I have done a lot of sleeping and resting since Thursday last week, yet still I am miserable and spend most of the days sleeping when I can. It is day 5 and although I am still miserable, I think so far Sunday was worse, so maybe I've turned the corner . . . maybe. Nameless, you know him as SoINeedAName, dear friend that he is, is bringing you tomorrow's Open Thread. I very much appreciate him for this. Virtual hugs dude!
Puzzle — Today’s took me 3:05 (average 4:45). To do it, click here. How did you do? For those that don't know, we always do the 48 piece classic.
Short Takes
Alternet — Chomsky described how Republicans gravitated toward an increasingly radical base in the 1980s and '90s.
"[Republicans] became so dedicated to the interests of the extreme wealthy and powerful that they couldn't get votes. So they had to turn to other constituencies, which were always there but were never politically mobilized. So they turned to Christian evangelicals, the nativists who are afraid they're taking our country away from us. People who are so terrified they have to carry a gun in a coffee shop."
Chomsky makes some good points about the American political system, of where the parties are standing. Yes he bashes Republicans, but he does not spare Democrats either. Listen to the interview above.
The Guardian — People who expose wrongdoing on national security and intelligence issues around the world are often given weak or no protection and are often subject to retaliation, creating a “chilling effect on people speaking out”, a United Nationsreport has found.
The report by David Kaye, United Nations special rapporteur for freedom of opinion and expression, outlines an extensive case for governments to revise whistleblower laws to enhance public-interest disclosures and the flow of information, protect whistleblowers and ensure the confidentiality of sources for journalists and others who release information into the public domain.
We have seen what happened to Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning and others who have blown the whistle on government and corporate actions. And Americans are not unique in this. The UN appointed a Special Rapporteur in 2013 to investigate and provide recommendations. In the Conclusions section of the rapporteur's report on page 21, the first conclusion is as follows:
58. A common thread ties together the right of access to information, the protection of sources of information and the protection of whistle-blowers: the public’s right to know. Human rights law protects the right to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, while also permitting restrictions of the right on narrow, specified grounds. When the right and the restriction clash, as they are often purported to do, Governments and international organizations should not adopt laws and policies that default in favour of the restrictions. Rather, laws should favour disclosures of information in the public interest. In cases of source and whistle-blower disclosures, public institutions have most of the power — the power to intimidate, to investigate, to prosecute. They also have greater access to information and, thus, the ability to make their case, while the source or whistle-blower typically has only a window into broader policies and practices, hindered by secrecy laws that preclude an adequate defence. If a disclosure genuinely harms a specified legitimate State A/70/361 22/24 15-12531 interest, it should be the State’s burden to prove the harm and the intention to cause harm. States and international organizations are urged to adopt or revise laws accordingly, consistent with the well-recognized centrality of the right to freedom of expression and access to information in democratic governance.
Read the section Conclusions and Recommendations. You might think this makes sense, isn't this what we have? If it is, how do we explain Edward Snowden living abroad, or Chelsea Manning sitting in military prison? How does the UK explain William McNeilly's dishonourable discharge from the Royal Navy? You might also find the OHCHR report to the United Nations helpful.
Roamin' the Web @ Wonkette
There was no intention to do so, but If I have violated a copyright, please advise and I will remove them.
Over the past 2 days, I have seen pictorial comparisons of Bernie Sanders to Christopher Lloyd from Back to the Future fame (also the TV sitcom Taxi). Here is one, while the other is, I think, a strong statement on Hillary's handling of the Republicans at the most recent Benghazi hearing.
Washington Post — “It never was about the most perfect guy with the most perfect voting record; it’s about the person that’s willing to govern in a way that allows conservative ideas to at least come to the forefront, which he has said he is willing to do,” Salmon said. “I think conservatives all over the country ought to be doing cartwheels. . . . We’ve been dealing with eating crumbs off the table. Now we’ve got an opportunity to sit at the table and actually partake in the meal.”
Oh my! Anyone who thinks that getting a simple vote on who the next Speaker should be, is a simple matter, needs their head examined. And what does it mean to people like Salmon to "govern in a way that allows conservative ideas to at least come to the forefront"? There is no doubt that the Republicans are a badly fractured party. I find no truth in the name "the Freedom Caucus". It is more likely the anarchy Caucus!
My Universe — h/t Ted W and Carol B Care2
This gives new meaning to coughing up a hairball!!!
17 Responses to “Squatch’s Open Thread 26/10/2015”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
Take care of yourself Lynn. You know the drill, rest and plenty of fluids. It may be time to start thinking about calling the doctor.
Bernie and Christopher Lloyd were both on I think it was Jimmy Kimmel on 'Back to the Future Day' last week. They probably got together in the green room and discovered that they may have been separated at birth! lol
Thanks Bonnie! I thought I turned the corner yesterday, but after going physiotherapy today and not sleeping well last night, I may have stalled. We'll see, but in the interim I'll try to act normal.
3:40 average up to 5:10. So would that be a good time? (Probably not good enough though.)
Alternet – So true.
Guardian – If people cared – if people cared about wrongdoing – if people cared about Big Brother watching – but we (OK, I) live in a country where they don't. They don't care how much the Government knows about them, and they don't care to know what the government is doing with the information. Maybe better not to know – one might have to get upset. Much more soothing not to know. Remember John Oliver's show demonstrating that people only care when the govenment is looking at their genitals?
WaPo – How delusional does one have to be to think that RWNJ ideas (I refuse to say Conservative today, because their ideas are anything but) are not all in the forefront, all the time?
Universe – Tee hee.
4:03 I ran out of time.
3:15 ~ Time waits for no man or woman.
🙂 I wish there was smiley playing a violin!
AlterNet: Good point, and video. I'm not done w/it yet…but he brings up good notes about both parties.
WP: Ugh! All backing up in the Clown Car.
My Universe: Snap! Good one, kitty.
You sound like you've caught a bad strain of the flu. Hope that you start feeling better. Hope your kitties are taking good care of you…
Thanks, Lynn.
Chomsky makes so much sense, doesn't he?
Don't get me wrong, I am so glad Canada's former Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, is gone. To me, he acts like a Republican and talks like a Republican. However, recently I heard a commentary where Harper and the Conservatives are, ideologically, left of Clinton. I wish I could remember where I saw that, because I don't believe it. If it were true, boy you guys are in trouble.
Anything called an empire makes me want to have more than a 10 foot pole's distance.
I guess its only OK to whistle "Dixie" these days.
Hopefully none of the comparisons will stick so strong that the person is replaced by inaccurate images in their steads and a return to oversimplification and soundbites.
Hopefully it will stay chaos long enough for Boehner to get a clean debt ceiling raise done.
Love the kitty antics
Boehner's part way there, but to hear the Teabaggers and Freedom Caucus yowling, you'd think there was a nuclear meltdown!
I hope you feek better soon!
Alternet: Chomsky makes more sense than anyone I have heard in a very long time. Too bad our government won't listen to HIM>
The Guardian: Whistle blowers deserve all the protection they can get, very often the things they expose have been so carefully hidden that no one who can change things ever know about them.
Roaming the Web: I like both of these memes.
Washington Post: What the Freedom Caucus wants is full control of Congress, so their ideas are the only ones the American public get. I surely hope that never happens.
My Universe: Too funny! If the cat had a black tail she would look like my Granny, that I rescued four years ago. She is now a queen!
Keep taking good care of yourself, Lynn. Health is terribly important and even more so as we grow older. The Republicans will keep; sadly they always do.
Alternet: Thank you so much for this interview with Noam Chomsky. I've watched all 25 minutes of it in rapture, it's so seldom I hear someone expressing things I feel, and agree with a hundred percent. His views warmed the cockles of my old pacifist heart. Yet in the end he said something that fed the despair I also felt growing: he thought Bernie Sander's campaign was wonderful, giving expression to a grass-root movement against the imperialistic tendencies abound in America today, but he also predicted that this movement was part of the presidential four-year cycle and would disappear again after the election. I'm afraid Chomsky is right. Look around: here's Bernie in his seventies, Chomsky in his eighties, Elizabeth Warren in her sixties, most progressives here at PP and Care2 older in years… Where are the young progressive leaders in their forties, who is going to take the baton? A grass-root movement born out of an election campaign, led by leaders who have also led in the 60s with the same ideas, what is the future in that? I do hope that the next MLK, JFK or even Roosevelt of this generation will stand up soon, because if Bernie won't make it to the Oval Office, and lets be honest: chances of that are slim, then things may get worse before they get better.
My Universe: So good to end on a happy note. LOL
Isn't Chomsky good? And I think he has had a hair cut not long before the interview.
I love all the cartoons! the cat one is best, but also the hill and bern ones, too
Thanks Dave!
The memes were FANTASTIC!
I love the "My Universe" meme! So good if the cat to let his bald head air out from all the WIG he had on!!!!!
Thanks everyone! Time for a short nap!