"We Won" Republicans Blame Criticism of Trump by Democrats for Baseball Shooting!!!

State Rep. Jesse Kremer, the guy who believes the earth is 5000 years old and college students should carry guns on campus, must be completely unaware of the internet's ability to historically archive everything. Which makes his recent comment below, repeated ad nauseam by every Republican, all the more nasty.

AP: A Wisconsin state lawmaker says the shooting at a congressional baseball practice outside of Washington "could probably have been predicted" given "disgusting commentary" about President Donald Trump. A top House Republican, Steve Scalise of Louisiana, was among those shot by a rifle-wielding gunman.

Kremer cites comedian Kathy Griffin's posing with the likeness of Trump's severed head, Madonna's comments about contemplating blowing up the White House and a New York City production of the Shakespeare play "Julius Ceasar" that portrays a Trump-like dictator who gets knifed to death on stage. Kremer says, "This media frenzy and absurdity MUST STOP! There are people crazy enough to carry out these heinous acts."

Yea, what's with all these empty attacks on our helpless millionaire narcissist Trump?

The insecurity of the "we won" crowd is incredibly personal, because they've invested so much of themselves in Trump, and they remember their own brutal hate filled rants against Obama. So how can liberal criticism be any different.

Shootings like this happen every minute of everyday, painful and destructive for every victim, but it wasn't supposed to happen so close our pampered NRA voting elected lawmakers.

Will we hear talk of treating the mentally ill, bash anyone trying to exploit the shooting by bring up gun regulations, or just insist it never really happened?

So How Did We Get Here: Blame the Liberals? It's their fault now, the hate, divisiveness, the name calling...because nothing happened over the last 8 years that fostered the rise of homegrown armed militia groups threatening to occupy public lands or take down their own government with Second Amendment remedies. Right, it's Kathy Griffin, Julius Ceasar, and Madonna?

My conservative friend in Milwaukee emailed me link to a right wing site that spun liberal criticism as something ruthlessly cold. No, just the truth:

Here's what I wrote back to my friend:

No, you might want to be a sucker for the writers spin, but not me. Gee, I was told by Scott Walker a divided nation is healthy. And Republicans didn't expect this to happen, as they vilify fellow Americans as people who don't count because, "we won." More guns...use them against the government...Where did you think that was going? I told you that liberals can take up guns too, and if they do we're all in deep trouble. So keep playing the victim, pretending you didn't have a hands in this. "We won?" Don't think so.

A now frightened Republican Party has a few thing to work out. Let's see how long their reaction is to this shooting and compare it to how quickly they moved on from Sandy Hook. 

Paul Ryan had the nerve to say this after doing nothing about Sandy Hook's 20 massacred 6 year olds:

Ryan: 'An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us'

TrumpCare Odds and Ends....

Here's something I'll bet Democrats will forget to use in their 2018 campaign ads. It's a sure thing that can't miss...

...or something like this easy to write ad: "Paul Ryan's idea of health care reform didn't fool anyone."

...or Scott Walker's problem with math...

...and the dehumanization of liberal Americans - the other. Complete and utter projection from Eric Trump:

One of the great lessons of history is that it's not a good idea to dehumanize people, particularly when you are a powerful person with a large platform. President Trump did so with Muslims and journalists during his campaign. No one ever accused his son, Eric, of being The Smart One, so he went a step further last night. Eric explained that his father's Democratic opponents were not just political enemies. They are "not even people."

In the words of my conservative friend in Milwaukee...

Constitutional re-write, backed by Scott Walker, led by fired Tea Party Leader Jim DeMint! What could go wrong...

Former Senator and now former leader of the tea party movement at the Heritage Foundation, Jim DeMint, has now set his sights on a Constitutional re-do.

These "constitutional conservatives," the great defenders of our founding document, will take their strict constructionist opinions and completely rewrite what apparently is a deeply flawed list of laws:

Jim DeMint, (who was) recently ousted as the head of the Heritage Foundation, has taken on a new mission for the conservative Tea Party Movement to amend the U.S. Constitution, USA Today reported Monday.

DeMint has joined The Convention of States Project, which reportedly aims to start a grassroots, state-led effort to amend the U.S. Constitution by scaling back its federal spending and power as well as address federal term limits.

DeMint’s new movement aims to do so by requesting a congressional convention (one occurred in 1787). “This is a perfect time for us,” DeMint said. “People are disgusted with Washington. They are ready to move power back closer to home.”

What do they want to do initially...because who knows how many other crazy ideas they'll come up with before they make this a reality:

Although three primary issues — reining in the U.S. government’s power over states, and imposing both “fiscal restraint” on Washington as well as term limits on federal officials — DeMint reportedly suggested that other amendments could be proposed to address issues surrounded the federal budget and ending lifetime appointments for Supreme Court justices.

The path to a constitutional convention?

Two-thirds, or 34 states, would need to make a formal request to hold a congressional convention, and then 38 states, or three-fourths, would have ratify the proposed amendment.  Twelve states reportedly are in support of the efforts of DeMint’s new group, and they hope to double their number by next year. 

Is DeMint the right guy for this immense task?

He called his sudden dismisal from Heritage "perplexing" after the conservative think tank's board of directors voted to remove him from his top position, citing "worsening management issues." Mark Meckler, a co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots, will also be reportedly a leading figure in these efforts.

Walker's "Wisconsin Comeback" may be worse than Kansas Gov. Brownback's, which is now being reversed by Republicans there!!!

I've been calling certain Republican tax cut backers "freeloaders" for years. I'd like to say California Gov. Jerry Brown got it from me, but who cares...:

WND: The latest “gift” from Gov. Jerry Brown and the Democrat-controlled legislature: A $5.2 billion tax hike.

Gov. Brown: “The freeloaders – I’ve had enough of them. They have a president that doesn’t tell the truth and they’re following suit.”

The indignant response by freeloading "tax cut" Republican voters, who hate hearing the truth?

Citizens who work and pay taxes are “freeloading” on the system and have no right to complain about the tax burden government puts on them. It’s amazing how Democrat politicians get so secure in their elected offices that they think they can insult anyone and get away with it.

Yea, that's nothing like Republican politicians so secure in their gerrymandered elected offices that they think they can cut services, destroy access to health care and sell off public investments without consequences? Those damn Democrats huh? 

Basically, the "freeloader" label fits, and conservatives hate it:

All while they continue their political road to increasing the tax and regulation burdens on average citizens. Jerry Brown’s insult is the latest blatant example of that – following the insulting epithet Hillary Clinton laid on voters – calling them “deplorables.” It’s clear that Democrats have no respect for anyone who disagrees with their point of view.

All this is supposed to deal with road and infrastructure repairs – things that should have been done gradually over the years but that, in their “wisdom,” politicians put off and delay until it’s an emergency. It’s almost impossible to survive in California if you don’t drive. Our vehicles are a lifeline to survival for jobs, school and just daily life. Any changes in the price of fuel presents a major hit to every budget.

Anyone else detect the disconnect, incoherence and cluelessness in the above statement? Even worse, the articles writer rattled off the following list while trashing Brown and still pushing tax cuts. This is what makes conservative fiscal policy so unrealistically bad. Freeloader fits...:

As for the freeloading Californians he so disdains, Jerry has lots more in store for them. He still promotes his plan for high-speed rail from southern California to the north. Then there’s his plan for twin water tunnels to move water from north to south – original estimate $17 billion – but the construction overruns and costs to water districts, users and property owners is open ended.

Then, add state pension obligations, bond obligations, health-care costs and the proposal to pay all criminal defense costs for illegals living in the state who face deportation – and the fact that the state budget for next year already shows a $1.6 billion deficit – and you have a lot of freeloaders who will have every right to consider the appeal of getting out while the getting is good.

In fact, more people are leaving the state than moving in ... Consider yourself warned.

You mean the freeloaders? Sad. Funny thing, Republicans are always telling liberals to move if they don't like what's happening in their state. Well, back at you. There are a lot of other "deplorable" states to go to. 

Wisconsin to Fail Like Kansas? The Kansas Comeback was Gov. Scott Walker's basic blueprint for Wisconsin. It was a freeloader formula that gave baby boom politicians lower taxes now, but sky high taxes for their kids to rebuild whatever is left. Thank you? 

See if you can spot the similar failed policies in Kansas below, that we're now seeing passed in Wisconsin. 

You'll notice that this completely contradicts the GOP talking points that every state is unique, or those one-size-fits-all laws are bad. Let's be honest: Republicans have only one plan for every state, BUT there is one huge difference; Wisconsin Republicans will never roll back the tax cuts like they are doing in Kansas:

AP: Some Republicans see lesson in rollback of Kansas tax cuts: The sudden end of Kansas' aggressive income tax reductions serves as a cautionary tale for other GOP-dominated states about the pitfalls of moving too far too quickly … Legislators overrode Republican Gov. Sam Brownback's veto of a bill that largely rolls back the income tax cuts he championed in recent years. Income tax rates will rise, with a new top rate of 5.7 percent instead of the current 4.6 percent. The measure is designed to cover projected budget shortfalls totaling $889 million through June 2019

The state is ending an exemption for more than 330,000 farmers and business owners.

They concluded the cash-strapped state needed the extra revenue to fix the budget and raise additional funds for public schools.

In Missouri, the Republican-led Legislature enacted income tax cuts, and only if revenues grow, in what sponsoring state Sen. Will Kraus called a "totally different" approach than Kansas'.

"The people of Kansas, in my mind, are willing to pay for the services that they value," said Sen. Randall Hardy, a moderate Salina Republican who unseated a Brownback ally last year. "We're going to stop the hemorrhaging."

"We've been highly influenced by conservative policy think-tanks that encouraged us to keep cutting tax revenues in order to show a dynamic effect in the growth of our economy," said state Rep. Leslie Osborn, the Republican chairwoman of the Oklahoma House Appropriations Committee.

Bryan Lowry, at the Kansas City Star: These tax cuts, which Brownback had promised would lead to astronomical job growth, had really become politically toxic over the last four years. The governor promised to gain 25,000 private sector jobs a year during his re-election campaign and the state is nowhere close to achieving that. Kansas ranks 48th in the nation for private sector job growth for April 2016 to April 2017. The tax cuts did not pay for themselves.

Oh, and don't forget to blame someone else, just pick a villain from the GOP list...like immigrants:

At his campaign kickoff Thursday, Brownback made a point of hammering the moderate Republicans who voted for the tax increase, accusing them of the stealing from hard-working Kansans. He linked the tax increase to the amount of money the state spends on providing public services to illegal immigrants, citing figures from the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a group that the Southern Poverty Law Center considers extremist.

NEW: I just found this great point by point break down from Brookings of the Brownback debacle. Another "supply side" failure:

1. Tax cuts do not guarantee economic growth. The Kansas experiment is a stunning rebuke of supply-side rhetoric put forth by tax-cut advocates like Arthur Laffer and Stephen Moore, who promised big economic gains. The Kansas tax cut resulted in no apparent growth effects.

2. Special tax rates for business activity mainly generate more tax-sheltering behavior and less revenue. A recent study found that Kansans found it advantageous to convert labor income into business income for tax purposes, even with a tax differential of less than 5 percentage points.

3. The Kansas experience is consistent with the view that people are more willing to pay higher taxes when they can see the link between tax revenues and the societal benefits that government provides. After experiencing the significant cuts to public spending, Kansans voted to oust some of the most conservative GOP legislators in the 2016 elections. In a May poll in Kansas, a bedrock Republican state, 59 percent of those surveyed preferred to solve the state’s budget problems with either tax increases or a combination of tax increases and spending cuts (rather than just through spending cuts).

The Bottom Line: 

The Brownback tax cuts were one of the cleanest experiments the country has ever had in measuring the effects of tax cuts on economic growth, and it showed that they were a failure. Congress can learn three lessons from this experience.

Entrenched Rural Conservative Voters will Lose again under Walker's AHCA Waiver.

Rural resentment continues, unabated by Walker Republicans hoping to keep their majorities, even as debt spending increases and legacy public investments are abandoned and tossed off to private special interests. 

There was a hope that criticism of Scott Walker's policies would peak the interest of rural conservative voters enough to seek out the truth, but they instead dug their heels in even deeper and defended their party's "leader." 

Here's another example of how they're just going to get even more angry and resentful, while blaming liberals for being so critical. And they say they're forgotten, ignored by the government? They soon will be: 

WKOW: A new report shows Medicaid provides more health coverage to rural communities than Wisconsin's metro areas.

The study, by the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families (CCF) and the University of North Carolina NC Rural Health Research Project found that an average 34% of children in rural areas and small towns in Wisconsin receive health coverage through Medicaid and BadgerCare. That number is 31% in metropolitan areas. Medicaid participation is also higher for adults in rural Wisconsin, but by a smaller margin. The report lists 14% of adults as using Medicaid in rural areas, versus 13% in metro areas.

In light of this study, the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families also notes that since the Affordable Care Act took effect, the number of people without insurance in Wisconsin has dropped, especially in the state's rural areas. From 2009 to 2015, uninsured adults went from 15% to 9%, and kids went from 6% to 5%.

Right Wing Campus Speaker Disruptions and Free Speech Laws all part of the Plan.

I never understood this whole shouting down guest speakers on campus thing. A more effective approach would include groaning, laughing or holding a sign in the audience. And since this has been going on for decades, right wing authoritarians who are now in charge of every branch of state government, found an opening to strike back.

Money making Scam turns Conservatives into Famous Victims: Conservative campus speakers profit more from trumped up "security concerns" and cancellations than just showing up to speak.

Nationwide Republicans are slowly taking over public colleges, booking conservative guests, playing the victim of the now vilified liberal educators, and writing a regime of campus censorship laws that turns actual free speech into a punishable offense.

Rep. Jesse Kremer, of Kewaskum, said in a May 11 legislative hearing that it was a fact that Earth was 6,000 years old. Kremer sits on the Assembly’s universities committee, which votes on bills affecting the state’s colleges and universities … the blowback he's received for his beliefs demonstrates the need for legislation regulating speech on college campuses ... he released a statement on Thursday accusing the "elitist media" of "losing their minds over someone with a different opinion." Kremer said the "left's unhinged attacks" on his perspective — which he said included death threats and profanity-laden messages — demonstrated the need for his legislation, which he says would protect speech by punishing protesters who shout down controversial speakers. Critics of the legislation say it could favor speakers' rights over protesters.

Dave Vanness, an associate professor of population health sciences and past-president of the UW-Madison chapter of American Association of University Professors, said: "Faculty have an obligation to respect students' rights to expression; they are under no obligation to treat all beliefs as equally valid," Vanness tweeted. 

Public Colleges to morph into Think Tanks? Yes, their ultimate goal:

The new crop of bills is broadly based on a model designed by the Goldwater Institute, a conservative think tank: punish students who take part in disruptive protests; requires universities to launch an investigation and hold discipline hearings if they get two or more complaints alleging someone violated the policy; System institutions must “strive to remain neutral” on public policy controversies.

Right Wing Authoritarians Ultimate Takeover Scheme: These aren’t just random invites, they’re carefully planned events to poison thepublic on colleges in general, while turning them into institutes of right wing indoctrination. That’s right, after years of accusing colleges of liberal indoctrination, it turns out it was just another extreme example of projection: 

(Conservative speakers) Ben Shapiro and Steve Forbes were invited to campus by the UW-Madison chapter of Young Americans for Freedom, an affiliate of a national student organization attracting attention for its success in placing conservative speakers on college campuses.

The national organization, armed with a $16 million bequest from a California orthodontist, has doubled its programming, including campus speeches, over the past two years, the New York Times reported. This past academic year, the organization helped put 111 speakers on 77 campuses, including what the Times called “heat-seeking” speakers.

And while this insidious plan rolls out, duped conservative voters will once again make fun of liberals blaming the Koch brothers for everything…oh wait: 

The foundation helps pay for speakers, trains student event organizers and provides promotional materials as part of its mission of grooming future conservative leaders, the Times said. Funders include billionaire brothers David H. and Charles G. Koch, and the Amway billionaires Richard and Helen DeVos, although Betsy DeVos, their daughter-in-law and secretary of education, is not a donor, the group says. 

And Republicans say they're working hard to save you money...except when they don't? Not only did Ben Shapiro's legend grow along with his speaking fees and book sales, he's getting you to foot the bill:

Marc Lovicott, spokesman for the UW-Madison Police Department, said this week that YAF had not paid a $450.08 bill for security at the Shapiro event. That amount reflected the typical cost of security for a campus speaker, Lovicott said, not the $4,938.47 actual cost of services to the event, for which the department beefed up its coverage.

“After they were billed, the group informed us via email that they did not plan on paying. They said they could not afford it, and they didn’t feel they were liable for security costs,” Lovicott said in an email.

Walker stealing Trump's bizarre irrational Tweet lies to attack ACA.

It was pathetic and funny in a bizarre way when Paul Ryan bragged about the CBO prediction that people would see lower premiums in 2026, all the while telling us how wrong they're predictions have been in the past. Ryan's loyal low information voters nodded yes anyway.

That same weird double speak flowed out of Scott Walker's twitter trolling this week. Except this time someone called him out on it. Check out Charles Gaba gofundme site and his official information page, ACASignups.net:

I liked this tweeted response GIF:

After 50+ attempts to repeal the ACA, a CBO score that predicted 24 million losing coverage, and administrative rules hanging in the balance under Trump, is it so hard to imagine insurers not just leaving the marketplaces but the entire individual market as well. This is a self fulfilling prophesy for Republicans, who finally utilized that ridiculous "market uncertainty" excuse to kill ObamaCare, for real. 

Sycophantic Walker to Trump, vilify Labor's free market choices.

Scott Walker was soundly trashed by Trump. It's a political wound that should never have healed, if Walker had any amount of moral conviction, but he doesn't.

WSJ: At the rally, Mr. Trump accused Mr. Walker of overstating the strength of the state’s economy, a criticism that fell on receptive ears of an audience that booed at the mention of their governor’s name. "He’s not doing such a good job, Scott Walker, but he’s convinced you there’s no problem. Both Walker and Cruz want TPP — that would hit Wisconsin so hard.”

Trump then read a long list of economic data points to make the case that Walker has failed: total state debt $45 billion, 20,000 fewer people in labor force than 7 years ago, 800,000 food stamp recipients; middle class hit hard due to loss of manufacturing; 15,000 jobs lost to NAFTA and more. “He’s not doing such a good job, Scott Walker, but he’s convinced you there’s no problem.”

"You had a $2.2 billion budget deficit and the schools were going begging and everything and everything was going begging because he didn't want to raise taxes because he was going to run for president. So instead of raising taxes he cut back on schools, he cut back on highways, cut back on a lot of things. And that's why Wisconsin has a problem and you're losing jobs all over the place."

Trump called the Club for Grow (he donated $15,000 to them for Scott Walker recall election) a“crooked outfit.” “He (Club for Growth) writes me a note asking for $1 million dollars. Now they are doing ads all over Wisconsin on eminent domain. By the way without eminent domain you would not have schools roads or hospitals... but they are complaining about eminent domain which is kind of funny because these people love the Keystone pipeline... which is all about eminent domain." 

He's now groveling at Trump's feet, hoping to get something he's opposed every waking moment of his administration, federal help.

Walker sells out our Packers, to a happy (?) Trump!!!

The president’s emphasis on concerns raised by CEOs across the country, that there are some 6 million job vacancies — the highest since the 1980s — largely due to a lack of qualified workers, echoes a similar focus on workforce development in Wisconsin by Gov. Scott Walker ... discuss the need for government and the private sector to work together....

Free Market Labor: It's rarely talked about, but labor is also a part of the supposed "free market," where businesses compete by offering wages, benefits and training. For Walker, who really has no concept of work, isn't buying that.

Walker's laser like focus on what has been a normal and perpetually long list of unfilled jobs (remember the thick "Help Wanted" sections), which by the way ignores the choices laborers are making while letting business off the hook to do their part by raising wages, is a sneaky way to avoid creating 21st century jobs.

You'd think with all the tax cut savings handed out to our starving class of corporate CEO's, they would have some money left over to boost wages and attract the best and brightest?

Believe it or not, Democratic Party of Wisconsin chairwoman Martha Laning said something that didn't sound like she was reading it off a bumper sticker:

“Throughout his two terms, Gov. Scott Walker focused on giving massive tax giveaways to millionaires and out-of-state corporations. The same failed ideas of the last six years don’t need to be duplicated at the federal level. Wisconsinites need an economy that works for them all — not just those at the very top.”

We're in real trouble: Trump voters loyal in the face of jobs losses in Waukesha, while attacking Paul Ryan!!!

This is almost like a surreal nightmare that just keeps playing out over and over. 

In a blog I'm still working on, it's appears Americans on verge of losing their life saving health care are still on board with Trump. But that's not all.

These loyal voters have also decided to go down with the Trump ship in the face of losing their jobs: GE is moving from Waukesha to Canada...what is Trump doing about it?

GE CEO Jeff Immelt is a member of President Trump's manufacturing advisory council. Workers at the Waukesha plant, many of whom voted for Trump, are baffled that the president gave Immelt such a prominent role.

Bret Mattice is particularly surprised. He voted for the first time ever in 2016, casting his ballot for Trump because he felt Trump wasn't like the establishment Republicans and CEOs at all. "Trump's values were different than all of them," says Mattice, another long-time worker at the plant. He believes Trump cares about the "average person."

Mattice gives Trump a B+ grade so far.

 Huh? Here's the CNN Money feature story:



The GE plant moved because of Paul Ryan's little free market game bashing the Import/Export Bank:

GE first made the announcement that it was moving the factory to Canada on September 28, 2015. GE blames the job losses on Congress. In the summer of 2015, Congress shut down the Export-Import Bank. It's a government organization that provides money to help boost American exports."If Ex-Im had been reauthorized during that time, the decision to close Waukesha would not have been made," a GE spokesperson told CNNMoney.

At the end of 2015, Congress re-authorized the bank. But it hasn't been able to do any major deals above $10 million because the U.S. Senate hasn't confirmed enough people to serve on the bank's board. Trump used to favor shutting the bank down, but he recently did a U-turn.

Inaction, even for a few months, gave other countries the opening to go after GE: 

Ryan says the bank had nothing to do with GE's choice to go to Canada. "GE's decision to upend the livelihoods of hundreds of Wisconsinites was deeply disappointing," Speaker Ryan's spokeswoman AshLee Strong, told CNNMoney. "The bank was reauthorized in (late) 2015, yet the plant is still closing."

Powerful nations that the U.S. competes against, including China and Germany, have something similar to the Ex-Im Bank. But many Republicans, including Ryan, slammed the bank as "corporate welfare." "Congress has failed to take action," a GE spokesperson told CNNMoney. "We are the only major economy on the planet without a fully functioning export credit agency."

Here's a graph:

Georgia Republican Candidate Handel admits, she doesn't support a Livable Wage.

Yes, there is quite a difference between a Democrat, who understands 70 percent of the economy depends on consumer demand. Republicans, who oddly believe supply side tax breaks somehow makes the economy even more "robust," don't give a hoot about buying the things businesses make:   

Karen Handel and Jon Ossoff : Georgia's Sixth District open seat.

After Jon Ossoff came out in support of a minimum wage increase to bring it to a livable wage, Karen Handel said:

"This is an example of the fundamental difference between a liberal and a conservative. I do not support a livable wage. What I support is making sure we have an economy that is robust, with low taxes and less regulation..."

An utterly cluelessness statement.



But Karen Handel would also let her sister, who has a serious preexisting condition, struggle and eventually lose her health insurance coverage because she believes the nonsense her party is spinning. Or she's brutally cruel. You'll notice that Handel mysteriously knew what was in the nonexistent Senate bill. Think she's lying and winging it up there? Jon Ossoff clarifies:

Scott Walker trashes Madison's 2.1% Unemployment rate and "throwback to the 60's" straight talking Mayor Soglin.

In my previous blog I posted this uncomfortable truth for Republicans:

Dane County, Madison Liberals to the Rescue: Democratic politicians in Dane County must be doing something right...

Dane County, which includes Madison and its technology spin-off industries, reported the state’s lowest jobless rate in April at 2.1%. Unemployment was worst across northern Wisconsin.

Liberal Democratic Successes: Democrats could have mismanaged the UW Madison's contributions to our economies bottom line and low unemployment numbers like the Republicans, but they haven't.

Madison Mayor Paul Soglin said Democrats were losing because they had become afraid to run campaigns on liberal, progressive values. "I think the point is that people are ready for someone in elected office who is focused on really delivering to the people who are electing them. It's real simple," said Soglin.

Scott Walker must not know that Mayor Soglin's been around our fair city for some time now, the same city that hosts the Capitol, which makes his comment even more absurd. From WKOW:

Governor Walker grinned when asked about the possibility Monday. "It'd make for a lively race. I mean, he's an unabashed throwback to the 1960s radical liberal out there. The idea that he thinks Bernie Sanders is a good model for him, I think makes for a great contrast. It probably does him well in Madison, I doubt it does well across the rest of the state. I don't think most people in the state believe that Madison is the way they want to be.”

Yea, lowest jobless rate and a mix of new businesses. Of course believing in Trump's agenda makes so much more sense?

But Soglin believes the rest of the state could benefit greatly from the way things are done here. "Yeah, we've got a philosophy about how to administer government to address these challenges. And they work. Why would anybody be embarrassed by that?  2.1 percent unemployment. I think every part of the state would like to be like that."

The low information brain trust at the Republican Party of Wisconsin offered up this mindless, meaningless statement…

“Paul Soglin is as radical a left-wing Madison liberal as you can get, even unbelievably giving the key to the City of Madison to brutal communist dictator Fidel Castro (1975),” said Alec Zimmerman, spokesman for the Republican Party of Wisconsin. “Instead of standing up for Wisconsin taxpayers, Madison liberal Paul Soglin would cling to the failed polices of yesterday, take Wisconsin backward to the days when special interests controlled state government - and leave Wisconsin taxpayers footing the bill.”

That's right, special interests don't control Walker's copy cat agenda. And what failed Soglin policies of yesterday is he talking about?

Check out Paul Soglin's reaction to Walker's 60's throwback statement with Sly. 

Walker's Wisconsin: Four more years of lost jobs in manufacturing, lower wages, and bad roads/construction delays, etc.....

I don't think Scott Walker has gotten the message yet...think he will now? Na!

Manufacturing employment last year posted declines in 28 states, including a sharp drop in Wisconsin ...Wisconsin’s manufacturers lost 3,784 jobs in the period from December 2015 to December 2016, a drop of 0.8%, which was far steeper than the national average in the sector. 

The decline in factory employment is all the more baffling after the Republican-controlled legislature, with Walker’s support, enacted a deep tax cut ... took full effect in 2016. The Manufacturing and Agricultural Credit slashed the effective rate of state corporate taxes for all Wisconsin-based manufacturers to nearly nothing — from 7.9% to 0.4%.

The Walker manufacturing renaissance ain't happening, despite the outpouring of praise from bullshitting CEO's who predictably stroked Walker's ego for his "bold" tax cuts.

Average weekly private-sector wages in the state declined 0.6% last year, led by a 5.3% plunge in manufacturing wages.

Remember when Walker trashed the minimum wage because as governor he wanted people to get jobs that paid higher wages instead? What if wages don't get much higher? No plan.

The Journal Sentinel put together this truly telling piece:



The latest QCEW numbers should put a stake in the heart of Walker's reelection hopes.

Private-sector job growth rate of 0.5 percent was less than half the national average of 1.2 percent, putting the state 33rd in the national rankings for the second-straight year.

Put another way, according to the Journal Sentinel:

The 2016 data were the worst for Wisconsin since the current expansion began, following the severe 2008-'09 recession. The 2016 data also were the worst of the six years since Gov. Scott Walker took office in 2011.

The US created private-sector jobs at a rate of 1.3% in the latest 12-month period, more than double Wisconsin's 0.5% increase.

Among Midwest peer states, as measured in overall job growth, Wisconsin ranked 33rd behind Michigan (No. 15), Minnesota (No. 18), Indiana (No. 24), Pennsylvania (No. 28) and Ohio (No. 31), and ahead of Illinois (34) and Iowa (41).

Like a broken record, Walker's got nothing but the low unemployment rate to brag about, a gift from the Obama administration. But we're still "growing"...ever so slowly:

Wisconsin’s unemployment rate consistently has trended below the national rate for more than 30 years. "The bottom line is Wisconsin's economy is growing and adding jobs,” Workforce Development Secretary Ray Allen said in a statement.

Dane County, Madison Liberals to the Rescue: Democratic politicians in Dane County must be doing something right...

Dane County, which includes Madison and its technology spin-off industries, reported the state’s lowest jobless rate in April at 2.1%. Unemployment was worst across northern Wisconsin.

Small Government Republicans or Authoritarian Republicans?

I found this old video post from March 2011, which took a nice look at our ever enlarging big, bigger and biggest government Republican Party. It's even scarier now....:

Study says Mass Shootings mostly Domestic Violence targeting Women and Children.

Guns aren't like knives or cars. The fact that we even have to make that distinction should tell you how far down the rabbit hole we've gone over concealed carry in Wisconsin. So it shouldn't be to much of a surprise that Republicans here are now pushing the right to carry a gun without a background check and training:

Republican State Sen. David Craig introduced legislation this week that would allow Wisconsinites to carry concealed firearms without training or a permit ... Giving citizens access to those constitutional rights has panned out well in the past, he said. 

“And if other states are doing this without ill effect, and we’ve had the level of permitless carry in Wisconsin without ill effect, why would we not break down that barrier?

"Without ill effect?" Overall, the GOP backed culture of guns has had a profound effect in Wisconsin. If only the dead could throw their two cents in now:

Even worse, Republicans seem more concerned about protecting supposed responsible gun owners with new laws that give them a pass for being reckless, like carrying a gun on school grounds.

A new report on mass shootings says it all. Everytown for Gun Safety inventoried all mass shootings between 2009 and 2016. The black bar represent child deaths, the green represents total deaths per year 2009-2016:

The majority of mass shootings——were related to domestic or family violence.

The connection between mass shootings and domestic violence ... 54 percent of cases ... domestic violence mass shootings resulted in 422 victims being killed—more than 40 percent (181) of whom were children.

About 4.5 million American women report that they have had an intimate partner threaten them with a gun. (4) And guns make it more likely that domestic abuse will turn fatal—when a gun is present in a domestic violence situation, the likelihood that a woman will be shot and killed increases fivefold. (5)

But for Sen. Craig, the fate of threatened women and children...is sealed:

The bill makes it easier for law-abiding citizens to protect themselves, he said, and those intent on using guns for illegal purposes will do so anyway.

“And at the end of the day, people who are hell-bent on conducting violence with a firearm are going to do that,” Craig said.

The Everytown study also found: 

Additionally, there is not a single mass shooting in Everytown’s database in which the shooter was stopped by an armed civilian—even in cases where there were armed civilians present.

Wisconsin now has a well deserved reputation for its crackpot legislators. Like Rep. Bob Gannon, who recently wanted to pass a law penalizing businesses with "gun free zones" for their customers. That's a very bad idea, according to the new research:

Only ten percent of incidents took place in “gun-free zones”, or areas where civilians are prohibited from carrying firearms and there is not a regular armed law enforcement presence (armed security guards, for example). The vast majority of incidents—63 percent—took place entirely in private homes.

Instead, Gannon's use of "Republican logic" flipped reality on its head:

WSJ: Gannon’s proposal, dubbed the “Disarmed Citizen Compensation Act,” would go a step further in discouraging gun-free zones by allowing a victim of gun violence to sue businesses with such bans and recover triple the amount of damages without regard to who was at fault.

Gannon: "Just so you know, my state business, my other job is selling property and liability insurance. Wisconsin does not have a death penalty law, but with significant practice and careful aim, law-abiding citizens can help clean our society of these scumbags ... If you’re going to allow somebody to come in and put a bullet in my brain, you should have some liability ... If one in twenty at that mall had the ability to drop the creep, it would sure bring it to a close in a hurry. I refer to that as self defense. If it happens to terminate the bad guy, too bad, so sad-dy."

"The reason I put this out today is because we're getting all this baloney with the Democrats singing along again. You see Democrats think they can deal with this violence by having sing-a-longs, and having big food buffets in the House of Representatives in Washington D.C....they do that in Milwaukee too you know, they march around, they sing, and then they stop and have lunch and they think that's dealing with violence...instead of babbling about it on the radio, or in your marching circles, in your sing-a-long at the state Capitol..." 

And for those "fiscal conservatives," well, that's a laugh?

The University of Chicago Crime Lab has issued a new report, “Gun Violence Among School-Age Youth in Chicago." [1] The Chicago Tribune, March 3, 20009, reports:

“The social costs of gun violence in Chicago total about $2.5 billion each year, according to a report released Tuesday by an academic group formed to research effective ways to reduce violent crime … used interviews, focus groups, police data and social research to characterize factors underlying Chicago's escalating murder rate.

Expanding upon previous research that every crime-related gunshot wound causes around $1 million in social costs, the report's four authors calculated the annual cost of gun violence at $2.5 billion, or $2,500 per Chicago household.” $2.5 billion dollars just for Chicago. Imagine how much gun violence is costing our entire country.

The Underlying Republican Rot Spreads....

Trump defenders are more than willing to let society slip into a fear induced state of chaos, as long as the rest of us never forget, "they won."

We're now told that those over the top accusations of racism by the "left," were simply wrong and overplayed.

What were liberal Americans thinking when they said bad things about the spreading white supremacist movement? After all, it's not like many of these tolerant white guys don't have black friends too...:

An official at an agency that manages foreclosed homes in Flint, Michigan, has resigned after a recording surfaced Sunday in which he blames the city’s water crisis on “n****rs who don’t pay their bills.” Phil Stair, sales manager of the Genesee County Land Bank resigned (after) Stair traced the crisis to residents not paying their water bills:

"Detroit was charging all its customers for the cost; they weren’t collecting from their residents. They weren’t shutting the water off, they were letting bills go forever, but they were charging everybody else, they covered them. Well, Flint has the same problems as Detroit, fucking niggers don’t pay their bills, believe me, I deal with them. I don’t want to call them niggers, shit, I have, shit, I just went to Myrtle Beach, 24 guys, and I was the only white guy. I got friends, I mean, there’s trash and there’s people that do this. … They just don’t pay their bills. Well, Detroit didn’t collect on their bills, so they charged everybody else, but Flint, Flint had to pay their bill to Detroit."

Having black friends goes without saying...

And what about the "Islamic radicals" here and trying to get into this country?

Rep. Clay Higgins wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday: “Hunt them, identity [sic] them, and kill them. Kill them all. For the sake of all that is good and righteous. Kill them all. The free world... all of Christendom... is at war with Islamic horror ... Their intended entry to the American homeland should be summarily denied. Every conceivable measure should be engaged to hunt them down.”

Louisiana Republican voters must be proud, having voted for Rep. Higgins...right? Nice to know the U.S. has an established religion:

Higgins said last year while announcing his resignation from the police force: 

“I begin each day on bended knee, but I kneel to our savior. I will not kneel to violent street gangs, I will not kneel to murderers or the parents who raised them. I will not kneel to a discredited wannabe black activist that doesn’t really have the best interest of his people in mind. I will not kneel to bureaucrats from Washington, Baton Rouge or anywhere else.”

Lyin' Ryan suckers voters with Financial CHOICE Act, exploiting "rural resentment" to the max.

Paul Ryan is exploiting “rural resentment” with conscience free panache pushing this gift to the Wall Street Banks, the Financial CHOICE Act. So now “choice” is good? I’ve highlighted Ryan’s shameless bullshit (keep in mind Ryan voted to bailout the banks):

“This is a jobs bill for Main Street. It will rein in the overreach of Dodd-Frank that has allowed the big banks to get bigger while small businesses have been unable to get the loans they need to succeed. With the Financial CHOICE Act, the era of taxpayer-funded bailouts and too big to fail is over. Instead, we will put Main Street first to create more opportunities for people who work hard and do the right thing.

"People who work hard and do the right thing" probably isn't mention anywhere in the Act:

Ryan’s co-opting of the “too big to fail” tagline was rich, considering that Dodd-Frank was specifically designed to ensure financial institutions so entwined with the economy that their failure might tank the entire market could be dismantled safely. It’s right there on the first page of the legislation:

Here's Ryan pushing passage of the Wall Street bailout. Ya think he'll make the same speech and "hard" choice again when the time comes...sure:

So what's making Ryan drool in the Financial CHOICE Act? Well, it has nothing to do with helping you. In fact, you're on your own...which is CHOICE and freedom after all:

The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau — which seeks to improve transparency in auto loans, student loans, and mortgages, i.e. the things most directly affecting the average Joe — would be hobbled. Right now the CFPB can sue financial institutions on your behalf when they cheat you out of money, and track and resolve customer disputes with their banks and credit card companies. It acts largely independently because its director cannot be fired by the president and it does not have to answer to Congress. In other words, the only person the CFPB works for is you, and the GOP doesn’t like that, so they want to replace its director with a board of appointees and eliminate its current funding.

Another provision the GOP hopes to do away with, which was not a part of Dodd-Frank but an Obama-era executive order, is the fiduciary rule. We’ve addressed it in greater depth in other articles, but put simply, the rule required financial planners to act with your best interests in mind, instead of acting in their wallet’s best interests. (Kind of wild they were ever allowed to do that in the first place, isn’t it? But hey, this is America.)

And I thought these were two nightmarish but interesting additions:

The bill would remove the power through which the federal government can label a bank “too big to fail,” and disassemble it before it collapses and triggers another crisis. The bill would also replace Dodd-Frank’s Orderly Liquidation Authority with a special bankruptcy process that aims to insulate the financial markets from a failing bank’s fallout.

Scott Walker's Bumbling Economy and Slow Job Growth, and he had the nerve to criticize Obama?

I once wrote: "Scott Walker is stuck in the past, working on a manufacturing renaissance in Wisconsin. In fact, Walker is attacking, vilifying and stopping emerging industries he feels aren't part of the Republican Party platform, like wind, solar and mass transit." 

Well, now we're feeling it, which is just in time to give Walker four more years? Seriously? Walker was so sure about his vision of a manufacturing-mecca-in-the-Midwest, that he put all of his eggs in one tax cut basket:

The Manufacturers and Agricultural Production Tax Credit will reduce corporate tax liability for manufacturers to 0.4 percent from 7.9 percent by 2017.

Failed!!! So what did the manufacturers tax cut give back to Wisconsin?

Wisconsin added just 11,590 private sector jobs in 2016, good for a growth rate of 0.5 percent. Those numbers mark the slowest job growth of any year since Gov. Scott Walker took office. 

Contributing to the slower growth in 2016 was a decline in manufacturing jobs. Wisconsin suffered a loss of 3,776 jobs in the state's second-largest industry.

Tim Smeeding, an economist at UW-Madison who noted 2016's flat job growth in the Wisconsin Poverty Report released earlier this week, said, "Manufacturing employment has been dropping in this country for 40 years. Other jobs in other industries - there aren't enough startups - there's not enough going on."

Walker's laser like focus on manufacturing, encouraged by the lobbyist at Wisconsin Manufacturing and Commerce, owns this collapsing job market. In the report below by WKOW's Greg Neumann, Walker offered up this distraction:

"Our biggest challenge isn't creating jobs, it's finding people to fill them," wrote Tom Evenson in a statement. "Wisconsin’s unemployment rate is 3.2%, the best it’s been since 2000 ... We’ve seen a strong ramp up in private sector job growth so far in 2017."

As anyone knows, since time began, there has always be a lot of jobs that go unfilled. So to focus on the impossible task of filling those jobs, instead of creating new jobs in emerging industries, you get the lowest job growth numbers in Walker's six years, .05!!!



And this didn't help either; out migration of labor:

Walker has ignored the biggest engine of job creation, small and medium businesses under 500 employees. And in today's economy, that means venture capital for startups, many of which are in the tech industry. WKOW's Greg Nuemann explained:



Here's an even more in-depth look (4:30 min.) at the need for venture capital in Wisconsin:



Gig Economy...does Scott Walker even know what it is? He should as governor. Yahoo Finance talked about it in the video clip below, and Techtarget defined it below that:

A gig economy is an environment in which temporary positions are common and organizations contract with independent workers for short-term engagements.

A study by Intuit predicted that by 2020, 40 percent of American workers would be independent contractors ... this digital age, the workforce is increasingly mobile and work can increasingly be done from anywhere, so that job and location are decoupled. That means that freelancers can select among temporary jobs and projects around the world, while employers can select the best individuals for specific projects from a larger pool than that available in any given area ... financial pressures on businesses leading to further staff reductions and the entrance of the Milennial generation into the workforce ... businesses save resources in terms of benefits, office space and training. They also have the ability to contract with experts for specific projects who might be too high-priced to maintain on staff.

Republican Opposition to rebuilding U.S. Infrastructure is Destroying Manufacturing: Ironically, Republican policies are making Walker look like an even bigger fool. 

As the Economic Policy Institute's Robert Scott advises:

Taken together, steps to eliminate trade deficits (by ending currency manipulation and unfair trade) and rebuild U.S. infrastructure could easily generate sufficient demand for manufactured products to return most or all of the 5 million manufacturing jobs lost between 2000 and 2014. Growing trade deficits and the shortfall in demand caused by the Great Recession, and not productivity growth, are the major causes of manufacturing job loss in this period.

Manufacturing and Coal Renaissance??? It almost seems like Walker is longing for the days of big manufacturing plants pumping out billowing clouds of pollution from their towering smoke stacks. Take Walker lap dog AG Brad Schimel's editorial defending the dying coal industry as a way to save manufacturing...well, it pretty much says it all:

As one of the top manufacturing states in the country, Wisconsin has much to lose if the Obama administration succeeds in its plan to destroy the viability of clean-coal electric generation. Manufacturing jobs in our state depends on affordable and reliable electric power.

 If coal is so cheap...? 

Electricity rates paid by businesses and residents of Wisconsin now rank highest among eight Midwest states.

Four Teachers out prior to Exams in West Bend: Act 10 keeps Bearing its Poisonous Fruit!

Like everything Republican, the list of their failed ideologically focused legislation will inevitably lead to huge problems in the future, where another set of legislators will have to repair all the damage. That will just take time away from dealing with a whole new set of problems. 

Act 10 Plundered the Public Investment Made in Education: Vindictive policies that took aim at the opposition party's biggest supporters, Democrats and unions, without any concern over the consequences of their actions is now hitting home for parents and students alike in school districts statewide.

The story below is just another example of the short sighted political gamesmanship from Scott Walker and his band of plundering legislative pirates, who are hell bent on defunding Democratic campaigns and privatizing public education. It has turned what was a thoughtful long-term investment in our teachers and schools into a waste of time and money. And that's "fiscally conservative?"

Yea, everything is fine...

JSonline: Everyone wants to know why 4 West Bend teachers abruptly resigned: Four of the six English teachers resigned Friday, throwing students into a lurch before finals and prompting vast speculation about the cause of the departures. Students appear most concerned about the teacher departures.

"Kids are outraged because we have exams coming up next week," said freshman Mackenzie Owens, 15. "All this week is supposed to be review and four of the six English teachers are not here. Especially being freshmen and being new to the exams this year, it's a lot of stress."
Many students like Owens feel the teachers were pressured to resign by the administration because they were complaining internally about a new curriculum the district is getting next year. The district declined to comment further on the personnel issue. An online petition led by students pleaded for the district to give the educators their jobs back. It had more than 625 signatures as of Wednesday.

As for the testing system, called Galileo, Owens said she felt like it was taking time away from her classroom learning this year. "With all the new testing, I feel like we're being taught how to take a test," she said. " A lot of teachers have this opinion, but they can't say anything about it."

Several parents said they worried that staff turnover would diminish the community's ability to attract quality educators and new families. "Last year my son had several different teachers for his math class," said Jody Erickson, who has a 16-year-old at West Bend West and a 19-year-old who graduated last year. "As a concerned parent, I want to know that our teachers feel supported," she said.

Others say the turbulence can be traced to fallout from Act 10, as well as what community members say about all the issues on social media.