On Wednesday, former 19 Kids and Counting star Josh Duggar was released on bail as he awaits trial for a felony child pornography case. Duggar was arrested on April 29 and charged with “receiving and possessing material depicting the sexual abuse of children,” to which he pleaded that he was not guilty. Following allegations that he accessed over 200 pornographic images of children, Duggar has also been granted “unlimited contact” with his six children. While he is allowed visitation with his children in the presence of his pregnant wife, Anna, he isn’t allowed to come into contact with any other minors. Duggar faces up to 20 years in prison for each charge.

“I recommend that you govern your actions by thinking about where you might go and who you might encounter,” said Judge Christy Comstock during a virtual detention hearing on Wednesday, May 5.

Duggar has been the subject of controversy since 2019. In November of that year, investigators arrived at his home “unannounced” while executing a search warrant. According to findings from Homeland Investigations Special Agent Gerald Faulkner, Duggar had child pornography footage on his computer that traced back to May 2019.

As his case has now gained national attention, many have wondered how Duggar was able to escape detection for so long. According to Faulkner, who shared his findings from Duggar’s home during the hearing, the 33-year-old father was using three tools to conceal himself: a dark web network called Tor, an anonymity partition called Linux, and a software program called Covenant Eyes. Covenant Eyes is an accountability tool meant for individuals overcoming porn addiction; the software sends regular updates on the user’s browser history to a partner (in this case, Anna). But if that person used Tor and Linux, Faulkner said, any reports from Covenant Eyes would likely be inaccurate.

Faulkner, who was worked on over 1,000 cases of child abuse and pornography, said in the hearing that he would place the images he found “in the top five of the worst of the worst that I’ve ever had to examine.” The files allegedly depicted sexual abuse involving children as young as 18 months, and as old as twelve. Josh has six children: The youngest is 17 months, and the oldest is eleven.

Duggar is the oldest child of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, who infamously had 19 kids and a TLC show spanning seven seasons. As followers of the conservative Christian Quiverfull movement and the Institute in Basic Life Principles, the Duggars don’t believe in birth control. They live an extremely devout lifestyle: For example, their children are not allowed to wear shorts, lest they arouse “desires in someone else that cannot be righteously fulfilled.”

Although Duggar was only arrested last week, the allegations he faces — and his parents’ complacency — date back almost 20 years. In 2015, In Touch Weekly first published a police report that showed he had confessed to molesting minors three times before the family decided to seek help in 2003. Over a year after his first confession, Jim Bob “met with the elders of his church and told them what was going on.” No one reported his crimes to authorities; he went to a “Christian program” that Michelle later admitted was just a family friend’s house.

In 2006, Jim Bob took Josh to see another friend of the family: Arkansas State Trooper Jim Hutchens. Hutchens gave Josh “a very stern talk.” According to In Touch, Hutchens took no action, and he’s currently serving his own sentence for charges of child pornography. By the time police finally opened an investigation, the statute of limitations had passed.

After the allegations were made public, Josh released a statement. “Twelve years ago, as a young teenager, I acted inexcusably for which I am extremely sorry and deeply regret. I hurt others, including my family and close friends,” he wrote in 2015. “I confessed this to my parents who took several steps to help me address the situation.”

But even in 2015, Jim Bob seemed to defend Josh’s actions. “He said he was just curious about girls and he had gone in and just basically touched them over their clothes while they were sleeping,” he told Fox News in 2015. “They didn’t even know he had done it.” They also claimed that his victims, including his sisters Jessa Seewald and Jill Duggar Dillard, had forgiven him.

At the time, they put on a united front. Jessa said that his behavior was “very wrong,” but she found it “so overboard and a lie, really” that people were dubbing him a pedophile or child molester. “I mean, people get mad at me for saying that, but I can say this because I was one of the victims,” she said.  

But now, some of his family members are starting to speak out. His sister, Jinger Vuolo, said that she was “disturbed” by the news of the charges. “We want to make it clear that we absolutely condemn any form of child abuse and fully support the authorities and judicial process in their pursuit of justice,” she and her husband, Jeremy Vuolo, wrote on Instagram. Derick Dillard, who is married to Jill, also wrote on Twitter that “the public was deceived” when it came to the Duggar family, and he liked several tweets calling for the cancellation of their TLC spin-off, Counting On. One of the tweets he liked also accused Jim Bob of emotional abuse.

Speaking to Duggar, Judge Comstock said she was “greatly concerned with images and approximate ages of children in these images are very close to the ages of your children and your nephews and nieces.” She added, “I keep coming back to this overriding concern that the court has about the children that you live and interact with on a daily basis and the crimes that you are charged with.”

Duggar’s trial will be held in July, and if convicted, he could face a total of 40 years in jail. But he isn’t the only member of his community who could be a danger to his kids: There were many religious figures, parents, and authorities that failed to protect his sisters, failed to protect his wife and children from a potential predator, and failed to adequately intervene while they could.

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Three beauty heroes, an excellent cookbook and one of the best presents I’ve ever been given: how much better could a monthly favourites video be?

Here’s a quick rundown of the first four items on the list but you’ll have to watch the video to see the fifth. It’s so cute. I do have a tearful moment at one point…

My first beauty love this month is Le Labo’s cult fragrance Santal 33. It’s spicy, warm, woody, leathery (but a hint of expensive leather, not a male stripper’s oud-soaked leather thong type leather) and just so incredibly sexy. I’ll never do it justice with words, so give it a try next time you pass a stockist. Or if you ever see a gift with purchase that has it in then nab one – the little 15ml sample I have was either from a gift or the Liberty calendar and its RRP is £58! You can find it at Liberty or Cult Beauty here*.

Next on the list, Murad’s incredible Intense Recovery Cream, online here*. It’s almost medicinal in its colour and texture, it feels like the sort of thing you’d use in extreme situations, but it’s absolutely gorgeous on very dry or overcooked skin. And by overcooked I mean too many acids, too much retinol, too much piling on of everything willy-nilly. This is instant relief and you notice a difference overnight. Standalone post coming up, I’m sure.

La Roche-Posay have launched a really lovely facial sunscreen. They are champions when it comes to good sunscreens but this one is a departure from the light and milky Anthelios: the Hyalu B5 Aquagel SPF30 is part of the intensely hydrating Hyalu range and it really, really leaves skin properly quenched. Or drenched. Whatever the term would be. It’s unbelievably lightweight, fresh in feel and I can imagine it’ll be a huge hit, especially for those with oily/combination skin who want a light touch but still require a load of moisture. Find it here at Boots*.

Last mention before you watch the end of the video (I know you’ll skip to it, it’s fine): Table Manners by Jessie and Lennie Ware. It’s such a good recipe book – I’ve cooked two things already and have a dozen or so more bookmarked. The photos are a delight, I love the little anecdotes on every page and you can really tell that the two of them (mother and daughter) love to cook and love to eat. Find it online here*.

The post 5 Favourites: April 2021 appeared first on A Model Recommends.

Caitlyn Jenner has had a busy couple of weeks. On April 23, Jenner announced she’s running for governor of California, hoping to unseat current Gov. Gavin Newsom. Last Saturday, she said to TMZ that she believes trans girls shouldn’t be allowed to participate in girls’ sports. And just last night, Jenner appeared on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show to do the difficult work that is required of this country’s politicians during this time: lament the horrors that unhoused people impose on the white, rich, and powerful. 

“My friends are leaving California,” Jenner told Hannity while *checks notes* sitting inside her Malibu airplane hangar. “The guy right across, he was packing up his hangar and I said, ‘Where are you going?’ And he says, ‘I’m moving to Sedona, Arizona. I can’t take it anymore. I can’t walk down the streets and see the homeless.'”

Jenner’s comments — coming from an out-of-touch, rich white woman who has never experienced being unhoused in her life — immediately drew outrage. After all, Jenner’s estimated net worth is an egregious $100 million. She lives in a $3.5-million ranch-style home in Malibu, CA. She owns a number of expensive vehicles, including multiple Porsches and an Austin-Healey Bugeye Sprite. So it’s safe to say that her taking offense with Los Angeles’ large population of unhoused people doesn’t exactly bode well for her bid to become governor of California.

But it’s not just Jenner’s ignorance when it comes to unhoused people that is the problem — it’s her lack of understanding that her own community, the trans community, is also plagued by this issue. Recent data shows that a reported 63% of trans adults and 80% of gender non-conforming adults are unhoused, according to data from the National Alliance to End Homelessness. One 2015 survey examining the experiences of over 27,000 trans people across the country found that one in 10 surveyed experienced violence at the hands of a family member once they came out, and 8% were kicked out of their home because they were transgender. The same survey found that 30% of respondents who had a job had been either fired, denied a promotion, or experienced mistreatment or harassment in the workplace as a result of their gender identity. And the unemployment rate among respondents was three times that of the total U.S. population, while nearly one-third were living in poverty. 

Shelters that provide clothing, food, and housing to those experiencing housing insecurity often double as another source of potential danger for trans and gender non-conforming people. Of respondents who had experienced being unhoused over the past year, 70% said they were mistreated in a shelter because they’re transgender, and 26% said they avoid shelters altogether for fear they’ll be harassed or assaulted. 

But just like Jenner has no clue what it’s like not to have access to housing or shelter, she doesn’t seem to know much about the many other struggles facing transgender people. Shortly after she shared her gubernatorial aspirations with the world, Jenner supported Republican-led efforts to ban trans students from joining school sports teams that align with their gender identity. “This is a question of fairness,” Jenner told a reporter. “That’s why I oppose biological boys who are trans competing in girls’ sports in school. It just isn’t fair. And we have to protect girls’ sports in our schools.” 

If Jenner truly cared about the problems of trans people who don’t live in Malibu mansions or fly on private planes, she would know that 43% of trans youth have been bullied on school grounds, and that 60% of trans and non-binary youth have seriously considered suicide. She would also know that studies have shown participation in school sports can lead to greater wellbeing, a reduction in anxiety, increased self-esteem, and improved overall mental health. 

Of course, there’s also the possibility that Jenner does know these facts (after all, Google is a thing) and simply doesn’t mind sacrificing children on the altar of partisan politics. It’s clear now, more than ever, that she is making an appeal to conservative Californians — rich, white ones at that — in her effort to gain political power. Unhoused trans kids be damned.

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Fox News’ Tucker Carlson is best known for stoking fear among white conservatives and calling it “news.” And while Carlson appears to have suffered from amnesia that precludes him from uttering his former buddy-buddy Rep. Matt Gaetz’s (R-FL) name on air, Carlson’s latest target has been a favorite of his over the past year: people who wear masks because they’re considerate and trust science and medical professionals. More specifically, the conservative talking head is taking issue with Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff. 

“Just today, Kamala Harris and her husband made a point of kissing each other in front of photographers while wearing masks. They did that despite the fact that they are married, that they live together, that they were standing outside at the time, and despite the fact that both have been vaccinated,” Carson said on Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight on Wednesday. “Now a number of crude jokes come to mind but for once we are going to pass on that. What exactly are we watching here? We are watching the crudest kind of propaganda designed by the cynical for the benefit of a population they consider stupid and weak and malleable.”

In the *very* short clip Carlson shared, Harris and Emhoff are seen walking a long distance away from photographers, likely unaware of them, in a group of guards and other people, before they briefly peck with their masks on. A conspiracy!

Tucked is mad at the Veep for kissing her husband

pic.twitter.com/StjWfL5nNU

— Molly Jong-Fast🏡 (@MollyJongFast) May 6, 2021

But the fact that Carlson has — once again — denounced people wearing masks is hardly surprising. On April 26, Carlson encouraged his audience to harass parents who put masks on their children when they’re out in public, likening the act to child abuse. 

“Your response when you see children wearing masks as they play should be no different from your response to seeing someone beat a kid in Walmart,” Carlson said. “What you’re looking at is abuse. It’s child abuse. And you are morally obligated to attempt to prevent it.” Carlson has also equated wearing a mask outside to “exposing oneself in public,” and has attacked COVID-19 vaccines by regurgitating unproven, inaccurate misinformation about vaccine safety. 

It’s also unsurprising that Carlson decided to attack Vice President Harris and her husband. Carlson has repeatedly mispronounced the vice president’s name on purpose and has often refused to apologize on air when corrected. He has called Harris a “fraud” and “transparently one-dimensional,” and given his fanatic dedication to espousing white supremacist ideological viewpoints and themes, often directs his mediocre white man ire at Black women and other people of color. 

Carlson — whose own employer admits is not a credible source of news, and during a defamation lawsuit case, argued that “any reasonable viewer ‘arrive[s] with an appropriate amount of skepticism’ about the statements he makes” — is good at two things: stoking fear and tying bow ties. That he chose to take a routine moment between a husband and wife and twist it into some Democratic-led conspiracy theory to dumb down the masses is par for Tuck Tuck’s course. But a two-second masked kiss between partners is not a red alarm cause for concern.

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