{"id":45634,"date":"2021-10-29T07:02:51","date_gmt":"2021-10-29T14:02:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=45634"},"modified":"2021-10-28T19:07:05","modified_gmt":"2021-10-29T02:07:05","slug":"open-thread-for-october-29-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2021\/10\/29\/open-thread-for-october-29-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread for October 29, 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday, I finished a couple more cartoons for November. I admit they all look alike &#8230; but mostly there are others separating them which don&#8217;t. I looked at the weather and the almanac and learned I can get away with staying the full visitation time, but may have to pull off the road a bit at one point to adjust my visor. (The next visit will be on Standard time, and I will have to watch the almanac very carefully inded to know how early I need to leave. Staying over is becoming too much for me, especially since doing so no longer gives me an extra day to visit.)\u00a0 I have ordered a visor clip, but I won&#8217;t have it for tomorrow, and may not have it for the next visit either.<\/p>\n<p>Cartoon &#8211;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11516\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/29Cartoon.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"650\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/29Cartoon.jpg 650w, https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/29Cartoon-300x161.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Short Takes &#8211;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wonkette.com\/tn-state-senator-indicted-for-hilarious-campaign-finance-hijinks\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Wonkette &#8211; TN State Senator Indicted For Hilarious Campaign Finance Hijinks<\/a><br \/>\nQuote &#8211; Naturally, the &#8220;social club&#8221; run by Defendant Smith has a PAC, as all your better single-outlet eating establishments do. (LOL, wut?) And according to the indictment, the defendants used this PAC to move $106,000 from Kelsey&#8217;s state campaign coffers to support his 2016 run for the US House \u2014 an illegal use of so called &#8220;soft money&#8221; because the state campaign donations are not subject to federal campaign finance limits. So to disguise the transfer, these two geniuses moved the cash from Kelsey&#8217;s state campaign to the &#8220;social club&#8221; PAC, and thence on through one more PAC until it wound up at the American Conservative Union, which immediately dropped $80,000 on radio ads endorsing Kelsey&#8217;s federal campaign.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wonkette.com\/tn-state-senator-indicted-for-hilarious-campaign-finance-hijinks\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Click through for full description<\/a> of indictment (plus a link to the real thing.) Enjoy this story. The next two are scary.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.motherjones.com\/politics\/2021\/10\/oath-keepers-why-join\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mother Jones &#8211; How Do People Join Militias? A Leaked Oath Keepers Roster Has Answers.<\/a><br \/>\nQuote &#8211; Some of the explanations offered in the database are absurd: \u201cOld man in Jarome, AZ at a little bar rocking some reggae,\u201d reads one. Others are concerning: \u201cAn ICE agent,\u201d another says. Some are both: \u201cFunny story, I stopped a speeding truck driver, who had your decal on the side of his truck, I asked about it, he went on and on, I said, Damn I\u2019m all about this. looked up online and here I am. I\u2019m a poor broke cop. But, I\u2019m TRUE BLUE\/ AMERICAN,\u201d reads an accounting from an Illinois-based police officer.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.motherjones.com\/politics\/2021\/10\/oath-keepers-why-join\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Click through for story.<\/a> How can a nation protect itself against this?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.propublica.org\/article\/a-union-scandal-landed-hundreds-of-nypd-officers-on-a-secret-watchlist-that-hasnt-stopped-some-from-jeopardizing-cases\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Pro Publica &#8211; A Union Scandal Landed Hundreds of NYPD Officers on a Secret Watchlist. That Hasn\u2019t Stopped Some From Jeopardizing Cases.<\/a><br \/>\nQuote &#8211; The list was created a decade ago amid a sprawling investigation into the city\u2019s biggest police union and its role in helping officers \u201cfix\u201d tickets issued to family and friends for speeding, illegal parking and other traffic offenses. It grew to 664 names and was intended to help prosecutors vet cases that might rest too heavily on officers whose ties to the scandal could raise questions about their conduct and credibility. Ten years after it was first created, the No Fly List itself remains secret by judicial seal.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.propublica.org\/article\/a-union-scandal-landed-hundreds-of-nypd-officers-on-a-secret-watchlist-that-hasnt-stopped-some-from-jeopardizing-cases\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Click Through for discouraging details<\/a> The Department has roughly 36,000 officers, and the list has 664. That doesn&#8217;t sound like a lot &#8230; but it&#8217;s still way too many. ONE would be too many.<\/p>\n<p>Food for Thought &#8211;<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/2qibqm39xjt6q46gf1rwo2g1-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/26757270_web1_M-1010-facebook-matson2-EDH-211007-1024x717.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-43898\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Steal.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"558\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Steal.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Steal-300x209.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Steal-150x105.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Steal-768x536.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday, I finished a couple more cartoons for November. I admit they all look alike &#8230; but mostly there are others separating them which don&#8217;t. I looked at the weather and the almanac and learned I can get away with staying the full visitation time, but may have to pull off the road a bit <a href='https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2021\/10\/29\/open-thread-for-october-29-2021\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":43905,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,3,5],"tags":[3704,3761,4694,3711,3751,3717,4115,4693,4153,4334,4552],"class_list":["post-45634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-open-thread","category-personal","category-politics","tag-cartoon","tag-corruption","tag-false-convictions","tag-gop-crimes","tag-gop-insanity","tag-gop-violence","tag-justice","tag-militias","tag-police-unions","tag-policing","tag-transparency","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\/45634","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\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}