{"id":33411,"date":"2018-08-16T12:28:21","date_gmt":"2018-08-16T19:28:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=33411"},"modified":"2018-08-16T12:28:21","modified_gmt":"2018-08-16T19:28:21","slug":"open-thread-8-16-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2018\/08\/16\/open-thread-8-16-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread &#8211; 8\/16\/2018"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">This is so weird.&#160; It feels like Sunday, because WWWendy just left.&#160; In a few minutes, she&#8217;ll be headed South for the country music festival in Brownsville, OR.&#160; It&#8217;s a little cooler today and tomorrow, and the wind came up to blow the smoke away.&#160; I hope you&#8217;re having a great Sunday, even if it is Thursday.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Jig Zone Puzzle<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Today&#8217;s took me 3:31 (average 4:40).&#160; To do it, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jigzone.com\/puzzles\/2018-08-16-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=i_EZAJPNEsM\" target=\"_blank\">YouTube<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/msnbcleanforward\/videos\" target=\"_blank\">MSNBC Channel<\/a>): <\/font>Unlike Nixon, President Donald Trump Admin Pursues Enemies List In Public<\/p>\n<p>&#160;<iframe loading=\"lazy\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/i_EZAJPNEsM?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"640\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe> <\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">By revoking John Brennan&#8217;s security clearance without due cause, Little Donnie Dipshit, aka Putin&#8217;s Piddle Puppet, is making the US and the world more dangerous. Brennan was so knowledgeable that he was in the room with Obama when Osama bin Laden (R-SA) was killed. He can no longer be a valuable source of advice, since he may not be read-in on classified crises. <strong>RESIST<\/strong>!! <strong>VOTE BLUE<\/strong>!!<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"https:\/\/www.alternet.org\/gops-secret-plan-use-trumps-impeachment-keep-white-house-report\" target=\"_blank\">Alternet<\/a>: <\/font>In interviews with Politico, an assortment of Republicans admit they are willing to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/story\/2018\/08\/16\/trump-impeachment-reelection-midterms-778968\" target=\"_blank\">concede the House to the Democrats<\/a> in the 2018 midterms based on the belief that a move to impeach President Donald Trump would backfire on them<\/p>\n<p>According to the report, Republican believe they will hold their majority in the Senate and would rebuff any attempt by a Democratic-majority House to dump Trump and that voters will want to move on, with Trump\u2019s base becoming even more solidified.<\/p>\n<p>As Politico reports, \u201cmore than a dozen Republican politicians, activists and consultants \u2014 including some current and former Trump campaign aides with direct lines to the president \u2014 said they are increasingly convinced a Democratic victory and subsequent impeachment push would backfire and ultimately help the president in 2020.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">I tend to agree. As much as my soul cries out for impeachment, until we have a DINO-proof super-majority in both branches of the legislature, we will fail. And unless we can impeach Pence simultaneously, we&#8217;ll be even worse off than we are today. <strong>RESIST<\/strong>!! <strong>VOTE BLUE<\/strong>!!<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"https:\/\/talkingpointsmemo.com\/news\/aretha-franklin-dies-age-76\" target=\"_blank\">TPM<\/a>: <\/font>Aretha Franklin, the undisputed \u201cQueen of Soul\u201d who sang with matchless style on such classics as \u201cThink,\u201d \u201dI Say a Little Prayer\u201d and her signature song, \u201cRespect,\u201d and stood as a cultural icon around the globe, has died at age 76 from advanced pancreatic cancer.<\/p>\n<p>Publicist Gwendolyn Quinn tells The Associated Press through a family statement that Franklin died Thursday at 9:50 a.m. at her home in Detroit. The statement said \u201cFranklin\u2019s official cause of death was due to advance pancreatic cancer of the neuroendocrine type, which was confirmed by Franklin\u2019s oncologist, Dr. Philip Phillips of Karmanos Cancer Institute\u201d in Detroit.<\/p>\n<p>The family added: \u201cIn one of the darkest moments of our lives, we are not able to find the appropriate words to express the pain in our heart. We have lost the matriarch and rock of our family. The love she had for her children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, and cousins knew no bounds.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/LKUsNHC28pA?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"640\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">RIP, Hero! Thoughts and prayers, please, for all the survivors that love her. <strong>RESIST<\/strong>!! <strong>VOTE BLUE<\/strong>!!<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Cartoon<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px\" border=\"0\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/0816Cartoon.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is so weird.&#160; It feels like Sunday, because WWWendy just left.&#160; In a few minutes, she&#8217;ll be headed South for the country music festival in Brownsville, OR.&#160; It&#8217;s a little cooler today and tomorrow, and the wind came up to blow the smoke away.&#160; I hope you&#8217;re having a great Sunday, even if it <a href='https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2018\/08\/16\/open-thread-8-16-2018\/' 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-33411","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\/33411","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=33411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33411\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}