Wisconsin GOP uses rare session to weaken incoming governor

Associated Press

Scott Bauer, Associated Press, Associated Press      December 3, 2018

Republican state lawmakers scramble to curb incoming Democrats’ power

Reuters

Republican state lawmakers scramble to curb incoming Democrats’ power

By Joseph Ax, Reuters      December 3, 2018

Midwestern Republicans Try To Kneecap New Democratic Governors

HuffPost

Kevin Robillard, HuffPost       December 3, 2018

Michigan Republicans scramble to rig the game before they lose power

MSNBC

The Rachel Maddow Show / The MaddowBlog

Michigan Republicans scramble to rig the game before they lose power

By Steve Benen         December 3, 2018
Image:
Protesters gather for a rally at the State Capitol in Lansing, Mich., Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2012. The crowd is protesting right-to-work legislation passed last…      Paul Sancya

 

We talked earlier about Wisconsin Republicans, after suffering a series of losses, scrambling to overhaul state government, rigging the game in their favor, before they’re forced to relinquish power in the new year. As it happens, an eerily similar situation is unfolding in a state next door.

For the first time in nearly three decades, voters in Michigan elected a Democratic governor, attorney general, and secretary of state. As the Detroit Free Press  reported the other day, GOP state legislators don’t appear to be taking it well:

As Democratic candidates prepare to take three statewide offices on Jan. 1 – governor, attorney general and secretary of state – Republican lawmakers introduced bills Thursday to challenge their authority.

State Rep. Robert VerHeulen, R-Walker, introduced a bill that would allow the state House of Representatives and Senate to intervene in any legal proceedings involving the state, which has traditionally been the purview of the state attorney general or the governor’s office.

In addition, state Sen. David Robertson, R-Grand Blanc, introduced a bill that would shift oversight of campaign finance law from the secretary of state to a six-person commission appointed by the governor. The panel members would be nominated by the state Republican and Democratic parties.

And that’s really just the start. The GOP-led state legislature – where Republicans rule thanks to one of the nation’s most egregiously gerrymandered maps – immediately got to work “substantially” scaling back minimum wage and paid-sick-leave laws approved by Michigan voters.

The Detroit Free Press’ Brian Dickerson called this what it is: a partisan “smash-and-grab.”

The question is whether outgoing Gov. Rick Snyder (R), who declined to endorse his party’s far-right candidate in the race to succeed him, intends to go along with these Republican schemes. As Dickerson put it, the retiring two-term governor “must decide whether he wishes to be remembered as the conservative accountant who brought order to Michigan’s fiscal house or the GOP apparatchik who enabled his party’s 11th-hour smash-and-grab.”

The path Snyder prefers is not yet clear.

Walmart is the poster child of corporate greed in America today

U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders

December 2, 2018

Walmart is the poster child of corporate greed in America today. We must demand that they pay a living wage.

Walmart Profits Off of Workers' Suffering

Walmart is the poster child of corporate greed in America today. We must demand that they pay a living wage.

Posted by U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders on Sunday, December 2, 2018

Experts deliver grim news on climate change!

Black People are left out of the gun control debate!

CollegeHumor with truTV

Watch an all-new @Adam Ruins Everything on truTV every Tuesday 10/9C!

Everyone Leaves Black People Out Of The Gun Debate

Watch an all-new @Adam Ruins Everything on truTV every Tuesday 10/9C! #AdamRuins

Posted by CollegeHumor on Wednesday, November 28, 2018

Michigan Republicans move to gut minimum wage and paid sick leave laws

Daily Kos

Michigan Republicans move to gut minimum wage and paid sick leave laws

WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 17: Gov. Rick Snyder, (R-MI), listens to members comments during a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing, about the Flint, Michigan water crisis, on Capitol Hill March 17, 2016 in Washington, DC. The committee is examining how lead ended up in the public drinking water in Flint, Michigan. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)With Rick Snyder on his way out, Michigan Republicans have to work fast.

Michigan Republicans are following through on a twisted plan they laid in September, when they somehow managed to make the act of passing a minimum wage increase and paid sick leave evil. By passing those bills, they intended to, and did, block ballot initiatives raising the minimum wage and passing paid sick leave. Voters didn’t get a chance to have their say on the policies because they were already law, while leaving them easily amended during the lame duck session. That’s what Republicans are gearing up to do now.

One ballot initiative that Republicans blocked would have raised the minimum wage to $12 in 2022. They’re now planning to push that back to 2030. That puts Michigan well behind Missouri, where voters passed a $12 minimum wage in 2023 this November. Michigan Republicans also plan to block tipped workers from eventually getting the full minimum wage. But they’re not done there. They’re also gearing up to slash the number of hours of paid sick leave that workers get, while exempting businesses with as many as 50 employees from the requirement.

Republicans are telling the usual lies about how terrible and job-killing these laws would be if not eviscerated, but come on! Ten states and Washington, D.C., have paid sick leave and more than half the states in the nation, Michigan included, have minimum wages above the federal level of $7.25 an hour. Study after study shows that economies do just fine. And the fact that Republicans cut and ran from a ballot vote, instead using dirty tricks to keep these popular policies off the ballot and then turning around and gutting them, shows that they know their arguments don’t hold water.

The good news is that once Democratic Gov.-elect Gretchen Whitmer is sworn in, there will at least be a check on the Republican power to be this slimy and dishonest.

Natural Gas Prices Have Gone Negative in Texas

DeSmogBlog

November 29, 2018

Natural Gas Prices in Texas have recently gone negative.

Texas Natural Gas Prices Go Negative

Natural Gas Prices in Texas have recently gone negative.

Posted by DeSmogBlog on Thursday, November 29, 2018

Air Pollution is more deadly than war, smoking and TB combined

EcoWatch

November 28, 2018