{"id":15858,"date":"2015-08-17T14:28:55","date_gmt":"2015-08-17T21:28:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=15858"},"modified":"2015-08-17T14:28:55","modified_gmt":"2015-08-17T21:28:55","slug":"open-thread8172015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/17\/open-thread8172015\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread–8\/17\/2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s official.  The NWS has issued an excessive heat warning for Portland through Wednesday evening.  It\u2019s a good thing I rescheduled those medical appointment, because I accidentally avoided the surprise heat wave.  On the other hand, I\u2019m sure I rescheduled them to coincide with the next surprise heat wave.  ARGH!! I slept most of the evening, so I was up moist of the night.  I\u2019ll need to hunker down under the A\/C soon, but I have a ton of volunteer work to get done.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

Today\u2019s took me 2:20 (average 4:40).  To do it. click here<\/a>.  How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n

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

From Daily Kos<\/a>: <\/font>Living with a cat for the first time, you quickly pick up on its behavioral quirks, many of which are common among other cats. What you soon find out is that cats aren’t Republican. Here are 12 reasons why not: <\/p>\n

1. Cats are curious about what you do in your bedroom, but they don’t try to legislate away your freedom to do it.<\/p>\n

2. Cats may take away your cushion, but they’ll give it back to you with a gentle push.<\/p>\n

3. Cats give you attention and sympathy when you’re sick.<\/p>\n

4. Females are treated with importance in the cat world.<\/p>\n

5. Cats make use of solar power, often all day long.<\/p>\n

6. Cats lick their own problems and take care of other cats too.<\/p>\n

What purrrrfect logic! I shared six reasons. Click through for the other six. \"Cat<\/font><\/p>\n

From TPM<\/a>: <\/font>As we move closer to next month’s vote on the Iran nuclear deal, I wanted to note some parts of the story that are not getting sufficient attention in the mainstream press. Even in Israel, where the the P5+1 deal is quite unpopular, there is increasing concern<\/a>, at least among elites, at just how far Benjamin Netanyahu is willing to go<\/a> in damaging US-Israel ties in his war against the Obama administration over the Iran deal. As JJ Goldberg aptly puts it<\/a>, the campaign of incitement and maliciously phony charges of anti-Semitism against the White House are "effectively turning American Jews into Netanyahu’s cannon fodder" in war against Obama. <\/p>\n

Too true.<\/p>\n

As Goldberg notes, charges that the President is a crypto-Muslim or an anti-Semite have remained until now at the very fringes of American political discourse. But as the anti-deal forces have struggled to make their case on the merits, they have now resorted to pulling the anti-Semitism canard deep into the mainstream, with almost comically tendentious claims that the President is "dog whistling" or Jew-baiting in his campaign to win support for the deal in Congress. <\/p>\n

The big irony here is that the same Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians, who are screaming anti-Semitism loudest, are campaigning to bring about the "end times". They preach that 144,000 Jewish witnesses, 12,000 from each tribe, will be saved. Other that those, they preach that all Jews, everywhere, that had not converted to follow Republican Supply-side Jesus, prior to the big-poof, will become crispy critters!  It speaks volumes that \u201cButcher Bibi\u201d (R-IS) is willing to ally himself with these Dominionist Republican hypocrites.<\/font><\/p>\n

From Crooks ands Liars<\/a>: <\/font>[Jeb Bush keeps forgetting] That outside the wingnut bubble (and outside the Beltway Media bubble that enfolds it) not everyone has agreed to go along with the fairy tale that history began on January 20, 2009. <\/p>\n