The Iowa Derecho Put Refugee Food Workers at Even Greater Risk

The hurricane-force winds that leveled Cedar Rapids have impacted hundreds of refugees who were considered ‘essential workers’ at meatpacking plants and supermarkets.

Pat Rynard at Iowa Starting Line.       

 

Over a week after a sudden, powerful storm brought hurricane-like winds across the plains of Iowa and wrought severe damage upon the city of Cedar Rapids, Patrick Safari stood with his wife and three children amid the ruins of his former home at the now-decimated Cedar Terrace Apartments.

A Congolese refugee who found a new home in Iowa’s second-largest city, Safari and his family have been displaced once again by the derecho storm, his former apartment among the more than 1,000 buildings made “unsafe to occupy” after being essentially annihilated by the high winds. Like many of the apartment complex’s former residents, the family stayed in a tent until they were able to move into a hotel on August 15, nearly a week after their home had been destroyed.

Safari works at a nearby Walmart in a position deemed “essential” throughout the pandemic; COVID-19 has killed more than 1,000 people in a state with a population of just over 3 million people. After dealing with coronavirus concerns, the sudden winds of destruction were just another blow in an already dangerous year.

“We have corona and then this also, that’s a bigger problem for us,” Safari said.

The derecho destroyed an estimated 43% of Iowa’s crops, half of Cedar Rapids’ tree canopy, and at least 64,000 people were without electricity at one point. More than 200 refugees—hailing from Pacific island nations, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and other African countries—were forced from their homes by the collapse of several apartment complexes.

While the city of Cedar Rapids attempted to crawl out from beneath the decimation and the state slowly responded, many of these refugees were forced to live grouped together in tents and makeshift shelters just outside of their former homes. Some were able to cook, barbecuing chicken wings and ribs over makeshift grills made from spare parts and biding time while waiting for the city and aid organizations to assist in temporary relocation. World Central Kitchen arrived and began serving meals to the displaced while they waited to see what would happen next. In the meantime, workers like Safari were expected to continue on at their jobs.

“It’s very difficult to go to work, with my family. But I try, I try,” he said.

Outside the Cedar Terrace apartments. (Photo by Aaron Calvin)

Photo by Aaron Calvin

The scene outside the Cedar Terrace Apartments was busy with front loaders digging into rubble while the complexes’ former residents milled about, salvaging what could be saved. Children played basketball with a hoop that was miraculously still standing. A fire burned in a barrel, filling the air with acrid smoke as a group of Congolese men stood commiserating among the wreckage. Gis Masimbolomba was among them.

Since his apartment had been made uninhabitable, Masimbolomba had been living at a nearby motel. Like many others, his car is now inoperable. Without it, he cannot consistently travel to his job at National Beef in Tama, a meat-processing plant about an hour away from Cedar Rapids that employs many African immigrants.

“I need my car fixed. I’m sleeping at this motel, my wife comes in the morning,” he said. “My son sleeps somewhere else. I need some help. I want to move to a new apartment. I don’t know how to find one. I need to get out of the motel, but I don’t know what to do.”

For Masimbolomba and other workers like him, the loss of basic essentials like housing and transportation comes after months of working and living in daily fear of contracting COVID-19 as a workplace hazard. In April, the National Beef meat-processing plant closed for a week after reporting 155 out of 500 employees had tested positive for the COVID-19.

Refugees from all over the world work in meat-processing plants, where conditions were often considered dangerous even before the pandemic. Advocates have decried the practices of companies that own these plants, many of which have sped up their lines, and keep workers from social distancing.

“We have been really concerned about these businesses’ failure to protect workers and we had these concerns even before the pandemic,” Grace Meng, a representative of Human Rights Watch, told Civil Eats. “It’s clear that a lot of the dangerous practices at work created an ideal opportunity for the virus to spread.”

“We’ve seen over and over again that corporate ag, and large meatpackers in particular, consider their profits more important than the people of Iowa,” said Emma Schmidt an Iowa-based organizer for the national advocacy group Food and Water Watch. “Big Ag prefers to garner favor among Iowans with negligible acts like giving away pork loins during the holidays or sending home dollar-off coupons with school children rather than taking meaningful action to support our communities.”

Since the coronavirus pandemic began, the Congolese community in particular has borne an outsized amount of the risk, often working at essential grocery jobs or in close quarters at meat processing plants.

Out of the 327 refugees living in Cedar Rapids, 255 of them are Congolese. Since the coronavirus pandemic began to spread through the state in March, the Congolese community in particular has borne an outsized amount of the risk, whether that’s because they’re working at essential grocery jobs or in the close-quarters conditions at meat processing plants like National Beef and Tyson Foods.

In May, Axel Kabeya, one of the pillars of the Congolese community in the town of Waterloo, an hour north of Cedar Rapids, died after contracting the coronavirus at the Tyson pork plant where he worked. Jose Ayala, another Congolese immigrant living in Waterloo, died later that month after contracting the virus at the same Tyson plant.

Traditional burial is important in the Congolese community, which can mean higher costs. EMBARC Iowa, an organization that primarily supports Burmese refugees resettled in Iowa but offers aid to a refugees from a variety of backgrounds, raise money in May for the burial of Wiuca Iddi Wiuca, a Congolese man living in Des Moines who died from the coronavirus.

Sylvain M’zuza, a Congolese pastor who has been working with the International Cultural Center in Iowa and the newly created Emerging Communities Crisis Coalition to provide aid to displaced refugees in Cedar Rapids, had been helping distribute masks and educate the refugee population about protecting themselves from COVID-19. Now, just as efforts to mitigate against the virus were starting to take hold, the same people are in sudden need of food, supplies, translation services, and long-term housing.

“One of the most important things we’re doing is helping with transportation, some of them need to go to work, and some of them need care for their children, right now they don’t have sitters,” M’zuza said.

While nearly the entirety of Cedar Rapids’ 133,000 residents have been reeling from storm damage, the local and state response has been strained and the news of the city’s destruction was slow to arrive nationally, partly due to the crippled information infrastructure.

“We are working closely with emergency officials and community partners on the ground to identify safe and secure housing for the refugees in Cedar Rapids,” a spokesperson for the Iowa Department of Human Services told Civil Eats.

And M’zuza is also focused on the immediate need for transportation to the plant. “We need to get them to one spot where they can take the bus to Tama. [The city of] Tama is also working with us and the needs for transportation.”

According to a spokesperson with the Center for Worker Justice of Eastern Iowa (CWJEI) this situation has complicated the transportation. Prior to the derecho, workers would meet at one spot near their homes and carpool to National Beef in cars of four to five people, which was already putting them at high risk of spreading the virus. Now, with workers placed in various temporary living situations, it’s more difficult for everyone to meet at a centralized location. Some workers are able to get to work or arrive late, but others are avoiding traveling in larger groups out of fear of contracting the coronavirus, and missing days of work.

“Most of these workers came from a refugee camp, and now the fear of living in a camp again is coming back. . . . Some of them are reliving life in the camps because they’ve lost everything and they’re not receiving the proper help.”

It’s unclear at this time what, if anything, National Beef is doing to assist these refugees, who make up a significant portion of their workforce. The company did not respond to Civil Eats’ request for comment. On August 20, Tyson Foods announced a partnership with the Salvation Army to give away frozen chicken breasts throughout Cedar Rapids.

“They rely on the workers, so they should be helping make it easier for them,” the CWJEI spokesperson said, who wants to see National Beef step up to provide transportation or temporary housing closer to the plant.

“Most of these workers came from a refugee camp, and now the fear of living in a camp again is coming back,” she added. “Some of them are still sleeping in their cars because they’re afraid. Some of them are reliving life in the camps because they’ve lost everything and they’re not receiving the proper help.”

Michael Cohen records campaign ads against Trump: Don’t ‘believe a word he utters’

NBC News

Michael Cohen records campaign ads against Trump: Don’t ‘believe a word he utters’

Dareh Gregorian, NBC News                     August 24, 2020
Michael Cohen records campaign ads against Trump: Don't 'believe a word he utters'

Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, has recorded a series of anti-Trump ads that are scheduled to run during the Republican National Convention painting his former boss as a fraud.

“Later this week, he’s going to stand up and blatantly lie to you. I’m here to tell you he can’t be trusted — and you shouldn’t believe a word he utters,” Cohen, who was convicted in 2018 of federal crimes, including making secret payments to women who claimed they had affairs with Trump, says in the ad revealed Monday night.

Cohen, who is serving his three-year sentence in home confinement because of the coronavirus pandemic, says convention viewers will hear Trump “talk about law and order.”

“That’s laughable,” he says. “Virtually everyone who worked for his campaign has been convicted of a crime or is under indictment. Myself included.

“So when the president gets in front of the cameras this week, remember that he thinks we are all gullible, a bunch of fools,” he says.

The ad campaign was made by the Democratic group American Bridge 21st Century, which said it will release digital and TV ads throughout the week.

Cohen, once one of Trump’s most trusted employees, was sentenced in December 2018 for what a judge called a “veritable smorgasbord” of criminal conduct, including financial crimes an lying to congress. He was released in May as part of a nationwide program allowing federal inmates to be transferred to other prisons or confined to their homes because of the pandemic.

He was locked back up about a week after he tweeted that he was writing a tell-all book about Trump. A judge found last month that the decision was “retaliatory” and ordered Cohen released to home confinement.

‘#Unfit’ Film Review: Documentary Offers a Scary Diagnosis of Donald Trump, But Will Voters Listen?

‘#Unfit’ Film Review: Documentary Offers a Scary Diagnosis of Donald Trump, But Will Voters Listen?

Steve Pond                                  August 24, 2020
  • Donald Trump

“#Unfit: The Psychology of Donald Trump” is a frightening documentary that can leave you scared to death about the prospect of Donald Trump remaining in the Oval Office a day longer than is absolutely necessary. It’s a cautionary tale that can offer some degree of insight into the mind of our commander in chief. But it’s also a political documentary that can make you wonder whether film is even the right medium with which to take on Trump, and whether a movie like this can connect with anybody who doesn’t already believe everything it has to say.

The film by director Dan Partland is timely, of course, hitting select theaters and virtual cinemas on August 28, at the end of the week of the Republican Convention, and heading to streaming and VOD on Sept. 1. And it is tied into current news: Its focus on psychoanalyzing the president fits with the approach in Mary Trump’s recent book about her uncle, “Too Much and Never Enough,” while its use of George Conway as a prominent talking head coincides with Conway’s weekend announcement that he is stepping away from his work with the anti-Trump Lincoln Project while his wife, Kellyanne Conway, departs from her White House job so the couple can devote more time to family matters.

But that timeliness could in some ways be problematic for “#Unfit” — because today’s politics, particularly in the era of a Twitter-driven presidency and an around-the-clock barrage of revelation, accusation and condemnation, simply move too fast for any film to not seem a step or two behind the times.

Also Read: NBC News’ Chuck Todd: ‘Maybe a Sentence’ of Trump’s First RNC Speech Was Truthful (Video)

(In a clear sign of how difficult it is to keep up with the news in a feature film, the COVID-19 pandemic isn’t even mentioned until 1 hour and 15 minutes into the movie, which also happens to be less than 10 minutes before it ends.)

“#Unfit” tries to make up for this by being deep and comprehensive, though it mostly does a stylish job of trotting out experts we’ve seen over the last three years on MSNBC and CNN and occasionally Fox News. And as the title suggests, it hitches its wagon to the idea of explaining Trump by using psychologists and psychiatrists to diagnose what they see as a clear case of malignant narcissism.

The most prominent of the psychiatrists is John Gartner, who spearheaded a 2017 petition in which mental health professionals attested that in their judgment, Trump was unfit for office. The first half hour of the film is devoted to making a detailed case that the president meets the clinical definition of malignant narcissism, a personality disorder made up of narcissism, paranoia, anti-social personality disorder and sadism.

When professionals who had not personally examined Trump have made this diagnosis in Gartner’s petition or in other forums, they’ve been criticized for breaking the American Psychiatric Association’s “Goldwater Rule.” That rule was instituted after the magazine Fact published a 1964 story in which more than 1,000 psychiatrists deemed presidential candidate Barry Goldwater “unfit to be president,” citing a variety of Freudian reasons such as “He’s never forgiven his father for being a Jew.”

Also Read: Latest Jim Carrey Cartoon Depicts Trump Supporter on Ventilator

Goldwater successful sued – and in “#Unfit,” Gartner approves of that verdict but says the Goldwater rule was meant only to stop “unfounded speculation, not knowledgeable conclusions” based on “observable behavior.” Diagnoses of Trump, he says, are entirely reasonable based on his actions – and, he adds, they would likely not be aided much by first-hand interviews, in which subjects are likely to lie.

Viewers who come to the film opposed to Trump – which, let’s face it, will be the vast majority of the audience – are likely to find this stretch of the film exhaustive and persuasive; Trump supporters who watch it will probably find fault both with the conclusions and with the ethics of reaching those conclusions.

But the psychological diagnosis is only the start of “#Unfit,” even though it’s the whole point of the film’s title. Partland moves from there to an array of interviews with government officials, former Trump aides, journalists and others – and while they are damning, they’re also the kind of things we’ve been hearing for years, often from these same people.

Sportswriter Rick Reilly, for example, goes into detail about how Trump cheats at golf, something he wrote a book about and has talked about in frequent interviews. Anthony Scaramucci blasts his old boss, just as he has been doing for the past year. Former naval officer Malcolm Nance argues credibly that Trump “does not believe in democracy” and that this is “a dangerous, dangerous time for the world,” which he has frequently said on MSNBC and other outlets.

Yes, it’s terrifying to hear everything together in a seamless, hard-hitting package, but is it fresh enough to jar anybody out of their entrenched positions in this divisive political climate? That’s a question that hangs over the bulk of the film, which ties Trump’s psychological profile to his authoritarian tendencies and then to the dangers those tendencies currently pose.

It’s also one of the ironies of “#Unfit” that immediately after Scaramucci points out that attacking Trump’s supporters is guaranteed to get them to rally behind him, the film starts comparing them to the citizens of Italy and Germany who helped Mussolini and Hitler rise to power.

No, those voters aren’t the target audience for this movie – instead, they’re the ones of which one expert explains, “Once you get on board, there is no rational argument that will change your opinion.”

“#Unfit” feels like a rational argument, and a powerful one. But if it’s liable to scare lots of people who already oppose Trump, it doesn’t feel as if it will change anybody’s opinion.

Brittany: How Can I Love God & Vote for Biden?

How Can I Love God & Vote for Biden?

By Brittany                 August 16th, 2020
Sharing is caring, babe!
Right. I don’t know how to gracefully do this, so let’s just get into it.

I see so many memes about how you can’t possibly be a Christian and support Joe Biden. That you can’t be a Catholic and vote Democrat. That it’s Trump who is the leader who espouses the faith we should be voting for.

I read them and I think… what the actual hell? 

It is my faith that leads me to vote Democrat. It is growing up in the teachings of Jesuit Priests that have filled me with compassion for the displaced and fleeing, welcoming them to my country as my neighbor.

It’s my faith that taught me that every person, no matter the background or bank account, deserves food, shelter, and safety.

My faith has filled me with the belief that it’s not the tax breaks that will get me into heaven, but truly giving a shit about someone else, through every stage of their lives.

I remember  sitting in Mass as a child and listening to a homily about how we should approach every person we meet wearing a blindfold, offering love and compassion first, sight unseen. We are not entitled to their story. We are not owed justification or explanation of their choices.  We just love and accept them. And it empowered my soul.

Every human has value. Every human is equal. No person is illegal. Love is not a sin.

It feels weird talking about this. Christian blogging isn’t really my style, and if you asked me to draw a line representing my brand of religion, it’d admittedly be a giant scribble.

I’m not Mother Teresa but if you need me to define my level of religious zealous, I’d say I’m an “Are You There God It’s Me Margaret” Catholic. I was raised in Catholic school, I go to Mass when I can, but me and God talk daily.

But, my religion is not my faith. My soul has room for both science and my belief in God, and I do not struggle to house both.

Listen. Churches are filled with a whole mess of “isms.” The history of harm there is deep, and it’s not a stranger to cloaking itself in Jesus stickers to hide its bouts of hate.

I see it on a global scale, playing out in acts of war and oppression. But more importantly, I see it in my own life.

The people sitting in the first pew of my church, nodding their heads with the priest asking them to love one another- without reservation- who then going home and post violence and hate on their walls. I see them with their Pray to End Abortion signs in their yards, as they vote against policies that would feed and care for the very “lives” they scream to protect.

We are taught to give someone the shirt from our back, yet bemoan the burden of the undocumented.

We are taught to love thy neighbor, yet our rose garden is used to list and threaten our enemies.

We are taught to wash the feet of the poor, yet vote to cut those in need off at the knee.

And abortion. The cornerstone of every political and religious argument. How do I rectify that with my vote? A few ways.

First, I believe in the quote that I will now butcher: your right to swing your fist ends where my nose begins.  Meaning I use my personal faith to guide me, not legislate you.

Second, my strong belief in science and viability aside, the truth is, I too, pray to end abortion.

I pray that we are provided with the means and education to make safe decisions. I pray that men no longer rape or commit sexual violence against women. I pray that women never feel they have to make a decision about their bodies based on fear or financial means. I pray that a woman’s value is not tied to being a vessel.  And I pray that no matter what decisions they make with their doctors, that they are met with the respect and compassion we have been taught to give, blindfold on.

Abortion has been the dangling carrot coaxing the faithful into the voting booth while hunger, poverty, and oppression is sold to us as self-created issues we are not responsible for shouldering.

I see all this, and it’s easy to think, maybe I’m not made for religion. That I’m too pissed and weary to fight to keep both my faith and my convictions.

But then I remember that I can because I’m able. And just because my comfort in that pew is cyclical, my faith is not.

Empathy. Inclusion. Justice. Kindness.

You ask me how can I believe in God and vote Biden, and I say to you, how could I not?

An 18-year-old woman drowned near a Minnesota dam after carrying several children to safety, police say

Raina Lynn Neeland

Raina Lynn Neeland

 

(CNN)Minnesota police say 18-year-old Raina Lynn Neeland drowned after carrying several children to safety who were near a dam.

Police responded to a call about a drowning on Monday evening, according to the Clearwater County Sheriff’s Office. Clearwater County is about 250 miles northwest of Minneapolis.
Witnesses told officers several children had been swimming in a river near the Clearwater Dam on Clearwater Lake.
Some got caught up in rushing waters that came from the dam and according to police, “could not free themselves.”
“The water level at the dam was considerably higher due to the large amount of rain received recently,” the sheriff’s office said.
An 8-year-old girl was pulled out of the water and resuscitated. Neeland, who witnesses said had been underwater for about 10 minutes, was also pulled out but remained unresponsive despite several life-saving efforts by witnesses and medics.
Neeland pulled several of the younger children to safety before she went under water, police said.
A GoFundMe campaign shared by the sheriff’s office Facebook page says Neeland drowned while saving her younger cousins.
“Raina loved cooking with her grandma also she loved helping take care of her siblings and cousins,” the campaign says.

Another Giveaway to Polluters From the Trump EPA

Another Giveaway to Polluters From the Trump EPA

The Editors                       August 21, 2020

He didn’t use exactly those words, but it amounts to the same thing. EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist, said he was freeing oil and gas companies from “burdensome and ineffective regulations.” By rolling back an Obama-era policy designed to curb gas leaks at pipelines and wells, the EPA administrator was essentially giving energy companies the go-ahead to release much more climate-warming methane into the atmosphere.

Methane is an invisible, odorless gas that can trap heat in the atmosphere 80 times more effectively than carbon dioxide. Leaking pipelines, wells and storage facilities are a major source of methane emissions, which is why the Obama administration, in 2016, pushed energy firms to find and fix those leaks. The Trump administration officially undid those requirements on Thursday.

Contrary to the EPA administrator’s claims, the Obama-era rules were neither ineffective nor especially burdensome. Indeed, many big energy firms — knowing a public-relations disaster when they see one — have joined environmentalists in protesting the rollback. Smaller firms with narrower profit margins will, it is true, benefit from reduced compliance costs. But there’s little sense in bailing them out if that imposes environmental costs on everyone else. Thanks to the rollback, some 400,000 tons of methane will leak into the atmosphere over the next decade, according to the EPA. That’s equivalent to burning another billion pounds of coal every year.

The EPA’s move will no doubt energize state-level efforts to limit emissions from oil and gas sites. In Pennsylvania, the country’s No. 2 gas-producing state, one such proposal from the Department of Environmental Protection has already gained vocal support. Regulators there can look to Colorado, which has long had standards surpassing those of the federal government.

On their own, though, states can only do so much. That’s why Senate Democrats have introduced a bill to that would hold energy firms responsible for methane leaks. It has little chance of passing the Republican-led chamber, but the outcome of the November elections might improve its prospects. And if Democrat Joe Biden wins the presidency, he could quickly reverse the EPA’s misguided decision.

When the EPA administrator made his announcement in a crucial swing state last week — fulsomely praising President Trump and slamming the “Obama-Biden administration” — November’s elections weren’t far from anyone’s mind. This partisan turn was disappointing, yet clarifying. Voters need to ask whether they want a new administration that takes science seriously and sets ambitious goals to cut greenhouse-gas emissions, or a president who offers giveaways to the fossil-fuel industry so irresponsible they make its biggest producers cringe.

Editorials are written by the Bloomberg Opinion editorial board.

Trump is opening Alaska’s wilderness to the oil business, but no one is buying

Quartz

Trump is opening Alaska’s wilderness to the oil business, but no one is buying

By Michael J. Coren, Climate reporter         August 20, 2020
REUTERS/U.S FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE. Prime drilling habitat?
The climate economy and the severity of the climate crisis has finally sunk in, and it’s inspiring individuals and industries to take action.

 

The Trump administration  announced this week it would issue decades-long leases in the massive Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), potentially holding its first auctions by the end of the year.

It’s not clear anyone will take them up on the offer.

For quite some time, oil and gas companies (and their financiers) have been running in the other direction. Major banks have already refused to lend to projects that would drill in the 19.6-million-acre Alaskan preserve known as the  “last great wilderness.” Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo had all sworn off financing oil development in the tundra’s refuge.

And few oil firms appear ready to take out loans, in any case. Last year, BP sold off its Alaska operations (including leasing rights in a private holding of ANWR). Anadarko, Pioneer Natural Resources, and Marathon Oil have hocked their holdings. Shell left Alaska without bothering to sell its assets. That’s left two companies, ConocoPhillips and Hilcorp, controlling 72% of Alaska’s oil production (the rest are owned by Exxon Mobil and a few smaller firms).

For all Donald Trump’s talk of “energy dominance,” the future of ANWR may be out of his hands. The hesitancy to drill new wells in Alaska’s Arctic is driven in part by a warming world: The state is heating up twice as fast as the rest of the nation, and its melting permafrost wreaks havoc on drilling infrastructure. But it has much more to do with the dire economics of drilling for expensive oil in remote locations.

Coronavirus has presented an existential crisis for the oil and gas industry, forcing every company to reckon with what it will take to survive.

Because of those high costs and low prices, the state’s oil production has declined 75% from its 2 million barrels per day peak in 1988. Alaska is predicting no growth in oil production for the rest of the decade.

“ANWR is a distraction,” said energy consultant Phil Verleger. If any leases do go up for auction, he predicts, “I doubt any company will bid.” Yet the refuge remains a battleground. The possibility of a billion-barrel oil discovery remains, and a few oil companies are holding out in hopes of hitting pay dirt one last time before the global economy shifts definitively away from fossil fuels.

Big Oil, no money

For decades, Republicans in the US have been trying to open up a critical strip of the refuge’s coastal plain to drilling. And until recently, legislators have been able to stall those efforts. Since 1980, more than 50 votes over ANWR drilling have gone before Congress. All have gone on to defeat—until 2017, when drilling was finally authorized as part of Republicans’ “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.”

US EIA
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and trans-Alaska pipeline from the North Slope to Valdez, Alaska.

The decision came just late enough to be virtually irrelevant. Drilling in this region of Alaska might have made economic sense 10 or even five years ago. Today, it’s risky and out of reach for a diminished oil and gas industry that has seen its stock prices plunge along with the price of oil.

Energy companies’ share of the S&P500 has fallen from nearly 30% in 1980 to less than 5% today. “There is almost no rationale for Arctic exploration,” said Goldman Sachs analyst Michele Della Vigna on CNBC’s Squawk Box in 2017. “Immensely complex, expensive projects like the Arctic we think can move too high on the cost curve to be economically doable.”

Since then, it’s only gotten worse. Oil prices have hit historic lows, dropping to $45 this year, while breakeven prices to extract oil in Alaska’s rugged, remote terrain remain between $55 to $65 per barrel, estimates S&P Global Platts Analytics. In ANWR itself, the bar may be even higher:  $78 per barrel, according to the liberal think tank Center for American Progress.

This all comes on top of the logistical difficulties of building infrastructure in a place that is rapidly melting as a result of climate change. ConocoPhillips, one of the few major operators left in the region, is proposing a drilling project on Alaska’s North Slope. Expected to be approved by the federal Bureau of Land Management, it is so vulnerable to melting permafrost that the environmental impact statement proposes re-freezing the Alaskan tundra beneath its oil platforms (using gas-filled cylinders called thermosyphons), as well as constructing gravel roads built five to seven feet deep to prevent more thawing.

Oil production in ANWR is decades away, if it happens at all. With oil prices expected to fall along with demand as electric vehicle sales rise, it’s unclear if prices will rise again to the point where it makes economic sense to open ANWR.

Would you pay a toll to enter the Keys? Money needed to fight sea level rise, leaders say

Would you pay a toll to enter the Keys? Money needed to fight sea level rise, leaders say

Gwen Filosa                      August 19, 2020

It’s one of the most spectacular scenic drives in the nation: the Overseas Highway that leads down the Florida Keys to mile marker zero on U.S. 1.

Under blue skies, you can drift down the highway, along a collection of bridges, with the ocean on one side and the Gulf of Mexico on the other.

So should it be a free ride?

No, Monroe County Commissioners said on Wednesday. Once again, they are considering a toll for visitors — not residents. Those who work in the Keys but live on the mainland are also not targeted, County Administrator Roman Gastesi said.

But don’t load up your SunPass account just yet.

Commissioners only told staff to explore ordering a feasibility study on installing a toll at the Monroe County end of the 18-mile stretch of U.S. 1 that connects the mainland to the Keys.

First, commissioners have to determine the state and federal laws and regulations they need to deal with to create a toll.

U.S. 1, which starts at mile marker 0 in Key West and runs to Maine, is part of a federal network of state-owned highways. It is a “federal-aid” highway, which could place it under U.S. rules requiring that any tolls collected be spent on new road construction or needed maintenance.

Commissioners also need to find out exactly what they can spend the toll revenue on, outside of highway maintenance and reconstruction.

One idea they have: using the money to battle the impacts of sea level rise in the Keys.

“The worst-case scenario is that any fees collected by a toll could be used by transportation and on transportation-related items,” said Monroe Mayor Heather Carruthers, of Key West.

Tolls were collected on U.S. 1 in 1927 and 1938 and have been collected on Card Sound Road since 1926.

The Lower Matecumbe toll booth on the Overseas Highway, circa 1940.
The Lower Matecumbe toll booth on the Overseas Highway, circa 1940.

Also on Wednesday, the commission voted to raise the toll at Card Sound Road by one penny. The toll on a two-axle vehicle will be 78 cents. Three or more axles will go up to $1.03.

Keys leaders for years have been talking about making U.S. 1 a toll road.

The Florida Department of Transportation strongly opposed efforts in 2010 to 2012 to consider a Florida Keys toll.

“Our usual response from our partners when we request this is deafening silence for extended periods of time,” said Commissioner David Rice. “I would support giving it another try and hope we can at least get a respectful response.”

On July 21, 2010, the commission unanimously directed staff to investigate and research installing a toll on the stretch to fund a wastewater mandate and address infrastructure needs related to sea level rise.

In 2017, the commission researched how to make it happen and unanimously approved a resolution to support the exploration of a toll into the Keys for nonresidents.

“What are you going to do about the fact we’ll probably be the only county in the United States you can only get to by toll,” said Commissioner Sylvia Murphy of Key Largo. “That question is going to come up. You need to be ready with an answer.”

County Attorney Bob Shillinger said in response that it’s hard to get to Hawaii without “paying something” to get there.

In the past, the toll idea was opposed by former U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, Shillinger said.

“He’s no longer there so that obstacle is gone,” Shillinger said.

As Obama explains what’s at stake, Trump fires rhetorical blanks

MSNBC – MaddowBlog

As Obama explains what’s at stake, Trump fires rhetorical blanks

By Steve Benen      August 20, 2020

Obama doesn’t think Trump puts individual policies or priorities in jeopardy; he thinks his successor puts everything in jeopardy.
Barack Obama during night 3 of the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 19, 2020.

Barack Obama during night 3 of the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 19, 2020.

The idea that former presidents refrain from criticizing their successors after leaving office is popular, but it’s largely a myth. Teddy Roosevelt was scathing in his criticisms of William Taft. Herbert Hoover blasted Franklin Roosevelt. Dwight Eisenhower had plenty of unkind words about John F. Kennedy.

But I was glad to see NBC News presidential historian Michael Beschloss observe last night what I was thinking: “No former President has ever attacked his incumbent successor at a convention like Barack Obama tonight, or even come close.”

It’s one thing for a former president to criticize a successor’s vision or agenda; it’s something else when a former president makes a compelling case that his successor is putting the nation’s future in severe jeopardy.

“For close to four years now, he’s shown no interest in putting in the work; no interest in finding common ground; no interest in using the awesome power of his office to help anyone but himself and his friends; no interest in treating the presidency as anything but one more reality show that he can use to get the attention he craves. Donald Trump hasn’t grown into the job because he can’t. And the consequences of that failure are severe: 170,000 Americans dead, millions of jobs gone while those at the top take in more than ever. Our worst impulses unleashed, our proud reputation around the world badly diminished and our democratic institutions threatened like never before.”

To be sure, much of Obama’s message emphasized his hopes and inspirations — the man is who he is — but there was an element of fear undergirding the former president’s prepared remarks.

Obama described an incumbent president as a corrupt narcissist, threatening the pillars that hold our country up. “This administration has shown it will tear our democracy down if that’s what it takes to win,” the Democrat said toward the end of his remarks.

That’s a rather extraordinary 17-word sentence. The assessment is rooted in truth, of course, and that’s what matters most, but no modern voter has heard a former president explain with such candor how dangerous his successor is. Obama added:

“[H]ere’s the point: this president and those in power — those who benefit from keeping things the way they are — they are counting on your cynicism. They know they can’t win you over with their policies. So they’re hoping to make it as hard as possible for you to vote, and to convince you that your vote doesn’t matter. That’s how they win. That’s how they get to keep making decisions that affect your life, and the lives of the people you love. That’s how the economy will keep getting skewed to the wealthy and well-connected, how our health systems will let more people fall through the cracks. That’s how a democracy withers, until it’s no democracy at all. We can’t let that happen. Do not let them take away your power. Don’t let them take away your democracy.”

Obama doesn’t see Trump as a Republican opponent; he sees him as an American menace. Obama doesn’t think Trump puts individual policies or priorities in jeopardy; he thinks his successor puts everything in jeopardy.

About halfway through the speech, the former president explained that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris “understand that political opponents aren’t ‘un-American’ just because they disagree with you; that a free press isn’t the ‘enemy’ but the way we hold officials accountable; that our ability to work together to solve big problems like a pandemic depends on a fidelity to facts and science and logic and not just making stuff up.”

And it was at roughly this same point that Donald Trump made stuff up, publishing his latest unhinged tweet: “HE SPIED ON MY CAMPAIGN, AND GOT CAUGHT!”

More than 70 Republican former national security officials come out in support of Biden

More than 70 Republican former national security officials come out in support of Biden

Luke Barr                  

More than 70 former Republican national security officials, including some former members of the Trump administration, came out in support of Joe Biden’s bid for president Thursday, according to an open letter that also offered a scathing rebuke of President Donald Trump’s first term in office.

“We are profoundly concerned about the course of our nation under the leadership of Donald Trump,” the officials wrote. “Through his actions and his rhetoric, Trump has demonstrated that he lacks the character and competence to lead this nation and has engaged in corrupt behavior that renders him unfit to serve as President.”

Some signers include former FBI Director William Webster, former Defense Secretary under President Obama Chuck Hagel and former CIA Director Michael Hayden.

 

The letter outlines 10 reasons the signers believe Trump isn’t fit for the Oval Office.

“Donald Trump has gravely damaged America’s role as a world leader,” the first point in the letter says. Other items include declarations that Trump is “unfit to lead during a national crisis,” “solicited foreign influence,” “aligned himself with dictators,” “disparaged our armed forces, intelligence agencies, and diplomats,” “undermined the rule of law,” “dishonored the office of the presidency,” “divided our nation,” “attacked and vilified immigrants” and “imperiled America’s security.”

“While we – like all Americans – had hoped that Donald Trump would govern wisely, he has disappointed millions of voters who put their faith in him and has demonstrated that he is dangerously unfit to serve another term. In contrast, we believe Joe Biden has the character, experience, and temperament to lead this nation,” the letter reads.

PHOTO: President Donald Trump arrives to speak to a crowd of supporters during a campaign stop at Mariotti Building Product, Aug. 20, 2020, in Old Forge, Pa.  (Evan Vucci/AP)
PHOTO: President Donald Trump arrives to speak to a crowd of supporters during a campaign stop at Mariotti Building Product, Aug. 20, 2020, in Old Forge, Pa. (Evan Vucci/AP)

 

One of the former officials who signed the letter told ABC News that she hoped Trump would rise to the occasion of being president, but in her view, he did not.

“Many of us hoped that Trump, like those before him, would rise to the honor of the office. That the mantel of leadership would weigh heavy on him and lead to a change of behavior. That perhaps the tweeting, the bullying, the coarse language would be set aside behind closed doors and that he would treat the office with the dignity and gravity it deserves. That did not happen,” Elizabeth Neumann, former assistant secretary of Homeland Security told ABC News.

“[Trump’s] leadership style is chaos; and if you study him — this is a style that he has used for decades in business,” she added. “But chaos at the top of our federal government leads to chaos throughout the government. Some see this as a way to weaken the so-called ‘deep state’ — but what it actually does is weaken our security agencies’ ability to secure and protect our nation. The botched COVID response is merely the latest example — but also one of the gravest with the cost being American lives.”

The Trump campaign did not immediately comment on the letter.

“Donald Trump’s four years in the White House have left America isolated abroad, our alliances in tatters, and autocrats like Xi and Putin emboldened,” Biden campaign spokesperson Michael Gwin said in a statement. “This endorsement is a clear sign of both how weak Donald Trump has left the United States globally, and of Vice President Biden’s unique ability to pick up the pieces next January by rebuilding critical relationships and standing up for American values and interests against the adversaries that Trump has coddled.”

Earlier this week, the former Department of Homeland Security chief of staff under former Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, Miles Taylor, came out in support of Biden.

“Given what I’ve experienced in the administration, I have to support Joe Biden for president,” Taylor said in a video posted and produced by the group Republican Voters Against Trump. “And even though I’m not a Democrat, even though I disagree on key issues, I’m confident that Joe Biden will protect the country, and I’m confident he won’t make the same mistakes as this president.”

Acting Secretary Chad Wolf blasted Taylor in a statement, accusing him of reversing course for “five minutes of fame.”