Happy HUMP day, Everyone! We hope you’re enjoying Sidney Poitier week with 3 Chics.
To Sir, With Love
To Sir, with Love is a 1967 British drama film, starring Sidney Poitier, that deals with social and racial issues in an inner-city school. James Clavell directed and wrote the film’s screenplay, based on E. R. Braithwaite’s semi-autobiographical novel To Sir, With Love (1959).
The film’s title song “To Sir With Love”, sung by Lulu, reached number one on the U.S. pop charts for five weeks in the autumn of 1967 and ultimately was Billboard magazine’s No. 1 pop single for that year. The movie ranked number 27 on Entertainment Weekly’s list of the 50 Best High School Movies.
A made-for-television sequel, To Sir, with Love II (1996), was released nearly three decades later, with Poitier reprising his starring role.
Mark Thackeray (Poitier), an unemployed engineer, applies for a teaching position at the North Quay Secondary School in the tough East End of London. He comes from British Guyana via California.
Thackeray learns from the staff of North Quay that most of the pupils have been rejected from other schools, and their antics drove their last teacher to resign. The pupils live up to their reputation. Led by Bert Denham (Christian Roberts) and Pamela Dare (Judy Geeson), their antics progress from disruptive behaviour to distasteful pranks. Thackeray retains his calm manner but a turning point comes one morning when he discovers one of the female pupils has mischievously left a used sanitary towel burning in the classroom grate. He loses his temper, then informs them that from now on they will be treated as adults and allowed to discuss issues of their own choosing for the remainder of the term.
Thackeray wins the class over, except for Denham, who continues to bait him. Thackeray suggests a class outing to a museum, which turns out to be a success. He loses some of this new-found support when he defuses a potentially violent situation between Potter (Chris Chittell) and a gym teacher, Mr Bell. In class, he demands that Potter apologise directly to Bell for the incident even if he believes Bell was wrong. The group refuse to invite Thackeray to the class dance, and when Seales’ (Anthony Villaroel, the only black pupil in the class) mother dies, the class takes up a collection for a wreath but refuses to accept Thackeray’s donation. At this point, the headmaster advises him that he feels “the adult approach” has failed; future class outings are cancelled, and Thackeray is to take over the boys’ gym classes. Meanwhile Thackeray receives an engineer job offer in the mail.
He starts to win the pupils back after he beats Denham in a boxing match, but tells him that he has genuine boxing ability and suggests that Denham teach boxing to the younger pupils next year. Denham expresses his admiration for Thackeray to his fellow pupils, Thackeray wins back their respect and is invited to the class dance.
At the dance Barbara Pegg (Lulu) announces a “ladies’ choice” dance and Pamela singles out Thackeray as her partner. The class present him with a gift, while Lulu sings the film theme. Thackeray is too moved for words and retires to his classroom.
Two youths rush into the classroom, and upon seeing Thackeray they begin mocking his gift and joking that they will be in his class next year. Thackeray realises that he has a job to do and he tears up the job offer letter, signifying that he is going to stay on at the school. He realises how affectionate he feels towards the children and understands he can never part from them.
To Sir, With Love
https://twitter.com/AllumTshai/status/591056788390154240
Charles Wade @akacharleswade
Chile, I found video footage of @MichaelEDyson writing his @CornelWest piece…
10:43 PM – 21 Apr 2015
https://twitter.com/intent/retweet?tweet_id=590722587665297410&original_referer=http%3A%2F%2Fpragmaticobotsunite.com%2Fwednesday-afternoon-thread-classic-tv-theme-songs-week%2F&tw_i=590722587665297410&tw_p=tweetembed
https://twitter.com/barbmorrison/status/591020435980029952
https://twitter.com/Bey_Legion/status/590980957953462272/photo/1
https://twitter.com/BrianToddCNN/status/591009263142756353/photo/1
https://twitter.com/DaRiverZkind/status/590701553520107520/photo/1
Whew Lord!
“”People keep saying, ‘We need to have a conversation about race.’ This is the conversation. I want to see a cop shoot a white unarmed teenager in the back.” “And I want to see a white man convicted for raping a black woman. Then when you ask me, ‘Is it over?’ I will say yes.”
this is about as REAL as REAL GETS!
FOR REAL
NO CNN! ISIS IS NOT THE BIGGER THREAT TO THE UNITED STATES IS
RACISM IS, MOFOS
This is under CNN’s breaking news, ya’ll
Americans see ISIS as a bigger threat to the United States than Iran, Russia, North Korea or China, according to a new CNN/ORC poll.
Overall, 68% say ISIS is a very serious threat, compared with just 39% who say so about Iran, 32% about North Korea, 25% about Russia and 18% about China. Nearly 9-in-10 see ISIS as at least a moderately serious threat.
WE SEE YOU CNN
https://twitter.com/SportsCenter/status/590983332780998657
what a waste of money
Michelle Obama to speak at Tuskegee University commencement
by Associated Press | April 21, 2015 at 9:45 AM
WASHINGTON (AP) — Michelle Obama will deliver the commencement address at Tuskegee University, a historically black university in Alabama.
The May 9 event is one of three graduation ceremonies the first lady will speak at this year. Mrs. Obama will also deliver remarks at Oberlin College and King College Prep, a high school in her hometown of Chicago.
The White House says Oberlin and King were chosen because of their video submissions to two “commencement challenges” issued by Mrs. Obama last fall. Schools had to show their commitment to college mentoring and helping students get financial aid.
Mrs. Obama will speak at Oberlin May 25 and at King College Prep June 9
http://thegrio.com/2015/04/21/michelle-obama-tuskegee/
https://twitter.com/usnews/status/590949676452601856
The WHCD is on Saturday night. I hope PBO leaves a million marks on the MEDIA!
Do you know what time this will air, Ametia/
I love PBO’s delivery and timing. He’s been as sharp as Colbert was a few years back during his classic take down of the media at the WHCD. What a group of jackals. Oh, wait. I’m sure jackals perform a useful function in the food chain, unlike White House “correspondents”.
depends on where you live, vitaminlover. PBO usuasly speaks after the dinner. 10:30 p.m. ET. 9:30 p.m. CT.
The red carpet and dinner are earlier, around 6 or 7ish
We’re live-blogging it, so do come and join us, if you can.
https://twitter.com/nowthisnews/status/590911409472548864
LOL Too precious
Imma use that line if I’m ever on FLOTUS’ radar!
Broadway Black @BroadwayBlack
ITS OFFICIAL!! @IAmCicelyTyson & James Earl Jones to star in a Broadway revival of “The Gin Game” opening Oct 13!!!
https://twitter.com/jazzmen_k/status/590916496458719232
CNN bringing on these so-called chalatans to claim he had respiratory ailments, to deflect away from the SPINAL CORD BEING SEVERED by these animals
He should have received medical help sooner? NO SHIT, SHERLOCK.
Pastor Jamal Bryant Snatched all her edges. The community is righteously indignant and upset. TELL.IT. 4 blocks away from the station
Furthermore, this bitch talmbout Freddie ran. WTF. and the neighborhood? I.JUST.CAN’T with these fools.
I’m in my feelings, Chicas!
Feel away, SG2. FEEL AWAY. It’s ok.
These are sad times.
I was breaking down like that yesterday, SG2.
Too much heartbreak…too many lives lost….too many dreams lost….too many mourning the loss of loved ones.
Empathy is a healthy thing. And it’s the lack of it for another human being that we are witnessing these horrific murders.
Be in your feelings, SG2.
I’m past tired of folks being irritated that we have feelings, and that we don’t have the right to be outraged at the absolute injustice.
We SEE wrong, and then we are told, it’s not wrong, and they to ‘explain’ to us why it’s not wrong.
You be ALL IN YOUR FEELINGS, SG2!!!
SPEAK.ON.THIS.
Those sons-o-bitches howling about “due process’ for killer cops. GTFOH
say it again.
ELECTIONS.HAVE.CONSEQUENCES
…………………………………..
Kansas lawmakers want the poor to pay for tax cuts for the rich
By Max Ehrenfreund April 21 Wealthier Kansans are paying much less in taxes after Republican Gov. Sam Brownback overhauled the state’s income tax a few years ago. Brownback and other Republican officials hoped that more generous policies would stimulate the economy, bringing more revenue into the state’s coffers and making up the difference on the bottom line.
It didn’t work. Kansas’s economy has kept expanding at more or less same plodding pace as the rest of the country. And now, according to official estimates released Monday, the state will have at least a $143 million budget shortfall in 2016, and likely more. Lawmakers are looking for a way to plug the hole.
One thing they’re not considering: asking the wealthy to chip in. Instead, in a legislature that last week barred welfare recipients from using their benefits to go swimming or watch movies, the proposals that look most likely to succeed are sales and excise taxes that would be paid disproportionately by Kansas’s poor and working class.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/04/21/vwelfap/
the STUPID BURNS DEEPLY
A Clinton/McCaskill Ticket?
by BooMan
Wed Apr 22nd, 2015 at 10:25:29 AM EST
It’s way too early to talk about presidential running mates, so why don’t we do precisely that? Ideally, the choice of a running mate would be made based on their suitability to take over as president at a moment’s notice but (Geraldine Ferraro, Dan Quayle, Sarah Palin) we know that this is not always even the smallest of considerations. In practice, the choice is usually made with electoral considerations at the fore, although there are several different strategies that we’ve seen be employed. The oldest is a strategy of creating some regional balance. So, for example, northerners like JFK and Dukakis chose southerners like LBJ and Lloyd Bentsen, while southerners like LBJ and Jimmy Carter chose northerners like Hubert Humphrey and Walter Mondale. Another strategy is base mobilization, which means picking someone who has appeal to the your strongest partisans and who will also throw the red meat. Eisenhower did this with Nixon, Nixon did it with Agnew, McCain did it with Palin and Romney attempted it with Paul Ryan. Another strategy is one we could call ‘compensation.’ A candidate who has an obvious weakness chooses someone that can make up for that weakness. George McGovern tried to unite a split party by picking (as his second choice) Sargent Shriver as his running mate, thereby hoping to get people to rally around the Kennedy family. Ronald Reagan and John Kerry made their selections in an effort to reunify their respective parties after a bruising primary season. Poppy Bush tried to compensate for his age by picking a young energetic senator in Dan Quayle. To some degree, Obama’s selection of Biden was an effort to cover for his lack of foreign policy experience.
The most unusual strategy is one we could call “amplification.” This is a strategy where you try to find someone with the same strengths and profile as yourself in order to bolster your advantage. This is what Bill Clinton did by selecting another young southerner, Al Gore, as his running mate. Many people assumed that Clinton would follow the practice of picking a northerner. Others thought he would try to compensate for his young age or lack of foreign policy experience by choosing an old hand. Al Gore did have some limited military experience which partially addressed Clinton’s “draft-dodging” problem, but he would have picked someone else if that was his main concern.
If Hillary Clinton wants to amplify her advantage, she’ll pick a woman as a running mate, perhaps one who is also of a certain age, and maybe one who has a reputation for political centrism and toughness on foreign policy. That’s why I’ve been thinking that Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri would be an interesting choice.
I see that McCaskill was out in force over the weekend defending Clinton and working to atone for her stinging endorsement of Barack Obama in the 2008 cycle. That’s the kind of thing the Clintons want to see. And being from the Obama camp could be helpful to McCaskill because she could form a bridge of sorts, allowing Clinton to show magnanimity and at the same time a peace offering to Obama’s supporters.
The Clinton-McCaskill ticket would take two baby-boomer women with political roots in the Ozarks, a centrist streak, and demonstrated toughness on national security issues, and offer them as two-for-the-price-of-one.
There would be many downsides to this. Amplifying strengths also can amplify weaknesses. Doubling down on age, gender and region prevents you from broadening your appeal. The base will like McCaskill’s endorsement of Obama, but her politics not as much. People whose main concerns with Obama and Hillary are related to foreign policy and national security won’t be encouraged by a hawkish running mate.
One last consideration is Missouri. The state has moved sharply away from the Democrats in the Obama Era, but in 2004 John Kerry did slightly better there than he did in Virginia. Actually, the results were almost identical. Going back a little further, Bill Clinton won the state twice and Al Gore came within 78,000 votes of carrying it in 2000. Overall, Georgia is a riper state for takeover, but Missouri is in second place among states that McCain carried in 2008. If the Dems are going to launch a challenge for Missouri’s electoral votes, a Clinton-McCaskill ticket would be their strongest team.
Finally, I wish I didn’t need to discuss race here, but it’s unavoidable. Clinton certainly could go in a totally different direction by picking a black or Latino running mate, and/or someone young and vibrant and (perhaps) more progressive. She could go with Elizabeth Warren, who would do much more to excite the base. I’d probably be more comfortable with those kinds of picks, as they’d send a signal that Clinton understands the future of the party, the nation, and the importance of the progressive critique of American politics. But picking McCaskill would have some benefits precisely because Clinton wouldn’t be sending that signal. Mainly, she’d be restoring the image of the party back to what it was prior to Obama when it did much better in places like Arkansas, Missouri, rural Ohio and Pennsylvania, and Kentucky and West Virginia. This might broaden the appeal of the party substantially enough that a lot of House seats would become competitive and put control of the Speaker’s gavel on the table. There’s no point sugar-coating this, but racism is so prevalent in so many communities in this country that it is polarizing the electorate in a way that makes winning control of the House extremely challenging for the Democrats.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2015/4/22/102529/428
MAJOR EYE ROLL
And trying not to puke.
MAKE IT STOP!
Bless their souls. RIP.
https://twitter.com/Philosavery/status/590494908789694464
America.
https://instagram.com/p/1wrMNytNLg/
They look so leased that he noticed them.
https://twitter.com/jeffmason1/status/590880798494093313
https://twitter.com/joshledermanAP/status/590876481393451008
I miss Whiterosebuddy. I still love her.
Hey Chicas!
Just want to show you something. I ran across this comment from Whiterosebuddy from 4 yrs ago.
whiterosebuddy 4 years ago
Hatemongering turning to violence!! all over the country this is going to be like the 60s rioting and violence by unemployed angry white males. Get the tear gas, pepper spray and full dressed swat teams!!
LaRapier! Whtierosebuddy, etc.. Call her whomever you like.
SHE WAS ALWAYS STRAIGHT, NO CHASER.
I miss her too.
May God’s blessings rain down on her.
THE KILLING OF UNARMED BLACK BOYS & MEN & WOMEN AT THE HANDS OF COPS SHOULD BE DECLARED A NATIONAL EMERGENCY.
PERIOD
https://twitter.com/SunSentinel/status/590862837452578816
people better wake up about these evil folks
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TUESDAY, APR 21, 2015 11:59 AM CDT
Kochs defeated in Montana: 6 lessons the country can learn from this rural Western state
Americans for Prosperity spent a bundle to defeat Medicaid expansion in Montana. Here’s why they lost
ERIC STERN
The passage of Medicaid expansion in Montana this weekend was an unlikely defeat for the Koch brothers, who came in as heavy favorites and spent a fortune trying to kill the measure. Sadly for the Kochs, poor people in Montana will now get medical care.
Montana is the only state where the Kochs got beaten down like this. What is to be learned from this episode?
1. Rural America isn’t New York. The right-wingers the Koch brothers rub elbows with are the kind that go to Lincoln Center. The ones in Montana are a different breed, something the Kochs may not have fully understood. Their group Americans for Prosperity has cycled through five different leaders in Montana the last few years. The first guy they hired showed up at a committee hearing at the Capitol dressed in leather, like a biker, wearing an American flag bandanna on his head. After that, they tried two different former state legislators, one of whom has publicly campaigned to revive sodomy laws. Next they brought in a man who was once part of a religious cult whose members all descended into a bunker on March 15, 1990, believing that the world would end that very day.
For the Medicaid battle the Kochs tried a new strategy, one that never works in the West. They flew in a bunch of high-priced young politicos from Washington to get the job done. These held “town meetings” in rural communities at which they showed up in slim-fit suits and pointy shoes, looking like they were heading to a nightclub, lecturing farmers and ranches on politics and the dangers of “more Obamacare” and publicly threatening moderate Republicans. It didn’t take long for them to get booed off the stage by their own partisans.
http://www.salon.com/2015/04/21/kochs_defeated_in_montana_6_lessons_the_country_can_learn_from_this_rural_western_state/
Koch industries is all over the Midwest. On school buses, paper towels, everything
In fight over Medicaid expansion, AFP can’t win them all
04/22/15 10:53 AM
By Steve Benen
The Montana affiliate of the Kochs’ Americans for Prosperity thought it was in a strong position to derail Medicaid expansion in the state, just as AFP activists did in Tennessee in February.
As it turns out, in Big Sky Country, the opposite happened.
The state Legislature has passed a bill expanding Medicaid eligibility to about 70,000 low-income Montana residents.
The bill approved Saturday heads to Gov. Steve Bullock, who is expected to sign it into law.
Why hasn’t Bullock already signed the legislation? It may have something to do with the fact that the Democratic governor was in Boston over the weekend to run the marathon. (He finished with a time of 3:40.44, if you were curious).
Still, Bullock is likely to approve the policy – as the AP report added, the governor “issued a statement applauding passage of the measure, saying he’s glad politics could be put aside on behalf of the health of state residents and the economies of rural towns.”
Remember, as we talked about last week, at this point a year ago, Medicaid expansion in Montana looked like a lost cause, but in early May 2014, Bullock started arranging some “non-publicized” meetings on the issue. The governor saw a possible opportunity to advance the policy, so he started quiet negotiations with state Republicans and private-sector stakeholders.
It worked. Assuming the Obama administration signs off on the package, which is likely, Montana will expand health security to tens of thousands of low-income residents, while improving state finances and bolstering state hospitals.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/fight-over-medicaid-expansion-afp-cant-win-them-all
They are trying to keep people ill.
…………………………
Morning Plum: Battle over Florida Medicaid expansion goes wild
By Greg Sargent April 22 at 9:19 AM Your humble blogger has been tracking the battle over the Medicaid expansion in Florida, because it’s a really big deal. If the administration can get Governor Rick Scott and state House Republicans to accept the expansion, it could help weaken the blockade against it that conservatives have built in other states, which has slowed down Obamacare’s health coverage expansion after a number of states accepted it last year.
Now things are getting truly crazy in Florida. Legislators who oppose the Medicaid expansion are locking reporters out of meetings about the issue. And Republicans who support it are saying this episode is now reflecting badly on the national GOP.
Background: State Senate Republicans support a “conservative” version of the expansion. The administration may withhold federal money for the Low Income Pool — which pays hospitals to treat the uninsured — that Scott and Republicans prefer, and instead wants Florida to take the expansion money, which would cover at least 800,000 Floridians. But that’s Obamacare, so Americans for Prosperity, Governor Scott and state House Republicans are dug in against it. Result: A budget impasse that’simperiling, among other things, the tax cuts Republicans want.
Fox 13 News in Florida captures the latest developments:
About Representative Wood chanting “liberty” at the assembled reporters: It’s worth noting that state House Republicans and Scott want federal money to cover health care in the form of LIP; they just don’t want it if it’s part of “Obamacare.” Their ostensible reason is that the feds can’t be trusted to keep their end of the Medicaid bargain, leaving the state on the hook. But state Senate Republicans reject that argument.
Florida reporter Marc Caputo notes that the impasse could result in a government shutdown, which could hurt the state’s economy. And one Senate Republican is now arguing that the whole mess could be a “problem” for “the image of the Republican Party in America.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/04/22/morning-plum-battle-over-florida-medicaid-expansion-goes-wild/
https://twitter.com/deray/status/590903481952817152
“The officers involved deserve due process”?!!! GTFOH
Freddie Gray DESERVED to not be KILLED by officers. HE NEVER RECEIVED DUE PROCESS.
Walter Scott, Freddie Grays, Eric Gardner, & the list of names goes on and on, they NEVER RECIEVED DUE PROCESS, BECAUSE THEY WERE KILLED.
THEY STILL can’t tell us WHY Mr. Gray was arrested.
They STILL have given no charge
Lord, throw me a line before I explode. First of all, this police union president is trying to defend the indefensible because that is what police union presidents do all the time. Victims of police brutality be damned, they choose to deny the existence of victims. To them, a victim is someone who caused his/her own death of injury. We know this.
But this bullsh!! about the leaders of a religious institution crucifying the guilty cops before the “investigation” (that would be the meeting where the cops make up a story that they think exonerates the murderers) is just TOO DAMN MUCH. Crucify, is he f***ing serious?
These six stupid, racist, violent knuckle dragging cop gang members killed a man for no reason, absolutely no reason except to break up the monotony of “protect and serve” when nothing is going on. Just break it up, kill a black man, break his neck, sever his spine, drag him around while he is in incomprehensible pain, while he is literally dying, do more damage to his tortured body while he is in your police van. And then say he had a pocket knife or some damn thing. He ran from you. But not fast enough, apparently.
Everyone should run from the Baltimore police until that department gets cleaned up with a fire hose and every stupid, racist cop employed there is out looking for another job.
The DOJ better use their own medical examiner.
Liza, it’s much too much. These sick MOFOs are flaunting their ignorance and soulless hatred before us.
They are flaunting it. They think there is not a damn thing we can do to stop them.
What will the world be like when these two young kids become teenagers? We need change and we need it NOW!
http://www.trbimg.com/img-553722cc/turbine/bal-sights-and-sounds-of-freddie-gray-protest-20150421/650/650×366
Morning Plum: GOP’s economic argument is ‘bull—t,’ Martin O’Malley says. Pay attention, Hillary.
By Greg Sargent April 20
I tend to doubt that former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley will, in the end, launch an official challenge to Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination. But O’Malley has just laid down a marker that deserves some attention, because it foreshadows an argument that will be key to the 2016 race, one in which Clinton will need a good answer.
In an interview with NPR, O’Malley bluntly said that one of the primary GOP economic arguments is “bull—t.” O’Malley was talking about the Republican argument that government is a key factor in stymieing people’s economic mobility.
Asked about Marco Rubio’s recent suggestion that “active government keeps people frozen at their economic status,” as NPR’s Steve Inskeep puts it, O’Malley replied, in part:
“It is not true that regulation holds poor people down or regulation keeps middle class from advancing. That’s kind of patently bull—t.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/04/20/morning-plum-gops-economic-argument-is-bull-t-martin-omalley-says-pay-attention-hillary/
Transcript: NPR’s Full Interview With Martin O’Malley
http://3chicspolitico.com/2015/04/22/wednesday-open-thread-sidney-poitier-week/
Campaign cash becomes early differentiator between parties for 2016
Rachel Maddow contrasts the rush to court billionaire among Republican hopefuls for 2016 with the Democrats’ and Hillary Clinton’s campaign posturing against the role of big money in politics (though obviously no less willing to spend to win).
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/watch/campaign-cash-becomes-early-2016-difference-431827523774
Rand Paul: McCain, Graham are White House ‘lapdogs’
04/22/15 08:47 AM—UPDATED 04/22/15 09:06 AM
By Steve Benen
When a fight over foreign policy breaks out between Republican Sens. Rand Paul, John McCain, and Lindsey Graham, knowing who to root for is a real challenge. Between them, the GOP lawmakers have been so wrong about so much, so often, that when there’s a dispute, it’s tempting to hope they all lose.
But their ongoing argument is interesting for one unexpected reason.
Let’s first set the stage. The hawkish, McCain/Graham wing of the Republican Party has made no secret of its concerns about Rand Paul’s presidential candidacy. The Kentucky senator, eager to push back, told a New Hampshire audience over the weekend, “There’s a group of folks in our party who would have troops in six countries right now, maybe more.” It was an uncharacteristic understatement for Paul – McCain wants military confrontations in way more than six countries.
Nevertheless, McCain was irritated by Paul’s criticism, telling Fox News this week, “He just doesn’t understand. He has displayed this kind of naivete since he came to the Senate.” Graham echoed the sentiment on msnbc yesterday.
All of which led to Rand Paul’s amazing new talking point.
“This comes from a group of people wrong about every policy issue over the last two decades,” the Kentucky Republican said in an interview with Fox News, touting his credentials as the “one standing up to President Obama.”
“And these people are essentially the lapdogs for President Obama and I think they’re sensitive about that,” he said.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/rand-paul-mccain-graham-are-white-house-lapdogs
PragmaticObotsUnite @PragObots
.@MadisonSiriusXM STOP! #BlackLivesMatter IS appropriate because BLACK PEOPLE are being murdered by police, not white people.
Has anyone read Dyson’s Opus against West?
Is it truly as scathing as has been reported?
hmmmmmmmmm
just sayin’.
hmmmmmmmmm
………………….
THE CLINTON CONUNDRUM
Bill Clinton had one winning strategy; Barack Obama had another. Can Hillary Clinton meld them effectively?
BY RONALD BROWNSTEINAs president, Bill Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act, which authorized states to deny recognition to same-sex marriages performed in other states. As a presidential candidate, Hillary Rodham Clinton launched her 2016 campaign on Sunday with a video that featured two gay men excitedly planning their own same-sex wedding.
That contrast captures a profound shift since Bill Clinton’s presidency—not only in American social attitudes, but also in the nature of his party’s electoral coalition. If Hillary Clinton wins the Democratic presidential nomination, she will inherit from President Obama a very different coalition than the one that elected her husband. Her great opportunity is to meld the different support that each man mobilized. Her great risk is that she won’t be able to re-create quite as much of either man’s coalition as she needs to win.
…………………..
Since Clinton left the White House, the Democratic decline among older and blue-collar whites has continued, even accelerating under Obama. But Obama triumphed twice anyway by assembling a more consistently left-leaning coalition centered on millennials, minorities, and socially liberal whites (especially college-educated and single women). I’ve called that alignment the “coalition of the ascendant,” because its groups are all growing within the electorate, boosting Democrats.
These changes have recast the party. In 1992, white voters without a college education, usually the most socially conservative voters, made up 60 percent of all Americans who identified as Democrats, according to surveys by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center. By 2014, Pew found, those noncollege whites represented just 35 percent of Democrats. Over that same period, college-educated whites grew from 15 to 20 percent of Democrats, and minorities soared from about 25 percent to 45 percent of the party.
This reconfigured Democratic coalition has tilted left since Bill Clinton’s day, especially on social issues. In Pew polls, the share of Democrats who think immigrants benefit American society more than they burden it jumped from 32 percent in 1994 to 68 percent by 2014; likewise, the share of Democrats who say society should accept homosexuality rose 20 points over that period (almost double the change among Republicans).
http://www.nationaljournal.com/political-connections/hillary-clinton-2016-presidential-election-problems-20150417
Nobody who remotely has been following Hillary believes that anything she says on this is genuine. And, that’s the problem, and why she’s a pitiful candidate.
…………………………………………………..
Is Hillary a populist of convenience?
By Greg Sargent April 21 at 3:53 PM
Is Hillary Clinton’s embrace of populist and/or progressive rhetoric and policy positions consistent with her long-held convictions? Or is she only doing it belatedly, to shore up her support on the left, and to keep pace with the passions unleashed among Democrats by the rise of Elizabeth Warren and other factors?
The question gained some steam last week when Clinton shifted her stances on two key issues. She came out for a Constitutional right to gay marriage, when previously she’d said it should be left to the states, and embraced drivers’ licenses for undocumented immigrants, a position she’d previously opposed.
And today the New York Times reports that Clinton allies are miffed at folks who say her populist rhetoric is merely an effort to get out ahead of Warren-ism. Someone in Clintonworld produced a dossier showing she has long argued that the wealthy are benefiting disproportionately from an economy rigged for the top, at the expense of middle and working class Americans. The Times notes that Clinton advisers argue that she is “a populist fighter who for decades has been an advocate for families and children; only now have the party and primary voters caught up.”
The real story here, I think, is what this all says about the changing nature of the Democratic Party.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/04/21/is-hillary-a-populist-of-convenience/
To be honest, as soon as Hillary said she wanted to be the champion for the people, I totally shut down. The rest of my life is too short to listen to whatever rhetoric she thinks will work for her this time. But it’s clear that the nomination is hers. The Democratic elite are making sure that Hillary gets her turn and the country be damned.
Morning Plum: Obama and the health law get some good poll numbers
By Greg Sargent April 21
The new Kaiser Family Foundation monthly tracking poll finds that Obamacare has edged ever so gingerly into positive territory: 43 percent of Americans approve of the law, while 42 percent disapprove of it.
That’s the first time the law has been in positive territory since the last presidential election. More to the point, it’s the first time the law has been in positive territory since implementation of the law began and it suffered hideous roll-out problems, followed by months and months of GOP hyping of every Obamacare horror story Republicans could find (or invent).
This is only one poll. The HuffPollster averages show the law is still a bit underwater. But even those averages show what appears to be a thaw towards it, though that may not last.
Perhaps most interesting is the fact that the Kaiser poll demonstrates that GOP priorities for the future of the law are very different from those of Americans overall and independents.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/04/21/morning-plum-obama-and-the-heath-law-get-some-good-poll-numbers/
Rubio shows how not to talk about the auto rescue
04/21/15 04:44 PM
By Steve Benen
Congressional Republicans generally shy away from President Obama’s rescue of the American auto industry, and it’s easy to understand why: the White House’s policy was a striking success. GOP leaders condemned the rescue and told Americans it would fail. The right ended up getting the whole thing backwards.
For that matter, it’s become a political loser, too. “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt” made it nearly impossible for Mitt Romney to credibly compete in Michigan in 2012, despite his hometown roots, and Terri Lynn Land’s opposition to Obama’s policy contributed to her miserable failure in Michigan’s U.S. Senate race in 2014.
But as the Detroit News noted the other day, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) is nevertheless following a familiar GOP script.
Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio said Friday that the $85 billion auto bailout was not the “right way” to handle the troubled sector in 2008 and 2009.
At an appearance in Manchester, New Hampshire, the Florida senator said the rescue of General Motors Co. and then Chrysler Group LLC was not the right position for the federal government to take. “I don’t think that was the right way to handle it, but certainly our auto industry is important. Again, it was a problematic approach that the federal government took to doing it….
The Florida Republican then transitioned to his support for conservative tax and regulatory policies.
Six years after the Obama administration’s approach to the auto industry was implemented, it’s unusual to hear Rubio’s complaint. but the real oddity is the way in which the senator is still looking at the issue.
By every metric, Obama’s policy worked. The industry – the backbone of American manufacturing – was on the verge of collapse. Without effective action, at the height of the economic crisis, hundreds of thousands of U.S. workers were poised to lose their jobs as the doors closed permanently on storied American companies.
Fortunately, Obama’s plan worked and the U.S. auto industry bounced back in an extraordinary way. Literally every Republican prediction of failure turned out to be wrong.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/rubio-shows-how-not-talk-about-the-auto-rescue
Good catch by Zandar
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Monday, April 20, 2015
Reminder: The Voting Rights Act Is Still Dead
Posted byZandar
The NY Times editorial board rips into Chief Justice John Roberts over the 2013 decision that destroyed the Voting Rights Act’s “preclearance” formula because the racism of voter suppression simply didn’t exist anymore. The truth is far more insidious.
Quite literally Roberts struck down the formula because it was “antiquated” to the point of reverse discrimination, even though Congress had approved the formula just seven years before. The same Republicans who had no problem with it in 2007 of course would never vote to fix the formula in 2015.
I can’t imagine what’s different now about America than 1957 to 2007, can you?
http://zandarvts.blogspot.com/2015/04/reminder-voting-rights-act-is-still-dead.html
NBC News ✔ @NBCNews
#BREAKING: Vatican confirms Pope Francis will visit Cuba en route to U.S. in September.
Luvvie’s written about the Dyson/West Beef
as only Luvvie can….LOL
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Love and Hip Hop Academia: The Michael Eric Dyson Takedown of Cornel West
CHILEEEEEEE… listen. You know I love me a good read and wig snatch. Well it was served up on a platter last night when The New Republic released an essay, penned by Dr. Michael Eric Dyson. It was title “The Ghost ofCornel West“ and it was a 10,000 word epic takedown of the Afro’ed Intellectual that many respect and some revere. It is the talk of social media right now because so much tea was spilled.
Let the record show that I am neither Team Dyson nor Team West. I am Jon Snow (I know nothing) to the intricacies of Black Academia. I am not in that space so I am going off what I read here and the little I’ve known before.
What are my thoughts on the whole thing? I’m glad you didn’t ask, because I have questions.
* What made Michael Eric Dyson write this piece right now?
Again, I know I am not on their jock to know what both are up to enough but what made Dyson drop this ETHER at this moment? I know that West has come for him hard in the past so it ain’t crazy out of the blue but I’m trying to figure out what made him do it right now.
http://www.awesomelyluvvie.com/2015/04/michael-eric-dyson-cornel-west.html
Tell it Zandar.
Tell it.
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Tuesday, April 21, 2015
West Of The Abyss
Posted byZandar
You may have heard about this scathing deconstruction of Cornel West in TNR by Michael Eric Dyson over the weekend, but really everything you need to know about Dyson, West, and the entire black academic cottage industry of OBAMA FAILED BLACK PEOPLE can be summed up in the piece’s second paragraph:
And that’s where the game of black political academia is right now in 2015, the “I hate Obama but I respect him” crowd versus the I hate Obama and don’t respect him” crowd. No group has turned on Obama faster than these puffed-up pinheads, and no group is more aware of the complete expiration of their mild at best relevance to current politics on January 20, 2017.
Both of these men, along with Tavis Smiley and Melissa Harris-Perry and a whole host of other black thought leaders on campuses across the country, have made a fortune on “If only President Obama would listen to me, black America wouldn’t be in this mess.”
But the grifters, man they have to grift, and West has gone so far down the Obama Derangement Syndrome rabbit hole that he’s even an embarrassment to the rest of the grifters, enough so that instead of making the fight always about Obama and his failures, Dyson breaks that cardinal rule and makes it about West.
The rest of the piece is Dyson just absolutely wrecking West, and deservedly so. It’s been a long time coming as well, a 10,000 word disassembly of the last ten years of West’s numerous academic sins that only could be delivered by the man he once mentored, and not just the sins against President Obama.
But the whole time Dyson has one foot in the same abyss that claimed West’s career and Dyson can’t see it. in a very real way it kind of proves the point that the rest of us have figured out: we’re really going to miss Barack Obama as President when he’s gone.
West and Dyson will too, of course, but for a whole other batch of reasons.
http://zandarvts.blogspot.com/2015/04/west-of-abyss.html
I read and posted Dyson’s take down of West on Monday. All those GRIFTERS are going to be put on ice come January 2017.
He’s been bitter since November 4, 2008, when he lost to ‘ That One’
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Tuesday, April 21, 2015
Johnny Volcano’s Revenge
Posted byZandar
Sen. John McCain has finally reached the stage in his life where he completely blames his failure to win the White House in 2008 on Barack Obama, and that he’s just out of damns to give when it comes to making up niceties and excuses for his foul behavior towards the man who beat him.
And none of them are going anywhere, either. It’s just petty revenge now, that’s all he lives for.
http://zandarvts.blogspot.com/2015/04/johnny-volcanos-revenge.html
uh huh
uh huh
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Tuesday, April 21, 2015
Last Call For The Real Racists In Michigan
Posted byZandar
Just pointing out the fact this Michigan couple has a noose and Confederate flags hanging from the trees in their yard makes me a racist, or something.
Boy, sure is a terrible time we live in when people get upset over stuff like a noose hanging from a tree. Besides, all those slave lynchings and hangings? White guys died too or something, so what’s the big deal?
It’s not racist cause he said so, guys. CASE CLOSED.
http://zandarvts.blogspot.com/2015/04/last-call-for-real-racists-in-michigan.html
Watch First Trailer for ‘Desperate Housewives – Africa’ + Individual Character Profiles
By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act
April 21, 2015 at 10:25AM
Announced at MIPCOM 2013 (the international TV and entertainment market held in Cannes once every year; where content is introduced for co-producing, buying, selling, financing and distributing), Ben Pyne, president of global distribution at Disney, revealed that an “African version” of “Desperate Housewives” (the once comedy/drama series created by Marc Cherry, and broadcast on ABC from 2004 until 2012) was in development, for a summer 2014 debut.
The co-production deal was made with Nigeria-based EbonyLife TV (no affiliation with Ebony magazine) – a multi-platform broadcaster, and subsidiary of Media and Entertainment City Africa (MEC Africa) in Cross River State, Nigeria, run by Mo Abudu (aka Africa’s Oprah Winfrey, as she’s come to be known).
“Desperate Housewives” the “African version” will feature a pan-African cast, and will be set in Lagos, Nigeria, where it’s apparently been be shot, and its premiere date, as I’ve learned, is now set for April 30, when it will air in 44 countries within the continent.
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/watch-first-trailer-for-desperate-housewives-africa-individual-character-profiles-20150421
Loving this week with Mr. Poitier
Soooo handsome and such a distinguished career. It’s actors like him that make some films (a very small percentage) memorable and an important part of a culture.
UH HUH
UH HUH
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Baltimore officer suspended in Freddie Gray case accused of domestic violence
Jon Swaine in New York and Oliver Laughland in Baltimore
Tuesday 21 April 2015 23.05 EDT
The Baltimore police officer who led the initial chase of Freddie Gray, the young man who died after being arrested and suffering a broken neck, has twice been accused of domestic violence and was temporarily ordered by a court to stay away from a second person.
Lieutenant Brian Rice faced actions in Maryland’s civil courts over
alleged domestic violence in 2008 and 2013, according to public filings. In both cases, requests for protective orders were denied by the judge. For a week in 2013, Rice was also ordered not to abuse, contact, nor goto the home or workplace of a second person who took him to court.
…According to the court filings, a judge in Baltimore county denied the first accuser’s request for a protective order against Rice in April 2008, ruling there was “no statutory basis” for it. A clerk in Carroll County said the accuser’s request for an emergency protective order there in January 2013 was denied by the court.
A judge in another Carroll County court revoked a “peace order” that
was implemented for a week in January 2013 in response an application by the second accuser, also ruling “no statutory basis” existed for it to continue.
A ruling of “no statutory basis” does not necessarily mean the
allegations were unfounded. It may mean the accuser could not meet the required burden of proof or that the nature of the alleged abuse was not covered by the order they requested under Maryland law.
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/apr/21/baltimore-officer-freddie-gray-case-domestic-violence?CMP=edit_2221
Not surprising, is it?
This is so messy
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Sherri Shepherd Ruled Legal Mother of Baby Born via Surrogate
By Diane Herbst and Emily Strohm
04/21/2015 AT 02:35 PM EDT
After months of battling her ex-husband in court over financial responsibility for their baby born via surrogate last August, Sherri Shepherd is now officially listed as the mother of the 8-month-old.
“It’s bittersweet,” Lamar Sally told PEOPLE outside the courtroom on Tuesday.
“I’m glad it’s over, but I feel sad what it had to come to. Now I can go back to L.A. and tend to my son.”
Since the birth of Lamar Sally Jr., the formerly married pair had been locked in a legal battle after Sally said the couple had agreed to pursue surrogacy before Shepherd had a drastic change of heart months into the surrogate’s pregnancy.
http://www.people.com/article/sherri-shepherd-legal-mother-baby-born-surrogate-lamar-sally
I thought they were already divorced
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Gwyneth Paltrow Files for Divorce From Chris MartinE! Online
Francesca Bacardi
19 hrs ago
Gwyneth Paltrow has officially filed for divorce from Chris Martin, E! News has confirmed.
Only one day after E! News learned that they would make their “conscious uncoupling” official, it turns out Paltrow has filed the necessary documents with the court.
A source told us Monday that Paltrow and Martin’s business managers have been working out the terms of their split, including financial assets and custody of their children.
According to the source, the couple would be citing irreconcilable differences as the reason for calling it quits. As parents to 10-year-old daughter Apple and 7-year-old son Moses, the Iron Man actress and the Coldplay rocker have maintained a close relationship throughout their separation, even going on vacations together with their kids. They were spotted together in the Bahamas shortly after they made their split announcement, and just recently they enjoyed a spring break Mexican getaway.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/celebrity/gwyneth-paltrow-files-for-divorce-from-chris-martin/ar-AAbsKdB?ocid=ansEonline11
Good Morning Everyone. :-))))
Good morning, all!
Ametia, you’re rocking Sidney Poitier this week.
To SG2, WITH LOVE. LOL!
Good Morning, Everyone :)
LOL Hi Rik. We hit the button at the same time.
And, it is a tie!
http://cdn.womensrunning.competitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/allyson-felix-olympic-trials-track-and-field-tie-100m-womens.jpg