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 last Saturday's edition. Inclusion of a blog post does not necessarily indicate my agreement with—or endorsement of—its contents. |
At The Mudflats of Alaska, Shannyn Moore writes—AAACK! It’s Election Season in Alaska Again:
The Department of the Redundancy Department is deciding who to run for Alaska’s U.S. Senate Race. Dan Sullivan? Another one? Isn’t there a limit on how many bad politicians with that name have to be thrust upon us? It’s like the plot of the diabolical twins where you can’t tell which is a good one or if they are both bad. I keep track with descriptions attached like, “Ohio Dan” and “Worst Mayor Ever Dan.” It seems to help.
I’m guessing the Republican Party of Alaska decided the only way they were going to make Lisa Murkowski look likable was to put Dan Sullivan on the ticket with her. Good luck with that. His challenge must feel a bit awkward since Lisa supported the losing Sullivan ticket for governor last year.
Current Anchorage Rep. Craig Johnson decided to run in a race that should be called the Natasha and Boris face-off. That’s right, Jeff Landfield and Natasha Von Imhof now have that bastion of political brilliance in their race. Oh, seems Johnson forgot to mention his intentions in time to get anything but an AOGA [Alaska Gas and Oil Association] placeholder to run for his soon-to-be-vacated seat. The entertainment value of this race is worth a squint. Mr. Landfield has the tagline, “Make Alaska Great Again.” We can only hope.
Fairbanks has a race to watch. Sen. John Coghill, one of several self-appointed uterus cops who loves oil companies, has a fantastic challenger in Luke Hopkins. Luke isn’t insane, which makes this election hopeful. I know. That’s how low the bar is, so here’s hoping voters can clear it. Hopkins has been elected mayor of the Fairbanks North Star Borough and is no stranger to voters.
At Blog for Arizona, AZ BlueMeanie writes—This can’t be good ...
Chris Mooney, the environment and energy reporter for the Washington Postreports, ‘We’ve never seen anything like this’: Arctic sea ice hit a stunning new low in May:
The 2016 race downward in Arctic sea ice continued in May with a dramatic new record.
The average area of sea ice atop the Arctic Ocean last month was just 12 million square kilometers (4.63 million square miles), according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). That beats the prior May record (from 2004) by more than half a million square kilometers, and is well over a million square kilometers, or 500,000 square miles, below the average for the month.
Another way to put it is this: The Arctic Ocean this May had more than three Californias less sea ice cover than it did during an average May between 1981 and 2010. And it broke the prior record low for May by a region larger than California, although not quite as large as Texas.
At Calbuzz, Why Donald Trump Won’t Beat Hillary Clinton:
Sure, under fierce attack from his own party over his latest racist comments, a low-energy Trump managed to read a generic victory speech from a teleprompter on Tuesday night. And, sure, the Democratic presumptive nominee — the first woman to win a major party nomination for president — is a flawed candidate. And, as unlikely as it appears, legal action against her stemming from her stupid use of a private email server as Secretary of State, or a horrible domestic terrorist action, or any of a countless number of other unknowables in the next five months could suddenly change the political calculus.
But as it stands today, all the agonizing, brooding and bed-wetting about a potential triumph by the racist, demagogic misogynist among right-thinking people everywhere is gratuitous, for three key reasons.
Electoral arithmetic. Trump’s hair-on-fire act was just the thing for a wide-open Republican primary season packed with 16 rivals and a seething slice of the electorate dominated by choleric old white guys. But a general election is an entirely different production than a primary and The Donald has no second act.
Even if he were a generic Republican – minus the tissue-thin skin, the volcanic volatility, the massive disapproval among women and Latinos – it would be a Herculean uphill slog.
As every school child knows, Democrats have won 18 states and the District of Columbia in every one of the last six elections, giving them a base of 242 Electoral Votes in the race to 270; by contrast Republicans since 1992 have begun with a base of 13 states with a total of 102 EVs. And Trump’s mindless boasting about putting in play deep blue states like New York and California is pure fantasy.
At Better Georgia, Amy Morton writes—Gov. Deal stands by Donald Trump:
Yesterday, as conservative leaders across the country denounced Donald Trump’s comments about Judge Gonzalo Curiel’s Mexican heritage as racist, Trump dug in deeper, telling his critics to “get over it.”
Apparently, that’s exactly what Gov. Nathan Deal has done.
Gov. Nathan Deal and Sen. David Perdue made news yesterday by announcing their plans to host a fundraiser in Georgia next week for the increasingly toxic megalomaniac.
By the end of the day, even Sen. Perdue, an earlier supporter of Trump, called on the presumptive republican nominee to apologize to Judge Curiel.
But Gov. Deal remains silent in the face of Trump’s blatantly racist remarks.
Why is Gov. Deal refusing to condemn Trump’s remarks and, instead, continuing with plans to reward him with a fundraiser?
The truth is, Gov. Deal’s own history of controversial remarks may make it difficult for him to hold someone like Donald Trump accountable
At Progress Illinois, Ellyn Fortino writes—National Anti-Poverty Group 'Alarmed' By Caseload Decline In Illinois' Welfare Program:
A leading anti-poverty organization is "alarmed" by a recent drop in Illinois' Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, or what most people know as welfare.
Dan Lesser with the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law said he is "very concerned" by the program's caseload decline and claims the TANF program in Illinois is currently "being managed differently than it was under the prior administration."
"The caseload has been plummeting ever since Governor Rauner took office," he told Progress Illinois.
Rauner became governor in January 2015.
From December 2014 through April 2016, the month for which the most current data is available, the average monthly TANF caseload dropped 29 percent, decreasing from 49,028 to 34,658, according to the Illinois Department of Human Services (DHS).
Liz Schott, a senior fellow in the Welfare Reform and Income Support Division at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning think tank, weighed in on the Illinois TANF caseload decline.
"The economy is improving, and we are seeing some [TANF caseload] decline around the country, but typically when you see a decline like that, there's something going on," like a policy or culture change, she said.
At Intelligent Discontent of Montana, Don Pogreba writes—The Republican War Moves to Facebook; Rep. Pinocci Virtually Soldiers On:
As the war between the Responsible Republicans and the Lunatic TEA Party fringe rages on here in Montana, the conflict has moved to an old battleground: the virtual war fought by Sun River Republican Representative Randy Pinocci when he was working in the Legislature last session.
It seems Pinocci’s primary opponent, Wendy McKamey took notice of a post I made about Mr. Pinocci’s penchant for playing video games while he was whining about the long days he was working in the session, even sending a mailer out to voters about Pinocci’s behavior.
Today, the Great Falls Tribune published a fascinating defense of Pinocci from fellow TEA Party Republican, Brad Tschida, who claimed that Pinocci could not have been playing video games because he was seated next to him and would have noticed.
There are a few problems with this defense. First, one assumes that Representative Tschida had better things to do than watch another Representative’s screen all day, like to obsessively track the use of the governor’s plane and to write rude notes to constituents. Second is the simple fact that Mr. Pinocci certainly could have been using his phone to play the games, as his votes certainly don’t reflect the work of someone paying attention to anything happening in the session.
Most important, though, is the the simple fact that Representative Pinocci was doing it, and in less than a month, posted his results from his Soldiers game 25 times,sometimes in the middle of the workday at the Legislature when he claimed to be working sixteen hour days.
At Bold Nebraska, Jane Kleeb writes—Cowboy & Indian Alliance Plant “Seeds of Resistance” Ponca Corn in Paths of Atlantic Coast & Mountain Valley Fracked Gas Pipelines:
In a series of events this week, the “Cowboy and Indian Alliance” that defeated the Keystone XL pipeline traveled to meet landowners and Tribal Nations in Virginia and West Virginia and plant “Seeds of Resistance” of Ponca Sacred Corn on land that lies in the paths of the proposed Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley fracked gas pipelines.
The first “Seeds of Resistance” were planted in 2014 in Neligh, Nebraska, on the Tanderup farm, which crossed both the path of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline and the historic Ponca Trail of Tears. The corn was planted as medicine to protect the land from the tar sands pipeline and as an act of solidarity among the unlikely alliance that came together to protect land and water and fight the pipeline.
At each of this week’s six events, members of the Cowboy and Indian Alliance planted the seeds, met with local landowners, and discussed lessons learned from the Keystone XL fight and winning strategies to fight these dangerous pipelines.
For more background and event details, visit boldnebraska.org/...
Quotes from Cowboy and Indian Alliance members attending the “Seeds of Resistance” events:
Lorne Stockman, Research Director with Oil Change International and resident of Staunton, Virginia, close to the Atlantic Coast Pipeline route: “The story of the Ponca corn ‘seeds of resistance’ has resonated deeply with pipeline fighters in Virginia and West Virginia, and Oil Change International is honored to be able to work together with the Bold Alliance to bring these events to the region. All over the United States today, people are standing up to the bullying tactics of Big Oil and Gas. This movement is reaching across the country to form alliances and build our strength; this is just one of many acts of solidarity and unity.”
At Miscellany Blue of New Hampshire, William Tucker writes—Rich Ashooh keeps Donald Trump at arm’s length: ‘I’m not voting for Hillary Clinton’:
The surest indicator of Donald Trump’s dismal prospects for winning the New Hampshire general election is the length at which down-ballot Republicans will go to avoid being associated with him – despite pleas from state party officials for party unity.
1st District congressional candidate Rich Ashooh is just the latest Granite State Republican to avoid Trump like the plague. In a NH1 NewsMakersinterview, NH1 political director Paul Steinhauser asked Ashooh if he supports, and will endorse, Donald Trump. (The two-part construction is now required, given U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte’s comical insistence that “support” and “endorse” signify varying levels of approval.)
Ashooh was ready for the question with an answer distancing himself from the presumptive nominee without criticizing him. “Elections are about choice, right? So in a choice between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, there should be no mystery. I’m not voting for Hillary Clinton,” he answered.
Steinhauser then asked Ashooh if he will be “comfortable” standing next to Trump at a campaign rally. Again, he avoided a direct answer. “I’m going to be doing what’s best for my campaign and for the voters who are putting their trust in me to represent them,” he told Steinhauser. “Whatever happens on the campaign trail will be built around that.”
At Blue Jersey, Rose Efthim writes—Look for the union label:
The union label. When I was little, I grew up with these ads. Look for the union label. And we did. Other things we saw on TV were slick. Professional. But the ads for the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) used real people – their members – singing the song of working class power, of American jobs, of women proud of what they produced. They were young and old, wore glasses or didn’t. They were white, black, Asian, Latino. They wore knee-length dresses or pants suits like my mother. They looked like my neighbors. Because they were. And everybody knew the words.
I feel loss every time I see these ads. I played several of them today, the 116th anniversary of the ILGWU. I grew up in Brooklyn in Brownsville; working-class, diverse and union. These long-ago TV reminders to keep people working by buying and wearing what they were proud they made, evoke my Jewish neighbors and the parents of my classmates, Black and Latino. And Joey’s father, whose union wasn’t ILG but who worked his whole life putting frames in pocketbooks, sitting on a stool next to a window his employer sealed shut then painted black so he wouldn’t be tempted to daydream. My blacklisted labor organizer father.
Our clothes aren’t made here anymore. Or our bags. Or the TVs these ads once ran on. We still wear things and use things, but very few of us produce them. You can’t go back to what was. But you can remember that it has always been the agitators that moved this country forward. And the people who looked out not only for themselves, but stood up for the dignity of people’s work, saw the new facts early, and stood in the way of injustice.
At Scrutiny Hooligans of North Carolina, Tom Sullivan writes—How political pressure works:
Reacting to Obama’s shift away from a Grand Bargain, Democracy for America chairman Jim Dean said in a statement, “If anyone has ever wondered what impact the grass-roots political revolution behind Bernie Sanders is having on the future of the Democratic Party, the sharp, populist progressive turn that President Obama made today on Social Security expansion should answer those questions.”
The problem with the political revolution approach is that it’s an every-four-year gambit for those who have no taste for keeping up the pressure on an ongoing basis. We tend to rely on white-knight candidates to lead the charge for us. Obama’s 2008 campaign was hailed for being the massive grassroots campaign it was. While he inspired lots of local efforts, as his campaign wore on it became the most top-down “grassroots” effort I have ever seen. Everything seemed run out of Michigan Avenue. It was a well-oiled machine. A well-oiled machine that post-November broke down as soon as the oil stopped flowing. And that was after a groundbreaking win.
The last time we had a Democratic congressman in these parts, I would call staffers I knew ahead of votes on issues liberals supported and ask how their calls were running. Ten to one against was typical. (Your mileage may vary.) Conservative telephone networks were cranked up, stoked by right-wing talk and bulk mail from Richard Viguerie or copycats. We on the left were waiting to be inspired by a the next presidential campaign.
At an annual home brewers festival here yesterday, I met two, under-35 couples I really liked. (It helped that I also liked their beer.) We talked beer and politics. They are relatively new to the area, so later I checked the state’s public database to see where in the county they vote. Three only voted in presidential years. One registered early in 2014, but skipped the election.
At Blue Oklahoma, DocHoc writes—Democratic Legislators Resolute Last Session:
I believe it’s fair to argue that Democratic lawmakers this recently ended legislative session stood up strongly against Republican budgetary malfeasance and showed how the minority party in a deeply red state can be a force in a political arena dominated by ultra conservatives and the failed philosophy of trickle-down economics. [...]
House Minority Leader Scott Inman and Senate Minority Leader John Sparks gave the Republicans a lot of, well, a lot they couldn’t or didn’t want to handle. Here was Inman, for example, on the Republicans back in April:
Their failed political philosophy, which turns on the premise that Oklahoma can somehow cut its way to prosperity or borrow its way out of debt, has given us $1 billion of tax cuts for the wealthiest of Oklahomans.
More importantly, however, is that Democratic lawmakers stood up for Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and didn’t back down when some Republicans, including Gov. Mary Fallin, first supported it under the nomenclature of “rebalancing,” but then backed off the idea when it became apparent GOP lawmakers here weren’t going to have anything to do with Obamacare.
The GOP, of course, then counter-blamed Democrats for not passing the new $1.50 tax increase on a pack of cigarettes, which was initially part of the GOP Medicaid “rebalancing” deal, but it was too obvious at that point that it was GOP fiscal irresponsibility and internal chaos causing the problem, not the minority party so the tax increase didn’t pass. It was clearly the fault of the GOP. Importantly, Democrats did set up the possibility for major Medicaid expansion down the road.
At Raging Chicken Press of Pennsylvania, Colleen Clemens writes—When Grades Incite Violence: Why I Am More and More Afraid To Be In Education:
I am shaken this morning. Again. Another shooting on a campus. After twenty years of being in a classroom, I find myself thinking “it is only a matter of time” when I used to think “this could never happen here.”
But this morning’s news that a student shot a “brilliant, kind, and caring” 39-year-old professor over low grades leaves me caught off guard by my level of despondency. For I suppose I am not inured to these shootings–yet. I am rattled. As I said to my partner this morning, “this is my worst nightmare.”
And then I said to him, “What incentive do I even have to give low grades? To be a teacher?” A veteran of the classroom for 20 years himself, he nodded and left to teach AP Physics classes.
So other than being able to look in the mirror and respect myself, what incentive do I have to hold my students accountable for the work they do? [...]
I am afraid. Open carry on campuses is not the answer, at least not for me. I would rather a see a culture in which we start to value teachers and talk about them as hard-working folks who are doing their best, not lazy good-for-nothings with their “summers off.” I want students to learn that failing is ok and usually on them.