16 thoughts on “Thursday Open Thread”

1. Is there anyone left at the GOP other than addle-pated, single issue, zealots, opportunistic greedheads, and slack-jawed racists?

   Seriously…who is going to take control of the party being destroyed by T***pism?

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   1. Maybe no one.
      Maybe McConnell and the rich people in the Senate are it for awhile. A generation.
      There was never any guarantee that party would survive. Sure, Lincoln freeing the slaves, saving the union (funded by the first US income tax), and reconstruction were a good start. Anti trust was reasonable. But they got the Federal reserve wrong – because it worked, more or less, until the banks blew themselves up hard in 2008.  And they were on the wrong side of Social security, Civil Rights and Medicare.

      Since the Southern strategy, Iran-Contra, Laffer and the moral majority- the party has remained on the wrong side. If what they claim was what they really did – lower debt, lower taxes, a libertarian approach to people doing whatever, a federal government that only does what the federal government is required to do – the party would be doing good.

      Instead they still want to kill Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid, subsidize the rich and let their racism and other isms show through.

      How about Eddie Lampert take control of the party and show people how to drive it aground. I know he's busy, but maybe for the good of king and country.
       

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   2. We don't want the Republican Party to collapse, we want all the nutcases in one package where we can keep an eye on them.

      I think it is important to look beyond the noise and fury of Trump tweets & right-wing radio to see who actually makes up the Republican Party, the Power Centers that benefit, and the Glue that holds it together:

      Glue = Money, Lobbyists, Right-wing Media and "Think" Tanks.

      Power = Big money interests, Wealth protection, Corruption.

      Republicans have power only due to collecting a large number of people to vote Republican, and how Americans are distributed geographically. Can they continue to hold it together?

      Where are the numbers coming from? 

      As college-educated "moderates" bail out of Trumpism, the Republican coalition is made up of:

      People with traditional "american" values, frightened by changing economy, changing demographics, declining opportunities in the rural areas and the Midwest. "Take me back to the white clapboard 1950s."

      Conservative religious evangelicals who see their belief system threatened by liberal values and The Others. "Universities and Hollywood liberals are corrupting our youth."

      Racially fearful. "I don't hate black people, but I don't want them in my neighborhood."

      Privileged who are afraid that improving the lives of others leads to their own position losing out. "Welfare queens are getting all the bennies, while I worked for everything I got."

      Ideological Republicans? Not sure how big this group is; Is it Libertarian theory or Plutocratic self-interest.

      Identity Politics.

      Those categories I listed aren't based in demographics so much as identity, values, privilege and fear. Polling cross-tabs like wealth, class, college, gender or age don't measure identity, but identity makes up a huge focus of Republican Party propaganda. 

      I mean, gun nutism is not an interest group or demographic, it is an identity glue.

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   3. I'm not sure that will be sufficient.  Recall even moderate Republicans have dangerous notions imperiling our future, e.g. Mitt Romney's "Corporations are People, my friend".

      The Original Evil Corporation

      The East India Company, a trading firm with its own army, was masterful at manipulating governments for its own profit. It’s the prototype for today’s multinationals.

      Although it has no exact equivalents, the Company was the ultimate prototype for many of today’s corporations. The most powerful among them these days do not need their own armies: They can rely on governments to protect their interests and bail them out.

      The history of the East India Company shows that Western imperialism and corporate capitalism were born hand in hand, the dragons’ teeth that spawned the modern world. As Baron Thurlow remarked in the late 1700s, when the Company was being criticized for its misdeeds and its governor-general, Warren Hastings, was on trial, “Corporations have neither bodies to be punished, nor souls to be condemned. They therefore do as they like.”

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      1. Thanks for the link, harrydoby. This looks fascinating. Saving for later tonight.

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2. Colorado looks to have gotten off relatively lightly from the $1.8 billion raid on military projects in order to get some wall.  The only one on the list:

   COLORADO  Peterson AFB  September 2020  Space Control Facility 2018  $8,000,000

   Wonder if Gardner and Lamborn will be trumpeting this news of Sad!-ministration action.

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   1. Why don't we just close Fort Carson and use the money to finance one helluva Pols meet up?

       

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   2. JiD — did you see this?

      In March, Republican Sen. Cory Gardner’s office said he had received assurance that no 2019 fiscal year money would be repurposed from Colorado’s military installations. That same month, the military published a list of 2019 construction projects on the chopping block that did not include any in Colorado. But the space control facility project was from the 2018 fiscal year, not 2019.

      So technically I suppose, this time Gardner didn't lie.

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3. WOTD from Vox: "6 winners and 3 losers from CNN’s climate town hall"

   Very good summary from Vox about what went down in the big Democratic Party forum on Climate Change. I didn't watch it, but I'm glad to get a good recap.

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   1. CNN has an article providing THEIR take on what was said:  What happened during CNN's climate town hall and what it means for 2020

      The contenders, who all embrace the science of climate change, offered voters an alternative to a President who views climate change as a "hoax" and slams their "dreams and windmills."

      But Donald Trump's mocking tweets and GOP rapid response attacks during the event reflected the risks Democrats run: While going big on climate is the price of entry in their presidential race, it's yet to be proven as a shrewd general election strategy.

       

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   2. Dimocrats should stop talking about climate change.

      Talk, instead, about clean air/water/land.

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      1. Agreed. Words matter.

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4. I see from reports that the monies that Trump is removing from the military to build his wall is hitting a bunch of GOP senators, many who are up for re-election.

   Including Colorado's very own Cory Gardner. Colorado will be losing $8 Million of construction money.

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   1. 

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   2. I know that this is mostly a rhetorical question, but how can the Republicans still claim to be the pro-military party when they allow their president to raid defense appropriations for his pointless pet project? Can you imagine how they would be screaming if a Democratic president pulled the same stunt for cybersecurity and/or election security or, god forbid, humane border detention?

      Also, if there is one potential silver lining, the military may need to tighten their belts, maybe hold a few bakesales. For political reasons, military spending seems to only ever ratchet up. Maybe Trump, through his unique incompetence, has found a way to force military spending down.

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      1. 110% of that military spending will
         a) be blamed on Democrats for forcing the president to do it
         b) will be replaced

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