Wednesday Open Thread

19 thoughts on “Wednesday Open Thread”

1. WOTD from Paul Krugman: "Paying for a Progressive Agenda"

   My main point now, however, is that when people ridicule progressive proposals as silly and unaffordable, they’re basically revealing their own biases and ignorance. Investment can and should be debt-financed; benefit enhancements can be largely paid for with high-end taxes. Howard Schultz won’t like it, but that’s his problem.

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2. What stinks?

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   1. Trump, as usual.  Seriously, I'm beginning to wonder if D.C. Has enough lampposts to hang all the traitors the investigation is turning up.  Do we need a crash program to build.more?  Or just do the hangings in shifts?

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      1. We need outlets and Glade plug-ins too.

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3. Bernie Sanders raises nearly $6 million in 24 hours after 2020 launch, campaign says

   Sanders raised $5,925,771 from 223,047 individual contributors across all 50 states in the campaign's first 24 hours, and more than $6 million from 225,000 individuals in total since the launch. And Sanders' campaign also noted that the average contribution was $27, "mirroring [Sanders'] 2016 campaign's average donation," a symbolic reflection of the Vermont senator's grassroots support that was key to his anti-establishment bid against Hillary Clinton.

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   1. Bernie can go the distance this time. Unless Elizabeth Warren siphons off too many of the democratic socialists and allows a centrist like Biden, Klobuchar, or Beto to slip through the opening. 

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      1. Bernie is already 77.  There is a g fair chance he will die or be incapacitated before the convention  Otherwise, he's the only Democrat who could lose to Trump.

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         1. . . . you mean, besides HRC, right?

            (ps. Is Bernie actually a Democrat, now, again . . . ?)

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            1. Is HRC running again?

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      2. your analysis is dumb

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4. Just in from the Washington Post:

   https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/supreme-court-says-constitutional-protection-against-excessive-fines-applies-to-state-actions/2019/02/20/204ce0d4-3522-11e9-af5b-b51b7ff322e9_story.html?utm_term=.6490a221d189

   Poor police officers, there goes their mad money.

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   1. Good deal! You don't see a new provision of the Bill of Rights made applicable to state and local government via the incorporation process every day. Maybe, just maybe, this'll help curb the rampant, aggravated, egregious legalized government theft known as civil forfeiture.

       

      Timbs v. Indiana

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5. On the horns of dilemma…..

   So I'm at the gym this morning and I put on MSNBC where they have a story about AOC, her Green New Deal and farting cows in Iowa. So I turn to CNN where there is an interview of Joe Lieberman.

    

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   1. If push comes to shove, I'll take farting cows over Joe Lieberman any day!

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   2. What dilemma?  Turn off the tube, and concentrate on your workout.

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   3. Now you can relax anytime MSNBC or anyone else brings up the cow fart dilemma:

      Seaweed could make cows burp less methane and cut their carbon hoofprint – MIT Technology Review

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6. The WaPo today tells us we are not alone and don't even have the majority of the problem of mine wastes. Only 15 million gallons of the 50 million released daily nationwide come from Colorado. 

   Good news !!

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7. 15 / 50 = 30%

   . . . sounds like we’ve got one hell of a plurality?!

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8. Head's up — Andrew Carnegie (a.k.a. "Gerbils") is probably going to pop up here anytime now.

   Sustained and ongoing’ disinformation assault targets Dem presidential candidates

   A coordinated barrage of social media attacks suggests the involvement of foreign state actors.

   The main targets appear to be Sens. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas), four of the most prominent announced or prospective candidates for president.

   One of the objectives of the activity, they say, is to divide the left by making the Democratic presidential primary as chaotic and toxic as possible.

   “There are state supporters and funders of this stuff. Russia. North Korea is believed to be one, Iran is another,” he said. “In certain cases it appears coordinated, but whether coordinated or not, there are clearly actors attempting to influence the primary by exacerbating divisions within the party, painting more moderate candidates as unpalatable to progressives and more progressive candidates as unpalatable to more mainstream Dems.”

    

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