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The January 6 insurrection attempt in Washington DC may feel like it happened years ago, but that’s simply our warped sense of time in the age of Donald Trump and an extremely deadly and difficult pandemic. Trump, the twice impeached former president, is now calling boxing matches eight months later. Just to give you an idea of how far away all that seems.

But the fallout from his supporters’ attempt to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s win in the 2020 is still playing out. And one of the unfortunate stars of the MAGA riot, the so-called QAnon Shaman, is struggling to distance himself from the conspiracy-obsessed past that got him arrested after breaching the US Capitol in January.

As Law and Crime detailed, a judge handling legal matters for Jacob “QAnon Shaman” Chansley denied his petition for an early release for a third time, expressing skepticism that the “mascot” for the conspiracy theory actually had a change of heart.

Chansley’s counsel said in a statement that Chansley “repudiated” QAnon. Chansley has not personally indicated as such to this Court. Still, regardless of any potential repudiation, there is no doubt that he is a mascot for the QAnon movement. Hundreds of attendees joined Chansley’s September 3, 2021 plea-agreement hearing on the public access line, and at least once this Court’s proceedings were interrupted with shouts of “Freedom!”

Every case tied to the January 6 insurrection has weird twists and turns, but the QAnon Shaman’s has certainly been the most public. And since the judge here doesn’t sound too impressed by his attempt to distance himself from the spiral of conspiracy that got him to Washington in the first place, his sentencing on November 17 should certainly be interesting.

Twitch has taken legal action against some of its own users as the streaming platform tries to address targeted harassment of some users based on race, gender and sexual orientation.

According to Wired, the company filed suit against two users apparently using the platform for “hate raids,” which essentially spams a streamer’s chat with hateful messages that are amplified by bots. These attacks tend to target people of color and women along with other marginalized members of the community with hate speech. A week ago, a number of streamers took September 1 to boycott the platform in support of those who have been the target of hate raids, and it seems that has at least further pushed Twitch to explore all possible options against hate raiders.

On Thursday, after a month trying and failing to combat the tactic, Twitch resorted to the legal system, suing two alleged hate raiders for “targeting black and LGBTQIA+ streamers with racist, homophobic, sexist and other harassing content” in violation of its terms of service.

“We hope this Complaint will shed light on the identity of the individuals behind these attacks and the tools that they exploit, dissuade them from taking similar behaviors to other services, and help put an end to these vile attacks against members of our community,” a Twitch spokesperson said in a comment to WIRED.

Twitch has tried a number of measures to curb abuse on the platform, but the case against the two streamers here seems to be a last resort after they evaded a number of attempts to ban them from the platform.

Thursday’s lawsuit, which was filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, targets two users, identified only as “Cruzzcontrol” and “CreatineOverdose,” whom Twitch believes are based, respectively, in the Netherlands and Vienna, Austria. Twitch, in the suit, says it initially took “swift action” by suspending and then permanently banning their accounts. However, it reads, “They evaded Twitch’s bans by creating new, alternate Twitch accounts, and continually altering their self-described ‘hate raid code’ to avoid detection and suspension by Twitch.”

It will certainly be interesting to see what the legal system can do here, but it’s good that Twitch is taking real action to help protect users from abuse.

[via Wired]

NBA 2K22 is out and fans have been diving into the game’s many features. Of course, the three main staples of every 2K playthrough is Franchise, MyTeam, and the always popular MyPlayer. Ever since 2K11, the most popular mode in 2K has easily been MyPlayer. The ability to live out our dreams of being an NBA superstar has always been an appealing one, but over the last 10 years that mode has added plenty of add ons to keep us interested including online head to head matchups, ProAm’s, and The City.

Originally called The Neighborhood, The City is a hub world where basketball reigns supreme. Courts, hoops, and gyms are everywhere along with plenty of potential to build your brand as more than a basketball player. One of the ways to build up that brand? By releasing the hottest mixtape of 2022 of course.

A feature in NBA 2K22 is the ability to create your own rap from some pre-selected rhymes. Unfortunately, the rhymes themselves aren’t the best. One video currently making the rounds on Twitter is proof enough of that.

Maybe this is supposed to be realistic because most athletes that have attempted to rap have failed miserably at it. If that’s the case, then it’s a perfect recreation. It is of course hard to take this particular video seriously with the MyPlayer wearing a State Farm polo and khakis. Which, the reason he’s wearing that is that he met Jake from State Farm. Yes, you can meet Jake from State Farm and get “the drip.”

We can’t expect reality in The City, because it’s a world run by basketball brands, but when Jake from State Farm is calling his outfit “the drip” and players are rapping in it then something has gone terribly wrong in the simulation. This game is weird.

To say America is a divided country is an understatement these days. Even Republicans can’t seem to decide whether the party should jettison Donald Trump, and as the coronavirus pandemic continues to ravage America there are decidedly different ways people across political spectrums want to approach fighting its impact on the population.

Jim Acosta has certainly noticed that division, and on Saturday he offered a monologue on the 20-year anniversary of 9/11 that offered reflection on that division. Acosta has spent recent weeks attacking Tucker Carlson’s rhetoric and the harmful alternate reality networks like Fox News offer viewers, and on Saturday he noted that in the two decades since the September 11 terrorist attacks the country has only shifted further apart.

“There was an expression after 9/11: “All gave some. Some gave all.” We don’t really do that anymore,” Acosta said. “Some of us don’t want to give anything at all.”

Acosta managed to weave a narrative of division about both politics and viewing habits, but also an unwillingness by many to do their part to help end a pandemic still killing thousands of people a week.

“We live in separate worlds now. We don’t agree on the same facts anymore,” he said. “We can’t even agree on wearing masks or getting vaccinated to end this pandemic.”

You can watch the full monologue here.

After an extremely fraught summer off that saw the show select and then jettison a new full-time host amid wave after wave of controversy, Jeopardy! returns on Monday with new episodes and the start of a new season.

The kickoff to Season 38, though, comes with a number of unanswered questions that span well beyond the categories on the board. But one thing fans can expect to see on Monday is the return of Matt Amodio. The impressive champion carried over after 18 wins and $574,801 in winnings and is on pace for some record-breaking numbers if he can keep on winning. But his run actually carried into a wild summer for the show that may make his attempt at show history very complicated.

Amodio returned to the program coinciding with the appointment of Mike Richards as the new Jeopardy! host. But Richards taped just a single day as the official replacement for the late Alex Trebek before controversy over several instances of inappropriate behavior and fan outrage made him resign in shame. He also later left the show as an executive producer as well. Those five episodes, if Amodio managed to win them all, would represent the entirety of Richards’ run on the show before taping was canceled as the show scrambled to find a replacement host.

It will certainly be interesting to see how the show handles the appearance of Richards, and how Amodio handles the abrupt shift in the show’s host if he kept on winning. So much of playing Jeopardy! is comfort and familiarity with the host and the pace of the show, including the cadence of the host giving answers to contestants. It’s unfortunate Amodio has gotten caught up in all this, quite frankly, but if he intends to make history he’ll have to outlast Richards and potentially other guest hosts, too.

The NFL is back in full swing on Sunday after Week 1 started with a thrilling Bucs win over the Cowboys in the Thursday night opener, and the return of the NFL means the return of trying desperately to find the game you want to watch. For those with Sunday Ticket, this isn’t an issue, but for those without DirecTV, the fate of your local Fox and CBS broadcasts are determined by your location.

Thankfully, the great folks at 506Sports.com keep track of all of it with handy maps for each window, helping us all understand what games will be on where. In the early CBS window this week, most of the northern half of the country will be treated to Pittsburgh-Buffalo, while the southern half is split among the other four games based on location.

Red: PIT-BUF
Blue: JAX-HOU
Orange: ARI-TEN
Green: NYJ-CAR
Yellow: LAC-WAS

For the Fox early slate, most of the East and South will be shown Eagles-Falcons, while Seahawks-Colts dominates the West outside of California (where Niners-Lions will be shown). The Midwest, unsurprisingly, gets mostly Vikings-Bengals.

Red: PHI-ATL
Blue: SEA-IND
Green: SF-DET
Yellow: MIN-CIN

The late windows are much more simple, as most of the country will get Browns-Chiefs on CBS and Packers-Saints on Fox (red), with the lone exceptions being the markets directly around Denver and New York for Fox and Miami and New England for CBS (blue).

CBS:

FOX:

Rudy Giuliani earned a reputation as “America’s Mayor” after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the former New York City leader has worked hard over the last two decades to undo that generous narrative. His latest attempt came on Saturday, on the 20-year anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon in Washington.

And at a dinner he hosts each year to memorialize the terrorist act, the former personal lawyer to Donald Trump went on an unhinged rant about, well, a lot of things. In a speech that was televised thanks to right-wing news outlets, Giuliani rambled his way through remarks and spoke directly to audience members by name at times, jumping from topic to topic at what was supposed to be a memorial to those lost on 9/11 but became an odd airing of grievances about the end of the war in Afghanistan and several conspiracies Giuliani is now obsessed with.

As many noted, he appeared to be extremely intoxicated. Or at the very least frazzled. Which may explain why he claimed he wanted to rip the awarded stars off of Gen. Mark Milley’s uniform and “shove it down his throat.”

At one point, he impersonated Queen Elizabeth and claimed he turned down a knighthood before swinging wildly into some jokes about Prince Andrew. The audience, seemingly stunned at times, wasn’t sure what to make of him denying involvement with underage women unprompted.

“I never went out with him! Never EVER!” Giuliani said. “Never had a drink with him. Never was with a woman or a young girl with him. Never ever ever.”

There was a lot of remembering on Saturday, that’s for sure.

Given all the stuff going on with Giuliani, perhaps it’s understandable that he was a bit distracted. But maybe he should hire a speechwriter next time.

Welcome back, my brave summer lovers. I say brave because by now you’ve no doubt been inundated with the trappings of fall wherever you turn. Cozy sweaters, pumpkin spice anything, insistence from the people you trust that they can feel some kind of crisp hint in the air — it’s seasonal treachery and it edges in closer every year. Summer goes to September 22, people, and NBA Summer Vacation Watch goes until the trips stop. We all know the saying, if you’ve got to show up to training camp alongside a bossy man who starred in Space Jam 2, you might as well do it with a solid tan.

The vacations might be winding down but there’s a solid collection for you here this week that included waterfalls, multiple outfit changes, plus a wedding.

Jaylen Brown

A rare vacation sharer, Jaylen Brown went to a very luxe tropical destination and brought his basketball with him. Seems like he mostly loafed around the resort, smoked a cigar, but left looking happy and relaxed. This is an all-inclusive vacation safe space, by the way. If you or Jaylen want to go to one place for a week or a few days and make staking out the same beach lounger every day the main event, more power to him and to you.

Jaylen then went on a different kind of trip. JK this definitely looks like some sort of brand activation but I see some palm fronds, I see a relaxed looking Brown, I see sunglasses, and I see a magic mushroom the size of a small child, so.

Rating: These basketballs really do have it good.

Pascal Siakam

Bit of a late break from Pascal but the guy had to undergo surgery and preliminary rehab, at least enough that he could stroll around the grounds of what looks like another tropical resort to get these ‘fit pics off.

Rating: Is Pascal, like Pablo once was, in his blue period? All I know is I’m zoning out like I’m looking at The Old Guitarist, but feeling much less depressed.

Ben Simmons

Speaking of feeling much less depressed, or not depressed and probably never was at all, here’s Ben Simmons on horseback as well as 3/4 bodily submerged in some chill aquamarine waters, looking thoughtful, but certainly not mournful.

Rating: Does Daryl Morey take vacations? Unknown. Will they ever be covered here? Never.

Klay Thompson

As if it was at all surprising, Klay continues to have the offseason only Klay is capable of. This week, he attended a Giants game dressed as what I can only describe as a casual detective with Bay legend, E-40. Remember who told you bucket hats were big this summer? Me, but probably through the conduit of Klay.

Rating: A casual detective that respects the weather.

Damian Lillard

It was Dame’s Time to tie the knot with longtime partner, Kay’La Lillard (née Hanson). The two got married over the first weekend of September and the photos Dame shared were pretty cinematic, little bit like a music video. That is, of course, until he posed with his mom and broke his composure, which is the talent of mom’s everywhere.

Rating: I wonder if Dame Time makes the blur of a wedding go slower?

Jusuf Nurkic

Nurk alert! The Bosnian Beast himself attended teammate Damian Lillard’s nuptials, which hopefully puts to rest any lingering suspicions about where Nurkic wanted to go, and whether or not that was still Portland. You only wear sunglasses inside a wedding with the people you love.

Rating: Nice of Nurkic to pose for a pic with his great fan, Jake Layman.

CJ McCollum

CJ was, of course, also at Dame’s wedding, and through CJ’s photos we can see that Dame dropped some bars at his reception, that CJ danced to them, and that Draymond Green was there too.

Rating: If you weren’t sure of CJ’s commitment to friendship and joy please note that he had an outfit change! He was all in.

LeBron James

James does tend to take a late-summer vacation, but he also tends to take, like, a bit more of a dramatic one? A little louder than this? This summer he and his family took a low key trip to cruise around Corsica and then disembark so James could stare solemnly out over the ancient vines.

Rating: If you’re worried about coming across as too sombre for the season remember, just toss a bucket hat on.

Devin Booker

Booker was also in Italy this week, sort of in and around the Amalfi Coast judging by the calibre of pastel building built into cliff faces and umbrella captured in his gf’s, Kendall Jenner, post. Book went down into some wine catacombs, with some really dusty bottles strewn about, dressed appropriately as Indiana Jones.

Rating: Some good height in those cellars, ancient Amalfitani were hoopin’.

Myles Turner

Turner is back for a fourth appearance this summer, this time somewhere tropical, chilling at the edge of an infinity pool. Note that these visits are not just in the same places, but completely different destinations each time. It’s enough to inspire me to write a new twist on the old classic, called ‘I Got Friends In Vacation Places’.

Rating: Blame it all on my socks/I showed up in crocs/And improved this trip a great deal

Malcolm Brogdon

Sorry so blurry but much like the Patterson-Gimlin film this is the only evidence on record of Brogdon having a nice time this summer, so we’ll accept it as truth. Brogdon was in Zurich, taking in Lake Zurich from his balcony, before (I assume) he went to open several off-shore accounts and get himself tied up in a high speed chase through the Alps.

Rating: Love a daring life of espionage and intrigue for him.

Evan Fournier

Remember what I was saying before about summer being a good chance to try out new looks? Evan is giving it a go here but approaching it all wrong, because asking about pants in an IG poll is the same as having the pants wear you.

Rating: “But what does this have to do with summer, Katie?” The legions of dedicated fans of NBA SVW out there ask plaintively. “Everything,” I reply, and/or, “it’s the dog days of the summer vacation seasons, and every trip, even a trip to the fitting room, counts.”

Chris Boucher

The Bouch is loose in Montego Bay, Jamaica, and having a chillers time of it. He took a boat ride, wore a bucket hat, and maintained his signature look of “expressly unconcerned but here to handle it”.

Rating: Love a demure vacation. Love any vacation.

Jakob Poeltl

Another blurry “trust me it’s a vacation” photo this week but what can I say, I’m determined to get you the goods in these last days of the season. Poeltl was on a boat with friends wearing appropriate eyewear to protect himself from ricocheting UV rays on water, but not much else.

Rating: Putting forth a suggestion to change Jakob’s nickname from The Austrian Hammer to The Austrian Tanner, thanks.

Mike Scott

If you were thinking this whole thing was getting pretty long going without an appearance of one of its former SVW MVPs, well you and me both. Cast those fears aside like a prematurely layered cardigan, however, because he’s Mike Scott when we most need him and he’s hanging out in and around a waterfall.

Rating: Though I’m loathe to admit it’s coming to an end, I can rest easier knowing Mike Scott was here. Like a ghost of summers past showing you where it all went right.

Alfonzo McKinnie

Alfonzo fished! More than that, he faced what seems a legit fear, holding a thrashing and very strong looking fish. He did it all in a matched set of a bold, distinctly tropical print, top fluttering in the sea breeze. When it came time to pose, or maybe this was before the fish, he completed the look with a shirt not covered in potential fish slime and just like, the most excited smile.

Rating: The Lakers, in their obsession with assembling an Old Beach of their own, really let this one get away.

Danny Green

Danny is here to redeem himself after that last, traumatic, I’m in Italy but does anyone know where I might find a gym pic. He decided to, thankfully, enjoy himself on his own literal honeymoon.

Rating: Lord knows, there could be some free weights just out of frame there, one of those big boxes for jumping up on, any manner of vacation treachery.

Scottie Barnes

Rookie Scottie Barnes took to the beaches of his hometown earlier this week before he ended it on a plane to Toronto. Here’s hoping he sucked in all that sun like a lizard because, my sweet dude, there are sickos in this city already clamouring for the colder months like they’re clamouring for the Toronto Raptors, who are finally back.

Rating: I DON’T want to talk about winter coats I just want to know that somebody’s already on getting him the biggest one.

Dwyane Wade

Ah, like a rooster’s cacophonous call to the night’s end, so too has Dwyane Wade’s weeks long vacation come to a close. He rounded this summer out in France, where he spent a great deal of time on a bicycle, zipping and wobbling from one vineyard to another, testing wine and tenderly holding small grapes. Did he get fits off? He did. Did he wear a helmet? Most of the time. Is the way of Wade (spending a solid chunk of summer sipping rosé and going down big slides into the ocean) intact? It is.

Marvel’s expansion into the world of TV has been a hit among superhero movie fans, and this weekend the Disney venture has already seen critical approval as well. As Variety reported Saturday, WandaVision became the first Marvel show to win an Emmy when it picked up a win at the Creative Arts Emmys.

The show, which is nominated for 23 Emmys overall, seemed destined to give Marvel Studios its first big award at some point in the weekend. But it’s a big deal for a studio that saw its first foray into TV debut in January.

The Disney Plus limited series that centers on Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany) picked up its first two Emmys at the Creative Arts ceremony on Saturday: for narrative (half-hour) production design and for fantasy/sci-fi costumes.

The two-day Emmy ceremony is poised to be very good for Disney and Marvel either way. As The Hollywood Reporter detailed, while shows like Ted Lasso are also likely to have a big weekend so, too, is The Mandalorian and WandaVision based on the sheer number of nominations across the board.

And while WandaVision faces tough competition in the limited series categories, the Disney/Marvel series might do well over these two nights; it is certainly a frontrunner for original music and lyrics for “Agatha All Along,” a viral hit that would earn co-writer Kristen Anderson-Lopez EGOT status along with her writing partner and husband, Robert Lopez, the youngest person to hold the honor and the only one to earn a “double EGOT” for his multiple wins.

It’s also worth noting that The Falcon and the Winter Soldier garnered five nominations as well. And unlike when it came to major film awards, where it took a decade before Black Panther saw Oscar nominations, the studio certainly hit the ground running with critic-friendly TV.

Last week, Jacksonville State took on UAB and got blown out, with the Dragons coming out on top, 31-0. The No. 16 team in FCS, Jacksonville State had to try and bounce back against another FBS squad this week in Florida State. The difference this time around was that the Gamecocks didn’t just win, they did so in spectacular fashion.

Jacksonville State entered the fourth quarter trailing 17-7. The team played stout defense, scored on an 11-play, 97-yard drive, stayed solid defensively again, and got the ball back with 1:23 left in the game and 83 yards between themselves and the end zone. What happened next: A 10-play, 83-yard drive that took up the duration of the clock and ended with a touchdown to shock the crowd in Tallahassee.

The game-winning score came on fourth-and-10 with six seconds left and the ball on the Gamecock 41. Former Clemson quarterback Zerrick Cooper dropped back and found Damond Philyaw-Johnson, who, with all due respect, absolutely should not have scored here. But he somehow managed to make two Florida State defenders miss and got one extremely good block to walk it off.

The call on Florida State radio was simultaneously mad and disappointed.

To celebrate, some players planted a flag at midfield at Doak Campbell Stadium.

The fine folks in Las Vegas had the Gamecocks as 28-point underdogs entering Saturday evening. While they’re usually spot on, Jacksonville State made sure they got this one quite wrong.