DL Open Thread: Sunday, Feb. 5, 2022

Deference to an octogenarian?  The people say no. The Democratic Party says yes.  This will not end well.  For the people or the Party.  Biden needs to be Feinsteined.

The New D Presidential Primary Calendar?  Not Settled Yet. Not By A Long Shot.  There are pesky state laws to be dealt with.

Family Of Trump Supporters Kills Themselves.  They were despondent over his loss:

A Pennsylvania family found shot dead in their backyard last week in what police say appears to be a suicide pact, included a mother and daughter who loved bowling and were devout Christian conservatives, people who knew them said.

Stabley said the Christian, churchgoing family “was never shy about letting anybody know what their beliefs were” when it came to religion and politics. Morgan and Deborah “very, very huge” supporters of former President Donald Trump, Stabley said.

“They were just so hell-bent on Trump winning, like this could be in the end if he doesn’t,” Stabley said, referring to an instance when he saw them just before the 2020 election. He said he stopped seeing the two after that.

A neighbor, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of personal or professional retaliation in their town, said the family had a “preoccupation with religion, especially on the dad’s part.” The family’s front yard was also “littered” with Pro-Trump political signs during the elections, and anti-abortion signs when Roe v. Wade was overturned, the neighbor said.

‘Forever Chemicals’ Destroy Wisconsin Small Town.  In the form of firefighting foam.

Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, or DNR, employees spoke at length about new data from water testing, but, without clear guidance from both the state and the federal government, and the mounting costs of providing alternative drinking water, officials’ hands are tied. Boyle, the town supervisor, said the DNR was doing everything in their limited power to help, but the company responsible is “uncooperative.”

Residents in Peshtigo are exposed to dangerously high levels of a group of toxins known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, in their groundwater, the source of their drinking water. PFAS are called “forever chemicals” because they are hard to break down in the environment. They’re also linked to high blood pressure in middle-aged women and stunted developmental growth in children, as well as kidney and testicular cancers.

In 2017, the state learned that Tyco, a subsidiary of global chemical conglomerate Johnson Controls International and one of the largest employers in the region, had been discharging PFAS into local streams and ditches in the region. According to state records, Tyco knew about these elevated levels at least four years earlier and failed to warn residents. “This community has not been treated fairly,” Boyle told Grist.

The pollution stems from Tyco’s operations at a fire testing center that operated from the 1960s to 2017. This facility is located on the southern edge of the city of Marinette, roughly a mile from the town of Peshtigo.

Can, Should, American Christianity Be Revived?  You read. You decide:

Why should anyone besides Christians like me care whether the Church revives? Many Americans would say the fate of the Church is inconsequential to them. Others want very much to see the Church continue to shrink. I believe both attitudes are mistaken.

Many secular social theorists—including ​​Émile Durkheim and Jonathan Haidt, to name two—show how religion makes contributions to society that cannot be readily supplied by other sources. Cultural unity, Durkheim argued in the 1890s, requires a “conscience collective,” a set of shared moral norms that bind us together in a sustained way. These norms are understood to be grounded in something sacred and transcendent, not created by culture. Durkheim recognized the difficulties secular cultures have in cultivating moral beliefs that are strong and unquestionable enough to unite people.

Dover Rethugs, ‘Doctor’ Mark Brainard, Go At It In Del-Tech JFC Hearing.  If only I’d known, this would have been ‘must-viewing’:

The college’s lone request was $932,000 to continue implementation of its compensation stabilization plan, launched at the start of fiscal year ’22. The funds help increase faculty salaries to compete with those of local public schools, an initiative that began in response to survey data showing that, out of the state’s 19 public school districts, the average salaries of DelTech educators would rank 15th.

During Thursday’s meeting, Dr. Brainard said the college was able to get to the “middle of the pack” last year, but upcoming salary increases for public school educators outlined in Gov. John Carney’s recommended budget would “drop us back to the bottom.”

“We’re going to ask if this committee would consider looking at our employee compensation plan to see if we can keep that average number back up toward the middle of the K-12 school districts, so we can remain competitive,” he said.

What do you want to talk about?