1/ Fascinating and totally convincing story on the real background to the polarization of our politics, with older and working class whites angry and bitter on one side, and everyone else on the other. The real issue is race, and the author makes a convincing case that the rage on the right is established, and that for this issue facts are irrelevant. The idea of blaming minorities for the problems shared by all of the working classes has been learned, and reinforced by right wing media over and over again.
If you want to learn why this country has fractured into two irreconcilable viewpoints, a great place to start is this excellent article.......
The context of the Colbert picture is that part of his schtick is "I don't see colour"......
Why whites don’t see racism: Reagan Democrats are Stephen Colbert Democrats now
With different frames of reference, the perception gap on racial issues is widening -- and affects policy choices
Stephen Colbert (Credit: Reuters/Mike Blake)
Excerpted from "Place, Not Race: A New Vision of Opportunity in America"
There is a perception gap in the electorate between blacks and non-blacks about affirmative action in college admissions and between whites and non-whites about issues of racial inequality generally. For example, a CNN survey conducted in 2009 found that 55 percent of blacks thought discrimination was a very serious problem, while only 17 percent of whites felt that way. Similarly, according to a 2009 Pew Research Center survey on race, 80 percent of blacks felt that equality has not been achieved and 43 percent of blacks thought there was still “a lot of discrimination,” while only 13 percent of whites believed that there was much anti-black bias. The same survey also found that 54 percent of whites believed the country had made the necessary changes to give African Americans rights equal to whites, while only 13 percent of blacks believed this. Hispanic survey participants were divided on this question, with 42 percent saying they agreed the country had made the necessary changes to give blacks equal rights and 47 percent concluding that more changes were necessary.
One psychology study suggests that whites and people of color have different perceptions about the extent of racial equality because they have different frames of reference. Arguably, whites have higher assessments of racial progress because they tend to compare the present to our Jim Crow past. People of color tend to compare the present to a future ideal of full equality. In fact, whites are more apt to perceive discrimination against themselves than against racial minorities. A recent study found that all Americans think significant progress has been made against anti-black bias. But whites perceived that progress as coming at their expense, and they viewed anti-white bias as a bigger social problem than anti-black bias.
Working-class whites are in a serious funk. They are more pessimistic about their future prospects than are blacks and Latinos, even as the latter groups experience higher rates of unemployment. They see opportunities for people like themselves contracting, while blacks and Latinos “feel there are a set of long-term opportunities that are opening to them that were previously closed on the basis of race or ethnicity.”
2/ The White House Correspondents Dinner is a once a year chance for the President to give back the commentary the press does about him all year, and President Obama is the best ever.......he's got a career as a stand-up if he wants it! His timing is great, and he gets off some shots that will have you LOL.....an incredibly good 20 minutes unless you are a right winger, in which case you will be even angrier than you already are - how dare the black guy make jokes like that!
For me the highlights were the Cliven Bundy bits, the John Boehner joke, and a letter from a man in Virginia.....
An excellent 19 minutes!
President Obama started the festivities at the White House Correspondents Dinner tonight with an uproarious speech poking fun at himself, Republicans, and basically the media, including CNN (“I think they’re still searching for their table”), MSNBC (who have “never seen an audience this big before”), and Fox News. On that last one, Obama said, “Let’s face it, Fox, you’ll miss me when I’m gone. It’ll be a lot harder to convince people Hillary was born in Kenya.”
The president poked fun at his own unpopularity, but said there are people getting it worse than him, like John Boehner. Which, Obama said, proves that “orange really is the new black.” He took some shots at Republicans trying to repeal Obamacare,Cliven Bundy, and even the Los Angeles Clippers controversy.
Obama very strongly dismissed the idea he’s an imperial president, and proved his point by showing a picture of himself sitting upon the Iron Throne from Game of Thrones.
3/ This one got to me......sniffle......homeless people in big cities are invisible, and this experiment proved it. A group dressed family members as homeless people, and had their husbands/sister/cousins walk by them.....three minutes, and it's quite moving.....
In this social experiment, unsuspecting people walked by relatives pretending to be homeless. Would they notice their family members? Or have the homeless become invisible?
4/ Benghazi!
Fox News is again beating this non-story to death, and Cenk Uygur was having none of it on this web news show......he tells it exactly and clearly like it is! You go Cenk!
Note - five minutes of excellent "discussion", and salty language.......
The Young Turks got to talking a bit about Benghazi, and I’ve never seen a commentator just lay it out like this. It really does sum up what the Benghazi hearings are and have been: “It’s a f*cking political clown show…pack a bunch of clowns into a car, and roll that in.”
As he warms up in the rant, he really gets some zingers in:
“Get the f*ck out of here with Benghazi. It’s a tiny little f*cking thing, man.” A bit later, at about 4:29, “How about the nearly 3000 people who died under your f*cking watch? Why don’t we do goddamn hearings?” And at 5:00, “F*ck you. Move the f*ck on!”
“Get the f*ck out of here with Benghazi. It’s a tiny little f*cking thing, man.” A bit later, at about 4:29, “How about the nearly 3000 people who died under your f*cking watch? Why don’t we do goddamn hearings?” And at 5:00, “F*ck you. Move the f*ck on!”
And finally, he talks about the clown car show that this is. No, really.
5/ Are we overfocused on the Koch brothers as the right wing is suggesting? This story says no, because the Kochs are doing everything they can to destroy American democracy and cement the oligarchy in place.....
By Ben Adler
Free Press
Are we all too focused on the Koch brothers? That’s the argument of a feature in the current issue of Newsweek by veteran political reporter Matt Cooper. Cooper claims Charles and David Koch’s influence is overstated by Democrats, who raise money by fearmongering about the brothers’ nefarious plots, and by the media, which loves any pair of eccentric billionaires.
“With the Democrats possibly losing control of the Senate, Harry Reid, their leader in that chamber, has gone after the Kochs with what seems like unprecedented language against private citizens,” Cooper complains, noting that Reid called the Kochs “un-American” for “trying to buy America.” Here is Cooper’s argument in a nutshell:
Professionals in both parties have a vested interest in building up the already substantial impact of the Kochs. Republicans see them as loyal Americans coming to the rescue, while Democrats get a higher return on their solicitations simply by invoking the Koch name. Neither side has an incentive to say, “Yes, Koch money is a big deal, but it’s not determinative.” And neither side has an incentive to say the obvious: “Even if you believe that it’s crazy to allow that much private money in politics, the Kochs are playing by the rules.” It’s like cockfighting: Don’t hate the player, hate the game. The Koch geyser of money may be unusual but “un-American”? Oh, please.
As a writer for one outlet that talks about the Kochs frequently, let me explain why we do so: The Kochs threaten to destroy American democracy, regardless of their views. And, as it happens, their extreme and self-interested positions are taking over the Republican Party.
6/ One of our favourite websites is "Awkward Family Photos", where people post some unusual pictures of their families.....maybe they are proud of them, who knows.
Anyway, this collection of 29 photos is truly strange......
7/ If the Koch brothers are truly trying to purchase the gumment, what is the end game? What are they after?
The answer looks something like China.......where they can pollute at will with minimal regulation, and use cheap labour to man their factories....this is their vision of the new USA.....
China: The Wet Dream of American Oligarchs
By Carl Gibson, Reader Supported News
28 April 14
f you have all the money in the world, but there’s nothing in the world worth buying, then what’s the point of having so much money in the first place?
Two crucial new tidbits of information coming out of China are helping to paint a fuller picture of the long-lasting damage from the unrestrained capitalism that’s evident in the world’s most populous nation. A newly-released Chinese state secret revealed that one-fifth of China’s farmland is unusable due to toxins in the soil leaked by industry. Worse still, 60 percent of China’s groundwater is undrinkable, for the same reasons.
When you combine China’s dwindling natural resources with its massive population that encompasses 20 percent of the planet, it’s easy to see how China will inevitably lead itself to societal collapse if it continues its brand of entirely unregulated capitalism. While China is technically known as a Communist country, it's actually outdoing the US when it comes to establishing a completely unregulated business environment.
China's Ruthless Capitalism
Labor regulations in China are almost nonexistent – 30,000 workers just recently went on strikeat a factory that produces Nike and Adidas shoes, protesting low pay and dangerous working conditions. And China’s Foxconn plant, responsible for the manufacturing of Apple technology, has gotten plenty of attention since its workers – many of them children – threatened mass suicide several years ago.
Environmental regulations are similarly loose in China, which is home to 16 of the world’s 20 most polluted cities. China also burns as much coal as the rest of the world combined, meaning much of the air is so polluted that residents of certain cities can’t go outside without a mask. Lung cancer rates have skyrocketed by 465 percent in just the last three decades, and 1.2 million people died prematurely due to pollution in 2010 alone.
One thing China has in common with the US is cronyism, evident in some businesses getting favorable treatment and paying no penalties for breaking the law. In China, state-owned businesses get around having to abide by laws passed by the central government. And in the US, the business-owned government, purchased through campaign donations and lobbying, allows rampant abuse of workers and the environment with very little accountability.
8/ Bill Maher again in a serious mood, but thankfully still with some wonderful zingers......he takes CNN to task for their obsessive coverage of the stupid plane going down, and cries "enough already"! A pretty good five minutes.....
Bill Maher used his final New Rule Friday night to tell CNN it’s time to stop obsessively covering MH370 already and just move on. He said to anyone still glued to CNN, “You’re not a caring person unraveling a mystery, you’re just a ghoul sitting on the remote.”
Maher exasperatedly explained that millions and millions are being spent on a search that could last for years, and beyond CNN caring about it, maybe the search for the plane just needs to end. He pointed out plane travel is statistically very safe now and said, “You know what’s riskier? Everything. Driving. Walking. Taking a shower. Living in Chicago. Hunting with Dick Cheney. Dating Chris Brown.”
He determined that the public’s fascination with the missing plane is based on our “obsessive need for the magic of closure,” and assured people that sometimes in life, we don’t get the answers to everything. Sometimes “it’s okay to quit looking.
9/ Bill O'Reilly surely regrets getting into a spat with Stephen Colbert, because here Colbert mocks one of the O'Reilly favourite segments, with wonderful results.....two videos, one three minutes and one five minutes.......
If you’ve ever seen Jesse Watters‘ field segment for The O’Reilly Factor, then you are familiar with his unique way of making America’s youth look like complete idiots using only his charming interview skills, a popped collar, and random clips from movies. Last night, Stephen Colbert dedicated the opening segment of his show to all things “Watters’ World,” even presenting his own roving correspondent in a new segment titled “Tad’s Turf.”
Colbert began by praising his “papa bear” Bill O’Reilly, “one of the smartest guys out there” who “doesn’t have to prove that other people are dumb.” That’s why he hired Watters to do it for him.
After playing some of Watters’ greatest hits, Colbert assessed his work. “Notice how Watters blends investigative journalism and smash cuts in a way that makes you think about the news, and also think, ‘is my cat stepping on the remote?’” he said.
For Colbert’s version of “Watters’ World,” the host introduced his building manager Tad (played by longtime writing partner Paul Dinello), who has “all the qualifications that Jesse Watters does: He reflects light… and that’s about it.”
Tad headed up to “liberal” Columbia University, where the students he encountered knew way more than the ones Watters found. “Clearly, somebody had warned these people I was coming,” Tad said. “There had to be a way to make young people look stupid. I just had to find the right young people.” What followed was a game of “gotcha” beyond Jesse Watters’ wildest dreams.
10/ I just had to include this stupid, pointless, worthless video but one that guys will love - an Australian decides to run a washing machine to death.....it takes three minutes, and it's absolutely hypnotic.......
Sorry ladies......it's a guy thing.....
Concrete counter weights were removed from outer drum unit, and a few other mods applied to keep it together long enough.
11/ The mainstream media is controlled by corporations who pretend to report the news, but don't mention these facts very often....bad for business.....
The following are all relevant, fact-based issues, the "hard news" stories that the media has a responsibility to report. But the business-oriented press generally avoids them.
1. U.S. Wealth Up $34 Trillion Since Recession. 93 percent of You Got Almost None of It.
That's an average of $100,000 for every American. But the people who already own most of the stocks took almost all of it. For them, the average gain was well over a million dollars -- tax-free as long as they don't cash it in. Details available here.
2. Eight Rich Americans Made More Than 3.6 Million Minimum Wage Workers
A recent report stated that no full-time minimum wage worker in the U.S. can afford a one-bedroom or two-bedroom rental at fair market rent. There are 3.6 million such workers, and their total (combined) 2013 earnings is less than the 2013 stock market gains of just eight Americans, all of whom take more than their share from society: the four Waltons, the two Kochs, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffett.
3. News Sources Speak for the 5 percent
It would be refreshing to read an honest editorial: "We dearly value the 5 to 7 percent of our readers who make a lot of money and believe that their growing riches are helping everyone else."
Instead, the business media seems unable to differentiate between the top 5 percent and the rest of society.
http://www.nationofchange.org/
12/ Penn and Teller are a comedy duo, doing magic and their gimmick is that Teller [the smaller one] is mute. But I didn't know they did investigative reporting.....here they look at the complete BS surrounding the bottled water industry in an amusing way but with a serious message - we are paying for nothing when we buy bottled water.......eleven minutes......
If Mary and I are ever in a restaurant that tries to push bottled water, I just go "no thanks, I'm happy with [city name] water.......
13/ Remember the story about prison now being de facto mental health hospitals? This is why - the gutless scum in Tallahassee keep cutting the funding for treatment of the mentally ill now they have privatised the medical part of the prison system.
Corrupt, corrupt, corrupt.......Scott Maxwell with an excellent column.......
Florida ranks 49th when it comes to mental-health funding.
It's an embarrassing and odious distinction — one that leaves struggling families adrift.
It's also (perhaps ironically) a costly one. Taxpayers still end up paying for mental-health problems — just not in any sort of meaningful way.
The jail, for instance, is Orange County's single-largest mental-health provider. Instead of spending money once to help people, we spend it repeatedly to arrest them, lock them up, feed them, churn them through the system, release them and then do it all again.
But Florida's 49th-place ranking also proves one other thing: that our politicians are insincere blowhards.
You see, Florida legislators always talk about the need for more mental-health solutions … right after we see a mass shooting.
14/ Elle Goulding is an excellent singer, and this song "Beating Heart" is from the soundtrack of the movie "Divergent", and has scenes from it in this video. Ms Goulding also looks fetching, with a low cut dress and strange tats all over her body.....must be from the movie......
15/ I love Florida grapefruit.....it makes the best juice of all of the citrus, but I was noticing this season there wasn't much available.....and this is why. Between diseases, weather, development and mites Florida citrus is in trouble.......good story from the Times.....
For Florida Grapefruit, One Blow After Another
By LIZETTE ALVAREZMAY 3, 2014
VERO BEACH, Fla. — In the nearly 100 years that Rusty Banack’s family has been growing Florida’s world-famous grapefruit, the industry has lurched from years of bumper crops to the devastation of tree-toppling hurricanes.
But nothing compares to the current steep decline of the business, despite the state’s standing as the world’s biggest grapefruit producer. Florida produced nearly 41 million boxes of grapefruit a decade ago; this year it is expected to produce 16 million. Some growers have shut down, but the long-timers who remain, like Mr. Banack, have dug in, plunging millions of dollars into the land in an all-out bid to save one of the state’s emblematic citrus crops.
The past decade has been particularly treacherous as the salt-kissed soil of the Indian River Citrus District, known for its succulent grapefruit, has absorbed one wallop after another.
Todays video - a little excitement at a London supermarket that was running an Italian themed promotion......quite good, especially if you like opera!......
Todays ostrich joke
A man walks into a restaurant with a full-grown
ostrich behind him. The waitress asks them for
their orders. The man says, "A hamburger, fries
and a coke," and turns to the ostrich, "What's
yours?" "I'll have the same," says the ostrich.
A short time later the waitress returns with the
order. "That will Be $9.40 please" The man
reaches into his pocket and pulls out the exact
change for payment.
The next day, the man and the ostrich come
again and the man says, "A hamburger, fries
and a coke."
The ostrich says, "I'll have the same."
Again the man reaches into his pocket and
pays with exact change.
This becomes routine until the two enter again.
"The usual?" Asks the waitress. "No, this is
Friday night, so I will have a steak, baked potato
and a salad," says the man. "Same," says the
ostrich. Shortly the waitress brings the order
and says, "That will be $32.62." Once again
the man pulls the exact change out of his pocket
and places it on the table.
The waitress cannot hold back her curiosity any
longer. "Excuse me, Sir. How do you manage to
always come up with the exact change in your
pocket every time?"
"Well," says the man, "several years ago I was
cleaning the attic and Found an old lamp. When
I rubbed it, a Genie appeared and offered me
two wishes. My first wish was that if I ever had
to pay for anything, I would just put my hand
in my pocket and the right amount of money
would always be there."
"That's brilliant!" says the waitress. "Most people
would ask for a Million Dollars or something,
but you'll always be as rich as you want for as
long as you live!"
"That's right..Whether it's a gallon of milk or a
Rolls Royce, the exact money is always there,"
says the man.
The waitress asks, "What's with the ostrich?"
The man sighs, pauses and answers, "My second
wish was for a tall chick with a big ass and long
legs who agrees with everything I say.."
Todays blond jokes - male versions!
A friend told the blond man: "Christmas is on a Friday this year." The blond man then said, "Let's hope it's not the 13th."------------------------------------
Two blond men find three grenades, and they decide to take them to a police station.
One asked, "What if one explodes before we get there?"The other says,"We'll lie and say we only found two."------------------------------------
A woman phoned her blonde neighbor man and said: "Close your curtains the next time
you & your wife are having sex. The whole street was watching and laughing at you yesterday."To which the blonde man replied: "Well the joke's on all of you because I wasn't even
at home yesterday."------------------------------------
A blonde man is in the bathroom and his wife shouts: "Did you find the shampoo?" He answers, "Yes, but I'm not sure what to do... it's for dry hair, and I've just wet mine."------------------------------
A blonde man goes to the vet with his goldfish."I think it's got epilepsy," he tells the vet.The vet takes a look and says, "It seems calm enough to me".The blond man says, "Wait, I haven't taken it out of the bowl yet". ------------------------------------
A blond man spies a letter lying on his doormat.It says on the envelope "DO NOT BEND ".He spends the next 2 hours trying to figure out how to pick it up.
------------------------------------
A blond man shouts frantically into the phone"My wife is pregnant and her contractions are only two minutes apart!" "Is this her first child?" asks the Doctor."No", he shouts, "this is her husband!"------------------------------------
A blonde man was driving home, drunk as a skunk. Suddenly he has to swerve to avoid a
tree, then another, then another.A cop pulls him over, so he tells the cop about all the trees in the road.The cop says, "That's your air freshener swinging about!"------------------------------------
A blonde man's dog goes missing and he is frantic.His wife says "Why don't you put an ad in the paper?"He does, but two weeks later the dog is still missing."What did you put in the paper?" his wife asks."Here boy!" he replies.------------------------------------
A blond man is in jail. Guard looks in his cell and sees him hanging by his feet. "Just WHAT are you doing?" he asks."Hanging myself," the blond replies."It should be around your neck" says the guard."I tried that," he replies, "but then I couldn't breathe".------------------------------------
Todays religious joke
A 65 year old wealthy widow had a heart attack and was taken to the hospital. While on the operating table she had a near death experience. Seeing God she asked "Is my time up?"
While crossing the street on her way home, she was killed by an ambulance.
Arriving in front of God, she demanded, "I thought you said I had another 33 years? Why didn't you pull me from out of the path of that ambulance?"
. . . And God replied: "I didn't recognize you!!!!!"
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