{"id":27007,"date":"2017-03-31T14:06:45","date_gmt":"2017-03-31T21:06:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=27007"},"modified":"2017-03-31T14:06:45","modified_gmt":"2017-03-31T21:06:45","slug":"open-thread-3312017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2017\/03\/31\/open-thread-3312017\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread – 3\/31\/2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

I wasn’t planning to write today, but my appointment did not take much time, and I wanted to tackle the news.  Megan refused to <\/font>refill the Prednisone without seeing me, and I opted not to go in.  The stretching it takes to put on George is the worst thing I could do for my chest muscles, and having to spend three hours waiting for will-call lift rides would elevate my stress level.  And since I had already spent the night waiting for her front office to get her the message, and I am in not as much pain as I feared, albeit far mor\u00e9 than I’d hoped, I’m rolling the dice that I van get through the weekend without it.  Tomorrow will definitely be a short day.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

Today’s took me 3:19 (average 5:16).  To do it, click here<\/a>.  How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n

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

From Daily Kos<\/a>: <\/font>Now that the White House realizes it\u2019s bound to a suicide vest known as the "Freedom Caucus," Donald Trump\u2019s aides are on the hunt for Democrats who will help the popular vote loser bring his legislative agenda to fruition. <\/p>\n

Under normal circumstances, building a relationship with a Republican president in order to influence legislation might make sense. But these are not normal times. To negotiate with Trump would be to lend credibility to someone who is quite possibly an illegitimate occupant of the Oval Office, has stacked his cabinet with unqualified hacks intended to undercut the very foundation of the federal government, tests the Constitutional limitations of his office at every turn, and who, as our own Laura Clawson pointed out<\/a>, can’t go two sentences without expelling a lie. <\/p>\n

Fat chance!! In the Senate, I think there are only two or three DINOS cowardly enough to goose=step with this Fuhrer. Miserable Manchin [DINO-WV] and Horrid Heitkamp [DINO-ND] even plan to vote FOR Whoresuch. If either is yours, tear them a new one. RESIST<\/strong>!!<\/font><\/p>\n

From Politico<\/a>: <\/font>The road to a Democratic Senate majority in 2018 runs through Texas \u2014 yes, Texas.<\/p>\n

Facing a grim midterm map, Democrats are desperately trying to put enough GOP-held seats in play to take advantage of Donald Trump\u2019s unpopularity and carve a credible path back to Senate control. The odds are so long that Democrats must pin their hopes on taking out Ted Cruz in the reliably conservative bastion of Texas.<\/p>\n

Their first ray of hope is the entry of three-term Rep. Beto O\u2019Rourke \u2014 a 44-year-old former hard rock musician and internet entrepreneur who speaks fluent Spanish \u2014 into the race on Friday. Though Cruz is universally known, Democrats insist he\u2019s not invincible, pointing to the first-term Republican\u2019s poor polling numbers and prolonged focus on running for president.<\/p>\n

And they say O’Rourke is formidable enough that they can make a case to donors that they actually have a shot at winning the state \u2014 and the Senate overall.<\/p>\n

If Democrats challenge TRUS Pervert Cruse by opposing him with a Howler howls off key, has mange, body odor, and halitosis, that masturbates continuously, and that throws feces at all in range\u2026 support the monkey! RESIST<\/strong>!!<\/font><\/p>\n

From Think Progress<\/a>:  <\/font>1. The Trump family\u2019s apparent kleptocracy<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chaffetz told Coppins that he is unconcerned with issues like Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway using her position to urge people to buy Trump\u2019s daughter\u2019s line of jewelry or questions about his son-in-law\u2019s investments<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see how that affects the average American and their taxpayer dollars. Just the fact that a staff person\u2019s family is making money? It\u2019s not enough,\u201d he explained. \u201cThese other little intrigues about a wealthy family making money is a bit of a sideshow.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is the first of five Trump crimes that the House Oversight Committee Chair does not consider worth investigating. Click through for the other four. RESIST<\/strong>!!<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\"0331Cartoon\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I wasn’t planning to write today, but my appointment did not take much time, and I wanted to tackle the news.  Megan refused to refill the Prednisone without seeing me, and I opted not to go in.  The stretching it takes to put on George is the worst thing I could do for my chest […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27007","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\/27007","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=27007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27007\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}