When I look at my country’s presidential contest, the first thought that comes to mind is that only the Devil himself could have designed this excruciating mess. Both men running for president right now are unfit for the job: One is a good man in obvious cognitive and physical decline, and the other is a bad man who lies as he breathes, whose main platform is revenge — and who is in his own cognitive tailspin. But the most important difference for the country — where you really see the...

Three former advisers to President Obama took aim at President Biden Tuesday as longstanding rumors of tension between the two men's camps continue to linger. Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett and Tommy Vietor, who were often referred to as the "Obama bros" during their tenure in the White House, dedicated the majority of their latest "Pod Save America" episode to ganging up on Biden following his poor performance in the first presidential debate, and in a subsequent interview...

President Joe Biden on Tuesday clung onto the Democratic nomination on a high-stakes day in Washington, but the risks of his refusal to step aside were laid bare when one of his party’s senators warned on CNN that Donald Trump could win in a “landslide.” Biden’s stubbornness leaves Democrats increasingly fearful that the president could put at risk not just the White House but any chance of retaking the House or holding the Senate — already an uphill battle. The...

At Upworthy, we are always looking for stories that show the “best of humanity,” and a recent article published by PEOPLE does just that. It tells the story of a couple who were born for one another, and at least one of them knew it from the beginning.Cade Wessell and Sarah Dill became friends on the first day of 6th grade and stayed close until they were seniors in high school, when they took things up a notch and began dating. A few weeks after their relationship took a romantic turn, Cade had to come up with something clever for his senior quote in the school yearbook.Your senior quote can follow you throughout life, so he knew it had to be good. "Some were trying to think of funny things to say. Others were attempting to be profound," Cade, 24, told PEOPLE. "But I sat there, isolated myself and thought, 'I’m going to do something legendary.'”Cade’s “legendary” move? He called his shot and put money on it. "Twenty bucks, I marry Sarah Dill," he wrote. Sarah later learned about the bold prediction when a friend sent her a photo of the yearbook after it was published.Six years later, Cade collected on that bet when the couple were married in Sarasota, Florida, at the Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Sarah & Cade Wessel (@worldwidewessels) Sarah told PEOPLE that she was impressed that Cade knew they were meant for each other so early in their relationship. "It’s literally right out of a rom-com," Sarah, also 24, said. "Now, as we reflect, we realize senior quotes were due at the end of January, so we had only been dating for a few weeks when he submitted it. When you know, you know!" View this post on Instagram A post shared by People Magazine (@people) Cade isn’t the only person to go viral for making a prediction in their senior quote that came true. In 1993, Michael Lee, a senior at Mission Viejo High School in California, made an unlikely and super specific prediction in his quote that came true. He predicted that in 2016, the Chicago Cubs would win the World Series.“Chicago Cubs. 2016 World Champions. You heard it here first,” he wrote in his senior quote. — (@) Lo and behold, in 2016, the Chicago Cubs won their first World Series since 1908 when they defeated the Cleveland Indians (now the Guardians), 4 games to 3, clinching the title at home in Chicago’s Wrigley Field. The win was massive news for long-suffering Cubs fans who felt their team had been cursed for over 60 years.Lee had been a lifelong Cubs fan and told Lids that he had a “vivid” dream when he was in the 3rd grade of the Cubs winning the World Series. The dream ended with the victory announced on the iconic red sign outside Wrigley Field with legendary Cubs announcer Harry Carrey proclaiming, “Cubs win!” on the radio.“Everybody calls it a prediction, but it’s really not. It’s just something that I dreamt about when I was a kid and I just was having a little fun when I pulled out my quote thing for the yearbook,” he admitted.Unfortunately, unlike Caden, Michael didn’t bet any money on his prediction.

Marriage is a big step in a relationship. It's something that people think about from the time they can grasp the concept of relationships. When you factor that in with the high divorce rate, it makes sense that people want to make sure they're getting it right before they take the leap.Typically people ask their close inner circle relationship advice. Leaning on people like their parents, siblings or friends who have been married to fill in the gaps of knowledge. But with the world being smaller than ever due to social media, it takes little effort to gather more collective knowledge from thousands of people from your target audience. Surprisingly, people are pretty forthcoming to strangers on the internet looking for support and help. One man who goes by the name King Boiza decided to ask his internet advisors, "married men what is your greatest regret about marriage? Advise the single boys. It could be about anything." They married men didn't hesitate to answer the call in the most genuinely wholesome way.Gleaning collective wisdom from those more experienced than you is a common practice, but being able to do it in such a large way is relatively new. Different life experiences lead to different perspectives that can be invaluable to someone still learning. The advice provided ranged from warnings to what could be seen as universal truths about marriage. "Your wife becomes the words you speak upon her, I regret not speaking life and good upon her," one man shares."In times of trouble, remember...It's not you against her but the both of you, against the problem...," someone writes."Listen when she speaks from the heart, once she feels unheard, she will be closed off for a long time if not forever," another advises."Not all women age gracefully with all their good looks and physique. Marry her for more reasons beyond her body and beauty. Seek a FOREVER," one commenter says. Forbes reports that 43% of first marriages end in divorce with the number significantly increasing with each subsequent marriage. Finding out the regrets, struggles and triumphs of other marriages may help others feel more prepared to commit to marriage with a bit of a roadmap laid in front of them. It's clear from the comments under the post that marriage takes work and while some of the men admittedly misstepped, they seem eager to share with others so they avoid the same mistakes. "My biggest regret in marriage was to cheat and I'm telling you...my wife was never the same...so my advice is never cheat never ever," one guy confesses. "We tend to take our spouse for granted once we get married. Continue to invest your time in her. You won't regret it and she'll know that you really see her," one man shares.But it wasn't only men who dropped by the comment section. Women stopped to share their appreciation for the wisdom being left for all to see. "After reading this comment section, my faith in the institution of marriage is restored. Relationships are not perfect, but we gotta try with people who want to try," one woman writes."I don't know why I'm crying...I guess I never knew men like these existed...Your wives must be blessed," another woman shares.If you need a dose of healthy masculinity and wholesome advice for lasting partnerships, look no further than that comment section. They're saving some future couple from heartache by simply showing up to answer a stranger's question on the internet.

Everybody wants to see themselves in a positive light. That’s the key to understanding Jonah Berger’s simple tactic that makes people 30% more likely to do what you ask. Berger is a marketing professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and the bestselling author of “Magic Words: What to Say to Get Your Way.”Berger explained the technique using a Stanford University study involving preschoolers. The researchers messed up a classroom and made two similar requests to groups of 5-year-olds to help clean up.One group was asked, "Can you help clean?" The other was asked, “Can you be a helper and clean up?" The kids who were asked if they wanted to be a “helper” were 30% more likely to want to clean the classroom. The children weren’t interested in cleaning but wanted to be known as “helpers.”Berger calls the reframing of the question as turning actions into identities."It comes down to the difference between actions and identities. We all want to see ourselves as smart and competent and intelligent in a variety of different things,” Berger told Big Think. “But rather than describing someone as hardworking, describing them as a hard worker will make that trait seem more persistent and more likely to last. Rather than asking people to lead more, tell them, 'Can you be a leader?' Rather than asking them to innovate, can you ask them to 'Be an innovator'? By turning actions into identities, you can make people a lot more likely to engage in those desired actions.”Berger says that learning to reframe requests to appeal to people’s identities will make you more persuasive.“Framing actions as opportunities to claim desired identities will make people more likely to do them,” Berger tells CNBC Make It. “If voting becomes an opportunity to show myself and others that I am a voter, I’m more likely to do it.”This technique doesn’t just work because people want to see themselves in a positive light. It also works for the opposite. People also want to avoid seeing themselves being portrayed negatively.“Cheating is bad, but being a cheater is worse. Losing is bad, being a loser is worse,” Berger says.The same tactic can also be used to persuade ourselves to change our self-concept. Saying you like to cook is one thing, but calling yourself a chef is an identity. “I’m a runner. I’m a straight-A student. We tell little kids, ‘You don’t just read, you’re a reader,’” Berger says. “You do these things because that’s the identity you hold.”Berger’s work shows how important it is to hone our communication skills. By simply changing one word, we can get people to comply with our requests more effectively. But, as Berger says, words are magic and we have to use thgem skillfully. “We think individual words don’t really matter that much. That’s a mistake,” says Berger. “You could have excellent ideas, but excellent ideas aren’t necessarily going to get people to listen to you.”This article originally appeared on 2.11.24

Spooky season can be a fun time of year for people. There are folks that wait all year for the official start of fall just to decorate for Halloween. Costumes are bought in advance and bags of candy are purchased and stored, but not everyone buys their costume. Some spooky season lovers get really creative with their Halloween costumes out of household items.There are some homemade costumes that are so funny and realistic that you have to do a double take. Two sisters are going viral for their ultra realistic roller coaster costume made out of cardboard and foam noodles. But it's not just their costumes that are stealing the attention of millions, it's their acting skills.In the video uploaded to TikTok by Laurie Dabbs-Gayton, the sisters stand side-by-side, though it looks like their sitting. They begin to shake and jostle as if they're on a track before screaming like they've just rounded a bend or flew down a hill quickly. The pair is in total sync with each other adding to the realistic vibe of their costume for their employer's costume party. It was so convincing that people watching the video were confused at first thinking it was a coin operated ride. Commenters didn't realize it was a costume until the women stood up fully. "I thought it was a mini roller coaster," one person writes followed by multiple rolling crying laughing emojis."Took my brain a few extra seconds to process what my eyes were seeing," a commenter says."I thought for a second it was like the pony ride machines outside a grocery store," someone admits."It took me far longer to figure out than it should have," one woman writes.Watch the fantastic combination of acting skill and costume design below: @laurie.dabbs.gayton This article originally appeared on 10.31.23

Traveling with preteens and teens is a breeze in comparison to traveling with little ones but as a parent you still want to sit near your kiddos in case they need you for anything. If you've traveled on an airline in the last several years, you know it's much cheaper to chose the basic seats in the main cabin. There's nothing different about these particular seats other than the airline sort of randomly selects your seat and if you're traveling alone, that's really not a bad deal. The risk gets to be a little higher if you're traveling with a party that you'd like to keep together - like your children. One mom took the risk and banked on a stranger accommodating...that's not quite how it played out.People sit in the wrong seats on planes all the time, usually because they read their ticket wrong or accidentally sit one row ahead. Takes no time to double check your ticket and move along, but when Tammy Nelson did a double take at her ticket after seeing the mom in her window seat, she realized she wasn't mistakenly staring at the wrong row.This mom boarded the plane with her older children and had taken it upon herself to sit in the same row as her children, essentially commandeering a stranger's seat. Nelson assumed it was a mistake and informed the woman that the seat was in fact hers but the response she received was surprising."She said, 'Oh, you want to sit here?'," Nelson tells Good Morning America. "She said, 'Oh, well I just thought I could switch with you because these are my kids.'" That's an interesting assumption when seats are assigned and many people, like Nelson, pay extra to have the seat they prefer. Now, there's no telling if funds were tight and this was an unplanned trip for the mom and kids which caused her to buy the more budget friendly tickets or if she was simply being frugal and was banking on the kindness of a stranger. Either way, Nelson specifically paid for a window seat due to motion sickness and though she paid extra, she was willing to sit in the other row if that seat was also a window seat. But it turns out, it was a middle seat. Surely there's someone out there that loves the middle seat. Maybe a cold natured person that enjoys the body heat of two strangers sitting uncomfortably close. Or perhaps someone that doesn't mind accidentally sleeping on an unsuspecting passenger's shoulder. But that person isn't Nelson, so when the middle seat was offered in exchange for her bought and paid for window seat, she politely but sternly declined. @myconquering Having had only 90 minutes of sleep the night before and knowing I had to give a presentation to 500 people, I desperately needed some sleep, so I did not agree to switch seats. ?‍♀️ Before anyone comes after me… the kids looked like they were about 11 and 15 years old. And the mom was in arms-reach of both of them from the middle seat in the row behind us. The mom proceeded to complain for at least 15 minutes to the person next to her loud enough for me to hear. But the woman actually defended me – several times. It was so kind and I appreciated it so much because I was feeling really guilty. ?‍♀️ ##airplaneseat##seatswitching##airplanekarens Her refusal to give in to the mom's seemingly entitled request for Nelson's seat has resulted in parents and child-fee people cheering her on after she posted the details on her TikTok page, MyCONQUERing. The video has over 3.4 million views. "Nope. If it's not an upgrade it's a sacrifice," a commenter writes."You did the RIGHT thing. Folks need to plan their travel together. Lack of planning on their part does not constitute an inconvenience on yours," one person says. "I have 3 kids and have sat in different rows when they were passed toddler age. I agree, book your flight earlier," another writes. "You were right. As a woman with 3 children, I always pay extra so we're sat together," another mom says.Nelson is also a mom so she knows how important it is to sit next to kids on flights. But since airlines have made that a luxury, as the parent, you have to plan to pay extra or accept that you likely won't be seated next to your children. Hopefully in the future, this unnamed mom is seated next to her children or pays extra to make sure it happens. In the meantime, people continue to support Nelson standing her ground. This article originally appeared on 7.28.23