(Permanent Musical Accompaniment To This Post)

Being our semi-regular weekly survey of what's goin' down in the several states where, as we know, the real work of governmentin' gets done, and where we're happy just be alive underneath that sky of blue.

Before beginning our tour, a reminder that there are signifying state elections coming up in a number of places. The Virginia legislature is seriously up for grabs, and they're electing governors in Kentucky, Mississippi, and Louisiana. On MSNBC Thursday morning, Robert Costa reported that the administration* is particularly invested in keeping the unpopular Republican governor of Kentucky, Matt Bevin, in office, seeing that election as a good guidepost as to what may be coming next year. Both the president* and Mike Pence are going down to Mississippi in advance of that state's election to buck up Republican Tate Reeves, who generally is considered a colossal dick, but who's narrowly favored to beat Democratic Attorney General Jim Hood in a race that's closer than it ought to be.

And, in Louisiana, incumbent Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards is facing off against a Republican businessman named Eddie Rispone, who is nothing if not the best example we have of the kind of candidate other Republicans fear that the Republican base will unleash against them unless they follow the president* into the abyss. And Rispone is enough to make you wonder if that threat always has been as empty as it seems. Because, believe me, Rispone makes that New York omadhaun Carl Palladino look like Alexander Hamilton.

Matt Bevin is another keeper. Scott Olson Getty Images

On Wednesday night, while Game Seven was in commercial, I switched over to Louisiana Public Broadcasting to catch some of the debate between Edwards and Rispone. I thereupon missed most of the middle innings because I couldn't look away. Some debates are car wrecks. This was Figure-8 racing from Islip, Long Island. Every candidate cranks up the old fog machine in the latter stages of a campaign, but Rispone's is a threat to commercial aviation.

The man knows nothing about government. Not in the sense of "unfamiliar with the nuances of how political institutions operate," but in the sense of "ab-so-fcking-lute-ly nothing." His entire campaign seems to be based on the phrase, "I'm a businessman and I know how to get things done." (Huey Long would be appalled.) On occasion, Edwards had to use up half his allotted time to answer for the purposes of explaining to Rispone that, no, votes in the state legislature are not decided by rock-paper-scissors. For his part, Edwards, who was handed a dead fish by outgoing governor Bobby Jindal, defended his record and tried to get Rispone to respond to a question without sounding like he'd beamed in from Alpha Centauri.

"I am a person," Rispone replied on one occasion, "of myself."

Now who can argue with that? The race is considered a toss-up, by the way, and El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago is stopping by there, too. I fear for my country when I remember that God is smart.

While we're in the Gret Stet, let's check in on what businessmen like Eddie Rispone have been up to, shall we? Louisiana always has had what the Republicans like to call a "business-friendly environment," especially for those industries that leave cancer clusters in their wake. The good people at ProPublica, in cooperation with the Times-Picayune and the Advocate newspapers, discovered that those industries have been very, very busy making things very, very worse.

Though the air quality here has improved significantly since the 1980s, as it has in the rest of the nation, the recent history is less encouraging. Not only is toxic air pollution in Louisiana’s industrial belt rising in absolute terms, the estimated air quality relative to its peers is getting worse, an analysis by ProPublica, The Times-Picayune and The Advocate found.

And the burden is not being shared evenly. Many of the new plants planned in Louisiana’s petrochemical heart are being built in or near communities that EPA models estimate already have some of the most dangerous air in America. Our analysis shows the problems are especially acute in predominantly black and poor communities, like St. Gabriel, but whiter and more affluent sections — like neighboring Ascension Parish — are hardly immune.

All told, seven large new petrochemical facilities and expansions have been approved for places in the river corridor since 2015, according to air-permit files from the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality. Five more major projects — including the Formosa megacomplex in St. James — are awaiting approval.



Environmental Justice is an issue that occasionally gets buried by the justified concern over the climate crisis, but it's starting to break through. Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, and Kamala Harris have all put together detailed plans to fight environmental racism in places like Louisiana. Julian Castro has made environmental justice an essential part of his overall civil rights strategy. And, of course, the issue is specifically dealt with in the Green New Deal.

What are the stakes? These are the stakes.

“Out of every 10 houses, there’s a prospect of one or two people that have died of cancer,” said Terry Frazier, a hospital receptionist from St. Gabriel. Her grandfather and stepmother died of cancer, and she has respiratory problems she believes are tied to the 600-acre petrochemical complex across a fallow field from her house. Eugene Willis, 78, says air pollution killed his wife, Joyce. She convinced him to move to St. Gabriel from New Orleans, where he worked as a longshoreman. The city was no place to raise a family, she told him. “She said, ‘We’ve got to get out in the country, where there’s clean water, clean air,’” he said. “Little did I know we jumped from the frying pan into the fire.”



Poverty is a trap in so many ways.

Robin Vos believes the climate crisis is probably real. Andy Manis Getty Images

From Cancer Alley we move north to America's Dairyland, where the Republican leaders of the state legislature have their own plans to deal with tough issues like gun control and the climate crisis. They're going to ignore them. For example, Wisconsin House Speaker Robin Vos says he believes the climate crisis is "probably" real, but he's damned if he's going to let any Democrat do anything about it. From the Wisconsin State Journal:

In addition to questioning whether global warming is happening, Vos, R-Rochester, also denigrated a climate change task force created by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers earlier this month. Vos told WisconsinEye that he believes it was created for political purposes. And he said that if the goal of the group is to “make people on the left feel better about themselves, that’s a nonstarter.”



And, over in the state senate, Vos's counterpart, Scott Fitzgerald, has determined that gun-control laws will not be discussed in that chamber, no matter what Democratic Governor Tony Evers wants. From Wisconsin Public Radio:

Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said he won't hold hearings or debate a pair of gun control bills Democratic Gov. Tony Evers called a special session to consider. Fitzgerald, a Republican, told reporters Tuesday that "the support's not there to tackle these two issues."

Evers on Monday called a special session for the Legislature to take up two measures on guns. One would expand background checks for more types of gun purchases. The other is a "red flag" proposal, which would allow judges to take guns away from people determined to be risk to themselves or others. Fitzgerald said his intention is to convene the special session and then immediately adjourn it without taking action. Evers and Democrats point to polls showing 80 percent support for the ideas as a reason to vote on them. But Fitzgerald said Evers is "playing politics" with the issue.

Remember Wisconsin the next time somebody in Washington says that the Democrats want to "reverse" the 2016 election.

It seems like Scott Fitzgerald is interested in reversing an election. Justin Sullivan Getty Images

Back down South again, specifically to Mississippi, where, as the Jackson Free Press informs us, Lenny Bruce's perception of the justice system—that, in the halls of justice, the only justice is in the halls—is alive and well.

Octavious Burks and Joshua Bassett filed a class-action lawsuit in 2014 after Scott County jailed them without indictments, without representation and on unaffordable bail for multiple charges, ranging from attempted armed robbery and disorderly conduct to possession of methamphetamines, between 2009 and 2014.

"All told, Mr. Burks has spent over three years in the Scott County jail since Aug. 30, 2009, on three separate charges. ... He has only been indicted once, he has never been to trial, and he has never been convicted," court documents later revealed.

Now-deceased Circuit Judge Marcus Gordon refused to assign public defenders to either man until after indictment—a grand jury's formal charge—which is contrary to state law.

The idea of a public defender's office should be something of which every American is proud. It should stand as a shining tribute to Amendments Four-through-Six, and as a demonstration of our committment to equal justice under the law. No, really. It should. Instead:

Counties fund public-defender offices, but the State of Mississippi pays for a set number of positions in district-attorney offices. In Hinds County, the State pays for the salaries of the district attorney and 11 "legal assistants," with the county or grants covering costs of additional staff per the DA's request. A review of Hinds County budgets reveals that the county spent $480,949.58 on the DA's office during the 2019 fiscal year—$335,327.49 of which went toward salaries and wages—more than a quarter of the county's total public-defender budget. The Hinds County district attorney office said it currently employs 12 ADAs.

This system is more rigged than a crooked carny wheel.

Speaking of rigged systems... Jessica McGowan Getty Images

Meanwhile, speaking of rigged systems, they're really at it again in Georgia with the whole voter-suppression thing. From NBC News:

Georgia could soon cancel roughly 315,000 voter registrations in the state, the secretary of state's office confirmed Tuesday...Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger's office said that it plans to send notices to voters who have been inactive for the past couple of elections and the notice will come with a paid return postage to give voters the opportunity to remain active. The notices will be sent out in November and people have 30 days to return the notice. Walter Jones, communications director for the office's voter education project, told NBC News that the number of potential cancellations constitutes roughly 4 percent of Georgians on the voter rolls. “This is not an outstanding number, relatively speaking,” he said. “Registration is considered inactive if there has no interaction with the registration system.”

Like all of these scams, this is a remedy in search of a disease. But it's a particularly odious one. If you proposed making voting mandatory, as it is in Australia, these people would be screaming about personal liberty and the Bill of Rights. But now, because it's easier to dump inconvenient voters than to appeal to them, the same people are arguing that non-participation must eventually be penalized.

The 2018 gubernatorial election between now-Gov. Brian Kemp, the Republican secretary of state at the time, and Democrat Stacey Abrams was roiled by accusations of voter registration purges and suppression. Kemp won by less than 2 percent. Also, in July 2017, Georgia canceled more than 530,000 registration — the largest in state history, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.



I mean, it's not even subtle.

And we conclude, as is our custom, in the great state of Oklahoma, where Blog Official Wildcat Bourbon Driller Friedman of the Plains brings us this tale of Democracy In Action. From the Tulsa World:

The state now has an official astronomical object: the Rosette Nebula.



I guess it's because its red and shaped like an O. It's 5,000 light years from here, so it'll be a while before anyone there hears about Kyler Murray.

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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