Vukmir campaign saving best for last...

Trump's Voodoo Economic Spell over his desperately faithful orange god worshipers!!!

It's almost like a magical spell cast across America that has put people into a Trumpian trance.

It seemed so unreal when my Trumpian friend in Milwaukee used to accuse Democrats of being in the tank for Obama, which for "the herding cats party" is crazy talk. It's obvious now that it was more wishful thinking on his part.

Trump? We're talking about an east coast big city fat cat rich guy who used power to exploit business contractors and women. Struggling middle-class Americans grabbed onto his ludicrously impossible empty promises based on an often repeated GOP's myth that Obama's economy was a slow-moving failure bordering on financial bankruptcy. Big bad regulations hurt business and increased consumer prices, dragging the economy down even further.

Now, we've got skyrocketing deficits, no change in wage growth, tariffs that are moving jobs overseas and increasing prices, and promises to repeal the ACA leaving 20 to 30 million more Americans without insurance. But that's okay. Trump devotees are still loyal to a fault, willing to give him the benefits of the doubt, willing to pay more, willing to take a chance on their jobs, and will to give him time to work his magic as only a business genius like Trump can.

Again, this unexplainable adoration will not be broken by even family devasting job losses at a nail manufacturing plant in Missouri. It's enough to take your breath away and kill any hope this nightmare will end...ever:

NPR: America's largest nail manufacturer is feeling pretty small these days. Many of the factory machines at Mid Continent Nail have fallen silent, and more than a quarter of its workforce has been laid off. The company fears it may soon be a casualty of President Trump's trade wars.

The Missouri-based company used to get most of its steel from Mexico, so Trump's 25 percent tariff hit it hard. To stay afloat, Mid Continent Nail raised prices and consequently lost a lot of customers. Despite facing an uncertain future brought on by Trump's tariffs, many of the remaining workers at Mid Continent Nail who voted for him in 2016 still support him.

Rebecca Kleefisch offended by Lingerie Parties, but not Trump, Kavanaugh, Moore...

Lingerie parties have been going on for decades. So it would be crazy for WISGOP and Rebecca Kleefisch to continue to vilify Lt. Gov candidate Mandela Barnes as equal to or worse than admitted sexual assaulter Trump and a half-dozen other Republican candidates and pedophiles.

Well, from the party of adorable and proud Trump pussy grabbers, Lt. Gov/and protective mother of two daughters Rebecca Kleefisch has had enough of those sexually suggestive lingerie parties and showers. Upfront with Mike Gousha:

Kleefisch: "Mandela Barnes was the host of this crazy lingerie party years ago, I think why is no one talking to him how that's kinda demeaning to women, and how are women like me raising two girls supposed to talk about the state of politics in America today when someone like that is running against their mom."

Again, everyday lingerie party's have a long history...

Yet the "boys will be boys" Trumpsterites like Rebecca Kleefisch can't help but remind us how she and others in her party have normalized "locker room talk" and inappropriate aggressive behavior...

The Wisconsin Republican Party has not condemned Trump after he's made numerous derogatory comments about women, including when he referred to porn actress Stormy Daniels as "Horseface.""I won't take lectures from a Republican Party whose standard bearer today called a woman 'Horseface,'" Barnes said. Evers has been critical of Walker for supporting Brett Kavanaugh's appointment to the Supreme Court, saying he believed the woman who accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault decades ago.

When a top Fox News executive was drummed out for having covered up so many sexual harassment charges that his ongoing employment was a huge legal liability, the White House snapped him up.

Kleefisch says it's Dangerous to trust Evers on Gas Tax Promise till after election, but says Trust Us on Preexisting Condition Coverage after the election?

Sometimes, it's hard knowing where to start.

Scott Walker and Rebecca Kleefisch are running on the promise they will pay for and cover preexisting conditions with some kind high-risk pool that would require notoriously high premium costs, deductibles, and lifetime limits. It passed the state Assembly. There is this one big problem though...

To keep things the same, the state would have to spend (state) tax dollars on pre-existing conditions because federal subsidies would be gone.

Now for the kicker: Walker says, trust him...the details and costs will be hammered out after the election...no problem right?

Dangerous if Evers doesn't provide Gas Tax Details: In what I would call a jaw-dropping moment of hypocrisy and a revealing bit of projection, Kleefisch made an unusual demand of Tony Evers on the gas tax; give us a dollar amount. Then Kleefisch successfully slipped in the name 'Nancy Pelosi" while ironically bringing up the ACA health care bill to make my followup point:

Kleefisch: "He says he's not going to be specific until after the inauguration. That's basically like Nancy Pelosi's well you can read it after it's been passed. I think that's really dangerous that we're supposed to elect someone and then we'll find out his policy view later."

Dangerous if Walker doesn't provide Preexisting Condition Details? NOPE. Kleefisch not only doesn't provide the Walker administrations "policy views" on preexisting conditions but when asked by Mike Gousha if insurance companies would have to cover prescription drugs, she doesn't even know what's in the Assembly bill that passed. Again, you can't make this stuff up, and Republican voters don't care:

Kleefisch: "I would have to look at the bill language that is going to be passed...I can't guarantee what the Senate will pass and the Assembly will pass when he calls the extra session is going to be identical..." 

Beautiful. It's time again for Walker to put Kleefisch in hiding till after the election.

AG Brad Schimel defense of joining Exxon lawsuit "one of the loonier things I’ve heard,” says fellow attorney.

Just a quick reason why AG Brad Schimel is all politics and partisan arm of Scott Walker's political agenda:

JS: The cases, and others, have raised questions by critics who say such legal forays by the Department of Justice have little or no connection to Wisconsin and are chiefly designed to further Republican causes.

The briefs range from opposing efforts in Maryland to remove a cross-shaped monument on public land to taking on the Democratic attorneys general of New York and Massachusetts, who claim oil giant ExxonMobil defrauded shareholders by downplaying risks of climate change regulation.

With ExxonMobil, Wisconsin joined with Texas and 10 other states in a brief this year, they accused New York and Massachusetts of “unrestrained investigative excursions” of the oil company, and promoting only “one side of an international policy debate.” Wisconsin and the other states argued that “scientists continue to disagree about the degree and extent of global warming and its connection to the actions of mankind, as do many others.”

I hope you're sitting down. Even a D.C. attorney on Schimel's side had to laugh:

Schimel said he worries if Exxon Mobil is found liable for climate change damages, states like Wisconsin could be next. “We provided the infrastructure for all of these vehicles that travel around,” Schimel said. “That liability is too much of a live wire. It’s too unpredictable.”

Several attorneys who have handled climate-related litigation said ...“Wow,” Megan Brown, a Washington, D.C. lawyer who, like Schimel, filed a brief in support of Exxon Mobil. “That’s one of the loonier things I’ve heard.” Road-building involves so many public and private entities, it would be next to impossible to prove global warming was caused by a state, said Brown,

Gov. Scott Walker signed off on Schimel’s brief. Walker didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Of course, Walker wouldn't answer any questions about Schimel's ridiculous reason for joining a lawsuit.

The Walker economy bonus?

Trump blamed others, encouraging the next mass bombings of his enemies.

Trump took no blame for the attempted mass assassination mailings yesterday against HIS political opponents. He instead blamed everyone, including the enemies in the press, for everything.

In an apparent swipe at Democrats, Trump denounced those who “carelessly compare political opponents to historical villains” and who “mob people in public places or destroy public property.”  

Trump: "There is one way to settle our disagreements. It’s called, “peacefully, at the ballot box.” As part of a larger national effort to bridge our divides and bring people together, the media also has a responsibility to set a civil tone and to stop the endless hostility and constant negative and oftentimes false attacks. … What we cannot do is let our differences about policy tear us apart as a country, can’t do that. We must accept the verdicts of elections.

Oh sure, just like when Republicans accepted electing Barack Obama, and had a secret meeting to stop the president's re-election by opposing his entire agenda...remember Merrick Garland?

Leave it to conservative columnist Jennifer Rubin to clearly define the situation; this was "a coordinated attempt at mass assassination." The video first features Trump's inciting his mob:

The media’s false equivalence ignores reality — a president and one party have adopted thuggishness, threats, bigotry and admiration for violence as mainstays of their rhetoric. It’s not both sides that have taken to encouraging violence; it’s the Republican Party. It’s not both parties that treat the media as a threat to the United States; it’s only the Republicans. It’s not both sides of the aisle that call to lock up their opponents; only Trump does that.

In the wake of the attempted assassinations — isn’t that what you call sending explosive devices to public figures? — of former president Barack Obama, former vice president Joe Biden, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, former attorney general Eric Holder, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) (whom President Trump casts as the embodiment of the Democratic Party) and George Soros, a Jewish billionaire and progressive donor whom Trump recently accused of paying women to protest against Brett Kavanaugh, as well as the attempted bombing of CNN offices in New York, we need to speak clearly and unequivocally, starting with words such as “attempted assassination” and “domestic terrorism.”

Trump, Walker, Viewk-marrrr...and there's no way Republicans will fund coverage for preexisting conditions.

Trump hit the stump in Wisconsin yesterday for Scott Walker, Leah Viewk-Mar (as Trump would say), and messed it up beautifully, really beautifully, you know what I'm talking, it's a great thing. Right? (lets have a talk like Trump day?)

Trump dragged Walker and Viewk-marrrr up to the mic and each one promised to cover preexisting conditions, with Viewk-marrrr saying she would fall in front of a truck before she let people go without coverage.

Well, we all might have to watch her public suicide, especially when things grind to halt after Republicans refuse to pay for such a costly "entitlement." We'll hang their words around their necks, and that's a promise:

Walker: "I want to reinforce it to everyone here in this state and across the country, we will always cover people like my wife with preexisting medical conditions, don't believe the lies...don't believe the lies, we will cover people with preexisting conditions." 

Viewk-marrrr: "The big lie that Scott Walker talked about, Tammy Baldwin is saying that same lie over and over and over again. We support taking care of people with preexisting conditions. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'll fall in front of a truck before I let people go without coverage for preexisting conditions." 

My favorite part, besides talking like a pirate, arrrr, was Trump's imagined "conversation" if Walker lost the election:

Trump: "He'll call up if he doesn't make it. "Hello, is the president there?" "Oh, who's calling?" "Scott Walker." "Didn't he lose? Yea, I'll talk to him in a few months."

Republicans were so opposed to the ACA that they didn't bother to learn one thing about health care and the major issue writing ObamaCare; covering preexisting conditions. Obama settled on the actual insurance model of spreading the risk by pooling everyone together into the largest group possible.

If Republicans require insurance coverage, with no rate increase, insurance companies will go bankrupt. MSNBC's Business Insider Josh Barro summed it up this way about what we'd have to do for mandated coverage; require a whole list of other safeguards to prevent insurer bankruptcy:

Barro: "...so you have to impose all these other rules, layer them on top of each other, and when you've done it, you've basically rebuilt ObamaCare...if you want the preexisting condition protections, you have to take a lot of the other big government stuff the Republican hate." 

Trump's Canadian Dairy agreement of "little use...too small and too far in the future to help." GOP doing nothing about Rural Broadband!!!

It turns out, Trump is gaslighting farmers for their vote and sending them a $12 billion bride for good measure. But will rural communities and dairy farmers let some city huckster con them?

Trump's trumped-up NAFTA renegotiation is a major swing and a miss, doing almost nothing, and get this, the tariffs Mexico and Canada slapped on ag, pork, and dairy products are still in place because of Trump's steel tariffs.

Trump's Smoke and Mirrors meant to deceive Dairy/AG Farmers Exposed: Why rural voters keep coming back to the Republicans for a few relaxed regulations, bad roads, and lousy broadband coverage is a mystery to me:

1. The renegotiated trade agreement between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada is of little use to the dairy farmers Trump insisted on helping, Federal Reserve banks in the Midwest are reporting.

2. Gains from the new agreement are seen as “too small and too far in the future to help dairy farmers,” the Chicago Fed reported in the central bank’s periodic report on economic conditions across its 12 districts.

3. The Chicago Fed reports “dairy farmers continued to struggle,” and Canada and Mexico kept their tariffs on pork, dairy and other agricultural products that they imposed in retaliation for Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminum products imported to the U.S.

4. The Minneapolis Fed reported that “a substantial number of dairy operations have exited the business since the beginning of the year.”

Broken Rural Broadband Promise makes things Worse...thank you Republicans: At the same time Trump put farmers on the frontline in his trade war, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is putting off broadband rollout until he can put together perfect rural broadband maps that accurately show how bad the problem really is...I wish I were kidding: 

The FCC's current broadband maps grossly misstate where internet or wireless service exists and where it doesn't. One of the major reasons: The FCC has relied on wireless and broadband companies to report … but the agency doesn't check the data … providers only need to report advertised maximum speeds and not actual speeds.
 Pai blames the previous Democrat-led administration for creating the problem and says his administration has been left to clean up the mess. But he says this process will take some time to play out. "The maps as they currently stand aren't perfect," Pai said. "But our goal is to make sure with respect to wireless connectivity that we have a clear-cut idea about where those connections are and where they aren't."

 Republicans aren't that into you (rural voters) either:

The Trump ... infrastructure proposal called for $50 billion in rural spending, including on broadband, but so far neither his budget nor the Republican Congress have allocated additional funds for rural broadband deployment.

At a Senate Commerce Committee hearing in early October, Democrats and Republicans were critical of cuts the FCC has made to a program funded through its Universal Service Fund, which reimburses some of the costs for phone companies offering broadband in rural communities. Committee Chairman John Thune said Pai had committed to conducting a "thorough economic analysis on funding cuts" ... But no analysis has occurred and that cuts had increased by almost 25 percent.

Pai believes the "trickle-down theory" for rural high-speed broadband could work? Imagine what a smaller corporate tax cut and more revenue money going to total broadband coverage in the U.S.:

Pai argues that if the FCC limits the fees that big cities can charge wireless companies to deploy their 5G infrastructure, these carriers will be more willing to plow that money into rural broadband. But critics called this a false premise and does nothing more than strip local communities of negotiating power. "Saving money in New York of Los Angeles has zero impact on investment in Montana."

But pushing fiber closer to customers or directly to their door is expensive. An FCC report estimated it would take $40 billion to expand internet access to cover 98 percent of Americans and another $40 billion to deliver broadband to 100 percent of the US population. 

Trump a Nationalist, Environmentalist...babbles on and on and Texas Mob Cheers!!!

Have you noticed how Trump's daily disasters, one breathless moment after another, has allowed Congress to do absolutely nothing policy-wise? This occurred to me when I was reading...

From the environment to energy to immigration to trade to health care...these are all controversial Trump edicts and department policy changes affecting the country and our way of life, conveniently bypassing Congress on everything.

And Trump voters don't give a rats ass:

Trump Losers: "I love everything that comes out of his mouth...."It doesn't matter what he says, we'll support it"... "I'm a Trumpett, I'll support anything, yes." 

They'll love the following then...

1. Air Pollution? You can thank Trump who says "I am truly an environmentalist:"

MSNBC: Donald Trump has been alarmingly aggressive in going after environmental safeguards, relaxing pollution rules in the name of economic progress. The New York Times reported the Republican’s EPA “predicts its plan will see between 470 and 1,400 premature deaths annually by 2030.” Trump promoted a photoshopped global map that offered proof that the United States, “by far,” has the “Cleanest Air in the World.” Is this true? Alas, no. For one thing, the map pointed to air quality in 2016, which meant Trump was actually bragging about Obama-era air.

It’s against this backdrop that the president wants to be seen as, as Trump puts it, “an environmentalist. 

"When you talk about environmental, I am truly an environmentalist. A lot of people smile when they hear that. But I have the cleanest air, and I’m going to have the cleanest air.” 

2. Environmentalist Trump? Then who needs EPA's Science Advisor?

NPR: Under Administrator Pruitt, the EPA restricted the types of scientific studies it recognizes. And Pruitt also appointed several scientists who work for industries the EPA regulates.

3. Trump "takes" Time: This is a weird thing to go after, but heck, while Trump is tearing everything else apart, why not?

Marketplace: Meteorologists use the signals to track weather systems, utility companies rely on them to keep the electrical grid in sync, and medical institutions and broadcasters use them to keep their clocks accurate to within less than a second. Ham radio hobbyists use the stations to calibrate their equipment. One of them has started a petition to protect the stations from cuts.

They also worry that the cuts will lead to the elimination of a third station that keeps clocks in sync. WWVB is used to automatically synchronize millions of wall clocks and watches in schools, hospitals, and homes nationwide.  Allan McCormick’s company, LaCrosse Technology, manufactures and sells those devices. He says if all three government time signals were eliminated, his company's products would go haywire. 

4. Trump Borrowing pays for Tax Cuts: Don't say we didn't warn you...

5. Trump tells Drooling Mob he's a Nationalists!!! This isn't a surprise and predictably a moment for the proud white despicables to cheer. When this ride is over, I will personally show them no mercy:

“A globalist is a person who wants the globe to do well — frankly, not caring about our country so much,” Trump told the Texans, reaching for a word that’s long been a favorite of those who believe there’s an international conspiracy led by Jews. “And you know what, we can’t have that. … You know what I am? I’m a nationalist. Use that word.” Thousands of dangerous extreme right-wingers, from Nuremberg to Charlottesville, have flown the banner of “nationalism” — but never before with a presidential seal of approval. And the crowd went wild, chanting, “USA! USA!”

7 years later, Scott Walker can't stop talking about, and still blames Gov. Doyle for Republican Great Recession, Job Losses, and State Deficit...Part 2!

Here we go again.

Yes, Scott Walker is once again blaming the Great Recession on the Democrats, and this time he's throwing in higher taxes for the heck of it. From WISC TV:

Walker: "Tony's taxes would be a recipe for a RETURN TO RECESSION. We can't have that mistake. We saw in this county when I was running 8 years ago, unemployment was over 11 percent..."

Walker has been blaming the Democrats for the Republicans Great Recession for years, something I've been documenting right here time and time again, with little or no effect. The news media doesn't think it's important to correct him, so he just keeps repeating the lie. Here's what Walker said last year:



It's surreal watching Walker try to brand the greatest deregulatory-"free market"-economic-global collapse since the Great Depression all on the Democrats.

Politifact set the record straight back in March of 2014 when Walker lied about it, and then blamed the GOP's Great Recession job losses on Gov. Doyle/Mary Burke:

Did Burke, as state Commerce secretary under Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle, throw Wisconsin for a six-digit jobs loss?

A September 2013 item from PolitiFact Wisconsin, we rated Mostly False a Walker claim that Doyle’s policies cost the state 133,000 jobs in his second term, from 2007 through 2010. Walker, we noted, got the number right. But experts said the national economic crash had far more to do with Wisconsin’s job losses during that period than any state policies. Indeed, Wisconsin actually fared somewhat better than the rest of the country.

Scott Walker hasn't deviated one bit from the same policies that brought us the Great Recession. Even a shaken Alan Greenspan realized his ideological principles failed miserably. Here's that moment of sanity I'm still clinging to:



For Walker, it's more tax cuts and borrowing, all the while the public lets another service or social benefit slip away. This is what energizes their base. But one Republican and vocal opponent of these policies said it best below. Bruce Bartlett explains how the Clinton tax increase would have wiped out our debt by now:

AG Schimel bumbling, Delays DNA testing...again!!!

Even before he had a chance to get reelected, and after downplaying how badly he botched the backlog of rape kits to be tested, AG Brad Schimel is again falling way behind testing DNA crime evidence, delaying those cases and impeding investigations. So are Republican voters paying attention? JS: 

A backlog of months-old DNA evidence has continued to grow to nearly 800 cases. Attorney General Brad Schimel, who oversees the state crime labs, released new figures Friday about the tests, about four weeks after USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin requested them under open records laws.

Schimel faced criticism from his opponent, Democrat Josh Kaul, over crime lab delays. 

When the Republican entered office in 2015, DNA evidence rarely took more than two months to test. Now, about half of all DNA tests take at least two months and hundreds of cases typically take more than three months — potentially slowing police investigations or court cases that rely on DNA.

Here's an interactive graph tracking Schimel bumbling:

The Con Man TrumpCare plan blasts off....feeling lucky? You'll need lots of it.

Officially, TrumpCare is here, ready fix what it has already broken:

New State Relief and Empowerment Waiver Guidance Gives States Tools to Help Fix Broken Health Insurance Markets-Clear vision from President Trump: Make health insurance more affordable and accessible by expanding choice, reviving competition, and deregulating and devolving to the states the authority and flexibility ... and promote consumer-driven healthcare.

This plays on the theme that people are biologically different once you step over the state line. As I recently posted regarding "States should tailor their own plans:" Nothing could sound dumber. Is cancer in Iowa different from cancer in Wisconsin or Texas. That's because it's laughably ridiculous.

48 Million Uninsured before the ACA/ObamaCare: The ACA knocked that down to 28.5 million. Trump's CMS claimed, "a one-size-fits-all set of federal regulations put a straightjacket on state innovation," what that meant was instituting costly high-risk pools, stripped down junk insurance policies, lifetime caps, and a whole maze of exceptions and requirements you'll only learn about once you get sick or turn in a claim. And "innovation" has nothing to do with curing diseases, they were talking about making money on the sick and dying.

Here's the breathtaking step back to a time when 48 million didn't have health insurance and millions more would be added each year. I will provide the "result:"

1. The new guidance implements an access standard requiring states to provide access to the same level of coverage. Thus, if someone freely opts for coverage with a lower premium, the guardrails remain satisfied even though the chosen coverage might be less comprehensive.

Result: The Grand Illusion...a person with barely any coverage counts as a person with health care insurance, skewing the numbers so that it looks like a greater percentage of the population has insurance.

2. The Departments will judge a waiver for how it impacts the population as a whole, which will free states from the impractical, virtually unattainable standards on covering specific populations the previous guidance required.

Result: Segregating the sick and dying from the healthier pool of Americans.

3.  The new guidance continues to require that a comparable number of people remain covered, but the guidance broadens the definition of coverage to include more types of coverage, such as more affordable, short-term plans.

Result: IMPORTANT: This rule eliminates coverage for preexisting conditions. Again, you're considered covered even with a temp or stripped down version of insurance. Trump will be able to manufacture the illusion that more people have insurance.

4. States can now consider options to create and implement a new subsidy structure that changes the distribution of subsidy funds compared to the current federal Premium Tax Credit (PTC) structure. A state may design a subsidy structure that meets the unique needs of its population in order to provide more affordable healthcare options for a wider range of individuals and address structural issues that create perverse incentives, such as the “subsidy cliff.”

Result: The tax credit your getting may be changed. It could get a lot smaller for those with lower incomes spreading the credits out to higher incomes, which would make tax credits inconsequential for all premiums while including higher incomes.

5. More affordable health insurance is, of course, more accessible health insurance, which should help drive down the number of people that continue to go uninsured.

Result: This upside-down nonsense passes for policy? Sounds more like a line from Humpty Dumpty in Alice through the Looking Glass. Sadly, voters will only gasp in panic when it's already too late to change what they didn't understand the first time.

Trump/Kavanaugh energizing voters...?

Walker still waiting for Manufacturing Renaissance, which ain't happening!

I once wrote back in August of 2015: "Walker is stuck in the past, working on a manufacturing renaissance in Wisconsin. In fact, Walker is attacking, vilifying, and stopping emerging industries he feels aren't part of the Republican Party platform, like wind, solar and mass transit."

So Scott Walker decided to put out this braggadocious tweet thinking this would cinch his reelection:

Look, "#2" would be great if we were talking about a large number of jobs, with the promise of even more jobs to come in a growing industry:

In March of 2017, WPR reported that Wisconsin lost "4,000 Jobs in 12-Month Period Ending In September 2016. A total of 27 states lost manufacturing jobs over the same span, and so did the national economy:"

University Michigan Labor Economist Don Grimes: "No political leader if they had looked at the data and understand what's going on, should ever bet their future on manufacturing job growth. Because it's not going to happen."  

But wait, there's more: Walker also said this about the weak manufacturing jobs numbers, that incredibly, makes the manufacturing tax credit even more irrelevant:

Gov. Scott Walker said fewer manufacturing jobs might not be such a bad thing for Wisconsin, as long as wages are increasing.

"It's not just how many jobs — it's are those jobs paying at a significant level. If we see wages go up in manufacturing, to me, that's my ultimate goal. Overall, it’s just a different type of manufacturing – you’re going to see more and more automation. You can have successful manufacturing companies that don’t necessarily match all those (previous) numbers."

You gotta wonder who Walker is listening too:

Check out the 6 reasons by the manufacturing tax credit should be deep-sixed here, from the Wisconsin Budget Project. I'm not done piling on either...

Urban Milwaukee: The Manufacturing and Agriculture Tax Credit reflects the danger of letting nostalgia for the past drive economic policy, of succumbing to the hope that we can return to when manufacturing drove the Wisconsin economy. While it is important not to write off manufacturing, it is also a mistake to expect a return to the days of well-paid, but low-skilled and highly repetitious mass manufacturing jobs. Those jobs are either being automated away or migrating to nations with much lower labor costs.

In its fixation on manufacturing jobs, Wisconsin runs the danger of neglecting the investments needed to build a new economy. It blocks serious planning for what comes next. Ending the manufacturing tax credit would free up roughly $300 million that could be directed to more productive uses.

Even Trump's former National Economic Council director Gary Cohen knows the basics, it's all about the service economy now. That's why we need a minimum wage hike now. Besides tariffs, people are leaving manufacturing:

Cohen: "We create jobs through services...the big increase is we saw more need for workers in business services...not manufacturing. In fact, we saw more voluntary leavers from the manufacturing industry, because as the job market tightens, people will volentarily leave the manufacturing industry and go into the service industry." 

Today service employment has grown to around 130 million, while goods producers have been stuck at 20 million for the past 80 years.

Finally, this from Michael J. Hicks, professor of economics and the director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at Ball State University:

MSN: Over the past 50 years, American jobs have steadily moved away from factories, mimicking the shift from farm to factory in the 50 years before that. The cause of each phenomenon was largely the same: technology, automation and the associated productivity growth meant we needed fewer workers to produce even more goods.

The causal factor in the decline of many Midwest places was simply dogged, stubborn, almost prideful ignorance about century-long changes to the world economy ... it has mistakenly convinced millions of Midwesterners that factory jobs may once again be plentiful. They won’t; even as manufacturing production will continue to expand, employment will not.

Peak manufacturing employment in the Midwest is nearly five decades behind us, when Chinese and Mexican exports were trivial. Yet far too many communities continued to pursue “jobs attraction” policies that failed them since the 1960s.

Nationally, manufacturing employment growth has slowed since April, and here in Indiana, it dipped into negative territory for two consecutive months. The manufacturing portions of the Fed’s Midwest economic index have been negative for four months. To be clear, the worst is yet to come as both tariffs and their lagging effects will plague us well into 2019.

And, in an underappreciated farewell speech, President Obama made it quite plain “. . . the next wave of economic dislocation won’t come from overseas. It will come from the relentless pace of automation that makes many good, middle-class jobs obsolete.” Like him or not, that statement is as true and obvious as the rising sun. 

Ignoring almost the whole of those truths, today we pursue a trade war. It is ironic that the very places that ignored the economic changes of the past half-century will be the first to feel the spreading pain of this bad medicine. 

Paul Ryan says successful Universal Health Care Systems in every other country in the World won't work in U.S.?

Paul Ryan decided to leave office by repeating outright lies and fabrications about universal healthcare. This guy is playing Americans for fools and Trumpian dumb asses. He even uses the word "socialism." Ouch.

His latest tweet and video are embarrassing, especially since every industrialized country has the kind of insurance he says just won't work... Ryan: "...it is the hollow empty promise of socialism..."

Ryan says it ends "having choices." Uh, no, Medicare for all would give everyone the choice of any doctor and any hospital. And since we don't have a universal system, why would we create one that lets the government get between ourselves and our healthcare as Ryan claims?



What universal health care does is that it simplifies everything and eliminates the complicated maze we have now, that encourages overcharges, fraud, and bureaucratic red tape. 

Paul Ryan has been saying this stuff for years, and for years, the media has been letting him get away with it. So it's no surprise that he keeps repeating this utter nonsense:

Ryan→ Single-payer, government-run health care would essentially destroy and obliterate the private health insurance system.

Truth-Yes: First, where is this clueless person who loves paying expensive premiums every month, has high deductibles and can't wait for the next major yearly increase that might force them out of coverage?  Yes, obliterate private insurance slowly or...some single-payer systems rely on private insurers to manage their national health care plans or offer elective coverage etc.

Ryan→ Single-payer, government-run health care would essentially destroy and obliterate→ the employer-sponsored health insurance system.

Truth: Yes: Hello, that's what single-payer/universal healthcare does. Plus, employers no longer have the administrative burdened. Plus, it puts us on equal footing with every other industrialized country.

Ryan→ Single-payer, government-run health care would essentially destroy and obliterate →Medicare as we know it.

Truth: Yes: Again, that's what single-payer/universal healthcare does. All the money already in Medicare will be used to help pay for universal insurance.

In what should be a cakewalk for Randy Bryce to replace Paul Ryan (except for the fact Republicans blindly vote party and not their own self-interest), challenger and scary Ryan clone Bryan Steil failed to mention our current health care system costs $2 trillion more than Medicare for all:

Steil repeatedly criticized Bryce's stance, calling it "a $32 trillion government takeover of health care. The plan to pay for the program — so people aren't hoodwinked here — the plan to pay for the program is to raise taxes," he said. Steil called for improving health care by giving more control to patients and doctors.

Walker's Failed 250K Jobs Promise someone else's fault?

It's Scott Walker's career politician scam; blame someone else. Check out WSJ article:

Jadin said he told the governor it was foolish to blame an agency the governor had created to carry out his pledge and at the time led as board chairman, but Walker, Jadin recalled, didn’t respond to that concern.

The job Jadin accepted that day was as president of Thrive, now known as the Madison Region Economic Partnership. On Wednesday, Jadin resigned that $208,000-a-year job in order, he said, to speak publicly about Walker.

This should be required viewing. THIS is what the health insurance fight is about. Moral vs. immoral. Right vs. wrong.

This should be required viewing. THIS is what the health insurance fight is about. Moral vs. immoral. Right vs. wrong. https://t.co/5MBWWScAiY

— Victoria Helen Stone / Dahl (@VictoriaDahl) October 20, 2018

Walker's non-answers on Immigrant Farm workers, Dairy Prices, Roads, and Education.

Scott Walker already has a bad reputation for not answering direct simple questions, so it should come as no surprise that he continued that tradition during the first gubernatorial debate.

Take for instance his embarrassing answer explaining why 4 of his former cabinet Secretaries came out with scathing criticisms of Walker's character; Walker said he likes hiring people with "diverse opinions"...that call him a liar and that he lacked integrity?  I still get a chuckle out of that one. Who thinks like that?

NOTE: Confirmed below as well, Walker really is exploiting what should be a very personal family issue; the death of his father. He even stumbled bringing it up, wedging it in purposely, expecting a sympathy vote on election day? Wow:



Walker never even stood up for, or defended, Harley Davidson from Trump's irresponsible demand that people stop buying their motorcycles! He left that up to trade policy and Trump's tariffs. Hey, what could he do?

Media Ignores Immigrant Farm Labor, not Me: Now Walker can't even defend struggling farmers in our state who need immigrant labor. Again no criticism for Trump or Congress, and no pressure to come up with an immigration policy that keeps farm labor here and protected. Democratic candidate Tony Evers offered solutions, while Walker never committed, and again shift blame off to Washington. And ag groups endorsed Walker? Walker's rehearsed "As I've mentioned, we're a nation of immigrants but we're also a nation of laws..." was another sick non-answer.

NOTE: Coincidence? Nope, Walker also mentions that he froze tuition at the same time his kids went to college. Don't you wish you could have done that?:

Tony Evers said he supports allowing undocumented workers to obtain state driver's licenses to get to and from work and providing in-state tuition for so-called Dreamers, or undocumented students who came to the country with their parents.

Walker repeatedly said "we are a nation of immigrants, but we are also a nation of laws," and did not say he would favor either proposal.

Walker sadly won't protect "America's Dairyland;" The oversupply of milk is huge. Instead of controlling the supply, organizing the states to protect dairy farmers here and around the nation, and urge the milk marketers to get off their asses, Walker simply asked everyone "at home, to eat more cereal and eat more cheese," yea, a real healthy diet there. That should go well with your nitrate laden ham sandwiches Scotty:



The Scott Walker Tax!!! Tony Evers nailed it because when it comes right down to it, there's no free lunch. For many of Walker's tax cuts, local communities had to increase their taxes, which keeps Walker's record clean.

  

Scott Walker like Joe Friday, claims Marijuana gateway drug as states and Canada make it legal.

Well, well, well, it appears some Republicans like Scott Walker are still dragging out the Dragnet 67 Joe Friday speeches about the danger of marijuana, the "gateway drug."

Yawn, it all seems a bit insane doesn't it, especially after an entire nation like Canada just legalized recreational marijuana. Besides, the 80-year-old ban in the states has been a disaster.

But I remembered vividly one particular Dragnet 67 episode, the Big High, where two marijuana users made the case for legalization...even predicted how their generation would finally change the law. Watch in wonder how every reason used to pass recreational pot today completely destroyed Joe Friday arguments. And yet, Scott Walker said the same things tonight during the gubernatorial debate (there's a short clip of that is at the end). Oh, and Tony Evers said he would seriously consider making it legal:



Here are the latest stats from Business Insider:

Remember, just like agricultural hemp, Walker Republicans were just too uptight to move forward, missing out on another whopping big money industry. Maybe they'll change their minds in the next desperate election:

Legal marijuana sales exploded to $9.7 billion in North America in 2017, according to a report from Arcview Market Research and BDS Analytics. That represents a 33% increase over 2016, shattering previous expectations about how quickly the marijuana industry could grow in the face of federal prohibition.

The report also predicted the legal marijuana market will reach $24.5 billion in sales — a 28% annual compound growth rate — by 2021, as more state-legal markets come online.

Support for marijuana legalization reached new highs in 2017. A Gallup poll showed that 64% of Americans favor legalization, and a majority of Republicans back it for the first time.

Margaret Engebretson makes Sean Duffy look "real world" ridiculous.

Margaret Engebretson, she's so Wisconsin: When I saw this news coverage of Sean Duffy's Democratic challenger, Margaret Engebretson (N-ga-brett-son), I had to pass it along. Unlike the freewheeling irresponsible actions of Sean Duffy, this is what a hard working American in the real world looks like. In her own words...:

1. I'm a 24-year retired veteran of the United States Military. 

2. I worked as a union locomotive electrician and train dispatcher for the BNSF Railroad ... worked as a Deputy Sheriff of Corrections at the St. Louis County Jail.

3. Earning my law degree ... practiced law focusing much of my time on Guardian ad Litem work. (Courts frequently appoint guardians ad litem to represent childrens' interests in cases involving Adoption, Child Custody, Child Support, Divorce)

4. In Polk County to help organize our local Democratic Party. I love my country and I am concerned for its future. The people of Northern and Western Wisconsin need to know that someone is standing up for them in Washington. That is work that I am eager to do.

WSAW: "It's been tiring, I've had a lot of windshield time." She said running a campaign in a district that covers 26 counties is a full time job ... she is living off her savings trying to win the votes of people in the seventh congressional district. "I'm not rich, I don't have big super donors giving to my campaign, you will not see television ads like other campaigns this season. The latest numbers show she has raised nearly $88,000 compared to Duffy's $3.3 million.

Engebretson said her experience in the military, along with working as a union locomotive electrician and opening her own law practice has provided her a well-rounded experience that is representative of the district.

1. "We over the decades have put a patchwork quilt-type health care system. So, we have thousands of different health care plans. We have employers that offer different plans, deductibles, all of this stuff. So, it's this really complex, confusing, multilayered health care system that we, unfortunately, built ourselves," Engebretson said. "And at what point do we just finally look around and say we can do better?" She said the switch would not happen overnight because of the complexity that health care is today. She explained one of the big benefits to Medicare for all is that costs would be lowered because those costs would be standardized.

2. Engebretson said there has not been enough investment in rural districts and small towns, which has caused people and businesses to leave to more developed areas. She explained if roads could be improved, people would have easier access to these areas and to the larger economy. If there was reliable and fast cell service coverage and broadband, businesses could grow, knowing they would have reliable access to customers in a world that is increasingly going digital.

3. "Wages are stagnant. Main streets have died," she urged. "I live in a town where my main street has struggled and you go around Wisconsin and it's just heartbreaking. And people are having to work more than one job, they don't have health care, they're losing hope."

4. She has claimed Duffy is an absentee representative, caring more about making cable television interviews than working with his district on issues important to him. Duffy responded by saying that claim is foolish. "People know I go to parades, and fairs, and dairy breakfasts all over this district. I do telephone town halls..." She said people in the district tell her the town halls he holds are scheduled last minute and people often do not get responses from him or his office when they reach out. She added he does not fight for the resources the people of the district need.

Alright, let's take a quick look at Rep. Sean Duffy's life choices, taken from his website, and just a few disputed idiotic comments graded by PolitiFact:

Real World antics...

1. Nationally recognized professional lumberjack athlete - two-time world champion in the 90-foot speed climb, a three-time champion in the 60-foot and an accomplished log-roller. 

2. Sean has been a color commentator for ESPN's Great Outdoor Games, as well as a Badger State Games Honorary Athlete.

3. Congressman Duffy practiced law in Hayward before becoming the District Attorney of Ashland County.

4. Congressman Duffy met his wife Rachel Campos-Duffy, an Arizona native, through the MTV show, “The Real World.” 

Hey Sean Duffy, State Regulated One-Size-Fits-All Health Care is not the "Free Market," and High Risk Pools aren't "Totally Affordable."

It's stunning really. Republicans are so against "health care for all" that they haven't even bothered to educate themselves about one of the most important economic issues of our times. This is life or death stuff.

One of the least educated people to sit on the House Financial Services and Joint Economic committees is Rep. Sean Duffy, and it shows. Despite plunging the nation further into debt with a tax cut to the rich, "In regard to the debt, I'm gravely concerned," Duffy revealed how little he cares about peoples health care.

The fact that angry "resentful" Republican voters are okay with paying for a politicians government-run health care while being told they aren't worth it is still a mystery to me.

TAKE NOTE: You'll notice that Sean Duffy, like every other Republican, wants us to believe that state-regulated health care is really a "free market" system. It's nothing like a federally regulated health care system, which Duffy calls a government takeover.

Rep. Sean Duffy said he believes a free market system, with regulations handled by the state rather than the federal government, is better than what he calls one-size fits all model paid for by the government. 

"In Wisconsin, we had a system... we were able to get those with preexisting conditions into a higher-risk pool, they paid a little bit more, totally affordable, and they were absolutely able to get health insurance. But also if I take them out of the healthy people's pool, I'm able to keep their rates lower, but also guarantee those with a preexisting condition insurance."

GOP Gift to Insurers is OK?: When did Americans agree to protect insurance company profits by putting sick people in a separate taxpayer/premium supported pools? Insurance is based on spreading risk and keeping rates low with large insurance pools, just like ObamaCare did but was bashed by Republicans because rates were a little higher, but nowhere near the cost of high-risk pool rates for preexisting conditions.

The Wisconsin Cancer Council has put together the best summary explaining our supposedly nationally admired high risk pools, HIRSP, or "health insurance risk-sharing pools." So did these pools lower regular insurance premiums? actually, no one knows. Also, think of these pools as a maze you're told to navigate if you want coverage bad enough. Don't forget, Duffy says it's "totally affordable:"

1. HIRSP offered seven plans with different premium and out-of-pocket cost structures. 

2. All HIRSP plans had high deductibles – 80% of enrollees were enrolled in plans with either a $2,500 or $5,000 deductible. There is no clear evidence showing the magnitude of the impact HIRSP had on premiums in the broader insurance market.

3. Premiums in HIRSP were an average of 15% higher than new policies sold in the regular market, and varied based on age and sex. Wisconsinites who could not afford the premiums or high out-of-pocket costs were priced out of HIRSP and were left without another coverage option.

4. Low-income enrollees – household below $34,000 for a family of two in 2012 – were eligible for income-based subsidies ... 25% of all HIRSP enrollees received a subsidy. 

5. To reduce costs, HIRSP had a lifetime limit on benefits ($2 million). No HIRSP enrollees reached this limit.

6. Enrollees who were eligible because of a medical condition had a 6-month pre-existing condition exclusion period during which no medical services related to their condition were covered by HIRSP (prescription drug coverage was not excluded).

When you're just talking about cancer patients, excluding everyone else with a preexisting condition...

More than 285,000 cancer patients and survivors currently live in Wisconsin and need reliable access to health insurance that is affordable and comprehensive – free of pre-existing condition exclusions, high out-of-pocket costs, and other elements that increase the financial burden of a cancer diagnosis. Providing this type of coverage would require that a new version of HIRSP be sufficiently funded in order to remain affordable and sustainable.

Check out the rates (don't forget high deductibles not listed here) way back in 2013, imagine what they might be today, and then tell me how "they're a little bit more, totally affordable."

Uh-Oh, a 4th "disgruntled" former Scott Walker Cabinet Secretary said Walker lacks integrity, advances his career at tremendous cost to Taxpayers and Families!!!

Who the hell is making all these former cabinet secretaries so disgruntled? Scott Walker, that's who.

AP: A fourth former Cabinet secretary Paul Jadin in Gov. Scott Walker's administration is speaking out against the Republican incumbent.

The others are former Corrections Secretary Ed Wall, former Financial Institutions Secretary Peter Bildsten, and former Transportation Department Secretary Mark Gottlieb.

Keep in mind Scott Walker was forced out and fired as chair of the Wisconsin Economic Development Committee.

Paul Jadin is a former mayor of Green Bay and was the first secretary of Walker's economic development agency, WEDC. 

In the letter, the former Walker officials urge voters to support Democrat Tony Evers for governor because Walker's administration "lacked integrity."

This was amazing as well:

Jadin says he quit his $208,000-a-year job at the Madison Regional Economic Partnership on Wednesday so he could comment freely.

As Jadin put it...

"We were proud to lead the way ... that pride evaporated at various times for each of us as we found ourselves disagreeing with both policy and practices within the administration that lacked integrity. It became clear that his focus was not on meeting his obligations to the public but to advancing his own political career at a tremendous cost to taxpayers and families.

"Disgruntled" Overused so Walker Quietly moves on...

Walker's campaign issued a statement praising work of the economic development agency since Jadin left, but did not address his criticisms of the governor.

Let's end this on another not so surprising conclusion...

"During the recall in 2012, he stopped attending cabinet meetings and delegated state business to his chief of staff and DOA Secretary. When he decided to run for president in 2015 he subordinated Wisconsin interests to those in Iowa and New Hampshire and his policy/budget proposals started to clash with members of his own party who still would have to stand for election in Wisconsin."

Walker's former transportation secretary Mark Gottlieb also said earlier this year that the GOP governor isn't telling the truth about road projects and is taking a high-risk gamble that could see the state invest billions of dollars in obsolete highways.