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 Eclectablog of Michigan, Chris Savage writes—Donald Trump makes news in Detroit by not deviating from his teleprompter:
Trump was so proud of himself for sticking to his scripted speech, in fact, that he used it to raise funds in an email later that afternoon. “[A] group of left-wing protesters interrupted me over ten times in an attempt to get us off message,” he wrote (referring to himself in the royal “us”.) “I have news for them: IT DIDN’T WORK! We stayed on message and delivered our positive platform to America. Give me all your money.”
It’s an astonishing reality this year that the biggest news out of a Trump speech is that he didn’t lose his … stuff and didn’t say anything epically stupid (unless referring to “titties like Detroit”counts.)
However, his speech did have some other things worth talking about, particularly as they pertain to Michigan and Detroit, in particular. In Trump’s view, the cause of the economic disaster in Detroit is over regulation and high taxes. “She supports the high taxes and radical regulation that forced jobs out of your community,” he said. “Upon taking office, I will issue a temporary moratorium on new agency regulations.”
As anyone who has paid even the slightest amount of attention over the past five decades knows, Detroit’s problems have little to do with over-regulation. They have more to do with the systemic racism since World War II described in Thomas Sugrue’s must-read book The Origins of Urban Crisis and the offshoring of manufacturing that benefits people like Donald Trump himself.
At Progress Illinois, Ellyn Fortino writes—Chicagoans Demand 'Community Control Of The Police' At City Hearing:
Chicago aldermen got an earful from residents about police accountability at a public hearing held Tuesday night on the city's North Side.
The meeting at Senn High School in Chicago's Edgewater community was the second of five neighborhood hearings being held on proposed Chicago police reforms. [...]
The city wants to replace the Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA), which investigates police-involved shootings, with a new civilian investigative agency and create a new Public Safety Auditor.
The proposals, expected to be considered at the September Chicago City Council meeting, piggyback off recommendations issued by the mayor's Police Accountability Task Force, which deemed IPRA as "badly broken" and in need of being replaced with an independent civilian-led agency. [...]
The city's police reform efforts come as the U.S. Justice Department investigates the Chicago Police Department's practices and as Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel tries to rebuild public trust in the wake of the Laquan McDonald shooting and subsequent handling of the case. Emanuel fought against releasing the dashcam video of the McDonald shooting for 13 months, until a judge ordered its release.
At Montana Cowgirl, the Cowgirl herself writes—Loud and Clear:
If a picture is worth a thousand words, what does this picture say about how the Montana Republican Party views women. To be sure, it isn’t just Montana GOPers who regularly refer to women in derogatory terms. The Washington post has reported on Republicans falling all over themselves to refer to Hillary Clinton as a “bitch.” So it’s no surprise that Montana’s Trump Fan Club (formerly known as the Montana Republican Party) seems eager to get in on the sexist action.
Take this picture of GOP convention delegate Ed Butcher sporting a button featuring Clinton’s face and the words: “Life’s a bitch. Don’t vote for one.”
Trump of course has a long history of making sexist remarks, and so do his Montana Fan Club. GOP Majority Leader Keith Regier compares women to cattle, and Speaker of the House Austin Knudsen authored a dress code ridiculed across the U.S. for its attempts to police women’s bodies.
At The Mudflats of Alaska, Zach Roberts writes—Wasilla Republican Threatens Bull With Kitchen Knife For Your Vote:
"I grew up castrating hogs on an Iowa farm, so when I get to Washington, I’ll know how to cut pork,” that was Joni Ernst just months before she become Congresswoman Joni Ernst. America seems to like someone threatening to cut the balls off of livestock. The television ad, titled “Squeal” caused quite a bit of conversation, but that was an election seasons that had soon to be elected officials firing guns at tax code and printed versions of legislation… it wasn’t the worst ad of the 2014 political season.
I’m not sure if Alaska State Senate candidate Lynn Gattis was going for the Ernst-ian reference but if she was – she succeeded. In a mailing and Facebook post this week District 9 Representative Lynn Gattis posted a, well… I’m not sure I can call it anything other than ‘fantastic’ image of herself with a kitchen knife in front of some cattle. Which, I suppose would be weird enough if it wasn’t for the weird look on her face and the text underneath… “Yeah – I know where to cut…”
Is it just me, or is this the most worrisome ellipses in Alaskan political history?
The back side of the ad isn’t really much better, stating “Lynn Gattis – knows her way around the barnyard.” She’s also going to finally be the politician that finds that ability to “cut waste” and “still protect seniors – and education – and public safety.” Here’s hoping it doesn’t have anything to do with Lynn Gattis’ kitchen knife – and here’s hoping that worried bull survived the photoshoot for Gattis’ ad.
At LiberalOC of California, Dan Chmielewski writes—Democratic Surge in OC is Not Just About Trump:
The OC Register’s Martin Wisckol penned this past weekend’s story about surging Democratic voter registration in Orange County and it’s an excellent piece to read. And I can’t disagree that GOP Presidential nominee Donald Trump has helped in turning Orange County bluer than it’s been, but I think Wisckol undersells the role DPOC Chair Henry Vandermeir has played in growing the party. [...]
Vandermeir took over the DPOC chair from Frank Barbaro three years ago and helped establish city-based Democratic Clubs that drive voter registration, provide a venue for candidates to network, and forums to talk about progressive issues and plan action. Its not just that Democratic voters have the lead in 10 of the county’s 34 cities, its that we lead in the county’s three top population centers.
Take Irvine for example. The Democrats for Greater Irvine, led by Iyad Afalqa, has driven Democratic voter registration to a new high in the city — more than 3,000 registered voter advantage. [...]
So thanks Donald Trump for your role in driving voter registration in OC, but let’s not forget the behind the scenes work and leadership of our county’s party chair.
At Better Georgia, Regina Willis writes—Coal ash continues to stir up trouble in Georgia:
Coal ash — the toxic, leftover material from coal fired power plants — is just starting to cause regulations to shape up in Georgia, as power plants struggle with how to dispose of it, Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division figures out how to regulate it and communities resist coal ash contamination in their backyard.
Residents across the state, including former President Jimmy Carter, are speaking out against coal ash being stored in regular landfills designed to hold household trash or in open air ponds, called coal ash ponds, which often allow coal ash to leach into the local environment.
Earlier this summer, Georgia Power announced plans to phase out its coal ash ponds, 29 of these open storage ponds that contain a mixture of coal ash and water. This followed the federal EPA releasing the first regulations of coal ash last year, officially called coal combustion residuals or CCR.
Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division (EPD) has proposed new regulations for how coal ash is stored (currently it’s allowed in landfills designed to service household waste) and how utilities dispose of the stuff.
These regulations are especially of interest to residents in Jesup, Ga., who are currently resisting moves by waste management company Republic Services to build a rail line transporting coal ash to their local landfill.
At Miscellany Blue of New Hampshire, William Tucker writes—GOP observers warn of impending down ballot carnage for Granite State Republicans:
The down ballot implications of having a deeply flawed candidate at the top of the ticket are beginning to hit New Hampshire Republicans. Those who are not on the ballot in November are warning of sweeping losses in November.
Former House speaker Bill O’Brien, a persistent critic of Donald Trump who nevertheless says he will be voting for him in November, reacted to a new poll showing Hillary Clinton with a 15 point lead in the Granite State by sounding the alarm.
“If you are a down ballot candidate from the same party as a presidential candidate losing by 15%,” O’Brien wrote on Facebook, “it is like having a 25 lbs. weight tied around your neck and then jumping into the deep end. You might not drown,” he concluded, “but you had better hope your deep end is only 4 feet deep.”
At NC Progressive Pulse, Lisa Sorg writes—Who’s who at the EnergySure Coalition, backers of the Atlantic pipeline headed for North Carolina:
While North Carolina is rightfully focused on the coal ash scandal, another environmental tug-of-war is strengthening in some of the state’s poorest areas.
Co-owned by Duke Energy, Dominion, PSNC and AGL Resources, The Atlantic Coast Pipeline would ship natural gas 550 miles, from the fracking hotspot of West Virginia through sensitive, federally owned land in Virginia, and then into eastern North Carolina. [...]
Backing the a $5 billion project is EnergySure, a coalition of more than 200 special interest groups from several states vying for a piece of the financial pie: chambers of commerce, utilities, construction and “right of way” companies, which pressure adjacent landowners to sell, voluntarily or through eminent domain. In North Carolina, supporters include the Energy Policy Council, appointed by Gov. McCrory and lawmakers, the NC Chamber of Commerce and the Pork Council.
The Pork Council could benefit because of recent state legislation, the NC Farm Act, which prioritizes using swine waste to fuel natural gas plants over renewable energy.
The group’s slogan: “Don’t let opponents hinder new jobs.”
The promise of jobs is seductive in eastern North Carolina, where a quarter to a third of people live in poverty. And this is precisely why these types of projects are placed in low-income communities: to reduce the chance of resistance.
Yet, as the opposition points out, the construction jobs are temporary. Clean Water for North Carolina projects that only 18 permanent jobs in North Carolina would be created by the pipeline, none of them guaranteed to go to local residents.
At Blue Oklahoma, DocHoc writes—Oklahoma Standard Of Mediocrity:
As much as state and Oklahoma City leaders either want to disguise it or simply don’t want to believe it, all signs point to the fact that the state and local economy continues to disintegrate in a manner that constitutes a real emergency.
Don’t expect action soon, though. Some GOP leaders probably enjoy watching the tax revenue crunch put the squeeze on education funding and state agencies, and Oklahoma City leaders can’t do much about it. Oil prices continue to slump—this is EVEN during the driving season—and nothing is going to stop that in the short-term. The state’s frackers enjoyed their heyday, got their unbelievable tax breaks, and now have put everyone—except for the rich, of course—at risk of living in a place that will increasingly become non-viable and even more mediocre.
But wait, well, we have Bricktown, sir, a.k.a., La Renaissance. Yet businesses are leaving in droves this puny, minor league, entertainment district with its polluted, trash-filled canal. We even have an area minor league baseball team to remind us we’re minor league.
At Plunderbund of Ohio, Denis Smith writes—A Tale Of Two (Or Three) Davids: The ECOT Goliath And Ohio’s Charter School Debacle:
Drip, drip, drip.
The steady stream of critical stories about the charter school Goliath named ECOT now is approaching a critical level, ready to create a flood in the GOP Statehouse and in the offices of the mega-giant’s lobbyists well before this year’s elections. If a Richard Nixon-type was somehow in command at this stage of the game and dealing with the proliferating ECOT mess, he would have called in the Plumbers and the renowned Haldeman and Erlichman firm to deal with the debacle.
No, the ECOT flood is not attributable to global warming, which Republicans don’t believe in, but nevertheless the water level around the Goliath is rising. Rapidly.
But wait. If there is a Goliath-type creature on the loose, doesn’t John Q. Public need a David to slay this foraging creature that feasts on more than $100 million from the state treasury, in addition to the other low-performing, politically connected charters that siphon off additional hundreds of millions annually in scarce public funds?
Interestingly enough, Ohio has not one but two public servants named David who could have made a difference in wounding the menacing ECOT, exposing other low-performing charters and their sponsors (or is the better word choice enablers) and otherwise protecting citizens from further harm.
At Appalachian Voices, Brian Sewell writes—Rebukes, a resignation and more reasons to worry about coal ash in NC:
North Carolina’s state epidemiologist, Megan Davies, abruptly resigned from her position last night, writing in a letter that “I cannot work for a Department and an Administration that deliberately misleads the public.”
The department she is referring to is the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, where she worked for eight years. The administration is that of Gov. Pat McCrory, whose time in office has been tainted by his mishandling of the statewide problem of coal ash pollution.
Davies’ resignation is just the latest development in a public tussle between state employees and the McCrory administration that escalated last week when the transcript of sworn testimony by Dr. Ken Rudo, a toxicologist at DHHS, became public.
Rudo’s testimony raises troubling questions about the role leaders at DHHS and the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality had in downplaying the “Do Not Drink” warnings issued last year to hundreds of families on well water that live near Duke Energy coal ash sites. It also implicates McCrory’s office directly, with Rudo stating that he was called to the governor’s mansion to discuss the warnings and how to ease residents’ concerns about water contamination potentially caused by coal ash.
At Colorado Pols, Colorado Pols writes—Yes Folks, Darryl Glenn Is a Whackadoo:
CBS4’s Stan Bush reports on a budding scandal involving Colorado GOP U.S. Senate nominee Darryl Glenn, caught on tape in June speculating about the mass shooting at an Orlando nightclub earlier that month:
At a candidate forum June 22 the El Paso County commissioner made unsubstantiated claims that President Obama directed the FBI to not investigate the Orlando night club shooter, Omar Mateen, before the massacre.
“But it sounds like there might be some political things happening where they’re given direction to look a different way. Why don’t we start there?” said Glenn…
Glenn said the FBI takes “direction from the top” in his answer, and repeats his claim two more times before completing his response.
“I think we need to have hearings on this. I think people need to be held accountable. I want to know whether or not our FBI personnel were personally directed to look the other way. [Pols emphasis]
“The president should be held to account for that if he gave direction that limited the FBI.”
The allegation that President Barack Obama might have “directed” the FBI to end their investigation of Orlando mass murderer Omar Mateenvwas just one of many ways that right-wing armchair prognosticators tried to rationalize the politically inconvenient aspects of that shooting in its immediate aftermath—much the way the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood shooter was widely speculated to be a “transgender leftist” on the flimsiest of evidence in that shooting’s aftermath. In this case, the usual right-wing presumptions that Obama is some kind of Al Qaeda “Manchurian Candidate” President who wants to make us all pray to Mecca underly the whole discussion.
But as FactCheck.org had already reported before Darryl Glenn made these ill-advised remarks, there’s not a shred of truth to any of this foolishness.