{"id":15839,"date":"2015-08-15T13:03:34","date_gmt":"2015-08-15T20:03:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=15839"},"modified":"2015-08-15T13:03:34","modified_gmt":"2015-08-15T20:03:34","slug":"open-thread8152015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/15\/open-thread8152015\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread&ndash;8\/15\/2015"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">The weekend has arrived. add with it, 80\u00b0s weather.&#160; I plan to spend as much of the day mapping as I can.&#160; I\u2019m still quite tired from staying up for religious services, as noted below.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Jig Zone Puzzle<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Today\u2019s took me 3:10 (average 5:27).&#160; To do it <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jigzone.com\/puzzles\/2015-08-15-CE2504A965A9\" target=\"_blank\">click here<\/a>.<\/font><font color=\"#0000ff\">&#160; How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Religious Ecstasy<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"0814Broncos22-Seachickens20\" 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=\"0814Broncos22-Seachickens20\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/0814Broncos22-Seachickens20.jpg\" width=\"700\" height=\"100\" \/><\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Seattle\u2019s special teams played such outstanding football that the made the score much closer than the game actually was.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Short Takes<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.upworthy.com\/how-an-artist-developed-an-unbelievable-tree-that-grows-40-varieties-of-fruit\" target=\"_blank\">Upworthy<\/a>: <\/font>The Tree of 40 Fruit is a living, breathing tasty work of art. And you can see it come to life in this short video by National Geographic: <\/p>\n<p>&#160;<iframe loading=\"lazy\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/ik3l4U_17bI?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"640\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe> <\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Dang! If I had a couple trees like that, maybe I could give up puzzles!!&#160; <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-smilewithtongueout\" style=\"border-top-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-left-style: none\" alt=\"Smile with tongue out\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/wlEmoticon-smilewithtongueout.png\" \/><\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailykos.com\/story\/2015\/08\/13\/1411882\/-Jeb-to-Defense-Contractor-Crowd-Iraq-War-was-a-Pretty-Good-Deal\" target=\"_blank\">Daily Kos<\/a>: <\/font>From First Look:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush said today that the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein was a \u201cpretty good deal.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Bush was speaking at an event sponsored by Americans for Peace, Prosperity and Security (APPS), a group formed and backed by a number of people associated with major defense contractors.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><font color=\"#ff0000\"><strong>Bush Bag Alert!!<\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/5Bcup8THLto?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"640\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Shouldn&#8217;t that group be renamed &quot;Americans for Conquest, Greed and Imperialism&quot;? Strike three fits right in with that crowd!<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2015\/08\/15\/opinion\/the-affluent-ante-up-for-the-presidency.html\" target=\"_blank\">NY Times<\/a>: <\/font>This is an alarming new direction in modern campaigning that arose along with the nation\u2019s growing income disparity and is empowered by shadowy new methods of raising unlimited, untraceable money from the richest donors.<\/p>\n<p>Hillary Rodham Clinton\u2019s formal campaign celebrates large-scale support from small-dollar donors, but her affiliated super PAC reported that most of its $15 million came from nine donors giving $1 million each. Some of the money, as is the case in rival campaigns, is untraceable because of another cynical innovation \u2014 \u201csocial welfare\u201d nonprofit groups. Fueled by the Supreme Court\u2019s reckless Citizens United decision in 2010, which ended limits on campaign spending by corporations and unions, spending by exempt organizations that do not have to disclose donors increased 60-fold to more than $300 million in the 2012 presidential cycle, according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.opensecrets.org\/outsidespending\/nonprof_summ.php\" target=\"_blank\">Center for Responsive Politics<\/a>. An even bigger infusion is expected in 2016.<\/p>\n<p>Mrs. Clinton has, to her credit, promised to make campaign reform one of her main priorities if she wins the White House and to stop \u201cthe endless flow of secret, unaccountable money.\u201d This is a crucial but increasingly tall order, as she and all the other candidates find their dependency on the richest Americans deepening with the election cycle.<\/p>\n<p>And Mrs. Clinton is not, by any means, the biggest offender in the campaign grabfest. The Times\u2019s survey showed that Republicans have been the main beneficiaries of the new platinum circle of givers.<\/p>\n<p>Jeb Bush has made an art of super PAC politicking, raising $103 million from a small group of super givers free to circumvent the formal campaign\u2019s far lower limits; 26 are in for more than $1 million each. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas has raised the most cash from the fewest donors: Just three families donated most of his $37 million in super PAC money. Of $16 million reported by the super PAC for Senator Marco Rubio, $12.5 million was from four donors, including a Florida billionaire and longtime political patron.<\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Although I support Bernie, I do not blame Hillary for her $15 million in billionaire bucks. SCROTUS set the rules, and unless she takes advantage, she has little chance to win, if nominated. I do expect that she will follow through on her promise. On the other hand, I expect Strike three to win the Republican nomination, because he is the most &quot;bought and paid for&quot; candidate in history.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Cartoon<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/0815Cartoon.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"0815Cartoon\" 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=\"0815Cartoon\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/0815Cartoon_thumb.jpg\" width=\"650\" height=\"350\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The weekend has arrived. add with it, 80\u00b0s weather.&#160; I plan to spend as much of the day mapping as I can.&#160; I\u2019m still quite tired from staying up for religious services, as noted below. Jig Zone Puzzle: Today\u2019s took me 3:10 (average 5:27).&#160; To do it click here.&#160; How did you do? Religious Ecstasy: <a href='https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/15\/open-thread8152015\/' 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":[35,3,141,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-open-thread","category-personal","category-plus","category-politics","category-35-id","category-3-id","category-141-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\/15839","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=15839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15839\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}