Thursday Open Thread

23 thoughts on “Thursday Open Thread”

1. For CHB:  New presidential ranking puts you-know-who right where you would expect (#45 is in #45th place):

   What do these bad presidents’ first years tell us about Mr. Trump? Some performed reasonably well at first, only to slide into disaster later. Might Mr. Trump grow in the job, making us forget his rookie-season bumbling? Or should we expect more of the same through 2020?

   I expect the latter. Mr. Trump’s first year has been an unremitting parade of disgraces that have demeaned him as well as the dignity of his office, and he has shown that this is exactly how he believes he should govern.

   Most important, he is the first president to fail to defend the nation from an attack on our democracy by a hostile foreign power — and to resist the investigation of that attack. He is the first to enrich his private interests, and those of his family, directly and openly.

   He is the first president to denounce the press not simply as unfair but as “the enemy of the American people.” He is the first to threaten his defeated political opponent with imprisonment. He is the first to have denigrated friendly countries and allies as well as a whole continent with racist vulgarities.

   George Washington warned that the actions of a president “may have great and durable consequences from their having been established at the commencement of a new general government.” If history is any guide — especially in light of the examples closest to his, of Buchanan and Andrew Johnson — Mr. Trump’s first year portends a very unhappy ending.

   Sean Wilentz, a professor of history at Princeton, is author of the forthcoming “No Property in Man.”

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   1. Awfully tough call on which is worse: allowing your country to fall into Civil War, or knowingly acting with a hostile foreign power to undermine American society and environment. 

      Frankly I'm just amazed at how low conservatives rank Madison, I'd honestly love to find out where that comes from (because liberals and Independents both rated him in the top 15).

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      1. That is a mystery — all I could find are:

         1. He voluntarily retired after 2 terms

         2. Madison ranked highest for his moral authority. 

         3.  Successfully defended America in the War of 1812

         4.  His beloved wife, Dolly Madison was very popular and established the model for all future First Ladies' activism.

         5.  He was a member of the Democratic-Republican Party (conservatives probably resent that it isn't called the Republican-Democrat Party)

          

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         1. #3 is a bit misleading, we started that one after-all…maybe they ding him for failing to conquer Canada as originally intended?

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            1. Really?  We were defending ourselves.

               Since the outbreak of war with Napoleonic France, Britain had enforced a naval blockade to choke off neutral trade to France, which the United States contested as illegal under international law. To man the blockade, Britain impressed American merchant sailors into the Royal Navy.

               However, upon further reading, I can see your point — a lot of gray areas in our distant past.

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2. Well, dress me in a feather tutu and call me Grandpa Cheops  . . . 

   “CHAIN MIGRATION must end now!” [Trump] wrote on Twitter in November. “Some people come in, and they bring their whole family with them, who can be truly evil. NOT ACCEPTABLE!”

   Questions Swirl as Melania Trump’s Parents Obtain Green Cards

   https://nyti.ms/2BJBJbR

   . . . I guess President Shithead had to do something to smooth over all those Porn Star and Hustler model raw-doggings with the current Mrs. Publicly-Cheated-Upon???

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   1. So let me get this straight — Trump cheats on his pregnant, illegal alien wife (she lied on her immigration application about working, which is enough under the Trump Administration to reject and prosecute for fraud), and then brings in her relatives via the 'threat to national security' loophole, chain migration…

      Next you're gonna tell me that Trump is the worst president of all time because he refuses to uphold his oath of office to defend the constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, because he's in debt up to his eyeballs to the Russians, and he's hoping the billionaire tax cut will allow him to refi the debt with all the banks and investors that he's screwed over the last 40 years?

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      1. Maybe they’re Norwegians? . . . 

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3. Tweeters Rip ‘Zombie’ Donald Trump Over ‘Listening Session’ Cheat Sheet

   “Literally needs to be spoon-fed words that project empathy. A profoundly defective human being.”

   The president sat in his chair.
   A group of survivors was there.
   He looked at a note
   An aide of his wrote
   And thus was reminded to care.

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4. <sigh>

   Trump administration cautions against hemp expansion

   So the Administration thinks hemp farmers need to be coddled and protected so they don't harm themselves?  How about we just deschedule this crop, classify it as the agricultural commodity that it is, and get the feds out of our business? 

   The Undersecretary missed a couple of important points: 1) the Farm Bill can't remove industrial hemp from Schedule 1 of the Controlled Substances Act, only Congress can do that in a separate action. There is already a bill in the House sponsored by Congressman Bob Goodlatte (all but Buck and Lamborn in the CO delegation are already onboard) that would do that: H.R. 3530  Congressman Buck's absence is odd given that his CD is one of the largest hemp growing districts in the nation 2) current Farm Bill language only allows cultivation under Section 7606 in states where it's already legalized.  The Farm Bill can't expand its current language and magically make a state where hemp production is prohibited a legal state (there are 14 states that are not yet legal).

   He said oversight of hemp should belong to the U.S. Department of Justice, which includes the Drug Enforcement Administration, not the USDA.

   Therein lies the rub.  Industrial hemp was never intended to be a scheduled drug by Congress: 

   “The production and sale of hemp and its products for industrial purposes will not be adversely affected by this bill” was the assurance given to the U.S. Senate when the Marijuana Tax Act (MTA) of 1937 was presented.

   Henry Anslinger, the commissioner of narcotics at the Treasury Department, assured the acting chair of the subcommittee hearings, saying: “I would say they (hemp growers) are not only amply protected under this act, but they can go ahead and raise hemp as they have always done it.”

   The Narcotics Bureau later placed restrictions on farmers that had the effect of making it impossible to cost-effectively cultivate hemp. The Controlled Substance Act (CSA) of 1970 adopted, verbatim, the language regarding hemp from the MTA of 1937. 

   Unwinding eight decades of egregious federal policy with a bunch of white men who drank the ReeferMadness kool-aid has proven to be a formidable task.  

    

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5. Don't want anyone to miss this — a third formal sexual harassment complaint filed against Randy ("I don't represent the progressive counties in my District") Baumgardner.

    

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   1. Are there any progressive counties in his district?

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      1. You're kidding, right?

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      2. It’s all relative . . . 

          

         . . . most “progressives” in that district can read at a 8th-grade level, and only watch, on average, five hours of FOX per day

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      3. Try Summit and Routt, two of the seven counties in SD8. Summit in particular is quite progressive, and elects mostly Democrats at the local level. In effect, Summit is not represented in the Colorado Senate. Baumgardner rarely visits the county unless it's for a Republican dinner (i.e. food) or an NRA-related event.

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         1. Summit is actually quite progressive –  nay, liberal – but I didn't realize that county was in his district.

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6. Page 2 of the Post this morning:"Sex Scandals Could Cost Taxpayers 500k Dollars."  Accompanied by a photo of the 'stache (oh, and Baumgartner, too).

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7. The Screaming Yam a racist? No! Say it ain’t so! https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-lawsuit/lawsuit-says-race-motivated-trump-to-end-immigrant-protections-idUSKCN1G62C4?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FtopNews+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Top+News%29

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8. Hey Alva – I keep trying to post a link to an announcement about Dan Anglin debating Jeff Hunt at the Centennial Institute tomorrow (I don't want Nutlid to miss it) on the archaic, social right-wing position on the Devil's Lettuce. It falls off into a black hole.  What's up with that? 

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   1. If I remove the link it lets me post: 

      

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      1. Michael's unpostable weed argument event.

          

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         1. Thanks, Pseudo.  

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9. File this under "At Least He's Not Your Governor"………

   https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/22/politics/missouri-eric-greitens/index.html

   Another creepy, Republican perv is in trouble. This time for allegedly tying up his girlfriend, photographing her, and then blackmailing her with the picture.

    

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