Saturday Open Thread

Posted on March 25, 2017 by rikyrah

I hope that you are enjoying this weekend with family and friends.

Positive News This Morning..

Ah…they are bright and they are what we need to lift up this country.

The Root’s Young Futurists of 2017 Will Put Your Life to Shame
The Root Staff
3/16/17 9:00am

They are young, gifted and black.

They are part of a generation that is poised to change the future. We know this because they are already changing the present.

Meet The Root’s Young Futurists of 2017!

For the past six years, we have honored 25 of the best and the brightest young people, ages 15 to 22, in the fields of social justice/activism, enterprise and corporate innovation, arts & culture, science and tech, and green innovation.

What these 25 men and women have accomplished at such an early age will leave those of us who are twice as old asking ourselves, “What have I done with my life?” And what’s even more amazing, they are just getting started.

Meet some of these incredible overachievers:

There’s Isaiah Cooper, the 16-year-old who became one of the youngest black pilots to fly around the United States. His next challenge will be even bolder: to become the youngest person ever to make a solo flight around the world, which would set a mark recognized by Guinness World Records.

Using only her determination and ability to organize, environmental activist Destiny Watford, 21, managed to halt the construction of an incinerator project in her Baltimore neighborhood. The project would have emitted 1,240 pounds of lead and mercury—annually. For her work, Destiny was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize, the highest international award for environmental activists.

Moziah Bridges, the 15-year-old CEO of Mo’s Bows, has been selling his colorful, handmade bow ties since 2011. This young entrepreneur has designed and presented a bow tie to President Barack Obama and was named a fashion correspondent for the NBA Draft. This year, he plans to release a classic NBA collection of neckties and bow ties.

Click through the link and see all these wonderful young people.

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40 Responses to Saturday Open Thread

  1. Liza says:
    March 25, 2017 at 10:23 pm

    Undoubtedly.

    Colin Kaepernick's biggest rival, Richard Sherman, says he's positive Kaepernick is being punished for his activismhttps://t.co/RY6AvDyllt— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) March 25, 2017

    //platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    Reply
  3. Ametia says:
    March 25, 2017 at 2:01 pm

    I’ve said it time & gain. There is nothing wrong with the USA government, it’s the folks who are elected who refuse to GOVERN, for the good of the whole.

    Reply
  5. rikyrah says:
    March 25, 2017 at 1:39 pm

    B.F.D.
    March 25, 2017 | Scott Lemieux

    On Christmas eve 2009, the Senate voted to pass the
    Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in what would be its final
    form, although nobody expected that at the time. Let me highlight some
    names on the yea side for you:

    Max Baucus D Mont.

    Evan Bayh D Ind.

    Robert C. Byrd D W.Va

    Kent Conrad D N.D.

    Byron L. Dorgan D N.D.

    Kay Hagan D N.C.

    Tim Johnson D S.D.

    Mary L. Landrieu D La.

    Joseph I. Lieberman ID Conn.

    Blanche Lincoln D Ark.

    Claire McCaskill D Mo.

    Ben Nelson D Neb.

    Mark Pryor D Ark.

    John D. Rockefeller IV D W.Va.

    Jon Tester D Mont.

    Jim Webb D Va.

    It is ever more remarkable, in retrospect, that much of the
    discussion on the left following the passage of the ACA consisted of
    complaints about how Obama/Pelosi/Reid could “only” pass the ACA. This is, on one level, understandable, given that the ACA is unmistakably inferior to the baseline established by other liberal democracies. But this collection names should make clear than when evaluating the work of the Democratic leadership this baseline is irrelevant. The question is not why Obama/Pelosi/Reid couldn’t nationalize the American health insurance industry. The question is how they were able to get this rogue’s gallery — each and every one of whom had a veto — to agree to the most important progressive social welfare legislation passed since the Johnson administration.

    And note too that the only senator who is clearly more conservative than necessary to win election in the state is Holy Joe, who wasn’t the Democratic candidate but won because while the
    Democratic candidate would have been a better senator as a campaigner he made Martha Coakley look like FDR. (Webb is more conservative than you need to be elected statewide in Virginia now, but this was much less true in 2008.) The coalition that passed the ACA included three senators from the Dakotas, one each from Indiana and Arkansas, and two each from Montana and West Virginia. Glib “BE MORE LIBERAL!” exhortations don’t really help you to get liberal governing majorities in an institution that heavily favors conservative rural interests.

    Comprehensive health care reform is brutally hard, as Truman
    and Johnson and Clinton can tell you. In addition getting the list of
    legislators above, the Democrats also needed to keep in the fold every
    liberal who was well aware that the ACA was substantially suboptimal.

    Senators like Bernie Sanders and Sherrod Brown deserve enormous
    credit for working to make the bill as it could be and then supporting
    it. The Republicans just completely failed with a more homogeneous
    coalition in the more top-down chamber. What the Democratic leadership pulled off in 2009 is remarkable, and we now know that it is an enduring accomplishment.

    http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2017/03/b-f-d

    Reply
  6. rikyrah says:
    March 25, 2017 at 1:35 pm

    From the Atlantic about the evil Price can do.

    But
    Price can exercise some of the broad powers of the secretary’s office
    right away to make the ongoing effort to implement Obamacare more
    difficult, even if some of those provisions survive what is expected to
    be a rapid move in Congress to repeal it. For one, the text of the ACA
    was noted—and derided—for its thousands of references to the secretary of HHS in sections known as the “secretary shall” clauses, which placed quite a bit of the burden on the department itself to determine the
    final shape of several reforms.

    Among the reforms left in the purview of the department are the
    actual creation and maintenance of the HealthCare.Gov website, the
    establishment of federally run exchanges in recalitrant or struggling
    states, and the administration of the Center for Consumer Information
    & Insurance Oversight, which is designed to implement the
    private-insurance reforms of the ACA. After a year that has seen large
    increases in premiums, the exit of major insurers from the exchanges,
    and a reluctance among young people to sign up for insurance, the Obama
    administration has leaned on this statutory authority to make fixes,
    including plans to recruit additional insurers and bolster outreach to
    young people. With exchanges in such a precarious position, Price’s
    department could choose not to pursue these additional reforms or simply
    cease improving and effectively administering exchange functions.

    One part of Obamacare that Price and Verma would have authority over
    on day one is the added branch of CMS designed to test and implement
    changes in the actual delivery of and payment for healthcare in the
    country. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation was established in the Affordable Care Act, and has been authorized to act as a grantor and innovation lab for different state plans to address some of the largest cost drivers in health.

    Price has been an outspoken critic of the innovation center,
    especially as it has experimented with shifting Medicare payments from fee-for-service to a value-based model that would not pay physicians on traditional volume metrics, but on a set of metrics emphasizing quality and efficiency. Price has expressed concern that these changes limit the discretion of physicians, and intrude into the doctor-patient relationship. One of the main populations of patients affected by these CMMI demonstration grants are “dual-eligibles,” or patients eligible for
    both Medicaid and Medicare—generally those at the intersection of old
    age, low-incomes, and often disabilities. The new HHS and CMS could roll
    back any potential patient gains or data gleaned from these projects.

    A lesser-known provision of the Affordable Care Act is its Section
    1557, the nondiscrimination portion required by the Civil Rights Act,
    which applies to HHS’s authority even beyond the individual reforms of
    Obamacare. Price’s department has the authority to interpret that
    provision in its regulations. This year, under Secretary Sylvia Burwell,
    HHS used that rule to grant protections to transgender individuals and
    ensure that they could not be denied coverage or treatment on the basis of gender identity. Given Price’s objection to the Obama
    administration’s recent guidelines on bathrooms for transgender people, it seems likely his HHS might renege on the promise to transgender people.

    The Department of Health and Human Services also provides a
    significant portion of the funding that Planned Parenthood receives, and Price has been in favor of defunding the organization and making
    abortion illegal. As my colleague Olga Khazan notes, Price has been
    generally in favor of forcing women to pay copays for contraceptives as well. While Republicans in Congress seem likely to move the law in
    Price’s favor on both fronts anyways, it’s worth noting that in a few
    months, he will possess the main statutory authority to make independent decisions on both questions.

    https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/11/tom-price-secretary-hhs-policy/509159/

    Reply
  8. rikyrah says:
    March 25, 2017 at 1:29 pm

    From BJ:

    Trump is Your Racist Uncle, the ranting, proudly ignorant, perpetually angry asshole who is never wrong and wants you to know who he hates…The Republican Voters wanted someone who represents them.

    Reply
  9. rikyrah says:
    March 25, 2017 at 1:26 pm

    Went to sleep happy and woke up happy.
    Talked with a friend last night in Atlanta (2520 male), and he just unloaded about how he was pumping his fist at the news in complete and utter joy. Recorded ALL the news he could, which he hadn’t done in months.

    Like me, he refuses to go through the 5 stages of grief. He said that he had been in the depression stage. I told him that I was in the rage stage, and had decided to stay there.

    We both knew that acceptance was never coming.

    I’ll say it again. Yesterday was a good day.

    Reply
    • Ametia says:
      March 25, 2017 at 1:49 pm

      All kinds of TRUTH here.

      Reply
    • Liza says:
      March 25, 2017 at 3:44 pm

      Well said.

      I keep thinking about my own recent experience with a high cost health problem. I could have lived my parathyroid tumor. It would have shortened my life by five to six years. I would have been at increased risk for severe osteoporosis, kidney stones, heart attack, stroke, and certain cancers. And on a day to day basis, I would suffer from chronic fatigue, gastrointestinal problems, depression, and just simply feeling bad. If I were uninsured and had no other resources, this would have been my fate.

      What kind of people deny healthcare to others? And why would anyone vote for them?

      Reply
  13. SouthernGirl2 says:
    March 25, 2017 at 12:20 pm

    I have to listen to my baby at least once a day. He’s the sweetest thing EVER! He’s also featured on our side bar for your listening pleasure.

    Sang….Little Myles Kingston Sadler

    Reply
  15. rikyrah says:
    March 25, 2017 at 11:29 am

    Yesterday was so important for many reasons.
    1. We kept healthcare for 24 million Americans
    2. They blew their shot on the one chance a year for Reconciliation
    3. Trumpcare was nothing but a tax cut plan masquerading as a healthcare plan. Now that that is gone, they must do their tax evil OUT IN THE OPEN.
    4. Yes, Price is a demon, but everything that he does to sabotage Obamacare is out in the open and we can highlight it.
    5. The ZEGK’s plan to dismantle the American Social Safety Net was dealt a blow. He’s gonna have to do it out in the open too.

    don’t let anyone lie to you..

    YESTERDAY WAS A VERY GOOD DAY.

    Reply
  29. Ametia says:
    March 25, 2017 at 9:46 am

    Devin Nunes: A Russian Connection Too?
    By accumbens  
    Friday Mar 24, 2017 · 9:39 AM CDT

    OK, this seems far-fetched and tenuous, but who wouldn’t have thought a Russian invasion of a US election and association with a US President was far-fetched and tenuous less than a year ago?  As a further caveat to this diary, I should also say I haven’t a clue who/what the source of this story is.

    With all that in mind, here goes …

    First, according to his 2014 financial disclosure report and reported in the LA Times, nearly all of Devin Nunes’ entire net worth of about $51,000 is apparently tied up in an investment in the Alpha Omega WInery of St. Helena, CA.

    As reported in Addicting Info (the source I know nothing about), with distributors across the US, Canada and Mexico, this winery has few distributors worldwide and only two in other western countries, namely Switzerland and Russia.  The author of the piece in Addicting Info makes the point that there is no distributor in a NATO country in Europe.

    From googling, I have not been able to find much information in depth about the Russian distributor, the Luding Trade Company.  Nor does there seem to be any suspicious information about the Alpha Omega Winery or its founders.  So for now this is likely a random factoid, and it’s possible everyone in Congress, Democrat and Republican, could be linked in some way to Russia.  But it sure seems that such a connection might be a prerequisite for those in the Trump orbit.

    Again, for what it’s worth.
    http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/3/24/1646793/-Devin-Nunes-A-Russian-Connection-Too

    Reply
    • rikyrah says:
      March 25, 2017 at 1:30 pm

      YES…his business partners are tight with PUTIN.

      HE NEVER should have been allowed to even BE on the committee once this Russian issue came up.

      Reply
  30. rikyrah says:
    March 25, 2017 at 8:30 am

    Good Morning, Everyone😄😄😄

    Reply

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