{"id":20077,"date":"2016-02-20T10:51:36","date_gmt":"2016-02-20T18:51:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=20077"},"modified":"2016-02-20T10:51:36","modified_gmt":"2016-02-20T18:51:36","slug":"open-thread2202016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/20\/open-thread2202016\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread–2\/20\/2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m still feeling sick as a dawg<\/em>.  Lu came and helped me with my shower.  As soon as my articles are up, I\u2019m going back to bed for the day.<\/font><\/p>\n

Jig Zone Puzzle<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s took me 3:24 (average 6:13).  To do it, click here<\/a>.  How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n

Short Takes<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n

From The New Yorker<\/a>: <\/font>Conspiracy theorists believe that the Republican Party did not die from natural causes but was instead the target of an elaborately planned killing, a leading conspiracy theorist has confirmed.<\/p>\n

Harland Dorrinson, whose basement walls are covered with photos of suspects in the killing of the G.O.P., has spent countless hours connecting those photos with different colors of yarn in the hopes that a larger pattern would emerge.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause the Republican Party is one hundred and sixty-one years old, it\u2019s assumed that it was time for it to die,\u201d he said. \u201cThe truth is, that\u2019s exactly what the people who killed it want us to think.\u201d<\/p>\n

While some conspiracy theorists have focussed on the billionaire Donald J. Trump as the most likely suspect in the death of the Republican Party, Dorrinson favors a \u201ctwo-killer\u201d theory that involves Arizona Senator John McCain and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.<\/p>\n

\u201cMcCain tapped Palin to be his running mate, and that led directly to people like Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, and Donald Trump being considered credible candidates,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is no logical reason why McCain would have chosen Palin unless he wanted to kill the Republican Party.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dang!! Andy is reporting news again!!<\/font><\/p>\n

From Daily Kos<\/a>: <\/font>Chris Wallace has made a career of pretending to be a serious journalist. Wallace is to Fox News what pipe cleaners are to high art\u2014sure you can probably get some high level art done with it, but usually, it\u2019s fun to twist things up with \u2026 and colors!<\/p>\n

This past Sunday he had presidential candidate Bernie Sanders on his show via satellite for a little interview. Chris and Bernie spoke about some of the Sanders campaign\u2019s talking points and then Wallace went in for his gotcha question: Bernie Sanders likes to say that the wealthiest Americans have \u201crigged\u201d our country, but, according to Wallace, back in 1981 (the year where Ronald Reagan slashed taxes on the wealthy down to 17 percent) taxes on the rich were so low and now they\u2019re so high (37 percent). Doesn\u2019t this mean that the rich aren\u2019t doing a good job of \u201crigging\u201d the system?<\/p>\n

Bernie smiles because, like anything coming out of the mouth of something looking at a Fox News camera, this is not the newest thought or an unheard of argument. Forget about the fact that Reagan had to subsequently sign huge tax raises not once but twice because of the disaster his original 1981 tax cuts were.<\/a> Bernie smiles and begins to laugh, and you have to watch it because it truly tickles Bernie, you can see it in his eyes, to be asked something so patently false. You get the feeling that Bernie Sanders begins laughing because of all the idiotic things he knew he might have to hear during an interview on Fox News, this was not going to be one of them.<\/p>\n