Tuesday Open Thread

15 thoughts on “Tuesday Open Thread”

1. Today is International Trump Stinks Day!

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   1. …at least until August.  It appears the dementia patient has escaped Mar-a-Lago (but send money, rubes, cuz he can't be reinstated without your support!!)

      Trump has been telling a number of people he’s in contact with that he expects he will get reinstated by August (no that isn’t how it works but simply sharing the information). https://t.co/kaXSXKnpF0

      — Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) June 1, 2021

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      1. From today's The Bulwark: 

          

         Let’s stipulate that any talk about coups is crazy. Our traditions and institutions — both in and out of the military — are simply too strong, and the very idea of a coup is so profoundly un-American that it is unthinkable.

         And yet, we spent the Memorial Day weekend thinking about it, because a three-star general who was also the National Security Advisor to the President of the United States seemed to suggest that a military coup might be good idea here. 

         A questioner asked the retired general: “I’m a simple marine. Why can’t what happened in Minimar[sic] happen here?” He is clearly referring to a military coup and the audience clearly understands him — and cheers. 

         “No reason,” says Flynn. “It should happen here.”

         Nicholas Kristof reminds us that the Myanmar coup involves “overturning elections, shooting protesters, torturing students, destroying the economy — and it's fresh off a genocide of the Rohingya.” As many as 800 people have been killed in the junta’s crackdown.

         Flynn is now furiously backtracking, denying that he was endorsing a coup.

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2. Today is Heimlich Maneuver Day 

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3. What is that bright thing up in the sky?

   9News reported the oddity:

   The National Weather Service (NWS) in Boulder tweeted that Denver has officially gotten 3.65 inches of rainfall this month. That's more than Seattle (with 1.12 inches) and Portland (with 0.58 inches) combined.

   even more startling … it is more than TWICE the rain of the combo.

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4. Dave Perry has a fairly extensive and well-thought out rant about Mayor Coffman and his proposal for the homeless to vanish: 

   Aurora’s homeless quagmire demands expert answers, not Coffman’s clickbait

   To his credit, Coffman stipulates that homeless camping bans have had a tough time in courts because it turns out there’s no crime in being homeless. Annoying judges keep finding that people without homes chased out of their tents can and do die if they can’t sleep and sit somewhere.

   Apparently, that’s a risk Coffman’s willing to take.

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5. Who's going to tell PewPew? 

   Israel's Covid rates are so low that months after pioneering a Green Pass system limiting access to indoor restaurants, cultural and sports events to vaccinated people, the country is now retiring it. https://t.co/By2zWUL7L6

   — Isabel Kershner (@IKershner) June 1, 2021

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   1. Israel's laws on abortion access also are among the most liberal in the world. But don't tell that to the far right wing religionists.

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      1. …and universal health care.  Who’d have thunk? 

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6. When all you have left is "the grift": (the FEC asked Congress last month to ban pre-checked recurring donation boxes).

   New NRCC checkbox just dropped: “If you UNCHECK this box, I’ll be forced to tell them you’ve deserted Trump for Socialism.” pic.twitter.com/WC4sZfdTc3

   — Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) May 31, 2021

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   1. Yup, the most successful criminals learn that you don't need a gun to steal the really big money.

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      1. And they’ve known it for a long time, Harry.                                                       

          … some will rob you with a six-gun,
         And some with a fountain pen.  -Woody Guthrie-Pretty Boy Floyd

         …’Cause a man with a briefcase
         can steal more money
         Than any man with a gun. — Don Henley-Gimme What You Got

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   2. Like Patrick Henry said, “Give Tump your daily lunch-money, or give me death.”

      

       

      That’s your choice patriots, send unending monthly donations to Ttump to support Flynn’s fascist August Minimar coup . . .

      . . . or be on Ttump’s “Socialists” list.

       

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7. Tick, tock, #DeJoy

   Senate OKs Biden nominees to postal board amid mail changes

   Lawmakers on Friday approved the nomination of Anton Hajjar, former general counsel of the American Postal Workers Union. Ron Stroman, a former deputy postmaster general, and Amber McReynolds, who leads the nonprofit National Vote at Home Institute, were approved earlier this month. 

   The additions mean that five of the board’s nine members are Democratic appointees.

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   1. Michael — I'm not sure "Democratic appointees" will do the bidding of (some) Democrats to oust DeJoy.  Existing two were part of the group that hired him.  Newly named 3 did not take firm stands on what reforms are needed and were not pushed on whether DeJoy as the right executive during hearings. 

      here's hoping there is a smoking gun memo to show the changes were not "random," but were inspired by political motives. 

       

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