{"id":26619,"date":"2017-03-07T09:54:52","date_gmt":"2017-03-07T17:54:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=26619"},"modified":"2017-03-07T12:35:11","modified_gmt":"2017-03-07T20:35:11","slug":"open-thread-372017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2017\/03\/07\/open-thread-372017\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread – 3\/7\/2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

I'm having a very difficult day.  Last night was so muggy and noisy that I ably slept for about ninety minutes.  Safeway.com will be delivering groceries in the next hour and forty minutes.  When they do, I have to unpack and put them away, without the help I normally get from Store to Door.  I already feel exhausted.  Please expect no more than a personal update from me tomorrow.  I have a meeting.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

Today's took me 4:52 (average 4:54).  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>Donald J. Trump’s claim that Barack Obama wiretapped him received a strong denial on Monday from the former President, who said to reporters, “Like I’d want to hear more from that fool?”<\/p>\n

Obama said that, when he first saw Trump’s allegations on Twitter, “My first thought was, Only a narcissist on the scale of Donald Trump would think people want to hear more from him than they currently do. If anything, I think we’d all like to hear way, way less.”<\/p>\n

He said that his wife, Michelle, agreed that the idea of his wanting to hear more from Donald Trump “was one of the funniest things she’s ever heard.”<\/p>\n

LOL Andy! Is that an exact quote? It could be! RESIST<\/strong>!!<\/font><\/p>\n

From NY Times<\/a>: <\/font>President Trump’s executive order barring immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries experienced nearly universal defeat in the federal courts. On Monday, he issued a revised version of that order, but it still suffers from a fundamental, and fatal, flaw: It constitutes unlawful religious discrimination.<\/p>\n

On the surface, this revised order looks different from the first version. It explicitly exempts Iraq from the travel ban, thus reducing the number of affected countries to six, as well as lawful permanent residents (that is, green card holders) and people who have visas. It no longer categorically bars Syrian refugees or includes a religious test to determine which refugees may enter the country. And in a marked departure from the earlier order, it goes into effect in 10 days, so that the chaos that unfolded in airports around the world when the January order became effective presumably won’t happen again.<\/p>\n

These changes are, no doubt, intended to address the due process concerns that led the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to affirm<\/a> a lower-court ruling that put a hold on part of the original order. But while these changes are important, they do not fix the core problem with the executive order: The administration is waging an all-out assault on Islam and Muslims.<\/p>\n

That’s because anti-Muslim bias and bigotry that characterized the original travel ban remain in this revised version. The order is still limited to only Muslim-majority countries: namely, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. Residents of those countries — and only those countries — will be severely restricted in their ability to travel into the United States for 90 days. Left off are the predominately Christian countries that the State Department lists as “Terrorist Safe Havens”<\/a> like Colombia, the Philippines and Venezuela.<\/p>\n

The Fuhrer's underlying motives for this are still hatred and bigotry. RESIST<\/strong>!!<\/font><\/p>\n

From YouTube<\/a> (GQ Channel<\/a>): <\/font>The Russian Developments That Matter Most | The Resistance with Keith Olbermann<\/p>\n