WISGOP's 14- to 15-year-old child labor push exposes Kids to dangerous jobs and Sexual harassment in Bars and Restaurants. "Protecting our kids?"

Who thinks the three Republicans pushing legislation allowing 8th thru 10th graders (ages 14 and 15) to work without a permit or even permission from their parents is a good idea? Not only is this not a solution to our labor shortage, but a regressive idea returning our nation to the worst of the Gilded Age.  

Republicans actually said child labor laws in Wisconsin are "needless administrative barriers," and excessive "government regulation." 

(AP) Children ages 14 and 15 would no longer need a work permit or parental permission to get a job under a Republican bill. This comes amid a wider push by state lawmakers to roll back child labor laws, despite the efforts of federal investigators to crack down on a surge in child labor violations nationally...violation of child labor laws has increased by 37% within the last year.

So "parental rights" works to dismantle public education, but parental rights don't work for their teenagers getting a job while just entering high school? 

Sen. Cory Tomczyk and Reps. Clint Moses and Amy Binsfeld, the Republicans sponsoring the bill, called youth work permits “needless administrative barriers that slow down the hiring process. It’s important that young people have the opportunity to work without having to endure excessive government regulation...”

...enforcing child labor laws? Exhibit A, defining what Republicans mean by "excess government regulation." Never forget. 

WISGOP Protecting Employers from being Caught, not kidding: While Republicans make getting unemployment benefits almost impossible to get, they're helping employers hide abuses like kids doing dangerous jobs and low wages:

The bill continues to require employers to keep their own records of employees’ ages and hours worked, but without work permits verified by a state agency, companies caught violating child labor laws can more easily claim ignorance...eliminating the permit requirement makes it significantly more difficult to investigate violations because there are fewer records of where kids are being employed.

Sadly, one child was killed on the job because his father worked at the same business, a legal exemption in Federal child labor law: 

Michael Schuls, 16, died on June 29 after sustaining injuries at the Florence Hardwoods logging company in Florence, Wisconsin. Michael was attempting to unjam a wood-stacking machine when he became pinned under machinery on a conveyor belt, resulting in what the coroner identified as traumatic asphyxiation, The Associated Press reported.

Note: Sen. Cory Tomczyk's use of the word "fagot" spark a lawsuit that smacks of violating freedom of the press:

Wisconsin Examiner: Tomczyk, then just a businessman and former school board member, alleged that the paper defamed him when it published accusations that he had called a 13-year-old boy a “fag” during an Aug. 12, 2021, meeting. The boy had spoken in favor of a resolution called “A Community for All,” which was meant to reinforce the importance of diversity and inclusivity.

Digital newspaper The Wausau Review & Pilot editor and founder Shereen Siewert, said she believed the purpose of Tomczyk’s lawsuit is “to bankrupt me and crush our organization.” She recalled..."that even if we win, we lose, because there is no way for us to counter sue or recoup our losses in any way … because we live in Wisconsin.”

Unlike 31 other states and the District of Columbia, Wisconsin has no laws on its books to push back against what are known as SLAPP lawsuits, meant to silence critics by presenting them with crushing legal costs that cannot be recovered, even in cases where the suits have little merit.

In light of Senator Tomczyk’s horrific, bullying comments made towards a child coupled with him attempting to stifle reporting on the incident, leading to their potential closure, the Wisconsin State Senate Democratic Committee (SSDC) is calling on Senator Cory Tomczyk to resign.

14 Year Olds Serving Alcohol? That's NOT protecting kids from sexual harassment: Again, while MAGA Republicans push their phony "protect the kids" from school library book "pornography," they're okay with subjecting 14-year-old girls to drunk or toxic manliness in bars and restaurants. After all, women dominate wait server jobs (80% of Waitresses are female, and 19% are male). Got it.

In Wisconsin lawmakers are advocating for lowering the ageto serve alcohol in bars and restaurants to 14. It would be a nationwide first if approved, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Let's hope voters are smart enough to decide who deserves to be reelected. The guilty parties...

The bill sponsors Sen. Rob Stafsholt, of New Richmond, and Rep. Chanz Green, of Grandview, sent a memo seeking cosponsors.

Chief Justice Ziegler plays the Victim, sobs over loss of power! Remember when she took the Governor and AG's powers away!

Well, what do you know, what goes around comes around.

Stay with me on this. Remember this blatantly obvious partisan WI Supreme Court decision to take the Governors powers away?

Wisconsin Examiner: The lame-duck session has been described by many as ‘power grabs’ because after Gov. Tony Evers and Kaul were elected — but before they took office — the Republican-controlled Legislature and Gov. Scott Walker moved quickly to diminish the incoming constitutional officer. These were powers Walker enjoyed his eight years in office, but Republicans did not want an incoming Democratic governor to have. 

In other words, some of the governors' powers were replaced by the legislature.

Conservative Justices Fire Liberal Chief Justice Immediately: Justice Shirley Abrahason was the court’s longest-serving member under the 126-year-old pre-amendment rules. Or were they more like guidelines...arrrrr, I'm a pirate???

I tried to ask the conservative justices — Michael Gableman, Patience Roggensack, Annette Ziegler and David Prosser — why they thought it was important to go ahead and vote Roggensack into the chief’s spot on the same day state elections officials certified the results of the April 7 statewide vote approving the amendment.

Fast forward to this week and conservative Chief Justice Ziegler's public tantrum: It's not so much fun when it happens to you...? 

Ziegler: "This is a complete outlier with respect to my colleagues gutting the rule of the Supreme Court Chief Justice that has been long standing. 40 years, since 1984, it has been defined by the internal operating procedures, and they basically took everyplace it said Chief Justice, gutted it, and put sham committee in its place." 

Aw...again, this is the Chief Justice whining, going public, playing the victim, and appealing to MAGAs. No wonder this conservative court was considered one of the worst in the nation. WKOW: 

Background: Republican Justices had to ignore the Wisconsin Constitution:

The court ruled 4-3 in favor of the GOP, dismissing an argument that the session was called unconstitutionally. The court's majority opinion, written by conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley, rejected that. "The Wisconsin Constitution itself affords the legislature absolute discretion to determine the rules of its own proceedings."

The court's liberal justices dissented, saying the majority "subverts the plain text of ... the Wisconsin Constitution." ...the state constitution does not ascribe the power to call an extraordinary session of the legislature to lawmakers. "The Legislature's ability to determine the rules of its proceedings pursuant to Article IV, Section 8 does not swallow up the meeting requirements of Article IV, Section 11 or allow it to wield unbridled power," wrote Justice Rebecca Dallet.

 

Crisis Pregnancy Center Con lowering the bar for Women's Health Care.

 Hey, "there's so much good they do" for women, why not spend our taxpayer dollars on this...PBSWIS: 

According to Choose Life Wisconsin, there are more than 70 pregnancy resource centers like Life’s Connection around the state. And because of their prenatal support and the fact that these organizations don’t refer pregnant people for abortions and do actively discourage abortions, some Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin think they should receive state taxpayer funding.

State Senator Romaine Robert Quinn has introduced legislation toT fund these centers, (with) $1 million per year funneled to the centers through grants administered by Choose Life Wisconsin. The senator says the state should provide the money because "there’s so much good they do."

Here's a clip:

Another MAGA Republican Con-Crisis Pregnancy Centers: The stream of nonstop unregulated "do-it-yourself" opportunities by the MAGA grifting class is getting ridiculous. After reading about taxpayer voucher money nationally going to "education" centers that don't have teachers but do baby sit kids while their parents are at work, I came across this amazing grift about Crisis Pregnancy Centers. Since Republicans love this kind of stuff, they'll recklessly throw money at it. The Big But?: 

Most Crisis Pregnancy Centers are not licensed medical clinics. Most of their staff, likewise, does not include medical professionals (Bryant & Swartz, 2018). According to a report from the pro-life Lozier Foundation, Crisis Pregnancy Centers across the United States have had around 67,400 volunteers. 7,500 of those volunteers have been medical professionals, meaning only roughly 11 percent of Crisis Pregnancy Center staff are medical professionals (Charlotte Lozier Institute, 2018).

The con starts at the door...Wisconsin Examiner (Sept 2019):

“These so-called resource centers are designed to mislead women and to be deceptive,” says Rep. Lisa Subeck (D-Madison). “Women are tricked into entering facilities thinking they are accessing a legitimate health clinic offering services based on factually accurate medical information.” One group specifically stated their goal was to go in the wrong door,’ accessing their group when they were looking for a Planned Parenthood or other clinic with a full range of reproductive health options.

With something this important, you would have thought Sen. Romain Quinn would have looked into the history of Crisis Pregnancy Centers? Nope: 

A student in Wisconsin was told the abortion pill would render her infertile and a sophomore seeking STD testing was encouraged to sign a chastity pledge and told various horror stories about sex (Gerson, 2019).

Downgrading Womens Health Care? Anecdotal health care treatment and advice is a growing right-wing industry:

Sara Finger, the founder and executive director of the Wisconsin Alliance for Women’s Health: “The Republican majority is out of touch with what women in Wisconsin need. We are perfectly capable of making healthcare decisions for ourselves. What we need is access to accurate information and affordable quality healthcare.”

Here are more bizarre politically motivated Facts about Crisis Pregnancy Centers: These centers gained legitimacy via the conservative Roberts court and chaos Czar Justice Thomas: 

There has been legislation, such as California’s FACT Act, that has attempted to require Crisis Pregnancy Centers to meet certain standards of accountability - like telling patients that the state offers services including family planning services, prenatal care, and abortion. The Supreme Court struck down this legislation in a 5 - 4 decision. The majority opinion, written by Justice Thomas, argued that such legislation was a violation of Crisis Pregnancy Centers’ freedom of speech.     Justice Breyer argued in the dissenting opinion: “If a state can lawfully require a doctor to tell a woman seeking an abortion about adoption services, why should it not be able, as here, to require a medical counselor to tell a woman seeking prenatal care or other reproductive healthcare about childbirth and abortion services?” (Barnes, 2018).

...more...

1. Heartbeat International also published a “List of Major Psychological Effects of Abortion” that claims that women suffer from “Post-Abortion Syndrome” after they terminate their pregnancy (Heartbeat International, 1997). Investigators called 25 crisis pregnancy centers that received federal funding and found that 87% of the centers “provided false or misleading information about the health effects of abortion” on subjects such as the risk of breast cancer, fertility, and mental health effects of abortion (U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform, 2006).

2. The guide, “A Pro-Active Strategy to Defend Your Pregnancy Center Against Legislative Attacks”, was meant to be a confidential resource but was easily accessible in an online PDF. In it, they state a key part of the messaging and strategy of CPCs have been purposefully obscuring their connection to pro-life political activism as to not scare away those who are seeking an abortion. As more and more research and attention have been brought to these centers, they made a turn to instead proactively present themselves to state elected officials “[f]or the sake of God’s glory and protecting the ongoing work of pregnancy centers” (CareNet, NIFLA, Heartbeat International, 2008). A big part of this initiative was counteracting plans to regulate or shut down Crisis Pregnancy Centers

3. The largest adoption agency in the nation, Bethany Christian Services is notorious for manipulating women to keep their pregnancies and treating “birth mothers” terribly. Bethany Christain Services run a CPC-like pregnancy counseling apparatus. Critics argue that they artificially produce orphans even for women that want to carry their pregnancy to term and parent and make tens of thousands from adoptive parents.

And no surprise, Crisis Pregnancy Centers have failed:

There is no evidence that Crisis Pregnancy Centers are even fulfilling their missions. A study published in 2018 found that there was no “evidence that pregnant women regularly seek CPC services or that CPCs persuade women who are certain abortion is the right decision for them to continue their pregnancies”. Prenatal patients reported receiving inaccurate information, and patients generally recognized that these centers were not medical clinics. Only 3 of the 383 people surveyed reported visiting a CPC that impacted their decisions regarding abortion. For organizations that center their operations on persuading women not to go through with abortion, their tactics do not seem to be very effective (Kimport, Kriz, & Roberts, 2018) As organizations that receive government assistance and taxpayer funding both federally and in a long list of states, it is fair to demand accountability from Crisis Pregnancy Centers. The mission of Crisis Pregnancy Centers is not to provide resources or information to women seeking to carry to term. They are extensions of a larger political apparatus.

Vos threatens Impeachment for New Liberal Justice if she steps out of line, which must be a crime?

After finally gaining enough gerrymandered MAGA Republican seats in the State Senate, impeachment is now the sledgehammer they intend to use as a threat to anyone who they think is stepping out of line. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: 

Keep in mind...

Article VII, section 1, of the Wisconsin Constitution provides that “the assembly shall have the power of impeaching all civil officers of this state for corrupt conduct in office, or for crimes and misdemeanors.”

Vos' made up "violation of office" would be considered a CRIME? Good luck with that one Robin. 

Of course, no threats of any kind were made when conservative activist Justices didn't recuse themselves despite major conflicts of interest or previous social and political hardline statements in the last 15 years. Because when conservatives put that "black robe on, they put opinions aside":

Bradley's argument makes Vos' point moot, but here's Bradley entire quote that includes political inclinations: 

“Every judge comes to the bench as a human being having opinions on the issues of the day. It requires a judicial mindset when we put that black robe on to be able to set aside those personal opinions, policy preferences and political inclinations and to always follow the law and that’s why I emphasize to the voters my judicial philosophy.”

But according to Vos, liberal Justices that believe facts conservatives refuse to believe should be stopped:

Vos: "You cannot have a judge who said, you know, the maps are rigged because she bought into the argument that that's why we're winning elections, not the quality of our candidates..."

But the maps are rigged....

WUWM: The new maps, drawn by the Wisconsin State Legislature, are considered the most partisan-biased, court-adopted maps in the nation. That’s according to a new analysis from the University of Wisconsin Law School. The maps heavily advantage Republican politicians, all but guaranteeing Republican-rule in the state Legislature, regardless of what most voters want.

The analysis looked at four metrics: partisan-bias, efficiency gap, mean-median difference and declination.

"On every one of these standard partisan fairness metrics, these new maps are the worst, court-adopted maps that we’ve seen anywhere in the country," says Rob Yablon, an associate professor at the law school, who published the analysis.

Yet "Least Change" Redistricting Maps, a jaw dropping joke, Adopted:

By multiple established measures, Wisconsin’s state legislature is among the most heavily gerrymandered in the country. Republicans gained an even stronger legislative advantage in the most recent redistricting cycle—but this time, the (least change) maps were chosen by the Wisconsin Supreme Court...After intervention by the U.S. Supreme Court, ultimately adopted the assembly and senate maps drafted by the legislature—the same ones Governor Evers had previously vetoed.

Wisconsin had One of the Worst State Supreme Courts in the Country. The recent change was a welcome change...

The New Yorker noticed...

...in a decadelong saga that, largely through money-fueled and often nasty judicial elections, has intensified the turn of the Wisconsin Supreme Court from a congenial, moderately liberal institution into a severely divided conservative stronghold. More to the point, the elections have reduced it from one of the nation’s most respected state tribunals into a disgraceful mess.

It was so bad (no joke), a conservative Justice wrapped his hands around a female Justices neck...it happened:

It's no coincidence that Rep. Robin Vos is focusing on the two major court challenges: gerrymandered maps and an 1849 abortion ban. If there is "any semblance of honor" left after years of destroying its reputation...:

"If there's any semblance of honor on the state Supreme Court left, you cannot have a person who runs for the court prejudging a case and being open about it, and then acting on the case as if you're an impartial observer, she would violate her oath of office, " Vos (said).

But if Justice Janet Protasiewicz (prota-say'-wisz) has supposedly "prejudged" a few cases, has any other Justice done the same? Sure, but would conservative Justice Bradley recuse herself from the important 1849 abortion ban? She should...:

Like the other conservative Justices, they told us how theywere going to vote by right wing policy statements of the organizations they were a part of. Check out Badley's political ties: 

She has served as president of the Milwaukee chapter of the Federalist Society, a conservative lawyers group, and has belonged to the Republican National Lawyers Association and the Thomas More Society, a Catholic legal group.

What's so biased about the libertarian Federalist interpretation of the law, or pushing conservative orthodoxy via the National Lawyers Association?

The extreme MAGA influence is clear in the disconnect Bradley has when it comes to the government's role in PUBLIC HEALTH. This is brutal. Bradley ignores Wisconsin statutes regarding public health, especially when it comes to a deadly pandemic. Watch for... "in May 2020, Bradley "compared the state's stay-at-home orders to the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II," a case known as Korematsu v. the United States": 

NEW: Rebecca Bradley revises her own history like they all do now:

"Conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court justice @JudgeBradleyWI is currently engaging in an edit war on her Wikipedia page under an anonymous username that she also uses in her personal email." The username? "rlgbjd," which could very well refer to Rebecca Lynn Grassl Bradley, J.D. According to her Wikipedia page, in May 2020, Bradley "compared the state's stay-at-home orders to the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II," a case known as Korematsu v. the United States. With her Wikipedia edits, Bradley dropped what she said during oral arguments and replaced it with a quote from her concurring opinion that overturned the stay-at-home order.

She also revised the description of her majority opinion in the 2021 redistricting case aimed at setting new political boundary lines in the state.

Originally, her Wikipedia bio said her written decision in the case "declined to change district maps that were in favor of Republicans." That sounds a lot like the Associated Press' version, which said the high court "sided with Republicans" in the redistricting ruling.

But Bradley revised the section to say her majority decision "declined to change district maps to achieve partisan 'fairness' and limited the court's involvement in redistricting to ensuring the maps comported with the law."

Sounds so nonpartisan, doesn't it?

New North Carolina Conservative Majority shows how MAGAs have Remade the Rule of Law:  Vos would have to make the case for NC's breathtaking reversal of a Court decision made only 3 months before by a more liberal court. I guess politics had everything to do with it? 

A new majority on the North Carolina Supreme Court on Friday gave Republican lawmakers free rein to draw state legislative and congressional maps as they see fit, reversing a decision issued in December, when liberals controlled the court. “This case is not about partisan politics but rather about realigning the proper roles of the judicial and legislative branches. The new majority said North Carolina courts don’t have a reliable way to determine when maps are overly partisan and so cannot throw out maps for giving one political party an advantage over the other.

WOW! There's no way of knowing. Yes, Republicans are in the "proper roles" taking over the government. 

In dissent, Justice Anita Earls, a Democrat, wrote that the majority “tells North Carolinians that the state constitution and the courts cannot protect their basic human right to self-governance and self-determination.” Justice Michael Morgan joined in the dissent.

Deep In Environmental Thoughts...

 

Hunter Orange Trump!