Happy Sunday, everyone!
Mavis Staples performed “We Shall Overcome” at the Civil Rights Summit to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Civil Rights Act.
In 1963, with their celebrity rising thanks to a nationwide folk and blues revival, the Staple Singers delivered a concert in Montgomery, Alabama, that was attended by Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., and they had the opportunity to speak with the civil rights leader after the show. The meeting had a profound effect on the group’s direction, and for the next several years they wrote songs exclusively in support of the American civil rights movement.
https://twitter.com/CreativeSim/status/454552351249289216/photo/1/large
http://fullcircle.tictail.com/product/inner-strength-cards
just finished watching the Sidney Poitier movie version of Raisin in the Sun on Centric.
now, they’re playing the most recent one with Puffy.
the play really is timeless.
The Crisis Magazine @thecrisismag Apr 10
#RandPaul has single-handedly blocked a U.S.-Swiss tax treaty that would root out fat-cat tax evaders
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/03/rand-paul-tax-swiss-banks-104148.html#.U0Gg_wrGMww.twitter …
@MotherJones
When a bipartisan Senate panel last week lambasted Swiss bank Credit Suisse for helping rich Americans evade billions in taxes, some watching the high-profile hearing couldn’t help but notice an elephant in the room.
That is, Sen. Rand Paul.
The connection? Paul for years has single-handedly blocked an obscure U.S.-Swiss tax treaty that lawmakers, prosecutors, diplomats and banks say makes the difference between U.S. law enforcement rooting out the names of a few hundred fat-cat tax evaders — and many thousands more.
Kentucky’s tea party darling says the treaty infringes on privacy rights. But his critics say Paul’s hold just hamstrings the Justice Department’s tax evasion work.
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/03/rand-paul-tax-swiss-banks-104148.html#.U0Gg_wrGMww.twitter
3… 2… 1… The Countdown to the End of Film on Film
By: Michael Jarema
Saturday, April, 12th, 2014, 9:00 pm
As a prelude to their annual Oscar telecast, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences hosts its Scientific and Technical Achievement awards ceremony to honor the scientists and engineers who develop the technology of cinema. This year’s event was held on February 15 at the Beverly Hills Hotel, where nineteen awards were given out. Among them was one presented by Christopher Nolan, director of mega-blockbusters, 2005′s Batman Begins, its 2008 and 2012 sequels, and 2010′s Inception. Not by coincidence, Nolan is also a director outspoken in his preference for shooting on film rather than digital media, and the award he presented was an Academy Award of Merit for “all those who built and operated film laboratories, for over a century of service to the motion picture industry.”
The award was, unfortunately, also a eulogy for film. The 100+ year-old photochemical medium for capturing and projecting movie images is dying an inevitable death. 2014 may see the closing of the last film lab.
The trend toward digital cinema is no news. Both as a medium for capturing images and for disseminating them to an audience, film has been used increasingly less since the technology of digital media developed to a point where images on the competing formats were aesthetically comparable to most moviegoers. But lately, the pace of film’s decline is accelerating.
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/04/12/2014-death-film-film.html
Cowardly Rand Paul Caves, Bows Down, and Kisses The Ring of Dick Cheney
By: Jason Easley
Sunday, April, 13th, 2014, 11:55 am
On ABC’s This Week, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) completely reversed course by claiming that Dick Cheney loves America, and that he never criticized the former vice president’s motives for invading Iraq.
Sen. Paul isn’t a leader. He is a coward, who is saying whatever he has to say in order to win the Republican nomination in 2016. It is not surprising that Paul would completely take back his criticism of Cheney. Sen. Paul has to shake the perception within the Republican Party that the apple didn’t fall too far from the fringe extremist tree.
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/04/13/cowardly-rand-paul-caves-bows-down-kisses-ring-dick-cheney.html
On Fox News Sunday, Brit Hume Says Holder and Obama Have It Easy Because They’re Black
By: Justin Baragona
Sunday, April, 13th, 2014, 6:25 pm
During this week’s broadcast of Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace brought up Attorney General Eric Holder’s remarks before the National Action Network on Wednesday. During the event, Holder implicated that race was a factor in the treatment he has received from Republicans in Washington. Wallace wanted to have a discussion about how big a factor race is in Washington, especially when it comes to how President Obama and Holder are treated.
Of course, since it is Fox News, the panel that Wallace had on for this discussion was quite diverse. That is if diverse means all white. Yes, just as we’ve seen these past few days, Fox News loves to discuss race and the impact of racism, but only if they can do so with an all-white panel. The first person that Wallace discussed this topic with was Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume.
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/04/13/fox-news-sunday-brit-hume-holder-obama-easy-black.html
Britt HUME short: It’s not EASY being racist anymore, because Obama & Holder are BLACK & are calling us out!
Today is the first episode of Bletchley Circle Season 2 on PBS!!
Yeah!!!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024816638
The Nevada Standoff Has Nothing To Do With “Tyranny,” “Sovereignty,” “Freedom,” or Cows.
It’s about money for two Billionaires with whom we’re all familiar.
Two affiliates of the Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity are helping conservative media promote the cause of a Nevada rancher who has made violent threats against the federal government.
Legal scholars have largely concluded that these laws are unconstitutional. But with a fanatical, Federalist-society indoctrinated Supreme Court Majority bending over backwards to accommodate corporate interests in every conceivable manner, the Constitution has proved to be a flimsy protection against virulent greed. By milking and stoking the controversy, the Kochs seek to galvanize public opinion against the federal government, delegitimize the Bureau of Land Management that oversees public lands, and thereby impugn its stewardship of lands that Koch-run industries want to get their hands on. These include lands in Nevada, Utah and pretty much anywhere else they can dig, frack or mine. This isn’t about some silly rancher’s “grazing fees,” to the Kochs and their business pals. It’s about their desire to exploit, despoil and pollute lands that we, the public, own by virtue of our citizenship. That’s not “freedom.” It’s greed.
CBS NewsApril 13, 2014, 5:58 PM
Police find seven dead babies in Utah woman’s home
Police arrested a 39-year-old woman from Pleasant Grove after seven dead infants were find in a home she used to live in.
The suspect, 39-year-old Megan Huntsman, has been booked into the Utah County Jail for investigation of 6 counts of murder, reports CBS affiliate KUTV in Salt Lake City.
Hunstman’s ex-husband alerted police about a dead infant inside a home that Huntsman used to live in until 2011, reports The Salt Lake Tribune.
Police obtained a search warrant, and upon going through the home, found the bodies of 6 additional infants, KUTV reports. Six of the deceased infants were found in separate cardboard boxes inside the garage, police Capt. Michael Roberts told the Tribune.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/police-find-seven-dead-babies-in-utah-womans-home/
NO.WORDS…
“A smirking gunman who reportedly shouted Nazi slogans opened fire at a Jewish community center and an old-age home in a suburb of Kansas City, killing three people.
The gunman, said to be an older man, singled out Jewish victims for death, Rabbi Herbert Mandl, a chaplain with the Overland Park Police Department, told CNN.
The gunman, described as a bearded white man in his 70s who is not from Kansas, was armed with a shotgun, a handgun and an assault weapon. Police are still investigating which weapons he used in the attacks.”
Read more: http://forward.com/articles/196506/nazi-gunman-singled-out-jews-for-death-in-suburban/#ixzz2yoCB6plO
https://twitter.com/zizii2/status/455463304899461120/photo/1
THANK YOU, SG2!
MHP, the AG of the USA & the POTUS serve entirely different functions, C’mon now.
Melissa knows that! What’s her problem?
These NEGROES make my head hurt, truly they do!
Yeah, it’s too bad that this couldn’t have been presented without mention or even subtle reference to “disappointment” with PBO. But a point was made (that certainly could have been made better and more graciously) that AG Holder is an Obama appointment, and his accomplishments are therefore accomplishments of the Obama administration and that is an absolute fact. Another good point that was made is that AG Holder’s accomplishments in the DOJ will have a growing impact that is not necessarily appreciated right now. That is certainly true of ACA as well. And those are the kinds of discussions that the left leaning gasbaggery should be having on TV instead of whatever it is they usually talk about. And Democrats should be using those points to frame the discussions in the upcoming midterm election.
I like that MHP is on this bandwagon, supporting AG Holder, I just wish that a lot of folks had been there sooner.
@Liza. I think MHP is injecting that nonsense into her delivery to show she’s not biased after that CRY & KISS ROMNEY’S ass fiasco scene a few months ago.
YVW
This is an excellent segment from MHP’s show.
I am elated by the fact that AG Eric Holder, President Obama, Hank Aaron and other distinguished black men have been speaking the truth without concern for what the white dominated media gasbaggery might make of it. Just keep telling the truth, relentlessly, damn the torpedoes and the rest of it. This is REFRESHING and NECESSARY.
AG Holder and PBO are extremely intelligent men, realists, and we have to believe that they didn’t expect racist white America (including Congress) to roll out red carpets for them. They both understand what it means to take a longer view of things, to endure the antics of the opposition in the present so that the future is better for those who actually deserve a better future. But I have to believe that the level of disrespect experienced by both of these men in the last five plus years has far exceeded what they thought was even possible. Now they know, same as us, that there is no floor that the haters cannot sink below because they have no shame and no decency.
We need to keep this issue front and center. The disprespect is intolerable, and the Democrats should never have allowed it to go this far. But they aren’t well practiced in standing up for those who are under attack by the rightwing.
I saw this segment. This is President Obama’s Attorney General…..how can this NOT be his agenda.
Rikyrah, now you know that fact would be too much like the TRUTH. She must really think her viewing audience has NO clue, when in fact it is MHP who doesn’t have A CLUE.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJMyglmBHvg
Just remember Big ED, you told folks not to vote in 2010.
Glad dude got his wish and all, but who fed him “I want to save America” line?
April 13, 2014
Watching the Obamas Watch “A Raisin in the Sun”
Posted by Michael Schulman
On Thursday, the cast of the Broadway revival of “A Raisin in the Sun” was told that a “high-level official” would be coming to the show the next night. Who could it be? Kathleen Sebelius had just resigned—maybe she had more time for theatregoing? Word got out on Friday afternoon: the Obamas were coming to Broadway. By seven o’clock that night, Forty-Seventh Street had been partitioned off, and the Barrymore Theatre was swarming with security guys—not an unwelcome sight, after the Times reported that Broadway has had a tough time attracting men.
………………………………..
A woman announced over the speaker: “Ladies and gentlemen, out of respect for the actors please take your seats so the show can begin.” The lights went down, and the door to the street swung open. A stream of people, including the President, the First Lady (in black), and Valerie Jarrett, snaked through to the back of the house and then down the aisle. Ignoring the announcer’s pleas, the audience leaped to its feet—this usually happens at the end of the show—and camera flashes twinkled in the darkened theatre. The Obamas shook some hands and took their seats.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2014/04/watching-the-obamas-watch-a-raisin-in-the-sun.html
LOL remember PBO does not LIKE Black people & he’s losing the black vote! /snark.
It apperars last night was a WIN-WIN,f or all concerned.
Senate bill allows released criminals to vote
Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) introduced a bill Thursday that would give criminals the right to vote after they are released from prison. S. 2235, the Democracy Restoration Act,
would restore voting rights to the nearly 3 million people who cannot
vote even after they’re released from prison because they have been convicted of a felony.[….]
Some states have already restored these voting rights. But 35 states don’t let convicts vote while on parole, and 11 states have a lifetime ban on voting.[….] Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) has a companion measure in the House.
http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/203381-senate-bill-allows-released-criminals-to-vote
About time. You do the crime & time, your freedom to vote should be restored.
Americans love stories about sin and redemption, but they are unable to apply what they love in fiction to real life. But, redemption or not, people who have paid their debt to society should not be disenfranchised. It’s just wrong.
A book on Blacks elected between 1865 and 1876:
“Before Obama 2 volumes: A Reappraisal of Black Reconstruction Era Politicians”
by Matthew Lynch
hmm….I only wanted the title in bold print. This posting of mine is hard on the eyes!
The posting is just FINE, Yahtc. Thanks you.
Don’t worry about the bold print. Thank you for the information.
from TOD’s DonnaDem:
https://twitter.com/NoShock/status/455401806177116160/photo/1
So very precious!
Sweet little angels.
https://twitter.com/UniteBlueTX/status/455173716821823488/photo/1
ok, looked over at TOD, at the pic of the First Couple’s signed tax return.
Let me just have the LOL moment of seeing in ‘ Occupation’
” US President”
” US First Lady”
tickled me to death.
https://twitter.com/TimJHanrahan/status/454715085689090048/photo/1
Hey NOW!
Democrats finally make voting rights a top priority
04/13/14 08:49 AM—Updated 04/13/14 09:05 AM
By Zachary Roth
For years, voting-rights advocates have been quietly urging Democrats and the Obama administration to fully embrace the fight over access to the ballot as a defining civil-rights issue of our day. This was the week when it finally happened.
The heightened rhetoric, which came from President Obama and other heavyweights in his party, is the latest sign that voting rights are likely to be a front-burner issue when Americans go to the polls this fall—at least if Democrats have their way.
In a speech at the National Action Network convention in New York City Friday afternoon, Obama used his most forceful language yet on the subject to condemn Republican efforts to make voting harder.
“The right to vote is threatened today in a way that it has not been since the Voting Rights Act became law nearly five decades ago,” the president said. “Across the country, Republicans have led efforts to pass laws making it harder, not easier, for people to vote.”
Obama continually linked today’s battles to the historic movement for African-American voting rights half a century ago, invoking the three young civil-rights activists who were murdered in Mississippi in 1964 while registering voters.
“Americans did not stand up and did not march and did not sacrifice to gain the right to vote, for themselves and for others, only to see it denied to their kids and their grandkids,” Obama said, drawing raucous cheers from the crowd. “We’ve got to pay attention to this.”
Obama even took time to dissect the arguments of those who argue that voter ID laws are needed to stop fraud, citing a study showing a fraud rate of just 0.00002%.
“So let’s be clear,” Obama said. “The real voter fraud is people who try to deny our rights by making bogus arguments about voter fraud.”
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/obama-democrats-go-all-voting-rights
Republicans, Racism, and Reasonable Suspicion
Tommy Christopher on April 11, 2014
Jonathan Chait of New York Magazine has been making a spectacle of himself lately, most recently tying himself in knots trying to explain away his essay on race in the Obama Era. On Thursday night’s All In with Chris Hayes, his point seems to have evolved into a plea for fairness to Republicans, while conceding that everything about Republicanism is legitimately racist. He told Chris Hayes that “you can go to almost any issue and see a racial dynamic, and I really think you can, and you can legitimately,” but somehow, legitimately identifying those racial dynamics is somehow unfair, and contributes to a “poisonous dynamic.”
I don’t get it, and I don’t agree with either end of that hypothesis. There are many issues that either don’t have a racial dynamic, or have racial dynamics that intersect the partisan divide, and discussing those issues that do have a racial dynamic in racial terms isn’t just fair, it is essential. However, on Chait’s own terms, if every partisan issue can legitimately be viewed as racial, how could it possibly be unfair to discuss that? We’ll have to wait for Chait’s next appearance on MSNBC to explain that, but in the meantime, we can look for clues in what he actually wrote, and in his cherry-picked response to critics.
The most problematic aspect of Chait’s “The Color of His Presidency” was his assertion that “the ability to label a person racist represents, in 21st-century America, real and frequently terrifying power,” an absurd characterization that’s only sweetened by his comparison of MSNBC commentators’ examination of racial issues to Stop and Frisk.
http://thedailybanter.com/2014/04/jonathan-chait-republicans-racism-and-reasonable-suspicion/#.U0gzEjK0EIE.twitter
https://twitter.com/BlackHistoryUS/status/455386147040935936/photo/1/large
Yes, can you imagine if these armed protesters were Black??
This is definitely a case of White Privilege!!!
“Feds Turn From Landlords To Warlords”: Koch Groups Back Rancher Making Violent Threats Against Federal Gov’t
Blog ››› April 11, 2014 12:57 PM EDT
Two affiliates of the Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity are helping conservative media promote the cause of a Nevada rancher who has made violent threats against the federal government.
Cliven Bundy, a cattle rancher in Nevada, has refused to remove his animals from public property in violation of a federal court order.
In 1993, Bundy declined to pay government fees that are required in order to allow his cattle to graze on the public land. In 1998 a court order told Bundy to remove his cattle as part of an effort to protect an endangered desert tortoise in the area. He refused. In July 2013, a federal court order told Bundy to remove his cattle from the land or they would be confiscated. He disobeyed the order, and confiscation has begun. The government will auction the animals and use the proceeds to pay off the $1 million in fines that Bundy owes the government.
Bundy’s ongoing refusal to obey the law and court orders has become a cause célèbre for the conservative media, which has compared the situation to deadly standoffs like Waco and Ruby Ridge.
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/04/11/feds-turn-from-landlords-to-warlords-koch-group/198857
Nancy LeTourneau: An Open Letter To My “Disappointed” Democratic Friends
Dear Disappointeds: Back in 2010 you told us that you were disappointed in the President you helped elect. And because of that, you weren’t motivated enough to vote in the midterms. While I don’t share your disappointment, I want to say that I hear you. Now we’re facing another midterm election and we have the benefit of hindsight to tell us what changed as a result of your lack of enthusiasm. Sure, you might have wanted single payer and a larger stimulus package.
But you have to admit that Obamacare is doing an awful lot of good. And perhaps you should read Michael Grunwald’s book The New New Deal to learn how the American Recovery Act was way more than many of us thought it was at the time. Its “gut check” time for all of us. I don’t know about you, but after these last four years I’m actually psyched to get back to Democrats arguing with other Democrats over HOW MUCH change we want to see rather than being pissed at Republicans all the time for their total obstruction. There’s a lot riding on this one. I hope we can all work together to make that happen.
http://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2014/04/an-open-letter-to-my-disappointed.html?spref=tw
Smartypants is TRUTH-TELLING here, like she ALWAYS does.
Joy Reid ✔ @JoyAnnReid
Follow
What Chait’s critics are simply asking is that black views on this race-political divide be taken seriously by him. That’s not an attack.
10:47 AM – 13 Apr 2014
Tell it Joy. MHP interviewed him from a remote VILLAGE. I guess he couldn’t make it on the set last weekend with her and Ta’ nehasi Coates.
Bottom line, he became defensive with MHP’s set up of his article and his ongoing exchange with Coates. And that he is being MISUNDERSTOOD!
GTFOH
Published on Feb 27, 2014
A Counter-Narrative on Black Male Students: At Central High School’s Black History Month Celebration, the Central and Centennial High School African-American Clubs released a joint video countering the negative images of young African-American males in the media. The students affirmed the following in a video highlighting the successes of young black males within the District:
• We are not gangsters and thugs.
• We are employees and volunteers.
• We are scholars.
• We are athletes.
“The negative stories told daily in the media and in our culture about our young African-American men tend to ignore their successes and don’t tell the full story about how young Black men are becoming leaders within our community schools,” said Central School Social Worker and African-American Club Sponsors Tiffany Gholson and Barbara Cook, who worked with the students on this effort. “In this video, our students reclaim the narrative of who they are and inspire other students to follow in their footsteps.” In our assembly, we addressed the State of the Youth and highlighted what Black students have overcome from a historical perspective. The assembly also highlighted how overcoming those obstacles has helped make America stronger and urged students of all backgrounds to carry the torch for future generations.
http://youtu.be/D7vNEl4Br0w
Major COOL! We will not be DEFINED.
Good Morning, Everyone :)
I agree that folks who write about RACE and don’t fully ACKNOWLEDGE the STRUCTURAL, SYSTEMIC INTENTIONAL component of RACE to deny POC are COMPLICIT in UPHOLDING the very RACIST system that DENIES.
I see MHP is interviewing Jonathan Chait from a remote location this morning.
From what I heard Chait say, he declares folks who read his New York article “MISUNDERSTOOD” where he was coming from.
Aretha Franklin and Mavis Staples – Oh Happy Day
So good…..thank you, SG2.
Blessings!
Good morning, everyone!
Did y’all know Mavis Staples had a romantic relationship with Bob Dylan? Bob Dylan asked Mavis to marry him and she said turned him down.
Bob Dylan—>player! :)
http://www.biography.com/people/mavis-staples-17178794#romantic-relationships&awesm=~oBi5W1XdcoCjSD
Good Morning, SG2 & Everyone. Mavis did her thing.
I didn’t know about the Dylan proposal to Mavis, though.
https://twitter.com/BlkHistStudies/status/455430839665692672/photo/1/large