{"id":18300,"date":"2015-12-12T08:06:43","date_gmt":"2015-12-12T16:06:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=18300"},"modified":"2015-12-12T08:06:43","modified_gmt":"2015-12-12T16:06:43","slug":"open-thread12122015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/12\/open-thread12122015\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread&ndash;12\/12\/2015"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Although I am still hurting from my fall, I\u2019m back in the saddle, albeit barely.&#160; Groceries are coming today.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Short Takes<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailykos.com\/stories\/2015\/12\/10\/1459102\/-Just-what-has-Hillary-done\" target=\"_blank\">Daily Kos<\/a>: <\/font>Hillary has an extensive record that cannot be disputed (although people try). <\/p>\n<p>This will be part one of a series that could take a lifetime to go over. Here we start with a list of portions of Hillary\u2019s record and some of her achievements.&#160; Feel free to discuss. I hope there are no duplicates in this batch. <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Secured a policy change that would <a href=\"http:\/\/correctrecord.org\/hillary-clinton-global-lgbt-advocate\/\" target=\"_blank\">\u201ctake into account\u201d a country\u2019s LGBT human rights record when distributing foreign aid.<\/a> <\/li>\n<li>She worked with Ted Kennedy to expand the <a href=\"http:\/\/mic.com\/articles\/115514\/11-things-hillary-clinton-has-accomplished-that-have-nothing-to-do-with-bill#.zJU4xjaqN\" target=\"_blank\">Children&#8217;s Health Insurance Program<\/a>. <\/li>\n<li>Directed the State Department to <a href=\"http:\/\/correctrecord.org\/hillary-clinton-global-lgbt-advocate\/v\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cchampion a comprehensive human rights agenda\u201d<\/a> that included protection of LGBT human rights. <\/li>\n<li>Made the promotion of <a href=\"http:\/\/correctrecord.org\/hillary-clinton-global-lgbt-advocate\/\" target=\"_blank\">equality for gay people a core value of U.S. foreign policy<\/a>. <\/li>\n<li>Declared that <a href=\"http:\/\/correctrecord.org\/hillary-clinton-global-lgbt-advocate\/\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cgay rights are human rights, and human rights are gay rights\u201d<\/a> to the international community. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">As critical as I am of Hillary, I have to agree that she has done many positive things. I&#8217;ve shared five. Click through for a long list.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2015\/12\/12\/opinion\/canadas-warm-embrace-of-refugees.html\" target=\"_blank\">NY Times<\/a>: <\/font>Many of the indelible images of the Middle East refugee crisis this year are haunting. There was the heart wrenching photo of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2015\/09\/04\/world\/europe\/syria-boy-drowning.html\" target=\"_blank\">Aylan Kurdi<\/a>, a lifeless 3-year-old boy who drowned at sea and washed up ashore on a beach in Turkey in early September. A photographer in Greece captured the moment <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/slideshow\/2015\/08\/17\/world\/europe\/migrants-find-an-unbridled-route-to-greece\/s\/20150817-MIGRANTS-slide-4IDI.html\" target=\"_blank\">Laith Majid<\/a>, an Iraqi refugee, walked off a deflating boat in Greece in tears, tightly clutching his son and daughter. And it\u2019s hard to forget the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2015\/09\/09\/world\/europe\/hungarian-journalist-fired-after-abusing-migrants-on-camera.html\" target=\"_blank\">spiteful Hungarian journalist<\/a> who tripped a Syrian refugee carrying a child, making them stumble.<\/p>\n<p>The simple but powerful words with which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2015\/12\/12\/world\/americas\/syria-refugees-arrive-in-canada.html?hp&amp;action=click&amp;pgtype=Homepage&amp;clickSource=story-heading&amp;module=second-column-region&amp;region=top-news&amp;WT.nav=top-news\" target=\"_blank\">greeted the first group of Syrians<\/a> resettled under an expedited program stood in sharp contrast to the misery and monumental injustice the earlier images represent.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou are home,\u201d he said when the refugees disembarked in Toronto on Thursday after a 16-hour flight from Beirut. <a href=\"http:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/2394286\/live-blog-toronto-set-to-welcome-feds-first-syrian-refugees-to-canada\/\" target=\"_blank\">To a man<\/a> holding a toddler wearing a headband with flowers, he repeated the sentiment: \u201cWelcome to your new home.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Kudos to Canada. They got rid of their Republicans, Harper and his harlots. We could be like Canada, if we would flush ours!<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"http:\/\/thinkprogress.org\/justice\/2015\/12\/11\/3731134\/rahm-emanuel-emails-laquan-mcdonald\/\" target=\"_blank\">Think Progress<\/a>: <\/font>Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D) likely knew that there was unreleased video evidence of Officer Jason Van Dyke killing 17-year-old Laquan McDonald within 50 days of the shooting, internal emails <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nbcchicago.com\/investigations\/City-Aware-Laquan-McDonald-Dashcam-Shooting-Emails-361342841.html\" target=\"_blank\">obtained by NBC Chicago<\/a> indicate.<\/p>\n<p>The emails show Emanuel staffers discussing the existence of dashcam video of the killing in early December of last year, as Emanuel\u2019s re-election effort was entering the home stretch. The city sought to suppress the video for over a year before a judge forced Chicago to release it to the public last month. In the early weeks after the killing, <a href=\"http:\/\/thinkprogress.org\/justice\/2015\/11\/25\/3725986\/laquan-mcdonald-chicago-accountablility\/\" target=\"_blank\">police insisted McDonald had lunged at Van Dyke with a knife<\/a> \u2014 something the video proves to be untrue.<\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">I&#8217;ve said it before, so I&#8217;ll repeat: Rahmbo must go!<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Cartoon<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"1212Cartoon\" style=\"border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px\" border=\"0\" alt=\"1212Cartoon\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/1212Cartoon.jpg\" width=\"650\" height=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Made in 2012, before I coined the term SCROTUS (Republican Constitutional VD).<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Although I am still hurting from my fall, I\u2019m back in the saddle, albeit barely.&#160; Groceries are coming today. Short Takes: From Daily Kos: Hillary has an extensive record that cannot be disputed (although people try). This will be part one of a series that could take a lifetime to go over. Here we start <a href='https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/12\/open-thread12122015\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,141,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-open-thread","category-plus","category-politics","category-35-id","category-141-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\/18300","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18300\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}