Squatch’s Open Thread 30 November 2018

Yesterday was a long and busy day, and today was also busy.  As a result, there was no OT yesterday.  There will be an OT each day for the next few days.  On the TC front, the old mangy Puddy Tat arrived home Wednesday evening and is happily ensconced in his own bed.  He may not be around for a few days yet as he has a few things to attend to, including a possible new apartment.  Welcome back Puddy Tat!!!  Keep your eyes pealed for his next post.  Now it is my Winnie’s turn to go to the vet for blood work for his diabetes.

JigZone Puzzles

Today’s took me 4:17 (average 5:13).  To do it, click here.  (This link will automatically open to a new page.) How did you do?

Yesterday’s took me 3:41 (average 4:26).  To do it, click here.  (This link will automatically open to a new page.) How did you do?

Short Takes

The Atlantic — U.S. President Donald Trump is preparing to meet with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at the G20 summit this week. After months of stalled negotiations on the trade war, the two countries are reaching a key point, with the prospect looming of Washington raising tariffs on Beijing.

If the two countries do make any progress on trade, however, some experts worry that the Trump administration may soften its criticism of Beijing on a different issue: human rights.

Senior officials had in recent months been slamming China for detaining an estimated one million Uighur Muslims in internment camps in the northwestern Xinjiang region. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in September that they were being “held against their will in so-called reeducation camps where they’re forced to endure severe political indoctrination and other awful abuses.” The next month, outgoing UN Ambassador Nikki Haley noted, “It is the largest internment of civilians in the world today—it may be the largest since World War II.” Vice President Mike Pence lamented that “for a time, Beijing inched toward greater liberty and respect for human rights. But in recent years, China has taken a sharp U-turn.”

What is happening to the Uighurs is abominable, but IMO, the US with Trump at its head is hardly the one to challenge China on the basis of human rights and the oppression of Uighurs who are Muslim.  The Trump xenophobic régime has little regard for human rights especially if the skin is other than lily white.  It has a record for separating families, even separating children under 5 years from their parents.  Despite the courts ordering it to stop, as noted in AlterNet the régime is circumventing the court.  Likewise, Trump issued a Muslim ban which was overthrown by the courts several times.  So why is the régime so interested in the Uighurs?  I believe that the Uighurs are nothing more than a bargaining chip for Trump when dealing with China’s leader, Xi Jinping.  If China makes concessions, Trump can drop his concern for human rights and have given away nothing of importance to him.

AlterNet — Events in Charlottesville recently cascaded into domestic terrorism. Three dead and dozens wounded as neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other “alt-right” members descended upon the university that Thomas Jefferson built; their purpose, it is alleged, to defend a statue – a monument – to the Confederate Civil War soldier, General Robert E. Lee. These radical rightists arrived from all across the United States upon the college town of Charlottesville to protect, in their words, their “white” heritage. Among the many problems I have with so-called “white supremacists” is their purposeful mixing of “heritage” with “history,” rhetorically pining for a once proud “white” America.

But history proves that America was never white.  …

The first successful colonial holding in these current United States was Spanish, at St. Augustine, Florida, established 1565, four decades plus prior to Virginia’s Jamestown.

America was never white.

Speaking of Jamestown, the first Africans were brought into Virginia on a Dutch trading ship in 1619, a year before Pilgrims landed in Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts.

America was never white. …

What the alt-right desires is an America where whites maintain some semblance of power over anyone of color if not outright ethnic cleansing. Their rhetoric of Heritage is pure myth, a fabrication of a false past, creating memory where none existed.

America was never white, and it never will be. [emphasis mine]

Click through for the rest of this interesting easy read article.  The motto of my first high school (I attended 3 over a 5 year period) was “veni, vidi, vici”, I came, I saw, I conquered and that seems to be the theme of the white European settlement of North America.  But today, descendants of white Europeans are trying to claim their rights to a white America.  I am of the opinion that Trump’s “Make America Great Again” motto is really make America white again based on his racist beliefs and actions.  The author lays out America was never white so how can it be white again?

Politico — Former FBI Director James Comey on Thursday asked a federal court to reject a subpoena he’d received from House Republicans for closed-door testimony, arguing that leaks from the hearing would harm his credibility, in addition to continuing to harm the public perception of investigations by the Justice Department.  …

In the motion, Comey is asking the court to reject the subpoena in order to prevent the Judiciary and Oversight committees “from using the pretext of a closed interview to peddle a distorted, partisan political narrative about the Clinton and Russia investigations through selective leaks.”

The dispute was assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee.  …

Comey, in the filing, argues that a closed-door meeting violates House rules, as all hearings should be public unless they endanger national security, compromise sensitive law enforcement information, or defame, degrade or incriminate any person. He said that none of those exemptions applied to his testimony.

This happened Thursday, but the hearing is set for 03 December, Monday.  Given that Comey testified publicly before the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2017, there can be no reason in my mind for the House to want a closed hearing unless it is for some Republican partisanship shenanigans like leaking certain edited parts.  Will this end up being a quid pro quo for the judge assigned?  It should not be, but . . . 

My Universe

He’s baaack!!!

 

 

Posted to Care2 HERE