7 thoughts on “Thursday Open Thread”

1. Military action in Iran.

   Negative interest rates.

   Climbing oil and gasoline prices.

   Electoral math.

   President Trump only loses if he increases taxes and admits it, ala George Bush.
   Sure tariffs are taxes, but shhh don't tell anyone.

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2. “Speak softly and carry a big stick.”  (A U.S.  President)  

   “Tweet bigly and incoherently — (that’s all I got.)”  (A mango moron with a twitter account)

   Who woulda’ thought that Donnie LittleStick would ever bungle the country into an impending global disaster?

   I guess that’s what can happen when you’ve got nothing — no credibility, no alliances, no diplomacy, no clue, no moral bent, no skills, no plan, no genius — nothing, but a mirror and bluster . . . 

    

   We’re Not the Saudis’ Mercenaries
   https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/18/opinion/iran-saudi.html

   So Trump has a genuine dilemma: Inaction may be perceived as weakness, while military strikes may escalate and drag us into cataclysm.  But this is a dilemma of Trump’s own making.

   We are in this mess because Trump abandoned the landmark 2015 Iranian nuclear deal. Hawks argued that we could apply maximum pressure on Iran and inflict such pain that it would buckle, without appreciating that Iran could also ramp up the pressure on us.

   That’s the problem with hawks. They plan out their chess games and triumphantly plot a checkmate without appreciating the basic lesson of Sun Tzu or Clausewitz that the other side also gets to move.

   Unfortunately, without the Iran nuclear deal, all options are bad. We should be searching for ways to return to the agreement, with face-saving tweaks that would allow both Trump and the Iranian supreme leader to claim victory.

   Instead, I’m afraid we risk slipping into conflict. Nobody wants a war, but getting out of this will require skillful diplomacy, which isn’t something the Trump team has much demonstrated.

   and

   The Trump Doctrine, Revealed
   https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/19/opinion/trump-iran.html

   Thomas Jefferson warned against entangling alliances. John F. Kennedy was ready to pay any price and bear any burden. Teddy Roosevelt advised us to speak softly and carry a big stick.

   And then there’s Donald Trump. Locked, half-cocked, and probably bluffing.

   That’s the lesson Iran’s leaders appear to have drawn following a carefully calibrated sequence of escalatory attacks against the U.S. and its allies in recent months.

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4. The kind of pollution The Yam  & Co. care about. It's not the smog, it's the homeless people:;https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/462103-trump-says-epa-will-cite-san-francisco-for-pollution-stemming-from

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5. The birds are dying, the planet is likely warming even faster than previously predicted, and our government is leaning in to its destructive policies.

   Until we can fire Trump and get an environmentally active House and Senate (and even after!), we need to keep up pressure on our local and state legislators. Don't buy the fossil fuel dinosaurs' bullshit. Tell your representatives to implement state and local restrictions on herbicides and pesticides. Participate in tomorrow's Climate Strike (or other similar events). Aggressively conserve Colorado open space. Don't subsidize extreme Colorado growth rates.

   It is arrogance to assume that people are somehow independent of their environment. Our legacy will either be a poisoned, blighted husk or a sustainable, renewable planet. But if we do nothing, we get the husk.

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6. On an optimistic note tonight — Colt's management has a conscience

   Colt to Suspend Production of AR-15 Rifles for Consumers

   The gun manufacturer said the market had an adequate supply of sporting rifles and it would focus on its military and law enforcement contracts instead.

   Of course, Dudley Brown and his ilk will just puff out their lower lip, sniffle a few times and then whimper that other gun manufacturers will just fill the void. 

   Their profits are worth more than your lives, naturally.

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   1. Before you give Colt too much credit, consider that there are already millions of AR -15s already on shelves and sales seem to have suddenly dried up. If demand plummets, the individual prices will also because there is a huge inventory of unsold guns.

      This action can be seen as little more than price support…they can resume as easily as they stop.

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