Saturday Open Thread | Old School Jams

Posted on January 31, 2015 by rikyrah

Happy Saturday, Everyone!

How about some Shalamar & Kool & the Kang, and Earth, Wind, & Fire to get your up, moving and warm.

This entry was posted in Current Events, Media, Music, News, Open Thread, Politics and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

76 Responses to Saturday Open Thread | Old School Jams

  2. yahtzeebutterfly says:
    January 31, 2015 at 11:14 pm

    deray mckesson retweeted
    Ματτ @Didymath · 20m 20 minutes ago
    Texas history! RT @ItIsJamesBrown: LOVE This! Free! “@deray: 1937-1938: Portraits of African-American former slaves http://mashable.com/2015/01/31/former-slaves-photos-united-states/ …”

    Reply
  4. yahtzeebutterfly says:
    January 31, 2015 at 9:32 pm

    http://youtu.be/Lm1_m3xJ-Bs&rel=0
    “Erica Campbell Releases New Gospel Song in Response to Deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner”

    Excerpt:

    The new song was motivated by today’s headlines and feelings of frustration and anger in light of the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner and injustice that followed. In Campbell’s own words, the message “love changes things” is issued in “More Love.”

    ” ‘More Love’ comes from taking the temperature of the times we live in,” the singer said in a statement alongside her husband, the song’s co-writer, Warryn Campbell. “The sense of frustration, anger that we feel, from the civil unrest and tragic deaths in Ferguson, New York, and around the world. We thought it was important to emphasize the importance of love. Love truly does change things. We believe that.”

    Reply
  7. rikyrah says:
    January 31, 2015 at 8:17 pm

    Morning Plum: GOP leaders hope Supreme Court ‘tears apart’ Obamacare
    By Greg Sargent January 30

    Last month, National Journal reported that senior Republicans were deliberating ways to offer a “fix” to Obamacare, should the Supreme Court gut subsidies in three dozen states, yanking health coverage from millions and unleashing disruptions in insurance markets across the country. To be sure, such a “fix” would not be free: Republicans said at the time they might trade a fix to the subsidy problem in exchange for changes to the law they want.

    Thankfully, the Wall Street Journal has now dispensed with this charade:

    Congressional Republicans say they won’t move to preserve consumers’ health insurance tax credits if the Supreme Court strikes them down, raising the stakes in the latest legal challenge to the Affordable Care Act.

    The reason for this is spelled out in unvarnished terms:

    Leaders in the GOP-controlled House and Senate see the court challenge as their best hope for tearing apart a law they have long opposed. If the court strikes down the subsidies, Democrats are expected to clamor for lawmakers to pass a measure correcting the language in the law to revive them. Congressional Republicans say there is no possibility they would allow that.

    Well, no kidding. Senate GOP leaders have repeatedly said on the record that they are rooting for SCOTUS to accomplish what Republicans failed to accomplish through the legislative and political process, i.e., repeal. Thus, all the talk about Republicans preparing any kind of “alternative” — whether it be a fix to the subsidies in exchange for other changes, or some phantom GOP health reform that would expand coverage to some of those who would lose it — is probably just a bait and switch designed to create the impression that the consequences of a SCOTUS ruling gutting the law might not be all that dire.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/01/30/morning-plum-gop-leaders-hope-supreme-court-tears-apart-obamacare/

    Reply
  8. rikyrah says:
    January 31, 2015 at 8:12 pm

    Republicans to Block Legislative Fix to Health-Care Law

    Supreme Court Considers Striking Down Subsidies to Millions Nationwide

    By
    Louise Radnofsky

    Leaders in the GOP-controlled House and Senate see the court challenge as their best hope for tearing apart a law they have long opposed. If the court strikes down the subsidies, Democrats are expected to clamor for lawmakers to pass a measure correcting the language in the law to revive them. Congressional Republicans say there is no possibility they would allow that.

    http://www.wsj.com/articles/republicans-to-block-legislative-fix-to-health-care-law-1422575627

    Reply
  9. rikyrah says:
    January 31, 2015 at 8:00 pm

    Saturday, January 31, 2015
    About Those Speech Rules
    There’s been a lot of talk lately between bloggers/pundits about “political correctness.” I’m not going to delve into the back and forth of that conversation, but I’d like to share some of my own thoughts and experiences.

    As a white person, much of my learning about what racism looks like in this country today came from hanging around small blogs written by people of color about eight years ago. They have mostly all gone inactive, but back then it was fascinating to simply listen to people talking in forums that had never been available prior to the internet.

    One story a blogger named Donna told was a particular turning point for me. It starts off with her explaining that she was once part of a group for Native American women. They were open about who joined – as long as the reasons had integrity. One of the women who joined the group had Native American ancestors way back in her heritage and wanted to learn what she could about them. I’ll let Donna pick up the story from there.
    It was like any friend or neighbor who thinks you are interesting and you think she is interesting and you get along great. I don’t know what got up her nose this one day, but we were sitting around discussing current problems on our reservations and things like unemployment came up. She gets a little huffy and chimes in, “Well why don’t you just go get a job?” Now the others in the group just stopped talking to her, they knew they got slapped down, but I didn’t. I tried to explain that it wasn’t that easy and that alot of our reservations are out in the middle of nowhere and you need a car to go into town or maybe even get on a bus and completely leave your home. She didn’t hear any of it. She said of course it’s easy, you fill out applications and get a job! I tried one more time telling her that cars and gas cost money, that bus fare costs money, that clothes for an interview cost money, the extreme poverty means there is no money, and because of the distance to the nearest city you might be abandoning everything and everyone you know to go somewhere you know is hostile to you. And she dismissed it saying I was just making excuses. She really thought we were either too stupid to think of her simplistic answers ourselves, or too lazy to go and do it. I lost it and gave her hell over it, but her answer to that was that white people don’t have to be our friends and listen to anything we say, and yet she did it all this time, and now I was being so rude and ungrateful when she was just trying to help…

    I got quiet. I didn’t know what to say. I had to stop and ask myself, am I really equal? Am I even human? At that moment in time, I didn’t know anymore. Now these kinds of things have happened to me at other times but this one was especially painful because I had been friends with this woman for 2+ years. I didn’t see it coming.
    The woman’s questions sprang from her own ignorance and were therefore initially understandable. Donna didn’t see what was coming though. As her responses were increasingly met with defensiveness and – ultimately – the statement about how this woman was doing them some kind of favor by listening, the white supremacy came through…painfully.

    http://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2015/01/about-those-speech-rules.html?spref=tw

    Reply
  16. rikyrah says:
    January 31, 2015 at 7:28 pm

    Morehouse College’s Moot Court Teams Wins National Title
    Filed in HBCUs on January 30, 2015

    The Moot Court team at historically Black Morehouse College in Atlanta recently won the 2014-2015 national championship at the American Collegiate Moot Court Association’s national tournament that was held on the campus of Florida International University in Miami. The Morehouse College team was formed only two years ago. It defeated the defending champion Patrick Henry College in the finals. Patrick Henry College, located in Purcellville, Virginia, had won the competition for seven straight years.

    The Morehouse team, consisting of students Rodje Malcolm and Emanuel Waddell, was the first team from a historically Black college or university to ever win the national moot court competition. The team was coached by Professor Winfield Murray.

    “Rodje and Emanuel are stellar students who worked extremely hard to win this competition,” said Professor Murray. “They represented Morehouse superbly and without fault.

    http://www.jbhe.com/2015/01/morehouse-colleges-moot-court-teams-wins-national-title/

    Reply
  19. rikyrah says:
    January 31, 2015 at 7:23 pm

    Josh Marshall ✔ @joshtpm
    Follow
    She considered tetanus shot after he cut himself on wire fence but decided no: “He has such a strong immune system.” http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/31/us/vaccine-critics-turn-defensive-over-measles.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share&_r=1 …
    7:52 AM – 31 Jan 2015

    Reply
  23. rikyrah says:
    January 31, 2015 at 6:02 pm

    I still think it’s a bad, short-sighted business decision

    ………………….

    Johnson Publishing Co. makes tough call

    Posted: 01/28/2015, 07:13pm | Mary Mitchell

    When a Chicago Sun-Times co-worker was laid off, he left behind a 1954 copy of Jet, the iconic black newsmagazine.

    “Just hang on to it,” he told me.

    Several years later, Jet ceased publishing its print edition. That was a sad day for a lot of older, black folks. They were faithful subscribers and were so loyal to Jet, they considered it disrespectful to pass up the latest edition at the newsstand.

    For Johnson Publishing Co. executives to expect a substantial number of these consumers to go to Apple’s App Store and purchase an online subscription was wishful thinking.

    After all, most people who continue to look to Jet for their celebrity gossip and world news still can’t figure out how to operate a DVR.

    It is indeed likely the Jet in my possession would be worth a great deal more to history buffs today than it was in the ’50s when it cost 15 cents.

    Of course, the publication is not mine to sell.

    I don’t even have to worry about being tempted to sell it, because I’m sure I’ll hear from my former colleague any day now.

    But my appreciation of this bit of memorabilia helps me better understand why the heir of the Johnson Publishing empire is auctioning off a photo archive that spans 70 years.

    Last week, Linda Johnson Rice, chairman of Johnson Publishing, announced the company is banking on the photographs bringing in an estimated $40 million.

    Some who argue you can’t put a price tag on black history are criticizing the CEO’s decision.

    http://chicago.suntimes.com/mary-mitchell/7/71/327721/johnson-publishing-makes-tough-call

    Reply
  24. rikyrah says:
    January 31, 2015 at 5:55 pm

    I still think he’s a plant.

    …………………

    Willie Wilson is more than his words

    Posted: 01/30/2015, 11:50pm | Mary Mitchell

    The most interesting man in the boardroom was Willie Wilson.

    Wilson is an enigma to many because he’s a black man with the resources to finance his own campaign.

    On Friday, he joined Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Ald. Bob Fioretti, William “Doc” Walls III, and Jesus “Chuy” Garcia to take questions from the Chicago Sun-Times editorial board.

    Emanuel, of course, also took jabs from his challengers on a variety of issues, including the looming pension crisis, economic development, TIFs, education and public safety.

    Frankly, I give Emanuel points for stick-to-it-ness. Seen as vulnerable in the black community because of his decision to close 50 Chicago Public Schools, Emanuel was nonetheless unapologetic.

    Wilson accused Chicago’s current mayor of being bought up by corporations because of the millions he’s collected in campaign contributions.

    But Wilson is far from naive.

    He knew instinctively that in the scheme of things our questions were a mere formality.

    http://chicago.suntimes.com/mary-mitchell/7/71/333465/willie-wilson-words

    Reply
  25. rikyrah says:
    January 31, 2015 at 5:46 pm

    Gov. Rauner staff receiving higher pay than Quinn’s
    Posted: 01/29/2015, 07:12pm | Associated Press

    While criticizing state spending and state worker salaries as too high, Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner is paying top members of his administration significantly more than their predecessors in Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn’s administration, a review by The Associated Press has found.

    An AP review of state payroll records found nine of ten top administrative posts paying more under Rauner, who took office earlier this month. On an annual basis, those Rauner staffers will make more than the equivalent Quinn staffers by nearly 36 percent, or roughly $380,000.

    http://chicago.suntimes.com/politics/7/71/330777/gov-rauner-staff-receiving-higher-pay-quinns

    Reply
  26. rikyrah says:
    January 31, 2015 at 5:11 pm

    Sleepy Hollow Fans

    ……………….

    Watch Out, Katrina! Sleepy Hollow’s Tom Mison Says Ichabod Is “Completely In Love” with Abbie

    http://tommisonfans.tumblr.com/post/109600744380/watch-out-katrina-sleepy-hollows-tom-mison-says

    BWA HA HA H AHA HA HA HA H AH AH AH AH AH AH

    Reply
  27. Kathleen says:
    January 31, 2015 at 4:51 pm

    I loved your 80’s week and now I’m loving this, too! You are hitting this out of the park, ladies. Thank you! I’m enjoying all of this music so much.

    Reply
  28. rikyrah says:
    January 31, 2015 at 3:09 pm

    Jason Johnson @DrJasonJohnson
    Today Wendell Scott will be the first African-American inducted into #NASCAR hall of fame
    http://www.npr.org/2015/01/30/382444955/african-american-nascar-driver-raced-like-a-great-artist … @NBCBLK @rolandsmartin

    Reply
  30. rikyrah says:
    January 31, 2015 at 3:01 pm

    sailor mars @susafrican420
    white ppl: omg lakeisha is such a ghetto name
    white ppl: here comes my child daffodil ginseng blueberry yogurt

    Reply
  31. rikyrah says:
    January 31, 2015 at 2:59 pm

    Teacher: I see the difference in educational privilege every day. I live it. I am disgusted by it.

    Here is a post by a Colorado teacher who vividly explains the difference in the lives of fortunate students and the less fortunate students whom she teaches. Her last post on this blog was a nuanced look into the psyche of some students of color who live in poverty, which you can read here. This public school teacher often blogs anonymously under the name Shakespeare’s Sister at Daily Kos. She teaches 11th grade AP Language and Composition in the Denver area.

    Recently, events in Ferguson and New York have reminded us there are still two very different Americas. What I wish more people were talking about is that there are two American educations: One for the affluent, and one for students living in poverty.

    Many of the reports focus on numbers for free and reduced lunches, which is, some say, a “rough proxy for poverty,” but those labeling it in such a way have probably never set foot in a classroom.

    Almost every day, I slip food to one of my students. Both of his parents are in prison. Or, one of his parents is in prison and the other is dead. We can’t quite get the full story from him. He lives with his older sister, whom he refers to as his mother because he doesn’t want to explain anything. Or he doesn’t live with her. He won’t say where he’s staying. We’ve attempted home visits but can never get anyone to answer the door.

    ………….

    A senior from a nearby high school spoke at the Colorado Association for Gifted and Talented’s annual conference in Denver this past October. Poised and polished and wearing a suit, he told the assembled teachers and administrators about how he had recently received a $25,000 grant from a company to allow him to continue to develop a thumbprint-activated gun prototype. He takes a special class in a public school—a scientific discovery class—in which he is allowed time to process through his scientifically based ideas. He works with a special adviser from a corporation that helped him set up his own corporation, and continues to help guide the research and development of his prototype. He admitted openly to taking many days off of school in order to work on his projects. He laughed it off, though, because his teachers make a special exception for him because they know he’s gifted, and they know what he’s working on.

    My students take several days off of school also. They do it when they have to care for their brothers or sisters because their parents are working. They do it when they have to work so their family can eat. They do it when their parents are in the hospital receiving emergency medical care. Instead of a special exception, my students will eventually get a date in truancy court.

    ………………………………………

    My student comes to school hungry every day. He wears size XXL shirts to hide what we all know is an emaciated frame. A couple of weeks ago, he used a plastic bag—stretched out to its full length—as a belt. He says he doesn’t get to choose the size of clothes he gets so he has to make do with what he has. He tells me I don’t have to buy him food, but I do anyway, because he needs it. He always takes it.

    Why do I do it? Is it because it hurts me to see when my students are hungry, to know that they are wanting? That’s one reason, yes. But another reason I do it is because, deep down, I am ashamed of an educational system that provides such privilege to some students, while willfully and purposefully denying it to others.

    I am angry that when I attend a conference for gifted children—which, make no mistake, I do have in my classroom, though they do not have the same opportunities as their more affluent counterparts—I see such a stark difference between the opportunities afforded to students in affluent areas, and the opportunities afforded to students in my classroom.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2015/01/29/teacher-i-see-the-difference-in-educational-privilege-every-day-i-live-it-i-am-disgusted-by-it/?tid=hybrid_sidebar_alt1_strip_2

    Reply
  32. rikyrah says:
    January 31, 2015 at 2:56 pm

    Jeb ‘Put Me
    Through Hell’
    Michael Schiavo knows as well as anyone what Jeb Bush can do with executive power. He thinks you ought to know too.
    By MICHAEL KRUSE
    January 29, 2015

    Sitting recently on his brick back patio here, Michael Schiavo called Jeb Bush a vindictive, untrustworthy coward.

    For years, the self-described “average Joe” felt harassed, targeted and tormented by the most important person in the state.
    “It was a living hell,” he said, “and I blame him.”

    Michael Schiavo was the husband of Terri Schiavo, the brain-dead woman from the Tampa Bay area who ended up at the center of one of the most contentious, drawn-out conflicts in the history of America’s culture wars. The fight over her death lasted almost a decade. It started as a private legal back-and-forth between her husband and her parents. Before it ended, it moved from circuit courts to district courts to state courts to federal courts, to the U.S. Supreme Court, from the state legislature in Tallahassee to Congress in Washington. The president got involved. So did the pope.

    But it never would have become what it became if not for the dogged intervention of the governor of Florida at the time, the second son of the 41st president, the younger brother of the 43rd, the man who sits near the top of the extended early list of likely 2016 Republican presidential candidates. On sustained, concentrated display, seen in thousands of pages of court records and hundreds of emails he sent, was Jeb the converted Catholic, Jeb the pro-life conservative, Jeb the hands-on workaholic, Jeb the all-hours emailer—confident, competitive, powerful, obstinate Jeb. Longtime watchers of John Ellis Bush say what he did throughout the Terri Schiavo case demonstrates how he would operate in the Oval Office. They say it’s the Jebbest thing Jeb’s ever done.

    Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/01/jeb-bush-terri-schiavo-114730.html#ixzz3QR0veihh

    Reply
  34. Ametia says:
    January 31, 2015 at 2:13 pm

    Carl Djerassi Dies at 91; Forever Altered Reproductive Practices as a Creator of the Pill
    9 min ago –

    Carl Djerassi, an eminent chemist who 63 years ago synthesized a hormone that changed the world by creating the key ingredient for the oral contraceptive known as “the pill,” died at his home in San Francisco on Friday. He was 91.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/01/us/carl-djerassi-dies-at-91-forever-altered-reproductive-practices-as-a-creator-of-the-pill.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

    Reply
  36. Ametia says:
    January 31, 2015 at 12:33 pm

    (CNN)Whitney Houston’s daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown was found unresponsive Saturday morning in a bathtub full of water in Roswell, Georgia, police in that Atlanta suburb said.

    Brown was not breathing when her husband and a friend found her at 10:23 a.m. and called 911, police spokeswoman Lisa Holland said.

    Police officers arrived first and took lifesaving measures until an ambulance arrived.

    Brown was then transported to Roswell’s North Fulton Hospital, and was breathing, according to Holland.

    Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/31/entertainment/whitney-houston-daughter-unresponsive/index.html

    Reply
  38. Ametia says:
    January 31, 2015 at 12:22 pm

    WTH Bobbi Kristina found unresponsive in bathtub?!!!

    Hospitalized now

    Reply
  39. yahtzeebutterfly says:
    January 31, 2015 at 11:03 am

    Here are videos of Jackie Robinson, Ernie Banks, Benjamin Hooks and Carol Channing all of whom were born on January 31.

    http://youtu.be/CX3tv9uKj1I&rel=0

    Reply
  41. Ametia says:
    January 31, 2015 at 10:29 am

    What a FRUITCAKE

    Reply
  42. SouthernGirl2 says:
    January 31, 2015 at 10:02 am

    My baby was sick so Mama made him some Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup.
    Feel better, Josh! ♥

    Chicken Noodle Soup

    Reply
  45. rikyrah says:
    January 31, 2015 at 9:35 am

    Shut-out Dems longing for Hillary – and Bill
    By ANNA PALMER and LAUREN FRENCH 1/29/15 6:38 PM EST Updated 1/30/15 7:19 PM EST

    Congressional Democrats for the past six years have lamented their chilly relationship with President Barack Obama. He doesn’t schmooze enough, they say. He is missing the glad-handing gene that makes politics fun. He just doesn’t get it.

    But they are starting to see light at the end of the tunnel: the prospect of a Clinton back in the White House.

    Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/01/house-democrats-bill-clinton-hillary-clinton-114746.html#ixzz3QPhPsx36

    Reply
    • Ametia says:
      January 31, 2015 at 10:22 am

      LOL This is Politico folks so…

      IF Congressional Dems have been LAMENTING the past 6 years, it’s because PBO came into office and has FLIPPED the LIGHT switch on.

      Some of these DEMS have been fully EXPOSED for the lazy, self-interest, white entitled mofos they truly are.

      For all that NOT SCHOOMZING enough, President Obama’s sure is getting shit done.

      If Dems want fun & schoomzing, go tho your country cubs and family reunions.

      And… for the upteenth time, I WILL NEVER VOTE FOR HILLARY CLINTON. NEVER.

      Reply
  46. rikyrah says:
    January 31, 2015 at 9:31 am

    A Strained Alliance: Obama-Netanyahu Rift Grew Over Years
    By PETER BAKER and JODI RUDOREN
    JAN. 30, 2015

    WASHINGTON — For six years, the pattern has been the same. A dispute between American and Israeli leaders spills out into the open. Analysts declare the relationship in crisis. Then the two sides try to tamp down emotions and argue that the rupture is not as dire as it looks.

    In the latest falling-out between President Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the first part of the pattern has certainly held — but not the second. This time, senior officials in both Washington and Jerusalem are making little effort to paper over the seriousness of the rift and even less, it seems, to try to repair it.

    The diplomatic break touched off by Mr. Netanyahu’s decision to negotiate an address to Congress without first telling Mr. Obama is about much more than a speech. It reflects fundamentally different world views between the leaders of two longtime allies: an American president eager for a historic rapprochement with Iran and an Israeli premier nursing an existential fear of a nuclear-armed enemy.

    It reflects six years of suspicion and mistrust and grievance, wounds from past brawls easily reopened by what might otherwise be small irritations. It reflects resentment on the part of Mr. Obama, who watched Mr. Netanyahu seemingly root for his Republican opponent in the 2012 election and now sees him circumventing the Oval Office to work with a Republican Congress instead. And it reflects a conviction on the part of Mr. Netanyahu that Mr. Obama may sell out Israel with a bad deal and may be trying to influence the coming Israeli elections.

    Rather than defuse the latest explosion, each side has chosen to escalate. The Obama administration made it clear this week that it no longer has any use for Mr. Netanyahu’s ambassador in Washington. Israeli officials defied American opposition on Friday to announce 450 new settlement units in the West Bank and privately whispered to their media that Mr. Obama had given Iran 80 percent of what it wants.

    “Of course this is a crisis,” said Eytan Gilboa, an expert on Israeli-American relations at Bar-Ilan University. “This is even a more serious one, first of all because of what it is and secondly because it comes on top of many previous crises. This is a different kind of story. This is a different kind of crisis.”

    http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/31/world/middleeast/a-strained-alliance-obama-netanyahu-rift-grew-over-years.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0

    Reply
  48. rikyrah says:
    January 31, 2015 at 9:30 am

    Good Morning, Everyone.

    Off to swim and run errands.

    Reply

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