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Tag Archives: Gary Romine

HB 573 and SB 259: What took you so long?

12 Tuesday Mar 2019

Posted by Michael Bersin in Missouri General Assembly, Missouri House, Missouri Senate, social media

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Astroturf, Dean Dohrman, Gary Romine, General Assembly, HB 573, SB 259, social media, Title IX, Twitter

Today’s expression of moral outrage on Twitter.

A pop up social media account:

Demand Due Process
@Somethi75740529
America’s colleges and universities have been turned into kangaroo courts, thanks to Obama’s 2011 Dear Colleague Letter. I’m a mom fighting a broken system.
Joined March 2019

Ironically anonymous.

Uh, if this has been a problem since 2011, what took you so long to express your outrage, Mom? Why the “emergency clause”?

Is it privilege and/or a lot of available money?

Well, the account follows Mike Pence, Betsy DeVos, and James Lankford (Oklahoma?), so the answer is probably “yes.”

Another circumstance? Do tell.

Previously:

HB 573: Why? Who? (March 9, 2019)

SB 259: Really? For what purpose? (March 11, 2019)

HB 573 and SB 259: Let the army of lobbyists go forth… (March 12, 2019)

HB 573 and SB 259: Let the army of lobbyists go forth…

12 Tuesday Mar 2019

Posted by Michael Bersin in Missouri General Assembly, Missouri House, Missouri Senate, social media

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Dean Dohrman, Gary Romine, General Assembly, HB 573, KTRS, Lobbyists, missouri, Missouri Ethics Commission, SB 259, social media, Title IX, Tony Messenger, Twitter

…in a mighty wind.

Title IX is a right wingnut issue these days. Who? Why?

The sponsor of HB 573, Dean Dohrman (r), at a university homecoming parade in 2017:

Representative Dean Dohrman (r).

Bet they reconsider the invitation for the next one?

Who’s paying for all of this? Why are they paying for this? They’re not particularly transparent:

It’s not a “coalition” until you show everyone else who is in it.

At the Missouri Ethics Commission:

Kingdom Principles, Inc. – Active
612 E. Capitol Avenue
Jefferson City, MO 65101
[….]

Associated Lobbyists
Active
Lobbyist From To
Alsager, Matthew Dennis 02/27/2018 Present
Bernskoetter, Brian 03/12/2019 Present
Berry, Dave 03/08/2019 Present
Brown, Travis Howard 03/08/2019 Present
Brunnert, Zachary ‘Zach’ 03/07/2019 Present
Clarkston, Heath 03/05/2019 Present
Dempsey, Tom 03/08/2019 Present
Dozier, Cheryl Lynne 03/07/2019 Present
Flotron, Francis ‘Franc’ E. 03/07/2019 Present
Harness, Kathryn 03/07/2019 Present
Harris, James 03/07/2019 Present
Hemphill, Deanna Lynn 03/08/2019 Present
Hirschman, Janet 03/07/2019 Present
King, Tracy 03/08/2019 Present
Lakin, Joe 03/10/2019 Present
McCracken, David 03/07/2019 Present
McIntosh, Richard 02/27/2019 Present
Nelson, Doug 03/05/2019 Present
Robbins, Thomas 03/12/2019 Present
Schaefer, Kurt 03/05/2019 Present
Schlosser, Lynne 03/08/2019 Present
Stouffer, Bill 03/07/2019 Present
Zamkus, Jason Matthew 03/07/2019 Present

That’s going to cost a lot of money.

Associated Lobbyists
Inactive
Lobbyist From To
Iman, Kyna 03/07/2019 03/08/2019

That was a short association.

Meanwhile:

550 KTRS St. Louis @550KTRS
Why is dark money in Missouri attempting to raise support for legislation that would weaken #TitleIX regulations? @tonymess explains, discusses with @McGrawMilhaven:

Why is a dark money group attempting to pass legislation that will weaken Title IX regulations on college campuses in Missouri? Metro columnist Tony Messenger discusses this disturbing situation.

10:12 AM – 12 Mar 2019

Yeah, about that “emergency clause”.

Previously:

HB 573: Why? Who? (March 9, 2019)

SB 259: Really? For what purpose? (March 11, 2019)

Getting ironical about Greitens

13 Friday Apr 2018

Posted by willykay in Uncategorized

≈ 23 Comments

Tags

Ann Wagner, Donald Trump, Doug Libla, Eic Greitens, Gary Romine, Rob Schaaf, Sex scandal

Are Republicans cynical, confused, or just outright hypocrites?

Cynical: The White House spokespeople, folks who work for Donald Trump, P****-grabber and sexual predator extraordinaire, who are claiming that they find the abuse allegations against the Missouri Governor, who is, compared to Trump, a junior-grade sexual predator, “very concerning.”

Confused: The three Missouri legislators, Republican Senators. Rob Schaaf, Doug Libla and Gary Romine, who are appealing to the same White House predator – who will never in a thousand years resign himself – to force Greitens to go gently into the looming political night. I guess our state-level pols just haven’t been paying attention. Read their letter – except for the parts that glorify Geitens’ Navy SEAL past, it could be describing the antics that have been imputed to the Orange Buffoon himself. Of course, the fool in the White House could end up doing just about anything, depending on the state of his “gut,” so maybe their gambit will pay off.

Outright hypocrite: Then, finally there’s the case of Rep. Ann Wagner (R-2). Wagner couldn’t wait to declare that when it comes to Greitens, she is “disgusted,” and asserts that he “is unfit to lead our state.” But I’m betting that a few of you remember when, in the wake of the Access Hollywood tape, she called on Trump to withdraw and labeled him “predatory and reprehensible.” Didn’t take her too long to reverse herself, though, when she realized which way the wind was blowing among the crazy reds in the Missouri GOP base. Nor is it surprising that she’s spent the last year kissing up to the Orange Buffoon who has showered her financial industry patrons with goodies. So much for her country-club rectitude.

Don’t ever doubt that our Annie will do whatever it takes when it comes to going along to get along. So we’ll wait and see if Greitens manages to hang on whether or not, in the end, all will be forgiven.

Cognitive dissonance and Obamacare in Missouri

25 Sunday Aug 2013

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

ACT, Affordable Care Act, Gary Romine, GOP progaganda, Medicaid expansion, missouri, Obamacare

COGNITIVE DISSONANCE is the discomfort experienced when simultaneously holding two or more conflicting cognitions: ideas, beliefs, values or emotional reactions. In a state of dissonance, people may sometimes feel “disequilibrium”: frustration, hunger, dread, guilt, anger, embarrassment, anxiety, etc

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch ran a very informative first page article on Missouri’s potential “Medicaid gap” today. The term refers to the situation of folks who are too poor for the Obamacare health insurance care exchanges, those the plan had intended to cover by expanding Medicaid eligibility. Unfortunately, after the Supreme  Court ruled the Medicaid expansion optional,  Missouri’s Republican pols were unwilling to accept the federal money that would fund the expansion – full federal ride for three years, thereafter an increasing share to be paid by Missouri until the state reaches the 10% cap on its contribution in 2020. Expanding Medicaid is unarguably a good deal that would bring lots of Missouri’s federal tax dollars home and cover hundreds of thousands of currently uninsured  Missourians. The result of the GOP’s intransigence is nearly 300,000 uninsured individuals who will remain uninsured after Obamacare’s full implementation unless the legislature relents.

The article suggests that many of our GOP state legislators are in a state of denial about what federal funding means, as witness this statement from state Senator Gary Romine (R-3):

With our budget as tight as it is, to add anyone else to the rolls only takes dollars away from another area […]. So for us to find ways to cover those in need, we’ve got to find a way to come up with funds.

But this type of idiocy is not the cognitive dissonance I am concerned with. I rather suspect that Senator Romine knows very well that the funds for the expansion will be available from Washington (and without busting the federal deficit either). He also knows that funds are  tight in Missouri because of the desire of the GOPers in the legislature to lighten the tax burden for their corporate patrons. He’s just trying to put a good face on a decision that will hurt many Missourians for almost no reason at all.

A statement from one of those poor souls who will probably not be able to obtain subsidized coverage on the exchanges, however, not only exemplifies the definition of cognitive dissonance, but indicates just how the GOP can use it to get away with cutting off so many Missourians’ noses to spite the Obamacare face:

Count Jennifer Rosa, 40, of Ellington, Mo., in Reynolds County, in that group. She works full time at a grocery store, handling carry-out for customers and stocking shelves. The store doesn’t offer insurance to its employees.

Her son is on Medicaid – the cutoff is higher for children – and Rosa said she pays $75 a month for that. But she makes too much to be eligible herself.

“You get up every morning and pray you don’t get sick, don’t have a toothache, don’t need glasses,” she said.

About twice a year, her chronic bronchitis flares up.

“You just don’t go to the doctor,” she said. “You get sick and just tough it out.”

While she would like to have affordable insurance, she’s not a fan of the Affordable Care Act, dubbed Obamacare.

“I don’t like the idea of them forcing this down our throats,” Rosa said. She opposes subsidizing people who “sit at home and draw a check. I don’t want them to do everything for me, but as a working person, some help would be great. We’re people who work for a living.”

Get that? Somehow, Ms. Rosa is sure the beneficiaries are unworthy, folks who sit on their butts and “draw a check,” even though she herself is exactly the type of person who would be covered by the expansion. She wants health care, she needs health care, but she knows, thanks to the tireless demagoguing of the GOP, that making it available to her is “stuffing it down our throats” – which we all know is very bad. There’s a little mean-mindedness here – the phobic response to the the mythical “welfare queen” stereotype – but otherwise, cognitive dissonance anyone?

This mental disjunct may be good short-term politics for the GOP in Missouri, but long-term it’s very bad for the state. Remember the products of cognitive dissonance? A misinformed, inflamed citizenry raddled by “frustration, …  dread, guilt, anger, embarrassment, anxiety” isn’t going to do anybody any good and may indeed be responsible for lots of very bad future events.

2nd paragraph slightly edited for clarity.

Campaign Finance: What, us worry?

11 Thursday Oct 2012

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

campaign finance, Gary Romine, Joseph Fallert, missouri, Missouri Ethics Commission

Something is up in the 3rd Senate District race.

Today, at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

C091142 10/11/2012 ROMINE FOR SENATE Missouri Senate Campaign Committee PO Box 754 Jefferson City MO 65102 10/11/2012 $100,000.00

[emphasis added]

Gee, he gets by with a lotta help from his corporatist friends. Not so grassrootsie. Why would a state senate candidate need a $100,000.00 campaign contribution less than four weeks out from Election Day? Just asking.

Joe Fallert is the Democratic Party candidate in the 3rd Senate District.

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