Occasional Jewish Congressman wants Justice Thomas to recuse himself. You know the guy, the congressman who’s Jewish only when it benefits him. He’s now saying that Justice Thomas must recuse himself if the court agrees to hear Trumps appeals.
But yet he’s silent on the other leftist judges on the court who in the past have not recused themselves in other Trump issues that came before the court. Justices who made derogatory remarks about Trump.
Going WOKE will kill sales. merican consumers revolted against woke corporations in 2023
Former Anheuser-Busch executive Anson Frericks discusses how American consumers voted with their wallets in 2023 and says it's a long road for recovery on 'The Bottom Line.' FOX Photo
Disney, Target, and Anheuser-Busch found out what going WOKE does to the bottom line. Don’t let anybody fool you. A corporations first loyalty is making money for the stockholders.
This social loyalty to the bottom of the barrel gets you nowhere. The WOKE crowd doesn’t care. Look what going WOKE did for Disney, Target, and Anheuser-Busch.
As sales began to plummet, Brendan Whitworth, the CEO of Anheuser-Busch, addressed the controversy on April 14, claiming the company “never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people.”
By May, Anheuser-Busch had dropped $27 billion in market value and sales were down nearly 30% compared to the previous year.
In July, the company announced it was laying off hundreds of workers. In its third quarter, the company suffered a 13.5% decline in U.S. revenue and a 17.1% decline in North American sales volume.
Target’s stock took a hit and its sales experienced a downturn in its second quarter. CEO Brian Cornell acknowledged the impact the fallout had on sales in a call with reporters in August, FOX Business reported.
“Finally, people are seeing that when companies get involved in these social and political issues that have nothing to do with their mission and their stock price plummets — that’s bad for these companies, that’s bad for people relying on them just to make them money so they can retire with dignity,” Frericks said
Disney’s stock price is down over 5% year to date compared to the benchmark S&P 500, which is up more than 13% in that same period. Meanwhile, Disney shares have dropped over 29% in the past five years and have traded near nine-year lows in October.
I loved the excitement surrounding women’s sports this year—particularly the NCAA women’s basketball tournament, topped by the Iowa-LSU championship (go Hawkeyes!). —Ashley L.
As a child of immigrant parents who also moved around a lot, I always felt that the little traditions and habits were what gave us control of otherwise changing and often hectic circumstances. —Mitchell K.
It’s inspiring to witness that age has no barrier; it’s about seizing every moment to pursue the passions that ignite your joy in this lifetime. —August M.
A captivating narrative about friendship and adventure with the legendary musician that prompts you to reflect on how you’re living your own life and how you show up in this world. —Sony K.
The world mourned the deaths of many iconic cultural, political, and sports figures in 2023. Among the most impactful for me were Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Matthew Perry, Harry Belafonte, and Tina Turner. —Bobby A.
I was impressed by the shift in public opinion toward UFOs (now called unidentified anomalous phenomena) this year, as leaders in government and science sought to take whatever they are more seriously. —Teddy B.
As an avid football fan, finding out that flag football was approved to be an official Olympic sport gave me a thrill. It would be great to see familiar NFL stars competing on the world stage to represent the US, but I would also love to see the enthusiasm for the sport brought by other countries. —Scott J.
As a mother of a child with a rare disease, it really hits home to hear inspiring stories of children defying the odds and living their best lives. —Kellie S.
I got married this year and, in the past, worked for a wedding magazine, so these photos had me feeling nostalgic. They were the perfect treat to scroll through, bringing me back to an incredibly joyous day. —Amanda B.
As someone who is always looking to continue learning about the functions of the body, I am always looking to read about how medical science continues to evolve and help people. —Jessica L.
The life of Erich Weisz—professionally known as Harry Houdini—is fascinating to me. An icon surrounded by so many feats and myths ultimately succumbed to the common condition of appendicitis (and it may have been caused by a punch to the abdomen). —Lizzie M.
This breakthrough brings so much hope to thousands of people living with the pain of sickle cell and the knowledge their life expectancy is significantly lower. It’s inspiring to see the promise of CRISPR being realized and, for the first time, accessible to people who can benefit from it. —Aaron E-L
I thought this trailer was so impressive, but even more so that his skills were recognized, and he was hired by the filmmakers. —Sam B. Justice for Neanderthals I loved this protective view of our hominin brethren, who are often stereotyped as knuckle-dragging dumb dumbs. They were people, they were artists, they were way more similar to us. —Alissa S.
Dr. Robert Waldinger’s study on lifelong happiness—which followed thousands of humans over 85 years—found the people who were happiest, who stayed healthiest as they grew old, and who lived the longest were the people who had the warmest connections with other people. Good relationships were the strongest predictor of who was going to be happy and healthy as they grew old. —Tim H.
The rise of Ozempic and other GLP-1 agonists The downstream effects of the explosion of these antiobesity drugs will be fascinating to watch unfold. Obesity-related ailments account for around $200B in annual healthcare spending in the US, an industry that accounts for 17% of GDP. These drugs have the potential to not only improve the quality of life for millions but drive a paradigm shift in the economy. —Drew S.
Ruth Underwood and Andy Weller met when they both boarded the same Greyhound bus on Christmas Day 1962. They exchanged addresses, beginning a love story that's spanned 60 years and counting.
Graphic by Leah Abucayan/CNN/Photos courtesy R Weller
Ruth Underwood woke up with a start, and realized – to her horror – that she’d fallen asleep on a stranger’s shoulder.
It was the evening of Christmas Day, 1962. Ruth was traveling via Greyhound bus from her parents’ house in Olympia, Washington to her home in Seattle, Washington.
She’d spent a fun, festive day with her family. But Ruth was working December 26, and needed to get back in time. She was 18, it was her first job, and she didn’t want to risk being late.
“So I took the Greyhound bus and I got on, and I sat down in the first seat that was available, which was next to this good-looking young man,” Ruth tells CNN Travel today.
“I promptly went to sleep and I woke up with my head on his shoulder.”
Still slightly bleary-eyed, Ruth blushed when she realized what had happened. She apologized to the stranger next to her, straightened her blouse and tried to regain some composure.
“Oh my goodness, I’m sorry,” she said.
But the man waved her apologies away, smiled and introduced himself.
This was 21-year-old Andy Weller. He’d been on the bus since Astoria, Oregon, and was heading to the military base at Fort Lewis, Washington, where he was stationed.
Andy had noticed Ruth as soon as she’d boarded the bus.
“I looked at her because I saw her beautiful red hair,” he tells CNN Travel today.
And he’d noticed when she’d fallen asleep on his shoulder. Andy hadn’t known what to do about it. Should he wake her? Was that rude? What if she missed her stop?
When the Greyhound reached Nisqually Hill on Interstate 5, not too far from Fort Lewis, Andy gently nudged Ruth.
“It took me a long time to even get up the gumption because I was shy,” he recalls. “I finally got enough nerve to say, at least, ‘Hi.’”
Over the next 20 minutes, as the bus traveled along Washington’s tree-lined highways, Andy and Ruth made conversation.
“We began to talk to one another,” says Ruth. “It was pretty frivolous. You know, ‘What is your name? And how are you doing? And where are you going?’ And just discovering that we were both headed back to our workplaces.”
There wasn’t enough time to go much beyond these introductions. But both Ruth and Andy enjoyed the conversation and each other’s company.
Then, the bus pulled up at Fort Lewis.
“This is me,” said Andy. He grabbed his bag and was about to get off, but then he paused.
“Shall we exchange addresses?” he suggested. Ruth readily agreed.
“So, as the bus stopped at Fort Lewis, I was giving him my address,” she recalls today. “The bus driver was a little annoyed. He says ‘I’ve got a schedule to keep up.’”
The two strangers parted ways, both hoping it wouldn’t be the last time they met.
Letters and uncertainties
Andy was a romantic. When he wrote to Ruth for the first time, he was already wondering if she might be “the one.”
But then he learned, via Ruth’s reply, that she was engaged to someone else – a man she’d known since childhood.
“He was in the Air Force. I hadn’t seen him or been around him for almost a year,” explains Ruth.
When Ruth met Andy, she still had every intention of marrying her childhood sweetheart. But she also had no qualms about giving Andy her address. There hadn’t been anything specifically romantic about their bus interactions, after all.
“He had asked for my address, and I thought, ‘Well, there was no harm in writing back and forth to someone,” says Ruth.
But Andy was less sure about the situation.
“I didn’t know where I fit in,” says Andy today. “I wrote her off.”
But then, out of the blue, Ruth’s fiancé ended the engagement.
“He broke up with me – which ended up being a very good thing,” she says.
Her ex-fiancé, it turned out, had met someone else.
Ruth was more shocked than upset. She remembers walking into the living room of her Seattle apartment and sharing the news with her roommate. Her friend’s response was pragmatic.
“She said, ‘You’re not going to just sit here in the apartment and do nothing, and be grumpy and gloomy,’” recalls Ruth.
The roommate suggested Ruth could go out with some of the men they knew in Seattle. Then Ruth’s friend remembered the man from the bus – Ruth should write to Andy and tell him she was single, Ruth’s roommate insisted.
“She said, ‘If you don’t pick up a pen and write to this fellow that you got that letter from, I’m going to have these others guys come and take you out every night.’” recalls Ruth.
“Well, I wasn’t a going-out person. Every night, that didn’t suit me. So, I wrote the letter.”
“So she did,” says Andy. “And so we got together.”
“We corresponded for quite a while,” says Ruth. “We always looked forward to the letters.”
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In letters sent back and forth, Ruth and Andy grew closer.
“We shared the things we enjoyed doing and shared the goals we were trying to achieve,” says Ruth.
A few weeks into their correspondence, Ruth told Andy she was thinking of moving back to Olympia, Washington, where her parents lived.
Andy suggested he could help Ruth move – it would be an opportunity to see her again, and see if their epistolary connection translated to real life.
“I went over there,” says Andy. “I knocked on the door, she opened it. The rest is history.”
Their chemistry was apparent right away. Almost immediately, Andy asked Ruth what she was going to be doing on August 22.
“How should I know?” said Ruth. “Why?”
“Well, I thought we could get married that day,” said Andy.
“No way,” said Ruth, laughing.
But as they boarded another Greyhound bus together – this time traveling from Seattle to Olympia – Ruth felt more and more sure that she wanted Andy to be part of her life.
This certainty was only confirmed when “almost halfway between Seattle and Olympia, Andy began singing to me,” says Ruth.
“He sang to me most of the way back and serenaded me.”
From then on, Andy would come to visit Ruth in Olympia whenever he could. And whenever they were apart, Andy and Ruth continued their letter-writing correspondence.
“We saw each other every weekend, so much of our letter-writing consisted of what we did during the week, and how we were missing each other,” recalls Ruth.
On weekends, Andy would borrow an army buddy’s car, pick Ruth up and they’d head to Squaxin Park on the city’s waterfront.
“We’d hold hands and walk together and talk together,” says Andy.
“I just got to know him,” says Ruth. “And I liked what I saw.”
They fell in love on a Greyhound Bus 35 years ago. They’ve been together ever since
An unorthodox proposal
Here’s Ruth and Andy, pictured in 1963.
R Weller
On July 4, 1963, Ruth and Andy were spending the holiday together when Ruth suddenly handed Andy a thick white envelope.
It was a wedding invite. Andy stared at Ruth in shock.
“I was wondering if she was marrying the other guy,” he says, referring to Ruth’s ex-fiancé.
“I started reading it. And of course, I was kind of distraught at the moment – until I got down to the part that said that she was marrying me.”
Ruth had the idea when she was alone one day, during the week, thinking about Andy and the idea of a future with him. He’d mentioned marriage again a few times.
“I got to thinking, ‘I really do love this man.’ And so I went to the printers and I had wedding invitations printed up,” recalls Ruth.
Ruth had no idea about the wedding venue or really any of the details. But she knew when it would take place. There was no question about it – August 22, the date Andy had suggested on their second meeting.
When she handed him the invite, Andy was overwhelmed, then delighted. He hugged Ruth tightly.
And a couple of months later, on August 22, 1963, Andy and Ruth got married in Olympia, Washington, at the church Ruth attended as a child. Ruth took Andy’s name, becoming Ruth Weller.
The couple extended the wedding invite to all the local churchgoers. They expected about 100 guests, but in the end numbers were closer to 200 – all the people who’d watched Ruth grow up wanted to be there to toast her and Andy.
Thanks to the ballooning numbers, on the day, Ruth realized they didn’t have enough wedding cake for all their attendees. They had to scramble to find more.
“We had all kinds of different kinds of cakes,” recalls Ruth.. It worked out, and was a special celebration.
Ruth and Andy were excited to begin married life together. But they were both very young, and their first few years together were a learning curve.
“Neither one of us had really dated a whole lot – like I said, I was engaged to another young man, but I had not dated many other young men,” says Ruth. “And so we basically did grow up together during that time.”
The couple were also both busy with their jobs. Ruth worked for the state of Washington, Andy left the army and also started working for Washington state, in the licensing department.
The couple realized that they have, as Ruth puts it, “very different personalities.” But they had a similar way of looking at the world and felt like a team from the beginning. It was “magic”, says Ruth.
That first Christmas, the anniversary of their meeting, the couple celebrated by going to the 88 cent store together, to do their Christmas shopping.
“We were just married and things were tight,” says Andy.
They giggled as they walked around the store, buying small gifts for their loved ones. It was their first time giving gifts as a couple, and felt special.
Then, they got together with their family.
“We always had a close family and just had lots of fun and fellowship with one another,” says Ruth. “My parents loved Andy.”
In time, Ruth and Andy had three children. They moved from Olympia, Washington to Yakima, Washington.
They loved being parents.
“Andy’s a wonderful person. He’s attentive. He’s always been there for us, his family, in every way,” says Ruth.
“She was always there with the children, guiding them, directing them,” says Andy.
“But has it always been easy? No,” says Ruth.
Ruth and Andy’s daughter Joanne was born with Maffuci syndrome, a rare bone disorder, and needed a lot of extra care when she was young.
“She grew up to be a very brilliant young woman. She was a 911 dispatcher for several years. She gave us a lovely grandson,” says Ruth.
Joanne sadly passed away a few years ago.
“We’ve been through things like that – that a lot of other people don’t have to face and don’t have to figure out how to get through,” says Ruth. “It is true that I believe that it’s made us stronger in one another.”
Over their decades together, Ruth and Andy have supported one another through the hard times and cheered each other on during the good.
The key, says Ruth, is “when you find the one that’s the right one, hang on tight.”
“Yes, you have to go through hard times,” she says. “But remember, you go through good times, too. And those are the ones that you hold on to and that you keep close to you. And you remember. Those are the things that keep you going.”
Feeling thankful
Here’s a recent photo of Ruth and Andy, who’ve been married for over 60 years.
R Weller
Over the decades, Ruth and Andy began to associate their love story with one particular song, “I Say a Little Prayer,” first recorded by Dionne Warwick in 1967, and later released by Aretha Franklin the following year.
Andy would often sing the lyrics to Ruth. The song still resonates with them both today, as they regularly give thanks for one another’s presence in their lives.
“It is a little unusual to meet someone on a Greyhound bus that you’ve never met before and make a connection,” says Ruth. “Actually it’s a miracle that would happen, even – two total strangers come together and end up being married to one another. And being married for as long as we have.”
This past August, Ruth, who is now 79, and Andy, who is 82, celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary.
Their wedding anniversary is an important day to them both – but so is Christmas Day.
“Every Christmas Day we reminisce,” says Ruth. “We look across the table and know what the other’s thinking.”
This Christmas, the couple will celebrate the day with their loved ones by their side. Ruth and Andy remain close to their family, which now numbers four grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.
“I love being alive and seeing all our grandchildren growing up and their families, and their great-grandchildren,” says Andy.
“It’s absolutely wonderful,” says Ruth. “Their hugs are just so important to us, especially at this age.
“We are looking forward to being together this Christmas, 61 years after we first met,” she continues. “I’m sure we will reminisce, laugh, joke, and be teased about our chance meeting those 61 years ago on Christmas Day, 1962.”
What Supreme Court ruling Republicans need to go to when redistricting. Gerrymandering has been used by both Democrat and Republican redistricting. Georgia just got their redistricting approved by a Federal Judge and the left doesn’t like it.
Progressives wanted a second gerrymandered black district. But their upset in the creation because another black district was reshuffled. The judge rejected their claim.
Judge Jones rejected the objections from the voters, writing that while the General Assembly drew the new congressional voting boundaries to protect their majority “as much as possible,” redistricting decisions by a legislature “with an eye toward securing partisan advantage does not alone violate Section 2.”
Here is what Republicans need to use as their battle cry. The Supreme Court in 2019 effectively allowed state lawmakers to draw voting lines to achieve their partisan goals when it ruled that federal courts don’t have a role in deciding partisan gerrymandering claims.
Another example of Democrats trying to hide their past. Jacksonville Mayor Has Democrat Confederate Monument Removed. Their at it again. Another Democrat politician pretending that their party had nothing to do with the Civil War, Jim Crow laws, and Slavery.
Crews removed a Confederate monument from a Jacksonville, Florida, park Wednesday morning following years of public controversy.
Mayor Donna Deegan ordered the removal of the “Tribute to the Women of the Southern Confederacy” monument, which has been in Springfield Park since 1915. She said the decision is not an attempt to erase history but to show that people have learned from it.
Steve Garvey moves into second for California Senate. The top two vote getters go to the next stage. A recent poll from Politico shows Garvey, who is running as a Republican, with the support of 19% of likely California voters, second to Congressman Adam Schiff’s 28%.
Porter and Lee are also close behind. Garvey needs the other half dozen Republicans to drop out. Hopefully the State and National RNC back Garvey financially.
What happens when you allow hate groups like BLM. Ask Seattle. The city of Seattle has had enough. They had to go and take back their city park. BLM supposedly had a community garden. What did they create?
City officials said in a statement that the “makeshift,” temporary garden was being removed because of public health and safety concerns, as well as for maintenance reasons including reseeding and turf restoration.
The efforts on Wednesday also included the removal of tent encampments located near the garden and outside the park along E. Olive Street, which city officials said was to ensure the public spaces remain clean and open for everyone.
So far this year, the City’s Unified Care Team has cleaned up encampments at Cal Anderson Park 76 times, making the park one of the most frequently addressed areas in the city for repopulated encampments, the city said.
A Texas teen managed to safely steer her car off the road and save her passengers’ lives after being fatally shot in a road rage incident.
Louise Jean Wilson, 17, along with her boyfriend and a friend, were driving through Houston on Dec. 10 when the incident occurred, the New York Post reported.
According to police, Wilson unintentionally swerved in front of a four-door sedan to avoid getting into an accident on Interstate 45.
“The vehicle that they had cut off accelerated and overtook her on her driver’s side,” Det. Caleb Bowling said during a news conference. That was when the driver of the sedan opened fire.
Wilson pulled her vehicle off to the side of the freeway before succumbing to her injuries. She died at the scene.
“Louise’s last act was to safely pull over, most likely saving the lives of the two [passengers],” Bowling said. “It was a heroic act for her to be able to get that car to the side and stopped with the injuries that she sustained.”
A 17-year-old male passenger was hospitalized with a gunshot wound and released. A second male passenger was not injured.
“Our daughter was just trying to go to the beach to watch the sunrise with her boyfriend on her day off before she had to go back to work again,” said Wilson’s father, Daniel Wilson.
“She ended up dying a hero. She was shot through her heart, and she was still able to safely pull over the car and save people in her car and other people who were driving. She wanted to help people, and she helped them.”
Daniel Wilson also addressed his daughter’s killer.
“Just think about … what you took from this world and what she could have done,” he said. “Lay that on your conscience, whoever did this. Just know you gave an angel, but you took our baby girl.”
“Louise was a great girl, a wonderful soul, a great daughter, granddaughter and sister, and to have her life senselessly taken by a dirtbag — this should not have happened,” Wilson’s uncle, Leo Amoling, told KTRK-TV.
“I know it’s not just happening to us. There is a real crime issue in this country. We just want justice.”
The suspect, described as a black male in his mid-20s, is still at large, according to the Post.
According to Wilson’s obituary, she graduated high school a year early and was “just a few classes shy” of obtaining an associate’s degree. She hoped to work in law enforcement.
“Louise was a caring and gentle soul with a lovely personality that could light up a room,” the obituary said.
“Her life had far reaching impacts that only now we are able to comprehend. She is forever in our hearts and memories. We know she is up there with God singing and dancing in the perfect, peaceful landscape of heaven.”
Yes Virginia, when you protest against the war and carry Hamas flags, you do support Hamas and not Israel. You see these protests and always in the crowd are folks chanting racial slurs and making comments that support Hamas.
