{"id":30744,"date":"2017-12-18T13:06:10","date_gmt":"2017-12-18T21:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=30744"},"modified":"2017-12-18T13:06:10","modified_gmt":"2017-12-18T21:06:10","slug":"open-thread-12-18-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/18\/open-thread-12-18-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread – 12\/18\/2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s another busy day here at the CatBox.  Our fantasy football league has almost completed the first playoff week.  Patty Monster has squeaked by Wendy.  The Squatch and I are neck and neck.  If Julio Jones scores four fantasy points in tonight’s game, I advance.  If not… Oh the shame!! \"Embarrassed <\/font><\/p>\n

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

Today’s took me 5:19 (average 5:48).  To do it, click here<\/a>.  How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n

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

From NBC News<\/a>: <\/font>The latest NBC\/WSJ poll not only shows Democrats holding their biggest lead in congressional preference since 2008<\/a>, it also finds them enjoying a double-digit advantage when it comes to voter intensity ahead of next year\u2019s midterms.<\/p>\n

According to the poll, 59 percent of Democratic voters say they have a high level of interest in next year\u2019s elections (registering either a 9 or 10 on a 10-point scale), versus 49 percent of Republican voters saying the same thing. Additionally, 62 percent of voters who said they voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 have a high level of interest in next year\u2019s midterms, compared with 50 percent of Trump voters.<\/p>\n

"A double-digit margin here is an important indicator of Democratic intensity," said Republican pollster Bill McInturff of Public Opinion Strategies, who conducted this survey with Democratic pollsters from Hart Research Associates.<\/p>\n

We need to channel that intensity into a 50 state strategy, at all levels of government, based on progressive values, without shooting ourselves in the foot along the way. RESIST<\/strong>!!<\/font><\/p>\n

From Pacific Standard<\/a>: <\/font>For the last two weeks, Philip Alston<\/a>, a professor at the New York University School of Law and a United Nations special rapporteur on poverty and human rights, has been on a fact-finding tour<\/a> of the United States’ poorest communities. Alston visited neighborhoods in rural Alabama<\/a> where raw sewage sits in open trenches and pits. He spent time at a free dental clinic in West Virginia, where he met<\/a> a 32-year-old whose teeth have all but rotted away. He saw a homeless encampment<\/a> in Los Angeles where the ratio of toilets to residents is lower than the U.N. mandate for Syrian refugee camps. Today, Alston released a sharply critical preliminary report<\/a>summarizing [sic<\/em>]his findings. American exceptionalism may be alive and well, Alston concludes, but "today’s United States has proved itself to be exceptional in far more problematic ways that are shockingly at odds with its immense wealth and its founding commitment to human rights."<\/p>\n

When it comes to poverty rates<\/a> and other measures of deprivation, the U.S. is a stark outlier<\/a> among other developed countries. Despite its status as one of the world’s wealthiest countries, the U.S. has the highest infant mortality rates<\/a> in the developed world, the worst health outcomes<\/a>, the highest incarceration rate<\/a>, the highest youth poverty rate<\/a>, one of the highest rates of inequality<\/a>, and one of the lowest rates of voter participation<\/a>. Eighteen percent of American children in 2016 were living in poverty, with rates in some states as high as 30 percent.<\/p>\n

Politicians opposed to expanding the social safety net<\/a> have leaned heavily on a certain false narrative about poor Americans to justify cuts to welfare and other social programs, according to Alston. "Some politicians and political appointees with whom I spoke were completely sold on the narrative of such scammers sitting on comfortable sofas, watching color TVs, while surfing on their smartphones, all paid for by welfare," he writes. "I wonder how many of these politicians have ever visited poor areas, let alone spoken to those who dwell there. There are anecdotes aplenty, but evidence is nowhere to be seen."<\/p>\n

Behold the culmination of eight years of the Bush Regime, eight years of Republicans sabotaging and obstructing everything Obama and Democrats tried to make it better, and one year of Trump. RESIST<\/strong>!!<\/font><\/p>\n

From NY Times<\/a>: …<\/font>The task in front of Congress over the coming week boils down to a basic question: Does Washington work for all of us or just for those at the top? Congress has a chance, right now, to take steps that will make life a bit better for millions of working people immediately and in the years to come. We should seize it.<\/p>\n

This is the last paragraph of an excellent editorial by both Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Click through for a great read. RESIST<\/strong>!!<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\"1218Cartoon\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s another busy day here at the CatBox.  Our fantasy football league has almost completed the first playoff week.  Patty Monster has squeaked by Wendy.  The Squatch and I are neck and neck.  If Julio Jones scores four fantasy points in tonight’s game, I advance.  If not… Oh the shame!!   Jig Zone Puzzle: Today’s […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30744","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\/30744","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=30744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30744\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}