Stephan: The House under Democratic control is focusing on anti-corruption; The Senate controlled by the Republicans with support from compliant Democrats, is focused on protecting Israel from boycotts. Can there be a clearer illustration of the difference between old and new politics?
When each new Congress is gaveled into session, the chambers attach symbolic importance to the first piece of legislation to be considered. For that reason, it bears the lofty designation of H.R.1 in the House and S.1 in the Senate.
In the newly controlled Democratic House, H.R.1 — meant to signal the new majority’s priorities — is an anti-corruption bill that combines election and campaign finance reform, strengthening of voting rights, and matching public funds for small-dollar candidates. In the 2017 Senate, the GOP-controlled S.1 was a bill, called the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act,” that, among other provisions, cut various forms of corporate taxes.
But in the 2019 GOP-controlled Senate, the first bill to be considered — S.1 — is not designed to protect American workers, bolster U.S. companies, or address the various debates over border security and immigration. It’s not a bill to open the government. Instead, according to multiple sources involved in the legislative process, S.1 will be a compendium containing a handful of foreign policy-related measures, the main one of which is a provision — with Florida’s GOP Sen. Marco Rubio as a lead sponsor — to defend the Israeli government. The bill is a top legislative priority for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
In […]
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Wednesday, January 9th, 2019
Stephan: Do you know that carbon emissions are a cause of climate change? Do you know that if we want to affect the intensity of climate change we must limit carbon emissions? Yeah, most people who live in a fact-based reality know that too. So why, as Donald Trump is president, are carbon emissions going up?
Direct emissions from residential and commercial buildings increased by an estimated 10 percent in 2018 to their highest level since 2004.
Credit: Jeffery Neckel / EyeEm / Getty
Carbon emissions in the U.S. experienced a sharp upswing in 2018, despite a record number of coal-fired power plant closings, according to new data. (emphasis added) An analysis released by the research firm Rhodium Group Tuesday shows that emissions rose by 3.4 percent last year—the second-largest gain in more than twenty years.
The analysis also found that emissions from industrial manufacturing rose 5.7 percent, while transportation emissions rose 1 percent. The analysis describes these as industries “most often ignored in clean energy and climate policymaking” and significant drivers in the increase. “The big takeaway for me is that we haven’t yet successfully decoupled U.S. emissions growth from economic growth,” Rhodium analyst Trevor Houser told The New York Times.
As reported by The Washington Post:
“The latest growth makes it increasingly unlikely that the United States will achieve a pledge made by the Obama administration in […]
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Tuesday, January 8th, 2019
John F. Harris, Editor-in-Chief - Politico Magazine
Stephan: I consider Jerry Brown to be the best elected executive in the country. Not a perfect man, nor a perfect governor, but the best elected official. When you think about Sam Brownback, Scott Walker, Rick Scott, or Donald Trump it's not a hard call.
Brown has been looking at how government operates for most of his adult life, and his father was governor as well. So he benefits from two generations of experience. Here is his outgoing interview, as he retires from elective life. I think he says some very important things that we ought to be listening to.
Jerry Brown
Stephen Lam/Getty
SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA —Nearly a half-century on the national stage surely entitles a leader to some valedictory words, and if Jerry Brown were a conventional politician one could easily imagine what those words might be:
Though the sun is setting on my time of public service, it will always be rising for this great state et cetera, et cetera, and though we face daunting challenges let me assure you that I have never been more optimistic about the endless promise of blah, blah, blah.
But if Jerry Brown were a conventional politician he would never have been on the national stage for a half-century. He would have been shooed off it several decades ago, to a chorus of mockery about his supposedly eccentric style and mournful commentary about faded promise and what might have been.
Instead, at age 80, Brown is leaving the governorship of the nation’s largest state in a few hours, at noon on Monday. If this departure seems a bit reluctant—he pauses slightly, before […]
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Tuesday, January 8th, 2019
Joe Romm, - Think Progress
Stephan: Trump and the Republicans don't care a whit about you or your kids, or your grandma. When it comes to choosing between profit or your wellbeing, sorry, Charley, your wellbeing just doesn't matter. Am I exaggerating? Can what I am saying possibly be true? Is there any real data to support my assertion? Read this and reach your own conclusion.
Just south of Charleston a coal barge travels up the Kanawha River, passing the Dupont chemical plant.
Credit: Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis/Getty
Apparently all American children have been bad this year, since the Trump administration has given them a huge lump of coal for Christmas.
On Friday, the Trump administration proposed a new rule that would boost coal-plant emissions of mercury, arsenic, and toxic air pollution.
The proposal would gut the EPA’s Mercury and Air Toxics Standards — an Obama-era rule — by barring the EPA from including any of the so-called “co-benefits” from the mercury standards that don’t directly come from cutting mercury.
Reducing mercury — a dangerous neurotoxin — simultaneously reduces many other toxic coal pollutants, thereby preventing up to 11,000 premature deaths and 130,000 asthma attacks yearly, while delivering total annual health benefits of up to $90 billion.
This new strategy would mean the EPA would have to ignore all of those co-benefits in defending the mercury standards, which would open them to serious court challenges from the coal industry.
It would also mean future EPA […]
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