Thursday Open Thread

9 thoughts on “Thursday Open Thread”

1. Fox & Friends Viewed,

   The Great White Hope emerges

   Lo, the Stink wafts out

   –Q

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   1. Mussolini jut

      Deplorables multiply

      Stink Everywhere

       

       

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      1. 

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2. Charles M. Blow of the New York Times analyzes Trump reign of fear:

   Afraid? Weak? Egotistical? Attack!

   Trump doesn’t want a free press; he wants free propaganda.

   This is a Republican base governed by fear, and it has found its perfect apostle in Trump — a man who sells fear, gorges on it, bathes in it.

   Trump and his base are like two mirrors facing each other.

   Trump has killed the traditional Republican Party and raised and animated in its corpse a soulless, mindless monstrosity, loyal only to him. The moderating forces in the party have either been sidelined or subdued.

   He does none of this because he is brave and strong, but rather precisely because he isn’t. His attacks are a compensatory disguise for his own fear and insecurity.

   Trump is weak. Very weak. Unbelievably weak. But he knows now that his weakness is bolstered by the incredible power of the presidency and the overwhelming economic and military power of the country.

   As the investigations and trials continue to close in around Trump and his cronies, it will be imperative that those whose duty it is to uphold our laws and our institutions stand strong and true against the immense powers currently (but only temporarily) at Trump's disposal.

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3. Dirty energy, dirty tricks.

   Boulder-based advocates of anti-fracking initiative facing hurdles

   "What the harassers would do is they would get in between the signature gatherers and the signer, and they would start yelling and trying to intimidate the people, to scare the signers away — yelling things like, 'You don't know who these people are, or who are you giving your information to," said Colorado Rising volunteer Holly Wheeler of Boulder. "They were, like, a foot away from people in their face, and yelling.

   "We have had harassers follow them home. One of the volunteers, a grandmother, was really disturbed. She called the cops several times. It is not unusual. We've had them make fun of people personally, and intimidating them."

   Spiegel referenced a young woman who, after being followed and harassed by a man, came back to the office in tears.

   "It takes a lot to get someone to go back out, after an experience like that."

   Also on Wednesday, Colorado Rising alleged in a news release that it had obtained an audio recording that it said purports to show a professional signature collector admitting that the contractor for whom he was working, on behalf of Colorado Rising, had been bought out by a contractor opposing Initiative 97.

   According to Colorado Rising's release, that collector "says he was asked to give all of the petitions that his team had collected to the party responsible for providing the buyout, instead of releasing the signatures to Colorado Rising," but that he refused to do so.

   "When pressed about who was involved in making the request (the signature collector) did not refute that it was Protect Colorado," the release stated.

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4. Our junior Senator at work, according to Rubin's Right Turn on WAPO….

   a bipartisan group of senators (including Republican Sens. Lindsey O. Graham of South Carolina and Cory Gardner of Colorado, who voted against the extra funding for election security!) introduced a tough Russia sanctions bill Thursday morning. The bill includes “sanctions on political figures, oligarchs, and family members and other persons that facilitate illicit and corrupt activities, directly or indirectly, on behalf of Vladimir Putin” as well as “on transactions related to investment in energy projects supported by Russia state-owned or parastatal entities.” Other measures target “transactions relating to new sovereign debt of the Russian Federation” and “any person in the Russian Federation that has the capacity or ability to support or facilitate malicious cyber activities.” Most interesting, the bill includes “a requirement for the Secretary of State to submit a determination of whether the Russian Federation meets the criteria for designation as a state sponsor of terrorism.” The bill almost certainly will not be passed (or probably even make it out of committee) before the midterms, but it does highlight the gap between the president’s posture toward Putin and the views of members of Congress.

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   1. From what I've read, the Senate voted not to add extra funding for election security because the administration has yet to spend any of the several hundred million already appropriated. 

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      1. The "extra funding" is for NEXT YEAR'S budget. No money has been "already appropriated" unless you are talking about this year's budget.

         Sequestration used to be considered an illicit power of the Executive. Now, it apparently happens as a near matter of course on key issues.

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5. From Keebler’s mouth to Prosperity Jesus’a wrathful Goddess’s ear 

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