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 December 15 edition. Inclusion of a blog post does not necessarily indicate my agreement with—or endorsement of—its contents.
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NOTE: Progressive State Blogs will be on hiatus until January 26, 2019.
At Blog for Iowa, Trish Nelson writes—Three Top Myths Of The 2018 Election:
Three Profoundly Dangerous Myths About the 2018 Election is nine pages long but here is a snippet:
Analysts I trusted concluded that [the Democratic 2018 victories occurred] because suburban and college-educated women issued “a sharp rebuke to President Trump” that set off a “blue wave through the urban and suburban House districts.” At first, I also believed that was the main story line. [But in fact] Democrats cut the Republicans’ margin in rural areas by 13 points, according to the Edison exit poll and by seven points in one by Catalyst. Democrats still lost rural America by somewhere between 14 and 18 points so that left Democrats in a pickle there. That had implications for the Senate, but it shouldn’t conceal the fact that Democrats actually made progress in rural areas.
Dear Readers:
In the days immediately after the 2018 elections the most widely circulated analysis held that the significant Democratic victories were produced by the votes of people of color, college educated whites, particularly women and voters in “suburbs” across the country. In contrast, white voters with less than a college education, the group generally defined as the “white working class,” and voters in rural areas were described as remaining completely committed to Trump and the GOP.
The strategic conclusion this implied was obvious: efforts to regain support among these voters would be a waste of time. For 2020 and beyond, all Democratic efforts at voter persuasion and mobilization should be focused on educated whites, the suburbs and people of color.
But in recent weeks new data has emerged–data that sharply contradicts this initial assessment and suggests that the strategic conclusions that have been drawn from it are profoundly and dangerously wrong.
At the Orange Juice Blog of California, Vern Nelson writes—Ada Briceño for Democratic Party Orange County Chair:
What does it mean to be a Democrat?” some are asking. It’s a good question to ask yourself with some regularity, just like “What does it mean to be American?” or “What does it mean to be progressive?” Especially right now, in Orange County, when we Democrats SUDDENLY have more power than ever before.
Maybe there’s as many answers as there are Democrats, but empowerment must have something to do with it – that is, empowering people who didn’t have enough power before. Democrats who think that way are tending to back union firebrand Ada Briceño for the newly opened chair position of the DPOC (Democratic Party of OC), while others who seem to think of the Democrats as just a better club to be in than the Republicans are backing longtime Irvine politician Beth Krom. (Whom I’ll try not to say anything negative about.
It does seem a good time for OC Democrats to go in an Ada-esque direction – we’ve been on a roll and so has she. Just this year she led both the union UNITE-Here and OCCORD (OC Communities Organized for Responsible Development) in a triumphant movement for a living wage for Resort Workers in Anaheim – something that certainly seemed unthinkable not long ago! A few years back, she helped lead the pro-democracy movement for district elections in Anaheim – something good for not only minorities but for all political sides who don’t want to be beholden to the Big Money in town. It’s also great that Ada is Latina, an immigrant (Nicaraguan) and speaks Spanish. That’s the face of MANY of our new Democrats.
She tells me, with her characteristic enthusiasm, that she spends nearly every moment “recruiting new leaders, finding good candidates and mentoring them. It’s what I do.” She is gung-ho to protect the seats the Party has won this year, winning more, and bringing “more grass roots into the Party, for our ground game.”
At Juanita Jean’s of Texas, Juanita Jean Herownself writes—If I Had To Pick The One Thing That Made Me Bite Nails This Week:
Y’all, if it wasn’t raining right now at the beauty salon, my hair would catch on fire. By gawd, this already has steam coming out my ears.
All of the ethics complaints filed against Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation proceedings were dismissed on Tuesday after a panel of federal judges concluded that Kavanaugh is no longer covered by the judiciary’s disciplinary process.
All 83 complaints were dismissed because the ethics code that applies to the judiciary does not apply to Supreme Court justices.
The Washington Post is almost as mad as I am.
Okay, so figure this out. The Supreme Court, who insure the rule of law and that no man is above the rule of law, is … you guessed it, above the rule of law.
I guess it kinda like the Pope. You become infallible when you become Pope. And, we know how well that worked out.
At Blue Stem Prairie of Minnesota and South Dakota, Sally Jo Sorensen writes—Breaking: MPCA commish denies permit to Catalpa Ag; recommends study of nitrate-contaminated waters in SEMN karst region:
Bluestem Prairie has been posting for months about Fillmore County citizens fighting to protect their fragile rural way of life from a large factory farm. The area is the wrong place for the facility, given its karst geology and existing nitrate contamination, those objecting believed.
Together with the Land Stewardship Project, which maintains a Southeast Minnesota field office in Lewiston, the citizens pressed their case with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA). They have achieved a victory of sorts.
While the shareholders can come back for an individual permit, and no EIS will be conducted given the denial of the general permit, the project is stopped for now--and the commissioner recommends in a statement that the "Environmental Quality Board (EQB) conduct a regional environmental study of groundwater pollution for the geologically sensitive karst region of southeast Minnesota."
From the MPCA:
Citing the need to address elevated levels of nitrate in drinking water in the karst region of southeast Minnesota, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) Commissioner John Linc Stine is announcing his decision to deny a general permit for the proposed Catalpa swine facility in Fillmore County near Mabel, Minn. Because of the permit denial, a related decision, whether to deny or approve requests for an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for this specific project is not needed at this time.
“The Catalpa project is the first big new feedlot application we’ve had in Fillmore County since extensive data on nitrate contamination of drinking water wells has come out,” Stine said, referring to new well sampling data produced by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. While hundreds have supported an EIS, an in-depth environmental study, for the proposed Catalpa Ag swine facility in Fillmore County, Stine says the issue is bigger than any one feedlot or farm, saying it would be unfair to put the responsibility for the broad issue of existing nitrate contamination of groundwater onto one farmer. [...]
At The Last Ogle of Oklahoma, Patrick writes—Mary Fallin’s Top 10 “Accomplishments” as Oklahoma Governor…
Over the past few weeks, Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin – a.k.a. the least popular governor in the country – has conducted an exit interview tour with the sympathetic conservative Oklahoma media in what can only be interpreted as a sad, semi-delusional effort to frame her embarrassing and tumultuous eight year reign as governor as a challenge that ended with numerous “accomplishments.”
Seriously.
Check out the introduction to this triumphant sendoff in The Tulsa World:
As Gov. Mary Fallin prepares to leave office, she reflected on her accomplishments over eight years. At the top of the list is shepherding the state through two serious economic downturns.
Oh, come on! Mary couldn’t shepherd this state to a mound of red dirt, much less through a budget crisis. This would be like Braum’s bragging about getting your order right after eight years of screwing it up.
[… ] here’s a list of Mary Fallin’s 10 Greatest Accomplishments as Governor of Oklahoma:
10. Legalized Horse Slaughter
9. Accumulated more Delta SkyMiles than any other governor
8. Cut 20% of Oklahoma school days
7. Made the Love’s Kiss Cam.
6. Boosted economic growth by forcing thousands of state employees to get second jobs.
5. Encouraged thousands of young Oklahomans to leave state for better opportunities.
4. Promoted bipartisanship: Although we live in troubling, divisive times, Mary Fallin is one of the few politicians who can bring people together. Granted, that’s because people on both the right and left can’t stand her, but it’s an accomplishment nonetheless.
3. Garnered national media coverage.
2. Brought attention and awareness to antiquated Capitol Medical Center Zoning Codes.
1. Cut income taxes for Oil Overlords.
At The Progressive Pulse of North Carolina, Melissa Boughton writes—Stein encourages Congress to support federal criminal justice reform:
Attorney General Josh Stein signed on to a letter today urging U.S. House leadership to support the First Step Act, legislation to strengthen the criminal justice system through reforms to facilitate the reentry of people leaving incarceration and to empower prosecutors to seek appropriate sentences.
“This legislation will make our criminal justice system smarter and our communities safer,” said Stein in a news release. “In particular, I strongly support its provisions to support the reentry of the 95 percent of people who are currently in prison and will eventually get out. This year in North Carolina alone, 20,000 people will leave incarceration. Adequately preparing them to succeed upon release reduces repeat crime and reincarceration.”
On Tuesday, the U.S. Senate voted 87-12 in favor of the First Step Act, and today, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to approve it. It was sent to President Donald Trump for a signature.
He joined 36 other attorney generals who signed the letter, including those from the District of Columbia, Texas, California, Delaware, Indiana, Kentucky, New Jersey, Oregon and Virginia.
The First Step Act makes limited changes to the federal criminal justice system, including restricting the use of restraints on pregnant women, expanding compassionate release and relaxing a three strikes law.
“As our jurisdictions’ Attorneys General, public safety and the faithful execution of the law fall squarely on our shoulder,” states the letter Stein signed. “Constituents hold us uniquely accountable for ensuring our communities provide a safe place to work and raise a family. To that end, we have supported legislation that strongly punishes criminal conduct while making sure people exiting prison pose less of a threat than when they entered.”
At The Montana Post, Don Pogreba writes—More on Typhoid Theresa Manzella Leading the Anti-Fact Brigade at the Montana Legislature:
A few days ago, we reported that Republican Representative Theresa Manzella was spreading false information about vaccinations on her Facebook page. It turns out that this was not a one-off for Manzella, who has been researching ways to outlaw mandatory vaccination in Montana since 2015. Manzella, who admitted then that she didn’t know enough about vaccines to make informed policy, didn’t turn to the CDC or medical doctors for information; she turned to a Facebook conspiracy group called “Vaccine Injury Stories.”
This Facebook group, which has 23,000 members sharing absurd fear mongering about vaccination. It’s filled with tales of people killed by the flu vaccine, claims that a 16-year-old young woman tried to complete suicide because of a vaccination she received when she was an infant, and links to pages that might look like they came from reputable medical sources if your reading level was somewhere around 5th grade. It’s the kind of conspiracy page that’s so riddled with delusions that a brief look found multiple stories from alleged separate individuals posting the exact same pictures of children who had died because of vaccines and claiming it was their story.
It’s heartbreaking to read these stories, but it’s infuriating that a legislator would turn to a Facebook conspiracy group to get educated about public health.
At Dakota Free Press, Cory Allen Heidelberger writes—Kristi Noem at Work in the Capitol:
While Kristi Noem was adding to the donors and political pals who will run our state for her, she was not voting to avert the Trump shutdown. Her fellow House Republicans passed a dead-end spending resolution yesterday with $5 billion for border insecurity (not to mention insecure manhood). Congresswoman Noem was not there for that important vote, or for any of the other 27 votes cast on the House floor yesterday. Drought Information System, criminal justice reform, reporting on vehicular terrorism, help for victims of child abuse—on top of keeping paychecks flowing to the Secret Service agents watching Trump golf all weekend, none of those things were important enough for Noem to show up for her job.
The House passed about 20 bills yesterday. Funny—maybe Congress actually gets more work done when Kristi isn’t there.
Noem appears to have missed all ten votes on Thursday as well. But she did have time to tour the Capitol Dome… the South Dakota Capitol Dome, with her new senior advisor Tony Venhuizen. [...]
Thanks to working so hard at her upcoming new job, prior to Thursday, Noem was the fourth-most-frequent vote-misser of this lame-duck session.
So while the government careen toward another shutdown, during which decent public servants will be required to show up to protect the public and public assets but won’t get paychecks, Kristi Noem gets to not show up for her job and still draw her salary.
Colorado Senator Cory Gardner apparently supports a decision last week by a federal judge striking down the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
Asked yesterday by a KOA radio host if he agrees with Texas judge, Gardner indicated he supports the ruling, but he wants Congress to pass a law guaranteeing protections for pre-existing conditions “as we have said we will do and we’ll continue to work to do.”
GARDNER: Well, this is going to take some time to work through the system. The status quo remains in place. Nothing changes as this decision will be appealed, most likely all the way to the Supreme Court.
What has to happen: Congress needs to guarantee protections for pre-existing conditions, as we have said we will do and we’ll continue to work to do. But we also have to find a[n] approach that fixes what’s wrong with Obamacare, because it has led to hundreds of thousands of people who had their health insurance plans canceled, and higher costs.
So, let’s create a system that allows people to buy the insurance they want at a price they can afford.
Gardner voted for three senate bills that would have killed Obamacare, but they failed to pass, the last one going down with the thumb of former U.S. Senator John McCain of Arizona. All would have raised health-insurance premiums and made people lose their health insurance.
Gardner has not come forward with a specific plan that, as he puts it, “allows people to buy the insurance they want at a price they can afford.”