Self-described bisexual Krysten Sinema, who left the Senate last year, allegedly took at least one married father of three with her, after allegedly having sex with a number of her male, I think male, security team members, including him. Sex, Drugs, and Krysten She was named in an alienation of affections lawsuit in North Carolina […] The post Krysten Sinema Took a Married Security Guard With Her When She Left the Senate appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

A Seattle jury acquitted a man who assaulted federal immigration agents during an arrest last summer, since the jury felt he didn’t really mean it and he was just trying to escape. Victor Vivanco-Reyes was found not guilty on four felony counts in U.S. District Court in Seattle on January 9. The charges stemmed from […] The post You Can Now Flee from DHS Agents and Injure Them appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

WASHINGTON — After years of criticizing Donald Trump, the president’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, is admitting that he was “pressured” and “coerced” by Alvin Bragg and Letitia James to testify against Donald Trump. In an astonishing Substack post published Friday evening, Cohen writes that he “felt pressured and coerced to only provide information and testimony that would satisfy the government’s desire to build the cases against and secure a judgment and convictions against President Trump.” He said the feeling began from his very first meetings with the lawyers working with Bragg and James, New York’s attorney general.  Specifically regarding James, he said he felt “compelled and coerced to deliver what they were seeking.” “Letitia James made it publicly known during her 2018 campaign for attorney general that, if elected, she would go after President Trump,” Cohen writes in the post. “Her office made clear that the testimony they wanted from me was testimony that would help them do just that. Again, I felt compelled and coerced to deliver what they were seeking.” Cohen writes about the two trials in which he testified against Donald Trump: the first, a civil action brought by the New York attorney general’s office accusing Trump of fraudulently inflating his assets to get favorable loans. The second case was a criminal action by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office alleging that Trump falsified business records related to hush money payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal to influence the 2016 presidential election. The jury found Trump guilty in both cases. Michael Cohen, former attorney and fixer for President Donald Trump, prepares to testify before the House Oversight Committee on Capitol Hill, February 27, 201,9 in Washington, DC.  (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) Cohen served prison time after he pleaded guilty in 2018 to multiple crimes, including lying to Congress. He also admitted during Trump’s hush money trial that he stole tens of thousands from the Trump Organization in 2017. In his Substack article, Cohen notes that a federal appeals court just revived the president’s effort to undo his hush money conviction. He reflects that silently letting the record stand without proper context feels like complicity, prompting him to speak out. “I am not writing this to defend Donald Trump, nor to relitigate his conduct,” he writes. “That ground has been plowed endlessly, often loudly, and rarely thoughtfully. I am writing because I have seen this system from the inside, not as an observer or analyst, but as a central subpoenaed participant. When courts now revisit questions of jurisdiction, immunity, and evidentiary boundaries, they are not engaging in sterile procedural debates. They are exposing how justice is pursued, how power is applied, and how outcomes are shaped well before verdicts are rendered.”  Cohen writes that he first met with prosecutors from the Manhattan DA’s office in August 2019, three months into his three-year prison sentence. He was released in September 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and for good behavior and allowed to serve out the rest of his term at home until November 2021. Michael Cohen, former attorney and fixer for President Donald Trump is sworn in before testifying before the House Oversight Committee on Capitol Hill February 27, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) He says he continued meeting with prosecutors after his release in the hope that his home confinement and supervised release would be shorter because he was cooperating. He also writes that the reason he cooperated with the prosecutors from the Manhattan DA’s office was that he wanted to get out of prison and home to his family.  “During my time with prosecutors, both in preparation for and during the trials, it was clear they were interested only in testimony from me that would enable them to convict President Trump,” he wrote. “When my testimony was insufficient for a point the prosecution sought to make, prosecutors frequently asked inappropriate leading questions to elicit answers that supported their narrative.”  Cohen says that he also felt coerced and pressured into giving answers that supported the narrative from James, as her office made it very clear to him that they wanted testimony that would help them go after Trump. “Letitia James and Alvin Bragg may not share the same office or political calendar, but they share the same playbook,” he writes. “Both used their platforms to elevate their profiles, to claim the mantle of the officials who ‘took down Trump.’ In doing so, they blurred the line between justice and politics; and in that blur, the credibility of both suffered.” As for why he is speaking out now, Cohen says he has “witnessed firsthand the damage done when prosecutors pick their target first and then seek evidence to fit a predetermined narrative.”  “I have lived inside that process,” he wrote. “I have suffered from that process. And as courts now reconsider where the Bragg and James cases belong, how they were brought and how they were tried; that experience is relevant. More today than ever before.”  “When politics and prosecution become indistinguishable, public trust erodes; not just in individual cases, like mine and/or Trump’s, but in the system itself,” he concludes. “That erosion serves no one, regardless of party, personality, or power.”

It’s hard to believe it’s been almost two months since Robert Irwin and Witney Carson Quickstepped their way to a win on Dancing with the Stars. From the first night of competition, Robert became a fan favorite. He’s so similar to his late father, Steve Irwin, with a kind smile and attentive spirit. Robert recently announced that he was headed back home to Australia, and fans Down Under couldn’t wait to get him back. In honor of his return, the Visit Sunshine Coast tourism group announced a Robert Irwin lookalike competition. View this post on Instagram A post shared by #visitsunshinecoast (@visitsunshinecoast) The Best Robert Irwin Lookalike Could Win Big Bucks The competition will take place on January 17 at 8:00 a.m. at Caloundra (Kings Beach), Sunshine Coast. “If you can rock the khaki and channel the best kind of Aussie energy, come along for a Robert Irwin lookalike contest to welcome our Sunshine Coast icon back home from his travels,” an Instagram post explains. Along with the announcement, Visit Sunshine Coast posted a funny video of a surfer wearing a blonde wig and checking out the flyer. It’s a pretty clever welcome home party, and fans are super excited to participate. “Robert i really need you to confirm are you coming there I’ll book my ticket right now,” a fan joked. “The most Aussie competition ever,” another person commented. The Robert Irwin lookalike contest got moms excited, too. “Ok but can kids enter? I have a son that is Robert bowl cut era, jumps ‘crocs’ and all check out my pinned reel,” a mom asked. Honestly, this person probably has the best idea. “This will only be complete if Robert himself enters (and even funnier if he loses),” they wrote. If you really look like Robert, you could win $500. We sure hope he sneaks in for the fun! This story’s featured image is by APU GOMES/AFP via Getty Images.

'It's popularized in neo-Nazi spaces'

Congress created Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to briefly assist those in need. Shakespeare warned, “Ingratitude is monstrous; and for the multitude to be ingrateful, were to make a monster of the multitude.” In the case of TPS, “multitude” is correct. As of January 2025, approximately 1.4 million foreign nationals in the United States were shielded from removal under the program.  The Trump administration decided to terminate TPS for several countries, with Somalia as the most recent. That choice is the right step in a long-overdue course correction for an immigration program that previous administrations exploited far past its statutory purpose.  Somalia was first designated for TPS in 1991, following political turmoil and the outbreak of civil war. At the time, granting temporary protection to Somali nationals already present in the United States was an act of kindness.  Over three decades later, Somalis remained dependent on the charity extended to them by the United States and distorted the TPS program beyond recognition from its original legislative intent.   Past Administrations Haven’t Followed the Law  Temporary Protected Status is governed by Section 244 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, codified at 8 U.S.C. § 1254a. According to federal law, TPS may be granted only when extraordinary and temporary conditions prevent safe return to a designated country. It applies only to individuals physically present in the United States at the time of designation. Foreigners who arrive after the fact are ineligible.   TPS is not an open-ended invitation or a pathway to citizenship.   Yet over time, administrations treated TPS as anything but temporary. Excluding the first Trump administration, nearly every president extended or unlawfully redesignated TPS as a knee-jerk reaction, willfully pushing the program past its expiration date rather than enforcing the law.   Congress imposed a mandatory review at 18 months precisely to prevent this outcome. And yet, as the deadline approached, bureaucratic habit won repeatedly, turning 18 months into 35 years in the case of Somalia.   Section 244 does not authorize redesignation. It only permits designation, extension, and termination. The executive branch has not authority to cite the same emergency decades later to grant work authorization and removal protection to individuals who were not present in the United States when the original designation was made. That practice has no basis in statute and undermines our immigration system.  The Case of the Minneapolis Somalis  The consequences are rampant throughout the nation. Minneapolis is home to the largest Somali community in the world outside Somalia. In Minnesota, federal investigators have alleged that around $9 billion in Medicaid claims since 2018 may be fraudulent, potentially marking the largest scam in U.S. history.   Many of the defendants charged in those cases are of Somali descent and several have pled guilty in court. Not all TPS recipients participate in criminal conduct, but Minneapolis serves as a case study on how abuse of immigration programs causes widespread reliance on the public benefit system created to serve Americans, not foreigners.   The costs are not always overt such as fraud; they also take hidden tolls. Minnesota’s English learner education funding doubled from $5.3 million in 2003 to $10.8 million in 2023, with Somali being the most popular first language in several schools besides Spanish.   Long-running TPS designations create economic strains on health care, education, and other social services that were never intended to be permanent obligations.   It is no longer solely about a group of people who were offered brief protection in the ‘90s. According to the Department of Homeland Security, roughly 2,500 Somali nationals with TPS or pending applications will be affected by the termination. Those figures do not account for children and grandchildren born during the program’s 35-year existence at the taxpayer’s expense. The beneficiaries should have departed the country in the 1990s if perpetual redesignations had not occurred.   Cleaning Up the Biden Abuse of TPS  The Trump administration is trying to clean up the mess inherited by Kamala Harris’s open borders and immigration failures. The Biden administration deliberately expanded TPS, contrary to American security interests and granted TPS to over 1.4 million aliens by January 2025.  President Joe Biden even urged Congress to pass legislation allowing TPS recipients to apply for green cards, highlighting how the administration viewed TPS as amnesty despite the law saying otherwise.   Former Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, extended and redesignated Somalia for TPS through March 2026, allowing new applicants and issuing automatic employment authorization extensions.  The massive expansion did not end with Somalia. TPS enrollment nearly quadrupled under the Biden administration, driven largely by new designations for Venezuela in 2021 and 2023. As of January 2025, more than 614,000 Venezuelans were protected under TPS, making up around half of all beneficiaries. A House report found that 95% were not admitted on visas and entered either illegally or through humanitarian parole—which is not a formal admission into the United States according to federal law.  The Supreme Court reiterated that truth in Sanchez v. Mayorkas in 2021, holding that TPS does not constitute an admission to the United States and does not translate into a pathway for lawful permanent residence. Any attempt to treat TPS otherwise reflects executive ignorance of both the legislative and judicial branch.   Making Temporary Mean Temporary Again  Ending TPS for Somalia means that “temporary” will once again mean temporary. It also emphasizes that the United States will not reward aliens who try to override our laws.   Congress is also responsible for allowing TPS to be manipulated. Lawmakers created the program and failed to enforce its limits. Congress should codify clear protections for Americans, including restricting eligibility to aliens present at the time of the triggering event, outlawing redesignation, capping active TPS periods at 18 months in absence of extraordinary justification, and requiring recipients to seek other immigration benefits if eligible or depart within one month of TPS termination.   Generosity is ruined by entitlement and mercy without limits enables a monster. TPS was meant to reflect American compassion without sacrificing the rule of law or public safety.  The post Somalia’s ‘Temporary’ Protection Lasted 35 Years appeared first on The Daily Signal.

A group of bi-partisan legislators are expressing their support for aggressive action against Iran as President Donald Trump and his administration consider military action. The group of nearly 60 lawmakers, led by Rep. Randy Weber, R-Texas, sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio this week, to “express our deep concern regarding the Iranian regime’s ongoing violent suppression of protests across Iran” and “urge the Department of State to continue publicly condemning the Iranian regime’s violent repression of protesters.” Webber wrote about the effort on X. “This week, I led 59 Members in urging [Rubio] to keep the pressure on the Iranian regime,” Weber said. “When they beat protesters, target hospitals, and silence dissent, the free world must speak loud and clear. The United States MUST continue condemning these abuses and stand with the Iranian people as they demand the right to determine their own future.” This week, I led 59 Members in urging @SecRubio to keep the pressure on the Iranian regime.When they beat protesters, target hospitals, and silence dissent, the free world must speak loud and clear.The United States MUST continue condemning these abuses and stand with the… pic.twitter.com/ncVUpPYLvV— Randy Weber (@TXRandy14) January 15, 2026 The lawmakers claim that the protests scattered across Iran make “clear their demand for a secular, democratic, non-nuclear republic grounded in political pluralism and respect for human dignity.” “Protesters have also explicitly rejected all forms of authoritarian rule, whether Iran’s former monarchy dictatorship its current theocratic system, and seek the right to determine their own future,” the group added. “At this critical juncture, whole-of-government support is essential to reaffirm the United States’ commitment to universal human rights and solidarity with the Iranian people, the letter concluded.” “Taking out the Ayatollahs Supreme Leader would be a major blow to Muslim terrorists trying to destroy the West,” said Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., of Iran’s Islamic regime in a statement shared with The Daily Signal. “I just signed onto this letter to show support for what President Trump and Secretary Rubio are doing to support the Iranian people as they fight for freedom. We must put an END to the Muslim terror regime in Iran.” In 2026, human rights organizations like the Human Rights Activist News Agency, claim the regime has killed 2,5000 protesters thus far. The letter was sent as Trump considers wheter or not military action is taken against Iran. While Trump has expressed his support for the Iranian protesters, telling the demonstrators to “keep protesting.” “KEEP PROTESTING – TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!! Save the names of the killers and abusers. They will pay a big price. I have cancelled all meetings with Iranian officials until the senseless killing of protesters STOPS. HELP IS ON IT’S WAY,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. The president has also imposed a 25% tariff on any country who conducts business with the Iranian regime, ratcheted up sanctions, and cancelled all meetings between U.S. officials and the Iranian regime. Nevertheless, the president has also seemed to dial back the rhetoric surrounding a potential strike. On Thursday, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that the U.S. had it “on good authority” that “the killing in Iran is stopping, and there’s no plan for executions.” The president took the news positively but did not rule out the possibility of a strike. This week’s letter comes as Congress is increasingly questioning Trump’s foreign policy with respect to Greenland and Venezuela. Rep. Weber Letter to Sec. Rubio RE Iran Protests 1.14.26Download The post Lawmakers Tell Trump to Keep Pressuring Iran appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Warning: This post contains explicit language. Reader discretion is advised. On Thursday’s episode of the podcast I’ve Had It, co-host and miserable, affluent, white, female liberal (AWFL) Jennifer Welch teamed up with deranged former CNN correspondent Jim Acosta for 79 minutes of dangerous, unhinged lunacy lamenting the state of America that included joking about wanting someone to “choke the living shit out of” CBS Evening News anchor Tony Dokoupil, comparing Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) to ISIS, smearing Erika Kirk, and promising mass prosecutions of Republican when Democrats retake power. It began with Acosta screeching about miserable his life in D.C. has become simply because of who’s President: Jim Acosta on what it’s like to live in Washington D.C. under a second Trump term... “Oh, Jesus Christ, it is — it’s my worst nightmare. I thought we were rid of this clown four years ago. But no, they’ve come back with a vengeance. Fortunately, the DC restaurant scene is set up… pic.twitter.com/Gm9U6FamA3 — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 16, 2026 Similarly, Welch then whined how the White House has been soiled by such odious figures like “all of the emotionally stunted dweebs.” Acosta then pitched a hissy fit because staffers in the first Trump administration...threw office happy hours: Jennifer Welch says that, in December 2024, she told her husband she was upset at a Biden Christmas party because all she could think of was “all the f**ery and all of the emotionally stunted dweebs that are going to be walking around in the White House” Jim Acosta replies:… pic.twitter.com/FZQVOyUKfu — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 16, 2026 Following a diversion about NFL officiating and Acosta lamenting the hate for his James Madison University reaching the College Football Playoff, Welch launched into her disgusting comparison between ICE and ISIS. Obviously, Acosta concurred: WOW: Jennifer Welch says “ICE...needs to be abolished” because “this is an organization that’s behaving like ISIS” since “people would get kidnapped and they had hostages and they had on masks” and ICE drives around in “a big pickup truck with a bunch of flags in the back of it,… pic.twitter.com/QfJhJ0toSr — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 16, 2026 Acosta giddily predicted bloodshed on American streets if Trump remains in power: [Y]ou can’t have a situation like we had in Minnesota play out all over the country. The citizens are not going to tolerate it. People are not gonna, they’re just not gonna tolerate it. And the governor of whatever state can go out there and say, please remain calm, we can’t have rioting in the streets, that’s gonna give them what they want...But at some point, it’s just gonna happen, like people are gonna, they, they, they’re gonna reach the point where they’ve had enough. Because no one has had a rougher life than Jim Acosta, Welch invited him to explain how terrible his life was while covering the first Trump White House for CNN. Acosta played all of the greatest hits from on-air meltdowns (and his wildly stupid book): Jim Acosta still wants us to feel bad that people at Trump rallies would mercilessly boo him, equating media criticism with death threats pic.twitter.com/U5TE8cxJRn — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 16, 2026 Remember, being booed at a Trump rally is dangerous! Welch, having heard Acosta go on for over four minutes uninterrupted, jokingly said “it sounds like you’re in an abusive relationship and you need to draw boundaries and you need to get out of this” since “Donald Trump is an abuser,” “adjudicated rapist,” “emotional abuser,” and “psychological abuser.” The conversation then turned to the current state of the media with Welch asserting the press aren’t actively partisan and working to take down Trump. “[Y]ou have people like Jeff Bezos and Larry Ellison. That own these news organizations...and they allow for this abuse to be hurled at their employees making a very unsafe workspace and, to me, this is a really big story, but there’s so much fuckery going on we don’t talk about it, but there’s there’s been such a — a — a receding of decency,” she declared without a tint of irony. Claiming the media are free from “abuse” because “we are protected by the Constitution,” Welch and Acosta had the gall to claim it’s the right who’s hurled death threats and lamented Fox News viewers have put them “in the hot seat” saying “we hope you die, we hope you get gang raped.” This inevitably turned to CBS News with David Ellison coming on as the head of their parent company. Welch took the first swing, whining about “what Bari Weiss is doing right now to those poor journalists at CBS” and “serious journalists at — at 60 Minutes.” Acosta responded by first bragging about how much he loved Jeff Zucker and complaining Weiss is no Zucker because “60 Minutes is in trouble” and thus “we’re all in trouble” with Weiss “spiking a segment on CECOT and the gulag...down there in El Salvador, a torture prison.” Then came the sophomoric attacks, including joking about wanting Walter Cronkite to come back from the dead so he could “choke the living shit out of” CBS Evening News anchor Tony Dokoupil for his January 6 segment about Marco Rubio memes: WATCH: After saying CBS News is “state-compromised media...subject to the whims of a mad king president,” Jim Acosta threatens @CBSEveningNews anchor @TonyDokoupil, saying he wishes Walter Cronkite could “come back from the great beyond to choke the living **** out of him and… pic.twitter.com/mg0b9izNQl — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 16, 2026 The two then mocked a new core value of the CBS Evening News with Tony Dokoupil about loving America: Jennifer Welch mocks CBS News for its core value declaring we love America because “that’s not your job” and journalists shouldn’t “feel emotion toward America.” Jim Acosta slightly disagrees, saying “we all love America” and “that’s why we’re doing this” and “I f***ing love… pic.twitter.com/BwAUwNQ76s — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 16, 2026 Of course, Acosta went right to Dokoupil’s news brief from January 6 on the fifth anniversary of the Capitol riot, insisting this was proof we should all ask “what the fuck is going on with these people” and America lacks “a free press that can hold the goddamn President of the United States accountable.” Because this is what the left thinks America wants more of, Acosta had more f-bombs to hurl at Dokoupil and Weiss: More Jim Acosta on why he doesn’t believe Bari Weiss and Tony Dokoupil are real journalists because real journalist would tell Donald Trump on the phone to “go f*** yourself”.... “[W]hen I saw CBS [saying they love America], I said, what the fuck is going on with these people?… pic.twitter.com/iHvS3B6Ghk — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 16, 2026 To insist he was a journalist, Acosta insisted he grilled the Obama administration and angered then-Press Secretary Jay Carney because he was willing to state the obvious in October 2013 that the ObamaCare website was a disaster. “[T]hat is how it should work. The — the government, can get mad at you for doing your job, but you ought to be able to say right back, fuck off. I’m doing the news. This is how it works,” he said in summarizing that anecdote. Going to an ad break, he took another cheap shot at Dokoupil: Jim Acosta on Tony Dokoupil: “[I]f the anchor of the CBS Evening News feels that the corporate overlords are making his life a living hell, then he should go on the air at the end of his broadcast and say, they’re making my life a living hell. I can’t tell you guys the truth. I… pic.twitter.com/W25R15DH1v — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 16, 2026 When the chat resumed, Welch insisted CBS News is “further [right] than Fox” and Acosta joked it’s worse than “even the little North Korean lady”: LOL: Jennifer Welch and Jim Acosta say CBS News under Bari Weiss is “further [right] than Fox” and “even the little North Korean lady who reads the news is like, dial it in” and “offended” because “it’s a little out of control” pic.twitter.com/VZsFCkfi5w — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 16, 2026 Finally moving off the media, Welch claimed influential, young conservative leaders are all gay: In which Jennifer Welch and Jim Acosta actually, seriously insist Jesse Watters and "couchf***er" JD Vance plus Josh Hawley and Harrison Butker are each in a gay affair because they have "such excellent gaydar" and should "just do it" because they'll "have a great life" and… pic.twitter.com/2o3XKe6EXB — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 16, 2026 Acosta and Welch also prescribed their ideal future of the Democrat Party, including massive prosecutions of Republicans: Jennifer Welch says Democrats must reject "far-right AIPAC money" and the country needs true Democrat leadership again like...Andrew Cuomo during Covid or else they'll continue to be "preserving the Democratic Party that lost two times to a f***ing times to unhinged, mentally ill… pic.twitter.com/BllmfOwhNP — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 16, 2026 WATCH: Jim Acosta weirdly smears Erika Kirk while criticizing the Democrat Party for lacking a spine: “Erika Kirk can go off and shoot off fireworks at the Turning Point convention, and yet Hakeem Jeffries is worried about going to Mamdani’s inauguration. It was like, I would… pic.twitter.com/ot2wa6XHTg — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 16, 2026 Jennifer Welch — an influential Democrat podcast — promises mass prosecutions of President Trump, Republicans writ large if Democrats retake power because that will be the only way to achieve true national reconciliation Jim Acosta adds Supreme Court seats must be added if… pic.twitter.com/gUdNOwarA8 — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 16, 2026 The pair from hell even provided proof to the constant state of psychosis on the left that the next heir apparent is always worse than the current leader: Jennifer Welch — an influential Democrat podcast — promises mass prosecutions of President Trump, Republicans writ large if Democrats retake power because that will be the only way to achieve true national reconciliation Jim Acosta adds Supreme Court seats must be added if… pic.twitter.com/gUdNOwarA8 — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 16, 2026 At the 68-minute mark, Welch hurled a slew of vile accusations at Turning Point USA and claimed without evidence the country was horrified at Charlie Kirk’s memorial service: Jennifer Welch claims there was a huge, national backlash against Christianity and MAGA because of Charlie Kirk’s funeral because... - “Nobody surrounding Charlie Kirk even talks about” gun control - It was too “pyrotechnics, Christian nationalist, Bible-thumping” - “Country… pic.twitter.com/jQYeGRCFPf — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 16, 2026 Before closing out (and after Acosta displayed a weird belief America is like a Disney or Rocky movie in that evil — the right — will eventually lose), Acosta trumpeted his supposedly brave act of cancelling his Washington Post subscription because the editorial board expressed support for the concept of a White House ballroom (click “expand”): WELCH: And we need to remember that none of these corporations are anything without us —  ACOSTA: That’s right. WELCH: and our money. And if they want to shit on their customers, we’ll just start boycotting them. ACOSTA: I canceled my Washington Post. I mean, this is the paper I grew up with. My mom would get it on her doorstep every morning, read it cover to cover every morning. I canceled that fucking thing. WELCH: Did it feel good? ACOSTA: When they came out with the editorial and said it was okay to bulldoze half the White House, I click, canceled — I canceled it live on my show. I — I said, no, fuck this noise. We have to start standing up, not just to Trump, but to all of the enablers, and a message has to be sent, this is running out. Which side are you gonna be on? Our side or his side? WELCH: I agree. To see the relevant transcript from January 15, click here.

Wikimedia CommonsSixteen-year-old Sylvia Likens before staying with Gertrude Bansizewski and after being tortured to death. In 1965, 16-year-old Sylvia Likens was sent to the home of a family friend, Gertrude Baniszewski, while her parents were traveling. But Likens never made it out alive. Gertrude Baniszewski and her children tortured Sylvia Likens to death. The perpetrators even managed to involve an entire neighborhood of kids to help them commit this brutal murder. As the autopsy in the Sylvia Likens case later showed, she endured unimaginable torment before she died. Nevertheless, her killers faced almost no justice at all. How Sylvia Likens Came Under The Care Of Gertrude Baniszewski Bettmann/Getty ImagesGertrude Baniszewski’s police photo, taken shortly after her arrest on Oct. 28, 1965. Sylvia Likens’ parents were both carnival workers and were therefore on the road more often than not. They struggled to make ends meet as her father Lester had only an eighth-grade education and a total of five children to care for. Jenny was quiet and withdrawn with a limp from polio. Sylvia was more confident and went by the nickname “Cookie” and had been described as pretty though she had a missing front tooth. In July 1965, Lester Likens decided to take up with the carnival again while his wife was jailed for shoplifting that summer. Sylvia’s brothers, Danny and Bennie, were put into the care of their grandparents. With few other options, Sylvia and Jenny were sent to stay with a family friend named Gertrude Baniszewski. Gertrude was every bit as poor as the Likens and had seven of her own kids to support in her run-down home. She made little cash by charging her neighbors a few dollars to iron their laundry. She’d already been through multiple divorces, some of which resulted in physical abuse against her and dealt with a crippling depression through heavy doses of prescription drugs. She was in no condition to take care of two teenaged girls. The Likens, though, didn’t think they had any other choice. Lester Likens cryptically requested that Baniszewski “straighten his daughters out” when he placed them in her care for $20 a week. What Happened To Sylvia Likens Inside Her New Home For the first two weeks at the Baniszewski’s, Sylvia and her sister were treated kindly enough, though Gertrude’s oldest daughter, 17-year-old Paula Baniszewski, seemed to butt heads with Sylvia often. Then one week their father’s payment came in late. “I took care of you two bitches for two weeks for nothing,” Gertrude spat at Sylvia and Jenny. She grabbed Sylvia by the arm, dragged her into a room, and closed the door. Jenny could only sit outside the door and listen as her sister screamed. The money arrived the following day, but the torture had just begun. Gertrude soon began to abuse both Sylvia and Jenny in broad daylight. Though a frail woman, Gertrude used a heavy paddle and thick, leather belt from one of her husband’s who had been a cop. When she was too exhausted or too weak to discipline the girls herself, Paula stepped in to take her place. Sylvia, however, soon became the focus of the abuse. Gertrude Baniszewski demanded that Jenny join in, lest she take her sister’s place as the brunt of the abuse. Gertrude accused Sylvia of stealing from her and burned the girl’s fingertips. She took her to a church function and force-fed her free hot dogs until she was sick. Then, as punishment for throwing up good food, she forced her to eat her own vomit. She allowed her children — in fact, encouraged her children — to partake in the abuse of Sylvia and her sister. The Baniszewski kids practiced karate on Sylvia, slammed her into walls and onto the floor. They used her skin as an ashtray, threw her downstairs, and cut open her skin and rubbed salt into her wounds. After this, she would often be “cleansed” in a scalding hot bath. Gertrude gave sermons on the evils of sexual immortality while Paula stomped on Sylvia’s vagina. Paula, who herself was pregnant, accused Sylvia of being with child and mutilated the girl’s genitals. Gertrude’s 12-year-old son John Jr. delighted in forcing the girl to lick his youngest sibling’s soiled diapers clean. Sylvia was forced to strip naked and shove an empty Coca-Cola bottle into her vagina while the Baniszewski children watched. Sylvia was so beaten that she was unable to use the bathroom voluntarily. When she wet her mattress, Gertrude decided that the girl was no longer fit to live with the rest of her children. The 16-year-old was then locked in the basement without food or access to the bathroom. An Entire Neighborhood Joins Gertrude Baniszewski In The Torture Bettmann/Getty ImagesRichard Hobbs, a neighbor boy who helped beat Sylvia Likens to death, Oct. 28, 1965. Gertrude spread every story she could imagine to get the local kids to join in on the beatings. She told her daughter that Sylvia had called her a whore and got her daughter’s friends to come over and beat her up for it. Later during the trial, some of the kids were open about how Gertrude had recruited them. One teenage girl named Anna Siscoe recalled how Gertrude told her that Sylvia had been saying: “She said my mother went out with all sorts of men and got $5.00 for going to bed with the men.” Anna never bothered to find out if it was true. Gertrude told her, “I don’t care what you do to Sylvia.” She invited over to her home and just watched as Anna threw Sylvia down to the ground, beat her face, and kick her. Gertrude told her own children that Sylvia was a prostitute. Then she had Ricky Hobbs, a neighborhood boy, and her 11-year-old daughter Marie carve the words “I’m a prostitute and proud of it” into her abdomen with a heated needle. At one point, Sylvia’s older sister Diana attempted to see the girls under Gertrude’s care but was turned away at the door. Jenny later reported how Diana snuck food into the basement in which Sylvia was hidden. A neighbor had also reported the incidents to a public health nurse who, upon entering the home and not seeing Sylvia for she was locked in a basement, concluded that nothing was wrong. Baniszewski had also managed to convince the nurse that she had kicked the Likens girls out. Other next-door neighbors allegedly were aware of how Sylvia was abused. They had seen Paula strike the girl in the Baniszewski home on two separate occasions but claimed not to report the abuse because they feared for their own lives. Jenny was threatened, bullied, and beaten by the Baniszewski’s and neighbor girls alike should she go to the authorities. The abuse of Sylvia continued unhindered, in fact, aided by all those around her. The Brutal Death Of Sylvia Likens The Indianapolis Star/Wikimedia CommonsJenny Likens, Sylvia’s sister, photographed during the trial. “I’m going to die,” Sylvia told her sister three days before she did. “I can tell.” Gertrude could tell too and so she forced Sylvia to write a note in which she told her parents that she’d run away. Sylvia was also forced to write that she’d met up with a group of boys and given them sexual favors and afterward, they’d beaten her and mutilated her body. Shortly after this Sylvia overheard Gertrude Baniszewski tell her children that she was going to take Sylvia to a forest and leave her there to die. A desperate Sylvia Likens attempted one final escape. She managed to get out the front door before Gertrude caught her. Sylvia was so weak from her injuries she could not have possibly gotten too far. With the assistance of a neighbor boy named Coy Hubbard, Gertrude beat Sylvia with a curtain rod until she fell unconscious. Then, when she came back to, she stomped on her head. Welkerlots/YouTubeSylvia Likens’ body is carried inside of a closed casket, 1965. Sylvia was dead by Oct. 26, 1965, from a brain hemorrhage, shock, and malnutrition. After three months of torture and starvation, she could no longer form intelligible words and could barely move her limbs. When the police came, Gertrude stuck with her cover story. Sylvia had been out with boys in the woods, she told them, and they’d beaten her to death and carved “I’m a prostitute and proud of it” into her body. Jenny, though, took her chance. As soon as she could get close enough to a police officer she whispered, “Get me out of here and I’ll tell you everything.” The police arrested Gertrude, Paula, Stephanie and John Baniszewski, Richard Hobbs, and Coy Hubbard for murder. Neighborhood participants Mike Monroe, Randy Lepper, Darlene McGuire, Judy Duke, and Anna Siscoe were also arrested for “injury to person.” These minors would blame Gertrude for being pressured to partake in the death of Sylvia Likens. Gertrude herself pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. “She’s not responsible,” her defense attorney told the court, “because she’s not all here.” There were several more children involved who proved just too young to be charged. Ultimately though, on May 19, 1966, Gertrude Baniszewski was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. She was spared the death penalty despite her own lawyer admitting that, “In my opinion, she ought to go to the electric chair.” Paula Baniszewski, who had given birth to a daughter during the trial, was convicted of second-degree murder and was also sentenced to life imprisonment. Richard Hobbs, Coy Hubbard, and John Baniszewski Jr. were all convicted of manslaughter and given two 2-to-21-year prison sentences based on the fact that they were minors. The three boys were all paroled just two years later in 1968. How Gertrude Baniszewski And Her Children Eluded Justice Wikimedia CommonsGertrude Baniszewski, photographed after being granted parole in 1986. Gertrude spent 20 years behind bars. There was no question about her guilt. The autopsy backed up everything Jenny told the police: Sylvia Likens had died slowly and painfully over several months. In 1971, both Gertrude and Paula were retried to the result that Gertrude was again found guilty. Paula pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to two to 21 years. She once even managed to escape despite being recaptured. After about eight years behind bars, Paula was released and she moved to Iowa where she changed her name and became a teacher’s aide. She was suspended from her position when in 2012 an anonymous caller tipped off the school district that Paula was once convicted of the death of 16-year-old Sylvia Likens. Gertrude Baniszewski was granted parole on good behavior on Dec. 4, 1985. Jenny and a whole crowd of people picketed outside the prison to protest her release, but it was no use. Gertrude Baniszewski was set free. The only relief Jenny received came five years after Gertrude’s release when the murderess died of lung cancer. “Some good news,” Jenny wrote to her mother with a copy of the woman’s obituary. “Damn old Gertrude died! Ha ha ha! I am happy about that.” Jenny never did blame her parents for what happened to her sister. “My mom was a really good mom,” Jenny has said. “All she did was trust Gertrude.” After this horrific look at the case of Sylvia Likens, find out about the California parents who kept 13 children shackled to their beds or the gruesome story of the acid bath killer. The post Sylvia Likens, The 16-Year-Old Who Was Tortured And Murdered By Caretaker Gertrude Baniszewski appeared first on All That's Interesting.