Friday Open Thread

14 thoughts on “Friday Open Thread”

1. Here's one of the unexpected pleasures of my morning scan of Facebook:

   Senator Bennet takes advantage of his chance to interview the CIA Director:

    

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2. Phrase of the day, as seen on Yahoo News.

   "Trump is a one-man economic pandemic."

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3. It's all about project 2025. From Heather Co-Richardson.

   The craziness going on around us in the first two months of the second Trump administration makes a lot more sense if you remember that the goal of those currently in power was never simply to change the policies or the personnel of the U.S. government. Their goal is to dismantle the central pillars of the United States of America—government, law, business, education, culture, and so on—because they believe the very shape of those institutions serves what they call “the Left.”

   Their definition of “the Left” includes all Americans, Republicans and Independents as well as Democrats, who believe the government has a role to play in regulating business, providing a basic social safety net, promoting infrastructure, and protecting civil rights and who support the institutional structures Americans have built since World War II.

   In place of those structures, today’s MAGA leaders intend to create their own new institutions, shaped by their own people, whose ideological purity trumps their abilities. As Vice President J.D. Vance explained in a 2021 interview, he and his ilk believe that American “conservatives…have lost every major powerful institution in the country, except for maybe churches and religious institutions, which of course are weaker now than they’ve ever been. We’ve lost big business. We’ve lost finance. We’ve lost the culture. We’ve lost the academy. And if we’re going to actually really effect real change in the country, it will require us completely replacing the existing ruling class with another ruling class…. I don’t think there’s sort of a compromise that we’re going to come with the people who currently actually control the country. Unless we overthrow them in some way, we’re going to keep losing.” “We really need to be really ruthless when it comes to the exercise of power,” he said.

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   1. Zeeg Hile, Hair Furor!

      Trump’s toxic narcissism, his need for absolute control, incorporating 19th century economics (tariffs, no income tax, Gilded Age wealth stratification) fed by imperialist conquest dividing the world into spheres of influence, controlled through absolute rulers in might-makes-right kingdoms living with a constant threat of wars over territory and resources.

      Project 2025 is a nihilist plan to implement a perverted vision of pseudo-Christian Libertarianism that is essentially an “Every man for himself” competition that assumes life is a zero sum battle that only the most ruthless and brutal “win”. Cruelty is the point, not simply a side-effect. Thus destroying the democratic institutions that stand in their way is a prerequisite for their reign of terror.

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   2. If you have any doubt at all what Musk/Trump are doing, today's Heather Cox Richardson column is a must read.

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   3. DEMOCRATS 2024 – "If T***p is elected, he will implement Project 2025 immediately after he is sworn in, and the results will be a disaster for America!

      DEMOCRATS 2025 – "Why, we had no idea that T***p would implement Project 2025 immediately after he was sworn into office, and we were taken completely by surprise by it!"

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   4. "dismantle the central pillars of the United States…….government, law, business, culture……"

      It's the 7 Mountains of Christian Dominionism theory. 

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4. Who is the PUC Listening To?

   Who they talk to is a major indicator

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5. Wired is on fire!

   We Mapped DOGE’s Silicon Valley and Corporate Connections

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   1. Yeah, not quite the Map of the Iraqi Insurgency, but damn close. The Guardian picked it up this morning.

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6. Colorado Republican Chair Candidate Calls Colorado Springs Mayor "Political Terrorist"

   Darcy Schoening has accused Yemi Mobolade of taking part in a staged hate crime; he says the is allegation politically motivated

   https://www.westword.com/news/gop-official-calls-colorado-springs-mayor-dei-candidate-terrorist-24097241

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7. It appears Wall Street is finally realizing that Trump is stupid enough to go through with igniting a full-on trade war.  Apologies for the lack of formatting.

   price	change
   Link to symbolDOW
   41,614.79	-684.91 (-1.62%)

   

   03:20 PM ET 03/28/2025

   price	change
   Link to symbolNASDAQ
   17,336.62	-467.42 (-2.63%)

   

   03:15 PM ET 03/28/2025

   price	change
   Link to symbolS&P 500
   5,584.37	-108.94 (-1.91%)

   

   03:15 PM ET 03/28/2025

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   1. He’s a business person, all right.

      At the close / 4:46:18 PM EDT today — compared to the close on Jan 21, 2025 (point loss, percentage)

      • Dow Jones Industrial (^DJI ) 41,583.90  -715.80 (-1.69%)  — January 21, 2025 44,025.81.(-2442 -5.5%)

      • NASDAQ Composite (^IXIC) 17,322.99 -481.04 (-2.70%) — January 21, 2025 19,756.78.(-2434, -12.3%)

      • S&P 500 (^GSPC) 5,580.94  -112.37 (-1.97%)  — January 21, 2025 6,049.24. (-469, -7.7%)

      Every quarter, the Dallas Fed issues a timely assessment of energy activity among oil and gas firms located or headquartered in the Eleventh District.  You may be interested in the First Quarter | March 26, 2025 survey, especially the comments  — for example, the first is 

      • The key word to describe 2025 so far is “uncertainty” and as a public company, our investors hate uncertainty. This has led to a marked increase in the implied cost of capital of our business, with public energy stocks down significantly more than oil prices over the last two months. This uncertainty is being caused by the conflicting messages coming from the new administration. There cannot be “U.S. energy dominance” and $50 per barrel oil; those two statements are contradictory. At $50-per-barrel oil, we will see U.S. oil production start to decline immediately and likely significantly (1 million barrels per day plus within a couple quarters). This is not “energy dominance.” The U.S. oil cost curve is in a different place than it was five years ago; $70 per barrel is the new $50 per barrel.

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      1. Exactly.  Trump's stupid promise to cut gasoline prices in half was always a ridiculous lie.  Oil companies aren't going to borrow money to drill more to flood the market with cheap gas.  You can't sell anything at a loss and expect to make it up in volume. 

         Wharton School's class dunce strikes again.

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