Monday Open Thread | Otis Redding Jr. Week

Happy Monday, Everyone! This week’s featured artist is Mr. Otis Redding Jr.

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Otis Redding-2

He may have been a Georgia native, but the name Otis Redding will always be synonymous with Memphis, Tennessee. The music he made there has become among the most influential in the 20th Century. For the man known by millions as “The King of Soul,” his ties to the city began with one of the most serendipitous moments in music history.

When the Georgia band Johnny Jenkins and the Pinetoppers traveled to Memphis in 1962 for a session at Stax Records, Jenkins didn’t have a driver’s license so he hired a friend from Macon to drive him and his band there. Throughout their session, the hired hand asked Stax producers to let him sing. They did, and he began singing “These Arms of Mine.” That driver was Otis Redding.

Born in Dawson, Georgia on September 9, 1941, Redding moved to Macon at any early age and began competing in local talent shows in high school. He was soon forced to stop competing after winning the $5 prize 15 times in a row. After a brief stint with Little Richard’s former backup band, The Upsetters, Redding began sitting in occasionally with the Pinetoppers, until that impromptu session at Stax.

Once signed to the Stax imprint Volt Records, Redding began his rise to fame with some 30 singles including “Pain In My Heart,” “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” “Try A Little Tenderness,” “Mr. Pitiful,” and “Respect,” which he wrote and recorded at Stax in 1965 and which was famously covered and released in 1967 by Aretha Franklin. His six Stax studio albums and a slew of live ones also helped catapult him into the international limelight.

As popular as Redding’s recordings were, his live performances and larger than life stage presence drove crowds wild. He became a favorite at such venues as The Apollo in New York, The Howard Theater in Washington, D.C., the Whiskey A Go Go in Los Angeles, and at various locations around the South.

Redding’s two European trips, in 1966 and 1967, introduced him to an entire new audience. Also in 1967, Redding, backed by Stax house band Booker T. & the MGs, performed before his first large, U.S., predominantly white audience at the Monterrey Pop Festival in California. He was a massive hit with the “Summer of Love” crowd, and it positioned him to become of the industry’s most successful crossover artists.

All of that sadly ended, however, just months later on December 10, 1967. While en route that day to a concert gig in Madison, Wisconsin, Redding’s private plane crashed just a few miles from Madison’s airport, killing Redding, just 26 years old, and all but two members of his traveling band, the Bar-Kays. Redding left his wife Zelma and his children Karla, Dexter, and Otis Redding III. The incident left the world in shock.

Just the month before, Redding had recorded an unfinished version of a song he co-wrote with Booker T. & the MGs guitarist and Stax executive Steve Cropper. Cropper and other Stax studio musicians finished the song and it was released in January 1968. The song was “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay,” and, by 1999, it became the sixth most-aired songs in U.S. history, aired more than six million times.

Redding’s songs have been covered and sampled for decades by the likes of Bob Dylan, The Grateful Dead, Willie Nelson, Al Green, Pearl Jam, John Mayer, Christine Aguilera, Etta James, Rod Stewart, Kanye West, and even Mae West. Among many other posthumous accolades, he received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999.

In 2010, another music industry icon covered another Redding/Cropper song. On Huey Lewis and The News’ first LP in nine years, Soulsville, Lewis performs the lesser-known hit “Just One More Day.” And it wasn’t just one more song for Lewis, who says it was daunting.

“I mean, it’s Otis Redding,” Lewis says. “I was nervous about trying to do one of his songs because there’s just never been anyone like him in the world. He was one of the greatest singers of all time.”

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80 Responses to Monday Open Thread | Otis Redding Jr. Week

  1. majiir says:

    Thanks for covering Otis Redding, Ametia! I knew him, his sister, father and mother. He sang in our church’s youth choir. His parents and mine were close friends. His sister Debra and I were in the same high school graduation class. In fact, he and Zelda lived in my neighborhood. I remember well when he first began his career. He had an old school bus that he used for traveling to different singing venues, and he used to park it in an open lot next to the apartment building he lived in. I remember how his untimely death was so hard for millions to deal with. He is still missed by many. After his death, Zelda and his sons moved to Jones County, an adjacent county to Bibb County (about 20 miles away from Macon,) where he got his start in the music business.

  2. Ametia says:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QeLY7Jwwo0

    See this is Jim Crow for LGBT. Don’t think these mofos won’t try to extend this law beyond gay folks.

  3. Ametia says:

    I hear Tweety bird gave Bill Clinton a royal blowjob on Hardball this evening. And then he went on to Ted Kennedy. SMH. Of course they are the best Dem POTUS EVER!!!!!

  4. Ametia says:

    LOL These MOFOs are gone, just GONE.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V03wEGHnZGk

    Psst! PBO, don’t go to KENYA. The wingers might think you’re going back home to your birthplace

  5. Ametia says:

    BIGOTED POS

  6. rikyrah says:

    Michael Ealy will be terrorizing folks tonight on The Following on Fox. The beginning of his stint on the show.

  7. Hey Chicas!

    I’m nervous watching the results of the Nigerian election. I don’t understand their process but my friend is filling me in. They’re gonna send Goodluck Jonathan packing. He just let Boko Haram run rampant killing innocent people. Nigerians are fed up with his ISH!

  8. rikyrah says:

    GOP’s Sununu: Obama is ‘inciting’ birthers
    03/30/15 04:33 PM
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    By Steve Benen
    The White House announced this morning that President Obama will visit Kenya in July for a meeting on global business development, as part of the 2015 Global Entrepreneurship Summit. It will be the president’s fourth trip to sub-Saharan Africa, but his first to Kenya, the country his father is from.

    Given that Kenya has one of the fastest growing economics on the continent, it stands to reason that the administration would participate in the forum, though it appears one of the president’s Republican critics has a different take.
    President Obama is “inciting” the passions of so-called birthers, who believe he was born in Kenya not the United States, by planning a trip to the African country, former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu (R) said Monday.

    “I think his trip back to Kenya is going to create a lot of chatter and commentary amongst some of the hard right who still don’t see him as having been born in the U.S.,” he said during an appearance on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom.”

    “I personally think he’s just inciting some chatter on an issue that should have been a dead issue a long time ago.”
    Oh, I see. There’s a Global Entrepreneurship Summit coming up this summer, and many world leaders will be in attendance, but President Obama should sideline himself, on purpose. Why? Because, in the mind of John Sununu, the president will “incite” ridiculous people to say ridiculous things.

    Since when is this how any sensible White House is supposed to function?

    For context, let’s not forget that John Sununu, the former three-term governor of New Hampshire and a former White House chief of staff, was the national chairman of Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign in 2012.

    During the campaign, Sununu condemned the president as “lazy,” said the president should “learn how to be an American,” and said Colin Powell only endorsed the president because they’re both African American.

    It seems, in other words, that some Republicans make ridiculous comments all on their own, without the president “inciting” them. It’s probably wise, then, that the White House focuses primarily on governing, without concern for whether or not decisions “create a lot of chatter and commentary amongst some of the hard right.”

    http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/gops-sununu-obama-inciting-birthers

  9. rikyrah says:

    GOP senators ‘in a quandary’ over Loretta Lynch
    03/30/15 11:23 AM—UPDATED 03/30/15 12:12 PM
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    By Steve Benen
    In late 2007, then-President George W. Bush’s Attorney General nominee, Michael Mukasey, was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee, at which point Republican senators demanded a vote.

    “Judge Mukasey has waited almost seven weeks for a vote,” then-Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said at the time. “This process has gone on long enough.”

    That was nearly a decade ago. Now, Loretta Lynch A.G. nomination has been waiting 142 days – more than 20 weeks – and Mitch McConnell believes the process should drag on even longer. Indeed, with the Senate giving itself time off this week and next, Lynch will have waited more than 22 weeks by the time the chamber gets back to work in mid-April.

    The New York Times reports that when it comes to replacing Eric Holder, the Senate Republican majority doesn’t actually want to defeat Lynch, so much as they want to avoid voting for her.
    Senate Republicans bolted for a two-week spring recess with the confirmation of Loretta E. Lynch as attorney general in jeopardy, and themselves in a quandary: Accept a qualified nominee they oppose because she backs President Obama’s policies or reject her and live with an attorney general they despise, Eric H. Holder Jr. […]

    Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, now finds himself in the conundrum that has bedeviled his counterpart in the House, Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio: Members of his party will vote no on Ms. Lynch but hope “yes” – that she will squeak through.
    The article quoted Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) conceding that President Obama is going to “nominate someone who’s most likely aligned with his policy positions,” but Tillis is opposed to Lynch. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) added that she could hardly expect a better nominee, “not in terms of qualifications or personal attributes.”

    http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/gop-senators-quandary-over-loretta-lynch

  10. rikyrah says:

    Luvvie has her Scandal Recap Up

    Put A Ring On It: Scandal Episode 417 Recap

    Luvvie —March 29, 2015

    I’m tardy for the pordee posting this Scandal episode recap but better later than never, right? Also, you could have read my Vulture one by now. This episode was directed by the awesome Regina King. Let’s talk about it!

    http://www.awesomelyluvvie.com/2015/03/put-a-ring-on-it-scandal-episode-417-recap.html#comment-861742

    • rikyrah says:

      my Favorite comment so far:

      Nathalie

      March 30, 2015 at 3:56 am

      “Him and Papa Pope must golf together on weekends because they know how to break their children down!” You must add big Jerry in this trio

      MorningGlory

      March 30, 2015 at 9:29 am

      Michael’s daddy, Papa Pope, Big Jerry, and Joe Jackson. That’s the foursome. Their tee time is 6:66 a.m.

      BWA HA HA HA HA HA AH HA

  11. Otis Redding Jr. … such a soulful voice.

  12. rikyrah says:

    and, if he were non-White, he could have a 6 inch thick file full of reports from Mental Health professionals, and would still be called a terrorist

    ……………….

    tracy grimshaw ✔ @tracygrimshaw

    You’re not “suicidally depressed” if you take 149 people with you.You’re a homicidal sociopath.Let’s not demonise depression. #Germanwings

  13. Breaking: Two men dressed as women try to ram gate at NSA headquarters. One was shot dead.

  14. rikyrah says:

    Mary Schmidt Campbell Named President of Spelman College

    Campbell will step into new role August 1, 2015

    by Courtney ConnleyPosted: March 30, 2015

    Spelman College has named educator Mary Schmidt Campbell, Ph.D. as its next president to follow the 13 year legacy of Beverly Tatum, Ph.D.

    Coming from an extensive background in education, public service and the arts, Campbell was appointed dean of the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University in 1991 and retired from her position in August 2014. Prior to her tenure at NYU, Campbell lead efforts in transforming the Studio Museum in Harlem from a rented loft over a liquor store into the country’s first accredited black fine arts museum. She currently serves as vice chairwoman of a presidential committee that works to improve the importance of art in public schools.

    Last September, Campbell visited the prestigious black women’s college to help the school plan the renovation of its art facility and from there the relationship grew.

    “I was blown away,” Campbell told Philly.com. “…I thought how phenomenal it is to be a black women and come to a place where you are the heart and soul of the mission of that place.”

    Campbell, who earned a bachelor’s in English literature from Swarthmore College and a master’s and Ph.D. from Syracuse University, will officially step into her new role August 1, 2015. She says her goal at Spelman is to focus on increasing financial aid to attract the best students, while bringing in more resources for teaching and research and developing the new arts facility.

    Tatum, who is Black Enterprise’s 2015 Legacy Award recipient, sent the below congratulatory tweet to Campbell.

    https://twitter.com/BDTSpelman/status/581928679246188544

    http://www.blackenterprise.com/education/mary-schmidt-campbell-named-president-spelman-college/

  15. rikyrah says:

    Block Samson @insanityreport

    Tired of seeing black folks in the media with a real opportunity to take a stand with their writing but instead they sell out

  16. rikyrah says:

    Scott Walker starts steering clear of reporters
    03/30/15 10:00 AM
    By Steve Benen
    Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) seems to realize he has a problem with immigration policy. The issue is a top concern to Republican primary voters, and the governor has tried to take steps to bring his position in line with GOP orthodoxy, but Walker has nevertheless given inconsistent responses to questions about immigration, satisfying no one.

    With this in mind, the Wisconsin Republican took a trip to the U.S./Mexico border on Friday, a sensible photo-op for a presidential hopeful eager to pander to anti-immigration voters in his party.

    If you didn’t hear much about this, there’s an explanation: Walker has started keeping news organization at arm’s length. Dylan Byers reported the other day:
    Last month, Scott Walker seemed readily available to any reporter who had a question for him. He was basking in the limelight, holding media scrums and granting impromptu interviews.

    But in the wake of a few controversial, headline-grabbing quotes about evolution and President Obama’s religion, the Wisconsin governor and likely Republican presidential candidate has put brakes on his media availability, reporters who follow him say.

    On Friday, Walker toured the Texas-Mexican border with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. The tour was closed to the press, and Walker did not take part in a media avail afterward.
    The whole point of a presidential candidate going to the border and taking a tour alongside a far-right Republican governor is its symbolic value – public relations is the sole purpose of visits like these. It’s Republican Presidential Campaign Politics 101: the candidate shows up, he or she looks concerned, he or she shakes some hands with border guards, and he or she tells reporters about the importance of “getting tough.”

    But Walker has decided to remove political reporters from the equation. As Byers noted, this isn’t limited to Friday’s border tour – last weekend, the Wisconsin Republican became the sixth national candidate to visit Greenville, S.C. but the only one of the six who wouldn’t take questions from the media.

    http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/scott-walker-starts-steering-clear-reporters

  17. rikyrah says:

    When (and why) Republicans turn on their own
    03/30/15 09:20 AM
    By Steve Benen

    In Republican circles, James Baker is in a unique position: he’s a grown-up. In a radicalized party filled with insurgent voices, Baker is an elder statesman with the kind of credibility and stature most political figures strive for but few achieve.

    It’s what happens when someone serves as Reagan’s White House chief of staff and Treasury secretary, as well as serving as Secretary of State in the Bush/Quayle administration, where he assembled the international coalition that fought the first Gulf War.

    With this recent history in mind, it was an important development when Baker publicly criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent antics, calling out the Israeli leader for “diplomatic missteps and political gamesmanship.” Baker also made clear that he was unimpressed with Netanyahu’s commitment to the peace process and his inflexible opposition to nuclear diplomacy with Iran.

    This should have been a wake-up call to Republicans – they can hate the president, but when a foreign ally shows brazen disrespect for the United States, there’s nothing wrong with Americans from both parties speaking out.

    Today’s GOP partisans are speaking out, all right, but mostly to condemn James Baker.
    When former Secretary of State James A. Baker III accused Israel’s leader this week of undermining the chances of peace in the region, he said nothing more than the kinds of things he had said at times when he was in office a quarter-century ago.

    But the instant backlash from fellow Republicans that prompted Jeb Bush, the son of Mr. Baker’s best friend, to distance himself underscored just how much their party has changed on the issue of Israel. Where past Republican leaders had their disagreements with Israel, today’s Republicans have made support for the Jewish state an inviolable litmus test for anyone aspiring to national office.
    When Bush added Jim Baker to his list of informal policy advisers, it was further proof of the former Florida governor enjoying the backing of the GOP establishment – effectively borrowing gravitas by surrounding himself with his family’s famous aides.

    But when Baker took a stand in support of the United States against Netanyahu’s insolence, Bush felt like he had no choice but to distance himself from his father’s Secretary of State, condemning Baker’s comments more than once.

    We have, in other words, entered genuinely bizarre new territory. When there’s an international disagreement, today’s Republican Party is not only comfortable taking the opposite of the American side – publicly, shamelessly, and repeatedly – it also expects every Republican to reflexively fall in line, or face the right’s wrath.

    http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/when-and-why-republicans-turn-their-own

  18. @CNN is reporting passengers screamed aboard the #Germanwings plane for 5 minutes. That’s terror! #AndreasLubitz

  19. Crash pilot showed suicidal tendencies in past: prosecutors

    http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/crash-pilot-showed-suicidal-tendencies-in-past-prosecutors/ar-AAacg1v?ocid=u146dhp

    The co-pilot believed to have deliberately crashed a Germanwings plane was treated for suicidal tendencies “several years ago”, before he received his pilot’s licence, German prosecutors said Monday.

    “In the ensuing years and up until recently, he had doctors’ visits and was written off sick but showed no sign of suicidal tendencies or aggression towards others,” said Ralf Herrenbrueck, spokesman for the prosecutor’s office in the western city of Duesseldorf.

    • Ametia says:

      ANDREAS LUBITZ, that’s his name. If he had history of mental illness, why was he allowed to co-pilot? These folks are trying to cover their asses.

      ANDREAS LUBITZ= MASS MURDERER

  20. rikyrah says:

    Block Samson @insanityreport

    a white feminist gonna be the first group to complain about Trevor Noah cause its not a white woman picked. That white entitlement coming

  21. rikyrah says:

    Rand Paul blames marriage-equality debate on ‘moral crisis’
    03/27/15 03:29 PM
    By Steve Benen
    As recently as last fall, Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-Ky.) opposition to marriage equality was less than definite. “I believe in old-fashioned traditional marriage,” he told CNN in an interview, “but I don’t really think the government needs to be too involved in this and I think the Republican Party can have people on both sides of the issue.”

    Asked if he might shift from his position against equal-marriage rights, Paul, quite literally, shrugged his shoulders, as if to say, “Who knows?”

    That was October 2014, and the Kentucky Republican has moved sharply to the right ever since. He told Fox News earlier this month that marriages between same-sex couples “offend” him “and a lot of other people.” This week, as Right Wing Watch reports, the GOP senator went even further.
    In a video posted yesterday by the Christian Broadcasting Network, Rand Paul addressed “a group of pastors and religious leaders at a private prayer breakfast” in Washington D.C. on Thursday about the need for “revival” in America complete with “tent revivals” full of people demanding reform.

    He suggested during the event that the debate about legalizing same-sex marriage is the result of a “moral crisis” in the country.
    That’s not an exaggeration. Paul talked to CBN and the video shows him telling social conservatives, “[T]here’s a moral crisis that allows people to think that there would be some sort of other marriage.”

    It’s a striking argument – not only is Rand Paul opposed to marriage equality, he believes the debate itself shouldn’t exist and is the result of a “moral crisis” in the United States.

    http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/rand-paul-blames-marriage-equality-debate-moral-crisis

    • Liza says:

      Let’s just say the Democrats have screwed themselves with a giant elephant d*ck. Assuming there is an electable Democrat out there somewhere for 2016, they’ll shove them all out of Hillary’s way so she can run for POTUS simply because she wants to and it’s her turn and she’s “paid her dues.” Hillary should run as a Republican if she runs at all.

      I’m registering with the Green Party. And because of the electoral college and because I live in Arizona, I don’t have to vote for Hillary and I won’t. I never voted for Bill Clinton either. I don’t know who I voted for in 92 and 96, but it wasn’t him and it wasn’t a Republican.

    • Ametia says:

      Go to HELL, HILLARY!

  22. rikyrah says:

    The question Indiana’s Pence won’t, or can’t, answer
    03/30/15 08:00 AM—UPDATED 03/30/15 08:13 AM
    By Steve Benen
    If Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) was looking for a way to raise his national visibility in advance of a possible presidential candidate, his new right-to-discriminate law, if nothing else, has given him the national spotlight.
    Indiana Gov. Mike Pence on Sunday defended his decision to sign a religious freedom bill into law, saying that it was “absolutely not” a mistake.

    In an interview on ABC’s “This Week” the Republican governor repeatedly dodged questions on whether the law would legally allow people of Indiana to refuse service to gay and lesbians, saying that residents of the state are “nice” and don’t discriminate and that “this is about protecting the religious liberty of people of faith and families of faith.”
    The interview between the Republican governor and ABC’s George Stephanopoulos featured an extraordinary exchange that matters quite a bit. The host noted, for example, that one of Pence’s own allies said the new state law is intended to “protect those who oppose gay marriage,” leading Stephanopoulos to ask whether a “florist in Indiana can now refuse to serve a gay couple without fear of punishment?”

    The governor replied, “This is not about discrimination,” which wasn’t an answer. So, Stephanopoulos asked again, “Yes or no, if a florist in Indiana refuses to serve a gay couple at their wedding, is that legal now in Indiana?” Pence dodged again.

    http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/the-question-indianas-pence-wont-or-cant-answer

  23. rikyrah says:

    Sunday, March 29, 2015

    Sunday Afternoon Long Read
    Posted by Zandar

    Today’s long read comes from San Francisco Magazine, a story about how even in arguably the most liberal large city in America, there’s problems with wage theft for service workers. The good news is that these workers banded together and fought back to the tune of $4 million.

    Even after Zhen Li leads a rousing chant—“Workers organize, everybody wins!”—no one else wants to step up to the microphone. Tiny and bespectacled, her hair in a jet-black bob, Li has the look of a Chinatown matron, one of those tenacious hagglers who elbows her way through the crowds on Stockton Street to purchase jade-green gai lan and silvery carp. Wearing jeans, sturdy black shoes, and a puffy striped jacket, she exhorts her fellow proletariats to join her up front and holds out the mic to a nearby woman. The woman tries to beg off, pleading, “I’m sick—my throat hurts,” but cheers draw her to her feet, and she sheepishly echoes Li’s rallying cry.

    On this rainy evening in early December at the Chinese Cultural Center, Li and dozens of workers—mostly women, mostly middle-aged and older— are celebrating with greasy takeout, cake, a slideshow, and speeches. While some are clearly shy about speaking in public, they are no longer scared. They’ve already achieved the impossible: Their solidarity has won them an astonishing sum—$4 million—from a powerful employer that had systematically undercut their wages, pocketed their tips, and forced them to work under brutal conditions. And it wasn’t just any business that Li and her comrades had taken on: It was Yank Sing, San Francisco’s most lucrative and popular purveyor of dim sum, those small plates of har gow, siu mai, and other doll-size delicacies that the restaurant serves to more than 1,200 customers a day (and that’s a slow day).

    The journey to restitution for Li and her coworkers began two years ago, when Li discovered that she wasn’t alone in feeling abused and underpaid. Her official work hours were 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., but often, she says, her bosses forced her to stay, unpaid, an hour or two longer to prepare food and take care of her station. Unbeknownst to Li, a few coworkers had been meeting with the Chinese Progressive Association (CPA)—a scrappy and strategic advocacy group that’s been organizing low-income laborers for decades—in an effort to bring change to Yank Sing. One of her coworkers approached her, saying, “We need your help.” When Li discussed the idea with her husband, he tried to stop her from joining the nascent campaign. “What if you don’t win? What if you lose your job?” he asked. “Your employer is so wealthy, so powerful.”

    Despite his resistance, Li persisted. “I was pretty scared. It was just a few of us going to meetings,” she tells me, speaking in Cantonese through a translator. “But with all the support and encouragement, I started to have more courage.” Before long, she would prove her mettle, becoming one of the insurgent group’s most stalwart leaders.

    While you read Zhen Li’s story, think about how the vast majority of America views organized labor in 2015: as an economic disease that must be eradicated, and that poor working conditions, low wages, and wage theft are 100% the fault of the people who choose to work these service jobs. If you wanted a better job, a better life, you would be a good enough person to earn a better job. The fact you’re working for minimum wage in a kitchen, the argument goes, is proof you are unskilled, lazy, stupid, uneducated, and most of all, undeserving of dignity.

    Organized labor upsets this natural balance of the Invisible Hand of the Free Market. It gives these “undeserving” people hope that they matter, that they are worth something more than the wage they get per hour where in America your sole measure of worth is your paycheck. These people, the story goes, get more than they deserve by stealing from the rest of us when they form those evil unions. Most of all they force our most precious resource, Business Owners, to spend money on greedy union workers when they could be hiring more of us for cheaper wages instead. Unions cost jobs, you see.

    Never mind that the mythical American middle class doesn’t get paid enough these days to be able to afford to buy products we make or sell, and business owners are sitting on billions in profits in cash used to prop up share prices through stock repurchase plans and trillions in offshore profits that never get taxed in the US.

    http://zandarvts.blogspot.com/2015/03/sunday-afternoon-long-read.html

  24. rikyrah says:

    It’s Official! Trevor Noah Will Indeed Succeed Jon Stewart as Host of ‘The Daily Show’

    By Sergio | Shadow and Act
    March 30, 2015 at 8:23AM

    UPDATE 3/30/2015: Per the New York Times, Noah will replace Stewart as host of “The Daily Show.” The announcement, which was posted to Twitter minutes ago, follows below (I can only wonder if this is in keeping with the current TV diversity push we’ve been writing about on this blog for months now; but no matter, good for Noah! He’s definitely the right guy for the job):

    http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/its-official-trevor-noah-will-indeed-succeed-jon-stewart-as-host-of-the-daily-show-20150330

  25. vitaminlover says:

    Good morning!

  26. rikyrah says:

    Loretta Lynch Vote Scares Senate Republicans
    by BooMan
    Mon Mar 30th, 2015 at 02:26:50 AM EST

    It’s embarrassing how terrified the Senate Republicans are of their base. They really don’t have much of a beef with the president’s nominee to replace Eric Holder as Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, but they’re afraid to vote to confirm her. And they’re fairly open about this.

    The nomination of Ms. Lynch, a seasoned United States attorney from New York, has laid bare the difficult politics confronting the new Republican majority. Lawmakers have found nothing in Ms. Lynch’s background to latch on to in opposition, and many are loath to reject the first African-American woman put forth to be the nation’s top law enforcement officer.

    But, they say, their constituents have told them that a vote for Ms. Lynch affirms Mr. Obama’s executive actions on immigration, which she has said she finds lawful.

    http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2015/3/30/22650/1131

  27. rikyrah says:

    Good Morning, Everyone :)

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