{"id":32739,"date":"2018-06-19T10:25:25","date_gmt":"2018-06-19T17:25:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=32739"},"modified":"2018-06-19T10:34:49","modified_gmt":"2018-06-19T17:34:49","slug":"squatchs-open-thread-19-june-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2018\/06\/19\/squatchs-open-thread-19-june-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Squatch’s Open Thread 19 June 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

We are in the midst of a heat wave getting to 32C (90F) yesterday and very muggy.\u00a0 Today is more of the same.\u00a0 I think later this afternoon I will go play under my neighbour’s garden hose to cool off.\u00a0 One is never too old to have some good old fashion play time!\u00a0 To make things hotter, the Orange Ogre is being his loathsome self and tweeting right, left and centre about illegal immigration.\u00a0 In yesterday’s tirade, he used the word ‘infest’ in talking about illegal immigrants and conflated immigrants with gang bangers.\u00a0 But there was good news — Kris Kobach, Kansas Secretary of State and Drumpf acolyte, was handed his walking papers by a judge.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Mamamia<\/span><\/strong><\/a> —\u00a0And in an uncomfortable turn of events, Donald Trump may have just been caught fibbing about his height as he innocently stood next to Canada\u2019s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.<\/p>\n

This photo taken during the G7 summit in Quebec has, unfortunately for Trump, gone viral. And when you stop ogling at Trudeau, you might just see why. \u00a0 …<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Photo by Edward Hardy, photojournalist<\/span><\/p>\n

Trudeau, you see, is standing taller than Trump.\u00a0Which is difficult to explain when Trudeau is 6\u20332, and Trump claims to be 6\u20333. At least, that figure is according to Trump\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>physical exam results which were <\/span>released in January this year by the White House doctor. …<\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s where it gets even more confusing: Trump\u2019s <\/span>New York driver\u2019s licence stated he was 6\u20332. Did the 71-year-old President have a sudden\u2026 growth spurt?<\/span><\/p>\n

OK, OK!\u00a0 Who cares how tall Trump is . . . is it really all that important?\u00a0 Well in this case, Trump’s height is a measure of the man so it is of some importance.\u00a0 He is shorter than Justin Trudeau but his narcissistic personality has to say “I am the leader” or in this case “I am tallest”.\u00a0 Is the demonstration of the height difference the source of his disdain of Trudeau.\u00a0 But “fibbing”?\u00a0 I call this outright lying which is all Drumpf knows how to do.\u00a0 In these politically hot times, I’ll leave this with you for a good laugh! . . . at the Liar-in-Chief’s expense of course!<\/span><\/p>\n

Mother Jones<\/strong><\/span><\/a> — A federal judge on Monday struck down a 2013 Kansas law that required people to provide proof of citizenship such as a passport or birth certificate in order to register to vote.\u00a0The decision deals a major \u00a0blow to efforts by conservative activists to erect barriers to voting under the pretense that voter fraud is rampant. The law,\u00a0Judge Julie Robinson determined,\u00a0violated\u00a0<\/strong>the 1993 National Voter Registration Act and the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. …<\/p>\n

Instead, Kobach and his team repeatedly failed to follow basic rules of evidence, requiring the judge to lecture him on what she called \u201cEvidence 101.\u201d (As it turns out, Robinson really did think Kobach needed to study up. In her opinion Monday, she\u00a0ordered Kobach, a Yale-educated attorney, to take six hours of continuing legal education on the subject of how to introduce evidence at trial.)<\/p>\n

In the words of Jackie Gleason, “How sweet it is!”\u00a0 It is about time that this legal weenie pipsqueak got his comeuppance!\u00a0 I doubt that this is the end of this.\u00a0 As noted in the article, Kobach was earlier found in contempt of court “for failing to comply with a court order to register Kansas voters whose applications had been held up by his proof-of-citizenship law. “I wonder what Kobach thinks about karma!<\/span><\/p>\n

NY Times<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>—\u00a0President Trump said on Monday that he would direct the Pentagon to establish a sixth branch of the armed forces dedicated to protecting American interests in outer space, an idea that has troubled lawmakers and even some members of his administration, who have cautioned that the action could create unnecessary bureaucratic responsibilities for a military already burdened by conflicts.<\/p>\n

During a speech at a meeting of the National Space Council, Mr. Trump announced plans to protect American interests in space through monitoring commercial traffic and debris, initiatives he said would be \u201cgreat not only in terms of jobs and everything else, it\u2019s great for the psyche of our country.\u201d …<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The US’s original Space Cadet during a meeting of the National Space Council on Monday, when he waded into a policy debate about space that has spanned administrations. <\/span>Credit <\/span>Tom Brenner\/The New York Times<\/span><\/p>\n

The creation of a sixth branch of the military to join the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard would require congressional authorization and approval. Senator Bill Nelson, Democrat of Florida, who is on the Senate Commerce Committee overseeing the nation\u2019s space program \u2014 and who once spent six days in space \u2014 said that the president\u2019s order lacked the support of the generals who would be required to carry it out.<\/span><\/p>\n

The most recent proclamation from the US’s original “space cadet”, Drumpf.\u00a0 With 40 million Americans living under the poverty line as noted by the UN Special Rapporteur and Drumpf giving big tax concessions to the wealthiest Americans and corporations, where the hell does he think the money will come from\u00a0 for this folly?\u00a0 That’s right, after all those campaign promises for better health care etc, Drumpf will yet again cut programmes that are sorely needed.\u00a0 Is it any wonder that mental health professionals are saying Drumpf is NUTS??? (my word for brevity’s sake)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

DC Report<\/a><\/strong> <\/span>—\u00a0The federal court suit over the Affordable Care Act became a potent threat to pre-existing conditions when the Justice Department filed a brief <\/u>arguing that as of Jan. 1, 2019<\/span>, those protections should be invalidated. The Justice Department argued that the judge should strike down the section of the law that protects people buying insurance from being charged higher premiums because of their health histories.<\/p>\n

According to a 2016 analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation, approximately 52 million Americans under the age of 65<\/u> could find their access to health insurance at risk because of a wide range of pre-existing conditions, from diabetes to cancer to pregnancy. Health insurers have for years been raising premiums<\/u>, complaining about uncertainty<\/u> <\/u>and withdrawing from the business of selling individual insurance plans; more changes could further destabilize the market.<\/p>\n

As a follow-up to TC’s article yesterday, read through David Cay Johnston’s interesting take on just where healthcare in the US is going.\u00a0 It can’t be said too often that the only healthcare that Republicans have is Republicare . . . pay or die.\u00a0 And these are your elected officials.<\/span><\/p>\n

My Universe<\/span><\/strong> — Don’t let this be you with Republicans!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Resist!!!<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Posted to Care2<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We are in the midst of a heat wave getting to 32C (90F) yesterday and very muggy.\u00a0 Today is more of the same.\u00a0 I think later this afternoon I will go play under my neighbour’s garden hose to cool off.\u00a0 One is never too old to have some good old fashion play time!\u00a0 To make […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32739","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\/32739","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=32739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32739\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}