As I’ve argued in this space before, crazy-ass Florida is in many ways an apt microcosm of crazy-ass America, with coastal liberal and moderate population centers serving as a bulwark to contain the bubbling reactionary bile from the interior so it doesn’t overflow and wash everything sane and good into the sea.
Just as it matters very much who is elected president, it matters who is governor of Florida or any other state. But the composition of the legislature matters a great deal too. Florida is currently demonstrating what happens when the levee breaks.
Comically obvious supervillain Rick Scott is the current governor, and he has a Legion of Doom to carry out his evil schemes in the wingnut supermajority Florida statehouse, which, as befits an assemblage of dickheads, convenes in a laughably phallic facility:
Like most conservative small government champions, Scott is in favor of policing the hoohah of every female constituent and compelling groups of citizens to piss in a cup. Last Friday, Scott signed legislation to end preventive health funding to Planned Parenthood and regulate abortion clinics out of existence.
It’s not like we don’t know what will happen if these laws go into effect; for instance, when Texas cut Planned Parenthood funding in 2011, the birthrate of poor women rose 27% in three years. As the linked NYT editorial notes, it’s not only about eliminating access to abortion; conservatives at the state level are increasingly attempting to block access to contraception, with predictably disastrous results. (See Richard Mayhew’s earlier post for more background on the importance of access.)
And it’s important to remember that for all the human misery that will result from this one decision, Republicans at the state level continue to enact many other catastrophic policies that are turning their states into third-world hellholes. And Republicans at the federal level want to replicate that failed experiment and turn the United States into Kansas or Louisiana.
So there’s a pressing need — at the local, state and federal levels — to stop them.
Occasionally I see comments here decrying the blog’s focus on national politics, and I understand what the commenters are saying, though I think the rationale is more about not wanting to bore people in California, Malaysia, Illinois, Sweden, etc., with screeds about politicians in, say, Polk County, Florida, than reflective of a general failure to understand the importance of the legislative branch.
But just for shits and giggles, let’s look at an awful politician from Central Florida for a moment: FL State Senator Kelli Stargel, R-District 15. She sponsored the bill Governor Voldemort just signed that requires abortion providers to have admitting privileges. Stargel says:
“I’m not affecting the woman’s right to choose, what I’m trying to do is making sure that when she’s made that choice, it’s a safe choice,” she said.
She’s lying. Stargel is a pro-life zealot who doesn’t really give a shit about women’s health, or she wouldn’t be enthusiastically joining her fellow Republican lawmakers in making it harder for poor women to access healthcare by defunding Planned Parenthood’s preventive health services.
Stargel is a terrible lawmaker in many other ways too. She sponsored a bill that threatened to hobble the state’s growing craft beer industry, probably because she’s a Talibaptist or else gets major contributions from a beer distributorship — or both. She doesn’t have any particular qualifications for office aside from her family’s generational claim to the state government teat.
But she’ll probably run virtually unopposed or against someone who has even fewer qualifications and resources than herself.* Again. And so goes the continuous struggle between those who would like to have nice things and those who want to smear poop on the walls because Jesus and Reagan.
If you bother to read a politics-focused blog, you probably already vote in every election, and I suspect I’m preaching to the choir when I say that each of us must keep plugging away in our own local, state and federal districts to improve representation across the board. But if you’d care to share how you’re doing that in comments, feel free.
*To preempt any suggestions that I run for Stargel’s seat, I can’t because: 1) I don’t live in her district, 2) I am temperamentally unsuited for public office, and 3) I already have a job. But I have and will continue to actively back opponents who take on the shit-stain Republicans who currently represent my area.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
Good grief, these assholes are just so relentless, it’s exhausting reading about them. I can’t imagine the bile it takes to wake up every day and make this hurtful shit your mission, against people you will never meet or otherwise know. My blue state Massachusetts sympathies for all of you non-evil people for having to live under this constant dark cloud of hateful ignorance. I salute you.
jeffreyw
Betty, I hope you remembered to feed the pups.
Michael
I live in Rhode Island so this isn’t a particular problem we have here… but nevertheless, I’m amazed everytime I go to vote and my local State Rep or State Senator doesn’t even have a Republican opponent on the ballot. I have to imagine that Democrats do this with bright red districts, but I can’t feel like this occasionally leaves freebies on the table (for example: when someone gets caught up in a scandal between the primary and the general election).
Democrats need to contest every contest in every district, in every state. Wave elections will carry a few surprises past the gate.. but only if there is a nominee.
Technocrat
Good god. I thought “yeah, look at that towering monstrosity”. And then I noticed the little domes.
MattF
The Maryland primaries are coming up pretty soon. Since my state and district and neighborhood are very blue (an elderly neighbor asked me over the weekend whether I thought Trump or Cruz was more dangerous) my choices tend to be not so obvious, in a good way.
For the Senate, the choice is between Donna Edwards and Chris Van Hollen. I like them both, but will probably vote for Edwards. There’s no lack of ambitious people in the Senate, but there is a lack of AA females. For the House seat that Van Hollen is vacating it seems to be coming down to a choice between Jamie Raskin and Kathleen Matthews. There’s also a rich guy, David Trone. I’m unsure. Probably Raskin, but I wouldn’t rule out voting for Matthews.
Major Major Major Major
You go, Betty! I say more local politics. One, since life is fractal, everything is just as weird and crazy and interesting regardless of scale. Two, all politics blah blah blah. But mostly, local stuff is where we get the people for statewide stuff, which is where we get people for national stuff.
Also Florida is usually funny to read about. Not this, but often…
pseudonymous in nc
It reminds me of why the NC legislature seems crazier than the SC one right now. It’s because the NC GOP is in a hurry to fuck shit up before demographics and disillusionment unwind that gerrymander. The SC GOP assumes (with good reason) that it’s in power for the foreseeable, so it can take its time and line its nest, and the main strife is internecine, between good ol’ boy establishment politickers and ideological true believers.
Capri
There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that these actions are coordinated efforts when state after state implements the same laws. One of the most failed parts of our failed media is their complete lack of interest in the fact that what is being proposed by many republican lawmakers on both the state and national levels has been implemented other places with terrible results. It used to be “What’s the matter with Kansas?” now it’s “Why doesn’t Kansas matter?”
dr. bloor
@Technocrat: At least it’s ribbed For Her Added Pleasure.
Mnemosyne
It’s nice to be spoiled by living in California. When we moved one city over, we moved from Democratic district to Democratic district. The front-runner for Barbara Boxer’s Senate seat is Kamala Harris, who is our current Attorney General who loves to rip into health insurance companies and other bad actors. Gavin Newsom will probably be our next governor, though he’s smarmy and his past zipper control problems worry me. California Republicans are almost comically inept state-wide, though they still manage to win local elections.
C.V. Danes
There is indeed a ground game that the Republicans seem adept at winning. The Dems need to step up the game there.
That being said, the outcome of the Republican mission to destroy state government is that the rich liberal states will eventually have to foot the bill, as we do now.
Xantar
OT: I don’t know how Booman deals with his commenters. I love his posts. They’re insightful, original, and usually make predictions that end up being right.
But I swear he has the dumbest comment section this side of Red State. It’s not that they demand purity ponies and throw hissy fits. I don’t mind that although it gets tiresome. The problem is so many of them seem to lack basic comprehension abilities. They’ll accuse Booman of being in the fix for Hillary, and then when he explains that he doesn’t much like Hillary either and is just reporting the objective reality, they ignore what he says or act like they never called him a corporatist tool.
And that’s when they’re not busy promoting their own blog posts or posting incoherent prose poems.
This has always been an issue before, but not like this. I realized recently that I was getting absolutely nothing out of reading the comments, and so I just stopped. Visiting Booman Tribune has been much more enjoyable ever since. But then again, I have that choice. Booman has to actually read those comments.
C.V. Danes
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: Yep. They never admit defeat. They just go away, regroup, and come back from a different direction. It’s their way or their way.
randy khan
@MattF:
I live in northern VA, but I get all of the ads on WTOP. At this point, don’t you feel like Trome has told you his whole life story? I feel like I should be sending him birthday cards, but I don’t know if I would vote for him. (That said, I actually like the ads – they’re pretty simple and straightforward and since he’s doing all the talking, you do kind of feel like you’re getting to know him.)
randy khan
@Xantar:
Things are getting odd over at the Pond. I saw a post by Booman over the weekend about why Hillary might be in trouble if she won the nomination because there are a lot of voters who like Bernie in blue states. It was as if the polling on what Sanders voters will do if he loses didn’t exist. (And that polling, combined with the equivalent polling on the other side of the ledger, which looks awful for the Republicans, is what gives me some optimism about November.)
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: Harris was dreadful in SF, but I like her for Senate.
I honestly know so little about Newsom’s actual politics it’s laughable, but my friends haaaaaated him as mayor, so that’s a good sign since my friends are morons.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@C.V. Danes:
I guess there’s a lesson to learn in there for us liberals, but hateful self-righteousness seems to be the fuel for the fire in the belly necessary for these efforts. These are the same people who will use the words “freedom” and “liberty” in every other sentence, without any sense of shame or irony, the lack of which is a necessary condition for the hateful self-righteousness.
C.V. Danes
Off topic, but I went to go see Superman vs. Batman this weekend and couldn’t believe how many people brought their kids. I don’t know if they thought this was a kid’s movie, but highly inappropriate in my book.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@Xantar:
There are as many dumbassess on the left as the right – they’re just dumb about different things. This election cycle has really been educational that way, to see how few people understand anything about the way the world works, so everything is part of a conspiracy or corrupt.
MattF
@randy khan: It’s possible that Trone is a good guy– but I don’t like the idea that he can buy a seat in the House, even assuming he’ll vote liberal. I guess I’ll look to see if he has any track record on issues.
C.V. Danes
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: Yeah, but I’ve come to understand that when they invoke freedom and liberty, what they mean is their freedom and liberty.
gene108
@pseudonymous in nc:
Do you think Cooper has a shot at beating McCrory?
I think Burr will be tough to beat for the foreseeable future.
************************
In NJ, we await governor Kristie Kreme to eventually run out his term, or better yet resign, but he seems to want to keep drawing in a paycheck while pursuing other opportunities, like campaigning for other Republican governors (he was head of the RGA in 2014), campaigning for President, and now campaigning for Trump’s campaign.
So far the state seems to be running on autopilot.
Democrats safely control the legislature, and redistricting here is done by a non-partisan commission, so the even if Republicans flipped the legislature they cannot gerrymander themselves into job security.
RSR
KagroX on the twitters regarding organizing:
VFX Lurker
Here in Glendale, CA, I plan to vote against Ballot Measure N on June 7th.
It’s an attempt by three private citizens to repeal a 7% utility tax that has funded Glendale since *1969.* Repealing it will pull one of the support columns out from under this fair city.
A similar measure is also on the ballot for the city of Arcadia. I encourage everyone here to watch out for shenanigans like this in their local elections.
C.V. Danes
@the Conster, la Citoyenne:
I don’t know about that, but I have met more than one leftie who was clearly educated beyond his or her intelligence.
Peale
@C.V. Danes: I don’t know what I’d do if I took a kid to see that movie and then had to drive home. What would I talk about. “You know, kid, the movie seems to think that Jesus and Superman are really the same person. You’re probably better asking a minister about spiritual matters rather than relying on a company trying to sell you comics and toys for insight into important matters.”
gene108
@C.V. Danes:
Isn’t it PG-13? Star Wars: The Force Awakens, was also PG-13. The Marvel comic book movies are mostly PG-13.
I’m not sure why Batman v. Superman would be worse for kids than the Avengers. I’ll see it this week to find out for sure.
And for inappropriate, people brought their little tikes to Deadpool (Rated R) and made them sit through the whole thing. From the sounds of the kids, I’m not talking about 10 year olds, which I can sort of see permissive parents allowing, but little, little kids like pre-school to kindergarten.
Major Major Major Major
@C.V. Danes: oddly enough, they seem to stick around academia (and punditry)
Amir Khalid
Rick Scott is better groomed than Lord Voldemort. (That may be his only virtue.) That photo makes him look like a cartoon character with six long hairs, each as thick as a cable, growing straight up out of his head.
It seems to me that something in Republican ideology sees dismantling government and restricting human rights, regardless of the consequences to people, as a virtue in itself. I can conceive of it only as anarchism driven by spite. That’s what i don’t get: whose heart is so dark that they want to be like that?
C.V. Danes
@Peale: More likely, the conversation probably centered around how cool the Batman suit was. In other words, the parents probably aren’t that much more intellectually sophisticated than their kids.
Goblue72
So far best local Dems could do was attempt to coax a 69 year old retired judge to run against her – http://floridapolitics.com/archives/188545-bill-rufty-a-challenger-for-kelli-stargel-growing-pains-for-lakeland
MomSense
@Xantar:
I do the same.
C.V. Danes
@gene108: I dunno. The kids I saw were plainly under 13.
Grumpy Code Monkey
One of the big questions I intend to ask the Movers and Shakers™ at the TX State Democratic Convention in June is “how do we get Lubbock to vote Democrat?” The Lege is overwhelmingly Republican for a reason, and for all the talk at the county convention of turning Texas blue, the Democratic Party simply has no numbers outside of the Valley, San Antonio, Austin, Houston, and about a third of DFW. I don’t know how to fix that, and the whole “fuck Texas” attitude on the part of national Democrats* really doesn’t help.
—–
* Including a good chunk of the commentariat here – you know who you are, and right back atcha, assholes.
satby
I’ll just add this to the list of why I’m so miserable about moving to Florida (sorry Betty): Heat, humidity, wingnuts, and no expansion of Medicaid, so I’ll lose my health insurance until I find a job with benefits, I suspect I won’t be there long enough to qualify for residency to vote any of these morons out though. That’s some comfort, sort of.
Tenar Darell
The interest level in state politics is bad all the way down. My town council has like 30-35 seats and there were only a dozen people on the ballot in the primary. And nowhere to look for info about them or keep up on what they’re doing.
I still haven’t figured out how to reliably summarize & fact check any reports or minutes which might be published somewhere; not like I have that kind of time either. What do you all use instead of a local paper? /serious question
satby
@Xantar: I mentioned that downstairs, Booman is getting difficult to read, or at least the comments and Steven D are. This election can’t happen soon enough for me.
Goblue72
@Major Major Major Major: Mayor Hair Gel was useless. Thank god for term limits. Though his successor is proving to be even worse. Machine Democrats and their big business paymasters will do anything to keep a progressive from becoming Mayor in San Francisco. Which includes the snow job by which Ed Lee became mayor.
C.V. Danes
@Amir Khalid:
What the elite wants, actually, is to increase government spending on corporate welfare, while restricting the rights of people to fight corporate control. It’s all about the graft and thievery.
pseudonymous in nc
@gene108:
Depends how he runs. The NC Dems are a disorganised bunch, in part because of the nature of the state — the cities and regions with a strong Dem presence are scattered from east to west, whereas the GOP presence is more consistent across suburbia and rural areas. And there’s often been the sense of a Dem establishment in the Triangle that doesn’t help to the east or west.
It is also difficult to get people in NC to care about state politics, especially if they live outside the Triangle.
The electoral argument for Cooper needs to be two-pronged: a) that McCrony is a weak governor who has put unqualified pals into top jobs and hollowed state depts. by replacing career professionals with political appointees; b) the out-of-control legislature needs somebody to veto them.
Burr is tougher to beat because he’s a relatively bland generic GOPer, though he sponsored a bill (with Feinstein) that criminalises companies for refusing to backdoor their encryption, and Apple has a big datacenter in the state. (So do Facebook and Google, for that matter.) Let’s see how that plays.
C.V. Danes
@satby: Watch out for the sinkholes, too.
gene108
@C.V. Danes:
It comes down to money. Republicans have very rich people, who are willing to underwrite the right-wing agenda, even if there’s short term political losses.
11 years ago Bush, Jr. flubbed disastrously on privatizing Social Security, but if people pay attention past the “reality show” aspects of the Republican Presidential race, the non-Donald Trump candidates are still floating out privatization schemes.
Talking heads are still talking about the only way to save Social Security is to go with private accounts.
Liberals don’t have that kind of money to keep pushing and pushing and pushing their ideas into the public’s consciousness.
And there’s such a right-wing tilt the rich donor class has bought, with regards to how news is reported and information disseminated to the public that any non-right wing position starts in a hole, because the conventional wisdom that people are fed presumes the right-wing view is true and non-right wing views are false, until proven and otherwise.
And even when proven otherwise, if the donor class pays the media to shout loudly enough on other topics, no one will notice the right-wingers are wrong.
This primes audiences to accept an attack ad against “County Commissioner Jones (D)” that says “Jones voted to raise taxes 10 times”, but his opponent will never raise your taxes, because taxes are bad and can never be used to buy nice things.
And this is how Democrats have a tough slog in down ballot races, which can still be impacted by T.V. ad buys and whose candidates do not get a lot of scrutiny.
Imagine a world, where “he raised taxes 10 times” was met with a public reaction of “good, we needed those potholes fixed and renovations to the public parks”.
One can dream.
Major Major Major Major
@Goblue72: snow job? he got the most votes. a ‘pledge’ not to run if appointed is always nonsense.
Mike in NC
@pseudonymous in nc: Also, in SC wingnut Governor Nikki Haley breezed to reelection and is actively pursuing a VP nod from either Trump or (preferably) Cruz. NC’s wingnut Governor Pat McCrory stands roughly a 50-50 chance of reelection this year. It all comes down to turnout.
Woodrow/asim
@Tenar Darell: One example: Planned Parenthood South Atlantic sends me an “Inside Your Legislative Body” newsletter every week the SC Legislature is in session, and it’s exactly what I need around stupid crap my State government is up to around reproductive rights.
But you’re right — we need something that covers every state, and all the key issues. I don’t know of anything like that off-hand.
Nelle
It frustrates me that there is often no Democratic opponent in these races. Shouldn’t they at least put some name down? I keep looking to see if Senator Jerry Moran has an opponent (and yes, he has millions in his campaign funds) but even if someone didn’t campaign, shouldn’t there at least be a name there? Should the Balloon Juice commentators check all the local and state races and, if the Republicans have no opponents, at least file so there is some opposition, some choice?
boatboy_srq
@Technocrat: Voldemort has little domes. How droll.
Something tells me “little domes” will become a meme.
Peale
@Tenar Darell: How big of a town do you live in? It has more legislators than some state assemblies?!
Peale
@gene108: when the Dems to get money, there’s a large contingent within the party that doesn’t want them to take it. That’s going to be a problem since I don’t see Republicans running to get their money out of politics.
Major Major Major Major
@Nelle: Baud! for everything!
smith
Did you see that Nathan Deal vetoed the Hate the Gays Bill in GA? Sometimes money talks in our favor.
boatboy_srq
@Capri: That complete disinterest is fueled more than a little by the cost-cutting at local bureaus and the national-centric focus of the infotainment giants. “News reporter” doesn’t pay unless you’re an anchor for one of the big bureaus, and there aren’t enough talented youngsters entering the industry. And there’s far too much reliance on Fauxnews, CNN and the other giants, who don’t give a rat’s about local events that don’t involve multiple deaths, police with riot gear and teargas, or millions swindled. For people to get engaged they need to be informed: local news resources aren’t getting through.
My one new app find that helps address this is News Republic: it has local feeds for a lot of areas, which pick up reporting from the local sources. It’s a heavy app and it makes a lot of noise (“real-time alerts” are a PITA), but it and others like it could help stem the tide.
Betty Cracker
@Goblue72: And the judge declined, IIRC.
@Tenar Darell: You’re right — info can be hard to come by. If there isn’t much local coverage, I’ve had to piece together info from a variety of sources, including local politics blogs and asking people I know (e.g., local attorneys in the case of judicial elections). It does take time to research.
@satby: If you’ll be here during any election, register to vote! It is crazy-making how backward the state is, but on the other hand, I’ve seen so much change for the better, just in my lifetime. That keeps me from losing hope. Apathy is really the biggest obstacle.
Paul in KY
@Amir Khalid: Dismantling government makes it easier to steal shit & commit fraud, etc. etc.
Paul in KY
@Amir Khalid: ‘restricting human rights’ gives the hating crowd a woody & gets them to vote for you.
TotallynotAkaDadtheTrumpsupporter
@RSR:
He’s one of the main reasons why I visit LGF daily.
Feathers
I have two friends who moved with their families to Florida. Both returned, tails between legs, back to Massachusetts within a year.
Of course one of them did it because they wanted to take the cash they’d get from selling their house in Mass and start a psychic hotline in Florida, “because it’s so much easier to start a business there.” Business plan: “we’ll use real psychics, unlike all the other hotlines.” Surprisingly, Florida was too crazy, even for her. And her lunk of a computer programmer husband turned out to be crap at working from home. So… back to the loving arms of Woburn once again.
Edited to add: She actually was a much better human being after her conversion to new age nuttiness. I had known her in her Ayn Rand days. Nothing like a woman-who-hates-women who legally changes her name to that of her “Native Spirit Animal.”
chanster
I live in Seattle, where an actual Socialist was recently re-elected to the city council. But outside the Seattle metro area, things can get red pretty quickly. My greatest source of local political frustration at the moment is that there are no Democrats running against Dave Reichert in the 8th district. This is a district that has been represented by a Republican since 1988, but voted for President Obama twice. With Trump, there is a great opportunity to pick up this seat if only there was a good Democrat in the race. Very frustrating!
schrodinger's cat
Your governor looks like a comic book or a movie villain. Lex Luther, Kancha from Agneepath etc.
rikyrah
A model first lady, despite receiving unprecedented scorn
By Courtland Milloy Columnist
March 27 at 7:00 PM
I recently attended a White House event that featured the cast of the Broadway hit “Hamilton.” But it was the host for the occasion who was most impressive: first lady Michelle Obama, still standing tall, chin up, despite nearly eight years of enduring the kind of crudities that the wives of some of the current presidential candidates are starting to get a taste of.
Personal insults in politics are certainly nothing new, and even first ladies have long been regarded as fair game. But racial contempt for the Obamas and the development of so many new ways to express it resulted in an unprecedented barrage of ugliness toward her.
In a speech to graduates at Tuskegee University in Alabama last year, she recalled having “a lot of sleepless nights . . . fearing how my girls would feel if they found out what some people were saying about their mom.”
But it’s not just uncivil discourse that poisons the political environment.
……………………
It’s juvenile for Donald Trump to tweet an unflattering photo of rival Ted Cruz’s wife and in poor taste for an anti-Trump super PAC to post a nude photo of Trump’s wife. But that’s nothing compared to the hateful caricaturing, disrespectful comments and threats that have been aimed at Michelle Obama.
As the first African American first lady, Obama was expected to be flawless — meaning fashionable, sophisticated, smart and worldly, and never too loud, too angry or too black.
“Eventually, I realized that if I wanted to keep my sanity and not let others define me, there was only one thing I could do, and that was to have faith in God’s plan for me,” she told the Tuskegee graduates. “I had to ignore all of the noise and be true to myself — and the rest would work itself out.”
Paul in KY
@Grumpy Code Monkey: Economic populism & an attempt to get single issue voters to stop doing that.
Good luck.
schrodinger's cat
Right wing BS is so tiring to deal with, how do you deal with relatives/friends who forward you winger talking points. I am sometimes tempted to say, you are too stupid to live, please go DIAF.
DemJayhawks
@boatboy_srq: There are plenty of talented young people willing to enter the industry. The problem is, among my graduating j-school class at least, far too many of us have exited for either better pay outside of the industry or because the industry (read newspaper) shut down or cut itself to the bone. When jobs get cut, one of the first things to go is the hyper-local reporting.
C.V. Danes
@gene108: I agree for the most part, but the issue, as you stated, is money. The Republicans are spending lots of money even in the local races.
Goblue72
@Major Major Major Major: The entire installation of Lee was a snowjob right down to the Draft Lee AstroTurf bullshit.
C.V. Danes
@chanster: Yeah, I agree that there may well be a once-in-a-generation wave forming and way too few Dems around to ride it.
Kathleen
@Xantar: I feel the same way. I have just stopped reading him period. Commenters are very shallow and annoying.
C.V. Danes
@schrodinger’s cat: It’s not just tiring, but disheartening too. The intellectual laziness out there is just overwhelming, and we’re not even talking that big of a lift.
MomSense
@C.V. Danes:
I’ve come to understand that they mean to take liberties with my freedom!
Goblue72
@chanster: Reichert has been riding the “I caught the Green River serial killer” thing for way too long. He’s the kind of moderate Republican that’s tough to dislodge from the Seattle suburbs. Also wonder if Dems are willing to let his seat remain unchallenged to avoid pushing Reichert to run for Governor. Isn’t Inslee up for re-election this year?
Paul in KY
@satby: Don’t forget the cockroaches & mosquitos!! Hopefully you do like the ocean, as that is always close.
TotallynotAkaDadtheTrumpsupporter
@RSR:
How silly am I? I’ve mistaken Kragar for KagroX.
Paul in KY
@schrodinger’s cat: I laugh at them & debunk any very easily debunked bunk.
Ruckus
@the Conster, la Citoyenne:
These are the same people who will use the words “freedom” and “liberty” in every other sentence
They use these words like paint on a cheap apartment building they own. Just keep slapping on coat after coat, hoping no one will notice the crap underneath, which they never fix. And of course new paint=great! so they can overcharge on the rent. They are slum lords, just selling a different product.
schrodinger's cat
@Paul in KY: I do that too. Sometimes though, its just too much.
Kathleen
@satby: I’m so glad I’m not the only one who feels that way.
Paul in KY
@schrodinger’s cat: I bet you get a lot more of that stuff than I do.
patroclus
In my state, the most important battle is Mark Kirk v. Tammy Duckworth for the Senate. I think Duckworth is in good shape for the win; especially with Hillary at the top of the ticket. Kirk barely squeaked in in 2010 because Alexi Giannoulias was a fairly weak candidate and the bank owned by his family (at which he was a senior exec for a few years) went belly-up during the campaign and was taken over by the FDIC. I’ve already left a message on his machine that if Merrick Garland isn’t on the USSC by the first Monday in October, he won’t be getting my vote. As Republicans go, he’s about the most reasonable of all of them in the Senate. But that’s still terrible – his comments on the Iran deal were completely out-to-lunch. With a good turn-out, this will be a fairly easy-to-win Dem pick-up.
Ruckus
@C.V. Danes:
Yeah, but I’ve come to understand that when they invoke freedom and liberty, what they mean is their freedom and liberty.
Really they don’t mean their own liberty and freedom. They want structure such that no one can make decisions, and they really do include themselves in this. Decisions/choice are the antithesis of dogma. Their dogma defines freedom as everyone being the same. Same color, same clothes, same church/god, same everything. That same everything gives them conformation that they are the chosen ones, the correct ones. And they hate anything that gets in the way of this. This is the conservative dogma, everything the same, everything bland, everything beige, everything Stepford.
schrodinger's cat
@Paul in KY: I don’t know, I have low tolerance for BS right wing talking points.
Adam L Silverman
@MattF: My understanding is that Raskin is a good guy.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@gene108: I scared one parent off of taking the kidlet to Deadpool by asking if he was prepared to explain strap-ons when the kid asks “What are they doing?”
WaterGirl
@satby: As soon as I see that a post is by Steven D., I just close the tab and move on.
Paul in KY
@schrodinger’s cat: What I said above got me getting much less of that stuff. They want no other view to mar their perfect hate.
MattF
New Wall St. scandal– and a perp was arrested!
@Adam L Silverman: May well be. Our local D activist has a Raskin bumper sticker on her BMW. It’s Bethesda, so you gotta do what you gotta do.
pseudonymous in nc
@Nelle:
Of course there should. Occasionally, shit happens. The idea that there are uncontested seats anywhere in the US above, say, school board level, is an affront to democracy. I understand the costs involved in running, but you have to buy a fucking ticket.
@chanster:
TBF, that district — or at least Reichert — is an albatross for Dems. Remember Darcy Burner trying to win it with DKos and netroots money? He’s the quintessential incumbent who benefits from voters who aren’t motivated by that line on the ballot.
WarMunchkin
@Nelle: Is there an easy way to figure out this information? Cause I’d be happy to do this.
burnspbesq
Up until his death (a month ago yesterday), Pops was on the board of the biggest healthcare provider in Polk County. I’m sure he would have been happy to give Stargel a data-driven earful about the real-world consequences of her stupidity.
C.V. Danes
@MattF:
He didn’t properly label the theft as ‘fees’
Elizabelle
@burnspbesq: Condolences, burns.
WarMunchkin
@WarMunchkin: To clarify, I’m an okay to decent speaker, know my history, competent at mathematics and policy, and I’d be happy to file to challenge a Republican, whatever it takes. Alternatively, I’m also a software engineer and can help with building a crawler to find uncontested races if there’s a data set someoke can point me to. Just need time not working 12 hours a day.
Elizabelle
@C.V. Danes: Love it.
Andrew Calamari of the SEC going after vampire squids.
You cannot make this stuff up. Bring on the perp(s)!
Daulnay
@Major Major Major Major:
Newsome’s politics seem pretty straightforward. If a position helps Gavin’s career, he’s for it. I trust him to have no real convictions whatsoever. Since his career leads through liberal SF and California, he’s reliably liberal — except perhaps where being progressive might endanger campaign contributions.
FFS, the man cheated on his wife and betrayed his best male friend by sleeping w. the friends wife. How can anyone trust him, beyond trusting him to try to get reelected?
chanster
@Goblue72: Gov Inslee is up for re-election, but Reichert has already committed to staying in his congressional seat. He has been tough to beat in the last few elections, but I think he could be taken down by a moderate Democrat who succeeded in tying Reichert to the Trump crowd. Unfortunately, at this point, it looks like he will sail in unopposed.
Inslee’s only opponent for the moment is Bill Bryant, the Seattle Port Commissioner. I have to admit I don’t know much about Bryant – peeking at his website, he seems pretty moderate. There is a lot of dis-satisfaction with Olympia and the State Legislature. The Democrats have a very thin majority in the House and the Republicans have a majority coalition in the Senate, resulting in a whole lot of Nothing getting done. So I could see a moderate Republican doing well with a message of whipping the state government into shape.
burnspbesq
@Elizabelle:
That’s brilliant.
I know Andrew (worked with him on a project when he was at Debevoise). He is not someone you want to fuck with or take lightly.
P.S. His actual last name is Ceresney.
Ruckus
@pseudonymous in nc:
Someone up thread pointed out one problem. A job. If you have one and any kind of life, running for office with any kind of effective program takes away from one or both. And if you are in a place that has an entrenched person or political tilt, it’s even harder with little to no possibility of winning. Running and losing constantly isn’t really all that appealing to most folks.
The only way I see to fix this long term is reasonable term limits. And by reasonable I mean they have to be long enough to allow the person to work and make a difference and short enough that getting entrenched is highly unlikely. If the people want to be a politician there are places to move up to. If you are city there is county and state. Then national. And there is movement there as well, for the dedicated. A lifetime of politics is available for the office seeker. Of course they may not be in any way qualified to move up but we already have that.
burnspbesq
@Elizabelle:
Thanks.
Paul in KY
@burnspbesq: Just heard about this, Burns. My condolences to you & your family. I bet he would have given her a scalding!
Mnemosyne
@rikyrah:
Mrs. Obama made me laugh out loud during the Hamilton event when she described the look she and the president exchanged when Lin-Manuel told them what he would be performing that night in 2009.
Betty Cracker
@burnspbesq: Sorry to hear that you lost a family member and that Polk County lost a sane, numerate citizen. RIP.
burnspbesq
@Paul in KY:
Thanks for the kind thoughts.
It would have extremely polite, but it would have left a mark.
burnspbesq
@Betty Cracker:
Thanks.
chanster
@pseudonymous in nc:
Yes – I donated to Burner’s campaign back in the day. It was a close race, but she was ultimately done in by a Seattle Times smear job. She is currently running for the state legislature in a pretty rural district. I don’t know what her chances are, but it would be a nice pickup.
boatboy_srq
@DemJayhawks: All too true.
Anytime someone brings up “interstate commerce” for health insurance, we should be pointing out what a bang-up job aggregation and centralisation has done for journalism (print and broadcast both).
trollhattan
Georgia’s governor has vetoed the “religious freedom” fishwrap their Republicans had coughed up to protect an army of Kim Davises.
Tenar Darell
@Peale: Whoah, I got sidetracked. My town? it’s pretty small, but I live in Massachusetts. Big on local town councils. Smaller the town, the more likely it is to have a town meeting style of government.
Check this out for Brookline, which is not a small town ;-) http://www.brooklinema.gov/264/Town-Meeting
Technocrat
@Ruckus:
How does someone with a job run for office these days? Lots of sick days and vacation time? Burn through savings?
Eric U.
the first time I saw the Florida Capitol complex was at the end of a training ride with a batch of bike racers — all of us were from out of town. We come over the hill, and there is this giant phallic symbol. I laughed and laughed, but nobody else saw the resemblance. That shocked me a little, we were an irreverent bunch. Anyway, I have since come to the conclusion that there is a large community of architects that dream of designing a building this phallic, but only a few succeed.
Daulnay
@C.V. Danes:
@Amir Khalid:
Some of the Republicans do seem to be trying to replace civic democratic government with a corporate-controlled ‘private’ government. Consider the three segments of government…
Legislative:
– drafting of legislation is no longer done nearly entirely by sitting civic legislatures. Much legislation is now drafted by ALEC (mainly), or by individual corporations. You get the ridiculous situation of legislators being ignorant of the contents of the legislation they ‘draft’ and propose.
– election of legislators has gone from a mainly democratic process to one where corporate and plutocratic interests strongly influence the outcome. Tom DeLay’s K Street Project overtly embraced the corruption of Congress.
Judicial:
– Forced arbitration clauses. For those unfamiliar, a big part of the justice system in the past has been civil dispute resolution through the courts. A huge amount of that dispute resolution has been ‘privatized’ — moved to the arbitration system that is tilted strongly in favor of corporations. To quote a recent local bar association journal, “Arbitration is no longer a small outpost at the fringes of the American legal system; increasingly it is the legal system” (emphasis theirs).
– starving the courts: justice delayed is justice denied, and throughout the nation Republicans have been working to cut court system funding so that the civic government’s justice system cannot manage the workload.
Executive:
– privatizing/corporatizing schools, municipal utilities, prisons and every other civic government function that they can. The Cheneyites even tried to corporatize the military (remember Blackwater?)
– privatizing entire civic governments, as in Flint and Benton Harbor, Michigan. Mainly to loot, of course.
Does this add up to a concerted effort to replace the entirely of civil/national government with a system of government by corporation and contract? Is it hard to see many issues as part of a struggle between a civic, democratic form of government and a corporate, autocratic one, rather than the more usual left/right?
Brachiator
@gene108:
Bats v Sup is 2 and half hours. Some little kids might get restless or bored.
But the bigger issue is that there is stuff that happens to the characters in the last third of the movie that might be too intense or frightening for little kids. Snyder clearly pitches aspects of the film to comic nerds who want the movie to be just for them, and not family friendly.
A comparison. Back in the day, with Tim Burton’s “Batman Returns,” some parents had to take their kids out of the theater because the kiddies were upset by the feral ugliness of the Penguin character, and more, because of a scene that implied that small children were being kidnapped and killed. Some kids react very badly to scenes that imply death or cruelty to animals or little folk like themselves.
Berial
@Brachiator: Hand to God. There were at least 2 kids under 12 at the showing of Deadpool I went to. You can’t fix that kind of stupid.
chanster
@WarMunchkin:
Ballotpedia is where I get my information from. They seem pretty thorough.
Steeplejack
Late to the thread, and I haven’t read the comments, so forgive me if someone has already mentioned this:
I think it would be helpful if commenters posted links to good state or local political blogs in their area. I know that here in Virginia there is the Blue Virginia blog, but I don’t read it enough to know if it’s really any good or whether there are good alternates or additions.
As an example, I am thinking of the Alaska blog that provided invaluable background and insight on Sarah Palin when she burst on the national scene. I’m sure there are others around the country.
PaulWartenberg2016
And unfortunately, the caveats that Betty Cracker leaves at the end of the article – that she herself can’t run – is one of the biggest problems the Democrats have when it comes to finding candidates to put in the time and effort to run for offices at the local/state level.
I’m essentially in the same boat: I don’t have time or resources to put my name in. The COSTS and time limits set into campaigning even at a state level are messy and expensive. I’m also NPA, not a Democrat – having been burned by being a Republican, I’m wary of being bound to one party again – so my running for office as an Independent involves MORE hoops (a ton of signatures, and a higher submission fee) and more hassles.
The game is rigged to prevent more people from running for office: it’s all set up for the richer folks, the ones who can afford to run and build up the business contacts to make it even easier for themselves.
If there’s anything that CAN be done, it’d have to be done through the State Amendment process. Betty, if you know any organization that does these things on a regular basis, getting an amendment on-ballot to make it easier for people to run for state offices would be a good start!…
Ruckus
@Technocrat:
Well you can take away from your life rather than your job. Hard on the family. Then if you get the job, is it full time and pays OK, or part time that will continue to take away from your life? What are the up sides? Most people will ask this as a matter of course about any life changing decision. Helping humanity? That’s nice but what about me and my families daily lives? Can I make things better? I volunteered at a mental health center (decades ago) and there were 2 types of people there. Those doing as I was, to further a possible career or housewives with the kids in their late teens or out of the house. Everyone I met gave it their all but it was a lateral move/tick in a box or a time spender.
But to me the biggest stopper for most people is the exposure and the distinct possibility of losing after all the effort. If you live in a district that is way opposite you politically, both of those things can be massively life altering.
rikyrah
@patroclus:
KIRK.MUST.GO.
rikyrah
@Daulnay:
This is an excellent comment.Thank you.
Miss Bianca
@rikyrah:
Sorry, I was just on a sci-fi site and I read this as a Star Trek comment, and I was all like, aw, why?
Then I saw what you were referring to. Agreed. : )
Brachiator
@Berial:
You got to know your kids.
I get the idea that in the UK, the ratings are hard standards. If a film has a 15 certificate, no one under that age can see it, even with a parent’s permission.
That said, I could see some, not many, but some kids who could deal with the stuff in “Deadpool” because the humor really works.
When my stepson was young, we had two rules. I did not expect him to know exactly what he liked. So, if he ordered something at a restaurant and hated it, he could get something else, and his mother and I would not make a big deal about it, even if we ended up paying for an extra plate. And if he really wanted to see a movie that was PG-13 (and once an R that was just gross humor no violence) and it was too much for him, we would leave the theater. Again, no questions asked. But if we thought a movie would be totally inappropriate we had veto power. But that meant that we had to read parental film guides, talk to people who had seen it, get more than just the rating.
Didn’t happen very often. And I think he felt good to have the power to make a mistake or to change his mind.
Ruckus
@Daulnay:
Add this to my comments about actually running.
Our culture has changed radically over the last 2 or 3 decades in so many behind the scenes ways that make it much harder to overcome that so while it is not hopeless it is even harder than it should be. Sanders is right about the overwhelming takeover of our society by the wealthy, be they corporations or wealthy individuals. And sometimes they really are one and the same, the Kochsucker Bros for example. That he wants to effectively burn it all down and start over is a problem. So that leaves the slow bumpy way to move forward, one city council/state legislature/congress office at a time.
Berial
@Brachiator: When I said under 12 I mean the OLDEST one was at most 12. The younger one looked like (and sounded like) a 9 year old (or less). Pretty sure they shouldn’t have been in that movie, but hey, they were with a couple of adults I can only assume were their parents.
Daulnay
@Ruckus:
How do you get to ” he wants to effectively burn it all down and start over”? Bernie is far from a torch-wielding radical, he’s barely a socialist much less an anarchist.
Ruckus
@PaulWartenberg2016:
I thought about running when I was “unemployed” by the last recession. I had the time, but of course I had no money and who was going to give me any. Five yrs later, I’m five yrs older and semi retired and don’t have the stamina to run, along with not enough money, even for a local race. That’s not even counting that my ability to not publicly call people fucking idiots/morons has grown rather weaker, which always endears them to you.
Brachiator
@Berial:
Yeah, 9 seems wrong.
I’ve seen some adults who want to see a movie when it opens, or they gotta see it in a theater, and they bring young kids because they can’t or don’t want to get a baby sitter. The kids clearly don’t want to be there, but the parents have got to have their movie fix. This is one of the few times that I would want hard ratings that would not allow younger children to be admitted.
Technocrat
@Ruckus:
Can you really do all your politicking after work?
I’ve never really thought about it in depth before, but given all the obstacles it’s amazing anyone ever runs for office at all. I certainly couldn’t do it.
Ruckus
@Daulnay:
Easy, end the ACA and just have single payer. Just one point in his program.
Sure the ACA is not the absolute ideal health care insurance program. But it is far, far better than what we had and given how hard it was to get in it’s current form, the 50+ house attempts at killing it and that single payer was dead before delivery, any concept that we can just replace it by magic is insane and is burning it down.
Just so you know I was for Sanders and would vote for him if he wins the nom because he is better than the repubs, but if he got his way forward it will cost many people dearly. That he couldn’t get that far is of little help, I believe that his presidency would set back the dem side for a couple of generations. And I’ve seen enough of that. Slow progress is better than failed revolution.
Miss Bianca
@Ruckus:
The one thing that absolutely, unequivocally excites me about Sanders’s campaign is that hes apparently received so many small donations. If *that* model can take off for the funding of political campaigns – sort of the anti-Citizens United model – and on a local scale – we might be able to get some different sorts of candidates for local/regional/state level offices. maybe even national.
Ruckus
@Technocrat:
People do it. I met my councilman yesterday and he is 40ish, nice and his real job is lawyer. Has been on the council for 14 yrs and re-elected 3 times. Has a life and a job. It can be done but if you have a job that has regular hours working for someone else that makes it a bit harder. If he ran for state or national legislature and won, his job would most likely end. Could he go back to work if he didn’t then get re-elected? Given his current job I’d say probably relatively easy. Could I go back to mine? You to yours? Most likely not.
Ruckus
@Miss Bianca:
Well President Obama did it using a lot of small donations, along with some big ones. But he is special, a once in a lifetime example of people running for office. I see Sanders doing well because so many people have suffered financially in the last decade that don’t normally suffer as much in lesser recessions. Any big financial disruption on the order of the last recession or the depression changes the political air dramatically. But look at the people supporting him. Doesn’t really look like a real cross section of america to me. Looks like I’m looking in a mirror. I like to include those people who don’t look like me but who live in this country and support it and make it what it is and is supposed to be.
Eric U.
@Ruckus: the thing that a lot of people aren’t willing to recognize is that we had a medical system that was soon going to be totally unworkable. It would have blown up sometime in the next few years. Even with the costs staying flat because of the ACA, my employer is having trouble justifying their medical expenses. Without the ACA, we would already seen big cuts, I have no doubt about that. Of course, since the management seems to be run by morons and republicans (but I repeat myself) they have been blaming all the cost containment changes they have been making on the ACA
Even those of us who generally support the ACA have a problem recognizing what we have gotten from it, particularly since individuals still have problems affording health care. And the SCOTUS decision striking the medicare expansion provision was a big blow.
Technocrat
@Ruckus:
Interesting. Maybe that accounts for the prevalence of lawyers in politics? I can imagine telling my constituents “Yeah, I’d love to help you guys with this slumlord’s deathtrap but I have a project due in 2 weeks”.
satby
@Paul in KY: not in Orlando, which is where my sister moved my mom to ?
satby
@burnspbesq: burns, condolences on your dad’s passing.
J R in WV
@patroclus:
I kicked in a little bit to Duckworth’s race for the House, and was really glad to see her elected – soon I intend to kick in for her senatorial race. I decided last cycle to contribute to specific candidates rather than to party committees.
J R in WV
@burnspbesq:
Burns,
Sorry to hear about your Dad. As I said about Bob in Portland, having political disagreements doesn’t mean we don’t care about people we get to know on the Web.
Take care!
JR
Thrasius
@pseudonymous in nc: Agreed. I just moved to upstate SC from Kellie Stargel’s district, crazily enough. I’m amazed at how much more tame the state politics are than Florida – or NC, where my sister lives. Well, that’s except for the current debates on actually implementing a realistic gas tax here and fixing the state’s crumbling infrastructure.
Paul in KY
@satby: Speaking as someone who lives approx. 550 miles from ocean, Orlando is ‘close’ :-)
Sondra
Brava for highlighting our dear Florida Governor Skelator. I phone bank for every election and my list is provided to me by the D.E.C ( of which I am a proud member): that is the Democratic Executive Committee. Imagine my surprise when I called people who were supposed to be registered Democrats and they told me that they were voting for Rick Scott because he is a crook.
That’s not a typo. Seriously, the guy who made his fortune by defrauding Medicare appealed to people because that was a feature, not a bug.