DL Open Thread Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024

For months, the war in Ukraine has been pushed to the media back burner, where slow Russians gains provided grist for the “Surrender Dorothy Ukraine” crowd’s ever-grinding mill. Millions of pixels were devoted to experts explaining how things would play out. And I’m pretty sure exactly zero (0) of those experts predicted Ukraine would invade Russian territory, let alone rapidly advance through its tissue-thin defenses. I confess I follow developments only sporadically; I find the best place to catch up is Daily Kos, where several obsessives post diaries with dozens of links and drone videos. “Russian Stuff Blowing Up”, which appears daily, is a good example. Others offer analysis deeper than anything I’ve seen in mainstream media.

The Democrats’ good luck streak continues: An initiative to add abortion rights to Arizona’s state constitution will be on the ballot in November. The state has polled purple despite the GOP ticket being headed by loonball Kari Lake.

Republican hypocrisy isn’t exactly news, but this story about JD Vance’s produce-growing startup in eastern Kentucky, AppHarvest, provides a particularly juicy example. The company said it would hire locals to staff its enormous greenhouse operations, but working long hours in triple-digit temperatures and high humidity caused many cases of heat stroke. As the company lost money and budgets tightened, workers left, so management contracted to employ Mexicans and Guatemalans in their stead. Yeah, I know you’re aware that American businesses do this all the time, but it helps to put a villainous face on the practice. Naturally, Vance was gone from AppHarvest’s board, though he still had money invested, when it declared bankruptcy.

Here’s an interesting article on the lengths Big Oil will go to to convince politicians the public doesn’t care about climate change. This includes hiring actors to speak in favor of fossil fuel companies at public comment sessions. What, you though Trump had an original idea when he pulled that stunt?

If we ever do have a civil war, I know which side the Air Force will back, and it ain’t ours. Its academy is run by Christianist zealots, and it’s already in rebellion against the Environmental Protection Agency. Several air bases around Tucson have contaminated drinking water with forever chemicals that the EPA ordered the Air Force to clean up. It responded that the Supreme Court’s recent overturning of the Chevron Doctrine means “I don’t have to and you can’t make me.” I think the Commander in Chief should look into this between ordering up new arms shipments to Israel.

Voldemort Batboy, aka Florida Sen. Rick Scott, appears to be worried about his re-election chances. His popularity with Florida voters is under deeper water than the streets of Miami (36% favorable, 51% unfavorable), prompting him to give his campaign $1 million of his own money – a drop in Lake Okeechobee next to the $150 million he spent to buy the governor’s mansion and his Senate seat. How did he get all that money? By running a health care empire that was found guilty of cheating Medicare out of $3 billion. Tell me again how Trump is different from other Republicans.

The floor’s yours.