Remember, There Are Innocent People In Red States Who Do NOT Deserve To Die

The extreme-right moron governors of Georgia and Florida finally-- way too late to save their citizens-- ordered statewide lockdowns Wednesday. Last time I looked there were still a dozen states where governors have refused to order lockdowns-- all red Trump states led by extremely cowardly politicians:

• Alabama-- Kay Ivey (R)
• Arkansas-- Asa Hutchinson (R)
• Iowa-- Kim Reynolds (R)
• Missouri-- Mike Parson (R)
• Nebraska-- Pete Ricketts (R)
• North Dakota-- Doug Burgum (R)
• Oklahoma-- Kevin Stitt (R)
• South Carolina-- Henry McMaster (R)
• South Dakota-- Kristi Noem (R)
• Texas-- Greg Abbott (R)
• Utah-- Gary Herbert (R)
• Wyoming-- Mark Gordon (R)

The U.S. can't start counting the 8 weeks it takes to flatten the curve until all these dozen states are also in lockdown. These right-wing baboons are threatening all of our lives. Before you start wishing that all their citizens die, please remember that though they all voted for Trump and all still support Trump, there are several million people in these dozen states who voted against Trump. They don't deserve to die. Is there enough lamb's blood to save them all when the Angel of Death comes for a visit? Hillary voters by state:

• Alabama-- 729,547 (34.36%)
• Arkansas-- 380,494 (33.65%)
• Iowa-- 653,669 (41.74%)
• Missouri-- 1,071,068 (38.14%)
• Nebraska-- 284,494 (33.70%)
• North Dakota-- 93,758 (27.23%)
• Oklahoma-- 420,375 (28.93%)
• South Carolina-- 855,373 (40.67%)
• South Dakota-- 117,458 (31.74%)
• Texas-- 3,877,868 (43.24%)
• Utah-- 310,676 (27.46%) + 243,690 (21.54%) for Evan McMullin)
• Wyoming-- 55,973 (21.63%)

The April Fool's Day issue of Politico magazine ranked the best and worst governors based on their pandemic leadership roles. I agree that both the best and worst were both Republicans--Ohio's Mike DeWine as most courageous and Trump Florida ass-licker Ron DeSantis as the one most deserving a prison sentence. Bill Scher wrote that with Señor Trumpanzee "unable or unwilling to play the part of a national unifier or to take decisive action to curb the spread of the coronavirus, the leadership we normally expect from the Oval Office has instead come from state executives throughout the nation-- or not." He framed the question he set out the answer: "Which governors have done a better job at meeting the moment, by acting decisively and boosting morale? And which have missed the moment, dragged their feet and succumbed to petty squabbling?" And, unlike any of the TV talking heads, he nailed it on TV-actor-playing-a hero Andrew Cuomo:

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has received the lion’s share of attention, as his informative and emotive press conferences have made him an overnight national political star, albeit halfway through his third term. But his record in responding to the crisis is more complicated than the sheen lets on: his coronavirus containment policies were not the most aggressive in the country, and did not prevent catastrophe. He hesitated to close all schools statewide even as other states began to do so, and resisted a statewide stay-at-home order for a few days before relenting.

Here's his list of the best. He's wrong about Newsom, who also dragged his feet except in the superficial areas Cuomo also looked good in. The 6 Bay Area counties did great while Newsom and Garcetti hid under their beds shivering that if they made the wrong move, they'd never be a presidential contenders. From most best to less best:

• Mike DeWine (R-OH)- "[N]o single governor has done more to put the nation on a war footing in the fight against coronavirus than DeWine, whose actions have contributed to Ohio’s relatively modest number of cases... On March 12, even though Ohio had yet to suffer a major outbreak of Covid-19, DeWine called for the statewide closure of public schools-- the first governor in the nation to do so, forcing most of his fellow governors to recognize they had to follow suit, and fast.
• Gavin Newsom (D-CA)
• Jay Inslee (D-WA)
• Larry Hogan (R-MD)- another mistake by Scher-- he was needlessly slow and doesn't deserve to be on this list.
• Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI)
• Wanda Vazquez (NPP-Puerto Rico)

And now the half dozen worst, although Scher left off some real doozies-- like for example, illegitimate Georgia Republican Brian Kemp who claimed stupidity for his weeks of inaction. "[H]e reversed course Wednesday as a growing number of other Republican governors, including the leaders of Florida, South Carolina and Texas, instituted broader limits on mobility and shuttered more businesses to try to counter the disease. He said his decision was triggered by "game-changing” new projections on the disease’s spread in Georgia. He also said he was informed of new data that this virus 'is now transmitting before people see signs. Those individuals could have been infecting people before they ever felt' symptoms, he said. 'We didn’t know that until the last 24 hours.'" Maybe he didn't, but everyone else on planet earth did. So here's Scher's list from worst to not as terrible:

• Ron DeSantis (R-FL)- "DeSantis is one of Trump’s favorite governors and a potential 2024 presidential prospect. But he has made a bad first impression on the rest of the country by failing to fully shut down Florida’s beaches before or after they were overrun with partiers on spring break, many of whom then traveled home to locations throughout the United States. He also resisted making a statewide stay-at-home order until finally relenting on Wednesday-- in the wake of intense pressure from Florida Democrats, and televised comments Wednesday morning by the surgeon general urging all governors to get their residents to stay at home. Before that point, his seemingly toughest measure was issuing a quarantine for travelers coming from the New York City tri-state area or Louisiana, but the focus on hot spots ignores all the community spread inside Florida and in other states. Florida already has nearly 7,000 confirmed cases, ranking it 17th among the states on a per capita basis. Earlier, DeSantis justified eschewing broader measures. 'We’re also in a situation where we have counties who have no community spread,' he said on March 19. 'We have some counties that don’t have a single positive test yet.' But everything we have experienced strongly suggests you don't want to wait until you have community spread before taking strong action. DeSantis may still be helped by Trump, who may be giving Florida preferential treatment. According to the Washington Post, other governors have had difficulty getting supplies from the Strategic National Stockpile, but not DeSantis. And Trump has been influenced by DeSantis’ argument that some social distancing measures are too harmful to the economy. The Post quoted an anonymous White House official, who explained, 'The president knows Florida is so important for his reelection, so when DeSantis says that, it means a lot. He pays close attention to what Florida wants.'" I would just like to add that DeSantis is still working actively to kill Florida seniors. He is absolutely the worst governor in America.

• Tate Reeves (R-MS)- "Aside from its next-door neighbor Louisiana, Mississippi is the Southern state with the most confirmed Covid-19 cases on a per capita basis. Yet Reeves has made a hash out of the response. As Mississippi’s localities began issuing stay-at-home edicts, Reeves issued his own order on March 24, broadly defining what business and social activity is 'essential'-- including religious services-- and declared any order from any other 'governing body' which conflicts with the state order to be 'suspended and unenforceable.'"





• Kevin Stitt (R-OK)- "On March 14, Stitt tweeted a picture of his family eating at a restaurant, as if he deserved an award for defying the coronavirus panic. 'It’s packed tonight!' he enthusiastically shared, but facing blowback, later deleted the post... Oklahoma’s rate of infection is intensifying, and testing is minimal. Stitt is not the only governor who has hesitated to implement stiff restrictions, but he may become a case study of the pitfalls of glib social media use in a time of crisis."

• David Ige (D-HI)- "Ige tapped his Lieutenant Governor Josh Green to play a key role in the state’s response to coronavirus. Green is an emergency room doctor, so his calls for strict travel restrictions and quarantines on arrivals carried great weight. But once Green publicly pushed for strong measures, Ige cut him out of the loop, instructing Cabinet officials not to consult with Green, and keeping Green out of his press conferences."

• Kay Ivey (R-AL)- "Ivey sounded a completely different note at a press conference, when she dismissed the idea of a statewide stay-at-home order. 'Y’all, we are not Louisiana, we are not New York state, we are not California,' she said. (Washington Post data journalist Philip Bump warned Ivey that Alabama’s caseload was growing faster than California’s.)"

• Jim Justice (R-WV)- "His lack of experience in crisis management has been glaringly obvious from his discordant statements and actions. On March 16, he was preaching defiance. 'For crying out loud, go to the grocery stores,' Jutice said. 'If you want to go to Bob Evans and eat, go to Bob Evans and eat.' Then, the very next day, he shut down dine-in eating at the state’s restaurants."

Yesterday a 7-person team of NY Times reporters filed a report on the geography of the pandemic response in America. The maps showing citizens ignoring social distancing look eerily-- or predictably-- like the maps of the counties where Trump won in 2016. "Stay-at-home orders," they wrote, "have nearly halted travel for most Americans, but people in Florida, the Southeast and other places that waited to enact such orders have continued to travel widely, potentially exposing more people as the coronavirus outbreak accelerates." Most Americans "in wide swaths of the West, Northeast and Midwest have complied with orders from state and local officials to stay home. Disease experts who reviewed the results say those reductions in travel-- to less than a mile a day, on average, from about five miles-- may be enough to sharply curb the spread of the coronavirus in those regions, at least for now... In areas where public officials have resisted or delayed stay-at-home orders, people changed their habits far less. Though travel distances in those places have fallen drastically, last week they were still typically more than three times those in areas that had imposed lockdown orders, the analysis shows." They offered a list of big population counties across the country where people are spreading COVID-19 willy-nilly. I added the 2016 election results. From worst to less horrible:

• Greenville County, South Carolina- Trump 59.4% to Hillary 34.7%
• Jefferson County, Alabama- Hillary 52.2% to Trump 45.0%
• Duval County, Florida- Trump 49.0% to Hillary 47.5%
• Guilford County, North Carolina- Hillary 58.7% to Trump 38.7%
• Montgomery County, Texas- Trump 74.0% to Hillary 22.5%
• Polk County, Florida- Trump 55.4% to Hillary 41.3%
• Tulsa County, Oklahoma- Trump 58.4% to Hillary 35.6%
• Volusia County, Florida- Trump 54.8% to Hillary 41.8%
• Oklahoma County, Oklahoma- Trump 51.7% to Hillary 41.2%
• Sedgwick County, Kansas- Trump 56.1% to Hillary 36.9%
• Gwinnett County, Georgia- Hillary 51.0% to Trump 45.2%
• Shelby County, Tennessee- Hillary 62.3% to Trump 34.6%
• Brevard County, Florida- Trump 57.8% to Hillary 38.0%
• Salt Lake County, Utah- Hillary 42.8% to Trump 32.6%
• Fresno County, California- Hillary 49.4% to Trump 45.5%
• Utah County, Utah- Trump 51.3% to Hillary 14.0%
• Pasco County, Florida- Trump 58.9% to Hillary 37.4%
• San Bernardino County, California- Hillary 52.2% to Trump 42.4%
• Douglas County, Nebraska- Hillary 47.9% to Trump 46.5%
• Hillsborough County, Florida- Hillary 51.5% to Trump 44.7%

Dr. Fauci has recommended that all 50 states do mandatory lockdowns-- something Trump and his goonish governors don't accept. Last night Trump lied again, this time that airplane and train passengers are being given "very strong tests" for coronavirus both before departure and after arrival. "They’re doing tests on airlines-- very strong tests-- for getting on, getting off. They’re doing tests on trains-- getting on, getting off." He's just flat-out lying-- and endangering the general public.

Can Andy Beshear Beat Bevin This Coming November? Trump Is Flipping Out Over This Race

Kentucky is a weird and intriguing state when it comes to politics. Just watch the great explanation of what's going on there in the Samantha Bee video above before you read another word. It's one of the reddest states in the Union (PVI is R+15-- worse than Alabama, Mississippi, Texas or Kansas) and Trump beat Hillary there 1,202,971 (62.5%) to 628,854 (32.68). She won just two of Kentucky's 120 counties. Hillary even managed to lose Elliott County, which had never-- in its 150 year history-- voted for a Republican before, not Reagan, not Eisenhower, not Harding... just Trump. Anyway, that's not what's intriguing. What is, is how much Kentucky voters hate their Republican politicians and vote for them anyway. Kentucky voters, for example, hate Mitch McConnell more than the voters in any state hate their senator. Every year since dinosaurs roamed the planet McConnell has been rated the most hated senator in America. His approval from Kentucky voters was 36% this year, an actual improvement over the 30% it was a couple of years earlier. Unlike in other states, though, Kentuckians keep reelecting the politicians they detest.

Alex Isenstadt, writing for Politico yesterday, reported that Trump has his own people racing to save Matt Bevin, a Trump loyalist in a red state who's deeply unpopular and on the ballot in November. "Bevin," he wrote, "is a presidential phone-buddy and White House regular who’s become one of President Donald Trump’s loudest surrogates. He’s also one of the most unpopular governors in the country, facing a treacherous reelection in November. And the White House, fearing that an embarrassing loss in a deep-red state would stoke doubts about the president’s own ability to win another term, is preparing to go all-in to save him." Trump keeps sending Pence down to Kentucky to raise money and to fire up gay-haters among the evangelical base.

The Trump team has watched with growing concern as Bevin’s approval ratings have plummeted to the low 30s. With the presidential campaign kicking into gear, the Kentucky governor’s race is likely to be the most closely-watched contest in the run-up to 2020, and Trump aides acknowledge alarm bells will go off if one of the president’s closest allies loses in a state that Trump won by nearly 30 percentage points.

“You want to be winning and not losing in red states ahead of your reelection bid,” said Scott Jennings, a Louisville-based Republican strategist who served as a top political aide in the George W. Bush White House. “I think having the president come and remind everyone what’s at stake is important.”

Bevin has visited the White House so frequently that his presence in the West Wing has become a running joke among some Trump aides. Since Jan. 2018, the Kentucky governor has visited the White House 10 times, according to a count provided by an administration official. Over the past year, the White House has dispatched at least nine cabinet heads and top officials to Kentucky to promote the Trump agenda with the governor. First daughter Ivanka Trump has gone twice.

...The governor’s plight has caused unease across the party. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who defeated Bevin in a bitter 2014 primary, has put aside the past rivalry and instructed his political team to be helpful to the governor in any way he wants. Aides to both men have been in touch.

McConnell, who wields a formidable political apparatus in the state, has much at stake in the governor’s race. Like Trump, the GOP leader is on the ballot in 2020 and a Bevin loss could further energize Democrats who are eager to take McConnell down.

The fact that Democrats are even competitive in the Kentucky governor’s race represents a remarkable turn of fortunes. Republicans control both U.S. Senate seats, five of the state’s six congressional seats, the governorship, and both chambers of the state legislature. Barack Obama’s aggressive efforts to address climate change, many believe, deeply undercut the Democratic Party’s prospects in the coal-dependent state.

But Bevin in nonetheless in jeopardy. After narrowly winning the 2015 gubernatorial primary, he picked a series of high-profile fights, most notably with public school teachers. Last week, Bevin, who’s waged an intense campaign to reform the state’s pension system, came under fire for blaming striking teachers for the shooting of a 7-year-old girl who had stayed home because school had been shut down.

“The governor has a tough reelection, largely because he’s not a part of the political establishment and has ruffled feathers and gotten into fights in Frankfort,” said Nick Everhart, a Republican strategist with extensive experience in the state.

The governor’s political standing is so precarious that he's being forced to spend campaign funds more than six months before the election. Bevin on Thursday purchased about $500,000 worth of May commercial airtime.

State Attorney General Andy Beshear, the son of popular former Gov. Steve Beshear, is widely considered the front-runner in a May 21 Democratic primary that also includes state House Minority Leader Rocky Adkins and former state Auditor Adam Edelen.

People close to Bevin say his general election campaign will focus heavily on the president. The hope, they say, is that the president will help win over many of the blue-collar voters who backed Trump in 2016 but who’ve soured on the governor over his push for pension reform.

And they’re eager for Trump to savage Bevin’s eventual Democratic opponent.

“I hope the president uses his political capital in Kentucky because he’s got it here,” said Steve Robertson, a former Kentucky GOP chairman. “I think he could make a huge difference.”

In February, PPP surveyed Kentucky voters in regard to the 2020 Senate race and found that a generic Democrat is within the margin of error-- 45-42% in a race to release McTurtle. Their key findings:

• There are signs Mitch McConnell is losing Trump voters. Among people who voted for Trump in 2016, 36% disapprove of McConnell’s job performance and 40% say they think it’s time for someone new to hold his Senate seat.

 • Many who voted fro McConnell in 2014 have soured on him. Among people who voted for McConnell in 2014, 30% disapprove of his job performance and 32% say they think it’s time for someone new to hold his Senate seat.

 • McConnell’s standing in Kentucky among Republicans pales in comparison to Trump’s. Only 47% of Republicans approve of the job McConnell is doing, compared to 87% of Republicans who approve of Trump’s job performance. 39% of Republicans disapprove of the job McConnell is doing while only 12% disapprove of Trump’s job performance. Only 47% of Republicans think McConnell deserves to be reelected, and 44% of Republicans think it's time to elect someone new.


Republican Of The Year Nominee #3: Governors' Edition

2016 In Review: America Off The Rails, Part 7


You bet, Maine's Paulie No-Brains is a contender!

by Noah

It’s not easy to pick the primo nominees for Republican Of The Year. For this installment of America Off The Rails, I’ve decided to narrow the field to just republican governors. Still, so many choices, so little time! It’s daunting. Where does one start? How does one judge?

Do we go by racism? No. Too easy and too all-encompassing. It’s difficult to get far enough to be a republican candidate for anything if you haven’t at least exhibited some sort of racism to polish your republican credentials somewhere along the way. At this point, I don’t think they even accept your application unless you’ve shown that you might someday strike a match to burn a cross.

So, how do we decide? Environmental policy? Wage and labor issues? Voting rights? LGBTQ stance? Immigration? Misogyny? Demeanor? Obvious insanity? Do the knuckles touch the ground? Chances are any republican governor has nearly all if not all of these bases covered, really covered!

My solution to this dilemma is to just play a game of word association with myself. I’ll type out a name of a republikook governor, any one of whom is a nominee for Republican Of The Year in his own right, who “served” in 2016, and see what instantly pops into my mind -- what about that goon leaps to the forefront of my mind as soon as I picture his or her visage or think of their name?

So, here goes!


CHRIS CHRISTIE, New Jersey

[Click on any cartoon to enlarge]

Ewwwee, this is a bad start. I’m from NJ. This is personally embarrassing. He even grew up in the town next door to the one I’m from, and I don’t remember anything that bad -- bad as Chris Christie.

Nah, he’s bad, but he’s not the worst. He’s just a dumb loudmouth bully type who should have been punched hard in the face in the fifth grade and sent home crying pathetically to his mommy. Because no one did that, we all have to suffer years later. Wasn’t it hideous to watch him chasing Trump around, trying to affix his fat lips permanently to Trump’s fat ass? Damn. And that expression on poor, sad Mrs. Christie’s face, forced to stand onstage with hubby and Trumpie as she watched. She chose . . . poorly.


SCOTT WALKER, Wisconsin



Not bad, ROTY-wise. Definitely a possibility. Scotty, you’ve done the voter-suppression thing to the max. You’ve earned praise from fellow repugs as you brought your state’s Argentina of America tendencies to the forefront. You’re a fine example of how to install a fascist government. Because of that, republicans consider you presidential material. Scott, you are the envy of republicans everywhere.

Not bad at all, Scott. Good try, but no. You’re a loser. Sad. Let’s move on.


PAT McCRORY, North Carolina



Oh, if you’re a republican, he’s good. Great grades on voter suppression. Previous career as a defense lawyer for a company that ignored environmental laws and dumped huge amounts of coal ash into once pristine rivers.

Screw those kayakers! Screw the fishermen! Screw the fish! Screw the water birds. And once in office, he kept right on defending the polluters.

He’s true to what he is: a total jackass! Oh and let’s not forget that bathroom bill, the one that messed up his reelection.

McCrory really has that republican obsession with urination down. But is he as good as --


MIKE PENCE, Indiana



In July, I posted ("With The Selection Of Mike Pence For VP, Republicans Have Now Checked All The Hate Boxes") how you put the finishing touch on the Trump ticket with your virulent homophobia. I mentioned how republicans were mighty concerned about Trump being a little weak in that area. But you, Mike Pence, you are the man! You came to the rescue and joined the ticket. Dare I say, your presence put Trump over the top?

But it wasn’t just that. Your KKK index is through the roof. Your brand of fake Christianity is second to none. That little “Religious Freedom Restoration Act” was pure inspiration to fellow sociopaths like McCrory. When it comes to being pro-discrimination, you, sir, are an asshole among assholes. No wonder Comrade Trump picked you! Good thing, too, because you are so bonkers even Indiana was sick of your act.


SAM BROWNBACK, Kansas



Sammy! You’ve done well! You’ve turned your state into a laboratory for republican-tax-policy wet dreams. You killed regulations in Kansas. You rejected those wicked federal Medicaid subsidies that would have given Kansas citizens better and cheaper healthcare. You privatized Medicaid. You’ve created Conservative Utopia!

You famously said:

My focus is to create a red-state model that allows the Republican ticket to say, "See, we've got a different way, and it works."

You’ve done it better than anybody! You’ve slashed taxes like nobody’s business. Mitch McConnell adores you and says what you’ve done in your state is what he wants to do for the whole country!

And now your state is now bankrupt beyond any sane person’s nightmares. Congratulations! Mission accomplished! A couple of F-5 tornados would barely be noticed now! Well done!

It gets even better for you. Rumor has it that Comrade Trump wants to make you his secretary of agriculture. You’re on the way up. Fuck that little girl Dorothy. Screw her pooch! The Wicked Witch’s got nothin’ on you!


PAUL LePAGE, Maine



Paulie No-Brains, I hear you are one of 17 siblings! My god, are they like you? Are they out running loose? Are they all tragically multiplying and polluting the human gene pool forever and ever? Why haven’t your parents been arrested for crimes against humanity?

Even Politico, a news organization founded by Reagan and Bush types, has recently had to publicly wonder if you’re playing with a full deck.

But really, what republican anywhere is playing with a full deck? And oh, the irony when you said:

We need Mainers to understand our government is corrupt . . . The Maine people have to demand better from our elected officials.

And you’ve sure got that 19th-century racist thing going when you say things like:

The traffickers. These aren’t people who take drugs. These are guys by the name D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty. These type of guys that come from Connecticut and New York. They come up here, they sell their heroin, then they go back home. Incidentally, half the time they impregnate a young, white girl before they leave.

Ah, the old fear of miscegenation and dilution of white bloodlines! Sounds just like republican role model David Duke! Frankly, it also seems like a state that would elect you and even reelect you could actually use the introduction of some new genetic material. Just sayin’.

Yeah, you’re stone crazy, Paul LePage! But, ya haven’t poisoned or killed anybody, yet. You try. You’re a lot of talk, but you're up against a guy who is a real republican action figure --


RICK SNYDER, Michigan



We have a winner! Ricky, baby, you’ve really got the fascism thing down! You got a bill passed that even allows you to remove local governing bodies, just like you were running Bolivia!

Fortune Magazine recently even gave you position #1 as worst leader in the world! Too bad we haven’t landed on Mars yet, or that too would be within your grasp!

Like all republicans, you dream of a day when you can deprive all but the rich of healthcare and watch people die. But what really sets you apart? Well, that whole “Let them drink lead” concept you and your crew came up with clinches it. This is a masterstroke. No one else thought of that!

Sure, any republican would love to cut someone’s chemo treatments short and send them on their way to the funeral home. Any psycho like Paul “Crazy Eyes” Ryan would love to deprive a less-than-wealthy American of the chance to have a brain tumor removed. But you, Rick Snyder, are special! “Let them drink lead”! You poisoned the people you swore to serve! Lead in the drinking water, that’s genius! I can see your next campaign bumper sticker:

“GAS LEAKS FOR ALL!”

Or how about:

“EVERY TOWN A BHOPAL!”

It’s even better that so many of your victims in Flint are minorities! You thought of everything! And it doesn’t necessarily kill them, it may just make them suffer for their whole lives! Brilliant! Lead poisoning is the republican gift that keeps on giving. It lasts a lifetime!

You are a god, Rick Snyder! You win, hands down! Bin Laden would love to shake your hand!

2016 IN REVIEW: AMERICA OFF THE RAILS

Here it is, Noah's completed Year in Review for 2016:

Part 1, "Profiles in Cowardice: The Electoral College" (12/23/2016)
Part 2, "Republican Of The Year Nominee #1: Newt Gingrich" (12/27/2016)
Part 3, "The Trumpf Inauguration Committee Finds The Perfect Inauguration Entertainment At Last!" (12/29/2016)
Part 4, "Republican Of The Year Nominee #2: R-R-Reince Priebus" (1/2/2017)
Part 5, "Comrade Trump: The World’s Worst Cabinet Maker, Believe Me -- Meet The New Russian Oligarchs! (1)" (1/4/2017)
Part 6, "Comrade Trump: The World’s Worst Cabinet Maker, Believe Me -- Meet The New Russian Oligarchs! (2)" (1/5/2017)
Part 7, "Republican Of The Year Nominee #3: Governors' Edition" (1/9/2017)
Part 8, "Trump -- The Art And Acts Of The Emboldened: The Rise In Hate Crimes Under The Influence Of Comrade T" (1/10/2017)
Part 9, "Republican Of The Year Nominee #4: It's A Sad Thing When Cousins Marry Edition" (1/11/2017)
Part 10, "Republican Person Of The Year Nominee #5 -- And Winner!" (1/12/2017)
Part 11, "Comrade Trump: Inauguration Entertainment Update!" (1/15/2017)
Part 12, "A DWT Exclusive: We Have The First Draft Of Comrade Trump's Inauguration Speech!" (1/16/2017)

#

Is there anything besides crackpot ineptitude that can save us from a two-year nationwide Reign of Far-Right-Wing Terror?

This is a Washington Post map from November 5 of the partisan breakdown of state-legislature control following the 2014 election. [Click on it to enlarge.]

by Ken

When I went to retrieve a washingtonpost.com piece that had sent chills through me over the weekend, I wasn't surprised to find that Greg Sargent had taken note of it too. He begins a "Plum Line" post today, "Shellacked on the state level, Democrats chart a way out of the wilderness":

Reid Wilson had a great piece over the weekend reporting that Republicans, having expanded their control on the level of the states, are now planning to move forward with a “juggernaut of conservative legislation” in dozens of places, including in the 24 states where they are now in total control.

This is another reminder of a topic we’ve discussed before: The urgent need for Democrats to focus more energy and resources on making electoral and policy gains at the state level. . . .

Sure, he goes on to say, "As it turns out, there are now some signs that Dems are trying to do this: Various groups and party officials are planning new efforts along these lines." But then he goes back to say:

The picture Wilson’s piece paints is bleak for Democrats. In addition to enjoying total control of government in half the states, Republicans also control 31 governorships and two thirds of partisan legislative chambers. Wilson reports that all over the country, Republicans are planning new rounds of fiscally conservative tax policies; “right to work” laws that would further weaken labor unions; and fresh initiatives targeting abortion rights and environmental regulations, among other things. What can Democrats do about this, in the near and long term?

It's not surprising that Greg is looking at this nightmare from the vantage point of the near and long terms, and while I'm not persuaded by his answers to the question, they're better than mine. What can be done about this? My answer, roughly, is: Cower and tremble in abject terror. If the right-wing ideological thugs and the far-right crackpots can get and keep their act together, I don't see what can stop them.

At the state level, I mean. You see, Reid Wilson isn't one of those fancy-pants "national" political reporters. He deals primarily with politics on the state level, and the story he had to tell this weekend was a gruesome horror story of what we can expect to unfold at that level in the time between now and the next possibility for an electoral correction, in 2016. So today I'd mostly like to dwell in terror of those numbers, with the realization that the principal thing that stands between us and a two-year Reign of Far-Right-Wing Terror is the likelihood that too many of the numbers behind the numbers are far-right-wingers too crazy for prime time. But as piles of human waste like Scott Walker, FL GOV, John Kasich, and Rick Snyder have shown, a punishing amount of misery can nevertheless be inflicted from the Koch Bros. Playbook using lingo slung from the Right-Wing Think Tanks' Handbook. If you know how to say it right, almost anything in the hardest-core right-wing agenda can be sold to, or over the heads of, an electorate that wants little more than a few simple-minded slogans.


SO, TO THE NUMBERS!

The numbers Wilson presents in such stark prominence aren't new discoveries. In fact, he included them all, allowing for some still-undecided races, in his November 5 piece, "Republican sweep extends to state level." We've probably all heard most of them at one time or another. But maybe because it is, once again, only state political structures at issue, they don't quite register.

We get our first number from Reid's lead:

Legislators in the 24 states where Republicans now hold total control plan to push a series of aggressive policy initiatives in the coming year aimed at limiting the power of the federal government and rekindling the culture wars.

You got that, right?

• "24 states where Republicans now hold total control"

And in Reid's next graf we get two more eye-popping numbers:

The unprecedented breadth of the Republican majority — the party now controls 31 governorships and 68 of 98 partisan legislative chambers — all but guarantees a new tide of conservative laws. Republicans plan to launch a fresh assault on the Common Core education standards, press abortion regulations, cut personal and corporate income taxes and take up dozens of measures challenging the power of labor unions and the Environmental Protection Agency.

So:

• "the party now controls 31 governorships" [up from 29]

• "and 68 of 98 partisan legislative chambers" [up from 59]

And, oh yes:

• "Republicans also reduced the number of states where Democrats control both the governor’s office and the legislatures from 13 to seven"


"SO WHAT?" YOU SAY?

So plenty. Like for instance:

• "Republicans in at least nine states are planning to use their power to pass “right to work” legislation, which would allow employees to opt out of joining a labor union. Twenty-four states already have such laws on the books, and new measures have been or will be proposed in Wisconsin, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Ohio, Colorado, Kentucky, Montana, Pennsylvania and Missouri."

• "A new round of the culture wars is also inevitable in 2015. Mallory Quigley, a spokeswoman for the antiabortion Susan B. Anthony List, said she expects that measures to ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy will advance in Wisconsin, South Carolina and West Virginia. Missouri, too, is likely to take up some abortion-related bills.

"In Tennessee, voters gave the legislature new powers to regulate abortion, and state House Speaker Beth Harwell (R) has said her chamber will take up three measures requiring mandatory counseling, a waiting period and stricter inspections of clinics."

• "Conservative activists also are targeting Common Core, the national education standards adopted by 46 states and the District of Columbia over the past few years. Opposition from parent and community groups has become a hot political issue on the right over the past year, leading three states — Indiana, Oklahoma and South Carolina — to drop out of the program.

"Some states will attempt to join those three in leaving the program altogether. Others will try to change testing requirements or prevent the sharing of education data with federal officials. In recent interviews, several Republican governors who support Common Core say they expect debate in their forthcoming legislative sessions."

• "Republicans also are likely to take up measures diluting the power of the EPA, which has proposed state-by-state targets for reducing carbon emissions. A dozen states have challenged proposed EPA regulations on power plants in federal court."

• "New Republican governors in states such as Arkansas and Arizona and legislators in North Carolina, North Dakota and elsewhere will prioritize cutting personal or corporate income tax rates." (This despite the fact that: "States that have experienced a revenue boom from energy taxes will have to contend with falling receipts as the price of oil declines. Tax revenue in other states is coming in slower than expected, presenting a challenge in many of the 49 states that require balanced annual budgets.")


ARE YOU GETTING THE DRIFT?

Okay, here's more:

Legislators also will debate myriad less-partisan issues that have arisen as technology advances, including cybersecurity policies, regulations on electronic cigarettes and ride-sharing services. And the daunting specter of growing pension liabilities is likely to lead to contentious confrontations amid stretched budgets.

Lawmakers in a handful of states are considering how to regulate and tax the electronic cigarette industry; so far, three states have banned e-cigarettes from smoke-free workplaces, and Minnesota and North Carolina levy taxes on them. The e-cigarette industry, eager to avoid lawsuits and public relations disasters, has encouraged at least some regulations.

Several states are grappling with the rise of ride-sharing services, such as Uber, Lyft and Sidecar. Outgoing Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn (D) is likely to sign a measure regulating the emerging industry, and Uber is negotiating a similar agreement with Nevada regulators.

Some legislatures will debate “right to try” legislation, which would allow people with terminal illnesses access to experimental drugs before those drugs win final approval from the Food and Drug Administration. Arizona, Colorado, Louisiana and Missouri already have versions of such laws on the books.

And as marijuana legalization takes effect in two more states, in addition to the two where the drug was already legal, legislators in most states are expected to debate a rash of drug law revisions. Pure legalization bills will be introduced in 18 states, while decriminalization bills will be introduced in 15, according to a tally maintained by the pro-legalization Marijuana Policy Project.

TRUE, THERE ARE LIMITS AND QUALIFICATIONS

And you can read about some of them in both the Wilson and the Sargent pieces. But again, those limits and qualifications mostly have to do with just how far the crazies are prepared to try to go and how unified the GOP coalition of crazies, thugs, and garden-variety economic predators can remain.

But if any of these qualifications seem to you grounds for some sort of sigh of relief, I think we'll have to agree to disagree.

There are all sorts of reasons why we've landed in this fix, but the most important, obviously, is that for some years now the Far Right has been working these precincts with maximum diligence and with something like maximum financial support from their billionaire (and merely multimillionaire) sugar daddies. It didn't happen overnight, and if anybody thinks there's any plausible way to reverse it, we'll have to agree to disagree again.

It's entirely possible that 2016 will stall the trend, and maybe give the appearance of reversing it. Presidential election years are just that different from midterm elections. (And we know that, with regard to the U.S. Senate, it's the Republicans who will be on the spot in '16.) But this is putting the most optimistic face possible on the situation. Don't forget that after 2016, there's another midterm election coming up in 2018.

All I know is that I don't want to think about it, and I don't even want to talk about it anymore.

#

GOP Governor Brian Sandoval's Big Gamble Is Paying Off-- For Nevada's Working Families

Out of place among the crackpots, Brian Sandoval, bottom row, #3

I doubt many Republicans are worried that Colin Powell has been talking up universal, single-payer health care-- something considerably more progressive than the Obamacare compromise conservatives forced on a naive Obama.

Powell told the audience that countries in Europe, Canada and South Korea offer universal, single-payer health care and said he often asks why the United States has not implemented the same system.

"Whether it's Obamacare, or son of Obamacare, I don't care," Powell said. "As long as we get it done."

Powell, a retired four-star general, was diagnosed with prostate cancer and credits his survival to the universal health care provided by the United States military.

…"We are a wealthy enough country," Powell said, "with the capacity to make sure that every one of our fellow citizens has access to quality health care."

Perhaps, though, Republicans are more concerned that one of their most popular governors, Nevada's Brian Sandoval-- polling-wise on another planet from detested GOP governors like Rick Scott (R-FL), Tom Corbett (R-PA), Scott Walker (R-WI), Rick Snyder (R-MI), Paul LePage (R-ME), Bobby Jindal (R-LA), Nathan Deal (R-GA), Rick Perry (R-TX), Sam Brownback (R-KS), Nikki Haley (R-SC), John Kasich (R-OH) and Pat McCrory (R-NC).

Unlike this long list of despised GOP governors, Sandoval has been working across the aisle as a moderate who is not driven by ideology or by fear of teabaggers. Democrats don't even have an opponent against him for next year. (In contrast, Corbett, for example, is so unpopular that Republican legislators want to replace him as their nominee so that he doesn't drag the whole party down to defeat. There are 9 Democrats vying to get their party's nomination.) And then there's the whole question of health care. The unpopular Republican governors oppose it and are refusing to expand Medicaid or to cooperate with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Sandoval is doing everything in his power to bring health care to Nevada residents and watching his record on ObamaCare is not very different from watching that of any of the Democratic governors who have championed it.

Sandoval is the only Republican governor whose state is both running its own health insurance exchange this year and expanding its Medicaid program under the health law. He’s arguably doing more to put the Democrats’ signature law into place than any other Republican.

But in fully implementing Obamacare, Sandoval faces a double-edged sword: He’s helping bring health care coverage to a state with the second highest uninsured rate in the country, while he may be hurting his national ambitions because he’s not actively blocking the president’s law.

…“Sandoval’s approval numbers are stratospheric, so it’s a very small group of folks who are concerned about it,” said Jon Ralston, the state’s leading political analyst. The objections came from those on the far right who “seized on that because they don’t believe Sandoval is conservative enough.”

On health care, Democrats laud him too.

“I don’t know what the politics are from his standpoint but I think it’s the right decision,” said Democratic Rep. Dina Titus, whose Nevada district has one of the highest uninsured rates in the country. “People are signing up, fortunately, in Nevada and the website is working pretty well. We’ve been very aggressive.”

Politically, it helps that Nevada is a “purple” swing state with the second highest uninsured rate in the country and especially high uninsured rates among Hispanics, a key constituency that Republicans hope to attract. That makes it easier for the Republican governor to carry out President Barack Obama’s law.

But Sandoval, 50, is also seen as a GOP up-and-comer, and Obamacare implementation could crimp any national ambitions if the health law remains as unpopular with Republicans as it is today. There’s a hint of early 2016 vice presidential buzz around Sandoval, and Obamacare implementation could be a big negative.

…States were supposed to run their own insurance exchanges but most GOP governors refused, forcing the feds to take on the job. Nevada is the only GOP-governed state running an exchange, although New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez and Idaho’s Butch Otter are partnering with the feds this year and plan to run their own next year.

And once the Supreme Court made Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion optional at the state level, GOP governors split. Some high-profile ones like Rick Perry of Texas and Bobby Jindal of Louisiana have resisted. But at least eight Republican governors have also expanded Medicaid, including New Jersey’s Chris Christie, Arizona’s Jan Brewer, Michigan’s Rick Snyder and Ohio’s John Kasich.

If ObamaCare is successful before the Republican convention, Sandoval will be sitting in the cat bird's seat when they start looking to balance out the ticket. And then there's 2020 or 2024, which might be even more propitious for a moderate Hispanic Republican from a purple state. Of course, Sandoval is being hit from the far right. Even if no Democrat wants to take Sandoval on for governor, a mentally-deranged, neo-Nazi Mormon conspiracy-theorist, David Lory Vanderbeek, is already running against him… at least on YouTube:

Republican Elected Officials In Red States Are Giving Voters An Excellent Reason To Defeat Them Next Year

Joshua Holland, author of The Fifteen Biggest Lies About The Economy and a senior producer for Bill Moyers, has been spectacularly scrupulous in exposing right-wing talking points about the economy. This week he explained how "all private insurance premiums in the 25 red states that are refusing to expand their Medicaid programs will be 15 percent higher as a direct result of that decision." His overall assertion is what many people already knew in their hearts, namely that the single biggest problem with the rollout of the Affordable Care Act is a deliberate agenda of sabotage and obstruction by the Republican Party. Disingenuous conservatives are "complaining about insurance policies being cancelled and the ACA’s error-plagued exchanges at the same time as they actively work to keep millions of poor Americans from gaining coverage under the law’s Medicaid expansion."

The victims of Obamacare’s implementation problems being hit the hardest, by far, are those whose incomes fall between the federal poverty line and the eligibility cutoffs in those 25 states rejecting Medicaid expansion. Not only will they be left uncovered, they won’t even be eligible for the generous subsidies that people earning slightly more than they do can use to buy insurance. It’s brutally unfair. The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that 4.8 million poor adults may fall into that coverage gap-- about twice the number of people expected to pay more for their insurance when their substandard policies are cancelled.

And it gets worse. In 40 states, adults without children are ineligible for Medicaid regardless of their income level. In 30 states, the parents of children who qualify for Medicaid may not be eligible themselves. All of these people would be covered under Medicaid’s expansion, but they’re being left high and dry in the 25 states who have rejected expansion. And while the problems plaguing healthcare.gov result from mismanagement and a contracting boondoggle, those red state lawmakers who refuse to expand Medicaid are inflicting this harm intentionally, based solely on their ideology.

In other words, they’re actively working to maintain America’s shamefully high rate of uninsured. And that comes with deadly consequences. Because, in this country, we do ‘let ‘em die’-- we let the poor and the uninsured die from treatable illnesses every day.

Last week, the Texas Observer ran a heartbreaking essay by Rachel Pearson, who recalled being a young medical student volunteering at a free clinic in Galveston, Texas. Pearson had a patient-- a poor, uninsured patient-- who was obviously very sick. But Pearson couldn’t properly diagnose his ailment with the resources available to the clinic. When his pain became severe, she sent him to an emergency room, but the personnel there refused to treat him because his symptoms weren’t an immediate threat to “life or limb.” As time passed, his condition deteriorated until he began having difficulty breathing. It was only then that an emergency room finally admitted him and diagnosed the cancer that had metastasized throughout his body. “It must have been spreading over the weeks that he’d been coming [into the clinic],” she wrote. He died a few months later. “The shame has stuck with me through my medical training-- not only from my first patient, but from many more,” wrote Pearson, who now heads the clinic.

A 2009 study published in the American Journal of Public Health linked 45,000 deaths every year to the uninsured, even “after taking into account education, income, and many other factors, including smoking, drinking and obesity.” The lead researcher of the study, Andrew Wilper of the University of Washington School of Medicine, told the Harvard Gazette, “We doctors have many new ways to prevent deaths from hypertension, diabetes and heart disease-- but only if patients can get into our offices and afford their medications.”

This is the real-world backdrop for our fierce debates over Obamacare. Yet Republicans’ answer to the uninsured crisis is to claim that having no coverage at all is better than being enrolled in Medicaid. And that’s why conservatives have no legitimate leg to stand on in griping about the program’s flaws, no matter how deep they run. Because when it comes to health care, the American conservative movement has nothing constructive to offer to fix the problem of getting more people health insurance-- they can only whistle past the graveyard.

…Liberals like to point out that the Affordable Care Act was modeled on a conservative, market-friendly approach to reducing the number of uninsured-- a plan born at the Heritage Foundation and championed by such conservative luminaries as Newt Gingrich.

But that’s only half true. It was a Republican plan 20 years ago, when conservatives still expressed an interest in governing responsibly. Today’s tea party-dominated movement sees health insurance as something that fosters dependency on the government, and must therefore be limited to those who can afford it themselves or get it from their employers.

Liberals have every reason to be dismayed over the maddeningly problematic launch of the Affordable Care Act’s exchanges because their preferred route to expanding coverage-- building on the popular and already functional Medicare system-- would have avoided many of the problems plaguing this overly complex, public-private scheme. But conservatives, serving up only red-meat rhetoric about government takeovers and litigation run amok, have nothing real to offer in terms of solutions. As such, in a rational world they should have nothing to say about Obamacare’s rocky rollout.

As Jonathan Martin explained to NY Times readers yesterday, implementation of Obamacare is dividing Republican governors. At the Republican Giovernors Association meeting in Scottsdale this week there was what Martin calls a "sharp disagreement among those who have helped carry out the law and those who remain entrenched in their opposition." This is, for example, the difference between obstructionists like Scott Walker and Rick Perry and more mainstream conservatives like John Kasich and Chris Christie.

The governors who refused the Medicaid expansion money that is part of the health care law-- believing they had found a wedge issue-- are already boasting about it.

“I said no,” Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin said, “because if I took the Medicaid expansion I’d be dependent on the same federal government that can’t get a basic website up and going even after two and a half years to come through with payments for Medicaid in the future when they start weaning off paying for 100 percent of coverage.”

Under the new law, the federal government pays the entire cost of Medicaid expansion for three years and 90 percent after that.

Mr. Walker, who is seen as a candidate who can potentially bridge the differences between the Tea Party and the Republican establishment, said conservatives would have long memories on how the law was carried out.

“I don’t think it’s a deal-breaker, but I think it’s pretty high on the importance list for a lot of voters out there,” he said.

...Mr. Walker and Mr. Perry are not the only ambitious Republicans to sound a “Where were you on Obamacare?” line of attack. Senator Rand Paul said this week that Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, perhaps the leading 2016 contender among establishment Republicans, would have to answer for his decision to take the Medicaid money.

“On the case of the New Jersey governor, I think embracing Obamacare, expanding Medicaid in his state is very expensive and not fiscally conservative,” Mr. Paul said.

He added, “Many Republican governors I would say are conservative did resist expanding and accepting Obamacare in their states.”

Mr. Paul’s criticism underlines one of the challenges governors face as they contemplate presidential campaigns. House members and senators do not face the same dilemma: While members of Congress vote on legislation, bills can be passed without their support. But governors face decisions that affect the residents of their states.

Gov. John Kasich of Ohio expressed this political fact of life, becoming animated as he was questioned at a meeting with reporters here about his decision to expand Medicaid.

“I always try to put myself in the shoes of somebody else to say: ‘How would I feel if I didn’t have health insurance? Are you kidding me?’” said Mr. Kasich, who has been mentioned as a 2016 hopeful, his voice rising. In defending Medicaid, he spoke at length about the scourge of drug addiction and challenges faced by those with mental illnesses.

“It’s going to save lives,” he said. “It’s going to help people, and you tell me what’s more important than that.”

The issue is a particularly delicate one among Republican governors, not only because they have disagreed on whether to take the Medicaid money, but because Mr. Christie, already a leading figure in the party, formally took over the Scottsdale meeting as the association’s chairman.

…Mr. Kasich, asked if taking the funding could hamper his own presidential prospects, shot back, “Is that how you’re going to make a decision?”

At least they can all agree about one thing: Congress is a mess-- and the Republican governors don't seem to have any problem throwing John Boehner and his cronies under the bus.

• Rick Scott (R-FL)- "It's pure insanity, what's coming out of there"
• Nikki Haley (R-SC)- "Chaos… we don't like the job they're doing"
• Bobby Jindal (R-LA)- "Dysfunction"
• Chris Christie (R-NJ)- "incredible contrast between what you see being discussed here… as opposed to what's going on in Washington, D.C."

And it's not just Republican governors bemoaning their own party's extremists in Congress. On a fat cat donor call sponsored by Rove, McConnell blamed Ted Cruz and Mike Lee for the ugly mess the Republicans find themselves in as they head into the 2014 midterms. McConnell said that the Tea Party movement is "nothing but a bunch of bullies" that he plans to "punch… in the nose."

On the call, according to a donor who was on it, McConnell personally named Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) as Tea Party conservatives he views as problematic for him. “The bulk of it was an attack on the Tea Party in general, Cruz in particular,” the source, a prominent donor, said in a phone interview with Breitbart News.

But the most memorable line came at the end of the call.

“McConnell said the Tea Party was ‘nothing but a bunch of bullies,’” the source said. “And he said ‘you know how you deal with schoolyard bullies? You punch them in the nose and that’s what we’re going to do.’”

Rove, as well as American Crossroads President and CEO Steven J. Law who also serves as the president of sister group Crossroads GPS, were also on the call. Rove “talked in a slightly gentler way, or let’s say, a more diplomatic way,” the source said. “But the message was pretty well the same: That if we’re going to save this thing, we have to back real Republicans.”

Tom Corbett And His Big Bong Theory

The Tea Party Tide swept a lot of toxic garbage into governors' mansions across the country-- Rick Scott in Florida, Scott Walker in Wisconsin, Sam Brownback in Kansas, John Kasich in Ohio, Rick Snyder in Michigan, Bob Forced Ultrasound McDonnell in Virginia, Nathan Deal in Georgia, Nikki Haley in South Carolina, Puppet Pat in North Carolina, Jan Brewer in Arizona, Paul LePage in Maine, Mike Pence in Indiana, Rick Perry in Texas... to name some of the worst of the worst. How do you actually name one overall worst though? Very difficult... but no one could leave Pennsylvania's Tom Corbett out of the finals.

Corbett has been a disaster for Pennsylvania and, par for the course, the Democrats would like to offer someone just a little tiny bit better (New Dem Allyson Schwartz). Pennsylvania can do a lot better. Polls show that Pennsylvanians do not want to see Corbett get a second term and that they will support any plausible candidate against him. We found two good one so far, John Hanger and Tom Wolf.

And as if Corbett wasn't in enough trouble with voters, on Monday his excuse for high unemployment rates in his state-- Pennsylvania ranks 49th in job creation since he's become governor-- is that his constituents are a bunch of pot heads. "There are many employers that say, 'we’re looking for people, but we can’t find anybody that has passed a drug test,' a lot of them," Corbett told a radio audience. "And that’s a concern for me because we’re having a serious problem with that."

John Hanger responded with the video above and by reminding Pennsylvania voters that the state doesn't rank 49th-- when just a few years ago it ranked 7th-- because of drug tests. "How insulting to the hundreds of thousands of people looking for a job or for full time work!"

"The real reason Pennsylvania has created zero jobs over the last 12 months is because Corbett is the one under the influence -- the influence of failed economic policies and Grover Norquist. He has slashed state funding to schools and communities, refuses to tax gas drillers, strangles the renewable energy industry, fails to fund repairs to our roads and bridges and turns down $4 billion a year for Medicaid expansion that would create 41,000 jobs.

"Rather than take responsibility for the failures of his own economic policies, the governor tries to blame the victims-- the people out of work-- for Pennsylvania’s poor job performance.

"According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Pennsylvania was the only state in the country to lose seasonally adjusted jobs between March 2012 and March 2013. The Commonwealth was 11th in jobs growth 2009 and 7th in 2010, but now in March 2013 Pennsylvania’s non-seasonally adjusted job creation ranking was 49th. We were 50th for seasonally-adjusted job creation. Pennsylvania’s job creation is plummeting even as the national economy created 3.8 million jobs in 2011 and 2012.

"If we just kept up with the national job creation rate, we should have added about 60,000 to 80,000 jobs just in 2012. Instead, Pennsylvania is the only state in the nation that lost jobs between March 2012 and March 2013.

"Tom Corbett clearly does not understand our economy or what it takes to get out-of-work Pennsylvanians back on the job. I do... Pennsylvania cannot afford another four years Tom Corbett. Let’s send him packing."