Sexual predator female teachers are labeled hot by the junk food media.
I guess I have to address this again. The hot teachers are another issue the junk food media obsess with. An attractive white woman who is a teacher, a coach, a counselor or principal is arrested for having sex with a student.
Inside Edition, Fox, Heavy, The Sun, TMZ, HuffPost, The New York Post, The Daily Mail and CourtTV obsess over the teacher and how a promising future was ruined by a rape of a minor.
I am for one am not amused about the amount of attention these stories get.
I am really getting tired of these female teachers being propped up like they're hot models.
They are not hot!
They are people who abused their powers to take advantage of students who were troubled. Instead of reporting the situation to the school administrators, the teacher gave into their lust to give their victims their first notch.
Mind you, if Robert Sylvester Kelly was a teacher instead of a singer, the junk food media would have vilified R. Kelly. They should do the same for every teacher who is accused of sexual abuse towards their students.
What they are doing is pedophilia!
But that's my opinion. What's your opinion about this?
As explained before, "hot teachers" busted for sleeping with students is becoming a junk food media sensation. Do you believe the junk food media is giving credence to pedophiles in the classroom? (Expect trolls to pick the dumbest answer)
What they are doing is sexual abuse of a child!
What they are doing is putting American youth at risk!
Like with missing white women, the junk food media often portrays white women as "damsels in distress" and give them the "benefit of doubt."
If this was a male or a Black teacher, it will be controversy. They will automatically assume the politics of predator, call for the death penalty when it comes to the predator, and push for tough on crime laws.
I am like amazed how many educators find sexual attraction to children.
LibsOfTikTok barely covers it because the predator is a white woman and she is likely from a Republican or conservative home.
Everyone is still obsessed over the late Mary Kay Letourneau. The sexual offender who was a married teacher of four who gave it all up to engage in an affair with a 12 year old boy.
Her victim, Villi Fualaau had ended up having two daughters. They got married shortly after she got out of the iron college. They divorced in 2020 before she passed away later that year. He is a grandfather at 40 when his 24 year old daughter gave birth to her son.
He is struggling as a father. He tried at being a hip hop deejay, a laborer and numerous other side hustles.
The suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Covington, Tennessee teacher had a teen's child.
A fourth-grade Tennessee teacher charged with raping one of her former students said she is pregnant with the boy's baby, according to new information revealed in the case.
Alissa D. McCommon, 38, an elementary teacher at Charger Academy in Covington, was arrested last month by the Covington Police Department on allegations of sexual misconduct with a 12-year-old boy as well as multiple juveniles in a multi-jurisdictional investigation, police said.
Part of the Tipton County School District, the elementary school is located about 40 miles northeast of Memphis.
McCommon, a mother of two, was arrested at her Covington home on Sept. 8 and charged with felony rape of a child for reportedly molesting the boy, Tipton County General Sessions court records show.
A New Orleans teacher accused of helping juvenile fugitive Lynell Reynolds escape to Texas last month was ordered to wear an ankle monitor while out on bond awaiting resolution of her felony case.
New Orleans teacher helped a teen escape state custody. Likely slept with him.
Angela Filardo, 31, appeared Tuesday (Oct. 3) before Magistrate Commissioner Peter Hamilton, who set her bond at $5,000 with the monitoring requirement. Filardo was booked with a single felony count of accessory to an escape and posted bond Tuesday night.
Filardo is a teacher at Walter Cohen High School who, according to the family of Reynolds’ shooting victim Darrelle Scott, appeared in juvenile court several times previously to support Reynolds when he was on trial in 2019.
Teacher helped teen murder suspect flee. Teacher slept with him.
Reynolds, then 13, was found guilty of attempted second-degree murder after he shot Scott in the back, leaving his victim paralyzed during an armed robbery in New Orleans East. Reynolds, now 18, escaped from an unsecured youth group home in Lake Charles on Sept. 13 before being recaptured Monday by U.S. Marshals in San Antonio, authorities said.
The Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff's Office has arrested a former Tangipahoa teacher accused of sexual misconduct with a minor.
Morgan Freche, 33, turned herself in to detectives Tuesday morning after several warrants were issued for her arrest following an investigation of sexual misconduct dating back approximately two years.
Freche was accused of having a baby with a 17-year-old student and resigned from her position at Loranger Middle School last week.
She has been charged with one count of third-degree rape, four counts of felony carnal knowledge of a juvenile and one count of oral sexual battery.
Hammond, Louisiana teacher had a teen's baby.
The teen's attorney George R. Tucker told WDSU News, the family is "relieved, excited and encouraged."
"We’re happy with the types of charges, we think maybe there should’ve been more charges because there were more events," Tucker said.
He says the family is focused on getting the teen into therapy so he can move forward.
An Apopka High School science teacher was arrested and has been placed on administrative leave, according to an arrest affidavit.
Dmitri Kostyunin, 50, was arrested for sexual battery of a teen and causing the child to become dependent on Tuesday.
Apropka, Florida teacher drugged teen and performed sex acts on him.
The victim told law enforcement that he watched a movie with Kostyunin when he was given a chocolate bar that "had a weird taste," arrest records show.
Kostyunin allegedly also gave the child wine and more chocolate before sexually battering him, deputies said.
When interviewed by detectives, Kostyunin said he provided the teen wine, beer, and chocolate before sexually battering him.
On Wednesday, Apopka High School Principal Lyle Heinz sent a voice message to parents stating that an employee was arrested due to an isolated incident that didn't occur on the school's campus or in Orange County
The incident allegedly happened at Kostyunin's home in Mount Dora.
A former teacher is suspected of sexually assaulting a child on the campus of a San Jose middle school, police said Thursday.
San Jose teacher raped a teen for years.
Matthew Gonzalez, 36, was arrested on Monday for allegedly assaulting a child at Herbert Hoover Middle School, located at 1635 Park Ave.
The assault was first reported to police in August and during an investigation, Gonzalez was identified as the primary suspect, according to San Jose police.
Gonzalez previously taught at Hoover and was also a teacher at Willow Glen Middle School and a teaching assistant at the San Jose State University Child Development Center.
Detectives obtained an arrest warrant for Gonzalez and a search warrant for his residence. On Monday, he was arrested in Campbell and booked into the Santa Clara County Main Jail on suspicion of sending harmful materials to a minor and for lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14 years of age.
A teacher in National City who won a Teacher of the Year award in August was arrested and booked into county jail for an “inappropriate relationship” with a 13-year-old former student, police said.
National City, California teacher arrest for encounters with teens. She was a teacher of the year nominee.
Jacqueline Ma, 34, was a teacher at Lincoln Acres Elementary in National City — just south of San Diego — where she taught fifth and sixth grades.
On Monday, a “concerned parent” reached out to the National City Police Department saying she was afraid her 13-year-old was being treated inappropriately by Ma, according to a news release.
The next day, detectives developed probable cause to arrest the teacher.
She was booked into jail on “numerous felony charges” and was released on bail, according to police.
Detectives continued to investigate and rearrested Ma on Thursday, charging her with additional felonies in the case.
She is now being held without bail at Las Colinas Detention Facility.
Police did not release details on the suspected criminal activity because the alleged victim is a minor.
Miami teacher wanted to make a 10 year old student his girlfriend.
A 29-year-old teacher is facing child sex abuse charges involving elementary school-aged girls who were his students at schools in Miami, records show.
One of the girls was 10 years old when she recently received text messages from Eric Bernard Givens saying, “Always wanted to date you,” “I wanna see you again,” “Oh wow I wanna see you bad,” and one photo of himself wearing only boxers, according to the police arrest report.
Another girl described how Givens tested her boundaries when she was in third grade and he “started with pulling her hair back and grabbing her wrist to the point she would bruise” and “would pull her hair back in the classroom and after everyone left that is when [he] raped her,” according to a police report.
The two victims on record came into contact with Givens as students at the Theodore R. and Thelma A. Gibson Charter School in Miami’s Overtown neighborhood and at St. Mary’s Cathedral School in Miami’s Little River neighborhood, according to police.
Givens, also known as “Mr. G,” remained at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on Monday. He appeared in county court on Sunday and Monday. Miami-Dade prosecutors filed two felony cases on Sunday that include 15 criminal charges against him, court records show.
The case of the St. Mary’s Cathedral School student has 14 charges — including seven counts of lewd or lascivious molestation of a child who is younger than 12 years old and seven counts of battery, a misdemeanor.
The case of the Theodore R. and Thelma A. Gibson Charter School includes a misdemeanor charge of offense against students by an authority figure.
Records show there were two warrants out with a magistrate hold when police officers arrested him at the Advenir Presidential House Apartments, at 1574 NE 191 St., in Miami-Dade’s Ojus neighborhood, west of the Saint Lawrence Elementary School, which is not related to the open cases.
Columbus social worker caught sleeping with troubled teen.
A woman accused of engaging in unlawful sexual contact with a minor was arraigned in court Saturday morning.
Police arrested social worker Payton Shires, charging her with unlawful sexual conduct with a minor after concerns arose over text messages between herself and a 13-year-old boy whom she was counseling.
Shires appeared in Franklin County Municipal Court on Friday where her bond was set at just over $500,000.
At least six female teachers were arrested in a span of two days this week for having sex with students — including a Kentucky staffer who allegedly had trysts with a pair of 16-year-old boys.
Danville, Kentucky teacher slept with 12 year old students.
Ellen Shell, 38, of Danville, was arraigned in Garrard County District Court on Thursday after prosecutors said she had sex with the teens on two separate occasions in July and August of last year.
Shell worked as a teacher’s aide at Woodlawn Elementary School and was employed at Lancaster Elementary School prior to that, according to WTKR.
The outlet reported that Boyle County School officials sent out a letter to parents alerting them to the arrest.
Shell had been placed on administrative leave pending the resolution of the case.
The bust was just one of at least six recent cases of female teachers engaging in sexual misconduct with their teen charges in recent days, according to reports from across the country.
Fairfield, Ohio teacher aid convicted of sex with teen. Got in-house and TIER 2 in Offender U. If she was Black or a male teacher, lengthy bid in the iron college.
One teacher got off easy.
A Butler County Judge sentenced a former Liberty Junior School student teacher on Tuesday after she was convicted of having sexual relations with a teenager.
Ana Leigh D’Ettorre, 24, was given a list of things she must comply with in order to avoid jail time, according to Butler County prosecutors:
Community control
Complete one year of intensive probation and four years of basic
Register as a Tier 2 sex offender twice a year for 25 years
Attend any recommended aftercare
Prohibited from having unsupervised contact with minors
Maintain full-time employment
Pay supervision fees and court costs
Prohibited from using drugs or alcohol and must stay out of bars
Prosecutors say D’Ettorre met the teenage victim when she taught at Liberty Junior. However, the crimes took place away from the school after her last day of student teaching.
The sentencing of the female teachers is too lenient. Male teachers often are hit with charges that could put them in the iron college for LIFE. Female teachers are often slapped on the wrist or the butt. They lose their educators license, slapped with a heavy fine, restricted from computer or internet access. Some might have to register in Offender U and serve in-house. Usually female teachers are granted freedom from the iron college.
I am sick of the junk food media being sympathetic to these women who get caught sleeping with children. I don't care if she is a "10." She is a sexual predator and the U.S. Department of Education and Justice should require more stringent requirements to become a teacher.
I don't want to hear the life story of these pedophiles. The junk food media is so obsessed with "Hot for a Teacher" stories.
Gun violence is the biggest problem facing teachers and students. Sexual assault in schools should be ranked the biggest problem as well.
Biden and previous presidents back Israeli interests despite it draws the world closer to global war.
I want peace.
❤️🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤
❤️❤️🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤
❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤
❤️❤️❤️❤️🤍🤍
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤🤍🤍🤍🤍
❤️❤️❤️❤️🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍
❤️❤️❤️💚💚💚💚💚💚
❤️❤️💚💚💚💚💚💚💚
❤️💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚
Free Palestine.
I stand with the 🇺🇸.
I want the conflict between 🇮🇱 and 🇵🇸 to end once and for all.
I want the Palestinians to receive their land and Israel to have an established non denominational democracy. I want the Israeli authorities to arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and have members of his cabinet expelled from governing.
I want the UN to draw a resolution to immediately end the border wall construction and settlement building on the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
I want the U.S. to acknowledge the lives of those living in the occupied territories.
I will ignore the noise of being called antisemitic. I don't have to prove to anyone what I believe in. I do not harbor hate towards the Jewish, Muslim or Christian religions. I do not hate the Israeli people or Palestinians.
I do not support the propaganda peddled by Israel to influence American opinion and policies.
I fully support Palestinians and their freedom. I support Palestinians right to resist Israeli apartheid. I support Israel right to exist but reject the notion that Palestinian rights are excluded. Palestine has a right to exist as well.
I fully support Ukraine's right to defending itself from Russian aggression.
I am currently on the fence with President Joe Biden. I am concerned that my reaction to the controversies in Israel and Palestine will affect my decision to support Democrats in 2024. I want to see the Democrats stop using Israel as a wedge issue to promote progressive policies. Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Interim House Speaker Patrick McHenry (R-NC), Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Washed Up 45, the Republicans candidates running for president, most Senate and Congressional members back Israel's right to obliterate the Gaza Strip. It makes me question why should I support Biden when he clearly shows hypocrisy when it comes to the right to defend and the freedom to protest injustice.
I am definitely not supporting Republicans or Washed Up 45 in 2024. I will never back those morons. The Republicans are pinnacle of white supremacy and fascism.
The U.S. is ignoring the causalities of Palestinians.
Republicans are falsely claiming that Iranian influence sparked the Saturday strike by Hamas on the southern Israeli border. The far right nationalist Benjamin Netanyahu vows to destroy Hamas. The Israeli military will start leveling towns in the Gaza Strip.
The UN has been stifled in condemnation of the Israeli government and its war crimes.
I don't condone the actions of Hamas kidnapping civilians and using them as ransom.
I don't condone the actions of Israel brutality killing civilians in populated areas.
The U.S. and some of its European allies are facing accusations of double standards for supporting sanctions and international war crimes investigations against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine while blocking them over Israeli military actions in the occupied Palestinian territories.
But pro-Israel groups in the U.S. have dismissed the allegations by accusing critics of exploiting Ukrainian suffering to draw false parallels.
Amnesty International called for the UN to impose targeted sanctions against Israel after joining other human rights groups in accusing it of breaching international law by practicing a form of apartheid and committing a crime against humanity in its “domination” of the Palestinians.
Palestinian officials and UN special rapporteurs on the occupied territories have also pressed for sanctions over Israeli land seizures in the West Bank, the blockade of Gaza and the large scale killing of Palestinian civilians.
Biden and Washed Up 45 both support unilateral support of Israel despite the atrocities committed by the Israeli government months prior to the surprise attack by Hamas.
Hamas is a political organization the U.S. and western nations declared a terrorist organization due to the previous attacks by suicide bombings. Hamas is a far right Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. It won the 2006 Palestinian legislative election and became the de facto governing authority of the Gaza Strip following the 2007 Battle of Gaza. It also holds a majority in the parliament of the Palestinian National Authority.
Canada, the European Union, Israel, Japan, Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States have designated Hamas as a terrorist organization. New Zealand and Paraguay have designated only its military wing as a terrorist organization. It is not considered a terrorist organization by Brazil, China, Egypt, Iran, Norway, Qatar, Russia, Syria and Turkey. In December 2018, a resolution to condemn Hamas as a terrorist organisation failed to pass the United Nations General Assembly.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh is based in Qatar. He is in exile due to threats of assassination by Israeli operatives.
Those living in the Gaza Strip, West Bank, Golan Heights and East Jerusalem are subjected to second class status. They are forcibly removed from their homes. They are either hit with non lethal or deadly force if they react to Israeli forces with protests or weapons. There are border walls, fences and roads exclusively for Israeli settlers. The ideas of Israel spread to the U.S. with the obsession of building a border wall on the U.S.-Mexican border.
Excuses from the U.S. is basically, "Israel has a right to defend itself" or "[We] stand firm with the Jewish state."
I am sick and tired of hearing American lawmakers and media figures defending Israel.
In one breathe, most back Ukraine's fight against the Russian offense. They are willing to see bloodshed on Ukraine to prevent Russia from winning. They are willing to look the other way when Israeli spreads bloodshed on the Palestinians.
We want to hold Russia accountable for its invasion of Ukraine. But when it comes to Israel and Palestine, the U.S. and many other countries ignore the war crimes, the illegal occupation and the Israel's tilt towards fascism.
The Palestinians do not have a military or the weapons of defense. Israel does and they have vowed to wipe out the Palestinians from existence.
The Republicans and some Democrats have this notion that criticism of the state of Israel is equal to antisemitism. They seriously call for boycotts and censorship of those who dare speak against the inhumane crimes done by the Israeli government.
I mean, Palestinians cannot defend themselves from the years of oppression.
Netanyahu is a war criminal, despot and a horrible man. He often lurks into American politics corrupting lawmakers into supporting Israeli interests.
It is a destructive and deadly alliance that led to 9/11, the Afghanistan War, the Iraq War, unrest in the Middle East and politicians in the American states passing legislation to prevent protests against Israel.
The Israeli government has been very keen on demolishing the Palestinians.
Those living in the Gaza Strip, West Bank, Golan Heights and East Jerusalem are subjected to second class status. They are forcibly removed from their homes. They are either hit with non lethal or deadly force if they react to Israeli forces with protests or weapons.
The Israelis literally are shooting at Palestinian doctors, children and journalists who get in the way. The Israeli Defence Force killed an American journalist and the U.S. refused to condemn it.
The Israeli military have blocked ambulances and UN inspectors.
The junk food media continues to refer the Palestinians who defend themselves as militants. They ignore the brutal bombardment of the Gaza Strip. The Israeli government claims that Hamas launched rockets into Tel Aviv and they have to bomb facilities to stop the militants.
The former secretary of state, senator, first lady and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee speaks her mind and it drives the far right nuts.
When MAGA continues to demand Hillary Clinton get over her loss, I am reminded that they're still believing that Washed Up 45 "won" in 2020.
It is almost impossible to tell MAGA that Washed Up 45 lost to Joe Biden. They won't believe you and seriously believe that illegal immigrants voted or Democrats allowed voting fraud to occur. It is funny that Republicans are elected governors, senators, mayors and representatives but they seriously believe Washed Up 45 was robbed of his win.
Whenever Clinton speaks her words will rile up the far right. It will automatically be on Fox and especially Sean "Softball" Hannity who devotes about 95% of his show talking about her.
Hillary Clinton is a retired politician. She has every right to speak her mind. But I guess MAGA wants her to shut up. They literally comparing her remarks over the past few days saying that MAGA needs to be deprogrammed as an attack on democracy.
In order to take the noise off the Republican Party's ineffective governance, they pivot back to the boogeyman (I meant boogeywoman).
Clinton was on CNN, telling Christine Amanpour those who still support the former president after the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection are members of a cult.
“Maybe there needs to be a formal deprogramming of the cult members,” she said in a clip released late Thursday.
“And sadly, so many of those extremists, those MAGA extremists, take their marching orders from Donald Trump, who has no credibility left by any measure,” Clinton added. “He’s only in it for himself.”
She predicted Washed Up 45 will likely be the 2024 GOP presidential nominee, and she believes President Biden can beat him again.
“One will wreck our democracy. One violates the law on a regular basis. One appeals to the worst in our collective psyche. The other gets things done,” she said in the interview with Amanpour. “Why is that a hard choice?”
A Washed Up 45-affiliated super PAC denounced Clinton’s comments early Friday, saying they are akin to her wanting “re-education camps.”
“President Trump has said countless times that they are only coming after him, because he stands in their way from coming after you — and Hillary Clinton just confirmed that to be true,” Make America Great Again Inc. spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said. “Tens of millions of Americans will reject the Democrat Party’s re-education camp agenda in November 2024 when we make Donald Trump the 47th President of the United States,”
Clinton also commented on the ongoing Republican leadership race in the House of Representatives, after former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was ousted from the job Tuesday by a small group of disgruntled GOP members voting with Democrats.
The GOP is in “an absolute hostage situation with its most extreme members,” Clinton said.
“[McCarthy] was not continuing to be captive to the far-right extremists. So they toppled him. It was a very small number as you look at the vote. But now we’re reaping the consequences of their misbehavior,” she added.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) are the front-runners for the job. Washed Up 45 backed Jordan late Thursday after rumors circulated the former president could be interested in the role.
Clinton described Jordan, a co-founder of the conservative Freedom Caucus, as “one of the principal ringleaders of the circus” in the GOP.
And she urged the new Republican Speaker, whoever that may be, to rein in the party’s right wing.
“At some point, there needs to be a backlash against the control that this small group of extremists have,” she said on CNN. “And I don’t know who will lead that, but let’s hope whoever becomes the new Speaker will.”
Israel launches a full scale assault on the Gaza Strip after Hamas made a surprise attack on occupied settlements.
Be warned there will be graphic images and photos.
Free Palestine.
End the apartheid.
Over 2.5 million people live in the Gaza Strip.
Americans should consider leaving Israel due to instability within its government.
While I don't condone the actions, it appears that Israel is on the brink of a civil war.
Israel's ultra orthodox and ultra Zionist groups are with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's controversial decision to reform the national courts. Many believe Israel is leaning towards a dictatorship.
Israel for years peddled an influence campaign into American politics. The lawmakers, lobbyists and media agitators falsely equate criticism of Israeli policies with antisemitism. The U.S. has just passed a resolution condemning Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) after she said Israel is a "racist state" during the 2023 Netroots Nation convention.
Nine Democrats voted against the resolution. They were people of color. The Jewish Democrats and senior Democratic leaders have forced Jayapal, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) to apologize or walk back statements. Omar was removed from her Foreign Relations Committee by former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) because she criticized AIPAC in 2019. Her remarks "all about the Benjamins" was condemned by Jewish Democrats, senior Democratic leaders and Republicans as anti-semitic. Even though she did not mention religion, they falsely equated her attacks on AIPAC as an attack on Jews. The Anti-Defamation League is also invested in the peddling of propaganda on behalf of Israel. Jonathan Greenblatt, the current leader of the ADL condemned Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) after she claimed it was an apartheid.
The Israeli government is using apartheid measures when it comes to the Palestinians.
Western media offer propaganda that always favors Israeli interests.
Those living in the Gaza Strip, West Bank, Golan Heights and East Jerusalem are subjected to second class status. They are forcibly removed from their homes. They are either hit with non lethal or deadly force if they react to Israeli forces with protests or weapons.
The Israelis literally are shooting at Palestinian doctors, children and journalists who get in the way.
The Israeli military have blocked ambulances and UN inspectors.
The junk food media continues to refer the Palestinians who defend themselves as militants. They ignore the brutal bombardment of the Gaza Strip. The Israeli government claims that Hamas launched rockets into Tel Aviv and they have to bomb facilities to stop the militants.
Excuses from the U.S. is basically, "Israel has a right to defend itself" or "[We] stand firm with the Jewish state."
I am sick and tired of hearing American lawmakers and media figures defending Israel.
In one breathe, most back Ukraine's fight against the Russian offense. They are willing to see bloodshed on Ukraine to prevent Russia from winning. They are willing to look the other way when Israeli spreads bloodshed on the Palestinians.
We want to hold Russia accountable for its invasion of Ukraine. But when it comes to Israel and Palestine, the U.S. and many other countries ignore the war crimes, the illegal occupation and the Israel's tilt towards fascism.
The Palestinians do not have a military or the weapons of defense. Israel does and they have vowed to wipe out the Palestinians from existence.
The Republicans and some Democrats have this notion that criticism of the state of Israel is equal to antisemitism. They seriously call for boycotts and censorship of those who dare speak against the inhumane crimes done by the Israeli government.
I mean, Palestinians cannot defend themselves from the years of oppression.
Netanyahu is a war criminal, despot and a horrible man. He often lurks into American politics corrupting lawmakers into supporting Israeli interests.
It is a destructive and deadly alliance that led to 9/11, the Afghanistan War, the Iraq War, unrest in the Middle East and politicians in the states passing legislation to prevent protests against Israel.
The Israeli government has been very keen on demolishing the Palestinians.
Hamas, the elected government of the Gaza Strip has launchd a strike against the Israeli government. Over 40 Israelis were killed. An unknown amount of Palestinians were killed.
President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Congress and world leaders reacting to the controversies surrounding Israel, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Golan Heights.
BREAKING: Israel Declares State of War, Mobilizes Soldiers as Hamas Enters Israel ..
Hamas has asserted that they launched 5,000 rockets, making this the most substantial occurrence yet, giving access to militants crossing into Israel from Gaza. pic.twitter.com/FlNtYojRpt
Israel has lost control of multiple communities along the border. Hamas militants have taken over small towns will civilians still inside, according to Israeli media.
Reports of clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces in East Jerusalem.… pic.twitter.com/n3J392gnBO
GRAPHIC!!! These are images and videos of Palestine TERRORISTS bombing, then invading my friend’s city in Israel. They kill men, women, children and elderly in their homes. Then take back the women to be raped then killed. Their excuse? Land. If you support Palestine, fuck you. pic.twitter.com/tdUJkhN6FU
GRAPHIC!!! These are images and videos of Palestine TERRORISTS bombing, then invading my friend’s city in Israel. They kill men, women, children and elderly in their homes. Then take back the women to be raped then killed. Their excuse? Land. If you support Palestine, fuck you. pic.twitter.com/tdUJkhN6FU
Netanyahu crawled out of his hole after saying nothing for hours and said Israel is now "at war"
Apparently he didn't think bombing Gaza a million times and occupying Palestine since 1948 felt like war to the Palestinians! pic.twitter.com/Cf3haxZCBL
Western propaganda outlets (that's all news outlets) are defending israeli APARTHEID, property theft, child murder, blatant land theft and the construction of the planet's largest open prison. 1 billion 'citizens' (vassals/slaves) living within the yank empire lap it up! pic.twitter.com/yDd6Z74z1J
Media Coverage: "Palestinian journalist Mohammed Al-Salhi has been killed by Israel while covering the events near the fence separating the eastern areas of the Gaza Strip from the 1948-occupied territories." pic.twitter.com/TJcGoyhaI2
Of course, Biden and Congress took the fucking side of Israel and ignored the months of tensions brewing since settlers attack Palestinians at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Old Jerusalem. They literally ignore the Palestinians right to defend itself from illegal settlements, racism, neo-fascism and apartheid.
The Israeli military captured alleged Hamas members.
The Gaza Strip and Israel have been in conflict since the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005 and Hamas gaining control of the Gaza Strip after elections in 2006 and a civil war with Fatah in 2007. The Gaza Strip has been under an Israeli and Egyptian blockade since 2007.
The attack followed three weeks of violence at the Israel–Gaza separation fence. Hamas and Israel had recently negotiated a truce, mediated by Qatar, Egypt, and the United Nations on September 29. Prior to the attack and including combatants and civilians on both sides, at least 247 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli forces in 2023, while 32 Israelis and two foreign nationals had been killed in Palestinian attacks.
The attack took place during the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah and Shabbat, and a day after the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, which also began with a surprise attack.
Israel and Saudi Arabia are conducting negotiations to normalize relations, with Saudi crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman recently stating that normalization was "for the first time, real". Saudi Arabia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it had "repeatedly warned that Israel's ongoing occupation of Gaza would propel further violence."
The commander of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Mohammed Deif, said that the attack was in response to "desecration of the Al-Aqsa Mosque," and called on Palestinians and Arab Israelis to "expel the occupiers and demolish the walls". Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri said the operation was a response "to the crimes of the occupation", adding that fighters were defending the Al-Aqsa Mosque and thousands of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Biden issued a statement condemning the attacks and saying that he was ready to offer "all appropriate means of support to the Government and people of Israel". Acting ambassador to Israel, Stephanie Hallett said she was "sickened by the images coming out of southern Israel of dead and wounded civilians at the hands of terrorists from Gaza". The White House issued a statement saying the United States "unequivocally condemns the unprovoked attacks by Hamas terrorists against Israeli civilians".
Jobs report has netted 336,000 jobs and the unemployment rate is still at 3.8%.
The Republicans can not govern in the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.
Washed Up 45 has made them so dysfunctional, it is almost like they are practicing giving the Democrats an opportunity to regain control of Congress. Despite all that, President Joe Biden has low job approval despite the exceptional job he is doing. He is at 43% and there has not been much improvement.
The former president continues to lead in national polls for the Republican presidential primary. The candidates that are running are ignored. Mind you, the former president has federal and state indictments. The Trump Organization is being dissolved after it was found liable for fraud. The former president, Eric Trump, Donald Trump, Jr. and Allen Weisselberg are banned from establishing a business in New York. New York State Attorney General Letitia James has sued the Trump Organization and it forced the former president to appear. He is on the verge of having a gag order placed on him by the state of New York and the U.S. government.
The former president shared classified information with an Australian billionaire. Anthony Pratt is under federal watch after it was revealed Washed Up 45 shared U.S. national security secrets for money. It hurts his defense of the former president's right to declassify despite he had no right to those documents.
Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was ousted after serving as the U.S. House Speaker for 269 days. His days of clinching power were halted by a do nothing lawmaker Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and seven Republicans who claimed that McCarthy failed to lead his party in total opposition of Biden. Now the House of Representatives cannot operate until their is a Speaker. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) and even Washed Up 45 are in the running. House members are threatening to find primary challengers against Gaetz and other Republicans.
The former president is likely not able to unless Republicans change the rules. He endorsed Jordan despite the lawmaker having no accomplishments and a sex scandal surrounding him.
Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), interim House Speaker formally booted former House Speaker, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) from her office. Pelosi was not even in Washington when he did it. He plotted revenge after Democrats stood firm in not saving McCarthy from the insurgency. Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) was also booted from his office.
It is official, Vice President Kamala Harris swore Sen. Laphonza Butler (D-CA) to office.
McCarthy got played by an alleged sexual predator named Matt Gaetz.
The choice gives California its second Black senator. Harris being the first Black senator from California. Republicans and some Democrats are balking at the fact that Bulter has a residence in Maryland but has a home in Los Angeles with her partner. Butler is the first Black woman who identifies as LGBTQ serving in the Senate. She is likely to run for a full term against polarizing House members Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA). The Republicans have no announced challenger as of yet. The Senate has four Black senators. Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) were appointed members. They won their full term and reelection bid easily. Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) defeated an appointed member named Kelly Loeffler. He narrowly won his bid for a full term. Scott is running for president and declared he is no longer running for the senate.
General Charles Q. Brown finally became the Joint Chairman of the United States Armed Forces. The retired Air Force general was delayed for nearly a year because of Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) and his ridiculous holding of nominees.
Federal judges are still being delayed by Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) despite Butler being sworn in. Butler has no committees and her appointment to a caucus and chair will take some time.Police are frustrated with the rise of automobile theft. Kia and Hyundai have not solved the Kia Challenge. Even with the updates, the free wheel locks, the step up in patrols, it has gotten worse. More vehicles are being stolen and broken into. The suspects are Black children and teens. Some as young as 8 years old. Now the crime is becoming a part of the culture wars that Republicans exploit for votes.
Cornel West, a controversial spoiler and former professor has announced he will no longer seek the Green Party nomination. He will declare an independent presidential campaign.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has hinted that he may run as an independent or Libertarian since the Democratic Party and junk food media ignored him and Marianne Williamson. Kennedy faced numerous controveries since he declared his run to primary Biden.
Nimarata "Nikki" Haley has surpassed Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy in being the second place choice. Washed Up 45 called her a "bird brain" and has called for the RNC to end all debates and the candidates to rally behind him.
Crime has become the latest issue in the country. Kia and Hyundai issued a settlement that was delayed by a Republican appointed federal judge. Insurance companies are trying to drop coverage of owners who had their vehicles broken into multiple times.
The insurance companies are also dropping coverage from Florida, Louisiana and Texas due to weather events that continue to plague the South. Climate change is real.
Sen. Laphonza Butler (D-CA) will join Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) and Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) as a Black senator.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is partnering with Target and others to combat shoplifting. Target announced they are closing locations following Walmart and Kroger in closing locations in many urban communities.
Mass shootings continue. The Morgan State University mass shooting in Baltimore was the latest one. Over 620 mass shootings this year alone . Many Republican states want to ban books, texting on phones while driving, abortions, pornography and transgender health care. When it comes to the No. 1 issue and leading cause of death in the country, Republicans are tone deaf.
There is the SAG-AFTRA strike, UAW strike and CKPU strike.
Tens of thousands of Kaiser Permanente workers took to picket lines in multiple states on Wednesday, launching a massive strike that the company warned could cause delays at its hospitals and clinics that serve nearly 13 million Americans.
The Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, representing about 85,000 of the health system’s employees nationally, approved a strike for three days in California, Colorado, Oregon and Washington.
Another possible government shutdown in less than a month. Republicans are willing to take the country over the edge because they want budget cuts, an end to funding Ukraine and an impeachment of Biden.
The nation’s employers added 336,000 jobs in September, an unexpectedly robust gain that suggests that many companies remain confident enough to keep hiring despite high interest rates and a hazy outlook for the economy.
Hiring last month jumped from a 227,000 increase in August, which was revised sharply higher. July’s gain was also healthier than had been initially estimated. The economy has now added an average of 266,000 jobs a month in the past three months. The sustained strength of the labor market makes it likelier that the Federal Reserve will raise its key rate again before year’s end as it continues its drive to tame inflation.
Friday’s report from the Labor Department showed that the unemployment rate was unchanged at 3.8%, not far above a half-century low.
The job market has defied an array of threats this year, notably high inflation and the rapid series of Fed interest rate hikes that were intended to conquer it. Though the Fed’s hikes have made loans much costlier, steady job growth has helped fuel consumer spending and kept the economy growing, defying long-standing predictions of a forthcoming recession.
Target the latest to close stores.
Across the economy last month, most large industries added jobs, from health care, which gained 66,000, to manufacturing, which added 17,000, to retailers, which added nearly 20,000. Professional services, a category that includes engineers and architects, gained 21,000. Government at all levels added 73,000 jobs, reflecting the healthy budgets of most state and local governments.
Yet wage growth slowed, with average hourly pay rising just 0.2% from August to September. Compared with a year earlier, wages are up 4.2%, the mildest 12-month increase in more than two years.
It’s possible that the cooling of pay growth may help reassure the Fed’s inflation fighters, who are scrutinizing every scrap of data to determine whether to raise their key rate once more this year. Still, the outsize job growth may stoke worries that the economy will expand too fast for inflation to cool.
On Thursday, Mary Daly, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, had said that the Fed could stop raising rates if the job market kept slowing.
“If we continue to see a cooling labor market and inflation heading back to our target, we can hold interest rates steady and let the effects of policy continue to work,” Daly said in remarks to the Economic Club of New York.
Job growth has remained resilient for most of the past 2 1/2 years even after high inflation flared and the Fed jacked up interest rates at the fastest pace in four decades.
Yet additional threats to the economy have emerged in recent weeks, including much higher long-term interest rates, rising energy prices, the resumption of student loan payments, widening labor strikes and the ongoing threat of a government shutdown.
The Fed’s benchmark rate stands at a 22-year high of roughly 5.4% after 11 hikes beginning in March 2022. The central bank’s rate increases have led to much higher borrowing costs for consumers and businesses across the economy.
Insufferable lawmakers Jim Jordan and Matt Gaetz.
On the one hand, Fed officials, including Chair Jerome Powell, have stressed that inflation remains too far above their 2% target and that another rate hike might be needed to slow it to that level. At the same time, several Fed policymakers have underscored that they want to be careful not to raise borrowing rates so much as to trigger a deep recession.
After a period in the spring when traders seemed to expect the Fed to reverse course and cut interest rates soon, the financial markets now recognize that the central bank will keep its key rate elevated well into 2024. That’s one reason why the yield on the 10-year Treasury note has surged since July, reaching a 16-year high this week before slipping to 4.7% Thursday.
The 10-year yield is a benchmark rate for other borrowing costs, including mortgages, auto loans and business borrowing. The average rate on a fixed 30-year mortgage jumped to nearly 7.5% this week, the highest level in 23 years. The higher yield has, in turn, punished stocks: The S&P 500 stock index has tumbled 7.2% since late July.
Goldman Sachs has estimated that the economy’s growth in the current October-December quarter could slow to an annual rate as low as a 0.7%, sharply below a roughly 3.5% pace in the July-September quarter.
Yes, folks are working two jobs. I am a testimony of that. But I am confident that in the short term I will have all the resources to reapply for the job I prefer.
The Congress has less work than most Americans. It is infuriating that the average worker works more hours than 157 House members and 36 senators.
Republicans see the only path to victory is basically obstruct and complain about the president. They won't offer solutions or policies. All they care about is trying to keep folks angry with culture wars and distractions.
President Joe Biden's headaches:
The Republicans in the House of Representatives and the Senate.
The media asking him about Washed Up 45's controversies.
The Supreme Court making controversial decisions that impact the country.
Gun violence and Congress not doing anything to stop it.
Inflation.
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX), Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Rep. James Comer (R-KY), Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX), Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN), Rep. George Santos (R-NY), Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX), Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) and Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO).
Republican governors Ron DeSantis, Doug Burgum, Kay Ivey, Greg Abbott, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Bill Lee, Glenn Youngkin, Kristie Noem, Kim Reynolds, Brian Kemp, Brad Little and Greg Gianforte.
Federal Judges and Supreme Court members appointed by Washed Up 45.
The junk food media and their never ending dramatizing of world events.
Anti-Vaxxers.
Lawmakers and activists who protest the CDC guidelines during the pandemic.
The endless culture wars that Republicans find outrage in.
Washed Up 45 and his minions on Fox, Newsmax, OANN and the internet.
Facebook, Twitter and TikTok. The idiots who run it and the idiots who post on it.
Fox, Breitbart, Libs of TikTok, The Daily Mail, Newsmax and OANN's relentless talk about conspiracies. The endless attacks on the president's age, First Lady Jill Biden, Hunter Biden, Ashley Biden and the conspiracies about the president's mental capacity and health.
The endless racism towards Biden's allies Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Barack Obama.
The relentless talk about spending despite the former president's reckless spending.
The lack of civility towards fellow Americans.
Vladimir Putin.
Xi Jinping.
Kim Jong-Un.
Benjamin Netanyahu.
Alexander Lukashenko.
Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud.
Monthly reminders:
The coronavirus doesn't care about your age, race, gender, sexuality, nationality, religion, politics, economic or social standings. It doesn't care about your business, your performances, your personal finances and travel. It doesn't care about the funerals, the birthday parties, the weddings, the vacations, the events and your graduations.
An active shooter doesn't care about the politics, race, gender, sexuality, nationality, religion, your finances, your family, your plans that day, your successes, your failures, and most importantly, your life.
You're not safe in the school, the concert, the hospital, the church, the casino, the bus station, the subway, the light rail train, the buses, the malls, the local big box store, the political rally, the protest rally, the women's center for reproductive surgeries, the mosque, the synagogue, the state buildings, the workplace, the gas station, the family picnic, the food truck rally, the funerals, the birthday parties, the graduations, the wedding, the televised events, the sporting events and many more events that have some terrorist with a firearm. Domestic violence, suicide, racism, culture war inspired, politically motivated and international operative inspired are types of gun violence.
Food prices, energy prices, rent, city services and college education have risen. Companies are struggling to find workers. They are now trying to push incentives to get workers in.
Real Reasons To Why Unemployment Rate Stays The Way It Is! The main reasons why some are not working.
DEAD
BORN
IN PRISON
IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
IN MIDDLE SCHOOL
IN HIGH SCHOOL
IN COLLEGE FULL TIME
VOLUNTEER
DISABLED
INFLATION
STAY AT HOME PARENT
RETIRED
QUIT ON THEIR OWN
TERMINATED FROM EMPLOYMENT
NOT HIRING UNQUALIFIED
NOT HIRING TOO QUALIFIED
ACTIVE MILITARY
NATURAL DISASTERS
MASS SHOOTINGS DISRUPTING DAILY ROUTINE
BEING LAID OFF DUE TO CLOSING OR STAFF REDUCTION
DESTRUCTION TO FACILITY OR PROPRETY
OUTSOURCING JOBS TO OTHER STATES OR COUNTRIES
BEING UNDOCUMENTED IN FEAR OF I.C.E. OR U.S. AGENCIES
BEING PUBLICLY OUTED ON SOCIAL MEDIA DOING SHAMEFUL ACTS
PARTICIPATING IN UNCIVIL OR VIOLENT PROTESTS
Jobs are looking good despite fears.
Companies are cautious about hiring employees. With the average wages stagnant, many are not looking forward to returning to a job that pays dirt wages. Many who worked in the retail, restaurant and low end service industry are not willing to take a job for less than $10 an hour. Matter of fact, no one can survive on $15 an hour.
Republicans don't see the bigger picture itself. They rather continue to believe in conspiracies about people collecting the safety net and not going back to work.
Give them a liveable wage and maybe things might improve in the job market.
We can't always assume that folks are lazy. People are literally dying from being exposed to the coronavirus, gun violence and folks are tired of the status quo of their jobs.
Washed Up 45 spread the news to Anthony Pratt. Now the billionaire is under federal watch and could face criminal charges.
Many single mothers are having trouble trying to find quality daycare or family members to watch children. On top of that, some have lost family members due to the pandemic. A homemaker may have lost their spouse. Some may have no choice but to watch their children or loved ones due to the aftermath of the pandemic.
Folks are still trying to rebound from medical bills, late rent payments, owing taxes and college loans.
Republicans are white nationalists without a conscience.
Washed Up 45's presidency and Republican controlled governments killed millions of Americans. Biden has a slim majority in Congress and things can't be done with obstruction from both parties.
Holding these lawmakers accountable is not just a pledge, but a promise. You need to learn who represents your community. Your local community member, your school board member, your mayor, your state representative, your state senator, your governor, your U.S. Representative, your U.S. Senator and the president need to be held accountable for their actions.
We need to put pressure on Republicans and Democrats to do something to improve everyone's lives.
The call number to the U.S. Capitol is now going to be used. This is the official phone number, 202-224-3121. Let them know that "thoughts and prayers," "hearts going to" and "good guys with guns" are no longer acceptable and you want legislation to curb gun violence. Let them know that being in your district means you are tasked to bring results to the constituents who voted for you and convince those who didn't consider you the next election. Let them know that women deserve the right to safe medical procedures. Let them know that their failure to pass legislation are the reasons why democracy and the economy are in free fall.
Iconic Chicago Bears linebacker and actor Dick Butkus passed away at the age of 80.
Butkus sneering behind his facemask filled the cover of Sports Illustrated’s 1970 NFL preview, topped by the headline, “The Most Feared Man in the Game.” Opponents who wound up on the business end of his bone-rattling hits could testify that wasn’t an exaggeration.
Butkus, a middle linebacker for the Chicago Bears whose speed and ferocity set the standards for the position in the modern era, died Thursday, the team announced. He was 80.
According to a statement released by the team, Butkus’ family confirmed that he died in his sleep at his home in Malibu, California.
Butkus was a first-team All-Pro five times and made the Pro Bowl in eight of his nine seasons before a knee injury forced him to retire at 31. He was the quintessential Monster of the Midway and was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1979, his first year of eligibility. He is still considered one of the greatest defensive players in league history.
“Dick Butkus was a fierce and passionate competitor who helped define the linebacker position as one of the NFL’s all-time greats. Dick’s intuition, toughness and athleticism made him the model linebacker whose name will forever be linked to the position and the Chicago Bears,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement. “We also remember Dick as a long-time advocate for former players, and players at all levels of the game.”
A moment of silence honoring Butkus was held before the Bears played at the Washington Commanders on Thursday night.
Trading on his image as the toughest guy in the room, Butkus enjoyed a long second career as a sports broadcaster, an actor in movies and TV series, and a sought-after pitchman for products ranging from antifreeze to beer. Whether the script called for comedy or drama, Butkus usually resorted to playing himself, often with his gruff exterior masking a softer side.
“I wouldn’t ever go out to hurt anybody deliberately,” Butkus replied tongue-in-cheek when asked about his on-field reputation. “Unless it was, you know, important ... like a league game or something.”
Butkus was the rare pro athlete who played his entire career close to home. He was a star linebacker, fullback and kicker at Chicago Vocational High who went on to play at the University of Illinois. Born on Dec. 9, 1942 as the youngest of eight children, he grew up on the city’s South Side as a fan of the Chicago Cardinals, the Bears’ crosstown rivals.
But after being drafted in the first round in 1965 by both the Bears and Denver Broncos (at the time, a member of the now-defunct American Football League), Butkus chose to remain in Chicago and play for NFL founder and coach George Halas. The Bears also added future Hall of Fame running back Gale Sayers to the roster that year with another first-round pick.
“He was Chicago’s son,” Bears chairman George McCaskey, Halas’ grandson, said in a statement. “He exuded what our great city is about and, not coincidentally, what George Halas looked for in a player: toughness, smarts, instincts, passion and leadership. He refused to accept anything less than the best from himself, or from his teammates.”
Butkus inherited the middle linebacker job from Bill George, a Hall of Famer credited with popularizing the position in the NFL. In 1954, George abandoned his three-point stance in the middle of the defensive line and started each play several paces removed, a vantage point that allowed him to watch plays unfold and then race to the ball.
Butkus, however, brought speed, agility and a scorched-Earth attitude to the job that his predecessors only imagined. He intercepted five passes, recovered six fumbles and was unofficially credited with forcing six more in his rookie year, topping it off with the first of eight straight Pro Bowl appearances. But his reputation as a disruptor extended well past the ability to take away the football.
Butkus would hit runners high, wrap them up and drive them to the ground like a rag doll. Playboy magazine once described him as “the meanest, angriest, toughest, dirtiest” player in the NFL and an “animal, a savage, subhuman.” Descriptions like that never sat well with Butkus. But they were also hard to argue.
Several opponents claimed Butkus poked them in the face or bit them in pileups, and he acknowledged that during warmups, “I would manufacture things to make me mad.” When the Detroit Lions unveiled an I-formation against the Bears at old Tigers Stadium, Butkus knocked every member of the “I” — the center, quarterback, fullback and halfback — out of the game.
And he didn’t always stop there. Several times Butkus crashed into ball carriers well past the sidelines. More than once he pursued them onto running tracks surrounding the field and even into the stands.
“Just to hit people wasn’t good enough,” teammate Ed O’Bradovich said. “He loved to crush people.”
Despite those efforts, the Bears lost plenty more games during his tenure than they won, going 48-74-4. Dealing with tendon problems that began in high school, Butkus suffered a serious injury to his right knee during the 1970 season and had preventive surgery before the next one. He considered a second operation after being sidelined nine games into the 1973 season.
When a surgeon asked him “how a man in your shape can play football, or why you would even want to,” Butkus announced his retirement in May 1974.
Soon after, Butkus sued the Bears for $1.6 million, contending he was provided inadequate medical care and owed the four years of salary remaining on his contract. The lawsuit was settled for $600,000, but Butkus and Halas didn’t speak for five years.
Butkus, like Sayers, never reached the postseason. The Bears won the 1963 championship and by the time they made the playoffs again in 1977, Butkus and Sayers were long gone.
The Bears climbed back to the top in the 1985 season with their lone Super Bowl championship. But they have been back to the title game only one time since. Butkus couldn’t understand why.
“There’s no reason why we can’t or shouldn’t be in the run all the time,” he said at the Bears’ 100th anniversary celebration in June 2019. “I know you’ve got those draft choices or whatever when you finish first all the time. How can you explain New England being up there all these years. That’s not right. The Bears should be the ones.”
After leaving football, Butkus became an instant celebrity. He appeared in “Brian’s Song” in 1971 and a dozen feature films over the next 15 years, as well as the sitcoms “My Two Dads” and “Hang Time.” He also returned to the Bears as a radio analyst in 1985, and replaced Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder on CBS’ “The NFL Today” pregame show in 1988.
Through the Butkus Foundation, he helped establish a program at a Southern California hospital to encourage early screenings to detect heart disease. He promoted a campaign to encourage high school athletes to train and eat well and avoid performance-enhancing drugs.
The foundation oversees the Butkus Award, established in 1985 to honor college football’s best linebacker. It was expanded in 2008 to include pros and high school players.
“Dick had a gruff manner, and maybe that kept some people from approaching him, but he actually had a soft touch,” McCaskey said.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame lowered its flags to half-staff in Butkus’ honor.
“Playing in an era when middle linebacker became one of the game’s glamour positions — and several of Dick’s contemporaries also would end up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame — his name most often was cited first as the epitome of what it took to excel at the highest level,” Hall of Fame President Jim Porter said in a statement.
Butkus is survived by his wife, Helen, and children Ricky, Matt and Nikki. Nephew Luke Butkus has coached in college and the NFL, including time with the Bears.
After 8 years of being a correspondent for the award winning fake news program, Roy Woods, Jr. is leaving The Daily Show. He said that the position for host was passed over numerous times and he said he can't wait any longer.
When the Writers Guild of America issued its strike this year, all late night shows went into shutdown. It was a five month wait that led to the decision being delayed.
Hasan Minhaj and former Minnesota senator Al Franken are rumored to be in the running to be permanent hosts.
When Trevor Noah announced his departure from The Daily Show last year, it rocked the program. They were using temporary hosts and neither Noah or Jon Stewart wanted to return on a temporary basis. Woods was the longest temporary host and was in the running for being the permanent host.
"I can't come up with Plan B is while still working with Plan A," says Wood, who has decided he doesn't want to be on The Daily Show as a correspondent waiting for someone else to take the top job. "The job of correspondent...it's not really one where you can juggle multiple things. [And] I think eight years is a good run."
When asked about Wood's departure and the issues surrounding his decision, a spokesperson for The Daily Show sent a brief statement: "Roy Wood Jr. is a comedic genius and beloved teammate. His insights and hilarity helped us make sense of the 2016 election, the pandemic, and countless hours of Fox News. We thank him for his time with us and can't wait to see what he does next."
Wood says he doesn't know if his name is under consideration for the top job and he has already informed Comedy Central of his intention not to return. ("What could they really say?" he adds when asked how the cable channel responded. [They're] not going to give me the job just to keep me.") But if Comedy Central offered him the permanent host job now, the comic says he would still consider it.
Wood, 44, joined The Daily Show as a correspondent in 2015; one of the first performers hired by Noah as he arrived to succeed Jon Stewart as host. Raised in Birmingham, Ala., he's starred in three standup comedy specials on Comedy Central, also appearing in TV shows and films like Confess, Fletch and Only Murders in the Building.
Wood recently hosted the White House Correspondents Dinner in 2023.
Border walls are monuments to white supremacy. Biden is feeling pressure to do something about immigration.
Israel and the United States share one thing in common. They still continue to hold racism at the pinnacle of decisions that affect lives.
Border walls don't solve immigration issues.
It is a monument to white supremacy.
President Joe Biden is feeling pressure from New York mayor Eric Adams, Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson, Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass, San Francisco mayor London Breed and Texas governor Greg Abbott. The far right invested in culture wars are driving the noise of illegal immigration being out of control.
So now Biden is revisiting the 20 miles of incomplete border wall in Texas.
The Department of Homeland Security posted the announcement on the U.S. Federal Registry with few details outlining the construction in Starr County, Texas, which is part of a busy Border Patrol sector seeing “high illegal entry.” According to government data, about 245,000 illegal entries have been recorded so far this fiscal year in the Rio Grande Valley Sector which contains 21 counties.
“There is presently an acute and immediate need to construct physical barriers and roads in the vicinity of the border of the United States in order to prevent unlawful entries into the United States in the project areas,” Alejandro Mayorkas, the DHS secretary, stated in the notice.
The Biden Administration is speeding through regulations. It may violate contracts on indigenous people, put vulnerable species at risk, weather could impact the construction of building a wall.
The Clean Air Act, Safe Drinking Water Act and Endangered Species Act were some of the federal laws waived by DHS to make way for construction that will use funds from a congressional appropriation in 2019 for border wall construction. The waivers avoid time-consuming reviews and lawsuits challenging violation of environmental laws.
Starr County’s hilly ranchlands, sitting between Zapata and McAllen, Texas, is home to about 65,000 residents sparsely populating about 1,200 square miles (3,108 square kilometers) that form part of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge.
Although no maps were provided in the announcement, CBP announced the project in June and began gathering public comments in August when it shared a map of the additional construction that can add up to 20 miles (32 kilometers) to the existing border barrier system in the area. Starr County Judge Eloy Vera said it will start south of the Falcon Dam and go past Salineño, Texas.
“The other concern that we have is that area is highly erosive. There’s a lot of arroyos,” Eloy Vera, the county judge said, pointing out the creeks cutting through the ranchland and leading into the river.
Concern is shared with environmental advocates who say structures will run through public lands, habitats of endangered plants and species like the Ocelot, a spotted wild cat.
“A plan to build a wall through will bulldoze an impermeable barrier straight through the heart of that habitat. It will stop wildlife migrations dead in their tracks. It will destroy a huge amount of wildlife refuge land. And it’s a horrific step backwards for the borderlands,” Laiken Jordahl, a southwest conservation advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity, said Wednesday afternoon.
During the Washed Up 45 administration, about 450 miles (724 kilometers) of barriers were built along the southwest border between 2017 and January 2021. Texas Governor Greg Abbott renewed those efforts after the Biden administration halted them at the start of his presidency.
The DHS decision on Wednesday contrasts the Biden administration’s posturing when a proclamation to end the construction on Jan. 20, 2021, stated, “building a massive wall that spans the entire southern border is not a serious policy solution.”
In a statement Wednesday, CBP said the project is consistent with that 2021 proclamation. “Congress appropriated fiscal year 2019 funds for the construction of border barrier in the Rio Grande Valley, and DHS is required to use those funds for their appropriated purpose,” the statement said. “CBP remains committed to protecting the nation’s cultural and natural resources and will implement sound environmental practices as part of the project covered by this waiver.”
The announcement prompted political debate by the Democratic administration facing an increase of migrants entering through the southern border in recent months, including thousands who entered the U.S. through Eagle Pass at the end of September.
“A border wall is a 14th century solution to a 21st century problem. It will not bolster border security in Starr County,” U.S. Representative Henry Cuellar said in a statement. “I continue to stand against the wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars on an ineffective border wall.”
Political proponents of the border wall said the waivers should be used as a launching pad for a shift in policy.
“After years of denying that a border wall and other physical barriers are effective, the DHS announcement represents a sea change in the administration’s thinking: A secure wall is an effective tool for maintaining control of our borders,” Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said in a statement. “Having made that concession, the administration needs to immediately begin construction of wall across the border to prevent the illegal traffic from simply moving to other areas of the border.”