Categories
Politics

New Report: Corporate Welfare Turns Rich People into Lazy Moochers

Contrary to conventional wisdom, tax breaks and corporate welfare structures turn the ultra-rich into lazy moochers, and not motivated corporate citizens.

By monitoring the daily lives of CEOs heading America’s largest tax dodgers, the Society for Motivated Americans (SMA) was able to conclude that extreme corporate welfare benefits make the super-rich lazy and complacent.

“Most of them spend an inordinate amount of time hobnobbing in lavish resorts and playing Candy Crush on corporate jets,” said Jeff Zebo of SMA.

Zebo provided Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan as a prime example. BOA is the nation’s leading tax dodger, having paid zero taxes in 2010 – a $1.9 billion tax break – after receiving more than a trillion dollars in bailout money. “Has this made Moynihan motivated?” asked Zebo. “No – the man can barely pay attention on the job. And he sleeps all the time – employees sometimes stumble into his office and find him face down on the desk mumbling about things like milk shakes and Aruba.”

Zebo cited Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein as another prime example. Goldman Sachs is the second-largest recipient of corporate welfare, paying zero in taxes in 2010 despite profits of $2.3 billion. “He sits around his mansion most days eating chips, drinking Belgian beer and taking conference calls in a bathrobe while secretly playing Call of Duty,” said Zebo. “And when he’s forced to leave his house, it’s clear he just wants back on his couch.”

According to the SMA study, such examples are rampant in the corporate community, blowing apart the long-held notion (among the super-rich and Republicans) that tax breaks make the one percent motivated to further produce.

Categories
BLM Politics Racism racist

Clarence Thomas Laments – “Liberals” Were Mean To Me, Not Southern Racists

When you’re a Supreme Court Justice, racism is not something you generally deal with and it is usually not directed to you. So when Justice Clarence Thomas spoke to a group on Tuesday, telling them that racism is more prevalent now than when he was a youngster growing up in a segregated south, you have to not only consider the message, but also the messenger.

The message, that an atmosphere where the KKK ruled, where blacks were never considered equal but subservient to whites, an atmosphere where regular lynchings, bombings, beatings and killings of men, women and children took place because of race, and where a justice and political system neglected to serve these people because of their skin color; to say that atmosphere was preferable to Justice Clarence is in itself bogus and utterly unbelievable.

Here is some of the nonsense the Supreme Court Justice said at the event in Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach Florida.

“My sadness is that we are probably today more race and difference-conscious than I was in the 1960s when I went to school. To my knowledge, I was the first black kid in Savannah, Georgia, to go to a white school. Rarely did the issue of race come up. Now, name a day it doesn’t come up. Differences in race, differences in sex, somebody doesn’t look at you right, somebody says something. Everybody is sensitive. If I had been as sensitive as that in the 1960s, I’d still be in Savannah. Every person in this room has endured a slight. Every person. Somebody has said something that has hurt their feelings or did something to them — left them out.

That’s a part of the deal.

But this is how and where you can tell that Clarence Thomas is full of sh… the waste matter that discharge from the body. The conservative Republican activist Supreme Court Judge blamed, get this, Liberals for today’s “race and difference” conscienceness, even saying that northern liberals treated his “the absolute worst” he’s ever been treated! Ever!

“The worst I have been treated was by northern liberal elites. The absolute worst I have ever been treated. The worst things that have been done to me, the worst things that have been said about me, by northern liberal elites, not by the people of Savannah, Georgia.”

Consider yourself lucky Mr. Thomas. You survived the apparent love, friendship and caring you received from a hateful segregated south that obviously saw your true potentials and decided to protect and nurture you. But there were many more who suffered, many more who hung from trees, were beaten, were forced to sit at the back of buses and thrown in jails if they even thought about sitting up front. There were many more, some who went to church as little girls and never saw the light of day again because those loving folks who were so great to you, bombed the building.

Many sacrifice their lives in those dark days Mr. Thomas. Days that you apparently thought were filled with peaches and creme. And maybe you should instead thank them for their sacrifice. Chances are, those sacrifices paved the road you traveled, a road that led you all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States.

Categories
Michael Jordan Sports

Michael Jordan’s Wife Gives Birth to Twins

(AP) — Michael Jordan’s wife Yvette has given birth to the couple’s identical twin daughters, Jordan’s spokeswoman Estee Portnoy told The Associated Press.

Portnoy said Tuesday that Yvette Jordan, 35, gave birth to Victoria and Ysabel on Sunday in West Palm Beach, Florida.

“Yvette Jordan and the babies are doing well and the family is overjoyed at their arrival,” Portnoy said.

Jordan, widely regarded as the greatest basketball player of all time, is now the owner of the NBA’s Charlotte Bobcats, who are currently the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference and have a chance to make the playoffs for the first time since he took over as majority owner in 2010.

Jordan, who turns 51 next Monday, married former model Yvette Prieto on April 27 of last year in Palm Beach, Florida The reception took place at a private golf club in Jupiter, Florida, designed by Jack Nicklaus. Jordan owns a home near the course.

The couple met six years ago.

Jordan has three children — two sons, Jeffrey Michael and Marcus James, and a daughter, Jasmine — with former wife Juanita Vanoy. They divorced in 2006.

Jordan won six NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls and was a 14-time All-Star and five-time league MVP.

Categories
Television

What Did Jon Stewart Say About Michael Sam’s Coming Out? – Video

A couple of days ago, college football star Michael Sam pronounced to the world that he was gay. Before Sam came out, his NFL prospects were extremely high, but since telling his ‘secret,’ people have already began forming their opinions on the player based on his sexual lifestyle.

So I ask…

What? You formed an opinion about Michael Sam without first hearing what Jon Stewart had to say?

How dare You!?!

Video

Categories
Beauty

This Woman Legally Changed Her Name to ‘Sexy’

Sexy Ranea Crabtree with her husband James Crabtree

She changed her name to reflect her personality… sexy… okay…

NEWARK, Ohio — A central Ohio woman who loathed being named Sheila and wanted a moniker that reflected her personality has legally changed her first name to Sexy.

A judge approved the request Tuesday from the 41-year-old Pataskala woman, formerly named Sheila Ranea Crabtree.

In her application, Crabtree called her given name “the ugliest one out there.” She says that if the court didn’t allow the switch to Sexy, she’d try to become known legally by her middle name, which she has used for years.

The Columbus Dispatch reports that Crabtree told a judge that her husband and teenage daughters approve of the change. When the judge asked why she chose Sexy, Crabtree said she’s fun and free-spirited and thought the change would make her complete.

Categories
Elizabeth Warren Politics

MSNBC’s Krystal Ball Gives Republicans More Artillery Against Hillary Clinton – Video

Since MSNBC quickly apologized to RRRReince Priebus and the Republicans for a… tweet, it seems that the folks at MSNBC have bent over backwards to please the GOP. I know getting Republicans on their station is considered necessary for the political station, but come on! This azz kissing is getting rediculous!

On today’s “The Cycle” show, Krystal Ball did Republicans a favor by pointing out some other areas of Hillary Clinton’s life where Republicans could attack when they’re ready. Yes, Hillary Clinton has been around a long time and there are many things about her Republicans can attack. But because they’re incapable of doing basic research, the only thing they’ve come up with so far is that Bill Clinton did something with Monica Lewinsky. So today on the MSNBC show, co-host Krystal Ball laid out a few more points of attack I’m sure Republicans will gladly consider.

Share your thoughts Krystal…

It is clear now that we have two economies: one for a thin slice of educated elite and one for everyone else. That is the moment we are in now. So I ask you, does Hillary Clinton sound to you like the right person for this moment?

In a time when corporations have hijacked our politics enabling them to reap all the profit without feeling any compunction to do right by their workers, is someone who sat on the rabidly anti-union board of Walmart for six years the right person to restore worker’s rights?

In a time when we are still reeling from a global financial disaster brought on by foolhardy bank deregulation, is someone who recently took $400,000 to give two speeches at Goldman Sachs the person we need to wrest control of the asylum back from the banking inmates?

Keep in mind that at those paid speeches, Clinton wasn’t giving tough love to these masters of the universe. On the contrary, she said that “the banker-bashing…was unproductive and indeed foolish.” Of course, it was her husband, former President Bill Clinton, who did much of the deregulating that got us into trouble including ending the Glass-Steagall prohibitions on mixing traditional banking with speculative investment banking.

More to the point though, in a time when we badly need to be inspired, rallied, and made to believe that America can once again be true to the American dream, we desperately need someone who is mission driven. We need someone who is clearly passionate, who is living and breathing and feeling in their bones the plight of the worker and the middle class, and who is unafraid to stand up to the Wall Street titans. That person is not Hillary Clinton. It is Elizabeth Warren.

Okay, so I like Elizabeth Warren too and I would vote for her if she decides to run for president. But so far, Mrs Warren has said that she has no intention of running. So what is Krystal and MSNBC doing here? They’re providing a loaded gun to the enemy and  any day now, Republicans will start shooting.

Categories
Featured Videos

They Broke Up Using Movie Titles Alone – Must See Video

Could possibly be the most genius YouTube video I’ve ever seen. And I can almost guarantee you that you’d feel the same way.

Watch as these two break up using nothing more than movie titles.

Categories
Politics

The Smart Ones Are Leaving – Another GOP Congresswoman Leaves The The Republican Party

Ana Rivas Logan

A former Republican congresswoman in Florida has left the GOP and joined the Democrats, citing her former party’s increasing attacks on women and other minorities. Ana Rivas Logan said: “The GOP of today is not the party I joined. It’s not the party of my parents. It’s a party that has been radicalized and held hostage by a group of extremists.”

After joining the Democrats, Ana Rivas Logan tweeted

She then sent this other tweet, a picture showing just how disgusted she is with the Republicans;

 

Charlie Crist welcomed Rivas Logan to the party with a tweet reading:

 

Rivas Logan explained that she felt she could not, in good conscience, continue carrying the flag for the Republican Party as both a woman and an Hispanic-American. She dismissed the modern Republican Party as nothing more than:

“a party that attacks women and minorities — and one that asked me, and my former Hispanic Republican colleagues in the Florida legislature, to turn on their own people by supporting extreme anti-immigrant policies.”

h/t AATTP

Categories
Celebrities Entertainment Television Videos

Samuel L. Jackson Eviscerates Reporter Who Mistakes Him For Laurence Fishburne: Video

Sam Rubin won’t be picking a fight with Nick Fury anytime soon. The seasoned entertainment reporter for KTLA caused actor Samuel L. Jackson to fly into a rage on Monday, Feb. 10 when he confused him with Matrix star Laurence Fishburne.

“Working for Marvel, the Super Bowl commercial, did you get a lot of reaction to that Super Bowl commercial?” Rubin asked Jackson.

“What Super Bowl commercial?” Jackson replied.

After a moment of awkward silence, Rubin realized his mistake before Jackson erupted, “See, you’re as crazy as the people on Twitter. I’m not Laurence Fishburne! We don’t all look alike! We may be all black and famous, but we don’t look alike.”

Fishburne appeared in a buzzed-about Kia ad where he reprised his iconic role as Morpheus from The Matrix. And Jackson was immediately upset by the mix up.

 

Samuel L. Jackson (left) became enraged when a reporter confused him with Matrix actor Laurence Fishburne.
Credit: John Lamparski/WireImage; Charles Norfleet/Getty Images

 

“You’re the entertainment reporter?! And you don’t know the difference between me and Laurence Fishburne? There must be a very short line for your job,” he continued as Rubin attempted to turn the conversation back to Jackson’s RoboCop remake. “I’m the ‘What’s in your wallet’ black guy. And I’ve actually never done a McDonalds or a Kentucky Fried Chicken commercial. I know that’s surprising.”

PHOTOS: Stars at the Super Bowl

Rubin tried to laugh off what he called the “well-deserved spanking,” but later acknowledged, “That is a tape now that I believe is going to have a life all of its own.”

The longtime reporter issued an official apology via KTLA, but it’s unclear as to whether Rubin is actually owning up to his faux pas.

“I indicated to Samuel that I’d seen him during the Super Bowl, and he thought that I had confused him with the commercial Laurence Fishburne had done for a car company,” Rubin said. “Of course a Captain America ad had also run during the Super Bowl, but I immediately felt so dumb, I didn’t bring that up — and he gave me the shellacking that was well deserved.”

 

Read more: http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/samuel-l-jackson-reporter-mistakes-him-laurence-fishburne-video-2014102#ixzz2t3KzJmsO
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Categories
Gun Control

#GunsUp – Man Accidentally Kills Himself While Putting his Gun in Truck

A Utah man has died after accidentally shooting himself while loading his truck, Salt Lake City TV station KSL reported Tuesday.

Rowland Denison, 50, shot himself with a rifle he was loading into his truck on Monday morning. He was conscious and talking when police arrived at the scene, according to KSL.

Weather conditions had prevented Denison from being flown to Provo, Utah for surgery. He underwent surgery in a local hospital and was later flown to Provo, where he died around noon, according to Spanish Fork Police Lt. Matt Johnson.

Categories
Politics

Karl Rove to Rand Paul – Beating up on Bill Clinton Not Good For 2016

When you’re looking for a sensible Repunlican to speak the truth to their brain dead masses, Karl Rove is usually not the man.

As a matter of fact, when it comes to speaking the truth, it is hard to find anyone in the Republican Party to carry that banner. So when someone from that party step to the plate and make a sensible statement, well, there will be a lot of snow in the northeast.

Guess what? There is a lot of snow in the northeast and Karl Rove said something that actually made sense.

In a recent interview on Fox News, Rove was asked to comment on Rand Paul and his constant bludgeoning of a 20 year old story involving Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. Rove’s response amounted to the most sensible thing I’ve heard from a Republican in a very long time.

“I’m not sure he [Rand Paul] has a strategy,” Rove said. He then went on to explain that each candidate running for president in 2016 must focus on the “bigger picture” instead of personal issues and he concluded that Rand Paul’s focus on Bill Clinton’s past is not in the best interest of the nation.

Watch

Categories
Politics Republican

Republicans To Offer Clean Debt Ceiling Hike Without Taking Hostages

Guess what? The midterms are coming.

Washington (AFP) – House Republicans said Tuesday they will introduce a measure this week to extend US borrowing authority with no conditions attached, marking a clear victory for President Barack Obama.

House Speaker John Boehner said he will now seek to pass a clean debt ceiling hike with help from most Democrats in the chamber, admitting it was “disappointing” that the party leadership did not have the votes to pass the measure with an attached provision reworking military pension benefits.

“This is a lost opportunity,” Boehner told reporters after a closed-door meeting with his caucus.

“We could have sat down and worked together in a bipartisan manner to find cuts and reforms that are greater than the increase in the debt limit.”

US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew warned last week that the country would exhaust its borrowing authority by February 7, and that it could use extraordinary measures only until February 27 before the debt ceiling would need to rise or government would risk not being able to pay all its bills.

The White House has insisted for weeks that raising the debt ceiling was non-negotiable, and it did not want to see policy riders attached to the measure.

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