{"id":15558,"date":"2015-07-05T12:49:37","date_gmt":"2015-07-05T19:49:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=15558"},"modified":"2015-07-05T12:49:37","modified_gmt":"2015-07-05T19:49:37","slug":"open-thread752015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/05\/open-thread752015\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread&ndash;7\/5\/2015"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">It\u2019s another sweltering day.&#160; Even in my apartment, the only way to stay cool is to sit directly in front of the A\/C.&#160; Only minor relief is in sight, and that, not until next weekend.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Jig Zone Puzzle<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Today\u2019s took me 4:10 (average 6:11).&#160; To do it, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jigzone.com\/puzzles\/2015-07-05-CE2504A965A9\" target=\"_blank\">click here<\/a>.&#160; How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Fantasy Football Recruiting<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">We still need one or two new players for <\/font><a href=\"http:\/\/lbf.league.fantasy.nfl.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Lefty Blog Friends<\/a><font color=\"#0000ff\"><\/font><font color=\"#0000ff\">, our fantasy football league.&#160; We\u2019re trying to get Viv in, but are not sure if it will support her smart phone.&#160; How about you?&#160; For more information, <\/font><a href=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/2015\/06\/10\/politics-plus-fantasy-football-2015\/\" target=\"_blank\">click here<\/a><font color=\"#0000ff\"><\/font><font color=\"#0000ff\">.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Short Takes<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2015\/07\/05\/us\/politics\/hillary-clinton-reassures-gay-youth-in-viral-facebook-photo.html?emc=edit_th_20150705&amp;nl=todaysheadlines&amp;nlid=31876173&amp;_r=0\" target=\"_blank\">NY Times<\/a>: <\/font>Mrs. Clinton has made support for gay people one of the cornerstones of her presidential campaign. Two days before the Supreme Court <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2015\/06\/27\/us\/supreme-court-same-sex-marriage.html\" target=\"_blank\">ruled last month<\/a> that same-sex marriage is a constitutional right, her campaign released a video that featured a montage of same-sex weddings.<\/p>\n<p>&#160;<iframe loading=\"lazy\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/g2Y9abmNuRw?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"640\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe> <\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">A lot of us, myself included, may not be altogether happy with Hillary, but just try to imagine this video coming from any of the hateful bigots in the Republican Clown Car.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"http:\/\/samuel-warde.com\/2015\/07\/george-takei-shreds-justice-thomas-calls-him-a-clown-in-blackface\/\" target=\"_blank\">Liberals Unite<\/a>: <\/font>Actor and social justice activiest George Takei slammed Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas during an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/FOX10Phoenix\/videos\/868880156493866\/\" target=\"_blank\">interview with Fox 10<\/a> this week in Phoenix.<\/p>\n<p>&#160;<iframe loading=\"lazy\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/SE8NXAMKfcM?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"640\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe> <\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">What else is there to say? Teabag Thomas should take Scalia with him!<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"http:\/\/robertreich.org\/post\/123138820185\" target=\"_blank\">Robert Reich<\/a>: <\/font>President Obama is said to be considering an <a href=\"http:\/\/thehill.com\/business-a-lobbying\/234437-obama-urged-to-impose-rules-on-campaign-spending-disclosure\" target=\"_blank\">executive order<\/a> requiring federal contractors to disclose their political spending. He should sign it immediately. <\/p>\n<p>But he should go further and ban all political spending by federal contractors that receive more than half their revenues from government.<\/p>\n<p>Ever since the Supreme Court\u2019s shameful Citizens United decision, big corporations have been funneling large amounts of cash into American politics, often secretly. <\/p>\n<p>Bad enough. But when big government contractors do the funneling, American taxpayers foot the bill twice over: We pay their lobbying and campaign expenses. And when those efforts nab another contract, we pay for stuff we often don\u2019t need.<\/p>\n<p>This is especially true for defense contractors \u2013 the biggest federal contractors of all. <\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Click through for more from the Reich on the left, as he demonstrates why the Republican Reich, the Reich on the right, is wrong.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Cartoon<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"0705Cartoon\" 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=\"0705Cartoon\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/0705Cartoon.jpg\" width=\"650\" height=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Happiness of Pursuit.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s another sweltering day.&#160; Even in my apartment, the only way to stay cool is to sit directly in front of the A\/C.&#160; Only minor relief is in sight, and that, not until next weekend. Jig Zone Puzzle: Today\u2019s took me 4:10 (average 6:11).&#160; To do it, click here.&#160; How did you do? Fantasy Football <a href='https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/05\/open-thread752015\/' 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-15558","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\/15558","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=15558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15558\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}