Author: Richard Eskow

On the subject of climate change, Florida Gov. Rick Scott usually parrots the same “I’m not a scientist” excuse on which many of his Republican colleagues rely. Several scientists decided  to help out Scott, and sent him a letter in June, saying they “would like the opportunity to explain what is at stake for [Florida].” Scott met with five scientists in his office last week to discuss climate change, but afterwards, the scientists said they don’t think that he really got the message. At least a third of the meeting, which lasted just 30 minutes, involved Gov. Scott making...

Last week, the National Weather Service (NWS) classified over 80 percent of California as in “Extreme Drought” or worse, and reported that the first six months of this year were the hottest ever in the state, at nearly five degrees warmer than the 20th century average. To help conserve what water resources California does have, many cities and counties are looking to hire ‘water cops’ to enforce new regulations that will take effect in August. These include prohibiting the watering of lawns more than twice a week, washing down streets and/or sidewalks, and the washing of cars with a...

In 2013, Maine’s Tea Party Governor, Paul LePage, met and spent as many as 16 hours with the Sovereign Citizens, a group designated by the FBI as a terrorist organization. Topics of discussion during the meeting included high treason and the hanging of Democrats. Jack McCarthy, a radio show host in Maine who has ties to the organization and attended one of the meetings, discussed some of the content from those meetings. “[W]e also discussed … that as far as I know, the penalty for high treason hasn’t changed in a hundred years. I didn’t say it, but the...

The New York Court of Appeals has ruled that local governments can say no to energy companies that want to establish fracking operations within its land. The ruling upheld those of the state’s lower courts in the towns of Middlefield and Dryden. Middlefield and Dryden had banned fracking operations from taking place within the towns’ incorporated limits. The ruling is the first of its kind as the state of New York allows fracking, but has now ruled to ultimately leave it up to the townships and communities of New York state to determine whether or not energy companies can...

Last night, hopes of a Tea Party insurgency were squashed as Thad Cochran put down the biting usurper, Chris McDaniel, who sought to unseat the six-term GOP Senator. Though the defeat was narrow, it was a decisive victory that showed the Tea Party is not as powerful as they would have the world believe; they are merely loud. The race in Mississippi had been embroiled in the sort of zero-sum, anything-goes tactics that the Tea Party so readily and heartily embraces. The party has made it an aspect of its brand to practically endorse a “the ends justify the...