The trio comes to the house of Pete’s cousin, Washington B. “Wash” Hogwallop (Frank Collison), who removes their chains, but because he needs the money from the bounty, turns them in to the police, led by Sheriff Cooley (Daniel von Bargen). The authorities set the barn where they are sleeping ablaze, but the trio quickly escapes with the help of Wash’s son. When they pass a congregation on the banks of a river, Pete and Delmar are enticed by the idea of baptism, to the immense derision of the skeptical Everett. As the journey continues, they travel briefly with a young guitarist named Tommy Johnson (Chris Thomas King). When asked why he was at a crossroads in the middle of nowhere, he reveals that he sold his soul to the devil in exchange for the ability to play the guitar. Tommy describes the devil as being “White, as white as you folks…with empty eyes and a big hollow voice. He love to travel around with a mean old hound,” a description which matches Sheriff Cooley and his dog.
Reblogged this on Home Sweet Home WY and commented:
😆
DRIVING WHILE BLACK IS REAL!
………………….
Black Man Accused of Being Illegal Cab Driver While Dropping Wife Off at Work
According to a lawsuit filed in state Supreme Court, Dan Keys Jr. of New York City was dropping off his biracial wife, Symone Palermo, at work when he was pulled over by investigators and his town car was confiscated.
BY: BREANNA EDWARDS
Posted: June 11 2014 11:38 AM
A couple is suing New York City’s Taxi and Limousine Commission for a hefty $3 million for racially profiling the husband as he dropped his wife off at work, DNA.info reports, and accusing him of being an illegal taxi driver with an unsuspecting white passenger—his wife.
The TLC confiscated the couple’s Lincoln Town Car for more than a week and gave each of them a summons, even as the couple attempted to explain the situation to the agents.
According to the report, back in May 2013, Dan Keys Jr., 66, who is black, was dropping off his biracial wife, 53-year-old Symone Palermo, at her job in the New York City borough of Queens. Palermo was sitting in the backseat because rain had gotten in on the front passenger seat the evening before.
After Palermo got out of the car and Keys drove off, Keys was pulled over by TLC agents, who accused him of using the car as an illegal taxicab, tossing in the line that a “white female” passenger had confirmed that he was unlicensed, DNA.info notes. Palermo did return to the scene to try and get everything cleared up, but instead each of them got a summons and their car was taken away. In addition, Palermo was given a ticket because the car is in her name.
http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/06/black_man_s_town_car_confiscated_accused_of_being_illegal_taxi_cab_driver.html
“Calif. Elementary School Students Collect $3,000 Worth of Can Tabs for Classmate’s Surgery”
http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/06/california_elementary_school_students_collect_3_000_worth_of_can_tabs_for.html
“Oprah Winfrey Will Portray Annie Lee Cooper in Civil Rights Drama Selma”
http://www.theroot.com/blogs/the_grapevine/2014/06/oprah_winfrey_will_portray_annie_lee_cooper_in_civil_rights_drama_selma.html
FIERCENESS…GRACE…BEAUTY.
Indiana GOP candidate: ‘No one has the guts’ to let poor people ‘wither and die’
By Travis Gettys
A northwest Indiana Republican has backtracked on outrageous comments he made on Facebook about poor people.
John Johnston, who is challenging Democratic state Rep. Chuck Moseley for the 10th District seat, said during a social media discussion on poverty that “no one has the guts to just let them wither and die.”
The Valparaiso resident told The Post-Tribune on Tuesday that his comments were simply hyperbole, and he told the paper no thoughtful society would allow people to go hungry.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/06/11/indiana-gop-candidate-no-one-has-the-guts-to-let-poor-people-wither-and-die/
https://twitter.com/FLOTUS/status/477154676610445312/photo/1
https://twitter.com/stevebenen/statuses/477167407468142592
A Man Of Constant Sorrow
Cool!
Ms Nancy is one good looking woman.
Hey, everyone!
Y’all should have seen Haley’s face while reading your comments about her drawing. Totally priceless.
I should have taken a photo of her smile when I read Ametia asking for an autographed copy. LOLOLOLOL!
LOL So precious, Ms. Haley. I’ll be checking my mailbox everyday, until that autographed copy of “Mordecai” arrives. I’m 100% SERIOUS too.
I’ll be sure to tell her. I can’t stop laughing about her smiling away that you ask for an autograph. LOL.
I just got a collection of frames from an antique shop. I just know her drawing of Modecai will fit into one of them. I place it on the wall in my home office.
She will be delighted.
Homeless D.C. valedictorian earns full scholarship to Georgetown
by Eun Kyung Kim, TODAY | June 12, 2014 at 1:01 PM
http://thegrio.com/2014/06/12/homeless-valedictorian-earns-scholarship-georgetown/
The Ruby Dee Thread is up.
It’s PRICELESS. Thank you.
I don’t know how to say this in how many different words, but here it is…
and folks better wake up.
………….
Hillary Clinton Would Consider Keeping U.S. Forces in Afghanistan After 2016
by Evan McMurry | 12:41 pm, June 12th, 2014
At an event at the Council on Foreign Relations Thursday, presumptive 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said she would consider keeping residual U.S. forces in Afghanistan following President Barack Obama’s final 2016 withdrawal date.
“I would,” Clinton said. “It depends upon conditions on the ground.”
Clinton said that if the next-elected president of Afghanistan “were to come up with a well thought-through plan of what is needed, I believe that would be very seriously considered.”
Clinton’s comments come just two weeks after Obama announced the total drawdown of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, but as the situation in Iraq deteriorates absent the presence of residual American military personnel.
http://www.mediaite.com/online/hillary-clinton-would-consider-keeping-u-s-forces-in-afghanistan-after-2016/
Yes; we know Hillary loves gun fire and sniper bullets!
https://twitter.com/sonsandbros/status/477126798762057728/photo/1
Judge me. Last night I watched VH1’s Love & Hip-Hop: Atlanta. When it comes to the image of black people on TV, it gets no worse than most—but not all—of the cast. (Exhibit A: This season’s leading storyline involves an allegedly homemade sex tape that really resembles a slickly produced porno.)
Let me plead my case, though: I was tricked. Love & Hip-Hop: Atlanta isn’t really my thing anymore. Too ratchet and, more important, too scripted for my taste. I was actually watching VH1’s Hit the Floor, kept the TV on as background noise while I worked, and occasionally looked up when the storyline got intriguing.
The moment to which I paid attention was perhaps the one scene of the show that didn’t sound scripted. A woman, Debra Antney, was explaining that her youngest son, Coades “KayO Redd” Scott, had committed suicide days before, apparently because of what he read about his family on the Internet. His brother is Juaquin Malphurs, aka rapper Waka Flocka Flame. His mother manages Malphurs (and several other artists) and appeared in the last season of Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta.
Both are considered public figures, and because of that, they get the extreme end of the wrath of the Internet, which Antney labeled “the murder capital of the world.” If I’d had a tambourine to shake in her direction at that moment, I would have.
There’s this idea that by stepping into the spotlight, you sign up for e-beatings as part of the package. But that’s only said by people who don’t deal with it and don’t understand how bad the Internet can be. You sign up to do a job, not to be berated and harassed. And if you knew the back-end mind screw that comes with dealing with social media, only the insane would do it.
http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/06/learning_to_live_with_internet_haters.html?wpisrc=topstories
I’m so loving this. I hope y’all enjoy as well.
Fire Swirl Spiritual Native American Drums Ritual
I do!
Will keep it playing during the times today that I am at my computer.
I like the other one, also, that you posted on Twitter.
Prayer For The 4 Directions
Learning to Live With Internet Haters
She Matters: Being in the spotlight shouldn’t bring with it the burden of being bashed on social media.
By: Demetria L. Lucas
Posted: June 11 2014 3:00 AM
Judge me. Last night I watched VH1’s Love & Hip-Hop: Atlanta. When it comes to the image of black people on TV, it gets no worse than most—but not all—of the cast. (Exhibit A: This season’s leading storyline involves an allegedly homemade sex tape that really resembles a slickly produced porno.)
Let me plead my case, though: I was tricked. Love & Hip-Hop: Atlanta isn’t really my thing anymore. Too ratchet and, more important, too scripted for my taste. I was actually watching VH1’s Hit the Floor, kept the TV on as background noise while I worked, and occasionally looked up when the storyline got intriguing.
The moment to which I paid attention was perhaps the one scene of the show that didn’t sound scripted. A woman, Debra Antney, was explaining that her youngest son, Coades “KayO Redd” Scott, had committed suicide days before, apparently because of what he read about his family on the Internet. His brother is Juaquin Malphurs, aka rapper Waka Flocka Flame. His mother manages Malphurs (and several other artists) and appeared in the last season of Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta.
Both are considered public figures, and because of that, they get the extreme end of the wrath of the Internet, which Antney labeled “the murder capital of the world.” If I’d had a tambourine to shake in her direction at that moment, I would have.
There’s this idea that by stepping into the spotlight, you sign up for e-beatings as part of the package. But that’s only said by people who don’t deal with it and don’t understand how bad the Internet can be. You sign up to do a job, not to be berated and harassed. And if you knew the back-end mind screw that comes with dealing with social media, only the insane would do it.
http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/06/learning_to_live_with_internet_haters.html?wpisrc=topstories
Obituaries
Daughter: Actress Ruby Dee dead at 91
By Associated Press June 12 at 12:55 PM
NEW YORK — Ruby Dee, an acclaimed actor and civil rights activist whose versatile career spanned stage, radio television and film, has died at age 91, according to her daughter.
Nora Davis Day told The Associated Press on Thursday that her mother died at home at New Rochelle, New York, on Wednesday night.
Dee, who frequently acted alongside her husband of 56 years, Ossie Davis, was surrounded by family and friends, she added.
Her long career brought her an Oscar nomination at age 83 for best supporting actress for her role in the 2007 film “American Gangster.” She also won an Emmy and was nominated for several others.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/daughter-actress-ruby-dee-dead-at-91/2014/06/12/572cd928-f252-11e3-8658-4dc6c63456f1_story.html?wpisrc=al_national
RIP Ms. Dee.
Let me see if I can work on a post in about an hour for her.
RIP Ruby Dee!
RIP Ms. Dee.
https://twitter.com/NewsBreaker/status/477134411037540352/photo/1
https://twitter.com/MichaelSkolnik/status/477132876895768576/photo/1
https://twitter.com/MichaelSkolnik/status/477131791007219712/photo/1
Alliance-AFT Sues Dallas ISD Over Home Rule
Dallas teachers group Alliance-AFT filed a lawsuit Wednesday against Dallas ISD, claiming that the district’s process to appoint a home-rule charter commission violates state law.
The lawsuit filed in Dallas County District Court argues that Dallas ISD has not followed the 1995 Texas law that outlines how districts appoint a home-rule charter commission. District trustees are in the middle of appointing 15 members to a home-rule commission to draft a new constitution for the district.
“Our legal counsel is aware of the filing of the injunction and will be prepared to represent the district in court,” DISD spokesman Jon Dahlander said late Wednesday.
The attorneys hired by the DISD trustees to advise them on home rule said they would discuss the litigation with them at Thursday’s board meeting, according to an email obtained by The Dallas Morning News.
The lawsuit is the latest chapter in the controversial plan to transform Dallas ISD into the state’s first home-rule charter district. Support Our Public Schools launched the effort in March with a petition drive. A home-rule district would be exempt from some state laws and free to implement a new system of governing.
Support Our Public Schools wants a proposed charter on the November ballot, but the legal challenge could delay that timeline. The Texas home-rule law requires a 25 percent voter turnout to approve a proposed charter. Dallas County voters only participate at that rate in presidential and gubernatorial elections. The next gubernatorial election will be held in November.
Alliance-AFT claims that DISD hasn’t followed the part of the law that outlines how the 15 members are appointed. By law, a quarter of the 15 members, or four members, must be classroom teachers selected by professionals on the district advisory committee. Texas law says that the professionals on a district advisory committee must be elected. But Alliance-AFT claims that DISD’s members were appointed.
Alliance-AFT included an affidavit from DISD teacher and committee member Jimmy Guilllory, who said that he was not elected to the district advisory committee.
The lawsuit comes after Dallas ISD on Friday announced the four teachers chosen for the home-rule committee. Alliance-AFT states that its 7,000 members will suffer “immediate and irreparable harm if they are not represented on the home-rule school district charter.”
http://www.dallasnews.com/news/metro/20140611-teachers-group-sues-over-dallas-isd-home-rule-effort.ece
After Primary Upset, G.O.P. Fears Infighting Will Take a Toll
By JONATHAN MARTIN
JUNE 11, 2014
The sudden and decisive fall of the House majority leader, Eric Cantor of Virginia, at the hands of a conservative primary opponent tore open divisions among Republicans on Wednesday, setting off a new wave of fear that the internecine feuding would stymie policy-making and imperil Republican presidential prospects in 2016.
Mr. Cantor’s 11-point loss to David Brat, an economics professor, occurred just when party leaders were beginning to believe they had finally extinguished the Tea Party-versus-establishment civil war, and offered a stark reminder that anger among conservative activists is still boiling.
The upset, unrivaled in the history of congressional primaries, will immediately push Republicans to the right, almost certainly end any prospect for an immigration overhaul this year, and empower hard-liners like Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, who believe the Republican Party has not kept faith with a vocal base that demands unflinching opposition to President Obama.
What the Republican establishment and the Chamber of Commerce don’t understand is that there’s a large element of America that wants a fight,” said former Speaker Newt Gingrich. “If you’re a conservative, you think Barack Obama is literally destroying the country you love. And you watch your leadership and they seem unwilling to take him head on, and also unable to outmaneuver him.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/12/us/politics/divided-gop-sees-promise-and-risk-in-cantors-primary-upset.html?_r=0
The New Nihilism Threatens GOP’s Growth
Cantor’s defeat signals deep problems for a party being pushed further to the right by the antigovernment wing.
Before nonagenarian Rep. Ralph Hall lost his seat in a Republican primary in Texas, no incumbent had been defeated in primaries this year, leading to the dominant press and pundit narrative: The Republican Empire Strikes Back. Oops. Now with the stunning defeat of Eric Cantor, we have narrative whiplash: The Return of the Tea Party.
Narratives are nice, clean, and easy, but the world is far messier. Cantor’s defeat is huge, but it does not reflect a universal trend; after all, South Carolina’s Republicans—who threw out free-marketer Bob Inglis because he was not conservative enough, who gave us Jim DeMint, and who made sure that many local GOP chapters denounced Lindsey Graham as a socialist—also gave Graham a comfortable margin as he cruised to renomination.
Sen. Thad Cochran may well lose his renomination in Mississippi, but the batting average for “establishment” Republicans this year will still be over .900. And yet, there are serious and real reverberations here. For one thing, politicians are more moved by vivid example than overall statistics. All it took was one Bob Bennett in Utah to move Senate Republicans significantly to the right in attitude, agenda, and rhetoric. The assault on Cantor as a supporter of amnesty may not have been the main reason for his defeat, but we can be sure that the word “legalization” will not cross the lips of Republicans of many stripes in the months to come, except as an epithet.
http://www.nationaljournal.com/washington-inside-out/the-new-nihilism-threatens-gop-s-growth-20140611
Morning Plum: Republicans still not winning argument over Obamacare
When faced with the niggling problem that polls show a majority of Americans oppose repealing Obamacare, some of the law’s foes like to claim those polls are problematic because they offer a choice between “fixing” and “repealing” the law. This, they say, biases responses in favor of “fix,” because people like fixing things, and at any rate, Obamacare can’t be fixed by definition.
So this new Bloomberg News poll will pose an additional problem to those who simply refuse to accept the reality that, while disapproval of the law remains high, the American people still want to stick with it:
What is your opinion of the health care law?
It should be repealed: 32
It may need small modifications, but we should see how it works: 56
It should be left alone: 10
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/06/12/morning-plum-republicans-still-not-winning-argument-over-obamacare/
More Evidence That Obamacare Is Helping The uninsured rate in Minnesota has plunged 40 percent, according to a new study
By Jonathan Cohn @citizencohn
One of the big, unanswered questions about Obamacare is what impact it’s having on the uninsured. A series of surveys, by Gallup, the RAND Corporation, and the Urban Institute have suggested the number and proportion of Americans without coverage is declining. But by how much? Those surveys are necessarily imprecise. We won’t have more definitive data until late this year, when the federal government starts publishing its survey information. And even that will be tentative.
But we’re starting to get more information from other sources. One is a new study of how the Affordable Care Act has played out in one state: Minnesota. The study, underwritten by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, comes from the State Health Access Data Assistance Center at the University of Minnesota. It’s based on information from insurance programs and carriers, which makes it more reliable than regular surveys of individuals.
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/118104/obamacare-and-uninsured-data-minnesota-shows-aca-working
Here’s a link to the PDF-Study
http://www.shadac.org/files/shadac/publications/ACA%20Impacts%20Report.pdf
The Next Big Whack At The Voting Rights Act
By Charles P. Pierce on June 11, 2014
While we were all being entertained by the slandering of a returning POW, and then by the road company production of Weasel’s End in Virginia last night, the Supreme Court quietly accepted for review yet another case that involves the franchise, and the rights of minority voters to exercise it. Before we get to what it all might mean for the country that is still in the throes of John Roberts’s Day Of Jubilee, we should pause for a moment and gaze in awe at the glorious legal hypocrisy of the state of Alabama.
You may recall that the Day Of Jubilee was first declared when the Supreme Court ruled for Shelby County, Alabama in gutting Section V of the Voting Rights Act and, thereby, rendering the entire act virtually toothless. The current case involves the creation of gerrymandered majority-minority districts the defense of which Alabama has based in…wait for it…Section V of the Voting Rights Act. Pity me, Your Honor. I’m an orphan.
In dissent, Judge Myron H. Thompson said “there is a cruel irony to these cases” in light of the Supreme Court’s 2013 decision in the Shelby County case. “Even as it was asking the Supreme Court to strike down” Section 5 “for failure to speak to current conditions,” Judge Thompson wrote, “the State of Alabama was relying on racial quotas with absolutely no evidence that they had anything to do with current conditions, and seeking to justify those quotas with the very provision it was helping to render inert.”
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/The_Next_Voting_Rights_Debacle
The Friends Of Dave Brat
By Charles P. Pierce on June 11, 2014
The most revelatory piece about how Dave Brat came to be the likely new congressman from the Seventh Congressional District of the Commonwealth of Virginia ran in Tiger Beat On The Potomac back on April 17. (We noted it at the time.) It also undermines the emerging character of Dave Brat, Ordinary Joe. A lot of the credit for his upset is going (rightly) to various radio hosts who took the payola from wingnut sugar daddies as described by Ken Vogel and MacKenzie Weinger. Mark Levin took almost $800,000 from Americans For Prosperity. Laura Ingraham was on the arm, too. Brat also seems to owe his job to Cato Institute president John Allison.
The funding for the program came from John Allison, the former CEO of BB&T (a financial-services company) who now heads the Cato Institute. The two share an affinity for Ayn Rand: Allison is a major supporter of the Ayn Rand Institute, and Brat co-authored a paper titled “An Analysis of the Moral Foundations in Ayn Rand.” Brat says that while he isn’t a Randian, he has been influenced by Atlas Shrugged and appreciates Rand’s case for human freedom and free markets.
In 2008, Allison was forced by the evil federal government to take some TARP bailout money. As a devotee of the book that Is Not About Orcs, this pained him greatly. But he got busy and set up the BB&T Moral Foundations Of Capitalism Program, which is how Brat’s gig at Randolph-Macon came to be. In brief, Brat’s job, and the support he got from the Raving-Loon Industrial Complex, all was financed in some way or another by the same vast lagoon of plutocratic payola with which we’ve all become sadly familiar. This is not going to be prominent in the mainstream analysis of what happened.
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/The_Friends_Of_Dave_Brat
Brat’s past will slowly be revealed just like that Sarah Palin. And it’s not PRETTY.
This is going to be quite the soap opera…..can’t believe what people will do for money.
Did our Constitution say that money should run our government instead what Lincoln said? You know….”government of the people, by the people, for the people.”
Thursday, June 12, 2014
Crafting the narrative that explains Cantor’s defeat
Eric Cantor’s primary defeat is one of those things that fascinates me about politics. As I mentioned yesterday, pundits are not only tripping over themselves to understand why it happened, but also to predict what it means for the future. In order to do so, they have to examine the motivations for human social behavior – and I suppose it shouldn’t surprise us that an awful lot of them are really bad at that.
It strikes me that what happened is that a narrative everyone had settled on to understand social behavior (how Republican primary voters would behave in the midterms) got broken by Cantor’s loss. And now everyone is scrambling to be the one who tells us what the new narrative will be. We need a narrative to understand what’s happening – that’s why storytelling is so important. The trouble is, these things take time to develop and understand…and we’re impatient.
In the meantime, we have folks telling us that it was all about immigration reform, or that it portends the rise of populism in our politics. The one thing I can guarantee you is that anyone who says they know the one and only reason for Cantor’s defeat right now is likely wrong. These things are always more complicated than that.
Eventually a new narrative will develop. But it won’t be a reflection of the actual reality of what happened. It will be shaped by what people chose to believe about what happened and how that influences their behavior in the future. History never has a beginning and ending, its a continual process of events, the stories we tell ourselves about those events, and how those stories affect our interactions in the future.
One part of the story I think is important to recognize, but hasn’t gotten much attention, is what David Jarman wrote about the reasons for Cantor’s defeat. He’s smart to listen to the analysis of Erick Erickson – someone who has played a key role in the tea party insurgency. Here’s the money quote from Erickson:
http://immasmartypants.blogspot.ie/2014/06/crafting-narrative-that-explains.html
Love Smartypants.
Smartypants: A lazy media once again misses how politics has changed
Today the media pundits are tripping over themselves to tell us what Cantor’s primary defeat means for the future of national politics. But one word of caution about listening to their prognostications: these are the very same people who never saw this one coming. At some point we have to question their predictive capacities. Unless/until they are willing to do a little self-examination to uncover why they were so wrong, we should take their current machinations with one HUGE grain of salt.
I’ve been hesitant to say this outright, but I think one of the biggest reasons they get so much wrong is that too many of these pundits are lazy. Its much easier (and more conducive to lucrative linkbait) to simply run with the latest hysteria craze created by the right wingnuts. Over the last few years we’ve watched them become consumed with everything from presidential birth certificates to literally buying wingnut lies about an American POW before we have the facts. When it comes time for an election, they are quick to point out that American voters STILL say that job creation is their number one concern. And yet they spend all their time running after fake scandals….because its easy.
http://immasmartypants.blogspot.ie/2014/06/a-lazy-media-once-again-misses-how.html
Liberal Librarian @Lib_Librarian
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Sure, Brat is racist, homophobic, and lies about his educational achievements. But NSA is all that matters, right dudebros?
2:26 PM – 11 Jun 2014
STUDY: Economic Hardship Makes People More Racially Biased
A new psychology paper finds that people’s subconscious racial biases worsen when they are made to feel that economic resources are scarce.
By Chris Mooney Thu Jun. 12, 2014 6:00 AM EDT
The economic collapse of the late 2000s hurt most Americans—but not equally. In fact, according to a 2011 Pew study (visualized above), while median household wealth dropped by 16 percent for white Americans, it dropped a stunning 53 percent for African-Americans.
What accounts for this dramatic disparity? Traditional explanations tend to focus on structural economic factors, such as the fact that African American families had a higher proportion of their total wealth tied up in the vulnerable housing market, and that they were targeted by predatory lenders. But according to a new paper just out in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, that may not be the full explanation. It looks as though a more subtle form of racial bias may have played a role as well—thanks to psychological factors that, in a recession, tend make those biases worse.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/06/david-amodio-race-economy-recessions
and the sky is also BLUE too.
NEXT!
https://twitter.com/BeschlossDC/status/477081209558679552/photo/1
Deep hurt.
How poignant and heart-rending.
https://twitter.com/iam_seanbond/status/476558507274428416/photo/1
WHITE Right-wing.
THERE FIXED
Ametia, Rikyrah & Yahtc
You have mail.
Sepia
Joe Madison has a bone to pick with Hillary Clinton.
On his show this morning, Madison said that his executive producer he called Hillary’s people to get an interview with her about her book before her book tour began, but they didn’t have the decency to respond to his request. He said, “Black people do read books”, especially his audience. He said he was pissed off at her. Madison said he’s met her several times, and worked with her on trying to end the civil war in South Sudan. He also said, “I don’t know if she’s been on ANY Black show”. In contrast, Marion Berry is about to promote his new book, and Berry’s people are in constant contact with him about setting up an interview.
As I’m listening to this, it hit me: Roland Martin, George Curry, the CBC Shill and other Black journalists/media are always criticizing PBO for not giving interviews to Black newspapers and certain Black media outlets, yet Hillary Clinton is straight up ignoring them and they say nothing! Here’s RoRo’s response to their silence:
http://pragmaticobotsunite.com/thursday-open-thread-black-women-in-the-legal-academy/#comment-1431981117
Travis County prosecutor fired over remarks about juror
KVUE News 11:40 p.m. CDT June 11, 2014
AUSTIN — A top Travis County felony prosecutor was fired Wednesday after comments he made about a juror during a recent court proceeding for a convicted killer about to go to trial on a related charge.
District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg fired prosecutor Steve Brand, who loosely compared a juror’s membership to the NAACP and what he perceived as her activism to a white supremacist group.
Brand removed the juror from the panel, but a judge later ruled that removal was improper because it was based solely on race. State District Judge Julie Kocurek ordered a new jury be seated in the case.
According to a transcript of a recent hearing, Brand said, “It’s not because of race. It’s because in part she appeared to be an activist, and that’s what we don’t want. Just as if she was white, we wouldn’t want a white activist or a white supremacist.”
Lehmberg said in a statement that she was offended by Brand’s remarks and fired him.
http://www.kvue.com/story/news/local/2014/06/11/travis-county-prosecutor-fired-over-remarks-about-juror/10356985/
Cantor’s Loss Undermines Media’s “Dem Enthusiasm Gap” Meme
Spandan Chakrabarti | June 11, 2014
Last night, GOP’s chief political arsonist House Majority Leader Eric Cantor lost his own primary in his home district by double digit margins. Everyone agrees that it was a political earthquake the likes of which are essentially without parallel. This upset is most often being hailed as a Tea Party victory, and there is little doubt that it is that. But the most important lesson for Democrats and progressives should be something different: throw away all the polls and get out the vote.
The much-mocked internal poll conducted last month and released last week by Eric Cantor’s campaign that showed their candidate up by 34 points, and even right wing pollsters showed Eric Cantor up by 11 points at the same time. The pendulums swung between 22 and 45 points last night to give Cantor’s xenophobic Tea Party opponent a margin of victory of over 10 points.
How did the pollsters get it so wrong? The aforementioned polls weren’t the only ones predicting an easy Cantor victory, after all. As NPR puts it in their post-election analysis, a preponderance of polls pointed to the same thing.
Before we discuss how they got it so wrong, let’s discuss precisely what they got wrong. Eric Cantor’s own pollster John McLaughlin – the one who will now live in twitter infamy for his 34-point poll – points to two factors: they severely underestimated turnout, and, here is where your progressive ears should pucker up, Democrats conducted an effective Operation Chaos.
But why should we trust the analysis of a pollster who got the numbers so drastically wrong? Good question. A look inside his poll and juxtaposing it against last night’s results reveals why. McLaughlin’s internal survey showed Cantor getting 62% of the primary vote, but it was based on the wrong turnout numbers, he admits.
http://www.thepeoplesview.net/main/2014/6/11/cantors-loss-undermines-dem-enthusiasm-gap-theory
Hmm, wonder who is to blame for all this here POLARIZATION.
June 12, 2014
Political Polarization in the American Public
http://www.people-press.org/2014/06/12/political-polarization-in-the-american-public/#utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=cheatsheet_morning&cid=newsletter%3bemail%3bcheatsheet_morning&utm_term=cheat%20sheet
A Fired Up President Obama Calls Out Democrats for Not Voting in Midterms
By: Sarah Jones
Wednesday, June, 11th, 2014, 9:56 pm
Speaking to a group of supporters from a corner of the room at a fundraiser in Weston, Massachusetts, President Obama said, “Democrats do have one congenital disease, and that is that we don’t vote during midterms and we don’t feel the same sense of urgency during midterms, and we like the presidential races and the hoopla and the glitz. But this is where the rubber hits the road.”
Obama voice was a little hoarse, per the white House pooler. “Some of you saw there was an interesting election yesterday,” Obama said referencing Cantor’s surprising defeat, drawing laughter. Obama then pointed out that Cantor’s defeat should not be used as an excuse to do nothing on immigration reform.
Detailing his agenda of (in part) getting immigration reform done, rebuilding our infrastructure around this country, investing in basic research and science, equal pay for equal work and a strong minimum wage, Obama told the room of supporters, “That’s what this evening is about. That’s what my presidency has been about. That’s what the next six months is going to be about leading up to the midterms…
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/06/11/obama-runs-campaign-calls-democrats-voting-midterms.html
Meanwhile you’ve got Diane, the DINASOUR Feinstein & Co. roaming the media circuit whining about how the POTUS is keeping congress out of the loop. GTFOHWTBS
Accusing Obama of “Groupthink”, Dana Milbank Exposes His Own
Spandan Chakrabarti | June 11, 2014
Today, Dana Milbank of the Washington Post published a column, titled, Obama is a prisoner of groupthink. Hillariously, Milbank is completely oblivious to his own beltway media bubble as he pens this hitpiece filled with inaccuracies and cheap shots. In fact, a better example of beltway media groupthink rarely surfaces.
Milbank’s theme centers around the Bergdahl release – as yet another example of the media-generated fiasco – and his postulation that the Obama administration’s handling of it in the press and in Congress is a result of what he terms an “incestuous arrangement.” He argues in it that President Obama surrounded himself by yes-men who in some cases lack the independent thinking to challenge the president, and in others, the courage.
Irony, thy name is Milbank. Not only is he completely and demonstrably wrong about his assertion (more about that in a few paragraphs), in his zeal to play whack-the-POTUS, Milbank has fallen victim to his own special kind of groupthink prison, known as the beltway media complex.
The first evidence of groupthink? Like the rest of the poor quality Bergdahl coverage, Milbank’s piece only passingly mentions that the rescue of an American POW is a good thing before focusing not on the American tradition and obligation to leave no one behind, he instead drills in on the Administration’s political handling.
That is exactly the problem with the part of the Bergdahl coverage that isn’t out and out questioning the president’s patriotism. It is focused on slicing and dicing what administration officials said rather than what they did – which was a heroic act of bringing an American POW home.
But Milbank is so deep into the media bubble that he couldn’t even get the facts right in his completely bizarre focus. After flailing around about how it was such a horrible thing that the entire national security team agreed on the conditions of the rescue but also how the rescue itself wasn’t the focus of his article (oy), Milbank blames supposed groupthink of a group too close to the president.
http://www.thepeoplesview.net/main/2014/6/11/accusing-obama-of-groupthink-dana-milbank-exposes-his-own
BET’s New Keke Palmer Talk Show Gets A Title, Debut Date & Promo Video Promising Freshness
The daytime talk show space continues to get crowded (Tyra Banks most recently announced that she’ll be jumping back into that space via ABC), as Keke Palmer and BET are hoping to strike gold with a new talk show targeting so-called millenials – essentially those in her age group – which Palmer will of course host.
Tentatively-titled “#JUSTKeke,” the network has ordered an initial 4-week run, starting on June 30, airing daily, Monday to Friday.
Judge Greg Mathis, apparently looking to expand his empire, will executive produce, while Telepictures is producing.
The 20-year-old Palmer will become the youngest talk show host in TV history, with “#JUSTKeke,” besting the likes of Ricki Lake, who was 25 when she begun hosting her 1990’s daytime talk show, also aimed at her generation at the time.
Per the press announcement, “#JUSTKeke” will cover a variety of topics important to her target audience, as you’d expect, and will also include celebrity guests, and more.
“I like to read quotes that touch on how I am feeling,” Palmer said. “If I am dealing with confusion, I will read quotes about clarity and peace of mind. I started posting these quotes on my Twitter page, and the fans responded so positively! I realized that many of them were dealing with similar issues, and the quotes helped to open up a genuine dialogue between us.”
Palmer boasts around 1.4 million Twitter followers, and I suspect a good number of them will follow her to BET when her talk-show premieres at the end of this month.
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/bets-new-keke-palmer-talk-show-gets-a-title-debut-date-promo-video-promising-freshness
White House Working Fathers Event Examines Growing Fatherhood Roles
Jun 11, 2014
ByD.L. Chandler
On Monday, the White House hosted an event that serves as a lead-up to the White House Summit on Working Families coming later this month. The Working Fathers event, the first of its kind at the White House, took square aim at issues concerning working fathers and how they figure in the family unit in today’s times.
White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough provided the welcome, speaking to the necessity of Fathers in the home and how the administration is aiming efforts in providing support to working Dads who want to be better at the job. Department of Labor Secretary Thomas Perez also delivered remarks, followed by words from Jason Furman, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers.
The officials provided data that showed Fathers are becoming prominent fixtures in the home, and that there’s a growing sense of pride in Fathers — both young and old — in proving the old model of a Mother leading the nurturing aspect of parenting as a falsehood.
The day was divided into separate panels and included notable figures, such as New York Mets second baseman Daniel Murphy, who made headlines by taking paternity leave to be with his wife and baby on opening day of the season; he was supported by the MLB and teammates.
A number of leading experts, working Dads, business leaders, and Administration officials will share their insights and explore the breadth of roles Dads play today at home, the new challenges Dads experience balancing career and family, and how both businesses and working families benefit from progressive workplace policies like paid parental leave and extensive workplace flexibility options.
The first panel, “New Roles For Dads At Home,” featured experts speaking on how Fathers are involving themselves as parents and how the archaic notions of parenthood are finally moving to the side. Clark University psychologist Abbie Goldberg, Johns Hopkins University sociologist Kathryn Edin, working Dad Kipp Jarecke-Cheng, and Yale School of Medicine clinical psychiatrist Kyle Pruett all shared insightful scenarios in the changing roles of Fathers.
The highlight of the panel, however, was the introduction of featured speaker Julian Jenkins (pictured throughout), an African-American married Father of three, spoke about his desire to be involved in the lives of his children even at the expense of working certain hours. Growing up with his father, Jenkins offered a moving testimonial regarding the success of his children, with all three graduating from prestigious collegiate institutions.
NewsOne spoke with Jenkins during a break in the event, following up on some of the remarks he made during his appearance. We asked how did he reconcile the absence of his own father and how did that influence his own parenting techniques. We also asked him about the growing presence of African-American Fathers who, in his words, didn’t “turn their backs and run” when it came to the weighty responsibility of raising their children.
“Of course, it’s natural for a child to miss their father. I still miss my father, and I wish I could show him all the things I did and share my granddaughter’s success,” said Jenkins. “But at the same time, he made his decision and I’ve made mine to pour all my love and willpower in raising them the right way. That’s all they need, someone to pour love and support in to them in order for them to make a way.”
Jenkins added, “I know that the knock on Black Fathers is that we run at the sight of hard work, but I didn’t. I ran right to it. I wanted it, and I know God wanted this for me. I don’t even know how I did it sometimes, other than God leading my wife and I on the path. There’s so many young Fathers I meet that say they admire me, but I admire them actually. I just tell them like I told the audience today, just keep pouring your love in to them and surround them with the best opportunity. They’ll take care of the rest.”
http://newsone.com/3018837/white-house-working-fathers-summit/
Comedian Tracy Morgan Comedy Central Special where he does a pretty good job on a parody of Erykah Badu’s song “Call Tyrone”.
http://youtu.be/FeSNt9YiUqo
Elizabeth Warren Declares War on Mitch McConnell After He Blocked Her Student Loan Bill
By: Jason Easley
Wednesday, June, 11th, 2014, 10:22 pm
On MSNBC tonight, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) virtually declared war on Mitch McConnell after he blocked her student loan bill. Warren told viewers to donate money to Alison Lundergan Grimes, and announced that she will be going to Kentucky to campaign for the Democrat.
Warren said she is going to fight back and hold Republicans accountable for the obstruction by going to Kentucky to call out Mitch McConnell on his own turf:
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/06/11/elizabeth-warren-declares-war-mitch-mcconnell-blocked-student-loan-bill.html
MCTURTLE needs to GO. Grimes had better get busy.
Wonderful picture.
http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs37/i/2008/366/4/0/Big_cat_by_titusboy25.jpg
https://twitter.com/msdebbieallen/status/476854520216293376/photo/1
PragmaticObotsUnite @PragObots
.@MadisonSiriusXM says he contacted Hillary Clinton to promo her book, but her people have not return his call. #blacknews #blacktwitter #p2
PragmaticObotsUnite @PragObots
.@MadisonSiriusXM said he doesn’t believe Clinton has interviewed w/ANY Black media outlets about her book. (2) #blacknews #blacktwitter #p2
AAmom @AVD911
Hillary tryna to shore up those WWC who hates Obama assuming she has black folks in the bag.@PragObots @Charmed86 @MadisonSiriusXM
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Good Morning, Everyone! :-)
Good morning, everyone!
Everett: What the devil give you for your soul, Tommy?
Tommy: Well he taught me to play this here guitar real good.
Delmar: Oh son, for that you traded your everlasting soul?
Tommy: Well, I wasn’t usin’ it.
:)
But Tommy could play that guitar! Yeah!
Ah, yes, the legend of Robert Johnson, going to the crossroads to sell his soul to the devil. This film really is brilliant.
I loved it!
Yes it is Liza. the Cohen Bros really know how to blend the right mix of characters, plot, music and locale for their movies.