Enjoy the music of the 1970’s. Top 10, according to Billboard.
1973
1. Free Bird – Lynyrd Skynyrd
2. Let’s Get It On – Marvin Gaye
3. Midnight Train to Georgia – Gladys Knight and the Pips
4. Dream On – Aerosmith
5. Living for the City – Stevie Wonder
6. Money – Pink Floyd
7. Piano Man – Billy Joel
8. Killing Me Softly with His Song – Roberta Flack
9. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road – Elton John
10. That Lady – Isley Brothers
Chicas, we’re making news everywhere.
http://dailycaller.com/2015/05/27/marilyn-mosby-endorsed-tweets-calling-baltimore-cops-thugs/
Faux NOISE has their TROLLS out scouring the blogs looking for anything to get Mosby off the case.
Those 6 cops are THUGS. And that’s not going to ever change.
Vanya Shivashankar, 13, of Olathe, Kansas, and Gokul Venkatachalam, 14, of Chesterfield, Missouri, were declared co-winners of the National Spelling Bee. It is the second year in a row in which the contest has ended in a tie.
Shivashankar correctly spelled the word “scherenschnitte” and Venkatachalam correctly spelled the word “nunatak.” The contest was declared a draw because there weren’t enough words left on the competition’s list for them to keep facing off until only one was left standing.
In this year’s national championship, 285 spellers competed for the title.
Drop the f***ing charges! ENOUGH!
*****REMINDER: 2015 SCRIPPS NATIONAL SPELLING BEE*****
Championship Finals
Thursday, May 28 8:00 – 10:00 p.m. EDT
The Announcement of Championship Finalists will immediately follow the conclusion of Round Six and will be broadcast live on ESPN2.
https://twitter.com/southerntalker/status/604048223360143360
I’m sort of a cynic, but it was good tv to see the broker from Million Dollar Listing shut down Times Square to propose to his girlfriend. A helluva grand gesture.
I’ve got to agree. I always thought he was annoying, but was completely taken with his proposal and just how much he loves his girlfriend, who shockingly isn’t some barbie doll, but a very regular, ordinary girl.
Shocking body cam footage shows moment cops throw handcuffed eight-months pregnant black woman to the ground
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3100236/Body-cam-footage-shows-moment-eight-months-pregnant-black-woman-thrown-ground-hands-daughter-s-school-two-cops-despite-committing-no-crime.html
Body cam footage captured the shocking moment two police officers forced pregnant woman to the ground while her hands were behind her back despite the fact that she did not commit a crime.
Charlena Cooks of Barstow, California was dropping her second grade daughter off at school in January when a traffic incident led to an argument between her and a school employee in the parking lot, leading to the employee calling police.
Once police arrived on the scene however they said there were no charges that could be filed to the employee, and then went to speak with Cooks.
I cried with anger and pain as I watched that footage. When will black women ever get treated with dignity, respect and as much chivalry as women of other races? At what point do they begin to see us and respect us, and treat us as delicately as they treat other women?
He took the word of the white woman. He didn’t ask her for ID. I read they’ve drop the charges. There weren’t suppose to be any damn charges in the first place.
No regard for the unborn baby. None. Zero. Zilch. Nada.
SG, my body shook with so much anger as I watched that footage. They were casual and random with the white woman, but when it got to the pregnant black lady, who was sweet and calm by the way, they just tripped and went into overdrive for no reason.
Two cops on a pregnant woman and for what? Refusal to provide her last name? She wasn’t required to provide her name at all and they knew it. They wanted to show her who is boss. But the charges were dropped with no admission of wrongdoing. She needs to sue those rat bastards.
AIN’T SHE A WOMAN?
just asking.
Wesley Lowery ✔ @WesleyLowery
Rich Lowry argues way to quell violence and unrest in Baltimore is to arrest more black people/be mad at Al Sharpton http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/05/ferguson-freddie-gray-policing-118348.html#.VWcc_VL3bYU …
GrooveSDC @GrooveSDC
Also Black people have been organizing against Black-on-Black for decades. You know who we don’t see? Black conservatives. @Nerdthenewblack
keep on telling you about Vlad..
he is former KGB!!!
Business Insider ✔ @businessinsider
One of Putin’s leading critics was just poisoned — by @CarlSchreck via @RFERL http://read.bi/1Rs0RDr pic.twitter.com/2HfrYTgIu3
https://twitter.com/PragObots/status/604058967031963648/photo/1
They sure have every single last gimmick covered.
BYE GIRL!
https://twitter.com/ReignOfApril/status/604058938699567105/photo/1
https://twitter.com/cbsnews/status/604060118142054400
Why not life without parole? That’s what she deserves.
so she can get out and poison a few more autisic kids, I suppose?
///S.N.A.R.K
A Day in the Life of Misty Copeland
By Sade Strehlke
May 28, 2015 11:41 a.m. ET
WHEN MISTY COPELAND, 32, steps onstage this month at the Metropolitan Opera House, she’ll make history. A soloist with American Ballet Theatre, Copeland will be the first African-American ballerina to star as Odette and Odile in Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake
with the internationally acclaimed company on U.S. soil. (She played
the challenging dual roles with ABT last year in Australia.) Performing
as Gotham’s first black swan, Copeland says, is “a dream I never thought was possible.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/a-day-in-the-life-of-misty-copeland-1432827688?mod=WSJ_GoogleNews
I watch Million Dollar Listing New York. One of the brokers on there, Fredrick, is gay. I have never seen a Black gay person on reality tv being portrayed as competently and as multifaceted as Fredrick is. He’s successful at his job; he’s working on his marriage, and now his husband has given the greenlight for them to have a child, and he’s contemplating what it will mean to his work schedule to give some of it up so that he can be there for his child. Like I said, I’ve never seen a Black gay person on reality tv being portrayed as this full a human being.
May 28, 2015 4:16 PM
Rubio’s Slippery Slope To Incoherence
By Ed Kilgore
When I read the other day that Marco Rubio had suggested on David Brody’s influential Christian Broadcasting Network show that we were on the brink of conservative church teachings on homosexuality being deemed “hate speech,” I made a mental note to write about it, but then lost that note somewhere along the way. Fortunately, Sarah Posner, who knows the subject better than I do, took it on, and leaves the supposedly very smart Rubio looking muddled and confused.
[Rubio] is vague about who is labeling Catholic teaching “hate speech.” Does he mean the government? Does he mean people on the internet? Under the First Amendment, the government cannot stop citizens from engaging in speech, even if a listener finds it hateful. If by “they” he means American citizens, the simple answer is “they” have a constitutionally protected right to criticize the Catholic church; the church also has a constitutionally protected right to its doctrine.
But if Rubio is suggesting that “they” are the government, I can’t begin to wrap my mind around the scenario he is suggesting. Is he suggesting the government will deem a church’s teaching “hate speech?” There’s no basis or precedent that would remotely suggest that the government could regulate religious speech (whether “mainstream Christian teaching” or other religious teaching) at all, much less deeming it “hate speech.” The Free Exercise Clause protects religious practice and religious speech. Under the Free Speech Clause, the government cannot proscribe “hate speech” or even define it. Under the Establishment Clause, the government cannot endorse (or renounce) a particular religion.
You can say gay people are intrinsically disordered. Or you can say they don’t have a constitutional right to get married. They can say you’re a homophobe. The government can’t stop any of you.
You’d figure if Rubio, a lawyer, went to the trouble of bringing this up he’d be aware that “hate speech” is not something generally prohibited by law in this country, even outside the framework of political or religious expression, unless it is designed to and in fact leads to legally prohibited behavior like a riot or a very specific act of discrimination. When uttered under the protection of religious expression, there’s almost no such thing as proscribed “hate speech,” as was pretty clearly established by the Supreme Court in Snyder v. Phelps, where the despicable and most definitely hateful ravings of the members of the Westboro Baptist Church at military funerals were deemed protected.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2015_05/rubios_slippery_slope_to_incoh055783.php
May 22, 2015 10:03 AM
Not So Pure
By Ed Kilgore
So here’s the sad/bad/mad news story of the day (per Politico’s Nick Gass):
Josh Duggar, the reality TV star and conservative activist, resigned from his position at the Family Research Council on Thursday after reports surfaced that he had molested underage girls as a teenager. The 27-year-old is the oldest son of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, whose family is the subject of the TLC show “19 Kids and Counting.”
This led to the understatement of the month:
Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, where Duggar was a lobbyist, confirmed the resignation in a statement: “Josh believes that the situation will make it difficult to be effective in his current work.”
You have to wonder if Duggar’s situation distracted Perkins from his regularly scheduled efforts to force presidential candidates to kiss his ring.
But seriously, and without making light of Duggar’s apparent teenage disorder and his victims, this is kind of a Waterloo for a major Christian conservative politico-cultural franchise. Nobody understands it better than Religion Dispatch’s Sarah Posner, so I’ll turn to her for commentary:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2015_05/not_so_pure055689.php
May 28, 2015 5:21 PM
The Obamacare “Fix” That Would Makes Things Worse
By Ed Kilgore
It’s generally understood that Ron Johnson’s Obamacare “fix” legislation is veto-bait, containing as it does provisions (the repeal of the individual and employer mandates, and also of a minimum benefit pacckage) that are integral to the Affordable Care Act. But it’s worth asking what would happen if Obama did sign the bill? Via Greg Sargent, we have an answer to that:
A new issue brief from the American Academy of Actuaries finds that the GOP contingency fix plans could actually result in more disruptions to the insurance markets.
The group looks at both the idea of a temporary continuation of subsidies, and of the repeal of the individual mandate — both of which have been discussed as part of various GOP contingency fix plans, such as the one offered by Tea Party Senator Ron Johnson, which is backed by dozens of GOP Senators, including the leadership.
Doing away with the mandate, the group concludes, would “threaten the viability of the health insurance market.” If the GOP alternative also keeps protections against people with preexisting conditions — which Republicans generally favor, perhaps because they’re popular — those with “lower cost health care needs” will drop coverage, meaning the average costs of those left behind will be higher. This “could result in adverse selection that would raise premiums.”
Makes sense if you recall that’s why the mandate was put in there to begin with.
The Johnson bill, of course, isn’t really designed to be a “fix;” at most, it’s a temporary expedient. But Republicans cannot accept even temporarily the central features of the Affordable Care Act, so they’d rather propose something they know wouldn’t work, which won’t matter because the president will reject it any way.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2015_05/the_obamacare_fix_that_would_m055784.php
Former speaker indicted for hush money cover-up
By Tom LoBianco, CNN
Updated 7:05 PM ET, Thu May 28, 2015
Washington (CNN)Federal officials have indicted former House Speaker Dennis Hastert for lying to the FBI about $3.5 million he agreed to pay to an undisclosed subject to “cover up past misconduct.”
The indictment was unsealed in the District Court of Northern Illinois on Thursday. The Justice Department alleges that Hastert made large withdrawals after agreeing to pay the money.
The indictment does not explain precisely what the “past misconduct” is, but instead details at length various withdrawals and financial transactions he made with the unidentified subject. The payments totaling about $1.7 million occurred over a period of years beginning in 2010 and ending in 2014.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/28/politics/dennis-hastert-indictment/index.html
New O’Malley super PAC digs at Clinton
By Eric Bradner, CNN
Updated 1:19 PM ET, Thu May 28, 2015
Washington (CNN)—Martin O’Malley’s bid for the Democratic presidential nomination will be aided by a new super PAC with a name — Generation Forward –that’s a not-so-subtle jab at Hillary Clinton.
The former Maryland governor is set to make his candidacy official on Saturday. Two days ahead of his announcement, the super PAC was launched by two of his home-state allies, longtime fundraiser Damian O’Doherty and former spokesman Ron Boehmer.
Its finance director, leading an uphill money-raising battle against Clinton, is Susan Smith, a former aide to Democratic Maryland Sen. Barbara Mikulski.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/28/politics/martin-omalley-super-pac-hillary-clinton-election-2016/
Luvvie has a post up:
Because Cheryl Lynn Got Blocked By Anita Baker on Twitter
Awesomely Luvvie — May 28, 2015
Last night, Cheryl Lynn took to Twitter to let us all know about how she’s been hurt by her old friend, Anita Baker, who has blocked her on Twitter. Two R&B aunties from days of yore.
Let’s be clear. I do not call what happened a beef. One person tweeting to the ether while blocked by the other is a MONOLOGUE. If a tree falls in the woods and the leaves run and no one curr, does it really fall? Who knows? But yeah, that was not a beef.
http://www.awesomelyluvvie.com/2015/05/cheryl-lynn-blocked-by-anita-baker-twitter.html
Upgrade Him? Girl, No
I was chatting recently with one of my law school friends about a classmate of ours whose marriage was ending in divorce.
At first I thought it was regular gossip about another seemingly happy marriage falling apart. But as my friend filled in more of the details, I understood it was, instead, yet another example of the Negro Improvement Plan gone wrong.
And as my friend and I are veterans of the Negro Improvement Plan Gone Wrong War, we clucked our tongues and sent up prayers for what we both know lies ahead for this woman in her efforts to divorce her low-income spouse.
“Negro Improvement Plan” is a term coined by my friend Stephanie to describe the phenomenon we began witnessing as one woman after another from our Harvard Law School class partnered up with lower income men. The men were never just the construction workers, secretaries, mailroom guys, etc. they appeared to be. Inevitably, he was “going back to school.” In the rare cases where he wasn’t going back to school, he was starting a business. Or he was a producer – for artists no one had ever heard of.
The Negro Improvement Plan meant there was a plausible and legitimate reason for these Harvard-trained women lawyers to be marrying their Mr. Blue Collars. He was going places. He just needed a boost. And his loyal, loving woman was going to be just the boost he needed to take him where he should go.
When more of us, including Stephanie and me, embarked on our own versions of the Negro Improvement Plan, we didn’t recognize that we had just joined the same club we had been so scornful of.
The Negro Improvement Plan wasn’t always about trying to force the man into some sort of career change. My ex was a construction worker when I met him. I liked the sound of that, and was disappointed he didn’t stay in construction when I moved him into my Brooklyn apartment. He decided he’d rather be working in an office, and I was OK with that, too. I didn’t try to influence his career choices too much.
But from the day he moved to New York until the day he moved out of my Harlem brownstone, I rode him relentlessly for the way he mangled the English language, the fact that his subjects and verbs never agreed and his vocabulary was a bit “too street.” He was a grown man from North Philly who had been speaking like a North Philly gangsta pretty much all his life, and he was very comfortable with how he spoke. His friends were comfortable with how he spoke. I was the only one who had a problem with it. I told myself it was because I wanted my daughter to learn “correct English.” I wasn’t honest enough to admit it was my issue and no one else’s.
I tried to upgrade my ex-husband’s grammar and vocabulary. Other friends tried to upgrade their men similar to Beyonce’s “Upgrade U,” by putting them in Hickey Freeman suits, Pink shirts, Rolex watches and BMWs. They tried to slot their blue collar men into their Pottery Barn worlds of 600-thread count Egyptian cotton sheets, towels folded just so, a utensil for every kitchen-related purpose, and Jack and Jill for the children.
Stephanie had once snarked, “I guess he got tired of being bougie,” after one of our classmates’ marriages to a lower-income man fell apart. But, as it turned out, Stephanie’s Negro Improvement Plan was the classic career changing one. She tried to turn her man into a small business owner. The business failed, in part because her partner wasn’t a reliable employee of his own so-called business.
http://carolynedgar.com/2010/07/25/upgrade-him-girl-no/
I honestly hate reading stories like these. This isn’t about being honest as much as it’s about being short-sighted, desperate and lacking good judgement and an attempt to lump oneself in a made-up group of fellow short-sighted, desperate women lacking good judgement.
Stories like these don’t serve us well and only support ugly, demeaning stereotypes about us. It sells us far too short and supports societal stereotypes of us as unworthy and undeserving and low on the totem pole of desirability.
A party in search of a message on ISIS
05/28/15 12:44 PM—UPDATED 05/28/15 01:14 PM
By Steve Benen
Likely Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump appeared on Fox News last night and boasted he knows exactly what to do to “defeat ISIS very quickly.” He quickly added, however, “I’m not going to tell what you it is.”
When host Greta Van Susteren suggested he should share his secret plan, Trump replied, “If I run, and if I win, I don’t want the enemy to know what I’m doing.” He added, however, that there really is “a method of defeating them quickly and effectively and having total victory.”
He just doesn’t want to tell anyone what this method is.
It’s obviously easy to laugh at buffoonery, but there’s a larger significance to exchanges like these: Republican presidential candidates are eager to talk about ISIS and U.S. foreign policy in the region. They’re just not sure what to say.
On msnbc yesterday morning, for example,Joe Scarborough asked Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) about the ISIS threat. The Republican senator has apparently come up with a plan:
“You know, I think the ultimate answer is getting Arab coalitions and boots on the ground that will stop them. You need Turks fighting. The Turks need to have their army up on the board and they need to fight. […]
“I would recognize the Kurds, I would give them weapons, I would take all the weapons in Iran and Afghanistan and give them to the Kurds. But I would do simultaneously is, I would get a peace treaty between the Kurds and the Turks and I would say, ‘Look,’ the Kurds, ‘you’ve got to give up any pretensions to any territory in Turkey. Turkey, let’s go ahead and get along and together wipe out ISIS.”
He neglected to mention his intention to rely on magical unicorns to help establish peace throughout the land.
I mean, really. Paul is going to defeat ISIS, right after establishing peace between the Kurds and the Turks? Does he realize they don’t quite see eye to eye? There’s some history there? As a rule, telling a country like Turkey, “Let’s go ahead and get along” – because Rand Paul says so – isn’t a sure-fire plan for a diplomatic solution.
But this goes beyond Paul and Trump.
One of my favorite examples of the problem came up in February, when Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) insisted the United States must “aggressively … take the fight to ISIS” and demonstrate that “we’re willing to take appropriate action” against terrorist targets. When ABC’s Martha Raddatz asked Walker, “You don’t think 2,000 air strikes is taking it to ISIS in Syria and Iraq?” the governor had no idea how to respond.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/party-search-message-isis
Rikyrah, your posts this week are ROCKIN’ Lady!
GLAD you’re enjoying the music.
Good morning, everyone!
Hola, SG2! Trust you and your family are staying safe & DRY.
All is well. Thank you so much.
Glad to see you, SG2!
Hope you all are safe.
Hey SG, sorry I’ve been away. So glad to read you’re safe. Please take care and stay safe..
Thank you, Elihass. We all ok here. Thanks to the good Lord!
For Loretta Lynch, a stunning debut on the world stage
After long wait for confirmation, she makes a name for herself with sweeping soccer probe.
By Josh Gerstein
5/27/15 7:30 PM EDT
Updated 5/28/15 9:23 AM EDT
For almost six months, Loretta Lynch was known mostly as the woman who couldn’t get an up-or-down vote on her nomination as attorney general.
But after only a month in office she could hardly have crafted a more attention-grabbing debut than the dramatic announcement she made Wednesday of an American-led takedown of corruption in FIFA, the governing body of international soccer.
Lynch, wrote the German newspaper Bild, was “shocking FIFA like an earthquake.”
In seven years as chief prosecutor in Brooklyn, Lynch oversaw a slew of financial investigations that targeted some of the world’s biggest banks and won admissions of rigging multi-billion-dollar markets in mortgages and global currency.
But none of those cases managed to punch through the noise like the U.S. legal assault on FIFA and the arrests of seven of its officials Wednesday morning at a Zurich hotel.
“It’s important that Attorney General Lynch and [FBI Director] Jim Comey got up and announced these indictments in a press conference that will be seen all over the world,” said Mark Corallo, a former aide to John Ashcroft, who served as attorney general in the George W. Bush administration. “People care about sports. … It’s a huge story, and it is a heck of a lot more interesting than the average tax case — and this one is a tax case. This is one where she hits a home run. It helps to define who she is and helps to define her to the American people.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/05/loretta-lynch-stunning-debut-fifa-soccer-118353.html#ixzz3bRcqAsAi
This indictment is HUGE, no DOUBT, but I’d love to see some killer cops get sent to the pokey for MURDERING our UNARMED BOYS, MEN, & WOMEN.
This is all tied to MONEY & SPORTS.
BLACK LIVES MATTER… just sayin’
My thoughts exactly. These are crimes, to be sure. But there is a crisis going on right NOW and HERE AT HOME and I want to hear about some indictments against perpetrators.
Spot on, Liza. ” indictments against perpetrators.”
We’d be making some major PROGESS, now wouldn’t we?
*sigh*
Those were my exact thoughts! We have more pressing problems here at home than arresting a group of greedy FIFA officials who’ve done as good a job with promoting soccer as they’ve done trading bribes.
Our kids are dying on the streets. Pregnant black women are being manhandled for no reason. My heart can’t take much of this much longer.
PA newspaper: Sorry we published letter calling for Obama’s execution
5/28/15 10:09 AM EDT
A Pennsylvania newspaper has apologized for publishing a letter to the editor calling for President Barack Obama to be executed.
The Daily Item of Sunbury’s editorial board wrote Thursday that it “bungled the Obama attack letter” and that “no bells went off when the editor handling the letter read it and placed it on the opinion page.”
“The procedure at The Daily Item is for the person editing letters to review the content for offensive language and ad hominem attacks,” the paper wrote. “Publication is, however, a signal that the opinion is not one we would readily suppress, which can accurately be interpreted as an endorsement of acceptability — much to our chagrin in this instance.”
The original letter, written by W. Richard Stover of Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, was published on Monday. It bemoaned the president’s failure to defeat ISIL after the terrorist group captured Ramadi, the capital of Iraq’s largest province by land area.
“To the families of those fallen heros whose blood lies on the sands of Iraq; don’t you think it might be time to rise up against an administration who has adequately demonstrated their gross incompetence?” Stover’s letter read. “I think the appropriate, and politically correct, term is regime change. Forgive me for being blunt, but throughout history this has previously been accompanied by execution by guillotine, firing squad, public hanging.”
“When society dictates,” Stover added, “the end always justifies the means, otherwise the actionwould [sic] not be taken.”
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/05/newspaper-apologizes-letter-obama-execution-118370.html#ixzz3bRWGWb5r
Border reality should change GOP talking points
05/28/15 10:18 AM
By Steve Benen
Among Republicans, certain basic truths are so widely understood, they’re not even questioned. They know Obama increased the deficit. They know “Obamacare” is government-run healthcare. And they know the Obama administration has been woefully indifferent to securing the border.
Of course, all of these truths are plainly wrong – in fact, they’re the opposite of reality – including that last one. The Washington Post has a great piece this morning on the changing nature of the debate about border security.
As the Department of Homeland Security continues to pour money into border security, evidence is emerging that illegal immigration flows have fallen to their lowest level in at least two decades. The nation’s population of illegal immigrants, which more than tripled, to 12.2 million, between 1990 and 2007, has dropped by about 1 million, according to demographers at the Pew Research Center. […]
Homeland security officials in the Obama and George W. Bush administrations – who have more than doubled the Border Patrol’s size and spent billions on drones, sensors and other technology at the border – say enhanced security is driving the new trends.
R. Gil Kerlikowske, commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, told the Post, “We have seen tremendous progress. The border is much more secure than in times past.”
To be sure, it’s a complex picture, and the shifts in immigration trends are probably the result of several overlapping changes, some of which relate to security measures, some of which don’t.
That said, when Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) argues that the Obama administration and its allies are “refusing to secure our border,” we know for certain that’s the opposite of what’s actually happened.
And when Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) insists that the U.S. border is “porous,” and officials must “secure our own borders” to prevent “ISIS infiltration,” I’m sure it’s a successful applause line among partisan activists who don’t know any better, but it’s also the sort of thing a politician says if he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
Greg Sargent added this morning, “Apprehensions at the border are down, too. Some experts think changes in Latin America, at least as much as increased security, explain the drop. Either way, this should shift a debate in which Republicans insist on ‘securing the border’ as a condition for reform.”
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/border-reality-should-change-gop-talking-points
https://instagram.com/p/3ObxF1NNJm/
Our FLOTUS, she just EXUDES LOVE.
Ironic that this is the same demographic: blue collar white men, who are quick with their racist attacks on her, insist she doesn’t like them, and are obsessively fixated on her beautiful derriere.
https://twitter.com/markpublisher/status/603895966886928384
Seriously, if folks thought B-More uprising was something, try taking away millions of folks healthcare.
PLEASE PROCEED SCOTUS!
surprised it took this long.
…………………………..
Harvard will hold its first-ever Latino graduation
By Soni Sangha
Published May 27, 2015
Fox News Latino
When Erika Carlsen celebrates the completion of her graduate work at Harvard’s Divinity School on Wednesday, her mom and dad will be by her side. Literally.
Her parents will present her with a crimson and white stole in the first ever Latin@ graduation ceremony (a modern spelling embracing gender neutrality) to be held at the Harvard University Science Center on Wednesday. She, along with 65 other graduating students, will receive their diplomas at graduation events for their prospective schools but, they say, this celebration is emblematic of greater achievements.
“Harvard is a hard environment for most to transition especially if they are the first generation to go to college,” Erika said, explaining what it’s like learning to navigate another culture.
But a group of graduates and undergraduates from an array of disciplines united to provide support, encourage change from the administration and, in this ceremony, bring a piece of their heritage to Cambridge. Each student will receive their stoles from two people who are important to them and, unlike other ceremonies, there is no limit to the number of guests that can cheer on the graduates. (They expect 400 people all told.)
“This ceremony gives us a chance to make this place feel a little more like home. That’s what this ceremony is trying to do. It’s a chance to make Harvard ours,” Carlsen said.
The graduation is a student-led venture patterned after others at schools across the country, such as University of California, Berkeley. It is funded by donations from Harvard’s colleges and graduate schools, professors, alumni and other school groups. Harvard is providing the students space on campus to hold the ceremony.
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/lifestyle/2015/05/27/harvard-will-hold-its-first-ever-latino-graduation/
Loretta Lynch: The woman who took on Fifa
By Joel Gunter BBC News
As the dust began to settle on Wednesday’s blockbuster indictments against nine Fifa officials and five corporate executives, one person emerged as the face of a long and complicated criminal investigation.
And when the time came to announce the charges, Loretta Lynch did not mince her words. The United States attorney general said officials at football’s world governing body had engaged in “rampant, systemic, and deep-rooted” corruption.
After just a month in the job, Ms Lynch had landed an enormous punch. Suddenly her face was on TV screens and newspaper pages around the world. The Department of Justice would, she vowed, “root out misconduct” and “bring wrongdoers to justice”.
It was an extraordinary statement of intent from a woman whose nomination as attorney general had been frustrated for nearly six months as Republican senators blocked her appointment. And it was the payoff for an investigation she had spearheaded for years.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-32912118
The GOP tried to stop AG Lynch from taking on the rotten scoundrels, but they did not succeed.
Tracy Morgan settles lawsuit with Wal-Mart for undisclosed sum
Comedian Tracy Morgan and other people injured in a crash with a Wal-Mart Stores Inc truck last year have reached an out-of-court settlement for an undisclosed sum with the world’s largest retailer, court documents filed on Wednesday showed.
Morgan, who starred in the TV show “30 Rock” and the late night comedy sketch show “Saturday Night Live,” was badly injured and comedian James ‘Jimmy Mack’ McNair was killed in the June 7 accident on the New Jersey Turnpike.
Terms and conditions of the settlement with Morgan, comedian Ardley Fuqua Jr., Morgan’s assistant Jeffrey Millea and Millea’s wife, Krista, were undisclosed. The parties had a strong joint interest in keeping the information confidential, the documents showed.
“Wal-Mart did right by me and my family, and for my associates and their families. I am grateful that the case was resolved amicably,” Morgan said in a joint statement with the retailer.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/27/us-people-tracy-morgan-crash-idUSKBN0OC2M220150527
Grand Jury Indicts SC Cop for On-Duty Shooting
Associated Press 3:36 p.m. EDT May 27, 2015
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) – An Edgefield County grand jury has indicted a North Augusta police officer on a felony charge in the death of a driver shot after a long chase.
The grand jury handed up an indictment Wednesday on a charge of discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle, which carries up to 10 years in prison. The indictment came nine months after a grand jury refused to indict Justin Craven on a voluntary manslaughter charge.
Authorities say Craven chased 68-year-old Ernest Satterwhite for a dozen miles to his driveway in February 2014. Investigators say Craven fired several shots through Satterwhite’s car door almost immediately after he stopped. Craven told authorities Satterwhite reached for his gun.
Defense lawyer Jack Swerling says Craven thinks the shooting was justified and plans to go to trial.
http://www.wltx.com/story/news/2015/05/27/grand-jury-indicts-sc-cop-for-on-duty-shooting/28025359/?utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_content=5566224404d30122a7000001&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter
Grand juries are finally doing their jobs! Keep it up.
https://twitter.com/chrislhayes/status/603341185210404864
No Chris, WE’VE SAID A BUNCH-O-TIMES:
FACT: We know women are the majority voters in this country.
The demographic cornerstone of a progressive political coalition in this country are black women.<b.
Ask Governor Terry McAuliffe who got him elected. Who the fuck do folks think voted for Mitt Romney in 2012 with 60 % of the white vote? Gremlins, I suppose?
Thanks for playing though, Chris!
Yet they don’t really respect us as much as they humor and patronize us periodically – and only for the specific purposes we serve for them, and what we can do for them and their priorities and specific agenda. Once that’s done, we’re once again dismissed and consigned to our place of unimportance at the back of the bus.
They manipulate and try to tune us up as needed, just like Hillary is doing with black women in South Carolina. Truth is, we don’t count. The just need our vote and voice when they need to make up their numbers to get their candidate elected, or their specific agenda moved forward. But are M.I.A or only pay us lip service, if even that, when we need them to support us and causes important to us: like us not being murdered in broad day light for no reason other than the color of our skin.
ooh Lady!
THIA.ALL.DAY.THIS
“Yet they don’t really respect us as much as they humor and patronize us periodically“
https://twitter.com/sacarlavoz/status/603713001724731392
Mega COOL! GO Mariah!
https://twitter.com/EricWolfson/status/603695692331245568/photo/1
I will not laugh, I will not laugh…..
https://twitter.com/FOX13Memphis/status/603622390912913409/photo/1
I HEAR YA.
https://twitter.com/psddluva4evah/status/603740341255217153/photo/1
I reached that point so long ago that I can’t even remember what it was like to be any other way.
“Be authentic.
Don’t try to be someone you aren’t.
You’ll hate yourself for it
and the effort to maintain the facade will exhaust you.
Be real!
Many won’t like the real you
but that’s better than having people adore the person
that isn’t you at all.”
~ Larry Winget
Clark County Deputy Fired After Racist Tweets Discovered
By Wayne Baker
A Clark County sheriff’s deputy has been fired after admitting to publishing racist tweets. A concerned citizen saw the posts on Twitter and realized they belonged to a member of local law enforcement.
Tuesday night, Clark County Sheriff Gene Kelly says he received an email containing social media posts from one of his deputies, Zachary Davis, that were made in late April. The posts encouraged the use of deadly force against protesters in Baltimore along with racist language to describe African-Americans.
Sheriff Kelly confronted Davis about the posts this morning and fired the deputy after a brief meeting.
“I found that this is conduct that I shall not tolerate and I terminated him at 10:35 a.m. He turned in all of his equipment and left the building thereafter,” Kelly said.
http://wyso.org/post/clark-county-deputy-fired-after-racist-tweets-discovered
another HELL NO!!!
https://twitter.com/Julesmarraccino/status/603368533741805568/photo/1
That’s definitely too many snakes for me!
NOPE!
I simply can’t.
https://twitter.com/maribecca/status/603615566499184640/photo/1
Scary!
Geesh! Now if I could get a pair-o-shoes & a purse out of this…. LOL
You are so bad Ametia…Lol
Tracee Ellis Ross Candid on Where “Funny” Comes From, Sexism & Racism in the Biz, Frustrating Auditions + More (VIDEO)
Photo of Tambay A. Obenson
The Hollywood Reporter has published another one of their typically awesome annual roundtable chats with active industry talents; and I particularly appreciated the candidness of this one, which features 6 TV actress/comedians – including Tracee Ellis Ross, Gina Rodriguez, Lena Dunham, Ellie Kemper, and Kate McKinnon – as they talk sexism, sex scenes, why women need to stop apologizing, and much more.
The interview is in print, with a few video clips scattered throughout the piece, featuring the women individually. Like this one with Tracee Ellis Ross, in which she shares her thoughts on where “funny” comes from, sexism and racism in the business, and recollects a humorous though frustrating audition she once had.
For the full roundtable conversation, visit THR here: http://bit.ly/1Ro5yy7.
Warning: there’s some adult language in this clip, so you may not want to have this turned up if you’re at the office when you play it:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/tracee-ellis-ross-on-where-funny-comes-from-frustrating-auditions-more-20150527
LOL
https://twitter.com/pragobots/status/603733641391247361
Bwa ha ha ha Quite the side-eye
Yeah, at the 2008 Democratic Convention AFTER she lost. That was so magnanimous of her, after running such an incompetent, dirty campaign.
And we have NOT forgotten.
And her arrogance, sense of entitlement and oh so terrible acting certainly isn’t helping.
what phuckery is this?
Josh Marshall ✔ @joshtpm
Scott Walker: Mandatory Ultrasounds Are ‘Just A Cool Thing’ For Women @TPM http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/scott-walker-abortion-ultrasounds-cool …
Watch New Clip from HBO’s ‘Nightingale’ Starring David Oyelowo (Premiere Set for Friday May 29)
Photo of Tambay A. Obenson
By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act
May 27, 2015 at 4:16PM
HBO has set the premiere date for the indie drama feature “Nightingale,” which stars David Oyelowo, for this Friday, May 29, 2015, at 9PM.
In “Nightingale,” Oyelowo plays a character named Peter Snowden, described as a man obsessing over an old army friend, whom he loves, as his life begins to spiral downward, with their reunion approaching. The film follows Peter as he records his private thoughts and feelings – his nightingale song – in the days leading up to his reunion with Edward. Before long, the hostile world outside Peter’s door begins to threaten the idyllic future that he’s so desperately trying to build.
In literature, the nightingale often represents melancholy and joy, love and loss, life and death. In mythology, all species of bird typically represent a departed soul. Nightingales particularly suggest love and longing.
It’s a one-man show, as Oyelowo carries the entire film solo. Meaning, he’s the only actor for the entire length of the film, in what some are calling a tour-de-force – one that just might earn him a Primetime Emmy Award nomination in the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie category, in part given the challenge he took on in carrying an entire movie, entirely by himself, and what looks like a rather intense, vulnerable affair.
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/watch-new-clip-from-hbos-nightingale-starring-david-oyelowo-premiere-set-for-friday-may-29-20150527
I so thought Taraji would be perfect casting.
………………………………
‘Vampire Diaries’ Star Kat Graham Will Play Tammi Terrell in a Biopic of the Late Singer
Photo of Tambay A. Obenson
By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act
May 27, 2015 at 5:29PM
…………….
Deadline is reporting that “Vampire Diaries” star Kat Graham will play Terrell in an upcoming biopic of the late singer, from writer/producer/director/actress Maryam Myika Day, and produced by Robert Teitel, Rose Ganguzza and Hilary Shor.
Graham’s own Panthera Pictures production company will also produce
Over a short 12 month period, starting in April 1967, the super duo of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell enjoyed a string of 4 straight hits with some of the greatest love songs ever recorded at Motown Records. Sadly, only the first two of those 4 hits were released while Tammi Terrell was still well enough to perform them. In October 1967, just six months after the release of the now-classic “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” Terrell collapsed onstage during a live performance at Virginia’s Hampton-Sydney College. Two-and-a-half years later, on March 16, 1970, she died of complications from the malignant brain tumor that caused her 1967 collapse. She was only 24 years old at the time of her death, but she already had more than 10 years of show-business experience behind her, starting early, appearing as an opening act for the likes of Patti Labelle & the Bluebelles, later joining James Brown’s live revue as a backup singer at 18. In 1965, at the age of 20, she was signed to Motown Records. But it wasn’t until a couple of years later, when Motown decided to pair her with Marvin Gaye, while working with songwriters/husband-and-wife team of Ashford and Simpson, that Terrell (along with Gaye) became a star. After “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” came: “Your Precious Love,” “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing” and “You’re All I Need to Get By.”
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/vampire-diaries-star-kat-graham-will-play-tammi-terrell-in-a-biopic-of-the-late-singer-20150527
WHAAAA HAAAAAAAAAA
PUTIN: U.S. TRYING TO STEAL MY WORLD CUP
Russian President Vladimir Putin used a televised appearance to attack the United States’ FIFA probe Thursday, accusing his rival of trying to wrest away Russia’s 2018 World Cup. He called the U.S.-led probe “odd,” adding that it is “yet another evident attempt to derail Mr. [Sepp] Blatter’s re-election as FIFA president.” The U.S. probe does not currently concern the upcoming soccer tournaments in Russia and Qatar, but Swiss investigators have launched a separate inquiry into that matter. FIFA has said it won’t re-vote on those tournament locations.
http://elink.thedailybeast.com/4e555ee3e018bee76c3458202nk3q.2t3m/VWcJukmOhDwcin0dBc9c2
Oh VLAD.
You worried that your payments will now not have the results you thought it would?
To That Lady: Let’s Get It On in the Midnight Train to Georgia , because we’re a Free Bird and you’re Killing Me Softly with His Song. We’ll pay Money to the Piano Man while he plays Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and we’ll Dream On Living for the City
You’re good at this Ametia..
Thank you lady. I love doing this, while I dirnk my morning coffee. Keeps my brain limber
States where incomes are booming (and shrinking)
American paychecks have been going up in every state, but far from equally. So how did your state (and your raise) rank?
U.S. personal income totaled more than $13.5 billion in 2014, up 8.9% from 2008, when Americans generated a total of $12.4 billion. But income growth varied considerably between states. In the state with the biggest gains, 2014 personal income of $55,966 was up 35.1% from 2008 — both the highest figures in the nation. In the state with the smallest growth, income rose just 0.8% in that period.
Wages and salaries are the largest contributors to personal income, and employment gains in major state industries contributed to fast personal income growth. States with rapidly expanding energy sectors, for example, ranked at the top for income growth. Employment in North Dakota’s natural resource industry surged 173.2% from 2008 through 2013, by far the largest such increase. Similarly, Texas added more than 54,000 energy jobs over that period, the largest raw increase in workers in the country. It will be interesting to see how these rankings change in the future, given the recent collapse in energy prices.
Employment opportunities in an area often help attract workers. While the working-age population fell 0.5% across the country from 2008 through 2013, this age group increased in 15 of the top 25 states for income growth. Conversely, only six states in the bottom half for income growth saw increases in this population.
Fast income growth is almost always a sign of a healthy economy. However, exceptionally strong income growth does not necessarily mean residents are exceptionally wealthy. Montana, Arkansas, Idaho, and Tennessee, for example, all ranked high income growth, still had per capita personal income well below the national average.
Similarly, income gains in states where residents were already quite wealthy did not appear as large in percentage terms. In fact, nine of the 15 states where income grew the slowest from 2008 through 2014 had per capita personal income above the national income figure in 2014.
Click through this slideshow for a look at income gains state by state.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/savingandinvesting/states-where-incomes-are-booming-and-shrinking/ss-BBk5AvQ?ocid=HPCDHP
Toy Lovers Prepare for Store’s Closing
Melissa Quiñones remembers the promises her parents made before they immigrated to New York from Colombia in the early 1990s: “You get to go to McDonald’s and the biggest toy store there is,” Ms. Quiñones, now 32, recalled.
She resisted, with all the willpower of a 9-year-old, until her parents announced that they were going on a weeklong vacation at Christmastime in chilly, wintry New York. Faster than she could say a certain address — 757 Fifth Avenue — her resistance melted.
“I remember walking into F. A. O. Schwarz and saying: ‘We get to come here whenever we want? Give me a Big Mac and let me play on that piano,’ ” she said, referring to the giant illuminated keyboard that Tom Hanks and Robert Loggia danced on in the movie “Big.” “It was like the United States was one great toy store.”
But now the wonderland that she remembers is closing, another casualty in a shopping district where rents are surging.
Toys “R” Us, the chain that has owned F. A. O. Schwarz since 2009, said this month that the store would shut down on July 15, even though the lease is far from up. Toys “R” Us said it had worked out “an early exit in advance of the 2017 lease expiration, providing the opportunity to realize meaningful rent savings.”
As for what happens next, Toys “R” Us said the F. A. O. Schwarz brand would continue in Toys “R” Us stores and online. Toys “R” Us had reportedly looked at space on the lower level of the office building at 1633 Broadway, close to Times Square, but F. A. O. Schwarz is leaving Fifth Avenue with no fixed destination.
It is too soon for the “everything must go” signs. But on a recent weekday, a clearance sign was on a bin of “F. A. O. exclusive” black bears. Stuffed, of course. The sign said they had been marked down to $74.98, from $99.99, a 25 percent reduction. Steps away was a much larger bear. It had not been discounted from $799.99.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/toy-lovers-prepare-for-store%e2%80%99s-closing/ar-BBkk0uB?li=BBgzzfc&ocid=HPCDHP
2015 SCRIPPS NATIONAL SPELLING BEE
This year, 285 spellers will compete for the title of 2015 Scripps National Spelling Bee Champion.
Competition Schedule
Semifinals
Thursday, May 28
10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. EDT
The Announcement of Championship Finalists will immediately follow the conclusion of Round Six and will be broadcast live on ESPN2.
Championship Finals
Thursday, May 28 8:00 – 10:00 p.m. EDT
One party has become more extreme (and one hasn’t)
05/27/15 04:40 PM—UPDATED 05/27/15 05:06 PM
By Steve Benen
Arguably no single development in American politics has mattered more in recent generations than the radicalization of the Republican Party. As anyone who’s read Tom Mann and Norm Ornstein knows, the GOP’s shift to the far-right has fundamentally remade the policy landscape and changed the nature of the political rules in ways nothing – no scandal, no crisis, no war – has in many decades.
At least, that’s what all available evidence tells us. Peter Wehner, the White House director of “strategic initiatives” in the Bush/Cheney era, not only disagrees with the thesis, but actually suggests the evidence has it backwards – it’s Democrats, he claims, who’ve become more extreme. From his New York Times piece today:
Among liberals, it’s almost universally assumed that of the two major parties, it’s the Republicans who have become more extreme over the years. That’s a self-flattering but false narrative.
This is not to say the Republican Party hasn’t become a more conservative party. It has. But in the last two decades the Democratic Party has moved substantially further to the left than the Republican Party has shifted to the right. On most major issues the Republican Party hasn’t moved very much from where it was during the Gingrich era in the mid-1990s.
Intrigued, I dug into the piece, eager to see Wehner’s proof. He noted, for example, that while many Democrats embraced a conservative approach to criminal-justice reform 20 years ago, most Dems are now widely concerned about the societal costs and effects of mass incarceration and police abuses.
I’m afraid Wehner hasn’t fully thought this through. Democrats adopted a position, implemented it, and are now weighing changes after scrutinizing the results of their own policy. Plenty of Republicans agree with the Democratic conclusions, and support the same reforms. That’s proof of a party that’s become more extreme? Not by any definition I’m familiar with.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/one-party-has-become-more-extreme-and-one-hasnt
I love watching these talented kids.
Me too. Will be watching tonight.
https://twitter.com/mmfa/status/603357499261997056
Concservatives are NOT being brainwashed by Fox. They sign on to watch and listen to that garbage. Take responsibility, GOP-EPRS!
They’re mostly seeking validation and narratives that provide cover for their already strongly held racism.
BRING.IT. L.ADY
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Good morning, Ladies! Off to deliver mail!!!!
Hi vitmainlover. Are you going to drop off my lottery winnings today? LOL!
Have a great day.
Morning, Vitamin. I’ll be waiting for my check.
Good Morning, Dear Chics and Chicettes! My daughter was born in 1973, and I used to hold her up and sing “Who’s That Baby” (to tune of “Who’s That Lady”) to her all the time. Love my adopted home town Isley Brothers.
Good Morning, Kathleen, so wonderful to take the tunes of these songs and sing them to your daughter. Those were the days…..