{"id":35476,"date":"2019-01-28T11:37:11","date_gmt":"2019-01-28T19:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=35476"},"modified":"2019-01-28T11:37:11","modified_gmt":"2019-01-28T19:37:11","slug":"open-thread-1-28-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2019\/01\/28\/open-thread-1-28-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread &#8211; 1\/28\/2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">It&#8217;s another busy day here in the CatBox.&#160; I had to update my iPhone, and the first two attempts didn&#8217;t take.&#160; I got started 90 minutes late.&#160; I also have a mild case of Republicosis.&#160; That could cause a shitty day.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Jig Zone Puzzle<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Today&#8217;s took me 3:48 (average 5:41). To do it, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jigzone.com\/puzzles\/2019-01-28-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=gnBhtwKRFhA\" target=\"_blank\">YouTube<\/a>: <\/font><font color=\"#000000\">Starbucks&#8217; Schultz: &quot;I am seriously thinking of running for president&quot;<\/font><\/p>\n<p>&#160;<iframe loading=\"lazy\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/gnBhtwKRFhA\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"640\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe> <\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Oh Shit! Here we go again! If this &quot;corporate Democrat&quot; billionaire runs as a so-called independent, he will expose all of us to the heinous threat of a second term for the Tangerine Traitor. <strong>RESIST<\/strong>!!<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2019\/01\/28\/politics\/us-taliban-peace-negotiations-intl\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\">CNN<\/a>: <\/font>Officials from the United States and the Taliban have agreed in principle to a peace framework that could eventually bring Afghanistan&#8217;s long-running war to an end, the US Special Representative for Afghanistan said Monday.<\/p>\n<p>In comments <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/01\/28\/world\/asia\/taliban-peace-deal-afghanistan.html\" target=\"_blank\">given to the New York Times<\/a> and confirmed to CNN by the US Embassy in Kabul, Zalmay Khalilzad said the framework for peace would see the insurgent group vow to prevent the country from being used as a hub for terrorism in return for a US military withdrawal.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;We have a draft of the framework that has to be fleshed out before it becomes an agreement,&quot; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/01\/28\/world\/asia\/taliban-peace-deal-afghanistan.html\" target=\"_blank\">Khalilzad told the Times on Monday<\/a>. &quot;The Taliban have committed, to our satisfaction, to do what is necessary that would prevent Afghanistan from ever becoming a platform for international terrorist groups or individuals.&quot;<\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">I&#8217;ll need to count the beans in the can, before I make a final judgment, but I&#8217;m inclined to welcome this. On September 27, 2001, US troops had been fighting in Afghanistan one day too long. <strong>RESIST<\/strong>!!<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2019\/jan\/27\/us-lifts-sanctions-oleg-deripaska-russia\" target=\"_blank\">The Guardian<\/a>: <\/font>The Trump administration has lifted sanctions on three companies, including the aluminum giant Rusal, linked to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2018\/apr\/28\/oleg-deripaska-agrees-to-cede-control-of-firms-hit-by-us-sanctions\" target=\"_blank\">Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska<\/a>. Democrats had led a push in Congress to continue the restrictions.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Earlier this month, Senate Republicans blocked an effort to keep the sanctions on Rusal, En+ Group and JSC EuroSibEnergo.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Some lawmakers from both parties have said it is inappropriate to ease sanctions on companies tied to Deripaska, an ally of Russian president Vladimir Putin, while special counsel Robert Mueller <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/media\/2018\/jun\/20\/us-lobbyist-for-russian-oligarch-visited-julian-assange-nine-times-last-year\" target=\"_blank\">investigates<\/a> whether Trump\u2019s 2016 presidential campaign colluded <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/russian-escort-russian-meddling-anastasia-vashukevich-nastya-rybka-thailand-833265\" target=\"_blank\">with Moscow<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Deripaska had ties with Paul Manafort, Trump\u2019s former campaign manager. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2018\/sep\/14\/paul-manafort-trumps-ex-campaign-chair-strikes-plea-deal-with-special-counsel\" target=\"_blank\">Manafort pleaded guilty in September 2018<\/a> to attempted witness tampering and conspiring against the United States&#8230; [<em>emphasis added<\/em>]<\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">How obvious is the <em>quid pro quo<\/em> here? Senate Republicans are in on it too! <strong>RESIST<\/strong>!<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Cartoon<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/0128Cartoon.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">A sad day!<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s another busy day here in the CatBox.&#160; I had to update my iPhone, and the first two attempts didn&#8217;t take.&#160; I got started 90 minutes late.&#160; I also have a mild case of Republicosis.&#160; That could cause a shitty day. Jig Zone Puzzle: Today&#8217;s took me 3:48 (average 5:41). To do it, click here.&#160; <a href='https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2019\/01\/28\/open-thread-1-28-2019\/' 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-35476","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\/35476","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=35476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35476\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}