Closely related to sharks but with long, flat bodies and wing-like pectoral fins, they are ideally suited to swooping through the water yet seem equally at home in the air, so much so that they have earned the name “flying rays”.
Mobula rays can reach heights of more than two metres (6ft 6ins), remaining airborne for several seconds, but their landings are much less graceful, creating a loud bang as they belly-flop back into the sea.
********
Nature week is dedicated to Rikyrah’s co/worker/friend in Chicago who passed away. A lover of nature. This week is for you and your mentor, boo.
Amusing watching Barney Frank try to catch and correct himself after he impulsively responded to Nina Turner in true white man condescending, I’m ‘superior’, ‘know better than you’ and ‘who gave you permission’ and ‘how dare you’ form…
It can be argued that had Bernie Sanders had the necessary cooperation all these years to push forward and get things done on behalf of ordinary folks like he wanted to – and had any of these loudmouth, now Clinton-worshipping Democrats felt the need to do their jobs of representing their constituents properly – instead of just jollying, schmoozing and lining their pockets in what some assume to be a life-long appointment, a get rich quick scheme and a pension plan…so much more could have been done on behalf of the citizens who sent these folks to D.C…They never cared and instead mocked and resented Bernie Sanders for what they considered him being ‘too goody two shoes’ and refusing to play along and trying to ‘show them all up’…
The truth is that many of our Democratic members of Congress have been just as obstructive and undermining and as much the problem as the GOP…many Democrats are also owned and controlled by the same plutocrats who own the Republicans…and they have all done the bidding of their masters – which has also included not looking out for, but selling out the poor and middle class of this country to assuage their plutocrat owners…
Hard to imagine that Melania did much to help today…
She not only sounds even more convincingly and defiantly a firm believer than Trump, of the glob he mostly disingenuously spews to excite his red meat devouring crowd…
Her heavily Eastern- European accent with all that it evokes from history…and how obviously non-American it sounds, couldn’t possibly be what the red meat crowd mean when they insist they love America, hate that it’s been overtaken by immigrants…and want to make America great again…
But then again, she isn’t black…so just maybe..
Hey Fam,
James Carville is ‘vexed’…’vexed’ I tell you…Or so he insists…And I believe him…
LOL…
So ‘vexed’ he says, that a ‘non-Democrat’ – no, a ‘socialist’ – even has the nerve to try to upend their well-laid plans… nah, the chances of a ‘real Democrat’ getting in to do ‘great things’ now that the Republican party is in turmoil…and that green behind the ears guy we hated is done and we can get Hillary in ..but with the help of guy we hate and his silly coalition…
How dare a ‘socialist’…
James Carville who has spent the past 8 years insulting, mocking and undermining the duly elected Democratic President and leader of his own party, is now effusive in opportunistically invoking said President he previously mocked and insulted – and invoking said President’s accomplishments he previously poo-poo’ed – as he now tries to makes the case for clearing out that ‘non-Democrat’ Bernie (..and ‘socialist’ no less – now that he’s winning!), to install Hillary the ‘real Democrat’…
Wonders shall never seize..
Someone please tell James Carville that his transparent and tiresome act wore thin years ago…his simple, greedy, corrupt, self-serving, opportunistic a**s is no longer slick enough…and his dated playbook played out years ago…The ground has shifted under them, and only the foolish and bought and paid for like him, are buying what he and the Clintons are selling…
Oh, and let Carville know that Bernie Sanders may have been identifying for years as an Independent, but that’s because the Democratic Party has not been living up to it’s name, principles etc. in forever…Additionally, Democrats had no problem caucusing with him – and most importantly, assuming, counting and relying on him as one of their own all these years as they used him to make up their numbers when they came up short…
But most importantly, let James Carville know that Bernie Sanders is actually a truer and more principled Democrat in the best sense of its meaning, than Hillary Clinton will ever be..
And James, we’re still not voting for Hillary…and especially not so you and your greedy, corrupt ilk can move back in, take over and get right back to your messy ways..
they are who we thought they were
…………
Harrisburg GOP begins budget strategizing
Updated: APRIL 3, 2016 — 1:08 AM EDT
The most detailed – and pointed – GOP battle plan came in an email from Rep. Brad Roae, who for nearly a decade has represented Crawford County, in the state’s northwest corner, and serves on the Finance and Human Services Committees.
[…]
Roae called for closing state-owned residential facilities for individuals with intellectual disabilities, reversing the Medicaid expansion that added coverage to hundreds of thousands of uninsured Pennsylvanians, selling State Stores, and repealing prevailing wage policies.
He said arts grants and even the state meteorologist may have to go. And he proposed ending higher-education grants for students studying “poetry or some other Pre Walmart major.”
Roae also left no doubt as to his view of their role: “Everything needs to be flat funded or cut. People elected us to cut spending, not raise taxes.
https://twitter.com/Dudette9t9/status/717096947610435584?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Fabulous video! Thanks, Rikyrah!
https://twitter.com/xonecole/status/716691758340505603?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/ClaraJeffery/status/711682034721095682?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/AriBerman/status/709407850745888768?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/Wonkblog/status/711870633659994112?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/adamjohnsonNYC/status/712400537891766272?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/adamjohnsonNYC/status/712406131591741440?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/thetrudz/status/716956989587394560?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
WATCH SHEAMOISTURE CALL OUT THE “OTHERNESS” OF BLACK HAIR CARE AISLES IN THEIR FIRST TV COMMERCIAL
April 4, 2016 ‐ By Brande Victorian
http://madamenoire.com/624793/sheamoisture-tv-commercial/
https://twitter.com/NerdyWonka/status/717070399855398913/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://youtu.be/zOkumU5sGWA
https://youtu.be/ZjQdAxVMRo8
https://twitter.com/ObamaFoundation/status/714850749629358080?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/mattdpearce/status/717020833508683777?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/NBA/status/717026550646980608?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/shadowandact/status/717038534213910528?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/shadowandact/status/717033615201333248?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
The thought..
the mere THOUGHT…
that they’d nominate someone who didn’t even run?
I’m still sitting here, trying to wrap my head around it.
https://twitter.com/Marmel/status/717000278126407682?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Hasn’t eliihaas being saying that Trump is the least of our worries?
They slid Zombie-eyed granny killer in the Speaker slot to get him steps closer to the WH.
Paul Ryan is over-rated, talked up as an intellectual.. yet he’s so not READY FOR PRIMETIME.
Kasich ALSO TOO. being touted as reasonable, quiet, git-her done dude.
Don’t sleep folks, they’re ALL SHEEPS IN WOLVES CLOTHING.
LOL Ametia…
I really can’t wait to see this:
Watch Sophie Okonedo & Dennis Haysbert in First Clip from BBC1/America Drama Series, ‘Undercover’
By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act
April 1, 2016 at 12:02PM
Sophie Okonedo and Adrian Lester star in the upcoming political thriller “Undercover,” which premieres on BBC One next month.
Dennis Haysbert is also part of the cast of Peter Moffat’s original 6-part series, which is described as bold and gripping, starring Okonedo as lead character Maya, who’s about to become the first black Director of Public Prosecutions, and Adrian Lester as her husband, Nick. Just as her life comes under intense public scrutiny, Maya discovers that her husband and the father of her children, has been lying to her for years. Is he concealing an affair, or is it something altogether more sinister? If she digs up his real past, will she be safe? And who wants her in this new job and why? Twenty years ago, Nick was a fearless and dedicated undercover officer, infiltrating organisations considered a danger to society because of their political beliefs. Nick built himself a fake past and now with his wife unsuspecting, and his conscience killing him – his secret identity may compromise the new Director of Public Prosecutions – Maya, his wife.
Haysbert plays a man who has been wrongly imprisoned and has been on death row for 20 years.
BET Acquires Soul Train Franchise – TV, Broadway Play, Concert Tour + More in the Works
Photo of Tambay A. Obenson
By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act
April 4, 2016 at 12:23PM
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/bet-acquires-soul-train-franchise-tv-broadway-play-concert-tour-more-in-the-works-20160404
https://twitter.com/BeschlossDC/status/716980380792782852?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
MONDAY, APR 4, 2016 05:00 AM CDT
The Democratic Party’s great White flight: How racism spurred a demographic reckoning
Some argue that whites are voting less for Dems owing to a lack of progressivism. The data tells a
different story
SEAN MCELWEE
In a recent New York Times piece, Nick Confessore explores why Donald Trump has proven so successful with whites. His piece, while admirable in many ways, obfuscates the role of race in Trump’s rise and the white working class abandoning the Democratic Party.
One theory for why whites are leaving the Democratic Party is because Obama is not progressive enough. This impression has been heightened by recent comments made by Susan Sarandon, who said she wasn’t sure if she could vote for the similarly centrist Hillary Clinton in a general election.
Did whites not vote for Obama because he wasn’t progressive enough?
The simple answer is no. A vast political science literature shows that racism is indeed what is causing whites to leave the Democratic party. Explanations that obscure the importance of race simply cannot explain the voting patterns of white Americans.
American National Elections Studies (ANES) includes a series of questions that ask respondents to place themselves, the parties and the candidates on a one to seven scale. By comparing how a respondent places Obama and themselves, I can examine the percentage of Americans who place themselves to the left of Obama. I examined four questions: government services and spending, guaranteed jobs, ideology and government funded health insurance. (See the questions here.) I examined all whites and the white working class (whites without a college degree).
On none of the questions did more than 20 percent of whites (or working class whites) report being more liberal than Obama. Only 1 percent of whites (and a bit less than 1 percent of working class whites) reported being more liberal than Obama on all four questions. In contrast, 37 percent of whites and 31 percent of the white working class were more conservative than Obama on all four questions.
However, there are further problems with the theory that Obama’s lack of progressivism caused whites to leave the party. Examining only the ideological scale, I find 74 percent of whites (and 66 percent working class whites) who identify as being more liberal ideologically than Obama identified as Democrats. Only 15 percent (and 20 percent) of those more liberal than Obama identify as Republican. Further, most whites who are to the left of Obama still voted for him. Among whites more liberal than Obama, 22 percent did not vote, 68 percent voted for Obama, and 10 percent voted for Romney.
MONDAY, APR 4, 2016 07:00 AM CDT
His most terrifying interview yet: Why Trump’s sit down with Bob Woodward should have America petrified
In a conversation with the Washington Post, Trump demonstrated exactly why he’s so dangerous in 2016
HEATHER DIGBY PARTON
http://www.salon.com/2016/04/04/his_most_terrifying_interview_yet_why_trumps_sit_down_with_bob_woodward_should_have_america_petrified/?source=newsletter
That is one mish mash of ignorant ramblings from a self-entitled rich white IGNORAMOUS.
If only he allowed himself to be prepared and better primed by a brain trust of expensive advisers and strategists who know the ins and outs of politics, the politically correct language, wording and acceptable reactions, the right focus group approved answers…
If only…
He’d be completely acceptable and reacting and sounding just as dishonestly spot on as Hillary Clinton, Mitt Romney and all the others..
LOL..
https://twitter.com/3ChicsPolitico/status/717007057816133632
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ylomy1Aw9Hk
The 3 dates and times HRC offered to debate in NY:
April 4th, During an NCAA tourney,
April 14th evening (Tax Deadline),
and
April 15th in the MORNING, ON GOOD MORNING AMERICA. (George Stephanopoulos, a CLINTONISTA!)
https://twitter.com/AriBerman/status/717000714816471040
MONDAY, APR 4, 2016 04:57 AM CDT
Hillary is sick of the left: Why Bernie’s persistence is a powerful reminder of Clinton’s troubling centrism
Bernie Sanders has stuck around longer than anyone could have imagined, and it’s revealing Clinton’s true colors
CONNOR LYNCH
Heading into the final months of the presidential primaries, Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton and her team seem to be increasingly fed up with the Sanders campaign, which has remained competitive since the first votes were cast in Iowa, and continues to dog Clinton from the left. Early last week, Clinton’s chief strategist Joel Benenson remarked that if Sanders wanted another debate, he would have to “tone down” his “very negative” campaign, which — as I discussed in a previous article — is an absurd allegation, considering the Clinton camp has held a virtual monopoly on negative campaigning.
(True, there are some nasty and vulgar Sanders supporters on social media, who Sanders has condemned; but we are talking about the campaigns, not random users on the internet, and Clinton has plenty of unpleasant online enthusiasts as well.)
On Thursday, Clinton herself vented about the Sanders campaign at a rally in New York, and when confronted by a Greenpeace activist about her financial ties to the fossil fuel industry, she replied testily: “I am so sick of the Sanders campaign lying about me. I’m sick of it.”
We’re SICK of you, Hillary.
What you’re really sick of is the FACT that Bernie Sanders is giving you a run, despite you and your cohorts efforts to suppress our votes and claim victory for you before primaries are complete.
GIRL BYE
[facebook url="https://www.facebook.com/NatureofNaturee/videos/991677540869689/" /]
Been saying this for awhile..
there is no difference between what Trump said and what the GOP is doing on the STATE LEVEL.
…………
MONDAY, APR 4, 2016 06:59 AM CDT
This is all the proof we need: Donald Trump isn’t the only Republican who wants to punish women for abortion
The GOP frontrunner has earned opprobrium for his anti-choice statements, but don’t be fooled. He isn’t alone
BOB CESCA
If Ronald Reagan’s “11th Commandment” for Republicans was “Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican,” then the 12th Commandment could potentially be, “Thou shalt not admit that Republican want to punish women who have abortions.” If these were both codified into Republican dogma, Donald Trump would be assured a one-way ticket to political hell, because he’s clearly violated both.
Once again, a major political figure has gaffed by accidentally admitting the truth.
As we’re all aware by now, Donald Trump’s first instinct when asked by MSNBC’s Chris Matthews whether women who have illegal abortions should be punished was to answer: “Yes.”
TRUMP: The answer is there has to be some form of punishment.
MATTHEWS: For the woman?
TRUMP: Yes.
Within hours, Trump’s staffers backpedaled on the issue, suggesting that only doctors should be punished and that women are “victims.” Of course this makes no sense in the context of how anti-choice Republicans regard abortion as literally homicide, at best, and a holocaust against the unborn at worst. If that’s truly the case, and we have no reason to doubt they believe it, then women who have illegal abortions following some sort of nationwide ban would, at the very least, be the masterminds of the crime — voluntarily requesting the so-called “murder” of fetuses. Under this future ban, it’d be the hypothetical equivalent of a wife hiring a guy to kill her husband.
In fact, I suspect that if abortion is banned and sanctioned as murder, then women would have to be held criminally accountable. If it’s codified as murder, there’s no way around it without unleashing every criminal defense attorney who’d use a penalty-free abortion ban as precedent to exonerate convicted murderers. Rand Paul, for instance, has twice introduced what’s known as “fetal personhood” laws, granting human embryos and fetuses full rights and protections under the law, which would, logically, make it homicide to kill a fetus, just as it would a birthed person.
Republicans, however, appear to be totally flummoxed by this obvious conclusion.
When asked about Trump’s non-gaffe gaffe, John Kasich, who is arguably far more radicalized against reproductive rights than Trump, told George Stephanopoulos on Sunday that punishment is a matter best left up to the states, but that women probably shouldn’t be punished.
KASICH: Well, that will be up to the states to figure out what they want to do. And, you know, obviously, when we have seen these comments that have come out earlier this week, it’s the first time I’ve seen the pro-life and the pro-choice people come together to say, you know, that we’ll have to basically work this out and trying to punish a woman would not be the appropriate way to behave.
They’re ALL
CUT.FROM.THE.SAME.INSANE.MISOYNIST, WHITE.MALE-ENTITLED.RACIST.
CLOTH
MONDAY, APR 4, 2016 07:22 AM CDT
Donald Trump takes to Fox News to lay the groundwork to legitimately steal the GOP nomination from the Republican Party
“The endorsements [of politicians] don’t mean anything,” he said Sunday, what matters are “the people”
SCOTT ERIC KAUFMAN
During his #TrumpTownHall with Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren on Sunday, Donald Trump rejected the idea that he’d need the endorsement of Texas Senator Ted Cruz to unite the party and put him in the White House.
In his typical manner of wanting and having it both ways, Trump told Van Susteren that “I’m not a huge believer in endorsements, although I’ve had some that have had a huge impact.”
He went on to say that Cruz “doesn’t have to endorse me,” because “I think Ted Cruz would be a terrible president. I don’t want him to be under any pressure. Don’t endorse me. It’s not going to have any impact. The people know what’s going on.”
PHUCK.OUTTA.HERE.
………………………….
SPOKANE, Wash. — The actions of two rural Oregon sheriffs during an armed standoff at a national wildlife refuge were striking: one worked with federal officials to end the siege while the other questioned the FBI’s authority and offered words of support for the occupiers.
Sheriff Dave Ward of Harney County, where the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge is located, cooperated with federal and state police, urging standoff leader Ammon Bundy and his followers to stand down and respect the law.
Meanwhile in Grant County, immediately to the north, Sheriff Glenn Palmer called the occupiers “patriots.” When Bundy and others were arrested during a Jan. 26 traffic stop, they were on their way to his county. An Arizona rancher who police fatally shot when they say he reached for a gun shouted he was on his way to meet Palmer.
Palmer is a member of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, a group that bills itself as “the last line of defense” against a federal government they contend overreaches on gun control and other issues. They see sheriffs as the ultimate law enforcement authority in their dispute with the federal government over control of federal lands.
The group’s founder said they are recruiting people to run against sheriff’s that don’t support their cause and that the group’s website includes lists of county sheriffs and whether they need to be “recalled or replaced.”
Critics say the group’s views are far outside the mainstream. Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which for decades has advocated against groups it considers extremist, called the CSPOA “a remarkably radical organization, considering who their members are.”
“Many constitutional sheriffs believe they can pass a local law and forbid federal authorities from coming into a county,” he said. “That is patently false.’
Richard Mack, a former Arizona sheriff and CSPOA founder, said he didn’t support the occupation of the wildlife refuge, “but I understand the complete frustration people have in this country towards this government.” Mack said the group will work to defeat Ward in the November election.
Mack’s group, founded in 2011, claims more than 400 of the nation’s more than 3,000 county sheriffs support its positions, which hold that elected county sheriffs should oppose federal agents whose conduct appears to violate the U.S. Constitution.
https://twitter.com/BerniceKing/status/716986022039527424
https://twitter.com/TPM/status/716994311754293248
https://twitter.com/georgikantchev/status/716774009778663425/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Exactly as I discerned them…
Had them all pegged as crooks..
Where some flagrantly used their own names – didn’t trust friend or relative not to make off with their loot – others only needed one relative as cover, while Putin needed more than few folks to hide his loot…must have been quite a bit…
LOL..
https://twitter.com/BAM_FI/status/716941244681863168/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
THE LIGHT, OH THE LIGHT from these bright Souls.
It’s about EVIL, the NEGATIVE snuffing out the LIGHT, the GOOD, the POSTIVE
https://twitter.com/SCOTUSblog/status/716990405741572096
https://twitter.com/jpscasteras/status/716987579476746245
https://twitter.com/EricWolfson/status/716964841295126528
like we don’t already know this.
……………..
Hillary’s atrocious race record: Her stances over decades have been painful and wrong
“The idea that she is or ever has been a stalwart advocate for black empowerment is absolutely ludicrous”
MUSA AL-GHARBI
SUNDAY, APR 3, 2016 04:59 AM CDT
As an African-American, I have struggled to understand why so many of my black brothers and sisters seem to prefer Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders.
Some have argued that black people are terrified at the prospect of a Donald Trump presidency, and so they rally around Clinton under the belief that she is more electable in the November general contest. However, looking at the election results so far it seems clear that Bernie Sanders actually stands the best chance of prevailing over Trump.
Then there’s the notion that Hillary Clinton is somehow preserving Barack Obama’s legacy: just a few short months ago she was going out of her way to distance herself from the Obama administration because she believed it was politically expedient to do so. Now, under threat from Sanders’ insurgency, she is cynically trying to sell herself as Obama’s right hand. But of course, the moment she locks down the nomination she’ll go back to drawing contrast–the Clintons have always been leaders at “vote capturing.”
“…Then there’s the notion that Hillary Clinton is somehow preserving Barack Obama’s legacy: just a few short months ago she was going out of her way to distance herself from the Obama administration because she believed it was politically expedient to do so. Now, under threat from Sanders’ insurgency, she is cynically trying to sell herself as Obama’s right hand…”
LOL..
They don’t disagree with his ideas.
They only disagree with HOW HE SAYS IT.
IF he was speaking in Frank Luntz-approved dogwhistles, they’d all be lined up behind him.
,………………………………..
CNN’s Donald Trump disgrace: Trump coverage is the smoking gun, CNN is the corpse
Also: David Brooks, Ross Douthat and the intellectual right gyrate to pretend Trumpism wasn’t always part of GOP
NEAL GABLER, BILLMOYERS.COM
SUNDAY, APR 3, 2016 09:30 AM CDT
If Donald Trump didn’t constitute, in this year’s favorite word, an existential threat to American democracy, the contortions into which he has thrown the Republican Party, as they simultaneously try to thwart him while espousing his basic policies, would be hilarious.
On the other hand, the contortions into which he has thrown the media are less hilarious, because they ultimately have more bearing on the outcome of the presidential race. What Trump’s candidacy has managed to do is reveal fault lines in the media that usually are buried beneath the typical journalistic blather, the groupthink and the feigned objectivity of the mainstream media — and the reflexive lockstep partisanship in the right-wing media. (The liberals, with a pox on both Trump and his GOP rivals, get to sit this one out.)
true.
so true.
SUNDAY, APR 3, 2016 01:00 PM CDT
Donald Trump is the pinnacle of American stupidity: Why his campaign consummates decades of rising anti-intellectualism
It’s not that we’ve never seen anyone like Trump before. He’s just finishing the job begun by Reagan, Bush & Palin
CONOR LYNCH
During Tuesday’s Republican town hall in Milwaukee, it was not a candidate, but the host, Anderson Cooper, who had the best line of the night, when he told Donald Trump — in the politest way possible — that he was acting like a fatuous little boy. “Sir, with all due respect, that’s the argument of a 5-year-old,” said the CNN anchor, after Trump defended his attack on Ted Cruz’s wife by saying that he “didn’t start it,” in just the same manner a child who is unable to admit any wrongdoing (or someone with narcissistic personality disorder) might.
Of course, while the Donald is nearly 70 years old, and his stout physique and leathery skin display what several decades of gravity, tanning booths and well-done steaks can accomplish, his temperament has remained fixed somewhere in the adolescent period of development. The billionaire has thrived off of petty insults, having defended the size of his junk (admittedly, he’s not the only grown man who feels the need to do this, but the only presidential candidate); threatened to “beat the crap out of” protesters; and, most recently, tweeted an unflattering picture of his opponent’s wife next to his supermodel trophy wife. Trump also speaks at a 4th–grade level — by far the lowest of all presidential candidates — and has offered almost nothing in terms of actual policy, just bravado about his superhuman deal-making abilities.
Mississippi landlord evicts couple from RV park after learning they were an interracial couple.
The Clarion-Ledger 3:24 p.m. CDT April 3, 2016
TUPELO — A Mississippi RV park owner evicted an interracial couple because of the color of their skin.
“Me and my husband, not ever in 10 years have we experienced any problem,” said Erica Flores Dunahoo, who is Hispanic and Native American and whose husband, a National Guardsman, is African-American. “Nobody’s given us dirty looks. This is our first time.”
More than a half-century after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 barred discrimination on the basis of race, Gene Baker acknowledged asking the interracial couple to leave his RV park in Tupelo.
Baker, who lives in Aberdeen, said he only did it because “the neighbors were giving me such a problem.”
Obama to Host International Jazz Day Concert at White House
WASHINGTON (AP) — International Jazz Day, one of the world’s biggest celebrations of jazz, is coming to the White House.
President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, plan to host a blockbuster concert April 29 featuring Aretha Franklin, Al Jarreau, Sting, Herbie Hancock and many other established and up-and-coming musical artists. The show is to be televised by ABC the following day, on April 30 — the fifth anniversary of International Jazz Day.
Scores of musical performances and educational and community service programs are also planned for across the District of Columbia, in all 50 states and in practically every country, said Tom Carter, president of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz. The jazz institute and UNESCO sponsor International Jazz Day. It was established to highlight jazz music as a unifying force for freedom and creativity.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/obama-host-international-jazz-day-879441
HMMMMMM…
https://twitter.com/jazziz2/status/716108448312737792?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
me too…they vote against their own economic self-interest for GENERATIONS…
but, I’m supposed to want Dem Candidates to waste their time on those who CHOOSE to ‘ Cling to the Whiteness.’
PHUCK.OUTTA.HERE.
https://twitter.com/jazziz2/status/716799107361325056?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/NerdyWonka/status/716794819381633024?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/mistyonpointe/status/716254463741308929?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/AP/status/716732274000150528?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/BlkHistStudies/status/716577538034823168?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/Astro_Jeff/status/716605302624411648?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/MordiOfficial/status/716898123893837824?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
uh huh
uh huh
https://twitter.com/latimes/status/716973703247081472?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/Beautyofdrawing/status/716859297343283200?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Control of state courts becomes a top political battleground
Apr. 3, 2016 3:04 PM EDT
ATLANTA (AP) — Much attention is being paid to the U.S. Supreme Court vacancy, but equally partisan battles are being waged for control of state courts around the nation.
In states where voters elect Supreme Court judges, millions of dollars are being spent to reshape the courts for years to come. Judicial watchdogs say spending by national groups overwhelmingly favors judges on the right of the political spectrum, and is mostly aimed at maintaining or improving the courts’ responses to corporate interests while countering state-level spending by labor unions and other interest groups.
Lawmakers are busy too, debating proposals to tip the balance of power by expanding or reducing their court’s size, or making it easier to impeach judges whose rulings upset the legislative majority.
“State courts are the final word on a host of state law issues that have high stakes for businesses’ bottom lines, legislatures’ agendas and the rights of individuals,” said Alicia Bannon with the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University. “Who sits on state courts can have a profound impact on the legal landscape in a state, and special interest groups and politicians are increasingly paying attention.”
State supreme court elections have begun to resemble the rough-and-tumble, high-dollar campaigns associated with races for governor or Congress. Voters in about two dozen states are casting ballots for state supreme court justices this year. Spending for two Arkansas Supreme Court seats alone topped $1.6 million, setting a state record for TV ad buys in a judicial election.
The Judicial Crisis Network, which is spending millions campaigning against President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland, and the Republican State Leadership Committee were successful in seeing their candidates elected, including a new chief justice who says he’s guided by “prayer, not politics.”
https://twitter.com/soukieg/status/716737303054532608?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/postandcourier/status/716596202368671746?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://youtu.be/-j2ivQVNA3E
https://twitter.com/theonlyadult/status/716785627816202240?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/BobbyCervantes/status/716819785099534336?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
honestly…don’t care.
……………
FRIDAY, APR 1, 2016 03:22 PM CDT
Uh-oh: Where does all the white rage go when Donald Trump loses?
They’re too angry to sit still. Too many to ignore. But too few to elect a president. Where do they go after Trump?
MICHAEL BOURNE
For all Donald Trump’s dark pronouncements about immigrants and Muslims and the sporadic fistfights at his rallies, the Republican frontrunner has so far channeled the rage and fear felt by his constituents into an election campaign. Violence is never far from the surface at a Trump rally, and as has happened with sickening regularity in recent weeks, it occasionally breaks through in wild sucker punches and outright beatings of protesters, but the goal of the Trump campaign could not be more conventionally political: to propel its candidate to the Republican Party nomination, and from there, to the presidency.
But what happens when his campaign fails, as it almost certainly will? Trump is openly at war with his own party, and even if that badly splintered organization magically unites behind him after the convention, there simply are not enough angry white people in America to elect him president. Where will all that anger, which has been slowly building among America’s white working class for half a century, go once it is left without a viable political outlet?
uh huh
uh huh
SUNDAY, APR 3, 2016 02:30 PM CDT
The empty charter school dream: “Togetherness” sides with smug hipster parents and falls apart
The HBO dramedy’s anti-public school plot exposes its main characters’ true colors—and torpedoes the show
SONIA SARAIYA
Last year, in advance of “Togetherness”’ lovely season one finale, a person who knows a lot more about Los Angeles school districts than I do wrote a piece here in Salon about how completely broken the show’s perspective on charter schools is. Joshua Leibner, a former LAUSD teacher, eloquently explains the hypocrisies of the show’s approach to children’s education. As a result, he explains, he is pretty fed up with the show by the end of the first season.
I wasn’t there—yet. Ostensibly in the name of character arcs and the willing suspension of disbelief—and more because of how beautiful that closing scene was—I gave the show a pass. I was enamored enough of the characters that creators Mark and Jay Duplass showcased in “Togetherness” that I was willing to chalk up Michelle (Melanie Lynskey)’s sudden transformation into a charter-school organizer as part of her own internal transformation from a dissatisfied stay-at-home mom to a woman with her own voice and her own ideas.
…………………….
This season, that has all changed. For a show that can be so self-aware about marital dynamics and Hollywood culture, the charter school subplot is a glaring blind spot, one that is given more and more screentime as the season progresses. No lessons are learned from critiques like Leibner’s of the charter school plot from season one; if anything, season two demonstrates a weird entrenching in a political stance that subverts the other positive elements of the show. If these characters are asking for our empathy despite seeming like the exact replicas of the privileged gentrifiers that are a dime a dozen on television these days, investing four different characters’ energy into the politicized belief that a charter school will solve their problems is not a very good strategy.
In the second season, Michelle becomes the sole organizer of the charter school; her former collaborator and former crush shies away from the project after she ends things with him, and her husband moves out of their house after learning about her (brief) affair. She finds a new collaborator, in the form of powerbroker-turned-homemaker Anna (Katie Aselton)—only to learn that Anna is sabotaging Michelle’s charter to introduce her own. The arc of “Togetherness”’ season two, which continues tonight and ends next Sunday, April 10, is about Michelle shaking off these major obstacles to succeed anyway.
And though I understand the character’s motivations (and think that Lynskey is incredible in the role), it’s a profoundly unsatisfying arc. When Michelle is motivated by consideration of and a sense of mission in charter schools, instead of desperation, she becomes an increasingly frustrating character, one who can’t articulate what she wants to keep her kids safe from in public schools but is driven almost wholly by that impulse.
It’s the Conservative Movement That’s Breaking
by BooMan
Sun Apr 3rd, 2016 at 03:01:02 PM EST
As good as this piece is, it’s missing something critical. Profs. Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson have identified why the Republicans have managed to hit high-water marks in the states and in the House of Representatives during the same era in which they’ve done very poorly on the presidential level. What they don’t consider, however, is that the Republican Party has no necessary relationship to the Conservative Movement, nor does the balance of its fiscal, defense, and socially conservative factions have to remain constant.
Donald Trump can’t break the Grand Old Party, but he can reshuffle it. Whether he does or doesn’t, however, the Republicans are about to have a reckoning.
It’s true that the Republicans are fairly comfortable as an opposition party. Having spent most of the time since FDR’s election in 1933 in the congressional minority, they are suspicious of federal power, contemptuous of federal programs, and ill-suited for the job of running our federal agencies. They don’t want to lose presidential elections, but their higher priority is being able to obstruct the normal functioning of government rather than see to it that it runs smoothly.
For social conservatives, they want local control of schools and the right to discriminate. Fiscal conservatives want lower taxes and less intrusive regulations. Military hawks want money spent on military hardware, not school lunches and addiction recovery programs.
But things have been coming apart for a while now, and Donald Trump really has nothing to do with how the fissures have begun to open up within the Conservative Movement. While social conservatives want local control, what they want more than anything else is to control the courts, particularly with the long term goal of banning abortion. They cannot accomplish that if they keep losing presidential elections. Their concerns are the primary reason why the Senate Republicans will not capitulate on Scalia’s seat until after the ballots are cast in November. The party can’t afford to demoralize their Christian foot soldiers.
The business community wants lows taxes and lax regulations, but they also want our bills paid on time and they’d like to see substantial infrastructure spending. The bargain they made with the social conservatives doesn’t include defaulting on our debts and letting our bridges crumble. They also want free trade agreements and relatively liberal immigration policies. And they don’t want their corporate brands sullied by association with anti-gay or anti-Latino bigotry.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2016/4/3/1512/16341
https://twitter.com/newworlddd555/status/686023833422315520?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/MatthewACherry/status/710687782914510848?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
But there are so many more even more beautiful, heartwarming, compelling images, videos etc. off and on record, of FLOTUS and kids and young people – and people in general…that for some reason never makes it out there – and are not shared with the public…
I know, because I see them…as I stumble across 3rd party reports and pictures of her – even by local news and print media…accounts of her at mostly not covered but impactful events…as I leisurely browse social media like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter as a non-participant, but one who is curious enough when I have the time, to see what’s out there…I see loads of beautiful pictures with accompanying heartwarming stories of encounters with FLOTUS – in front and behind the scenes – on so many social media accounts on different platforms..
That not much of these wonderful and powerful images of her are put out there officially – (never mind that she and her important formal activities barely get a mention in the crucially important documented for posterity weekly West Wing Week videos) – and especially as there’s been such an unrelenting, focused and disconcerted effort to chip away at her being and reputation, and to thoroughly discredit and tarnish her with horrendously negative smear attacks…Attacks that like it or not have taken a toll and in some ways have been effective and have actually harmed her and her reputation in some quarters and among some low-information consumers….These are some of the things that not only make any thinking person go hmmmm…but leave many like me extremely frustrated and wondering who’s undermining the historic black First Lady….what’s up with that…and why have they been allowed to..
https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/716953478246100992?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/GinsburgJobs/status/716947776723091457?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Dr. Martin Luther King: We will be the participants in a great building process that will make America a new nation.
This tree in South Africa is over 2000 years old and is known as the “The Tree of Life”.
Amazing
Phenomenal! The WISDOM of TREES….
Good morning, everyone!
Please feel free to post your videos or pics of nature and share with us as we honor Rikyrah and her friend. This video below just blows me away. So amazing!
[facebook url="https://www.facebook.com/NatureofNaturee/videos/1004677702903006/" /]
Good Morning, SG2 & Everyone. :))))
Truly amazing! animals are SOUL too.
thanks SG2
Sorry about your friend Rik…
May she rest in perfect peace …
Love and prayers to you and her loved ones..