{"id":20299,"date":"2016-03-01T13:05:22","date_gmt":"2016-03-01T21:05:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=20299"},"modified":"2016-03-01T13:05:22","modified_gmt":"2016-03-01T21:05:22","slug":"open-thread3012016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2016\/03\/01\/open-thread3012016\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread&ndash;3\/01\/2016"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">I\u2019m continuing to improve, but I\u2019m so far behind on everything that I\u2019m completely swamped.&#160; Therefore this is today\u2019s only article.&#160; Hugs!<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Jig Zone Puzzle<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Today\u2019s took me 4:14 (average 4:51).&#160; To do it, <\/font><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jigzone.com\/puzzles\/2016-03-01-CE2504A965A9\" target=\"_blank\">click here<\/a><font color=\"#0000ff\"><\/font><font color=\"#0000ff\">.&#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.newyorker.com\/humor\/borowitz-report\/trump-derailed-by-obamas-endorsement\" target=\"_blank\">The New Yorker<\/a>: <\/font>Adding a new wrinkle in an already unpredictable election year, Donald Trump saw his poll numbers plummet on Monday after receiving a surprise endorsement from President Barack Obama.<\/p>\n<p>The long-awaited downfall of the abrasive billionaire came in startling fashion, as few had expected the President to offer a full-throated endorsement of Trump, especially on the eve of the all-important Super Tuesday primaries.<\/p>\n<p>Praising the Republican front-runner during a nationally televised address, the President said that, despite media reports to the contrary, Trump shared his views on such important issues as immigration and religious tolerance. \u201cIn every way that matters, Donald and I are on exactly the same page,\u201d Obama said, pointing to a framed picture of the billionaire on his Oval Office desk.<\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Uh Oh!! Andy put InsaniTEA in his Wacky Tobacky!! Dang!!<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailykos.com\/story\/2016\/2\/28\/1492824\/-On-CNN-Trump-Refuses-To-Condemn-KKK-Racist-Origin-of-Trump-Fortune-Now-Relevant\" target=\"_blank\">Daily Kos<\/a>: <\/font>Only hours ago, in an interview with Jake Tapper on CNN, Donald Trump <a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/thetwo-way\/2016\/02\/28\/468455028\/trump-wont-condemn-kkk-says-he-knows-nothing-about-white-supremacists\" target=\"_blank\">repeatedly refused to repudiate<\/a> a political endorsement of Trump\u2019s candidacy from KKK leader David Duke, pleading ignorance of Duke and what he represents (white supremacy):<\/p>\n<p><strong><font color=\"#ff0000\">Barf Bag Alert!!<\/font><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#160;<iframe loading=\"lazy\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/5LvixzlG-w4?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"640\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe> <\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Hateful Hairball has already demonstrated his racism.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/03\/01\/world\/middleeast\/iran-elections.html\" target=\"_blank\">NY Times<\/a>: <\/font>Nearly three years after Iran\u2019s reform-minded president was elected, the most reactionary voices in Iranian politics are losing ground to moderates buoyed by the sweeping nuclear deal with big powers, including the United States.<\/p>\n<p>Though hard-liners still control the most powerful positions and institutions of the state, two national elections last week appeared to build on the slow but unmistakable evolution toward a more moderate political landscape \u2014 now and into the future.<\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">It&#8217;s a pleasure to report good news for a change.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Cartoon<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"0301Cartoon\" 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=\"0301Cartoon\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/0301Cartoon.jpg\" width=\"650\" height=\"350\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019m continuing to improve, but I\u2019m so far behind on everything that I\u2019m completely swamped.&#160; Therefore this is today\u2019s only article.&#160; Hugs! Jig Zone Puzzle: Today\u2019s took me 4:14 (average 4:51).&#160; To do it, click here.&#160; How did you do? Short Takes: From The New Yorker: Adding a new wrinkle in an already unpredictable election <a href='https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2016\/03\/01\/open-thread3012016\/' 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-20299","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\/20299","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=20299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20299\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}