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The reality TV star's mysterious son uncomfortably questions his mom's soon-to-be husband about his dreams of becoming an A-list actor in America.

From yacht days in Spain to risqué birthday posts, Hollywood's biggest stars are showing some skin

From yacht days in Spain to risqué birthday posts, Hollywood's biggest stars are showing some skin

The reality stars were friends for 20 years after first getting cast on 2006's "The Real World: Key West" together.

The reality stars were friends for 20 years after first getting cast on 2006's "The Real World: Key West" together.

The Democrats' Hasan Piker Problem Is Getting Worse

The Democratic Party has so much going for it in the 2026 midterm election season, yet it looks like one man in particular might blow it for them. Hasan Piker, the 35-year-old left-wing influencer, is becoming a genuine electoral liability that could extend well beyond the races he's personally gotten involved in, and according to a report from the Wall Street Journal, Democrats are trying to do something about it.

In Michigan, Piker has been campaigning alongside Democrat U.S. Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed despite warnings from party operatives who would rather he didn't. The two have continued campaigning together even as Democratic officials worry the association could bleed into contests in Texas, Georgia, Wisconsin and Maine, states where Piker hasn't lifted a finger for any candidate. That's the nature of viral notoriety. A candidate doesn't need Piker in the room to become an issue because of him.

Piker built his following on livestreams that pull in an audience of millions, a platform he has used to deliver commentary that ranges from standard progressive fare to remarks widely considered to be antisemitic, particularly his treatment of Israel and its supporters. Piker rejects the antisemitism charge, saying his quarrel is with Israel and its defenders rather than with Jews.

In addition to his criticism of Israel, one of his most controversial remarks was that America "deserved 9/11," a line he later claimed he should have phrased more carefully.

Even as his rhetoric becomes a liability for the party he's trying to help, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) have aligned themselves with him, while others are drawing a line in the sand. Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) and strategist James Carville both threatened to walk away from the party over Piker's rising influence within it, though Carville later softened the threat.

Two primaries in two weeks offered the first real test. Even though El-Sayed won his Michigan Senate primary on Aug. 4, his margin of victory was smaller than polls predicted. A week later in Wisconsin, DSA-aligned Francesca Hong lost the gubernatorial primary despite polls showing her with a commanding lead. Notably, neither Ocasio-Cortez nor Sanders endorsed Hong, even as both went to bat for El-Sayed.

Piker rejects the idea that he's dragging down Democratic candidates. "I don't think that progressives have a harder time beating Republicans," he told the Wall Street Journal. "I think that logic is flawed. It's just somewhat untested."

Despite his claim, the record on progressive and socialist candidates winning outside deep blue turf is thin to nonexistent. Progressive mayors run Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle and New York City under Karen Bass, Brandon Johnson, Katie Wilson and Zohran Mamdani, and Democrats hold every governorship on the West Coast plus Massachusetts and Illinois. Every one of those wins happened on turf Democrats were always going to carry. The candidates who actually flipped competitive ground, Barack Obama and Joe Biden among them, ran as moderates first and only governed further left once in power. Piker's theory requires competitive states to behave like safe ones. They haven't yet, and nothing in this cycle suggests they're about to start.

Republicans have been playing both sides of this. In Wisconsin, GOP-aligned super PACs spent millions on ads calling Hong "too liberal" - an attempt to hand her the nomination and an easier general election to their own candidate. Their opposition researchers have been just as busy with Piker. They've resurfaced a hostile exchange Piker had with a woman who identified herself as a refugee from a Marxist regime, along with his reaction to Hong's primary loss, and both clips are now doing steady rotation in attack ads across multiple states. The combative instincts that built Piker's audience are proving just as useful to the people trying to end Democratic careers as they were to the people who wanted him amplifying their own.

Carville's walk-back and Fetterman's hedge suggest party leadership understands the risk even if it can't agree on what to do about it. AOC and Sanders embracing Piker points to a faction that either doesn't see that risk or has decided it's worth the trade. Both camps are operating inside the same party, running in the same midterms, sharing the same brand and trying to pull it in opposite directions.

The Democrat Party isn't shaking Hasan Piker loose anytime soon, and the longer leadership avoids confronting that, the more permanent the association becomes. Every week they stay silent, Republicans bank another data point for their general election messaging. Democrats keep telling themselves this is a manageable problem, but it clearly isn't.

Tyler Durden Sun, 08/16/2026 - 21:35

Oprah helped launch television careers of Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz before they veered sharply to the political right and into President Trump’s orbit.

An eight-time Pro Bowler is staying in the NFC East.

There is always an inclination to take a look in August and think “Hmm, this draft class could be top-notch. The young guys look darn good.’’

The legendary actor isn't laying down his fedora and whip just yet.

The legendary actor isn't laying down his fedora and whip just yet.

Oh, So This Is Why Luigi Mangione Pleaded Guilty...

Authored by Matt Margolis via PJMedia.com,

Luigi Mangione, the man whose assassination of a health insurance executive turned him into a folk hero to many on the left, shocked the country on Friday when he finally admitted to the killing and changed his plea to guilty.

"I shot Mr. Thompson in Manhattan. I understood that my actions would place him in fear of death of bodily injury. I knew what I was doing was illegal," Mangione told the judge.

He admitted to stalking his victim, UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, in the weeks before he gunned him down. The guilty plea locks in a consequence few outside the courtroom seemed to notice at first: a state court can no longer try Mangione for murder.

Mangione had spent more than a year cultivating an image as a martyr willing to fight the system to the end.

So why did he suddenly fold and admit everything?

According to Fox News legal analyst Jonathan Turley, the answer has nothing to do with a guilty conscience. Turley discussed the plea with host Charlie Hurt on Fox & Friends Weekend on Saturday, and argued the move was a calculated legal gamble aimed at avoiding a life sentence rather than any sign of remorse.

Mangione pleaded guilty to federal stalking charges connected to Thompson's murder. He still faces a separate state trial in New York scheduled for September. That's where things get interesting, because the two cases carry sharply different stakes. The federal charge carries a possible sentence of life without parole. New York's state system has no such option available.

"The New York case is the case that involves the murder charges, but it is also the case that has a lower potential ceiling for the sentencing," Turley said.

Turley described the plea as "something of a Hail Mary throw," suggesting Mangione is hoping a judge eventually reduces his sentence enough to allow release at an advanced age rather than locking him away for life without parole. The real target, Turley explained, is the state murder case itself. The defense wants it dismissed entirely on double jeopardy grounds, and New York's double jeopardy standard is easier for a defense to clear than in most other jurisdictions.

"The odds are in his favor, if you look at past cases, that that may in fact be dismissed," Turley said.

If Turley is right, a man who executed a father of two on a Manhattan sidewalk in broad daylight could walk away from the murder charge entirely on a technicality, having already secured the lighter of his two possible sentencing outcomes.

Turley also had sharp words for Mangione's attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, who stood outside the Manhattan courthouse after the plea and told reporters the system had treated her client unfairly, pointing to his chronic back pain and laying blame on the healthcare industry.

Turley noted that the judge overseeing the case has already faced heavy criticism for dismissing key charges against Mangione before trial. Grandstanding to the cameras, he suggested, made little strategic sense.

"I don't think it helps to go in front of her courthouse and say, 'My client's a victim and has been unfairly treated in the system,'" Turley said.

A guilty plea usually means accountability. In Mangione's case, it looks more like a legal chess move by a defendant hoping the math works out in his favor.

Tyler Durden Sun, 08/16/2026 - 21:00

Newsom wanted California to be his calling card. It may become his baggage.

Good on Mark Cuban for taking Ro Khanna down. More business leaders need to speak up against Proposition 40, the billionaire tax, especially while infighting threatens to divide the opposition to it.

The Los Angeles Chargers hosted a women in sports day and the coaching staff went all in on annual the celebration. Head coach Jim Harbaugh, offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel and defensive coordinator Chris O’Leary all sported Nike t-shirts that included the message: “EVERYONE WATCHES WOMEN’S SPORTS.” Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh wore a special-themed shirt...

The tribute came as Bob Iger, 75, prepares for his next act after leaving the top job at Disney earlier this year and taking a new role following his acquisition of the Los Angeles Lakers.

Sunday marked Scheffler's 21st win of his PGA Tour career.

The professor described seeing “blocks and blocks of homeless people.”

The fast-moving fire broke out around 1:30 p.m. Sunday.

Military Contractor's Spy Aircraft Quietly Flying Southern Border On Mysterious Mission

The Pentagon says it does not discuss contractor support to particular missions. The gear aboard mimics cell towers.

Private military contractor Metrea has spent months quietly operating two surveillance-equipped aircraft along the U.S.-Mexico border, according to the Arizona Mirror.

Via the Arizona Mirror

The planes have traversed Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, circling at high altitude over border cities including Bisbee and Douglas in Arizona, and Laredo and El Paso in Texas.

Metrea holds multiple contracts with the U.S. military, including a $5.7 million award to support training for U.S. Special Operations Command. The company also conducts simulated training missions for the Marine Corps.

It performs comparable border work overseas, providing what it describes as advanced aerial surveillance to the Australian government for monitoring that country's border regions.

Arizona Mirror reports:

One of the major pieces of equipment installed on the aircraft is a DRT 3300, also sometimes referred to as a "dirtbox." A dirtbox is a piece of equipment that mimics a cell phone tower and acts in a similar manner to "stingray" devices that track cell phones and reportedly can even intercept messages.

It isn't the only equipment on the aircraft meant for "signals intelligence" either. Signals intelligence refers to the collection of information that is transmitted through the airwaves such as radio, wifi or other electronic means. One of the aircraft lists a "Windjammer System" as a piece of equipment that has been installed.

The Trump administration declined to say what the aircraft are doing over the border, or which agency they are working for.

A DHS spokesperson told the Mirror that Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations and Customs and Border Protection were not flying with Metrea along the southern border. The department did not answer whether the flights support a DHS or a Defense Department mission.

"The Department of War contracts with a number of companies, including Metrea, to provide capabilities in support of military operations across the globe. For operations security reasons, we do not discuss specific contractor support to particular missions or operations," a Defense Department spokesperson wrote in a statement to the Arizona Mirror. "These activities are governed by Attorney General approved procedures that ensure the activities are conducted in a manner that protects the constitutional and legal rights and the privacy and civil liberties of U.S. citizens."

Metrea did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Meanwhile, Metrea's are not the only contractor aircraft working the border. The Mirror reports that a jet belonging to Tenax Aerospace, equipped with high-end mapping technology and previously spotted over the South China Sea and Nigeria, has flown the same route since July.

Civil liberties advocates contend that the secrecy itself is the problem.

"Whatever security rationales are used to justify mass surveillance, whether it is patrolling the border or pursuing the war on drugs, if you're intent on pursuing those policies you have to do it in a way that respects the privacy and constitutional rights of Americans," said Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst with the American Civil Liberties Union's Speech, Privacy and Technology Project, in a statement to the Arizona Mirror.

"Number one, you need policies that ensure transparency so we know what government agencies are doing with the brand new powers that technology is giving them that humans have never had in history," Stanley added. "No matter what your position is, you should agree that it is done in the democratic process and not done by government officials behind closed doors."

Tyler Durden Sun, 08/16/2026 - 20:25