12 thoughts on “Friday Open Thread”

1. From a week ago, though I don't recall it being mentioned here: David Siders, a politics editor at POLITICO, uses Colorado Springs as an example to explain

   Americans Are Leaving Both Parties. This Colorado City Shows Why

   Last year Mobolade became the first non-Republican elected mayor of Colorado Springs — a development that would have seemed unthinkable for decades in a city known as a fortress of right-wing evangelical politics.

   “This title says it all,” he said. And then he read from the book’s cover: A Declaration of Independents: How we can break the two-party stranglehold and restore the American dream.

   He doesn't mention "Mayoral elections in Colorado Springs are officially nonpartisan."  He doesn't spend much time on Wayne Williams' political bio (and less on Sallie Clark) or his religious affiliation. Doesn't mention Vickie Tonkins by name, but does talk about Republican "in-fighting."

   As Republicans state-wide flirt with dropping below 900,000 active registrations, and Democrats are just over 100,000, the Unaffiliated are climbing — up ~75,000 in 6 months.  By the end of 2024, there will likely be more UAF than Republicans and Democrats combined.  Which set of candidates will find better ways run their campaigns for the new reality?

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   1. Your last rhetorical question is a good one, JID, but there's one point I hope people will consider. Unaffiliateds are not monolithic, and I've read news stories saying a very high percentage of them have something like a typical left-or-right political leaning. That's all cool and legal, of course, but it worries me a tad that some people are going to just wind up voting for an unaffiliated because they're not with a major party, and when they inevitably wind up winning races people will be disappointed with some of them just like they're disappointed with Ds and Rs. Meet the new boss…

      I don't see unaffiliateds becoming an actual power-base party because they're all so different – try making a platform out of a mish-mash like that – but maybe there's some possibility of coalitions of organizations supporting common candidates. Oh how Andrew Yang has fallen in my political eyes, but I think he tried to do some of this coalitioning this year with Forward and other groups.

      Nonetheless, I can understand some of the reasons people are leaving the major parties, in some cases in pretty large numbers. I'll say right here and right now I don't see Kent Thiry's jungle primary initiative as the answer, but there's a reality around not belonging to traditional major parties that will be a more significant part of our near-term future.

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   2. What would be fascinating to see would be the mayor of Colorado Springs weighing in with endorsements in both party primaries in CD-5. But sadly, it probably won't happen.

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2. Dave Williams vindicated. GOP is the party of hate. Republicans censuring Nancy Pallozzi for using official letterhead to advance not looking like dicks.

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3. What a piece of crap – every red hat dullard who invested in this deserves to lose their money…

   DJT

   TRUMP MEDIA & TECHNO

   $37.11
   -2.82
   -7.06%

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4. Reminded today of a Twitter fight I got in with Rick Santorum nine years ago over the Pope weighing in on climate change. What a snowflake. Boy have times changed, as we march to their heavenly theocracy. Sadly the article is no longer available online. 
    

   

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5. Giuliani's mug shot. Salon reports on his booking in Arizona. Bannon to follow by July 1.

   

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   1. Looks like he just got his dose of Thorazine

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6. Yet more proof that today's GOP is determined to show there is no bottom.   I wonder if Bobo has signed on as a co-sponsor?

   The GOP takes its Trump cult worship to a whole new level

   The race to see who can demonstrate the most cartoonish level of Donald Trump cult worship is unending. It’s only been a few months since House Republicans tried to rename Dulles Airport after Trump, but that seems positively picayune when compared to the bill Rep. Greg Steube of Florida intends to introduce on Friday.

   Steube wants to rename the ocean after Trump. Not just one ocean, but the entire shoreline wrapping around the U.S. and covering over 4 million square miles. 

   The article is actually worth a read, just for the author's snark.

   But maybe we really should name something in the ocean after Trump.

   … the area is filled with something besides plankton: trash, millions of pounds of it, most of it plastic. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, also known as the Pacific trash vortex, is the largest landfill in the world, and it floats in the middle of the ocean.

   The Great Donald J. Trump Garbage Patch. It has a nice ring to it. Someone draft a bill.

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   1. Let's add the Dead Zone while we're at it? 

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      1. Speaking of Dead Zone, SCOTUS just struck down the bump stock ban. Can I get a hallelujah and an upside-down flag? https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/14/us/politics/supreme-court-trump-gun-bump-stocks.html

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         1. This will be marked as Exhibit A in the case for demonstrating that the Trump appointees to SCOTUS are independent justices since they voted to strike down Donald Trump's attempt to grab people's guns (instead of pussies for a change) and violate their God-given Second Commandment Amendment rights.

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