Trump Supporters Post Names And Addresses Of Prosecutors. Trump also posted Obama’s home address. On cue, whack-job showed up near there with weapons. That can’t be legal, can it?:
Individual prosecutors involved in the classified documents case against former president Donald Trump are facing substantial harassment and threats online and elsewhere, according to extremism experts and a government official familiar with the matter.
Still, experts say they frequently observe violent rhetoric targeting people who are blamed for undermining the former president — not just prosecutors involved in the criminal investigations surrounding Trump but also swing-state election workers refuting false claims of voter fraud.
Far-right Trump supporters are posting the names of prosecutors and government workers online and yelling them at demonstrations, threatening them and sometimes revealing details about their personal lives, the experts said.
At the Justice Department, officials have responded by trying to keep the names of prosecutors and agents working the Trump cases from becoming public in official documents, congressional hearings and less formal conversations about the case.
That’s a tricky task, given that prosecutors’ names are listed in public court filings, and their names and information about witnesses are accessible to Trump as a defendant in the case. The former president has written social media posts directly attacking people involved in investigating him, including special counsel Jack Smith and the New York state judge handling a separate criminal indictment against Trump.
Cartoon By Clay Jones
Iowa’s Rethug Governor Doubles Down On Abortion Ban.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) is calling the legislature back for a special session next week to pass abortion restrictions after the state Supreme Court deadlocked on a six-week ban last month, keeping the procedure legal in the state.
Reynolds mentions the deadlock specifically in a Wednesday statement.
“This lack of action disregards the will of Iowa voters and lawmakers who will not rest until the unborn are protected by law,” she said, using anti-abortion rhetoric.
Per a Des Moines Register poll published earlier this year, 61 percent of Iowans think abortion should be legal in all or most cases, compared to the 35 percent who think it should be illegal in all or most cases.
Still, Republicans enjoy a majority in the state House and a supermajority in the state Senate, making the passage of further abortion restrictions likely.
The Democratic Party has been moribund in Iowa recently. On merit. Perhaps this will roust the party from its torpor.
EPA Punts On ‘Cancer Alley’ Litigation. Due to ‘Republican pressure’. How about, I don’t know, doubling down against Republican pressure?:
This week, the EPA abruptly terminated three of its highest-profile open civil rights complaints. The move deals a major blow not only to the majority-Black communities that filed them but also to the EPA’s own authority to enforce Title VI in places with some of the nation’s worst air quality. The cases originated in the region widely known as “Cancer Alley,” an 85-mile industrial corridor in southeast Louisiana, and were voluntarily closed after the state’s Republican attorney general sued the federal government for alleged abuses of power during the complaint negotiations.
The draft agreements that Grist obtained include sweeping measures to change the way the state of Louisiana approves new industrial facilities, like folding community involvement into critical moments of the decision-making process and requiring officials to prove, both before and after plants begin operating, that their emissions will not disproportionately harm people of color. In Louisiana, majority-Black communities are exposed to at least 7 times the emissions, on average, as predominantly White communities in industrial areas.
Despite progress with the agreements, testimony in Louisiana’s legal filings suggests that, at some point during the negotiation process, things between state and federal officials began to sour. Then, in late May, the state’s attorney general, Jeff Landry, sued the EPA.
And the EPA folded. Uh, why?
Speaking of environmental agencies folding, have we mentioned DNREC lately? Well, yes, they’ve folded on the Port Of Wilmington deal. Over And Over Again:
Although the terminal has yet to be designed, the port corporation has crossed a few hurdles, including getting needed permits from the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control.
The project still faces challenges from competing ports upriver and communities groups concerned about the project’s impact on the environment and their quality of life.
The Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control received around 200 letters from the public regarding the permits sought for the Edgemoor project. Many of them raised concerns about the project’s impact on water quality, aquatic life, traffic and air emissions.
An environmental assessment conducted for DNREC acknowledged that greenhouse gases would be emitted during construction and contribute to climate change. It mitigated other concerns such as those around recreation and noted that a positive indirect impact of dredging up to 45 feet in the Delaware River would be the removal of PCBs and “substances of concern.” (Or, it could further release said carcinogens into the river.)
Guess what? State regulations make it almost impossible for communities to raise concerns:
Jeffrey Richardson, chair of the Delaware Community Benefits Agreement Coalition, is looking for better answers from the state. His group wants a “community benefits agreement” with the state and the port operators — essentially, a contract that would require certain environmental standards to be met.
But Richardson feels the strength of his community coalition, which includes nine community groups, has been weakened by the state’s procedural rules that community groups must have legal counsel to appeal a DNREC permit.
Richardson claims that this requirement to secure counsel went directly against DNREC’s mission to procure public opinion and participation.
“The fact that we were pressed to get an attorney puts an inordinate amount of pressure on community organizations,” Richardson stated before DNREC’s Environmental Appeals Board, per a hearing transcript. “It’s unfair.”
Of course it’s unfair, exactly as intended. When the Governor, who is doltishly doubling down on this project, appoints the so-called environmental officials, DNREC becomes a subsidiary of the Governor’s obsession. Remember, kids, what Carney has always emphasized as the number one non-negotiable for his crew: Team players. The people dealing with those toxins in Edgemoor are not on Carney’s team.
Thinking Of Moving To Texas? Think Again. Don’t need to say anything more. Except read the article.
What do you want to talk about?