(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’ goes on, and where Jack the Ripper sits on the Chamber of Commerce.

We begin in the great state o’Maine, where human bowling-jacket Paul LePage keeps trying to ignore the referendum by which the people ordered him to expand Medicaid in accordance with the Affordable Care Act, and he also keeps trying to ignore judges who are telling him he can’t ignore the results of the referendum.

From the Portland Press-Herald:

Justice Murphy’s ruling requires DHHS Commissioner Ricker Hamilton to file a state plan amendment with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services by Monday. In her ruling, Murphy disagreed with the state’s position that the executive branch has no obligation to file a plan amendment until legislative appropriations to fund the expansion have been made.



“The court is not persuaded that the executive branch is excused from clear statutory obligations by the Legislature’s failure to follow through with legislative obligations, as defined by the executive branch,” Murphy wrote in her 13-page ruling. “The court concludes that the commissioner’s complete failure to act cannot be considered substantial compliance with (the referendum vote).”

When this historical moment finally dies and goes off to Clown Heaven, the people of Maine are going to be at the head of the line for karmic reparations. They’ve been living under what is essentially Trumpian government for a lot longer than the rest of us have. Yes, they brought it on themselves by allowing LePage to slip through two idiotic three-way elections, but, still, they might’ve warned the rest of us.

Maine Governor Paul LePage at a press conference in 2015. Getty Images

And speaking of the world’s greatest health-care system, there’s an Alabama state legislator who found a dishonest way to make a buck off of it. Allegedly. From our friends at Al.com:

The indictment, announced on Thursday by Middle District U.S. Attorney Louis V. Franklin Sr., charges the 47-year-old lawmaker from Hartselle with one count of conspiring to pay kickbacks and to defraud the U.S., one count of conspiring to commit health care fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, five counts of health care fraud and six counts of paying unlawful kickbacks…According to court documents, from 2015 through 2017, Henry was an owner of a health care company, MyPractice24, Inc. During some of that time, Henry also served as the company's chief executive officer.

MyPractice24 provided non-face-to-face chronic care management services to Medicare beneficiaries who had two or more chronic conditions. The company did so with contracts into which it entered with primary care physicians. Under those contracts, the doctors would pay Henry's company to provide these chronic care management services to the doctors' patients, the company would provide the services, the doctors would bill Medicare for the services, and then the doctors would pay Henry's company a share of the reimbursements received from Medicare.

Has Alabama expanded Medicaid? Don’t be silly.

We move along to Kansas, where vote-suppressor extraordinaire Kris Kobach is still running for governor. Recently, he dropped by the Old Shawnee Days Parade in a red-white-and-blue jeep with a big old fake machine gun on the back. Parade organizers were aghast, which gave Kobach, who is a colossal dick on his best day, a chance to hit the electric Twitter machine for a game of Wingnut Bingo.

Ultimately, the end product of 40 years of conservative intellectual ferment can be summed up in the word, Nyah! Twice.

Let’s leave Kobach back in Kansas with his big old toy gun and move along to Louisiana, where the state legislature seems to have gone completely to the zoo. From Gambit:

On June 4, the day the website WalletHub declared Louisiana to have the worst economy of all 50 states, the Republican-controlled Louisiana Legislature demonstrated that it’s a big part of the problem. In the regular legislative session, lawmakers failed to adopt a fully funded state budget, prompting Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, to veto the spending plan. Legislators cut that session short so they could reconvene for a special session dedicated to fiscal matters. They had until midnight June 4 to get the job done. The result was a shameful exercise that, once again, failed to produce a fully funded budget.



Their second spending plan would drastically cut funding for TOPS college scholarships and public universities, yet the GOP-dominated House rejected two measures that could have solved the problem. The final minutes of the session, in fact, resembled The Jerry Springer Show, with House members literally jumping from their chairs and screaming at each other as Republican Rep. Alan Seabaugh deliberately dawdled at the mic to run out the clock.

This was the second special-session that the legislature has held and the second one that has collapsed. The fight is over a budget gap that Governor John Bel Edwards would like to close by extending state sales taxes. However, the negotiations have foundered because Edwards and the recalcitrant in the Louisiana House can’t agree on the nature of the extensions, and also because Edwards is a Democrat and the Republicans in the House would rather not help him to a win. The difference, believe it or not, is between a half-penny and a one-third-penny, and the House wouldn’t even pass the latter. They’re going to try again in July. There is no telling what will happen then.

Governor John Bel Edwards. Getty Images

Heading north, we end up in Michigan, where the state legislature has put another nail in the coffin of worker’s rights, which once were a big deal in the industrial midwest, but which are now considered quaint, like gas lamps and brick sidewalks. And this isn’t even Governor Rick Snyder’s fault. From Michigan Radio:

The Republican-controlled Legislature has tried in the past to get rid of the law. But the efforts didn’t go anywhere because they knew Governor Rick Snyder would likely veto any repeal bill. Snyder cannot veto a voter-initiated law. Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof, R-Grand Haven, says this is a win for taxpayers.



“Anytime that the government mandates a wage for something, it isn’t necessarily going to be the best wage," he said. "The market will find the right level of payment for folks for the job that’s being performed.”

People actually believe this. By the way, the wage that prevails in the Michigan legislature is a little over $71,000 a year, with a niceper diem of $10,000-plus a year. The market for legislators seems to be on some really fine weed.

And we conclude, as is our custom, in the great state of Oklahoma, where Blog Official Sand Artist Friedman of the Plains brings us a story of the peril faced by aviators at Will Rogers Airport in Oklahoma City. From News4:

The airport has a wildlife mitigation team with biologists from the United States Department of Agriculture. (Ed. Note: I didn’t know this.) Those biologists had been tracking the hog for several days.



"Its behavior was to get back on to the airfield. There's something about the airfield that it wanted to seek out, and we can't have that,” said Ryan. (Ed. Note: Cinnebon?)



"The damage that they can do to planes can be pretty significant,” said Tanya Espinosa, Public Affairs Specialist for the USDA. (Ed. Note: I can imagine.)



The USDA takes care of wildlife mitigation at airports across the country.(Ed. Note: Another thing I didn’t know.)



Feral hogs are one of the mammals they take very seriously.



"Because they're so solid and also because once they get used to people, they get pretty aggressive,” said Espinosa.



The biologists ultimately had to shoot and kill the hog because they couldn’t take the chance of it coming back.

Well, this bit of wildlife was certainly mitigated.

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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