Gov. Evers speaks to all women promoting Choice, even abortion opponents. Republicans push Punishment their way.

The gerrymandered Republicans grotesque sense of entitlement is showing. These artificially created winners of the legislature now actually believe they really are the legitimate choice of voters. 

Point #1; Governor Evers supports CHOICE, which represents ALL women in Wisconsin, even abortion opponents. And polling, year after year, has supported choice by a whopping 58 to 60 percent.  

But in Bizarro World, where everything is just the opposite...

...the preposterous phony outrage spewed by meme governor candidate Rebecca Kleefisch, who only represents the 35 percent who oppose all or most abortions, she's thinks she speaks for all women because, well, she is a woman:

Kleefisch says she doesn’t specifically support adding exceptions for rape or incest to the state’s 1849 abortion ban. “I will stand with the 1849 law that includes the exception for the health of the mother.”

The 1849 Upside Downers (Stranger Things reference): The arrogance is so obvious and the entitlement so overwhelming that she thinks 35 percent of abortion ban supporters speaks for all women. 

The social implications will be dramatic now and a lot later, burdening women with the high cost of having a baby, maternity cost, childcare, probable penalties requiring work or minimum job searches to receive Medicaid or food stamps, and ultimately keeping women out of the work force. Especially at a time of low birthrates and labor shortages. Imagine keeping in contact with your rapist for child support for the rest of your life. Brutal. 

"Pro-life" groups are now talking about funding some of the above services to lessen the impact of this decision around an election. We'll keep watching.

Gov Evers support of Choice represents ALL Women: There really is no other way to look at this. Choice does represent everyone, even 1849 Upside Downers:

Actually, Gov. Evers was even more to the point...

Elizabeth Warren best Response: When I was in advertising, the biggest thing you could was first define your opponent. For every Democrats wondering how that's done, here a BIG lesson from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who identifies and defines her opponent first, showing genuine outrage, making it the first and last impression for the listener. THIS IS HOW IT'S DONE:

A few extra notes...

 

Texas says out loud what Republican Cult looks like now. Just wait till next year.

Jaws dropped after glancing over the Texas GOP's bizarro world platform. Secession was actually the least interesting part of their maniacal list of dystopian chaos. 

Note: The most obvious takeaway? This platform is loaded with confusing conflicts and contradictions, rendering the whole thing useless. 

Also, it shouldn't be lost on anyone how this contradicts the Gov. DeSantis' oppressive "play-to-the-base" platform, banning businesses the right to free speech (Citizens United) and self-governance (banning mask or vax requirement). Texas believes...:

A free enterprise society unencumbered by government interference or subsidies.

Yup, they like having it both ways.

God rules over America. So much for religious freedom. Since this is Texas, they can establish Christianity as their religion apparently, because only "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion." And remember when Republicans said Democrats wanted to control Americans lives from birth to death? Well...:

1. Total Control of Our Lives: “The laws of nature and nature’s God,” the sanctity of innocent human life, created in the image of God, which should be equally protected from fertilization to natural death. 

2. Don't Be Gay: "Self-sufficient families, founded on the traditional marriage of a natural man and a natural woman."

3. Preserve Corporate Power with no Cost or Public Health Controls: Insurance Rates: We support that all types of insurance rates, for example, health, life, title, auto, and homeowner’s insurance, should be set through free-market forces, and goods and services that are not transported across state lines are not subject to federal regulations, preempt local government efforts to interfere with the State’s sovereignty over business, employees, and property rights. This includes burdensome regulations on short-term rentals, bags, sick leave, trees, and employee criminal screening, city ordinances that dictate sick leave policies to private businesses. We oppose all efforts to classify carbon dioxide as a pollutant. initiatives, the abolition of the Environmental Protection Agency, and repeal of the Endangered Species Act.

4. Return to Child Labor and Create 21st Century Slavery: Licensing: review all business/professional licensing programs, abolishing as many as reasonably possible and repealing those laws, rules, and regulations. We believe the Minimum Wage Act should be repealed. We oppose prevailing wage laws. 

NOTE: Here's a personal favorite highlighting GOP contradictions:

5. Opposition to Regulating the Internet: We oppose all efforts to further regulate the internet in the United States or internationally.

...but...

Social Media Freedom: Push to limit the ability of online social media platforms to censor the speech of citizens in the new digital town square which they currently control.

6. Social Security Opt-Out: We support reform to Social Security that allows people to opt out.

7. Vehicle Registration: Vehicle registration should only be a one-time occurrence at the point of sale.

8. State Electoral College: The State Legislature shall cause to be enacted a State Constitutional
Amendment creating an electoral college consisting of electors selected by the popular votes cast within
each individual state senatorial district, who shall then elect all statewide office holders.

9. Census: In accordance with Article 1, Section 2, of the United States Constitution, we support an
actual count of United States citizens only, and we oppose Census Bureau estimates and the collection
of all other data.

10. GUNS and More GUNS...: Gun Carry and Possession Restrictions: We oppose any measure that would deprive someone of their right to possess firearms. This includes state legislation such as red flag laws, social media monitoring that targets gun owners, expanded background checks, mandates on personal firearms storage, and government-mandated location restrictions such as those in K-12 schools and 51% establishments, and Federal law such as PTSD-related restrictions and the National Firearms Act.

11. Redistricting: We support drawing districts based on eligible voters, not pure population. We

believe districts should be geographically compact when possible. We oppose any redistricting map that

is unfair to conservative candidates in the primary or the general election.

12. Homosexuality: We believe there should be no granting of special legal entitlements or creation of
special status for homosexual behavior, regardless of state of origin, and we oppose any criminal or civil
penalties against those who oppose homosexuality out of faith, conviction, or belief in traditional values.
No one should be granted special legal status based on their LGBTQ+ identification.

246. Gender Identity: We oppose all efforts to validate transgender identity.

13. Mandated Public Health Programs: We reject any government-mandated treatment, vaccination, or use of controlle substances of any kind. We call for an addition to the Texas Bill of Rights that explicitly recognizes the natural right to refuse vaccination or medical treatment and the right for such choices to not be a condition of provision of government services.

ALERT! Failed "Free Market" Health Care is BACK...remember, all the following "market-based" ideas made health care unaffordable, stranding over 40 million Americans without coverage:

14. Healthcare Choice: No government bureaucrat or insurance company should be allowed to
interfere with citizens’ freedom to choose their type of medical care. We demand the US Congress to
repeal the ACA and pass healthcare reform that results in more affordable healthcare through a market-
based, competitive, and transparent healthcare system, including but not limited to:

a. Tort reform.
b. Interstate competition.
c. Health savings accounts.
d. Genuine accountability.
e. Oversight.
f. Portability and extended COBRA availability.
g. Selection of coverage (rather than paying for coverage not needed or not wanted).
h. Price transparency of all medical procedures and drugs.
i. Medical expense sharing organizations.

Local, state, or federal laws, regulations, or policies that limit parental rights in the rearing of both biological and adopted children shall not be enacted. Parents have the God-given right and responsibility to direct and guide their children’s care and moral upbringing.

15. Pandemic Response: We call upon Texas elected officials to never again implement mass
lockdowns on the people of Texas in the name of communicable disease response. Texas officials shall
never again dare to presume that they know best how to medically treat Texans or prioritize the medical
treatment of Texans. Elected officials must never make command and control edicts that dictate to
healthcare providers how to do their job.

16. Pornography Crisis: The State of Texas shall recognize that pornography is a public health crisis.

And despite our labor shortage and low birth rates...

17. H-1B Visas: The Republican Party of Texas calls for the permanent end of the H-1B Foreign

Worker Visa program in the interest of protecting American jobs, classified technology, and national

security.

18. Acknowledgement that the Church is a God-ordained institution with a sphere of authority

separate from that of civil government, and thus the Church is not to be regulated, controlled, or taxed by any level of civil government.

19. Homosexual Behavior: We affirm God’s biblical design for marriage and sexual behavior between one biological man and one biological woman, which has proven to be the foundation for all great nations in Western civilization. We oppose homosexual marriage, regardless of state of origin. We urge the Texas Legislature to pass religious liberty protections for individuals, businesses, and government
officials who believe marriage is between one man and one woman.

There you have it. This is what the current Republican cult looks like, and I heard that it's scaring even a few Republican voters...naw, they're loving it. 

Ron Johnson called out for incredibly stupid "on the phone" fake! The reporter noticed, "I can see your screen."

While watching the MSNBC summary of the Jan. 6th Hearings, where it was revealed, Guiliani said wanted to search for illegal "USB outlets," I saw this amazing "phone fake" by Ron Johnson. 

I couldn't find the original reporters recording, so I recorded off my OLED TV. This says it all:

Johnson's incredibly ridiculous "I knew nothing" when it came to delivery fake elector names from Wisconsin, is already an out-of-control meme...here's one example:

Will Rural Dairy and Ag Farmers turn away from Democratic Candidates ideas to save and futurize their businesses.

WKOW's Capital City Sunday's host A.J. Bayatpour became the first newsperson to ask candidates running for office what they would do to help dairy and ag farmers survive in Wisconsin. 

Bayatpour asked Democratic candidates how they would help, and guess what, that had solid proposals, which I've listed below. 

But first......I've never seen this same question leveled at Republicans, who have ignored farmers and taken their rural vote for granted. 

Did I mention Republicans did nothing for farmers, and took the whole year off? 

We're at a point now where Republicans like Rebecca Kleefisch have moved on from solving the farm bankruptcy problem to creating fake issues like this.

Here's how Scott Walker Republicans punished farmers; Republicans abandoned farmers completely under Walker. I wrote this back in Jan. 2016:

Scott Walker's $3.6 million budget cut to the UW Extension should get rural Republican voters riled up. It continues the Republican assault on their own rural constituents that keeps them frustrated and angry at their own government. The UW Extension "provides farmers with technical assistance, nutrient management and more," but those days are slipping away, thanks to cuts signed by Walker. UW-Extension, which applies research and expertise across the state in myriad areas, has been forced to restructure ... cut $1.2 million from county-level programs, $1.7 million from campus programs and state specialists and $700,000 from the administration.

In 2020, Gov. Evers forced Republicans to reconsider that bad decision, but...

Adam Warthesen, director of government and industry affairs at Organic Valley, said the state's efforts are coming too late for many dairy farmers who have gone out of business in the last few years. "We should be out in front and figuring out what's going to help agriculture earlier in every year," Warthesen said. 

They even wanted to make it easier for farmers to lose those farms...not kidding: Walker went after Rural Farmers Estates to Fund Medicaid:

WSJ-Dee J. Hall: The state Department of Health Services has new powers under the state budget to recover money from the estates of people whose loved ones have received Medicaid funding for long-term care … the Legislature’s own nonpartisan legal and financial agencies have warned that the changes … could violate federal law. Critics say the changes could prompt some elderly couples to divorce and make it harder for children to inherit the family farm or business. A couple’s home is exempted … But proceeds from the sale of that home could be taken by the state to repay Medicaid used to pay for a spouse’s nursing home or other long-term care. An elder law attorneys said, “It greatly expands the types of property the state can go after … In the past, the state could not go after the property of the (non-Medicaid receiving) spouse.”

Eight Democratic Ideas to help Dairy and Ag Farmers: Democrats have always had suggestions, ways to improve the industry by working with farmers and their groups in Wisconsin but were ignored. The articles timing couldn't be better. From June of 1951...

Governor Evers actually included huge benefits to farmers in each of his state budgets:

Evers’ bills would expand grant opportunities for small dairy processing plants, assist farmers seeking to expand or diversify their operations and establish five regional positions across the state to provide farmers with mental health support. The bills would also create 20 county-based positions with UW-Extension to provide farmers with free research and technical assistance.

It will be interesting to hear how Republicans trash many of these forward ideas without ever suggesting any constructive plans of their own:

Farmers are now dealing with the stacked-up effects of a pandemic, supply chain disruptions and inflation. 

1. Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson wants to bring back parity pricing, which ties commodity prices to production costs. "What this means is ensuring a consistent and fair price for farmers," Nelson said. "So this controls the up and down spikes, like what we're seeing right now."

2. Making broadband internet a public utility.

3. Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes' "Barnes for Barns" tour tied together ag and climate policy and shifting federal subsidies away from corporate farms. "Making sure our farms are more resilient in the face of climate change, which is making it harder for our small family farmers."

4. State Treasurer Sarah Godlewski's campaign touts a 12-page rural policy plan. She said her first act in the U.S. Senate would be asking for a seat on the Senate's agricultural committee, neither the Senate nor House ag committees currently have any members from Wisconsin. 

5. She would prioritize the development of a health care program specifically for farmers.

6. Milwaukee Bucks executive Alex Lasry said he believed a key solution was offering loan forgiveness to farmers. A bill doing just that was introduced in the Senate last year but hasn't been called for a vote. 

7. Lasry said he also would push to give credits to domestic fertilizer producers, hoping to lower costs and, in turn, make a crucial supply more affordable for farmers.

8. Both Nelson and Barnes specifically mentioned growth management, a concept supported by the Wisconsin Farmers Union and the Farm Bureau Federation, which aren't always on the same page. The idea is similar to a luxury tax in professional sports; if a farm decides to capitalize on high prices by increasing production, it has to pay a fee that goes into a pot that's divided among all farmers. That way, the theory goes, if the spiked supply depresses prices, smaller farms can weather that drop with the funds they receive through fee sharing.

Using Health Care Debt and Gun Homicides to Depress Upward Mobility and Freedom.

If only Democrats would start every town hall and candidate's debate with this: "Why are we continuing to play along with the right-wing game of distraction, intentionally ignoring all the problems reality keeps throwing at us."

For decades Republicans have declared President Lyndan Johnson's War on Poverty a failure, conveniently blaming what they know is not controllable, human nature. The Heritage Foundation framed it this way in 2014, ignoring the ravages of capitalism, purposely exempting that from any attempted reforms:

The culprit is, in part, the welfare system itself, which discourages work and penalizes marriage. When the War on Poverty began, 7 percent of American children were born outside marriage. Today the number is 41 percent. The collapse of marriage is the main cause of child poverty today. The welfare state is self-perpetuating.

#1-The Myth of "Working Hard and Getting Ahead" crumbles under Health Care Debt: Many of us do work hard and get ahead, but for how long? That hard-earned income disappears with our first medical problem, blocking upward mobility for the working class. 

Not surprisingly, Republican states that supposedly have all the "right answers" are the biggest cause of poverty and downward mobility (click images to enlarge). "The debt is also deepening racial disparities:"

Here's NPR's breakdown of the Kaiser Foundation's new survey. "Sick and struggling to pay, 100 million people in the U.S. live with medical debt:"

#2-The Surreal Defense of Mass School Shootings and the Arming of Teachers: This sick notion is now considered normal, part of a free society?:

Republicans again target what they know is unchangeable, human nature, and push for more guns and less training, arming teachers. It gives schools more "tools" to work with. Wait for it...

Teachers in Ohio have been allowed to carry guns in schools so long as they complete 700 hours of mandatory training, the same required of police recruits. Lawmakers argued that made it nearly impossible to arm teachers, so they drastically cut that training requirement down to 24 hours.

Whether it's in schools, public places, or just another mindless road rage incident, how does making people afraid of being randomly shot and killed make American "free" Yet it does for so many conservative voters. Here's the story about turning teachers into armed security guards:

No new gun laws targeting guns. None, and convincing many this is as good as it gets. 

Republicans have offered stranger things faking gun control...

 

GOP Gun Brain Map...

 

The American Rights "Can't Do" Spirit! Guns?

What Wisconsin Republican Politicians Think: We already know where the Democrats stand on regulations reducing guns deaths and mass shootings. But even the mass shooting deaths of young children, whose bodies were shredded by a high velocity military style weapon, just won't move the needle even a little. A Wisconsin judge was targeted and shot by a gunman who had a kill list of big-name politicians including our governor. Rightwing domestic terrorism? Nah.

It's like nothing ever happened. In fact, it's so bad, that one GOP candidate for governor said, and I wish I were kidding:

Tim Michels: "I believe it's a societal problem. Uh, we have to have people that are afraid of law enforcement...a byproduct of "defund the police movement"...when I'm governor, I'm going to tell law enforcement it's okay to enforce the law." 

You know what he means. 

Ron Johnson is a walking-talking cliche. Imagine the kind of policy that makes "families stronger" and "renewed faith?" What would that be? Toss in "wokeness" and "CRT," where's the argument? Didn't Trump already Make American Great Again?  He had 4 years.

Ron Johnson: “The solution lies in stronger families, more supportive communities, I would argue renewed faith,” he said. “We’ve lost that. We stopped teaching values in so many of our schools. Now we’re teaching wokeness. We’re indoctrinating our children with things like CRT, telling, you know, some children they’re not equal to others and they’re the cause of other people’s problems.”

No one's doing that.  

Here's a list of mass shootings since Uvalde, the dead and injured for life (click to enlarge):

Let's start with this premise:

Shocking Revelation: They're not Like Us; Remember when Republicans made fun of empathy? I started this blog I thought just the facts would move the needle a little, change a few minds on the right. Wow was I wrong. Solving the problem of guns, air pollution, reducing premature deaths, cleaner drinking water, universal health care, funding schools, safe mining regs, spending taxpayer dollars on taxpayers for once...what a dramatic waste of time. It's hard to wrap your head around that. 

Republicans keep insisting they really "can't do" anything. Republicans are so 20th century. Take this Uvalde Elementary School shooting response by Republican Congressman Ronny Jackson of Texas. This is also a popular GQP talking point pushed by Ron Johnson as well. Interesting to note: which is worse, exposure to violent video games; or weekly exposure to heart wrenching, real life mass shootings?

When I grew up, things were different. And I just think that kids are exposed to all kinds of horrible stuff when they listen to rap music, the video games that they watch from a really early age with all of this horrible violence and stuff, and I just think that they have this access to the internet on a regular basis, which is just, you know, it’s not good for kids.”

The logical next question I'm waiting for some reporter to ask: "So your solution would be to pass laws banning or limiting rap music, video games, and require time limits on Americans access to the internet?" I'm still waiting.

Gun Campaign Ads tell the Republican Story: Like Radical Rebecca in Wisconsin:

...and this compilation of GOP video ads:

"Can't Do" democracy is the message! Charlie Syke's recent Bulwark email took the long view about our democracy, and how under MAGA "reality," it ain't gonna work: 

Does democracy work anymore? I spent much of the weekend listening to the chatter from the cool kids’ table about the hopelessness of confronting mass carnage. The “realist” position insists that the problem is insoluble. There are too many guns, and too much entrenched opposition. Failure is not just an option. It’s inevitable. So what this litany of hopelessness really means is that nothing can be done to prevent mass murders under our current democratic system.

At bottom, though, this isn’t just about guns; it is also about the crisis of democratic governance. Because if we genuinely cannot solve this problem, it raises more fundamental questions about democracy’s ability to get things done. A system that cannot keep its children safe, or prevent a million deaths from a pandemic, is a system in crisis, perhaps in terminal decline.