15 thoughts on “Wednesday Open Thread”

1.    Today's N.Y. Times has story entitled, "Homegrown Radicals More Deadly Than Jihadis in the U.S."  The death toll since 9/11/01:  48 Americans killed by white supremacists, anti-government types and non-Muslims compared to only 26 killed by self-professed jihadists.

      It looks like Fox News, Dick Cheney and Tom Tancredo been misleading us for the last 14 years.  Who would have thought that possible…..

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   1. I know that the homegrown radicals scare the crap out of me…hasn't slowed me down much, though…

      Here's a good example of a confrontation between normal Muslims and radical right wing anti-government types, in Phoenix, Arizona,  mediated by those wacky peace-lovin' liberals. 

       

      Three guesses about which side Gordon Klingenschmitt is on. (Hint: it isn't the side of the people holding hands and chanting, "Love Your Neighbor".

      Extra points for speculating: Which side would Jesus be on?

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   2. And that's a conservative number.

      Another article posted in the Times only last week looked at a different study, conducted by the US Military Academy's Combating Terrorism Center. Since 9/11:

      * US Islamists planned 6 attacks per year, succeeding in only 1 or 2 per year.
      * Right wingers carried out 334 attacks per year.
      * Islamist extremists have killed 50 people since 9/11.
      * Right-wing extremists have killed 254 people since 9/11, including 25 law enforcement agents.

      Almost twice as many domestic law enforcement departments consider right wing terrorists to be a threat than their Islamic counterparts (74 vs 39 percent), and more than twice as many consider right wing extremists to be a severe threat (7 vs 3 percent).

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2. Hey AC…isn't this called, "borrow and spend"…? Oh, right….the Reagan/Bush doctrine….now I remember.

   Scott Walker, Set for a Bigger Stage, Faces G.O.P. Revolt in Wisconsin

    

   MADISON, Wis. — As Gov. Scott Walker prepares to announce his campaign for president next month, promising to bring what he calls “big bold leadership” to Washington, as he did in Wisconsin, he faces a cloud over that story line: Republicans back home are in revolt.

   Leaders of Mr. Walker’s party, which controls the Legislature, are balking at his demands for the state’s budget. Critics say the governor’s spending blueprint is aimed more at appealing to conservatives in early-voting states like Iowa than doing what is best for Wisconsin.

   Lawmakers are stymied over how to pay for road and bridge repairs without raising taxes or fees, which Mr. Walker has ruled out.

   The governor’s fellow Republicans rejected his proposal to borrow $1.3 billion for the roadwork, arguing that adding to the state’s debt is irresponsible.

   The state’s nonpartisan budget office estimated this year that Wisconsin would save $345 million in its budget over two years by accepting Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act. Unlike the Republican governors of four nearby states, Mr. Walker refused expansion, a litmus test for conservatives.

   http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/24/us/politics/scott-walker-promising-bold-leadership-faces-gop-discord-in-wisconsin.html?_r=0

    

    

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   1. Or you can just do it the Brownback/Kansas Republican state leg way… don't tax, don't spend (in other words don't invest) let everything go to hell in a hand basket and close schools early. It works about as well as being penny wise and pound foolish with your own money by failing to maintain your car, home, roof, plumbing etc. But if you're planning to run for President and want to be able to brag about how well your conservative economic ideology works, that's going to be hard to do if your state is looking like a third world country with economic indicators in the toilet so, yeah, you're going to have to switch to don't tax, do spend (so borrow like crazy), to spruce things up a little. Otherwise mean Dems might point out that your economic belief system is pure crap.

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      1. Don't forget the part about forcing state employees to work without pay.  That's the part that the GOP enjoys most.

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         1.  Especially fans of the Confederate Battle Flag, I suppose. 

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   2. Republicans' litmus test reveals weak acidic piss…

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3. What exciting news!!! Piyush "Bobby Brady" Jindal has announced. He's running for president. No word on whether Louisiana will do anything with the confederate flag though, NY Times article did mention that while Jeb Bush is pulling in 22% in recent polls, Jindal is running at 0%. Which will probably preclude him from being in the top ten for Faux News debate in August.

   Not a very auspicious start……

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   1. And Jindal's poll numbers exactly match what voters feel he has to offer.

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4. As the proprietors of this blog revel in the idiocy and illegal acts of our "friends" on the right, our "friends" on the left, who should be advancing democratic policies and ideas, still fail to heed the warning signs of the Democratic Party's fealty to big money and big corporations and how it has corrupted their principles:

   The Peasants Are Rebelling and the Leaders Aren't Listening

   Bill Curry at Salon on how all this plays with the base:

   Paul Krugman’s right: there’s a rumbling out there, but most Democrats are a long way from hearing it, let alone joining in. If House Dems stand firm, they too may plant the seeds of a grass-roots movement. Much of their party will resist. Every political party is really many parties. The Democrats’ presidential, Senate, governors’ and donors’ parties all line up with global capital. Even in the House, Minority Whip Steny Hoyer is a staunch ‘free trader’ and Pelosi herself spent the week before the vote quietly imploring her caucus to swallow the poison pill.

   No one knows where scores of Democrats really stand. Both parties are caught in a crossfire between their donors and their base. Republican voters are suspicious of the TPP and hate fast track, mostly because they hate Obama. Democratic voters hate fast track but accept the TPP, mostly because they love Obama. Republicans in Congress are civil because they can’t bash Democrats for doing what their base wishes they would do.

   Democrats in Congress are quiet because they don’t want their donors to think they mean what they say — and don’t know when someone may offer them something to take one for the team by switching sides.

   As a party, the Democrats are obviously lost, and their leaders are swimming in donor-funded obfuscation:

   This week I told two liberal friends that Pelosi is trying to find “a path to yes on fast track.” (Her words) Both said Pelosi and Clinton had broken with Obama, are moving left and now oppose the deal. In terms of strategy and message it was true — all except the part about Clinton and Pelosi opposing the deal.

   There's much about Clinton and Pelosi pretending to care about workers when all they want is for the deal to be done without their fingerprints on it. That obviously applies to Pelosi. Curry says that's equally true of Clinton.

   (Michael Bennet is right there with Pelosi and Clinton and Obama in support of big corporations and big money. He's counting on the complexity of the issue to hide his motivation and actions. And he's counting on CPols and Jason Bane and others to ignore policy in favor of politics, even though they are inextricably connected. And he's counting on a nice little pat on the back from them, even if he has to lie about it.  -z)

   Yeah, R's support harmful policies. They degrade the performance of government and lie about it's function and funding. They rely on fear and ignorance to keep their electoral advantage. When all that isn't enough, they just break the damned law.

   When D's don't point this out, when they go along with bad policy because defending good policy is too complicated, when they put the interests of their big donors over their constituents, and when they fail to act on the promises to voters and lose their seat in the next election, then they have failed, too.

   Obama failed in '08 by thinking he had to move to the "middle" to govern. Bennet failed in '09 by falling for the Bullshit Blue Dog strategy and the "center-right" talking point that thrives in DC. (And/or he also lied to voters and Ritter and Obama about his political philosophy.) Obama doesn't have to listen (much) to voters anymore. Bennet does, but he's proving to be tone deaf at a time when he should be listening more carefully to the news of the day. The "middle" isn't halfway between big money Dems and reactionary and radical Repubs. The mainstream of America supports many Democratic and Liberal ideas, even if the politicians they elected can't figure that out, or don't want to.

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5. Obama and Bennet failed at what now? He's President and Bennet's in the Senate, making headlines (after years of neglecting to remind most voters he exists) working across the aisle with the new R Senator and all that stuff casual voters like without a credible undamaged R challenger in sight. And I doubt anyone needs a warning that most Dem pols are also in pretty tight with corporate interests. That's hardly a well kept secret. But thanks for the heads up anyway.

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6. Here's news from C(hristian) Springs   https://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/focus-on-the-prize-storied-religious-right-group-changes-strategy-but-not

   It seems Focus on the Family has changed their spokes-mouth and their stragedy. They've stopped stiff-arming the Alliance Defending Freedom and instead are giving them a big ol' smooch. 

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7. There's no "Get Smarter" thread today. Is today a day we get dumber, or do we just stay our regular selves?

   Anyway, let me get this out of my system. MUah HA haaaaa!

   Right wing radio hosts Randy Corporon, Ken Clark, and somebody else resigned today because management won't let them interview Tancredo or Coffman!

   This is like the scene in every Star Trek movie when the planet eating thingy bores into the planet and it flames up, then implodes and breaks up in pieces….

   I really do like a two (or more) party democracy, and I kinda sorta want the GOP to survive….I just hope they learn something about teamwork from all this drama.

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   1. Maybe a piece of it will. It won't be the Team Coffman piece. And may I join you in that

      MUah HA haaaaa! Feels good.

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