As per The Hollywood Reporter, Top Gun: Maverick, the belated sequel to the blockbuster that made him a megastar 36 years ago, is set to gross $151 million over the four-day Memorial Day weekend. That makes it the second highest-grosser over the same weekend, after 2007’s Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, which Hoovered up $153 million — a mere two million more. Of that $151, $124 million of it came in the first three days, and $51.8 million are from Thursday night and Friday alone, when it was already breaking records.

Despite being Tom Cruise, the actor’s films have never opened above $100 million. By contrast, the last Mission: Impossible, 2018’s Fallout, “only” made $61.2 million in its opening weekend. In its first three days, Top Gun 2 grossed almost double what War of the Worlds made in its opening weekend back in June of 2005. (For the record, none of this is adjusted for inflation.)

For years, Cruise didn’t want to make a Top Gun sequel. In 1990, he described such a film as “irresponsible,” acknowledging critics who derided it as “a right-wing film to promote the Navy.” He also pointed out that kids “loved it,” which made him nervous. “I want kids to know that that’s not the way war is — that Top Gun was just an amusement park ride, a fun film with a PG-13 rating that was not supposed to be reality.”

And yet here we are, with a nearly 40-years-later sequel that is considerably less jingoistic than the Reagan-era original, a more somber affair that reflects on its aging star’s past and future, even as it knows that he can still fly the hell out of a plane.

(Via THR)