Politics and American Democracy – Page 118

It Would Be Nice If Republicans Would Actually Read A Bill

HuffPost

It Would Be Nice If Republicans Would Actually Read A Bill

Bruce Maiman – January 19, 2023

From left to right: House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) talks to reporters during a news conference with Rep. Anthony D'Esposito (R-N.Y.), Rep. Michael Cloud (R-La.) and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) on Jan. 10 in Washington, D.C. — From left to right: House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) talks to reporters during a news conference with Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-N.Y.), Rep. Michael Cloud (R-La.) and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) on Jan. 10 in Washington, D.C.

While President Joe Biden’s document drama puts him in a tricky political situation, let’s not lose sight of the Republican Party’s “to be continued” style of incompetent governance.

Looking back at their first two weeks running the House of Representatives, you have to conclude one of two things: Either Republicans are stupid, or they think their constituents are.

Voters sent a clear message in the midterms: We’re tired of “crazy.” We want bipartisanship, not extremism.

Moreover, supporters of abortion rights, angered by the Supreme Court’s unraveling of Roe v. Wade, turned out in droves and delivered several key elections for Democrats, according to CNN exit polling. Republicans surely would have liked to win some of those districts, no?

So, what happened? Week one: Republican extremists turned the speakership vote into Crazy Town.

Week two: Republicans passed a pair of anti-abortion bills and, in a real insult to everyone’s intelligence, voted to repeal tens of billions of dollars in IRS funding via the so-called Family and Small Business Taxpayer Protection Act. Consider this tweet from Rep. Ashley Hinson (R), of Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District:

A screenshot of a tweet from Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa).

Look, you can have your opinion on abortion, and maybe you like the extremists, but can someone please read a bill? Or at least listen to some “Schoolhouse Rock”?

You have to love how these hoopleheads clamored for a rule requiring bills to be released at least 72 hours before a floor vote so lawmakers would have ample time to read them. At the same time, they had seven months to read the Inflation Reduction Act, but evidently couldn’t pencil that in. Passed in August, the act explains — justifies, really — its nearly $80 billion in IRS funding.

Incidentally, Democrats implemented that 72-hour rule in 2019 when Republicans rammed through a tax bill just hours after introducing a final version.

Hinson is probably just repeating what Republican leaders are saying now. Or what any Republican with a pulse was shrieking last summer. Or the howls of the campaign ads and political mailers you might have seen ahead of the November midterms: Eighty-seven thousand new IRS agents to audit small businesses and hard-working Americans!

Even seasoned Republicans like Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who you’d think would know to read a bill, have been in full scaremongering mode, all deploying the same talking points.

Here’s the reality: The IRS is understaffed, overwhelmed and digitally dated. Thirty years ago, the IRS had 117,000 employees. Today, it has 78,000. It faces an expected wave of 50,000 retirements this decade. Its budget has been slashed by nearly 20% since 2010.

These circumstances have created a massive backlog. For example, according to the Treasury Department, nearly 200 million taxpayers called the IRS for assistance in the first half of 2021. There were 15,000 employees available to assist them. That’s one person for every 13,000 calls.

Funding from the Inflation Reduction Act aims to address these shortfalls by hiring 87,000 new IRS employees ― over the next 10 years, not all at once. And most of the hires will be to replace all those retirees.

So, dear Republican voter, did your favorite lawmaker explain any of that to you? No? Why not?

Will all the money go toward hiring IRS agents to audit taxpayers? Nope.

· $45.6 billion will go toward hiring more enforcement agents, shoring up legal support and investing in “investigative technology.”

· $25.3 billion will cover routine costs, like rent, facilities, printing and postage.

· $3 billion will go to customer services, such as prefiling assistance and education, and the possibility of creating a free direct e-file program.

· $5 billion will go toward modernizing the IRS’s business systems and customer service technology. Some agency computers still use programming language that dates back to the 1960s.

So, Republican voter: Why didn’t your favorite lawmakers explain that? Maybe they didn’t read the bill ― or reports from the Government Accountability Office, the Treasury Department, the Congressional Research Service or the Congressional Budget Office, or even a letter from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to the IRS commissioner, affirming these commitments ― which means they didn’t do their job. Maybe they’re just repeating someone else’s talking points. Maybe they’re stupid enough to believe those talking points ― or maybe they think you are. Maybe they think you’re too lazy to do your own research to learn what’s in the legislation.

Feel better?

Audits have declined most dramatically for the wealthy. For example: In 2012, the percentage of companies with at least $20 billion in assets subjected to audit was 93%. By 2020, it was just 38%.

The resulting tax gap — what people owe versus what they pay — is estimated to be more than $600 billion. Much of this is due to drastic cuts in the IRS’s budget, courtesy of Tea Party fanatics a decade ago.

Since then, the number of IRS auditors has fallen by more than 40% even as the tax code has gotten more complex. The agency’s auditors are no match for the battery of pricey accountants and tax attorneys who help the affluent avoid or evade their tax obligations.

Sidebar: In the past decade, the tax code has been amended or revised more than 4,000 times. Keep in mind that the agency doesn’t make those changes; Congress does. So while Congress was making tax law more complex, it gelded the agency tasked with tending to its directives.

The poster boy for this is former President Donald Trump. We still don’t know why the IRS didn’t enforce its own policy of mandatory audits of the sitting president.

If you hate paying taxes, you should really hate the people who don’t pay their fair share. If the uber-wealthy don’t pay all the taxes they legally owe, guess who makes up the difference through higher tax rates? You and me. As Leona Helmsley supposedly said, “Only the little people pay taxes.”

Taxes are monies we pay for services we say we want. Less tax revenue means more borrowing to pay for those services, which increases the deficit.

In fact, the Congressional Budget Office notes that without the new funding, the deficit would actually grow by about $114 billion over the next decade. In other words, the repeal would cost more than the actual funding. How’s that for stupid?

Sorry, but I don’t like being robbed by tax cheats. I want lots of IRS agents to keep them from picking my pocket. There is another consequence to all this neutering: The worse IRS customer service gets, the more cheating the wealthy can get away with, causing the rest of us to become more resentful toward and fearful of the agency.

The idea of the “overbearing IRS” is just another shibboleth Republicans use to rile up their base for the benefit of the GOP’s fat cats while securing votes for reelection. No honest, conscientious American has anything to fear from the IRS. Indeed, polls have repeatedly shown that most Americans regard paying taxes as a civic duty.

Remember: This month, a New York judge fined the Trump Organization $1.6 million (the max allowed by law) after convictions on 17 counts of tax fraud. Meanwhile, Trump’s longtime chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg drew five months in prison for his involvement in the tax scams. These are the people who hate and fear the IRS.

How can Republicans continually whine about the deficit when they’re trying to undercut the means to collect the money that would help reduce it?

They whine about waste, but they waste time and tax dollars on votes for bills they know won’t go anywhere in the Senate, let alone survive a presidential veto. Where do they think the funding for their pork projects comes from? Magic?

Maybe you think taxes should be higher or lower, or that we should have a more simplified tax code. But so long as we have taxes (and unless you want anarchy, we need taxes), we’ll need an agency to manage and administer those monies, and to ensure that citizens and businesses are playing by the rules. And that agency must be properly staffed and funded.

House Republicans claim they want the IRS to function better. If they want a smaller, more efficient and effective government, they should be the first ones to leave ― especially the ones running interference and engaging in performance politics solely to score cheap points.

Unless, of course, we learn that the IRS funded Hunter Biden’s laptop. Ah, it’s all coming together now!

Skipped Showers, Paper Plates: An Arizona Suburb’s Water Is Cut Off

Skipped Showers, Paper Plates: An Arizona Suburb’s Water Is Cut Off

Jack Healy – January 16, 2023

A water hauler sets up hoses to fill the tank at a home that is listed for sale in the Rio Verde Foothills outside of Scottsdale, Arizona, on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023. (Erin Schaff/The New York Times)

RIO VERDE, Ariz. — Joe McCue thought he had found a desert paradise when he bought one of the new stucco houses sprouting in the granite foothills of Rio Verde, Arizona. There were good schools, mountain views and cactus-spangled hiking trails out the back door.

Then the water got cut off.

Earlier this month, the community’s longtime water supplier, the neighboring city of Scottsdale, turned off the tap for Rio Verde Foothills, blaming a grinding drought that is threatening the future of the West. Scottsdale said it had to focus on conserving water for its own residents, and could no longer sell water to roughly 500 to 700 homes — or around 1,000 people. That meant the unincorporated swath of $500,000 stucco houses, mansions and horse ranches outside Scottsdale’s borders would have to fend for itself and buy water from other suppliers — if homeowners could find them, and afford to pay much higher prices.

Almost overnight, the Rio Verde Foothills turned into a worst-case scenario of a hotter, drier climate, showing what happens when unregulated growth collides with shrinking water supplies.

For residents who put their savings into newly built homes that promised desert sunsets, peace and quiet (but relegated the water situation to the fine print), the turmoil is also deeply personal. The water disruption has unraveled their routines and put their financial futures in doubt.

“Is it just a campground now?” McCue, 36, asked one recent morning, after he and his father installed gutters and rain barrels for a new drinking-water filtration system.

“We’re really hoping we don’t go dry by summer,” he said. “Then we’ll be in a really bad spot.”

In a scramble to conserve, people are flushing their toilets with rainwater and lugging laundry to friends’ homes. They are eating off paper plates, skipping showers and fretting about whether they have staked their fates on what could become a desiccated ghost suburb.

Some say they know how it might look to outsiders. Yes, they bought homes in the Sonoran desert. But they ask, are they such outliers? Arizona does not want for emerald-green fairways, irrigated lawns or water parks.

“I’m surrounded by plush golf courses, one of the largest fountains in the world,” said Tony Johnson, 45, referring to the 500-foot water feature in the neighboring town of Fountain Hills.

Johnson’s family built a house in Rio Verde two years ago, and landscaped the yard with rocks, not thirsty greenery. “We’re not putting in a pool, we’re not putting in grass,” he said. “We’re not trying to bring the Midwest here.”

The heavy rain and snow battering California and other parts of the Mountain West over the past two weeks is helping to refill some reservoirs and soak dried-out soil. But water experts say that one streak of wet weather will not undo a 20-year drought that has practically emptied Lake Mead, the country’s largest reservoir, and has strained the overburdened Colorado River, which supplies about 35% of Arizona’s water. The rest comes from the state’s own rivers or from aquifers in the ground.

Last week, Arizona learned that its water shortages could be even worse than many residents realized. As one of her first actions after taking office, Gov. Katie Hobbs unsealed a report showing that the fast-growing West Valley of Phoenix does not have enough groundwater to support tens of thousands of homes planned for the area; their development is now in question.

Water experts say Rio Verde Foothills’ situation is unusually dire, but it offers a glimpse of the bitter fights and hard choices facing 40 million people across the West who rely on the Colorado River for the means to take showers, irrigate crops, or run data centers and fracking rigs.

“It’s a cautionary tale for homebuyers,” said Sarah Porter, director of the Kyl Center for Water Policy at Arizona State University. “We can’t just protect every single person who buys a parcel and builds a home. There isn’t enough money or water.”

Porter said a number of other unincorporated areas in Arizona rely on water service from larger nearby cities like Prescott or Flagstaff. They could find themselves in Rio Verde’s straits if the drought persists and the cities start taking drastic conservation measures.

There are no sewers or water mains serving the Rio Verde Foothills, so for decades, homes there that did not have their own wells got water delivered by tanker trucks. (The homes that do have wells are not directly affected by the cutoff.)

The trucks would fill up with Scottsdale water at a pipe 15 minutes’ drive from the Rio Verde Foothills, and then deliver water directly to people’s front doors. Or rather, to 5,000-gallon storage tanks buried in their yards — enough water to last an average family about a month. When the tanks ran low, homeowners would call or send an electronic signal to the water haulers for another delivery.

It was a tenuous arrangement in the middle of the desert, but homeowners said the water always arrived, and had come to feel almost as reliable as a utility hookup.

Now, though, the water trucks can’t refill close by in Scottsdale, and are having to crisscross the Phoenix metro area in search of supplies, filling up in cities a two-hour round trip from Rio Verde. That has meant more driving, more waiting and more money. An average family’s water bill has jumped to $660 a month from $220, and it is unclear how long the water trucks will be able to keep drawing tens of thousands of gallons from those backup sources.

Heavier water users like Cody Reim, who moved into a starter house in Rio Verde two years ago, are being hit even harder. He said his water bills could now exceed $1,000 a month — more than his mortgage payment. Reim and his wife have four young children, which in normal times meant a lot of dishwashing, countless toilet flushes and dozens of laundry cycles to clean soiled cloth diapers.

Reim, who works for his family’s sheet-metal business, is planning to become his own water hauler, lashing large containers to his pickup and setting out to fill them up. He guesses that fetching water will take him 10 hours every week, but he said he would do anything to stay in Rio Verde. He loves the dark skies and the baying coyotes at night, and how his children can run up and down a dirt road that with views of the Four Peaks Wilderness.

“Even if this place went negative and I’d have to pay somebody to take it, I’d still be here,” he said of his house. “There’s no other option.”

Cities across the Southwest have spent years trying to cut down on water consumption, recharge aquifers and find new ways to reuse water to cope with the drought.

Experts say that most Arizona residents do not have to worry about losing their drinking water any time soon, though deeper cuts loom for agricultural users, who use about 70% of Arizona’s water supply. Phoenix and surrounding cities have imposed few water restrictions on residents.

Rio Verde Foothills once felt like a remote community far from the urban centers of Scottsdale or Phoenix, residents said, a quilt of ranches and self-built houses scattered among mesquite and palo verde trees.

But over the past few years, there has been a frenzy of home construction in the area, fueled by cheap land prices and developers who took advantage of a loophole in Arizona’s groundwater laws to construct homes without any fixed water supply.

To prevent unsustainable development in a desert state, Arizona passed a law in 1980 requiring subdivisions with six or more lots to show proof that they have a 100-year water supply.

But developers in Rio Verde Foothills have been sidestepping the rule by carving larger parcels into sections with four or five houses each, creating the impression of a miniature suburbia, but one that did not need to legally prove it had water.

“It’s a slipped-through-the-cracks community,” said Porter, with the Kyl Center for Water Policy.

Thomas Galvin, a county supervisor who represents the area, says there’s not much the county can do if builders split their parcels into five lots or less to get around the water supply requirement. “Our hands are tied,” he said.

People in Rio Verde Foothills are bitterly divided over how to resolve their water woes.

When some proposed forming their own self-funded water provider, other residents revolted, saying the idea would foist an expensive, freedom-stealing new arm of government on them. The idea collapsed. Other solutions, like allowing a larger water utility to serve the area, could be years off.

On Thursday, a group of residents sued Scottsdale in an effort to get the water turned back on. They argued the city violated an Arizona law that restricts cities from cutting off utility services to customers outside their borders. Scottsdale did not respond to the lawsuit.

Rose Carroll, 66, who is a plaintiff in the suit, said she would support any idea that would keep her from having to kill her donkeys.

She moved to Rio Verde Foothills two years ago, and runs a small ranch for two dozen rescued donkeys who had been abandoned, left in kill pens or doused with acid. The donkeys spend their days in a corral on her seven-acre property, eating hay and drinking a total of 300 gallons of water every day.

Carroll collected rainwater after a recent winter storm, enough for a few weeks’ worth of toilet flushes. The new cost to get water delivered to the ranch could reach an unaffordable $1,800 a month, she said, so she is putting some of the donkeys up for adoption and said she might have to euthanize others if she does not have enough water to keep them alive.

She said she got a call a few days ago, asking her to take in two more abandoned donkeys, but had to say no.

“I didn’t have the water,” she said.

Health Experts Break Down the Science That Has Politicians Debating a Gas Oven Ban

Good Housekeeping

Health Experts Break Down the Science That Has Politicians Debating a Gas Oven Ban

Zee Krstic – January 16, 2023

gas stove top burner fueled by methane gas — Can Gas Ovens Really Make You Sick?Valerii Vtoryhin – Getty Images

New research published in 2022 has linked gas stove pollution to negative health effects, prompting federal regulators to consider potential legislation.
Health experts say that gas stoves may pose an elevated risk to respiratory health due to a byproduct of burning methane gas in kitchens, known as nitrogen dioxide.
A leading environmental pollutant, nitrogen dioxide has been linked to increased asthma and lung disease for decades — but scientists are now looking at how gas stoves may contribute to the issue.
Our experts in the Good Housekeeping Institute share ways you can reduce any potential health risks associated with gas ovens without purchasing a new stove.

Recent headlines about the potential for an outright ban of gas ovens and stoves in the U.S. may have you concerned that federal regulators are coming for your oven.

But despite sparking a political debate among lawmakers on Capitol Hill, White House officials said Wednesday that new legislation concerning gas stoves and ovens won’t be officially considered any time soon, CNN reports. In short, open gas flames in home kitchens won’t be banned outright — and that it’s unlikely any potential future regulations would affect someone who already owns a gas stove top.

But concern remains over new research regarding the potential drawbacks of using gas burners at home, with some experts arguing that it’s just the latest study to back up years of evidence suggesting gas stoves may worsen respiratory health over time — and potentially trigger asthma.

In a December 2022 report published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, the use of gas stoves in home kitchens was linked to an increased risk of asthma among children, in particular.

The evidence presented by researchers estimated that nearly 13% of childhood asthma cases in the U.S. may be traced back to exposure to chemical byproducts of burning gas. This purported link was prefaced by a similar report released by the American Medical Association in late 2022 that formally recognized “the association between the use of gas stoves, indoor nitrogen dioxide levels and asthma.”

These recent developments — as well as additional data from the 1990s to as recent as 2014 — prompted the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to announce it would consider new forms of regulation on gas stoves.

Lawmakers are currently debating whether or not regulation should be implemented that could require gas stoves to be sold with a hood that vents to the outdoors among other proposals, per Bloomberg, but others in the healthcare field are seizing the moment to educate American families about ways to improve their kitchen hygiene.

If you’re among the more than 40 million American households currently using gas ovens in their kitchens, according to the U.S. Energy Information Association, there are several ways you can improve indoor air quality that doesn’t include quitting your stove altogether.

Many risks can be reduced by better ventilation in your kitchen, explains Nicole Papantoniou, the Good Housekeeping Institute‘s Kitchen Appliances & Innovation Lab Director. That all starts with the hooded vent above your oven, which should be turned on well before you begin cooking — and regularly cleaned to avoid poor circulation.

Read on for more tips and to learn about the potential risks associated with gas ovens, plus what you can do right now to reduce them while cooking at home.

Why are experts worried about gas stove tops?

Believe it or not, there are many ways in which health experts say cooking at home may lead to poor air quality issues, which can impact your health over time. But a gas burner may indirectly pose more of a threat than an electric stove top, due to the byproducts that are released into the air as methane gas burns while you cook; namely, nitrogen dioxide, which has been linked to respiratory issues as well as cardiovascular risks, explains Huawei Dong, M.D., pulmonology and critical care medicine professor at the University of California, Irvine’s School of Medicine and pulmonologist at UCI Health.

“When we breathe that in, it causes irritation and local inflammation into the bronchial tubes and the airways,” Dr. Dong says, which you may not even notice if you’ve never experienced prior respiratory issues like asthma. “One of the key things that happens in asthma patients, whether you’re a child or an adult, is that the airways become inflamed and they become narrower, causing things like wheezing and shortness of breath.”

It’s important to note that nitrogen dioxide is produced whenever fossil fuels are burned, which means the overwhelming majority of this particular pollutant comes from vehicles and nearby power plants, adds Dr. Dong. And while there are established guidelines released by officials at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that dictate appropriate levels of nitrogen dioxide, especially as it relates to vehicle emissions and other factors, there aren’t guidelines for indoor settings just yet.

In fact, researchers have established that gas stove tops produce considerable nitrogen dioxide when they’re in use. A Stanford University study published in early 2022 suggests that the amount of nitrogen dioxide emitted from gas stoves and ovens exceeded EPA standards within minutes. But since there isn’t any regulation for indoor appliances just yet, this is where CPSC officials want to step in.

How can gas stove tops impact your health?

Gas ovens aren’t likely to be the sole reason that you develop a respiratory issue, including asthma — Dr. Dong tells Good Housekeeping that most asthma cases, including those in children, are considered “multifactorial” by doctors who treat them.

After all, genetics often play a heavy hand in how likely it is for someone to develop asthma or other breathing difficulties. But available research on nitrogen dioxide and other commonplace air pollutants indicates that there is a link between poor respiratory health and increased exposure, and the December 2022 report only further suggests that impactful exposure may be occurring indoors more frequently than we realize.

“Some of the risk for asthma certainly may come down to what we’re exposed to in the home, as well as where we live and the outdoor environments we spend time in due to air pollution,” she says. “We’ve known that for decades in seeing the development of worse asthma and lung disease — but, most of that effect is cumulative over time.”

Translation: Sitting beside an open gas burner in your kitchen for a few minutes won’t significantly increase your asthma risk, even for children and their developing lungs and immune systems. What healthcare experts are more concerned about is the exposure effect over the course of months and years — and how gas ovens may exacerbate breathing issues for someone who is already asthmatic or seriously hampered by their respiratory health. This is when Dr. Dong says more immediate, short-term symptoms are noticeable (and the need for prevention is key).

Despite the recent research, the need for more evidence on how nitrogen dioxide triggers respiratory issues indoors is needed, as there is some conflicting research on the childhood asthma link that CPSC officials referred to earlier this year. A 2013 Lancet Respiratory Medicine study that touts data collected from 500,000 children globally indicates that researchers couldn’t determine “an association” between gas stoves and self-reported asthma diagnosis or symptoms.

In the end, future regulation on gas stoves may simply focus on the sale and manufacturing of gas ovens; back in October, a peer-reviewed study published in Environmental Science and Technology illustrated that some gas stoves may leak methane gas and benzene, another pollutant, even when not in use. New manufacturing regulations may prevent this from happening, as well as encourage the use of properly installed vents that effectively remove airborne pollutants from kitchens entirely.

Are gas stoves unsafe?

CPSC officials have clarified that a ban on gas stoves and ovens isn’t on the table currently — and you shouldn’t feel the need to rip out your gas stove ASAP over air quality concerns, as both Good Housekeeping Institute pros and healthcare officials agree that there are many ways to reduce any inherent respiratory risks.

Raj Dasgupta, M.D., a pulmonary critical care specialist at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine, tells Good Housekeeping that nitrogen dioxide build-up can largely be dissipated through the use of an exhaust hood, or range hood, in addition to odors, smoke and grease. Additionally, opening windows for fresh air can better assist range hoods that don’t vent directly to the outdoors.

Of course, not every kitchen has a hooded vent over a gas stove top, which is the best way to ensure air pollutants don’t hang around your kitchen. If your space is only equipped with a vented fan, opening windows and providing fresh air supply is even more important, Dr. Dasgupta says.

You may also want to consider investing in an air purifier. “There aren’t a lot of downsides to having an air purifier in your home, aside from the financial investment — they help remove various contaminants from the air in your kitchen, namely smoke and odors,” he adds, as well as dust, pollen and pet dander, all of which may contribute to asthmatic risk and on-set symptoms over time as well.

Regular maintenance of your gas oven and stovetop is also crucial to ensure that air pollution remains as minimal as possible while you cook. Our experts in the Good Housekeeping Institute‘s Kitchen Appliances & Innovation Lab recommend doing the following:

Turn vents or fans on before you start cooking. It takes time for high-speed fan settings to kick in, and smoke and other pollutants in the air simply hang suspended if air flow isn’t strong enough. Putting your vent or fan on before you begin cooking ensures this won’t happen
Keep your gas burner clean. Grease, splatter and other kitchen residue can easily build up over the gas burners on your stove top, which may delay or prevent the complete ignition of a burner, which could contribute to potential gas leakage over time, according to Papantoniou. Keeping your burners clean can help prevent this from happening.
Replace fan filters and have vents serviced regularly. You can do this with the help of your oven’s manufacturer. Replacing filters regularly ensures grease and other airborne pollutants are captured effectively, leaving less work for any air purifiers you have elsewhere in your home. And if it’s possible, work with a professional

If you’re able, consider investing in a vent hood that has an optimized capture efficiency range — even if that means replacing an outdated model, advises Dan DiClerico, the Good Housekeeping Institute‘s home improvement and outdoor director. “It should be within the 70 to 80% range, and is usually included as a spec on many newer models, though manufacturers aren’t required to list it,” he adds.

The bottom line:

It’s unclear when and if federal consumer safety regulators will introduce new rules for oven and stove manufacturers. Americans should rest easy knowing that there won’t be any changes required for those who currently use gas ranges in their home — though, research is clear that these types of ovens likely pose an additional health risk compared to electric models.

Focusing on improving the ventilation in your kitchen is key if you’re worried that cooking is adding to poor air quality at home. Simply working to open as many windows or doors as you can while cooking can offset poor air quality, and is essential for anyone who is already facing established respiratory issues. And taking the time to have any hooded range vent or kitchen fan regularly serviced by HVAC professionals may reduce the risk of suspended smoke, odor and other pollutants above your stove top.

Additionally, air purifiers can work to combat pollutants in your kitchen as well as other airborne factors in your home contributing to respiratory irritation. Experts say dust, pollen, pet dander and odors are often targeted by air purifiers, but the best air purifiers also work to reduce volatile nitrogen dioxide released into kitchens over time.

Swedish miner finds Europe’s largest deposit of rare earth metals

Reuters

Swedish miner finds Europe’s largest deposit of rare earth metals

January 13, 2023

Location: Kiruna, Sweden

LKAB says it has identified more than 1 million tons of rare earth oxides

in the Kiruna area in the far north of Sweden

[Ebba Busch, Swedish Minister for Energy, Business and Industry]

“This is really an important day for Sweden and for the whole of the European Union. It is a significant happening which can play a key role in securing a green transition within the EU.”

Rare earth minerals are essential to many high-tech manufacturing processes

and are used in electric vehicles, wind turbines and portable electronics

Rare earth elements are currently not mined in Europe

leaving the region depending on imports from elsewhere, such as China

“We can reduce carbon footprints and strengthen our competitiveness at the same time. Obviously this is the million dollar question: is it possible to combine economic growth while at the same time reaching high set climate goals? And I say, the answer is yes. ‘’

Your Gas Stove Is Bad For Your Health. Here’s What To Know.

HuffPost

Your Gas Stove Is Bad For Your Health. Here’s What To Know.

Jillian Wilson – January 13, 2023

If you’re using a gas stove at home, it’s important to open a window while you cook.

Earlier this week, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced that it is exploring potential regulations on gas stoves, which, unbeknownst to many, have harmful impacts on our health and the environment.

While rumors of a potential ban were circulating a few days ago, CPSC Chair Alexander Hoehn-Saric put those to rest in a Jan. 11 statement saying he is “not looking to ban gas stoves and the CPSC has no proceeding to do so.”

Instead, the agency will prioritize research about the health risks of gas stoves and aim to create solutions that address these risks. So, no one is coming for your gas stove — but it’s worth knowing that there are serious health risks that come with natural gas cooking.

The main pollutant of concern when it comes to gas stoves is nitrogen dioxide, said Shelly Miller, a professor of medical engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder.

This is “a pollutant that we also regulate for outdoor air quality. It’s an EPA-regulated pollutant,” she told HuffPost. For reference, the EPA — or U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — regulates air pollutants based on health standards that are reviewed every few years, Miller added.

“We know nitrogen dioxide is bad, we know that the EPA regulates it but only outdoors,” Miller said, “but here we have this major source indoors, which we have not paid any attention to for decades.”

And it’s something worth paying attention to. Below, experts share the health risks of gas stoves and what to do if you have one:

Gas stoves can have negative effects on the health of both children and adults.

“Nitrogen dioxide is a respiratory irritant,” Miller said, adding that it can increase the risk of asthma attacks, incidence of respiratory infections and respiratory disease.

Miller said increased incidence of respiratory diseases is most often seen in sensitive populations like older adults and children.

Bryan Cummings, a research scientist at Drexel University’s College of Engineering, pointed out a recent study that found that 12.7% of childhood asthma in the U.S. can be attributed to the use of gas stoves indoors.

But pollutants from gas stoves don’t only impact kids. Nitrogen dioxide can exacerbate chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, commonly known as COPD, in adults, and some evidence says that it can negatively impact cognitive performance in folks of all ages, Cummings added.

As an oxidant, it may impact your lungs and your cardiovascular system, Miller explained. In fact, according to the American Heart Association, nitrogen dioxide exposure puts you at increased risk of heart attack.

It is worth noting that nitrogen dioxide exposure does not only come from your gas stove, but also comes from factors like car pollution too. But, according to Cummings, the release of nitrogen dioxide in your home is particularly harmful because it’s emitted into a confined space that often does not have great circulation with outdoor air. And, as Miller noted above, nitrogen dioxide emissions outdoors are regulated.

Studies show that gas stoves cause increased rates of childhood asthma.

If you have a gas stove, there are things you can do to reduce your exposure to nitrogen dioxide.

First, figure out if the vent on your gas stove expels the air outdoors or just circulates it around your kitchen.

Cummings said if your gas stove is below a microwave and does not have a cooking hood, it likely just pushes the pollutants around your home. If you have a hood above your stove, it’s likely that the pollutants are disposed of outdoors.

But this is just a general rule of thumb and isn’t necessarily true across the board; it’s worth checking with your landlord or the company that installed your appliances to determine where the air goes. If you find that your cooking hood moves the air outdoors, just make sure you turn on your air vent every time you cook (and not just when it gets smoky in your home).

If your vent does not expel the air outdoors, both Cummings and Miller said you should open a window — even just a few inches — while you use your gas stove. And if you don’t have a window in your kitchen, open a window elsewhere in your home to reduce the amount of pollution mixing in with your home’s air.

Additionally, if you have a HEPA air filter, you should turn that on when you cook, Miller suggested. “The air cleaner will remove all the particulate matter [but] you have to have a filter with activated carbon to remove the nitrogen dioxide,” she said.

Air cleaners with activated carbon are easy to find — you can try an Insignia air purifier from Best Buy, a Levoit air cleaner from Amazon and more.

When it comes time for a new stove, it’s worth purchasing a non-gas stove.

Getting a new stove is costly for those who own homes and largely impossible for those who rent. But, if you are in a position now or in a few years to get a new stove, consider an electric or induction stove instead of a gas stove, both experts said.

“They produce absolutely zero emissions from the heating process itself,” Cummings said. “Cooking your food might produce some emissions but that’s a totally different classification of pollution than what you get from a gas stove.”

In other words, you won’t be breathing in those harmful pollutants that come from natural gas.

On top of the health concerns, these electrically powered stoves are also better for the environment (though induction stoves, which are more energy-efficient, are also more costly).

When it comes to adding regulations around gas stoves, Miler said a decision to implement some restrictions would be great for the sake of climate change. “We need to start moving away from fossil fuel use in our homes — it would just be a huge leap forward from this issue,” she noted. Gas stoves use fossil fuels, which are bad for the planet.

Cummings added that some parts of the U.S. still get electricity (which powers both electric and induction stoves) from fossil fuels, but these stoves “will become increasingly cleaner to use as our electricity grid transitions to renewable.”

All in all, moving to a non-gas-powered stove is ideal, though impossible for many people (and that does not make you a bad person, Cummings stressed).

If you are stuck with a gas stove for the time being, follow the advice above to lower the health risks as you cook.

Doctors say men are getting more vasectomies amid abortion restrictions nationwide

Yahoo! News

Doctors say men are getting more vasectomies amid abortion restrictions nationwide

Jayla Whitfield Anderson, ·National Reporter – January 12, 2023

A doctor writes on a clipboard, posing questions to a patient. — Doctor and patient. (Getty Images)

After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark case that protected abortion rights, medical professionals say they have seen a drastic increase in vasectomies.

Vasectomies offer a form of permanent birth control for men, and roughly 500,000 are performed every year in the United States.

“There was an increase of basically 100% in the number of vasectomies from the moment Roe v. Wade was overturned,” Dr. Esgar Guarin, the co-founder of SimpleVas Medical Clinic, told Yahoo News.

Guarin, a doctor in Des Moines, Iowa, trained in maternal, child and reproductive health, says interest from male patients in learning more about the procedure increased after the Roe decision.

“Within only 48 hours, we signed up 50% of the patients that we normally sign up in a month, just immediately after June 24, and that trend continued,” he said.

In November, a Planned Parenthood office in St. Louis also noted a spike in vasectomies in an interview with Live Action. “Since the Dobbs decision, we have seen an increasing number of male-bodied people coming and requesting this service [vasectomies],” Dr. Margaret Baum of Planned Parenthood told Live Action. “We performed 142 vasectomies in 2021. Already this year, we’ve done close to 200 in 2022.”

But doctors say this isn’t the only major event that has pushed men to seek a permanent form of contraception.

“During the Great Recession, there was a marked increase in requests for vasectomies, because people felt that the economy was such that they couldn’t afford to have children,” Marc Goldstein, professor of reproductive medicine and urology at Weill Cornell Medical College, told Yahoo News.

Between 2007 and 2009, an estimated 150,000 to 180,000 additional men received a vasectomy, according to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM).

“And we’re seeing exactly the same thing happening now,” Goldstein said. “We’ve seen a doubling or tripling overall in the number of vasectomies, and they marked a drop in the number of reversals since Roe v. Wade.”

Abortion rights activists on the march, with signs also reading: Guns should not have more rights than women, — Abortion rights activists hold a sign reading “Vasectomy Prevents Abortion” at a protest in downtown Los Angeles, on June 24, 2022. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)

Doctors note a slight increase in the number of younger patients of less than 30 years old with no children seeking a vasectomy, with the largest increase among in men in their mid- to late 30s.

“We saw a bump up of about 20%-25% from 35- to 37-year-old men who had decided not to have any children in years prior, but had done nothing about it, and were purely relying on the partner for their contraception,” Guarin said.

As abortion rights are restricted nationwide, experts say vasectomies do not provide a replacement for access to abortion.

“Contraception is an integral part of ensuring reproductive justice, freedom and autonomy, but it always has to exist with access to other pregnancy outcomes, including access to abortion,” Katrina Kimport, professor of reproductive sciences at the University of California, San Francisco, told Yahoo News.

Even though medical professionals say vasectomies are cheaper, safer and faster, more women get their tubes tied. Vasectomies, however, are an outpatient procedure with a low risk of complications, and take less than an hour to complete.

“Tubal ligation and other procedures for women are options, but they usually have a higher risk of complications and may cost more,” Dr. Nicholas Toepfer, a UCHealth urologist, said in a UCHealth article.

“There has never been a single death from a vasectomy ever. In tubal ligation every single year in this country alone, 25 to 30 women die from getting a tubal ligation, because it requires a general anesthetic,” Goldstein said.

Since vasectomies have rarely been the popular choice, women have often carried the burden of preventing pregnancies.

“Women and people who can get pregnant are largely expected to prevent pregnancy on their own for 30 years or more. And there’s not enough public recognition for how hard that is,” Krystale Littlejohn, associate professor of sociology at the University of Oregon, told Yahoo News. “Responsibility for preventing pregnancy shouldn’t be a stopgap effort for men, and it shouldn’t be something that is done periodically. It is a long-term commitment to their partners and to themselves.”

Doctors suggest that men could step up more often. “It’s sad to see that it took restricting the rights of an individual to choose about her own body, for the counterparts to say, ‘You know what, I probably should be doing something, because I cannot rely on the very last option, because it’s no longer available,’” Guarin said.

A Republican elections commissioner said he was proud of lower turnout in Milwaukee. Democratic colleagues are calling for his resignation.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

A Republican elections commissioner said he was proud of lower turnout in Milwaukee. Democratic colleagues are calling for his resignation.

Molly Beck, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – January 12, 2023

MADISON – A Democratic member of the Wisconsin Elections Commission is calling on his Republican colleague to resign for praising lower voter turnout in Milwaukee during the 2022 general election that he attributed to targeting Black voters with negative ads, lawsuits filed by Republicans that added voting restrictions, and GOP campaigning that pushed Democratic voters to stay home instead of voting for candidates in their party.

Bob Spindell, the chairman of the Fourth Congressional District GOP and a member of the elections commission, told Republicans in a recent email the district party was proud of lower turnout in Milwaukee “due to a ‘well thought out multi-faceted plan'” that included “A substantial & very effective Republican Coordinated Election Integrity program resulting with lots of Republican paid Election Judges & trained Observers & extremely significant continued Court Litigation,” according to UrbanMilwaukee, which was the first to report on Spindell’s comments.

Democratic commissioner Mark Thomsen said Spindell should leave his position overseeing elections.

“My fellow commissioner Bob Spindell has shown he cannot be fair and should resign from the WEC,” Thomsen tweeted, citing the UrbanMilwaukee report. Thomsen did not respond to a request for an interview.

Bob Spindell, a Republican member of the Wisconsin Elections Commission.

“I would suspect that he didn’t read my article,” Spindell told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in response to Thomsen’s tweet.

Democratic commissioner Ann Jacobs also called for Spindell to resign, tweeting, “When you brag about suppressing votes, you are admitting you suppressed votes. Nothing in his claims says ‘our message won’ or ‘people came to our side.’ It is literally ‘We made them not vote – hooray!’ Mark Thomsen is absolutely correct. This is beyond the pale.”

Spindell said by touting lower voter turnout he was praising efforts by Republicans to make inroads with lifelong Democrats. He said Thomsen’s comments were ignoring the fact that commissioners are supposed to be partisan.

“The elections commission was not set up to be fair,” Spindell said. “The oath of office that we take does not say anything about not being nonpartisan. We were appointed by Republican and Democratic officials to be partisan and there is nobody more partisan than Ann Jacobs and Mark Thomsen and that is meant to be a compliment.”

“Three partisan Democrats and three partisan Republicans try to get together and come out with (guidance) that is in the best interest of Wisconsin and at the same time recognizing the interests of the (political parties) must be protected.”

In a five-page memo touting the party’s 2022 campaign strategies, Spindell wrote that the party is “especially proud of how the City of Milwaukee’s gross vote went down from 74% to 63% of registered voters — 37,000 total votes less than cast in 2018.”

“We must remember, in the strategy of things, it is often extremely difficult & hard to convert a hard core, long term generation type Democrat to all of a sudden, bring himself or herself around to vote for a Republican. However, by our Republican efforts, pointing out strongly, how the Democrat Candidates are worse than or certainly no better than their perception of the Republican Candidates, at all levels, they hopefully cannot bring themselves to vote for either one,” Spindell wrote.

“In a Democrat City or Democrat County where up to 80% of the people are voting for the Democrats – that’s a good thing and helped insure that Sen. Johnson got over the goal line.”

In the memo, Spindell claimed Democratic candidates did not receive “the votes they needed” from Black voters because of Republican campaigning targeting Black communities. He touted smaller voter turnout in Milwaukee aldermanic districts with high percentages of Black residents.

“While a great deal of credit goes to the RNC/RPW/Johnson paid staff and our many dedicated volunteers; our recruitment of good candidates & their hard work for these areas; continued presence on a Black Talk Radio Show coupled with Negative Black Radio Commercials, there is still a great deal of much more concentrated work we need to do in the Black and Hispanic Communities by continuing to show how the Democratic Elected Officials and Candidates are not watching out for the livelihoods of the people who live in these areas and the Republicans can,” he wrote.

By ballots cast, the Journal Sentinel reported, Milwaukee had the biggest proportional decline of any municipality in the county, but that may have been driven partly by population decline. Some 17% fewer ballots were cast in the city than in 2018, a drop off bigger than other communities in the county.

However, by another measure, percentage of registered voters, the decline in turnout in the city was in line with other Milwaukee County communities. Overall, Milwaukee County saw about 46,000 fewer ballots cast.

Spindell is one of the 10 Wisconsin Republicans who in 2020 submitted false paperwork to Congress and the National Archives claiming to be an elector for former President Donald Trump despite Trump losing the election, and has falsely claimed the 2020 election was “rigged” but legal.

Spindell has been sued by two of Wisconsin’s real presidential electors over his decision to submit false paperwork to Congress claiming to be a presidential elector for Trump. Spindell and other false electors have defended their actions, calling it a legal strategy in the event the election results were overturned by a lawsuit.

‘Morning Joe’ Rails on GOP ‘Idiots Running Around’: ‘I Don’t Know When the Republican Party Became the Stupid Party’ (Video)

The Wrap

‘Morning Joe’ Rails on GOP ‘Idiots Running Around’: ‘I Don’t Know When the Republican Party Became the Stupid Party’ (Video)

Aarohi Sheth – January 11, 2023

In the “Morning Joe” studio Wednesday, host Joe Scarborough went in on the Republican Party, after its inquiry into the “weaponization” of government was approved by a divided House Tuesday.

“I don’t know when the Republican party became the ‘stupid party,’” Scarborough mocked. “I can’t imagine that the White House, the Senate, and others are going to sit back and let these people destroy American intelligence agencies, destroy the FBI, harm our national security [all] because [House Republicans] got a grudge in the name of Donald Trump.”

Republicans pushed this inquiry to create a powerful new committee to scrutinize what they say they believe to be an effort by the government to target and in turn, silence conservatives. After a party-line vote of 221 to 211 with all Democrats opposed, the House approved the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, which is chaired by Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, who is also the incoming chairman of the Judiciary Committee and a Trump supporter.

Upon approval of the committee, an investigation will be launched into federal law enforcement and national security agencies. Jordan claims that this committee is meant to preserve the First Amendment, during a time when conservatives are supposedly being unfairly targeted, likely referring to the FBI’s search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property for classified White House documents he didn’t return for more than a year after leaving office.

“The political malpractice continues,” Scarborough said. “I know that there are a lot of former Republicans like me who say, ‘This is really bad. America needs a competent conservative party.’ Instead, we just have these idiots running around, trying to attack the military, trying to attack our intel services, trying to destroy the FBI.”

He continued: “This is the Republican party once again, not reading the room,” Scarborough said. “And by the room, I mean the United States of America, not reading American voters who rejected them in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2022. Now, they’re going to try and politicize intelligence. They’re going to try to get top-secret classified documents.”

Also Read:
‘The View’: Sunny Hostin Says Comparing Trump and Biden’s Classified Document Gaffes is ‘Like Comparing Apples to Orangutans’ (Video)

Scarborough doubled down, questioning who truly has faith in the Republican party, after they continue to push their various conspiracy theories forward.

“We trust these people? They’re going to war against the FBI, they’re attacking the Pentagon, they’re attacking our top-ranked military officers. When are they going to learn?”

Scarborough noted how this committee may just end up harming Republicans themselves.

“MAGA extremists need to keep losing elections,” Scarborough said, referring to all the Trump-backed candidates losing during the recent midterms. “This [committee] is sure to do it, they’re just damaging themselves.”

Rep. Andy Biggs spews Kari Lake-like delusion from Washington, D.C.

AZ Central – The Arizona Republic

Rep. Andy Biggs spews Kari Lake-like delusion from Washington, D.C.

EJ Montini, Arizona Republic – January 11, 2023

Rep. Andy Biggs delivers remarks in the House Chamber during the third day of elections for Speaker of the House at the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, DC.

Based on her ongoing unhinged behavior there is no doubt Arizona dodged a bullet when Republican Kari Lake lost the governor’s race.

Knowing the state won’t have a person in a position of power who is motivated by a bizarre, single-minded sense of revenge based on moronic or (even worse) mindful delusions affords us a sense of relief.

That is … until we recognize that the spinning barrel of Arizona politics has more than one round in the chamber.

The first Lake-like politician to come out blasting after the election, bent on destruction and with little or no grasp of reality is U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs.

Beginning by burning down the House

First, Biggs tried to metaphorically burn down the House of Representatives by putting himself up for speaker, making his own party look like a bunch of buffoons during days of ridiculous recriminations and deal-making, only to have the guy Biggs said was unfit to be speaker, Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy, wind up as …speaker.Then, on Tuesday, Biggs tweeted:

Last night, my Republican colleagues and I defeated the Democrats’ 87,000-person IRS army. We are working quickly to reverse the Democrats’ negligent policies. This is already a very good start to the 118th Congress!

Essentially, none of that is true.

Biggs and his Republican colleagues “defeated” nothing. To claim they did is not even wishful thinking. It’s close to hallucination. And Biggs knows it.

Last year, Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which included roughly $80 billion for the Internal Revenue Service to be spent over 10 years. But, as numerous fact checkers have pointed out numerous times during the election cycle, claims of an IRS “army” going after middle class families are fiction.

The IRS, which had been underfunded by Congress for years, plans to use the money to update its technology systems, to hire and train new technology specialists and customer service representatives, to replace some of the tens of thousands of retiring agents and to hire some news ones.

No ‘army’ and nothing was ‘defeated’

The “army” claim comes from the fact that agents within the IRS’s Criminal Investigation division can carry firearms. In context, there are roughly 82,000 IRS employees. About 2,000 of them are CI agents. And they don’t go after regular folks.

Biggs’ claim that he and the new Republican-controlled house “defeated” the original bill is a fantasy. It’s shocking – or is it? – to think that he and his Republican colleagues believe their supporters are stupid enough to believe that.

The Inflation Reduction Act is law.

The new Republican-controlled House passed legislation to eliminate the IRS funding in that bill, but the House proposal must first get through the Senate and be signed by President Joe Biden.

Neither of those things will happen.

Biggs knows this.

That is reality.

You are equipped with body armor. Use it.

Biggs also knows that fashioning such legislation then pushing it through the House was a colossal waste of time, all designed to send a false message filled with false bravado to gullible constituents who, in turn, might be conned into sending money back to the campaigns of the politicians who, in essence, did nothing.

We have plenty of other elected officials like Biggs – Rep. Paul Gosar, most of the GOP state legislative caucus and more – all with an unlimited supply of conspiracies and misleading information.

Don’t duck for cover, however.

Don’t run from the oncoming barrage.

There is widely available, impenetrable body armor at your disposable: Truth.

Republicans who snubbed Gov. Katie Hobbs will quickly become irrelevant

AZ Central – The Arizona Republic

Republicans who snubbed Gov. Katie Hobbs will quickly become irrelevant

Laurie Roberts, Arizona Republic – January 11, 2023

Republican state Sen. Anthony Kern turns his back as Katie Hobbs delivers her State of the State address to the Arizona House of Representatives during the opening session of the 56th Legislature on Jan. 9, 2023, in Phoenix.

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs delivered her first State of the State speech on Monday, only to watch as a handful of Republican legislators walked out or turned their backs.

The state of the state Legislature, it seems, is …

Rude.

Granted, it wasn’t exactly the Gettysburg Address, but Hobbs delivered a decent enough speech for her first time out, touching on many of the major issues confronting the state. There were no surprises.

“We are all here,” she began, “because we care deeply about Arizona.”

Well, most of those in attendance, anyway.

Members of the far-right Arizona Freedom Caucus walked out, unwilling even to listen to what a new governor, at the start of a new legislative session, had to say.

“As was foreseeable, Katie Hobbs utilized the time-honored State of the State Address to once again promote her radical, woke policy initiatives, rather than address the profoundly serious concerns that Arizonans have regarding the political and fiscal realities of daily life,” the caucus group said in a press release after the event.

So now it’s “radical” and “woke” to support public education, to require accountability when spending public money, to protect our dwindling groundwater supply?

Who, I wonder, is really out of step here?

Hobbs’ speech was hardly a wish list of the left. She called for:

– Overriding the aggregate spending limit so that schools attended by nearly 1 million Arizona children aren’t faced with widespread layoffs or even closures come April 1.

– Repairing crumbling schools and redirecting to all schools the $68 million in bonus funding that’s now reserved only for schools with good test scores.

– Creating a task force to figure out why 1 in 4 teachers are fleeing the classroom and what to do about it.

– Requiring privately owned charter schools to account for our how they spend the public’s money.

– Boosting state spending on affordable housing and offering a child tax credit to families earning less than $40,000 a year and exempting diapers and tampons from the state sales tax.

– Expanding college scholarships, including $40 million for undocumented students who now qualify for in-state tuition rates, thanks to passage of Proposition 308.

– Updating the state’s water management plan to put a stop to large agricultural interests that are pumping the ground dry in rural areas.

– Holding the line on further restrictions to abortion.

“I will use every power of the governor’s office to stop any legislation or action that attacks, strips or delays the liberty or inherent right of any individual to decide what’s best for themselves or their families,” Hobbs said.

You’d think the far right – the people who scream about vaccines – would be thrilled with those words.

Instead, some of the state’s most conservative legislators walked out on Hobbs, the first Democrat to be elected as governor since 2006.

“It took 5 seconds for Katie Hobbs to begin legislating from the 9th floor, so I will not listen to her rhetoric for even 5 seconds,” incoming Rep. Rachel Jones, R-Tucson, tweeted.

“We could not sit idly by while she repeatedly declared her intention to advance her woke agenda that stands at odds with the people of our state,” Rep. Jacqueline Parker, R-Mesa, explained, in a press release.

Republican Reps. Alexander Kolodin of Scottsdale and Jake Hoffman of Queen Creek also walked out. Sens. Anthony Kern of Glendale and Justine Wadsack of Tucson, meanwhile, stood and turned their backs.

Class acts, one and all.

Earlier in the day, the Freedom Caucus announced plans to sue Hobbs over last week’s ”unconstitutional” executive order – the one that strengthens worker protections for LGBTQ state employees and contractors.

Imagine filing a lawsuit because the state says it won’t fire people for being gay?

“The Arizona Freedom Caucus will oppose Katie Hobbs’ woke agenda,” Hoffman, the group’s chairman, vowed, during a Monday morning press conference. “You can bet your ass that will happen.”

You know another sure thing on which you can bet your hindquarters?

The Republicans who walked out on Monday – unwilling even to listen to what the governor had to say – will, in the end, have no voice in how Arizona is governed.

A split government, after all, requires compromise, and compromise requires a level of maturity not seen in the snowflakes who couldn’t stand even to listen on Day 1 to what Arizona’s new governor had to say.

Monday’s stunt was the first step to irrelevance.