CPAC rejects dynastic politics by giving the Straw Poll win to the guy whose dad won in 2011.
— LOLGOP (@LOLGOP) February 28, 2015
There’s an established comfort level to media stories about CPAC; it was the place where professional right-wing grifters (Cato, the Heritage Foundation) “sponsored” D-list legacy performers (Rand Paul, Andrew Breitbart) to attract Revolutionary-War cosplayers and Alex Jones listeners within easy physical proximity of K Street lobbyists. Kind of like one of the giant pop-culture conventions, only with less of a sense of humor and a more inimical effect on participants’ mental health. But from media reports, this one seems to have been… different.
Citizens United may have broken CPAC, along with its more dire effects on our social polity. This years’ event seems to have been designed as the first national media unveiling of the Establishment/Wall Street GOP One-Percenters’ 2016 presidential candidate — Jeb Bush — versus the Insurgent/Koch Bros GOP One-Percenters’ ditto: Scott Walker. A truly major marketing campaign, on the scale of Microsoft versus Apple. The common people (consumers, er, voters) who provide the envelope-stuffing, registration-desk-staffing cannon fodder every year, with their quirky obsessions and boutique candidates, seem to have been shunted to the curtain-walled meeting rooms in the overflow wing, to make space for all the media equipment (hardware & wetware) required to funnel the expensively-crafted Top-Rank Studio Projects tidbits & talking points to the buying public.
If there is a if story at #cpac this year, it's the stronger current of interest in winning over purity.
— Ana Marie Cox (@anamariecox) February 28, 2015
Dave Weigel, at Bloomberg Politics:
… Under the leadership of Matt Schlapp, elected to run the American Conservative Union after turns with George W. Bush’s presidential campaign and Koch Industries, the conference has been low on intra-party on-stage fights, low on heckling, and totally absent some of the media debacles that have won coverage in the past.
For example: Columnist Ann Coulter, who has given zinger-laced speeches to packed CPAC ballrooms almost every year since she became a media star, was not invited. “I might just show up anyway just to piss them off,” she joked to Washington Examiner reporter Eddie Scarry. “I could be the Bibi Netanyahu of CPAC.” She didn’t show up, and when asked if she had been invited, Schlapp diplomatically demurred…
Fringe elements roamed the halls, as always. Phil Berg, the attorney who filed the first (2008) lawsuits against Barack Obama’s citizenship, stalked the radio rows and personally appealed to reporters to cover his theories. But white nationalists who’d once gotten into CPAC or held meetings in the same hotel as the conference were largely consigned to the hinterlands. The National Policy Institute held an event featuring several thinkers denounced by the Southern Poverty Law Center, but it was at the National Press Club, a 30-minute drive from CPAC…
The CPAC show is fun, but how much do attendees have in common with primary voters? http://t.co/tWuTZW9Vp3 #CPAC2015 pic.twitter.com/IZLqEodpXo
— Dante Chinni (@Dchinni) February 27, 2015
Erin Gloria Ryan, at Jezebel, on “10,000 Elephants in the Room“:
… [M]inus right wing personalities’ distinguishing physical traits and quirks, I couldn’t tell you what the fuck they all said. I remember Chris Christie’s gargantuan head and thirsty dickishness, Laura Ingraham’s glinting cross necklace, Sean Hannity’s Bill Clinton impression (which he repeated—to the word—at least a few times over the course of mere days), the grim and tragic retreats of Marco Rubio and Scott Walker’s hairlines, Rand Paul’s winsome attempt at a sensible amount of bronzer, Carly Fiorina’s under-celebrated wardrobe excellence, Rick Santorum’s bizarre preening, John Bolton’s walrus face, Ted Cruz’s pastor-meets-salesman act that kept the crowd rapt. Donald Trump’s whole… thing. In a moment I’m still coming to terms with, Sarah Palin’s speech about health care for veterans was a mostly-coherent standout, save for a joke about Nazis that was delivered so overzealously that Anna and I dissolved into helpless laughter as other members of the media glared at us. The main room was exactly what is shown on TV, exactly what somebody who has never been to CPAC might expect: a bizarre alternate universe where Newt Gingrich is surrounded by fawning fans, where the Duggars are rockstars, and where Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson’s sanctimonious ramble about STD’s was anything but a reason for mild confusion and alarm.
But in side rooms and in side conversations, CPAC attendees weren’t so puff-chested about their future. Breakout sessions bemoaned the co-opting of “cool” by the Left, strategized on the damaged conservative brand (damaged, in their view, by a left wing media intent on smearing them), looked to get away from barking and Twitter battles return to real grassroots action, the kind of action that inspired conservatives during the Reagan years…
The breakout sessions were all preoccupied with changing how things are presented, and this focus reflects a statistics-borne uncertainty: last year’s elections were a resounding success for the right, but last year’s election turnout was historically low. Presidential elections bring out typically liberal voters—the young, the nonwhite, the unmarried and female—in droves. And with control of both the House and Senate but a White House still in the hands of a Democrat, Republicans have a golden opportunity over the next 18 months to create a stockpile of gaffes the left can (and will) use to motivate their base, while potentially emerging with nothing to show for it in terms of legislation. In order to survive, conservatism needs to either adapt to a changing society or convince a changing society to adapt to them.
Fox News’ stereotypical viewership this was not; young people were everywhere, teetering uncertainly on heels like baby deer, growing visibly starstruck over the sight of Rick Santorum striding down the hall surrounded by security and hangers-on, sternly lecturing an unseen member of their College Republicans club over the phone: “If you’re going to be in this, you have to be in this, you know? You can’t be an officer and miss both CPAC and the March for Life!”…
And now, Steve "Raving Bigot" King vs. Dennis "UFOs Are Real" Kucinich. #facepalm #CPAC2015
— Charles Johnson (@Green_Footballs) February 27, 2015
Jeb Lund, for the Guardian:
…[T]he conservative movement is not a bad gig. Including congress, there are 500 jobs to fill. Add state legislatures, and you’re in the thousands. Add aides, staffers, think tank fellows, pollsters, and the jobs jump into the tens of thousands. A few connections at CPAC, and you too might go back to Birmingham, Alabama and become the communications director for the Birming Ham Fighters Who Have Always Been Against The Light Rail Ballot Initiative That Was Unveiled Last Week, or whatever other Koch Brothers redoubt has just been leased downtown. That’s a pretty good job on a pretty sweet ladder, and worth the few hundred dollars on your tickets and down at the Brooks Brothers outlet.
But that kind of self-interested careerism seems to be a cherry on top, to be enjoyed sometime in the future. Ask any amateur attendee what brought them to CPAC and they invariably tell you something that sounds a little like a talking point but that rushes out with enough enthusiasm that it’s clearly not. Any or all of the following appears, in various orders and intensity: “It’s just so great to be part of the renewal of the conservative spirit in America, and I’m just so excited about being able to add my voice to it and to learn what I can do, because I don’t know a lot of conservatives back at my school/office/hometown or at least not ones I agree with, and it’s just great to be here with everyone and get to work.”…
The hero of youth conservatism: Ron Swanson pic.twitter.com/6nRsgcSH1s
— Ben Terris (@bterris) February 26, 2015
Because I am a born-and-bred Democrat, and a devout cynic, it’s not the nutters, it’s the Reasonable People Can Disagree! rebranding that makes me nervous, because there’s nothing your average American low-information voter-at-least-in-presidential-years loves like a rebooted marketing campaign for the same old crap with bright new graphics. Grace Wyler, at Vice, on “White Nationalists, Sarah Palin, and the Slow Death of the Right-Wing Fringe“:
I first covered the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2012, back in the early days of the last Republican presidential primary, when Rick Santorum still seemed like a semi-credible option, and Ron Paul was leading his guerilla takeover of backwater local GOP executive boards. Heady with intra-party rivalries, and still deep in the throes of the Tea Party fever dream, the annual conservative hoedown was at peak l, propping up the darkest elements of the right-wing fringe.
Herman Cain was there, decrying the “gutter politics” that had exposed his habit of harassing women who weren’t his wife in a keynote speech. There was a panel on “The Failure of Multiculturism: How the Pursuit of Diversity Is Weakening the American Identity,” featuring two prominent white nationalists, and another on “Islamic Law in America,” about the creeping scourge of sharia in US courts. The whole thing reached a frenzied peak when a wild-eyed Andrew Breitbart marched outside to go “toe-to-toe” with Occupy Wall Street protesters camped outside the venue, and had to be pulled away by security.Three years later, a pack of CPAC attendees once again went toe-to-toe with protestors, but this time, the protesters were white nationalists, members of the neo-Confederate League of the South up to picket the conservative gathering. As the event wound down on Saturday, young activists, sporting their proudly CPAC lanyards and Stand With Rand pins, came out to confront the demonstrations, starting a chanting duel that quickly devolved into heated arguments on the sidewalk outside the convention center.
“You actually think the US should separate into different states?” one kid asked a bearded protester carrying a sign that read “Obama Hates White People…And So Does The GOP.” “It’s just…I mean…,” the kid struggled to find the words. “It’s disgusting,” his companion volunteered. Across the street another blazered CPACer shook his head dejectedly. “I’m sorry about this,” he told a nearby photographer. “I’m from ‘Nova. We don’t do that there.” …
Here's full CPAC straw poll results, via Washington Times. Rand Paul wins, edging out Scott Walker. Carson beats Jeb pic.twitter.com/O0R6NnvgsF
— Matt Viser (@mviser) February 28, 2015
M. Bouffant
It is a little frightening that at least some of them realize that just maybe they’d better tone it down a bit, but there should be enough true believers to keep us all amused for a few more yrs.
Morzer
Basket-case wins straw poll. I guess it’s the natural outcome.
OzarkHillbilly
The right wing fringe isn’t being shunted off to the side, the lunatic ni**er hating Frankensteins wearing tri-corner hats, beating on drums, blowing fifes, waving 240 year old flags and carrying AK-47s are just being left behind by the people who gave them their marching orders: The much better dressed, more monied and far more dangerous right wing fringe that has come to the realization that because of Citizen United, they don’t need those people anymore.
NotMax
Somewhere, P. T. Barnum is smiling.
Raven
@OzarkHillbilly: They may keep em in reserve!
ThresherK
Ron Swanson?
Lemmesee: He spends more time listening than talking. He doesn’t raise his voice. He can be close loyal friends with people he disagrees with, and recognized their common sense. He’s able to live off the grid, out of pleasure, not just to reenact the wrong side in a war or play unappointed border agent. Plus he can handcraft a 17-foot canoe out of western cedar.
His conspiracy theories about government don’t bloom only when Democrats are in power. He doesn’t want government to bother him, nor does he want to use government as a cudgel to bother people he doesn’t agree with. While working for a government and liking the inertia of bureaucracy’s ability to often not get anything done, I don’t think he pretends he’s John Galt. His idea of “I got mine” doesn’t include convincing poor whites that they’ve earned every penny of govermnent anything (relief, contracts, writeoffs) while telling same whites that poor The Others don’t deserve it.
Are these CPACkers talking about the same Ron Swanson?
Morzer
@Raven:
Lots of zombies waiting in the graveyard!
OzarkHillbilly
@Raven: They most certainly will. Good cannon fodder never goes out of style.
Somehow or other, at the end of CPAC, this is appropriate: Too much human poo on Mount Everest says Nepal
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
I blame Obama.
Mustang Bobby
@OzarkHillbilly: They may not need them any more, but they’ll still sell them natural boner pills and gold coins to hedge against the coming economic collapse when the Radical Homosexuals take over the world and redecorate. There’s lots of pigeons still to be plucked.
Raven
Yuk, I’ve got 2 hrs to kill and needed to get here to get a parking space! Looks like breakfast in the Adventist health food store. Maybe I’ll buy my bride one of the Mennonite carpenter bee traps I saw yesterday. Oh yea, it’s raining.
Mustang Bobby
@Raven: Since Mennonites are pacifists, what does the trap do with the bees? Rehabilitate them?
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: I always blame Obama.
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Good man.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: A man for all reasons.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Morzer: I added some extra information from the NYC reporter that broke the HRC email story to the previous thread. He was on Morning Hoe this morning.
Mustang Bobby
@BillinGlendaleCA: One of my commenters noted that the Daily Banter says
Did that point come up on Morning Hoe?
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: My neck hurts, thanks Obama. I install Linux on the wrong partition, thanks Obama. It’s actually an endless litany.
JPL
@BillinGlendaleCA: I didn’t see your comment, but CBS News said it’s not uncommon for the Sec. Of State. Powell did the same thing.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Mustang Bobby: That would be a negative, Hoe just screamed that HRC broke laws and regulations. Pretty much a normal Morning Hoe.
ETA: Sometimes I’m actually surprised the Hoe went to law school, I seem to know more about Civ Pro than he does. I worked as a paralegal for a few years working for Satan.
Mustang Bobby
@BillinGlendaleCA: Without pointing out that Dick Cheney and his staff did pretty much the same thing. IOKIYAR with cheese.
JPL
@BillinGlendaleCA: With all the emails that Hillary sent to Congress concerning the Benghazi investigation, you’d think that Congress would have questioned her practice.
Raven
@Mustang Bobby: Hmm, I don’t know who to ask. This joint ain’t Mennonite but the store has the traps and birdhouses.
OzarkHillbilly
@Mustang Bobby: Between the killer rabbit of Caerbannog roaming the mountains of Utah, and our good friends at the Westboro Baptist Church not being able to find the funeral for Leonard Nimoy, I fear the Apocalypse is upon us.
Raven
They also have gallons of pure Maple syrup for $50. I wonder if that is a deal?
Kropadope
@Mustang Bobby: IOKIYA anyone with cheese.
Mustang Bobby
@Raven: That’s perfect, for today is National Pancake Day at IHOP. Free pancakes from 7 to 10 a.m.
Raven
Looks like it’s $61 on eBay.
Schlemazel
As I recall the entire Bush administration used the RNC email system so as to not record messages in a place they could be FOIA’ed. I do not recall the media wailing about that at the time.
EDIT:
@Mustang Bobby:
I see you got there while I was typing! Wannna bet the media has forgot this fact?
Mustang Bobby
@Schlemazel: They didn’t wail, they baa’ed like the good little sheep that they are.
EDIT: GMTA, you betcha.
Raven
The Bush White House email controversy surfaced in 2007 during the controversy involving the dismissal of eight U.S. attorneys. Congressional requests for administration documents while investigating the dismissals of the U.S. attorneys required the Bush administration to reveal that not all internal White House emails were available, because they were sent via a non-government domain hosted on an email server not controlled by the federal government. Conducting governmental business in this manner is a possible violation of the Presidential Records Act of 1978, and the Hatch Act.[1] Over 5 million emails may have been lost or deleted.[2][3] Greg Palast claims to have come up with 500 of the Karl Rove lost emails, leading to damaging allegations.[4] In 2009, it was announced that as many as 22 million emails may have been deleted.[5]
ThresherK
@Raven: Every year I seem to hear that the maple syrup output is 20% lower than last year. Should that go on one more year I expect a Serlingesque trick by which the stuff in my fridge disappears and becomes sap in the trees again.
But I digress: Is it Dark, Medium or Light? What’s the taste of your family?
It’s just the beginning of syruping season in my neck of the woods. Is that syrup this year’s first batch, or the last extracted bits from last year?
If it’s ordinary multiple-sourced maple syrup (yet known pure and unadulterated), I’d consider $13/qt a fine price to pay. If it’s someone’s artisinal labor of love (also pure / unadulaterated), and they’re not there to compete with MegaLoMart, and you can use and store a gallon…
BillinGlendaleCA
I printed out and framed a panorama of Obama’s fake birthplace taken from the top of Diamond Head to remind me to blame Obama.
Mustang Bobby
@Raven: I have an e-mail somewhere that says George W. Bush was the greatest president EVER, but I can’t find it.
Raven
@ThresherK: Rut to! I knew someone could help. It’s DeGrave brand but I’ll have to go look to see the other details. I never use the stuff me self but my bride does. Where do you store it?
Bobby B.
We all love CPAC because it was/is on TV all the time! The “nonpartisan” CSpan channels, and (it goes without saying) Fox and the Big Three networks. As for Ron Swanson, no surprise they picked a fictional character who is nothing like them. Nick Offernan will be pissed off if he finds out.
Raven
She texted me and said no so all she gets is a bee trap!
Iowa Old Lady
With Netanyahu, the King case being argued at the Supreme Court, and a looming DHS shutdown, this week did not need a Hillary Clinton scream fest. I may need to withdraw with a good book.
Baud
@Iowa Old Lady:
Hope it’s a long book. This idiocy isn’t going to end anytime soon.
JPL
Spoiler for the crossword page below
The front page on the NyTimes has a hit piece on Hillary doing something that is non uncommon for Secretary of States and the crossword today has to do with gonzo journalism. hmmm
ThresherK
@Raven: For us, always the fridge (once opened), certainly not room temp, especially for that big a container spoilage would be a culinary crime.
“People say” lots of things for storage if it’s just you eating it, and a whole gallon to store: Freezer, indefinitely (it’s only 35% water so it won’t strictly freeze). Fridge, about a year once opened.
From Vermont, where they take this shit seriously
debbie
@NotMax:
And Rudi’s pouting because he didn’t make the list.
danielx
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Why should you be any different….
It does seem that CPAC is turning into a carnival act for the rubes, while the real action is taking place at the various ring- (and ass-) kissing sessions sponsored by the likes of the Kochs and Sheldon Adelson.
ThresherK
@ThresherK: Ugh: Misleading clipnpaste on my part. That quote from UVM is not about maple syrup stored at room temp. Read the link for full details.
Central Planning
@ThresherK:
I think that’s about right. We only have the pure stuff at our house, so we’re pretty aware of the going price for syrup. I’ve seen upwards of $65/gallon at some of the local farmers markets.
We tapped two of our trees on Sunday. Each year we end up with close to a gallon of syrup. It tastes better than anything you can buy.
Raven
@ThresherK: Maybe that’s why she mixed it.
MattF
@JPL: Hmm. Didn’t make that connection. I suppose now reporters are going to be asking her if she has a tattoo of Eli Yale on her butt.
Schlemazel
@Central Planning:
BUY? When I was a kid my mom made her own “maple syrup” Sugar and water boiled on the stove to get the consistency then a couple of spoons of Mapleine. We didn’t have money for that fancy stuff but the first time I had real maple syrup was a revelation!
rea
@NotMax: “Somewhere, P. T. Barnum is smiling.”
Barnum was, among other things, a Republican politician.
Central Planning
@Schlemazel:
Luxury! When I was a kid, we had to chew on maple leaves.
BillinGlendaleCA
@MattF: No, it’s a tramp stamp.
Schlemazel
@Central Planning:
Thank pasta I never had to wear bread bags!
BillinGlendaleCA
@Schlemazel: You must be an elitist, Real Americans wore bread bags.
bemused
@Schlemazel:
My mom did that too but it was never the consistency of a syrup that I recall. She and other Scandinavian moms of their era all seemed to do this, not boiling it until thicker. You had to eat fast because the pancakes soaked up the maple water in an instant. Ugh, soggy pancakes.
Germy Shoemangler
I’m late to the party. I woke up this morning, turned on the tv, and saw the ABC morning show with George Stephanopoulos, just as he turned the camera over to Jonathan Karl…. who told me Hillary’s chances of being president are completely ruined. Whew! To hammer home his point, Jonathan turned to a guy from a law firm who agreed that this is an unprecedented breach of every state and federal law imaginable.
Ginger Zee cheered me up again. Does anyone else notice how the news ticker at the bottom of the screen disappears when she strolls over to the weather map? Except on mornings when she’s wearing slacks?
I don’t know if EmailGate is a nothing burger, the Worst Thing Ever, or what. But according to CPAC, Rand P will clean up the eight-year mess left by his predecessor.
Botsplainer
I fell in the fucking driveway again, opening wife’s car door to start her car. The ice has a layer of melt atop it and is fucking treacherous. I came down on the wrist I injured last week and it is really fucking pleasant.
Supposed to be 55 today, but the ice is a few inches thick still. Tomorrow is a predicted 10″ snowfall, followed by a plunge into single digits, and I’m going to be incapable of shoveling it this time.
ThresherK
@Central Planning: Okay, having your own trees is an unfair advantage in this discussion. Good on ya for doing this.
I’m the least garden-y sort here, but even I know the horticultural bridge between me and someone who can grow tomatos in a planter is much easier to bridge than from that to having your own mature sugar maples yielding sugarable sap.
How old are your trees? (And “older than God” or “George Washington planted them” are acceptable answers.)
Cheap Jim, formerly Cheap Jim
Senator Mikulski has surprised no one by announcing she won’t run for re-election (she’s 78, which is a respectable age even for a hobbit). So I guess that takes O’Malley out of the 2016 presidential race. The senate nomination is a much easier election for him, and the Republicans are unlikely to be able to put up a candidate much better than Linda Chavez or Alan Keyes.
Paul in KY
@ThresherK: He makes great TV dinners too!
Paul in KY
@Botsplainer: Get some young entrepreneurs, who should be by on the snowy day, to do it. Or you could have the wife do it.
Iowa Old Lady
@Botsplainer: I once broke a bone in my foot that way. Nothing’s more slippery than water on ice.
gene108
@Mustang Bobby:
Not the same thing. Cheney and his puppet, George Bush, Jr, and company never used their official government e-mails for anything, never used government servers, and when push came to shove to retrieve the e-mails the servers they did use were
“mysteriously” inoperable and no trace of their e-mails were found.
Sec. Clinton seems to have handed over a rather exhaustive amount of communication she had while Sec. of State.
msdc
@JPL: Apparently John Kerry is the first Sec. of State to use a state.gov email address.
I’m sure the media will note that in between bouts of BENGHAZI!!!
Morzer
@Raven:
The Mennonites stole Canada’s strategic maple syrup reserve?!
The things one learns here.
KS in MA
@OzarkHillbilly:
This.
Chris
This is by far the most fascinating part of the whole process. Last couple elections were all about the Establishment candidate (McCain, Romney) versus a gaggle of Not-McCains and Not-Romneys who mostly didn’t have a prayer. Watching two Establishments go to war isn’t what I was expecting.
What’s the tiff about between the Koch brothers side of things and the Wall Street/East Coast side of things, anyway? Is it just like two corporations bidding over who gets the contract, or is there actually an ideological difference?
Schlemazel
@bemused:
That is worse!
White Trash Liberal
AL, I just wanted to say that you are an excellent writer. I know your gig is aggregating as a form of rhetoric, but your standalone wordsmithery is some of the best on the Internet.
gvg
@Chris: There is at minimum the ideological difference of the Koch brothers wanting to be the actual puppet masters rather than two in a crowd with related interests.
I have the impression there are some other differences too, like the Kochs not being that reality based and willingness to throw away a bunch of money for no return.
I can’t really get into their minds though.
Splitting Image
@Chris:
The Chamber of Commerce wing of the G.O.P. believes in honour amongst thieves. The Koch brothers don’t.
Gex
” Breakout sessions bemoaned the co-opting of “cool” by the Left”
This is such a common theme on the right. I wonder if it has ever occurred to them that the barrier to being found cool is the fact that they make no bones about fucking HATING most people?
Germy Shoemangler
@Chris: Here is the Libertarian Party platform that David Koch ran on in 1980:
• “We urge the repeal of federal campaign finance laws, and the immediate abolition of the despotic Federal Election Commission.”
• “We favor the abolition of Medicare and Medicaid programs.”
• “We oppose any compulsory insurance or tax-supported plan to provide health services, including those which finance abortion services.”
• “We also favor the deregulation of the medical insurance industry.”
• “We favor the repeal of the fraudulent, virtually bankrupt, and increasingly oppressive Social Security system. Pending that repeal, participation in Social Security should be made voluntary.”
• “We propose the abolition of the governmental Postal Service. The present system, in addition to being inefficient, encourages governmental surveillance of private correspondence. Pending abolition, we call for an end to the monopoly system and for allowing free competition in all aspects of postal service.”
• “We oppose all personal and corporate income taxation, including capital gains taxes.”
• “We support the eventual repeal of all taxation.”
• “As an interim measure, all criminal and civil sanctions against tax evasion should be terminated immediately.”
• “We support repeal of all law which impede the ability of any person to find employment, such as minimum wage laws.”
• “We advocate the complete separation of education and State. Government schools lead to the indoctrination of children and interfere with the free choice of individuals. Government ownership, operation, regulation, and subsidy of schools and colleges should be ended.”
• “We condemn compulsory education laws … and we call for the immediate repeal of such laws.”
• “We support the repeal of all taxes on the income or property of private schools, whether profit or non-profit.”
• “We support the abolition of the Environmental Protection Agency.”
• “We support abolition of the Department of Energy.”
• “We call for the dissolution of all government agencies concerned with transportation, including the Department of Transportation.”
• “We demand the return of America’s railroad system to private ownership. We call for the privatization of the public roads and national highway system.”
• “We specifically oppose laws requiring an individual to buy or use so-called “self-protection” equipment such as safety belts, air bags, or crash helmets.”
• “We advocate the abolition of the Federal Aviation Administration.”
• “We advocate the abolition of the Food and Drug Administration.”
• “We support an end to all subsidies for child-bearing built into our present laws, including all welfare plans and the provision of tax-supported services for children.”
• “We oppose all government welfare, relief projects, and ‘aid to the poor’ programs. All these government programs are privacy-invading, paternalistic, demeaning, and inefficient. The proper source of help for such persons is the voluntary efforts of private groups and individuals.”
• “We call for the privatization of the inland waterways, and of the distribution system that brings water to industry, agriculture and households.”
• “We call for the repeal of the Occupational Safety and Health Act.”
• “We call for the abolition of the Consumer Product Safety Commission.”
• “We support the repeal of all state usury laws.”
Central Planning
@ThresherK:
I’m not sure. The house was built in the early 70s, so I suppose our sugar maple is 45ish years old. I think based on the size of the trunk we could technically put two taps in the tree, but we’re happy with one.
We have a two red maples, a sugar maple, and a couple silver maples (neighbor calls them swamp maples). We’ve gotten the most sap from the sugar (duh) and the silver maples. The reds don’t produce enough to make the trip out and back (no more than 50′) worth while.
I think our sugar percentage in the sap is higher than in forests. I read somewhere a long time ago that maples in forests have to compete for resources so their sugar content is lower.
Finally, we bought some used buckets, covers, and stiles from a maple sugaring company in NH or VT. It’s a cheap and easy hobby, and like I said: the best maple syrup you will ever have.
Gex
@Mustang Bobby: I feel like they need them, as acting as they don’t will put them in a situation the Dems are in. There are a lot of D voters we have a hard time getting out to vote in midterm elections. Can you imagine how things would go for the GOP if the Birchers and the Christian Sharia voters stayed home?
Tree With Water
@Raven: Those public servants that claim their own editorial prerogatives trump a democracy’s vital right, need, and responsibility to access public documents are un-American.
And the woods will always be full of them.
de stijl
@Botsplainer:
I fell in the fucking driveway again
Last time I fell in the driveway, I broke a rib and cracked a vertebrae. With a broken rib, everything hurts. Sitting down hurts, standing up hurts, laughing hurts, getting dressed, getting undressed, looking over your shoulder is a really bad idea. I’d look at a set of stairs and think. “Ahh…crap!”
Coughing or sneezing were bad. Pooping was the worst.