1/ The political schism in America is about differing versions of reality, and this weeks violence and shootings could get worse because there are no signs of leadership coming from either side........
A great article from Andrew O'Hehir in Salon......
(Credit: Reuters/Rick Wilking)
After a week of shocking and polarizing violence in America, which featured two black citizens shot dead by police in ambiguous circumstances and ended with Thursday night’s sniper killings of five police officers in Dallas (apparently by a lone African-American gunman), we are badly in need of some perspective. Unfortunately, perspective is exactly what we lack in our broken-down republic, although you could just as well say that we’ve got too much of it. Different Americans, and different groups of Americans, perceive different realities, and can barely be said to inhabit the same country.
That fact lies at the heart of our deepening national crisis, which goes beyond political disagreement or racial conflict into existential or epistemological realms. There was nothing exceptional about this week’s body count, sadly, although the Dallas attacks unquestionably got the entire nation’s attention. But certain aspects of our current situation are new and striking. There was a certain grim hilarity to Donald Trump’s post-Dallas Facebook lament that “Our nation has become too divided,” which is roughly like Count Dracula complaining that all the pretty girls in Transylvania have become vampires. But you can’t argue with the sentiment. We are an intensely divided country — in terms of race, culture and ideology, of course, but also in terms of basic facts and how to understand them. This profound disconnection is not without precedent, because American history is full of echoes. History also teaches us that such division holds great danger.
2/ This is really interesting......the theory that Trump is the dream President for Vladimir Putin because of his long history with Putin and Russian money fueling his properties.....
A little frightening and very plausible, and not a peep from the corporate media about Trump's ties to Russia....
Photo illustration by Lisa Larson-Walker. Photos by Spencer Platt/Getty Images News, Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images.
Vladimir Putin has a plan for destroying the West—and that plan looks a lot like Donald Trump. Over the past decade, Russia has boosted right-wing populists across Europe. It loaned money to Marine Le Pen in France,well-documented
There’s a clear pattern: Putin runs stealth efforts on behalf of politicians who rail against the European Union and want to push away from NATO. He’s been a patron of Golden Dawn in Greece, Ataka in Bulgaria, and Jobbik in Hungary. Joe Bidenwarned about this effort last year in a speech at the Brookings Institution: “President Putin sees such political forces as useful tools to be manipulated, to create cracks in the European body politic which he can then exploit.” Ruptures that will likely multiply after Brexit—a campaign Russia’s many propaganda organs bombastically promoted.
3/ John Oliver with a mildly amusing two minute Fourth of July homily......
What better way to celebrate your Independence Day than by watching one of 2016’s best late night satirists who happens to hail from England?
While John Oliver of Last Week Tonight may not be engaging in any sort of celebratory independence today, he revealed in a web exclusive clip released last night just how America has been worse off since claiming sovereignty. “It might be worth thinking about just the handful of things you gave up when kicking Britain unceremoniously out of this country,” Oliver opened.
4/ An emotional essay from Michael Eric Dyson on the tragedies of this week.....it's a painful read, but powerful........
We, black America, are a nation of nearly 40 million souls inside a nation of more than 320 million people. And I fear now that it is clearer than ever that you, white America, will always struggle to understand us.
Like you, we don’t all think the same, feel the same, love, learn, live or even die the same.But there’s one thing most of us agree on: We don’t want cops to be executed at a peaceful protest. We also don’t want cops to kill us without fear that they will ever face a jury, much less go to jail, even as the world watches our death on a homemade video recording. This is a difficult point to make as a racial crisis flares around us.
5/ This story was written by a black cop.....fascinating.....
I'm a black ex-cop, and this is the real truth about race and policing
On any given day, in any police department in the nation, 15 percent of officers will do the right thing no matter what is happening. Fifteen percent of officers will abuse their authority at every opportunity. The remaining 70 percent could go either way depending on whom they are working with.
6/ Something different - watch Gordon Ramsay's five basic cooking tips....he's very good when he's not being an asshole....seven fascinating minutes.....
Chef Gordon Ramsey may be a devil in his gourmet kitchen, but he’s surprisingly helpful when handling raw salmon at home.
In the above video posted earlier this spring, the “Hell’s Kitchen” star teaches five basic cooking tips to make home meal prep a breeze. We love learning that some rice should be rinsed before cooking, and that olive oil keeps pasta from sticking together in the pot.
But the video’s true highlight is the intense-yet-calm flourish Ramsay imposes on every move he makes, even the simplest demonstration of how to dice an onion. This is a how-to video that will keep you glued to the screen... and maybe even teach you something, too.
7/ Our country is the most polarized it's ever been, and it may be because the people who are most active in politics are the most extreme, and drag their side with them.....
A challenging story, with data and charts, from Ezra Klein......if you are at all interested in our political future, have a look at this story.....
Mark Wilson/Getty Images
Perhaps the single most important fact about American politics is this: the people who participate are more ideological and more partisan, as well as angrier and more fearful, than those who don't.
The finding emerges from Pew's massive survey of 10,000 Americans, which concluded, two years ago, that "Republicans and Democrats are more divided along ideological lines — and partisan antipathy is deeper and more extensive — than at any point in the last two decades."
But everyone already knew that. Here's the real kicker: "these divisions are greatest among those who are the most engaged and active in the political process."
Pew's 2014 report is thick with crucial insights for understanding why American politics is the way that it is. But this week, they released a "political polarization update" that expands on the original data. "Growing ideological distance is not confined to partisanship," they conclude. "There are also growing ideological divisions along educational and generational lines."
8/ A Trump ad from SNL.....an excellent 90 seconds.....
Short, powerful, effective. This fake ad for Donald Trump for president was less an ad than an accusation, and one in a series of efforts by the show to redeem itself for allowing Trump to host after his racism and xenophobia had been made clear.
Like a typical “word of the people” political ad, we see ordinary, everyday people doing ordinary, everyday things – ironing, painting a house, taking paper out of a printer, gathering wood – as “real Americans” counter the media by giving us their thoughts about the presidential candidate. They tell us that “he’s a winner,” and that “he can make this country great again.”
As we pull back to a see a resplendent sunrise, the voice-over announcer, Cecily Strong, says, “So when people ask why you support Donald Trump, you just tell them…”
9/ A Benjamin Studebaker blog about Brexit, and why the UK voted the way it did.....his answer is austerity, and the resentment it produces.....
A story that will make you think.....especially Brits and Europeans....
Like many people, I initially responded to Brexit with outrage at the terrible consequences of the result for the British people. Among other things, they may lose crucial worker, consumer, and environmental protections, they may lose access to the European market, they may lose the opportunity to work with other European countries on climate change and tax avoidance, and they may even lose Scotland. It is critical that the British Parliament assert its sovereignty and decline to implement the results of the non-binding advisory referendum, which was a mistake to hold in the first place. After all, by asserting UK sovereignty, Brexiteers are asserting the sovereignty of Parliament, so if Parliament declines to invoke Article 50 and chooses to stay in the EU it is merely exercising the very powers the Brexiteers wished to assert for it. But today I want to take a step back and look at the big picture–why the vote went the way it did and what that says about where we’re at. Many people have been happy to chalk the Leave win up to bigotry and leave it at that, but this response is too reductive and doesn’t give us enough to work with. If bigotry is the problem, why is bigotry the problem now? There have been bigoted people in Britain and in the EU and all over the world forever, but Brexit didn’t happen in 1996 or 2006, it happened in 2016. What’s different about now?
10/ After all of the shitty news this week, time for an uplifting music video....romantic too....."Fly To New York" by Above and Beyond.....
Above & Beyond (Photo : Courtesy Of Above & Beyond)
Above & Beyond have released the music video for their upcoming We Are All We Need single "Fly To New York." The video is the latest in a series of clips dedicated to the UK producer, DJ trio's favorite movies. This time they pay homage to the classic romantic comedy Sleepless In Seattle. The single is being released on Friday aptly as the anthem for Electric Zoo this year.
For those well-acquainted with movie, the video will echo familiar themes. A father's son calls into a radio station designed to find people love after his mom died. They receive a bunch of letters, but the son acts on one that tells them to "Fly To New York." The father follows his son to the Big Apple to meet the woman, who leaves her own man at a coffee joint to go find the father at the top of the Empire State building. Proverbial sparks fly and it is love at first sight.
11/ We live in a stupid country with corrupt and incompetent leaders.....look how other countries handle student debt, smarter and fairer than we do....
An excellent story from the Times....
Americans owe $1.3 trillion in student loans. More than seven million borrowers are in default, and millions more are behind on their payments.
Borrowing for college is common across the globe. Even in Sweden, where tuition is free, most students borrow. What’s exceptional about the United States is that so many borrowers are behind on their loans.
So what do other countries do that makes their systems work better than ours?
12/ This is fascinating - an interactive map showing two centuries of Immigration into the US......takes about 90 seconds.
13/ Think a Trump victory isn't possible? I personally don't, but as Sean Illing from Salon says they said that about Brexit in Britain.....
Nigel Farage, Donald Trump, Boris Johnson (Credit: AP/Kirsty Wigglesworth/David Zalubowski/Photo montage by Salon)
It all happened so fast. Less than five months ago, British Prime Minister David Cameron announced that the UK would hold a referendum on whether to remain in the European Union. Cameron was a weak leader who was ensnared by his right-wing antagonists. He had a persuasive case to make but failed to do so. Rather than win the argument, he agreed to hold a referendum without considering the full implications of that vote. Now Britain’s political future is as uncertain as its been since the WWII period.
There were many forces behind Britain’s Leave campaign, but two leaders stand out: Boris Johnson, the former mayor of London, and Nigel Farage, the former leader of the UK Independence Party. Expert demagogues, they whipped working class voters into a frenzy, stoking racial resentment and inventing crises at every turn. They exaggerated the threats, misrepresented the facts, and exploited economic angst.
Confused and angry, British voters took the bait. They opted to leave the European Union, believing they were “taking their country back.” But no one really explained what that meant.
14/ There are more and more stories documenting how the poor in this country are screwed by a grossly unfair system.....this story from the Times is on roadside drug tests.....
Did you know about these? Of course not - you're not poor.....
How a $2 Roadside
Drug Test
Sends Innocent
People to Jail
Widespread evidence shows that these tests routinely
produce false positives. Why are police departments
and prosecutors across the country still using them?
produce false positives. Why are police departments
and prosecutors across the country still using them?
Amy Albritton can’t remember if her boyfriend signaled when he changed lanes late that August afternoon in 2010. But suddenly the lights on the Houston Police patrol car were flashing behind them, and Anthony Wilson was navigating Albritton’s white Chrysler Concorde to a stop in a strip-mall parking lot. It was an especially unwelcome hassle. Wilson was in Houston to see about an oil-rig job; Albritton, volunteering her car, had come along for what she imagined would be a vacation of sorts. She managed an apartment complex back in Monroe, La., and the younger of her two sons — Landon, 16, who had been disabled from birth by cerebral palsy — was with his father for the week. After five hours of driving through the monotony of flat woodland, the couple had checked into a motel, carted their luggage to the room and returned to the car, too hungry to rest but too drained to seek out anything more than fast food. Now two officers stepped out of their patrol car and approached.
15/ Britain is in the shit - Brexit has put it in a no win situation, and this article explains why....
Despite last month’s Brexit referendum, Britain still hasn’t formally started the process of withdrawing from the European Union. There are lots of reasons, but one of the biggest is that it’s really hard for any British leader to do anything about it without causing a political or economic crisis. The following Venn diagram, from Twitter user Quantian, perfectly explains why.
A bit of background first. In order to withdraw from the EU, Britain needs to invoke Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union. Article 50 notification triggers negotiations with the other 27 EU countries over the terms of UK withdrawal. This includes things like whether the UK will remain in the European single market, called the European Economic Area, and whether it will continue to accept unrestricted immigration from other EU countries.
Now take a look at Quantian’s diagram. What it shows is that there is no possible resolution to the Article 50 negotiations that pleases British voters and the other 27 European countries — without tanking the UK economy:
16/ Intelligent TV - "The Night Manager"
Mary and I have just finished watching this six episode BBC mini series, and it's one of the best TV dramas we have ever watched. It's based on a story by John le Carre, stars Hugh Laurie and Tom Hiddleston and is complex, smart and builds and builds to a wonderful ending....
It's summer - try this, you won't be disappointed....
Not a very good trailer, but you get the idea.....
It's $14.99 on Amazon.....worth it!
Todays videos - the funny Ameriquest ads.....all 10, and many will be new to you.....
Todays Trump joke
During a lull between the speeches at a dinner celebrating Donald Trump's primary success, Melania Trump leans over to chat with Sarah Palin."I bought Donald a parrot for hees birthday. The bird ees so smart, Donald has already taught him to pronounce over two hundred words!"
"Wow, that's pretty impressive," says Sarah, "but, you do realize that he just speaks the words -- he doesn't really understand what they mean."
"Oh, I know," Melania replies, "Neither does zee parrot."
Todays medical joke
During a medical examination the doctor asked a man about his physical activity level.
The man described a typical day, "Well, yesterday afternoon I took a five hour walk of about 10 kms through some pretty rough terrain. I waded along the edge of a lake and I pushed my way through brambles.
I got sand in my shoes and my eyes. I avoided standing on a snake. I climbed several rocky hills. I took a few 'leaks' behind some big trees. The mental stress of it all left me shattered. At the end of it all I drank eight beers."
Inspired by the story the doctor said, "You sure are one hell of an outdoors man!"
"No doctor," he replied, "I'm just a shit golfer."
Todays visual jokes
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