Thursday Open Thread

11 thoughts on “Thursday Open Thread”

1. Today’s quote (thanks for ditching the Limbaugh ones) perfectly incapsulates the GOP belief that they can go back to Leave it to Beaver times.

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   1. Exhibit A: (when it’s cherry-picked and used as a sledgehammer don’t be surprised with the outcome)

      American Bible Society finds 'unprecedented drop' in number of Bible users in 1 year

      The State of the Bible report described the 11% decrease as an “unprecedented drop in the percentage of Bible users in the United States.” When applied to the U.S. population as a whole, the figure suggests that the number of Bible users in the U.S. dropped from 128 million in 2021 to 103 million in 2022.

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      1. Only 103 million to go

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2. There were some great comments yesterday about what our big picture goal should be in our war against Russia. To continue this, here's a possibility for what it should be:

   Russia must respect the territorial integrity and foreign policy independence of it's neighbors.

   Russia must contribute 250 billion to a fund to rebuild the damage they have caused in their neighbor states.

   The specifics of this would include pulling their troops out of all of Ukraine, Moldova, & Georgia and agreeing that all three have the right to join both the EU and NATO.

   This leaves Russia with its own territory and independence. But it puts a temporary stop to their empire ambitions and is a clear giant step backwards from before they invaded.

   Thoughts?

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   1. David – practically I don't think Russia would ever agree to something like that. They would have to be on the brink of annihilation, when right now they are merely regrouping from a failed campaign in Western Ukraine. 

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   2. I doubt very much that Russia has $250 billion lying around.  Read the Wiki summary of John Maynard Keynes ” The Economic Consequences of the Peace ‘”  to understand the Stupidity of Versailles and the wisdom of the Marshall plan.

      Let fossil fuels pay for reconstruction.

      To destroy the Russian economy risks creating a failed state bristling with nuclear weapons.  

      I’ll see your $250 billion and double it, with a five year plan raising $100 billion a year on reconstruction, raised mainly by taxes on fossil fuels.  That is just two-tenths of one percent of the combined GDP of the EU, U.S. and Japan in that period.

      Vengence is mine, sayeth the lord.  It has no place in economic policy and diplomacy.  Finally, I think the UN should act to outlaw the designated hitter rule!

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      1. Bravo, V'ger! Odd to me how many progressives are suddenly adopting the Punisher mentality toward Russia. Sanction the regime, but invest in the people.

          

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   3. Voyager I agree with you in principal. However… there's over 300B of Russian money the West has put a hold on. So I'm not suggesting ongoing reparations. I'm suggesting we just take it from that held aside existing money.

      NOV GOP meltdown – exactly. We need the result to be a significant defeat to strongly discourage any state from doing this in the future. And to reduce Russia to a small enough power that they can't threaten their neighbors for awhile.

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3. Lauren Qbert actually got on the right side of some legislation. She did not join her fellow crazies to vote against the Documenting Ukraine War Crimes bill.

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   1. Someone has to be a complete thoughtless asshole to vote against something like that. Assholes like Gosar, MTG, and Massie. Unbelievable.

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4. Yes we were wrong about Hunter’s laptop. But we are not wrong about who the  ¨ Big Guy¨ is. It is not Joe Biden, 1000 %, take it to the bank, bet the farm! How can we be so certain? Well, Hunter told us so. 
    

   There you have it, nothing to see, move on, everything is under control.

    

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