Enjoy your Sunday and Ms. Yolanda Adams. I can’t post this song enough.. THROUGH THE STORM.
Sing it, Yolanda.
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Even though 3Chics Politico is written and curated by three women: Ametia, Rikyrah, and SouthernGirl2, I must nominate this as one of the most engaging blogs I've found. Devoted to politics and culture, these three shine a light on contemporary life with humor and spirit.
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deray mckesson @deray · 20m
I just finished meeting with this incredible meeting with an elder from Selma. The spirit of activism is deep here in Alabama.
The Selma elder we just met with had such powerful stories about Coretta Scott King, about how compassionate yet lonely she sometimes was.
“If they don’t kill you, or jail you, they’ll demonize you.” – Selma elder
“Everything y’all are doing, we did in some way. The difference is, y’all keep going. We didn’t.” – Selma elder
“Community organizing is the most dangerous thing you can do. And it’s the hardest thing to do.” – Selma elder
The Selma elder also discussed the tendency by some, young and old, to live in the memory of the CRM and do more talk than action.
https://twitter.com/Bainst06/status/562069343065096193/photo/1
WATER IS WET
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12/10/2012 @ 12:28PM 179,128 views
How Home Ownership Keeps Blacks Poorer Than Whites
Comment Now Follow Comments
This article is by Dorothy Brown, a professor of tax law at Emory University Law School.
The racial wealth gap has hit an all-time high while Barack Obama has been president. The median net worth of white households is now 20 times that of black households. Why?
Some argue that the gap is a current manifestation of a historical problem. Others say blacks are to blame. While I can’t eliminate the lingering effects of slavery and Jim Crow, or change stereotypes, I can highlight one area where blacks may be inadvertently contributing to the racial wealth gap: When most black people buy homes, we hurt ourselves economically.
Home ownership has been an important vehicle in creating a solid white middle class, but it has not done the same for most black homeowners, because blacks and whites buy homes in very different neighborhoods. Research shows that homes in majority black neighborhoods do not appreciate as much as homes in overwhelmingly white neighborhoods. This appreciation gap begins whenever a neighborhood is more than 10% black, and it increases right along with the percentage of black homeowners. Yet most blacks decide to live in majority minority neighborhoods, while most whites live in overwhelmingly white neighborhoods.
If you think this is class and not race, you are wrong. A 2001 Brookings Institution study showed that “wealthy minority neighborhoods had less home value per dollar of income than wealthy white neighborhoods.” The same study concluded that “poor white neighborhoods had more home value per income than poor minority neighborhoods.” The Brookings study was based on a comparison of home values to homeowner incomes in the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan areas, and it found that even when homeowners had similar incomes, black-owned homes were valued at 18% less than white-owned homes. The 100 metropolitan areas were home to 58% of all whites and 63% of all blacks in the country.
Those conclusions are supported by a large body of research. Put simply, the market penalizes integration: The higher the percentage of blacks in the neighborhood, the less the home is worth, even when researchers control for age, social class, household structure, and geography.
………………………………..
When blacks buy homes in majority minority neighborhoods, we increase the racial wealth gap. Whites who want to experience racial diversity at home also pay dearly.
Of course, home ownership has significant benefits even if it is not a great financial investment. Homeowners generally experience lower crime rates and better schools and municipal services. Also, not all black homeowners increase the racial wealth gap when they buy homes. Blacks who live in overwhelmingly white neighborhoods win as long as they remain a very small part of the community.
The recent crash and subsequent rebounding of the market—”fiscal cliff” jitters notwithstanding—show how meaningful this is: White median net worth is down by only 16%, while black median net worth is down by 50%. This is because the stock market has significantly rebounded and compensated for whites’ losses in home equity, but blacks, without comparable stock investments, have not benefited.
This leads to my final point: While many whites are comfortable investing in the stock market, most blacks are not.
White middle-class families are more than twice as likely to own stock as black middle-class families. Why? Blacks’ wages tend to be lower, so we have less disposable income, but even when studies control for income, they find that blacks are less likely to invest in the stock market. The reasons are complex. Blacks in the middle class are often called on by family members for financial assistance, leaving less income for investing. We’re less likely to have grown up in homes where investing in the stock market was commonplace. And it can’t help that the securities industry is overwhelmingly white. Recent data show that fewer than 6% of Wall Street professionals are black.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesleadershipforum/2012/12/10/how-home-ownership-keeps-blacks-poorer-than-whites/
RINKINS REPORT: LIVING THE ‘NO NEW FRIENDS’ LIFE WILL LEAVE YOUBROKE
January 22, 2015 | By zachary
I hate to burst your bubble, but nobody is a self-made anything. So, if you live by the “No New Friends” motto, you may be eliminating new business and new opportunities. Regardless of whether you are successful or not, somebody helped you along the way. George Fraser, chief executive officer of FraserNet, Inc., has the same opinion.
“There is no success that you can maintain and sustain on your own,” says Fraser.
Your quality of life is directly connected to the people you spend the most time with. You will eventually mimic their habits, good or bad. If you want to get to the next level you have to reach out to people that can help you accomplish your goals. Fraser notes “as your network grows, you grow.”
“Your success will be directly related to your willingness to ask people for help,”says Fraser who recently partner with best-selling author Les Brown on Mission Unstoppable: Extraordinary Stories of Failure’s Blessings. “Whomever you are asking for help is your network.”
In his book Click: 10 Truths to Building Extraordinary Relationships, Fraser recommends we cultivate three types of networks to get to the next level. “If you’re the smartest person in your network,” mentions Fraser. “You’re in the wrong darn network.”
Personal- Your personal network helps re-charge your battery. These people help you sort out personal and emotional challenges. Their encouragement helps you to do your best. “This is your circle of friends who support and cheer you on,” says Fraser.
Operational- People you work with and do business with. He points out that “these are people in your place of business that help you achieve certain goals.”
Strategic- These are people you look up to, like your mentors, role models and coaches. They drag you into the 21st century. They are smarter than you. Their guidance takes you to the next level.
Nobody wants to be used. So your networks must benefit everyone involved. Service to others and sharing resources are the glue that holds networks together.
http://financialjuneteenth.com/rinkins-report-living-the-no-new-friends-life-will-leave-you-broke/
NO FLEX ZONE: 76ERS’ CARTER-WILLIAMS PUTS $4.5M ROOKIE SALARY IN TRUST FUND
Published On January 15, 2015
BY: John “Hennry” Harris
It is common for young NBA players to blow through hundreds of thousands of dollars (even millions) adjusting to their newly found wealth. A sobering truth about this “wealth” is that around 60% of NBA players end up filing for bankruptcy in the first five years after retirement. This statistic is surprising considering many of these players earn tens of millions, even hundreds of millions of dollars over their careers.
Philadelphia 76ers star Michael Carter-Williams is determined not to assure that he does not go on the same list as notable players like Allen Iverson or Antoine Walker as players who lost it all, or nearly all of their money.
Carter-Williams, 22, placed his entire $4.5 million rookie salary in a trust fund that he can not touch for the next three years.
Now that’s a nest egg.
His NBA salary is only one income stream and he will live off his Nike and Panini trading card endorsements, which still amounts to a good living, but also prevents him from overextending himself and creates positive economic conditioning for Carter-Williams.
Mandy Carter-Zegarowski, Carter-Williams’ mother and her friend are his managers – which is an unprecedented move as most athletes opt for sports agents or lawyers.
“Our goal is to work with Michael to manage his money in a way that will secure his long-term financial future,” the player’s mother, Mandy Carter-Zegarowski, said in a statement obtained by NBC News. “Right now, the focus is not only to save as much as possible, but also to use his unique position to serve as a role model and give back to the communities that continue to support him and his career.”
http://financialjuneteenth.com/76ers-carter-williams-puts-rookie-salary-in-trust-fund/
Here’s Where Disney Really Makes Money
MIKE NUDELMAN
JAN. 14, 2015, 11:43 AM
It’s an exciting time for Disney. With a flurry of successful superhero movies, the animated juggernaut Frozen, and new Star Wars movies on the horizon, things are looking up. Meanwhile, the company’s stock is up around 500% since 2009. But where does Disney’s money really come from?
As you’ll see in the graphic below, The Walt Disney Studios films actually account for a fairly small percentage of their revenue.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-where-disney-really-makes-money-2015-1#ixzz3QYVBQfBG
https://twitter.com/missekay/status/562087265317302272
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uh huh
uh huh
……………….
The Financial Consequences of Saying ‘Black,’ vs. ‘African American’
JOE PINSKER
DEC 30 2014, 7:00 AM ET
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A century’s worth of calculated name changes are a testament to the fact that naming any group is a politically freighted exercise. A 2001 study catalogued all the ways in which the term “Black” carried connotations that were more negative than those of “African American.” This is troubling on the level of an individual’s decision making, and these labels are also institutionalized: Only last month, the U.S. Army finally stopped permitting use of the term “Negro” in its official documents, and the American Psychological Association currently says “African American” and “Black” can be used interchangeably in academic writing.
But if it was known that “Black” people were viewed differently from “African Americans,” researchers, until now, hadn’t identified what that gap in perception was derived from. A study, to be published next month in theJournal of Experimental Social Psychology, found that “Black” people are viewed more negatively than “African Americans” because of a perceived difference in socioeconomic status. As a result, “Black” people are thought of as less competent and as having colder personalities.
………………..
In one of the study’s experiments, subjects were given a brief description of a man from Chicago with the last name Williams. To one group, he was identified as “African-American,” and another was told he was “Black.” With little else to go on, they were asked to estimate Mr. Williams’s salary, professional standing, and educational background.
The “African-American” group estimated that he earned about $37,000 a year and had a two-year college degree. The “Black” group, on the other hand, put his salary at about $29,000, and guessed that he had only “some” college experience. Nearly three-quarters of the first group guessed that Mr. Williams worked at a managerial level, while 38.5 percent of the second group thought so.
Curiously, the authors of the study itself avoid taking a side in the question of whether to use the term “Black” or “African American,” instead using “Americans of African descent.” The lead author, Emory University’s Erika Hall, told the podcast On the Media that this was done primarily out of a desire not to confuse the reader. She has doubts about the practicality of the term “Americans of African descent”—it’s kind of a mouthful—but is hopeful that a new phrase, purged of the old weight, will arrive someday. “I think a lot of the stigma is embodied in the time in which the term was created,” Hall told On the Media. “Eventually, there shouldn’t be a stigma attached with the word that’s created out of a more positive time.”
http://m.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/12/the-financial-consequences-of-saying-black-vs-african-american/383999/
Unbelievable!!!
Wonder if it is because most statistics of surveys and studies use the term “Black” and not African American. Just think how racist bigots try to misinterpret statistics to create false stereotypes about Blacks…..No doubt this study that you posted, rikyrah, brought out those racists’ prejudices.
Michael Vick Is On The Verge Of Pulling Off A Financial Victory No One Could Have Predicted
Joey Held on December 19, 2014
In the early to mid-2000s, Michael Vick was one of the top quarterbacks in the NFL. His running style of football was unheard of at the time. he ran for nearly 4,000 yards in six seasons, and led the Atlanta Falcons to the playoffs twice, winning a game each year. He signed a huge contract and started to live large. Very large.
As we all know, in July 2008 Vick found himself locked up at Leavenworth prison after being convicted of some horrendous crimes against animals. Not only was he locked up, he was also forced to file for bankruptcy protection thanks to the roughly $18 million he owed to a variety of creditors. With no more NFL money coming in, Michael was earning just 12 cents an hour mopping floors at Leavenworth. FYI, paying off $18 million on a salary of 12 cents per hour will take 60 thousand years.
Vick ended up serving 548 days in jail for taking part in an illegal dogfighting ring. He even returned to the NFL, as a member of the Eagles, in 2010. He actually won Comeback Player of the Year that same season. But perhaps most shocking of all, Vick is on the verge of paying off the entire $18 million owed to his creditors. This is especially incredible because Michael easily could have simply walked away from the debt. He instead chose to honor his (literal) obligations.
Since returning to the NFL in 2010, Vick has earned $49 million over five years. But before he signed that first comeback contract, Michael had a very distinct choice to make. He could file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection and walk away from all his debts, or file for Chapter 11 and honor every penny. Michael chose Chapter 11.
Let’s repeat that. Michael had the option to file for Chapter 7, in which case the majority of his $18 million debt would have been completely forgiven. But he instead went out of his way to keep those debts active.
http://www.celebritynetworth.com/?p=126710&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social
Minecraft’s creator, ‘Notch,’ just outbid Beyoncé and Jay Z on an insane Beverly Hills mansion
By Abby Ohlheiser December 19, 2014
Back in September, everyone who isn’t a video game fan — or the parent of one — learned a lot about Minecraft after its founder sold the company that created the popular game to Microsoft for a stunning $2.5 billion.
Now, Markus “Notch” Persson has used some of his fortune to buy an insane Beverly Hills mansion. He paid $70 million, outbidding Beyoncé and Jay Z in the process.
Yes, that is a candy room you are looking at beyond Notch’s feet. It comes with the mansion, which was built on spec and comes fully furnished. (It also comes with vodka and tequila bars and a car showroom.)
According to a press release from the John Aaroe Group, which represented Persson in the deal, $70 million was “the highest price ever paid for a home in Beverly Hills.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/style-blog/wp/2014/12/19/minecrafts-creator-notch-just-outbid-beyonce-and-jay-z-on-an-insane-beverly-hills-mansion/
Dollar Bank sells August Wilson Center to three Pittsburgh foundations
November 5, 2014 10:37 PM
By Mark Belko / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Two days after being sold unceremoniously at sheriff’s sale, the August Wilson Center for African American Culture ended up in the hands of three local foundations, its future seemingly secure for the first time in at least a year.
Monday’s high drama gave way Wednesday to the ending most had been expecting — with the Pittsburgh Foundation, the Heinz Endowments and the Richard King Mellon Foundation taking control of the Downtown real estate with the intent of preserving the center’s mission as a focal point for African American art and culture.
The consortium purchased the building for $7.9 million from Dollar Bank, which bought it at sheriff’s sale Monday for $1,912.50 in taxes and costs when the plan to sell it to the foundations at a judicial sale collapsed last week. Dollar held the delinquent $7.9 million mortgage to the property.
While the public auction created one last bit of tension and uncertainty in a yearlong saga filled with one plot twist after another, by Wednesday afternoon, it was a case of all’s well that ends well.
“We are delighted and grateful that the ownership of the August Wilson Center is back where it belongs as a community asset,” the foundations said in a statement. “Many individuals and organizations have contributed enormously to saving the center and many more will have important roles to play in safeguarding and developing this as a vital community resource for the future.”
http://www.post-gazette.com/business/2014/11/05/Dollar-Bank-sells-August-Wilson-Center-to-three-Pittsburgh-foundations/stories/201411050250
FEBRUARY 1, 2015 10:06 PM
Sister 2 Sister Magazine Files Bankruptcy
Publication to put a halt on print issues and focus more on its Website
It seems as though Sister 2 Sister magazine is the latest publication to fall victim to the hard times of print media.
The women’s magazine that focuses on black Hollywood has filed for bankruptcy and is putting its print edition on hiatus in an effort to focus more on its website.
Referred to on the magazine’s Website as “The Barbara Walters of Print,” Sister 2 Sister magazine’s publisher, Jamie Foster Brown comes from a long media history that includes starting out as a secretary for BET co-founder Bob Johnson. She founded Sister 2 Sister in 1988 and has established herself as a trusted source for celebrities to talk to.
While Sister 2 Sister is not listed in the latest circulation or advertising figures for the Publishers Information Bureau or the Alliance for Audited Media, its latest news is a sign that its brand is following the digital route that many long-standing print publications have been forced to follow.
Earlier this year, Linda Johnson Rice announced that Jet magazine was ending its print edition and going all digital. Rice explained in an interview with Black Enterprise that stepping full fledge into the digital world will allow Jet to expand its brand and have a more global reach that will provide for a bigger platform. Vibe magazine also announced the end of its print issues this year, with XXL also announcing that its scaling down from being a bi-monthly print publication, to one that comes out four times a year.
http://www.blackenterprise.com/news/sister-2-sister-magazine-files-bankruptcy/
The Prison Industrial Complex is making money for everyone else who isn’t Black
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Nurse got $630,000 in OT at N.Y. prison
Lee Higgins, The (Westchester County, N.Y.) Journal News 8:56 p.m. EDT October 18, 2014
BEDFORD, N.Y. — A nurse at a New York prison raked in more than $630,000 in overtime in less than five years, putting on her time cards that she worked 192 days straight — or every day for more than six months — mostly in 16.5-hour overnight shifts, according to records obtained by The Journal News.
The registered nurse, 62-year-old Mercy Mathew of Pomona, was the state’s highest overtime earner in 2012, netting $150,630 on top of her $58,468 salary at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women. She also snagged the title in 2009, when she made $171,814 in overtime.
According to her time cards, Mathew’s designated work schedule was 3 p.m. to 11 p.m., but she routinely stayed until 7:30 a.m. the next morning without a break. On days off, she often collected 16.5 hours of overtime for a single shift. Mathew worked more than 90 percent of the available days between Dec. 18, 2008, and Sept. 4, 2013. Even though she resigned Oct. 11, 2013, she still managed to break into the top 20 overtime earners last year.
“She must have been the bionic nurse in her time to be able to work that many hours without any rest,” said Democratic state Sen. Jeff Klein, D-Bronx, who has been a critic of wasteful spending by the state Department of Corrections.
“The time of giving state agencies a blank check has to end.”
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/10/18/nurse-got-630000-in-ot-at-ny-prison/17525051/
https://twitter.com/MissyElliott/status/551397391308693504/photo/1
https://twitter.com/TriniPrincess/status/562065837923004416/photo/1
https://twitter.com/MrDavidJohns/status/562066832405045249/photo/1
https://twitter.com/PragObots/status/562067634351771648/photo/1
https://twitter.com/MrDavidJohns/status/562067997230395392/photo/1
Wassamatta, Tom Brady? You couldn’t let the air out of your balls?
https://twitter.com/Sl1mThugga/status/562059120120176641/photo/1
https://twitter.com/ChefOsco/status/562058776828997633/photo/1
Chicago Public Schools closed tomorrow
https://twitter.com/TheRaceDraft/status/562050698657820672/photo/1
Seahawks just messed me out of the money. They went for touchdown instead of field goal. DAMN!
14-14 @ halftime C’mon SEAHAWKS!
I want the Seahawks to win but I want the money too. :)
Serena Williams ✔ @serenawilliams
Follow
Daddy, Mom, Venus, Isha, and Lyn. Thanks for being such a great support system, and for making my dreams come true. Love you all.
8:24 AM – 31 Jan 2015
I don’t live too far from Midway
Mike Hamernik @MikeHamernik
New official snowfall tallies as of 5PM.
11.3″ at O’Hare #ORD
14.7″ at Midway #MDW
Blizzard Warning continues until Midnight.
With Hispanics, Republicans Take a Pathway to Peril
In the aftermath of the 2012 election, the Republican Party undertook a self-assessment that found, among other things, that the GOP had a problem with Hispanics.
Mitt Romney received 27% of the Hispanic vote in 2012, according to exit polls. Faring that badly with a group whose share of the electorate in key battleground states continues to grow is a real problem. Many smart, thoughtful Republicans noted the need for change, and the GOP autopsy observed: “We have become expert in how to provide ideological reinforcement to like-minded people, but devastatingly we have lost the ability to be persuasive with, or welcoming to, those who do not agree with us on every issue.”
Fast-forward to last weekend’s “Iowa Freedom Summit.” Just days after our country paid tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King and his dream of a tolerant society, Republicans paid tribute to another King with a far different vision. Rep. Steve King (R., Iowa) has a long history of making anti-immigrant remarks (see: here, here, and here). The GOP tribute to Steve King does not speak well for Republicans’ prospects in 2016.
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2015/02/01/with-hispanics-republicans-take-a-pathway-to-peril/?mod=WSJBlog&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed
The Scott Walker Immigration Shift ABC News Ignored
ALEXANDREA BOGUHN
ABC News left out key facts about Governor Scott Walker (R-WI)’s changing stance on immigration during their interview with the GOP presidential hopeful.
On the February 1 edition of ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos, guest host Martha Raddatz prompted Walker to discuss his proposals on immigration, asking “What would you do about the 11 million undocumented who are still here?” Walker replied that “We for sure need to secure the border. I think we need to enforce the legal system. I’m not for amnesty, I’m not an advocate of the plans that have been pushed here in Washington… we need to find a way for people to have a legitimate legal immigration system in this country, and that doesn’t mean amnesty.”
But this is a significant change in Walker’s position on immigration. Previously, he questioned the need for greater border security, and supported a pathway to citizenship that was advocated by lawmakers in Washington.
As The Washington Post reported, during a 2013 interview with the Wausau Daily Herald editorial board, Walker advocated for a focus on “a saner way to let people into the country” rather than a focus on border security (emphasis added):
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2015/02/01/the-scott-walker-immigration-shift-abc-news-ign/202370
https://twitter.com/nhdogmom/status/561975792494972928/photo/1
Mr. NFTG @Kennymack1971
Follow
Uh huh: “Jim Webb: Democrats Need “White, Working People,” Can’t Rely On Black Votes After Obama http://ln.is/breakingnewsusa.com/ivcEi … via @breakingnewsusa
9:02 AM – 1 Feb 2015
https://twitter.com/DocBastard/status/561686640520101888/photo/1
https://twitter.com/AriBerman/status/561918461006589952/photo/1
https://twitter.com/NerdyWonka/status/562008269946748928/photo/1
https://twitter.com/PoetryIsAlive/status/547162735017230336/photo/1
Back from my second shoveling. It’s like I didn’t do anything the first time. I could barely see in front of my face, but I was trying to get it in before sunset.
I feel you, Rikyrah, so frustrating. Shoveling is hard work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zS0cjnk6ZuE
Full interview:
Chuck Todd Lets Paul Ryan Lie About President Obama’s Economic Record On Meet The Press
http://www.politicususa.com/2015/02/01/chuck-todd-lets-paul-ryan-lie-president-obamas-economic-record-meet-press.html
Super Bowl live stream (pre game on now)
http://stream.nbcsports.com/super-bowl/?pid=16651&referrer=http://stream.nbcsports.com/liveextra/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZ4Gzelz1C0
SMH Mediocrity, plain & simple
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaN8iSAhXZ8
NO SHIT SHERLOCK
Will they be checking for DEFLATED BALLS today, hmm?
http://pics.mcclatchyinteractive.com/wire_photos/82vgz1/picture8452691/ALTERNATES/FREE_960/Super%20Bowl-Cookie%20Competition.JPEG
those are so cute
LOL Umm, cookies…
I’d like the SEAHAWK ones, FULLY INFLATED, please. Thanks!
You got it, Ametia :)
a gif
https://emptystress.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/omg-i-cant-even.gif
LOL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMISH_Nlz20
Ametia, mail.
so Jeb was a low achieving, entitled bully…imagine that.
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Jeb Bush shaped by troubled Phillips Academy years
Possible presidential candidate had tumultuous four years at Andover school
by Michael Kranish
GLOBE STAFF FEBRUARY 01, 2015
In the fall of 1967, when a 14-year-old Texan named John Ellis Bush arrived on the bucolic campus of Phillips Academy in Andover, great expectations preceded him.
Jeb, as he was known, should have been an easy fit in that elite and ivied world. His much-accomplished father and his older brother had both gone to Andover; no one was surprised that Jeb had followed suit
But this Bush almost ran aground in those first, formative prep school days. He bore little resemblance to his father, a star on many fronts at Andover, and might have been an even worse student than brother George. Classmates said he smoked a notable amount of pot — as many did — and sometimes bullied smaller students.
Resolutely apolitical despite his lineage, he refused to join the Progressive Andover Republicans club and often declined even to participate in informal bull sessions with classmates. In a tumultuous season in American life, he seemed to his peers strangely detached and indifferent.
“He was just in a bit of a different world,” said Phil Sylvester, who said he was a Bush roommate. While other students “were constantly arguing about politics and particularly Vietnam, he just wasn’t interested, he didn’t participate, he didn’t care.”
Meanwhile, his grades were so poor that he was in danger of being expelled, which would have been a huge embarrassment to his father, a member of Congress and of the school’s board of trustees.
………………………………………
In the fall of 1968, the 10th-graders moved into a dormitory called Pemberton Cottage, a three-story red brick manse that housed about a dozen students, including the future governor of Rhode Island, Lincoln Chafee. (Chafee declined an interview request).
The students divided into cliques of “jocks, freaks, and zeros,” as one classmate put it, and many classmates say Bush, with his taste for marijuana and his skill at tennis, straddled the line between jock and freak, never comfortably in either group.
One of those who did get to know Bush in these early days was Peter Tibbetts. The connection, he said, was pot. The first time Tibbetts smoked marijuana, he said, was with Bush and a few other classmates in the woods near Pemberton Cottage. Then, a few weeks later, Tibbetts said he smoked hashish — a cannabis product typically stronger than pot — in Jeb’s dormitory room.
“The first time I really got stoned was in Jeb’s room,” Tibbetts said. “He had a portable stereo with removable speakers. He put on Steppenwolf for me.” As the rock group’s signature song, “Magic Carpet Ride,’’ blared from the speakers, Tibbetts said he smoked hash with Bush.
He said he once bought hashish from Bush but stressed, in a follow-up e-mail, “Please bear in mind that I was seeking the hash. It wasn’t as if he was a dealer, though he did suggest I take up cigarettes so that I could hold my hits better, after that first joint.”
……….
Bullying recalled
Tibbetts, who was eventually forced to leave Andover in the spring of 1970 after school officials accused him of using drugs, said his one regret about his relationship with Bush is that he agreed to participate with him in the bullying of a student in the dormitory.
Their target was a short classmate whom they taunted, and then sewed his pajama bottoms so that they were impossible to put on. The act was particularly embarrassing, said Tibbetts, who said he felt remorse for joining in with “kids being cruel.”
Bush said in the interview that he has no recollection of this or other bullying incidents raised by classmates. He said he never viewed himself as a bully. “I don’t believe that is true,” he said, referring to classmates’ recollections of specific incidents. “It was 44 years ago and it is not possible for me to remember.”
http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2015/02/01/tumultuous-four-years-phillips-academy-helped-shape-jeb-bush/q6ccyHNOtP1n6kqDokMBfK/story.html
Baebyface @rmichaelthomas
Black people only watch #SNL when there is a music guest they LOVE. LMAO.
Tọ́pẹ́ Fádìran @graceishuman
“Iggy Azalea, wake up…you’re WHITE. The last time anyone stole that much from Black people, everyone was dressed like me”—Ben Franklin #SNL
https://twitter.com/Gedi/status/561756010340438016/photo/1
Derrick Clifton ✔ @DerrickClifton
If you’re getting trolls in your mentions because you *dared* tweet about D’Angelo’s unapolgetic Blackness on #SNL, just do one thing: BLOCK
https://twitter.com/okayplayer/status/561766238968614914/photo/1
https://twitter.com/kismetJ/status/561763809514512384/photo/1
https://twitter.com/DerrickClifton/status/561762737899204610/photo/1
for Realz. BLOCK’EM!
LOL Love D’Angelo!
https://twitter.com/dallasnews/status/561261902102556672/photo/1
Derrick Clifton ✔ @DerrickClifton
“All we wanted was a chance to talk. ‘Stead we only got outlined in chalk.” – D’Angelo. #SNL #BlackLivesMatter
Mr. NFTG @Kennymack1971
Uh huh: “Jim Webb: Democrats Need “White, Working People,” Can’t Rely On Black Votes After Obama http://ln.is/breakingnewsusa.com/ivcEi … via @breakingnewsusa
South Jersey Bro @SouthJerseyBro
@Kennymack1971 If HRC uses Jim Webb’s strategy, she’s guaranteed to lose. The Dem party’s base has changed. They need to recognize it.
Jim Webb is correct in one respect. If he were the canidate, he would need white working class votes because no one else is going to get very excited about him.
https://twitter.com/TheObamaDiary/status/561884046398345216/photo/1
So powerful and amazing on so many levels!
I Dream A World
By Langston Hughes
I dream a world where man
No other man will scorn,
Where love will bless the earth
And peace its paths adorn
I dream a world where all
Will know sweet freedom’s way,
Where greed no longer saps the soul
Nor avarice blights our day.
A world I dream where black or white,
Whatever race you be,
Will share the bounties of the earth
And every man is free,
Where wretchedness will hang its head
And joy, like a pearl,
Attends the needs of all mankind-
Of such I dream, my world!
I finished shoveling. Came back in, showered and fixed breakfast. Just looked out my window, and it’s like I didn’t do anything…more snow….it’s just keeps on coming. …LOL
Stay safe & keep warm. Fueling up to take the next leg of shoveling journey, huh Rikrah!
Whew! I was reading about the snow you were going to get, rikyrah. Sounds like it will be wild today!
https://twitter.com/Tennis/status/561918225303486464/photo/1
Sweet! Please check email thanks!
How crazy were school closings cheerleaders? As crazy as you thought
Posted on January 29, 2015 by HELENGYM
What could possibly justify the closing of Northeast High School, the largest school in the city and each year bursting at the seams? Why would anyone suggest closing four elementary schools in Olney, a neighborhood that once housed some of the most overcrowded schools in the District?
We may not find out the answers to these questions, but we know now that these were some of the ludicrous ideas proposed by the Boston Consulting Group in a long-secret 2012 report presented in a private meeting to the School Reform Commission.
BCG called for closing 88 District-managed schools, which would have displaced a conservative estimate of 22,000-31,000 students districtwide – more than triple the number of students displaced by the actual 2013 school closings. A five-year plan sought the removal and reassignment of up to 45,000 students, more than one-third of the District.
This information and more came to us after Parents United for Public Education and the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia won a two-and-a-half-year battle to get BCG’s list of school closings. After losing three times in official proceedings, the District this month agreed to hand over BCG’s recommendations.
More than anything, the BCG documents show deep flaws in the analysis made by multimillion-dollar paid consultants. Years later, reality also exposes how far off base BCG’s projected outcomes would be. Among some of the more troubling aspects of BCG’s school closings plan:
Targeting 20 percent of closures – 18 schools in all – at schools which were over 90 percent full, including Lowell Elementary, Feltonville Intermediate, Barton, Hopkinson, and Frankford High schools.
Defining low utilization at any school under 80 percent capacity. But over the last few years, between 80 and 85 percent utilization has been considered a target goal, not a delineating line for closure.
Presuming that 100 percent of students at closed schools would automatically transfer into less-populated District schools and increase utilization rates. This proved untrue in the actual school closings process, when 24 school closures resulted in numerous students leaving the District.
Presuming that school closings were the only means to getting District schools to increase enrollment, rather than, say, actually addressing educational improvement or opportunities.
http://parentsunitedphila.com/2015/01/29/how-crazy-were-school-closings-cheerleaders-as-crazy-as-you-thought/
Hey everyone!
Jonne’ pastor just published her first book. Check it out if you so desire.
http://unstoppable.kickoffpages.com/
Thanks, SG2! I’ll be checking out this book.
Good Morning Everyone.
We are in the middle of it right now.
Steeling myself to go out and do my first shoveling of the storm.
Be careful out there.
Good Morning Everyone :)
Did you see Google’s video commemorating his birthday today?
http://youtu.be/W-OU-mY11nE&rel=0
Good Morning, yahtzee & Everyone! Thanks for the video, yahtzee!
Yes, Mr. Langston Hughes 113th birthday, and the start of Black History month for folks who need 28-9 days to educate themselves about America’s history.
Yes. In his poem “Negro Mother” Mr. Langston Hughes provides reminders of strength in the past and how it is needed “to march ever forward” to achieve the dream:
Happy Sunday, all!
Yahtc, thanks for this. You’re kicking off Black History Month right.
Yahtzee’s bringing it. check email please