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 February 25 edition. Inclusion of a blog post does not necessarily indicate my agreement with—or endorsement of—its contents.
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At MN Progressive Project of Minnesota, Dog Gone writes—Last week, a good day in Kansas, a darker future for America:
Governor Sam Brownback is a teabagger, a right wing radical. He and his policies have left Kansas in a big smoking crater politically and economically. It is unlikely he will ever hold public office after his current term expires, because that is the epic scale of his failure.
Trickle down economics does not work. The only thing it does, the only thing it EVER has done, is to be redistributive, taking money from the poor and middle classes and then giving it to the 1%. It explodes the wealth and income gap enormously. And it creates massive debt and deficits for the state or nation that enacts it. Greed, not greatness is the driving motivation.
Earlier this week, the legislature in Kansas took a GENUINELY bi-partisan approach to governance when it repealed the failed tax policy of Brownback and Laffer. Brownback promptly vetoed the repeal, and the House side of the Kansas Legislature then overturned the veto with a vote 1 over the required number. Sadly the Senate, which is much much smaller, tried to do the same, but fell 3 votes short.
So for now the tax policies of Brownback stay, but it is likely there will be another attempt at repeal and it is expected the next try will be successful. It is sufficient that they nearly succeeded in Kansas, and that they plan to try again.
The architect, so to speak, the designer of disaster, was one Arthur Laffer, who previously advised Ronald Reagan to implement trickle down economics which was a huge failure, is now abandoning the sinking ship that is Brownback and Kansas to promote the same tax policies with Trump’s administration. What Brownback and his Republican legislature put in effect was entirely on party lines, was nearly identical to what Trump is now planning to do with the cooperation of the Republican controlled Congress.
At Voice of OC of California, Norberto Santana Jr. writes—Santana: Will Anaheim Invest in Youth & Police Oversight Before It’s Too Late?
How did Anaheim Police last week decide so quickly to arrest two Latino teenagers and release a white, off-duty LAPD officer who had just been involved in a neighborhood fight with them – and discharged his weapon amidst a crowd of youth walking home from school?
That’s the central question that some sort of independent entity has to quickly answer to keep Anaheim’s streets from boiling over.
I doubt the city’s Public Safety Board – up for public review itself on Tuesday – can come anywhere near close.
In fact, I doubt the panel survives this entire affair.
It’s time for a real, independent citizen’s police review board in Anaheim.
It’s the best way ultimately to protect people’s faith in the system as well as ensure officers’ a fair review of difficult incidents.
Both are in serious jeopardy right now.
At Louisiana Voice, Tom Aswell writes—Notable Quotables (in their own words):
Motivated solely by curiosity I asked a long-time respected (now retired nuts & bolts) reporter in Monroe, Louisiana, recently if the media there had covered the still exploding scandal involving the hierarchy of the Louisiana State Police and the Governor’s alleged “stacking” of the LSP Commission which acts as a kind of Civil Service Board in order to allegedly protect the top people at LSP accused of various improprieties. Coverage of this has occupied a lot of television air time in south Louisiana for the past week or so along with plenty of space in the major newspapers in that region of the state. Herewith, a verbatim transcript of that conversation:
Me: “Has the Monroe media reported ANY of the Louisiana State Police Scandal?”
Retired newspaperman: “Not only NO, but HELL no!”
Me: “Why do you suppose that is?”
Retired newspaperman: “There really are no local media left.”
I’d mark that as a sad commentary for an area the size of Monroe-West Monroe which boasts three network-affiliated television stations, a Gannett daily, and at least two community-oriented weeklies. It’s enough to make you wonder if this is the kind of thinking that could put northeast Louisiana back behind the infamous “cowhide curtain.”
At Left in Alabama, Amber A writes—AL-05: A Meeting With Congressman Mo Brooks: What You Need To Know:
As a fledgling liberal with a very loud voice on social media, I decided to take my voice straight to our congressman last week and find out why he wouldn’t have a town hall with us. I told him my story – how I was a conservative who voted for Bush to a moderate who voted for Obama and for a short time considered myself an independent before finally coming to terms with the fact that it was totally okay to be a southern (redneck) liberal.
He seemed totally aghast at the fact that I could be both redneck and liberal, but that’s besides the point.
Here’s what I learned in meeting with Mo Brooks: He is a coward.
He has no intentions of meeting with any of us in a public setting, and when I say “us,” I mean conservative, liberal, independent, furry, or otherwise.
The man literally lacks the backbone to stand up to his constituents.
I heard every excuse under the sun, and they’re mostly the same excuses that you’re hearing from other members of the GOP around the nation. It’s almost like they have a handbook or something. (Weird, right?)
So, I’ll just lay his excuses out for you and let you be the judge. [...]
At Beach Peanuts of Florida, Martha Jackovics writes—Marco Rubio Calls His Constituents "Rude And Stupid":
Despite having the worst absentee record in the Senate, voters in Florida sent him back for another term last November. So how is he returning the favor? By ignoring their pleas to meet with him and hear them out on why they don't want to die without health insurance if he and the Republicans get their way and destroy the Affordable Care Act, or "Obamacare."
But he's not stopping there. Not only is he ignoring the people who pay his salary, he's insulting them for asking him to meet with them and hear their concerns in the first place. His excuse for not honoring their pleas for a town hall meeting is that he has already determined that if he does so, his constituents will be "rude and stupid." [...]
[The GOP is] trying to craft a new narrative to fit the old one: Portray voters who want to keep the ACA as angry "liberal" activist mobs who just want to make trouble. That way they think they can ignore them and go about the business of killing the ACA along with millions of people who will die without it.
And because Rubio loves nothing more than not taking responsibility and doing the job he was elected to do, this narrative is a perfect fit for him. Or so he thought.
When confronted a second time on camera, Rubio did a little narrative editing of his own. When a man tells him his health insurance premiums aren't too high, as Republicans have been claiming for years, Rubio tells the man "yes they are." Never mind that this man is the one who receives and pays his own insurance bills, not Rubio. But Rubio's not having that, no sir. Reality will NOT be tolerated.
Talk about "rude and stupid."
At Show Me Progress of Missouri, Michael Bersin writes—HB 1177: the Republic of Gilead:
Just another right wingnut abortion bill introduced yesterday, HB 1177 [...] And such a change it is:
FIRST REGULAR SESSION HOUSE
BILL NO. 1177 [pdf]
99TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVE POGUE.
2065H.01I D. ADAM CRUMBLISS, Chief Clerk
AN ACT
[….]
188.016. No person in this state shall perform, procure, or attempt to perform an abortion. Any individual who violates the provisions of this section shall be guilty of the offense of murder in the first degree and shall be punished in accordance with the penalties for that offense under the laws in effect on the effective date of this section.
[….]
[emphasis in original]
Well, isn’t that something?
Proceed…
At Blue in the Bluegrass of Kentucky, Yellow Dog writes—Economic Populism for Democratic Idiots:
I still say that we need the working class people of color whose votes are being suppressed, but David Atkins makes a good argument against either ignoring the white working class who voted for trump or abandoning our principles to be even more repug-lite than ever.
The Party does not, in fact, need to throw women and minorities under the bus to win back the voters who defected from Obama to Trump. It simply needs to drive a
much clearer progressive narrative, admit that the nation’s economy as it has been run for the last 30 years has
serious problems that need fixing, and paint corporate and Wall Street elites as the
real villains in the story of the white working class’ downward mobility.
That won’t, of course, win over all of Trump’s voters or even a significant minority of them. It’s not that
Matt Yglesias and his like-minded friends are wrong about the prejudiced motivations of most of Trump’s electorate. They’re right.
But it’s important to distinguish between the core Trump voters and the marginal, persuadable ones. Most Trump voters are either regular Republicans who have always voted Republican and always will whether it’s Romney or Trump, or the new aggressive breed of hyper-racist trolls and alt-right Breitbart types. But those voters have always been on the other side of the fence. What has changed is that a not insignificant number of exurban and rural white voters who used to vote for Democrats even as recently as the Obama era increasingly feel that no one speaks for them. They might not particularly like Trump’s racism or uncouth behavior, but they don’t believe that Democrats understand their plight. [...]
At The Mudflats of Alaska, Shannyn Moore writes—Let It Be… Resolved:
The good news is baseball is back on the radio. Hearing the familiar voices calling plays of players I like so much I named a boat after one of them has been a healing balm after months of political coverage. The league has a new rule — it no longer requires four pitches to intentionally walk a player to first — you can just wave them there now. I don’t like it. Those pitches should count, but it’s all about making the game faster. The whole point of baseball is that it takes time. If this were the only major rule decision that I disagreed with this week, it would be a good week.
I realize there is an entire section in this paper for sports, and that’s not why you read my columns. Sad!
The national stage is a dumpster fire. It just is. Some of that vitriol is making its way to our towns. Chugiak High School had to ban the Confederate flag at their school after students posed in the school for a picture. Here’s an opportunity for the history teachers at Chugiak. One: Alaska wasn’t even a state during the Civil War. Two: The last time the Confederate flag was relevant was on an orange 1969 Dodge Charger. Three: The last flag flown by the Confederacy was a white one. We have one flag and a lot of people died on both sides of that argument, including some of my own family.
The sleepy little town of Homer has a big week coming up. A resolution, you know those unbinding documents with lots of “Whereas,” “Therefores,” and “Be it resolved,” is on Monday’s docket at the Homer City Council.
“A resolution of the City Council of Homer, Alaska, stating that the City of Homer adheres to the principle of inclusion and herein committing this city to resisting efforts to divide this community with regard to race, religion, ethnicity, gender, national origin, physical capabilities or sexual orientation regardless of the origin of those efforts, including from local, state or federal agencies.”
Would you think that statement could be argued? Seems pretty self-evident to me, but there are some people who think they are losing something if they can’t target certain religious groups or minorities.
At The Political Environment of Wisconsin, James Rowen writes—In Walker's screwed up WI, gravel roads make their return:
The long and winding road in Wisconsin is going from pot-holed to dust.
Literally.
I've been writing for years about Scott Walker's bloated, grandiose, under-funded excessive highway expansion has simultaneously starved road repairs and turned driving in Wisconsin into a game of pothole-and-front-end repair dodging.
This road to reaction and ruin has led to its ultimate consequence at the very local level in one Wisconsin small town where a lack of funding has led to an abandonment of road repairs and the acceptance of gravel roads where pavement had long been correctly the norm.
There's a road in the western Wisconsin town of Northfield that used to be completely covered in pavement, but in the last few years, a lot has changed."This is where we ran out of money two years ago," said Richard Erickson, standing on a line that divides paved road from gravel.
Here's what gravel roads are all about:
At Blog for Iowa, Dave Bradley writes—The Money, The Money, The Money:
Last week brought the not too stunning revelation that the Iowa legislature seems to be under the direction of Americans For Prosperity, a Koch brothers front group.
Following the money, one of the most valuable lessons ever to learn in following politics, leads us to the Koch brothers and from them to a couple of their many, many front groups in this case Americans for Prosperity and ALEC.
ALEC provides the legislation – recently the union busting bill – and Americans For Prosperity provides the grease.
Bet you didn’t know when you cast a vote for a Republican for the state house or state senate you were in effect voting for Charles and David Koch.
Joe Bolkcom probably said it best:
“I think what it says is that the Koch brothers have taken over this state with the millions of dollars that they have poured into this state,” said Sen. Joe Bolkcom, D-Iowa City. “Obviously, this bill was a big priority of theirs, and it shows that big money has taken over state government. Iowans should be very concerned about this.”
Does anyone remember your Republican legislator campaigning on taking away the collective bargaining for public employees? How about taking our tax money to pay for privatized education? Did they stand up and say “I will vote for a bill that may take away your ability to vote!”
Of course they didn’t. Who would vote for them if they did? So they spent last year’s campaign speaking in platitudes about freedoms and liberties and low taxes to us while speaking entirely differently behind closed doors to the folks with the money.
At Intelligent Discontent of Montana, Pete Talbot writes—Why I’m supporting Amanda Curtis
This could be the most difficult post I’ve written in the dozen or so years I’ve been blogging. I’ve struggled with it for over a month.
Why all the consternation? Because there’s a great field of Democratic candidates vying for Ryan Zinke’s vacated U.S. House seat.
Seven men and one woman are seeking the Democratic Party nomination (to date, there are seven men and no women on the Republican side). [...]
Here’s why I’m endorsing Amanda Curtis:
1) She has the experience as a legislator and as a statewide candidate.
2) Amanda has a team ready to hit the ground running to turn out the votes.
3) She is a young, articulate, progressive woman and a fighter (and we could certainly use more of those in Washington). To me, she represents the future of the Montana Democratic Party.
4) She’s the genuine article — not a waffling politician — we know where she stands on the issues. As we learned from the November election, being genuine counts. (Sen. Bernie Sanders was genuine and he won the Democratic primary in Montana. Donald Trump was considered “genuine” because of his outrageous comments and actions, although over half the electorate did realize that he was as phony as a three dollar bill; damn that Electoral College.)
Sally Jo Sorenson at Bluestem Prairie of Minnesota writes—Careful what you ask for, Tony: Chamber dollars tower over enviro group's bucks, Rep. Cornish:
On Tuesday, the Minnesota House Environmental and Natural Resources Policy and Finance Committee heard testimony on HF1291 , committee chair Roseau Republican Dan Fabian's bill that would eliminate the Environmental Quality Board, as well as put much of the permitting process in the hands of those seeking permits.
Fabian made no bones about the fact that the bill was written by the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, whose lobbyist Tony Kwilas was able to answer more questions about the language that the official author.
Perhaps the funniest moment about the hearing on social media came when Capitol Press Corps darling Tony Cornish, R-Vernon Center, made a rhetorical point about lobbying dollars.
While we doubt the journalists who love them some Cornish will bother to mention this (who among the brave souls are willing to risk access to his office lair and stuffed game animals?), the audio-only moment in the afternoon re-adjournment was captured in two tweet:
[You can view a larger, more readable version of the tweet here—MB.]
Readers can find a more direct list of criticisms at Minneapolis Representative Jean Wagenius's blog post and a review of the morning half of the committee hearing in the Session Daily article, Environmental Quality Board faces possible elimination.