John Amos, VP Debate, Diddy Lawsuits
Let's talk about what was in the news today
Damn. Damn. Damn.
Rest in power to this legend.
When I heard that John Amos died, the first thing I said was, “Damn, Damn, Damn!” the way Florida did when his character was killed off on Good Times.
That scene was during the fourth season of Good Times. The family was planning a move that would have gotten them out of the projects and down to Mississippi, where it was implied a better life awaited them.
Unfortunately, while celebrating the impending move, the family received the news that James had been killed in a car accident.
Amos was fired from the show after he became very critical of the buffoonish and coonish way the character of JJ Evans, played by Jimmy Walker, was being written. Amos disagreed with the way JJ’s shucking and jiving was being made a main focal point of the show.
He told Time magazine, “There were several examples where I said, ‘No, you don’t do these things. It’s anathema to Black society. I’ll be the expert on that, if you don’t mind, and it got confrontational and heated enough that ultimately my being killed off the show was the best solution for everybody concerned, myself included.”
He also played the adult Kunta Kinte in the mini series based on Alex Haley’s Roots; Kansas City Mack in Let’s Do It Again, and, famously, he portrayed Cleo McDowell in the Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall classic Coming to America as well as its sequel, Coming 2 America.
According to news reports, Amos actually died in August; his death was just reported to the media Oct. 1.
He was an icon. His death saddens me.
My childhood is slowly melting away, one person at a time.
This VP debate between JD Vance and Tim Walz was hard to watch.
Tim Walz is too nice for this shit, and that much was apparent watching him on stage last night. He let JD Vance get away with too many blatant lies and too much disinformation. He wasn’t really quick on the comebacks.
He said shining moments, especially when JD Vance wouldn’t answer as to whether or not Donald Trump actually lost the election in 2020, and that will be a sound bite for sure, but it’s not enough.
To be clear, vice presidents don’t have any control over the laws and policies Vance kept trying to pin on Kamala Harris, and Walz and the moderators missed many opportunities to push back on those lies and disinformation.
Vance at one point even said something to the effect of “I thought we agreed there would be no fact checking.”
That means he came into this knowing he was going to continue to parrot the lies of the man who picked him as a running mate.
It’s shameful.
Thankfully, this is the only VP debate we will see in this election cycle.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Houston attorney Tony Buzbee announced that he is representing more victims of Sean Combs, and he represents 120 more sexual assault victims who all plan to file lawsuits against the disgraced hip-hop mogul.
He said that many of the victims have already spoken to federal authorities about the sexual abuse they allege happened at the hands of Combs.
The attorneys are now in the process of collecting police reports and medical records from hospitals, according to Buzbee. Some of the alleged victims had drugs found in their system when they sought medical treatment following the sexual abuse, he said.
One drug in particular that kept showing up in the alleged victims’ test results was xylazine, also known as tranq, a non-opioid sedative.
He said most of the alleged victims they represent had been scared to speak out until Combs was arrested and indicted by federal authorities in September. He has pleaded not guilty.
“They fear backlash in their communities, they fear backlash in their own families. They are afraid of retaliation from the perpetrators and their associates. They are rightly afraid for their own personal safety,” Buzbee said. “I expect that through this process, many powerful people will be exposed, many dirty secrets will be revealed.”
Buzbee says most of the victims — who are evenly split between men and women and mostly Black — tell the same story, that they were “lured into a situation where they were given a laced drink at a party before being sexually abused by Combs or his associates while other people watched.”
One individual who was 22 at the time told attorneys that if you refused the drink, you were kicked out of the party, according to Buzbee. He said much of the sexual abuse happened at auditions or parties, including album releases and Combs’ “all white parties,” some at well-known venues in New York City.
One of the victims was 9 years old when the alleged abuse occurred.
It’s Wednesday. My to do list includes making phone calls for some stories I have been commissioned to report on; creating more content for this space right here; making appointments to get my nails done and roots colored; and getting a car wash.
Let’s make it productive, baby.
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐚𝐧 𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐝 𝐀𝐆𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐒𝐒 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐞. 𝐌𝐚𝐲 𝐇𝐞 𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐓 𝐈𝐍 𝐆𝐎𝐎𝐃 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒. 𝐌𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐞, 𝐆𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐞. 𝐊𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐝𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐲𝐚 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠. 𝐖𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐨𝐟 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐯𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞. 𝐇𝐚𝐬𝐡𝐭𝐚𝐠 #𝐬𝐮𝐛𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐭𝐨𝐨𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐭𝐞