Need an incentive for traveling, ladies? One can spend more than one day at MOA!
Located on the outskirts of St Paul in the suburb of Bloomington is the Mall of America. When it opened in 1992 it was one of the largest malls in the United States. In addition to the hundreds of shops and dozens of restaurants, the facility includes theaters, hotel accommodation, and other amusements.
Mall of America (MOA) is a shopping mall located in Bloomington, Minnesota (a suburb of the Twin Cities), southeast of the junction of Interstate 494 and Minnesota State Highway 77, north of the Minnesota River and across the interstate from the Minneapolis–St. Paul International Airport. Opened in 1992, it is one of the largest malls in the United States.[citation needed]
The mall is managed by the Triple Five Group (which in turn is owned by Canada’s Ghermezian family, along with the West Edmonton Mall). 80 percent of visitors to the Mall of America are from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, the Dakotas, Illinois, Ohio, and Canada.
The mall’s concept was designed by the Triple Five Group, owned by the Ghermezian brothers, who also own the largest shopping mall in North America, the West Edmonton Mall. Mall of America is located on the site of the former Metropolitan Stadium, where the Minnesota Vikings and Minnesota Twins played until the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome opened in 1982. A plaque in the amusement park commemorates the former location of home plate, and one seat from Met Stadium was placed in Mall of America at the exact location it occupied in the stadium, commemorating a 520-foot (160 m) home run hit by hall-of-famer Harmon Killebrew on June 3, 1967.
In 1986, the Bloomington Port Authority signed an agreement with the Ghermezian organization. Groundbreaking for the mall took place on June 14, 1989. Organizations involved include Melvin Simon and Associates, Teachers Insurance and Annuity (a.k.a. TIAA), the Triple Five Group, and the office of architect Jon Jerde.
In 1987, the Ghermezian brothers also met with Niagara Falls, New York officials with regard to building a similar “mega mall” in that city. Discussions lasted for several months but a suitable economic package could not be put together by New York officials.
Mall of America opened its doors to the public on August 11, 1992. Even before opening, the mall had earned several nicknames, including “The Megamall”, “Sprawl of America”, “Hugedale”—in reference to the four major “dale” shopping malls within the Twin Cities: Rosedale, Southdale, Ridgedale, and (defunct as of 2010) Brookdale—and simply, “The Mall”.
Mall of America became the largest shopping mall in total area and largest in total store vendors in the United States when it opened. The Mall of America’s 42 million annual visitors equal roughly eight times the population of the state of Minnesota. The mall employs over 11,000 workers year-round and 13,000 during peak seasons.
Nickelodeon Universe indoor theme park
Did Bernie just tell Rachel that Trump ‘is off to a good start’…that ‘he’s brought together some great people’ to be in his cabinet…
What the hell…whatever happened to stopping the oligarchs from taking over our government…
If Tillerson, Carl Icahn etc. all aren’t the epitome of oligarchs taking over, I don’t know what is…
https://mobile.twitter.com/costareports/status/816482202745794560
But to hear some folks on CNN and MSNBC tell it, it was the one late morning tweet from the buffoon that did the trick…
Sanders, Dem leaders urge day of rallies to ‘save health care’
BY PETER SULLIVAN – 12/28/16 12:41 PM EST
Democratic leaders are calling for rallies across the country to fight Republican efforts to overhaul Medicare and repeal ObamaCare.
The Democratic leaders, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), as well as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), wrote a letter to colleagues Wednesday calling for a “day of action” on Jan. 15.
“Rallies will be held across the country to vigorously oppose the Republican plan to end Medicare as we know it and throw our health care system into chaos,” the letter states.
The leaders dubbed the effort, “Our First Stand: Save Health Care.”
The Democrats are warning against Republican plans to repeal ObamaCare, pointing to a study from the Urban Institute that found about 30 million people would lose health insurance once repeal goes into effect.
They also point to plans to implement a Medicare “premium support” system that would change the program from an open-ended government commitment to a system where seniors receive a set amount of money to help them purchase coverage.
…
Republicans, though, say that repeal of ObamaCare is a top priority and have vowed that process will start quickly in January.
The Democratic letter also warns against cuts to Medicaid and Social Security.
“Millions of Americans voted for Donald Trump after he promised not to cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid,” the letter states. “He must be held to his promises and should veto any legislation which cuts these vital and necessary health programs.”
http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/312000-sanders-dem-leaders-urge-day-of-rallies-to-save-health-care#.WGwyj81nmko.facebook
Janet Jackson and husband Wissam Al Mana have a son -Eissa Al Mana.
Congratulations.
Splish, Splash and Pedal Harder
By AMY KLEIN
JUNE 6, 2013
I LOVE the cardio rush I get from spinning, but I find the workout rather torturous: the music blaring as a shrill instructor screams on a headset to “climb up a mountain” that doesn’t exist, as I frantically adjust the knob so the bike speed is “seven-tenths” of my total strength.
Underwater cycling, now popular in Europe, seems to have all the benefits of its landlocked compatriot but lacks some of the downsides. There are no speed adjustments to make to the waterproof bike, so you don’t have to worry about keeping pace. And at Aqua, the first New York studio to offer the class (for women only, at this point), the lighting is dim, the candlelit mood more therapeutic than punishing. Best of all, the whole 45-minute class takes place in a swimming pool.
“I didn’t feel right after spinning,” said Isabel Dupré, 48, a French fashion photographer in a blue bikini, who has lived in New York for 20 years. “I stopped because I thought it was just too hard.” She started aqua cycling, she said, because she was “obsessed” with swimming. According to Aqua’s Web site, the sport burns up to 800 calories an hour.
I climbed onto one of the 15 bikes in the four-foot-deep pool, where the 84-degree water came up to my chest. I tucked my closed-toe jellies into the pedal straps, and as I started pedaling my legs felt like jelly. The water lapped at my moving limbs but did not deter them from spinning.
https://www.facebook.com/CousinAL/videos/1840038659606829/
https://twitter.com/SnyderWBALTV/status/816343232812580866
Years of blindingly malicious, racist and vicious hate is now being mainstreamed, elevated and very richly rewarded…and only because she like a lot of anti-Obama racists momentarily sided with Hillary over the buffoon…who she’s since returned to playing footsie with…
What next..? Her equally vicious and hate-filled side-kick Michelle Malkin also gets a regular gig on NBC…
This is what glossing over and normalizing a hateful mindset that has long validated and incited and enabled the despicable…the awful situation we’re now having to contend with…this is what normalizing evil looks like..
Megan Kelly is no better than all the other awful people at FOX ‘news’ that she has for many years aided and abetted and maliciously and dishonestly yucked it up right alongside with…
Belated revelations of ‘sexual harassment’ in lucrative book deals…and dubious, slippery and mealy-mouthed alternate plays at admonition and footsie with the same buffoon she accused of misogyny, notwithstanding …
Hollow claims of sexism and misogyny by the very same lacking in self-unawareness woman who spent years at FOX ‘news’ —and up until last month even, viciously and spitefully focused on and attacking the unelected historic black First Lady at every turn…
NAILED HER!
Conservative lawyers have a roadmap that leads to Texas
01/02/17 09:20 AM
By Steve Benen
Yesterday, an important Obama administration regulation was scheduled to take effect that would have prevented discrimination based on “gender identity” or the “termination of pregnancy” in health care services. BuzzFeed reported, however, that policy was blocked over the holiday weekend by a conservative judge in Texas.
The lawsuit – brought by Texas, a handful of other states, and some religiously affiliated nonprofit medical groups – challenges a regulation implementing the sex nondiscrimination requirement found in the Affordable Care Act (ACA). […]
Explaining the lawsuit, [U.S. District Court Judge Reed O’Connor] wrote, “Plaintiffs claim the Rule’s interpretation of sex discrimination pressures doctors to deliver healthcare in a manner that violates their religious freedom and thwarts their independent medical judgment and will require burdensome changes to their health insurance plans on January 1, 2017.”
In other words, if medical professionals can’t discriminate on the basis of gender identity or abortion history, those medical professionals’ spiritual beliefs are being violated.
The Obama administration will now scramble, as the BuzzFeed report added, to either appeal the injunction or ask O’Connor “to limit his order to the plaintiffs in the case,” as opposed to targeting the federal regulation nationwide.
GOP congressman says his pro-hacking comments were ‘misconstrued’
01/02/17 10:40 AM
By Steve Benen
A handful of congressional Republicans have expressed tacit support for Russia’s alleged espionage operation attacking the U.S. presidential election, but no member went quite as far as Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.).
“If Russia succeeded in giving the American people information that was accurate, then they merely did what the media should have done,” the far-right Arizonan told MSNBC late last week.
As we discussed soon after, Franks’ argument is genuinely bizarre. According to the Republican congressman, so long as Russia was stealing actual materials – as opposed to, say, falsifying documents – in order to further its own interests, Franks is satisfied with the results. In fact, the GOP lawmaker seems to believe news organizations should also start committing similar crimes.
This is a bit like saying the Washington Post’s Woodward and Bernstein should have spent less time investigating the Watergate scandal and more time breaking into the DNC headquarters in order to give the American people “information that was accurate.”
A day after the interview, the GOP lawmaker seemed to back away from his own assertions, at least a little.
Franks did not elaborate further on how his comment had been misunderstood.
I’ve checked the transcript, and Franks made no effort to explain how or why his comments to MSNBC had been “completely misconstrued.” He emphasized his concerns about Russia’s government, but that’s largely irrelevant in this case – because the question is whether Franks supports Russia’s alleged espionage operation that subverted the U.S. presidential election.
https://twitter.com/BNONews/status/816331375049633792
And we are supposed to cheer and be grateful for what should never have even been contemplated…LOL..
These are truly weird times SG..
Republicans make more health care promises they can’t keep
01/03/17 11:01 AM—UPDATED 01/03/17 11:21 AM
By Steve Benen
Kellyanne Conway, who’ll soon serve as a senior advisor to the president in Donald Trump’s White House, was asked on MSNBC this morning about the Americans who’ve gained health security under the Affordable Care Act, and whether they can expect to keep their coverage going forward. Conway may not have intended to make news with her answer, but it’s worth keeping these comments in mind as the “repeal” crusade advances:
In an interview with NBC’s “Today,” Conway added that Trump “is committed to retaining those pieces [of the Affordable Care Act] that his advisers will say are working.”
Just on the surface, it’s striking when a Republican acknowledges – out loud and in public – that there are elements of the ACA that have “merit” and “are working.” These truths generally go ignored by the right.
But let’s not brush past the details. According to one of his top aides, the Trump White House will not take away any American’s current coverage and doesn’t intend to drop protections for those with pre-existing conditions.
About a month ago, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) made similar commitments, telling CBS News, “We will give everyone access to affordable health-care coverage,” and adding that protections for consumers with pre-existing conditions is “a very important feature of any health-care system.”
The Speaker added, in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, that the Republican approach will make sure that “no one is left out in the cold” and “no one is worse off.”
Once again, it appears Republicans are writing checks their party can’t cash.
https://twitter.com/askjcp/status/816325125566033922
https://twitter.com/3ChicsPolitico/status/816326381994917888
https://twitter.com/3ChicsPolitico/status/816326864553803780
Great job SG..
check out this link:
http://blavity.com/keep-on-shinin-tokenism-at-pwis?ct=t(Blavity_Daily_Newsletter_1_3_171_2_2017)&goal=0_b53d5e9f25-13c6b6d88b-206100893&mc_cid=13c6b6d88b&mc_eid=%5BUNIQID%5D
JC PENNEY, Y’ALL!
Blacks Threaten To Boycott JCPenney After Employee Allegedly Tells Black Family “They don’t belong there” And Puts Girl In Headlock : Mishawaka, IN
According to reports, the girl was with her family when they were told to leave by the suspect after telling them “they didn’t belong there.”
On their way out, the girl knocked over a display as retaliation and the man jumped at her and wrestled her into a headlock.
While many people shouted, “let her go” the family was bargaining with the man offering him money for the sign she knocked over.
When mall security finally arrives they took the girl away in handcuffs.
The mall refuses to respond saying they cannot speak about incidents that happen on premises.
Video credit: Katryana Wilson
https://www.facebook.com/OfficialMiseeHarris/videos/vb.552248824843574/1250951238306659/?type=2&theater
Look how that muthafucker holds her, baring her naked skin. Just digusting. He needs to be LOCKED UP for ASSAULT.
I feel RAGE!
I’ve long sense stopped shopping at JC Pennys, among other department stores. Indiana, the KKKK Capitol of America!
he’s man-handling her, like a piece of garbage. OUTRAGEOUS. and for what?
PHUCK.OUTTA.HERE.
I will not shop at J.C. Penny’s until their daughter and they receive a major apology and J.C. Penny’s pays them monetary compensation for what they went through.
I hate what is going on, something truly horrible has been unleashed. This escalation of violence, in this case a white retail store employee thinking he can assault a black teenage girl with impunity, is going to lead us into uncharted waters because people are not going to stand for this.
“…Trump’s proposed policies are lies and I fear what would happen if the worst aspects of what Trump appeals to comes to fruition.
When you let that genie out of the bottle — racism, bigotry, intolerance — when you let those things out of the bottle, they don’t go back in the bottle that easily, if they go back in at all. Whether it’s a rise in hate crimes, people feeling that they have license to speak and behave in ways that previously were considered un-American, and are un-American. That’s what he’s appealing to.
And so my fear is that those things find a place in ordinary, civil society, demeans the discussion and events of the day, and the country changes in a way that is unrecognizable, and we become estranged… Those are all dangerous things, and he hasn’t even taken office yet. So we gotta wait and see. But those are certainly the implications, and you also look at who he’s been picking for his Cabinet, that doesn’t speak very well for what’s coming up…”
-Bruce Springsteen
January 2, 2017 on WTF with Marc Maron
Truth.
https://twitter.com/ranman09/status/816308046167232512
https://twitter.com/NationalAction/status/816003725542178817
https://twitter.com/3ChicsPolitico/status/816305145004879872
https://twitter.com/bi_politics/status/816302673813270528
Lips pursed.
Quick Takes: Trump and Obama on Lincoln
by Nancy LeTourneau
January 2, 2017 5:10 PM
POLITICAL ANIMAL BLOG
* There are times when it is hard to comprehend the distance this country will travel from Obama to Trump on January 20th. To illustrate, let’s take a look at how the two of them describe our greatest president. On the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, President Obama wrote this about what Abraham Lincoln means to him, and to America:
* Back in April 2016, Bob Woodward asked Donald Trump why Lincoln succeeded. Here is his response:
Obama’s Top 50 Accomplishments, Revisited
The comprehensive legacy of the 44th President.
by Paul Glastris and Nancy LeTourneau
In March 2012, we compiled a list of what were, at the time, President Barack Obama’s greatest achievements, to accompany our cover story, “The Incomplete Greatness of Barack Obama.” Today, at the end of his second term, Obama’s legacy is far more complete. Indeed, items from the original list—such as increasing national service opportunities, creating the Race to the Top education reform program, and expanding stem cell research—fell off in order to make room for new ones.
But his legacy is also under threat. Donald Trump and the new Republican-dominated Congress have pledged to undo much of what the president has achieved, including repealing the Affordable Care Act and reversing important executive actions on immigration and climate change. So it is with this caveat that we offer the following updated list of Obama’s top accomplishments.
Trump Is Calling His American Opponents “Enemies” While Praising Putin
by David Atkins
December 31, 2016 8:14 PM
Donald Trump took to Twitter on this New Year’s Eve to taunt his American opponents as “enemies”:
Baiting and trolling one’s opponents on a holiday after losing the popular vote by almost 3 million votes is just another sign of Trump’s narcissistic insecurity. No one lost “badly” to Trump; he won a very slim victory by virtue of a rigged and archaic electoral college system. The man is a sore loser, a sore winner and a terrible human being.
But he didn’t just taunt Americans who oppose him. He labeled them as “enemies”, which is unusual and alarming from a man who is about to control America’s surveillance and law enforcement apparatus. American presidents usually shy away from calling their domestic opponents “enemies” because that sort of rhetoric is the realm of dictators, not presidents who anticipate having to work with their opposition to pass legislation. It is reminiscent of Nixon’s “enemies lists” and other dark times in American history, and a very far cry from President Obama’s unifying rhetoric.
It’s even worse, though. Trump is using this language on his domestic opponents while simultaneously praising a foreign nuclear-armed dictator who allegedly committed a malicious electronic burglary of the private communications of Trump’s political opposition. This is beyond unprecedented to the point of surrealism. It’s not technically treason, but it’s definitely subversion of American democracy and the national interest.
OMG! This unstable monster!
https://twitter.com/CNBC/status/816282792778670080
Even Glenn Greenwald And His Fans Should Fear the Trump-Putin Alliance
by David Atkins
December 31, 2016 8:00 AM
On December 19th Glenn Greenwald went on Fox News to do what he and his Intercept-libertarian acolytes have done since Trump’s victory: minimize and deny the evidence that Russia was responsible for the hacking of Democratic officials that helped deliver the election to Trump. But why the protestations?
Contrary to the assertions of many Intercept fans, the evidence that Russia was responsible is as damning as it can be in cases of international cyber-espionage. It’s true that it’s possible, as Matt Taibbi suggests, that blaming Russia is a bogus political play. But the Obama Administration has been nothing if not overly cautious in this arena, and flailing desperately and deceitfully isn’t this president’s style. Numerous intelligence services have confirmed Russian involvement, detailing as much evidence as they can without compromising their methods. The New York Times has its own comprehensive report. Russian intelligence services tried to cultivate Donald Trump for years. Donald Trump explicitly asked Russia to hack 30,000 of Clinton’s emails during a July press conference that turned out to be the last of his campaign–showing that at least at the time he believed Russia was behind the Watergate-style theft of private email data from Democrats. And we know that Putin has been openly backing Trump while mocking the Obama administration and the Clinton campaign.
In light of all this, continually and actively denying Russian involvement as Greenwald and crew have done goes beyond Taibbi’s healthy skepticism of government officials and smacks of ideological fervor. Even the Trump campaign has stopped questioning the unanimous judgment of American intelligence services, and moved on to a “who cares?” approach that is already falling apart under pressure and scrutiny. Pretty much only the Russians themselves, the conspiracy theorists at WorldNetDaily and the Intercept libertarians are actively objecting to the evidence against Putin.
More Fake News about VA Hospitals
This time, the hapless New York Times is the culprit.
by Phillip Longman
December 30, 2016
Donald Trump met with the heads of several monopolistic private health care corporations in Palm Beach on Wednesday. Bloomberg reports that “A person close to Marvel Entertainment CEO Ike Perlmutter said he also participated.” Trump was soliciting their advice on whether he should force the Veterans Health Administration (VA) to outsource more of the care of our nation’s veterans to monopolistic health care corporations. The comic book executive at least had no apparent conflicts of interests.
America’s major veterans groups, including the American Legion, Vietnam Veterans of America, and Paralyzed Veterans of America, which all strenuously oppose any moves to privatize the VA, were not invited. Stay tuned for the rest of the story.
But meanwhile, let’s just dwell for a second on how we got here before it’s too late. In the New York Times‘ story about the meeting, reporter Michael D. Shear offered this background: “The Department of Veterans Affairs has struggled to provide timely care to many veterans….News reports in 2014 said that dozens of veterans had died while waiting for care at a V.A. hospital in Phoenix.”
Here we have the New York Times once again mindlessly repeating a devastatingly effective piece of fake news that may yet lead to the dismantling of the VA. It was put in motion by the Republican-controlled House Veterans Affairs Committee during hearings it staged over the summer of 2014. The committee’s chairman, Rep. Jeff Miller, claimed to have uncovered as many as 40 veterans who had died while waiting for care at the Phoenix VA, a claim that was endlessly repeated in the press and that did enormous damage to the image of the VA with the American people.
If It’s Not Treason, What Do We Call It?
by David Atkins
January 1, 2017 5:39 PM
When Donald Trump takes the oath of office, it will mark the third time in the last half century the United States has installed a Republican president who allegedly worked with a hostile foreign power to sabotage American interests and the sitting U.S. president, in order to get himself elected. Read that sentence again slowly and consider the implications.
In 1968, Republican candidate Richard Nixon worked behind the scenes to scuttle Vietnam peace talks. Nixon knew that if the incumbent president LBJ agreed to terms with the South Vietnamese government, the resulting peace would benefit not only American soldiers in danger but also his Democratic opponent Hubert Humphrey. So Nixon’s camp sent private messages to the South Vietnamese promising better terms if they waited until he was elected president. When LBJ learned of the sabotage, recordings show that he described it as treason. Nixon won the election, and the Vietnam War continued for years afterward.
…………………………………………….
In 2016, the entire American intelligence community, alongside private cyber-security firms, have been unanimous in accusing Russian intelligence services of hacking the private communications of the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta–as well as over a dozen Democratic candidates for the House of Representatives. It was an electronic burglary of private campaign data that dwarfed the Watergate break-in by orders of magnitude. The resulting disproportionate media coverage of the released emails was crucial in helping to give Donald Trump a narrow electoral college victory, despite losing the popular vote by almost 3 million ballots.
We will not know the extent of the Trump campaign’s cooperation and involvement with this activity for months or even years. But we do already have some very disturbing facts. First and foremost, during his last press conference of the campaign Donald Trump explicitly asked Russia to hack 30,000 of Clinton’s emails (he later claimed to have only done it in jest.) There are reports that Russia has been cultivating Trump for years. There is the bizarre communication between a server in Trump tower and a Russian bank tied to the Kremlin that may or may not be innocent, but so far no one in the Trump organization has provided a credible explanation for it. Rather than condemn Russian interference in the election as it might have been wiser politically to do if he were the innocent beneficiary, Trump has taken the bizarre strategy of denying and minimizing it entirely. We know that Trump’s one-time campaign manager Paul Manafort worked for the Kremlin while living in Trump tower, and was only fired when the outrage over his Russian connections became too much to ignore. It’s possible that Trump is innocent in all this, but the preponderance of the evidence suggests otherwise.
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Good Morning, Everyone.
Good Morning, Ametia and Everyone.
http://feelpixels.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/68-Good-Morning-Tuesday-Coffee-Image-320×240.jpg