Losing Climate Change battle, Republicans Ban Issue at Agency overseeing Public land.

Big government Republicans have decided to win the climate change argument by simply not letting anybody talk about it. Ta-da.

This was a big enough story for even Bloomberg Business to cover because it was so bizarre. We really are becoming the laughing stock of the nation.

State Treasurer Matt Adamczyk, a Republican who ran on the pledge to eliminate his position, caused a stir his first few days when he banned the New York Times, saying "We live in Wisconsin and we don't need a subscription to this publication." 

Adamczyk summed up the ban this way:

It just seems silly that we would have to. But I’m not the one that’s been engaging on this topic for years.”

This from a guy trying to destroy his own office. By the way, who would vote for someone promising to blow things up?

Discussing climate change is out of bounds for workers at a state agency in Wisconsin. So is any work related to climate change—even responding to e-mails about the topic … Wisconsin’s Board of Commissioners of Public Lands overseeing an agency that benefits schools and communities in the state, enacted the staff ban on climate change. 

The board’s executive director, Tia Nelson, the daughter of Gaylord Nelson, the U.S. Senator from Wisconsin who established Earth Day in 1970, had spent on-the-job time working on global warming in 2007 and ’08—at the request of the governor. “It honestly never occurred to me that being asked by a sitting governor to serve on a citizen task force would be objectionable,” she said.

This is becoming standard operating procedure for Republicans, who believe banning speech will silence their opponents and make it all go away:

The measure affecting a small number of Wisconsin state workers follows an alleged effort by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to stop employees from using the terms “climate change” and “global warming” in official communications.

The move to ban an issue leaves staff in the unusual position of not being able to speak about how climate change might affect lands it oversees. “Having been on this board for close to 30 years, I've never seen such nonsense,” Wisconsin Secretary of State Douglas La Follette, a Democrat. 

Nonsense and "silly," banning topics Republican oppose just substantiates what I've been saying all along about right wing authoritarianism. Not quite the vision of the founding fathers: 

State Treasurer Matt Adamczyk, a Republican who sits on the board said that if Nelson receives an e-mail asking about climate change, “she can forward it to us”—the board—“and we can all look at it. I would prefer that we didn’t have to prohibit stuff like this. It just seems silly that we would have to. But I’m not the one that’s been engaging on this topic for years.”

Yes, silly, and the ultimate in big brother big Republican government.

Republican State Treasurer Adamczyk promises to abolish office, bashes EPA, wants to cancel the NY Times and fire Tia Nelson for concern over Global Warming.

The repressive authoritarian Republican agenda continues to get little coverage in the mainstream media, despite the threat it poses to public policy and our founding document, that pesky constitution.

It may be a small story to some, but it’s a revealing window into the conservative mindset of top down one party control over everything. The rationalization for meting out what can only be described as their iron fisted style of government, is to purge liberal policies. They have apparently left the country in absolute ruin.

Petty and mean spirited, Republicans continue to target as enemies of the authority, liberal-progressive-Democratic Wisconsinites. These disloyal elements will be forced out eventually. Patrick Marley-jsonline:  

Wisconsin's new state treasurer Matt Adamczyk, is making waves on an obscure state board (the Commission of Public Lands)— trying to get it to cancel its subscription to The New York Times, change its letterhead so the top administrator doesn't appear on it anymore and make sure any references to global warming are dropped from its website.

Predictably, Republican Adamczyk ran for office with the intention to destroy it (what's new, right), and voters thought, "hell yes." Kind of an odd way to get that done:

Matt Adamczyk wants to abolish the state treasurer’s office so badly, he’s running for the office to do it. “Let’s get rid of this thing,” the Republican told Wisconsin Reporter. “There’s three staff (in the treasurer’s office). I’m not retaining anyone. I will get this done. I will pound this issue every single day.

This jolly rotund fellow then went to work:

Adamczyk has raised issues large and small at the Board of Commissioners of Public Land, which operates a trust that provides funding for school libraries and makes loans to municipalities and school districts.

Tia Nelson, daughter of the late U.S. Sen. Gaylord Nelson, (told) staff to document all contacts they've had with Adamczyk … "That's news to me and seems very weird," Adamczyk said … he had "huge concerns" about Nelson, but came short of saying she should be fired … but later he agreed to evaluate her performance.

Adamczyk attacked Nelson for her outside activities as well - saving the environment. Republican Adamczyk of course hates the EPA:

Among Adamczyk's concerns are Nelson's environmental background … she served on a state global warming task force five years ago. "I don't see a role in this board to do anything else (outside its mission), like become a Wisconsin version of the Environmental Protection Agency," Adamczyk said at Tuesday's meeting … references to global warming should be removed from the agency's website.

Adamczyk hates Nelson’s work so much he wants to take her name of the stationary letterhead:

Adamczyk ... wrote to Nelson asking that the names of elected officials not appear on the board's letterhead. "Commissioner Adamczyk said he felt 'passionately that the name Tia Nelson should not be listed,'" the minutes say ... Schimel and La Follette would not go along with the idea. On Tuesday, Adamczyk said in an interview the letterhead "isn't that big a deal."

Well informed? Not the purpose of government: Adamczyk chose (as a government official now) to officially remove and censor the more liberal information accessed by board members…like the NY Times, one of two out-of-state newspapers. The “local” Wall Street Journal is okay? 

The board took up the board's subscription to The New York Times. "First and foremost, this is completely unnecessary," Adamczyk wrote in a Dec. 22 email to Nelson. "We live in Wisconsin and we don't need a subscription to this publication."

Nelson responded that she and other staff read the Times along with the … The Wall Street Journal, Lakeland Times, Wisconsin State Journal and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "It's been my view that having a diversity of news sources has been helpful," Nelson said at Tuesday's meeting.

Diversity in Wisconsin? Not if our Republican big government overlords can help it.