{"id":16141,"date":"2015-09-26T09:06:10","date_gmt":"2015-09-26T16:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=16141"},"modified":"2015-09-26T09:06:10","modified_gmt":"2015-09-26T16:06:10","slug":"squatchs-open-thread-26092015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/26\/squatchs-open-thread-26092015\/","title":{"rendered":"Squatch\u2019s Open Thread 26\/09\/2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today has been a very busy day for me.  After 2.5 hours of physio therapy which includes weights, bicycling, ultra sound etc, I was off to teach ESL. My student was upset from a meeting last Monday and a letter she received, so I spent some time advocating for her with a provincial government office. Once that was done, she was calmer and better able to concentrate on the lesson.  I finally came home about 4 pm, did some prep work for TC's blog, and then indulged in one of Lona's cat naps. Thank goodness she sends those by the gross!  So here we are.  My oldest boy just came into the den and is lying on the floor beside me.  If the chair were empty, he'd be in the chair!<\/span><\/p>\n

Puzzle<\/strong> — Today’s took me 3:26 (average 4:57).  To do it, <\/span>click here<\/span><\/a>.  How did you do?  For those that don't know, we always do the 48 piece classic.<\/span><\/p>\n

Short Takes <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

RSN<\/strong><\/a> — You are going to be hearing a lot about “Bernie Sanders, the Radical Socialist” in the coming months. So before that bandwagon rolls off down the great American highway let’s pin a little truth to its tail. …<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

“This country has socialism for the rich, rugged individualism for the poor.”
\n\t\t– The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

“A basic principle of modern state capitalism is that costs and risks are socialized to the extent possible, while profit is privatized.”
\n\t\t– Noam Chomsky<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Socialism for working people, maybe not so radical. Want to really make America great again? Do it the way FDR did it in the 1930s. That is where Sanders is leading the 99%.<\/p>\n

Socialism in the US is a very misunderstood term, but it exists and possibly in places you never thought of before.  Read the rest of this short piece to learn more. The Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr had it right!<\/span><\/p>\n

Raw Story<\/strong><\/a> — <\/span>Prior to being fired herself, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina used tax incentives from the federal government, intended to increase research and development and employee hiring, to buy back stock before firing thousands of HP workers.<\/p>\n

According to The Daily Beast,<\/a> Fiorina — whose troubled tenure at HP has come under more scrutiny as she moves up in the polls for the GOP presidential nomination — was not the only high-ranking executive to take advantage of a corporate “tax holiday” and work it to her own advantage.<\/p>\n

Is Fiorina the kind of leadership that the Republicans want in the White House?  She has failed in spectacular fashion in business; she allowed her company to commit fraud against the federal government all the while laying off tens of thousands of workers while shareholders were enriched (including herself); she managed to get one hell of a golden parachute despite tanking her company; she has lied about "Planned Parenthood" videos; and she thinks that she's done nothing wrong. <\/span><\/p>\n

Alternet<\/strong><\/span><\/a> <\/span>— In addressing a question about Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, Chomsky assessed the political landscape: "Today’s Democrats are what used to be called moderate Republicans. The Republicans have just drifted off the spectrum. They’re so committed to extreme wealth and power that they cannot get votes … So what has happened is that they’ve mobilized sectors of the population that have been around for a long time. … Trump may be comic relief, but it’s not that different from the mainstream, which I think is more important."<\/p>\n

\n

…[Republican Party] It’s a radical insurgency; it’s not a political party.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I am a Chomsky fan and have been for a number years.  This 4 minute video is worth the time to listen.  The audience certainly gets into Chomsky's humour.<\/span><\/p>\n

My Universe<\/strong> — h\/t Dandelion<\/strong> — It's Saturday and time to partay!<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today has been a very busy day for me.  After 2.5 hours of physio therapy which includes weights, bicycling, ultra sound etc, I was off to teach ESL. My student was upset from a meeting last Monday and a letter she received, so I spent some time advocating for her with a provincial government office. […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-open-thread","category-politics","category-35-id","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16141\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}