{"id":27305,"date":"2017-04-24T12:29:53","date_gmt":"2017-04-24T19:29:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=27305"},"modified":"2017-04-24T12:29:53","modified_gmt":"2017-04-24T19:29:53","slug":"open-thread-4242017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2017\/04\/24\/open-thread-4242017\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread – 4\/24\/2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m feeling slightly better than I did yesterday.  The pain when I cough is still excruciating, but I’m coughing less and was able to sleep.  Today, I put George on for the first time in two weeks.  The stretching hurt liked hell, but leaving Stumpy unconfined for so long was bringing back phantom pain.  Wendy and I got everything done yesterday, including the dreaded task.  This morning I scheduled my first cataract surgery for June 23.  There is light at the end of this tunnel.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

Today’s took me 3:21 (average 4:26).  To do it, click here<\/a>.  How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n

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

From Daily Kos<\/a>: <\/font>Unpopular orange blunt object of a President Donald Trump had a press conference with Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni recently. It\u2019s hard to screw up a press conference introduction but the wannabe tiny-handed model did just that.<\/p>\n

\n

Through the ages your country has been a beacon of artistic and scientific achievement. That continues today. From Venice to Florence, from Verdi to Pavarotti\u2014friend of mine. Great friend of mine.\u2014These bonds…    <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

As an American I want to jump out of a window every time he speaks as president. Not since George W. Bush came on the scene has someone seemed so thoroughly unimpressive. He\u2019s also an insane liar and, as the Independent<\/a> in England reports, Pavarotti\u2019s widow<\/strong> and his family can\u2019t stand the guy\u2014and they don\u2019t imagine their late great Luciano could either. [emphasis added<\/em>]<\/p>\n

To settle the issue, Peach Pinocchio could create an opportunity to meet with Luciano Pavarotti and discuss it. RESIST<\/strong>!!<\/font><\/p>\n

From RFI<\/a>: <\/font>The deciding round of France’s presidential election will pitch Marine Le Pen, the 48-year-old inheritor of the leadership of the far-right National Front (FN) against Emmanuel Macron, a 39-year-old former merchant banker and former economy minister who has never held elected office. What are the big differences in their programmes?<\/p>\n

Sunday’s first round<\/a> saw the candidates of the ruling Socialists, Beno\u00eet Hamon<\/a>, and the mainstream right Republicans, Fran\u00e7ois Fillon<\/a>, eliminated, with the hard left’s Jean-Luc M\u00e9lenchon close behind Fillon and way ahead of Hamon.<\/p>\n

So, although Macron was a minister in the outgoing government and Le Pen’s FN has been on the political scene since 1972, neither represent a party that has held the presidency or run the country before.<\/p>\n

Many Socialists and Republicans on Monday called for a vote for Macron<\/a> to stop Le Pen, whose party is strongly anti-EU and anti-immigrant.<\/p>\n

Click through for analysis of their policy differences. I can’t say that I’m thrilled with either, but I have to support Macron over Le Pen [R-FR]. RESIST<\/strong>!!<\/font><\/p>\n

From Think Progress<\/a>: <\/font>It all started with Steve Doocy.<\/p>\n

On July 6, 2016, former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson sued Roger Ailes<\/a>, alleging she was sexually harassed. The suit prompted an investigation of Ailes, his eventual firing, and a $20 million settlement for Carlson.<\/p>\n

The investigation of Ailes, and the public standard it set for Fox News, set the precedent for the ouster of Bill O\u2019Reilly last week, following numerous allegations of sexual harassment.<\/p>\n

But Carlson\u2019s problems with Ailes began when she complained to him about the conduct of Steve Doocy, her co-host on Fox & Friends.<\/p>\n

According to Carlson\u2019s complaint, Doocy \u201cengaged in a pattern and practice of severe and pervasive sexual harassment of Carlson.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doocy was not named as a defendant. But Carlson claimed Doocy created a \u201chostile work environment\u201d by treating her in a \u201csexist and condescending way,\u201d regarding her as a \u201cblond female prop.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda has always reflected the misogyny of the Republican Party by treating women as props, and many of the ones I used to call Faux Noise<\/em> Bimbettes, knew they were being hired as eye candy and cashed in on it. Since then, I have learned that even a woman’s active participation in the discrimination against her does not keep her from being a victim. Doocy is just one of the Republican crowd there. Put Faux Noise<\/em> and the Republican Party out of business. RESIST<\/strong>!!<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\"0424Cartoon\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m feeling slightly better than I did yesterday.  The pain when I cough is still excruciating, but I’m coughing less and was able to sleep.  Today, I put George on for the first time in two weeks.  The stretching hurt liked hell, but leaving Stumpy unconfined for so long was bringing back phantom pain.  Wendy […]<\/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-27305","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\/27305","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=27305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27305\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}