Happy Friday, Everyone!
BEAUTIFUL BLACK
This is Nyakim Gatwech aka ‘The Queen of the Dark’
The South Sudanese model has become a viral sensation on Instagram.
Her deeply pigmented skin and defiant personality has begun to change the way people perceive conventional beauty around the world – it’s really amazing.
The 24-year-old is now making waves in the fashion world, and judging by these stunning posts from her Instagram feed it is easy to see why.
More photos here.
hmmph
https://twitter.com/TopherSpiro/status/885972548894302208
https://twitter.com/ASlavitt/status/885960387732152321
https://twitter.com/thinkingautism/status/885851817464086529
uh huh
https://twitter.com/TopherSpiro/status/885942685772730369
https://twitter.com/TopherSpiro/status/886015376173268992
https://twitter.com/Fisk_University/status/885876388569526273
https://twitter.com/luvthispayne/status/885886877844332544
Harriet Tubman by Aaron Douglas:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rB_32Te2HkI/Vksn6gb-3RI/AAAAAAAAARY/5fGZE0GXR_8/s1600/Harriet%2BTubman%2Bby%2BAaron%2BDouglas.jpg
Remembering S. Allen Counter
Inaugural leader of Harvard’s race relations foundation helped create a more inclusive University
http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2017/07/remembering-s-allen-counter/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=hu-facebook-general
https://harvardgazette.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/042804_jones_james_06_605.jpg
Excerpt from article:
For Black Photographers, the Camera Records Stories of Joy and Struggle
The African American History Museum showcases for the first time signature photographs from its new collections
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/black-photographers-camera-joy-struggle-180963180/
https://thumbs-prod.si-cdn.com/MRRfPKIy6pWReX_x9xl0RUL0yVk=/fit-in/1072×0/filters:focal(541×245:542×246)/https://public-media.smithsonianmag.com/filer/83/3d/833d87ad-b2c2-4061-b326-0eb533df23f6/2016_116_5_001-wr.jpg
(Rosa Parks by Roderick Lyons)
https://thumbs-prod.si-cdn.com/TVKPv-mzwTlpKZlM8Yl2iLZKtLw=/fit-in/1072×0/https://public-media.smithsonianmag.com/filer/7a/0c/7a0cc4ad-f690-418b-ab7c-e27e123c4989/2009_16_18_001.jpg
(by Dr. Ernest C. Withers)
https://twitter.com/NMAAHC/status/885899405936742400
https://twitter.com/NMAAHC/status/885905651314065410
The third annual African fashion show organized by Edith Muyinda was held June 25, 2017 in Denver.
https://303magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/African-Fashion-show-303-Magazine-Brittany-Werges_-9.jpg
Edith Muyinda
Excerpt from article linked below:
https://303magazine.com/2017/06/african-fashion-show-denver/
Here is a one minute video of some of the highlights of the show:
https://youtu.be/Q5O7TXs6KYg&rel=0
https://twitter.com/BraddJaffy/status/885971937364672512
Oliver Mtukudzi & Ringo Madlingozi-Into Yami :
https://youtu.be/AnjKu4aGJfk&rel=0
Rangarira by Munyaradzi Nyamarebvu:
https://youtu.be/17-hlOsCQbo&rel=0
“Munyaradzi Nyamarebvu is a Zimbabwean musician (guitarist, singer and songwriter) who sings in the nation’s dominant language, Shona. The genre of his music is less specific; it draws on various elements from different musical traditions across Africa with a touch of modern classical and jazz rhythms.
“Rangarira “always remember” is a collaboration song with Wally Warning composed during Munyaradzi sabbatical in Munich, Germany 2014.”
JAMARAM meets THE ACOUSTIC NIGHT – Munya “Rumurika”
https://youtu.be/WD5-T6H-DSU&rel=0
Creative Discovery Museum Celebrates African, African-American Cultures At Folk And Traditional Arts Event
http://www.chattanoogan.com/2017/7/10/351121/Creative-Discovery-Museum-Celebrates.aspx
http://www.chattanoogan.com/photos/2017/7/article.351121.jpg
Excerpt:
“Detroit TV dance show ‘The Scene’ throwing 30-year anniversary party”
(Starting at 6 p.m. Saturday at the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center in Dearborn)
http://www.freep.com/story/entertainment/music/2017/07/13/scene-detroit-reunion-30-dearborn/472902001/
https://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/17cd612a11767ab78e912143f0bcb0612535bf18/c=126-78-913-670&r=x408&c=540×405/local/-/media/2017/07/12/DetroitFreeP/DetroitFreePress/636354691072628119-FLOOR-ACTION-011.jpg
GOP Health bill / #BCRA penalizes Medicaid users as “’takers’ who are effectively stealing from the deserving rich.” https://t.co/1do26UzWGT
— ThinkingAutismGuide (@thinkingautism) July 14, 2017
‘There is no plan B’ – this woman is battling stage 4 cancer and Trumpcare at the same time pic.twitter.com/KKMKdIfuCV
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) July 14, 2017
Here is her video:
https://twitter.com/nowthisnews/status/885926387172777984
White House released 112 pages of voter comments to Kobach & Trump’s Election Integrity Commission—they’re amazing. https://t.co/UUmO8GFmkU pic.twitter.com/ARwFABnMmj
— Anna Massoglia (@annalecta) July 14, 2017
The White House just posted the emails of critics-Without censoring sensitive personal information Some of the emails include not only full names but actual addresses and phone numbers.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/7/14/15973464/white-house-election-integrity-doxx
Excerpt:
The Senate health bill cuts coverage for 4 million children: https://t.co/bi94eyPChM
— Annie Lowrey (@AnnieLowrey) July 14, 2017
The Senate health bill continues end the ACA’s expansion of #Medicaid to low-income people: https://t.co/zbaueEfV0F pic.twitter.com/lr0y4u7MVd
— Center on Budget (@CenterOnBudget) July 14, 2017
NEW: How pre-existing condition protections have been eliminated in GOP proposals. https://t.co/B3ovJaCYPr pic.twitter.com/5VdLOFU9rv
— Andy Slavitt (@ASlavitt) July 14, 2017
Reply
BREAKING: judge tosses jury’s conviction of woman arrested after laughing at Jeff Sessions hearing https://t.co/bP8ySzkdfx
— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) July 14, 2017
Kobach Says People Who Are Canceling Voter Registration Might Not Be Citizens
By NICOLE LAFOND
Published JULY 14, 2017 10:46 AM
After the state of Colorado announced it would comply with the White House’s bogus “election integrity” panel’s request to share voter data, hundreds of Denver-area residents cancelled their voter registration to keep their private information safe, according to a report from local KDVR News.
But the man leading the panel, Kansas Secretary of StateKris Kobach thinks it’s just a “political stunt.”
In an interview with Breitbart News Thursday, Kobach said he heard about the wave of residents unregistering, and called the move “interesting” and likened it to a “political stunt.”
“It could be a number of things. It could be, actually, people who are not qualified to vote, perhaps someone who is a felon and is disqualified that way or someone who is not a U.S. citizen saying, ‘I’m withdrawing my voter registration because I am not able to vote,’” he said. “It could be a political stunt – people who are trying to discredit the commission and withdrawing temporarily because they are politically active but planning to get back on the voter rolls before the election next November.”
He can go straight to hell
Why I Think McConnell’s Bill Is Doomed
by Martin Longman
July 13, 2017 11:15 PM
In order for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to pass his health care bill, he must first clear a procedural hurdle on a motion to proceed to consideration of the bill. To accomplish this, he’ll only need fifty votes rather than the typical sixty because this is a budget reconciliation bill that can bypass all filibusters. Yet, according to the Washington Post’s whip count there are already three Republicans (Susan Collins of Maine, Rand Paul of Kentucky, and John McCain of Arizona) who are hard “nays” on affirming the motion to proceed. If this doesn’t change, the bill is dead because the GOP caucus only has 52 members and so can only afford to lose two votes.
I think we all know better than to rely on John McCain to back up his words with action, but the list of potential ‘no’ votes is quite a bit longer. There are twenty Republican senators from states that expanded Medicaid, and only a handful of them are truly indifferent to the devastation the McConnell bill would do their states. Not only would millions upon millions lose their access to health care but rural hospitals would go out of business and state budgets would be gutted.
……………………………………….
McConnell can certainly tinker around the margins, but the Medicaid issue is the one that he can’t seem to solve. Sens. Collins and Murkowski explicitly want the cuts taken off the table, but they’re currently in the bill because they need to be in the bill.
There’s another incentive for Republican senators to oppose a motion to proceed, and that is that if the bill is taken up on the Senate floor there will be a vote-a-rama on dozens of proposed amendments. And the Democrats are prepared to drive wedge after wedge into the divisions that already exist within the Republican caucus. The whole thing will fall apart if the Senate starts passing Democratic amendments so the GOP members will be whipped relentlessly to say no to virtually all of them. This they will not want to do, especially because some of them actually will agree with those amendments. They won’t want to vote against things they support, particularly if they don’t think the bill will ever became a law. The best way to avoid that nightmare is to kill the bill in its crib.
If the bill is going to fail, the next step is shift around the blame. Most Republicans can hide behind the few courageous ones and say that they voted to take up the bill. This is why many senators won’t say they support the bill but also won’t say that they’ll oppose it. They’ll try to blame the Democrats for refusing to cooperate, but the Democrats are actually powerless to stop this bill. They haven’t even been asked to support it and none of their ideas have been solicited or incorporated. The whole idea was the pass a bill with no compromises.
The Republican health care gambit reaches a crossroads
07/14/17 08:00 AM—UPDATED 07/14/17 08:51 AM
By Steve Benen
…………………..
This left health care advocates with a sense of uncertainty. On the one hand, opponents of the far-right approach were encouraged by the fact that the Republican plan was already struggling, just hours after its unveiling. On the other hand, two “no” votes won’t be enough to stop the bill. One more is needed.
What’s unclear is whether some GOP senators who balked at the plan in June will find a way out of the box they’ve put themselves in.
There are plenty of head-counts available, showing where the various members stand – the New York Times’ version looks the most accurate to me – but I’m especially interest in Nevada’s Dean Heller and Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski, two Republicans who opposed their party’s plan last month.
Heller, in particular, said he simply couldn’t go along with legislation that made such brutal cuts to Medicaid and undermined those with pre-existing conditions, and when he announced his opposition, the Nevada Republican left himself no wiggle room. And therein lies the rub: the newest version of the GOP plan leaves those same Medicaid cuts intact and is arguably even worse for Americans with pre-existing conditions.
Heller, in other words, has backed himself into a corner. Either he honors the concerns he raised just a few weeks ago, or reverses course and completes a very public betrayal – the year before his re-election campaign.
Don’t count on John McCain to follow through on his posturing
07/14/17 09:20 AM
By Steve Benen
Now that the latest iteration of the Senate Republicans’ health care plan is available, health care advocates are keeping a close eye on the head-count. Two GOP senators have announced their opposition, but to kill the bill, critics of the far-right bill will need a third.
According to the Washington Post, however, there’s already a third. In addition to Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.), whose opposition is unambiguous, the Post’s head-count, as of this morning, showed Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) as another “no” vote.
And while I think that’s a mistake, I can understand why the newspaper reached such a conclusion. McCain issued a written statement yesterday that sounded a very critical note about his party’s bill and the process that created it.
Collins points to an underappreciated flaw in the GOP health plan
07/14/17 11:21 AM
By Steve Benen
……………
The basic idea behind Cruz’s proposal is to empower insurers to sell plans that ignore the ACA’s insurance safeguards alongside plans that include those safeguards. So, consumers could purchase a good plan, with protections for pre-existing conditions and essential health benefits, or a bare-bones plan, that wouldn’t meet any of the existing standards under the Affordable Care Act.
As health care experts have repeatedly explained, this would create an unsustainable two-tiered system, with older and sicker patients buying real coverage, and younger and healthier consumers buying cheaper insurance. This, naturally, would lead to vastly higher premiums for people who need coverage the most.
The GOP approach would try to ease the burden by creating a fund to help offset those costs, creating what would, in practice, become high-risk pools. And while that’s inherently problematic for all kinds of reasons, as TPM noted, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) raised a separate concern: the money her party’s plan sets aside is being used more than once.
This is a blistering ad: “Senators did make the bill better for one group of Americans…themselves.” https://t.co/sNbipQZDL6
— Topher Spiro (@TopherSpiro) July 14, 2017
Thanks, rikyrah for all you do to keep us informed about health care news and what Congress is up to.
BREAKING: ATLANTA (AP) — Spokeswoman: Former President Jimmy Carter has left hospital in Canada after being treated for dehydration.
— Meg Kinnard (@MegKinnardAP) July 14, 2017
MORE: After release from hospital, spokeswoman says Carter attended Friday AM devotional to begin last day of Habitat for Humanity project.
— Meg Kinnard (@MegKinnardAP) July 14, 2017
Reporters- #TheResistance is huge. It’s not some fringe group. I’ll prove it. Retweet this if you’re a proud member of The Resistance.
— Scott Dworkin (@funder) July 14, 2017
Drs/RNs send 20-45 sec videos to @HouseCallsAHCA and we will post. Remind @USSenate that #HealthcareBill will harm patients #protectourcare pic.twitter.com/dWBfzYEPpI
— HOUSE CALLS CAMPAIGN (@HouseCallsAHCA) July 14, 2017
In both House & Senate, GOP added late provisions cutting protections for ppl with pre-existing conditions, with little ‘moderate’ pushback.
— Taniel (@Taniel) July 14, 2017
The Cruelty and Fraudulence of Mitch McConnell’s Health Bill, via @nytimes https://t.co/lgj1vXyMDG
— Judy Solomon (@JudyCBPP) July 14, 2017
NEW: Cheat sheet on Senate health bill. Is GOP keeping their promise to repeal the ACA?
What is repealed and what isn’t.
RT if helpful. pic.twitter.com/Z3AsMPj3Nz
— Andy Slavitt (@ASlavitt) July 14, 2017
Black Power Art Show Opens in London
http://www.euronews.com/2017/07/13/black-power-art-show-opens-in-london
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DEdz5dhWsAA_flK.jpg
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DEiO3OhWsAAN7a0.jpg
Video on “Soul of a Nation,” the Black Power art show at the Tate Gallery in London:
https://youtu.be/vRLSTa-aNuI&rel=0
New version of #Trumpcare exempts Congress.
So worse care for everyone except the people who vote for the bill! https://t.co/g7fVZ481hy
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) July 13, 2017
This is it: There will be a big PEOPLE’S FILIBUSTER at the U.S. Capitol next Mon. and Tues. => https://t.co/JQ57BUxU0A
Please RT
— Topher Spiro (@TopherSpiro) July 14, 2017
Rev. T. Anthony Spearman, 66, came from Greensboro NC. Said he’s thinking of a mom in his congregation w/ heart condition saved by ACA pic.twitter.com/3dsCXOCAnF
— Jeff Stein (@JStein_Vox) July 13, 2017
Long line of Capitol Police getting in position to arrest Rev. Barber, rabbis, pastors after reading out warnings over bullhorn pic.twitter.com/xRjSDAzhlr
— Jeff Stein (@JStein_Vox) July 13, 2017
Hard to see but Capitol police encircling the scrum on both sides as Barber decries a bill of “political murder” against the poor pic.twitter.com/0ujTXEvdqP
— Jeff Stein (@JStein_Vox) July 13, 2017
Sessions Thanks Anti-LGBT Group for Its “Important Work”
http://www.motherjones.com/crime-justice/2017/07/sessions-thanks-anti-lgbt-group-for-its-important-work/
Excerpt:
(If you go to the link above, you can read his full speech.)
Average age of U.S. Senator is 62. None would buy health insurance lacking these benefits. So why is it okay for their constituents? pic.twitter.com/bGfsN82hjv
— Chris Lu (@ChrisLu44) June 22, 2017
https://twitter.com/AP/status/885716198226141185
https://twitter.com/Crystal1Johnson/status/885642500379205632
Congratulations to this talented team. Wow!
https://twitter.com/Crystal1Johnson/status/885672333423370241
The jury was a got damn freaking joke. Convicting a woman of laughing at Jeff Sessions while he lied under Oath at his confirmation hearing…
https://twitter.com/ryanjreilly/status/885870445634998273
Ted Cruz Tried To Mansplain Healthcare To Me, But I Had The Last Laugh https://t.co/j37M2qpjs9
— Amy M (@aem0503) July 13, 2017
By creating minimal plans, they concentrate those who need health care into higher premium pools. Not just older, sicker, it’s maternity!
— Patty Kimura (@pattykimura) July 14, 2017
$30,000 for uncomplicated vaginal delivery. $50,000 for C section…Will we bankrupt young families who believed ins was for the sick & old?
— Patty Kimura (@pattykimura) July 14, 2017
New GOP plan same as old one. Medicaid cuts, tax cuts. Except they did add something basically eliminating minimum standards for plans.
— Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) July 13, 2017
Oh Fer Phuck’s Sake!!!
From The Hill
A former Soviet counter-intelligence officer?
DOES.NOT.EXIST.
So, the lawyer that IS working for The Kremlin
Would allow someone in that ISN’T working for the Kremlin?
Does that make ANY kind of sense?
Do we understand NOW why the CIA went into a panic mode with the election?
LOL
https://www.romper.com/p/the-funniest-tweets-about-beyonces-twins-photo-are-almost-as-perfect-as-beyonce-herself-70232
HA!
OMG! Black beauty!
DEEP, DARK, CHOCOLATE, GORGEOUS!
She is absolutely beautiful!!!!!!
She is absolutely beautiful 😄😍😍😍
Good Morning Everyone 😐😐 😐
Good morning. All hell has broken loose. We’re learning a fmr KGB spy was at the Donald Jr’s meeting and possibly a 6th person but don’t know who that person is as of yet.
https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/885821680886665224
JUST ONE BIG EFFED UP DISTRACTION after another. TAXES, HEALTH CARE,? What a disaster. When are these THUGGING MOFOs going to be put down? WHEN?