(Permanent Musical Accompaniment To This Post)

Being our semi-regular weekly survey of what's going down in the several states where, as we know, the real work of governmentin' gets done and where you can leave the stepping stones behind because something calls for you.

We begin down deep in the heart of Texas, where the Houston Chronicle tells us about some civic-minded teenagers who're getting some good old-fashioned John Bell Hood cosplay.

Despite that, some Republicans at the Texas GOP convention in Dallas in early May tried unsuccessfully to get wording added to the state party's platform to allow for a statewide vote on secession in a move that made national headlines.



During Wednesday's debate in the Boys State House session, Speaker Ryan Williams said that with 1,035 members of Boys State present -- the largest Boys State ever in Texas -- he wanted history to be made. During speeches, he and other supporters urged delegates to approve the secession bill because the federal government does not "accurately represent the wishes of Texas."





There are days on which I think seriously of consulting with some experts in the field and re-animating William Tecumseh Sherman and telling him to turn right at Chattanooga this time and not stop until he gets to the Grand Canyon. There are some things that history tells you not the monkey around with. This is at the top of the list.

Sliding north, we find ourselves in the failed state of Kansas, now in the fifth year of the Brownbackian Dark Ages, as such things are reckoned. Somehow, the fact that Kansas' status as a supply-side lab rat has dropped the state down a political garbage chute the likes of which hasn't been seen since they shredded the Articles of Confederation is beginning to seep under the guardhouses of the gated communities. The head of a healthcare company is fleeing to the Missouri border and he's not shy about telling the world why.

From Pathfinder Health Innovations CEO Jeff Blackwood:

It wasn't just that Brownback was conservative; it was that he is seen as a tool of the Koch brothers and ALEC, a conservative think tank and lobbying organization. Brownback used his influence and funding to eliminate "moderate" republicans from the Kansas legislature and install his hand-picked conservative cronies. He couldn't do the same with the Kansas Supreme Court, which has ruled a number of the conservative legislature's laws as unconstitutional, so Brownback's administration decided to threaten to cut off funding to the court system and is actively pursuing legislation to impeach the Supreme Court.



Kansas has become a test center of "trickle down" economics, espoused by economist Arthur Laffer during the Reagan years. Nowhere has there been as thorough an implementation of Laffer's policy recommendations… and nowhere has there been as dramatic a failure of government. Under Brownback's direction, Kansas implemented an unprecedented tax cut in 2012, eliminating taxes for LLCs and professional firms (for full disclosure, PHI is a C Corporation) and making the largest cuts in the highest tax brackets. He shifted taxes to create a heavier burden on property and sales taxes, which typically represent a larger burden on lower income brackets. Brownback declared that this tax cut would be a "shot of adrenaline" for the Kansas economy, but the reality is that the tax cuts have had the opposite effect. Kansas lags neighboring states in job growth. For 11 of the last 12 months, Kansas has dramatically missed revenue targets, falling deeper in debt and facing another round of degraded bond ratings.



The worst part is that the burdens for the shortfalls rest on the shoulders of those who can least afford it – children and the developmentally disabled.









No kidding, tell us what you really feel.

The funding problems got so bad that Osawatomie State Hospital's mental health ward had to significantly cut staffing. Over 40% of their staff positions were dormant, leaving the remaining staff overworked and unprepared. This understaffing resulted in an improperly released patient murdering a 61-year-old man, and a hospital worker was raped, having to rely on other patients to save her. In January 2016, the Osawatomie State Hospital lost its certification to provide mental health services, cutting off federal funding that counted for roughly half of the hospital's revenue. It is unclear what will happen to the patients and staff at Osawatomie State Hospital, leaving the fates of the patients in limbo.



The state's public education system, once considered one of the best in the nation, hasn't been spared, either. You'll hear claims from Kansas officials that funding to education is at an all time high, but it's just an accounting trick – they chose to shuffle money for special education and retirement funds through the schools so it could appear as an increase on the books. Salary freezes, underfunding to the point of being ruled unconstitutional, laws allowing teachers to be imprisoned for introducing potentially "offensive" content, cuts and delays in $100 million in payments to the state-run retirement fund, and legislation specifically targeted to cripple the Kansas teacher's union are all part of an ongoing effort to undermine the public education system in Kansas. Instead, the Brownback administration plans to offer vouchers to encourage families to send their children to private and religious schools.



To double down on these policies, Brownback is now ignoring the $250 million shortfall predicted for 2016, instead opting for headlines about closing Kansas to refugees and blaming the "liberal media" for the state's economic woes.



In the end, I believe the goals of the Brownback administration are going exactly to plan – starve the state of resources to the point where it just makes sense to turn over critical government functions to for-profit entities. I can't, in good conscience, continue to give our tax money to a government that actively works against the needs of its citizens; a state that is systematically targeting the citizens in most need, denying them critical care and reducing their cost of life as if they're simply a tax burden that should be ignored. It's because of these moves that I have decided to deny Kansas revenue from Pathfinder's taxes by moving our company to Missouri.













This guy says it flat out–Brownback has engineered the failure of government in Kansas to prove to himself and to the world that government inevitably fails. It's not often that you see it made that plain, and now it's time to point out that enough voters in Kansas showed up and re-elected this cluck in what only can be seen now as a suicide pact.

Of course, that election fell well within the margin of chicanery due to the efforts of Kris Kobach, one of the Founding Fathers of modern Jim Crow election law. This week, having had his head handed to him by a federal court, Kobach graciously declined to be cited for contempt. Per The Kansas City Star:

Just weeks ago, U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson pointed out that only three noncitizens had voted in a federal election in Kansas between 1995 and 2013. She included that fact as she ruled against one of Kobach's attempts to disenfranchise thousands of voters.



And after the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to stop that ruling from taking effect, Kobach caved in Tuesday to meet a court order.



The Republican official finally provided instructions to election officials across Kansas on their duty to register at least 18,000 people whose eligibility for federal elections had been in limbo.



Many more could be registered before the November elections, which could mean up to 50,000 people could be helped by the judicial actions.



Kobach had pushed through a Kansas law that insisted people provide proof of citizenship when registering to vote, including when they get their driver's licenses. Robinson said that likely violated laws designed to make it easier to vote in federal elections.

















Please, Kansas. Wise up. Take a tip from the government of Alabama, which is presently going to the zoo with remarkable speed. Per Al.com:

The impeachment hearings will be treated as quasi-judicial under rules the committee adopted today during a meeting that lasted about two and a half hours.



Bentley did not attend, but three lawyers representing him were there.





The impeachment articles, signed by 23 House members in April, accuse the governor of willful neglect of duty and of corruption in office but provide no specifics on those allegations. Bentley attorney Joe Espy said the governor's legal team has asked for specifics. "That's the only way we can address them, and respectfully, that's the only way the committee can address them," Espy said.





They haven't done this for a while so, according to MSNBC, the Alabama legislature is going back to the classics.

"We're having to create this as we go because we haven't impeached anybody since 1915," committee spokesman Clay Redden told NBC News. "They left no documentation behind. So the committee is using the Blagojevich rules Illinois used."



Blagojevich was impeached in 2009 for abuse of power and corruption and ousted from office. He is now serving a 14-year sentence in federal prison for, among other things, trying to sell the Senate seat vacated by then President-elect Obama.





Bentley should be proud. There has been no more hilariously venal scandal in the past 10 years than Blagojevich's peddling that "fcking golden" Senate seat. It's like getting Capone's cell or something.

And we conclude, as is our custom, in the great state of Oklahoma, where Official Blog Black Angus Valet Parking Attendant Friedman of the Plains brings us the Tulsa World's account of how Kansas is creeping south.

The Common Education Technology Revolving Fund, one of six revenue sources used to fund the state aid funding formula in Oklahoma, came up $16.3 million short. That means local schools will see their June payments from the state — their final of the fiscal year — shorted once more.



Matt Holder, chief operations officer at the State Department of Education, said the agency warned local districts about the likelihood of this shortfall a little over a month ago. "The biggest effect on the districts is on fiscal year 2017. It's going to reduce their cash fund balances moving into the next year because it's impossible to make any cuts at this late date."





Like almost anything else in Oklahoma, this all has to do with the fact that the world decided not to be such gluttons about oil any more. Being a petro-state isn't what it's cracked up to be any more.

This is your democracy, America. Cherish it.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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