I have stayed low for the weekend hoping my foot would do some healing. And it has! Tomorrow is physio and teaching. My physiotherapist will be taking another shot at my foot. Starting 07/03/2016 Lucia will be taking an ESL class with other students and she won't have her 2 youngest to worry about. I am going to see if I can sit in on a class or two so that I can tailor our Friday 1-on-1 to her classroom needs. I am really excited for her as she will have a much better time learning without her 2 youngest children interrupting.
Short Takes
Huffington Post — Iranian President Hassan Rouhani won a strong vote of confidence and reformist partners secured surprise gains in parliament in early results from elections that could speed up the Islamic Republic's emergence from years of isolation.
Foad Izadi, an assistant professor at the Faculty of World Studies in Tehran University said the reformists' strong showing was prompted by Rouhani's success in reaching a nuclear agreement between Iran and international powers, the removal of most of the sanctions that had strangled the country's economy over the past decade and restoration of relations with the West.
"It is a sweeping victory for Tehran but for other cities it is not yet clear cut. It is beyond expectations," he added.
Etemad, a reformist newspaper whose managing-editor Elias Hazrati won a seat in Tehran, chose the headline of "clean up in the parliament."
Along with hope of a parliamentary clean up comes hope for better economic times. As noted in a Foreign Policy article,
Hassan Rouhani had been president for almost a year, and Iran and the group of six world powers — the United States, France, Britain, China, Russia, and Germany — had inked an interim nuclear agreement in Geneva. For the first time in years, Kaveh no longer felt hopeless about the future of his country. Members of the business community, like him, believed Rouhani had the political grit necessary to fight corruption and bring economic change. The prospects of a nuclear deal had them revitalized, he told me. Kaveh had become a senior executive at a private aviation firm and was especially excited because sanctions for aviation had been relaxed; his company had launched talks with a European firm to buy new airplanes. International delegations were trickling in for business talks, and there was even talk of trade with America, Kaveh said excitedly. …
… in 2016, Kaveh’s attitude has again shifted. Although there are glimmers of hope on the horizon of the Iranian economy, he tells me true change will take longer than he once thought.
There is change, but it will take time to reconnect economically. When there are 2 intractable players like the US and the Iranian hardliners, it will take that much longer to repair the economic damage. Click through for the remainder of these two related articles.
Right Wing Watch — After vowing to go after journalists who write critical stories about him at a rally in Texas today, Donald Trump bragged about the support his presidential campaign has received from conservative evangelical voters, touting endorsements from televangelist Paula White, Liberty University President Jerry Falwell, Jr., and Sarah Palin.
Trump even brought Robert Jeffress, the conservative televangelist notorious for his anti-gay, anti-Catholic and anti-Mormon preaching, onto the stage to sing his praises. Jeffress called Trump a patriot “who is truly pro-life,” unlike Hillary Clinton, whom he warned would be “the most pro-abortion president in history.”
“God bless Donald Trump,” Jeffress declared. Trump had a much bleaker message: “Christianity is under siege. Every year it gets weaker and weaker and weaker.”
He said he would restore Christianity to greatness by scrapping IRS regulations pertaining to church engagement in partisan political activity on behalf of candidates or campaigns.
Listening to this ass is frightening. He panders . . . panders to the evangelicals and the haters. He panders to their fears without true regard to the consequences. In an Alternet article, "…McConnell reportedly told colleagues that the party will drop Trump “like a hot rock” if he is the nominee." I guess we wait a little longer.
Truthdig — “There is a clear contrast between our two candidates with regard to my strong belief that we must end the interventionist, regime change policies that have cost us so much,” she [U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii] wrote. “This is not just another ‘issue.’ This is THE issue, and it’s deeply personal to me. This is why I’ve decided to resign as Vice Chair of the DNC so that I can support Bernie Sanders in his efforts to earn the Democratic nomination in the 2016 presidential race.”
From the beginning, it seems that the deck has been stacked against Bernie. Not only has the press virtually ignored him, but the DNC has as well. I question whether the chairperson of the DNC, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, has been equally concerned about neutrality since she was a Clinton 2008 national campaign co-chair.
My Universe —
I hate that animals are brutalised like Duffy was, but I love the transformations!
Now if people could only get the message that animals and people should not be brualised, not abused but LOVED!
2 Responses to “Squatch’s Open Thread 28/02/2016”
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Less pain in your foot isn't your cue to start running around again, Lynn 😉 No kidding, I hope PT will take the last of the pain away. Lucia must be really happy to start classes with others next week and not having too look after her two youngest at the same time. Did you make this happen for her, Lynn?
HuPo: We shouldn't get too excited about Iran's election results, because real opposition to the religious leaders who keep the country in a tight hold is still impossible. Although true opposition is banned from elections, these results are very encouraging. Little by little the economy is getting back on its feet and with that the strangle hold the religious hard liners have on Iran is loosening too. Let's hope the same is true for the American hard liners who do all they can to prevent Iran from getting to its feet again.
RRW: Trump hasn't a religious bone in his body, he's just saying anything that comes to mind and which he'll think will please the talibangelists. He has to get these televangelists on stage to tell the crowd what religious views he has for fear he'll say something stupid if he has to come up with a view himself. And he keeps on promising and promising… It's truly amazing that people can't see how hollow it is, that he won't keep any of these promises if he gets to the White House, mainly because he's forgotten them by then because they don't mean a thing to him. And so will his voters.
Truthdig: Kudos to Tulsi Gabbard, but from where I'm sitting the DNC has made its mind up that the Democratic candidate is going to be Hillary Clinton and will do anything to make that happen. Just look at how the super delegates are distributed, their vote has nothing to do with the vote of the people.
My Universe: That can't possibly be the same dog! It's amazing what a little TLC and love can do for ALL beings.
HuffPo – Yes, time will tell. It is promising, but keeping promises is what matters, not just making them.
RRW – Trump Christian. Yeah, right. C.S.Lewis was once asked at a Q&A session which religion, in his opinions, made its followers the happiest? He replied that worship of one's self does that – and added, "while it lasts." He hardly had to add that happiness isn't really the point. But I think that most of us would agree that worship of oneself is The Donald's religion.
Truthdig: I am quite surprised; I thought Tulsi Gabbard was a serious hawk. But I now realize she is a veteran, and even veterans who are hawks prefer to pick their battles.
Universe – heartwarming indeed. Looks like the family is as lucky to have him as he is to have them.