{"id":21795,"date":"2016-05-21T18:20:47","date_gmt":"2016-05-22T01:20:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=21795"},"modified":"2016-05-21T21:43:45","modified_gmt":"2016-05-22T04:43:45","slug":"squatchs-open-thread-21052016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2016\/05\/21\/squatchs-open-thread-21052016\/","title":{"rendered":"Squatch’s Open Thread 21\/05\/2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well I still have sinusitis, albeit the end stages I hope.  I am at least able to, for the most part, wear my glasses and read.  Tonight is my last anti-biotic but I am still without a lot of energy.  I have been resting a lot and drinking a lot . . . the hard stuff . . . H2<\/sub>O.  I had physio on Wednesday which, despite being at a reduced intensity, tuckered me out.  Thursday, I took my mother for her annual eye exam and then later in the evening attended my course (next week is the completion).  Friday was more physio and then teaching.  I was really tired by the end of yesterday but had a good night's sleep.  So this long weekend is very low key, a gift I give to myself to hopefully build up some reserves.  This Canadian long weekend celebrates Queen Victoria's birthday and is unofficially the start of the summer season, although summer does not really start until about 21 June.  This is often the "first" camping weekend of the season, and, in many areas of Canada, flowers and vegetable gardens are not planted until after 24\/05 because it is generally considered too cold.  When I lived in northern BC, the last snowfall was usually around the end of May.  Here in greater Vancouver, this is not the case as we have a more temperate climate.  Hope you are having a relaxing weekend.<\/span><\/p>\n

National Law Journal<\/span><\/a><\/strong> <\/strong>— <\/span>In the alternate universe of John Banzhaf ("When the Rabble-Rousing Turns Criminal, There's A Civil Solution," The National Law Journal, March 28<\/font><\/a>), protesters have taken over the streets and hijacked the political process. Police step back and do nothing. They "yield the streets," sometimes because they are "afraid to make arrests," sometimes because "there is sympathy with their cause." If arrests take place, protesters end up in court and "face only a token fine."<\/p>\n

The real world of street protest bears no relation to what Banzhaf describes. In fact, the post-9\/11 trend, of which his anti-protester screed is symptomatic, is of increasing hostility to street protest. In the crackdown on peaceful ­protesters, police show no "sympathy with their cause" and are entirely "[un]afraid to make arrests." As a consequence of the amped-up focus on security since 9\/11, the "war on terror" has also become a war on dissent.<\/p>\n

In my last post, I brought you a piece by law professor John Banzhaf.  In it, Banzhaf argues that protesters who prevent others from hearing a speaker, specifically Trump in that case, are guilty of obstructing freedom of speech and assembly for those attending a Trump rally.  He goes on to say that protesters face few penalties and that police are afraid to arrest protesters etc.  I think you and I would for the most part disagree with Banzhaf on his police point having witnessed police actions in Ferguson, Missouri and other locales.  Author Alan Levine, himself a practising civil rights and constitutional lawyer in NY, sees the current police attitude in general, as impinging upon the freedom of assembly and  the freedom of speech.  Have a look.<\/span><\/p>\n

MSN<\/strong><\/span><\/a> — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, speaking from the floor of an institution that once enacted racist policies against large-scale immigration from Asia until the 1960s, apologized Wednesday for the 1914 Komagata Maru incident.<\/p>\n

“Mr. Speaker, today I rise in this House to offer an apology on behalf of the government of Canada for our role in the Komagata Maru incident,” he said, triggering a standing ovation with MPs of all major parties applauding. <\/p>\n

“More than a century ago a great injustice took place.”<\/p>\n

Trudeau spoke in a chamber filled with MPs and Indo-Canadians from across the country, including a delegation of more than 100 from B.C. who were led by Premier Christy Clark.<\/p>\n

Trudeau said Canada would have been richer if the 376 passengers – mostly Sikh along with a handful of Muslims and Hindus – had been allowed to disembark from that Japanese ship.<\/p>\n

Many people, including many Canadians, are not aware of the Komagata Maru incident of 1914 in Vancouver.  It is not a proud moment in Canadian history, but I am sure that it is something that Herr Drumpf in the US would endorse.  This from <\/span>Wikipedia<\/span><\/a><\/strong>:<\/span><\/p>\n

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The Komagata Maru<\/i> incident<\/b> involved a Japanese steamship<\/font><\/a>, Komagata Maru<\/font><\/a><\/i>, that sailed from Hong Kong<\/font><\/a>, then a holding of the British Empire<\/font><\/a>, through Shanghai, China<\/font><\/a>, then on to Yokohama<\/font><\/a>, Japan<\/font><\/a>, and then finally to Vancouver<\/font><\/a>, British Columbia, Canada, in 1914, carrying 376 passengers from Punjab<\/font><\/a>, British India<\/font><\/a>. Of them 24 were admitted to Canada, but the other 352 passengers were not allowed to land in Canada, and the ship was forced to return to India.[1]<\/font><\/a><\/sup> The passengers comprised 340 Sikhs<\/font><\/a>, 24 Muslims, and 12 Hindus, all British subjects<\/font><\/a>. This was one of several incidents in the history of early 20th century involving exclusion laws in both Canada and the United States designed to keep out immigrants of only Asian origin.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In the park where I walk, there is a memorial to the people of the Komagata Maru.  I'd like to think that we have come a long way since 1914, and maybe we have, but there is still a long way to go before we become a totally inclusive society.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Economist<\/span><\/a> <\/span><\/strong>— <\/span>He was for far too long underestimated. The same must not be said of the threat his egomania and pernicious nativism represents to America and the world.  …<\/p>\n

Yet if Mr Trump’s supporters like his message, many are also motivated by disdain for the party bosses who so haplessly opposed him. Exit polls in Indiana suggested half of Republican voters felt “betrayed” by their party. This is a harvest the party sowed in two ways. First, though it is a caricature to suggest, as Mr Trump and others have, that the Republicans have long made fools of distressed working-class whites by offering them God, the flag and tax cuts to the rich, it is a caricature with some truth to it. None of Mr Trump’s 16 rivals spoke convincingly to the concerns of wage-distressed workers; none had a thoughtful answer to them.<\/p>\n

Second, years of partisan grandstanding in Congress have discredited America’s entire political process, and the Republicans—especially those of them thrust to power by the party’s previous populist insurgency, the Tea Party—are mainly responsible. The several recent crises Republican congressmen have engineered over the passage of the federal budget, which they sought to hold hostage to their unrealistic and unconstitutional demands of Mr Obama, have earned the voters’ disdain. In that sense, the Trumpian revolt is not a continuation of the false promise raised by the anti-government Tea Party, but its successor. With Mr Trump’s nomination almost assured, its fires, too, must now rage and burn out.<\/p>\n

Fear trumps hope!  <\/span><\/strong>There is no doubt in my mind that Republicans are finding themselves in a pickle.  But  Trump, as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, is not backing down.  In this article and <\/span>another<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, Trump's articulated platform will lay waste to just about everything.  To me, it seems that Trump is playing the "American exceptionalism" card.  Has he forgotten that negotiation is not the same as dictating the terms?<\/span><\/p>\n

CBC<\/span><\/a> <\/span><\/strong>— <\/span>WIL-<\/span>bur-r-r-r-r-r<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Actor-comedian Alan Young, who played the amiable straight man to a talking horse in the 1960s sitcom Mister Ed<\/em>, has died, a spokeswoman for the Motion Picture and Television Home said Friday. He was 96.<\/p>\n

The English-born, Canadian-educated Young died Thursday, according to Jaime Larkin, spokeswoman for the retirement community where Young had lived for four years. His children were with him when he died peacefully of natural causes, she said.<\/p>\n

Young was already a well-known radio and TV comedian, having starred in his own Emmy-winning variety show, when Mister Ed<\/em> was being readied at comedian George Burns' production company. Burns is said to have told his staff: "Get Alan Young. He looks like the kind of guy a horse would talk to."<\/p>\n

I am sure that many of you will remember Mr Ed, the talking horse.  I used to delight in watching the programme and wondered how the horse learned and said his lines.  I was young and naive . . . what can I say!  Anyway, Alan Young, who played the "straightman" to the horse, passed away 19\/05\/2016.  Bamboo Harvester, the original Mr Ed, died in 1970.  Here is an episode of "Mr Ed" to take you back down memory lane.<\/span><\/p>\n