On April 29, former Wall Street Journal columnist and longtime climate denier Bret Stephens published his first column, “Climate of Complete Certainty,” for The New York Times. The column wasroundlycriticized for being full of errors, “unfair comparisons,” “straw men,” “logical fallacies,” and “lazy” and “disingenuous” arguments. Notably, in the one instance where Stephens actually quoted data to make an assertion, the Times was forced to issue a correction, clarifying, “An earlier version of this article misstated the area that warmed by 0.85 degrees Celsius as noted in the 2014 Intergovernmental Panel report. It was the globally averaged combined land and ocean surface, not only the Northern Hemisphere.”
Now climate experts have issued an open letter calling for the Times to publish a more substantial correction. It notes that Stephens inaccurately and misleadingly uses the term “modest” to describe the rise in temperatures since 1880, cherry-picks “only one side of the range of uncertainties” associated with climate projections, and “mischaracterizes both the certainties and uncertainties regarding climate change, and misrepresents how science reports uncertainties.”
The letter also invites scientists to add their names to the letter and urges concerned members of the public to sign a petition calling on the Times to stop publishing climate science misinformation.
The Times has continued to vigorously defend their new columnist. While the paper’s public editor groused that one email, from a climate scientist, “went on for many paragraphs challenging Stephen’s ‘fallacious and misleading argument,’” that public editor did not mention whether the paragraphs contained valid factual corrections of Stephen’s error-riddled piece, instead declaring that the paper’s readers “face the serious test of whether they can show tolerance for views they don’t like.”
At Daily Kos on this date in 2010—NYT: 1990 law limits BP's damage liability to $75 million:
According to Wald's report, there have been 51 instances in which damages under the $75 million liability cap has been exceeded. That figure will certainly be exceeded with BP's Deepwater Horizon spill. Up to $1 billion from the fund can be used for any single accident, but in this case, $1 billion is likely to be peanuts.
In other words, it was a pretty sweet deal for oil companies: they agreed to a tiny tax which they can pass on to consumers, and in exchange their liability is limited to $75 million. Because they can pass the oil tax along to consumers, it's like they got the liability caps for free.
On today's Kagro in the Morning show, Greg Dworkin, Joan McCarter, and Andrew Jackson carry us through the morning, and the Civil War. Updates on Trumpcare 3.1 & the CR. Republicans gleefully step up to play scumbag role, pushing back on Jimmy Kimmel’s disgusting socialist baby.
Haitian refugees receive legal assistance during TPS clinic, 2010
Haitian refugees receive legal assistance during TPS clinic, 2010
Tens of thousands of Haitian refugees who have been granted temporary permission to live in the U.S. following devastating natural disasters in Haiti may face deportation if the Trump administration declines to extend their status. “The TPS program gives temporary immigration status to foreign nationals living in the United States who cannot go back home because of war, natural disasters, or other extraordinary circumstances that make it too dangerous or difficult to return,” notes Think Progress. The Obama administration had renewed this status three times, but James McCament, acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, has “recommended against doing so,” arguing “that conditions have improved enough for Haitians to return:”
The facts on the ground say otherwise, however. Haiti has only made some recovery efforts since the 2010 earthquake which killed 9,200 people. But hundreds of thousands of people there are still homeless after the disaster leveled buildings and displaced 1.5 million people. In 2016,Hurricane Matthewagain rocked the country — damaging infrastructure, claiming more than 1,000 lives, and leading to a clean-up effort that introduced cholera, which then killed more than9,000 people.
TheCongressional Black Caucushas urged U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly to extend TPS for current Haitians, pointing to the continued lack of food security after Hurricane Matthew uprooted trees, eroded topsoil, and destroyed necessary agricultural equipment and seeds in the country’s richest agricultural regions.
“The bottom line is that conditions in Haiti have not improved to an extent that would remotely justify the end of TPS,” said Benjamin Johnson, president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. “The elimination of TPS for Haiti will not only create immense hardships for close to 47,000 Haitian individuals who have lived in the United States under the protection of this program for more than 7 years, it will also impact their children, many of whom are U.S. citizens, and their families back home, who rely on remittances for their basic needs.”
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities takes a deep look into the Republican talking points’ big lie about how Zombie Trumpcare would give states more flexibility. Two states in particular would be punished for the health care decisions they've made law: New York and California. But since they're blue states, Republicans apparently don't count them.
Nearly a million people in these states would be unable to keep the tax credits for their current plans, and hundreds of thousands more could be forced to choose between paying full price to enroll in the plan that best meets their needs or claiming tax credits for a plan with a less appropriate network, cost sharing, or other features.
That’s because the Republican plan prohibits individuals from using their subsidies to pay for plans that cover abortions (unless such coverage is limited to abortions following rape or incest, or abortions that are necessary to save the woman’s life). California and New York both require insurance plans to include abortion coverage. […]
This restriction would mean that people eligible for tax credits wouldn’t be able to use them for most plans currently offered in New York and California’s insurance markets. In New York, the restriction could eliminate a dozen issuers from subsidy eligibility, to the benefit of one insurer in the state that denies abortion coverage (because it qualifies for a religious exemption from the abortion-coverage requirement).
Rep. Dan Donovan, a Republican from New York, talked about this problem with Chris Hayes last week, citing it as one of his key concerns with the bill. Hayes asked, rhetorically, "How is any Republican in California and New York going to vote for this thing?" That remains a really good question.
If you have a Republican representative and live in California or New York, you should call them up and ask them just that.
House Republicans are hell-bent on ripping away our health insurance. Call your member of Congress at 202-224-3121, and demand they vote NO on a renewed Trumpcare that is worse than the one before. Remind them they work for you.
Donald Trump has thankfully been dealt setback after setback when it comes to his failed Muslim bans, border wall that Mexico was supposed to pay for, and ongoing failure to repeal the popular Affordable Care Act, all thanks to people power and the courts. But as the Washington Post notes, “one strategy that seems to be working well is fear,” particularly when it comes to immigration. Fear has been a feature—not a bug—of this administration:
“The bottom line is that they have entirely changed the narrative around immigration,” said Doris Meissner, who served as the commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service in the Clinton administration. “The result of that is that, yes, you can call it words and rhetoric, and it certainly is, but it is changing behavior. It is changing the way the United States is viewed around the world, as well as the way we’re talking about and reacting to immigration within the country.”
According to the Washington Post, “the number of apprehensions made by Customs and Border Patrol agentsplummetedfrom more than 40,000 per month at the end of 2016 to just 12,193 in March.” For the most part, that’s actually attributed to the previous administration—“the federal government already spends more on immigration enforcement than all other federal law enforcement efforts combined,” with the undocumented immigrant population staying stable for nearly a decade now —but there’s no doubt that Trump’s racist, hateful rhetoric and unshackled deportation force are also having an effect.
Rule No. 1 of modern politics: Never, ever mess with the trackers—a rule that Pennsylvania state Sen. Scott Wagner just threw out the window. On Tuesday, Wagner, a wealthy trash magnate who is hoping for the GOP nod against Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf next year, interrupted his own speech at a country club luncheon to forcibly seize a video camera from a tracker employed by American Bridge, a Democratic opposition research group that specializes in exactly this sort of bird-dogging.
Of course, the incident was caught on camera, which stopped recording after Wagner confiscated it. Shortly thereafter, the tracker began recording on his cell phone and asked for his equipment back. In this second video, Wagner repeatedly insists the tracker is on "private property" and is then seen aggressively reaching for the tracker's phone, which abruptly goes blurry for a moment. At that point, the tracker says, "You're assaulting me, sir." Wagner barks back, "No, I didn't assault you." The tracker continues to seek his camera and holds up a bloody finger, apparently the result of Wagner's violence.
The tracker did ultimately get his equipment back after getting ejected from the club, though without his memory card. (Joke's on Wagner, though: The camera was also recording to its own built-in storage.) Police were called to the scene, but apparently no charges were filed. Wagner was completely unapologetic, saying afterward, "Let's go to court."
That … might not be the best approach. In 2010, Democratic Rep. Bob Etheridge of North Carolina similarly assaulted a tracker (who'd been much more aggressive; the American Bridge guy was just standing quietly in the back of a large ballroom) and suffered badly when video of the incident went viral. Etheridge went on to lose to tea party flotsam Renee Ellmers by less than 1 point that November.
If your opponents have sent an intern armed with a video camera to follow your every public appearance, it's a compliment! It means they're taking you seriously. It also means you have to get used to this new reality, because beating up on a kid with a camera is never a good look.
Hang on just a sec … the local police chief is now saying that the matter is under active investigation. Whatever the outcome, anything that keeps this in the news is not good for Wagner.
“Forcing a vote without a CBO score shows that Republicans are terrified of the public learning the full consequences of their plan to push Americans with pre-existing conditions into the cold. But tomorrow, House Republicans are going to tattoo this moral monstrosity to their foreheads, and the American people will hold them accountable.”
House Republicans are hell-bent on ripping away our health insurance. Call your member of Congress at 202-224-3121, and demand they vote NO on a renewed Trumpcare that is worse than the one before. Remind them they work for you.
Some other reactions this evening:
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HILL SOURCE: They're still short the votes, but will twist arms and break kneecaps tonight. Calls now and tomorrow morning are CRITICAL.
Unfortunately for House GOP 2018 prospects, those of us whoâÂÂll get the tax cuts have a lot fewer votes than those whoâÂÂll lose their Medicaid https://t.co/RxQEwMRzO6
His 107-day absence, friends say, is the longest stretch he has spent outside of New York since he was born in Queens in 1946.
Yet the President isn't returning for long. He is scheduled to meet Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who will join Trump at the 75th Anniversary of the Battle of the Coral Sea aboard the USS Intrepid, the aircraft carrier-turned-museum parked along Manhattan's West Side.
Friends close to Trump and former campaign advisers tell CNN the homecoming could be clarifying for the President, a one-time New York standard whose name is plastered around Manhattan -- usually in gold. Some acknowledged his loneliness and longing for New York.
According to CNN, he’s speaking on the USS Intrepid and then flying off, likely fearful of the crowds that would gather near his wife and son’s home in Trump Tower.
Nearly 20 advocates were arrested in Hartford, Connecticut during a demonstration in support of Luis Barrios, yet another “bad hombre” with no criminal record that has been targeted and swept up by Donald Trump’s mass deportation force:
"Luis' family is bracing for the impact of having their father torn away from them," said Natalie Alexander, a protester from New Haven who was the first to be walked by police into a prisoner transport van. "He is their sole breadwinner. To me it is the moment to demonstrate with our bodies that a system may be legal, but that does not mean it is moral."
Protesters gathered at about noon and some began blocking access to the building, where the state's federal immigration office is located, soon after. The remainder held signs and chanted "Let Luis stay!" and "Not one more deportation!"
Police warned protesters they'd be arrested if they continued to block access to the building, and spoke with organizers, but after about an hour, and when it was clear the protesters were staying, officers began making arrests.
Barrios, a dad of four U.S. citizen kids, is a prime example of the cruelty of Trump’s mass deportation dragnet. Luis had regularly been checking in with ICE since 2011, when he got pulled over for a broken tail light and was turned over to federal immigration authorities. Each year, Barrios had been “granted a stay of removal that has been renewed.” That is, “until now.” Yes, for undocumented immigrants, getting pulled over for a traffic stop can ultimately mean getting torn from their homes, no matter how long they’ve lived here and how much they’ve invested into this nation.
Americans' confidence in the economy hit a nine-year high of +14 in late January according to Gallup just as Donald Trump took office. It quickly retreated then spiked again at +16 in early March only to drop off once more. Yet all that optimism isn't turning into increased sales for big-ticket items like automobiles, nor is it translating into jobs for the auto industry. The New York Timeswrites:
On Tuesday, automakers reported the fourth straight monthly retreat in sales of new cars and light trucks, the longest stretch of declines since 2009, when the industry was embroiled in crisis and bankruptcies. The slump underscores the view of many that auto sales have peaked and are set to trend downward. [...]
Moreover, the top six automakers in the American market all reported declines from their April sales a year ago, and in every case the falloff exceeded analysts’ forecasts.
Adam Silverleib, vice president of a Massachusetts Honda dealership, told the Times that all that Trump-induced confidence “hasn’t translated into what’s happening in dealerships where we’re trying to sell cars.” As a result, several General Motors plants are expected to either lay off or cut shifts for some 4,000 workers in the coming months.
Overall, auto analysts are predicting only a mild decline in 2017 sales to 17.2 million down from a record-high 17.5 million in 2016. However, they say the decline could be worse in years to come. And cars aren't the only products that are failing to get a bump from Trump’s magic.
Now consumers seem to be holding off on spending more broadly — not just on cars, but on other big-ticket items, a primary factor in the economy’s tepid first-quarter performance.
According to a report from ProPublica, Julie Kirchner, the former executive director of an anti-immigrant hate group, has been tapped to serveas the new ombudsman of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, meaning she’s tasked with providing “assistance to immigrants who run into trouble with the agency, such as immigration applications that take too long to process or applications that may have been improperly rejected.” Seriously, what could ever go wrong here?
As the nation’s immigration agency, USCIS handles a wide range of legal immigration matters, including applications for citizenship and green cards. The agency can also grant legal status to those in extreme circumstances, such as refugees and asylum seekers. In addition, the agency is in charge of adjudicating applications from undocumented immigrants who were brought to the country illegally as children, sometimes referred to as “dreamers” or DACA recipients.
In other words, this is a paper-pushing, application-processing agency. It’s not supposed to be political, but good god, Kirchner’s appointment makes it exactly that—and more. Just look at her group’s record.
Republican leaders have called a vote on a plan to replace the health care law, signaling surging confidence that they're on the cusp of earning enough support to pass it. Though it's still unclear if House Speaker Ryan and his team have commitments from the 216 members necessary to pass the bill, scheduling a vote suggests they believe they're closer than ever.
Closer than ever means just that; while whip counts currently show the vote failing by a handful of votes, Ryan and the rest of the Republican leadership clearly think they will be able to wrangle the additional needed votes for this new, worse version of the bill between now and tomorrow.
The Republican effort is still projected to send premiums for many groups of patients skyrocketing, and it guts a host of key protections for Americans with preexisting conditions. They’re hurrying the vote through before the Congressional Budget Office has a chance to produce revised numbers for just how much it will cost or how many Americans will lose coverage because of it.
If it passes, House Republicans will pass the mess to a Senate.
House Republicans are hell-bent on ripping away our health insurance. Call your member of Congress at 202-224-3121, and demand they vote NO on a renewed Trumpcare that is worse than the one before. Remind them they work for you.
Mike Pence has just done a tremendous job on this order. He's the best.
Mike Pence has just done a tremendous job on this order. He's the best.
As Donald Trump readies to sign an order that many expect will give religious people sweeping latitude to discriminate against LGBTQ Americans, civil rights groups are preparing to immediately launch a legal challenge. Dominic Holden reports:
Depending on how a final order is worded, legal groups say they are prepared to try blocking it in federal courts on constitutional grounds, thereby hoping to hand Trump another high-profile defeat like those he has faced so far with his travel bans.
“We will fight this with everything we have,” Lambda Legal senior counsel Camilla Taylor said Tuesday, adding, “We are prepared to sue in a very short timeframe if the executive order closely resembles the leaked drafts.”
She said the group has already assembled plaintiffs for their lawsuit.
An original draft of the order, which was spearheaded by distinguished homophobe Mike Pence and leaked to The Nation in early February, was widely viewed by civil rights advocates as violating the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment and the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. It gave broad license to discriminate to both individuals and organizations (including for-profits) that have religious or moral objections to LGBTQ-identified people, same-sex marriage, abortion, and pre-marital sex. Sarah Posner originally reported:
The draft document specifically protects the tax-exempt status of any organization that “believes, speaks, or acts (or declines to act) in accordance with the belief that marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman, sexual relations are properly reserved for such a marriage, male and female and their equivalents refer to an individual’s immutable biological sex as objectively determined by anatomy, physiology, or genetics at or before birth, and that human life begins at conception and merits protection at all stages of life.”
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