Monday Open Thread

15 thoughts on “Monday Open Thread”

1. And on the subject of fools, this was too good not to share: https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/05/lauren-boebert-attacks-lesbian-mayor-insurrectionist-twitter-cant-handle/
   The money quote from the piece: “’Lauren Boebert is what happens when you try to make stupid from concentrate and forget to add the water,’ another user tweeted.”

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   1. Well said.

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   2. Brilliant, Skinny. save that I’d replace “stupid” with “bullshit.”

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   3. Sadly, reports that a man from the LGBTQ community was refused service on his car in Wray because he was gay. On the plus side, a co-worker of the technician who refused service found him an alternative.

      Far too many people I’ve grown up and never considered either racist or bigots with are showing their (white) slips these days. 

      So. Much. Winning. 

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      1. Any links to the Wray situation?

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         1. No. Just the gossip circles (which are verified). 

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2. From Heather Cox-Richardson today. "Racist Origins of Anti-socialist Ideology"

   There is a straight line from the post civil-war South to present day attacks on the social safety net. Racism is about economic, social and political structures that prevent a class of people from advancing, i.e. the undeserving takers vs the deserving makers. 

   You don't have to hate black people to be racist.

   We keep hearing the argument: "How are you gonna pay for it?"  Obviously taxes apply to people who have money; social benefits apply to people who don't. It is a flat-out racist attempt to keep "the other" down, with a long history. Socialism is democracy; White supremacy is preventing Blacks from voting:

   In 1867, Congress began the process of recognizing the right of Black people to have a say in their government. In the Military Reconstruction Act, it called for conventions in former Confederate states to write new state constitutions and permitted Black southerners to register to vote to choose delegates to those conventions. White supremacists scoffed at the idea that formerly enslaved people and those white men willing to work with them could produce coherent constitutions.

   …

   In 1870, white politicians in Georgia tried to undermine their new state constitution. The American people then ratified the Fifteenth Amendment protecting the right of Black men to vote. Congress also created the Department of Justice to enable the federal government to enforce the Fourteenth Amendment, which it promptly did. Attorney General Amos Akerman, a former Confederate who had become a Republican, oversaw more than 1000 cases against the Ku Klux Klan.

   With the federal government holding them to account for their racist attacks on Black Americans, southern white supremacists began to argue that their objections to Black equality were actually about voting. By 1871, they argued that Black men voted for leaders who promised roads and hospitals and schools. Those social investments would require tax levies, and since the Black population was poor almost by definition after enslavement, those taxes would fall almost entirely on the white men who owned property. In this telling, Black voting was essentially a redistribution of wealth from those with money to those without, from white men to Black men. It was socialism.

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   1. 

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3. Speaking to the "moderate" vs "shrill" contrast:

   Colby Itkowitz/WaPo:

   Under Trump, Conor Lamb was a rising Democratic star. Now, he’s fading.

   Lamb was the model Democrat in 2018. But these days, Democrats in Pennsylvania say they want more.

   Lamb is trailing John Fetterman by as many as 39 points in some public opinion polls. Fetterman is a tattooed, 6-foot-9 liberal with a shaved head who has emerged as a folk hero for many Pennsylvania Democrats. Lamb was the model Democrat in 2018, a congenial, manicured candidate straight from Hollywood central casting who could appeal to voters turned off by Trump while still wary of the party that opposed the 45th president.

   But these days, Democrats here say they want more than something to vote against; they want something to vote for. And many say they have found that in Fetterman.

   “Conor Lamb is a good guy, but we’ve got enough lambs on our side, we need a lion,” said Jeffrey Phillips, 66, a retired electrician attending a recent Fetterman event. “We get in trouble because we are always picking guys we think can win.”

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   1. A couple of excellent posts, Park. Thanks.

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   2. Fetterman had a stroke, Recovering well.

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4. In line with today's quote:

   You can't stop stupid.  All you do is try to mitigate the damage.

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   1. Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

      ~MLK, Jr. 

       

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5. But climate change is a hoax, they said…

   Why even both supporting a solution when all you need to do is run to your local Congress-critter for relief?

   Producers to get $6B in aid for 2020, 2021 disasters

   The Agriculture Department will soon start distributing $6 billion in disaster relief payments for losses producers had in 2020 and 2021 through a wide range of natural disasters, including drought, wildfires and excessive heat and cold.

   The payments are being made under the first step of a two-phase approach. Any crop eligible for crop insurance or the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program can qualify for the new Emergency Revenue Program, except for crops intended for grazing.

   The payments will cover losses from wildfires, hurricanes, floods, derechos, excessive heat, winter storms, freezes, smoke exposure, excessive moisture and drought.

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   1. They should have to sign a declaration that climate change is real, and human-caused, before they receive a dime.

      I know, I know…

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