Wednesday Open Thread | James Baldwin Week

Posted on February 15, 2017 by rikyrah

Happy HUMP Day, Everyone. Hope you’re enjoying James Baldwin week.

giovannisroom

The Unsparing Confessions of ‘‘Giovanni’s Room’

Wiki:  Giovanni’s Room is a 1956 novel by James Baldwin. The book focuses on the events in the life of an American man living in Paris and his feelings and frustrations with his relationships with other men in his life, particularly an Italian bartender named Giovanni whom he meets at a Parisian gay bar.
Giovanni’s Room is noteworthy for bringing complex representations of homosexuality and bisexuality to a reading public with empathy and artistry, thereby fostering a broader public discourse of issues regarding same-sex desire.

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72 Responses to Wednesday Open Thread | James Baldwin Week

  1. eliihass says:
    February 15, 2017 at 8:44 pm

    Power and politics…fleeting ‘friendships’, ‘alliances’ and ‘loyalty’…Betrayals. Knife in the back..and front…Side-switching..

    “..Politics is not a noble profession…” – First Lady Michelle Obama.

    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C4izWNZXUAIzWYj.jpg

    Reply
  2. eliihass says:
    February 15, 2017 at 8:34 pm

    These folks aren’t even marginally impressive..

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=V-47CQotpMw

    Reply
    • Liza says:
      February 15, 2017 at 5:35 pm

      Yeah, I wish them the best. But PBO has already said that with the election of Trump, he doesn’t feel he can just walk away. And I think that (still my) FLOTUS has such passion for her Let Girls Learn initiative that she will continue that work. But I do expect that their work will be humanitarian as opposed to being the Democratic party power couple replacing the Clintons.

      Reply
    • eliihass says:
      February 15, 2017 at 7:20 pm

      All I know is that after 8 years of complete disregard and disrespect – including from black folks who ought to know better, nobody better make any more demands of my historic FLOTUS …

      I just want her to live her best life – insult, disrespect, disregard and trauma-free – and completely on her own terms –

      And free from any more demands from folks – especially from those looking to exploit her …wanting her to be their drudge when it suits their purposes, demanding she put her considerable talents and big brain, insight and abilities – and to suffer through the insults, disrespect, bashing and dehumanization, but only to advance other folks…slave for them…doing all the effective heavy-lifting…yet be told that she’s ‘unqualified’, not capable or smart enough …that she’s unworthy and undeserving of the highest position, title or the perks…

      I want her to soar and thrive and live fulfilled …and with the utmost peace, joy and happiness…I want her to enjoy her husband and daughters to the fullest – and without any more of the nonsense of the past 8+ years…intrusions or distractions from others insinuating themselves into their life…her life… marriage and family; those wanting her husband or demanding his attention…the myriad opportunists and hangers-on with their various dubious agendas..

      Life is so darned short…and before you know it, poof, it’s all over..

      And if this thing with the buffoon – and generally with this social media era has thought us anything at all, it is just how fickle the world and those who inhabit it, really are…

      And just how quickly even the greatest sacrifices and accomplishments can be quickly trashed, trivialized, reduced to nothing – and even completely erased …

      And yet all the personal scars, traumas, targets on the back, endure…

      Reply
    • eliihass says:
      February 15, 2017 at 7:51 pm

      And just like clockwork…

      My people, my people…

      Same folks at the NMAAHC who treated the brilliant, double Ivy League educated historic first black FLOTUS – a direct descendant of slaves and equal partner to her husband – as if she were nothing…just merely incidental to her husband’s ascent to power… and nothing more than an inconvenient appendage to the President…

      They’re already hard at work cooning for massa and placing the racists on a pedestal…already groveling and sucking up to and treating the birtherism-pushing, foreign-born, lying, low-rent 3rd wife of the racist, birther-in-chief buffoon, with so much more elevation and respect than they ever gave their very own historic first black FLOTUS…the direct descendant of slaves that they decided wasn’t worthy and instead relegated to the sidelines and even more or less excluded her – except as ‘accompanying the President’…from their program at the opening of the historic museum for black American history…UNREAL…

      You could not make this stuff up…

      http://thehill.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumb_small_article/public/blogs/melania.museum.visit_.png?itok=xFdGJpeA

      http://www.mcclatchy-wires.com/incoming/gdgix7/picture132962584/ALTERNATES/FREE_1140/Trump_US_Israel_25501.jpg

      Reply
  4. rikyrah says:
    February 15, 2017 at 3:24 pm

    Reality dawns: Obamacare might be here to stay
    By Jennifer Rubin February 15 at 10:30 AM

    The burgeoning crisis over President Trump’s and former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s connections to Russia makes the already difficult task of repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act even more confounding for Republicans, who won the White House and both houses of Congress based on unrealistic expectations about an as-yet-unidentified replacement plan.

    Politico reports:

    Consider Paul Ryan’s feel-good meeting with Senate Republicans on Tuesday. The House speaker trekked across the Capitol to reassure senators that lawmakers are making more progress toward repealing the health care law than the media are reporting.

    But not everyone was buying it. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) left before it was over, having heard enough of a conversation that he says centers around keeping Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion intact and creating tax credits that he called a “new entitlement program,” though a Republican in the room rebutted the notion that the topic of Medicaid expansion came up in the Tuesday meeting with Ryan.

    But what is too much (too much government, too much spending) for the libertarian-minded senator is wholly insufficient for others, especially for Democrats, eight of whom must cross over to vote for a GOP replacement plan. Ryan’s incessant cheering about a GOP alternative only serves to keep expectations high that there is a plan that does not raise taxes, does not include an individual mandate, does not require high deductibles, does not raise out-of-pocket costs, does not open the floodgates of red ink and does not require cuts in Medicare (which Trump ruled out).

    Reply
  6. Ametia says:
    February 15, 2017 at 3:06 pm

    Andrew Puzder has withdrawn as President Donald Trump’s choice for labor secretary, a source close to Puzder says.

    Top Senate Republicans earlier Wednesday urged the White House to withdraw Puzder’s nomination, a senior GOP source said, adding that there were four firm Republican no votes and possibly up to 12. Republicans control only 52 Senate seats.

    Puzder is the CEO of the company that owns the Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. fast food chains. Democrats say that he is too pro-employer and anti-worker, and he has been criticized for having employed an undocumented housekeeper.

    Reply
  13. Ametia says:
    February 15, 2017 at 2:51 pm

    Meanwhile, these MOFOs are trying to convince fools that MIKE PENCE was left in the dark on Flynn’s conspiring with Russia about sanctions.

    NOPE! Don’t buy it, folks. Pence and Ryan-#1 & #2 in line, when #45 is IMPEACHED.

    Reply
  30. rikyrah says:
    February 15, 2017 at 1:45 pm

    Congress takes aim at state retirement accounts
    02/15/17 01:13 PM EST

    One of the first high-stakes battles testing the relationship between states and President Donald Trump’s administration will hit the House floor Wednesday, as Republicans seek to roll back an Obama-era rule that would allow states to create retirement savings accounts for low-income workers.

    The House will vote on a resolution offered by Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions Subcommittee Chairman Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) that would roll back a rule allowing states to create retirement plans for private-sector workers whose employers do not offer retirement plans on their own.

    The Employee Benefits Security Administration implemented the rule in October.
    Seven states have taken steps toward creating such programs, requiring employers who do not offer retirement plans on their own to enroll employees in a state-run option.
    Employees can opt out of those retirement plans, and employers are not required to contribute to the accounts.
    [..]
    But the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and several financial firms oppose such state-run retirement plans. The Chamber has said state plans will give employers an excuse to end better 401(k) programs for employees.

    “Our nation faces difficult retirement challenges, but more government isn’t the solution,” Walberg said in a statement. Rep. Francis Rooney (R-Fla.), who sponsored another resolution disapproving of the rule, called it a “last-minute regulatory loophole” that “will lead to harmful consequences for both workers and employers.”
    […]
    Supporters of the new rule say state-run programs will help millions of low-income workers begin saving for retirement.

    In a letter to California’s congressional delegation, Gov. Jerry Brown (D) blasted the financial industry for opposing his state’s program, known as Secure Choice.
    “They think the dollars that move into Secure Choice should instead flow into their own products. I consider this a feature, not a defect, of Secure Choice,” Brown wrote.

    State Senate President Kevin de Leon (D), who shepherded Secure Choice into law, called Congress’s move “just another Wall Street trick designed to thwart the effort by California and other states to expand retirement security for millions of American workers.

    Reply
  34. Ametia says:
    February 15, 2017 at 1:35 pm

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmfseeZt5fA

    Reply
  36. rikyrah says:
    February 15, 2017 at 1:32 pm

    Remember, this is the smartass mofo who thought he was going to get around the crowds by not having an actual townhall meeting.

    https://twitter.com/TPM/status/831930603129929728?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

    Reply
  39. rikyrah says:
    February 15, 2017 at 1:23 pm

    Alert….get to the phones

    EXCLUSIVE: Top Senate Rs have urged the WH to
    withdraw Puzder nomination. There are 4 firm no votes and up to 12,
    source says. Next on CNN

    — Manu Raju (@mkraju) February 15, 2017

    Reply
  44. Ametia says:
    February 15, 2017 at 11:02 am

    BREAKING: Republican Judge Calls For Impeaching ‘Dangerous’ Trump: ‘America Is At Stake’
    By Stephen D Foster Jr on February 15, 2017 11:29 am ·

    Trump seems to fancy himself a king and Republicans in Congress are gleefully treating him that way instead of doing their public duty to protect this country from threats like him.

    Well, a former Republican judge is disgusted with his party and he just publicly called for Trump’s impeachment.

    Mark Painter served on the Ohio Court of Appeals for many years and the Republican Party is unrecognizable to him today. It used to be a center-right party but Trump has solidified it as the party of extremists who deny reality and facts with impunity.

    And that’s why Painter is offering to help Republicans draft articles of impeachment to take Trump down before it’s too late.

    “In any time except our post-factual era, no office holder, much less the president, could get away with any one of the dozens of dazzlingly illegal things Trump has already done,” Painter wrote in a piece for Cinncinati.com. “They would forfeit office immediately.”

    “Each new day is a new nightmare. We are still trying to digest one breathtaking assault on America when another is signed, issued, or Tweeted. All this amid constant lies. Constant. Lies. It’s tough, but we must end this dangerous presidency. Trump must be impeached and removed with all haste. But only Congress can initiate the process.”

    http://addictinginfo.org/2017/02/15/republican-judge-calls-for-impeaching-dangerous-trump-america-is-at-stake/

    Reply
  45. Ametia says:
    February 15, 2017 at 10:15 am

    The Timeline of Michael Flynn’s
    Phone Call With Russia:
    Who Knew What, and When

    https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/02/14/us/politics/flynn-call-russia-timeline.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0

    Reply
  47. Ametia says:
    February 15, 2017 at 9:53 am

    YA THINK?!

    Reply
    • Liza says:
      February 15, 2017 at 11:14 am

      That was definitely their first concern, taking care of Trump. But I think that further police militarization, protection of police from DOJ investigations and criminal charges, and decimation of the DOJ Civil Rights Division (like under George W. Bush) were also on the list of objectives. Sessions is kind of a package deal.

      Reply
  48. SouthernGirl2 says:
    February 15, 2017 at 9:17 am

    Trump: Law & Order

    The biggest bamboozle the country has EVER seen. Folks fell for it thinking he was going to keep black & brown people in line.

    Reply
  52. Ametia says:
    February 15, 2017 at 8:53 am

    Good Morning, Everyone.

    Reply
  55. SouthernGirl2 says:
    February 15, 2017 at 8:43 am

    Good morning, everyone

    Reply

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