Tuesday Open Thread | Yo Yo Ma Week

Posted on May 30, 2017 by rikyrah

This entry was posted in Music, Open Thread, Politics and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.

63 Responses to Tuesday Open Thread | Yo Yo Ma Week

    • eliihass says:
      June 1, 2017 at 1:32 am

      Thank you for sharing this Ametia..

      Perfectly captures the frustrating and deliberate blurring of lines…and the nonsense false equivalencies consistently peddled by the media..

      Larry Sabato was clearly disgusted and rightly, frustrated..

      Reply
  3. rikyrah says:
    May 30, 2017 at 4:33 pm

    Debt fight blindsides Congress

    Lawmakers aren’t ready for a bruising debt ceiling battle, but it may be coming sooner than expected.

    By Burgess Everett and Rachael Bade

    05/30/2017 05:12 AM EDT

    President Donald Trump’s top economic aides are urging Capitol Hill leaders to raise the debt ceiling by the end of July. And Congress is totally unprepared to do so.

    Lawmakers in both parties thought they’d have until the fall to act, and they had planned to roll the always-difficult vote into a broader spending package that could be more easily swallowed. That strategy may now have to be tossed aside with the debt limit deadline approaching faster than expected.

    The White House request raises the prospect of a bruising fight over the debt limit — not just between Republicans and Democrats but within both parties. The GOP is torn over whether to combine spending cuts with the debt ceiling lift, and Senate Democrats are already signaling they may push for their own concessions because their votes are going to be needed to avoid a devastating government default.

    The request will also scramble the congressional calendar. The GOP is currently embroiled in an effort to repeal Obamacare and rewrite the tax code, two massive legislative items that are expected to suck up time and energy all summer. And now, they’ve been caught flat-footed by last week’s pleas from White House budget director Mick Mulvaney and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

    “I just don’t think it’s on the front burner,” said senior House Budget Committee member Tom Cole (R-Okla.), a leadership ally. “So far, I haven’t heard that much discussion about it.”

    http://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/30/debt-ceiling-lift-238861

    Reply
  6. rikyrah says:
    May 30, 2017 at 4:01 pm

    found at BJ:

    Mnemosyne says:

    May 30, 2017 at 3:02 pm

    @The Thin Black Duke:

    I can’t find the story now, but apparently the whole claim that
    Bannon made his millions from “Seinfeld” was a lie. It was just straight
    payments from the Mercers that they tried to launder.

    Reply
    • Liza says:
      May 30, 2017 at 4:45 pm

      Yeah, I think it is one of Trump’s fantasies that he will negotiate a deal between the Israelis and the Palestinians. And he would be able to say that he did what no other president could do. Except the Palestinians would have to agree that they are entitled to nothing and that is not likely. Poor Donald.

      Reply
  12. rikyrah says:
    May 30, 2017 at 3:15 pm

    I am LMAO at Issa hiding out like a little bytchazz.

    BWA HA HA HA HA HA H AH

    https://twitter.com/MikeLevinCA/status/869607299295330304?

    Reply
  13. rikyrah says:
    May 30, 2017 at 3:08 pm

    I am addicted to this show:

    https://youtu.be/Lz8mDEKT1lM

    Reply
  15. rikyrah says:
    May 30, 2017 at 3:03 pm

    Trump repeats criticism of Germany, Merkel stands by stance
    May 30, 2017, 7:25 AM ET

    President Donald Trump has renewed his criticism of Germany following Chancellor Angela Merkel’s suggestion that her country needs to adopt a more independent stance in world affairs.

    Trump posted a tweet Tuesday saying “we have a MASSIVE trade deficit with Germany, plus they pay FAR LESS than they should on NATO & military. Very bad for U.S. This will change.”

    Trump rattled some in Europe with his statements on NATO last week.

    Merkel said Tuesday Germany’s relations with the United States are of “outstanding importance” but it must engage with other key nations going forward. She also suggested in the wake of the Trump visit that Europe’s relationship with Washington had shifted significantly and reiterated her position that “we in Europe have to take our fate into our own hands.”

    http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/trump-repeats-criticism-germany-merkel-stands-stance-47718579

    Reply
  21. rikyrah says:
    May 30, 2017 at 2:51 pm

    Donald Trump just threatened Germany over trade. Here’s what you need to know
    May 30 at 8:49 AM

    On Tuesday morning, President Trump wrote a tweet saying that the United States had a “MASSIVE trade deficit with Germany.” He further said that this was bad for the United States and (in what seemed to be a vague threat against Germany) said that this would change. This follows on Trump’s reported statement in a closed-door session with European officials a week ago that German trade policy was “bad, very bad.” What lies behind Trump’s complaints about Germany’s trade deficit? Here’s what you need to know.

    Trump doesn’t understand Germany’s trade relationships

    The Trump administration seems to have some basic misunderstandings of Germany’s economic policy. Trump’s trade adviser, Peter Navarro, seems to think that Germany wants a weak euro. In fact, German officials have spoken out consistently against the European Central Bank’s quantitative easing policy that is helping hold down the euro’s value.

    More broadly, the president seems to think of trade in terms of bilateral relationships between pairs of countries that bargain with one another to strike a deal. However, trade relations are much more complex and harder to trace — policy changes in one country can lead to indirect ripple effects that are difficult to trace, but very important.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/05/30/donald-trump-just-threatened-germany-over-trade-heres-what-you-need-to-know/?utm_term=.0444506d47bf

    Reply
  23. rikyrah says:
    May 30, 2017 at 2:45 pm

    WHERE THE BLACKADEMICS?

    Trump Plans to Dismantle Civil Rights Efforts in Agencies
    May 29, 2017

    The Trump administration is planning to disband the Labor Department division that has policed discrimination among federal contractors for four decades, according to the White House’s newly proposed budget, part of wider efforts to rein in government programs that promote civil rights, the Washington Post reports.

    The proposal to dismantle the compliance office comes at a time when the Trump administration is reducing the role of the federal government in fighting discrimination and protecting minorities by cutting budgets, dissolving programs and appointing officials unsympathetic to previous practices.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-administration-plans-to-minimize-civil-rights-efforts-in-agencies/2017/05/29/922fc1b2-39a7-11e7-a058-ddbb23c75d82_story.html?utm_term=.73eb812cf142

    Reply
  26. rikyrah says:
    May 30, 2017 at 2:11 pm

    Trump leakers could prove elusive targets
    05/30/17 06:00 AM EDT

    In President Trump’s White House, not even private conversations in the Oval Office stay secret for long.

    A day after firing FBI Director James Comey, Trump met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in the Oval Office.

    Three of Trump’s most trusted advisers were present — Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, national security adviser H.R. McMaster and deputy national security adviser Dina Powell. Other than a photographer from a government-run Russian news agency, there was no media in the room.

    And yet out of that small group, damaging and highly specific details attributed to U.S. government officials spilled on to the pages of The Washington Post and The New York Times.
    […]
    At each step, the potential grows for confidential information to “jump the gap” into the press through leaks — a phenomenon that has exploded since Trump came into office.

    “Dealing with leaks isn’t new, but the frequency and magnitude of the leaks affecting this administration is highly unusual,” said Dov Zakheim, the former undersecretary of Defense for former President George W. Bush. “He’s at odds with the intelligence community, the FBI and the media. That’s a lethal combination when it comes to leaks.”

    http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/335363-trump-leakers-could-prove-elusive-targets

    Reply
  28. rikyrah says:
    May 30, 2017 at 2:07 pm

    Immigrants Keep an Iowa Meatpacking Town Alive and Growing

    Waves of Asian, African and Latino newcomers have filled jobs at pork, egg and turkey plants where wages have fallen and work has grown more grueling.
    MAY 29, 2017

    STORM LAKE, Iowa — When Dan Smith first went to work at the pork processing plant in Storm Lake in 1980, pretty much the only way to nab that kind of union job was to have a father, an uncle or a brother already there. The pay, he recalled, was $16 an hour, with benefits — enough to own a home, a couple of cars, a camper and a boat, while your wife stayed home with the children.

    “It was the best-paying job you could get, 100 percent, if you were unskilled,” said Mr. Smith, now 66, who followed his father through the plant gates.

    After nearly four decades at the plant, most of them as a forklift driver, Mr. Smith is retiring this month.

    The union is long gone, and so are most of the white faces of men who once labored in the broiling heat of the killing floor and the icy chill of the production lines. What hasn’t changed much is Mr. Smith’s hourly wage, which is still about $16 an hour, the same as when he started 37 years ago. Had his wages kept up with inflation, he would be earning about $47 an hour.

    The forces that have helped transform this snug lakeside town in northwestern Iowa and others like it during Mr. Smith’s working life have created a complex swirl of economic successes and hardships, optimism and unease.

    Fierce global competition, agricultural automation and plant closures have left many rural towns struggling for survival. In areas stripped of the farm and union jobs that paid middle-class wages and tempted the next generation to stay put and raise a family, young people are more likely to move on to college or urban centers like Des Moines. Left behind are an aging population, abandoned storefronts and shrinking economic prospects.

    Yet Storm Lake, hustled along by the relentless drive of manufacturers to cut labor costs and by the town’s grit to survive, is still growing. However clumsily at times, this four-square-mile patch has absorbed successive waves of immigrants and refugees — from Asia, from Mexico and Central America, and from Africa.

    They fill most of the grueling, low-paid jobs at the pork, egg and turkey plants; they spend money at local shops, and open restaurants and grocery stores; they fill church pews and home-team benches. While more than 88 percent of the state’s population is non-Hispanic white, less than half of Storm Lake’s is. Walk through the halls of the public schools and you can hear as many as 18 languages.
    more here:

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/29/business/economy/storm-lake-iowa-immigrant-workers.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur&_r=0

    Reply
  37. SouthernGirl2 says:
    May 30, 2017 at 1:48 pm

    #JesseWilliams:I don’t wanna hear anymore about how far we’ve come when paid public servants can pull a driveby on a 12yr old playing in a park. #TamirRice

    Reply
  38. SouthernGirl2 says:
    May 30, 2017 at 1:47 pm

    In AMERIKKKA #TamirRice

    Lying on job application = Fired
    Murdering a 12yr black boy playing in a park= No justice

    Reply
  39. rikyrah says:
    May 30, 2017 at 1:36 pm

    Russia investigation expands to include Donald Trump’s personal attorney
    May 30, 2017, 12:04 PM ET

    One of President Donald Trump’s closest confidants, his personal lawyer Michael Cohen, has now become a focus of the expanding congressional investigation into Russian efforts to influence the 2016 campaign.

    Cohen confirmed to ABC News that House and Senate investigators have asked him “to provide information and testimony” about any contacts he had with people connected to the Russian government, but he said he has turned down the invitation.

    “I declined the invitation to participate, as the request was poorly phrased, overly broad and not capable of being answered,” Cohen told ABC News in an email Tuesday.

    http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/russia-investigation-expands-include-donald-trumps-personal-attorney/story?id=47646601

    Reply
  40. rikyrah says:
    May 30, 2017 at 1:31 pm

    Donald Trump’s farewell tour
    The world has taken measure of the president and found a person not to be taken seriously. It’s the end of the American century.

    While Trump was feted in the Middle East, he was treated with surprising indifference in Europe. For the first time since the Second World War, an American president stood among allies, not as a first among equals, but almost like an outsider—someone who had to be invited, but who no one really was going to take very seriously.

    At one point, Trump used a commemorative address to instead complain that NATO allies were being unfair to “American taxpayers”. The other leaders standing nearby exchanged wry looks; a few even seemed to roll their eyes. By all accounts, there was no scramble to appease the president, no panic among delegations about how to “defuse” the American anger. No one really cared that much. Likewise, when the president refused to endorse the Paris Climate Agreement, or NATO’s policy of mutual defence, no one was willing to bend even a little to mollify the Americans. They shrugged.

    Even a month ago, the reaction would have been entirely different. When Trump came to power there was universal agreement he had to be treated with kid gloves, he had to be taken seriously, otherwise who knows what chaos he would unleash. But now, no one seems especially worried. Rapidly, over the last few weeks, America’s rivals and allies stopped seeing the United States as the “indispensable nation” whose opinion mattered, whose approval was always necessary.

    What changed? The world has a much better measure of the man now. They see him as inconsistent—even if you convinced him on Monday to support the Paris deal, he will quite likely repudiate it Tuesday morning in a tweet. He has also proven so ineffective in controlling the bureaucracy and even his own party, it is unlikely that a repudiation will change much any time soon.

    And beneath all of that is Trump’s unprecedented ignorance—Merkel at one point was reduced to showing him a map of the former Soviet Union to explain Russian objectives in Eastern Europe. What is the point of trying to get his support on one issue or another when he has literally not even read the summary of the relevant briefing note?

    Trump’s first world tour may well end up also being his farewell tour. Not because it will be his last, although with the accelerating pace of the Russian scandal that is not impossible. But rather because it marked the official end of the American century—when Air Force One took off and finally headed back to Washington, it left behind a new world where the United States no longer counts, where America has effectively abandoned the field to Europe, China, and Russia. Wheels up.

    http://www.macleans.ca/news/world/donald-trumps-farewell-tour/

    Reply
  42. rikyrah says:
    May 30, 2017 at 12:59 pm

    High School Criticized by Betsy DeVos Fires Back: She ‘Messed With the Wrong District’

    Teachers, students and parents at a Connecticut high school are fighting back Tuesday after Education Secretary Betsy DeVos criticized the school as an “adult daycare.”

    “Betsy DeVos messed with the wrong district,” Annie Irvine, president of the East Hartford Education Association, a teacher’s union, said at a rally outside the high school Tuesday morning, according to the Hartford Courant. In a statement last week, Irvine called DeVos’ recent remarks “demoralizing.”

    DeVos made the comment during a budget hearing before a House Appropriations subcommittee last week. She described meeting a former East Hartford student named Michael who was critical of his high school, and she used his story as an example of the need for more school choice.

    http://time.com/4797758/betsy-devos-east-hartford-high-school-rally/

    Reply
  46. Ametia says:
    May 30, 2017 at 10:36 am
    Reply
  49. SouthernGirl2 says:
    May 30, 2017 at 9:51 am

    Wow! These mofos aren’t going to stop until something dreadful happens.

    https://twitter.com/RawStory/status/869565571377106946

    Reply
  52. rikyrah says:
    May 30, 2017 at 9:10 am

    Good Morning,Everyone😐😐😐

    Reply

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