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August 30, 2019 07:08 AM UTC

Friday Open Thread

  • 34 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

“People who fly into a rage always make a bad landing.”

–Will Rogers

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34 thoughts on “Friday Open Thread”

    1. Wasn't Kimberly Guilfoyle the ex-Mrs. Gavin Newsom? (I'm not sure she ever went by that name – I would hope not – but wasn't she married to the current CA governor.)

      2. cut & paste from Wikipedia:

        Guilifoyle married Newsom in 2001, when he was a Supervisor.  He won the Mayor's race in 2003.  In January 2005, citing the strain of a bi-coastal marriage, Guilfoyle filed for divorce from Newsom.  she went by the name Kimberly Guilfoyle Newsom.

  2. NYTimes illustrates why businesses are stuck in a holding pattern which will further depress investments needed to grow the economy.

    The president’s whiplash-inducing China moves over the past week sent companies across the United States scrambling to adjust.

    And as the US economy slows, October will be especially rough as a No-Deal Brexit looms ever more likely.

     …business investment is weakening in the face of the uncertainties created by the taxes that Trump has imposed on numerous imports — goods that many American businesses rely upon.

    Gus Faucher, the chief economist at PNC Financial, said he expects the trade war to begin to weigh on consumers in the second half of this year as some of Trump’s additional tariffs on Chinese products take effect Sunday and others on Dec. 15. In addition, higher tariffs on a separate group of Chinese products are to take effect Oct. 1.

    Faucher thinks growth is slowing to a 1.5% annual rate in the current July-September quarter and will dip to around a sluggish 1.3% rate in the fourth quarter.

    In the meantime, Trump's response will simply be:

    Political Cartoon

  3. Senate Democrats’ Campaign Arm Is Pressuring Consultants Not to Work With Leading Progressive Candidate in Colorado

    Andrew Romanoff, who is one of more than a dozen candidates vying for Republican Sen. Cory Gardner’s seat, told The Intercept that multiple consultants turned down jobs with his campaign citing pressure from the DSCC.

    “They’ve made it clear to a number of the firms and individuals we tried to hire that they wouldn’t get any business in Washington or with the DSCC if they worked with me,” Romanoff said. “It’s been a well-orchestrated operation to blackball ragtag grassroots teams.”

    At least five firms and 25 prospective staff turned down working with his campaign, said Romanoff, who has raised more than $1 million in individual contributions so far. “I spoke to the firms, my campaign manager spoke to the staff prospects,” he said. “Pretty much everyone who checked in with the DSCC got the same warning: Helping us would cost them.”

    A consultant who spoke to The Intercept on the condition of anonymity said that their firm had been far along in talks to work for Romanoff when they got word that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and the DSCC weren’t happy. The firm was told by a top DSCC staffer that they “absolutely under no circumstances could work for Andrew Romanoff, so we withdrew our offer to be his consulting firm.”

      1. There are a number of really pissed off Dems in Colorado – I've heard from many and have seen discussions about it on social media. If Hickenlooper and the DSCC bull their way through the Primary, the enthusiasm for his candidacy will be limited to say the least. And that doesn't count whatever the GOP would do to him in the General.

        1. This isn't the first time this sort of thing has happened. It is the primary reason I told the Mesa Dems to shove it. The Top of the party refuses to listen to us… those who see the need for PROGRESS.

          I will be entertaining a group of progressives in a couple of weeks, but I have no interest in the Dem party establishment.

  4. "The USDA Economic Research Service on Friday updated their net farm income forecast for 2019."

    Unexpectedly, the forecast is for a rise in net farm income of $4 billion (4.8%) to $88 billion total.  After expecting a decrease due to loss of China markets, bad weather, and indifferent prices, I was surprised. 

    Then I looked into the report a bit deeper, saw decline after decline, and — at long last — one category up substantially.  "Direct government farm payments of $19.5 billion are pushing the total income level higher for 2019. Those payments include Federal farm program payments paid directly to farmers and ranchers."

    1. How many of whom are small mom and pop outfits, I wonder. I am guessing the big corporate outfits are loving this.

      They will get to pick up the pieces…

      1. The math is (generally) about 90% of these wealth transfers go to the top 20-30%% of producers.  

        You can wander around in this database and glean a lot of good information (down to the county/producer level). 77% of Colorado's farm-ranch operations do not receive subsidies so the $7.32 billion in wealth transfers between 1995-2019 went to a relatively small group of (large) operations.  

        Arguably the cattle, pork and poultry industry, rarely recipients of direct federal payments except in times of disaster (or China trade wars), benefit indirectly from our ‘cheap corn’ policy in the form of subsidized feed.

    3. The rest of the story (in my Paul Harvey voice):

      Without those mitigation payments, net farm income would be about $68.5 billion, ERS economist Carrie Litkowski said on a Friday webinar. That total would be about a 19% decrease from last year. Without commodity insurance indemnities of $6.6 billion — a 160% increase from 2018 — overall net farm income would be $62 billion.

      1. So, presumably, the emergency Trump farm subsidies will continue as long as he's in office since the China markets aren't coming back any time soon.

        So if/when a Democrat is elected, Republicans will once again care about the deficit and complain about wasteful spending, hoping to see a huge drop in farm income and blame it on Democrats, natch.

            1. the solution or improvement for …

              climate change
              FEMA
              trade imbalance
              Iran
              NEA
              Russia
              EPA
              deep state
              rotating door on staff
              election interference
              border security

              … is tax cuts.

              Every other problem, and some of those listed, is fake.
               

               

  5. Apparently paranoia, fear and hate = gullible as a newborn in conservative circles

    Leaked Emails Show How White Nationalists Have Infiltrated Conservative Media

    Conservative institutions in the Donald Trump era have often sought to portray themselves as shocked and appalled by the so-called “alt-right.” White nationalists have also engaged in their own efforts to differentiate themselves from the neoconservatives who dominated the GOP for decades. But neither narrative is true. The reality is that a host of supposedly veritable right-wing institutions have become a safe haven for the far-right.

    Indeed, there is a burgeoning underground network of group chats, message boards, and email chains serving as the breeding ground for incubating white nationalist ideas, and as a forum to strategize around how to launder those ideas through mainstream conservative publications. And, judging from a large series of messages from one of those email groups obtained by Splinter, it’s working.

  6. Paul Krugman wondering when or if farmers will see through Trump:

    In short, farmers’ support for Trump should be seen as a form of affinity fraud, in which people fall for a con man whom they imagine to be someone like them.

    And as is often the case in such frauds, the con man and his associates actually have contempt for their marks.

    Recently Sonny Perdue, the agriculture secretary, let the mask slipduring a meeting with farmers complaining about their plight. “What do you call two farmers in a basement?” he snarked. “A whine cellar.”

    Trump’s own remarks about trade with Japan were even more telling. According to a White House transcript, Trump complained that while Japan sends us millions of cars, “We send them wheat. Wheat. (Laughter.)” Do farmers realize that their president considers their livelihood a joke?

    So what will happen as the trade war drags on? Don’t expect farmers to suddenly exclaim en masse, “Hey, we’ve been had!” Real life doesn’t work that way. But they have, in fact, been had, and they may finally be starting to realize it.

    I don't think he's holding his breath.

  7. Gail Collins column on Trump's mental decline evoked this response from a reader.  I hope it prompts some reflection from independents and Republicans that are not sure whom to vote for next year.

    We obsess about his mental health, something that does seem to be a real concern, and then we ask when will the GOP do something. I fear it won't be until his liabilities outweigh their plans to deconstruct the entire enterprise of federal governance altogether. He's the distraction, the juicy bone, the catnip, the shiny object that the media (and most of the public) focus on, while in the background, regulations and programs dating back to Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, and beyond are systematically being eviscerated. Judges are being confirmed for life, departments and agencies gutted, treaties torn up, institutional memories shed – it's not about Mr Trump, the Wizard of Odd and Bizarre. It's about the nihilists behind the curtain.

          1. “Oh, you got me again Mr. President Trumpsky. What a shrewd and magnificently successful genius you are. I’ve read and reread your great great books, and you are far far beyond merely a deal artist . . . I think maybe you were a very great Czar or a Pharaoh in some previous life?  I shall have to watch you very closely when we finalize our partnership on TrumpImperialPalaces Moscow — you might use your great business knowledge to take advantage of this simple Russian peasant, if I’m not very careful, no? I’m sometimes not sure I should have let you talk me into this?

            Have you seen our latest drawings for TrumpCastles Kiev??? Should we expand and make it bigger?? We’ll probably need just a little bit more land there, don’t you think? . . . ”

            Even as foul and malevolent as Putin is, I gotta’ believe he literally runs for the shower after every meeting with Ttump?

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