This week at progressive state blogs is designed specifically to focus attention on the writing and analysis of people focused on their home turf. Let me know via comments or Kosmail if you have a favorite state- or city-based blog you think I should be watching. Here is the May 20 edition. Inclusion of a blog post does not necessarily indicate my agreement with—or endorsement of—its contents.
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At Blue Oregon, Chuck Sheketoff writes—Small voices with a big stake in state budget outcome:
Poor children don’t have a megaphone. They can’t create a dark money-funded group to pay for TV ads that attack lawmakers for their ideas.
Yet, Oregon’s most vulnerable kids have an outsized stake in the current tax and budget negotiations in the legislature. Many children in families receiving rudimentary cash and job training assistance through Oregon’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program would pay a steep price with budget cuts, should a revenue solution fail to materialize.
Sadly, this is nothing new. Whenever the state faces a shortfall, the TANF program often ends up on a budget cuts list, for two reasons. First, unlike Medicaid, the federal TANF block grant structure provides little incentive for Oregon to maintain its own TANF investments. Second, there is no large, politically powerful industry with a financial stake in TANF to go to bat for them with the politicians.
Right now, the legislature’s budget writers have warned that, in the absence of new revenue, TANF is in the crosshairs. As the Oregon Center for Public Policy has outlined in a recent paper, the proposed cuts would drive 11,000 poor kids deeper into poverty, making their life prospects even bleaker.
At Blue Jersey, Matthew Brian Hersh writes—Next Up: Poverty Conversion Therapy:
HUD Secretary Ben Carson’s assertion that poverty is a “state of mind” got me thinking. About poverty. And about how Ben Carson is full of shit.
From The New York Times:
“I think poverty to a large extent is also a state of mind…You take somebody that has the right mind-set, you can take everything from them and put them on the street, and I guarantee in a little while they’ll be right back up there.”
This is worse than Ragged Dick nonsense. This isn’t policy. It’s frightening to hear that the man in charge of the 1.3 million units of occupied public housing managed by some 3,400 public housing authorities thinks that a little positive thinking can result in national prosperity. [...]
I wonder if residents of New Jersey, which shamefully boasts the sixth highest housing wage in the country and whose residents must earn at least $26 per hour at 40 hours per week in order to afford the average two-bedroom, market-rate rental without spending more than 30 percent of their income, would benefit from magical, pixie dust thinking?
I wonder if Carson has any comprehension of his awesome responsibility as HUD secretary. I know he doesn’t, but clearly he’s undergone poverty conversion therapy, and it seems to be working just fine… for him.
At Dick & Sharon’s L.A. Progressive, Christina Leimer writes—For the Working Poor, the American Dream Is Dead. Unless Minimum Wage Legislation Revives It:
It’s not only the unemployed who need help to buy food. Many people you interact with every day, who are working, need this government assistance. Cashiers, cooks, customer service representatives, groundskeepers, childcare workers, home healthcare assistants, even some degreed professionals such as mental health practitioners may not earn enough money to take care of basic needs. In addition, many of these jobs don’t offer health insurance, retirement benefits, unemployment insurance, paid sick leave or vacation days, or even unpaid family leave.
Sometimes, things just aren’t right. And this is one of them. In the U.S., where work is so highly valued and expected, and where the belief is that if you work hard, you’ll get ahead, anyone who works full-time should at least be paid enough to support themselves and their family.
Yet, between 1990 and 2015, the percentage of people working and receiving government food assistance rose from 19% to 32%. At the same time, the number of low-wage occupations grew. Further, rather than full-time permanent positions, many jobs are now part-time, or temporary, often with varying hours and unpredictable schedules that make it difficult to piece together second and third jobs many need to get by. Most workers in these positions would prefer a full-time job, but they’ve been forced by changing hiring practices into part-time work.
At Democratic Diva of Arizona, Donna writes—“Moderate” Martha McSally votes to yank health care from millions:
About ending protections from lifelong coverage caps on children born with illnesses, making being a rape or domestic violence victim a preexisting condition, etc. You know, cool stuff like that.
I’ve certainly mentioned a time or two the maddening kneejerk tendency of the civic and media establishment in Arizona to ascribe pleasant things like “moderation” and “reasonableness” to Republicans who don’t seem like they’re seconds away from biting the head off a bat on live TV. Arguably no one has benefited more from that tendency in recent years than Martha McSally, who represents the Tucson area CD2 in Congress. [...]
That quote from McSally may seem like an uncharacteristically bold statement but it feels like staged political theater to me. The aim of which is people focus on how boldly she said “let’s get this fucking thing done!” and not what she actually fucking did, which was vote to kill people, literally.
At Intelligent Discontent of Montana, Don Pogreba writes—The Greg Gianforte Assault on a Reporter Shouldn’t Surprise Anyone:
Look, this is shocking news. Millionaires usually pay their bodyguards to rough up the press instead of doing it themselves, and it’s rare that a candidate for public office makes international news for assaulting a reporter the night before an election. [...]
But it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Gianforte behaved this way. Anyone who has followed Montana politics for the past few years is familiar with his anger when asked questions by the press. Back in October, we had a guest post from Shahid Haque-Hausrath discussing how Gianforte lost his temper when he was interviewed by the Missoulian Editorial Board. He wrote:
When pressed again for his list, and asked whether or not Iran was on that list, Gianforte grew irritated and said “I’m not playing this game with you.” Apparently he even was even “pounding the table.” [...]
Gianforte is a menace. He supports the worst forms of discrimination, sanctions white nationalists, runs horrifically negative campaigns, and like all bullies, cannot stand to be questioned. You can hear his anger rise every time a reporter asks a hard question or follows up when he refuses to answer.
The real surprise might not even be that he assaulted a reporter tonight, but that this is the first time it’s happened.
Cory Allen Heidelberger at the Dakota Free Press writes—Draft Bill Dodges Legislative Responsibility, Doesn’t Resolve Conflicts over Access to Nonmeandered Waters:
So for the last few years (and still today!), South Dakota has had the opportunity to expand Medicaid to provide health coverage to 50,000 South Dakotans who have no affordable insurance option, add $1.383 billion and 29,500 jobs to our state economy, and bolster our state budget. Yet our Governor and Republican legislators didn’t think Medicaid expansion was worth a special session of the Legislature.
Yet take away a couple dozen fishing holes—leaving a-fish-ionados only 270 meandered lakes, Black Hills streams and reservoirs, and the Missouri River on which to enjoy their recreation—and we’re one extra committee meeting away from convening the Legislature in June to decide who can fish where.
The Legislature’s priorities are seriously out of whack.
At Juanita Jean’s of Texas, Juanita Jean Herownself writes—Let’s Hope That The Punishment For Shoving a NATO Leader Out Of The Way To Be In The Front Of The Picture Is That You Can’t Come Home:
Yes, he did.
You know he did.
He’s just such a jerk. A real leader parts the opening with his presence. A jerk shoves people.
At Better Georgia, Shelby Steuart writes—The dumbest political ads you’ll ever see:
As Ossoff continues to lead in the polls, conservatives continue to make absurd, fact-free ads attacking him.
The two most recent attack ads against Ossoff have become increasingly ridiculous, one of which is leading to a cease-and-desist request from the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency for superimposing an Ossoff ad on a San Francisco cable car without permission. NPR called the ad “a sarcastic ad from the Republican-aligned Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF) featuring actors in San Francisco mockingly thanking Ossoff, ‘their congressman.’”
Another CLF ad tried to associate Ossoff with terrorism by calling Al Jazeera a “mouthpiece for terrorism” and saying Al Jazeera “has been paying Ossoff thousands of dollars.” Politifact summarized this ad, saying, “The ad cherry-picked images and a quote that cast Al Jazeera in the most dubious light possible. That characterization was the basis for the rest of the ad.”
We shouldn’t be surprised. The Washington Post called the Congressional Leadership Fund’s first ad in the race — the one attacking Jon Ossoff for dressing up like Star Wars characters in college — “one of the dumbest political ads you will ever see.” Fast Company called the same ad the “least creative thing of the day.”
At SaintPetersBlog of Florida, Joe Henderson writes—Joe Henderson: If some Democrats don’t care about ‘issues’ maybe that’s leaders’ fault:
Um, Sally Boynton Brown?
If you’re trying to explain why Democratic voters didn’t turn out in sufficient numbers last November to deliver Florida to Hillary Clinton, I suggest a different approach than saying basically “they don’t get it.”
That’s not a direct quote from the newly hired executive director of the Florida Democratic Party, but it is the essence of her intemperate remarks at a progressive caucus gathering in Broward County.
The Miami New Times, on the scene at the event, quoted Brown saying, “This is not going to be popular, but this is my belief of the time and place we’re in now: I believe that we’re in a place where it’s very hard to get voters excited about ‘issues,’ the type of voters that are not voting.”
She was right about one thing: that isn’t popular. In fact, that’s just plain dumb.
First, let’s just say what everyone knows: She is effectively blaming lower-income people and minorities for her party’s problems, as if it’s their civic duty to vote for Democrats.
These are people profoundly affected by the issues of the day, and you can be damn sure they care about those things. If they aren’t voting, it’s because there is a disconnect between them and party leaders.
At Blue in the Bluegrass of Kentucky, Yellow Dog writes—Take Jeff Davis Statue Out of the KY Capitol Rotunda Now:
Motherfucker might have been born in Kentucky, but he made his home in Mississippi. Contrary to the hallucinations of the Commonwealth's many Defenders of Treason in Defense of Slavery, Kentucky never seceeded from the Union, never committed Treason in Defense of Slavery, never joined the Confederacy.
Jefferson Davis has no business looming over people in the Capitol Rotunda as if he were a hero. He's a traitor, and a motherfucking piece of shit. Get his statue the fuck out of there and replace it with one of a genuine Kentucky hero: Muhammad Ali.
Erik Loomis on the removal of a statue of Jefferson Davis in New Orleans last week:
This is genuinely a wonderful thing. Again, these aren’t “monuments to history.” They are expressions of Jim Crow power, placed on the population of New Orleans at a moment where black voting and social rights had been repressed by force. They served, in the minds of the people who erected them, as social lessons to the black population, reminding them who was still in charge. There is no good reason to keep these statues up. [...]
Lexington Kentucky was the biggest slave market north of New Orleans. Long past time the snooty denizens of that city (in which I was raised, so I know of what I write) get their snowy white asses down off their thoroughbred high horses and demand the removal of Jeff Davis.
At Blue Virginia, lowkell writes—Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals Slams Trump Muslim Ban: “drips with religious intolerance, animus, and discrimination”:
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals (located in Richmond, Virginia) ruling, released a bit earlier this afternoon, nails it on Trump’s disgraceful, unAmerican, unconstitutional Muslim ban (bolding added for emphasis):
“The question for this Court, distilled to its essential form, is whether the Constitution, as the Supreme Court declared in Ex parte Milligan, 71 U.S. (4 Wall.) 2, 120 (1866), remains ‘a law for rulers and people, equally in war and in peace.’ And if so, whether it protects Plaintiffs’ right to challenge an Executive Order that in text speaks with vague words of national security, but in context drips with religious intolerance, animus, and discrimination. Surely the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment yet stands as an untiring sentinel for the protection of one of our most cherished founding principles—that government shall not establish any religious orthodoxy, or favor or disfavor one religion over another. Congress granted the President broad power to deny entry to aliens, but that power is not absolute. It cannot go unchecked when, as here, the President wields it through an executive edict that stands to cause irreparable harm to individuals across this nation. Therefore, for the reasons that follow, we affirm in substantial part the district court’s issuance of a nationwide preliminary injunction as to Section 2(c) of the challenged Executive Order.”
At Blog for Iowa, Trish Nelson writes—Dakota Access Motion To Dismiss Denied:
To those who say, “The fight against the Dakota Access pipeline is over, so just move on,” we pipeline fighters and water protectors say, “Not so fast!”
Tuesday, the Iowa Supreme Court sided with nine Iowa landowners and the Sierra Club Iowa Chapter, rejecting Dakota Access’ request to have the landowners’ lawsuit dismissed!
The Court’s order reads: “Dakota Access contends this appeal should be dismissed because the appellant, Sierra Club Iowa Chapter, has failed to establish proper standing in this matter and the remaining appellants’ claims are moot. Upon consideration, the motion to dismiss is denied. Dakota Access may raise the issues regarding standing and mootness in its appellate brief.” [...]
This is a really big deal. It means the case against the Iowa Utilities Board (IUB) and Dakota Access will move forward, with a schedule for court filings being established and a trial likely later this year or early in 2018.
The Court’s order revealed another important and disturbing development. Richard W. Lozier, Jr. requested permission to withdraw as counsel for the MAIN Coalition — a front group for Dakota Access. The Court rightfully granted that request. What’s incredible is that Governor Branstad recently appointed Lozier to the IUB, filling the seat vacated by Libby Jacobs, despite this clear conflict of interest!
At MN Progressive Project, Greg Laden writes—Rebecca Otto: by far the strongest and most progressive candidate for Minnesota Governor in 2018:
Democrats have two major problems to face in 2018 and beyond. First, how do we win elections? Second, how do we remain true to our progressive and liberal roots?
For Democrats, 2018 is a must-win election, and Minnesotans have a lot at stake. Will the state remain the shining star of the North, or will it go the way of Wisconsin, and sink into a Republican dark age of union busting, environment polluting, professor bashing, service slashing, and economic activity destruction?
Of all the candidates running or suspected of running for Governor in 2018, Rebecca Otto is the only one who can most clearly win and at the same time preserve and advance core, human based, Democratic ideals, in my opinion.
The smart move for the DFL in 2018 is to turn to a candidate that has won several times statewide and has strong name recognition, positive feeling among the voters engendered by her commitment to widely held values, and a strong base of support. State Auditor Rebecca Otto is the only candidate with that résumé. Otto has racked up several historic victories, including the largest upset of an incumbent in 112 years, and is positioned to do it again in 2018.
Her statewide electoral prowess far outstrips her nearest competitor, Tim Walz, who is largely unknown outside of his first district, and is untested statewide. Beyond that, Otto stands for strong for Democratic values, while Walz has shown himself to be a DINO-style Democrat. Walz enjoys a very high rating from the NRA, for example, and in February of 2013 was one of only six Democrats in Congress to vote to expand gun sales to the severely mentally ill, over the objections of senior generals including David Petraeus, Michael Hayden and Stanley McChrystal.