Please Come Home for Christmas” is a Christmas song, released in 1960, by the American blues singer and pianist Charles Brown. Hitting Billboard’s Hot 100 chart in December 1961, the tune Brown co-wrote with Gene Redd peaked at position #76. It appeared on the Christmas Singles chart for nine seasons, hitting #1 in 1972.[2] It includes a number of characteristics of Christmas music, such as multiple references in the lyrics to the Christmas season and Christmas traditions, and the use of a Church bell type sound, created using a piano, at the start of the song. It is sometimes referred to as Bells Will Be Ringing.
How Tobacco Companies Led A 50 year campaign to infiltrate the Black Community
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/how-tobacco-companies-led-a-devastating-50-year-infiltration-into-black-communities_us_5702944de4b083f5c60830b6
https://twitter.com/ShaunKing/status/811786860641079296
https://twitter.com/blkgirlsrelate/status/811748697507823617
https://twitter.com/RevMelech/status/811581922895917056
https://twitter.com/ELLEmagazine/status/810115192617107457?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/NerdyWonka/status/811426395687620609?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
@NYDailyNews 34 minutes ago
Donald Trump’s doc on his health: “If something happens to him, then it happens to him. That’s why we have a V.P.” — http://nydn.us/2hV4eKh
Sorry fam, but it’s become apparent that some black folks will never learn…
Some black folks are their own worst enemies…Their own undoing…
And if we are not careful, they will be the undoing of us all…and only to line their pockets, to be made to feel important by being faux-acknowledged for the cameras …to be allowed in to be used and humored and fed crumbs in the kitchen…in exchange for allowing their blackness to be fleetingly exploited and discarded to normalize and feed the ego and dastardly plans of a megalomaniac buffoon and the white supremacists who surround him… humor and flatter him to control and use him to advance their white supremacist kleptocracy…
https://mobile.twitter.com/Democrat_4Trump/status/811498881292767232
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=wZRJx7RVl4Q
unfortunately, we have always had slave catchers among us.
I can’t wait!!!!
https://youtu.be/YNqexYvxWdE
TARAJI P. HENSON, KEEGAN MICHAEL-KEY, SNOOP DOGG, RZA, COMMON LEAD HOUR-LONG ‘THE GREAT PHATSBY’ EPISODE OF ‘THE SIMPSONS’
DECEMBER 14, 2016
SHADOWANDACT
Fox is planning an hour-long “Great Gatsby”-inspired episode of its long-running animated series “The Simpsons,” with a hip-hop twist.
The upcoming episode, which will be titled “The Great Phatsby,” has booked a cast that includes Snoop Dogg, RZA, and Common (voicing cartoon versions of themselves), as well as Taraji P. Henson and Keegan Michael-Key as characters named Praline (the former wife of a music mogul who has conned Mr Burns into bankruptcy), and a rapper named Jazzy James (who joins Praline, Homer and Bart to help Mr Burns get his revenge) respectively.
A SHADOW AND ACT SIT DOWN WITH THE CAST AND CREW OF ‘HIDDEN FIGURES’
DECEMBER 19, 2016
ARAMIDE A. TINUBU
It is no secret that American history is often white-washed and male -centered, erasing the dedicated work of women and people of color; especially Black women who have worked tirelessly throughout time to make this country what it is today. The story of Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson, Black female scientists and mathematicians who played an integral role in getting the United States into the race for human space flight is just one of those stories. Based on the compelling book by Margot Lee Shetterly, “Hidden Figures” tells the story of this visionary trio of women who crossed every barrier in order to make space travel possible.
Recently at a press conference in New York City, I got the opportunity to sit down with Taraji P. Henson (Katherine Johnson), Octavia Spencer (Dorothy Vaughan), “Hidden Figures” author Margot Lee Shetterly, producer Pharrell Williams, Director Ted Melfi, NASA Astronaut Stephanie Wilson and NASA Historian Bill Barry. The cast and crew discussed why they were inspired to come on to the project, what they learned from the real-life figures, and why this history is so important today.
“Hidden Figures” is a film about bringing everyone together. Can you discuss how you brought the cast together?
Theodore Melfi: Octavia Spencer was the first actor to read the screenplay, and she said she wanted to be involved right away. She couldn’t even decide which role, but she decided she wanted to be involved. When I got the script and the book proposal…it all started with a fifty-five-page book proposal that Margot Lee Shetterly wrote. Margot grew up around these amazing women. I’ve also wanted to work with Taraji [P. Henson] since I saw “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.” I thought she was just brilliant in it, so watching her grow to Cookie on “Empire,” I knew she could pretty much do anything. She’s a consummate actor first and foremost. Then, Janelle Monáe, I wanted someone new and fresh, and Janelle came in and auditioned and strangely enough fought for the part just like her character fights for her rights in the film.
Taraji and Octavia, since you are playing women who actually existed and did all of these things, how important was it for you to know about them personally, versus just the film version of these women?
Taraji P. Henson: When you are portraying a person that is very real, in my case, Katherine [Johnson] is still alive, she is 98-years old; there is a responsibility to get it right. So, as soon as I signed on to the project, I asked Ted immediately if she was still alive. When he said yes I said, “I have to meet her immediately.” At the time she was 97, so I flew down with Ted, and when we got there, her daughters came out and met me and they were so happy. They said, “We’re so glad they got you to play our mother.” I was like, “No, pressure.” (Laughing) I went in to sit with Katherine, and it was like waiting for the queen. That’s how it felt. She came in, and I was just like, “Wow, I’m in the presence of a real life superhero.” I guess the biggest thing that I took away from Katherine was her humility. When you talk about superheroes there are selfless, they don’t think about themselves, they put humanity first. I talked to her, and I tried to make it weighty by asking things like, “How as a Black woman did you do it? They were misogynistic, and I’m sure you got called the n-word.” She was just like, “Well, that was the way it was. I just did my job. I wanted to do my job.”
She was just so humble. She would always say, “we.” In my mind I’m like, “No, Katherine it was you. It was your mind alone that got [John] Glenn to orbit the earth.” He didn’t say, “Go get so in so.” He said, “Go get that smart girl.” But that fact that that she sees the “we” in “I,” blew me away. Also her passion for math, the way I light up when I get asked questions about acting is the way her eyes danced when she talked about math and how she wanted people to fall in love with numbers the way that she did. If I had a teacher like that, I could have been a rocket scientist. When I was growing up, no one ever said to me, “You cannot do math because you’re a girl.” But, there was an understanding growing up that math and science were for boys. Somebody lied to me because this woman exists, all of these women existed. I made it my mission to do this film right because I didn’t want another girl to grow up believing the myth and the lie. I’m gonna give it to Octavia because I can go on and on.
WATCH DONALD GLOVER, ISSA RAE, LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA & DAMIEN CHAZELLE IN AN “EPIC CONVERSATION ON CREATIVITY”
DECEMBER 19, 2016
SHADOWANDACT
Four creative talents – 3 whose names have been mentioned quite a bit on this blog – Donald Glover, Issa Rae, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Damien Chazelle, in a candid, fun, enlightening hour-long conversation with director Jon Favreau, discussing their early struggles, flaunting industry conventions, achieving the success they now have, and staying grounded and much more.
What more is there to say? Did I mention that it’s “epic”?
Set aside an hour and dig in below (courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter and its annual roundtable sessions with fresh industry movers and shakers):
CENTRIC ANNOUNCES ‘QUEEN BOSS’ – THE FIRST BUSINESS COMPETITION SERIES FOR BLACK WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS, HOSTED BY TRACEY EDMONDS
DECEMBER 20, 2016
SHADOWANDACT
Over 500,000 new businesses start up each month in the United States, and African American women represent the fasting-growing group of entrepreneurs. But how do these women know if they have a great concept for a business, and if they have the skills to be a C.E.O.? Centric answers this question on Saturday, January 14 at 10:00 PM ET, in its first business competition-reality series “Queen Boss.”
Hosted by television personality and business woman Tracey Edmonds, “Queen Boss” is a new 8-episode series that strives to find the best and brightest African American female entrepreneurs and have them compete for the business opportunity of a lifetime. Each week, 3 new female entrepreneurs will step into the “Queen Boss Conference Room” where they’ll pitch their products to a panel of celebrity judges including Vanessa Simmons, Lauren Lake, Kandi Burruss, Carla Hall, Mikki Taylor, Lisa Price, Rakia Reynolds, Angela Benton and Robin Wilson. The entrepreneurs are all impressive women, but the judges put them to the test to see who has the Product, Passion, and Potential to win the competition.
Wow…so artistic!
https://twitter.com/GeorgeBearClaw/status/811647434442973185
https://twitter.com/yashar/status/811626314545459200
Even worse for this lady is her baptism of fire into the world of social media. I suspect next time she will bite her tongue.
One down, how many to go?
Good for her getting banned from the mall. Old racist bully felt brave with an audience so she clowned. Bullying the wrong person will get her ass clocked.
https://twitter.com/askjcp/status/811644046187839489
They must have been lit up with furious folks
Shadow and Act talks with the author of Hidden Figures , Margot Lee Shetterly
http://shadowandact.com/2016/12/20/interview-hidden-figures-author-margot-lee-shetterly-talks-uncovering-a-rich-and-powerful-story/
https://twitter.com/jilevin/status/811329378525118464
https://twitter.com/TPM/status/811632214966411265
Racist ass. That’s what she gets!
https://twitter.com/TUSK81/status/811592705608482818
Horrible, and I am just as upset by the silence of the white customers in line.
When a customer goes off like this, it is clearly time to call security. It appears that stores are going to have to provide special training for their employees in how to handle ugly, vile racists in Donald Trump’s America.
https://twitter.com/3ChicsPolitico/status/811606510270840837
Better call Canada again:
Researchers race to copy Obamacare data for fear it will vanish
The White House prods efforts out of concern Trump might expunge reams of information.
By DAN DIAMOND 12/21/16 05:09 AM EST
The White House is encouraging researchers to copy government data on Obamacare out of concern that President-elect Donald Trump might hit the delete key when he takes office.
Spooked by Trump’s rhetoric and pledge to repeal Obamacare, several dozen independent researchers are racing to download key health care data and documents before Jan. 20. They say they began the effort on their own, and then got a boost from Jeanne Lambrew, the White House’s top health reform official, who also sounded alarms the new administration might expunge reams of information from public websites and end access to data, researchers told POLITICO.
For those in the bleacher seats.
And, can’t understand election results.
Hillary Clinton won the Archie Bunker votes.
She lost Archie’s college educated boss and his White wife.
So, FOH with this bullshyt.
https://mobile.twitter.com/keithboykin/status/811558271328944129
Uh huh
Norm Conquest
Trump is set to undermine the things you take for granted in government and public life.
By Jamelle Bouie
On Monday, the Electoral College cast its ballots, and now Donald Trump is officially the next president of the United States. Even now, we still don’t know what Trump will do. Vague promises aside (“We will bring back jobs” or “we’ll stop ISIS”), Trump has said little on policy. We don’t know his priorities for action or his agenda for the first 100 days of his administration. If there is anything we can expect, however, it’s an escalation of his ongoing attack on the norms of politics and civic life.
Trump is defined by his shameless disregard, and even disdain, for the bonds that hold political life together. To win the Republican nomination and then the election, he stoked hatred and intolerance in a demagogic campaign against Hispanic immigrants and Muslim Americans. Since the election, he’s rejected evidence that Russia hacked the Democratic Party and attacked U.S. intelligence agencies for their conclusions.
There’s more. Constitutional scholars have sounded the alarm that Trump is embroiled in massive conflicts of interests tied to his sprawling businesses and debts to foreign banks and other creditors. The knot is so thick that, unless he liquidates his assets and hands them to a third party to place in a “blind” trust, he risks violating the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause. Despite this danger, and his promise to remove himself from his businesses, Trump has leaned into these conflicts. His children, for instance, attend high-level meetings with heads of state and use their father’s prominence to solicit donations to personal causes. Ivanka Trump, in particular, has already joined her father for conversations that have a direct bearing on the business interests of their family.
Likewise, foreign governments have already opened doors for Trump’s businesses, signing permits and resolving legal disputes. The most obvious conflict involves the Trump International Hotel. The lease on the property, issued by the General Services Administration, forbids members of Congress or other elected federal officials from having any part of it. And that’s to say nothing of the more venal examples of corruption, such as foreign governments booking rooms in the hotel or reserving it for events in an effort to curry favor with the incoming president.
15 Worst States in America to Make a Living in 2016
Eric McWhinnie
December 21, 2016
We all want to make a good living, but the rat race doesn’t provide the same course obstacles in every state. America’s status quo now includes a painfully obvious split economy. Some citizens are experiencing a rebound in prosperity, while others are dumbfounded by the use of “recovery” in headlines. Either way, location plays a major part in your personal finances.
The United States is a collection of mini-economies. MoneyRates.com recently analyzed every state to find where workers have the best or worst shot to make a good living, based on employment statistics and living expenses. The financial site evaluated the five key factors listed below.
Needs to be in jail
Gov. Chris Christie tweets up a storm after ‘revenge bill’ fails in New Jersey Legislature
NBC News
ALEX JOHNSON
Dec 21st 2016 7:35AM
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie unleashed his inner pit bull Tuesday on Twitter after the Legislature shelved his bill to yank millions of dollars in ads from state newspapers.
The measure was dubbed Christie’s “revenge” against newspapers that aggressively covered Bridgegate — the investigation that led to the convictions of two allies who conspired to cause a traffic jam on the George Washington Bridge in 2013 to punish a Democratic mayor who didn’t endorse the governor for re-election.
The bill would have repealed the state law requiring legal notices to be printed in newspapers, clearing the way for the lucrative ads to move online.
What Did Donald Trump Know, and When Did He Know It?
by David Atkins
December 17, 2016 8:30 AM
As news rolls in about Russia’s likely sabotage of the American political system, the noose is beginning to tighten uncomfortably around Republicans. The only question that matters now is this: what did Donald Trump know about the hacks on his political opponents, and when did he know it?
It is becoming increasingly clear from all sides that Russian intelligence–likely at the specific direction of Vladimir Putin–perpetrated the hack on the Democratic National Committee and on Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta. It appears to have been done with the specific aim of making Donald Trump president over Hillary Clinton, handing control of American government to a man who is not only more willing to do Russia’s bidding around the world, but also has business interests in Russia that make him personally vulnerable to blackmail and corruption.
The CIA has said so directly. The FBI is corroborating the CIA. The current President of the United States, not given to hyperbole, is in agreement. The Russians themselves, while officially denying involvement in the sabotage, have been celebrating Trump’s victory. Trump himself called on the Russians to hack Clinton’s emails during his last press conference. There isn’t a smoking gun of “proof” yet, but there rarely is one in cases of international cyber-espionage.
It’s important to remember the context here. “Hacking” is seen as so routine in our modern age that it’s easy to lose sight of historical precedent. The Watergate scandal that brought President Nixon to his knees began with a burglary attempt on Democratic campaign offices–a failed attempt to do the same thing that the Russians allegedly succeded in accomplishing far beyond Nixon’s wildest dreams. If anyone in the Republican firmament had knowledge of Russia’s efforts and aided and abetted them in any way, it would be a scandal orders of magnitude worse than Watergate. The optics alone are disastrous.
In response, recently triumphant Republicans are lurching from one bad talking point to another.
First comes outright denial of the truth: both Trump and RNC chair Reince Priebus have openly attempted to discredit the findings of American intelligence agencies in defense of Russia. Trump’s transition team mocked the CIA by falsely blaming the agency for poor intelligence about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq (in truth, it was the Bush Administration that manipulated the evidence in order to go to war.) Priebus tried to claim–falsely–that there was no official report implicating Russia. But no one outside the Republican Party and a few Glenn Greenwald adherents are seriously in doubt about Russia’s role in all of this.
Trump campaign manager KellyAnne Conway is taking a more brazen approach, saying that we should just forget about it and let bygones be bygones in the spirit of patriotism and “love of country.” In this funhouse mirror world, ignoring a foreign manipulation of our democracy is the highest form of patriotism, while insisting on getting to the bottom of it is petty and partisan. That’s not likely to get traction beyond Trump’s committed base.
Bill O’Reilly: ‘The Left Wants Power Taken Away From The White Establishment’
Twitter erupted.
12/21/2016 02:41 am ET
Bill O’Reilly sparked outrage online Tuesday for what he described as the “hidden reason” behind calls to abolish the Electoral College.
“This is all about race,” the conservative commentator said on his Fox News show. “The left sees white privilege in America as an oppressive force that must be done away with. Therefore white working class voters must be marginalized.”
He later added that liberals believe “white men have set up a system of oppression and that system must be destroyed … The left wants power taken away from the white establishment and they want a profound change in the way America is run.”
O’Reilly’s admission of “white privilege” and the “white establishment” struck a chord with Twitter users, and discussion on the topic became a trending topic overnight.
The Media Need to Focus on Context, Not “Balance”
by Nancy LeTourneau
December 20, 2016 3:49 PM
POLITICAL ANIMAL BLOG
In writing about Democratic opposition to the electoral college vote yesterday, the only mention from Jonathan Martin and Michael Wines of the fact that he lost the popular vote by 2.8 million comes in a quote from Bill Clinton. Eventually, they report this reaction to the opposition from Kellyanne Conway.
We have no way of knowing whether there was anymore to this discussion they had with Conway because that is where they leave things in their reporting. One wonders whether or not they reminded her of the way Republicans fomented a permanent opposition to Bill Clinton via everything from Whitewater to Monica Lewinsky. Or if they brought up the permanent opposition to Barack Obama that began the night of his 2009 inauguration. It would have been particularly interesting to know how she would have reacted to a reminder that Donald Trump tried to delegitimize Obama’s election via his obsession with birtherism.
None of that historical context was included by Martin and Wines, even though they found the space in an article of more than 1,500 words to mention the Gingrich revolution in 1994 as well as Democratic opposition to the election of George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan.
Uh huh
Uh huh
Conservative Group Wants Trump To ‘Ferret Out’ Pro-LGBT State Department Workers
A new twist on old McCarthyism.
12/16/2016 04:57 pm ET | Updated 2 days ago
A leading social conservative organization is calling on the Trump administration to “ferret out” employees at the State Department who worked to promote LGBT rights and replace them with conservatives.
The Family Research Council, in a little-noticed statement on Thursday, accused the Obama administration of having deployed the State Department to advance an LGBT agenda, and argued it was incumbent on the next secretary of state ― likely ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson ― to stop it.
“I certainly don’t see Tillerson cut from the same cloth as [Hillary] Clinton or [John] Kerry, but he doesn’t have to be for these anti-life, liberal social policies to continue,” said a statement that appears to be written by the group’s president, Tony Perkins. “He must have the courage to stop the promotion of this anti-family, anti-life agenda, which is very much a question mark given that he capitulated to activists pushing to liberalize the Boy Scouts’ policy on homosexuality when he was at the helm of the organization.
“The incoming administration needs to make clear that these liberal policies will be reversed and the ‘activists’ within the State Department promoting them will be ferreted out and will be replaced by conservatives who will ensure the State Department focuses on true international human rights like religious liberty which is under unprecedented assault,” the statement concludes.
Under the jail
https://mobile.twitter.com/jaketapper/status/811243322627002368
Uh huh
Uh huh
https://mobile.twitter.com/RWTQuotes/status/811436354093649920
https://twitter.com/deray/status/811550539649531904
Morning Everyone😐😐😐
Good Morning, Rikyrah and Everyone!
http://cdn.pcwallart.com/images/snoopy-christmas-wallpaper-3.jpg
Good Morning, Everyone! Happy HUMP day.
I love Charles Brown’s original version of PLEASE COME HOME FOR CHRISTMAS.
Good morning, everyone!