(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 to live outside the law you must be honest.

We begin our tour in New Hampshire. On Thursday, the state legislature decided once and for all and officially that N.H. would not be in the business of killing people, and it did so over the expressed opposition and veto of the state's governor. From WMUR:

The Senate voted 16-8 to override the veto, reaching the two-thirds-majority threshold by one vote. The vote came a week after the House voted to override the veto, also reaching the two-thirds majority by just a single vote. The votes in both chambers mean the death penalty has been repealed in New Hampshire. Gov. Chris Sununu expressed his "disappointment" in a statement released after the Senate's vote. "I have consistently stood with law enforcement, families of crime victims, and advocates for justice in opposing a repeal of the death penalty because it is the right thing to do. I am incredibly disappointed that the Senate chose to override my veto," Sununu said.

New Hampshire was the last state in New England to have a death penalty, and there is only one person presently on death row there, and the state hasn't executed anyone since 1939. But the fact that it took so long and that it was such a tough fight to knock an even vestigial capital punishment entirely off the books is a good indication of the death penalty's value as a totem for ambitious politicians.

Governor Sununu was not happy. Shannon Finney Getty Images

We move along to Georgia where, it can be argued, and it will be, that Stacey Abrams's rise to national prominence is making some of the state's Republicans a bit nervous. So, as Fred Capossella used to say, "It is now...post time." From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:



The new director of the state ethics commission plans to subpoena bank records from the campaign of 2018 Democratic gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams and groups that raised money to help her in last year’s nationally watched race. Former Douglas County prosecutor David Emadi, who started his new job Monday, also said his office will soon decide whether to prosecute the campaigns of Atlanta mayoral candidates.



The previous director resigned in part because he allegedly was watching porn at work, so you know how that is.

Lauren Groh-Wargo, Abrams’ former campaign manager, said, “The Abrams campaign worked diligently to ensure compliance throughout the election and, had we been notified of any irregularities, would have immediately taken action to rectify them...The new ethics chief — a Kemp donor and former Republican Party leader — is using his power to threaten and lob baseless partisan accusations at the former Abrams campaign when they should be focused on real problems like the unethical ties between the governor’s office and voting machine lobbyists instead.”



I can't imagine why anyone would think that was the case.



Emadi was accused of partisanship in his plans to investigate Abrams and the mayoral candidates. The candidates he mentioned being under investigation are Democrats, and he is a former officer in the Douglas County Republican Party who once worked briefly for GOP House Speaker David Ralston. He also donated $600 last year to Republican Brian Kemp’s successful campaign for governor. Kemp narrowly beat Abrams in last year’s election...“I fundamentally believe that to be a neutral arbiter, to be an impartial umpire calling balls and strikes, you can’t affiliate with any of that," Emadi said.

Yeah, we've heard that before, back before the Day of Jubilee was proclaimed.

Stacey Abrams is the target of a new ethics chief with his eye on Democrats. SOPA Images Getty Images

Elsewhere in Georgia, Michael Williams, the guy who ran for governor with commercials showing him driving a "deportation bus," has found himself narrowly avoiding a ride on another kind of bus. From the AP:

A former Georgia gubernatorial candidate who campaigned in a "deportation bus" has pleaded guilty to falsely reporting that computer servers were stolen from his office. Michael Williams, a Republican ex-state senator, was indicted in December in Hall County, northeast of Atlanta, on charges of insurance fraud and lying to investigators. District Attorney Lee Darragh told news outlets Williams pleaded guilty under Georgia's First Offender Act. He was sentenced last week to serve four years of probation, 120 hours of community service and a $5,000 fine.

According to the Journal-Constitution, before he copped his plea, Williams's supporters unsuccessfully tried to run White House Alibi No. 1.

It was an abrupt turnabout for the Republican. Williams’ former campaign manager, Seth Weathers, had called the indictment a “political witch hunt” and mocked local prosecutors for bringing charges. "Like they say,” Weathers remarked then, “a grand jury can indict a ham sandwich."

But, evidently, neither the voters of Georgia, nor its courts, can stomach a turkey like this. Hey-yo!

We move on to Texas, where the sage in bloom is like perfume, but the state government occasionally is a garbage scow. Voter suppression is a big deal there, and the object is to do it well, and not to be so clumsy at it that even your fellow Republicans find it hard to pretend not to notice. From the Washington Post:

Whitley’s departure came as the Texas Senate failed to confirm him to the position by a two-thirds majority on the last day of the legislative session. He submitted his resignation letter to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) “effective immediately” just before the final gavel, as reported by the Austin American-Statesman. Abbott accepted his resignation shortly afterward, praising his “moral character and integrity.” Neither Whitley’s resignation letter nor Abbott’s mentioned the controversy.

Of course, not. Whitley just heard the fishing's good on Lake Conroe.

Whitley, a gubernatorial appointee and former aide to Abbott, spent less than six months overseeing Texas elections. He will leave office best known for the disastrous elections-integrity operation that wrongly identified thousands of naturalized citizens as suspected noncitizens illegally registered to vote.

He revealed the investigation in January, causing unsupported fears of rampant voter fraud while emboldening Republican politicians who had made similar voter fraud claims — including President Trump. Whitley’s office had claimed that, of 95,000 suspected noncitizens, 58,000 had voted in at least one Texas election over the last 18 years. Letters sent to all those suspected noncitizens threatened to disenfranchise them unless they proved their citizenship within 30 days. But there was a problem: Nearly a quarter of those identified as possible noncitizens were actually naturalized citizens ― a realization the secretary of state’s office made just four days after its initial announcement.

Pro tip, my dude. You never catch the snipe.

Whitley’s voter-suppression chicanery was too much for Texas. Eric Gay/AP/REX/Shutterstock

The letters sent by the secretary of state’s office to thousands of eligible voters threatening to cancel their registration, U.S. District Judge Fred Biery wrote, “exemplifies the power of government to strike fear and anxiety and to intimidate the least powerful among us.” He placed the blame squarely on Whitley’s shoulders, encouraging him to fix the problems while referencing a kindergarten-friendly lesson.“The Court further finds and concludes the Secretary of State, though perhaps unintentionally, created this mess,” Biery wrote in his Feb. 27 order. “As Robert Fulghum taught in ‘All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten,’ ‘always put things back where we found them and clean up our own messes.’ ”

I have to admit that this sudden disinclination of federal judges to hide their contempt for the various swindlers and ratfckers who come before them is truly delightful.

Remember "Sheriff" Clarke? SOPA Images Getty Images

From there, we swing north, to Milwaukee. You all remember "Sheriff" David Clarke, right? The four-gallon mind in the ten-gallon hat? Chest full of medals from every Happy Meal he ever ate? He was a big deal in the GOP for a long while. He even thought he'd get a prime spot when they were staffing up Camp Runamuck. Well, it so happens that he was so bad at his ostensible day-job that an inmate named Terril Thomas died in his custody. Of thirst.

The bill came due this week, as the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel explains.

Milwaukee County and the company that formerly provided health care at the jail have paid $6.75 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the estate of Terrill Thomas, who died of dehydration in his cell in 2016. Lawyers for the estate said it was the largest jail death settlement in Wisconsin history and one of the largest in the nation. "This settlement reflects not only the profound harm suffered by Mr. Thomas and his family, but also the shocking nature of the defendants’ misconduct in shutting off this man’s water and ignoring his obvious signs of distress as he literally died of thirst," the lawyers said in a joint statement.

In addition, the settlement socked the private company contracted to provide healthcare to the inmates in the Milwaukee County Jail in yet another example of what a great idea privatizing our penal systems is.

Erik Heipt, a lawyer for the Thomas family, said it was extraordinary that Armor was also charged. "I wish it would happen more often." He said he didn't know how many jails nationwide rely on private contractors for health care, but more and more do it every year. "I've been handling jail deaths for 20 years, and have yet to find one contract provider that doesn't put its private profits ahead of inmates' health." He said they typically make low bids to get contracts, then "they cut corners, short the staff and don't do the training...Anytime you privatize health care at a jail and expect different results, you're probably not going to get the results you want."

Meanwhile, just up the road in Madison, the state legislature is still full of scamps and rascals. Again, from the Journal-Sentinel:

In late February or early March, Sortwell entered Stubbs’ office to talk to her aide, Savion Castro, about legislation to make it easier for barbers to get professional licenses, according to Castro. Sortwell initiated the meeting and he and the aide were the only two in Stubbs' office at the time. After talking about the bill, Sortwell told Castro he thought Stubbs’ sign barring guns from her office was silly, Castro said. Sortwell said people need to stop being afraid of guns and should protect the Second Amendment that guarantees the right to bear arms.

To bolster his argument, Sortwell pulled back his sport coat to show the handgun on his hip, according to the aide. Castro soon after asked Sortwell to leave and he did. Guns are allowed in the Capitol, but officials can ban guns from their own offices. Stubbs is one of many Democrats who has posted signs on her door telling people weapons aren’t allowed there.

So now state legislators have to post signs specifically banning firearms from their offices. I always wanted to live in Tombstone. Rep. Gunslinger also seems like a really nice guy.

Sortwell repeatedly declined to give his version of events to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “You take whatever story he wants to put out there that may or may not be true and you go with it,” he told a reporter. Sortwell walked away and did not respond to other questions. He also did not respond to emails and phone messages.

Attorney General Hunter is doing some good. And some not-so-good. Sue Ogrocki/AP/REX/Shutterstock

And we conclude, as is our custom, in the great state of Oklahoma, whence Blog Official Mail Train Whistler Friedman of the Plains brings us the story of what is actually a very important trial to which very few people are paying attention. From readfrontier.org:

In the first day of a nationally-televised trial, Attorney General Mike Hunter told the court drugmakers rushed to brand opioids as “a magic drug,” despite knowing they were addictive and dangerous. The result was a deadly epidemic, Hunter said. “How did this happen?” Hunter asked during opening statements. “I have a short, one-word answer: Greed.” Oklahoma’s case against drugmakers argues companies intentionally created an opioid epidemic with an aggressive marketing campaign that exaggerated the drugs’ benefits and downplayed their addictive and potentially dangerous qualities.

Between 2007 and 2014, 4,653 Oklahomans died from unintentional prescription opioid overdoses, Hunter said. Brad Beckworth, a Texas-based attorney representing the state, said Johnson & Johnson helped create “the worst manmade health crisis in history.” Johnson & Johnson created a medical need for opioids by marketing a myth that pain was severely undertreated in the U.S., Beckworth said. The company then rushed to meet that manufactured need. “If you oversupply, people will die,” Beckworth repeated several times throughout opening statements.

Last week, Teva Pharmaceuticals paid $85 million to get out of the suit Oklahoma has brought against the pharmaceutical companies. We are in the middle of one of the few epidemics with a sales force behind it, and Hunter is not kidding around. Good for him, I say. At least it keeps him from tinkering with improving the state's death penalty procedures, which is something else he's doing.

This is your democracy, America. Cherish it.

Respond to this post on the Esquire Politics Facebook page here.

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

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io