This week at progressive state blogs is designed specifically to focus attention on the writing and analysis of people focused on their home turf. Here is the July 14 edition. Inclusion of a blog post does not necessarily indicate my agreement with—or endorsement of—its contents.
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lowkell at Blue Virginia writes—Video: Pathological Liar Corey Stewart Vows to Never Lie; Then Lies Yet Again…and Again:
If you’ve been following 2018 Virginia Republican U.S. Senate nominee Corey Stewart’s career at all, you know at least three main things about him: 1) he’s a demagogic “mini-me” version of Trump who plays on the “worst angels” of people’s nature; 2) he’s nasty, for instance attacking Tim Kaine’s family and vowing to run a “ruthless,” “vicious,” “brutal” campaign; 3) he has a thing for the Confederate, white supremacists, anti-Semites, and other haters; and 4) he’s constantly telling untruths, aka lies, both to the general public and to the media.
On that last point, check out the following video from last night, in which pathological liar Corey Stewart claims he has never lied and will never lie. He then proceeds to tell a few more lies (e.g., that he’s always been “fair and honest,” which of course he hasn’t been on so many fronts; that a New York Times reporter supposedly broke into the apartment of one of Stewart’s former staffers/campaign volunteers”; and that he’s supposedly promised to run a “very vigorous” campaign, when he actually promised to run a VICIOUS campaign…love how he changed to a different word starting with the letter “v”) just for good measure.
By the way, if you don’t believe me that Corey Stewart is a pathological liar, check out PolitiFact’s ratings of the guy, which literally show not a single “true,” “mostly true,” or even “half true” statement. With that, check out the video by pathological liar Corey Stewart.
James Rowen at The Political Environment of Wisconsin writes—Campaign sing-along. "Maria! I've just met a girl named Maria..."
So we're getting more of Walker's typical 'don't ask me! I know nothing' behavior.
Thought he still has nothing to say about the Trump's-Putin FUBAR bear-hug in Helsinki, he has broken his silence about how he managed to get his picture taken with an alleged Russian spy who seemed enamored of his 2015 Presidential bid and who herself has managed to get herself charged by the US government for operating in the country as an unregistered foreign agent.
Walker finally said he remembered meeting the woman at an NRA convention back when he was polling strongly prior to the Iowa caucuses only because other people have pointed it out now, that he doesn't remember speaking Russian to her (as she does), and doesn't know anyone who's been contacted by the authorities in the matter, the Journal Sentinel reports.
Walker might as well say he thought he was at a National Russian Convention, looking for a pen pal.
His denials and disinterest are a variation on his frequent absence of an opinion, whether it be about immigrant kids being snatched from their parents at the southern border, or on, say, evolution.
Frankly, a lot gets past Walker.
Julie Dermansky at Bayou Brief of Louisiana writes—Baptism by Fire: A Controversial Chemical Plant in the Center of Cancer Alley:
What should be done about a chemical plant in Louisiana’s St. John the Baptist Parish that releases chloroprene — a chemical so toxic that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) determined nearby residents face the highest risk in the country of developing cancer from air pollution?
The answer is simple, according to Retired Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré: “Fix it, move it, or shut it down.”
Honoré is the founder of the Green Army, a coalition of environmental groups and concerned citizens fighting against pollution in their communities.
But local, state, and federal regulators haven’t resolved issues swirling around emissions released by the Denka Performance Elastomer plant, located in LaPlace, Louisiana. The plant is next to the Mississippi River, on a stretch of land between New Orleans and Baton Rouge known as Cancer Alley.
DuPont’s synthetic rubber plant in LaPlace emitted chloroprene for 46 years before it was sold to Denka.
Shortly after Denka took over the plant, the EPA reclassified chloroprene in 2010 as a likely human carcinogen. The EPA deems 0.2 micrograms per cubic meter as the acceptable standard for chloroprene emissions, a level that the plant overshoots considerably. [...]
Pete Talbot at The Montana Post writes—Montana Democratic Party platform convention:
I hesitate to write this post. No matter how I phrase it, some friends in the party won’t be happy — depending on where they stand on the issues.
The last thing I want to do is give the Democratic Party a black eye with this most crucial midterm election 112 days out. In a way, the convention is a snapshot of how democracy works: it’s messy, and there are winners and losers. I continue to respect the delegates from all over Montana who gave up a summer weekend to sit in the Great Falls Civic Center.
I have yet to see any media coverage of the convention. In the old days, Lee newspapers would have sent Chuck Johnson or Mike Dennison to the event, and the Great Falls Tribune would have had a reporter there. The only recap I’ve seen is on social media and there tends to be bias. So, here’s my view as a progressive participant.
I should mention at the outset that I’m the director of the Montana Progressive Democrats (MtPD). We had five planks we wanted to add to the platform. A thumbnail sketch of the convention can be viewed by how those planks fared.
Energy. Right out of the gate, I got my ass handed to me. This is the MtPD plank I introduced:
We support an immediate and just transition to 100 percent renewable energy, and to take action to accelerate the shift to a clean energy economy that works for all. There must be a rapid phase out of fossil fuel projects in Montana to be replaced by alternative and sustainable union energy jobs.
I’d just arrived in the Electric City from a gorgeous drive along the Blackfoot River and over Rogers Pass and onto the rolling plains of Central Montana. Organized labor was waiting for me. It based its opposition to the plank on a loss of good-paying union jobs in the fossil fuel industry and election defeats in energy producing counties. [...]
Bill Orr at Blue Jersey writes—While Trump & NJ GOP candidates go low on ACA we must go high:
With Trump’s day-after-day mind-blowing tweets and efforts to harm so many respected practices and institutions it’s easy to lose sight of what is happening. He has been clear about his goal, saying, “The best thing we can do politically speaking is let Obamacare explode.” We must keep in mind that his undermining of ACA represents a grave danger for the health of New Jerseyans. [...]
NJPP’s report: Newest Trump Sabotage of Obamacare Could Make Health Insurance Unaffordable for Many New Jerseyans:
- Suspending $64 million in payments to insurers to defray the cost of covering consumers with high health costs. Without these payments, insurers may increase premiums to make up for the cost of insuring customers with pre-existing conditions.
- Slashing funds for navigators who help New Jerseyans with signing up for insurance and outreach. With a 70% cut in federal funds, New Jersey should receive approximately $200,000 for outreach in 2018, down from $1.9 million in 2016 and $720,000 in 2017.
- Urging a federal court to invalidate protections for pre-existing conditions arguing that insurers should be allowed to charge consumers based on their pre-existing conditions. NJ has joined other states in opposition to this suit. Should this case go to the Supreme Court, President Trump’s nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh further endangers the ACA’s future.
Vern Nelson at the Orange Juice Blog of California writes—Trump’s Little Sister: At 99% agreement, there’s no daylight between Mimi and Donald:
Mimi Walters: “It is very important that Republicans back the president, He’s the president of our party. He stands for what we stand for.“
Wow. 99%. Voting with our Mad King THAT dependably. Not even our Royce, Rohrabacher and Issa are that slavishly, unquestioningly obedient to all Trump’s authoritarian whims. 99% is true devotion, makes you wonder what that little 1% demurral was.
But I guess the 45th District shouldn’t be surprised, if they’ve really been following the Republican politician Mimi Walters throughout her career, as this blog has. [...]
Why would she be offended at the President’s racist anti-Muslim ban? One of our earliest stories about Mimi covered her racist 2008 campaign against Harry Sidhu, exaggerating the Indian-American’s “otherness” by carefully darkening his skin on all her flyers – and it WORKED! Got her into the State Senate.
Why would she mind all of the President’s daily, hourly LYING? Don’t forget that Mimi wouldn’t be where she is right now, representing the good people of the 45th district in Congress, if she hadn’t lied through her teeth about where she lived during her 2012 state Senate race – faking a residence in a small Irvine apartment while never leaving her and her husband’s plush Laguna Niguel mansion (where she STILL lives, outside of the district she represents.) Her opponent Steve Young left flowers on “her Irvine doorstep,” and returned week after week to photograph her FADING FLOWERS.
A staffer at Colorado Pols writes—Report: BLM HQ Will Move West:
As Erin Prater writes for the Colorado Springs Gazette:
U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is prepared to move ahead on moving the Bureau of Land Management headquarters to the West, according to reports. [...]
…Rep. Scott Tipton’s office said Thursday that the department will conduct an analysis to help choose a location in the next six to eight months, Interior Department senior adviser Susan Combs told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, according to the release Thursday. “Ninety-nine percent of the land that the BLM manages is located in the West, and the decisions made by the Bureau have daily impacts on those who live there, so it only makes sense to move the headquarters to a Western state. This would ensure that decisions would be made by those who understand the land best, resulting in more effective land management programs and policies.
Moving the headquarters of the BLM to the American West has been a long-running project that has the support of Colorado’s entire Congressional delegation, as well as the backing of local officials and Gov. John Hickenlooper. Colorado isn’t guaranteed to be the new home of the BLM, but Grand Junction is at least among the frontrunners.
It’s too soon to tell if this pending move will have a significant effect on BLM policies in the West or is more of a publicity stunt, though a new HQ would almost certainly create some new jobs in Colorado.
A staffer at Progress Texas writes—Top 10 Worst Sh** in the Texas Republican Party Platform:
In case you had any doubts, the Texas GOP party platform is still garbage.
Texas Republicans approved multiple legislative priorities and backed a platform that includes more than 300 planks during their convention in June. As per usual, the platform is full of racist, xenophobic, sexist, transphobic and homophobic priorities.
To save you the trouble (and horror) of going through 300+ planks of pure evil, we’ve narrowed it down to the worst garbage we found in their agenda.
[...]
1. Discriminate against the LGBTQ+ community
More than 20 of the planks target LGBTQ Texans. Here are some of the lowlights. The Texas GOP:
- proclaims that — despite a 2015 Supreme Court ruling declaring the fundamental right to marry — marriage should only be between a man and woman, and that same-sex marriages need not be legally recognized,
- claims the right to discriminate in the name of “religious freedom,” saying they oppose “any criminal or civil penalties against those who oppose homosexuality out of faith, conviction, or belief in traditional values,”
- opposes “all efforts to validate transgender identity” and seeks to ban transgender people from using restrooms that match their gender identity,
- and, of course, supports conversion therapy. [...]
desmoinesdem at Bleeding Heartland of Iowa writes—Ethics board: Iowa candidates can't use campaign funds for child care:
Iowa candidates seeking to use campaign funds to cover child care expenses are out of luck unless the state legislature and governor expressly allow the practice. The Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board voted 5-1 at a July 13 meeting for an opinion stating, “We do not believe Iowa law clearly allows campaign funds to be used for a candidate’s childcare expenses related [to] campaigning. We believe this issue is a policy decision best left to the legislature.”
The Federal Election Commission determined in May that Congressional candidates “may use campaign funds” to pay for child care expenses that “would not exist irrespective” of the campaign. Soon after, state House candidate Reyma McCoy McDeid, a single mother of a three-year-old, requested an advisory opinion on the matter from Iowa’s campaign regulator.
Iowa Code 68A.302 states that candidates and their committees “shall not use campaign funds for personal expenses or personal benefit.” The law allows “payment for personal services directly related to campaign activities” but does not mention child care.
The FEC’s decision was unanimous, so I was surprised most Iowa ethics board members reached the opposite conclusion. [...]
[Here is the board’s advisory opinion.]
Regina Willis at Better Georgia writes—END THE LIES: the fight against fake women’s health centers in Gwinnett County:
Fake women’s health clinics peddle lies and shame to pregnant folks seeking more information about their reproductive healthcare options. Calling themselves “crisis pregnancy centers,” pregnant folks believe they are going to a licensed healthcare facility to get medically accurate information about their pregnancy and pregnancy options. Unfortunately, they only get lies, shame and stigma from untrained volunteers.
This past weekend, half a dozen Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) swept through Gwinnett County to speak with residents about the impacts of fake women’s health clinics. Led by NAPAWF-Atlanta (the Atlanta Chapter of the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum), volunteers learned about canvassing and then put those skills to use, speaking with about 100 Gwinnett residents.
“This is alarming to anyone who hears about it, which was abundantly clear in our conversations with residents on Saturday,” said Roula AbiSamra, the Georgia organizer for NAPAWF. “Gwinnettians of all backgrounds disapprove of these deceptive tactics, and are concerned about real access to legitimate reproductive health services and information.” [...]
Pregnant women seeking information about their full range of reproductive health care options — including information about carrying a pregnancy to term, birth control or abortion — walk out of these centers being told the wrong gestational age of their fetus, given medically inaccurate information about fetal development, and offered only prayers, shame and lies when trying to learn more about abortion.
At the Georgia State Capitol, women have even told lawmakers stories of having serious health conditions that affect their health or the health of their fetus go undiagnosed and unrecognized because these fake women’s clinics are not licensed medical facilities and do not have trained medical staff. They ONLY exist to shame people who are thinking about getting an abortion, at any cost. [...]
Patrick McHugh at The Progressive Pulse of North Carolina writes—Party like its 1929. Income inequality rivals era before the Great Depression:
Before you dig out your flapper dresses and suspenders, the odds are this is a party you can’t afford to attend. A new report from the Economic Policy Institute shows that the level of income inequality in the United States and North Carolina has increased over the past several years to a point where we are now at or above the economic divide that helped to propel the world in the worst economic collapse in modern history.
“There has been vast and widespread growth in income inequality in every corner of the country. Overall, the growth in incomes of the bottom 99 percent has improved since our last report, in step with a strengthening economy, but the gap between the top 1 percent and everyone else still grew in the majority of states we examine here.”
In North Carolina, the average income for someone in the top one percent is 20.6 times larger than everyone else, a figure that has increased substantially during the Great Recession and is much higher than it was in the 1960s through early 1980s. The top one percent took home over 17 percent of all income in North Carolina in 2015, and the top 0.1 percent commanded 7.4 of all income. In 1974, when the level of income inequality in North Carolina was the lowest in modern history, the top one percent only consumed 7.8 percent of all North Carolina income.
We’re not doomed to repeat the Great Depression, but it is clear that state and federal policy in the last several years has failed to address the single most pressing economic challenge of our time. Instead of hoping that more tax cuts for wealthy people and profitable corporations will magically fix our problems, it’s time for leaders in Raleigh and Washington, D.C., to admit that we are reaching levels of inequality that threaten the social and economic fabric of our country. [...]
A staffer at SC Prog Blog writes—Public invited to July 23 launch of “History Denied: Recovering South Carolina’s Stolen Past”:
Join the SC Progressive Network in celebrating the recent publication of History Denied, Recovering South Carolina’s Stolen Past by Network Communications Director Becci Robbins.
“I learned so much on this project—not the least of which is how little I know,” Robbins said. “The more I dug and read, the angrier I got about my miseducation. It’s been unsettling to know how much history we’ve been denied, and calls into question everything we’ve been taught.”
History Denied is Robbins’ fourth booklet to be funded by the Richland County Conservation Commission. She previously published a trilogy to mark the achievements of three extraordinary South Carolina women: human rights activist Modjeska Monteith Simkins, gay rights advocate Harriet Hancock, and legal pioneer Sarah Leverette. Those booklets are available free at the Network’s office, and can be downloaded online. The History Denied booklet will be uploaded after the launch. [...]
“This is a cautionary tale. It centers on the Southern Negro Youth Congress (SNYC), a militant, interracial youth movement that thrived against all odds between 1937 and 1949 in the Jim Crow South. Its rise and fall—and the collective amnesia that followed—offers a timely warning about how history is made and unmade, and how that shapes our shared narrative.
It is no accident that we don’t know our labor history or the darkest truths about the white supremacy built into South Carolina’s very constitution, and that denial carries lasting consequences. Ignorance comes with a heavy price.” [...]