Posts Made By: James Brown

Originally Posted by Brian McFarland

In other words, somewhere between 30% and 36% of the population are gullible fools. That's a high number! Sometimes I think there ought to be a minimum IQ requirement to vote.

Cue the screamer.

Hi Brian:

The screamer is in a "licking my wounds" phase right now.  He'll be back this weekend raring and ready to go, assuming past behavior is any guide.

On the merits, I don't think the hard-core Trump base are gullible fools, or morons as you mentioned yesterday.  (Yes, there are plenty of stupid people out there, but no political faction has a lock on them).  The hard core Trump base believes the institutions of the nation are irredeemably corrupt and hopelessly biased.  They are tired of being mocked and belittled.  So, in my opinion, the hard core Trump base will latch on to anyone who is willing to sling mud at the establishment and tear down establishment institutions.  Trump is their gladiator, profound flaws and all.  That said, the Trumpsters I know do not admire him personally.

As an aside, and unfortunately, I think that the overwhelming resentment driving Trumpism is somewhat understandable.  We are a very polarized and angry nation.

Our nation needs an inspired and inspiring leader to start the healing.

Jim

Originally Posted by Rod Kaufman

I think you're wrong here. While there's no doubt I think Thomas should go off the court, it's obvious he's not bowing to public opinion. The point is he's trying to make it by being a conservative advocate in public...  

OK, that is a different point.  I don't see Justice Thomas being much of an advocate, but maybe I missed it.  Are you imputing his wife's advocacy to him?  That is hardly reasonable.

With respect to documented outreach, RBG was very vocal in public.  No real harm there.  This list has not been updated for three years*, but I don't think you'll see any conservative justice dominating the public forum, at least not since Rehnquist's day.


https://www.supremecourt.gov/publicinfo/speeches/speeches.aspx


* Or maybe no speeches because of Covid?

Originally Posted by James Brown

Hi James:

I was struck by the overwhelming negativity of all the poll responses.  Congress and the President do a little worse than the Court.  We are a nation of deep discontent.

Also, I think you overstate the bold part above.  I looked at Kagan and Sotomayor - yes they are popular, but over 50% had never heard of them, or did not have enough info to form an opinion.  In other words, Kagan was 19% favorable to 10% unfavorable.  71% had no opinion!  Kavanaugh was 24/36 favorable to unfavorable.  I think that this particular statistic is warped by the extensive press coverage of the Kavanaugh confirmation and Roe.  

Also interesting.  DeSantis does better than Newsome, and most importantly, this is in a poll where the responses on issues like abortion (as clearly demonstrated above), LBGTQ issues, and the like are fairly liberal.  What do you make of that?

Jim

By the way, specifically for Rod and Brian, our Californians*:  Would you support a Newsome candidacy?  I think that the perception of California politicians is toxic here in flyover country, but I have read a couple of really glowing puff-pieces basically saying the question of a Newsome presidential run is not if, but when...

Jim

* I could include Russ, but he is not a D, no matter what the screamer says.

Originally Posted by Rod Kaufman

Compared to what the GOP will offer, I would, although reluctantly, support a Newsome candidacy. 

Hi Brian and Rod, so is it fair to say that you both would rather see a different D candidate, but you would certainly vote for Newsome over a typical GOP nominee?  That position makes sense.  Neither of you is all that far to the left.  In other words I know you are both reasonably conservative on a lot of issues* and motivated in large part by antipathy toward the current GOP.

Jim


* This is true, and I could cite the issues, but I mostly said it to cause the screamer's head to explode (figuratively).  Of course, sure as the earth rotates on it's axis such that that the sun appears to rise, the screamer would reply that I have no effect on him at all, much less the ability of making his head explode.    That being said, he'll probably stay under his desk licking his wounds a little longer.

Originally Posted by James Lacey

Amen, brother! Most of my family were reliable R voters, but all feel the same way you do. They will vote blue until every trace of Trump MAGA politics is gone.

I'm not willing to go that far!  I want a candidate who is not Trump-like in any aspect, but I'll vote R even if the MAGA wing is in the tent, provided they do not get to nominate the candidate like last time.  Seriously, 30% of the Democrats are bat-shit crazy too.  

No one replied to my thread about Joe O'Dea, too local and too dry I guess.  But O'Dea went head to head against MAGA nation in an unholy alliance with monied Democrats and won.  This is how the GOP rehabilitates itself.  Jim

Originally Posted by Russ Carroll

Dem and R's equally pushed trillions of dollars into the economy. They are only 1/2 of the problem. The Federal Reserve pushing money directly into the economy is the other half of the S%^& show going on right now. It is idiotic to blame all of this on the D's, even though they are anything but blameless.

Agreed.  Still, I think Joe Six-pack will blame the Ds and make the Ds pay in November.  This will be moderated by outrage over Dobbs/Roe.  Which of these issues ends up dominating with the persuadable voters is the question of the year.

Originally Posted by James Lacey

Looking at the crosstabs of the MU poll I linked, you can see a ton of demographic data regarding their polls. Here is the favorable/unfavorable poll on Trump. As you can see, Trump has poor support across the entire political spectrum except for the screamer strong republican demographic. His support among independents to democrats is abysmal.

Hi James, Rod, Brian, Russ:

Sometimes when I look at the cross tabs of polls I think that some respondents are just messing with the pollsters.  Otherwise how do you explain 10% of the Independents not having heard enough to form an opinion of DJT?  Seriously, there is no way that 10% of our independent voters are living in caves with no media access whatsoever!  Also, the lean R and weak R numbers seem flipped.  Maybe the respondents are misunderstanding the shades of grey between "leans" and "weak."  I am in that camp and do not know how the pollsters would have categorized me.

Anyway, it is fun, but not that informative to nit-pick the cross tabs.  I certainly hope you, Brian, and Russ are right and that this sort of data, and the news, and maybe Divine intervention come through and that Trump and his minions will rapidly lose influence.  I am always cheered up when I read your opinions...then Rod brings me back down.  I will be stunned and dismayed if the SOS candidate Rod describes in AZ wins.

By the way, we had two sets of guests Sat and then Sunday evening.  The seeing here was incredible "for Colorado."  Perfectly transparent skies, no moon, the observatory was much appreciated by our guests.  Saturn was the best I have seen it from Colorado, ever.  The Milky Way was well defined and stunning, M31 was an easy, obvious, naked-eye object with direct vision, even people who never before tried to see anything upward could make out our big companion galaxy with the naked eye.  The eyepiece views of M31, 13, 8, the Double Cluster, M27 and of course Jupiter and Saturn drew gasps from the guests.  Very cool!

Jim

Originally Posted by Richard Davis

How 'bout I just call you a completely Uniformed leftist?  

Glad you brought it up.  I think Brian is a veteran, and still works with the DoD, but I do not believe he remains in the uniformed service.  We should always remember to thank him, and all veterans, for their sacrifices in service to the country.  

Originally Posted by James Lacey

Regarding the number of agents involved in the raid and their conduct, the only source of information I've ever seen is from an interview with Houck's wife. She said that 25-30 agents with 15 vehicles swarmed the Houck property, kidnapped her husband at gunpoint, and terrorized her children. If there is another source of information regarding exactly what happened, who was involved, and their conduct, I can't find it.

I'll go on the record and say that 25-30 Agents and 15 vehicles seems excessive.  And a waste of gasoline.  I expect that the FBI's black SUVs have back seats!  

I'll also go on record and say that I'll be very surprised if Ms. Houck's account ends up being proved accurate.

Jim

Originally Posted by Rod Kaufman

Glad to know Jim had an outstanding night at the observatory. In Brian's case, the imaging gremlins are ubiquitous so it's not surprising even the premo AP equipment can be so afflicted and here's what it's like with the imagers up at Mt Pinos: all of 'em start polar aligning at the same time and when they're done, they all think about the same thing: what went wrong! 
I was up at Pinos last Thursday night and had a pretty good night. I considered going back up Sunday evening but it's Rosh Hashanah today so I didn't want to arrive sleep-deprived. I did, however, manage some observing in front of my moderately light polluted home Sunday night for a few hours and I managed to penetrate down to about 14 magnitude to visualize a couple of Abell planetary nebulae in Cepheus. I was situated behind a makeshift duck blind on top of my SUV that blocks some of the ambient light from interfering with my 16". That and an 0111 filter in my 10mm Ethos eyepiece did the trick. I also had a couple of decent views of Saturn and Jupiter with seeing stable enough to permit the use of a 5mm eyepiece.  

Cool!  Your neighbors must wonder...