{"id":35787,"date":"2019-02-26T09:54:12","date_gmt":"2019-02-26T17:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=35787"},"modified":"2019-02-26T09:54:12","modified_gmt":"2019-02-26T17:54:12","slug":"open-thread-2-26-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2019\/02\/26\/open-thread-2-26-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread &#8211; 2\/26\/2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">It&#8217;s a very cold day here in the CatBox, and it will likely stay that way, at least through the weekend.&nbsp; It&#8217;s almost 20\u00b0 below average.&nbsp; I want to crawl under my covers and hunker down.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Jig Zone Puzzle<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Today&#8217;s took me 3:45 (average 5:25).&nbsp; To do it, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jigzone.com\/puzzles\/2019-02-26-CE2504A965A9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">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=M-j741MwVTA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">YouTube<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCuDv5p8E-evaRSh542hDV5g\/videos\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Robert Reich Channel<\/a>): <\/font>Robert Reich: A Bold New Idea to Boost Wages<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<iframe loading=\"lazy\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/M-j741MwVTA\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"640\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe> <\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">The Reich on the left, Robert Reich, is right, but one more provision is needed to benefit the disabled\/retired poor: an Unearned Income Tax Credit. No American should have to live in poverty, when billionaires get welfare. <strong>RESIST<\/strong>!!<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=KrMA9Rnmx1w\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">YouTube<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/msnbcleanforward\/videos\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">MSNBC Channel<\/a>): <\/font><font color=\"#000000\">Elizabeth Warren Talks 2020 Campaign With Chris Hayes<\/font><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<iframe loading=\"lazy\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/KrMA9Rnmx1w\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"640\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe> <\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">I touched on this yesterday, but she explains it far better than I could have. Anti-corruption would be a great place to start. <strong>RESIST<\/strong>!!<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailykos.com\/stories\/2019\/2\/25\/1837456\/-Trump-s-attorney-general-wants-god-s-moral-order-enforced-by-government\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Daily Kos<\/a>: <\/font>\u2026J. Beauregard Sessions was a legitimate threat to America\u2019s secular government as Trump\u2019s attorney general, but his theocratic aspirations paled in comparison to Trump\u2019s latest theocratic cabinet member \u2013 a conservative Catholic malcontent who is unlikely to ever defend the U.S. Constitution because it is a secular document. It is noteworthy that Sessions only stated that, according to his mind, the separation of church and state in the Constitution is a concept that is unconstitutional. However, his replacement ardently believes that America\u2019s government is duty-bound to enforce god\u2019s laws because there is no place for secularism. <\/p>\n<p>In a 1995 essay, Barr <a href=\"https:\/\/scholarship.law.stjohns.edu\/cgi\/viewcontent.cgi?article=2355&amp;context=tcl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">expressed<\/a> the extremist Christian view that \u201cAmerican government should not be secular;\u201d secularism is an abomination in Barr\u2019s theocratic mind despite the law of the land is unmistakably secular. Furthermore, Barr contends America\u2019s government is supposed to be imposing \u201ca transcendent moral order with objective standards of right and wrong that flows from God\u2019s eternal law;\u201d eternal law best dictated by the Vatican and taught in public schools at taxpayer\u2019s expense.  <\/p>\n<p>It is true that as attorney general William Barr will defend Trump\u2019s criminality and corruption; it is one of the only reasons Trump nominated him. However, the real danger to the nation is Barr\u2019s belief that the government\u2019s primary function should be defending and enforcing his god\u2019s moral edicts while ardently opposing any legislative branch effort to make secular laws according to the secular Constitution\u2026  <\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Beware the evil of Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians, like Barr and Pence. They are the exact opposite of real Christians. <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\/2018\/02\/0226Cartoon.jpg\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s a very cold day here in the CatBox, and it will likely stay that way, at least through the weekend.&nbsp; It&#8217;s almost 20\u00b0 below average.&nbsp; I want to crawl under my covers and hunker down. Jig Zone Puzzle: Today&#8217;s took me 3:45 (average 5:25).&nbsp; To do it, click here.&nbsp; How did you do? Short <a href='https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2019\/02\/26\/open-thread-2-26-2019\/' 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":[35,3,5,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-open-thread","category-personal","category-politics","category-religion","category-35-id","category-3-id","category-5-id","category-47-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35787","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=35787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35787\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}