So the U.S. Virgin Islands Are Suing Exxon Mobil
(Permanent Musical Accompaniment To This Post)
Being our semi-regular weekly survey of what's goin' down in the several states where, as you know, the real work of governmentin' gets done, and where the sky, too, is falling under you.
We begin in Mississippi Goddamn, where something about which I had no idea happened this week…in 1964, I think. Our time machine for the journey is The Jackson Clarion-Ledger.
"Six decades after the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education declared that 'separate but equal has no place' in public schools, this decision serves as a reminder to districts that delaying desegregation obligations is both unacceptable and unconstitutional," Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta, head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, said in a statement. "This victory creates new opportunities for the children of Cleveland to learn, play and thrive together. The court's ruling will result in the immediate and effective desegregation of the district's middle school and high school program for the first time in the district's more than century-long history." The court rejected as unconstitutional two alternatives proposed by the school district, agreeing with the Justice Department that the only way to achieve desegregation is through consolidation…"The delay in desegregation has deprived generations of students of the constitutionally guaranteed right of an integrated education," Brown said in the 96-page opinion. "Although no court order can right these wrongs, it is the duty of the district to ensure that not one more student suffers under this burden."
By the way, part of the reason this took so long was that, starting under that great liberal Richard M. Nixon, and continuing under Saint Reagan and thereafter, with Chief Justice William Rehnquist in this area declaring the Day Of Jubilee, the federal government pretty much gave up on the job of integrating local schools, with predictable results.
Let's skip on over to Texas, where they are very upset about the fact that people are harshing Exxon's mellow just because the oil company has been lying its prospectus off about its knowledge about climate change for the past several decades. The Virgin Islands-which may or may not still be islands in a few years-is suing the behemoth and Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney-general, is having none of it. He has taken time out of his busy schedule of fighting urinal cooties to weigh in. The Texas Observer has the 411.
In a press release, Paxton called the U.S. Virgin Islands attorney general's investigation "ridiculous" and a "fishing expedition of the worst kind," describing it as "an effort to punish Exxon for daring to hold an opinion on climate change that differs from that of radical environmentalists."
Ken Paxton has a different concept of a "victim" from the rest of us, I think. I hope he still feels this way when, some day, actual deep-sea fishing expeditions will be launched from New Braunfels.
Instead, let's go fishing up in Idaho, where we bid farewell to one of America's Craziest Lawmakers-state representative Sheryl Nuxoll, who lost her primary election to a rancher who probably doesn't think that the state's child-protection services is a backdoor way to institute sharia law, and who doesn't think veterans like to do dredge mining to relax, and who probably wouldn't walk out of the chamber because a Hindu cleric was delivering the daily invocation. Per the The Idaho Statesman:
Three of North Idaho's most conservative Republican incumbents were turned out of office: District 7's Sen. Sheryl Nuxoll and Rep. Shannon McMillan, and District 4 Rep. Kathy Sims.
"Moderate Republican" likely is a very relative term in Idaho, but it seems that, maybe, the good citizens of the state aren't completely sold on the notion of the place turning into an outdoor asylum for everyone in the country who thinks Alex Jones is a sellout RINO cuck. The Spokesman-Review breached the redoubt on our behalf.
"I make no bones about the fact I'm a conservative Christian and I like being around other people who think the way I do," he said. Bradway, who is retired, estimated he's met easily 100 other new arrivals who followed the same path, including many from California. He's active in local politics, as are many, and was elected to the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee. "I know there are a goodly number of folks who are able to retire, or self-employed, or come up here and try to find a job," he said. He said California is "swirling around the drain of liberty." Bradway is convinced that a looming disaster, whether it's a major earthquake or a financial collapse, will turn America's cities into "just a mass of chaos," with rioting and anarchy. "I know people who've said, 'I'm looking for something that's defensible, if the teeming hordes come surging out of Spokane,' " Bradway said.
The Teeming Hordes Of Spokane is the name of my new Arena Football franchise.
Let's skateboard east along the upper latitudes until we get to Michigan, where the Republican majority government's experiments in liberty have had some setbacks in recent months. You may recall that Michigan voters used their powers of intiative and referendum a while back to destroy the state's "emergency manager" act, the device with which Governor Rick Snyder assumed control of the local government in Flint to the detriment of everyone who lives there. In response, the Republican majority in the legislature performed a degree-of-difficulty finagle in order to get the law reinstated. Now, it seems, according to The Detroit Free Press, that the legislature is working very hard to make sure voters don't have a chance to act up this way again.
Current Michigan law gives such petitioners 180 days to collect the requisite signatures, but requires the state to recognize older signatures if a petitioner can prove the signer is still a registered voter. SB 776 would abolish the procedure for rehabilitating such stale signatures, making it more difficult and expensive for petitioners to meet the ballot initiative requirements. Who would want to make it harder for voters to place an initiative on the ballot? Environmentalists say the effort is being spearheaded by Michigan's gas and oil industry, which wants to head off a petition drive that would ask Michigan voters to ban the use of horizontal hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, and prohibit the storage and disposal of fracking waste products. Indeed, four organizations associated with that industry-the Michigan Oil and Gas Association, the Michigan Chemistry Council, the Michigan Manufacturers Association and the American Petroleum Industry-provided the only testimony in support of SB 776 at a hearing held earlier this month shortly after Robertson introduced the bill (although Republicans are also interested in blocking a marijuana legalization initiative that threatens to draw young voters to the polls if it makes the November ballot).
I can't imagine why Michiganders might be concerned about the impact of fracking waste on, oh, I dunno, let's just say their drinking water, to pull one example out of thin air. Luckily, though, as The Detroit News reminds us, Michigan's business-friendly environment is still on the case. Priorities, people.
For the first time since GOP Gov. Rick Snyder spearheaded a major tax code rewrite in 2011, the state Treasury in 2016 is expected to pay out more in refunds under the old Michigan Business Tax than it will pull in under the new Corporate Income Tax.
Officials are projecting a net loss of $99 million in revenue from the state's principal business taxes. "It's a broken system," said Sen. Curtis Hertel Jr. of Meridian Township, one of several Democrats who argue the latest revenue figures point to the need to revisit the tax code. "In many ways, we've been robbing Peter to pay Paul."
Massive refunds were anticipated this year as Detroit automakers and other businesses continue to cash in outstanding tax credits, most of them issued under former Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm in an attempt to keep jobs in the state during the Great Recession. But an unexpected drop in Corporate Income Tax collections took analysts by surprise, prompting officials this week to slash current and upcoming fiscal year revenue projections by a combined $333 million. The reduction will force legislators to revise recently approved budget bills. Michigan Republicans who changed the tax code in 2011 say they did not expect a year where the state would lose money on its principal business taxes…
Of course not. Heavens to Betsy, what a dreadful idea, as Jack McCoy once put it. And I, of course, and once again, am the Tsar of all the Russias.
And we conclude, as is our custom, in the great state of Oklahoma, where Official Buster of Sod Friedman of the Plains brings us the saga of an exercise of Second Amendment freedoms gone terribly wrong. From News on 6:
Police said the man initially told them someone else had shot him but they now say the man accidentally shot himself in the leg while driving in the northbound lanes of Highway 169. After shooting himself, the man pulled over and another driver stopped and called police. Officers said the man told them someone else had shot him because he didn't want them to know he had a gun in the vehicle.
Or, I suspect, that he is something of a dumbass.
This is your democracy, America. Cherish it.
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