Tuesday Open Thread

Posted on October 25, 2016 by rikyrah

TREASURE our TRUE FRIENDS

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24 Responses to Tuesday Open Thread

  1. Liza says:
    October 25, 2016 at 6:28 pm

    I am dedicating this film clip from The Treasure of the Sierra Madre to all of those who supported Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders:

    Reply
  2. Liza says:
    October 25, 2016 at 6:23 pm

    Clinton and Warren: Friends now, trouble ahead
    By ANNIE KARNI 10/24/16 06:03 PM EDT Updated 10/24/16 06:02 PM EDT

    …If Clinton wins, Warren has promised to rattle the gates of a Clinton White House — as she did to President Barack Obama — pushing for progressive, anti-Wall Street crusaders to fill posts as top economic advisers and, most importantly to her of all, Treasury secretary.

    Warren and her staffers have already been feeding to the Clinton campaign lists of individuals they would consider appropriate for those posts — and signaling in unsubtle terms those whose appointment they would fight to block.

    For instance, progressives have signaled for months that they have binders full of opposition research on Clinton’s former State department adviser and current Morgan Stanley vice chairman Tom Nides, and that they would plan to oppose his appointment to a top administration position, including chief of staff. Nides has not signaled any interest in joining a potential Clinton administration. But he has remained close to Clinton’s campaign and has become the poster boy for those on the left looking to stop the public sector-private sector revolving door.
    …
    Over the course of the general election campaign (she stayed on the sidelines during the primary fight against Bernie Sanders), Warren transformed from a potential competitor into one of Clinton’s most vicious attack dogs.

    She has gone after Trump on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert”; rallied the troops with a visit to Clinton’s Brooklyn campaign headquarters; campaigned across New Hampshire, Ohio, Nevada and Colorado; and spoken of her clear-cut support for Clinton at the Democratic National Convention.

    “I don’t know about you, but I can listen to Elizabeth Warren all day,” Clinton told the Manchester crowd on Monday afternoon. “She gets under [Trump’s] thin skin like nobody else. She exposes him for what he is.”

    But as the campaign draws to a close, Warren’s presence by Clinton’s side, 15 days out from Election Day, felt like the end of a brief moment when the two political agendas were unequivocally aligned.

    “When we talk about personnel, we don’t mean advisers who just pay lip service to Hillary’s bold agenda, coupled with a sigh, a knowing glance, and a twiddling of thumbs until it’s time for the next swing through the revolving door,” Warren said at an August speech in front of the Center for American Progress, previewing how she will set her own agenda moving forward. “We don’t mean Citigroup or Morgan Stanley or BlackRock getting to choose who runs the economy in this country so they can capture our government.”

    Warren didn’t namecheck those firms at random: Morgan Stanley was a direct head nod at Clinton ally Nides. And BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has long been mentioned as a potential Treasury secretary. Longtime Clinton adviser Cheryl Mills also sits on BlackRock’s board of directors and is considered part of the Clinton State Department, pro-trade cabal that Warren allies trust the least of any circle of her advisers.

    The tension — as well as the good faith efforts to find common ground — were revealed in emails hacked from campaign chairman John Podesta’s personal account and posted on WikiLeaks.

    In an email to Clinton’s top advisers in January 2015, Clinton speechwriter Dan Schwerin wrote that he met privately with Warren’s chief of staff, Dan Geldon, and came away with some concerns.
    …
    The WikiLeaks email hack has done little to soothe those concerns. In drafts of paid speeches Clinton delivered in front of financial institutions, she voiced a belief in Wall Street regulating Wall Street, noting that financial reform “really has to come from the industry itself.”

    On the trail, however, she has vowed to close the revolving door between Wall Street and Capitol Hill.
    …
    Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/clinton-warren-trump-progressives-230260#ixzz4O8qRp0ZD

    Reply
    • Liza says:
      October 25, 2016 at 6:49 pm

      I agree that Hillary’s appointments will say a lot about what to expect from her. Will she serve her corporate masters most of all? I suspect so. Will there be opposition from progressives? Perhaps. Will they be effective? They might get a few bones thrown their way, but don’t be looking for an administration full of progressive appointees.

      Reply
  3. Liza says:
    October 25, 2016 at 6:05 pm

    Sanders is prepared to be a liberal thorn in Clinton’s side
    By John Wagner October 24

    BURLINGTON, Vt. — Sen. Bernie Sanders, a loyal soldier for Hillary Clinton since he conceded the Democratic presidential nomination in July, plans to push liberal legislation with like-minded senators with or without Clinton’s support if she is elected — and to aggressively oppose appointments that do not pass muster with the party’s left wing.

    In an interview, Sanders said he and other senators have started plotting legislation that would achieve many of the proposals that fueled his insurgent run for president, including a $15 federal minimum wage, tuition-free public college, an end to “mass incarceration” and aggressive steps to fight climate change.

    The senators, Sanders said, also plan to push for the breakup of “too big to fail” banks and to pressure Clinton to appoint liberals to key Cabinet positions, including treasury secretary. Sanders said he would not stay silent if Clinton nominated the “same old, same old Wall Street guys” to regulatory positions that are important in enacting and overseeing the financial policies he supports.
    …

    The proposals Sanders plans to push are contained within the Democratic Party’s 51-page platform, a document that he and his allies were instrumental in drafting in the run-up to the party’s July convention in Philadelphia. Although in the past the party platform has often been quickly forgotten, Sanders’s role in shaping it was key to his decision to support Clinton, and he has long planned to pressure her to follow through with action in the White House.

    Progressive groups have questioned whether Clinton will fully embrace such initiatives as president and where they might fall on her priority list, particularly as she potentially faces a divided Congress and makes outreach to Republicans a focus of her campaign. Clinton did not embrace some of the policies contained in the party platform as a candidate in the primary cycle, but she has since signaled her support.

    Sanders said he considers it his job “to demand that the Democratic Party implement that platform.”

    The iconoclastic senator from Vermont, whose long-shot presidential campaign turned him into a national celebrity, shared his plans Friday during a candid and lengthy interview in his home town.
    …
    “The leverage that I think I take into the Senate is taking on the entire Democratic Party establishment, and, you know, taking on a very powerful political organization with the Clinton people,” Sanders said. “We won 22 states and 46 percent of the pledged delegates, 13.4 million votes . . .and a majority of the younger people, the future of the country. . . . That gives me a lot of leverage, leverage that I intend to use.”
    ….
    The Clinton campaign has sought to play down any potential fissures with the left wing of the Democratic Party. On Sunday, Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon said that Clinton is “proud to have worked with Senator Sanders on drafting the most progressive platform in Democratic Party history.” If she is elected, Fallon said, Clinton “intends to partner with him to advance their shared priorities.”
    …
    If the Democrats take over the Senate, Sanders is all but guaranteed to have a bigger voice in the chamber. He is in line to become chairman of the Budget Committee, although he said his preference would be to take the gavel of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, which has jurisdiction over the minimum wage, health care and many of the issues he has championed during his quarter-century in Congress.

    Sanders said Clinton’s appointees to top positions in her administration would provide a strong indication of the direction she intends to take — and he plans to hold her feet to fire to fill her Cabinet with progressives. A top priority, he said, is a treasury secretary who does not come from Wall Street.

    Like other progressives, he said he has been troubled by rumors that Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg could be under consideration for that post.

    Sandberg, Silicon Valley’s best-known female executive and author of a best-selling book on women’s empowerment, has a close relationship with former treasury secretary Lawrence H. Summers, who has ties to Wall Street.

    “I personally believe that a billionaire corporate executive is frankly not the kind of person that working families want to see as secretary of treasury,” Sanders said. “We need somebody who has a history of standing up to Wall Street and is prepared to take on the financial interests whose greed and illegal behavior has done so much harm.”

    Sanders said he also will make known to Clinton his views about who should serve in roles such as U.S. trade representative and attorney general.

    “I expect her to appoint people who will head agencies in a way that is consistent with the Democratic Party platform, and if not, I will do my best to oppose those nominees,” he said.

    Sanders characterized the platform as more progressive than Clinton’s campaign agenda but said she would have an obligation as the party’s president to try to enact it, regardless of which party controls the House and the Senate.
    …
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/sanders-is-prepared-to-be-a-liberal-thorn-in-clintons-side/2016/10/24/aaf6dd88-97eb-11e6-bb29-bf2701dbe0a3_story.html?postshare=2911477345983400&tid=ss_fb

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  4. Liza says:
    October 25, 2016 at 12:38 pm

    Hundreds Dedicate Lynching Marker to Anthony Crawford in Abbeville, South Carolina
    October 24, 2016

    This weekend, community members, college students, and supporters from near and far gathered in Abbeville, South Carolina, to commemorate and reflect upon the 100th anniversary of a tragic event: the lynching of Anthony P. Crawford.
    …
    A century ago, a white mob beat, stabbed, shot, and hung Mr. Crawford, a 56-year-old black farmer, in the Abbeville town square, after he dared to argue with a white merchant over the price of cottonseed. The patriarch of a large, multi-generational family, and the owner of 427 acres of land, Mr. Crawford was a successful farmer and leader whose murder had long-reaching effects.

    The gruesome public murder, though committed openly, did not lead to prosecution or conviction for any members of the mob. Days after the lynching, Abbeville’s white residents “voted” to expel the Crawford family from the area and seize their property. When South Carolina’s governor declared himself powerless to protect the family from violence, most of the surviving relatives fled to destinations as distant as New York and Illinois, fragmenting the once strong and close-knit family.

    It would take ongoing efforts over generations to begin to repair and reconnect those bonds through family reunions and the persistence of family elders who ensured that the younger generations saw Grandpa Crawford’s photograph at family gatherings and knew the story of both his life and death. This weekend, descendants of Anthony Crawford from as far as California, Washington, D.C., Illinois, Texas, and New York – as well as some who remain in Abbeville today – gathered for a powerful commemoration event.

    Doria Johnson was born in Chicago, 45 years after her great-great-grandfather’s lynching forced her family to flee north with Doria’s young grandmother wrapped in newspaper to shield her from the cold. Addressing the crowd in Abbeville this weekend, Ms. Johnson recalled how the beautiful photo of Grandpa Crawford and the painful story of his death shaped a curiosity and determination that stayed with her. As a young woman, she called the Abbeville church where Anthony Crawford had been a leader before his death, and found herself speaking to Phillip Crawford, a cousin she’d never known she had. From there, she helped lead more conversations, and research led to advocacy, publicity, and a push for public recognition that has now come to fruition.

    On Saturday morning, a large crowd joined together to witness and celebrate the unveiling of a historical marker bearing Mr. Crawford’s photograph and publicly declaring the previously unspoken truth of how his life ended in Abbeville. Alongside a stone monument to South Carolina statesman and avowed white supremacist John C. Calhoun, and within steps of a Confederate memorial bearing an inscription hailing the “right cause” of the Southern forces, the new marker provides a different perspective on that history, telling a story of racial terror, violence, and brutality, and a story of survival.

    “For a long time, the Earth has been silent about the injury and injustice of what happened to Anthony Crawford,” said EJI Director Bryan Stevenson, who officiated the unveiling. “But today, we’re going to resurrect that truth.” As the marker was revealed, the crowd chanted, “We are here!”
    …

    http://eji.org/news/hundreds-dedicate-lynching-marker-anthony-crawford-abbeville-south-carolina

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  5. yahtzeebutterfly says:
    October 25, 2016 at 12:31 pm

    Horrific!

    I just learned about the concentration camp at the Devil’s Punchbowl in Natchez, Ms. where thousands upon thousands of freed slaves were killed:
    https://blackmainstreet.net/never-forget-devils-punchbowl-20000-freed-slaves-died-forced-post-slavery-concentration-camp/

    Reply
  8. Liza says:
    October 25, 2016 at 11:22 am

    WORST.ELECTION.EVER.

    Elizabeth Warren: “Nasty Women” Have Had It with Donald Trump
    OCTOBER 25, 2016HEADLINES

    With the U.S. election only two weeks away, both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are campaigning in Florida today. Recent polls predicting large turnouts of Latino and African-American voters suggest Clinton may carry Florida on November 8. Clinton campaigned alongside Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren on Monday in New Hampshire, where Warren referenced Trump’s comments calling Clinton a “nasty woman.”

    Sen. Elizabeth Warren: “Nasty women have really had it with guys like you. Yeah, get this, Donald. Nasty women are tough, nasty women are smart, and nasty women vote.”

    Trump, meanwhile, appeared on a New Hampshire radio program, where he lashed out at adult film star Jessica Drake, who on Saturday accused Trump of hugging and kissing her without her consent. She is the 11th woman to accuse Trump of sexual assault. This is Trump.

    Donald Trump: “I mean, one said, ‘He grabbed me on the arm.’ And she’s a porn star! Now, you know, this one who came out recently. ‘He grabbed me, and he grabbed me on the arm.’ Oh, I’m sure she’s never been grabbed before.”

    http://www.democracynow.org/2016/10/25/headlines/elizabeth_warren_nasty_women_have_had_it_with_donald_trump

    Reply
    • Liza says:
      October 25, 2016 at 11:46 am

      This is what the election is about now, folks. Trump is a monster. He calls Hillary names and he is apparently guilty of sexual assault.

      I have vague memories of real issues being out there when Bernie Sanders was competing in the Democratic primary elections. After that, not so much.

      Somehow, for the much admired Elizabeth Warren to be on the stump raging about Trump calling Hillary a “nasty woman” seems like a major low point for an election that is already the most disgusting of all time. I’d like to tell EW to stuff it. She didn’t have the courage to support Bernie Sanders, a true progressive, which is something she espouses to be herself. IMO, she’s making a fool of herself for Hillary, all in the name of defeating a monster who has already defeated himself. Makes me wonder what Hillary has promised her.

      I will always see Ms. Warren as a sell out. And if you sell out once, you’re likely to do it again and again and again.

      Reply
    • Liza says:
      October 25, 2016 at 12:07 pm

      “He calls Hillary names and he is apparently guilty of sexual assault.” I should have said “possibly guilty.” I am not aware of any evidence of these claims except for what the alleged victims are saying.

      Reply
  9. yahtzeebutterfly says:
    October 25, 2016 at 10:53 am

    https://twitter.com/AdamSerwer/status/790908679805698049

    Here is a Youtube video posted yesterday by the Associated Press about this incident:
    https://youtu.be/W1Hj9uPWbiE&rel=0

    Reply
    • Liza says:
      October 25, 2016 at 12:29 pm

      I’m glad this incident is getting national attention. So much of the problem here is that racial hatred is deliberately instilled in vulnerable young people by their parents and their communities.

      Reply
  12. SouthernGirl2 says:
    October 25, 2016 at 9:37 am

    ICYMI, our Twitter pal @GoBrooklyn passed away. Pls donate to help with her funeral expense & RT so others may help

    https://twitter.com/GoBrooklyn/status/790592983309492224

    Reply
  13. rikyrah says:
    October 25, 2016 at 6:21 am

    Good Morning 😊, Everyone 😃

    Reply

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