We lost another great one last week.
Maurice White, the founder of Earth, Wind and Fire.
What is there to say, but that he created music that will be played 100 years from now.
So, we will spend the week featuring the music of Earth, Wind & Fire.
Where did the group’s name come from?
“My horoscope. (White, who was born Dec. 19, was a Sagittarius, whose principle elements are earth, air and fire”.
Good time: the greatest moments of Maurice White and Earth, Wind & Fire
The leader of one of pop’s most influential groups died on Wednesday. Here are five moments to remember him by
1. Sweetback’s Theme
In 1971, Maurice White was struggling. He’d moved from Chicago to Los Angeles, broken up his first band (the Salty Peppers) and launched a new one with his brother, Verdine, named after the elemental qualities of his star sign, Sagittarius. Earth, Wind & Fire’s first, self-titled album was released in February of that year to strong reviews but modest sales. A follow-up was on the way, but times were tight. White’s girlfriend was working as a secretary to an anarchic filmmaker, Melvin van Peebles, and suggested the director get her boyfriend’s band to make the soundtrack album to his new movie.
Although signed to Warner Brothers, EW&F jumped at the chance, recording the entire album in a single day. Van Peebles, knowing there’d be no money to promote his film, came up with the idea of releasing the soundtrack album first: the record, credited to Van Peebles (who had written the material) but with EW&F mentioned on the back cover, was released by Stax in November. The micro-budget Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song would go on to become a touchstone moment, its soundtrack album helping usher in the blaxploitation era on record as well as in cinemas.
2. Mighty Mighty
It wasn’t until their fifth album, 1974’s Open Our Eyes, that EW&F started to have hits. White had brought in Charles Stepney, a friend and colleague from Chicago (and also in-house arranger and producer at Chess Records, where White had cut his teeth as a session drummer in the late 60s), to co-produce, and sessions took place in Colorado in 1973. Philip Bailey had joined, and he and Maurice became a potent force with their striking dual vocals – an idea the band patterned in part on Sérgio Mendes’s Brasil 66. The first single from the album, Mighty Mighty, echoes key EW&F influences (Sly & the Family Stone formally; Curtis Mayfield in the title and lyrical tone), but is definably the work of a band in charge of their own sound and style.
3. Shining Star
Unconventional soundtracks became an EW&F signature, albeit more by accident than design. They’d been asked to score and appear in That’s the Way of the World, a 1975 movie by Superfly director Sig Shore, which starred Harvey Keitel as a record producer. The deal was that the group would make the soundtrack album, as well as play a fictionalised version of themselves on screen – but it was clear that the film was going to be a flop, so White took matters into his own hands. The soundtrack was released first, and became a huge hit, spending three weeks at No 1 in the US pop chart with the opening track and first single, the euphoric Shining Star, also winning them a Grammy.
4. September
EW&F started out as a gritty funk outfit, but their lush arrangements, polyrhythmic percussion and flair for seamlessly incorporating influences from all across the musical map made them perfectly suited for the disco era’s infectious inclusivity. September’s first album release was on the stratospherically successful The Best of Earth, Wind & Fire Vol. 1, and its status as a hit in its own right was merely a formality – but the record helped propel the group to new heights. It went on to become (along with 1981’s Let’s Groove) the band’s biggest hit in the UK, reaching No 3; the first of three consecutive Top Five singles here (followed by Boogie Wonderland and After the Love Has Gone). They ended the 70s as one of the biggest pop acts in the world.
5. Good Time
White’s eclectic embrace of musical styles continued into the 1980s, with EW&F adding electronic dimensions to their palette: the band leader would later rate their transitional 1980 double LP, Faces, as his favourite. But it wasn’t to be until the middle of that decade, with the band out of action, that members began to realise the impact they’d had. “We were so in our own world of making music that we didn’t really see the forest for the trees,” Bailey told the Guardian in 2010. The group spent much of the decade on hiatus, White becoming an in-demand producer and songwriter, working with everyone from Barbara Streisand to the Tubes. They reformed in 1987, and in 1990 released Heritage, which included this track, a collaboration with key influence Sly Stone. Tellingly, rather than seeking to hark back to 70s funk styles and sounds, Good Time shows the band adopting the muscular electronic funk sound of the day – a sound they had, in part, helped bring about. “It was our third album that got [Prince and Janet Jackson producers] Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis together,” Verdine White told the Guardian in 2010. “Jimmy told me that they were in school when it come out, Terry played him the album, and they bonded over that record. That’s deep, isn’t it? You never know the influence you have.”
https://twitter.com/TrillAC_/status/696737974428569600
SPEECHLESS….
Holy crap! I’d have a heart attack. It would be the end of me.
Me too, Liza.
Clinton is NAME-DROPPING to impress who? they believe and trust you?
WELL, WE DON’T!
Rachel Maddow to Hillary Clinton: I do not hear or see anything different in the way your supporters and Bernie Sanders’ supporters sound..
See above. Did you hear Hillary name-dropping congressmen/women/senators/govenors. Pay atention to the names, because they are the ones who will reap secondary gains from their support of her.
The same ones who were always missing in action when they should have been out there defending and supporting the President and his efforts…The Senators who would always put disclaimers to their support of the President and head of their party..? The same Senators and congress people who had to be stroked by the President to do their freaking job on behalf of the people who elected them to Congress…?
Amy Klobuchar, Debbie Stabenow, Kirsten Gillibrand..LOL..
Pfffft..
We know what we know about how they were nowhere to be found when President Obama needed them to speak up and at the minimum, do their job as elected officials…
But they all found time to be out in the snow in New Hampshire singing for Hillary…
Keep bringing those RECEIPTS, ellihaas.
LOL, Ametia…
And now, caring Chelsea is being dispatched to Flint to see about the water supply…
These people are so obvious, it’s beyond pathetic…
This is it …? This is all they can come up with with all that expensive brain trust they’ve purchased…and all of the high-profile advisers and folks working for them…
This is it..?
My favorite from Earth, Wind and Fire..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lrle0x_DHBM
RIP Maurice..
WASHINGTON – The White House Correspondents’ Association™ is pleased to announce that Larry Wilmore, host of “The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore” on Comedy Central, will be the entertainer at our annual dinner on Saturday, April 30, 2016.
“Larry’s edgy, even provocative, brand of humor means he’s certainly up to the task of skewering politicians of all ideological stripes, and we don’t expect the nation’s news media to escape unscathed, either,” said Carol Lee, White House correspondent for The Wall Street Journal and president of the White House Correspondents’ Association™. “We are thrilled that Larry has accepted our invitation to be the featured comedian at our annual dinner, which will be the last during the Obama White House.”
The WHCA™ represents the White House press corps in its dealings with the administration on coverage-related issues. The WHCA™ dinner is traditionally attended by the President and the First Lady as well as other senior government officials and members of the press corps. Proceeds from the dinner go toward scholarships and awards aimed at supporting aspiring journalists and recognizing excellence in the profession.
http://www.whca.net/dinner.htm
Ayanna Pressley is seriously singing hard for her supper and political future…If only she were this loud and vocal and public about Sandra Bland, the families of Flint Michigan and any number of now nationally discussed matters of injustice and the political system working against black folks…
Where have all these black elected folks been all these past several years…? But now they’re out in force screaming their lungs off in defense of Hillary…
LOL..
https://twitter.com/brontyman/status/696817914201006080
She MAD because her staff can NOT control the
NEGROES! LOL
It’s not going as they planned Ametia…We were all expected to fall in line for the coronation…
But they will find that just as then Senator Obama hinted, the ground has shifted beneath their feet…
And I, for one, will not be going down the rabbit hole with these folks!
I just left this comment on the other thread SG…
Contrary to the myth of David Plouffe an ’em as some magic makers, it’s the candidate and not the political opportunists, voters like us come out for…
It isn’t some formula, or some tactic that captures voters attention and support…it’s the candidate and what they truly stand for…it’s their character and integrity and authenticity and decency and humanity we smart, thinking voters look for…
And no amount of choreography and expensive advisers and technology and ground game, and money from Wall Street superpacs and high-profile surrogates, and targeted platitudes, or feminist abuse and guilt, or a ‘popular’ former president as husband can buy that…
LOL Tell the truth. When they saw the formula was hocus pocus, they starting CHIPPING away at PBO and his family with FILTH
EFFIGIES
BIRTHERISM
“WEAK”
‘”BOY”
“UPPITY”
SEXUALIZED
EMASULATE
TRANNY
ANGRY BLACK WOMAN
Yup…And now they want to tightly wrap themselves around President Obama – as they try to whip up outrage and solidarity with cries of sexism…
https://twitter.com/msdebbieallen/status/696768349879963648?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
I love this soooooo MUCH!
You should hear the terrific speech FLOTUS gave at this event just now Ametia…it was heartfelt…laden with messages for those with ears…I caught it on the White House live stream …I’m trying to find the video to post…
Our marvelous, marvelous black First Lady is EVERYTHING…
Genuine, brilliant, wise, sincere, down to earth – and like Maya Angelou wrote in her tribute, she isn’t ‘modest’, she’s genuinely humble…
“…Modesty is a learned affectation. It’s just like decals. As soon as the world shakes the modest person against the wall, that modesty will drop off them. But humility comes from inside out. It says someone was here before me; I have already been paid for. All I have to do is prepare myself to pay for someone else who is yet to come. …..The philosophers tell us that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Mrs. Obama is as if it doesn’t touch her. She hasn’t tried to become anybody else’s idea of the First Lady. She has remained herself, with her grace, her gentleness and her sense of humor…”
Mrs Obama “…knows how to be a public creature without being separate from her family…” – Maya Angelou.
And FLOTUS lives and breathes and takes very seriously that honoring of those who came before, and reaching back and bringing up those who come after…She authentically lives and embodies her quiet, righteous and unheralded quest to even out that playing field…
I’ve also had a chance to watch their pre-super bowl interview with Gayle King from yesterday…And I didn’t think it was possible to love them more…I watched it over and over and over again…It was that good…
Their chemistry…the way they fit and play off each other so perfectly…so interconnected…so natural…so beautiful…so genuine…
I love how she laughs when he cooly boasts that he’s smooth re: the hole in his car and him getting a second date, but quietly adds that she was looking to upgrade the brotha…I love how he laughs in resigned agreement…
I love how she’s not embarrassed to confess that she loves him holding her hand…she loves him loving and doting on her…even though she’s supposed to be this tough, independent woman…she loves and needs her man and isn’t ashamed to let everyone know it…and he’s still crazy in love with her…A man who still notices and loves his wife’s laugh after 27 years together… I love how he spontaneously reaches to hold her hand – and she places her other hand over his …and I love how she says that he’s never disappointed her…If that’s not the ultimate compliment and tribute to her man, I don’t know what is…I love how she knows him better than anyone else, and how you can see in her eyes that she worries about the toll this Presidency has taken on him…It is evident even when she tries to hide it, or jokes about how he’s aged…
She holds him up…she’s nearly always the first at any event, on her feet effusively applauding and cheering him on with this distinct look of unapologetic pride and love in her eyes – and like at the National Prayer breakfast the other day, she’ll keep clapping and cheering him on like she didn’t just wake up with him that morning…and until he gently reaches over for her hand…It’s as if she’s saying, if you guys don’t appreciate just how hard my man works for you all and just how good he is, I’m going to show him and thank him all by myself…
In this brief, lighthearted interview, they are telling us so much without saying much…The politics, campaigns and the presidency – and all that it has entailed and attracted, have no doubt been brutal and in many ways, damaging…It may have tried them in ways they never imagined, and taken a real toll – physically and psychologically…but they’re not only still standing, but their love, devotion and commitment to each other shines and inspires more than ever before and remains proudly and steadfastly on display ….enviably intact as she’s prayed – and indestructible – in spite of the haters (and some so-called ‘supporters’) who’ve tried their darndest to chip away at it….
I also love how FLOTUS answered the question about if she was getting ideas from the former first lady running for president..LOL…She is too much…she is indeed that big brain Toni Morrison so aptly and poetically pointed out to the world and gushed about…
I love that she’s at once tough, no-nonsense, but also sweet, fun, vulnerable, and when she needs to be, reticent. I love how she unabashedly and so passionately loves, respects and supports her husband, but isn’t a step-ford wife.
I’ve always loved that there’s absolutely nothing generic about her, that she doesn’t reinvent herself and her story to fit or to pander or to be accepted or validated. And after all these years, she’s still so recognizable and unaffected and so beautifully and unapologetically herself…
And kudos to Gayle, she was pitch perfect – and super respectful…she unlike some other folks we know, conducted that interview with such professionalism…you wouldn’t even know that she was friends with them…none of that over-familiarity that begins to tend towards glib and contemptuous..
uh huh
uh huh
SUNDAY, FEB 7, 2016 05:01 AM CST
It’s almost over for Hillary: This election is a mass insurrection against a rigged system
Sanders has ended the coronation and fired up the grass roots. Now Clinton’s electability argument is crumbling too
BILL CURRY
It would be hard to overstate what Bernie Sanders has already achieved in his campaign for president, or the obstacles he’s had to surmount in order to achieve it. Not only has he turned a planned Hillary Clinton coronation into an exercise in grass-roots democracy, he’s reset the terms of the debate. We are edging closer to the national conversation we so desperately need to have. If we get there, all credit goes to Bernie.
Many of those obstacles were put in place by Democratic national party chair and Clinton apparatchik Deborah Wasserman Schultz. Without pretense of due process, Schultz slashed the number of 2016 debates to six, down from 26 in 2008, and scheduled as many as she could on weekends when she figured no one would be watching. To deprive would-be challengers of free exposure, Schultz robbed voters of free and open debate and ceded the spotlight to the dark vaudeville of the Republicans. That Sanders got this far in spite of her is a miracle in itself.
We can only hope..
Time to upend this whole rigged system fueled and controlled by the plutocrats and those they own..
You know that Hillary is seriously shaken when they call in every random reinforcement they can find to come out to New Hampshire…every Tom, Dick and Mark Pryor…
Mark Pryor…LOL…
Mark Pryor who lost his Senate seat in 2014 (in the Clinton Democrat wave!) to that little pr*ck Tom Cotton ….even though Mark Pryor had Bill and Hillary and Mark’s daddy David – a former Senator too – all out campaigning and fundraising for Mark all over Arkansas..
What a vivid reminder that the Clintons, in spite of all the talk are not so hot…or quite the effective, result making campaigners or winners they are perceived and sold as…
It’s not a miracle that Sanders has gotten this far. Look at the alternative, FOLKS
The Enduring Solidarity of Whiteness
Black poverty is fundamentally distinct from white poverty—and so cannot be addressed without grappling with racism.
TA-NEHISI COATES 7:00 AM ET POLITICS
There have been a number of useful entries in the weeks since Senator Bernie Sanders declared himself against reparations. Perhaps the most clarifying comes from Cedric Johnson in a piece entitled, “An Open Letter To Ta-Nehisi Coates And The Liberals Who Love Him.” Johnson’s essay offers those of us interested in the problem of white supremacy and the question of economic class the chance to tease out how, and where, these two problems intersect. In Johnson’s rendition, racism, in and of itself, holds limited explanatory power when looking at the socio-economic problems which beset African Americans. “We continue to reach for old modes of analysis in the face of a changed world,” writes Johnson. “One where blackness is still derogated but anti-black racism is not the principal determinant of material conditions and economic mobility for many African Americans.”
Johnson goes on to classify racism among other varieties of -isms whose primary purpose is “to advance exploitation on terms that are most favorable to investor class interests.” From this perspective, the absence of specific anti-racist solutions from Bernie Sanders, as well as his rejection of reparations, make sense. By Johnson’s lights, racism is a secondary concern, and to the extent that it is a concern at all, it is weapon deployed to advance the interest of a plutocratic minority.
At various points in my life, I have subscribed to some version of Johnson’s argument. I did not always believe in reparations. In the past, I generally thought that the problem of white supremacy could be dealt through the sort of broad economic policy favored by Johnson and his candidate of choice. But eventually, I came to believe that white supremacy was a force in and of itself, a vector often intersecting with class, but also operating independent of it.
Nevertheless, my basic feelings about the kind of America I want to live have not changed. I think a world with equal access to safe, quality, and affordable education; with the right to health care; with strong restrictions on massive wealth accumulation; with guaranteed childcare; and with access to the full gamut of birth-control, including abortion, is a better world. But I do not believe that if this world were realized, the problem of white supremacy would dissipate, anymore than believe that if reparations were realized, the problems of economic inequality would dissipate. In either case, the notion that one solution is the answer to the other problem is not serious policy. It is a palliative.
https://twitter.com/msdebbieallen/status/696786391938641921?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
ummmmmm….
DA PHUQ?
…………………………….
Slavery Time Travel Web Series ‘Send Me’ Now Available on BET.com
By Sergio | Shadow and Act
February 5, 2016 at 9:22AM
As you may recall last month, we reported that controversial web series “Send Me,” created by television and stage writer Steve Harper, would soon make its premiere on a video platform that would soon be announced.
Well this week BET.com has begun to post episodes of the series (here) and also on the BET Now App.
In the series, Tracie Thoms stars as a person who has the power to send Black people back in time to the days of slavery, however “her husband is determined to stop her in spite of the fact that people want to go.” And that’s the thing – who would want to go back to slavery times, let alone willingly?
I said it from the beginning…
Unless Idris is Jesus…
I don’t see this ending well.
……………….
Seal Will Play Pontius Pilate in Fox’s 2-Hour Musical Event, ‘The Passion’
By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act
February 4, 2016 at 3:44PM
Fox’s upcoming two-hour live musical event “The Passion,” about the final hours of Jesus Christ’s life on Earth, which will be hosted by Tyler Perry (narrating the production), has cast Seal to play Pontius Pilate, the government official who oversaw the trial and crucifixion of Christ.
Last week, Jencarlos Canela was cast as Jesus and Chris Daughtry as Judas, joining a cast that already includes musicians Prince Royce as Peter, Trisha Yearwood as Mary and the aforementioned Tyler Perry as host and narrator
Don’t hold your breath, Rikyrah. FOX doesn’t have enough BALLS to cast a BLACK MAN as JESUS.
Remember, we got our BLACK POTUS, Geesh! Aren’t you NEGROES satisfied?! LOL
Ava DuVernay Wanted for Two (2!) Major Sci-Fi/Fantasy Studio Projects
By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act
February 8, 2016 at 3:27PM
In Reelblack’s videotaped chat with Ava DuVernay published on this blog a couple of weeks ago, while she was at the Sundance Film Festival, she mentioned that, as soon as she’s done with “Queen Sugar” for Oprah Winfrey’s OWN Network, she would move onto her next feature, which, based on what she said in the video, seemed like something she already had in hand, and was ready to get rolling on (although she didn’t spill any details, of course). Some of us began speculating on what it could be – a personal, smaller, independently-financed project, like “Middle of Nowhere,” or a studio feature?
Who knows!
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/ava-duvernay-wanted-for-two-2-major-sci-fi-fantasy-studio-projects-20160208
Forest Whitaker Makes His Broadway Debut Tonight in Eugene O’Neill Play, ‘Hughie’ (Pics)
By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act
February 8, 2016 at 12:00PM
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/forest-whitaker-makes-his-broadway-debut-tonight-in-eugene-oneill-play-hughie-pics-20160208
I really liked A Ballertina’s Tale: for me, it was the tale of Black women uplifting Misty every step of the way, pushing her towards this moment in history.
…………………………………..
Tonight: Nelson George’s Misty Copeland Doc – ‘A Ballerina’s Tale’ – Premieres on INDEPENDENT LENS
By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act
February 8, 2016 at 1:44PM
Tonight on PBS’ INDEPENDENT LENS film series, Nelson George’s “A Ballerina’s Tale” makes its TV premiere, so many, many more of you will finally be able to check out the documentary for yourselves, in the comfort of your homes.
The film explores the rise of Misty Copeland, who made history as the first African American female principal dancer with the prestigious American Ballet Theater. It gives audiences an intimate look at a groundbreaking dancer during a crucial period in her life, as she makes the transition.
On June 30, 2015, Copeland became the first African American woman to be promoted to principal dancer in ABT’s 75-year history.
Mavis!,’ The First Feature Documentary About Legendary Soul and Gospel Singer Mavis Staples, Debuts Feb. 29, Exclusively on HBO
By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act
February 8, 2016 at 2:14PM
Celebrating the extraordinary gospel and soul music legend and civil rights icon, who rose to fame as lead singer of the legendary family group The Staple Singers, the first feature documentary on her life, “Mavis!”, debuts Monday, February 29, 9:00-10:25 p.m. ET/PT, exclusively on HBO, the network announced today.
Jessica Edwards directs.
In conjunction with the film’s HBO debut, her new album, “Livin’ on a High Note,” will be released by ANTI- on Feb. 19.
https://twitter.com/latimes/status/696778132825731073/photo/1
Propane Jane @docrocktex26
GOP leaders reject Obama’s final budget before it’s even printed http://fw.to/4WTJGGT
https://twitter.com/ajc/status/696779799801544704/photo/1
https://twitter.com/rudDamage/status/696751782005968897?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/MuftahOrg/status/696695064353857537?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/Deadline/status/696453409168228352?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/smoothkobra/status/696437853992185856?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Car2vxoUAAAsFGR.jpg:large
Bam!
LOL…We should get Ametia or SG to embed this if possible Liza…
https://twitter.com/TheAnimaIGifs/status/696170794695729153?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/drphilDONTEhue/status/696747379396100100?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
AWESOMENESS
On January 11, Gynnya McMillen was found dead in her room in the Lincoln Village Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Elizabethtown, KY. Police have offered very little information. Nonetheless, disturbing snippets of the truth have been slowly surfacing as the family and community continue to demand answers.
No child’s life should ever end after entering a detention center. No family should have to go this long without knowing what happened to their loved one. Please stand with Gynnya’s family and call for Kentucky’s Lincoln Village Juvenile Detention Center to provide answers for Gynnya’s death by releasing the unedited surveillance tapes.
http://act.colorofchange.org/sign/Gynnya/?sp_ref=172674483.176.148986.e.469307.2&referring_akid=5348.1732601.j6W82S&source=em_sp
they murdered this child
https://twitter.com/skepticalbrotha/status/696582321185669120?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/msdebbieallen/status/696722982610272256?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
REPOSTING
I am NOW a FAN of Bey. OK!
Here you go Liza!
Jeb Hopes to Woo Voters with Ad Featuring Worst President in U.S. History
NEW HAMPSHIRE (The Borowitz Report)—The former Florida Governor Jeb Bush is hoping to jump-start his lagging Presidential campaign with a new television ad featuring the worst President in U.S. history, campaign aides confirm.
With the crucial New Hampshire primary just hours away, the Bush campaign believes it can finish strong by reminding voters of Jeb’s connection to a man who left the nation in smoldering ruins.
In the ad, which Bush aides are calling “a fantastic closing argument,” Jeb’s ability to keep the United States safe and create peace around the world is praised by the President, whose decisions helped destabilize the Middle East and give rise to ISIS.
Across the state, the ad featuring the worst President in U.S. history is making a powerful impression on voters. “It brought back a lot of memories,” Carol Foyler, who lost her house in 2007, said.
http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/jeb-hopes-to-woo-voters-with-ad-featuring-worst-president-in-u-s-history?mbid=nl_020816%20Borowitz%20Newsletter%20(1)&CNDID=24441272&spMailingID=8520198&spUserID=MTA5MjQwMjI1MDIzS0&spJobID=860828211&spReportId=ODYwODI4MjExS0
Ha ha, and Jeb was supposed to be “the smart one.”
Thanks for all of the great work you are doing, Rikyrah, in bringing us the news and the important issues that we need to pay attention to.
https://twitter.com/thehill/status/696734800623837184
Something is very wrong with a criminal justice system that fails to arrest and indict this man. He clearly believes he is above the law.
Why does he even have a choice of whether or not to attend the hearing?!
I think his attitude right now is, “Come and get me, I dare you.”
CRIMINAL that this man is not being charged.
SG2, can you put this on the latest Flint thread too? thanks!
Eliihass, I can’t with some of these negroes. You tell them about Hillary’s email exchanges between her and friends undermining, slamming, mocking the Potus and they ask for links. You give them links and then they say…I think she has learned. OMFG!
Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt SG..
They didn’t expect the challenge and pushback from those of us with pretty good memories who refuse to be bamboozled and or muzzled by the Clintons…
Isn’t it funny how they squeeze every last bit of faux-outrage from every perceived transgression by Bernie Sanders and his supporters, but want to outrightly dismiss seriously damaging Clinton offenses that have negatively impacted and forever changed for the worse, the lives and trajectory of so many black folks and families…
This is great. I love this.
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Wow. The haters certainly showed up in response to this tweet. I guess they’re dividing their time between Beyonce and Cam Newton today, a busy day for haters I suppose.
The NYPD Is Kicking People Out of Their Homes, Even If They Haven’t Committed a Crime
And it’s happening almost exclusively in minority neighborhoods.
by Sarah Ryley for ProPublica and the New York Daily News
February 4, 2016
This story was co-published with the New York Daily News.
THE MORNING OF MAY 4, 2011, Jameelah El-Shabazz watched out the window of her Bronx apartment as a team of police officers fanned across the rooftop of Banana Kelly High School. The 43-year-old mother of five said she didn’t think much of the scene — drug raids were common in her neighborhood.
As she did most mornings, El-Shabazz said she went to her bedroom to feed her newborn son and to worship before a shrine of candles and carvings arranged atop her wardrobe. Her most treasured object was a wooden tray her father had brought her from Nigeria. A deity of the Ifa religion, which she practices as a high priestess, was carved on its surface and covered in a residue of finely crushed eggshells. El-Shabazz used the substance, known in her faith as efun powder, to cleanse the shrine. She took fresh clumps of the powder from a cup and began to break it up in her hands.
……………………
But El-Shabazz’s battle with New York’s legal system was only beginning. That September, another of her sons called to say the police were back, this time with a lawyer and a court order to seal the Bronx apartment. Her entire family had to leave — immediately.
El-Shabazz was facing a nuisance abatement action, a little-known type of lawsuit that gives the city the power to shut down places it claims are being used for illegal purposes. The case against her was based on the same drug allegations that had been dismissed in May. Incredibly, the filing, signed by a New York Police Department attorney, stated: “recovered during the execution of the search warrant were forty-five (45) paper cups of cocaine.”
The nuisance abatement law was created in the 1970’s to combat the sex industry in Times Square. Since then, its use has been vastly expanded, commonly targeting apartments and mom-and-pop bodegas even as the city’s crime rate has reached historic lows. The NYPD files upward of 1,000 such cases a year, nearly half of them against residences.
https://www.propublica.org/article/nypd-nuisance-abatement-evictions
https://twitter.com/alexmeadowsny/status/695798986930831360
BWA HA HA HA WHAT A LOSER
She’s actually using the very same arguments and tactics she used against then Senator Obama in 2008, to run against Bernie Sanders in this campaign…Except the he’s muslim, other, drugs etc.
One would think the Clintons would have by now, mastered the art of being limber with different political opponents, but they play from the same outdated handbook…
And they and their handbook is so predictable…I’m just an ordinary citizen observer, and even I can predict the Clintons, their surrogates, their words and next moves…
Bill is already teetering on the edge of making another one of his red-faced, arrogant, glib attacks that will further doom their coronation process…
My wise dad said it best: the true measure of a person isn’t what they do when things are going well…it’s how they respond when pushed and trapped in a corner..
And the Clintons have shown again and again that when pushed to a corner, they completely lose it….they get petty and vicious and desperate and very, very small – and they will resort to just about any and everything … Not a good look at all…especially for supposedly seasoned, ‘experienced’ folks who bristle against suggestions that they lack that all important judgement…
So true. From the 2008 scary black man racial other to the 2016 socialist not-a-realist inexperienced can’t win can’t govern inferior white man.
https://twitter.com/HistoryHeroes/status/696170185246441472/photo/1
https://twitter.com/NorthJerseybrk/status/696356190847156225/photo/1
https://twitter.com/ATLBlackStar/status/696091056736227328/photo/1
New York Daily News ✔ @NYDailyNews
A Chicago cop who fatally shot a mentally ill college student in December is suing the teen’s family for $10 mil http://nydn.us/20CjjBp
Long White House tradition nears end for a family descended from a slave
By Juliet Eilperin
February 7 at 11:53 AM
The public and private rhythms of the White House have shaped John Wrory Ficklin’s daily life from the day he was born.
On Nov. 22, 1963, the day John F. Kennedy was shot and killed in Dallas, Ficklin was 7 and playing at a neighbor’s house when his friend’s mother told him he needed to hurry home. At the time, his father, also named John, was the White House maitre d’ and very close to the center of the unfolding national tragedy. The next time Ficklin actually saw his father was on television three days later, in a rented morning suit, as the slain president’s coffin was carried into the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington for the funeral Mass.
The White House is a place defined by transients — presidents and political appointees who come and go after a term or two.
But Ficklin is a different, more enduring sort: He is the 10th member of his family — all children and grandchildren of a Virginia slave born in 1857 — to have worked in the White House, a long line that stretches back to Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s administration. Ficklin’s uncle Charles got a job as a White House butler in 1939. His father, John Woodson Ficklin, born in 1919, joined the staff in 1940 and stayed for 43 years.
The long family streak may end with Ficklin, who retired last month just shy of his 60th birthday. But he was also the first whose work would range beyond the kitchens, pantries and dining rooms of the executive mansion and into the West Wing. Ficklin retired as a special assistant to the president and senior director for records and access management at the National Security Council.
HellaAbrasive @NoTime4YourShit
On a semi-related note: If we’re keeping it all the way real? Janet is just as an epochal figure as Michael.
HellaAbrasive @NoTime4YourShit
Janet’s influence is inherent in 3 generations of artists. She can legit claim everyone from Madonna to Tinashe as her spiritual daughters.
HellaAbrasive @NoTime4YourShit
You don’t believe Madonna was influenced by Janet? Check her pre & post Control videos.
HellaAbrasive @NoTime4YourShit
She went from culturally appropriating the style of Bronx latinas & preening in Marilyn Monroe dress-up to big budget epics.
HellaAbrasive @NoTime4YourShit
You don’t get an Express Yourself without a Miss You Much. But I’m sleep.
HellaAbrasive @NoTime4YourShit
Janet’s influenced every female artist in her wake. Like, the scope of her accomplishments are stunning, to be quite honest.
HellaAbrasive @NoTime4YourShit
Prior to her, most female artists, especially black female artists were just expected to stand at a mic and sing.
HellaAbrasive @NoTime4YourShit
There were exceptions of course, Tina, Betty, LaBelle, but by the 80s Whitney had become the standard.
HellaAbrasive @NoTime4YourShit
That’s why Janet was such a revelation. Before her, the overall scope of black female artistic expression was severely limited.
HellaAbrasive @NoTime4YourShit
And before folks get in a lather about Janet not having enough rock credentials to be deemed worthy for rock & roll hall of fame induction?
HellaAbrasive @NoTime4YourShit
Let’s not forget she landed a #1 rock record, Black Cat, on BOTH the POP & R&B charts. What other black woman before or after her did that?
HellaAbrasive @NoTime4YourShit
The ONLY other Black female musician that matched Janet’s accomplishment re: Black Cat, was Donna Summer. And the way y’all sleep on HER?
HellaAbrasive @NoTime4YourShit
And if you believe Janet only became an icon solely because of her surname? Ask yourself how many solo hits Marie Osmond charted. Exactly.
HellaAbrasive @NoTime4YourShit
Hell, Latoya had Michael’s surname AND his new nose & still couldn’t become a star, even if her first couple of solo albums are unsung gems.
DALAYYYY @TheToast2016
NYTimes publishes a story saying Latino writers are too busy writing shows instead of complaining but where are all these Latino shows, tho?
DALAYYYY @TheToast2016
I’m talking about shows not on Univision and Telemundo. I know there’s Jane the Virgin & Telenovela but what else?
DALAYYYY @TheToast2016
And those shows JUST came on the air recently. I hope the writers quoted in the story weren’t complaining about Empire.
Haiti president steps down without successor in place
8 February 2016
Haiti’s President Michel Martelly has stepped down at the end of his term amid tension over how he is to be replaced.
No successor has yet been chosen as opposition supporters challenge a deal to select an interim leader.
The first day of carnival has been called off over the threat of more opposition protests.
Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, is still struggling to recover from a huge earthquake in 2010.
The last-minute deal aims to prevent the country from plunging into an immediate power vacuum.
In a speech, Mr Martelly said his biggest regret was that January’s presidential election had been postponed.
The runoff vote to elect his successor was shelved because of fears of violence and allegations of fraud.
https://twitter.com/TheObamaDiary/status/696464839418449920/photo/1
https://twitter.com/USATODAY/status/696471966274945024/photo/1
https://twitter.com/HuskyBro_Inc/status/696494768969224193/photo/1
https://twitter.com/NerdyWonka/status/696494222342430721/photo/1
hmmmmmm
NYT Columnist Maureen Dowd Accuses President Obama of ‘Using Race’ to Get Elected
Maureen Dowd, whose personal vendetta against Hillary Clinton is an increasing liability for the New York Times, attempts another vicious takedown of the Democratic frontrunner.
Dowd is the leading purveyor of Rovian anti-Hillary memes, sophisticated negative character frames crafted in conservative oppo shops to undermine Hillary’s candidacy. Dowd believes that as a woman, she is immune from claims of sexism, so her Hillary-bashing screeds are bursting at the seams with blatantly sexist language, lies and innuendo.
……………………
Dowd’s hate masquerading as an editorial is nothing new. She’s been doing this for two decades. But she got sloppy this time, slipping in a line accusing America’s first African American president of “using race” to get elected:
Her allies think mentioning her shouting is sexist, and sexism does swirl around Hillary, but her campaign cries sexism too often. In 2008, Barack Obama used race sparingly.
In the context of the previous sentence about Hillary’s campaign “crying sexism,” her insinuation about Barack Obama is crystal clear: he “used race” to get elected. It’s hard to imagine a benign interpretation of the word “used” in this instance.
http://bluenationreview.com/maureen-dowd-accuses-obama-of-using-race-to-get-elected/
https://twitter.com/jazziz2/status/696692697625718784?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
If Hillary and Bernie don’t bring this up in their ‘debate’ in Flint….
then they’re just playing games:
https://twitter.com/TheBaxterBean/status/696474638885502976/photo/1
This is no damn good, y’all, this privatization of the water supply in NJ. I look at these governors like Christie, Snyder, Scott, Ducey, etc.. and can’t figure how they get elected just to destroy entire states with their their right wing extremist ideology. I can’t understand how they get elected and re-elected.
From the article, file this under NO BRAINER. Privatized water systems will work as well as private prisons. This is bad news. These horrible right wing governors are really hurting their states, long term and with serious consequences.
“Governor Christie has sided with private water companies over our water supply,” stated Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “This law will raise rates, hurt consumers and businesses.”
…
Tittel added that water privatization’s track record shows it’s a no-win situation for the public.
“Privatization is one of the single biggest threats to clean water and public health. Privatization often leads to higher rates for services and worsen water quality. Studies have shown that when public services are privatized, corporate profits replace meeting the needs of consumers and the environment,” he said.
– See more at: http://thecontributor.com/christie-signs-bill-privatizing-new-jerseys-water-supply#sthash.zQGxLQSt.dpuf
https://twitter.com/BAM_FI/status/696500167055429632/photo/1
https://twitter.com/CBSThisMorning/status/696445820347031552/photo/1
That is still one of my favorite pictures of PBO and FLOTUS. The inauguration, her gown, his jacket, his leaning in like that, it’s too much. So spontaneous, what a truly great photo is all about, capturing THE moment.
https://twitter.com/SeanMcElwee/status/696178701025873920/photo/1
Rusty Redenbacher @rustymk2
Black folks been figuring out how to make victory outta losing forever. That’s how we got chitlins. I applaud Steve Harvey.
https://twitter.com/TheObamaDiary/status/696458940448665601/photo/1
Ha ha, and she did.
https://twitter.com/ATLBlackStar/status/696673358625247232/photo/1
Remember….women only support Bernie because they want the hookup..
……………………………………
pulling another receipt:
MONDAY, APR 14, 2008 05:47 AM CDT
Hey, Obama boys: Back off already!
Young women are growing increasingly frustrated with the fanatical support of Barack and gleeful bashing of Hillary.
REBECCA TRAISTER
http://www.salon.com/2008/04/14/obama_supporters/
Congratulations to the Bronoc for their Superbowl win.
We are classier than the racists, the bigots, the entitled. Manning isn’t the only player on the team. I just don’t care for all the attention the media showers on any of these players, especailly WHITE QBs
Nubyjas Wilborn ✔ @nwilborn19
Demaryius Thomas said he wanted to win so that he could shake Obama’s hand & thank him for pardoning his mother. He will do that now. Dope.
https://twitter.com/thacelebritea/status/696556878420164608/photo/1
Lisa @LivinNCin
If this is how you speak to a young black man in America, you are part of the problem. #BillRomanowski #CamNewton pic.twitter.com/PwJS9W5oXZ
skeptical brotha @skepticalbrotha
#BillRomanowski called #CamNewton a boy 2 reinforce his racially subordinate status & 2 put him in his place. period. the end. #SB50
skeptical brotha @skepticalbrotha
#BillRomanowski is a vicious racist w/ a history of brutality. his attack on #CamNewton is part of a pattern. #SB50 pic.twitter.com/k5wEHcI4Eb
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Good Mornin,g Rikyrah & Everyone!
Good morning, everyone