{"id":34535,"date":"2018-12-01T19:06:43","date_gmt":"2018-12-02T03:06:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=34535"},"modified":"2018-12-01T20:06:06","modified_gmt":"2018-12-02T04:06:06","slug":"squatchs-open-thread-01-december-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2018\/12\/01\/squatchs-open-thread-01-december-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Squatch’s Open Thread 01 December 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well Puddy Tat is back to posting so I hope everyone is tuning in.\u00a0 I said at the beginning of November that I hoped to post more often.\u00a0 TC’s illness kick started that for me so I will continue.\u00a0 I probably won’t post daily because it definitely takes a lot of time to research and write.\u00a0 Is it any wonder that Puddy Tat gets tired and run down!\u00a0 Welcome back Puddy Tat!!!\u00a0 On another note, I received the blood test results from my Winnie’s vet and they were very good . . . so good that he no longer needs insulin.\u00a0 In addition he has lost a total of 2.3 kg (5 lbs) over the past 8 weeks.\u00a0 I wish it were that easy for humans.\u00a0 Hope you are having a great weekend!<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Today\u2019s took me 4:55 (average 6:42).\u00a0 To do it,\u00a0click here<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0 How did you do?\u00a0 This is not the same puzzle as on TC’s OT.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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

Common Dreams<\/strong><\/span><\/a> —\u00a0For ten years, Jim Hightower\u2019s weekly column \u2013\u00a0Little Puffs of Populism\u00a0\u2013 has been distributed week in and week out by Creators\u2019 Syndicate to newspapers around the country.<\/p>\n

Not one problem.<\/p>\n

Until this week\u2019s column titled\u00a0Free The Free Press from Wall Street Plunderers.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, Creators\u2019s Syndicate informed Hightower they were not going to distribute this one.<\/p>\n

Why not?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe big, hedge-fund owned newspaper chains that Hightower calls out in his column are big customers of theirs, and as such, they don\u2019t want to risk offending them,\u201d said Hightower assistant Melody Byrd. \u00a0\u201cBut while Creators\u2019 reluctance to anger these powerful interests is somewhat understandable, the implications are frightening. It\u2019s one more example of this dangerous time for America\u2019s decreasingly-free press that, ironically, Jim lays out in this very column.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a note to newspapers urging them to run the column anyway, Byrd wrote \u2013 \u201cthe American people deserve to know more about the entities that are squeezing so many of our community newspapers for cash and, in the process, choking our democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Byrd said that Creators\u2019 Syndicate told her that while the hedge funds that Hightower fingered in his column don\u2019t own the syndicate, they do own many of the newspapers that the syndicate distributes to.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe demise of the real news reporting by our city and regional papers is a product of their profiteering owners,\u201d Hightower wrote in the column. \u201cNot the families and companies that built and nurtured true journalism, but the new breed of fast-buck hucksters who\u2019ve scooped up hundreds of America\u2019s newspapers from the bargain bins of media sell-offs.\u201d<\/p>\n

There be “fake news” out there, but it be not the news that Trump calls out and condemns because he does not agree with him.\u00a0 The real “fake news” are the ones like those that Jim Hightower mentions, the ones guilty of profiteering at the expense of democracy.<\/span><\/p>\n

DC Report<\/strong><\/span><\/a> —\u00a0Its [Wednesday\u2019s New York Times<\/a><\/span><\/strong>\u00a0article] sole named source is Rudy Giuliani, Trump\u2019s television lawyer. Giuliani acknowledged that information gleaned from Manafort\u2019s meetings with FBI agents and prosecutors as a cooperating witness was being passed to Team Trump by Manafort lawyer Kevin Downing.<\/p>\n

That one fact could well doom Trump\u2019s presidency and perhaps land Trump and others behind bars.\u00a0 …<\/p>\n

That Mueller\u2019s team knew enough to say it can prove Manafort lied repeatedly and committed new crimes in doing so had to vex Trump.\u00a0 …<\/p>\n

Two days after the election, Trump told a Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper, the New York Post, that he\u00a0would not \u201crule out\u201d a pardon for Manafort, a signal to the jailed felon that he was still in good stead with Trump.\u00a0Today Trump reiterated that position<\/a>, which could be seen as obstruction of justice by dangling a pardon to cover up Trumpian crimes.\u00a0 …<\/p>\n

If Trump and his lawyer relied on what Downing passed on from meetings with Team Mueller, using it to shape the written answers to Mueller\u2019s questions, this double-agent legal game may blow up in Trump\u2019s face.\u00a0 …<\/p>\n

If I\u2019m right about this, it may become crucial for state-level prosecutors in New York, Virginia, and the District of Columbia to indict Manafort sooner rather than later for felonies that he admitted under oath in his now broken cooperation agreement with Mueller.<\/p>\n

I hope you will click through for David Cay Johnston’s entire article and the NY Times article he highlights.\u00a0 Rudy Giuliani?\u00a0 Now in my mind, Giuliani is a joke and has zero credibility for the most part.\u00a0 Does he really think he is helping Trump?\u00a0 More like helping him break into prison!\u00a0 You should also know that Trump can only pardon federal crimes, not state crimes.\u00a0 So if Trump pardons Manafort, state prosecutors should be ready to jump in and charge Manafort, something that Trump cannot touch with his pardon promises.<\/span><\/p>\n

Common Dreams<\/strong><\/span><\/a> —\u00a0With the Dec. 10 deadline for the House of Representatives to reverse the FCC’s deeply unpopular repeal of net neutrality rapidly approaching, a coalition of websites, prominent celebrity activists, and advocacy groups representing millions of Americans are participating in an\u00a0internet-wide day of action<\/a>\u00a0on Thursday to pressure members of Congress to back the legislative effort to restore net neutrality protections before it’s too late.<\/p>\n

During the day of action and in the week leading up to the final deadline, advocacy groups are urging supporters of the free internet to flood the phone lines of their representatives and sign on to their open letter to Congress demanding that they act to save net neutrality.<\/p>\n

Read the full open letter and sign on here<\/span><\/strong><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Fight for the Future<\/span><\/span>@fightfortheftr<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

Congress is running out of time to overturn Ajit Pai’s #<\/span>NetNeutrality<\/span><\/a> repeal. Join us for the last epic push at http:\/\/<\/span>DeadlineForNetNeutrality.com<\/a>: arstechnica.com\/tech-policy\/20\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Continue reading the article to see if your congress critter has signed on to “pass the CRA that would overturn FCC chair Ajit Pai’s net neutrality repeal.”\u00a0 <\/span><\/div>\n
.<\/span><\/div>\n
I signed the open letter.\u00a0 How about you?<\/span><\/div>\n
\"\"Democracy depends on the free flow of thoughts and ideas. One need only look at China and other nations as examples where the free flow of thoughts and ideas are not allowed by the state. What is to stop Trump with his dictatorial bent (or any other “leader” for that matter) from taking over the internet? The first amendment in the 21st century depends on it!\u00a0 — Squatch<\/span><\/div>\n
.<\/span><\/div>\n
.<\/span><\/div>\n
.<\/span><\/div>\n
.<\/span><\/div>\n
.<\/span><\/div>\n
.<\/span><\/div>\n
.<\/span><\/div>\n
..<\/span><\/div>\n
\n

AlterNet<\/span><\/strong><\/a> — With President Donald Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen\u00a0spilling the beans<\/a>\u00a0on Trump’s participation in his team’s illicit negotiations with the Russians in a plea agreement with special counsel Robert Mueller, the allegations of collusion are looking more serious by the day. And one person who does not come off looking good amid the whole affair is outgoing House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA), who will cease to lead the committee next year as Democrats assume the House majority.Nunes, a close ally of Trump, has gone to great lengths to twist his committee’s investigative power away from Trump’s ties to Russia and onto the supposed misconduct of federal investigators who were looking into Trump’s ties to Russia, from writing a\u00a0shoddy, partisan memo<\/a>\u00a0that alleged the FBI improperly obtained FISA warrants against the Trump campaign, to\u00a0traveling to London<\/a>\u00a0to try to get British intelligence officials to discredit ex-MI6 spy Christopher Steele’s dossier on Trump.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

I predict that it won’t be chestnuts roasting on an open fire come January.\u00a0 It will be Devin Nunes’ gonads roasting on a Democratic fire of justice.\u00a0 Somebody put a guard on the\u00a0House Intelligence Committee records buried in the basement of the Capitol before Devin Nunes gets in there and removes the records of concern.\u00a0 I certainly would not put it past him.<\/span><\/div>\n
.<\/span><\/div>\n

My Universe<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

. . . and I barely got my feet wet!!!<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

Well Puddy Tat is back to posting so I hope everyone is tuning in.\u00a0 I said at the beginning of November that I hoped to post more often.\u00a0 TC’s illness kick started that for me so I will continue.\u00a0 I probably won’t post daily because it definitely takes a lot of time to research and […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","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\/34535","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\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34535\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}