Well I have been absent from posting for much of this week.  It has been busy.  I have started teaching English to another student which has gone very well.  She is at a grade 11 level, so our session was much different than the one I have with Lucia.  Her daughter is in French immersion so I am also spending some time with her, reading both French and English.  Good review of French for me too as I don't use it often enough.  My right foot is coming along but I still need some physio.  Fortunately it rarely hurts when I walk.  And my big news this week, I bought a laptop computer so that I can still work when I am forced to keep my legs up.  Also, I am almost finished a programme in pastoral care which really is much like the hospice training I took 17 years ago.

Short Takes

Robert Reich — The Constitution of the United States is clear: Article II Section 2 says the President “shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint … judges to the Supreme Court.”  …

In refusing to vote or even hold a hearing on the President’s nominee to the Supreme Court, the GOP is abdicating its constitutional responsibility. It’s not doing its job.

Alternet — If you were to ask Donald Trump’s supporters what they most admire about the GOP front-runner, chances are they would cite his so-called authenticity, his willingness to “tell it like it is” and, perhaps more than anything else, his rejection of that great bugaboo of the Obama Age: political correctness.

Such qualities ought to mean that whatever else Trump may be—a blowhard, a demagogue, a bigot, a reality TV huckster, a malignant narcissist, an unparalleled deal maker—he’s an ardent believer in press protections, free speech and the First Amendment. Indeed, in a Feb. 27 appearance on the Fox News channel, Trump seemed—at first—to be saying so, declaring, “I love free press. I think it’s great.”

But like much of what is taken as a given in the crazy-town vortex that is the Trump presidential campaign, the image of the candidate as a champion of free speech is a mirage. The bullying billionaire can sling mud and demean his real and imagined enemies with the best of them. The problem, however, is that he can’t take it when others fire back.

And who or what is to protect "We the people" from the fallacious statements of Drumpf, his lies, deceptions, and misleading statements, numerous as they all are?  And of course there are still the incitements to violence.

Raw Story — Republican elected officials admitted they promised to help a convicted felon run for elected office if he agreed to stop paying his mandated grazing fees.

A newly released recording reveals how GOP lawmakers and local officials were deeply involved with the occupation of an Oregon federal wildlife reserve earlier this year by armed militants, according to an in-depth report by Oregon Public Broadcasting.

Many of the officials are members of the Coalition of Western States, which shares the militants’ stated goal of rolling back federal ownership of public lands for private use.

Is there any doubt that the Republican Party is the party of right wing extremism?

Daily Beast — For seven hours on Thursday, a few dozen conservative leaders gathered in an upstairs room of the Army Navy Club off K Street in downtown Washington, D.C. to rack their collective brains—but reached no conclusion on how to thwart the billionaire’s rise.

Quin Hillyer, a National Review contributing editor, fielded questions afterwards from print reporters and a Chinese camera crew, explaining that the group hoped all the 2016 presidential candidates who haven’t endorsed Trump will coalesce behind a unity ticket. He added that there wasn’t a consensus that conservatives should unite behind Cruz.

“That was not the consensus,” he said, when asked about support for a Cruz-helmed unity ticket. “The consensus was that we need a unity ticket of some sort and we’ll let the candidates work out who the unity ticket is.”

Republicans, like a lot of people, thought that the Drumpf campaign would crater early on.  When it was apparent that it would not, Republicans did nothing to curtail his candidacy.  Now, as Drumpf's campaign has gained and sustained speed and delegates, the chickens are coming home to roost.  IMO, Drumpf is dividing the Republican party and the people.  There may be hell to pay come July.

My Universe — h/t Carol B and Ted W

OK, I finally finished the Monthly Report and TC reviewed it and posted it.  I did not get an Open Thread done yesterday, and I must say I am sick of seeing Drumpf in the headlines.  So today's offerings, or at least some of them, are a little more lighthearted.  How appropriate that this Tuesday, another primary voting day, is the Ides of March which Wikipedia says

"…became notorious as the date of the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BC. The death of Caesar made the Ides of March a turning point in Roman history, as one of the events that marked the transition from the historical period known as the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire."

Short Takes

Think Progress — After the hottest winter on record, one Canadian territory raised the weight limit on an ice road crossing at the Arctic Circle from 10 metric tons to 40 metric tons. What could possibly go wrong?

Last Saturday, a fuel tanker broke through an ice road in northern Canada. Fortunately, no one was injured. Just four days prior to this accident, the Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) provided this helpful tweet:

Great Bear Ice Crossing has been increased to 40,000 kgs. Drive safe!

2:43 PM – 2 Mar 2016

I wonder if the auto club was able to get the truck freed?  Somebody sure wasn't thinking when they put out that tweet which surprises me, because one error like that can cause death.  I imagine a head or two will roll.

Alternet — If the growing prospect of President Trump scares the shit out of you, Canada might be looking like a nice cozy bolthole right about now. But it’s not just a kinder, gentler U.S. with better hockey and beer.

Hey, it’s close, civilized, a quick flight from the Northeast. They speak English.

But it really is a foreign country.

A nation almost 100 years younger than the U.S., Confederation was in 1867, creating the first four provinces. For all its vaunted socially liberal policies, it’s also a country with its own history of submission and domination – English over French, the 150,000 First Nations, Metis and Inuit children forced for decades to attend brutal residential schools, the unresolved murders of 1,200 indigenous women, prompting the recent allocation of $100 million by Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne to investigate and address the issue.

While Canada recently welcomed 25,000 Syrian refugees, don’t be too quick to assume there’s an equal welcome for thousands of panicked Americans eager to flee a political scene they find abhorrent.

We have heard many times in the news that many Americans have said they will move to Canada if Drumpf is elected president.  Do I think a lot of people will do so?  No.  I think it is a bit of whimsy on their part.  I had to laugh though as I read this somewhat tongue-in-cheek observation of what life might be like here.

Think Progress — The Republican Party has a demographics problem. A recent analysis found that while GOP frontrunner Donald Trump may be energizing a subset of white male voters who normally don’t participate in politics, he is driving away the very groups Republicans need to win the White House this fall: young people, women, naturalized immigrants, Latinos, and blue collar workers. Trump has done so much damage to the GOP’s brand with these groups that he would need to win more than 70 percent of all white men to make up for it, yet he is polling at just 57 percent when matched up with Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton and 55 percent when squared off against Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Republican Party leaders are openly wondering if Trump will “drive the party into a demographic abyss,” and if the hundreds of Florida voters who gathered outside last night’s GOP are any indication, the GOP has cause for concern.

On Thursday night, as the four remaining candidates debated, hundreds of people from across Florida took to the streets outside the University of Miami to protest the party’s rhetoric on immigration, women’s health, the Puerto Rican debt crisis, and the minimum wage.

The emphasis is mine.  I question whether it is Drumpf or the Party that is driving "the party into a demographic abyss", or perhaps both.  Let's face it, Republicans have been in ongoing wars with women, immigrants, the 99%, and since 2012, the 47%.  Where traditional Republicans are hoping no one is watching their little dance, Drumpf is being loud and brash.  No matter what type of spin they try to put on it, Republicans still attract the angry white males.

Common Dreams —There's a vacancy on the most important court in America, and the message from Senate Republicans is crystal clear: forget the Constitution. For Senate Republicans, it does not matter who President Obama nominates because they will allow no votes and will hold no hearings on that nominee. Their response to one of the most solemn and consequential tasks that our government performs is to pretend that the nominee—and President Obama himself—do not exist.

At the same time that they are blocking all possible Supreme Court nominees, Senate Republicans are in a panic because their party appears to be on a path to nominate one of two extremists for president—extremists who attack the legitimacy of their political opponents and demean millions of Americans. Senate Republicans worry that, if either candidate is selected to be the party's standard-bearer, the Republican party will lose in November.

Elizabeth Warren is so spot on in her assertions and Republicans are so wrong in theirs.  There have been a number of petitions urging action on the SCOTUS vacancy.  Here is one from Daily Kos: Tell Senator McConnell to allow a vote on Supreme Court nominees 

Huffington Post — MEMORANDUM

TO: All U. S. Presidential Candidates

FROM: God a.k.a. Jehovah, Allah, Supreme Being, The Big Guy Upstairs, et al.

When it comes to politics, ordinarily I don't like to get involved. After all, I've got a lot on my plate what with wars, famines and the widespread instability throughout the world. 

And my desire for non-involvement goes double when it comes to American presidential politics. When you insist on running campaigns that last longer than the Great Flood, honestly I'd like to steer clear of the whole mess.

Sadly, you folks have made that impossible. Recent events dictate that I must temporarily set aside some of my divine duties and sort things out.

First of all, stop invoking my name to get votes. I've never heard so many candidates claim that they have a personal relationship with me. If you really did, I would expect you to keep it to yourself and not blab it to every Tom, Dick and Harry.

Click through for a tongue-in-cheek yet I think valid look at the presidential race.

My Universe —