The Daily Beast Latest Articles
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Opinion: The Very Real Threat of Right-Wing Leaders Cheering on Trump Photo Illustration by Erin O'Flynn/The Daily Beast/Getty ImagesOne by one they offered their loyalty pledge to MAGA’s Dear Leader. One by one Republican leaders publicly placed fealty to Donald Trump ahead of loyalty to the United States or the oath they once had made to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution.But they were not alone.Other Trump supporters from around the world, including at least one who actively seeks to destroy the United States, not only expressed their support for the mob-boss-who-would-be-king but did so with language uncannily like that of the MAGA chorus that offered lies and laments in response to the New York jury’s unanimous verdict convicting the former president.Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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Right-Wing Money Man Says Chief Justice ‘Maybe’ Timed Abortion Decision for Holy Day Brandon Bell/Getty ImagesRight-wing fundraiser Leonard Leo has floated a very personal theory about the timing of the U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.Leo, who has close ties to Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, suggested to the authors of a new book that it may not have been a total coincidence that the ruling in Dobbs v Jackson came down on a Catholic holy day with special meaning for him.In an interview with Lisa Lerer and Elizabeth Dias, New York Times reporters and co-authors of The Fall of Roe: The Rise of a New America, Leo notes that Chief Justice John Roberts “would have decided the order of decisions that would come out that day”—June 24, 2022.Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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When Bruce Springsteen United Liberals and Conservatives Photo Illustration by Erin O'Flynn/The Daily Beast/Getty ImagesThe below is an excerpt from There Was Nothing You Could Do: Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born in the U.S.A.’ and the End of the Heartland by Steven Hyden, available now.As the Born in the U.S.A. tour progressed, its cultural significance shifted in the nation’s newspapers. What started out as fodder for local music critics in 1984 eventually became an obsession for political columnists in ’85. The most infamous example of this change would affect how Bruce Springsteen and his most popular album were perceived for decades afterward.Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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Opinion: Should We Fear MAGA Riots if Trump Is Locked Up? Nic AntayaListen to this full episode of The New Abnormal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon, and Stitcher.Now that Donald Trump has been found guilty on all 34 charges of falsifying business records the focus turns to his sentencing on July 11.The New Abnormal team discusses on this week’s Bonus Podcast how his MAGA supporters will react if he is thrown in prison.Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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‘We Are Lady Parts’: One of TV’s Best Shows Finally Returns After Three Years Photo Illustration by Erin O'Flynn/The Daily Beast/Getty Images and PeacockIt’s been three years since an all-female, all-Muslim band burst onto the TV scene with We Are Lady Parts, a single-camera British sitcom about rockers in their twenties navigating the traditions of both Islam and punk. If that seems like a long gap between TV seasons, just think of what it feels like for a fledgling musical act. While the on-screen time elapsed between seasons appears closer to one year later than three, life’s clock keeps ticking for the central quartet and their dedicated manager (Lucie Shorthouse).Since cautious, well-behaved Amina (Anjana Vasan) finally, fully committed to the band in the Season 1 finale, Lady Parts has coalesced as a gig-booking, fan-accumulating, repertoire-expanding actual band. But they don’t have a full record or next-level success to show for it. No one feels that more acutely than Saira (Sarah Kameela Impey), the band’s founder and frontwoman. On the cusp of 30, she’s feeling desperate for a mark of accomplishment that won’t sell out her punk-rock ideals. To borrow a phrase from Girls5eva, which debuted on Peacock the same year as Lady Parts, she’s hoping to enter “album mode.”Anyone jumping into We Are Lady Parts hoping for the gag density of their similarly named, more pop-inclined ex-labelmates might come away disappointed. Lady Parts is many things — swiftly paced, strikingly shot, packed with likable characters—but it’s only occasionally laugh-out-loud funny, often playing more like a dramedy with extra stylistic zip. Yet the real absence felt in this genre hybridization isn’t really the jokes; it’s the plotting, which sometimes gets caught between serialized drama and tidier, more episodic comedy.Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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One Huge Change Could Now Let Ukraine Defeat Putin John Moore/Getty ImagesZOLOCHIV, Ukraine—The thud of bombs followed by the roar of air raid sirens pierce through the air in Zolochiv, a desolate village in Kharkiv region that is under constant attack. The village holds no strategic value for Russia, but its close proximity to the border just 12 miles away means Zolochiv has little to no warning of when a new attack will occur, and casualties and deaths happen frequently. Terror runs high among the civilians.Three years into the war, some residents of Zolochiv feel that Kyiv’s military has to step up their defenses by attacking the weapons, launch sites, airfields and military logistics centers inside Russian borders before they are unleashed on Ukrainians. Up until now, Western countries’ restrictions have prevented them from doing so out of fear that the war might expand, and amid nuclear threats from Russian President Vladimir Putin. Many feel now those rules must be torn up to give Ukraine a chance to defeat Putin.Throughout the war, most of Ukraine’s international allies have insisted that any weapons they provide must be used exclusively within the country’s territory. The restrictions were initially developed to prevent the war from expanding, and backed by NATO’s Parliamentary Assembly, the Biden Administration, and European countries. However, Ukrainians argue that complying with the restrictions is limiting the country’s ability to defend itself and could lead to a Russian victory.Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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Trump Takes His ‘Political Prisoner’ Grift to UFC Fight After Conviction Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty ImagesSelf-proclaimed “political prisoner” Donald Trump showed up to a UFC fight in New Jersey on Saturday night just two days after he became a convicted felon following his hush-money trial in New York.The former president walked in alongside UFC President Dana White, looking a bit more downtrodden than in his previous UFC appearances. The event appeared to provide a much-needed ego boost for Trump, with a built-in cheering crowd for the presumptive Republican nominee whose “civil rights” were supposedly “totally violated” when he was found guilty on Thursday of falsifying business records to pay off a porn star.“Donald Trump is in the building and the former president getting a standing ovation from the assembled masses,” the announcer said, noting that Trump was getting a “staggering” round of applause as his entrance was shown on the jumbotron screen. Trump could be seen shaking hands with the crowd as he made his way to his seat. The crowd could also be heart chanting, “We want Trump” at one point.Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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‘In a Violent Nature’: The Goriest Movie of the Year Almost Didn’t Get Made Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty/IFC FilmsSometimes movies get a reputation for being “cursed.” Some are followed around by tragedy for decades after their release. Others emanate vibes so rancid, just watching them feels wrong. Then there are the movies whose productions are so fraught with disaster, it’s a miracle they were finished at all. In A Violent Nature, which hit theaters Friday after an arduous multi-year production, is in the last category. Hearing the cast and crew of this Canadian slasher tell stories from the set, the existence of curses suddenly seems reasonable.From the first day of shooting in northeast Ontario in September 2021, everything that could go badly, did. Equipment failures, lost locations, torrential rainfall, multiple emergency-room trips, apocalyptic swarms of black flies, mud, blood, and an animal actor who just wouldn’t perform—all of these and more plagued the small production.“Every inch of nature tried to kill us,” producer Shannon Hanmer says, adding that the woods seemed to have it out for writer-director Chris Nash specifically. He doesn’t disagree. “Nature hates the unprepared, let's say that,” he says, blaming their bad luck on his hubris for wanting to make a movie in the first place.Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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Ex-Trump Lawyer Says It’s ‘Ridiculous’ to Claim Biden Was Behind Hush-Money Case Brendan McDermid/ReutersFormer Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina says the MAGA narrative that President Joe Biden was somehow behind the prosecution of Donald Trump in the hush-money case is “ridiculous.”On a Saturday appearance on Al Sharpton’s MSNBC show, PoliticsNation, Tacopina took shots at Trump allies in the GOP and Trump’s attorneys. “To say that Joe Biden brought this case is one of the most ridiculous things I’ve heard,” Tacopina told Sharpton. “We know that’s not the case, and even Trump’s lawyers know that’s not the case.”Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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Blood, Threats and Tears: Inside Diddy’s Nightmare Workplace Photo Illustration by Kelly Caminero / The Daily Beast / GettyThis month, the world witnessed surveillance video that would forever change whatever reputation remained for Sean “Diddy” Combs. The undeniable imagery of Combs beating his ex-girlfriend Cassie in a hotel hallway left no doubt in the minds of anyone who watched it that the hip-hop superstar was, at the very least, an abuser.Combs had already been accused of a slew of horrifically violent behaviors after Cassie first alleged that she suffered beatings, psychological torment, and more at his hands in a lawsuit against him last November. Since then, six more suits have emerged, alleging the rapper and former brand mogul engaged in rape, assault, forcible drugging, and even a sex trafficking operation.Now, five former Combs employees told The Daily Beast that the rapper’s allegedly abusive tendencies in his personal life extended to a disturbingly toxic work environment.Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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Michael Cohen Worries Trump Will Spill Secrets in Prison ‘for a Bag of Tuna’ Eduardo Munoz/ReutersMichael Cohen says he’s “afraid” for national security if Donald Trump goes to prison.In an interview with MSNBC on Saturday, the former Trump fixer stressed that he was not worried for the former president or his “safety” but “for all of us and for the American people.” Cohen, who was sentenced to prison in 2018 for campaign finance charges and lying to Congress, said he believes the former president may seek revenge by spilling national secrets behind bars. Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark Battle It Out In First WNBA Game Icon SportswireTwo of the most talked about collegiate women’s basketball players and now WNBA players, Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, faced off on Saturday—and the rematch attracted scores of fans to watch them on the larger stage.Clark and Reese became regular headline makers after Reese made John Cena’s “you can’t see me” hand gesture at Clark as the two faced off in a LSU versus Iowa game last Spring. This time around, it was Clark’s team who won, as the Indiana Fever narrowly beat Reese’s Chicago Sky in a tight game that ended 71-70.The anticipation for the game was high, following Reese’s “trash talk” to Clark when they were both college players last Spring. The clip of Reese’s gesture inspired plenty of media coverage of both she and Clark, much of which was incendiary towards Reese. The two women ultimately came out of the other side of the kerfuffle much talked about in the mainstream, attracting more fans to women’s basketball and bringing that momentum with them to the WNBA as they were drafted.Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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Emily Ratajkowski Sports Stormy Daniels T-Shirt After Trump Verdict Contributor/Getty ImagesModel Emily Ratajkowski became the latest celebrity to make a political fashion statement this week, sporting a black T-shirt with Stormy Daniels’ face on it the day Donald Trump officially became a convicted felon.Ratajkowski wore the $95 limited-edition Platform style on a walk around New York City, paired with red Vans and gray sweat shorts. On the same day across town, a jury found Trump guilty of 34 felony counts related to falsified business records to cover up his affair with the porn star Daniels, which prosecutors argued could’ve influenced the 2016 election.According to the brand Platform’s website, the Stormy T-shirt’s illustration was done by cartoonist R. Crumb, and ten percent of all proceeds go to Safe Horizon, a New York organization supporting victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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Bernie Sanders to Boycott ‘War Criminal’ Bibi’s Address to Congress PETER NICHOLLSSen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) slammed Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the group of bipartisan congressional leaders who invited the embattled leader to address a joint-session of Congress, in a statement released by the senator on Saturday. “It is a very sad day for our country that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been invited—by leaders of both parties—to address a joint meeting of the United States Congress,” Sanders opened the letter. “I certainly will not attend.”Sanders lambasted the decision, referring to Netanyahu as a “war criminal” responsible for “clear and outrageous violations of international law.” Sanders similarly supported the International Criminal Court's arrest warrants for Netanyahu and other top Israeli and Hamas officials. Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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Russia Declares War on ‘Mediocre Actor’ George Clooney picture allianceRussia says that “mediocre” actor George Clooney should watch his back.The country’s security head honcho Dmitry Medvedev took issue with Clooney’s Foundation for Justice on Saturday, tweeting that the movie star wants to “use his Foundation to hunt down Russian journalists all over the world and persecute them.” But according to Medvedev, Clooney won’t be able to do so because Russian journalists will “find him first.”The Clooney Foundation, which the actor founded with his wife, human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, has drawn heat from Russian officials who say the foundation is on a crusade to arrest Russian journalists.Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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‘We’re Back B*tches’: Columbia University Protesters Return Caitlin OchsIt’s going to be an interesting Alumni Weekend at Columbia University, where pro-Palestine student protestors have once again reestablished an encampment on the school’s lawn.This comes after the NYPD cleared out the protest encampment at the start of May, which made headlines as images of young people being arrested on campus hit the airwaves and sparked a wave of police intervention at university protests across the nation. Students first took up residence on the university grounds with around 50 tents in April, to protest the school’s financial interests in the Hamas War.After 112 people were arrested and the tents were subsequently removed from the campus lawn, the school remained quiet but still canceled university-wide commencement in lieu of smaller individualized ceremonies.Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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Boeing’s Space Flight Test Predictably Called-Off Only Four Minutes Before Takeoff Joe Skipper/ReutersBoeing’s Starliner spacecraft was halted only four minutes before launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Saturday afternoon after technicians discovered a problem in part of the craft. The $1.4 billion craft, which was going to be Boeing’s first manned space flight to the International Space Station, ran into issues on Saturday after technicians discovered a helium leak in the capsule’s propulsion system, according to CBS News. This is the second time within 30 days that the flight was delayed, after technicians delayed a May 6 flight just two hours before takeoff due to an issue with a pressure valve. Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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Chad Daybell Sentenced to Death in Doomsday Triple Murder Photo Illustration by Erin O’Flynn/The Daily Beast/Ada County Sheriff’s OfficeIdaho doomsday author Chad Daybell received the death penalty at his sentencing on Saturday, bringing a stunning end to a five-year trial over the murders of his first wife and two of his second wife’s children.“The jury has made a finding that it would be appropriate to impose the death penalty,” Judge Steven Boyce said in the Saturday afternoon sentencing hearing.Daybell appeared emotionless in court as the decision was handed down.Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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J-Lo’s Week From Hell Went From Bad to a Total Dumpster Fire Bellocqimages/Bauer-GriffinJennifer Lopez has had quite a week. The singer and actress has battled more than a few demons both personal and professional in the past seven days or so—and the tense looks in the photos that have emerged from her comings and goings have only highlighted what a tough week it must have been for the star.Between the intensifying spread of rumors she’d split with rekindled flame Ben Affleck, which would have to be unpleasant to see whether true or untrue, a press tour in which the internet made her the butt of a joke more than once, a critically-panned film, and the recent cancellation of her nationwide tour that many have speculated was due to low ticket sales, Lopez is looking like a bit like a wounded warrior in recent photos.‘Atlas’ press tour last weekend became meme fodder this weekRead more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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Democrat Rep. Dean Phillips Calls on Gov. Hochul to Pardon Trump in Baffling X Rant Kevin Dietsch/Getty ImagesFormer Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) went on a baffling X rant on Saturday, in which he called on New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to pardon Donald Trump “for the good of the country” just two days after the former president became a convicted felon on 34 counts of falsified business records.In his bizarre initial post, the Minnesota rep gave a laundry list of Trump’s crimes and then immediately called for leniency from the New York governor.“Donald Trump is a serial liar, cheater, and philanderer, a six-time declarer of corporate bankruptcy, an instigator of insurrection, and a convicted felon who thrives on portraying himself as a victim,” Phillips wrote scathingly.Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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Florida Cop Who Shot Black Airman in His Own Home Fired Wayne Roustan/Getty ImagesThe Florida deputy who fatally shot Black Air Force member Roger Fortson in Fortson’s own home last month has been removed from his post, the Okaloosa County Sheriff announced Thursday.Eddie Duran, 39, was terminated after an internal investigation found the “use of deadly force was not objectively reasonable and therefore violated agency policy” when Duran entered Fortson’s home and shot him on May 3.In the release, Okaloosa sheriff Eric Aden called Fortson’s killing a “tragic incident” that should’ve never happened.Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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Over 200 LGBTQ+ Pride Flags Stolen From Massachusetts Town Luiz Ribeiro/Getty ImagesMore than 200 rainbow flags disappeared overnight from the town of Carlisle Massachusetts on Monday, the Carlisle police department said in a news release.Officials are investigating the apparent mass theft of the LGBTQ+ flags, which went missing from the rotary at Carlisle Center just days before the start of Pride Month. Police chief Andrew Amendola said authorities are taking the disappearance “very seriously” and called it a sad instance that didn’t reflect the town’s values.“It is unfortunate, as Carlisle is an inclusive community, and we want everyone to feel safe and welcomed here,” Amendola said in a press release.Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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How JD Vance Became the GOP’s Favorite Stooge Drew AngererTrump VP short-lister and Ohio Senator J.D. Vance has come a long way since wondering whether Donald Trump was a “cynical asshole” or “America’s Hitler.”Vance became one of the loudest and most frequent defenders of Trump during the former President’s hush money trial, which ultimately ended with Trump’s conviction on 34 counts related to falsifying business records. The Senator could be seen all over cable TV defending Trump throughout, accusing the trial judge of being “biased,” the trial of being a “sham,” and President Biden as the boogeyman behind it all.Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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Why Ivanka and Melania Trump’s Strategic Silence Says It All Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty ImagesOf all of the people in Donald Trump’s inner circle, his daughter Ivanka and his wife Melania are perhaps the most fascinating. Unlike the leading man in both of their lives, Ivanka and Melania both know the power of strategic silence; like him, they are both keen readers of the public temperature; and they both also get away with a level of disloyalty that the Trump family patriarch permits from no one else.Trump was just convicted on 34 felony counts related to a hush-money payment he made to adult film star Stormy Daniels, with whom he is alleged to have had sex, in an effort to interfere with the 2016 election. His wife Melania had recently given birth to the couple’s son Barron at the time of the alleged affair. According to Daniels, before she and Trump had sex, he likened her to his daughter Ivanka. Both Ivanka and Melania were notably absent from the trial, even while Trump’s older sons Eric and Don Jr. sat in the gallery. And both sons, plus their partners, have been loudly proclaiming their father’s innocence. No such protestations have come from the two most important women in Trump’s life.Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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Bill Maher: Trump Prison Sentence Would Cause ‘Race War’ HBOBill Maher thinks jail time for former President Donald Trump may not the best move. In a panel discussion with other talking heads on Friday night, the Real Time With Bill Maher host shared his thoughts on what would happen if Trump were to receive jail time as part of his sentencing for the 34 counts he was convicted of on Thursday, concerning falsifying business records to bury his affair with porn star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election.“I’ve heard some people say if his name wasn’t Donald Trump, he would definitely get jail time,” Maher said, but the key question now is “Is he going to jail? Will this judge dare do that? And should he?”Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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Opinion: Revenge: What Trump and the GOP Want Most of All Adam Gray/AFP via Getty ImagesAfter Donald Trump’s conviction on all 34 felony counts of his New York County indictment, the threats and vows of revenge began. Reuters reported that on Truth Social, under a post by Trump attacking Judge Juan Merchan as “highly conflicted,” one commentator responded by posting a picture of a hangman’s platform and a noose with the caption: “TREASONOUS MOBSTER OF THE JUSTICES SYSTEM!!”Former Trump White House spokesperson Sarah Matthews posted that she was “praying for the safety of the judge, jurors, prosecution, witnesses, and their families.”Trump supporters in media and politics are all singing from the same angry song sheet. Matt Walsh posted that Trump “should make and publish a list of ten high ranking Democrat criminals who he will have arrested when he takes office,” as well as “We want to see corrupt Democrats frog marched on camera in handcuffs.” The Federalist chief executive Sean Davis posted that he wanted “to see lists of which Democrat officials are going to be put in prison.”Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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What’s Next After Trump’s Criminal Conviction? A Huge Test for Judge Juan Merchan Photo Illustration by Erin O’Flynn/The Daily Beast/Getty Images and APAs head of the Manhattan Mental Health Court, Justice Juan Merchan is accustomed to dealing with people who commit crimes and want to avoid getting locked up—but not people who are also running for president.After a New York jury convicted Donald Trump of 34 felonies on Thursday, Merchan set sentencing for July 11. That timing raises the disquieting possibility that Trump could be handed a prison sentence days before the Republican convention officially nominates him for the presidency. He might also face probation, limiting his movements and preventing him from attending the event in Wisconsin, a crucial swing state. There’s even the comical possibility that Trump, who complains about Manhattan’s filthy streets, will be forced to do community service.It’s an anxiety inducing period for the Trump campaign. Inside Merchan's courtroom on Wednesday morning, spokesman Steven Cheung whispered to this reporter that the campaign has essentially remained in a “holding pattern” due to the legal chaos of recent weeks. The team can only now start planning the days ahead.Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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Opinion: Trump Says the Game Is Rigged. It Is—in His Favor Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty ImagesDonald Trump’s response to his guilty verdict was mind-numbingly predictable. During a Friday morning press conference, Trump advanced yet another canard, saying, “If they can do this to me, they can do this to anyone.”It was merely the latest example of his attempt to cast himself as a victim, pretend he’s your savior, and undermine confidence in our criminal justice system. Of course, he brought all of this on himself.This is his modus operandi: Trump commits egregious, unprecedented acts, and then he dares you to do something about it. Your choice is to either a) let him get away with it (thereby incentivizing future aggressions), or b) try to hold him accountable (which he will then cast as an act of aggression).Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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Why Is Step-Incest Porn So Insanely Popular Right Now? Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Paramount PicturesNo one these days is going to be shocked that Pornhub.com is the thirteenth most visited website in the world. But unless you yourself watch porn, this may be surprising: when sorted into all-time most viewed videos, whether in the United States or globally, one genre dominates. It is step-incest (or “fauxcest”), meaning sex between family members who are not biologically related to one another, such as stepbrothers and stepsisters; stepsisters; stepsons and stepmothers; and stepfathers and stepdaughters (stepbrothers is also a popular genre on Pornhub’s gay videos). The count is not even close. As of January 2024, of the most popular 100 videos, 4.1 billion views were for step-incest videos and 3.3 billion views were for all other videos combined. Make no mistake, step-incest pornography is mainstream. It may even be majoritarian.What on earth can account for its popularity? Pornography, of course, trades on the breaking of taboos. Given how powerful and visceral the prohibition on incest is in just about every historic and contemporary society, it seems we don’t have to look far for an answer. It’s the incest, obviously. But that’s just the problem: if virtually every society, throughout all known human history, has forbidden incest, it doesn’t explain why this particular genre of porn is so popular now. If the incest taboo has always been around, why hasn’t incest (or incest-adjacent) porn always been mainstream and wildly popular?There must be a better explanation. Step-incest porn is indeed popular because it busts a taboo. But maybe the taboo in question is not (or at least, not primarily or only) incest. Step-incest porn, I believe, is popular because it violates one of the most cherished ideals of liberal democratic societies: merit and meritocracy, which is to say, the idea that power, prestige, and wealth should be vested in individuals strictly on the basis of their talent, effort, and achievement. When losers and frauds get laid—which is the bread and butter of these videos—a frisson runs through meritocracy to make the seemingly weird genre of step-incest the pornography of our times.Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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How a Horny 86-Year-Old Created the Country’s Largest Renaissance Fair Courtesy of HBOA real-life Willy Wonka saga that occasionally veers into King Lear-by-way-of-Game of Thrones territory, Ren Faire is another in a long line of docuseries about wildly strange subcultures and their eccentric, cutthroat, and self-destructive inhabitants. In this case, that milieu is the Texas Renaissance Festival, the country’s largest such event, which takes place each October and November in Todd Mission, Texas. As director Lance Oppenheim’s three-part non-fiction affair lays out, both the theme park and its surrounding town were created by George Coulam, who’s known throughout his fiefdom as King George. An 86-year-old tyrant who rules with an iron fist, suffers no one lightly, and is on the hunt for a successor—as well as a much younger wife who boasts no silicon enhancements—King George is as unique and fantastical as the world he’s built, and he proves to be the fascinating (and ultimately detestable) axis around which this colorful tale revolves.Ren Faire (June 2, on HBO) takes place over the course of the Texas Renaissance Festival’s 2021 and 2022 seasons, with the elderly King George overseeing his massive operation from his absurdly gilded rococo-decorated house. Despite having once been married, King George lives alone, and is also lonely. Thus, when he’s not being a domineering jerk in meetings with his underlings, who wait on him hand and foot and appear to live in perpetual fear of his fickle wrath, he’s having his assistant manage his multiple dating site accounts. Those include one for women looking for sugar daddies, and on the first of two Olive Garden dinners depicted in the series, he greets his 25-year-old date by immediately asking her, “Are those your natural breasts?” As it turns out, they are, which means their meal continues. A subsequent date’s admission that she’s had cosmetic surgery, on the other hand, puts an immediate end to their meet-up, with King George bluntly announcing, “OK, we’re done.”King George talks about how he wants to finally find love and settle down for a normal life filled with copious sex, since his goal is to die with an erection (something he claims is achievable with Viagra, Cialis, and weekly testosterone shots). Given this fixation on his phallus, it’s no surprise that King George fancies himself the cock of the walk, and despite his age and his confession that he’s made a few bad mistakes over the years, he embraces his status as an irreproachable monarch whose word and wishes are law. Initially inspired by his employment at a San Francisco renaissance fair, George opted to invent a grand one of his own. Taking his cue from Walt Disney, he soon purchased the surrounding land and established a literal town which he could control as mayor, thereby granting himself unfettered ability to realize his every outlandish medieval dream.Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com