This week in 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. Inclusion of a diary does not necessarily indicate my agreement or endorsement of its contents.
••• •••
At Beach Peanuts of Florida, Martha Jackovics writes—Predictably, Rick Scott Joins The GOP Parade To Demonize Refugees Fleeing Terror:
It was predictably just a matter of time before Rick Scott, Florida's "Obama basher in chief," jumped wholeheartedly into the parade of GOP governors seeking to politicize the terrorist attacks in Paris by taking aim at innocent Syrian refugees, many of them orphans, who are fleeing those same terrorists.
Scott happily jumped in with both feet to say he would seek to ban refugees from coming to Florida, and using his claims that his interests are to "protect Florida families" to do so. (Scott has no authority to ban the refugees, nor can he opt out of the refugee relocation program.) [...]
Scott is following his usual playbook to demonize the refugees by announcing he would work to ban them from the state, making the rounds to various media outlets like FOX to politicize it for his own gain, and then holding a press conference back home that provides little to back up his claims.
At Scrutiny Hooligans of North Carolina, Tom Sullivan writes—Cowards and the cowardly cowards who lead them:
A lot of pant-wetting in the Home of the Brave yesterday as fear of #SyrianRefugees swept the intertubes. It didn’t matter that all the attackers identified as of yesterday were French or Belgian nationals.
It didn’t matter that the Syrian passport found near the body of one of the Paris suicide bombers was a fake. Serbian police arrested a man Saturday with the same passport information except for the photo. [...]
Their refusals carry all the weight of a Facebook “legal notice,” someone observed on Twitter.
At Ohio Daily, Anastasia Pantsios writes—Why You Shouldn't Waste a Phone Call Asking Kasich to Veto Planned Parenthood Defunding:
Those of you active in women’s rights groups and on their mailing lists will likely now be hit with a spate of emails urging you to contact Governor Kasich to ask that he veto it.
Don’t waste your time. I mean, did you really fall for that “Roe is the law of the land and we have to obey the law” garbage he spewed a month or two ago to try to make himself seem passably “moderate” on the presidential campaign trail? You didn’t get the unspoken part about “And I’ll make sure that changes if I’m elected president”?
For years, Kasich has been playing a game where the legislature passes onerous and pointless anti-choice measures and Kasich scrawls him signature on them without comment beyond, when pressed, “I’m pro-life.” (He hasn’t demonstrated that to any degree!)
His game has been exposed in this Associated Press (AP) story:
“Gov. John Kasich’s aides helped craft abortion restrictions”
At Cottonmouth of Mississippi, Ryan Brown writes—Health care on the brink:
A recent report shows the dire financial situation facing Mississippi's rural hospitals. The report reiterates what has been known for years: hospitals are struggling financially while patients are in danger of and are actually going without medical care.
Some of the hospitals in jeopardy reside in districts represented by some of the worst offenders when it comes to health care in the state:
- Highland Community Hospital, represented by Rep. Mark Formby (R-Picayune)
- Tippah County Hospital, represented by Rep. Judas Steverson (R-Ripley)
- Baptist Medical Center Attalta, formerly Montfort Jones Community Hospital, represented by Rep. Jason White (R-West)
- Natchez Regional Medical Center, ironically represented by Public Health Committee Chairman Sam Mims (R-McComb)
This report was released as
news broke that the Pioneer Community Hospital in Newton, represented by Reps. Randy Rushing (R-Decatur) and William Shirley (R-Quitman), will be closing their doors - forcing their patients to drive to other counties to seek medical care. Imagine having to drive to another county if you are having a heart attack or delivering a baby!
For years, Reps. Formby, Steverson, White, Mims, Rushing, and Shirley and the Republican Party have stood in the way of ensuring that hospitals have patients who are able to afford medical care. This shameful behavior is disgraceful, and their stubbornness is costing lives.
At Progress Illinois, Ellyn Fortino writes—Walmart Workers Fasting For $15 As Part Of Black Friday Protests:
Walmart workers have stepped up their Black Friday protests against the mega retailer with a 15-day fast for a $15 minimum wage and full-time schedules.
Over 1,400 Walmart workers and their allies are participating in the fast, organized by the recently relaunched OUR Walmart campaign. In the run-up to Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving shopping frenzy, fasters are consuming a liquids-only diet for one to 15 days to draw attention to what they consider to be low wages and hours provided to Walmart workers.
The fast began last week and will culminate with Black Friday protests on November 27 at Walmart stores nationwide, including in Chicago and other Illinois cities.
"OUR Walmart's message to Walton heirs -- whose wealth has been greater than the bottom 42 percent of all American families combined -- is clear: while Walmart employees can barely put food on the table this Thanksgiving, Walmart continues to thrive as the largest supplier of groceries in the nation, while it lines the pockets of the Walton family with corporate greed," OUR Walmart said in statement. "Anything less than $15 and full-time is not enough for Walmart workers."
At Montana Cowgirl, Cowgirl writes—Denise Juneau Just Became An Even Stronger Candidate:
People often complain that politicians are too staged, too programmed, too fake, and too eager to be seen as perfect. Today, we learned that in addition to her tremendous accomplishments, Denise Juneau [an Hidatsa Indian who is running for Montana’s single congressional seat] is a real person just like the rest of us. And she’s not afraid to be honest about it.
Mike Dennison has a story up this afternoon talking about two DUI’s that Denise Juneau got 30 years ago, both that happened while she was in college here in Montana. One in 1986 when she was 19, and the other in 1989 when she was 22.
Somewhere in DC there is a political hack who thinks this kind of campaign mud signals a bump in the road for Juneau. But in Montana, it’s a very different story. The truth is, Denise Juneau just became an even stronger candidate who is lot more relatable to a lot more voters in Montana. And it’s not because she had a DUI 30 years ago. It’s because she picked herself up when she was down, took responsibility for mistakes she made, got her life straightened out, and went on to finish college, go to Harvard, get a law degree, and later become the first democratic Native American woman to ever be elected to a statewide office in the entire country.
As Juneau told Dennison, “I’m able to say I learned from those (incidents) and have moved on and done some good things, I think, for the state of Montana.”
Indeed she has.
At Juanita Jean's of Texas, Susan DuQuesnay Bankston writes—The Vilest Man in Texas:
You’ve heard me talk about our Texas Agriculture Commissioner many times. He’s put all his buddies on state payroll as hires for jobs they are unqualified for and dumbed down an otherwise exceptionally ignorant office.
He posted a Facebook picture espousing that we “Nuke the Muslim World!”
He tried to make guns and ammo tax free during the back-to-school weekend.
Announced that Mexicans were invading Texas.
What it boils down to is that Miller is scared crapless of anything that ain’t white. You know, like that hat he probably stole.
Today he has a new Facebook post.
He compares the victimized people of Syria to rattlesnakes.
There’s little children in that picture. The other picture is the Republican National Convention.
At Democratic Diva of Arizona, Donna writes—Legal Abortion is so “Safe” in Some Places that Women are Resorting to DIY Ones:
Friday’s Supreme Court announcement was understandably eclipsed by the events in Paris but we pro-choice folks paid close attention to it. The court has agreed to hear a challenge to a passel of abortion restrictions passed in Texas in 2013 under the guise of “safety”. The Texas laws, which led to several clinic closures as intended, were the result of anti-choicers taking advantage of past court decisions allowing states broad latitude in regulating abortion prior to viability so long as their stated reason was to protect the health of women and that it did not place an “undue burden” on a woman seeking an abortion. Arizona, being a red state run by raving misogynists, has passed similar laws, modeled on national templates.
If you think that solid scientific evidence should be required before forcing women (many of whom will have to drive long distances) to wait 24-72 hours before getting an abortion, or for claiming that abortion will increase her chances of breast cancer and depression, or for requiring clinics to be fully ambulatory surgical centers and doctors to have admitting privileges at local hospitals before one of the simplest surgical or medication procedures available can be done, then you don’t know anti-choice judges. The famously right wing 5th Circuit, which upheld the Texas law that will be decided by SCOTUS, found such considerations to be irrelevant:
The 5th Circuit, in upholding the Texas law, said that it did not consider a 300-mile round trip for nearly 1 million women of reproductive age to be a substantial burden because that number was “nowhere near” a large fraction of the state’s 5.4 million women of childbearing age.
If the Supremes hold up that reasoning, then there is no limit to the barriers anti-choicers could put in front of women seeking abortions! Basically, safe legal abortion will be completely gone in much of the country.
At Blue Oregon, Carla Hanson writes—When Free Speech Costs Dearly:
"I do not like or agree with anything Muslims stand for and I believe the Islamic Faith is pure evil."
".... I'll be first in line to issue a ass whooping... to the transgender, and the administration whom (sic) failed to protect our children,"
These are the words, the "private" words, of Dallas, OR City Councilman Micky Garus, who in recent & separate Facebook rants made his stark bigotry very public.
While it is distressing but not unexpected to see GOP Presidential candidates scramble over one another to be the first to deny refuge to the thousands of Muslim Syrians fleeing the violence in their homeland, there is a particular revulsion that is even more palpable when a local leader emotes from the same biased reference point. He may proclaim he is speaking toward broader national and global ethics, but he is really talking about his constituents - his neighbors and his neighbor's kids.
As a guy that probably gained office because most, if not all his votes were from citizens that know him personally, he is literally telling his neighbors directly that they are less than his Christian and straight neighbors. He is also telling his like-minded neighbors and chums that it's ok to express their racism and homophobia.
Distressingly, many of Garus' pals took his bait, and showed up to support him at last night's Council meeting in Dallas.
At Eclectablog, Eclectablog writes—GOP Congressman Trott questions why mortgage fraud settlement funds went to community groups instead of bankers:
In 2013, the U.S. Department of Justice reached a settlement with the giant mortgage bank JP Morgan Chase after they were found to have engaged in fraud that seriously harmed homeowners across the country, many of whom lost their homes entirely. Part of $13 billion settlement – and similar settlements with Citigroup, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America – included mandatory donations to community groups working to help provide relief to impacted homeowners.
Yesterday, in a Department of Justice oversight hearing, Michigan Congressman David Trott, a former foreclosure attorney who threw countless poor Detroiters and others out of their homes as part of his business, questioned Attorney General Loretta Lynch about the mandatory donations – what he called a “slush fund” to organizations like the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) which he describes as “activist organizations”. The money they received as part of the settlement, settlements agreed to by the banks themselves, Trott said, should instead have gone instead to the mortgage bankers.
I’m not kidding [...]
At The Prairie Blog of North Dakota, Jim Fuglie writes—The First Thing We Do, Let’s Kill All The Lawyers:
You might remember that memorable line, uttered by Dick the butcher, from perhaps the least memorable of Shakespeare’s plays, Henry VI. I thought of it today because I was thinking about lawyers. And Governors.
It’s been 30 years since North Dakota had a lawyer in the Governor’s chair. That’s about to end. Because it looks like the race for Governor in 2016 could well come down to a pair of lawyers with long histories of public service—former Agriculture Commissioner Sarah Vogel and current Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem.
North Dakotans don’t often elect lawyers to the Governor’s office. Only 6 of our 31 Governors have been lawyers, serving just 30 of our state’s 125 years. The last was Allen Olson, who was serving as Attorney General when he was elected, and who’s generally been viewed as a failure. A couple of popular Attorneys General have tried since then—Democrats Nick Spaeth and Heidi Heitkamp—but their popularity in their other jobs did not translate into support in their Governors’ races. In fact, Allen Olson was the first and only North Dakota Attorney General to move across the Great Hall of the North Dakota Capitol to the Governor’s office.
Lawyers in North Dakota don’t suffer the same bad rap—deserved or not—as in many other states, but North Dakotans just don’t seem to think their Governors should be lawyers. Farmers and businessmen—viewed more as CEO’s or managers—make up the bulk of our Governors over our 125 years of statehood, with teachers mostly filling in the gaps.
At Hillbilly Report of Kentucky, Berry Craig writes—Pundits liken Bevin to Trump; Grio columnist compares Hampton to Carson:
Some pundits compare Matt Bevin, Kentucky’s Republican governor-elect, to Donald Trump. They call the two millionaire conservative political “outsiders.”
David A. Love, one of my favorite columnists at the Grio.com, likens Jenean Hampton, the Bluegrass State’s lieutenant governor-elect, to Dr. Ben Carson. Like Trump, Carson is a current frontrunner for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination.
Love doesn’t pull punches. “Imagine Ben Carson, but as a woman living in Kentucky, with all the atrocious political positions and appeals to white racists,” he wrote.
Love added, “And at a time when sisters are doing things such as building a new #BlackLivesMatter movement to fight racism and police violence against black people, Hampton is one of the few black women in the country who is down with the Tea Party.”
Love said Bevin “apparently is down with white supremacists. But we’ll get to that later.”