Squatch’s Open Thread 14/11/2015

 Posted by at 3:03 pm  Open Thread, Politics
Nov 142015
 

Well yesterday started out fine but by the end of physio I had a size 9 problem!  As I was putting on my shoes, I tripped over my own feet and went down hard on my bad knee, hit my good knee, ending up on the floor on my stomach.  I jarred my right arm and shoulder, and later on, I noticed that my toes on the right foot are sore.  I may have sprained my big toe. So here I sit with a headache and sore body finishing my posts.  As TomCat said when I told him "Sounds like we need a wheelchair built for two.​" LOL dude!!!  So now you know why TC calls me Bigfoot!  Unfortunately, the fall did not scare the cough away.

Puzzle — Today’s took me 3:16 (average 4:25). To do it, click here. How did you do? 

Short Takes

The Atlantic — Saudi Arabia produces much of its electricity by burning oil, a practice that most countries abandoned long ago, reasoning that they could use coal and natural gas instead and save oil for transportation, an application for which there is no mainstream alternative. Most of Saudi Arabia’s power plants are colossally inefficient, as are its air conditioners, which consumed 70 percent of the kingdom’s electricity in 2013. Although the kingdom has just 30 million people, it is the world’s sixth-largest consumer of oil.

Now, Saudi rulers say, things must change. Their motivation isn’t concern about global warming; the last thing they want is an end to the fossil-fuel era. Quite the contrary: they see investing in solar energy as a way to remain a global oil power.

As noted in the article above, Saudi Arabia's use of oil is very inefficient — it is used to generate electricity for example.  By "getting into" renewables, they stand to extend their fossil fuel business.  Earlier this year, the following appeared in Al Arabiya.

Al Arabiya — The energy arm of Saudi-based conglomerate Abdul Latif Jameel has acquired Spanish-based solar developer Fotowatio Renewable Ventures, (FRV) the largest such firm in the Gulf.  …

“We will continue to pursue further acquisitions in the renewables sector in support of the MENAT [Middle East, North Africa and Turkey] region’s growing power demand,” said the conglomerate’s chairman Mohammed Abdul Latif Jameel.

Whatever we think of Saudi Arabia's motivation for upping the ante on solar and other renewables, the time has come for everyone to embrace renewables.  Cick through for the rest of these two articles . . . The Atlantic and Al Arabiya.

Alternet — On Thursday evening, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gave a speech launched a 95-minute rant to the faithful in Iowa and it was … something else.

He threw insults at Hillary Clinton and Carly Fiorina, said Marco Rubio is “weak like a baby,” he promised to “bomb the shit out of” oil fields in Iraq and Syria, and called the media “scum” and “garbage.” But he directed most of his venom at—go figure, his closest rival in the race—Ben Carson. 

Click through for the rest of Trump's diatribe.  I am totally incredulous that any sane person could support Trump. Absolute insaniTEA!

Huffington Post — When Alex Malloy caught a cab in Manhattan just after 11 p.m. on Friday, he did not expect anything out of the ordinary.

After he stepped inside, the driver immediately said, “Thank you.” Malloy, 23, told The Huffington Post he wasn't sure what to make of it at the time, but would later write that the conversation that followed was “one of the most heartbreaking moments I’ve ever experienced in my whole life.”

I was moved by this story like so many others who retweeted Alex Malloy's tweet.  We all occupy this earth; if we are cut, we bleed; if we are thirsty or hungry, we each need water and food to survive; if we are hurt, we reach out for solace.  Click through foe Alex's story.

My Universe — h/t Joanne Dixon — Now normally, I don't comment here but today is an exception.  There is a story that goes with this video.

Pet 360 — A tiny, weeks-old cat is being heralded as the "Miracle Kitten," and with good reason. Cassidy was found abandoned in the woods of British Columbia, missing his back legs and fighting to stay alive in the wilderness. Thankfully, someone found poor Cassidy and alerted the non-profit rescue organization TinyKittens in Fort Langley, British Columbia. Charlotte Roche, the operator of TinyKittens, helped capture him and his brother Topper and brought the badly injured cat to the Mountain View Veterinary Hospital. But, as reported by the local paper theLangley Advance, the odds of survival were stacked against him because of his major injuries and the fact that he was emaciated and suffering from a septic E. Coli infection. 

Dr. Renee Ferguson of Mountain View Veterinary Hospital tells Pet360, "Cassidy is a sweet little guy with a giant spirit.  He is a pleasure to exam and he has been so patient with his many rechecks and procedures.  When we met Cassidy, he was so weak from his infected, partially amputated back legs and starvation, that he it was difficult to assess the severity of the problems that he had.  We had to treat the infections, hydrate him and give him nutritional support.  If Shelly hadn’t taken Cassidy in that day, I don’t know how much longer he would have survived.  We felt more confident about his health after about a week.  We are now just consulting with specialists to determine what is the best plan for Cassidy and his legs for  the longterm."

Click through for the rest of the story.  I know the vet in the story, Dr Renee Ferguson. She is excellent and was great with my Scooter who was so very sick. She was doctoring in Port Coquitlam at the clinic I've gone to for 20+ years.  A week before Scooter died (age 17 years), Dr Ferguson gave him a spa day.  She could not believe how he perked up.  He loved having baths and was a very mellow boy in his dotage.

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Democratic Debate Issues

 Posted by at 2:13 pm  Politics
Nov 142015
 

Tonight from 9:00 to 11:00 PM EST (6:00 – 8:00 PST) the three contenders for the Democratic nomination will debate at Drake University in Des Moines, IA.  CBS will televise the event,  and I plan to watch.  If you don’t have access to a TV, you can stream it at CBSNews.com.  Several issues are likely to come up.

1114DebateWith just three candidates left, the Democratic presidential race isn’t nearly as contentious as the Republicans’. Polls indicate Democratic voters are lining up behind Hillary Clinton, who had a strong performance in the party’s first debate in October and followed it up with an affirmative showing at the 11-hour Benghazi hearing.

That doesn’t mean Clinton’s two challengers, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley, are giving up. Expect them to challenge Clinton in the party’s second debate, hosted Saturday night by CBS in Des Moines, Iowa. They will likely try to draw comparisons between their lengthy liberal records and Clinton’s more-moderate stances from the last time she ran for president.

On matters of both politics and policy, the three candidates clearly have a lot to talk about. Here are the top 13 issues likely to be discussed at Saturday’s Democratic debate:

1. Terrorism and the Islamic State

The tragic events in Paris on Friday night will surely be heavy on everyone’s minds when the Democratic candidates take to the debate stage. And CBS has assured some of the questioning will focus on how to combat terrorism.

“Last night’s attacks are a tragic example of the kind of challenges American presidents face in today’s world and we intend to ask the candidates how they would confront the evolving threat of terrorism,” CBS News vice president and Washington bureau chief Christopher Isham said in a statement.

The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the Paris attacks, which French President Francois Hollande said amount to an act of war from the terrorist group. France is a U.S. ally in launching air strikes over Iraq and Syria to disrupt the terrorist group, which came to rise amid leadership vacuums in the Middle East in 2013 and 2014.

But the battle recently got more complicated with Russia’s sudden intervention this fall in Syria to attempt to prop up Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Not coincidentally, Obama announced he’s putting 50 Special Ops commandos on the ground in Syria, appearing to go back on his past statements he wouldn’t commit ground troops to Syria.r

Republicans have tried to link Clinton’s time as secretary of state to the rise of the Islamic State; Clinton has said the long-running civil war in Syria led to the terrorist group’s outgrowth. She has advocated for “doing more to help the rebels” and instituting a no-fly zone in Syria, a notable departure from Obama and her main challenger, Sanders. Clinton has not said whether she would dedicate U.S. troops to creating the no-fly zone.

Whatever has been said before though, the events of Friday night certainly make the issue much more salient and could change things for everyone involved…

Inserted from <Washington Post>

Hillary’s experience combatting terrorism, as Secretary of State, should give her a huge advantage on this issue, and I have no doubt that this weekend’s terrorist attack in Paris is likely to shift the focus of the debate toward this topic.  That will not help Bernie.

However, the article has a list of thirteen topics, and I only shared one.  Click through for the other twelve.  Go, Bernie, Go!!

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On the Edge–11/14/2015

 Posted by at 2:12 pm  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Nov 142015
 

I just got back to bed after eating breakfast in a wheel chair and taking a hunting trip a around the unit.  I couldn’t ketch one today either.  Smile with tongue out    I’m hoping OT comes today so I can mount the porcelain throne to Republicate.

Short Takes:

From KPTV: In a unanimous vote Thursday, the Portland City Council passed a resolution opposing any project that increases the transportation or storage of fossil fuels in Portland.

Now, city workers will develop rules that move Portland away from projects that involve coal or oil.

Furthermore they recently passed a measure banning explosive oil trains from the city. Oregon leads the way.

From Daily Kos: That Ben Carson gets awfully creative with the truth is by now well established. Here’s one if his more interesting ones, that Medicare and Medicaid fraud  is “huge—half a trillion dollars.” Which is pretty much impossible, since total spending for the two programs is less than a trillion—$980 billion last year, to be exact. But here’s a new wrinkle on that specific claim: Carson has some very personal experience with Medicare fraud: his best friend and business partner has been convicted of it.

The friend in question, indeed Carson’s best friend and business partner, is a Philadelphia-area oral surgeon, Alfonso Costa. 

Carson and Costa have long been tight. They vacation together, and Carson holidays at an Italian resort villa owned by Costa’s company. Costa is president of the Pittsburgh chapter of the Ben Carson Scholars Fund, which awards $1,000 college scholarships to students who demonstrate good character and strong academics. And Costa’s real estate development firm helps to oversee a lucrative investment for Carson and his wife, one that last year netted the Carsons between $200,000 and $2 million, according to the GOP candidate’s financial disclosure forms.

As much as a quarter of Carson’s $8 million-plus personal wealth is tied up in various real estate ventures with Costa.

Why am I not surprised? If uncle Token weren’t a criminal, he wouldn’t be a Republican!

From NY Times: The Paris area reeled Friday night from a shooting rampage, explosions and mass hostage-taking that President François Hollande called an unprecedented terrorist attack on France. His government announced sharply increased border controls and heightened police powers as it mobilized the military in a national emergency.

French television and news services quoted the police as saying that around 100 people had been killed at a concert site where hostages had been held during a two-hour standoff with the police, and that perhaps dozens of others had been killed in apparently coordinated attacks outside the country’s main sports stadium and four other popular locations in the city. But estimates on the total number of dead varied.

Witnesses on French television said the scene at the concert hall, which can seat as many as 1,500 people, was a massacre, describing how gunmen with automatic weapons shot bursts of bullets into the crowd.

This is tragic. I’m sending thoughts and prayers to the survivors, the victims families, all who love them. However you connect with the infinite, please join me.

Cartoon:

1114Cartoon

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Everyday Erinyes

 Posted by at 10:25 am  Politics
Nov 142015
 

The Erinyes in Greek mythology are usually called "The Furies" in English. But the only day that begins with an "F" is Friday, and I certainly don't want to ruin our fun by putting this post there. So, "Everyday" it is. I don't anticipate any shortage of material, more's the pity.

Anyway, traditionally there were three of them.  In fact there may have been more than three – their number was never actually specified – but in the Aeneid Virgil hands us three names: Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone.  These roughly translate as "unceasing," "grudging," and "vengeful destruction."  Their function was to keep humans in line, and I must say we could use their assistance today.

Alecto ~ Few things in modern governance have been more unceasing than the FBI's persistence in seeing citizens' legitimate concern about government overreach as dangerous dissent likely to lead to the overthrow of the country.  From Emma Goldman to Martin Luther King Jr to Occupy and beyond, the FBI has worked diligently to surveil and if possible undermine any efforts to humanize our country.

The "School of the Americas" is an "academy" which trains mostly right wing Latin Americans to become successful dictators or dictators' key staff.  You can check out www.soaw.org to get a feel for the SOA's "accomplishments."  SOA Watch was established to shut it down.  So, naturally, the FBI has been surveilling – what else? – SOA Watch.

Records are now available documenting the FBI's tracking of SOA Watch for the last TEN YEARS.  Full report and documents at http://www.justiceonline.org/soaw.  We need Alecto to turn her attention to the FBI.  Now.

Megaera ~ Grudging an education to any child who doesn't fit some arbitrary guidelines of being "perfect" might be a project for Megaera to put a stop to.  To quote the New York Times, "Charter schools are privately run but publicly funded and admit children by lottery. Similar to a traditional public school, a charter school must provide a seat to a child who has enrolled unless the student withdraws, is expelled, turns 21 or moves out of the state. Charter schools must follow strict guidelines before formally expelling any student, and Success (Academy Charter Schools) has done so only once since its first school opened in 2006. But Success’s critics accuse it of pushing children out by making their parents’ lives so difficult that they withdraw."

What makes this convincing is the recent discovery that at least one of these charter schools owned by Success Academy had created a "Got To Go" list.  Nine of sixteen children on the list subsequently withdrew from the school.  Which does not guarantee that the other seven will stay.

If charter schools are able to use techniques such as this (and there are many other techniques) to push out certain students, whereas public schools must accept and keep every child, higher scores on standardized tests by charter schools looks very much like phony statistics.  Megaera – please look into this

Tisiphone ~ This really does appear to be an instance of "vengeful destruction."  In fact, until Megan Dixon (no relation) came forward, there appeared to be no reason why the automobile in question would even be stopped.

Megan is engaged to Chris Few, the father of little (6 years old) Jeremy Mardis, who was shot to death while buckled into the back seat of the vehicle.  Six years old.  Incidentally, autistic.  Shot by Officer Norris Greenhouse, Jr, and Officer Derrick Stafford.
Seems Officer Greenhouse was a former high school classmate of Megan Dixon, who (apparently out of the blue) had started messaging her on Facebook.  Greenhouse went so far as to come by the home where Megan and Chris were living.  Megan told Chris the circumstances, and Chris advised Greenhouse to leave his fiancée alone.

Then the traffic stop.

Chris Few also was shot multiple times, and as of Monday was still hospitalized in "fair" condition and had not been told of his son's death.  Not that he would have been medically able to attend the funeral.

For a wonder, the two officers mentioned (two of the four who took part in the stop) are in jail on one million dollars bail under charges of murder.  That, however, is a far cry from being convicted.  Tisiphone – help.  Please.

SOAW photo from a previous year's event held in Austin, TX.  Successs Academy photo from the New York Times.  Jeremy's funeral photo from Louisiana newspaper The Advocate.

 

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Republican’s on Parade–11/13/2015

 Posted by at 2:42 pm  Politics
Nov 132015
 

RepublicansOnParade

Here is the seventy-seventh article in our Republicans on Parade series, featuring individuals who personify what the Republican Party has become. Today’s honoree is Judge Scott Johansen , a Juvenile Court judge from Utah’s Seventh District. He is so honored for the Republican Family Values he is using to destroy a family.

1113JohansenApril Hoagland and Beckie Peirce have been fostering a Utah infant for three months. With the approval of the infant’s biological mother and a recommendation of the foster care caseworker, they were seeking to permanently adopt the child. Instead, a Utah judge ordered the baby removed from their home and placed in a home with heterosexual parents:

The women, who are legally married and were approved as foster parents in Utah earlier this year after passing home inspections, background checks and interviews from DCFS, said the judge told them there was a lot of research that indicated children who are raised in same-sex parent homes do not do as well as children who are raised by heterosexual parents.

“It hurts me really badly because I haven’t done anything wrong,” said April.

Worse yet, when Judge Scott Johansen was asked in court to share the studies he was referencing, he refused:

Attorney Mandie Torgerson, who represents the baby’s biological mother, said Johansen did not cite the research he referenced in court saying only that there are “a myriad” of studies that support his order.

Inserted from <Daily Kos>

This interview with the mothers is not the same video clip as the one in the article, because it could not be embedded.

 

My heart goes out to April and Beckie. For that fascist judge to destroy a family in a manner both contrary to the law and  based solely on his hatred for LGBT people, demonstrates two things about him.  He is an evil man.  He is a Republican.

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On the Edge–11/13/2015

 Posted by at 2:41 pm  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Nov 132015
 

I’m having a lousy morning.  I was lest sitting in a chair, without access to my computer, for over 90 minutes.  I need to trim my fingernails.  A “one size fits all” CNI refused to give me my fingernail clippers for fear that I might cut myself.  I’ve been cutting my own nails for over 60 years, and I have never cut myself yet.  ARGH!!  Continuing later, an Occupational therapy nurse came, gave me my nail clippers, and taught me how to move from the wheelchair to a real flush toilet.  I got to Republicate without using a bed pan!  Woo Hoo!!

Short Takes:

From You Tube (H/T Judi Angel aka JL A):

 

Every once in a while someone from the Religious Right does something truly funny.  Although I disagree with virtually all his Republican Supply-side pseudo- Christian political policies, I do appreciate his talent and humor.

From Daily Kos: When I read that the latest persecution of the rightwing Christian involved Starbucks changing their cups to red for the holiday season, I thought that the War on Christmas had officially hit rock bottom.

The MSM jumped all over the story about a video from a “pastor” saying the red cups Starbucks is using for the holiday season aren’t Christmas enough and that Starbucks literally “hates Jesus“. Video goes viral and rightwing is outraged.  This whole thing is beyond stupid, even for them…

…It wasn’t until I finally read one of the articles that I came across the name of the man who spawned this latest freak-out:  Joshua Feuerstein.  In none of the countless articles does the  MSM bother to discuss who this clown is.   So allow me:

Joshua Feuerstein is a self-described evangelist and “social-media personality”.  I recognized his name because he is the same asshat who harassed one of my local bakeries (and illegally recorded the phone call) because they refused to fill a fake order for an anti-gay cake.  His followers bombarded their Facebook site with Ben Carson-like yarns of their supposed “bad experiences” with the bakery.  Astoundingly, all of these reviews happened immediately after the date Joshua posted his hate-filled video.  The bakery had to temporarily close in response to the harassment, which included death threats. 

Click through for more about this purveyor of TEAbuggery and the media complicity that enables him to spread it.

From NY Times: Efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act have become snarled in the complex rules of the Senate, raising questions about whether the Republican-controlled Congress can fulfill its pledge to send a repeal measure to President Obama.

Repealing the law, passed five and a half years ago, is a goal cherished by Republican politicians, including those running for president, and by elements of the party’s base. Mr. Obama has repeatedly vowed to use his veto power if necessary to preserve the health care law, the biggest change in domestic social policy in a generation.

The House on Oct. 23 adopted a budget-reconciliation package that would repeal core elements of the Affordable Care Act. The bill would eliminate the requirement that Americans have health insurance, and that larger employers offer coverage to full-time employees. It would also repeal taxes on medical devices and high-cost employer-sponsored insurance.

In the Senate, Republicans are determined to dismantle or defund the law using a fast-track procedure that requires a simple majority vote, rather than the 60 votes needed for most hotly contested measures.

But the Senate parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, ruled this week that some provisions of the House-passed bill were not eligible for expedited procedures, aides to Senate leaders of both parties said Thursday. Democrats said the ruling meant that Republicans would need a supermajority of 60 votes, which they do not have, to repeal the individual and employer mandates.

This is why that keeping the Senate in 2016 is an absolute imperative.

Cartoon:

1113Cartoom

Those Justices of SCOTUS sure were better than the fascist five Injustices of SCROTUS!

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