The dedication stone, created for the airport’s opening, bears the logo of the Freemasons and was paid for by two Freemason grand lodges in Colorado, as well as something called the “New World Airport Commission”, an organisation about which there is almost no information. It has led conspiracy theorists to argue that their airport is the headquarters for a secretive new world order linked to the masons or the Illuminati.
Mural by Leo Tanguma at Denver international airport. Photograph: Denver International Airport
There are also unusual murals in the airport, painted by the artist Leo Tanguma, which depict creepy images of manmade environmental destruction and genocide[…] Other theories that have been touted include suggestions that the runways were arranged in the shape of a swastika and that unusual markings on the airport floor are satanic symbols. Also that huge bunkers under the airport, allegedly created for an automated luggage system that malfunctioned when the airport opened, are in fact an underground lair for the “lizard people”.
I was quite spoiled going in and out of Denver because I requested a wheelchair. The only hassle I had was that I apparently touched something on the bus or train that pinged TSA’s machine as being explosives, so they had to swab every goddamned thing in my carry-on. Though the wheelchair helped there, too, since I was able to look mournful and pathetic.
Otherwise, I liked the airport quite a bit. The train was very handy to get downtown.
7.
Mnemosyne
Oh, and there’s a statue of astronaut Jim Lovell at one of the terminals — I saw it from the terminal subway train thingy but didn’t get my phone out in time to get a photo.
D’oh! Yes, come to think of it, you are correct. I knew it was one of the Apollo 13 guys.
If I hadn’t been in an attended wheelchair, I would have popped out for a selfie and then caught the next train. The wheelchair attendant probably would have gone with me, but I didn’t think to ask.
10.
Mart
@Mnemosyne: @Mnemosyne: When it first opened it was in the middle of nowhere with a ridiculous drive downtown. Barely any hotels so if your flight was cancelled you slept in DIA. At least they used to hand out those airplane blankets.
Guy I worked with out there was all excited driving me to the new airport. He asked me if I knew what those fabric roofs represented. I said I dunno, Indian Teepees? He kind of got incensed and said it represented the highest peaks of the Rockies. Place still creeps me out. Bit of a Clinton RWNJ tale on the place with Pena getting it built as Mayor and then joining the Admin as Transportation Sec.
Worst air pockets in the nation. I travel for a living, but that one time in a wide body craft where that guy who did not listen to “we mean it this time” seat belt warnings got Jack-in-the Boxed to the ceiling – and the flight attendant eyes bulged out and she told me she was not getting up to help – I got a bit nervous.
@Mart: landing there coming from the West is awful.
13.
Mary Green
Both the mural and the horse are creepy, but especially the mural; if I was going to be getting on a plane I would obsess about hijackers with guns and swords.
@Martin: Yes, it’ll probably mean massive traffic jams in Anaheim.
@Mnemosyne: not every time, no, but trust me, I’ve done that route a lot!
16.
Ruckus
@Mnemosyne:
I also always kept my seatbelt fastened. That way I could sleep without falling out of the seat. I was real good at that, sit down, buckle up, fall asleep. I did that once at LAX and woke up a while later and looked out the window and there was a brick wall. I asked the guy next to me if we’d arrived. His answer? “You fucking bastard! They closed the door, moved us back about 20 ft and we’ve been here for 45 min. You are the only one in the plane not pissed off and that’s because you’ve been asleep since before the door was closed.” I think I said something like goodnight while giggling and went back to sleep. You get there when you get there, no use wasting good sleep over it.
OMG, I sat next to your long-lost son on the flight back from my father-in-law’s funeral. He was in the middle seat and fell asleep immediately after we boarded, but we had a long taxi to our runway, so he kept flopping over into my lap. I ended up having to block him with my shoulder until we finally took off and he settled back in his seat. That was highly annoying. ?
18.
Ruckus
@Mnemosyne:
I was traveling by air 30 weeks a year. It was extremely boring. I can remember very few obnoxious seat passengers. Two come to mind. A kid, 9-10 yrs old flying by himself, had elbows enough for 6 people. I finally gave him the pissed off teacher look and we got along fine after that. The other happened while we were all getting settled. I walked to my row and was putting my bag in the overhead and this extremely large woman forced herself by me and sat in the middle seat, me of course having the window. I asked her to please move so I could get in my seat and she said she was not getting up. So I stepped on the arm rests and dropped into my seat. I do believe my butt and her nose got somewhat aquatinted as I climbed by. I do believe she was a bit surprised, I think she thought I’d just find another seat. I did notice a couple of nods from those around me, that she had pushed by to get to her seat. She was a peach. Real marriage material.
@Mnemosyne: Hope your recovery is going well!! I do like the airport, I know it annoys some, but I always found it pretty easy to navigate. We just went through a bunch of construction outside, so pick up and drop off was a pain. Now this construction. I have TSA precheck, so I’m hoping it doesn’t affect that too much.
20.
Martin
@Mary Green: Probably not. He’s not doing the whole Marine 1 thing any more, and its a fairly small event. This won’t be June 2014 all over again.
I had a lecturer in college who believed that Carl Maria von Weber, celebrated composer of “Der Freischütz” did not die in 1826, when all the history books say he did, but in 1844, when Richard Wagner (“allegedly”) had von Weber’s bones interred in Germany.
He, um, didn’t finish the semester. A substitute was arranged.
22.
TCS
BJ has some of the best commentary anywhere on the internet. Why is Mx4 here?
Cole, the all knowing sage from West-By-God-Virginia knew that one day someone with the nym of TCS would ask the question “Why is Mx4 here?”. It’s clear to me that it’s because John anticipated your question, so there’s one answer.
I was re-reading my current favorite Lois McMaster Bujold novel, Lord Vorpatril’s Alliance and she has a line that always makes me giggle:
The spaceport looked like every other civilian spaceport she’d ever seen: under construction.
I really think my favorite thing about Bujold is that she presents a functional future, not the same lazy dystopia that everyone else falls back on. Each society is crappy in its own way for at least some percentage of the people, but for the most part, they function and keep chugging along.
I really like the idea of a Q&A — I just have to see if the moderator will go for it. The group is her baby, but she tries to get a very broad range of topics.
Recovery has reached the boring stage, hence the reading marathon for tomorrow. The receptionist at my doctor’s office who was writing the note I need for work originally offered 8 weeks and I was like, “Uh, no, I would lose my mind if I had to stay at home that long.” ? They’re more used to people who have physical jobs, not desk jockeys like me.
Writers get graded on a curve, stations on the curve are named terms like brilliant, insightful, on the upper end, to sucks, blows, excrement, on the bottom end.
You said your writing sucks,
I demurred and gave several examples of writers who suck.
36.
sukabi
@Jay: Don’t know, but his spoken word must count for something…of course the value would be negative
@Ruckus: I can sleep on a plane but my head tilts back and I wake with a phenomenal neckache. The neck pillows help some but introduce their own problems. I envy those who can sleep on a plane.
@Jay: makes it a bit harder to justify confirming a guy to any position when they’ve got a criminal complaint hanging…a nominee for the supreme court with a criminal complaint for perjury? That’s going to be tough…wouldn’t surprise me if someone files a complaint with the bar association…Brett may get disbarred…
@Jay: it would be in Kavanaugh’s best interest at this point to withdraw, because besides the criminal complaint someone may go after his license. Seems pretty clear he likes to skirt ethics and when it suits him the law…
@sukabi: I wouldn’t be surprised if he withdrew. I also wouldn’t be surprised if he muddled through, but confirmation is much less likely now than it was Tuesday.
But, the ReThug’s don’t care. They have abandoned all pretense at Nation, Constitution, Rule of Law,
Kavenaugh will be confirmed, the House and Senate will turn Blue,
Tumbrel stocks will climb.
According to those who have modeled social disruption, the first thing that happens when a Government ignores a significant portion of the population, is shaming,
Where Obama and Shapiro differ sharply in their explanation is in the attribution of blame. Obama blames Trump — and others in the Republican Party and conservative media — for demagogically preying on Americans’ fears and anxieties. Shapiro blames Obama for adopting a lecturing tone that alienated a critical mass of Americans.
Over email, I asked Shapiro to unpack this point for me. “Obama suggested that his political opponents were badly-motivated ignoramuses, routinely ignored the rule of law, and utilized identity politics to divide the country,” he replied. “He savaged McCain and Romney in scurrilous ways. Many in the Republican base felt angered and slighted, and raged at the supposed nice guys in the party who were allegedly too weak to fight back. They supported the most aggressive candidate on the stage.”
Some of this strikes me as, well, strange. John McCain just had Obama speak at his funeral. The idea that the 2008 campaign was uniquely scurrilous is provably wrong. The rest of it is the usual Rorschach test of American politics; I think Obama treated issues of identity with unusual care and caution and, particularly early in his presidency, was unusually willing to believe the best of his political opponents, but I doubt I’ll change any minds on that in this column. Indeed, the deep division over how identity politics was wielded in the Obama era, and who was really acting outside the norms of American politics, is exactly what you’d expect if you believe this broader story of demographic, political, and cultural upheaval.
More interesting, I think, is the way both Obama and Shapiro implicitly absolve voters of responsibility for the choices they made. Obama’s basic argument is that too much change, too fast, made right-leaning voters susceptible to a demagogue’s charms; Shapiro’s basic argument is that too much of Obama’s liberal provocations, for too long, made right-leaning voters long for a strongman of their own.
The term “white fragility” is overused in politics right now, but it is relevant here: The unwillingness to state the obvious — a critical proportion of Republican primary voters enthusiastically supported the candidate who promised to turn back the demographic clock — might be politically wise, but it’s analytically disastrous. Black voters who supported Louis Farrakhan would never be treated with such delicacy.
@OzarkHillbilly: I don’t believe Obama (or Hillary, cf. the basket of deplorables) believe it for a second, but they know too that you aren’t supposed to say otherwise in public.
56.
sukabi
@OzarkHillbilly: I clicked over to see if the Shapiro was Ben.
I don’t understand wasting column space/pixels on trying to “understand” the fake “rationale” of the Ben Shapiros of the world. The gop has a vigorous propaganda / conspiracy network setup. They gleefully fill their party members mailboxes and emails with Bullshit to scare them into opening their wallets to stave off the latest “liberal threat”. From “they’re coming for your guns” to “they’ll make you gay marry a goat” to now it’s pretty much incoherent rage and the stupidest conspiracy theories.
Shapiro trafficked in the same scaremongering and has for years. he just doesn’t want to take responsibility for his own actions, which is pretty much par for the course.
Yep. In my road warrior days the only times I felt any real worry was bouncing through the rough air descending into Denver. Great city though.
58.
OzarkHillbilly
@Major Major Major Major: Yes. I don’t really blame politicians for skirting the issue, but pundits?
59.
OzarkHillbilly
@sukabi: Klein is not trying to “understand” Shapiro (nor I). Klein understands him all too well. Klein engaged in the exchange with Shapiro in an effort to get him to elaborate on just exactly what he thought Obama did to cause trump. Answer? “He’s an intelligent black man elected to the Presidency,”
In Ezra’s article he uses Shapiro’s own words to illustrate the absurdity of that point of view. BS gave EK the rope with which to hang him.
60.
OzarkHillbilly
A mother and child who fell onto a tube track at Baker Street station survived by ducking into a pit between the rails as the train passed over their heads. The woman’s husband also escaped unharmed after jumping down from the platform to try to help his family before the train passed.
The woman was walking with a pram along the platform at the station in north London at about 10.15pm on Friday night, but became distracted by the overhead display boards and did not realise how narrow the platform was. The wheels of the buggy slipped over the edge and the woman and her child fell on to the track below. As a train approached, the woman’s husband jumped down on to the tracks to try to rescue his wife and child. The family managed to dive into a sheltered area under the track and the train passed over their heads without injuring them.
A statement from the British Transport police said: “Amazingly none of them were seriously hurt, but as a precaution they were taken to hospital for check-ups.”
Somebody should go buy a lottery ticket right now.
61.
Frankensteinbeck
@sukabi:
That depends on in Major can do the fandango.
62.
sukabi
@OzarkHillbilly: didn’t read more than the bit you posted and a paragraph or so once I clicked over…I guess my problem with these pieces is that while we will read them and get a self satisfied smug feeling from them, the folks that should pay attention to them will never even come across them or consider venturing outside their FOX bubble to read them.
It’s late and I’m bitchy. ☺ night.
63.
Ladyraxterinok
@Mnemosyne: I like most of them. I think the book about Miles’ coutship is the most fun. The most haunting is the endind of the book (forget its name) in which Miles is informed his father has died.
64.
Procopius
@sukabi: I am not a lawyer, but from what I’ve read of state bar associations disregard of ethics and/or law are not grounds for imposing discipline. I think the only grounds for disciplinary action is failure to pay your dues.
The Colorado Front Range has dozens of “microclimate” areas. DIA is just enough farther east that temperature extremes there are a bit higher and lower than they were at Stapleton. Some of the record high and low temperatures for Denver over the last 20 years are due to moving the official observation station. The landing tracks for DIA are subject to more frequent microbursts than the tracks for Stapleton. Little ropy tornadoes are seen fairly frequently around DIA, but were almost unheard of at Stapleton.
67.
StringOnAStick
@TaMara (HFG): WE’re heading out on the 20th. Just be aware that they’ve already started the I-70 widening project just east of I-25, so travels times if you are driving to DIA might be impacted.
My husband and I dis that red-eyed horse every time we go to DIA. Don’t get me wrong, I like horses but the red eye thing is just ugh.
68.
Jay C
Love the conscious trolling in that Denver Airport signage – stuff like that doesn’t have to be well-designed and clever; someone put a bit of (snarky) thought into it.
Aside: I knew Luis Jimenez, Jr. (sculptor and victim of Blue Mustang), and own several of his works, including a small piece with a horse that is indeed, blue. Now I wonder if I shouldn’t get it exorcised, just in case….?
69.
Petorado
That blue stallion statue has been bestowed the great nickname “Blucifer” by the locals because it creeps us out too.
In an ironic and unfortunate aside, the artist who designed the statue was killed when a portion of the stallion fell on him in the studio and severed an artery in his leg. It’s not an illuminati prop, but it is bad ju-ju.
Black voters who supported Louis Farrakhan would never be treated with such delicacy.
That’s it – that’s exactly what I’ve been groping towards trying to say for weeks now – that white voters expect a pass for electing their racist, sexist, demagoguing Id personified, but would screech like scalded monkeys if black voters tried to elect a racially polarizing African-American figure. This author just figured out how to say it simply and succinctly.
71.
ian
The beauty is how a municipal city-county government construct made in the late 1990s managed to bury all those fun things down there, kill all workers involved, and no one managed to document any of it.
And it’s all just sitting down there, waiting for our unicorn overlords to overthrow the government.
72.
Uncle Cosmo
Two conspiracy theorists walk into an Irish pub.
“What’ll it be?” says the publican.
The one on the left replies, “HAARP! HAARP!”
The one on the right says, “I’ll have what he’s having…”
Not going there, boychik. Not even reading the tour guide. Not even going to the library to see if they have a copy of the tour guide…
74.
Jacel
@Ninedragonspot: I hadn’t heard of that conspiracy theory regarding Weber, but it reminded me of the role of Weber in an alternate-history novel, “The Alteration” by Kingsley Amis. I won’t give away the central change in this world’s history, but differences include both Mozart and Weber having lived longer. Mozart composed his Second Requiem honoring a student of his friend Haydn (Beethoven) who died too young. Weber lived long enough to be universally regarded in the 20th century as the greatest composer ever.
TaMara (HFG)
I fly out in a few weeks and I think it’s going to be miserable. :-(
sukabi
Looks like Denver has really embraced the bud.
Mike in NC
They should add some “art” by the wingnut Jon McNaughtan, whose created lots of cringeworthy “art”.
Major Major Major Major
@sukabi: I have it on good authority that Coloradans find that joke stale.
sukabi
@Major Major Major Major: then they should break out some new.
Mnemosyne
@TaMara (HFG):
I was quite spoiled going in and out of Denver because I requested a wheelchair. The only hassle I had was that I apparently touched something on the bus or train that pinged TSA’s machine as being explosives, so they had to swab every goddamned thing in my carry-on. Though the wheelchair helped there, too, since I was able to look mournful and pathetic.
Otherwise, I liked the airport quite a bit. The train was very handy to get downtown.
Mnemosyne
Oh, and there’s a statue of astronaut Jim Lovell at one of the terminals — I saw it from the terminal subway train thingy but didn’t get my phone out in time to get a photo.
Redshift
@Mnemosyne: The astronaut statue is Jack Swigert (also Apollo 13.) I have a selfie with it somewhere.
Mnemosyne
@Redshift:
D’oh! Yes, come to think of it, you are correct. I knew it was one of the Apollo 13 guys.
If I hadn’t been in an attended wheelchair, I would have popped out for a selfie and then caught the next train. The wheelchair attendant probably would have gone with me, but I didn’t think to ask.
Mart
@Mnemosyne: @Mnemosyne: When it first opened it was in the middle of nowhere with a ridiculous drive downtown. Barely any hotels so if your flight was cancelled you slept in DIA. At least they used to hand out those airplane blankets.
Guy I worked with out there was all excited driving me to the new airport. He asked me if I knew what those fabric roofs represented. I said I dunno, Indian Teepees? He kind of got incensed and said it represented the highest peaks of the Rockies. Place still creeps me out. Bit of a Clinton RWNJ tale on the place with Pena getting it built as Mayor and then joining the Admin as Transportation Sec.
Worst air pockets in the nation. I travel for a living, but that one time in a wide body craft where that guy who did not listen to “we mean it this time” seat belt warnings got Jack-in-the Boxed to the ceiling – and the flight attendant eyes bulged out and she told me she was not getting up to help – I got a bit nervous.
Martin
Tomorrow will be a good day, Obama will be near.
Major Major Major Major
@Mart: landing there coming from the West is awful.
Mary Green
Both the mural and the horse are creepy, but especially the mural; if I was going to be getting on a plane I would obsess about hijackers with guns and swords.
@Martin: Yes, it’ll probably mean massive traffic jams in Anaheim.
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
Ours wasn’t too terrible — a little hairy, but not as bad as I’d heard. I’ve had worse at less notorious airports.
And I always keep my seat belt on when I’m in my seat.
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: not every time, no, but trust me, I’ve done that route a lot!
Ruckus
@Mnemosyne:
I also always kept my seatbelt fastened. That way I could sleep without falling out of the seat. I was real good at that, sit down, buckle up, fall asleep. I did that once at LAX and woke up a while later and looked out the window and there was a brick wall. I asked the guy next to me if we’d arrived. His answer? “You fucking bastard! They closed the door, moved us back about 20 ft and we’ve been here for 45 min. You are the only one in the plane not pissed off and that’s because you’ve been asleep since before the door was closed.” I think I said something like goodnight while giggling and went back to sleep. You get there when you get there, no use wasting good sleep over it.
Mnemosyne
@Ruckus:
OMG, I sat next to your long-lost son on the flight back from my father-in-law’s funeral. He was in the middle seat and fell asleep immediately after we boarded, but we had a long taxi to our runway, so he kept flopping over into my lap. I ended up having to block him with my shoulder until we finally took off and he settled back in his seat. That was highly annoying. ?
Ruckus
@Mnemosyne:
I was traveling by air 30 weeks a year. It was extremely boring. I can remember very few obnoxious seat passengers. Two come to mind. A kid, 9-10 yrs old flying by himself, had elbows enough for 6 people. I finally gave him the pissed off teacher look and we got along fine after that. The other happened while we were all getting settled. I walked to my row and was putting my bag in the overhead and this extremely large woman forced herself by me and sat in the middle seat, me of course having the window. I asked her to please move so I could get in my seat and she said she was not getting up. So I stepped on the arm rests and dropped into my seat. I do believe my butt and her nose got somewhat aquatinted as I climbed by. I do believe she was a bit surprised, I think she thought I’d just find another seat. I did notice a couple of nods from those around me, that she had pushed by to get to her seat. She was a peach. Real marriage material.
TaMara (HFG)
@Mnemosyne: Hope your recovery is going well!! I do like the airport, I know it annoys some, but I always found it pretty easy to navigate. We just went through a bunch of construction outside, so pick up and drop off was a pain. Now this construction. I have TSA precheck, so I’m hoping it doesn’t affect that too much.
Martin
@Mary Green: Probably not. He’s not doing the whole Marine 1 thing any more, and its a fairly small event. This won’t be June 2014 all over again.
Ninedragonspot
Non-Trump conspiracy theories, 19th-century edition:
I had a lecturer in college who believed that Carl Maria von Weber, celebrated composer of “Der Freischütz” did not die in 1826, when all the history books say he did, but in 1844, when Richard Wagner (“allegedly”) had von Weber’s bones interred in Germany.
He, um, didn’t finish the semester. A substitute was arranged.
TCS
BJ has some of the best commentary anywhere on the internet. Why is Mx4 here?
Mnemosyne
@TCS:
???
Odie Hugh Manatee
@TCS:
Cole, the all knowing sage from West-By-God-Virginia knew that one day someone with the nym of TCS would ask the question “Why is Mx4 here?”. It’s clear to me that it’s because John anticipated your question, so there’s one answer.
Mnemosyne
@TaMara (HFG):
I was re-reading my current favorite Lois McMaster Bujold novel, Lord Vorpatril’s Alliance and she has a line that always makes me giggle:
I really think my favorite thing about Bujold is that she presents a functional future, not the same lazy dystopia that everyone else falls back on. Each society is crappy in its own way for at least some percentage of the people, but for the most part, they function and keep chugging along.
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: In his defense, I suck.
Sister Golden Bear
@Mnemosyne: Hope your recovery is going well and the you enjoy reading marathon tomorrow.
Also too, I’m curious about the reaction from your Facebook group.
Origuy
@Mnemosyne: Looks like M4 has acquired his very own troll.
sukabi
Dem coalition just filed a criminal complaint against Kavanaugh for perjury.
Jay
@Major Major Major Major:
Yeah, no.
To suck you’ld have to reach several Friedman’s, or at least two Dershowitz’s, or one Convicted Felon D’nesh.
sukabi
@Jay: how many Scaramoochi’s?
Major Major Major Major
@Jay: that’s a pretty low bar you’ve got!
@Origuy: ‘twould appear his third thread ever.
Jay
@sukabi:
Has Mooch ever written anything?
Mnemosyne
@Sister Golden Bear:
I really like the idea of a Q&A — I just have to see if the moderator will go for it. The group is her baby, but she tries to get a very broad range of topics.
Recovery has reached the boring stage, hence the reading marathon for tomorrow. The receptionist at my doctor’s office who was writing the note I need for work originally offered 8 weeks and I was like, “Uh, no, I would lose my mind if I had to stay at home that long.” ? They’re more used to people who have physical jobs, not desk jockeys like me.
Jay
@Major Major Major Major:
Writers get graded on a curve, stations on the curve are named terms like brilliant, insightful, on the upper end, to sucks, blows, excrement, on the bottom end.
You said your writing sucks,
I demurred and gave several examples of writers who suck.
sukabi
@Jay: Don’t know, but his spoken word must count for something…of course the value would be negative
Jay
@sukabi:
Given it’s Session’s DOJ, it’s probably just another Grand Gesture, that will have to wait on hold for a real government.
Major Major Major Major
@Jay: One of my friends says that the worst thing you can call an author of fiction is ‘topical.’
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
I’m guessing he doesn’t realize that front-pagers get to wield the banhammer at their discretion. ? Cole is usually A-OK with banning outright trolls.
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: that’s silly talk.
Jay
@Major Major Major Major:
There’s much worse things one can call a writer.
Fair Economist
@Ruckus: I can sleep on a plane but my head tilts back and I wake with a phenomenal neckache. The neck pillows help some but introduce their own problems. I envy those who can sleep on a plane.
Major Major Major Major
@Jay: it’s a joke.
Jay
@Major Major Major Major:
Yeah, I know,
sukabi
@Jay: makes it a bit harder to justify confirming a guy to any position when they’ve got a criminal complaint hanging…a nominee for the supreme court with a criminal complaint for perjury? That’s going to be tough…wouldn’t surprise me if someone files a complaint with the bar association…Brett may get disbarred…
OzarkHillbilly
@TCS: Because he wants to be.
sukabi
@Jay: it would be in Kavanaugh’s best interest at this point to withdraw, because besides the criminal complaint someone may go after his license. Seems pretty clear he likes to skirt ethics and when it suits him the law…
Major Major Major Major
@sukabi: I wouldn’t be surprised if he withdrew. I also wouldn’t be surprised if he muddled through, but confirmation is much less likely now than it was Tuesday.
Jay
@sukabi:
The Democrat’s are laying it all out,
But, the ReThug’s don’t care. They have abandoned all pretense at Nation, Constitution, Rule of Law,
Kavenaugh will be confirmed, the House and Senate will turn Blue,
Tumbrel stocks will climb.
According to those who have modeled social disruption, the first thing that happens when a Government ignores a significant portion of the population, is shaming,
Check,
Then shunning,
Check,
Then violence,
OzarkHillbilly
Ezra Klein:
Major Major Major Major
@OzarkHillbilly: American political analysis is wed to the idea that republican voters lack agency. It’s bizarre.
Major Major Major Major
I’m off to bed; goodnight to all, even the losers and haters.
OzarkHillbilly
@Major Major Major Major: Yep, nice to see Klein call it out for what it is.
OzarkHillbilly
@Major Major Major Major: Hope you are able to sleep better than I. I had to give up the fight against insomnia.
Major Major Major Major
@OzarkHillbilly: I don’t believe Obama (or Hillary, cf. the basket of deplorables) believe it for a second, but they know too that you aren’t supposed to say otherwise in public.
sukabi
@OzarkHillbilly: I clicked over to see if the Shapiro was Ben.
I don’t understand wasting column space/pixels on trying to “understand” the fake “rationale” of the Ben Shapiros of the world. The gop has a vigorous propaganda / conspiracy network setup. They gleefully fill their party members mailboxes and emails with Bullshit to scare them into opening their wallets to stave off the latest “liberal threat”. From “they’re coming for your guns” to “they’ll make you gay marry a goat” to now it’s pretty much incoherent rage and the stupidest conspiracy theories.
Shapiro trafficked in the same scaremongering and has for years. he just doesn’t want to take responsibility for his own actions, which is pretty much par for the course.
satby
@Mart:
Yep. In my road warrior days the only times I felt any real worry was bouncing through the rough air descending into Denver. Great city though.
OzarkHillbilly
@Major Major Major Major: Yes. I don’t really blame politicians for skirting the issue, but pundits?
OzarkHillbilly
@sukabi: Klein is not trying to “understand” Shapiro (nor I). Klein understands him all too well. Klein engaged in the exchange with Shapiro in an effort to get him to elaborate on just exactly what he thought Obama did to cause trump. Answer? “He’s an intelligent black man elected to the Presidency,”
In Ezra’s article he uses Shapiro’s own words to illustrate the absurdity of that point of view. BS gave EK the rope with which to hang him.
OzarkHillbilly
Somebody should go buy a lottery ticket right now.
Frankensteinbeck
@sukabi:
That depends on in Major can do the fandango.
sukabi
@OzarkHillbilly: didn’t read more than the bit you posted and a paragraph or so once I clicked over…I guess my problem with these pieces is that while we will read them and get a self satisfied smug feeling from them, the folks that should pay attention to them will never even come across them or consider venturing outside their FOX bubble to read them.
It’s late and I’m bitchy. ☺ night.
Ladyraxterinok
@Mnemosyne: I like most of them. I think the book about Miles’ coutship is the most fun. The most haunting is the endind of the book (forget its name) in which Miles is informed his father has died.
Procopius
@sukabi: I am not a lawyer, but from what I’ve read of state bar associations disregard of ethics and/or law are not grounds for imposing discipline. I think the only grounds for disciplinary action is failure to pay your dues.
chopper
@Origuy:
well, M4 is now official as a FPer.
Michael Cain
The Colorado Front Range has dozens of “microclimate” areas. DIA is just enough farther east that temperature extremes there are a bit higher and lower than they were at Stapleton. Some of the record high and low temperatures for Denver over the last 20 years are due to moving the official observation station. The landing tracks for DIA are subject to more frequent microbursts than the tracks for Stapleton. Little ropy tornadoes are seen fairly frequently around DIA, but were almost unheard of at Stapleton.
StringOnAStick
@TaMara (HFG): WE’re heading out on the 20th. Just be aware that they’ve already started the I-70 widening project just east of I-25, so travels times if you are driving to DIA might be impacted.
My husband and I dis that red-eyed horse every time we go to DIA. Don’t get me wrong, I like horses but the red eye thing is just ugh.
Jay C
Love the conscious trolling in that Denver Airport signage – stuff like that doesn’t have to be well-designed and clever; someone put a bit of (snarky) thought into it.
Aside: I knew Luis Jimenez, Jr. (sculptor and victim of Blue Mustang), and own several of his works, including a small piece with a horse that is indeed, blue. Now I wonder if I shouldn’t get it exorcised, just in case….?
Petorado
That blue stallion statue has been bestowed the great nickname “Blucifer” by the locals because it creeps us out too.
In an ironic and unfortunate aside, the artist who designed the statue was killed when a portion of the stallion fell on him in the studio and severed an artery in his leg. It’s not an illuminati prop, but it is bad ju-ju.
Miss Bianca
@OzarkHillbilly:
That’s it – that’s exactly what I’ve been groping towards trying to say for weeks now – that white voters expect a pass for electing their racist, sexist, demagoguing Id personified, but would screech like scalded monkeys if black voters tried to elect a racially polarizing African-American figure. This author just figured out how to say it simply and succinctly.
ian
The beauty is how a municipal city-county government construct made in the late 1990s managed to bury all those fun things down there, kill all workers involved, and no one managed to document any of it.
And it’s all just sitting down there, waiting for our unicorn overlords to overthrow the government.
Uncle Cosmo
Two conspiracy theorists walk into an Irish pub.
“What’ll it be?” says the publican.
The one on the left replies, “HAARP! HAARP!”
The one on the right says, “I’ll have what he’s having…”
Uncle Cosmo
@Major Major Major Major:
Not going there, boychik. Not even reading the tour guide. Not even going to the library to see if they have a copy of the tour guide…
Jacel
@Ninedragonspot: I hadn’t heard of that conspiracy theory regarding Weber, but it reminded me of the role of Weber in an alternate-history novel, “The Alteration” by Kingsley Amis. I won’t give away the central change in this world’s history, but differences include both Mozart and Weber having lived longer. Mozart composed his Second Requiem honoring a student of his friend Haydn (Beethoven) who died too young. Weber lived long enough to be universally regarded in the 20th century as the greatest composer ever.
Ninedragonspot
@Jacel: Ha! I will have to look that one up.
Jim Parish
@Ladyraxterinok: Cryoburn.