For voters who wanted to see what Trump would do...

Wrong headed Trump's Immigration Clampdown wrong time, wrong direction!!!

Immigration Policy Disaster caters to small voting base: A reckless Trump is setting up the U.S. for a major economic upheaval in the next decade and beyond. Let's start with all the labor shortage red flags first...keep in mind, this is before the new Trump immigration policies kick in:

1. Since the recession, productivity has risen “more slowly than at any other period in U.S. history. And the Trump administration’s plans to reduce immigration—both legal and illegal—could hamper another source of labor force growth.

2. Valuewalk: From 2017 to 2027, the nation faces a shortage of 8.2 million workers ... It’s the most substantial shortfall in at least 50 years. The crunch threatens to stall America’s economic engine ... Oil and gas stay in the ground because there aren’t enough workers to extract it; homes aren’t built because builders can’t find enough laborers. In Maine this winter, the state couldn’t find enough people to drive snowplows.

3. The labor force participation rate, which measures the percentage of the adult population that’s working or actively seeking employment, has dropped to 63% from 67% in 2000.

What, Merit-Based Immigration Repealed Too? Trump has already abandoned his merit-based immigration plan...

The Trump administration is working to slash the number of visas granted to Canadian and Mexican professionals as part of ongoing NAFTA negotiations among the three countries ... part of President Donald Trump’s “Buy American, Hire American” initiative promised during the 2016 campaign. The administration wants to limit the number of eligible professions and decrease the number of visa renewals...Approved occupations for the TN visa include accountants, hotel managers, land surveyors, nutritionists, engineers and computer systems analysts. 

"It is in our national interest to bring the best and brightest minds from around the world to work in America, create companies in America, and create jobs for American workers,” Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., who represents Silicon Valley, said. “Simply reducing the number of visas available does little to benefit our nation.”

Trump Rescinding the International Entrepreneur Rule Too? Repealing everything "Obama," this out-of-nowhere rule sounds pretty good, like a real business and job creator to me...

The Department of Homeland Security announced late last week that it was moving ahead with plans to rescind the International Entrepreneur Rule, which would have allowed immigrant founders of startups to remain in the U.S. for up to five years ... Obama-era initiative was designed to allow immigrants who were creating new companies (and new jobs) in the United States to remain in the country for two-and-a-half years (with the possibility for another two-and-a-half year extension) as long as they were meeting milestones for company growth and development ... an attempt to woo more immigrant entrepreneurs (a group that's accounted for the creation of over half of the startups in the U.S. that currently enjoy valuations of over $1 billion) to the country and make America more competitive at a time when countries from France to Singapore are doing more to bring startup founders to their shores.

Wow, what's not to like about that? Well, it's an Obama thing - they loved calling it overreach - and "America" comes first, whatever that means...

The rule-making was seen by many Republicans as an example of executive office overreach ... a response to Congress' inability to pass immigration reform ... when other countries were making it easier for entrepreneurially savvy emigres to settle in their borders, according to Obama officials. “It is very entrepreneurial, it is very free market-oriented, and so I think any Republican who is serious about business would have to take this rule seriously,” Leon Rodriguez, the former director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services under President Barack Obama. 

Pot Head Employees? Sure: Republicans in Wisconsin didn't take seriously a Democratic bill to remove pot from the list of drugs tested for in employees and applicants. Walker is again, behind the curve:

FPI Management, a property company in California, wants to hire dozens of people. Factories from New Hampshire to Michigan need workers. Hotels in Las Vegas are desperate to fill jobs.

Those employers and many others are quietly taking what once would have been a radical step: They're dropping marijuana from the drug tests they require of prospective employees. Marijuana testing — a fixture at large American employers for at least 30 years — excludes too many potential workers, experts say, at a time when filling jobs is more challenging than it's been in nearly two decades.

Walker's decaying Bridges force Farmers to travel extra miles, wearing out less traveled roads down!!!

Yup, another story...I'm not quite sure why rural conservative farmers keep voting for Scott Walker after he just keeps making things worse. What is happening, seriously?

It’s not crop prices that keep Shane Goplin up at night. It’s infrastructure.

Goplin, who grows corn and beans on about 3,000 acres in northern Trempealeau County, has seen the drive to his fields quadruple thanks to weight limits that keep him from driving trucks and harvesters across aging bridges. 

New weight restrictions were placed on nearly 200 Wisconsin bridges — most on county and town roads in the western part of the state — this spring. As a result, farmers and truckers have been forced to take detours to get their products to market and haul half-filled loads from “landlocked” fields.

“This is a very serious concern for us. We want to make sure farmers can get to and from their fields,” said Rob Richard, senior director of governmental relations for the Wisconsin Farm Bureau. “If they can’t make the quickest, most efficient route they’re just adding wear and tear to other roads. … then it becomes a larger issue.”

While Walker and our congressional Republicans ignore the plight of the entire dairy industry, they're now allowing the rural network of roads to disintegrate for every other farmer trying to make a living, while the cost of their business and equipment skyrockets. Add to that slow or no rural broadband:

“It’s unacceptable in an agricultural state like Wisconsin that we have no schedule for when these bridges are going to be replaced,” said Craig Thompson, president of the Wisconsin Transportation Development Association, a coalition that supports increased investment in the state’s transportation network. “We need a schedule.”

Bill Freise, who hauls about 150 to 175 truck loads of grain to La Crosse each year from his Melrose farm, said bridge postings in recent years have forced him to find a series of new routes.“That’s not the end of the world. But someplace along the line we have to address our infrastructure,” Freise said. “What we’re looking at here is just the tip of the iceberg.”

UPDATE-Tuesday, 5/29/2018: Oh No, Bridge Collapses during Walker reelection efforts!!! It's amazing how much additional spending Walker is able to stomach during election years? State roads and bridges are crumbling, while Walker repackages much-needed maintenance revenue as budget surpluses to justify tax cuts? Wake up...

WPR: In a press release issued by Gov. Scott Walker's office on Friday, Walker announced $76.4 million in state aid going to 113 bridge projects scheduled for a program cycle running from 2018 to 2022. The current state budget included an increase of $20 million to the DOT’s local bridge program. Walker said, "We are providing the largest increases to local road and bridge aids in 20 years.

A very grandiose Trumpian declaration indeed. In other words, only collapsing bridges will be replaced...as "needed to achieve safety."

WISDOT Secretary Dave Ross echoed the governor's applause of the "Replace-In-Kind" program ..."This means we're going to build exactly what is needed to achieve safety and to improve the transportation infrastructure."

Republicans run against their own parties "broken system," "non-stop crisis factory" and "ongoing cycle of spending."

Republican like familiarity, so despite political swings in power, they keep using the same outdated cliches.

1. How many times have you heard Scott Walker rip "Madison" for always telling the rest of Wisconsin what to do and how to live? Yet "Madison's" state house is now controlled by Republicans, and Walker is still making that same argument.

2. Why are Walker and his band of plundering Republican pirates warning voters not to return to times of high unemployment and huge state deficits under the Democrats, when in fact it was the Republican Great Recession that trashed our state economy, not the Democrats?

And finally...
3. Why are Republican candidates still pretending to run against an overspending dysfunctional government, when in fact, they're the ones in control?

Take 1st Congressional District Republican candidate Bryan Steil's trashing of the GOP Congress. He says the whole system is broken? I like the honesty.

I edited his crazy quilt of cliched comments to highlight the lunacy. Example 1 (gun control): "Let's enforce the rules on the books now." Wow, he's taken gun control back the very first stall tactics.  Example 2: That old "I'm from the private sector." Example 3: "The system is broken." Example 4: "We have a non-stop crisis factory." Example 5: "We have an ongoing cycle of spending..." WKOW's Capitol City Sunday



Meanwhile, the Democrats...want to fund their own agenda that promises to make American life better, taking their cue from Republican spending:

Republicans passed a $1.5 trillion tax cut last year, following it up with a $1.3 trillion spending plan this year. But while their party has long nurtured an image as fiscal watchdogs, they have barely talked about spending on the campaign trail.

“Democrats have put ourselves at a longtime, strategic disadvantage,” said Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii). “We have to pay for progressive priorities, and they borrow money for theirs. After the tax cut, there’s almost no enthusiasm for worrying about how to pay for new proposals.”

“Members of both parties have recently moved to dreaming big dreams without figuring out how to pay for it,” said Sen. Thomas R. Carper (D-Del.).

Spelling out the cost as part of a policy rollout was a trap. While Clinton designed spending plans that could be paid for, adding nothing to the deficit, Trump proposed huge tax cuts and vast spending while also promising to wipe out the national debt within eight years. “We fronted the idea that everything would be paid for, that everything added up, and I don’t think we got any credit for it.”

___________________________________________________________________________
Two can play the repeal game: What makes more sense, giving more money to those who have it or wiping out college debt and reducing the cost of a college education from now on? 

Trump showed just how out of touch with reality he is by tantruming over Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO) introducing a bill to repeal his tax cuts for the wealthy and use the funds to erase $1.4 trillion in student loan debt.

Rep. Polis said of his bill, “The Republican tax plan was all about special interests cashing in at the expense of everyone else. My plan shows what a difference we can make for middle-class Americans for even less cost. So many people go to school, get a job, and work hard but still struggle to get ahead because they are weighted down by student loans. It’s time to help them get out from the mountain of debt they are under. The good news is – if we repeal the Republicans’ sweetheart deals for corporations, we can cancel out all student loan debt, make college more affordable for future students, and still have money left over to reduce our deficit.”

Stumper: Rural Voters still love Trump's MAGA for free Flim-flam!!!

This poll may be a month old, but I'm posting it here because I think it's still relevant. Consider the fact that many rural Obama/Trump voters don't seem to be influenced by the day-to-day Trump presidential disaster, even when it affects them personally. The same goes for Republican Scott Walker voters, who are more than willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and all the time in the world to see if his agenda has any chance of working, a luxury they would never allow a Democrat. Check it out.

I blame the GOP's successful campaign to dramatically lower Americans expectations of their country, and what their government should be doing for them. They want to Make America Great Again for free, all the while reducing taxes:

May: A April 21 -  23, 2018 Monmouth College poll cast warning signs for Democrats in Iowa and Wisconsin working to win back rural voters who backed Barack Obama in 2012 but flipped for Donald Trump in 2016 … shows President Trump retaining most Obama crossover voters ... including southwest Wisconsin’s 3rd district.

Strong majorities of voters say they will definitely or probably vote for Trump in 2020 (Iowa: 63 percent; Wisconsin: 61 percent) … extends to Republican candidates for Congress this fall … Obama-Trump voters — 48 percent — in Wisconsin’s 3rd District, which includes Grant and Crawford counties, will do so as well. Support for Democratic ranged from 20 to 25 percent.

The profiles of the Obama-Trump voters; earn less than $50,000 per year, have less than a bachelor’s degree, are women and identify themselves as nonpartisan. The poll has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 5.3 percent in Wisconsin.

IMPACT OF PRESIDENT’S PERSONAL LIFE: Roughly one-half of the Obama-Trump voters in the three congressional districts said their opinions about the president haven’t changed as a result of accusations about his personal life.

THE WALL: Strong majorities of Obama-Trump voters support expanding the wall.

TRADE VS. AGRICULTURE: Opinions varied … In Iowa and Wisconsin, more voters chose the agricultural economy than manufacturing as the top trade priority.

Dems focused on small-town America: U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-Ill., has been tasked with tutoring her fellow House Democrats on talking to rural voters whom her party lost to Republicans. “Politically, it is showing up to towns ... no matter how rural it is (and) listening to people,” Bustos said. “We can’t go wrong if we talk about economic issues. People are still struggling and that’s where we have to make sure that we keep our focus on that, and not issues that divide every time we walk into a room.” The number of Democrats holding office across the nation is at its lowest point since the 1920s, and the decline has been especially severe in rural America, according to Bustos.

Trump Steps over the Line....

Republicans have always told us not to expect anything from the government, and oddly, a lot of people have not just bought into that idea, but have greatly lowered their expectations as well.

In the preamble to the Constitution, we're guaranteed the basics; "to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare..."

What part of violating human rights, do nothing about mass shootings, deny the public health care, and endangering the environment supports the constitutional framework that set up a "government to make society a better, more orderly place to live?"

Huddled Masses Yearning to Breathe Free...Unwelcome: Nothing is free, and under millionaire Trump, even breathing. His directive to take border crossing kids away is the latest, which by the way, he's now blaming on Democrats?:

The United States government is now systematically taking children as young as 53 weeks old away from their parents at the border, thanks to new directives issued by the Trump administration.

More coming...

Trump "Brander and Chief," duping willing Deplorable's!!!

This will be a hard one for Trump "deplorable" voters to explain since Trump himself readily admits he's trying to dupe them.

60 Minutes' Leslie Stahl explains Trump's transparent to everyone else but his followers plan behind trashing the press...

Stahl (paraphrasing Trump comment): "I do it to discredit you all, to demean you all, so when you write negative stories about me no one will believe you."

Just this morning on Morning Joe, Eugene Robinson talked about his article about Trump's dark art of branding an informant a "spy:"

Trump Tariff threats have shaken Farm Country!

It seems the bond between Trump Republicans and farmers isn't about to be broken anytime soon. And I can't figure out why.

I will admit Democrats have done little to help advance pro-rural community solutions. But the growing problems farmers are facing daily have little to do with a handful of nagging regulations industry lobbyist say will kill farming.

My gut feel is that these are deliberate distractions from actual solutions that farmers and rural businesses everywhere need now, along with faster broadband connections. WPR:

Farmers have seen uncontrollable factors like droughts and storms and commodity prices threaten their livelihoods. In recent months, President Trump's trade policies have added fears of a trade war with China, the loss of friendly trade agreements and instability around the farm bill to the list. The string of political shifts have shaken farm country. 

Matt Purdue of the National Farmers Union say the instability comes at a time when farmers are already in crisis ... when the U.S. Department of Agriculture is projecting net farm income could fall to a 12 year low. Those slipping prices have meant existing crop insurance programs, which guarantee farmers a minimum price for what they plant, aren't helping to keep farmers solvent.

Many of President Trump's farm state supporters in the Senate are starting to worry that the president's policies and the political fight in the House are taking their toll on farmers. "A lot of these folks are really concerned and it's gotten to the point where in some areas there's been suicide hotlines that have now been established for more than a year," said South Dakota Senator Mike Rounds. "They want the president to succeed, they want him to be strong but they want to know what his end game is. Are you going to provide us with protections in the farm bill so we know that if we are hurt by the negotiations with regard to tariffs with China, is there something that is going to be able to get us by."

Bob Worth, a soybean farmer in Minnesota, said the frustration is growing in rural America. "You know, rural America really did elect President Trump and as of today, we're not mad at him," Worth said. "He's done a lot of great things for us. He created some he's also created some hardship for us too."

Trump Has "Done a lot of Great Things" for Farmers? At the conservative website The Daily Signal, one rural contributor wallowed in "grateful" and "celebrated" servitude to leader Trump, the Obama slayer, praising the small things he's attacked like rescinding...

1. The “Waters of the United States” rule ... Thankfully, Trump signed an executive order to rescind the Waters of the United States rule. (Me: Ignoring science and water protection, House Speaker John Boehner used every GOP hotbutton imaginable- “The administration’s decree to unilaterally expand federal authority is a raw and tyrannical power grab that will crush jobs. [T]he rule is being shoved down the throats of hardworking people with no input, and places landowners, small businesses, farmers and manufacturers on the road to a regulatory and economic hell.”

2. The EPA under Obama banned a commonly used insecticide that had been approved by its own science advisory panel, chlorpyrifos. Thankfully, Trump’s EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt, lifted the ban as they continue to ensure that the product is safe for use as an insecticide. (ME: The graphic here says it all. If you're "pro-life," why aren't you trying to protect fetuses from this chemical? Because you're not.)

Or this feel-good challenge over a simple once a year general statement requiring no specialized equipment...

3. ... livestock farmers would be required to report emissions of greenhouse gases coming from livestock waste. Livestock farmers should be grateful for the support of the president ... (any facility emitting over 100 pounds per day of ammonia or hydrogen sulfide via animal waste (roughly 208 head) will be subject to CERCLA.)

This is another major win for agriculture and for rural America, and it deserves to be celebrated.

In Walker's Corner?

The Walker Wisconsin Comeback Mirrors Kansas, not Minnesota's Success!!!

A report comparing Democratically run Minnesota and swirling Republican pit of Wisconsin is getting a lot of attention. The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) compared actual economic numbers based on policy pushed by both Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton and Wisconsin's Scott Walker.

Note: Walker continues to use the GOP's Great Recession against the Democrats like it was their fault, and oddly brags about an Obama economy Republicans criticized as "too slow." See if you can see a moment where Walker's trend line below did not mirror the national trend.

The irony, Walker posted the proof himself:

Minnesota Jobs Beat Wisconsin's: It's clear supply side/big corporate servitude does not serve the public or raise their incomes-provide health care-produce green energy and create jobs. Before we take a quick look at the differences, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the "gold standard" of job metrics, reported...WPR:

Minnesota Passes Wisconsin In Total Jobs ... 2017 Was The First Year In Recent History That Wisconsin Fell Behind Its Midwest Neighbor ... Minnesota nudged ahead of Wisconsin by 3,096 total jobs. Wisconsin still has almost 219,000 more residents than Minnesota, and just a decade ago, it had nearly 98,000 more jobs.

University of Michigan Labor Economist Donald Grimes said what stuck out to him was that Minnesota had added more jobs than Wisconsin every year since 2010. "The fact that it's every year is somewhat remarkable," Grimes said.

Minnesota smokes Walker's Participation Rate: Oh, and what about Walker's biggest bragging point, and a preoccupation of the far-right, the labor participation rate?

Minnesota's labor force participation rate — the percentage of the overall population that is part of the workforce — is 70.5 percent, which is slightly higher than Wisconsin's 68.9 percent.

Walker's war with Milwaukee Killing Jobs: You'd think the former executive of Milwaukee County would show a little more kindness. Also, you would have thought Milwaukee's close proximity to Chicago, creating a possible economic hub, would give it an advantage over lonely Minneapolis-St. Paul:

In addition, job growth in Minnesota's largest city far surpassed job growth in Wisconsin's. Hennepin County, Minnesota, home to Minneapolis-St. Paul, added 110,520 jobs from 2011 through 2017. By contrast, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin added just 17,680 over that same period.

"You need to focus on why Milwaukee is doing so much worse than Minneapolis-St. Paul and how you can be more like Minneapolis-St. Paul," Grimes said.

EPI's Minnesota vs Wisconsin report started this way...

Governor Walker and the Wisconsin state legislature have pursued a highly conservative agenda centered on cutting taxes, shrinking government, and weakening unions. In contrast, Minnesota under Governor Dayton has enacted a slate of progressive priorities: raising the minimum wage, strengthening safety net programs and labor standards, and boosting public investments in infrastructure and education, financed through higher taxes (largely on the wealthy) ... a compelling case study for assessing which agenda leads to better outcomes for working people and their families ... By virtually every available measure, Minnesota’s recovery has outperformed Wisconsin’s.

Urban Milwaukee summarized:

On every economic measure, Cooper found that Minnesota outperformed Wisconsin:

• Job growth was markedly stronger in Minnesota than Wisconsin.11.0 percent growth in total nonfarm employment, compared with only 7.9 percent.

• Wages grew faster in Minnesota than in Wisconsin at every decile in the wage distribution ... rising by 8.6 percent and 9.7 percent, respectively, in Minnesota vs. 6.3 percent and 6.4 percent in Wisconsin.

• Gender wage gaps shrank more in Minnesota than in Wisconsin ... women’s median wage as a share of men’s median wage rose by 3.0 percentage points in Minnesota, and by 1.5 percentage points in Wisconsin.

• Median household and family income grew more in Minnesota than in Wisconsin. Minnesota grew by 7.2 percent from 2010 to 2016. In Wisconsin, it grew by 5.1 percent.

• Minnesota made greater progress than Wisconsin in reducing overall poverty, child poverty, and poverty as measured under the Census Bureau’s Supplemental Poverty Measure. Wisconsin, at 11.8 percent was still roughly as high as the poverty rate in Minnesota at its peak in the wake of the Great Recession (11.9 percent, in 2011).

• Minnesota residents were more likely to have health insurance than their counterparts in Wisconsin.

• Minnesota has had stronger overall economic growth, stronger growth per worker, and stronger population growth than Wisconsin (12.8 percent vs. 10.1 percent), stronger growth per worker (3.4 percent vs. 2.7 percent), and stronger population growth (5.1 percent vs. 1.9 percent) than Wisconsin. In fact, over the whole period—as well as in the most recent year—more people have been moving out of Wisconsin to other states than have been moving in from elsewhere in the U.S. The same is not true of Minnesota.

 Now, tell me why Democrats are still having a hard time shaping a common easy to understand message? 

Targeting Poor and Unemployed for Drug Problem distracts from growing Employee Drug use Problem.

Here's something I'm still wrestling with. The unemployed and underemployed must now be tested, treated and drug-free, to receive food stamps (eventually BadgerCare). The excuse? Employers are unhappy with unreliable drugged out applicants. So businesses talked their compliant Republicans political servants into making taxpayers pay for drug testing, so they don't have to; WPR:

With low unemployment, some companies are finding it difficult to find suitable workers. And finding ones who are drug-free can add an extra challenge ... some companies have half their new hires fail a drug test and some companies are considering whether to continue screening.

So one group must be utterly clean, while the other group is becoming more addicted and costing businesses too much to continue drug testing? The poor are being stigmatized while drug-using employees are becoming a bigger and bigger problem?

New data analyzing employee drug test results have been released ... Data shows that between 2016 and 2017 the nation has seen major increases in positive test results for cocaine, methamphetamine, and marijuana ... positive test results for meth went up 167 percent in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio ... 4.2 percent of workers tested were drug positive in 2017. In Wisconsin it was 4.8 percent.

Employers are actually afraid to drug test their employees because replacing them would be difficult:

"Every client meeting we go to we have companies that aren’t CDL (commercial drivers license) so they aren’t technically required to test, questioning if they should because they can’t get good (job candidates) to pass the drug screen."

Legalized Marijuana a big drug testing problem companies are suddenly confronting:

Samantha Devore, who oversees drug testing at Bellin Health for trucking firms, said, "We have companies ask us flat out 'Is there a test that doesn’t include marijuana?' The U.S. DOT will never allow illegal substances to be accepted in their drug panel and in most states it is still an illegal drug."

No surprise, Democrats are also on top of this problem:

Recently a bill was introduced by Rep. David Bowen, D-Milwaukee, that would ban marijuana testing for most jobs.

How 18-34 year old's will vote - NBC-GenForward Survey from March

Surveys come and go and they're constantly changing, becoming instantly irrelevant after a few Trumpian days of continued insanity. That said, I thought this was interesting enough to take note of...

The first of its kind bi-monthly survey of racially and ethnically diverse young adults GenForward is a survey associated with the University of Chicago Interviews: 02/23 - 03/10/2018 Total N: 1,895 adults Age Range: 18-34.

And for the upcoming midterms? 

Trump thinks London "a knife-armed war zone"?

After the mass shooting at Sante Fe High school, Republicans were quick to roll out their usual "don't bother us now" reasons why people will keep getting killed needlessly by guns; it's a cultural thing. Change that and human nature in the next century, and we'll all be safer.

Wait, remember how concealed carry will deter the bad guys because they won't know who had a gun? Oh yeh, that didn't work.

One Democratic politician bottom lined it when he said mass shooters are only being encouraged, knowing Republicans will never make it harder for them to succeed.

Guns are like Knives? And then there's that ridiculous comparison. Thank god Trump, our 70-year old man-child president, continues to showcase America's gun lunacy in front of the entire astonished world with embarrassing statements like this: 

Trump managed to stoke outrage and anger in both London and Paris this weekend ... addressing the National Rifle Association convention in Dallas the president cited the rising number of knife attacks in Britain while speaking in support of gun rights in the United States ... about halfway through his 50-minute speech. 

“I recently read a story that in London, which has unbelievably tough gun laws, a once very prestigious hospital — right in the middle — is like a war zone for horrible stabbing wounds. Yes, that’s right, they don’t have guns. They have knives, and instead there’s blood all over the floors of this hospital. They say it’s as bad as a military war zone hospital.”

“Knives, knives, knives,” Trump added as he made a stabbing motion.

“London hasn’t been used to that. They’re getting used to it. Pretty tough. The one thing that has always stood between the American people and the elimination of our Second Amendment rights has been conservatives in Congress willing to fight for those rights. We’re fighting.”

Of course, the truth made Trump look like the silly orange clown that he is: 

Trump's comments immediately drew a backlash from Londoners on social media. Charlie Falconer, a lawyer and representative of the left-wing Labour Party in the House of Lords, favorably compared Britain's murder rate to the U.S. rate and added: “Trump lies on everything.”

Wisconsin Dairy Farmers abandoned by our every Republican; Sensenbrenner, Duffy, Grothman, and Gallagher!!!

Remember this jerkwad Republican fiasco...

Republican Lobbyist wants to ditch "America's Dairyland" on our License Plate, a tradition since 1940 : Rural conservative farmers, are you getting it finally that your party has ditched you for Foxconn?

We've been America's Dairyland — at least on license plates — for 77 years. Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce President Kurt Bauer told a group Monday that it might be time to rethink the dairy-flavored license plate slogan. Bauer says that other slogans like 'Forward' might be more appropriate to modernize perceptions of the state's economy, rather than just focusing on agriculture.

Dairy Farm Labor Shortage Ignored by House Republicans Ryan, Sensenbrenner, Duffy, and Gallegher: Paul Ryan won't bring up the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, so many frustrated Republicans are trying to force a vote. Here are the GOP states on board:

Oh, did you notice every one of our dairy state Republicans in Wisconsin did nothing? Rural dairy farm voters, take note, they're not fighting for you.

Rogues Gallery

Michigan is seriously trying to help dairy farmers in stay in business:

Republican Rep. Fred Upton, for instance, represents a farm-heavy district in southwest Michigan where apple growers, asparagus harvesters and dairy farmers all rely on immigrant labor. Trips around the district routinely mean talking to farmers who fret over the potential loss of their workforce and constituents who are living in legal limbo.

Just this month, Upton said, he met a father of two who is married to an American and rides a bike to work because he doesn’t have a driver’s license. “He’s scared to death he is going to be picked up for whatever and sent someplace else, and it is frightening,” Upton said. “You sit down with these folks, and, I mean, people cry.”

Or New York Republican Chris Collins...

Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.) stands apart from the other signers in many ways: He occupies a safe Republican seat and was among Trump’s earliest supporters in Congress. But his western New York district is home to hundreds of dairy farms that rely on immigrant labor.

“Right now, my dairy farmers are saying to Republicans: You’ve got the House, the Senate, the White House, and you’ve got to give us a legal workforce, and I agree with that,” he said. Collins, who favors a conservative immigration bill that would set up an agricultural guest worker program, acknowledged that the House may never be able to pass a bill. 

No effort at all by America's Dairyland representatives!!! They can't even muster up the effort to make it appear they're interested like Rep. Collins suggested:

“But then those of us can go home and say we did our best,” he added. “I fought for you and I’m willing to go against leadership to fight for you, and that’s all you can expect out of me.

And this is happening at a bad time...

Trump unleashes the real Republican agenda!

Wow, I would not have thought any of the following examples of extremism was possible, but I was wrong.

And oh yeh, they want our unconditional love and respect?

1. Not the Right Time, don't Politicize Mass Shootings? It's a common refrain you hear Republican say all the time, but where are the critics now, and why didn't this get any real coverage. This speaks volumes about the conservative mindset on guns:

CNN is reporting as many as eight people have been murdered at Sante Fe High School in Texas ... With students still being screened on the lawn of the high school, with eight of their peers and/or teachers deceased, at least one Trump supporter decided this was the time to put on his MAGA hat, grab his American flag, strap his open-carry pistol to his hip and head on down to the high school.

As Republicans push armed security and teachers as a diversion from actual gun regulation, the school board said the security policy and procedures at Sante Fe High School worked?:

“They believed they were a hardened target, part of what’s expected today of the American public high school in an age when school shootings occur with alarming frequency,” The Post writes.

The Post quoted the school board president as saying that the system worked, as only 10 were killed by a shooter using a shotgun and pistol he took from his father.

“My first indication is that our policies and procedures worked,” Rusty Norman told the paper. “Having said that, the way things are, if someone wants to get into a school to create havoc, they can do it.”

2. Just One Bozo on this Deportation Bus: The Trumpian age of Republican politics is upon us, as they redefine far-right. Conversely, this just makes moderates look like 98 lb liberal weaklings. With major declines in the labor market and with record low birth rates, the war on immigrant labor is another devastating economic misstep that will affect the U.S. for decades to come:

Daily Beast: Republican Michael Williams, a Georgia state senator and a long-time Trump supporter
running for governor of Georgia is bringing his racist “Deportation Bus Tour” to Cracker Barrel restaurants—and Cracker Barrel isn't having it. , is currently polling dead last in the state’s Republican primary ... Williams “Deportation Bus” (is) plastered with slogans like “FILL THIS BUS WITH ILLEGALS” and “DANGER! MURDERERS, RAPISTS, KIDNAPPERS, CHILD MOLESTORS [sic], AND OTHER CRIMINALS ON BOARD.” Williams said his bus tour was prevented from leaving Decatur and going to Athens by violent "Antifa and radical liberals" who blocked the bus from leaving.

3. GOP Gov. Candidate "suggests" Euthanasia as Solution to costly Disabled, Poor and Elderly: And I'm just scratching the surface here. Most notably, the candidate's site stands behind reported comments, whether real or supposedly "hacked;"

Oklahoma GOP governor candidate Christopher Barnett blames hackers for Facebook post proposing euthanasia for disabled people ... the administrator initially posted a poll about food stamp requirements — and then made comments claiming euthanasia is a solution to the “issue” of the poor and disabled. A user commented on the poll post. “Most receiving food stamps work, or are disabled.  Some are elderly.”

“The ones who are disabled and can’t work…why are we required to keep them?” the Chrisforgov account responded. “Sorry but euthanasia is cheaper and doesn’t make everyone a slave to the Government [sic].”

Defending his now-deleted comments, the account admin mused as to why American taxpayers should “have to keep up people who cannot contribute to society any longer? If they can take care of themselves without Government assistance, great,” the comment continued. “If not, let them starve and die. Easy as that.”

Though the comments have since been deleted, the account admin wrote that they “stand by” the remarks in the poll thread, and later that day wrote that the interaction had been “fun.”

Appealing to the base, Barnett then used the GOP tactic of "death threats" to jack up his far-right creds. Of course, he's unintimidated...oh, isn't that the title of Republican Gov. Scott Walker's book:

“There are people saying they want to shoot me, they are going to assassinate me, they are going to shoot me, they are going to blow us up,” Barnett claimed. “I’m in this election. I’m not dropping out. They’re not going to intimidate me.”

Wisconsin Republicans embrace Walker's kind of "optimistic vision for the future?"

Scott Walker decided to present his "optimistic vision" of the state with a few recent tweets trashing policy criticisms on the "anger and hate" filled "liberal Far left:"

So let's take a look at the what Walker calls an "optimistic vision for the future," along with a few other examples that are anything but.

Vukmir's "Positively" Blatant Lies: When you can't find much in Sen. Tammy Baldwin's hate-and-anger filled record to criticize, State Sen. Leah Vukmir came up with this positive whopper:

...or this positive swing and a miss...

...or "outsider" and challenger Kevin Nicholson's positive view of Democratic veterans...:

The Democrat Party has wholesale rejected the Constitution and the values that it was founded upon. So I'll tell you what: Those veterans that are out there in the Democrat party, I question their, their cognitive thought process. Because the bottom line is, they're signing up to defend the Constitution that their party is continually dragging through the mud."

...or Wisconsin's own retiring Paul Ryan, whose vision of the future does not include tackling the problem of mass shootings in our schools:

Dumb Ron Johnson's Positive Vision of the Future sees "families, renewed faith" as the solution to mass shootings in schools: Hey, it might take awhile - a half-century or so - but cultural norms might "likely" change?

(On) gun control, in the wake of the high school shooting in Texas that left 10 dead and 10 injured ... Johnson said federal legislation is not the answer, because gun violence is a bigger cultural issue.

"Solutions that will have some impact are going to more likely come from families, renewed faith, communities, from states than anything the federal government's going to pass."

The (R) doesn't stand for Respect!!!

As much as I have tried to interpret my Trumpian conservative friend in Milwaukee's "all-over-the-map" conversations, I've mistakenly filtered my analysis through the lens of friendship and respect, giving him the benefit of the doubt. Big mistake.

No Respect? GOP says it's No Longer Something You Earn:  Rodney Dangerfield said it best...:

If only they cast off their snooty liberal elitism and show respect to people who voted for Donald Trump, Democrats can win them over and take back Congress and the White House. There’s almost nothing more foolish Democrats could do than follow that advice.

Kurt Schlicter, a columnist for the conservative Townhall.com, recently wrote "We want to be treated with respect and we will not tolerate anything less which is just unacceptable for this to continue. I'm tired of Hollywood spitting on us. I am tired of academia spitting on us. I'm tired of the news media spitting on us." 

It's a Disrespected Scott Walker Scheme Too: Like Trump, Walker's been weeping the "no respect" game for years. 

Talk about Respect...: The CapTimes' Paul Fanlund wrote this about the Trump voters hypocrisy about respect:

"That’s rich. I can’t help but note, after years of Republicans infamously claiming their primary goal was to prevent Obama from being re-elected."

The Washington Post article explains it this way...

It doesn’t come from the things Democratic politicians say. Where does it come from? An entire industry that’s devoted to convincing white people that liberal elitists look down on them. The right has a gigantic media apparatus that is devoted to convincing people that liberals disrespect them, plus a political party whose leaders all understand that that idea is key to their political project and so join in the chorus at every opportunity.

You’ll find that, again and again, you’re told stories of some excess of campus political correctness, some obscure liberal professor who said something offensive, some liberal celebrity who said something crude about rednecks or some Democratic politician who displayed a lack of knowledge of a conservative cultural marker. The message is pounded home over and over: They hate you and everything you stand for.

“I despise Barack Obama. I think primarily because I don’t think he thinks very much of people like me,” one Republican told The Post’s Dan Balz.

Put another way...

In the world Republicans have constructed, a Democrat who wants to give you health care and a higher wage is disrespectful, while a Republican who opposes those things but engages in a vigorous round of campaign race-baiting is respectful. The person who’s holding you back isn’t the politician who just voted to give a trillion-dollar tax break to the wealthy and corporations, it’s an East Coast college professor who said something condescending on Twitter.

Democrats bend over backward to show conservative white voters respect, only to see some remark taken out of context and their entire agenda characterized as stealing from hard-working white people to give undeserved benefits to shiftless minorities. And then pundits demand, “Why aren’t you showing those whites more respect?” Democrats are supposed to abandon their values and change their policies, despite the fact that many of those policies provide enormous help to the very people who say Democrats look down on them ... How many times have we seen Democrats try to show respect by going to a NASCAR event or on a hunting trip, only to be mocked for their insincerity?

That's not all either:

A recent 15,000-word opus by the Post’s Dan Balz ... central finding is reflected in its headlines: “Loyalty, unease in Trump’s Midwest. Voters gave Trump a chance. Some remain all in. Others have grown weary of the chaos.” Balz describes down-on-their-luck, small-town and rural residents who feel disrespected by educated urbanites, especially coastal elites. But what exceeds that resentment is a quiet desperation as their local economies have receded or collapsed.

This comment should blow your mind...

Wearing a John Deere hoodie ... Kurt Glazier is a state worker, a union member and serves as chairman of the Republican Party in Whiteside County. He also sits on the county board. “I think Trump brought out the fact that — I mean, as crude and callous as he was at times — so many people had been almost discriminated against because they were Republicans and not Democrats, that we felt inferior.”

...so will this...

Republican Party chairman in Clinton County Dan Smicker recalled that many of those he encountered were mad, fed up with the state of things. “This is my observation, it is not necessarily my belief  … Number one, they said minority political people have been well taken care of. Small business and working people have been identified as the source of income to take care of those people.”

...there's more...

Republican Party chairman in Clinton County Dan Smicker recalled that many of those he encountered were mad, fed up with the state of things. “This is my observation, it is not necessarily my belief  … Number one, they said minority political people have been well taken care of. Small business and working people have been identified as the source of income to take care of those people.”

We No Longer Expect a Happier Better Life: Finally, the following story pretty much reflects what I see every day in my current job, and simply put, it scares me. Americans have accepted a lower expectation of life, of their country, their politicians, and are now settling for less:

Marsha Story, in charge of decorating cakes, described the life of a single mother struggling on $11 an hour. “We don’t have cable,” she said, explaining how she juggled her finances. “We don’t have the Internet.” She said she declined to go on Medicaid, although she was eligible to use it. “I’ve always paid my own way,” she said.