Hey Reporters, Medicaid is NOT a Welfare Program!!!

Just to be clear, Medicaid is NOT a welfare program. It's a federal insurance program.

Medicaid provides health coverage to low-income adults, children, pregnant women, elderly adults and people with disabilities.

Would you call the money an insurance company pays out to you for a car accident or damage to your home...welfare? Medicaid is a federal insurance program.

For decades, Democrats protected the federal Medicaid insurance program from making changes that mirrored a typical welfare program. That ended with Trump and Scott Walker. Just by adding a work requirement, they believe they have turned Medicaid into a "welfare" program. It's magic.

Is it pro-life to deny people health care? No. Do our lives have value if we're not working? No.

Incredibly, Republican Rep. John Nygren isn't even afraid to boldly admit to replacing the word "Medicaid" when talking to constituents with...are you ready..."welfare!" Surprise, constituents were against expanding welfare. It's a push polling trick Republicans aren't even trying to hide anymore.

Note: Nygren wrongly claims Medicaid is a welfare program:

Nygren: "He (Evers) often times touts polls, right, the Marquette Poll, 70 percent. Actually, Assembly Republicans actually asked all of our constituents the same question, but we asked it a little differently, we asked them about expanding welfare. You know, I mean, some people cringe at that but Medicaid was designed as a welfare program for the impoverished...so we asked that question, the overwhelming results were 80 percent were against expansion."

But replacing "Medicaid" with "welfare" wasn't they only trick. Nygren is also not telling constituents about research that contradicts the effects of expanding Medicaid...or as he likes to call it, "welfare:"

In May, the Kaiser Family Foundation published a review of 202 studies of Medicaid expansion, and found it had “positive or neutral” effects on work:

1. No state-level studies found negative effects on employment or employee behavior.

2. In Ohio, Medicaid expansion was found to be beneficial to those who were unemployed and looking for work.

3. Several state-level studies predicted job growth following expansion, and Kentucky’s former governor had produced a report linking expansion with economic benefits.

Say Medicaid is Welfare, Repeat: Below snarky wise-ass Rep. Robin Vos couldn't stop driving the "welfare" point home. Well then, it must be true. Tip to reporters, don't let them get away with it, ever. And don't repeat it for them:



Throwback Republican Ideas: There's no question our economy has dramatically change from the 50's, but Republicans want us to continue using a social and economic philosophy, or platform, a half century old. The cartoon below reflects mid century thinking that oddly hasn't changed a bit:

Let's take a look at frail seniors who no longer have the ability to pay their health care bills:

Medicaid is the largest insurer of long-term care, also known as Long-Term Services and Supports (LTSS). Medicaid coverage for the elderly and disabled comprises a greater percentage of overall spending than coverage for low-income adults and children.

Severing the link between Medicaid eligibility and welfare in 1996 and enacting the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) in 1997 to cover low-income children above the cut-off for Medicaid. 

Medicaid is not Welfare, point by point: 

1. Medicaid is the nation’s public health insurance program for people with low income, health and long-term care for millions of America’s poorest and most vulnerable people, acting as a high risk pool for the private insurance market; 

2. Principal source of long-term care coverage for Americans in the home or community that enable seniors and people with disabilities to live independently rather than in institutions.

3. 48% of children with special health care needs and 45% of nonelderly adults with disabilities (such as physical disabilities, developmental disabilities such as autism, traumatic brain injury, serious mental illness, and Alzheimer’s disease); 

4. And more than six in ten nursing home residents; 

5. Providing significant financing for hospitals, community health centers, physicians, nursing homes, and jobs in the health care sector; 

6. Help pay for premiums and cost-sharing for low-income Medicare beneficiaries and allowed states to offer an option to “buy-in” to Medicaid for working individuals with disabilities; 

7. Severing the link between Medicaid eligibility and welfare in 1996 and enacting the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) in 1997 to cover low-income children above the cut-off for Medicaid. 

And when GOP treats Medicaid insurance like a welfare program, a maze of regulations and requirement are created to knock people off the program:

The study, based on a phone survey of about 6,000 people late last year and published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday, cast doubt on the effectiveness of the CMS-approved Arkansas demonstration to get more non-disabled Medicaid enrollees into health-enhancing jobs, training or volunteer activities. Nine Republican-led states have gotten similar waivers. 

"We didn't find any employment changes and instead we see Medicaid coverage rates dropping and more people without health insurance," said Dr. Benjamin Sommers, a Harvard University health policy professor who is lead author of the study. "Based on our results so far in Arkansas, it doesn't appear that this particular policy is accomplishing its goals."

By the end of December, Arkansas had disenrolled more than 18,000 people for noncompliance. In March, a federal judge halted the work requirement programs in Arkansas and Kentucky, ruling that the HHS secretary did not adequately consider the impact of the waivers on providing coverage, which is one of Medicaid's central objectives. The same judge is set to rule on New Hampshire's work requirement waiver.

But J.R. Davis, a spokesman for Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, said nearly 15,000 Medicaid expansion beneficiaries found jobs from June 2018 through April 2019, though the state doesn't know how many are the same people who lost coverage due to non-compliance with the work requirement.

Focus on presidential candidate Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

Okay, I hitching my wagon to either Mayor Pete Buttigieg or Elizabeth Warren for president. For right now, it's Buttigieg (boot-ti-geej).

Before I get to the following clips of Mayor Pete, we can't forget that Trump voters out there that still have a whole difference reference point in their reality. Devoid of punctuation, this rambling list of excuses inoculates Trump from everything. As Spock would say, "it's not logical":

Back to reality, this is 37 year old combat veteran Mayor Pete, a graduated from Harvard College and, on a Rhodes Scholarship, went to Pembroke College in Oxford.

Here's Mayor Pete's closing statement and forward vision during the debate:



The rip on "free college" is that it also helps pay for the children of wealthy parents. He has an answer to that the minimum wage:



For a more complete picture, here's Mayor Pete explaining things on Morning Joe. I cut all the hosts comments because I didn't want the network to block Buttigieg's answers. CNN and Fox News allow public use of their segments, not MSNBC. 



And on the Christian right, claiming they're following the bible and pro-life, all the while locking children up in cages:

Worst Most Corrupt Conservative Activist Supreme Court Shreds Elected Office, blames "administration leviathan" and "Bureaucratic Overlords!"

It took awhile, but Republicans stuck with their plan to corrupt the judicial branch, and now they have what they needed; open and dishonest activist judges/justices legislating from the bench! This last week, Republicans were allowed to limit the governor's and AG's power:

"Constitutional original-ism?" Well, don't forget about what our state constitutional founding fathers intended too, which is now being channeled by our sitting Republican psychic mediums...I mean justices.

Good-bye Superintendent of Public Instruction: Republicans have now secured constitutionally the dismantling of public education in the future, or least greatly hold back reform and progress for years, if not decades. This was a big win for them, and an immeasurable loss for education, similar to what Republicans did to the supreme court:

JS: The Wisconsin Supreme Court reversed itself Tuesday by ruling the state schools chief cannot set education policy without permission from the governor, a blow to Democrats who have controlled the state's education agency for decades.

The ruling makes successful an eight-year effort by Republicans ... Tuesday's decision overturns the court's own ruling just three years ago when justices said in Coyne v. Walker that Evers could write rules and regulations related to education policy on his own — without permission from then-Gov. Scott Walker and the Legislature — because the state constitution provides him with the power to do so.

Evers, in a statement, said "The facts didn't change in the last three years and neither did the meaning of the constitution. Only the composition of the court did.”

Surprise, Republicans waited for Majority Activist Justices to pull off Scheme: Conservative lawsuit mill WILL admitted it:

AP: In her dissent, Justice Ann Walsh Bradley noted the new lawsuit was filed after two members of the court that had previously upheld the state superintendent's authority — justices Michael Gableman and David Prosser — were no longer on the court.

"And why are we here again? At oral argument, counsel for the petitioners was asked, 'you wouldn't be here asking a supreme court of the state of Wisconsin to overturn a decision that it just made two years ago if it were the same court, would you?' In response, counsel acknowledged, 'any lawyer has to make strategic decisions about what is likely to be successful.' Indeed," Bradley wrote. "Although nothing in our Constitution has changed since Coyne was decided, what has changed is the membership of the court."

Surprise, Chief Justice twists previous decision into Convoluted Word Salad Nonsense: Not kidding, really:

Chief Justice Pat Roggensack wrote in the majority opinion ... a footnote justifying how the court could reverse itself. She wrote the 2016 opinion was fractured with two concurrences and failed to establish a “common legal rationale.” As result there was no rationale to analyze, opening the door for another look at the issues.

Huh? Roggensack just obliterated precedent/stare decisis. 

Stare decisis is a doctrine, or an instruction, used in all court cases and with all legal issues. Stare decisis means that courts look to past, similar issues to guide their decisions. These past decisions are known as precedent.

Republican Justice Bradley opinion polluted with Political Trash Talk: Bradley's divisive right-wing writings in the past as a student, as it turns out, weren't so irrelevant after all. I guess she forgot the state Superintendent is an elected office determined by voters, or as Bradley puts it, the "supreme power held by the people." Bradley seems to have an issue with our overly complicated constitutionally created "administrative leviathan" known as state government. 

Justice Rebecca Bradley in a separate concurring opinion criticized what she called "the concentration of power within an administrative leviathan."

"The philosophical roots of rule by bureaucratic overlords are antithetical to the Founders' vision of our constitutional Republic, in which supreme power is held by the people through their elected representatives, and 'the creation of rules of private conduct' is 'an irregular and infrequent occurrence,'" she wrote.

News you may have missed...

Trump administration must be told by 3 judge panel what is or isn't humane treatment of children.

There's a lot of talk about Trump's tough immigration policy, but no talk about how big a failure its been since the flow of immigrants is only getting worse. In my book, that's a disaster created by Trump. VP Mike Pence gave us an idea of what Christ would have done, you know, the evangelical position...

The morally and ethically bankrupt Trump Cult-Party is even making the argument that because certain basic human needs weren't spelled out in policy, we have no responsibility to care anymore for...children? AOC and Rolling Stone:

Here's the administrations attorney defending child cruelty to the astonished judges, in the video burning up twitter and social media:



From NPR, Warren Binford, the law professor who visited some of the facilities. This is real. Detention center of concentration camp, you can choose:

Giving up the Future for Tax-cuts Today.

Let's call it "tax-cut atrophy."

While Wisconsin Republicans are enjoying their out-of-step tax-cut agenda, taxpayers took off in a different direction. It was odd watching Republicans cut education spending at the same time taxpayers, who voted for them, went out of their way to increase education spending.

First, here's Scott Walker's familiar bragging "point" that gave us Wisconsin's "lost decade."

What a hero. Yet constituents had to raise their taxes gladly, after "years of flat state support" from Walker and GOP legislators. In just 2019 alone...

Voters across Wisconsin approved nearly $770 million in additional funding for school districts ... continuing a trend of strong voter support for increasing local property taxes to offset years of flat state support for public K-12 schools.

These property tax increases through local referendums have continued throughout Walker's "tax cutting" term:

Embarrassed that their own constituents were raising taxes, Republicans claimed it was irresponsible and unfair to other taxpayers, and then passed laws making it harder to hold referendums.   

Wisconsin's Future is Now, not actually in the Future:  The Republican tax-cut blinders are on, ignoring the inevitable taxpayer support and venture capital investment needed for future businesses and job creation. Their most recent budget proposal could be worse:

Sen. David Craig, one of the chamber’s most fiscally conservative members, (said) that he would join Sen. Steve Nass in opposing the (budget) plan, which they say spends too much money. Two other Republican fiscal hawks — Sens. Duey Stroebel and Chris Kapenga haven’t yet said...

Taxpayer Spending needed to be World Leader Again: The Wall Street Journal's "City Lab" featured this in-depth look the US's decline from being a dominant leader in capital investment to where we are today.

America’s long-standing lead in Venture Capital backed high tech is now in jeopardy, according to our analysis. About two-and-a-half decades ago, the U.S. was home to more than 95 percent of global startup and venture-capital activity. Today, that share has been cut to a little more than one-half. And the pace of that decline is accelerating, with more than half of the fall occurring in just the past five years.

Game-changing companies like Intel, Apple, Microsoft, Google, Genentech, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Netflix, Uber, Airbnb, and WeWork are just a few well-known examples of venture-backed companies that have introduced new technologies and spurred the rise of whole new industries.

And yes, we can blame tighter GOP budgets since their 2010 takeover, cuts to spending, and their irrational focus on tax-cuts. I'm writing this because Madison was one of the cities mentioned in the story, and we're a college town struggling to get state funding for the UW...:

Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and Minneapolis make the list of the world’s 60 or so established startup cities. The majority of them, such as Nashville, Detroit, Indianapolis, Columbus, and Cincinnati, are part of a separate group of 40 or so emerging tech hubs, alongside smaller U.S. college towns like Ann Arbor, Madison, and Bozeman, and rapidly growing Asian hubs like Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, Calcutta, and Manila.

Thanks to Scott Walker's obsession with tax-cuts, continued now by the locked in gerrymandered Republican majority, we're going miss out again on making this a better state for people and business. And don't forget Trump's attack on immigrants:

...outlined in the Wall Street Journal, part of the reason is that other nations and global cities have gotten wise to America’s long-term advantage and increased their investments in universities and R&D; made their cities denser and more attractive; and worked hard to retain their talent at home and opened their borders to global talent. The eroding advantage of the U.S. is partly self-inflicted, because it has clamped down on immigration and become far less open to foreign entrepreneurs and innovators.

Here are a few more charts:

Walker's Conservative State Supreme Court doing what he planned, ignores text of Constitution to neutralize Democratic Governor and AG.

My conservative Trump cultist and friend in Milwaukee is all smiles after the activist conservative State Supreme Court allowed Republicans to restrict the incoming power of the Democratic governor and AG.

These "strict constructionist" Justices, who promised to enforce the language of out state constitution in their campaigns, parsed and twisted themselves into pretzels justifying their predetermined judicial outcome.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld lame-duck laws Friday that limit the power of the state's new Democratic governor ... In Friday's 4-3 decision, conservatives on the state's high court found lawmakers were allowed to bring themselves into session in December. "The Wisconsin Constitution mandates that the Legislature meet 'at such time as shall be provided by law.' The Legislature did so," Justice Rebecca Bradley wrote for the majority.

Writing for the dissenters, Justice Rebecca Dallet contended the Legislature's two-year session "ceased to exist" in March 2018, when it held its last planned meeting. Leaders had "no authority" to bring lawmakers back in December because no state law gave them that power, she wrote. "The Legislature violated the plain constitutional text, and this court must act as a check," she wrote.

Governor Evers called the decision predictable and disappointing. “It is based on a desired political outcome, not the plain meaning and text of the constitution,” his statement said. "Our framers knew that no good comes from lawmakers rushing laws through at the last minute without public scrutiny. The lame-duck session proves the framers were right. This was an attack on the will of the people, our democracy, and our system of government.”

The groups argued such sessions aren't allowed because the state constitution says lawmakers can meet only when called into a special session by the governor or as provided by law. Lawmakers wrote a work schedule that said they had the power to hold extraordinary sessions whenever they wanted. That was enough to comply with the constitutional provisions on when the Legislature can meet, the majority concluded.

It will be interesting to see just how far the right wing court will go with this more important and most basic question. A decision that could or should put aside today ruling:

The state Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments in the coming months in a lawsuit brought by unions that argues the laws violate the state constitution's separation-of-powers doctrine, which delineates what powers belong to each branch of government.

Sean Duffy is a Trump Cultist Embarrassment to Wisconsin!

Here's Wisconsin's other embarrassing political Trump cultist Rep. Sean Duffy, spewing "fake investigation" and "there was no collusion" inanity proving the incredible defensive blind spot these followers have for Trump. If you don't have a friend who is in the tank for Trump, this is what talking to someone like that is like. It's insane.

Duffy's lunacy starts at about 8:30 into the video clip below, and the clip starts there automatically. Duffy did slip in how low the unemployment numbers are in the STATE, but not necessarily in his district. Cute. Clue; unemployment there is higher and aging, with out migration of labor.



Here's Duffy's district record doing gangbusters from Jake's Wisconsin Funhouse:

...and Republicans did it all without increasing taxes?

I usually leave the economic and job numbers up to Jake's Wisconsin Funhouse, but on a more macro level, I've got a few observations of my own.

On transportation and unrelated tax cut for lower and middle class:

1. The Republicans said that raising fees is a tax increase. Okay. And that hits every Wisconsin driver in the pocket, not out of state road users. Got it.

2. That tax/fee increase is for transportation funding only, and has nothing to do with the general revenue fund. Got it.

3. To supposedly balance that fee/tax increase in the constitutionally walled off transportation fund (take that Jim Doyle), Republicans decided to cut taxes out of the...general revenue fund?

4. So the GOP middle class tax cut would permanently reduce the general revenue fund by $250 million a year. Got it. And no, it's not paid for or balances off the fee increases.

5. Oddly, Republicans are now bragging they did all this without raising taxes (fee/tax increases)?

I'm not that great with numbers, but seriously, does any of this work?

1. Republicans pretend no gas tax is needed as a bridge to the move toward hybrid/electric cars, because they think we don't already know they in the pocket of big oil and trucking.

2. Republicans pretend we'll never need revenue for solving the escalating CAFO/Dairy Farm disaster killing off family farms. Corporate farms can contribute more campaign money.

3. Republicans pretend cleaning up contaminated drinking water in the state won't cost a thing.

4. Republicans pretend costly lead pipe removal isn't a priority, a waste of rural taxpayer money, and is just a big city problem.

5. Republicans pretend transportation magically will pay for statewide mass transit that would connect nearby more affordable rural communities, maybe add train routes and trips. Not happening thanks to anti-localized tax Republicans:

The Republican-controlled state Legislature has opposed regional transit authorities, which would have the power to levy taxes as another source of funding for public transit. Former Gov. Scott Walker signed a law In 2011 barring the creation of RTAs. That law dissolved RTAs in Dane County, the Chippewa Valley and Chequamegon Bay and also eliminated the Southeastern Regional Transit Authority, which aimed to establish a commuter rail line connecting Kenosha, Racine and Milwaukee.

6. Republicans pretend the green energy changeover won't cost a thing because climate change is a hoax and the electrical grid...uh, what's that?

Okay, I'm done venting. As you can imagine, this post would have taken years to write if I had supplied every link to stories I already have a tab for in my browsers. 

The last word on Gerrymandering...or it should have been.

It would seem that even the video clip and quoted comments below still wouldn't be enough to convince judges and justices the fatal flaw of gerrymandering. Sadly, the "debate" and "conversation" will continue:

A major Republican redistricting strategist, Thomas Hofeller, played a role in the Trump administration's push to get a citizenship question on forms for the 2020 census ...(he) concluded in a 2015 report that adding the question would produce the data needed to redraw political maps that would be "advantageous to Republicans and Non-Hispanic Whites," according to a court filing released Thursday. He saw holes in the democratic system that could be exploited by technology and guile. Hofeller, who died in August 2018, saw a way to turn small vote margins into supermajorities for GOP legislators.

"Redistricting is like an election in reverse! It's a great event," he said with a smile at a National Conference of State Legislatures event in 2000. "Usually the voters get to pick the politicians. In redistricting, the politicians get to pick the voters!"

He spent 10 PowerPoint slides in a presentation he gave about redistricting in 2011 just on legal issues and privacy.

It's also important to remember:

Wisconsin Watch: Cal Potter, a former Democratic state lawmaker who now serves on the board of Common Cause in Wisconsin, a nonpartisan watchdog group, noted that the redistricting after the 1990 and 2000 Census was done by the courts, because the Legislature and governor were split and could not agree on a plan. This time around, he said, the GOP ran the show and was able to maximize its electoral advantages.

So the recent decision that simply discounted the basic fundamentals of a representative democracy as "not large enough"...

thepoliticalenvironment: “A panel of three federal judges unanimously ruled: "As for the other claims, we find that although the drafting of Act 43 was needlessly secret, regrettably excluding input from the overwhelming majority of Wisconsin citizens, and although the final product needlessly moved more than a million Wisconsinites and disrupted their long-standing political relationships, the resulting population deviations are not large enough to permit judicial intervention under the Supreme Court’s precedents." 

Fit City Middleton...

Republican voters might want to pay more attention...

A few jaw dropping truths about our lawless Trump Party cult:

1. Constitutional conservatives not so constitutional, where the Constitution is more like "guidelines," and not law. : 

A District Attorney in Tennessee is under fire for claiming gay people in his county do not have the same rights as straight people. Coffee County District Attorney Craig Northcott believes God does not recognize marriages of same-sex couples so gay victims of domestic violence are not granted the same protections in his county. Northcott says he prosecutes those crimes merely as basic assault cases.

2. Artificial "Satanic" Meats will make you Soulless? Anything is possible in the religious rights paranoid infested world:



3. George Will Pretends Republicans were ever Free Market? The party of corporate welfare was never free market or small government, except when it came to serving their constituents:

Will: "The president goes to Iowa the other day and says 'I know my tariffs have hurt you but I'm making you whole by giving you $15 billion.' Now that...think about that. We hurt the farmers, raised prices for American consumers, and then we take from American taxpayers $15 billion to repair the injuries that government has done to farmers."  

4. Trump chose someone this dumb for HUD...here's Ben Carson: But his how administration is filled with these incompetents really, Carson is just slower than the others:

Choice Religious Schools continue to make Bad Choices with out Taxpayer Money!

That smug party of entitlement, Wisconsin's arrogant Republicans, never miss a chance to complain how they don't want their tax dollars going to pay for this or that, stirring up resentment over things like removing lead pipes in Milwaukee. But this is just one example, there are so many others.

And yet, when I say I don't want my tax dollars going to teach religion in private religious schools, I'm un-American and anti-Christian. And while I'm at it, why aren't we angry over Republicans purposely gaming the Constitution and our own state Constitution by directing school funding directly to students and their families, who then can choose to spend it on religious indoctrination...I mean "education?"

There are two "choice" stories here, one about a Lutheran school hiding reality (Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod is considered one of the most conservative synods), and the other is a Catholic school quietly promoting racism, giving us another reason why this was always a bad idea.

Religious Choice School hides "offensive" subjects, and a basic education, with Our Tax Dollars:  Private schools are a personal choice for those who did not agree with public education. Taxpayers should not paying for a "cleansed" version of history and  cultural differences. Here's one teacher that didn't

Daniel Dettmann, 56, resigned from his 24-year teaching position at Winnebago Lutheran Academy on Tuesday ... because of subject matter the school board deemed inappropriate ... for briefly speaking about female circumcision in the context of a geography class discussing different cultures in the Middle East. 

Dettmann said he had touched on the topic with his students for at least a decade and no one ever complained about it, until now. He was told it offended two female students, as well as a third student who was not in the classroom but heard about the lesson. “I believe it is appropriate subject matter because it is a rising problem in the U.S. and young people should be aware of it,” he said.

Winnebago Lutheran Academy apparently doesn't have to follow Wisconsin law governing choice schools:

The academy receives state funding ... Wisconsin's standards for geography state students should learn to “evaluate the effect of culture on a place and time” and “explain how and why people view places and regions differently as a function of their ideology, race, ethnicity, language, gender, age, religion, politics, social class, and economic status.”

The Lutheran Academy is a mere echo of the far rights attempts to revise history, that's why they're pushing religious schools.  Remember this from Texas: 

Once the local curriculum teams sent their draft changes“politics took over” ... the resulting standards ... characterized the Texas standards as “a politicized distortion of history” ... offered an “uncritical celebration of ‘the free enterprise system and its benefits,’” completely overlooked Native Americans, downplayed slavery, barely mentioned the Black Codes or Jim Crow, and dismissed the separation of church and state as a constitutional principle.

And so Daniel Dettmann's inclusion of something that's not so "comfortable" to talk about, even briefly, wiped out his 24 year contribution to his students education"(headed the school's social studies department and has taught consumer economics, financial planning, American government, sociology and world geography. He served as class of 2019 adviser, and led the academic bowl team and student council."). You would think teachers like this would be an invaluable:

Kelci Jo Henning, a 2011 academy graduate, said Dettmann was one of the most loved teachers at the school and had a way of keeping students engaged in what he was teaching. “His job is to teach about history and current events and the issue of female circumcision is part of that. Just because it made someone feel uncomfortable he lost his job. These things are not comfortable to talk about but they are necessary.”

Lutharans lie too!!! Well this is uncomfortable:

Although Dettmann says he was told by the board that he was warned and reprimanded several times, he said these claims are untrue. He never received any verbal or written communication regarding his curriculum choices in the past.

The final insult and typical ploy used by Republicans everywhere...misuse of Bible passages:

Corey Dettmann says he’s angry his father was made to feel shame for what he was teaching, and the administration used Bible passages to do so.

UPDATE: Remember this from May 28th:

Senior Prank on Catholic School Spanish Teacher echoes Trump's "You're fired" and that Mexicans are drug dealers.

WAOW: A Spanish teacher at Assumption Catholic School said an incident on Thursday was her turning point. Olga Meza is a Spanish teacher and first-generation American ... walked into her classroom at Assumption Catholic School to see photos of Donald Trump plastered across the room and the phrase “you’re fired” on the whiteboard. She said they also changed the screens on 22 different iPads to show Trump’s face. She said students often quote the president in class. “They say Mexicans are criminals and all Mexicans are drug dealers and I was like that’s not true. I’m a Mexican American, my parents are from Mexico and they didn’t come here to do that, they taught us.”

 Here's the latest:

Now, a current Assumption student tells News 9, other students at the school are mocking Meza. 

Victor Quinonez said his classmates repeat Meza’s words, saying they “felt unsafe” in mocking tones. Quinonez, a freshman at Assumption High School, said he has also been a victim to race-based bullying. “It happens all the time,” said Quinonez. “You just got to deal with it.” Even during the interview, her brother Victor said, “I can’t really say anything else or, ya know, what would they do to me?”

His sister Maria Quinones Diaz reflected on her own experience at the school. “We shouldn’t have to be thinking about this,” said Quinones Diaz, referring to racial tensions that she said have existed at the school for since she was a student. “He’s fifteen years old, he just started high school” ... she worries about her brother returning to the school after speaking out on the issue. When she was in school, she said, “I couldn’t show that I was soft because they would do it more… if you show it hurts… they live off of that.”

Since our initial reporting on this story, Meza said she and her daughter have not returned to the school over safety concerns.

If the past tells us anything, more of these cases are going to reported, if only in local papers and media. Which begs the question, why aren't we doing away with choice completely as Gov. Evers first suggested. Remember, choice schools are not answerable to the taxpayers:

Of the Lutheran synods in the state, Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod is considered one of the most conservative synods. As a male employee of the school, Dettmann was classified as self-employed and a minister of the gospel. Female teachers, on the other hand, are not self-employed because they cannot be ministers in the church. According to WELS church doctrine, responsibility involves: “headship for a man, including authority, and submission for a woman.”

The Lutheran Church was involved in another recent issue that drew controversy. Sheboygan Lutheran High School valedictorian Nat Werth was not allowed to give his speech at graduation because he talked about his troubles as a gay student and how he was not allowed to join the school dance team because he was gay.

After all, Trump is Putin's US President....

Wisconsin Republicans play race card against black Lt. Governor!

I'm a little surprised no one else noticed this obvious use of race-baiting, a ploy I'm usually slow to pick up on. With terms like "push drug use" and "ripped families apart," I got the message.

Let's start with the premise that race-baiting, using racially-inflammatory issues or stereotypes, preys on the fears of black men’s supposed inherent criminality. Like using marijuana.

That's just what happened when Republican Representatives Robin Vos and Jim Steineke shamelessly went after a comment by Wisconsin's first black Lt. Governor Mandela Barnes. It was no accident. 

Under the ridiculous Vos hashtag #notsomethingtojokeabout, they feigned outraged over marijuana making Thanksgiving dinner more enjoyable:

Of course the only problem with pot is that people are still getting arrested for using it, which Vos and Steineke are okay with. Their position flies in the face of what Wisconsinites want, big time:

Like the GOP fear of hemp, despite Canada and US states legalizing recreational marijuana, they still see this;

Next Up, Republicans Limit Lt. Governor's increased Security! Well, we know why...because both our white governor and Lt. governor had so much to worry about: 

Security trimmed for a top Democrat: Their plan would prevent the State Patrol from spending more to protect Barnes than it did at the end of GOP Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch's term ... Barnes had nine times as many hours of security in two months as Kleefisch did in her last year in office.

Democrats criticized the limits on security for Wisconsin's first black lieutenant governor. Former Barnes aide Brandon Weathersby said it was not unusual to get hateful messages to Barnes' office when he was in the Assembly. "This is petty," Weathersby wrote on Twitter. "This is dangerous. This is wrong."

Brandon Weathersby@WeathersbyWI

Hate crimes spiked 17 percent last year, and the GOP is unconcerned with the safety & security of the state’s first black Lt. Gov. This messed up beyond belief. 1/3

You think THIS might have something to do with it too...

The paranoia that runs deep in the Republican Party were amplified by Scott Walker and Rebecca Kleefisch, which was one reason Walker's book, "Unintimidated," was so ironically funny...

"Walker described the reasons he increased security in his book, 'Unintimidated.'”

Ya gotta laugh! Perhaps we should have insisted Walker spend as much on security as former Gov. Doyle? Here are a few of the old headlines that shocked fleeced taxpayers:

Taxpayers spent $2.23 million on security, including salary, benefits, out-of-state lodging and other expenses, in 2013, according to Walker’s office. That’s up from $657,457 in 2010, the last year Gov. Jim Doyle was in office. Total security spending has increased 41 percent since 2011, from $1.58 million to $2.23 million. Doyle had four primary agents provide security, whereas Walker had 10 primary agents starting in March 2011.

Senate Minority Leader Chris Larson called the increase in security spending “jaw-dropping” and said Walker’s campaign should reimburse the state for the increase over previous governors.

The Job creation mill that is the Republican Party. Can't they get a Real Job?

For a party claiming to hate government, it seems like everything they ends up latching onto government politicians, sharing power.

Hell, I've noticed this for years. The no-talent conservative radio talkers I heard didn't have to know much, they just had to be Republican, it was that easy.

But lately? Wow, it's insane how many freeloader like jobs are suddenly created by former cronies.

Former Walker cronies gave Scottie a big money funded political influence peddling job, so he doesn't have to work. Hey, how about a cruise...:

The Job creating Lawsuit mill Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty latches onto Republican Party Money: I posted this recently:

WILL's Conservative Lobbyists-the Final Corruption of our Legal System: Adding to the public's dislike and skepticism of the their own government, WILL is providing that final nail in the coffin of this great experiment:

Cap Times: For the first time in WILL’s existence, four of its employees registered earlier this year with the state’s ethics commission to lobby in the state Capitol.

Just a Game: Love the "high-caliber attorneys" playing to win: 

WILL executive vice president CJ Szafir said “What we’re trying to do is put together a team, maybe like the Golden State Warriors of the conservative movement, which is filled with high-caliber attorneys, communicators and policy analysts that are going to fight for (our) principles.”

Small Government?   

Why is this man teaching yet?

Conservative lawyer Rick Esenberg ... saw a need ... and With the help of a $500,000 grant from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, WILL launched as a law firm ... The organization now includes 18 attorneys, researchers, writers and other staff, plus two contracted advisers. Its revenues peaked in 2015, at $3 million.

WILL ... plans to double size of the organization in the next five years. “In order to do that, we need to reach out to high-wealth individuals, business executives and ideologically motivated people who share our beliefs and values, to talk about the program and what we’re trying to do,” said Jim Pugh, who joined WILL as vice president of development.

Kevin Nicholson creates Political Job for Himself, latches onto Government Power Leaders: Nicholson failed in his primary bid to take on Sen. Tammy Baldwin, so this is a logical next step. Don't laugh, this is sadly real:

Nicholson has spent the last few months speaking at Republican caucuses and Lincoln-Reagan Day dinners and appeared at the recent state GOP convention.

Now, he's forming a nonprofit organization, "No Better Friend Corp." a 501(c)4 advocacy group to promote conservative public policy solutions. "On a personal level, I'll do what I can to help the president win re-election 2020."

GOP makes Wisconsin a Throwback Island in a sea of Midwest States.

As long as Wisconsin is locked into GOP gerrymandered control, our state keeps falling further and further behind. We're trying to get people to come and work here while keeping the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour? Good luck. 

Wisconsin is lagging behind most of its Midwest neighbors in attracting highly educated workers.

Plus this story just happened, taking out of the mix even more job creation:

Three out of the four states that border Wisconsin — Illinois, Michigan and Minnesota — have now legalized marijuana use and two of them allow residents to purchase and consume cannabis for any reason.

While more and more state legislatures are embracing legal marijuana for medical or recreational reasons — 33 in all — Wisconsin isn't likely to anytime soon.

Pot is causing problems in other States? Yeah, I guess,...

"Some of the results of legalization in other states have been troubling," said Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, a Republican from Juneau. "It would be wise for Wisconsin to take a more measured approach and wait to see how it plays out in other states in the Midwest before rushing any kind of legalization here."

All 33 states have apparently rushed blindly ahead of Wisconsin, who finally approved agricultural hemp?  

It was no accident that Tony Evers became governor. The public is ready for progress no matter how many suck-ups stroke the egos of our gerrymandered Republican "winners" in their districts.

Wisconsin supports Gov. Evers' Clearly Articulated Vision for State:  This new poll I hope means a few GOP seats are in danger:

A new Public Policy Polling survey finds that Wisconsin voters support Governor Evers’ 2019- 2021 budget provisions. The majority (60%) of voters believe in ensuring more Wisconsinites have access to affordable healthcare and prescription drugs.

62% of statewide voters prefer the elimination of minimum markup while raising the gas tax by 8 cents per gallon.

Broken down by districts: Senate District 13- Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald:

63% in SD 13 believe that Republican leaders should work with Governor Evers

53% favorability for Evers

62% of voters agree with increasing the gas tax and eliminating minimum markup.

12% prefer raising vehicle registration fees.

83% of voters believe Gov/Legislature develop a long-term solution for state’s roads.

69% of voters believe the minimum markup law should be eliminated.

Assembly District 63- Speaker of the Wisconsin State Assembly Robin Vos:

65% of voters believe Republican leaders should work with Gov. Evers.

54% favorability for Evers.

60% of voters agree with increasing the gas tax and eliminating the minimum markup.

13% agree more with raising vehicle registration fees.

75% of voters believe the Gov/Legislature should act on a long-term solution for roads.

61% of voters believe the minimum markup law should be eliminated.