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January 26, 2016 06:30 AM UTC

Tuesday Open Thread

  • 41 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

“It is not a disaster to be unable to capture your ideal, but it is a disaster to have no ideal to capture.”

–Benjamin E. Mays

Comments

41 thoughts on “Tuesday Open Thread

    1. Sorry to hear of any such tragedy, but c'mon, people…you can't actually shoot yourself unless you carry a gun with a bullet in the chamber….

      Hey!…stupid right wing gun nuts….I'm going to shout so maybe you will hear something my father taught me when I was 7 yrs. old……

      NEVER CARRY A GUN WITH A CHAMBERED ROUND !!…If you do, you are likely to shoot yourself or someone else….

      1. We can only hope Darwin's Law takes affect at the going rate, cuz these guys are playing a way different game that can get ugly real fast:

        On his personal Facebook page this weekend, writer David Neiwert argued that the left has largely dismissed these reactionary forces as marginal actors, and thus have failed to understand the "bigger picture."

        Right-wing extremists have a powerful gravitational effect, not just on conservatives generally but indeed our entire discourse. Because the right has become stuck in a constant envelope-pushing mode, both rhetorically and in terms of policy and politics, far-right extremists have for years helped shift the boundaries of what's acceptable and what's not by defining them. Ideas (and especially conspiracy theories) that were considered radical forms of far-right extremism in the 1990s have become (largely through the aegis of the Tea Party) perfectly acceptable mainstream-conservative ideas in the past decade. A Tea Party gathering in 2016 is virtually indistinguishable from a militia meeting in 1996.

        Neiwert is referring to the Overton Window, a theory of right wing change named for its originator, the late conservative intellectual Joseph Overton. By continually stretching the bounds of acceptability in public discourse, Overton reasoned that increasingly radical ideas could be brought into the mainstream, allowing the conservative movement to permanently alter the course of American political history.

        We know this crap works: just look at your leading Republican presidential candidate and the horror with which "old line" Republicans look on. 

        The solution (wait, there will most likely be no solution for decades, if at all) is not clear. A smart and effective reaction from us lefties is obviously not on the table. A realization of what these actors, who are going 24×7, keeping their followers/listeners at a constant state of agitation and "vigilence", repeating ad infinitum the accusations by Obama, Clinton, Soros, et al…are accomplishing and how they are truly moving this debate daily is horrifying. 

        They're trigger happy, they have Mega Bullhorns in the media, and they aren't going away any time soon: their paranoia is much stronger than our indifference.

         

         

        1. Well, Zap..you are, of course completely right on this and so is Mr.Neiwert. These hot-headed, red-necked, gunnies are actually quite numerous.

          Here in Grand Junction and its environs, they drive around with hateful slogans on their trucks and routinely meet out in the desert to practice shooting, trade guns, and plan their activities when the "black helicopters" show up. They are preparing to shoot human beings. We should be alarmed.

    1. I'm not shocked at all. But really??  Everyone "knows" that the most important topics of the day are Hilary's e-mails and Benghazi. Who cares about the 3,000+ US soldiers and contractors who died in Iraq? Or the hundreds of US allied soldiers who died? Or the tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians? The four who sadly died in Benghazi are far more important for certain extreme political factions. 

  1. My kingdom for a bucket of water.

    The best way to take out Donald Trump would be for some activist to dump a bucket of water on top of Trump's head.  His "hair" would crumble, the orange makeup would streak, his wrinkle cream would disintegrate.  He'd look like Darth Vader without his helmet. 

    I only regret that I have but one bucket of water to dump for my country.

    1. I actually lived in this area back in the 80's and 90's. At that time there was a similar severe El Nino and pretty much the same thing was happening. The Monterey / Seaside / Ft. Ord area was also experiencing the same sort of erosion. When these structures were built they were "well away" from the ocean front.

      To get an idea of the scale of the erosion, the boulders at the base of the cliffs were probably trucked in, like they were when I was there. These ballast stones were so big that it took a semi and large rock haulers to carry 3 or 4 boulders. That's a lot of trips at the bottom of the cliff.

      This is one of those cases where it's very hard to separate a local weather event from a climatic trend. Also, building stuff on old sand dunes is not a recipe for permanence.

      1. "Also, building stuff on old sand dunes is not a recipe for permanence."

        But developers and private citizens keep doing it and collecting big on insurance when the entirely predictable happens, sometimes multiple times in the same stupid locations, with or without reference to climate change.

        1. You could make the same argument for the houses built in the Malibu hills or, for that matter, the new construction in Colorado ski towns in the middle of dead forests. Although re-building on the same site is literally impossible for these coastal locations.

          I don't think that laying the entire thing on developers is appropriate. A case study could be made for the Enlisted Men's Clubhouse at Fort Ord. Built in the early '40s to handle the influx of trainees for WW2, it was razed in 2006 because coastal erosion was undermining it.

          Given the times, the economic pressures and the population growth in these areas, it's unsurprising that these sorts of losses occur. We've also learned a great deal about how land use and the environment are linked in the interval between the '40s, the '60s-'70s (when these apartment were probably built).

          What I find more curious are the attempts to stabilize these cliffs. Obviously the residences located atop the cliffs are a lost cause. The structures located near, but not on, the coast will come down in time. There is a major highway nearby and that is probably the reason for these stabilization efforts in the long term.

           

    2. Is this the drone video of the Pacifica apartment complex falling into the sea? (I see an error message). If so, that's not really a global warming issue, it's a seacliff in retreat and an apartment complex that never should have been built. Like MapMaker says, there's a big winter every so often that strips away the beach at the base of the cliff and allows the waves to crash on in.

      1. an apartment complex that never should have been built. 

        Yep..this is a result of a developer being allowed to build in an area that should have remained parkland or open space..but, hey…it's southern California…not the first questionable building site ever allowed.

  2. Did anyone catch that bit about Cruz donating bottled water to anti-abortion pregnancy crisis centers in Flint? Here's a city with poisoned water and thousands of children who now have to live with lead poisoning. Why does Cruz only care about embryos? What's so fucking pro-life about that? In Republican circles, is it considered a stain and a sign of weakness to display some empathy toward poor black kids? This guy is the favorite among so-called Christians? 

  3. White embryos,ajb.  Although, If I were a pregnant woman in Flint right now, I'd be thinking really hard about whether to carry that pregnancy no matter my race, knowing how damaged the child will most likely be.be. 

      1. 35 Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying,

        36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

        37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

        38 This is the first and great commandment.

        39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

        Matthew 22:35-39 (KJV)

    1. If all three agree what's the DNC going to do? Not let any of them participate in the remaining sanctioned debates?  And on the GOP side if Trump goes through with his boycott of the Fox debate because Megan is near the top of his growing enemies-he-won't-play-with list the ratings should be laughable. How entertaining is a Cruz/Rubio debate going to be compared to the circus that is The Donald? 

      Has there ever been a sillier political silly season?

        1. Same here. And what ever happened to the idea of looking dignified and presidential, of projecting gravitas as a prerequisite for qualification for the highest office in the land? Joke or not, can you imagine any previous serious, major party presidential candidate from either side of the aisle bragging, as Trump did, that he could shoot somebody and his supporters would still love him? And being right? It's enough to turn me into into one of those grumpy old "in my day" curmudgeons.

          1. you are in good company, my friend.

            I alternate between horror and amusement..these are loose boulders we are walking on here…sort of like traversing a steep talus slope….scary shit…

    1. This isn't gonna' play out well for Der Trumpenscheistermeister …

      I mean how's he gonna' keep peddling his schtick to the nutballs on his yugely awesome dealerishness (against Putin, the Chinese, Mexican rapists and Radical Muslims), when he can't even face down one little disgusting bleeding woman moderator???

      1. Some serious cognitive dissonance here in the All-American town. Fox News is live on every TV screen in every laundromat, gymnasium, sports bar, megastore electronics department, and most living rooms.

        It's the only network news they trust! The only one to "tell the real truth".

        Donald Trump is their hero. action figure, poet laureate, spokesmodel. Whatever will they do? It must be like being the children of divorce.

  4. Breaking.  Oregon Militia (some) arrested.  One killed.

    One person was killed as authorities arrested a group of people involved with the armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, the FBI and Oregon State Police said. The deceased was the subject of a federal probable cause arrest, officials said.

    1. The fatality was the guy who appeared on MSNBC, forget which show, sitting under a tarp with his gun and saying he'd rather die than be arrested and he'd fire on any officer who threatened him. Guess he got his wish. What an idiotic thing to die for, poor deluded, ignorant head case.

    2. The authorities moved in while the group was traveling to a neighboring county to organize a Sovereign Citizen's movement there. Remote area, multi-jurisdictional action.

      The group's media whiner, Santelli, was arrested separately. So was one other. Jon Ritzheimer, the guy who didn't appreciate the dildo delivery (at least not on video), turned himself over to authorities in Arizona.

      Unfortunately, Blayne Cooper, who has his wife and two young girls at the refuge, has reportedly dug in at the refuge, and a call for armed support has gone out on the "militia" networks. And they're trying to make blue tarp man into a martyr gunned down by law enforcement while he was complying and on the ground. (Law enforcement says he and one other refused to co-operate during the traffic stop, but they're not releasing any more details until the 10:30am news conference.)

      1. Oregon's Governor Brown  had just had enough of the militant's "spectacle" terrorizing the people of the town, stealing and vandalizing public property. My sense is that she gave the OK to round up the terrorists once they moved off their squat.

        If they have any sense, they'll also blockade the place so that they can't be resupplied or "defended" by further crazies.

        One of the men who remains at Malheur refuge is Blaine Cooper, he of the infamous "foster kids cottage industry" fame. He may or may not have some of his children at the refuge with him.

      2. Blue Tarp man is on record swearing he wouldn't be taken alive and that no law enforcemen officer should approach him if that officer didn't want to be shot. Seems unlikely that that the wacko generated martyr story is the more accurate one. Somebody probably has it recorded. 

  5. More on Blue Tarp Man.

    Finicum, a rancher from Arizona with 11 foster children, made headlines this month after conducting an interview from beneath a blue tarp on live television while carrying a rifle on his lap. During another interview with NBC, Finicum said he was willing to die rather than be arrested and cautioned authorities against pointing a gun at him.

    "I have no intention of spending any of my days in a concrete box," he said. "There are things more important than your life and freedom is one of them."

    Gotta wonder who’s freedom he was defending. Certainly not the freedom of all Americans who are the owners of federal land.

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