20 thoughts on “Thursday Open Thread”

1. Gardner raises $1.4M in Q1 to fund Senate run
   

   http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/morning_call/2014/04/gardner-raises-1-4m-in-q1-to-fund-senate-run.html

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2. Vice President Henry A Wallace Talks about Fascism – April 9, 1944

   A fascist is one whose lust for money or power is combined with such an intensity of intolerance toward those of other races, parties, classes, religions, cultures, regions or nations as to make him ruthless in his use of deceit or violence to attain his ends. The supreme god of a fascist, to which his ends are directed, may be money or power; may be a race or a class; may be a military, clique or an economic group; or may be a culture, religion, or a political party.

   …The American fascist would prefer not to use violence. His method is to poison the channels of public information. With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power.

   …American fascism will not be really dangerous until there is a purposeful coalition among the cartelists, the deliberate poisoners of public information, and those who stand for the K.K.K. type of demagoguery.

   …

   The symptoms of fascist thinking are colored by environment and adapted to immediate circumstances. But always and everywhere they can be identified by their appeal to prejudice and by the desire to play upon the fears and vanities of different groups in order to gain power. It is no coincidence that the growth of modern tyrants has in every case been heralded by the growth of prejudice. It may be shocking to some people in this country to realize that, without meaning to do so, they hold views in common with Hitler when they preach discrimination against other religious, racial or economic groups. Likewise, many people whose patriotism is their proudest boast play Hitler's game by retailing distrust of our Allies and by giving currency to snide suspicions without foundation in fact.

   The American fascists are most easily recognized by their deliberate perversion of truth and fact. Their newspapers and propaganda carefully cultivate every fissure of disunity, every crack in the common front against fascism. They use every opportunity to impugn democracy. They use isolationism as a slogan to conceal their own selfish imperialism. They cultivate hate and distrust of both Britain and Russia. They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection.

    

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   1. That last paragraph is a spot on description of todays' Republican party.  

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      1. I belive it is.

         Not just the toadies like gessler, coffman, gardner, or the loons like tancredo and lamborn, but the base itself.

         The modern conservative "movement" is deeply rooted in anger, obviously (read the posts of our "conservative" contributors), to an extent, fear of anything less than a very comfortable edge for white "christian" males, and a purposefully aggressive and beligerent tone and message.

         Today's conservative sees him/her self as a victim. That pre-existing coverage for other Americans now exists is a "threat" to him/her. Name any Democratic commons initiative, the "conservative" is its' victim.

         If indeed Fascism is the welding of corporate and government into one power, "conservatives" should be and are in love with the mcconnells, rubios, cruz's and boehners of the world.

         What allways baffels me, though, is how the "conservative" that's not in the top 1-2% is naive enough to think he/she gets any benefit for his/her family by voting that party to power. 

         Victims of thier own doing, and they either don't see it. Or, the hate over rides being used.

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         1. Roger, that.

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         2. That's where the "values voter" comes in. By casting their lot with the disaffected white, Southern voters back in Reagan's era, the Republicans shored up their floundering post-Nixon party. They told middle-America that Democrats didn't share their values and those middle-class suburbanites, along with a whole lot of farmers and ranchers, nodded their heads and changed their registrations. 

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         3. Spot on, well said.

            Personally, I believe it's the hatred (including racism, covert and overt) from the right-wing base which drives all. That hatred will also prove their ultimate undoing, which I believe is closer than any of us thinks…

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   2. Wow. Some things just never change Park Hill.

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   3. That reads like a recruitment poster for today's GOP, led by their masters, the Koch brothers.

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3. Special anniversary. 40 years ago Abba presented Waterloo at Eurovision which then rocketed them on to fame & fortune.

   .

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4. Someone tell the Nugent/Palin hard core angry tea party faction of the GOP that this is what having class and dignity looks like:

   http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2014/04/09/bush-41-greets-obamas-in-houston/?hpt=hp_t2

   Just a gesture, but good on Bush Sr.  Don't agree with him, but always liked him.

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   1. RINO

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      1. you cynic you, Daft !

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   2. And a "Top Spook".

      He ran black op's as good as anyone we've ever had. From being front line prepping the Bay of Pigs invasion to helping secure the Ayatollah's pledge to hold the American hostages untill after the election in 1980, and into the Iran-Contra days, GHWB was involved, sometimes the head, often directly, in literally every major behind the scenes operation the CIA ran from the 50's through the end of his term as CIA head, and even after that.

      Dirty, nasty business, sometimes over the line (the hostages deal was purely political and he'll burn in hell, if there is one, for it) but he was the absolute best at it. 

      Plausible Denial's a great read.

       

       

       

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      1. May have to check out that book roccophran. 

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   3. The Bush family has good manners. It's as simple as that.

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      1. Then I respect the Bushes good manners is what I guess I am saying.  I think its old school, and fading fast, and conversely subhuman mongrel/terrorist/liar/mom jeans is here to stay.

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5. Here you go, DavidThi — you finally got your scalp.  Looks like Obama let her resign with grace after the upbeat news about the signups.

   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/10/kathleen-sebelius-resign_n_5128840.html

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   1. That would be after 7.5 million and still counting 'till those that began the process before the deadline finish.

      For those counting, a half million more than target. 

      It's not if you get knocked down. Or if you meet with unmitigated disaster straight away. Or if snivelling cowards like issa, gohmert, johnson, cruz and rubio try to bully you. It's how you adapt and react, how you get up, find SOLUTIONS, and win the day.

      Sec.Sebelius stayed in the fight. The Administration didn't go Van Jones. Really smart people came together and turned it around. And we………the American people………won.

      Not without withering fire from the dirt clods. rubio, goober gohmert, every red politician and talk show yakker, blogger and basement dwelling repub basement dweller. Instead of Democratsand republicans coming together as a Congress, as happened during the botched bush prescription drug rollout, for the good of the nation, the republicans, as allways, forgot country, as they do 100% of the time, and did EVERYTHING POSSIBLE to sabotage the ACA.

      7.5 million anyway.

      What if we had a functioning loyal opposition party? What if republicans were Americans first?

      I still remember unqualified republicans that had no clue what went into the rollout, didn't care, showing thier collective asses at the Secretary in those kangaroo court hearings during the early rollout days. I also remember a very smart lady never losing her cool, showing absolute resolute conviction, being honest, never backing down.

      Now it's official. She won. America won. republicans lost……….big!

      Thank you for your service, Madame Secretary. 

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      1. Well said, Rocco.

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