{"id":27602,"date":"2017-05-18T12:16:57","date_gmt":"2017-05-18T19:16:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=27602"},"modified":"2017-05-18T12:16:57","modified_gmt":"2017-05-18T19:16:57","slug":"open-thread-5182017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2017\/05\/18\/open-thread-5182017\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread – 5\/18\/2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Comcast tech was on time, and I’m most pleased with the job he did here.  He worked for almost two hours setting up a network that is rated at 200 Mbps, but is actually performing at 298 Mbps, over three times the speed of the old modem.  He configured my computer, laptop, printer, phone, Kindle Fire, and Roku devices, and he tested them all.  He cancelled the $40.00 I had been charged for the setup because of my disabilities.  And for the time I had the old modem, he gave me 3 months of HBO.  I was surprised to receive such excellent service.  After I broke for lunch, Neighborhood House arrived.  I wish I had had the time to do research, considering all the scandalous news that Trump and the Republican Rectum Reich have caused lately.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

Today’s took me 3:27 (average 5:20).  To do it, click here<\/a><\/font>.  How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n

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

From Daily Kos<\/a>: <\/font>While Washington insiders and most of the American press are falling over themselves and each other trying to keep up with the latest Trump scandals (for the love of God, it’s only Tuesday), you might wonder how the nation’s worst major news network is handling the news that Donald Trump accidentally or on purpose leaked information to Russian diplomats that is considered so sensitive that no United States newspapers are willing to detail exactly what it is.<\/p>\n

You needn’t wonder\u2014because at newly Ailes-less, O’Reilly-free Fox News, it’s been business as usual<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

While CNN and MSNBC provided wall to wall coverage of the breaking news, Fox News defended Trump before returning to coverage of such hard hitting stories as the \u201cRomper for men,\u201d Miss USA\u2019s comments about healthcare, Michelle Obama\u2019s comments about school lunches, \u201cMedia Hysteria,\u201d and \u201cleftists\u201d on college campuses<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

What else would you expect from the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise<\/em>? RESIST<\/strong>!!<\/font><\/p>\n

From Washington Post<\/a>: <\/font>A month before Donald Trump clinched the Republican nomination, one of his closest allies in Congress \u2014 House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy \u2014 made a politically explosive assertion in a private conversation on Capitol Hill with his fellow GOP leaders: that Trump could be the beneficiary of payments from Russian President Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump,\u201d McCarthy (R-Calif.) said, according to a recording of the June 15, 2016, exchange, which was listened to and verified by The Washington Post. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher is a Californian Republican known in Congress as a fervent defender of Putin and Russia.<\/p>\n

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) immediately interjected, stopping the conversation from further exploring McCarthy\u2019s assertion, and swore the Republicans present to secrecy<\/strong>. [emphasis added<\/em>]<\/p>\n

Read the transcript here<\/a>. Lyin’ Ryan and the Republican leadership knew about these crimes all along and instituted a cover-up! RESIST<\/strong>!!<\/font><\/p>\n

From NY Times<\/a>: <\/font>The Justice Department appointed Robert S. Mueller III, a former F.B.I. director, as special counsel on Wednesday to oversee the investigation into ties between President Trump\u2019s campaign and Russian officials, dramatically raising the legal and political stakes in an affair that has threatened to engulf Mr. Trump\u2019s four-month-old presidency.<\/p>\n

The decision by the deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, came after a cascade of damaging developments for Mr. Trump in recent days, including his abrupt dismissal of the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, and the subsequent disclosure that Mr. Trump asked Mr. Comey<\/a> to drop the investigation of his former national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn.<\/p>\n

Mr. Rosenstein had been under escalating pressure from Democrats, and even some Republicans, to appoint a special counsel after he wrote a memo that the White House initially cited as the rationale for Mr. Comey\u2019s dismissal.<\/p>\n

By appointing Mr. Mueller, a former federal prosecutor with an unblemished reputation, Mr. Rosenstein could alleviate uncertainty about the government\u2019s ability to investigate the questions surrounding the Trump campaign and the Russians.<\/p>\n

Frankly, I’m quite surprised that Rosenstein has done this. It was the only way to begin to repair his own credibility, after the ridiculous memo he signed on the reasons for firing Comey, since Trump threw him under the bus by bragging about the real reason. Remember, since a sitting President may not be charged with a crime, Muller’s only remedy is to refer his evidence to the House for possible impeachment. Will they impeach?  Also, the investigation will take months. If Republicans have decided not to save Trump, they will use the time strip the cupboard bare and create huge deficits providing welfare for billionaires.  RESIST<\/strong>!!<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\"0518Cartoon\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Comcast tech was on time, and I’m most pleased with the job he did here.  He worked for almost two hours setting up a network that is rated at 200 Mbps, but is actually performing at 298 Mbps, over three times the speed of the old modem.  He configured my computer, laptop, printer, phone, […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal","category-politics","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\/27602","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=27602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27602\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}