{"id":18756,"date":"2016-01-03T08:27:30","date_gmt":"2016-01-03T16:27:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=18756"},"modified":"2016-01-03T08:27:30","modified_gmt":"2016-01-03T16:27:30","slug":"open-thread132016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2016\/01\/03\/open-thread132016\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread–1\/3\/2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here in Portland, we have a winter weather warning with snow forecast.  It\u2019s currently 27\u00b0, so it\u2019s a perfect day for worship at the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb and watching Viv kick my kitty butt at fantasy football.  I hope you are all enjoying the last day of your holiday weekend.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

Today\u2019s took me 3:10 (average 4:54).  To do it, click here<\/a>.  How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n

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

From Daily Kos<\/a> (classic: 11\/2015): <\/font>It’s as bad as many of us feared.  In spite of the "happy talk" of "oh, his son will be running it and he’s different," "Rupert wouldn’t destroy an asset like Nat Geo," etc., today the axe fell.<\/p>\n

\n

The memo went out, and November 3rd 2015 came to the National Geographic office. This was the day in which Rupert Murdoch\u2019s 21st Century Fox took over National Geographic. The management of National Geographic sent out an email telling its staff, all of its staff, all to report to their headquarters, and wait by their phones. This pulled back every person who was in the field, every photographer, every reporter, even those on vacation had to show up on this fateful day. <\/p>\n

As these phones rang, one by one National Geographic let go the award-winning staff, and the venerable institution was no more.<\/p>\n

The name now belongs to Rupert Murdoch, and he has plans for it. The CEO of National Geographic Society, Greg Knell, tried to claim back in September that \u201cthere won\u2019t be an [editorial] turn in a direction that is different from the National Geographic heritage.\u201d Murdoch\u2019s move today only served to prove Knell\u2019s words hollow, with hundreds of talented people now served their pink slips. And with the recognition that Murdoch\u2019s other enterprises do not reflect the standards held by National Geographic, and with Murdoch\u2019s history of changing the editorial direction of purchased properties, today\u2019s move indicates that we can expect a similar shift for National Geographic.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Another treasure has been trashed by Murdoch.<\/font><\/p>\n

From The New Yorker<\/a>: <\/font>Just minutes after the Somali-based Al Qaeda affiliate Shabaab group released a propaganda video featuring a clip of Donald Trump, the Republican Presidential front-runner boasted that the video would be the highest-rated terror video of all time.<\/p>\n

Within an hour of the video\u2019s appearance, Trump took to Twitter to crow about his role in the jihadist promo, and tweaked his G.O.P. rivals for failing to be chosen by Shabaab.<\/p>\n

Andy, it’s not just the Hairball of Hatred, The Republican Party has been the best recruiting tool that Al Qaeda and the Daesh have ever had.<\/font><\/p>\n

From NY Times<\/a>: <\/font>Senator Bernie Sanders\u2019s presidential campaign raised more than $33 million in the final three months of 2015, as his wide base of small-amount donors enabled him to come within $4 million of the amount raised by Hillary Clinton, his rival for the Democratic nomination, his campaign said Saturday.<\/p>\n

Mr. Sanders, a senator from Vermont, has now raised $73 million for his nomination fight, his aides said in a news release.<\/p>\n

The campaign said more than one million individual donors had made more than 2.5 million contributions, passing President Obama\u2019s previous record of about 2.2 million for the number of individual donations, which was set at the end of 2011.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis people-powered campaign is revolutionizing American politics,\u201d Jeff Weaver, Mr. Sanders\u2019s campaign manager, said in a news release accompanying the release of the figures.<\/p>\n

I’m quite surprised that Bernie’s mostly people fundraising is so close to Hillary’s mostly corporate fundraising. Sadly neither comes close to the secret support for the Clown Car from the 0.1% and giant corporations, both domestic and foreign.<\/font><\/p>\n

Cartoon<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n

\"0103Cartoon\"<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re forgotten, Mooseolini is aka Bloody Bullseye Barbie, Drill Baby Dingbat, and Tundra Twit (similar to Squatch\u2019s favorite).<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here in Portland, we have a winter weather warning with snow forecast.  It\u2019s currently 27\u00b0, so it\u2019s a perfect day for worship at the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb and watching Viv kick my kitty butt at fantasy football.  I hope you are all enjoying the last day of your holiday weekend. Jig Zone Puzzle: […]<\/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-18756","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\/18756","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=18756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18756\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}