With our full time GOP legislative geniuses about to take the rest of the year off (think about that), one criticism stood out for me.
The UW took another blow from critic and anti-educations ultimate warrior Sen. Steve Nass, who seems to manufacture a new outrage every time the university needs funding. The latest example shines a light on Nass' lack of self-awareness:
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is seeking an additional $33.3 million to fund two building projects and Sen. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, is blaming “poor project management and cost overruns.” Nass called the projects the "most recent example of mounting fiscal management issues" in the University of Wisconsin System. “These are not isolated circumstances and the Board of Regents is partially at fault for failing to provide proper oversight of building projects."
The Irony: Let's look at Nass' "poor project management" and "mounting fiscal management issues" he rips the UW for: Nass and his band of plundering legislative pirates were breathtakingly off on the projected cost of the manufacturer and ag tax credit. Maybe if he blames the UW no one will notice or bring up the mounting cost overruns depleting state revenues year after year that are now completely out of control and getting worse:
The national reputation of the University of Wisconsin is of little concern to state Republicans. Despite its massive contributions as a revenue source and job creator, Republicans were determined to turn it into nothing more than a tech college for business interests, and a breeding ground for ultra right-wing politics pushing supply-side economics, nationalism, and research backing extremist public policy proposals.
Since Wisconsin residents will most likely have a child going to the UW, Republican attempts to sabotage the university just got exposed, with the kind of headline they never saw coming:
1. Report: Wisconsin Saw Fourth Largest Decline In Higher Ed Funding Between 2013 And 2018 2. While (other) States Support For Higher Education Increased 15 Percent, Post Recession Wisconsin Continued To Cut ... Wisconsin’s state funding for higher education did not follow the national trend. 3. A national report ranking ... Wisconsin saw the fourth largest decline in per-student spending between 2013 and 2018. The only states with larger decreases in that timeframe were Mississippi, West Virginia and Oklahoma. 4. Educational appropriations fell ... But between 2013 and 2018 the report showed the trend reversing in a majority of states, with the United States as a whole seeing more than a 15 percent increase in state funds per student. 5. The SHEEO found between 2013 and 2018 state appropriations per student fell by just more than 8 percent, from $7,002 to $6,435, putting it toward the bottom of the national rankings. 6. The state Legislature included $35 million in new funding for the UW System in the 2017-19 biennial state budget ... That followed a cut of $250 million in the 2015-17 biennial budget.
All of this might just change, but don't hold your breath:
Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has proposed a $150 million increase for the state’s UW campuses in his proposed 2019-21 state budget, along with a $2.5 billion capital budget for new construction and renovations.
The chant said it perfectly, “Stop the cuts, and fund the freeze.”
Walker's Tuition Freeze Failure: It's still one of Scott Walker's biggest bragging points; the simple-minded "tuition freeze." Sure, as a parent with a kid in college, what's not to like? But Walker didn't counter that freeze with state funding. That freeze is now starving one of the states biggest sources of revenue. As the UW Stevens Point paper The Pointer...pointed out:
This threat has been announced openly. In 2015, Governor Scott Walker tried to change the universities’ historic mission by eliminating its commitment to the search for truth and improving the human condition, substituting instead the far narrower goal of meeting the state workforce needs.”
Out on the front lines defending higher education was gubernatorial candidate Andy Gronik, a Democratic businessman who's out there framing the issue for every candidate running for office:
“UW-Stevens Point is at ground zero. What we’re seeing with eliminating 13 majors is really the effect of Scott Walker, due to a $250 million cut and freezing tuition. When you take out the revenue side of the equation and the only thing that you’re focused on is cutting costs, this is the tragedy that happens.” Gronik, speaking on his experience hiring employees with backgrounds in the humanities for his business. “As a guy who built a business I can tell you that when I interviewed on campuses, which I did all the time" ... students with majors in English, foreign languages and philosophy were valuable as communicators and critical thinkers in his company and helped him to establish an international business. “It’s short-sighted to imagine that a university system should be without those kinds of majors and it’s not the Wisconsin I envision for the future.”
"Rural School Leaders: Schools in Wisconsin are Unequal": That's the title of gubernatorial candidate Sen. Kathleen Vinehout's latest press release, focusing this time on K-12 education under Walker. The Blue Ribbon Commission on School Funding got this kind of feedback recently from 20 rural districts when they visited Southwestern Wisconsin.
Walker quietly let referendums increase taxes while he could around the state bragging that he personally never raised taxes. So I thought this comment struck at the heart of the rural school problem:
Superintendent Doug Olsen of Kickapoo Area School District pointed out that rural Wisconsin has many farmers who are struggling financially. “As you have heard, Western Wisconsin leads the nation in lost farms due to bankruptcy and farmer suicide. In which community does a referendum to override the revenue limit have a better chance of passing?”
Brutal "Funding" Reality Ignored? But that's just one problem snowballing out of control under Walker. Behind Walker's "more money than ever before" facade (that purposely ignores the inflation rate), are a number of other education dominoes ready to fall:
Superintendent Nancy Hendrickson of Highland School District explained "With school aid tied to the number of students and, with a declining rural population, aid is dropping faster than the cost to educate children. Administrator Jill Underly of Pecatonica School District affirmed that school segregation still exists. “It may not be based on race necessarily, but it is still to an extent based on income inequality… Public schools, a cornerstone of our democracy, were supposed to equalize opportunity. It shouldn’t matter where you go to school, but in Wisconsin, let’s be honest, it DOES matter.” Superintendent Doug Olsen of Kickapoo Area School District: "Our district consistently serves an economically disadvantaged population that comprises over half of the student body … only 48% of poor students are ready for school at age 5, compared to 75% of students from moderate to high income families. From vocabulary and pre-literacy skills, to numeracy, emotional regulation, and trauma, kids in poverty are more at risk to come to school less prepared.” Rural schools did not recover from deep cuts made in Governor Walker’s first budgets. Across the state, school funding, in real dollars, for this school year is less than a decade ago. Without resources, buildings and systems maintenance is deferred. School districts see fewer applicants for vacant teaching jobs, a shortage of substitute teachers and problems with a flattening pay scale for teachers making it hard to keep veteran teachers.
Referendums, Local Tax Increases symptoms of Growing Problem: In Walker's Wisconsin, red flags like these have to be ignored so the ideological goals can be met:
Cost for basic services, i.e. transportation, utilities, electricity are increasing. New costs are added including technology, school safety, testing. Legislative leaders decided if schools need more funding, voters should decide through referendum. Superintendent Doug Olsen of Kickapoo Area School District pointed out that rural Wisconsin has many farmers who are struggling financially. “As you have heard, Western Wisconsin leads the nation in lost farms due to bankruptcy and farmer suicide. In which community does a referendum to override the revenue limit have a better chance of passing?” The situation is made worse when GOP leaders bypassed the funding formula and gave wealthy suburban districts the same money as cash-strapped rural and urban districts.
The eventual decline of all things Wisconsin is accelerating, but will voters notice how fast in time for the midterm elections. The shortfall in road funding, state parks, water and air policy, and now the University of Wisconsin.
The pathetically easy answer for Scott Walker, requiring no thought process whatsoever, was to simply freeze tuition. Because as we all know, cost-of-living, advanced technology, competitive educator salaries, and maintaining aging infrastructure aren't real considerations...oh wait, until Foxconn burst on the scene.
And no one saw this coming?
UW-Stevens Point Provost: Program Cuts, Faculty Layoffs 'Unavoidable.' $4.5M Structural Deficit Caused By Declining Enrollment After Years Of State Budget Cuts.
Greg Summers, UW-Stevens Point provost and vice chancellor of academic affairs, said years of state budget cuts and tuition freezes have compounded the university's financial problems ... "We've had years of shifting of public funding away from universities and the resulting need to look more at tuition dollars to supplement budgets. Given the tuition freeze that we've been in for five years now, that's put a pinch on possible revenues. In the 1970s the university received about 50 percent of our budget from state sources. Today that number is down to about 13 percent."
According to numbers supplied by the university, the school has been hit with more than $9.6 million in net state budget cuts since the 2011-12 school year. In the 2015-16 school year, state cuts to UW-Stevens Point's general purpose revenue was more than $5.75 million with an additional $570,500 in cuts to segregated program funds.
It's beyond frustrating to watch Scott Walker and the Republicans scramble to attract college educated Millennial's from out-of-state, after wildly slashing UW funding based on partisan attacks.
End of the First Amendment; Free Speech and Freedom of the Press: This says it all about what the Republicans Party has become.
"Republican Greg Gianforte declared victory in
Montana's special congressional election, barely a day after he was charged
with misdemeanor assault following accusations that he (body) slammed a journalist to
the ground. Gianforte: “It's unfortunate that this aggressive behavior from a liberal journalist created this scene at our campaign volunteer BBQ" ... it's another example of a candidate being rewarded by voters for behaving badly. So what's the incentive for good behavior?
Security Protection for the Press? Why not? Have you heard what Trump has said about them?
Meanwhile Trump racks up Security Costs:
Congress would allocate more than $120 million in additional money to help cover the escalating costs of protecting the Trump family and Trump Tower.
Shoot the Democratic Enemies of the State: And woe to anyone who disagrees with the Republicans authority; protests will not be tolerated, resistance is futile:
A Texas Republican threatened to “put a bullet in one of his colleague’s heads” during a scuffle on the House floor over the state’s new anti-‘sanctuary cities’ law. Representative Matt Rinaldi, R-Irving, made the comment to Democratic Representative Poncho Nevárez during a dispute that began when Rinaldi told two Hispanic lawmakers that he called Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Senate Bill 4 protesters at the Capitol.
“I made it clear that if he attempted to, in his words, ‘get me,’ I would shoot him in self defense,” Rinaldi said. “I would shoot him in self defense. I am currently under DPS protection.”
"Populist" Right Wing Authoritarians now need Protection from the Public? This isn't a new idea. Scott Walker played up "threats" (even created a few) during the massive protest in 2011, resulting in the elimination of open public forums. He now appears at closed corporate speaking engagements with captive employees:
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinelreported
that in 2013 taxpayers spent $2.23 million for the 10 state troopers who
protect Walker and his family, GOP Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, and dignitaries
from other states and countries who visit Wisconsin … up from $657,457 paid out
by Walker’s predecessor, Democrat Jim Doyle during his last year in office in
2010. Walker’s security bill inched higher in 2014, to $2.3
million. A large part of the increase came because Walker had added
five members to what is officially known as the Dignitary Protection
Unit in the wake of the Act 10 protests.
Security Protection for Right Wing Authoritarian Campus Speakers: The rise of white supremacist groups, gun rights militias, and anti-liberal Republicans are now getting the speaking time they've demanded for years, thanks to a Walker Republican bill to threaten severe punishment for University of Wisconsin campus student protests. Their work since the 60's might just pay off this time around:
A Republican campus speech bill requires
University of Wisconsin System institutions to punish students who take part in
disruptive protests … requiring
universities to expel any student who violates the policy three times … students who engage in “violent or other
disorderly conduct that materially and substantially disrupts the free
expression of others.”
Outright admission that conservatives deserve extra protections: Despite dominating government, our talk radio outlets, and churning out large numbers of conservative college students:
Republican members argued that their ideas are under fire on college campuses from left-leaning students and faculty, saying the legislation was needed to preserve open debate at UW institutions and protect the free speech rights of controversial speakers. Rep. Joan Ballweg, R-Markesan, said the bill would ensure “there is no idea or issue that will be shouted down in a public forum.” It would chill free speech on campus and infringe on regents’ authority to govern their institutions themselves. “The very bones of this legislation are diseased,” said Democratic Rep. Jimmy Anderson. “Don’t you see a concern about two left-wing or two right-wing students raising an issue with perceived activity by students attending an event?” Rep. Gary Hebl said. “Don’t you see the floodgates opening?” Republican Rep. Jesse Kremer asked Hebl if he had a better idea. Hebl responded that he couldn’t see any way to make the bill better. Republican Rep. Travis Tranel told the committee he had heard from college students in his district that they’re afraid to express conservative views in class for fear the professor could dock their grades. Hebl and fellow Democrat Terese Bereceau both cut him off, challenging him to prove his anecdote was true. Hebl accused Tranel of making things up without any evidence, comparing him to Joe McCarthy.
Even Unconstitutional Repressive Laws can't be Criticized: If Republicans decided tomorrow to shred the Constitution and arrest every known liberal, UW system professors would be banned under penalty of law to say anything:
It also states that System institutions must “strive to
remain neutral” on public policy controversies.
Conservative groups could organize and systematically eliminate their opposition with ease:
Another amendment requires universities to launch an
investigation and hold discipline hearings if they get two or more complaints
alleging someone violated the policy.
Cities Next: Portland Republican says party should use militia groups
after racial attack:
The top Republican in the city said he is considering using
militia groups as security for public events. James Buchal said: “Yeah. We’re
thinking about that. Because there are now belligerent, unstable people who are
convinced that Republicans are like Nazis.” The Oath
Keepers are described by
the Southern Poverty Law Center as “one of the largest radical antigovernment
groups in the US,” recruiting current and former military and law enforcement
personnel. They have recently appeared at rallies from Berkeley to Boston. The Three Percenters are described by Political Research Associates as “a paramilitary group that pledges armed resistance against attempts to restrict private gun ownership.” They were a highly visible presence in Burns, Oregon, before and during the occupation of the Malheur wildlife refuge by rightwing militia early in 2016. James Buchal issued a statement in which he bemoaned a “criminal conspiracy to commit crimes of riot” ... lament(ing) “rising lawlessness” in Portland ... a video of Buchal addressing a Multnomah County Republican Central Committee meeting depicts Buchal making a fiery pro-Trump speech. He says of the President, “His enemies are my enemies and his enemies are all our enemies. Our enemies are more dangerous than ever. We are really in a life and death battle for the future of our society. And these globalist people are not going to give up. If we don’t tell out fellow citizens that there are these dark forces in the government, like the CIA and the shadow government, who are trying to take Trump down with lies, who is going to tell them?” Spencer Sunshine, an associate researcher at Political Research Associates who last year co-authored a major report on the growth of the far-right Patriot Movement in Oregon, said: “Consideration of the use of unaccountable, private paramilitary groups by one of the main political parties is a dangerous lurch to the far right.”
Not many Governors have a calm, detached sociopathic speaking style like Scott Walker, thank god. And while he demands that same low key communication style from his most vociferous opponents, there's still no way he's ever going to change his mind.
Walker is the best argument against career politicians, because guys like Walker see only politics and pure ideological policy as the end game, not good public policy.
The Walker Authority Shredded the First Amendment during 2011 Capitol Protests against Union Busting Act 10: How could the nation forget:
The government is forbidden from making a “law abridging the freedom of speech…or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances” … but in 2011 ... Scott Walker, concluded … residents did not warrant 1st Amendment protections ... Walker’s response, typical of a fascist unaccustomed to being challenged, was to have many protesters arrested and fined for exercising their 1st Amendment rights; something Dane County Judge Frank Remington ruled was unconstitutional. The conservative McIver Institute Director of Communications Nick Novak was angry that the six protestors claimed being arrested caused them embarrassment, created difficulties finding a job, and fostered a negative stigma in their personal records that will follow them for the rest of their lives. The real victims who deserved reparations, according to the belief tank … were “multiple Republican legislators that were harassed in the halls of the capitol and the governor who was routinely compared to Adolf Hitler.”
On Upfront with Mike Gousha, Walker provided his most laughably outlandish moment of hypocrisy yet; defending free political speech and their constitutionally protected protesters. Walker finally reached what was once believed to be an unreachable level of bullshitting, but he did it, and with a straight face to boot:
I hope you're sitting down...
Walker: "Whether it's against me or somebody else say, "I disagree," but disagreeing and even protesting is one thing, if you come into an auditorium where they're having a discussion or a conversation on this, and you want to hold signs up, you want to protest that, you want to rally out front, perfectly fine. But the minute you shut down a speaker, no matter whether they're liberal, conservative, or somewhere in between, I just think that's wrong." To me a university...anywhere free speech should be upheld...but disrupting and shutting down as we've seen here in Wisconsin, but elsewhere across the country, shutting down the ability for someone to actually be heard is not free speech."
Here's a short recap of bill Walker is talking about above, and now backs on our UW campuses:
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R- Rochester, and Rep. Jesse Kremer, R-Kewaskum, proposed legislation (that) would set new rules for free speech and expression on University of Wisconsin System campuses. That includes penalties for people who disrupt free expression on campus by engaging in "violent, abusive, indecent, profane, boisterous, obscene, unreasonably loud or other disorderly conduct" … Students could be expelled under a bill.
That sharply contrasts with his recent comments at CPAC during his infamously flawed run for president:
“I want a commander in chief who will do everything in their power to ensure that the threat from radical Islamic terrorists does not wash up on American soil. If I can take on 100,000 protesters, I can do the same across the world.”
But his comments weren't the only ones that trashed the peaceful protests directed at what we thought were accountable elected politicians:
Sen. Ron Johnson (R) of Wisconsin denounced what he saw as "mob rule" trying to thwart the electoral will of the people, citing specficially the "amount of thuggery, the threats of execution" against Republican lawmakers. University of Wisconsin law professor Ann Althouse viewed the events in the Capitol as a near-total breakdown of law and order. "How do you like this new democracy, that has a mob storming the Capitol and, with the aid of the minority party, blocking the access of the majority party into their offices and into the legislative chamber?" Professor Althouse wrote on her blog. "It looks more like anarchy to me." To others, this was precisely the sort of situation for which the guarantee clause was created.
"It is hard to recall many moments that more directly echo the concerns of the founders than the situation America faces today, with a mob of protesters, some bused in from out of state by labor unions bent on protecting their financial interests, occupying the state house at Madison and the governor there under heavy guard," states a New York Sun editorial. Cornell University law professor William Jacobson wrote on his blog, Legal Insurrection ... The appearance of a bullhorn-toting protester on Feb. 27 in a "COPS FOR LABOR" T-shirt showed that "the police union members involved have actively advocated and offered to participate in insurrection against the legal authority in Wisconsin."
But the Guarantee Clause obviously doesn't apply:
The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened), against domestic Violence.-ARTICLE IV, SECTION 4
In reality, the Guarantee Clause would protect us from the likes of Scott Walker:
Cornell University law professor Aziz Rana,
author of "The Two Faces of American Freedom," wrote, "the truth
about the guarantee clause is that its initial purpose was less a concern with
popular protest and far more a worry with potential backsliding by state
governments into aristrocratic or monarchical forms of government," says "That
would suggest to me that ... peaceful protest combined with local police
sympathy and the decision by some legislators to flee to Illinois are
not issues that would invoke the guarantee clause."
Wisconsin Republicans kept the fear mongering myth about protester violent alive, and that there was massive destruction of public property by liberal vandals. Nope, never happened:
The protests were peaceful, on the whole – with only 18 arrests during more than three weeks of steady protests in Madison – but critics question whether Dane County Sheriff Dave Mahoney, too, was taking sides. "We are seeing democracy in action, people engaging in their government, making their issues known," Sheriff Mahoney told Time magazine. " I'm very proud that the people of Wisconsin are engaged in their government and shown the rest of the world how democracy works." At one point, he said his deputies "aren't palace guards."
No Vandalism either...according to PolitiFact, the highly publicized cost of repairs, do to protester vandalism, got all the necessary political mileage, despite being a Pants on Fire lie:
By March 7, 2011, the Department of Administration reported that all signs and banners in the Capitol had been removed. Some of the signs are being considered for preservation by the Wisconsin Historical Society or the Smithsonian Institution. The protesters "have adopted an ownership ethic in the building, treating it with the utmost care and respect," wrote Jason Tish, executive director of the Madison Trust for Historic Preservation and a local field representative for the National Trust for Historic Preservation. He called the demonstrators "evangelistic about their respect for the building." "The extent of what I saw today is just chips and nicks -- cosmetic damage," he said in an interview. "I don’t see how they (protesters) could have conducted themselves any better." Tish said the building bore the signs of the "accelerated cumulative effects of lots of people going through the building. I saw no intentional damage." The new estimate: $347,500, some 20 times less than the original one. And there are indications that even that could be high. This smells like an effort to pour gas on the anti-protester fire. The claim was ridiculously high. And that gets a Pants on Fire rating.
The previous blog post introduced us to Ann Coulter's Berkeley University speaking demanded...
Some have criticized Coulter's own approach to the issue: she demanded that the university expel any student who engages "in violence, mayhem or heckling to prevent an invited speaker from speaking."
Ann Coulter's Law introduced by Republican Rep. Robin Vos: Oddly similar, you have to wonder how Republicans do this, making what is normal and a founding principle of our Constitution into something repellent and repressive:
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R- Rochester, and Rep. Jesse Kremer, R-Kewaskum, proposed
legislation (that) would set new rules for free speech and expression
on University of Wisconsin System campuses. That includes penalties
for people who disrupt free expression on campus by engaging in "violent,
abusive, indecent, profane, boisterous, obscene, unreasonably loud or other
disorderly conduct" … Students could be expelled under a bill.
The broad categories and up for interpretation expressions listed above wouldn't just chill free speech, it would discourage it under threat of punishment. Vos' fascist idea may play well for Ann Coulter and David Horowitz, who want to energize and play the political victim, but a government official pushing...this is jaw dropping.
"The worst part of it is this incredible litany of categories, most of which, as I say, are clearly unconstitutionally vague or imprecise or undefined," said Robert O'Neil, professor emeritus of law at the University of Virginia, where he specialized in the First Amendment law. O’Neil is also a former University of Wisconsin System president.
A Tangle of Big Government & Big Brother Bureaucracy: Like voting, getting food stamps, receiving unemployment, and applying for BadgerCare, Vos and Kremer have created a maze of hearings, a "jackpot justice" system of costly lawsuits, and disciplinary procedures to endlessly navigate:
Speakers who feel their free speech rights were violated at a UW campus could sue the institution for damages under the bill. And the legislation would create a council of UW officials that would report to lawmakers on the outcomes of discipline proceedings.
It's hard to imagine how Vos and Kremer never seemed to get the First Amendment thing, that this didn't raise any red flags. It did for readers:
Republican hate higher education because it's filled with naive liberal young people filled with hopes and dreams, instead of paranoid fears of the "other." They're easily manipulated by their socialist commie professors who spend almost no time with them. So...
Gov. Scott Walker’s state budget proposal would create a
“faculty accountability” policy to monitor how much time UW professors spend in
the classroom “ensuring student success in the workforce” and
“administrative efficiency” — that will make up the performance categories.
Yup, gotta make sure those university professors stop ripping off the taxpayers and students...oh wait...:
UW-Madison graduate programs are ranked among the nation’s best in the 2018 edition of U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Graduate Schools.”
Even though the following list just isn't good enough to our college dropout governor and career politician, nationally, it's rankings tell a different story:
Ask yourself why is Scott Walker doing a 180 on UW funding, knowing there's no way to pay for it? "'Cut — that's right, cut' tuition." I can see the campaign ad material now, "See, I love the UW." Which sets up: Scott Walker good cop, legislature bad cop. Cap Times:
Speaker Robin Vos said he is "open-minded" to the idea, but he is not yet convinced a tuition cut will be a priority for lawmakers as they consider the 2017-19 budget.
Along with...
Rep. John Nygren said Republicans are ... reluctant to signal support for Walker's proposed cut. "It’s not that I’m against it, it’s just that as a budget chair I need to look at the budget in totality against other priorities such as K-12 funding, Medicaid, other big ticket items."
But if Walker cared so much, he would have let Wisconsin refinance student loans with a state refinancing authority, but...:
Rep. Dianne Hesselbein, argued Walker's answer to student loan debt amounted to telling borrowers to "call a bank."
Scott Walker, big talk, campaign material talking points. Hey, he tried and loves the UW.
Ouch, what’s so wrong about “toxic masculinity?” Alcohol induced abuses, condescending female references and
anti-feminist bullies are the targets of UW Madison's liberal social engineers again. They're trying to stop
the violence…and people like Sen. Steve Nass?
No one needs this course more than Nass, which is why he's so
afraid of it.
Nass has for years bullied the UW with threats of government
censorship through defunding over voluntary UW courses he doesn’t like. Drop
them or be punished…censored.
This is the guy who successfully passed legislation repealing
a ban on racist school mascots throughout Wisconsin. That’s not crazy, is it? Or when he “blasted an African
Studies course set to begin later this month called The Problem of Whiteness.” The 11th District must be so proud. It's a miracle they haven't leveled the UW Whitewater campus yet.
Making his empty case for more UW funding cuts, Nass picked a doozy:
(Nass’) target is the Men’s Project, a six-week voluntary
discussion program that “aims to explore masculinity and the problems
accompanied by simplified definitions of it,” according to a UW
Health Service news release. Cultural influences distorting ideas of
masculinity include “media, hook up culture, alcohol, violence, and pop
culture,” said another promotional piece. “Understanding the connections
between our experiences and experiences of masculinity and issues in our
society can help build stronger communities."
Never one to build strong communities free of domestic
violence and public brawling, Nass sees a self-awareness course as the UW's “war
on men.” Despite all the shootings, violent crimes and robberies, Nass thinks “mothers
and fathers” have done a perfect job raising their sons:
“Our friends at UW-Madison not happy enough with labeling
'whiteness' as a societal problem, now are attacking another societal ill…, Men
and their masculinity. UW-Madison has become part of a national liberal effort
to rid male students of their 'toxic masculinity … believe that Wisconsin
mothers and fathers have done a poor job of raising their boys by trying to
instill in them the values and characteristics necessary in becoming a Man.”
The conservative media’s bubble world paranoia is apparently the source of Nass’ pent up rage. You’ll notice the Cap Times story did not include
the word “conservative” to describe The College Fix, referenced by Nass, even though the site itself states “…Your Daily Dose of Right-Minded News and Commentary…”
The term “toxic masculinity” was sounded in a post a day
earlier by
The College Fix, which noted that UW-Madison is among many
colleges with offerings that “seek to purge male students of their
so-called toxic masculinity.”
No “pajama boy” Nass oddly projects his own predatory scheming to
meet women, onto feminists, by including a link to an article that claims “guys
who embrace the feminist project (truthfully in part to hook up with feminist
women)…” Ah, don’t think so. You’ll also notice below the term “absent fathers,”
a racist reference if there ever was one.
An essay at
the National Review bemoaning the spread of feminist ideas that Nass
linked to in his email to colleagues; “Feminism has infected child-rearing and
modern education so thoroughly that legions of parents and teachers are adrift
and clueless. They have no idea what to do with their sons, and absent fathers
compound the confusion and create yawning cultural voids. Yes, there are some
pajama boys out there, the guys who embrace the feminist project (truthfully in
part to hook up with feminist women), but there are countless others who reject
feminism’s version of a 'man box' and are instead adrift in purposeless
masculinity,” wrote staff writer David French. Another site referred to the program as a continued “jihad against what it means to be a man.”
Republicans either think it’s funny or a good idea to appoint
fellow legislators to public policy they hate the most. And so it is with Sen. Steve
Nass, the bigoted racist overseeing our state universities.
He's not what I would call a great defender of the 1st Amendment. Remember these violations?
1. In a news release Rep. Steve Nass stated protesters feel "entitled" to take action without serious consequences in the capital city. 2. He expressed cutting funding of a UW-Madison center because its studies were "too far to the left." 3. State Sen. Steve Nass blasted a UW-Madison economics professor ... calling the academic's report on right-to-work legislation "partisan, garbage research." 4. Republican Rep. Steve Nass has gotten the UW’s School for Workers to cancel an “Art in Protest” exhibit that had been scheduled for next month. “The problem with it is that it would be funded with taxpayer dollars and that’s through the Extension.” Nass charges the exhibit would have provided a one-sided view of last year’s protests at the Capitol, with UW Extension taking the side of protesters. “I did indicate to Extension that … any problems that arise from that, or any misbehavior by the protesters – which I certainly would expect, it would probably be very despicable … and I will be watching.” 5. Postcrescent: Nass called on a state Justice Department lawyer to resign for sending an email offering legal advice to Democratic state senators after they fled the state in February. 6. Rep. Stephen Nass is calling for the review that could result in a possible removal from Tubbs' position as Capitol Police Chief. Nass said, "By not doing anything, by treating them with kid gloves, that made it worse. If they'd done more, we would not be seeing what we're seeing today." Nass said, "If they were arrested vigorously, I believe that would slow them [protesters]."
He also co-wrote a bill that would amend statutes allowing the use of race-based nicknames, logos, mascots and team names by school boards.A swell racist guy.
Race Relations Sinister Liberal Plot: Nass is Mr. Big Government himself, micromanaging and threatening the university systems at every turn with defunding, if they don't "voluntarily" back down. WPR:
Sen. Steve Nass says a new diversity outreach program at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison is "sinister" … made the comments
Thursday in reaction to UW-Madison announcing its plans to improve the
experiences of minorities on the flagship campus.
That’s right, improving our social differences with ethnic
studies is considered something liberals do, which by itself a scorching indictment
of the rot, hate and racism growing within the Wisconsin Republican Party. What else would explain having a tantrum over a new cultural center and increased ethnic studies:
The plan calls for having new students discuss social
differences, a new cultural center for black students and increased
opportunities to take ethnic studies courses.
Nass is carrying out the will of his districts voters though, and they must be proud. Yes, he was so good in the assembly that they made
him a senator, just so he could battle against those sinister liberal
enemies of American exceptionalism:
Nass said university leaders "constantly complain about
lacking money" but "they never lack money for advancing new and more
sinister ways of liberal indoctrination of students."
And as we all know, students always react well to being told how
to think and act:
He said the initiative isn't about advancing critical
thinking, but about "telling students to think and act in ways approved by
the liberal leadership of our universities."
