14 thoughts on “Wednesday Open Thread”

1. Stephen Collinson dubbed Trump’s plans a “feral political offensive.”

   Heather Cox-Richardson is particularly good this morning. (I assume y’all are on her email list.)

   Zeeshan Aleem of MSNBC today took public notice of Trump’s “deteriorating ability to clearly communicate.” His speeches “seem to be growing more discursive and difficult to comprehend by the day,” Aleem wrote. “Those speeches are making it hard, if not impossible, for people listening to them to understand what he wants to do with his power in office, and they’re reportedly turning off voters.” A reporter for The Guardian pointed out that attendees at Trump’s rallies are leaving as he rambles for nearly two hours, and complaining that he is “babbling.”

   For his part, Trump says his wandering speech is deliberate. He calls it “the weave.” I’ll talk about, like, nine different things, and they all come back brilliantly together, and it’s like, and friends of mine that are, like, English professors, they say, ‘It’s the most brilliant thing I’ve ever seen.’”

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2. Despite evidence, Trump calls Arlington Cemetery incident a 'made up story' (NPR)

   First, Trump's campaign said the Arlington staff member was "having a mental health episode" which is fucking horrible. Now he's saying that the whole thing was made up.

   Trump and his team are repeatly showing they have no respect for our military in new and creative ways every day.

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3. Public electric utilities rock!

   Xcel Energy’s peak time-of-use rate, between 3pm and 7pm, is 32 cents a kilowatt-hour compared to an overnight and morning rate of 12 cents a kilowatt-hour.

   Fort Collins city electric costs 7.5 cents off-peak and 21 cents evenings. If an electric car uses 26 kilowatt-hours to go 100 miles…. I'm paying $2.00 per hundred miles. Take THAT to the bank, gas waster car!

    

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4. Republicans used to complain about an over-litigious society, but they're a big part of the problem now, at least when it comes to elections. Check out this story from Heidi Beedle and Colorado Times Recorder, and keep an eye on Kim Monson who's both a media personality and a modern-day monkey-wrencher:

   Monson’s plan to help Republicans overcome mail-in ballots is to raise over $200,000 to pay national election conspiracy figures to file lawsuits in Colorado.

   “There’s a group called United Sovereign Americans, and they have a Colorado chapter,” said Monson. “It’s all volunteers, and this Colorado chapter, they went through our 2022 election, and they found over 1.4 [million] anomalies in the 2022 election. You might ask what those might be. Over a million of them were people that voted before they registered. Do we not think that there could be a problem? … The advisor on this is Bruce Castor, who is the former AG in Pennsylvania. But to do something in Colorado, we needed to raise $50,000 for his legal team.”

   Monson said one of their goals is to prevent the certification of the 2024 election.

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   1. "United Sovereign Americans" sounds like t-shirt wearing, big-bellied asshats who weren't allowed to join the 3%ers. 

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      1. Sure, but what about the men?

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         1. lol

            That's gonna leave a mark!

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         2. Ha!  Love it!

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   2. Utah has a mail in ballot sytem similar to Colorado's system. But they're not talking about fraud in Utah? They aren't concerned about possible fraud in a red state?

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5. Donald, that savvy entrepreneur, has a heck of an enterprise:

   • "The stock price of Trump Media & Technology Group dropped to $17.40 per share on Wednesday, its lowest rate since it hit the market after it merged with a publicly traded shell company in March, when it was valued at a high of $79.38 per share."

   • looking now:  $16.98 USD −1.10 (6.08%) Closed: Sep 4, 6:51 PM EDT •   After hours 17.13 +0.15 (0.88%)

   Every Thing Trump Touches Dies

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   1. When the Arthur Laffer brain worm has completed it's job:

      

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      1. I'd wonder if he had some other thoughts and decided the long-tested "diverse holdings" approach is better than putting everything into Donald J. Trump's basket.

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6. John Tester (D-NE) just may hold his seat, after all. His opponent opened his mouth and swallowed his foot: https://www.msnbc.com/top-stories/latest/tim-sheehy-native-americans-montana-senate-tape-rcna169517

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   1. Tester is  (MT) but I'm feeling cautiously optimistic about his race.  This is what happens when the RNC brings in a ringer poser and puts them up against decades of experience.  Let' send he and Hovde back to their home turf with a (to quote Toby Keith) "a boot in their ass" (it's the American way).  

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