United States Governors

[GreyhoundFan]

A good article about the important job ahead for Democratic Governors: "Angling for a Comeback, Democratic Governors Sharpen Focus on Jobs". The article begins:

Quote

As Democrats battle President Trump on a multiplying array of issues, from immigration and climate change to health care and transgender rights, a group of Democratic governors is pressing the party to set one concern above all the rest: jobs.

Gathered in Washington for a conference of the National Governors Association, Democratic leaders from the states expressed optimism that Mr. Trump had opened the way for a Democratic comeback by governing from the hard right and in a haphazard manner.

But they also warned that voters might not embrace Democrats as an alternative to Mr. Trump unless they presented themselves convincingly as champions of job creation, which they struggled to do in last year’s presidential election. Mr. Trump’s unpopularity, several governors said, will not necessarily usher Democrats back to power on its own — they must frame all their priorities in economic terms.

Gov. Gina M. Raimondo of Rhode Island, a Democrat who is in her first term, said her party had too often failed to put jobs and economic opportunity at the forefront of its agenda. Democrats had erred, she said, by treating jobs merely as one issue in a “check list” of positions.

Continue reading the main story

In an interview, Ms. Raimondo mimicked the rote approach: “Are you pro-choice? Check. Are you pro-transgender rights? Check. Are you pro-gay rights? Check. Are you pro-renewable energy? Check. Are you pro-good jobs? Check.”

“My own view is, we have to say: The whole game is job growth,” Ms. Raimondo said. “People feel left behind because they are left behind. People feel the playing field isn’t level because it’s not level. So let’s level it.”

Ms. Raimondo, 45, a former venture capitalist, stressed that she did not believe the party should change its liberal platform on social issues and called for fierce resistance to Mr. Trump.

But she urged Democrats to define their agenda broadly as a matter of pursuing economic growth, “equally distributed for people of color, women, immigrants, regardless of sexual orientation, who you love.”

...

I hope the governors can band together and help the fight against Agent Orange.

[CTRLZero]

19 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

“My own view is, we have to say: The whole game is job growth,” Ms. Raimondo said. “People feel left behind because they are left behind.

I unfortunately don't have the link, but a week or so ago I read about some companies poised to open in various states, which openings were set into motion during the Obama administration (but Trump is taking credit for).  Anyway, I think one of the reasons people feel left behind is that the majority of these companies require skilled labor (i.e., high tech and engineering).  If the US can't produce appropriately-educated citizens to fill these positions, then we get back to hiring people from other countries who have the required skill set.  This makes anti-immigration Trumpsters cranky, but they should be advocating for better education if they want these positions filled "in-house."

It's a good strategy, and I wish the governors well, because getting a significant number of our populace educated to take a lot of these jobs coming online is going to be an uphill battle.

***Random FJ thought***

On more than one occasion, I've thought about our fundie home-schooling families.  For example, are David and Jill Rodrigues teaching computer programming, advanced science anything, math, business -- whatever is necessary to help their [male] children enter the non-grifting work force?  These are some of the people who probably feel left behind (hmmm, why am I thinking of Rapture-themed movies).

 

 

[Childless]

38 minutes ago, CTRLZero said:

I unfortunately don't have the link, but a week or so ago I read about some companies poised to open in various states, which openings were set into motion during the Obama administration (but Trump is taking credit for).  Anyway, I think one of the reasons people feel left behind is that the majority of these companies require skilled labor (i.e., high tech and engineering).  If the US can't produce appropriately-educated citizens to fill these positions, then we get back to hiring people from other countries who have the required skill set.  This makes anti-immigration Trumpsters cranky, but they should be advocating for better education if they want these positions filled "in-house."

It's a good strategy, and I wish the governors well, because getting a significant number of our populace educated to take a lot of these jobs coming online is going to be an uphill battle.

***Random FJ thought***

On more than one occasion, I've thought about our fundie home-schooling families.  For example, are David and Jill Rodrigues teaching computer programming, advanced science anything, math, business -- whatever is necessary to help their [male] children enter the non-grifting work force?  These are some of the people who probably feel left behind (hmmm, why am I thinking of Rapture-themed movies).

 

 

But, here's the problem.  I don't think the people who feel left behind want to obtain new skills.  I see a lot of whining while sitting on asses doing nothing.  They don't want to have to put forth the effort it will take to get these high tech jobs.  They want jobs tailored to their current skill set.  Democrats can't do that.  Trump can't do that.  No one can.  How do you motivate people to do something they flat out won't do?  They'll just jump on the wagon of the next charlatan that comes through town promising the moon and the stars.  Unless you're prepared to lie to them, I don't think there's any chance of winning them over.

[CTRLZero]

18 minutes ago, Childless said:

I see a lot of whining while sitting on asses doing nothing.

Yep.  I don't disagree with anything you've said.  I wish people would look at the employment needs of the nation and ensure the next generation is equipped accordingly, but you know and I know it's not going to happen.  The only thought I have is to frame it in terms of, well, if you don't want those foreigners to come over here and take your jobs, you'd best be getting off your collective asses and getting appropriately educated.  But...never going to happen.  And I hate  the thought that we would have to frame it that way, and also, my daughter is a mad scientist, so I know it can  be accomplished by the average household. 

Maybe the Rodrigues boys can get jobs dusting off the dinosaurs at the Ark Encounter.

[Maggie Mae]

7 hours ago, CTRLZero said:

 I wish people would look at the employment needs of the nation and ensure the next generation is equipped accordingly, but you know and I know it's not going to happen. 

 

People DO look at those employment needs - it's called Workforce Development. In my state there are non-profits and it's also a Statewide Government thing under the Department of Labor. By looking at the employment needs (current and using data for future retirements in current industries) they can then see where training programs and educational services are lacking and work with private industry to create programs and incentives to create those training programs and services. (Or even just working with the schools to create interest in different fields.) 

7 hours ago, Childless said:

But, here's the problem.  I don't think the people who feel left behind want to obtain new skills.  I see a lot of whining while sitting on asses doing nothing.  They don't want to have to put forth the effort it will take to get these high tech jobs.  They want jobs tailored to their current skill set.  

1

I think this is true in some cases but I also think there is a serious lack of educational opportunities for people in rural areas. I know my area is an outlier, but if I wanted to go back to school (college) and obtain new skills, I have a very limited selection of what I can do. There is no community college, but the University accepts everyone. But they are "cutting back" so I have very few options for night school. Then there is the cost. Pay for the class and the fees, figure out how to work and go to school when the school is slowing going back to "traditional" only, then pay for parking and textbooks. And I'm lucky, because I actually live in a place with a (kind of terrible) University. Sometimes, the University makes financial decisions like moving a program away from the population center to a facility 200 miles away. So then, halfway through your degree, you either have 200-mile commute or you can pay the fee to live in the dorm (even though you have a house in the area that the school you applied for is located.) 

Back when I lived in a traditionally blue state that in the most recent national election voted for Trump, I took classes at the community college. There were lots of people who had manufacturing jobs that were looking to change their skills or gain a certification so they could get other employment. 

[Childless]

Living rurally is another problem.  You just aren't going to find a lot of good jobs in the middle of nowhere.  If someone makes the choice to live in a rural location, they have to realize they will struggle to find good employment even if they have a desired skill set.  If you want a good job, you have to go to where the good jobs are.  That's another thing people seem to refuse to do.  They want the government to bring the jobs to them instead of going to the jobs.  The area I live in (sort of suburban) has the lowest unemployment rate in the state.  Businesses are damn near begging people to move here.  If you have a pulse and don't do drugs, they'll hire you.  And yet, there are still rural people in my state angry because they can't find a good job.

[sawasdee]

@Childless But I want to stay in MY house - the job should come to ME! If it doesn't - why should I put myself out? Isn't that what's welfare is for -  to look after people like ME?

[RosyDaisy]

Apparently there are people who don't understand what life is truly like in rural areas. Packing up and moving where the jobs are isn't as simple as it seems.

[Maggie Mae]

16 minutes ago, RosyDaisy said:

Apparently there are people who don't understand what life is truly like in rural areas. Packing up and moving where the jobs are isn't as simple as it seems.

 

Or what it's like to be poor. I experienced it first hand in college when the food, beverage, and housing staff joined the teacher strike. My roommates were completely confused that I didn't have money or transportation to go buy groceries when I had paid for a meal plan. 

[Childless]

6 hours ago, RosyDaisy said:

Apparently there are people who don't understand what life is truly like in rural areas. Packing up and moving where the jobs are isn't as simple as it seems.

What choice do you have though?  Companies aren't going to come to places lacking people in general and people with desired skill sets in particular.  How would they staff their company?  And most people are unwilling to move to a rural area to work when they can find a job in a city or suburban area.  The government can't force companies into certain areas.  So the only choice people have is to move or remain jobless.  That might be very hard on people, but it's reality and you need to find a way to adapt.  Whining and sitting around doing nothing isn't going to improve your life.  Waiting around for the government to do anything (particularly the Republicans) isn't going to improve your life.  Only you can improve your life.  That may seem unfair, but life is unfair.

[GreyhoundFan]

Chapass keeps messing with oversight of the local DC government. People aren't happy: "Chaffetz faces new opponent: a DC PAC created to oust him"

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After flooding his office phone lines with complaints and mocking him on social media, District activists are starting a political action committee to target a Utah congressman who has sought to use his powerful House post to overturn D.C. laws.

A photograph of Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) is the first image that appears on the web site begun by the Americans for Self-Rule PAC, along with the words, “This guy doesn’t represent D.C.”

Chaffetz is chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which reviews legislation enacted by the D.C. Council.In mid-February, the committee voted to overturn the District’s assisted-suicide law, an effort that stalled on the House floor.

Lynette Craig, a Brookland resident active in the statehood movement, said she and other activists started the fundraising PAC to target Chaffetz after growing frustrated that protests and lobbying have not halted Republican interference in District affairs.

...

No prominent Republican has stepped forward to challenge Chaffetz, now in his fourth term representing a district that extends south of the Salt Lake City suburbs to the Arizona border.

But Evan McMullin, a Utah native who ran as an independent in the presidential race, has said he is considering a challenge. On Twitter, McMullin has been critical of Chaffetz for not using his committee to investigate President Trump.

Damian Kidd, 41, a Utah lawyer who has never run for office, said he will run against Chaffetz in the Republican primary in 2018. Kidd said he will seek support among Utah Republicans who are unhappy that Chaffetz is not staking out a more adversarial position against Trump.

“You have a lot of ‘Never Trumpers’ here, and they are frustrated with Chaffetz being partisan with the oversight committee,” he said. “It’s a tough road to hoe, but he’s vulnerable.”

While Trump won Chaffetz’s district, McMullin captured nearly 30 percent of the vote.

Kidd said he is eager to forge ties with District residents angry with Chaffetz. He is planning a mid-March trip to Washington, when he will meet with statehood activists. “If they want to donate, we’d be appreciative,” he said.

Since Trump’s election, District residents have grown increasingly irate towards Chaffetz and his Republican colleagues, fearful that they will use their control of the White House and Congress to overturn District initiatives.

On the day Chaffetz’s committee voted to oppose the assisted-suicide law, upwards of a thousand District residents attended a “Hands off DC” rally and then a town hall meeting organized by D.C. Council member Charles Allen (D-Ward 6).

In addition to assisted suicide, Chaffetz has recently expressed opposition to the District using tax dollars to help undocumented immigrants fight deportation. He also opposed D.C. Council legislation that legalized marijuana.

...

Craig said the PAC has been contacted by several people representing potential Chaffetz challengers. But Craig said she has “declined all contact” with those representatives until the committee decides on “a road map.”

All that is resolved at the moment, she said, is that “Chaffetz is our No. 1 priority.”

For those who don't know, Congress controls the local DC government and can interfere with the threat of financial ruin. Even though he's way, way more conservative than I am, I hope Evan McMullen does run, he might be able to unseat Chapass.

[GreyhoundFan]

I just realized I posted the last info in the wrong thread, it should have gone in the Congress thread. Sorry. I really shouldn't post things when I'm only 3/4 awake!

[VixenToast]

Dime Store Lex Luther is my Guv'na :'(

[Maggie Mae]

Just ignore me. 

[RoseWilder]

Tallahassee Mayor enters race for Governor of Florida: 

http://www.palmerreport.com/news/tallahassee-mayor-andrew-gillum-popular-democrat-enters-2018-florida-race-governor/1717/

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Just four days after the Democratic National Committee elected its new leadership on the national level, the Democratic Party continues to take steps forward in the upcoming midterm elections. Today the popular Mayor of Tallahassee, Andrew Gillum, entered the 2018 Florida race for Governor with an optimistic message. In so doing, the lifelong Democrat becomes the first serious candidate to enter the race from either party.

Mayor Gillum is just thirty-seven years old, but he has a long history of holding public office, having first been elected to the Tallahassee City Commission when he was twenty-three.

 

[fraurosena]

Bad news for Brownback.

Kansas Supreme Court Orders Governor to Fund Public Schools

Quote

The state Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that the Republican governor and state legislature had—yet again—failed to adequately fund public schools by hundreds of millions of dollars per year.

The court ordered lawmakers to devise a plan that would meet constitutional standards by the end of June and mandated a new formula to increase government spending on the state's public education system. The demand for extra education funding couldn't come at a worse time for Brownback, as the governor and Republican-held state legislature are caught in a stalemate on whether Kansas should repeal Brownback's landmark income-tax cuts in order to solve shortfalls that have plagued the state budget in recent years.

"We conclude the state's public financing system, through its structure and implementation, is not reasonably calculated to have all Kansas public education students meet or exceed the minimum constitutional standards of adequacy," the court wrote in an unsigned, unanimous opinion. By underfunding education, the judges said, the state system failed in one-fourth of all its public schools to appropriately educate students in basic reading and math skills and shortchanged half of the state's black students and one-third of its Hispanic students.

 

[clueliss]

As someone from suburban KC/Lawrence area originally - Kansas education funding has been screwed up for 20 or so years.    There are 5-10 counties in NE Kansas that have more money for taxes earmarked for education coming out of them than coming back (meaning they are paying for education elsewhere in the state) due to some stupid formula to 'even out' education spending.  Suburban KC districts have long wanted to raise property taxes etc to boost education spending and due to Topeka are not allowed to.  

[RoseWilder]

I just found an article about the woman who is running for Governor in Michigan in 2018: 

https://www.bustle.com/p/who-is-gretchen-whitmer-this-michigan-gubernatorial-candidate-is-a-force-of-nature-28431

Quote

If you're shocked and saddened by the outcome of the 2016 elections, now is the time to look toward 2018. Yes, while the 2020 presidential election will be a big deal,  2018 is an opportunity to effect change on a more direct level within the states. In the hopes of encouraging as many as women as possible to enter into government races, I'm highlighting one women to watch. On Tuesday, Gretchen Whitmer announced her candidacy for governor of Michigan for 2018.  

Whitmer is hoping to fill the seat of current Republican Gov. Rick Snyder, whose term limit will be up in 2018. According to the Detroit Free Press, Whitmer served as a Michigan state representative from 2001 to 2006 and then as a state senator until 2014. Most recently, she served for six months as interim prosecutor in Ingrahm County, according to the Detroit News, following the former prosecutor's conviction on prostitution-related crimes, finishing up her term at the end of 2016.

 

[clueliss]

Oh, Gov Greitens (MO).  I knew you and the money were going to be a problem when the mud slinging ads last year revealed how much you were taking in as income from your charity for veterans.  

 

http://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article137209643.html

Quote

Nonprofit linked to Greitens raises new questions about ‘dark money,’ ethics

1 of 2

A new nonprofit founded by Gov. Eric Greitens’ campaign treasurer and housed in a building linked to one of Missouri’s most prolific political donors can accept unlimited contributions and won’t be required to disclose who is giving it money. File photo by Jeff Curry The Associated Press

BY JASON HANCOCK

jhancock@kcstar.com

 

In the shadow of the Missouri Capitol, just a block from the governor’s mansion, sits the headquarters of a just-started nonprofit called A New Missouri Inc.

Founded by Gov. Eric Greitens’ campaign treasurer and housed in a building linked to one of Missouri’s most prolific political donors, the group’s stated purpose is to “promote ideas, policies and/or legislation to create more jobs, higher pay, safer streets, better schools, and more, for all Missourians.”

But its focus will be advocating for the governor and his agenda, a Greitens adviser said this week. And because it’s a nonprofit, A New Missouri can accept unlimited contributions and won’t be required to disclose who is giving it money.

After a campaign that saw Greitens benefit from millions in dark money contributions — coupled with the governor’s continued refusal to disclose how much corporations paid to bankroll his inauguration and who’s paying for his travel around the country — A New Missouri is raising concerns that its real purpose could be to thwart the state’s sunshine laws and circumvent campaign contribution limits.

“If you want to take a massive check and you don’t want people knowing who’s behind it, this is what you do,” said Jordan Libowitz, spokesman for the liberal watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “They call it dark money for a reason.”

Austin Chambers, the governor’s senior adviser, dismisses concerns about the group. The only people complaining about transparency in the Greitens administration, Chambers said, are “reporters and Democratic operatives. I don’t hear that from people as we are out traveling the state. They’re interested in the kitchen table issues that Gov. Greitens ran on.”

Yet Greitens’ campaign for governor was largely based on the premise that Missouri’s government teems with “corrupt career politicians,” “well-paid lobbyists” and “special-interest insiders.” The only way Missourians can have faith in their government, Greitens argued, was if lawmakers passed meaningful ethics reform legislation aimed at preventing corruption.

 

State Rep. Gina Mitten, a St. Louis Democrat, said that as long as Greitens insists on conducting business in the shadows, his ethics reform rhetoric rings hollow.

“Creating a nonprofit to act as a washing machine for donations and gifts wouldn’t be stopped by any of the ethics reform bills we’ve debated,” Mitten said.

“Social welfare” groups like A New Missouri can engage in political activity as long as it is less than half of what the organization does. But measuring that can be tricky. Direct involvement with a candidate would be considered political activity, for example, but advocating for legislation wouldn’t necessarily be.

Chambers said the governor is not directly involved in the nonprofit’s day-to-day operations, but there will be coordination between the nonprofit, the governor’s campaign and the governor’s official state office.

Chambers will be doing work for all three. Meredith Gibbons, the Greitens campaign’s finance director, will work out of the office of A New Missouri, as will Greitens’ sister-in-law, Catherine Chestnut. More people will be hired in the coming weeks.

The nonprofit will be engaged on several fronts — from advertising to event planning to social media — to “make sure Missourians know what the governor is doing and what he’s trying to get passed,” Chambers said.

“The role of A New Missouri is to advocate for and promote the governor’s agenda,” he said. “It will be backed by people who care deeply about seeing the agenda enacted here in Missouri.”

The group also will cover some of the governor’s travel expenses, Chambers said. Since taking office Jan. 9, the governor has eschewed use of the state plane for official business. Instead, he relies on private planes and has said he’ll pay for them with campaign or private money.

When the nonprofit picks up the tab, Missourians may never know which individuals or corporations are actually paying for the governor’s travel, or what kind of business they may have before the state, including regulatory matters or legislation that the governor will either sign or veto.

According to the Cole County assessor’s office, the building that houses A New Missouri in downtown Jefferson City was recently purchased by a St. Joseph company with the same address as Herzog Services Inc. Stan Herzog, the company’s principle shareholder, is a major Republican campaign contributor who gave Greitens $650,000 last year.

Chambers said he didn’t know for sure if Herzog had personally purchased the property, but “I know Stan was looking at the building.” Herzog’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment by The Star.

To Greitens’ critics, the setup harkens back to his campaign for governor, when a federal PAC called SEALs for Truth gave Greitens $1.9 million, at the time the largest single contribution to a candidate in Missouri history.

It was later revealed that SEALs for Truth was fully funded by a Kentucky-based nonprofit called the American Policy Coalition Inc. The nonprofit is connected to an Ohio attorney named David Langdon, whom the Center for Public Integrity labeled the “nexus of one of the nation’s most mysterious networks pouring secret money into elections.”

By routing the donations through a nonprofit, where the money actually came from will likely never be known.

Jeff Stuerman, Greitens’ campaign treasurer, set up a nonprofit in November called the Committee for a New Missouri Inc. Its sole stated purpose was to raise money for the inauguration festivities. Since then, the governor has repeatedly refused to follow the tradition of former governors and disclose how much was raised, how much was spent and how much each donor contributed.

That nonprofit’s attorney, Michael Adams, told The Star that the group is not subject to Missouri’s Sunshine Law. Adams is general counsel for the Washington, D.C.-based Republican Governors Association, which donated $13 million to Greitens’ gubernatorial campaign last year.

Stuerman and Adams filed paperwork with the Missouri secretary of state’s office Feb. 5 to form A New Missouri.

John Messmer, a political science professor at St. Louis Community College at Meramec, called the Greitens political operation a “shadow government” that is “anchored by unnamed mysterious forces.”

“What I find most troubling,” Messmer said, “is that everyone knows that these forces are political organizations that deserve scrutiny and regulation. But since they’re masquerading as a ‘social welfare’ group, they get away with doing things in secret.”

Walter Siewert, director of the Center for Ethics in Public Life at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, said the success Greitens had in the campaign using dark money likely means he won’t stop anytime soon.

“So the upshot is that it appears that until those who engage in these practices pay a political price for them, they will continue,” Siewert said. “It is not surprising that Gov. Greitens doubles down on a winning strategy for him.”

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article137209643.html#storylink=cpy

16

 

[clueliss]

Meanwile in Brownbackistan - apparently the man (Brownback) is in talks for an ambassadorship.  

http://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article137265678.html

[sawasdee]

Now I do believe that Tillerson is trying to destroy the State Department in the eyes of the world!

[onekidanddone]

On 2/27/2017 at 11:54 AM, CTRLZero said:

I unfortunately don't have the link, but a week or so ago I read about some companies poised to open in various states, which openings were set into motion during the Obama administration (but Trump is taking credit for).  Anyway, I think one of the reasons people feel left behind is that the majority of these companies require skilled labor (i.e., high tech and engineering).  If the US can't produce appropriately-educated citizens to fill these positions, then we get back to hiring people from other countries who have the required skill set.  This makes anti-immigration Trumpsters cranky, but they should be advocating for better education if they want these positions filled "in-house."

It's a good strategy, and I wish the governors well, because getting a significant number of our populace educated to take a lot of these jobs coming online is going to be an uphill battle.

***Random FJ thought***

On more than one occasion, I've thought about our fundie home-schooling families.  For example, are David and Jill Rodrigues teaching computer programming, advanced science anything, math, business -- whatever is necessary to help their [male] children enter the non-grifting work force?  These are some of the people who probably feel left behind (hmmm, why am I thinking of Rapture-themed movies).

 

 

The girls don't need skills.  They just have to get married and maybe sell essential oils or what ever MLM product is around.  Then and have babies.  The boys I think will either be  pushed in the life of a griffting preacher or work for their dad AKA the Maxhells

Edited March 9, 2017 by onekidanddone

[clueliss]

Another article about Missouri's Greitens and transparency/where is the money coming from (From The Pitch)

http://www.pitch.com/news/blog/20854491/gov-eric-greitens-not-really-into-this-whole-transparency-thing

 

Bolding mine - um, you may indeed be a Navy Seal (which we were reminded of in every stinking ad for your campaign) but you are also a politician.  Please get over yourself already.

Quote

Two months into his term, Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens is proving he is no ordinary politician. This is no shock: He has informed us at every opportunity, that he is NOT a politician but rather a retired Navy SEAL, dispatched here to wage war on politics as usual.

What is surprising: Greitens is sleazier and more brazen than even cynical watchers of Show-Me State government have come to expect.

Greitens’ ethical expectations for others in Missouri government are high and tough — as you’d expect from a guy whose Facebook page looks like an advertisement for a new boot-camp program. The GOP governor’s staffers are forbidden to accept so much as a stick of gum from a lobbyist, and he wants lawmakers to enact the same stringent measures for themselves. This is fair. The people of Missouri shouldn’t have to wonder whether their legislators might be swayed by a pizza from the hair braiders’ lobby.

He hasn't been quiet about this. Far from it, Greitens has adopted Trump-grade theatrics to press his clean-government program. Act I: the humiliation of the lawmaker with the “beady little eyes” who had dared to vote in favor of a long-overdue pay raise for legislators and state officials. (“What are you going to do, waterboard me?” asked that Republican lawmaker, Paul Wieland, when he had at last tired of being harangued by the freshman governor.)

But Greitens, who claims he is in office “to fight for the people,” has adroitly figured out how to sidestep the people’s wishes — and how to fund that counter-agenda.

This week, Jason Hancock of The Kansas City Star wrote about A New Missouri Inc., a nonprofit founded by Greitens’ campaign treasurer and intended to promote Greitens and his platform. A New Missouri is not some folksy fledgling; it is designed to rake in dark money. It can accept unlimited donations from people and groups that wish to influence Missouri government without disclosing who they are. It will be staffed by Greitens loyalists, including the governor’s sister-in-law. And, thanks to those lax state ethics laws that candidate Greitens promised to repeal and replace, the governor’s chief adviser will be able to work for A New Missouri (as well as for Greitens’ campaign operation) at the same time he serves as a government employee.

What’s more, the headquarters of A New Missouri is conveniently located in a Jefferson City building that appears to be owned by Stan Herzog, a major GOP donor who already has given Greitens more than half a million dollars.

This is pure sleaze. On the same day they elected Greitens as their governor, Missourians resoundingly voted for a ballot measure that limits the amount of money a politician can accept from a donor. It was a clear signal that Show-Me State citizens were sick of rich people and special interests owning their elected officials. With that mandate, Greitens has hung out an "open for business" sign.

There’s nothing to prevent Greitens from doing the right thing and telling the public who is bankrolling his nonprofit. But that would be out of character for this politician. He has refused to disclose crucial information about campaign donors, say who paid for his inaugural festivities, or answer questions about who pays for his travels around the country. (Our “people’s champion” governor loves to hobnob with the wealthy and the powerful.)

Austin Chambers, the 20-something wunderkind who acts as Greitens’ senior adviser, told Hancock that A New Missouri will “advocate and promote the governor’s agenda” and will be funded by people who “care deeply” about seeing that agenda enacted in Missouri. 

Please.

As governor, Greitens commands ample resources to promote his agenda, including an entire communications office that keeps busy refusing to respond to legitimate inquiries from reporters. The purpose of A New Missouri is to enhance Greitens’ profile nationwide, paving the way for bigger and better things. Powerful groups and people inside and outside the state will donate, and Greitens will owe them — whoever they are — as he enacts policy in Missouri.

Greitens’ New Missouri sounds a lot like the same old Missouri — but somehow darker, and with a grinning, flexing hypocrite running the show.

 

 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Teacher to Ohio Gov. Kasich: ‘You are in the dark about life in the classroom’"

Quote

Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s stewardship of the public schools in his state has not been without problems. During his tenure, issues facing public schools in Ohio have included the growth of a charter school sector as scandal-ridden as any in the country, funding cuts for traditional public schools while charter schools and voucher programs got more state money, a problem-plagued teacher evaluation system and the troubled administration of a new Common Core test.

Recently it came to light that the governor had buried in his 3,512-page fiscal 2018-2019 budget proposal a mandate that all new teachers applying for a license — and all working teachers applying for license renewal in Ohio — get some “on-site work experience with a local business or chamber of commerce.”

Why? Ryan Burgess, director of Kasich’s Office of Workforce Transformation, told reporters that it would help teachers get a better idea for what jobs are available to students and what skills employers need.

Well, Julie Rine is one teacher who begs to differ. She wrote and sent a letter to the governor that appeared on Plunderbund and that she gave me permission to publish. Rine has been teaching in Ohio for more than 20 years. She is now in the Minerva Local School District, teaching Honors English I, Honors English II, Honors American Literature and English III at Minerva High School. She was born in Ohio, earned a bachelor’s degree from Ohio State University and a master’s degree at Marygrove College in Michigan.

...

The article goes on to publish the letter in its entirety. It's worth a read.

[RoseWilder]

It's time for another edition of Republicans are Assholes: