Lynn Squance

When is enough enough?

Posted by Lynn Squance at 11:13 am Politics

Dec 172018

Two different families in two different communities are facing imminent deportation for being in the country without the proper documentation. One family has been in the US for over 25 years. The other long enough that the three children were all born in the US. Here are their stories.

Daily Kos — Rosa Gutiérrez Lopez, a mom of three U.S. citizens including a boy with Down Syndrome, has become the first undocumented immigrant to publicly go into sanctuary in the Washington, D.C. area, following immigration officials ordering her to leave the country for her native El Salvador by Dec. 10. “I don’t know how long I will be here,” she said about her new home inside Cedar Lane Unitarian, “but I feel protected here.”

Gutiérrez Lopez shouldn’t be a priority for deportation in the first place. Since 2014, she’s had a work permit issued to her by the U.S. that allowed her to work legally, so long as she continued checking in regularly with immigration officials. As someone with familial ties and no criminal record, she’d been considered low-priority for deportation. That changed following Donald Trump’s inauguration.

“Suddenly,” Think Progress reports, “she had to come in twice a month and wear an ankle monitor at all times. Earlier this fall, agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) began encouraging her to self-deport, and warning her that if she didn’t do it herself they’d come for her themselves soon enough.”

When she got a deportation date, her attorney appealed to a judge, but her case is still pending. With three young kids and one who requires specialized therapies, she went to DMV Sanctuary Congregation Network for help. “We don’t see why she is a priority for deportation,” said Faith In Action’s Richard Morales, who helped coordinate with Cedar Lane Unitarian. “There is no reason to separate this woman from her children.”

Orlando Sentinel — Torres-Bruno, a 60-year-old Argentinian citizen, and his wife, a 61-year-old native of Peru, have been living in Florida with their son, UCF graduate Juan Miguel Torres-Bruno, 26, since they arrived on a tourist visa in 1993, seeking asylum in the aftermath of terrorist attacks in Lima.

It took seven years for their case to be heard and by then an immigration judge determined the terrorism threat in the South American country had diminished and denied their request. But the family has been allowed to remain in the U.S. under “stay of removal” orders approved annually as they fought to have their case reopened — until now.

“We did everything we were supposed to,” Miguel Torres-Bruno said. “Now, we have to reinvent our life and start all over again like we’re in our 20s.”

The couple’s last-ditch effort to stay in the U.S. was turned down Tuesday as part of President Donald Trump’s zero tolerance policy — no undocumented immigrants are exempt from removal.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a statement that “both cases received full due process” and that “pursuing repeated [stay of removals] is not a viable means … to permanently postpone their required return to their country of origin.”

Their son is temporarily protected from deportation because of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, also known as DACA. His latest renewal expires in September 2019, but Trump is trying to phase out the program started under former President Barack Obama.

These are but 2 of the undoubtedly thousands of stories from people in the US who are in the country without proper documentation. Most left their countries of origin because of war, political violence or maybe the drug wars. They are mothers and fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers, sons, daughters, grandchildren willing to take the risks of a long and arduous journey rife with its own problems. They spend weeks, perhaps months moving north in search of better lives for themselves and their families. They are met by suspicion and rancor. And now, as reported in The Atlantic , the Trump régime is turning itself onto new targets that have been in the US for 40 years or more — undocumented Vietnamese, refugees from a war that directly involved the US military. There is such hostility in this land that is suppose to represent freedom and welcome, but has become instead hardened and capricious. When is enough enough? When do we start living our national values? When do we again become the shining light on the hill?

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
MOTHEROF EXILES. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Squatch’s Open Thread 17 December 2018

Posted by Lynn Squance at 11:13 am Open Thread, Politics

Dec 172018

It’s Monday morning — OGIM!!! — and I tried to get this OT out yesterday but couldn’t. It rained here yesterday like there was no tomorrow. We could have floated Noah’s Ark in some places. I see Puddy Tat has been in already so people have their reading set for Monday. I will likely not be posting for a few days at least since the news cycle will thin out during Christmas and I need to explore our new Word Press updates. Have a good week as you prepare for all the festivities ahead!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:31 (average 6:03). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes

AlterNet — In a ruling that was quickly dubbed as “insane” by critics, a federal judge in Texas ruled that the entirety of the Affordable Care Act — also known as “Obamacare” — was unconstitutional.

It appears the law will still technically be in place while the case goes through appeals, however.

Judge Reed O’Connor had been expected to rule against the law, brought by Republican states attorneys general, but the scope of his ruling Friday night still shocked many observers. The lawsuit he heard targeted the law’s individual mandate, which sets a tax penalty for every who American who doesn’t sign up for health insurance.

The mandate had already been upheld by the Supreme Court, so it would have seemed that the lawsuit was pointless. It seems even more pointless because last year the Republicans voted to set the cost of the individual mandate to zero, effectively nullifying it.

Click through . . . it gets even more insane. Judge O’Connor is a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas and was nominated by George W. Bush in 2007. If this was a lifetime appointment, he has a long way to go before retirement since he is only 53 years old. Think Progress had this to say about O’Connor:

The Republican officials filed their case in Fort Worth, Texas, where the only active federal district judge is Reed O’Connor, a highly partisan judge with a long history of striking down Democratic policies on spurious legal reasoning.

Of course, this morning, Trump has jumped in on this decision with his usual plethora of lies with his tweets. Responses to his tweets can be seen HERE and they are good! A sac of hammers would appear to have more brains than O’Connor.

Think Progress — Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), the Democrat who takes over chairmanship of the House Oversight Committee next month, called Sunday for the overhaul of legal guidelines that currently protect presidents from criminal prosecution.

“I think we should always reconsider laws and regulations, and this is one we definitely should reconsider,” Cummings told CNN’s State of the Union. …

As The Washington Post reported this weekend, nearly every organization touched by Donald Trump over the past decade — both civil and governmental — is currently under investigation. And as ThinkProgress has reported, the administration has been beset by an unending parade of scandals. …

Cummings also echoed remarks by fellow Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff (CA), who is poised to become chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Schiff told CNN last week that the Office of Legal Counsel in the DOJ should revisit the policy against indicting presidents.

“I think the Justice Department needs to reexamine that Office of Legal Counsel opinion, that you cannot indict a sitting president under circumstances in which the failure to do so may mean that person escapes justice,” the California Democrat said.

It seems that it is going to be a fish fry starting in January and I can already hear the sizzling from the pan and the gnashing of Republican teeth!

AlterNet — Republicans are executing shameless power grabs in Wisconsin and Michigan, passing laws stripping newly-elected Democrats and liberal activists of power on their way out the door and transferring them to the GOP legislatures. But some in the political pundit class, like NBC’s Chuck Todd, are pushing a narrative that rewriting the law to lock the other party out of electoral power is a common tactic that both parties use.

In fact it isn’t. And this weekend, America saw the ultimate test of this false equivalence in New Jersey. Democratic activists in the state and around the country revolted against a plan that would have essentially been a Democratic version of the Wisconsin and Michigan power grabs — and forced lawmakers to abandon their attack on fair elections.

Democrats in the New Jersey legislature were moving forward with a plan that would have effectively written Democratic gerrymandering into the state constitution forever. Under this plan, half of legislative districts would be drawn to lean more Democratic, half to lean more Republican, and 25 percent of the total would be “competitive.” That sounds fair on paper, but the plan actually defined “competitive” as any district that comes within 5 points of the statewide vote for president, Senate, and governor — which is 7 points more Democratic than the national average. So the legislature could theoretically have called a district where Democrats win by 56 percent “Republican leaning” and a district where Democrats win by 62 percent “competitive”. …

As it turned out, the fiercest voices in opposition to this scheme came from Democrats. …

it ran contrary to the party’s ideals of fair elections and representative, accountable democracy — and everyone from high-ranking leaders to grassroots organizers drew the line at compromising those values.

Click through for more details of the errant plan. Good on those who thwarted this piece of garbage legislation! Makes me wonder if state Senate President Steve Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin will have enough votes to get themselves re-elected next time around after trying to use Republican tactics.

My Universe

Squatch’s Open Thread 15 December 2018

Posted by Lynn Squance at 2:24 pm Open Thread, Politics

Dec 152018

It is late Saturday morning and I am finishing up today’s post. Unfortunately I was late to rise but the kids are fed and lounging on the floor around my chair so here we go. I emailed TC last night and his reply is below. He has also posted an OT and another article for your enjoyment and comments. We had a rain warning on Thursday followed by a severe wind warning on Friday. Where I am north of the Fraser River, we definitely had the rain but the wind seemed to knock out power etc south of the Fraser and on Vancouver Island. Even the ferries to Vancouver Island were shut down because of the wind. Today is cloudy but dry but I may have to wear my swimsuit to church tomorrow!

TC Update: I’m OK. The place they dumped me is 1/3 smaller, and I am skewed half sideways to type. I lost Comcast and had to change to Century Link DSL, so I had to move over a dozen companies to a different email account. Organizing has kept me busy full time since I moved. I hope to start posting soon.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:14 (average 5:15). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes

The Nation — What the hell is wrong with Paul Ryan? At a point when the whole world is demanding urgent action to end the Saudi-led bombardment and starvation of Yemen, the Speaker of the House has been scheming to prevent congressional debate on a resolution to get the United States out of a humanitarian crisis.

This is not about partisanship or ideology. As Ryan was blocking action in the House this week, 11 Senate Republicans—including some of the chamber’s most conservative members—voted with Democrats to open the Senate debate on ending US military support for the Saudi Arabia’s assault on Yemen.

The 60-39 vote to advance the bipartisan effort by Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Chris Murphy (D-CT) and Mike Lee (R-UT) to invoke the war-powers authority of the Congress to constrain military interventions and engagements by the Executive Branch, cleared that way for a 56-41 vote on Thursday in favor of the S.J.Res. 54: “A joint resolution to direct the removal of United States Armed Forces from hostilities in the Republic of Yemen that have not been authorized by Congress.”

“Today we tell the despotic regime in Saudi Arabia that we will not be a part of their military adventurism,” declared Sanders, who has for months made the case for congressional action on Yemen, waging a two-pronged campaign for the resolution. First, he made a moral argument, telling his colleagues they have a duty to end US support for Saudi abuses that have fostered a “humanitarian and strategic disaster” in Yemen—a crisis so severe that United Nations officials say it could lead to the worst famine in a century. Second, the senator made a constitutional argument, explaining that “The Senate must reassert its constitutional authority and end our support of this unauthorized and unconstitutional war.”

Unfortunately, Ryan continues to do the bidding of the Trump administration and the Saudi regime with which the president is so closely aligned. Ryan refuses to concern himself with reports on what United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund describes as “a war on children.”

“Yemen has become a hell on earth for millions of children. Today every single boy, every single girl in Yemen is facing extremely dire need,” says UNICEF regional director Geert Cappelaere, who reports that, on average, a child is dying every 10 minutes in Yemen—a country where more than 400,000 children are starving and an additional 1.5 million are acutely malnourished.

Some images of Yemen that Ryan is ignoring. Are these children still alive? Not likely.

These are some of the voices that Paul Ryan is ignoring as he fails to allow debate and a vote in the House. Shame on Paul Ryan! The Saudi régime, and the complicit US régime must be held accountable. War is not a one sided affair, but when such as these are the target, I have a problem with it and so should the world. MbS’s children (if he has any), indeed Saudi children are not being targeted, only Yemeni children. And what of the current US régime? Could these be US children if Trump continues to abuse the rule of law and set the US as an authoritarian state? Trump, Ryan and any others that fail to act to rein in Saudi Arabia are complicit in these murders.

Washington Monthly — On June 3, 1973, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein signaled the end of Richard Nixon’s presidency with a big scoop in the Washington Post. They reported that ex-White House counsel John Dean had “told Senate investigators and federal prosecutors that he discussed aspects of the Watergate cover-up with President Nixon or in Mr. Nixon’s presence on at least 35 occasions” and that he was planning “to testify under oath at the Senate’s Watergate hearings, regardless of whether he is granted full immunity from prosecution.” …

People can be forgiven for not knowing what the future would bring, but we have this precedent now to help imagine our near future.

When Robert Mueller brings his case, however he brings it, it will not be the end of the story. He has built his case by interviewing nearly everyone in Trump’s inner circle, many of whom have become cooperating witnesses and many others of whom have doubtlessly opted to tell the truth rather than risk perjury or obstruction of justice charges. Their information is locked in FBI transcripts and grand jury testimony, and the individuals can be called before Congress to testify.

When the time comes, the witnesses against Trump won’t be members of the special counsel’s office. The witnesses will be people like former White House counsel Don McGahn and firsthand witnesses like Rick Gates and Michael Flynn. …

They’ll watch the president’s lies fall like dominoes based on the say-so not of Fake News reporters and a biased Deep State, but based on the testimony of former right-wing heroes.

And all of that is before we get into the actual meat of the story, which is the degree to which Trump lied about his business ties with Russia and the extent to which his campaign coordinated with the Russians to exploit the hacked emails.

The idea many have is that the Republicans will have little trouble brushing all of this off, but I don’t see that as a sustainable position for them. What brought Nixon down was the testimony of his own people, and that’s what ultimately will bring Trump down, too. [emphasis added]

The article in AlterNet this week, The coming parade of witnesses against Trump, really is an extension of this Washington Weekly article from 06 December 2018. Trump is a fool who thinks he is untouchable. I hope the law shows him that nobody, not even him, is above the law. May it be so!

Billboard — If you watched the recent Netflix documentary Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond, you know that Jim Carrey is way more than just a rubbery faced funnyman. The Mr. Popper’s Penguinsstar is also a deep, philosophical thinker and spiritual seeker, and, as viewers learned, an avid painter.

While the canvases in the movie were mostly giant abstract works, Carrey has been focusing his attention lately on portraits of real-life figures, most of them related to Pres. Trump and Republican/right-leaning figures.

Please click through this short article. This picture, 50 Shades of Decay, is one of 13 contained in the article. You might not get excited by Carrey’s work in movies etc, but he certainly does know how to represent political characters like Trump in paint.

Canadian Press — Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, facing federal investigations into his travel, political activity and potential conflicts of interest, will be leaving the administration at year’s end, President Donald Trump said Saturday. In his resignation letter, obtained by The Associated Press, Zinke said “vicious and politically motivated attacks” against him had “created an unfortunate distraction” in fulfilling the agency’s mission.

Trump, in tweeting Zinke’s departure, said the former Montana congressman “accomplished much during his tenure” and that a replacement would be announced next week. The Cabinet post requires Senate confirmation. …

Zinke, 57, played a leading part in Trump’s efforts to roll back federal environmental regulations and promote domestic energy development. He drew attention from his first day on the job, when he mounted a roan gelding to ride across Washington’s National Mall to the Department of Interior. …

As interior secretary, Zinke pushed to develop oil, natural gas and coal beneath public lands in line with the administration’s business-friendly aims. But he has been dogged by ethics probes, including one centred on a Montana land deal involving a foundation he created and the chairman of an energy services company, Halliburton, that does business with the Interior Department.

Click through for what Zinke’s future might look like. I wonder if he’ll ride Tonto off into the sunset on 02 January 2019.

My Universe

Dude! Why don’t you come out to play?

I’ll share my nuts!

Squatch’s Open Thread 14 December 2018

Posted by Lynn Squance at 1:55 pm Open Thread, Politics

Dec 142018

It is Thursday evening and I am getting a start on the OT because I am getting a haircut Friday morning. It will be great to be able to see the computer screen and keyboard again! Well Winnie did very well at the vet’s today. His spot glucose reading was 6.4 perfect for a cat’s range, and his fructosamine results won’t likely be available until late Friday. At this point, there are no more vet appointments until his annual checkup in May. He is diet controlled, and hopefully, he’ll lose a little more weight which will help things immensely. Oh how I hate that last word — Trump uses it to such excess! Friday noon: Winnie’s results were wonderful and he is officially classed as “in remission”. The haircut did not happen (no hairdresser) so I’ll have resort to ponytails pretty soon. That should be fun. I’ll look like these little girls, babies really, who have 3 cm (9~1 in) ponytails all over their heads! Have a good weekend and stay safe!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:37 (average 8:07). To do it, click here. How did you do?

TC’s took me 4:32 (average 5:26). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes

AlterNet — “The reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand.” That’s freshly minted GOP vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan talking — statements he would eventually recant — at a party celebrating what would have been the prolific author’s 100th birthday,

Rand’s books are a big driver in the long-term right-wing campaign to delude millions of people into believing that there’s no such thing as society — that everyone must look out only for themselves.

1. How Ayn Rand Seduced Generations of Young Men and Helped Make the U.S. Into a Selfish, Greedy Nation

“When I was a kid,” AlterNet contribuer Bruce Levine writes, “my reading included comic books and Rand’s The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. There wasn’t much difference between the comic books and Rand’s novels in terms of the simplicity of the heroes. What was different was that unlike Superman or Batman, Rand made selfishness heroic, and she made caring about others weakness.”

Bruce Levine’s explanation of how Rand has captured the minds of so many is a must-read. “While Harriet Beecher Stowe shamed Americans about the United State’s dehumanization of African Americans and slavery, Ayn Rand removed Americans’ guilt for being selfish and uncaring about anyone except themselves. Not only did Rand make it ‘moral’ for the wealthy not to pay their fair share of taxes, she ‘liberated’ millions of other Americans from caring about the suffering of others, even the suffering of their own children.”

5. Billionaires and Corporations Use Rand’s Writings To Brainwash College Students
Pam Martens reported that Charles Koch, who pushes “millions of dollars through his foundation into economic programs at public universities and mandating approval of faculty and curriculum in some instances,” partnered with the “southern banking giant BB&T … mandating that Ayn Rand’s book Atlas Shrugged is taught and distributed to students.”

Click through for the other 8 influences of Ayn Rand. I have always seen American capitalism as almost cruel and exploitative. Unfortunately, Republicans display this same exploitative trait showing total disregard for the working, poor and middle classes.

The Atlantic — Opposition is building against a Trump-administration plan to allow certain groups of protected Vietnamese immigrants to be deported, a day after The Atlantic reported that the U.S. is reinterpreting an agreement with Vietnam that shielded some of them from being moved out of the country.

In the latest sign of growing worry over the efforts, a group of at least 22 members of Congress have signed a letter addressed to the White House, as well as the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department, to express “deep concern” over attempts to rework the 2008 accord between the U.S. and Vietnam. John Kerry, a former secretary of state and Vietnam War veteran, echoed those concerns, calling the shift “despicable.” That deal protected Vietnamese nationals who came to the United States before July 12, 1995, and committed crimes during their time in the U.S., from the threat of deportation. That specific date, which was when Washington and Hanoi established diplomatic relations, covered those fleeing the Vietnam War. In essence, the Trump administration has now said it believes that the agreement allows for a wider number of Vietnamese migrants to be deported.

In their letter, the 22 lawmakers—all Democratic members of the House of Representatives— acknowledged that many young Vietnamese refugees, upon arrival in the United States, “were resettled in struggling neighborhoods without support or resources to cope with significant trauma from the [Vietnam] war.” …

They added that the “refugees have completed their time and are now positively contributing to their communities.” Deporting them, the lawmakers said, would return the immigrants to a country they are not familiar with. They urged the Trump administration “to honor the humanitarian spirit and intention embodied in the current agreement.”

Click through for more. WTH!!! The last US troops pulled out of Vietnam in March 1973 and Direct U.S. military involvement ended on 15 August 1973 as a result of the Case–Church Amendment passed by the U.S. Congress. It was not until April 1975 that Saigon was taken by the communist North Vietnamese. There had been some South Vietnamese airlifted out of Vietnam — those who had worked with the Americans — when US personnel were airlifted out. But most were caught in Vietnam. That is when North America saw a big influx of “boat people” — Vietnamese who paid snakeheads thousands of dollars to get them out of Vietnam. Many of the boats were not fit for travel across the Pacific but people were desperate. I was on a committee at my church trying to help resettle these migrants from war and communism. That was more than 40 years ago! So why has bone spur Donnie decided it is time to involve himself in the Vietnam war? Some reporters have posited that Stephen Miller is behind this. Many of the approximate 5,000 people targeted have paid their debt and are members of the community. So why drag up old history? Racism! They are not white! Bone spur Donnie must be stopped.

The Daily Beast — The New Jersey attorney general’s office is looking into claims of “harassment and immigration fraud” at President Trump’s Bedminster golf course, a lawyer for undocumented current and former employees told the New York Daily News. Anibal Romero, lawyer for housekeeper Victorina Morales, told the newspaper the attorney general’s office “reached out to him” regarding claims that five of his clients were “threatened and called racial slurs” while working at Bedminster. His clients also allege that fraudulent documents, like work permits, were provided by the Bedminster staff, and that staff “threatened to report them to federal authorities if they spoke out.”

And this surprises who exactly? This is not the first time. Trump thinks he is above the law, but he is not!

My Universe

Les Folies Bergère?

Squatch’s Open Thread 13 December 2018

Posted by Lynn Squance at 12:49 pm Open Thread, Politics

Dec 132018

So we are on the downside of the week whoosing into the weekend with less than 2 weeks until Christmas. The days will undoubtedly pass quickly for the next few weeks. When my Winnie was diagnosed with diabetes last September, his hind legs were affected making walking difficult — he was walking on his hocks, rather than his toes like a healthy cat. I am please to say that he is back to walking on his toes more often. He will back at the vet’s this afternoon for followup blood work. That won’t be an easy trip as it is pouring cats and dogs and he does not like “dogs”. I hope everyone is having a great day!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 6:03(average 6:19). To do it, click here. How did you do?

TC’s took me 4:45 (average 5:48). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes

AlterNet — For over six hours on Friday, former FBI Director James Comey participated in a voluntary, transcribed interview with the House Oversight and Judiciary committees. Republicans are enjoying the last few weeks of their House majority, and seem determined to use every ounce of power they have left before it goes away in January. But if their goal was to use Friday’s testimony to undermine Robert Mueller’s probe, they surely left Capitol Hill disappointed.

As committee Republicans fixated on Hillary Clinton’s emails, the Steele Dossier and text messages between two FBI agents accused of expressing bias against Donald Trump, Comey turned the proceeding into a defense of the special counsel’s investigation and the integrity of the Department of Justice. No wonder President Trump launched into yet another Twitter tirade on Sunday morning, labeling Comey’s testimony “so untruthful!” while complaining that this “whole deal is a Rigged Fraud headed up by dishonest people who would do anything so that I could not become President. They are now exposed!”

Leakin’ James Comey must have set a record for who lied the most to Congress in one day. His Friday testimony was so untruthful! This whole deal is a Rigged Fraud headed up by dishonest people who would do anything so that I could not become President. They are now exposed!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 9, 2018

With all of the news happening this past week, reviewing a 235-page transcript was probably not at the top of a lot of people’s to-do lists. With that in mind, here are 10 takeaways that are worth a second look.

7. As has been the case for two years, Republicans on the Oversight and Judiciary Committee used their time with Comey to try and undermine the Russia probe. Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., incoming oversight chairman, gave Comey a chance to define the threat posed by Russia. “The aim of the Russian effort in 2016 was to destabilize, undermine, damage our democracy,” Comey told the committees. “That was their overwhelming goal. And so you have a foreign nation that is attacking the United States of America in an effort to undermine that which is essentially us, our democratic process. So that’s a very serious threat. And understanding whether any Americans were part of that effort is incredibly important because the threat of those Americans by virtue of their alliance with the Russians would pose to our country.”

8. Cummings followed up by asking what would happen if the special counsel’s investigation was impeded or ended prematurely. “Well, in my opinion, it would undermine our national security by not holding accountable people who might have been involved in either the Russians or people who worked with them, first,” Comey responded. “And second, it would send an absolutely appalling message about the rule of law in this country of ours. … The Russians’ goal was for everyone in the world to have doubt about the nature and credibility of the American democracy, to dirty it up so it’s not a shining city on the hill. So their attack had implications for that, the role of the American democratic experiment. And if someone were to order it stopped, the investigation into that, it would have a similar effect.”

These are but 2 of the revelations from James Comey’s interview with the House Oversight and Judiciary committees behind closed doors on 07 December 2018. Click through for the others. If you want to peruse the transcript you can HERE.

The Globe and Mail — The context of the arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou – a dangerous move by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration in its intensifying conflict with China – matters enormously. The United States requested that Canada arrest Ms. Meng in the Vancouver airport en route to Mexico from Hong Kong, and then extradite her to the United States. Such a move is almost a U.S. declaration of war on China’s business community. Nearly unprecedented, it puts American business people travelling abroad at much greater risk of such actions by other countries. …

Quite transparently, the U.S. action against Ms. Meng really seems to be part of the Trump administration’s broader attempt to undermine China’s economy by imposing tariffs, closing Western markets to Chinese high-technology exports and blocking Chinese purchases of U.S. and European technology companies. One can say, without exaggeration, that this is part of an economic war on China – and a reckless one at that.

Huawei is one of China’s most important technology companies and therefore a prime target in the Trump administration’s effort to slow or stop China’s advance into several high-technology sectors. America’s motivations in this economic war are partly commercial – to protect and favour laggard U.S. companies – and partly geopolitical. They certainly have nothing to do with upholding the international rule of law.

The U.S. appears to be trying to target Huawei especially because of the company’s success in marketing cutting-edge 5G technologies globally. The U.S. claims the company poses a specific security risk through hidden surveillance capabilities in its hardware and software. Yet the U.S. government has provided no evidence for this claim. …

…UN Security Council Resolution 2231 calls on all countries to drop sanctions on Iran as part of the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement. Yet the United States. – and only the United States – now rejects the Security Council’s role in such matters. The Trump administration, not Huawei or China, is today’s greatest threat to the international rule of law, and therefore to global peace. [emphasis mine]

Click through for further details. I don’t know how much coverage this is getting in the US, but in Canada it is getting a lot of coverage. I have a great deal of disdain for the pernicious ham handed Trump who has no regard for the rule of law except for how to break it when he said

“If I think it’s good for the country, if I think it’s good for what will be certainly the largest trade deal ever made – which is a very important thing – what’s good for national security – I would certainly intervene if I thought it was necessary,” …

For Trump, his foreign relations is all transactional — what do I get out of this through what does the country get out of it. He wants the title of the great deal maker at somebody else’s expense, in this case Canada and two of her citizens.

I want to say to him, “Stay the hell out of Canadian affairs!”

This video from CTV News. Additional material from The Globe and Mail, The Globe and Mail (2) and this second video from CTV News.(which refuses to embed)

Trump is a great threat to world peace.

YouTube — This is Part 3 of an ABC (Australian Broadcast Company) programme examining the Trump Russia relationship. Some of this is ‘old hat’ while other parts may be new information. Sarah Ferguson, the interviewer, talks with various people involved with Trump.

Hopefully you have had a chance to watch the previous two videos. Did you learn more about Trump’s shenanigans? Between these videos and reading “The Making of Donald Trump” by David Cay Johnston, Trump is a con man, fraudster, and definitely not deserving of holding the highest elected office in the land, let alone being competent to do the job. He is in it for the money opportunities even though they are not allowed and for the personal recognition/glory.

My Universe

Squatch’s Open Thread 12 December 2018

Posted by Lynn Squance at 8:05 am Open Thread, Politics

Dec 122018

TomCat dropped by the site yesterday around noon to say that his move was a nightmare and he would likely be scarce for a few more days. Hopefully, he’ll remember to take it easy and preserve his sanity. Today is physio and teaching so my time is very tight. Hopefully I’ll have an OT for Thursday. Well all, have a great day!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 6:03 (average 7:13). To do it, click here. How did you do?

TC’s took me 5:11 (average 7:51). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes

Sojourners — Every year from Dec. 16 to 24, Las Posadas begin in many Latin American countries and immigrant communities in the U.S. Roughly translated, posadas means “inn” or “shelter.” Las Posadas recalls the events in Luke’s Gospel leading up to Jesus’ birth. It’s a Catholic Christian observance with a sung liturgy that’s performed on the streets rather than in church.

A posada begins with a street procession that reenacts Mary and Joseph’s search for shelter at an inn. Those playing the protagonists of the story, Mary and Joseph, are dressed in costume and carry candles as they follow along a prescribed route, knocking on doors. At each door they ask, through special posada songs, for room at the inn. In rural areas, Mary may even ride on a donkey.

The verses of the song are sung alternately by those outside and those inside the home. This creates a sung dialogue between Joseph and an innkeeper.

Joseph:

En el nombre del cielo In the name of heaven

os pido posada, I ask you for shelter,

pues no puede andar for my beloved wife

mi esposa amada. can go no farther.

Innkeeper:

Aquí no es mesón This is not an inn

sigan adelante, Get on with you,

yo no puedo abrir, I cannot open the door,

no sea algún tunante. you might be a rogue.

Many people from the community follow behind, singing along with them. The neighbors participating in the posada open their doors, and each one purposefully sings their refusal to Mary and Joseph. Only at the very end of the route is there a designated household that finally allows Mary and Joseph to come in. There, too, is a party with Bible readings, food, and piñatas for the children. Now that the holy family has found their welcome, it is time to celebrate. …

It is also one that ministers and immigration advocates have begun to use to represent the lack of hospitality at the U.S.–Mexico border. Their version is called La Posada Sin Fronteras: Shelter without Borders.

La Posada Sin Fronteras uses the exact same songs as the traditional Posada liturgy. But rather than walking through a neighborhood and knocking on doors, immigration advocates, faith leaders, immigrants, and other supporters gather on both sides of the U.S.–Mexico border. There they are watched carefully by the Border Patrol as they begin their reenactment of the journey of Mary and Joseph. The group on the Mexican side represents Mary and Joseph asking for shelter, while those on the U.S. side play the innkeeper, who repeatedly rejects their request for shelter. It’s a reenactment that “contextualizes the bitter drama” of displaced immigrants, writes Ched Myers in Our God Is Undocumented. And it brings participants inside the sacred story of God struggling to enter an inhospitable world.

Click through for the remainder of this fine article. Now I know that not everybody is Christian, but one does not need to be Christian to be filled with love and compassion at this time of year, indeed at any time. In the context of the Trump Republican régime, I think everyone can relate to this story, or should be able to relate in some fashion, even if they have not experienced such treatment first hand themselves. I know my Muslim friends can. Men, women and babes in arms are gassed by US Border Patrol agents lobbing teargas canisters across the border. When will the US live up to its words at the Statue of Liberty — The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus?

“Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Daily Kos — Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer went to the Oval Office Tuesday to serve notice to Donald Trump that the days of doing and saying whatever he damn well pleases with zero facts to back it up are done. Trump’s factless antics had worked fine with a complicit Republican party that did everything possible to keep their Dear Leader pampered and happy, but the pamper party is over.

The two Democrats went to the White House to “negotiate in good faith,” as Pelosi put it, over funding to keep the government open. Trump wants $5 billion for the border wall he originally pledged Mexico would pay for but is now demanding the American taxpayers fund. But pouring that much money into a border wall is a nonstarter for congressional Democrats, who will happily put more money into border security, but not a wall that experts say will accomplish very little, if anything.

Pelosi clearly went into the meeting hoping for decorum and, perhaps, even some progress in the negotiations. Schumer wanted to make it clear that Democrats hoped to avoid a shutdown, but not if the price tag was $5 billion for a wall. Trump planned to ambush them with all kinds of fantastically false statistics written on flash cards about how the border wall would solve nearly all of the nation’s immigration problems (the fact checks will be fun). That’s where the fun began. …

Trump continued, “You know what I’ll say: Yes, if we don’t get what we want, one way or the other—whether it’s through you, through military, through anything you want to call—I will shut down the government, absolutely.” Trump then added, puffing out his chest a little further, “And I’ll tell you what, I am proud to shut down the government for border security, Chuck. […] I will take the mantle, I will be the one to shut it down. I’m not going to blame you for it. […] and I’m going to shut it down for border security. Okay.”

OMG!!! This would be hysterically funny if it were not so sad. Trump is an absolute idiot and worse than a petulant toddler in the midst of a tantrum! Trump: “Yes, if we don’t get what we want, … I will shut down the government, absolutely.” Remember those words because you are going to hear “I never said that.” And if the shut down happens, you know Trump will blame it on the Democrats as sure as it snows in January in Colorado. He had his ass whopped by the Dynamic Duo, “Chuck and Nancy”! Can the US population put up with this jackass for another 2 years!

YouTube — This is Part 2 of an ABC (Australian Broadcast Company) programme examining the Trump Russia relationship. Some of this is ‘old hat’ while other parts may be new information. Sarah Ferguson, the interviewer, talks with various people involved with Trump. Tomorrow Part 3.

My Universe

Squatch’s Open Thread 11 December 2018

Posted by Lynn Squance at 10:49 am Open Thread, Politics

Dec 112018

It’s raining, it’s pouring, the old broad is snoring! Y-a-w-n! I just woke up, fed the kids and now it is time to eat some breakfast myself as I work on tomorrow’s OT. I won’t be posting it until mid afternoon between physio and teaching. Tomorrow is bound to be noisy as the landscapers will be here with their damn leaf blowers, the garbage collection is tomorrow, and the city recycling pick up is tomorrow. My unit is right by the garbage and recycling shed so it gets loud. Even the kids dive under the bed because of all the noise. Perhaps we’ll hear from TomCat sometime today.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:46 (average 8:06). To do it, click here. How did you do? This one is for Lona!

TC’s took me 5:39 (12:14 average ). To do it, click here. How did you do! We have done this one before and it is not as hard as the average time might seem to indicate.

Fantasy Football

Week 14 Match up Results

Size 9 Stompers 74.64

TomCat Teabag Trashers 123.44
Monster Mashers 120.82

Lefty Hillbillies 144.88
endthegop 62.68

Country Raiderettes 110.38

	Standings					Points
Rank	Team	W-L-T	Pct	Stk	Waiver	For	Against
1	Country Raiderettes	10-4-0	.714	W1	6	1,737.36	1,552.78
2	TomCat Teabag Trashers	9-5-0	.643	W3	5	1,618.94	1,400.86
3	endthegop	8-6-0	.571	L1	4	1,582.22	1,617.94
4	Lefty Hillbillies	8-6-0	.571	W6	3	1,702.42	1,603.68
5	Monster Mashers	5-9-0	.357	L6	2	1,497.98	1,522.00
6	Size 9 Stompers	2-12-0	.143	L3	1	1,204.68	1,646.34

* Rank change shown is from week 13 – 14

Congratulations to Country Raiderettes for earning the 2018 Regular Season Champion in Lefty Blog Friends League.

Congratulations to Country Raiderettes for earning the 2018 Highest Scoring Team in Lefty Blog Friends League.

Week 15 is the beginning of the playoffs. The match ups are:

Size 9 Stompers vs endthegop

Lefty Hillbillies vs Monster Mashers

Byes: TomCat Teabag Trashers, Country Raiderettes

Good luck everyone!

Huffington Post — What will President Donald Trump do when it’s time to leave office?

Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin said she doesn’t believe Trump can pardon himself, and if he tried he could face prosecution after leaving office in connection with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

Rather than take a chance, he could make a last-minute move to protect himself if he is replaced by a Democrat after the next election.

“I would predict here on MSNBC that when Trump leaves office he will resign the presidency 10 minutes before Mike Pence leaves office, allowing Pence to pardon him if there is not a Republican president to follow him,” Rubin said on “AM Joy” on Sunday.

Please click through to view a 10 minute video of AM Joy with Jonathan Capeheart as he and his panel explore this question. (unfortunately I could not imbed) If impeachment is the Democrat strategy, this is one more reason why Pence must be impeached at the same time.

Vox — Americans are more civically engaged than they have been in more than 100 years.

The two years between President Donald Trump’s win in 2016 and the 2018 midterms ushered in a new era of political engagement in America, not seen since the early 1900s and the 1960s civil rights and anti-war movements.

That culminated in November’s midterm elections. While House Democrats picked up 40 seats in a wave election (they didn’t fare nearly as well in the Senate), an important number to focus on is the sheer number of people who voted in 2018, compared to past midterms.

50.1 percent of the voting-eligible population in the US turned out to cast their ballots in this year’s midterms, according to the United States Elections Project, a database about the United States electoral system run by University of Florida political science professor Michael McDonald. In raw numbers, that means 118,044,470 votes were cast. …

Voter turnout numbers are the easiest way to measure just how politically engaged Americans were in 2018. But all of the work that went into the final result is political engagement — political organizing, phone banking, canvassing, protesting, contacting elected officials, or donating money to a campaign.

Americans also participated in these activities in high numbers in 2018, according to an April survey by Pew Research Center.

Pew found that 67 percent of the people surveyed said they engaged with politics in at least one of these ways since 2013. And 46 percent reported political engagement in some form during the past year.

Click through for the rest of this interesting article. 2018 had the highest turnout rate in 100 years! What will the Congress look like if the turnout in 2020 is at 70% or higher? And how do we raise participation rates? One way of which I have heard is making voting day a national holiday. Our very own Freya was heavily involved in Georgia for the 2018 mid terms. She posted the following petition:

Stand with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Make Election Day a National Holiday! which you can also see at Care2.

I am Canadian so I cannot vote in the US but I try to do my part here at PP. In Canada, there are early voting opportunities and each voter must be accorded 4 consecutive hours to vote by their employer. As a manager, I sent my staff home 4 hours prior to the polls closing.

YouTube — This is Part 1 of an ABC (Australian Broadcast Company) programme examining the Trump Russia relationship published in . Some of this is ‘old hat’ while other parts may be new information. Sarah Ferguson, the interviewer, talks with various people involved with Trump. Tomorrow Part 2.

My Universe

Posted to Care2 HERE

Squatch’s Open Thread 10 December 2018

Posted by Lynn Squance at 2:39 pm Open Thread, Politics

Dec 102018

It is mid afternoon and as TC would say, OGIM!!! It has finally “stopped” raining but it is due to start up again tonight and last all week. For me, this is a busy week with getting the blog out as best as possible, physio, teaching, a visit to the vet’s for my Winnie for more blood tests, a hair cut (she’ll have to use a weed wacker as it looks and feels particularly long and bushy!) and assorted other smaller things. So, if I miss one day, I hope you’ll forgive me. With any luck, perhaps TC will back online this week. It must be terribly frustrating for him to hear news but not be able to publish and opinionate because he lacks the internet connection. Well, have a good week all!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 5:02 (average 5:38). To do it, click here. How did you do?

TC’s took me 4:31 (average 5:51). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes

AlterNet — So, now that we know that Donald Trump and Mike Pence reached the White House through at least two specific and separate criminal conspiracies, what do we do about it?

Can they be removed from office? Can the election be done over? Can the Trump/Pence administration’s actions over the past two years be reversed, particularly the appointments of Gorsuch and Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court and all the damage to our federal agencies? …

But there is a constitutional route that can be taken by Congress, via impeachment.

In January, Nancy Pelosi will become the Speaker of the House. As such, should the nation lose its president and vice-president to impeachment, we’d have President Pelosi. It wouldn’t reverse the damage the GOP and Trump/Pence have done, but it would be a start.

The key is to illuminate Mike Pence’s role in Trump’s frauds, so both men succumb to impeachment in the House, and conviction and removal from office by the Senate.

Hmmm . . . President Pelosi! How does that strike you? I would love to see it if only to put this Trump/Pence nightmare to rest, or at least partially to rest. I say partially because as long as there is no prison time nor public accounting for Trump’s crimes, the nation will not rest. But there is one thing that the author did not account for — agreement by the Republican lead Senate. Right now, I do not see that happening because they are more worried about remaining in power than in doing right by the country.

New Yorker — Pushing back against criticism of her lack of diplomatic experience, Donald J. Trump’s choice to be the next United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Heather Nauert, said on Friday that a memorable visit to the “It’s a Small World” ride at Disney World made her eminently qualified for the U.N. post.

“When people look at me, they think Heather Nauert, former Fox News anchor,” Nauert told reporters at the State Department. “What they don’t realize is I’m also Heather Nauert, who went on ‘It’s a Small World’ three times when she was nine.”

Nauert said that, while career diplomats might spend twenty to thirty years learning about only one country, “I learned about twenty-five countries in fifteen minutes.”

Laying out her objectives for her tenure at the United Nations, the prospective Ambassador said, “Right now I’m just looking forward to seeing all of the other Ambassadors wearing their festive costumes and doing their dances. That’s going to be amazing, I think.”

Sounds like Andy is doing straight news again. I wish I could say otherwise, but she seems to be on par with the rest of Trump’s hires.

Huffington Post — Remember that painting of President Donald Trump that viewers spotted hanging in the White House during his bizarre “60 Minutes” interview in October?

Artist Andy Thomas’ piece, titled “The Republican Club,” depicted Trump shooting the breeze with other GOP presidents. …

New York artist Michael D’Antuono, 62, has reimagined the work in accordance with how he believes the scene would really play out … titled “Party Pooper,” …

I find this painting so relatable, so spot on! . . . and look at those little hands! However, if I have trod on a copyright, I apologise and will remove it. The painting is in the article.

My Universe

Posted to Care2 HERE

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