Friday Open Thread | Steve Winwood Week

Posted on May 13, 2016 by rikyrah

TGIF! Hope you’re enjoying Steve Winwood week.

STEVE-WINWOOD

untitled

Don’t You Know What the Night Can Do?

Help Me Angel

STEVE-WINWOOD

Talking Back to the Night

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46 Responses to Friday Open Thread | Steve Winwood Week

  5. rikyrah says:
    May 13, 2016 at 7:28 pm

    Found at POU:

    Lips pursed.

    Blood pressure rising with lips pursed.

    Michael Bloomberg yall:

    On Middle Class America’s unease: Our kids are not really doing what we counted on. They are hooking up. They are sexting. They are marrying outside of the faith. They are marrying outside of the ethnicity. And they are marrying inside the gender. And the adults can not deal with that. And they want a solution for that. And that’s why people are so upset. It’s their financial future in jeopardy, and their world is being turned upside

    On things to worry about: If you want to worry about America, I would look at two numbers. One is the suicide rate for white high school women in the Midwest. It is off the charts. The other number is the percentage of white high school educated men in middle America that are using heroin. Once again, off the charts. Things that we used to say are minority problems. Middle class Americans are being left out.

    Reply
    • eliihass says:
      May 13, 2016 at 10:04 pm

      And there you have it…

      Anybody who thinks that Michael Bloomberg and Donald Trump don’t hold exactly the same views and values, needs their head checked..

      Slightly sanitizing and couching racist, classist stuff in seemingly ‘I’m just so concerned’ musings, does not make these entitled, self-interested folks any less racist, bigoted, narcissistic and callous than Trump..

      They are all the same – the Clintons included..

      Just a little while ago, Trump was just another self-interested ‘liberal-leaning’ New Yorker shooting at the mouth who schmoozed and socialized with all of these same now suddenly ‘outraged’ folk…

      Romney sought out his endorsement then – and even called a press conference with his wife Ann in tow, to reverently accept Trump’s valuable endorsement…this was after Romney and the rest of the candidates made their various pilgrimages to New York to audition for Trump…

      The Clintons and their daughter Chelsea have never had a problem schmoozing Trump…They not only took his money – they continued to socialize with him even as he went on his very public rampage against the President..

      Nobody seemed to have a problem with Trump even then, but now that he poses a threat to her coronation, their power grab and their various self interests, they cry bloody murder and now cynically invoke his birtherism and try to get folks all worked up – but only to get them to vote for Hillary…

      And what’s most amusing is hearing the same folks who applauded and egged Trump on – and those who were gleeful that he humiliated and cut the President down to size, now authoritatively insisting and presumptuously assigning President Obama the job of attack dog for Hillary – and talking about how they can’t wait until the President – who they command MUST get in to help Hillary – takes Trump down…

      The same Hillary who had no problem with Trump’s attacks on the President, until now years later, when it’s become a useful rallying call to get him out of the way to get to her ultimate political ambition – hers and only hers …

      Meanwhile, somehow in that same time period that it’s taken Hillary to become ‘offended’ by Trump…

      Somehow Hillary who has no real relationship with the historic first black FLOTUS, her immediate Democratic successor, is now cast as some upright, well-meaning patriot.. and as best buddies with and ‘heir’ to the historic POTUS she and her flunkies – including Trump who was actually acting on her behalf – very hostilely and insidiously undermined and backstabbed at every turn these past 8 years…

      And somehow Bernie Sanders.. Bernie freaking Sanders… is now the crook, the greedy, corrupt, evil bully…?? LOL..

      And folks are looking folks in the eye and really believing and selling this crock…

      You can’t make this stuff up..

      If they succeed, it certainly won’t be with my help …and together with all smart, thinking and collectively and rightly jaded folks, I hope this farce of a ‘democracy’ dies the sad but long overdue death it so deserves…

      Reply
  6. rikyrah says:
    May 13, 2016 at 5:53 pm

    ABC PICKS UP ROMEO AND JULIET-INSPIRED PERIOD DRAMA FROM SHONDALAND

    Shonda Rhimes is back at it again with a fifth drama for ABC. The network picked up Still Star-Crossed from Rhimes’ production company, Shondaland. According to Deadline, the series is a period drama, based on the book by Melinda Taub which, “picks up where the famous story of Romeo and Juliet ends, charting the treachery, palace intrigue and ill-fated romances of the Montagues and Capulets in the wake of the young lovers’ tragic fate.”

    British actress Lashana Lynch, will play the lead role of Rosaline Capulet, Juliet’s cousin who is ordered to marry Benvolio Montague (Wade Briggs), Romeo’s cousin. Other cast members include Ebonee Noel who will portray Livia and former All My Children star Sterling Sulieman will be Prince Escalus.

    Shonda’s three signature shows, Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal and How to Get Away with Murder were renewed a while ago, while her newest series, the cat & mouse caper, The Catch, was renewed for a second season Thursday.

    http://blavity.com/abc-picks-up-romeo-and-juliet-inspired-period-drama-from-shondaland/

    Reply
  8. rikyrah says:
    May 13, 2016 at 3:50 pm

    A Republican senator and his beloved conspiracy theory
    05/13/16 04:30 PM—UPDATED 05/13/16 04:33 PM
    By Steve Benen
    Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), who’s up for re-election this year, has an incentive to appear as moderate and level-headed as possible. He is, after all, a Republican running in a pretty blue state, sharing a ballot with Donald Trump in a presidential election year. The circumstances have made Kirk arguably the Senate’s most endangered incumbent.

    And yet, the GOP senator just keeps making bizarre comments. Politico reports today:
    U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk hasn’t let up on his insistence that President Obama is using his power as president to lash out at a political enemy.

    At a fundraising event last month in Chicago, the Illinois Republican can be heard on audio defending indicted New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez, a Democrat, while accusing Obama of targeting Menendez because of his stance on Iran.

    According to a recording Politico obtained, Kirk told his audience, “And let me say something about Bob Menendez. I believe that Bob Menendez was indicted solely on the crime of opposing the president on Iran.”

    It wasn’t an off-hand comment: the Illinois Republican has pushed the same conspiracy theory over and over again.

    Reply
  10. rikyrah says:
    May 13, 2016 at 3:10 pm

    The Vultures’ Vultures: How A New Hedge-Fund Strategy Is Corrupting Washington
    And it’s paying off.
    05/13/2016 12:00 pm ET | Updated 45 minutes ago

    WASHINGTON – Take Robert Shapiro.

    A Harvard-trained economist, Shapiro is the head of a consulting firm called Sonecon. That business card doesn’t do it for you? He’s got a few more in his wallet:

    Senior fellow at the Georgetown University School of Business.

    Adviser to the International Monetary Fund.

    Director of the Globalization Initiative at NDN, a progressive think tank.

    Shapiro, a Democrat, has advised presidents and presidential candidates, and has held powerful government posts. It stands to reason, then, that when he has thoughts on public policy, he can find an outlet ready to publish them.

    Recently, he’s had ideas on how the government can address the debt crisis in Puerto Rico and how it can end the conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by moving them into the private market. Before that, he had a take on how to deal with Argentina’s debt crisis. For all three, he produced academic-looking papers, complete with footnotes and charts.

    All three situations have one thing in common: If they were resolved the way Shapiro suggested, a variety of bets placed by a select group of the most politically powerful hedge funds would pay off in a huge way. In the case of Argentina, they mostly have. Fights over how to resolve the other two issues are still raging in Washington.

    For this article, we called Shapiro to ask on whose behalf he has been waging these intellectual battles. His answer was surprising in its honesty: He’s working with DCI Group, a political dark arts master known to be advocating on behalf of a group of powerful hedge funds that are changing how Washington works.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/vulture-fund-lobbying_us_57350001e4b077d4d6f2a374

    Reply
  11. Ametia says:
    May 13, 2016 at 2:23 pm

    Can you tell me the one person who has LITERALLY Dropped SHIT STAINS on PBO’s administration & attempted to sully his LEGACY, since he took office in 2009?

    Yet, SHE has the NERVE to try and CONVINCE voters she can protect his LEGACY?

    GET THE FUCK OUTTA HERE, HILLARY!

    Reply
    • eliihass says:
      May 13, 2016 at 6:37 pm

      I have so much to say but don’t even know where to begin Ametia..

      Watching and listening to all these hypocrites and the brazen double standards and revising of history right before our eyes – and all without any of them even blinking an eye…

      It’s all so incredibly and insultingly and disrespectfully flagrant…

      It pretty much tells says we can insult your intelligence because you are nothing but useful idiots – when we fleetingly need you as firewalls etc.—

      And beyond that, not even the best of you…or those who stand as gleaming metaphors of you, are worth sh*t…

      You are only as fleetingly ‘valuable’ as we decide when we absolutely need to exploit you –

      And even then, don’t you dare get too big for your britches or get any ideas, because we will destroy you if you don’t play along…

      We’re still and always will be better than you…you are and will always only be as ‘important’ or ‘valuable’ as we decide…and that means you’ll always remain beneath us…

      Reply
  12. rikyrah says:
    May 13, 2016 at 1:56 pm

    Lol. Trump so rich he’s only self-funded 300k! Rest is loans to campaign. Means GOP donors can now reimburse Trump for whole campaign. Weak!
    — Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) May 13, 2016

    Reply
  13. rikyrah says:
    May 13, 2016 at 12:24 pm

    Trump on his tax rate: ‘None of your business’
    05/13/16 12:50 PM—UPDATED 05/13/16 12:54 PM
    By Steve Benen

    The controversy surrounding Donald Trump and his hidden tax returns was, at a certain level, stuck. The presumptive Republican nominee could release the materials – as every major-party nominee has done for the last 40 years – but he’s using an audit as an excuse to justify secrecy. In time, he’ll either succumb to pressure or he won’t.

    But this morning the story took an unexpected turn. For quite a while, Trump has suggested he’d be comfortable with disclosure – he specifically said this week he’d “like to” disclose the tax documents – but the IRS process is standing in the way. It’s a bogus posture, which he seemed to abandon this morning during an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos:

    STEPHANOPOULOS: Yes or no: Do you believe voters have a right to see your tax returns before they make a final decision?

    TRUMP: I don’t think they do.
    He quickly added that he’s willing to “present” the documents anyway, after “the audit ends.”

    When the host asked what tax rate he currently pays, the Republican candidate snapped, “It’s none of your business. You’ll see it when I release. But I fight very hard to pay as little tax as possible.”

    There’s no shortage of angles to this – Trump’s hypocrisy, his dishonesty, his reversals from previous commitments – all of which raise questions about what in the world the presumptive GOP nominee is so desperate to hide. For that matter, given how eager Trump is to slash rates for the wealthiest of the wealthy – people like Trump himself – it arguably is our “business” just how big a tax break the Republican candidate intends to give himself.

    Reply
  14. rikyrah says:
    May 13, 2016 at 12:12 pm

    uh huh
    uh huh

    ………………….

    Behind the Merrick Garland Blockade
    Victoria Bassetti
    May 5, 2016

    How much is a business-friendly Supreme Court worth? As much as $835 million for at least one company. That’s the amount Dow Chemical agreed to pay in a class action settlement rather than continue an appeal to a Supreme Court in ideological flux after Justice Antonin Scalia’s death.

    “With the untimely, unfortunate death of Justice Scalia, it leaves in question the current structure of the court,” Dow spokeswoman Rachelle Schikorra told The Wall Street Journal. “With this changing landscape, the unknowns, we just decided to put this behind us.”

    For those wondering how the fight over Scalia’s replacement went to constitutional DEFCON 1, look no further. At least since 1971, business interests have sought to have their way with the American court system. The current standoff over the Merrick Garland nomination is the latest, ugliest chapter in that story.

    Within hours of Scalia’s death, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced that the Senate would not consider a replacement until after the presidential election. His move was startlingly confrontational, even in these times. McConnell was quickly backed by almost the entire Republican caucus.

    More than a few observers questioned why Republicans followed such a precipitous path. What puzzled them was that savvy politicians (which McConnell certainly is) could have easily accomplished their goal (depriving President Obama his nominee) without such incendiary actions. Time was on their side: drag out the meetings, the vetting, the hearings, the follow-up questions; find problems with the nominee; get to late summer and then just say with the election so close, the nominee will have to wait. It’s “an unforced error…that will be difficult to mop up” The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza argued.

    The Republican caucus’ decision seemed to be a misfire. McConnell’s pronouncement riled up the Democratic base and the pundit class. It added fuel to public disgust at Congress not doing its job. Polls have shown growing public support for hearings and a vote on the nominee this year, even among Republican voters. And worst of all, it played poorly in swing states where vulnerable Republican Senators are up for reelection. McConnell appeared to have acted impulsively, handing Democrats another issue to help them retake control of the Senate.

    But there is another viewpoint. The Garland nomination is one of the few bright spots for the fractured Republican Party. It unites social conservatives with business. Even better, it’s an issue big-dollar donors care about. For some of these groups, maintaining control of the Supreme Court is more important than keeping the majority in the Senate. And they can force vulnerable Republican Senators to walk the plank for them.

    Reply
  15. rikyrah says:
    May 13, 2016 at 12:02 pm

    One of the Most Racially Divided States in the Country Just Passed a New Voter-ID Bill
    Missouri Democrats filibustered against the GOP-sponsored bill, noting that 5 percent of the electorate—220,000 registered voters—lack a government-issued photo ID.
    By Ari Berman

    Missouri Republicans have been trying for a decade to enact a strict voter-ID law, and 2016 could finally be their year.

    On Thursday, the GOP-controlled legislature passed a new voter-ID bill and a companion ballot initiative changing the state Constitution that must be approved by voters, most likely in November. (Governor Jay Nixon can still veto the bill, but the legislature has a super-majority to override him.)

    “It has been a priority for us in the past, but not to the level it has been a priority this year,” said the bill’s sponsor, State Senator Will Kraus.

    Voter ID has long been an obsession for Missouri Republicans. They have been blocked on three different occasions from enacting such a law, which is why they are now asking voters to weaken protections for voting rights in the state Constitution to allow it. Writes David Graham of The Atlantic:

    Reply
  16. rikyrah says:
    May 13, 2016 at 11:57 am

    Privatizing VA care on the table for Republicans in 2016
    05/13/16 10:40 AM—UPDATED 05/13/16 10:45 AM
    By Steve Benen

    Following up on a story we’ve been following, it was just four years ago when Mitt Romney chose to float a provocative idea on Veterans’ Day. “Sometimes you wonder,” the Republican asked, “would there be some way to introduce some private sector competition” into veterans’ care?

    A spokesperson for Veterans of Foreign Wars very quickly made clear the VFW “doesn’t support privatization of veterans’ health care,” and Romney backpedaled soon after, saying he was just kicking around a hypothetical scenario he didn’t intend to pursue.

    A lot has changed since 2012. As Rachel noted on the show last night, privatization of veterans’ care is back as a Republican priority, as this Wall Street Journal report yesterday helped prove.

    Donald Trump says the Department of Veterans Affairs’ health-care system is badly broken, and this week his campaign released some guidelines that would steer changes he would implement if he wins the presidency.

    While short on details, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee would likely push VA health care toward privatization and might move for it to become more of an insurance provider like Medicare rather than an integrated hospital system, said Sam Clovis, Mr. Trump’s chief policy adviser, in an interview.

    Clovis told the newspaper, “We want quality care top to bottom. If that means we have some form of privatization or some form of Medicare, we don’t see anything wrong with that.”

    Veterans, however, tend to have a very different opinion on the matter.

    Reply
  17. SouthernGirl2 says:
    May 13, 2016 at 11:50 am

    Hillary PAC went after Jeanette for this. Like it’s not truth. This happened.

    https://twitter.com/ShaunKing/status/731163172292399104

    Reply
    • eliihass says:
      May 13, 2016 at 1:09 pm

      And folks are being told to fear Trump, and to run to Hillary…

      Can’t stress this enough, Trump is but a suddenly convenient distraction…and he is the very least of our problems…

      The option being offered as the ‘safe and smarter’ alternative is even worse…greedily, brazenly, aggressively, underhandedly, insidiously and stealthily so…

      Beware the suddenly urgent admonitions from the same folks who shrugged and went meh, as black kids and young women were being murdered in cold blood by tax payer remunerated cops, but now tell you that Trump’s insults represent the greatest threat to us..

      Nah..

      Reply
      • Ametia says:
        May 13, 2016 at 2:20 pm

        TELL.IT. Trumps been televised 24/7 (NON-STOP) since June 2015, when he declared candidacy.

        in the meantime, the USUAL SUSPECTS are doing their DIRTY DEEDS, behind the scenes, and the media is helping each & everyone one of them.

        Meanwhile….NONE OF THEM

        Reply
  19. rikyrah says:
    May 13, 2016 at 10:44 am

    Insane Surge in Philadelphia Gentrification
    Parsing a new study finds Philly’s gentrification rate to be among the highest in the nation.
    BY MALCOLM BURNLEY | FEBRUARY 17, 2015 AT 10:39 AM

    If you listen to enough old codgers complain about the rise of gentrification in our city, you’d think the names Templetown and Ori Feibush are two of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse. We know that gentrification is a real phenomenon in Philadelphia and other cities, and that people are perturbed by it. But it’s also been a force for decades. The salient question is: how much has the rate of Philadelphia gentrification actually increased?

    Well, a new quantitative analysis by Governing magazine attempts to measure the recent uptick. The study looked at low income census tracts in the nation’s 50 biggest cities since 1990, and found that, nationwide, the pace of gentrification of low income urban neighborhoods has more than doubled.

    But here’s the real news. Over the same period, the pace of gentrification in Philadelphia’s low income census tracts increased by a staggering factor of 1,800 percent. That’s correct. According to this study, Philly’s gentrification rate is 18 times what it was in the 1990s. Just one city tops Philly’s rate: San Diego (with a 2,015 percent increase).

    Now, to be clear, other cities are obviously more gentrified than Philadelphia. A whopping 58 percent of Portland’s low income census tracts gentrified between 2000 and 2013, Governing’s study found, compared to just 29 percent in Philadelphia (by that metric, Philly ranks 12th nationwide).

    But apart from San Diego, no city in the nation is seeing gentrification accelerate as much as Philadelphia. Between 1990 and 2000 only four low-income Philly census tracts were deemed to be gentrifying by the Governing study. Since 2000, though, 84 tracts have begun gentrifying. Put another way: between 1990 and 2000, just 1.5 percent of the city’s poor neighborhoods were gentrifying. Since 2000, 28.7 percent of those neighborhoods are gentrifying. Do the math: it’s an 1,813 percent jump.

    Read more at http://www.phillymag.com/citified/2015/02/17/insane-surge-philadelphia-gentrification/#EH2VQZVL4IZtrifx.99

    Reply
  21. rikyrah says:
    May 13, 2016 at 10:27 am

    Donald Trump and the Twilight of White America
    Racial resentment and economic anxiety are not separate forces. For many Trump supporters, they are inextricably linked.

    DEREK THOMPSON 9:07 AM ET

    On June 25, 2015, a week after Donald Trump announced his candidacy for president of the United States, the Census Bureau released a landmark report on the demographics of American children under the age of five. For the first time in U.S. history, it reported that a minority of this group is “white”—neither black, nor Asian, nor Hispanic.

    The notion of America’s ethnic majority has been dubious for a long time. What today many people call “white” is really a catch-all for various European groups once seen as racially distinct. But this report threw the entire concept into chaos. “A majority of American babies are now minorities,” Bloomberg reported, somewhat paradoxically. In a country where most people are minorities, the majority does not exist. Even within the headline, the word majority is collapsing in on itself.

    It is unlikely that a printed copy of this Census report hangs in a gold-plated frame on Trump’s wall. But the specter of America’s all-minority future has stalked his campaign. Trump’s core constituency is clear: Republican whites, particularly men, and especially those who didn’t go to college, who feel their American whiteness like a second skin. Many of these first beneficiaries of the franchise now feel disenfranchised. The original middle class feels cut out of the American Dream. The majority is collapsing in on itself.

    …………………………….

    Trump’s platform is a remarkable manifestation of this 12-year-old prophecy. But Even Huntington could not have foreseen that this demographic moment would coincide with an economic crisis (which would be improbably overseen by America’s first black president). History has drawn these conflicts into a crucible, and the economic anxieties and racial anxieties of today are nearly inextricable.

    Some of Trumps policy statements, on issues like the minimum wage and taxes, are like wisps of smoke—coming into existence, curling into strange shapes, and disappearing within moments. But his bedrock promises all relate to the white American middle’s central fears, including Hispanic immigration and global trade. In his first 100 days, he says, he would act to close the country. He would send additional security to the south and seal the Mexican border. He would begin the design and construction of the Mexican Wall. He would initiate plans to round up more than 10 million undocumented immigrants to send them overseas. He would potentially ban Muslim immigrants from entering the county.

    It is not enough to say that Trump is a purely racial phenomenon. Nor is it complete to argue that he is the perfectly predictable result of economic upheaval. Rather, in the last half-century, several events have pushed conservative white American middle-class men to conflate their majoritarian, economic, and cultural decline. Economic anxiety and racial resentment are not entirely separate things, but rather like buttresses in an arch, supporting each other in the creation of something larger—Donald Trump.

    http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/05/donald-trump-and-the-twilight-of-white-america/482655/

    Reply
  23. Ametia says:
    May 13, 2016 at 9:46 am

    LOL Seems like everyone else in the world gets IT,

    Reply
  25. Ametia says:
    May 13, 2016 at 9:14 am

    If anything, the media is doing their VERY BEST to disaffect VOTERS & VOTING in 2016.

    Reply
  29. Ametia says:
    May 13, 2016 at 8:59 am

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUQTvDiwaWs

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOlFRuasdXk

    Woman: ” I look at them, (Trump & Clinton), and say in a country of over 300 million people, these are the best we can find”???

    I KNOW THAT’S RIGHT

    Reply
  30. rikyrah says:
    May 13, 2016 at 7:25 am

    Good Morning, Everyone :)

    Reply

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