{"id":20314,"date":"2016-03-03T06:14:29","date_gmt":"2016-03-03T14:14:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=20314"},"modified":"2016-03-03T06:14:29","modified_gmt":"2016-03-03T14:14:29","slug":"squatchs-open-thread-02032016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2016\/03\/03\/squatchs-open-thread-02032016\/","title":{"rendered":"Squatch’s Open Thread 02\/03\/2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today was a "me" day.  After physio, I went out for lunch and read my book as I noshed on a turkey sandwich and a green salad.  Then home to do the PP monthly report.  Unfortunately, I am having some technical difficulties which I will try to rectify tomorrow.  I ended up using a Lona cat nap which was refreshing.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Huffington Post<\/strong><\/span><\/a> — Retired neurosurgeon and bestselling author Ben Carson said in a statement Wednesday he does "not see a political path forward<\/strong><\/span>" for his campaign after his poor showing on Super Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Carson announced he won't attend the Fox News GOP debate on Thursday in Detroit, and said he would further discuss his political plans at the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland, on Friday.<\/p>\n

"not see a political path forward<\/strong>" sounds suspiciously like Carson is suspending his campaign, but when asked to clarify, he simply said "We'll see."  I guess we will, just like we will see tomorrow at 11:30 am EST when Mitt Romney is scheduled to give a <\/span>major speech<\/strong><\/span><\/a> on the 2016 presidential race.  Will he enter the Republican fray?<\/span><\/p>\n

Just in, the Associated Press obtained excerpts of Romney's speech.  Read the <\/span>CBC report<\/strong><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Alternet<\/span><\/a><\/strong> — <\/span>Valentino’s Ghost<\/em> lays bare the truths behind taboo subjects that are conspicuously avoided, or merely treated as sound bites by the mainstream American media: “Why do they hate us?” “Why do we hate them?” What were the events that led to the 9\/11 attacks? What are the politics behind the U.S.-Israeli relationship?  Why is there a robust debate about these subjects in Europe, the Arab World and in Israel itself, but not in the United States? <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

At the end of the article is the full 100 minute documentary "Valentino’s Ghost<\/em>" which I encourage everyone to watch. The articles title tells us much "Valentino's Ghost: Powerful Documentary Explores How US Foreign Policy in the Middle East Drives Islamophobia at Home" as experts "explain how the U.S. media and govt are the source of fear and loathing of Arabs, Muslims and Islam."<\/span><\/p>\n

Raw Story<\/strong><\/span><\/a> — <\/span>Former ABC News anchor Ted Koppel said on Wednesday that his Fox News counterpart Bill O’Reilly has undermined journalists’ ability to interview Donald Trump.  …<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

You have changed the television landscape over the past 20 years — you took it from being objective and dull to subjective and entertaining. And in this current climate, it doesn’t matter what the interviewer asks him; Mr. Trump is gonna say whatever he wants to say, as outrageous as it may be.”<\/p>\n

The real estate mogul’s audience, Koppel added, was not even a television audience, but one better suited for Twitter.<\/p>\n

“They deal in messages of 140 characters or less, which keeps it nice and simple,” he explained.<\/p>\n

Good on Ted Koppel for nailing O'Lielly!<\/span><\/p>\n

Daily Beast<\/strong><\/span><\/a> — <\/span>The intellectual leader of the tea party movement in the Senate is secretly holding up a bill to help the residents of Flint, Michigan, who have been poisoned by their own water supply.  …<\/strong><\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

Lee [Republican, Utah] doesn’t like that the proposal is not being put through the ordinary and time-consuming gamut of Senate procedures known as ‘regular order’; has objections on how money from the stimulus is being repurposed for water infrastructure; and is concerned about the federal government getting involved in what he views as a local issue.<\/p>\n

Lee, an intellectual?  So this is how Republicans look after American citizens in crisis through no fault of their own. What a putz!<\/span><\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

\"cat<\/p>\n

I'm in training!  I must improve my time before the Olympic trials!<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"cat<\/p>\n

Whoa! Aliens! I'm outa here!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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

Today was a "me" day.  After physio, I went out for lunch and read my book as I noshed on a turkey sandwich and a green salad.  Then home to do the PP monthly report.  Unfortunately, I am having some technical difficulties which I will try to rectify tomorrow.  I ended up using a Lona cat […]<\/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-20314","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\/20314","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=20314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20314\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}