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In 2022, longtime Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski is up for re-election. Murkowski managed to pull off a rare feat in Alaska in 2010 when she ran as a write-in candidate and won after she lost her primary to Tea Party candidate Joe Miller (via The New York Times). She won the general election and served another term in 2016. Now, Sarah Palin is thinking of taking her on, but she'd have to beat her in the primary first.

"If God wants me to do it, I will," Palin said when speaking with New Apostolic Reformation leader Ch Ahn, according to USA Today.

Calling Washington, D.C. a bubble, Palin said it would be a "sacrifice" to have to live there, but she would do it. However, she also stipulated that religious groups that didn't defend her in 2008 would have to come through. "If I were going to announce, what I would do is say 'OK, you guys better really be there for me this time," she said.

Palin also acknowledged that the primary would be crowded, with Murkowski trying to keep her seat and Donald Trump-backed candidate Kelly Tshibaka already in the race. "You know, there's a female Republican who's already jumped in the race. Kind of the scary thing is that I've been in politics all my life, up in Alaska, and I'd never heard of her, so that made me hesitant," Palin added (via USA Today).

Follow this link:
Could Sarah Palin Really Be Returning To A Career In Politics? - The List

To The Eagle:

Though the Covid vaccines were developed in less than a year by using cutting edge MRNA technology, they were submitted to the same rigorous standards of scientific scrutiny, review and testing as all other existing vaccines. Due to the dire nature of the pandemic, the FDA issued a temporary Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the manufacture and distribution of the vaccines.

EUAs accelerate the availability of medical countermeasures, including vaccines, during public health emergencies such as the current Covid-19 pandemic. When the pandemic is declared by the CDC to be over, vaccine manufacturers will be required to re-apply for approval of their vaccines by the FDA through customary channels.

Click and read Covid Vaccine Testing and Approval and Emergency Use Authorization for Vaccines Explained, two excellent and easily understandable sources that explain how and why Covid-19 vaccines are definitively not experimental.

Americas Front Line Doctors are a professionally rejected and scientifically repudiated right wing cabal who have a reputation for twisting true statements to promote misleading ideas about vaccine safety. Go online to Whats Wrong With Americas Front Line Doctors for a fuller explanation of why they are not to be trusted.

FactCheck.org states the AFLDS goals seem more political than medical, connected as they are to the Tea Party Patriots Foundation and identifying themselves as a project of the Free Speech Foundation, a nebulous source of manufactured right wing journalism.

Welcome to the era of The Big Lie, and many others, large and small.

JB Bouchard

Puget Island

Read more from the original source:
Welcome to era of The Big Lie - The Wahkiakum County Eagle

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: So, I want to ask you, Branko, about a key part of President Joe Bidens agenda, the bipartisan bill thats the first phase of his infrastructure plan. This week, the Senate is working on amendments to the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which calls for spending $555 billion in new money over five years on the countrys roads, bridges, water systems and broadband and the electric grid. But critics say the bill fails to urgently address the climate emergency. The Intercept reports it actually includes $25 billion in potential new subsidies for fossil fuels. The outcome of the bipartisan bill will set the stage for debate on Bidens much larger $3.5 trillion package, which Republicans strongly oppose, but would require a simple majority for passage through reconciliation.

So, you wrote a piece, Branko Marcetic, in Jacobin magazine headlined Bidens Infrastructure Deal Is Terrible. Progressives in Congress Should Block It. And you also are the author of the biography of Biden, Yesterdays Man: The Case Against Joe Biden. But can you talk about the infrastructure bill bills, as they stand now, and particularly the bipartisan one? Whats been stripped out of it?

BRANKO MARCETIC: As you say, a lot of the climate stuff. I mean, the bipartisan bill, by virtue of having to negotiate with the Republicans, who, of course, are climate deniers and, you know, are captured by corporate interests, including fossil fuels, of course, they do not want a whole host of climate measures in there that are going to compete with those industries or that will, you know, eventually phase them out. So, a lot of that stuff has been stripped down. You know, the clean energy standard, which was meant to be one of the cornerstones of transitioning the United States electricity grid away from fossil fuels and to renewable energy, thats out of the bill. The spending that was initially put in the original proposal by Biden was to spend about $125 billion a year. That has gone out.

Though theres still things in there. Dont get me wrong. Theres, I think, about $66 billion for passenger rail. Theres investments in renewable energy and that kind of thing. So, its not nothing, but the numbers are substantially smaller than they were in the original proposal. And the issue there is, you know, overcoming climate change requires a mind-boggling transformation of not just the energy system, but really the way that we live our lives, the way that we structure society. It requires a really, really massive investment of money to do this. Some groups say, the Roosevelt Institute, for instance they estimate that you need about $1 trillion a year for the next 10 years, at the very least, to be able to do this. You know, youve also got people who talk about the climate crisis and overcoming it as a kind of World War II-style effort. Well, in 1945, the amount of the percentage of GDP that was spent for the war effort was about 37.5%. That original climate infrastructure bill was going to spend 1% of GDP per year. So, thats even thats the one that was more ambitious. This one is far, far, far less than that.

So I think the climate issue is probably the biggest thing thats not in there, but youve also got a whole host of things that are in the $3.5 trillion one that the Senate is trying to pass that are not in this bipartisan bill, because, I guess, they were not considered by Republicans or some of the more conservative Democrats who are negotiating this bipartisan bill as infrastructure. So, that includes universal pre-K. That includes free community college and, you know, other things like that, things that are not physical infrastructure theyre not bridges and roads but they are key to how the economy functions. You need educated workers to be able to have a good-functioning economy. You need peoples kids to be take care of, to have somewhere to go, so that people can go to work and not have to think about what theyre going to do in terms of child care.

So, all of those things are missing from the bipartisan bill. So, you know, if that is the only thing that gets passed, given the slim majorities, given the whats on the horizon in 2022, its going to be very difficult for Democrats to actually hold the House and the Senate if this doesnt get passed, it will be looked at as a massive missed opportunity that we will really regret, I think, in years to come.

JUAN GONZLEZ: But then, in terms of being able to accomplish both the bigger bill through budget reconciliation and this infrastructure package, how do you foresee that actually happening? And what is the role of progressives in that situation? For instance, if the progressives do try to block infrastructure, do you think they will have sufficient leverage to get what they want in the reconciliation bill?

BRANKO MARCETIC: Well, yeah, its tricky. So, Biden has said that theyre going to pass both bills in tandem. The Senate leadership and other Democratic leadership, theyve said as much, as well. At the moment, the idea is to pass first the bipartisan bill in the Senate, send it to the House, and then, after that, just before the Senate goes on recess, to pass, basically, a framework for the bigger $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill, which also will then go to the House.

Now, the issue is: Can progressives trust that if they vote for this bipartisan bill, that they wont have the rug pulled out under them either by the Biden administration, which has already dropped a number of pretty significant campaign promises, including the public option, which never gets talked about anymore, and by conservative lawmakers, people like Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, who has already said, $3.5 trillion, thats way too much money for me. Im not going to support that? Can they trust that? I would say they cannot.

And so, the question here is: Are progressives you know, theres a very slim majority in the House that the Democrats have, because of the election loss in the House during 2020, which, on the one hand, was bad for Democrats, but can be very good for you know, given the fact that there is a pretty substantial number of socialist and progressive lawmakers now in there, who can serve a role like the tea party served for the Republicans, you know, back during the Obama years, where they can use their numbers to say, Hey, well, if youre not going to give us what weve asked for, then were going to vote this down. Were going to vote down your bipartisan infrastructure package, and therefore no one gets anything. They have said as much. You know, AOC, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, she has said that she will not be voting for the bipartisan package unless the reconciliation bill also goes through. Bernie Sanders in the Senate, he has said the same thing, essentially.

The question is: What kind of guarantee are they going to get that they are not going to have that rug pulled out under them? And I think a verbal agreement or a verbal assurance is not enough. So, yeah, I would say, look, if the cost of passing the reconciliation bill is having to pass this bipartisan bill, as well, that seems like an acceptable price. But if that reconciliation bill looks like its actually going to get blocked, then progressives need to, you know, use their numbers and use their leverage and wield power that they really have in his Congress.

AMY GOODMAN: Branko Marcetic, we want to thank you for being with us, staff writer at Jacobin magazine. Well link to your latest piece, Bidens Infrastructure Deal Is Terrible. Progressives in Congress Should Block It.

Next up, we move from the battle in Congress to the battle on the frontlines. Twenty more water protectors were brutally arrested over the weekend fighting the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline. Well speak with Indigenous lawyer Tara Houska. Stay with us.

Originally posted here:
Should Progressives in Congress Oppose Biden's Infrastructure Deal If Reconciliation Bill Is Blocked? - Democracy Now!

Although Ukraine is often perceived as one of the least free countries in the world, it is more liberal than many when it comes to accessing alcohol, for example, or methadone. And yet, as in many other countries, our political dynamic around e-cigarettes is anything but positive.

On June 1, the Ukrainian Parliament passed in the first reading the draft law #4358: On Amendments to Some Laws of Ukraine on Public Health Protection from Harmful Tobacco Exposure. Some key provisions include a prohibition of the use of e-cigarettes in public places, along with advertising, sponsorship and promotion of nicotine vapes. Vape flavors will also be banned if the parliament fully endorses the bill.

According to the explanatory note for #4358which mirrors the World Health Organizations recommendationsthe law aims to reduce smoking rates among adults by restricting access, marketing and advertising of conventional tobacco, as well as dong the same to new nicotine productsand preventing underage vaping.

Banning vape flavors and the promotion of safer alternatives will only increase smoking-related harms that already hit the country hard.

Ukraine has around 9.5 million smokers, according to the Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction (GSTHR)representing a smoking rate among adults of over 25 percent. Our country suffers over 96,000 annual smoking-related deaths. However, the proposed vaping measures do not stand up to scrutiny and will do more harm than good.

A lower-middle income country like Ukraine is particularly vulnerable to the WHOs misleading statements about vaping. The latest WHO report claims that many countries are not addressing emerging nicotine and tobacco products and failing to regulate them and stresses that only a few are effective at that. For a country thats trying to please the UN for geopolitical reasons, it is a compelling demand to tighten regulation.

E-cigarettes are completely different from conventional cigarettes, and equating them is a fundamental mistake. When burned, traditional cigarettes create more than 7,000 chemicals, at least 69 of which have been identified as carcinogens. Vape liquids, besides water and nicotine, consist of propylene glycol and vegetable glycerin, both used to form the vapor and add flavor to it. Added to these two ingredients is a flavor, usually a common food flavoring, to help give the vape liquid its taste.

Vape flavorstargeted by #4358play a crucial role in helping smokers quit. Vapers who use flavors are 2.3 times more likely to quit than those who use tobacco-flavored e-cigarettes. The accessibility of vape flavors ensures that smokersespecially heavy smokerscan experiment to find out which one works best for them.

Banning vape flavors wont drive down teen smoking. In fact, it might double the probability of them taking up traditional cigarettes, according to a study by the Yale School of Public Health.

Overall, according to the UKs Royal College of Physicians, the hazard to health arising from long-term vapor inhalation from the e-cigarettes available today is unlikely to exceed 5 percent of the harm from smoking tobacco, with developing technology likely to further improve safety, and it is important to promote [their] use as widely as possible as a substitute for smoking.

But promoting this lifesaving alternative is exactly what Ukraines new law would forbid. It would block access to key information about the benefits of switching, and the 2 million smokers in Ukraine who could switch, given UK-style vape-friendly policies, might never do so. The restrictions on a burgeoning new industry, together with smoking-related health care costs, would additionally hamper Ukraines post-COVID economic recovery.

The Ukrainian government should take the path of science and move away from the poisonous, WHO-induced belief that vaping is the same as smoking. Banning vape flavors and the promotion of safer alternatives will only increase smoking-related harms that already hit the country hard. Only by encouraging vaping, as countries like the UK have done successfully, can Ukraine show its commitment to improving public health for the generations to come.

Photograph of Sofia Square, Kiev by via Wikimedia Commons/Creative Commons 4.0

Knowledge-Action-Change, which publishes GSTHR, has provided restricted grants and donations to The Influence Foundation, which operates Filter.

Read more:
Ukraine Poised to Pass an Anti-Vaping Law That Will Increase Harms - Filter

A controversial topic has landed in front of politicians in the Ukrainian parliament and is getting international attention. Seventy-eight Ukrainian lawmakers from all sides of the parliament have proposed to give the title Hero of Ukraine to controversial figures such as Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych.

Some Ukrainians see them as war heroes who fought for Ukrainian independence back in the 1930s and 1940s.

For others, they are antisemitic war criminals who took part in the mass killings of up to 100,000 Jews and Poles during WW2 in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia.

The proposal also asks the Ukrainian Parliament and the countrys president Volodymyr Zelenskyy to commemorate the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, UPA, operating from the 1940s and into the 1950s, on their 80th anniversary in October next year.

It also includes the suggestion of constructing memorials and the issuing of coins and stamps, dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, as well as to Stepan Bandera, Roman Shukhevych, and other UPA commanders.

The Ukrainian parliament will now consider the proposal, which is expected to meet fierce reactions from Poland and Israel if adopted.

Bandera was named Hero of Ukraine back in 2010 by outgoing president Viktor Yushchenko, which sparked protests from Poland and Israel before Bandera was stripped of the status again in 2011.

Pavlo Kutuev, the chair of the sociology department at Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, tells Euronews that the move by the 78 lawmakers is indeed controversial.

This question is extremely contested and is dominated by ideological visions, he says.

It is used to mobilise supporters, and I would say that it is counterproductive in Ukraines relations with countries such as Poland but also in integrating society. They are heroes in western Ukraine, but they have different ones in eastern Ukraine.

I believe that what we see now is an attempt to run on the patriotic ticket by Zelenskyys party and trying to capture more voters, says Kutuev.

Bandera, Shukhevych, and the UPA are controversial for several reasons. Critics point to the mass killings of up to 100,000 Jews and Poles and the fact that UPA cooperated with Nazi Germany at the beginning of WW2 until it became clear that Nazi Germany wouldnt recognise Ukrainian independence.

Others see them as heroes fighting for independence and accuse Poland of mass killings and deportation of Ukrainians in the 1940s.

The view of the UPA is also split inside Ukraine. A study carried out this year by the Democratic Initiatives Center shows that 80 per cent of Western Ukrainians are positive about the Ukrainian government recognising the soldiers of the UPA and their fight for Ukrainian independence.

In contrast, only 25 per cent are supportive in eastern Ukraine. The study also shows that 70 per cent of western Ukrainians have a favourable view of Bandera as a historical figure, while that number is 11 per cent in eastern Ukraine.

Sviatoslav Yurash is a member of the Ukrainian parliament for the Presidents party Servant of the People and is one of the 78 lawmakers supporting the proposal. He tells Euronews that he understands that the proposal is controversial and says that he is not arguing against the atrocities committed by members of the UPA towards Jews and Poles. However, he argues that Bandera should be remembered for his fight for independence.

They are controversial; I agree with that, Yurash says, (But) they said that we dont want to be a puppet or an instrument. We want to be an independent state. The story here should be remembered, but we should also not forget all the problems. However, their goal was very clear - an independent Ukraine. And it is worthy of giving stamps and coins for.

Yurash says that it should be made clear that Bandera and the UPA arent receiving the honour due to the atrocities committed but for their role in the Ukrainian fight for independence. It also doesnt exclude remembering horrors such as Babi Yar - the mass killings of Jews by Nazi Germany in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. The Ukrainian government is planning to build a large memorial in remembrance of Babi Yar.

I do not disagree that we should remember, examine and acceptably apologise for horrible deeds done, but so did the other side. Efforts and deeds of the Polish movement in Ukrainian villages - displaced and destroyed. Focus on this (blaming each other) is wrongheaded, and I think that will be a mistake. We have a bear in the East that we should focus on, says Yurash.

The bear Yurash is referring to is Russia, where he sees the real enemy. In 2014, Russia annexed the Ukrainian peninsula Crimea, and a war between Ukraine and Russian-backed separatists broke out in eastern Ukraine.

It has claimed more than 13,000 lives, according to the UN. Recently, Russian President Vladimir Putin published an essay where he argues that people living in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia are essentially the same people and that Russia will never accept the anti-Russia movement in Ukraine.

Russias view of Ukrainian independence scares Yurash and makes it essential to celebrate the people who historically fought for Ukrainian independence, such as Bandera. However, Yurash says that people considered heroes in eastern Ukraine also deserve recognition.

We should move beyond national heroes. We should look at what unites Ukraine, like our values, which are agreed upon in the West and East. It is our values that, like glue, bring us together. The respect for civilian and spiritual institutions and liberty, he says.

Professor Kutuev explains that Ukraine is still working on its national identity-building process after the country emerged after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Ukraine has had to break with its Soviet past and kind of underline its own identity, which has made it turn to figures considered anti-Soviet and anti-communist. On the one hand, it is a natural development, but on the other hand, it could be dangerous because it could amplify the different views within Ukraine, he says.

Kutuev argues that Ukraine still lacks the academic examinations of certain historical events and a public debate about its past.

I am not saying that Bandera does not deserve this historic status, but that the government should be more careful because he is not a hero for every Ukrainian citizen.

It is still unclear what President Zelenskyy thinks of the proposal. The Kyiv Post writes that he previously has said that Bandera is a hero for some Ukrainians.

He is one of the people who defended Ukraines freedom, Zelenskyy said in 2019.

He is a hero for a certain percentage of Ukrainians, and its normal, and its cool.

The Ukrainian parliament is currently on summer break and resumes work in September. The proposal is unlikely to be reviewed before then.

Every weekday, Uncovering Europe brings you a European story that goes beyond the headlines. Download the Euronews app to get a daily alert for this and other breaking news notifications. It's available on Apple and Android devices.

More here:
Controversy as Ukraine mulls giving hero status to alleged war criminals - Euronews