Today’s feature artist is Ms. Koko Taylor.
SHE GOT WHAT IT TAKES.
Koko Taylor, sometimes spelled KoKo Taylor (September 28, 1928 – June 3, 2009),[2] was an American Chicago blues singer, whose style also encompassed many genres including electric blues, rhythm and blues and blues and soul blues popularly she was known as the “Queen of the Blues.”[1] She was known primarily for her rough, powerful vocals and traditional blues stylings.
Life and career[edit]
Born Cora Walton in Shelby County, Tennessee, Taylor was the daughter of a sharecropper.[3] She left Memphis for Chicago, Illinois, in 1952 with her husband, truck driver Robert “Pops” Taylor.[2] In the late 1950s she began singing in Chicago blues clubs. She was spotted by Willie Dixon in 1962, and this led to wider performances and her first recording contract. In 1965, Taylor was signed by Chess Records subsidiary Checker Records where she recorded “Wang Dang Doodle”, a song written by Dixon and recorded by Howlin’ Wolf five years earlier. The record became a hit, reaching number four on the R&B charts and number 58 on the pop charts[4] in 1966, and selling a million copies.[2] Taylor recorded several versions of “Wang Dang Doodle” over the years, including a live version at the 1967 American Folk Blues Festival with harmonica player Little Walter and guitarist Hound Dog Taylor. Taylor subsequently recorded more material, both original and covers, but never repeated that initial chart success.
National touring in the late 1960s and early 1970s improved her fan base, and she became accessible to a wider record-buying public when she signed with Alligator Records in 1975. She recorded nine albums for Alligator, 8 of which were Grammy-nominated, and came to dominate the female blues singer ranks, winning twenty five W. C. Handy Awards (more than any other artist). After her recovery from a near-fatal car crash in 1989, the 1990s found Taylor in films such as Blues Brothers 2000 and Wild at Heart, and she opened a blues club on Division Street in Chicago in 1994, which relocated to Wabash Ave in Chicago’s South Loop in 2000. (The club is now closed.)
Taylor influenced musicians such as Bonnie Raitt, Shemekia Copeland, Janis Joplin, Shannon Curfman, and Susan Tedeschi. In the years prior to her death, she performed over 70 concerts a year and resided just south of Chicago in Country Club Hills, Illinois.
In 2008, the Internal Revenue Service said that Taylor owed $400,000 in back taxes, penalties and interest. Her tax problems concerned 1998, 2000 and 2001; for those years combined, her adjusted gross income was $949,000.[5]
Taylor’s final performance was at the Blues Music Awards, on May 7, 2009. She suffered complications from surgery for gastrointestinal bleeding on May 19, 2009, and died on June 3 of that year.[6]
Awards[edit]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-o-s-5eAXc
“…Danielle Moodie-Mills: Her struggle mirrors many of ours:
When First Lady Michelle Obama addressed the graduates of Tuskegee University she did so with a level of realness we’ve come to expect from Flotus, but we also received a glimpse of her very real struggle – which mirrors that of many African Americans.
The jabs that have been taken at her femininity and personality are similar to the kinds that black women have been dealing with for eons. Our bodies literally poked and prodded – never measuring up to the European standard of beauty. Our demeanor questioned as being “sassy”, “angry”, “hostile” etc.
In her speech the first lady gave us insight into how being ridiculed, stereotyped, overlooked and verbally abused by right wing conservatives can take its toll – not just on her and the first family, but on all black Americans who have been wrongly judged and labeled as “thugs”, “troublemakers”, “rioters” and worse, for daring to challenge a system that was created to ensure our silence and submission…”
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/may/12/do-michelle-obamas-comments-on-race-resonate-with-black-women-our-panelists-discus
So now a few Democrats are SMELLING THEMSELVES, and are attempting to assert their WHITENESS on POTUS.
*looking@sherrodbrown& elizabeth-MISSANN-WARREN*
You do know Ametia, that FLOTUS was not only alluding to racist right-wingers (or their black mouthpieces who dance the jig hard for their racist deep pockets), when she spoke at Tuskegee; Just as we see again playing out today, POTUS himself continues to be disrespected and disregarded by some of our very own – So-called liberals/Democrats.
The Obamas have seen it all. And FLOTUS as that powerful and unapologetic black woman, has too seen more than her fair share of disrespect and has been demeaned, disrespected and dismissed in such deeply cutting ways, by plenty of so-called liberals/Democrats, and sadly too, some of the very folks who work directly for POTUS. (All you have to do is see just how removed and very uncomfortable some of those who worked on the campaigns, OFA and now the White House, continue to be about black issues.) You’d think that after having worked for this historic and first black President, a certain empathy and insight into black lives would have emerged. But not so. And all you have to do is read many of them on social media. They’ll fight for Hillary and POTUS specifically, but it’s all crickets on anything about black lives and FLOTUS.
As my mother says, FLOTUS has swallowed a whole lot of rubbish from a whole lot of people – And as gossipy as bloody Jodi Kantor is, she did truthfully tell on more than a few people in the White House too, who have and continue to disrespect and undercut the black First Lady. You guys remember Reid Cherlin? The former White House Assistant Press Secretary who wrote that hit piece on Mrs Obama and the east wing for the New Republic (who by the way just published a how dare she editorial on Mrs Obama and her speech at Tuskegee)..? If I tell you who Reid Cherlin’s best White House buddies are – and continue to be, you’ll understand exactly what I’m trying to tell you.
When I wrote about what Mrs Obama has to contend with, I also meant it too when I wrote of the many folks looking to appropriate her husband any way they can, for their own purposes. There are also those who are so resentful and jealous of her that they root against her, and will do anything to spite her, to cut her down to size. They are the ones who are ‘anonymous’ sources looking to smear her, and those who are so gleeful when they read any negative gossip about her or them as a couple. And these are not right-wingers we’re talking about. Don’t even get me started on those who befriend her only to gain access to her husband, or those who just want to befriend the President alone, angling for a relationship with him outside of his wife. Who does that? How many people think they can chum it up with any other President outside of his wife, and are blatant about wanting nothing to do with his FLOTUS? But they are there. Swarming like killer bees, looking to pounce. They desperately want to take her place. Along with those who wish to recast President Obama’s wife – and those who keep actively auditioning – and playing up to and nurturing dubious mutually parasitic friendships with White House ‘allies’.
It’s bad enough dealing with racist right-wingers, but it’s chilling having to contend with treacherous, duplicitous, traitorous fools sliding in and out of your home.
Never before has any President and his wife been so disrespected. And if FLOTUS were not as strong as she is, she would have lost it by now. My mom cries every time she watches her speak, knowing all too well what she’s holding back and what she’s up against. And it’s much more than that standard assault on black women where we’re accused of being too possessive of what is rightfully ours.
I know a bit too much, but I will share some of that at another time. So much tea, so little time.
Keep on telling the truth!#!!!
Thank you so much for letting me share..
Oh I do know very well. Desiree Rodgers rolled up in the WH , and she ALSO TOO tried to appropriate FLOTUS’ role, prancing around in that State dinner dress, while that haggared blond & her husband waltzed their way into that dinner. SMGDH
Those Dems are cut-throat, do nothing, talking loud and saying nothing white privileged MOFOS.
And all the MISS ANN’s it’s much too much.. I know First Lady Michelle can’t wait to get the fuck out of DC with her husband and daughters.
Desiree Rogers is nothing compared to some seriously underhanded stuff FLOTUS has had to contend with particularly in the last 3 years.
That’s why I don’t automatically assume good intentions or get into the whole transferring my love and respect of the Obamas onto some of the folks who work for them, or buzz around them.
There are some seriously treacherous folks with dubious agenda in the mix. And these folks think they’re slick…but we see them. Every last one of them.
would you mind if SG2 were to tweet this?
I loved this.
And Do tell on (Reid Cherlin)
Do please tweet. Please know that you you never have to ask to share in any way you like, anything I share with you. It’s your ‘intellectual property’ once I post it here. Lol.
@Ametia, I will share about Reid Cherlin and so many others. I promise..
I’m looking forward to having tea with you, eliihass!
GMAFB
………………..
https://twitter.com/toddzwillich/status/598209148384374784
short: Obama can’t be telling MS. ANN, she’s WRONG!
GTFOH
We’re talking Sherrod Brown husband of ultimate Ms Ann Connie Schultz, for chrissakes!
I bet you Connie put him up to this.
The same Connie Shultz who wrote the foreword to Jodi Kantor’s book on the Obamas and went on to do her own mini hit job in a review of the book for the NY Times. Seriously butt hurt that Mrs Obama wouldn’t cultivate a friendship with her even though then Senator Obama had told her when he met her for the first time, how she would love his wife and how they would hit it off. Connie even said how she and FLOTUS were so alike. Lol.
Alas, smart Mrs Obama opted not to cultivate any such friendships upon arriving in D.C. It was also Connie Schultz and Elizabeth Kucinich – wife of fallen, chipped tooth on sandwich, sue the cafeteria faux progressive hero now gone MIA, who stirred and led the whiny brigade and talked about how Laura Bush showed them the bedrooms in the White House residence, but FLOTUS wouldn’t take them upstairs to see where the President romances her — during one of the early congressional spouse luncheons. And in true FLOTUS form, she simply exercised her privilege, and subsequently scrapped the entire charade with these congressional spouses, opting instead to work on meaningful mentoring activities with disadvantage D.C kids.
And Connie has been running her condescending, vindictive, entitled mouth since.
KEEP DROPPING THAT TRUTH, ELIIHASS!
DALAYYYY @TheToast2015
How is Elizabeth Warren supposed to be this strong leader when she is playing Fay Wray needing to be rescued from King Obama Kong?
Geir Scott Henriksen @ScottyBurberry
@GRYKING @susaniniowa @ryangrim OMG black man didn’t refer to her as Saint Elizabeth! Racist emoprogs are clutching their pearls.
Officer Matt Kenny of the Madison Police Department will not face charges over the shooting of 19-year-old Tony Robinson, District Attorney Ismael Ozanne said today.
“I conclude that this tragic and unfortunate death was the result of a lawful use of deadly police force and that no charges should be brought against Officer Kenny in the death of Tony Robinson Jr.,” Ozanne said.
“My decision will not bring Tony Robinson Jr. back,” Ozanne told reporters. “My decision will not end the racial disparities that exist in the justice system, in our justice system. My decision is not based on emotion. Rather, this decision is based on the facts as they have been investigated and reported to me.”
Robinson, an unarmed biracial man, was fatally shot by Kenny on March 6 in Madison, Wisconsin, setting off days of protests in the city. His death came amid lingering tensions over the killings by police elsewhere of other unarmed African-Americans that seized national attention.
http://www.cnn.com/
A jury should have decided this case.
It was MORE CONVEINENT for the BIRACIAL District Attorney Ozanne to go before the camera and annouce his decision. OPTICS!
So despicable.
You saw that too..
Stevie Wonder can see what this fools are up to.
Hey Chicas!
Bear with me. I’m having a bad day today. *tears*
Do you, SG2. Do you, and take care of YOU.
SG2,
you get some rest. You take care of yourself.
Take care SG2…
https://twitter.com/FOXTV/status/597872358142177280
Why Rand Paul heard ‘silence’ in San Francisco
05/12/15 09:22 AM—UPDATED 05/12/15 11:33 AM
By Steve Benen
When next year’s presidential primaries and caucuses get underway, the early round of states will be familiar: Iowa and New Hampshire, followed by South Carolina and Nevada. California may be the nation’s largest state, but it’s also one of the last contests in the nominating process, holding its primary in June.
With this in mind, most presidential candidates are thinking about opening field offices in Sioux City, not Sacramento.
But Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) was nevertheless in San Francisco over the weekend, opening a new office and hoping to make inroads with the area’s tech industry. The San Francisco Chronicle reported on the White House hopeful’s awkward pitch.
Paul tried to stake his claim to the younger Silicon Valley tech crowd, saying, “The reason I’m in San Francisco is I want to be a different kind of Republican.”
On net neutrality, Paul said it was only fair for customers to pay more for faster Internet service and to let the market set the rates. “The market’s always differentiating on amounts, and it’s always differentiating on speed,” he added. […]
The issue is an important one in Silicon Valley and Paul’s answer was met largely with silence.
Imagine that. Rand Paul has made opposition to net neutrality one of his top legislative priorities, and he took his message to Silicon Valley, where support for net neutrality is one of the area’s top legislative priorities.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/why-rand-paul-heard-silence-san-francisco
https://twitter.com/jonathanweisman/status/598172340762050560
Senate Democrats vote to block Obama on trade
By Mike DeBonis May 12 at 3:09 PM
President Obama’s fellow Democrats derailed one of his major second-term priorities Tuesday, voting to hold up consideration of “fast track” trade authority unless related measures are guaranteed to proceed alongside it.
The trade legislation failed an afternoon test vote, 52 to 45. Sixty votes were needed to begin formal debate of measures that would pave the way for approval of a complex Pacific trade accord and provide relief to unemployed workers affected by trade deals.
Ahead of the vote, many Democrats — including some of the handful who have supported Obama’s trade push — said they were not inclined to move forward with debate unless Republican leaders provided assurances that the various pieces would move in tandem.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/democrats-threaten-to-stall-trade-legislation-in-the-senate/2015/05/12/08f71d66-f8c0-11e4-9ef4-1bb7ce3b3fb7_story.html?wpisrc=nl_pmpol&wpmm=1
https://twitter.com/NerdyWonka/status/598156239902638080
https://twitter.com/NerdyWonka/status/598153094740910081
https://twitter.com/NerdyWonka/status/598152903728082944
https://twitter.com/NerdyWonka/status/598151992532344834
https://twitter.com/NerdyWonka/status/598159724333273088
https://twitter.com/NerdyWonka/status/598158692538716160
https://twitter.com/NerdyWonka/status/598158135547670528
https://twitter.com/NerdyWonka/status/598157591408082944
https://twitter.com/NerdyWonka/status/598163947032739841
https://twitter.com/NerdyWonka/status/598160772997353472
https://twitter.com/NerdyWonka/status/598160392943075329
https://twitter.com/NerdyWonka/status/598159987806842880
https://twitter.com/NerdyWonka/status/598167634719297536
https://twitter.com/NerdyWonka/status/598167226584182785
https://twitter.com/NerdyWonka/status/598164635150192641
https://twitter.com/NerdyWonka/status/598164256681365505
https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/598167623843639296
Now all those white fathers who grew up without fathers can share their experiences too.
Poverty does not = just BLACK PEOPLE.
https://twitter.com/cjwerleman/status/597914594368032770/photo/1
OF COURSE NOT. Those jackals are tired after chasing down the negroes in Baltimore a few weeks ago.
Wall Street uses Miliband to warn Dems
05/12/15 11:20 AM
By Steve Benen
As Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign gets underway, the Democratic frontrunner is already challenging assumptions about being too cozy with Wall Street. A few weeks ago, for example, she vowed to “take a hard look at what is now being done in the trading world, which is just trading for the sake of trading.”
She also wants to take a fresh look at the capital gains tax rate; she’s condemned growing economic inequality; and she hired a fierce Wall Street critic as her campaign’s CFO.
Not surprisingly, the financial industry isn’t pleased. But as Politico noted yesterday, Wall Street isn’t just complaining; it’s pointing across the pond to warn Clinton and her party about the dangers of economic populism.
Wall Street has a message for bank-bashing U.S. populist politicians: Put down the pitchforks or you could end up like Ed Miliband.
Senior financial executives say the Labour leader’s anti-bank, soak the rich rhetoric helped sink his party in the United Kingdom elections and assure a surprisingly big reelection win for Prime Minister David Cameron and his Conservative Party last week. These bankers and their ideological supporters say if likely Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton keeps tacking to the left on Wall Street issues … she could face the same fate.
Well, I suppose she could. The question is whether or not that’s likely.
One top executive at one of Wall Street’s largest firms told Politico, “Cameron embraced the role of the financial sector in growing the U.K. economy and creating jobs, never once criticizing hedge funds, banks or the wealthy. Miliband ran against hedge funds and bankers, promising bonus and mansion taxes and lost big. Is that a lesson for Hillary as well?”
Actually, no, it probably isn’t. In fact, the whole idea seems quite foolish.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/wall-street-uses-miliband-warn-dems
I just read where Rupert Murdoch was warning her against ‘straying from her husband’s wonderful policies’.
Lol. You can’t make this stuff up.
President Obama to discuss race in America and police incidents across the country.
GOP again targets predatory lending protections for US troops
05/12/15 08:40 AM
By Steve Benen
It was just two weeks ago that House Republicans partnered with banking industry lobbyists to try to derail new protections for U.S. troops against predatory lenders. Over at the Huffington Post, Zach Carter reported yesterday that GOP lawmakers are, believe it or not, at it again.
To briefly recap, Congress first acted in 2006 to protect military personnel and their families from predatory lenders, creating a 36 percent cap on loans’ interest rates. Lenders quickly found and exploited a loophole in the law, prompting lawmakers to act again in 2012, empowering the Pentagon to close the loopholes. Defense Department officials crafted new safeguards last fall, and the protections are poised to take effect.
Except, of course, the industry, its lobbyists, and many congressional Republicans aren’t happy about it. Two weeks ago, House GOP lawmakers tried to add a provision to the military spending bill that would delay implementing the new rules for at least a year. That effort narrowly failed.
Which brings us to this week’s Round Two.
This week, Rep. Steve Stivers (R-Ohio) will offer legislation that would block DOD from finalizing its rules until a host of unrealistic technical certifications could be made for a database of active-duty military members. The House will vote on Stivers’ plan as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, a major bill that establishes military funding. […]
Stivers has been one of the payday lending industry’s favorite members of Congress since he took office in 2011. Over the 2012 and 2014 election cycles, payday loan companies contributed $69,625 to his campaign, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics.
Traditional banks have joined with smaller payday loan companies in lobbying against the Defense Department rules, since the new standards would curb profits for so-called “deposit advance products” – small, expensive loans that banks issue to compete with payday lenders.
One might think in a dispute between banking lobbyists and protections for U.S. troops and their families, members of Congress wouldn’t have to think too hard. And yet, here we are.
Remember, when the first effort to delay safeguards came to a vote in committee – at 4 a.m. – the Republican gambit failed on a 32-to-30 vote. In other words, it was very close, and many GOP lawmakers were comfortable siding with the industry.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/gop-again-targets-predatory-lending-protections-us-troops
https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/598122542877057024/photo/1
Seriously THO!
https://twitter.com/KickRotation/status/597739522596691968/photo/1
They look like shoe versions of the beast. Armored shoes.
https://twitter.com/deray/status/597889363897393152/photo/1
https://twitter.com/sec0ps/status/597774972661018624/photo/1
Frightening. I hope he’s found safe and alive.
May 12, 2015 10:02 AM
An Accurate Diagnosis Is Required to Solve the Problem
By Nancy LeTourneau
Paul Krugman writes that the “vampires of Wall Street” (his phrase) are trying to get their Republican friends in Congress to kill Dodd-Frank financial reforms. He starts by answering the question:
And why must Dodd-Frank die? Because it’s working.
Of course, he adds his usual caveat that it didn’t go far enough. But then he makes the case for what is working. Krugman notes the success of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as well as the transparency injected into the derivatives market. And then he gets into the whole question of “too big to fail.”
What about the problem of financial industry structure, sometimes oversimplified with the phrase “too big to fail”? There, too, Dodd-Frank seems to be yielding real results, in fact, more than many supporters expected.
As I’ve just suggested, too big to fail doesn’t quite get at the problem here. What was really lethal was the interaction between size and complexity. Financial institutions had become chimeras: part bank, part hedge fund, part insurance company, and so on. This complexity let them evade regulation, yet be rescued from the consequences when their bets went bad. And bankers’ ability to have it both ways helped set America up for disaster.
In other words, it was not just the size of these institutions, but their complexity that was the problem. I’d add to this something Paul Glastris wrote a couple of years ago about how Austan Goolsbee diagnosed the problem.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2015_05/an_accurate_diagnosis_is_requi055499.php
May 11, 2015 5:43 PM
Hersh’s Big Story: Is It Real & Does It Matter?
By Ed Kilgore
So the big takedown of Sy Hersh’s story on the assassination of Osama bin Laden is from Max Fisher of Vox, who goes after the thin sourcing of the story:
The story simply does not hold up to scrutiny — and, sadly, is in line with Hersh’s recent turn away from the investigative reporting that made him famous into unsubstantiated conspiracy theories.
But here’s Hersh’s story:
The truth, Hersh says, is that Pakistani intelligence services captured bin Laden in 2006 and kept him locked up with support from Saudi Arabia, using him as leverage against al-Qaeda. In 2010, Pakistan agreed to sell bin Laden to the US for increased military aid and a “freer hand in Afghanistan.” Rather than kill him or hand him over discreetly, Hersh says the Pakistanis insisted on staging an elaborate American “raid” with Pakistani support.
Fisher proceeds with a deconstruction of Hersh’s claims, and then goes into an unfriendly review of the great journalist’s previous descents into conspiracy theory.
You can take Fisher’s account—and for that matter Hersh’s—with the requisite pinch of salt. But I’d add a rather pertinent question: does it really matter? Nothing in the Hersh story denies that the U.S. killed Osama in Pakistan. It’s all about the runup and aftermath. And while you’d like to think the President of the United States always tells us the truth, sometimes the details really are classified. This particular event is important enough that we need to know. But “the truth” may not reinforce the views of Obama’s critics.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2015_05/hershs_big_story_is_it_real_do055496.php
Seymour Hersh has always been dubious, but like so many others, the Obama presidency has seriously left them all twisted and murky in their outlook and allegiances.
https://twitter.com/vulture/status/598106559818825728/photo/1
Oh so it’s gone be like that huh?! I love it!
Gus @Gus_802
To the people complaining about affirmative action admissions what say you about legacy admissions?
Mr. NFTG @Kennymack1971
Some of the Democrats/Liberals need a serious reality check….so here it is. You need Barack Obama more than he’ll ever need you..
Mr. NFTG @Kennymack1971
When PBO leaves office he’s going to be fine. He’ll go to work at his foundation and go on to be a good will ambassador for the ages..
Mr. NFTG @Kennymack1971
When PBO leaves office he’s going to be fine. He’ll go to work at his foundation and go on to be a good will ambassador for the ages..
Mr. NFTG @Kennymack1971
Man…the most talented Democrat in ages and y’all wanna “divorce” that guy b/c…whatever learn the hard way.
SheriffFruitfly @sherifffruitfly
Remember folks: affirmative action is one of the most effective programs EVER at righting historical wrongs.
Vitter’s Obamacare crusade draws GOP ire
The Louisiana senator’s quest to deny his colleagues benefits wins him no friends on Capitol Hill.
By MANU RAJU
5/12/15 5:08 AM EDT
One fellow senator calls David Vitter’s years-long crusade to scrap health care subsidies for lawmakers and their staffers “disingenuous.” Another says it’s obviously being done “for political purposes.”
“I just don’t think he’s made a lot of progress on this issue,” a third senator says.
And those are just fellow Republicans talking.
Within the chummy confines of the U.S. Senate, Vitter has emerged as one of the most disliked members. The second-term senator’s effort to kill the federal health care contribution, worth several thousand dollars to lawmakers and their staffers, is a big part of it. But the two-year drive, his critics say, symbolizes an operating style that Vitter’s critics complain is consumed with public relations, even for an ambitious member of Congress: speeding in and out of meetings, railing about issues on the Senate floor but doing little to execute behind the scenes, firing off news releases left and right. In an institution in which the inside game is critical, Vitter doesn’t even pretend to bother with it.
The most recent repudiation of Vitter, who’s running for Louisiana governor this year, came a month ago in the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, which he chairs. He tried to subpoena documents to investigate how members of Congress and their aides became eligible for health care under Obamacare’s D.C. exchange.
Five Republicans — including presidential candidate Rand Paul — blocked the request, angering Vitter and prompting an unusual round of second-guessing from GOP committee members over their chairman’s agenda.
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/05/david-vitters-anti-obamacare-crusade-draws-scorn-from-gop-117838.html#ixzz3Zvz1ICFE
found this at BJ
……………..
DVR Alert!
AMC is running the entire Mad Men series—91 episodes—starting at 6:00 p.m. EDT Wednesday as a run-up to the series conclusion at 10:00 p.m. Sunday.
This is a golden opportunity for technophobic shut-ins with no streaming access, those with capacious DVRs and fans who just want to take a dip or catch up on a missed/favorite episode or two. And insomniacs, of course.
Still on season 5, and will buy season 7 later and watch it.
Discrimination bans see backlash in the South
Andrew DeMillo, Capitol Correspondent for the Little Rock bureau of The Associated Press, talks with Rachel Maddow about the nature of the backlash against gay rights, seen in a new rash of anti-anti-discrimination legislation.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/discrimination-bans-see-backlash-in-the-south-443628611807
Is Jeb Bush’s position on Iraq a disqualifier?
05/12/15 08:00 AM—UPDATED 05/12/15 08:50 AM
By Steve Benen
When proponents of the war in Iraq point to the decision-making process in 2002 and 2003, they tend to defend George W. Bush by blaming the intelligence agencies: the information was wrong, they say, and it’s not fair to blame the Republican White House.
It’s a poor argument, belied by the manipulation of the intelligence for political ends, but it’s at least the basis for a real debate. But when Jeb Bush sat down with Fox News’ Megyn Kelly, in an interview that aired last night, the conservative host asked a different kind of question.
“On the subject of Iraq, very controversial, knowing what we know now, would you have authorized the invasion?” Kelly asked. The Republican presidential hopeful replied, “I would have.”
Not to put too fine a point on this, but Bush’s answer is impossible to take seriously. Conservative radio host Laura Ingraham, hardly a liberal critic, told her audience, “You can’t still think that going into Iraq, now, as a sane human being, was the right thing to do. If you do, there has to be something wrong with you.”
The Washington Examiner’s Byron York, another prominent voice in conservative media, described Jeb Bush’s answer as “disastrous.”
If Jeb Bush sticks to his position – that he would still authorize war knowing what we know today – it will represent a step backward for the Republican Party. Other candidates before Jeb have grappled with the issue and changed their position. Look at the evolution of the 2012 GOP presidential nominee, Mitt Romney.
In January 2008, Romney said, “It was the right decision to go into Iraq. I supported it at the time; I support it now.” In 2011, Romney said: “Well, if we knew at the time of our entry into Iraq that there were no weapons of mass destruction – if somehow we had been given that information, why, obviously we would not have gone in.”
Except, to Jeb Bush, it’s not obvious at all.
The key here is the specific question Megyn Kelly asked: would you invade Iraq “knowing what we know now.” According to the Florida Republican, even if he knew Iraq had no WMD, even if he knew about the thousands of American casualties, even if he knew about the length and cost of the war, even if he knew the destabilizing effect the conflict would have on the Middle East, even if he knew the degree to which the war would undermine American stature and credibility on the global stage, he’d still launch the disastrous invasion.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/jeb-bushs-position-iraq-disqualifier
from TOD:
https://twitter.com/EricBoehlert/status/598111116405780481
https://twitter.com/TheObamaDiary/status/597938279216971776
a funny thing happened on the way to mau-mauing barack obama
By Liberal Librarian
So, Senator Elizabeth Warren and presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders have been on the warpath over the Trans-Pacific Partnership and its attendant fast track trade authority. In doing so, they have engendered much support among the usual—and some not-so-usual—sectors. Namely, the people who always thought Barack Obama was a sell-out to corporate special interests, evidenced by him not frog-marching Jamie Dimon and other banksters to stand for federal indictments over the 2008 meltdown.
A funny thing happened, though, which should have been predictable to anyone who has seen Pres. Obama operate for the past 7 years: he fought back.
“She’s absolutely wrong,” Barack Obama said, before I could even get the question out of my mouth.
Matt Bai of Yahoo has an illuminating interview with the President over TPP and the opposition to it from members of his own party, led by Sen. Warren.
As many of us on the “Obot” side have been saying:
“Think about the logic of that, right?” he went on. “The notion that I had this massive fight with Wall Street to make sure that we don’t repeat what happened in 2007, 2008. And then I sign a provision that would unravel it?
“I’d have to be pretty stupid,” Obama said, laughing. “This is pure speculation. She and I both taught law school, and you know, one of the things you do as a law professor is you spin out hypotheticals. And this is all hypothetical, speculative.”
It’s the idea that Pres. Obama would cavalierly undo one of his signature achievements—setting up rules so that 2008 didn’t happen again, rules which he plucked an obscure academic named Elizabeth Warren to help implement—to coddle the same Wall Street is ludicrous on its face.
Of course, it’s not ludicrous if one thinks that “Obama was always going to betray us.” The sense of perpetual disappointment—both on the Left and the Right—drives much of the country’s political culture. This is due, in large part, because of the apparent lack of legitimacy of many government institutions, stoked by a right-wing drive to paint all government as useless, and a concomitant view on the left that the government is a subsidiary of corporate America.
But people who should know better are now feeding the fires of disillusion
http://theobamadiary.com/2015/05/11/a-funny-thing-happened-on-the-way-to-mau-mauing-barack-obama/
https://twitter.com/PzFeed/status/597971808709672960/photo/1
https://twitter.com/Lib_Librarian/status/597948429399035905
https://twitter.com/SkipBrooks9/status/597909858143186944
https://twitter.com/TheDailyEdge/status/597859121136820225
https://twitter.com/deray/status/597886417830866944/photo/1
https://twitter.com/NotAllBhas/status/597895736588656640/photo/1
https://twitter.com/graceishuman/status/597906434806910976
https://twitter.com/Luvvie/status/597839923593502723
LOL Can you put this over on the GZ thread, please.
https://twitter.com/zellieimani/status/597829440912121856
Black Miss Japan fights for race revolution
Miss Japan Ariana Miyamoto has resolved to use her new-found fame to help fight racial prejudice
Miss Japan Ariana Miyamoto has resolved to use her new-found fame to help fight racial prejudice
Ariana Miyamoto entered the Miss Universe Japan beauty contest after a mixed-race friend committed suicide. And she endured abuse after winning the crown because of her skin colour.
Far from being put off by the backlash, Miyamoto resolved to use her new-found fame to help fight racial prejudice — in much the same way British supermodel Naomi Campbell broke down cultural barriers in the fashion industry a generation ago.
“I’m stubborn,” said Miyamoto, the daughter of a Japanese mother and black American father, who turned 21 on Tuesday.
“I was prepared for the criticism. I’d be lying to say it didn’t hurt at all. I’m Japanese — I stand up and bow when I answer the phone. But that criticism did give me extra motivation,” she told AFP in an interview.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/black-miss-japan-fights-for-race-revolution/ar-BBjExTb?ocid=HPCDHP
https://twitter.com/NerdyWonka/status/598081428316782592
This is wonderful new! I LOVE IT!!!!!
Afterall, PBO became a ‘MAN’ in Chi-Town.
Ok, Rik, what say you?
I am happy about it. The only place where it should be is on the South Side.
It’s official: Obama library will be on Chicago’s South Side
May. 12, 2015 6:39 AM EDT
CHICAGO (AP) — President Barack Obama has decided to build his presidential library on the South Side of Chicago, where his political career began.
In a news release, the Barack Obama Foundation announced early Tuesday that the University of Chicago’s bid to erect the library on park land near the campus was selected over bids made by Columbia University in New York, the University of Hawaii and the University of Illinois at Chicago.
“With a library and a foundation on the South Side of Chicago, not only will we be able to encourage and affect change locally, but what we can also do is to attract the world to Chicago.” Obama said in a video accompanying the release. “All the strands of my life came together and I really became a man when I moved to Chicago. That’s where I was able to apply that early idealism to try to work in communities in public service. That’s where I met my wife. That’s where my children were born.”
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/db6bbfa159ae46719b8f460501b67b30/its-official-obama-library-will-be-chicagos-south-side
Good Morning, Everyone :)
My thoughts and prayers are with the people of Nepal this morning. A second major earthquake (magnitude 7.3) has hit the region.
http://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-asia-32703129
May the Blessings Be!
Good Morning Everyone :)
Love Koko Taylor! You are bring us a great week of music, Ametia!
Good Morning, yahtzee. So glad you’re enjoying the BLUES……