{"id":35103,"date":"2018-12-23T23:06:13","date_gmt":"2018-12-24T07:06:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=35103"},"modified":"2018-12-24T11:55:44","modified_gmt":"2018-12-24T19:55:44","slug":"squatchs-open-thread-23-december-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2018\/12\/23\/squatchs-open-thread-23-december-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Squatch&#8217;s Open Thread 23 December 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">It is Sunday evening and I was so tired after church and lunch that I decided a nap was in order.\u00a0 I finished the updated version of the book &#8220;The Making of Donald Trump&#8221; by David Cay Johnston over lunch.\u00a0 The book delves into greater detail of the spurious nature of Trump, his associates and methods.\u00a0 To say Trump is nothing more than a third rate carnival barker and scam artist is an understatement.\u00a0 I recommend reading this short book (217 pages).\u00a0 Tomorrow is Christmas Eve and I will be celebrating Christmas with friends.\u00a0 Then on Christmas Day, I will spend lots of quality time with my fur babes and doing the dreaded task . . . again!\u00a0 However you celebrate the season, may it be joyful filled with love, peace and hope.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Jig Zone Puzzle:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Today\u2019s took me 3:45 (average 4:50). To do it,\u00a0<a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.jigzone.com\/puzzles\/5B055D55A447\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>click here<\/strong><\/a>. How did you do?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Short Takes<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2018\/dec\/21\/james-mattis-resignation-trump-erdogan-phone-call\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>The Guardian<\/strong><\/span><\/a> &#8212;\u00a0The\u00a0<a class=\"u-underline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2018\/dec\/20\/jim-mattis-defense-secretary-retires-trump\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">resignation of US\u00a0<\/a><a class=\"u-underline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2018\/dec\/20\/jim-mattis-defense-secretary-retires-trump\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">defence secretary<\/a><a class=\"u-underline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2018\/dec\/20\/jim-mattis-defense-secretary-retires-trump\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">\u00a0James Mattis<\/a>\u00a0was triggered by a phone conversation between Donald Trump and the Turkish president,\u00a0<a class=\"u-underline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/recep-tayyip-erdogan\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">Recep Tayyip Erdo<\/a><a class=\"u-underline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/recep-tayyip-erdogan\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">\u011fan<\/a>, in which Trump abruptly decided to upend previous US policy and withdraw troops from Syria, according to new accounts of the call.<\/p>\n<p>Mattis went to see the president on Thursday afternoon in a last-ditch attempt to change the president\u2019s mind, and argue for standing by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF),\u00a0<a class=\"u-underline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2018\/dec\/19\/us-troops-syria-withdrawal-trump\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">which have take the lead role<\/a>\u00a0in ejecting the Islamic State from its Syrian strongholds.\u00a0 &#8230;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs soon as the US folds its tent and leaves, Turkey will immediately begin an air bombardment followed by a ground attack by the [Ankara-backed] Free Syrian army. Thousands will die, thousands will be displaced and will be given no haven within Syria. They will be turned away at the Turkish border,\u201d said David Phillips, a former senior state department official, and the author of the new book: The Great Betrayal: How America Abandoned the Kurds and Lost the Middle East.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"element element-rich-link element-rich-link--tag element--thumbnail element-rich-link--upgraded\" data-component=\"rich-link-tag\" data-link-name=\"rich-link-tag\">\n<div class=\"rich-link tone-news--item rich-link--pillar-news\">\n<div class=\"rich-link__container\">\n<div class=\"rich-link__read-more\">\n<div class=\"rich-link__read-more-text\">\u201cFor more than three and a half years, they have been our boots on the ground and were the point of the spear in retaking [the Isis stronghold] Raqqa,\u201d Phillips, now at Columbia University, said. \u201cWho is going to fight for us in the future when we throw our allies under the bus?\u201d<\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Click through for more.\u00a0 I am not a hawk but it certainly seems that Trump&#8217;s gut and his penchant for authoritarian leaders are leading the US into real trouble, throwing allies under the bus as it were.\u00a0 Trump is demonstrating just how incompetent he is, not that we don&#8217;t already know that.\u00a0 A man who keeps only his own counsel is a man destined to fail.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">.<\/span><\/div>\n<div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.alternet.org\/were-black-voters-bamboozled-russia-its-nowhere-near-simple\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>AlterNet<\/strong><\/span><\/a> &#8212; Were black Americans hoodwinked, bamboozled and tricked by the Russians during the 2016 presidential election into not supporting Hillary Clinton?The New York Times appears to believe the answer is yes. On Monday it published an extensive report on Russia&#8217;s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/12\/17\/us\/politics\/russia-2016-influence-campaign.html?module=inline\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">&#8220;2016 influence operation,&#8221;<\/a>\u00a0describing it as &#8220;an extraordinary effort to target African-Americans&#8221; with &#8220;an array of tactics to try to suppress turnout among Democratic voters&#8221; and &#8220;a blizzard of activity on Instagram&#8221; that may have exceeded the better-known Russian posts on Facebook.<\/p>\n<p>According to the Times, a Senate Intelligence Committee report concludes that the &#8220;most prolific efforts&#8221; of the now-infamous Internet Research Agency, based in St. Petersburg, Russia, &#8220;appear to have been focused on developing black audiences and recruiting black Americans as assets.&#8221;\u00a0 &#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Post- Trump America may try to make sense of its recent history by claiming that its slide into neo-fascism was everyone&#8217;s sin, not the fault of any one group or individual.<\/p>\n<p>That will be a false narrative. Black Americans did not elect Donald Trump. Black Americans did not birth American fascism. He is the champion and president of tens of millions of resentful and outright racist and nativist white voters. If racism and white supremacy are seen as America&#8217;s native form of fascism, and Trump as its current standard-bearer and champion, then for centuries black Americans have at almost every opportunity opposed him and what he represents.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Click through for more.\u00a0 Also, in a separate post by <a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sbs.com.au\/news\/russian-meddling-in-us-politics-widespread\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>SBS News<\/strong><\/a> of Australia, &#8220;Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election on social media was more widespread than previously thought and included attempts to divide Americans by race and extreme ideology, according to two reports.&#8221;\u00a0 It notes that the Russian campaign has been active for years and remains active to this day.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">&#8220;&#8221;This newly released data demonstrates how aggressively Russia sought to divide Americans by race, religion and ideology,&#8221; said Richard Burr, the Republican chairman of the US Senate intelligence committee, in a statement.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">The Russian agency worked to erode trust in US democratic institutions and its activities have not stopped, he said. The committee collected data from social media companies that was used by the private analysts in their analysis.&#8221;<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">So, what is a person to believe and do?\u00a0 The Russians are trying to divide and conquer Americans, weakening the very fabric of American institutions and perhaps driving voters away from the polls.\u00a0 James Comey, in his conversation with Nicolle Wallace of MSNBC , says that the Russians are trying to install their candidate by having Americans so divided that they elect a candidate using as few votes as possible. (See today&#8217;s lead article).\u00a0 Perhaps the biggest takeaway is for voters to know the issues and the candidates.\u00a0 Question candidates and do not get your news from social media.\u00a0 It might seem easier but it is fraught with perils.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\/christmas-is-the-loneliest-time-for-qanon-fans?utm_source=feedly&amp;utm_medium=webfeeds\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Daily Beast<\/span><\/strong><\/a> &#8212;\u00a0<a class=\"TrackingLink LinkWrapper\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\/what-is-qanon-the-craziest-theory-of-the-trump-era-explained\">The QAnon theory falsely claims<\/a>\u00a0that President Donald Trump\u2019s prominent opponents are part of an international criminal ring involved in the trafficking, abuse, and sometimes eating, of children. Believers think this because \u201cQ,\u201d an anonymous message board user who claims to be a high-level military insider, has been telling them so since October 2017. Over its year-plus lifespan, the theory has attracted untold legions of fans. It has also\u00a0<a class=\"LinkWrapper LinkWrapper--external\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/online-conspiracy-groups-qanon-cults\/\">attracted comparisons to cults<\/a>\u00a0for behavior by adherents, some of whom claim to have become estranged from families and friends over their Q belief.<\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Well now, they are feeling estranged are they?\u00a0 TC has had other articles with Qanon &#8220;guru&#8221; Liz Cronkin who has decried the situation in the US.\u00a0 Just when you think that Michele Bachmann is done, up pops the likes of Qanon.\u00a0 Batshit crazy to a new level!<\/span><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<div><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>My Universe<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-35113\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/untitled-215x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"215\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/untitled-215x300.png 215w, https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/untitled-108x150.png 108w, https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/untitled.png 459w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 215px) 100vw, 215px\" \/><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/resist_2.png\" \/><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Posted to Care2 <a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.care2.com\/news\/member\/775377582\/4131817\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>HERE<\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It is Sunday evening and I was so tired after church and lunch that I decided a nap was in order.\u00a0 I finished the updated version of the book &#8220;The Making of Donald Trump&#8221; by David Cay Johnston over lunch.\u00a0 The book delves into greater detail of the spurious nature of Trump, his associates and <a href='https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2018\/12\/23\/squatchs-open-thread-23-december-2018\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/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-35103","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\/35103","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=35103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35103\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}