{"id":35199,"date":"2018-12-31T11:41:17","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T19:41:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=35199"},"modified":"2018-12-31T11:41:17","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T19:41:17","slug":"open-thread-12-31-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2018\/12\/31\/open-thread-12-31-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread &#8211; 12\/31\/2018"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">I&#8217;m feeling quite pooped, because yesterday was so busy, and today, it took me a ling time to find stories.&#160; Please be careful tonight.&#160; My celebration plans are making a few Z&#8217;s.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Jig Zone Puzzle<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Today&#8217;s took me 3:58 (average 5:59),&#160; To do it, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jigzone.com\/puzzles\/2018-12-31-CE2504A965A9\" target=\"_blank\">click here<\/a>.&#160; How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Religious Agony<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"1232-Broncos9-Chargers23\" 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=\"1232-Broncos9-Chargers23\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/1232-Broncos9-Chargers23.jpg\" width=\"750\" height=\"70\" \/><\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Disappointing, but expected.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Fantasy Football Report<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Here are the final results this year for our own <a href=\"http:\/\/fantasy.nfl.com\/league\/342380\" target=\"_blank\">Fantasy Football League<\/a>.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Playoffs:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"P3\" 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=\"P3\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/P3.jpg\" width=\"750\" height=\"1300\" \/><\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Congrats to me.&#160; I won the championship, leaving Wendy in 2nd place.&#160; Vivian won the 3rd place game, leaving Pam in 4th.&#160; Patty Monster won the 5th place game, leaving Squatch in 6th.&#160; Winning the Championship surprised the hell out of me!&#160; What can I say?&#160; CAT is where it&#8217;s AT! ;-)&#160; We&#8217;re done until next year.&#160; Remember, you can keep two players instead of using your first two draft choices.&#160; It was a fun season.&#160; Hugs and love to all.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Short Takes<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=OiWHWZQoqco\" target=\"_blank\">YouTube<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/CNN\/videos\" target=\"_blank\">MSNBC Channel<\/a>): <\/font>Elizabeth Warren forms 2020 exploratory committee<\/p>\n<p>&#160;<iframe loading=\"lazy\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/OiWHWZQoqco\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"640\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe> <\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">I&#8217;m most pleased that Elizabeth has decided to run. She has been my choice to be America&#8217;s first woman President for years, so I expect to support her, with the caveat that events between now and then may stimulate a change in my view. <strong>RESIST<\/strong>!!<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/story\/_\/id\/25653579\/denver-broncos-fire-vance-joseph-back-back-losing-seasons\" target=\"_blank\">ESPN<\/a>: <\/font>Having just completed their first back-to-back losing seasons since the early 1970s, the Denver Broncos fired Vance Joseph on Monday, a day after the team finished 6-10.<\/p>\n<p>Joseph, who still has two years remaining on the four-year deal he signed in 2017, lasted just 32 games with the team. The Broncos now are on the hunt for the fourth head coach in John Elway&#8217;s tenure as the Broncos&#8217; top football executive.<\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">WOOOO HOOOO! That is way past due! <strong>RESIST<\/strong>!!<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/2018\/12\/31\/americans-have-last-figured-out-that-adults-room-are-democrats\/\" target=\"_blank\">Washington Post<\/a>: <\/font>The big myth in U.S. politics has been that the GOP is the more \u201cadult\u201d of the two parties. The bigger myth that was inaugurated along with Donald Trump was that these \u201cadults in the room\u201d would keep the new reality show in check. Instead, the so-called adults surrounding President Trump in the White House have been emptying like a toy box into the dumpster out back on a regular basis. And then the so-called adults in Congress staged a romper-room raid on the cookie jar, passing a deficit-busting tax cut for the rich. And collectively, all these so-called adults tried to finger-paint Trump\u2019s lies to look like responsible governing, including the lie that climate change can be addressed by ignoring it and burning more coal.<\/p>\n<p>In effect, the Republicans have instead rebranded themselves as quislings, collaborators and fellow travelers, or, more accurately, fellow toddlers. Why did they do this? Because they wanted to get what they could get when they could get it. See also: toddlers.<\/p>\n<p>Now they are stuck with Trump on his sinking ship of fools. They can\u2019t get off the ship or stay on it. They can\u2019t live with Trump or without him.<\/p>\n<p>Voters don\u2019t love Democrats, but what are you going to do at this point? Democrats are the only ones who have talked any sense whatsoever on taxes, health care, budgets, climate, immigration, you name it. <\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Every Republican in elected or appointed office is one Republican too many. <strong>RESIST<\/strong>!!<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Cartoon<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"1231Cartoon\" 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=\"1231Cartoon\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/1231Cartoon.jpg\" width=\"650\" height=\"350\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m feeling quite pooped, because yesterday was so busy, and today, it took me a ling time to find stories.&#160; Please be careful tonight.&#160; My celebration plans are making a few Z&#8217;s. Jig Zone Puzzle: Today&#8217;s took me 3:58 (average 5:59),&#160; To do it, click here.&#160; How did you do? Religious Agony: Disappointing, but expected. <a href='https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2018\/12\/31\/open-thread-12-31-2018\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/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-35199","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\/35199","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=35199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35199\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}