17 thoughts on “Weekend Open Thread”

1. November 20, 1789 – New Jersey becomes the first U.S. state to ratify the Bill of Rights.

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2. A bit more contempory: since 1999, Nov. 20 has been observed as Transgender Day of Remembrance.

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   1. 

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3. By openly embracing violent vigilantism, Republicans are nothing more than an authoritarian terrorist cult.

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   1. The Trump-led takeover of a political party is endorsing and coming closer and closer to Umberto Eco's Ur-Fascism

      I think it is possible to outline a list of features that are typical of what I would like to call Ur-Fascism, or Eternal Fascism. These features cannot be organized into a system; many of them contradict each other, and are also typical of other kinds of despotism or fanaticism. But it is enough that one of them be present to allow fascism to coagulate around it.

      Eco lists 14 features:  many have made the comparison to Trump, his Sad!-ministration, and the aftermath we continue to experience.

      Near the end of his essay, Eco says "Franklin Roosevelt's words of November 4, 1938, are worth recalling:

      I venture the challenging statement that if American democracy ceases to move forward as a living force, seeking day and night by peaceful means to better the lot of our citizens, fascism will grow in strength in our land.

      "Freedom and liberation are an unending task."

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   2. "Christian authoritarian terrorist cult."

      The American right has made religious identity a crucially important part of the story.

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4. Strikesgiving at DIA today:

   It’s #Strikesgiving at DIA! Giving thanks for our essential janitors leading the way! #DIAjanitorsSTRIKE pic.twitter.com/xMIU89c8pd

   — SEIU Local 105 (@SEIU105) November 20, 2021

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5. Today (Sunday) is World Television Day 

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6. Jennifer Rubin explicitly denies "polarization" or "symmetrical devolution into irrational hatred" in a column at the Washington Post.  Many of these apply to Colorado Republicans — and perhaps we should add a few items that are obvious here, too.

   Only one party overwhelmingly refused to participate in a bipartisan investigation of the Jan. 6 insurrection. Only one party tolerates and defends House members who resort to violent imagery and harass fellow lawmakers. Talk of “secession” comes from only one party. Only one party is turning a vigilante who killed two people and seriously injured another into a folk hero. Only one party rises in defense of parents publicly threatening school boards. Only one party has taken to defending book-banning and book-burning. Governors of only one party are suing private companies and localities that follow coronavirus guidelines.

   Only one party has a media machine that propagates misinformation (from conspiracy theories about the death of a young Democratic National Committee staffer to the blatant lies about Dominion Voting Systems) and foments racism with a steady diet of “replacement theory” rants and hyperventilation about immigrants. Only one party pounds away at the already debunked connection between crime and immigrants solely for the purpose of enraging and scaring voters.

   She has other positions and performances on her list. What is your favorite example of a Colorado Republican argument or policy unmatched by Democrats?

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   1. Here's one.

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      1. Loren "Ron" Hanks was an intelligence officer???   

         LMAOROFPIMP

         Yeah, right!

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7. Read of the Day from VOX: The intellectual right’s war on America’s institutions

   "It’s time to clean house in America," one influential right-wing activist wrote this week. And he’s not alone.

   By Zack Beauchamp

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   1. William F. Buckley said that being a Conservative means "standing athwart history yelling stop."

      Maybe that's part of it, but as far as I can tell, Conservatism is fundamentally about protecting the rights of the powerful, whether that be the Feudal Lord, the King, the Plantation Owner, the Factory Owner. 

      The specific arguments and tactics used by Conservatives vary all the time, but it always comes down to protecting the powerful.

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      1. Republicans have never been fans of democracy. They work for the king…King Profit, the Omnipotent. When, in my lifetime, have Republicans tried to expand democracy? The holy grail to "conservatives" has ever been the mythical "Free Market", which, if you believe Naomi Klein, cannot exist in a democracy..

         The GOP thought they had found an idiot king that could finish Reagans' mission of a corporate oligarchy that would deliver Miltons' Free Market dream. They thought they could control him.

         They were wrong.

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   2. Man, Park. That makes me miss William F. Buckley!

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      1. That’s some scary stuff there, PH. We’ve got work to do if we don’t want their dreams to come true.

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8. Someone a few diaries ago talked about possibilities of civil actions related to Kyle Rittenhouse's actions. At least one civil action has been filed, and I'd have to guess there are more coming. Speaking only for myself, Rittenhouse did what he did and no amount of sentencing or money brings the departed back to life, but maybe a bigger concern for me is if unregulated vigilantism now has carte blanche authorization moving forward. The Denver attorney filing this action said it looks to the question of what kind of society we want.

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