starring bon iver.
stream here.
Monday, June 30, 2014
Sunday, June 29, 2014
american pie.
a moment of clarity.
words.
"As the U.S. population ages and becomes more racially diverse, the country is seeing a widening demographic gap between older whites and young minorities -- a shift with significant social and economic implications for the future.
...The large population gains of Latino and other minority youth mean nonwhites will not only have more voting clout in the years ahead but also constitute the labor force of tomorrow. Yet this racial generational gap, which is particularly large in California and the Southwest, also points up the potential challenges as the U.S. relies on younger minorities to pick up the slack of an aging nation, including supporting social programs for a mostly white senior population.
..."It suggests that even greater priority should be given to providing these young minorities education opportunities and other resources to be successful as members of the labor force," he (William Frey, a Brookings Institution demographer) said..."
LOS ANGELES TIMES: As America ages, generational gap between whites and minorities widens
words.
"As the U.S. population ages and becomes more racially diverse, the country is seeing a widening demographic gap between older whites and young minorities -- a shift with significant social and economic implications for the future.
...The large population gains of Latino and other minority youth mean nonwhites will not only have more voting clout in the years ahead but also constitute the labor force of tomorrow. Yet this racial generational gap, which is particularly large in California and the Southwest, also points up the potential challenges as the U.S. relies on younger minorities to pick up the slack of an aging nation, including supporting social programs for a mostly white senior population.
..."It suggests that even greater priority should be given to providing these young minorities education opportunities and other resources to be successful as members of the labor force," he (William Frey, a Brookings Institution demographer) said..."
LOS ANGELES TIMES: As America ages, generational gap between whites and minorities widens
Saturday, June 28, 2014
Friday, June 27, 2014
crisis team.
a moment of clarity.
for your consideration...
words.
"...Though just 17 years apart, Baker and McConnell represent entirely different generations of American leaders. Baker, born in 1925, was at the tail end of the G.I. generation that survived the Depression, won the Second World War, triumphed in the Cold War and built the United States’ economic might. McConnell, born in 1942, was just ahead of — and for practical purposes part of — the baby boom generation that wrecked our politics over the past 20 years.
...Boomers inherited a system based on compromise and sacrifice — and they gave us the current standoff. They received a United States victorious in the Cold War and atop the world economy — and they gave us the Iraq war and the Great Recession. They are the parents of the first generation in U.S. history — the millennials — to have a lower standard of living than previous generations. And, in retirement, they will probably break Social Security and Medicare.
“Boomers are the scorched-earth, values-driven generation,” said Neil Howe, who with William Strauss chronicled the recurring patterns of generations in the United States. “They invented the culture wars and they’re taking it with them as they grow older, which is this complete polarization and gridlock. It’s very hard to compromise over values.”
...Gen X — my generation — is ill-equipped to fix the boomers’ mess. Alienated and individualistic, we don’t have faith in institutions or in our ability to change them; like Obama, we react to events. Happily, the millennials may have a better shot at fixing things when they get older. Unhappily, history suggests it will require a crisis..."
THE WASHINGTON POST: As leaders, boomers are a bust
for your consideration...
words.
"...Though just 17 years apart, Baker and McConnell represent entirely different generations of American leaders. Baker, born in 1925, was at the tail end of the G.I. generation that survived the Depression, won the Second World War, triumphed in the Cold War and built the United States’ economic might. McConnell, born in 1942, was just ahead of — and for practical purposes part of — the baby boom generation that wrecked our politics over the past 20 years.
...Boomers inherited a system based on compromise and sacrifice — and they gave us the current standoff. They received a United States victorious in the Cold War and atop the world economy — and they gave us the Iraq war and the Great Recession. They are the parents of the first generation in U.S. history — the millennials — to have a lower standard of living than previous generations. And, in retirement, they will probably break Social Security and Medicare.
“Boomers are the scorched-earth, values-driven generation,” said Neil Howe, who with William Strauss chronicled the recurring patterns of generations in the United States. “They invented the culture wars and they’re taking it with them as they grow older, which is this complete polarization and gridlock. It’s very hard to compromise over values.”
...Gen X — my generation — is ill-equipped to fix the boomers’ mess. Alienated and individualistic, we don’t have faith in institutions or in our ability to change them; like Obama, we react to events. Happily, the millennials may have a better shot at fixing things when they get older. Unhappily, history suggests it will require a crisis..."
THE WASHINGTON POST: As leaders, boomers are a bust
Thursday, June 26, 2014
Wednesday, June 25, 2014
for your consideration.
words.
"Fortunately, Prince’s reputation has rebounded from a dark period, when he was locked in battle with his record label, declaring himself a slave to the endless glee of late-night TV hosts. Once free from his contract, he initiated a years-long re-evaluation of the standard distribution model, experimenting with subscriptions, MP3 stores, albums packaged with newspapers and bundled with concert tickets. The records themselves were often uneven — to his unrealized chagrin, the major-label paradigm nurtures quality as much as it quashes it — but they always offered Princemusic, a heady blend of styles and passions that added to our conception of the man, even if they didn’t shore up the legacy. But when you’re the forever king, your legacy is already written. Not to say that he’s always reigned securely. Like Michael Jackson (a ruler of another galaxy, even if critics dreamed of a real rivalry), Prince worked to rule the charts without forsaking his black audience, which put him in a prolonged repulsion/attraction cycle with hip-hop before he matured into his current role as a funky elder statesman. Too smart to self-destruct, too restless to fully settle into a stylistic cul-de-sac, he’s now a living treasure, the greatest, weirdest gift ever sold."
STEREOGUM: Prince Albums From Worst To Best
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
the national anthem.
a moment of clarity.
for your consideration...
words.
"We’ve created a new economic aristocracy in the United States: CEOs.
...Any CEO of a major company is virtually guaranteed to become a multimillionaire. In the Equilar survey, the median holding of company stock was $83 million. CEO compensation has vastly outstripped average wage gains. In 1980, CEO compensation for the top 350 firms was roughly 30 times typical worker pay, estimates the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank. Now, that ratio is almost 300 to 1.
...What does society get from this lavish pay? It’s unclear how much, if at all, economic growth has improved. CEOs’ dependence on stocks might even have hurt the recovery if firms squeezed hiring and investment to maximize short-term profits and share prices. Rising executive compensation has fueled growing economic inequality. Executives and top managers represent nearly one-third of the richest 1 percent of Americans by income, reports a study by economists Jon Bakija, Adam Cole and Bradley Heim.
Let me be clear: I’m not against CEOs.
...Still, most CEOs are not so heroic or influential. Most seem overpaid by two common-sense tests: You could pay them less, and most would take the job anyway; and many — if fired tomorrow — couldn’t get work near their present pay..."
THE WASHINGTON POST: The CEO aristocracy: Big bucks for the big boss
for your consideration...
words.
"We’ve created a new economic aristocracy in the United States: CEOs.
...Any CEO of a major company is virtually guaranteed to become a multimillionaire. In the Equilar survey, the median holding of company stock was $83 million. CEO compensation has vastly outstripped average wage gains. In 1980, CEO compensation for the top 350 firms was roughly 30 times typical worker pay, estimates the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank. Now, that ratio is almost 300 to 1.
...What does society get from this lavish pay? It’s unclear how much, if at all, economic growth has improved. CEOs’ dependence on stocks might even have hurt the recovery if firms squeezed hiring and investment to maximize short-term profits and share prices. Rising executive compensation has fueled growing economic inequality. Executives and top managers represent nearly one-third of the richest 1 percent of Americans by income, reports a study by economists Jon Bakija, Adam Cole and Bradley Heim.
Let me be clear: I’m not against CEOs.
...Still, most CEOs are not so heroic or influential. Most seem overpaid by two common-sense tests: You could pay them less, and most would take the job anyway; and many — if fired tomorrow — couldn’t get work near their present pay..."
THE WASHINGTON POST: The CEO aristocracy: Big bucks for the big boss
Friday, June 20, 2014
Thursday, June 19, 2014
words.
"For some time now, Republicans in Congress have given up the pretense of doing anything to improve the lot of most Americans. Raising the minimum wage? They won’t even allow a vote to happen. Cleaner air for all? They may partially shut down the government in a coming fight on behalf of major polluters. Add to that the continuing obstruction of student loan relief efforts, and numerous attempts to defund health care, and you have a party actively working to make life miserable for millions.
So, our nation turns to Starbucks. And Walmart. In the present moment, both of those global corporate monoliths are poised to do more to affect the huge chasm between the rich and everybody else than anything that’s likely to come out of John Boehner’s House of Representatives.
...It’s a sad day when we have to look to corporations for education, health care and basic ways to boost the middle class. Most advanced nations do those things for their people. We used to — witness the G.I. Bill, which helped millions of returning soldiers get a lift to a better life. But you go to war against the income gap with the system you have, and ours is currently broken. By default, we have no choice but to lean on our corporate overlords.
...Sadly, this is the future. Congress could raise the minimum wage, make college more affordable, or even make it universally accessible for all qualified applicants. At the very least, it could reduce the student loan burden. These obvious remedies are anathema to Republicans."
THE NEW YORK TIMES: The Corporate Daddy: Walmart, Starbucks, and the Fight Against Inequality
So, our nation turns to Starbucks. And Walmart. In the present moment, both of those global corporate monoliths are poised to do more to affect the huge chasm between the rich and everybody else than anything that’s likely to come out of John Boehner’s House of Representatives.
...It’s a sad day when we have to look to corporations for education, health care and basic ways to boost the middle class. Most advanced nations do those things for their people. We used to — witness the G.I. Bill, which helped millions of returning soldiers get a lift to a better life. But you go to war against the income gap with the system you have, and ours is currently broken. By default, we have no choice but to lean on our corporate overlords.
...Sadly, this is the future. Congress could raise the minimum wage, make college more affordable, or even make it universally accessible for all qualified applicants. At the very least, it could reduce the student loan burden. These obvious remedies are anathema to Republicans."
THE NEW YORK TIMES: The Corporate Daddy: Walmart, Starbucks, and the Fight Against Inequality
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
secrets.
words.
for your consideration...
"Kanye West understands who he’s talking to at all times.
While his spirited and at times erratic speaking style is well known by now, Kanye is 100 percent in control of his narrative — and he tailors it to his congregation on any given day. Last year, clownish DJs got sneaker beef and excitement over his nuptials to Kim, while the New York Times got Steve Jobs talk. The rapper who shows at Fashion Week or did a couture makeover on his then-new reality star girlfriend still garners respect in the streets for his MC dominance. He cracks jokes about prematurely ejaculating on mink coats on the same album where he calls out racism with a “Strange Fruit” sample. Kanye can do both well, and this is why he has — and will continue to — slightly shift the cultural worldview with his agenda.
...Do I think Kanye West can save the world? Not quite. But his ability to translate his message to virtually any audience while coming off as “uncensored” means he may just end up with the most widely coveted luxury brand in the world — if he ever finds the time to launch it to the masses."
FLAVORWIRE: Kanye West’s Secret Weapon Is His Versatility
for your consideration...
"Kanye West understands who he’s talking to at all times.
While his spirited and at times erratic speaking style is well known by now, Kanye is 100 percent in control of his narrative — and he tailors it to his congregation on any given day. Last year, clownish DJs got sneaker beef and excitement over his nuptials to Kim, while the New York Times got Steve Jobs talk. The rapper who shows at Fashion Week or did a couture makeover on his then-new reality star girlfriend still garners respect in the streets for his MC dominance. He cracks jokes about prematurely ejaculating on mink coats on the same album where he calls out racism with a “Strange Fruit” sample. Kanye can do both well, and this is why he has — and will continue to — slightly shift the cultural worldview with his agenda.
...Do I think Kanye West can save the world? Not quite. But his ability to translate his message to virtually any audience while coming off as “uncensored” means he may just end up with the most widely coveted luxury brand in the world — if he ever finds the time to launch it to the masses."
FLAVORWIRE: Kanye West’s Secret Weapon Is His Versatility
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
whorl.
FILE UNDER: COMING ATTRACTIONS
PITCHFORK: Simian Mobile Disco Announce New Album Whorl, Recorded Live in Real Time
PITCHFORK: Simian Mobile Disco Announce New Album Whorl, Recorded Live in Real Time
Monday, June 16, 2014
Sunday, June 15, 2014
venus.
a moment of clarity.
words.
"Since the early 1980s, executives and financiers have consolidated control over dozens of industries across the U.S. economy. From cable companies and hospitals to airlines, grocery stores and meatpackers, where once many small and mid-size businesses competed, today we see a few giants dominate. They use their power to raise prices, drive down wages and foreclose opportunity. Wealth is transferred from consumers, workers and entrepreneurs to affluent executives and shareholders.
The ongoing debate in America over economic inequality — as seen, for instance, in the Occupy movement and the success of Thomas Piketty’s “Capital in the Twenty-First Century” — is a vital one. But it is incomplete. The challenge is not limited to the decline of organized labor, tax cuts for the well-off and the increased power of Wall Street. The lack of competition in many sectors of the U.S. economy is also a powerful driver of economic disparity.
...Many factors drive the inequality of wealth and income in America, but decreased competition matters because the concentration of economic power also concentrates political power, which in turn positions dominant companies to reshape economic policies in ways that further favor them. Many of the important policy decisions that have contributed to inequality in recent decades — including financial deregulation and lower corporate taxes — reflect the lobbying of oligopolistic corporations.
...We can restore a more fair and competitive economy. To do so, we must realize, first, that intense concentration across our markets contributes to inequality. Second, we must recognize that we have the right to use laws to neutralize the power of these corporate giants. Americans in the Gilded Age freed themselves from the clutches of Standard Oil and the railroads because they knew that markets and economic outcomes were theirs to shape. Today, by contrast, we frequently surrender this power by assuming that inequality is a result of impersonal forces — technology, globalization — to be tracked and studied by technocrats, rather than a condition we can change through popular will and political action.
...the relationship between uncompetitive markets and inequality is largely ignored. Let’s not forget that earlier generations overcame the concentrated wealth and power of the Gilded Age by restoring competitive markets, a pillar of economic and political democracy. We can do it again."
THE WASHINGTON POST: How America became uncompetitive and unequal
words.
"Since the early 1980s, executives and financiers have consolidated control over dozens of industries across the U.S. economy. From cable companies and hospitals to airlines, grocery stores and meatpackers, where once many small and mid-size businesses competed, today we see a few giants dominate. They use their power to raise prices, drive down wages and foreclose opportunity. Wealth is transferred from consumers, workers and entrepreneurs to affluent executives and shareholders.
The ongoing debate in America over economic inequality — as seen, for instance, in the Occupy movement and the success of Thomas Piketty’s “Capital in the Twenty-First Century” — is a vital one. But it is incomplete. The challenge is not limited to the decline of organized labor, tax cuts for the well-off and the increased power of Wall Street. The lack of competition in many sectors of the U.S. economy is also a powerful driver of economic disparity.
...Many factors drive the inequality of wealth and income in America, but decreased competition matters because the concentration of economic power also concentrates political power, which in turn positions dominant companies to reshape economic policies in ways that further favor them. Many of the important policy decisions that have contributed to inequality in recent decades — including financial deregulation and lower corporate taxes — reflect the lobbying of oligopolistic corporations.
...We can restore a more fair and competitive economy. To do so, we must realize, first, that intense concentration across our markets contributes to inequality. Second, we must recognize that we have the right to use laws to neutralize the power of these corporate giants. Americans in the Gilded Age freed themselves from the clutches of Standard Oil and the railroads because they knew that markets and economic outcomes were theirs to shape. Today, by contrast, we frequently surrender this power by assuming that inequality is a result of impersonal forces — technology, globalization — to be tracked and studied by technocrats, rather than a condition we can change through popular will and political action.
...the relationship between uncompetitive markets and inequality is largely ignored. Let’s not forget that earlier generations overcame the concentrated wealth and power of the Gilded Age by restoring competitive markets, a pillar of economic and political democracy. We can do it again."
THE WASHINGTON POST: How America became uncompetitive and unequal
Saturday, June 14, 2014
Friday, June 13, 2014
class.
an ongoing discussion/moment of clarirty.
words.
"The decision in Vergara v. California won’t do much to help poor kids and is a diversion from the real source of inequality identified in Brown itself: the segregation of our public schools.
Racial segregation continues to bedevil American society and is closely coupled with rising income segregation. Concentrations of poverty have much more to do with why poor and minority students often end up with the worst teachers than do tenure laws. If the plaintiffs were genuinely concerned about connecting great teachers with poor and minority kids, they would go after that problem, not the due process rights of teachers.
...Reforming (or gutting) tenure laws might make it easier to weed out bad teachers, but it does nothing to address the underlying ability of segregated schools to attract and retain strong teachers. As a result, even if tenure reform is successful, there is little reason to think new teachers hired in high-poverty schools will be much better.
...Rather than gutting hard-won protections for teachers, the next legal case should go after economic segregation itself. Instead of invoking Brown in a broad metaphorical sense, why not bring a state-level suit against actual segregation by class and race? If it is a violation of the California state constitution to have tenure laws that make it hard to fire bad teachers in poor and minority communities, why isn’t it a violation when the state and districts draw school boundary lines in a way that promotes deeply unequal, economically segregated schools that many strong educators won’t teach in?
... Careful research comparing students who applied for a lottery to attend the integrated magnet schools found that those admitted later performed better on math and reading than those who lost the lottery and attended other urban schools. California needs a similar lawsuit. Such a case would underline a profound truth: The big problem in education is not that unions have won too many benefits and supports for teachers. It’s the disappearance of the American common school, which once educated rich and poor side by side."
SLATE: Tenure Is Not the Problem: Teacher protections are not why poor schools are failing. Segregation is.
words.
"The decision in Vergara v. California won’t do much to help poor kids and is a diversion from the real source of inequality identified in Brown itself: the segregation of our public schools.
Racial segregation continues to bedevil American society and is closely coupled with rising income segregation. Concentrations of poverty have much more to do with why poor and minority students often end up with the worst teachers than do tenure laws. If the plaintiffs were genuinely concerned about connecting great teachers with poor and minority kids, they would go after that problem, not the due process rights of teachers.
...Reforming (or gutting) tenure laws might make it easier to weed out bad teachers, but it does nothing to address the underlying ability of segregated schools to attract and retain strong teachers. As a result, even if tenure reform is successful, there is little reason to think new teachers hired in high-poverty schools will be much better.
...Rather than gutting hard-won protections for teachers, the next legal case should go after economic segregation itself. Instead of invoking Brown in a broad metaphorical sense, why not bring a state-level suit against actual segregation by class and race? If it is a violation of the California state constitution to have tenure laws that make it hard to fire bad teachers in poor and minority communities, why isn’t it a violation when the state and districts draw school boundary lines in a way that promotes deeply unequal, economically segregated schools that many strong educators won’t teach in?
... Careful research comparing students who applied for a lottery to attend the integrated magnet schools found that those admitted later performed better on math and reading than those who lost the lottery and attended other urban schools. California needs a similar lawsuit. Such a case would underline a profound truth: The big problem in education is not that unions have won too many benefits and supports for teachers. It’s the disappearance of the American common school, which once educated rich and poor side by side."
SLATE: Tenure Is Not the Problem: Teacher protections are not why poor schools are failing. Segregation is.
Thursday, June 12, 2014
a moment of clarity.
words.
for your consideration...
"When the Americans invaded, in March, 2003, they destroyed the Iraqi state—its military, its bureaucracy, its police force, and most everything else that might hold a country together. They spent the next nine years trying to build a state to replace the one they crushed. By 2011, by any reasonable measure, the Americans had made a lot of headway but were not finished with the job. For many months, the Obama and Maliki governments talked about keeping a residual force of American troops in Iraq, who would act largely to train Iraq’s Army and to provide intelligence against Sunni insurgents. (They would almost certainly have been barred from fighting.) Those were important reasons to stay, but the most important went largely unstated: it was to continue to act as a restraint on Maliki’s sectarian impulses, at least until the Iraqi political system was strong enough to contain him on its own. The negotiations between Obama and Maliki fell apart, in no small measure because of a lack of engagement by the White House. Today, many Iraqis, including some close to Maliki, say that a small force of American soldiers—working in non-combat roles—would have provided a crucial stabilizing factor that is now missing from Iraq. Sami al-Askari, a Maliki confidant, told me for my article this spring, “If you had a few hundred here, not even a few thousand, they would be coöperating with you, and they would become your partners.” President Obama wanted the Americans to come home, and Maliki didn’t particularly want them to stay.
The trouble is, as the events of this week show, what the Americans left behind was an Iraqi state that was not able to stand on its own. What we built is now coming apart. This is the real legacy of America’s war in Iraq."
THE NEW YORKER: In Extremists’ Iraq Rise, America’s Legacy
for your consideration...
"When the Americans invaded, in March, 2003, they destroyed the Iraqi state—its military, its bureaucracy, its police force, and most everything else that might hold a country together. They spent the next nine years trying to build a state to replace the one they crushed. By 2011, by any reasonable measure, the Americans had made a lot of headway but were not finished with the job. For many months, the Obama and Maliki governments talked about keeping a residual force of American troops in Iraq, who would act largely to train Iraq’s Army and to provide intelligence against Sunni insurgents. (They would almost certainly have been barred from fighting.) Those were important reasons to stay, but the most important went largely unstated: it was to continue to act as a restraint on Maliki’s sectarian impulses, at least until the Iraqi political system was strong enough to contain him on its own. The negotiations between Obama and Maliki fell apart, in no small measure because of a lack of engagement by the White House. Today, many Iraqis, including some close to Maliki, say that a small force of American soldiers—working in non-combat roles—would have provided a crucial stabilizing factor that is now missing from Iraq. Sami al-Askari, a Maliki confidant, told me for my article this spring, “If you had a few hundred here, not even a few thousand, they would be coöperating with you, and they would become your partners.” President Obama wanted the Americans to come home, and Maliki didn’t particularly want them to stay.
The trouble is, as the events of this week show, what the Americans left behind was an Iraqi state that was not able to stand on its own. What we built is now coming apart. This is the real legacy of America’s war in Iraq."
THE NEW YORKER: In Extremists’ Iraq Rise, America’s Legacy
Wednesday, June 11, 2014
somewhere in america.
an ongoing discussion.
words.
SLATE: Are Bulletproof Blankets To Shield School Kids Really the Answer?
words.
SLATE: Are Bulletproof Blankets To Shield School Kids Really the Answer?
a moment of clarity.
words.
"A vocal group of conservatives — representing a slim minority of the country and previously encouraged by people like Cantor — will not be happy until they have a full flowering of their revolution. The GOP seemed to be coming to grips with the danger that attitude poses — not just to the Republicans’ national popularity, but also to the country that the party is supposed to be co-governing. That counterrevolution, however, suffered a devastating setback on Tuesday.
For anyone who cares about immigration reform, cutting greenhouse gas emissions, adequately funding the government or a variety of much less contentious things that a faction of conservatives dislikes, this is not good news. The country needs a functional Republican Party, responsive to broad swaths of the nation and with leaders confident enough to cooperate with Democrats, to help face its problems — or, at least, to keep the lights on. Instead, the pressure Republicans will feel to choose ideological fuming over legislative achievement, on issues large and small, will now be even greater."
THE WASHINGTON POST: Eric Cantor’s defeat hurts the country
"A vocal group of conservatives — representing a slim minority of the country and previously encouraged by people like Cantor — will not be happy until they have a full flowering of their revolution. The GOP seemed to be coming to grips with the danger that attitude poses — not just to the Republicans’ national popularity, but also to the country that the party is supposed to be co-governing. That counterrevolution, however, suffered a devastating setback on Tuesday.
For anyone who cares about immigration reform, cutting greenhouse gas emissions, adequately funding the government or a variety of much less contentious things that a faction of conservatives dislikes, this is not good news. The country needs a functional Republican Party, responsive to broad swaths of the nation and with leaders confident enough to cooperate with Democrats, to help face its problems — or, at least, to keep the lights on. Instead, the pressure Republicans will feel to choose ideological fuming over legislative achievement, on issues large and small, will now be even greater."
THE WASHINGTON POST: Eric Cantor’s defeat hurts the country
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
Monday, June 09, 2014
Saturday, June 07, 2014
beautiful.
We talk a lot about the importance & symbolism of having Barack in office & yes, we should, but Michelle's presence is just as uplifting too. Maya Angelou's death and life and the feelings it/she generated has reminded me that our Black women have been and are often phenomenal. Many thanks a thousand times over to the single mothers/mothers, grandmothers who raised countless generations of kids, and the educators.
Black women/ladies/sisters/friends, we salute you & thank you. I wouldn't have the resources to be typing this right now with out you.
Thank you.
rachelsklar: Here is a transcript of Michelle Obama’s amazing speech at Maya Angelou’s memorial service
EARLIER:
american beauty.
maya.
all my lovers.
a video.
starring starchild.
THE FADER: Watch the Video for “All My Lovers” by Solange’s Teenage Guitarist, Starchild
starring starchild.
THE FADER: Watch the Video for “All My Lovers” by Solange’s Teenage Guitarist, Starchild
Friday, June 06, 2014
i just bought a bugatti (i'm happy).
a video.
from young nigga (aka tyler, the creator).
PITCHFORK: Tyler, the Creator Makes Fun of Rap Videos With "I Just Bought a Bugatti (I'm Happy)" Featuring IceJJFish
from young nigga (aka tyler, the creator).
PITCHFORK: Tyler, the Creator Makes Fun of Rap Videos With "I Just Bought a Bugatti (I'm Happy)" Featuring IceJJFish
a moment of clarity.
words.
"Notwithstanding Freeman, there’s no understanding income inequality—or the disparities in criminal justice, education, health care, and unemployment—without a firm grasp of race, or rather, the economic consequences of past and current racism.
... as we craft policy to ameliorate these problems, we should keep his point in mind. If the goal is success, then the fight against inequality—and more broadly, the fight for opportunity—has to consider race. There’s no other choice—despite what some actors will tell you."
SLATE: What Morgan Freeman Doesn’t Understand About Race
"Notwithstanding Freeman, there’s no understanding income inequality—or the disparities in criminal justice, education, health care, and unemployment—without a firm grasp of race, or rather, the economic consequences of past and current racism.
... as we craft policy to ameliorate these problems, we should keep his point in mind. If the goal is success, then the fight against inequality—and more broadly, the fight for opportunity—has to consider race. There’s no other choice—despite what some actors will tell you."
SLATE: What Morgan Freeman Doesn’t Understand About Race
Thursday, June 05, 2014
Wednesday, June 04, 2014
Tuesday, June 03, 2014
a moment of clarity.
words.
for your consideration...
"The question we might also ask is not whether an individual should be punished for an act of violence, but where this violence is coming from and how we might prevent it. Often, when older people in the neighborhood talked about the troubling levels of violence, they blamed bad parenting, absent fathers, or a lack of moral fortitude in the younger generation. Maybe all this is true, but from what I observed, the roots of crime and violence were also found in economic hardship and in particular a profound dislocation from the legal labor market.
...The deep employment problems of African-American young men cannot be solved through police work or prison sentences. They predate the war on crime and may well survive it. But if we want young men like Chuck and Mike to end their reliance on an underground, illegal trade for income and employment, we must address the chronic joblessness that they face. As long as the drug trade continues to sustain a large portion of poor African-American communities, we will see a level of violence there that no resident or outside observer feels is acceptable.
Policy analysts sometimes look at a neighborhood like this one and conclude that the main problem is one of police legitimacy. This sanitizes the intense conflict going on between the police and the residents of poor minority communities. In these neighborhoods, the problem is not that the police lack legitimacy; the problem is that residents who are already struggling with acute poverty, joblessness and drug addiction are living under daily threat of arrest.
...Whatever our opinion about Mike or Chuck’s guilt or innocence, we might agree that a criminal justice system that arrests an 11-year-old boy for sitting in the passenger seat of a stolen car or makes a 14-year-old boy scared to seek medical treatment for a severe injury is not working for the public good. Perhaps we might also agree that requiring young men to avoid their mother’s houses, their workplaces and their friends’ funerals in order to stay out of jail is also misguided.
...People on both sides of the aisle and on both sides of the courtroom now acknowledge that the criminal justice system needs a major overhaul. After four decades of zero tolerance and getting tough on crime, we seem poised for change. Can we seize the moment?"
THE NEW YORK TIMES: This Fugitive Life
for your consideration...
"The question we might also ask is not whether an individual should be punished for an act of violence, but where this violence is coming from and how we might prevent it. Often, when older people in the neighborhood talked about the troubling levels of violence, they blamed bad parenting, absent fathers, or a lack of moral fortitude in the younger generation. Maybe all this is true, but from what I observed, the roots of crime and violence were also found in economic hardship and in particular a profound dislocation from the legal labor market.
...The deep employment problems of African-American young men cannot be solved through police work or prison sentences. They predate the war on crime and may well survive it. But if we want young men like Chuck and Mike to end their reliance on an underground, illegal trade for income and employment, we must address the chronic joblessness that they face. As long as the drug trade continues to sustain a large portion of poor African-American communities, we will see a level of violence there that no resident or outside observer feels is acceptable.
Policy analysts sometimes look at a neighborhood like this one and conclude that the main problem is one of police legitimacy. This sanitizes the intense conflict going on between the police and the residents of poor minority communities. In these neighborhoods, the problem is not that the police lack legitimacy; the problem is that residents who are already struggling with acute poverty, joblessness and drug addiction are living under daily threat of arrest.
...Whatever our opinion about Mike or Chuck’s guilt or innocence, we might agree that a criminal justice system that arrests an 11-year-old boy for sitting in the passenger seat of a stolen car or makes a 14-year-old boy scared to seek medical treatment for a severe injury is not working for the public good. Perhaps we might also agree that requiring young men to avoid their mother’s houses, their workplaces and their friends’ funerals in order to stay out of jail is also misguided.
...People on both sides of the aisle and on both sides of the courtroom now acknowledge that the criminal justice system needs a major overhaul. After four decades of zero tolerance and getting tough on crime, we seem poised for change. Can we seize the moment?"
THE NEW YORK TIMES: This Fugitive Life
Monday, June 02, 2014
Sunday, June 01, 2014
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