Trump's really deplorable association; voter suppression continues; Hogan v. progressives on transit -- and more; some weekend reading you may enjoy.

Welcome to the Weekend Reader in the Progressive Maryland BlogSpace.

Well, the week has been over-full of news about Donald Trump’s past behavior toward women who found he wouldn’t take no for an answer, mainly because he didn’t ask. Women are outraged but kids are having trouble negotiating what they see of this preoccupation by adults, a report from the Southern Poverty Law Center said earlier in the campaign. And Petula Dvorak, if you missed it, based a column in the WaPo on the report.

But we don’t want to get too distracted by Trump’s aggressively predatory sexual behavior, because that’s only one of the dangerous trends that seem to be associated with him. In Mother Jones magazine a team compiles the steamy relationship between the Orange One and his fans in the white-supremacist and neoNazi fringes, who are – we read here – feeling really empowered that someone at the top of a major ticket is speaking their unspeakable language. http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/10/donald-trump-hate-groups-neo-nazi-white-supremacist-racism

Meanwhile the official/unofficial campaign in some Red states to suppress the votes of minorities and working people continues despite court victories. An opinion piece in the NYT last weekend provided a more recent roundup. And Rep. Elijah Cummings in the Afro reminds us of the difficult path to this point and the need to fight to preserve and expand ballot access.

Modern communications and social opportunities are promoting individuality rather than solidarity behavior, making it harder for unions and social movements to stick together compared to the past. Lee Saunders’s article from The American Prospect details some of these concerns.

But what about Maryland, you are asking? You are right to ask; this is Progressive Maryland after all. In a week when Gov. Larry Hogan showed his GOP colors (despite his popular and low-risk stance against Trump) by shucking off the notion that Maryland would help seek a stable tax-based revenue source for Metrorail, some transit proponents pushed back big-time with a plan to expand and connect existing mass transit in the state. We are sure to hear more about this.