Here's a Headline

After studying Sutton Lake, Duke University scientists say, “Impact of coal ash in environment far larger than previously thought”

--story by Lisa Sorg

Sutton Lake is on the coast, at Wilmington.

"Hofeller devoted the most time to North Carolina..."

Big news, from Slate:

In February, attorneys challenging North Carolina’s legislative gerrymander notified the defendants, a group of Republican leaders in the legislature, that they’d issued a subpoena. The lawyers had asked Stephanie Hofeller Lizon to provide “any storage device” containing redistricting-related documents left by her estranged father, Thomas Hofeller, a Republican consultant who specialized in gerrymandering. Republican legislators did not object, and Lizon turned over the requested materials: 18 thumb drives and four hard drives containing more than 75,000 files—many related to her father’s consulting work. The voting rights attorneys had uncovered a vast trove of information exposing the inner workings of GOP gerrymandering across the country. 

Upon learning what their opponents had obtained, attorneys for Republican lawmakers went to court to try to seize the files. But it was too late. Voting rights advocates had lawfully acquired the materials, even after having given Republicans a chance to object. And on Thursday, they dropped the first bombshell from Hofeller’s hard drives: A key portion of a 2015 memo written by Hofeller appeared in a draft Justice Department letter used to justify the Trump administration’s efforts to add a citizenship question to the census. Hofeller’s memo, which explains why the citizenship question would boost the voting power of “Republicans and non-Hispanic Whites,” indicates that administration officials lied about the reason for adding the question.... 

For years, Hofeller held an office at the Republican National Committee on Capitol Hill. He worked as both its official redistricting director and, later, as a paid consultant. He traveled the country to teach Republican lawmakers how to gerrymander their districts to create permanent GOP legislative majorities.... But Hofeller devoted the most time to North Carolina, where he created lopsided Republican majorities in a state evenly divided between the parties....

Read the whole article! Republican attorney Phil Strach, husband of recently fired executive director of the NC State Board of Elections Kim Strach, was representing the "Republican lawmakers" (Berger/Moore) in the attempt to suppress the Hofeller secret gerrymandering files.

More revelations to come.

The Bankruptcy of the Republican Party

And you can add to that the complete moral and ethical bankruptcy of Franklin Graham and much of the evangelical movement.

Invitation to an Impeachment

Did you see Bob Mueller? He spoke about as clearly as a human being (who doesn't intend to be personally politicized) can speak: "Congress, it's your responsibility to deal with a lawless president."

"...if we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so."

So much for Twitterman's claim that the Mueller Report completely exonerated him. But you knew he was lying about that from the git-go, didn't you?

"And I will close by reiterating the central allegation of our indictments, that there were multiple, systematic efforts to interfere in our election. And that allegation deserves the attention of every American."

Vladimir Putin wanted Trump. Putin worked to get Trump. Putin got Trump. Trump was thrilled with the effort and the outcome, but he began to cover it all up as soon as the facts began to leak.

The House of Representatives has its mandate, underscored by Mueller yesterday: "It's your responsibility to do something." They're doing it. Multiple investigations. Multiple subpoenas. The truth will out. You can count on it. Whether it produces a formal impeachment before November 2020, or piles up a mountain of evidence of Trump's criminal contempt for our Constitution, there should be no voter in the dark about the character of the man in the White House.

Justin Amash Has Thrown Away the Scabbard

There's an old proverb I'm referencing: "He who draws his sword against his prince must throw away the scabbard."

At a packed town hall event yesterday in Grand Rapids, Republican Justin Amash (Michigan-3) got a standing ovation as he doubled- and tripled-down on his conclusion that Twitterman has committed multiple impeachable offenses. "My job is to protect the Constitution," Amash said to loud applause.

The 3rd Congressional District of Michigan is rated "solid Republican." The Cook Partisan Voter Index rates it as R+6, which means that in 2018 this district's voting results were 6 percentage points more Republican than the national average. Amash won this seat in the Tea Party wave of 2010, running as a tea partier, and he's easily held it ever since.

What did people expect at this town hall? A phalanx of Trumpists screaming at Amash for daring to oppose The Leader? Booing and hissing from Michigan Republicans who've all signed their loyalty pledge to Trump, probably in blood? That did not happen. Instead, Amash got applause and support for his courage for standing up for the rule of law.

Maybe Amash's bravery can become a thing in the Congressional Republican ranks? On second thought ... naw, ain't gonna happen. Those guys and gals are way too cowed now by Trump to stand up to him. We'd be almost satisfied if the ancient skill of reading got a refresher among Republicans, let alone the courage of calling out abusive power, greed, and lawlessness.

Accusing Justin Amash of being a RINO is just laughable. Accusing him of being "a loser," as Twitterman did, also defies logic, common sense, and a grasp on reality.

Deanna Ballard -- Going Full "Berger" On the Citizens of Surry County

Senator Deanna Ballard (District 45) belongs to the Republican Party. The Republican Party has always preached that local government knows best, is wisest, more frugal, and "Big-Brother" state and national governments need to quit imposing themselves on the wise citizens. That doctrine is preached and rarely followed, especially when some high-ranked Republican dudes attain great power and get to meddling.

So Watauga County State Senator Deanna Ballard has joined up with Phil Berger, president of the Republican Senate and no slouch when it comes to power-grabs, and introduced Senate Bill 674, which will force all school board elections in Surry County -- just Surry -- to become partisan in nature. Ds versus Rs. Meanwhile, for independent candidates ... too bad, so sad.

The great majority of school boards in the state are elected via non-partisan ballots, including the one in Watauga. (Surry County has three separate school boards, all of which have been heretofore elected on a non-partisan ballot.)

Ballard thinks -- if she's thought about it at all and isn't just Berger's puppet -- that school boards need a transfusion of the same bile and vitriol that is currently stripping the political paint off the two-party system. She either thinks that partisan labels and partisan marching orders and partisan doctrine imposed from above will be good for the governance of public school boards in Surry County -- but nowhere else in particular -- she either believes that, or she's Berger's dumb tool.

And why just Surry County? If it's such a good thing to do and not just a naked, clumsy, embarrassingly obvious power-grab imposed on the citizens of that one northern-tier North Carolina county? Why?

The three separate school boards in Surry -- representing Elkin City Schools, Mount Airy City Schools, and Surry County Schools -- held a first-time-ever joint meeting in April, together signing a resolution to “oppose any legislation changing the manner of election of any one or more of these boards of education from nonpartisan to partisan.” The Elkin city commission passed a similar resolution.

Deanna Ballard wants to impose not just the state on Surry County, but the machinery of partisan witch-hunting. Just what public education needs!

How To Know Your Aspiring Tyrant

Ian McKellen, playing Richard III in a movie

Shakespeare’s Richard III brilliantly develops the personality features of the aspiring tyrant ... the limitless self-regard, the law-breaking, the pleasure in inflicting pain, the compulsive desire to dominate. He is pathologically narcissistic and supremely arrogant. He has a grotesque sense of entitlement, never doubting that he can do whatever he chooses. He loves to bark orders and to watch underlings scurry to carry them out. He expects absolute loyalty, but he is incapable of gratitude. The feelings of others mean nothing to him. He has no natural grace, no sense of shared humanity, no decency.

He is not merely indifferent to the law; he hates it and takes pleasure in breaking it. He hates it because it gets in his way and because it stands for a notion of the public good that he holds in contempt. He divides the world into winners and losers. The winners arouse his regard insofar as he can use them for his own ends; the losers arouse only his scorn. The public good is something only losers like to talk about. What he likes to talk about is winning.

He has always had wealth: he was born into it and makes ample use of it. But though he enjoys having what money can get him, it is not what most excites him. What excites him is the joy of domination. He is a bully. Easily enraged, he strikes out at anyone who stands in his way. He enjoys seeing others cringe, tremble, or wince with pain. He is gifted at detecting weakness and deft at mockery and insult. These skills attract followers who are drawn to the same cruel delight, even if they cannot have it to his unmatched degree. Though they know that he is dangerous, the followers help him advance to his goal, which is the possession of supreme power.

-- Stephen Greenblatt, Tyrant: Shakespeare on Politics, published by W.W. Norton, 2018, pages 53-54

Messin' With Sasquatch

Nancy Pelosi “hit on something that is core to [Trump's] con. His whole life is about the cover-up. He has covered up his academic record, his health reports, his dalliances with women, his finances, his family history. Even while he was saying he was the most transparent president in history, his Treasury secretary was across town telling Congress, ‘I’m not giving you the president’s tax returns.’ "

--Tim O'Brien, author of TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald, quoted by Maureen Dowd