{"id":33705,"date":"2018-09-14T13:15:26","date_gmt":"2018-09-14T20:15:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=33705"},"modified":"2018-09-14T13:15:26","modified_gmt":"2018-09-14T20:15:26","slug":"open-thread-9-14-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2018\/09\/14\/open-thread-9-14-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread &#8211; 9\/14\/2018"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">It was so muggy last night that I had trouble sleeping, so I am feeling quite tired.&#160; I&#8217;ll probably have to turn on the A\/C by mid-afternoon.&#160; If you are near Florence, please take care.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Jig Zone Puzzle<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Today&#8217;s took me 2:47 (average 4:40).&#160; To do it, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jigzone.com\/puzzles\/2018-09-14-CE2504A965A9\" target=\"_blank\">click here<\/a>. How did you do?&#160; (Maybe we can tag-team a dawg or two).<\/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=Y3784luFo6s\" target=\"_blank\">YouTube<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/mediamatters4america\/videos\" target=\"_blank\">Media Matters Channel<\/a>): <\/font>Experts warn that climate change is making extreme weather worse<\/p>\n<p>&#160;<iframe loading=\"lazy\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/Y3784luFo6s?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"640\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe> <\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Even the Republican Reich know this is true, but they lie about it, as long as the polluters keep them in power, and they think the poor and minorities suffer most of the bad effects. <strong>RESIST<\/strong>!! <strong>VOTE BLUE<\/strong>!!<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"https:\/\/www.alternet.org\/conservative-country-music-fans-lash-out-willie-nelson-supporting-beto-orourke-over-ted-cruz-i\" target=\"_blank\">Alternet<\/a>: <\/font>Some of Willie Nelson\u2019s conservative fans are angry that the country legend is throwing his support behind Democratic Rep. Beto O\u2019Rourke.<\/p>\n<p>Nelson posted an announcement on his Facebook page that he\u2019ll join his sons, Lukas and Micah Nelson, and musicians Joe Ely, Carrie Rodriguez and Tameca Jones to perform at a rally for O\u2019Rourke, a Texas congressman challenging Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, <a href=\"https:\/\/abc13.com\/entertainment\/angry-fans-attack-willie-nelson-over-beto-rally-appearance\/4227747\/\" target=\"_blank\">reported KTRK-TV<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>That outraged some of his fans, who lashed out against the 85-year-old Nelson on social media.<\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Beto joined Willy on the 4th of July.&#160; He comes in near the end.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/wMbD1g19vHQ?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"640\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">I am now a bigger Willie Nelson Fan! <strong>RESIST<\/strong>!! <strong>VOTE BLUE<\/strong>!!<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/09\/13\/business\/media\/robert-mueller-press-strategy.html\" target=\"_blank\">NY Times<\/a>: <\/font>Since his appointment 16 months ago as special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III has granted no interviews and held no news conferences. The spokesman for his office is known around Washington as \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sltrib.com\/news\/politics\/2018\/04\/14\/mr-no-comment-meet-the-utahn-who-speaks-for-the-special-counsels-russia-trump-probe-but-dont-expect-him-to-say-too-much\/\" target=\"_blank\">Mr. No-Comment<\/a>.\u201d Even public sightings are rare: A photograph of Mr. Mueller at an airport gate, with Donald Trump Jr. in the background, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/07\/27\/us\/politics\/donald-trump-jr-mueller-airport.html\">went viral<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Silence as a public relations strategy is risky, especially for someone who is impugned almost daily by Fox News pundits, Trump allies like Rudolph W. Giuliani and tweets from the president himself. Supporters fear that the fusillade is eroding public confidence in the special counsel\u2019s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election before Mr. Mueller has a chance to present his findings.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe risk you always assume is, if your critics and your opponents are the only ones doing the talking, then they get to write the headlines,\u201d said Kevin Madden, a communications strategist who served as a spokesman for the Justice Department under President George W. Bush.<\/p>\n<p>Yet veterans of similar investigations say that keeping quiet may be Mr. Mueller\u2019s only viable option, given the limited set of strategies available for federal prosecutors to communicate with the public. By law, special counsels must follow Justice Department guidelines that restrict them from sharing details about pending investigations, making leaks a potential criminal matter.<\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">I agree that it&#8217;s his best bet, but from my perspective as a commentator\/satirist that gets very frustrating! <strong>RESIST<\/strong>!! <strong>VOTE BLUE<\/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\/2018\/09\/0914Cartoon.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"0914Cartoon\" 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=\"0914Cartoon\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/0914Cartoon_thumb.jpg\" width=\"654\" height=\"354\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It was so muggy last night that I had trouble sleeping, so I am feeling quite tired.&#160; I&#8217;ll probably have to turn on the A\/C by mid-afternoon.&#160; If you are near Florence, please take care. Jig Zone Puzzle: Today&#8217;s took me 2:47 (average 4:40).&#160; To do it, click here. How did you do?&#160; (Maybe we <a href='https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2018\/09\/14\/open-thread-9-14-2018\/' 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-33705","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\/33705","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=33705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33705\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}