{"id":21398,"date":"2016-04-23T10:10:10","date_gmt":"2016-04-23T17:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=21398"},"modified":"2016-04-23T10:10:10","modified_gmt":"2016-04-23T17:10:10","slug":"open-thread-4232016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/23\/open-thread-4232016\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread–4\/23\/2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I posted two articles, after saying I would not, because Earth Day was too important to pass by.  I had a hard workout at PT, even though I missed 1\/3 of my time, because the TriMet Lift Bus was way late.  Mostly, they\u2019re pretty good, but when they blow it, they really screw the pooch.  Julie is coming to preen my kitty feathers this morning.  I need it.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

Today\u2019s took me 3:23 (average 5:50).  To do it, click here<\/a>.  How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n

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

From Daily Kos<\/a>: <\/font>Recent diaries and comments have ridiculed discussion of the lawsuit filed in New York on Tuesday regarding voter purges, claiming that it\u2019s just a bunch of whiny Independents who couldn\u2019t be bothered to re-register as Democrats in time.  Although that is an issue \u2014 if you decided in December you wanted to vote for Clinton or Sanders, it was too late for Independents to make the change in order to be eligible \u2014 and one of the remedies requested by the lawsuit was an open primary, that was not the main cause.<\/p>\n

Thousands of properly registered voters were purged from the voter roles, or had their registration changed from Democrat to unaffiliated, or were new voters and their registrations weren\u2019t processed in time or again they showed up as unaffiliated instead of DEMOCRAT, and thus were unable to vote through no fault of their own.<\/p>\n

And now Diane Haslett-Rudiano, the Board of Elections Chief Clerk in Brooklyn has been suspended and will likely be forced out because she made an error that caused more than 100,000 people to be improperly purged from the voter roles in Brooklyn<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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She was trying to clean up the books \u2014 which must be periodically purged to eliminate people who die, move or are ineligible for other reasons \u2014 and skipped one of the steps that was built in to stop the system from purging eligible voters, the sources said.<\/p>\n

Brooklyn lost 102,717 \u2014 or 8% \u2014 of its active voters from Nov. 1 2015 through April 1, 2016, according to state stats.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the only county in the state that lost voters in that time period.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The high number of dropped voters \u2014 combined with other issues like long lines, late starts and inadequate equipment \u2014 prompted both the City Controller and the state Attorney General to launch investigations into the widespread irregularities.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

There is no reason to believe that the Brooklyn voter purge was done intentionally to target Bernie supporters, as some have claimed. And I still consider open primaries contrary to the purpose of primaries: to allow the members of a political party to chose which candidates will represent that party in the general election. However, every state needs to have means to allow people to register as a member of their party of choice within a reasonable amount of time (hours or days, not weeks or months) and correct an accidental purge instantly. Contrarily, New York’s laws are the most archaic in the nation and need a complete overhaul.<\/font><\/p>\n

From The New Yorker<\/a>: <\/font>After rattling many of his supporters by expressing tolerance toward transgender people, the Republican front-runner Donald J. Trump clarified on Friday that he still opposes women who were born women.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe media has, per usual, tried to blow my words out of proportion,\u201d Trump said on the Fox News Channel. \u201cJust because I happen to think transgender people deserve our understanding in no way means that I feel that way about women who were born women.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump said that any attempt to twist his words to apply to \u201cwomen in general\u201d was deeply offensive to him. \u201cI have made my views about women very clear and to suggest that I have somehow changed those views is really, really hurtful,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Across the nation, Trump supporters who had been alarmed that the candidate had seemingly strayed into something resembling empathy were greatly relieved by his clarification.<\/p>\n

Dang Andy!! I was starting to worry that Fecal Dump Trump might actually come out in support of allowing women pee in the women’s room!!<\/font><\/p>\n

From The Boston Globe<\/a>: <\/font>Republican Maine Gov. Paul LePage is vetoing a bill that would allow people to buy a lifesaving drug overdose antidote without a prescription.<\/p>\n

Rachel Maddow<\/a> covers this travesty in detail.<\/font><\/p>\n