{"id":30853,"date":"2017-12-24T08:26:05","date_gmt":"2017-12-24T16:26:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=30853"},"modified":"2017-12-24T08:26:05","modified_gmt":"2017-12-24T16:26:05","slug":"open-thread-12-24-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/24\/open-thread-12-24-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread &#8211; 12\/24\/2017"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Wendy is due any minute now.&#160; This is my only article today, and I will not be sending links messages on Care2.&#160; I will have articles tomorrow.&#160; Today is a holy day in the Church of Ellipsoid Orb.&#160; My Broncos play the Foreskins, but it&#8217;s not televised here.&#160; It&#8217;s big time cooking and eating today, and our first Winter Weather Advisory of the season.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Jig Zone Puzzle<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Today&#8217;s took me 3:01 (average 4:55).&#160; To do it, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jigzone.com\/puzzles\/2017-12-24-CE2504A965A9\" target=\"_blank\">click here<\/a>.&#160; How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Short Takes<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=dqUDGFluR1w\" target=\"_blank\">YouTube<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UC18vz5hUUqxbGvym9ghtX_w\/videos\" target=\"_blank\">Full Frontal Channel<\/a>): <\/font>We Made It Through 2017<\/p>\n<p>&#160;<iframe loading=\"lazy\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/dqUDGFluR1w?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"640\" gesture=\"media\" allow=\"encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe> <\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Thanks for a great year, Sam! <strong>RESIST<\/strong>!!<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/world\/national-security\/facing-republican-attacks-fbis-deputy-director-plans-to-retire-early-next-year\/2017\/12\/23\/b4802b8c-e67a-11e7-a65d-1ac0fd7f097e_story.html?utm_term=.a1410d0b62a9\" target=\"_blank\">Washington Post<\/a>: <\/font>Andrew McCabe, the FBI\u2019s deputy director who has been the target of Republican critics for more than a year, plans to retire in a few months when he becomes fully eligible for pension benefits, according to people familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n<p>McCabe spent hours in Congress this past week, facing questions behind closed doors from members of three committees. Republicans said they were dissatisfied with his answers; Democrats called it a partisan hounding.<\/p>\n<p>McCabe, 49, holds a unique position in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/world\/national-security\/trump-calls-conduct-at-fbi-disgraceful-before-appearing-at-quantico\/2017\/12\/15\/4f4a4fae-e1a7-11e7-bbd0-9dfb2e37492a_story.html?utm_term=.12d63cb9633e\" target=\"_blank\">political firestorm surrounding the FBI<\/a> . He was former director James B. Comey\u2019s right-hand man, a position that involved him in most of the FBI\u2019s actions that vex President Trump and in the investigation of Hillary Clinton\u2019s use of a private email server while secretary of state, a matter that still riles Democrats.<\/p>\n<p>McCabe won\u2019t become eligible for his full pension until early March. People close to him say he plans to retire as soon as he hits that mark. \u201cHe\u2019s got about 90 days, and some of that will be holiday time. He can make it,\u2019\u2019 one said.<\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">He has done an excellent job. If the Republican Reich has any say in replacing him, the FBI will suffer for it. <strong>RESIST<\/strong>!!<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/gift-wrapped-manure-addressed-to-treasury-secretary-steven-mnuchin-police\/\" target=\"_blank\">CBS News<\/a>: <\/font>Police on Saturday investigated a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/lapd-called-to-inspect-suspicious-package-addressed-to-steven-mnuchin-treasury-secretary\/\" target=\"_blank\">suspicious package<\/a> addressed to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, <a href=\"http:\/\/losangeles.cbslocal.com\/2017\/12\/23\/horse-manure-addressed-to-steve-mnuchin\/\" target=\"_blank\">CBS Los Angeles reports<\/a>. The package was found on Bel Air Road, near Mnuchin&#8217;s home, in Los Angeles. <\/p>\n<p>The package was gift-wrapped and filled with manure, police say, CBS Los Angeles&#8217; Cristy Fajardo reports. <\/p>\n<p>The package was found at a neighbor&#8217;s home but was addressed to Mnuchin, which police say raised alarm bells. <\/p>\n<p>LAPD officers, the bomb squad and the Secret Service poured into the area.<\/p>\n<p>A neighbor, Prince Frederick von Anhalt, said he and others who live above the home were trapped for about two hours, until police found out it was filled with manure and cleared the scene. <\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Woooo Hoooo!! I call that a case of sweets for the sweet! <strong>RESIST<\/strong>!!<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Cartoon<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/1224Cartoon.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"1224Cartoon\" style=\"border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px\" border=\"0\" alt=\"1224Cartoon\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/1224Cartoon_thumb.jpg\" width=\"654\" height=\"404\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wendy is due any minute now.&#160; This is my only article today, and I will not be sending links messages on Care2.&#160; I will have articles tomorrow.&#160; Today is a holy day in the Church of Ellipsoid Orb.&#160; My Broncos play the Foreskins, but it&#8217;s not televised here.&#160; It&#8217;s big time cooking and eating today, <a href='https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/24\/open-thread-12-24-2017\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/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-30853","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\/30853","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=30853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30853\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}