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 April 14 edition. Inclusion of a blog post does not necessarily indicate my agreement with—or endorsement of—its contents.
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A staffer at ColoradoPols writes—Jared Polis: The Governor Colorado’s Weed Industry Needs?
A new story on cannabis culture news site Herb argues strongly that Rep. Jared Polis is the candidate for governor of Colorado best suited to champion he state’s legal marijuana industry–after the current Gov. John Hickenlooper disappointed marijuana advocates with his on-again-off-again support following the passage of Amendment 64 in 2012 [...]
When Colorado became the first state to legalize the sale and use of marijuana by adults without any license or medical prescription, it was risky territory for the state. The initial reaction from Gov. Hickenlooper and many other local political leaders in both parties was one of caution, with great doubt over whether the federal government would ever allow the legal retail sale of marijuana to begin.
Six years after Amendment 64, Colorado’s nervous foray into legal marijuana sales has become a model that other states have followed–most prominently the state of California, whose retail marijuana operations began at the beginning of this year. Today, the rush of larger states to legalize marijuana has taken the pressure off Colorado as a petri dish for an uncertain experiment. The explosive growth and maturation of the marijuana industry has unquestionably validated the wisdom of legalization in 2012, and makes Gov. Hickenlooper’s recent well-publicized fumbles on the issue seem terribly out of touch.
In the first post-Hickenlooper gubernatorial election, it will be very interesting to see how much influence the marijuana business wields. Whatever Hickenlooper says from day to day, public support for legal weed remains strong—so we don’t see Republicans campaigning in 2018 on a Reefer Madness platform of recriminalization. That means candidates will be jockeying to be the industry’s friend–and Polis has the bonafides here.
Brian Leubitz at Calitics writes—On the Failings of IRV, or, Don’t Hate the Player, Hate the Game:
The concept of Ranked-Choice voting has been around in several major cities in California for over a decade. In San Francisco, it was approved as Prop A in 2002. So, it is far from new. Yet, it still never ceases to provide interesting results, and a fair bit of outrage. Of course, the the most well-known example is the case of Jean Quan’s victory in Oakland over Don Perata. Before the RCV shifted votes around, Perata had over a third of the votes, over 10,000 more than either Quan or Rebecca Kaplan. Kaplan was in third place after the minor candidates were shifted, and most of her votes went to Quan. Many, including Perata, were outraged. There was outrage that the candidate with the most 1st place votes didn’t win. There was outrage that Quan and Kaplan had been stating that their supporters should vote for each other number two, as if they were “ganging up” on another candidate.
Fast forward to 2018, and it appears that the controversy has just moved across the Bay to San Francisco. The Mayoral election to replace Mark Farrell, the interim mayor chosen by the Board of Supervisors after Ed Lee’s sad and surprising passing, has three candidates with a chance of winning. [...]
The billionaire in question is Ron Conway, an “angel investor” with a lot of money in various tech companies in the Bay Area. He was one of the largest funders of Mayor Lee, Asm. David Chiu and Sen. Scott Wiener through direct contributions as well as PACs and IEs. And now he and his wife Gayle are supporting Board President Breed, which has become quite controversial.
But putting that part to the side, this is ultimately a direct result of ranked choice voting.
LOLGOP at Eclectablog of Michigan writes—Trump only betrays the voters who need him most:
You’ve probably heard that this week Paul Ryan convinced Sheldon Adelson to give Republicans $30 million to save the party’s House majority. This unholy act of corruption was only “legal” because Paul Ryan left the room for the literal money shot.
For the price of 5 percent of his company’s tax cuts from JUST THIS QUARTER, the casino billionaire put the GOP a lot closer to preserving their rule, preventing any actual oversight of the Trump Administration (or the Census) and making a mockery of the rule of law.
And if that $30 million isn’t enough…
The tax cut — the one that Adelson didn’t need — is the ultimate kept promise for Trump’s rich donors. But this particular billionaire was likely celebrating another Trump promise kept: Breaking the Iran deal.
Adelson, who is most likely the reason we now have John Bolton as our National Security Advisor,has has supported negotiating with Iran — if by negotiating you mean “attacking the country with an atomic bomb” and waiting for Iran to beg for mercy briefly before destroying Tehran and killing, presumably, millions.
Wikipedia Brown at Blue Jersey writes—Michael Avenatti: The Fluffer:
In these crazy times, at least we have an adult actress’s lawyer standing guard to protect us all. The latest character in the nearly four-year-old Trump reality TV show is attorney Michael Avenatti. He and his client with scandalous but credible allegations, Stephanie Clifford (whose nom de guerre, Stormy Daniels, is perhaps TOO spot on) have taken the media—well—by storm.
We’ve waited in vain since Johnny Cochran for an attorney like Avenatti to rise from the L.A. streets. Understand, he’s no hero. Yet. But he sure is something. But, what? Faux News has been doing a deep dive on his funding source. (Spoiler alert! It’s right here). And the media, both Trumpist and traditional, have been compelled to ask: What exactly is Avenatti’s role here? What’s the point to all this litigation? Who is Michael Avenatti in this? Stormy, whose career in the adult industry goes back two decades, would have recognized Avenatti’s role square away. He’s the fluffer.
The movie industry was invented in New Jersey by Thomas Edison. Early movie studios sprung up in New Jersey and remained there until Los Angeles beckoned with better light and more reliable shooting schedules. Adult images are nearly as old as time. Inevitably people became bored with their static images of people in dilicte flagrante, and the adult film industry sprang up in the less swanky valleys around L.A.
The fluffer is the second oldest job in the industry. Before technology (in this case Viagra) eliminated these good-paying American jobs, the adult film industry employed people known as “fluffers.” Fluffers helped facilitate (not quite in the Michael Cohen way) interactions when the actors were having physical difficulties “depicting” their characters. Michael Avenatti is a public-interest fluffer.
BP at Green Mountain Daily of Vermont writes—Winter sports advocates target politicians on climate change issue:
Governor Scott’s blue sky comments late last year about how he believes Vermont is a sort of climate change “Mecca” came to mind when I read about a climate activist group called Protect Our Winters(POW) a national group made up of winter sports enthusiasts, resorts and outdoor gear retailers. The ten-year-old organization based in the Western US has formed a political wing that, according to McClatchey.com, will in 2018, be: “targeting politicians to take seriously the threat of climate change, and working to vote them out of office if they don’t.”
In 2018 POW will be concentrating their effort on gubernatorial and congressional races in the west but they plan to expand educational outreaches in the Eastern states such as Vermont. Organizers note: “[…] places with large snow-sports industries and tourism economies that depend on snow and winter […] have constituencies in those states who really care about climate change and where it is crucial to elect climate-friendly officials.”
Vermont.gov notes the trend toward a snow challenged future: Changes in precipitation patterns and seasonal average temperatures are altering Vermont’s normally snowy winter landscape. In addition to shorter lake ice over and rising minimum temperatures, the number of days each year with snow on the ground is also diminishing. Vermont’s winter sports industry did have a good season in 2017-2018, but they are heavily relying on costly snow-making equipment (with the state having subsidized up to $5 million worth of rebates on nearly 2,400 energy-efficient snow guns in 2014) and were very lucky with several well-timed storms.
desmoinesdem at Bleeding Heartland of Iowa writes—Foreign lobbying will be off-limits for Iowa officials, employees:
State officials will be barred from “any outside employment or activity that requires the person to register under the federal Foreign Agents Registration Act,” under a new law that takes effect on July 1. In addition, applicants for state jobs or nominees for any position that requires Iowa Senate confirmation will have to disclose whether they have ever registered as foreign agents.
Brian McGlinchey had reported in March 2017 that Kim Schmett and Connie Schmett were among 70 Americans hired to lobby for changes to a federal law on behalf of Saudi Arabia. He followed up last July with details on the $101,500 that Qorvis-MSLGroup paid Schmett & Associates for unspecified “communications services.” Last September, McGlinchey’s 28Pages website interviewed a veteran who said Connie Schmett recruited him to lobby members of Congress, without disclosing that Saudi Arabia was bankrolling the trip to Washington.
Cory Allen Heidelberger at Dakota Free Press writes—Rounds Gets the 2016 Punchline: The One-Liner Presidency:
Asked by The Hill to describe Donald Trump’s midterm pep talk to Senate Republicans yesterday, South Dakota’s junior Senator M. Michael Rounds effectively summarized Trump’s entire executive being:
Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) said the president dropped various “one-liners” to keep his audience engaged.
“He had some great one-liners,” Rounds said. “It was a whole series of them” [Alexander Bolton, “Trump Gives GOP Midterm Pep Talk,” The Hill, 2018.05.15].
We have declined from Ronald Reagan to Rodney Dangerfield… and Rodney Dangerfield was at least funny.
Of course, Rounds thought Trump’s one-liners were so important that he didn’t make time to press Trump on real issues like the White House attack on Rounds’s ailing colleague Senator John McCain:
It’s a very serious issue for a lot of us. You talk about duty, honor and country, you think of John McCain. Today, honesty is the best policy. We ran out of time. We were talking about other issues. The President, in this particular case, he could have been a member of the United States Senate. He was on a roll today. He had a number of issues he wanted to talk about. He touched on a number of very important issues [Sen. Mike Rounds, in Aileen Graef, “Mike Rounds: Senate GOP ‘Ran out of Time’ to Confront Trump on Aide’s McCain Remark,” CNN, 2018.05.15].
Sure, Senator Mike. Never mind morality or decency or Presidential decorum. Keep cheering the White House stand-up routine.
Schafer Sirmir at Better Georgia writes—Gov. Deal signs ineffective medical marijuana bill:
This past Monday, Gov. Deal passed a bill that allows Georgians to possess medical marijuana to treat PTSD — but the bill is meaningless, and Deal knows it.
The bill is completely ineffective unless in-state medical marijuana cultivation and distribution is legalized. Until then, Georgians have no way to legally receive the treatment they’ve supposedly been granted.[...]
This bill is not a step in the right direction. It’s just political theatrics.
While he purports to support the cause, he’s actually blocking real, effective medical marijuana expansion at every opportunity. It’s insulting to the Georgia children and families who are suffering from treatable conditions right now but would have to engage in criminal activity to get the medicine they need.
And it’s no secret why Deal is constantly stalling on this issue.
As Better Georgia has detailed before, several big pharmaceutical companies want to drastically slow down medical marijuana expansion in favor of clinical trials that could take years and cost millions of dollars — to develop pills that they produce, of course.
These corporations are some of Deal’s major donors, and he’s clearly in their pocket.
Jason330 at Delaware Liberal writes—Democrats should run on shutting down ICE:
The word fascism gets thrown around cavalierly – but U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) paramilitary arm of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is just like what you’d expect a fascist government to set up.
Really only thing that can be done. Not that the great Eschaton Editorial Page Endorsement matters (or will even be forthcoming), but no presidential candidate is going to get many nice things said about them unless they are on board with this. It’s clearly an organization which is rotten from top to bottom, in a way that we imagine some police departments to be, but with the power of the Feds and even less legal recourse
against their abuses, usually.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Ricardo S. Martinez shot down the federal government’s efforts to strip Daniel Ramirez Medina of his DACA status. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement had arrested and detained Ramirez last year, then falsely claimed that he was affiliated with a gang and attempted to deport him. He filed suit, alleging that ICE had violated his due process rights. Martinez agreed. His order barred the federal government from voiding Ramirez’s DACA status, safeguarding his ability to live and work in the United States legally for the foreseeable future. What may be most remarkable about Martinez’s decision, though, is its blunt repudiation of ICE’s main claim—that Ramirez is “gang-affiliated.” The judge did not simply rule against ICE. He accused the agency of lying to a court of law.
Don Pogreba at The Montana Post writes—Too Busy Posting Mugshots and Human Misery, the Local Paper Ignores Incredible Student Achievement at Helena High:
You’d be forgiven, if your primary source for local news in Helena was the Independent Record, if you believed that our sleepy little town was infested with non-stop violence and crime. Day after day, we’re treated to a parade of mug shots and police reports that exploitatively monetize human misery, bad choices, and misfortune. We never learn the stories that led to the conditions leading to these arrests, we rarely learn the outcome of the judicial process after the arrests, and we almost never learn about what we can do as a community to improve conditions to reduce the crime we do have, but we do learn, day after day, just which of our neighbors has had a run-in with law enforcement.
There’s immeasurable loss that accompanies this non-stop promotion of crime. It reduces the bonds of trust and heightens fears among us. These stories encourage people to demand more aggressive policing of minor crimes and increased sentences that not only destroy lives but impoverish our community. Every dime spent on another night in jail is a dime not spent improving our schools or fixing our roads and ratcheting up public fear by non-stop publication of crime reports, prominently highlighted on a paper’s web page to encourage clicks, only increases the pressure to punish more and to understand less. [...]
It’s despair pornography, and it debases our community.
There’s another cost, too, that is perhaps a bit more measurable. While printing public domain mug shots and summarizing police reports that don’t include the perspective of those accused or even those potentially victimized can’t be too time-consuming, it does seem to cut into time to report on significant achievement in our community, particularly our schools.
On May 5, eleven days ago, two Helena High students, Emma Sihler and Devin Seyler, were named U.S. Presidential Scholars by the Department of Education. They’re two incredible kids—who would probably be quite embarrassed to learn that they’re being talked about here—but their achievement deserves recognition from the local paper of record. 3.6 million students will graduate from high school this year in the United States, and Emma and Devin were among 161 students recognized for this award, one of the most prestigious awards a student can receive.
Marisa at The Lost Ogle of Oklahoma writes—And now, for the mediocre women of Oklahoma…
We here at The Lost Ogle are all about fairness. And so earlier this week, when I posted about the mediocre men of Oklahoma, some folks were worried that maybe we’d leave out the ladies. But fear not, friends! There’s plenty of mediocre in Oklahoma to go around. Because it would seem where ever there’s an Oklahoma government agency or Oklahoma-owned business, there’s a whole cabal of folks just failing upward.
So, just in case you thought the men of Oklahoma were the only ones afflicted with mediocrity, check out these mediocre women of Oklahoma.
Mary Fallin
Obviously, Mary Fallin makes this list. But, to be fair, this isn’t wholly accurate. Sure, as a politician, Mary Fallin is mediocre. But as a puppet, she’s great! But to be honest, I don’t know what should be said about Fallin. She would be a great fictional character because her tenure as governor has been so, so weird. Remember when she drove a tank over an old car at the opening of a gun range? Remember how she has very specific hot tub temperature requests that we have to pay for? Remember how she let her daughter live in a trailer outside the governor’s mansion? Remember how Trump wouldn’t even have her? How did she get elected? Why does Oklahoma so easily embrace the mediocrity? [...]
Sue Lincoln at The Bayou Brief of Louisiana writes—Landry and the “Rule” of Law:
Since taking office in 2016, Attorney General Jeff Landry hasn’t been shy about asserting his desire for more power and control. From his ill-fated attempt to carve out a separately appropriated budget from the executive branch under which he serves, to his courtroom battles over one of Gov. John Bel Edwards’ executive orders (insisting the governor exceeded his authority), to demands that state funds be withheld from Louisiana cities that implement sanctuary policies, the AG has been waging a campaign to expand his authority.
Landry announced plans last month to change the state Senate into a more “conservative” body, by pouring money into 2019 candidates’ campaigns through the newly-branded Louisiana Committee for a Conservative Majority which he heads.
25 of the upper chamber’s 39 members are Republican, but Landry says, “They’re Republicans in name only. That’s the problem.”
This legislative session, his cause celebre’ has been Medicaid fraud, and more specifically, Medicaid recipient fraud. The fact that the federal government, which provides the vast majority of funding for the Medicaid program, prohibits the state from prosecuting Medicaid recipients hasn’t dissuaded Landry.
He’s been aided and abetted by two members of the legislature in particular: Rep. Tony Bacala (R-Prairieville) and Sen. Sharon Hewitt (R-Slidell). Despite all evidence to the contrary, each of them has become fixated on the idea that the main reason for the immense Medicaid budget is not that Louisiana has one of the nation’s highest proportions of citizens living in poverty; rather, it’s because too many of those now getting health care under Medicaid expansion are doing so deceitfully.