{"id":24436,"date":"2016-10-31T13:11:05","date_gmt":"2016-10-31T20:11:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=24436"},"modified":"2016-10-31T13:11:05","modified_gmt":"2016-10-31T20:11:05","slug":"open-thread-10312016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/31\/open-thread-10312016\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread – 10\/31\/2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today I will spend most of the day in hiding, because Republican ghouls are grabbing pussies, and I am a wondrous one.  Tomorrow, I have to do all the research for October’s Report in addition to meeting with a social worker, who will help me navigate the complexities of an advanced care directive.  I may be able to publish no more than a Personal Update.  We’ll see how the day develops.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

Today’s took me 5:20 (average 9:21).  To do it, click here<\/a>.  How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n

Religious Ecstasy<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n

\"1030Broncos27-Chargers19\"<\/font><\/p>\n

I have to say that the intentional hit<\/a> on Denver Defensive Coordinator, Wade Phillips, by a San Diego player is the most despicable sportsmanship I have ever seen.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

From NY Times<\/a>: <\/font>THE F.B.I. is currently investigating the hacking of Americans\u2019 computers by foreign governments. Russia is a prime suspect.<\/p>\n

Imagine a possible connection between a candidate for president in the United States and the Russian computer hacking. Imagine the candidate has business dealings in Russia, and has publicly encouraged the Russians to hack the email of his opponent. It would not be surprising for the F.B.I. to include this candidate and his campaign staff in its confidential investigation of Russian computer hacking.<\/p>\n

But it would be highly improper, and an abuse of power, for the F.B.I. to conduct such an investigation in the public eye, particularly on the eve of the election. It would be an abuse of power for the director of the F.B.I., absent compelling circumstances, to notify members of Congress that the candidate was under investigation. It would be an abuse of power if F.B.I. agents went so far as to obtain a search warrant and raid the candidate\u2019s office tower, hauling out boxes of documents and computers in front of television cameras.<\/p>\n

The F.B.I.\u2019s job is to investigate, not to influence the outcome of an election.<\/p>\n

Such acts could also be prohibited under the Hatch Act, which bars the use of an official position to influence an election. That is why the F.B.I. presumably would keep those aspects of an investigation confidential until after the election. The usual penalty for a violation is termination of federal employment.<\/p>\n

Click through for more. The more I learn,the angrier I become at Comey’s criminal Republican behavior.<\/font><\/p>\n

From Washington Post<\/a>: <\/font>The politically charged hate-speech trial of Dutch firebrand anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders got underway Monday with Wilders boycotting the opening.<\/p>\n

Instead, his lawyer, Geert-Jan Knoops, read out a statement that the lawmaker published last Friday in which he called his case a \u201cpolitical trial\u201d targeting freedom of speech.<\/p>\n

It is not the first time Wilders, whose party is riding high in opinion polls ahead of parliamentary elections due next March, has been prosecuted. He was acquitted on hate-speech charges in 2011 after complaints about his fierce criticism of Islam.<\/p>\n

This sounds scary enough that I hope Lona can give us more info on this Dutch Republican fascist.<\/font><\/p>\n

From NY Magazine<\/a>: <\/font>Republicans are at each others\u2019 [sic<\/em>] throats in a way they haven\u2019t been since at least 1964. Republicans disagree about Trump, and they disagree about what they need to do in order to regain power. But those disagreements have very little to do with the decisions the party will face between now and the next presidential campaign. Its position toward a prospective Hillary Clinton administration is so predetermined it is hardly a decision at all. The party will oppose her completely and totally.<\/p>\n

Some Republicans blanched at Donald Trump\u2019s outright promise to imprison his opponent if elected. But almost none of them objected to his underlying premise that Clinton is a criminal figure who should be in prison but for the politically motivated decision of the FBI\u2019s Republican director to inexplicably spare her prosecution. That consensus will quickly return to the fore.<\/p>\n

Jason Chaffetz, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee, boasts to Dave Weigel<\/a> that he plans to begin multiple years\u2019 worth of investigations into the incoming Clinton presidency. \u201cEven before we get to Day One, we\u2019ve got two years\u2019 worth of material already lined up.\u201d Chaffetz makes clear in his interview that two years truly is a low-ball figure.<\/p>\n

The sedition Republicans will commit against the first woman President will be even worse than the sedition they committed against the first black President. Republican political extinction is the only solution in sight.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\"1031Cartoon\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today I will spend most of the day in hiding, because Republican ghouls are grabbing pussies, and I am a wondrous one.  Tomorrow, I have to do all the research for October’s Report in addition to meeting with a social worker, who will help me navigate the complexities of an advanced care directive.  I may […]<\/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-24436","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\/24436","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=24436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24436\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}