Politics Plus

Well it has been a quiet day.  I decided my cold was not sufficiently gone to risk going to see my mother.  I have been hacking all day.  I did get 2 bags of clothes I no longer wear ready for pick up tomorrow by the Diabetes Assc. Hurray!  More room in my closet!  This week will be my final pastoral care class and then comes the criminal records check for working in hospitals and hospice venues.

Short Takes

MSNBC — A petition for the open carry of firearms at the Republican National Convention has amassed over 32,000 signatures as of Sunday morning.

The convention is scheduled to take place in Cleveland from July 18 to 21 at the Quicken Loans Arena, which bans all weapons on property. While Ohio allows open-carry, the venue’s ban is permitted by state law. 

People listen to speakers at the 1 Million Moms Against Gun Control rally outside the NRA's Annual Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana, April 26, 2014.  Photo by Mark Peterson/Redux for MSNBC

… finds fault with the policy, calling it “a direct affront to the Second Amendment.” Pointing to an article that ranks Cleveland among the United States’ most dangerous cities and mentioning “the possibility of an ISIS terrorist attack,” the author said the Republican National Committee and the Quicken Loans Arena are putting people at risk.

In my view, the 2nd amendment is stretched to the max with its current iterations.  Guns at a highly charged political convention where one candidate routinely and continually incites violence?  Drumpf has already said there will be violence if he does not win the nomination.  An ISIS attack?  Just a little paranoid!

Politico — This is not a joke. Senator Al Franken should be the Democratic Party’s choice for vice president.

If I had said that 10 years ago, or even six months ago, the notion would have been preposterous: a former Saturday Night Live writer, perhaps best known as the mock self-help guru Stuart Smalley, Franken became synonymous with left-wing bombast thanks to his best-selling book Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot. He took the presidency itself as a joke, writing a satirical campaign memoir, Why Not Me, in which Franken wins the White House on a platform of eliminating ATM fees, only to be quickly chased out by the “Joint Congressional Committee on the President's Mood Swings.”

But for a 2016 presidential race that’s already stranger than fiction, his party truly needs someone like Franken if it’s going to win the presidency.

The primaries and caucuses aren't even over; the party nominees not yet decided.  But talk is surfacing in some quarters about potential VP running mates.  I find it rather presumptive that Clinton is the nominee, but whatever. This isn't about her but about a possible running mate.

Alternet — Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren is defending Bernie Sanders’ decision to keep campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination and calling out Donald Trump for being the worst kind of predatory capitalist.

Warren spoke to reporters after visiting a community health center in suburban Boston and made the following six points about Sanders and Trump, which were quickly picked up by Associated Press.

1. Sanders is good for Democrats and the country. “He’s out there. He fights from the heart. This is who Bernie is,” Warren said. “He has put the right issues on the table both for the Democratic Party and for the country in general, so I’m still cheering Bernie on.”

click through for the other five ways Elizabeth Warren trashed Drumpf and stood by Bernie.  Lizzie is spot on in my view.

YouTube — This is a little humour for you from John Oliver.

My Universe — from Care2 — Meet Nutz, a pet squirrel . . . a rather hyperactive pet squirrel.

I have been in a cold induced fog since last Saturday.  I have spent most of the time in bed sleeping as my face was swollen from what I thought was a sinus infection.  Today I am feeling almost human and just returned from lunch with friends.  I also picked up my new laptop today so now comes the learning curve.  Because of my cold, I did not teach on Monday which bummed me out because I had some English and French books for 8 year old Sareena.  But my 2nd student Neda, her mother and the wife of my physiotherapist, brought over a pot of delicious chicken soup which was so sweet to do.  Now you know what I had for dinner last night and what I shall have again tonight!

Short Takes

Moyers & Company — They represent everything wrong with the Democratic Party. Hillary Clinton should tell them to take a hike.

There are two Democrats whose resignation from office right now would do their party and country a service.

Their disappearance might also help Hillary Clinton convince skeptical Democrats that her nomination, if it happens, is about the future, and not about resurrecting and ratifying the worst aspects of the first Clinton reign when she and her husband rarely met a donor to whom they wouldn’t try to auction a sleepover in the Lincoln Bedroom.

In fact, while we’re at it, and if Secretary Clinton really wants us to believe she’s no creature of the corporate and Wall Street money machine — despite more than $44 million in contributions from the financial industry since 2000 and her $675,000 in speaking fees from Goldman Sachs, not to mention several million more paid by other business interests for an hour or two of her time — she should pick up the gauntlet herself and publicly call for the departure of these two, although they are among her nearest and dearest. And we don’t mean Bill and Chelsea.

So, can you guess who these two might be before going to the article?  How about this as a hint?

Over the last several years, there has been a lot of controversey around both Rahm Emanuel, Mayor of Chicago, and Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Democratic National Committee Chair and a Florida congresswoman.​  Read on to see how Bill Moyers sees things.  What do you think?

Politico — Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić was convicted of genocide in Srebrenica, several counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes by a United Nations tribunal on Thursday and sentenced to 40 years in prison.

Karadžić, now 70, is the most senior Serb leader convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia of genocide and crimes against humanity committed during the Bosnia war in the 1990s, including the killing of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica and the 44-month siege of Sarajevo.

Justice has been a long time coming.  Will Baby Bush, Chickenhawk Cheney, Rumsfeld et al ever see the inside of a courtroom to stand trial for war crimes?  Will there ever be justice for the Iraqi people?

Huffington Post — I believe it is vitally important for men like me to acknowledge this as loudly and openly as role models do like President Bhandari, the US First Lady Michelle Obama and activists like Malala. As the First Lady has said, change needs to come from the bottom up. We won't unlock these opportunities for young women and girls unless we can change the mindset of every family and community. To achieve this, it cannot just be women who speak up for girls.

"When women are empowered, they immeasurably improve the lives of everyone around them — their families, their communities, and their countries. This is not just about women, we men need to recognize the part we play too. Real men treat women with dignity and give them the respect they deserve."

This is what we, as a global community, need to hear and talk about and act upon until we get it right.

Politico — While the jihadist threat is genuinely global, it is by no means equally distributed. There is, of course, no such thing as perfect security, and as we saw as recently as the San Bernadino shootings in December of last year, there are individuals in the United States who are prepared to commit violence against other Americans. But the European context underlying the attacks at Brussels Airport and the downtown Maelbeek subway station — one of alienated, underemployed and ghettoized Muslims as well as subpar security differs dramatically from anything found in the United States.

As I read, this last line particularly caught my attention — "…one of alienated, underemployed and ghettoized Muslims as well as subpar security differs dramatically from anything found in the United States." But how long will that last with the likes of either Drumpf or Cruz as a potential POTUS?  In TC's article Brussels Unprepared, I commented "…their rhetoric, their potential actions only serve the cause of further radicalisation by alienating vulnerable Muslims, especially youth who are often at odds with older generations already."  Drumpf would remove all Muslims from the US, asinine and impossible as that is, while Cruz would have heavy surveillance of all Muslim communities, effectively 'ghettoising' Muslims and discriminating against them.  In that same article, Lona, who lives in the Netherlands, left a very informative comment, one that provides detail that is not found in North American media.

My Universe — h/t Ted W and Carol B, Care2

If this were my Winnie, he'd have the door open wide and food already on the counter!

Somehow, I have managed to pick up a sore throat and likely a cold . . . again.  My chiropractor had one and that is the only person I can think of to whom I have been close.  Arrggghhhh!  I am still awaiting my laptop so that I can join Nameless in frustration with learning Windows 10.  I have W7 on my desk top and like it but that will have to change sooner or later.  Because I have a bug, I won't be going to see my mother tomorrow.

Short Takes

CBC — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's recent trip to the U.S. appears to have made quite an impression on our American friends — perhaps too good an impression, judging by these videos of two New York men literally begging him to run for president.  …

In another video, Trudeau declines the invitation to run for president on the grounds that he's not U.S.-born.

The American men were quick to counter by pointing out that Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz was born in Calgary. 

"I have tremendous confidence in the American people," Trudeau told the men, but they weren't convinced. 

Just a little bit of humour to start your read.  Since Trudeau's visit to Washington just over a week ago, I have seen various positive posts about Trudeau, one even asking him to run for President of North America.  I think a modern Trudeaumania has been born.  From Wikipedia: 

Trudeaumania was the nickname given in early 1968 to the excitement generated by Pierre Trudeau's entry into the leadership race of the Liberal Party of Canada. Trudeaumania continued during the subsequent federal election campaign and during Trudeau's early years as Prime Minister of Canada. 

I remember it well!

National Law Journal — h/t Barbara K, Care2 — A group of more than 350 legal scholars on Monday called upon senators to fulfill their constitutional obligation to consider a U.S. Supreme Court nominee submitted by President Barack Obama.

In a letter sent to Senate leaders, 356 professors and scholars said that leaving an eight-justice court in place would have dire consequences. They asserted that allowing Justice Antonin Scalia’s seat to remain unfilled until after the presidential election could cripple the court and set bad precedent.

“This preemptive abdication of duty is contrary to the process the framers envisioned in Article II, and threatens to diminish the integrity of our democratic institutions and the functioning of our constitutional government,” reads the letter, addressed to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky; Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada; Judiciary Committee chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa; and ranking Judiciary Committee member Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont.

Reached for comment, a spokesman for McConnell wrote in an email, “The Leader’s position is well-known.”

Alliance for Justice, a liberal organization focused on the federal judiciary, circulated the letter.

The letter reads in part:

As scholars deeply committed to the fair administration of justice, upholding the rule of law, and educating future generations of the legal profession, the undersigned professors of law urge you to fulfill your constitutional duty to give President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee a prompt and fair hearing and a timely vote.

The Senate’s obligation in this circumstance is clear. Under Article II of the Constitution, the president “shall appoint . . . judges to the Supreme Court,” and the Senate’s role is to provide “advice and consent.” Yet before the president has even made a nomination to fill the current vacancy, a number of senators have announced that they will not perform their constitutional duty. Instead, they plan to withhold advice and consent until the next president is sworn in nearly a year from now. This preemptive abdication of duty is contrary to the process the framers envisioned in Article II, and threatens to diminish the integrity of our democratic institutions and the functioning of our constitutional government.

President Obama was elected to a four-year term in 2012. According to the Constitution, that term has more than 300 days remaining. There is no exception to the Constitution holding that the president lacks the authority or duty to appoint justices to the Supreme Court because he is in the last year of his presidency. In fact, six justices have been confirmed in presidential-election years since 1900, including Louis Brandeis, Benjamin Cardozo, and Republican-appointee Anthony Kennedy, who was confirmed by a Democratically-controlled Senate during President Ronald Reagan’s last year in office. 

Here is a petition from the Alliance for Justice to Tell Senators to #Do Your Job

Rachel Maddow spoke with Nan Aron, president of the AFJ, back in mid February on the conundrum.

IMO, McTurtle and Grassley, nor any other Republican for that matter, should not be in any leadership position.  I hope this Republican stupidity hurts them in the election, regardless of whether the matter is solve or not.

Raw Story — In November, many Americans who didn’t vote in 2014 or 2015 will be casting a vote for president of the United States. Midterms and off-year elections are often ignored by registered voters, but anyone who doubts the importance of voting in every election need only look at the type of damage far-right Republicans can do at the state or local level when they are in control. Although Democrats have won the popular vote in five of the last six presidential elections, and President Barack Obama was reelected decisively in 2012, Republicans fared extremely well during the 2010 and 2014 midterms, not only in Congress, but in the state and local races. The result has been an obscene amount of destructive legislation, from anti-union laws to harsh anti-abortion and anti-contraception measures to laws that harm the environment.

Below are 10 terrible laws or bills brought to you by some of the more obscure GOP politicians wielding way too much power in statehouses and state legislatures around the country.  …

11. Senate Bill 4: Kentucky’s New Anti-Abortion Law

Signed into law by Republican Gov. Matt Bevin last month, Senate Bill 4 requires that women in Kentucky receive in-person counseling 24 hours before an abortion. The Kentucky ACLU describes SB 4 as “an unnecessary barrier to safe and legal abortion practices,” and Derek Selznick (director of the Kentucky ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Project), said, “Legislators were not elected to provide medical advice or care to Kentucky women.” This is the same Bevin who began dismantling Kentucky’s successful, state-run Obamacare exchange, Kynect, right after taking office in January. So the health of Kentucky women is not high on his list of priorities.

Click through for the other ten laws pushed by right-wing Republican nutters.  If you don't want this kind of BS, then take a stand and get out the vote.

NY Times — Republican leaders adamantly opposed to Donald J. Trump’s candidacy are preparing a 100-day campaign to deny him the presidential nomination, starting with an aggressive battle in Wisconsin’s April 5 primary and extending into the summer, with a delegate-by-delegate lobbying effort that would cast Mr. Trump as a calamitous choice for the general election.

Recognizing that Mr. Trump has seized a formidable advantage in the race, they say that an effort to block him would rely on an array of desperation measures, the political equivalent of guerrilla fighting.

There is no longer room for error or delay, the anti-Trump forces say, and without a flawlessly executed plan of attack, he could well become unstoppable.

But should that effort falter, leading conservatives are prepared to field an independent candidate in the general election, to defend Republican principles and offer traditional conservatives an alternative to Mr. Trump’s hard-edged populism.

Some prominent Republicans have considered Mr. Perry as a possible independent candidate for the general election if Mr. Trump receives the party’s presidential nomination.

Are Republicans making one Oops after another?

My Universe — I asked TC to do a special report from a local farm.

TC in the barn assessing the needs!

Tucked away in Spokane, WA, there is a shelter for cats that sets itself apart from the pack with its novel, and incredibly successful, approach to caring for cats in need of help. Instead of a life of cages, occasional adoption events, and possible euthanasia, these cats are brought into SpokAnimal shelter as feral or stray, and end up leaving gainfully employed!

Click through The Animal Rescue Site for the rest of his report.  Excellent report Puddy Tat!!