Happy Monday, Everyone. This week, we’re featuring the music of Mr. Johnny Mathis.
By MCA-Music Corporation of America (management) – eBay itemphoto frontphoto back, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16940493
Wiki: John Royce “Johnny” Mathis (born September 30, 1935) is an American singer of popular music and jazz. Starting his career with singles of standard music, he became highly popular as an album artist, with several dozen of his albums achieving gold or platinum status and 73 making the Billboard charts to date. Johnny Mathis has sold well over 350 million records worldwide,according to Guinness Book of World Records writer and charts music historian Paul Gambaccini and other sources. This makes Mathis the third biggest selling artist of the 20th century.
Although he is frequently described as a romantic singer, his discography includes jazz, traditional pop, Brazilian music, Spanish music, soul music, rhythm and blues, soft rock, Broadway theatre, Tin Pan Alley standards, some blues and country songs, and even a few disco songs for his album Mathis Magic in 1979. Mathis also recorded six albums of Christmas music. In a 1968 interview, Mathis cited Lena Horne, Nat King Cole, and Bing Crosby among his musical influences.
Early life
Mathis was born in Gilmer, Texas, United States, in 1935,the fourth of seven children of Clem Mathis and his wife, Mildred Boyd.The family moved to San Francisco, California, settling on 32nd Ave. in the Richmond District, where Johnny grew up. His father had worked in vaudeville, and when he saw his son’s talent, he bought an old upright piano for $25 and encouraged him. Mathis began learning songs and routines from his father. His first song was “My Blue Heaven.” Mathis started singing and dancing for visitors at home, at school, and at church functions.
When he was 13, voice teacher Connie Cox accepted him as her student in exchange for work around her house. Johnny studied with Cox for six years, learning vocal scales and exercises, voice production, classical, and operatic singing. He is one of the relatively few popular singers who received years of professional voice training that included opera. The first band he sang with was formed by his high school friend Merl Saunders. Mathis eulogized him at his funeral in 2008, thanking him for giving him his first chance as a singer.
Mathis was a star athlete at George Washington High School in San Francisco. He was a high jumper and hurdler, and he played on the basketball team. In 1954, he enrolled at San Francisco State University on an athletic scholarship, intending to become an English teacher and a physical education teacher.[
Career
In San Francisco while singing at a Sunday afternoon jam session with a friend’s jazz sextet at the Black Hawk Club, Mathis attracted the attention of the club’s co-founder, Helen Noga. She became Mathis’ music manager, and in September 1955, after Noga had found Mathis a job singing weekends at Ann Dee’s 440 Club, she learned that George Avakian, head of Popular Music A&R at Columbia Records, was on vacation near San Francisco. After repeated calls, Noga finally persuaded Avakian to come hear Mathis at the 440 Club. After hearing Mathis sing, Avakian sent his record company a telegram stating: “Have found phenomenal 19-year-old boy who could go all the way. Send blank contracts.”
At San Francisco State, Mathis had become noteworthy as a high jumper, and in 1956 he was asked to try out for the U.S. Olympic Team that would travel to Melbourne, Australia, that November. Mathis had to decide whether to go to the Olympic trials or to keep his appointment in New York City to make his first recordings. On his father’s advice, Mathis opted to embark on a professional singing career. His LP record album was released in late 1956 instead of waiting until the first quarter of 1957.
Mathis’s first record album, Johnny Mathis: A New Sound In Popular Song, was a slow-selling jazz album, but Mathis stayed in New York City to sing in nightclubs. His second album was produced by Columbia Records vice-president and record producer Mitch Miller, who helped to define the Mathis sound. Miller preferred that Mathis sing soft, romantic ballads, pairing him up with conductor and music arranger Ray Conniff, and later, Ray Ellis, Glenn Osser, and Robert Mersey. In late 1956, Mathis recorded two of his most popular songs: “Wonderful! Wonderful!” and “It’s Not For Me To Say”.
Also that year, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer signed him up to sing the latter song in the movie Lizzie (1957). Shortly afterwards, Mathis made his second film appearance for 20th Century Fox, singing the song “A Certain Smile” in the film of that title. He had small acting roles in both movies as a bar singer. This early visibility in two successful movies gave him mass exposure. His appearance on the popular TV program The Ed Sullivan Show in 1957 also helped increase his popularity. Critics called him “the velvet voice”.[8] Mathis also appeared during this period on ABC’s The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, as did fellow African-American entertainers Ella Fitzgerald and Pearl Bailey.
Yes!
Ritchie Torres has endorsed Bernie…
Ritchie is the NYC youngest City Council member who was raised in Public Housing by his single mum…
Bernie Sanders visited not one, but two Public Housing projects – yesterday and today…and unlike Hillary, Bernie was not there to remind the poor residents to get out there to cast their vote …Hillary had many years as Senator of New York and did diddly squat…
Good choice Ritchie…great judgement…Integrity and not opportunism…
We look forward to you leading young people in a better, more principled, ethical, humane and more progressive direction as part of a new Democratic youth leadership not just in New York, but around the country…
Tell them Nina Turner…tell them..
The same CBC members most of whom didn’t support then Senator Obama and were all cooning the loudest for Hillary…
These same CBC folks who were mostly MIA these past 8 years…
These same folks now want to ride now President Obama’s coattails for Hillary Clinton and for themselves…
And now Barney Frank is losing his mind because Nina Turner is telling too much truth…And playing defender of the honor of the CBC – accusing Nina Turner of denigrating the CBC…oh the horror…these folks are so transparent…
Maddow has been covering this.
…………………………
Special interest groups want to privatize the VA and nobody is paying attention
By Paul Glastris
APRIL 18, 2016
Should America’s veterans receive health care at hospitals and clinics run by the federal government, as they have for more than a century? Or should they be treated by private doctors and hospitals, with the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) picking up the tab?
This enormously important question will be discussed, and perhaps decided, at meetings on Monday and Tuesday of the Commission on Care. That’s a federally chartered group that is writing binding recommendations on the future of the VA.
If you’ve never heard of the Commission on Care, you’re not alone. Virtually none of the mainstream news outlets have covered its public hearings, which have been going on since the fall. This despite the fact that the VA health care system, with 300,000 employees and a $65 billion budget serving more than 9 million patients, is the federal government’s second largest enterprise after the Department of Defense.
The reason Washington is even considering such a radical restructuring of the VA has to do with widely publicized reports in 2014 that 40 veterans in Phoenix died waiting for first-time appointments with VA doctors. These reports led to bipartisan legislation mandating the creation of the commission. But as investigative journalist Alicia Mundy reveals in Washington Monthly, the reports turn out to have been baseless allegations cooked up by a Koch brothers-funded group, Concerned Veterans for America (CVA), and key Republicans lawmakers who ideologically favor the outsourcing of VA health care.
Hillary or Bust!
by Steven D
Mon Apr 18th, 2016 at 03:36:52 PM EST
I’ve finally come around, after seeing so many diaries on Daily Kos extolling her deserving qualities and virtues, to realizing that Hillary Clinton really is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known. Laugh all you want, but I can prove that she possesses each of those in abundance.
Kindness
She’s extraordinarily kind, for one thing.
“We have to send a clear message, just because your child gets across the border, that doesn’t mean the child gets to stay,” she said. “So, we don’t want to send a message that is contrary to our laws or will encourage more children to make that dangerous journey.”
Clinton said the main reason minors are coming is to escape violence in their home countries, predominantly Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.
Ah, yes, isn’t it sad so many parents feel they have no choice but to send their children away on a dangerous journey to the United States to escape violence in countries like Honduras. If only someone in a position of authority could have done something, anything to prevent the rise of this murderous, criminal regime which illegally ousted the democratically elected government, and replaced it with an ongoing horror show:
Honduras suffers from rampant crime and impunity for human rights abuses. The murder rate was again the highest in the world in 2014. The institutions responsible for providing public security continue to prove largely ineffective and remain marred by corruption and abuse, while efforts to reform them have made little progress.
If only someone in our government, rather than sending “$50 million in security aid” to these monsters from 2010-2014, had stood up to these gangsters and mass murderers and said this shall not pass! Alas, there was no one willing to fight for the poor people of Honduras.
A number of Clinton emails show how, starting shortly after the coup, HRC and her team shifted the deliberations on Honduras from the Organization of American States (OAS) – where Zelaya could benefit from the strong support of left-wing allies throughout the region – to the San José negotiation process in Costa Rica. There, representatives of the coup regime were placed on an equal footing with representatives of Zelaya’s constitutional government, and Costa Rican president Oscar Arias (a close U.S. ally) as mediator. Unsurprisingly, the negotiation process only succeeded in one thing: keeping Zelaya out of office for the rest of his constitutional mandate.
Such a pity.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2016/4/18/132113/252
https://www.instagram.com/p/BEW-pfiNNJM/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcGkj2dLb0I&ebc=ANyPxKqElrK1jXoYeY7yNgJ_g2TJcLQukKAoBlVSnHGf60PdTDa2A0_WyrsXUPikAHp7VakQ_Hyy1DJOgqhEQnMclItMJRC99g
My people, my people…
Jane Sanders: Clinton campaign distorting Bernie’s record
By ELIZA COLLINS 04/18/16 06:52 PM EDT
Jane Sanders said that the Clinton campaign has moved to another level of “undermining” her husband.
“The Clinton campaign has been a lot more undermining than we had ever seen before,” the wife of Vermont senator Bernie Sanders told SiriusXM’s Julie Mason on Monday.
“What do you mean by that?” Mason asked.
“Right after Wisconsin, when he won the eighth out of nine contests – primaries and caucuses – he was getting so much momentum that immediately we heard … the new strategy would be disqualify, defeat, and worry about uniting the party later,” Sanders said, referencing a CNN article that the Clinton campaign has disputed. “Because they had been careful. They know Bernie has brought so many people into the process they didn’t want to turn them off.”
Sanders said that the former secretary of state has been “saying very negative things about him” and said there was “a lot of misrepresentation and distortion of his record” during the debate.
“But he hasn’t fought dirty,” she said. “He’s defended himself and made it really clear when she was distorting the record.”
http://www.politico.com/blogs/2016-dem-primary-live-updates-and-results/2016/04/jane-sanders-bernie-clinton-hillary-222114
https://twitter.com/SkidneyVee/status/722221302983958529
LOL..Poor thing…decisions, decisions…
https://twitter.com/jkfoster12/status/722215461761331201
Meanwhile the whole world is looking to mould their first ladies in the image of our spectacular FLOTUS…Even as they enviously malign, demean and try to maliciously discredit her…
As Ametia so succinctly stated with that earlier Youtube video post…you don’t know what you have until your well runs dry…LOL..
This is a very terribly translated spanish article about Argentinean president, Mauricio Macri…
Argentina president hires coach to make his wife Juliana Awada like Michelle Obama
“…The State appointed a “coach” to tell the wife of the President to say, where to go and how to behave in political arena.
Mauricio Macri is very interested in the profile Juliana Awada go beyond that usually have the first Argentine Damas (except the role fulfilled Cristina Fernandez between 2003 and 2007), most linked to the company of the President at specific times that a strong political presence. This desire of the President is the reason that today the Government will be paying 90 pesos per month to Mary Reussi, degree in political and fervent militant PRO Sciences, who is advising the First Lady to be away from fashion and is goal squarely in the political arena.
Reussi, according to an article of the magazine Noticias, is responsible for “advise (a Awada) what to say, where to go and how to behave in the political arena”.
Mauricio Macri’s dream is that Juliana is the South American version of Michelle Obama a First Lady committed their time and take firm positions on hot topics, as did the wife of US President Obama. Reussi may have to work a lot on this plane. Awada comes to dodge various complaints of exploitation and reduction to servitude in sweatshops that manufactured clothing for signature Cheeky children’s clothing.
On paper, Reussi was appointed advisor to the President of the Nation with undersecretary rank and hierarchy, a position whose salary is about 90 thousand pesos in the rough. Since the government called his position as “adviser to the President on issues of the First Lady.”
The brand new official studied political science at the Catholic University of Argentina, has a master’s degree in Communication and another in Political Communication. It was Macri adviser since 2003 and held positions in the city government. “It is a person who understands how to work in politics,” have relatives quoted by News.
“You will want to give the impression of an active woman from the professional and not so much from the protocol. He has always been committed to the social. When Macri was Head of Government, visited soup kitchens and early childhood centers, “they said from the presidential entourage.
As indicated by the publication, “the biggest challenge we had was to help Juliana Reussi write the speech with which he introduced Michelle Obama during her visit to Argentina. This was the debut of Macri’s wife as a speaker; his task is just beginning. ”
http://infobaires24.com.ar/gobierno-paga-90-mil-pesos-mensuales-juliana-awada-sea-michelle-obama/
Clinton vindictiveness at work…The witch-hunt has begun…
https://twitter.com/NYDailyNews/status/722184706888974336
Everyone knows exactly what Dr Song was saying…and everyone knows that what Dr Song was saying is true…
The faux-outrage from the fake pearl-clutching folks who have been (and still continue to!) directly insulting and very personally smearing Bernie Sanders…on everything including his age and allusions to him suffering from age-related stuff that shouldn’t be repeated…
http://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2016/04/18/hundreds-line-up-jsu-michelle-obama-tickets/83205624/
hottest ticket in town.
LOL…
https://twitter.com/jonathanalter/status/721561801805197313
Jonathan Alter is a ‘journalist’…This is your media at work…Shilling and getting apoplectic over a citizen’s free expression over what is each citizens right to do what they wish with their vote…
I too will not be voting for Hillary…ever..So Jonathan Alter can keep losing his mind if he so desires..
https://twitter.com/BreakingNews/status/722207163985371136
RIP Doris…
RIP Doris
Nothing REEKS of Government OVER REACH like REPUBLICANS try to LEGISLATE a WOMAN’S VAGINA!
You know Ametia, when they are sanctioning the murder of black women at the hands of tax-payer salaried police…this other stuff pales in comparison…
I bet Sandra Bland would have appreciated NOW, NARAL and others speaking up for her right to even live first and foremost…
A black woman has to be first and foremost, safe and free to live and exist in this society before she can even begin to worry about all the other stuff…
https://youtu.be/dFyNGqS9uDs
https://youtu.be/UtfEuxonpmk
https://twitter.com/PulitzerPrize/status/722140311795802116?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Published on Apr 12, 2016
The groundbreaking hip-hop musical “Hamilton,” telling the story of founding father Alexander Hamilton, is the hottest ticket on Broadway. Since previews began in July, the show has sold more than $61 million in tickets. Now, fans can get a backstage look at the musical in a new book, “Hamilton: The Revolution.” Show creator and star Lin-Manuel Miranda and cultural critic Jeremy McCarter, who co-wrote the book, join “CBS This Morning” to discuss the process of creating the musical.
https://youtu.be/Dwi3iWQuTJk
I was stunned finding this – he actually gets it.
https://youtu.be/fhS7JfLF8aY
this woman channeled The Color Purple…LOL
https://youtu.be/BMkRQVu6shI
I didn’t watch Sleepy Hollow, but I can relate to everything dude’s saying here.
LOL Oh.NO.SHE.DIDN’T pull a Celie!
https://twitter.com/abc13houston/status/722136415392309248
https://twitter.com/TxDOTYoakum/status/722095424304214016
OMG, the roads are being completely washed out
Road gone. The creek has completely covered the road where my cousin lives. We don’t even know if a road is there anymore. Water is covering the mailboxes.
Thinking of you SG…
You guys please take care…
Thank you, Eliihass. The rain has stopped but I heard more is coming. Good grief!
Thank God SG…
Life is really something …there you guys are with all this torrential rain and flooding…and we over here are desperate even for a bit of spring showers…
Full Hillary Clinton Interview at The Breakfast Club Power 105.1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRZd861Pog0
SMGDH
OMG, AWFUL. Did ya’ll see Hillary swiveling her neck?
She’s not slick. throwing the negroes some shrimp. ” I’ll invite you to the White House.”
Super predator questions comes after the invite by Hillary, if she gets in the WH
If black folks don’t see that they are being played at this point…no, mocked..
Hillary is just straight up mocking black folks and folks are just plain dumb and making complete a**ses of themselves if they fall for it..
DESPERATION
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https://twitter.com/3ChicsPolitico/status/722079101658398720
https://twitter.com/3ChicsPolitico/status/722082660634337280
Mercy! Please stay safe, SG2.
https://twitter.com/stjbs/status/722086330528714753
https://twitter.com/3ChicsPolitico/status/722107531330347009
This is some scary ISH RIGHT HERE.
“SLEEPY HOLLOW” POST-MORTEM: THE DEATH OF ABBIE AND THE PAINFUL ERASURE OF BLACK WOMEN
APRIL 9, 2016
And several online recaps had the same theme throughout the post: If Abbie and Nicole Beharie are gone, then what’s the point of even watching the show? Just as important: Why on God’s green earth would the writing team as a whole (including the showrunner) go out of their way to lead the fanbase on and act like they were going to give the fanbase what they wanted (which is a final say-so on #Ichabbie) just to turn around and destroy the only thing that made the show worth watching? To quote Vulture’s Rose Maura Lorre, “The latter statements [of Pandora stating in her dying breaths that Ichabod loves Abbie] lead me to believe that, intentional or not, this show’s careless disregaard of its Ichabbie ‘shippers has been fucked up. Make them just-friends or make them more-than-friends, but have a conversation about it and stick to your decision. Don’t keep stringing the ‘shippers along with your hand-kissing and your ‘be still my beating heart’ (which no person has ever said platonically) while you know Abbie’s imminent fate full well.” And as The A.V. Club’s Zack Handlen wrote, “I’m not sure if there were behind-the-scenes issues we are privy to, but Beharie’s a crucial element of the series. Tom Mison is a fine actor, but without the two of them together, what’s the damn point?”
http://colorwebmag.com/2016/04/09/sleepy-hollow-death-abbie-painful-erasure-black-women/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oT0XWejHrE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jpyIMg3g2w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhJnoJcOeP8
Can we dispense with Hillary for POTUS nonsense, before we wind up with the above scenario?
This is another argument against the idea of any woman – just because it’s long overdue – and some woman feels entitled, wants to be ‘first’…and a coronation is more or less facilitated…I remember her and Lula…and now they’re all under investigation…
Can’t help but remember when Dilma unceremoniously cancelled her State Visit and skipped out on the State Dinner POTUS and FLOTUS were all set to host on her behalf..
Funny how most of these folks have all gone under and all their bright lights now dimmed…
Spot on, eliihaas.
Some folks can NOT handle the mantle of POWER it takes to be an effective leader.
They become delusional in their thinking & actions.
POWER breeds GREED, for those who are spiritually weak.
https://twitter.com/lovebscott/status/722092841774678016?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
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SG2, are ya’ll safe in TEXAS where you live? HOLLA, LADY!
We’re about to wash away. It’s terrible here.
Are there any emergency vehicles close by, in case you all need to evacuate?
Water is across the road near the bridge where we live but we can get out to the next town. But in the next town it’s bad too.
oh, be safe, SG2. You all be safe.
We’re ok. Lets hope the rain stops.
uh huh
uh huh
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 4/15/16
Flint water crisis unaddressed, Snyder keeps talking
Michigan State Senator Jim Ananich, who represents the city of Flint, talks with Rachel Maddow about Governor Rick Snyder’s new broad water quality proposals as Flint enters its third year with water poisoned by the Snyder administration and still no state action is helping resolve the problem.
Weren’t we told Hillary and Chelsea were on it..
Ron Fournier former AP White House correspondent and now columnist for The Atlantic and National Journal, discussing his newly released book about his son who was diagnosed with Asperger’s … Here he talks about taking his kid with him to the White House…
“…Fournier this week released a new book, “Love That Boy: What Two Presidents, Eight Road Trips, and My Son Taught Me About a Parent’s Expectations,” on his relationship with his son Tyler, who has Asperger’s syndrome. In the book, Fournier describes an encounter he and Tyler had with President Barack Obama at the White House Christmas party in 2010. As the two of them were waiting in line to meet the First Family, Tyler was rehearsing how to greet Obama.
“For 45 minutes, Tyler is practicing what comes natural to most of us — ‘Hello, Mr. President. Hello, Mr. President.’ And he’s pretending to shake his hand,” Fournier recalled. “The couple in front of us is now being introduced to the President. As you know, it’s a very formal setting. And the Marine Guard is introducing him, and so we’re going to be next, and Tyler does his last practice, ‘Hello, Mr. President,’ and he looks up to me and says, ‘I hope I don’t let you down, Dad.’ Which even now makes me… I mean, what kind of dad raises their son to feel that kind of resentment or embarrassment?”
“I feel guilty to this day that I should have been able to tell him, ‘There’s nothing you’ll say, son, that would ever embarrass me or ever make me not proud of you,’ but instead all I could think about was, ‘Oh my god, he’s going to embarrass himself or embarrass me’… And I walk up and I grab the President’s hand, Tyler is behind me, and President Obama asks me about my basketball game, because we’ve played together, and he knows how terrible I am.
And I look out of the corner of my eye and Michelle Obama is wrapping my son in this patented Michelle Obama hug that’s as big as a mountain, and she’s brushing away the hair from his eyes. And I write in the book, as I’m turning around, I’m thinking to myself… ‘You know, the problem here isn’t Tyler, or even the autism, the problem here is me. I need to stop being so worried about how he is being perceived by other people and help him be as good as he can possibly be.”
http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/14/politics/axe-files-axelrod-ron-fournier/
THIS: “And I look out of the corner of my eye and Michelle Obama is wrapping my son in this patented Michelle Obama hug that’s as big as a mountain, and she’s brushing away the hair from his eyes. And I write in the book, as I’m turning around, I’m thinking to myself… ‘You know, the problem here isn’t Tyler, or even the autism, the problem here is me. I need to stop being so worried about how he is being perceived by other people and help him be as good as he can possibly be.'”
Even with the acknowledgement of FLOTUS’ signature HUGS, Fournier couldn’t ADDRESS MICHELLE OBAMA as
FIRST LADY
They can’t help themselves Ametia…It’s no secret that Fournier is right-leaning…I remember he used to push GOP talking points in his AP ‘news’ coverage…He was always one of Karl Rove’s reliable go to guys when they were looking to disseminate a certain point of view to the public those days…
And even as our gracious and unassuming FLOTUS consistently treats them all – and especially their kids – so graciously and with such nurturing warmth and humanity, these folks still can’t help themselves…
But you can tell that he was completely taken aback by FLOTUS and her natural, easy and nurturing interaction with his son…shows just how little they know her..and how much they’ve missed all these years disregarding and overlooking her and the many, many beautiful gifts she embodies…
I’m still a little shocked by this. I don’t know why, but I am.
…………….
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 4/15/16
Indiana GOP stacks deck against Donald Trump before primary vote
Niki Kelly, reporter for the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, talks with Rachel Maddow about the Indiana Republican Party choosing its delegates before there has even been a primary vote, and so far only one of 57 appears to be a Trump supporter regardless of who wins the primary.
Rikyrah, you’ve been saying this yourself…Trump exposed them all by not using the Frank Luntz approved language…
The GOP establishment is not pleased..
https://twitter.com/ABC/status/722078576535666688?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://vine.co/v/itY6VgYWaWD?wpmm=1&wpisrc=nl_daily202
I’m gonna puke.
BWA HA HA HA
OMG so cheesy and mammy pammy!
LOL..
Everyone’s dancing hard for their supper..
Yeah, those dancing raccoons got nuthin’ on Hillary. Get her a straw hat and a cane.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/Paris_Tuileries_Garden_Facepalm_statue.jpg
As SG says, please make it stop…
LOL..
LMAO.
Still my favorite. :)
These are for the thumb’s up NEGRO standing behind the Hillster!
https://twitter.com/BAM_FI/status/721985213648269312/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
UH HUH
UH HUH
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 4/15/16
Tone deafness on women a well-established John Kasich pattern
Rachel Maddow reviews a cringe-worthy series of video clips of Republican presidential candidate and Ohio governor, John Kasich being sexist, condescending or simply tone deaf in his dealings with women.
Cruz vows not to ban sexual devices if elected
04/18/16 10:00 AM
By Steve Benen
If the combination of presidential politics and sex is bound to get attention, Mother Jones published a gem last week, noting that Ted Cruz, during his tenure as Texas’ solicitor general, helped defend a law criminalizing the sale of adult sexual devices.
As David Corn’s article documented, Cruz, before he was elected to the Senate, co-authored a legal brief in 2007, urging the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold “a Texas law outlawing the sale and promotion of supposedly obscene devices.” The brief compared the use of sex toys to “hiring a willing prostitute or engaging in consensual bigamy,” and it equated advertising these products with the commercial promotion of prostitution. The legal filing also declared, “There is no substantive-due-process right to stimulate one’s genitals for non-medical purposes unrelated to procreation or outside of an interpersonal relationship.”
BuzzFeed reported that the senator was asked about the article during a radio interview last week.
Cruz, asked by WABC radio host Curtis Sliwa if he would ban “the sale of sexual toys, dildos, or anything that sexually stimulates you,” answered that he would not.
“Look, of course not, it’s a ridiculous question, and of course not,” Cruz told Sliwa on Friday. “What people do in their own private time with themselves is their own business and it’s none of government’s business.”
Say hello to Ted Cruz, sexual libertine.
The clarification was hardly a surprise – the Mother Jones piece made the rounds quickly, and Cruz was bound to face a question or two about it – and there was no reason to believe the senator would allow this to be part of his presidential platform.
But there is that nagging question just below the surface: if Cruz is prepared to argue that it’s “none of government’s business” when Americans do “in their own private time,” how does the senator reconcile this with his support for government laws restricting reproductive rights and marriage equality?
Uh huh
Uh huh
N.C. NAACP leader Barber removed from flight in D.C.
“Yes, I am not at all happy about what I believe were the real reasons I was the one asked to leave,” Barber said. “My training and experiences with non-violent civil disobedience, and my deep faith, however, made my decision to peacefully comply with the order to get off the plane an easy one.
“I turned the matter over to my legal counselors, one here and one in Washington DC.”
Although Barber questioned his removal, the N.C. Republican Party issued a statement Saturday faulting the leader of the Moral Mondays protests for delaying the flight for other passengers.
“I guess Rev. Barber thinks it’s ‘moral’ to inconvenience other passengers wanting to get home to see their families, because he once again thinks his ‘right’ to say and do whatever he wants is more important than other law abiding citizens who conduct themselves under society’s rules of civil behavior,” said Michele Nix, vice chair of the state GOP.
Why was Rev, William Barker, III asked to leave the plane?
THAT’S THE $64,OOO QUESTION!
Generation’s biggest immigration case gets its day in court
04/18/16 08:00 AM
By Steve Benen
For nearly six years, U.S. policymaking on immigration was stuck. The Obama administration had already increased border security and enforcement in the hopes of creating the political conditions necessary for legislative changes, but congressional Republicans wouldn’t budge. GOP lawmakers said, repeatedly and in no uncertain terms, that there would be no compromise.
In November 2014, soon after the midterm elections, President Obama announced he’d found a way forward, overhauling immigration policy through his executive authority. The result was a policy known as DAPA – Deferred Action for Parental Accountability – in which the White House, among other things, extended temporary status to millions of undocumented immigrants, shielding them from deportation threats and allowing them to apply for work permits.
At the time, the Justice Department took the unusual step of publishing a dense, 33-page legal memo, explaining in great detail exactly why the president’s executive actions are legally permissible under existing laws, rulings, and precedents. Federalist Society members couldn’t come up with a constitutional objection; Obama’s actions are in line with what some of his Republican predecessors did without incident; and the whole legal argument against Obama’s actions seemed a little silly.
The White House’s Republican critics, however, felt a little differently, and 26 states a filed suit challenging DAPA. As Vox’s Dara Lind explained over the weekend, oral arguments in this case are scheduled for this morning at the Supreme Court. United States v. Texas, she noted, is “the most important immigration case the Supreme Court has taken up in a generation (or, arguably, a century).”
Uh huh
Uh huh
More Than Immigration at the High Court
The Supreme Court’s look at Obama’s executive action perfectly explains the Merrick Garland fight.
By Dahlia Lithwick
This same coulda, shoulda imperative is crucial for understanding the derangement that simmers beneath the GOP obstruction of hearings for Merrick Garland. You may think we are at war over what the court might become. But we are in fact at war over what should have been. And what should have been, for Senate Republicans, is quite simple: The 2016 term was meant to be the Supreme Court’s year to destroy Obama.
You could almost forget this, as the term fizzles into a bunch of sagging 4-4 ties and improbable unanimous decisions, but if Antonin Scalia had lived until July the docket was full of poisoned pills and silent time bombs that would have exploded in President Obama’s face this summer. Until and unless we reckon with what might have been at the high court this term, it’s impossible to understand why there will be no hearings for Judge Garland. GOP senators aren’t just angry about losing Justice Scalia’s seat. They are angry because the court as the weapon of choice to screw the president has been taken from them, and they want it back.
United States v. Texas, the case that will be argued Monday morning at the high court, is Exhibit A for this proposition. When the high court agreed to hear this lawsuit—which emerged from nothing more than a preliminary injunction placed on 2014 DHS regulations that outlined the creation of Obama’s Deferred Action for Parents of American Citizens and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) and expansion of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)—Obama haters were dancing in the streets. The executive actions, which delayed deportation for 5 million undocumented immigrants by deprioritizing their removal from the country in favor of the deportations of felons, were blocked in Feb. 2015 by one very conservative district judge in Texas. That decision to enjoin the new rules was happily upheld by a panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last fall. When the court agreed to weigh in on all this, it was because—as Solicitor General Donald Verrilli argued—this action by the appeals court was “unprecedented,” just as the high court’s decision to step in and block Obama’s climate change regulations last February was unprecedented. The whole term was meant to be unprecedented, except that Justice Scalia died.
thus the main reason why the GOP wants to kill it.
Immigrants, the Poor and Minorities Gain Sharply Under Health Act
By SABRINA TAVERNISE and ROBERT GEBELOFF
APRIL 17, 2016
LOS ANGELES — The first full year of the Affordable Care Act brought historic increases in coverage for low-wage workers and others who have long been left out of the health care system, a New York Times analysis has found. Immigrants of all backgrounds — including more than a million legal residents who are not citizens — had the sharpest rise in coverage rates.
Hispanics, a coveted group of voters this election year, accounted for nearly a third of the increase in adults with insurance. That was the single largest share of any racial or ethnic group, far greater than their 17 percent share of the population. Low-wage workers, who did not have enough clout in the labor market to demand insurance, saw sharp increases. Coverage rates jumped for cooks, dishwashers, waiters, as well as for hairdressers and cashiers. Minorities, who disproportionately worked in low-wage jobs, had large gains…
Until now, the impact of the law has been measured mostly in broad numbers of newly insured people — about 20 million by the administration’s most recent account. But the Times’s analysis of census data from 2014, the first year the heart of the law was in full effect, provides a finely detailed look at who the newly insured actually are — by race, education, occupation, immigration status, and family structure…
“From the vantage point of the poor and working poor, Obamacare has been profound,” said Jim Mangia, president of the St. John’s Well Child and Family Center, a federally funded health clinic in South Los Angeles that has enrolled 18,000 new patients under the law, nearly all of them Hispanic or black and the vast majority in Medicaid. The clinic reported a 44 percent increase in cervical cancer screenings, a 25 percent increase in tobacco cessation therapy, and a 22 percent increase in the share of patients with controlled hypertension since 2014, the result, he said, of more patients having insurance.
Having insurance does not necessarily mean better health, but experts hope it could start to ease some of the worst disparities that have kept the United States close to the bottom of health rankings of rich countries…
Don’t make no damn sense.
https://twitter.com/drvox/status/721909621623894018?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Good Morning, Rikyrah & Everyone! :)))