So my nieces are here and they love the WWE. So it is basically women’s drama now with women bitching about each other.

Also this Alexa Bliss is a hottie.

I'm the best at this. Someone will give me a gift like a Christmas tree ornament that I don't want and I'll re-gift it to a relative.

Anyone else do this?

A powerful coalition of African American churches is calling for the suspension and investigation of MSNBC host Rev. Al Sharpton, alleging that donations from Kamala Harris’s campaign to Sharpton’s National Action Network have compromised the integrity of the black Church and journalism.

Last week, MSNBC admitted it was “unaware” that Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign had paid $500,000 to Al Sharpton’s National Action Network nonprofit ahead of a favorable interview with the Democratic nominee on October 20, just weeks before the election, according to Fox News.

(just more proof no one likes the left or their extinctionist ideas)

It is, in some ways, a modern retelling of iconic scenes from the Wild West — a story that needs no sensationalizing.



Dressed head-to-toe in his gray wolf suit, Kansas City Chiefs superfan Xaviar Babudar was a staple at the team’s every game and adored online for years.


Then, the man known as the “ChiefsAholic” disappeared.




After a string of bank robberies across several states, including Iowa, police in Oklahoma caught him for one of the robberies. In September 2024, the 30-year-old was sentenced to 17.5 years after stealing more than $800,000 across seven states — Oklahoma, Iowa, Tennessee, Nebraska, Minnesota, Nevada and California — and laundering it through casinos.


Now, an Iowa documentary crew has released exclusive, firsthand accounts outlining Babudar’s homeless childhood, gambling addiction and rendezvous with fame that illuminates an entire subculture of fandom for one of the NFL’s most popular Midwestern teams.


Producer Kristian Day, a Cedar Rapids graduate, and director Dylan Sires, a Waterloo native, navigate interviews with Chiefs superfans through an unusual question: “Does America love a bank robber?”


“That’s a wild question, because you don’t think about bank robbers in 2024. There’s cameras everywhere. All your smart devices will tell the police where you were,” Sires told The Gazette. “Yet there’s a guy doing it, who to a degree was getting away with it. That, I think, it absolutely bonkers.”


“ChiefsAholic: A Wolf in Chiefs Clothing” was released on Dec. 24 and is available for streaming exclusively on Amazon Prime Video.

How it started​

Day and Sires had just finished wrapping up “Taken Together: Who Killed Lyric and Elizabeth?” an HBO Max series about missing Waterloo cousins whose killer was never found, when they got the call.


Their pitch about the ChiefsAholic was approved for funding after Babudar went radio silent.


For years, his near-daily updates were watched by thousands of fans. Twitter followers did some sleuthing and discovered his December 2022 arrest for robbing a credit union in Bixby, Oklahoma.


After spending years in the dark world of kidnapping, pedophilia and drug abuse, Babudar’s case was a much-needed new direction for the documentary makers — a compelling mystery without murder.


“This was still a true crime story … but there wasn’t anything like that,” Day said. “There was almost this Looney Tunes character so obsessed with the Chiefs that he was robbing banks to go to Chiefs games.”


With a small crew, they beelined to Oklahoma and met Babudar in January 2023, just after he was released from jail on bond with an ankle monitor.

An open-ended case​

Even before Babudar was publicly connected to a string of robberies outside Oklahoma, Sires had a hunch that the ChiefsAholic was responsible for other similar bank robberies — including his first one in Clive, Iowa, in March 2022. For one, the robbers’ modus operandi was unique. He robbed each bank with a gun — an uncommon trait in modern robberies — and often jumped over the counter.


“I just didn’t believe him. Who does that in this day and age?” Day said. “(But) Dylan was right. Who is this guy who thinks he’s a cowboy, going from state to state to rob banks?”


Standing over 6 feet tall and about 250 pounds, their physical description of Babudar is an enigma of duality: imposing and muscular when he jumps for the Chiefs, but goofy and disarming with a high-pitched voice when he flashes a braces-clad smile outside of his wolf suit.


Through stakeouts and interviews with friends and family, they find frames of nuance in the story of a child who grew up living in a car with his mother and brother. All of them were part of another subculture that gets through life with multiple cars, but no jobs and no land.


“There’s this American outlaw aspect to them. They live on their own terms,” Day said. “They’ve figured out the system that works for them.”


Other Kansas City Chiefs superfans appear on camera, giving a glimpse into a culture that eats, sleeps and breathes this football team.






But Day, who isn’t a sports fan himself, says that appeal goes far beyond the football field sidelines.


“The things that excite me are subculture and counterculture,” he said. “The superfans are a subculture amongst themselves. There’s something very interesting about that.”


They caught up with the bank tellers who were pistol whipped, filmed reenactments of Babudar’s Oklahoma arrest with the arresting officers, and studied his stream of consciousness as he went to games and won six-figure bets.


But before they could wrap up production, the star of the documentary cut off his ankle monitor. Babudar lived on the run for four months during a nationwide manhunt led by a bail bondsman who had $80,000 of personal cash on the line.


In an uncommon feat for documentaries, viewers can watch the consequences of his actions in real time as producers chase an open-ended case — from jumping bail to a sentencing that came just under the film’s deadline.


“At some point, you have this guy who had no agency throughout most of his life. When he gets ahold of money, he starts to have agency,” Day said. “For someone living out of his car, what do you think happens?”

"It's unusual for judges to do this sort of thing under any circumstances. But I suppose if this was ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ if this was some recognized, established classic or something, it might be different. But this is obviously an advocacy production, so for a Supreme Court justice to participate in advocacy on an issue that is currently in the courts, and at least broadly speaking, before her, I think it's a huge mistake," he said.

The musical, called "& Juliet," features prominent LGBTQ+ themes and nonbinary characters. The musical begins where Shakespeare's original ends. Instead of dying by suicide for love, Juliet chooses to forge her own path, challenging traditional gender roles. On its website, "& Juliet" is described as a "hilarious new musical" that "flips the script on the greatest love story ever told."

Full article:

It is a pretty good show, who else is watching? As someone who didn’t read the books, I’m a little overwhelmed by all the family lines and alliances, and some of the mumbo jumbo witch stuff, but the cast is excellent and the visuals are to notch.

NM

U.S. immigration authorities will once more put families with children in detention centers when President-elect Donald Trump returns to office next month, according to incoming White House “border czar” Tom Homan.

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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will look to hold parents with children in “soft-sided” tent structures similar to those used by U.S. border officials to handle immigration surges, Homan said. The government will not hesitate to deport parents who are in the country illegally, even if they have young U.S.-born children, he added, leaving it to those families to decide whether to exit together or be split up.

“Here’s the issue,” Homan said in a wide-ranging interview that included some of his most extensive comments to date on Trump’s plans for mass deportations. “You knew you were in the country illegally and chose to have a child. So you put your family in that position.”


President Joe Biden ended family detention in 2021, closing three facilities ICE called “residential centers” that offered about 3,000 beds. The facilities had a dorm-like design with recreational and educational programming. They were criticized by immigration advocates and pediatricians who said detention was harmful for children.

The federal judge who oversees immigration detention programs involving minors has set 20 days as the maximum amount of time children can be held at the family facilities. The deportation process often requires more time, so ICE has generally preferred to prioritize easier-to-remove adults. But Homan said that may change once Trump takes office.
“We’re going to need to construct family facilities,” he said. “How many beds we’re going to need will depend on what the data says.”



Homan will not be directing ICE operations as part of his White House role. But he will work closely on border and immigration issues with Kristi L. Noem, now governor of South Dakota and Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE.
As acting director of ICE during Trump’s first term, Homan drove the “zero tolerance” policy that separated more than 4,000 children from their parents soon after they crossed the border into the United States. He said Trump’s new enforcement campaign will seek to deport families together. But he acknowledged the government cannot remove children who are U.S. citizens, leaving it to parents to decide whether they would split up the family.
After retiring from ICE in 2018, Homan became a regular guest on Fox News, advocating the kind of unsentimental, unapologetic approach to immigration enforcement that seems to appeal to Trump. But of all the border hard-liners in the incoming administration, Homan is perhaps the most cognizant of the limits of the government’s ability to deliver on promises of mass deportation — and the potential for a political backlash. During a 34-year career at the U.S. Border Patrol and ICE, he saw wide swings in public support for immigration enforcement.

With the transfer portal, injuries, sit outs, opt outs, I think many programs are going to switch to playing two QBs.

First time to the music city bowl. Where will all the tailgating take place? Do most just tailgate at a bar or will people grill and put up tents around the stadium? Trying to decide whether or not to bring all my tailgate stuff.

…attending a purity ball and discussing it in this unearthed German doc on the American “purity” movement? Dude is straight up creepy. Poor kids…

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With the transfer portal in effect, the Hawkeye roster has seen a revolving door of quarterbacks. Some guys left for greener pastures (or better QB coaching) while others arrived in Iowa City for an opportunity to play. It will be interesting to watch the season play out to see which QB who spent time at Iowa will have the best statistical year. In other words, who will end up with the most passing yards / highest passer rating?

1. Cade McNamara: the guy looked AWFUL at last week's open practice, completing about 33% of his 24 passes for just 20 yards. He's the incumbent starter, and with Ferentz, that means he's going to get a LOT of playing time unless he gets hurt. Given that he's thrown for 3,700 yards in his college career with a 61% completion percentage, and is raking in major NIL money to be at Iowa, Cade is the odds on favorite to have the best year.

2. Spencer Petras: Petras may be the most mocked QB in Hawkeye history. Entering his 6th year of college football, Petras transferred to Utah State and won the starting QB role. Utah State is below average team (they went 6-7 last year), but they play against below average competition (i.e. Wyoming, Fresno State, etc.). Petras has 5,200 career passing yards and completes 57% of his passes. With new/better coaching at the QB position, will Petras have the best year?

3. Deacon Hill: Hill single handedly made Iowa football a national laughing stock and may have had a permanent impact on the Ferentz legacy. The guy should have never been playing D1 football, but was thrust into the starting lineup on a Top 25 team. Hill has 1,150 career passing yards but completed just 48% of his passes. Hill is a dark horse favorite to put up the best numbers because he was relegated to transferring to mighty Utah Tech, which finished a whopping 2-9 last year against the likes of Abeline Christian and North Alabama. Assuming he wins the starting QB role, it is possible that Hill eats up (pun) the lesser competition and puts up the best numbers.

4. Joey Labas: Many feel like Labas got a raw deal playing under an ultra stubborn Ferentz regime that refused to pull a starting QB no matter how poorly he performed. Joey realized that if there was nothing he could do to be given a chance to play ahead of the nation's worst QB, he had to take his talents to Central Michigan. Not only did Labas win the starting position, but he raised eyebrows with his play. Wouldn't it be ironic if the guy who was buried on the depth chart behind some of the worst QBs in Iowa history turns out to be the best QB to come out of Iowa since Beathard?

5. Brendan Sullivan: Sullivan might be the best QB on Iowa's current roster. Does that mean he will see a single snap this year? Afraid not. But if Cade gets hurt, which is likely, does Sullivan have what it takes to have the best season of any Hawk? Yep! Sullivan has 1,300 passing yards in the Big 10 with a 69% completion percentage. More importantly, he's the only QB on the list who can outrun a 3rd grade girl.

6. Other: Believe it or not, there are several other Hawkeye QBs out there fighting for playing time. Alex Padilla is at SMU. Carson May is at Wyoming. Deuce Hogan is at New Mexico State. Marco Lainez was tutored by Petras' QB coach, Rassioppi and is back at Iowa for another year.