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October 21, 2022 07:08 AM UTC

Friday Open Thread

  • 41 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

“We are punished by our sins, not for them.”

–Elbert Hubbard

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41 thoughts on “Friday Open Thread”

  1. About that Federalist Society call for a fascist revolution?

    I didn't realize that the writer is the SENIOR editor, not a random trial balloon. From HC-R:

    In The Federalist, senior editor John Daniel Davidson announced, “We Need To Stop Calling Ourselves Conservatives.” “The conservative project has failed,” he wrote, “and conservatives need to forge a new political identity that reflects our revolutionary moment.” Western civilization is dying, he wrote, and to revive it, those on the right should “start thinking of themselves as radicals, restorationists, and counterrevolutionaries. Indeed, that is what they are, whether they embrace those labels or not.”

    They should, he said, stop focusing on the free-market economics and supply-side principles of the Reagan years and instead embrace the idea of wielding government power as “an instrument of renewal in American life… a blunt instrument indeed.” 

    Davidson embraces using the power of the government to enforce the principles of the right wing, bending corporations to their will, starving universities that spread “poisonous ideologies,” getting rid of no-fault divorce, and subsidizing families with children. “Wielding government power,” he writes, “will mean a dramatic expansion of the criminal code.” Abortion is murder and should be treated as such, parents who take their children to drag shows “should be arrested and charged with child abuse,” doctors who engage in gender-affirming interventions “should be thrown in prison and have their medical licenses revoked,” “teachers who expose their students to sexually explicit material should not just be fired but be criminally prosecuted.”

    “The necessary task is nothing less than radical and revolutionary,” he writes. And for those worrying that the assumption of such power might be dangerous, “we should attend to it with care after we have won the war.”

    What Davidson is suggesting, of course, is indeed radical: it has most of the hallmarks of fascism. Other Republican lawmakers are also embracing that ideology lately: today, Florida state representative Anthony Sabatini approvingly quoted Spanish fascist dictator Francisco Franco, saying, “I answer only to God and to History.”

    2. We have Republicans of course:

      Larry Kudlow on Fox Business 9/23/22: "The new British prime minister, Liz Truss, has laid out a terrific supply-side economic growth plan which looks a lot like the basic thrust of Kevin McCarthy's Commitment to America plan.”

  2. Reply to post PP made yesterday – I don't fear the end of Democracy if Republicans win. I fear the end of Democracy if election deniers win.

    When George W. Bush won it sucked. Add in that he lost the popular vote and the Supreme Court short circuited the Florida recount and I was very unhappy with how our system was structured.

    But I accepted the result and while I feared for the direction our country was going to go (it turned out worse than I feared), I did not worry that our Democracy was at stake.

    If the party of Trump wins some of these key races, they will do their best to insure that future elections are given to their candidates, not that they are won by the individual who receives the most votes.

    You may like the policies the MAGA candidates will enact. But are they worth imperiling our Democracy? Especially as Trump has no true policies except himself so who knows, he might decide to make Abortion legal & implement Trump-care that is more expensive state run healthcare than Obamacare.

    1. DavidThi808

      MAGA policies candidates will enact:

      Secure border, energy independence, stable monetary supply, non partisan FBI, incorruptible DOJ, freedom of speech, keeping more of the fruits of our labor, requiring NATO courtiers to pay their fair share, no wars in shit-hole countries, punish IRAN for nuclear proliferation, stop China from steeling intelectual property, support Israel, tariffs on unfair trade, bring back manufacturing to the USA, pro life, lowest unemployment numbers for minorities, support military readiness, refill the SPR, complete the wall, eliminate needless regulations.

      I guess this is what you fear?

      1. Fixed that for you:

        Immigration theater, environmental devastation, more tax cuts for the rich, a politicized FBI, corrupt DOJ, freedom only of conforming speech, stealing fruit from labor, abandoning our allies, wars in innocent countries, enable IRAN to build the H-bomb, selling secrets to China, dooming Israel to another generation of war, punishing US consumers for elite goals, bringing more truthiness-manufacturing to the USA, anti-women, keeping minorities “in their place”, support the military-industrial complex, profiteer using the SPR, more immigration theater, eliminate important health/safety/welfare regulations.

        This is not what I fear. This is what I know the GOP stands for.

        1. Pfruit needs a civics lesson this morning. Let’s humor him and pretend we lose the House.  Just how is the clown car going to get bills passed upwards through a (likely) Dem-controlled Senate and on to the President’s desk?  I’ll humor him with one more scenario and pretend the R’s take both chambers with narrow margins.
           

          Watching McCarthy (or Gym Jordan, MTG) and McConnell try to keep their respective caucuses together and craft something that won’t land a veto will be impossible. But that’s really the point: we have one party that has zero interest in the work of governing. It will be two years of Kabuki theater and grifting on a Biblical scale. 

      2. Bullshit. We watched Trump turn the presidency into a grift operation. Everything he touches turns to rot.

        MAGA is a front for Russia, Christian Nationalism and Fascism.

        You forgot to mention criminalizing women for having miscarriages.

      4. Powerful Pear says:

        October 21, 2022 at 9:37 AM MDT

        DavidThi808

        MAGA policies candidates will enact:

        Secure border (because MAGAts say so), energy independence (with oil companies sitting on leases they already have, so they can continue to make a huge profit off our backs), stable monetary supply (because MAGAts say so), FBI answerable to MAGAts only, DOJ again, only answerable to MAGAts, freedom of speech as long as you "don't say "Gay" or anything else MAGAts hate, keeping more of the fruits of our labor (for the top 1% profiting off the labor of those who work for them), requiring NATO courtiers to pay their fair share (what MAGAts dictate to be fair), no wars in shit-hole countries (unless the MAGAt leader wants to bomb the shit out of said "shit-hole countries"), punish IRAN for nuclear proliferation (driving a more hardline government in Iran that will engage in nuclear proliferation under the radar), stop China from steeling intelectual stealing intellectual (I can't spell) property, support Israel (whatever), tariffs on what MAGAts define as unfair trade, bring back manufacturing to the USA (but we don't know how.  Just trust us), pro life (for the unborn only), lowest unemployment numbers for minorities (make sure they get all the shit-jobs for a slave wage), support military readiness (to punish foreign countries we hate, as well as US citizens who disagree with us), refill the SPR (because oil and "clean coal" are the only energy sources), complete the new Berlin wall (because nobody has gotten over a wall, and drug cartels don't hide drugs in regular shipments), eliminate needless regulations that protect the average citizen from being taken advantage of by business, or other people.  But we will totally regulate womens' bodies.

        I guess this is what you fear?

  3. As we all get worried that the polls look really bad for us Dems (I'm worried), keep in mind that in this election, we're in unique times. We turned the economy off in a month and are now still in the process of turning it back on. We injected unprecented amounts of money into everyone's pocketbook. We had the first substantial attempted coup since the Civil War. We had a civil right that existed for 50 years taken away suddenly and by an unelected group of old guys.

    And… the response rate to polls is getting close to zero. The only people answering the calls to get these results are the very very few who are still willing to answer a call they don't recognize and then express their opinion to someone they don't know.

    And so… we truly don't know what the results will be.

    1. Umm. I think the economy is doing extremely well. 

      Unemployment is at 3.5%, job available signs everywhere I look. Prices are up but wages are up more. All that indicates a roaring economy.

      1. Are you high?

        It is a fundamental tenet of economics that expectations (rational or otherwise) drive economic conditions. Remember the run on toilet paper during the early days of the COVID pandemic.

        People believe that prices will continue to rise and will outpace their paychecks. The double-digit inflation rate in Britain will soon be here. And the strategic petroleum reserve is not a bottomless well.

          1. It's time to get real.  We have the votes to take the Senate 52-48 and add at least 5 votes to our House majority.  But will we?

            it's all down to voter turnout.

            it's time for kwtree to run her lecture on getting out the vote.  She knows grass roots organizing very well.

          2. "What's your point? What's your solution?"

            My point:  You sound like John McCain circa September 2008 going before reporters during the meltdown and saying, with a straight face, "The fundamentals of our economy are still sound!"

            My solution:  Biden should address the problem. Releasing oil from SPR was nice but not enough. Cut off supplying spare parts to the Saudi military.

            Temporarily open more drilling in the US. (I don't like it any more than you but as long as people will not switch to EVs, we are stuck catering to the fossil fuel fetish.) Open talk with Venezuela for oil. (I'm not crazy about that either but I prefer to socialist oil from Venezuela than the theocratic crude from the House of Saud.)

            Rescind the Trump tariffs on cheap imports. (I know, Tim Ryan will scream but I don't think he is going to win anyway.)

            And here is a suggestion which I put out there – not one I am endorsing mind you but you folks on the left would appreciate it – ask Congress for standby authority for price and wage controls.

            And stop talking about stuff no one cares about:  did Trump commit crimes on 1/6? (Of course, he did. Let the local prosecutors do their jobs. When something event happens – execution of a search warrant or indictment, put that in news.) Reproductive choice. (Everyone knows where everyone stands on that issue.) 

            Make it look like Biden is: (a) aware of the problem, and (b) taking steps to address the problem. 

            1. Last time I looked, our economy was not crashing.

              Unemployment at 3.5% is a sign of a good economy, not a bad one.

              I agree that buying oil from Venezuela is better than helping Saudi Arabia. Domestic oil companies have lots of leases.

              We are shifting to an electric economy very quickly, as in quickly like the titanic lumbering away from the iceberg. Electric car orders are backlogged six or 12 months out.

              1. Solar and renewable power in Colorado is booming, thanks to incentives from Xcel energy, the State of Colorado and the Federal government. We’re edging closer to Polis’ 30% renewable goal every day. 

                My son in law is installing solar systems up and down the front range, keeping his crews constantly busy. Even places like Pueblo that had disincentives for commercial solar systems have gotten those dumb “peak demand charges ” off the books, together with some discriminatory land use rules,  and are now happily soaking up the clean energy dollars.

                Meanwhile, Kirkmeyer, Boebert, and other Fossilonians are searching over the heads of renewable entrpeneurs, vainly seeking those  “real energy jobs”.

  4. Via TPM:

    Trump should be arrested for the espionage or treason:

    Many of the documents retrieved from Trump’s personal residence at his villa and in public storage areas contained highly, highly classified documents about Iran’s ballistic missile program as well reports from programs aimed at intelligence programs about China. It’s hard to overstate just how sensitive and highly guarded these documents are.

    1. The pollster in question is a GOP pollster. Also, The Hill leans right, as a website.

      I’d still put Hassan up about 5%, as Bolduc is still dealing with the splashback about his public statement that Republican men in the NH House know best about womens’ reproductive rights.

        1. Lady Graham has filed an emergency petition with SCOTUS to stop this madness. Let’s hope they respond with “why bless your heart”

          He really, really, REALLY doesn’t want to give testimony under oath.

  7. Who says the GOP doesn't have a party platform?

    Vote GOP! We’ll fix the economy by making the rest of life worse, too!

    Consider: More than 370 Republican candidates for national or statewide office have cast doubt on the 2020 election! So you’ll get to worry about the demise of democracy in addition to the decreasing value of your dollar! Not only will you need more dollars to achieve the same outcome, but thanks to gerrymandering and the new spate of state officials disinclined to approve ballots with which they disagree, you will need more votes to achieve the same outcome, too!

    In the meantime, look forward to lots more bills preventing you from mentioning that gay people exist, and requiring children to have genital exams to play sports! And maybe we’ll even come for gay marriage! Who knows! Anything to keep your mind off the economy! You’ll be so busy watching your liberties erode right and left (but mostly right) that you won’t even notice the rise of gas prices!

    As you hurtle across state lines in an ambulance on the brink of death, your rights decimated, your vote uncounted, your libraries shuttered — I guarantee the last thing you’ll be thinking about is the economy! Just like you wanted! Vote Republican today!

     

    1. You are absolutely correct, Harry …. the GOP has no solution either. But that doesn’t matter. (It might come 2024.)

      Their solution will be to:

      1.   Impeach Joe Biden

      2.   Investigate Hunter Biden

      3.   Attempt a national ban on abortions

      4.   Impeach Joe Biden

      5.   Investigate the “stolen 2020 election” as well as investigate the 1/6 committee

      6.   Attempt to pass a “Don’t Say Gay” bill

      7.   Impeach Joe Biden

      8.   Attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act, arguing that it is inflationary

      You will notice that they will impeach Joe Biden three times. There is a reason for that. Trump was impeached twice so his successor must be impeached at least three times to re-establish equilibrium in MAGA World.

    2. Gotta love a "network" covering an event and then using 20% or so of the screen to hawk

      "TimeToFreeAmerica.com" and their program to "PROTECT YOUR WEALTH AGAINST RECORD INFLATION W/ BH-PM.COM"

      AKA "Beverly Hills Precious Metals" which boasts of being "Proud to Be the Gold, Silver and Precious Metals Buyer of Choice for General Michael Flynn, Clay Clark and other freedom-loving Patriots:"

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