I didn’t get as much sleep as I needed, but enough to write. The heat wave is past, so kitty solar basking can wait until afternoon. TGIF!!
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 2:41 (average 4:58). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Fantasy Football Recruiting:
We still need two new players for Lefty Blog Friends, our fantasy football league. How about you? For more information, click here.
Short Takes:
From PRWatch: Jeb Bush is the highest profile speaker at a secretive three-day retreat in Bristol, Virginia, hosted by the CEOs of six coal companies, according to materials for the invitation-only event obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) and shared with the Guardian.
The event, dubbed the "Coal & Investment Leadership Forum," which started Sunday and goes through Tuesday, is taking place at an exclusive private golf course and resort called the "Olde Farm," owned by the founder of United Coal Company, Jim McGlothlin. The private country club is known for its annual golf tournament in which players take sides in the Civil War for the South or the Union and which is described by McGlothlin as "our most cherished tradition."
In addition to United Coal, the forum is being hosted by the CEOs of five other coal companies: Alliance Resource Partners, Alpha Natural Resources, Consol Energy, Drummond Company, and Arch Coal.
Strike Three is clearly ready to suck a little nevermind.
From Daily Kos:
Alberto Iber is in hot water after took to the comments section of a Miami Herald article on the Texas pool party to defend the Texas officer who pulled a gun on unarmed teens:
The Miami-Dade County school district announced Wednesday that Alberto Iber had been removed as principal after going online to defend a white Texas police officer who waved a gun at black teens while responding to a call about an unruly pool party.
In a brief statement, the district said employees are required to conduct themselves, both personally and professionally, in a manner that represents the school district’s core values. The district said a replacement would be named shortly and that Iber would be reassigned to administrative duties.
I fully agree with this action, especially considering that 88% of the students ay Iber’s school are black. He was a Republican disaster waiting to happen.
From Media Matters: Rupert Murdoch is reportedly planning to step down as CEO of Fox News parent company 21st Century Fox "and hand that title to his son James," according to CNBC. James Murdoch previously resigned his role as the head of News International — which published several tabloids and newspapers abroad — amid the widespread scandal over phone hacking at News of the World, a since-shuttered UK tabloid he oversaw. As part of the fallout from that scandal, Murdoch also resigned his position as chairman of UK satellite broadcaster BSkyB.
According to CNBC, "Rupert Murdoch will continue to be the executive chairman of Fox, while his son Lachlan would also become an executive co-chairman of the company."
James Murdoch has reportedly drawn the ire of Fox News chief Roger Ailes, who allegedly called him a "fucking dope" over his inability to contain the hacking scandal. (Fox News media critic Howard Kurtz claims that despite James Murdoch’s new position, "Ailes will still report to Rupert.")
No matter whish Murdoch is in charge, Faux Noise will continue, as the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, to keep offering infoganda for brain dead sheeple.
Cartoon:
27 Responses to “Open Thread–6/12/2015”
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Perhaps baby M will get is commuppance in the US with blunders at Faux and discover the law can have teeth.
An elementary teacher is also out of a job about a post using the pool incident as grounds to restore segregation.
Wonder why Duke wasn't there to boost Jeb's ego…
I like all kinds of rainbows
I have that teacher in today's Open Thread.
PS–still no on the f football TC
How about a yes next time? 😉
3:59 average still 4:58. Looks pretty food-bleak, but maybe someone in one of the houses would feed you.
Just back from the prison, where I was stunned but happy to learn that the prison has JUST started a program for eligible inmates to train puppies as service dogs. One of the handlers was visited today by his wife and daughter, and for the daughter's birthday, another handler was allowed to bring this one's puppy (a ravishing black lab baby) to the visitation room and pictures were taken of the now-family-of four. You don't see that every day.
PRWatch – Yeah. Stakeholders. How is stakeholder defined? Because Big Coal is a stakeholder in climate change just like pediphiles are stakeholders in K-12 edication. Yes, I know I have said that before. It's still true.
DKos – "inadvertently injected himself into the racially charged national debate over police treatment of blacks with a social media comment" says the Herald? How does one "inadvertently" post on Facebook? Incidentally Iber definitely appears to be on the wrong side of history. Also truth, justice, and the American Way. Jerk.
Media Matters – I saw that last night and was wondering whether it meant anything. Apparently not. Just out of curiosity, does Ailes think he could contain true information pointing to illegal activities in the face of determined journalism?
Cartoon – Believe it. I was just finishing my first year as an active duty Marine. There have been (and still are) many laws on the books which no one would believe if they weren't alive to see them.
PS Starting at 11:47 am, I have received TWELVE emails telling me that Fast Track failed in the house today. Two are breaking news from newspapers. the others are all from groups for whome I have signed petitions. I realize it is not over, but this is still good news.
Thanks for the good news Joanne!
Thanks Joanne. Fast track may have failed for now, but the trade negotiations are still going on as strong as ever, so we have a lot more work to do.
See today's lead article.
I think the service dog training is a great program.
Living in KCMO, I'm not sure how widespread this story played. But a St. Louis judge has placed a Restraining Order on a "gun nut" advocating his right to open-carry his guns at the world-class St. Louis Zoo.
http://www.kansascity.com/news/nation-world/article23862334.html
Personally, I think this is a wonderful opportunity to reach across Right-Left ideologies to reach a fair compromise:
Gun nuts who demand Open-Carry Days at our nation’s Zoos, should be matched by Zoos countering with Open-Cage Day.
Count me in for ''open cage day"!
As long as the two "Open" days, Open-Carry and Open-Cage, are not on the same day is fine. One caveat, I won't be there on Open-Cage Day. lol.
Open-Carry should not be allowed in any zoo.
Open-cage-day LOL. Wonderful, with free entrance for open-carry nuts who have to leave their guns at the turnstile of course.
Love it!! And how about "Closed Cage Day" Lock the Republican Ammosexuals and their unloaded guns in cages and give them no ammo. Surround the cages with an assortment of apes that have been overfed, so they produce lots of throwing material.
PRWatch:
In 2009 he told Esquire: "I'm a skeptic. I'm not a scientist. I think the science has been politicized." Of course Jebby said that and it is his party, the GOP, who have been politicizing and denying climate change. Coal is on its way out, the sooner, the better.
Jeb's 1994 solution to getting women off welfare: 'Find a husband'.
Sounds like Jebby took a page and cue from Phyllis Schlafly.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/06/12/1392781/-Jeb-s-1994-solution-to-getting-women-off-welfare-Find-a-husband
Jebby is definitely a paternalistic misogynist. He wants to shame single women for having babies out of wedlock.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/06/09/1391793/-Jeb-Bush-s-1995-crusade-to-publicly-shame-unwed-mothers-cuz-women-are-always-the-problem
Daily Kos:
Why is a principal, a white person, Alberto Iber, at a high school that is predominantly (87%) black is the real question?
Glad that the school board had the gumption to remove Iber from his position for his insensitive remark. Now that Ibers has been given an administrative position, what will he do there…
Sean Toon – UGH! A pathetic and a racist liar.
This Man Speaking Out About The McKinney Pool Party Isn’t Telling The Full Story
A man claiming in media interviews to have observed the chaotic scenes was allegedly part of a group of adults who instigated the racist abuse that led to the initial violence. "What Toon has failed to mention, though, is that he was part of a group of adults that, according to teens at the pool party, initially made racist comments to the mostly black youths, sparking a violent fight."
"“I’m 100% sure that he said, ‘You should go back to the Section 8 [public] housing where you’re from because you don’t belong in our neighborhood,’”"
Is there a way to charge Sean Toon with inciting a riot?
http://www.buzzfeed.com/davidmack/what-caused-mckinneys-pool-to-boil-over#.cpOKW0wnR
Media Matters:
It would be great if the Faux Noise were to flip over and die.
Cartoon:
GOP/TP/Koch Party want to revert to the old, by-gone standards of NO to interracial marriage.
Love is Love no matter the color.
That's more than three strikes from Strike Three.
2:59 My train was running a few seconds late! There's no dining car or snack bar on this commuter train. Too bad Puddy Tat!
I figured that, by catching the early train to today's puzzle, I might get to eat the dawg, before that Sasquatch gets there. 🙂
3:14 The train left me standing on the platform.
PR Watch: I sanyone surprised that Jeb is attending this exclusive get together? I am not. The coal industry is frantic. A new report was issued recently about the high rate of cancer in Ky, Wv, Va, and Tn, all heavy coal producing states. Our water supplies are all contaminated, I haven't gone swimming in the local lake in years, it is so full of run off from the coal mines.
Daily Kos: Iber deserved to lose his job.
Media Matters: I suspect that one Murdoch will be as bad as another.
TC, I wish you had kept that weather there, we had 90 degrees today with 70% humidity. Horrible..
You have much worse around the corner.
Puzzle — 2:59 My train was running a few seconds late! There's no dining car or snack bar on this commuter train. Too bad Puddy Tat!
PR Watch — If Jebby sucks too much nevermind, he'll have black lung and that will be that. Just like big oil, big coal has to learn to leave it in the ground and garner their profits elsewhere.
Daily Kos — There certainly are a lot of Republicanus/Teabaggerum disasters waiting to happen! One can only hope that there are a spat of disasters leading up to the 2016 election to hopefully tip the scales to progressives.
Media Matters — This was on our news all day . . . well at least that Rupert was stepping down. What great news! But then the rest of the story. "No matter whish Murdoch is in charge, Faux Noise will continue, as the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, to keep offering infoganda for brain dead sheeple." So true! So disappointingly true.
Cartoon — Didn't I hear recently that one of the southern states was looking to bring back the ban on interracial marriages? Shame that some people don't understand that love is colour blind!
TY TC – excellent articles, and I love everyone's comments too – sorry, must dash, problems abound here.
Take all the rest you need, TomCat, but make sure that your insomnia wasn't cause by getting too much of a good thing: http://theconversation.com/eight-hours-is-enough-more-sleep-could-lead-to-an-early-grave-38363
PR Watch: If Jebb has to suck up to coal giants, you can be sure that he's not making nearly enough for his campaign from the other sponsors and that he's not high on their list of hopefuls. For the planet it doesn't really matter whose fossil fuel Jebb is sucking up to, all are equally bad.
Daily Kos: The Miami-Dade County school district did well to kick Iber out as a principal and demote him to administrative duties as his "excuses" clearly showed he still didn't feel what he did was disgusting as a principal of a school of which 99% is a minority. He just wished he had posted it anonymously – so he wouldn't have been caught – and apologized for the fact that "it apparently became newsworthy and has apparently upset people", but not a word about the content of his comment, the sort of non-apology we've come to expect from Republicans, if they apologize at all.
Media matters: The Murdoch empire, and Faux News in particular, is crumbling and will crumble further if Rupert can't think of anyone else to take over from him on 21st Century Fox but his son James, who had to resign from all else after the News International hacking scandal and is apparently still twiddling his thumbs. Not that it matters for Faux News, which is very capable of doing some excellent crumbling on its own.
Cartoon: States like North Carolina have no problems with turning back the clock and ignoring the SCOTUS ruling.
I'm not sure that it was more that 8 hours, byt it was more that the six I ususlly get.
Thanks all. Note that Lona caught that it is North Carolina that is trying to give local magistrates the power to outlaw mixed marriages.