Open thread for Sunday, May 17th: ‘The Eternal’
Here is the open thread for Sunday, May 17th. Please feel free to post links to interesting articles and to discuss whatever issues arise during the course of the day. Nothing is off-topic here.
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Well, I have gone back and forth over the last couple of days trying to determine which band was going to be number 5 on my countdown and which one would come in at number 4 but I have made my decision. Coming in at number 5 is Joy Division.
There is precious little live video of the band because their career was tragically cut short after only two albums with the suicide of lead singer Ian Curtis. (Tomorrow will actually be the 35th anniversary of his death.) The remaining members of the band eventually rose up and became New Order, a band which pioneered the electronic movement in the 1980’s.
Up first is “Digital” recorded live in January of 1980:
Next up is “She’s Lost Control:”
And here is my favorite Joy Division song–the haunting yet morbidly beautiful “The Eternal:”
As I wrote above, tomorrow will mark the 35th anniversary of the death of Ian Curtis so here is a video entitled The Tragedy of Ian Curtis which includes interviews with his bandmates. (There is some colorful language so be forewarned.)
George Stephanopoulos has rightfully come under fire recently for not disclosing $75,000 in donations to the Clinton Foundation over the years but it turns out, according to this story, that he is not alone when it comes to media donations to the Clinton Foundation and in fact he may be just a small player in this game.
Here is more:
NBC Universal, News Corporation, Turner Broadcasting and Thomson Reuters are among more than a dozen media organizations that have made charitable contributions to the Clinton Foundation in recent years, the foundation’s records show.
The donations, which range from the low-thousands to the millions, provide a picture of the media industry’s ties to the Clinton Foundation
The list also includes mass media groups like Comcast, Time Warner and Viacom, as well a few notable individuals, including Carlos Slim, the Mexican telecom magnate and largest shareholder of The New York Times Company, and James Murdoch, the chief operating officer of 21st Century Fox. Both Slim and Murdoch have given between $1 million to $5 million, respectively.
Here is a list, also taken from the article, which shows those entities and individuals in the media which have also donated at least $10,000 to the Clinton Foundation:
Back in October of last year America’s Watchtower reported on the story that the IRS was in the process of seizing the bank accounts of some small business owners even though they were never charged with committing any crime. The IRS began targeting small business owners who made multiple deposits of under $10,000 each and the agency justified it by using a law which prohibits “structured” deposits. This law was supposed to be used to thwart drug dealers and gun traffickers but these were legitimate businesses. A clear abuse of power in my opinion.
Here is one example:
For almost 40 years, Carole Hinders has dished out Mexican specialties at her modest cash-only restaurant. For just as long, she deposited the earnings at a small bank branch a block away — until last year, when two tax agents knocked on her door and informed her that they had seized her checking account, almost $33,000.
The Internal Revenue Service agents did not accuse Ms. Hinders of money laundering or cheating on her taxes — in fact, she has not been charged with any crime. Instead, the money was seized solely because she had deposited less than $10,000 at a time, which they viewed as an attempt to avoid triggering a required government report.
And here is another:
George Stephanopoulos recuses himself from GOP debate after donating $75,000 to the Clinton Foundation
Roughly four years after the debate in which George Stephanopoulos ambushed Mitt Romney with a question on birth control thereby setting the so-called Republican war on women in motion (something many of us believe was a consorted effort between Mr. Stephanopoulos and the Democratic Party) he has been forced to recuse himself from a GOP primary debate next February after it was learned he donated $75,000 to the Clinton Foundation.
Here is more:
George Stephanopoulos says he should not have donated money to the Clinton Foundation and that he will not moderate the ABC News-sponsored Republican primary debate in February after failing to disclose those contributions.
In an interview with the On Media blog on Thursday, Stephanopoulos said that while he made the donations “for the best reasons,” he now realizes he should not have given.
“In retrospect, I probably shouldn’t have, even though I did it for the best reasons,” he said.
Stephanopoulos also said that he has given a total of $75,000 to the Clinton Foundation. That figure represents charitable contributions of $25,000 in 2012, 2013 and 2014, respectively. ABC News initially said that Stephanopoulos had given a total of $50,000 to the foundation.
That means the same year he blindsided Mitt Romney he also just happened to donate $25,000 to the Clinton Foundation, which confirms to me what many of us have all believed–he was a biased “reporter” with an obvious agenda and not the straight media reporter he is purported to be.
Not that this is news to many of us but at least now he can no longer hide in the shadows. His chickens might be coming home to roost…
Malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
Republican Senator Bob Corker claims the NSA should be collecting more data on American citizens
Last week the Second Court of Appeals ruled that the NSA data-mining program was illegal because it exceeded the authority granted the agency under the PATRIOT Act. As I said in my previous posts on this issue: this decision was a step in the right direction but it was not a complete victory because the data-mining program was not ruled unconstitutional. This means the Congress, when it votes to re-authorize the PATRIOT Act, can then make legal the illegal program through amendment with utter disregard for the Constitution and the Fourth Amendment.
And today the first sign that my fears were justified came to light when Republican Senator Bob Corker, after a secret briefing, told a group that the NSA was not going far enough with its domestic spying program.
Here is more:
Democratic Senator implies Barack Obama’s attack on Elizabeth Warren over TPP was sexist
I have written a little bit about the war of words between Barack Obama and Elizabeth Warren over the TPP and the TPA the last several days but today there was an interesting little twist when Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown implied there might be a little sexism behind the President’s attack on the Massachusetts Senator.
Here is more:
Democratic senator Sherrod Brown is subtly accusing President Barack Obama of sexism in his attacks on Senator Elizabeth Warren, also a Democrat.
“I think the president was disrespectful to her by the way he did that…made this more personal,” Brown told reporters.
“I think referring to her as her first name, when he might not have done that for a male senator, perhaps–I’ve said enough.”
The implication is clear and I have to say I agree with her–this sure seems sexist to me, especially since we have learned that calling Hillary Clinton by her first name is sexist. The precedent was set:
Rand Paul vows to filibuster the PATRIOT Act
Last week the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the NSA’s data-mining program was illegal because it exceeded the authority the Congress granted the agency under the PATRIOT Act. This decision did not rule the program unconstitutional however so it is possible the Congress can write new legislation, or add an amendment to the PATRIOT Act, granting the NSA this authority when many of us believe the PATRIOT Act already goes too far and needs to be reigned in.
The timing of this ruling is actually quite interesting because the PATRIOT Act is coming up for re-authorization and it will be interesting to see which side of the domestic spying program the Republican presidential hopefuls fall on. Will they fall on the side of privacy, the Constitution, and the Fourth Amendment, or will they fall on the side of Big Brother?
For the most apart it appears as if, with the exceptions of Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, the Republican contenders are siding with Barack Obama’s expansion of a spying program into illegality and will most likely vote to give the NSA the power it has already usurped. And this goes for as yet undeclared Republican candidate Jeb Bush as well, who also agrees with the data-mining program.
No, that is not a mistake in the headline; during an interview with Megyn Kelly last night Jeb Bush actually said illegal immigrants should be punished by making them earn legal status. Here is more:
I think illegal immigration ought to be punished by coming out from the shadows, earning legal status over an extended period of time where you pay a fine, where you work, where you don’t receive government assistance, where you learn English, where you don’t — where you’re deported if you commit a crime as is the law.
There you have it ladies and gentlemen, and all this time we thought we would be rewarding illegal immigrants with a policy such as this. I am glad Mr. Bush set us straight on this.
Malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
There is a battle raging between Barack Obama and Elizabeth Warren over the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, a deal the President wants fast-track authority to pass. This battle ratcheted up a notch when Elizabeth Warren slammed the deal saying it could lead to the Republicans picking apart Dodd-Frank at some point in the future.
Barack Obama then struck back by saying “she is absolutely wrong” and this was nothing but “pure speculation” on the part of the first-term Senator from Massachusetts. (I have a conspiracy theory about this little spat which can be read here.)
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