Politics Plus

I have had a very relaxing, nay, lazy day today.  It is supposed to snow tonight but we'll see.  Snow and Vancouver drivers don't generally mix well.  Some of us have a lot of experience driving in snow (like me), while others don't change their wild driving habits for anything!  I have church in the morning and then I may try to go see the new Star Wars movie.  Just to let you know that since TC has taken back the puzzle, I will probably scale back my postings in January sometime.

Puzzle — You,ve been finding the puzzle here for over 3 months, but starting today, TC has taken back the puzzle. Maybe I should try something like Suduko if I can find one on the web that is embedable so we're all doing the same one.

Short Takes

Alternet — … the question to ask is whether this film can spark a political revolution just in time for the 2016 election.  …

“Where to Invade Next” begins with the observation that the United States has not won a war since World War II.  It then comically imagines the Department of Defense calling on Moore to step in and save our nation.  His plan? Invade nations not to take them over, but to take their good ideas. We then see a hilariously ironic shot of Moore on a ship draped in the American flag and heading out on his quest.

Moore then embarks on a tour of a series of European nations and one in Africa where he finds society getting it right. From debt-free education to paid leave, women’s rights, prison reform and delicious school lunches, Moore offers viewers a world where people simply live better than we do here.

This is a short trailer for the movie.

Michael Moore is interviewed by Stephen Colbert.

I have not seen the movie and probably won't for some time even though it debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2015. I can't find any distribution information for Canada but it is rolling out in the US in the lead up to the New Hampshire primaries.  All of us need to think of our national issues in new creative ways.  BTW, MM weighs in about "where he got his international outlook growing up in northern Michigan (“I blame Canada”)".  Now I, as a Canadian, can accept that notariety! Michael Moore in “Where to Invade Next” : "The American  dream seems to be alive and well everywhere except America."

Mother Jones — At least 96 children died at Dozier between 1914 and 1973, according to school records, and while state officials say there’s no proof, former students insist that some of the deaths were the result of foul play. Boys of all races were routinely, brutally, and even fatally beaten by staff, they allege; some were raped, and “runners” were fired upon—at least seven kids were reported dead after trying to escape.

Tens of thousands of boys passed through Dozier’s gates between its founding in 1900 and 2011, when Florida officials shut it down (citing budgetary reasons) amid a Justice Department investigation that found ongoing “systemic, egregious, and dangerous practices” at the school.

I stumbled upon this 2014 article and found the level of violence unimaginable, yet evidence as noted in a Tampa Bay Times follow up article bears witness to the stories of former residents.  Was this a stop on the school to prison pipeline?

CBC — Siham Abu Sitta, a social worker, and her two daughters fled Syria for Lebanon in February 2013 after her husband was killed by a sniper.

She is Palestinian, but grew up in Syria in Yarmouk, a permanent Palestinian refugee camp close to Damascus that has been the scene of vicious fighting between anti-government rebels, Syrian forces and, more recently, ISIS.

A long siege of Yarmouk has led to several hundred deaths from starvation.

While a refugee in Lebanon, Siham met a Canadian-Lebanese filmmaker Carol Mansour who made a short film about her and four other refugee women as they struggled to get by.

The film, Not Who We Are, won two international awards and, earlier this year, caught the attention of Fairlawn Avenue United Church in Toronto, whose congregation reached out to sponsor Siham and her daughters. 

With the prospect of moving to Canada, Siham and her twin girls, Joudy and Jana, have been working hard to become fluent in English.

This picture taken on Jan. 31, 2014, and released by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, shows residents of the besieged Palestinian camp of Yarmouk, queuing to receive food supplies, in Damascus. (UNRWA via AP, File)

Click through to read Siham's story about her husband's death and her life in Lebanon with her very young twin daughters.  So why are refugees like Sirham still rejected by the US?  Sirham and her daughters have now arrived in Canada.

My Universe — Cats can be sooooooooo melodramatic!

I am sure that today has been hectic for most . . . family, children running about, Christmas dinner or other festivities. I had Christmas dinner Thursday night with friends, and I contributed yams baked in olive oil and honey with generous amounts of ginger and a bit of garlic but absolutely no salt.  Today, I had a slow start but then in the afternoon headed out to see my mother.  Staff were having a potluck dinner and I was invited to share the bounty.  It was good to share a delicious meal with the people that look after my mother so well.  I hope your day was equally enjoyable.

Puzzle — Today’s took me 2:51 (average 4:54). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes

Alternet — Outsourcing to these 1099 workers has become the preferred method for America’s business leaders to cut costs and maximize profits. This is only the beginning; we have yet to see how these trends will affect the labor force over the next decade or so. But already we can see that the so-called “new” economy looks an awful lot like the old, pre-New Deal economy. “Jobs” amount to a series of low-paid piece work – they’re called micro-gigs today—offering little empowerment for average workers, families or communities. We’re losing decades of progress, apparently for no other reason than because these on-demand companies conduct their business over the Internet and apps, somehow that makes them “special.” Technology has been granted a privileged and indulged place where the usual rules, laws and policies often are not applied.

The work requirements were changing at the end of my career, and not necessarily for the better, moving towards this new idea.  Will this "sharing" economy continue?  I don't know but I do think it will kill the idea of the American dream which of course Republicans will continue to tout as achievable if one works hard.  The new way almost sounds like indentured servitude.

Mother Jones — Climate change will have some pretty terrifying consequences. Experts have predicted everything from deadly heat waves and devastating floods to falling crop production and even increased political instability and violence. But according to some of the world's biggest companies, these future disasters could also present lucrative business opportunities.

In a remarkable series of documents submitted to a London-based nonprofit called CDP, big-name corporations describe global warming as a chance to sell more weapons systems to the military, more air conditioners to sweltering civilians, and more medications to people afflicted by tropical diseases. CDP, which stands for "Carbon Disclosure Project," asks companies all over the world to disclose information about their greenhouse gas emissions and how the changing climate will impact their operations. Each year, thousands of companies send in responses. Below, we've compiled a list of some of the most striking—and, in some cases, disturbing—scenarios laid out by those businesses.

In my mind, climate change and global warming are huge challenges to the world as we know it.  The human need for survival is paramount.  If that survival is in doubt anywhere, people will rise up.  With economies the way they are, who will be able to afford these "fixes"?  Click through for the rest of the details.

Think Progress — A National Rifle Association lawsuit seeking to immunize gun dealers from a recently enacted tax was rejected by a state trial court on Tuesday. If Judge Palmer Robinson’s decision is ultimately upheld on appeal, the tax will fund gun safety research as well as programs seeking to prevent gun violence.

Last August, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray (D) signed an ordinance providing for a $25 tax on each gun and a 2 to 5 cent tax on each round of ammunition sold within the city. The NRA, along with several other pro-gun groups and individuals, sued, claiming that the law violates a Washington State law preventing municipal governments from enacting any “regulation” of guns. As Judge Robinson explains in his opinion, however, the power to tax is separate from the power to regulate. Among other things, he notes, the ordinance does not “place any burden or restriction” on gun dealers beyond the obligation to pay the tax.

Personally, I hope that Judge Palmer Robinson’s decision is upheld.  It is a start.

My Universe —

It is Christmas Eve and I am having Christmas dinner tonight with friends.  Tomorrow I will be seeing my mother so it is a relaxed Christmas for me.  Tomorrow, the furbabes and I will have a chicken dinner before I leave.

Merry Christmas all!!!

Puzzle — Today’s took me 3:09 (average 5:08). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes

Huffington Post — Amid a spike in anti-Muslim assaults, vandalism and death threats around the country since the terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino and growing sentiment against the resettlement of Muslim refugees, congregations of all faiths have scrambled to think of ways to curb the violence and call for peace.

In Washington, D.C., on Sunday, the Washington National Cathedral played host to an interfaith pilgrimage of Christians, Jews and Muslims who walked with each other from congregation to congregation, calling for the faithful choose "unity over extremism."  …

Along the way, they held signs quoting the Quran on unity and condemning extremism.

"O humankind, indeed we have created you male and female and made you peoples and tribes, that you may know each other," said one (Quran 49:13). "American Muslims condemn ISIS and terrorism," read another.  …

“Embedded in all three Abrahamic faiths is the understanding that we are all pilgrims," added the Rev. Gina Gilland Campbell, the canon precentor at the National Cathedral. "A pilgrimage is a spiritual activity, done in community. It’s a journey toward something, and this pilgrimage brings us closer to God, and to each other.”

What so many people do not understand, or choose not to understand, is that Judaism, Christianity and Islam have a common point of intersection . . . Abraham or Ibrahim in Arabic.  In Islam, Jesus is known as a minor prophet.  In Judaism, Jesus as the Son of God and the Messiah is not reconised.  We all have more in common than we know, including our humanity.  And that humanity includes Atheists, Buddhists, Sikhs, Hindus etc.

Mother Jones — In the early 1900s, Lewis Hine left his job as a schoolteacher to work as a photographer for the National Child Labor Committee, investigating and documenting child labor in the United States. As a sociologist, Hine was an early believer in the power of photography to document work conditions and help bring about change. He traveled the country, going to fields, factories, and mines—sometimes working undercover—to take pictures of kids as young as four years old being put to work.

Shorpy Higginbotham was a greaser at Bessie Mine in Alabama, working for the Sloss-Sheffield Steel and Iron Company. Hine said the boy told him that he was 14 years old, but Hine suspected the boy wasn't telling the truth. At work, Shorpy carried two heavy pails of grease and was often in danger of being run over by the coal cars.

Partly as a result of Hine's work (as well as that of Mary Harris Jones, whoMother Jones is named after), Congress passed the Keating-Owens Child Labor Act in 1916. It established child labor standards, including a a minimum age (14 years old for factories, and 16 years old for mines) and an eight-hour workday. It also barred kids under the age of 16 from working overnight. However, the Keating-Owens Act was later ruled unconstitutional, and lasting reform to federal child labor laws didn't come until the New Deal.

Things have changed in the US when it comes to child labour laws.  But in other countries, child labour is still accepted, partly because families need the income.  In some areas, children are treated as slaves.  Click through this pictorial essay.

Think Progress — Last week, a cafeteria worker at an Idaho middle school was fired for giving a free lunch to a hungry 12-year-old student. On Wednesday, after significant backlash against the school, she was offered her job back.

The Idaho State Journal reported on Wednesday night that the worker, Darlene Bowden, would “have to think about” whether to re-accept the position.

A petition on Care2, Don't Fire a Kind Lunch Lady: Children Shouldn't Go Hungry!, keeps beating its target.  The newest target is 90,000 signatures with 88,472 actual signature.  I can appreciate the need to think about returning, but I hope the lunch lady does.  People are watching this Republican school board.

My Universe —

… no wrapping required!

"I ain't no Rudolph!"