The Four Tops are an American vocal quartet from Detroit, Michigan who helped to define the city’s Motown sound of the 1960s. The group’s repertoire has included soul music, R&B, disco, adult contemporary, doo-wop, jazz, and showtunes.
Founded as The Four Aims, lead singer Levi Stubbs (born Levi Stubbles, a cousin of Jackie Wilson and brother of The Falcons‘ Joe Stubbs), and groupmates Abdul “Duke” Fakir, Renaldo “Obie” Benson and Lawrence Payton remained together for over four decades, having gone from 1953 until 1997 without a change in personnel.
The Four Tops were among a number of groups, including The Miracles, The Marvelettes, Martha and the Vandellas, The Temptations, and The Supremes, who established the Motown Sound around the world during the 1960s. They were notable for having Stubbs, a baritone, as their lead singer, whereas most male/mixed vocal groups of the time were fronted by a tenor.
Workers struggle in Hamptons, playground for rich
Story user rating:
By FRANK ELTMAN
Published: Jul 12, 2014
SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. (AP) – This is a town where people are so rich that a $2 million home can be a handyman’s special. A town where the thrift shop is stocked with donations of designer dresses and handbags.
But Southampton, with its privet hedges, pristine beaches and some estates costing tens of millions, also is where 40 percent of children get free or reduced school lunches, where a food pantry serves up to 400 clients a month and where some doctors and nurses share homes owned by the local hospital because they can’t afford to buy or rent.
Studies show the wealth gap separating the rich from everyone else is widening, and few places in the country illustrate that as starkly as Long Island’s Hamptons – America’s summer playground for the haves and have-mores, where even middle-class workers struggle with the high cost of living.
“We have a tremendous amount of millionaires who live 3 miles from the food pantry, and they really have no idea that there’s a need in this community,” said Mary Ann Tupper, who retired last month after 21 years as the executive director of Human Resources of the Hamptons, a charity that assists 6,000 people annually through its food pantry and other services for the working poor.
“In the summer they’re working and everything is pretty good, but come the winter, all the nannies, the gardeners, the pool people, all those people are out of work, and then there’s no money,” Tupper said. “The income disparity is tremendous.”
http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_268748/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=ReVDkfUg
En Bancing on Halbig and general assholery
Posted by Richard Mayhew at 8:11 pm
Jul 222014
So what does the Halbig decision in the DC Circuit mean for the Exchanges? On a practical matter, not much at the moment. And longer term, probably not much unless there are five assholes on the Supreme Court who decide that fucking with Obamacare is worth fucking with one hundred years of administrative law precedent.
The Halbig decision says that the IRS can not offer premium assistance tax subsidies to people who signed up for insurance on federally run exchanges as it was the clear intent of Congress to use tax subsidies as a hammer to get states to establish their own exchanges (bullshit) but that is their argument. People who live in states that have their own exchanges (like Kentucky and California) would still qualify for subsidies.
Under the original Senate logic of the bill, the state exchanges would be the default option as it would devolve power to the states instead of having a one size fits all federal solution. A federal exchange would be the back-up for states too small or too poor to establish their own exchange. The expectation was the federal exchange would carry states like Delaware, Wyoming and Vermont across the finish line. So even under the bullshit reading advanced by the majority of the DC panel, the federal exchanges would screw small state residents. Again, bullshit. The 4th circuit demolishes this idea.
And why am I not particularly worried? The government can ask for the entire active DC Court of Appeals to hear the case as a body. En Banc review is used for high profile cases or where the vast majority of the circuit thinks their colleagues fucked up big time.
The DC Court of Appeals currently has a 7-4 Democratic appointee majority and they’ll apply normal administrative law procedures to this case and tell their colleagues that they are fucking hacks in appropriately judgy language. Assuming the en banc review goes the way I think it does, all circuits will then agree that the IRS has the right to interpret ambiguous law as it sees fit as long as the interpretation passes a rationale basis/giggle test . If there is an all circuit agreement, the Supreme will have a real hard time taking the case to gut Red State subsidies.
And now let’s talk about the asshole of the day.
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2014/07/22/en-bancing-on-halbig-and-general-assholery/
Don’t Send Your Kid to the Ivy League The nation’s top colleges are turning our kids into zombies
By William Deresiewicz
In the spring of 2008, I did a daylong stint on the Yale admissions committee. We that is, three admissions staff, a member of the college dean’s office, and me, the faculty representative—were going through submissions from eastern Pennsylvania. The applicants had been assigned a score from one to four, calculated from a string of figures and codes—SATs, GPA, class rank, numerical scores to which the letters of recommendation had been converted, special notations for legacies and diversity cases. The ones had already been admitted, and the threes and fours could get in only under special conditions—if they were a nationally ranked athlete, for instance, or a “DevA,” (an applicant in the highest category of “development” cases, which means a child of very rich donors). Our task for the day was to adjudicate among the twos. Huge bowls of junk food were stationed at the side of the room to keep our energy up.
The junior officer in charge, a young man who looked to be about 30, presented each case, rat-a-tat-tat, in a blizzard of admissions jargon that I had to pick up on the fly. “Good rig”: the transcript exhibits a good degree of academic rigor. “Ed level 1”: parents have an educational level no higher than high school, indicating a genuine hardship case. “MUSD”: a musician in the highest category of promise. Kids who had five or six items on their list of extracurriculars—the “brag”—were already in trouble, because that wasn’t nearly enough. We listened, asked questions, dove into a letter or two, then voted up or down.
With so many accomplished applicants to choose from, we were looking for kids with something special, “PQs”—personal qualities—that were often revealed by the letters or essays. Kids who only had the numbers and the résumé were usually rejected: “no spark,” “not a team-builder,” “this is pretty much in the middle of the fairway for us.” One young person, who had piled up a truly insane quantity of extracurriculars and who submitted nine letters of recommendation, was felt to be “too intense.” On the other hand, the numbers and the résumé were clearly indispensable. I’d been told that successful applicants could either be “well-rounded” or “pointy”—outstanding in one particular way—but if they were pointy, they had to be really pointy: a musician whose audition tape had impressed the music department, a scientist who had won a national award.
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/118747/ivy-league-schools-are-overrated-send-your-kids-elsewhere
Are the Ivy Leagues Really So Bad?
by BooMan
Tue Jul 22nd, 2014 at 06:42:47 PM EST
I don’t know that William Deresiewicz really made the case that Ivy League schools are overrated, but he did raise a lot of interesting issues. Having grown up in Princeton, I can be a little sensitive about how Ivy Leaguers are perceived, but I know them first hand and I know all about entitled little shits. Back in the 1980’s when I was cavorting around Princeton’s campus and socializing with the student body, things were not quite as competitive as they are today. But they were competitive enough.
One thing that happens to you when you come from an Ivy League town is that you get to hear anecdotes from people who are not from Ivy League towns. The most common anecdote we are treated to is about the Ivy League guy they knew at work who was totally incompetent at his job. I have heard this anecdote hundreds of times. It may be that the Ivy League produces legions of incompetents, but I don’t think so. I think people expect Ivy Leaguers to be superhuman, and when they’re average people judge them harshly.
Today’s Ivy Leaguers are all super-achievers, not only in their grades and test scores, but in their extracurricular activities. They all have an absurd work ethic. At least until they arrive on campus, they’ve racked up an unblemished string of successes. These people are exceptionally bright. But they’ve also had every advantage. They’ve gone to the best schools, gotten the best tutors, and been sent around the globe to gain experiences and do “good works” that will pad their applications. Most of them are well-rounded, but I don’t think we should expect most of them to be well-adjusted. Mostly, they’re basket cases who are terrified of failure. They’re also so goal-oriented that they can become unglued if no one is pointing them to the next goal. And maybe there aren’t enough different goals. Med School, Law School, a job in finance. Beyond that, what?
These schools are self-consciously trying to educate the people who they expect to be the leaders of the country, but only the highest classes have the resources to invest in their kids that will win them entry.
I am very aware of what I’d have to do if I want my four year old son to go to an Ivy League school, and I would consider it a form of torture to inflict that kind of regimen on him. Can you go to Michigan State and still be a leader in this country?
You can, but it’s harder. Take a look sometime at where the people who serve in the Obama administration went to school. There aren’t a whole lot of public university degrees in the bunch, and those are likely to be elite schools like Cal-Berkeley, Virginia, or Michigan.
Mr. Deresiewicz has some good suggestions for how to make the admissions process better at our elite private universities. Probably the best suggestion for our kid’s sake is to limit how many extracurriculars you can list. If kids know they can’t list more than five, they won’t feel so pressured to do a million things and they might have some time to just be kids once in a while.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2014/7/22/184247/754
Sherri Shepherd to Retain Physical Custody of 9-Year-Old Son
By Gabrielle Olya
07/22/2014 at 03:25 PM EDT
One of Sherri Shepherd’s two custody battles is now over.
The View co-host appeared in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday for a hearing to determine if her ex-husband Jeffrey Tarpley’s petition for temporary physical custody of their son Jeffrey, 9, would be approved or denied.
Judge Michelle Williams ruled against Tarpley’s request, citing that “there has not been a material change in circumstances,” according to court documents obtained by PEOPLE.
In his declaration, filed on April 2, Tarpley claimed that Shepherd was neglecting their son through “poor parenting choices and refusal to provide for our child’s immediate needs.”
Tarpley cited Shepherd’s busy work schedule as the main reason for her alleged neglect, stating that her “career is seven days per week non-stop.”
http://www.people.com/article/sherri-shepherd-physical-custody-son-jeffrey-tarpley?hootPostID=c0356ed71ebbdfe7f291bac1a92d7a55
NOTICE HOW THESE FOLKS DON’T CALL THEODORE WAFER BY NAME. IT’S “THE MAN THAT SHOT RENISHA,
go google Wafer’s name and Renisha’s See how the lede is presented in these links and videos.
That killer of Renisha’s McBride trial starts tomorrow. HERE WE GO AGAIN.
Indeed.
The trial’s in Detroit, the AMERICAN city that shuts off folks water and accuses them of paying for cable bills over water.
I stomach is CHURNING already.
Harlem barbershop offers fresh cuts, health screenings for charity
by Todd E. Simley | July 21, 2014 at 9:18 AM
Denny Moe’s Superstar Barbershop in Harlem offers its clients more than the traditional clean shave and nice haircut over the weekend. The popular neighborhood establishment takes its commitment to the community to the next level to focus on better health with “Cutting For A Cure.”
The bi-annual charity event brings barbers from across the country (and one from Paris) to participate in a 48-hour haircutting marathon alongside health care professionals who provide information and free screenings to residents.
Barbershop owner Dennis Mitchell, also known as Denny Moe, says personal tragedy in 2008 inspired his original vision of a haircutting marathon to include a health fair component. “My father at the same time was struggling from pancreatic cancer, so I decided to put a cause on the back of the marathon.”
Health care providers on the premises and just outside the door address health issues like diabetes, high blood pressure, HIV/AIDS and other illnesses.
http://thegrio.com/2014/07/21/harlem-barbershop-offers-fresh-cuts-health-screenings-for-charity/
Yes, This Is Sabotage.
June 20, 2014
Isaiah L. Carter
WHEN PRESIDENT OBAMA STOOD on that stage with young brothers from his hometown of Chicago to announce the My Brother’s Keeper initiative, it filled me with an awe I had never known before. Perhaps it was the imagery of seeing a new generation of promising Black men, full of talent and skills to be brought out and honed for the betterment of themselves and their communities, standing there with the one who had reached the highest level of power achievable in this Nation. For all its imperfections, and historical shames of housing discrimination, Jim Crow, and our Original Sin of slavery, this twice-elected Executive was doing what he could to create more that would follow in the path he blazed.
Throughout his era, those beholden to an ethos of Blacks being a perpetually downtrodden minority incapable of rising past the pitfalls of structural and institutional racism have been intensely working to undermine President Obama’s entire existence, with a particular viciousness matched only by the Tea Party. Having created a media identity from victimology, prominent Black academics and pundits synchronously wrote headlines trashing My Brother’s Keeper as a “flawed” program. Over the last several months, the attacks have moved from the program being a retrenchment of “respectability politics” to something far worse.
The latest assailant of My Brother’s Keeper is Brittney Cooper, assistant professor at Rutgers University, co-founder of Crunk Feminist Collective and contributor at Salon, who has established herself as possibly the most vindictive critic of the program thus far. Her latest column sets a repugnant narrative of the President as some sort of non-Black misogynist for not including women of girls of color at the last minute:
When it comes to addressing racial justice issues, President Obama’s personal identifications with blackness take center stage, trumping substantial attention to black women as a political constituency. I used to believe that Obama’s personal racial identifications were powerful, that having a president who had experienced racism personally would help him commit to doing something about it when he had the opportunity to do so. But what has become apparent is that President Obama’s personal understanding of racism is deeply tethered to his position as both black and male. The effect is that his personal experience has limited his vision of racial justice to just one gender.
There are many problems with Cooper’s entire premise, but in particular, she speaks as if women and girls are completely and maliciously ignored by this Executive. The White House Council on Women and Girls–created within the first one hundred days of President Obama’s first term and headed by a woman of color, Valerie Jarrett–serves to render this attack on the administration as utter nonsense. Furthermore, when confronted as to why she ignored this fact, she basically declared the program doesn’t focus on Black girls enough.
So if concerns about intersectionality and how the program impacts women and girls of color, the obvious thing to do would be to demand more from the Council on Women and Girls, as Jarrett is reportedly open to doing. But somehow, the power of Twitter as the engine of social change “hashtag activists” love to proclaim when trying to start a Conversation doesn’t extend to arranging meetings with people in the White House. So at best, Prof. Cooper is grossly misinformed, or at worst, she is a liar building a brand in the manner of Tavis Smiley.
http://isaiahlcarter.wordpress.com/2014/06/20/yes-this-is-sabotage/
Get the FUNK outta here, with that JUNK, CRUNK!
Jon Karl, this CAC RIGHT here…. I suppose POTUS can’t have a fucking hamburger while Paris is burning either.
From TOD COMMENTS:
LOL The ACA-AKA OBAMACARE is WORKING, MOFOS-SO.SUE.ME
The Associated Press ✔ @AP
Follow
BREAKING: European airlines Air France, Lufthansa suspend all flights to Tel Aviv over safety concerns.
12:27 PM – 22 Jul 2014
Yes ma’am!
The (Possibly) Frightening Implications of the Halbig Case
—By Kevin Drum
| Tue Jul. 22, 2014 1:07 PM EDT
In the Halbig case that struck down subsidies on federal Obamacare exchanges earlier today, one of the key issues was deference to agency interpretation of the law. Longstanding precedent holds that courts should generally defer to agency interpretations as long as they’re plausible. They don’t have to be perfect. They don’t even have to be the best possible interpretations. They merely have to make sense.
The DC circuit court decided that there really wasn’t any serious ambiguity in the law, and therefore no deference was due to the IRS’s interpretation that state and federal exchanges were meant to be treated the same. The dissent was scathing about this, since the record pretty clearly showed tons of ambiguity. So if and when this case makes it up to the Supreme Court, what’s going to happen? A lawyer buddy of mine is pessimistic:
Sadly, I think the Supreme Court will eagerly uphold the challenge because it gets to an issue that conservatives have generally despised: deference to administrative agencies’ interpretation of statutes.
It’s long been a fundamental principle in administrative law that an agency’s interpretation of a federal statute that they are charged with enforcing is entitled to judicial deference, unless such deference is unreasonable. Conservatives would prefer that courts not defer to the government because #biggovernment. Thus, they want to weaken the deference standard and Halbig gives them basically a two-fer. Or a three-fer since the agency interpreting the statute is the IRS: Take out Obamacare, knock back the deference standard, and punch the IRS. This invariably will help advance the conservatives’ legal goals because with a lower deference standard, their eccentric theories (such as on tax issues) have a better chance of surviving.
In normal times, the deference standard would likely be left intact because weakening it raises serious issues with government enforcement across all agencies, and courts are loath to send the country into a tailspin. But those days are apparently long past. Truly frightening times.
So what’s next? In breaking news, the Fourth Circuit court has just upheld the federal subsidies in Obamacare, ruling squarely on deference grounds—and disagreeing completely with the DC circuit opinion, which held that the legislative language in Obamacare was clear and plain. In fact, said the Fourth Circuit, the statute is ambiguous, and therefore the court owes deference to the IRS interpretation. This is good news for Obamacare, especially if today’s DC circuit decision by a three-judge panel is overturned by the full court, thus giving the government two appellate court wins. If that happens, it’s even possible that the Supreme Court would decline to hear an appeal and simply leave the lower court opinions in place
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2014/07/possibly-frightening-implications-halbig-case
https://twitter.com/planetepics/status/491512987078119424/photo/1
Mitch, is that you? LOL
Your never too old to dance. Watch as Grandpa throw’s away his canes and get’s down at a wedding. His dance skills are simply awesome!
http://youtu.be/Jxnhk45Jcjs
Get it Gramps! LOL I should be this nimble when I’m this old.
https://twitter.com/TheRavenxx/status/491417473628274688/photo/1
LMBAO GO JOSH ERNEST!
Josh E be like:
bwa ha ha ha ha
lOOK@THESE IDJITS
Clinton is So Strong
by BooMan
Tue Jul 22nd, 2014 at 10:44:57 AM EST
According to a recent Marist poll, 89% of Iowan Democrats and 94% of New Hampshire Democrats have a favorable view of Hillary Clinton. In both states, at least 70% of Democrats expressed their support for a Clinton candidacy over a Biden candidacy.
Obviously, it is still very early in the process, but it’s hard to imagine a politician being in a stronger position than Clinton currently enjoys. It’s very intimidating. I could launch a very full-throated progressive crusade against a restoration of the Clinton dynasty based on the record of Bill Clinton’s presidency and Hillary Clinton’s term in the Senate. But who would listen and what good would it do?
Byron York wants to make trouble by highlighting that Hillary Clinton is offering a resume while Elizabeth Warren is offering a plan. I’m not going to take the bait. Until Warren declares that she is running for the nomination, I see no reason to contribute to divisiveness on the left. I think Clinton should be at least given the opportunity to offer to lead the progressive movement rather than triangulate against it. The coalition that put Barack Obama in office is stronger than ever and appears to be more favorably disposed to Clinton than I expected. Does she want to pick up their banner or does she want to shove Lanny Davis and Mark Penn in our faces and ask us to like it?
If she wants to pick a fight with progressives, there’s a good chance that she’ll see her support diminish substantially, at least in Democratic circles. Yet, she probably has that luxury and it might be too tempting to resist. There is so much room to run in the middle that it probably seems like the logical way to go. It might even maximize the size of her victory and lead, paradoxically, to more progressive outcomes.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2014/7/22/104457/262
NO HILLARY NOW, LATER, OR EVER!
Thank you very much!
OOP, THERE IT IS!
KaPow!
I front-paged this video. Mika’s daddy DOES.NOT.PLAY.
OK!
Federal Judge Throws Out GOP Senator’s Anti-Obamacare Lawsuit
ByDylan Scott
PublishedJuly 22, 2014, 9:35 AM EDT
A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit on Monday from Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) that challenges Obamacare and the Obama administration’s decision to keep the government-subsidized insurance that Congress receives under the law.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that U.S. District Judge William Griesbach ruled that Johnson did not have legal standing to challenge the policy. The Obama administration decided last year to allow Johnson and others on the Hill to continue receiving government-provided employer contributions when, as required by Obamacare, they purchase health coverage through its insurance marketplaces.
“Given that the plaintiffs receive, at worst, a benefit, they cannot claim to be injured,” Griesbach wrote.
Johnson’s lawsuit was the continuation of the GOP’s stance during the fall’s government shutdown, when they also targeted the administration decision. As TPM reported earlier this month, part of Johnson’s argument for standing was that he could be hurt politically because he would be given a “favored status” under the law.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/ron-johnson-obamacare-lawsuit-dismissed
WHAT THE FUCK?!?!
……………………
NYC Lets Developer Build Apartment Complex With Separate ‘Poor Door’
ByDylan ScottPublishedJuly 21, 2014, 5:28 PM EDT 421 views
New York City has approved a real estate developer’s plan to construct an apartment complex with a separate entrance for its less fortunate residents, the New York Post reported Monday.
The Department of Housing Preservation and Development signed off on the application from Extell to build a 33-story building on the Upper West Side. The building will have 219 luxury condos that overlook the waterfront, according to the Post, and 55 “affordable” units that face the street. They will have separate entrances, which, as Gawker noted, sparked outrage last year when the plans were first revealed.
The city allows developers to build larger buildings if they include on-site or off-site low-income housing, according to the Post.
Another developer involved in similar projects explained the rationale for the separate entrances to the Real Deal, a NYC real estate news outlet, last year.
Spreckelsen, senior vice president at Toll Brothers, said. “So now you have politicians talking about that, saying how horrible those back doors are. I think it’s unfair to expect very high-income homeowners who paid a fortune to live in their building to have to be in the same boat as low-income renters, who are very fortunate to live in a new building in a great neighborhood.”
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/nyc-apartment-building-poor-door?utm_content=buffer8a676&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
More divide and conquer through 21st century SEGREGATION/JIM CROW
Dad’s bun-making skills make him a YouTube hit
by Lisa Flam, TODAY | July 18, 2014 at 11:12 AM
e brushes his 7-year-old daughter’s hair upward, gets a good, tight grip and instructs his little girl to spin around, wrapping her hair into a quick, tidy bun, perfect for her gymnastics or dance classes.
It’s something that Earl Hayes Raglin Jr. does all the time, so he was surprised at how much attention his 30-second clip of the technique received online. He posted it on several social sites at his daughter’s request to be in a YouTube video.
“That’s just me being me,” said Raglin, 35, of Lexington, Kentucky. “That’s just stuff we do every day.”
http://thegrio.com/2014/07/18/dads-bun-making-skills-make-him-a-you-tube-hit/
http://youtu.be/60X2OwJFbv8
There’s nothing wrong with Malia Obama using ‘connections’ for her ‘job’
Opinion
by Luvvie | June 17, 2014 at 2:12 PM
Malia Obama got her first job.
She was a production assistant for one day on the set of Steven Spielberg’s new TV series called Extant starring Halle Berry.
My first job was at a Presbyterian church’s summer camp, dealing with snot-nosed 6 and 7 year olds. But my parents weren’t the President and the First Lady of the United States. If they were, you better believe I’d be working as a professional side-eye giver at the Oprah Winfrey show. MAKE THAT CALL, IMPORTANT MOM!
I am not mad at the fact that Malia’s first gig is way doper than most of ours, but some people are crying “nepotism” and criticizing the way she probably got the job. I’m here to say a hearty “AND SO WHAT?!”
HELL YEAH, NEPOTISM (aka family hookups)! I am here for it, especially in this instance.
Why shouldn’t POTUS and FLOTUS help their daughter get a cool job? Surely we don’t think Malia’s going to have that last name and still have to apply for stuff via LinkedIn like the rest of us regular people whose parents don’t rule the free world, right?
Let’s talk about how white folks have been prospering for centuries off of family hookups You want to be upset at nepotism getting people into positions they might not have, then you better be pissed at the legacies of powerful families like the Kennedys and Bushes. You’re mad at Malia getting some one-day gig, but you’re not that upset at someone handing their brother a governorship or senator seat or whole companies. Ralph Lauren’s granddaughter is one of the faces of his brand as a model, Chelsea Clinton is running her family’s foundation (and getting paid $600,000 by MSNBC), and Jenna Bush Hager has no formal journalism training but has a job on the Today Show.
The 1% is mostly full of old money because they kept the connections going. We need to stop thinking having to struggle does us any favors.
It is time that we start elevating our children and placing them in positions that make excellence easier to achieve. It is not about handing our kids life on a silver platter and spoiling them. We can still teach them the value of hard work while making their paths easier than ours was. What is the point of me working to the bone if my kids have to start at the point I did? Part of the reason I work so hard is so that my inheritance to my coming kinfolk is a life that isn’t so full of bumps in the road.
There’s nothing sexy or fun about this working twice as hard to get half as far life. Does it teach you hard lessons that are really important? Yes. Does it make you an incredibly hard worker walking around with an invisible “persistence” boy and girls scout badge? Absolutely. But it also makes you tired.
Hookups make the world go round. Who you know is often more important with how talented you are. You could be the best singer this side of the Equator, but if you don’t know someone who knows a music executive, you might end up singing tunes in the subway for years.
http://thegrio.com/2014/06/17/malia-obama-first-job-spielberg/
Elizabeth Warren, Barack Obama, and lessons in reform and pragmatism
Spandan Chakrabarti | July 21, 2014
This will be a little hard to hear for the fashionable Lefty detractors of the president’s: Sen. Elizabeth Warren is openly celebrating President Obama’s financial reform law.
There have always been detractors who routinely bemoan the Barack Obama’s “capitulation” and “friendliness” to big banks, presenting as evidence what they call a meaningless banking reform bill – Dodd-Frank – the president’s key financial reform accomplishment. In the next breath, they lament why Barack Obama could not “fight” the banks like Elizabeth Warren – with no hint of irony that a key part of President Obama’s financial reform is Warren’s brainchild: the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Even when acknowledged, the moaning crowd is still upset that Warren is now a United States Senator rather than the head of CFPB.
And of course… no perpwalks on Wall Street! Because, what good is reform without theater?
Today is the fourth anniversary of the most significant financial reform law since the 1930s, which among other things created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. This is a fact not often noticed by those who see Warren as salvation from the “compromiser in chief” Obama, but the gravity of the achievement certainly did not escape Warren herself. On her Facebook page and in an email sent to supporters, Warren has two words for Dodd-Frank and the CFPB: It worked.
http://www.thepeoplesview.net/main/2014/7/21/elizabeth-warren-turns-out-to-be-a-pragmatist-in-barack-obamas-mold
Monday, July 21, 2014
Last Call For The Rainbow Kynect-tion
Nowhere is Obamacare working better than here in Kentucky, and it’s making news overseas as the BBC reports on Kentucky’s healthcare exchange, Kynect.
Liberty Sizemore leans back in her chair and beams. The 26-year-old filling station cashier has just been told her enrolment in Obamacare is complete.
Now she can have her first routine doctor’s appointment for seven years.
“I am so happy,” says Sizemore as she waits at the Grace Community Health Centre in Clay County, Kentucky, “I’ve not had insurance since I turned 19.”
But Sizemore is also nervous. She is seriously overweight and was warned in her teens that she was likely to develop diabetes. Without health insurance she has not been able to afford tests or check-ups to see if she has indeed got the disease.
“I’ll go to the hospital only in an emergency,” says Sizemore, who is still paying off the $10,000 bill for removing her appendix two years ago.
“That’s what’s on my credit card right now,” she sighs, “hospital bills.”
………………….
But she’ll stay in the program because it’s helping her family. And Obamacare will help people who flat out dislike President Obama, too.
Benita Adams may be one of the people the Governor has in mind. The 62-year-old grandmother lives on the edge of the rolling Appalachian Mountains in eastern Kentucky. She owns her home but works two jobs as a dental assistant to make ends meet. She did not vote for President Obama.
Adams has had no health insurance since her divorce 30 years ago. A recent heart operation left her with a $67,000 bill. Although the hospital waived around half of that, she still pays $50 a month to clear the rest.
“I used to say, if I get hurt just let me be killed because I can’t afford to pay any more hospital bills,” she says.
But Adams no longer has to worry. Under Obamacare, she qualifies for a private insurance plan with a hefty government subsidy that covers the monthly payments in full.
“Everyone was mad over Obamacare but it’s just wonderful, it’s really helping people,” Adams says as she lists the medical appointments she has been to since getting insured.
Of course, Mr Obama cannot run for the presidency again. But if he could, would Adams vote for him? “I’d sure think about it” she says, “It’s the best thing he’s done.”
http://zandarvts.blogspot.com/2014/07/last-call-for-rainbow-kynect-tion.html
https://twitter.com/Cynthiapoet/status/490628192789475329/photo/1
https://twitter.com/HumanAfrica/status/467721301197860864/photo/1
under the fucking jail!
……………….
Teenage Missionary Accused of Raping Young Children at African Orphanage
http://ktla.com/2014/07/21/teenage-missionary-accused-of-raping-young-children-at-african-orphanage/
http://youtu.be/Qp6xUuMh5rA
LOL Love this.
Obama Should Call For a Special Session
by BooMan
Mon Jul 21st, 2014 at 11:10:57 PM EST
I just had the pleasure of reading Harry S. Truman’s acceptance speech (pdf) at the 1948 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was there that President Truman announced that he was calling for a special July session of the 80th Congress, which he termed the “Do-Nothing Congress.” He called them back into session to shame the Republicans who had claimed to support the expansion of Social Security, a housing bill, and more education spending but who hadn’t acted on any of the bills then circulating in Congress.
Francis Berry thinks that Barack Obama should do something similar.
Obama is in the same boat and could say much the same thing. In fact, to heighten the drama, he could give an Oval Office address — it would be only the third of his presidency — to announce that he is canceling his two-week vacation to Martha’s Vineyard and calling Congress back into session in August to raise the minimum wage and reform the immigration system, his two biggest legislative priorities this year.
Polls show that Americans — including Republicans — strongly favor action on both issues, although not necessarily the specific steps proposed by the president.
I’d add to this a request that Congress vote on a bill to reform the Veterans’ hospitals since progress on that issue seems to be faltering.
Hell, I might even take another go at a bill to strengthen background checks for gun purchases.
As long as we’re talking about political theater, I might even ask Congress to actually pass individual appropriations bills.
Anything the president can do to highlight the ridiculous intransigence and obstruction of the Republican Party would be helpful and more worthwhile than another vacation on Martha’s Vineyard.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2014/7/21/231057/536
https://twitter.com/laureldavilacpa/status/491263645523779585/photo/1
https://twitter.com/NoShock/status/491362567781367808/photo/1
Rula Jebreal@rulajebreal
My forthcoming TV appearances have been cancelled! Is there a link between my expose and the cancellation?what about you @EliLake ?
LL (Tommy) Thomason @Sillmyril
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@rulajebreal Rule 1 on MSNBC: Say a single word not in praise of Andrea Mitchell, Joe Scarborough or Bibi and you are GONE. @EliLake
7:25 PM – 21 Jul 2014
Arapaho415 @arapaho415
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In 1964, James Garner, with Steve McQueen, approached councilman and said ‘Remember, we are the people.’
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-james-garner-santa-monica-mountains-20140721-story.html …
10:41 PM – 21 Jul 2014
The music of Motown was amazing.
Yes indeed! The best music EVER!
https://twitter.com/TheDailyEdge/status/491411457452421120/photo/1
Wagging the Dog: Gaza & MH17 Plane Deaths Stem from Netanyahu, Putin, Search for Popularity
By Martin Shaw
Russia-Israel: domestic politics and serious blowback
The Ukraine and Gaza crises alike demonstrate the risks of aggressive policy based on short-term calculations. Vladimir Putin and Binyamin Netanyahu’s war-as-politics invites damaging long-term consequences.
The slaughters in Ukraine and Gaza have one thing in common. Both result from governments authorising violence which is overwhelmingly motivated by domestic politics and appears almost gratuitous from a strategic point of view. Such policies promise short-term domestic popularity, but risk losing international credibility and producing serious blowback. Vladimir Putin is now finding this out. Binyamin Netanyahu should take note: the blowback for Israel could be far more serious.
Putin’s nemesis
Putin began his capricious military intervention in Ukraine to offset the humiliation of the Maidan protestors’ overthrow of the kleptocratic president Viktor Yanukovych, the day after Russia had endorsed the European Union foreign ministers’ deal for a gradual transition. Putin’s initial intervention secured total control over Crimea with its Russian naval bases, though these (like Russian speakers in Crimea) had never seriously been threatened. Putin, emboldened by a success which played to the nationalist gallery, then promoted the transformation of eastern Ukrainians’ political opposition to the new Kiev regime into armed rebellion, and followed up by sending Russian officers and weapons and encouraging Russian as well as local activists.
The strategy had the domestic effect of boosting Putin’s popularity. But it imposed a high cost in life and disruption on the people he claimed to be helping, provoked great western hostility, and did not stop Kiev gradually reasserting some control.
http://www.juancole.com/2014/07/wagging-netanyahu-popularity.html
Mediaite @Mediaite
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MSNBC Guest Who Slammed Israel Coverage Claims Upcoming TV Appearances Cancelled http://bit.ly/WzkouG
7:43 PM – 21 Jul 2014
https://twitter.com/arapaho415/status/491383037884502017/photo/1
When the End Comes, It Will Be Sudden
by BooMan
Mon Jul 21st, 2014 at 01:01:14 PM EST
Polls this far out from an election aren’t dispositive of much of anything, but it’s telling that Gov. Mary Fallin of Oklahoma has only a narrow lead over her Democratic challenger while Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York is absolutely trouncing his Republican opponent.
I have a theory that when the Republican Party finally collapses as a national party it will happen suddenly and without much warning. It could happen as early as this November, although I am not ready to make that prediction just yet. If it does happen this year, though, this is what it will look like. Incumbent Republican governors will lose across the board, from Florida to Maine to Pennsylvania to Michigan to Ohio to Wisconsin. At the same time, the GOP will fail to pick up more than one or two Senate seats, failing to win seats even in Deep South states like Georgia, Arkansas, and Louisiana. And they’ll lose control of the House by surrendering seats that are designed to be invulnerable. The popular vote will run heavily against them and the damage will only be mitigated by the way the maps have been drawn and the tendency of liberals to cluster together in urban areas.
Then, the party will fail to coalesce around a candidate who is willing to make terms with where the country actually is on women’s issues, immigration, education, climate, or gay rights, leading them to nominate someone as far outside of the mainstream as the party faithful. Think Ted Cruz, Rick Santorum, Rand Paul, or even Paul Ryan.
This would probably lead to the kind of Electoral College defeat experienced by Walter Mondale or George McGovern, with numerous “red states” crossing over to vote for sanity. And, at this point, the GOP would be reduced back down to where they were in the mid to early sixties. To come back, they’d need the left to fracture in 1968 fashion.
This is where we’re headed. It could come as soon as November, although it could also be delayed into the latter half of the twenties. A lot will depend on economic and international conditions on each coming election day, and the GOP has a lot of artificial advantages plus a willingness to engage in various forms of suppression and chicanery. But the game is nonetheless up. The best movement conservatism can hope for at this point is a flash in the pan confluence of bad news timed at just the right moment to give them the unlikeliest of national victories. This country has totally moved on from their ideology.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2014/7/21/13114/9312
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Good morning!
I love love this music. The music today can’t touch it!
Bernadette people are searching
For the kind of love that we possess
Some go on searching their whole life through
And never find the love I’ve found in you…
BERNADETTE! Motown’s on the GROUND, Bay-bee.
Good Morning, SG2 & Everyone.