As someone who loves trying and writing about new Mac apps, it's pretty common to see a cluttered dock on my laptop. I don't manually quit apps that often, unless they're actively hindering my ability to use my Mac. Unfortunately, when I was buying my M1 MacBook, I didn't have enough cash to buy the 16GB RAM variant, and I am regretting that now. With about 50 open browser tabs and a bunch of apps running in the background, my MacBook sometimes slows down. Of course, connecting it to a 34-inch ultrawide monitor doesn't help, but that's not something I am going to give up.

That leaves me with the painful task of manually quitting unused apps to free up RAM space. I grudgingly did this every once in a while until I found MagicQuit, which is a free Mac app that automatically quits unused apps for me.

How to use MagicQuit

MagicQuit is fairly simple to set up and use. When you launch it, the app asks you to configure how long you want unused apps to remain open. I chose two hours, because that's about as much time as I need to be sure I won't be using any given app for the rest of my session. After you select a time out window, MagicQuit will automatically quit all apps that have been inactive for longer than the time you set.

But what about apps you want to keep running indefinitely in the background, like utilities that make it easier to connect to bluetooth? Thankfully, MagicQuit allows you to set up exceptions for these. Click the app's menu bar icon, and unselect the apps that you want to always be running.

Naturally, you'll worry about losing data when apps shut down. Even though MagicQuit promises not to close any apps that have unsaved data, I recommend unselecting apps that could have important work. For example, I've removed my image editing app (Acorn) from the auto-quit list. It's worth noting that MagicQuit doesn't quit menu bar apps, which is a good thing for me, because the menu bar is home to some of my favorite Mac utilities.

AP Photo/Kayla Wolf

Remember that time Vice President and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’s dad publicly rebuked her for joking about smoking pot?

Back in 2019, during her first presidential campaign, Harris spoke about her past use of marijuana. In an interview with Charlamange tha God, Harris was asked if she “ever smoked.”

“I have. And I inhaled. I did inhale,” she replied, referencing former President Bill Clinton’s claim that while he smoked marijuana, he never inhaled the smoke.

“Look, I joke about it, I have joked about it. Half my family is from Jamaica, are you kidding me?” she added while arguing in favor of marijuana legalization.

Kamala Harris on marijuana legalization: What are her views and plans for the future of cannabis policy in the U.S.? Get the full details and latest updates. Read on @Benzinga for more! by @francaquarneti pic.twitter.com/vcLAlgdUSG

— Benzinga Cannabis (@BzCannabis) July 28, 2024

Her father, Donald J. Harris (yes, really), who is of Jamaican descent, was so unimpressed by the answer that he felt the need to issue a statement in response.

“My dear departed grandmothers (whose extraordinary legacy I described in a recent essay on this website), as well as my deceased parents, must be turning in their grave right now to see their family’s name, reputation and proud Jamaican identity being connected, in any way, jokingly or not with the fraudulent stereotype of a pot-smoking joy seeker and in the pursuit of identity politics,” wrote the elder Harris. “Speaking for myself and my immediate Jamaican family, we wish to categorically dissociate ourselves from this travesty.”

Harris has also been criticized by members of her own party for “aggressively prosecuting” marijuana crimes as San Francisco’s district attorney and California’s attorney general. As D.A., Harris oversaw the conviction of more than 1,900 people for such crimes — more than her predecessor.

Buying or selling a house has always been a little crazy. The moment you stroll into a Realtor’s office to inquire about a house or contact a local agent to sell your home, you embark on a roller-coaster ride of emotional and financial pressures. Checks are written. Houses are cleaned. Cookies are baked.

But traditionally you’ve been able to engage an agent to sell your house without a contract, and if you were buying a house you were spared having to come up with your real estate agent’s commission—that has almost always been paid by the seller, who coughed up about 6% of the sale price to their agent, who then (usually) split it with the buyer’s agent. Sure, in a sense the buyer paid that commission because the seller probably padded their home’s price to compensate for the cost, but the illusion was there.

That all changed recently. In March, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) settled some lawsuits, and as part of that settlement agreed to blow up the whole system. As a result there are two big changes hitting the real estate market starting this month: Buyers will have to start paying their agents directly, and everyone is going to have to sign a contract—even if you just want to look at a house. And until things settle down and become standardized, those contracts are a bit of the Wild West—just about anything can be in them. Here’s what you should look out for if you’re buying or selling a house soon.

Keeping the splits

The biggest change hitting the market is in how agent commissions are handled. Instead of the seller paying the whole commission and their agent splitting it with the buyer’s agent, both agents have to be paid directly by their clients—and the seller’s agent is now prohibited from advertising the split on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) (known as an “offer of compensation”), which was a common practice to attract buyer’s agents.

The idea here is to lower overall costs—as a seller, you no longer have to build a 6% hit into your calculations. If commissions stay at the traditional level, you’d only need to come up with 3%, which could save you a lot of money. And if you negotiate a lower commission (which you absolutely can), you could save even more.

That is, unless the contract you sign with your agent keeps the old system in place by calling it something else. Some draft contracts that agents have circulated maintain the 6% commission split with the buyer’s agent by calling the commission a “bonus.” The mechanism of the seller paying a commission that is then split with the buyer’s agent remains, just in different language. That’s fine if that’s what you want—but don’t just blindly agree to pay more than you need to.

Penalties

A big thing to look for in any contract a real estate agent hands you is penalties, especially for withdrawing from a sale. Some draft contracts in the wake of this settlement have built in heavy penalties if a buyer backs out of a sale after making an offer—something you’re traditionally able to do, within reason. Sometimes these penalties are worded to award the buyer’s agent the full commission they would have earned, which could be a substantial sum you have to pay even though you’re not actually buying a house. You should never agree to that.

You should also watch for penalties attached to terminating your agreement with your real estate agent. If you’ve worked with an agent for a while and they’ve failed to find houses for you, or deals have fallen apart and you’re unhappy with their work, you should be free to terminate the agreement at any time, without paying any sort of financial penalty.

Fee clarity

Part of the settlement the NAR agreed to involves making it very clear a) what your real estate agent will do (what services are provided) and b) what you will pay for these services. This should be clear and transparent in the contract, whether they’re working for an overall commission as a percentage of the sale price or if they’re charging you an hourly or flat fee for specific services.

There should also be language that specifies any costs not listed in the contract will come out of the agent’s commission and not be an add-on fee that you have to pay.

Exclusivity

As a home buyer, you retain the right to work with multiple agents if you want—unless you sign an exclusive agreement. Exclusivity clauses have advantages—the process is more streamlined, and the agent may be more focused and dedicated since they know you won’t suddenly announce you’ve found a home with someone else. But it should be a conscious choice based on your needs, so make sure there is no exclusivity language you’re unaware of before you sign.

The new rules also require that you sign a Touring Agreement even if all you want to do is view a home. This is a formal agreement with the agent, but it’s limited to that one property as opposed to hiring the agent to find a property. You should review it carefully to make sure you’re not committing to anything more than that, and that there’s no exclusivity that locks you in with that agent after you’ve made a decision on that particular house.

Arbitration

Finally, like any contractual agreement, be aware of any clauses that dictate how disagreements are handled. Binding arbitration clauses can prevent you from filing a lawsuit, and may even lock you into using a specific arbitration service instead of allowing you some choice in the matter. Arbitration isn’t necessarily a terrible decision, but don’t agree to it unless you’ve decided that the lower costs and faster results are worth some of the disadvantages, including the possibility that your case could be decided by a low-quality arbitrator, and the fact that you often have zero recourse if the decision goes against you. This concern isn't specific to the real estate world, of course, but it’s always worth keeping an eye on.

The new real estate rules are still being figured out, and things are a bit crazy out there. Read those contracts carefully, and be ready to insist on changes if you don’t like what you see. One real estate rule hasn’t changed: Everything is negotiable.

Trump running mate pick Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) called childless Democrats “evil” in a speech days before his 2021 “childless cat lady” remarks that went viral this week.

Vance has faced outrage this week over a 2021 interview that went viral, in which Vance derided “childless cat ladies” who “don’t really have a direct stake in” the country.

In an interview with Fox News, Vance claimed critics were “aggressively lying” about what he said and that his remarks have “radically taken this out of context.”

But then CNN KFile’s Andrew Kaczynski unearthed more recordings in which Vance refers to childless people as “sociopaths” and “psychotic.”

You can add one more epithet to the pile: “evil.”

That’s what Vance said about what he called the “rejection of the family” by “childless” Democrats in a July 24, 2021 speech — a huge portion of which was devoted to that theme:

[T]he thing I want to talk about, the institution I want to take aim at today for the remainder of my remarks, is I want to take aim at the left. Specifically the childless left. Because I think the rejection of the American family is perhaps the most pernicious and most evil thing that the left has done in this country.

Now let me ask you a question. I’m going to get in trouble for this, but I want to ask the question anyway. Separate Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Joe Biden. The three elder Democrat politicians who have run for president before but who, except for Biden, may not run for president again. Consider all of the next gen of the Democrat Party. If you go on any of these prediction markets, they’ll tell you who’s most likely to win the Democrat nomination for president in 2024 or 2028. Think about all those people. The names are obvious. They’re well-known people. Kamala Harris; Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who’s now the secretary of transportation; Cory Booker; AOC. Think of all these people. They come from different walks of life, different parts of the country. What is the one thing that unites every single one of them? Not a single one of them has any children.

Why is that? Why have we let the Democrat Party become controlled by people who don’t have children? And why is this just a normal fact of American life? That the leaders of our country should be people who don’t have a personal and direct stake in it via their own offspring, via their own children and grandchildren?

Now, let me do the necessary throat clearing, because I do think it’s important. Look, a lot of people are unable to have kids for very complicated and important reasons. I know good friends of mine who struggled to find the right girl, find the right guy. There are people, of course, for biological reasons, medical reasons, that can’t have children. The target of these remarks is not them. It’s important to point that out. There have always been people like that, who, even though they would like to have kids, are unable to have them. Let’s set them to the side.

It’s one thing to recognize that there are people who don’t have children through no fault or choice of their own. But it’s something else to build a political movement, invested theoretically in the future of this country, when not a single one of them actually has any physical commitment to the future of this country.

Now this also true of a lot of folks in our media. What you find is that many of the most unhappy and most miserable and most angry people in our media are childless adults. Let’s just be honest about it. Because look, the elite model, the American Dream to the elites is get as much credentials as you can, get as much money as you can, get the most prestigious job, and that’s where you’re going to find your self-worth. But I gotta be honest with you, most of our mainstream reporters are not impressive enough to find a lot of self-meaning in their jobs. They’re just not good enough at it.

But what society has built its entire civilization, the flow of information, the leaders of its country, political and governmental, and also corporate, around completely childless adults? It’s never happened. This is a new thing in American life, but I think probably a new thing in world history.

It’s not good. It’s not healthy. You see the obsessive, weird, almost humiliating aggressive posture of our media and you wonder how could these people possibly seem to be so miserable and unhappy? Well, the answer is because they don’t have any kids. Kids are the ultimate way that we find self-meaning in life, whether your own children, your grandchildren, your nieces and nephews.

Watch above via Intercollegiate Studies Institute.

There are many ways to set a schedule, from using a pen and paper planner to getting out some dry erase markers and scribbling on your clock. One method aims to work by giving you more insight into how you spend your time—and helping you manage your day down to the minute. It’s called time blocking.

What is time blocking?

Time blocking is the act of arranging your schedule so every activity you need to do in a day is accounted for. Ideally, you’ll do this using a digital calendar tool like Google Calendar. Even if you’re writing it all down by hand on a piece of paper, consider the way a Google Calendar looks. Each day is represented by a column split up into 15-minute increments, from midnight until 11:59 p.m. When you add a meeting or appointment into the calendar, a box appears and fills up the space representing how much time the event will take out of your day.

With time blocking, your goal is to fill the entire column with boxes, leaving no blank space. Even your rest periods should be marked as such. No activity—from having breakfast to running errands to calling your mom—is too small to add to the list. Then, you get to classify everything with a pretty color (when it comes to time management, you have to find your own fun).

How to create a time blocking schedule

Start by making a list of everything you’re going to do tomorrow. For instance, you might wake up, check the news, shower, make coffee, commute to work, grab breakfast, answer emails, attend a meeting, get lunch with an old friend, work on a project, commute home, take the kids to a baseball game, pick up dinner, eat that dinner, watch your favorite show, get ready for bed, lie awake thinking about climate change, and actually sleep.

Once you’ve written out the exhaustive list of your day’s tasks, mark down how long each might (or should) take. Then, grab the paper (or open the software) you’re using to time block and enter every single event and responsibility in, according to the time you’ve allotted for it. If you want to see how you are splitting up your day, choose different colors to classify tasks, like blue for grooming/bathing, yellow for work, and green for meals.

Per workforce management company Spica, the trick after that is to treat each box the same way you’d treat a meeting: Don’t reschedule it. Don’t mess with it too much. Honor the time commitment it represents, commit to doing the task at the specified time, and do your best to get it done in the time you set aside to do it. This is called time boxing, a similar but slightly different concept that involves giving yourself a set amount of time to do something, only focusing on that task during that time, and stopping your work when the time is up. I've written more extensively on the similarities and differences between time boxing and time blocking, but all you really need to know is that during the time you set aside to do something on your calendar, you should engage completely in deep work, avoid distractions, and turn all your energy toward the responsibility at hand. As with any pre-planned meeting or event, things will come up that disrupt the schedule, but in the absence of a major upheaval (the kind of thing you’d move a work meeting for), vow to stick with your time blocks.

It's smart here to also implement some kind of time tracking, whether that involves writing down how long your tasks actually take you or using a software to monitor your work, so you can make adjustments to your time blocks as you go along. During the first week or two, you'll likely be guessing at how long each task will take you when you're building the schedule, but after a while, you should be able to identify if something takes a longer or shorter amount of time than you've been allotting, then adjust the schedule to match those needs going forward.

The reason time blocking works

Time blocking is beloved by its adherents. As the Harvard Business Review points out, a regular to-do list gives you way too many choices and not enough structure. Adding in the time element helps you stay on task.

It also helps you meet deadlines and stay within your guidelines. If you know a certain project or task will take a combined 50 hours, time blocking helps you space those out and make room for them in your schedule, enabling you to get things done on a set timetable without having to guess whether you really have time for it. If you finish something ahead of schedule, great! Go ahead and add in a little block of time off.

A final note on time blocking

Time blocking is often conflated with time boxing and a lot of productivity blogs and hacks will say "time boxing" when they mean time blocking. That Harvard Business Review article above does it, for instance. It's an easy mistake to make and, in fact, in a previous version of this post, I called time blocking time boxing. As long as you're sticking to the plan and making a detailed calendar, it doesn't matter what you're calling it, but this could cause some confusion while you read up on other guides, so just be warned. A complete rundown of the differences between the two can be found here.

Last year, Meta announced a series of AI updates coming to Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp. These new options included things like AI stickers, AI image editing, AI celebrity chatbots, and Meta AI assistant, which you can't turn off. During this time, the company also announced AI Studio, a platform for developers to build custom AI bots for Meta products. Now, Meta is expanding that access to you, inviting all users to create any AI bot they want.

Custom AI bots are not a unique concept: OpenAI offers GPTs, for example, which lets you build custom versions of ChatGPT. Meta is doing something similar with AI Studio: You tell the platform exactly what you're looking for in a chatbot, and it builds it for you, without any coding experience necessary. If you want a bot that offers advice on cooking specifically with an air fryer, you can make it. If you want a bot that specializes in gardening advice, you can ask AI Studio to generate it.

Meta is also pitching this as a tool for creators to make custom AI versions of themselves. For the company, their platform will allow creators to put enough of their knowledge and personality into a bot, so that it can answer questions from users in a realistic and accurate way. We'll have to see about that.

Meta says AI studio is built using Llama 3.1, the company's latest class of AI models, so it will be interesting to see how it performs compared to other custom AI products.

I'm still relatively unconvinced by most AI applications I've seen so far, and I'm not sure Meta's AI Studio is going to make me a believer. After all, AI is still rife with issues, including its tendency to just make things up. But if you're curious, you can either build a bot yourself, or try one of the ones made by other Meta users.

How to build a bot with Meta's AI Studio

To start, head to Meta's AI Studio website, and log into your Instagram account. Alternatively, you can go to Instagram directly, open DMs, start a new message, and choose AI chats to get started.

Whichever way you access AI Studio, you'll find a series of different bots you can chat with. These are made by other Meta users who decided to make their bots public. If you have a specific type of bot in mind, you can search for it, but otherwise, you can scroll through "popular" choices. Right now, I'm being offered "Skibuddy," a bot meant to help "flush away mental flogginess" (and a play on the Skibidy Toilet meme); "InfoBot," a source of "accurate and reliable information;" and "SportsFan Sam," a chatbot all about sports.

You can choose any of these and start chatting, or you can choose to create your own. On desktop, hit Create an AI, while on mobile, choose Create.

From here, you can choose from one of Meta's preset personalities ("Loyal bestie," "Attentive listener," "Private tutor," etc.) or you can create your own from Custom AI character. Give your character a description in 1,000 characters or less. Meta will generate a profile picture, name, and tagline for your bot based on this description, but you can edit these yourself. (For the picture, you can simply adjust the prompt to generate a new image.) When you're satisfied with your selection, you can choose who can see this bot: You can make it only for you, only for your close friends on Instagram, or available for the whole platform. If you choose the latter, your bot will show up in search, and may appear on the front page of AI Studio, with your account name attached. Be warned.

Once you hit Create, Instagram will process your bot, and it will appear as a new DM. You can start chatting now, but I'd recommend hitting the Settings gear in the top right. You'll see the same options as you did when creating your bot, plus some new options. Knowledge lets you give the bot specific instructions for how to respond to queries. You can give you bot a backstory and background information so it knows how to act in specific situations. Conversation lets you create a welcome message for new chats, and offer three icebreakers that will be presented to the user to prompt the bot with. I'm not sure why Meta doesn't give you these options when creating the bot, but they're useful tools for shaping how the bot performs.

Meta actually has an 18-page manual for using AI Studio, if you want a true deep dive on the platform.

Every feature of a house has a monetary value—how much it cost to install, and how much return on that investment the homeowner hopes to get from it when selling. Only you can know when something is worth paying more for you (if the house with a fully-stocked bomb shelter seems like it’s worth it, go for it). But certain home features are rarely worth paying extra for, if only because they’ll cost you in the long run, whether in maintenance and upkeep or your own time and effort.

Here are seven house features it’s okay to like, but not worth paying a premium for.

Home theater systems

There was a time when a professionally-installed home theater system was the epitome of home luxury. A big screen? A sound system in the walls and ceiling? A projector and some comfortable couches? That was how the fancy folks lived. There’s certainly a lingering glamour to a home theater, and there’s nothing wrong with getting excited about movie nights if you spot one at the open house. But they’re never worth paying extra for because they date so quickly—and so poorly. Even a home theater system installed very recently is probably already a bit out of date. Meanwhile, TV screens are getting steadily larger and cheaper, streaming dongles give you access to more platforms, and soundbars are ubiquitous and easy to add to any room.

At best, you’ll have to spend time and money updating your home theater. At worst, you’ll spend a lot more removing it.

Lavish landscaping

Sometimes an enormous outdoor space can be an impressive visual. You walk outside of the house and suddenly you’re in what feels like a high-end resort, or a lush garden, with a meticulously landscaped experience all around you. It’s easy to imagine all the parties you’ll host and all the quiet cocktails you’ll enjoy in this incredible space.

And you probably will! But lavish landscaping (and oversize outdoor spaces in general) have a huge downside that makes them more of a liability than a feature worth paying for: Maintenance. Most landscaping maintenance services are priced by the hour or by the square foot. The larger the space and the more stuff that needs trimming, tilling, repairing, watering, and feeding, the higher your monthly bill (or your personal time spent sweating in the sun) to keep everything looking good.

And the problem with luxe landscaping is that without that maintenance, it will quickly turn into a yellowing, overgrown mess that you won’t want anyone to see.

Steam showers

Steam showers cream luxury—you can just imagine stepping in one after a long day and relaxing as a sauna blooms all around you. And steam showers are expensive (as much as $14,500!), so finding one in your dream home might make you willing to pay a bit more, since it would cost as much to install one anyway.

But taking possession of a steam shower means signing up for maintenance. A lot of maintenance. Steam showers, unsurprisingly, are very prone to mold, so keeping them clean is pretty much a daily chore. The steam generator mechanism has to be checked and cleaned regularly. And even with proper maintenance, those generators can develop leaks which can lead to expensive water damage. In other words, if you’re buying a steam shower don’t pay extra for it because you will be paying extra for it for years to come.

Backyard pools

If you had a pool in your backyard growing up, you probably have fond memories you’d love to replicate in your new home. And if you didn’t have a pool in your backyard growing up you probably have bitter memories of your neighbors enjoying their pool, and so a pool in your new house is pretty exciting.

And yes, pools are fun. But you shouldn’t pay extra for a pool. The value-add of a pool is a complicated question for real estate professionals, but the key thing to keep in mind regarding a pool (or any water feature, for that matter) is the maintenance: You’re buying a lot of work, or a lot of invoices (close to $1,500 a year’s worth, on average). And if the pool’s not heated, you’re going to have to close it up for much of the year anyway—and possibly invest in a fence.

Nothing wrong with enjoying a pool, or even wanting a pool. Just don’t pay extra for a pool.

Built-in appliances

A kitchen with built-in, integrated appliances can offer a space-age, elegant look. And for a brief period of time it can be a cutting-edge, high-end sort of kitchen. But those appliances will probably be outdated in terms of style and problematic in terms of function within a few years—if they aren’t already.

And built-in appliances are difficult to replace and difficult to repair, leading to extra costs when you have to replace trim work or remove cabinetry just to access them. Considering that the accepted wisdom is that you should remodel your kitchen every 10-15 years, paying extra for this stuff is probably a waste, since you’ll likely replace it all anyway.

Whole house vacuums

Central vacuum systems are making a bit of a comeback, sold on the convenience factor—instead of lugging a heavy vacuum around to every room, you can just plug in a lightweight hose and get to work. There’s no denying that a central vac can make cleaning the house a bit easier—but unless you’re absolutely dedicated to having one, they should be regarded as a nice little extra that you’re absolutely not paying a premium for.

For one thing, they’re not that expensive to install, with costs ranging from $800 to $3,500, so even a brand-new system doesn’t add much value to the house. For another, while they offer convenience they’re much less trouble than a regular vacuum—you’re still going to have to plug in that hose in each room to do the work. Plus, repairing a central vac system can run as much as $500, as opposed to simply buying a new standalone vacuum.

Wall-to-wall carpet

Wall-to-wall carpet is sometimes touted as a luxurious amenity, and if you love the feel of thick carpet under your bare feet, it might be. But it’s almost never worth paying extra for. Unless you know that the carpet was very recently installed, installed well, and is the pile and material you want, what you’re buying is somebody else’s carpet that may or may not be as clean as you want it to be.

Carpet in general translates to a lower resale value on a home (as opposed to hardwood floors, which increase home values), which is all you need to know about its value proposition.

CNN anchor John Berman asked a former adviser to Vice President Kamala Harris if attacking former President Donald Trump as “weird” conflicts with the message that Trump is an “existential threat to democracy.”

Since Harris became the presumptive Democratic nominee a week ago following President Joe Biden’s bombshell dropout, one new line of attack has come into ostentatious relief. Harris For President officials and surrogates — and the VP herself — have taken to labeling Trump and his running mate Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) “weird.”

On Monday’s edition of CNN News Central, Berman asked former Harris comms deputy Rachel Palermo if the attacks are “fighting each other”:

JOHN BERMAN: 99 days now until the election, and the Harris campaign this morning seems to have fully embraced “weird” as a line of attack against Donald Trump and JD Vance.

VP KAMALA HARRIS: Some of what he and his running mate are saying — well, it’s just plain weird.

GOV. TIM WALZ: These guys are just weird. That’s what they are.

GOV. JOSH SHAPIRO: It’s the weirdest thing. He’ll, he’ll go in, like, literally hugging an American flag. Now, I love the flag, but, I mean, it’s, like, weird what he does.

JOHN BERMAN: With us now, former senior adviser for Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, Jason Osborne, and former deputy communications director and associate counsel to Vice President Kamala Harris, Rachel Palermo, thanks so much for being with us.

Rachel, “weird” is an interesting argument — and seems different, or does it? To “existential threat to democracy.” Do they fight each other?

RACHEL PALERMO: Thank you so much for having me. Well, I think that weird might be a comment that can resonate whatever with everyday Americans when they’re looking at what we’re seeing from the other side.

But the reality is that Vice President Harris and the campaign is focused on putting forward their clear vision of the country. That’s a vision of opportunity. It’s a vision of fundamental freedoms.

And so they’re absolutely focused on the substance here, but they’re also pointing out certain things that, frankly, have been weird.

JOHN BERMAN: Jason, would you ra — if you’re the Trump campaign, would you rather be weird than an existential threat to democracy? Is weird something that sticks, leaves a mark?

JASON OSBORNE: I don’t think weird leaves a mark compared to what we’re seeing from the other side continually, you know?

Watch above via CNN News Central.

CNN host and columnist S.E. Cupp opened up about the importance of mental health in a new interview with Mediaite.

I spoke with Cupp, the New York Daily News columnist and host of Unfiltered on CNN, about her decision to reveal her own anxiety disorder in the hope of helping others identify the symptoms. In a 2021 episode of Unfiltered, Cupp revealed she was diagnosed with anxiety disorder.

In our interview, for the premiere of Mediaite’s Behind the Byline, Cupp said her anxiety hit her “like a ton of bricks.”

“The way I describe it is very bluntly: I had a nervous breakdown,” Cupp said, “which happened quickly and unexpectedly, and I was not the same after.”

“It’s not like I got anxiety suddenly,” she said. “I had always had it and I just didn’t know that it was building to this breaking point.”

She said her work covering heavy subjects contributed to her anxiety. “When it comes to what I do for a living, the news was very triggering and I couldn’t make sense of it,” she said. “My mind was really jumbled. The only thing I could write about or talk about with any coherence was how I was feeling. And so I wrote about the way I was feeling, for lack of ability to write about anything else, clearly.”

Yet it wasn’t until Cupp started covering other public figures who were open about their mental health that she decided to speak out.

“I had just covered a bunch of high profile people’s mental health. Naomi Osaka, Simone Biles, Meghan Markle, all these people were coming out and talking about their mental health struggles, and I defended them and talked about how brave it was,” she said. “I thought, well, I’d be such a hypocrite if I hid this from everybody. And so I talked about it openly,” the nationally syndicated columnist told Mediaite.

Cupp, who in addition to her CNN show hosts Battleground: The Swing States on Fox, said others in the media business confided their own mental health struggles to her after she revealed hers.

“I found a lot of people, especially in my business, come forward and say, ‘me too’, and ‘thank you so much’ or ‘I had not heard anxiety explained that way before and that’s really helpful because I don’t think we talk about anxiety in very helpful ways.’”

Cupp, the mother to a nine-year-old son, said it is her aim to shed light on anxiety to help younger generations, as well as parents, understand the disorder.

“It’s debilitating. It’s paralyzing,” Cupp said. “It’s changed my brain and so I talk about it in hopes that people, who might be younger than me or parents might hear, hear about my struggle and maybe some notes will sound familiar, or it will encourage someone to ask their kid, is this why you’re doing this? Or, is this how you’re feeling?”

Cupp noted that journalists covering war are particularly susceptible to these kinds of challenges.

“One of the medications I’m on is for PTSD,” Cupp said. “In addition to covering politics, I cover foreign policy. I covered the Syrian war for over a decade now, it’s still going on, and saw images and videos that were too graphic to make it to air.”

Cupp also serves as a board member for INARA, an aid organization that works with children who are victims of war in Gaza, Syria, Ukraine and elsewhere. INARA was founded by former CNN foreign correspondent Arwa Damon.

“That is really difficult work,” Cupp said. “It’s fulfilling work, but it’s really difficult. And what I’ve learned in therapy is that as journalists, we compartmentalize everything we see and cover. It’s part of the job. So I’m going to put it over here. I’ll deal with my feelings another time. Except we don’t deal with our feelings.”

Cupp continued: “We don’t actually ever circle back when the job is done and deal with our feelings about seeing what we saw or covering what we cover. And so the compartmentalizing is, defense mechanism. It’s a necessary thing we have to do to get through our day. But we promise ourselves we’re going to deal with our mental health at some point, and we don’t. Ignoring it and hoping it will go away or get better, it’s just not a thing. It piles on.”

For Cupp, her work is therapeutic. In addition to her nationally syndicated column, her CNN show, her role as a CNN commentator, and Battleground, she is launching a podcast, Off the Cupp with iHeart Radio in October featuring celebrities, politicos, and journalists to talk about matters of the heart.

Watch the full interview above.

As iOS 18 moves into public beta, its headlining feature—Apple Intelligence—is getting delayed. While Apple has only ever said to expect it sometime in the fall, reports from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman say it’ll be coming later than the company expected.

It’s only a minor delay, and will see the AI pushed from September to October. With that also comes a more solid update on when to expect iOS 18 itself, with iOS 18 proper pegged for September—iOS 18.1, which will turn on Apple Intelligence, is set for the month after.

Gurman also said developers are getting access to Apple Intelligence for testing this week, so the behind-the-scenes timetable is still running smoothly. It’s unclear if this means you’ll be able to access an early version of Apple Intelligence in the iOS 18 developer beta.

The news follows a prior report from Gurman that said Apple won’t be releasing Apple Intelligence all at once. Instead, the company will stagger the release of its AI. iOS 18.1 should see various AI summaries go live, as well as image generation and custom AI emoji (or “Genmoji,” as Apple calls them). These features will follow certain AI-adjacent features already in the iOS 18 beta, including voice memo transcriptions. These features aren’t branded as part of Apple Intelligence, and so should be in iOS 18 when it launches in September.

Perhaps the biggest delay will be for the new AI-powered Siri, which Gurman said wouldn’t be coming until spring of 2025. When these features arrive, Siri will be able to act with far more context, using your activity alongside data from multiple apps to help answer questions and perform tasks. For instance, you could be texting someone about Deadpool & Wolverine, then ask Siri “when is it playing,” and the assistant would automatically know which movie you’re talking about.

Even when it goes live, Apple Intelligence will only be in a beta state, and will only be available in English. Given the disastrous launch of Google’s AI Overviews and the failed launch of Microsoft’s Recall, it makes sense why Apple would want to take things slow and steady.

MSNBC host Ali Velshi dedicated an entire hour to breaking down the 920-page Project 2025 initiative on Sunday morning.

Project 2025 is an initiative organized by the conservative Heritage foundation think tank (which featured contributions from more than 140 former members of Donald Trump’s White House, according to CNN) The document proposes a drastic reorganization of the federal government — consolidating power to the head of the executive branch. The project seeks to reclassify tens of thousands of federal civil service workers to become political appointees — which would pave the way for federal government to enable Trump loyalists to enforce his policies, should he be reelected in November.

Velshi broke down the various elements of Project 2025 by discussing the most radical elements of the plan’s policies as well as interviewing experts such as historian Michael Beschloss and former Biden White  House official (and current MSNBC host) Symone Sanders-Townsend. The host played a clip of Vice President Kamala Harris discussing the project before his opening monologue.

Okay, you heard Harris mentioned project 2025, which is the right wing 922 page manifesto to overhaul the American government should Trump retake the white House. It’s something we’ve covered extensively here on Velshi, on every single show since it’s been released. And coming up in the next hour, we’re going to go inside project 2025 for the entire hour. We’re reading the whole thing so you don’t have to. We’ll break down the details of some of the most important chapters with some of the smartest experts in each field….

Donald Trump’s authoritarian desires are well known, and hearing him say he’ll end voting is just the latest in a long string of examples, which also include the time he called for the termination of the U.S. Constitution during a Truth social rant in December of 2022, because doing so would help his personal legal causes. Although, as it turned out, the Supreme Court sort of did that for him and its unhinged presidential immunity decision. Should Trump win and retake the white House, we know what to expect. After all, we do have this 922 page playbook.

Watch the clips above via MSNBC.

Piers Morgan predicted Vice President Kamala Harris will soon come to an end as Americans discover her record as “the most far-left senator in modern American history” on Saturday night.

Morgan joined Fox News Saturday Night to discuss the state of the 2024 election with President Joe Biden off the ballot with host Jimmy Failla.

Failla noted Morgan had previously likened former President Donald Trump to Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger. The Briton argued that both Trump and the singer are showmen and have not slowed down at their ages and predicted Trump was just getting started as it pertained to the election.

After getting serious on the topic of the upcoming race in which Trump is expected to face Harris, Morgan said he believed the vice president had a tough road ahead facing the former president in November.

In his analysis, Morgan said he believed Biden was forced out of the race by Democratic Party elites. He also compared the party’s leaders to the ruthless characters in the 1990 mafia hit Goodfellas.

“I think the whole thing has been a fascinating exercise in the ruthless betrayal nature of politics,” he said. “One minute they are all over you like a rash and the next minute you are a rash.”

Morgan was then asked by Failla about media “propaganda,” which he said portrays Harris in a positive light while her record on the issues and her overall unpopularity are often ignored.

“Now we are being told she’s the greatest person in the world despite the fact she ran for president and when she dropped out she was pulling behind ISIS,” Failla said.

“She’s getting a fantastically amazing honeymoon, and it’s going to last about a week,” Morgan said. “Then reality will kick in, and Donald Trump will start going very hard, as he already is about her record, and her record is she is literally, probably the most far-left senator in modern American history.”

Watch above via Fox News.

(Photo By Sthanlee B. Mirador/Sipa USA)

Elon Musk jumped to the defense of Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) on Sunday, claiming Vice President Kamala Harris wants the human race to meet extinction while siding with the embattled Republican vice presidential nominee.

Vance has been dogged all week after comments he made to Tucker Carlson in 2021 resurfaced and went viral. During the interview, Vance said:

We are effectively run in this country via the Democrats, via our corporate oligarchs, by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable too

[…]

How does it make any sense that we’ve turned our country over to people who don’t really have a direct stake in it?

Vance has not apologized for the comments but did state this week that he held no grudge against cats or people who wish to have children but are unable to.

As he continued to navigate the backlash, Vance shared a clip of Harris speaking that was posted by Donald Trump Jr. In the video, Harris said she had heard from scores of young people who had expressed to her they had felt “climate anxiety.”

Harris said that anxiety leads people to ask themselves if “it makes sense for you to even think about having children.”

Vance shared the clip and commented, “It’s almost like these people don’t want young people starting families or something. Really weird stuff.”

It’s almost like these people don’t want young people starting families or something. Really weird stuff. https://t.co/b3dot3ZCOh

— JD Vance (@JDVance) July 27, 2024

Musk weighed in and in response to Vance described Harris as “an extinctionist”

“Shamala is an extinctionist. The natural extension of her philosophy would be a de facto holocaust for all of humanity!” he wrote.

Shamala is an extinctionist. The natural extension of her philosophy would be a de facto holocaust for all of humanity!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 27, 2024

Musk has complained that global overpopulation is not an issue and that people actually need to have more children.

“It’s completely the opposite,” Musk previously told The Wall Street Journal. “If people don’t have more children, civilization is going to crumble. Mark my words.”

Screenshot via X/Twitter

The 2024 Olympics opening ceremony left many, including some American conservatives, expressing shock and outrage over a “parody” of Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” featuring drag queens and pagan mythological figures during Friday’s globally televised spectacle.

The moment during which the participants on the Olympic catwalk – a depiction of a fashion show that played out on one of the bridges over the Seine as the parade of nations passed underneath – was shared on social media by the Olympic Committee in addition to being watched around the world.

The world is a stage, and Paris is a catwalk.

The #OpeningCeremony is France's largest nightclub. Celebrities are showcasing young French designer talent, while DJ Barbara Butch provides the tunes. The perfect moment for the last delegations to arrive. #Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/zOzELw8n8a

— The Olympic Games (@Olympics) July 26, 2024

Reactions took place in many countries immediately during and after the Opening Ceremony broadcast from The 2024 Olympics.

Republican House Speaker Rep. Mike Johnson was among those who reacted in the U.S., calling it “shocking and insulting.”

“Last night’s mockery of the Last Supper was shocking and insulting to Christian people around the world who watched the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games,” the Republican leader wrote on X.

Last night’s mockery of the Last Supper was shocking and insulting to Christian people around the world who watched the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.

The war on our faith and traditional values knows no bounds today. But we know that truth and virtue will always… pic.twitter.com/s88c9ymG9j

— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) July 27, 2024

The parody became a topic worldwide overnight, overtaking other aspects of the lavish opening ceremony spectacle, angering politicians and clergy alike, in addition to thousands on social media.

“This ceremony has unfortunately included scenes of derision and mockery of Christianity, which we very deeply deplore,” the Conference of French Bishops announced in a statement.

Angry social media posts from French and Italian officials with right wing parties went viral overnight abroad, and the reactions in the States ranged from surprise to alarm and outrage as well.

“What the f*ck was all this about? A drag queen mockery of the Last Supper at the Olympics? Would they have mocked any other religion like this? Appalling decision,” Piers Morgan wrote on X.

Btw, what the f*ck was all this about? A drag queen mockery of the Last Supper at the Olympics? Would they have mocked any other religion like this? Appalling decision. pic.twitter.com/50uREKJEJd

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) July 27, 2024

Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) called it an “intentional” mockery of Christianity, and she asked Vice President Kamala Harris to condemn it.

“[Kamala Harris], will you condemn this?” she wrote. “America is at a crossroads. There are two very different paths. Craziness vs. common sense. We all know which road the most liberal presidential nominee in history would drive us down.”

.@KamalaHarris, will you condemn this?

America is at a crossroads. There are two very different paths. Craziness vs. common sense. We all know which road the most liberal presidential nominee in history would drive us down. https://t.co/j4TK4qh7UV

— Katie Britt (@KatieBrittforAL) July 27, 2024

“The 2024 Paris Olympics has gone full Woke dystopian,” Kyle Becker wrote.

The 2024 Paris Olympics has gone full Woke dystopian.

The opening ceremony was filled with transgend*r mockery of the Last Supper, the Golden Calf idol, and even the Pale Horse from the Book of Revelation.

The Olympics has made it clear that Christian viewers aren’t welcome. pic.twitter.com/LgawyE6YRX

— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) July 26, 2024

Over 1 Billion people around the world are watching the Olympics Opening Ceremony.

And this is the best France could do.

A man dressed as a Smurf surrounded by drag queens and a plus sized woman with a giant crown. pic.twitter.com/E4QHkwwFES

Bishop Robert Barron released a video in reaction to the ceremony, saying, “What do I see but this gross mockery of The Last Supper… would they ever have dared mock Islam in a similar way?” Bishop Robert Barron wrote on X.

Friends, my thoughts on the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics. #Olimpiadas2024 #OlympicGames pic.twitter.com/xU1ljFMZft

— Bishop Robert Barron (@BishopBarron) July 27, 2024

— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) July 26, 2024

Actual opening ceremony of the Olympics.

This isn’t parody.

RIP Olympics. pic.twitter.com/5gk1yObldB

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) July 26, 2024

In this scene from the Olympic opening ceremony, the famous painting of The Last Supper is recreated, but Jesus is replaced with an obese woman, while queer and trans figures (including a child!) depict her apostles.

Overt pagan and satanic symbolism. pic.twitter.com/YImWfFDekB

— Jenna Ellis (@realJennaEllis) July 26, 2024

Many of the conservative reactions came in response to messages of support of the opening ceremony and accusations of “pearl-clutching” by conservatives to a drag queen-filled Last Supper.

We don’t give a damn about your pearl clutching over our “disrespect” towards Christianity

Considering the fact that you alt-/far-right losers constantly mock Islam & other religions publicly (usually in private like cowards): shut up#Paris2024 #OpeningCeremony pic.twitter.com/bb0EGlmtQg

— Julien Hoez (@JulienHoez) July 26, 2024

Thomas Jolly, the ceremony’s artistic director, has pushed back against criticism, claiming the mockup of a famous Christianity image is all about inclusivity.

“In France, people are free to love how they please, are free to love whoever they want, are free to believe or not believe,” Jolly said.

Watch the clip above via France 24.

(AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Former President Donald Trump announced in a Saturday morning social media post that he would resume holding rallies outdoors just 13 days after he was shot in the ear by a would-be assassin’s bullet.

On July 13, Trump was targeted by 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, the FBI said. According to ton the bureau, Crooks scaled a roof at Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, wounded Trump and two others, and killed 50-year-old Corey Comperatore.

As Axios reported earlier this week, the Secret Service had asked Trump to scale back or cancel outdoor campaign events altogether. In a post from his Truth Social account, Trump announced he would move ahead with speaking outdoors.

He also said that the Secret Service had promised to protect him.

“I WILL CONTINUE TO DO OUTDOOR RALLIES, AND SECRET SERVICE HAS AGREED TO SUBSTANTIALLY STEP UP THEIR OPERATION,” he wrote. “THEY ARE VERY CAPABLE OF DOING SO. NO ONE CAN EVER BE ALLOWED TO STOP OR IMPEDE FREE SPEECH OR GATHERING!!!”

Trump’s announcement followed a statement he made Friday in which he said he would soon return to Butler to finish the rally that was cut short when he was fired upon. Trump referenced Comeratore, a former firefighter and a father who died at the rally protecting his family.

“I WILL BE GOING BACK TO BUTLER, PENNSYLVANIA, FOR A BIG AND BEAUTIFUL RALLY, HONORING THE SOUL OF OUR BELOVED FIREFIGHTING HERO, COREY, AND THOSE BRAVE PATRIOTS INJURED TWO WEEKS AGO,” Trump wrote. “WHAT A DAY IT WILL BE — FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT! STAY TUNED FOR DETAILS.”

Trump was scheduled to hold an indoor rally in Minnesota Saturday evening alongside his running mate Sen. JD Vance (R-OH).

A Fox News poll released Friday evening showed Trump trailing Vice President Kamala Harris in the state by six points less than a week after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed her.

Former President Donald Trump continues to boast a comfortable lead in the key battleground states that are expected to decide the 2024 election, according to a new poll.

The survey, conducted between July 22 and 24 by Redfield & Wilton Strategies and The Telegraph, indicates that Trump is running ahead of newly-minted presumptive Democratic nominee Kamala Harris in seven of the nine states polled.

Trump leads by 3 in Arizona (46%-43%), 8 in Florida (47%-39%), 5 in Georgia (47%-42%), 3 in Michigan (44%-41%), 2 in Nevada (45%-43%), 3 in North Carolina (46%-43%), and 4 in Pennsylvania (46%-42%).

Harris, however, does have a three point lead in Minnesota (44%-41%), where no Republican has prevailed since Richard Nixon in 1972, but Republicans have put on their target map this year and did manage to tie Trump (44% apiece) in Wisconsin.

NEW: Trump leads Harris in seven of nine states polled.

Swing States VI (22-24 July):

(Trump | Harris)

AZ (46% | 43%)
FL (47% | 39%)
GA (47% | 42%)
MI (44% | 41%)
MN (41% | 44%)
NV (45% | 43%)
NC (46% | 43%)
PA (46% | 42%)
WI (44% | 44%)https://t.co/oWzPSiikVU pic.twitter.com/lYpHAhsuQe

— Redfield & Wilton Strategies (@RedfieldWilton) July 26, 2024

The tracking poll of 6,927 voters indicates that in comparison to President Joe Biden’s performance against Trump in last week’s survey, Harris performed better in Arizona, Nevada, and North Carolina, worse in Florida and Michigan, and the same in Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Minnesota is a new addition to the poll.

Redfield & Wilton’s findings largely track with other polls that have found that while Democrats have benefitted from Harris’s ascension to the top of the ticket, Trump remains in the catbird seat for now.

A national HarrisX/Forbes poll conducted between July 19 and 21 found that Trump had a 8 point lead over Harris and another swing state survey conducted by a Democratic firm found that Trump would beat Harris in in Arizona (46%-40%), Michigan (46%-41%), North Carolina (48%-44%), and Pennsylvania (46%-42%).

“Kamala Harris starts her 2024 battle behind Trump, who is enjoying a strong post-convention bump and leads her by almost digits in our polling,” submitted Harris X CEO and chief pollster Dritan Nesho. “If the polls don’t start to close and show better traction for her, Biden’s decision to step aside for Harris may be a case of ‘too similar, too late.'”

Pod-based coffee machines like Keurig and Nespresso are more convenient than their pot-filling predecessors, but they still get dirty inside, the same as any coffee maker. You should descale your machine every three months or so, removing calcium buildup and other gunk. Sure, you can buy products designed to do this for you, but you can also just use vinegar.

How to descale a Keurig

To descale your Keurig machine, fill your water reservoir with a mixture of half water and half distilled white vinegar. Place a large mug or bowl where you’d normally put your coffee cup and run the machine as normal, dumping the mixture every time the mug fills. Keep doing this until the water reservoir runs out of mixture. Wash and refill the reservoir, then repeat the process to rinse it out, refilling your container until there’s nothing left in the machine. (Obviously, try to use a large bowl if possible so you're not running back and forth to the sink with a full mug.)

Be careful not to overwork your poor Keurig. Consider giving it a half-hour break between descaling and rinsing. 

How to descale a Nespresso

Nespresso warns against using vinegar or other-branded descaling solutions, which you could argue is because they want you to spend money on theirs. Still, if you’re nervous, just buy the Nespresso cleaning products. Online, plenty of people have discussed using vinegar to clean their machines out, but if you’re going to do it, dilute the vinegar quite a bit. I tried it using one part vinegar and two parts water, and only running the solution through once, and it worked great. 

Credit: Lindsey Ellefson

Be sure to follow the directions for your specific model, but in general, you’re likely going to have to turn off your machine, push the top button and lever simultaneously until the light turns orange, and press the lever down once to start descaling. It will take a while, but it will empty your reservoir. Conversely, I just “brewed” a cup of the mixture and had no issues. Rinse the machine by washing out the reservoir, filling it with water, and running some plain water through a few times. 

Tools for descaling pod-based coffee machines

If you’re cheap like me, grab some distilled white vinegar and get to it. You can get 128 ounces for $3.99 at Target. 

If you’re worried about using vinegar, Amazon has Keurig’s three-month brewer maintenance kit ($17.99) and Nespresso’s descaling solution ($19.99) available, too. 

Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP (L)/Screenshot via Universal

James Woods told Megyn Kelly on Thursday that he “took one for the team” on Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer by mostly keeping his executive producer credit quiet due to concerns over his pro-Donald Trump Twitter account.

Woods joined Kelly on SiriusXM’s The Megyn Kelly Show on Thursday for his first interview in years. His acting career has mostly been on ice in recent years and many today know Woods more for his four million Twitter following where he is unapologetically in support of the former president.

During the chat, Woods dove more into his role on Oppenheimer, a connection many likely don’t know about because Woods mostly kept quiet while the movie was breaking box office records and racking up award nominations in 2023. Woods did attend the Oscars, revealing his executive producer role on the movie. Oppenheimer ended up winning Best Picture.

Woods recounted a story he’d told before about being dropped by his agent on the Fourth of July over his support of Trump. Woods claimed his agent said at the time that he was feeling “patriotic.” The actor’s last live action performance was in 2017, with some sporadic voice work since then.

Woods told Kelly he needed to embrace his “second act” after political leanings in Hollywood began impacting his career. What Woods did was buy the rights to American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin. The book tells the story of J. Robert Oppenheimer and the development and construction of the atomic bomb. Woods and his producing partner approached producer Charles Roven about getting Christopher Nolan to adapt the book and everything was sealed with a handshake.

When it came time for awards voting though, Woods was “gently asked” to keep his comeback on the down low.

“When Oppenheimer came out, there was a discussion about my Twitter, and it was gently suggested that I basically remain invisible, which was painful — on the other hand, I’m a pragmatic person and I thought, a lot of people put their effort into this, so I’m just going to be an invisible pariah because the people who are going to be voting for Oscars, which is very important,” Woods recalled.

He said he ultimately decided it was best to remain quiet as producer to better promote others involved.

“I don’t want to deprive those people. I don’t want to have some nutcase come out of the woodwork, fabricate some ridiculous story about me — I’ve had a million of them said, they’re all lies — I don’t want that to happen and have the clickbait story be, ‘James Woods is the executive producer, we’re not going to watch that movie!’ So I stepped back and basically took one for the team,” he said, adding, “That environment is not the one my father shed blood for.”

Among the events Woods ended up not being invited was the Producers Guild Awards.

Woods blasted modern Hollywood as politically biased against conservatives like himself, something he expressed shock over, naming outspoken liberals like Whoopi Goldberg and Rob Reiner as friends. He said he’s next trying to produce a film for longtime friend and collaborator Oliver Stone.

“I just don’t know why there’s this vicious underlying cancer that has destroyed our business,” Woods said.

Check out the entire Woods interview on The Megyn Kelly Show.

The journey from zero pull-ups to one pull-up is long, difficult, and may at times seem insurmountable. And then once you get there, victory is fleeting: Every set you attempt contains one measly rep. Whether you're on the journey or have just completed it, you’re going to need some ways to bring that lofty exercise down to earth.

What follows is a list of exercises that are easier than a strict pull-up, but which work the same muscles. Pick something that feels challenging but doable, and you'll get even closer to your goal of banging out full reps. These easier exercises are sometimes called pullup regressions. (Exercises that are harder than a pullup would be progressions.)

I've ordered them roughly from easiest to hardest, but feel free to hop around the list based on what feels most appropriate to you.

• Assisted pull-ups with a machine like the Gravitron (above) that takes off as much weight as you like. The more weight you put on the stack, the easier these get (the opposite of how most machines work).

• Lat pulldowns, another gym machine. This is the same motion as a pull-up, but you’re seated so it’s more about arms and less about your core and everything else. You can also adjust the weight on these.

• Inverted rows, an exercise you can do on a lower height bar. Set the bar of the smith machine to whatever height you like, or do these on gymnastics rings ("ring rows) or a suspension trainer.

• Assisted pull-ups with a resistance band. You need to hang one of those big elastic bands from the bar so that you can put one foot or knee in it, and then the band helps give you a boost as you pull up.

• Box pull-ups are simple to set up if you have a doorway bar: just set a chair in the doorway, and put one foot on it while you do your pull-ups. Push with your foot as much as you need to. In a gym, rather than a dining room chair, you can use a plyo box, bench, or whatever seems appropriate (and safe).

• Negative reps build strength fast. Jump or climb to the top of the pull-up position, and then slowly lower yourself down.

• Flexed arm hangs involve hanging from the pull-up bar at the top position, without trying to move up and down. They work some of the same muscles, and you can measure progress by how long you can hang.

• Scap pull-ups (above) work the bottom of the pull-up motion. Start at a dead hang, and then imagine that you’re pushing the bar down toward your waist with straight arms. This activates your back and shoulder muscles. (The “scap” in the name refers to your scapula, that big shoulder blade bone on your back.)

• Chin-ups and neutral grip pull-ups are just variations on grip: in a chin-up, your palms face toward you instead of away. They allow more of your little forearm muscles to get in on the action, so they’re just a little bit easier.

Once you are a pull-up beast, don’t forget that you can use these same exercises, especially the assisted pull-ups, to practice more advanced moves like one-armed pull-ups, pull-ups with just your fingers, or any other pull-up of your dreams.