{"id":31586,"date":"2018-02-26T12:11:19","date_gmt":"2018-02-26T20:11:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=31586"},"modified":"2018-02-26T12:11:19","modified_gmt":"2018-02-26T20:11:19","slug":"open-thread-2-26-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2018\/02\/26\/open-thread-2-26-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread &#8211; 2\/26\/2018"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Well, WWW\/wW and I finished our chores yesterday.&#160; I have an easy week this week, but next week medical mayhem will kick in.&#160; I popped on George, skipped my morning nap, and tried to do extra research this morning, hoping to find a third article.&#160; I found a couple extra short takes.&#160; Today I am officially in mourning.&#160; The Olympics distracted me, but now the absence of blessed light from the holy Ellipsoid Orb has become apparent.&#160; Woe to the world!<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Jig Zone Puzzle<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Today&#8217;s took me 4:27 (average 5:25).&#160; To do it, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jigzone.com\/puzzles\/2018-02-26-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=5opzBgyMzK8\" target=\"_blank\">YouTube<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCwlHzGKZA-e2GeLMjIE51uw\/videos\" target=\"_blank\">Parody Project Channel<\/a>): <\/font>HE DOESN&#8217;T KNOW THE TERRITORY &#8211; Parody of the opening scene from The Music Man<\/p>\n<p>&#160;<iframe loading=\"lazy\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/5opzBgyMzK8?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"640\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe> <\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Beautifully done. Parody Project Parodied Projection. <strong>RESIST<\/strong>!!<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2018\/02\/26\/us\/florida-parkland-students\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\">CNN<\/a>: <\/font>Lina Crisostomo&#8217;s SATs are coming up next week, but college test prep has taken a backseat to funerals, vigils and walkouts.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s been like that since a gunman stormed Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2018\/02\/14\/us\/florida-high-school-shooting\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\">killing 17 people<\/a> and sending Lina running from campus.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Homework doesn&#8217;t really seem that important now,&quot; she said Friday, the day before her 17th birthday. &quot;My attention has changed to fighting for these 17 lives.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Lina is one of many Stoneman Douglas students who&#8217;s been channeling grief into fighting the gun lobby since the February 14 shooting in Parkland, Florida. In little more than a week, the student-led movement made gains no one predicted, not even the students. Now, with classes set to resume on Wednesday, Lina and others worry about losing momentum.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I know I have to get back to reality, but it just doesn&#8217;t seem as important as fighting,&quot; she said.<\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">In a way, I partially understand her. I had to drop out of college in the 1960s, because my class attendance and assignment completion were too sporadic for me to pass. Fighting against the war and for civil rights just seemed more important at the time. <strong>RESIST<\/strong>!!<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/02\/25\/opinion\/investors-republican-tax-cut.html\" target=\"_blank\">NY Times<\/a>: <\/font>After President Trump signed the Republican tax cut into law, companies put out cheery announcements that they were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/01\/22\/us\/politics\/bonuses-tax-laws-trump-impact.html\" target=\"_blank\">giving workers bonuses<\/a> because of their expected windfalls from the tax reductions. The president and Republican lawmakers quickly held up these news releases as vindication for their argument that cutting the top federal corporate tax rate to 21 percent, from 35 percent, would <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/10\/16\/us\/politics\/trump-tax-plan-wages-corporate-rates.html\" target=\"_blank\">boost workers\u2019 income<\/a>s even as it added $1.5 trillion to the debt that future generations would have to pay off.<\/p>\n<p>Now corporate announcements and analyst reports confirm what honest observers always said \u2014 this claim is pure fantasy. As executives tell investors what they intend to do with their tax savings and their spending plans are tabulated into neat charts and graphs, the reports jibe with what most experts said would happen: Companies are rewarding their stockholders.<\/p>\n<p>Businesses are buying back shares, which creates demand for the stocks, boosts share prices and benefits investors. Some of the cash is going to increase dividends. And a chunk will go to acquiring other businesses, creating larger corporations that face less competition.<\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">We all knew this was coming! <strong>RESIST<\/strong>!!<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"http:\/\/samuel-warde.com\/2018\/02\/white-house-drug-policy\/\" target=\"_blank\">Liberals Unite<\/a>: <\/font>News website <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/exclusive-trump-privately-talks-up-executing-all-big-drug-dealers-1519595170-402cc386-8729-4684-a7ef-a5bf31876afa.html\">Axios reported<\/a> late Sunday that Trump considers drug dealers to be worse than serial killers and would love the U.S. to pass laws making capital punishment mandatory for drug traffickers.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>In Singapore, the death penalty is mandatory for drug trafficking offenses. And President Trump loves it. He\u2019s been telling friends for months that the country\u2019s policy to execute drug traffickers is the reason its drug consumption rates are so low.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe says that a lot,\u201d said a source who\u2019s spoken to Trump at length about the subject. \u201cHe says, \u2018When I ask the prime minister of Singapore do they have a drug problem [the prime minister replies,] \u2018No. Death penalty\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>A senior administration official told Axios that Trump \u201coften jokes about killing drug dealers\u2026 He\u2019ll say, \u2018You know the Chinese and Filipinos don\u2019t have a drug problem. They just kill them.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">I oppose the death penalty. It is ironic, that the only possible exception, if any, is for treason. <strong>RESIST<\/strong>!!<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rightwingwatch.org\/post\/paul-begley-stands-by-his-claim-that-melania-trump-ordered-the-white-house-to-be-exorcised\/\">RWW<\/a>: <\/font>Last week, End Times pastor Paul Begley <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=-7Pw7kc8oHk\" target=\"_blank\">appeared on<\/a> \u201cThe Hagmann Report,\u201d where he stood by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rightwingwatch.org\/post\/right-wing-pastor-says-melania-trump-ordered-white-house-to-be-completely-exorcised-before-moving-in\/\" target=\"_blank\">his claim<\/a> that First Lady Melania Trump had ordered the White House to be \u201ccompletely exorcised\u201d before she moved in.<\/p>\n<p>After Begley made this claim earlier this month, the story was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rightwingwatch.org\/post\/melania-trumps-white-house-exorcism-and-the-far-rights-thirst-for-trump-fan-fic\/\" target=\"_blank\">widely circulated<\/a> among those who saw it as a sign of President Trump\u2019s growing Christian faith, which eventually prompted the Associated Press to contact the White House for comment, forcing the first lady\u2019s office to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tampabay.com\/first-lady-did-not-hire-exorcist-for-white-house-ap_nationalc74a98852f074bc5b5d6162f4fb0f0cf\" target=\"_blank\">declare<\/a> that Begely\u2019s claim was \u201cnot true in any way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But Begley is standing by his claim and insisting that the AP\u2019s story denying the exorcism is \u201cfake news.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Assuming that the Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christian (same as Antichristian) isn&#8217;t lying, the exorcism was a complete failure. The orange dung demon still tweets from there. <strong>RESIST<\/strong>!!<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Cartoon<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"0226Cartoon\" 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=\"0226Cartoon\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/0226Cartoon.jpg\" width=\"650\" height=\"430\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Well, WWW\/wW and I finished our chores yesterday.&#160; I have an easy week this week, but next week medical mayhem will kick in.&#160; I popped on George, skipped my morning nap, and tried to do extra research this morning, hoping to find a third article.&#160; I found a couple extra short takes.&#160; Today I am <a href='https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2018\/02\/26\/open-thread-2-26-2018\/' 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-31586","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\/31586","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=31586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31586\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}