June 24 Open Thread: No Dinner For Sarah
Most people prefer simple narratives to complex ones, which is why Nicholas Sparks sells a lot more novels than, say, David Foster Wallace. It’s also why, amid the falling debris of Festung America, people have fastened onto the story of a small-town Virginia restaurant that refused service to Sarah Huckabee Sanders. The restaurant is in a small blue island in a deep red area of the state, and the owner was undecided what to do with the notorious celebrity in her midst, so put it to a staff vote, and she says she would do it again. “We just felt there are moments in time when people need to live their convictions. This appeared to be one.” Still, the restaurant was closed last night.
Is it wrong to refuse service to someone? Many are of the opinion that, because Sanders thinks it’s OK for a restaurant to refuse to serve a gay couple, turnabout is fair play.
The toxic-chemical report that the administration was suppressing finally came out, and the news is terrible for Chemours and Dow/DuPont, whichever entity is on the hook for PFOA liability: It concludes the chemical is potentially toxic at much lower levels than previously thought. So all the money Delaware gave Chemours tax breaks is going to go right out the window to pay off damage claims.
On the Russia front, Britain is finding that Putin’s minions were just as involved in the Brexit vote as they were in the U.S. presidential election. The two scandals even feature some of the same players.
This story will be familiar to Delawareans, but maybe it helps to know that white-flight charter schools for the rich is, sadly, a nationwide phenomenon.
Rather than suppress the report, I’m surprised the Trump administration didn’t just release a report declaring PFOA and PFOS’ to be good for you.
PFOA PFOS POS
In NJ, Chemours has been testing private wells in a 5 mile radius of Chambers Works for PFOA contamination. If the well tests positive, they install a filtration system to remove the contamination. They will maintain these filter systems at no cost to homeowners until such time that the wells test clean for 4 quarters.
@H: That’s all to the good, but PFOA is in the bloodstream of almost every human on earth. They found it in people who’ve never been outside Outer Mongolia.
The standards won’t be lowered under this administration, but scientific findings have a long shelf life. If the acceptable levels are lowered, the civil suits will proliferate like kudzu. As far as Chemours is concerned, if it’s not this legacy toxin it will be another that bankrupts it under damage awards.