We continue this week of Black Comedians with trailblazer Moms Mabley
Jackie “Moms” Mabley (March 19, 1894 – May 23, 1975), born Loretta Mary Aiken, was an American standup comedian. A veteran of the Chitlin’ circuit of African-American vaudeville, she later appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show and the The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.
Career
She took her stage name, Jackie Mabley, from an early boyfriend, commenting to Ebony in a 1970s interview that he’d taken so much from her, it was the least she could do to take his name.[7] Later she became known as “Moms” because she was indeed a “Mom” to many other comedians on the circuit in the 1950s and 1960s. She came out as a lesbian at the age of twenty-seven, becoming one of the first triple-X rated comedians on the comedy circuit.[8]
During the 1920s and 1930s she appeared in androgynous clothing (as she did in the film version of The Emperor Jones with Paul Robeson) and recorded several of her early “lesbian stand-up” routines. Mabley was one of the top women doing stand-up in her heyday, eventually recording more than 20 albums of comedy routines. She appeared in movies, on television, and in clubs.
Mabley was one of the most successful entertainers of the Chitlin’ circuit, earning US$10,000 a week at Harlem’s Apollo Theater at the height of her career. She made her New York City debut at Connie’s Inn in Harlem.[9] In the 1960s, she became known to a wider white audience, playing Carnegie Hall in 1962, and making a number of mainstream TV appearances, particularly her multiple appearances on the The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour when that CBS show was number one on television in the late 1960s, which introduced her to a whole new Boomer audience.[10][11]
Mabley was billed as “The Funniest Woman in the World”. She tackled topics too edgy for many other comics of the time, including racism. One of her regular themes was a romantic interest in handsome young men rather than old “washed-up geezers,” and she got away with it courtesy of her stage persona, where she appeared as a toothless, bedraggled woman in a house dress and floppy hat.[12][13] She also added the occasional satirical song to her jokes, and her cover version of “Abraham, Martin and John” hit #35 on the Hot 100 on 19 July 1969. At 75 years old, Moms Mabley became the oldest person ever to have a US Top 40 hit.
Personal life
Mabley had six children: Bonnie, Christine, Charles, and Yvonne Ailey,[9][14] and two given up for adoption when she was a teenager.[15] She died from heart failure in White Plains, New York on May 23, 1975.[1] She is interred at Ferncliff Cemetery, Hartsdale, New York.
from Balloon Juice comments:
When dear Lord is this bitch going away? WORTHLESS PIECE-O-SHIT
Feinstein Expresses ‘Dismay’ White House Didn’t Follow Law On Bergdahl Release
CAITLIN MACNEAL – JUNE 3, 2014, 5:16 PM EDT
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) on Tuesday bashed the White House for failing to notify Congress before negotiating for the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.
“I strongly believe that we should have been consulted, that the law should have been followed. And I very much regret that that was not the case,” Feinstein told reporters on Capitol Hill.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/feinstein-white-house-violated-law-bergdahl
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
Why the prisoner exchange is a big issue for the neocons
Smartypants
We’re hearing all kinds of hysteria about the prisoner exchange that resulted in the release of Sergeant Bergdahl. The media is indulging claims about Bergdahl’s state of mind, whether or not the President was required to consult with Congress prior to finalizing the exchange and stories about soldiers who may have died trying to rescue him. But that’s all hyperbole designed to gin up the anti-Obama base. I propose that the real issue for conservatives actually centers on the other side of the exchange…the release of the 5 Taliban detainees from Gitmo.
http://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2014/06/why-prisoner-exchange-is-big-issue-for.html
http://hrexach.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/picture4.jpg?w=584
A Baby, A Wedding Dress and a Drag Down the Aisle: Failing Successfully
LUVVIE
There is never a shortage of mess on these interwebs and last week, and I already blogged about the bridal party and their drunk in love routine. Wells, some woman named Shona Carter-Brooks was all over everywhere. I was gon let Shona be and let the rest of everyone deal with it but enough of you sent me the pic and told me to put my 2 cents in that I was left choiceless.
She decided it’d be a good idea to attach her one-month old baby to the train of her wedding dress, so when she walked down the aisle, the baby was right behind her.
Yes, this really happened.
http://www.awesomelyluvvie.com/2014/06/bride-baby-wedding-dress-dragged.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Luvvie+%28Awesomely+Luvvie%29
Cantor trumpets his anti-immigration role
06/03/14 12:56 PM—Updated 06/03/14 01:59 PM
By Steve Benen
A couple of weeks ago, the Associated Press ran an article on efforts to pass comprehensive immigration reform and who proponents blame for Congress’ failure to act.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) is “the No. 1 guy standing between the American people and immigration reform,” Frank Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice, a pro-immigrant group, said in the piece.
At the time, Cantor’s office was dismissive of the article, openly mocking it. Even in the AP piece itself, one of the Majority Leader’s top aides, Doug Heye, emphasized Cantor’s willingness to work on some areas of immigration policy, adding, “Eric Cantor’s position on immigration remains consistent.”
As Sabrina Siddiqui discovered, Cantor’s “consistency” is very much in doubt.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) has, in recent weeks, highlighted his efforts to block comprehensive immigration reform as he looks to fend off a June 10 primary election challenge. But on Monday, a new mailer touting his tough stance on immigration cited a report that at least one of Cantor’s staffers on Capitol Hill has disputed.
The mailer plays up Cantor’s role in blocking the passage of the Senate’s comprehensive immigration reform bill, which his campaign refers to as the “Obama-Reid plan to give illegal aliens amnesty.” As evidence, it cites an Associated Press article last month about immigration activists “increasingly focusing their ire at one person: Eric Cantor, the House majority leader.”
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/cantor-trumpets-his-anti-immigration-role
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
Why the prisoner exchange is a big issue for the neocons
We’re hearing all kinds of hysteria about the prisoner exchange that resulted in the release of Sergeant Bergdahl. The media is indulging claims about Bergdahl’s state of mind, whether or not the President was required to consult with Congress prior to finalizing the exchange and stories about soldiers who may have died trying to rescue him. But that’s all hyperbole designed to gin up the anti-Obama base. I propose that the real issue for conservatives actually centers on the other side of the exchange…the release of the 5 Taliban detainees from Gitmo.
Ken Gude writing at Think Progress is one of the few journalists who got to the heart of the issue with an article titled Why the Five Taliban Detainees Had to be Released Soon, No Matter What.
http://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2014/06/why-prisoner-exchange-is-big-issue-for.html
McCain’s reversals on Bowe Bergdahl
06/03/14 02:51 PM—Updated 06/03/14 04:48 PM
By Steve Benen
It was just last week when Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) delivered a Memorial Day message in which she urged Americans to keep Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl “in our thoughts and prayers.” She added, “I renew my call on the Defense Department to redouble its efforts to find Sergeant Bergdahl and return him safely to his family.”
Less than a week later, the Defense Department announced that Bergdahl had been freed and he’ll be returned safely to his family – prompting a new round of criticism from Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.).
But all things considered, these conflicting statements are mild compared to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and his recent reversals, highlighted today by Doug Mataconis.
The Arizona senator, himself a former prisoner of war, initially balked at the idea of a prisoner swap, calling the idea in 2012 “bizarre.” A few months ago, however, McCain changed his mind.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/mccains-reversals-bowe-bergdahl
those in the Armed Services know:
The Government Crackdown On Offshore Tax Dodging Just Got Real
By Alan Pyke
June 3, 2014 at 9:16 am
Over 77,000 separate foreign banks and financial firms will start sharing information on their American accountholders with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in cooperation with a major crackdown on offshore tax evasion, the Associated Press reports.
Under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), banks that continue to withhold information on their American clients from U.S. authorities have to pay substantial fees on any business they conduct in the states. Since that law passed in 2010, American authorities have gradually worked with international governments and bankers to implement its information sharing requirements. The list of 77,000 cooperating institutions released Monday by the Treasury Department is the first comprehensive look at which banks have chosen to cooperate with FATCA, and future lists may be even longer. It remains to be seen how U.S. officials will use this new information.
FATCA also establishes a process for the U.S. government to strike direct information-sharing agreements with foreign governments. Almost 70 countries have made such deals, including Switzerland and other common tax havens that have often fought to protect their clients’ privacy. The government of the Cayman Islands struck a FATCA deal last August that requires the government to collect, filter, and pass on information from banks in the Caribbean island chain. Switzerland’s deal leaves the information handling to individual companies, which are increasingly cooperating with American authorities in part because some Swiss banks have faced costly criminal prosecutions over their role in helping Americans duck the IRS.
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/06/03/3444090/fatca-tax-evasion-list/
93-year-old black man disenfranchised by Alabama voter ID law
06/03/14 02:14 PM—Updated 06/03/14 06:13 PM
By Zachary Roth
With Alabama’s voter ID law debuting today, state Republicans are offering a big cash reward to anyone who helps them dig up some voter fraud. But finding voters disenfranchised by the law isn’t difficult, even without financial incentives.
Willie Mims, 93, showed up to vote at his polling place in Escambia County Tuesday morning for Alabama’s primary elections. Mims, who is African-American, no longer drives, doesn’t have a license, and has no other form of ID. As a result, he was turned away without voting. Mims wasn’t even offered the chance to cast a provisional ballot, as the law requires in that situation.
Mims talked about what happened in this video shot by Empower Alabama:
http://youtu.be/ks-4YRZWaNY
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/voter-id-law-disenfranchises-93-year-old-black-man
Boehner: Leaders told 2 years ago of possible swap
Top members of Congress were briefed more than two years ago about the possibility of exchanging an American soldier held captive by the Taliban for five terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, House Speaker John Boehner said Tuesday.
In a statement, Boehner said lawmakers raised serious concerns that were never satisfactorily answered about the potential swap involving Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl and received assurances from the Obama administration that if a deal were more likely, Congress would be contacted
http://news.yahoo.com/boehner-leaders-told-2-years-ago-possible-swap-181430214–politics.html
Donna NoShock @NoShock
Follow
93-year-old black man disenfranchised by Alabama voter ID law http://on.msnbc.com/1otrHvK via @msnbc
3:14 PM – 3 Jun 2014
Sam Greenlee, Jr. Fund
On Monday, May 19, 2014 the world loss a solider for social change and freedom, and we loss a father, grandfather, uncle, cousin, and loving companion. Sam Greenlee, Jr. lent himself to the Foreign Service and the US Information Agency, but gave himself to his community, family, and friends. His life and legacy is one of service and commitment.
He was an author, film-maker, and music enthusiast. The book and feature film, “The Spook who sat by the door” will live forever – testifying to the seeds of racism and oppression deeply planted in the fabric of our nation, and the continual fight for freedom and justice.
We will celebrate his life and legacy on Friday, June 6, 2014 at the DuSable Museum for African American History in Chicago, Illinois starting at 6:30 PM. Your contribution will help the family meet their financial responsibilities and bring closure to some of his unfinished work. It is our hope to create a foundation in his name to support the communities he loved and the educational opportunities he deemed necessary for young people to explore new possibilities and perhaps launch system-changing movements.
Thank you for your loving support, thoughts, and prayers.
SGJ Family
https://fundly.com/sam-greenlee-family-fund?ft_src=fbshare
https://twitter.com/Leupp/status/473908914107338752
I loathe when weak ass Dems get on tv acting so damn timid. Get out there and defend what is right with the Bergdahl case. No man left behind!
https://twitter.com/TheObamaDiary/status/473894280101371904/photo/1
June 03, 2014 11:42 AM
VA Care: Still the Best Care Anywhere?
By Phillip Longman
Last week, when I accepted an invitation to go on Hugh Hewitt’s nationally syndicated talk show, his first question to me was, “So how does it feel to be the author of a book about the VA that has been thoroughly discredited?”
Well, yes, as the author of the title Best Care Anywhere, Why VA Health Care would be Better for Everyone, it’s been dispiriting to have it confirmed by a preliminary inspector general’s report that some frontline VA employees in Phoenix and elsewhere have been gaming a key performance metric regarding wait times. But what’s really has me enervated is how the dominate media narrative of the VA “scandal” has become so essentially misleading and damaging to the cause of health care delivery system reform.
I don’t mean just the fulminations of the right wing press. It’s nothing new when Fox rolls out Ollie North to proclaim that any real or reported failure of the VA is proof of the case against socialized medicine.
I’m also talking about the work of hard-working and earnest reporters, who due to a combination insufficient background knowledge and the conventions of Washington scandal coverage, wind up giving the public a fundamentally false idea of how well the VA is performing as an institution. Over the next several days, I plan to make a series of posts here at Political Animal that I hope will be helpful to those covering the story, or for those who are just trying to get the full context for forming an opinion.
Today, let’s just start by scrutinizing the now almost universal assumption that there is a “systemic” problem at VA hospitals with excessive wait times. Even progressives, including the likes of Jon Stewart and Bill Maher, seem predisposed to believe this for their different reasons. Some voices, like my former colleague Brian Beutler of The New Republic, even speculate that the scandal may ultimately bounce in a way that harms the Republicans more than it does the Democrats.
But before we go there, can we get clear on just what the underlying reality is? There is, to be sure, a systemic backlog of vets of all ages trying to establish eligibility for VA health care. This is due to absurd laws passed by Congress, which reflect on all us, that make veterans essentially prove that they are “worthy” of VA treatment (about which more later). But this backlog often gets confused with the entirely separate issue of whether those who get into system face wait times that are longer than what Americans enrolled in non-VA health care plans generally must endure.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2014_06/va_care_still_the_best_care_an050598.php
Remember Ric Grenell, the guy bounced from his gig as a Romney foreign policy spox because he was gay? He’s the one who’s been rounding up soldiers to call Bowe Bergdahl a deserter.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2014_06/lunch_buffet_570050604.php
https://twitter.com/NewsBreaker/status/473889415816019968/photo/1
My Biracial Son Said, ‘I Don’t Like Black People’
By Grace_Biskie on June 03, 2014
Syndicated
I’ve started taking my boys to our new black church. Due to significant transitions in work and other factors, I’d lost consistent, ongoing healthy interactions with A LOT of the black folks in my life. After some time, this reality hit me hard. I started asking myself all the questions:
NUMBER ONE: Where are my black people, for crying out loud?
Why don’t I have more black friends whom I see on a regular basis?
Why aren’t I reading more black authors?
Why am I default interacting with mostly white bloggers online? (Hint: they are typically easier to find).
Why aren’t I shopping, living, interacting with more black people on a daily basis?
Where can I find some black people, cuz I’m finna lose it?!
Where are my safe spaces with black folks? Where, God in heaven, am I safe on this planet? 2013 was SUCH a bad year for Black Americans.
When we pulled into the parking lot on Mother’s Day, eight and a-half year old Ransom sighed.
“Ugh. Mama, I don’t want to go this one. I wanted to go to Daddy’s (white) church!”
Rhysie, who is four and a-half, followed suit. “Yeah, Mama. I didn’t want to go to this one.”
I lug them out of the car, pontificating about having a good attitude and being thankful for all things blah blah blah when I realize I need to tell them the truth.
“Look boys, it’s good for Mama to be around other black people. Mama needs more black people in her life.”
“I don’t like black people!” Rhysie says in a huff, stomping his foot for good measure.
I sigh. What I remind myself quickly—he’s four and a-half. He does not know what in thee hell he’s talking about. Also? I’m positive he’s blissfully and conceptually challenged to what race, ethnicity and cultural identity *actually* mean. In our 14 year marriage, we’d spent the first five years in all black church and the remaining nine in all white church. I left that church because, instinctively, I knew if I didn’t get around my people—in a healthy context, I would shrivel and die. Shrivel. Die. Rinse. Repeat.
http://www.blogher.com/i-dont-black-people
Worker records ‘racist’ supervisor in cotton warehouse
Posted 5:45 pm, June 2, 2014, by Sabrina Hall
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — There are shocking allegations of racial discrimination in a Memphis cotton warehouse.
Two men filed charges against the Atkinson Cotton Warehouse.
They’re accusing their former supervisor of calling them “monkeys” and telling them the water fountain and microwave were for white people only.
The cotton industry’s history reminds some people of slavery.
Antonio Harris and Marrio Mangrum say their former supervisor was stuck in the past.
“He would be like, ‘You need to think like a white man,” said Mangrum
“He pulled his pants down in front of us and told us to kiss his white tail ,” said Harris.
He said after months of racist comments and feeling powerless, he decided to use his phone as a weapon to fight back.
He recorded his attempt to drink water from a water fountain in the warehouse office.
“Hey!” says the supervisor in the recording.
“What?” asked Harris.
“I need to put a sign here that says `white people only.”
Harris also recorded his attempt to use the microwave.
“I am going to use the microwave,” said Harris in the recording.
“Hell no!” said the supervisor.
“Why can’t I use the microwave, man?”
“Because you are not white.”
“For real?”
“As a white man, we don`t even let Larry use it.”
“Larry has been there 10 to 20 years and he is a black guy also,” Mangrum told WREG.
http://wreg.com/2014/06/02/worker-records-racist-supervisor-in-cotton-gin/
Is There a Hidden Message in the Taliban’s 2014 Fighting Season Plan?
by Jonah Blank
Mid-May marks an annual rite observed in Afghanistan for the past 35 years: the start of the spring fighting season. The patterns of nature shape the patterns of warfare: Plant poppy, hunker down for the winter, harvest opium, then go to war. Now that this year’s opium crop has been mostly harvested, it is time to fight.
On May 27, President Barack Obama outlined his plan to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan — leaving 9,800 by the end of 2014, with a full withdrawal by the end of 2016. A couple weeks earlier, however, the Taliban, with their estimated 30,000 soldiers, announced “Khaibar,” their own plan for the operations they will be conducting this spring and summer.
The Taliban generally name each year’s offensive after an event or person from early Islamic history. In the strategically significant Battle of Khaibar, fought in the seventh year of the Islamic calendar, or 628 CE, the Muslim forces defeated a much larger army composed of several Jewish tribes and their Arab allies. If the Taliban’s choice of this ancient battle has a specific symbolic meaning — and, as in past years, any precise correlation between names and meanings remains conjecture — it could mean several interesting things.
http://www.rand.org/blog/2014/05/is-there-a-hidden-message-in-the-talibans-2014-fighting.html
June 03, 2014 11:12 AM
Mandate By Poll
By Ed Kilgore
In reporting on a finding in the latest ABC-WaPo survey, The Fix’s Aaron Blake uses a very annoying term: mandate:
Aside from the irritating multiple use of “the American people” to refer to 51% of poll respondents, Blake’s assertion that marginal poll preferences represent a “mandate” is a use of that term that I don’t see applied consistently by WaPo or anyone else. If poll findings at any given moment are supposed to determine the legitimacy or illegitimacy of a given position on a particular issue, then we would have long since seen the enactment of climate change and gun safety legislation, and nobody would be talking about Social Security or Medicare privatization of benefit cuts ever again.
With the entire Republican Party united behind Benghazi! as a major campaign theme, and given the leading nature of poll questions about whether or not to investigate something many among “the American people” have little detailed knowledge of, the deck is pretty well stacked on that topic. I’ve argued all along that the illegitimacy of the Benghazi! probes beyond the earliest inquiries was demonstrated by the fact that even the most negative construction of the events of 9/11/12 do not prove anything beyond bad luck, heat-of-the-moment confusion, and poor crisis management. Additional “investigations” are really just an excuse to make the same arguments about the same facts over and over again. But throwing a term like “mandate” into the stew makes no sense at all.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2014_06/mandate_by_poll050599.php
Illinois Passes Landmark Progressive Voting Reform
By Scott Keyeson June 2, 2014 at 10:52 am
The fifth largest state in the nation passed one of the most impactful progressive voting reforms last week, a move that will likely result in hundreds of thousands of new voters.
On Friday, both Illinois legislative chambers approved HB 105, a bill that allows state residents to register to vote on Election Day. The Land of Lincoln had previously cut off voter registration three days before Election Day.
The bill passed by wide margins; 39-17 in the Senate and 64-41 in the House. It now goes to Gov. Pat Quinn’s (D) desk, who is expected to sign the legislation.
Election Day registration is, in many ways, the anti-voter ID. Voter ID laws, which have been en vogue among conservatives recently, could disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of voters (though different studies have reached different conclusions regarding how many voters will be disenfranchised by voter ID, even conservative estimates suggest that 2 to 3 percent of registered voters will be impacted). Election Day registration, on the other hand, tends to boost turnout between 7 to 14 percentage points, according to scientific studies. These gains come predominantly from the very groups that voter ID tends to discriminate against: minorities, young voters, and low-income Americans.
There are a few reasons why Election Day registration has such a significant impact on turnout. Requiring people to register before they actually cast a ballot presents an extra hurdle to voting that necessarily depresses turnout. In addition, many Americans don’t begin paying attention to an election until just before Election Day, at which point it is too late to register in many states. Finally, nearly one in eight Americans move in an average year. Unless they remember to update their voter registration before Election Day or live in a state with Election Day registration, they can’t vote.
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/06/02/3443622/illinois-election-day-registration/
Listening to the radio this morning, and folks were like, ‘ doesn’t the President have better advisers. The timing of this just isn’t good optics for him’.
I just went ‘SIGH’.
Watched Maddow’s show last night. Didn’t understand why, but we had someone from Qatar – the first one in fact- who just graduated from West Point. The last Emir of Qatar (silly me, I thought it was a hereditary position, but it seems to be some sort of elected position) attended this young man’s graduation. This man still has enormous power and influence in Qatar.
That was Wednesday. It was FRIDAY, that the crew of diplomats from Qatar showed up in Guantanamo Bay.
Now, call me a tinfoil hat wearer, but, I don’t remotely believe that it’s a ‘coincidence’ that this man showed up when the President was giving the Commencement Speech. But, maybe, I’m just suspicious that way.
JESUS, LET ME PRAY FOR THESE POOR SOULS:
Brokey McPoverty @brokeymcpoverty
insane: the bodies of 800 babies were found in the septic tank of a former home for unwed mothers http://www.buzzfeed.com/tracyclayton/the-bodies-of-800-babies-were-found-in-the-septic-tank-of-a …
KA POW!
Suspect accused of having explosives arrested near Golden Gate Bridge”
http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/03/us/california-explosive-materials-suspect/
https://twitter.com/JoiningForces/status/473821033880109057/photo/1
https://twitter.com/BestEarthPix/status/473817634350592000/photo/1
What a fucking tool
Seven Big Cases The Supreme Court Will Decide In June That Could Change America
By Ian MillhiserJune 2, 2014 at 9:00 am
It’s Supreme Court month again. According to the Court’s official calendar, the final day of the Supreme Court’s current term is the last day of this month — which means that, barring extraordinary circumstances, we should know how the justices intend to resolve each of the issues currently pending before them by June 30.
Among the issues facing the justices are the president’s power to fill top jobs in the face of a recalcitrant Senate, a legal attack on public sector unions, a case questioning when police can search all the data that can be accessed on a person’s cell phone, and an attempt to give employers sweeping immunity from laws they object to on religious grounds. Here are some of the most important cases to be decided this month:
Recess Appointments
On the eve of the Supreme Court’s oral arguments in National Labor Relations Board v. Noel Canning, a case that could effectively eliminate the president’s constitutional authority to temporarily appoint government officials while the Senate is in recess, the Obama Administration’s position looked grim. In the lower courts, judges split entirely on partisan lines when they considered this issue — and there are five Republicans on the Supreme Court and only four Democrats. Yet the oral argument in Noel Canning went even worse for the administration than the partisan results in the lower courts would suggest. Clinton-appointed Justice Stephen Breyer said that he could not find anything in the Constitution that will “allow the president to overcome Senate resistance” to a nominee. Obama-appointed Justice Elena Kagan suggested that “it was the Senate’s job to decide” when it’s in recess.
Though there are two possible ways that the justices could snuff out the recess appointments power, the distinction between them is largely academic — in either event a Senate that was determined not to permit recess appointees from taking office will be able to do so. That means that the impact of this decision could be felt in 2015. If Republicans take back the Senate, and the Supreme Court cuts off his recess appointments power, President Obama will be defenseless if Senate Republicans refuse to confirm anyone that he nominates to any job.
The biggest impact of a decision against the administration, however, could be felt in 2018. The reason why President Obama made the recess appointments that triggered this lawsuit in the first place is because the National Labor Relations Board — which has sole authority to enforce much of federal labor law — was about to lose the minimum number of members it must have in order to operate. Though this impasse eventually broke in 2013 when Senate Democrats threatened to change the Senate’s rules if necessary to confirm nominees to the NLRB, the members of that board only serve five year terms. Thus, if Republicans control the Senate in 2018, they could shut down the NLRB by refusing to confirm anyone to fill its empty seats — and shut down most of the legal protections that allow unions to exist in the process.
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/06/02/3443553/eight-big-cases-the-supreme-court-will-decide-by-the-end-of-this-month/
Paul Waldman: The four GOP arguments against bringing back Bowe Bergdahl
Over the weekend the government announced that it had negotiated a deal for the release of Bowe Bergdahl, the sole American being held by the Taliban in Afghanistan. In exchange, five Taliban prisoners at Guantanamo will be transferred to Qatar, where their movements will be restricted for a year.
Republicans will now attempt to turn this into a liability for President Obama. As Michael Tomasky put it, this is “the right’s new Benghazi.” So it’s worth looking at their actual arguments. There are four of them, with varying levels of persuasiveness.
1) The first argument is, to put it bluntly, that Bergdahl didn’t deserve to be rescued. The problem here isn’t the facts that support this claim, it’s the conclusion. It’s true that Bergdahl wasn’t the model of a heroic, patriotic soldier. He didn’t get captured while saving his platoon in a firefight. He was disgruntled with the war. He walked off his base, and some of those with whom he served consider him a deserter. According to some accounts he thought he would walk all the way to India, which suggests someone who was not in his right mind.
But the question is, should the government conduct a character study on every American servicemember who gets taken prisoner, and seek the release only of those who are sufficiently virtuous? Do we leave no one behind, or do we leave some behind if they don’t pass the test?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/06/02/the-four-gop-arguments-against-bringing-back-bowe-bergdahl/
in today’s chapter of Charter Schools are Phucking SCAMS
……………………
SEC charges UNO with defrauding investors, warns probe ‘not done’
Mon, 06/02/2014 – 11:06am
Dan Mihalopoulos
he federal government alleged Monday that the clout-heavy United Neighborhood Organization defrauded bond investors by “making materially misleading statements” about charter school construction contracts involving an UNO insider.
Although the organization has agreed to settle civil charges leveled by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, a federal official here said the case isn’t closed.
“We’re not done,” said Peter K.M. Chan, the SEC’s assistant regional director for the municipal securities and public pensions unit in Chicago. “With regard to other parties that may have contributed to UNO’s securities violations, the investigation continues. So charges against others, including individuals, are possible.”
Chan declined to comment on what the federal government might do next. But the SEC’s complaint filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Chicago appears to point blame squarely at Juan Rangel, who was the longtime leader of the Hispanic community group and its charter network.
Rangel was co-chairman of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s 2011 mayoral campaign and also forged close relationships with state House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) and many other local political leaders. Legislation sponsored by Madigan and signed by Gov. Pat Quinn in 2009 promised $98 million for new UNO schools.
http://politics.suntimes.com/article/chicago/sec-charges-uno-defrauding-investors-warns-probe-not-done/mon-06022014-1106am
Prince attended French Open with a cane and supermodel Damaris Lewis
this shyt ain’t making no damn sense people.
……………………….
Laundromat patrons try to make sense of violence that left 6 shot
BY STEFANO ESPOSITO Staff Reporter June 3, 2014 8:11AM
A discarded strip of blood-smeared police tape fluttered in the breeze early Tuesday, as a man hauled a tub of dirty laundry into Sudz Coin Laundry on East 79th — the morning after six people were shot there.
Plywood covered over some windows, but otherwise it was business as usual at the laundromat.
Inside, competing with the jabber on the big-screen TV and the slosh of a dozen washing machines, customers Roger Chandler and Oliver Guiton were trying to wrap their minds around what had happened the night before.
“This is a laundromat — it ain’t no liquor store,” said Guiton, 61, sipping a Dr. Pepper. “I don’t understand it.”
Chandler nodded in agreement.
“It’s just crazy,” he said.
The six shot about 8:15 p.m. Monday included two boys, ages 14 and 16, police said. The others who were shot ranged in age from their mid-20s to their early 50s.
The 14-year-old was taken to University of Chicago Comer Children’s Hospital, while the 16-year-old was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Langford said. Both were in serious-to-critical condition.
“Four of them we found in the laundromat not far from the door,” Langford said. “The others we found on the street.”
A seventh person, a woman, was taken to a hospital after falling while running from the scene.
http://www.suntimes.com/27843798-761/laundromat-patrons-try-to-make-sense-of-violence-that-left-6-shot.html
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https://twitter.com/NorthernTails1/status/473284949517537280/photo/1
Nerdy Wonka @NerdyWonka
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PBO: We..get an American soldier back if he’s held in captivity. Period. Full stop. We don’t condition that
GOP/MSM: Unless POTUS is Black
7:29 AM – 3 Jun 2014
https://twitter.com/hahnsmith/status/473185250508435456/photo/1
Rev. Al has been doing a great job finding different angles to point out the absurdity of the GOP going against the First Lady’s healthy food in schools program.
Did find out something interesting from Rev. Al’s segment yesterday. I had thought that the standards and everything they’ve been working on are already law. Facts are, the law gets re-authorized in 2015.
I did appreciate Rev. Al’s guest comparing this fight to the fight from the GOP about Obamacare. Love pointing out the parallel.
I also loved the example of comparing the plates. How ketchup was qualified as a ‘vegetable’- yes, thank you Ronald Reagan.
That this is about Big Food.
Celeb chef Tom Colicchio bashes GOP food plan
Republicans in the House have been pushing to roll back some of the healthy lunch standards that First Lady Michelle Obama has championed. Celebrity chef Tom Colicchio explains why he’s speaking out against those efforts, and what makes a balanced meal for American kids.
http://www.msnbc.com/politicsnation/watch/celeb-chef-bashes-gop-food-plan-272409155677
https://twitter.com/uniformcritic/status/473574340400001024/photo/1
Clemente, Mays, and Aaron!
http://youtu.be/ewNH9rP9y94
Too cool “Devion, give me a LITTLE Bro Hug.”
Our kids love their president and he loves them.
Neil deGrasse Tyson: When the rich start losing money, they’ll take climate change seriously
By Arturo Garcia
Monday, June 2, 2014 22:51 EDT
Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson characterized the naysaying surrounding climate change as par for the course in footage aired on Monday from his interview with MSNBC host Chris Hayes,
“The evidence will show up when they need more evidence,” deGrasse Tyson told Hayes. “More storms, more coastlines getting lost. People beginning to lose their wealth. People, if they begin to lose their wealth, they change their mind real fast, I’ve found — particularly in a capitalist culture.”
In the interview, which was filmed last week in New York City, the Cosmos host said that denial of scientific truths generally goes through three stages: First, skeptics say it can’t be true. Then, they say it contradicts the Bible. Finally, they admit the clues were there all along.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/06/02/neil-degrasse-tyson-when-the-rich-start-losing-money-theyll-take-climate-change-seriously/
https://twitter.com/HumanAfrica/status/473443889341542400/photo/1
From the latest beautiful batch of WH photos: A U.S. Marine salutes the arrival of President Barack Obama aboard Marine One at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, Ill., April 2, 2014 (Photo by Chuck Kennedy)
https://twitter.com/haaretzcom/status/473792262581657600/photo/1
After hearing Alice Walker read The Color Purple on the radio, Whoopi Goldberg says she took it upon herself to write the author a letter. If she ever turned her novel into a movie, Whoopi would love to play “dirt on the floor.” As it turns out, Walker already knew who Whoopi was—and she wanted her for a much bigger role. Watch to see why Whoopi wasn’t allowed to tell anyone she had landed the leading role of Celie, and how she felt walking onto the set that first day.
http://youtu.be/QeAZmOwYKNo
Obama: We don’t leave those in uniform behind
“Whatever the circumstances may turn out to be, we still get an American soldier back if he is held in captivity. Period. Full stop. We don’t condition that.”
http://article.wn.com/view/2014/06/03/Obama_We_dont_leave_those_in_uniform_behind/
MOMS! Good Morning, Everyone.
Good Morning, Everyone at 3CHICS!
Good morning, everyone!
Loves Moms Mabley.