{"id":15158,"date":"2015-05-02T13:26:47","date_gmt":"2015-05-02T20:26:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=15158"},"modified":"2015-05-02T13:26:47","modified_gmt":"2015-05-02T20:26:47","slug":"open-thread522015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/02\/open-thread522015\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread&ndash;5\/2\/2015"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">It\u2019s afternoon and writing today\u2019s Monthly Report has occupied most of the day.&#160; So please color me in rush mode..<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Jig Zone Puzzle<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Today\u2019s took me 3:16 (average 5:01).&#160; To do it, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jigzone.com\/puzzles\/2015-05-02-CE2504A965A9\" target=\"_blank\">click here<\/a>.&#160; 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=sVdCmAzSKK0&amp;feature=youtu.be\" target=\"_blank\">YouTube<\/a>: <\/font>Sen. Merkley: We Shouldn\u2019t Have to Choose Between Two Budgets for the Best Off <\/p>\n<p>&#160;<iframe loading=\"lazy\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/sVdCmAzSKK0?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"640\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Oregon&#8217;s Jeff Merkley still leads the way.<\/font><\/p>\n<p>From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.upworthy.com\/john-oliver-digs-into-the-low-cost-child-labor-hypocrisy-in-the-fashion-industry\" target=\"_blank\">Upworthy<\/a>: On the latest episode of &quot;Last Week Tonight,&quot; John Oliver takes a look at the fashion industry&#8217;s repeated promises to stop using child labor.<\/p>\n<p>&#160;<iframe loading=\"lazy\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/VdLf4fihP78?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"640\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe> <\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">In my opinion, all clothing made using child labor should be seized at the border and burned. All Republicans who help the corporate criminals gut the regulations should be seized at the ballot box and unemployed.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2015\/05\/02\/opinion\/governor-christies-people.html\" target=\"_blank\">NY Times<\/a>: <\/font>No matter how Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey spins the George Washington Bridge scandal as he eyes a run for president, one thing should be clear: These are his people, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2015\/05\/02\/nyregion\/christie-ally-expected-to-plead-guilty-in-george-washington-bridge-lane-closing-case.html\" target=\"_blank\">charged with a conspiracy<\/a> to exact revenge against a local mayor by closing lanes to one of the world\u2019s busiest bridges.<\/p>\n<p>David Wildstein, a Christie associate who once held a top job at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges related to the incident. Two others indicted on Friday for allegedly participating in the scheme were also members of Mr. Christie\u2019s inner circle.<\/p>\n<p>Their behavior shows Mr. Christie\u2019s inability to choose employees, to manage them and, most important, to keep them from abusing their power. His failure to do so created a culture that allowed his underlings to bully the mayor of Fort Lee, Mark Sokolich, by creating a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2015\/05\/02\/nyregion\/george-washington-bridge-scandal-what-you-need-to-know.html\" target=\"_blank\">monster traffic jam<\/a> in 2013 and then lying about it.<\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">I still hope that, after formal indictments are handed down, and the real plea bargaining starts, PIGnocchio will be spitted and served with an apple in his mouth.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Cartoon<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"0502Cartoon\" 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=\"0502Cartoon\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/0502Cartoon.jpg\" width=\"650\" height=\"350\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s afternoon and writing today\u2019s Monthly Report has occupied most of the day.&#160; So please color me in rush mode.. Jig Zone Puzzle: Today\u2019s took me 3:16 (average 5:01).&#160; To do it, click here.&#160; How did you do? Short Takes: From YouTube: Sen. Merkley: We Shouldn\u2019t Have to Choose Between Two Budgets for the Best <a href='https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/02\/open-thread522015\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/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-15158","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\/15158","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=15158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15158\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}