1/ A crystal clear and insightful major story from the excellent Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone on why Baltimore blew up......it's a look at the policies of harassment of minorities that started in the 90's, and continue today in every major city in America. Reading this story you get a look, a taste of what it's like to be a black male trying to live in a big city and navigate through the "stop and frisk" police routines that are making their lives tense and edgy.
You absolutely are not getting the truth on why there is so much black anger that is triggered by each killing of an unarmed black man, and the subsequent exoneration of the policemen who kill them.
A brilliant article.....
When Baltimore exploded in protests a few weeks ago following the unexplained paddy-wagon death of a young African-American man named Freddie Gray, America responded the way it usually does in a race crisis: It changed the subject.
Instead of using the incident to talk about a campaign of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of illegal searches and arrests across decades of discriminatory policing policies, the debate revolved around whether or not the teenagers who set fire to two West Baltimore CVS stores after Gray's death were "thugs," or merely wrongheaded criminals.
From Eric Garner to Michael Brown to Akai Gurley to Tamir Rice to Walter Scott and now Freddie Gray, there have now been so many police killings of African-American men and boys in the past calendar year or so that it's been easy for both the media and the political mainstream to sell us on the idea that the killings are the whole story.
Fix that little in-custody death problem, we're told, perhaps with the aid of "better training" or body cameras (which Baltimore has already promised to install by the end of the year), and we can comfortably go back to ignoring poverty, race, abuse, all that depressing inner-city stuff. But body cameras won't fix it. You can't put body cameras on a system.
As a visit to post-uprising Baltimore confirms, high-profile police murders are only part of the problem. An equally large issue is the obscene quantity of smaller daily outrages and abuses that regularly go unpunished by a complex network of local criminal-justice bureaucracies, many of which are designed to cover up bad police work and keep all our worst behaviors hidden, even from ourselves.
Go to any predominantly minority neighborhood in any major American city and you'll hear the same stories: decades of being sworn at, thrown against walls, kicked, searched without cause, stripped naked on busy city streets, threatened with visits from child protective services, chased by dogs, and arrested and jailed not merely on false pretenses, but for reasons that often don't even rise to the level of being stupid.
2/ Jon Stewart looks at the clown car collection of Republican Presidential contenders, but there is one name that is making him reconsider retiring....if F#ckface Von Clownstick runs, he might stay!
A very good five minutes.....
(Credit: Comedy Central)
Jon Stewart’s last official day with “The Daily Show” will be Aug. 6, but news of Donald Trump considering running for the Republican nomination is almost too tantalizing for the late-night host to walk away from.
While Stewart has noted a few of the “very colorful characters” in the GOP presidential field before — Rick Santorum, George Pataki, Lindsey Graham — he conceded that, for him, there is only one “F*ckface von Clownstick.”
“The Daily Show” could fire its entire writing team if Trump ran; the jokes would practically write themselves. Earlier this year, Trump explained in a Fox News interview that his plan to destroy ISIS was to “go in very, very hard and very, very strong” — but withheld the specifics.
3/ The political master Frank Rich with his thoughts on the issues of the week.....
Most weeks, New York Magazine writer-at-large Frank Rich speaks with contributor Alex Carp about the biggest stories in politics and culture. This week, the magazine asked him about Ireland's vote on same-sex marriage, the GOP primary circus, and why, exactly, Democratic candidate Martin O'Malley is running for president.
Ireland's vote to approve same-sex marriage redefines that country's relationship to another historically powerful institution: the Catholic church. Does what happened in Ireland hold any implications for the U.S.?
Not directly. Same-sex marriage is well on its way to being a done deal in America. But the fact that the Church has lost its once-tight hold on the Irish populace does have some resonance. That power had been enormous: Homosexuality was not decriminalized in Ireland until 1993, and divorce wasn’t legalized until 1995. The decline in the Church’s civic authority in Ireland is directly attributable to its loss of moral authority owing to scandal, some (though hardly all) of it involving pedophilia. The effect on the Church’s clout was rapid and devastating. Roughly 62 percent of Irish voters approved of same-sex marriage, an unimaginable phenomenon two decades ago.
4/ "Beware of the Doghouse" is the title of this hilarious four minute skit on how husbands get in trouble, and what happens to them! Men - watch this and make sure you think before you buy the wrong present for the wife or girlfriend.
Ladies - please, please don't watch this.....please.....Mary.....s
JCPenney had some success last year with its Beware of the Doghouse holiday campaign. Yes, the Web site got millions of views. But I knew it had broken through when my father-in-law sent me the link, along with the message, "Too FUNNY!!!"
5/ Nearing retirement?This is what you're facing.....a right wing cabal that wants you to retire with nothing, old and broke.....
An excellent story of how the oligarchs are raiding your future....
This is quite a well written story, and you can tell the author is pissed off.....and so should you be.....
America will die old and broke: The systematic right-wing plot to ransack the middle-class nest egg
Scott Walker, David Koch, Chris Christie (Credit: AP/Reuters/Mark Humphrey/Brendan Mcdermid/Rich Schultz/Photo montage by Salon)
Through a quirk in state term limits combined with a terrible midterm election, the Nevada legislature has been taken over by amateurs and extremists. The legislature is now debating whether to dismantle the Nevada public employee pension system (PERS), a system that has gotten consistently high marks for transparency, responsibility and stewardship.
This attack on retirement benefits follows a very familiar pattern of fabricating data to destroy retirements that work and that people really like. It’s the same nonsense and lies used to destroy private pensions two decades ago, but this time it’s being done as part of a partisan wet dream of “limited government.” It’s a strategy as American as fast food and crumbling infrastructure.
This latest skirmish in the retirement wars perpetuates the biggest lie ever foisted on America—that we cannot afford retirement benefits.
Private pensions have indeed been systematically destroyed in recent decades, and replaced by “defined contribution” 401k plans. The conventional wisdom is that pensions are “too expensive,” but this is the heart of the lie. A great many private pensions were once over-funded, but a change in law allowed companies to “invest” the “excess” funding in other parts of their business. Once businessmen could legally raid the pension fund, the idea of private pensions was over. Many books have been written about the great pension theft. I recommend, for one, reading “Retirement Heist: How Companies Plunder and Profit from the Nest Eggs of American Workers.“ Spoiler alert: you will feel rage.
6/ I am sure you don't watch "19 Kids and Counting" about the Duggars, because I'm pretty sure DDD readers aren't crazy Christians, so this is a Funny or Die version of the Duggars explaining why their son sexually molested some of their daughters....an amusing three minutes....
So far, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar have only released a short statement explaining why they waited so long to report their son Josh Duggar’s admitted molestation incidents. But now, thanks to Funny or Die, we have a video message from the 19 Kids and Counting parents themselves.
“With more kids than an NBA team we were bound to have one troubled kid,” Jim Bob admits in the video.
“When we were first told about Josh’s mistakes, we did the right thing and we ignored the girl who came forward,” Michelle says. “Girls lie all the time, it’s what they do,” her husband adds.
In the end, Jim Bob says, “We’ve been dealing with this situation the best way that we know how,” before his wife cuts him off: “Which means – that’s right, we’re expecting!”
7/ Here we are in the richest country on earth, and our wonderful medical system discharged an elderly cancer patient to his home, where he had no food, no family. Nothing. He called 911 and asked them to bring him something to eat, which the 911 operator did - personally.
USA! USA! Two disgusting minutes of how we treat our old and sick people, from CBS News, and it's about as sad as you can get for a country......
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (WTVD) -- An elderly cancer patient made a desperate 911 call... because he was starving.
When Clarence Blackmon, who weighed 115 pounds, finally returned home he was hungry and opened an empty refrigerator.
So, he called 911, CNN affiliate WTVD reports.
“I can’t do anything,” he told 911 operator Marilyn Hinson. “I can’t go anywhere. I can’t get out of my chair.”
Hinson told Blackmon they would bring him some groceries.
“He was hungry. I’ve been hungry. A lot of people can’t say that, but I can, and I can’t stand for anyone to be hungry,” Hinson told WTVD.
Blackmon asked for cabbage, cans of beans and beets, popcorn, tomato juice and soft drinks.
Hinson went to the store herself and with the help of local police officers delivered them right to Blackmon’s door. She even made him some sandwiches.
When Clarence Blackmon, who weighed 115 pounds, finally returned home he was hungry and opened an empty refrigerator.
So, he called 911, CNN affiliate WTVD reports.
“I can’t do anything,” he told 911 operator Marilyn Hinson. “I can’t go anywhere. I can’t get out of my chair.”
Hinson told Blackmon they would bring him some groceries.
“He was hungry. I’ve been hungry. A lot of people can’t say that, but I can, and I can’t stand for anyone to be hungry,” Hinson told WTVD.
Blackmon asked for cabbage, cans of beans and beets, popcorn, tomato juice and soft drinks.
Hinson went to the store herself and with the help of local police officers delivered them right to Blackmon’s door. She even made him some sandwiches.
8/ You have to go to Al Jazeera America to get any mention of climate change linked to the Texas storms, because our corporate media refuses to make the connection. By the way, just to be clear climate change didn't cause the storms, but the changes to the climate make the storms more extreme....
Our weather is going to get more and more interesting.....
The storms that slammed into Texas and Oklahoma over Memorial Day weekend may signal the beginning of an El Niño year, but their unusual ferocity could be due to climate change, scientists said Wednesday.
Torrential rains and tornadoes killed at least 17 people in the Southwest, with the death toll expected to rise as authorities in Texas continue to search for about a dozen missing people. In Houston, the nation’s fourth-largest city, record flooding damaged an estimated 4,000 structures, including homes and businesses, and led to about 1,000 calls for help, according to city officials.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday expanded a state of emergency, which was declared earlier in the month because of severe weather, to at least 40 counties. President Barack Obama responded by assuring Abbott that the federal government would assist in the state’s recovery.
Some of the worst-hit areas of the Southwest have received more than 18 inches of rain since the beginning of May — six times as much as the area typically receives in the month
9/ An in-depth story about the Colorado river and how it has been a vital lifeline for the Western US. It's a long article with historical perspective on how the Colorado water flow has been fought over, litigated and wasted over the years.....
A thoughtful and fascinating article....
Lake Mead, which forms the border between Nevada and Arizona, thirty miles from Las Vegas. The lake is fed by the Colorado and was last full in 1998. Since then, its volume has fallen by some sixty per cent, and the water level has dropped more than a hundred feet.PHOTOGRAPH BY BRIAN L. FRANK
Our pilot, David Kunkel, asked me to retrieve his oxygen bottle from under my seat, and when I handed it to him he gripped the plastic breathing tube with his teeth and opened the valve. We had taken off from Boulder that morning, and were flying over Rocky Mountain National Park, about thirty miles to the northwest. We were in a Maule M-7, a single-engine “backcountry” plane, and Kunkel was navigating with the help of an iPad Mini, which was resting on his legs. “People don’t usually think altitude is affecting them,” he said. “But if you ask them to count backward from a hundred by sevens they have trouble.” What struck me at that moment was not how high we were but how low: a little earlier, we had flown within what seemed like hailing distance of the sheer east face of Longs Peak, and now, as Kunkel banked steeply to the right to give a better view of a stream at the bottom of a narrow valley, his wingtip appeared to pass just feet from the jagged declivity beneath. Snow had fallen in the mountains during the night, and I half expected it to swirl up in the plane’s wake
10/ Jon Stewart with a funny and medically accurate look at the news hype, and why it might not be hype after all......
A good three minutes, with a zinger at the end.....
ast night on The Daily Show, Jon Stewart takes time to discuss pollen and seasonal allergies, poking fun at the media for its seemingly alarmist coverage of pollen in recent years. Major news networks were calling this spring a “pollen tsunami,” whereas last year, they chose to call it a “pollen vortex.”
Every year for the last 10 years, news outlets have said it’s “the worst allergy season on record.” Stewart asks, “How can every year be the worst? What is it, the Knicks,” mocking the team’s abysmal record. Stewart then launches into a rant on bad media coverage, only to be interrupted by Mike Tringale of the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, who explains that the media isn’t actually overhyping the issue—allergies really are getting worse every year and climate change is to blame.
11/ A few lone TV stations are trying to wake up the public to what is being done to them....this segment is from an Atlanta station about how Georgia legislators are being manipulated and [close to] bribed by ALEC, the right wing group affiliated with the Koch Brothers who write bills that screw us all.....
Quite a professional job by this local station.....
(Credit: Facebook/Center for Media and Democracy)
The American Legislative Exchange Council, the Koch-backed, anti-environment, “free-market” lobbying group, was recently the subject of a fantastic investigative piece from Atlanta television station WXIA-TV, revealing the resort conference rooms where legislators, lobbyists and corporations all have equal input into what becomes a state law.
“It’s really a corporate bill mill,” said state Sen. Nan Orrock (D) of the organization of which she was once a member. “They’re cranking out legislation, putting them in the hands of legislators who go back and file it.”
12/ Not often a video gets to me, but I was reaching for a hankie at the end of this one......about 90 seconds, and very good indeed.....
No clues....just watch it.....
13/ Giorgio Moroder with a music video "Deja Vu" featuring the singer Sia.....again almost a mini-film with surreal images and ghostly women flitting about.....very well directed.....
Giorgio Moroder’s catchy-as-hell new Sia collaboration “Déjà Vu” now has some video accompaniment. It features ominous Groundhog Day-style repetition, where a man keeps traveling to a hotel to deliver flowers to someone and things keep getting worse and worse. The whole thing ends with him being chased out by a horde of Sia lookalikes (though, of course, no appearance from the pop singer herself). Moroder cameos a few times — he’s a limousine driver, a DJ, and a janitor and various points in the video. Watch below.
14/ This was sent by one of our alert readers - it's a combination root cellar, bomb shelter, safe room and tornado basement.....of course because it's European they don't mention the last three functions.....
OK OK it's a root cellar!
The Groundfridge prefab root cellar is ideal for hip homesteaders, backyard farmers and design-savvy preppers. (Renderings/photos: Weltevree)
Back in the pre-Frigidaire, pre-supermarket era when the word “cellar” was mostly associated with tubers, not table wine, and when hoarding comestibles didn’t necessarily have anything to do with the impending zombie apocalypse, most homes were equipped with larders, cold closets and other designated low-temperature areas in which to store food.
Passively cooled root cellars — mostly associated with potatoes and turnips but also used to store other fruits, vegetables and leafy greens, preserved/canned goods and grandpa’s homemade hooch — were standard features in many homes, particularly homes in rural areas where homeowners produced all of their own food. Often a totally separate space from a home’s main cellar, these low-temperature, high-humidity (to stave off shriveling) underground lairs could be found bursting with crops during harvest season; their shelves neatly organized and arranged, everything properly labeled, for easy access during the long winter ahead.
15/ Carl Hiaasen with an excellent story on our former Governor Jeb Bush and his deceptive run for President.....not officially declaring means he can raise lots of cash......just legal, but definitely not ethical.
You look back at the Governor Jeb years with a certain amount of fondness.....yes he was crooked, but nothing whatever like the pond slime in the Governors mansion now....
The following words were actually spoken last week by Jeb Bush’s non-campaign spokesperson: “Governor Bush is actively exploring a run. He has not made a final decision.”
Every grownup in America knows this is a lie.
The voters know Jeb has already decided to run for the White House in 2016. Campaign donors know he’s running. And the entire busload of other Republican presidential candidates knows he’s running.
Two campaign-finance watchdog organizations, the Campaign Legal Center and Democracy 21, want the U.S. Justice Department to investigate the “charade” of Bush’s non-campaign. They say it’s merely a weasel move that allows him to rake in unlimited, and mostly unregulated, donations.
That’s absolutely true. It’s an epic weasel move, though probably legal.
By pretending he hasn’t made up his mind, Jeb can personally go out and raise many millions of dollars for his super political action committee, loftily named “Right to Rise.”
The funds taken will eventually be used for his TV and digital advertising, once the fake non-campaign becomes an acknowledged one.
Todays video - These are funny - "Honest Trailers", this one is for Star Trek.......if you like sarcasm, this is for you.....
Todays Irish Jokes
An Irishman who had a little too much to drink
is driving home from the city one night and,
of course, his car is weaving violently all over the road.
is driving home from the city one night and,
of course, his car is weaving violently all over the road.
A cop pulls him over.
"So," says the cop to the driver,
where have ya been?"
where have ya been?"
" Why, I've been to the pub of course,"
slurs the drunk.
slurs the drunk.
" Well," says the cop, "it looks like you've had quite
a few to drink this evening."
"I did all right," the drunk says with a smile.
"Did you know," says the cop, standing straight and
folding his arms across his chest,
"that a few intersections back, your wife fell out of your car?"
folding his arms across his chest,
"that a few intersections back, your wife fell out of your car?"
"Oh, thank heavens," sighs the drunk.
"For a minute there, I thought I'd gone deaf."
> ******************************
"For a minute there, I thought I'd gone deaf."
> ******************************
Brenda O'Malley is home making dinner, as usual, when Tim Finnegan arrives at her door.
"Brenda, may I come in?" he asks.
"I've somethin' to tell ya".
"I've somethin' to tell ya".
"Of course you can come in, you're always welcome, Tim.
But where's my husband?"
But where's my husband?"
"That's what I'm here to be telling ya, Brenda."
There was an accident down at the Guinness brewery..."
There was an accident down at the Guinness brewery..."
"Oh, God no!" cries Brenda. "Please don't tell me."
"I must, Brenda. Your husband Shamus
is dead and gone. I'm sorry.
is dead and gone. I'm sorry.
Finally, she looked up at Tim.
"How did it happen, Tim?"
"How did it happen, Tim?"
"It was terrible, Brenda. He fell into a vat
of Guinness Stout and drowned."
of Guinness Stout and drowned."
"Oh my dear Jesus! But you must tell me truth, Tim.
Did he at least go quickly?"
Did he at least go quickly?"
"Well, Brenda... no. In fact,
he got out three times to pee."
*****************************
Mary Clancy goes up to Father O'Grady after
his Sunday morning service, and she's in tears.
he got out three times to pee."
*****************************
Mary Clancy goes up to Father O'Grady after
his Sunday morning service, and she's in tears.
He says, "So what's bothering you, Mary my dear?"
She says, "Oh, Father, I've got terrible news.
My husband passed away last night."
My husband passed away last night."
The priest says, "Oh, Mary, that's terrible.
Tell me, Mary, did he have any last requests?"
Tell me, Mary, did he have any last requests?"
She says, "That he did, Father."
The priest says, "What did he ask, Mary? "
She says, He said, 'Please Mary, put down that damn gun...'
*****************************
AND THE BEST FOR LAST
A drunk staggers into a Catholic Church,
enters a confessional booth, sits down, but says nothing.
*****************************
AND THE BEST FOR LAST
A drunk staggers into a Catholic Church,
enters a confessional booth, sits down, but says nothing.
The Priest coughs a few times to get his
attention but the drunk continues to sit there.
attention but the drunk continues to sit there.
Finally, the Priest pounds three times on the wall.
The drunk mumbles, "ain't no use knockin,
there's no paper on this side either!"
there's no paper on this side either!"
Another Irish joke
Two Irish nuns were sitting at a traffic light in their car in Dublin when a bunch of rowdy drunks pull up alongside of them.
"Hey, show us your tits, ye bloody penguins!" shouts one of the drunks.
The Mother Superior turns to Sister Margaret, "I don't think they know who we are. Show them your cross."
So Sister Mary Margaret rolls down her window and shouts, "Screw off ye little Fookin wankers before I come over there and rip yer nuts off!"
Sister Mary Margaret looks back at the Mother Superior and asks, "Was that cross enough?!"
The Mother Superior turns to Sister Margaret, "I don't think they know who we are. Show them your cross."
So Sister Mary Margaret rolls down her window and shouts, "Screw off ye little Fookin wankers before I come over there and rip yer nuts off!"
Sister Mary Margaret looks back at the Mother Superior and asks, "Was that cross enough?!"
Todays blonde joke
A blonde gets a job as a physical education teacher of 16 year olds.She notices a boy at the end of the field standing alone, while all the other kids are running around having fun kicking a ball.She takes pity on him and decides to speak to him.'You ok?' she says.'Yes.' he says.'You can go and play with the other kids you know' she says.'It's best I stay here.' he says.'Why's that sweetie?' says the blonde.The boy looks at her incredulously and says,"Because I'm the Goalie !"
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