{"id":29408,"date":"2017-09-11T12:54:16","date_gmt":"2017-09-11T19:54:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=29408"},"modified":"2017-09-11T12:54:16","modified_gmt":"2017-09-11T19:54:16","slug":"open-thread-9112017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2017\/09\/11\/open-thread-9112017\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread – 9\/11\/2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

Portland is back to 90\u00b0 today.  Please let it be last time!  I’m in a bit of a rush, because I slept poorly last night, and I need a nap.  I’ll be up past my bedtime tonight meditating on the Ellipsoid Orb.  May it shed its holy light on my Broncos.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

Today’s took me 3:55 (average 6:01).  To do it, click here<\/a>.  How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n

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

From Media Matters<\/a>: <\/font>Fox News and other right-wing media outlets overhyped the threat of looting during their coverage of Hurricane Harvey last week. Some conservative blogs ran stories warning about looting that featured tweets from fake accounts<\/a>, which have since been deleted. This coverage often had a racist element, either subtly or overtly accusing African-Americans of rampant criminal behavior.<\/p>\n

In fact, looting has not been a widespread problem, according to law enforcement officials. Experts <\/a>say<\/a> the threat of looting is often exaggerated during disasters, and that appears to be the case with Harvey. "The Houston Police Department says very little looting occurred during the first week of flooding in the wake of Hurricane Harvey," Snopes reported<\/a> on September 1. A spokesperson for the department told Snopes<\/a>, "Looting is almost non existent in Houston. People have been cooperative not just with each other, but also with Houston PD. The weather is at its worst but Houstonians are at their best." Los Angeles Times correspondent Matt Pearce, who drove around Houston to report on Harvey, called<\/a> claims of widespread looting "bullshit."<\/p>\n

I have to wonder how many people, if any, were murdered by racist Republican vigilantes, their hatred piqued by the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise<\/em>. RESIST<\/strong>!!<\/font><\/p>\n

From Daily Kos<\/a>: <\/font>As part of its Nuclear Posture Review<\/a>\u2014the first since the 2010 review was completed\u2014the Trump regime is said to be considering the building of a \u201cmini-nuke,\u201d a nuclear bomb with a low explosive yield. Advocates have long claimed this would improve U.S. deterrence. Approval of such a development would overturn the Obama administration\u2019s policy of limiting reliance on nuclear arms and continuing to reduce the size of the U.S. nuclear arsenal.<\/p>\n

Bryan Bender at Politico reports<\/a>:<\/p>\n

"The [nuclear review] has to credibly ask the military what they need to deter enemies," added another official who supports such a proposal, particularly to confront Russia, which has raised the prominence of tactical nuclear weapons in its battle plans in recent years, including as a first-strike weapon. "Are [current weapons] going to be useful in all the scenarios we see?" […]<\/p>\n

"If the U.S. moves now to develop a new nuclear weapon, it will send exactly the wrong signal at a time when international efforts to discourage the spread of nuclear weapons are under severe challenge," said Steven Andreasen, a State Department official in the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush who served as the director of arms control on the National Security Council in the Clinton administration. "If the world’s greatest conventional and nuclear military power decides it cannot defend itself without new nuclear weapons, we will undermine our ability to prevent other nations from developing or enhancing their own nuclear capabilities and we will further deepen the divisions between the U.S. and other responsible countries.<\/p>\n

The button loving Fuhrer is a Republican Ammosexual on steroids. RESIST<\/strong>!!<\/font><\/p>\n

From Alternet<\/a>: <\/font>Bannon was concerned that Trump\u2019s delay on DACA will result in a Republican \u201ccivil war\u201d that could cost them the 2018 midterm elections.<\/p>\n

While many pundits anticipate that Trump\u2019s harsh anti-immigrant policies could hurt the party\u2019s long-term prospects by further alienating Hispanic voters, Bannon had a different concern.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy fear is that with this six months down range, if we have another huge\u2013 if this goes all the way down to its logical conclusion, in February and March it will be a civil war inside the Republican party that will be every bit as vitriolic as 2013,\u201d Bannon told Rose. \u201cAnd to me, doing that in the springboard of primary season for 2018 is extremely unwise.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is only the fourth of eight lowlights from Steve "Trump’s Breitfart Nazi Barf" Bannon’s interview on 60 Minutes last night. Click through for the other seven. RESIST!!<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\"0911Cartoon\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Portland is back to 90\u00b0 today.  Please let it be last time!  I’m in a bit of a rush, because I slept poorly last night, and I need a nap.  I’ll be up past my bedtime tonight meditating on the Ellipsoid Orb.  May it shed its holy light on my Broncos. Jig Zone Puzzle: Today’s […]<\/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-29408","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\/29408","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=29408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29408\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}