Birthday

Happy birthday, Rosa Parks.

On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Parks refused to obey bus driver James F. Blake's order to give up her seat in the colored section to a white passenger, after the white section was filled. Parks was not the first person to resist bus segregation. Others had taken similar steps, including Bayard Rustin in 1942,[2] Irene Morgan in 1946, Sarah Louise Keys in 1952, and the members of the ultimately successful Browder v. Gayle 1956 lawsuit (Claudette Colvin, Aurelia Browder, Susie McDonald, and Mary Louise Smith) who were arrested in Montgomery for not giving up their bus seats months before Parks. NAACP organizers believed that Parks was the best candidate for seeing through a court challenge after her arrest for civil disobedience in violating Alabama segregation laws, although eventually her case became bogged down in the state courts while the Browder v. Gayle case succeeded.[3][4]

Parks' act of defiance and the Montgomery Bus Boycott became important symbols of the modern Civil Rights Movement. She became an international icon of resistance to racial segregation. She organized and collaborated with civil rights leaders, including Edgar Nixon, president of the local chapter of the NAACP; and Martin Luther King, Jr., a new minister in town who gained national prominence in the civil rights movement.

At the time, Parks was secretary of the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP. She had recently attended the Highlander Folk School, a Tennessee center for training activists for workers' rights and racial equality. She acted as a private citizen "tired of giving in". Although widely honored in later years, she also suffered for her act; she was fired from her job as a seamstress in a local department store, and received death threats for years afterwards. Her situation also opened doors.

BTW - this is how you win:

This is not:

Happy New Year to all, including to my many enemies and those who have fought me and lost so badly they just don't know what to do. Love!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 31, 2016

Todays GIF

Sorry, ladies. It takes a while to train some of us. But we'll get it eventually.

pic.twitter.com/tr8epXgBmW

— Theater of SciFi (@theaterofscifi) February 3, 2017

 

Alt-Fact Barbie Rides Again

...asking the obvious question: "Are you stupid enough to swallow whatever I pull outa my ass today?"

And wouldn't it be nice if a producer at MSNBC would at least try to get Chris Matthews to stay awake long enough to hear these ridiculous "answers"?

Alex Wagner seems to be adapting, but there are way too many Press Poodles who are stuck in Old-Think Mode, trying to apply a set of analytical tools based on "Politics As Usual".

Here's the thing, kids:

Silence Implies Consent

But more than that - by keeping quiet about it, there's a fair probability that Trump is sending us a little signal: the same could happen to any of you if you don't shut up.

Play nice and make Daddy happy or you'll force Daddy to punish you.

WaPo:

ONE DAY after President Trump and Vladi­mir Putin held their first phone call, Russian-backed forces mounted their largest offensive in months in eastern Ukraine. Now, days later, one of Russia’s most prominent opposition activists is in a coma in a Moscow hospital, where he was rushed after suddenly taking ill on Thursday morning. Vladi­mir Kara-Murza, a writer and civil- society activist with many supporters in Washington, is believed by his family to be the victim of a poisoning attack — the second they believe he has suffered since 2015.

His agony most likely holds a message from Mr. Putin to the new Trump administration. Since 2014, the Kremlin has endured sanctions from the United States and the European Union for its aggression in Ukraine and for human rights violations, such as the killings of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky and opposition leader Boris Nemtsov. With the new assault on Ukraine and the felling of Mr. Kara-Murza, the Kremlin hopes to establish that such crimes will be tolerated by the new U.S. president as part of a refounded relationship with Moscow.

So far, Mr. Putin’s gambit is succeeding: Mr. Trump, while sparring with close U.S. ally Australia, has had nothing to say about the events in Ukraine and Moscow.

 

Today's Tweet

That Would Be Awesome. pic.twitter.com/hM1jHCxum8

— Tomthunkit™ (@TomthunkitsMind) February 3, 2017

A Question

Are we creating terrorists faster than we're killing them?

The key question after a mission like last week in Yemen: Are we creating terrorists faster than we're killing them? https://t.co/PcndhFLC7f

— Maddow Blog (@MaddowBlog) February 3, 2017

Here's another question: What kinda fucked up world we got here when that's a valid Policy Question?

You kill your way into problems, not out of them.

Well Now

It seems we've been invaded by an armed force from Dumfuckistan.

And to be clear, guys - this is illegal.  What we really really REALLY can't have is a CinC who cultivates and propagates a personal constituency within the military.

Black History Month 3 of 7

From Atlanta Black Star - 7 Lies Taught In American Schools

Downplaying Slavery’s Cruelty

These are the words contained in a textbook called United States History for Christian Schools, second ed., published by Bob Jones University Press in 1991: “A few slave holders were undeniably cruel. Examples of slaves beaten to death were not common, neither were they unknown. The majority of slave holders treated their slaves well.” As noted by historian Edward Baptist, large numbers of enslaved Black people were killed during slavery.

Today's Nature Tip

How to tell the difference between a black bear and a grizzly bear:

Climb a tree. 

If the bear climbs the tree and eats you, it's a black bear.

If the bear knocks the tree down and eats you, it's a grizzly.

An Ad

Oops

At the very end, after he's off camera, "...waste of my fuckin' time" is clearly audible.

So we don't know for sure it was Ryan who said it, and we certainly don't know what exactly he thinks is a waste of time. The issue of the ban? The ban itself?  The distractions coming from the Trump While House? A press conference in itself?

Or are we seeing the normal inter-branch friction getting to a point where's it's making it very much more difficult for Ryan to do the shitty things we're all sure he's itchin' to do?

I guess I'm wondering mostly about whether or not the Press Poodles will follow up and ask him for clarification.

And it might be really interesting to ask Trump and/or Spicer about it too.

Oh, and BTW, here's today's anagram:

Sean Spicer = Scare Penis

Today's GIF

Beware Of Images

Beware Of Images

Today's Tweet

I see some celebrities will leave the US if Trump wins. Not me. I'll be buying property here
In four years' time when prices hit rock bottom

— John Cleese (@JohnCleese) November 8, 2016

Keith

It's a ban.  It's a swipe against Islam.  And it has a purpose.

Watch this video on The Scene.