FeedCity: Defector

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26 Jan 19:06 • Tom Ley

“Disgusted” Breanna Stewart Holds Up “Abolish ICE” Sign Before Unrivaled Game

Two-time WNBA MVP Breanna Stewart held up a sign that read "Abolish ICE" during player introductions at an Unrivaled game Sunday, just a day after federal agents shot and killed Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. After the game, a 76-71 victory for Stewart's Mist over the Vinyl, S...

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26 Jan 19:06 • Patrick Redford

Clippers Win, Sentencing Blogger To Eat Words

On Dec. 20, with the Los Angeles Clippers sitting at 6-21 and one half-game out of last place in the Western Conference, Clippers blogger Robert Flom unwittingly turned his favorite team's season around through the power of posting. He will soon have to make like a beaver and eat some paper to pay for his alterations to the cosmic weft.

Specifically, Flom responded to a tweet from ESPN's Dave McMenamin, in which the Lakers propagandist quoted Clippers coach Ty Lue projecting a plus-15 win differential for his team over the course of the rest of the season. Upon some cajoling from another Clippers fan, who joked about the team going 15-3 upon trading for the decrepit bones of DeMar DeRozan, Flom made his fateful proclamation:

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26 Jan 18:03 • Lauren Theisen

Jarrett Stidham Dropped The Ball

Those who believed, or perhaps just hoped, that Jarrett Stidham might be able to quarterback the Broncos to the Super Bowl had to wait a long time for the Patriots to officially prove them wrong. After the Pats' go-ahead field goal to start the second half, Stidham and the D...

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26 Jan 18:03 • Maitreyi Anantharaman

The Crossword, Jan. 26: Nailbiter (Themeless)

It's time to wrap up the month with a challenging themeless. Keep an eye out for tricky clues and fun wordplay. This week's puzzle was constructed by Rafael Musa, and edited by Hoang-Kim Vu. Rafa lives in San Francisco with his cat Georgia.

Defector crosswords, launched in partnership with our friends at AVCX, run every Monday. If you’re interested in submitting a puzzle to us, you can read our guidelines HERE.

Defector
26 Jan 16:00 • Alex Pareene

I Have A Great Idea For Retraining ICE Agents

The several thousand federal agents currently running rampant in the Twin Cities have so far achieved little in the way of legitimate law enforcement objectives, but they have been rather more successful at spreading mayhem and death. Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti were b...

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26 Jan 15:06 • Ray Ratto

Sam Darnold Is An Exorcist

It won't be the lead in anyone else's analysis of Sunday's NFL conference championship games, but the news that the Malignant Tangerine In Chief will not be going to the Super Bowl breaking too late to save the turgid New England/Denver game and just soon enough to...

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26 Jan 01:09 • Chris Thompson

Patriots And Broncos Stink On Ice

The first half of Sunday's AFC championship game, played between the New England Patriots and the Denver Broncos, was ugly and halting, featuring two bumbling offenses questing for any sort of foothold or forward momentum. Denver quarterback Jarrett Stidham, thrust into acti...

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25 Jan 18:18 • Chris Thompson

Oops! Vikings Play-By-Play Moron Chooses Yesterday’s Right-Wing Lie For Wisecrack About Minneapolis Protesters

Paul Allen, longtime play-by-play announcer for the Minnesota Vikings and "the voice" of the Minnesota Vikings Radio Network, took a moment on his show on KFAN Friday to engage in some easy right-wing propagandizing. In a conversation about dangerous sub-zero temperatures in...

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25 Jan 16:06 • Chris Thompson

Make Hay While The Sun Is Shining, By Losing In Earnest While Giannis Is Injured

Giannis Antetokounmpo will miss the 2026 NBA All-Star game. He hurt his calf Friday night in a loss to the Denver Nuggets. Calf injuries are serious business, linked in a few prominent cases with catastrophic Achilles tendon ruptures, and this is Antetokounmpo's second alrea...

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25 Jan 13:57 • Albert Burneko

Federal Agents Kill Again; Gunmen Still At Large

On Saturday in Minneapolis, federal agents surrounded 37-year-old Veterans Affairs intensive care nurse Alex Jeffrey Pretti, who'd been filming them in the street with his phone camera as they conducted the federal government's violent invasion and occupation of the city. Vi...

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23 Jan 21:15 • Dave McKenna

Gaelic Football Season Opens With Contested Gaza Protest Scoop

Was the biggest sports story in Ireland this week fake? Or just early? The National League hurling and football seasons kick off this weekend, ending several months of Gaelic sports famine. On Monday, the government-owned broadcast network and news service RTE ran a blockbu...

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23 Jan 17:00 • Elon Green

Michael Connelly Should Stick To Fake Crime

The origin of Michael Connelly’s new true crime podcast, Killer in the Code, was a rather far-fetched tip fielded by Rick Jackson, a retired detective from the Los Angeles Police Department. A self-described “cold case consultant” named Alex Baber told him that he’d cracked ...

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23 Jan 16:42 • Ray Ratto

The Jonathan Kuminga Saga Swings Towards Tragicomedy

Drama is where you make it, and in how willing you are to inflate a story past the outer limits of its molecular structure. Take the groundbreaking Curt Cignetti Chipotle story as an example; a series of blogs and memes and sports talk radio segments have been launched aroun...

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23 Jan 16:00 • Barry Petchesky

Sidney Crosby Is A Miracle

The cheek, to even attempt a deflection from there. It's hard enough to tip in a puck right from the goalie's doorstep. That sucker is small, hard, and moving well above the speed limit, and it's a genuine feat of hand-eye coordination to not just get a blade on it, but to g...

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23 Jan 15:15 • Abigail Segel

Manchester City Lost A Battle But Is Winning The War For English Women’s Soccer Supremacy

Have you heard the old wives’ tale that if two football teams face each other in four consecutive matches, their fates swap the next season, Freaky Friday style? That seems to be what has happened to Manchester City and Chelsea, whose domestic seasons a year ago were define...

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23 Jan 14:51 • David Roth

We Live In The Bone Temple Now

David Roth: I feel like when we have these sorts of conversation blogs on the site, the subject is generally something that everyone kind of likes, but not in a way that they’d fully feel comfortable putting their name on a blog about—your Reachers, or your Wildwood Boardwal...

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23 Jan 14:27 • Sabrina Imbler

Let The Record Show That Ötzi Fucked

Ötzi, the 5,000-something-year-old man found frozen in the Alps, did not have an easy go of it. He was probably murdered, shot from behind with an arrow that missed his vital organs and led to heavy bleeding and a prolonged and painful death. Days before his death, he fought...

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22 Jan 21:27 • David Roth

Ideologically Opposed To Proper Workout Form, With Patrick Wyman

It's not great, if I'm being honest. From amending my answer to the question "how ya doing Roth" at the very beginning of this week's episode of The Distraction, it is clear that things are not going great. But for the second straight week, we found a way to split our episod...

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22 Jan 20:54 • Justin Ellis

How Do You Justify Abducting A Child?

On Tuesday some number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents camped out near Liam Conejo Ramos's home in the Twin Cities suburb of Columbia Heights and waited for him to return with his father, so they could ambush them. According to news reports, agents grabbed Liam...

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22 Jan 20:30 • Lauren Theisen

Dylan Larkin Overtime Winners Are Sweeter Than Ever Before

My favorite goal that I've ever seen live: Jan. 4, 2019, the woeful Detroit Red Wings hosting a really good Nashville Predators squad. The Wings went into it having lost 10 of their last 11, and they started the game by surrendering the first two goals. But from 0-2 down, th...

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22 Jan 20:09 • James Webster

Elisa Shua Dusapin Is The Real Deal

Every so often, an obvious talent will suddenly appear from nowhere. The initial instinct, among critics, is to indicate this event as an event via a rush of comparisons. One such case was that of Elisa Shua Dusapin, 24 at the time of her debut novel, and 29 when her work re...

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22 Jan 19:03 • Albert Burneko

Gavin Newsom Has Nothing To Offer

In California, a proposed law drafted by organized labor would impose a one-time tax on all the state's billionaires, equal to some portion of their total worth. Those whose net worth exceeds $1.1 billion would pay around five percent; five percent of $1.1 billion is $55 mil...

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22 Jan 19:03 • Ray Ratto

Manchester United Wants To Get Into The Docuseries Business

Two noteworthy developments in British entertainment were announced yesterday. One was about a much discussed cooking show, and the other about a much discussed soccer team, and so by definition infinitely more tedious. The cooking show is The Great British Bake Off, t...

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22 Jan 18:12 • Drew Magary

Terry Pegula Is A Big Disgrace And An Even Bigger Fucking Loser

Drew Magary’s Thursday Afternoon NFL Dick Joke Jamboroo runs every Thursday at Defector during the NFL season. Got something you wanna contribute? Email the Roo. You can also read Drew over at SFGATE, and buy Drew’s books while you’re at it. It’s typical of the Buffalo...

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22 Jan 17:24 • Samer Kalaf

NFL Sends Mixed Signals In Its Stance On Genocide

After a 30-6 playoff win over the Pittsburgh Steelers, Houston Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair appeared in an ESPN postgame interview and drew national attention for the message written on his eye black: "Stop the Genocide." He had expected a fine for the customized access...

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22 Jan 16:49 • Patrick Redford

Learner Tien Is The Brightest Pupil

You will notice the announcer of the following highlight reel continually returns to one word to describe Learner Tien's performance against Alexander Shevchenko in the second round of the Australian Open: control. The 20-year-old American tidily dispatched Shevchenko in two...

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22 Jan 15:39 • Sabrina Imbler

Veronika The Cow’s Record Scratch

Veronika was 4 years old when she picked up her first tool: a tree branch, found in her pasture in the town of Nötsch im Gailtal in the Austrian alps. Veronika lives with Witgar Wiegele, an organic farmer and baker who keeps the Braunvieh cow as a pet. Veronika's meadow is d...

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22 Jan 15:12 • Barry Petchesky

I Award Garnet Hathaway 4 Patrik Stefans Out Of 10

A spunky start to the season for the young Flyers has curdled somewhat in the new year, with a six-game losing streak mostly highlighted by an inability to prevent goals—opponents scored 31 over the stretch—before taking a nice win over Vegas earlier this week. Garnet Hathaw...

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22 Jan 15:12 • Tom Ley

NCAA Learns The Legal Consequences Of Making Shit Up As You Go Along

The NCAA at this point is an organization whose sole purpose is to lose in court. Wednesday brought another defeat, when an Alabama state judge granted temporary eligibility to Charles Bediako, a 23-year-old center who is seeking to rejoin the Alabama men's basketball team d...

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21 Jan 19:06 • Giri Nathan

The Tennis Ball’s Biggest Critic Thinks “They’re Getting Better”

Around this time last year, I wrote about why so many men's tennis players hated the tennis balls used on tour. Chief among those critics was Daniil Medvedev, who said that the allegedly inferior balls moved slower through the air, thus undermining his counterpunching style ...