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Despite reports that Donald Trump Jr. found his COVID-stricken father’s motorcade behavior to be “crazy,” it appears that he’s onboard with his dad mercilessly shutting down stimulus talks. That move occurred a day after the president — who was pumped full of steroids (dexamethasone) to treat the virus — unloaded a deluge of all-caps tweets that caused “ROID RAGE” to trend. With the president literally tweeting on steroids, it was no leap of logic to guess that he was feeling side effects, which is a dangerous thing for someone who’s leading a pandemic response.

Don Jr., however, brushed off a “roid rage” question from Steve Doocy. He did not deny the roid rage, of course, he simply defended his dad by accusing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (who he’d already tweeted about while saying that she didn’t care about the American people) of having “substance issues.”

“Nancy has her own substance issues according to the press and according to the media,” Don Jr. declared. “I won’t get into that. It’s obviously nonsense. The reality is this: Nancy Pelosi was trying to stack literally, probably a trillion dollars of excess nonsense to bailout Democrat cities… as part of that package while the American taxpayer gets to foot the bill for her radical agenda.”

Well, it looks like Don Jr. is gonna ride this train after all. After his Fox & Friends visit, the president’s eldest son popped back to Twitter with this strange campaign video, which directs people to the “Hunt The Vote” website. According to Jr., Trump “has done more for the American Outdoorsmen than any President since Roosevelt.”

It feels like a good time to revisit that Meditative Hunter photo. What a long four years this has been.

Season 2 of Amazon Prime’s The Boys has been a sh*t-stirring tornado filled with immortal Nazis and imploding politicians and laser-hot sex scenes, which is why my plan for chatting with newcomer Aya Cash (You’re The Worst) and returning player Colby Minifie was to keep things light. I wanted to lean into that superhero surrealist escapism with jokes about who would win in a fight between a speedboat and a humpback whale and ask what kind of fanfic erotica Cash’s mom might write if her character and Homelander get their happy ending. (Cash’s mom is actually an accomplished poet and novelist, so I’m guessing it’d be some high-level smut.)

What happened instead was a surprisingly in-depth chat on everything from toxic co-workers to intersectional feminism – although since this is The Boys we’re talking about, I should really stop being surprised by anything. Season 2 of the show has nailed the art of blending absurdist comedy with thought-provoking storytelling in a way that makes us both envious and terrified of creator Eric Kripke’s personal mindscape, so it’s only fair we reviewed some of the bigger storylines this time around with a sharper lens. I apologize for the lack of gill jokes in advance.

Here’s what Cash and Minifie had to say about where the show is heading, gender-swapping the main villain of Season 2, and what they’ve learned from playing in Kripke’s Suped-up sandbox.

So, Stormfront is a male character in the comics. What does swapping her gender add to the story this season?

Aya: I think for whatever reason we associate corrupt power with men, whether that’s earned or not. But we have seen women to do just as much damage and it’s often more insidious and more manipulative. So I think it’s a really interesting choice, especially dealing with the topics that we’re dealing with in terms of white supremacy that you’re using the face of… and I’m going to describe myself the way that [others have] a “young woman who’s hip to social media and memes and knows how to manipulate in a way that is obviously a very topical.” So I think that’s a really exciting way to exhibit this new form of Nazi-ism. I mean it’s the same thing. It’s the same sort of hate speech with a different language. I think having a woman do that is basically a reflection of the times as well, and the women that we’re seeing who are sort of saying, “I’m a strong woman and I believe this,” and people are listening to them. Eric Kripke has said that it’s Homelander’s worst nightmare, right? That this woman comes in and knows more than him. And Antony [Starr] would say Homelander is equal opportunity — he’s not necessarily misogynist, but I disagree with it. I think he is. Not Ant! Homelander.

Homelander is a lot of things, but mainly, he’s a giant assh*le. And Colby you deal with the brunt of that. Have you learned any tricks for managing toxic workplace environments you’d like to share?

Colby: [Laughs] Yes, I think there’s one tiny little moment in the first episode when Ashley half tries to be a little sexual with Homelander because I think she had an inkling that something was going on between him and Stillwell and that’s why the relationship was so good, and then she immediately gets shut down and she’s like, “Okay that’s not the way forward.” I don’t want me to make Ashley sound bad, but she really cares about her job and she will do anything to save her ass. So She’ll find any opportunity. She’s afraid for her life. I think what Ashley doesn’t really do yet, which I hope she will learn to… she takes everything very personally and she wants to do a good job for herself as much as for The Seven. When Homelander is hard on her, she takes it very personally. I think she just needs to remove that personal thing and just make it about the job, which is how I recommend dealing with assh*les.

I mean, it’s something that Stormfront’s definitely mastered this season. What does her rise to power within The Seven, and how she’s able to manipulate people say about our own cultural problem with misinformation right now?

Aya: Oh Lord, that’s a big question. Misinformation is [meant] to inspire paranoia, and it has won in our culture. Look, no one can become an expert on everything, right? We have to find people and sources that we trust and that has become harder and harder because of misinformation campaigns on many sides. It does damage to everyone. So whether you sort of get a kick out of someone spreading misinformation campaigns, because it aligns with your values, and you’re in on the joke — it does a disservice because nobody trusts anything anymore. And that was the goal for the people who have started manipulation of all media — to get the public not to trust anything or anyone. That’s a huge problem. So chaos is the goal and it’s much easier to incite chaos. Entropy is natural, so it’s much harder to create order. So she’s the bomb of disorder and lies that lands in The Seven and unfortunately that’s where we are in our world as well.

Stormfront is definitely a villain, but where do the people who enable her land? Should we learn something from people like Ashley who are just as happy to stay silent and let this sh*t happen?

Colby: Yeah, I think one of the most amazing things about this character is that [she’s] showing how caring so much about optics can poison good intentions. There are lines that Ashley says where she’s like, “We’re going to poll through the roof with millennials if we have this differently-abled member of The Seven who’s a person of color…,” You know, it’s just like, she cares so much about the optics in order to be popular and do well, and that can be really poisonous, if not done in the right way. I think Ashley is trying her best to do her job, and that can get in the way of actually doing what’s right.

It’s interesting that both of these flawed characters who are helping to push this really dangerous movement forward are white women, especially since race plays such an important role this season.

Aya: I think that’s a great observation. And I think that there are certain aspects that I don’t think I had even thought of when I was playing it, which shows my own blind spots in things. Someone wrote an article about white feminism and how exclusionary it’s been, and that this character coming on as a sort of white feminist and then is revealed to be a Nazi, is a commentary on that. I think that’s a really, really smart interpretation that the writers probably understood, that I didn’t. That’s an opportunity for me to think and to look at that within myself and in the ways that I’ve sort of espoused equality for women and whether that has been inclusive. So I hope that that conversation continues around things. I am not an expert in this, but I do feel like that illuminated something for me that I need to think about in terms of my own journey as a human being. That’s a good thing that the show brought and that this character has brought to me.

Well, this all ended up being much more serious than I planned. Not even one whale question. I’m truly sorry.

Aya: [laughs] We’ll DM you about the whale.

Amazon’s ‘The Boys’ streams episodes each Friday with the season finale coming on October 9.

Just like a number of other festivals have done this year, Austin City Limits was forced to cancel the 2020 installment of their festival due to the coronavirus pandemic. Opting for a cancellation rather than a postponement, which some festivals have chosen to do, Austin City Limits went ahead and announced the 2021 dates for their festival, hoping for a safe return from October 1 to 3 and October 8 to 11 next year. Despite the move to 2021, Austin City Limits isn’t allowing 2020 to end without an event. Ensuring the year sees a festival of sorts, Austin City Limits announced they will hold a 2020 festival headlined by Billie Eilish, Paul McCartney, and Radiohead that looks back at past Austin City Limits performances.

Taking place from October 9 to 11, Austin City Limits has teamed up with YouTube to hold the event this upcoming weekend. Fans of the festival will be able to relieve memorable moments from past years of the festival. Viewers can expect to see Willie Nelson, St. Vincent, Spoon, LCD Soundsystem, My Morning Jacket, The xx, Zhu, Gary Clark Jr., Sylvan Esso, Alabama Shakes, Juanes, Phoenix, Phish, and more during the Austin City Limits festival weekend. The festival is also partnering with Austin Parks Foundation, All Together ATX, Equal Justice Initiative, and When We All Vote for the 2020 event.

You can view the 2020 Austin City Limits festival lineup above.

Donald Trump is fresh out of the hospital after receiving treatment for COVID-19. By the president’s own account, he’s doing just fine, but he has been criticized for his still-cavalier approach to the virus. Last night, James Corden devoted a few minutes of The Late Late Show to perform a parody of the situation, which made Corden a trending topic on Twitter.

The video starts with a clip of Trump giving a status update on his health, which ends with him declaring, “Maybe I’m immune, I don’t know!” Corden, seated behind a piano, then launches into a performance of Paul McCartney’s “Maybe I’m Amazed,” but with new lyrics. The new Corden version of the song, re-titled “Maybe I’m Immune,” begins:

“Maybe I’m immune ’cause today I’m feeling so alive / Just don’t be afraid of the way I’m breathing / Maybe I’m immune, it’s OK to go out for a ride / with others trapped inside / Maybe you’re immune to the lies my doctors tell you / Maybe I’m a man and maybe I don’t wear a mask ’cause I don’t care about others / science I don’t really understand.”

Corden continued from there, and throughout the performance, Corden’s words were underscored by relevant clips of Trump and his associates.

Watch Corden sing “Maybe I’m Immune” above.

The Los Angeles Lakers picked up a pivotal Game 4 victory over the Miami Heat in the 2020 NBA Finals on Tuesday evening. Though the game was not always aesthetically pleasing with whistles and hiccups throughout, both teams left everything on the floor, and the Lakers improved to a blistering 56-0 this season when leading after three quarters.

During the stretch run, there was plenty of drama leading up to a memorable jump shot from Anthony Davis and an eventual 102-96 victory for the Lakers to take a 3-1 lead. With that as the backdrop, here are three takeaways from what transpired, all with an eye toward Game 5 on Friday evening in Orlando.

1. The Lakers received important contributions from their supporting cast

Ultimately, Davis and LeBron James combined for 50 of the 102 points for the Lakers, and the team’s dynamic duo will garner the majority of the headlines as a result. However, it was anything but a perfect game, at least offensively, from James and Davis, and the Lakers needed quite a bit of help from their supporting cast.

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope has arguably been the Lakers’ third-best player in the Bubble, and he was undisputedly so on this night. The veteran shooting guard finished with 15 points and five assists in 32 minutes, making all the right plays on both ends of the floor.

First, Caldwell-Pope started hot, scoring eight of the first ten points for the Lakers to counteract a slow start from the headliners.

Then, after his scoring production slowed, Caldwell-Pope scored five enormous points in the fourth quarter, first connecting on a three-pointer to put the Lakers up five, then attacking the rim and finishing to help put more space between Los Angeles and Miami.

Though Caldwell-Pope was the most important supporting piece for Los Angeles, he wasn’t alone. Kyle Kuzma knocked down a few key jumpers, Rajon Rondo grabbed seven rebounds and dished out five assists, Danny Green found his footing throughout the game, and Alex Caruso and Markieff Morris both made key plays when needed. All told, the Lakers’ supporting players shot only 10-for-30 from three-point range, but Frank Vogel decided to go small, giving Dwight Howard only eight minutes of playing time, and that decision was rewarded by sparkling defense from small-ball lineups and just enough space to help Los Angeles snatch the victory.

2. The Heat miss Goran Dragic immensely

Though Goran Dragic was listed as doubtful and it would have taken a heroic effort for the veteran to get near the court in Game 5, his presence was deeply missed. Dragic, who revitalized his career in averaging 19.9 points per game so far in the postseason, provides the Heat with another on-ball creator that can get his own shot and set up others. While Jimmy Butler carried an immense workload in dominating Game 4, mitigating the absence of Dragic, it was exceptionally evident that Miami was one creator short in this game.

Kendrick Nunn struggled mightily, shooting 2-for-11 from the floor and missing all five of his two-point attempts. While Nunn enjoyed a strong rookie season, he was simply out of his depth in this spot, visibly forcing the action in an uncomfortable manner, and lacking in basic decision-making.

It was defensible to at least try Nunn in this spot, especially when recognizing Miami’s relatively short bench, but the Heat also didn’t get the best of Tyler Herro. To be fair, the rookie lottery pick did finish with 21 points, including 12 in the fourth quarter, but Herro’s decision-making and shot selection were also poor in this spot. Eventually, he flashed what Miami needed from a shot creation perspective down the stretch, but the Heat didn’t have the same type of engine that Dragic provides, and the Heat struggled to less than 1.05 points per possession as a result.

3. Anthony Davis had an unbelievable night

LeBron James might be the favorite for NBA Finals MVP, especially after a second half that saw him score 20 points, grab nine rebounds and dish out four assists in Game 4. With that said, Davis was arguably the best player for the Lakers, especially when taking defense into account.

Davis finished the night with nine defensive rebounds, four blocked shots and steal, anchoring the same defense that held Miami well-below its normal baseline in efficiency. For much of the night, Davis wasn’t insanely productive on the offensive end, at least by his standards, but he was absolutely everywhere on the defensive end, containing Bam Adebayo, cutting off penetration, protecting the rim, and even guarding Butler for large chunks of time.

In the end, Davis finished with a game-best +17 in a game the Lakers won by six and, while plus-minus in a single game doesn’t necessarily reflect everything that transpired, it certainly felt right in this instance.

Oh, and Davis knocked down the dagger to give the Lakers their third win of the series and place Miami firmly on the ropes at the same time.

The Lakers will aim to finish off the Heat on Friday evening in Game 5, while Miami will look to respond, especially on the offensive end, after what was a challenging loss.

The 46th season of Saturday Night Live got underway last weekend with help from Chris Rock, who served as the show’s host, and Megan Thee Stallion, who served as the musical guest for the season premiere. Safely navigating coronavirus concerns with a paid crowd to ensure New York State laws were not violated, SNL seemed to have the new season under control, but the show faces a new problem thanks to its upcoming musical guest, Morgan Wallen.

Wallen in slated to be the musical guest on the October 10 episode of SNL, but the country singer may lose that opportunity thanks to his participation in a reckless Alabama party. A news report from Tuscaloosa, AL shows Wallen at a house party with maskless individuals following a Crimson Tide football game at Bryant-Denny Stadium. A number of videos posted to TikTok and Twitter shows the country singer drinking and making out with maskless partygoers. The videos also depicts his eventful day, which includes visits to a bar and the backseat of fan’s car in addition to the house party.

Wallen’s partying could present a huge risk to the SNL crew with his upcoming performance. SNL has placed a number of rules and procedures on their 30 Rock set to prevent the spread and presence of the virus on the show, which includes requiring everyone who is not on-camera to wear a mask and conducting constant rapid testing.

(via AL.com

Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

If there’s one thing DaBaby has made clear in his musical career so far, it’s that there’s no slowing him down. The North Carolina native rarely goes more than a month without some type of musical offering, whether it be a song, an album, or a video. Keeping that streak alive, DaBaby taps into the deluxe version of his album Blame It On Baby for a new music video for the song “Practice.”

Calling on his huge squad of friends and associates, which includes his uncle, a young rapper who goes by the name of Big Caleb, and Billion Dollar Baby Entertainment rapper Stunna 4 Vegas, DaBaby and crew terrorize the streets. From cars doing donuts to $100 bills raining from the sky, the video shows DaBaby and his crew having a blast in the city.

The video arrives after DaBaby and Lil Baby announced a drive-in music festival, which is set to take place in Atlanta on October 11 at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. The announcement arrived after DaBaby tried his hand at a mid-pandemic concert back in July. Despite laying out protocols that would ensure the safety of everyone in attendance, video from the concert showed that the the rules were scarcely followed. As a result, he and public officials were thrashed and condemned on social media for going through with the concert despite the obvious health risks. Perhaps DaBaby can redeem himself with the upcoming drive-in concert.

You can watch the “Practice” video above.

Johnny Nash, who was best known for his 1972 hit song “I Can See Clearly Now,” has died at the age of 80. The news was confirmed to TMZ by his son John Nash III, who told the platform that his father passed away from natural causes at his home in Houston.

Nash’s music career began in 1957 with his major-label debut single, “A Teenager Sings the Blues.” The following year, the pop and reggae singer would land his first Billboard hit thanks to a cover of Doris Day’s “A Very Special Love.” In 1965, Nash released his highest-charting single to date with “Let’s Move and Groove Together,” which entered the top five on the BillboardUS R&B charts. He later moved to Jamaica with Arthur Jenkins and manager Danny Sims to form the JAD Records in 1967. Five years later, Nash released his most successful single, “I Can See Clearly Now.”

Aside from his musical career, Nash also had had a successful sideline as an actor. One of his major acting roles came in 1959 when he took the lead role as Spencer Scott in Take a Giant Step. The film, which was directed by Philip Leacock, was one of the first films about a black family written by a black writer.

(via TMZ)

For the second time in three years, the Seattle Storm have swept their way to a WNBA championship. The Storm capped off the WNBA’s Bubble in Bradenton, Fla. with an emphatic, 92-59 win over the Las Vegas Aces on Tuesday night, bringing this season to an end and giving Seattle the latest bit of hardware to toss into its trophy case.

Seattle entered Game 3 looking every bit the juggernaut it is, picking up back-to-back double-digit wins in the series behind Sue Bird’s brilliance as a floor general and the team’s bevy of ways to attack the Aces — Breanna Stewart was magnificent, as were Jewell Loyd, Alysha Clark, and Natasha Howard. On Tuesday, that formula proved fruitful once again.

Things stayed pretty close through the first two quarters. Despite the fact that Stewart (who scored 11 in the half) picked up her third personal foul with 7:13 left in the second and spent the rest of the frame on the bench, Seattle was able to take a 43-34 lead into the locker room. Las Vegas’ A’ja Wilson played like an MVP, scoring 14 points and pulling down four rebounds through the first two quarters, but Loyd picked up the slack while Stewart was on the bench, scoring 10 points and pulling in three rebounds.

And then, the avalanche came, and Las Vegas found itself so far behind the eight ball that the fourth quarter ended up being a mere formality. Seattle started the third on a 12-2 run, coming out of the locker room on fire and creating a cushion that ended up making things seem inevitable well before the final buzzer went off. The offense was crisp, the defense put the clamps on the Aces, and the Storm saw out an absolutely dominant 32-14 edge in the frame.

In the midst of it all, Stewart etched her name in the WNBA’s record book. Seattle followed an Aces miss by pushing the ball up the floor, with Stewart putting her foot on the gas and getting to the bucket unimpeded. Loyd made a spectacular pass, and because of that, Stewart set a record with her sixth-straight 20+ point game in a Finals game.

Seattle managed to lead by as many as 35 en route to the victory. Stewart was tremendous, scoring 26 points on 10-for-14 shooting and reeling in four rebounds in 25 minutes of work. Loyd’s 19 points, nine rebounds, four assists, and two steals stood out, while Jordin Canada scored 15 off the bench and Clark pitched in 10 with seven rebounds and five assists. Bird didn’t fill it up, scoring five points, but led the game with seven assists. On the other side of things, Wilson’s 18 points, six rebounds, and four assists led the way.

With the win, the Storm picked up their fourth title in franchise history. This mark ties them with the Minnesota Lynx and the now-defunct Houston Comets for the most in WNBA history. And while they’ll deservedly take a whole lot of time to celebrate this accomplishment, with how incredibly good this team is, Seattle will have aspirations of making it back to the promised land next season, whenever that may come.

This past weekend, Megan Thee Stallion appeared on Saturday Night Live, where she served as a musical guest for the show’s 46th season premiere. She preformed two songs, “Savage” and her newly-released single, “Don’t Stop,” while also contributing to a skit entitled “Hello.” While her appearance was newsworthy in itself, it’s the impactful message Megan made during her “Savage” performance that made headlines. She used her performance to advocate for the protection of black women and call out Kentucky’s attorney general Daniel Cameron for his refusal to arrest the police officers involved in the murder of Breonna Taylor. A speech by activist Tamika Mallory directed at Cameron played in the background, in which Mallory said, “Daniel Cameron is no different than the sellout negroes that sold our people into slavery.”

Stopping by Fox News for an interview Tuesday afternoon, Cameron responded to Megan, calling her comments “disparaging” and “disgusting.”

Let me just say, I agree that we need to love and protect our Black women. There’s no question about that … but the fact that someone would get on national television and make disparaging comments about me because I’m simply trying to do my job is disgusting … At the end of the day, my responsibility is to provide facts and truth and represent and stand up for justice. I think what you say there, in that display, is someone who instead wants to fashion facts to narrative; that narrative is simply not true in this particular case with Ms. Taylor. Again, it is a tragedy what happened to her.

He further explained that her comments “do not hurt” as it’s something he’s dealt with in the past.

The fact that a celebrity that I’ve never met before wants to make those sorts of statements — they don’t hurt me, but what it does is it exposes the type of intolerance that people, and the hypocrisy because obviously people preach about being tolerant. You’ve seen a lot of that from the left about being tolerant. But what you saw there is inconsistent with tolerance. In fact, it’s her espousing intolerance because I decided to stand up for truth and justice.

You can watch Cameron’s response in the video above.

Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.