Politics

Jason Fochtman/Houston Chronicle via GettyAs flooded southeast Texas braces for more rain on Sunday, Houston police have released bodycam video showing members of its marine unit rescuing a man and three dogs.The group was trapped in 10 feet of water in a trailer park close to where the San Jacinto River enters Lake Houston until first responders loaded them onto jetski-type vehicles.Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said Saturday that 178 people and 122 pets had been rescued by first responders since storms brought destructive flooding to the areas.Read more at The Daily Beast.

NBC/screengrabSaturday Night Live has returned from a three-week break, and the big story everyone was hoping they’d cover was Kristi Noem and her poor dog, Cricket. South Dakota’s Republican governor (and VP hopeful) sparked viral outrage recently when she described in a book how she’d once killed her 14-month-old dog Cricket. While it seemed she revealed this to sound tough, it instead made her seem like a psychopath, even to the GOP peers she was trying to impress.Early into this week’s episode it almost seemed like the SNL writers were planning to let the whole story go. Colin Jost got a fun burn early into “Weekend Update” where he compared Noem shooting poor Cricket with Trump wanting to put down Mike Pence. “Something tells me Trump would fully support killing disobedient pets,” Jost muses, as Pence’s picture displays beside him. Dua Lipa’s monolgue also involved a brief Noem impression by Heidi Gardner, but the host jokingly shut her down quickly.Luckily, it turns out that SNL was saving its Noem material for young cast member Marcello Hernández, who showed up on “Update” in an adorable dog costume and a seemingly pleasant, excited attitude.Read more at The Daily Beast.

NBC / SNL It wasn’t completely unexpected when Saturday Night Live focused its cold open on the massive wave of student protests sweeping America, but the exact direction it chose was a surprise. Rather than a news report or a sketch involving protester characters themselves, SNL chose to open up with a fake talk show.Called “Community Affairs,” the talk show focused on a concerned host played by Michael Longfellow and two white, well-off parents played by Heidi Gardner and Mikey Day. At first, the conversation focused on the parents trying to be supportive of their kids, even as the protests have grown increasingly dangerous and volatile.“I’m all for free speech, but I don’t understand what they think they’re accomplishing, and that’s really putting a strain on me and my daughter’s relationship,” says Gardner’s character. Day’s character adds, “Yeah, I want to let my son make his own choices, but to be honest, it’s a little scary.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Erin O'Flynn/The Daily Beast/Getty ImagesListen to this full episode of The New Abnormal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon and Stitcher.White supremacist and proud incel Nick Fuentes has shockingly suggested he may accidentally kill his wife—that is if he ever finds a woman who would voluntarily choose to marry him.“I totally see myself accidentally killing my wife ‘cause I just get mad, you know. We’ll be like years into the marriage, I’m gonna be angry about something. It’s gonna be a little bit too hot in the house. It’s gonna be one of those days where I haven’t slept all night, I haven’t eaten in a day. So I’m like in the worst possible mood and she’s gonna say something and I’m gonna just accidentally kill her. I’m just gonna hit her and she’s gonna hit her head on the counter and she’s just gonna like die,” he said. “She’s gonna say something, I’m gonna lose control. I’m gonna blast her and... no, I’m kidding, kidding, kidding, kidding, kidding, kidding, kidding. I’m just kidding. I’m just kidding. These are just jokes. I would never put my hand on anyone. I’m a lover. I don’t attack people... but you know, women do piss me off a lot.”Read more at The Daily Beast.