Imagine a country duo joking about adding a third member and coming up with some wild band names—who knew creativity could be this fun? Continue reading…Country Music News – Taste of Country
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Imagine a country duo joking about adding a third member and coming up with some wild band names—who knew creativity could be this fun? Continue reading…The Boot – Country Music News, Music Videos and Songs
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One of the last well-known names in the world of newspaper comic strips has passed away.
Scott Adams — the cartoonist who created the character Dilbert and later launched a second career as a right-wing political influencer — has died.
He was 68 years old.
Word of Adams’ death comes courtesy of his first wife, Shelly Miles, who shared the news in a livestream on Tuesday morning.
“I had an amazing life,” Adams said in a statement shared by Miles. “I gave it everything I had.”
Adams revealed in May that he had been diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer and given only months to live.
He explained that he was hesitant to reveal his diagnosis, as “once you go public, you’re just the dying cancer guy.”
However, Adams said that he decided to speak up after President Joe Biden revealed he had the same illness.
“I’d like to extend my respect and compassion for the ex-president and his family because they’re going through an especially tough time,” he said. “It’s a terrible disease.”
While working as an engineer for the Pacific Bell telephone company in the 1980s, Adams began doodling what would later become his most famous character.
Launching in 1989, Dilbert would eventually be published in more than 2,000 newspapers nationwide.
The comic’s influence is still apparent in workplace-skewering comedies like The Office.
In the early days of the internet, Adams proved to be adept at digital self-marketing, becoming one of the first mainstream cartoonists to launch his own website.
At the peak of his popularity, the Dilbert character appeared in commercials and television cartoons, and was nearly as heavily merchandised as predecessors like Garfield or Snoopy.
In his later years, Adams made an unexpected foray into the world of politics.
He first made headlines by predicting that Donald Trump would win the 2016 presidential election.
Adams was later invited to the White House following the publication of his Trump-themed book Win Bigly: Persuasion in a World Where Facts Don’t Matter.
He continued to court controversy in the years that followed, and in 2020, “Dilbert” was dropped by hundreds of newspapers after Adams declared that Black Americans were “a hate group” and made numerous other racist remarks.
Adams continued to publish the comic strip online while steadily growing his influence among the far-right by posting incendiary remarks on social media.
At the time of his death, Adams had millions of followers across social media platforms.
Today, tens of thousands — including many who were disappointed by the comments Adams made in his later years — are paying tribute.
Scott Adams Cause of Death: ‘Dilbert’ Creator, Right-Wing Influencer Was 68 was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.
The Hollywood Gossip
Tommy Norris’ next move is obvious, if uncomfortable. Continue reading…Country Music News – Taste of Country
Tommy Norris’ next move is obvious, if uncomfortable. Continue reading…The Boot – Country Music News, Music Videos and Songs
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Is there anything more evil than an abusive parent?
Daytona Beach mother Talia Nelson will spend the next three decades behind bars for the torture and death of her teenage son.
At 14, he weighed only 33 pounds after years of imprisonment and abuse.
On January 1, 2024, first responders found an unconscious boy in a house of horrors.
In February 2024, a Volusia County grand jury indicted then-43-year-old Talia Nelson.
She faced multiple charges on the horrific death of her 14-year-old son.
The teenage victim, Zayke Smith-Nelson, weighed only 33 pounds at the time of his death.
On January 1 of 2024, emergency responders responded to a call about an unconscious child.
At the time, Nelson claimed that she had been cooking dinner when her son simply fell.
Smith-Nelson was pronounced dead at the hospital. The autopsy obviously revealed the cause of death to be homicide.
Authorities arrested Nelson on February 9.
Smith Nelson, a teenage boy, weighed only 33 pounds — the weight of a small dog. Put another way, he would be on the low end of the weight spectrum or underweight for a 4-year-old human.
The autopsy discovered severe malnutrition and dehydration. Scars and bruises covered the boy’s body.
To make this absolute horror even worse somehow, multiple bedsores indicated that he was likely unable to move much of the time.
The majority of abuse victims have few if any marks from the violence that their parents or other family inflict upon them.
However, in cases like the prolonged torture and killing of Zayke Smith-Nelson, the abuser realizes that they cannot send their victim to school.
This is why homeschooling and the barely existent regulation is the best friend of extreme abusers.
Indeed, officers who searched the residence found unopened homeschooling materials, possibly ordered to avoid questions.
Investigators found a room, presumably the victim’s, that contained no furniture and only soiled clothing. The room reportedly smelled of urine.
⚠️ WARNING: This post contains graphic descriptions of violence/gore/abuse
Talia Nelson, 45, of Daytona Beach, Florida, has been sentenced to 32 years in prison for the neglect & abuse that led to the death of her son, Zakye Smith-Nelson, 14. Nelson pleaded no contest to charges… pic.twitter.com/RzrDaWHBAj
— True Crime Updates (@TrueCrimeUpdat) January 6, 2026
Nelson claimed that her son had a rare bone disease, that he was lactose-intolerant, and that he was bulimic.
She also claimed that she could not recall the names of the doctors who had made these alleged determinations.
The investigation, however, showed that Smith-Nelson had not seen a doctor since 2020. Medical records showed that he had been in good health in June of that year.
Clearly, the three-and-a-half years that followed were filled with unthinkable torture at the hands of the woman who should have been protecting him.
Most abusers in our world tend to go unpunished, and often unreported. That is not the case for Nelson, however.
On January 5, now-45-year-old Talia Nelson entered no-contest pleas for aggravated manslaughter of a child and aggravation child-abuse.
As a result, she received a 32-year prison sentence.
Obviously, countless people have questions. Did this cruelty begin all at once, or was it a situation of escalating abuse? If Nelson had any co-conspirators, no reports or court records have mentioned them.
Ultimately, society as a whole failed to protect Zayke Smith-Nelson. Our legal system treats children as property of their parents in so many ways, trusting people to care for them simply because their reproductive systems happen to work properly.
How many other Smith-Nelsons are out there, unreported and undiscovered, buried under flower beds or locked in rooms waiting to die?
Talia Nelson: Daytona Beach Mom Will Serve 32 Years for Torture, Killing of Son was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.
The Hollywood Gossip
You may not have seen it yourself, but yes, certain branches of Aldi will sell goods from Trader Joe’s. However, you won’t see this in the States ever.
Food Republic – Restaurants, Reviews, Recipes, Cooking Tips
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The Top 20 Waylon Jennings Songs
The 20 best Waylon Jennings songs prove that without Jennings, country music simply wouldn’t be what it is today. Continue reading…Country Music News – Taste of Country
Each year on the holiday that bears his name, Martin Luther King Jr. is remembered for his immense contributions to the struggle for racial equality. What is less often remembered but equally important is that King saw the fight for racial equality as deeply intertwined with economic justice.
To address inequality – and out of growing concern for how automation might displace workers – King became an early advocate for universal basic income. Under universal basic income, the government provides direct cash payments to all citizens to help them afford life’s expenses.
In recent years, more than a dozen U.S. cities have run universal basic income programs, often smaller or pilot programs that have offered guaranteed basic incomes to select groups of needy residents. As political scientists, we have followed these experiments closely.
One of us recently co-authored a study which found that universal basic income is generally popular. In two out of three surveys analyzed, majorities of white Americans supported a universal basic income proposal. Support is particularly high among those with low incomes.
King’s intuition was that white people with lower incomes would support this type of policy because they could also benefit from it. In 1967, King argued, “It seems to me that the Civil Rights Movement must now begin to organize for the guaranteed annual income … which I believe will go a long, long way toward dealing with the Negro’s economic problem and the economic problem with many other poor people confronting our nation.”
But there is one notable group that does not support universal basic income: those with higher levels of racial resentment. Racial resentment is a scale that social scientists have used to describe and measure anti-Black prejudice since the 1980s.
Notably, in our research, whites with higher levels of racial resentment and higher incomes are especially inclined to oppose universal basic income. As King well knew, this segment of Americans can create powerful opposition.
Economic self-interest can trump resentment
At the same time, the results of the study also suggest that coalition building is possible, even among the racially resentful.
Economic status matters. Racially resentful whites with lower incomes tend to be supportive of universal basic income. In short, self-interest seems to trump racial resentment. This is consistent with King’s idea of how an economic coalition could be built and pave the way toward racial progress.
Rich Pedroncelli/AP
Income is not the only thing that shapes attitudes, however. Some of the strongest supporters of universal basic income are those who have higher incomes but low levels of racial resentment. This suggests an opportunity to build coalitions across economic lines, something King believed was necessary. “The rich must not ignore the poor,” he argued in his Nobel Peace Prize lecture, “because both rich and poor are tied in a single garment of destiny.” Our data shows that this is possible.
This approach to coalition building is also suggested by our earlier research. Using American National Election Studies surveys from 2004-2016, we found that for white Americans, racial resentment predicted lower support for social welfare policies. But we also found that economic position mattered, too.
Economic need can unite white Americans in support of more generous welfare policies, including among some who are racially prejudiced. At a minimum, this suggests that racial resentment does not necessarily prevent white Americans from supporting policies that would also benefit Black Americans.
Building lasting coalitions
During his career as an activist in the 1950s and 1960s, King struggled with building long-term, multiracial coalitions. He understood that many forms of racial prejudice could undermine his work. He therefore sought strategies that could forge alliances across lines of difference. He helped build coalitions of poor and working-class Americans, including those who are white. He was not so naive as to think that shared economic progress would eliminate racial prejudice, but he saw it as a place to start.
AP
Currently, the nation faces an affordability crisis, and artificial intelligence poses new threats to jobs. These factors have increased calls for universal basic income.
Racial prejudice continues to fuel opposition to universal basic income, as well as other forms of social welfare. But our research suggests that this is not insurmountable.
As King knew, progress toward economic equality is not inevitable. But, as his legacy reminds us, progress does remain possible through organizing around shared interests.
The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Politics + Society – The Conversation
It would have been her 80th birthday. Continue reading…Country Music News – Taste of Country