{"id":23943,"date":"2016-09-21T13:49:26","date_gmt":"2016-09-21T20:49:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=23943"},"modified":"2016-09-21T13:49:26","modified_gmt":"2016-09-21T20:49:26","slug":"open-thread-9212016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2016\/09\/21\/open-thread-9212016\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread – 9\/21\/2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m starting late again, but today it’s intentional.  I napped this morning, because I sleep best when it’s chilly, and because I have to stay up all afternoon.  It’s a grocery delivery day, and I have to stow them.  Later Wendy is coming to ruffle and rinse the stinky TomCat.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

Today’s took me 4:18 (average 6:17).  To do it, click here<\/a>.  How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n

Staff Notice<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n

Both AlterNet and Crooks and Liars have returned to insisting blogs embed their entire article using their embed widget, that includes their advertising, or pay even for a short excerpt, so we may no longer use Creative Commons Attribution.  Either use their free method or paraphrase with a link back.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

From The New Yorker<\/a>: <\/font>If Chris Christie faces prosecution for an alleged role in the so-called Bridgegate scandal, his endorsement of Donald Trump could play a crucial role in an insanity defense, legal experts believe.<\/p>\n

Harland Dorrinson, a defense attorney who has represented many politicians in high-profile criminal cases, believes that Christie\u2019s endorsement of Trump earlier this year could persuade a jury that the New Jersey Governor is \u201ccompletely incapable of rational thought.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAn insanity defense is always a long shot, because the bar for insanity is set very high,\u201d Dorrinson said. \u201cHaving said that, I believe that Christie\u2019s endorsement of Trump easily meets that standard.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Christie is prosecuted, his defense team is likely to show the jury footage of Trump routinely humiliating the New Jersey Governor on the campaign trail. \u201cIt will become abundantly clear that Christie endorsed Trump and received absolutely no conceivable benefit for doing so,\u201d Dorrinson said. \u201cLegally speaking, the only word for that is insane.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andy has returned to reporting again, but how about an InsaniTEA<\/strong> defense?<\/font><\/p>\n

From NY Times<\/a>: <\/font>The Las Vegas billionaire Sheldon G. Adelson and his wife are giving more than $40 million to groups backing Republican congressional candidates, according to campaign filings and interviews with Republican strategists, disregarding repeated entreaties for support from allies of Donald J. Trump and dealing a major setback to Mr. Trump\u2019s efforts to rally the deepest-pocketed Republican givers.<\/p>\n

The contributions will again make Mr. Adelson<\/a> and his family among the largest known donors in American politics, after several years in which they played a more subdued role in national Republican fund-raising. But Mr. Adelson\u2019s decision to deploy his wealth down ballot, less than two months before Election Day, also reflects the reluctance of most of the biggest Republican donors to invest in their party\u2019s standard-bearer.<\/p>\n

Adelson’s biggest hot buttons are more welfare for the super-rich, and unqualified support for and unlimited spending on Butcher Bibi’s criminal one-state solution in Palestine. We can’t compete with his money, but we must do all we can to defeat Republicans in down-ballot races.<\/font><\/p>\n

From TPM<\/a>: <\/font>Despite Donald Trump’s admission that President Obama was born in the United States, Joe Arpaio, the sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, on Tuesday pledged to continue pushing birtherism.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t care where he\u2019s from,\u201d Arpaio said while speaking to the Surprise Tea Party, according to the Arizona Republic<\/a>. \u201cWe are looking at a forged document. Period.\u201d<\/p>\n

I’m so glad I left Phoenix in 1979!<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\"0921Cartoon\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m starting late again, but today it’s intentional.  I napped this morning, because I sleep best when it’s chilly, and because I have to stay up all afternoon.  It’s a grocery delivery day, and I have to stow them.  Later Wendy is coming to ruffle and rinse the stinky TomCat. Jig Zone Puzzle: Today’s took […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,35,3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-news","category-open-thread","category-personal","category-politics","category-31-id","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\/23943","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=23943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23943\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}