{"id":18654,"date":"2015-12-30T10:05:31","date_gmt":"2015-12-30T18:05:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=18654"},"modified":"2015-12-30T10:05:31","modified_gmt":"2015-12-30T18:05:31","slug":"open-thread12302015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/30\/open-thread12302015\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread&ndash;12\/30\/2015"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">I am completely swamped.&#160; Yesterday I had hour long visits from Home Health PT, OT, and RN, and a two hour visit from my PC repair guy.&#160; Today I have to schedule doctor visits.&#160; Tomorrow I have the bed rental company coming to take down the hospital bed I\u2019ve been renting before 2 PM, a grocery delivery coming before 2 PM, and the bed setup company coming to install my own hospital bed.&#160; Let\u2019s npt even talk about year end financial; record keeping and blog maintenance.&#160; I am comp[let5ely swamped.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Jig Zone Puzzle<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Today\u2019s took me 3:24 (average 4:51).&#160; To do it, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jigzone.com\/puzzles\/2015-12-30-CE2504A965A9\" target=\"_blank\">click here<\/a>.&#160; How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Religious Ecstasy<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/1228Broncos20-Bengals17.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"1228Broncos20-Bengals17\" 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=\"1228Broncos20-Bengals17\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/1228Broncos20-Bengals17_thumb.jpg\" width=\"700\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a><\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Fantasy Football Report<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Here\u2019s the playoff picture in our own fantasy football league.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"17Playoffrs\" 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=\"17Playoffrs\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/17Playoffrs.jpg\" width=\"700\" height=\"1200\" \/><\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Contrast to Patty Monster and Jack for making it to the championship game.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Short Takes<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailykos.com\/stories\/2015\/12\/27\/1464121\/-Watch-Bernie-Sanders-Nails-Clueless-Media-On-Their-Donald-Trump-Obsession\" target=\"_blank\">Daily Kos<\/a>: <\/font>In an interview with CNN&#8217;s Chris Cuomo, Bernie Sanders made some salient points with regard to the unprecedented amount of coverage that the media has given to Donald Trump since he announced his campaign for the GOP nomination for president.<\/p>\n<p>&#160;<iframe loading=\"lazy\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/tRc701Z8mGE?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"640\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe> <\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Bernie&#8217;s points are spot-on. It&#8217;s difficult to find stories that don&#8217;t involve the Hairball.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2015\/12\/30\/business\/economy\/for-the-wealthiest-private-tax-system-saves-them-billions.html\" target=\"_blank\">NY Times<\/a>: <\/font>The hedge fund magnates Daniel S. Loeb, Louis Moore Bacon and <a href=\"http:\/\/topics.nytimes.com\/top\/reference\/timestopics\/people\/c\/steven_a_cohen\/index.html?inline=nyt-per\" target=\"_blank\">Steven A. Cohen<\/a> have much in common. They have managed billions of dollars in capital, earning vast fortunes. They have invested large sums in art \u2014 and millions more in political candidates.<\/p>\n<p>Moreover, each has exploited an esoteric tax loophole that saved them millions in taxes. The trick? Route the money to Bermuda and back.<\/p>\n<p>With inequality at its highest levels in nearly a century and public debate rising over whether the government should respond to it through higher taxes on the wealthy, the very richest Americans have financed a sophisticated and astonishingly effective apparatus for shielding their fortunes. Some call it the \u201cincome defense industry,\u201d consisting of a high-priced phalanx of lawyers, estate planners, lobbyists and anti-tax activists who exploit and defend a dizzying array of tax maneuvers, virtually none of them available to taxpayers of more modest means.<\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">When Republicans lie that Democrats want to raise YOUR taxes, they are assuming that YOU are a member of the 0.1%.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.alternet.org\/education\/5-worst-examples-biased-and-distorted-media-coverage-education-2015\" target=\"_blank\">Alternet<\/a>: <\/font><strong>Campbell Brown Hired Transphobic, Sexist, Racially Insensitive Writer To &quot;Fact-Check&quot; Education Policy Reporting<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This summer, teachers union opponent and former journalist Campbell Brown <a href=\"http:\/\/mediamatters.org\/research\/2015\/10\/30\/campbell-browns-non-partisan-news-site-hires-co\/206527\">launched<\/a> a &quot;non-profit, non-partisan news site about education,&quot; called The Seventy Four. In spite of the site&#8217;s stated mission [<em>Republican propaganda delinked<\/em>] to combat &quot;misinformation and political spin&quot; with &quot;investigation, expertise, and experience,&quot; Brown hired Eric Owens, [Republican propaganda delinked] who has a long history of attacks on students and teachers, to write for the site. Owens has a long history of attacking and mocking teachers and students with transphobic [<em>Republican propaganda delinked<\/em>], sexist [<em>Republican propaganda delinked<\/em>], victim-blaming [<em>Republican propaganda delinked<\/em>], and racially insensitive [<em>Republican propaganda delinked<\/em>]&#160; rhetoric as the education editor at the Daily Caller.<\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">This is just the fifth of five worst Republican media stories about education. Click through doe the other four.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Cartoon<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"1230Cartoon\" 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=\"1230Cartoon\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/1230Cartoon.jpg\" width=\"650\" height=\"350\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I am completely swamped.&#160; Yesterday I had hour long visits from Home Health PT, OT, and RN, and a two hour visit from my PC repair guy.&#160; Today I have to schedule doctor visits.&#160; Tomorrow I have the bed rental company coming to take down the hospital bed I\u2019ve been renting before 2 PM, a <a href='https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/30\/open-thread12302015\/' 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-18654","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\/18654","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=18654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18654\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}