I was in sufficient foot pain yesterday that I could not concentrate to produce an Open Thread. At physio today, my therapist looked at my foot and did some manipulations. It is still quite painful, swollen and red, but nothing compared to yesterday. Seems I have dislocated bones on the lateral side of my right foot so it is rest and ice with a follow up on Monday. I have no idea how I dislocated the bones. On a happy note, our gardens are blooming with crocuses, narcissus and forsythia. Some daffodils and tulips are about 12-15 cm high and just developing their buds. Even some of the trees are starting to bud! Today the temperature was 16 C (61 F) although tonight it is supposed to go down to freezing.
Short Takes
Huffington Post — Many of the progressive wish list issues Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) advocate for as they campaign were achieved in Oregon in the last year. …
Since taking office, Democratic majorities in both chambers of the legislature have sent Brown bills addressing such progressive measures as expanding voting rights, access to birth control and background checks for gun purchases, as well as enacting paid sick leave and making community college nearly free for thousands of students.
Brown has tried to balance "fighting for working families and making sure we open the doors of opportunity to every single Oregonian" and treading cautiously because she is acutely aware that voters did not actually elect her into office.
Normally, I would leave this for TC, but with him sick, I elected to pass on the positive news. The headline: The Political Revolution Is Close To Fruition In Oregon. As TC would say, Oregon leads the way!
Alternet — In October 2001, the U.S. launched its invasion of Afghanistan largely through proxy Afghan fighters with the help of Special Operations forces, American air power, and CIA dollars. The results were swift and stunning. The Taliban was whipped, a new government headed by Hamid Karzai soon installed in Kabul, and the country declared “liberated.”
More than 14 years later, how’d it go? What’s “liberated” Afghanistan like and, if you were making a list, what would be the accomplishments of Washington all these years later? Hmm… at this very moment, according to the latest reports, the Taliban control more territory than at any moment since December 2001. Meanwhile, the Afghan security forces that the U.S. built up and funded to the tune of more than $65 billion are experiencing “unsustainable” casualties, their ranks evidently filled with “ghost” soldiers and policemen — up to 40% in some places — whose salaries, often paid by the U.S., are being pocketed by their commanders and other officials. …
… economically speaking, how did the “reconstruction” of the country work out, given that Washington pumped more money (in real dollars) into Afghanistan in these years than it did into the rebuilding of Western Europe after World War II? Leaving aside the pit of official corruption into which many of those dollars disappeared, the country is today hemorrhaging desperate young people who can’t find jobs or make a living and now constitute what may be the second largest contingent of refugees heading for Europe.
Click through for the rest of this interesting article. Afghanistan is a country rich in natural mineral resources, but it is also a very poor country. One natural resource that flourishes in this harsh environment is the poppy. The economy, such that it is, is being supported by the poppy which makes its way around the globe. This from Wikipedia:
… The cultivation of opium [in Afghanistan] reached its peak in 1999, when 350 square miles (910 km2) of poppies were sown … The following year the Taliban banned poppy cultivation, … a move which cut production by 94 percent … By 2001 only 30 square miles (78 km2) of land were in use for growing opium poppies. A year later, after American and British troops had removed the Taliban and installed the interim government, the land under cultivation leapt back to 285 square miles (740 km2), with Afghanistan supplanting Burma to become the world's largest opium producer once more.
Foreign Policy — For nearly 17 years, K.T. has been living with a secret. In 1999, during the conflict in Kosovo, she was gang raped by Serbian forces.
When her son found out, she says, he had a question for her: “Why didn’t you ask them to kill you instead?”
If that was the reaction of her own family, what would the neighbors say? Fearing the humiliation, she suffered in silence. She says she tried to commit suicide. When she talks about that day, she still sometimes says it would have been better if she had been killed.
Thousands of survivors of the wartime sexual violence in Kosovo that took place when Serbia fought against an independence movement here in the late 1990s still suffer from stigma like K.T.. So it was a significant step when the country’s parliament moved in 2014 to recognize them as war victims, entitling them to a state pension, after years of refusing to acknowledge them. Nearly two years later, the government is expected to soon form the commission that will begin accepting applications. …
“I’m trying to convince other women who were raped to register, but very few will do it,” she said. “They’re afraid it will cause problems with their families — many are afraid their husbands would divorce and leave them. They say it’s been 17 years and we’ve gotten nothing, so why register now? The risk is too big.”
How would you react if your son said to you “Why didn’t you ask them to kill you instead?”, all because you had been gang raped by enemy soldiers during war? Society, by shaming these war victims, is blaming the victim rather than the perpetrator. We say "That is in Kosovo. It would never happen here.". But it does happen in the US. Just listen to Republican politicians talking about rape and abortion. Victims are stigmatised.
I kept hearing on the news that Trump said he likes uneducated people. I found that offensive. But it also tells us that he wants supporters that are uneducated so he can build his base with people that don't generally think critically.
The New Yorker — Making good on one of his key campaign promises, President Obama signed an executive order on Tuesday relocating the United States Congress to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
The President seemed to relish signing the order, calling the relocation a “win-win for America,” and indicating that Congress could be moved to its new headquarters “immediately.”
“We don’t envision doing any renovations to the facility down there,” he said. “It is ready to house Congress right now.”
The President did not specify what the current U.S. Capitol building would be used for in the future, but he hinted that it could be the setting for historic reënactments in the manner of Colonial Williamsburg.
Is Andy onto something or what?
My Universe —
Is this chick crazy? The cat certainly is patient and tolerant!
