Oath Keepers Founder Stewart Rhodes Sentenced to 18 Years for Seditious Conspiracy in Jan. 6 Attack

time.com – By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and LINDSAY WHITEHURST / AP – (WASHINGTON) — The founder of the Oath Keepers extremist group was sentenced Thursday to 18 years in prison for orchestrating a weekslong plot that culminated in his followers attacking the U.S. Capitol in a bid to keep President Joe Biden out of the White House after the 2020 election.

Stewart Rhodes is the first person charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack to be sentenced for seditious conspiracy, and his sentence is the longest that has been handed down so far in the hundreds of Capitol riot cases.

It’s another milestone for the Justice Department’s sprawling Jan. 6 investigation, which has led to seditious conspiracy convictions against the top leaders of two far-right extremist groups authorities say came to Washington prepared to fight to keep President Donald Trump in power at all costs.

Before handing down the sentence, the judge told a defiant Rhodes that he is a continued threat to the U.S., saying it’s clear Rhodes “wants democracy in this country to devolve into violence.”

“The moment you are released, whenever that may be, you will be ready to take up arms against your government,” U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta said.

It was one of the most consequential cases brought by the Justice Department, which has sought to prove that the riot by right-wing extremists like the Oath Keepers was not a spur-of-the-moment protest but the culmination of weeks of plotting to overturn Biden’s election victory.

More… https://time.com/6282789/stewart-rhodes-sentenced-seditious-conspiracy/ 

MTG ripped for spending $100K on Kevin McCarthy’s used Chapstick while "country teeters on default"

salon.com – By Gabriella Ferrigine – House Republicans took a brief hiatus from a closed-door Tuesday meeting about spending cuts and raising the debt ceiling to auction off Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s, R-Calif., used cherry Chapstick.

The auction, which was meant to bolster the House GOP’s campaign funds, came to a close when Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., offered up $100,000 dollars once McCarthy stated he would attend a dinner with the highest bidder and whichever donors and supporters they brought in tow.

“I’m honored to be able to donate $100,000 to the [National Republican Congressional Committee] to help Republicans increase our majority in 2024 and defeat the Democrats. My constituents will be honored to host a visit with Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who we all think is doing a great job,” the GOP congresswoman said in a statement.

Politico reported that Rep. Aaron Bean, R-Fla., led the auction, while the bidding pool included Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash.; Stephanie Bice, R-Okla.; and Jason Smith, R-Mo.

Politico reporter Olivia Beavers shared an image of Bean and Greene with said chapstick, which was branded for Bean’s congressional campaign.

More… https://www.salon.com/2023/05/24/mtg-ripped-for-spending-100k-on-kevin-mccarthys-used-chapstick-while-country-teeters-on-default/ 

Wagner chief warns Russians could revolt if invasion continues to struggle

cnn.com – By Rob Picheta and Mariya Knight, CNN – A new “revolution” could rock Russia if its stuttering war effort in Ukraine continues, the chief of private military group Wagner has said, in a scathing assessment of Moscow’s military readiness that could further expose divisions in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s military hierarchy.

Yevgeny Prigozhin said in an interview with Konstantin Dolgov, a pro-Russian blogger, that Moscow’s troops are unprepared to resist forces loyal to Kyiv even when they enter Russian territory.

He also praised the capabilities of the Ukrainian army, and urged Moscow to escalate its war effort if it wants to avoid a long and costly conflict.

“I believe Ukrainians today are one of the strongest armies in the world,” Prigozhin said. He called Kyiv’s forces “highly organized, highly trained and their intelligence is on the highest level, they can operate any military system with equal success, a Soviet or a NATO one.”

In recent days Moscow suffered embarrassment when a group of anti-Putin Russians entered the Belgorod region in an incursion that caused anger and confusion among Russia’s influential military analysts. Asked about the incident, Prigozhin said Russian defense forces are “absolutely not ready to resist them in any shape or form.”

More…https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/24/europe/wagner-prigozhin-russia-manpower-ukraine-intl/index.html 

We’ll Never Live in a World Without Tina Turner

rollingstone.com
by Rob Sheffield – Tina Turner didn’t just pull off the greatest comeback in music history — she invented the whole concept of the comeback as we know it. She became a solo superstar when she was 44. Things like that simply don’t happen. That’s how old Brandy, Usher, Adam Levine, Lance Bass, and John Legend are right now. At that age, Tina Turner was just beginning.

Turner, who died Wednesday at 83, carried the whole story of American music in her voice, because in so many ways, she was that story, but she was also a lot more. She was Anna Mae Bullock from Nutbush, Tennessee, daughter of sharecroppers, fighting her way in and out of the chitlin circuit. She was just a kid when she got famous, as half of Ike & Tina Turner. Her deep-country voice and his guitar always made a fearsome combo, in Fifties hits like “It’s Gonna Work Out Fine” and “I Idolize You.” “The emotions I expressed were real because I lived those feelings,” she wrote in Rolling Stone in a 2019 essay. “Even ‘Private Dancer’ — which seems to be about prostitution, but is also about wishes, hopes, and dreams — tells the story of women like me, caught up in sad situations, who somehow find a way to go on.”

More… https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/other/we-ll-never-live-in-a-world-without-tina-turner/ar-AA1bEouE 

The Craziest (Yet Strangely Compelling) Sh*t We Found on Amazon in 2022

dailybeast.com – By Mia Maguire Commerce Editor – Reid Webb Commerce Manager  – almost anything on Amazon these days, from paper towels, luxury skin-care serums, groceries, and everything in between. But aside from all of the everyday items that Amazon has to offer, the mega e-tailer is a treasure trove of unique, hard-to-find, international, and downright bizarre products that you probably wouldn’t be able to buy anywhere else on the web (or IRL, for that matter.) Because we’re always scouring Amazon to help you find the best deals, gifts, and items, we decided to round up a list of the weird Amazon products we’ve encountered in 2022.

We all know that Amazon is the go-to when it comes to finding the best gag gifts and funny white elephant picks (i.e. Trump toilet paper or fake feces), but these out-of-the-box finds are truly next-level. Some of these oddities are curiously compelling—even low-key genius—while others are just inexplicably crazy AF. Others are so gimmicky that they’re worthy of your attention simply because of the LOL factor, but, at the very least, all of these strange Amazon discoveries will make you do a double—even triple—take.

Plus, there’s truly something for everyone, whether it be a fart spray that has apparently made a number of shoppers literally vomit or a surprisingly useful toilet nightlight to make midnight trips to the restroom less of a danger (yes, I have since purchased one and yes, it is a game-changer!). However novel these weird Amazon products may be, they certainly left us intrigued. Scroll through below to check out the craziest Amazon finds we’ve stumbled upon during 2022.

More… https://www.thedailybeast.com/weird-amazon-products 

Japan’s ‘crying baby sumo’ festival returns for first time since pandemic

theguardian.com – Agence France-Presse – Dozens of bawling Japanese babies faced off in a traditional “crying sumo” ritual believed to bring the infants good health, which returned for the first time in four years after the pandemic.

Pairs of toddlers wearing ceremonial sumo aprons were held up by their parents and faced each other in the sumo ring at Sensoji Temple in Tokyo on Saturday.

Staff wearing “oni” demon masks tried to make the babies cry, with the first to bawl declared the winner by a sumo referee in an elaborate traditional uniform holding a wooden fan used to signal victory.

“We can tell a baby’s health condition by listening to the way they cry. Today she may get nervous and not cry so much, but I want to hear her healthy crying,” Hisae Watanabe, mother of an eight-month-old, told AFP.

The “crying sumo” is held at shrines and temples nationwide, to the delight of parents and onlookers.

More… https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/22/japans-crying-baby-sumo-festival-returns-for-first-time-since-pandemic

I lost my virginity at 43 — the man I hired was the perfect partner

nypost.com

Andrew Court – An Australian woman who has used a wheelchair since childhood hired a male escort so she could lose her virginity at the age of 43.

Melanie Hawkes recently detailed the experience to the BBC, saying she’d long been terrified of her first sexual encounter.

The quadriplegic video editor suffers from an inflammation of the spinal cord known as transverse myelitis, a diagnosis she received as a toddler after a tantrum injury.

She shut the possibility of sex out of her life for decades, believing she’d never find a man to get steamy with.

But in January, at the behest of her caregiver, Hawkes decided to peruse an online escort agency, where a man named Chayse caught her eye.

“I asked a million questions,” Hawkes recalled, including questioning if he would be able to handle hoisting her up onto a bed before sex.

More… https://nypost.com/2023/05/11/i-lost-my-virginity-at-43-the-man-i-hired-was-the-perfect-partner/ 

Fire? Breathe Into The Toilet Snorkel – There’s No Time To Explain

iflscience.com – By Rachael Funnell – Toilets take on a lifesaving role in a 1981 patent that proposed the water trap within a basin could give a person trapped in a burning room access to fresh air. The patent claims that if a room is filled with toxic gases, the inhabitants just might survive by inserting a tube through the water and out the other side, sucking on their toilet snorkel until help arrives.

The impressive out-the-box thinking came from William O Holmes, who was inspired by a rash of high-rise hotel fires that resulted in loss of life due to toxic smoke inhalation. According to Michigan State University, smoke inhalation is actually the most common cause of death in hours fires rather than burning.

When a fire breaks out, it needs oxygen to burn, so it doesn’t take long before this is sapped from the environment. Without oxygen to breathe, entrapped people will likely pass out before they have time to make it to the exits, or before help has time to arrive.

That could all change were, say, a high-rise hotel to have some kind of built-in airway to guests’ rooms that acts as a gateway to fresh air while a person remains trapped in toxic smoke. Enter: the toilet.

While a tube into a toilet basin can do little to keep fire at bay, Holmes argued it could provide life-saving access to cleaner air, buying people trapped inside a burning building some precious extra minutes to get out alive. So, how does it work?

More… https://www.iflscience.com/fire-breathe-into-the-toilet-snorkel-theres-no-time-to-explain-68673 

Just the Tip: Penis-Shaped Iceberg Inserts Itself Into Conception Bay

wapl.com – By John Jordan – An erotically-shaped iceberg – now popularly known as the “dickie berg” – was spotted off the coast of Newfoundland in an area called?’Conception Bay.’ Pardon me ma’am, could I float into your conception bay?

Any port in a storm as they say.

It does look remarkably like a man’s ‘meat and two veg‘ – it sticks straight up out of the water has a base on each side… and for it to basically insert itself into the euphemistically-named ‘Conception Bay‘ is just too much for people to handle… much like the iceberg itself. Hey YO!

And as you would imagine, the pictures generated a LOT of comments.

“Maybe I should call him,” one user wrote.

“Just the tip…of the iceberg”

“Frozen stiff,” remarked another.

And finally this person, “Pretty lucky I got here when I did… It’s melting all the time. I mean, it might go limp.”

Adding further to the icy-eroticism, the local photographer (Ken Pretty) who took the D-Berg pics is from a town close to ‘Conception Bay’ called ‘Dildo’… I’ll give you a moment to draw the lines.

More… https://www.wapl.com/2023/05/01/penis-shaped-iceberg-enters-into-conception-bay-pic/ 

Tucker Carlson is out at Fox News

latimes.com – By Stephen Battaglio – The network announced the departure of its top-rated and most provocative conservative host Monday with no explanation. His last show was Friday.

“Fox News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways,” the network said in a statement. “We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor.”

Starting Monday, Carlson’s 8 p.m. Eastern time slot will be filled by rotating Fox News personalities until a new host is named, the company said.

Fox News last week reached a $787.5-million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems to resolve a defamation lawsuit. Dominion accused Fox of knowingly making false claims related to the 2020 election.

Article: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2023-04-24/tucker-carlson-is-out-at-fox-news