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December 04, 2018 07:06 AM UTC

Tuesday Open Thread

  • 28 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

“A true and worthy ideal frees and uplifts a people; a false ideal imprisons and lowers.”

–W. E. B. Du Bois

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28 thoughts on “Tuesday Open Thread”

  1. Washington Post reports Florida, Wyoming and other states have responded to school shootings by renewing efforts to post "In God We Trust" and other religious mottos in public schools.

    Well, that solves that problem…

      1. "Thoughts and prayers" just like the religious right suggests.

        New twist on the "smash and grab" reported this AM. Unknown thieves stole a cement mixer truck in Arvada and used the front end chain to rip off the heavy bars door of Green Mountain Guns in Lakewood last night. Big time concrete barriers in front, so the usual "ram a stolen F-150" into the front would not work.

  3. The Second Amendment is a white right.

    Black Man Killed by Police in Alabama Was Shot From Behind, Autopsy Shows

    A black man killed by the police in an Alabama mall in November was shot three times from behind, according to a forensic examination commissioned by the man’s family.

    The finding, announced in a news conference on Monday, was seen by the man’s family and lawyers as evidence he was running away and posed no threat to the officer who shot him.

    Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford Jr., 21, was fatally shot in the middle of a panicked crowd at the Riverchase Galleria in Hoover, Ala., on Nov. 22, as officers responded to reports of gunshots on Thanksgiving night. Witnesses said Mr. Bradford, who was legally carrying a handgun, was directing shoppers to safety. [emphasis mine]

    1. "Iowa Democrats Say They Want Generational Change"
      https://www.wsj.com/articles/iowa-democrats-say-they-want-generational-change-1543833001

      "Democratic leaders in Iowa, the starting line for the party’s wide-open 2020 presidential contest, are hungry for a young standard-bearer who will usher in generational change, which is erecting a potential roadblock for the three best-known prospective contenders for the nomination.

      “They’re [Bernie, Elizabeth, Joe] all too old,” said Chris Henning, the 71-year-old Democratic chairwoman in Greene County. “It’s not white bread America any more, we’ve got to get with the program.”

      1. That would work too.  It's really an "All Hands On Deck" call for the best Democratic potential candidates to aim for 2020 to kick out the GOP in any office at every level. With Trump on the ticket, the choice should be crystal clear for voters.

        1. Dems need someone who will have a good amount of appeal for blue collar voters in PA, MI, WI; and to farmers in IA who have lost markets thanks to Trump's tariffs. All 4 states could go back into the Dem column with the right candidate.

          Idea for billboards in WI and IA, maybe other states (without the quotes): “Lost your soybean markets? Thank Donald Trump.”

          MN could be solidified. Despite the long DFL history in MN, Hillary barely took the state.

          1. Agreed.  All politics is local, so having respected, locally grown candidates on the Dem ticket is the way to go.  Candidates can't expect to get by on just a one note "I'm not Trump" campaign, although obviously, it will be integral to their message as well.

          2. There are a variety of ways to get to the necessary Electoral College votes for a win. Winning PA, MI, & WI  gets fewer Electoral College votes than Texas & Arizona. OR Florida, Georgia & North Carolina.

            Different candidates and their policies will appeal to different coalitions.

  8. For those of us in the trenches in 2004 fighting Xcel and Tri-State's (then) proxy IREA over a 10% Renewable Portfolio Standard, this will bring some smiles…

    Xcel Energy, Colorado’s largest utility, aims to have zero carbon emissions by 2050 in industry-first plan

    Xcel Energy, Colorado’s largest utility, announced an ambitious plan Tuesday to slash carbon emissions from its electrical generation by 80 percent by 2030 from 2005 levels, and emit zero carbon emissions across the eight states where it operates by 2050.

    2. Unless we go to a very de-centralized electricity system (not likely), leadership from the big players like Xcel will be essential.

      Now, a whole bunch of customers in southeastern Colorado (Pueblo, Cañon City, part of Pueblo West, Cripple Creek, Westcliffe, and several communities east of Pueblo) would like Black Hills Energy to go down the same path as Xcel (or better). Black Hills customers pays some of the highest electricity costs in Colorado (which has been a known barrier to economic growth), and are dealing with what is at best a 20th century company. 

       

      1. Agreed on all points, realist. Do you remember the one-gigawatt rooftop solar plan proposed in the first four years of Hickenlooper?  I swear I had it saved in a file but can't find it.  Very impressive numbers all around.  Add in the literal circus around Colorado Springs Utilities trying to bandage their downtown coal plant, putting an enormous anvil around the neck of their ratepayers; ditto for ARPA and their disastrous conversation of the Lamar plant from natural gas back to coal (that'll show that black squatter in the White House).  The Holcomb, KS coal plant?  We can thank Kathleen Sebelius and Delta-Montrose REA for killing that albatross.  There was a moment in time when the Pueblo City Council could have exercised their legal rights during the Aquila -> Blackhills purchase and taken that system over.  

        I have a lot of hope the incoming Administration can focus not only on the centralized nature of part of our grid but the tremendous opportunities for smaller, rural installations.  Tri-State has, for years, booked 'unanticipated revenue from non-members', which probably puts them not in the category of a 'protected from the PUC' world to 'merchant power' world.  

        Let's take a hard look at aggregate net metering and use the mechanisms we already have in place to move power from rural areas into urban loads and vice-versa.  We don't lack the infrastructure or brain power to solve this problem, we've lacked the political will. 

         

         

    3. Where was the turning point, Michael?

      I remember that fight. It was hard, in those days, to see any daylight between Xcel ( then PSC, I think. ) and the OilyBoys and their cousins, the Coal Tycoons. Something big happen at Tri-State, or just finally being smart enough to recognize the inevitable?

      1. When (then) Xcel CEO Wayne Brunetti stepped down things started to thaw.  Wayne's successor Dick Kelly was far more progressive.  We can lay the slight turning-of-the-ship at Tri-State to the unrelenting opposition by Delta-Montrose to the Holcomb plant (Tri-State needed 100% of their membership to sign on to extend their ruse 'All Requirements' provision with their USDA funding.  The blunt force of the political power of the renewable community during the Ritter years (and a PUC during those same years that understood negative externalities) was also very helpful.  

        We had such grand opportunities during the Obama years to fix every one of the scenarios I mentioned.  Sadly the coal-loving white boys in the fossil-energy boardrooms had a real problem being lectured about energy by the occupant of the White House at the time.   The old saying "the best two times to plant a tree: twenty years ago and today" applies to where we are today.  

        I'm optimistic we won't blow our opportunity this time around.  

  9. Phil Anschutz may be pruning a branch from his media empire:

    Founded by William Kristol and Fred Barnes in 1995, The Weekly Standard was viewed as heavily influential during the administration of George W. Bush — becoming known as the in-flight magazine of Air Force One — but has seen the conservative movement shift in the Trump era. Kristol became one of the most prominent “never Trump” media figures, speaking frequently on cable news, and the journal’s editors and writers have largely shared his views.

    The Weekly Standard has also faced the headwinds plaguing the entire magazine industry. As recently as five years ago, it boasted a print circulation of about 100,000, but by last year, that number had fallen to 72,000, according to the auditing group BPA Worldwide. Between 2016 and 2017, the year Trump took office, paid circulation for the magazine dropped by about 7,000, or roughly 10 percent, according to the auditing group.

    CNN first reported Tuesday that the magazine could be in trouble, saying that the chairman of MediaDC — the publisher of The Weekly Standard and Washington Examiner, owned by Clarity Media — had requested a meeting next week with editor in chief Stephen Hayes, with the entire Weekly Standard staff available for a meeting afterward. Clarity Media is owned by Philip Anschutz, the billionaire businessman and conservative donor.

    They are losing the battle with a virulent strain of Trump disease currently hosted by the GOP.

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