How bad was it? Walker and Schimel's grab at "breathtaking power" stopped by stacked conservative State Supreme Court!!!

State Superintendent and gubernatorial candidate Tony Evers was an election year target of Scott Walker's, and Walker almost got away with it. 

The one perfect example of just how extreme our mild-mannered, super relaxed, sleepy-eyed governor Scott Walker really is reads like something out of a third world country.

Seriously, this is what's possible under an arrogant unapologetic one-party Republican regime. Talk about stacking the deck:

JS: Walker had tried to block Evers from picking his own lawyer to defend him in a lawsuit filed by a conservative law firm challenging Evers' authority to write his own education policies. And Republican Attorney General Brad Schimel had assigned Department of Justice lawyers who disagreed with Evers' stance in the case. But the conservative-controlled court said Evers could not be required to be represented by DOJ and that Walker is not a party to the case.

Having loaded the supreme court with conservative activist justices sympathetic to Walker's far right-wing agenda, Walker's chest pounding over partisan wins became almost predictable. Only obvious cases of desperate overreach had any chance of failure, and that finally happened. The court was astonishingly blunt:

The court said accepting DOJ's argument "would foist upon Evers and DPI an attorney they do not want (and have discharged), taking a position with which they do not agree," prompting ethical implications for DOJ attorneys and give Schimel "breathtaking power."

"It would potentially make the attorney general a gatekeeper for legal positions taken by constitutional officers, such as the governor or justices of this court sued in their official capacity," the court wrote. "DOJ's position would not allow a constitutional officer to take a litigation position contrary to the position of the attorney general. We decline to adopt this view."

Unethical legal conflicts and authoritarian control by the AG is not a problem for the 3 super conservative activists, who don't see minor matters like these as roadblocks, suggesting Evers should just go to majority Republicans in the legislature and get the law changed. Amazing?: 

Justices Rebecca Bradley, Michael Gableman and Daniel Kelly disagreed with the court's decision. In their dissent, Bradley said no Wisconsin law gives Evers the power to hire or fire a DOJ attorney.

"The constitution creates the role of a state Superintendent and gives the superintendent authority to supervise public instruction. That is all the constitution confers upon the superintendent," Bradley wrote. She said if Evers does not like state laws on how state agencies are represented, "he should take it up with the Legislature to amend them."

Walker's idea of "Anger and Hate"? "Being called and Idiot, being called a Moron, and "being Upset about Things"?

Scott Walker enjoys playing "opposite day" every day, not just on January 25th. Walker's campaign is faking the high road approach, cranking out anger and hate like there's no tomorrow. Upfront with Mike Gousha:

Like most authoritarians, Walker can't even take simple inoffensive criticism, like  "being an idiot" and "being a moron." To Walker, that's anger and hate. And worst of all, "being upset about things"? He's above criticism?

Was Walker directing his anger or hatred toward Democratic candidate Mayor Paul Soglin, which wasn't even true?

The "far-left" should be nice and put out positive messages like this one from Republican Leah Vukmir on terrorist Democrat Sen. Tammy Baldwin:

Walker, Fitzgerald "victims," order judicial branch activism and change to law they violated. Tough break voters.

A Special Note: My conservative Trumpian friend in Milwaukee called and trashed Walker and Fitzgerald. There's a possibility that this isn't going as well as the scheming Republicans think it is.

When Scott Walker and the Republican lawbreakers ignore laws and get caught, they change the law. It's their "privilege. And that's what's happening with the special election law:

Gov. Scott Walker and Republican lawmakers are moving quickly to change when special elections must be held in the wake of a court order requiring special elections for two vacant legislative seats.

Dane County Circuit Judge Josann Reynolds — who was appointed to the bench by Walker in 2014 and elected to a six-year term the following year — blistered the governor Thursday for refusing to call the special elections and ordered him to do so within a week.

Walker bashed the actual group representing Wisconsin voters in court because that group, headed up by former AG Eric Holder, was from D.C. Yes, it's an oddly insulting argument to make when you've got no real point to make. Crash and burn time just before the election?

Walker — even before the formal legislation had been made public — said that he would sign the bill. “A D.C.-based political group wants to force Wisconsin taxpayers to waste money on special elections at a time when our Legislature is ready to adjourn for the year,” Walker said.

And the irony?

If that wasn't bad enough, Fitzgerald made it clear who the judicial branch is supposed to serve under a Republican authority:

Fitzgerald criticized the tone of Reynolds’ ruling in which she questioned why Walker didn’t call for special elections to fill the vacancies as required by law. On Thursday, Vos criticized Reynolds as an “activist Dane County judge,” which prompted Fifth Judicial District Chief Judge William Hanrahan to demand an apology.

Yet judicial criticism is not tolerated by our all-knowing overseers, who continue to play the role of victim despite being in complete control of the legislature for the last 7 years. 

In one of the most bizarre statements yet, offering a revealing look at just how power corrupts, Fitzgerald wants the Chief Justice to punish the lower court judges. You read that right:

Fitzgerald said Reynolds’ and Hanrahan’s public statements were “way out of line” and reflected a larger problem with Dane County judges being hostile to conservatives and Republicans.

He called the Fifth Judicial District a “laughing stock” in the state and said he would talk with Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Pat Roggensack about the situation.

“All of those comments about the governor were just way out of bounds,” Fitzgerald said. “I would hope that Justice Roggensack would police that.”

I can't wait to see what Roggensack does with this hot potato. Standing up for voters in Dane County and elsewhere, Hanrahan's public statement didn't hold back...

Hanrahan: “You took the low road. With a broad brush, you have not only needlessly besmirched my reputation and that of my colleagues, you have also gratuitously denigrated the good citizens of Dane County. And frankly, in the process, you have also sullied your own reputation, diminishing any hopes of being taken seriously as a statesman.”

But even more interesting; Hanrahan appears to be an old-fashioned apolitical judge like they're supposed to be. Well, how about that...

Hanrahan, a former state assistant attorney general who heads the state’s Fifth Judicial District wrote, that he is neither liberal nor conservative, but a “non-partisan member of the Third Branch of state government.”

Walker wants to Rule the State...

Trump is turning the US into a dictatorship. I can safely say that now after watching the first chaotic week. It's been frustrating listening to punditry avoid the very thing that explains Trump's actions; he's suffering from narcissistic personality disorder. And we're all now suffering from his narcissism.

Wisconsinites have seen all of this before from a guy named Scott Walker. He's more sociopathic than narcissist, but I'm splitting hairs.

Now Scott Walker is back with his plan to spin off the states, so he and other Republicans governors can feel like dictatorial leaders of their fiefdoms. 

Walker's authoritarian leanings spilled out when he revealed his plans for world domination running for president, you know, by first "wreaking havoc" in Washington. 

Reuters-Scott Walker on Iran: "The United States needs a foreign policy that puts steel in the face of our enemies. We don’t need more information, we don’t need to wait to confirm the next Secretary of State, we need decisive leadership and we need it now ... when America leads, and has a strong president with clear priorities who believes in American strength, the rest of the world will follow."

It was the following statement that exposed Walker's plan to the country, an early hint at what he just started pushing again Monday. Walker decided to scrubbed "United...:"

“For me, what I learned from what we did four years ago in Wisconsin, is you got to strike early” ... I’d like to take huge chunks of the federal government and send it back to the states. But I’d take major social service programs, I’d take transportation and infrastructure, workforce and development, environmental protection, and heck I’d take education and instead of spending each of those down from Washington where the federal government skims off huge chunks of money and sends pennies on the dollar back to the state governments..."

Koch Brothers Gathering...and Walker's there: Yup, Walker was with the Koch's again." In what would have been a jaw dropping statement way back when real patriotic Americans believed in the "United" States, Walker declared the states independent:

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker on Monday warned that Republicans could suffer political consequences in the 2018 elections if they squander their new political dominance, calling on the Trump administration to dramatically reorient power back to the states.

“If they do the things they talk about, we see major tax reform and regulatory reform and pushing more power and responsibility not just to the states but the people, I think the midterms are going to fare pretty well. If they don’t, we’re in trouble. It’s put up or shut up time. And now’s the time for us to have to deliver ... He urged the federal government to divert funds that go to fund education, transportation, environmental and energy policy out of Washington.

“We are much, much more accountable at the state and local level than anybody in Washington, regardless of party, and one of the best things we can do is take advantage of the circumstances we’re in and not just look for a little bit of help, but look for transformational change."

They Own Trump: Ryan, Walker, Johnson vs the Crowd waiting to see Trump.

There's more going on than Walker, Johnson and Ryan hoping to dupe Trump into doing whatever they want once he becomes president.

It's the Voters Stupid..or It's the Stupid Voters: What in gods name will it take to get through to these hard core Trumpsters? In the video clips below, it's a bit ironic that the only interviews were with women who didn't give damn about what Trump said 11 years back. 

The embarrassing antics of far-right-wingnut AG Brad Schimel continued with his little speech to the crowd in Elknorn Wisconsin, explaining why he'd throw the country and entire world into chaos; the next Supreme Court Justice:

Schimel: "I know that Donald Trump said some things that are bad. But...but, Donald Trump will appoint judges who will defend out Constitution and respect our Constitution."

Really? Trump's temperament and insulting comments don't exactly scream respect. Is Schimel even aware of Trump's call to bring back the unconstitutional "stop and frisk" policy? To Schimel, when it comes to appointing a supreme court justice, suddenly Trump will make a sane decision?

Who's asking for Respect? And after Trump's outrageous comments about grabbing women, Rep. James Sensenbrenner had the nerve to tell the crowd THEY weren't being respectful. You can't make this stuff up:

Sensenbrenner: "We're asking people to be respectful in this campaign, there's an awful lot of lack of that. Clean up your act okay?"

Check out the coverage video below and comments:

Fox6: "They turned their back on him," said Evan Barczynski, Trump supporter.

"The Republican Party needs to grow a spine and stand behind their candidate. We won't leave anybody behind," said Kim Kubena, Trump supporter."We've got a real problems here and the problem isn't what Donald Trump said about women."

"Eleven years ago, I wasn't the woman I am today," said Mary Rhame, Trump supporter.

WISN:The die-hard Trump supporters in the crowd, largely brushed aside the candidate's latest controversy.

“I've heard worse things than that. (It was) something he said bragging to his buddies a long time ago,” Janet Becker said.

“(I am) disappointed in (his) past behavior, but I have not given up on him. That's not why I am voting for him, because he's a pinnacle of virtue,” Adele Kehoe said.

“It's locker room talk. It's locker room talk. Is it damning? It could be,” Ken Meudt said.

WISC: Attorney General Brad Schimel is getting heckled for criticizing lewd and sexually charged comments made by Donald Trump in 2005. Schimel said: 

"I know Donald Trump has said some things that are bad." That led to yelling from the crowd of Trump backers. One person shouted, "It was 12 years ago! Get over it!"

Schimel said he supports Trump because he "will appoint judges who will defend our Constitution and respect our Constitution."

Bench Stacking Walker against bench stacking?

Republicans like Scott Walker seem to think they've successfully sold the public on supposed "unbiased" activist supreme court justices who have been members of longstanding right wing organizations, while vilifying everyone else as "liberal."

He really does think we're all that stupid, like his supporters. But seriously...

He has the balls to make that comment after again, stacking the conservative state supreme court with another lackey:

Conservative justices aren't biased, even the politically active ones like Daniel Kelly? But a simple Google search will tell you something different:

This is what passes for a fair conservative, activist, legislator justice, who'll rubber stamp right wing politics into constitutional law: 

Kelly has been closely involved with conservative legal groups. The president of the Milwaukee chapter of the Federalist Society, he also sits on an advisory panel to the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty… Kelly was an adviser to state Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley's campaign (she was also a Federalist Society member) this year and served as an attorney on Prosser's campaign during a recount after he narrowly won re-election in 2011. 

He also was on the legal team that defended legislative and congressional maps that Republican lawmakers redrew in 2011. In that litigation, a panel of federal judges made changes to the districts for two Assembly districts on Milwaukee's south side after it found those maps violated the voting rights of Latinos. The other maps—which greatly favor Republicans—were left in place.

So failure to redraw districts fairly didn't disqualify this guy? He succeeded just enough to win the heart of Walker.

Walker now writing election law, he calls "rules," to Influence Voter ID court challenges.

Wow, did voting in Wisconsin just get a whole lot more convoluted?

Let’s start with the idea that Scott Walker can write election law, which he's calling a “rule,” without the help of the legislature. Is this one of those executive orders usurping the legislatures constitutional duties?

Walker is now trying at the last minute to influence lawsuits now affecting voter ID. This would not have happened otherwise. What a guy. JS:

Voters who are seeking a photo ID card but not yet received it will be able to use a Division of Motor Vehicles receipt to vote in more cases, under a new rule Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker approved Wednesday just ahead of Monday's federal trial on the state's voting laws.

1. In December, U.S. District Judge James Peterson in Madison threw out a challenge to the voter ID law itself, but determined the liberal One Wisconsin Institute and others who brought the lawsuit could keep alive their arguments that voters should be able to use a broader range of IDs for voting. A trial is set to begin Monday.

2. Wednesday's action also comes in the wake of a unanimous ruling last month by the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals that opened the door to the possibility that people could cast ballots without presenting IDs if they have great difficulty getting them. That decision returned the case to U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman in Milwaukee for further proceedings. "The right to vote is personal and is not defeated by the fact that 99% of other people can secure the necessary credentials easily," Appeals Judge Frank Easterbrook wrote for the panel. The ruling was targeted at some of the same people and ID problems covered by the new Walker administration rules, such as those whose birth certificates contain errors or are no longer available.

COMPLICATED, CONVOLUTED...or, maybe you should think twice about going through all that trouble: With all the hoops already in place just to vote, add to that, this...

1. The DMV is changing the process used to issue receipts to residents who are seeking a photo ID to vote

2. The receipts are meant to be used for voting while the DMV sorts out whether those applying for regular ID cards should get them.

3. The ID cards are free and under the new rule the DMV will have to pay for applicants to get birth certificates or other key documents.

4. The receipts will be issued by mail within six days if the DMV is unable to make a determination before then on whether a regular ID card should be issued. The receipts will include the applicant's photo and be marked "for voting purposes only."

5. People who have previously been denied ID cards or whose requests are pending will be issued receipts for voting, according to the rule.

And check this out. You think the administration won't check to see if your name is on any of the existing recall lists? This applies to point 4 above as well:

6. Administrators in DMV's central office in Madison will make the final call on who gets ID cards if they don't have birth certificates or other documentation of their identity. In the past, that's been left to officials in DMV offices around the state. Having the decisions made at the agency's headquarters is aimed at more consistent rulings.

7. The DMV will have to provide translators for those who cannot read or understand information about the process for getting IDs, the rule says.

At no cost to the state? Oh, who cares...

Walker fails to warn public about dangerous killer bacteria, thinks we can't handle it, waits 3 months.

The disturbing father complex that underlies everything Scott Walker does as governor could have killed a lot of people. He always knows what's best for us, doesn't he? WISC:

Records show Wisconsin health officials waited several months to announce an outbreak of a rare bloodstream infection to the public.

Gov. Scott Walker said when it became clear health officials couldn't find the source of the outbreak on their own, they went to the public. The department said it wanted to avoid inspiring fear among the public.

Like Walker and Republicans never did to inspire fear of terrorism, left wing socialist anti-American protesters, voter fraud, and killer drug dealing immigrants? 

WBAY-TV obtained the records under an open records request. The station reported Friday the Wisconsin Department of Health Services began investigating the outbreak of the bacteria known as Elizabethkingia in December.  but waited to announce it to the public in March. Eighteen deaths have been linked to the outbreak in Wisconsin.

And maybe if someone knew about it we'd know more about what caused the outbreak?

Walker's Authoritarian Takeover Delayed!!

Now that the public and press have finally picked up on Trump's right wing authoritarianism, I thought it would be a good to take a look again at Wisconsin's own authoritarian despot; Scott Walker. Walker's presidential spilled over with scary gems like this:

Reuters-Scott Walker on Iran: "This is not a country we should be doing business with ... The United States needs a foreign policy that puts steel in the face of our enemies." "We don’t need more information, we don’t need to wait to confirm the next Secretary of State, we need decisive leadership and we need it now. This won’t be easy, but when America leads, and has a strong president with clear priorities who believes in American strength, the rest of the world will follow." 

Walker's ambitious campaign agenda was peppered with outright authoritarian edicts that somehow got lost in the coverage. Like the following frightening plan to break the country up into little fiefdoms.

From a May, 2015 blog post:

Walker to spin off states, dissolve "United" States, saying it's too big to fail!!! 

Like another poisonous snake we're all familiar with, Scott Walker is rattling, and he's about to strike. So you've got to ask; shouldn't we do something?

In a just released interview with right wing spinmeister Breitbart, Walker doesn't acknowledge the existence of an opposition party. He doesn't care if most Americans disagree with what he has planned for popular government programs polling says people support overwhelmingly.

Carrying out the rest of his divide and conquer agenda, he would separate the states into miniature country-like entities, with their own transportation, infrastructure, workforce, and environmental laws. And he wants a tough punishment base system of social safety nets that would make anyone down on their luck wish they were never born:

Walker said that if he’s elected president in 2016, he’d aim to severely cut back on the size and scope of the federal government—and he touted his experience battling the unions in Wisconsin.

“For me, what I learned from what we did four years ago in Wisconsin, is you got to strike early” ... I’d like to take huge chunks of the federal government and send it back to the states. For years people have talked about Medicaid—that’s a good start, to block grant that. But I’d take major social service programs, I’d take transportation and infrastructure, workforce and development, environmental protection, and heck I’d take education and instead of spending each of those down from Washington where the federal government skims off huge chunks of money and sends pennies on the dollar back to the state governments, why not keep those dollars back in the states where states can be more effective, more efficient, and certainly be held accountable to the hardworking taxpayers?

It's hard to be accountable under a one party system, you think?

Right now, at the federal level, we have a federal government that’s too big to fail. We need a government that’s small enough to succeed. 

The closer this guy gets to the presidency, the more nervous I'm becoming. Here's audio of his comment:



Former Nixon counsel John Dean wrote an entire expose' on Walker, because yes, that's how obvious Walker has been about his intentions. Walker isn't just a "conservative without a conscience," as Dean has written, he's a "double high" authoritarian, shaping the country around his singular vision of power. Dean wrote this back in March of 2012, believe it or not:

My focus here is on Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who strikes some who have written to me as a distinctively prototypical authoritarian politician; what social science has labeled as a “double high” authoritarian; and the type of person which I described in my book as a conservative without conscience. 

There are many examples of Walker’s harsh and uncaring treatment of those whom he does not believe to be entitled to equality. 

Desirous Of Personal Power: As governor, Walker sought to remove civil service jobs, in order to make them political appointments, and thus subject to his control.  Most strikingly, he has sought to undercut the public-employee unions so that he would not have to deal with them, thus increasing his power. He has increased his personal power over some fifteen state agencies, and I suspect that he is just getting started. Walker’s push to get Act 10 passed into law was done in about as authoritarian a fashion as you will ever see, outside of a dictatorship.

And "slick" is too kind a word to use; liar works just fine, according to Dean:

His lying is notorious. Politifacts Wisconsin finds Walker to be an accomplished falsifier. I watched a video of a Walker speech at the Goldwater Institute.  He’s slick; fast-talking, confident, and dishonest—I watched him distort facts with which I was familiar.  He spoke in mostly half-truths. About twenty-five percent of the population has, in varying degrees, (a) disposition to follow a double high authoritarian, many blindly or simply because it assuages their fears.  And, of course, these are aggressive followers who can attract others who are unaware of the nature of the person they are electing, thus enabling an authoritarian leader like Walker to gain ever-growing control. Good luck, Wisconsin.

Wisconsin Authoritarian Republicans Hate rise of Authoritarian Trump.

If it wasn't so surreal, it would be funny to listen to all whining about how Trump doesn't represent the Republican Party. So who's doing all the voting, putting Trump at the top of the Republican presidential ticket? Are we actually watching Republicans support but deny their possible nominee? Could this get any more bizarre?

The Washington Post had this reality check headline:

Republican politicians may not have notice the right wing authoritarian movement (check out this Vox story link) that's been swallowing up their party, or their own extreme behavior that embraces a one party national authority.

Last September, a PhD student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst named Matthew MacWilliams, wondered if authoritarianism might correlate with support for Trump. He polled a large sample of likely voters, looking for correlations between support for Trump and views that align with authoritarianism. What he found was astonishing: Not only did authoritarianism correlate, but it seemed to predict support for Trump more reliably than virtually any other indicator ... repeated the same poll in South Carolina and found the same results.

Authoritarians are thought to express much deeper fears than the rest of the electorate, to seek the imposition of order where they perceive dangerous change, and to desire a strong leader who will defeat those fears with force.

Making the rounds on Twitter yesterday was this jaw dropping clip of a clueless crowd, mindlessly giving the infamously familiar raised arm salute to Trump, who asked them to pledge their vote:



Get this; we're supposed to believe the crowd of Trump supporters were "liberals." State Sen. Dewey "Lord Voldemort" Stroebel not only said Trump wasn't a Republican, he also said on Upfront with Mike Gousha...

Stroebel: "...I made a comment after one of the debates, things that I was hearing coming out of his mouth, I thought I was on the floor of the Capitol listening to a Madison 'liberal' with some of the things that were being said. It was really hard for me to take, and hard for me to understand." 

Liberals, who do they think they are, Americans or something. GOP strategist Brian Fraley came right out and bashed Trump's authoritarianism and boorish behavior, all the while sounding just as boorish and authoritarian as Trump and Scott Walker:

Fraley: "He's not a Republican, he's renting the party as a vehicle to move forward...look, the guy is not a conservative, he's not a Republican. He has no core. The only thing he is absolutely sure of, is his own greatness. And I just think his penchant for authoritarianism, his boorish behavior, his misogyny, he's a danger not just to the party...(but to) the republic." 

All true and everything quality Republicans like about their chosen party leader, Donald Trump:



Fraley revealed another problem Republicans have; they keep making dumb ass pledges. Because of a pledge candidates made to have access to the debate stage, they're now locked into voting for eventual nominee. Now that's freedom and liberty...

Stroebel: "Ah I think you're going to see a lot of people staying home."

Oh, and GOP strategist Fraley, would wear as a badge of courage, his party's move to prevent Trump from being the nominee, usurping the choice of conservative voters everywhere. Nothing authoritarian about that....

Republicans to expose John Doe Witnesses and their Statements. Anyone feel like talking now?

Are Republicans f**king power mad? In one of the most crass and intimidating efforts ever, in the name of “oversight,” Republicans want to expose witnesses and their statements, despite the promise of immunity and confidentiality in closed John Doe probes.  JS:

Republican lawmakers … want the (John Doe) records — and the power to arrest prosecutors and others to force them to testify before a legislative committee … AB845, would create a legislative committee with subpoena power and anyone who failed to show up could be arrested and brought before the committee to testify, the bill says“…to carry out the duties and powers" of the committee.

Ah, the POWERS of the committee. After shielding themselves from all future John Doe investigations, Republicans are now sending the message that if you get involved in anyway, and talk, they’ll call you before their committee. 

State Rep. David Craig (R-Big Bend), the lead sponsor of the bill in the Assembly, said the move is needed to ensure John Doe investigators and others in law enforcement are not abusing their power. "It's really secret areas of government that the Legislature really should have oversight over." 

Madison attorney Lester Pines questioned whether such a law would be valid, saying he didn't believe legislators could gain access to records that have been sealed by court order.  "They have no idea what they're doing," said Pines, a Democrat who in recent years has sued over a number of laws enacted by Republicans. "People testify in John Does under promises of immunity and confidentiality. 

And like everything else, Republicans are solving a problem based on a complete fiction:

Craig acknowledged that the proposal would allow lawmakers access to all of the records from the now-closed John Doe II. He said that considering the claims of predawn "paramilitary raids," lawmakers should be able to review how such probes have been conducted to determine whether there were "imprudent decisions by law enforcement."

At a public hearing Wednesday on the bill, Jim Palmer of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association warned that a number of the state's major law enforcement organizations have serious concerns about the proposal … the measure would likely compromise ongoing criminal investigations, undermine local control and limit law enforcement's ability to respond quickly in emergency situations.

Walker clings to myth of the "Wisconsin Comeback," still blames eviscerated enemies for "vengeance (that) knows no depths."

Scott Walker has made "vengeance" against his enemies a sick passion that "knows no depths."

Promising to "wreak havoc" was a real confidence builder for voters too.

Political "vengeance," redefined by Walker, resulted in the creation of a blacklist using the names on his recall petitions; union busting Act 10 "bomb" wasn't just a gift to his special interest corporate donors but a once and for all way to defund the Democratic Party; obliterating local control in Democratic state strongholds; and those liberal eggheads at the University of Wisconsin...well lets see what they'll do with massive cuts in funding.

Scott Walker projection just took another surreal comic turn, with the following fund raising letter. He's going back to the "I'm a victim" well again. If you're not enlightened by what Walker calls the true "progressive" movement of supply side, top down, one party rule, then you're an enemy of the state, who's "vengeance...knows no depths."

Walker's arrogance is on full display, believing angry donors will write out checks because his opponents "are gleeful about our 'Scott Walker for America' campaign debt?" That's a bragging point? What are we, five year old's? Maybe donors will wonder why Walker recklessly spent money he didn't have.

By the way, we're not exactly feeling the "comeback" (a term he plagiarized from someone else's campaign)? I think someone has a problem taking criticism.

As reported by Paul Fanlund in the Cap Times: 

Dane County Executive Joe Parisi (said), "I think (Wisconsin Republicans) made a deliberate decision that their main goal, despite the stated goal of creating jobs, was to destroy their enemies." Ah, but Republicans hate Dane County for the way we vote. And for them, politics, not the good of Wisconsin constituents, always comes first.

Walker's Crumbling Wisconsin.

After 5 years, the Republicans wheels are starting to come off in a big way, exemplified in a number of recent jaw dropping stories that prove beyond a shadow of a doubt, a purely ideological agenda minus common sense or compromise doesn't work.

Thanks to bloggers and a few near fearless reporters, it's clear we're closing out the year on a frightening note. Included are a few of my predictions for 2016 as well.

Goodbye to Gun Free Zones: While it never occurred to Wisconsinites to do away with all gun free zones, especially at schools and colleges, Republicans will eventually ram through unrestricted concealed carry everywhere in 2016:

WSJ: A bill that would allow concealed carry permit holders to bring guns into college and university buildings probably won’t come up for a vote during this session of the state Legislature, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said … co-author State Rep. Jesse Kremer, R-Kewaskum said that he “absolutely” plans to reintroduce the bill if voters re-elect him … began circulating the bill in October, days after a gunman killed nine people at a community college in Oregon. 

Scary and Dangerous Prius driving, latte drinking, anti-gun liberals: Republicans fear peaceful middle class families the most. That's why Scott Walker spent $577,000 on overtime for his security team, who he tried to stiff, until ordered by the federal government to pay up. Worse still, that money came out of our almost non-existent transportation fund, which is now mostly borrowed:

Fox6: Federal labor regulators say the state Department of Transportation has paid Gov. Scott Walker’s bodyguards more than half-a-million dollars in overdue overtime. $577,189 in overtime earned between May 2013 and May 2015. The Department of Labor ordered the DOT to award the overtime pay in August.

Minimum Wage Wasteland: It doesn't occur to our "purple state" Republicans that we're now further right than most every other red state. Consumer demand is 70% of our economy. But not to true supply-siders. As one twitter troll put it, "(liberals are) conspiring to make everything in Wisconsin more expensive:"

Urban Milwaukee: Wisconsin is one of the 21 states where the minimum wage is just $7.25 per hour ... The seven-year freeze in Wisconsin’s minimum wage has contributed to the widening income inequality in our state ... Wisconsin had a faster decline than any other state in the percentage of households in the middle class during the period 2000 to 2013.

Walker, the Courageous Underachiever: As county executive, Walker not only saw jobs disappear in Milwaukee, but he nearly bankrupted the county, even suggesting breaking it up and selling off the parts. I suppose we should be happy we're not at the bottom of the bottom half of job creating states:

Political Heat

“Gov. Scott Walker can't avoid the latest bad news on jobs in Wisconsin. A new government report shows that our state ranked 32nd in private-sector job growth among the 50 states in the five-year period that ended in June. That's the entire recovery period since the last recession.”

After Punishing WEDC for Mismanagement & Failed Audits, Republicans to return some Funding Cuts: Imagine the GOP putting more money into the GAB after their bad audit, instead of killing it. Did you ever get the idea that nothing the Republicans ever do is a failure, no matter how much taxpayer money is wasted?

JS: Speaker Robin Vos backed off from his idea of rebranding the state's economic development office, but said he is still considering injecting more money into the agency … after talking with officials at the agency and at the local level. "They don't want rebranding because they think WEDC's brand is OK," Vos said.

Troubled businesses have gotten taxpayer-funded incentives, and top officials at WEDC have steadily left the agency. Faced with those problems, GOP lawmakers in July cut $46 million from WEDC over two years, slashing its budget by 41.5%, Top lawmakers last month said they may restore some of that funding.

'Try Christianity' Christmas Greetings from Republican Legislator Scott Allen: Using taxpayer money to push and endorse a religion is okay this time, according to Speaker Robin Vos. Yes, it's our "fly-by-the-Constitutional-seat-of-our-pants" Republicans again, who think crossing that legal line is no big deal. "...consider the hope offered by the Prince of Peace." Along with a few taxpayer supported Bible passages, what's the harm?

Twin Cities: Vos told The Associated Press that Allen made the video in the Legislature's television studio in the state Capitol's basement using state equipment. He said he felt Allen's message was "entirely appropriate. People are really making a mountain out of a molehill," Vos said.

Walker's digging a Deeper Debt Hole! With more Tax Cuts on the Horizon: Supply-side is back to its old tricks, but that just fine, you'll see:

"Follow me down...?"

Cap Times: According to the state's Comprehensive Annual Fiscal Report, Wisconsin's general fund GAAP deficit grew in fiscal year 2015 by about 28 percent, from $1.4 billion to $1.8 billion.

I can't help feeling a little anxious about the coming year, and the lack of criticism from conservative voters who can't all be in the tank for this career incompetent.  

Walker refuses to be questioned about Oscar Mayer, Lost Jobs or shortage of seasonal workers!

You’ve got to be kidding me?

One thing is certain, Scott Walker won’t tolerate disrespectful questions or blame surrounding Oscar Mayer, S.C. Johnson, GE, or deal with the seasonal labor shortage in the state. Who do we think we are?

WISC: (A) letter sent to Walker Thursday from 14 Dane County Democrats asked Walker a series of questions about his actions prior to the decision of Kraft Heinz to close the Madison plant and eliminate 1,000 jobs in the city.

Gov. Scott Walker: "These workers need our help and they need us to work together. Instead, your letter appears to want to look for someone to blame.

If Mayor Soglin was concerned about the possibility of losing jobs at Oscar Mayer after the August meeting, why did he not contact the state for help? Instead of pointing fingers at each other, we need to work together to help the workers and families being hurt by this corporate decision."

Walker closed his letter by saying the state "is moving in the right direction."

 Of course Walker's pointing a finger at Mayor Soglin doesn't count as blame or conflict with working together, just in case that seemed confusing.

Walker's inner sociopath rejects idea of helping Syrian Refugees as president: "Everybody wants to talk about hypothetical's, there is no such thing as a hypothetical.”

Scott Walker's sociopathic behavior has never gotten the kind of media attention it should have statewide or nationally. That I'm hoping will now change.

In one of the clearer examples of non-answer word salads, Walker's embarrassing and brutal disconnect concerning the plight of fleeing migrant families from Syria should scare the daylights out of every American voter. Imagine how he'll respond someday after a natural disaster, or when all our social safety nets have been repealed and the nation is faced with a dramatic increase in human suffering. Oh, sorry about that, hypothetical's don't exist, as Chris Hayes sarcastically laments following the clip below:

Reporter: “What would you do to address the migrants who are currently fleeing into Europe? Does (sic), should the U.S. accept some of those migrants into the country?”

Scott Walker: "Well, again the problem is we're ignoring the basis of the core of the problem. The problem is this president has had a weak stance in terms of taking on ISIS."

Reporter: “But to follow up, if you were president today, what would you do?”

Scott Walker: "I'm not president today, and I can't be president today. I'm going to be president in January of 2017 and I'm telling you what people need to do. Everybody wants to talk about hypotheticals. There is no such thing as a hypothetical."

Reporter: “Governor, the fact that these refugees need a place to go is not a hypothetical, and Pope Francis has even come in and said that countries need to help them. I mean, should the U.S. play an active role?”

Scott Walker:  "Again. I'm taking about what I'll do as president ... that will be a year and half from now."

New York Magazine wasn't about to let Walker's comments go unanswered, unlike the pass Wisconsin media would have given him:

Walker has avoided answering questions with similar evasions before — although "I'm not president, so I can't answer that" is the closest he has come to finding the secret cheat code that will allow him to advance to the convention without having to provide much insight into how he might deal with the types of difficult decisions a president has to make. 

When asked if he would have done the same thing as Obama during the auto crisis in May, he replied, “That’s a hypothetical question in the past. We’re going to talk about the future." 

You really can't make this stuff up.

Big surprise? "Unintimidated" Walker screens tougher Health Care questions out at press conference!

Scott Walker is a control freak of the first order. "Stand with Walker" supporters can no longer pretend poor Scott Walker is an attack victim of the left wing media, or that he's not at fault for hiring scumbag aides who thought nothing of breaking state laws.

Walker's experience as a career politician means that as a presidential candidate, he's going to be even more secretive about his real motivations. I'd like to welcome the national media to the Scott Walker we've become so familiar with in Wisconsin. Politico:

The Scott Walker campaign is quickly building a reputation as the most press-averse group in the Republican field. On Tuesday, Walker's policy team held a press call with reporters to discuss the Wisconsin governor's health care plan … But when reporters tried to submit a question, they were greeted by a press aide who demanded to know what question each reporter intended to ask.

"Was on Gov. Walker health plan press call. First time as a reporter I've ever had my questions pre-screened before I could ask them," Stephanie Armour, The Wall Street Journal's health care policy reporter, tweeted after the call.

"On Scott Walker's health care policy call, reporter questions are being screened," her colleague Reid Epstein wrote.

This is not the first time Walker and his team have exercised extreme caution when dealing with the press. In March, Walker made public appearances in Texas and South Carolina but closed the events to press and refused to take questions from the media. In April, while visiting Europe, he held no public events and took no questions from reporters. In May, while visiting Israel, he did the same. An aide told the Journal that Walker was going to "focus on educating himself about Israeli issues and won’t hold public events or take questions from reporters."

The article did mention this:

Walker has held his share of press interviews and media scrums.

But those press interviews don’t ask or pursue those dangerous follow-up questions politicians hate so much. The media never takes the time to drill deeper into Walker’s now infamous non-answers. It's encouraging to see the national press taking notice, including the Wall Street Journal.  

Like so many other times, the comments section is often needed to tell the whole story:

Paul Atkins: I live in Wisconsin. Walker never appears in uncontrolled places. His favorite media event takes place on a factory floor in a business owned by a financial supporter with poor unhappy looking workers in the background as props. He never takes questions. He travels with the largest security detail of any Wisconsin governor. He never gets off message. His book titled UNINTIMIDATED is the height of irony given he never was out in the public during the massive protests. He went underground via tunnels to avoid the inconvenience of meeting his constituents. He is a masterful politician, but a poor excuse for a human being. He is a snake.

Laffy: And yet, his groupies will give him a free pass while crying about Hillary "not taking questions from the press."

While Iowa Protester was Attacked, Walker Bragged he wasn't Intimidated!!!

It was a little out of character, but Scott Walker needed a boost in the polls.

When the news broke about Scott Walker's egomaniacal attacked on a few protesters in a small crowd at the Iowa State Fair, I had a chance to ask my conservative friend in Milwaukee what he thought; do people have a 1st Amendment right to redress their government if they disagree with policy, or are they now seen as disloyal Americans, trying to "intimidate" their political leaders?

Without hesitation he said it was intimidation, just like Walker. Another real constitutional scholar. And since it is intimidation, Walker no longer has a responsibility to listen to those now vilified dissenters. It's a perfect example of rightwing authoritarianism.  

In Wisconsin, Walker typically avoids public confrontations with scheduled appearances closed off to all but his corporate supporters and captive employee audiences.

Walker's outburst was calculated to play off his book (boost sales?), and play up his reputation for taking on hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites in the dead of winter who protested his "divide and conquer" agenda.

Published on Aug 17, 2015: At the Iowa State Fair Soapbox, Governor Scott Walker brings the crowd to a thunderous applause when he says he is unintimidated and a proven, tested leader.

The funny irony? Walker bragged about standing up to 100,000 taxpaying American people, because he wants to "fight for the American people." You can't make this stuff up folks. Here's a more complete look at Walker's attack:

"Again, unintimidated. I am not intimidated by you, sir, or anyone else out there. I will fight for the American people over and over and over and over again. You want someone who’s tested? I’m right here. You can see it. This is what happened in Wisconsin. We will not back down. We will do what is necessary to defend the American people going forward. If you give me the chance, I will not be intimidated, just like I wasn't intimidated here or anywhere else."

"Go get 'em, Scott!" a supporter screamed in response.

I also included Walker bragging about freezing tuition for the last 4 years, as if that's any kind of solution to rising college cost. Oh, and he blamed Hillary's speaking fees for skyrocketing college costs. He really did.

The press gave little attention to the scuffle caused by our brownshirted constitutional conservative freedom fighters trying to rip the protesters sign apart. So much for free speech. Special Note: The Walker thugs against political speech should be charged for disorderly conduct and vandalism, just like a Germantown kindergarten teacher was for a similar offense, which was written about for months in the Wisconsin Watchdog:

UPDATE: Now we know more about the confrontation Walker never tried to stop or defuse:

More video @GovWalker points and his supporters pounce. @AddInfoOrg ‪#‎iacaucus‬"Unfortunately for Walker, those protestors happened to be Addicting Info proprietor Matthew Desmond and two of his friends, Aaron Black and Khalil White. Matthew explained what happened to him and his friends as they stood peacefully protesting Walker in the front row:

“I was holding up [a] sign, wasn’t yelling at him, but he was screaming at us and his supporters attacked us. We [he and Aaron Black] were both attacked and had our signs ripped up. I kept pulling out more from my pocket and one guy attempted to climb on a hay bale and dive bomb me. They pushed my friend Khalil White, who has a torn meniscus in his knee, and ripped up his sign. Then they pushed me over, at one point, onto a woman in a wheelchair.”

As Charles Pierce recently wrote: Scott Walker's Lies at the Fairgrounds - Scott Walker and his campaign's toxic combination of belligerence and aggressive victimhood were on display:  

Alone among the crowd of candidates, Walker most clearly is running on his record of being a complete prick to the right people – which include teachers and nurses and the people who clean up after Alzheimer's patients in group homes. He truly is a remarkable liar, already a far more remarkable liar than even Mitt Romney was, and I didn't think that was possible. For example, the evidence is that while he managed to ram his programs through his pet legislature, he hid behind his capitol police. He took a tunnel to get to the office. He and his pet legislature changed the rules of what was allowed in the Wisconsin capitol building, which always had been open space. He was unintimidated by singing grandmothers because his administration had them arrested and hauled away.​

And, it scarcely needs to be mentioned, when 100,000 of his constituents showed up on his lawn, Scott Walker did not deign to meet with them. 

(And, you have to admit, it takes some big clanging brass ones to talk about "taking on the big special interests" a couple of weeks after giving $250 million of that sweet taxpayer cash to the owners of the Milwaukee Bucks, to say nothing of riding to victory three times on tidal waves of dark money.)​ 

Hat tip to Jake's Economic TA Funhouse for highlighting Pierce's article.