Nygren's amazing race baiting press release...believe your eyes!

It's a fact Wisconsin's Lt. Governor, Madella Barnes, is black.

So Rep. John Nygren wants to make sure you get really PO'd about it.

Why Nygren specifically targets Barnes leaves little up for discussion. In fact, his whole oddly petty argument is shaped around his obvious racial dog whistle message. You rarely see anything this point blank racist. And Nygren is proud of his clever whiteness:

Just as weird, Nygren complains about Evers budget cuts to many of the governors own favorite programs because of the pandemic, while at the same time complaining they weren't the 5 percent Evers demanded, but instead were 2.5 percent. Oh, and this is a rewrite of an earlier release that same day, but without Mandela Barnes as the target.

Read his race card press release yourself, especially the last line, which blew my mind totally, considering Trump's latest tweets about "thugs," shooting Democrats, and when the "shooting starts." Can't remember when Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch sparked this kind of outrage:

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.

Wisconsin Republicans decide to Eliminate Governors Office? Sure...

Poof!!! So much for the con "elections have consequences" argument pushed by Republicans.

Republicans are eliminating the Governor's office! Would I kid? 

In what will probably be challenged to the Wisconsin State Supreme Court, like the GOP's losing attempt to limit the State Superintendent, Republicans want to not just limit the governor's powers, but the Attorney Generals as well. Will Republican voters go along with this blatant government overreach or gaming the system? Are you kidding? I can hear them shouting now, "In your face libtards!!!"

Like not having a Governor at all: What Republicans Scott Fitzgerald and Robin Vos are attempting to do right now is make the governor's office mostly ceremonial. No, they really are...Journal Sentinal:

1. The sweeping plan would remove Gov.-elect Tony Evers' power to approve major actions by Attorney General-elect Josh Kaul and give that authority to Republican lawmakers. 

2. That could mean the campaign promise made by Evers and Kaul to immediately withdraw Wisconsin from a federal lawsuit to overturn the Affordable Care Act would likely be blocked. Evers' agencies would have less freedom to run their programs.

3. Compel Evers to implement a work requirement for some in the BadgerCare Plus health care program. 

4. Make it tougher for Evers to alter a new program to keep premiums down for people who get insurance through Obamacare’s marketplace for individuals.

5. The governor also would no longer be able to choose who leads the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., which oversees taxpayer-funded incentive packages provided to businesses in exchange for job creation. Lawmakers would have more control over the jobs agency, which Evers has promised to disband and replace with a state Commerce Department. The WEDC board would choose the agency's leader instead of the governor. 

Seems like overreach? Ya think? Republican Sen. Scott Fitzgerald thinks resentful sore loser conservatives won't even notice all that confusing "inside baseball kind of legislative stuff:" 

The 141-page plan goes further than what Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos suggested lawmakers would take up during the so-called lame-duck legislative session before Evers takes office. "It’s real kind of inside baseball, kind of legislative stuff that it’s hard for me to believe people will get too excited about," Fitzgerald said three days before the plan was released.

Some of that "legislative stuff" wipes out "the will of voters"...

1. Restrict early voting to two weeks before an election. Currently, some communities provide as many as six weeks of early voting. The plan would be all but certain to draw a legal challenge given that a federal judge in 2016 struck down a similar law limiting early voting that he found "intentionally discriminates on the basis of race."

2. The measures would strip many powers from Kaul and eliminate a powerful office within the Department of Justice that was created in 2015 under Republican Attorney General Brad Schimel and handles high-profile cases on appeal. The Legislature — not the attorney general — would have control of how to spend money from court settlements. Legislators would gain the power to intervene in any litigation when a state law is challenged, and they would have the ability to appoint their own private attorneys — at taxpayer expense — to handle the case instead of the attorney general. Legislators would also have the ability to sign off on court settlements.

3. Separating the 2020 presidential primary election from an April spring election to reduce voter turnout in an effort to boost the election chances of a conservative Supreme Court justice. 

And while putting infrastructure, education, and energy advances on hold for another decade or so due to lack of funding...

4. Lawmakers will consider using new revenue from online sales taxes to slightly reduce the individual income tax rate.

Evers and Kaul Push Back: Even the Mr. Rogers of Governors Tony Evers could not hold back his frustration:

Evers and Kaul said Republicans were ignoring the voters who elected them just three weeks ago. "I’ve said all along I’m committed to working across the aisle, but I will not tolerate attempts to violate our constitutional checks and balances and separation of powers by people who are desperate to cling to control. Enough is enough," Evers said in a statement.

Here's Lt. Governor Mandela Barnes reaction, which pretty simply sums it up: