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June 20, 2017 06:56 AM UTC

Tuesday Open Thread

  • 60 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

“Hypocrisy is the essence of snobbery.”

–Alexander Theroux

Comments

60 thoughts on “Tuesday Open Thread

  1. If you have friends who are accepting of you divorcing your spouse, they are not your friends. Unless it is an abusive environment. Happiness is not a right. Keeping your oaths or commitments is character. Too bad "its all about me" culture in the way of humanity.

    1. You're a no-divorce kind of guy, then? This was already their 2nd marriage each, so not much of a change for you in your opinion of them I guess.

      They're both highly capable people, successful at their jobs and lives. If they were no longer happy with the marriage, then the oaths they made between them was the only obligation they had; they have decided now to end that, on purportedly amicable terms. I have no problrm with that.

      1. Now that I look back yes, no divorce. But the other 50% has a say. Happily married (second time) 14 years and counting. Lots of social destruction of the  family/families. America is not better off for it.

    2. Happiness is not a right.

       

      Really?  That's a new one.  Guess Jefferson was blowing smoke out his ass when he referred to the right to pursue it in the DoI as an inalienable right.

      1. The original draft said property, which was closer to their intent than the current notion of self-actualization.  And don't forget, the Declaraion said all men are created equal, not women.  And it meant white men had an equal right to enslave black people.

        Don't go rhapsodizing about the D of Indepence or its slave owning authors.  Patrick Henry was a big time slave owner — so much for give me liberty or give me death.

         

    3. There are many more ways to keep oaths than staying married, when the marriage is clearly over.. I'm spending a morning out of my summer at the VA hospital, guiding​ my disabled ex around through his maze of appts, labs, etc. Normally, our son does this duty, which is his way of keeping faith with his dad. But we're civil now, And friends, and he is my kids' father, so I do what a friend would do.

      All of the staff here, volunteer​s, and vets are helpful and respectful, which is their way of keeping their promises to the vets, who kept their promises to their country.
       

       

       

       

  2. Politics takes a terrible toll on personal relationships.  I wish Mike and Cynthia well.  As for me, on the 25hth we'll celebrate our 49th anniversary.

     

     

      1. You and Karen are a great inspiration of how love really can conquer all.   Of course, there is also the practical matter of who in their right mind would divorce a wife who is a truly great cook?

         

          1. Diabetics can eat sugar, cookie, it's no worse for us than anyone else.  In moderation, anyway.   Sugar has a glycemic index of 68, fairly moderate.  

             

  3. Not so green: how the weed industry is a glutton for fossil fuels

    “We are consuming a lot of energy compared to what we would with LED lights,” said Isenbergh, who pays at least $4,000 a month for electricity. “We tried LED but we couldn’t get the right yield from the plants. And this is a weight game. The LEDs just don’t have the horsepower.”

    The legalization of cannabis (recreational weed was approved in a statewide ballot in 2012) has reinvigorated previously dilapidated industrial areas of Denver and generated more than $1bn a year in taxable sales. But the voracious energy consumption of growers is rubbing up against the city’s ambitions of cutting greenhouse gases.

    And with around half of all US states now allowing cannabis for various uses, hothoused cultivation is increasingly a concern for governors and mayors promising to fill a Donald Trump-sized hole in emissions reductions.

    1. Lawful outdoor cultivation in our rural areas would wipe out that carbon footprint.  As much as we'd like, we can't outsmart Mother Nature. We've done the same thing to pot that we've done with pigs: crowd them indoors and pump them full of cocktails that would be unnecessary outside the walls of their confinement. I'm also convinced consumers would reward the marketplace if such a product was widely available. 

  4. I'm wondering if you can recall a US senator.  If Gardner goes ahead with his secret deal with the lobbyists, is it possible to mount a statewide recall?  State senators were recalled for the passage of some pretty weak gun regulations.  Hosing 23-40 million people out of adequate healthcare should be the kind of big time screwing that should get Gardner run out of town.

    1. I actually looked into that pretty thoroughly, GG, and the answer appears to be no, not without a constitutional amendment. Colorado law provides that "any" elected official can be recalled, but the US Constitution says that federal officials can't be recalled, so the 2 conflict.

      Here’s where V gets to do his “I told ya so” dance.

      1. So technically, it's not Constitutionally prohibited, but Federal law controls the manner of Federal elections, so a law would need to be passed through Congress allowing recalls. That's not currently the law, so no recalls on Congress-critters (or Presidents).

    1. I'm reasonably certain we passed the point of effectiveness on Congressional election spending some time ago for GA-06. At $50 million, if I lived in the greater Atlanta metro I would have shot my TV and glued my mailbox shut long ago.

    2. You keep acting like it is going to be a big upset if Republicans retain this seat.  The analogy would be if a Republican would win in Colorado CD2.  Some charismatic Republican would woo Democrats in Boulder and Fort Collins with his/her charm and level headed ideas regarding complex problems and pull off an upset.  That's the magnitude of change we are talking about in Georgia.

      I notice you don't mention the utter slime ads that Republicans have been running as if they are scared shitless that an upset is in the making.

      1. GG

        Handel will win tonight and the Republicans will retain the House and Senate in 2018.  The Dems currently have no idea how to relate to a middle America voter.

        A whole lot of people will spend a whole lot of money and get all bent out of shape about it, but if you look at the macro picture, that what is ahead.

        1. I can tell you one thing that Republicans won't do Andrew.  They won't stop the polar caps from melting.  No lie can last forever.  The sadness is that the people who trusted them to forge meaningful policy to build a better world will be the ones they hurt the most.  Republicans won't protect the planet or help humanity.  All you are concerned about is the retention of power for the benefit of a wealthy few.  Enjoy your victories while you still have clean water coming out of the tap and be thankful you don't live in Flint which is in a Republican run state.

        2. Here's how Handel won:

          “I think the shooting is going to win this election for us,” said Brad Carver, a Republican official in Georgia at the county and state level.

          A little-known conservative group bought a small amount of television time on Fox News over the weekend for an ad showing emergency crews carrying victims of the attack on stretchers. “The same unhinged leftists cheering last week’s shooting are all backing Jon Ossoff, and if he wins, they win,” an announcer intones.

          Ms. Handel’s campaign denounced the ad but did not call for it to be taken off the air.

        3. Well Gerbils, we certainly made you work for a 5% margin of victory when 23% is the norm!

          But I think you have the Stockholm Syndrome patter down pat — instill Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt in the Republican voters, and most of them will come back to the Devil they know.

      2. There were two special elections today…

        In GA-06, a district held by Republicans for 40 years and where Mitt Romney won 61-37 (but Trump only won 48-47), Ossoff came in at 52-48 (probably going to wind up closer to 51-48). That's at least a D+12 shift (averaging the two Presidential races), probably actually a bit more. (D+22 if you go based on the Romney results from 2012…)

        In SC-05, another strong Republican seat (Trump came in at 57-39 in the district), the end result was also a Republican win at 51-48. That's a D+18 shift for a race that received almost no attention.

        Even not accounting for the normal Republican bias of special elections, if Democrats run at +18 from last year's election across the nation, they'll win the House majority in 2018, they'll hold their Senate seats in a very difficult year, and they might even pick up one or two seats.

        1. Given those results from GA and SC, I'll offer that my party will be in some serious and deep you-know-what next year, assuming no change in the directions of the Trump presidency.

          Much depends on how much black money gets poured into congressional races by the dark money magnates and whether or not the Dems can bring in some effective challengers. 

          As for Andrew, he is just trolling with no regard for actual facts. It's laughable where he says the Dems currently have no idea how to relate to a middle America voter. Given the new and hugely improved swamp that The Donald has been building, it's becoming more clear that the Repubs. also have issues relating to middle America voters.

          1. The Republicans in power know how to access middle America voters; they target the right media, speak the right code words, stoke the right fires. But even if their acts are justified in their minds by their vision of a better America, it's been lost in the quest for Absolute Republican Power. They're not enacting policy that helps middle America; they've given in to the god of trickle-on economics or an outright belief in the healing powers of Randian super-men, at the same time supporting an ever more radical "Christian" crowd of prosperity gospel and in-crowd superiority. 

            Sorry to say it, CHB, but the party lost me back in 2000 and it's gotten significantly worse since then. Every year I grow more cynical about the party's motives. I know there are good people who support it, but I'm increasingly hard-pressed to understand it as anything more than some gut emotional drive like the one that kept Lincoln Chafee in the party for so long.

          2. The problem for Dems is, most of the Congressmen they'll be ousting will be the more moderate Republicans they might be able to work with to restore some semblance of bipartisanship.

            I can only hope that the Wisconsin gerrymandering case is decided quickly by SCOTUS next year, and in the Democrats' favor.

            1. Some reasons to stay in the Republican Party, in no particular order…..   1) John McCain, Susan Collins, Lindsay Graham, Rob Portman, et al. Not good all the time, but just enough for now.

              2) one can have influence only if one is part of the game. Which is why I post routinely on other threads using different names.

  5. Note to Mike Coffman. Get behind the Presidents agenda or you are toast in the next election. Dems will not support you nor will enough Republicans when you refuse to support the Presidents agenda. Believe the media Trump hatred at your election peril.

  6. Strong military, end illegal immigrantion, tax reform, regulation reform, health care reform. Yes I support this agenda. There is no Democrat that will do the same.

    1. Do you support dismantling public lands? Opening up to Russia, including collaboration on cybersecurity? Returning to a policy where access to Cuba by tourists is more controlled by the government than access to North Korea?

      What do you see as the benefits of the AHCA?

      1. There is no such thing as public lands. Some entity owns the land, you a corporation or the government. Those entities set restrictions on the land use. If you think that because the government is the owner it's, public try violating the restrictions and see what happens.

        Obviously you stand with Senator McCain and want war with Russia, me not so much, been there done that. The Left has a fascination with Cuba, not unexpected you would bring it up.

        AHCA benefits, none.

        1. We the public control the government, though. How we decide to utilize the land the government controls is a policy decision by our elected and appointed officials and those who work for them.

          The question being semi-supported by the administration is whether we should sell off much of this land, and for land that we keep, how much we should allow a few beneficiaries (corporations) to occupy that land long-term for their private use. The Administration favors more corporate and private benefit…

          1. I would be hesitant to support the sale of government land. The government would not use the revenue wisely. Besides we will need to satisfy our creditors whe the nation finances collapse.

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