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December 31, 2021 07:38 AM UTC

New Year's 2022 Open Thread

  • 43 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

To hell with 2021.

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43 thoughts on “New Year’s 2022 Open Thread”

  2. I'm starting to feel like a long-suffering Cubs fan – "There's always next year!" But it's a fact, at least until the asteroid hits. Wishing everyone the best under trying circumstances, and don't go to a superspreader tonight.

      1. Thank god . . .

        . . . I've been more than a little concerned about where we might have to go to steal water from next summer!! laugh

        Happy 2022 — we're so past due for a good one!

        1. Happy New Year, Dio! Let's hope it gets better, not worse.

          Under any circumstances, this one is going to be a challenge.  We have 10 months to save our democratically elected government from a truly relentless enemy, dedicated to a goal of minority rule. 

          My most recent dust-up with our "conservative" peanut gallery pointed out to me just how naive and misdirected I have been regarding the claims made by so many "Never Trumpers" among that group.

          Without belaboring the issue, I have come to the conclusion that the claims made, by some, about their objection to Trumps' reelection are phony. I keep forgetting they are Republicans…

          The opportunity to advance their social and political agenda is the only important thing. They will stop at nothing to win. It blows my mind that out of about 250 or so Republicans in Congress, on any given day, not even 20 of them have the courage and integrity to call treason on the insurrections' leaders.

          That sort of self-serving mendacity is reflected here by our own "conservatives". The bottom line is…they don't want to STOP Trump…they want to USE Trump…

           

           

           

          1. Precisely . . . "They will stop at nothing to win." And perhaps more accurately said,

            They will stop at nothing to retain power, whether they win or not.

            They firmly believe it is their right to run the country for the foreseeable future, without respect to what the majority of people want. I cannot imagine anything that will make them abandon these beliefs. But those of us who believe in the rule of law must consistently and continuously hold those people accountable for any and all crimes they commit in the process.

        2. UPDATE: permanent suspension of her personal account for repeated violations regarding COVID misinformation.

          Reportedly a *permanent* suspension. 500,000 ignoramus’ now adrift at sea  on the #EmptyG

           

          1. OT, MIchael,

            I was just reading an article in the Atlantic magazine about the secessionist movement in Oregon.  I couldn't discern what exactly the liberals in the western part of the state are doing that is so offensive.  It's urban vs. rural – urban inflicts laws on them that interfere with their "rural rights".  What, besides the poisonous conservative press, is goading them?

            I know there are similar sentiments in Colorado.  Can you explain to me what exactly it is that offends them.

            1. It all comes down to a question of freedoms and entitlements.

              Having the freedom and entitlement to do whatever lunatic thing their little hearts desire, and nothing that they don’t . . .

              . . . and also having the freedom and entitlement to curtail and prohibit majorities elsewhere from doing sensible activities they dislike or disagree with.

              Freedom without responsibility, entitlement without limit.

              1. It’s Festivus every day on the eastern plains. The editor of our local paper has decided one of the biggest grievances we should have is how the wind turbine blades passing through town are causing traffic jams.  Also a new group has formed and presented formal language to our commissioners to consider ceding parts of eastern Colorado into Kansas! They’re calling it a ‘state line boundary adjustment’. A familiar grievance: the Front Range liburals just don’t understand us folk and our way of life. 

            2. I wish I had a simple answer to that. Poisonous local press and a couple decades of carnival barking by the buffet of buffoonery we’ve sent to the Gold Dome on our behalf hasn’t helped. In far too many cases (at least at home) the most aggrieved are the ones who have been feasting on the government teat for a long time and have every advantage known to man. 
               

              Wasn’t it Mencken who said “for every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong?” 

              1. It was. And I believe your insight is very good. 

                It turns out that most of the 700 traitors arrested for attacking our Capitol are middle class professionals and businessmen who come primarily from the areas where “white flight” is highest. 

                These aren’t poor, or even working, people. They are privileged by their race and money and are rebelling against “the Southern Invasion” and the “socialist agenda of the Democrats”.

                The chants of “You will not replace us” voiced by the angry young men of Charlottesville turned into “Hang Mike Pence”, screamed by a mob of privileged white people who appeared to be their parents.

                Here in western Colorado, the resentment is baked into the sandstone by the relentless desert sun. Institutional Republican influence and control has been the reality for a very long time. From the county commission to CMU, from the local media to the Chamber of Commerce…Republican institutions all.

                 

                1. Duke, have you seen a demographic study of the insurrectionists? Or what is your source for 

                  It turns out that most of the 700 traitors arrested for attacking our Capitol are middle class professionals and businessmen who come primarily from the areas where “white flight” is highest. 

                  These aren’t poor, or even working, people. They are privileged by their race and money and are rebelling against “the Southern Invasion” and the “socialist agenda of the Democrats”

                  I don’t necessarily doubt your claim- but would like to see evidence.

                  Most of the media coverage of the insurrectionists has been pandering and sympathetic-  like that for the young woman who died Jan 6,  or homegrown Colorado people like Jeff Sabol and.Boebert’s buddies, the 3%ers.
                  Certainly  Loren Hanks  and Sabol and Geiswein had good jobs – and most would have had to pay their own airfare, plus the cost of all that riot equipment for their “peaceful protest”. Bail money, legal fees- i haven’t seen any articles following the money required to finance the attempted coup.

                  I’m interested in where the money trail goes on this insurrection – did people self-finance or who paid for them?  I appreciate links to any articles that you’ve seen on that topic. 

                  1. I believe it was on CBS. A man was speaking of information compiled by his company on both the 700 charged individuals and the millions of Magat true believers. I will see if I can find a link.

                  2. I am unable to post the link.

                    The man is named Robert Pape, from the University of Chicago Project on Security and Threats. He was interviewed on CBSN.

            1. She's got reason to be upset . . .

              . . . with Empty-G shut out from Twitter, Q-bie's source material for Qspiracies and other lunacies has been reduced by about half.

  4. Well, 2021 ends up with MORE bad news … CPR tells us:

    Western Slope Rep. Lauren Boebert is ready to try for a second.

    The congresswoman announced her reelection bid at a Friday press conference in Grand Junction in which she took aim at the Biden administration’s Build Back Better proposal and handling of the southern border.

    “We don’t just need to take the House back in 2022, but we need to take the House back with fearless conservatives, strong Republicans, just like me,” Boebert said.

    2. The Mesa County Republicans’ local campaign TV channel has been running a Boebert campaign ad, disguised as a press release, for the past couple of days. I have heard nothing about any other candidates, particularly challengers from her own party…don’t they do press releases, too?

      If anyone else has seen the story (ad) on KREY /KREX, I am curious to get your take.

      Did I miss something?

    3. That is 100% unsurprising, but I'd secretly hoped she'd pull a Palin and bail on public office in favor of seeking more lucrative grifts. Unfortunately, it looks like the salary + $500K in "consulting fees" for Mr. I-like-to-wave-my-dick-at-underage-girls-in-public + side grifts + tsunami of attention = enough to keep Sloebert in Congress for now.

  5. 2021 was a great year! Vaccines and the Biden Boom (Noah Smith):

    There are various estimates of how many total lives the vaccines have saved, both in the U.S. and throughout the globe. The Commonwealth Fund estimates 1.1 million lives saved in America alone, while the NIH has a smaller estimate of 140,000. But by any measure, the benefit has been staggering. And on top of all those lives saved, vaccines have allowed the economy to get back to something closely resembling normality, with workers no longer hospitalized or afraid to come in to work, and customers once again filling restaurants and shops.

    In the space of a year, American and German scientists took an unproven technology and turned it into a safe, highly effective vaccine against a deadly pandemic before that pandemic was even halfway over. And in 2021, world governments have distributed the vaccine to almost 5 billion people. 

    That is a feat of scientific and logistical prowess arguably unmatched since the days of World War 2. People who claim that modern governments and nation-states have become ineffectual are mentally comparing it to some unrealistic imagined ideal. The vaccines are proof that when it counts, our system can still get big things done.

    1. ParkHill … the accomplishments with vaccines in science and logistics were extraordinary.  Unfortunately, our advances there were not taken full advantage of due to our continuing inability to persuade in the face of misinformation and deception.

      Smithsonian Magazine has 9 others on their list. — the one that stood out to me was the first ever anti-malaria vaccine — indeed, the first vaccine for any parasitic disease. Even though it has limited impact, preventing only 30% of severe cases,  "But one modeling study showed that still could prevent 5.4 million cases and 23,000 deaths in children under five each year."  Avoiding the deaths and diminishing the medical burdens of the cases in sub-Saharan Africa and several SE Asian nations is a substantial boon.

  6. Betty White not hanging around for 2022 makes me nervous.  RIP, Rose 🌹 

    “My mother always used to say, 'The older you get, the better you get. Unless you're a banana.”

    1. In defense of old bananas, they make great banana bread or smoothies. . I toss them in the freezer in a plastic bag, and they seem to stay good for a few months. 
       

      But Betty White is a loss. I was pulling for her to reach 100.

    2. I appreciated this take on Betty White:

      Betty White didn't die. Nope. She grabbed 2021 by the throat, and whispered in its ear "I'm taking you with me, you son of a bitch." And then she threw them both into the fires of Mordor to save us all. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

  8. The wee little one is having some thoughts. Damn tootin’ boy!! Women voting ???  What? Where’s my slave?!? Where is the well-regulated militia (meant to keep those slaves on the plantation)? A $23 trillion economy (thanks Brandon)? Internet? Airplanes? Paved roads?? Cannabis prohibition??  Computers? Television? Cell phones? 
     

    1. Don’t ask how I got access, but here’s a direct quote from the Founders’ comms team after the Federalist authors got together and read MadCaw’s tweet:

      “Our idea of having popular elections for the House may have been a colossal mistake. ‘The people’ hath elected a certifiable idiot to Congress! If a republic we are to keep, we need people most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station, not intellectual children who confuse bluster with the force of reason.”

    2. And an element those Founding Fathers wouldn’t recognize and would be horrified about, and rightfully so: allowing a single individual to have weapons enabling him to kill and wound more people in 10 minutes than most of the full-day and multi-day battles of the Revolution.

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