Well today is one of only twelve times each year that the international date format that I use is the same as the American format that TC uses. LOL!!! There were certainly extensive fireworks last night, and I swear they were on my balcony, they seemed so loud and close. But I survived and my babes, Primo, Winnie and Annie, were calm and asleep. All's well that ends well!
Short Takes
CBC — Natalie Cole, the American pop and blues singer known for hits such as This Will Be, Unforgettable and Our Love, has died at age 65 [on 31/12/2015].
The daughter of Nat King Cole, she won nine Grammy Awards in a career that began in the 1970s. Her Unforgettable… with Love sold 30 million copies and won the Grammy for album of the year. …
"Natalie fought a fierce, courageous battle, dying how she lived … with dignity, strength and honour. Our beloved Mother and sister will be greatly missed and remain UNFORGETTABLE in our hearts forever," read the statement from her son, Robert Yancy, and sisters Timolin and Casey Cole.
A sad note to start the new year off. I grew up listening to the mellow tones of Nat King Cole — Unforgettable, Ramblin' Rose are two I especially remember — as my mother would not allow the early rock n' roll into the house (that included the Beatles). As I aged, I came to appreciate his music very much, and the pieces that Natalie did virtually with her father are exceptional. Rest in peace Natalie Cole.
Cole wasn't the only death on New Year's Eve. Actor Wayne Rogers of M*A*S*H* fame passed away 31/12/2015 at age 82 from pneumonia. And special in Vancouver, Dal Richards, orchestra leader and musician who played New Year's Eve for 79 years straight, died of congestive heart failure just minutes before midnight. His last gig was just before Christmas and he had been scheduled to play on New Year's Eve which would have been his 80th straight year. RIP Dal and Wayne.
Alternet — Koch brothers exploit criminal justice reform to protect corporate criminals.
People within the prison reform movement had long been skeptical of the Koch brothers sudden interest in the topic. With crime at record lows, a sympathetic president in the White House, and Black Lives Matter changing the conversation around our criminal justice system, the time was right to finally pull back many of the harsh “tough-on-crime” laws that were passed in the 90's under Bush and Clinton.
So why the interest from the right-wing titans? Most of the media simply chalked it up to ideology, after all, the Kochs were libertarians and libertarians don’t like drug laws and state incarceration, right? But like with much of what the billionaire brothers do, it wasn’t so simple. Lee Fang and Dan Froomkin over at The Intercept dug a little deeper and revealed the Koch’s ideology wasn’t the only thing animating their support for criminal justice reform. Firstly, they continued to buy ads for and donate to candidates like Louisiana's David Vitter who supported some of the harshest and most racist drug laws in the country while allocating minimal resources to justice reform. As Fang notes:
Out of 38 federal lobbyists employed by Koch, only one is registered to work on criminal justice issues. Most work on projects important to Koch Industries’ bottom line, such as rolling back Environmental Protection Agency rules.
This wasn’t the only indication the Koch’s were simply piggy-backing off the movement to advance their corporate interests:
Koch “Alliance” on Criminal Justice Reform Exposed as Trojan Horse
So, while the Kochs and the liberal groups used similar language in their critique of the criminal justice system, when it came down to actual legislation, the Kochs were focused on reducing criminal prosecutions of corporations, not people.
Koch and the House Republicans turned out to be pushing a bill that critics describe as a “Get Out of Jail Free” card for white-collar criminals.
Members of Washington’s elite media crave stories about bipartisanship, so groups like the pro-Clinton Center for American Progress garnered positive media attention for finding common ground with the Kochs earlier this year.
The real aim for the Kochs' prison reform was to reduce the liability of white collar criminals, not the largely black, Latino and poor constituency of most prisons. As The Huffington Post reported, the bill being lobbied would make it more difficult to fine executives at corporations liable for financial fraud and environmental pollution. Leftist reformers were predictably upset, with Robert Weissman, president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, telling the Huffington Post, "there is absolutely no reason for the otherwise laudable criminal justice reform bill to contain any measure to weaken already feeble standards for corporate criminal prosecution.”
Click through for the other four Most Cynical Libertarian Stealth Campaigns of 2015. I have to say that my first reaction to the Koch's pushing prison reform was to protect themselves from going to prison for corporate crimes, if anyone could get enough information together and had the cajones to charge them.
Mother Jones — This summer, the Wisconsin Supreme Court took up the question of whether to stop the investigation into alleged coordination between Walker's 2012 recall campaign and conservative outside groups that receive unlimited donations from undisclosed donors. The problem was that the election campaigns of two justices on the state's top court hadbenefited significantly from spending by those same groups accused of illegal coordination with Walker. The special prosecutor overseeing the investigation, along with legal ethicists, asked the two justices with conflicts of interest to recuse themselves. But no justices stepped aside. …
But if it does consider a Caperton challenge to the situation in Wisconsin, it could not just determine whether the Wisconsin Supreme Court crossed the line when it came to conflicts of interest, but could help set ethical standards across the country in an era when judicial elections are increasingly fought with millions of dollars in outside spending.
And would the SCOTUS, even though not elected, be subject to ethical standards, standards that the right wing justices seem to think don't apply to them?
My Universe —
6 Responses to “Squatch’s Open Thread 01/01/2016”
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Lynn, I am glad your babies survived the fireworks. The neighbors who used to terrorize my cats at almost every holiday moved during the summer. We live ten miles from town, so no fireworks this year.
CBC: I loved Natalie Cole and her dad, Nat King Cole. I remember him from tv shows when I was a kid. I really liked Wayne Rogers, too. Sorry, I am not familiar with Dal Richards.
Alternet: Anything the Kock Brothers do is something that will benefit them. I agree with your assessment. If anyone could get enough info to prosecute, no one would have the cajones to do it. They are too powerful. We have a local prison run by the CCA. It has been shut down twice, due to mistreatment of inmates, but somehow, they get it reopened. It has been closed for about five years this time, but they are in the process of reopening it. Uber is just like most other corporations, they will do whatever it takes to make a profit. Too bad that we have politicians who will support them. Eric Garner's death should not be used for profit. Anyone who would make a profit off the suffering wrought by Hurricane Katrina should be prosecuted to the fullest extent. I travel to the New Orleans area at least twice a year, to visit my son who lives in one of the towns in Mississippi that was hit the worst. The truly poor areas of NOLA have not been rebuilt. Charter schools are a good excuse to use to get rid of public schools. Then they can decide who really gets an education. I read one study that showed most charter schools are out performed by public schools. Charter schools benefit no one but those making a profit.
Public Parks: Of course they want to get rid of government owned parks. Then they can either sell them to oil or gas industries, or set up amusement parks that make a profit.
Mother JOnes: I hope if this passes that Scotus is subjected to the same rules. We really need a term limit for supreme court justices.
My Universe; The first one breaks my heart everytime I see it, poor baby. Love the second one!
Thanks Lynn, finally a date format I can recognize too 😉 I always worry about my fur babes in The Netherlands on the 31st and the 1st, because besides major fireworks at 12 o'clock kids keep igniting these firecrackers for days in end and throwing them around, scaring the daylight out of all animals. But the man who takes care of them when we are away closes all rolling‐shutters in the house on New Years Eve and they've lived through it very well each year.
CBC: As we grow older ourselves we have to say goodbye to those that filled our memories in childhood.
Alternet: No surprise there. If the Koch brothers show interest in a social issue, you can be a 100% certain that this is all out of self-interest. Anything these men do or think stems from narcissism and greed. They invest towards prison reform only because of what they can get out of it in return, be it a way to stay out of jail themselves or to get the white collar crimes their staff has committed in their name from the table. At no time does it enter their minds to alter something for the common good, they're completely incapable of thinking that way.
MoJo: It's interesting to see if SCOTUS will take this case or send it back to Wisconsin. And even if SCOTUS takes the case, I'm not holding my breath waiting on any positive judgment from the five notorious SCOTUS justices.
My Universe: The first little poster is one that I keep seeing on profile pages of Care2 friend and each time I do, it breaks my heart. That little sick and starving kitten is so pitiful, it always makes me wonder what has become of it after the picture was taken.
Glad the fireworks did not disrupt the children.
Thank you for the tribute to Natalie Cole. And to Wayne Rogers and Dal Richards. It is always sad to lose people who have touched our lives. (Especially so when one is older than they are.)
AlterNet – Is anyone surprised? To quote from lower in the article, "(R)adical right-wing notions are smuggled into much of the discussion around … reform with left-wing activists either too underfunded or distracted to take much notice." Though this was specifically about prison reform, it applies to all of the topics discussed. Even though many American institutions desperately need to be reformed, "Reform" is not always a good thing.
MoJo – Part of me thinks that the challenge must be tried, though dangerous. (We can always hope that the Republicans in SCROTUS are so self-absorbed they don't even see the application to themselves.) But I am always opposed to term limits. Regardless of the intent, they always seem to favor Republicans at the expense of Democrats. I would be in favor of senility testing, though i would not call it that, and even that would be difficult to administer fairly.
I hear you anout the noise. No sleep downtown on New Years Eve.
Condolences to all who loved her.
They hate street crime. They love big crime.
SCOTUS has no ethical standards. SCROTUS has no ethics.
YUCK! Licked ny a dawg!!
Natalie Cole, and Nat:
OMG!!!!!!!!
And I do not use that phrase lightly.
There is only one singer whose voice can bring tears to my eyes, and whose memory is doing so, as I type, and that is Nat Cole! (Still crazy after all these years!) Natalie was special, too, and it sadened me, yesterday, when I found out about her death.
I used to watch Nat's TV show, in what may hav been real time, back then.
Listening to those 2 videos was to receive a wonderful gift, Lynn, thanks.
Long live Freddy Cole!! He must be heartbroken, once again. I saw him at the Blue Note, in NYC, some time ago…also a marvelous performer. Go see him, if he gigs in your area, you will not regret it.
Anything the Koch boys do needs to be studied with a microscope built to ferret out nefariousness, as nothing the Koch boys do is done to do anyhting but enrich themselves, one way, or another!
You know, the same thing can be said, apparently, for the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Wisconsin has been degraded since Walker took the helm, POS that he is.
SCOTUS, and right wing justices that don't thin ethics applies to them? Scalia and Thomas blong to that stelar group!