Saturday Open Thread

Posted on July 30, 2016 by rikyrah

Good Morning. Hope you’re enjoying this weekend with family and friends.

The Best Part of the Democratic National Convention was First Lady Michelle Obama’s Speech. I think it’s sort of hitting all of us is that we’re being prepared for that goodbye with the Obamas.

But, these are a couple of articles that expresses how I feel.

……………………….

Dear Michelle Obama, Never Leave. Sincerely, Everyone
The first lady ruled during her speech at the Democratic National Convention Monday night, but did we expect anything less?
BY: JASON JOHNSON
Posted: July 26, 2016

…………………………………..
If you have never had the chance to see Michelle Obama speak live, I encourage you, at some point during this campaign season, to drive, fly or run to see her. I am the last person to trot out the overused term #BlackGirlMagic, but there is something immensely captivating and awe-inspiring when you see FLOTUS enter the room. As she walked onstage, dressed in electric blue, I looked at the crowds sitting next to me on either side, and they all sat up in their seats as if their favorite teacher or aunt, or most respected mentor or boss, had come into the room. And when she spoke, the words that Michelle Obama brought to the audience were the perfect bridge between the angry Sanders supporters and the establishment Democrats who were already in for Hillary.

………………………………………..

As I watched the speech, I found myself welling up, something that has happened to me only once before in my years of reporting and analyzing politics. Not thug tears, not tears of joy. I had those tears you cried when you were 7 years old and your mom dropped you off for summer camp and you realized you weren’t going to see her again all summer. Those tears.

The first lady’s words about living in a house built by slaves where now her girls play with dogs on the White House lawn were more than just a generational come-up story. It was a narrative that I will never hear again for the rest of my life as an American. We are not likely to get another black woman in the White House like Michelle Obama. Oh, we might get a black vice president and his wife. We might get some white man with a black or racially ambiguous wife living in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. But a working-class black woman from the South Side of Chicago who gives us representation and catharsis and hope and optimism and visibility like Michelle Obama? Never again.

And, From Very Smart Brothas:

DEAR MICHELLE OBAMA, WE WILL MISS YOU.
Panama Jackson, 7/26/16

…………………………………………

Michelle on the other hand, she got up there looking great, sounding great, and making every body in the room connect with her words. Maybe that’s come with practice as being the wife of a President and being as active as she’s been, her speech game has to be on a hundred, thousand, trillion, at this point. But the ability to connect with people and make them believe in what you’re saying is a mark of greatness. And she does it with class and flair.

I won’t get into specifics about what she said – I think most of these folks mustering up their belief in Hillary is an act of true resilience – because how I felt watching one of these significant last moments on the farewell tour for Barack and Michelle was what affected me most.
I’m really going to miss them like they’re family. Maybe they are my family. Politics and policy aside, she feels like a family member who made it that you actually like and WANTED to make it. She took that role and made it hers. She never let it change her into a person she isn’t. She’s Michelle, a Black woman from Chicago all day long. She’s just managed to make those folks who don’t know better think that she left that behind. But we know. We look at her and see her and see how great she is and how great she’s been and realize that, likely, we’ll never see this ever again in our lifetimes. Maybe our kid’s kids will, but it won’t be the same.

Despite my early and misguided protestations, Michelle is exactly the role model she should be and I’m going to miss seeing her make Barack look good, and seeing her speak to kids and connect with people in a way that only she can. And I’m mostly going to miss knowing she’s in there at 1600 Pennyslvania Avenue, NW, being her best, most awesome self, flawlessly. Her presence is a gift.

Thanks, Michelle. I will miss you. And we will miss you.

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79 Responses to Saturday Open Thread

  6. rikyrah says:
    July 30, 2016 at 8:38 pm

    Wajahat Ali ‏@WajahatAli Jul 29

    #KhizrKhan’s daughter in law told me he’s kept that worn out copy of the Constitution in his coat pockets for as long as she’s known him.

    Reply
  7. rikyrah says:
    July 30, 2016 at 8:23 pm

    uh huh

    LEONARD PITTS JR
    JULY 29, 2016 5:58 PM
    Hero’s parents deflate Trump, define America

    ………………………..

    For all that, though, the emotional center of the convention might have been someone who wasn’t much of an orator at all, whose first language isn’t even English. With his wife at his side, Khizr Khan, a Pakistan-born immigrant, addressed the crowd. “Tonight,” he said, “we are honored to stand here as parents of Captain Humayun Khan and as patriotic American Muslims with undivided loyalty to our country.”

    Humayun, a soldier, was killed in Iraq in 2004, running toward a suicide bomber to save his men. Yet, as his father noted, if it were up to Trump, he of the hateful rhetoric, the Mexican wall and the Muslim ban, Humayun would never even have been in this country.

    “Donald Trump,” said Khan, engaging the bully directly, “you are asking Americans to trust you with their future. Let me ask you: have you even read the United States Constitution?” In the thunderous ovation that followed, he produced a booklet from his pocket and held it up, saying, “I will gladly lend you my copy. In this document, look for the words liberty and equal protection of law.

    “Have you ever been to Arlington Cemetery?” demanded the grieving father. “Go look at the graves of brave patriots who died defending United States of America. You will see all faiths, genders and ethnicities. You have sacrificed nothing, and no one!” he cried, voice rising with barely suppressed outrage. “We cannot solve our problems by building walls, sowing division.”

    And one is reminded that no one believes in America’s promises — liberty and justice for all — quite as fiercely as the immigrant does. Trump’s thesis is that we can no longer afford to strive for those promises in a world he says is more threatening and scary than ever before.

    Reply
  19. yahtzeebutterfly says:
    July 30, 2016 at 5:46 pm

    How depraved of the jailers!
    https://twitter.com/SebastianMurdoc/status/759486852650926081

    Reply
  20. rikyrah says:
    July 30, 2016 at 1:57 pm

    uh huh

    Donald Trump’s slander of Captain Humayun Khan’s family is horrifying, even for Trump
    What kind of person is Donald Trump?
    Updated by Ezra Klein on July 30, 2016, 2:07 p.m. ET

    The most emotional moment of the Democratic National Convention was the speech by Khizr Khan, the bereaved father of Army Captain Humayun Khan. With his wife Ghazala by his side, Khan recalled his son’s character, his faith, his patriotism — and, ultimately, his courageous death in the service of the country he loved, and the fellow soldiers he was protecting.

    And, yes, the Khan family is Muslim. Under Trump’s proposed policies, they would be innately suspect; had he been president when they immigrated to America, they would’ve been barred from entering, and Humayun Khan never would have served.

    ……………………….

    On ABC this morning, Trump responded to Khan’s speech. I don’t know what I expected from Trump. Maybe he would show some gentleness. Maybe he would show some empathy. Maybe he would refuse to comment. Maybe he would attack Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama’s foreign policy leadership. All of those responses would have been fine.

    Trump’s actual response, though, wasn’t fine.

    “If you look at his wife, she was standing there,” he said, on national television. “She had nothing to say. She probably, maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say. You tell me.”

    This wasn’t a slip of the tongue. In an interview with Maureen Dowd, Trump took the same tack. “I’d like to hear his wife say something,” he said.

    Let’s be very clear about what Trump is doing here: as ABC wrote, he’s suggesting “Khan’s wife didn’t speak because she was forbidden to as a Muslim.” This is bullshit. It is flatly, verifiably, false. But that’s almost beside the point.

    Reply
  21. rikyrah says:
    July 30, 2016 at 1:40 pm

    About Captain Khan from a poster at TOD:

    Jacqueline O’Boomer

    ****

    Our Muslim Soldier

    When he was young in his country of birth
    His loving mother would tell her friends
    This day my son took his first steps
    And the next day he would
    Try again and take two more
    And within a short amount of time
    In a year that seems like forever ago
    He was walking toward me
    One step, five, ten steps.
    Ten steps.

    The father wanted to pursue
    Some of his own dreams
    For higher education and
    To provide a happy life
    For his family
    And brought them to our country.

    They learned our culture
    They made the most of it
    They pocketed our Constitution
    They became like us
    Our neighbors, co-workers, friends
    Exactly as some of our ancestors
    Who were immigrants
    To the land of the free
    The home of the brave
    The place most of us
    Take for granted.

    In time, this son took more steps
    As an American
    Learned from his parents
    How to care for others around him
    In high school helped disabled children
    Learn to swim
    Learned from the Army recruiter
    How he could further give back
    Could become a soldier, himself
    Law school could wait as he would
    Offer a few years to the country
    Where he had walked and grown.

    The young soldier served his tour
    And was set to serve another
    And traveled to what is referred to as
    “The cradle of civilization”
    To fulfill his wartime duties
    And his parents asked him
    To stay home where he had once been
    And always would be
    Cradled in their loving embrace.

    He said he had to go.
    Our young Muslim soldier had to go.
    He had to support his troops
    He had to go.
    One day a challenge occurred
    And he looked it in the eye
    To save the Muslims on one side of the wall
    And to save his troops on the other
    He held up his hand and
    Marched into battle alone
    He marched into battle
    They say he took ten steps
    Ten steps
    And saved everyone
    Hearing the story we
    Can only ask ourselves
    How many of us
    Would have had
    Such courage.

    As we sit and learn of his life
    Of his parents’ grief and our country’s loss
    One thing we know for sure
    He believed in a God who would welcome him
    If he lived a good life
    A good and civil life
    And if his constitution stayed strong
    One thing we can imagine at the end
    As his parents grieved and
    Temporarily gave him up
    Our Muslim Soldier heard the
    Invitation into heaven
    And it was a voice calling out to him
    Or it was a feeling he got
    That it was time to take
    Those last ten steps
    And he would indeed
    Be home again.
    Mission done.
    Boots on.

    Reply
  22. SouthernGirl2 says:
    July 30, 2016 at 1:38 pm

    Sending my thoughts, prayers and love to #Lockhart

    Reply
  26. rikyrah says:
    July 30, 2016 at 12:53 pm

    Why Trump Supporters Think He’ll Win
    How the election looks to backers of the Republican nominee
    DAVID FRUM
    JUL 29, 2016

    …………………………

    “Here’s the bottom line. You live in an America that’s still a lot like your parents’ America. It’s mostly white. Nobody’s displacing and replacing you. It’s pretty safe too. You can read about rising crime—you don’t live it. In your America, you worry about how there aren’t enough women making Hollywood films or sitting on corporate boards. In our America, the gender gap closed a long time ago—and then went into reverse. Obama in the Oval Office was humiliating enough. But Hillary will be worse: We’re going to lose any idea at all that leadership is a man’s job.

    “You’ve been building up to this for a long time. No more Superheroes rescuing women in the movies. The girl always has to throw the last punch herself. In the commercials, Dad’s either an idiot—or he’s doing the housework with his boyfriend.

    “And you know what? It’s not just our hillbilly voters who are going to vote ‘no’ to all that. A lot of men you never imagined will vote for us. Trump’s going to do better with Latino men than you expect—probably no worse than Romney. He’s going to do better with black men than Romney ever did. And his numbers with white men will be out of sight. Every time you demand that Donald show respect to Hillary—while laughing as Hillary disrespects Donald—you push those numbers up.”

    Reply
  32. rikyrah says:
    July 30, 2016 at 12:32 pm

    uh huh
    uh huh

    MSNBC unearths three-year-old interview with Trump in Moscow: ‘I do have a relationship’ with Putin
    Bethania Palma Markus
    29 JUL 2016 AT 12:49 ET

    GOP nominee Donald Trump has been facing scrutiny recently for his alleged ties to Russian president Vladimir Putin.

    Earlier this week, Trump came under fire for suggesting that Russian hackers should “find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.” In the same press conference, given in Florida on Wednesday, Trump said, “I never met Putin, I don’t know who Putin is. He said one nice thing about me. He said I’m a genius.”

    Trump also said he hopes Putin “likes me” if elected.

    But MSNBC unearthed an interview from three years ago that suggests Trump not only knows Putin, but also was aware Putin was monitoring him in some fashion. The interview was conducted by MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts in Moscow, ahead of a Miss Universe pageant.

    Reply
  37. rikyrah says:
    July 30, 2016 at 11:52 am

    VC pleas to tech CEOs: Give employees time off to vote

    Venture capitalist Hunter Walk wants to ensure tech workers turn out to vote in the upcoming election.

    Last week, he pleaded with his Twitter followers to head to the polls on November 8 and asked CEOs of tech firms to consider sending out company-wide messages to employees to block time off to do so.

    Ben Lerer, cofounder of Thrillist, took the bait, tweeting that his company would indeed give its employees the day off.

    More than 70 tech firms have followed suit, with executives or CEOs publicly blessing Walk’s effort and encouraging employees to take time off to vote. Not all are giving the full day, but some are.

    While it may sound like a basic right, not every state has laws requiring employers to give workers time off to vote. Even in states that do, many workers don’t know how much time — and when — they’re entitled to take off to head to the polls.

    That’s why Walk, a partner and cofounder at Homebrew, took matters into his own hands.

    “What if CEOs were more proactive about not just encouraging people to vote but giving people space to do it?” said Walk, who has created a spreadsheet of companies’ responses…

    http://money.cnn.com/2016/07/28/technology/vc-requests-election-day-off/

    Reply
  41. SouthernGirl2 says:
    July 30, 2016 at 11:32 am

    This messes me up. Jesus Christ. My heart breaks.

    https://twitter.com/keyetv/status/759417976974172160

    Reply
  45. yahtzeebutterfly says:
    July 30, 2016 at 11:07 am

    His sentence should NEVER had included an opportunity for parole!

    https://twitter.com/AP/status/759410980598218753

    Reply
    • Liza says:
      July 30, 2016 at 2:14 pm

      Looks like all that training BART cops were supposed to get after Johannes Mehserle murdered Oscar Grant has not had the desired outcome.

      Reply
  49. Liza says:
    July 30, 2016 at 9:35 am

    I was listening to the Democratic Convention speeches yesterday on VOD. The two best speeches I have heard so far, in my opinion, are the ones by First Lady Michelle Obama and the Reverend Barber.

    I expected Tim Kaine to be really good from what I heard about him. And he’s not a bad speaker if you like political speeches, but he’s definitely not an orator. Give him some pom poms.

    And then there’s PBO. I was expecting this great speech, but I am sorry to say that I was so much in disagreement with the parts about Hillary that it was ruined for me. Give him some pom poms.

    I understand they have to do this for their nominee. It is what it is, but it doesn’t make their speeches any better.

    Reply
    • Liza says:
      July 30, 2016 at 1:56 pm

      I watched a couple more of the Democratic convention speeches on VOD, Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren.

      Joe’s speech was a crowd pleaser, everyone loves Joe. The first few minutes brought tears to my eyes. Then came the obligatory cheerleading for Hillary. But his delivery was interesting, very down to earth and straightforward, like he’s telling you the way it is for your own good. Give him some pom poms and a flag to wave.

      Elizabeth’s speech was better than I expected. She did the best job of explaining why Trump should not be president, and the Hillary cheerleading wasn’t over the top. But she isn’t a powerful speaker, it’s like listening to a professor, which is okay as long as the content is interesting. She gets one pom pom.

      Reply
    • Liza says:
      July 30, 2016 at 2:05 pm

      I saw Lil’ Debbie in the audience during PBO’s speech. I thought she would be at home watching the convention on TV. Wasn’t she afraid of the angry Bernie or Bust delegates?

      I noticed something else about several of the speeches. I heard a lot of “Hillary will….” and “Hillary understands….” as opposed to any emphasis on Hillary’s liberal and progressive accomplishments, probably because she doesn’t really have any.

      Reply
  50. SouthernGirl2 says:
    July 30, 2016 at 9:16 am

    When ‘Taking Our Country Back’ Led to a Massacre

    In the aftermath of the Civil War, devotees of the Lost Cause wanted to take back America, and proceeded to slaughter African Americans.

    On July 30, 1866, “taking our country back” left our country bloodied and scarred in a now-forgotten event called the New Orleans Massacre.

    One of Reconstruction’s deadliest days started over the refusal to accept civil rights as a verdict of the Civil War and, more broadly, because whites left behind tried to turn back the clock with violence. The New Orleans Massacre left 48 men dead and over 200 injured, nearly all African Americans. The massacre was naked political violence, organized beforehand, and directed at black delegates to the Louisiana constitutional convention of 1866. Attackers included policemen led by ex-Confederate Mayor John T. Monroe.

    http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/07/30/when-taking-our-country-back-led-to-a-massacre.html

    Reply
    • yahtzeebutterfly says:
      July 30, 2016 at 9:32 am

      Thanks for posting this important article, SG2.

      I am horrified!!! I did not know about this.

      I want to re-quote what you posted to emphasize how evil the act was:

      The massacre was naked political violence, organized beforehand, and directed at black delegates to the Louisiana constitutional convention of 1866. Attackers included policemen led by ex-Confederate Mayor John T. Monroe.

      I am ashamed and am so sorry for what my white race has done from enslaving, to brutalizing, to raping, to murdering, to lynching, to denying rights, to Jim Crow, to all the racism and hatred toward the Black community and ALL that is happening today. The Black community built this country… we would have been helpless without it. I am so very sorry. I am committed to doing all I can for the Black community to fix things in the present and to repair the damage and to speak up if I ever see any discrimination or unfairness toward a Black individual. I will not stop. I will keep pushing.

      BLACK LIVES MATTER!

      Reply
    • yahtzeebutterfly says:
      July 30, 2016 at 9:09 am

      Happy Birthday Laurence Fisburne!
      (WordPress changed the spelling of your last name above. Maybe one of the 3chics will kindly correct it for me.)

      Reply
  53. rikyrah says:
    July 30, 2016 at 9:05 am

    (((RuggedAmethyst))) @GrooveSDC
    Black folks have been saying Republicans were targeting us for years. Trying to suppress our votes. We were right. https://twitter.com/SeanMcElwee/status/759105493101113344 …

    Reply
  54. rikyrah says:
    July 30, 2016 at 9:02 am

    A poster at DailyKos was part of the North Carolina Voter ID case.

    Here’s the diary about it:

    Congratulations, DocDawg! You Made A Difference.
    By ExpatGirl
    Friday Jul 29, 2016 · 2:35 PM CDT

    Today, the news that a federal court has declared North Carolina’s voter suppression laws discriminatory will spread across the internet and mainstream media. One aspect of the story that you probably won’t hear is that one of our own, DocDawg, helped bring today about. But it is a story you should know because it shows that each of us, in our own way, has the power to make a profound difference.

    DocDawg is a private citizen who, like many of us, has been dismayed by what has happened since Tea Party Republicans won top to bottom control of the North Carolina legislature in 2012. Getting more and more involved in the progressive movement here in the South, in early 2015, he attended a DKos meetup a few hours away from his home in the central part of the state. I wasn’t there but my understanding is that the meeting featured Dr. William F. “Fergie” Reid of 90For90 as a speaker and talked a lot about the most restrictive voting laws to appear in the South since Jim Crow.

    One thing to know about these laws is that they are a multi-layered attack on enfranchisement from a variety of different angles. Voter ID requirements get a lot of attention and so do gerrymandered districts. What hasn’t gotten as much attention is how North Carolina shifted and cut polling locations across the state. And that was the part that got Doc’s imagination running.

    Doc is a scientist. He thinks in terms of data and facts. At some point, probably on the long drive home, he got the idea that while people were largely talking in theory about how limiting polling places would disenfranchise black voters in the state, the data was there to prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt. All that was needed was for someone to analyze it.

    So he called some friends who are experts at this and convinced them to give their time (a lot of it) and talents. And then they set about analyzing everything they could get their hands on. They mapped polling locations before the laws were passed and after the laws were passed against the demographic information of every registered voter in North Carolina. What they found was stunning. It was also irrefutable.

    But a look at the aggregate impacts by race reveals a startlingly different picture (Figure 1, below). While the average white voter’s distance to his or her nearest Early Voting site increased by just 26 feet in 2014, the average black voter’s distance increased by a quarter of a mile. Summing that up over the members of each race, that’s an aggregate increase in distance-to-poll of just 21,000 miles for white voters (71% of the electorate), but more than 350,000 miles for black voters (22% of the electorate). That latter distance is the equivalent of a trip from the Earth to the Moon, and half way home again

    Reply
    • Double D (@DubbleDhee) says:
      July 30, 2016 at 3:04 pm

      NC GOP-dominated State legislature thought they could make up laws as they saw fit. They went too far and got smacked down. My concern is what will happen in a GOP Presidential administration. Who will be there to keep Voter Suppression from running wild? We need a new Voting Rights Act. The Pre-Clearance provision obviously needs to be restored. Or better yet, we need a Constitutional Amendment to give us the EXPLICITLY PROTECTED RIGHT TO VOTE.

      Reply
  57. Ametia says:
    July 30, 2016 at 7:27 am

    Good Morning, Beautiful People. Gone for the day to a conference. Make it a safe & wonderful day. :)))

    Reply
    • yahtzeebutterfly says:
      July 30, 2016 at 9:50 am

      Excerpt from the article you posted:

      Patrick Wilson, Ellis County District Attorney, told Fox 4 News in an interview: ‘The criticism that is being lobbed against law enforcement and the criminal justice system in general in our community and our society today, the foundation of that criticism is what’s illustrated in this case.

      ‘And that is favoritism. That some people in the criminal justice system get treated differently.

      ‘And how can I dispel that narrative when these facts completely support that?’

      Reply
  59. rikyrah says:
    July 30, 2016 at 7:08 am

    Good Morning 😆, Everyone 😄
    Off to swim 👙and run errands. 😇

    Reply

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