6 thoughts on “Friday Open Thread”

1. Joe Clement's resignation letter is wonderful.

   Secretary Zinke: It is well known that you, Deputy Secretary David Bernhardt, and President Trump are shackled to special interests such as oil, gas, and mining. You are unwilling to lead on climate change, and cannot be trusted with our nation’s natural resources.

   So for those three compelling reasons – poor leadership, waste, and your failures on climate change, I tender my resignation.

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   1. Paul Krugman addresses the general problem of "Trumpification"

      By all accounts, Rex Tillerson has demoralized and degraded the State Department to the point of uselessness. Tom Price did much the same to Health and Human Services before jetting off. Scott Pruitt has moved rapidly to eliminate the “protection” aspect of the Environmental Protection Agency. And similar stories are unfolding throughout the executive branch.

      Donald Trump has, in short, been like a Category 5 hurricane sweeping through the U.S. government, leaving devastation in his wake. And one question I don’t see being asked often enough is, will the same thing happen to the Federal Reserve? And if it does, how disastrous will that end up being for the world economy?

      .

      .

      …it goes more or less without saying that none of the people who kept warning that the Fed would cause terrible inflation (cough, Walker Stapleton, cough, cough, ed.) have admitted having been wrong, or learned anything from the experience.

      What all this means is that if congressional Republicans play a large role in selecting the next Fed chair, they’ll insist that it be someone who has been wrong about everything for the past decade.

      Kevin Warsh, a former Fed governor widely considered a favorite for the job, certainly fits the bill. He warned about inflation in the midst of global economic collapse; he argued vigorously against doing anything, monetary or other, to fight 10 percent unemployment; he warned that the United States was about to turn into Greece, Greece I tell you. And he has shown no hint of being chastened by the failure of events to play out the way he expected.

       

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2. QOTD October 7, 2017:

   Which country will Donald Trump go to war with first, Iran or North Korea?

   I don't think it will be North Korea, as that would mean US military operations in China's front door.

   So, I'm betting that he orders military strikes on Iran. War always leads to chaos which will enable Isis to make a come-back. We will see consequences avalanching across the Middle East. I'm guessing that Iraq will collapse nto Kurdish, Shiite and Sunni regions. Turkey will be mobilize on the West. Israel will certainly be involved, and that means that Gaza, Syria and probably Lebanon will be inflamed.

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3. Why being bipartisan with Asshole Republicans is both bad policy and bad politics:

   “It was President Obama’s ATF, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, in 2010 that decided not to regulate this device,” she told CNN’s Chris Cuomo. “That should be part of the conversation and part of the facts that you put before your viewers.”

   And so Republicans move to change the subject and, of course, blame Obama to distract from having a real conversation about why everyone on the right feels people need military-style assault weapons to kill Bambi.

   Obama-era ATF official Rick Vasquez, who approved the devices, said that they were intended “for those guys who want to look like super ninja when they’re out on the range.” 

   At the time, the Obama administration did not think they contravened federal regulations against machine guns, as they did not modify the machinery of guns themselves.

   Give them an inch a 15-round mag, they'll take a mile  an Uzi to the next Blake Shelton concert.

   LEARN IT, DEMS: Be bipartisan with them, and they will try to fuck you anyway. 

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   1. GMTA

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      1. There’s something about bow ties that must restrict the flow of blood to the brain, isn’t there?

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