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Howie Does Stuff
Bill Burr Rips Billy Corgan For Revealing They May Be Half-Brothers On Howie Mandel's Podcast
Jan 29, 2025
Howie Mandel's plan to arrange a meeting between comedian Bill Burr and Smashing Pumpkins guitarist Billy Corgan, based on the supposed premise they were half-brothers, backfired.
A few months ago on the Howie Does Stuff podcast, Corgan, 57, suggested he and Burr, 56, might share the same father, thanks to an anecdote revealed to him by his stepmother when Corgan was 18.
Corgan recalled a conversation he had with his stepmother, who asked if he knew who "Billy Burr" was before Burr's rise to fame as a famous stand-up comedian.
The musician was told that the would-be comic "might be one of the children that your father sired in his days being a traveling musician."
Here is a clip from November's episode of Howie Does Stuff.
Corgan's recollection fascinated Mandel enough to eventually stage a supposed family reunion between the two Bills—without telling Burr the whole story.
On the latest episode, Burr was caught off guard when he was introduced by the "surprise guest." After the Bills shook hands, presumably for the first time, Burr turned to Mandel and said, "You're an a**hole."
To which the podcaster replied, "I'm an a**hole? I thought this would be great to bring a family together."
Appearing confused, Corgan turned to Burr and said of Mandel, "He told me you were totally cool with me coming."
"That's what he does," said Burr, not amused by the forced meeting.
After Corgan offered to leave and Burr asked if the segment could be edited out, Burr acquiesced and said, "All right, f'k it, now I'll do it."
The annoyed comedian directed his attention back to Corgan and told him:
"Did you ever think the fact that I never told that story [meant] that maybe you shouldn't?"
You can watch a TikTok clip of the awkward moment here.
Mandel caught listeners up to speed about how Corgan shared his family theory.
Burr weighed in with more details about their supposed shared father.
"He was a piece of sh*t," recalled Burr.
"He had two kids this close together, and he gave them the same f'ing name? He thinks it's different because he's Billy and I'm Bill. That's how he told the difference."
Burr clarified that it had nothing to do with whether or not he liked Corgan but that "It reminds me of all of that sh*t."
Corgan, who turned his interests to professional wrestling after purchasing the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) in 2017, understood and observed, "It just seems more of the same from what I've been hearing."
Burr did his best under the circumstances not to escalate tensions and told the innocent musician, "Whatever. I like your music."
"I appreciate that," Corgan replied, and the conversation ended with Burr responding, "Ok great."
You can watch a longer clip here.
- YouTubeyoutu.be
People didn't know what to believe.
One thing was certain: Mandel failed at producing a feel-good talk show moment.
Corgan tried to inject some levity by saying of Burr, "The fact that he said he can’t sing, I think, disproves that we’re related, 'cause I’m not funny, so...it goes both ways. 'Cause I'm not funny, you know what I mean? So, it goes both ways."
The Emmy-nominated comedian genuinely expressed appreciation for Corgan's musical accomplishments but added, "I just would prefer if you just kinda didn't go around not telling these f'king stories."
When he asked Corgan why "felt the need" to do that, Corgan faulted Mandel for setting the whole thing up, recalling an incident when Mandel emerged from a building, saw Corgan, and mistook him for Burr.
This prompted Corgan to wonder if Mandel was aware of his family theory, and to eventually open up to him about it in private.
Mandel later encouraged Corgan to "say this on the air."
Burr criticized Mandel, explaining "that's what he does. He's bringing you not, not because he's trying to heal the bullsh*t that we went through growing up." Burr added that the whole thing was arranged to benefit the podcaster with a ratings boost.
Following even more awkward silence, Burr continued, "What was supposed to happen? Are we going to go play catch? We're both in our 50s," prompting laughter from the hosts as well as Corgan.
After Corgan clarified that Mandel "totally set me up," Burr changed his tone and joked that Mandel will likely forget any of this took place and will instead be "gazing with his arms behind his back, you know, looking at his YouTube plaque" minutes after the Bills leave the premises.
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Olympic Sprinter Gabby Thomas Rips Racist Trolls Claiming She Didn't 'Earn' Her Harvard Degree
Jan 29, 2025
Track and field Olympic champion Gabby Thomas clap backed after her intelligence was mocked by trolls.
An internet user said of the 28-year-old star athlete, "Gabby Thomas doesn't sound like she's the brightest out there."
The three-time gold medalist clocked another victory by responding to the unprovoked rudeness by not stooping to their level, but by mentioning her higher education.
"You’re probably right," wrote Thomas followed by an 'Oh, well' and crying laughing emojis.
She added, "darn my Harvard degree."
The Georgia native who grew up in Massachusetts is a 2019 graduate of Harvard with a degree in neuroscience as well as a minor in global health and health policy.
She went on to complete her master in public health degree in epidemiology from University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.
Her retort on X (formerly Twitter) sparked a slew of racist comments suggesting she was being untruthful about having a degree from the private Ivy League research university.
The shocked athlete weighed in on the controversy and wondered, "Is this real life??"
She wrote:
“Today, on Jan 26, 2025, there are hundreds of people commenting on my Twitter page that specifically because I am black, they must assume I did not earn my admission into Harvard nor did I earn my diploma. Is this real life??”
Many people had her back and answered her question.
People also touched on the current situation and how it remains challenging to maintain optimism for the future.
Thomas won three gold medals at the 2024 Olympics in Paris individually in the 200 m, and with Team USA in the 4 × 100 m relay and 4 × 400 m relay, in which they ran the second-fastest time ever.
Prior to that at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, she won the bronze medal in the 200 m and a silver as part of the women's 4 × 100 m relay.
At the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Thomas medaled silver in the 200 m with a time of 21.81 seconds and won gold alongside her US teammates in the women's 4x100m relay final with a championship record of 41.03 seconds.
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@laurasmith6036/TikTok; Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images
MAGA Politician Resigns After Copying Musk's Nazi-Like Salute In Unsettling Video
Jan 29, 2025
Pennsylvania Republican Laura Smith resigned from her position as the Towamencin Township Supervisor after a TikTok video in which she mimicked billionaire Elon Musk's Nazi-like salute at President Donald Trump's inauguration sparked outrage.
Following Trump's swearing-in, Musk spoke at a rally held at D.C.'s Capital One Arena and said:
"Elections come and go, some elections are important, some are not, but this one really mattered. And I just want to say thank you for making it happen. Thank you.”
At this moment, Musk placed his right hand on his chest before extending it outward with his palm facing down and fingers pressed together—a gesture historically known as the “Roman salute.”
This gesture, co-opted by fascist movements in the early 20th century, is most infamously associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Germany. It remains a symbol tied to the far-right, particularly among fascist groups in Italy.
After making the gesture initially, Musk turned to face the crowd seated behind him and, with his back to the camera, repeated the same action before saying:
"My heart goes out to you."
You can see the moment in the video below.
um
[image or embed]
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) January 20, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Not long afterward, Smith posted a now-deleted video in which she hit her chest three times and then extended her arm out in front of her in a manner similar to Musk's own salute.
She says, smiling:
“Just checking in on my friends who are struggling this week. My heart goes out to you. Hope you’re doing OK.”
You can see the video below.
On Sunday afternoon, after the video went viral, township officials posted Smith’s resignation letter on the township’s website, stating that the remaining board “intends to accept this resignation at a public meeting as soon as possible.”
In her letter, Smith said her action had been "mischaracterized," adding:
"To allow the Township to move forward without the encumbrance of the fallout of my video, I tender my resignation from the Towamencin Township Board of Supervisors effective immediately.”
“I abhor racism, anti-Semitic or discrimination in any fashion or form and my record as a township supervisor attests to my commitment to treat all people with dignity and respect."
But no one was buying it.
The Philadelphia region’s affiliate of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) condemned the TikTok video as “utterly unacceptable,” emphasizing that Smith’s actions “have impacted and caused harm to the community which must be acknowledged.”
This strong rebuke contrasts with the statement issued by the ADL’s main office in response to Musk’s controversial salute, which described the gesture as an "awkward" one made "in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute, but again, we appreciate that people are on edge."
The ADL faced backlash for its statement, with critics accusing the organization of downplaying Musk’s history of amplifying antisemitic and extremist rhetoric, his ties to the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party—known for members using Nazi slogans and minimizing the Holocaust—and the fact that neo-Nazi groups celebrated the salute after the footage went viral.
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CNN
Jim Acosta Abruptly Departs CNN With Fiery Warning About Bowing Down To A 'Tyrant'
Jan 29, 2025
Former CNN anchor Jim Acosta capped his nearly two decades at the network on Tuesday by reminding viewers to "hold on to the truth" and to not bow down to a "tyrant"—which many saw as a pointed criticism of President Donald Trump, whom Acosta's coverage has irritated more than once.
Acosta announced his departure on Tuesday at the conclusion of his one-hour morning show, urging viewers:
“Don’t give in to the lies. Don’t give in to the fear.”
While he didn’t explicitly connect these remarks to Trump, the implication was evident. CNN stated that its decision to move Acosta from daytime to a midnight Eastern time slot was unrelated to politics.
RELATED: CNN Panelist Issues Epic Dare To GOP Pundit After He Defends Musk's Nazi-Like Salute
Last week, CNN announced a daytime lineup shuffle, replacing Acosta’s 10 a.m. Eastern time slot with Wolf Blitzer, paired with Pamela Brown. The network also offered Acosta a role in Los Angeles, hosting a show at 9 p.m. Pacific time (midnight Eastern) that would simulcast on CNN International.
Acosta, who has been with CNN for 18 years, revealed on Tuesday that he declined the offer and gave these parting words:
"I just wanted to end this show by thanking all of the wonderful people who work behind the scenes at this network. They have seen some reports about me and this show and after giving this careful consideration and weighing alternative time slots, I've decided to move on."
"I am grateful to CNN for the nearly 18 years I've spent here doing the news. People ask me if the highlight of my career was being at the White House covering Donald Trump, but no. That moment came when I covered former President Barack Obama's trip to Cuba in 2016 and had a chance to quesion the dictator there, Raúl Castro about the island's political prisoners."
"As the son of a Cuban refugee, I took home this lesson: it is never a good time to bow down to a tyrant. I've always believed it's the duty of the press to hold power to account. I always planned on doing that with CNN and I plan on doing that in the future."
He added:
"One final message: Don’t give in to the lies. Don’t give in to the fear. Hold on to the truth and hope even if you have to get out your phone and record that message: "I will not give in to the lies. I will not give into the fear." Post it on your social media so people can hear from you too."
You can hear what he said in the video below.
Many appreciated Acosta's remarks.
In a statement, CNN acknowledged Acosta's lengthy tenure, saying that “Jim has had a long, distinguished, nearly 20-year career at CNN, with a track record of standing up to authority, for the First Amendment and our journalistic freedoms."
Although Acosta did not specifically refer to Trump, Trump was undoubtedly on Acosta's mind given their contentious history.
In 2018, the Trump White House suspended Acosta's press pass after he and Trump clashed at a news conference. The confrontation began when Acosta questioned Trump about the caravan of migrants traveling from Latin America to the U.S. southern border.
As Acosta attempted to ask a follow-up question, Trump cut him off, saying, “That’s enough!” A female White House aide then tried unsuccessfully to take the microphone from Acosta.
Following the exchange, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders released a statement accusing Acosta of “placing his hands on a young woman just trying to do her job as a White House intern,” calling his actions “absolutely unacceptable."
Acosta later said that Sanders’ statement that he put his hands on the aide was “a lie," and CNN backed him up, saying Acosta was the victim of “retaliation for his challenging questions."
Not surprisingly, after Acosta's announcement, Trump posted on Truth Social celebrating his departure, to which Acosta fired back:
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Photo by Stefan Steinbauer on Unsplash
The Best Loopholes People Have Managed To Exploit
Jan 29, 2025
Life, especially as an adult, can be hard, and it's nice to be able to feel like you're living on "Easy Mode" from time to time.
One of the best ways to experience this has to be when you feel like you've found a loophole in the system.
From special deals at stores and restaurants, to exceptions in terms of service, there are some good ones out there.
Ready to take notes, Redditor _ZoroX_ asked:
"What's the best loophole you've ever discovered?"
Free Parking
"My brother got free parking for pretty much his entire time at university."
"It was that golden period when the pay parking kiosks were able to accept credit cards, but before they were actually connected. They’d read a card and check it against a locally stored list of banned numbers, and once a month the meter maid would download the transactions, process them, and update the blacklist."
"My brother found that they’d accept those prepaid gift cards if they were backed by Visa or MasterCard, but couldn’t check the available balance, so he’d buy one, use the balance up on whatever, and then use the card for parking until the end of the month when it’d get processed, found to not have funds, and banned. Rinse and repeat."
"The guy saved probably $2500 over his degree."
- Chic_Femininee
Free Printing
"In university, I didn’t have my own printer. I had to swipe my student ID to pay to print anything on the library’s printer. They charged something like 10 cents per page."
"I would go and select the document name off of the touch screen, then swipe my card, and it would print as well as charge my account. I discovered that if I gave my document a really long name, the computer didn’t know what to do with it."
"So instead of going to the queue, it just bypassed the pay screen entirely and printed."
- Pilotx15
In-State Tuition
"Not mine but many years ago a woman was attending college in Texas and paying out-of-state tuition. She found out that if you were a business owner in the state you could get in-state tuition. She spent a few bucks to file for a business and saved gobs."
- hotbutteredtoast
"This is an actual loophole in a lot of states that anyone can take advantage of if their high school student is planning on going to college in a different state. Register a business with the state in their name (ranges by the state for as little as 50 dollars to upwards of 300), and then they will qualify for in-state tuition after one year of business in most states."
- DontWreckYoself
Hospital Parking
"The parking gate at the hospital the pay machine wasn't working so I drove to the barrier and pressed the button to speak to the attendant or security person... A few seconds later, without a word being exchanged in either direction, the barrier opened."
"This was early on in my dad's hospital stay of about nine months."
"I didn't try paying again, just pressed the button at the exit barrier..."
- TechStumbler
Low Expectations
"I discovered that my high school P.E. teacher graded on improvement. You took a skills test at the beginning of each unit, then one at the end of the unit, and your grade was based on how much you improved."
"I was not the most gifted athletically and always got C's in P.e. before this, so I would tank the opening test, then perform my usual mediocrity at the end, but my improvement was awesome, and I became an A student the last semester of high school P.E."
- LordBaranof
The Gift That Keeps On Giving
"I didn’t find this loophole myself but my friend did: A few years back, an online store had this promotion where whoever spent the most money over a month would get free round-trip airplane tickets to anywhere in the world."
"My friend (who’s a f**king genius) found that one thing you could buy on the site was a gift certificate. So he bought a $25 gift certificate and kept spending it on another $25 gift certificate. So he ended up spending $25 on round-trip tickets to Australia."
- Beautifull_Fairy
A Daily Allotment
"There was a drink machine in college that was $.75 for a juice. If you put a dollar in it gave you 5 quarters in change. I got a juice every day for months before they finally fixed it."
- Dreammy_Glitter
Buy One, Get Two Euros
"They caught on pretty quickly but a few years back, I managed to purchase some buy-one-get-one-free (BOGOF) meals from Tesco that were also yellow stickered."
"The system hadn’t been updated to remove the offer, which meant I ended up effectively being paid to take the food home."
"For example, I bought two ready meals that were originally priced at two euros each. Normally, they would have cost two euros total with the BOGOF offer, but since they were further reduced to something like 40 cents each, the full promotion still applied. When I scanned them, the total came to 80 cents, but the system also refunded me two euros."
- peanutbudderlover
Enthusiastic Play
"The ball machine at the driving range would give you a bucket of balls and your token back if you put enough backspin on the token when inserting it. Basically could go to the range for free whenever I wanted."
- milkxj
Tipped Food Only
"We figured out that on our country’s biggest website for takeout food that if you go all the way to the payment screen, then click the ‘back’ button on the browser, not the website, enter a tip for the driver and then proceed with the process you only pay the tip and the order still gets delivered."
"We did this twice, and then the glitch was patched."
- Cashewkaas
Free Cable TV
"Free cable TV."
"I once lived on a property in one of two homes that shared the same mailbox/address. One month I got behind on my cable bill and they came out to disconnect me and disconnected my neighbor's service instead. Neighbors soon called me to ask if my service was out and I said, no. There was a big football game on that day that they had planned to watch and they were bummed."
"A friend of theirs, who happened to work for a different cable company, was visiting and asked my permission to splice a cable between the two houses, so they could get service from mine and I agreed. Took him about 20 minutes and they were back in business in time to watch their game."
"Once I'd figured out the reason for the original disconnect, I explained it to my neighbors, who then stopped paying their cable bill on purpose. Cable company sent out a bucket truck only to discover that their cable was already disconnected and went away satisfied."
"We then had free cable in both houses for the next three years that I lived there, with both of us having been officially disconnected."
- Story_Man_75
Free Soda Guaranteed
"Back when soda companies would have promotions on the underside of the bottle caps, I could tilt the soda bottles just right so I could find winners."
"During many promotions, I paid for one initial bottle of soda, a 'get a free bottle' winning one, and then continually searched and found those, never having to pay for a soda."
- ihadtopickthisname
Milking The Clock
"I had two loopholes that I routinely exploit at work (and I recommend it to my employees, though none have the discipline). It lets me take 1 month of vacation each year, instead of just two weeks."
"Loophole One: All over time (OT) will be matched with PTO/Paid Vacation time."
"Loophole Two: Clocking in five minutes early and Clocking out five minutes late will count as OT, but not require manager approval."
"By Clocking in five minutes early to start my shift, out five minutes late for lunch, five minutes early to come back from lunch, and out five minutes late at the end of my shift, I got 20 minutes of paid OT and 20 minutes of Vacation time each day I worked."
"Each year, we get 80 hours of PTO, but with my scheme, I get an extra 83 hours and 20 minutes. And that's not counting any extra PTO I received when asked to work overtime."
- WatchingInSilence
Free Storage Space
"I have over 26 GB of free storage in my Dropbox account."
"Not sure if it still works this way, but like 15 years ago they would give you like +500 MB of space for each signup you referred, up to like 50 referrals (or maybe it was +1 GB and ~25 referrals?). But they had to actually install and activate the client for you to get the credit."
"I set up a little Linux VM and created a save point with just a browser and an un-activated Dropbox client install in it. Then I used a bunch of throwaway emails to send a crap-ton of referrals."
"For each one I would boot the VM, process the next referral in the list, then (and this was the key) shut the VM down and change its MAC ID. Rinse and repeat. As long as the MAC ID changed, Dropbox saw each one as a separate thing."
"I probably could have automated it, but I got the process down pretty good so I just spent an evening grinding through them while watching basketball or something. Took a couple hours total."
- cujojojo
Unlimited Tea
"I can’t remember when it happened, but it was years ago. I think it was Nestea, or some other canned tea, but if you bought a case of tea then there was a coupon on the box for a free case... except it was on every case, so now you have case #2 and another free case coupon. All the tea could be had."
- Gigglyy_Queen
From super-clever loopholes to keep making purchases to free printing and parking, there were countless ways to save ample money here. Fortunately for the companies, they weren't huge losses to the companies, either.
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