Dec. 7 Open Thread: Beto’s the One to Beat, and the Beatings Have Begun

Filed in National, Open Thread by on December 7, 2018

If he isn’t, why are rhetorical knife fights already breaking out over him? Ben Mathis-Lilley surveys the skirmish that’s starting to shape up as the Battle of Bull Run in this cycle’s Democratic civil war.

Political writers trying to explain why the GOP is so scared of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez aren’t going to have to try so hard now that she’s spilling the beans on the “bipartisan” House orientation talks she and fellow newcomers were dragooned into. Her tweet pointed out that they heard from four corporate lobbyists and none from labor or anywhere else. My favorite part: Where the Goldman Sachs guy tells them they’re all in over their heads. He doesn’t understand that some people intend to drain the swamp, not just stock it with their pet alligators.

Author Seth Abramson is frequently dismissed as a conspiracy theorist for his history of highlighting how the various threads of Trump venalityall seem tied together. His assessment of where we are on the road to justice seems pretty clear-eyed to me.

Suspicious about the timing of the migrant Caravan of Doom that headed for the American border just as the U.S. midterms approached? So were the folks at BuzzFeed, who dug into it and found a fake Facebook account played a key role. The account is gone but Facebook won’t say who was behind it. Because they care so much about privacy.

I’m fielding a lot of questions about my sojourn in France, which ended just before the gilets jaunes protests erupted. Yes, I’m well aware that France is not paradise. For those unaware of that, this ex-pat reporter provides reality check — the French have the same widening income gap plaguing late-stage capitalism everywhere, but their poor don’t live in their cities and their middle class doesn’t live in suburbs, so a gas tax falls especially hard there on people who can least afford it.

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  1. RE Vanella says:

    Never on board with regressive taxes.

    • Alby says:

      Most broad-based taxes are regressive by definition; you can’t have a progressive gas tax, for example. That’s why you don’t apply just one tax.

      The lesson: You should never use absolutes. 😉

  2. RSE says:

    They decorate the whole town in Christmas decorations to bring in shoppers. They have a huge Christmas tree in the center of town. They have a Christmas parade every year. They have a little shack on the boardwalk with a live Santa Clause in it. But when a Church puts up a nativity scene, the City of Rehoboth says the fun is over….The city initially allowed the scene, but a letter from the ACLU reminded them who was actually in charge.https://www.delaware1059.com/news/city-of-rehoboth-beach-orders-church-to-remove-nativity-scene/article_fc31cfea-fa32-11e8-8bde-6fb9786f5ce7.html?fbclid=IwAR1n9ApF-UfIwqZ_EB_U3mPEk8qhElJBDQN7n6gRyYQJljZHLIYiYGSDBcU

    A town that was founded as a religious meeting place named after a city in the Bible can’t have a nativity scene…Now, that’s hilarious.

    • Alby says:

      Can’t do it in St. Louis, either. Or San Francisco.

      Read what the brain-addled believers trying to defend it said and you’ll see why.

      By the way, you should learn to read. The ADL is not the ACLU, and that you thought it was perfectly illustrates your shirts-vs.-skins chimp brain at work.

      • RSE says:

        You got me on that one. I didn’t read it. I was going by what Kevin Wade was saying on WGMD. I just copied and pasted the 105.9 article so you guys would know what I was talking about seeing that you probably don’t hear much news about the deep south way up there.

        • Dave says:

          “I didn’t read it.”

          You are opining about something you know next to nothing about because you didn’t read it? You weren’t the least bit curious or interested to know what the facts were before you made formed an opinion and made a judgment?

          I’m not sure what’s worse, willful ignorance or the lazy kind.

          And by the way, they could have put up the nativity if they had bothered to talk to any non-Christian religions as they were asked to do. I’m certain someone from the Seaside Jewish Center would have been happy to have been asked and would have had no problem with such a display. But sure this all part of the War on Christmas and the persecution of God fearing Christians.

          • Alby says:

            My favorite part was this quote from the Rev. William Cocco of St. Edmund’s Roman Catholic Church, emphasis mine:

            “Christmas came from the birth of Jesus Christ, so even if you don’t like the religious aspect of it, even if you don’t believe in it, it’s a historical event. We believe that Jesus Christ was born on Christmas, we believe that’s why the celebration of Christmas came about, and therefore we’re simply asking that a representation of that be in a public place.”

            I don’t know what they’re teaching these lulus in seminary these days, but any student of the actual Bible (rather than a “believer” in such) knows that even if the story were true, it was set in spring, not at the solstice. Anyone interested in the historical event would know Christmas “came about” because the goddamn pagans wouldn’t stop celebrating Saturnalia.

  3. jason330 says:

    Fucking facebook…Jesus!

  4. jason330 says:

    I heard Amy Klobuchar on Maddow. Not sure if she is running for Pres or VP – but she is certainly running.

  5. RE Vanella says:

    War on Christmas!

  6. RE Vanella says:

    Country was founded on slavery & genocide. Now we can’t even celebrate it anyone.

    Dumb.

  7. Beach Comer says:

    Happy Delaware Day.

  8. bamboozer says:

    Steve Bannon Look Alike Contest Cancelled Due To Lack Of Interest, Fox & Friends declare War On Christmas to blame, run footage of cats devastating Christmas Trees with Sex Pistols “Anarchy In The U.K.” as back round music. Achieves highest ratings in networks history.

  9. SussexAnon says:

    Alexandra is my new hero. I hope she posts all the crazy corrupt shit that goes on in Washington on a daily basis.

    In other news,
    Rehoboth, St. Edmonds Catholic Church took it upon themselves to put up a nativity by the band shell on public property and the City told them to take it down for 2 reasons. 1) They didn’t ask for permission and 2) the City over 10 years ago addressed this after they were approached by a separation of church and state group and decided to keep the nativity off of public property. It was moved to M&T Bank for years.

    Sussex County apparently wants to take over operation of Rehoboths wastewater, possibly because they want to use Rehoboths shit pipe for county wastewater. Or because Rehoboth ‘can’t afford’ to operate the plant. The same county where citizens showed up en masse to say NO to the pipe yet were told they had no standing to weigh in on a town issue.

    And in Milford, the owner of Touch of Italy is embroiled in another controversy complaining that Milford is full of crime, crack hookers and people defecating on the old bank building that he said he was going to convert into a restaurant. This is the third controversy.

  10. nathan arizona says:

    Would like to hear more about crack hookers in Milford.

  11. Jason330 says:

    Is this Bob Ciprietti guy the kind of person who thinks all African American men are drug dealers?

    Nearly a week after his controversial comments describing downtown Milford, Touch of Italy owner Bob Ciprietti is facing backlash from area organizations and businesses who feel his comments misrepresent the city.

    “We have all these drug dealers in Milford and we don’t have enough police,” Ciprietti told our Susan Monday last week, addressing why he’s yet to open his restaurant chain as planned at the old historic bank on Front Street.

    Ciprietti claimed there is currently not enough of a police presence to combat the alleged crime that affects the downtown area, saying “they don’t have enough funding to hire policemen.”

  12. RSE says:

    “I’m not sure what’s worse, willful ignorance or the lazy kind.”

    You could probably take about 10 to 20 percent off the vitriol. I only screwed up the difference between the ACLU and the ADL.

    • Dave says:

      Don’t care about the ADL vs ACLU. I do care about sources and things like “I didn’t read it.” Not to mention that you got what information you did have from WGMD, which has no standing when it comes to facts.

  13. Rufus Y. Kneedog says:

    Goldman Sachs Blankfein right down the chain all belong in jail in Malaysia for facilitating the multi billion dollar rape of that country’s finances. They have no business briefing anyone on anything.

  14. SussexAnon says:

    My apologies, but apparently the Nativity wasn’t put up without permission. Church members asked the manager at the Unity Dinner. And she said yes. Probably because she wasn’t aware of the history.
    It was first moved somewhere in the late 90’s early 2000’s when someone complained and Rehoboth Ave was about to undergo improvements project including the new bandshell.

  15. RE Vanella says:

    All of this controversy surrounding a ceramic baby jesus it very troubling.

  16. mouse says:

    I thought it was plastic and I’m a Druid

  17. RE Vanella says:

    Someone’s gotta pay the price for blasphemy around here!