Thurday Open Thread | SEAL Week

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SEAL & JONI MITCHELL – IF I COULD


Don’t Cry

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54 Responses to Thurday Open Thread | SEAL Week

  1. eliihass says:

    “..On a Monday episode of “The Diane Rehm Show,” a caller said that her Confederate ancestors deserve respect, even though the Confederate flag represents “racial hatred.”

    To which Butler replied:

    “I have no respect for your ancestors. As far as your ancestors are concerned, I shouldn’t be a law professor at Georgetown. I should be a slave. That’s why they fought that war. I don’t understand what it means to be proud of a legacy of terrorism and violence.

    Last week at this time, I was in Israel. The idea that a German would say, you know, that thing we did called the Holocaust, that was wrong, but I respect the courage of my Nazi ancestors. That wouldn’t happen.

    The reason people can say what you said in the United States, is because, again, black life just doesn’t matter to a lot of people.”

    Butler isn’t alone in that bleak assessment…”

    http://www.businessinsider.in/A-Georgetown-law-professor-just-perfectly-captured-the-absurdity-of-Confederate-pride/articleshow/47808555.cms

  2. Liza says:

    We remember you, #TamirRice. Happy 13th Birthday. pic.twitter.com/ArCOHen8cd— deray mckesson (@deray) June 25, 2015

  3. My youngest is taking me later on to celebrate my birthday. He won’t tell me where we’re going, says its a surprise, just dress up. He’s the most loving boy!

    • eliihass says:

      You lucky mama SG..
      But then again, how many are lucky to have a mum like you who so proudly dotes on, frets over, cheers on and most importantly, lovingly slaves over a hot stove and oven, whipping up the most mouth-watering spreads that make us want to move in and never leave..?

    • rikyrah says:

      Happy Birthday!!!!
      And, you raised him right.
      Have fun.

    • Ametia says:

      We got a B-day thread up for you, young LADY! Josh’s a gret son. YOU.DID.GOOD.

    • Liza says:

      Have fun tonight, SG2. You deserve those strawberry margaritas.

  4. rikyrah says:

    50 Girl Scouts Get Ultimate Campout Invite — To White House

    WASHINGTON (AP) — Fifty Girl Scouts will get to pitch tents at the ultimate campground next week — on the south lawn of the White House.

    First lady Michelle Obama is hosting Tuesday night’s White House campout as part of her Let’s Move Outside initiative.

    The fourth-graders will be able to earn Girls’ Choice Outdoor badges by doing rock climbing, tying knots, orienteering and pitching tents, among other activities.

    Later that night, astronaut Cady Coleman will lead them in a NASA stargazing activity.

    The girls are from councils in Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Oklahoma and the District of Columbia.

    http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2015/06/24/50-girl-scouts-get-ultimate-campout-invite-to-white-house/

  5. rikyrah says:

    Obama’s trade agenda, back from the brink
    06/25/15 08:00 AM
    By Steve Benen
    For those engaged in the debate over trade, the last six weeks have been a roller coaster unlike anything the political world has seen in a while. Opponents of President Obama’s trade agenda were winning, the supporters were winning. Then opponents reclaimed the advantage, only to see supporters take it right back.

    As of late yesterday, however, it appears the White House and its unusual set of allies are going to get exactly what they want. NBC News reported last night:
    A critical aspect of President Barack Obama’s economic legacy got a boost on Wednesday when the Senate voted to approve giving him “fast-track” authority to negotiate a sweeping 12-nation trade pact without the threat of Congress adding amendments or filibustering the final deal.

    The vote was 60-38. The measure now heads to the president’s desk for signature.
    The final roll call on the Senate vote is online here.

    Note, Congress passed Trade Promotion Authority – better known as “fast-track” – without the labor-friendly Trade Adjustment Assistance, but that will soon change. Under the plan hatched by the president and Republican leaders, TAA will be on its way to the Oval Office by tomorrow. Indeed, it passed the Senate late yesterday on a voice vote and is expected to clear the House with relative ease.

    http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/obamas-trade-agenda-back-the-brink

  6. rikyrah says:

    Marvel Studios Head Honcho Talks Hiring Black Directors & Diversity (And Ava DuVernay Directing ‘Black Panther’)

    Shadow and Act
    By Sergio | Shadow and Act

    June 25, 2015 at 8:44AM

    In case you didn’t hear the news this week, Ava DuVernay has officially signed on to direct Marvel’s film version of the Black Panther. And if you’re wondering why we didn’t mention that at all on this site, it’s because it’s not true.

    The internet was all abuzz for a few days after some website, that no one had ever heard of before, proudly announced that it was done deal for Ms. DuVernay to direct the film. The news was picked up everywhere with people expressing all sorts of congratulations to her for getting the gig.

    But it’s not true folks, honest. Even Ms. DuVernay herself had to get on the internet to straighten things out. Sorry to burst your bubble. However, that doesn’t mean she hasn’t had talks with Marvel about it.

    And that bit of news comes straight from the head honcho himself, Kevin Feige, the president of Marvel Studios. He was asked in a Hollywood Reporter interview yesterday (HERE) if Ms DuVernay is under consideration to direct Panther, and Feige said: “We’ve met with her for sure. We’ve met with a number of people for a number of movies. She has been one of them.”

    http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/marvel-studios-head-honcho-talks-about-hiring-black-directors-and-diversity-and-about-ava-duvernay-directing-black-panther-20150625

  7. Ametia says:

    Rikyrah, where are you? LOL

    LIKE A BOSS
    06.25.155:15 AM ET
    Jada Pinkett Smith on Strip Clubs, Energies, and Her ‘Real Ghetto’ Wedding Song to Will Smith

    The star of ‘Magic Mike XXL’ dishes on her role as a hard-nosed strip club madam, the cure for the pervy, modern-day strip club, and much more.

    Are Jada Pinkett Smith and the men of Magic Mike XXL about to revolutionize our very notions of sexual liberation, one slow jam-set pelvic thrust at a time?

    “I had just come from Atlanta working on a project with CNN about human trafficking and how strip clubs can be gateways to trafficking,” Pinkett Smith told The Daily Beast one recent afternoon in Los Angeles.

    The Gotham star turns in a commanding performance in the stripper sequel as Rome, the madam-emcee of a Savannah pleasure club where Channing Tatum’s “Magic” Mike once worked… under the nom de strip “White Chocolate.”

    http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/06/25/jada-pinkett-smith-on-strip-clubs-energies-and-her-real-ghetto-wedding-song-to-will-smith.html?via=newsletter&source=DDMorning

  8. rikyrah says:

    one of my absolute favorite gifs

    https://twitter.com/ClotureClub/status/614074681809838081

  9. Ametia says:

    ACA-SCOTUS THREAD IS UP!

  10. rikyrah says:

    Hopefully we will get a statement from the President about Obamacare…and that he will stroll down ‘ I killed Bin Laden’ lane to give the statement.

  11. HUGE!

  12. rikyrah says:

    I am sitting here with tears in my eyes seeing the SC verdicts. I have been unemployed. I have been without insurance. I know that there is a sense of fear of anything going wrong medically. That MILLIONS of Americans have peace of mind…is overwhelming.

    I can’t process the Fair Housing right now. I’m just on Obamacare.

    • eliihass says:

      Oh Rikyrah…
      God bless you sweetheart. I had no idea…

    • God bless, Rikyrah!

    • yahtzeebutterfly says:

      I am sorry to hear that, Rikyrah.

      I will be praying that you will be reemployed real soon. I just know that a job will open up quickly for a job just like the one you had. I just know it.

      God bless you.

    • Ametia says:

      We are praying for employment for you & All of the blessing you deserve, dear one.

      Please post this on the ACA-SCOTUS thread too!

    • rikyrah says:

      I’m employed now, folks, and am thankful.

      But, that time when I was unemployed was a scary time, and a lot of it did have to do with no health insurance.

      Which is why I couldn’t understand the litigants in this case. I believe that they are awful people.

    • Liza says:

      My husband and I have been in that same boat, Rikyrah. He is always covered by the VA because he has a 30 percent service related disability. But all I could get was high deductible/ high out of pocket catastrophe health insurance that pays nothing for preventative care.

      What kind of person denies health insurance to another person? How do they rationalize that? I was worried about what the SCOTUS would do on this, but they did the right thing, thank God.

      • Ametia says:

        Feeling you too, Liza. It’s really fucked up that insurance won’t pay for preventative care, when you figure it saves $$$ in the long run.

        and answer to your question?

        EVIL & SOULESS.

      • eliihass says:

        “..What kind of person denies health insurance to another person? How do they rationalize that?…”
        Good question Liza.

  13. eliihass says:

    Victory!!!! Obamacare stays intact!!!!

  14. Ametia says:

    Citing Ben Affleck’s ‘Improper Influence,’ PBS Suspends ‘Finding Your Roots’
    By JOHN KOBLIN
    June 24, 2015

    PBS said on Wednesday that it was postponing a future season of “Finding Your Roots” after an investigation revealed that the actor Ben Affleck pressured producers into leaving out details about an ancestor of his who owned slaves.

    PBS will not run the show’s third season until staffing changes are made, including hiring a fact checker, it said.

    The show, which is hosted by the Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., traces family histories of celebrities and public figures, and has run for two seasons. The concern about Mr. Affleck’s relative surfaced in the WikiLeaks cache of hacked Sony emails after Mr. Gates asked a Sony executive for advice about a “megastar” who wanted to omit a detail about a slave-owning ancestor.

    “We’ve never had anyone ever try to censor or edit what we found,” Mr. Gates wrote to a Sony executive, Michael Lynton, in July 2014. Mr. Gates added that this would violate PBS rules, and “once we open the door to censorship, we lose control of the brand.”

    http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/06/25/business/media/citing-ben-afflecks-improper-influence-pbs-suspends-finding-your-roots.html?referrer=&_r=1

  15. rikyrah says:

    Chief Justice Roberts’s Big Health-Care Moment
    By Cristian Farias

    Chief Justice John Roberts has big plans after the end of the current Supreme Court term. He will be hopping on a plane to Japan, half a world away from any fallout that may result in the aftermath of King v. Burwell, the closely watched challenge to the Affordable Care Act. According to SCOTUSblog, that decision could come as early as this Friday.

    Three years ago, when Roberts first saved President Obama’s signature law, he headed for the other side of the globe, to Malta — a CBS News scoop about a vote switch and internal “arm-twisting” by Roberts aroused such conservative wrath, the Mediterranean island seemed like a good place for him to teach some law and weather the controversy. “After ruling, Roberts makes a getaway from the scorn,” said the Times.

    No one knows where the chief justice stands in King, but there are real-world, pragmatic reasons for him to side with the government again — even more so than with NFIB v. Sebelius, which threatened a law still in its infancy and not yet fully implemented. Now the prospects of unraveling insurance markets and millions losing health-care subsidies with an adverse ruling are real, and Roberts more than any of the justices cares about these things because the court bears his name and anything the court does, whether he had something to do with it or not, falls under his legacy. He’s the most accountable member of the least accountable branch.

    http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/06/chief-justice-robertss-big-health-care-moment.html

    • Ametia says:

      Things are surely HEATING up this week. SCOTUS is out for the season starting June 30. In what state will they leave AMERICA?

  16. rikyrah says:

    Slayla Ali @EbonyStarr5
    This is so sweet —-> Feline Adopts Blind Dog As Best Friend, Acts As Seeing Eye Cat http://huff.to/YP9xgG via @GoodNews

  17. rikyrah says:

    Middle-Class Black Families, in Low-Income Neighborhoods
    JUNE 24, 2015

    Many of the nation’s racial disparities stem from the simple economic fact that white families make more money than black families on average, a gap that has remained stubbornly large in recent decades.

    Yet neither this income gap nor blatant discrimination is the only reason for the disparities. A new study, by three Stanford researchers, highlights another big cause: the neighborhood gap.

    Even among white and black families with similar incomes, white families are much more likely to live in good neighborhoods — with high-quality schools, day-care options, parks, playgrounds and transportation options. The study comes to this conclusion by mining census data and uncovering a striking pattern: White (and Asian-American) middle-income families tend to live in middle-income neighborhoods. Black middle-income families tend to live in distinctly lower-income ones.

    Most strikingly, the typical middle-income black family lives in a neighborhood with lower incomes than the typical low-income white family.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/25/upshot/middle-class-black-families-in-low-income-neighborhoods.html?_r=0&abt=0002&abg=1

  18. rikyrah says:

    Bobby Jindal is running for President.

    Best gif in response.

    http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/583/267/e8a.gif

  19. rikyrah says:

    California Judge Blocks Hateful ‘Kill The Gays’ Initiative As Unconstitutional

    By: Keith Brekhus
    Wednesday, June, 24th, 2015, 9:33 pm

    On Tuesday, California Superior Court Justice Raymond M. Cadei declared the controversial “Sodomite Suppression Act” unconstitutional and he refused to allow the proposed ballot initiative to be circulated. In his ruling, Judge Cadei described the hateful initiative that called for killing gay people “patently unconstitutional on its face”.

    Judge Cadei argued that:

    Preparation and official issuance of a circulating title and summary for the Act by the Attorney General would be inappropriate, waste public resources, generate unnecessary divisions among the public, and tend to mislead the electorate.

    The ridiculous proposal is the brainchild of bigoted Southern California Attorney Matt McLaughlin. In addition to calling for executing people by shooting them in the head for engaging in gay sex, the measure would have barred homosexuals from public office. In addition, it would have made distribution of pro-gay literature or “sodomistic propaganda” punishable by a one million dollar fine, a 10 year prison sentence and permanent expulsion from the state of California.

    http://www.politicususa.com/2015/06/24/california-judge-blocks-hateful-kill-gays-initiative-unconstitutional.html

  20. rikyrah says:

    ‘The Birth of a Race’ – Emmett J. Scott and the Great Black Film Epic That Never Was

    Shadow and Act
    By Sergio | Shadow and Act

    June 24, 2015 at 11:05AM

    This year being the 100th anniversary of the most controversial movie ever made, D. W. Griffith’s “The Birth of Nation,” I thought it would be appropriate to go back and revisit a piece I wrote literally a year ago, about a film that was intended to be the ultimate answer to Griffith’s movie, and the sad story of why it wasn’t.

    The history of the movies is littered with ambitious film projects that could have changed the course of cinema, but were either not made for various reasons, or so compromised by other factors that the end result was vastly different than what was first conceived.

    And “The Birth of a Race” is definitely one of those latter films.

    If the film that was originally conceived was actually made, it would be one of the most important black films ever made, still to this day. Instead, the final result was a travesty.

    ……………………..

    At first his idea was very modest. With financing from well-to-do and middle class black people, Scott intended to make a 15-minute short film called “Lincoln’s Dream,” that would show the accomplishments of black people, which was intended to be screened before “Birth of a Nation” in theaters.

    However, as Scott further developed “Lincoln’s Dream,” bringing in screenwriters and changing the title of the film to “The Birth of a Race,” his project grew larger and grander in scope, to eventually becoming a 3-hour black film epic that would out-rival “Nation.”

    Seeing that the project was getting more expensive than originally planned, Scott tried to get Universal Pictures involved with the financing, but they turned him down. So, putting Booker T. Washington’s “do-for-self” philosophy into action, he went out and decided to make his epic film on his own, in Chicago.

    Unfortunately, the film was plagued with problems from the beginning.

    http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/the-birth-of-a-race-emmett-j-scott-and-the-great-black-film-epic-that-never-was-20150624

  21. rikyrah says:

    Good Morning Everyone

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