{"id":18013,"date":"2015-12-13T00:46:25","date_gmt":"2015-12-13T08:46:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=18013"},"modified":"2015-12-13T00:46:25","modified_gmt":"2015-12-13T08:46:25","slug":"squatchs-open-thread-12122015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/13\/squatchs-open-thread-12122015\/","title":{"rendered":"Squatch\u2019s Open Thread 12\/12\/2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

It has been a busy day.  The weather has been foul with wind and rain warnings.  Ferries on the coast were cancelled late afternoon and evening because of the wind.  Our trip to Costco was hampered by all the rain and I was soaked through.  I was warmer without my jacket so off it stayed, although I did garner a few questioning stares . . . you know the kind . . . "are you nuts?".  I was tired enough that once I arrived home about 6 pm, a cat nap was in order.<\/span><\/p>\n

Puzzle<\/strong> — Today’s took me 4:28 (average 12:14). To do it, <\/span>click here<\/span><\/a><\/strong>. How did you do?   With an average time so high, it would seem that many people have had trouble finding the key to this door!<\/span><\/p>\n

Short Takes<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

CNN<\/span><\/a> <\/strong>— Donald Trump's tweet on Tuesday dangling the idea of an independent run for president sent a clear warning to the Republican establishment: Attack at your own peril.<\/p>\n

After 24 hours of withering criticism<\/a> from the likes of Dick Cheney, Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell and virtually every fellow GOP presidential hopeful — not to mention Democrats and the mayors of Philadelphia and London — Trump is defiantly standing by his proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United States<\/a>. And he upped the ante by tweeting a new USA Today\/Suffolk University poll<\/a> that shows 68% of the 2016 Republican front-runner's supporters would ditch the GOP and stick with him if he launched an independent campaign for the presidency.  …<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

"You know how you make America great again? Tell Donald Trump to go to hell,<\/strong><\/em>" South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said on CNN's "New Day"<\/a> on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The feelings expressed about Trump from various sources seem to boil down to Lindsey Graham's words: <\/span>"Tell Donald Trump to go to hell<\/strong><\/em>".  But will the Republican Party be able to do it?<\/span><\/p>\n

Time<\/strong><\/span><\/a> — Europe’s most powerful leader is a refugee from a time and place where her power would have been unimaginable. The German Democratic Republic, where Angela Merkel grew up, was neither democratic nor a republic; it was an Orwellian horror show, where the Iron Curtain found literal expression in the form of the Berlin Wall. The shy daughter of a Lutheran minister, Merkel slipped into politics as a divorced Protestant in a largely Catholic party, a woman in a frat house, an Ossi in the newly unified Germany of the 1990s where easterners were still aliens. No other major Western leader grew up in a stockade, which gave Merkel a rare perspective on the lure of freedom and the risks people will take to taste it.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump, also in the running, tweeted this upon learning Angela Merkel had been chosen:<\/span> "I told you @TIME Magazine would never pick me as person of the year despite being the big favorite. They picked person who is ruining Germany."  Congratulations to Angela Merkel for being Time's Person of the Year and at the same time, pissing off the narcissistic, bloviating Trump.  I don't agree with everything Merkel does, but she has left an indelible mark on the world stage.<\/span><\/p>\n

National Journal<\/strong><\/span><\/a> —  <\/span>Su­preme Court Justice Ant­on­in Scalia’s seem­ing sug­ges­tion this week that stu­dents of col­or would be bet­ter off at “a slower-track school where they do well” is not only of­fens­ive, it’s wrong. <\/p>\n

Black and Latino stu­dents who at­tend se­lect­ive schools are more likely to gradu­ate than those who at­tend open-en­roll­ment schools, re­gard­less of how aca­dem­ic­ally pre­pared they are when they enter. <\/p>\n

Ac­cord­ing to the Geor­getown Uni­versity Cen­ter on Edu­ca­tion and the Work­force, gradu­ation rates for black and Latino stu­dents double when they move to se­lect­ive schools from open-ac­cess col­leges. <\/p>\n

\"Athena<\/p>\n

“Justice Scalia is mak­ing the tired ar­gu­ment that ad­mit­ting Afric­an-Amer­ic­an stu­dents in­to white schools is akin to put­ting ponies in a horse race,”<\/p>\n

Further evidence, as if any more were really needed, that Injustice Scalia should be put out to pasture.<\/span><\/p>\n

My Universe — <\/span><\/p>\n