Thursday Open Thread |Phoebe Snow Week

Posted on October 5, 2017 by rikyrah

Having a mellow week. Self-care is so important, folks. Enjoy your day with friends and family.

All five living former presidents to attend hurricane relief concert

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54 Responses to Thursday Open Thread |Phoebe Snow Week

  6. rikyrah says:
    October 5, 2017 at 9:25 pm

    @shadowandact 2h2 hours ago
    More
    ‘Underground’ star @amirahvann joins Season 4 of ‘How to Get Away with Murder’ https://buff.ly/2y2VuJO

    Reply
  16. SouthernGirl2 says:
    October 5, 2017 at 6:45 pm

    Wait a minute….I thought he said it was fake news & that NBC made it up? Lying dog has zero morals.

    https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/916081341804015617

    Reply
  19. SouthernGirl2 says:
    October 5, 2017 at 6:18 pm

    Breaking News: #RexTillerson summoned to the White House amid Trump fury

    Reply
  23. Liza says:
    October 5, 2017 at 4:02 pm

    Y’all are absolutely not going to believe this. This is Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) in Vietnam now.

    Reply
  24. rikyrah says:
    October 5, 2017 at 1:51 pm

    This Bears Watching
    By JOSH MARSHALL
    Published OCTOBER 4, 2017 3:19 PM

    “MS-13 turns young girls into sex slaves…yet Ralph Northam supports sanctuary cities…” That’s the text from a radio ad from Virginia GOP Governor candidate Ed Gillespie, as tweeted by Fenit Nirappil, a Virginia politics reporter from The Washington Post. That comes on the heels of a series of TV ads with a similar topic and theme “Kill, Rape, Control.”

    If you haven’t heard of it, MS-13 is a criminal gang based in Los Angeles but at least present in a number of American cities. It’s made up predominantly of Central Americans. But it’s seen more broadly as a Hispanic gang. It’s not made up. It’s a violent, merciless organization that preys mainly on immigrants, especially the undocumented who can’t easily seek protection. The key point here is that MS-13 has become a staple of right-wing media. You may not have heard of them. But your crazy right-wing uncle definitely has.

    From what I understand the race is close. I don’t have a good sense of who will win. The Democrats have held the Virginia governorship, which is term-limited at a single four year term, for three of the last four terms going back to 2002.

    ……………………………….

    Anything to win, I guess. But Gillespie is the kind of Republican who you’d normally expect to see saying Republicans need to expand their support among growing demographic groups. He’s not a Steve King type you wouldn’t be surprised to see going full race-baiting Trumper in Virginia. But he’s clearly decided this is his path to victory, a doubling down on Trumpism and the Trump base. It certainly seems possible that he might win.

    If he does win, or if it seems like it helped him, I would expect this to be a major theme of 2018 mid-term campaigns and not just in deep red districts.

    Reply
  26. rikyrah says:
    October 5, 2017 at 11:28 am

    Best description of Dolt45 and that PR visit:

    His supporters applauded again, pointing to his authenticity and moments of empathy. Puerto Ricans already upset with him before he landed were infuriated.

    “He takes two weeks to visit a disaster zone where 3.5 million American citizens live. He arrives with a smile on his face, makes fun of the situation, shows no empathy, lies and lies on camera as he does 24-7. And then throws paper towel rolls to people in need as if he was playing Go Fetch with dogs,” said Joel Isaac, 27, a New York actor who moved from Puerto Rico three years ago.

    Most of Isaac’s family is still on the island. He said he had never felt humiliated as a Puerto Rican until he watched Trump’s visit.

    “It’s the whole scene where the privileged white man comes to save the brown peasants after they’ve been begging, thirsty and hungry. It’s super disgusting to see, honestly,” he said.

    Reply
  28. rikyrah says:
    October 5, 2017 at 11:07 am

    The Department of Justice is allegedly investigating Harvard’s admissions practices
    Abby Jackson

    The Department of Justice (DOJ) is allegedly engaged in an ongoing investigation into Harvard University’s admissions practices, BuzzFeed News reported Wednesday.

    The investigation appears to have been confirmed after a government watchdog group and a civil-rights organization submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request about a possible investigation into admissions practices at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

    While the letter, which was obtained by BuzzFeed, noted that there was no such record concerning UNC, it did not confirm the same for Harvard; instead only saying that the records requested were exempt from public disclosure.

    The news follows similar reports in August that the DOJ would soon take up an investigation related to alleged discriminatory admissions practices at Harvard against Asian-Americans. The New York Times published a bombshell report stating the DOJ would start investigating affirmative-action practices on college campuses, and the department soon confirmed it had begun seeking volunteers to investigate the Harvard complaint.

    That news rattled many in the higher-education community, who thought the issue had been quieted last year when the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of affirmative action at the University of Texas Austin (UT).

    The response to the FOIA request is the clearest indication yet that the DOJ is taking aim at affirmative action at Harvard.

    Reply
    • Ametia says:
      October 5, 2017 at 11:17 am

      INSANE, but you know, these MOFOs can’t have those black folks going to HAR-VID! They might become too ED-U-MA-CATED & becomePOTUS!

      Reply
      • rikyrah says:
        October 5, 2017 at 12:18 pm

        You do know that a majority of this year’s incoming freshman class at Harvard is NON-WHITE.
        You don’t think THAT got the attention of Attorney General White Citizens Council?

        Reply
  31. rikyrah says:
    October 5, 2017 at 10:26 am

    hmmmmmmmm

    Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock booked rooms in a Chicago hotel facing the Lollapalooza music festival in August, a law enforcement official told USA TODAY on Thursday.
    Paddock, 64, booked one room at the Blackstone Hotel starting Aug. 1, two days before the festival opened. He booked a second room Aug. 3.
    Both rooms had a checkout date of Aug. 6, corresponding with the final day of the music festival that drew tens of thousands of concertgoers to Grant Park alongside Lake Michigan. It was unclear if Paddock ever used the room or was in Chicago during the festival, according to the law enforcement official, who was not authorized to discuss the case publicly.

    Reply
  32. rikyrah says:
    October 5, 2017 at 10:10 am

    White House urges public to disregard Trump rhetoric (again)
    10/05/17 10:41 AM
    By Steve Benen
    Last week, in one of his first public comments about Puerto Rico after it was devastated by Hurricane Maria, Donald Trump reminded Americans on the island that Puerto Rico is “billions of dollars in debt to Wall Street and the banks which, sadly, must be dealt with.” Even at the time, it was a bizarre thing to say given the scope and scale of the personal crises.

    This week, however, was nearly as odd. Trump told Fox News, in reference to Puerto Rico’s debt, “You know, they owe a lot of money to your friends on Wall Street, and we’re going to have to wipe that out. You can say goodbye to that. I don’t know if it’s Goldman Sachs, but whoever it is, you can wave goodbye to that.”

    No one knew quite what that meant, or whether the White House even has the authority to simply “wipe out” billions of dollars in debt, but the president’s rhetoric rattled bond markets and sparked some “chaos” in the finance industry.

    Reply
  33. rikyrah says:
    October 5, 2017 at 10:09 am

    Trump wants a Senate Intel Committee probe of US media outlets
    10/05/17 08:40 AM
    By Steve Benen

    The top two members of the Senate Intelligence Committee held an informal briefing for the press yesterday, updating the public on the state of their investigation into the Russia scandal. And while there weren’t any blockbuster revelations, Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) agreed with U.S. intelligence agencies about Vladimir Putin’s government having intervened in the American election on Donald Trump’s behalf.
    The president, meanwhile, would like the Senate panel to ignore the foreign adversary’s attack on our democracy, and instead turn its attention to a different matter entirely.

    “Why Isn’t the Senate Intel Committee looking into the Fake News Networks in OUR country to see why so much of our news is just made up-FAKE!”

    Yes, I know, we’ve all grown quite inured to routine Trump nonsense, but let’s not brush past the fact that the sitting president of the United States wants an investigation into American news organizations that publish reports he disapproves of.

    Trump’s authoritarian instincts do not serve him well in our system of government.

    Reply
  35. rikyrah says:
    October 5, 2017 at 9:54 am

    Widespread corruption allegations add to Trump World’s troubles
    10/05/17 08:00 AM
    By Steve Benen

    The Washington Post reported late yesterday that Joel Clement, a scientist and policy expert at the Interior Department, was “removed from his job by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke shortly after” he disclosed how climate change affects Alaska Native communities. Clement was reassigned “to an accounting position for which he has no experience,” prompting him to resign.

    On his way out, however, the scientist noted that there are laws in place to prevent this kind of mistreatment – laws that Donald Trump’s cabinet secretary appears to have ignored. The department’s inspector general has launched an investigation into this and related reassignments.

    And while that obviously seems like a worthwhile probe, let’s not forget an important detail: Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, less than a year at his post, is also facing an investigation into his controversial travel habits, which isn’t to be confused with an unrelated probe into his alleged intimidation tactics against Republican senators during the health care fight.

    That’s quite a few probes for one cabinet secretary in one year, but as Slate’s Jamelle Bouie noted last night, the problem extends well beyond the Interior Department.

    Amid the chaos and dysfunction that marks Washington in the age of Trump, it can be easy to miss that this White House is corrupt. Remarkably, unbelievably, corrupt. […]

    Democracy needs trust to survive, and corruption erodes that trust. The longer it continues, the more it becomes just the background noise of our politics, the harder it is to plot a correction and restore the democratic faith necessary to tackle collective problems. If, like many in the Republican Party, one does not believe in collective action for public good, then this is not a problem. For those of us who do, however, it is a crisis.

    Reply
  36. yahtzeebutterfly says:
    October 5, 2017 at 9:36 am

    “5 Things You Need to Know About Gerrymandering — Including the Definition”
    http://fortune.com/2017/10/05/what-is-gerrymandering/
    Excerpt:

    The Supreme Court of the United States heard arguments Tuesday for Wisconsin’s partisan gerrymandering case. If the justices rule in favor of Wisconsin’s Democratic voters, which brought the case against the state’s government, this would be the first time the court has struck down the practice.

    Partisan gerrymandering involves manipulating the size and shape of electoral districts in order to favor one political party over the other. Sens. John McCain (R-Az.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) issued a joint statement about the Wisconsin gerrymandering case Tuesday, arguing that “the American people do not like gerrymandering.” So how did slicing and dicing districts get started in the first place?

    https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-eFY6igbgejc/WDyzkJ4UQ7I/AAAAAAAANTE/BkrpVqmK2MYkgaemZXiPzbyq00GUuptrQCLcB/s1600/Congressional%2BDistrict%2BSizes%2BGerrymander.jpg

    Is gerrymandering legal?

    There is currently no law against gerrymandering, but the outcome of the Wisconsin gerrymandering case could change that. If the Supreme Court sides with the challengers rather than the Wisconsin government that created the district map, then some forms of partisan gerrymandering could be ruled unconstitutional.

    Reply
  37. rikyrah says:
    October 5, 2017 at 9:15 am

    THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 10/4/17
    Emails show Ivanka, Trump Jr. coordinating lies about Trump SoHo
    Ivanka Trump and her brother, Donald Trump Jr., were nearly criminally indicted in a case involving Trump SoHo, and the related e-mails show them coordinating their lies. Andrea Bernstein, senior editor of policy and politics for WNYC, discusses the story with Ari Melber.

    Reply
  38. rikyrah says:
    October 5, 2017 at 9:14 am

    THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 10/4/17
    Gun slaughter used to move Congress to action, until NRA lobbing
    Gun violence and death used to shock the American conscience to action, until lobby power of the NRA rendered Congress impotent on the issue and left Americans helpless to address an obvious problem.

    Reply
  39. rikyrah says:
    October 5, 2017 at 9:13 am

    THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 10/4/17
    Issue of collusion still open as intelligence grows on Russia
    Congressman Adam Schiff talks with Ari Melber about the pattern of RUssian support for Donald Trump seen in ad buys by Russia’s RT media, as the Senate Intel Committee gives an update on Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election.

    Reply
  40. rikyrah says:
    October 5, 2017 at 9:06 am

    It’s Steve Bannon’s Party Now
    by Nancy LeTourneau
    October 5, 2017

    The outcome of the Republican Senate run-off in Alabama didn’t surprise anyone. But the narrative coming out of the race is beginning the shape the dynamics of the GOP heading into the 2018 midterms. As I have been saying, it is shaping up to be a battle between the establishment and the insurgents, fueled by the oligarchs who want to control the GOP.

    Leading the insurgents is Steve Bannon, with the backing of his own personal oligarch, Robert Mercer. Coming out of the Alabama run-off, that is the side with all of the juice right now. Take a look at what conservative David Drucker wrote about that yesterday:

    Steve Bannon has begun meeting with Republican donors at their request, as party financiers in the wake of the Alabama special election attempt to learn what President Trump’s former chief strategist has planned for 2018.

    Some GOP bundlers, in Washington this week for a Republican National Committee fundraiser, sought meetings with Bannon, the executive chairman of Breitbart News, to forge relationships and better understand his plans to target Republican incumbents in 2018 primaries…

    “It seems like McConnell’s star is fading and Bannon’s is rising. I wanted to break bread with the guy and figure out his thinking,” said Dan Eberhart, a Republican donor from Phoenix who was scheduled to meet with Bannon on Wednesday.

    Drucker goes to say that many of these donors are angry that Republicans failed to repeal Obamacare and are worried that they will also fail to pass tax cuts. So they’re ready to bolt. Bannon could be their Pied Piper.

    Reply
  41. rikyrah says:
    October 5, 2017 at 8:51 am

    SO tired of these articles.

    ………………..

    Ivanka Trump rebrands — again
    By
    Kate Bennett and Betsy Klein, CNN

    For the curious observer, one of the best ways to learn more about Ivanka Trump, senior adviser to the President of the United States, was to become one of her some 3.9 million followers on Instagram. There, in color, sometimes with witty captions, were myriad photographs providing a peek behind the curtain of one of Washington’s most compelling new residents.

    Her three children, Arabella, 6, Joseph, 3, and Theodore, 1, were the true stars of the feed. Theodore taking his first — documented — crawl in the White House State Dining Room in January. Joseph pressing his face against the window glass in the Oval Office in February. Arabella catapulting herself down the White House steps outside the West Wing in April. An at-home-after-a-long-day impromptu dance party in May, Arabella in arabesque pose inside the White House China Room, with a caption from Ivanka about being ready for the weekend in June.

    It was an unprecedented visual diary of a first family in modern times.

    And then it stopped.

    With few exceptions, Trump’s family-centric social media habits have been curbed. Amid a barrage of negative press in recent weeks, Trump has shifted her strategy, instead portraying herself through the lens of her White House position. That role has changed in recent months with the installation of Ret. Gen. John Kelly as chief of staff, a move that has helped refine the first daughter’s West Wing responsibilities.

    The abrupt switchover from documenting all aspects of her lifestyle to almost all White House-centric posts is a curious move for Trump, for years a savvy entrepreneur and businesswoman who knows about the importance of marketing a brand.

    Her streamlined image rehab signals Trump has buttoned down the private side, closing the window on observers and critics, essentially curating a new focus.

    Reply
  42. rikyrah says:
    October 5, 2017 at 8:45 am

    Stop Giving Bernie Sanders a Pass on Gun Control
    ………………………………………………………………………

    In the mean time, Bernie Sanders has been releasing statements and tweets that can make someone lacking historical perspective believe that Bernie’s position on guns and gun violence is nearly identical to your garden variety progressive Democrat.

    That is why historical perspective is important. The truth about Bernie’s history is that the one thing that the NRA was pivotal to the launch of Bernie’s Congressional career. The truth about Bernie’s history is that for the longest time Bernie Sanders has opposed mandatory waiting periods, background checks if they happen to inconvenience a potential mass shooter, and supported the NRA’s pet project of special corporate immunity for gun manufacturers and dealers. The truth of Bernie Sanders is that he voted against the Brady bill five times, and had no serious interest in progressive gun legislation until he became a serious candidate for president.

    Of course, the Feinstein bill is limited in its scope and narrow in its target. It does not enact broad gun control policies, choosing instead to merely outlaw equipment that turns a legal weapon into an illegal one. It is designed to attract the Republican support it will need to be passed. One might even say it’s one of those dreaded political things: pragmatic.

    So ask yourself, why is Bernie Sanders, who screamed at the top of his lungs during the 2016 campaign that pragmatic, incremental progress was too insignificant, who berated his Democratic primary opponent for not being bold enough to propose things that had no chance of passing, be suddenly interested in the most incremental piece of gun legislation?

    The answer would seem to be obvious. This bill is a chance to support something that looks like gun legislation but doesn’t really affect the bottomlines of the gun lobby, while at the same time providing the convenience of limelight. This is a golden opportunity for Bernie to showcase his faux-gun control credentials while not having to worry about offending his white, rural, gun-loving NRA constituents in Vermont.

    Reply
  43. rikyrah says:
    October 5, 2017 at 8:42 am

    Corker: Tillerson, Mattis and Kelly ‘help separate our country from chaos’
    By CRISTIANO LIMA 10/04/2017 05:08 PM EDT

    Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker offered a blunt assessment of the Trump administration on Wednesday, saying his top advisers “help separate the country from chaos.”

    Corker, addressing an NBC News report that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson considered resigning in frustration over his role, painted the former ExxonMobil executive — along with Chief of Staff John Kelly and Secretary of Defense James Mattis — as having a calming influence in the administration.

    “I think Secretary Tillerson, Secretary Mattis and Chief of Staff Kelly are those people that help separate our country from chaos,” Corker told reporters at the Capitol on Wednesday afternoon.

    Reply
  44. rikyrah says:
    October 5, 2017 at 8:39 am

    UH HUH
    UH HUH

    Lips pursed

    …………………………………….

    White House walks back Trump’s Puerto Rico comments as Wall Street reels
    Trump had suggested the U.S. would help wipe out the U.S. territory’s debt
    By BEN WHITE and COLIN WILHELM
    10/04/2017 02:57 PM EDT

    NEW YORK — On Tuesday night, President Donald Trump casually told Geraldo Rivera on Fox News that the United States would have to wipe out $75 billion in debt owed by Puerto Rico to bondholders around the world.

    Wall Street promptly freaked out, sending Puerto Rican bonds into a tailspin and leading the White House to move swiftly to clean up Trump’s seemingly offhand remarks.

    On Wednesday, the Trump administration indicated it has no current plans to take the unprecedented, politically dangerous and probably illegal step of wiping out the owners of Puerto Rico’s bonds in the wake of Hurricane Maria’s devastation. Trump’s own budget chief quickly walked the president’s comments back.

    “I wouldn’t take it word for word with that,” OMB Director Mick Mulvaney said on CNN. “We are not going to deal right now with those fundamental difficulties that Puerto Rico had before the storm.”

    Added Mulvaney: “Puerto Rico’s going to have to figure out how to fix the errors that it’s made for the last generation on its own finances.”

    Numerous senior administration officials and a White House spokesman did not respond to requests on Wednesday morning for further comment on Trump’s remarks.

    Mulvaney was cleaning up after a remarkable Trump interview that sent Wall Street bond traders and holders of Puerto Rico’s debt scrambling overnight Tuesday. The island’s general obligation bonds dropped from 56 cents on the dollar to just 36 cents early on Wednesday as investors tried to figure out exactly what the White House might actually do.

    Reply
  45. rikyrah says:
    October 5, 2017 at 8:36 am

    Oh, look who’s whining…
    It’s so hard to get rid of the 20th Century and bring me my tax cuts….

    ……………….

    Angry GOP donors close their wallets
    ‘I’m sick and tired of nothing happening,’ one contributor says of the party’s legislative failures.
    By ALEX ISENSTADT and GABRIEL DEBENEDETTI
    10/05/2017 05:02 AM EDT

    Republicans are confronting a growing revolt from their top donors, who are cutting off the party in protest over its inability to get anything done.

    Tensions reached a boiling point at a recent dinner at the home of Los Angeles billionaire Robert Day. In full view of around two dozen guests, Thomas Wachtell, a retired oil and gas investor and party contributor, delivered an urgent message to the night’s headliner, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell: Just do something.

    Wachtell, who has given tens of thousands of dollars over the years to Senate Republicans, recalled that McConnell responded defensively. Passing legislation takes time, the Republican leader responded, and President Donald Trump didn’t seem to understand how long it required.

    “Anybody who was there knew that I was not happy. And I don’t think anybody was happy. How could you be?” said Wachtell, who has previously given over $2,000 to McConnell but recently stopped donating to Senate GOP causes. “You’re never going to get a more sympathetic Republican than I am. But I’m sick and tired of nothing happening.”

    With the GOP’s agenda at a virtual standstill on Capitol Hill, the party is contending with a hard reality. Some of the party’s most elite and influential donors, who spent the past eight years plowing cash into the party’s coffers in hopes of accomplishing a sweeping conservative agenda and undoing Barack Obama’s legislative accomplishments, are closing their wallets.

    Reply
  46. rikyrah says:
    October 5, 2017 at 8:16 am

    Good Morning, Everyone 😐😐😐

    Reply

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