{"id":10708,"date":"2013-07-26T00:55:02","date_gmt":"2013-07-26T07:55:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=10708"},"modified":"2013-07-26T00:55:03","modified_gmt":"2013-07-26T07:55:03","slug":"open-thread7262013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/26\/open-thread7262013\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread–7\/26\/2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m writing for day 42, before leaving for my volunteer day in prison.  This will be today\u2019s only article, as I don\u2019t have time for more.  The big down side is that my apartment will be closed up with me gone, so I\u2019ll return to a tinder box, but I\u2019m very excited about seeing my guys.<\/font><\/p>\n

Later\u2026 the volunteer day was great, but the prison was hot, and I\u2019m exhausted.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

Today\u2019s took me 4:25 (average 5:02).  To do it, click here<\/a>.  How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n

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

From Facebook<\/a> (H\/T Daily Kos): <\/font>Can you believe a republican said this? This is the most viral meme on Facebook this week.<\/p>\n

\"26Ike\"<\/p>\n

Back then, some things some Republicans said made sense. No more.<\/font><\/p>\n

From Media Matters<\/a>: <\/font>Fox News is floating the idea that Detroit’s filing for bankruptcy could lead to other cities following suit, a claim that economist Jared Bernstein calls "analytically incorrect."<\/p>\n

On July 18, the city of Detroit filed<\/a> for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection, officially becoming the largest city<\/a> in the United States to do so. According to USA Today<\/a>, "The bankruptcy petition would seek protection from creditors and unions who are renegotiating $18.5 billion in debt and other liabilities."<\/p>\n

On the July 19 edition of Fox & Friends, Fox Business host Stuart Varney warned that Detroit’s actions could cause a string of cities throughout the U.S. to also seek bankruptcy protection.<\/p>\n

Just like I said, this is the Republican plan for YOUR community, wherever you are, and the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise<\/em>, is issuing their clarion call!<\/font><\/p>\n

From NY Times<\/a>: \u2026<\/font>If positions on foreign policy and specifically the Iraq war marked the dividing line in the Democrats\u2019 last fierce internal debate, issues related to banks, entitlements and the rights of consumers broadly could shape the party\u2019s next search for an identity. <\/p>\n

Liberals, pointing to a bankrupt Detroit and new reports of diminished class mobility, believe the plight of lower-income and young Americans is so severe that the party must shift away from the center-left consensus that has shaped its fiscal politics since Bill Clinton\u2019s 1992 election and push more aggressively to reduce income disparity. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe sooner we get back to a good, progressive, populist message, the better off we\u2019re going to be as Democrats,\u201d said Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa.<\/p>\n

The author claims that some Democrats are trying to move the party away from the center in this fashion. I disagree. Before the party can move away from the center, as it should, it must first move far enough left to reach the center, and then continue left.<\/font><\/p>\n

Cartoon<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n

\"26Cartoon\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m writing for day 42, before leaving for my volunteer day in prison.  This will be today\u2019s only article, as I don\u2019t have time for more.  The big down side is that my apartment will be closed up with me gone, so I\u2019ll return to a tinder box, but I\u2019m very excited about seeing my […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10708","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\/10708","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=10708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10708\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}