Democrats Poised To Lose To MAGAts in SOS Positions. Outspending their election denier foes 57-1. Still losing:
Such is the plight of many Democratic candidates for secretary of state, an office that has long lived in political obscurity and rarely inspired great passions among voters. But in 2022, after secretaries of state helped thwart Donald J. Trump’s attempt to overturn his defeat, races for the post have taken on new urgency. Facing off against Republican candidates who spread lies about the 2020 election, Democrats have poured tens of millions into the contests, casting them as battles for the future of American democracy.
If only they could get voters to see it that way. Instead, voters remain focused on rising inflation, economic woes, education and other issues that are outside the purview of the official duties of a secretary of state. And while a vast majority of Americans view democracy as under threat, a striking few see it as a top issue..
Democrats are facing other challenges. Many of the candidates are relative unknowns, leaving their futures heavily dependent on what voters think of their party or the party’s high-profile candidates for Senate or governor.
The Democrats’ positions — promoting early voting options, including mail voting and protecting poll workers — are not headline-making policies. But Republicans’ denials of the 2020 election, murky statements about upholding future results or pledges to restrict voting to a single day grab the attention of both supporters and detractors.
Not gonna lie. Got a real bad feeling about this Election Day, Michael Moore’s optimism notwithstanding. Thinking of only writing about Delaware’s races until November 8…
EPA To Slash Emissions From Refrigerants:
“This is a really strong step forward,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a phone interview Thursday. Because the production and consumption of these powerful chemicals need to be phased down, Regan added that the Biden administration is pushing to create “the next generation of chemical compounds that don’t sacrifice the comforts or the needs that we have, but makes significant inroads in staving off the climate crisis while boosting American manufacturing.”
Curbing these super-pollutants, also known as HFCs, is a rare climate issue that has broad bipartisan support as well as buy-in from business and industry.
Conservative Super-Hero Brought Down By The Kryptonite Of–Scam Artists. Someone should make a movie about the planned making of this movie:
As The Daily Beast described it, the film Rebel’s Run was supposed to feature “the character Rebel fighting a global police force hunting down freethinking conservatives.” (Not sure what a “freethinking conservative” is, but I suppose it could refer to any congressional Republican who spits out their ball gag before Trump is through branding their backside.)
At any rate, the money Beale’s fans raised for their anti-woke Übermensch project has suddenly gone “poof”—and it almost certainly isn’t coming back. Why? Because instead of leveraging his fans’ contributions to secure a traditional bank loan, Beale consulted a charlatan. From the Daily Beast:
“Beale’s history of racism could have made it difficult for Rebel’s Run, which stars a character sometimes depicted in a Confederate flag bustier, to find traditional financing. He has claimed that certain races are more likely to commit violence and called one of his foes in the science-fiction dispute, a Black author, a “half-savage.” Beale has affiliated himself with the Gamergate movement, opposes women’s suffrage, and once described homosexuality as a “birth defect.”
Given that track record, he instead turned to Utah-based Ohana Capital Financial, a business aimed at customers that would struggle to get money elsewhere.
As Ohana’s promotional materials put it, according to prosecutors, the firm offered “banking [to] the unbankable.” On Nov. 5, 2020, Beale transferred the $1 million to Ohana to be held in escrow in advance of future film funding.” Oopsies
Read ‘the rest of the story’. Schadenfreude at its most delicious.
EPA Investigates Blatant Racism Behind Jackson’s Water Crisis. We’re talking Jackson, Mississippi, and it’s disgraceful what’s happened to the people who live there:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday that it is investigating whether Mississippi state agencies discriminated against the state’s majority-Black capital city by refusing to fund improvements for its failing water system.
Heavy rainfall in late August exacerbated problems at Jackson’s main water treatment facility. Republican Gov. Tate Reeves declared an emergency Aug. 29, and the state health department and the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency have been overseeing operations and repairs at the facility since then.
About 80% of Jackson’s 150,000 residents are Black, and about a quarter of the population lives in poverty. By the time Reeves issued the emergency order, Jackson residents had already been told for a month to boil their water to kill possible contaminants.
Reeves said Thursday that the state took control of Jackson’s water system because of “absolute and total incompetence” of Jackson’s Democratic mayor and administration. The governor’s latest remarks are an escalation of a dispute between him and Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba over whether the state or the city will decide on a private firm to operate Jackson’s water system.
In a federal complaint Sept. 27, the NAACP said Mississippi officials “all but assured” a drinking water calamity in Jackson by depriving the state’s majority-Black capital city of badly needed funds to upgrade its infrastructure. The organization asked the EPA to investigate the state’s alleged pattern of steering money to white communities with less need.
Environmental racism at its worst.
Paraquat Doesn’t Only Kill Marijuana, It Causes Parkinson’s. Something the manufacturer at least suspected, but went to great lengths to deny:
More than 8 million people globally suffer from what scientists see as the fastest growing neurological disorder in the world. And while scientists see multiple toxins as potential causes, one pesticide popular with farmers across the US has been prominently linked to the disease: a weedkiller called paraquat that has grown in use over recent decades.
The longtime manufacturer of paraquat, Syngenta AG, along with Chevron USA, the successor to a former US paraquat distributor, are now being sued by thousands of Parkinson’s sufferers. The plaintiffs claim scientific studies show that exposure to paraquat can cause, or significantly increase the risk of, Parkinson’s disease, but rather than warn users, the companies prioritized paraquat sales over human health.
Internal documents reviewed by the Guardian and the New Lede reveal that company insiders feared they could face legal liability for the long-term chronic effects of paraquat as long ago as 1975, and were preparing for legal defenses years before the lawsuits were filed.
So many people have recently filed legal claims alleging paraquat caused them to develop Parkinson’s that the cases have been consolidated for oversight by a federal judge in Illinois and a state court judge in California. The first trial over the allegations is scheduled for 27 February 2023.
It is not clear if the trial will actually take place, however. Last year, Syngenta paid $187.5m to settle many cases, according to a disclosure in the company’s 2021 financial statement.
Great reporting here. BTW, the marijuana reference? Read this, you’ll learn something. Yep, Nixon again.
Chemours ‘Greenwashes’ Its Reputation–With Congressional Delegation In Tow.
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