Tuesday Open Thread

21 thoughts on “Tuesday Open Thread”

1. Will south central Kansas be sending a Dem to D.C. this evening?

   https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/10/us/politics/as-a-house-race-tightens-in-kansas-republicans-see-a-possible-warning-sign.html?&hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

    

   Will Thompson be the Dems’ version of Scott Brown tonight? Probably not, but it will be closer than usual. Still, it’ll be nice to see how our in-house shills spin this one. Cornhole, Moldy, Pear…..start spinning!

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2. Trump stinks.  But so does Brownback.  Free Kansas!

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   1. What could possibly go wrong?  There aren't enough sex toys in the Bible Belt to fill this hole…

      Sam Brownback urges Donald Trump to replicate his Kansas disaster on a national scale

      When Brownback eliminated the state income tax for partnerships, limited liability corporations and other similarly structured entities in 2012 and 2013, he promised it would act “like a shot of adrenaline into the heart of the Kansas economy.” Now Kansas is experiencing such massive revenue shortages crisis that earlier this year Brownback quietly discontinued quarterly reports intended to highlight the state’s rapid economic growth. He has also been forced to raise the state sales tax, one of the most regressive ways of collecting revenue.

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      1. But at least this is saving Wichita-based Koch Industries (not to mention the Koch Bros. personally) tens of millions of dollars!  

         I'm sure the Kansas peasantry is pleased their masters are so well taken care of!

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3. I have to give Cory Gradner props for this one. They got it passed last year, and hopefully can get it passed again this year.

   Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Gary Peters (D-MI) and Cory Gardner (R-CO), members of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, sent a letter today to the Senate Appropriations Committee urging the Committee to support a substantial increase in federal funding for science, research, and development at the National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

   [snip]

   Last Congress, Peters and Gardner offered an amendment at the Senate Commerce Committee to increase authorizations of appropriations for NSF and NIST by 4% over existing funding levels, and the amendment passed by voice vote. This letter builds on that effort and the pair's longstanding work to bolster the U.S. scientific community and U.S. research and development enterprise, including their introduction of the American Innovation and Competitiveness Act that President Obama signed into law in January 20

   http://www.publicnow.com/view/537D39C8C818FD85865FB30AEAAF822E75A02338?2017-04-10-19:01:18+01:00-xxx9505

    

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   1. Now he can jaunt on over to the Justice Department and fruitsplain science to Beauregard?  

      Sessions orders Justice Department to end forensic science commission

      Attorney General Jeff Sessions will end a Justice Department partnership with independent scientists to improve forensic science standards and has suspended an expanded review of FBI testimony across several forensic techniques that have come under question.

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      1. Ignorance is Bliss and Sessions is among the most Blissful (only rivaled by Pitiful Pair and Moldy)

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4. The new age of Ayn Rand: how she won over Trump and Silicon Valley

   Her novel The Fountainhead is one of the few works of fiction that Donald Trump likes and she has long been the darling of the US right. But only now do her devotees hold sway around the world

   So who is this new entrant on the A-level syllabus, the woman hailed by one biographer as the goddess of the market? Born Alisa Zinov’yevna Rosenbaum in 1905 in St Petersburg, Russia, she saw her father impoverished and her family driven to the brink of starvation by the Soviet revolution, an experience that forged her contempt for all notions of the collective good and, especially, for the state as a mechanism for ensuring equality.

   Put more baldly, the reason why Republicans and British Conservatives started giving each other copies of Atlas Shrugged in the 80s was that Rand seemed to grant intellectual heft to the prevailing ethos of the time. Her insistence on the “morality of rational self-interest” and “the virtue of selfishness” sounded like an upmarket version of the slogan, derived from Oliver Stone’s Wall Street, that defined the era: greed is good. Rand was Gordon Gekko with A-levels.

   

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   1. Rand's atheism vs. Pope Francis's  humanism is forcing a lot of us do rethink our basic viewpoints.  Perhaps God is indeed such a useful concept that we need to invent one.

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5.  "God created Man in his own image, and Man, being a gentleman, returned the compliment."–Inherit the Wind

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   1. One of my faves…

       

      

       

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6. Today I learned…

   Sean Spicer Claims Hitler Never Used Chemical Weapons

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7. KANSAS!!!!

   Ok, it's only 1% reporting, and that from Wichita, one of the bluer areas of the Kansas state. It's the special election to fill appointed CIA Director Pompeo's House seat.

   But the Democrat is winning 61% to 37%. Brownback must be shitting bricks about now.

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   1. Lookin' blue at 32% reporting.

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   2. Thanks for the map 49-49  right now with 48% reporting

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      1. With 73% reporting, Republican Estes is ahead by 6 points. Trump won the counties in this House district by 27 points. So a -21 point slide – even if the GOP keeps this seat, they've got to be wondering if they will have to start listening to their constituents.

         They're running scared – the GOP, Pence and Cruz all made robocalls and campaigned for Estes.

         http://www.sos.ks.gov/ent/kssos_ent.html

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         1. There's still a 6% spread with 83% of the precinct but the only county from which votes are still coming in is Sedgwick which is Wichita where Thompson leads Estes, 52.6 % to 45.8%. 

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            1. It's the Resistance vs. Voter Suppressor – Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach was the source of DJT's claim that "millions of voters voted illegally".

               He's like Gessler on steroids. Kansas voters have some of the most stringent voter ID laws in the country – it's not enough to just bring a picture ID – your picture ID has to prove you are a US citizen just to register.

               If your ID doesn't prove you're a citizen, you are blocked from voting. Obama's justice department challenged this law; Sessions will approve it. 

               NYT is calling the election for Estes, but the fact that Kansas voters brought it this close against this much suppression deserves celebration.

               http://kcur.org/post/report-kansas-election-law-suppressing-turnout#stream/0

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               1. Having to prove you are eligible to vote in order to vote, how radical is that?

                  Keep celebrating your losses and they will keep coming.

                  I am still celebrating your Hillary loss.

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                  1. And Mother Russia's Great Victory!

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                  2. Da, comrade.

                     Did Vladimir call you to say "Spasibo, Andrei! We won!"?

                     Once we have jailed your fearless leader for treason, we may want to consider talking to you. This…

                     “It is our understanding that Rosneft acquired other PDVSA bonds on the open market that could bring their ownership potential (of Citgo) to more than 50 percent,”

                     is the kind of shit you support.

                     Read the story here…
                     http://www.cbsnews.com/news/rosneft-citgo-russian-oil-deal/

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