Month: August 2023

When it first seemed likely, earlier this month, that Donald Trump was going to score himself a fourth indictment in Fulton County, Georgia (which he later did), the sheriff there made a promise: the world would finally get a mugshot of America’s 45th president. But he’s not the only one who may get one. There are 18 other defendants in the case, and the sheriff says they’re welcome to report there at their earliest convenience.

As per The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (as caught by Raw Story), a Fulton County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson said that it’s expected that all 19 indictees will be booked at the same prison, namely the Rice Street Jail. District Attorney Fani Willis said the defendants have until Aug. 25 at noon to turn themselves in. That doesn’t mean they should all show up to be arraigned at the same time, or even on the same day.

“Keep in mind, defendants can turn themselves in at any time,” the sherrif’s office said. “The jail is open 24/7.” They added, though, that “due to the unprecedented nature of this case, some circumstances may change with little or no warning.”

In early August, Sheriff Pat LaBat said that Trump’s fourth arraignment wouldn’t be like his previous three, in which he avoided doing some of the usual traditions, including getting a mugshot.

“It doesn’t matter your status. We have a mugshot ready for you,” LaBat said.

That doesn’t mean Trump’s lawyers — or those representing Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows, Jenna Ellis, and many more — won’t at least try to negotiate the terms of their clients’ surrenders. But LaBat seems pretty adamant about getting arguably the most famous mugshot since the one taken of Nick Nolte.

(Via Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Raw Story)

How the mighty have fallen. On Monday, Rudy Giuliani’s fall from grace got another step deeper. Once he was “America’s Mayor.” Two decades later he was reputation–torching joke who repeatedly humiliated himself for a guy who might throw him under the bus. He also now has an indictment under his belt. To make matters worse, the charges fall under the same laws he helped make popular in his younger days.

As per Newsweek, Giuliani and the 18 others indicted by Fulton County, Georgia DA Dani Willis are facing charges under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO. Jump back to the early-to-late-‘80s and Giuliani, then U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, was praised for using the same laws against the state’s most prominent mafia bosses, who ruled over the “Five Families.”

“I dreamed up the tactic of using the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act to prosecute the Mafia leadership,” Giuliani bragged in his 2002 memoir Leadership.

What’s more, he had harsh words for those charged under RICO laws. “Organized crime figures are illegitimate people who would go on being illegitimate people if I got them off,” he told The New York Times in 1985. “I would not want to spend a lot of time with them, shake hands with them, have sidebar conferences with them and become involved with people who are close to totally evil.”

Jump to the present day, and Giuliani has been charged with 13 counts under RICO laws, including violation of oath by public officer, making false statements, conspiracy to commit impersonating a public officer, and conspiracy to commit forgery. And like him, the DA prosecuting him has a history of prosecuting RICO cases. As if the poor guy didn’t have it bad already.

(Via Newsweek)

Doja Cat is in the midst of promoting her highly anticipated forthcoming album. So far, she’s shared the singles “Attention” and “Paint The Town Red.” More teasers are on the way.

In an interview with Harper’s Bazaar, she revealed that she’ll be debuting new music during The Victoria’s Secret World Tour, which is part fashion show and part documentary. It will premiere on Prime Video on September 26.

“I don’t want to spoil too much, but like past projects, there’s lots of different energy to songs, plus new sounds that I’ve never explored before. So that is exciting to me, and I can’t wait to put it out,” she said in the interview.

She continued, “Victoria’s Secret has always been such a fun, go-to brand for me since early on, and I love that I can still say that today. Being a part of a global phenomenon like the Tour has been an incredible experience. My idea of what makes me beautiful, sexy, and confident has evolved so much over the years, but I’ve always known that what matters most is how I feel about myself. To me, sexy is being comfortable in my own skin and celebrating myself for who I am. Being a part of the Tour really helped connect me with that.”

The Killers are in hot water. On Tuesday, August 15, “Mr. Brightside” band performed at the Black Sea Arena in Batumi, Georgia. At one point they brought a fan onstage to drum on “For Reasons Unknown,” but when it was revealed he was Russian, the crowd vehemently booed.

“What’s your name, and where are you from?” Brandon Flowers asked the drummer. When he said he was Russian, the frontman said the Russians and Georgians are “brothers,” which did not go over well with the audience. Many exited the show and The Killers ended their set with saying, “You can’t recognize that someone’s your brother? He’s not your brother? We all separate on the borders of our countries?”

The group has already shared a statement on social media. “We have a longstanding tradition of inviting people to play drums and it seemed from the stage that the initial response from the crowd indicated that they were okay with tonight’s audience participation member coming onstage with us,” it reads. “We recognize that a comment, meant to suggest that all of the Killers’ audience and fans are ‘brothers and sisters’ could be misconstrued. We did not mean to upset anyone and we apologize. We stand with you and hope to return soon.”

You know, I’m starting to think this Lionel Messi fella might have a future in Major League Soccer. Messi and Inter Miami went to Philadelphia on Tuesday night to take on the Union in a League Cup quarterfinal game, and while Miami have been sensational since Messi (along with Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba) have joined the team, this game was expected to be the team’s most difficult test yet against the team in third place in the Eastern Conference.

Messi, as he is wont to do, looked at this potentially tricky opponent and just kinda laughed at it. With Inter Miami leading 1-0 in the 20th minute, Josef Martinez played a ball to Messi while the pair were in Philly’s half of the pitch. The Union gave Messi more than enough room to carry the ball deeper into their half, but instead of trying to dribble into the box, he just ripped one from 35 yards out that beat Andre Blake.

It’s not great goalkeeping by Blake and it’s never a good idea to let Messi have that much time and space on the ball, but still, this is not easy to execute, even for the greatest player to ever step foot on a pitch. This was Messi’s ninth goal in six games for Inter Miami, all of which have come in the Leagues Cup.

On Monday Donald Trump received his fourth indictment. One would think he’d be used to it by now, but no: He spent the following day ranting and raving like a caged animal. The same with the former president’s cronies, who acted as though this was his first indictment rodeo. At the very least someone like Lindsey Graham — his critic-turned-pal-turned-critic-turned-pal — would have thought up a better excuse than the one he gave Fox News.

Graham went on Jesse Watters’ Fox News primetime show, which aired after the indictments were unsealed but before their contents — including whether Trump was officially charged again — were made public. But it was a safe enough bet that he was that Graham deemed it and his many other legal woes “unfair” and setting a “bad precedent.”

What’s more, Graham felt that when it comes to a former president trying to undo an election he lost, it shouldn’t be up to a jury to decide if he’s guilty or not. Instead, another, much larger group of people should decide — let’s say, at another election.

“The American people can decide whether they want him to be president or not,” Graham argued. “This should be decided at the ballot box, not a bunch of liberal jurisdictions trying to put the man in jail.”

Luckily there were plenty of people on social media to remind Graham that Trump’s refusal to listen to what happened at the ballot box was how this whole mess began.

That Graham — who, again, used to be a fierce anti-Trumpist — is still out there embarrassing himself for Trump is a stark reminder that Trump himself didn’t do much to defend him after his supporters booed him at a rally.

(Via HuffPost)

Jenny Evans is a mom to six kids. And, yes, she knows that’s a lot.

That doesn’t stop people from asking her, though. The kinds of comments she gets from friends and even from complete strangers would have you thinking she hadn’t actually thought this whole “six kids” thing through.

“One of the questions I get asked constantly as a mom of six is ‘Why do you have so many kids?'” she says.

---

Surveys show that the average American thinks two or three kids is ideal. So six seems to absolutely blow people’s minds, and they feel compelled — nay, entitled — to receive an explanation. Evans is sick of it.

In a hilarious video posted to her Facebook page, Evans tackles the absurd question with the, uh, thoughtfulness it deserves.

In the video, which has since gone viral, Evans feigns a moment of realization: “That’s a good question. Why do I have so many kids?”

She then launches into a tirade of satirical answers she might offer well-meaning strangers who ask her about the size of her family.

At the very end of the video, Evans briefly touches on the reason she has six kids. The real reason, that is.

“It’s because I like them,” she says in the clip.

“We never had ‘a number’ or consciously decided we were going to have a big family, but simply made room for one more whenever we felt like we could,” Evans told ABC News. “Having a new baby join the family and watching everyone’s relationships with everyone else grow is the most amazing thing. I just never get tired of that.”

Americans are actually having fewer kids overall these days, so concern about over-population and resources is wasted on questioning one individual family’s choices. Besides, we shouldn’t judge, shame, or question people who have lots of kids while simultaneously stigmatizing people who choose not to.

Evans’ video is simply a fun reminder to live and let live. Having no kids is fine. Having six kids is fine. So is seven or eight or however many you choose to — or not to — have.

At the end of the day, it’s as simple as this: How you choose to build or define your own family isn’t a choice you should have to defend.

Check out the rest of Evans’ hilarious responses (all of them!) in the video below:

This article originally appeared on 10.25.17

Do we all, instinctively, find the same types of bodies attractive? Or do TV, movies, and pictures in magazines subtly influence what sorts of bodies we’re attracted to?

Researchers at Newcastle University in the U.K. set out to study this question — and walked away with some really fascinating new data.

---

The question they posed: Do people who have limited access to TV have different beauty ideals than those who watch more frequently?

It’s hardly a secret that Hollywood prefers thin. A 2003 study published in the American Journal of Public Health found that female characters who have bigger bodies were few and far between on TV at the turn of the last decade. When they did appear, they were less likely to have romantic partners and “less likely to considered attractive.”

Things have improved in recent years but only slightly. And popular reality shows like, “The Biggest Loser” continue to sell the idea that weight loss is the ticket to feeling attractive.

It raises the question: Would we feel differently about our bodies if we didn’t watch so much TV? Or if we saw more positive portrayals of people with bigger bodies on the air?

It’s really hard to study this because there aren’t a lot of places left in the world that don’t have access to Western media.

In order to get good data, you need to talk to people who not only rarely or never watch TV and movies, but who are hardly even exposed to them and the culture they help generate.

American TV and movies — and locally-produced TV and movies that draw inspiration from our TV and movies — are pretty much everywhere by now.

But there are some. And that’s where the researchers went.

Specifically, they went to the east coast of Nicaragua, which is home to a number of remote villages, some of which have no or only partially electricity.

Researchers found a remote village with little TV access and asked participants there to react to various images of women’s bodies of different sizes.

The subjects were asked to rate each image on a scale of 1 to 5. Their responses were compared with those from an urban area and a similar village that had greater access to broadcast media.

Critically, the two villages chosen were very similar culturally — previous studies have had difficulty separating out media viewing habits from other cultural variables that might account for the difference in how the images were perceived. Standards of beauty vary from culture to culture, including certain cultures that prize fatness (much like the “thin ideal” in the West, this is often similarly harmful to women and girls).

The result? Participants in the village with the least media access preferred bodies with a higher body mass index on average than those in the urban area and more connected village.

There are caveats, of course.

Using BMI to measure normal versus abnormal weight has become increasingly controversial recently. It’s also impossible to draw big, sweeping conclusions from a single study.

But it’s real data. And it does suggest that perhaps we’re not hardwired to find smaller bodies attractive.

“Our data strongly suggests that access to televisual media is itself a risk factor for holding thin body ideals, at least for female body shape, in a population who are only just gaining access to television,” said Dr. Lynda Boothroyd, senior lecturer in psychology at Durham University and co-leader of the study.

In other words, the more TV we watch, the more we’re likely to be attracted to lower-weight bodies. The less TV we watch, the more we’re likely to look favorably upon higher-weight bodies.

Most importantly, it’s evidence that there’s nothing inherently attractive about weighing less, and nothing inherently unattractive about weighing more.

It’s just something we made up.

But the good news is that we can un-make it up.How do we do that? Here’s one idea: Let’s get more people with more bodies of more shapes and sizes we can get on TV, in movies, and in glossy magazines — giving them real lives, real flaws, real romances, and presenting them, at least every so often, as attractive. Like, you know. Real people.This article originally appeared on 02.26.16

Middle schoolers aren’t exactly known for their kindness and thoughtfulness, at least in popular culture. The standard image of tweens is a toxic combo of selfishness, hubris and insecurity that leads to all manner of foolishness.

But as someone who’s taught in middle schoolclassrooms and raised three kids through that stage, I can attest this age group gets an unnecessarily bad rap. Sure, middle schoolers can be moody and awkward and immature, but they can also be thoughtful and kind and justice-minded. They are beginning to hone their perception of life’s big issues and figure out their place in the world. They usually care more than they appear to and are often more compassionate than we give them credit for.

At this age, we can also see the evidence of a loving upbringing in a kid’s character. Such was the case with one of Matt Eicheldinger’s students, a sixth grader who always rubbed his necklace with his fingers when he talked to people. When Eicheldinger asked the student why he did it, his answer spoke volumes.

---

In an Instagram video, Eicheldinger shared that the student was from another country, he was friendly and personable and he always wore a green square necklace, which he would rub whenever he was talking to someone.

One day, Eicheldinger asked the student if he would tell him about the necklace. The sixth grader said it was made of folded paper containing prayers for him from his loved ones—prayers for peace, love and kindness. If you’re guessing he rubbed the necklace because he was thinking of those who were praying for him, you’d be half right. The full reason is a beautiful example of compassionate selflessness.

Watch Eicheldinger explain:

See on Instagram

It would have been sweet enough if the kid were just drawing on his family’s prayers for strength or confidence, but the fact that he was wishing for others to have the good things he himself had experienced is so heartwarming.

“My grandma used to make us those to wear too… it is called a tahveez … thank you for sharing!” wrote commenter eduwaseem. “Brings back memories of my childhood! I don’t wear one anymore but I did as a kid. Never thought to rub it while talking to others though. What a sweet kid to do that! Melts my heart!”

“Sooo beautiful!! I once had a student who made the sign of the cross every time when heard a siren,” shared mel_13_mel. “She told me that she would stop whatever she was doing and say a prayer that everyone would be alright, including the emergency workers who might be witness to something really difficult. That always stuck with me. Such a kind, generous and simple thing for an 8-year-old to do.”

“Well I wasn’t prepared to tear up this fine Monday morning. What a sweetheart of a young man, 💙” wrote kendrasmom724.

“I am an elementary school teacher. I teach in an area where the majority of the families are immigrants,” wrote fullmoonshenanigans. “They have some of the most heart-wrenching, courageous,, & beautiful stories. I’ve always wondered, how can I share these stories with the rest of the world? How can I share so that people can have a better understanding of what immigrants go through, and why? How can I teach these people to have empathy & compassion towards all living beings?”

One way to teach empathy and compassion is through modeling those qualities, and this student gives us a wonderful example of what being a compassionate role model looks like. Kids may learn a lot from us, but as this story shows, we have a lot we can learn from them, too.

There’s a growing trend in some countries where more men are sitting to pee instead of standing up. This trend has caught on most prominently in Germany, where 62% of men now say they sit every time or most of the time.

The reasons for the change in public opinion in Germany are that it’s more hygienic for men to sit because there’s no splash back and it’s much easier to aim. In some places with communal living, standing to pee is greatly discouraged, and it’s now considered rude to stand to pee when visiting a friend’s house.

Things aren’t the same in the USA, where only 23% say they sit most of the time. The stand versus sit debate has caused a problem in a family, so a pro-sitting mom of three took to Reddit’s AITA forum to ensure she wasn’t in the wrong.

---

“After we potty trained our sons I kept making sure that they were sitting to pee. They are young and don’t really care. They can use a urinal when we are out somewhere,” she wrote. “My brother-in-law was over last month and saw my oldest boy in the bathroom by accident. … Anyways my brother-in-law made a joke about my son not stinking up the bathroom. My son told him that he was just peeing. For some reason my BIL took offense at this and started bugging my husband about his sons sitting to pee.”

This is where things get interesting because, in many cultures, it’s seen as effeminate for men to sit and pee, which is probably a big reason why nearly 4 out of 5 men in America prefer to stand.

“My husband then started telling the boys that if they are only peeing that they should stand,” the mom continued. “They boys don’t have great aim, but they make up for it with a short attention span. When I went in the bathroom after a few days of that it was gross. I turned around and walked out.”

The mother then told the dad that if the boys were going to stand to pee, then he could take responsibility for cleaning the “toilets, floors and walls” in the bathroom. “I said it was his idea for the boys to stand to pee, so he had to deal with the consequences,” the mom wrote. “He did it but he is upset about me unilaterally making this decision. Like he did about the boys.”

One can see the dad’s reasoning for having the boys stand to pee. Because if they sit to pee at school, they could deal with bullying from other boys. The mom’s position—that if they’re going to stand instead of sit, she’s not cleaning up the mess—also makes sense.

The commenters on the post overwhelmingly sided with the mother.

“I will never understand why it’s socially acceptable for boys and grown-ass men to spray bathrooms like tom cats because they choose to stand to urinate. It’s unnecessary and unsanitary. Either aim better, clean up after yourself, or sit,” Consistent-Leopard71 wrote.

“All the people with penises can clean up after their penises,” Turkeygreen added.

The consensus among the commentators was that there’s nothing wrong with sitting to pee and it shouldn’t be seen as masculine or feminine. Many folks also thought that if you’re adamant about the kids doing something less hygienic, you should probably clean up after them.