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February 13, 2016 12:08 AM UTC

Weekend Open Thread

  • 41 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

“Ethics is knowing the difference between what you have a right to do and what is right to do.”

–Potter Stewart

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41 thoughts on “Weekend Open Thread”

    2. Hey, they love people! As long as they aren't the messy human kind who have already been born.  Remermber: Fertilized eggs and corporations are not only people but the only ones who really count in the Republic of the Right.

  2. Love that quote, Pols. Stealing it. Teaching it.

    So the Clean Power Plan was undermined by the Supreme Court. SCOTUS halted implementation of the CPP until the state challenges to it work their way through the courts.  However, this ruling will not end efforts to limit carbon emissions, nor of the renewable energy industries which will replace fossil fuels. This is not due to green-haired environmentalists, but (drum roll) market forces. Rocky Mountain Institute's Ten Things More Important than the Clean Power Plan in Limiting Carbon Emissions in the US  ,by  Devi Glick  tells the story:

    Ten Things More Important than the Clean Power Plan in Limiting Carbon Emissions in the U.S.

     

    Yesterday, the Supreme Court issued a stay to halt the Clean Power Plan regulation. They did not overturn the rule, but rather agreed to halt it while the challenge from 29 states and dozens of corporations proceeds through the federal appeals court (and eventually makes its way to the Supreme Court). This intervention, before the lower circuit court had a chance to review the plan on its merits, is unprecedented but hardly surprising.

    The good news, though, is that this ruling does little to substantively impact the trajectory of CO₂ emissions in the U.S. While the Clean Power Plan serves as a valuable backstop, the timeline of implementation and limitations on what it can regulate keep it from being the dominant and irresponsible policy that opponents claim it is. Here are ten policies, trends, and market forces that are having a larger substantive impact on the trajectory of CO₂ emissions in the U.S. than the Clean Power Plan will.

    1. Sounds like, "peace in the Middle East?"

      …. "Peace in our time?"

      … "Peace with honor?" …

      ( … … …. … …. enlightened… … … …)

      (Kinda' reminds me of The Who song, which everytime I hear it only reminds me just how often and many times we continue to allow ourselves to be fooled again, and again, and …)

      i doubt we'll ever see peace, as long as we keep cranking out the Dick Cheneys, Bibi Netanyahus, Caliphwannabes, Oiligarchs, Jingoists, Nationalists, and the true-to-life-in-actuality-worse-than-Bond-villians of this world who profit off of turmoil, chaos, theft, ebslavement, and destruction …

      But good on the Obama's of this world who continue to try in the face of these evil (and the cynics like me)!  

      "Blessed are the peacemakers" … (thy name is Sisyphus?) … and, too bad they'll never lack for work. 

      1. Before we get too excited, heard on NPR yesterday from a Syrian on the ground that more civilians have been and are being killed by the Russians than by any other group involved, exclusively in support of Assad. The supporting Assad part isn't news but I was not aware that they were the number one killers of civilians operating in Syria. Makes sense considering how enthusiastically their boy Assad has been slaughtering his own people.

  6. A few weeks ago, I let it drop that I thought that Trump had both the grounds and the motivation to file against Cruz regarding the true nature of Cruz' citizenship and eligibility to be elected POTUS.

    Now I am admiring Bernie's self-restraint as Hillary wraps herself with Obama and slams Bernie for expressing mild criticisms  … self-restraint against the urge to counter with a renewed exposure of Hillary's association with birtherism.

    Bernie will stay mum. There is no way that anything can make him go that negative. But you can't say the same for Trump.

    1. "Bernie will stay mum….."  I agree. I think he knows, deep down, that he will not be the next president of the USA. He also doesn't want Trump or Cruz to get elected. So, he has to be gentle in how he deals with HRC. Having HRC as the nominee creates the best chance for the Dems to re-take the Senate. 

    1. yep….in the words of that noted socialist, Abraham Lincoln…

      "And, inasmuch [as] most good things are produced by labour, it follows that [all] such things of right belong to those whose labour has produced them. But it has so happened in all ages of the world, that some have laboured, and others have, without labour, enjoyed a large proportion of the fruits. This is wrong, and should not continue. To [secure] to each labourer the whole product of his labour, or as nearly as possible, is a most worthy object of any good government."    

       

      The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume I, "Fragments of a Tariff Discussion" (December 1, 1847), p. 412.

      1. In Harry Turtledove's alternative history series "American empire" Lincoln survives the Civil War , which the South wins, and goes on to lead the Socialist party.

      2. I got sick of CoPols, but not because of posts like this.

        think of the implications of Lincoln's (Sanders's) math:

        – hire a worker who adds $50k of value: pay them $50k of total compensation 

         

        its mind boggling, and beautiful.

  8. A note to the Mesa County commissioners, the Grand Junction Chamber of Commerce, Club 20, GJEP,and every other fossilonian tribe who keeps holding their breath, waiting for the O&G companies to come streaming back in to save our valley…

     

    U.S. Oil Explorers Park Rigs as Sub-$20 Crude Seen Possible

     

    "Oil has become so disconnected to the cost of getting it from the ground that now we’re trading on round numbers," said Stephen Schork, president of the Schork Group Inc. in Villanova, Pennsylvania. "The next target is $25 and then we’ll head to $20. Oil in the teens is a real prospect in the near future."

    America’s oil drillers have been idling rigs since October 2014 as the world’s largest crude suppliers battle for market share. Despite the cutbacks, U.S. production has remained stubbornly high as new techniques that increase efficiency keep the oil flowing.

    U.S. production fell by 28,000 barrels last week to 9.19 million barrels a day, according to weekly Energy Information Administration data. It was the first time since early September that U.S. output declined for three weeks in a row.

     

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-12/u-s-oil-explorers-park-rigs-as-crude-below-20-seen-possible

     

    Isn't it time we put this filthy, intrusive, polluting, and destructive industry behind us? The next boom may not come for years…if ever. Now is the time to look to the future of clean, renewable/sustainable energy systems and start making that future a reality. 

    As Coloradans, it is urgent that we vote the acolytes of Oil and Gas out of office. For far too long, the Republican Party in Mesa County has provided a welcome home and a lavish buffet of friendly services. It is time to vote every one of those oily crony-boys (and girls) out of office

    I have seen the future…and it ain't oily….. 

    2. So, they're NOT going to take care of the communities that supported them.

      I sure hope they'll be held to reclamation standard that are still part of the law. Some green movement needs to hire Tresí Houpt to see to that

      1. Given that statewide bonding is around $25000 on public lands (meaning a company puts up that much for all its wells), rest assured that as these companies reconfigure and dump bad assets, restructure debt, and go belly up, that the American taxpayer will indeed pick up the tab. It’s the robber-baron way, privatize profit socialize risk.  

        http://www.blm.gov/style/medialib/blm/mt/blm_programs/energy/oil_and_gas/leasing/handbooks/3104.Par.33760.File.dat/part1.pdf

    3. You might be better off to throw the "fossilonians" a bone. After all, the sun doesn't shine every day and the wind doesn't blow every day, even in Mesa County. For solar fans, there is that other "little problem" known as night. Rocky Mountain Institute has predicted that we'll still get a large percentage of our energy needs in 2050 from natural gas. And we still do need some oil for making asphalt, many forms of plastics, etc. 

      1.   the sun doesn't shine every day and the wind doesn't blow every day, even in Mesa County. 

        C'mon, CHB..spare me that tired old crap. I said, we need to  start  making that future a reality. We will never start until we as individuals and as a society make the conscious decision to change our point of view. The conditions you call out in your often parroted objection are not reasons to wait…for anything. We must de-emphasize fossil fuels and emphasize alternatives at every opportunity…aggressively…

        That will not happen until the Rpublican party, particularly the establishment wing of said mob, has been completely removed from power.

  9. Given my ag background it gave me no pleasure to watch Clivrn and his  Freedumb Posse taint the entire American ranching industry  Here's the raw math for these maroons:

    According to the Department of Interior's Annual Economic Report (2012), grazing on federal public lands accounts for .41% of livestock receipts in the US and 17,000 jobs. Recreation on federal public lands accounts for $45 billion in revenue and 372,000 jobs.
    The General Accounting Office reports that the federal public lands grazing program costs taxpayers $144 million annually and is partially offset by receipt of $21 million in grazing fees.
    According to the American Lands Alliance, federal public grazing lands account nationally for 3% of all producers, 2% of total feed, and less than 3% of beef. It accounts for less than 1/2% of income grazing states.
    Our public lands are intended for multiple uses and purposes, and grazing is certainly one of those…along with mineral, energy, and timber extraction. Recreation…hunting, fishing, hiking, camping, birding, meditation are other uses. Our public lands also serve as filters for our air and water, helping provide a healthy environment for us to live and raise our families.
    Gifford Pinchot, the founder of the US Forest Service said, ""Where conflicting interests must be reconciled, the question shall always be answered from the standpoint of the greatest good of the greatest number in the long run."

    1. Michael: outdoor recreation in Colorado alone generates $13 billion in revenue; over 110,000 jobs; and about a billion in tax revenues for state and local governments; per the Outdoor Industry Association.

  10. Scalia Dead

    My first reaction: "Thank fucking God."

    Second: Republicans are going to get more crazy, more stupid, more reactionary, more Anti-Democratic (both small and large D).

    You wimps on our side better start stiffening your spine………….

    1. And you scouts on the far left skirmish line should consider joining us on the main line of resistance on cemetery ridge!  But thanks. For the  help on Little Round top!wink

  11. Scalia's family can take comfort that he was an honest man who occasionally rose above the prejudices of his upbringing as he did in the flagburning decision. May he rest in peace.  I suppose Lawrence tribe is too old, but by every other measure he would be the ideal successor.  And in case you don't realize it, the Republican race is about to get even ughlier

    2. He really was an able jurist, even though he clung to a ridiculous approach to the Constitution*.

      *Unless it served his interests to do otherwise, as in Bush v. Gore, where he suddenly became an activist.

      1. So much so that his Court went to the extraordinary length of stipulating that it was a one and done decision, not to be considered as setting a precedent and Sandra Day O'Connor, who later went on to be damn near sainted by Dems for being the swing vote that came down on our side a few times, in this case was the swing vote in the bloodless coup that gave us Cheney/Bush and everything that followed.

        That includes Colin Powell agreeing to be a team player and going along with selling congress and the public what he knew to be a pack of lies instead of resigning in protest which might have put the brakes on the whole sorry mess with 75% of the public opposed at the time.

        Never mind Scalia. Those two both get way more credit from Dems who look kindly on them than their decisions and actions when the chips were really down deserve IMHO. 

  13.  

     

    This is a quote from the wife of Rafael Cruz,,,noted Canadian "anchor baby"…

     

    We are at a cultural crossroads in our country, and if we can be in this race to show this country the face of the God that we serve — this Christian God that we serve is the foundation of our country, our country was built on Judeo-Christian values, we are a nation of freedom of religion, but the God of Christianity is the God of freedom, of individual liberty, of choice and of consequence,” Heidi Cruz said.  

    total bullshit, of course…but this is the best part….

       but the God of Christianity is the God of freedom, of individual liberty, of choice and of consequence,  

    um…"Thou shalt have no other gods before me…" is just the first of a bunch of COMMANDMENTS….not "suggestions"….

    Freedom and individual liberty.and choice….unh..huh…right.

    http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/listen-ted-cruzs-wife-says-he-will-reveal-face-god-wacky-religious-rant

     

    1. "god of freedom, individual liberty, choice….."  Does this mean that Heidi is now pro-choice and pro-freedom of conscience when it comes to issues like abortion, contraception, same sex marriage? 

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