18 thoughts on “Tuesday Open Thread”

1. Rep. Ken Buck is having a Veterans Town Hall this coming Friday, Jan. 12 at 3 pm at 100 3rd St in Castle Rock.

   One of Ken Buck's opponents is a combat veteran, Chase Kohne,  and all his Democratic opponents are more pro-veteran in policy than he is.

   Buck is  the son of wealthy New York lawyers and has no military experience. He is more of a "chicken-hawk"- very pro-interventionist, war-mongering, anti-Islamic, anti-immigrant, like his chickenhawk mentor, Dick Cheney.

   Ken Buck has also been a big advocate of privatizing the VA in the past. The veteran's administration is, after all, the largest and most successful government healthcare program. If it can be privatized, it would undercut any efforts to expand public health care.

   Veterans have long criticized Ken Buck for his doubletalk on privatizing VA health services. On one hand, he'll tell a Tea Party crowd that the VA is a "horrible system" that "could be better run" privately.

   Buck also opposed finishing Aurora's new VA hospital.

   His VA votes have been in line with Mike Coffman's – to undermine job security for VA employees, making it easier to fire them on a whim. These will make it more difficult to staff the VA with qualified people – a big challenge for opening the new VA hospital on time.

   But Ken Buck also wants to privatize social security. "Here's your coupon, grampa, now you go shop for your health care. Good luck!" Since disabled and elderly veterans often also survive on social security payments, this would make their lives insecure and subject to the vagaries of the stock market. Privatizing social security is another issue Buck wobbles on, depending upon his audience.

   The VA has the highest customer satisfaction (from consumers) of any health care program. It has a unique culture which respects and supports veterans and their families. Yes, the waits are too long. Yes, it is underfunded.  But privatizing it isn't the answer.

   It will be interesting to see which Buckaroo shows up to talk on Friday – the "I'm with ya – thanks for your service!" Buck, or the "Gubmint is bad! Go Tea Party!" Buck. 

   Buck is hoping that he can recast himself as a more veteran-friendly guy – he has co-sponsored a bill to fund hyperbaric treatment for PTSD and TBI at VA hospitals. This seems like an effective treatment – but so are judicious doses of cannabis, and cannabis treatment has the advantage of being more available (in certain states)  and not having to wait for scarce appointments.

   Veterans in general love their V.A. They don't like the wait for appointments. I hope that vocal vets and seniors will show up in droves to challenge Buck's policies on privatizing the VA and social security.

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   1. Uh-oh. You mentioned the ‘c’ word. Our little Nutlid will be making an appearance just as soon as he’s done counting his new-found wealth from his tax cut and babble something something about black people and genetics. 

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      1. "TOO BUSY COUNTING MY MONEY!!!!  Btw, did you know you can count negative numbers?  Didn't know that until I STARTED COUNTING MY MONEY!!!!"

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2. Democrats: Let the people choose!*
   *from among the one candidate we think should run.

   Congressional candidate Levi Tillemann says top House Democrat Steny Hoyer urged him to end primary campaign

   Minority Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the No. 2 Democrat in House leadership, encouraged Democrat Levi Tillemann to end his primary campaign in Colorado’s 6th Congressional District during a December meeting at a Denver hotel, saying that state and national congressional and party leaders had decided “very early on” to consolidate their resources behind another Democrat, Jason Crow, to run against Republican incumbent Mike Coffman, according to detailed notes Tillemann wrote immediately after the meeting.

   Hoyer told Tillemann that party leaders who had been through a few go-arounds in the district — one of the top-targeted and most expensive congressional races in the country the past two cycles — would be “negligent” if they didn’t get involved, adding, “If we just lay back as leaders that have some experience, as leaders that have gone thorough that district four or five times and lost, that’s not a rational thing to do,” according to the notes and a conversation Tillemann had with his campaign manager, Juan Rodriguez, minutes after the meeting ended.

   “If you stay in the race — and, frankly I would hope you would not — but if you stay in the race, it is not useful to the objective to tear down Crow,” Hoyer told Tillemann, according to the notes.

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   1. Win or lose in November…….this is more proof that the Dems need fresh faces in their leadership. No more Pelosi or Hoyer.

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3. At least he's not your convicted ex-sheriff…

   Joe Arpaio, controversial sheriff pardoned by Trump, enters Arizona Senate race

   "I have a lot to offer. I'm a big supporter of President Trump," Arpaio told the Washington Examiner in an interview kicking off his campaign. "I'm going to have to work hard; you don't take anything for granted. But I would not being doing this if I thought that I could not win. I'm not here to get my name in the paper, I get that every day, anyway."

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   1. As our resident stupid sage would say:  we have a hero running for Senate in Arizona!!!!  The local cop who took on the big bad Federal Government!!!  States Rights baby!!!!

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      1. Except with regard to cannabis.

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   2. I wish Arpaio every success in the primary.

      If he reaches the general election, I'm fairly certain he'd be toast. He had a hard time winning as an incumbent in his last couple of Sheriff's race, and then lost. Statewide, I think he'll have even a more difficult time.

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4. No surprise here — Bannon bites the dust:

   Stephen K. Bannon is stepping down from his post as executive chairman of Breitbart News, the company announced Tuesday.

   Mr. Bannon’s departure, which was forced by a onetime financial patron, Rebekah Mercer, comes as Mr. Bannon remained unable to quell the furor over remarks attributed to him in a new book in which he questions President Trump’s mental fitness and disparages his elder son, Donald Trump Jr.

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   1. It’s just like that Greek tragedy . . . 

      . . . he flew too close to the sun . . . 

      . . . and his jowls melted.  

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5. One down, hundreds to go (VSG is the new term for the Buffoon-in-Chief):

   When the V.S.G. moved into the White House, he brought with him an extraordinary collection of subordinates — and I mean that in the worst way. Some of them are already gone, like Michael Flynn, whom Trump appointed national security adviser despite questions swirling even back then about his foreign ties, and who last month pleaded guilty to lying to the F.B.I. about those ties. Also gone is Tom Price, secretary of health and human services, done in by his addiction to expensive private plane trips.

   Others, however, are still there; surely the thought of Steve Mnuchin at Treasury has Hamilton rolling over in his grave. And many incredibly bad lower-level appointments have flown under the public’s radar. We only get a sense of how bad things are from the occasional story that breaks through, like that of Trump’s nominee to head the Indian Health Service, who appears to have lied about his credentials. (A spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services says a tornado destroyed his employment records.)

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6. And speaking of the Worst and the Dumbest, look no further than Rick "I can't remember what agency I work for" Perry, whose plan to use taxpayer money to prop up failing coal and nuke providers, got shot down by a Trump (and Koch Bros.) dominated panel:

   A Trump administration plan to force utilities to purchase more coal and nuclear power was rejected Monday by federal regulators, undermining the president’s energy agenda and his promise to revive the coal industry.

   The five-member Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which is dominated by Trump appointees, unanimously rejected the proposal. Its members were not persuaded by arguments from Energy Secretary Rick Perry that solar, wind and other forms of renewable power were destabilizing the nation’s power grid and needed to be backstopped with more coal and nuclear power at a considerable cost to consumers.

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7. Please note thatBannon was fired from Brightfart today .

   Gloat, gloat, 

   Gloat like a goat!

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8. North Carolina's merrygander is unconsitutional.

   Judges order North Carolina congressional districts redrawn quickly

   The three-judge panel rejected the previous map drawn by the Republican-controlled General Assembly, saying it violates the Equal Protection Clause, the First Amendment, and Article I of the Constitution.

   The judges gave the state about three weeks to file a new plan with the court so it will be in place before the 2018 midterms.

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   1. So much for the "One Racist, One Vote" tradition

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9. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.

   Lebsock releases manifesto day before start of Colorado legislative session

   In his continuing efforts to keep from getting kicked out of the Colorado House, Rep. Steve Lebsock of Thornton Tuesday released a 28-page manifesto that he sent to the entire House of Representatives.

   The manifesto is dated Dec. 14 and “is in regards to the false allegations against me,” Lebsock wrote in its introduction.

   He said in the document that he wrote it to ensure that if House members decide to vote on expulsion, that they have both sides of the story before taking the vote. Fellow Democrat Rep. Matt Gray of Broomfield has stated he plans to run a resolution to expel Lebsock from his House District 34 seat.

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   1. Seems to have exceedingly poor judgment about how his statements and actions look to the public – and his fellow House members.

      I know, understatement of the year.

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