{"id":32058,"date":"2018-04-07T12:29:33","date_gmt":"2018-04-07T19:29:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=32058"},"modified":"2018-04-07T12:29:33","modified_gmt":"2018-04-07T19:29:33","slug":"open-thread-4-7-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2018\/04\/07\/open-thread-4-7-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread – 4\/7\/2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m still very tired.  I woke up this morning and the temperature in my room was 85\u00b0.  It was that way throughout the floor.  It has cooled off, but I was miserable.  I guess I still haven’t recovered from my trip out on Thursday.  Tomorrow, I may have no more than a Personal Update of an Open Thread.  It’s WWWendy Day and Uncle Revenue Torture Day.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

Today’s took me 2:54 (average 4:40).  To do it, click here<\/a>.  How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n

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

From Politico<\/a>: <\/font>Rep. Ralph Norman pulled out a loaded pistol while discussing gun-violence prevention during a meeting with constituents in South Carolina on Friday, according to several advocacy group members in attendance.<\/p>\n

The episode was brought to light by volunteers for the South Carolina chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, who said in a news release that the lawmaker laid out a loaded firearm while discussing gun safety at an event in Rock Hill.<\/p>\n

According to the group, the pistol was left out for \u201cseveral minutes\u201d while Norman \u201ckept telling his constituents that the presence of the gun made them safer.\u201d<\/p>\n

To make constituents safer, we need to keep guns away from Republican Ammosexual idiots like Norman! RESIST<\/strong>!!<\/font><\/p>\n

From Bloomberg Law<\/a>: <\/font>The U.S. Department of Homeland Security wants to monitor hundreds of thousands of news sources around the world and compile a database of journalists, editors, foreign correspondents, and bloggers to identify top \u201cmedia influencers.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s seeking a contractor that can help it monitor traditional news sources as well as social media and identify \u201cany and all\u201d coverage related to the agency or a particular event, according to a request for information released April 3.<\/p>\n

The data to be collected includes a publication\u2019s \u201csentiment\u201d as well as geographical spread, top posters, languages, momentum, and circulation. No value for the contract was disclosed.<\/p>\n

\u201cServices shall provide media comparison tools, design and rebranding tools, communication tools, and the ability to identify top media influencers,\u201d according to the statement. DHS agencies have \u201ca critical need to incorporate these functions into their programs in order to better reach federal, state, local, tribal, and private partners,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

The DHS wants to track more than 290,000 global news sources, including online, print, broadcast, cable, and radio, as well as trade and industry publications, local, national and international outlets, and social media, according to the documents. It also wants the ability to track media coverage in more than 100 languages including Arabic, Chinese, and Russian, with instant translation of articles into English.<\/p>\n

I doubt that PP is large enough to be considered for inclusion, but Care2 is.  This reminds me of 1984.  Big Brother is Watching! RESIST<\/strong>!!<\/font><\/p>\n

From NY Times<\/a>: <\/font>President Trump\u2019s national security adviser, Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, handed off his duties to John R. Bolton on Friday, a bittersweet departure from the White House in which he played down personal animosities with Mr. Trump but left little doubt that he and the president had differences on issues like Syria and Russia.<\/p>\n

General McMaster met with Mr. Bolton, who then walked the halls of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, introducing himself to staff members still reeling from Mr. Trump\u2019s second major shake-up of the National Security Council in 13 months. Mr. Bolton, a hawkish former envoy to the United Nations, takes up the job on Monday.<\/p>\n

God help the world! RESIST<\/strong>!!<\/font><\/p>\n

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

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

I’m still very tired.  I woke up this morning and the temperature in my room was 85\u00b0.  It was that way throughout the floor.  It has cooled off, but I was miserable.  I guess I still haven’t recovered from my trip out on Thursday.  Tomorrow, I may have no more than a Personal Update of […]<\/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-32058","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\/32058","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=32058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32058\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}