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July 17, 2014 06:32 AM UTC

Thursday Open Thread

  • 37 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

"A flow of words is a sure sign of duplicity."

–Honoré De Balzac

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37 thoughts on “Thursday Open Thread”

          1. Chris Christie's solution would be to bring them to Rahway State Prison and to tell them that's where they're going to wind up. Scared Straight!

      1.  

        Arizona politician mistakes a bus full of YMCA kids for undocumented immigrants

        …We may have reached peak political theater near the U.S.-Mexico border. According to AZcentral.com, Arizona state Rep. and 1st district congressional candidate Adam Kwasman (R) rushed to the scene in Oracle, Ariz., on Tuesday to participate in protests against housing some of the thousands of undocumented immigrant children who have come across the border in recent weeks in a facility nearby. Kwasman was in the middle of a fiery speech about "Lady Justice" when he spotted a yellow school bus and dashed off with the protesters to greet it. He snapped a picture which he tweeted with he message "Bus coming in. This is not compassion. This is the abrogation of the rule of law." "I was able to actually see some of the children in the buses and the fear on their faces. This is not compassion," Kwasman told 12 News reporter Brahm Resnik. There was just one problem: Those weren't undocumented kids. They were YMCA campers

  4. The GOP, in it's quest for power, admires and emulates the Taliban:

    The media never points out, even though it is well documented in Robert Draper’s book “Do Not Ask What Good We Do,” that this was an intentional strategy to destroy the Obama presidency, hatched by a group of Republicans at the Caucus Room restaurant on the evening of January 20, 2009, while the new president and his wife were dancing at the inaugural balls.

    The Republicans frankly make no secret of it: Newt Gingrich, who was there, bragged about it on my radio program. Texas Republican Pete Sessions, who was there, told the National Journal that their strategy was one they learned from the Taliban. He said they were going to become like the “Taliban insurgency.”

    The American mainstream media, since Reagan stopped enforcing the Sherman act and the media went into massive consolidation mode, has shifted from providing news and information to providing entertainment and infotainment.

    Infotainment only needs surface discussion, rather than requiring in-depth discussion. Infotainment can be very successful and very profitable even when people are essentially stupid – or at least misinformed or uninformed.

    It's called the "The Republican Chaos Strategy", similar to the Vietnam war strategy of napalming a village in order to "save" it.

    So the term "American Taliban" is a lot closer to the truth than even we might imagine.

    http://www.salon.com/2014/05/15/republicans_insane_political_strategy_ruining_our_country_hurts_the_democratic_party_partner/

    1. It's disgusting and contemptible.

      We are seeing that "Republican Chaos" strategy bearing fruit in the Patriot and Sovereign Citizen movements – in domestic terrorists, most recently in the police shootings in Nevada, and on the Bundy Ranch.

      Modern secessionist movements disguise blatant corporate self-interest with patriotic rhetoric.

      1. OK  "the Newsroom"  is now on my  DVR. I don't see those ideas expressed anywhere else on TV, and with no school in summer, I'm seeing a lot of MSNBC.

        I'd like to see those ideas critiqued in real life, but the only people I see doing that are Irv Halter in the Springs, and some of the progressive or moderate Republicans and Unaffiliated on this forum.

        Our local American Taliban chapters (RMGO, GRAA, __#__gun___#_ ) can be kind of scary- they intend to intimidate, because they are innately fearful themselves. It's hard to communicate with folks who think I'm the anti-Christ..

         

         

    3. @Davie,

      The Draper book has been out for more than two years. I may have even cited it here.  The real story is that the republican PLAN, particularly right after a loss.  They took the House after the 2008 loss and PLAN to take the Senate after the 2012 loss.  Their goal described in the book was to thwart the dems in Congress and do whatever necessary to destroy the Obama presidency.

      I don't think it was any secret.  The secret, I think, is what did the dems plan to combat this strategy.  I know Obama won in 2012 with a strategic GOTV plan that was brilliant.  But, the dems have not been able to combat the repubs in the Congress or in many of the several states.

  5. Governor Hickenlooper playing banjo and singing with Old Crow Medicine Show at Red Rocks last night:

    Hickenlooper's act just got harder for Bob Beauprez to follow!

    1. huffington post has as good a coverage as any.  From this update, it appears that the rebels captured a Ukrainian military installation that had Russian-make SA-17 (BUK) anti-aircraft missles.  Rebels love their shiny new toy, so they tried it out with "success":

      Ukraine’s foreign ministry said in a statement that the plane had been brought down by a Russian-made Buk, or Beech, antiaircraft system.

       

       

      Nataliya Gumenyuk, a founder of the Ukrainian Hromadske.TV, noted that the Kiev government would seem to have no need for anti-aircraft missiles, since the separatists do not have an air force.

      As Jonathan Landay, a national security correspondent for McClatchy, pointed out, Russian state media had trumpeted the capture of “a Ukrainian anti-air military installation” in the region just three weeks ago.

      On June 29, the official news agency RIA Novosti quoted a separatist from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic saying that pro-Russia militants had “assumed control of A-1402 military base,” equipped with “Buk mobile surface-to-air missile systems.”

      Although the rebels have now denied shooting down the commercial airliner, earlier in the day Igor Strelkov, the republic’s Russian defense minister, took credit online for downing a plane he thought was Ukrainian.

          1. Actually, it's looking pretty cut-and-dried.  Only to decide the repercussions to come.

            There is audio intelligence tapes released by the Ukrainian government between the rebel defense minister and Russian intelligence where they discuss their shoot down and shock at only finding civilians amongst the wreckage.  No wonder they turned the black boxes over to Russia.

              1. Mismanagement, incompetence — pick your favorite:

                Malaysia Airlines decided for such a long flight (Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur), saving time, fuel and money was more important, you know, because lightening never strikes twice in the same place.

                Aviation authorities in several countries, including the FAA in the United States, had issued warnings not to fly over parts of Ukraine prior to Thursday's crash. Within hours, several airlines, including Lufthansa and KLM, released statements Thursday saying they were avoiding parts of Ukrainian airspace.

            2. It is cut and dried.

              UN security council to meet tomorrow.

              I think not allowing Russian airliners to use international airspace is a good start.

              Shooting down passenger airlines is probably one of the few things that can get almost anybody who flies pissed off about.

              1. Russia has a veto on the Security Council — so while there will be lots of sturm und drang, it's unlikely they will pass any resolution other than condolences to the families.

                It'll be up to individual nations, the EU, and possibly NATO to impose sanctions.

                1. Agreed as to the security council.

                  But I do think there will be consequences.  This one is Russia against civilization, not just the Ukraine.

                  1. But, militia!!!1!!11  But, ignorant armed men standing up to their government!!!!  But Clive Bundy (or whatever his name is)!   But, stop the YMCA campers!!!!  But, Republican candidate in AZ campaigning with armed militia!!!!  How can you turn against these poor misunderstood Ukrainian separatists when they have a similar agenda to your own?  AC, you turn coat.

    1. The definition of insanity is . . .

      . . . on near daily display among small-minded leaders all throughout the Middle East.  (Another couple of thousand years, maybe?)

    2. Actually the timing is great.  UN to meet on Russia shooting down of civilian aircraft tomorrow.  Hamas rejected a peace effort signed off on by Israel, Egypt and the Arab League.  Israel has a rather free hand right now and can hopefully clean up some of the local terrorists at their border.

        1. Trouble is, it's gone beyond the point where it much matters who is right about who is most in the wrong in this conflict, you or AC. Or anyone anywhere in between, for that matter. It can't get much worse for the Palestinian people and it can't get any better for Jewish Israel and is more likely to get a whole lot worse.

          So Israel goes in and "mows the grass" again. Then what?  Rinse, repeat. The same cycles we've seen for decades.  Neither Netanyahu's (or any hardliner's) policy's nor those of Hamas have any potential of solving anything long term. None. Israel has the advantage in might and US backing but Hamas has the capability to maintain a permanent insurgency. Of course, whether you're an insurgent or a freedom fighter is an eye of the beholder matter. 

          There is very little reason for either side's supporters to hold out hope of "winning". There is very little reason to believe that a viable two state solution is even a remote possibility at this stage of the game. There is absolutely no chance for Israel's long term survival as a Jewish democratic state without a two state solution as a single state will very soon be one having a Muslim majority absent massive ethnic cleansing or permanent incarceration of a non-citizen majority by the citizen minority in what amounts to increasingly crowded, horrific reservations, not something that will be supported by the international community or even, ultimately, by the US.  Also not compatible with anything resembling stability.

          We can continue to argue with each other and call each other names and stick to our guns on the rights and wrongs but it's hard to see how it matters anymore in practical terms. Pretty sure we're past the point where this can possibly end well for either side. 

            1. First I don't say it doesn't matter who's right or wrong in the theoretical or moral sense but in the practical sense since I don't believe it makes any difference in terms of what the outcome is going to be at this point. Second, both sides have done and continue to do things that are wrong and also have reasons that seem perfectly valid to them to believe themselves to be in the right and to believe themselves to be the aggrieved party. Not going to go into to all of that here mainly because, once again, I don't believe there is any longer much chance that those issues can ever going to be resolved in a way in which this ends well for any of the parties concerned.

              All I know is that for decades we have not gotten any closer to a viable two state solution in which the two states can peacefully coexist. There is nothing to indicate we will in the foreseeable future and without that there is no long term future for a Jewish state of Israel. Period. The window of opportunity isn't limitless. The rest is just the same old, same old background noise. Just calling it like I see it.

              1. oops. Meant to insert "can ever" and get rid of "going to". Either one, but not both, would have been OK. Suffice it to say I see no reason to believe that those issues can be resolved to the satisfaction of either side and certainly not both sides after all this time. It gets worse every day. Not better or with any indication of a promise of getting better. If anyone can see a potential bright side here I'd sure like to know on the the basis of what .

        2. After trying to play nice and put forward one or two posts that appear to be approaching an actual congent argument, the turd-troll goes back to its feces-smearing.  

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