Bits n’ pieces from east, west and beyond
East, west or beyond, sooner or later events elsewhere may have a local impact.
A recent sampling:
Hemp to curb climate change? While useless as a narcotic, hemp is ultra-efficient at absorbing and confining carbon, The Guardian says. An acre of fast-growing hemp can absorb more than seven tons of carbon while also storing three of those tons -- that may be twice as effective as trees.
Uses for the carbon permanently fixed into hemp fibers: textiles, insulation, concrete and some plastics.
Maui wildfire update, from numerous sources: “We in Hawaii have been through hurricanes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, but we have never seen such a robust federal response. Thank you.” That was Hawaiian Sen. Brian Schatz commenting on actions after the state’s devastation Aug. 8 and 9, the deadliest fire in modern U.S. history. Federal action began Aug. 9 after the president ordered all the island’s federal assets to help, which encompassed road clearing, addressing power grid needs and hazardous waste, and aiding state fire responses.
A federal disaster declaration came the next day, unleashing federal funds to help with housing, property losses, cleanup and hazards. FEMA provided one-time $700 payments for families now houseless and the Dept. of Ag activated food benefits. Small business loans were put into place and Medicare and Medicaid were granted greater flexibility.
Worst wildfire season on record: Canada has at least 1,000 fires says the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. BBC says experts fault climate change for hotter and dryer weather that increasingly draws moisture out of the ground, thereby creating more fuels for fires.
Wealth tax in Massachusetts: The state passed a 4% tax increase on incomes over $1 million, generating $1 billion for 2024. Funds will target free school lunches, transportation and projects like clean energy, child care and free community college for students over 25, The Lever reported.
Recently, prominent conservative legal scholars are insisting the 14th Amendment, written post-Civil War, remains relevant. The 14th says people are disqualified from holding office for engaging in an insurrection or rebellion against the government -- if they had previously taken an oath to uphold the Constitution. In their 126-page argument for the 14th, originalist Constitutionalists William Baude and Michael Paulsen claim the 14th prohibits Donald Trump from running for office.
Renowned legal scholars from opposing sides of the political spectrum reviewed the paper via The Atlantic; both approved it, and said Americans should support the “faithful application and enforcement of their Constitution.”
Update on Georgia’s recent indictment of Trump and 18 co-defendants: charges include racketeering for trying to overturn the 2020 election. CNN said Georgia’s use of RICO laws includes mandatory minimum prison sentences. Because the charges are in state and not federal courts, a Republican president would not be able to issue pardons until five years after completion of a sentence.
Cancelled: After promising a public report he said would completely exonerate him from charges of racketeering and election interfering he faces in Georgia, Trump canceled the press conference. He explained that his lawyers want him to instead put the material into a legal filing, Axios reported.
Manipulating a repeat of history? Trump gained the presidency in 2016 with 45.9% of the vote, which has been attributed to third party candidates siphoning votes from Democrats. To win in 2024 Trump will again need a third party, political observers are claiming. No Labels is stepping up to the plate: the group says they are “centrists,” but their top funders are Republicans.
Merging fascism and authoritarianism: Yale professor Jason Stanley is the son of refugees who fled Hitler. He says fascism is not confined to ultra-nationalist values, but also uses authoritarian strategies to grab power for a select few. Stanley is the author of the book “How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them.” Fascist tactics include propaganda, anti-intellectualism, “unreality,” hierarchy, victimhood, law and order, sexual anxiety and “a dismantling of public welfare and unity.”
PragerU materials are now being allowed for use in some Florida public school curriculums. Viewers say their material includes claims that wind and solar pollute the planet and that climate activists are Nazis. PragerU’s webpage says they are not an accredited university, they don’t offer degrees, but “we do provide educational, entertaining, pro-America videos for every age.”
An example: a video involves two children time traveling and meeting Christopher Columbus, who tells them he ordered his men to treat the natives well. But historian Howard Zinn documents from letters by Columbus saying he quickly saw slave potential and “I took some natives by force.”
Next, Columbus took women and children for “slaves for sex and labor.”
Over the span of two years of Columbus’s influence, half of the 250,000 Haitian Indians died. The PragerU video glosses that over when a cartoon Columbus says “Being taken as a slave is better than being killed, no? I don’t see the problem.”
Blast from the past: “Some people can be reasoned into sense, and others must be shocked into it.” Founder Thomas Paine, 1737-1809, author of “Common Sense.”
And another blast: “Tyranny hates memory.” American historian and author, Tom Christensen.