{"id":35682,"date":"2019-02-15T11:22:17","date_gmt":"2019-02-15T19:22:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=35682"},"modified":"2019-02-15T11:22:17","modified_gmt":"2019-02-15T19:22:17","slug":"open-thread-2-15-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2019\/02\/15\/open-thread-2-15-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread &#8211; 2\/15\/2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">I slept poorly last night, so I feel very sleepy today.&nbsp; Lona has affected me with her keyboard gymnastics.&nbsp; TGIF!<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Jig Zone Puzzle<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Today&#8217;s took me 4:09 (average 4:57).&nbsp; To do it, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jigzone.com\/puzzles\/2019-02-15-CE2504A965A9\" target=\"_blank\">click here<\/a>.&nbsp; 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=Xky8v64Y9Oc\" target=\"_blank\">YouTube<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/msnbcleanforward\/videos\" target=\"_blank\">MSNBC Channel<\/a>): <\/font>Democrats Announce Plans For Early Debates In 2020 Campaign<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<iframe loading=\"lazy\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/Xky8v64Y9Oc\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"640\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe> <\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">After watching the ridiculous sham of the Republican debates in Campaign 2016, I wondered how Democrats would handle an even larger field. I like this plan. Being far more fair well help us <strong>RESIST<\/strong>!!<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/02\/15\/us\/politics\/national-emergency-trump.html\" target=\"_blank\">NY Times<\/a>: <\/font>President Trump declared a national emergency at the border on Friday to access billions of dollars to build a border wall that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/02\/15\/us\/politics\/border-wall-deal.html?module=inline\" target=\"_blank\">Congress refused to give him<\/a>, transforming a highly charged policy dispute into a fundamental confrontation over separation of powers.<\/p>\n<p>In a televised announcement in the Rose Garden, Mr. Trump said he would sign the declaration to protect the country from the flow of drugs, criminals and illegal immigrants coming across the border from Mexico, which he characterized as a profound threat to national security.  <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re going to confront the national security crisis on our southern border and we\u2019re going to do it one way or the other,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s an invasion,\u201d he added. \u201cWe have an invasion of drugs and criminals coming into our country.\u201d  <\/p>\n<p>The declaration will enable Mr. Trump to divert $3.6 billion budgeted for military construction projects to the border wall, White House officials said. Mr. Trump will also use more traditional presidential budgetary discretion to tap $2.5 billion from counternarcotics programs and $600 million from a Treasury Department asset forfeiture fund.  <\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">That&#8217;s a fake national emergency declared by a real national pariah. <strong>RESIST<\/strong>!!<\/font>  <\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/humor\/borowitz-report\/jeff-bezos-chooses-soon-to-be-bankrupt-mar-a-lago-as-new-amazon-headquarters\" target=\"_blank\">The New Yorker<\/a>: <\/font>Stating that he expected the property to be \u201cbankrupt and vacant within the next two years,\u201d Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, announced on Thursday that the Mar-a-Lago club, in Palm Beach, Florida, would be the site of Amazon\u2019s second headquarters.  <\/p>\n<p>Bezos said that Mar-a-Lago was chosen from a list of soon-to-be-bankrupt properties, including the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster, Trump Turnberry, and the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Baku, Azerbaijan.  <\/p>\n<p>The Amazon C.E.O. said that, after Amazon acquires Mar-a-Lago, the company will start working around the clock to remove the property\u2019s hideous d\u00e9cor, which he fears could prove distracting to warehouse employees.  <\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Wow Andy! What a great idea! <strong>RESIST<\/strong>!!<\/font>  <\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Cartoon<\/strong>:<\/font>  <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"0215Cartoon\" 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=\"0215Cartoon\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/0215Cartoon.jpg\" width=\"700\" height=\"500\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I slept poorly last night, so I feel very sleepy today.&nbsp; Lona has affected me with her keyboard gymnastics.&nbsp; TGIF! Jig Zone Puzzle: Today&#8217;s took me 4:09 (average 4:57).&nbsp; To do it, click here.&nbsp; How did you do? Short Takes: From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Democrats Announce Plans For Early Debates In 2020 Campaign &nbsp; After <a href='https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2019\/02\/15\/open-thread-2-15-2019\/' 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-35682","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\/35682","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=35682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35682\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}