{"id":16654,"date":"2015-10-19T08:08:48","date_gmt":"2015-10-19T15:08:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=16654"},"modified":"2015-10-19T08:08:48","modified_gmt":"2015-10-19T15:08:48","slug":"squatchs-open-thread-19102015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2015\/10\/19\/squatchs-open-thread-19102015\/","title":{"rendered":"Squatch\u2019s Open Thread 19\/10\/2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was at church this morning.  The sign on the lawn read:<\/span> If 99% of us voted, it would not matter what the 1% voted for!<\/span><\/strong><\/em>  Of course this is a reminder to get out and vote in Canada's federal election which is tomorrow.  The turn out for the advance polls, which I voted in last weekend, were 71% higher than in 2011 with quite a few first time voters. Elections Canada is expecting a high turn out tomorrow and has a contingency plan for long lineups.  One problem though, the Blue Jays play game 3 of their 5 game series, and it is a do or die situation.  Will Blue Jay fever reduce the turn out?  Last month our church sign read: Adam and Eve, the first people who failed to read the Apple terms and conditions.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Puzzle — <\/strong>Today’s took me 3:27 (average 5:05). To do it, <\/span>click here<\/strong><\/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

Mother Jones<\/strong><\/span><\/a> — In 1958, Fred Koch, the founder of the Midwestern oil and cattle ranching empire that would become Koch Industries, became a charter member of the John Birch Society, the fiercely anti-communist organization whose members believed Soviet influence was infecting all aspects of American society. The Birchers attempted to place their weight on "the political scales…as fast and as far" as they could, but their movement was quickly sidelined to the ideological fringe. Two of Fred's four sons, Charles and David, have carried forward the conservative torch, and they have succeeded where their father and his allies failed. Their father's company, meanwhile, has grown into a multibillion-dollar conglomerate that is the second-largest private corporation in the country.<\/p>\n

Continue reading to see how and where the Kochs have spread their influence.  The Kochs are like an ivy plant . . . it looks great on the surface, but pull the vines aside a bit, and you see the ivy penetrating the walls it grows against.  It penetrates the very foundations of a building weakening it. In education for example, the donations to universities come with substantial caveats about what is taught.  Most donations come with some caveats, but the Kochs' caveats are especially onerous.<\/span><\/p>\n

Alternet<\/strong><\/span><\/a> — <\/span>The Monsanto public relations machine has done a stellar job in recent years of reducing the GMO debate to one that pits “pro-science advocates” against “anti-science climate-denier types” — with Monsanto portrayed as being squarely planted in the pro-science camp.<\/p>\n

But that well-oiled machine may be starting to sputter.<\/p>\n

Turns out that Monsanto executive solicited pro-GMO articles from university researchers, and passed the “research” off as independent science which the biotech giant then used to prop up its image and further its agenda.<\/p>\n