{"id":30271,"date":"2017-11-13T12:30:42","date_gmt":"2017-11-13T20:30:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=30271"},"modified":"2017-11-13T12:30:42","modified_gmt":"2017-11-13T20:30:42","slug":"open-thread-11132017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2017\/11\/13\/open-thread-11132017\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread – 11\/13\/2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is my only article today.  I’m feeling slightly better than yesterday, but that isn’t saying much.  Virtually everything I found in my research are just new variations on old themes.  In addition, the Care2 Glitch Monster is so high on my shit list, that I’d just as soon avoid it, and especially the evil CAPTCHA today.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

Today’s took me 3:05 (average 4:25).  To do it, click here<\/a>.  How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n

Religious Agony<\/strong>: <\/font><\/p>\n

\"1112Broncos16-Patriots41\"<\/font><\/p>\n

Every time I see that Orb, I pray that it’s soaked in Vaseline.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

From The New Yorker<\/a>: <\/font>The special counsel Robert Mueller announced on Saturday that he was closing the Justice Department\u2019s Russia investigation, \u201ceffective immediately,\u201d after hearing that President Vladimir Putin, of Russia, said he was innocent of any election meddling.<\/p>\n

Moments after learning about Putin\u2019s assertion, Mueller hastily assembled his staff of investigators to inform them that, now that Putin had fully exonerated himself, there was no point in continuing the probe.<\/p>\n

\u201cVladimir Putin says he did nothing,\u201d Mueller told his staff. \u201cThat\u2019s good enough for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andy, that is absurd, but it appears to be what Putin’s Pee-Pee Puppet thinks Mueller should do. RESIST<\/strong>!!<\/font><\/p>\n

From Alternet<\/a>: <\/font>On Sunday night, The New York Times reported<\/a> that novice energy firm Whitefish Energy was wildly overcharging the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) for the hourly rate it paid line workers.<\/p>\n

Whitefish Energy Holdings only had two employees when it was awarded a $300 million contract to restore electricity to Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria. To meet the shortfall, Whitefish hired contractors from Florida at rates varying from $42 per hour to $100 per hour with an average hourly rate of $63.<\/p>\n

However, the company\u2019s \u201cshocking\u201d contract<\/a> allowed it to bill PREPA $319 per worker per hour.<\/p>\n

The Times spoke to industry experts who said that $319 per hour is far, far above the norm about amounts to about 17 times what a Puerto Rican worker would make performing the same job.<\/p>\n

Another day, another Republican rip-off. RESIST<\/strong>!!<\/font><\/p>\n

From Common Dreams<\/a>: <\/font>Following the release<\/a> of a slew of analyses<\/a> showing that the GOP tax plan would raise taxes on many middle class families\u2014despite repeated promises to the contrary by the Trump administration and Republican lawmakers\u2014Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) conceded in an interview with the New York Times Friday that he "misspoke" when he declared<\/a> last week that "nobody in the middle class is going to get a tax increase."<\/p>\n

"I misspoke on that," McConnell told<\/a> Times reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg\u200f.<\/p>\n

Bought Bitch Mitch did NOT misspeak. He LIED!! Republicans are trying to raise YOUR taxes!! RESIST<\/strong>!!<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\"1113Cartoon\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is my only article today.  I’m feeling slightly better than yesterday, but that isn’t saying much.  Virtually everything I found in my research are just new variations on old themes.  In addition, the Care2 Glitch Monster is so high on my shit list, that I’d just as soon avoid it, and especially the evil […]<\/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-30271","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\/30271","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=30271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30271\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}