The Supremes were an American female singing group and the premier act of Motown Records during the 1960s. Founded as the Primettes in Detroit, Michigan, in 1959, the Supremes were the most commercially successful of Motown’s acts and are, to date, America’s most successful vocal group[2] with 12 number one singles on the Billboard Hot 100.[3] Most of these hits were written and produced by Motown’s main songwriting and production team, Holland–Dozier–Holland. At their peak in the mid-1960s, the Supremes rivaled the Beatles in worldwide popularity,[3] and their success made it possible for future African American R&B and soul musicians to find mainstream success.
“Spike Lee edits Eric Garner video with Radio Raheem death scene in ‘Do The Right Thing’ ”
http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2014/07/director_spike_lee_edits_toget.html
Except from article:
Lee edits together footage showing the moment officer Daniel Pantaleo puts Garner in what appears to be a chokehold, with the racially charged scene depicting cops killing one his film’s central characters, Radio Raheem, after also putting him in a chokehold.
The footage cuts back and forth between reality and Lee’s movie, drawing comparisons between the police brutality the director attempted to highlight in his film with the methods officers on Staten Island used to arrest Garner.
And here is the resulting video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Bnq4rrcIO1g
Uploaded to Youtube on Jul 21, 2014 by Spike Lee
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bnq4rrcIO1g&feature=youtu.be
Wait a Minute…
There’s a new series called
BAPS?
(Black American Princess)
Lifetime
Wednesday, 7/23/2014, 10 PM EST
http://www.mylifetime.com/shows/baps
Sleepy Hollow Season 1 DVD will be out September 16th!!!
Malcolm-Jamal Warner Joins Cast of ‘Sons of Anarchy” Final Season
Television
by Tambay A. Obenson
July 21, 2014 12:39 PM
Malcolm-Jamal Warner has landed a role in what will be the 7th and final season of FX’s motorcycle club drama “Sons of Anarchy,” which returns to the network on September 9.
Warner will play a character named Sticky, who happens to be a member of the Grim Bastards and right-hand man to T.O. Cross (Michael Beach).
I assume all of that will make sense to fans of the series will (I’m not a member of that club unfortunately).,
Season 7 of “Sons of Anarchy” returns to the network on September 9, at 10pm.
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/malcolm-jamal-warner-joins-cast-of-sons-of-anarchy-final-season-20140721
New Law Could Make Denver ‘One Big Farmer’s Market’
Michelle Burwell • Jul. 17, 2014 •
There are still millions of people around the U.S. who have little to no access to fresh, whole produce.
Most of the problem stems, not from a lack of food, but from challenges in stringent regulation and the logistics in moving the food from areas of excess to areas of need. But now, a recently passed law that takes effect tomorrow, could turn Denver into, what some are calling, ‘one big farmer’s market.’
The law allows Denver residents to sell fresh produce they have grown themselves, as well as food they may have made such as salsas and jams, from their home. The law will not only free-up the movement of fresh produce, but may also spur more entrepreneurial endeavors that could help families support themselves.
Recently, organizations such as Every Last Morsel, a site poised to launch in coming months that has been described as an Etsy for food, have pushed to reduce food waste by getting excess produce into needy hands. Every Last Morsel, a Chicago-based startup, would provide a platform for local farmers and family gardeners to sell or give away excess food. However, these sites are often relegated to whole foods only, where as the new Denver law will allow residents to sell (within limits) home-prepared foods, or “cottage foods.”
http://truthatlas.com/new-law-make-denver-one-big-farmers-market/
Credit Suisse Set for Biggest Loss Since 2008 on Tax Fine
By Jeffrey Vögeli and Elena Logutenkova
Credit Suisse Group AG is poised to report its biggest quarterly loss since the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. after being fined $2.6 billion for helping American clients evade taxes.
The bank will tomorrow post a loss of 701 million Swiss francs ($781 million), hurt by a 1.6 billion-franc charge linked to the fine, according to the average estimate of seven analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. By contrast, larger competitor UBS AG may log an 812 million-franc quarterly profit next week.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-20/credit-suisse-set-for-biggest-loss-since-2008-on-tax-fine.html
21 Jul 2014 6:40 AM
Fracking fight headed for the ballot in Colorado
By Ben Adler
Colorado voters will likely get a chance to weigh in on fracking in November — and that puts Democrats on the ballot in a tight spot.
The fracking boom has bolstered Colorado’s economy, and twisted its politics. Even many Democrats advocate for oil and gas interests, including Gov. John Hickenlooper and Sen. Mark Udall, both of whom are up for reelection this year. But many people living near the wells complain of contaminated air and water, noise, health problems, and other adverse effects.
As Colorado cities have begun trying to ban fracking, the state government has sued them, arguing that only the state has that authority. Rep. Jared Polis (D), whose congressional district includes many of those communities north of Denver, is spending his own money to promote a ballot initiative to outlaw fracking less than 2,000 feet from a residence, up from the currently allowed 500 feet. The gas industry says that would amount to a fracking ban in many areas. Polis is also supporting an initiative that would make more stringent local environmental regulations override conflicting weaker state rules, which could allow communities to outlaw fracking.
Hickenlooper and other state lawmakers were trying to broker a legislative compromise that would keep the initiatives off the ballot. The governor’s proposal would have placed some additional restrictions on fracking but made it clear that localities couldn’t ban it altogether. But last week, the negotiations fell apart and Hickenlooper announced that there would be no special summer legislative session to pass a fracking bill. Polis then declared that he will move forward with collecting the signatures needed to place his proposals on the ballot.
http://grist.org/politics/fracking-fight-headed-for-the-ballot-in-colorado/
CNN Poll: Liberals, Democrats, Poor, Women Most Likely To Oppose Israeli War, White Men Most Supportive
Posted by Zaid Jilani at 6:34 pm
Jul 212014
There is a reorientation going on right now with respect to the Israel Lobby. It used to be that it found its base of support among Democrats, with Republicans like Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush being the ones most likely to be critical of Israeli policy.
A new CNN poll finds that things are changing. Check out these crosstabs on whether people think Israel is using “too much,” “too little” or just the right amount of violence (its like porridge):
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2014/07/21/cnn-poll-liberals-democrats-poor-women-most-likely-to-oppose-israeli-war-white-men-most-supportive/
I was poor, but a GOP die-hard: How I finally left the politics of shame
I hated government — even as it was the only thing trying to save me. Here’s how, one day, I finally saw the light
Edwin Lyngar
I was a 20-year-old college dropout with no more than $100 in the bank the day my son was born in 1994. I’d been in the Coast Guard just over six months. Joining the service was my solution to a lot of problems, not the least of which was being married to a pregnant, 19-year-old fellow dropout. We were poor, and my overwhelming response to poverty was a profound shame that drove me into the arms of the people least willing to help — conservatives.
Just before our first baby arrived, my wife and I walked into the social services office near the base where I was stationed in rural North Carolina. “You qualify for WIC and food stamps,” the middle-aged woman said. I don’t know whether she disapproved of us or if all social services workers in the South oozed an understated unpleasantness. We took the Women, Infants, Children vouchers for free peanut butter, cheese and baby formula and got into the food stamp line.
Looking around, I saw no other young servicemen. Coming from the white working class, I’d always been taught that food stamps were for the “others” — failures, drug addicts or immigrants, maybe — not for real Americans like me. I could not bear the stigma, so we walked out before our number was called.
Even though we didn’t take the food stamps, we lived in the warm embrace of the federal government with subsidized housing and utilities, courtesy of Uncle Sam. Yet I blamed all of my considerable problems on the government, the only institution that was actively working to alleviate my suffering. I railed against government spending (i.e., raising my own salary). At the same time, the earned income tax credit was the only way I could balance my budget at the end of the year.
I felt my own poverty was a moral failure. To support my feelings of inadequacy, every move I made only pushed me deeper into poverty. I bought a car and got screwed on the financing. The credit I could get, I overused and was overpriced to start with. My wife couldn’t get or keep a job, and we could not afford reliable day care in any case. I was naive, broke and uneducated but still felt entitled to a middle-class existence.
If you had taken WIC and the EITC away from me, my son would still have eaten, but my life would have been much more miserable. Without government help, I would have had to borrow money from my family more often. I borrowed money from my parents less than a handful of times, but I remember every single instance with a burning shame. To ask for money was to admit defeat, to be a de facto loser.
To make up for my own failures, I voted to give rich people tax cuts, because somewhere deep inside, I knew they were better than me. They earned it. My support for conservative politics was atonement for the original sin of being white trash.
…………………………………………..
The people who most support the Republicans and the Tea Party carry a secret burden. Many know that they are one medical emergency or broken down car away from ruin, and they blame the government. They vote against their own interests, often hurting themselves in concrete ways, in a vain attempt to deal with their own, misguided shame about being poor. They believe “freedom” is the answer, even though they live a form of wage indenture in a rigged system.
http://www.salon.com/2014/07/16/i_was_poor_but_a_gop_die_hard_how_i_finally_left_the_politics_of_shame/
Being white, racist, and ignorant is a motherfucker, isn’t it?
Clueless rich kids on the rise: How millennial aristocrats will destroy our future
Today’s wealthy are far more likely to have inherited their fortunes. Here’s why that’s going to doom our politics
Tim Donovan
Prevailing neoliberal ideology, which perverts capitalism as an economic system into capitalism as an unyielding political ideology, lurks in the shadows of almost every major issue in America, though nowhere is its influence more obvious or profound than in the spiraling rise of income and wealth inequality today.
When Thomas Piketty’s “Capital in the 21st Century” was first released in English, it followed the Culture War Playbook to perfection: First came the triumphant plaudits from like-minded thinkers, followed shortly by the hasty rebuttals of their ideological opponents, followed themselves by a torrent of commentary from pundits left and right who skimmed the book before adding their own two cents. Soon, there was the predictable “unskewing” by the right, after which came the fact-checking of the “unskewers” on the left… at which point the whole process had reached its inevitable conclusion. High-traffic angles fully juiced, our treadmill news cycle moved on to the next plank in our bitter, pointless culture clash, what author William Gibson has termed our “cold civil war.”
So it goes.
What’s so interesting about this Kabuki dance is just how few commentators at the time bothered to note that Piketty’s findings were never particularly controversial or groundbreaking. Piketty’s book became such a sensation on the left precisely because it gave weight to what anyone with a pair of eyes in the real world (i.e., not Lower Manhattan, the Washington Beltway, or Silicon Valley) can already plainly see: Wealth inequality grows each and every day, while the middle class keeps getting pummeled by this Glorious Free Enterprise System. What used to be good, stable jobs are converted into temp positions or contract work — automated, downsized or simply eliminated entirely, they’re replaced in the labor market by the worst-paying, most utterly dehumanizing low-wage gigs that our much ballyhooed “job creators” can imagine and implement.
The consequences for our democracy and our economy are perilous and unlikely to be easily remedied.
Whether or not one is generally convinced by Piketty’s thesis that r > g (or more plainly, that capital tends to grow at a faster rate than income without some form of outside intervention), it should be plain that in our system, the stage has been uniquely well-set for the unbridled expansion of wealth that his book describes. When the effective tax rates are lower for capital gains than for the incomes of the less affluent; when political processes are legally corrupted and circumvented for a price; when regulatory agencies are gutted, stalled, or simply staffed with careerists eager to make their way through the revolving door — this is not a political or economic system likely to become less unequal over time.
Will this trend toward inequality continue? According to “U.S. Trust Insights on Wealth and Worth,” a recent survey of wealthy Americans that aims to “[shed] light on the direction and purpose of the more than $15 trillion that will be passed across generations in high-net-worth families over the next two decades,” it seems increasingly likely.
The survey, which polled 680 Americans holding at least $3 million in investable assets, unearthed a troubling trend — the birth of a new American aristocracy. As the survey notes, “Nearly three-quarters of those over 69, and 61% of Baby Boomers, were the first generation to accumulate significant wealth. Among the younger Millennial generation, inherited wealth is more common. About two-thirds are from families in which they are the second, third or fourth generation to be wealthy.” Now, it should be noted briefly that this survey relies on self-reporting, which makes these figures somewhat suspect. (More on this in a bit.) But consider two charts: The first shows the highest marginal tax rates on income and capital gains throughout the last hundred years, while the second outlines the estate tax rate during the same period.
http://www.salon.com/2014/07/21/clueless_rich_kids_on_the_rise_how_millennial_aristocrats_will_destroy_our_future/?source=newsletter
https://twitter.com/shadowandact/status/491330462863093760/photo/1
If the Left Wants Scapegoats, Just Look in the Mirror
—By Kevin Drum
| Mon Jul. 21, 2014 1:31 PM EDT
Thomas Frank is convinced that Barack Obama single-handedly prevented America from becoming the lefty paradise it was on course for after the financial meltdown of 2008:
The Obama team, as the president once announced to a delegation of investment bankers, was “the only thing between you and the pitchforks,” and in retrospect these words seem not only to have been a correct assessment of the situation at the moment but a credo for his entire term in office. For my money, they should be carved in stone over the entrance to his monument: Barack Obama as the one-man rescue squad for an economic order that had aroused the fury of the world. Better: Obama as the awesomely talented doctor who kept the corpse of a dead philosophy lumbering along despite it all.
….In point of fact, there were plenty of things Obama’s Democrats could have done that might have put the right out of business once and for all—for example, by responding more aggressively to the Great Recession or by pounding relentlessly on the theme of middle-class economic distress. Acknowledging this possibility, however, has always been difficult for consensus-minded Democrats, and I suspect that in the official recounting of the Obama era, this troublesome possibility will disappear entirely. Instead, the terrifying Right-Wing Other will be cast in bronze at twice life-size, and made the excuse for the Administration’s every last failure of nerve, imagination and foresight. Demonizing the right will also allow the Obama legacy team to present his two electoral victories as ends in themselves, since they kept the White House out of the monster’s grasp—heroic triumphs that were truly worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize. (Which will be dusted off and prominently displayed.)
I see this kind of thing all the time on the right. If only we had a candidate who refused to sell out conservative values! A candidate who could truly make the American public understand! Then we’d win in a landslide!
It’s easy to recognize this as delusional. Tea party types are always convinced that America is thirsting for true conservatism, and all that’s needed is a latter-day Ronald Reagan to be its salesman. Needless to say, this misses the point that Americans aren’t all reactionaries. In fact, as the embarrassing clown shows of the past two GOP primaries have shown, even most Republicans aren’t reactionaries. There’s been no shortage of honest-to-God right wingers to choose from, but they can’t even win the nomination, let alone a general election.
(Of course you never know. Maybe 2016 is the year!)
But if it’s so easy to see this conservative delusion for what it is, why isn’t it equally easy to recognize the same brand of liberal delusion? Back in 2009, was Obama really the only thing that stood between bankers and the howling mob? Don’t be silly. Americans were barely even upset, let alone ready for revolution. Those pathetic demonstrations outside the headquarters of AIG were about a hundredth the size that even a half-ass political organization can muster for a routine anti-abortion rally. After a few days the AIG protestors got bored and went home without so much as throwing a few bottles at cops. Even the Greeks managed that much.
Why were Americans so obviously not enraged? Because—duh—the hated neoliberal system worked. We didn’t have a second Great Depression. The Fed intervened, the banking system was saved, and a stimulus bill was passed. Did bankers get treated too well? Oh yes indeed. Was the stimulus too small? You bet. Nevertheless, was America saved from an epic collapse? It sure was. Instead of a massive meltdown, we got a really bad recession and a weak recovery, and even that was cushioned by a safety net that, although inadequate, was more than enough to keep the pitchforks off the streets.
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2014/07/if-left-wants-scapegoats-just-look-mirror
“How Anonymous Cops Online Are Reacting to the Death of Eric Garner”
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/07/cops-react-to-the-death-of-eric-garner.html
The comments are DESPICABLE!
Even while Eric Garner’s is lying their getting the LIFE choked out of him and saying “I CAN’T BREATHE, these POS called law enforcement, condone the killing of him at the hands of their comrades.
I was so shaken when I read their comments….maybe I should say speechless.
It is scary to realize how many more police officers there are out there just like Eric Garner…with the same mind-set to deal with the public.
So disturbing. These are the people sworn to protect and serve. It’s got damn frightening.
OUTRAGEOUS: 76-year-old veteran arrested for asking public official to speak louder
13 mins ago by CNN Wire Service
GREENEVILLE, Tenn. – Eddie Overholt, a 76 year old veteran was arrested in Greeneville, TN Friday, July 18, 2014 for asking Mayor Alan Broyles and board members to speak louder during an Industrial Development Board meeting at Greeneville Light and Power.
The Mayor and board were speaking in extremely low voices during the discussion of an unpopular decision to submit a second application to TDOT (the first was denied) that would allow a private company, US Nitrogen, to install and run wastewater pipes to the Nolichucky River so they would be able to get free water and a free place to dump wastewater instead of signing an agreement with the local water utility which would help the community.
Mayor Broyles and the board are already facing a lawsuit from citizens for violating the Open Meetings Law.
No microphones were used, though clearly available in the room and at least 4 members of the board were sitting with backs to the public viewing area.
http://q13fox.com/2014/07/21/outrageous-76-year-old-veteran-arrested-for-asking-public-official-to-speak-louder-at-dubious-hearing/#axzz388Uxz9n9
Excellent article:
“Career Spotlight: Park Ranger Shelton Johnson on Why Spending Time Outdoors Is About Civil Rights ”
http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/07/shelton_johnson_a_day_in_the_life_of_a_black_park_ranger.html
https://twitter.com/BabyAnimalPics/status/490878805083697152/photo/1
WTF
Nerdy Wonka @NerdyWonka
Follow
Pres. Obama: “There is no greater joy than being in your children’s lives. Seeing them grow, listening to them…” #MyBrothersKeeper
Nerdy Wonka @NerdyWonka
Follow
Pres. Obama says he learned from his mom on how to be a good dad. How to be there, hard work, kindness. Also learned by watching adults.
11:18 AM – 21 Jul 2014
Nerdy Wonka @NerdyWonka
Follow
POTUS on becoming a good dad: “I had a mom who loved me so much. To all the heroic single moms out there, we appreciate you for all you do.”
11:16 AM – 21 Jul 2014
God @TheTweetOfGod
Follow
Ayn Rand died on welfare. End of discussion. http://knowledgenuts.com/2013/09/20/ayn-rand-was-a-secret-welfare-queen/ …
11:54 AM – 21 Jul 2014
Yes; Rand mooched off the gubment teat, while she took from the gubment spewing anti-gubment bullshit.
SHORT: ALL FOR ME, AND NONE FOR THEE.
https://twitter.com/EricWolfson/status/491258177531707393/photo/1
Check!
ALL.OF.THIS.
https://twitter.com/Kahsai/status/491255521366659072/photo/1
Rev. Al Sharpton demands justice for Eric Garner and his family (with video)
HARLEM, N.Y. — Hundreds of New Yorkers gathered at the National Action Network in Harlem on Saturday morning to hear the Rev. Al Sharpton speak about the death of Eric Garner.
Joined by members of Garner’s family, Rev. Sharpton spoke out about the banned chokehold that was used during the attempted arrest of Garner on Thursday.
“There are many crises that we are dealing with but none have impacted more and more than the reccurring problem with the New York City police,” said Rev. Sharpton, who is waiting to see how Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration will handle the death.
ilive.com/news/index.ssf/2014/07/post_874.html
City paid out $30K to settle 2012 lawsuit against chokehold cop Daniel Pantaleo
http://tiny.cc/6zqcjx
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — One of the two civil rights lawsuits against Daniel Pantaleo, the NYPD officer who put Eric Garner in a chokehold Thursday, ended up costing taxpayers $30,000 in settlement money, according to the plaintiffs’ attorney.
The suit, which was settled in January, accuses Pantaleo and another officer of strip-searching two men on a New Brighton street, pulling down their pants and underwear in broad daylight, in March 2012.
It alleges that Pantaleo and several other officers — Joseph Torres, Ignazio Conca, and Steven Lopez — “unlawfully stopped” a vehicle on Jersey Street in New Brighton. Another officer, Christian Cataldo, arrived at the scene later.
Two of the car’s passengers, Darren Collins and Tommy Rice — a federally convicted gun felon who had been released from prison five months prior — wound up suing in Brooklyn federal court.
According to the lawsuit, after getting license and registration information from both the car’s driver, Morris Wilson, and Collins, the officers ordered Collins and Rice out of the vehicle for a search.
After they were handcuffed, “Pantaleo and/or Conca pulled down the plaintiffs’ pants and underwear, and touched and searched their genital areas, or stood by while this was done in their presence,” the lawsuit alleged.
Pantaleo then took the two men to the 120th Precinct stationhouse, where Pantaleo and Torres strip-searched them again, forcing them “to remove all of their clothing, squat, cough and lift their genitals.”
Both men were criminally charged, but the cases against them were ultimately dismissed.
Sexually DEVIANT PERVERTED MOFOS!
4 EMS workers barred from duty after chokehold death
http://nypost.com/2014/07/20/4-ems-workers-barred-from-duty-after-chokehold-death/
Four emergency-service workers who found a man unconscious on the sidewalk after a cop put him in a chokehold — and apparently did nothing to aid him — have been barred from going on any more ambulance calls pending a probe, officials said Sunday.
A seven-minute video captured the last few minutes of diabetic dad Eric Garner’s life — and the apparent procedural lapses by two medics and two EMTs, sources told The Post.
“It was pretty obvious this patient was in distress,” a source said. “His body was limp and lifeless.”
Yet none of the workers — nor the eight cops on hand — can be seen in the video administering any aid to Garner. One medic at Garner’s side doesn’t even have any of the required equipment on her, such as an oxygen bag or a defibrillator, the source said.
“You can [only] hear her say, ‘Oh, he can’t walk to the bus?’ ” the source said.
Garner should have been immediately placed on a stretcher, and his airway, breathing and circulation checked, sources said. Instead, EMT Nicole Palmeri can be seen only checking for a pulse. She never uses a stethoscope to check his lungs for air movement, a source said, nor does she connect him to an oxygen mask.
“Maybe the EMT felt a pulse, but it was obvious this male was in serious distress and needed to be assisted with his breathing,” the source said.
Now he’s back in my arms AGAAAIN. …right by my SIDE. Motown was the ISH!
SO SATISFIED!!! LOL
Sentencing commission eyes early release for 46k
07/18/14 04:30 PM—UPDATED 07/18/14 05:36 PM
By Steve Benen
There’s been a striking amount of progress – some of it substantive, some of it rhetorical – on the debate over sentencing reforms, but today’s news may be one of the most significant developments to date.
About 50,000 federal prisoners convicted of drug crimes can seek a shorter sentence, after the commission that sets guidelines for criminal punishments voted Friday to apply a recent amendment to old cases.
The 46,290 inmates represent about 21% of all federal prisoners. The amendment this year by the U.S. Sentencing Commission, which altered the formula for calculating penalties for drug-trafficking offenses, could lop off an average of 25 months from the sentences of eligible prisoners.
Judge Patti Sarisn, the commission chair, said in a press release, “This amendment received unanimous support from Commissioners because it is a measured approach.”
Note this isn’t just a suggestion or an academic exercise – the U.S. Sentencing Commission is a policymaking body. When it approves a retroactive change to federal guidelines for drug convicts, the commission members are opening the door for tens of thousands of people to be paroled.
So what happens now? An interesting put-up-or-shut-up political fight is poised to begin in earnest.
Chris Geidner noted a statement from the commission: “Congress has until November 1, 2014 to disapprove the amendment to reduce drug guidelines. Should Congress choose to let the guideline reductions stand, courts could then begin considering petitions from prisoners for sentence reductions, but no prisoners could be released pursuant to those reductions before November 1, 2015.”
In other words, Congress has about four months to weigh in. If lawmakers do nothing, the Commission’s policy will take effect.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/sentencing-commission-eyes-early-release-46k
GOP’s take on minimum wage faces ‘serious questions’
07/21/14 08:42 AM
By Steve Benen
The debate over raising the minimum wage is generally pretty straightforward: proponents, mainly on the left, argue that raising the minimum would help alleviate poverty and boost buying power, which in turn helps the broader economy. Opponents, mainly on the right, argue that higher wages discourages hiring and stunts growth.
It’s led to a spirited dispute, but the resolution of the argument can be nearly as straightforward if we consider the evidence.
New data show that the 13 states that raised the minimum wage this year are adding jobs at a faster pace than those that did not.
State-by-state hiring data released Friday by the Labor Department reveal that in the 13 states that boosted minimum wages at the beginning of this year, the number of jobs grew an average of 0.85 percent from January to June. The average in the other 37 states was 0.61 percent, the Associated Press reports.
President Obama and congressional Democrats have fought consistently for a higher minimum wage, but have been unable to overcome opposition from congressional Republicans. But as we’ve discussed many times, GOP-imposed gridlock on Capitol Hill hasn’t meant an end to the debate; it’s simply shifted the debate to state capitols.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/gops-take-minimum-wage-faces-serious-questions
A Sex-Deficient Husband and the Salty Spreadsheet He Shouldn’t Have Sent
[ 15 ] July 21, 2014 | Luvvie
A woman took to Reddit to show folks that her husband sent her an email to her work address with a spreadsheet detailing how many times they’ve had sex when he initiated in the past 6 weeks. He also included the excuses she gave him when she said “NO” which was 25 times out of 28. Apparently, this was to let her know she’s neglecting her job as a wife.
http://www.awesomelyluvvie.com/2014/07/sex-husband-spreadsheet.html
Chris Christie Suddenly Suffers the Unbearable Specificity of Running for President
Paul Waldman
July 18, 2014
On the ground in a GOP presidential primary, “moving to the right” actually means just getting specific when you’d rather be vague
Chris Christie went to Iowa this week, bringing what reporters inevitably call his “trademark New Jersey style” to the heartland, where he could mix and mingle with the small number of Republican voters who have the power, a year and a half hence, to either elevate him or crush his White House dreams. And in the process he got an education in what running for president means. While we often describe candidates as having to “move to the right” in the primaries (or to the left for Democrats), what actually happens is often not a move to edge, but a descent from the general to the specific.
And in practice, that can mean much the same thing. Here’s a report from one of Christie’s events:
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) said Thursday that he backs the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby ruling, after declining to give an opinion on the outcome of the case earlier this month.
Christie voiced his support in response to a question from an attendee at a meet-and-greet event in Marion, Iowa, where Christie was campaigning for Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad (R). The Democratic research super PAC American Bridge caught the exchange on video.
“Do I support the Supreme Court decision in the Hobby Lobby case? I do,” Christie said, according to the video posted by American Bridge.
“Do you support Hobby Lobby’s position on birth control for its employees?” the attendee pressed.
“Well I just said I support the case, so if I support the case and they support the Hobby Lobby–” Christie said before moving on to greet other attendees.
http://prospect.org/article/chris-christie-suddenly-suffers-unbearable-specificity-running-president
Ted Cruz Is Playing a Long Game on Immigration
—By Kevin Drum
| Fri Jul. 18, 2014 11:06 AM EDT
Ted Cruz threw a bomb into the immigration crisis yesterday by demanding that any emergency bill to address the tide of minors surging across the border had to include a provision repealing President Obama’s so-called mini-DREAM executive action. Formally known as DACA, it directs prosecutors not to spend any time trying to deport individuals who arrived in the US as children.
This is inconvenient for Republicans because DACA is pretty popular and they’d probably prefer to ignore it. So why did Cruz do this? Greg Sargent thinks there’s a long game at stake:
I strongly suspect much GOP rhetoric over the crisis is designed to achieve maximum constraint on Obama’s sense of what’s politically possible on unilaterally easing deportations. Case in point: Ted Cruz’s declaration that any GOP response to the crisis must defund Obama’s deferred-deportation program. Cruz has a history of revealing underlying political calculations with unvarnished clarity. He justified the government shutdown to stop Obamacare by arguing that once the law kicked in, people would like it and it would never be repealed.
Something similar may be happening on deportations. As Frank Sharry argues, Obama action on deportations could “permanently cement the reputation of the Democrats as for immigrants and for the changing American electorate and Republicans as against it.” It’s unclear how ambitious Obama will be. But given Cruz’s fevered view of #ObummerTyranny, he probably expects Obama to go big, and he may agree so doing would lock in Latinos for Dems. Hence the move to preclude it.
….However, there’s a risk for Republicans. If they punt on their current response, it could persuade Obama he can position himself as the only problem solver in the room on immigration, giving him more space to act unilaterally. Of course, to reap these benefits, Obama will have to be seen as managing the current crisis effectively. And he has not accomplished this — politically or substantively.
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2014/07/ted-cruz-playing-long-game-immigration
By Paul Waldman
July 18
* Here’s something Republicans will be getting angry about next week:
President Barack Obama on Monday will sign an executive order banning workplace discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender workers of federal contractors and the federal government.
The executive order has two components: It prohibits federal contractors from discriminating against employees based on sexual orientation or gender identity — a move that affects 24,000 companies employing roughly 28 million workers, or about one-fifth of the nation’s workforce — and it explicitly bans discrimination against federal employees based on their gender identity.
The executive order will not contain an exemption for religious beliefs, so if you think your religion mandates that you fire your gay workers, you’ll have to get business somewhere besides the federal government.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/07/18/happy-hour-roundup-399/
Monday, July 21, 2014
A WTF Ask a Bougie Chick…
Sooooo…
I got a ping on Facebook a month or so back from a woman (we’ll call her Isshe – as in, Is She Kidding Me With This!) who wanted to know what I would think about my man spending time in the basement before he came up to bed every night. Wait for it…
He was spending time in the basement watching sex tapes of himself and his ex-mistress. Yep. Isshe wondered if she should read something into that… Oh, and also… Dude (we’ll call him WhatTha – you can guess why) had recently “loaned” ex-mistress $10,000 of THEIR money for “reasons he didn’t want to share.” Isshe and WhatTha have been married for three years and he began this behavior three months ago. Isshe doesn’t know what she should do or if she should even be upset.
So many questions. One – when Isshe called naked-sex-tape-woman (NSTW) an ex-mistress, what does this designation mean? Mistress implies one who is in a relationship with a married man. Was NSTW a former extramarital of WhatTha during this marriage or was he married before? Either way, EITH-ER WAY, it is not cool (So Not Cool) for him to have and watch cocoa videos of him and the ex but especially not before coming to bed with the new. Nawl.
Next question, 10k? 10 large? Diez mil dolares? My dollars? Even if you are ballin’ like that, fund disbursement over $200 must be discussed and agreed upon before it goes out the door. ESPECIALLY to your husband’s ex-whatever. Isshe, girl – woman up. You are being played so hard, we should nickname you XBox. I cannot. Surely you know the answers before you wrote in? None of this is okay. Not remotely. By zero stretches of the imagination. But hey, do you…
http://www.blacknbougie.com/2014/07/a-wtf-ask-bougie-chick.html
https://twitter.com/DaRiverZkind/status/488490337912909824/photo/1
https://twitter.com/DaRiverZkind/status/489145271033413632/photo/1
Sunday, July 20, 2014
Last Call For Obama Derangement District
Wisconsin’s 6th congressional district is home to Republican Tom Petri, who has served for 25 years. He’s retiring, and the Republicans who are vying to replace him all have one thing in common: the impeachment of Barack Obama for the crime of being a Democrat.
Each of four Republican candidates for the 6th Congressional District told residents Thursday that if elected in November, he would be inclined to vote to impeach President Barack Obama for any number of transgressions.
At a GOP candidates forum Thursday in Ozaukee County, each candidate said he would approve naming a special prosecutor to investigate specific scandals as a first step toward impeachment.
They held up both the IRS targeting of tea party-connected groupsseeking nonprofit status and the NSA collecting of bulk telephone data and the magnitude of its everyday surveillance routine as examples of government overreach in the Obama administration.
“He should be impeached for so many things,” state Sen. Glenn Grothman (R-Campbellsport) told an audience of more than 100 residents at the forum inside the Hub at Cedar Creek in the Town of Cedarburg.
His specific list of impeachment-worthy scandals would include those involving the IRS and NSA, as well as the ATF, he said. Numerous problems within the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives include the mistake-ridden sting in Milwaukee and the Fast and Furious episode in Arizona where agents lost a few thousand firearms to gun traffickers.
A proposed bill by U.S. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) would dissolve the ATF due to its operational failures.
Scandals tied to all three federal agencies are “things the average citizen can understand,” Grothman said.
State Rep. Duey Stroebel (R-Town of Cedarburg) said the September 2012 deaths of four Americans at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, was at the top of his list.
http://zandarvts.blogspot.com/2014/07/last-call-for-obama-derangement-district.html
https://twitter.com/tomservo10/status/490894481365823488/photo/1
Russian billionaires ‘in horror’ as Putin risks global isolation
MOSCOW — Russia’s richest businessmen are increasingly frantic that President Vladimir Putin’s policies in Ukraine will lead to crippling sanctions and are too scared of reprisal to say so publicly, billionaires and analysts said.
If Putin doesn’t move to end the war in Ukraine in the wake of last week’s downing of a Malaysia Air jet in rebel-held territory, he risks becoming an international outcast like Belarus’s Aleksandr Lukashenko, whom the U.S. famously labeled Europe’s last dictator, one Russian billionaire said on condition of anonymity. What’s happening is bad for business and bad for Russia, he said.
‘‘The economic and business elite is just in horror,’’ said Igor Bunin, who heads the Center for Political Technology in Moscow. Nobody will speak out because of the implicit threat of retribution, Bunin said by phone on Sunday. ‘‘Any sign of rebellion and they’ll be brought to their knees.’’…
‘‘The threat of sanctions against entire sectors of the economy is now very real and there are serious grounds for business to be afraid,’’ Mikhail Kasyanov, who served as Russia’s prime minister during Putin’s first term as president, from 2000 to 2004, said by phone from Jurmala, Latvia. ‘‘If there will be sanctions against the entire financial sector, the economy will collapse in six months.’’
http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/world/2014/07/20/russian-billionaires-horror-putin-risks-global-isolation/yf5vASzFeoGpy2ZLHFKzEM/story.html
Motown!!!
We’re gonna jam this week!
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Good Morning, Rikyrah & Everyone.
I was raised & nurtured on Motown like mama’s milk!
Good morning, everyone! LOL @ Ametia!
Hee hee hee. SG2, the music of today is pitiful. What happened to originality and creativity? Most of the music is sampling, repetitive NONSENSE.
Tell the truth! They don’t make music like this anymore. All they do is imitate it.