“Preservation of one’s own culture does not require contempt or disrespect for other cultures.”
–Cesar Chavez
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Today is Maple Syrup Saturday
Question to the panel: We also need to acknowledge that many people who work in a particular field for a long time may define themselves by the work that they do. It's not just a matter of retraining. How do we also meet the need to help them redefine who they are as people within this pro-environmentally friendly context?
—
Progressives showing up to define goals lack the easy vocabulary.
The Frank Luntzes of the right are winning.
Short version … I don't think a United States (or any state) effort has been focused on helping people to redefine themselves. People wind up figuring how to adapt … which has left some behind at times.
There have been efforts to help with job training. Some efforts to mitigate harms of their previous employment (black lung & uranium miners). But wagoneers did not get help to become teamsters, and as long-haul truck driving is substantially reduced by machine driving, I can't imagine there will be government sponsored programs to aid people in redefining themselves as something other than truck drivers.
Due respect to the success of Frank Luntz and his growing net worth — but he and his colleagues have largely been pushed aside by the Trumpian amateur hour. he seems to be chronicling the right's thoughts, no longer being a thought leader.
He is a thought leader in these ways:
– he is the vocabulary creator
therefore,
– the messaging leader
No one likes death taxes.
Many capitalism loving Americans understand and support estate taxes.
The Luntzian reaction to the above paragraph is The only time it's a legitimate government function to make people feel good about themselves is when the government is socialist
Luntz and those who message like him are winning.
How can I tell? Many ways , but here's one: the Democratic senators represent 40million more Americans than the Republican senators, but they are tied 50/50.
Give people credit for resilience. Craig, Colorado, a coal town for generations, is rebounding, thanks to community college cybersecurity program, cannabis businesses, a revitalized tourism industry, and yes, the”gubmint”, in the form of the paycheck protection program and unemployment checks.
Also from state and Federal programs to help people transition from coal economies.
Infrastructure for a whole new renewable energy market is coming online, too.
Yes, there was a fair amount of bitchin and griping and boycotting of beer about coal-killing, dastardly environmentalists with their evil plans. Yet, gubmint and business worked it out.
Nobody had to come up with a competing vocabulary. They just had to figure out how to pay the bills and keep their town alive. So they did that.
The Monarch of Mar-a-Lago is sharing some deep thoughts this morning. With all the clauses, digressions and, like, triple negatives, I can't really discern what point he is trying to make. Is he trying to use fabrication in some out-of-context flattering sense or is it just a freudian slip?
I can't decide whether to laugh or not care… (strongly leaning towards don't care, but I'm laughing)
I can translate in nine words
" I was robbed. Leave us alone while we grift."
In all fairness, it might read a tad bit clearer in the original Slovenian?
If everyone left him alone, the grifting would be much more difficult.
Yup. It is a targeted message, for sure. ..meant only for us libs and that damned media that keeps explaining his bullshit.
The pitch and speed of the Orange Kings’ slide into irrelevance is matched in peril by his precipitous footing on the edge of the chasm of prison. Fat Donnie from Queens will soon be wishing to be forgotten.
As dumb and offensive as it is, this is winning messaging; winning vocabulary.
Look at the patterns of voting from 2020 — Trump's "vocabulary" was shellacked by over 7 million votes. Since the Biden inauguration, check the measures of political approval, the specific polling on "was the election fair," and (most interesting to me) the number of people who have left the Republican Party since the 2020 election. None of those indicate Trump has a "winning vocabulary."
More winning vocabulary from the comms department at the Sonnenberg Institute on Cow Farts.
FFS.
2020 7milion votes
Lost by 3 million plus in 2016 and still he won.
The extra 4 million surely includes passel of non voters from 2016. And the talking point that resonates is that many of them were not really eligible or even true votes.
Could be 3.5million voters switched.
If so – the Democratic party should be screaming about it.
But the on;y D messaging is We won, elections have consequence, get over it, loser.
Huh?
Word salad 101.
By the bye…
It ain't politics, so forgive me, but jeez-o-pete, the Colorado Buffaloes mens' basketball team played lights out and dropped 96 points on the Georgetown Hoyas this morning in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Wow…what a game! Go Buffs!
Big sports- in which March Madness definitely counts – is certainly political.
And the "21 Hoyas are not that good.
That much is true. They did nothing to keep the Buffs from draining 3pt. shots at will. But, the Buffs pulled their leading scorer early. By 5 min. into the 2nd half, the Hoyas were starting to lose their drive and focus.
I am a lifelong Blue Devils fan and not historically keen on the CU program, but I gotta hand it to CU for this one. I wonder if they can persist.
2nd highest point total in the round of 64. 2nd largest gap of points, too. Buffs looked sharp at the best time of the year.
As always, my family's hopes ride with the Fighting Pharmacists of Midlothian State Colllege:
Strive on Midlothian.
Give it a try.
With luck Midlothian,
You might get a tie!
My favorite team name is the Fighting Artichokes of Scottsdale Junior College.
Beetdiggers rule!
I am partial to Cardinal. Not the bird, the color.
And the Banana Slugs.
Although there is a high school in Butternut, Wisconsin that could top everyone if they would just listen to reason.
The Biden bill is somewhat more targeted to lower income individuals, but someone needs to analyze how much of the $1.9 Trillion bill is actually going to the very wealthy.
Items:
–Child tax cuts are available up to $400,000 adjusted gross income for joint filers.
–The Employee Retention Credit is a massive giveaway to business owners who only need to show a 20% reduction in a quarter's gross receipts to receive a 70% tax credit for each employee paid up to $10,000/quarter. Some of those business owners are low-middle income, but many, many others are high income. The PPP program ended up funding about 21% of a company's payrolls, and the first round didn't have to show any adverse economic effect. The second PPP round only requires a quarter in 2020 that had 25% less revenue for a quarter. That is a low bar that most businesses can meet even pre-pandemic. None of these credits, mind you, are going to the employees. They are going to the bottom-line of the owners' income statements.
It's not easy spending Biden's $1.9 Trillion, but I suspect the bulk of the spending is ending up in the pockets of the wealthy. Same as it ever was.
You would be one of the few who thinks "the bulk of the spending is ending up in the pockets of the wealthy."
Washington Post article on passage said:
You are just reinforcing my point that Americans are suckers for chump change. I noted that this bill does a better job of putting more money in the pockets of low income people which I support. But, I believe the overwhelming amount is going to high income business owners who get about 70% of the wages they pay their employees as tax refunds into their pockets. So, while attention is drawn to $2,000 credits here and $300 unemployment benefits there, literally millions are ending up in individual employer's pockets. I know whereof I speak.
Bill Maher decried the fact that households with $400,000 of income also benefit. The Employee Retention Credit is too complicated for journalists to report which makes it the perfect vehicle to fleece Americans again.
Seems like a strange thing to focus on, but whatever …
How many employers qualify? "an employer may be eligible for the credit if they either experienced a decline of more than 20% of gross receipts in any quarter in 2021 compared to the same quarter in 2019 or were required to fully or partially suspend their business operations due to a governmental order."
How much is the credit? "The credit amounts to a 70% credit on eligible wages up to $10,000 per qualifying quarter (i.e., $7,000/quarter.)"
What conditions? "large employer’s qualified wages are only those paid to employees for not working."
What's the overall impact? Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget's analysis calculates the general category of "Extend paid sick leave and employee retention credit" having an impact of $14 billion.
Out of a $1.9 Trillion plan, that is 0.7% potentially being the giveaway to the rich you object to.
Today (Sunday) is National Crunchy Taco Day
Support a local Asian-owned business Kickinchicken at 275 Union Blvd in Lakewood. They have been vandalized four times since they opened last October. Owners are Vietnamese, not Chinese, but vandals are ignorant.
Btw, their chicken is yummy.
Or, support an Asian business in your own neighborhood. They’re probably dealing with more crap than you know about.
Any headline that includes “All hands on….” with a picture of Rafael Cruz below the text should be outlawed. It’s apparent Rafael thinks that blacks fall into the same categories as child molesters and illegal aliens.
What a piece of white trash.
‘An all-hands moment’: GOP rallies behind voting limits
I saw that, and it pissed me off, too. Today’s Republican party sees free and fair elections as an existential crisis. Therefore, they must suppress the vote at all costs.
Such a shame that they can’t attract more voters with their policies. They had an orange clown that acted out a persona of the aggrieved Everyman. But he showed his true and ugly colors Jan 6, and they can’t pretend he’s any kind of leader anymore.
Bingo. If these clowns spent half the energy solving problems for the majority of Americans that they spend on this crap they’d be relevant and not have to live in fear of a voting American.
The GOP started with Lincoln who was determined to hold us together no matter what. Today’s freak show waves swastikas and confederate flags and cheer for Putin. Abe would have beaten these idiots bloody with a hickory axe handle.
When I left the party 11 years ago I did so as I could see things going off the rails. I had no way of knowing just what a fucking train-wreck was in store.
Oh pshaw, Botwin, . . .
. . . heres in real Murica, everyone knoweds there’s no problems atall’ what we Muricans cain’t solve by ourselves when we unites to pass more billionaire tax cuts, and prosperity christianly bash them furrin immigrants (. . . not our good grandparent furrin immigrants, but them new furrin immigrants who’s sneaked in here poor from furrin countries . . .)
[– Fluffy Rodentchuckle channeling some of that winning Frank Luntz messaging]
That’s Dr. Botwin to you, luv!!
“…the GOP won’t win elections again for generations.” He says that like it’s a bad thing. After foisting The Screaming Yam and the likes of Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley on the populace they deserve to wander in the wilderness for a few years.
^^^^this^^^^
Wishful thinking.
Who, me? I can wish if I want to, and work to make it so.
Yes, please. Wandering may help them purge their impulse to worship a golden calf … and end the impulse to make foolish offerings to people who tell them what they want to hear.
A nice piece on the west-slope Van Winkle ranching family and sisters Jan Van Winkle and Callie Hendrickson.
Maybe there is an antidote to the Bundys (and Q-bie)
SISTER ACT
Who’s Who in Agriculture Trailblazer honorees have become a voice for ranching in Colorado
Judo Master Jared.
Governor Polis’ meat-less proclamation prompts meat-full celebrations statewide
Why is anyone planning their diet based on a politician's advice OR proclamation? Or in an ostentatious rejection of a politician and acceptance of his opponents' proclamations?
The question may as well be, why is any half-sentient politician thinking that anyone would possibly plan their diet based upon his or her advice OR proclamation ?? . . .
. . . and, what might he or she expect the likely response to be from that group of folks whose political leanings never ever has, and never ever will, reach above the cognitive thought depth of you’re-not-the-boss-of-me-so-there-plhhhhhhhhh?
. . . And, OTOH, thought-experiment the outcomes of a Gubernatorial Proclamation making this April 19th, Colorado Weed-Out Day (to show support for keeping cannabis out of the hands of minors)???
It's your patriotic duty as a Coloradan to support one of the state's most lucrative industries. Light em up, or nibble on an edible!
Hey Alva…
New posts don't seem to appear in yellow. Did I change something?
Wait…maybe I am delusional..
Nevermind
Good public policy and mandates (in lieu of a broken free-market system) are delivering a bounty of new investments in eastern Colorado. If only they’d been victorious in the War on Rural Colorado we could have stopped this madness.
Xcel proposes $1.7B transmission investment in Colorado to unlock nearly 5.5 GW new renewables
OK…
1. Exactly who is to blame for trying to destroy the ranching industry and lifestyle by making meat illegal? Uh…farmers.
2. Does anyone on this site know a poor cattle rancher? Sure, there must be a few cow ranchers who struggle, but most of the ones I know are doing pretty well since their parents sold out to the OilyBoyz long ago.
I daresay the constituency responsible for providing plant-based meat substitutes is pretty heavy Republican…just like the ranchers who are so put upon by the proclamation of the evil socialist governor.
What a steaming pile of…well, we are talking cows here…bullshit…or maybe I should say…bullcrap.