{"id":15469,"date":"2015-06-20T13:16:36","date_gmt":"2015-06-20T20:16:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=15469"},"modified":"2015-06-20T13:16:37","modified_gmt":"2015-06-20T20:16:37","slug":"open-thread6202015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2015\/06\/20\/open-thread6202015\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread–6\/20\/2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I completed all the little tasks that I have been putting off and paid bills.  I also cleaned my email boxes, a herculean task in itself, as I typically receive over 300 items on any given day.  The plan for the weekend is to blog, relax and do some solar basking.  Maybe I\u2019ll even feel rested by Monday.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

Today\u2019s took me 2:12 (average 4:45).  To di it, click here<\/a>.  How did you do? <\/font><\/p>\n

Fantasy Football Recruiting<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n

We still need two new players for <\/font>Lefty Blog Friends<\/a><\/font>, our fantasy football league.  How about you?  For more information, <\/font>click here<\/a><\/font>.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

From The New Yorker<\/a>: <\/font>The Presidential candidate Donald Trump blasted Pope Francis on Friday, arguing that the Pontiff\u2019s recent call to save the planet had largely overshadowed his \u201cfar more reckless\u201d call to feed the poor.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, if the Pope wants to spout off about climate change, that\u2019s his prerogative, I guess,\u201d Trump said. \u201cBut when he starts talking about feeding the poor, that is totally dangerous and irresponsible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery other candidate is ripping the Pope\u2019s comments about climate change,\u201d he added. \u201cI\u2019m the only one in this race who seems to have noticed his truly crazy talk about feeding people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump said that, as President, it would be his job not to feed the poor \u201cbut to keep them from getting into the country in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to build a wall they\u2019re too hungry to climb,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Andy has found the place where Trump’s soul should be. But Republicans have ass-souls instead of souls.  Trump must think that Jesus fed 5,000 billionaires.<\/font><\/p>\n

From Daily Kos<\/a>: <\/font>On Wednesday night, nine African-Americans were gunned down<\/a> by a vile, racist killer<\/a> as they attended a Bible study class at Charleston’s historic Emanuel AME church. And now Charles Cotton, a "dedicated" board member of the NRA<\/a>\u2014perhaps tiring of his political soul mates’ attempts<\/a> to shift the blame from racism to religious intolerance for the mass murder\u2014decided to weigh in with his own explanation<\/a> of who was really to blame for this horrific act of domestic terrorism: One of the murder victims. In a discussion on TexasCHLforum, it is pointed out that one of the victims was State Senator Clementa Pinckney. Said<\/a> Cotton of the murdered public servant and pastor of the church:<\/p>\n

\n

And he voted against concealed-carry. Eight of his church members who might be alive if he had expressly allowed members to carry handguns in church are dead. Innocent people died because of his position on a political issue.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I think I’m going to puke.<\/font><\/p>\n

From Crooks and Liars<\/a>: <\/font>I’ll bet this is not that unusual. What’s unusual, I think, is that the student finally refused to comply:<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

A former Delaware State University volleyball player is now suing her old school for allegedly serving up religious discrimination.<\/p>\n

Natalia Mendieta claims she lost her athletic scholarship after she refused to attend church or participate in Bible studies – optional activities that were reportedly made mandatory by her coach.<\/p>\n

Had this been a religious institution or religious college, this would not be an issue. The focus of this lawsuit is on a taxpayer supported state university.<\/p>\n

The allegation is that a newly hired coach violated a student’s first amendment rights.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The coach should be immediately fired. However, I worry that, if she is, she might end up in Congress.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\"0620Cartoon\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I completed all the little tasks that I have been putting off and paid bills.  I also cleaned my email boxes, a herculean task in itself, as I typically receive over 300 items on any given day.  The plan for the weekend is to blog, relax and do some solar basking.  Maybe I\u2019ll even […]<\/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-15469","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\/15469","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=15469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15469\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}