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June 22, 2018 11:48 PM UTC

Weekend Open Thread

  • 46 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

“Indifference is harder to fight than hostility, and there is nothing that kills an agitation like having everybody admit that it is fundamentally right.”

–Crystal Eastman

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46 thoughts on “Weekend Open Thread”

  1. We knew this would happen. As soon as the Republicans got their tax cut enriching the top 1%, and seeing the consequent projected 1 trillion deficit, Republicans decided that they had to cut that deficit, because, you know, fiscal responsibility.

    How? By cutting entitlement programs, of course. Medicaid, Medicare, social security. This was Paul Ryan's plan all along. He's not going to retire from Congress without a big old grovel to the dessicated ghost of Ayn Rand.

    But the Senate said No.  Thank you, Senate Democrats. Including Senator Bennet:

    So Polsters, here's my question: What happens now? Do they have the hubris to try to further impoverish working people that need Medicare (including Trump's base) this year? Before the midterm elections?

    I’m just baffled. How does this make sense in a midterm election year? Brian Riedl of the conservative publication National Review has a cynical analysis that might be the answer.

    Here is the portrait of a dysfunctional party: On Tuesday, the House Republicans unveiled a budget that set a goal of spending cuts totaling $6,454 billion. On Wednesday, Senate Republicans defeated legislation to cut spending by $1 billion. On Thursday, House Republicans voted to renew $20 billion per year in farm subsidies.

    The 2018 GOP talks like Barry Goldwater and spends like Lyndon Johnson.

    1. It is dismaying and perplexing. Trump voters will not be satisfied by ANYTHING Democrats do. D’s have been villianized by Fox News and Hate Radio for so many years that the task is nigh impossible. (This is why you have to rebut these Liars all the time.)

      Trump’s Poodles in Congress have shown they couldn’t care less what he’s done as long as he dismantles anything/everything “progressive”.

      Trump will stay the course til the day he’s hauled off to jail, so Democrats must stand against him, refute his lies, point out his egregious attacks on our democracy and our fellow citizens, and give them hell.

      D’s also need to call out his lies, preferably to his face, which will drive him (more) crazy. 

      Ol’ Z giving props to the Kennedy, Polis, and other spots promoting progressive values. I hope they are used thru November.

        1. or Bill Clinton.  Worst president ever.  Because of his moral lapses, we ended up  Bush instead of Gore and Trump instead of Hillary.

  2. This weekend my wife and I are going to Glenwood Springs to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary.  On June 25, 1968 — facing imminent induction into the U.S. Army and not willing to face separation without some ensurance of reunion, we swore to live our lives together.   A half century later, having been stewards to two children, two grandchildren, four dachshunds and numerous cats, we're still having fun.

    Fifty glorious years — and a few rotten months.  No, it wasn't always easy.  But our love — and silliness — has endured.  Marriage has never been limited to a man and a woman.  Our secret has been joining a bear and a platypus to rule a magical kingdom of our own making.  Whenever possible we retreat to that world and let our stalwart turtle guards keep that larger, irrational, world at bay.   Our Bear Mountain is a wonderful place, a haven for all who believe in magic, chocolate, and the power of cuddling.

    Thinking about the last half century, I have fond thoughts for others who defied the irrational world of anger and Old Testament judgment to build their own magical kingdoms.

    Especially you, Notaskinnycook, and Karen.  You haven't hit 50 yet, but you're well on your way and you did it  it in  a world that often threw rocks instead of garlands at your union.

    To all you other platypuses and bears out there, or whatever your species,  keep the magic going.  The journey is long, but well worth it.

    Pax Vobiscum.

    4. Congrats to the both of you V.  

      Your wife must be a saint….😉

      Have a fun and happy weekend. Glenwood is a great town. I lived and worked there for years.

        1. Happy Anniversary, V. And the train to Glenwood is a great trip – everyone should do it. Many tunnels including the Moffat, mountains, lakes, canyons, rivers (including "Moon" River). Beautiful any time of year.

  3. Trump — the Flim-Flam President

    As he threw in the towel on immigration legislation on Friday, saying that Republicans should give up even tryinguntil after the fall midterm elections, Mr. Trump once again fell short of his promise to make “beautiful” deals that no other president could make.

    His 17 months in office have in fact been an exercise in futility for the art-of-the-deal president. No deal on immigration. No deal on health care. No deal on gun control. No deal on spending cuts. No deal on Nafta. No deal on China trade. No deal on steel and aluminum imports. No deal on Middle East peace. No deal on the Qatar blockade. No deal on Syria. No deal on Russia. No deal on Iran. No deal on climate change. No deal on Pacific trade.

    Even routine deals sometimes elude Mr. Trump, or he chooses to blow them up. 

    “Trump is an anarchist,” said Jack O’Donnell, a former president of the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino, who became a sharp critic. “It was his approach in business, it is his approach as president. It does not take good negotiating skills to cause chaos.

    As for foreign policy, Mr. Trump has taken great pride in his recent meeting with North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, asserting that “I have solved that problem” after a decades-long nuclear standoff and even musing that he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. But there is no deal, at least not yet. There is a vague 391-word statement essentially agreeing to agree, an expression of a goal with no details.

    “What the president seemingly fails to understand is that in foreign policy and in trade policy — unlike in real estate transactions — the parties are all repeat players,” said Daniel M. Price, who advised Mr. Bush on trade negotiations. “The country you insult or seek undue advantage over today you will have to work with again tomorrow.”

    Mr. O’Donnell, the former casino president, said Mr. Trump has always oversold his deal-making skills. The casino he managed, Mr. O’Donnell noted, brought in $100 million a year yet still went bankrupt. “The fact is, Trump casinos should have been one of the greatest success stories in the history of casino gambling, but bad deal making caused him to lose all three properties,” he said.

    I dare the TrumpFools in the audience to explain why they continue to think Trump is anything other than a disastrous fool that is hurting our nation and our allies, while merrily aiding our enemies.

     

      1. I'm not any more concerned by Zap continually expressing his distaste for Bennet than I am by you continually expressing your distaste for Zap.

        This is a place where people come to read some things and say some things.  That seems to work pretty well.  To the extent you'd like to mute some voices here that you find unpleasant and value-free, I've previously offered instructions on how to do that, as I have.

          1. Curmudgeons seem to be multiplying in mj world, as you now give that accolade to chb.  And if you truly are trying to ignore posts you disagree with, does that mean you'll dial back on your infamous punishment diaries?

          2. It works for me, but I probably fixed it without thinking about it when it broke.  Try the instructions here.  They seem to work for me in Firefox and Chrome.

            1. Works great on Chrome, Psuedo. The firefox version that will run on my older machine won’t run it. But this’ll help.  Many thanks!

        3. Pseudonymous: you may not be paying close attention to those who rake Zappatero far more than I do. And I don't believe in muting anyone. As Harry Truman said: if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

          1. Harry Truman was a quote machine.  My favorite is his paraphrase of Twain:

            “Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a Republican. But I repeat myself.”

          2. I'm not muting you, CHB. I can have a civil argument with you without immediately dropping into insulting each other's intellect, character, sobriety, or sanity, which gets tiresome. 

            Besides, we agree more than we disagree, on important things. 

    2. Zap – I'm not a fan of Senator Bennet and I do think he puts Wall St. first and Colorado second.

      But…

      You're so over the top and emotional in your thoughts for him that you lose even the thoughtful people who are not thrilled with Bennet. How does that help?

      1. I’m not emotional. I actually give policy, philosophical and strategic grounds for my criticism. My audience is one, and my goal is to cajole and/or shame SFL Bennet into being a more forceful and principled Democrat. After all, he wanted the fucking job. 

  5. Are you smarter than a chimpanzee? Take this quiz & see:

    1. In all low-income countries across the world today, how many girls finish primary school? 
    A: 20 per cent
    B: 40 per cent
    C: 60 per cent

    2. Where does the majority of the world population live? 
    A: low-income countries
    B: middle-income countries
    C: high-income countries

    3. In the last 20 years, the proportion of the world population living in extreme poverty has: 
    A: almost doubled
    B: remained more or less the same
    C: almost halved

    4. What is the life expectancy in the world today? 
    A: 50 years
    B: 60 years
    C: 70 years

    5. There are 2 billion children in the world today, aged 0 to 15 years old. How many children will there be in the year 2100 according to the United Nations? 
    A: 4 billion
    B: 3 billion
    C: 2 billion

    6. The UN predicts that by 2100 the world population will have increased by another 4 billion people. What is the main reason? 
    A: there will be more children (aged below 15)
    B: there will be more adults (aged 15 to 74)
    C: there will be more very old people (aged 75 and older)

    7. How did the number of deaths per year from natural disasters change over the last 100 years? 
    A: more than doubled
    B: remained about the same
    C: decreased to less than half

    8. There are roughly 7 billion people in the world today. Which map shows best where they live? (Each figure represents 1 billion people.)

    9. How many of the world’s one-year-old children today have been vaccinated against some disease? 
    A. 20 per cent
    B: 50 per cent
    C: 80 per cent

    10. Worldwide, 30-year-old men have spent 10 years in school, on average. How many years have women of the same age spent in school? 
    A: 9 years
    B: 6 years
    C: 3 years

    11. In 1996, tigers, giant pandas and black rhinos were all listed as endangered. How many of these three species are more critically endangered today? 
    A: all three
    B: one of them
    C: none of them

    12. How many people in the world have some access to electricity? 
    A: 20 per cent
    B: 50 per cent
    C: 80 per cent

    A chimpanzee (random guessing) will get 4 right. Did you do better? Write your answers and then go here for the correct answers. (He threw in question 13 in the article so people could feel good about getting 1 right.)

    ps – I only got 7/12

  6. Republicans (or at least one or two on this site) project their own hate as motivating the Democratic Party.  General outrage over wrong-headed policies — sure;  universal hate (which is personal), not so much.  Tom Tomorrow captures what I think is the essence of the conundrum here

     

    1. Wait until you see Trump's next selection! You will look back at Gorsuch and say he wasn't so bad!

      Aren't you sorry that Evan Bayh, Bob Kerrey, Mary Landrieu, and David Pryor are all gone?  Oh well, better to be pure and a small minority, than to have to share power with moderates who dilute your beautiful message, right?

      1. Yeah, it was terrible when we ran things but because of those damn moderates we only got 85 pct of what we wanted.   So much better to be pure and get nothing.

  8. The Post has an interesting Perspective / Opinion section today:

    Front page  on the baby jails with a photo of 3-8 year olds on mats and space blankets watched over by a security guard in a cyclone fence enclosure. Headline: "Devastating"*. It is guest commentary by a UCM doctor and a RMIAN attorney.

    Inside: Jon Caldera explaining how, as an unaffiliated, he is ratfucking the Dem primary. Of course he is.

    High praise for Cory Gardner's "taming the White House"** (it's all about the legal cannabis) . Which is well and good – but if we could get the White House to care about the families it's breaking on the border as much as about private prison profits, it would be even better.

    Why immigrants should have Colorado driver's licenses

    Trump's Trade War has begun, and "It hurts".

    Kent Lambert griping about Senator Aguilar's filibuster of Sb252 ( my skim of the bill text shows that a developmentally disabled person might remain in custody awaiting an expert "second evaluation", which the person themselves (or their family) would have to pay for, since the law would excuse the state from paying for it.

    George Will on libertarian candidate Bill Weld for 2020 – George Will just left the Republican party, finding it has become the morally bankrupt party of Trump. Will is still letting that conservative flag fly, though!

    * I had to go to the pressreader site because the online post had it behind a paywall. Interestingly, the opinion columnists I cited were not behind paywalls.  I saw it on paper, as I still get my Sunday Post in hardcopy.

    ** For this one too, I had to go to pressreader for an online version.

     

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