Wednesday Open Thread

56
  by: Colorado Pols December 8, 2021 at 6:55 AM MST

“Knowledge rests not upon truth alone, but upon error also.”

–Carl Jung

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56 Community Comments, Facebook Comments

  1. Powerful Pear says:
    December 8, 2021 at 7:33 AM MST

    100 Percent of PoleCats agree with 27 percent of Americans, who believe the country is headed in the right direction. Excellence in group think sponsored by Progress Now.

    • Duke Cox says:
      December 8, 2021 at 7:54 AM MST

      It is entirely possible you misunderstand that statistic, PP.

      Your party is falling apart, and there is nothing you can do to fix it. 11 months from now, we can have this conversation again.

      • NOV GOP meltdown says:
        December 8, 2021 at 8:39 AM MST

        When Rep. Dan Crenshaw says " there's grifters among us" when referring to the Freedom Caucus to a large audience of Republicans,  yes, the party has some issues to deal with.  Let the infighting continue, and grow ! 

      • Powerful Pear says:
        December 8, 2021 at 8:43 AM MST

        Duke, I’m proud of you. Perhaps you are mellowing out and you can respond without the typical Pol invectives of racist, homophobe, white suprematist, etc, etc. Good job, keep it up.

        • Duke Cox says:
          December 8, 2021 at 9:18 AM MST

          Save it, you obnoxious fuckhead. Tell me how you and your party are gonna survive. Either you knuckle under to the Orange Horde, or you lose your party membership. So you join with Democrats and Independents to rid this nation of the gnawing pestilence that is the Trumplican©️ party…or slip on that arm band and clean your Luger.

          PS…The Republican party supports homophobia, racism, sexism, white supremacy, and autocracy. Are you a Republican? Then you are indeed a racist, homophobic, bigot.
          Own it.

    • JohnInDenver says:
      December 8, 2021 at 9:54 AM MST

      Or they could be like me, who the last time I was asked that question (by a person, not affiliated with a formal survey), I answered "not the right direction",

      I was thinking of

      •  Republicans in Congress (and their supporters) continuing to obstruct policy and celebrate extremism,
      •  Democrats in Congress (and their supporters) continuing to not have an overwhelmingly clear approach to get what they campaigned and won on, and
      •  the unaffiliated or independents or "do not vote" people continuing to be a large force for "don't know & don't care" about the direction of the country.
      • And then there is a judicial branch with an increasing corps of judges wanting to be activists in rolling back rulings in some areas and pushing forward rulings based on innovative understandings of the Constitution, legislation, or precedent in the courts in other areas.  And somehow, those rulings all agree with .with Trumpublican orthodoxy.
      • kwtree says:
        December 8, 2021 at 11:07 AM MST

        I would have answered the “right / wrong direction” question the same as J i D, and for the same reasons.  Troops of Fox-propagandized Q believers terrorizing school board members over masks and imaginary curriculum, or election office bureaucrats over imaginary voter fraud  doesn’t make me burble, “ Gee Whillickers! It’s morning in America!”

         

    • Conserv. Head Banger says:
      December 8, 2021 at 10:03 AM MST

      PP: I'm not part of your "100 percent." There is a lot to get done in this country. Good stuff will happen, I think, if our president stops listening to the far left and their grandiose spend-us-all-into-oblivion plans.

      Speaking of grandiose, which immediately brings up Trump, I've never been into the "stolen election" narrative, as a Never Trump Republican. You?

      • Powerful Pear says:
        December 8, 2021 at 10:32 AM MST

        Ok, 99.44% pure lunatics.

      • MichaelBowman says:
        December 8, 2021 at 10:44 AM MST

        It would be useful to keep narratives in context.  While the fate of the (media narrative) spend-us-into-oblivion plans are still unknown, I don’t imagine Pfruit had any issue with canceling a couple trillion in future taxes for billionaires, yet gets the vapors when we talk about cancelling student debt (any objective, comparative analysis would tell you the latter is better for the general economy).  

        Here’s some context: (Eisenhower warned us) 

        • ParkHill says:
          December 8, 2021 at 11:11 AM MST

          But, but, but… HER FREE STUFF!

          Like:
           – Preschool/Daycare (Undeserving babies)
           – Medicare/Prescription Drugs (Undeserving retired people)
           – Eldercare (Undeserving old people who are going to die, anyway)

        • Conserv. Head Banger says:
          December 8, 2021 at 11:39 AM MST

          Michael: are you familiar with the Project on Government Oversight (www.pogo.org)? They do a lot of good work on waste in the Pentagon, through their Center for Defense Information.

          The Center was started by retired military officers in the 1980s during the Reagan military buildups. One of their targets has been the flying turkey also known as the F-35 fighter plane. POGO isn’t one of my primary groups for my charitable giving. But I try to give something each year. 

          Park: as a broad based group, seniors are the most well off group in American society. Aid there should be means tested, as suggested by Senator Joe Manchin (D-WVA). And you’ll recall that Medicare Part D, for prescription drugs, was started by the G.W. Bush administration, which is hardly “Republicans screwing you over.” 

          • MichaelBowman says:
            December 8, 2021 at 12:04 PM MST

            I’m not but thanks for the link.  I’ll check them out. 

            The Medicare Part D foundation is yet another example of the differences between the process that often bogs down the implementation of good ideas. You may recall that Part D was a *ucking mess when first passed, but instead of a useless *repeal and replace* rally cry the Dems rolled up their sleeves and helped work the kinks out. When the shoe was on the other foot and we should have been tweaking the ACA, all we got was Gardner & Co. fluffing the base.

  2. itlduso says:
    December 8, 2021 at 7:35 AM MST

    Democrats make your life better.

  3. 2Jung2Die says:
    December 8, 2021 at 7:51 AM MST

    Thank you Pols, for this morning's brilliant quote from a brilliant thinker!

  4. davebarnes says:
    December 8, 2021 at 7:54 AM MST

    Today is National Lard Day 

  5. ajb says:
    December 8, 2021 at 10:37 AM MST

    Sure as clockwork, there's another effort to steal water from the San Luis Valley to send to the Front Range. This time lead by [choose your adjective] Bill Owens. Once again, the residents of the SLV will hold bake sales and raise funds to fight off the attempt. It takes a certain kind of cynicism to call your effort "Renewable Water Resources" when your goals is to pump fossil water out of a desert and send it out of the basin. 

    https://coloradosun.com/2021/12/08/san-luis-valley-water-export-douglas-county-sean-tonner

  6. JohnInDenver says:
    December 8, 2021 at 10:58 AM MST

    The Colorado Sun has a story on the COVID threat with the first statistics I've seen comparing unvaccinated, vaccinated, and booster vaccinated.  You can read the story here.  I will steal a bit of the article's thunder by showing off a couple of paragraphs:

    The state also collected hospitalization data during the same time frame, finding that Coloradans who received a booster shot were 3.3 times less likely to be hospitalized after contracting COVID-19 than people who had been fully vaccinated against the virus but had not received a booster. 

    People who received a booster shot were 47.5 times less likely to be hospitalized after contracting the disease than unvaccinated Coloradans.

    VACCINATE — GET THE SERIES OF TWO VACCINATIONS — GET THE BOOSTER.

    Okay, a third paragraph, too, with the current status for the booster:

    All Colorado adults are eligible to receive a COVID-19 booster shot. So far, 41% of eligible Coloradans have received one. 

    • Conserv. Head Banger says:
      December 8, 2021 at 11:45 AM MST

      The whole anti-masker, anti-vaxx, thing recently brought to mind the battles 30+ years ago over smoking in public places. Back then, smokers whined and complained that efforts to preserve clean air zones infringed on their rights, freedom, and liberty.

      So, I can conclude that smokers and anti-maskers want the same "freedom," which is the "freedom" to spread their diseases to other people. 

    • Diogenesdemar says:
      December 8, 2021 at 2:34 PM MST

      I rarely ever provide personal life anecdotes or details here. (And, I often feel as if I know so very many of you so much more than I ever needed, or wanted, to wink.)  But:

      Last week my mother (in her 90s) was taken to the ER after passing out, falling, and gashing her head open.  She was diagnosed with Covid.  She lives with my sister and her husband (both in their 60s), who work in high contact jobs (school, church) in one of our reddest neighboring states (high Republican pro-life death cult non-vaccination rates, and masks, as appropriate, worn for Halloween only). They also were tested then, and were both positive for Covid.

      They’re all alive today, no hospitalizations, at home, in quarantine for another week or so. Feeling better, coughing still, and not yet feeling 100%. (. . . Although, who after age 60 ever is?)

      The moral of this story?  Had this occurred a year ago, before they were all fully vaccinated, I’m sure I’d be attending at least one funeral this month 400 miles from my home in Colorado.

      • kwtree says:
        December 8, 2021 at 3:59 PM MST

        Hurray for your mom's (and sis and hubby's) recovery, and for them having the good sense to be vaccinated.

        We're slowly vaccinating the holdouts in our extended family. It helps that major sports and live entertainment venues in Colorado are all strict about COVID protocols (vaxxed with the genuine card, or recent negative test, required for admission).

        So we should be able to stay out of the ER, for COVID, at least.

      • NOV GOP meltdown says:
        December 9, 2021 at 10:11 AM MST

        Dio, my mother's life partner, at 90 years of age, got Covid a few days after Christmas last year and he died very quickly (within 10 days). This was still the pre-vaccination era, so I think you are spot on.

    • notaskinnycook says:
      December 8, 2021 at 4:46 PM MST

      Karen’s company, Mersive Technologies is doing a clinic for the Ballpark neighborhood, open to the public, on Friday. They’re catty-corner from the stadium. We’ll get our boosty shots there

  7. DawnPatrol says:
    December 8, 2021 at 11:09 AM MST

    An interesting take on what should be done regarding the brainless, ignorant verbal outbursts from Colorado’s most profound disgrace and embarrassment, E. coli Barbie, courtesy of e-v.com:

    https://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2021/Senate/Maps/Dec08.html#item-9

    • RepealAndReplace says:
      December 8, 2021 at 11:17 AM MST

      "Suppose McCarthy goes further and wants to strip every member of the House who wants to "murder unborn babies" of their committee assignments, because advocating the murder of unborn babies is even worse than making racist jokes. You see where this is heading?"

      Truax is absolutely right. But I'm pretty sure the dye has already been cast. Removing MTG and Gosar set the precedent and the RWNJ caucus will demand that Speaker McCarthy or Speaker Jordan extract their revenge next year.

       

      • Conserv. Head Banger says:
        December 8, 2021 at 11:48 AM MST

        Read Diana DeGette's op-ed in today's Denver Post about Boebert getting so much coverage while other members of the delegation who are working across the aisle on bipartisan legislation get almost no attention from the media.

        She cites her own efforts with Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI). Also mentions worthwhile bi-partisan bills sponsored by Ken Buck, Ed Perlmutter, Jason Crow. 

  8. ParkHill says:
    December 8, 2021 at 11:13 AM MST

    Has anyone else seen the Boebert Family Happy Christmas Tree with lots and lots of sausage?

  10. ParkHill says:
    December 8, 2021 at 11:36 AM MST

    Really good explainer from Rachel Bitecofer on the weakness of Democratic Party electoral strategy vs the deep, concentrated strength of the Republicans:

    Meanwhile, the Democrats have a system built on a different assumption about voters…..

     

    • Conserv. Head Banger says:
      December 8, 2021 at 11:51 AM MST

      Well written article. Dems have a lot of work to get done in the next 6-8 months. I've posted before how the Dems have no messaging to counter the far right wing's soundbites. We'll see. 

  11. Genghis says:
    December 8, 2021 at 2:19 PM MST

    For anyone who does or is inclined to buy Kellogg products, here are the brands anyone with a functioning moral compass is obliged to avoid.

    • MichaelBowman says:
      December 8, 2021 at 4:11 PM MST

      Thanks Genghis. There was literally only one brand on that board I buy (Kashi), something I can easily replace. 
       

      Want to Make America Great? Tax the billionaires, support union-made products and #VoteBlue

    • notaskinnycook says:
      December 8, 2021 at 5:03 PM MST

      Well, I haven't bought anything from Nestle in 40 years (not likely to change). I guess I can avoid Kellogg's for a while. But I see they've been busy buying up what were smaller independent brands lately. 

    • kwtree says:
      December 8, 2021 at 5:40 PM MST

      Thanks, G. Won’t be buying Morningstar or Nutrigrain products. For max effectiveness, contact corporate and tell them why: 

      1-800-962-1413

      Call or Text*
      Monday – Friday
      9 AM to 6 PM ET

       

    • Diogenesdemar says:
      December 8, 2021 at 5:52 PM MST

      Before Kellogs and Post ruined the average American’s morning feeds, a slice of pie (likely fruit of some type) was one of the most common breakfasts . . .

      . . . that, topped with a liberal pour of heavy cream, and served along with a cup of strong black coffee, is still among the absolute very best ever!

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