{"id":18672,"date":"2015-12-31T11:04:11","date_gmt":"2015-12-31T19:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=18672"},"modified":"2015-12-31T11:04:11","modified_gmt":"2015-12-31T19:04:11","slug":"open-thread12312015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/31\/open-thread12312015\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread&ndash;12\/31\/2015"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Today is the last day, before I start mistyping dates again.&#160; I\u2019m waiting for the grocery store to deliver in the next 3.5 hours.&#160; The rental bed company should be here between Noon and 1:00 PM.&#160; The company delivering my own hospital bed should be here shortly after 2:00 PM.&#160; This is today\u2019s only article, mostly because I\u2019m busier than a Republican stealing poor children\u2019s food.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Jig Zone Puzzle<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Today\u2019s took me 3:15 (average 5:31).&#160; To do it, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jigzone.com\/puzzles\/2015-12-31-CE2504A965A9\" target=\"_blank\">click here<\/a>.&#160; How did you do?<\/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\/a-powerful-360-immersive-video-tour-of-alaskas-gorgeous-melting-glaciers-narrated-by-jared-leto\" target=\"_blank\">Upworthy<\/a>: <\/font>This <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=XtbgPurqkUc&amp;feature=youtu.be\" target=\"_blank\">short interactive film<\/a>, titled &quot;Act in Paris,&quot; immerses the viewer in a 360\u00b0 tour of Alaska&#8217;s gorgeous melting glaciers.<\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t worry \u2014 you don&#8217;t need one of those big clunky virtual reality helmets or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/get\/cardboard\/\" target=\"_blank\">Google Cardboard<\/a> or any other extra-fancy tech to enjoy the experience. <\/p>\n<p>As with all <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCzuqhhs6NWbgTzMuM09WKDQ\" target=\"_blank\">YouTube 360<\/a> videos, you can use the directional buttons on the screen or the arrow keys on your keyboard to guide your way around the glacier while you listen to the mellow tone of Leto&#8217;s voice. <\/p>\n<p>&#160;<iframe loading=\"lazy\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/XtbgPurqkUc?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"640\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe> <\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">While outdated, this presentation was too powerful not to share.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailykos.com\/stories\/2015\/10\/9\/1430282\/--Green-President-Carter-Put-Solar-Panels-On-The-White-House-Green-With-Envy-Reagan-Removed-Them\" target=\"_blank\">Daily Kos<\/a>: <\/font>On June 20, 1979, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Solar_panel\" target=\"_blank\">solar panels<\/a> were installed on the roof of the White House. It was the first time any president had done so, back when <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Solar_energy\" target=\"_blank\">solar energy<\/a> was just a concept. John Wihbey with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.yaleclimateconnections.org\/2008\/11\/jimmy-carters-solar-panels\/\" target=\"_blank\">Yale&#8217;s Climate Connections<\/a> writes:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&quot;For President Jimmy Carter, it had been nearly three years of tough fighting for clean energy. After a long rollout of green tax credits, the creation of a nascent Energy Department, and a pledge to conduct the \u201cmoral equivalent of war\u201d (at the time, spoofed by critics as \u201cMEOW\u201d) against an energy crisis, Carter had built up scars. And there would be more to come. He had had battles with Congress and with his political enemies over green issues. But he had some victories, too, and this day brought one more, a small moment of symbolism.&quot;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>According to President Carter, the solar energy had, <strong>\u201cthe power of the sun to enrich our lives as we move away from our crippling dependence on foreign oil<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">And who took them down? It was Saint Ronnie Ray Gun!!<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.alternet.org\/news-amp-politics\/groundbreaking-expose-shows-pentagon-thwarting-obamas-bid-transfer-guantanamo\" target=\"_blank\">Alternet<\/a>: <\/font>In the nearly seven years since President Obama ordered Guant\u00e1namo\u2019s closure, Republicans have blocked him at every turn. Now a new report sheds light on another obstacle in Obama\u2019s way: his own Pentagon. According to Reuters, military brass have imposed bureaucratic hurdles to keep prisoners locked up and prevent foreign governments from taking them in. Scores of prisoners cleared for release have remained imprisoned for years as a result. We are joined by two guests: Charles Levinson, the Reuters reporter who broke this story, and Omar Farah, the lawyer for a Yemeni prisoner who was cleared for release five years ago but remains behind bars due to Pentagon interference.<\/p>\n<p>&#160;<iframe loading=\"lazy\" height=\"360\" src=\"http:\/\/www.democracynow.org\/embed\/story\/2015\/12\/30\/groundbreaking_expose_shows_pentagon_thwarting_obamas\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"640\" allowfullscreen=\"true\"><\/iframe> <\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Haven&#8217;t lefties been blaming Obama for this for too long?<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Cartoon<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"1231Cartoon\" 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=\"1231Cartoon\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/1231Cartoon.jpg\" width=\"650\" height=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today is the last day, before I start mistyping dates again.&#160; I\u2019m waiting for the grocery store to deliver in the next 3.5 hours.&#160; The rental bed company should be here between Noon and 1:00 PM.&#160; The company delivering my own hospital bed should be here shortly after 2:00 PM.&#160; This is today\u2019s only article, <a href='https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/31\/open-thread12312015\/' 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-18672","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\/18672","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=18672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18672\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}