THE STORY BEHIND “SWEET HOME ALABAMA.”
Archive for 2018
August 16, 2018
2013 FLASHBACK: Two Dems Warn NSA Violations Just ‘Tip of a Larger Iceberg.’
A pair of civil-liberties Democrats whom the White House tried to appease in a closed-door meeting warned today that fresh reports of thousands of privacy violations by the National Security Agency are just the “tip of a larger iceberg.”
On Thursday, the Washington Post published its report of a May 2012 audit leaked by former contractor Edward Snowden that found 2,776 violations over the previous year of executive orders and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act provisions governing spying on Americans or foreign targets in the U.S. These included both computer and operator errors.
Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Mark Udall (D-Colo.) have been some of President Obama’s harshest critics — within his party and outside — on domestic spying. They were among allies and foes of the NSA programs summoned by Obama to the Oval Office at the beginning of the month as he hoped to calm his detractors before promising new, vague reforms.
It’s now apparent that the spying on political enemies continued unabated, and in fact accelerated in the last days of the Obama Administration.
FIVE NEW CASES OF APOPLECTIC INSTANT MELTDOWN (AIM) REPORTED! You already know about Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) but experts are now saying that if TDS is left untreated, its last stage before complete, irreversible political lunacy is AIM. LifeZette has five examples just from the reaction to John Brennan losing his security clearance.
THEY TOLD ME IF TRUMP WERE ELECTED, WE’D SEE OPEN RACISM IN POLITICS. AND THEY WERE RIGHT! Democratic Detroit Rep. Bettie Cook Scott on Asian opponent: ‘Don’t vote for the ching-chong!’
More than a dozen community groups have called on Rep. Bettie Cook Scott (D-Detroit) to apologize for a series of racial slurs sources say she used to describe her primary election opponent, Rep. Stephanie Chang (D-Detroit).
Scott is alleged to have referred to Chang as “ching-chang” and “the ching-chong” to multiple voters outside polling precincts during last Tuesday’s election. She’s also said to have called one of Chang’s campaign volunteers an “immigrant,” saying “you don’t belong here” and “I want you out of my country.” . . .
The various off-color remarks were heard by multiple people connected with Chang, including Chang’s husband, who spoke with Metro Times. Sean Gray says after overhearing Cook disparage Chang outside a precinct on the east side of Detroit, “I … asked her not to speak about my wife in that manner. At that time she said to the voter that ‘these immigrants from China are coming over and taking our community from us.’ Further, she said it ‘disgusts her seeing black people holding signs for these Asians and not supporting their own people.'”
Gray, who is black, says Scott then went on to call him a “fool” for marrying Chang.
So we’ve got it all: Racism, anti-immigrant sentiment, and bigotry against interracial marriage. Charming.
If this were a Republican, it would be national news. I predict not so much this time.
SCRAPPLEFACE: Trump Silences Ex-CIA Boss, Times Op-Ed Claims.
TEACH WOMEN NOT TO LIE ABOUT RAPE: Florida Woman Fined, Sentenced To Community Service For False Rape Accusation.
POLL: Majority of Millennial Women Do Not Identify as Feminist. “There is a whole country full of regular people that the media doesn’t even know is there.”
Sergeant Schultzism isn’t a pretty look for those who profess to be our eyes and ears.
FREE MEDIA FOR TRUMP 2020: CNN commentator: Andrew Cuomo’s right, America has never been great.
I MENTIONED A WHILE BACK HOW MUCH I LIKED “LITTLE PINK HOUSE,” THE KELO MOVIE. Now you can get it on DVD.
NOBODY IS WOKE ENOUGH: ‘Queer Eye’ Star Jonathan Van Ness Under Fire After Saying ‘Not All Republicans Are Racist.’
J. CHRISTIAN ADAMS: Grotesque Grand Jury Report on Abusive Priests: Questions and Answers.
CHANGE: A New Home for $90,000? Manufactured Housing Is Making a Comeback.
The hope is that more Americans will see the factory units not only as a more-affordable alternative to a traditional single-family house, but also an appealing one, without the old trailer-park stigma. It helps that they’ve been getting fancier.
Scott Richards, a salesman for Rona Homes in Pataskala, Ohio, said that when shoppers come to his lot, he can dazzle them with customization options like hickory cabinets, rainforest showers and built-in entertainment systems coupled with electric fireplaces.
“We’ve got linoleum floors that look just like hardwood floors,” said Richards, who got back into selling factory-made houses after leaving the industry in 2012. “You don’t think about solid granite being in a manufactured home, but we have that as well.”
Rona Homes revamped its display lot in March in response to growing demand. Where there once sat three models for customers to see, there are now 13 — “a whole arsenal” Richards can use to sell buyers on the idea.
I’d like to see modern manufacturing techniques used to bring down the prices of site-built homes as well.
DAS KAPITALISM: Elizabeth Warren has a plan for capitalism, and it’s terrifying:
Warren’s “Accountable Capitalism Act” would require that corporations that earn more than $1 billion in revenue a year (note “revenue,” not “profits”) would need a federal “charter” in order to operate. This charter would obligate these companies to consider all “stakeholders,” not just shareholders, when making decisions. The bill would also require these corporations to permit employees to elect 40 percent of the company’s board of directors; a super majority of 75 percent of directors and shareholders would have to approve political donations. (Gee, I wonder if somebody will propose something similar for unions?) Shareholders would be permitted to sue the company if they felt its actions were driven purely by profit and did not reflect the desires of its many “stakeholders.”
Eat your heart out, Ralph Nader.
BETHANY MANDEL: How The Angry Left Turned Me Into A Nazi.
The fact that ADL found me to be one of the worst victims of Nazi harassment doesn’t matter, because progressives have decided that posting the headline of my column is the perfect virtue signal to indicate how terrible conservatives are, even if doing so is a complete misrepresentation of me, my arguments and my beliefs.
This internet pile-on isn’t just shameful for those involved; it also totally misses the point of the original column, thereby losing an opportunity to root out the hatred they claim to abhor.
They don’t abhor hate any more than a fish abhors water.
ROLLING STONE: Censorship Does Not End Well: How America learned to stop worrying and put Mark Zuckerberg in charge of everything.
I didn’t celebrate when Jones was banned. Collectively, all these stories represent a revolutionary moment in media. Jones is an incidental player in a much larger narrative.
Both the Jones situation and the Facebook-Atlantic Council deletions seem an effort to fulfill a request made last year by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Last October, Facebook, Google and Twitter were asked by Hawaii Senator Mazie Hizono to draw up a “mission statement” to “prevent the foment of discord.”
Companies like Facebook might have balked before. They have long taken a position that’s very Star Trek, very Prime-Directive: We do not interfere. Mark Zuckerberg, as late as 2016, was saying, “editing content… that’s not us.”
But now all stops are being pulled out, and all principles overturned, because #RESISTANCE!!!!
Related: Shopify CEO Deletes Free Speech Commitment as Company Purges Gun-Related Retailers.
The CEO of major online retailing platform Shopify deleted a post detailing the company’s commitment to free speech this week as the company began purging gun-related retailers.
Tobias Lutke, founder and CEO of Shopify, deleted a 2017 post titled “In Support of Free Speech” and republished it with an addendum in a new post, “In Support of Free Speech (Updated).” In the new post, Lutke declared the company’s previous commitment to allowing retailers to use the platform so long as they did not violate any laws because of the brand’s dedication to the principle of free speech “too idealistic and functionally unworkable on the fast moving internet.”
Our woke #Resistance ruling class compares itself to the WWII undergrounds, but lacks the courage, or even the inclination, to resist shaming by its fellows. It’s more like Mean Girls than the Resistance.
GOOD LORD: Horrified Onlookers Watch as 71 Drug Users Collapse in Connecticut Park… IN ONE DAY. “Paramedics would treat one and ‘see another immediately fall down, right there’.”