Monday Open Thread

18 thoughts on “Monday Open Thread”

1. Seems as if are lot of candidates are missing from the Big Line. Time for an update.

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2. I'm stuck today . . . 

   . . . wondering why Tancredo hasn't yet announced his campaign for rescuing the Presidency???

   "For the good of the GOP . . . 

   For the good of the country . . . 

   (So Mike Coffman finally has someone he can endorse . . .)

   . . . Now, more than ever — Tancredo/Gessler 2016!!!!"

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   1. And, "Make America White, Again" would be perfectly accurate.

      And, “All [white] voters matter”.

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3. Anybody see Chuck Plunkett's "helpful hint" to Daryl Glenn in yesterday's Post? Basically telling Glenn to make an issue out of the Iranian 400 million and take it to Bennet. Seems that Mr. Plunkett has already made up his mind who to endorse in the Senate race. 

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   1. Even Mr. Plunkett has to recognize the difficulty here. His concluding thoughts:

      Glenn’s campaign lacks organization, cash and focus. In his speech at the Republican National Convention, Glenn didn’t take the opportunity to draw out Bennet, and his attacks of Clinton were the kind of crude, red-meat variety expected during a primary. Other Republican Senate candidates are trying to appeal to general election voters.

      Recently it took Glenn days to settle questions about an old assault charge, even though the final narrative he presented should have been a gold-plated campaign trail back story.

      Perhaps he’s correct to let this gift go, but I can’t figure it out why his campaign seems so quiet about it.

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4. Over the weekend, George P. Bush, son of  JEB!, became the first Bush to endorse Drumpf. His namesake grandfather is probably revising his will as this is being posted.

   I never thought I'd say this about Ted Cruz, a man I agree with on literally no public policy issue, but Cruz is a far better son than G.P. Bush can ever claim to be. At least Cruz refused to suck up to a man who attacked his dad.

   G.P. Bush can learn something about family values from Rafael.

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   1. Disgraceful.

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5. Walker Stapleton stars in new anti-69 ad.  Pretty information free with House of Cards theme. Anyone know if proponents have cash for their own campaign?

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   1. Some. Not enough to match the Koch Bros via Advancing Colorado. Enough for a few staff, volunteer coordinator, and some media.

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6. ACE is a very cool interactive voter data site from the Colorado Secretary of State's office.

   If you're a volunteer or campaign manager, journalist, or curious voter trying to find out how many active Independent voters are in a given county/ district/precinct, you can, with minimal fuss. Lyn Bartels promoted the site today, and electionline published the write-up. Once again, Colorado leads the country in transparency!

   Not at all what Scott Gessler had in mind, but of course, he's still taking credit for it.

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7. We're already Bushed . . . 

   A blast from the past, maybe ?

   “He is unable or unwilling to separate truth from falsehood,” the letter says. “He does not encourage conflicting views. He lacks self-control and acts impetuously. He cannot tolerate personal criticism. He has alarmed our closest allies with his erratic behavior. All of these are dangerous qualities in an individual who aspires to be president and commander in chief, with command of the U.S. nuclear arsenal.”

   Sound kinda' vaguely familiar ????

   Well folks, irony already committed ritual seppuku (circa 2001), so . . . 

   Fifty of the nation’s most senior Republican national security officials, many of them former top aides or cabinet members for President George W. Bush, have signed a letter declaring that Donald J. Trump “lacks the character, values and experience” to be president and “would put at risk our country’s national security and well-being.”

   http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/09/us/politics/national-security-gop-donald-trump.html

    . . . Still, presumably, these folks have firsthand knowlege of stupid and dangerous and erratic (and may have learned a little something from their last lesson)?

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   1. But he has a very good brain, he watches "all the [Sunday morning news] shows" and he once hosted a Miss Universe pageant in Russia. How much more can there be?

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      1. One of CNN's kind of rightie economist talking heads pointed out that while he's all for reducing the business tax rate, Trump's plan to cut  the top rate of 39% to a single rate of 15% wouldn't really be petting more money into anybody's pocket since few businesses wind up paying more than 12% with all the deductions, loopholes and such and many pay none at all. If anything an ironclad 15%  would raise taxes on business.

         And then there's the fact that presidents don't raise or lower taxes. Congress does and his own party doesn't think much of his plan which involves lowering taxes and spending more on the military, infrastructure and even letting people deduct 100% of their childcare costs.

         They used to push voodoo economics,,,, the lower taxes will create so much prosperity that there will more revenue coming in, not less. Plenty for everything we need to do and maintain. But they long ago dropped that and admitted that they just want to shrink revenue to starve government so they can return us to the gilded age where a few rich "winners" sucked up everything and everyone else knew their place and was happy to work cheap and not starve to death. They aren't going to go for less taxes with more government spending. Well if it’s going to the military industrial complex, not the peasants serving, and war profiteers… OK. But that’s all. Oh and subsidies for Big fill-in-the-blank. But that’s really, really all we can afford.

         So good luck with all that, Donald.

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8. From Donald's speech on the economy.

   Finally, no family will have to pay the death tax. American workers have paid taxes their whole lives, and they should not be taxed again at death – it’s just plain wrong. We will repeal it.

   He leaves out the part, as do all Republicans, that if your an "American worker" who doesn't anticipate inheriting an estate worth north of 5 million you don't have to worry about it at all. It doesn't apply to you.

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   1. It's a virtual cornucopia of stupid out there. Half of all Americans hold less than 5% of the current $5mm net-worth threshold.  

      

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      1. There are roughly 10 million millionaires in America today, or roughly 4% of the working population.

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         1. .

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         2. Far fewer worth 5 million +. I’ve read both 99.8 ad 99.9 percent of estates pay no “death tax”. Here’s a fact sheet that cites 99.9 and also notes that only 20% of farms pay any.

            http://www.americansfortaxfairness.org/tax-fairness-briefing-booklet/fact-sheet-the-estate-inheritance-tax/

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