Well I spent a bunch of time trying to get my laptop running but nada! The lights come on but nobody answers the door! So I think I’ll have to get it professionally fixed or get a new one which I certainly was not counting on. Thankfully, I still have my desktop computer but it is not as up to date and it is located in the coldest room in the house. As I am teaching tomorrow, I am finishing it Tuesday night and hoping to have this up about 1500 hours on Wednesday. Thursday’s will be late or not at all as I am out for lunch with friends and then a visit to the chiropractor, and Wednesday’s busy schedule precludes working on it then.
JigZone Puzzle
Today’s took me 4:03 (average 4:07). To do it, click here. (This link will automatically open to a new page.) How did you do? I am definitely not a fast runner!
Fantasy Football
Week 12
-
Size 9 Stompers 88.34Lefty Hillbillies 153.48
-
endthegop 76.66TomCat Teabag Trashers 93.72
-
Country Raiderettes 128.70Monster Mashers 96.58
Congratulations to Vivian, TomCat, and Wendy for winning their week 12 games. Did I get my butt handed to me on a rusty tin plate or what!
| Points | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Team | W-L-T | Pct | Stk | Waiver | For | Against |
| 1 | 9-3-0 | .750 | W6 | 6 | 1,508.32 | 1,344.30 | |
| 2+1 | 7-5-0 | .583 | W1 | 5 | 1,409.28 | 1,253.48 | |
| 3–1 | 7-5-0 | .583 | L2 | 4 | 1,416.54 | 1,431.24 | |
| 4 | 6-6-0 | .500 | W4 | 3 | 1,411.74 | 1,364.20 | |
| 5 | 5-7-0 | .417 | L4 | 2 | 1,304.42 | 1,290.90 | |
| 6 | 2-10-0 | .167 | L1 | 1 | 1,053.72 | 1,419.90 | |
Short Takes
AlterNet — The Trump administration has quietly resumed separating immigrant families at the border, in some cases using vague or unsubstantiated allegations of wrongdoing or minor violations against the parents, including charges of illegally re-entering the country, as justification.
Over the last three months, lawyers at Catholic Charities, which provides legal services to immigrant children in government custody in New York, have discovered at least 16 new separation cases. They say they have come across such instances by chance and via their own sleuthing after children were put into temporary foster care and shelters with little or no indication that they arrived at the border with their parents.
ProPublica stumbled upon one more case late last month after receiving a call from a distraught Salvadoran father who had been detained in South Texas, and whose 4-year-old son, Brayan, had literally been yanked from his grasp by a Customs and Border Protection agent after they crossed the border and asked for asylum. Julio, the father, asked to be identified only by his first name because he was fleeing gang violence and worried about the safety of relatives back home.
“I failed him,” said Julio, 27, sobbing uncontrollably. “Everything I had done to be a good father was destroyed in an instant.”
ProPublica tracked down Brayan, who has reddish-blond hair and an endearing lisp, at a temporary foster care agency in New York City, and reached out to the lawyer who represents him. Until that phone call, the lawyer, Jodi Ziesemer, a supervising attorney at Catholic Charities, had no idea that Brayan had been separated from his father. The chaos, she said, felt disturbingly like zero tolerance all over again.
Click through for the rest. To say the least, the Trump administrations record of human rights abuses and child abuses is deplorable. Although ordered by the courts to stop separations and return the children to their parents, their lack of compliance is outrageous. Further, all they have done is find ways to circumvent the judicial ruling. A nation of laws? Yeah, right. Not with Trump and the Republicans.
CBS News — Russia says the Ukrainian vessels sparked the confrontation by refusing to yield upon orders from Russian border forces to change their course in Russian territorial waters.
Ukrainian officials insist it was Russian border guards who first rammed into and opened fire on the three Ukrainian navy vessels as they were trying to make their way from the Black Sea toward a Ukrainian port.
On Monday, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations called on Russia to “immediately cease its unlawful conduct” in the Black Sea near Crimea during a United Nations Security Council meeting called over the incident.
“We call on Russia to respect its international obligations and not obstruct or harass Ukraine’s transit in the Kerch Strait, to release the seized Ukrainian ships and crew and to de-escalate the tensions it has created,” Haley told the Council, CBS News’ Pamela Falk reported.
Russia extends belligerence toward Ukraine with aggression at sea
U.N. holds emergency meeting after Russia seizes Ukrainian ships
In a Washington Post article covering several topics,
“Trump also threatened to cancel his scheduled meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a global summit this week because of Russia’s maritime clash with Ukraine. He said he was awaiting a “full report” from his national security team Tuesday evening about Russia’s capture of three Ukrainian naval ships and their crews in the Black Sea on Sunday.
“That will be very determinative,” Trump said. “Maybe I won’t have the meeting. Maybe I won’t even have the meeting. . . . I don’t like that aggression. I don’t want that aggression at all.””
Does this mean his bromance with Putin is over? Certainly Moscow flexing its muscles at Ukraine is disturbing. Putin has something up his sleeve, but what? Is he trying to create a new “Soviet Union”? Or is this just a plain power grab to out power the US? With the power will come money. This would make Putin the king of oligarchs if he isn’t already.
Politico — … America’s democratic institutions are highly vulnerable to foreign influence.
Foreign powers use three basic tools to interfere in democratic politics: cyber operations, disinformation and dark money. Thanks in part to Mueller’s indictments of members of Russia’s military intelligence agency(GRU) and the St. Petersburg troll farm known as the Internet Research Agency, we have begun to address election-related cyber attacks and foreign disinformation. But when it comes to foreign dark money – money from unknown foreign sources – we remain woefully unprepared.
The lack of transparency in our campaign finance system combined with extensive foreign money laundering creates a significant vulnerability for our democracy. We don’t know how much illicit money enters the United States from abroad or how much dark money enters American political campaigns, but in 2015, the Treasury Department estimated that $300 billion is laundered through the U.S. every year. If even a small fraction of that ends up in our political campaigns, it constitutes an unacceptable national security risk.
While foreign funding of campaigns is prohibited by federal statute, the body that enforces campaign finance laws – the Federal Election Commission (FEC) – lacks both teeth and resources. Sophisticated adversaries like Russia and China know how to bypass the ban on foreign funding by exploiting loopholes in the system and using layers of proxies to mask their activities, making it difficult for the FEC, the FBI, and the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network to follow the money. …
The fact that we don’t know exactly how much foreign dark money is being channeled into U.S. politics is precisely why we need to reduce our vulnerabilities. There is ample evidence of dark money penetrating other democracies, and no reason to believe we are immune from this risk.
Money in politics is not a straight line. It is a spider web that travels in all directions and requires clear, non political solutions but the political will to legislate the solutions. With today’s Republicans, I don’t think the political will exists. And to be fair, some Democrats may also lack the political will.
My Universe
Posted to Care2 HERE
6 Responses to “Squatch’s Open Thread 28 November 2018”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
AN: How very, very sad. I’m ashamed that this is even happening! I can’t even fathom the pain that these families feel. Heartbreaking, and shameful! Welcome to the land of the Gestapo.
CBS: Indeed, this is very troubling, re: Ukraine. I think dt will side with Russia, as there is something there that Putin has over him, and whom he will probably meet with, and also MBSalman @ the G20 meeting.
Politico: Good points to ascertain the vulnerability of foreign influence, and things that we need to look out for. Passing this on too.
MU: Thanks!! for the treat of watching Simon. Cats are absolutely adorable to watch, and each has their own personality…my Russian Blue certainly does.
Congrats to the week’s winner in FF. Shame about your laptop, I hope that you get a chance to rest up, too. Thank for for posting, have you heard anything about Tom, or Wendy? How’s are they doing?
*This just in – “Your feelings of inferiority, insecurity, vulnerability and culpability are loud and clear. You remind me of how many corrupt authoritarian leaders abroad behaved before they were deposed. Bob Mueller’s name will be revered in the annals of US history, your name will be scorned.” ~ John Brennan, former CIA director. his comment to Donald Trump ~
4:36 I’m not a runner at all.
So, yesterday was Giving Tuesday, and my email broke all previous records. I didn’t systematically count, but I know I received over 400, and may have broken 500, not counting the over 60 in the Spam folder). Whew! I think I actually looked at about 30. But (excepting the spam) they are all good people and good groups, and I don’t actually want to unsubscribe.
And today is Wednesday. Sometimes I don’t know what I would do without the “Recharge” newsletter. Some of the stories can be found here.
AlterNet – More of their “This will all blow over” attitude. I don’t know what the answer is. If we make the noise that is deserved for every abuse of power we probably WILL burn out, and we can’t afford to do that. Thank God there are some decent people working with refugees – not that there are enough, or that they can do everything. And we are not the only nation that has to worry about this crap.
CBS – And more. Tire out the decent people and you can get away with anything.
WaPo – No need to overanalyze this. No, his bromance is not over. I’m sure they have an understanding about what Americans will and will not tolerate … for now.
Politico – So depressing.
Universe – Silly cat.
It would be way too depressing not to mention this news – some information which will also be in Mueller’s final report will be revealed soon. Let me explain. Trump and Manafort has a JDA or Joint Defense Agreement, That means their lawyers could share information. JDAs are supposed to terminate in certain circumstances, like the guilty plea of one of the parties. Therefore Manafort’s plea bargain should have terminated the JDA. (Does anyone here believe that these crooks would respect that? I don’t think Mueller did either.) So Trump was getting information from Manafort through his lawyers about what Mueller did and didn’t know. During this period, Mueller prepared questions for Trump to answer in writing. Almost immediately upon receiving answers to those questions, Mueller announced that the plea agreement was void, because Manafort lied. (The one thing that’s NOT void is the guilty pleas. Those will stand.) Here’s my take (and not just mine): Mueller knew just what Manafort and Trump would do. The written questions were a trap to prove it. Trump’s answers did prove it. Now Mueller has asked the courts to move to sentencing as soon as possible, and is filing documents detailing why. Per MSNBC legal analyst Danny Cevallos, “Courts are different than the Mueller team’s mandate for secrecy. Anything that’s filed in court, unless it’s filed under seal, and there’s a presumption against filing things under seal in federal court, will be publicly available.” (emphasis mine) If Mueller’s final report is kept from the public, this information at least will not be subject to that suppression.
Alternet: When the full, hoping someday to have that, knowledge of the impact, and extent of Drumph’s diabolical maneuvers is known, this country will have to hang its head in serious shame! Not unrelated, I think, is the answer to what I believe was No No Name’s question of the other day: How long will it take for the country to heal from the damage Drumph is causing? Much longer than a few decades, is my answer. We are still suffering from the Reagan influence on the country, in several ways; we can see the impact of the G. W. Bush legacy in the person of Brett Kavnaugh,who’s a part of his administration, and appointed as a judge by that waste of protoplasm. He will be in SCOTUS for a looong time, as impeaching him would require the Dems having a major majority in both houses.
CBS and WP: I do not believe that the bromance is anywhere near over, but that Drumph is just mouthing empty words.
Politico: Not that I wish to put a wet blanket on the holiday season with pessimism, but as long as the GOPIGS believe they will benefit from dark money, we will not see campaign reform, especially with regards to finances in campaigns. They must cheat, and manipulate in every way possible, just to stay in the frigging game, and they know it. Nor do they give a half of a red rat’s ass about the socio-political consequences!
AN: Shameful at what this idiot is doing to these people .He ia like I’ve always stated..a heartless bas*ard.
CBS: Here we go again, with tRump voicing his senseless opinions siding with the foreign ones who are out to have wars and kill others.
Politico: Shameful and very depressing.
Simon Cat: Love it.
Thanks for posting. Good luck with your laptop.
You did a great job despite the lack of cooperation from your electronic servants and the cold in your room, lynn.
AN: Utterly disgusting, this total lack of a moral conscience of a government that will not even abide by the law of the land. And always done in such a cowardly way, when nobody is watching, when everyone is distracted by Drumpfian tweets and grandstanding. Kudos to ProPublica and others for tracing those children separated from their children as best they could and speaking out on these terrible abuses of human rights.
CBS: Of course these events are followed closely by neighbouring Europe, but even here down under the Russian aggression and the bold attempt to destabilize the region further after their annexation of the Krim is followed closely. I haven’t heard anyone say that Ukraine was daunting Russia and that the latter had avery right to intervene, but I don’t follow the news in Hungary. Everyone else agrees that Russia needs to have a firm talking to and many leaders have already done so.
I understood the Republicans expect (really?) Drumpf to tell Putin off in no uncertain words at the G20 meeting, which is already called the G19 by many. So now Drumpf takes his precautions and says he may not meet with Putin, because it is so bad what he’s done. Ha! The coward. He knows full well nobody will believe him that he had a stern talk with his BFF, just like nobody believed him the last two times. So now they will just accidentally meet in the corridors or at the dinner table again, huh?
Politico: Even before Drumpf it has always been “follow the money” to find out who is really pulling the strings in the US, and many other countries. But the political will to do that has now completely evaporated, even with some Democrats as you say, Lynn, and it was left to investigative journalist to shoulder the responsibility. However, with his war on the media, Drumpf has also made that particular field almost to hard to cover. Intentionally, no doubt. Another thing that progressive Democrats need to take on if America is going to recover even the semblance of a democracy, as do progressive politicians in countries which struggle with the same “rule by and for dollars”.
My Universe: used to be my universe too once. Thanks for posting, Lynn, but I so miss my cats now.
Bravo!