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January 08, 2021 11:29 PM UTC

Weekend Open Thread

  • 96 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

“It is easy to dodge our responsibilities, but we cannot dodge the consequences of dodging our responsibilities.”

–Josiah Stamp

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96 thoughts on “Weekend Open Thread”

  1. Today is Back to Political Normal Day. 
    Do something a citizen in a democracy would do. Write your legislator. Express a controversial opinion. Go to a meeting, even if only a virtual one. Check up on a neighbor or friend. Discuss politics with your family – politely. ( I didn’t say that this would be easy!). Write a critical letter to a governing body. 
     

    This makes at least as much sense as commemorating some food item- sorry, davebarnes. 

  2. My Cat and I have been discussing the impact the recent insurrection has had on our well being and state of mind.

    I think it is almost impossible for me to share the trauma she experienced as she watched the desecration of our nations’ capitol. I have been expecting something like this, having long been convinced that T***p would not stop until someone stops him.

    It looks like it took the voters to do it. That, and the ” give ’em enough rope” principle. The cool part is the likelihood that he will take down the Greedy Old Patriarchs with him. Jonathan Capehart was asked last night on PBS, what has T***p done to the Republican party? Capehart said, “He has destroyed it.”

    David Brooks did not agree…but, I do.

        1. Oh…

          Then we're in agreement. In fact, one of the great things Donald Trump has accomplished is he's turned my wife and 3 daughters from people with zero interest in politics to avid political junkies.

          I also agree with Trump on increased water volume for showers.

          1. The OD was the scalpel that lanced a boil on the ass of our country. That boil is the Republican party. The festering is the result of lies, which act like gangrene on the political body. 

            This catharsis may start a long overdue healing process. But the lying has to stop. These things are true…

            1. Money is not speech.

            2.Corporations are not people.

            3. Black Lives Matter.

            4. Reparations are necessary for healing.

            …and so forth.

            Much good can come from the scourge of the Trumplican© party, if we use its injuries as lessons. The Republican party is full of enablers who looked the other way while Yammie Pie slung his poop. 

            Now they say…”Oh, I didn’t see this coming.”

            I call bullshit. It isn’t like people haven’t been screaming out a warning.
            p.s. the water pressure issue, to me, is moot. I have gravity fed water that I haul to a large cistern up the hill. However…he has never rejected the designated hitter rule…for that, there is no forgiveness.😉

             

             

          2. “Great” . . .

            . . . Wanna’ ask any of your “woke” family members if they don’t think they’d be much better off without having had any of the four years of Ttump and his crimes?

            Ttump’s got an enormous ass and all those layers of baked-on daily buildup from hourly coatings of toxic orange spackle and hair epoxy to firehose off . . .

            . . . maybe someone could come up with some software that would supply the planet with unlimited fresh water?

  3. Dump permanently banned from Twitter

    Ready for European standards on free speech?

    U.S. constitutional tradition treats hate speech as the advocacy of racist or sexist ideas. They may be repellent, but because they count as ideas, they get full First Amendment protection. Hate speech can only be banned in the U.S. if it is intended to incite imminent violence and is actually likely to do so. This permissive U.S. attitude is highly unusual. Europeans don’t consider hate speech to be valuable public discourse and reserve the right to ban it. They consider hate speech to degrade from equal citizenship and participation. Racism isn’t an idea; it’s a form of discrimination.

    The underlying philosophical difference here is about the right of the individual to self-expression. Americans value that classic liberal right very highly — so highly that we tolerate speech that might make others less equal. Europeans value the democratic collective and the capacity of all citizens to participate fully in it — so much that they are willing to limit individual rights.

    Opinion
    Have Trump’s Lies Wrecked Free Speech?
    A debate has broken out over whether the once-sacrosanct constitutional protection of the First Amendment has become a threat to democracy.

    By Thomas B. Edsall

    1. For those of you thinking the First Amendment applies to the current Twitter activity, think of Twitter as a Christian bakery and Trump as the gay wedding cake. 

  5. So if Ttumpy is impeached and loses his right to run for office in 2024, what happens to the $300 million in his SCAMPac that he's no doubt planning to use as his personal piggy bank?  It seems the entire premise of him having unfettered use of those funds is the illusion he's actually running in 2024. 

    1. He'll write his own rules about how that money can be spent just like he has with everything else.Consequences are for losers.

      He's going to need a lot of cash for legal defense soon. Rudy will probably up his rate. Cleta Mitchell has free time available too.

  8. Buffalo Man Josh Hawley’s running mate has been apprehended and charged. He told authorities that he traveled to the capital with a group from Arizona, “at the request of the President that all ‘patriots’ come to D.C.,” court documents say.

    1. Guess he wasn’t smart enough to understand that “right to remain silent”? . . .

      . . . that, or he plans on cutting a deal by providing testimony at the impeachment hearing?

        1. As a former VP, Pence will not have lifetime Secret Service protection.  Pence will likely be the target of these mobs for a very long time.

  9. Rafael Eduardo has had better days.  The Houston Chronicle is calling for his resignation; his former communications director tells CNN's Erin Burnett why she believes that the senator directly played a part in the riot that erupted at the US Capitol.

    1. That’s the funniest thing on the interwebs today!! 

      I wonder if John Barron has ever heard of Ginni Thomas?

  15. Here, we are compiling links to charging documents related to the Jan. 6 riot on Capitol Hill. Our list includes cases in both the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. This article will be continually updated. 

  16. Bye Felicia…

    Amazon Is Booting Parler Off Of Its Web Hosting Service

    Amazon's suspension of Parler's account means that unless it can find another host, once the ban takes effect on Sunday Parler will go offline.

    Republican lawmakers including Sen. Ted Cruz and Congressman Devin Nunes as well as President Donald Trump’s family members and surrogates have all established accounts on Parler, and have publicly encouraged their supporters to join them there. So too have many figures in conservative media.

  18. To Capitol security chiefs who were surprised that the Trump crowd could turn violent, you might have observed the rioters were not wearing pussy hats.

      1. (it’s more of a psychotic break ahead of his next visit from the FBI).  He’s been lied to…he’s the victim!

        Alex Jones says he paid $500,000 for rally that led to Capitol riot

        The conspiracy theorist has also publicly peddled QAnon conspiracies. Ashili Babbit, the woman who was shot and killed while breaking into the Capitol, was a QAnon adherent.  

        “We will never back down to the Satanic paedophile, globalist New World Order and their walking-dead reanimated corpse Joe Biden, and we will never recognize him,” Mr Jones said during the Million MAGA March.  

        The belief in a global cabal of demonic pedophiles that only Mr Trump is working to stop is a central tenant of the QAnon conspiracy theory. 

    1. Nice trap. But most teachers on high stakes tests have students turn off and surrender phones prior to testing. At least, that’s how we did it in in-person education. 

      There isn’t much teachers can do to prevent  cheating with remote education – how do you prevent a student from consulting a phone, a friend, a parent at home? Turnitin.com and other sites find plagiarism in writing. 

      This is why Socratic questioning, presented projects, monitored debate with rules, etc, are preferred to show actual learning and application of content. That was true even before Covid shut down school buildings. The era of the drilled-response, memorized and regurgitated tests as a measure of learning, except on the most basic skills, is ending. 

      For example, in your own area of expertise, a student should know coding and computer vocabulary, which can be taught with the old drill-and-kill methods, and in which cheating isn’t important. If a student has to look up a term, so what? But students presenting an original animation or program which does a task shows the world that they learned something.

    1. Why couldn't they just buy a system from another state and then tweak it?  At a million a year for operating rights and upgrades done for the other system, we'd STILL be way ahead.

      1. Certainly more brilliant that yours.

        Next time, after a 2nd election, dump and all of his enablers will feel empowered to go to the Capitol and hold the doors open for the seditionists.

        Can you think beyond the end of your nose, Voyeur?

          1. Gold star for your excellent mathematical skills, Voyeur.

            And all this time I’ve been convinced that dump thrived alongside weasels like you.

            Math skills aside, it is unfortunate that you never learned the skill of civil disagreement and discourse.

            What are you feeling compelled to compensate for through escalating insult and name calling?

        2. @kickshot. Be not so rude.  Honest disagreement and progress are hindered by shouting insults.

          Manchin is a problem, agreed, but having 50/50 plus VP is essential.

          My guess is that he will not survive the next election. I am certain that the Republican Party will split, which will open new opportunities for the Democratic Party in states that are less heavily Republican. 

          1. Do you feel like forwarding articles of impeachment to the Senate would cause Manchin to flip to R? Would he do that to smoothe over a vote against impeachment? 

            More likely, if he voted against, he could do it from within whatever party he chooses but it would not come from party policies but rather a self-interest in political survival valued more highly that the rule of law.

            Thank you for disagreeing civilly. I respectfully disagree.

    3. Manchin is a p.o.s. to be sure, but we'd better get accustomed to kissing his backside. When SCOTUS offs the Affordable Care Act, ol' Joe will have a massive say what the replacement legislation includes.

      1. I don't see Manchin as a threat to what's left of the post-SCOTUS ACA. He's chairing the energy committee and he has tangled with the WV AG who joined the suit w/dump:

        U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., also accused Morrisey of playing politics with West Virginians’ healthcare. Morrisey challenged Manchin in 2018 for his Senate seat, losing with just 46 percent of the vote. Manchin has frequently called on Morrisey to pull West Virginia from the lawsuit.

        Manchin has already won that one for his constituents.

  22. Rep. Jim Clyburn (D – National Hero) pointed out that the House Impeachment Articles, after passing the House, don’t have to be immediately sent to the Senate for a trial.  That can wait until after the Cabinet is confirmed, new pandemic action is taken, etc.  This brilliantly neuters those that claimed an Impeachment would hurt Biden (including Biden himself).

    1. It’s a particular kind of outrage that the Rs are throwing everything they can think of to avoid having to make their own decision on impeachment.

      Scalise says impeachment won’t solve anything (avoiding any measure of accountability).

      Blount doesn’t even think that there’s anything impeachable (tired, recycled argument from last year).

      McCarthy says second Trump impeachment would “divide our country more” (but sedition won’t).

      Impeachment will strengthen Biden and his platform for the people, not the autocrats.

      One of Biden’ primary missions has to be erasing every vestige of dump and dumpism. Impeachment is just the beginning of that.

    2. yep … my thought is pass now in the House.  Then take advantage of the next year and all the ugliness that can be found in the ashes of the Trump Sad!-ministration, the testimony of the pardoned, the resolution of various court cases. Write a superseding impeachment resolution with ALL of the high crimes and misdemeanors found and provable, and send that to the Senate — with Democrats holding calendar control and likely being able to improve on the rules from last time.

    3. Accountability requires impeachment. I do kind of like Clyburn's suggestion, and it is essential to get Republicans on the record as to which side they are on. Part of the psychological campaign to get the GOP to shatter.

      There is certainly a lot more information that we need.

      We know about Trump & Republican complicity in building up the demonstration. The questions are about who failed to prepare the threat assessment, who set up situation where the Pentagon delayed sending in national guard.

      And, WTF did the Capitol Police not defend Congress from an irate mob. Follow the chain of command up, and then back down.

      1. The argument that this 'slow burn' impeachment should be disregarded because it has not been tested in court is an R tactic coming from the WH:

        Behind closed doors, Trump and his son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner have encouraged allies to fight against a potential impeachment by issuing statements on social media or elsewhere that discourage or condemn the move

        It hasn't been tested against a president but I blv that it was successful with a cabinet official once in.

         

        There will never be a higher ground from which to push against today's version of conservatism and corrupt government for the 1%.

  23. Wanna’ guess how to fuck up a good thing, and completely poison an entire aquifer? . . . 
     

    . . . Hint:  It starts with M-O-N-S-A-N-T-O

    ‘There’s a red flag here’: how an ethanol plant is dangerously polluting a US village

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/10/mead-nebraska-ethanol-plant-pollution-danger

    [Jumping to the punchline] . . . 

    And though the state has not stopped AltEn from taking in pesticide-coated seeds for ethanol production, it has ordered AltEn to implement a ground water monitoring plan and other mitigation measures, though the state has noted multiple problems with compliance. The state also has ordered AltEn to dispose of its waste at a permitted solid waste disposal area facility.

    Residents question whether or not that will happen and point to large piles of the green waste still ringing the facility.

    Neither Tingelhoff, the AltEn general manager, nor two other plant officials responded to a request for comment.

    But state officials declined to be interviewed for this story, though Blayne Glissman, an NDEE waste permits specialist, offered a defense for the ethanol operation, saying he believed AltEn officials were just “hard-working [moneyed white]* people trying to make a living”.

    *[FIFY Blayne]

    1. Are neocotinoids and other undegradable pesticides the new nuclear waste?  I honestly don’t know, but it seems so. We need to save the bees and other pollinators if we want to feed 7.8 billion people. 
       

      Say what you will about Boulder, but it is bee heaven. Some neighborhoods are planted with so many bee-friendly plants that you can walk down the street in high summer and see golden clouds of bees buzzing everywhere. They don’t sting unless you do something stupid. 
      We keep four hives at our community garden, and try to provide plenty of flowering plants for the little buzzers. 
       

       

      1. Our niece has beehives in my brother's backyard. She started them when she and my nephew lived with them, but she still goes over every day and checks on them.

        1. May I be so forward as to suggest that you maybe consider purchasing a packet or two of milkweed seeds (asclepias speciosa or another Colorado native variety — https://www.growmilkweedplants.com/colorado.html) off the web, or Amazon?  The bees, and the Monarch butterflies, will all thank you.

          Saving this planet starts at home with every little thing we can do to be part of the solution . . . 

          2. I spent a couple of hours lying on my back in an Oklahoma state park once, watching hundreds of thousands of Monarchs flying south. It is a memory I cherish. An incredible sight.

    2. We ended up with a 10% ethanol mandate in the first place to mitigate MTBE from leaking underground gasoline that was poisoning water supplies.  The fossil fuel industry went along with it because Congress concurrently gave them immunity from pollution lawsuits.  

      There isn't a farmer in the US that would grow corn without the federal subsidies and safety nets that come with the Farm Bill pact.  That pact between Monsanto, DuPont, and others gets renewed every five years via a new Farm Bill.  Our ecology is rotting from the core of this maniac policy. The Iowa Supreme Court is weighing options on who should hold agriculture accountable for the conditions in the Coon River. 

      The Biden Administration has vowed to focus its support on 'advanced biofuels', which I wholly support.  We generate 1.4 billion tonnes of ag waste annually, enough waste to supply fully 1/3 of our liquid fuel needs.  We don't need to perpetuate the insanity of our present public policy.  We do need to minimize the aromatics in gasoline for public health costs/reasons – and ethanol is really the only way to do that (until we transition to a mostly-electric transportation system)

       

      We know better.  Let's do better. 

      1. The smart farmers will be transitioning out of corn for ethanol sooner rather than later. When the stampede comes, the stupid farmers will be the ones who delayed.

        Life-cycle costs of an electric car are already lower than a gas car – not just low maintenance, NO maintenance!

        I give it 5 years before gas cars are uneconomic: Build the electric car infrastructure, and watch Corn, Coal and O&G industries collapse. 

        1. We need to switch subsidies to crops that remove carbon from the atmosphere and store it in soil.  We can’t just slow climate change, we need to reverse it.

  26. Today's Daily Kos Abbreviated Pundit Roundup, comments stream, has this notice of Glocking Lauren ("Just pull my string")

    Masks Save Lives. @mad4sci

    some tweets suggestion the newly minted Rep Boebert was providing info on the Speaker's whereabouts from inside the chamber?

    Apparently referring to

    Dr. Daniel, PhD

    @SirDanielJ  Replying to @shannonrwatts  and  @RepBoebert

    #Boehbert alleged tweeting the location of Pelosi during Capital riot. First she tweets they both are in the House chamber. Then she tweets Pelosi is in a safe room. Was she giving a head’s up to one or more those seeking to take hostages. Investigation necessary.

    Dr. Daniel had screen captures of Boebert tweets, which are pretty anodyne descriptions:  "we were locked in the House Chambers" and "The Speaker has been removed from the chambers."

    1. Was Boebert hired to protect Nancy Pelosi?

      Why did she even mention the Speaker? Why?…because she knew the Trump militia was looking for her. 

      Then, when they were separated, she let them know the speaker was no longer in the Chamber and she couldn't say where they had taken her.

      What other audience was she trying to reach?

  27. I think Wednesday showed a total failure of planning & leadership by the Capitol Police. And I think we'll find that some police abided the terrorists and that a number stood by as it unfolded.

    But…

    I think the vast majority, in what turned into something they had probably never expected, and had never specifically trained for, accomplished their primary job. They kept every Congressperson safe. And every aide & employee.

    I have immense appreciation & respect for those that did their job. In impossible conditions.

  28. Today on MSNBC: the procession for the slain policeman. 
     

    Today on Fox: the funeral for Parler. 
     

    Let’s put reinstatement of The Fairness Doctrine on The First Hundred Days list. 

    1. “I know, I know — It might sound a little crazy to some people — but I was having this dream where, suddenly, the heavens parted and my Lord Ttump descended from on high along with multitudes of angels from Africa, and he spoke to me, and he told me that he had broken all the satanic Dominion algorithms with his yuge landslide victory, and that the divine evidence for the broken algorithms would be found safely hidden somewhere in Omaha, in a manger — and here’s the part I thought was just a little weird — under a Cinnabon manager’s inferior-brand pillow . . .”

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