Monday Open Thread | Sheryl Crow Week

Happy Monday, Everyone. This week’s featured artist is Sheryl Crow.

lately, I’ve been spending a great deal of my time listening to my album collection.

Ms Crow is one of my favs for milling around the house, organizing, cleaning, sifting through the past, and making room for the present moments.

ENJOY!

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

85 Responses to Monday Open Thread | Sheryl Crow Week

  1. yahtzeebutterfly says:

    http://www.pressherald.com/2017/11/12/german-newspaper-tallies-33293-dead-migrants/
    BY KIRSTEN GRIESHABERASSOCIATED PRESS
    Excerpt:

    BERLIN — A German newspaper has published a list of 33,293 people it says died while trying to immigrate to Europe between 1993 and May of this year.

    The list, published by daily Der Tagesspiegel Thursday, covered 46 pages and included names, ages and countries of origin, when available, as well as how the victims died and their date of death. Often, though, they never were identified.

    One entry said Iraqi migrant Talat Abdulhamid, 36, froze to death on Jan. 6 after walking for 48 hours through the mountains on the Turkish-Bulgarian border.

    Another, citing the United Nations refugee agency, was for a 15-year-old boy who drowned on Nov. 15, 2016 when a rubber dinghy he was on with 23 others sank while trying to get from Libya to Europe.

    The newspaper said it wanted to document, “the asylum-seekers, refugees and migrants who died since 1993 as a consequence of the restrictive policies of Europe on the continent’s outer borders or inside Europe.”

    Some of the immigrants who succeeded in reaching Europe later died in violent attacks or killed themselves in custody while waiting to be deported back to their home countries.

    A 17-year-old Somali boy died when neo-Nazis in the eastern German town of Schmoellnhe forced him to jump off a tower on Oct. 21, 2016. A 30-year-old man from Uganda committed suicide in an immigrant detention center on the coast of southern England.

    “We want to honor them” Der Tagesspiegel wrote. “And at the same time we want to show that every line tells a story … and that the list keeps getting longer, day by day.”

  2. Beverly Young Nelson on #RoyMoore: “At some point he gave up. He then looked at me and said ‘You are a child.’ ‘I am the District Attorney of Etowah County. If you tell anyone about this, no one will believe you”

    ********
    PREDATOR preying on young girls…

  3. rikyrah says:

    The Authoritarians and White Supremacists in Waiting

    One of the most alarming developments of the Trump era has nothing to do with Trump but with Republican leadership. There is a direct line from the House GOP’s weaponization of the debt-ceiling to Mitch McConnell’s attempts to ram through an Obamacare repeal in the Senate. The former was a jaw-dropping abuse of power, when a small faction of the hard right attempted to take the U.S. economy hostage in order to extract policy concessions from the Obama administration. Now that it’s been done once, it will become a consistent weapon for authoritarian-minded pols looking for a shortcut to policy victory. Trump himself could threaten a default if he does not get his border wall. Meanwhile, McConnell’s absolute trashing of all Senate norms in order to push forward a disastrous and unpopular bill shows where we’re headed. Trump continues to demand that McConnell destroy the legislative filibuster as he did for the judicial filibuster so Republicans could appoint Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. Rest assured, if McConnell doesn’t end the filibuster, some future Republican senate leader will. The other wild card is the Supreme Court itself. If Trump or Mike Pence can get another far-right judge in the next three years, it will tip the Court towards authoritarianism for a generation.

    On the cultural front, during the past year of Trump’s improbable rise, we’ve been introduced to a hilarious cast of characters: buffoons, con men, shills, hacks, and sycophants. Yet it’s the nativist, neo-fascist ideologues, the Steve Bannons, the Sebastian Gorkas, the Stephen Millers who have been awarded the largest prize.

    David Duke is resurgent. Richard Spencer, a young, wealthy white supremacist, who can effortlessly relate barbaric ideas in a calm, disarming manner is on his way to becoming a household name. Who will be the first Republican candidate to appear in a picture with him in order to signal to the primary audience? Are we sure Spencer himself couldn’t win a senate seat in Texas or Louisiana, where his family has roots?

    Roy Moore, a promoter of the birther conspiracy who believes Keith Ellison should not be able to sit in congress because he’s Muslim, may very well be the next senator from Alabama. Kris Kobach, who helped draft Arizona’s gruesome deportation law SB 1070, and who’s the head of Trump’s “voter fraud commission,” will likely be the next governor of Kansas. Following his pardon, American ethnic cleanser Joe Arpaio will become a serious candidate in any Arizona Republican primary.

    All this is to say nothing of “alt-right” acolytes currently filling up the ranks of College Republicans. As its radicalization grows, this feeding tube for the GOP will turn off its typical ranks of pasty, pro-life suburban kids and attract fearsome idiots and cunning racists. This political moment is breeding a generation of ambitious storm troopers while detestable young ideologues like Stephen Miller will become major players in Republican circles for the rest of their lives.

    Of course, there will remain a cuticle-thin patina of multicultural, big-tent respectability. The rise of a truly white supremacist party will be aided and abetted by a rainbow coalition of accommodationists. We already had a preview of this when Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao, Secretary of Treasury Steve Mnuchin and Economic Advisor Gary Cohn stood behind Trump as he gave his rambling defense of the “very fine people” at Charlottesville. The Asian-American woman and two Jewish men chose not to resign nor impede Trump’s nightmare of a presidency in any way.

    The African-American senator from South Carolina, Tim Scott, and the Latino senators from Texas and Florida, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, have grumbled that they’d prefer white nationalism not be a thing, but they’ll never stand up to Trump or his base in any meaningful way. Nikki Haley remains comfortable serving the president at the UN as does Ben Carson at HUD. Though he got turned down for a job in Homeland Security (not because he tortured people, but because he plagiarized) Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke remains a potent public figure. Omarosa continues to serve as a political aide in the White House—a sentence likely first conceived for a discarded joke in a Jay Leno monologue.

    No doubt as the party becomes ever more explicit in its racist, xenophobic, and anti-Semitic appeals, it will recruit ambitious and unscrupulous women, Jews, and people of color as decorative baubles for a frightening revanchism. Meanwhile, we probably do not yet know the name of the most dangerous individuals, the ones who will use the infrastructure of Republican politics to advance a previously unspeakable agenda.

  4. rikyrah says:

    Republicans take church politicking bill in a radical direction
    11/13/17 12:53 PM
    By Steve Benen
    …………………………………………

    Under the amendment, churches and other nonprofits with 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status would be able to engage in political speech from 2019 to 2023. The initial bill would not have had a sunset date but would have only applied to houses of worship, rather than all 501(c)(3) organizations.

    Let’s unpack this a bit. Under current law, tax-exempt houses of worship that engage in partisan political activities risk losing their tax exemption. Under the initial Republican plan, the law would be changed to allow ministries to intervene in elections and keep their tax-exempt status anyway.

    Under the latest GOP proposal, which passed the House Ways and Means Committee on Thursday, all tax-exempt groups – houses of worship, universities and other educational organizations, charities, publications, etc. – could engage in partisan politicking without fear of punishment from the IRS.

    In other words, every U.S. non-profit that is now, by law, non-partisan could start endorsing candidates, aligning with super PACs, contributing to political parties, etc.

    Faced with a controversy over their efforts to repeal the Johnson Amendment, Republicans managed to make their effort quite a bit more radical.

    And why should anyone care whether every tax-exempt entity starts getting involved in partisan politics? Because as we discussed over the summer, the consequences have the potential to be dramatic.

    Imagine the campaign-finance mess that would exist if parties, candidates, and PACs could funnel campaign donations through tax-exempt entities, free of oversight.

    For that matter, imagine if a foreign government, eager to secretly help put a specific candidate in power, decided to start funneling money to specific non-profit organizations – including churches – knowing that those entities would in turn use the resources to support that candidate. The 501(c)3 groups would never have to disclose any of this, and the public would be kept in the dark.

    The GOP proposal fixes a problem that doesn’t exist. There’s no public demand for such a change, and there’s no reason to create this campaign-finance nightmare.

  5. #RoyMoore This mofo had the GALL to speak about NFL players having disrespect for the rule of law. This is how people like him get away with their crimes by saying…LOOK OVER THERE…. Those black people have a disrespect for the law. And white people fall for it.

  6. rikyrah says:

    @BillKristol
    Follow Follow @BillKristol
    More
    Straightforward from here:
    1. McConnell endorses Sessions as write-in candidate for AL Sen.
    2. Sessions quits as AG to run.
    3. Sessions wins.
    4. Trump appoints someone already in Senate-confirmed position as new AG.
    5. New AG fires Mueller.
    6. Sen Sessions votes to impeach Trump.

  7. rikyrah says:

    Moore advisor Dean Young says:
    “He’s going to run, he’s going to win and he’s going to be seated or there will be in trouble in this nation”

    https://twitter.com/Bencjacobs/status/930167775850622976

  8. rikyrah says:

    @jbarro
    Follow Follow @jbarro
    More
    Roy Moore’s signature from that 1977 yearbook matches Roy Moore’s signature on his US Term Limits pledge this year.

    https://twitter.com/jbarro/status/930164286143565830

  9. According to Beverly Young Nelson, #RoyMoore used his authority as District Attorney to frighten her into keeping her mouth shut. #Predator

  10. rikyrah says:

    Moore disappeared to AUSTRALIA for a spell.
    There’s a story there.
    Go on WaPo…get the story on why Judge Pedophile ran all the way to Australia.

  11. I made Chili last night! I sent Josh a big bowl and he texted me to say

    “Chili too good. Thanks”.
    🙌🏽

  12. rikyrah says:

    Key figure in the Catalan separatist movement, Oriol Soler, spotted coming out of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London after 4-hour meeting with @JulianAssange on November 9, El País reports.https://t.co/M4o57nOOf9 pic.twitter.com/VUF8klqPvB

    — The Spain Report (@thespainreport) November 13, 2017

  13. rikyrah says:

    Provisional ballots to be counted today in close Virginia House of Delegates races https://t.co/9T78LM4viR

    — Michael McDonald (@ElectProject) November 13, 2017

    Reminder: just 215 individual votes spread over 3 districts are what separates VA Dems from the current 2-seat deficit to a 4-seat majority. https://t.co/TobgR2PnmN

    — Taniel (@Taniel) November 13, 2017

  14. rikyrah says:

    Now that Roy Moore has been credibly accused of child molestation, the vast majority of Alabama evangelists say they are MORE likely to vote for him or don’t care. The right wing evangelical movement is dead. It has NO place discussing morality. One step from Satan worshippers.

    — Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) November 12, 2017

  15. rikyrah says:

    The Woman Standing Between The White House and the Mass Deportation of 450,000 People
    By Heather Timmons Quartz
    9:51 AM ET

    Elaine Duke had been retired for several years from a three-decade federal government career when she got a call last winter to come back to Washington D.C.

    After Donald Trump’s surprise presidential win, the campaign-turned-transition team was scrambling to find experts. Duke, 58, had years of experience at the departments of Defense and Homeland Security, and an added appeal—unlike many experienced senior Republicans in the sector, she wasn’t a vocal “Never Trumper.”

    Appointed by George W. Bush to “undersecretary of management” at the Department of Homeland Security in 2008, essentially giving her oversight of the DHS’s over 200,000 employees and $47 billion budget, Duke had stayed on under Barack Obama for two years before retiring. Former colleagues described her to Quartz as the rare apolitical presidential appointee, focused on the agency’s mission and employees because she, too, had been a “line worker” for years.

    Now Duke appears to be caught in a high-profile battle she never could have anticipated. As acting head of the DHS, Duke currently stands in the way of the Trump White House’s alleged push to deport nearly 450,000 people who live and work legally in the US, and hail from nations torn by natural disaster and war. They’re part of the US’s “safe haven” Temporary Protected Status, or TPS program, which was started in 1990.

    One former colleague described Duke to Quartz as “a very soft spoken, modest person who drives a Prius.” Another added, “For the life of me, I don’t know why she decided to leave her nice life” to go back into government. “Why would you do this unless you thought this was somewhere you could help?” he said.

    […]

    It’s unclear what Duke’s thought process was. Her former colleagues describe her as someone who is principled in her decision making, and who prizes legal, fair decisions.

    But after being pressured by White House officials on the TPS program, Duke has pledged to resign after a new head is named to fill the job she’s doing now, former colleagues told Quartz and the Washington Post. In the Friday night statement, Duke said ” I have no plans to go anywhere and reports to the contrary are untrue.”

    The possibility that Duke may leave, however, has alarmed Congressional Democrats, who now want to subject Nielsen to additional scrutiny.

    “Given the possibility, based on news reports, that the Department’s Senate-confirmed Deputy Secretary may soon resign, Committee members should be given a chance to revisit Ms. Nielsen’s management qualifications in a formal hearing setting,” five Senate Democrats wrote(paywall) in a letter to the heads of the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

    […]

  16. rikyrah says:

    Hey….Where’s Shelby, the other Alabama Senator?
    He’s been quiet as a church mouse pissing on cotton. :(

  17. rikyrah says:

    The person who should step aside is @SenateMajLdr Mitch McConnell. He has failed conservatives and must be replaced. #DrainTheSwamp— Judge Roy Moore (@MooreSenate) November 13, 2017

  18. rikyrah says:

    We Dems need to get buses down to Alabama now to knock on doors for @GDouglasJones. This is a winnable seat & policy game changer. Let’s organize this.— Debbie Mangeri (@DebbieMangeri) November 10, 2017

    This is just what we do NOT need. Alabama is not a place to bring in a lot of Yankees to tell them what they need to do. Send Jones money!! https://t.co/rsT5pg36el— Howard Dean (@GovHowardDean) November 12, 2017

  19. rikyrah says:

    Pharmaceutical Exec chosen to be next HHS Secretary.

    Ode to joy.

  20. rikyrah says:

    There was not much media attention given to McConnell’s obstruction of the President Obama’s appointees to the courts and now he continues the obstruction by the trashing the blue slips that Senators use to hold up judicial appointments https://t.co/Gq3cdejv5M

    — Pretty Foot (@PrettyFootWoman) November 13, 201

    • Ametia says:

      And yet, this MOFO, MCTURTLE is asking the child molesting, predator Moore to step aside. BEWARE when he comes out of his shell and rears his ugly heard.

      SHORT: Moore is messing with MCTURTLE & rest of the GOP rats’ agenda.

  21. rikyrah says:

    The data ALWAYS leads to Kushner and The Mercers.

    As Russia scandal unfolds, Cambridge Analytica draws new scrutiny
    11/13/17 10:41 AM
    By Steve Benen
    There’s no shortage of relevant angles to Donald Trump’s Russia scandal, but it’s worth appreciating the significance of Cambridge Analytica’s role in this mess.

    As you’ve probably seen Rachel mention on the show, Cambridge Analytica is the data firm the Trump campaign hired during last year’s presidential election. The firm took on added significance two weeks ago when the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump donor Rebekah Mercer asked Cambridge Analytica CEO Alexander Nix “whether the company could better organize the Hillary Clinton-related emails being released by WikiLeaks,” which allegedly received stolen documents from Russian hackers.
    The WSJ added some additional details to the timeline late Friday, reporting that Cambridge Analytica initiated contact with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in “early June 2016.”

    When Mr. Nix’s approach to WikiLeaks was reported by The Wall Street Journal last month, it wasn’t clear whether Cambridge was working for the Trump campaign at the time. Federal Election Commission records show the first payment by the campaign to Cambridge Analytica is dated July 29, 2016.

    New details about the timing of Cambridge Analytica’s Trump campaign work show that the firm’s effort to obtain the Clinton emails—which U.S. intelligence agencies later determined had been stolen by Russian intelligence and given to the Sweden-based WikiLeaks—came as the company was in the advanced stages of contract negotiations with the campaign and had already dispatched employees to help it.

    The same article added that Cambridge Analytica “collected close to $9 million from the campaign, including $6 million that was publicly disclosed and additional funds routed through Giles Parscale, a firm run by Trump digital director Brad Parscale, according to a person familiar with the payments – about 50% more than publicly reported.”

    Trump World, true to form, has tried to downplay its connections with the firm. It’s an odd thing to lie about.

  22. rikyrah says:

    Trump’s trade policies backfire, leave U.S. more isolated
    11/13/17 10:03 AM
    By Steve Benen

    On Donald Trump’s third day as president, he announced the formal demise of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which the Republican president claimed to hate for reasons he struggled to explain. By all appearances, Trump had no idea what the TPP was or what it entailed, but he was nevertheless certain he didn’t like it.

    In January, the president assured Americans he’d replace the TPP with a “beautiful” alternative. It’s now mid-November and we’ve seen no such policy.

    The issue, however, remains on his mind. A week ago, for example, Trump was in Tokyo, speaking to Japanese business leaders, many of whom backed the TPP. “We will have more trade than anybody ever thought of under TPP, that I can tell you,” the American president promised. “TPP was not the right idea. Probably some of you in this room disagree, but ultimately I’ll be proven to be right.”

    The proof actually suggests he’s more confused than accurate. As Trump’s Asia-Pacific tour continues, his White House has some specific trade benefits in mind, each of which were already part of the TPP that this administration helped kill.

    Making matters worse, as the New York Times reported, our former negotiating partners are moving on without us.

    A group of 11 countries announced on Saturday that they had committed to resurrecting a sweeping multinational trade agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, without the United States. A new deal, which would have to be signed and ratified by each country, would include major United States allies like Japan, Canada and Mexico. Collectively, they account for about a sixth of global trade.

    The agreement will “serve as a foundation for building a broader free-trade area” across Asia, Taro Kono, Japan’s foreign minister, said in a statement.

    As the Washington Post’s report explained, “The decision to move ahead with the TPP agreement, minus the United States, reflects how Trump’s decision to withdraw from the deal created a vacuum other nations are now moving to fill, with or without the president.”

  23. rikyrah says:

    John Oliver compares the Trump presidency to being “murdered by a sloth” https://t.co/aSldVSeGCG

    — TIME (@TIME) November 13, 2017

    … “While those broken norms are frustrating, according to Oliver, there are three things that Trump does that could permanently harm American politics. He undermined the media by crying “fake news” and governs by trolling. According to Oliver, Trump also uses “whataboutism” or the practice of changing the subject to someone else’s perceived wrongdoing, which Oliver describes as an “old Soviet propaganda tool” of creating false moral equivalency.” …
    http://time.com/5021063/john-oliver-last-week-tonight-season-finale-trump/?utm_campaign=time&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&xid=time_socialflow_twitter

  24. rikyrah says:

    The people of Manila took to the streets to protest Trump.

    I honestly fear for these people’s safety after the cameras are off.

    They are risking their lives out of hatred for our President. pic.twitter.com/IGQC4EUWWN

    — Red T Raccoon (@RedTRaccoon) November 13, 2017

  25. rikyrah says:

    while FEMA can’t find these people….

    Reporting from our @WCKitchen in Ponce with @ChefVentura who has cooked more than 36k meals to serve the often forgotten center of the island, Adjuntas, etc #ChefsForPuertoRico pic.twitter.com/LzTF8wqIve

    — José Andrés (@chefjoseandres) November 13, 2017

  26. rikyrah says:

    Roy Moore: Acceptance of pedophilia in the South is a legacy of slavery

    “While some people were surprised by the allegation that Alabama Republican Senatorial candidate Judge Roy Moore attempted to date a 14 year old girl in 1979 when he was 32, many more were shocked by how many of his Alabama supporters seemed to be willing to defend, or even accept, what is essentially a charge of pedophilia, or child sexual assault, in the candidate they hope will represent them in the Senate. To understand why many Southern whites find acceptable, behaviour which would be considered deviant and criminal in most parts of the United States, one must understand the role that Antebellum slavery played in cultivating a culture of sexual abuse and pedophilia in the South.

    Before the Civil War, forcing frequent and casual sex on young girl slaves was a prized white privilege of the Southern culture they built on the backs of their slaves. It’s no accident that the age of consent is only 16 in all the former Confederate states but Louisiana, Florida, Virginia and Tennessee. Before the women’s movement forced a change around 1920, it had been 12 or even 10 in the former Confederate states.

    Slavery made sex with children easy for the masters of the old Dominion. There were no rules. A UK national archives report on the childhood of slaves states:
    The trauma of sexual abuse is also a difficult subject to quantify. Sensibilities of the time and the fact that abolition was often associated with religious organisations means that sexual abuse of girls was often only alluded to in veiled terms and sexual abuse of boys was almost never mentioned. The dangers of sexual exploitation are only too obvious with slave children being seen as chattels with no legal protection. The fact that sexuality appears to have rarely discussed also left slave children ignorant and vulnerable to abuse. If the issue of forced marriage of slaves is included in this category along with coercion into sexual activity for preferential treatment, it is easy to see how sexual abuse could be seen as endemic in slave children’s lives.

    When the struggle to raise the age of consent finally erupted in the 1920’s, some whites argued that it should be lower for the South, saying African American women ‘matured earlier.’ This was a common myth about non-white people. Some even had the audacity to stretch the bunk science to the point where they claimed that white girls living in sub-tropical climates ‘ripened’ into women earlier.”

  27. rikyrah says:

    Trump’s Voter Fraud Commission Is Imploding
    A Democratic member is suing his colleagues, alleging they’re violating federal law.

    By Mark Joseph Stern

    On Thursday, Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap, a Democratic member of the voter fraud commission, filed a bombshell lawsuit against the commission and its chairs, alleging that the group has been violating federal law. Dunlap alleges the committee is a cynical partisan effort to exaggerate the frequency of fraudulent voting, that it flouts legal regulations, and that its token Democratic participants have been systematically shunned. […]

    [Dunlap] appears to be atoning for his mistake of joining the commission by fighting to expose the rottenness at its core…. The tone of Dunlap’s lawsuit is notable: He is not bitter, just exasperated. It appears that he joined the commission out of a genuine desire to investigate election practices and, if necessary, suggest improvements to the nation’s voting system. But it didn’t take long for him to learn, he says, that he’d been invited “to afford the Commission and its prospective findings a veneer of legitimacy.”

  28. rikyrah says:

    New Document Shows Inner Workings Of Trump’s Voter Fraud Probe
    A former Justice Department official says the new revelations “raise serious concerns.”

    By Sam Levine

    President Donald Trump’s opaque voter fraud probe released the most comprehensive look at its inner workings to date in court documents Friday, providing a clearer sense of how it plans to use the voter data it has collected and raising new questions about its scope and goals.

    The commission’s work so far has been unclear; even some commissioners have said they’re not exactly sure what the panel is working on. Friday’s disclosure is significant because it shows officials on the probe have contacted officials with the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice and the Social Security Administration ― which suggests the commission may be proceeding with a plan to compare the voter data it’s collected against federal databases.

    The commission is declining to release the email exchanges themselves, saying they are either administrative in nature or constitute individual research. Spokespeople for the commission, as well as for DOJ and the SSA, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

    “The information released by the so-called Commission on Election Integrity as a result of our lawsuit paints an incomplete but alarming record about the Commission’s work and intentions,” Kristen Clarke, executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said in a statement.

  29. rikyrah says:

    Trump and Tillerson Are Gutting the State Department for No Good Reason
    by David Atkins
    November 12, 2017

    One of the many problems with the constant daily hair-raising outrages of Donald Trump and Republicans like Roy Moore, is the number of serious scandals and malfeasances that slip by almost unnoticed.

    Such is the story mostly buried this weekend of Trump and Secretary of State Tillerson’s decimation of the State Department. It is a move that makes no sense, is not desired even by the extremist Republican Congress, and won’t even save any money. It is an action of ignorance, spite and stupidity that harm American interests and the cause of democracy worldwide.

    From the New York Times:

    The State Department will soon offer a $25,000 buyout to diplomats and staff members who quit or take early retirements by April, officials confirmed on Friday.

    The decision is part of Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson’s continuing effort to cut the ranks of diplomats and Civil Service officers despite bipartisan resistance in Congress. Mr. Tillerson’s goal is to reduce a department of nearly 25,000 full-time American employees by 8 percent, which amounts to 1,982 people.

    To reach that number, he has already frozen hiring, reduced promotions, asked some senior employees to perform clerical duties that are normally relegated to lower-level staff members, refused to fill many ambassadorships and senior leadership jobs, and fired top diplomats from coveted posts while offering low-level assignments in their place. Those efforts have crippled morale worldwide.

    And why? Because Donald Trump promised to “drain the swamp” and level massive cuts across all non-defense departments without the foggiest clue what they do or why.

    Both Republicans and Democrats in Congress wholly rejected the proposed budget cuts, choosing to fund the State Department at mostly the same level as in previous years. But much to their consternation, Tillerson is going ahead with the pointless and counterproductive exercise nonetheless. Donald Trump doesn’t care: he literally doesn’t think the State Department does much of anything at all, and recently said in the fashion of the Sun King’s that he was the only one that mattered. If Tillerson knows better, he’s not giving any indication of it.

  30. rikyrah says:

    Yes. It’s an Entire Culture of Sanctioned Sexual Abuse.
    by David Atkins November 12, 2017

    ………………………………………………….

    These are admittedly controversial positions. But they’re also hard to refute after today’s polling shows that 37% of Alabama evangelicals are actually more likely to vote for Roy Moore after hearing the allegations against him, and 34 percent said it would make no difference:

    Nearly 40 percent of Alabama evangelicals said in a new poll that they are more likely to vote for GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore following allegations of sexual misconduct against him.

    A JMC analytics poll found that 37 percent of evangelicals surveyed said the allegations make them more likely to vote for the GOP Senate candidate in the upcoming election.

    Just 28 percent said the allegations made them less likely to vote for Moore and 34 percent said the allegations made no difference in their decision.

    These numbers cannot be attributed to pure political tribalism. It is quite simply a culture of abuse.

    Moore is and has always been one of their own. His offenses against the law, his bigotries, his lack basic compassion are their own. And yes, his (alleged) active predation on teenage girls is part of it, too. It’s culturally expected. And if it went just a little too far, well, Moore is a man of God who has almost certainly been forgiven by the Lord, so all is well in the land of the Duggars and Duck Dynasty.

    And it’s time that all of us started calling it exactly what it is: a culture of explicitly sanctioned sexual abuse.

  31. Rikyrah, Ametia

    What’s the temp up there?

  32. rikyrah says:

    Republicans Are in a No-Win Situation with Moore
    by David Atkins November 12, 2017

    Reeling from allegations of child molestation and sexual conduct with teenagers by Senate candidate Roy Moore, the Alabama GOP is reportedly seeking ways to postpone the election:

    Now, some in the GOP are determined to push Moore out of the Alabama race, however they can. Sources briefed on deliberations among those in Washington said that pushing the election date was one of several ideas, along with the possibility of endorsing a write-in candidate.

    Governor Ivey is reportedly considering a delay, but wants to ensure support from President Donald Trump before doing so. She has been in touch with Nick Ayers, Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff.

    ……………………………….

    Predictably and appropriately, Democrats are crying foul. The fact that Republicans have nominated such an offensive candidate so close to the election is their own fault. It’s not as if Moore didn’t already have a checkered and objectionable history before the latest allegations. It’s just that the GOP base didn’t care, and now they’re stuck with the consequences. Republicans have a number of unpalatable options now:

  33. rikyrah says:

    Just a coffee boy, right…….

    AM Joy 11/12/17
    Papadopoulos’ real role during Trump campaign questioned

    New details about the roles George Papadopoulos and Carter Page played during the Trump campaign emerge as the FBI’s Russia probe continues. Joy Reid and her panel discuss.

  34. rikyrah says:

    Interesting segment:

    AM Joy 11/12/17
    President Duterte and Trump Meet during Asia Tour

    Trump visits the Philippines on the final stop of his Asia tour and meets President Rodrigo Duterte, who is surrounded by speculation of human rights abuses. Joy Reid and her panel discuss

    Hadn’t seen anyone interview him, so, good for Joy.

    AM Joy 11/12/17
    Justin Fairfax discusses his historic win in Virginia

    Joy Reid goes one on one with Virginia Lieutenant governor-elect Justin Fairfax, who became the second African American ever elected to Virginia statewide office on Tuesday

  35. rikyrah says:

    These AM Joy segments on Moore are ON FIRE!!!

    AM Joy 11/11/17
    Roy Moore responds to sexual misconduct allegations

    Roy Moore makes his first public appearance amid a fury of allegations of sexual misconduct. Moore again denied reports of sexual misconduct, calling it ‘fake news.’ Joy Reid and her panel discuss.

    AM Joy 11/11/17
    Roy Moore denies sexual misconduct allegations

    With a swarm of sexual misconduct allegations surrounding Alabama senatorial candidate Roy Moore, Joy Reid and her panel discuss the potential impact it could have on evangelical voters.

  36. rikyrah says:

    The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell 11/10/17
    Lawrence on Moore: “I don’t recall” is not good enough

    Roy Moore denies molesting a 14-year-old when he was 32, but when pressed about other encounters he may have had with teenage girls, he says he doesn’t remember. Lawrence O’Donnell says that defense is not good enough and asks what GOP leadership will do about it.

  37. rikyrah says:

    The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell 11/10/17
    Where will the excuses end for the GOP?

    Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post says the Republicans must stop making excuses for bad and even criminal behavior just because it is done by Republicans. Jennifer Rubin, David Frum and former prosecutor Barbara McQuade join Lawrence O’Donnell.

  38. rikyrah says:

    For those interested in the GOP Tax Scam.
    I live in one of the top 10 Tax states.
    I told you, the GOPers around here are part of the IGMFY crowd.

    Lo and behold, what do I see in the big headline of the Conservative Local Newspaper this morning – right there, big letters, above the fold;

    SENATE BILL WOULD ELIMINATE LOCAL TAX DEDUCTION

    The GOP Reps here are part of the 50 GOP Reps from high tax states.

    You don’t think that folks read this on their way to work, and have forwarded it to their neighbors.?
    I told you….these folks will not be distracted by the little Baby Jesus, or abortion, or guns…
    They know that their lifestyles are funded by those taxes, and will not have kind words for those who tell them that THEIR taxes should go up so that the Koch Brothers can get billions.

    Good luck with selling that.

  39. rikyrah says:

    Rev. Al had on Mary-Pat Hector on his show, but I can’t find the clip on hit website.

    Spelman and Morehouse students hunger strike to change school policy
    By Rosie Manins
    Nov 3, 2017

    A group of Spelman and Morehouse College students are on a hunger strike, in an attempt to change school policy and allow the donation of campus meals to the needy.
    About 25 students from the single-sex liberal arts universities in downtown Atlanta started hunger striking on Nov. 2.
    Mary-Pat Hector and Lillian Thomas, Spelman juniors, are among them.

    Their aim: to get the colleges and their campus food provider Aramark to set up a way for students with paid college meal plans to donate unused meals to needy students who can’t afford the plans.
    It is happening at universities elsewhere, spearheaded by the Swipe Out Hunger program that started at the University of California, Los Angeles in 2009, and which partners with colleges and campus food providers nationwide.
    Programs vary depending on the institutions involved, but at their core they allow students to donate from their paid meal plans to needy students or homeless community members.
    “By introducing a Swipe Out Hunger program at Spelman and Morehouse, we would directly impact student hunger and raise the awareness on issues impacting our fellow students experiencing hunger and homelessness while in college,” Hector, 19, said Nov. 2.
    Spelman’s director of marketing and communications, Joyce Davis, said the hunger strikers raised a “very concerning” issue, of widespread hunger insecurity on campus, and the college administration will set a time to meet with strikers to discuss the issue.
    “In the meantime, we are engaging our vice president of student affairs, Darnita Killian, to determine the extent of the problem on Spelman’s campus,” Davis said Nov. 2.
    “No student should go hungry. We look forward to working with Aramark as we continue to explore the extent of the problem,” she said.
    Davis said Spelman has already made use of support from Publix and Mimi’s Pantry, on the Clark Atlanta University campus, to address the food insecurity issues that have been brought to the college’s attention.
    Morehouse has yet to respond to a request for comment.

    ……………………………………

    Thomas, a 20-year-old vegan who doesn’t eat any animal products including meat, dairy and eggs, is living in a Spelman dorm and paying for the mandatory meal plan, but because of her specific diet she can’t eat most of the campus meals.
    Thomas, like other hunger strikers, doesn’t want those paid meals to go to waste.
    “Out of the 21 meals I get per week I might use about 5, so it would be easy for me to donate my unused swipes to Spelman students who are actually in need of the food,” she said.

  40. rikyrah says:

    Ripoff from beginning to end. They need to follow the money. Who has offshore bank accounts associated with this project?

    SAN JUAN — The small energy outfit from Montana that won a $300 million contract to help rebuild Puerto Rico’s tattered power grid had few employees of its own, so it did what the Puerto Rican authorities could have done: It turned to Florida for workers.

    For their trouble, the six electrical workers from Kissimmee are earning $42 an hour, plus overtime. The senior power linemen from Lakeland are earning $63 an hour working in Puerto Rico, the Florida utility said. Their 40 co-workers from Jacksonville, also linemen, are making up to $100 earning double time, public records show.

    But the Montana company that hired the workers, Whitefish Energy Holdings, had a contract that allowed it to bill the Puerto Rican public power company, known as Prepa, $319 an hour for linemen, a rate that industry experts said was far above the norm even for emergency work — and almost 17 times the average salary of their counterparts in Puerto Rico.

  41. rikyrah says:

    The GOP Tax Plan Breaks All the Rules
    No, really, it does not comply with the rules. Here’s how Republicans will get around that.

    By Jim Newell

    If Republicans ultimately followed this model to get their final product in compliance with the Byrd rule in the long run, they would have to sunset a lot of the popular individual tax cuts. This could come as soon as next week’s Senate Finance Committee consideration of the bill—probably near the end of the process, so as not to draw a lot of attention to it. Once a lot of attention is inevitably drawn to it, they will argue the following: This is just a technical thing, and there’s no way Congress would let the popular individual tax cuts expire as they’ve written them to.

    But here’s the messaging problem on that: Republicans, in order to appease their corporate allies who argue that temporary corporate tax cuts wouldn’t provide the “confidence” necessary to spur new investment, would be making the popular individual tax cuts temporary to pay for permanent corporate tax cuts.

  42. rikyrah says:

    Another tidbit about the GOP Tax Scam, found at another blog:

    There’s all kinds of small goodies in there for rich people too- a subsidy for high income private K-12 schools! I wonder who slid that in there. Can you imagine? They’re raising taxes on people who make 40k to help rich people with private school tuition. It’s like a parody “clueless plutocrats”

  43. rikyrah says:

    UH HUH
    UH HUH

    Roy Moore’s alleged pursuit of a young girl is the symptom of a larger problem in evangelical circles

    The allegations against Roy Moore are merely a symptom of a larger problem. It’s not a Southern problem or an Alabama problem. It’s a Christian fundamentalist problem. Billy Graham’s grandson, Boz Tchividjian, who leads the organization GRACE (Godly Response to Abuse in a Christian Environment), believes that the sexual abuse problem in Protestant communities is on par with that in the Catholic Church.
    The evangelical world is overdue for a reckoning. Women raised in evangelicalism and fundamentalism have for years discussed the normalization of child sexual abuse. We’ve told our stories on social media and on our blogs and various online platforms, but until the Roy Moore story broke, mainstream American society barely paid attention. Everyone assumed this was an isolated, fringe issue. It isn’t.

    As a teenager, I attended a lecture on courtship by a home-school speaker who was popular at the time. He praised the idea of “early courtship” so the girl could be molded into the best possible helpmeet for her future husband. The girl’s father was expected to direct her education after the courtship began so she could help her future husband in his work.
    In retrospect, I understand what the speaker was really describing: Adult men selecting and grooming girls who were too young to have life experience. Another word for that is “predation.”

  44. rikyrah says:

    John Harwood‏Verified account
    @JohnJHarwood
    Follow Follow @JohnJHarwood
    More John Harwood Retweeted Lily Batchelder
    in 2027, Joint Tax Committee says, one-third of taxpayers earning between $40-50K get tax HIKE or cut of less than $100. millionaires get tax cuts that, on average, equal the entire annual income of those $40-50K taxpapers

  45. rikyrah says:

    I hear these cases and just get enraged.

    PoliticsNation with Al Sharpton 11/5/17
    Locked up for 40 years was he the wrong man?

    Rev. Al Sharpton has Kevin Brinkley on, a man wrongfully convicted for a crime as a juvenile who after 40 years has finally been released. Hear his story alongside his uncle Greg Brinkley.

  46. rikyrah says:

    Thread on the resignation of the Lebanese Prime Minister

    https://mobile.twitter.com/emile_hokayem/status/930047361417609216

    Watched AM Joy on Sunday. She had a journalist who specializes in the ME.
    She said that the vernacular of the resignation was off. It didn’t sound Lebanese.
    The example that she used was if the Prime Minister of Great Britain resigned, and it was written by someone from Texas.

  47. rikyrah says:

    Good Morning, Everyone 😄😄😄

Leave a Reply to AmetiaCancel reply