{"id":14560,"date":"2015-01-22T00:00:50","date_gmt":"2015-01-22T08:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=14560"},"modified":"2015-01-22T00:00:50","modified_gmt":"2015-01-22T08:00:50","slug":"open-thread1222014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2015\/01\/22\/open-thread1222014\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread–1\/22\/2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m writing for tomorrow, day 78.  I\u2019m waiting for Store to Door to deliver my groceries and listening to Republicans bluster and whine about yesterday\u2019s SOTU address.  Tomorrow is a prison volunteer day.  I will write before I leave to upload after I return, if there is time.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

Today\u2019s took me 3:03 (average 5:07).  To do it, click here<\/a>.  How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n

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

From The New Yorker<\/a>: <\/font>President Obama is courting controversy with his decision to address a group that has become dominated in recent years by extremists.<\/p>\n

Some have questioned the appropriateness of the President speaking to such an extremist group, especially because in the past it has issued threats against the United States government.<\/p>\n

As recently as 2013, for example, the extremists threatened to shut down the entire federal government if their demands were not met.<\/p>\n

Andy does raise a valid point. Should Obama be criticized for negotiating with these terrorists?<\/font><\/p>\n

From Daily Kos<\/a>: <\/font>Recently, I was sitting at my computer, typing away, when I heard the door opening and closing in the next room. It was around lunchtime, so I figured it was my brother (he came home for lunch, once in awhile). I turned toward the doorway, and was stunned to see a uniformed Pennsylvania state trooper striding into the room.<\/p>\n

He began peppering me with questions, asking if I lived there, for example, and for me to identify myself. Of course I did (because I did not really want to die or anything like that, the guy was packing a gun, you know?) I was brought up to fear the police; I was taught at an early age that the state police force was originally formed to break the unions, by any means necessary. Also, I knew a lot of people who had been hassled by the cops. My parents had the talk with me (no, not that one, the one about how to survive an encounter with the police). Yeah, poor white boys get that talk too. Yes, I know that racism is a much bigger factor than classism, but that does not matter when a cop is in your house.<\/p>\n

After I answered every question he had, I did venture a very polite question, basically, why are you here and why didn’t you knock? The police officer then informed me that he had probable cause to enter my house, because I had posted a "No Trespassing" sign.<\/p>\n

In a Republican Reich, scenes like this become daily events.<\/font><\/p>\n

From NY Times<\/a>: <\/font>…Perhaps no organization commands more deference in Republican politics nowadays than the sprawling operation established by the Koch brothers. And this week, the intense competition among Republicans for their embrace and attention will break out into the open. An invitation-only group of 2016 hopefuls will travel to a resort near Palm Springs, Calif., for the Koch brothers\u2019 annual winter seminar, kicking off the so-called Koch primary.<\/p>\n

Its that time again. Will Scalia and Thomas be in attendance again? And which Republican will prove best at sucking \u2026 nevermind<\/em>.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\"0122Cartoon\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m writing for tomorrow, day 78.  I\u2019m waiting for Store to Door to deliver my groceries and listening to Republicans bluster and whine about yesterday\u2019s SOTU address.  Tomorrow is a prison volunteer day.  I will write before I leave to upload after I return, if there is time. Jig Zone Puzzle: Today\u2019s took me 3:03 […]<\/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-14560","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\/14560","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=14560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14560\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}