The most iconic photo of Inauguration 2025 may be the Tech Bros — Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, and Tim Cook — accompanying President Trump at Washington’s St. John’s church for Sunday services.
It was a stark contrast to President Biden’s conspiring in 2021 with Big Tech to censor dissent on COVID lab leaks and lockdowns.
And while derided as opportunist obedience by simple-minded critics, the iconic moment may reflect a profound inflection point in American culture.
The tech titans were in full swing on January 20th when Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and Jeff Bezos attended church services as part of Donald Trump’s inauguration. Getty Images
As leading British historian Tom Holland argues, the West’s unparalleled success over the past three centuries is directly attributable to religion – in particular, the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century and the earlier Hebrew prophets that helped inform it.
It was the Reformation that singularly unshackled the common man from the medieval tyranny of monarchs and Roman popes which, in turn, led to the Western concepts of liberty and individual rights on which the US was modeled.
The Reformation’s “the first shall be last and the last shall be first” egalitarian concept of individual liberty, argues Holland, birthed modernity: The enlightenment, the scientific and industrial revolutions, the French and American revolutions, abolition of slavery and civil rights movements and nearly every other enduring idea that lifted humanity out of poverty and oppression which had been ubiquitous since antiquity.
But since the 1960s, faith has been under attack by the pseudo-intellectual secular theologians of the faculty lounge left who argued that institutional religion was anachronistic, sectarian, patriarchal, or otherwise oppressive.
Anti-colonial intellectual Franz Fanon was a forefather of our current anti-Western left. Wikipedia
As intellectual descendants of Franz Fanon and Herbert Marcuse — forerunners to the anti-Western left — these academics unsheathed new pedagogies of deconstructionism (getting rid of old ideas and institutions) not unlike Chairman Mao’s effort to rid mid-century China of the “four olds.”
This secular liturgy eventually formed the ideological basis of the post-modern progressive left: secure borders are masquerading bigotry; a new multibillion-dollar for-profit industry marketing irreversible gender-altering drugs and surgeries to minors, often without parental consent or proper scientific backing (notwithstanding a cleric’s recent chiding of Trump), is somehow enlightened; equal opportunity must be replaced with equal results among identity groups (“equity”); and that the most persecuted and slaughtered ethnic minority in history — Jews — should have no refugee, ancestral homeland because they are too “white-adjacent.”
Little of this abided by the common sense of Americans, nor withstood empirical scrutiny. But, as both myself and sociologist Musa al Gharbi have detailed, these luxury beliefs served to enhance the social capital of self-dealing intellectual elites that pushed them.
The progressive “purge” of core Western beliefs reminds many of Chairman Mao’s actions during China’s Cultural Revolution, according to reports. AP
The decline of faith also coincided with the breakdown of trust in institutions, the rise of cultural nihilism, the dissolution of the family, polarization, and dramatic increases in isolation, anxiety, and mental disorders.
And this is the decadence that author Ross Douthat identifies as a marker of cultural exhaustion and civilizational decline. And it’s what fuels much of Trump’s populism.
Happiness expert Arthur Brooke reports that 60% of white progressive women under 30 have some form of mental disorder.
Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt documents how the new woo-wooism of post-modernism, identity narcissism, and social media addiction is rewiring young minds and accelerating widespread unhappiness and dysfunction.
Donald Trump is positioned to use faith as a tool for national reconciliation, critics believe. AP
Two days after the St. John’s service, President Trump held a press conference with AI CEOs on the Stargate initiative — a $500 billion joint effort to lead America’s preeminence in the AI revolution and harness its power to cure cancer and other diseases and to overall improve the human condition.
Thus, a potentially profound connection between St. Johns and Stargate.
Since World War II, President Kennedy’s moonshot in the 1960s, and the war on cancer in the 1970s, these kinds of national aspirational moments of common purpose have been far and few between in our increasingly secular, individualist, what-can-my-country-do-for-me culture.
The central question then is whether the iconic “take me to church” moment at St. Johns represents a truly redemptive beginning towards ecumenical values that built the West.
Washington’s St. John’s Episcopal Church, where Trump and the tech chiefs congregated for services. Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
If Trump can now define his restoration vision of American values to be inclusive rather than exclusive, then its pregnancy can birth a cultural realignment as significant as the political realignment of the 2024 election.
But the success depends on whether its ethos is truly e pluribus unum — a shared set of values rather than the sectarian identity-focused theology of the left. And while elites on the left may recoil, voters on the left and right both thirst for a more cohesive community and national purpose. They are exhausted by tribalism.
If the St. John’s moment does in fact portend a return to the Reformation values of hard work, community, common purpose, and equal opportunity, then a new bipartisan consensus can emerge. Secure borders are key to any democracy as it helps solidify cohesion and trust in the polity.
Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt suggests the current tide of wokeness is rewiring young minds for misery.
A true regime of equal opportunity and merit will incentivize the cream to rise to the top regardless of heritage, as Martin Luther King, Jr. envisioned. Safe streets help the least among us.
A muscular defense will deter all sorts of bad actors from doing very bad things to lots of innocents on the global stage. Populism can lead to shared revival if it’s approached in the right way.
Although seemingly disparate in purpose, the two events — St. John’s and Stargate — may be important connected dots on a road to a new and epochal cultural moment.
The blue-chip index of leading British shares broke through to a new all-time high.
That might make it sound like top London shares are expensive – and some of them certainly look that way to me.
But I reckon there are some real potential bargains on offer too, despite the overall index’s strong performance.
In fact, I bought more of a FTSE 100 share I already own this week after its price plumbed depths last seen five years ago, during the early stages of the pandemic lockdowns.
Step (or run) forward… JD Sports
The share in question, JD Sports (LSE: JD) has not been falling for no reason.
This month it issued its second profit warning in short order (the prior one was in November).
Geopolitical tensions pose a risk to its supply chain costs and therefore profit margins.
Sportswear brand Puma missed its profit target during the week, further alarming investors about the health of the sector. Also, credit agency Moody’s downgraded Nike debt, which did not help investor sentiment.
Are things as bad as they look?
From the share price chart, it is hard as a shareholder not to feel alarmed about what may be going on with JD Sports.
Still, just as the FTSE 100 hit a new high this week so too did its German counterpart the DAX – thanks to a strong performance from Adidas.
There are other signs that the sportswear and shoes sector might not be as battered as suggested by JD’s share price. In its latest profit warning, the company reported organic revenue growth of 3.4% for the nine weeks under review.
It expects full-year like-for-like revenue to be flat. While that is nothing to write home about, I do not think it is bad either.
That is especially true given that JD Sports has apparently maintained like-for-like sales without matching heavy competitive price promotions in the last couple of months of 2024.
Why I think JD Sports is a great company — and at a great valuation too
Clearly there are risks, especially if a weak economy leads consumers to rein in their discretionary spending.
But while the retailer this month lowered its full-year outlook for profit before tax and adjusting items, it still expects that to come in at £915-£935m.
I may be wrong. Its near-relentless fall since September makes me wonder if I have missed something. Clearly a lot of investors are bearish about the stock, even though it has been selling for pennies.
Still, I think its strong brand, global reach, proven business model, and large customer base are significant strengths.
As a long-term investor, I expect the share price to bounce back over coming years and think the current valuation offers me a margin of safety.
So I loaded up more of this FTSE 100 share into my portfolio.
The Rams came to Lincoln Financial Field with an opportunity to win an NFC divisional-round game and host the NFC championship.
The Philadelphia Eagles were having none of it.
On a snowy and windy day, Eagles running back Saquon Barkley once again dominated the Rams, who could not overcome two late fumbles in a 28-22 defeat.
The Eagles will play the Washington Commanders in the NFC championship game next Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field.
“I’m happy to be a part of this team and proud of this group, coach Sean McVay said. “And I’m really bummed out that this journey is over.”
As they did in 2021, when they defeated the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the lower-seeded San Francisco 49ers defeated the top-seeded Green Bay Packers in the divisional-round games, the Rams would have hosted the Commanders with a chance to advance to Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans.
“You don’t minimize how difficult it is to put yourself in positions where you’re on the precipice of hosting an NFC championship,” McVay said. “I think we all wanted that a lot, and it didn’t go down for us today.”
Barkley played a huge role, scoring on runs of 62 yards in the first quarter and 78 in the fourth quarter. He finished with 205 yards rushing in 26 carries.
The Rams had seen that act before.
On Nov. 24, Barkley rushed for 255 yards and scored on runs of 70 and 72 yards in a 37-20 victory over the Rams at SoFi Stadium.
“Whenever he gets up to the second and third level [of the defense], that’s really when he becomes really dangerous,” tackle Kobie Turner said.
The Eagles’ Jalen Hurts breaks a tackle by the Rams’ Neville Gallimore on his way to a 44-yard touchdown run.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
This time Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts also scored on a long run, and the Rams lost two fumbles in the second half. Hurts completed 15 of 20 passes for 120 yards and also rushed for 70 yards.
“I was really proud of this group, really all season and the way that we battled,” said quarterback Matthew Stafford, who played through a rib injury and passed for 324 yards and two touchdowns, but lost a fumble. “It wasn’t perfect by any means, but this group really stuck together. … It’s disappointing to end it this way but proud of the way we battled.”
Three years ago, Stafford needed only 42 seconds to engineer a game-winning drive to defeat Tom Brady and the Buccaneers in a divisional-round game at Tampa.
He engineered one late scoring drive Sunday, but his fourth-down pass at the 26-yard line in the final minute fell incomplete.
“I didn’t see it going any other way than us winning that game 29-28,” McVay said. “Just had a couple things that we couldn’t overcome.”
Stafford agreed.
“Felt like as an offense we had them on the ropes, and I bet they probably felt it too,” he said. “We were moving the rock really well the last two drives and just a couple unforced errors here and there.”
Stafford completed 26 of 44 passes for 324 yards and two touchdowns.
The Rams contained Barkley at times and they followed up their nine-sack performance against the Minnesota Vikings with seven against the Eagles.
Verse said he thrived on the hostile environment — “It doesn’t faze me, it hypes me up more,” he said — but lamented the defeat.
The Eagles’ Jalen Carter makes a key sack of quarterback Matthew Stafford (9) on the next-to-last Rams play of the game.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
“I could have been better,” Verse said. “There’s more I could have done.”
The Rams trailed, 28-15, late in the game after Barkley broke free for his 78-yard touchdown.
Stafford engineered a drive that he capped with a touchdown pass to tight end Colby Parkinson with 2:48 left.
The Rams got the ball back with 2:23 left and were driving again, but came up short.
The defeat ended a season in which the Rams were forced to weather numerous injuries during training camp and the first few games en route to a 1-4 start that put them on the brink of playoff oblivion.
But by Week 9 they were 4–4. The November loss to the Eagles dropped the Rams to 5-6.
A few days later, McVay addressed his players and wrote on a whiteboard the number 39, the number of days left in the regular season. He challenged them to commit to getting the most out of each one.
The Rams won five games in a row before and clinched the NFC West by strength of victory before McVay rested starters in the season finale against the Seattle Seahawks.
Because of safety concerns caused by the wildfires in Southern California, the NFL moved the Rams wild-card game against the Vikings to State Farm Stadium in Arizona. With McVay and his players saying they were “Built for This,” the Rams won and set the stage for the divisional-round rematch against the Eagles.
“Love this team,” McVay said. “It’s just hard because you didn’t want it to end.”
Almost 11 months ago to the date, Dalton Knecht was in his worst slump of his season at Tennessee. The jump from the Big Sky to the Southeastern Conference had been going great, the points were pouring in, a faucet that couldn’t be stopped.
And then — trouble.
He went two for seven against Georgia State, one for seven against North Carolina State and two for seven again, this time against Tarleton State. Before he was the SEC’s player of the year, before he was the No. 17 pick in the NBA draft and before he was looking like the shooting answer the Lakers never have been able to put around LeBron James and Anthony Davis, Knecht was just a fifth-year senior in one hell of a slump.
“DK, what’s good my man? Just wanted to reach out and say what’s up?” Austin Reaves, his future Lakers teammate, messaged Knecht on Dec. 23. “… Make sure we stay tapped in man. I’ll be watching, and if you ever need anything let me know. I’m around.”
Tuesday night, after Knecht scored 37 points — the most of his young NBA career — the Lakers rookie again mentioned that message from Reaves as being important. It’s the kind of thing you think about after a big night when you’re looking more and more comfortable in the NBA.
“Austin, like I’ve said before multiple times, he texted me throughout my time at Tennessee. So having him there, I ask him any questions. He’s always there to help me out,” Knecht said. “Me and him shoot after practice ends every single day. And you have a guy like that that’s been in the league and does stuff like this, like what I did [tonight], when I have a guy like that that stays confident in me, always wants me to shoot the ball, it’s always good.”
Fourteen games into the season, these kinds of nights are starting to stack up for Knecht, who somehow was available to the Lakers at No. 17 last June. Tuesday’s show was the best yet, with Knecht even doing the same shrugged-shoulder celebration after his barrage of threes that Michael Jordan used in Game 1 of the 1992 NBA Finals.
“I’m signed to Jordan Brand,” Knecht said. “Had to.”
Lakers guard Dalton Knecht does the Michael Jordan celebration shrug after hitting a three-pointer against the Utah Jazz on Tuesday at Crypto.com Arena.
(Etienne Laurent / Associated Press)
It all felt new because, for Knecht as a pro, it was. He became one of just four rookies in history to make nine threes in a game. He scored 21 points in the third quarter of the Lakers’ 124-118 win against Utah after coming up with huge barrages last week in New Orleans and against Memphis.
For Reaves, it all felt familiar.
“If you watched him in college, you know what he’s capable of,” Reaves said after the game. “And when he sees a couple of his first shots go in, he can get in that mode where he’s unconscious. I kinda expect it from him because I’ve watched him a lot.”
He’s not the only one.
James, who mentioned Knecht in an interview last season after the sharpshooter scored 37 points in a loss to Purdue in the NCAA tournament, said he was shocked the Lakers were able to pick Knecht more than midway through the first round.
This, James said, wasn’t the Lakers unearthing some gem. This, he said using a variety of R-rated language, was a team simply accepting the gift handed to it.
“Did anybody watch him?” James said before four-lettering a couple of times in disbelief. “…You don’t ‘find’ an SEC player of the year.”
The Lakers, though, have been looking for a player like Knecht. They’ve run through a litany of shooters designed to give Davis and James more space around the basket, to pull defenses out of the paint and toward the three-point line.
Danny Green and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope were effective spacers. Troy Daniels, Wesley Matthews, Ben McLemore, Wayne Ellington, Trevor Ariza, Kent Bazemore, Malik Beasley and Patrick Beverley weren’t good enough to consistently draw defenders.
But Knecht? The sense is he’s already established that kind of respect (even if Utah’s defenders kept losing him in the third quarter when he made all six of his three-point shots).
“You can’t leave him,” Davis said. “There’s a lot of sets that we can run and things that we can run … either to get him a shot or make guys think that he’s coming up in the shot. And now that kind of messes up their defensive rotation. But that always helps when you got shooters around. Me and Bron play in the post. Now you get that one on one. It’s hard to double team.”
And the Lakers are going to keep giving him chances, even if forward Rui Hachimura is set to return from an ankle injury this week. Knecht, who stepped into Hachimura’s starting spot, has done too much on offense over the last week, a stretch in which he’s made more than 66% of his three-point attempts. Over the last four games, Knecht’s averaging 24.3 points while leading the Lakers with a 9.3 plus-minus rating.
And considering coach JJ Redick is sort of living vicariously through his rookie every time he grabs the white board and draws up a play to run him off a bunch of screens, the shots are going to keep coming.
“It’s fun. I have to be cognizant sometimes when I get really excited when I see an [after-timeout play] or I have an idea, to not have them all drawn up for Dalton,” Redick, a similar sharpshooter in his career, said with a grin. “That’s just, that’s reality. I want them all for me.”
All of it represents some level of success for the Lakers. Before Knecht could make these shots, the team had to pick him. Before that even, belief from players like Reaves helped make him more confident.
Tuesday, passes and screens from D’Angelo Russell, assists from James and defensive stops from Cam Reddish and Gabe Vincent all played a role in Knecht getting (and then hitting) great looks.
“Recognizing the hot hand, which is a real thing, but recognizing the hot hand and then executing just shows a level of selflessness,” Redick said. “It also shows a level of basketball IQ. And I thought our guys were great with that.”
Bills cornerback Rasul Douglas fields some Q&A from Post columnist Steve Serby ahead of Sunday’s AFC title game against the Chiefs:
Q: What was it like meeting Damar Hamlin for the first time after what he went through [cardiac arrest scare on Jan. 2, 2023]?
A: I watched it before I got here, I didn’t really know him. Like, he kinda changed your perspective on the game. One thing I like about D Ham, he ain’t for the, “Oh because of that situation, that’s why he’s playing” — nah, he worked for it. He’s telling ’em, “If I don’t deserve it, don’t give it to me, I want to earn all my stripes.” And that’s something that you can never take away from him. And he comes every day with that chip on his shoulder like, “Yeah, I’m not supposed to be here but I am here, so now that I’m here, you’re gonna have to see about me.”
Q: Where were you when the incident happened with him?
A: I was getting some crab cakes from a store in Green Bay, and I remember looking at the TV, and, like, usually I don’t speak negative words. But I remember seeing it, and I’m like: “Did he just die?” That was the first thing that came to my head. So I remember grabbing the crab cakes and going back home and turning the TV on, and I’m looking online and stuff. As a kid, I remember everybody say, like, how I’d die for this sport. To actually see it being close to happening, it’s like, “Nah, I’d never do that.” I got a kid, bro, so I’m thinking about how my mom and stuff would react to seeing me going through that or me watching my son. I think that shifted football in general, like, sports in general.
Rasul Douglas celebrates during the Bills-Seahawks game on Oct. 27, 2024. Getty Images
Q: What was it like seeing him back on the field?
A: Great seeing him back on the field. Last year when I got here, he was just walking around and getting himself ready to get cleared, and then this year, just seeing him just go after it, just have fun and fly around with, like, no worries. I always tell him, “I know you probably don’t like talking about it, but that’s your story, bro, that’s your testimony to life, bro.”
Q: Did it affect you in your first game back on the field?
A: I wasn’t all the way in the game, you know what I mean?
Q: The feeling of winning Super Bowl LII with the Eagles?
A: All the hard work that me and the guys put in just paid off. You dream about winning the Super Bowl, that’s like the goal for everybody, so when you actually accomplish that, it’s just like, “Man,” now you kinda take that deep breath and just relax.
Rasul Douglas won a Super Bowl while with the Eagles. Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Q: What would getting to the Super Bowl mean to Buffalo and the Bills Mafia and western New York?
A: That would mean everything to them. I think that’s what the city needs and wants. And it means just as much to us.
Q: What is the mindset of your team?
A: Just to go in there and to be us and do what we do.
Q: How painful was losing last year to the Chiefs in the divisional round?
A: I don’t really remember that, to be honest with you.
Q: You put it out of your mind already?
A: Yeah … (laugh). I’m not really thinking about it too much.
Q: Going back to Arrowhead Stadium?
A: It’s gonna be a great atmosphere. And we know Bills Mafia, they’re gonna travel, so it should be electrifying.
Rasul Douglas jogs onto the field during the Bills-Broncos AFC wild card game on Jan. 12, 2025. Getty Images
Q: Playing against Patrick Mahomes?
A: It’s just good competition, he’s one of the best quarterbacks in the league, so it’s always good when you play against the best.
Q: His connection with Travis Kelce?
A: I mean, they’re boys. They’re like best friends on the field. Maybe they practice or maybe they don’t but it just seems like in certain situations finding him, it just feels comfortable.
Q: Do you think there is more pressure on the Chiefs chasing a three-peat?
A: I don’t know if they’re chasing a three-peat as much as them just chasing another ring.
Q: What is it about Josh Allen that makes you feel good about your chances?
A: We just have one of the best quarterbacks in the league who can get the job done, you want to give him the ball as much as you can.
Rasul Douglas makes a tackle during the Bills-Ravens AFC divisional round game on Jan. 19, 2025. Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images
Q: Some of your other defensive teammates: Von Miller?
A: He’s a Hall of Famer.
Q: Terrel Bernard?
A: TB’s playing at a crazy level. He ain’t one of the bigger [line]backers, 250 pounds, but he can do everything. You can put him in man coverage, he’s sideline-to-sideline, he’s downhill, physical. He really studies football. He knows the game. He’s a good leader, that’s why he’s got the “C” on his chest.
Q: Gregory Rousseau?
A: He’s a 6-9 cheat code.
Q: 6-9?
A: He’s like 6-9 when you look at him. He’s like 6-6, 6-7 … all of that 6-6 and up, they all look the same to me.
Q: Ed Oliver?
A: He’s like a DB that plays D-line. You wouldn’t expect him to be that fast when he’s that big, but he is.
Rasul Douglas reacts during the Bills-Chiefs game on Nov. 17, 2024. AP
Q: Your reaction when you were traded in 2023 at midseason to the Bills?
A: I was kinda a little upset, I’m not gonna lie, I was kinda a little sad, ’cause I felt like what I was doing in Green Bay was worth me staying around just for a little longer.
Q: Why do you think you have not found a permanent home?
A: Things happen, and you just gotta keep going. You getting traded, it’s not like you’re getting cut and you’re going somewhere else, you’re just getting traded so it’s like people still see value in you, you know?
Q: What are you most proud of about your career?
A: That I’m still going. I could have gave up. Things weren’t going my way, I ain’t quit, I ain’t look for excuse, exit route, I just stayed down and just kept working. I’m still here.
Q: Your on-field mentality?
A: Do whatever it takes to win.
Q: What drives you?
A: I just want to go out there and do my job on the field and have that trust of my teammates that they know that I’ll do my job to the best of my ability, I think that’s what drives me … not want to let them down.
Q: How would you describe your physical tools?
A: It’s not really nothing I can’t do. I can play the game.
The Packers traded Rasul Douglas to the Bills during the 2023-24 season. Getty Images
Q: Your NFL debut with the Eagles in 2017 came against the Chiefs.
A: I remember lining up against Tyreek Hill and Kelce, and I think Alex Smith was the quarterback. At the time Patrick Mahomes wasn’t starting at this point. We lost to ’em, but after that game I was just saying, “We got the team to do some great things.”
Q: Your first interception?
A: It was against the Giants, Eli Manning [Sept. 24, 2017]. I was 1-on-1 with Brandon Marshall down the sideline, and he threw a fade ball to him, and I kinda just jumped up and got it.
Q: Do you still have the ball?
A: I think it’s somewhere in my closet. I got a few of ’em, so it’s somewhere there.
Q: Is Eli Manning a first-ballot Hall of Famer?
A: Should be. He got two of ’em [Super Bowls], right? And beat the GOAT [Tom Brady].
Rasul Douglas spoke to The Post’s Steve Serby ahead of the Bills matchup with the Chiefs in the AFC championship game. Getty Images
Q: Your favorite pick-six?
A: The Matthew Stafford one was cool. But I like the Justin Fields one as well. I just remember how loud the stadium was going when I got it. But even the one last year I got [against Bailey Zappe], the stadium [Highmark Stadium] went crazy, I think that was one of the loudest moments I’ve ever heard [the] Bills stadium since I’ve been here.
Q: The last couple of years in Green Bay with Aaron Rodgers?
A: Aaron was a great teammate, a great person, you know? I loved him when I got there. That was one of the best quarterbacks I’ve ever seen with my own two eyes.
Q: What made him a great teammate?
A: He was a leader, and he knew the game inside and out. If it was a quarterback or like a football manual book he would know front to back, the whole book. He always gave everybody confidence to go out there and play at an elite level.
Q: Did you ever intercept him in practice?
A: Yeah I did. I got him a few times.
Q: Do you think he has more football left in him?
A: Yeah. I think he has more left in him if he wanted to play.
Q: The time in your life at Nassau Community College when you struggled to eat?
A: Funds weren’t there. Me trying to work at McDonald’s just to get some food. It’s one of those times that you gotta go through just to get where you’re at now.
Q: How much did you make?
A: I don’t know, I think it was minimum [wage]. I only worked an hour a day, it was never long.
Q: What was the best part and worst part of going to Nassau CC?
A: The best part was probably the people I met. I met some amazing friends who I still talk to to this day, who kinda just helped me reinvent my faith because I was at a low time. So just being there with people who know the Word, and talk about God and just believing in Christ. I needed that at that point, ’cause I felt like sometimes I was shifting away. I would say the worst time was the food situation and living situation, that was kinda bad.
Q: Tell me about the living situation.
A: It was just like 15 of us in a crib. We all were from different places, Florida, a lot of places. We were all just trying to live, make the rent cheaper.
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Q: This was not an athletic dorm?
A: We didn’t have no athletic dorms, you didn’t have scholarships, we didn’t have anything at Nassau. Yeah, it was bad.
Q: Was that your biggest adversity?
A: Yeah, that and just being on four or five different teams in a span of maybe like a month or two.
Q: What was that like?
A: I was carrying a bag and a book bag everywhere, and just trying to make something happen. Not knowing where you’re gonna end up in certain situations.
Q: Your cornerbacks coach at West Virginia [Blue Adams] had an expression: “Don’t fear the skunk.”
A: Blue was crazy, man. Blue had a lotta expressions, man … he used to tell us, “Give me everything you’ve got on this football field,” and he’s like, “Pass out if you want, you could die on this football field.” He used to say something like, “If you pass out, don’t worry about it, we got trainers here, they’ll come and pick you back up, and once you get back up, just start running again until you pass out again.” He just always wanted us to work as hard as we could.
Rasul Douglas played collegiately at West Virginia after Nassau Community College. Getty Images
Q: Talk about the influence of a man named Mike Davis.
A: My mentor, is kinda like a Pops to me. He kinda got me started with baseball when I was like 6, 7 years old … and kept me out of trouble, there was a lot of trouble in my neighborhood, he kinda kept me from being around things like that and seeing that.
Q: What were some of the things you saw?
A: Just gangs, drugs, stuff like that, violence.
Q: You were a shortstop in the East Orange Little League?
A: I was one of the best shortstops. Ever.
Q: Did you consider a baseball career?
A: I wanted to. I don’t think that public school would have got me to where I wanted to be, though.
Q: Tell me about your grandmother who raised you.
A: She was just a loving lady, like everybody loved her. One of the best people I’ve ever met. She kinda just guided me and was like my mom.
Q: How old is your son [Jeremiah]?
A: He just turned 6.
Q: What’s it like having a 6-year-old son?
A: The best feeling ever. Even when I’m having a bad day, the minute I talk to him, I forget everything in my day, and just focus on him.
Q: Three dinner guests?
A: My grandmother; my mentor Mike; my brother Marquis that died.
Q: What happened to him?
A: He had a heart attack.
Q: How old was he?
A: He was like 30.
Q: How long ago?
A: Five years ago.
Rasul Douglas warms up prior to the Bills-Rams game on Dec. 8, 2024. Getty Images
Q: Favorite movie?
A: “The Shack” or “Law Abiding Citizen.”
Q: Favorite actor?
A: Gerard Butler.
Q: Favorite entertainer?
A: Jamie Foxx.
Q: Favorite meal?
A: Soul food or Caribbean food.
Q: What message would you have to the Bills Mafia and Bills fans everywhere who are desperate to get back to the Super Bowl?
A: I just know we’re gonna go out there and we’re gonna give everything we got, and whatever happens, happens.
Q: Are you aware that it’s been a long time since the Bills have been in the Super Bowl?
A: I think since 1994 or [1995] or something like that? I just turned around for the banner.
Q: You cheated.
A: Yeah, I definitely cheated, I ain’t gonna lie to you.
Q: Around town, what kind of encouragement do you get from people?
A: They just tell us to just do it. Like we got a chance, we’re there, just do it. That’s really all they could say.
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Tuscan white bean soup is like a warm hug in a bowl. Hearty beans and tender vegetables come together to give you a boost of nutrients. This soup is light and fresh tasting, with bright, zesty flavors!
Reasons You’ll Love This Recipe
Nutrient Dense: This soup is loaded with fiber-rich beans and nutrient-dense vegetables that give your immune system a boost during cold and flu season.
Easy to Make: You can have this soup on the table in just 40 minutes. Its rich flavors will brighten your day on cold winter afternoons.
After the holidays I am ready to get a start on healthy eating. This Tuscan white bean soup provides the perfect balance of flavor and nutrient rich ingredients. I have been hearing so much about the importance of fiber in my diet. The cannellenni beans, spinach and vegetables will add much needed fiber to your diet and help you feel ready to take on the day!
Ingredients Needed
How to Make Tuscan White Bean Soup
You will love how quickly and easily this Tuscan white bean soup comes together. Chop up your veggies, cook them down, add everything to the pot! Let it simmer and soak in all the flavor. I like to make double batch so I have plenty for quick lunches during the week.
Cook Veggies: Heat the olive oil on the stovetop in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the onion, celery, and carrots to the pot and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender, about 5 minutes.
Stir: Add the garlic and tomato paste to the pot and stir until the garlic is fragrant, about 1 minute.
Simmer: Add the cannellini beans, broth, vinegar, Italian seasoning, pepper flakes, and salt and black pepper to taste. Stir everything together, then bring the soup to a gentle boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 5-8 minutes.
Serve: Add the spinach to the soup and stir to incorporate. Continue cooking the soup until the spinach is wilted, about 3 minutes. Remove the soup from the heat and serve fresh.
White Bean Soup Tips and Variations
This Tuscan soup is great as is, but can also be customized to suit your tastes and use what you have on hand.
Slow cooker instructions: Add all the ingredients to a crockpot except the spinach, cover, and cook on LOW for 4-5 hours until the vegetables are tender. Add the spinach in at the last 30 minutes of cooking.
Can’t Handle the Heat? The red pepper flakes are optional, you can leave them out, or add more, depending on your taste.
Can I switch up the broth? If you want to make this a truly vegetarian dish, you can use vegetable broth in place of the chicken broth.
Can I use different beans? You can use whatever beans you like or have on hand like navy beans, or great northern beans.
What can I use as garnish? If you wanted to, you could add a splash of lemon juice, fresh parsley, and parmesan cheese as garnish.
How to Store Leftover Tuscan White Bean Soup
Refrigerator: Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days
Freezer: You could make a double batch and store one in a freezer-safe container in the freezer for up to 2 months
Reheat: I recommend reheating the soup on the stove over medium heat, especially if frozen.
Heat the 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the ½ cup diced onion,2 celery ribs, and 2 medium carrots, to the pot and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender, about 5 minutes.
Add the 3 teaspoons minced garlic, and 1 tablespoon tomato paste to the pot and stir until the garlic is fragrant about 1 minute.
Add the 3 (15-ounce) cans cannellini beans, 4 cups chicken broth, 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar, 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning, ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes, and Salt and pepper to taste.
Stir everything together and bring the soup to a gentle boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 5-8 minutes.
Add the 3 cups fresh spinach, to the soup and stir to incorporate. Continue cooking the soup until the spinach is wilted, about 3 minutes.
One straightforward way to earn a second income is to build a portfolio of dividend shares.
Not only does that involve little real work, it can also be lucrative. Step by step, here is how an investor could use that strategy to target £10K in passive income each year.
A lump sum is one way – but it’s not necessary
The dividend income will depend on how much is invested and what the average dividend yield is.
For example, using a 5% dividend yield, £10K in second income annually would require a £200K investment.
But an alternative method (and the one I use) is to try and build up to the income target over time by making regular contributions to an ISA.
Even £200 per week compounded at 5% annually could lead to a £200k portfolio. Sure, it would take 14 years. But as a long-term investor, that is music to my ears.
Finding shares to buy
An investor could also speed things up if the compound annual growth rate (i.e. share price movement plus any dividends) was higher than 5%. But dividends are never guaranteed – and share prices can go down as well as up.
So I never choose a share just because of its yield.
Rather, I try and find great companies I think have excellent long-term commercial prospects that in my opinion are not properly reflected in their current share price.
A short case study
That sounds well in theory, but what about the practice?
Let me illustrate with a share I own: footwear specialist Crocs (NASDAQ: CROX). Over the past five years, the Crocs share price has soared 149%: far, far above my 5% per year example.
I have missed that gain, as I am a fairly new shareholder. Fine. The thing is, even now, the company trades on a price-to-earnings ratio of just 7.
That seems almost absurdly cheap to me given the iconic brand and product, huge customer base, manufacturing management expertise and patented designs. I do not like Crocs — but I recognise a great business model when I see one.
Still, if the business is so good, why is it selling at that price – and why is it down 36% since June?
Its acquisition of the Hey Dude footwear brand has brought a host of problems and looks like increasingly bad value.
That is a risk to earnings. But I still think Crocs is a great business at a great price and plan to hold the shares.
Getting ready to invest
But wait. Crocs does not pay a dividend. So where would a second income come from in such a scenario?
Recall above I talked about a £200K portfolio invested at a 5% yield. If not starting with a lump sum, the investor does not need to invest in dividend shares immediately.
They can use a mixture of dividend and growth shares to build their portfolio value. Then, at the £200K mark, they could switch to just dividend shares.
If the investor diversifies and chooses the right shares, hopefully that £10K second income will keep coming (and maybe even growing) each year.
But they need a good way to buy and hold those shares, such as a Stocks and Shares ISA.
The US Department of Justice this week announced that it had indicted two North Korean nationals and three other men, accusing them of participating in a conspiracy designed to trick US companies into funding the North Korean regime.
According to the indictment, which was filed in federal court in Miami, the scheme leveraged stolen identity documents and paid henchmen in the US to direct well-paid IT work and company computers to two North Korean men, Jin Sung-Il and Pak Jin-Song. The idea, the Justice Department said, was to funnel money back to the North Korean regime, which has limited opportunities to generate cash through legal means thanks to heavy international sanctions.
The conspiracy, according to the indictment, centers on North Korean nationals posing as foreign workers in other nations, or as US nationals, and gaining employment via online platforms that allow companies to advertise for contract IT workers. Using fake or altered identity documents, the North Koreans took on contracts for several US companies, which were not identified by name in the indictment. Those businesses then shipped company laptops to three US-based co-conspirators, Pedro Ernesto Alonso De Los Reyes, Erick Ntekereze Prince, and Emanuel Ashtor, who, the Justice Department said, installed remote access software on them so that they could be operated by Jin and Pak.
Subaru left open a gaping security flaw that, although patched, lays bare modern vehicles’ myriad privacy issues. Security researchers Sam Curry and Shubham Shah reported their findings (viaWired) about an easily hacked employee web portal. After gaining access, they were able to remotely control a test vehicle and view a year’s worth of location data. They warn that Subaru is far from alone in having lax security around vehicle data.
After the security analysts notified Subaru, the company quickly patched the exploit. Fortunately, the researchers say less-than-ethical hackers hadn’t breached it before then. But they say authorized Subaru employees can still access owners’ location history with only a single piece of the following information: the owner’s last name, zip code, email address, phone number or license plate.
The hacked admin portal was part of Subaru’s Starlink suite of connectivity features. (No relation to the SpaceX satellite internet service of the same name.) Curry and Shah got in by finding a Subaru Starlink employee’s email address on LinkedIn and resetting the worker’s password after bypassing two required security questions — because it took place in the end user’s web browser, not Subaru’s servers. They also bypassed two-factor authentication by doing “the simplest thing that we could think of: removing the client-side overlay from the UI.”
Although the researchers’ tests traced the test vehicle’s location back one year, they can’t rule out the possibility that authorized Subaru employees can snoop back even farther. That’s because the test car (a 2023 Subaru Impreza Curry bought for his mother on the condition that he could hack it) had only been in use for about that long. The location data wasn’t generalized to some broad swath of land, either: It was accurate to less than 17 feet and updated each time the engine started.
“After searching and finding my own vehicle in the dashboard, I confirmed that the Starlink admin dashboard should have access to pretty much any Subaru in the United States, Canada, and Japan,” Curry wrote. “We wanted to confirm that there was nothing we were missing, so we reached out to a friend and asked if we could hack her car to demonstrate that there was no pre-requisite or feature which would’ve actually prevented a full vehicle takeover. She sent us her license plate, we pulled up her vehicle in the admin panel, then finally we added ourselves to her car.”
In addition to tracking their location, the admin portal allowed the researchers to remotely start, stop, lock and unlock any Starlink-connected Subaru vehicle. They said Curry’s mother never received notifications that they had added themselves as authorized users, nor did she receive alerts when they unlocked her car.
They could also query and retrieve personal information for any customer, including their emergency contacts, authorized users, home address, the last four digits of their credit card and vehicle PIN. In addition, they were able to access the owner’s support call history and the vehicle’s previous owners, odometer reading and sales history.
In a statement to Engadget, Subaru Communications Director Dominick Infante wrote, “Subaru of America, Inc. was notified by independent security researchers of a vulnerability in its Starlink service that had the potential to allow third-party access to Starlink accounts. Subaru patched the vulnerability that same day, and no Subaru vehicles or customer data was ever accessed without authorization. The independent researchers were able to access two accounts belonging to a family member and a friend who provided them with authorization to do so.”
Subaru also stressed that its cars can’t be driven remotely and that the company doesn’t sell location data. It also said only certain employees can access driver location data based on job relevancy.
The security researchers say the tracking and security failures — stemming from the ability of a single employee to access “a ton of personal information” — are hardly unique to Subaru. Wired notes that Curry and Shah’s previous work exposed similar flaws affecting vehicles from Acura, Genesis, Honda, Hyundai, Infiniti, Kia, Toyota and others.
The pair believes there’s reason for serious concern about the industry’s location tracking and poor security measures. “The auto industry is unique in that an 18-year-old employee from Texas can query the billing information of a vehicle in California, and it won’t really set off any alarm bells,” Curry wrote. “It’s part of their normal day-to-day job. The employees all have access to a ton of personal information, and the whole thing relies on trust. It seems really hard to really secure these systems when such broad access is built into the system by default.”
Paramount, the corporate owner of CBS, is considering settling a bogus lawsuit that Trump filed against the network over the Kamala Harris 60 Minutes interview.
Sen. Bernie Sanders is urging the network not to cave to Trump. In a post on X, Sanders wrote, “CBS may be reaching a legal settlement with Trump because he didn’t like how a campaign interview with Kamala was edited. Really? If CBS caves, the belief that we have an independent media protected by the First Amendment is undermined. CBS: stand tall. Support the Constitution.”
What Paramount is considering doing, in my opinion, seems like a legalized form of bribery.
There is no good reason, either in journalistic or First Amendment terms, for Paramount to settle the Trump lawsuit. The lawsuit has no merit, and since Donald Trump never wants to go to discovery in these matters, if CBS pushes it, Trump will back down.
Paramount’s reasoning for potentially settling the lawsuit has nothing to do with press freedom. They have a merger that will be up for review by the Trump administration, so the corporation is attempting to grease the wheels to make it easier for their merger to be approved.
If that sounds like corruption to you, it is because it is.
Big companies are writing big checks under the pretense of legal settlements so that they get better treatment, they hope, from the Trump administration.
CBS does need to stand tall. For the sake of the country and the free press, they can’t follow Disney’s lead.
Corporations don’t care about press freedom or the First Amendment, which is why corporate ownership of mainstream media has made America less informed.
What do you think about Sen. Sanders’s comments? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
