It’s another busy day here at the CatBox. Our fantasy football league has almost completed the first playoff week. Patty Monster has squeaked by Wendy. The Squatch and I are neck and neck. If Julio Jones scores four fantasy points in tonight’s game, I advance. If not… Oh the shame!! 
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 5:19 (average 5:48). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From NBC News: The latest NBC/WSJ poll not only shows Democrats holding their biggest lead in congressional preference since 2008, it also finds them enjoying a double-digit advantage when it comes to voter intensity ahead of next year’s midterms.
According to the poll, 59 percent of Democratic voters say they have a high level of interest in next year’s elections (registering either a 9 or 10 on a 10-point scale), versus 49 percent of Republican voters saying the same thing. Additionally, 62 percent of voters who said they voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 have a high level of interest in next year’s midterms, compared with 50 percent of Trump voters.
"A double-digit margin here is an important indicator of Democratic intensity," said Republican pollster Bill McInturff of Public Opinion Strategies, who conducted this survey with Democratic pollsters from Hart Research Associates.
We need to channel that intensity into a 50 state strategy, at all levels of government, based on progressive values, without shooting ourselves in the foot along the way. RESIST!!
From Pacific Standard: For the last two weeks, Philip Alston, a professor at the New York University School of Law and a United Nations special rapporteur on poverty and human rights, has been on a fact-finding tour of the United States’ poorest communities. Alston visited neighborhoods in rural Alabama where raw sewage sits in open trenches and pits. He spent time at a free dental clinic in West Virginia, where he met a 32-year-old whose teeth have all but rotted away. He saw a homeless encampment in Los Angeles where the ratio of toilets to residents is lower than the U.N. mandate for Syrian refugee camps. Today, Alston released a sharply critical preliminary reportsummarizing [sic]his findings. American exceptionalism may be alive and well, Alston concludes, but "today’s United States has proved itself to be exceptional in far more problematic ways that are shockingly at odds with its immense wealth and its founding commitment to human rights."
When it comes to poverty rates and other measures of deprivation, the U.S. is a stark outlier among other developed countries. Despite its status as one of the world’s wealthiest countries, the U.S. has the highest infant mortality rates in the developed world, the worst health outcomes, the highest incarceration rate, the highest youth poverty rate, one of the highest rates of inequality, and one of the lowest rates of voter participation. Eighteen percent of American children in 2016 were living in poverty, with rates in some states as high as 30 percent.
Politicians opposed to expanding the social safety net have leaned heavily on a certain false narrative about poor Americans to justify cuts to welfare and other social programs, according to Alston. "Some politicians and political appointees with whom I spoke were completely sold on the narrative of such scammers sitting on comfortable sofas, watching color TVs, while surfing on their smartphones, all paid for by welfare," he writes. "I wonder how many of these politicians have ever visited poor areas, let alone spoken to those who dwell there. There are anecdotes aplenty, but evidence is nowhere to be seen."
Behold the culmination of eight years of the Bush Regime, eight years of Republicans sabotaging and obstructing everything Obama and Democrats tried to make it better, and one year of Trump. RESIST!!
From NY Times: …The task in front of Congress over the coming week boils down to a basic question: Does Washington work for all of us or just for those at the top? Congress has a chance, right now, to take steps that will make life a bit better for millions of working people immediately and in the years to come. We should seize it.
This is the last paragraph of an excellent editorial by both Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Click through for a great read. RESIST!!
Cartoon:
9 Responses to “Open Thread – 12/18/2017”
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5:00 It’s pretty obvious the candle is not real, and I’d be surprised if the little guy were edible. So don’t be upset with my good fortune. (And Squatch beat me anyway.)
NBC – The hard part is going to be not shooting ourselves in the foot. Of course, if we were Republicans, it wouldn’t matter – they shoot themselves in the foot all the time and no one cares. We are more scrutinized.
Pacific Standard – So very true. But the point is being missed that it’s not just politicians who live in fantasyland – it’s also their base who need to “visit poor areas and speak to those who swell there.” And find out how they are being lied to. This information does give us a window of opportunity – to spread truth – if we can only take it and run with it. Michael Moore comes to mind, but maybe it needs to be people who are “seen” as more mainstream. Something to think about.
NY Times – The answer to that basic question is, “just for those at the top.” that’s the problem. Of course there are exceptions, such as Bernie and Elizabeth. I hope this gets a wide audience. It would be nice for it to appear in the National Review, but I certainly will not be holding my breath for that.
Cartoon – Yup. I’m in a rut on commenting on your cartoons, because you are in a groove of cartoons which say it all, no comment needed.
Don’t stand in front of me right now, I am about to spit nails. Remember Ady Barkan, whom I brought up a couple of days ago? I just got word that HE HAS BEEN ARRESTED. ON HIS BIRTHDAY. FOR FIGHTING FOR HIS LIFE. This was in an email from Working Families, and Joe Dinkin, the sender, was vague on who made the arrest, though he attached a photo. I could rant more, but it wouldn’t add anything new.
When you mentioned Ady Barkan a few days ago, I googled him as I had not heard of him. What a guy! I have a piece that I am going to put in an Open Thread for the 19th.
Alston’s findings are a shocking and scathing commentary on our anything-but-great nation. When Syrian refugees have better access to toilets than the homeless in our country, when the 1% are wallowing in C-notes while people are losing all of their teeth in their 30s, when we are shoveling billions down the black hole of needless foreign wars while we have the highest rates of infant mortality, incarceration and youth poverty for the developed world – oh yeah, that’s American exceptionalism for you. We are the world’s laughingstock.
NBC: Very, very encouraging. Spoke yesterday to some folks handing out fliers for the “Meet your Neighbor” Dem party here, it’s so wonderful to hang out with like minded friends!! We must keep the momentum going/continuing!!!
PS: Unbelievably sad, and awful !! It’s not going to get any better, either, for these folks, young or old. Volunteering and community involvement helps on a local level. Most politicians aren’t poor, and turn a deaf ear and blind eye to these issues of those in dire need of assistance.
NYT: Good article. I sure do hope that they (Congress) will address this, in a positive manner. For the people!
Cartoon: Word.
Best to you on your fantasy football.Take good care, enjoy your evening, and Thanks, Tom.
NBC: They need to get out and vote!
PS: American exceptionalism shows itself in the purposefully idiocy of the Evangelicals, who insist that nothing beyond the belief in the literalness of the bible is real; in the insistent ignorance of those who believe in the likes of Alex Jones, and ilk, and in the piss poor ratings of the U.S.in so many health related areas; in the greedy support of the Koch Brothers’ agenda!
NYT: Read “Democracy in Chains- the Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth plan for america,” by Nancy MacLean, which is about the Long term Koch brothers’ quietly working to put the “millions of working people” in the pits, forever! Their concept is that there are riders, and there are donkeys, and they, and their economic elite are the riders, while the rest of us are the ridden! Those in control of congress, now, do not give a hoot for the donkeys!
NBC: It all sounds wonderful and enormously uplifting, but these high poling results so early in the race mean very little. There’s nothing more fickle than a voter, and a lot can happen in 6 months, or weeks even. Remember, until the very last Democrats thought Hillary couldn’t lose to an idiot like Drumpf and were already resting on their laurels. At the moment most votes are “against Drumpf” votes which could change for hundreds of reasons if they are not turned around and cemented in a trustworthy and progressive Democratic party. Your advise is sound, TomCat.
PS: So sad and so true. Too many Americans live in an exceptional fantasy.
NYT: I’m sorry for being so morose, but it is not really a question, is i?. Congress works for the top, the plutocrats, the oligarchs or whatever they are called.
I’ve made it to the other side of the world in one piece about six hours ago, but as you may have guessed from mu comments, I have some trouble adjusting to jet lag and temperatures more than 30 degrees Celsius higher. That will take a few days.
Puzzle — 4:07 I was lured by the smell of ginger!
NBC — Promising if it holds. However, polls are only valid on the date they were done, and as Lona says, “so early in the race mean very little”. As you say “We need to channel that intensity into a 50 state strategy, at all levels of government, based on progressive values, without shooting ourselves in the foot along the way.” It would certainly seem that there is a Drumpf factor in the Republican numbers.
Pacific Standard — “Behold the culmination of eight years of the Bush Regime, eight years of Republicans sabotaging and obstructing everything Obama and Democrats tried to make it better, and one year of Trump.” — Yes, but it cannot be allowed to continue.
In a Common Dreams article, Alston is quoted as saying “at the end of the day, particularly in a rich country like the USA, the persistence of extreme poverty is a political choice made by those in power. With political will, it could readily be eliminated.”
In that same article, he is also quoted as saying “The American Dream is rapidly becoming the American Illusion …”.
NY Times — An excellent piece. I am going to repeat what Philip Alston said above: “… extreme poverty [and other issues as noted by Warren and Sanders] is a political choice made by those in power. With political will, it could readily be eliminated.” McTurtle, Lyin’ Ryan and all Republicans, that is YOU since you are currently the dominant party in Congress. ‘We the People‘ deserve much, much better from you. Corporations etc don’t pay your government salaries, We the People do. Corporations etc pay you ‘bribes’ — it is called lobbying. Get with the plan Republicans, the People’s plan!
Cartoon — They would if they could. We must ensure they don’t!
I just looked out the window and it is snowing and sticking! It rained last night but I guess the temperature went low enough this morning to produce snow. A white Christmas here? I see that you squeaked by the Sasquatch in Fantasy Football by 1.58 points. Oh the shame picking on a poor innocent little Sasquatch like that!
Thanks all. Pooped hugs!