Can Oklahoma learn from Kansas

[cannon_fodder]

Now Kansas legislators want to impeach state supreme court justices because they ruled education cuts were illegal under the constitution. They were but that's not important to those law makers with Rs after their names.

Anyone wanna bet these are the same people who want to return us to constitutional government...except when they don't?

Unfortunately, destroying an independent judiciary is a go-to model for the hard right.

When the Iowa Supreme Court concluded that the Iowa Constitution didn't allow a ban on gay marriage after applying the test for equality that had been spelled out - the right wing set out to oust them. For the first time in history, there was mass turnover on the Iowa Supreme Court. Unfortunately for the right wingers, the new Court affirmed the decision because THEY JUST APPLIED THE LAW.

Who is moving to remove the independence of the Court in Oklahoma and take us back to a system that was destroyed because it was the most corrupt in the nation?

Who wants to control Justices in Kansas?

If what you want to do is unconstitutional and you don't think you change the constitution, you need to eliminate the power of the Judicial branch. When the New Deal was pushing things far left, the same was done to force left wing politics. Just so happens the right is the one pushing that agenda at the moment.

[heironymouspasparagus]

If what you want to do is unconstitutional and you don't think you change the constitution, you need to eliminate the power of the Judicial branch. When the New Deal was pushing things far left, the same was done to force left wing politics. Just so happens the right is the one pushing that agenda at the moment.

Huh....just shows how wildly distorted our political system has become - and how radically right wing it is.  New Deal was not far left - unless compared to the RWRE Murdochian/Koch agenda.  It was an excellent example of the symbiosis that should exist between government and the people - ALL the people, not just the 1% who have hijacked the agenda and the actual social fabric.  (See Trump/Cruz poll numbers...)

If one were to be a Christian in this country - this would be exactly the type service...social security....that the Man these people profess to follow would approve of.  And it's not welfare, it isn't giving anyone something for free, which the RWRE is trying to paint it - shame on them!   It's an annuity that I and everyone else have paid for.  The 1% agenda has trashed the whole concept of pension in the last 35 years, and now they are working to kill this last one so they can get their hands on that money, too.



"And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."  -Mathew 25:40.

But the RWRE wouldn't know about that, since the only part of the Bible they read is the Old Testament...

[Townsend]

Tulsa Cuts 142 Teachers

http://publicradiotulsa.org/post/tulsa-cuts-142-teachers

The Tulsa School Board votes to trim 142 teaching positions from the district. The board took the vote last night. Superintendent Doctor Deborah Gist says the district is making the best out of a bad situation.

The cuts are brought on by state budget cuts. Trimming the teachers and some support personnel will save the TPS about $8 million.

Most of the teaching jobs are already vacant. The district will attempt to cut the rest by attrition. The action will push up class sizes in all district schools.

[Townsend]

Oh, Oklahoma - What happens when voters distrust their politicians so much that they bind their hands

http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21699450-what-happens-when-voters-distrust-their-politicians-so-much-they-bind-their-hands-oh

SOME weeks ago Oklahoma’s teacher of the year for 2016, Shawn Sheehan, dined in Washington, DC, with counterparts from California and Washington state. The mood was jolly until the high-flyers, all finalists for national teacher of the year, compared salaries. When Mr Sheehan—a young teacher of mathematics and special education—revealed his pay, his table-mates “sort of went silent”. For in state rankings of teachers’ pay Oklahoma comes 48th. Washington’s teacher of the year has since been urging Mr Sheehan to move to the West Coast. “He’s been sending me house listings,” he says, ruefully.

Oklahomans dislike such stories. They are sternly conservative: God-fearing, tornado-lashed prairie folk, so proud of their mineral wealth that an oil well stands next to the State Capitol, where feebler types might plant flowers. They scorn big government—the state is in the bottom third for tax revenue per person. But Oklahomans care about their public schools, which educate the vast majority of their kids, and which (notably via sport) are social anchors for many towns. So they wince when good teachers are lured elsewhere. Even now, as slumping oil and gas prices have been followed by a deep budget crisis, the Republican governor, Mary Fallin, says she wants to give teachers a raise, an ambition echoed by legislators from both parties. A poll last year found 98% of Oklahomans back higher classroom pay, dividing only over whether to raise salaries across-the-board, or on merit.

That consensus makes raising teachers’ pay a good test of basic governance. Alas, legislators negotiating a new budget have spent May failing it. Democrats blocked a scheme involving higher cigarette taxes, because they wanted some of the revenues for health care. Republicans introduced and withdrew a proposal to increase teachers’ pay while cutting their other benefits. Worse, with days left to fill a $1.3 billion hole in the budget, Republicans devoted long hours to further loosening gun laws, to arguing about transgender pupils in school bathrooms and to passing a law that sought to make performing almost all abortions a felony. That attempt to criminalise abortion was certain to be struck down as unconstitutional in the courts. Governor Fallin vetoed the law, calling it ambiguously worded. The only doctor in the state senate, a Republican who personally opposes abortion, was crisper in his diagnosis, calling the proposal “insane”.

Budget negotiations ended without a pay rise for teachers (and indeed resulted in a 16% cut to higher education), so the matter is now in the hands of voters. A bipartisan group wants to ask them to increase education funding by adding a penny in the dollar to state sales taxes in November. Their ballot measure, State Question 779, is backed by a former Democratic governor, David Boren, and a group of business bosses and former members of Ms Fallin’s cabinet. It aims to raise $615m, enough for a $5,000 increase per teacher. Even supporters admit that sales taxes are a clumsy way to raise money, because the poor spend a larger share of their incomes on day-to-day shopping. Mr Boren, an old-fashioned centrist who is now president of the University of Oklahoma, calls sales taxes “regressive” and would have been “thrilled” if lawmakers had acted. Mr Sheehan, another backer of the initiative, worries about the impact on low-income families, though he argues that schools are often their best ladder out of poverty. The ballot initiative amounts to voters telling legislators: “you guys are not doing your job,” says the teacher, who is running as an independent for the state senate in November.

Mr Boren sees a problem of political culture. For 25 years both Democrats and Republicans have won elections in Oklahoma by promising tax cuts. In the 1990s voters amended the state constitution so the legislature can only increase taxes if super-majorities of three-in-four members agree, or if voters say yes in a referendum. After living through three boom-and-bust commodities cycles, the 75-year-old ex-governor fretted as he saw Republicans cut state income taxes twice, against a backdrop of surging oil production and revenues. “Oklahomans got sold on a free lunch,” says Mr Boren. Businesses wanted a free lunch too, he adds: demanding tax breaks and subsidies, while still expecting a well-trained workforce. Republicans do not wholly disagree. Senator Rob Standridge represents the district that Mr Sheehan is contesting, near Oklahoma City. Though Mr Standridge defends low tax rates, he laments that states get into bidding wars to woo employers: “We spend way too much on incentives.”

Bound and gagged

The campaign behind the ballot initiative polled voters to ask if they would tolerate higher income, property or sales taxes to invest in education. Income taxes divided voters along partisan lines, with Republicans rejecting rises. As for property taxes, Oklahomans like them low—Mr Boren links this to their history as land-rich, cash-poor homesteaders. Most backed higher sales taxes. People tell Mr Boren that they like sales tax because “everybody pays it,” unlike fiddlier taxes that the rich can dodge.

The Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, a smaller-government group that tried to block the measure in court, says Oklahoma cities could end up with some of the country’s highest sales taxes. It points to polls showing an option that Oklahomans like better: paying teachers by cutting tax credits for wind and renewable energies, and other corporate subsidies. But that risks clashes between special interests: scrapping tax breaks for wind energy is a priority for Oklahoma’s mighty oil and gas industry.

A narrow question of public policy—how to stop Texas and other neighbours pinching Oklahoma teachers—has exposed broad, not very cheering truths about democracy. Elected politicians have prospered by urging voters to distrust them. Voters duly bound legislators’ hands to limit government mischief. Now Oklahoma is struggling to deliver a policy with near-universal support. Hope that someone learns a lesson from all this.

[heironymouspasparagus]

Oh, Oklahoma - What happens when voters distrust their politicians so much that they bind their hands

http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21699450-what-happens-when-voters-distrust-their-politicians-so-much-they-bind-their-hands-oh

Disgusting situation.  We are spiraling in, out of control, and Failin' and the Clown Show keep fiddlin' while Rome burns.....

[Townsend]

Oklahoma Schools Chief Laments Elimination of Textbook Funds

http://publicradiotulsa.org/post/oklahoma-schools-chief-laments-elimination-textbook-funds

The Oklahoma State Department of Education says it's recommending that schools not buy any new textbooks this year because of a lack of state funding.

The department said Wednesday that lawmakers did not appropriate any money for new textbooks for the fiscal year that begins July 1. State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister says students will be forced to use "outdated and tattered school books held together by duct tape."

Last fiscal year, the department received $33 million for textbooks.

Hofmeister says the department is recommending a one-year delay of textbook selection. The 13-member State Textbook Committee is expected to consider the recommendation at a special meeting later this month.

[Townsend]

Govenor To Meet With Rating Agencies

http://publicradiotulsa.org/post/govenor-meet-rating-agencies

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin is traveling to New York this week to visit with some of the nation's top credit rating agencies, and she's taking top state lawmakers with her.

Fallin spoke to reporters Monday following a meeting of the State Board of Equalization. She said she plans to leave Tuesday for a New York trip with Oklahoma Treasurer Ken Miller, her Secretary of Finance Preston Doerflinger, House Speaker-designate Charles McCall, and Oklahoma City Sen. Greg Treat, who is vice-chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Fallin says she wants to include legislators on the visits to ensure they understand the nuances rating agencies consider when analyzing Oklahoma's budget practices.

Moody's Investors Service last week gave Oklahoma negative marks for drawing down reserves and cutting funding to higher education.

So...good for her for telling folks that's why she's going...I assume she's using this as a chance to try to get in front of Trump's folks.

It's difficult to deal with the fact that Mary Fallin is the person who has to hold Oklahoma Legislators' hands and show them what they are doing to Oklahoma is hurting people.

[heironymouspasparagus]

Govenor To Meet With Rating Agencies

http://publicradiotulsa.org/post/govenor-meet-rating-agencies

So...good for her for telling folks that's why she's going...I assume she's using this as a chance to try to get in front of Trump's folks.

It's difficult to deal with the fact that Mary Fallin is the person who has to hold Oklahoma Legislators' hands and show them what they are doing to Oklahoma is hurting people.

She has been holding their hands - like the 5 year old's they are - and dragging them along every step of the way like a Mommy drags her kid through a store.

[cannon_fodder]

According to his travel itinerary, Trump is in NY until Thursday (when he leaves to open a golf course in Scotland).

[heironymouspasparagus]

According to his travel itinerary, Trump is in NY until Thursday (when he leaves to open a golf course in Scotland).

Maybe we will luck out and she will resign as Governor to chase VP!!   It could happen....  Sarah did, sort of.

[patric]

County Commission Chair Downplayed Pandemic in Kansas: Not That Many Chinese People Here

https://lawandcrime.com/covid-19-pandemic/gop-county-commission-chair-downplayed-pandemic-in-kansas-not-that-many-chinese-people-here

[patric]

Kansas state Rep. Mark Samsel was arrested on charges of misdemeanor battery on Thursday after getting into a physical altercation with a student while substitute teaching in Wellsville.

Samsel, 36, was booked into the Franklin County Adult Detention Center after 3:30 p.m. Thursday. He has since been released on $1,000 bond, Sheriff Jeff Richards said.
Superintendent Ryan Bradbury said that Samsel will no longer be allowed to work for the district.

On Wednesday, Samsel, R-Wellsville, was substitute teaching at the Wellsville school district’s secondary school. Throughout the day, high school students began recording videos of the lawmaker talking about suicide, sex, masturbation, God and the Bible.

In one video shared with The Star, Samsel tells students about “a sophomore who’s tried killing himself three times,” adding that it was because “he has two parents and they’re both females.”
“He’s a foster kid. His alternatives in life were having no parents or foster care parents who are gay,” Samsel tells students. “How do you think I’m going to feel if he commits suicide? Awful.”

In another video, Samsel is recorded telling students, “make babies. Who likes making babies? That feels good, doesn’t it? Procreate ... You haven’t masturbated? Don’t answer that question....God already knows.”

Videos shared with The Star — by parents of students in the class — show Samsel focusing most of his attention on one male student. Both Samsel and the student paced around the classroom, talking back and forth. Samsel is shown following the student around and grabbing him. In one video, he puts his arms around the student and says that he was being hard on him.

At one point, Samsel tells the student, “You’re about ready to anger me and get the wrath of God. Do you believe me when I tell you that God has been speaking to me?” He then pushes him, and the student runs to the other side of the classroom.
“You should run and scream.”

In another video, he tells students, “Class, you have permission to kick him in the balls.”

Parents told The Star that Samsel “put hands on the student” and allegedly kneed him in the crotch. In a video apparently taken immediately after the incident, the student is shown on the ground. Samsel is standing over him and says, “did it hurt?”
He then asks him why he is about to start crying, pats him on the shoulder and apologizes, and then says he can “go to the nurse, she can check it for you.”
Samsel addresses another student and says, “do you want to check his nuts for him, please?”

The videos angered dozens of parents, who felt that their children were put in danger. Samsel works with students in several capacities, including as a referee and through church groups, parents said.
In a message to families, Bradbury said that the situation is being investigated.

On Twitter, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas posted: “What the hell is going on with the #KSLEG this session?” He added that Samsel “shouldn’t just be terminated from substituting. He should be blocked from being around all kids.”

The district reported the incident, and an investigation was conducted by the Wellsville Police Department and Franklin County Sheriff’s Office. After the investigation, Samsel was arrested for misdemeanor battery, according to a news release.

In a Snapchat post shared with The Star, Samsel wrote that “it was all planned.”
“Every little bit of it. That’s right. The kids and I planned ALL this to SEND A MESSAGE about art, mental health, teenage suicide, how we treat our educators and one another. To who? Parents. And grandparents. And all of Wellsville,” he posted.
He wrote that he gave one particular student “hope.”
“I went to jail for battery. Does that really make me a criminal? Time will tell.”

He said that the incident happened during fifth period, and that the classes before that hour went as planned, and he shared the same lesson in each one. He said what happened was “exactly what God planned. The kids were in on it. Not all of them. But most.”

In another video, Samsel is shown telling the student about “distractions from the devil,” and then grabs him from behind and lifts him off his feet.
In a different clip, he tells the student to go to the office.
“You were not following — not my rules — God’s rules right now,” he tells the student. “You better take a Bible.”
“Keep denying God, keep denying God, see how it’s going to turn out,” he told the student.

He is also shown in a video instructing the student and one of his classmates to go outside, hold hands and run around the track, seemingly as punishment.
“Do you think we want to do this? No, we had a lesson to do. Is it kind of funny? Yeah. Are they ever going to learn? God only knows,” he says while watching the two students run outside.

Videos show Samsel’s classroom in chaos as he talks about the devil, God and how the Bible was edited.
“Are you doing the Lord’s work as you’re listening to the devil’s music?” he asks a student.
And he continually references suicide, and tells the class, “I’m not going to lose one more of my kids to suicide. Are we clear?”

Samsel, who is an attorney, is in his second term in the House, where he’s occasionally courted controversy. In February, he was one of just 13 lawmakers to vote against a bill that would have ended an exemption for spouses from the state’s sexual battery law.

Ahead of the vote, he gave a speech in which he appeared to express concerns about criminalizing sexual relations between spouses.
“To me, it gets to what does the sanctity of marriage mean?” Samsel was quoted as saying, according to the Kansas Reflector. “And I’m single, so I’m not the best person to speak to this. But when you do get married, what does that mean? And what implied consent are you giving?”

“If we’re going to be in a leadership position, who’s most important that’s watching us? To me, it’s the kids,” Samsel told The Star.
“And when they look across our country right now and see that you can do things under bathroom stalls or whatever else, make up an excuse, deny immediately and then it turns out, yeah, you were kind of guilty — the process happens way too many times and it’s not been done the right way.”

Read more here: https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article251069219.html

[tulsabug]

Kansas state Rep. Mark Samsel was arrested on charges of misdemeanor battery on Thursday after getting into a physical altercation with a student while substitute teaching in Wellsville.......

I'll give Republicans credit for one thing - every time you think they've hit rock bottom they find a new way to set the bar lower. Guess that rabbit hole has become a bottomless pit.

[dbacksfan 2.0]

Henry Johnson D Georgia

Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) is raising some eyebrows with a comment he made about the U.S. territory of Guam during a House Armed Services Committee hearing last Thursday.


In a discussion regarding a planned military buildup on the Pacific island, Johnson expressed some concerns about the plans to Adm. Robert Willard, head of the U.S. Pacific fleet.

"My fear is that the whole island will become so overly populated that it will tip over and capsize," Johnson said. Willard paused and replied, "We don't anticipate that."

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/tipping-point/

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hank-johnson-worries-guam-could-capsize-after-marine-buildup/

[patric]

Henry Johnson D Georgia

11 years ago on April Fool's Day?  

My post was a bit more current...