It's Election Day in America! Join us at 7 PM ET for our liveblog when polls close in Virginia, home to critical races for governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general, as well as contests for all 100 seats in the House of Delegates. We'll also be tracking elections up and down the ballot across the country, including in New Jersey, New York, Washington, Florida, and elsewhere. We've published an hour-by-hour preview of all the key races, and we'll be covering all the results as they come in at Daily Kos Elections and on Twitter. See you then! |
Today’s comic by Jen Sorensen: Serve your country club:
• Not sure where to vote today? You can find out here.
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• This finish-line video from the NY Marathon is just too good not to post again.
• Costs to build wind and solar power plants fall again, coal stays constant, nuclear soars: According to a study by Lazard, in the United States, in the past year there has been a 6 percent drop for solar and wind in the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) —which averages the estimated costs of construction, maintenance, and fuel for electricity-generating assets over the number of megawatt-hours that each asset is expected to produce over its lifetime. At the same time, the cost of building new nuclear plants has risen 35 percent in the past six years. Meanwhile:
For coal, the cost of building and maintaining plants has hardly changed at all. Combined with the plummet in wind and solar panel prices, this can mean that in some scenarios, the operating costs of coal plants are more than the cost of building and operating renewables projects. “This is expected to lead to ongoing and significant deployment of alternative energy capacity,” a press release from Lazard says. The implication is that for some energy companies, the choice isn’t: “is it cheaper to build new coal or to build new renewables?" Instead the choice is: “is it cheaper to continue operating an existing coal plant or to build new renewables?”
• Local chamber of commerce in Maine blows it with “Hunt for the Indian” promotion:
A chamber of commerce in Maine is apologizing for a holiday promotion that asked participants to “Hunt for the Indian,” an event blasted by some critics as “absolutely horrific” and totally tone-deaf.
The planned event by the Skowhegan Area Chamber of Commerce featured a Native American figurine, which was to be hidden in a local business for participants to find using clues posted on the group’s Facebook page. Winners would be offered discounts of up to 20 percent.
But, after backlash from the community, the group canceled the promotion and offered a mea culpa Sunday on its Facebook page.
• “People’s Delegation” has a different message than Trump regime’s at climate confab: For the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP23) in Bonn, Germany, the "U.S. People's Delegation" is taking on the Trump regime’s fossil fuel-favoring agenda. The delegation of youth, Indigenous peoples, frontline communities, advocates and policymakers are on hand to show what real climate leadership should look like:
"We are here to let the world know that most Americans support action on climate change, despite what you hear from Washington," said Ellen Anderson of Energy Transition Lab, with the Climate Generation delegation. In our state of Minnesota,we are leading the way for the Heartland of America, showing that you can cut carbon, build out renewable energy, create thousands of good-paying jobs, and save money by shifting to a clean energy economy."
• Are we seeing a tectonic shift regarding workplace sexual predators? Or will the outrage over revelations of sexual harassment and other such misconduct, including rape, prove to be just a blip?
• Direct U.S. costs of war set at $1.46 trillion since Sept. 11, 2001. Others put it higher: A 74-page Department of Defense report low-balls the cost of war:
“War-related costs” are understood to refer to include military operational costs, support for deployed troops, and transportation of personnel and equipment. The term does not extend to indirect costs such as veterans’ benefits, long-term health care for injured personnel, reconstruction or post-conflict stabilization programs.
When such broader costs are included, the total expenditures surpassed $1.6 trillion in 2014, according to a report from the Congressional Research Service. Others put total costs much higher.
The American Revolution cost the equivalent of $2.4 billion today, according to another CRS estimate, while World War II cost around $4 trillion.
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: Election Day! Local resistance, with a twist. Wilbur Ross is a liar. There’s no penalty for that, so whatevs. Carter Page loses his damn mind. Saudish Arabia lights everything on fire. Post-shooting discourse overflows with teh dum. Was the shooter in “uniform?”
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