{"id":15684,"date":"2015-07-24T17:11:43","date_gmt":"2015-07-25T00:11:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=15684"},"modified":"2015-07-24T17:11:43","modified_gmt":"2015-07-25T00:11:43","slug":"open-thread7242015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/24\/open-thread7242015\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread–7\/24\/2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m getting started way late, because I went out to get my ears lowered, and had a meal and a much-needed car nap when I returned home.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

Today\u2019s took me 2:52 (average 4:29).  To do it, click here<\/a>.  How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n

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

Lefty Blog Friends, don\u2019t forget that our live online draft is tomorrow, Saturday, at 11 AM Pacific (12 Noon Mountain, 1 PM Central, 2 PM Eastern) Daylight Savings Time.  If you haven\u2019t already done so, I recommend participating in a mock draft or two between now and then.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

From Daily Kos<\/a>: <\/font>It’s amazing what garbage gets tossed into must-pass Congressional appropriation bills. Perhaps one of the most heinous in a long time was a land grab tucked inside last year’s National Defense Authorization Act at the last minute, when no one was looking.<\/p>\n

The Act included an eleventh-hour rider that would swap land between the National Forest Service and Resolution Copper Mining, a subsidiary of Anglo-Australian mining giants Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton. The deal would turn 5,300 acres of Resolution-owned land over to the US Forest Service, in exchange for about 2,400 acres of public land, including an area known as Oak Flat. No secret what Resolution plans to do with Oak Flat: dig 7,000 feet into the ground to get at one of the world’s largest copper deposits.<\/p>\n

Sounds like a good deal, huh? The Forest Service takes in twice the amount of land it gives up, and the company claims that its new mine will create 2,400-plus jobs and generate $61 billion in local and state economic activity and tax revenue. And the copper? Well everyone knows the world needs copper!…<\/p>\n

…But this isn’t just any area around Superior; this is Oak Flat, a stunning piece of land in the Tonto National Forest. It is a sacred holy place to the San Carlos Apache tribe, where tribe members have performed traditional acorn gatherings and coming of age ceremonies–mostly for girls–for generations. And there’s plenty of archaeological evidence to back this up. The land has been protected since 1955, when President Eisenhower decreed it closed to mining due to its cultural and natural value. Even Richard Nixon’s administration renewed the ban in 1971.<\/p>\n

Ah, but today’s Repugnicans feel no such need to preserve the sacred. Especially when both of Arizona’s Senators, John McCain and Jeff Flake, have been on the Rio Tinto dole.<\/p>\n

This would never have happened had the land been a memorial to a Nathan Bedford Forrest, or some other racist icon, sacred to Republicans.<\/font><\/p>\n

From MSNBC<\/a>: <\/font>In most states you can be fired for being gay<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rachel Maddow reports on a new effort to ban discrimination against gay people by amending the 1964 Civil Rights Act to include sexual orientation and gender identity, and notes that most people don’t realize that right doesn’t already exist.<\/p>\n