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 Dec. 16 edition. Inclusion of a blog post does not necessarily indicate my agreement with—or endorsement of—its contents. |
Apologies to all the good folks at Blue Virginia: Last week, I included an item from your fine site, but I mistakenly added the logo of a neighboring state blog, BlueNC. It won’t happen again.
Jeff Thomas at Blue Virginia writes—The Biggest Story in Virginia Politics in 2017 Is Not What You Think:
[...]Followers of current events may have the impression that the biggest story in Virginia politics is the recent landslide election; this is undoubtedly important, but the biggest story in Virginia politics in 2017 is not the backlash to President Trump, but the backlash to the so-called “Virginia Way,” the corporate-centric philosophy by which the state government has been run since colonial times.
The current Virginia political system is the descendant of Harry Byrd’s; in the two party era, since the civil rights movement secured voting rights for 20% of Virginians, Harry Byrd’s Virginia Way has operated with bipartisan consensus: there is division on social issues, such as abortion and gay marriage, but on the economic issues that truly matter to businesses, there is and always has been unity among the parties. In Virginia, politics reflects the will of business and campaign donors, and the easiest way to understand politics in Virginia is to understand that business community donors get what they want: low taxes, underfunded services, low public welfare and high corporate welfare.
The Virginia Way, has always benefited aristocrats above all, whether the tobacco planters, the slaveowners, the industrialists, and now, the multinational businessmen. Regardless of what you think of the parties on social issues, the themes of Republican Governor McDonnell’s and Democratic Governor McAuliffe’s administrations have been proudly doling out corporate goodies, and the Virginia legislature can best be thought of as a large-scale racketeering operation, where bribes in the form of campaign contributions purchase the reins of government. [...]
While a broad examination of Virginia politics reveals the continuation of the status quo, I want to leave you with a bit of hope. There is always hope, and here, in the state of Virginia in December 2017, things are changing where they matter most, at the nexus of so many facets of the corrupt, pay-to-play system that characterizes the Virginia Way.
The most significant story in Virginia politics in 2017 is not the Democratic wave election, although that is important, but the backlash to Dominion Energy, where the intersection of money and politics is at its most egregious. For the first time in history – in history – in 2017 there was a true grassroots campaign in Virginia politics to elect people who pledged never to take campaign contributions or any other money or gifts from Dominion. Thirteen candidates who made this pledge won election last month. A bloc that large is significant, can sway votes and cannot be ignored. [...]
Juanita Jean Herownself at Juanita Jean’s of Texas writes—Ya Don’t Say?
Okay, by now everybody has heard that the Trump administration has banned 7 words.
Remember the George Carlin routine about 7 dirty words you can’t say on tv? Well, Trump has the same thing, except they aren’t dirty words. They are words he either can’t pronounce or define.
In a 90-minute briefing on Thursday, policy analysts at the nation’s leading public health institute were presented with the menu of seven banned words, an analyst told the paper. On the list: “diversity,” “fetus,” “transgender,” “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “science-based” and “evidence-based.”
Well, actually there are more than 7. Through the miracle of modern big time beauty salon journalism, I have obtained a list of the other words Trump wants to ban next week.
Orange monkey face
Doofus
Weird son in law
Putin
Please don’t look at your daughter that way
Puppet
Bad barber
Russian
Collusion
Steve Mnuchin’s wife
The name Robert
Also, the use of the words Trump, Russian prostitutes, and urine all in the same sentence will result in a $20 billion fine to be paid to an off shore account held under the name “Not Donald Trump, Okay?”
Also under consideration: WTF
tomaswell at Louisiana Voice writes—Sen. John Kennedy, aka ‘The Chameleon,’ sinks judicial nominees, conjures up memories of Kristofferson classic:
Sometimes you just have to give the devil his due.
I have hammered John Kennedy pretty hard on his record and on his campaign for and his performance in the U.S. Senate, particularly in regard to his unquestioning subservience to his lord and master, Donald Trump.
But recently, in the words of my grandfather, he kicked over the traces (it’s a term about plowing the good earth with an insubordinate mule, for the more unsophisticated among you) regarding the Trumpster’s court nominees.
It was both a long time coming and something of a shock to see Kennedy undergo the delicate medical transplant procedure that involved replacing jelly with a spine—he certainly displayed no symptoms of having a backbone regarding the Republican shell game called tax reform or of challenging any of the other administration agenda items.
But his questioning of Federal Election Commission Chairman Matthew Spencer Peterson, one of Trump’s nominees for a federal judgeship, showed just how shallow Peterson is and how slipshod Trump’s aides are in vetting nominees for lifetime positions on the federal bench. In short, they made it almost too easy for Kennedy.
If I had to sum up Peterson’s performance in a single sentence it would be this:
Based on his lack of knowledge of the most basic principles of law, he should return to his alma mater and demand a refund.
Montana Hat at Montana Cowgirl writes—Steve Daines Wrote a Crappy, Unpopular Bill and Even the ‘Support’ is Bogus:
[...It’s been a bad week for Senator Daines. In an attempt to secure a win for his corporate overlords and circumvent his constituents Daines announced a new piece of legislation that would release nearly 500,000 acres of Wilderness Study Areas (WSA). Daines claims that this legislation is necessary in order to rally support for a ban on mining just outside of Yellowstone National Park. Unfortunately for Daines, people in the Yellowstone community really think Daines is full of it.
In a scathing editorial from the newspaper near Yellowstone, the Livingston Enterprise, the community called out Daines:
“Unfortunately, it seems Republican Steve Daines isn’t hearing vour voices in Park County, even though we’re shouting from mountaintops.
Mixing the WSA debate with the ongoing discussion about the Yellowstone Gateway Protection Act is little more than crass politics.”
But don’t you worry, Senator Daines sent out a press release with lots of totally organic and genuine praise of his bill from totally real supporters.
In a press release Daines cites many (Republican) legislators who praise his bill and some interest groups. Citizens for Balanced Use added their name to the list of supporters. They included a letter of support to be downloaded. The letter is signed by Kerry White. But if you click on the properties tab of the document you see that the letter was last modified by a member of Daines’ staff. [...]
Not only does the community hate Daines’ bill, the people he claims support it need to have their support ghost written for them. Brutal.
Shelby Steuart at Better Georgia writes—Ga. Power gets green light at Vogtle, after leaving airport in the dark:
From The AJC: “Georgia’s Public Service Commission has voted unanimously to allow continued construction of two nuclear reactors at Georgia Power’s embattled Plant Vogtle, which is billions of dollars over budget and years behind schedule.”
The PSC has once again shown voters that they will always side with corporate greed over working Georgians. Fortunately, two commissioners are up for re-election in 2018.
On a related note, The Atlanta Hartsfield Airport power outage hit about 1 p.m. Sunday, grounding nearly 1,000 flights and leaving 30,000 people stranded, in darkness. Planes sat on the tarmac for more than six hours and international flights had to be sent to other airports.
Although Georgia Power has not explicitly accepted blame for the Atlanta Hartsfield Airport power outage, they told CNNMoney, in response to Delta CEO’s request for reimbursement, that “we cannot and do not guarantee uninterrupted electric power service.” A response that carries an air of guilt but in a way that avoids accountability in a typical, Georgia Power way.[...]
Now that the PSC has voted to allow Plant Vogtle to continue, it’s fair to ask, “How will Georgia Power stay on top of all of this?” It seems like Georgia Power is already worn too thin. Is continuing a project that has been riddled with increased expenses, delays, and failures really in the best interest for a utility company with switchgears breaking? Do we really want a company that “cannot and does not guarantee uninterrupted electric power service” running a nuclear plant?
desmoinesdem at BleedingHeartland of Iowa writes—Iowans not happy with mental health, Medicaid, school funding, taxes:
Clear majorities of Iowans disapprove of how the state legislature and executive branch are handling mental health care, Medicaid, education funding, and taxes, according to the latest statewide survey by Selzer & Co for the Des Moines Register and Mediacom.
Even worse for Republicans: more than 70 percent of respondents said each of those issues would be a “major consideration when you choose how you will vote in the 2018 election.”
Live callers asked respondents, “I’d like to turn to some state government policy areas. For each, please tell me if you approve or disapprove of the way this is being handled by the state Legislature and executive branch.”
The worst results were on mental health: just 25 percent approve, 64 percent disapprove.
On Medicaid, which the Branstad/Reynolds administration privatized: 30 percent approve, 56 percent disapprove.
On funding for K-12 education, which has not kept pace with rising costs for several years in a row: 35 percent approve, 55 percent disapprove.
Lamar White Jr. at The Bayou Brief of Louisiana writes— Reclaiming The New South:
A pro-choice Democrat is the next junior U.S. Senator from the great state of Alabama.
A transgender woman defeated the chairman of the state Republican caucus, a virulently anti-LGBT lawmaker, for a seat in the Virginia House, part of a Democratic wave.
In Texas, Democrats have lined up candidates to challenge every single Republican in Congress and for every statewide office, as well as fielding candidates for 85% of state legislative seats.
Here in Louisiana, as Mark Ballard of The Advocate recently noted, a Democratic candidate for state treasurer, a man who barely campaigned at all and raised only $25,000, came within 40,000 votes of winning against a Republican candidate who had spent nearly $1 million.
All of this occurred during the past two months.
The media, by and large, has reported these stories as anomalous and surprising, a temporary glitch caused by the historic unpopularity of President Donald Trump and, in the specific case of Alabama, the candidacy of a uniquely repulsive Republican, Roy Moore, a man who allegedly molested teenage girls when he was well into his thirties. Republicans are already treating the victory as illegitimate; on the night of Jones’s win, they issued a press release urging him, in so many words, to join their caucus. Or else.
After John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, absolutely clobbered the most powerful member of the Louisiana Republican Party, David Vitter, in the 2015 gubernatorial election, winning by 12.2 points, conservatives here similarly consoled themselves by calling Edwards “the accidental governor” and blaming their candidate’s humiliating defeat on his personal failures, not on his policy positions. The truth is that it was a combination of both.
John Bel Edwards’s victory wasn’t an accident, and Doug Jones’s wasn’t a glitch.
The American South has always been winnable for Democrats, and if there is anything to learn from the recent resurgence of Democrats in the South, it is that the national party should no longer relegate us to the bottom tier.
A staffer at ProgressNowNM writes— NM’s Attorney General challenges Trump methane rollbacks in court:
New Mexico’s Attorney General Hector Balderas joined California’s Attorney General Xavier Becerra in taking the Trump administration to court to challenge rollbacks in methane emissions standards. The legal action charges that the move from Trump’s Department of the Interior violates a host of existing regulations and protocols designed to update industry standards that otherwise have operated under decade-old rules.
Oil and gas companies vent or flare a significant amount of methane gas during their operations that, besides having negative effects on the environment and New Mexican’s health, wastes a significant amount of a product that otherwise could be utilized to fuel New Mexico homes and other services. [...]
A new poll conducted by The Majority Institute released this week shows that New Mexicans across the state support strengthening the state’s rules on limiting methane pollution that is leaked, vented or flared from oil and gas facilities. The poll shows support from both sides of the political spectrum and across wide-ranging backgrounds.
Larry Buhl at Capital & Main of California writes—Report: Cash Bail System Hurts Poor and Communities of Color in L.A.
In advance of a legislative battle over reforming California’s cash bail system, a new report shines light on which Los Angeles communities pay the most bail and by how much. The Price for Freedom, published by the University of California, Los Angeles’ Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies, analyzed arrest data from 2012 through 2016. The authors concluded that the money bail system takes a “multi-billion dollar toll that demands tens of millions of dollars annually in cash and assets from some of L.A.’s most economically vulnerable persons, families and communities.”
Using the Los Angeles County Superior Court’s misdemeanor and felony bail schedules, researchers discovered that bail set for more than 374,000 people arrested by the Los Angeles Police Department for misdemeanors and felonies over that five-year period was $19.4 billion. [...]
The Bunche Center study also found that the cash bail system disproportionately affects lower income Angelenos and communities of color. During the period covered by the study, black Angelenos paid bond agents $40.7 million in non-refundable fees — 21 percent of total fees paid to bond agents in a population that represents only nine percent of the population. Latinos paid just over $92 million, and whites just under $38 million over the same period. Figures for Asian Americans were unavailable to researchers.
UCLA Professor Kelly Lytle Hernandez, one of the authors of The Price of Freedom, told Capital & Main that her study showed 70 percent of the bail amount levied went unpaid, and as a result 223,366 people remained behind bars until their arraignment.
“Many of these people don’t even have $100 in the bank, so paying 10 percent to a bond agent means that money won’t be going toward rent or food. If the breadwinner stays behind bars, the family suffers from lack of income.”
Tom Van Alten at FortBoise of Idaho writes—A massive gift of hypocrisy and venality:
to the donor class, jingling Merry Christmas! all over the place. Thomas Edsall: You Cannot Be Too Cynical About the Republican Tax Bill.
It's not exactly a news flash, but no, Virginia, this is not a tax break for the middle class. There will be a little splashover to the plebes, but the main event is "a $1.4 trillion package of benefits for key donors and lobbyists, the richest members of Congress, President Trump, his family and other families like his." Duh.
Is it the BIGGEST, as Mr. Bigly is so fatuously bragging it up? Nope. Might be 2nd, or 4th, but not #1. The American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, enacted in 2013 was somewhere between 50% larger and twice as big. Under the tyrant Obama, who knew? [...]
Thirty-one years coming and all of seven weeks in gestation, with no substantive hearings, no actual analysis published by the Treasury Department, and so much last-minute horse-trading (and parliamentarian vetoing), that none of the half of Congress that voted "aye" could have possibly understood what they just approved in its entirety. Never mind even just "read the bill."
But you could read it if you wanted. It's officially known as H.R.1 - An Act to provide for reconciliation pursuant to titles II and V of the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2018. Good luck. You can also read the final pre-passage Congressional Budget Office cost estimate for it to see the direct estimate of the increase in the deficit is $1.455 trillion. Its "major legislation" status requires that "the cost estimate, to the extent practicable, include the budgetary impact of the bill’s macroeconomic effects," but shucks, "it is not practicable to provide an estimate of the budgetary impact of the bill’s macroeconomic effects at this time."