kpete

kpete's Journal

April 7, 2016

...when you bump into your ex with his new bae

https://twitter.com/sazza_jay/status/717118526536945664?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
http://theobamadiary.com/2016/04/07/chat-away-807/#comments

April 7, 2016

Merle Haggard - It's Almost 'Criminal' What They Do To President Obama

Exclusive: Merle Haggard on His Kennedy Center Honor, Meeting Obama and Oprah and More
The singer, who received a lifetime achievement award, takes us behind the scenes of Tuesday's broadcast
BY PATRICK DOYLE December 28, 2010
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/exclusive-merle-haggard-on-his-kennedy-center-honor-meeting-obama-and-oprah-and-more-20101228#ixzz459Nw1SJS
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook

Merle Haggard:
"It's really almost criminal what they do with our President. There seems to be no shame or anything. They call him all kinds of names all day long, saying he's doing certain things that he's not. It's just a big old political game that I don't want to be part of. There are people spending their lives putting him down. I'm sure some of it's true and some of it's not. I was very surprised to find the man very humble and he had a nice handshake. His wife was very cordial to the guests and especially me. They made a special effort to make me feel welcome. It was not at all the way the media described him to be."

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/3/4/1368652/-Merle-Haggard-To-Rolling-Stone-It-s-Almost-Criminal-What-They-Do-To-President-Obama
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/exclusive-merle-haggard-on-his-kennedy-center-honor-meeting-obama-and-oprah-and-more-20101228

April 7, 2016

Ellen Absolutely DESTROYS Mississippi, Their Governor, And Ridiculous New Anti-Gay Law

Ellen said of the law:

“It’s the very definition of discrimination. It’s also something that the Supreme Court already ruled on when they made marriage a right for everyone, everyone.”

Then jokingly added:

“They’re Supreme. I mean, that’s the best you can get. Like the Nacho Supreme from Taco Bell.”

However, she took a very serious tone talking about her own experiences being discriminated against, but coming out on top in the end.

“If you’re in Mississippi or North Carolina or anywhere and you’re saddened by the fact that people are judging you based on who you love, don’t lose hope. I was fired for being gay, and I know what it feels like. I lost everything. But look at me now.”

The crowd then erupts into cheers, with Ellen perfectly adding:

“I could buy that governor’s mansion, flip it, and make a $7 million dollar profit.”

But really driving home the point that what we really, truly need in this world is “less hate and more love.”

VIDEO & MORE:
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2016/04/07/ellen-absolutely-destroys-mississippi-their-governor-and-ridiculous-new-anti-gay-law-video/

April 7, 2016

Everyone wins! Well, not you.

We have entered another phase of journalists, raised in affluence and currently enjoying at least middle class incomes — who are thus, according to their own moral calculus, very economically privileged — telling Americans devastated by the collapse of the uneducated labor market that their poverty, marginalization, and hopelessness is Actually Good, because people in Bangladesh can now move from absolutely abject poverty to slightly-less-abject poverty. Provided the sweatshop where they work doesn’t collapse on them. And provided they are willing to endure a nightmare of nonexistent labor power, terrible health and safety standards, total impunity from their bosses, and for the women, an atmosphere of near-constant sexual threat and exploitation.

But suppose you’re a journo, writer, or academic who really does think that outsourcing is the only way to help the world’s poorest. Isn’t your own moral path then clear? Shouldn’t you be outsourcing your own job to people from the poorest parts of the earth? There are many talented and ambitious writers and scholars in China, India, Pakistan, Nigeria…. If you make, say, $80K a year as a pundit, isn’t your moral duty to work with your employee to outsource your work to a poorer country? Punditry, after all, is very easy to conduct via telecommunications, unlike being a waiter, an orchard worker, or a yoga instructor. And isn’t it very possible that you could get at least a large majority of the value of your work from a team of people in India at a fraction of the cost, while providing all of them with wages far higher than the median income of their home country? You could have your employer pay five Indian writers $10K/year to replicate what you provide for the company. The Indian writers would make better than six times the Indian median annual income. And your employer gets to pocket that extra $30K — which, after all, is why outsourcing actually exists, to improve the profits of our corporate overlords. Everyone wins! Well, not you. But this is precisely the bargain that you think America’s uneducated labor force should make. It is, in fact, a condition that you have loudly argued is morally necessary.
http://fredrikdeboer.com/2016/04/06/outsource-brad-delong/

April 7, 2016

A different view of Trump's ceiling:

https://twitter.com/AntonVuljaj/status/718048581454839808

April 7, 2016

Video of a very raw reaction to the Blankenship verdict, from a guy who lost three relatives

PROFITS OVER PEOPLE

WCHS & WVAH TV
EMOTIONAL REACTION: Tommy Davis lost three loved ones in the UBB mine disaster and was very emotional outside the federal courthouse in Charleston after Don Blankenship was sentenced to one year in prison Wednesday.

http://wchstv.com/news/local/federal-judge-does-not-allow-victim-impact-statements-at-blankenships-sentencing

Video of a *very* raw reaction to the Blankenship verdict, from a guy who lost three relatives at Upper Big Branch:

VIDEO HERE:
https://www.facebook.com/eyewitnessnewscharleston/videos/10154182024382845/?pnref=story.unseen-section

April 7, 2016

'Trump Institute' Partnered With Couple Who Got Prosecuted for Get-Rich-Quick Fraud

'Trump Institute' Partnered With Couple Who Got Prosecuted for Get-Rich-Quick Fraud
When The Donald started his wealth seminars, he turned to a couple with a checkered legal past.

..........
Donald Trump needed some help in 2006. He was setting up Trump Institute, a series of seminars teaching the “way to wealth,” and was looking for expertise on how the conference business worked.
He turned to a pair with a troublesome legal history to give him a hand.

Mike and Irene Milin were known to law enforcement officials in a number of states for a host of get-rich-quick schemes and alleged real estate scams. They were prosecuted by the Texas attorney general for deceptive trade practices, and sued by the makers of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, to name just two of the Milins’ many legal entanglements. But Michael Sexton—then president of Trump University, which he said at the time included the Trump Institute seminars, as well as online courses—partnered with the Milins nonetheless, according to a report from The Sacramento Bee.

The Milins’ oft-investigated National Grants Conferences, in effect, became the blueprint for Trump Institute. The two seminar businesses used some of the same speakers and shared office space in Boca Raton. The ads for Trump University promised to make people “millionaires,” just as the National Grants Conference commercials told customers they’d make them rich from government money. And, most importantly, Trump Institute operated itself in much the same manner as National Grants Conferences: After a promise of easy riches and a free seminar, customers were cajoled into doling out more and more money to get the key to unlocking wealth.

The problem in both cases: The key never opened anything.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/04/07/these-grifters-inspired-trump-institute.html

April 7, 2016