Walker hates UW Campus Liberals! "Censorship Exposed!!!"

As I continue to read Scott Walker's fantasy world tweets, it sends a shudder through me knowing he was in charge of this state once. His lack of public access and sparse commentary hid just how completely incompetent this caricature of a right-wing zealot was. If we all knew then what we are seeing now, especially after seeing his ripped off Trump-like tweets, we'd all be nervous wrecks by now.

Like this tweet about a totally fabricated "problem:"

Thank you Scott Walker, for opening this can of worms. You only have to look at Walker's own "censorship exposed," when he discriminated against and silenced a conservative UW student not in his cult of worship:

A University of Wisconsin-Platteville engineering student Joshua Inglett, anticipating a new seat on the UW System's Board of Regents, was renounced at the eleventh hour by Gov. Scott Walker, who withdrew the young man's appointment after finding out he had signed a petition as an 18-year-old freshman calling for the governor's recall ... an aide to Walker asked him whether he had signed the recall petition. He told him he had, and within hours another Walker aide left him a voice mail that made it clear to Inglett he wouldn't get the position.

"I felt like my character had been attacked," he said. Asked whether Inglett's characterization of what happened was accurate, Walker said, "I wasn't involved in that directly."

Oddly, Walker is somehow never involved. These original snowflakes and conservative victims of liberal silencing on campus, didn't stop there either:

You may remember the case of Joshua Inglett ... We mention this now because the story has resurfaced again, and in a big way. "This American Life," a nationally syndicated public radio show that is akin to "60 MInutes" on TV, has just broadcast a piece on Inglett's 15 minutes of fame.

Producer Ben Calhoun describes how Inglett, a Republican from Portage, was everything you could hope for in a UW regent, even if you were Scott Walker. But Inglett ran afoul of the searchable online black list that conservative groups made out of the petition papers. The report tells the story of how Team Walker shot itself in the foot by withdrawing Inglett's name, especially after Walker praised him effusively.

And there's more in the piece about how the conservative black-listing of recall petition signers has ended up with Wisconsin Republicans recklessly going after some of their own, apparently in the name of total political correctness.

You can listen to the 28-minute installment. 

So remember this tweet and how ridiculous it is in comparison to the blacklist and silencing descent on campus:

Blow Your Mind with this.....

Walker sat down with the Young America's Foundation board earlier this year (and) told the board he was their guy if they wanted “someone who can elevate this at a time when I think we need it more than ever, when free speech is under constant threat, particularly on college campuses.”

Indoctrination: Again, there's no threat from this phony conspiratorial fear of being silenced, but Walker does see the threat of not being patriotic enough. He blames those not so pleasant but accurate accounts of U.S. history. Walker isn't shy about demanding actual indoctrination with HIS "truth," with HIS conservative "our point of view" aimed at "teens and pre-teens." Walker's mind-numbing political poison is right there for all to see. 

He noted it is now a time when “nearly 60 percent of adults under 30 think that socialism is acceptable, and when, sadly, less than one-quarter of that age group are exceptionally proud to be Americans.”

Walker said another priority of his, both at the high school and university level, would be to promote more objective teaching of American history, global history, economics, and simple financial literacy: “If you just give people the facts, if you don’t put your spin on it, the facts will overwhelmingly lead people to be more aligned with our point of view.” 

He added that because of progressive professors and liberal politicians, “this generation just doesn’t believe what the facts show to be true.”

“YAF has been great – but we have to multiply it a thousand times over and reach more students and more campuses and earlier. Not just in college and high school, but teens and pre-teens, to find more ways to expose people to the truth,” he said he told the board.

Check out Walker's attack on the UW and public education that includes blacklisting and liberal bans:

Trump eyeing Internet Censorship on his way to fascist state!

Republicans have always portrayed themselves as victims of censorship, silenced at colleges and in public gatherings, and fearful of being attacked physically by threatening fire-breathing liberals who brandish...a better argument.

President Trump frequently attacks … social media companies over an alleged but unproven systemic bias against conservatives by technology platforms. 

Anyone surprised Trump's twisted way of thinking would result in this, censorship by unelected bureaucrats ?

A leaked draft of a Trump administration edict—dubbed by critics as a "Censor the Internet" executive order, that would give powerful federal agencies far-reaching powers to pick and choose which kind of Internet material is and is not acceptable.

Meant to do what campus free speech rights were designed to do, protect radical right-wing nationalism, fascism, and racism, our "small government' Republicans want to call the free speech shots. Read it and weep: 

According to CNN, the new rule "calls for the FCC to develop new regulations clarifying how and when the law protects social media websites when they decide to remove or suppress content on their platforms ... also calls for the Federal Trade Commission to take those new policies into account when it investigates or files lawsuits against misbehaving companies." 

PEN America warned that any executive order based on this draft rule would be an unconstitutional "anti-American edict. 

"It's hard to put into words how mind bogglingly absurd this executive order is," said Evan Greer, deputy director of Fight for the Future, in a tweet. "In the name of defending free speech it would allow mass government censorship of online content. In practice, it means whichever party is in power can decide what speech is allowed on the internet." 
Action alert: [The] leaked documents ... give these bureaucratic government agencies unprecedented control over how Internet platforms ... whichever political party is in power could dictate what speech is allowed on the Internet. If the government doesn't like the way a private company is moderating content, they can shut their entire website down.

GOP's Trumpian Paranoia: So just make up a conspiracy around political bias against poor socially conservative rejects: 

Public Knowledge's Lewis said "Political bias by digital platforms remains unproven. In fact, an independent study by The Economist points towards search platforms having a bias towards virality and attention, not political ideology," said Lewis. "This matches reports from books like Tim Wu's "The Attention Merchants" and others that study social media addiction. It is this sort of algorithmic bias towards virality that foreign adversaries use to sow disinformation and mistrust in our country."

Social Media Regulations to Protect Right-Wing Nationalism: Check out this followup story here:

NPR: A new legislative proposal by Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., would ban elements of social media he views as addictive ... (in) social media apps like Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. Concerns with technological addiction are merging with rising political anger against Big Tech. Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, a champion of free markets, seems at least open to it. "Nobody wants to see a federal speech police. But at the same time allowing a handful of Silicon Valley billionaires to be the censors of all political speech in America is a terrible outcome. And so I think Sen. Hawley's bill is a positive step in the right direction," Cruz said.

House Republicans Censor Democratic Party Sit-In from Voters.

So much for the 1st Amendment down on the House floor, from out authoritarian dictatorial Republican majority. I guess Americans don't have to see how our government works, or how Democrats are fighting for their constituents. The Hill:

C-SPAN turned to Periscope and Facebook Live for Wednesday coverage of Democrats staging a sit-in on gun control on the House floor after GOP leadership cut off the chamber's cameras.

Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.) began streaming the video from the floor after the cameras were shut off. House Republicans, who have control of the feed that streams from C-SPAN vowed to keep it off until the House was back in session. C-SPAN tweeted multiple times that they do not have control of the feed.

In order to circumvent the blackout, C-SPAN began streaming from Periscope, and have also switched to Facebook Live.

Here's a short video clip....

Racine School District clears library shelves of Bible, Dr. Seuss, Mark Twain and other classics.Em

Who the hell is on the Racine Unified School District, and why are they taking away our books?

Add caption

In what is a early look at a bizarre story out of Racine, the district is purging a massive quantity of books from school library's. Breathtaking and shocking in scope, let's hope there's a detail here that makes what is happening in Racine schools less surreal than the story below describes:

Racine County Eye-DENISE LOCKWOOD: Members of the Racine Education Association are calling on the Racine Unified School District to stop “weeding” school library books out of school libraries by the “tens of thousands,” Among the books being pulled are ones written by local authors David Kherdian and Kevin Henkes; books on the Holocaust, Hiroshima, the Bible, the Koran, and Beowulf.

Shel Silverstien poetry and many Dr. Seuss books are expected to be removed from some elementary schools.

At Case High School, 2,505 books were removed, including: Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Holy Bible, Pable Picasso: A Modern Master, and The Iliad & The Odyssey of Homer. “

Aaron Eick, vice president of the REA and teacher at Horlick High School, said the librarians are at a loss on how the books will be replaced. “There is not nearly enough money to buy enough books to replace what has been lost,” Eick said. The Racine Unified School District is purging “tens of thousands of books” copyrighted prior to the year 2000, according to a statement by the REA. 

From the Racine Journal Times: 

One of the hardest-hit schools was Mitchell Middle School, according to Gabrielle Sharrock, who has worked as a library media specialist in the district for five years and will start as the school’s librarian next academic year.

She said she was not consulted about books being removed and she visited the library two days after the school was “weeded” and found dozens of boxes full of books slated to be destroyed (see pic above), numerous shelves bare and most of the non-fiction section nearly cleared out.

“It was just devastating to see that,” she said. “If I had to replace all of those books with my budget it would take 16 years, and by then they would be outdated.”

Fond du Lac School Censorship Teaching Students what life is like under Conservative Authority Oversight.

Hey, it’s just a "minority of people sensitive to the word censorship," that’s all.

I’m beginning to see a pattern here.

Despite a million recall signatures and hundreds of thousands of protesters at the Capitol, Scott Walker described them as simply representing a minority viewpoint.

Now the strongly Republican area of Fond du Lac wants to make sure their kids learn how to avoid important issues,  just like they do, making things like our rape culture off limits. 

jsonline: Now after a public outcry over Fond du Lac School Board members on Monday heard from students, residents, free-speech advocates and rape survivors who flooded the meeting to speak against enforcing a censorship policy of student media, according to the Action Reporter Media.

"The Rape Joke," a story in the February issue of Cardinal Columns … detailing what she called a "rape culture." It featured the stories of local sexual assault survivors. The article initially generated positive feedback, including from faculty members, many of whom now are criticizing the district's decision to enforce the prior-review policy.

Here's the kicker and amazingly dictatorial view that mirrored Scott Walker's disrespect for protesters:

School Board member Eric Everson told Action Reporter Media that the policy is not censorship, just "adult oversight." "This type of thing garners big news because you have a very active and involved minority of people who are very sensitive to the word censorship," Everson said.

Watch Fond du Lac Superintendent James Sebert give his lame reason to censor the students; producing pieces that represent and protect the school district? What does that mean? Following Sebert are a few students stunned by the attack on their paper and their hard work. FDL Reporter:

This insulting behavior by adults may be even a bigger lesson for these students:

Former state Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager (said) “A commonality among sex assault victims is their fear of speaking out. Ms. Kumar was able to articulate for them on their behalf the horrors of what happened to them,” Lautenschlager said, referring to the three female sex assault victims in Kumar’s story. “And then some days later Ms. Kumar finds out that she (and her fellow writers might occasionally) be silenced because somehow her speaking out on behalf of these victims was inappropriate for school conversation.”

You can get more insight into this issue at the Wisconsin Soapbox, always great stuff.

Republican Attack continues on Center for Investigative Journalism, and may lead to other banned partnerships.

The Center for Investigative Journalism is a nonpartisan organization that offers its stories free to mainstream media outlets. It’s not liberal leaning in any way shape of form. But Republicans consider the cold hard truth, or the reality based competing story, as liberal. So it must be stopped, and can be if Republicans can sell the public on the absurd comparison to right wing groups like the MacIver Institute.

Rep. John Nygren said Democrats would support removing a news organization they viewed as being right-leaning.

Here's the latest from Greg Neumann at WKOW:

I'm going to agree with Charlie Sykes on this no brainer (so don’t give him too much credit):

Journal Times: A conservative radio talk show host … bashed a move to quash the Center for Investigative Journalism on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus … The state budget amendment would also prohibit UW employees from doing any work related to the news center.

WTMJ-AM radio host Charlie Sykes called the move ``a vindictive attack on a journalistic operation on ideological grounds.’’ Sykes said the budget provision ``should especially appall those of us in the conservative media.’’

``Imagine how we would have reacted if Jim Doyle and Democrat legislature had passed legislation targeting conservative talk radio or any of the independent new media watchdog groups that have arisen in recent years,’’ Sykes wrote.

He went on to praise the center, saying it does good work that irritates conservatives and liberals alike.  ``Part of its job is to harass and annoy those in power and ask difficult questions and that makes political enemies no both sides of the aisle,’’ Sykes said. ``That’s what a free press does.’’

State Republicans Target Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, Boots them from UW!

While Republican whine about the IRS tea party being targeted, they decided to do a little partisan "targeting" themselves, by trashing the First Amendment:

WSJ: Center for Investigative Journalism targeted: The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism could no longer be housed at the University of Wisconsin under a provision added to the state budget. The Republican-controlled Joint Finance Committee voted Wednesday on the prohibition. No UW employees would be allowed to work at the center, either. The center is housed at UW-Madison and collaborates with the School of Journalism and Mass Communications as well as Wisconsin Public Radio and Wisconsin Public Television.

Democratic Sen. Bob Wirch opposes the prohibition, saying the Legislature should not try to stop investigative journalism. He says, "That is just very bad public policy."

This amazing attack on a non-partisan organization that costs the taxpayer nothing is just another example of the Republican winner-take-all authoritarian style of repressive government we can expect to see. Here's the other side of the story:

We were blindsided by the action of JFC, the Legislature’s budget-writing committee,” executive director Andy Hall tells Romenesko readers. “Oddly, the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism doesn't receive direct state funding. Its $400,000 budget is supported by private foundations, individuals and news organizations.”

From Jim Romenesko.com, the letter from Andy Hall:

Today I’m overwhelmed by messages of support from journalists and journalism educators, here and across the nation. They’re concerned that the Wisconsin Joint Finance Committee’s action could have a ripple effect, limiting the public’s access to critical information that holds the government accountable, threatening the operations of other campus-based nonprofit journalism centers across the nation, and unreasonably restricting academic freedoms of educators to draw upon the best resources for educating students.

The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism operates in two small offices in Vilas Communication Hall — used by its four-member professional staff and four UW-Madison reporting interns — under a Facilities Use Agreement that requires the Center to provide paid internships, classroom collaborations, guest lectures and other educational services.

Republicans showed just how grateful they were for the center’s recent help?

The Joint Finance Committee recently relied upon our investigation into the reliability of GPS tracking of offenders to curtail the governor’s requested expansion of GPS tracking until the reliability can be proven.

Here's another reason Republicans retaliated:

jsonline: The center in 2011 broke the story about state Supreme Court Justices David Prosser and Ann Walsh Bradley getting in a physical altercation.

Walker's DNR Censors play that was wrongfully vilified by Christian Radio WVCY's Vic Eliason.

Scott Walker’s DNR has stepped into the entertainment business briefly, long enough to censor a play. For purely political reasons, and to appease the intolerant religious right, the DNR decided to shred the First Amendment. You can also blame Christian radio in this state, which has been a very powerful militant organization in Wisconsin, and has been for quite a while. Here’s another example, from the Waukesha Patch:

Reporter Sarah Millard-DELAFIELD: Phantom Cicada Theater Company’s production of THE BIBLE: THE COMPLETE WORD OF GOD (ABRIDGED) has been ousted from their performance venue at SummerStage in Lapham Peak State Park because of threats and manipulation from Christian extremists … WVCY’s right-wing radio host Vic Eliason stirred local and out-of-state members of the Christian community to harass the board members of SummerStage and the DNR with phone calls and emails about this so-called blasphemous play.. The DNR, who manages the state park, has caved to complaints and forbidden the production to take place as planned. The DNR used a loophole in their contract with SummerStage that disallows non-“family friendly” presentations to be staged in the park.

Threats: When I said militant, I wasn’t exaggerating. Things went from bad to worse:

Phantom Cicada’s producer Brian Faracy, the play’s director Bo Johnson, and the performers took steps to stage their production at an alternate venue, the Delafield Arts Center. As soon as the center agreed to host the production, a repeat of the threatening deluge ensued, targeting the center’s administrators. Feeling that their personal safety was at risk, and on the advice of the Delafield police, the venue reneged.

This play has apparently been around awhile:

Originally conceived by the Reduced Shakespeare Company, this play has been successfully produced for over 17 years-- including a sold-out 12-week run in Washington DC’s prestigious Kennedy Center. It is an innocuous, non-blasphemous, lighthearted send-up of the Bible. For reviews of past productions, visit the RSC website. 

The arts have never been very popular on the right, and any shot at Christianity is taken as an insult, not a parody. The play is described as very Monty Python-ish. 

“It’s wacky! It’s zany! And a little profaney.” Sister MaryAnne Walsh, Arlington Catholic Herald

“The audience dissolved hysterically into the aisles. The troupe’s obvious comic forbears include the Mark Brothers (wordplay and irreverence), the Flying Karamazov Brothers (madcap performance comedy) and vaudeville as reinvented by “Laugh-In” (pace and schtick).” Ron Weiskind – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“This is a slick, fast, very funny show… skilled performers with immaculate, sassy American timing.” London Sunday Times

Reporter Millard included this direct response:

Please voice your concerns about the DNR’s decision to breach their contract, allowing religious extremists to call the shots, violating freedom of speech rights, and disallowing the production to go forward here:

Secretary - Cathy Stepp (608) 266-2121 – cathy.stepp@wisconsin.govDeputy Secretary - Matthew Moroney (608) 264-6266 - Matt.Moroney@wisconsin.gov

Rep. Steve Nass shreds First Amendment, Censors Art and Political Speech.

Who was it that said the corporations have already won, leaving the rest of us to fight over their crumbs? They appear to be right.

Rep. Steve Nass is your typical idea challenged conservative thug, an anti-education zealot that collects a pay check for a freeloading agenda that offers no solutions, but an awful lot of rage.

He also is committing censorship and getting away with it, because he can. And all we can do is helplessly watch?

The Progressive: Mike Konopacki, a labor cartoonist who was working on the “Art in Protest” event, is not happy about this outcome … “I’m getting e-mails from artists who are saying, ‘What the hell is going on?’ This is a direct attack on freedom of speech, on freedom of expression, on academic freedom, and on labor education,” says Konopacki. “We were celebrating all the art and creativity that people come up with at these protests. It’s beautiful stuff. We’ve had the largest outpouring of protests in the state’s history, and the School for Workers is not allowed to display this?”

Konopacki is worried that the Republicans in the Wisconsin legislature want to kill the School for Workers … “The School of Workers survived McCarthyism,” he says. “It may not survive Walker.”

This is government censorship. This is government intimidation that results in censorship. Political art work was considered free speech once. Yet why isn’t something being done to stop this legally? The reason is simple; the school can be dismantled for opposing the “authority.” The school can’t join with a legal representative without sealing their own fate. This is what oppression looks like.

Here's Konopacki with Sly in the Morning with the amazing details:

Nass’ chief of staff seems to have forgotten the whole point of our university system, and instead feigns concern over the “appropriate” timing of the exhibit:

Mike Mikalsen, Rep. Nass’s chief of staff: “There are people from both sides of the issue who are paying taxes, and the question was whether this was an appropriate activity for the university … And the timing was a question. We’re just going into a recall election. Was this something the UW Extension wanted to get into at this point in time?”

There’s an appropriate time for freedom and liberty? When one is side going for broke and the other side is begging for compromise and a seat at the table, is there any question who would likely be on the winning side?

I know, it’s hard to hide my frustration with the Democratic Party. 

Poster's of Fascism and TV show promotion deemed "threat" at UW Stout Campus.

How threatening is the poster to the right?

Not very. In fact, it's a timely warning considering the authoritarian political party in power right now in Wisconsin. But most surprising is the reaction by the UW Stouts administration, who have taken a dangerous turn toward subjugation.  

WEAU: A UW Stout professor Jim Miller is speaking out about having two posters taken down after they were deemed violent by the university … the two posters were far from violent, and says he can't figure out why he was targeted. The university says the posters made an implied threat of violence.

Here's the story:

We would hate to warn anyone about fascism, or for that matter, post an old TV show promotional poster on a wall. Where are the adults in the room...

It all started with a poster and a quote from the end of the first episode of the show Firefly. The poster was of the actor Nathan Fillion and the quote, “You don't know me, son, so let me explain this to you once: If I ever kill you, you'll be awake. You'll be facing me. And you'll be armed," was at the bottom. “It was clearly a, hi firefly fans you win I'm aboard,” says Professor Dr. Jim Miller.

He says he received an e-mail from the campus police chief saying the poster was taken down … Miller says that's when he put up poster about fascism. The university says the second poster depicts violence so (it) needed to come down.

Infinite Unknown: Astoundingly, UWS Chief of Police Lisa A. Walter escalated the absurdity … emailed Miller again, stating that her office had removed the poster because it “depicts violence and mentions violence and death.” She added that UWS’s “threat assessment team,” had decided to have the poster removed, and that this poster was reasonably expected to “cause a material and/or substantial disruption of school activities and/or be constituted as a threat.”

College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Interim Dean Raymond Hayes has scheduled a meeting with Miller about “the concerns raised by the campus threat assessment team” for this Friday.

Miller came to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) for help. “Colleges and universities are supposed to foster brave and bold environments of freewheeling intellectual inquiry and expression. If a quote from a network science fiction show is a bridge too far, something has gone seriously wrong,” FIRE President Greg Lukianoff said. 

San Francisco Censors Cell Phone Use to Disrupt Protest!

It didn't happen in the most conservative city in the country, but ironically, in the most liberal.

Censorship. This unbelievable story doesn’t seem possible in the U.S, and yet it happened. Even worse, Homeland Security pushed for the disruption in service.   

WSJ: A decision by San Francisco Bay Area transit officials to cut off cell phone service at some of its stations to thwart a planned protest drew angry response Saturday from one transit board member who said she was shocked that officials acted as "this type of censor."

Bay Area Rapid Transit officials have said they shut down power Thursday evening to cellular towers for stations stretching from downtown to the San Francisco's airport after learning protesters planned to use mobile devices to coordinate its demonstration.

"I'm just shocked that they didn't think about the implications of this. We really don't have the right to be this type of censor," said Lynette Sweet, who serves on BART board. "In my opinion, we've let the actions of a few people affect everybody. And that's not fair."

BART Deputy Police Chief Benson Fairow on Friday told KTVU-TV that the agency decided to turn off underground cell service because it received reports that a rowdy group that had protested in July had similar plans. "It all boils down to the safety of the public."

To some, BART's tactic drew comparisons to those of former president of Egypt to squelch protests demanding an end to his authoritarian rule. Authorities there cut Internet and cellphone services in the country for days earlier this year.

"BART officials are showing themselves to be of a mind with the former president of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak," the Electronic Frontier Foundation said on its website.

Michael Risher, the American Civil Liberty Union's Northern California staff attorney wrote in blog: "The government shouldn't be in the business of cutting off the free flow of information. Shutting down access to mobile phones is the wrong response to political protests, whether it's halfway around the world or right here in San Francisco."