Dispatches

RECORD TURNOUT IN GEORGIA? THERE WAS A RECORD COLLAPSE!

Amidst the celebration that Sen. Raphael Warnock won a full six-year term by defeating Herschel Walk in a runoff election, Greg Palast noted that voter suppression rules adopted by the Republican Georgia Legislature reduced the turnout from 4.48 million votes cast in the 2021 runoff to 3.54 million this year. Rev. Warnock’s vote in Fulton County (Atlanta) plummeted by 74,000 votes. “Let’s cut the BS — Brian Kemp’s SB202 Jim Crow’d this election,” Palast wrote at GregPalast.com. “Both the general and the runoff fell by 1 million votes.”

On Thom Hartmann’s radio show (12/9), Palast noted that in-person turnout was about the same as in the 2020 election, but the million votes were lost in he mail-in and dropbox vote, “which they made virtually illegal.” In addition to cutting the runoff time from 60 days to 28 days, which stopped Democrats from registering additional voters, and the state stopped automatically sending mail-in ballots to disabled and elderly people, students and active-duty military who are serving outside the state—and anyone could challenge a voter’s registration. And 88 Republicans challenged 149,000 Democrats. Most of the challenges were turned away, Palast said, but US Army Major Gamaliel Turner, who was assigned to a military base in California, was forced to go to court to get his ballot. His wife, who had joined him at the military base, never got her absentee ballot.

Barbara Arnwine, a voting rights law professor from Columbia University, literally carried disabled, elderly Black people to the polls because they never got their mail-in ballots. And voting lines took two hours in every early voting precinct in Atlanta, while in the predominantly White rural counties, the average wait was 10 minutes.

And on the rainy Election Day. Arnwine was upset because she could not hand mothers with children an umbrella, because that’s a felony crime and she would be disbarred. She couldn’t hand them a box of juice while they were waiting two hours in the rain. All she could do was go along the line and say, “Thank you for voting.”

REPORTS OF ‘BREAKTHROUGH’ IN FUSION POWER FUELS HOPES OF MAJOR CLEAN ENERGY PROGRESS. After decades of experimentation and billions of dollars in public investment, US government scientists have reportedly achieved a major “breakthrough” in fusion energy technology, a potential game-changer in the critical pursuit of clean, reliable, and low-cost alternatives to fossil fuels and conventional nuclear power.

The Financial Times reported (10/11) that scientists at a federal laboratory in California successfully produced “a net energy gain in a fusion reaction for the first time,” a milestone that the Biden administration was to announce publicly Dec. 13, Jake Johnson noted at CommonDreams (12/12).

“Physicists have since the 1950s sought to harness the fusion reaction that powers the sun, but no group had been able to produce more energy from the reaction than it consumes,” the newspaper observed. “The federal Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, which uses a process called inertial confinement fusion that involves bombarding a tiny pellet of hydrogen plasma with the world’s biggest laser, had achieved net energy gain in a fusion experiment in the past two weeks.”

The experiment, according to people aware of the outcome, produced more energy than expected, damaging some of the facility’s equipment.

Arthur Turrell, a plasma physicist and author, wrote on Twitter that “if this is true, we are witnessing a moment of history: controlling the power source of the stars is the greatest technological challenge humanity has ever undertaken.”

“Scientists have struggled to show that fusion can release more energy out than is put in since the 1950s, and the researchers at Lawrence Livermore seem to have finally and absolutely smashed this decades-old goal,” Turrell continued. “This experimental result will electrify efforts to eventually power the planet with nuclear fusion—at a time when we’ve never needed a plentiful source of carbon-free energy more!”

The world-changing potential of fusion power—touted by proponents as “the holy grail of clean energy”—has spurred an intensifying global push among governments and private interests to accelerate progress in the field, particularly as greenhouse gas emissions continue to shatter records while policymakers refuse to phase out fossil fuel development and use.

Scientists have repeatedly warned that world governments are running out of time to prevent the worst of the climate emergency, adding further urgency to fusion research and development initiatives.

While welcoming the apparent scientific breakthrough in fusion energy—which does not emit planet-warming greenhouse gases—some expert observers warned that widespread and commercial use of the technology is likely still decades away, appending a cautious note to celebrations of the historic achievement at the federal lab in California.

KEYSTONE PIPELINE SPILLS 600,000 GALLONS OF TAR SANDS OIL IN KANSAS. A Canadian company’s oil pipeline spilled nearly an Olympic-sized swimming pool’s worth of crude tar sands oil into a northern Kansas creek that feeds a watershed providing drinking water for hundreds of thousands of people, Brett Wilkins noted at CommonDreams (12/12).

In what’s being called the largest US onshore crude oil leak in nearly a decade and the largest by far in the accident-prone Keystone Pipeline system’s history, approximately 14,000 barrels, or 600,000 gallons, of crude tar sands oil, spewed from the Keystone 1 pipeline onto surrounding land and into Mill Creek just north of Washington, Kansas at around 8:00 pm on Wednesday.

Mill Creek flows into the Little Blue River, which in turn drains into the Big Blue River, which then runs into the Tuttle Creek Reservoir before draining into the Kansas River.

Aerial footage published by Nebraska Public Media over the weekend showed the extent of the damage:

` “Over 61,000 square miles of watershed in Kansas, southern Nebraska, and eastern Colorado drain to the Kansas River, the drinking water source for over 800,000 Kansans and a vital natural resource,” the local environmental group Friends of the Kaw said in a statement Friday.

“This area includes the creek, rivers, and reservoir potentially impacted by this Keystone pipeline spill. While Washington County is seemingly far away from the Kansas River, disasters like this one illustrate how connected the people and places in our watershed truly are,” the group added.

Calgary, Alberta-based TC Energy said (12/11) that the company has “contained” the spill and “continues to progress in our response” to the accident. The firm also said it is working with federal, state, and tribal agencies in response to the spill.

While part of the same system, the Keystone 1 pipeline—which carries an estimated 720,000 barrels of Canadian tar sands oil per day—is a separate conduit from the proposed Keystone XL extension that was defeated by Indigenous, green, and progressive activism and rejected by the Obama and Biden administrations.

BIGGEST ELECTION OF 2023: BATTLE FOR CONTROL OF WISCONSIN SUPREME COURT. The upcoming election for the Wisconsin Supreme Court is “without any doubt, the most massively important single race of the year,” David Nir wrote at DailyKos (12/12). “The stakes are simply gargantuan: If progressives can retake the majority, the court could roll back the GOP’s extreme gerrymanders, restore the right to an abortion, block any attempts by Republican lawmakers to steal the 2024 election for Donald Trump, and even revive the state’s moribund democracy from the pitiable sham Republicans have reduced it to.”

Daily Kos has endorsed Judge Janet Protasiewicz the race for Wisconsin’s highest court—which comes up with a Feb. 15 nonpartisan primary and a April 4 general election.

Conservatives hold a 4-3 majority on the court, but one of them, Pat Roggensack, is retiring. Progressives have the chance to flip her seat and take their own 4-3 majority. And with that, everything would change.

“The current conservative quartet has gladly greenlighted every last aspect of the GOP’s anti-democracy agenda. Most shamefully, after Republican legislators refused to compromise on new redistricting plans with Democratic Gov. Tony Evers last year, these right-wing judges made up a rule out of thin air requiring that any new maps be as close as possible to the previous maps—which had been drawn by the GOP a decade ago to be as tilted as possible in their favor. That decision, of course, wound up locking in Republican gerrymanders that have given the party two-thirds of all seats in the legislature despite the fact that Joe Biden won Wisconsin,” Nir wrote

Protasiewicz has served on the bench in Milwaukee for a decade with distinction, Nir wrote. “Prior to that, she fought to protect children during her many years as a local prosecutor and has been recognized as a civic leader in her community. We can be certain she will stand up for fair elections, women’s rights, and the rule of law if she’s elected to the Supreme Court.

“Her two conservative opponents, however, would do precisely the opposite. Judge Jennifer Dorow was appointed to the bench by notorious ex-Gov. Scott Walker and is active in the Wisconsin Republican Party, which supports banning abortion. She even called Lawrence v. Texas, the 2003 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down sodomy laws criminalizing same-sex intimacy, ‘a prime example of judicial activism at its worst.’

“Former Supreme Court Justice Dan Kelly, who is making a comeback bid, is just as bad. He was also named to the court by Walker and was even endorsed by Trump during his failed 2020 election campaign. Since his loss, he’s toured the state keynoting a series of “election integrity” events promoting wild GOP conspiracy theories about non-existent election fraud, and he’s been supported by Wisconsin Right to Life, so you know exactly where he stands on abortion.”

McCARTHY DOESN’T UNDERSTAND WHAT THE DEBT CEILING IS. DEMOCRATS CAN’T LET HIM GET ANYWHERE NEAR IT. Would-be House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is making who knows what promises to who knows whom to try to get the 218 votes he’ll need to secure the job. That includes monstrous Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has been sticking by him like glue. So far, anyway, Joan McCarter noted at DailyKos (12/8).

That will likely include his bowing to pressure from his most extreme colleagues, who are demanding he take the debt ceiling issue hostage now, and use their list of ransom demands—which includes everything from decimating domestic spending programs to building the damn border wall (at least metaphorically if not in actuality). Some of those guys are saying that no matter what he promises, they won’t vote for the debt ceiling hike, anyway.

“I’m a no, no matter what,” Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) told CNN about the nation’s ability to pay the bills it’s already run up.

That makes McCarthy’s (or whoever ends up getting the short stick and landing the job) position very sticky. It’s fine to say, “burn it all down,” but come election time, the people holding the lighter fluid and flame throwers are not going to be terribly popular. Destroying the nation’s economy and stopping payments to troops and Social Security recipients isn’t a good way to make friends and influence people.

The worst are pushing McCarthy hard on this, CNN reports, with one source saying that includes “several” members of the Freedom Caucus. Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) confirms it, adding, “Debt ceiling has been a conversation that has been perennial in every single conversation or meeting around here since I’ve been here.”

These guys also don’t understand how any of this works. “I don’t fear not raising the debt ceiling, because if we didn’t raise the debt ceiling, all that would mean we’d have to cut discretionary spending so we stop spending more than we’re taking in,” said Rep. Bob Good (Virginia). He’s a never-McCarthy guy. “That’s a panic here in Washington because we’re so beholden to spending.”

That’s not what it would mean at all, McCarter noted. “It’s not about making spending decisions, it’s about paying the bills that have become due based on previous spending decisions. Good doesn’t understand the fundamental difference between funding the government into the future, and paying off past obligations. And he should fear not raising the debt ceiling, because the repercussions could be widespread and catastrophic to the US and global economies.”

GOP CIVIL WAR AGAINST McCARTHY SPILLS OVER INTO FIGHT OVER COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS. The GOP civil war over Kevin McCarthy’s bid to become Speaker of the House next month has spilled over into skirmishes among members angling for plum spots in the new, tiny majority, Joan McCarter noted at DailyKos (10/8). It’s vicious out there, people. And kind of hilarious.

Dec. 8 broke with a report from Punchbowl News that McCarthy is talking about pushing all the contested chair races into January so that he doesn’t end up angering people while he’s trying to get them on his side. These races are usually decided in November or early December, so that the new majority and its committees can get staff in place and hit the ground running when the session begins. It’s a sign of just how chaotic things are right now in the House GOP.

That was made a whole lot juicier with the additional news that one of the guys who wants to be Ways and Means chair—Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL)—is threatening to resign if he doesn’t get the nod from McCarthy. That’s a powerful threat—one fewer member could make McCarthy’s math problem even direr. Except that Buchanan says that story is bunk. “I was never contacted for that story, but the notion that I would consider resigning is laughable and ridiculous,” Buchanan told Florida Politics.

But here’s the good part: “Sources close to Buchanan characterized the news blurb as a vicious rumor from Smith world.” Fight! Fight!

The “Smith world” is by those around either of Reps. Adrian Smith (R-NE) or Jason Smith (R-MO) who are also vying for the chair of the powerful tax-writing committee. For now, the not-Smith in the race is hitching his wagon to McCarthy. “I’m committed to helping elect Kevin McCarthy Speaker and continue to work every day to earn the support of the Steering Committee to become the next Ways and Means Chairman,” Buchanan said.

The idea that McCarthy is putting off these contests until his is decided was confirmed by one member interviewed by the Capitol Hill paper, Roll Call. That lawmaker, “with knowledge of the situation,” said that it was likely these votes won’t be held until after Jan. 3, “though the situation remains in flux.”

That’s because McCarthy’s speaker bid remains in flux. Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), the only announced candidate against McCarthy, doubled (tripled? quadrupled?) down on his challenge for the job.

CNN reporter Manu Raju tweeted a quote by Biggs, who said “I’m not bluffing.”

Biggs is going to take this fight all the way to the floor, he promises. That could be his response to the idea another one of his anonymous colleagues came up with that he’s just putting himself forward as the sacrificial lamb, taking all the fire from McCarthy’s team to allow an unscathed alternative to emerge and take the gavel.

Or he could be telling his fellow never-McCarthy guy Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-MT) to back off. Rosendale wasn’t too subtle about testing the waters for himself in an op-ed he wrote in the Billings Gazette.

Or maybe Biggs’ message is for current GOP whip Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), McCarthy’s number 2 guy in leadership, who pointedly did not take himself out of the running for the speaker job with reporters.

Another person to keep an eye on is Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), who in November was re-elected as conference chair, the fourth-ranking post in the conference in a GOP majority. She got the job after the conference kicked Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) out of it last year, when Cheney proved a little too loyal to the Constitution for Republicans’ liking.

Stefanik has been uncharacteristically silent throughout this whole business. Granted, her path to the job is limited by the fact that she’s a she and thus will be written off by a decent chunk of the conference ... Don’t count her out when it comes to making coups.

Just ask Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), who had the conference chair post until Stefanik came along, and who isn’t in leadership anymore.

PROGRESSIVE LAWMAKERS DEMAND FRAUD PROBE INTO MEDICARE PRIVATIZATION SCHEME. A group of progressive lawmakers led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Pramila Jayapal is calling on Biden health officials to immediately launch a fraud probe into the organizations taking part in ACO REACH, a slightly reformed version of a Medicare privatization scheme that the Trump administration set in motion during its final months in power, Jake Johnson noted at CommonDreams (12/12).

In a letter to Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), 21 members of Congress voiced alarm that the ACO REACH pilot “provides an opportunity for healthcare insurers with a history of defrauding and abusing Medicare and ripping off taxpayers to further encroach on the Medicare system.”

The newest version of the program, which entails shifting some traditional Medicare recipients onto privately run insurance plans without their knowledge or consent, is scheduled to formally begin on January 1, months after CMS announced largely cosmetic changes to the Trump-era Global and Professional Direct Contracting (GPDC) model.

The lawmakers noted in their letter that Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP)—a doctor-led group pushing for the complete termination of ACO REACH—has identified at least 10 GPDC Direct Contracting Entities (DCEs) with records of “healthcare fraud, abuse, and violations of healthcare laws prior to 2021.”

Those organizations, the lawmakers stressed, “have continued to operate in the program even as CMS pushes for additional oversight, vetting, and transparency.”

“In its three-year history, the Medicare Direct Contracting program, now ACO REACH, has roughly doubled in size each year: it had 53 participants in its first year, 99 in the second year, and as many as 202 participants planned for 2023,” the letter continued. “The exponential growth of the program heightens our concerns about the potential for fraud and abuse of taxpayer Medicare dollars.”

One example the letter cites is Centene, a healthcare firm that is the parent company of three DCEs currently operating in 27 states. DCEs are paid by the federal government to fund a portion of Medicare enrollees’ care and act as private middlemen between patients and healthcare providers.

Under ACO REACH, which has faced mounting opposition at the local and national levels in recent months, the middlemen will be able to keep 40% of what they don’t spend on care as profit and overhead.

Critics of the pilot, set to run at least through 2026, argue that such an incentive invites fraud and other abuse of patients—practices that have been rife in privately run Medicare Advantage (MA) plans, which now provide coverage to nearly half of the eligible Medicare population.

From The Progressive Populist, January 1-15, 2023

Populist.com