Get to know John Kasich

[ladym55]

Yes, I know he is (fortunately) polling very low in the contest to see who gets to drive the Klown Kar, but after every debate, some semi-reasonable person will refer to John Kasich as the adult in the room or the popular governor (only when Ohio Democrats form a circular firing squad and forget to vet their gubernatorial candidate). My great fear is that after Donald Trump has imploded, Ben Carson has performed brain surgery on himself, and Carly Fiorina is hit by lightning after one too many lies, Kasich will be the Republican nominee, and M$M will spend the rest of the cycle telling the gullible American public what a success he has been in Ohio and what a moderate he is.

So here is some helpful information you can share with family, friends, and coworkers. I'm using Plunderbund (http://www.plunderbund.com/) as my source. It is a blog that does advocacy journalism that actually forces Ohio M$M to do their jobs from time to time.

First, let's look at John Kasich, job creator: August 2015 marks the 34th straight month that job creation in Ohio has lagged behind the U.S. Ohio still has not recovered the jobs lost in the recession of 2008. Gee, and we wonder why people keep moving away from Ohio. (http://www.plunderbund.com/2015/09/19/john-kasichs-ohio-34-straight-months-of-below-average-job-growth/)

And what about the children? Ohio's poverty rate for children continues to rise, especially for children of color. In three of Ohio's major cities, almost half of the children live in poverty. I'll skip our appalling infant mortality rate for now, but that especially galls when we consider how much attention Kasich and Ohio Republicans focus on Right to Life issues (http://www.plunderbund.com/2015/09/19/john-kasichs-ohio-number-of-children-in-poverty-continues-to-rise/).

Then there is the giant disaster and waste of taxpayer money known as Ohio's charter schools. Ohio is known as the "wild west" of charter schools, where big-donor for-profit charter schools gobble down billions of public tax dollars and produce failed schools. Right now we are looking at "Chartergate," where David Hansen (husband of Beth Hansen, head of Johnny's presidential campaign), Ohio's school choice chief, withheld performance data on failed charter schools to make them look better. That is not going well for Hansen or the DOE (http://www.plunderbund.com/2015/09/05/here-are-the-documents-that-prove-kasichs-education-department-needs-to-be-investigated). Then there is the recent Ohio Supreme Court ruling that allows for-profit failed charter management companies to retain all assets once they have been removed from running a failed school. It sure helps that the management company in question, White Hat, is a really big Republican donor in Ohio, with big, fat contributions to the Supreme Court justices (http://www.plunderbund.com/2015/09/16/big-donations-big-win-ohio-supreme-court-gives-white-hat-permission-to-pillage-own-schools/)

This is just a overnight glimpse of John Kasich, man of the people. I am paying close attention to him and to the M$M who is trying to sell us this snake oil salesman.

[FarPoint]

1. In my opinion....

He is the " Chosen One" by Koch/ GOP.

[mnhtnbb]

2. Right now, if I had to put $ on who would be the Repub nominee--I would say Kasich.

And that is a lot more scary to me than a Trump or Fiorina nominee.

[AlinPA]

3. He lost the majority of the GOP voters when he spoke for tolerance during the first debate.

They want someone who shows hatred toward minorities.

[Faux pas]

4. Kickin' to read later.

[starroute]

5. And there's lots more

http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/10-reasons-why-john-kasich-rabidly-right-wing-rest-gop-presidential-candidate-pack

Robert Fitrakis / Free Press
August 7, 2015

When Kasich first took office as governor, he killed a train line – meant to restore passenger service between Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati. Kasich’s reasons may have made sense in a Tea Party world. But some $400 million had already been secured. When it died, all that money left the state, along with untold jobs and income. Hugely expensive highway projects have followed with intense environmental damage and instant obsolescence. Columbus may be the western world’s largest capital city without passenger rail service.

In June 2014, Kasich signed the controversial Senate Bill 310 that froze Ohio’s renewable energy and energy efficiency standards at their present levels for two years. A report from the Ohio Advanced Energy Economy documented that between 2009 and 2013, the law Kasich overturned – the Renewable Energy Standards (RES) law – cost $456 million to implement, but saved Ohio residents $1.03 billion. Since RES was implemented, more than $1 billion had been invested in Ohio by private renewable energy companies, some who now say they will move out of the state. Six weeks prior to Kasich signing S.B. 310, oil magnate David Koch donated $12,155 to Kasich’s re-election campaign – the maximum allowed under law. . . .

While Kasich’s 2014 campaign commercials made him sound like the next best thing to feminist Betty Friedan, last year's June Cosmopolitan magazine ran an article entitled: “How Ohio Became One of the Worst States for Reproductive Rights in the Country.” It is like a time machine taking us back to the 1950s: a gag order on rape crisis counselors on talking about abortion, defunding Planned Parenthood, and the “heartbeat bill” banning abortions on pregnancies over 20 weeks. Because of Kasich’s and the state legislature’s new laws, abortion clinics all over the state are closing. . . .

On marriage equality, Kasich is a hater. He is fighting alongside Ohio Attorney General Michael DeWine to overturn federal rulings supportive of same-sex marriage in Ohio. One would think the ambitious Kasich would at least adopt the decade-old 2004 George W. Bush strategy of being for “civil unions.” He briefly embraced the position in 2013, before his spokesperson stepped in to clarify things – that Kasich didn’t really understand what civil unions meant, and the governor not support any recognition of any same sex relationships.