It was very hot and muggy today — 30 C (86 F) — so I tried to stay quiet in some air conditioning for as long as possible, then home to the heat. It is 23:00 hours and the temperature is still 22 C (72 F) with high humidity. This week will be busy as I have physio, pastoral care calls to make, teaching and 2 medical appointments. I hope it doesn't stay hot and humid this week. Later — My wi-fi connection shut down before I could finish and post last night so this is 10 hours late in getting up.
Short Takes
Politicususa — Donald Trump is facing a new complaint that his use of the Trump Organization to do his campaign work is a violation of federal law.
The Democratic Coalition Against Trump announced their FEC complaint against the GOP nominee in a statement:
This morning the Democratic Coalition Against Trump filed a federal campaign complaint against Donald Trump’s Presidential campaign with the Federal Elections Commission. The complaint alleges five violations including illegally accepting direct corporate contributions, accepting services from a volunteer that were actually compensated, use of the Trump corporate name or trademark to facilitate campaign contributions, illegal use of corporate facilities by a campaign volunteer, and knowingly allowing volunteers to exceed the transportation expense limit.
The question is, will the FEC recognise this as the violation it is, or will it be bullied by Trump? If I recall correctly, the Fartfuhrer of Fitzwalkerstan, Scott Walker, faced similar charges.
CBC — It is difficult to imagine that a democratic system has ever existed without some amount of exaggeration, cynicism and frivolity. For that matter, politics should not exclusively be the domain of serious wonkery. Some amount of theatre is natural and useful. Generous amounts of humanity are welcome. Anger and conflict are inevitable.
But ideally a nation's politics would not be predominantly cynical and frivolous, would not be defined by its worst aspects. What excesses of rhetoric or action did occur would be corrected for. And, over time, the system would improve, not fall into disrepair or despair.
An untrusted or unserious system is perhaps ripe for revolt or abuse. …
Trump is destroying the generally accepted norms of American politics, and expanding the parameters of what a politician could get away with saying in a way that will have lasting impact on the United States. That suggests our democracies are more fragile than we might otherwise appreciate.
Some say that Canada and the US are the same, few differences at all. I see the two countries as being quite different with some commonalities. In the article, my former Member of Parliament, James Moore, Conservative, was "asked about Trump's relevance to Canadian conservatives and offered two other observations. First, that Trump isn't a conservative. Second, that the Conservative Party learned in 2015 that conservatism needs to be matched with optimism." Looking south, I certainly do not see the optimism of which Moore speaks. What I see is more doom and gloom, outright fear, coming from Republicans.
Alternet — The GOP’s new big dog blew the whistle Thursday night for nearly an hour and a half and it was loud and shrill enough to reach the ears of every angry, resentful, disaffected white American. The tone was divisive, dark, dystopian and grim. Here was the alpha dog of the von Trump family, baying at a blood-red moon that the hills are alive with the sounds of menace. According to Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump, this land is rapidly becoming as bleak and dangerous as one of those twisted, vicious kingdoms in Game of Thrones, a place filled with violent crime and despair, a smoldering ruin overrun with foreigners out to take our jobs and terrorists bent on destroying our villages. It’s mourning in America. And only he can save us. This has been his message all year: I alone can fix it. Remember his tweet on Easter morning? “Another radical Islamic attack, this time in Pakistan, targeting Christian women & children. At least 67 dead,400 injured. I alone can solve." …
But as Washington Post fact checkers Glenn Kessler and Michelle Ye Hee Lee noted: “The dark portrait of America that Donald J. Trump sketched… is a compendium of doomsday stats that fall apart upon close scrutiny. Numbers are taken out of context, data is manipulated, and sometimes the facts are wrong. “When facts are inconveniently positive — such as rising incomes and an unemployment rate under 5 percent — Trump simply declines to mention them.
Here is a video from the Washington Post fact checking Trump's Thursday evening convenmtion speech. Click HERE to view video. Unfortunately, I could not imbed it. Elizabeth Warren commented to Stephen Colbert that she didn't think Democrats were taking Trump seriously enough and that he is a dangerous individual, especially when he is so divisive and hateful. I was amused by some of his early words in his acceptance speech at the RNC: (full transcript from syracuse.com incase you want to scan it without having to listen to his voice)
"It is finally time for a straightforward assessment of the state of our nation. I will present the facts plainly and honestly. We cannot afford to be so politically correct anymore.
So if you want to hear the corporate spin, the carefully-crafted lies, and the media myths—the Democrats are holding their convention next week. But here, at our convention, there will be no lies. We will honor the American people with the truth, and nothing else."
When did Drumpf become acquainted with any truth?
VOTE BLUE ALL THE WAY DOWN THE LINE!
All in with Hillary!
My Universe —
Hi! How ya doin'!
Cat trap working!
8 Responses to “Squatch’s Open Thread 24/07/2016”
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Hot and muggy here too. I agree, no fun. A pox on all those people who claim humidity is good for stuffy noses. Humidity makes mine MUCH worse.
Politicususa – You are right about little Scotty. The reason he is not in prison today is that he abused his position as Governor to kick out the sitting Chief Justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court and appoint a puppet. He will do anything -ANYTHING – for Scott Walker.
CBC – God, I wish more Americans thought the way Camadians think. We might have some conservatives then who are capable of learning. My only caveat is that I hope they don't use their new-found grsp of the need for optimism to get back into power and mess you up again.
AlterNet – Drumpf would not recognize the truth if it came to his door and showed ID. (He'd claim the ID was forged, possibly in Kenya.) The olny thing that is true about Drumpf is that he is indeed saying the things many hateful Americans are thinking but have been afraid to say. The danger here is that, because they were already thinking such evil, they recognize it as their own, and because they recognize it, they think it is truth. IT ISN'T. But this makes him very, very dangerous. Faithful America sent out a statistic that, among Christians who go to church a minimum of once a week, 60% say they will vote for Trump.
Universe – Desperately needed reminder that there still is decency in the world. Adorable.
We are having a life-threatening heatwave here in the Midwest.
Please check on your family, friends, neighbors and pets.
AND DO NOT LEAVE KIDS OR PETS IN THE CAR!
And check whether it's legal to break auto glass if some idiot does leave kids or pets in the car. In more and more states it is, and can mean life or death.
Unfortunately you appear to be bugged by WiFi connection problems yet again, Sasquatch. Is the heat and humidity too much for it, perhaps? Try putting a fan next to it.
Politicususa: About time this complaint was filed. Drumpf first used his campaign for the nomination to promote his product, literally hauling his steaks on the stage to inform his supporters how good they are, and now he's using his Drumpf organization illegally to help his campaign along. Of course we didn't expect anything less from this "classy businessman" who'll undoubtedly make his dumb followers believe that this is all a Hillary conspiracy against his poor self. And chances are the complaint won't come to much. It looks like it's no longer just be a long hot summer, but a full-blown war between Democrats and Republicans.
CBC: This article contemplates some similarities between America and Canada: "And in Trump there are hints of issues that transcend the American-Canadian border: politics treated as entertainment; cynicism about the political process and public institutions; a diminished media industry challenged to hold politicians to account; a political system that seems unresponsive to the concerns of the public; a political culture that rewards polarization and extremes; the spectre of exaggerated threats." But it goes further than the American-Canadian border, these aspects are very noticeable in Europe too. Drumpf clones, i.e. populists, have crawled out of the woodwork everywhere, some like Italy's Berlusconi, have even preceded him. And the media industry is in the hands of the same few multibillionaire moguls who are pulling the strings of many right-wing marionettes in politics and business. Hate and fear is on the rise everywhere and for those who aren't susceptible to the fear mongering of politicians, the general increase of it around them is scary in its own right.
Alternet: The main GOP tactics these past years has been to inundate people in lies presented as facts and drown them in them; grind their defense of common sense down until they either believe the lies or turn away disgusted from politics altogether. And Drumpf has taken all that to a whole other level. I started out to say "whole new level", but it isn't new at all, it's old, 1930's old. The leaders coming into power then used the general dissatisfaction with politics in the exact same manner and turned their own lies and deceit into THE truth and with increasing speed wore down any resistance to their truth. So it's imperative that Washington Post and others continue their fact checking; in fact should increase their fact checking assisted by as many as possible. We know what comes out of Drumpf's mouth isn't the truth, isn't related to the truth and has nowhere near the truth, but we mustn't allow ourselves to be worn down by it and just accept it . His lies must be exposed until the last hour of election day if Drumpf is to be stopped from taking the White House.
My Universe: Thank goodness for adorable cats.
I do have a few qualms WRT those Hillary-imaged pants/slacks.
Just saying …
You'd have more than a FEW qualms if they were Trump-imaged. (I think it's a whole pants suit, not just the pants, and that too would be a lot worse if it were Trump.)
Politicsusa: I would promise to keep my fingers crossed, on this one, in particular, but then I'd have real trouble using this keyboard! May they nail the bastard!
CBC: This troll has nothing to offer, give , except fearmongering! The DAMNED GOPigs have brought us to this with their decades of hate, misogyny, bigotry, and the like. Their claims to be for "Family values" are/were, nothing but a screen for their Theocratic drivel!
Alternet: Any claim from Rumpy, of virtually any sort, needs to be seen as part of his PR act, and vacuous, just as he is. There is no good reason to even contemplate his presentation as anything else. He is taking his cue from those decades of GOPig Bullshit, trotted out as truth…with the help of FAux News, or not!
Love those cats!
The heat and humidity have knocked out my Internet connection a couple times also.
The FEC is short a member, because the Republican Senate won't comfirm any appointee to the post. That means that Republicans on the FEC can block any actions.
Even Harper's Harlots weren't as bad as Rump Dump Rectumites.
Rump Dump never met a fact he liked.
The catrs are voting BLUE!!