OPEN THREAD WEDNESDAY.

 It's open thread Wednesday field hands, and I need your thoughts about a few things.

Has the president of the United States completely gone into dictator mode with his threat to shut down NBC?

Should we talk about Harvey Weinstein without talking about Donald trump?

Is Jerry Jones really a slave owner? 

Finally, should we be afraid that Donald trump wants more nukes?

Legitimizing racism and the end of journalism.

Welcome back Pat Buchanan;  the poster boy for your racist xenophobic American.

And shame on Chuck Todd and NBC for bringing him back. This is just what we need in this current political climate; more ignorant and unenlightened thoughts from Richard Nixon's former inside man.

This is what John Amato, writing for Crooks And Liars, had to say about the aforementioned Mr. Buchanan:

"Buchanan has repeatedly defended Adolf Hitler and once labeled him "an individual of great courage." He claimed "in a way, both sides were right" during the Civil War. He declined to disavow the idea that minorities have inferior genes. He defended a school's ban on interracial dating. He opined that "this has been a country built, basically, by white folks" and falsely claimed only "white males" died at Gettysburg and Normandy. He once claimed "conservatives are the niggers of the Nixon administration" and urged President Nixon not to visit Martin Luther King Jr.'s widow because King was "one of the most divisive men in contemporary history."

Wow!

Anyway, speaking of Adolf Hitler, it seems that yet another right- wing politician thought that it was cool to  refer to a time in our history when Adolf Hitler was committing atrocities in Europe, while talking about the policies of the president of the United States.

"Hyperbolic analogies to Nazis or the Holocaust are hardly a new feature of American political rhetoric, but Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee got weirdly specific about concentration-camp crematoriums yesterday when denouncing the Obama Administration's nuclear deal with Iran. In a Breitbart interview, Huckabee declared, "This president’s foreign policy is the most feckless in American history. It is so naive that he would trust the Iranians. By doing so, he will take the Israelis and march them to the door of the oven."' [Source]

What is it with these guys and their love affair with all things Nazi?

And Huckabee in particular seems to be enamored with the whole Nazi thing.

He does it, for instance,  here, and here, and here.

Anyway, I know that Mike Huckabee is a "religious" man, so I am going to give him a quote from a book that I know he reads:   "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he".

Pic from Wikipedia

Bolt again, Serena's celebration offends, and another gun related tragedy in America.

Before I start this post I would like to say congrats and big up to my yawdie fam for going one two in the men's 100 meter final in London. Once again a major fail on NBC's part. (This is getting old.)They chose to show us horses and beach volleyball instead of live coverage of the race which is a joke. Yeah I get the whole prime time stuff, but this is Sunday damn it!

And before I leave London I would also like to comment on another fake controversy created by certain people who want to diminish the accomplishments of a truly great American athlete.

Yes, Serena Williams did the crip walk, (Heaven help us, now white folks have something else from black popular culture to obsess over.) get over it, it's a dance. The girl is from Compton, California for crying out loud!

"This was also the extraordinary American tennis star losing control for a moment and Crip-Walking at Wimbledon. Blinded by her joy, she walked all over her crowning moment.

On the podium, the gold medal dangling from her neck as America’s national anthem played, the winds of Wimbledon struck down the American flag from its awning. The crowd gasped. Serena’s eyes got big, and she giggled. The flag fluttered to the ground and was balled up by an Olympic official. Later, Serena joked that the flag was just trying to fly toward her: “It was probably flying to come hug me because the flag was so happy.”
Maybe.

Or maybe it was the Royal Gods of Wimbledon, giving Queen Serena a proper British slap on the wrist for her moment of innocent, though unfortunate, American celebration."

Give me a break! She is a tennis player! The republic will survive. I dare say that we have more serious stuff going on in these divided states of America than a damn tennis player dancing for her sister and sharing a moment from their childhood.   

Finally, speaking of serious things going on in America, I would like to acknowledge the horrific shooting that took place in Wisconsin today in that Sikh temple. (I see you Wayne LaPierre)

I am going to reserve saying what I am thinking until more facts come out, but right now it is being called an act of "domestic terrorism."

I will say this, -because I try to educate on this blog- Sikhs are not Muslims. They are members of a totally different religious sect. They are often Indians and not Middle Eastern, they do not worship Islam, and they are disciples of Guru and not Muhammad.

Sikhs have been targeted for harassment ever since 911 in this country, because most of the people who do such things aren't smart enough to figure out the difference between the two.

But anyway, here we go again, I will probably have more to say about this tomorrow. Probably.

       
   

Mitt's new spokesperson?

Flipper used a devastating television spot against Newt to land a knockout punch in Florida. The commercial featured a clip of Tom Brokaw talking about Newt being censored and fined by the house for ethics violations.

It was obviously an effective spot, but NBC was not pleased.

"WASHINGTON (AP) — NBC asked GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Saturday to pull a campaign advertisement made up almost entirely of a 1997 "Nightly News" report on Newt Gingrich's ethics committee reprimand.

The "History Lesson" ad started running in Florida on the weekend, when it is harder for stations to switch ad traffic even if they want to. Broadcast days before Tuesday's primary, the ad shows former NBC anchor Tom Brokaw saying that some of Gingrich's House colleagues had raised questions about the then-speaker's "future effectiveness."

Under Brokaw's image is a line that reads — "Paid for by Romney for President, Approved by Mitt Romney."

The footage was used without permission and the extensive use of the broadcast "inaccurately suggests that NBC News and Mr. Brokaw have consented to the use of this material and agree with the political position espoused by the videos," NBC's vice president of media law, David N. Sternlicht, wrote Romney's campaign manager, Matt Rhoades.

"Aside from the obvious copyright issues, this use of the voice of Mr. Brokaw and the NBC News name exploits him and the journalistic credibility of NBC News," the letter said. The network asked for the campaign to stop running the ad immediately and revise any other videos or commercials to remove at NBC material.

"As a news organization, NBC News objects to any use of NBC News journalists and our copyrighted material that suggests to the public that we or our journalists are taking sides with any individual or organization involved in a political campaign or dispute, and we request that your organization respect that concern," the letter said.

Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom said the campaign isn't likely to stop running the ad."

Man that Flipper dude is no joke. It's going to be scary when the general election rolls around. All this Super PAC money flying around out here well make this very ugly.

"We just received the letter. We are reviewing it, but we believe it falls within fair use," he said. "We didn't take the entire broadcast; we just took the first 30 seconds....Brokaw said in a statement released by NBC that he was "extremely uncomfortable with the extended use of my personal image in this political ad. I do not want my role as a journalist compromised for political gain by any campaign."

I wonder why Flipper didn't use a FOX NEWS clip? I am quite sure that they would have had no problem with his campaign using it.

Finally, I have to rip Yahoo News for the following headline and story:

"Mom Allegedly Drags Son by Car for Missing School Bus"

Ok, so that's the headline. Now check out the actual story:

"ABC News' Katti Gray reports:

A Woods Cross, Utah, woman was arrested for allegedly forcing her 9-year-old son to walk alongside her car as she pulled him along by his belt and steered him toward school after he'd missed the school bus.

Police said the boy could have been hit by traffic driving in the opposite direction on the two-lane road and have turned the case over to the Davis County District Attorney's office, which will decide whether to charge the mother with child endangerment.

"She was going at a slow enough speed that the child was able to keep pace with the vehicle," Woods Cross Police Chief Greg Butler said. A neighbor phoned his department about what the mother was doing.

Her name is not being released because she has not been charged, and the child - who is not deemed to be in imminent danger - remains in his mother's care, Butler said." [Story]

"Walk alongside the car", not "drags." Big difference.

And please save your nasty e-mails. I know it's not cool to walk your kids outside of a moving car, but I had a totally different image in my head when I first read the headline.

Besides, I see you white folks with your children on leashes all the time, so what's the big deal?