appal_jack
appal_jack's JournalBeware the halogens:
Fluorine, Chlorine, and Bromine are nothing but trouble, except of course that they offer a devil's bargain of useful chemistry: teflon, gore tex, solvents, plastics, fire suppression chemicals, all sorts of drugs and biocides, etc.
Decades ago, I joined (in a very minor way) GreenPeace's efforts to ban chlorine chemistry from manufacturing and industry. At the time, most sensible people viewed the campaign as a madman's quest. However mad the idea may be, getting halogens out of our industrial ecology may be necessary for the sake of our food web, groundwater, and health.
k&r,
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An AWB will alienate many independent and even Democratic voters.
"Thoughts and prayers" are merely empty and vapid, whereas an Assault Weapons Ban will step on a right that many voters hold dear.
DiFi is not helping to keep Americans safe with this bill, nor is she helping Democratic candidates' chances in 2018.
I'm disappointed to see the list of cosponsors. I anticipate that many of them eyeing the Presidency will regret this move in 2020. Also, do they plan to renounce all police protection by any officers carrying said "Assault Weapons?" I didn't think so.
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How quickly you forget the Nader-hatred.
"anybody else go run in a Third Party?!"
Welcome to a permanent Democratic minority then.
The Democratic Party needs the time, effort, volunteer hours, donations, and passion of committed progressives. Yet they steadfastly refuse progressives' ideas, hopes, commitment to justice, and initiatives.
When Nader ran in 2000 as an independent, everything was his fault, because clearly Gore/Loserman had ironclad title to every voter to the left of Genghis Khan.
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And loyal Italians appreciated Mussolini's strict railroad schedule management, I'm sure.
Security theater and unconstitutional bullshit is still security theater and unconstitutional bullshit.
Your willingness to leave a pocket knife at home and otherwise accommodate creeping fascism while lecturing all of us about how it's not a bother at all is touching & heartwarming though.
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The fights over Trade Agreements, etc. indicate otherwise.
I'd be happy to consign Penn to the dustbin, but his influence still leaves a mark. True closure on his influence would be shown by advocating for unions and environmental groups to have a seat at the table during the very beginning of future trade agreement negotiations, further protections we lost when Glass-Steagal was repealed, an end to all private prisons, a complete cessation of the War on (some) Drugs coupled with a comprehensive tackling of addiction as a public health crisis, robust citizen oversight of police departments, true public infrastructure projects, and single payer health care.
This is low-hanging fruit that the Democratic base wants and the national Party should seize. The influence of Penn and his ilk are the only logical reason why it is not happening yet.
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Charlie Pierce calls-out Mark Penn (& Clintonism)
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a56163/mark-penn-democrats/--------------------------------
There's another recent addition to the list of Questions No Sensible Person Would Ask, thanks to the Thursday edition of The New York Times.
"What's Mark Penn Thinking About Things These Days?"
In his latest iteration of his life's creative work, tentatively entitled Searching for Sister Souljah, Penn demonstrates the timely grasp of the political zeitgeist that enabled him to lead Hillary Rodham Clinton to the presidency in 2008. No kidding. If this guy gets within 10 city blocks of your campaign headquarters, call the local hazardous waste unit immediately. Call the guys who pull pythons out of the plumbing in Florida. Call the River Monsters dude. Anything to keep this walking pile of terrible advice at a safe distance. Mark Penn's counsel should never be taken internally.
(snip - lots of quotes from Penn showing him to be Republican-lite at best, and batshit racist barking corporatist mad overall)
Finally, proof positive that Penn fell unconscious during 1993 and never woke up. He missed the battle over the stimulus plan in 2009, and that was at the tail end of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. He missed eight years of nearly unlimited obstruction. The "issue" has been hijacked by the president*, but the policy hasn't been. He has proposed nothing, and the budget proposed by both his administration and the Republican congress goes backwards on this issue.
Come to think of it, Barack Obama's presidency doesn't figure into Penn's calculations at all. That can't be an accident. There's more code in this column than you would have found in Los Alamos in 1945. All of the issues that Penn advises the Democrats avoid also happen to be issues of significant importance to the most reliable Democratic voters of all: African Americans-and other minorities, women, and all the combinations thereof.
Mark Penn had his Sister Souljah moment. He never got over it.
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Pierce does a good job of showing how the DINO-corporatist wing of the political consultant class intends to continue to take the Democratic base for granted, thus further eroding Democrats' chances of electoral gains and true policy progress. Penn & his ilk should crawl under a rock in shame.
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Bigoted Homophobe Steve Scalise's Life Was Saved by a Queer Black Woman
Steve Scalise, the House Majority Whip who was shot by a gunman who attacked a congressional baseball practice on Wednesday, has kept company with racists. He was forced to apologize for speaking at an international conference of white supremacists, and reportedly referred to himself as “David Duke without the baggage.” Following Scalise’s shooting, Duke praised him for “defending white civil rights.”
Scalise has also been described as one of the most anti-LGBTQ politicians in Washington. He’s voted against LBGTQ rights over and over again. He also authored Louisiana’s ban on same-sex marriage. Like many of his ilk, he said he was only trying to protect “traditional” marriage.
So it is a point of especially delicious irony that Scalise, who survived the attack (and is reportedly in critical condition), may owe his life to a queer black woman.
Crystal Griner, a Capitol Police officer, was one of two special agents on Scalise’s security detail yesterday who helped take down shooter John Hodgkinson. People at the scene said that the two officers prevented an all-out “massacre” on the field that day, engaging in a firefight with Hodgkinson before killing him.
A few more biographical bits about Griner at the source, along with this excellent photo from her college basketball days:
https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--k6sLwFw8--/c_scale,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/t0bzmbaxzuhckgmfcdei.png
Both wounded officers, Griner & Bailey, are African American. They acted as professionally and courageously as possible by engaging and overcoming a rifle-wielding murderer with only their service pistols.
Steve Scalise will hopefully fully recover, and then learn from this experience. Hopefully, he will work to undo some of the harm of his past bigotry.
Source: http://fusion.kinja.com/bigoted-homophobe-steve-scalises-life-was-saved-by-a-qu-1796135276
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Obama had his chance to shape the TPP into a truly progressive agreement, but failed.
Or maybe Obama did exactly what he intended: say that the TPP would protect US workers and the environment, while negotiating an agreement that would do anything but that (just like all the other trade agreements negotiated before then under Obama: S. Korea, etc.). Either way, the duplicity about the TPP helped fuel Trump's fake populism, which is a shame.
Regardless, why did the US trade negotiator under Obama not push for enforceable worker and environmental standards? Why have private courts open to investors, but closed to workers, unions, and environmental advocates? Obama was not right about the TPP, and his failure on this front, plus the choices made in pursuit of the TPP contributed to the Republican now in the White House.
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Is anyone else worried about this Shrubya appointee?
I've heard how serious he is, a dedicated professional, yada yada yada. But remember when he was appointed? (September 4, 2001 I believe) And by whom? (George Dubya B*sh)
Look, I don't want to derail this conversation into Creative Speculation territory, but is a Republican-appointed law officer really who we want on this job? And not just any Republican, but the administration that lied us into a $1 Trillion war of choice that exacerbated just about every situation across the Middle East?
Plus, yes, we should talk about Mueller's role in the official 9/11 conspiracy theory that 19 guys with box cutters were able to defeat all North American Air Defenses for a period of hours, such that the asymmetric forces of two passenger jets hitting two buildings somehow managed to collapse THREE buildings (WTC 1, WTC 2, & WTC 7) neatly into their own footprints.
Flame away if you'd like, but I am not optimistic.
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I will only support pro-choice candidates, and Bernie should do the same.
I guess I was/am what some DU'ers would call a "Sandernista," and sure, I'll wear the mantle on a lot of issues and a lot of the time. But endorsing Mello was a dumb move, Sanders. My stand with Bernie is significantly predicated on him standing for the absolute right for women to make choices about their reproductive and sexual lives without undue government interference.
Fetal ultrasound image bills such as the one Mello sponsored (!) explicitly violate both 1st Amendment (i.e.- no to mandated speech) and 4th Amendment (i.e.- yes to privacy) Constitutional guarantees. I have no use for any politician willing to shred the Constitution in this manner.
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Member since: Wed Aug 11, 2004, 06:57 PM
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