{"id":18675,"date":"2016-01-01T20:12:23","date_gmt":"2016-01-02T04:12:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=18675"},"modified":"2016-01-01T20:20:59","modified_gmt":"2016-01-02T04:20:59","slug":"squatchs-open-thread-01012016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2016\/01\/01\/squatchs-open-thread-01012016\/","title":{"rendered":"Squatch&#8217;s Open Thread 01\/01\/2016"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color:#0000FF;\">Well today is one of only twelve times each year that the international date format that I use is the same as the American format that TC uses. &nbsp;LOL!!! There were certainly extensive fireworks last night, and I swear they were on my balcony, they seemed so loud and close. &nbsp;But I survived and my babes, Primo, Winnie and Annie, were calm and asleep. &nbsp;All&#39;s well that ends well!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#0000CD;\"><strong>Short Takes<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#0000FF;\"><strong>CBC<\/strong><\/span> &#8212;&nbsp;Natalie Cole, the American pop and blues singer known for hits such as T<em>his Will Be, Unforgettable<\/em>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<em>Our Love<\/em>, has died at age 65 [on 31\/12\/2015].<\/p>\n<p>The daughter of Nat King Cole, she won nine Grammy Awards in a career that began in the 1970s. Her<em>&nbsp;Unforgettable&hellip; with Love&nbsp;<\/em>sold 30 million copies and won the Grammy for album of the year. &nbsp;<strong><span style=\"color:#000000;\">&#8230;<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"695\" height=\"391\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MKCyUe4syc4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&quot;Natalie fought a fierce, courageous battle, dying how she lived &#8230; with dignity, strength and honour. Our beloved Mother and sister will be greatly missed and remain UNFORGETTABLE in our hearts forever,&quot; read the statement from her son, Robert Yancy, and sisters Timolin and Casey Cole.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"695\" height=\"521\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PxS0Trxc59k?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#0000FF;\">A sad note to start the new year off. &nbsp;I grew up listening to the mellow tones of Nat King Cole &#8212; Unforgettable, Ramblin&#39; Rose are two I especially remember &#8212; as my mother would not allow the early rock n&#39; roll into the house (that included the Beatles). &nbsp;As I aged, I came to appreciate his music very much, and the pieces that Natalie did virtually with her father are exceptional. &nbsp;Rest in peace Natalie Cole.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#0000FF;\">Cole wasn&#39;t the only death on New Year&#39;s &nbsp;Eve. Actor Wayne Rogers of M*A*S*H* fame passed away 31\/12\/2015 at age 82 from pneumonia. And special in Vancouver, Dal Richards, orchestra leader and musician who played New Year&#39;s Eve for 79 years straight, died of congestive heart failure just minutes before midnight. &nbsp;His last gig was just before Christmas and he had been scheduled to play on New Year&#39;s Eve which would have been his 80th straight year. &nbsp;RIP Dal and Wayne.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"695\" height=\"391\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KhGjtsRHke4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.alternet.org\/news-amp-politics\/5-most-cynical-libertarian-stealth-campaigns-2015\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"color:#0000FF;\"><strong>Alternet<\/strong><\/span><\/a> &#8212; Koch brothers exploit criminal justice reform to protect corporate criminals.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">People within the prison reform movement had&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/realkochfacts.com\/the-koch-brothers-want-you-to-think-theyre-being-noble\/\">long been<\/a>&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/realkochfacts.com\/the-koch-brothers-want-you-to-think-theyre-being-noble\/\">skeptical<\/a>&nbsp;of the Koch brothers sudden interest in the topic. With crime at record lows, a sympathetic president in the White House, and Black Lives Matter changing the conversation around our criminal justice system, the time was right to finally pull back many of the harsh &ldquo;tough-on-crime&rdquo; laws that were passed in the 90&#39;s under Bush and Clinton.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">So why the interest from the right-wing titans? Most of the media simply chalked it up to ideology, after all, the Kochs were libertarians and libertarians don&rsquo;t like drug laws and state incarceration, right? But like with much of what the billionaire brothers do, it wasn&rsquo;t so simple. Lee Fang and Dan Froomkin over at&nbsp;<em>The Intercept<\/em>&nbsp;dug a little deeper and revealed the Koch&rsquo;s ideology wasn&rsquo;t the only thing animating their support for criminal justice reform. Firstly, they&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2015\/11\/03\/soft-on-crime-ads\/\">continued<\/a>&nbsp;to buy ads for and donate to candidates like Louisiana&#39;s David Vitter who supported some of the harshest and most racist drug laws in the country while allocating minimal resources to justice reform. As Fang notes:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Out of 38 federal lobbyists employed by Koch, only one is registered to work on criminal justice issues. Most work on projects important to Koch Industries&rsquo; bottom line, such as rolling back Environmental Protection Agency rules.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">This wasn&rsquo;t the only indication the Koch&rsquo;s were simply piggy-backing off the movement to advance their corporate interests:<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2015\/11\/25\/koch-alliance-on-criminal-justice-reform-exposed-as-trojan-horse\/\">Koch &ldquo;Alliance&rdquo; on Criminal Justice Reform Exposed as Trojan Horse<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">So, while the Kochs and the liberal groups used similar language in their critique of the criminal justice system, when it came down to actual legislation, the Kochs were focused on reducing criminal prosecutions of corporations, not people.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Koch and the House Republicans turned out to be pushing&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/bill\/114th-congress\/house-bill\/4002\/text\">a bill<\/a>&nbsp;that critics describe as a &ldquo;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.petition2congress.com\/19001\/join-occupy-sec-in-urging-congress-to-oppose-hr4002-criminal-code\/\">Get Out of Jail Free<\/a>&rdquo; card for white-collar criminals.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Members of Washington&rsquo;s elite media crave stories about bipartisanship, so groups like the pro-Clinton Center for American Progress garnered&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2015\/02\/19\/us\/politics\/unlikely-cause-unites-the-left-and-the-right-justice-reform.html?smid=tw-share&amp;_r=0\">positive media attention<\/a>&nbsp;for finding common ground with the Kochs earlier this year.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The real aim for the Kochs&#39; prison reform was to reduce the liability of white collar criminals, not the largely black, Latino and poor constituency of most prisons. As The Huffington Post&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/entry\/white-collar-crime-prosecution_564a2336e4b06037734a2f84?fspxpqfr\">reported<\/a>, the bill being lobbied would make it more difficult to fine executives at corporations liable for financial fraud and environmental pollution. Leftist reformers were predictably upset, with Robert Weissman, president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, telling the Huffington Post, &quot;there is absolutely no reason for the otherwise laudable criminal justice reform bill to contain any measure to weaken already feeble standards for corporate criminal prosecution.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><span style=\"color:#0000FF;\">Click through for the other four&nbsp;Most Cynical Libertarian Stealth Campaigns of 2015. &nbsp;I have to say that my first reaction to the Koch&#39;s pushing prison reform was to protect themselves from going to prison for corporate crimes, if anyone could get enough information together and had the cajones to charge them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.motherjones.com\/politics\/2015\/12\/will-scott-walker-corruption-case-go-all-way-supreme-court\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"color:#0000FF;\"><strong>Mother Jones<\/strong><\/span><\/a> &#8212;&nbsp;This summer, the Wisconsin Supreme Court took up the question of whether to stop the investigation into alleged coordination between Walker&#39;s 2012 recall campaign and conservative outside groups that receive unlimited donations from undisclosed donors. The problem was that the election campaigns of two justices on the state&#39;s top court had<a href=\"http:\/\/www.motherjones.com\/politics\/2015\/05\/scott-walker-wisconsin-supreme-court\" target=\"_blank\">benefited significantly from spending<\/a>&nbsp;by those same groups accused of illegal coordination with Walker. The special prosecutor overseeing the investigation, along with&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.brennancenter.org\/press-release\/brief-legal-ethicists-urge-wisconsin-justices-consider-recusal-gov-scott-walker\" target=\"_blank\">legal ethicists<\/a>, asked the two justices with conflicts of interest to recuse themselves. But no justices stepped aside. &nbsp;<strong><span style=\"color:#000000;\">&#8230;<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">But if it does consider a&nbsp;<em>Caperton<\/em>&nbsp;challenge to the situation in Wisconsin, it could not just determine whether the Wisconsin Supreme Court crossed the line when it came to conflicts of interest, but <em><strong>could help set ethical standards across the country in an era when judicial elections are increasingly fought with millions of dollars in outside spending<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><span style=\"color:#0000FF;\">And would the SCOTUS, even though not elected, be subject to ethical standards, standards that the right wing justices seem to think don&#39;t apply to them?<\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><span style=\"color:#0000FF;\"><strong>My Universe<\/strong> &#8212;<\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/1391821_684909324862414_769876510_n.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-18718\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"1391821_684909324862414_769876510_n\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-18718\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/1391821_684909324862414_769876510_n-300x300.jpg\" width=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/1391821_684909324862414_769876510_n-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/1391821_684909324862414_769876510_n-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/1391821_684909324862414_769876510_n-96x96.jpg 96w, https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/1391821_684909324862414_769876510_n-24x24.jpg 24w, https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/1391821_684909324862414_769876510_n-36x36.jpg 36w, https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/1391821_684909324862414_769876510_n-48x48.jpg 48w, https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/1391821_684909324862414_769876510_n-64x64.jpg 64w, https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/1391821_684909324862414_769876510_n.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/1422593_10151837417086997_309990873_n.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-18719\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"1422593_10151837417086997_309990873_n\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-18719\" height=\"244\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/1422593_10151837417086997_309990873_n-300x244.jpg\" width=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/1422593_10151837417086997_309990873_n-300x244.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/1422593_10151837417086997_309990873_n.jpg 421w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Well today is one of only twelve times each year that the international date format that I use is the same as the American format that TC uses. &nbsp;LOL!!! There were certainly extensive fireworks last night, and I swear they were on my balcony, they seemed so loud and close. &nbsp;But I survived and my <a href='https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2016\/01\/01\/squatchs-open-thread-01012016\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/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-18675","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\/18675","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=18675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18675\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}