{"id":36741,"date":"2019-06-08T09:18:55","date_gmt":"2019-06-08T16:18:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=36741"},"modified":"2019-06-08T09:18:55","modified_gmt":"2019-06-08T16:18:55","slug":"open-thread-6-8-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2019\/06\/08\/open-thread-6-8-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread &#8211; 6\/8\/2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">It&#8217;s another busy day here in the CatBox, as we move into another heat wave with mid 90\u00b0s weather by mid week.&nbsp; Please expect no more than a Personal Update tomorrow with no links messages on Care2.&nbsp; After we de-stink the vile TomCat, WWWendy and I are going to the new CatBox for a look-see.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Jig Zone Puzzle<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Today&#8217;s took me 3:42 (average 5:14).&nbsp; To do it, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jigzone.com\/puzzles\/2019-06-08-CE2504A965A9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">click here<\/a>.&nbsp; How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Special Announcement<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">I have promoted Joanne Dixon, aka JD, from Editor to full Administrator, making her equal in authority to Squatch, Nameless, and I.&nbsp; It&#8217;s overdue.&nbsp; Hell!&nbsp; She&#8217;s around here more than I am, and I think we can trust her not to delete the site. <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-winkingsmile\" style=\"border-top-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-right-style: none\" alt=\"Winking smile\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/wlEmoticon-winkingsmile.png\">&nbsp; Congrats, JD!<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Short Takes<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ADDgv4EHAkA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">YouTube<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/msnbcleanforward\/videos\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">MSNBC Channel<\/a>): <\/font>Representative Rashida Tlaib Unveils Bold New Policy For America&#8217;s Poor<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<iframe loading=\"lazy\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/ADDgv4EHAkA\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"640\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe> <\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">I like it, but I prefer guaranteed basic income for all American households of $20,000. That would be reduced by 50% of what a household earns, so a family earning $30,000 would get a $5,000 subsidy. A family earning $40,000 would get no subsidy. <strong>RESIST<\/strong>!!<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=mvgIuGoN3jY\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">YouTube<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/mediamatters4america\/videos\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Media Matters Channel<\/a>): <\/font>&#8220;Lock her up&#8221; and Sean Hannity&#8217;s &#8220;beyond despicable&#8221; hypocrisy<\/p>\n<p><strong><font color=\"#ff0000\">Barf Bag Alert!!<\/font><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<iframe loading=\"lazy\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/mvgIuGoN3jY\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"640\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe> <\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><em>Faux Noise<\/em> hypocrites? Lock them up! Lock them up! <strong>RESIST<\/strong>!!<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"https:\/\/www.alternet.org\/2019\/06\/here-are-5-wildly-popular-programs-that-prove-americans-already-love-socialism\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Alternet<\/a>: <\/font>President Donald Trump knows what buttons to push when it comes firing up his far-right base, and one of them is decrying \u201csocialism\u201d and insisting that the Democratic Party has become fully \u201csocialist\u201d in its ideology. Meanwhile, the term \u201cdemocratic socialism\u201d is a badge of honor for Sen. Bernie Sanders and his ally, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York City. But context is crucial. The \u201csocialism\u201d that Sanders and AOC champion is really a revival of New Deal\/Great Society liberalism, and while both of them are left-of-center by U.S. standards, neither would be embraced by actual Marxist-Leninists or Maoists \u2014 in fact, communist websites have attacked them for not being true leftists.<\/p>\n<p>But then, neither of them have claimed to be disciples of Che Guevara or Mao Tse-Tung. What they favor is regulated capitalism with a strong social safety net, realizing that the public and private sectors both have their place. And it\u2019s possible to favor \u201csocialism\u201d in the form of Social Security, Medicare, public parks, the U.S. military or public libraries while applauding the private sector when it comes to software programs, Apple products, restaurants, smartphones, Ikea furniture or hip-hop recordings. One does not rule out the other.  <\/p>\n<p>Here are some forms of \u201csocialism\u201d that are wildly popular in the United States.  <\/p>\n<p><strong>1. Social Security<\/strong>  <\/p>\n<p>One of the many government programs that came out of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt\u2019s New Deal, Social Security has been around since 1935. President George W. Bush proposed privatizing Social Security in the 2000s, and the idea was met with a very negative response. Public support for the program remains strong: an NPR\/PBS\/ Marist poll conducted in 2018 found that <a href=\"https:\/\/maristpoll.marist.edu\/npr-pbs-newshour-marist-poll-national-survey-results-analysis-2\/#sthash.Nx5CrP9V.s0ZRzK37.dpbs\">60% of Americans<\/a> would rather reverse the GOP\u2019s corporate tax cuts of 2017 than see the government cut spending for Social Security. And among Democrats, that number jumps to 80%.=  <\/p>\n<p>There is nothing wrong with supplementing Social Security with a private-sector retirement plan such as an IRA, a pension or a 401(k). But Social Security is a form of \u201csocialism\u201d that most Americans still support 84 years after it was implemented.  <\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">I shared the first of five examples. Click through for the other four. Also, add Libraries, Police Departments and Fire Departments to the list. <strong>RESIST<\/strong>!!<\/font>  <\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Cartoon<\/strong>:<\/font>  <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/0608Cartoon.jpg\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s another busy day here in the CatBox, as we move into another heat wave with mid 90\u00b0s weather by mid week.&nbsp; Please expect no more than a Personal Update tomorrow with no links messages on Care2.&nbsp; After we de-stink the vile TomCat, WWWendy and I are going to the new CatBox for a look-see. <a href='https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2019\/06\/08\/open-thread-6-8-2019\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,35,3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-news","category-open-thread","category-personal","category-politics","category-31-id","category-35-id","category-3-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\/36741","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36741\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}