You have the chance to be great at faith, trusting in what you can’t see and in Whom you believe. So keep taking steps forward, allowing God’s glory to come behind your messes to orchestrate miracles.

I'm no Mets fan, but I can certainly dig the glory

Allegations of dating violence against Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff remain unreported across the major media dial. NONE of the network evening newscasts covered the very serious allegations as reported by The Daily Mail. As reported by Josh Boswell: Vice President Kamala Harris's husband assaulted his ex-girlfriend, three friends have told Dailymail.com. The Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, 59, allegedly struck the woman in the face so hard she spun around, while waiting in a valet line late at night after a May 2012 Cannes Film Festival event in France. One of her friends told DailyMail.com that the woman called him immediately after the incident, sobbing in her cab, and described the alleged assault. As our colleague Curtis Houck noted earlier, NewsNation led the way in significantly covering the Emhoff scandal which, it should be noted, is not his first. As Boswell also pointed out in his reporting, Emhoff admitted to impregnating his nanny, who also served as his daughter’s second grade teacher. There were also these disturbing details with regard to the way the nanny’s pregnancy ended, which many assumed was via an abortion: Emhoff told Jane that the nanny accused him of causing her to have a miscarriage, the friends claimed. According to the friends, Emhoff did not say how he was allegedly responsible for the miscarriage, and he told Jane that the nanny's claims were false. But the Second Gentleman allegedly confessed to Jane that he paid Naylor a settlement of around $80,000, and had the nanny sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). How, exactly, does one cause a miscarriage? Why was there the need to tie it all up around an NDA? We don’t know, because we have a Regime Media that is uninterested in doing such things as the most basic journalism, which consists of asking questions. Contrast l’affaire Emhoff with the incessant coverage of every lurid detail pertaining to Donald Trump’s business records trial, especially the salacious portions of the trial. The viewing public over at ABC, NBC, and CBS were force-fed this bilge. Not so with Emhoff. There’s even a denial on the record, which the evening newscasts could have cited as a last word. But no. Per Semafor’s Max Tani: In a statement to Semafor, a spokesperson for Emhoff said “this report is untrue,” and that “any suggestion that he would or has ever hit a woman is false.” In a sane world, we’d have actual journalists interested in performing actual journalism. Instead, we have courtiers and sycophants either scraping for Regime access or trading off of it.  Speaking of which, has Regime propagandist and professional prevaricator Jen Psaki ever circled back on whether (allegedly) slapping your girlfriend, so hard that she spins like a top, is an element of redefined masculinity?  

Abusing a 9-year-old boy. Drugging partygoers with horse tranquilizers.The allegations against Sean "Diddy" Combs grow darker by the hour. While most teens this age are navigating high school, Khloé was already rubbing elbows (and Lord knows what else) with the most disgusting people imaginable. Of course, Diddy didn’t operate in isolation. By all accounts, the bulk-buying baby oil buff's behavior was an open secret, shielded by some of the most influential people in America. Like members of a certain reality TV dynasty, for instance. You see, while the world was busy keeping up with the Kardashians, Hollywood’s most famous family was busy keeping up with the Diddler.Down the K-holeFor years, the Kardashian clan — masterminded by the matriarch, Kris Jenner — has been an integral part of Diddy’s network. As the uncrowned queen of ruthless opportunism, Kris didn’t just attend Diddy’s infamous parties; she strategically placed her entire family at their center. Her longtime boyfriend, Corey Gamble, maintains a conspicuously close relationship with Diddy. Gamble, it’s important to note, played a key role in managing Justin Bieber during his most vulnerable years. He had unprecedented access to the young star as he skyrocketed to global fame. As I’ve previously discussed, there seems to be a particularly troubling history between Diddy and Bieber. If Diddy did in fact abuse the Canadian-born pop star, it’s reasonable to assume that Gamble is fully aware of it. Or worse still, stood by as it happened.Khloé's tragic upbringingKris has five daughters, including Khloé, who was first introduced to Diddy's world at the age of 16. While most teens this age are navigating high school, Khloé was already rubbing elbows (and Lord knows what else) with the most disgusting people imaginable. To be clear, this was a kid catapulted into a world crawling with child predators. And Kris Jenner allowed it to happen. This isn’t just questionable parenting — it’s dereliction of duty. A Faustian bargain of epic proportion, trading her child’s innocence for a chance at empire-building.Interestingly, Khloé has dated both Trey Songz and French Montana, two close pals of Diddy who have been accused of all sorts of awful sexual transgressions. Of course, accusations alone don't prove guilt. Yet with Diddy, it seems, the rotten apples never fall far from the tree.And then there's The Game — not just a close member of Diddy's inner circle but a rapper who Khloé reportedly moved in with at the age of 17. This is the same guy who was later ordered to pay $7 million in a sexual assault lawsuit. What kind of mother hands her teenager over to such a "guardian"? The notion that Khloé might have been groomed by The Game, with Diddy orchestrating things from the shadows, is not at all far-fetched. In this clip, Khloé recalls her time at one of Diddy's notorious parties with an unnerving nonchalance. "I got on a plane at 5:30 a.m. Well, this party ... I think half the people there were butt naked," she says, smirking as if sharing an inside joke. With a sly glint in her eye, she teases her confidant, "You would have loved it." Khloé casually mentions that Justin Bieber was there, along with someone named "Quincy." It’s likely she’s referring to Quincy Brown, Diddy's son.Kanye warned usYou're no doubt familiar with Khloé's sister Kim, who gained fame not through talent or hard work but by exploiting the scandal of a leaked sex tape. She, too, seems to have close ties to Diddy; she also previously dated The Game. More notably, Kim was married to Kanye West, another figure with strong connections to Diddy. Yet, unlike the rest, West is in the anti-Diddy camp. In 2022, West stirred the online pot by claiming that LeBron James "sold his soul" for $100 million and had a sexual relationship with Diddy. West further accused Diddy of being a "fed" and insinuated that powerful elites manipulate influential figures like James within the industry.It sounded wild at the time. It still does. But not quite as wild as it did two years ago ... or two weeks ago. An awful mother Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty ImagesWest has also gone on record expressing his distrust of the aforementioned Corey Gamble, calling him an "industry plant" sent to control the Kardashian family. Whether or not Gamble is a plant is of course up for debate. What’s not up for debate, however, is his girlfriend's role in the whole sordid affair. What kind of mother is Kris, really? By any normal, healthy measure, she falls short — far short. But in the warped world of Hollywood, she’s probably a success story. After all, in this ethical wasteland, the only currency that matters is fame. Kris has proven she’s willing to pay any price for it. Morality, family, even her daughters' well-being — all of it takes a backseat to her relentless pursuit of the spotlight. The kids are simply objects to be traded and passed around.In the end, as Diddy’s empire crumbles, it drags with it those who chose to stand by him, bask in his power, and ignore the horrors staring them in the face. The Kardashians may have built their legacy on glamour, fame, and trash TV, but their connection to the Jeffrey Epstein of rap reveals a much darker reality. Is Kris comparable to Ghislaine Maxwell? Only time will tell, but it's likely the coming revelations will reveal far more about her than she'd like.

NYT: Could Donald Trump Really Use the DOJ to Jail His Rivals?

A California man who illegally imported a Roman mosaic looted from Syria has been sentenced to three months in federal prison after being convicted on one count of entry of falsely classified goods. The maximum possible penalty was two years in federal prison. Even that would have been going way too easy on him. The charge is that he lied on customs forms to import an illegally acquired object, which he certainly did, but that doesn’t even begin to describe the filth he was wallowing in when he trafficked this 3rd/4th century floor mosaic. The timing is what struck me as particularly disgusting. In August of 2015, Mohamad Yassin Alcharihi, who is of Syrian origin, smuggled a Syrian mosaic into California during the period when ISIS was actively engaged in the destruction and traffic of Syria’s ancient heritage for profit. Literally the same month that Khaled al-Asaad was tortured and executed, sacrificing his life to save the cultural patrimony of Palmyra, this … person … only saw the slaughter and cultural erasure as an opportunity to make a buck. A quick summary of the charge he was sentenced for: Alcharihi declared to his customs broker that the shipment contained 81 modern vases and ceramic tiles from Turkey worth a total of $2,199. In actual fact, he had paid $12,000 for an ancient mosaic that he had declared to customs was nothing but “ceramic, unglazed tiles” valued at $587. The false classifications occurred months after the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution condemning the destruction of cultural heritage in Syria, particularly by the terrorist organizations Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and Al-Nusrah Front. The mosaic was placed inside a large metal shipping container holding many vases and two other mosaics. An x-ray image of the container taken by CBP showed that the mosaic was hidden in the front of the container – away from the rear access doors – behind a pile of vases. After passing through customs, the mosaic was shipped via truck to Alcharihi’s home in Palmdale, California. Alcharihi then spent $40,000 to have the mosaic restored so he could resell it for hundreds of thousands of dollars, but before he could arrange the sale, FBI and Homeland Security agents executed a search and seizure warrant on Alcharihi’s home on March 19, 2016. The mosaic was found in his garage and confiscated. (As a mildly entertaining aside, the forfeiture portion of a case is structured as the government versus the object being confiscated, so going through the court motions you get to read things like: “IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that upon the arrest of the defendant One Ancient Mosaic….”) The mosaic is 15 feet long, eight feet tall and weighs one ton. It depicts Herakles liberating the Titan Prometheus who had been chained to a rock on the Caucasus Mountains, condemned by Zeus to have a giant eagle eat his liver all over again every day for the transgression of having stolen fire from Olympus and given it to humanity. In this scene, Hercules is about to shoot his arrow into the eagle, while Zeus and another figure (Hermes?) watch from a cloud. To the left is a woman with child looking backwards as they flee, probably from the eagle. There’s a missing section on the left side between the leg of the woman and the partial eagle. I’m guessing the gap in the tesserae originally a tree, balancing the one on the right, that anchors Prometheus’ chains. I’m not sure who the woman is. My potentially cockamamie theory is it’s Io with her son by Zeus, Epaphus. In the version of the myth recounted by Aeschylus in his tragedy Prometheus Bound, Io encounters the chained Prometheus who foretells her future. In the play, Io is no longer in human form when she meets Prometheus, and her son isn’t born yet. She’s been transformed by vengeful Hera into a heifer and hounded by the goddess’ minions until she reaches Egypt where she is finally restored to her human form and gives birth to Zeus’ son, which is what Prometheus told her would happen. I think the mosaic is compressing different parts of the myth, a compositional technique which people who saw the mosaic back then would have recognized. After his arrest, Alcharihi quickly admitted under questioning that he had indeed falsified the customs information, that the mosaic was ancient, not modern tile, and that he had paid 12 grand for it, not less than $600, and that he had poured another $40,000 into the restoration with the prospect of selling it for much more than that. A government expert who examined the mosaic estimated its market value at $450,000. Even with him readily confessing to the one crime he was ultimately convicted of, four years passed between the seizure of the mosaic and the indictment. Another three years passed between indictment and trial. Finally, a year after that, on August 28, 2024, he was sentenced. The mosaic is still in secure storage in Los Angeles where it will remain until repatriation is arranged. This was going to be a single post, but after reading a number of court documents and being flabbergasted at the many stages of sheer stupidity behind so foul a crime, I’ve decided to split it into two. The full background story and chronology of events deserves its own spotlight. Tune in tomorrow for the sequel: Sometimes, Evil Is Just Really, Really Dumb.

This could mean better treatments.

Peet Montzingo and his mom have the most delightful relationship, as evidenced by their joint videos on Montzingo's social media platforms. And one viral video sums up the sort of fun Montzingo and his unique family engage in.The video is a compilation of clips of Montzingo following his mom around with a trombone, making silly sound effects as she goes about doing chores and normal daily life things. It's simple and silly, which is what makes it so wholesome. People can't get enough of their gentle bantering.Watch:The impromptu Star Wars duel is the best, isn't it?Montzingo has millions of followers on YouTube and TikTok, where he regularly shares videos about life in his family. At 6 foot 1 inch tall, Montzingo stands out—literally—from his parents and siblings.As his mini bio from IMDB reads:"Peet is from Seattle, Washington. He is the only average height member of his family (his mom, dad, brother and sister are little people), which immediately put him in the media spotlight growing up. In February of 2019, he scored a spot as a touring/recording artist in the band 5WEST, touring South Africa, Spain, and Europe. They did their first arena tour as the supporting act for Boyzone autumn of 2019. During the pandemic in 2020, Peet cultivated a massive presence on Tiktok and continues to post his wholesome videos alongside his singing career."Montzingo advocates for little people in a way that is humorous and light-hearted in addition to being educational. For instance, watch him and his mom illustrate how to (and how not to) talk with short people: @peetmontzingo i actually get this question all the time so hope this helps!!! @queenmamadrama #little "I actually get this question all the time so hope this helps!!!" he wrote in the caption of the video demonstrating various cringey ways to talk to a little person before ultimately showing that you should just stand normally. Montzingo addresses lots of questions people have in his videos, including whether or not he's actually adopted. This makeover video with his mom is surefire proof that he's got her genes, as the resemblance at the end is uncanny. @peetmontzingo low key this process was traumatizing? @queenmamadrama What makes Montzingo's videos so popular is the way he and his family use humor to destigmatize dwarfism and normalize the lives of little people. His mom's house is designed for little people living, with short counters, sinks and furniture, and Montizingo laughs at his challenges as a tall person when he visits her. It's what he grew up with, however, and he shows how much he loves his family and the physical differences between them. Montzingo's unique role in his family means he can help bridge gaps as an advocate for little people, and it's great to see him doing so in such a wholesome and entertaining way. This article originally appeared on 12.9.21

Not as linear as he had once thought. The post The Nine Inch Nails album Trent Reznor thought has no focus: “I was afraid about what was happening” first appeared on Far Out Magazine.