Sorry this is so late. With TomCat down, I told him I would put out an Open Thread but I wasn't anticipating computer issues. It kept freezing so I had to put it to bed for several hours.
Short Takes
msn.com — A first-term congressman who spent three decades as a physician — and is now part of a group of Republican doctors who have a major role in replacing Obamacare — is facing backlash after saying that poor people “just don’t want health care and aren’t going to take care of themselves.”
Rep. Roger Marshall, (R-Kan.), a member of the GOP Doctors Caucus, said comments he made to Stat News were not meant to suggest that poor people take health care for granted. The comments were published in a story last week about his burgeoning role in the fight to replace the Affordable Care Act. …
He added that “morally, spiritually, socially,” the poor, including the homeless, “just don’t want health care.”
Well isn't he just precious. I suppose this Republican idiot thinks everyone is made of money. Take a WalFart employee who is being paid the minimum wage. Many have used SNAP because their paycheques do not cover the cost of food for the family. It is people like this, the working poor, that want healthcare but cannot afford it. The arrogance of this doctor is astounding, but then I guess it should not be . . . he's a Republican.
Maclean's — Moscow has been waging an increasingly daring clandestine war against western democracies. Under the direction of President Vladmir Putin, Russia is targeting most of the major members of the western alliance. In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel has warned of Russian attempts at cyber attacks. In France, Moscow has funded right-wing populist Marine Le Pen and is alleged to be spreading false propaganda about her opponents. There are now reports from British parliamentarians that Russia may have meddled with the Brexit campaign. And, of course, Putin’s interference in the U.S. Presidential election has lit a tire fire in Washington that may bring down the Trump administration, and at the very least has left America’s political institutions reeling, and its alliances weakened.
So is Canada next? Or have the Russians already started their campaign of disinformation and lies. As the sub headline of the article says "The smear job on Chrystia Freeland is only the start." The Ottawa Citizen outlines just one such attempt.
Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s ambitious foreign affairs minister, is secretly itching to draw Canada into a showdown with Russia because of the seething hatreds she inherited from her Ukrainian grandfather, a Nazi collaborator and war profiteer she never told us about. She’s been lying about her family’s sordid past all along, and she’s been lying to Canadians about what’s really going on in Ukraine. She’s dangerous.
The main problem with all this is that it’s rubbish, from top to bottom. It’s also the hottest political news story in Canada right now.
All countries must keep their wits about them. And coming back to the recent US experience with Russia, it is interesting to note that Attorney General Jeff Sessions has recused himself from the Russian influence investigation but has not called for a special independent prosecutor, but he has called for a special prosecutor to investigate the accusations made by Drumpf that Obama authorised the wiretapping of Trump Tower. While wiretapping American citizens is illegal, the Russia affair is far more dangerous from a national security perspective. Misplaced Republican priorities?
The Hill — Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh said his office on Monday would formally join a suit filed by four other states, Reuters reported.
"The administration persists in an effort to implement a policy that is inhumane and unconstitutional, but also makes us less safe, not more safe," Frosh said in a statement.
The states are pushing for a temporary restraining order similar to the one that halted President Trump's first order.
Maryland joins New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman (D), Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum (D), Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey (D) and Washington state in challenging the new ban.
In addition to these five states, Hawaii is also launching a suit against the travel ban, but its suit is based on economic criteria and not constitutional criteria. May the force be with them! Update — Seattle U.S. District Court Judge James Robart on Friday declined to apply his first order to the new ban. Lawyers need to file more extensive court papers.
My Universe
In any case, I’m doing as much as I can before she gets here.
