Conservatives Don't Want To Pay To Help Victims Of Climate Disasters-- And Don't Want The Government To Work Towards Ameliorating Climate Change

GOP crackpots Tom Massie (KY) and Chip Roy (TX)

Last Thursday, Trump allowed Senate Republicans to vote for a $19.1 billion disaster relief bill. All the Democrats and all but 8 Republicans-- Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Mike Braun (R-IN), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Mike Lee (R-UT), Martha McSally (R-AZ), Rand Paul (R-KY), Jim Risch (R-ID) and Mitt Romney (R-UT)-- voted AYE. They rushed it over to the House where Hoyer asked for routine unanimous approval. One far right freak decided to screw things up for all the people in desperate need of those resources, freshmen asshat Chip Roy, who represents an Austin/San Antonio gerrymandered district that is lookin' a little swingy. Roy-- former Ted Cruz chief of staff-- beat one of the 2 or 3 worst DCCC recruits last cycle, right-of-center Blue Dog Joseph Kopser 177,654 (50.2%) to 168,421 (47.6%). This cycle he's likely to be beaten by progressive all-star Wendy Davis.

Democrats are eager to get the aid flowing to people hurt by natural disasters, ironically mostly in red states + Puerto Rico. With most members out for the week, the only way to do it is with unanimous consent and when Hoyer tried again yesterday, another right-wing crackpot, this time Tom Massie (R-KY) refused. Unlike most of his colleagues, Massie doesn't have to be back in his district speaking with voters since he represents a deep-red zombie district north and west of Louisville where most voters just vote straight Republican no matter what. McCain won with 61.5%, Romney with 63.4% and Trump with 65.2%. The PVI is a prohibitive R+18 and Massie was reelected last year 162,946 (62.2%) to 90,536 (34.6%) for Democrat Seth Hall. Massie won all 20 counties-- and not one of them was close. So instead of holding town halls in the suburbs south on Cincinnati or west of Huntington, West Virginia, or in Owenton, Carrollton or Shelbyville, he can make a pest of himself in DC.

Basically all the Democrats and all but a tiny number of Republicans will vote for the bill when they return next week. Hoyer will give it another shot on Thursday, the day before the national flood insurance program, in the bill expires. Roy opposes the bill because there's no money in it to build a wall-- his constituents had better be praying there's no nature catastrophe (other than Roy) in their district because I suspect, the money wouldn't be approved-- and Massie is against it because the bill doesn't cut back on other programs to pay for this one.

Earlier today we looked at how the Bush Regime is cracking down on scientistic research that exposes the inadequacy of the non-response to Climate Change. This ids what the Republican Party has devolved into. As charlatan Franklin Graham declares a national day of prayer for Trump on Sunday, one Trumpist governor, Ron DeSantis (R-FL), whose state is in grave danger of existential flooding, is hiring "a Chief Resilience Officer, someone who will work to 'prepare Florida for the environmental, physical and economic impacts of climate change, especially sea-level rise.'" Trump's policies will hasten the destruction of communities along Florida's coasts but DeSantis' Chief Resilience Officer will try to... prepare them. Time for Republicans to start pulling their heads out of their asses. Even the ex-governor-- and now senator-- Rick Scott a long-time Climate Change denier now says "Climate Change is real and requires real solutions." In fact, the most right-wing and moronic Trumpist from Florida in Congress, the usually brainless Matt Gaetz, who had whole towns in his district wiped out last year, reluctantly admitted that "Climate change isn't something people get to choose to believe or not, it's happening... I can tell the earth is warming based on overwhelming scientific evidence and I don't think it's a coincidence that we've released like 300 years of carbon in the last several decades."

The new positions represent a watershed moment in a state with more to lose than any other. It feels like that moment in the Wizard of Oz, where the movie turns from black-and-white to color. That both offices will be housed in the governor's suite-- and report directly to DeSantis-- sends a serious message.

With the exception of House Speaker José Oliva, Florida's Republican leaders no longer deny the reality of climate change, which every major scientific organization recognizes is real, is exacerbated by human activity and poses an existential threat.

...A sense of optimism is emerging among Florida scientists, environmentalists and government officials who have spent the past eight years frustrated by the Scott administration's head-in-the-sand approach to the rising waters, extreme rainfalls and more-powerful hurricanes on the radar.

But while encouraged, they're also reserving judgment. For while DeSantis pushed the Florida Legislature to find $686 million for Everglades repair, Lake Okeechobee fixes and springs restoration-- all important elements of the climate-change picture-- his muscle was missing behind a bill that would have required state contractors to consider sea-level projections when building in coastal areas.

Unfortunately, most Trump supporters are more likely to get into Franklin Graham's Day of Prayer for Trump than they are to embrace the Green New Deal.

The Turner Diaries

If you're not a reader of the Hollywood Reporter you probably missed Thursday's brilliant OpEd by actress and activist Kathleen Turner: I've Had Enough. I serve with Kathleen on the board of People For the American Way and have found her to be an inspiration for many years. Her passion for equality is infectious and uplifting.

Oh, please.

I would have thought by now that I wouldn’t be reading news stories about a "who’s who of the next generation of Republican Party leaders"-- all men-- running around trying to enact a national ban on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

I had hoped I wouldn’t see another photo of a male governor, surrounded by smiling men, signing a bill forbidding counselors from even discussing abortion with rape survivors.

Or another, who had promised women in his state that he wouldn’t pass any more abortion restrictions, sneaking through an effort to close clinics in a motorcycle safety law.

I would have thought that at least most members of the House of Representatives would have learned the basic facts of reproduction, for instance that rape can in fact result in pregnancy.

A question I have been longing to ask-- Who the hell are you to tell me what I can do with my body?

Instead of making progress in cementing women’s rights to control our own bodies and our own futures, it feels these days like we’re sliding back down the long hill that we had to climb in the first place.

That’s why it was so exhilarating to watch Texas firebrand Wendy Davis literally stand up for 12 hours on behalf of women in her state… and so predictably deflating to have her filibuster stopped by men who literally refused to let her speak.

The Guttmacher Institute counts 43 new restrictions on reproductive rights in just the first six months of this year. A new report from People For the American Way outlines some of the most common ways right-wing politicians are trying to cut down on women’s access to reproductive care. They range from devious (laws like the new one in North Carolina that seek to close abortion clinics by regulating them out of existence) to just plain offensive (unenforceable bans on “race- and sex-selective” abortions).

Thank the Lord for the Wendy Davises of the world. Because everywhere that right-wing male politicians are trying to roll back the rights of women, progressive women legislators are there to speak up against them. I think of Lucy Flores, a Nevada Assemblywoman, who had the courage to speak of her own experience with abortion when she argued on behalf of comprehensive sex education in schools-- and was met with death threats. I think of the African-American women legislators in Florida who walked out of the statehouse when conservative lawmakers dared to compare black women who choose abortions to the Ku Klux Klan.

40 years after Roe v. Wade, we’re still fighting for the right to control our own bodies and to make our voices heard. But we sure won’t go down quietly. In last year’s presidential and Senate elections, women sent an unequivocal signal that we won’t be messed with. A new NARAL poll in Virginia finds that gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli’s regressive anti-woman policies are more than enough to turn women out to vote.

Let’s make sure that when we go to vote, we aren’t just voting against whatever backwards policies conservatives are pushing. Let’s vote for leaders like Wendy Davis and Lucy Flores, people who know what it’s like to be marginalized and won’t back down from fighting back.

I'd like to add to her list of women willing to stand up and fight against self-satisfied patriarchal-minded men, New Jersey state Senator Barbara Buono who has spent her entire career fighting men like these and has now taken on the uphill battle of fighting media-darling Chris Christie in his reelection battle. He is as aggressively anti-Choice and anti-equality as he can get away with. And yet the media remains asleep to the dangers-- or eager for a "good fight" in 2016 pitting Hillary Clinton against Christie, the only Republican who can beat her-- in Gerogia! The media has declared the New Jersey race done and Christie the winner by a landslide. Blue America doesn't accept that. Wednesday, Gail Collins, pretty much skipping over the Senate race entirely, already fighting against Christie 2016 on the pages of the NY Times:

There’s a side to Christie that reminds women of their worst boyfriends. In his race for governor in 2009, he won male voters by a wide margin. But women went for his opponent, Gov. Jon Corzine, 50 percent to 45 percent. This is a particularly startling figure when you add in the fact that Corzine had the personal warmth and communication skills of an unconscious flounder.

Democrats were eyeing that gender gap when they chose Barbara Buono, a state senator, and Milly Silva, a labor leader, to run for governor and lieutenant governor this fall. They’re bucking long odds. Christie’s record has a lot of weak spots, but he was terrific when it came to the cardinal rule in politics, which is to show up for bad weather. Voters never forget good behavior in a storm, and Christie was pretty near pitch-perfect during Hurricane Sandy.

But let’s get back to that infant race for the Republican presidential nomination. The WMUR Granite State Poll, which had Christie on top in New Hampshire, put Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky in second. So it was kind of fascinating last week when they got into a fight, carried out long-distance at top volume.

Christie started it, when he laced into a “strain of libertarianism” that he termed “very dangerous” to national security. This was a garbled broadside against Paul’s recent campaign against the government’s mass collection of phone and e-mail records. “I want them to come to New Jersey and sit across from the widows and the orphans (of 9/11) and have that conversation,” he concluded.

...In the end, the governor scored points only when the Yelling Guy was replaced by the rational politician with an actual point to make. What if it turns out that the most celebrated aspect of Chris Christie-- his high-decibel tough-talking-- is really his biggest handicap as a national candidate?

In that New Hampshire poll, Christie got 27 percent of the male vote and 14 percent of the women. All the other candidates mentioned were pretty much gender gapless. It’s just one little poll, but maybe we’re onto something. Maybe quiet and sane trumps loud and crazy, even in Republican primary politics.

Yeah... whatever. Or maybe people who recognize the danger of a Chris Christie-- loud or quiet-- should get behind stopping him now-- in New Jersey-- by standing up for Barbara Buono. Despite the pollsters and pundits, this race isn't over yet. You can help here.

Wendy Davis For Governor Of Texas?

Most Texas politicians-- both sides of the aisle-- got A+ or A grades from the NRA. Blue Dog Pete Gallego got an A- and Ft. Worth freshman Dem, Marc Veasy, was given a B+. Remember state Senator Leticia Van de Putte standing up the other night and asking what it takes for a woman senator to get recognized in the male-dominated Texas Senate? The NRA rated her a B. Of the dozens and dozens of Texas politicians the NRA rated, only six, all Democrats, got an F. One of those six was state Senator Wendy Davis.

In 2011, the Texas legislature passed a number of bills to gerrymander the state and to discourage voting among minorities. Davis voted against all of them. The conservative organizations that rate the work of Texas legislators all flunked Davis and the progressive organization and non-partisan reform groups all gave her the big thumbs up. Her average score among environmental groups is close to 100%. NARAL and the Texas Humane Society gave her 100%. Last year she was endorsed by the AFL-CIO, SEIU and the Texas League of Conservation Voters.

After watching her heroic performance Tuesday night, I called Michael Keegan, president of People for the American Way, Wednesday morning and asked him if she was a member of PFAW's Young Elected Officials. He acknowledged her youthful energy but pointed out that the cutoff age is 35 and that Davis, regardless of how great she looks and how much energy she has, is 50. I would have guessed 30's. But she was born in 1963 in Forth Worth, where is the area she represents in the Texas state Senate now-- although probably not for long, since Texas Republicans plan to gerrymander her district to get rid of her.

She comes from a broken home, started working at age 14, married when she was still a teenager, had a daughter and was divorced all before she was 20. She worked her way through college as a waitress, graduated #1 in her class from Texas Christian University... and then went to Harvard Law for her law degree. An inspiring American success story... but it may still be early in this story. Since finding herself on the national stage this week, there's a Texas-wide Draft Wendy for Governor movement which is gaining steam across the country.

This wasn't her first big deal filibuster. In 2011 she launched one against Rick Perry's budget because it chopped $4 billion from public education and gave much of it to his cronies and campaign donors in the private education arena. Perry called a special session back then too.

Right wingers have had Wendy Davis in their sites for a long time. On March 20, 2012, two Molotov cocktails were thrown at her office in Fort Worth. No one can say for sure where Rep. Steve Stockman, who was involved in the Oklahoma City bombing, was at the time. The police picked up a different homeless, crazy guy. Will Davis run for governor? No one knows for sure and that probably includes her, although she told Chris Hayes in the video above, she's thinking about it. Although there's no governor's campaign fund open for her yet, so people are contributing to her state Senate campaign fund-- and all that money is transferable into a gubernatorial race if she decides to run. Of course, not everyone is as enthusiastic as progressives are:

Could Davis beat Rick Perry if he runs again? Rachel Maddow is having trouble understanding why anyone votes for Perry. I don't get that either.