{"id":18724,"date":"2016-01-05T02:07:36","date_gmt":"2016-01-05T10:07:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=18724"},"modified":"2016-01-05T02:07:36","modified_gmt":"2016-01-05T10:07:36","slug":"squatchs-open-thread-04012016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2016\/01\/05\/squatchs-open-thread-04012016\/","title":{"rendered":"Squatch’s Open Thread 04\/01\/2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

I said yesterday that today would be busy, and it was.  I arrived home finally about 18:30 and sat down to relax . . . that was that for about 2 hours.  Tomorrow should be more relaxed.  Certainly was nice to come home to 3 purring furbabies.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Alternet<\/strong><\/span><\/a> — America has succumbed to a vicious cycle in which great wealth translates into political power, which generates even more wealth, and even more power.  …<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The progressive era welled up in the last decade of the nineteenth century because millions of Americans saw that wealth and power at the top were undermining American democracy <\/strong><\/span><\/em>and stacking the economic deck. Millions of Americans overcame their cynicism and began to mobilize.  …<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

…<\/span><\/strong> it is up to the rest of us to continue to organize and mobilize. Real reform will require many years of hard work from millions of us.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

"Real reform will require many years of hard work from millions of us."  <\/strong><\/em>This is the bottom line!  Getting out the vote.  Unrelentingly pushing for change.  We are still in an age of instant gratification.  But we have to realise that change does not happen over night.  Change takes time, persistence and dedication.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mother Jones<\/strong><\/span><\/a> — <\/span>Between the shooting deaths of three people at a Colorado Planned Parenthood<\/a>, the Supreme Court's<\/a> decision to hear its first abortion-related case in nine years, and the more than 50 new abortion restriction laws<\/a> enacted by state governments, abortion access was one of the most important issues of 2015. With presidential politics and ongoing legal challenges in the states, abortion rights will continue to be under fire in 2016.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

"Last year's big events, like the Planned Parenthood videos and the Supreme Court case, have actually ginned up even more interest in restricting abortion," Elizabeth Nash, a senior state issues associate at the Guttmacher Institute, tells Mother Jones<\/em>. "If it was possible, they've actually added more energy to decreasing abortion access."<\/p>\n

Republicans say they want small government, but they insist on making more repressive laws that affect women. And family values?  They have no idea what true family values are!<\/span><\/p>\n

Huffington Post<\/strong><\/span><\/a> — California lawmakers can ask for voters' opinions on campaign-spending laws after the California Supreme Court on Monday upheld the Legislature's power to use advisory ballot measures.<\/p>\n

In a 6-1 decision, the Golden State's high court ruled lawmakers have the power to place a nonbinding measure on statewide ballots asking voters if Congress should be spurred to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United<\/em> ruling on unlimited independent campaign donations.<\/p>\n

This sounds promising , another tool in the End Citizens United tool box, at least in California.  Will similar measures catch on in other states?  Certainly not in Republican states.  Citizens United should have never come to be.<\/span><\/p>\n

My Universe<\/strong><\/span> —<\/p>\n

\"1210267_large\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The natural order!<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"1384157_215185081981734_338017144_n\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I said yesterday that today would be busy, and it was.  I arrived home finally about 18:30 and sat down to relax . . . that was that for about 2 hours.  Tomorrow should be more relaxed.  Certainly was nice to come home to 3 purring furbabies. Short Takes Alternet — America has succumbed to a […]<\/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-18724","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\/18724","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=18724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18724\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}