{"id":19003,"date":"2016-01-13T10:43:19","date_gmt":"2016-01-13T18:43:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=19003"},"modified":"2016-01-13T10:43:19","modified_gmt":"2016-01-13T18:43:19","slug":"open-thread1132016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2016\/01\/13\/open-thread1132016\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread–1\/13\/2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday was busy.  I worked with PT.  I ordered groceries.  I scheduled two medical appointments.  My bath aid is ill, and she did not come yesterday, so I had a substitute bath-aide today.  She just left.  My fur is soft, and I smell kitty clean, not like a mangy dawg<\/em>.  Today is a grocery delivery day.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

Today\u2019s took me 4:11 (average 5:18).  To do it, click here<\/a>.  How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n

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

From The New Yorker<\/a>: <\/font>Looking ahead to his final State of the Union address, Barack Obama told NBC\u2019s Matt Lauer that he was \u201ccelebrating, just celebrating the last time I ever have to talk to these bastards.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be going over some of the accomplishments of the past seven years and outlining some of the challenges for our nation that remain ahead,\u201d the President said, in an interview taped for NBC\u2019s \u201cToday\u201d show. \u201cBut inside, I\u2019ll be like, \u2018Good Lord, I never have to so much as look at these horrible people again.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

Asked which member of Congress he would most enjoy never looking at again, Obama responded, \u201cThat\u2019s tough. It\u2019s a toss-up between Ted Cruz and Mitch McConnell. But the beautiful thing is, I don\u2019t have to choose, Matt. After tonight, I don\u2019t have to look at either of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

If ever Andy reported straight news, this is it.<\/font><\/p>\n

From NY Times<\/a>: <\/font>As the first nominating contest approaches, Hillary Clinton\u2019s commanding lead nationally in the Democratic primary has largely melted away, according to the latest New York Times\/CBS News Poll.<\/p>\n

The tightened race between Mrs. Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont is revealing a sharp generational divide within the Democratic Party, with primary voters under 45 favoring Mr. Sanders by a roughly 2-to-1 ratio.<\/p>\n

Go Bernie, Go!<\/font><\/p>\n

From Crooks and Liars<\/a><\/font>: <\/font>With the Iowa caucuses less than three weeks away and the New Hampshire primary hard on its heels, there is an essential truth in politics today that transcends all others: The Republican Party has finally screwed the pooch and is on a collision course with electoral Armageddon. <\/p>\n

This has become such common knowledge — The New York Times climbed on board recently with a thumbsucker reading like the plot outline of Titanic — that the problem for pundits like myself in describing the party’s self-immolation is to somehow sound new and different. And wonder all the while why the heck the party is unable to do anything beyond rearranging deck chairs as it steams full speed ahead toward that iceberg of a presidential election. <\/p>\n

That question is actually fairly easy to answer: The loyalists cognizant of the GOP’s parlous condition have been banished from its temple of political purity, and what has become paramount to the forces that now pretty much control the party is defending the five pillars of the temple — rank nativism, economic recidivism, nonsensical beliefs, an aversion to governing and pathological fear of change. This is more important than even winning big elections. <\/p>\n

While I agree with this assessment, we cannot stop fighting tooth and nail to win big at all levels of government.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\"0113Cartoon\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday was busy.  I worked with PT.  I ordered groceries.  I scheduled two medical appointments.  My bath aid is ill, and she did not come yesterday, so I had a substitute bath-aide today.  She just left.  My fur is soft, and I smell kitty clean, not like a mangy dawg.  Today is a grocery delivery […]<\/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-19003","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\/19003","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=19003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19003\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}