Impeachment, job approval, slut-shaming, and reproductive rights. Julie Brixie is our guest.

Michigan Policast for Monday, November 4, 2019   In this episode: Polling – Impeachment and job approval Social media and political advertising Slut-shaming and double standards Interview with Julie Brixie on the Michigan Reproductive Health...

Michigan Policast for Monday, November 4, 2019

  In this episode:

Polling – Impeachment and job approval
Social media and political advertising
Slut-shaming and double standards
Interview with Julie Brixie on the Michigan Reproductive Health Act (RHA)
Lightning round
Transcript

@MiHouseDems
@JulieBrixie
@MichSoS
@MiSenateDems
@GovWhitmer

 

Jump to:

Segment one: Polling – Impeachment and job approval
Segment two: Social media and political advertising
Segment three: Slut-shaming and double standards
Segment four: Interview with Julie Brixie on the Michigan Reproductive Health Act (RHA)
Segment five: Lightning round
Transcript
Comments

Polling – Impeachment and job approval

Americans sharply divided over whether to impeach and remove Trump from office, Post-ABC poll finds
Poll: Trump approval steady at 46 percent
Across 6 Battleground States Voters Oppose Impeaching & Removing Trump 52-44%
Fox News Poll results October 27-30, 2019

 

Headlines from the new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll:

49% support of Americans Trump’s impeachment and removal from office

46% oppose it.

That’s a reversal from last month, when it was 43% support, 49% oppose

Oct 27-30, +/- 3.3%

— Mark Murray (@mmurraypolitics) November 3, 2019

As Kendis and I just discussed, the poll #s in favor of impeachment & removal have increased dramatically in the past month WITH NO PUBLIC TESTIMONY! Once the career patriots start testifying publicly . . . IT’S ON, FOLKS!#JusticeIsComing. IT. JUST. IS. https://t.co/zjLVDXXlX0

— Glenn Kirschner (@glennkirschner2) November 3, 2019

Social media and political advertising

Twitter’s political ads ban is a distraction from the real problem with platforms
Google is staying silent about political ads on YouTube while Facebook and Twitter squabble
Twitter Just Banned Political Ads. Hold Your Applause.
Zuckerberg’s power to hurt Trump
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg defends himself against Twitter’s Jack Dorsey, saying political ad decision is not all about money

CEO Jack Dorsey says Twitter has decided to ban all political ads by candidates and outside groups, aiming to avoid the chaos Facebook’s political ad policy has created. https://t.co/KFFwBqqmLI

— The Associated Press (@AP) October 30, 2019

We’ve made the decision to stop all political advertising on Twitter globally. We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought. Why? A few reasons…?

— jack ??? (@jack) October 30, 2019

Slut-shaming and double standards

Katie Hill, Done In by the Perfect Storm of Misogyny, Sexism, and Uptight Boomer Values
Revenge porn is a tactic of abuse. Katie Hill’s case makes that clear.
Now Comes the Naked Truth
David Vitter hires sex workers
Mark Sanford extramarital affair
An ad smeared a Kansas Democrat for sexual harassment. The main charge actually described a Republican.
The Complicated Case of Katie Hill

“I am leaving because of a misogynistic culture that gleefully consumed my naked pictures, capitalized on my sexuality and enabled my abusive ex to continue that abuse—this time, with the entire country watching,” ~ @KatieHill4CA   source

 

“This is the first instance of which I am aware when a politically aligned publication has published an explicit photo of an opposition politician for apparent political gain,” writes @qjurecic. https://t.co/yHBawqNy3s

— The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic) November 3, 2019

 

Interview with Julie Brixie on the Michigan Reproductive Health Act (RHA)

House Democrats push for Michigan Reproductive Health Act
Julie Brixie – Official Michigan House Democrats
Whitmer, Democrats introduce bills to protect access to abortion in Michigan
Whitmer, Democratic lawmakers target Michigan’s abortion rules
AD Nessel issues statement on Michigan Reproductive Health Act

 

Honored to stand with Rep. Kristy Pagan, #MiLeg colleagues, and @GovWhitmer to defend #Women’sRightToChoose!#ReproductiveHealth choices should be made by women and their doctors, not the legislature! #WomenCanChoose — at Michigan State Capitol https://t.co/wNefL9YcR5

— Sherry Gay-Dagnogo (@DetroitEducator) October 29, 2019

This week, I stood with my colleagues as we introduced the Michigan Reproductive Health Act (RHA) to ensure reproductive healthcare is treated the same as all other healthcare & folks can make individual decisions informed by medical fact about their care. https://t.co/eGg7pAjqcL pic.twitter.com/zyqFkrjGsr

— Mari Manoogian (@MariManoogian) November 1, 2019

Lightning round

House raises stakes, approves bills to legalize sports betting and internet gaming
Dick DeVos calls governor’s veto of charter school funding increase ‘unacceptable’
J. Bob Traxler – Wikipedia
Former Congressman J. Bob Traxler of Bay City dies at age 88

https://t.co/shNgKv9HSB

— Dana Nessel (@dananessel) November 4, 2019

In 2018, lawmakers passed another set of bills to legalize internet gaming. Former Gov. Rick Snyder vetoed those bills during his final days in office because he believed that internet gaming through the state’s casinos could decrease state tax revenues by drawing dollars away from the state’s online lottery program.  source

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Transcript

Walt Sorg 0:23

Wow is right at historic weekend Our nation is the fourth ever in patriot of our president is now fully underway. This is the Michigan Policast, I’m Walt Sorg and we’ll look at the politics of impeachment in Michigan. And what has been a jam-packed week of significant news at the state and federal level.

Christine Barry 0:38

I’m Christine Barry. sex and sexuality and politics are never far from the headlines. This week we’ve seen Michigan Democrats take a met efforts to make abortion illegal and we’ll talk with one of the sponsors of a Michigan women’s reproductive health care proposal representative Julie Brixie. And we also have a member of congress resigned as a direct result of internet slut-shaming, in the process highlighting a big double standard of behavior in DC.

Amy Kerr Hardin 1:03

I’m Amy Kerr Hardin the role of social media and our politics continues to grow with the CEO of Twitter saying his company is taking a step back from the political bores, and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg facing pressure to follow suit.

Walt Sorg 1:17

And we’ve got another lightning round on Enbridge and Line 5, legalized sports betting, billionaires whining over charter school funding, and a test vote on election reform called ranked choice voting. Let’s begin though with the House vote setting the rules for the public face of what appears to be an inevitable decision to impeach Donald Trump. Christine, there’s no issue today that seems to polarize us more right now. And the polling backs that up?

Christine Barry 1:42

Well, it certainly does. The polling is really all over the place. And the questions are interesting as well. So for example, we have a Harvard caps Harris Poll that was conducted the last week of October actually last couple days of October 29 through the 31st Trump’s latest Java rating has him at 46% approval, 54% disapproval, and that I think he’s still riding the high of that al-Baghdadi announcement and some job numbers that turned out to be pretty good for him. On the other hand, the Washington Post ABC news poll of about the same time period, and his job approval at 38% and his disapproval at 58 %. Like 5%, no opinion,

Walt Sorg 2:25

How could you have no opinion on his job approval

Christine Barry 2:27

Because you hate them and you don’t want to say it? That’s what it is. So depending on the poll, the way the questions were asked another Washington Post does have some more detail associated with it. The Harvard caps poll details and won’t come out until later. But on the impeachment question, which is really interesting, it’s just it comes down to how they asked it, I think so. This is a question that went out October 13 to 26 telephone calls English and Spanish over 3700 voters across six battleground states and 52 to 44% 52% oppose impeachment and removal. But that same number 52% support the impeachment inquiry currently being conducted by the House of Representatives. So it really is the way that you ask the question when it comes down to that, but you can see that, like you said, I mean, it’s a very polarizing issue.

Amy Kerr Hardin 3:23

I’m not at all concerned about those particular numbers. What concerned me was that a very large percentage of people about the same number felt that what he did in Ukraine if he supposedly did in Ukraine, it’s not a crime. They figure it’s just politics as usual.

Walt Sorg 3:39

Well, a couple of things on the polling first on the approval rating. I saw some statistics that Barack Obama after Osama bin Laden was shot and killed, he got about an 11 point boost in the polls and his approval rating, but it only lasted about two weeks. I suspect to be the same for Trump and hit the bump he got was a lot smaller as well. I think mostly because most people don’t know who about al Baghdadi is, when you say the head of ISIS was killed, it helps a little bit. But the name al Baghdadi doesn’t ring the same as Osama bin Laden.

The polling that was done by the New York Times and CNN college in the swing states on impeachment shows that the states are still narrowly divided, but a little less likely to support the idea of actually removing Trump from office. But again, when you go back in history, the Richard Nixon numbers when he was facing Watergate, they didn’t really peak until just about a week before he resigned. The big difference, though, was back then everybody had the same set of facts. We didn’t have a fox news. We didn’t have a Breitbart. We didn’t have conspiracy websites. We didn’t have Facebook and Twitter. All we had basically was the big three networks and the major national newspapers. So people were working from the same set of facts. Now what you read and what you watch determines how you feel about person and Trump to a large extent,

Christine Barry 4:57

And it’s just the messaging of the Republicans, it’s so tightly integrated. It’s so you know, they just want to do-over the election. People react negatively to election do overs even even for somebody as disliked as Trump. It’s a distasteful thing, I think to a lot of people. So if you’re talking about impeachment and removal, that’s where you see those disapproval numbers. But if you’re looking at the impeachment inquiry, yeah, we want to investigate it. We want to find out the facts.

Walt Sorg 5:28

Yeah, Michigan is 50-46 supporting its slightly in support of in that kind of reflects the congressional delegation to the seven democrats plus independent Justin Amash all voted in favor of the rules setting up the next phase of the impeachment, which most people are interpreting as a vote on whether or not to have the investigation. So where does that leave us in terms of the politics of it in Michigan? Is this going to be a decisive issue in those swing districts to the democrats for the last time with Haley Stevens and Alyssa Slotkin Then the upcoming election, including the Justin Amash District, which is because it’s a three-way race very, very tight. And then of course, you’ve also got john Holt against Fred Upton and often did vote against the inquiry that could work against Fred Upton.

Christine Barry 6:14

I do think that the inquiry is legit. And I think a lot of people who are reasonable people and are not the actual Trump based can buy into that

Walt Sorg 6:23

one of the biggest differences I mentioned between the Nixon impeachment saga and today is the source of information. Under Nixon, there was no internet America’s generally got their consistent set of facts from which to form a judgment. Today, each tribe has its own set of facts and purveyor of facts. Public Opinion can be predicted based on where you get your news and smack dab in the middle of all of this is social media, something that didn’t even exist during the Bill Clinton impeachment, Amy even looking at the pressures on what’s really the wild west of information.

Amy Kerr Hardin 6:52

Wild West is right. Twitter announced its intention to ban all political ads and ads on contentious political issues like immigration and abortion. And no, this is not restricting free speech. Twitter is a privately held company and not subject to First Amendment protections. Additionally, individuals will be free to tweet any political content they wish, including political ads that they pick up elsewhere. This is a sharp contrast to the hands-off approach to the political ads announced by Facebook. the Trump campaign put out a statement in the Twitter band, claiming that it’s a left-wing conspiracy to silence them. Of course, it’s always conspiracy theory with the tempest. In another interesting political twist. traditional media are increasingly pulling candidate ads, they deem untruthful. This is in defiance of the FCC rules that say that they have to run them even if they’re complete bullshit. The line has become so blatant and so obnoxious, they just can’t take those ad dollars anymore. likely the only network left to run this garbage will be Fox.

Walt Sorg 7:55

I am absolutely fascinated by the investments that the Trump campaign is making. Online total Facebook and Google spending to date by the Trump campaigns as two committees $26 million. Most of that though being used really for organizational purposes is not so much for messaging, as it is to get lists of potential supporters and to raise money. But still that dwarfs anything that any democrat is done with the exception of Tom Stier, who basically is used his personal fortune to get attention and get into the debates. Looking at the numbers just from the week of October 20. The most recent that I’ve got available, Stier spent $900,000 on Facebook and Google. And then number two is Pete Buddha judge, which is, I think, a very interesting indication of how he is moving up in the polls, followed by Trump than Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders Tulsi Gabbert and then down at the bottom you can see why better our work was gone. He only spent $6,000 on social media just before we pulled out of the campaign. And you see also at the bottom of the list people like Marianne Williamson and Steve Bullock. People who really don’t have a whole lot of money, but it’s it really is. It’s a different state. Now, right now, when it comes to political advertising, it’s online is the name of the game. And there are no rules.

Amy Kerr Hardin 9:10

I think it’s just begging for regulation at this point. I think Mark Zuckerberg actually wants some regulation because he doesn’t want to make these decisions.

Walt Sorg 9:18

Yeah, there are some lot a lot of pressures on him to basically do the same thing that Twitter did. And that would have a huge impact on the campaign if you took down the advertising but they would still have the unfettered spreading of bullshit by individuals, whether it’s the Russians or by your your crazy uncle who you argue with the Thanksgiving, they can still put anything they want on there. And Facebook is got a real problem when it comes to monitoring that sort of thing.

Amy Kerr Hardin 9:44

Yeah, I think soccer Burke is going to cave on this issue and impulse some of these ads,

Christine Barry 9:48

he might do that. But you know, the internet is where people get radicalized. And that’s never done through any kind of particular advertising that’s done through these private faces. Facebook groups and reaching out to people in direct messaging and say, Hey, I saw you posted this, maybe you’d be interested in this. And it’s really disturbing the way that you can build up a group of really nasty people. And it really should. It’s like-minded people really. But what disturbs you is the fact that these people who are just a bit trouble just a bit over the edge can go and turn into these extremists because of what is available to them in this unfiltered setting. You know you don’t have to have the political advertising. What is the disparity between their organizing efforts and our organizing efforts because we were already organized on the internet is really what I’m getting at because we’ve been organizing on the internet a little bit longer than they have we’re better at it or at least we were so I’m just wondering if they’re catching up,

Walt Sorg 10:48

or certainly spending a lot more money on it right. Now. You’re right about a big a great organizing tool for progressive movements and it’s been used for a while proposal to basically happened because of Facebook. Facebook was our organizing tool. Totally, it was our communications tool for many, many, many months. In fact, all of our meetings were conducted using social media was Facebook, it was Google Drive was our office space basically. And free conference call was our meeting room. And that’s how the campaign went on for months and months. And that’s a huge thing. But let’s talk about another aspect of all of this representative Katie hill of California. She was slut-shamed on social media for an admitted affair with a campaign staffer, which is legal, although questionable, and alleged, but denied the affair with the congressional staffer, which is illegal. She took full responsibility for her actions with the campaign staffer in her farewell speech on the House floor. But she also made no bones about her anger in that farewell speech.

Unknown Speaker 11:45

Today, I asked you all to stand with me and commit to creating a future where this no longer happens to women and girls. Yes, I’m stepping down. But I refuse to let this experience scare off other women who dare to take risks who dare to step in. To this light, who dare to be powerful, it might feel like they want in the short term, but they can’t in the long term. We cannot let them I’m leaving. But we have men who have been credibly accused of intentional acts of sexual violence and remain in boardrooms on the Supreme Court, in this very body. And worst of all, in the Oval Office.

Walt Sorg 12:23

As the token guy in our little triad. I’m disgusted by a pair of double standards in Washington when it comes to sexual misdeeds. First, of course, there’s the gender double standard, women are sluts men are players. Secondly, the two parties seem to have different standards. Katie Hill, Al Frank, and John Conyers are just a few of the people who were forced to leave office because of allegations of sexual impropriety. And I’d note that none of them was charged with sexual assault. On the Republican side, you get people like Senator David Vitter re-elected to the Senate despite admitting to frequenting prostitutes in Washington. You’ve got the former governor and Congressman Mark Sanford here. The two continent adultery and what you use government resources to hide his dalliances and he’s running for president. That of course, you’ve got President Trump’s favorite rock and roll singer Ted Nugent, he wrote and recorded a song called jailbait to celebrate his pre- R Kelly romances with children. And he’s also a good buddy with convicted rape is Mike Tyson. Both of them are welcome guests in the Oval Office. And of course, there’s Donald john Trump himself a self-confessed sexual predator. The whole thing kind of makes me sick.

Christine Barry 13:31

Oh, I agree. I think the stepping down it’s when you saw Al Franken and john conyers resigned. For me that was really disappointing. They were both such effective legislators. Katie Hill I honestly wasn’t even aware of. But I think your main point about the sludge shaming is just spot on. When it comes to women having this issue. They’re just trashed, you know, and it doesn’t harm them in the way that it harms the women. I do think there’s a difference. In our respective basis, progressive supporters don’t tend to stick with the people who have screwed up the way that the more conservative people do. They just don’t seem to have that same set of standards where, you know, john conyers, who’s very powerful man, when he stepped down, you know, people were kind of willing to say, oh, but he did that and that I can’t support him anymore. That’s, that’s weird to me. I worked

Walt Sorg 14:24

for two very prominent state political leaders who had extramarital affairs, both of which strangely enough ended up in them getting married to the person with whom they were having the affair. On a personal level, those affairs were very hurtful for people. But to me, it didn’t impact their job performance one iota. I don’t like public officials being forced from office because of uncorroborated allegations. But most of all, I hate the double standard that excuses Donald Trump. It excuses David Letterman and the rest of the scum but the vilifies kitty Hill

Amy Kerr Hardin 14:54

just before the broadcast today I looked up revenge porn to find out which states have laws against it and 46 states do have laws against it and and that’s how Katie Hill was outed, and including Michigan we have a law against it. So hopefully they’ll be enforcing these laws.

Walt Sorg 15:09

Okay. We also took a look at a campaign in Kansas City for mayor, which I thought was absolutely amazing. It was basically slut-shaming of a candidate who was attacked online with stuff that was just total bogus was totally bogus. A black and white video showing scenes a women’s clothes strewn on the ground, a half open mascara tube and idolized curler stage to look as if they’d fallen out of a jacket pocket. Young women silhouetted against a great background, relayed allegations of sexual harassment by state lawmakers is large white block letters spelled out the most lurid details. Hey, the first woman says do your panties match your outfit? She said she was told at the end of the 58 second clip, the women’s voices become one as they say, Stop Brandon Whipple. The sexual harassment charges didn’t involve him.

Amy Kerr Hardin 15:57

That’s what he’s doing.

Walt Sorg 15:58

Yeah, he’s showing it alleging the slandered him. And local reporters have found that the man behind the video shares office space with two prominent Kansas Republicans, but it’s out there and it’s like everything else. You can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube.

Amy Kerr Hardin 16:12

Yes, that’s true and and people tend to believe the worst in people.

Walt Sorg 16:16

And of course Facebook allowed it. Yeah.

Christine Barry 16:23

at the state capitol, lawmakers are demonstrating they can do more than one thing at a time. While the budget talks room installed in Lansing as Republicans demand the governor capitulate. Democrats are moving proactively in response to state and federal efforts to end legal abortions. Members of the House Democratic caucus were joined by Governor Whitmer for the introduction of the Michigan Reproductive Health Act RRHA, which would guarantee individuals are free to make independent decisions about their own reproductive health. The Omnibus RHA bill would protect individual decision making in the area of repression Health based on what is best for their own unique situation. The RHA recognizes that when it comes to making decisions about reproductive healthcare the decision should be based on medical facts, not political ideology. The legislation also repeals outdated and unconstitutional prohibitions on reproductive healthcare to bring it more in line with the treatment of other forms of medical care.

Walt Sorg 17:25

Seven House Democrats are sponsoring the bills including representative Julie Brixie of Meridian Township, which is located just outside of Lansing and she joins us on the Policast.

Representative Brittany, why is it necessary in your mind to introduce this package on women’s health care in Michigan? Is it is it preventative? Are you anticipating problems? Or is it in response to what’s already the situation?

Julie Brixie 17:46

I think it’s a combination of factors. Walt, the reproductive health care act ensures access to safe legal abortion in Michigan and it guarantees that people are free to make their own medical decisions with Certain Palin politicians interfering while repealing dozens of Michigan’s outdated abortion laws.

Walt Sorg 18:11

It seems the philosophy behind the packages can be kind of summed up when I go see my urologist if I have an issue about reproductive health, I don’t have to worry about anything other than dealing with my urologist. There’s no obstacles, the state’s put in my way, but women are just treated differently.

Julie Brixie 18:26

That’s correct. And, you know, we have a right to health care and abortion is the only piece of health care that has been restricted and had certain laws placed on it by certain politicians. It’s a medical procedure and it should be regulated as every other medical procedure and that’s exactly what the RHA does.

Walt Sorg 18:52

One thing I think most people don’t realize that in Michigan, there is a law outlawing abortion. It’s just not enforced because of Roe v. Would

Julie Brixie 19:00

it’s actually outline miscarriage. That’s one of the problems with the old law that’s on the books that outlaws it is that it isn’t even clear what exactly it’s it’s outline compared to modern day terminologies, medical terminologies that are used. So the reproductive health care act takes care of all those old bills and old language old laws and old languages and brings us forward into modern times.

Walt Sorg 19:29

Now, for the short term, at least any legislation that went through that was adverse to women’s health care and health or rights would be vetoed by the governor, the veto would be upheld, but you have to petition drives in the field right now by anti choice groups that bypass the governor completely, and there’s a good possibility there’s going to be some very significant new restrictions placed on rather than going in the other direction. How do you respond to it politically?

Julie Brixie 19:55

One of the main things that we really need to do while is to help educate Michigan residents who are being asked to sign ballot initiatives help them understand that the people circulating those petitions don’t always have the best of intentions to put this on the ballot to let the people of Michigan vote for the initiatives that they’re circulating petitions for. Most folks are not aware that the legislature can adopt directly with simple majority ballot initiatives and then amend them later or change them all of which not being subject to veto by the governor. So the RHA This gives us an opportunity to educate the public about this because right

Walt Sorg 20:44

to life is participating in a coordinated national attack of women’s right to save legal abortion. And that is happening right here in Michigan as well as other states throughout the nation. Who Let’s talk the raw politics of this in terms of the efforts that you are helping lead in Michigan to flip the Michigan House of Representatives. You only need a handful of votes to take control of the House. And in the last election, it was the gender gap, which was just huge. Just here in AM County, where were you and I live? We went from three men in the legislature to three women. And that seems to be the trend across the state, especially within the Democratic Party. Is this going to be a cutting edge issue for the 2020 election for the House of Representatives?

Julie Brixie 21:30

Absolutely. And then and I think that we we we saw, although it may not have been articulated through campaign literature and talking points of people running for election in 2018. I think we saw by the large numbers of women that came out to vote and the large numbers of women that were elected to office in 2018, that women have been empowered and women feel engaged particularly here in Michigan in terms of recognizing that their right to save legal abortion is in danger in great peril. And it is, you know, happening along party lines. And it’s absolutely an issue that people care about. And it isn’t just women that that care about it, whether and when to have a child has significant financial implications and families and families have the right to plan their own future and make their own decisions regarding pregnancy and having children and this is part of that.

Walt Sorg 22:42

One of the issues I know that will be raised, and by the other side will be a third term abortions, which of course are very rare, but it’s also a very emotional issue. I thought that Mayor Pete really had a very good response on this. That the only time a woman seeks a third term abortion Under most dire circumstances, if she’s gone that long with a pregnancy, she wanted that baby but something went terribly, terribly wrong.

Julie Brixie 23:07

Well, I think, go back to the point that abortion is the only medical procedure that is regulated differently than other medical procedures. And we need to go back to abortion being regulated like every other medical procedure, and subject to the same types of regulations has heart surgery or hip replacement, and allow important decisions to be made between patients and their doctors and consultation with their with family members or friends. Every single pregnancy is different, and every person’s circumstances are different. And it’s not for me as a politician to interfere with a decision and important medical decision that someone is making about themselves. abs in consultation with their doctor, that’s something between a patient and their doctor that should be handled.

Walt Sorg 24:07

I really enjoyed it the news conference, your colleague, Representative Christie pagan at the beginning announcing she sort of had a conflict of interest on the issue of women’s reproductive health right now.

Julie Brixie 24:18

Because she’s pregnant with twins. Yes, that is that was eye catching site, I think.

Walt Sorg 24:23

And it’s interesting that many legislators have given birth while members of the legislature, but I did do some checking. And yes, Governor Whitmer she had,

Julie Brixie 24:33

there was one around,

Walt Sorg 24:34

ya know, she was two of them. Yeah, we’re daughters were born.

Unknown Speaker 24:38

Yep. And, and Senator Chang, also

Walt Sorg 24:42

representative Berkeley, appreciate it very much. I’m sure this is going to be an issue we’ll be talking about a lot over the next Well, probably more than the next year.

Julie Brixie 24:49

Thanks for having me on. Well, appreciate it.

Walt Sorg 24:51

Our pleasure. Thank you. There will be a ballot proposal, no doubt led by Planned Parenthood and you can guarantee it will be a very emotion charged campaign. On both sides

Christine Barry 25:01

and mean spirited I think

Walt Sorg 25:06

Okay, it’s time for the lightning round issue number one bad news for lovers of clean water on two fronts AB

Amy Kerr Hardin 25:12

Yes, the courts ruled that the construction of the line five tunnel is constitutional and a major blow to Attorney General Nessel’s campaign to halted she’s naturally appealing they act so we’ll see where that goes. And then in another issue polluter panels that’s what they’re called ‘slangly’ it’s actually the environmental rules review committee that was set up by Governor Snyder and they face a lot of criticism from environmentalists um, they’re dragging their feet and approving the governor’s new standards and P FAFSA, which has some micro plastics in our waters

Walt Sorg 25:47

know that panel is basically composed of industry representatives. Yep, go figure. Issue number two should sports betting be more than your office pool for the Super Bowl or that NCAA basketball bracket stream.

Christine Barry 26:00

Man, this is interesting. There are two bills that just passed in the House. One is to legalize sports betting. The other is to legalize internet gaming. And the pros to these bills is that they’re expected to raise revenue based on the various taxes that would be assessed on these things. Snyder vetoed similar bills because he thought the internet gaming would pull from the States lottery, and so it would decrease state tax revenue. Governor Whitmer has similar concerns about that. And of course, we fund public education through a state lottery. And in fact, the house fiscal agency agrees that the internet gaming bills would likely result in a net reduction of revenues for state and local governments. Now, if you look at the sports betting bill, the house fiscal agency says well, it would probably increase revenues. There are a lot of assumptions in those fiscal analyses based on the maturity of the market and how how different things go. So it’s a really interesting thing that they’re working on right now. The bills are heading to this Senate governor Witmer so far is leaning towards a veto, but she’s willing to discuss and negotiate on them.

Walt Sorg 27:08

And one of the issues that they really haven’t discussed yet, but it’s been a concern for a long time is what is sports betting legalize sports betting do for the prospects of corruption within sports, both professional and college sports. The big money you know, you go back a century to the black socks scandal in the World Series where basically the White Sox were paid to throw the World Series. If there’s more and more money involved because of legalized gambling is the door opening for more of that type of corruption at both the collegiate and professional level?

Christine Barry 27:37

You know, that’s one thing. But this debate also underscores the fact that we just fund our state and correctly if you can’t have internet gaming, because you’re concerned that it would take funding away from public schools. That to me, seems like a huge problem. And that should just underscore the fact that we have structural problems that we need to fix here.

Walt Sorg 27:59

And then we’ll go to Number three, the divorce family folks who love those profit making charter schools and are a little unhappy with our governor right now. Amy, what’s the latest from the land of Amway?

Amy Kerr Hardin 28:09

Pick the boss, husband to US Secretary of Education. That’s the boss is whining about governor witness line item veto of $35 million, slated to go to Michigan’s charter schools. Now, as we’ve discussed before on the pad, many of these schools have a for profit layer and them at some, you know, public schools, traditional public schools do not in fact, Michigan has more for profit charters than any other state. And in a side note, the divorce family spent $1.45 million back in 2016, lobbying against increased charter oversight. So yeah, they’re just full of crap.

Walt Sorg 28:48

You know, maybe they’ll have to sell one of their 10 yachts. If they no longer make money off of charter schools. That would be a tragedy. Let’s wrap up with issue number four personal note for me the passing of former congressman J. Bob Traxler.

Traxler who represented the Saginaw Valley, and both the state legislature in Congress died this last week at the age of 88. I got to know Bob Traxler. During his Lansing days I was a young reporter who transition to being in the speaker’s press secretary at the same time tracks or was one of our most respected senior members in the caucus here in the nickname bingo Bob for his successful efforts to legalize charitable bingo in Michigan, something that became a fundraising cash cow for many charities as well as the Democratic Party. It also set the stage for the Michigan lottery. When he ran for congress in a special election. The campaign made national headlines. He was running in a heavily republican district against James Sparling. It was a perfectly decent guy, but it was right in the middle of the Watergate investigation. Traxler ran his campaign against richard nixon instead of Sparling. Nixon obliged him by flying into tri cities airport for a campaign rally, which I happened to attend as a reporter. It was probably the difference in flipping what had been a republican district practice or when underserved for nearly 20 years and Congress, on a personal level, Bob tractor was one of those people who in the words of bass city’s current mayor was well loved, well respected and just an all around good guy. Amen, and Godspeed. And that’s a wrap for this week’s Michigan poly cans for background information on these topics links, videos, tweets, conspiracy theories, head on over to our website, Michigan podcast.com.

Amy Kerr Hardin 30:26

We welcome your feedback. Send us a note on social media or email at MI [email protected]

Christine Barry 30:32

For Walt and Amy, I’m Christine Barry. Thanks for listening

Walt Sorg 30:37

to Michigan Podcast is a production of Michigan citizens for a better tomorrow.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai 

There may be some uncorrected transcription errors ~cb