While legislators play footsy with the Governor over the roads and budget, progressive agendas will challenge the Maryland General Assembly members to help ordinary people -- as they are sworn to do -- despite the lobbyists and donors looking over their shoulders.

The "tax plan" promoted by the President-elect may be more advantageous to some in relatively affluent Maryland, but others will get little or no benefit and the state may suffer from the consequent lowered federal revenue and drop in federal spending -- important for a state with a high dependence on federal spending for its continued prosperity. A detailed recent analysis from the Capital News Service at UMCP's highly-ranked J-school provides details.

Forcing state school leaders to grovel before the Gov and his henchpersons for the money they deserve is an old and despicable custom, usually with political knives out, that should be ended, says Barry Rascovar in Maryland Reporter (posted Monday, Jan. 9). And, to show that His Trumpness is not the only thin-skinned jerk in the cosmos, alleged Democrat Peter Franchot, the Comptroller, sent a mouthpiece to complain about Rascovar's colossal nerve in having an opinion about the matter.

The Maryland General Assembly opens this Wednesday (Jan. 11) and the fun begins. See some previews and the calendar of get-togethers for PM and allies as the session gets under way, plus the week's blog posts with summaries and links. One-stop progressive shopping.

We have lots of ways to struggle against Trump's Washington; despite calls from "pied pipers of the Left" there's no need to distract ourselves, "wasting precious time and energy fiddling" with impeachment chatter "while Trump and the Republican Congress are burning our house down," argues Hal Ginsberg.

Lots going on in early January ... our Weekly Memo clues you in on coming events and has links to the most recent blog posts. BTW you can get it by email every week; check it out.

To get you started on 2017 activism: our blog posts since June 2015 relating specifically to Prince George's and Montgomery counties, places where Progressive Maryland activists are hard at work on very local issues. You can catch up with political and community doings in those counties here, with summaries and links to the posts.

It’s the slack few days between holidays this week, but don’t let 2017 sneak up on you (2017?! What?! Wait, that’s too soon…). Whether your farewell to 2016 is fond or otherwise, the Maryland General Assembly gears up January 11 and a new state-level battle (or battles) begins. Plus early January events and links to this week’s blog posts.

Barry Rascovar unmasked Gov. Larry Hogan’s Trump-like taste for the spectacle as a cover for, um, prevarications (we re-published it Tuesday, Dec. 20). Just because it’s a hoax, though, doesn’t mean some won’t fall for it – and Adam Pagnucco outlines here how many of our august media did just that, swallowing the Guvnah’s “Roadkill Bill” flimflam. A few days later (after Pagnucco’s post was first published) the respected number-crunchers of the Department of Legislative Services put a fork in the Hogan nonsense. We'll be interested to see how many in the media will acknowledge they were had...

The effects of the 2008 recession still linger in Maryland, even after two years of the business-friendly Gov. Hogan. Where are the jobs? The services? Jerome Dancis has a few ideas about this.