Tuesday Open Thread

15 thoughts on “Tuesday Open Thread”

1. "… 'he wanted to keep the missile launcher as a souvenir,'…"

   "Military weapons are not permitted in checked or carry-on bags," the agency added.

   He didn't have the rockets, just the launcher. And rocket launchers don't kill people. Jeez. A bunch of control freaks just suppressing citizens' right to steal stuff from the government.

   Log in to Reply

2. The stuff that GIs brought home after WW II was amazing.

   My friend Todd's father brought home a Type 96 light machine gun

   

   Log in to Reply

3. Uncrustables coming to Colorado: (I'll see your high-capacity mag and raise you a peanut butter-and-jelly sammich)

   Smucker Co. to unveil new Longmont manufacturing facility on Wednesday

   Smucker’s also is receiving incentives from Weld County. The company will receive a “50% personal property tax credit incentive over a 10-year period, worth about $3.1 million, according to Upstate Colorado Economic Development Senior Vice President Cathy Schulte,” the Greeley Tribune reported in October 2018. Upstate Colorado, according to its website, is a public-private Weld County economic development organization.

   Longmont City Council in February 2017 passed a $6.5 million incentive package for the plant. The deal was contingent on future employees being paid 105% of Weld County’s average annual wage, or about $48,977.

   Log in to Reply

4. Curious.  Given the choice of a rat or Trump in your home, which would you choose? . . .

   . . . 

   I guess, I’m thinking that I could always get rid of the rat . . .

   . . .

   . . . plus, I think I’d get bored watching Trump stuck, whining, unable to figure out the maze.

    

   Log in to Reply

   1. I'd take the rat. My cats can always use a new toy.

      Log in to Reply

   2. Given that Obama's EPA clamped down on rat poisons, I'm sure somewhere in his big ol' pile of Executive Orders he's rolled those provisions back.  It's unclear whether skinny's Kat is sheltered from wrath of Twitler's pen.  She may be harboring an illegal? 

      

       

       

      Log in to Reply

      1. Well, one of them WAS a shelter cat. She was abandoned in an apartment building by a family that moved and left her behind. A kind neighbor, who worked at the shelter brought her in, so, you might be right, Michael. She didn't have any papers.

         Log in to Reply

5. WOTD from David Roberts at Vox: "With his five-part climate proposal, Inslee has generated a fully fleshed-out Green New Deal"

   With this climate justice plan, Inslee has now generated a fully fleshed-out Green New Deal, a transformational program that would not only reduce emissions but make structural reforms to the economy to protect and invest in vulnerable communities, boost innovation and job growth, empower workers, and hold polluters accountable. 

   I’ve been saying all along that GND supporters — lacking any other concrete policy plan to rally around — should simply adopt Inslee’s climate agenda. His 170 pages of policy are about as detailed and thorough as any plan is likely to get (at least until he releases the next bit). The plan draws almost all its ideas from policies successfully road-tested at the state level. It is progressive in its goals and practical in its means. Above all, it is actionable. The next president can draw ideas from it on day one.

   Log in to Reply

   1. DOI or VP.

      Log in to Reply

6. Proving, yet again, it’s much harder to have any kind of “crisis” or “crime wave,” without some assistance from governmental complicity, corruption, or willful neglect . . . 

   “I think this [database] brings home what we all knew,” says Corey Davis, an attorney and public health expert at the Network for Public Health Law. “This wasn’t just incompetence on the part of the DEA and the Department of Justice, it was knowing and intentional failure to do what most people think is their jobs.”

   What is the DEA’s job, exactly? Its first task, and the one most associated with the agency, is the Sicario-esque disruption of illicit flows of drugs coming into the U.S. from abroad, like intercepting speedboats filled with cocaine. Its other major responsibility is controlling licit pharmaceuticals. “The whole goal of the prescription system is to make sure that patients are getting their medications, and that medications are not going to those who aren’t patients,” which is called “diversion,” says Bryce Pardo, a drug policy researcher at the RAND Corporation. “That’s the whole point of the system, which was invented a hundred years ago. Clearly, the system broke. The system failed.”

   https://newrepublic.com/article/154560/opioid-crisis-corporate-greed

    

    

   Log in to Reply

   1. RICO all of  'em.
      Charges to include negligent homicide (s).

      Log in to Reply

7. ‘Moscow Mitch’ Tag Enrages McConnell and Squeezes G.O.P. on Election Security

   https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/30/us/politics/moscow-mitch-mcconnell.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

   Even President Trump felt compelled to come to his defense — as only he could.

   “Mitch McConnell is a man that knows less about Russia and Russian influence than even Donald Trump,” the president told reporters Tuesday as he was leaving for a speech in Jamestown, Va. “And I know nothing.”

   . . . . ummmmmm . . .

   . . . I guess I got nuthin’ anywhere even close to as good as that . . . 

   Log in to Reply

8. Deleted dupe

   Log in to Reply

9. Well, the debate part 1is almost over. As predicted, Elizabeth Warren outshone her competitors with a grasp of policy details, consistency, passion, and decency. She was the only one to say that America would not nuke first. (Hick wants to keep that option open). 

   Hick was all around embarrassing. Those of you who support him for Senate, can you honestly say you saw anything Senatorial in his performance?

   I thought thatTim Ryan , whom I had never seen before, had a good grasp of rural issues and how they relate to climate change. 

   I enjoyed watching Bernie and Liz tag-team…those who were hoping to see them fight it out were probably disappointed.

   I didn’t see Marianne Williamson the times I tuned in, but in general, I think Oprah funded her candidacy and pushed her to run to keep bringing up the politically fraught issue of reparations. Fine with me- we need to have the conversation, at least.

   Log in to Reply

   1. Between Warren's "I don't understand why someone goes to the trouble of running for president of the United States just to talk about what we really shouldn't do or can't fight for," and Mayor Pete's "It is time to stop worrying about what the Republicans will say. It's true that if we embrace a far-left agenda, they're gonna say we're a bunch of crazy socialists. If we embrace a conservative agenda, you know what they're gonna do? They're gonna say we're a bunch of crazy socialists. So let's just stand up for the right policy, go out there and defend it," I think we got some good strong rebukes of the negative framing we see from moderates and "appeal to Trump voters" types.

      Log in to Reply