It was -4 C (25 F) this morning when I awoke, and is only just freezing as I write. There was definitely frost on the rooves but no birds tobogganing on my slippery garage roof. Being this cold at my level, there certainly will have been more snow on the mountains above me. I am teaching this afternoon so will be out until at least 5 pm. Have a great day everyone!
Puzzle — Today’s took me 3:52 (average 6:42). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes
Alternet — Paradoxically, at a time when the stakes are especially high for who becomes the next president, we have a free-for-all politics in which anyone can become a candidate, put together as much funding as they need, claim anything about themselves no matter how truthful, advance any proposal no matter how absurd, and get away bigotry without being held accountable.
Why? Americans have stopped trusting the mediating institutions that used to filter and scrutinize potential leaders on behalf of the rest of us.
As usual, the Reich on the left is correct. But I don't think Americans have necessarily "stopped trusting mediating institutions" but rather many have lost the ability to think clearly and critically, especially when it comes to the governance of the states and country. It seems to me that the clown car isn't just filled with the Republican candidates, but also their donors and the whole Republican structure. Click through for the rest.
CBC — Superficially, the fearful reaction of Canadian, U.S, and European politicians to a new wave of Syrian immigrants may seem rational.
In the wake of horrific attacks in Paris, Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall has asked that Canada's Syrian immigration plan be suspended. In Poland and some U.S. states, leaders have said they no longer want Syrian immigrants at all.
A more careful examination of what happened in Paris will tell us our worries should lie elsewhere.
The best antidote to the kind of domestic Islamic radicalism that we have seen in Europe is not fear of immigration, but successful economic and social integration of new immigrants into the Canadian mainstream.
Click through for the rest of the article. I agree with Pittis. As Abraham Maslow showed, people need to provide for their physical and safety needs first. These include: (from http://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html)
Biological and Physiological needs – air, food, drink, shelter, warmth, sex, sleep.
Safety needs – protection from elements, security, order, law, stability, freedom from fear.
In order to continue to progress in a different culture, the refugees must be able to work and contribute to their family's well being and their own. That feeling of success will lead to greater success.
Alternet — What follows are a dozen excerpts from Sanders' speech of what democratic socialism means to him and could mean for the country. It is a vision of a better world that starts with improving the economics and the dignity of Americans at home, which in turn Sanders said would better position America to face challenges from abroad, such as the terrorist threat posed by ISIS, which he addressed in the final quarter of his 100-minute speech.
1. Major political and economic reforms. “Democratic socialism means that we must reform a political system which is corrupt, that we must create an economy that works for all, not just the very wealthy. Democratic socialism, to my mind, speaks to a system, which for example during the 1990s—and I want you to hear this—allowed Wall Street to spend $5 billion, over a 10-year period, in lobbying and campaign contributions in order to get deregulated. They wanted the government off of their backs. They wanted to do whatever they wanted to do….
"Then, 10 years later, after the greed, recklessness, and illegal behavior led to their collapse, what our system enabled them to get bailed out by the United States government, which through Congress and the Fed, provided trillions of dollars in aid to Wall Street. In other words, Wall Street used their wealth and power to get Congress to do their bidding for deregulation, and then when Wall Street collapsed, they used their wealth and power to get bailed out. Quite a system!
“And then, to add insult to injury, we were told that not only were the banks too big to fail, we were told that the bankers were too big to jail. And this is the system. Young people who get caught possessing marijuana, they get police records—and many many hundreds of thousands have police records that have impacted their lives in serious ways. On the other hand, Wall Street CEOs who help destroy the economy, they don’t get police records, they get raises in their salaries. And this is what Martin Luther King, Jr. meant when he talked about socialism for the rich and rugged individualism for everyone else.”
Click through for the other 11 exerpts plus Bernie's thoughts on foreign policy. Politico a 93 seconds video of Bernie's speech, a transcript which follows.
“Against the ferocious opposition of the ruling class of his day, people he called economic royalists, Roosevelt implemented a series of programs that put millions of people back to work, took them out of poverty, and restored our faith in government. He redefined the relationship of the federal government to the people of our nation. He combatted cynicism, fear and despair. He reinvigorated democracy. He transformed the country, and that is what we have to do today,” said the Vermont senator, an independent who caucuses with Democrats while identifying as a democratic socialist.
“And, by the way, almost everything he proposed, almost every program, every idea, was called ’socialist.'"
I make no bones about it, Bernie would fit in nicely in Canada, a social democracy. Feel the Bern!
My Universe — Who doesn't love panda bears? These are at the end of a Huffington Post article about zoo penguins in Denmark trying to escape.
I want the little one in the last picture sleeping on his belly and using neighbour as a pillow. Reminds me of how my cats often sleep.
16 Responses to “Squatch’s Open Thread 20/11/2015”
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AlterNet1: So true. I don't watch the GOP campaigns, what with Cruz, Carson, Trump and co., lying like they always do and trying to spread their insanity to the people. It's getting crowded in the Clown Car.
AlterNet2: Bernie is brilliant! VOTE/GO Bernie!
My Universe: Adorable pictures of baby pandas. I have a Beanie Baby Panda, and my cat loves and snuggles with it on the bed, my Corgi has the ostrich one. 😉
Stay warm, Lynn. Be careful of the ice too. Thanks!
Brrrr…I feel the cold coming in here. Beautiful here in TX., 67 right now. Tomorrow, rain a.m./windy 37.
The forecast low is 36° here.
5:13
And usual, the Republican Reich on the right is wrong.
Amen.
Great minds fall in the same ditch.
4:27 I decided to savor the waffles some instead of woofing the down…like someone else I know!
Who might that be? I only ate one and enjoyed the taste! 😀
7:06 And I don't suppose any of them is even wheat free. I know they are not egg free, because egg is in the recipe (but there are other kinds of flour than wheat flour).
AlterNet – I am sure the Paris attacks were planned and executed with an eye to the US Presidential election. I don't think it was as blatant as "We'll do an atrocity, and you can repay us by demonizing us to boost our recruiting, and that will help get you elected," but it might as well have been. It's going to take a lot to get us out of this one.
CBC – It's not like rational people who learn fro history and pay attention to facts don't know what the best policies are – it's just that there are so few of us.
AlterNet II – God bless Bernie. And he is right. No campaign was ever won by running away, whether from a label, or from a President, as so many Democratic Senators in 2014 found out, to OUR cost even more than to their own. And Bernie is not just making lemonade out of lemons, either. He has facts and history on his side. If the media won't cover him, I guess we have to ourselves, by explaining to everyone we know.
Universe – Ah yes, the escaping penguins. It reminds me of a joke, which I think I can cut almost down to the punch line:
Officer: I told you to take those penguins to the zoo!
Protagonist: Oh, yes, I did – and we had SO MUCH FUN that today we're going to a movie!
As for the pandas, I'll take the one on the left in the third picture. He looks so interested. Like he might enjoy a movie.
Now that's a cute joke! I'll try to remember it.
Why, thank you, sir!
Winter certainly has arrived for you, Lynn. I hope you didn't have any problems getting to your teaching appointment and all went well. Remember not to fall, you're still smarting from the last time, remember?
Alternet: Every one of Robert Reich's statements hit me in the stomach: he's absolutely right and I don't want him to be. Because of his last two sentences: "Such circus politics may be fun to watch, but it’s profoundly dangerous for America and the world. We might, after all, elect one of the clowns." And he's right again and that hits home even harder. Because, given what Reich has put forward a few lines above, chances are one of these clowns WILL be elected because Democratic voters aren't fully aware of the danger and also have come to believe the entire system is rigged and their vote doesn't matter.
CBC: As you remark, Lynn, Pittis is right. And you may be right applying Maslow's principles to refugees that are fleeing for their lives. It also worked for the first generation Muslims from the Middle East who came to Europe 30 years ago, most not as refugees, but as immigrant workers, doing the jobs nobody wanted or could do while bettering their own lives. Notably there are no old(er) Jihadist in Europe who join ISIS.
But Pittis ends with: "Even in Canada, without offering jobs and opportunity, without the chances at good colleges and promotions expected by other Canadians, the danger of creating a disillusioned second generation remains. And that, more than keeping out a group of homeless people escaping war, whatever their religion, may be the biggest risk to Canadian security." It is this second, even third generation, which forms the basis of the problem in Europe. And new psychological principles and theories have sprung up: integration, assimilation, cultural differences, cross-cultural similarities. In short different cultures integrate more easily with a new culture then others, depending on how much the culture allows integration and on how much the new culture allows and accepts integration (something we tend to forget as the "new culture"). Some cultures hardly allow any integration, some allow integration as well as allowing the newcomer to keep a number of old cultural aspects and some cultures make it a two-way process. Some "new cultures" demand full integration where the original cultural identity is completely lost. This is called assimilation. Some cultures, and individuals alone or in very small groups assimilate on their own accord. In countries where integration is low from both sides, resulting in the feelings of inequality and being a second-class citizen may create this disillusioned second generation, which in turn may lead to a number of extremists.
Alternet2: If Bernie doesn't get elected, there's always a place for him with us in Europe where he can join forces with British Labour Leader Corbyn to rekindle the flame of Social Democracy. It's getting a bit squashed underneath American style corporatism and its "free market" lately 😉
My Universe: Panda's are the cutest things, they really are. But seeing these babies displayed like this makes them look a bit like commodities in a market stall. The Chinese breeding program is doing really well and the government is making a lot of money by leasing the bears to zoos in countries that are "friendly" with China, but I wish they would use this money to open more sanctuaries and national parks where the pandas can return to the wild.
I truly don't have a clue what the best thing is for pandas. The thing is, apparently their preferred diet, preferred to the exclusion of everything and anthing else, is not really very healthy for them and is contrbuting to their reduction in numbers be creating health problems. It's almost as if you were dealing with a group of humans who could not be trained or encouraged or forced to ingest anything but Big Macs and gin. That's a problem, but I don't think anyone has a solution, or even any ideas.
The surgery wemt pretty well. Scheduled for 7:30AM & I was on the recovery room by 7:52. Only have needed 1 ibuprofen so far, so can't complain too muchBUT the huge dressing is a pain. Pretty much limited to 1 hand which makes it hunt-and-peck for typing which makes me dizzy.
Your series of panda photos puts you wayyy over your "SQUEE!" quota, so be careful.
Glad to know the surgery went well. Take care of yourself.
Thanks for letting us know your surgery went well and it's not giving you too much pain. I hope the cumbersome bandage will come off quick, but that may tempt you to do to much with your hand. As you have told TomCat: pace yourself.
Reich is right, again, and this reminds me of a book I read some years ago, and which I urged people at C2 to read. I think it's name was "Idiot America…." and dealt with how the loudest voices, usually from the clown car team, become America's seakers of truth, simply by dint of their volume!
CBC- The issue of the next generation is phenomenally important, and this reminds me of what I believe is the Australian message to immigrants, and that is basiclly, "If you want to live here learn the language, assimilate fully, become part of the culture." If people were to do that they, and their offspring would have access to education and jobs/careers, rather than live on the edge of their host country's mainstream, feeling like, no, being second class citizens.
Australia wasn't like that before, Mitch. Australia asked and allowed people to integrate, keeping some of their cultural identity and in the process adopting some cultural aspects of groups, making it the multicultural nation it is today. The problem with the assimilation most countries seem to demand now is that it is one directional, making the immigrants feel inferior right from the start. Of course they must learn the language, they can't integrate either if they don't, but the main drive now behind full assimilation has much to do with the religion most new refugees have at this point in time: they are Muslims. And being Muslim determines much of their cultural identity. Full assimilation would mean they would have to leave their religion behind, which is impossible for the first or many of the second generation. The bottom line is that Australia's current government just doesn't want Muslims.
Lona, in Metro Vancouver, we have a large Southeast Asian community. Each year, Diwali, a festival of lights, is celebrated with parades and other events. Westerners join in the events too. Diwali spiritually signifies the victory of light over darkness, knowledge over ignorance, good over evil, and hope over despair. Not so different from what Christmas should be.
Alternet: The media actually seems to be encouraging the lies and outlandish behaviours. I suppose that increases their ratings. People are right not to trust the media as it exists today.
CBC: I am not sure how much is fear, and how much is manipulation of the public. People who are frightened can be led much more easily by promises of safety.
I shared Bernie's speech on Facebook.
My Universe: Cutest pics I have seen today.
We are expecting the first snow of the season tomorrow night, but it is to have very little accumulation.