{"id":20662,"date":"2016-03-17T08:05:34","date_gmt":"2016-03-17T15:05:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=20662"},"modified":"2016-03-17T08:05:34","modified_gmt":"2016-03-17T15:05:34","slug":"open-thread3172016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2016\/03\/17\/open-thread3172016\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread–3\/17\/2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lu arrived a day late, yesterday.  She had lost her wallet, and with it, her bus pass.  I became a sweet smelling Puddy Tat.  Today I am about go to to my PCP appointment with Ellie, Megan\u2019s PA.  Color me hurried.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

Today\u2019s took me 2:22 (average 4:27).  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>In an indication of shifting global attitudes toward the United States, the nation has become the laughingstock of the world for something other than its gun laws, a new survey of foreigners indicates.<\/p>\n

According to the survey, which was conducted by the University of Minnesota\u2019s Opinion Research Institute, America\u2019s gun laws, which used to inspire the most derision toward the country from people around the world, now place a distant second.<\/p>\n

In another startling result, the U.S. Congress\u2019s position on climate change, which in the past had been a leading candidate for making the U.S. the world\u2019s favorite punch line, also finished far out of the money.<\/p>\n

Davis Logsdon, who supervised the poll for the University of Minnesota, said he was struck by the unanimity of foreign respondents when they were asked to name what, in their opinion, currently made the United States the laughingstock of the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn all the years we\u2019ve done this survey, we have never had ninety-four per cent of respondents give an identical answer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Andy has the US pegged. Pathetic, huh?<\/font><\/p>\n

From NY Times<\/a>: <\/font>Of all the ways Donald Trump<\/a> has shocked the political system, one of the most significant is how he wins primary after primary with one of the smallest campaign budgets.<\/p>\n

He still doesn\u2019t have a super PAC. He skimped on ground organization and field offices. Most important, he spent less on television advertising \u2014 typically the single biggest expenditure for a campaign \u2014 than any other major candidate, according to an analysis by SMG Delta, a firm that tracks television advertising.<\/p>\n

\"0317Earned-Bought\"<\/p>\n

When Networks give Trump free air time, we should be calling the sponsors that advertise in these segments and threaten to withhold patronage.<\/font><\/p>\n

From NY Times<\/a>: <\/font>With more than half the states having now held their nominating contests, Donald J. Trump<\/a> and Senator Ted Cruz<\/a> are quietly directing their attention to a second, shadow election campaign \u2014 one that is out of sight, little understood but absolutely critical if Republicans arrive at their national convention with Mr. Trump short of a majority of delegates.<\/p>\n

This parallel campaign is to select the individual delegates who will go to Cleveland in July for what could be the first contested convention in American politics in more than 60 years. Chosen through a byzantine process in each state, most of the delegates will become free agents if no one wins a majority on the first ballot.<\/p>\n

The mere prospect that delegates could deny Mr. Trump the nomination led him to predict Wednesday that violence could erupt<\/a> in such a situation.<\/p>\n

Click through for a good explanation about how the Criminal Convention could be contested. It’s so like Hateful Hairball, alias Fecal Dump, to threaten violence.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\"0317Cartoon\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lu arrived a day late, yesterday.  She had lost her wallet, and with it, her bus pass.  I became a sweet smelling Puddy Tat.  Today I am about go to to my PCP appointment with Ellie, Megan\u2019s PA.  Color me hurried. Jig Zone Puzzle: Today\u2019s took me 2:22 (average 4:27).  To do it, click here.  […]<\/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-20662","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\/20662","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=20662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20662\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}