Sunday, June 2, 2024

Projection? Who's got the Crime Family?

Republicans signed on to what is essentially a strike, to do nothing until the election in November, including our own Ron Johnson.

If Trump's 34 felony convictions aren't embarrassing enough to support without question, maybe they should remember all those who also fell on their swords for Trump. Not a good look...



Sunday, April 7, 2024

Why don't MAGAs try to Save Americans Money? What the hell is YOOPERLITE?

 WI HOUSE MAGAs WANT YOU to PAY MORE FOR GAS!

Coffee Bean:     Dear Wisconsin, Reps Scott Fitzgerald, Mike Gallagher, Glenn Grothman, Tom Tiffany & Bryan Steil voted against investigating gas price gouging in 2022….Don't they like us?

H.R.7688 - Consumer Fuel Price Gouging Prevention Act:

This bill prohibits any person from selling, during a proclaimed energy emergency, a consumer fuel at a price that (1) is unconscionably excessive, and (2) indicates that the seller is exploiting the emergency to increase prices unreasonably. The President may issue a proclamation of such an emergency that specifies the consumer fuel and geographic area covered and how long the proclamation applies.


Media Could STOP Blaming Biden for High Groceries!

The Post: I’d be willing to bet you didn’t know the FTC just released a report about why grocery prices are high and that’s 100% due to corporate greed.

I’d bet they don’t think it’s front page news because it goes against their “Biden is to blame for high prices” narrative.

Return MAGAs to power because tax cuts for them is better for their tax bill despite the cost to the rest of us.

Here’s California Rep Katie Porter Driving that point home. Should have been a bigger story:



Trump Kept the True from Getting OUT? WHY? SOMETHIING TO HIDE?

Four years ago today -- on April 6, 2020 -- Trump held one of his covid trainwreck news conferences and prevented his top public health official from correcting misinformation he was spreading about supposed miracle cures hydroxychloroquine.

I'm posting this bizarro world Trump propaganda piece that I believe will be pointed to historically as a twisted artifact from a time when the US contemplated installing a dictator. 

Will this rock hunting craze now catch on in Wisconsin...who knew?

Thursday, February 29, 2024

WI Republicans Spending Spree on Attorneys, Chesebro is the BadgerPundit, Nazi CPAC Meet, WHITE RURAL RAGE, the book.

 Just another page in the Trump era...

1. Lame Duck Laws by Lame Gerrymandered Republicans.

WI Republicans not only took power away from the governor and AG during a lame duck session after Scott Walker lost, but they also allowed themselves to hire their own attorneys instead of the state justice department.

WI GOP's lame duck laws made it easier for the Legislature to hire attorneys and indeed, WI taxpayers are on the hook for nearly $14.3M spent by WI GOP on private attorneys between 1/1/19 & 12/31/22. Add probably $3M more for this last redistricting fight.

While the Dems have only just hired their private attorneys:

It must be highlighted that only in this last redistricting fight did Democrats hire their own private lawyers—at a fraction of what WI GOP attorneys charged. And WI GOP experts, like the redistricting one paid $450/hr, are additional out-of-pocket costs.

Another amazing example of “fiscal conservative policies.” Then there's this...



2. Kenneth Chesebro's private Twitter account @badgerpundit sought to overturn the election. Okay?

Do you call it an insurrection? Uh, yea.

Kenneth Chesebro, who helped devise the Trump campaign’s fake electors plot, concealed a secret Twitter account from Michigan prosecutors, hiding dozens of posts that undercut his statements to investigators about his role in the scheme.



3. Nazis at CPAC know where their swastikas are welcome...
4. WHITE RURAL RAGE, the book: 

Professor of political science at the University of Maryland, Tom Schaller and journalist Paul Waldman's new book, “White Rural Rage.”

You might remember back in 2016, The Politics of Resentment: Rural Consciousness in Wisconsin and the Rise of Scott Walker by author Katherine J. Cramer.
White Rural Rage laid out the fourfold interconnected threat that white rural voters pose to the country,” in their new book. “They are the most anti-gay, xenophobic in the country. QAnon support and subscribers, COVID denialism, Obama birtherism.”

“They don’t believe in an independent press, free speech. They’re most likely to say the president should be backed unilaterally without checks from the courts, and the strongest white Christian nationalists. Fourth, they’re most likely to excuse or justify violence as acceptable.”

This is the case due to the “problematic education systems,” “poorer infrastructure” and “a lack of economic opportunity” in rural areas of the country.

“That kind of left them open to someone like Donald Trump who would come along and tell them something that was true, that there is a system that has not served them well,”

5. Florida College Hit With Rare Sanction After DeSantis’ ‘Egregious’ Takeover, that was politically motivated. 

NewCollege of Florida, the school infamously overhauled by Gov. Ron DeSantis and his pals, was slapped with a rare sanction by a national faculty group Monday for “egregious and extensive” standards violations during its conservative takeover last year.

The American Association of University Professors, has placed just 12 other universities on its sanctioned list over the last three decades.

The nonprofit wrote in a report that its decision stemmed from New College’s “unprecedented politically motivated takeover.”

DeSantis praised the moves as necessary to save the school from ruin, even though it regularly pumped out Fulbright scholars.

LeRoy Pernell, a Florida A&M Law professor said, “What we are witnessing in Florida is an intellectual reign of terror. There is a tremendous sense of dread right now, not just among faculty; it’s tangible among students and staff as well. People are intellectually and physically scared. We are being named an enemy of the state.”


MUST SEE: What Trump's American will really look like...

The Heritage Foundation's work on Project 2025 is a long read, so in an attempt to get the word out on our possible dystopian future, the Courier Newsroom has a number of videos that break it all down. Here's just one great example:




Wednesday, February 21, 2024

Christian Nationalism is spreading.

1. Gather Around the Christian Nationalist Flag…

Trump’s team is preparing to fundamentally reshape America under their “Project 2025” plan, starting with declaring America is now a “Christian nationalist” country.

Christian nationalists believe the country was founded as a Christian nation, and Christian values should be prioritized throughout government and public life.

Russell Vought, who served under Trump could be a potential chief of staff for Trump.

A list of top priorities:

---invoking the Insurrection Act on Day One to quash protests.

--- refusing to spend authorized congressional funds on unwanted projects.

---promoted a restrictionist immigration agenda, saying a person’s background doesn’t define who can enter the U.S., but rather, citing Biblical teachings, whether that person “accept[ed] Israel’s God, laws and understanding of history.”

---Christian nationalist William Wolfe, a former Trump administration official advocated for overturning same-sex marriage, ending abortion and reducing access to contraceptives.

---a constellation of conservative groups run by Trump allies constructed a detailed plan to dismantle key agencies, that states “freedom is defined by God, not man.” NOT THE CONSTITUTION.

---Trump is espousing the Christian right’s long-running argument that Christians are so severely persecuted that it necessitates a federal response.

---“Marxists and fascists” are “going hard” against Catholics, so “Upon taking office, I will create a new federal task force on fighting anti-Christian bias to be led by a fully reformed Department of Justice that’s fair and equitable.”

---Trump promoted on his social media a video that suggests his campaign is, actually, a divine mission from God.

God made Trump audio.

---define human rights based on “natural law and natural rights” derived from God that can’t be superseded by government or judges. It’s been used to oppose abortion, LGBTQ+ rights and contraception.

---Trump is also talking about bringing his former national security adviser Michael Flynn, a vocal proponent of Christian nationalism, back into office. Flynn is currently focused on recruiting what he calls an “Army of God” — as he barnstorms the country promoting his vision of putting Christianity at the center of American life.

---William_E_Wolfe’s principles, including on immigration states: “Jesus Christ wasn’t an open-borders socialist. The Bible unapologetically upholds the concept of sovereign nations.”

---Vought defended the widely criticized practice of family separation at the border during the Trump years, telling the audience “The decision to defend the rule of law necessitates the separation of families.”

---policies that support LGBTQ+ rights, subsidize “single-motherhood” and penalize marriage should be repealed because subjective notions of “gender identity” threaten “Americans’ fundamental liberties.”

---organized campaigns around “culture war” issues, including curbing LGBTQ+ rights, banning books and opposing gun safety laws.

---Matthew Taylor, a scholar at the Institute for Christian Jewish Studies, said, “These folks aren’t as interested in democracy or working through democratic systems because their theology is one of Christian warfare.”

2. ‘God & Country' Review: A Bracing, Rob Reiner-Produced Primer on the Dangers of Christian Nationalism.

Thefilm points out in exhaustive detail, Christian Nationalism is very much a political, rather than religious, movement. The movement claims that America is a Christian nation and that the founders intended it as such. It seeks to roll back feminism, LBGTQ rights and abortion, and to either introduce Christianity to public schools or substitute them with private Christian schools funded by vouchers.

That a large majority of the population opposes these things doesn't faze them in the least. But it does motivate them to prevent people from voting.

The film ends where it began, with footage of Jan. 6 insurrectionists proudly bearing crosses, signs emblazoned with bible verses, and pictures of Jesus. What it doesn't provide, unfortunately, is a persuasive prescription for how we're going to prevent our country from descending from democracy to theocracy.

3. Heritage Foundation Integrates religion into Sex...not having it!

Tuesday, February 20, 2024

A Media Defamation Law would be Right-wing Media's biggest Enemy but go-ahead Florida.

Once a conservative now a progressive pundit Bruce Bartlett remarked: 
“The right spent the last 50 years building an alternative media to get out its message, while the left has doggedly relied solely on the legacy media. As the legacy media has collapsed, the right's media has remained strong, while the left's ability to communicate has died."
Well, that might change soon in Florida:
A GOP-backed defamation bill making it easier to sue the media in Florida will 'destroy conservative media,' says on conservative radio host
Supposedly, Florida aims to hold the liberal media accountable.

But right-wing radio host lie all the time. They don’t see a problem with this.

This conservative radio host never admits right wing radio hosts lie… But he is freaking out because he knows it's true…in his own words:
“Liberal trial lawyers are going to have a field day with “center-right” media in the state of Florida, it will destroy conservative media in this state.”
Why, because they Lie.
“How do you think a conservative show host is gonna hold up in deep blue Broward County with liberal judges. I believe that Republicans are acting like liberals in the way that they are legislating out of emotion. They're not thinking. They're reacting. Liberals don't even care about winning. They care about burying the voices. They care about censoring conservative voices.”
Because they can’t stop lying? He said,
“They want to shut down conservative media. And the Republicans are creating a law that would make it easier for them to do so."
Because conservative media can’t stop lying.

This will be fun to watch, if not a little on the chaotic side.

John & Gordy Show: Pentagon Sense of Humor, AI voices against Guns, MAGAs part with their money, Tenn. to Ban Cold Beer?

 A look at the John & Gordy Show on WMDX 92.7 Monday....

1. PENTAGON CONFRONTED WITH MOVIE CHARACTER COMPARISONS TO REAL WORLD VILLAINS:  

As the TWEET X said: "This actually happened at the Pentagon briefing yesterday. It is real. It really happened. Maj. Gen. Ryder @PentagonPresSec…." Who doesn't like this Maj. General now?

Context here…..Jeff Schogol is a reporter for  @TaskandPurpose,  a news, culture and analysis site for the military community.

The audio starts with reporter Jeff Schogol's first question, and about 1 minute 5 sec. in his 2nd question:

2. AI VOICES OF TEENAGERS COMING BACK TO HAUNT REPUBLICANS: 

One of the most incredible responses yet by parents of children killed by assault weapons. If this doesn't get a politicians attention, nothing will. Horrifying, sad, and giving a voice to those who can no longer be heard...

ENGADGET: Their children were shot, so they used AI to recreate their voices and call lawmakers.

The parents of a teenager who was killed in Florida’s Parkland school shooting in 2018 have started a bold new project called The Shotline to lobby for stricter gun laws in the country. The Shotline uses AI to recreate the voices of children killed by gun violence and send recordings through automated calls to lawmakers, The Wall Street Journal reported.

“I’m back today because my parents used AI to recreate my voice to call you,” says the AI-generated voice of Joaquin Oliver, one of the teenagers killed in the Parkland shooting. “Other victims like me will be calling too.” At the time of publishing, more than 8,000 AI calls had been submitted to lawmakers through the website.

3. MAGA Cult willingly give what little money they have, living paycheck to paycheck, to pay for this former grifting president? Sure, it will happen...watch the coffers fill. 


(You can't make this kind of grifting up!!!)

4. TENNESSEE MAY BAN THE SALE OF...COLD BEER? 

I know, having an overwhelming super majority in the Tennessee legislature and having a governor willing to sign every bill, it would be tempting to exercise power that would stretch past the boundaries of reality, but who would have guessed this...in the words of reporter Phil Williams:


5. ‘God & Country' Review: A Bracing, Rob Reiner-Produced Primer on the Dangers of Christian Nationalism.

The film points out in exhaustive detail, Christian Nationalism is very much a political, rather than religious, movement. The movement claims that America is a Christian nation and that the founders intended it as such. It seeks to roll back feminism, LBGTQ rights and abortion, and to either introduce Christianity to public schools or substitute them with private Christian schools funded by vouchers.

That a large majority of the population opposes these things doesn't faze them in the least. But it does motivate them to prevent people from voting.

The film ends where it began, with footage of Jan. 6 insurrectionists proudly bearing crosses, signs emblazoned with bible verses, and pictures of Jesus. What it doesn't provide, unfortunately, is a persuasive prescription for how we're going to prevent our country from descending from democracy to theocracy.

VIDEO FOUND HERE

BONUS: The following video came out in 2014 predicting the power of AI...my Gen Z son started playing this for me and I could not stop laughing. This guy threw every possible cliche into it. Hope you find this even remotely funny, or I'm going to think they were right, there is something definitely wrong with me....


Sunday, February 4, 2024

MAGAs should back out of cratering economy before it's too late !

 I thought this opinion in USA Today was spot on....

1. True MAGA patriots must remove themselves from Biden’s booming economy, cash out 401(k)s

To all devoted MAGA patriots aboard the Trump Train:

America’s economy appears to have gone woke and is now fully supporting the reelection of Crooked Joe Biden. I’m not sure how this happened, but no matter how much we say the economy is terrible, it keeps unpatriotically refusing to be terrible, posing a direct threat to PRESIDENT Donald J. Trump in the 2024 presidential race.

Just look at these recent headlines about the now-totally-liberal economy:

Along with all that, the S&P 500, which we now know has a liberal bias, hit a record high Jan. 19, wage growth is beating inflation and jobless claims hit their lowest point since 2022.

There must be fear! Good economic news forces the GOP to switch narrative to the border.

2. A booming Biden economy is bad for America and worse for Trump

None of this is good news if you care about President Trump or America. It’s clear Democrats are manipulating the economy and making it the strongest economy in the world in order to fool voters into thinking Biden is a competent president.

Don’t believe me? If you own stocks or have a 401(k), just look at your balance and you’ll see EXACTLY what these cheaters are up to. They’re trying to buy your votes by putting more money in your pockets. That’s cheating. DON’T BE FOOLED!

It’s clear true Trump supporters cannot be party to this kind of liberal skullduggery. So in response to this distressing spate of positive economic news, I hereby call on all MAGA faithful to remove themselves from the CORRUPTLY BOOMING BIDEN ECONOMY.

3. Cash out your 401(k) and invest in the Trump Train, baby!

If you have a 401(k), you need to immediately cash that out and either donate the money to President Trump’s reelection campaign/legal defense fund (he will give it back to you, with interest, once elected) or invest those funds in somethings sensible, like digital Trump Trading Cards.

Next, you must quit your job. It’s on us to help President Trump’s campaign by bringing those unemployment numbers back up to where we think they should be under an incompetent president who doesn’t know what day it is.

If you aren’t willing to quit your job, you must at least refuse any pay raise you’re offered. Only a squishy lib would allow himself to get paid more while a DEMONcrat is in office.

4. Trump wants you to believe America is a disaster – do as he says

Lastly, it is ABSOLUTELY imperative that you not feel confident about the future. America is a terrible place. It is falling apart. The economy is in shambles and your personal economic situation is a garbage fire.

Darkness is everywhere. Living is anguish. All hope is lost.

Only by embracing these America-first beliefs, and believing Trump is the one person who can fix everything and make life perfect, will you be able to declare yourself a true MAGA loyalist.

So get out there, fellow patriot, and disconnect from Biden’s economy. Sell stocks, put your retirement money in Trump’s coffers, embrace the gloom.

When it comes to Biden’s hot economy, remember this: Go broke or you're woke.

Wednesday, December 20, 2023

Wisconsin's Gerrymandered Republicans continue Scott Walker's Act 10 anti-market wage restraint, a gift to the top 1 Percent.

I thought it might be a good idea to remind everyone what Scott Walker did as governor, how he stunted Wisconsin's wages and buying power for a generation, just to fulfil a partisan agenda free of solutions to deal with the state's current list of problems.  

ACT 10 Mistake: First, Scott Walker passed Act 10, destroying public unions and lowering wages. It was a purely political solution to a nonexistent state budget problem. Ohio Representative Dennis Kucinich shredded this paper-thin politician. 

What Walker set in motion would eventually be a devastating hit on individual incomes and business expansion for a decade. 

Act 10 reversed century of progress. Wisconsin Supreme Court should toss law.
Comparing Wisconsin to Minnesota, we can see how massive a hit our workers took on inflation-adjusted median household incomes.

Act 10 choked wage growth for all state workers, public and private. The law legislated wage decline. Public and private sector workers alike exist in a common labor market, driving down the wages of one, drives them down for all, and private sector enterprises could pay all workers less.
Wisconsin vs Minnesota: It's real ugly...
In 2012 our median household incomes were $53,079, Minnesota’s were $61,759.

A decade after Act 10, that spread grew from $73,330 in the Badger
State, to a whopping $90,390 in Minnesota. A nominal spread of $8,000 between the states was transformed into a $17,060 gap.

If labor had discretionary income it goes to corner taps and restaurants, hairstylists and barbers, landscapers, sports shops selling hunting rifles, fishing rods and bait, etc. But if workers did not get this money the past decade, who did? The TOP “1%.” Money pocketed by big business.

The “savings” from Act 10's anti-market wage restraint reduced government budgets permitting tax cuts benefiting those who already have the most.

The same politicians legislating less pay for labor can’t claim to be saving Wisconsin money when they made the state one of only ten to rejected the return of some $2 billion of Wisconsin’s tax dollars from Washington to expand healthcare over the past decade.

Wisconsin is not “saving money” with Act 10. It is shrinking wage and small business growth while giving the 1% cash taken from its workers. This raw deal legislating low wages runs counter to the great New Deal that expanded our middle class. It’s more than time for Wisconsin’s State Supreme Court to reverse it ending gerrymandering.

Thursday, November 2, 2023

Republicans abandon farmers, offer up silence instead.

Do Republicans deserve the vote of rural towns and farmers? Nope. 

I've been making this case for years, but the example below crystalizes that point. They have done nothing but promise no spending, while offering tax cuts. Spending would have helped farmers and small towns, and the extra money was there to finally clean up the wells and help upgrade infrastructure. But nothing was ever done. Then they messed up the tax credits too, as shown below.

First let's look for a cameo appearance of Senator Marklein, who sits on the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Tourism. Below is his district map. Pretty rural. 


In the shocking video below, not one Republican, including Marklein, offer up even the weakest excuse. Nothing...

Any questions? 

Thursday, October 26, 2023

John & Gordy Show returns...

We're back...Monday Oct 30, 6-8 am on WMDX 92.7. 



Friday, October 13, 2023

Universal Basic Income blocked in Wisconsin, because Republicans don't want to know.

Universal Basic Income and Guaranteed Income! Wisconsin Republicans hate to give anyone a chance, despite the fact that UBI works. 
"Republican lawmakers held a day of back-to-back public hearings in mid-April for bills, (like) the ban local guaranteed income programs."
Okay, we heard you, stop. WIS Republicans are loudly broadcasting that only they are in control. Not you, or parents, or "real Americans." THEY ARE IN CONTROL. For example, the recently passed ban on advisory referendums screams authoritarian control, keeping popular ideas from ever getting off the ground. These are not just popular but, in many cases, successful ideas implemented elsewhere. But they don't want to hear about it. Can you think of any other reason why they banned them?  

Like a Guaranteed Income or even Universal Basic Income (UBI). 


Republicans still living in and saying the same old 20th Century Things: This never rang true for me: "They didn't earn it." 
Universal basic income does not give people something for nothing so much as equalize everyone’s share of the luck. Fair giving and taking would then take place on the basis of a more equitable starting place.
Question: Did a recently graduated teen from a well-to-do family actually earn an advantage over a graduated teen coming from a poor struggling family? No. This is where, in this case a guaranteed income that is targeted to lower income individuals only, tries to give a hand up to those unable to get started.
And a growing body of research based on the experiments shows that guaranteed income works — that it pulls people out of poverty, improves health outcomes, and makes it easier for people to find jobs and take care of their children. If empirical evidence ruled the world, guaranteed income would be available to every poor person in America, and many of those people would no longer be poor.
Recently I interviewed a 20-something who kept apologizing to me for having not made enough money last year to be able to buy a car so he could get a better job this year. A guaranteed income would have made a difference. 

The only thing holding up this proven policy is resentment. Someone getting something for "nothing." 
UBI is also a very conservative idea: 
Figures like Martin Luther King, Jr., and Milton Friedman (backed the idea)—but the conversation did not pick up much in subsequent decades.
There are no examples of where guaranteed income and universal basic income didn't work. At least, I didn't find any. So here are some examples:
 
Example A:
Beginning in February 2019, for example, 125 residents of Stockton, California, received a monthly stipend of $500 over the course of 24 months through a citywide initiative. “And they did find that full-time employment increased,” says Donna Pavetti, vice president for family income support policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

“It just gave people some flexibility,” she says, “So if they were working two part-time jobs, they could cut back, which gave them time to look for a better job.”

One year into the two-year pilot, Stockton recipients had spent 37% of their allotments on food, 22% on home goods and personal clothing items, and 11% on utilities. They spent less than 1% on alcohol and tobacco.

Beyond covering their own needs, some of the Stockton Compton recipients have committed to using the funds to pay it forward. That’s part of what the program’s organizers hope to demonstrate: that redistributing wealth through direct payments could improve access to education, housing and nutrition; reduce the racial wealth gap; and stimulate economic activity—which in turn can lift up a whole community.

Already, at least two members of the Compton Pledge have used some of their funding to start their own nonprofits
Example B: 
A study of 25 residents of Hudson, New York, who began receiving $500 per month in the fall of 2020 on behalf of research organization the Jain Family Institute, found similar results. Participants’ employment (both full and part-time) grew from 29% to 63%, and their physical and mental health improved as well.
Example C: 
The final results of Finland’s program found that a basic income actually had a positive impact on employment. People on the basic income were more likely to be employed than those in the control group, and the differences were statistically significant, albeit small. Concurrent changes in other unemployment policies make it difficult to ascertain, from this study, whether the basic income, the other changes, or both were responsible for the higher employment levels. However, something about the modest level of the basic income and the lack of conditions attached to receiving it seems to have motivated recipients to seek and accept work they otherwise might not have.