I’ve written about this many times before, and will continue to do so as long as I see the media drawing an absurd, demonstrably false “equivalence” between Republicans and/or the Tea Party on the one hand, and Democrats and/or Progressives on the other hand. In fact, polling shows overwhelming that On Issue After Issue, Americans Support the Democratic/Progressive Position. Just name the topic, from guns to global warming, from the minimum wage to immigration policy, from LGBT equality to a woman’s right choose, and you’ll find the same result: Democrats and mainstream progressives are  in the majority, often the overwhelming majority, while Republicans and right wingers of all stripes are in the minority, often the small minority.

Today, we have yet another major poll, this time by the Washington Post and ABC News, demonstrating the same result.

This is an incomplete list, but Hillary Clinton will support international engagement and government action to combat climate change; an immigration reform compromise that exchanges more border security for some kind of path to legalization for the 11 million; a deal with Iran curbing its nuclear program (if one is reached); and a continuation of the movement towards universal health care set in motion by the Affordable Care Act (whatever its fate at the Supreme Court).

By contrast, by the time the eventual GOP nominee is chosen, he will probably have come out against any global climate treaty and at best hedged on domestic climate action; he will have cast serious doubt on whether he can support a real plan for legalization; he will have promised to undo any Iran nuke deal; and he will have vowed to continue the crusade for Obamacare repeal until he draws his very last breath.

[…]

The poll finds that on all of those issues, Republican and conservative voters are on one side, while majorities or pluralities of Americans – including independents and moderates – are on the other…

For the record:

*By an 88%-7% margin, conservative Republicans want to ditch “Obamacare.” Everyone else? Among all adults, 45% want to repeal it, while 49% want to keep it. Not a huge margin, but it’s dragged down by almost monolithic hatred among far right wingers of the law named after President Obama (even as that law benefits them in many ways).

*By a 2:1 (59%-31%) margin, all adults want government action to address climate change. That includes independents, who want action climate change by a 61%-32% margin. Conservative Republicans? By a 3:1 margin (22%-65%), they do NOT want government action to address climate change. Can we say “wildly out of the mainstream,” not to mention wildly out of sync with what the science and economics both tell us we desperately need to do ASAP?

*On Iran nuclear negotiations, Americans by a 49%-42% margin want our next president to be someone who favors a negotiated settlement with Iran. Among Democrats, it’s over 2:1. Among independents, it’s 51%-40%. The outlier yet again, as I’m sure you’ve guessed, is Republicans generally (by a 2:1 margin, they would oppose a presidential candidate who favors a negotiated settlement with Iran), and conservative Republicans in particular (they’re approach a 3:1 margin opposing a candidate who wants a negotiated settlement).

*Finally, on immigration reform, a majority of Americans (51%-45%) support a path to citizenship for undocumented immigratns. And I know this will come as a shock, but the right wingnuts are far out of the mainstream yet again, with conservative Rpeublicans OPPOSING a path to citizenship by a huge 78%-18% margin. Everyone else supports a path to citizenship: independents by 8 points, moderates by 11 points, Democrats by 40 points, liberals by 52 points.

Bottom line: next time you hear someone saying stuff like “there’s no difference between Democrats and Republicans,” or “both sides’ partisans are out of the mainstream,” or whatever, just point them in the direction of Google, where they will quickly find thousands of polls, including this latest one by the Washington Post/ABC News, proving them dead wrong.

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Friday, April 3. Also, click here for an official list of certified Virginia General Assembly candidates, per the State Board of Elections. Oh, and congratulations to Scott Surovell, the Democratic nominee for the 36th State Senate seat! 🙂

*Iran agrees to nuclear restrictions in framework deal with world powers (Great work by Secretary of State John Kerry – who should have been president, would have been FAR superior to Dubya — and to President Obama, who yet again appears to have proven his right-wingnut critics dead wrong.)

*Kenya faces the grim aftermath of school massacre (The world community really needs to destroy groups like Al-Shabab. They are evil and dangerous.)

*A nuclear deal with Iran is the best option (“…bombing and then threatening the Islamic Republic’s existence would likely produce exactly the opposite effect – a government strengthened at home with a clear rationale to acquire a nuclear deterrent.”)

*AP finds little substance in review of Clinton’s Secretary of State emails (Yet again, much ado by Republicans about…???)

*This is an astonishingly good Iran deal (“…if this framework does indeed become a full nuclear deal in July, it would be a huge success and a great deal.”)

*David Ignatius: A better-than-expected nuclear deal with Iran

*President Obama’s told-you-so moment (“Announcing the Iran deal, the president spoke with the attitude of a man whose theory has finally been proved right.”)

*Scott Walker: I’ll blow up any Iran deal, no matter what our European allies think (Walker would be an absolute disaster as president. Unless you love war, bigotry, climate science denial, ignorance, etc.)

*Poll: Bush now tops GOP field; Clinton runs ahead of all Republicans (“Hillary Rodham Clinton enjoys a decided advantage over Bush and other potential GOP rivals in hypothetical general election matchups, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.”)

*The right’s “cake” insanity: You won’t believe how it’s trying to deflect the Indiana backlash (“How absurd have Republicans gotten in their defense of “religious freedom” laws? They now argue ‘cake is speech'”)

*Republicans’ “Hitler” idiocy: Why their hysterical Iran pushback exposes a secret (“The people who spout off about Munich and Chamberlain are arguing without actually saying it that we should take military action against Iran to halt its nuclear ambitions. There’s really no other way to interpret it when you’re casting Iran in the role of Nazi Germany and belittling the very idea of conducting diplomacy with an enemy.”)

*Governor to sign executive order to ‘ban the box’ in state hiring

*Editorial: After blaming Israel, State Bar backtracks on trip, steps on rake

*Email: Gov. McAuliffe refused interviews by federal agents

*Indiana religious freedom act spurs debate in Virginia over 2007 law

*Touchscreen problems worry Virginia election officials

*State Bar decision to cancel Israel trip rankles some members

*Hanger gets to have a primary, judge rejects local bid for a convention

*Records: Tommy Norment admitted to a relationship with a lobbyist

*FILLING IN THE BLANKS: Access to records would enable a thorough examination of racial disparity in the Virginia court system

*Natural Bridge Zoo’s permit suspended after officials find 44 violations of Animal Welfare Act

*Sailor missing since January found alive off Cape Hatteras

*Spring’s warmth returns again

but with periodic rain showers

 

Today the Sierra Club held a demonstration at a fundraiser for Senator Frank Wagner of Virginia Beach. “Frank Wagner is Dominion’s Man! He Obstructs the Clean Power Plan” and “Frank Wagner Takes Dirty Money! While the seas are rising and that’s not funny!” were just a few of the chants launched at the Senator and those attending his fundraiser at the Westin Hotel in Virginia Beach. Frank Wagner has been named by the Sierra Club as the #1 obstructionist to climate action in the General Assembly, and for good reason.

This year’s General Assembly session was, as always, an exciting whirlwind of discussion, debate, and decision and it was not without its theatrics. Climate change mitigation was a hot topic in Richmond and not for the reasons you may think.  There is a strong and vocal cadre of General Assembly members who are opposed to reasonable policies to address climate change. The most outspoken of these opponents is Sen. Frank Wagner of Virginia Beach who, shockingly, represents residents of Hampton Roads. One would think that supporting action on climate change would be a no brainer for someone representing people living in the region 2nd only to New Orleans when it comes to being vulnerable to sea level rise from climate change. But Sen. Wagner seems to be putting his purse before the people as he’s taken nearly $50,000 in campaign contributions and gifts from Dominion Virginia Power, the state’s largest and most dominant utility, over his General Assembly career. Add that to the $43,643 in campaign contributions since 2009 from Virginia based Alpha Natural Resources, one of the largest coal companies in the country, and you can start to see where his loyalties lie. There is no denying that Sen. Frank Wagner is very cozy, too cozy, with the fossil fuel industry, the industry that has put literally billions of dollars into fighting common sense actions to address climate change and transition our energy mix to more clean and renewable energy.

The efforts to obstruct and attack initiatives that support climate action were on display multiple times in the General Assembly this year. These attacks were focused on the EPA’s Clean Power Plan (CPP), a flexible and common sense approach to reducing carbon emission from our nation’s power plants, and also the first EVER federal action to address climate change. The plan sets a state by state goal for emission reduction and then leaves it up to the states to implement a plan to achieve those goals that fits best for each state .  Sen. Wagner himself proposed three pieces of legislation that were aimed at either outright obstructing action on climate change or at least slowing it down.

First SB 1349, aka “the Dominion rate freeze bill” didn’t specifically target the EPA rule but to justify the bill Senator Wagner repeated claims by Dominion that the rule was unfair to Virginia and could result in electricity bill increases of 30% or more. EPA estimates and an independent analysis by the ICF consulting group found that the Clean Power Plan would actually reduce customers’ bills if investments were made in efficiency.  A recent report by PJM, the organization that operates the regional electrical grid also confirmed that, contrary to Dominion’s and Wagner’s claims, the Clean Power Plan could reduce electricity bills. But this bill basically allows Dominion to overcharge its customers and there is no way for us to know about it. A very telling side note to go along with this; when it became public knowledge that Senator Wagner also owned stock in Dominion, he sold his shares during the legislative session.  

Another bill introduced by Sen. Wagner was SB 1202, which failed, would have infringed on the authority of the Governor and other state agencies to develop a state implementation plan to comply with the EPA rule and in essence reduce Virginia’s carbon emissions. Finally SJ 273, which actually passed, calls for an unnecessary study of alleged errors by the EPA in assessing the health benefits of the Clean Power Plan, basically just another way for Wagner and his fossil fuel buddies to continue the narrative that the EPA rule is bad, bad, bad.

Sen. Wagner’s blatant disregard for the needs of his constituents is shameful and should not stand and the same goes for Dominion Virginia Power’s extreme influence on governance in Virginia. According to the Virginia Public Access Project, Dominion made $1.4 million in Virginia political campaign contributions in 2012 and 2013. That’s just one year’s worth of donations, and I promise you they didn’t just start donating to politicians last year! This kind of corporate cronyism must be addressed and gotten rid of if we are to continue to have a free and just society. The Sierra Club, along with other organization throughout the state, are starting to take Dominion and their politicians to task. They’ve started a new campaign called “The People V.S. Dominion” and will be held the demonstration in Virginia Beach Towne Center to call out Sen. Wagner’s climate obstructionism at a fundraiser on Thursday. For more information about the campaign or the demonstration go to www.VASierraclub.org or contact the author.  

From the Virginia Sierra Club:

Group Protests outside Wagner Fundraiser

Demonstrators with the Sierra Club picketed outside an event for Senator Frank Wagner on Thursday at Town Center in Virginia Beach to protest the Senator’s opposition to EPA rules to regulate carbon pollution from coal and gas fired electricity power plants.  

“Senator Wagner is the #1 obstructionist in the Virginia General Assembly to measures to address climate change,” said Glen Besa, Director of the Sierra Club Virginia Chapter. “No one wasted more of the legislature’s time than Senator Wagner attacking the EPA on behalf of polluters like Dominion and coal companies like Alpha Natural Resources.  When you represent an area as vulnerable to sea level rise as Hampton Roads, that’s just irresponsible.”  

Dominion Virginia Power has been one of the largest political contributors to Senator Wagner over the years. Since 2004 he has received $43,100 in campaign contributions from Dominion.  Senator Wagner also received $43,643 in campaign contributions since 2009 from Virginia based Alpha Natural Resources, one of the largest coal companies in the country.

“We think all this fossil fuel money may be clouding his judgment,”said Besa, ‘and he has forgotten who he represents.”

During the 2015 legislation session, Senator Wagner carried SB 1349, controversial legislation on behalf of Dominion Virginia Power that restricted the oversight authority of the State Corporation Commission to order refunds when the utility overcharges its customers.  When it became public knowledge that Senator Wagner also owned stock in Dominion, he sold his shares during the legislative session.  

While working for passage of SB 1349, Senator Wagner repeated claims by Dominion that the EPA’s Clean Power Plan to reduce carbon pollution from coal and gas plants was unfair to Virginia and could result in electricity bill increases of 30% or more.

EPA estimates and an independent analysis by the ICF consulting group found that the EPA’s Clean Power Plan could actually reduce customers bills if investments were made in efficiency.  A recent report by PJM, the organization that operates the regional electrical grid also confirmed that, contrary to Dominion’s and Wagner’s claims, the Clean Power Plan could reduce electricity bills.

“Climate change is real, the seas are rising as a result and the EPA’s Clean Power Plan is a reasonable first step to addressing climate change,” said Zach Jarjoura, an organizer with the Sierra Club.  “We’re here to let the public know that Senator Wagner is siding with the fossil fuel industry over the interests of his constituents.”

Senator Wagner introduced two other pieces of legislation in 2015 attacking the EPA’s Clean Power Plan. SB 1202, which failed, would have jeopardized state implementation of the EPA’s Clean Power Plan in Virginia. SJ 273, which passed, wastes state funding on a witch hunt calling for a study of alleged errors by the EPA in assessing the health benefits of the Clean Power Plan.

Here we go again with the ALEC/Koch brothers/fossil fuel big lie machine. Yesterday, I saw this trash (“EPA carbon plan will kill 38,000 Virginia jobs, report says”) in something called “VirginiaWatchdog.org,” pushing this Big Lie “report” by something called the “Thomas Jefferson Institute.”  For more on that Orwellian organization, see here:

The Thomas Jefferson Institute is a libertarian/right-wing think tank committed to “free markets, limited government and individual responsibility.”  It is funded heavily by the Roe Foundation, a South Carolina-based which provides “financial support to free-market policy groups across the country” and which gives out its annual Roe Award to the likes of Grover Norquist and to others from right-wing groups like the Independence Institute (proud global warming deniers), the Reason Foundation (for years, global warming deniers who received funding from ExxonMobil), and the big-time global warming deniers at the Heartland Institute. Sensing a pattern here?

As for the Koch-Funded Franklin Center “Watchdogs” Infiltrate State Capitols. As for the Franklin Center, all you really need to know is this:

In June 2012 the Franklin Center teamed up with the Heritage Foundation to host the first annual Breitbart Awards dinner.[33] The awards honored the life and work of the late Andrew Breitbart who “pioneered a new media revolution that transformed journalism and the political landscape.”

Yes, seriously, they held a dinner to honor the far-far-far-right-wing Andrew Breitbart. Just to refresh your memory of the ever-charming Breitbart, note that “In the hours immediately following Senator Ted Kennedy’s death, Breitbart called Kennedy a ‘villain’, a ‘duplicitous bastard’, a ‘prick’ and ‘a special pile of human excrement’.” Oh, and if that’s not enough, one more thing you should know about the Franklin Center is this:

95 percent of Franklin’s revenue in 2011 came from a charity called Donors Trust…Since its founding in 1999, Donors Trust and its affiliated organization, Donors Capital Fund, have distributed nearly $400 million, becoming major vehicles for tax-exempt giving from wealthy conservatives such as billionaire industrialist Charles Koch. Koch is among an exclusive pool of donors who have used Donors Trust as a “pass-through.”

Finally, check out the Beacon Hill Institute, another far-right-wing, fossil-fuel-funded propaganda factory which works with groups like the Koch brother’s “Americans for Prosperity” and others to denigrate renewable energy and efforts to scale back greenhouse gas emissions. Great, huh?

Anyway, the bottom line is that these folks have absolutely ZERO credibility, nor does any “analysis” they put out on any subject, certainly not on energy or environmental matters, given their enormous $$$ interest in fossil fuels. So when you see breathless reports in Koch-brothers-funded blogs of a new “study” by more Koch-brothers-funded entities (in this case, the “Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy” and the “Beacon Hill Institute”), what you need to do is either a) completely ignore it; or b) take the polar opposite of what they say as much closer to reality. In this case, for instance, the reality is that moving towards a clean energy economy will be an enormous jobs creator, as this is turning into a multi-TRILLION-dollar industry for the 21st century (while most fossil fuels are unburnable if we want a livable planet, meaning that entire industry is resting atop a gigantic contradiction, lie, etc. — see Bank of England warns of huge financial risk from fossil fuel investments, for instance). Oh, and any media outlet that reports the Koch brothers’ propaganda as “fact” or in a “both sides” manner should lose all claim to being a legitimate news source forever.

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Thursday, April 2. Also, check out the right winger trying to claim that his bigotry isn’t bigotry because…oh forget it.

*California Imposes First Mandatory Water Restrictions to Deal With Drought

*States’ Rights Measures Expose Split in G.O.P.’s Ranks

*Senator Robert Menendez Indicted on Corruption Charges

*Bill McKibben: Harvard Has Always Lagged Behind in Social Progress. It Must Not Let That Happen With Climate Change.”)

*NRDC Says Clean Power Plan Benefits Virginia

*Casey: Climate-change vigils coming to Roanoke City Market won’t add to the noise (“Crawford and his crew deserve some welcoming smiles and enthusiastic thumbs up”)

*Virginia SCC adopts new rules on long-term care insurance

*Shingles: There is nothing natural nor clean about fracked gas

*Virginia State Bar acknowledges blunders in ill-fated trip to Israel (Ya think?)

*Man who tried to extort state senator gets two years (“Christopher Burruss, who has spent much of his life incarcerated, tried to extort Tommy Norment over ‘inappropriate communication’ between him and a female friend of Burruss.”)

*Judge dismisses felony indictment against Virginia’s Joe Morrissey (I swear this guy doesn’t just have nine lives, he has 99 lives.)

*Debate over ‘religious freedom’ bills becomes an issue in Va. House race (“Del. Robert G. Marshall (R-Prince William) is defending the Indiana law, to the chagrin of his Democratic challenger, Don Shaw, who called the effort ‘offensive.'”)

*Va. governor meets with black leaders in Charlottesville, urges ABC reforms

*Bi-County Parkway foes optimistic that state letter means project is dead

*Editorial: Richmond marks end of the Civil War

*Still time for Beach to get right on drilling (“Five years after the nation’s worst oil spill – 200 million gallons in the Gulf of Mexico – coastal cities are finally waking up to the consequences of gambling on offshore drilling.”)

*Baliles considering run for Richmond mayor (“Other names frequently mentioned in the early mayoral speculation are Levar Stoney, a political confidante of Gov. Terry McAuliffe, and Richmond School Board member Jeff M. Bourne”)

*Norfolk makes operations officer acting superintendent

*Sunny and warm today with a chance for showers tonight