(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Overnight News Digest for February 15, 2023 (Off the Rails edition) [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-02-15 This is an open thread where everyone is welcome, especially night owls and early birds, to share and discuss the happenings of the day. Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments. One of the most frustrating things about being a news junkie is watching the media pile on to a story while leaving out the most basic details and context — stuff I’ve known about for months or years. Like… all the stories about the trainwreck disaster in Ohio that fail to connect what happened... with the rail strike that PREDICTED a disaster like this would happen.. even after all the stories about the rail strike itself that failed to connect what was happening with the background of WHY the strike was taking place (railroad management was cutting corners on safety and running their employees ragged while posting record profits and using them all for stock buybacks to enrich management). x Rail workers tried to strike over the exact conditions that led to this. Congress stopped them. Now there’s a media blackout on the disaster because it’s catastrophically bad and politicians + the Wall Street owned rail corporation are clearly to blame. https://t.co/83ybrE0EPY — swamp appreciator 🦟 (@mulberrythief) February 11, 2023 Workers were not threatening to shut down the nation’s rail system over a few sick days. They were sounding the alarm on a broken system that affects us all. This has been the general narrative around the freight rail labor dispute since September, that workers were unhappy with the tentative agreement because it did not have enough sick leave. In the last few days, virtually all of the nation’s leading publications ran explainers about why paid sick leave became the point of contention in negotiations and why workers didn’t get it. Progressive legislators introduced an amendment that would tack on seven paid sick days to the agreement, which passed the House along party lines but failed in the Senate. But as I wrote on September 15, “While not factually incorrect, this drastically oversimplifies why freight rail workers want to strike and why they may vote against the tentative agreement.” In my experience talking to hundreds of freight rail workers over the past 18 months, the issue of paid sick leave was rarely brought up. Yes, people talked about having to show up to work sick. Yes, workers talked about not being able to go to doctor appointments or receive needed medical care. But they also talked about a lot of other issues that have been minimized in the last several months, issues that matter to the entire American public. What was once the beginnings of a grassroots worker uprising against corporate greed narrowed to a grievance about sick time. Ironically, this fed back into the negotiating process. By the time Biden got involved in mid-September, his goal, by his own admission, was getting workers more sick time, a contractual provision many rank-and-file union members are deeply skeptical would actually improve their lives in practice Or… all the stories about the trainwreck disaster in Ohio that fail to connect what happened with the Trump administration repealing the basic safety rule that WOULD HAVE PREVENTED THE ACCIDENT. x ‘Corporate lobbying thwarts safety regulations Although the Norfolk Southern train in Ohio caused a days-long fire and released toxic fumes, it was not classified as a “high-hazard flammable train.”’ https://t.co/h0VIWP9odl — Mari (@majuha3) February 15, 2023 x 🚨 BREAKING: Train cars that derailed in Ohio were labeled non-hazardous pic.twitter.com/UEySzSHFGK — Sophia Kianni (@SophiaKianni) February 15, 2023 x It applied only to certain “high-hazard flammable trains” carrying at least 20 consecutive loaded cars filled with liquids like crude oil. The Trump administration repealed the rule three years later, stating that its cost exceeded the benefits.https://t.co/pMTa6VH168 — science versus the world (@logic_no_bull) February 15, 2023 x We interrupt this chemical disaster on a set of train tracks to tell you about a chemical disaster on different train tracks to tell you about a chemical disaster on a highway to tell you about a chemical disaster at a port https://t.co/qUw1siEWs3 — Fifty Shades of Whey (@davenewworld_2) February 15, 2023 Or... all the stories about Biden calling out the GOP for their plans to cut Social Security that think all that is required of professional well-paid journalists is to present both sides by quoting Republicans saying “We are shocked, SHOCKED to discover that someone would think we are in favor of cutting Social Security”, rather than actually LOOKING TO SEE IF REPUBLICANS SAID THEY WANTED TO CUT SOCIAL SECURITY. ...As we noted earlier, Republicans are now aghast that anyone would be claiming they want to cut Social Security. But last year the Republican Study Committee — a House caucus which includes about 75% of all House Republicans — released a proposed 2023 budget which included basically every kind of Social Security cut on offer. The Blueprint to Save America proposed raising the eligibility age at first to 70 and then higher if and when life expectancy goes up; it proposed cutting (or in their words “modernizing”) the benefit formula for everyone currently 54 and under; means-testing Social Security benefits; including work requirements for some Social Security beneficiaries; and allowing people to divert payroll taxes into private investment accounts — aka “retirement freedom.” x There is NO Republican in Washington, DC, in the House of Representatives or the Senate, that wants to CUT the benefits for seniors on Social Security and Medicare. That's a falsehood. That's a lie. I discussed that and more on @FoxBusiness last night. Check it out: pic.twitter.com/dwJq50LGi2 — Rep. Kevin Hern (@repkevinhern) February 9, 2023 How can he be saying this? Note the wording: no cuts for current beneficiaries. At least according to Hern and his Committee colleagues, you’ll be safe if you’re already on Social Security. The cuts will apply to people in the workforce now. The cuts apply to everyone except those already on Social Security and those just a few years away from becoming eligible. Oh, and also this one: x Fact check for those watching the Werfel hearing: There was language in the Inflation Reduction Act that stated audits would not increase on those earning less than $400K. Republicans challenged that provision during the parliamentarian process and had it removed. — Ashley Schapitl (@AshleySchapitl) February 15, 2023 And also: x I'm so angry — House Republicans have introduced legislation to repeal the $35/month cap on insulin that Democrats passed for seniors on Medicare. I need you to retweet and spread the word about this. Every voter needs to know. — Pete Aguilar (@PeteAguilar) February 13, 2023 Or… all the stories about the “grassroots opposition to wind and solar projects” that fail to connect that “grassroots opposition” with the fossil fuel industry-funded astro-turf groups, reported right here at DailyKos by Climate Denier Roundup (“Fossil-Fueled Front Groups' Disinfo Spins Up NIMBY Opposition to Offshore Wind”) ...There’s also an ideological bent to some of the opposition, said Kerwin Olson, the coalition’s executive director who’s spent years working on energy policy in Indiana. “The direction of discourse really pivoted when we elected President Obama,” he said. “You were a socialist if you supported wind and solar.” Though Zartman, the Republican former county commissioner from Ohio, acknowledged that some of the loudest pushback comes from conservatives, he said he sees a “mix” of motivation in opponents, including major resistance to changes to the skyline. (Some renewable projects even in famously liberal areas have sparked major opposition). … Zartman said renewable companies need to sell communities on the benefits of projects “before you come in and try to steamroll your way” to approval. “How do you get community support if that’s how you start?” he said. “I understand what they’re thinking but as a former public official it’s a lot easier for me to be on board with a project if I’m part of the original planning process.” On the bright side, they’re NOT WINNING: x Good news alert 🚨🚨 🔹 In 2022, global spending on new wind and solar hit $490bn, up 37% from 2021 🔹 Spending on solar and wind surpassed spending on new and existing oil and gas wells for the first time ever Cc: @Noahpinion @dwallacewells @chrislhayes @JesseJenkins @ylecun pic.twitter.com/5xSH66NaZv — Science Is Strategic (@scienceisstrat1) February 15, 2023 But clean energy may not be coming fast enough: The area of sea ice around Antarctica has hit a record low, with scientists reporting “never having seen such an extreme situation before”. The ice extent is expected to shrink even further before this year’s summer melting season ends. The impact of the climate crisis in melting sea ice in the Arctic is clear in the records that stretch back to 1979. Antarctic sea ice varies much more from year to year, which has made it harder to see an effect from global heating. However, “remarkable” losses of Antarctic sea ice in the last six years indicate that the record levels of heat now in the ocean and related changes in weather patterns may mean that the climate crisis is finally manifesting in the observations. x “I have never seen such an extreme, ice-free situation here before...” “The rapid decline in sea ice over the past six years is quite remarkable..." "Even as somebody who’s been looking at these changing systems for a few decades, I was taken aback..."https://t.co/8UqMV4QnrW — Prof. Eliot Jacobson (@EliotJacobson) February 15, 2023 Also: x Cyclone Gabrielle batters New Zealand – in pictureshttps://t.co/wgiepRNcL1 — Greta Thunberg News (@great_thunberg) February 15, 2023 Oh well, if we keep screwing things up here, we can always go to Mars… Novel propulsion ideas for moving around space seem like they’re a dime a dozen recently. Besides the typical argument between solar sails and chemical propulsion lies a potential third way – a nuclear rocket engine. While we’ve discussed them here at UT before, NASA’s Institute of Advanced Concepts has provided a grant to a company called Positron Dynamics for the development of a novel type of nuclear fission fragment rocket engine (FFRE). It could strike the balance between the horsepower of chemical engines and the longevity of solar sails. FFREs are not a new concept in themselves, but many have massive technical hurdles to overcome before they can be considered useful. Their advantages, such as high specific impulse and extremely high power density, are offset by their disadvantages, such as requiring a complicated form of plasma levitation. Positron Dynamics hopes to tip that balance by utilizing two separate breakthroughs derived from other areas of research. The first novel approach would be to put the fissile material in an ultralight aerogel. The second would be implementing a superconducting magnet to contain those fission particles. And in the “Department of Corporate Dems we said would be Terrible in the Biden Cabinet”, we bring you the latest from Tom Vilsack: Environmental groups on Tuesday accused the Biden administration of putting the profits of big agribusiness over public health and critical pollinators by attempting to obstruct the Mexican government’s ongoing push to ban genetically engineered corn. “The U.S.’s shameful efforts to strong-arm Mexico into accepting GE corn it has rejected is nothing short of 21st-century imperialism,” Lori Ann Burd, environmental health director at the U.S.-based Center for Biological Diversity. “Our government is working tirelessly to pad the multibillion-dollar profits of domestic agribusiness corporations by pushing GE corn, even though our glyphosate-drenched GE cornfields are playing an outsized role in driving catastrophic declines in vital pollinator populations.” The group’s statement came after Mexico issued a new decree earlier this week that scraps the country’s original January 2024 deadline to halt imports of GMO corn for livestock feed and industrial use, a move widely seen as a concession to the U.S., which has been pressuring its southern neighbor to drop the ban since Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) first announced it in 2020. We’re in the election slow season right now, BUT — there’s a big one coming up in Wisconsin on Tuesday, February 21st! If you’re looking for a way to contribute this week, both in time and money, here’s what you need to know: At the end of February — the sleepy, dead days of winter when the 2022 midterms have shrunk in the rearview and 2024 still feels far off — Wisconsin will host a blockbuster primary for an open seat on the state Supreme Court, a race with significant national ramifications. A liberal majority on the court could also have the chance to force a redo of the state’s legislative and congressional maps, a hugely significant prospect as the Wisconsin legislature has been so aggressively gerrymandered that state Republicans came within spitting distance of winning supermajorities across both chambers in 2022. Democrats managed to stave off their opponents grabbing a veto-proof majority in the Assembly, though they remain locked into a small minority despite Wisconsin’s perennial status as a battleground state. Milwaukee County Judge Janet Protasiewicz, one of the two liberals competing in the primary, is making unwinding some of the baked-in Republican dominance part of her campaign pitch. “The maps are rigged — bottom line,” she said last month at a candidate forum. “Absolutely, positively rigged. They do not reflect the people in the state. They are rigged, period.” Find out how you can volunteer from wherever you are here — or contribute at Act Blue Most major policy decisions end up in the courts. Abortion access. Marriage equality. Ridiculously drawn electoral maps. These are just a handful of the issues moving through Wisconsin’s court system right now. With one of the court’s four Republican-backed justices, Patience Roggensack, retiring, Democrats have a chance to win the majority. Republicans want to use this seat to advance their policy agenda. With their 4-3 majority, the current conservatives on the court have overturned Gov. Evers’ COVID-19 stay-at-home public safety measure, allowed former Gov. Walkers’ appointees to remain in their seats past the expiration of their terms, blocked Evers’ appointments, and banned voting drop boxes, as well as other methods that make voting more accessible. The 2024 election could very likely depend on this race. There were 203 election-related lawsuits in 2020 and 272 in 2022 that ended up in state courts across the country. “This might be the most high profile race in the country in the spring of 2023,” Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Ben Wikler told the Wisconsin Examiner. “The race will determine if a majority vote can elect a majority Legislature for decades to come. The Supreme Court race is electoral ground zero.” Find out how you can volunteer from wherever you are here — or contribute at Act Blue Oh, and you can ALWAYS chip in to this guy: x I. AM. RUNNING. You heard it here first! I am officially launching my campaign to unseat Lauren Boebert and restore dignity to #CO03 representation. We lost by a mere 546 votes in '22 — the closest race in the country — and know we can make that up in '24. pic.twitter.com/LqxO43l9f8 — Adam Frisch for CD-3 (@AdamForColorado) February 14, 2023 One more late addition: … Rodolfo Reyes — a nephew of the Nobel Prize winning poet who has seen the report — says scientists found high levels of the bacterium that can cause botulism poisoning. He says that proves what he has said for 50 years — that his uncle was injected with the poison at a hospital immediately after the coup. Scientists from Canada's McMaster University say they couldn't conclude if the bacterium killed Neruda, but did note political prisoners in Chile were poisoned with the same toxin in the 1980s. Relatives of Neruda are hoping to open a criminal investigation into his death. Neruda was in a hospital following the 1973 coup but had told his driver at the time that he wanted to go into exile in Mexico and to pack his bags and come take him to the airport. From Mexico, he planned to lead opposition to Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, the leader of the military junta that took over Chile. Neruda was dead five hours later. Neruda's nephew told NPR that there is no doubt now that Neruda was killed for his political activity. "Pablo Neruda has now told us what happened through science, " he added. The crew of the Overnight News Digest consists of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, jeremybloom, Magnifico, annetteboardman, eeff, rise above the swamp, Besame and jck. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) Interceptor 7, Man Oh Man, wader, Neon Vincent, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (RIP), ek hornbeck (RIP), rfall, ScottyUrb, Doctor RJ, BentLiberal, Oke (RIP) and jlms qkw. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/15/2153142/-Overnight-News-Digest-for-February-15-2023-Off-the-Rails-edition Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/