This week was inspired by the latest in the White House’s Music Series: Jazz.
Today’s gift from America to the world is Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong.
Louis Armstrong was the first important soloist to emerge in jazz, and he became the most influential musician in the music’s history. As a trumpet virtuoso, his playing, beginning with the 1920s studio recordings made with his Hot Five and Hot Seven ensembles, charted a future for jazz in highly imaginative, emotionally charged improvisation. For this, he is revered by jazz fans. But Armstrong also became an enduring figure in popular music, due to his distinctively phrased bass singing and engaging personality, which were on display in a series of vocal recordings and film roles.
Armstrong had a difficult childhood. William Armstrong, his father, was a factory worker who abandoned the family soon after the boy’s birth. Armstrong was brought up by his mother, Mary (Albert) Armstrong, and his maternal grandmother. He showed an early interest in music, and a junk dealer for whom he worked as a grade-school student helped him buy a cornet, which he taught himself to play. He dropped out of school at 11 to join an informal group, but on December 31, 1912, he fired a gun during a New Year’s Eve celebration, for which he was sent to reform school. He studied music there and played cornet and bugle in the school band, eventually becoming its leader. He was released on June 16, 1914, and did manual labor while trying to establish himself as a musician. He was taken under the wing of cornetist Joe “King” Oliver, and when Oliver moved to Chicago in June 1918, he replaced him in the Kid Ory Band. He moved to the Fate Marable band in the spring of 1919, staying with Marable until the fall of 1921.
Armstrong moved to Chicago to join Oliver’s band in August 1922 and made his first recordings as a member of the group in the spring of 1923. He married Lillian Harden, the pianist in the Oliver band, on February 5, 1924. (She was the second of his four wives.) On her encouragement, he left Oliver and joined Fletcher Henderson’s band in New York, staying for a year and then going back to Chicago in November 1925 to join the Dreamland Syncopators, his wife’s group. During this period, he switched from cornet to trumpet.
Armstrong had gained sufficient individual notice to make his recording debut as a leader on November 12, 1925. Contracted to OKeh Records, he began to make a series of recordings with studio-only groups called the Hot Fives or the Hot Sevens. For live dates, he appeared with the orchestras led by Erskine Tate and Carroll Dickerson. The Hot Fives’ recording of “Muskrat Ramble” gave Armstrong a Top Ten hit in July 1926, the band for the track featuring Kid Ory on trombone, Johnny Dodds on clarinet, Lillian Harden Armstrong on piano, and Johnny St. Cyr on banjo.
By February 1927, Armstrong was well-enough known to front his own group, Louis Armstrong & His Stompers, at the Sunset Café in Chicago. (Armstrong did not function as a bandleader in the usual sense, but instead typically lent his name to established groups.) In April, he reached the charts with his first vocal recording, “Big Butter and Egg Man,” a duet with May Alix. He took a position as star soloist in Carroll Dickerson’s band at the Savoy Ballroom in Chicago in March 1928, later taking over as the band’s frontman. “Hotter than That” was in the Top Ten in May 1928, followed in September by “West End Blues,” which later became one of the first recordings named to the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Armstrong returned to New York with his band for an engagement at Connie’s Inn in Harlem in May 1929. He also began appearing in the orchestra of Hot Chocolates, a Broadway revue, given a featured spot singing “Ain’t Misbehavin’.” In September, his recording of the song entered the charts, becoming a Top Ten hit.
Armstrong fronted the Luis Russell Orchestra for a tour of the South in February 1930, then in May went to Los Angeles, where he led a band at Sebastian’s Cotton Club for the next ten months. He made his film debut in Ex-Flame, released at the end of 1931. By the start of 1932, he had switched from the “race”-oriented OKeh label to its pop-oriented big sister Columbia Records, for which he recorded two Top Five hits, “Chinatown, My Chinatown” and “You Can Depend on Me” before scoring a number one hit with “All of Me” in March 1932; another Top Five hit, “Love, You Funny Thing,” hit the charts the same month. He returned to Chicago in the spring of 1932 to front a band led by Zilner Randolph; the group toured around the country. In July, Armstrong sailed to England for a tour. He spent the next several years in Europe, his American career maintained by a series of archival recordings, including the Top Ten hits “Sweethearts on Parade” (August 1932; recorded December 1930) and “Body and Soul” (October 1932; recorded October 1930). His Top Ten version of “Hobo, You Can’t Ride This Train,” in the charts in early 1933, was on Victor Records; when he returned to the U.S. in 1935, he signed to recently formed Decca Records and quickly scored a double-sided Top Ten hit, “I’m in the Mood for Love”/”You Are My Lucky Star.”
Armstrong’s new manager, Joe Glaser, organized a big band for him that had its premiere in Indianapolis on July 1, 1935; for the next several years, he toured regularly. He also took a series of small parts in motion pictures, beginning with Pennies From Heaven in December 1936, and he continued to record for Decca, resulting in the Top Ten hits “Public Melody Number One” (August 1937), “When the Saints Go Marching in” (April 1939), and “You Won’t Be Satisfied (Until You Break My Heart)” (April 1946), the last a duet with Ella Fitzgerald. He returned to Broadway in the short-lived musical Swingin’ the Dream in November 1939.
These videos are for me.
https://youtu.be/3BGH2a_osJI
https://youtu.be/9h53mMWolTo
https://youtu.be/b9FJxtB4qNM
https://youtu.be/Nqo7Jq6W07g
https://youtu.be/nZKvyPcdU7Q
https://youtu.be/ZtGHzzA3yzM
https://youtu.be/SRAaa1nq34k
https://youtu.be/PUiJEpbHhkk
https://youtu.be/6tdXQKUKbDY
https://youtu.be/NDzyBbCO8EA
SG, your Governor…
https://twitter.com/GregAbbott_TX/status/726922103904079872
https://twitter.com/metmuseum/status/727309948200345600?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/Bossip/status/727307430774722560?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/usweekly/status/727262655921160193?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/metmuseum/status/727283933935722496?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/metmuseum/status/727296008154169344?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/YumiYoko/status/727273075482447872?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/usweekly/status/727273241568489472?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/metmuseum/status/727271544309817345/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://www.instagram.com/p/BE60DHnPZHo/
https://twitter.com/FLOTUS/status/727264895725637636
https://twitter.com/GotYourSix/status/727273501925773313
5th Anniversary of Joining Forces this week…
Unfortunate that we have to get much of what ought to be reported news from perusing social media…Meanwhile, the news is reporting what ought to be consigned to social media, as news..
https://twitter.com/FLOTUS/status/727282813087555585
tune in fam…
https://twitter.com/FLOTUS/status/727286339767406592
So, looks like the entire audience will be military families…and FLOTUS and Mrs Biden will be speak..
https://twitter.com/enews/status/727173843769511937?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
White House press secretary defends Larry Wilmore’s use of the ‘n-word’ in addressing President Obama
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest defended comedian Larry Wilmore’s use of the n-word and other racially-tinged epithets during the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, saying the president “appreciated the spirit of Mr. Wilmore’s expressions on Saturday night.”
In an extended exchange with April Ryan, Washington bureau chief for the American Urban Radio Networks, Earnest said the comedian’s decision to use racial slurs to describe an imaginary comment by Andrew Jackson about former Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson, as well as in connection with President Obama himself, was understandable. In concluding his remarks, Wilmore described the progress the United States has made in his lifetime by electing an African American president, saying, “So, Mr. President, if I’m going to keep it 100: Yo, Barry, you did it, my n—–. You did it.”
Ryan noted that there was “an eerie, awkward silence and quietness” in reaction to the comment, and many guests “were appalled. Even members of the Republican Party, black Republicans, were upset.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/05/02/white-house-press-secretary-defends-larry-wilmores-use-of-the-n-word-in-addressing-president-obama/
Hey Chicas!
I was shaken down to the core today. My daughter is a mail carrier. A customer had two packages to be delivered in rural area and usually their gate is closed but today it was open so she went to the house and blew the horn because the customer had dogs. A man was outside, he had observed the situation. Mail carrier is written on the car. No trespassing signs to be seen. He walked into the home as my daughter waited in car and then he came out walking real fast to her vehicle with a GUN. My daughter told him don’t shoot me, I’m the mail carrier just delivering the packages to you. My daughter said his face looked menacing, wild, crazy. He was hyped to shoot. If she had panicked and backed away he would have shot and killed her for nothing.
If he had shot and killed my child, I would have died too…right on the spot. My life would have been over.
Oh dear God! How terrifying!!!
So grateful your daughter is safe and the hyped gun-holding man did not shoot her.
Such a traumatic, frozen-in-time moment for her. Praying for her now that she will feel safe and feel God’s comforting spirit near her.
Thank you, Yahtc. I am so grateful to God. OMG! I would have died too if he had killed my child.
You must be trembling just thinking about it all.
Remember, God is near to you.
JESUS! What the HELL?!! Your daughter must be petrified. I don’t even want to imagine anything so tragic happening to her, you or your family, SG2.
Terrifying SG..
But you and your precious children are always completely in God’s protection…Never forget that..
My daughter was so scared and shaken. I was too. She could have been killed.
She is watched over – even in moments like these…never forget SG…Trust, believe…
I can understand your reaction…you who are so gutted and respond so emotionally to horrible things happening to complete strangers – even in faraway lands…I can only imagine how you feel about your daughter’s encounter…
But trust and believe…and try not to let on too much to her about your fears about this…she has to be able to continue to go out there without fear, to do her job…she can’t get caught up in debilitating fear because of this incident…it won’t happen again…and even if it does, she’s got angels watching over her always…But do let her know to file a formal report with not just her supervisor, but with their personnel department…let it be on record…
It’s been reported but the police says Texas is an open carry state. And the guy didn’t verbally threaten her or point the gun at her. Even though he observed the situation, mail carrier is written on the vehicle, went inside and got a gun & then started walking fast to her car.
Make sure she files a written report SG…(a verbal one isn’t sufficient), with her supervisor and the HR department…
Even if the police aren’t acting on it…It’s important for record purposes…
Also, let the report be specific about asking the department to provide guidance on what to do and how to respond to and protect oneself in situations like these…
Also let her note in the report that even though she was very shaken by the situation – naturally – she kept her composure, worked as well as she could with the menacing customer, and did her best to de-escalate the situation…but it could have turned out so much worse and so much differently..
Thanks Eliihass. They’re calling a safety meeting now.
Surround yourself with the Shield of Silver light, SG2.
It’s God’s Love and nothing can come near you or ever penetrate it, accept in the spirit of this Divine LOVE.
MAY THE BLESSING SE!
Just now reading this. Thank God your daughter is okay, SG2. I have no words, this is very upsetting. There are just too many folks out there who are not too tightly wrapped but they have guns. It’s good that the USPS had a safety meeting, please update on what they intend to do about this.
Liza, I just got off the phone with her. She is still shaken up. She was wondering what was taking him so long to come back out and when he did he came back with a gun.
SG2,
I just returned here to see how she is doing.
Please let her know that I am thinking of her and am sending her a comforting hug.
The good thing is that she kept her cool, she did the right thing either instinctively or through training. But thank God she is alright and they are not going to deliver anything to the guy’s house anymore. It seems he should be charged.
Oh SG2
I got chills just reading it. This is outrageous.
The grace of God, Rikyrah. How in the living hell are you going to order packages and not expect the mail carrier to come to your house and deliver them? His ass is cut off now. He has to come to the post office and pick up his packages from now on. My brother said he’d leave the man’s packages sitting on the ground and don’t care if it’s raining like hell either.
Warning shot fired…
Hillary hired and uses sleazeball David Brock for ‘opposition research’…including on Joe Biden as he mourned the loss of his son…
Trump is seen over the weekend dining and communing with Edward Klein – ultimate sleazeball and author of several books on the Clintons..
LOL
Buckle up fam…
It’s about to get even UGLIER. This summer, I’m not looking forward to following this debacle at all.
Yup..
Couldn’t happen to nicer folks…
I told you fam, God has a sense of humor…
And you can’t fool God…
No matter the untruthful and dubious gems from their trick bags their political operatives, strategists, choreographers and speech writers rustle up to try to bamboozle the electorate…God sees and knows their hearts and true intentions..
Just as nothing is going as they all projected and predicted a year ago…by the time this is all over, nothing will be as any of them thought it would play out…
Trump exposing the Clintons, OH BOY, it’s about to go DOWN.
Considering it’s Fox…how bad did it get?
https://twitter.com/starfirst/status/727213161674358784?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
FOX=CEASPOOL
John McCain’s son to the ‘ignorant racists’ criticizing an Old Navy ad with an interracial couple: ‘Eat it’
By Emily Heil May 2 at 3:33 PM
Sen. John McCain’s son, Jack, had a blunt response to the people criticizing an Old Navy ad featuring an interracial couple: You are “ignorant racists.”
The controversy began when the low-price fashion chain tweeted an ad on Monday featuring a good-looking, adorably dressed couple with their “child.” Dad’s white, and mom’s black.
Predictably, there was nasty backlash on Twitter. And backlash to the backlash.
Which is where Jack McCain came in. The fifth of the Arizona Republican’s seven children, Jack McCain is a Navy lieutenant and helicopter pilot — and he’s married to a black woman, Air Force Reserve Capt. Renee Swift. “To the people upset about the #OldNavy ‘Scandal’ of an a picture of a mixed race marriage, eat it,” he tweeted on Monday, along with a picture of the couple in military uniforms.
https://twitter.com/McCainJack/status/727181368183144448?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
sigh…
Malia Obama Rebels, Sort of, by Choosing Harvard
White House Letter
By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS and NICHOLAS FANDOS
MAY 1, 2016
WASHINGTON — So much for President Obama’s fatherly advice on college.
Malia Obama, his older daughter and perhaps the nation’s most scrutinized and sought-after college applicant, has opted to attend Harvard University beginning in the fall of 2017, apparently disregarding her parents’ counsel that she need not choose a school with a big name and reputation.
The White House announced Malia’s choice, and her decision to take a gap year, on Sunday in a short statement from the first lady’s office, ending a season of speculation and surveillance on her college search process. She will become the latest in a long line of presidential children to attend the highly ranked Ivy League university.
The president suggested that, with his own daughter, he had weighed into the national angst over the increasing difficulty of getting into prestigious colleges, and said that he had made it clear there were other options for Malia, whom he has described as a capable, conscientious student who is ready to make her way independently in the world.
Last fall, the president said he had told his daughter “not to stress too much” about being accepted to a particular school, adding, “Just because it’s not some name-brand, famous, fancy school doesn’t mean that you’re not going to get a great education there.”
But in the end, Malia, 17, a daughter of two academic overachievers who both attended law school at Harvard, gravitated to an institution with not only a well-known name, but also plenty of experience hosting — and, to some degree, protecting — the children of some of the world’s most powerful people.
“The challenge of being a first child is to be normal within the context of all the scrutiny, and the challenge of everybody around them is to pretend like they’re normal and nothing’s out of the ordinary, which puts an enormous amount of stress on both the kid and the school,” said Gil Troy, a presidential historian at McGill University and the author of “The Age of Clinton: America in the 1990s.” “The larger the institutional ego of the place, the more comfortable you can feel about the ability to cope with that and still have as close to a normal experience as possible.”
Harvard has long been a destination for the children of American and foreign leaders as well as those of celebrities and the ultrawealthy; its police force even has a three-person dignitary protection unit.
We need these folks to ANALYZE Malia’s choice of colleges now.
UM NO. HELL NO! We’ll take first-hand from President Obama on what he has to say.
Not this PSYCHO BABBLE
The NC GOP kicked out their Black Chairman.
tee hee hee
https://twitter.com/msamysteele/status/727194836902752260?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Now that will be interesting, the life of Henrietta Lacks is quite a story. Oprah Winfrey knows how to pick them.
Malia Obama’s ‘Gap Year’ Is Part of a Growing (and Expensive) Trend
By MIKE McPHATE
MAY 2, 2016
It sounds awfully nice: A yearlong postponement of schoolwork.
The White House announced on Sunday that Malia Obama, the president’s older daughter, would be among the thousands of students to take a so-called gap year between high school and college.
The hiatus from classrooms, textbooks and tests has become an increasingly popular choice. The idea is that university-bound students go on an adventure, do something meaningful and, if all goes to plan, arrive at campus a year later more mature, focused and attuned to their goals.
Still, despite growing acceptance of the gap year, or bridge year, by university administrators — and its ready adoption in other parts of the world — many Americans continue view it with trepidation.
…………………………..
n the reaction to Malia’s decision on social media, some people have pointed out, occasionally with a note of contempt, that the financial barriers to embarking on a gap year can be too much for some families. A yearlong, immersive, international program, for example, can run about $35,000.
But university administrators also note that gap-year plans come in a variety of forms, some of them at no cost. AmeriCorps’ City Year, for example, pays students stipends to teach. Another popular program, Global Citizen Year, provides financial support — more than $6 million since 2010 — for students to pursue experiential learning.
But those programs can be highly competitive. City Year, for example, says it selects only about one in four applicants.
“It’s hard to do it if you don’t have the resources,” said Chris Yager, the founder of Where There Be Dragons, which leads international programs.
GO AWAY, MOFOS
JUST
GO
THE FUCK
AWAY
The White House Correspondents’ Dinner and the Obama Effect
Vanessa Friedman
MAY 2, 2016
…but also, and possibly more important, the Michelle Obama effect. Mrs. Obama has been a canny user of fashion since her family entered the White House, leveraging her position and her profile to promote local industry and emerging designers, engage in some subtle cross-border diplomacy, and even challenge some classic assumptions about American first ladies having to wear only American designers.
She has been gradually raising the glamour stakes at the Correspondents’ Dinner over the years — going from a simple hot pink Michael Kors sheath in 2009 and a red Prabal Gurung with a draped neck in 2010 to strapless Naeem Khan in 2012; embroidered, off-the-shoulder Marchesa in 2014; and platinum-beaded Zac Posen in 2015.
This year, however, she wore a beige silk spaghetti-strap dress with lace and crystal embroidery and a tulle cape on top sprinkled with Swarovski crystals by Givenchy haute couture. That’s about as elite, and elaborate, as fashion gets. It’s very, very French. It’s very, very 1
percent. It took the old rules and tossed them out the window and dared everyone to get upset.
And no one blinked.
Indeed, the Internet mostly applauded the choice, using words like “full glam” (Fashionista), “stuns” (The Huffington Post) and “glistens”
(E! online) to describe the effect. Personally, I found the cape oddly
matronly, but the choice, and the reaction, especially its lack of skepticism about either the origin of the dress or its cost, was notable. After eight years, Mrs. Obama has changed expectations
completely about what a first lady should wear. And it has apparently
changed the tenor of what everyone around her wears, too.
https://twitter.com/DailyMailCeleb/status/726846412227530752?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/EricHolder/status/727189071769001984?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
See the difference here in who is saying it:
Eric Holder: “My Brother”
Larry Wilmore: “My nigga.”
BWA HA HA HA
LOSERS!
Black Women File Class Action Suit Against The New York Times
They allege that racism, sexism and agism rule the newspaper’s culture
A class action lawsuit filed on Thursday (April 28) alleges that The New York Times’ CEO Mark Thompson introduced a culture of “deplorable discrimination” when he joined the newspaper in 2012.
According to The Guardian, two Black women who work at the institution charge that Thompson discriminates on the basis of race, gender and age. From the suit, which was filed with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York:
http://www.colorlines.com/articles/black-women-file-class-action-suit-against-new-york-times?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+racewireblog+%28Colorlines.com%29
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LOL!
So @HillaryClinton stayed in the 2008 race b/c she was waiting on the tape of Michelle Obama disparaging “whitey?”
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/04/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-drop-out-election
WUH?!
I thought it was because of this:
….That’s another reason.
“…Clinton was prepared for a floor fight at the party’s convention. On May 23, Clinton justified her continued White House bid by noting that in 1968, Democratic presidential hopeful Robert Kennedy was assassinated in June, after winning the California primary. And lurking in the background in these final weeks was the rumor that Republican operatives had gotten hold of a tape of Michelle Obama disparaging “whitey.”
What Clinton isn’t mentioning is that before she tried to unify the party, she was questioning Obama’s appeal to white voters, hoping that a bombshell video would surface and help take down her rival, and entertaining a convention floor fight. Despite her team’s claims of magnanimity, at this point eight years ago, Clinton was five weeks and a few attacks shy of giving into the inevitable and uniting the party…”
LOL…
This idea that we have all forgotten how all this really went down – and that we are to be reminded and swayed by the media spouting the preferred Clinton fairy tale version of the 2008 events that we all witnessed first hand…and now pretending that Bernie Sanders is somehow this awful person for refusing to get out and clear the way for ‘humble team player’ Hillary the great…
And don’t even get me started on Hillary Clinton running around now, bold-faced lying about everything – including how she immediately withdrew from the race and ‘worked hard’ to ‘unify’ the party and to elect the President…LOL…
Or how her entire campaign now completely hinges on her not just wrapping herself around President Obama, but practically melding herself to him…
Telling folks how President Obama’s legacy is ‘on the line’ if Trump wins…How folks must not allow Trump the birther to get into the Oval office…
Somehow Hillary entirely neglects to mention that it was *her* campaign in 2008 that started the birther crap…that it was she who provided the birther folks and Trump the material and the cojones to do so…
Cojones…
Anyone remember how she and her campaign threw that word around a lot too in 2008 to try to paint then Senator Obama as weak …’Hillary has more cojones’ was one of their more heavily used demeaning catch phrases for their rallying cry, by her surrogates especially James Carville and Paul Begala..
But I digress..
Hillary is running around reading speeches feigning belated outrage …telling folks to deny Trump the presidency because of his birther attacks on the President…completely neglecting to tell folks that neither she nor her husband Bill saw anything wrong with what Trump was doing and saying back then…that Bill even went as far as saying when asked, that he loved Trump…that Trump was a dear friend…that Trump had always been nothing but generous and gracious to him and Hillary…that he enjoyed his golf games with Trump…Bill never once offered a word in defense of the President..nor could he ever muster any such warm words as he fondly used to describe Trump, to describe his fellow Democrat and Democratic successor…
Hillary also neglects to mention that Bill when asked about Trump’s birther attacks on President Obama, was adamant that the attacks on the President were not racist…
But now that Trump poses a threat to her ultimate political ambitions – and Bill’s desire to return to the White House…now Hillary wants to very belatedly and very disingenuously lament Trump’s ‘racist’ and ‘divisive’ and ‘dangerous’ and ‘irresponsible’ rhetoric…
Was Trump’s ‘rhetoric’ not ‘racist, divisive, dangerous and irresponsible’ just a few years ago when she and Bill were defending, schmoozing with and also confiding in Trump about the ‘ungrateful blacks’….and in the thick of what was Trump’s very loud and unyielding birther attacks no less…
Funny that now that Trump is no longer even talking his birther crap, is when Hillary and Bill decide to take faux umbrage, decide that their ‘gracious’ friend is ‘racist’…and only to try to gin up anger in black folks – and only to specifically help herself …
Because, I can’t get enough of POTUS dropping it like IT’S HOT
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Conservatives in Congress urge shutdown of tax-collecting IRS
Reuters 5 hours ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – It’s a U.S. taxpayer’s dream: make the Internal Revenue Service go away, and the largest conservative group in Congress is endorsing just that.
The Republican Study Committee, which counts over two-thirds of House of Representatives Republicans as its members, called recently for “the complete elimination of the IRS.”
The committee’s support for this idea, once confined to the fringes of conservative ideology, suggests it is more widely accepted on Capitol Hill than ever. But many in Washington, including some Republicans, have trouble taking it seriously.
Calls to abolish the IRS have not been well thought through, said Republican Representative Charles Boustany in an interview.
“Before we start making blanket statements about abolishing the IRS, I think it’s important to focus on what the tax code for the 21st century should look like,” said Boustany, who does not belong to the 172-member study committee.
In an election year of dramatic rhetoric that is often short on details, the committee’s proposal, released April 22 and echoing language from a March budget plan, is brief.
As part of a wider appeal for federal tax reform, the committee says simply: “This proposal takes the bold step of calling for the complete elimination of the IRS. Tax collection and enforcement activities would be moved to a new, smaller and more accountable department at the Treasury.”
No further specifics were offered for how to replace an agency that is already part of Treasury, collected $3.3 trillion in revenue in 2015, and processed 240 million tax returns.
Trust. this attempted move serves is only to STIR up the base while the Rethugs reap the BENEFIT$$$$$$$$$$$
Election-year divisions rock North Carolina’s GOP
05/02/16 10:40 AM—UPDATED 05/02/16 10:53 AM
By Steve Benen
Things could be better for North Carolina Republicans right now. After significant victories in 2012 and 2014, GOP policymakers are in a dominant position in the Tar Heel State, but as things stand, the right’s hold on North Carolina may not last much longer.
The debacle surrounding the anti-LGBT HB2 continues to haunt the Republicans who rushed the law through, and the consequences are likely to linger. Gov. Pat McCrory (R), who was apparently caught off guard by the entire controversy, continues to struggle with the mess he helped create.
Voters have noticed. A conservative group released a statewide poll on Friday that found McCrory losing his re-election bid to state Attorney General Roy Cooper (D) by 10 points, 46% to 36%. And while Mitt Romney won North Carolina four years ago, this same poll showed Hillary Clinton leading Donald Trump in North Carolina by 12 points.
Sen. Richard Burr (R), meanwhile, is also seeking a second term this year, despite a low approval rating and a dwindling lead over his Democratic challenger.
Perhaps the state Republican Party can help calm the waters and get the GOP slate back on track? Not anytime soon they won’t: WRAL reported over the weekend that the state party just fired its own chairman.
Members of the North Carolina Republican Party’s nearly 600-member member executive committee voted Saturday to remove Hasan Harnett as chairman, ending a months-long leadership struggle that focused GOP establishment on its own internal drama rather than campaigning against Democrats.
Executive Director Dallas Woodhouse made the announcement shortly after 5 p.m., saying that the proceedings had been “somber.” The committee found that Harnett was responsible for violating the party’s plan of organization and “gross inefficiency.”
https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/status/726867065013981184?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Just shows that making $$ does not ALWAYS translate into being INTELLIGENT
https://twitter.com/3ChicsPolitico/status/727149668308635648
https://twitter.com/AJentleson/status/727149757882351617?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Op-Ed Why has there been an exodus of black residents from West Coast liberal hubs?
The Black Lives Matter movement has brought the challenges facing black America to the fore, and introduced racially conscious quality-of-life questions into the national debate. How are black residents in America’s cities faring? And how are those cities doing in meeting the aspirations of their black residents, judged especially by the ultimate barometer: whether blacks choose to move to these cities, or stay in them?
Though results vary to some extent, the broad trend is clear: West Coast progressive enclaves are either seeing an exodus of blacks or are failing to attract them. Midwestern and Northeastern urban areas are attracting blacks to the extent that they are affordable or providing middle class economic opportunities. And Southern cities are now experiencing the most significant gains.
Portland is part of the fifth-whitest major metropolitan area in America. Almost 75% of the region is white, and it has the third-lowest percentage of blacks, at only 3.1%. (America as a whole is 13.2% black.) Portland proper is often portrayed as a boomtown, but the city’s shrinking black population doesn’t seem to think so. The city has lost more than 11.5% of its black residents in just four years. It’s similar to Seattle, where the central city’s black population has fallen as the overall region’s has grown.
Lower down the coast, the San Francisco Bay area has lost black residents since 2000, though recent estimates suggest that it may have halted the exodus since 2010. San Francisco proper is only 5.4% black, and the rate is falling. The Los Angeles metro area, too, has fewer black residents today than in 2000.
If these figures merely reflected black consumer choice, they wouldn’t necessarily matter; but the evidence suggests that specific public policies in these cities are to blame. Primary among them are restrictive planning regulations, common along the West Coast, that make it hard to expand the supply of housing. In a market with rising demand and static supply, prices go up.
As a rule, a household should spend no more than three times its annual income on a home. But in West Coast markets, housing-price levels far exceed that benchmark — a hardship that more severely affects blacks than whites because blacks start from further behind economically. Black median household income is only $35,481 a year, compared with $57,355 for whites. The wealth gap is even wider, with median black household wealth at only $7,133, compared with $111,146 for whites.
As we all know by now, some so-called liberal white folks are no less racist than right-wingers…In some instances, they are even more so…
https://twitter.com/SeanMcElwee/status/727141937233432576?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/pzf/status/727151531485700097?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Luvvie’s post on the NerdProm.
15 Best Jokes From President Obama at His Final Nerd Prom
Awesomely Luvvie — May 1, 2016 7 19
The 2016 White House Correspondent Dinner (aka Nerd Prom) was bittersweet because it was President Barack Obama’s final one. It’s definitely one event to look forward to every year because he lets loose and roasts the hell outta Washington DC’s finest: the media, Congress, and himself.
Would you post on WHCD thread too, Rikyrah?
Check your emails. I have a questions for you.
I think this museum is going to be amazing. I can’t wait to go to Washington and visit it.
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African American museum visits American heartland to unearth story of free black farmers in the early 19th century
By Peggy McGlone
April 29
The heartland is coming to Washington, and with it a forgotten chapter of American history.
Officials from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture will be in Lyles Station, Indiana tomorrow for a ceremonial digging of the soil of Greer Farm, where African Americans have worked the land for generations. Together with residents of the community, museum officials will retrieve some of the dirt to put on display in the museum when it opens Sept. 24.
The event honors the historically African American community on Indiana’s southwestern border and its residents’ courage and heritage, according to museum curator Paul Gardullo, one of those from D.C. who will participate in the morning ceremony. Stanley Madison, president of the Lyles Station Historical Corp., said residents are proud to have their story included in the long-awaited museum.
“No one’s ever talked about it, (and) the reason is the stories that were written down were the ones people wanted to hear,” Madison said. “We’re excited about this opportunity … so people can learn about the African American farmer.”
Charles Greer was one of the first free blacks to settle in the area and begin farming years before the Civil War, Madison said. The Greer farm grew to 250 acres, Madison said; Joshua Lyles owned 1,040 acres, he added.
“Our ancestors came here with their axes and big cross cut saws and cut down the trees, turned the soil, planted the seeds,” said Madison, whose family arrived in 1878.
Farmers grew wheat and soybeans and raised cattle, and they built a self-contained town, with their own school and shops. “They didn’t have to rely on anyone from the outside,” he said. “These people realized the only way they were going to survive was they had to be united together.”
Feds subpoena Detroit for blight removal records
Joe Guillen, Detroit Free Press 10:49 p.m. EDT May 1, 2016
Federal investigators have subpoenaed Detroit’s Auditor General’s office requesting records related to the use of federal funds in the city’s massive demolition program, the Free Press has learned.
Detroit auditor general Mark Lockridge, whose office has been investigating Mayor Mike Duggan’s demolition program since October, said the subpoena delivered to his office on Thursday is from the investigative division of the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or SIGTARP.
“They’re not just doing an audit of course,” Lockridge said today. “Some type of investigation.”
Detroit’s blight demolition program under Duggan largely has been paid for with federal dollars from the Hardest Hit Fund, a TARP program. Detroit so far has been allocated $172 million from the federal Hardest Hit Fund and has torn down more than 8,000 blighted homes since 2014.
Duggan’s blight elimination program has been under fire for rising demolition costs since last fall. The average cost to tear down a blighted home went from $8,500 to $10,000 under former Mayor Dave Bing to an average at one point of $16,400 under Duggan.
Water is wet news.
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Money, Race and Success: How Your School District Compares
By MOTOKO RICH, AMANDA COX and MATTHEW BLOCH
APRIL 29, 2016
Sixth graders in the richest school districts are four grade levels ahead of children in the poorest districts.
We’ve long known of the persistent and troublesome academic gap between white students and their black and Hispanic peers in public schools.
We’ve long understood the primary reason, too: A higher proportion of black and Hispanic children come from poor families. A new analysis of reading and math test score data from across the country confirms just how much socioeconomic conditions matter.
Children in the school districts with the highest concentrations of poverty score an average of more than four grade levels below children in the richest districts.
Even more sobering, the analysis shows that the largest gaps between white children and their minority classmates emerge in some of the wealthiest communities, such as Berkeley, Calif.; Chapel Hill, N.C.; and Evanston, Ill. (Reliable estimates were not available for Asian-Americans.)
The study, by Sean F. Reardon, Demetra Kalogrides and Kenneth Shores of Stanford, also reveals large academic gaps in places like Atlanta and Menlo Park, Calif., which have high levels of segregation in the public schools.
Why racial achievement gaps were so pronounced in affluent school districts is a puzzling question raised by the data. Part of the answer might be that in such communities, students and parents from wealthier families are constantly competing for ever more academic success. As parents hire tutors, enroll their children in robotics classes and push them to solve obscure math theorems, those children keep pulling away from those who can’t afford the enrichment.
“Our high-end students who are coming in are scoring off the charts,” said Jeff Nash, executive director of community relations for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools.
The school system is near the flagship campus of the University of North Carolina, and 30 percent of students in the schools qualify for free and reduced-price lunch, below the national average.
The wealthier students tend to come from families where, “let’s face it, both the parents are Ph.D.s, and that kid, no matter what happens in the school, is pressured from kindergarten to succeed,” Mr. Nash said. “So even though our minority students are outscoring minority students in other districts near us, there is still a bigger gap here because of that.”
By contrast, the communities with narrow achievement gaps tend to be those in which there are very few black or Hispanic children, or places like Detroit or Buffalo, where all students are so poor that minorities and whites perform equally badly on standardized tests.
I remember this. I was like…the President speaking on Sunday night?…why?
Then the rumors came that it was Bin Laden related…and it’s like..
No…
No..
NOOOOO…
Then, POTUS strolled down Bin Laden Hallway.
https://twitter.com/brianstelter/status/726951353185099776?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
The VISUALS THOUGH! LOL
Now this was a moment for May 3, 2011.
THAT WALK…
That stroll down ‘ I Killed Bin Laden’ Lane….
uh huh
uh huh
https://twitter.com/JamilSmith/status/726614438648905728?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
I’m not TRIPPING over Y-T’s comments about anything said or done at the WHCD.
Especially ‘nigga.’
SHORT: Y-T can’t utter the word. Negroes can. We take the power out of it, when we SAY IT.
NOW BYE!
https://twitter.com/arapaho415/status/726960038581936129?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/AP/status/726931975668436992?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
My Cuban born friend said to get THEE to Cuba, before it becomes westernized and while it’s still ok.
We don’t know who is going to gain the WH, and they might flip on lifting the decades-long embargo.
She said it has always been about the USA,
https://twitter.com/ABC/status/727125632585453568?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Running out of options, Ted Cruz moves the goalposts
05/02/16 08:40 AM
By Steve Benen
About a month ago, shortly before the Wisconsin primary that he would soon after win, Ted Cruz made a very specific case: if a Republican presidential candidate can’t win the party’s nomination before the convention, dropping out is the obvious thing to do.
During an interview with WTMJ in Milwaukee, Cruz said of John Kasich, “I think any candidate that doesn’t have a path to winning, that’s the time you should suspend your campaign. Kasich has been mathematically eliminated. He needs more than 100% of the remaining delegates…. Kasich is a good an honorable man, but he doesn’t have a path to win.”
At the time, that might have seemed like a reasonable position, since Cruz believed there was still a chance he’d catch up to Trump and possibly even reach the 1,237-delegate threshold by June. But in the six primaries since Wisconsin, the Texas senator has earned a whopping two pledged delegates. A month after dismissing Kasich as a candidate who should obviously quit because he’s been “mathematically eliminated,” needing “more than 100% of the remaining delegates,” Cruz awkwardly finds himself facing identical circumstances.
Hello! I wanted to let you know I shared this link on International Jazz Day Blogging Event, I hope you don’t mind. :) Check it out if you’d like: https://musicteacherlifestyle.wordpress.com/international-jazz-day/
Have a nice day! Ioana
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Good Morning, Rikyrah & Everyone. :)))