BlueMTexpat
BlueMTexpat's JournalWhat a great story!
I am dividing my day between activities for the Swiss National Holiday and watching the horse races at Goodwood (UK).
ITV, who basically was awarded the racing broadcasting rights after the Beeb's reign of many years, is currently airing the meet at Goodwood and had also broadcast a feature on this young Muslim jockey. She won her first race today in a squeaker.
Khadijah Mellah claims fairytale Magnolia Cup win on Haverland
https://www.sportinglife.com/racing/news/fairytale-win-in-magnolia-cup/169686
The 18-year-old was the first rider to race in a hijab in Britain and she delivered her Charlie Fellowes-trained mount with a perfectly-timed run to lift the ladies-only charity race.
Mellah, who hails from Peckham in South London and is set to study mechanical engineering at university in September, learnt to ride at the Ebony Horse Club charity in Brixton - but sat on a racehorse for the first time only in April.
She certainly belied her lack of experience, as she exercised plenty of patience aboard Haverland, only making her move coming into the final furlong.
Orange Is the New Black Almost Ended Very Differently...
https://www.eonline.com/news/1060797/orange-is-the-new-black-almost-ended-very-differentlyI know that most OPs today are focused - and rightly so - on last night's Democratic debate. But this OP has a tangential relationship to current US prison-ICE-related actions. It certainly has a relationship to the treatment of incarcerated women.
OITNB recently dropped its seventh and final season on the streaming platform. The conclusion, which was a smattering of happy endings, deaths, releases from prison and heartache, was almost very different. In the series, Taylor Schilling plays Piper Chapman, a character loosely based on Kerman. At one point, she toys with writing a memoir, but Judy King (Blair Brown), a Martha Stewart-esque character, beat her to market. The show almost ended with a big wink to the origins of the Emmy-winning series.
"Since season one, the joke ending that would come up occasionally was to get super meta and cast an actress to be Jenji who goes into Netflix and pitches a show!" Herrmann said.
"Piper having a meeting and then selling the show and having her watch someone playing her. We toyed with it. I was at dinner and joking about it and my 13-year-old son was like, No. You cannot do that,'" Kohan said.
"That made it all seem fictionalized and a joke, and the show deserves more than that," Herrmann concluded.
It took me awhile to warm up to this Netflix series and some seasons were, IMO, much better than others, especially when the series focus shifted to characters/situations other than the life and loves of "Piper Chapman." In its quirky way, however, it is as much of of a social commentary as was one of the absolute best series ever, IMO, "The Wire."
I am posting this today because I finished watching the last - and final - series (of 7) last night. If you don't have Netflix, please view this series with someone who does. Please also watch the whole series run.
The final series, while there are some redeeming moments if one has made the journey with the characters, is absolutely devastating. It is especially devastating when we know what is happening with the current sweep-ups, separation of families and incarceration of immigrants already in the US - even though it doesn't even deal with what is happening for those who are seeking asylum at the border.
What have we become?
Politicians, pundits, others defend Baltimore, Elijah Cummings after Trump's 'completely unacceptabl
https://www.baltimoresun.com/politics/bs-md-pol-trump-baltimore-reactions-20190727-rkn2npfghfgtdm4ikex77szjgm-story.htmlFrom the link:
Cummings represents Marylands 7th congressional district, which includes much of Baltimore, but reaches into Baltimore and Howard counties as well.
Trumps tweets appear to be related to a congressional hearing on July 18 over conditions at facilities holding children suspected of crossing the border illegally. Cummings during the hearing lashed out at Kevin McAleenan, head of the Department of Homeland Security, for what he described as conditions in which children were left to defecate on themselves and did not have access to a shower.
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Additionally, the Council on American-Islamic Relations on Saturday joined the Maryland State Conference of the NAACP in denouncing Trumps tweets.
Its no secret that Donald Trump will resort to racism to deflect and distract the public, but this outrageously racist tirade is the latest reminder that he is unfit to serve as president of the United States, said Zainab Chaudry, CAIR director of Maryland outreach. He clearly believes he can attack one of the nations great cities because he perceives it to be primarily African-American - just another example of his racist and white supremacist mindset.
Chaudry also pointed out that earlier this week, Trump doubled down on his previous attacks targeting Congresswomen Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar, urging them to go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.
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FWIW: Cummings's Balto district includes Johns Hopkins University and the SSA. These two institutions actually WORK, unlike ANYTHING tRump touches.
Elizabeth Warren pitches private equity regulations, taking aim at 'legalized looting'
I am so glad to see this. I have been outraged by these practices since such looting first began by "corporate raiders" like Carl Icahn, etc., primarily in the 1980s. They have worsened since then ... and I haven't seen many - if any - other Dems in power actually say this out with meaningful specificity or proposals to address them.
https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2019-07-18/elizabeth-warren-2020-pitches-private-equity-constraints
Warrens plan, the latest in a series of policy ideas that have propelled the Massachusetts senator to the top tier of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, would hold private equity firms liable for debts and pension promises made by the companies they buy up. It would restrict the firms ability to pay dividends as well as high fees that shift money out of acquired companies.
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I am tired of big financial firms looting the economy to pad their own pockets while the rest of the economy suffers, Warren wrote in a Medium post announcing her plan on Thursday. I am done with Washington ignoring the evidence and acting as though boosting Wall Street helps our families. Financial firms have helped push our economy badly off track.
Warrens private equity proposals also include new rules that would require worker pay to take precedence over other obligations when companies declare bankruptcy as well as more open disclosure of investment firms fees, both of which are included in private legislation shes set to introduce later Thursday alongside Senate and House Democratic colleagues. Her platform further calls for the restoration of dividing lines between commercial and investment banking that were repealed in 1999, a change that was part of both the Republican and the Democratic platforms during the 2016 presidential election despite Trumps lack of emphasis on it during his campaign.
Warren is headed to Iowa for a two-day campaign swing during which shes likely to tout her new private equity plan, the latest installment of a broader self-described economic patriotism agenda that also includes a $2-trillion investment in environmentally friendly manufacturing .
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Here's an article from Forbes magazine from 2010, that points out exactly what has happened with retirement pensions in the private sector.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2011/10/19/retirement-heist-how-firms-plunder-workers-nest-eggs/
What Immelt didnt mention was that GEs pension plans had actually contributed billions of dollars to the companys bottom line over the last 15 years, earnings that the executives had taken credit for. Nor did he mention that GE hadnt contributed anything to the workers pension plans since 1987 and still had enough to cover all the current and future retirees.
Nor did he mention that the executive pensions for GE executives were a burden. Unlike the plans for the 250,000 workers and retirees, the executive pensions had a $4.4 billion obligation that steadily drained cash from the companys coffers, including $573 million over the past three years alone.
Why was GE closing its fully funded pension plan, while continuing its financially burdensome executive plan? This is the question to which Ellen Schultzs incisive new book, Retirement Heist: How Companies Plunder and Profit from the Nest Eggs of American Workers (Portfolio, 2011) offers a powerful answer.
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Takeaways from 2020 Democrats' second quarter fundraising reports
This is an interesting article.
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/07/16/politics/2020-field-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-and-other-takeaways/index.html
From the link:
Buttigieg raised nearly $25 million in the April-to-June fundraising quarter. And he entered July -- typically a slow fundraising period as donors turn to vacation plans and away from politics -- with more than $22.7 million remaining in his bank account, one of the field's biggest war chests. He's already using the money to build a ground force of more than 250 staffers in early voting states.
The other four candidates in the top fundraising tier: former Vice President Joe Biden, who collected nearly $22 million, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren at $19.2 million, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders at $18 million and California Sen. Kamala Harris with $11.8 million.
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Former Texas Congressman Beto O'Rourke, who shattered political money records in his near-miss Senate campaign in 2018, saw his fundraising plummet as a presidential candidate. He raised just $3.6 million in the second quarter -- down from $9.4 million in the first 18 days of his campaign earlier this year.
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Sanders outspent the rest of the Democratic field over the three-month period, spending roughly $14 million -- including $3 million directed to salaries.
Biden, running in his first presidential race since 2008, racked up $11 million in expenses, including more than $250,000 with a private jet operator based in Arlington, Virginia.
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Much more, with graphs, at the link.
2020 ELECTION NBC/WSJ poll: Biden, Warren top 2020 Democratic field
As with all polls, especially with early ones, these results need caveats.
But Warren's increase seems to be a steady one.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/nbc-wsj-poll-biden-warren-top-2020-democratic-field-n1028971
From the link:
New candidate Tom Steyer didnt enter the race until July 9, and the survey didnt test support for the billionaire activist.
The poll also asked Democratic primary voters about their second choice for president. The top responses were: Harris (14 percent), Warren (13 percent), Sanders (12 percent) and Biden (10 percent).
But importantly, only 12 percent of all Democratic primary voters said their mind is definitely made up, which suggests how malleable these numbers are
I am still officially "undecided"
and I am not necessarily a believer in polls, which can change so easily from one day to the next. Or not.
But this is a good article, IMO, and expresses what I am seeing and feeling. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/7/3/20679930/2020-presidential-election-polls-harris-biden-warren-sanders
The state of the 2020 Democratic primary, explained
Sanders, meanwhile, has lost his position as the one major alternative to Biden. The Vermont senators support level in polls has dropped significantly since the early months of the year and has remained stagnant for the past two months while Warren and Harris have surged. On average, that trio of candidates is now about tied for second place.
The only other candidate to escape the bottom tier in polls so far has been South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg. But Buttigieg has declined a bit of late, as he deals with a police shooting back at home and more support has gone to Warren and Harris. While both senators now enjoy double-digit support, the mayor is stuck in the single digits in most recent polls. The other 20 candidates have failed to gain any traction.
Seven long months remain until the Iowa caucuses. The big question for the race right now, though, is whether this post-debate slump is a temporary setback for Biden or whether its the start of his campaigns collapse.
There is an excellent graph included with the article.
I have a long memory and remember and have lived through many Presidential cycles. Just sayin' ....
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My only guarantee is that I WILL VOTE FOR whichever candidate is selected as the Democratic nominee. That should go without saying.
Clarence Thomas's Astonishing Opinion on a Racist Mississippi Prosecutor
Well, considering Thomas, perhaps NOT so surprising!
For some reason, I am not able to post excerpts without typing the whole thing out, but this is well worth a read.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/clarence-thomass-astonishing-opinion-on-a-racist-mississippi-prosecutor
Biden spars with Warren and Sanders at first event facing rival Democrats
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jun/17/biden-warren-sanders-democrats-poor-peoples-campaign-eventFrom the link:
Joy Reid, an MSNBC host who moderated the question and answer sessions, asked Biden how he would get his plans through a resistant Congress, noting that, when he was vice-president, the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, considered anything that came from the White House dead on arrival.
Biden fixed his gaze on the sitting Reid, walked closer and leaned towards her as he replied: Joy, I know youre one of the ones who thinks its naive to think we have to work together. The fact of the matter is, if we cant get a consensus, nothing happens except the abuse of power by the executive. Zero.
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Warren, who is gaining on Biden in opinion polls, told the forum: Lets be clear, if were in the majority and Mitch McConnell wants to block us on the kinds of things our country needs and the kinds of things they elected me and other people to enact, then Im all for getting rid of the filibuster.
We cannot let him block things the way he did during the Obama administration. Ive been there when it was one set of rules when President Obama was president and now its a different set of rules now that theyve got Trump in the White House. We cant do that as Democrats. We have to be willing to get in this fight.
I also believe that today's GOP no longer gives a sh*t about anything except keeping themselves in office. We simply cannot believe - given the evidence before our own eyes and ears - that they will suddenly begin acting like normal, caring human beings. They passed the point of no return LONG ago. And we need to be willing to call them on it.
NOTHING can be worse than it is now. THEY WILL NOT CHANGE!
I will add that I believe that Michael Bennet also made some excellent points.
I will ONLY support Democratic primary candidates
who also participate in the DNC's Democratic Unity Fund.
https://hillreporter.com/obama-announces-democratic-unity-fund-to-help-promote-eventual-nominee-36245
The Democratic Unity Fund is a promise that whoever earns our nomination, he or she will have a strong, united, and well-organized DNC ready to spring into action the moment the general election starts a DNC thats ready to lift us all to victory in November, Obama said.
All donations from the fund would go towards helping DNC-led programs, including Organizing Corps 2020 and the Data Warehouse. The fund would also help voter protection efforts that are essential to winning in 2020, Obama wrote.
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Elizabeth Warren is one candidate who is participating in this effort.
No candidate can win this on their own, and that's why we need a Democratic Party capable of investing in the infrastructure to spread our message, mobilize voters, and get out the vote. For that to happen, we need grassroots supporters like you to become a part of this movement.
That's why I'm fired up about the DNC's Democratic Unity Fund, which will combine the efforts of candidates, supporters, and the DNC so we can win this thing. So I have to ask:
Will you make a $50 contribution that will be split evenly between my campaign and the DNC's Democratic Unity Fund today?
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This kind of esprit de corps, enthusiasm and commitment to party unity is why Elizabeth is among my top-tier candidates. There are many other reasons as well.
While I am sure that many other candidates will also participate, I am also fairly sure that at least two will NOT.
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Gender: FemaleHome country: USA
Current location: Switzerland
Member since: Wed Oct 29, 2008, 04:01 PM
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