{"id":23015,"date":"2016-07-12T10:20:51","date_gmt":"2016-07-12T17:20:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=23015"},"modified":"2016-07-12T10:20:51","modified_gmt":"2016-07-12T17:20:51","slug":"open-thread-7122016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2016\/07\/12\/open-thread-7122016\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread – 7\/12\/2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s a muggy day, as it was yesterday, so I’m really looking forward to Wendy’s return tomorrow.  It did interfere with my sleep last night, so I’ll be brief.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

Today’s took me 2:48 (average 4:26).  To do it, click here<\/a>.  How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n

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

From NY Times<\/a>: <\/font>President Obama will travel to Dallas on Tuesday to mourn the deaths of five white police officers gunned down by a black Army veteran, his latest effort to help bridge one of the starkest divides in American society.<\/p>\n

He huddled with his speechwriters for much of Monday, hoping to find words that would not only console the officers\u2019 grief-stricken families but also reassure a nation fearful that racial divisions are worsening after the Dallas slaughter and the killing days before of black men by the police in Louisiana and Minnesota.<\/p>\n

Mr. Obama approached the effort with the frustration of a man who has poured his heart and soul into similar speeches, only to later feel that nothing has changed and no one is listening. This will be the 11th time in his presidency that he has sought to comfort a city after a mass killing, and the second time in a month that such a killing grew out of bias.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe president recognizes that it\u2019s not just people in Dallas who are grieving, it\u2019s people all across the country who are concerned about the violence that so many Americans have witnessed in the last week or so,\u201d Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, said on Monday.<\/p>\n

Republicans have criticized Obama for not leaving Europe to go to Dallas sooner. For the record, Obama asked the Speaker of the House to accompany him. Lyin’ Ryan is too busy with bogus investigations and spreading hate to go to Dallas.  Hypocrite!!<\/font><\/p>\n

From Alternet<\/a>: <\/font>Election lawyers in academia are wringing their hands over comments Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg made to the New York Times about how she doesn\u2019t want to consider what America\u2014and the Court\u2014would be like under a President Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t imagine what this place would be\u2014I can\u2019t imagine what the country would be\u2014with Donald Trump as our president,\u201d Ginsburg told the Times<\/a>. \u201cFor the country, it could be four years. For the court, it could be\u2014I don\u2019t even want to contemplate that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Washington Post, which is perpetually infected with a self-assigned puritanical streak, was quick to question<\/a> whether Ginsburg had \u201ccrossed a very important line,\u201d because it\u2019s possible the 2016 presidential election could end up before the Court in a vote count dispute.<\/p>\n

\u201cGenerally, though, you don’t hear a Supreme Court justice talking like this,\u201d wrote WaPo<\/a>\u2019s Aaron Blake. \u201cIn fact, you generally don’t hear a Supreme Court justice talking at all\u2014much less about the big political issues of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n

I agree that it is certainly uncommon for a Justice to weigh-in, but for a monster like the presumptive Rectum of the Republican Party to be in such a position is unprecedented. Ginsburg actually went even further, saying that she would consider relocating to New Zealand, if Rump Dump wins the White House.<\/font><\/p>\n

From Politicus USA<\/a>: <\/font>This is that time that Republicans stopped Americans from getting protection from the Zika virus because they feel they must first have the right to fly the Confederate flag over cemeteries.<\/p>\n

I wish I were kidding. But behold. Yesterday, Senator Harry Reid excoriated Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) for his cowardice after McConnell stabbed the American people in the back by allowing House Republicans to ruin the bipartisan MilCon-VA-Zika conference report. <\/p>\n

You see, after Senate Republicans and Democrats hashed out a compromise on Zika funding that was less than what scientists asked for and thus less than what Democrats wanted but more than Republicans wanted, they sent that to the House. What came back?<\/p>\n

Oh, sorry an American died from Zika<\/a> and so sorry to the nearly 3,700 people in the U.S. (and territories) who have it, but Republicans will only fund the Zika emergency if they can fly the Confederate flag, create more abortions by refusing to fund birth control provided by Planned Parenthood, poison more water by exempting pesticides from the Clean Water Act, cut veterans funding and more.<\/p>\n

Republicans care nothing for protecting the American People. We need protection from the Republican Party!<\/font><\/p>\n

Cartoon<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n

\"0712Cartoon\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s a muggy day, as it was yesterday, so I’m really looking forward to Wendy’s return tomorrow.  It did interfere with my sleep last night, so I’ll be brief. Jig Zone Puzzle: Today’s took me 2:48 (average 4:26).  To do it, click here.  How did you do? Short Takes: From NY Times: President Obama will […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-open-thread","category-personal","category-politics","category-35-id","category-3-id","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23015\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}