{"id":19983,"date":"2016-02-18T04:30:12","date_gmt":"2016-02-18T12:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=19983"},"modified":"2016-02-18T04:30:12","modified_gmt":"2016-02-18T12:30:12","slug":"squatchs-open-thread-17022016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/18\/squatchs-open-thread-17022016\/","title":{"rendered":"Squatch’s Open Thread 17\/02\/2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today has thankfully not been super busy.  It was raining hard and the next few days will be much worse.  Physio was good but I was in significant pain from my knees, likely because of the rain.  I don't expect it to get any better for the next few days so it is 'grin and bear it' time and take tylenol.  I have acquired another ESL student, the wife of my physiotherapist.  She is at a high school level so this will be a very different space from my other student.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

CBC<\/strong><\/span><\/a> — If, as Christians believe, Jesus Christ someday reappears, strolling down from Bethany toward Jerusalem's Golden Gate, conservative Americans would probably hail him as a Republican, but on reflection, not really fit to serve on the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

He might not be enthusiastic enough about guns, his ideas on wealth redistribution are just plain socialism, he likely wouldn't be keen on injecting criminals with lethal chemicals, he'd no doubt urge clemency for all the millions of illegal immigrants doing America's scut work and, as a Jew, he might even have a compromise view of abortion.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

As a matter of fact, the replacement of Justice Scalia, who was found dead Saturday at a hunting resort in Texas, is already becoming a big, bitterly disputed political issue in the presidential election, exactly what you'd think such an appointment should not be.  …<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

But that is America: nothing, not even a tribunal at the pinnacle of a system that is supposed to dispense blind, apolitical justice, is exempt from the left\/right, Democrat\/Republican, conservative\/liberal binary that suffuses every aspect of the nation's life.<\/p>\n

In Canada, one rarely hears anything from the Supreme Court of Canada other than their decisions, which is so different to SCOTUS.  Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin did have a dustup with ex-PM Stephen Harper but that was Harper's doing as he tried to push the appointment of a judge that did not meet the requirements for a justice.  Harper made it very public and he was wrong.  So to hear a retired justice's comments comparing the two top courts was very interesting.  Click through for the rest.<\/span><\/p>\n

Daily Kos<\/strong><\/span> — I took this picture from an article in Daily Kos because it made me laugh.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Republican<\/p>\n

Starting from left is Ted "Meh!" Cruz (sanctimonious bastard isn't he?!), Donald "Ollie!" Trump (doing an excellent impersonation of Stan Laurel), and lastly, Marco (I think I peed my pants) Rubio.  Together they are the 3 Stooges of the Republican Party.<\/span><\/p>\n

Right Wing Watch<\/span><\/a><\/strong> — In an “emergency transmission<\/a>” to his Facebook fans today, conspiracy theorist radio host Alex Jones floated his suspicions that the late Justice Antonin Scalia was “murdered,” just like conservative activist Andrew Breitbart<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While accusing Obama of a litany crimes, including secretly funding ISIS and blackmailing Supreme Court justices, Jones said that “this is the season of treason, this is the time of betrayal and we would be fools not to ask the question” if Scalia was assassinated, suggesting that bad actors may have slipped something into the justice’s drink to trigger a heart attack.<\/p>\n

MAJOR BARF BAG ALERT!     MAJOR BARF BAG ALERT!     MAJOR BARF BAG ALERT! <\/strong><\/span>    <\/p>\n

Click through for more including a video.  It is interesting to note that of the 5 most popular posts, 4 are conspiracy theories about the death of Scalia: <\/span>Rick Wiles: Obama Killed Scalia As A Pagan Human Sacrifice<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, <\/span>Glenn Beck: God Allowed Scalia To Die In Order To Highlight The Importance Of Electing Ted Cruz<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, <\/span>Donald Trump Raises Suspicions About Justice Scalia's Death<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, and this hit piece from Alex Jones. <\/span><\/p>\n

Huffington Post<\/strong><\/span><\/a> — <\/span>Social media users lamented the "ridiculous" sky-high price on such a lowly looking home<\/a> — but turns out it wasn't that ludicrous after all.<\/p>\n

The property ended up selling for more than $80,000 over its asking price …<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"vancouver<\/p>\n

This is not the kind of article I would normally post here, but it is indicative of the economics of Vancouver and just how unaffordable it is for residents.  Although the article indicates it is in Vancouver's West End, actually it is on the Westside, a very different area.  The house sold for approximately $2.5 million.  I am grateful that I bought my place 25 years ago in Port Moody which is a small city east of Vancouver, but still about 45 minutes driving time from downtown Vancouver.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\"crazycat_cat_gifs\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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

Today has thankfully not been super busy.  It was raining hard and the next few days will be much worse.  Physio was good but I was in significant pain from my knees, likely because of the rain.  I don't expect it to get any better for the next few days so it is 'grin and […]<\/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-19983","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\/19983","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=19983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19983\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}