Saturday, February 25, 2023

Cathy Masic’s 2 yr old grandson got brain cancer from TCE contaminated well water. She lived between Collegeville & Skippack Village on Rt. 113. Cathy lived at Ronald McDonald House Children’s Hospital in Philly 5yrs. while he underwent brain surgery.

In the 1990s, the Perkiomen Valley School District put water bottle fountains in all schools. The school district determined the TCE level in water was unsafe for children. 


Betsy worked with Cathy Masic at the 4H Grange building in a former school building along Rt 113 between Collegeville/Trappe and Skippack Village. Cathy and Dave Masic lived across the street from the 4H Grange.

Betsy & me have friends who live in Collegeville and say they’ve never heard of anyone getting cancer from TCE.   

Cathy & Dave Masic's grandson developed brain tumors from TCE.

Dave & Cathy Masic didn’t want to go public so we did not talk about it.  

The EPA found excessive amounts of TCE in their well water capping their well. The EPA brought water containers for the Masic's drinking & bathing.  

At the same time their 2 year old grandson who lived with Cathy & Dave developed cancerous brain tumors. 
Cathy lived for years at the Ronald McDonald House next to Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia while their grandson endured multiple surgeries. Their grandson survived. He grew into a basically normal young man. I believe Cathy's devoted care for him is a big reason he survived.

Philadelphia Suburban Water Company extended a water line along Rt. 113 for the properties in the Skippack Twp area. 

The TCE contamination in Northwest Montgomery County continues to this day. I can’t in good conscience stay quiet about this. 



CANCER FROM TCE REMAINS A RISK IN THE AREAS SURROUNDING THE TUBE COMPANIES IN NORTHWEST MONTGOMERY COUNTY PA




"The discovery of high levels of airborne trichloroethylene, a potentially cancer-causing chemical, has prompted widespread fears, evidenced by the estimated 600 people who attended a public meeting on the air pollution question Tuesday at Perkiomen Valley Middle School East’s auditorium in Perkiomen Township.


The revelation — state environmental officials say they could have a “significant bearing” on excess lifetime cancer risks in the Collegeville area — could spawn similar air testing across the state in areas with groundwater tainted with trichloroethylene, or TCE, a degreasing chemical found in many of the country’s worst environmental cleanup sites.

“I’ve lived here 10 years and we’re just hearing about this,” Leo Catalfano, 60, of Lower Providence Township, said.

Catalfano and his neighbors aren’t alone. Homeowners across the country are just beginning to get an education about the chemical that at one time was considered a threat only to drinking water when it leaked or was dumped into the ground.

But in recent years, a growing number of homeowners nationwide have had ventilation systems added in their homes to protect against TCE fumes that may have been emanating from their basement floors for decades.

TCE is a solvent used heavily by industry to remove grease from metal parts. It also used in paints, adhesives and spot removers. Drinking or breathing high levels may cause damage to the nervous system and liver and lungs and can even cause death in extreme cases, according to the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

Among those who have had vent systems installed in their homes are residents in Perkasie, Bucks County; Bally and Hereford Township in Berks County; and Hazle Township and West Hazleton in Luzerne County.

Last year, a high-ranking administrator with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency wrote in the New York Environmental Lawyer publication that there is a potential for widespread TCE vapor problems in buildings across the country…


The DEP says two companies that spew a combined 120 tons to 140 tons of TCE into the air annually have agreed to cut down on their emissions. The DEP says the two tube manufacturing plants — Superior Tube Co. in Lower Providence and Accellent in Trappe, a borough that borders Collegeville — already are meeting air emission requirements, but are willing to take further steps to help improve air quality.

The DEP stumbled onto the air problem in those areas in 2004 after finding airborne TCE during routine testing in Pottstown, Montgomery County, where the state has one of its 10 testing sites.

“We were finding TCE levels and weren’t sure where it was coming from,” Rebarchak said. “There were no known TCE-emitting facilities in the Pottstown area. All we knew was that there was groundwater contamination in Upper Pottsgrove. We did monitoring there and weren’t detecting anything.

“We looked for the next nearest groundwater contamination [in Collegeville].”

There has been TCE groundwater contamination near Superior Tube since the late 1970s.

Rebarchak said DEP investigators determined the source of the TCE was not the groundwater, but emissions from the industrial plants.

She said the DEP has not tested indoor air in homes because “vapor intrusion is more linked to groundwater contamination and the [TCE] levels in the Collegeville area wouldn’t merit [indoor air] testing.”

Homeowners in that area aren’t happy about that.

Jeffrey Obrecht, a 48-year-old father living in Trappe, asked DEP officials to consider home testing. He’s a geologist who knows TCE breaks down into other harmful substances, including vinyl chloride, a gas also considered a potential carcinogen.

“What’s in the homes, what’s in the schools, what’s in the businesses?” Obrecht asked DEP officials at Tuesday’s meeting.

One woman said her four children have asthma despite the fact that her family has no history of respiratory problems. She questioned whether TCE fumes are to blame.

Realtors at Tuesday’s meeting suggested that the air problems could hurt the resale value of homes.

Homeowners might find it cost-prohibitive to test for TCE in their homes. DEP officials say it would cost from $300 to $1,000 for one test. To replicate what the DEP does — a 24-hour air test every six days for an entire year — would cost about $60,000.

Some residents voiced their displeasure that the DEP is focusing its attention on the TCE coming from industries rather than homes. They said air quality should have been tested decades ago when groundwater problems were first discovered.

The residents have asked the Montgomery County Health Department to study the number of cancer cases in the area to determine if it’s higher than in other areas of similar size.

“I say the hell with the industries,” Catalfano said. “Look at the people sitting here.”

patrick.lester@mcall.com

215-529-2612"

MORE AT:

TCE air pollution worries Montco ** State blames industry in Collegeville area, but others aren’t sure.

The Morning Call

October 5, 2021 at 2:38 p.m.



ALSO SEE:

POTTSTOWN MERCURY

Air-strippers could get TCE filters

  • Evan Brandt PUBLISHED: March 4, 2007 at 6:10 a.m. | UPDATED: September 24, 2021 at 3:01 a.m. Local News, News


POTTSTOWN MERCURY

Report details amount of TCE from air strippers

Evan Brandt September 24, 2021 at 2:52 a.m.


THE GUARDIAN

Revealed: the US is averaging one chemical accident every two days

Guardian analysis of data in light of Ohio train derailment shows accidental releases are happening consistently

Carey Gillam

Sat 25 Feb 2023 06.00 EST



MY EARIER POSTS ON TCE CONTAMINATION



Monday, July 9, 2018

Reading about the kids trapped in a cave reminded me that we lived over mine shafts.


I’m re-looking up stuff about the Copper mines under our house in Lower Frederick. They go back to about 1720 & William Penn:


“the Perkiomen Copper Mining Company was chartered by an act of Assembly. The Revolutionary War seems to have interrupted mining operations, as evidence points to the fact that the vein was hidden and work stopped to prevent the British from procuring the ore.” 


“An attempt to re-open the mine prior to World War I proved unprofitable because of the low-grade ore that was found,”

FROM:

SCHWENKSVILLE BOROUGH  A HISTORY OF SCHWENKSVILLE


Lower Frederick Township was interested in the exact location of the Perkiomen Copper Mining Company mine shafts. My home was over copper mine tunnels. A new development was in the planning stages over even more copper mine tunnels. 


I can’t remember his name but someone (whose name might come to me) from the Lower Frederick Planning Commission was with me when we talked to a spelunker who was exploring the mine shafts for Lower Frederick Township.


He was big guy wearing a beat up white construction hat with a light riveted to it. It had straps to cover his ears. The scrapes on the hat came from moving through narrow caves. Spelunking is not really for someone 6.5 or so & 200 lbs. but we don’t get to choose our bodies, not yet anyway, see “Westworld” HBO.


They tried to reopen the mines during WWI. The ore quality was too low to use. There is or maybe by now was a wood frame house where copper mine workers from that WWI period lived that was accessible from a property on Game Farm Road.



There is an iron grate covering a copper mine shaft just off (I think) Gerloff Road. People, probably mostly children, try to explore the mines from time to time. I am not aware of anyone being trapped in the mines.


There is a ghost story:

“Over the years, many strange tales of the mine were circulated, one of which involves two adventurers who were determined to find the hidden ore. They entered the shaft with candles and began working at removing some heavy stones that blocked their way. After the removal of several stones, an icy blast hit them and blew out the candles. They hastily withdrew, claiming that a "spirit" of the mine guarded the treasure.”

FROM:

SCHWENKSVILLE BOROUGH  A HISTORY OF SCHWENKSVILLE


Old Perkiomen Copper Mine Bounded Roughly by Swamp Creek, Mine Run. Perkiomen Creek 





The Eva R. Meng Wildlife Preserve and Bird Sanctuary is on Rock Hill. 


I used to walk to the top of Rock Hill in the Meng Preserve from my home in Lower Frederick Township.



Jurassic or Triassic Rock of molten magma from the same volcanic rock Brunswick Formation at Devil’s Den in Gettysburg National Park is at the top of Rock Hill in Limerick Township, PA.  The rocks, which go more than a mile under the earth, look something like Superman’s crystal cave. 







Some of my neighbors ran completely out of water


The rock crystals you see on Rock Hill are not boulders. You see the tip of what is more than a mile deep wall of impervious rock splitting Lower Frederick’s well water in half. 


It was discovered that a gas station (there could have been other sources) was spilling Trichloroethylene (TCE) into the ground rendering the largest water source in Lower Frederick Township unusable. 




TCE contamination is the reason we ran out of water for a time until Philadelphia Suburban Water Company connected us to the Green Lane Reservoir. The pump station for the water from Green Lane Reservoir is at the confluence of the Perkiomen Creek at the Schuylkill River. 



It seems that problems with well water contamination continue to this day:



Slow crawl of Bucks, Montgomery County water contamination lawsuits continues





Posted by James Pitcherella at 12:32 PM No comments: pastedGraphic_1.png






Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Endangered Species Act Changes Give Agencies More Say


I once worked as a Riverkeeper volunteer on watershed issues. I had a chance to speak with a water quality specialist (scientist) who was then an EPA (Federal) employee. His range of operation included the entire state of Pennsylvania. He said that it was impossible for him to check water quality without the help of citizen volunteers alerting him to areas of interest. That was more than 10 years ago. The Bush Administration has since taken the skin and muscle from the EPA staff so that the Republican’s favorite “robber barons” can run over environmental regulations. 


(Several international Mafias and Mafiyas have infiltrated our deregulated financial institutions, but that is another chapter in the Conservative Republican Robberbaron Takeover of the USA.)


Some of our worst pollution has stemmed from illegal dumping of hazardous materials; many times by syndicated organized crime; the very same people that bring you heroin and cocaine. I have seen the effect of TCE water pollution on a small boy. He developed a brain tumor when he was two years old and spent the next 5 years in Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia. In my view polluting our air and water is as much a criminal and anti-social act as those that destroy lives by pushing drugs. 


From Aldo Leopold:


“The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant, "What good is it?" If the land mechanism as a whole is good, then every part is good, whether we understand it or not. If the biota, in the course of eons, has built something we like but do not understand, then who but a fool would discard seemingly useless parts? To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering.”


This new Bu$h proposal is really a blank check for polluters to rape God’s Creation and steal from our progeny. 


Jim Pitcherella



Endangered Species Act Changes Give Agencies More Say


By Juliet Eilperin

Washington Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, August 12, 2008; A01


The Bush administration yesterday proposed a regulatory overhaul of the Endangered Species Act to allow federal agencies to decide whether protected species would be imperiled by agency projects, eliminating the independent scientific reviews that have been required for more than three decades.


The new rules, which will be subject to a 30-day per comment period, would use administrative powers to make broad changes in the law that Congress has resisted for years. Under current law, agencies must subject any plans that potentially affect endangered animals and plants to an independent review by the Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Marine Fisheries Service. Under the proposed new rules, dam and highway construction and other federal projects could proceed without delay if the agency in charge decides they would not harm vulnerable species.


In a telephone call with reporters yesterday, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne described the new rules as a "narrow regulatory change" that "will provide clarity and certainty to the consultation process under the Endangered Species Act."


But environmentalists and congressional Democrats blasted the proposal as a last-minute attempt by the administration to bring about dramatic changes in the law. For more than a decade, congressional Republicans have been trying unsuccessfully to rewrite the act, which property owners and developers say imposes unreasonable economic costs.


"I am deeply troubled by this proposed rule, which gives federal agencies an unacceptable degree of discretion to decide whether or not to comply with the Endangered Species Act," said Rep. Nick J. Rahall II (D-W.Va.), chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, who asked for a staff briefing before the proposal was announced but did not receive one. "Eleventh-hour rulemakings rarely, if ever, lead to good government -- this is not the type of legacy this Interior Department should be leaving for future generations."


Bob Irvin, senior vice president of conservation programs at the advocacy group Defenders of Wildlife, questioned how some federal agencies could make the assessments, since most do not have wildlife biologists on staff.


"Clearly, that's a case of asking the fox to guard the chicken coop," Irvin said, adding that the original law created "a giant caution light that made federal agencies stop and think about the impacts of their actions." He said, "What the Bush administration is telling those agencies is they don't have to think about those impacts anymore."

Read the rest of the article here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/11/AR2008081102299.html


Posted by James Pitcherella at 12:46 PM




Friday, February 24, 2023

IMO the “War on Drugs” was Nixon’s program to stop Black voters & Vietnam protest votes, while promoting public corruption. Not much changed since Nixon.

 “Richard Nixon’s first sit down came before he ran for Congress in 1946. Tricky Dick was later said to deal with the mob primarily through intermediaries like his bagman Bebe Rebozo or the attorney Murray Chotiner. But at this early stage, the military veteran and aspiring politician felt safe meeting face to face with Mickey Cohen, the notorious Jewish gangster based in Los Angeles. Despite Nixon's notorious anti-Semitism, Cohen was an important figure in California politics. Cohen, for his part, later said he got approval for the meeting, a lunch at Goodfellow's Fisherman's Grotto, from Cosa Nostra bosses in New York and Don Santos Trafficante in Florida…

Nixon was quite a big fan of the Cuban dictator Batista. He spent a lot of time down in Cuba when gambling was legal and run by the Mafia. They gave him a special room at the Hotel Nacional, which was owned by [gangster] Meyer Lansky. Nixon met with Lansky. The room was comped and Nixon ran up some big debts at Lansky’s gambling casino…

The comparison between Nixon and Trump is a common one these days, but mostly because both are facing special counsel investigations and have committed impeachable offenses. Do you think Trump's reported mob ties are fair game like Nixon's, though?
Yes, I definitely do, because anyone who’s been in the businesses that Trump’s been in must have had contact with the Mafia. I hope that one of these two congressional probes that’s taking place will look into possible Mafia ties.

The fact that it’s possible for murderers and purveyors of prostitution, illegal activities, drugs, and so on to get their hooks into a political figure—who’s not only a governor and senator, but someone who’s the actual president of the United States—that’s a horrible thing to happen. I hope people recognize that this was a major problem and took our country down a very dangerous path during those years when Nixon was in office—including his congressional senatorial, vice presidential, and presidential years. [It's amazing that] someone so high in the government could be a tool of organized crime.

What can we do in the future to uncover and prevent these type of abuses by our elected officials?
Being alert to all kinds of possible corruption. Congressional oversight is very important. I don’t think they had the proper oversight when Nixon was clearly running around with the Mafia and the Mafia was funding his campaigns over the years. Even the Senate Watergate Committee was not able to reveal all of Nixon’s ties with the Mafia, but at least it made a good start in preventing him from continuing crooked activities in a lot of other areas for which he was ultimately expelled from office.

Learn More about Don Fulsom's book, out this month from St. Martin's press, here.

Follow Seth Ferranti on Twitter.

MORE AT:

VICE

How the Mafia Fueled Richard Nixon's Political Career

04.28.16

By Seth Ferranti





“For years, García Luna was the U.S. government’s most trusted ally in the war on drugs. As public security secretary, he wielded incredible power, overseeing Mexico’s Federal Police, the prison network, and a vast intelligence-gathering infrastructure, while working with the Drug Enforcement Administration, FBI, CIA, and Department of Homeland Security in the fight against Mexican cartels…

“García Luna, who once stood at the pinnacle of law enforcement in Mexico, will now live the rest of his days having been revealed as a traitor to his country and to the honest members of law enforcement who risked their lives to dismantle drug cartels,” said Breon Peace, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York. The probing into García Luna’s alleged financial dealings does not end with Tuesday’s verdict, as the Mexican government is plowing ahead with civil charges that he stole money from Mexico.

García Luna left public office in 2012 following a change in presidency and moved to Miami where he started a security consulting company and lived a lavish lifestyle. Judge Brian Cogan barred any information about García Luna’s life post-2012 from being presented during the trial. (García Luna’s wife testified that their homes and assets in Mexico prior to the Miami move were purchased legitimately.)

In 2021, the Mexican government filed a civil lawsuit in Florida against García Luna, alleging he took over $700 million from government contracts; that case, experts hope, may reveal physical evidence of bribes that did not appear in the New York trial.”


MORE AT:


The Intercept


Trial of Mexico’s Former Top Cop Neglected U.S. Role in War on Drugs

Genaro García Luna was convicted on Tuesday of accepting millions in cartel bribes. But the information U.S. officials had went mostly unexplored.

José Olivares

February 21 2023, 8:50 p.m.







In 1976 Chester County DA Bill Lamb’s “sweep of 32 drug dealers” fell apart when 2 State Police detectives were convicted of drug sales & President Carter had a special investigation of the   FBI in the Delaware Valley area. 



Reading Eagle June 23, 1977 

Mystery Still Prevails-Informant's Death Probed 

Daniel Joseph was a witness in the prosecution of Lawrence Palmer and Gordon Roberts two Reading based agents with the PA Bureau of DrugControl. More importantly Daniel Joseph was a witness in the prosecution of many of the drug suspects arrested in the Drug raid of April 1976.






Richard Legree was one of the people arrested in April of1976.


“Daily Local News  

Pusher called "danger to community',  

Friday, September 10, 1976 

By BRUCE MOWDAY (Of the Local News Staff)  

Richard "Stretch" Legree of Coatesville, named as the number one drug pusher in Chester County by District AttorneyWilliam H. Lamb, was convicted last night of selling 145 bags of heroin to an undercover agent in January.”


Richard Legree had a new trial and was released from prison after serving a year and a few months. Later in life he became the Chairman ofArea 14 of the Chester County Republican Committee. 








"Fifty years after then-President Richard Nixon declared a “war on drugs,” the United States is still mired in the implications of this wrongheaded, racist policy decision.

Today, police make more than 1.5 million drug arrests each year, and about 550,000 of those are for cannabis offenses alone. Almost 500,000 people are incarcerated for nothing more than a drug law violation, and Black and brown people are disproportionately impacted by drug enforcement and sentencing practices. Rates of drug use and sales are similar across racial and ethnic lines, but Black and Latinx people are far more likely than white people to be stopped, searched, arrested, convicted, harshly sentenced, and saddled with a lifelong criminal record…


The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.

Their plan set the country on the misguided, punitive, and counterproductive path it pursues today, as administrations since have carried it forward. Incarceration rates skyrocketed during Ronald Reagan’s presidency, surging from 50,000 in 1980 to over 400,000 by 1997, and Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Donald Trump made their own damaging contributions to escalating the drug war.

But there are some wins worth mentioning. A growing number of states are decriminalizing cannabis—and, so far, 17 have legalized it—while earlier this year, New York passed the most progressive cannabis legalization legislation in the country. Notably, Oregon became the first state to decriminalize all drugs—a measure passed last November and effective since February. Known as Measure 110, it ends the enforcement of drug laws and shifts resources to drug treatment, housing, and harm reduction services, without raising taxes. And this week, Democratic lawmakers introduced the Drug Policy Reform Act, which would decriminalize all drugs, expunge existing records and allow for resentencing, and invest in health-centered measures to take on drug addiction.

The United States has been embroiled in a drug war that has yielded much misery, especially for Black and brown people who have been disproportionately targeted, and trillions in wasted tax dollars. It hasn’t made us safer, but it has devastated communities. We are finally beginning to acknowledge that drug use is a public health issue, not a criminal problem. To address it, we must invest in support services—such as peer support and recovery programs—for those who need or want them, and end this decades-long war."


MORE AT:

Vera

Fifty Years Ago Today, President Nixon Declared the War on Drugs

Jamila Hodge Former Project Director // Nazish Dholakia Senior Writer

Jun 17, 2021

Saturday, February 11, 2023

Trump election denier Dan Cox to serve as chief to staff to Doug Mastriano “During the (J6th.) rally, Cox sent a tweet attacking Vice President Mike Pence, writing "Pence is a traitor.”

"Dan Cox, a former Maryland delegate and failed Republican candidate for governor, will serve as chief of staff for Sen. Doug Mastriano

A former Maryland lawmaker has joined the staff of Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano.

Dan Cox, a former Maryland delegate and failed Republican candidate for governor, will serve as chief of staff for the Franklin County lawmaker. 

Mastriano and Cox sought the governorship of their respective states and campaigned together in the lead-up to the 2022 general election. 

Cox’s new role was first reported on Twitter Thursday by Politico reporter Holly Otterbein."


FROM:


Pennsylvania Capital Star

Former Md. GOP gubernatorial candidate to serve as Mastriano’s chief of staff

BY: CASSIE MILLER - FEBRUARY 10, 2023 4:20 PM



***

“Involvement in the January 6 United States Capitol attack

In November 2020, Cox said that he was part of a Republican legal team observing the count of mail-in ballots in Philadelphia during the 2020 United States presidential election.[26] After Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election, Cox has repeatedly endorsed Trump's false claims of a "stolen" election and called for a "forensic audit" of the 2020 election results,[27][28] later calling for an audit of the 2020 elections in Maryland.[29]

Cox helped arrange for buses to take constituents to the "Save America March" in Washington, D.C., on January 6, 2021; the rally preceded the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol, in which a mob of Trump supporters disrupted Congress's counting of the electoral votes in a failed attempt to keep Trump in power. During the rally, Cox sent a tweet attacking Vice President Mike Pence, writing "Pence is a traitor."[8][30][31] After receiving backlash, Cox tweeted and retweeted false claims blaming antifa for the attack on the Capitol, and expressed his support for Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys, an extremist group with nationalist, neofascist and self-proclaimed Western-chauvinist views.[32][33] Cox later said in June 2022 that his Twitter post was "his way of expressing his disappointment and not a personal attack on the vice president."[34] After his win in the Republican gubernatorial primary, Cox has denied organizing buses for the rally.[35][36]

The Frederick County Democratic Central Committee began a letter-writing campaign calling for Cox to be expelled from the House of Delegates for his false claims.[37] Two days later Cox issued a statement denouncing "all mob violence including those who broke into the U.S. Capitol."[37] In the statement Cox said he had attended the rally, but was not involved in the storming of the Capitol. He did not retract his statement about Pence.[37] Governor Larry Hogan and Steven Clark, the chairman of the Frederick County Republican Central Committee, denounced Cox's comments, and delegate Kathleen Dumais, the co-chair of the House Joint Committee on Legislative Ethics, said that the committee received some inquiries about Cox's tweets.[38][39]

In February 2022, representatives from Our Revolution and other progressive groups urged the Maryland State Board of Elections to consider blocking Cox from the ballot for his participation in the insurrection, citing Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution.[40] In May 2022, a lawsuit was filed against Maryland Elections Administrator Linda Lamone, seeking to remove Cox from the 2022 Republican primary ballot for his presence during the Capitol attack.[41] Anne Arundel County circuit court judge Mark W. Crooks dismissed the case on May 20, 2022.[42]”


2016 House of Representatives election campaign[edit]


Main article: 2016 United States House of Representatives elections in Maryland § District 8


On February 1, 2016, Cox filed to run in 2016 in Maryland's 8th congressional district.[22]

Cox was described as being the most conservative candidate in the Republican primary race.[17] He campaigned on imposing a 10 percent flat tax for incomes over $36,000 and eliminating payroll taxes, strengthening gun ownership rights, abolishing the Internal Revenue Service, and reducing funding and programs for the departments of Commerce, Education, Energy, and Housing and Urban Development.[12] He supported Ted Cruz in the 2016 Republican Party presidential primaries.[17] Cox won the Republican primary with 44.4 percent of the vote.[23] Cox pledged to join the Freedom Caucus, a group of tea party supporters, if elected.[24]

In the general election, Democratic Party nominee Jamie Raskin defeated Cox (61%-34%).[20][21]


MORE AT:

Dan Cox

Tuesday, February 7, 2023

Yes, the Republican Congress does want to rid school bathrooms of kitty litter boxes. “Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, has subpoenaed top Justice Department officials" He's investigating prosecution of conservative parents.

 


“Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, has subpoenaed top Justice Department officials, supposedly to investigate the department’s suppression of information about the persecution of conservative parents. Republicans have long alleged that federal jackboots have terrorized parents for protesting at school board meetings about covid-19 restrictions and teachings about race and sex.…”


“Regardless, if Republicans think they can prove FBI harassment of conservatives, let’s air this out. But Democrats can’t function just as fact-checkers, accusing Republicans of “conspiracy theories” and complaining they are “stoking the culture wars.” That could make Democrats seem defensive and responsive, which isn’t sufficient in an environment that’s increasingly shaped by full-blown information warfare.

Instead, Democrats should make these hearings about what Republicans did. This entails using spectacle to show what happened to educators as a result of Republicans systematically smearing them with hateful propaganda. Why not try to bring in educators to testify emotionally about the threats and harassment they’ve faced?

Asked about this, Swalwell said it’s possible. “The American people need to see these people’s faces and understand the fear that they’re living in,” Swalwell told me, speaking about targeted educators. “Republicans feel that fear should have a green light to continue.”


MORE AT:

The Washington Post

Opinion Jim Jordan is about to lead Republicans into a dangerous trap

Greg Sargent

February 7, 2023 at 8:00 a.m. EST




Where it began:






"Marjorie Taylor Greene spread conspiracy theories and called for public health officials to be put in jail on Saturday, as she and other prominent Republicans like Donald Trump traveled to Pennsylvania to support GOP senate candidate Mehmet Oz.

Before she even got onstage, the former QAnon supporter was repeating debunked right-wing myths, including false claims that public schools in places like Texas, Nebraska, Pennsylvania are lowering tables and putting out litter boxes for students who are “furries” that dress or self-identify as cats.


'They’re embracing lies, literally embracing lies,' Ms Greene told reporters outside the event. 'If some student wants to pretend like a cat and use a litterbox after school, that’s their prerogative, whatever. But no, the school, the school resources and the other students and teachers should not have to be put through that because it’s a lie and we have to reject them."


MORE AT:

THE INDEPENDENT

Marjorie Taylor Greene spreads conspiracy theories about 2020 election and furries at Pennsylvania rally

Sat, Sep 3, 2022

JOSH MARCUS

Sat, Sep 3, 2022

2 min read