Squatch’s Open Thread 14/03/2016

OK, I finally finished the Monthly Report and TC reviewed it and posted it.  I did not get an Open Thread done yesterday, and I must say I am sick of seeing Drumpf in the headlines.  So today's offerings, or at least some of them, are a little more lighthearted.  How appropriate that this Tuesday, another primary voting day, is the Ides of March which Wikipedia says

"…became notorious as the date of the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BC. The death of Caesar made the Ides of March a turning point in Roman history, as one of the events that marked the transition from the historical period known as the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire."

Short Takes

Think Progress — After the hottest winter on record, one Canadian territory raised the weight limit on an ice road crossing at the Arctic Circle from 10 metric tons to 40 metric tons. What could possibly go wrong?

Last Saturday, a fuel tanker broke through an ice road in northern Canada. Fortunately, no one was injured. Just four days prior to this accident, the Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) provided this helpful tweet:

Great Bear Ice Crossing has been increased to 40,000 kgs. Drive safe!

2:43 PM – 2 Mar 2016

I wonder if the auto club was able to get the truck freed?  Somebody sure wasn't thinking when they put out that tweet which surprises me, because one error like that can cause death.  I imagine a head or two will roll.

Alternet — If the growing prospect of President Trump scares the shit out of you, Canada might be looking like a nice cozy bolthole right about now. But it’s not just a kinder, gentler U.S. with better hockey and beer.

Hey, it’s close, civilized, a quick flight from the Northeast. They speak English.

But it really is a foreign country.

A nation almost 100 years younger than the U.S., Confederation was in 1867, creating the first four provinces. For all its vaunted socially liberal policies, it’s also a country with its own history of submission and domination – English over French, the 150,000 First Nations, Metis and Inuit children forced for decades to attend brutal residential schools, the unresolved murders of 1,200 indigenous women, prompting the recent allocation of $100 million by Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne to investigate and address the issue.

While Canada recently welcomed 25,000 Syrian refugees, don’t be too quick to assume there’s an equal welcome for thousands of panicked Americans eager to flee a political scene they find abhorrent.

We have heard many times in the news that many Americans have said they will move to Canada if Drumpf is elected president.  Do I think a lot of people will do so?  No.  I think it is a bit of whimsy on their part.  I had to laugh though as I read this somewhat tongue-in-cheek observation of what life might be like here.

Think Progress — The Republican Party has a demographics problem. A recent analysis found that while GOP frontrunner Donald Trump may be energizing a subset of white male voters who normally don’t participate in politics, he is driving away the very groups Republicans need to win the White House this fall: young people, women, naturalized immigrants, Latinos, and blue collar workers. Trump has done so much damage to the GOP’s brand with these groups that he would need to win more than 70 percent of all white men to make up for it, yet he is polling at just 57 percent when matched up with Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton and 55 percent when squared off against Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Republican Party leaders are openly wondering if Trump will “drive the party into a demographic abyss,” and if the hundreds of Florida voters who gathered outside last night’s GOP are any indication, the GOP has cause for concern.

On Thursday night, as the four remaining candidates debated, hundreds of people from across Florida took to the streets outside the University of Miami to protest the party’s rhetoric on immigration, women’s health, the Puerto Rican debt crisis, and the minimum wage.

The emphasis is mine.  I question whether it is Drumpf or the Party that is driving "the party into a demographic abyss", or perhaps both.  Let's face it, Republicans have been in ongoing wars with women, immigrants, the 99%, and since 2012, the 47%.  Where traditional Republicans are hoping no one is watching their little dance, Drumpf is being loud and brash.  No matter what type of spin they try to put on it, Republicans still attract the angry white males.

Common Dreams —There's a vacancy on the most important court in America, and the message from Senate Republicans is crystal clear: forget the Constitution. For Senate Republicans, it does not matter who President Obama nominates because they will allow no votes and will hold no hearings on that nominee. Their response to one of the most solemn and consequential tasks that our government performs is to pretend that the nominee—and President Obama himself—do not exist.

 

At the same time that they are blocking all possible Supreme Court nominees, Senate Republicans are in a panic because their party appears to be on a path to nominate one of two extremists for president—extremists who attack the legitimacy of their political opponents and demean millions of Americans. Senate Republicans worry that, if either candidate is selected to be the party's standard-bearer, the Republican party will lose in November.

Elizabeth Warren is so spot on in her assertions and Republicans are so wrong in theirs.  There have been a number of petitions urging action on the SCOTUS vacancy.  Here is one from Daily Kos: Tell Senator McConnell to allow a vote on Supreme Court nominees 

Huffington Post — MEMORANDUM

TO: All U. S. Presidential Candidates

FROM: God a.k.a. Jehovah, Allah, Supreme Being, The Big Guy Upstairs, et al.

When it comes to politics, ordinarily I don't like to get involved. After all, I've got a lot on my plate what with wars, famines and the widespread instability throughout the world. 

And my desire for non-involvement goes double when it comes to American presidential politics. When you insist on running campaigns that last longer than the Great Flood, honestly I'd like to steer clear of the whole mess.

Sadly, you folks have made that impossible. Recent events dictate that I must temporarily set aside some of my divine duties and sort things out.

First of all, stop invoking my name to get votes. I've never heard so many candidates claim that they have a personal relationship with me. If you really did, I would expect you to keep it to yourself and not blab it to every Tom, Dick and Harry.

Click through for a tongue-in-cheek yet I think valid look at the presidential race.

My Universe —