Month: September 2015

State Treasurer Jeff DeWit blasts ‘Team Ducey’

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The debate to watch is not the GOP clown car of presidential candidates, but the debate between Governor Doug Ducey, the ice cream man hired by Koch Industries to run their Southwest subsidiary formerly known as the state of Arizona, and Arizona’s state Treasurer, Jeff DeWit.

DeWitI kinda like this DeWit guy. He’s not willing to read from the “Kochtopus” script like all the other Tea-Publicans in this state.  He actually takes the responsibility of his job as state Treasurer seriously.

Lately he’s playing the role of the kid who points out that the emperor has no clothes, and that the governor’s so-called education funding plan to raid the state land trust is reckless and irresponsible.

For that, DeWit is being attacked by the “Kochtopus” evil henchmen for straying from the script and not singing the praises of “Il Duce.”

Over the weekend, DeWitt pointed out that there was a nearly $200 million drop in the value of Arizona’s permanent land trust in the past three months because of the recent stock market turmoil, highlighting the risks of Ducey’s plan to rely on high investment returns to power his school funding plan. Land trust value drop highlights Ducey education plan risk:

The fund’s value was $5.2 billion the week Ducey announced his plan in June and was $5 billion last week. But Ducey told thousands of listeners on a Tuesday evening telephone-town hall designed to drum up support for his plan that the trust was now valued at $5.3 billon. [So you’re saying he lied.]

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5th Annual (and very popular) Insect Festival

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The fifth annual Arizona Insect Festival will take place on Sunday, Sept. 20 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the University of Arizona. More than 20 booths on the third floor of the Student Union Memorial Center Grand Ballroom (1303 E. University Blvd.) will offer theme-based, interactive activities and exhibits about the importance of … Read more

The Courage of Chris Hedges’ Convictions

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I’ve opined repeatedly in my posts that Chris Hedges is the clearest thinking writer around. His weekly column at Truthdig is high on my Monday morning agenda. When he releases a book, I read it.

Hedges believes our elections are a farce, designed by corporate America to create the false impression that we choose our leaders. Here’s a small part of his reasoning, from his recent post, Where is Our Jeremy Corbin?:

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So how’s that faith based supply-side ‘trickle down’ economics working out for you, Arizona?

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Screenshot-14Arizona has lived under faith based supply-side “trickle down” GOP economics and austerity measures since the Bush Great Recession began in December of 2007. If this disproved and discredited economic theory actually worked as advertised, Arizona would have recovered from the Bush Great Recession and been at full employment long ago, with a booming economy that attracts new  employers and talented employees to move to Arizona.

Of course, faith based supply-side “trickle down” GOP economics and austerity measures are pure fantasy, like unicorns, that only the self-deluded and those who get paid big bucks to propagandise for this fraudulent economic theory cling to. Arizonans are unfortunately saddled with a governor who is a “true believer” in this utter fantasy of an economic “religion.”

The proof is in the economic data. Arizona lags behind rest of nation in recession recovery:

Arizona’s major cities are among the least recovered from the recession among major communities across the nation according to a new report.

An analysis of key factors by the financial advice firm WalletHub finds no Arizona cities in the top half of the 150 they studied for recovery. Scottsdale managed to come in at 114, the best of any Arizona community studied.

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Why adding family leave to an anti-abortion bill is bogus

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Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

Charles Camosy
Photo: Catholic Star Herald

Anti-choicers are egregious in general but they are most frustrating to deal when they pretend to be seeking common ground while in reality pushing for the same bad forced birth policies under a thin veneer of caring about women. Some, like Democrats For Life and Secular Pro-Life, pretend to be liberal, all the better to lull reporters and the general public into believing that it’s possible to want to deny women basic bodily autonomy for non-reactionary ends (hint: it’s not). I honestly prefer Trent Franks sobbing about holocausts and the candor of the people in my Twitter feed screaming how I’m a murdering whore because I’ve had an abortion because at least they make it clear where they’re coming from.

A relentlessly self-promoting author and academic, Charles Camosy, “associate professor of Christian ethics at Fordham University and board member of Democrats for Life, author of Beyond the Abortion Wars: A Way Forward for a New Generation” has joined this dubious cohort. The title of his book (on several occasions Camosy has, annoyingly, shilled said book to me in response to specific questions I’ve asked him about policy positions he has stated publicly rather than simply answering them) seems to describe a worthy, and benign, goal.

Camosy provides an example of what he considers a “way forward” in a recent oped in the LA Times:

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