Like Putin-Trump-Walker!!! Russian Republicans now hiding NRA Dark Money, have always said "We're not a democracy..."

This probably won't mean much to those Trump groveling admirers of dictatorial leaders like Russia's Putin, but for everyone else, GULP!!! I'm assuming they think this is just another "fake news" nothing-burger created by "snowflake" liberals still angry about losing the election since my Trumpian conservative friend in Milwaukee hasn't said jack sh** about it.

The stench around the Trump Party and supporting big money lobbyists like the NRA found a match with Putin's KGB style of influence peddling and corruption. No surprise there.

Scott Walker a Russian Player: Scott Walker quickly fabricated an excuse that doesn't fit with the facts, but does give "stand with Walker" dupes a quick thoughtless comeback if confronted. Still, the media treasure trove of proof is out there...

A Siberian woman charged Monday (with) seeking to infiltrate American political organizations, including the National Rifle Association, on behalf of the Kremlin to interfere with U.S. politics ... was at Gov. Scott Walker’s presidential campaign launch ... A 2015 blog post attributed to her at the time, Mariia Butina said Walker greeted her in Russian and she did not detect any hostility from him toward Russia, according to an April 2018 report from Rolling Stone. Maria Butina is a protégé of Alexander Torshin (left in photo), a powerful Russian banking official and close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

According to an online translation of her post in Russian, Butina wrote her "acquaintance with Scott Walker will remain in my memory forever."

Photos of their talk were posted on the website of Our American Revival, a political group set up by Walker leading up to his presidential run. Walker spokesman Brian Reisinger said that while Walker was in Tennessee, he "appeared in an atrium area … were thousands of people ... approached the governor and asked to say hello and take a photo with him." Reisinger did not say if Walker discussed his views on Russia with Butina, as she claimed.

Walker, Our Sleepy Eyed Sociopath: Walker claims he never had a meeting with Butina. Hmm, check out this wonderful description of Scott Walker, by gubernatorial candidate Matt Flynn, who compared him to criminal liars in our courts. WKOW's Capital City Sunday:

Flynn: "Walker lies continuously. He's a robot in a sense, he has a flat AFECT, no human emotion displayed. No joy, sorrow, anger, fear, and there's a certain way of handling somebody like that, who frequently says something that's untrue." 

NRA, Russian Influenced Arm of Putin, plays Gun Groups. But Prayer Breakfast?: Well, this seemed easy. Russian meddling found easy access and endorses through our mindless gun lobby, the NRA. What is it about the GOP's fascination with Russia?:

She founded a Russian gun rights group, Right to Bear Arms, in 2011 and repeatedly claimed on social media that she was a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association. In 2013, her gun rights group got John Bolton, now Trump's national security adviser, to appear in a video that was used in the group's lobbying.

Trump Treasury Ends Reporting Contributions to NRA: Wow, that was fast. Where the f**k are the Democrats? Why didn't they sound the alarms???

VOX: The US government is making it easier for “dark money” donors to keep their contributions, well, in the dark. The Treasury Department on Monday said it planned to end requirements that certain tax-exempt organizations identify their financial contributors on their tax returns. The decision means groups such as the National Rifle Association ... will no longer have to tell the IRS who’s giving them money.

The decision landed the same day as the Justice Department announced the arrest of Maria Butina, a Russian national with NRA ties who is accused of trying to influence US politics.Ethics experts say Treasury’s maneuver will make identifying activities like those Butina has been accused of even harder to track.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, sounded the alarm bells in a statement on Monday. “Trump’s Treasury Department made it easier for anonymous foreign donors to funnel dark money into nonprofits the same day a Russian national linked to the NRA was arrested for attempting to influence our elections,” he said.

Floodgates open for Dark Money Across the Board:

Labor unions, volunteer fire departments, issue advocacy groups, local chambers of commerce, veterans groups, community service clubs, and other so-called social welfare 501(c)(4) groups or those that don’t generally get tax-deductible contributions will be freed of requirements that they list the names or addresses of their donors on their annual returns with the IRS. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement announcing the decision that Americans “shouldn’t be required to send the IRS information that it doesn’t need to effectively enforce our tax laws,” adding that the IRS “simply does not need tax returns with donor names and addresses” to do its job.

Coal and Nuclear target of Free Market's Creative Destruction!

Dumb Ron Johnson defended free market job losses in Wisconsin manufacturing to what he called "creative destruction."

When it comes to the dying coal and nuclear energy industries, let's remember the words of Ron Johnson actually promoting "creative destruction" of jobs in Wisconsin:

Johnson: "In a free market capitalistic system there's always winners and losers, it's creative destruction. That's what happens. It's unfortunate, but let's face it, if it weren't for that we'd still have buggy whip companies." 

Think about it, that attitude won Johnson two Senate terms, from an "America First" voting base who cares more about the (R) next to a name than Johnson's "who cares" attitude about manufacturing job losses in Wisconsin. Imagine trying to convince Trump Party voters that coal and nuclear energy is also falling victim to "creative destruction." Ain't gonna happen, despite the massive shift in jobs to renewables. It was never about job creation or "uncertainty," but instead a ploy to attack Dems:

The wind industry employs over 100,000 Americans and the solar industry employs nearly 250,000. 

Capitalism/Free Marketplace Energy Industry goes Renewable: With wind and solar energy prices at/lower than the price of coal and gas, "free market" energy companies woke up to the fact that they would only have equipment maintenance costs to contend with. No orders of coal or gas, just a free supply of sun and wind: 

1. Xcel Energy is investing heavily in affordable wind energy to power their customers’ needs. In fact, it plans to be 85% carbon free and 60% renewable by 2030. Xcel Energy plans to own more than 10,000 MW of wind energy by the end of 2021. Xcel Energy CEO Ben Fowke said, "[Wind] beats gas, even at today’s prices. I like to say we backed up the truck because the fuel of tomorrow was on sale today.”

2. Great River Energy (GRE) is the second-largest electricity provider in Minnesota and powers many of the rural electric co-ops in Minnesota and Wisconsin. In May, 2018, GRE announced its plan to source 50% of its power from renewables by 2030. “Wind is becoming the new baseload,” stated Great River Energy CEO David Saggau in 2017.

3. MidAmerican Energy is the largest electric utility in Iowa and also serves customers in Illinois, South Dakota, and Nebraska. It plans to provide net 100% renewable energy for its customers energy needs by 2020, and it recently surpassed the 50% mark. CEO Bill Fehrman said, "The beauty of wind is there’s no fuel costs. We will be able to virtually serve 89 percent of our customers’ needs with an energy resource that requires no fuel.”

4. Consumers Energy is Michigan’s largest energy provider and has a goal to reduce carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2040. Consumers Energy CEO Patti Poppe states that “our price to install and deliver wind power is down 75 percent from where we originally thought it would be. In the past people believed that we had to choose between affordable and clean energy; we don’t subscribe to that sucker’s choice.”

DTE Energy is the largest investor of wind and solar energy in Michigan. It plans to power 25% of their energy needs with renewables by 2030 and reduce carbon emissions by 80% by 2050. DTE Energy has invested over $2 billion in wind energy in the past 10 years, noting that “[wind energy has] created hundreds of jobs for residents and a local tax revenue for communities while delivering reliable, affordable and clean energy for our 2.2 million Michigan customers.”

Electric Heat...Again? Yes. So much for that new high efficincy gas furnace: 

Chicago will need to embrace smart thermostats and electric heating to meet long-range carbon reduction goals, according to a recent report. The study by the Rocky Mountain Institute ... includes making the switch from natural gas to electric heat.

Is Trump's Trade War "Created" Destruction? I'm fascinated by Trump Party voters, who once screamed bloody murder over the "uncertainty" created by Obama regulations, and are now willing to give Trump the wait-and-see benefit of the doubt over the massive uncertainty of an expanding trade war with no plan or exit strategy.

Even more surreal, Republicans get to enjoy being against the tariffs all the while being for the anger created by the politics of resentment; other countries have been taking advantage of us, wah! So if a company like Harley-Davidson moves manufacturing and jobs overseas because of Trump's trade war, that's okay:

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) warned on Sunday that President Trump’s policies on trade are starting to do “permanent damage.” Johnson said that his state of Wisconsin has “been particularly targeted” by China’s recently imposed tariffs, which came in response to Trump’s trade measure against the country.

Johnson said that motorcycle manufacturer Harley-Davidson was right to move parts of its production overseas. "Because of the beginning of the trade war...our state has been particularly targeted. Harley-Davidson has been targeted, our cranberry industry, our ginseng industry, but people don't realize that Wisconsin is a huge manufacturing state. They were paying 6 percent tariffs [to get] into Europe, now it's 31 percent. If they manufacture in another country they can enjoy the lower steel prices and remain competitive. So they really don't have a choice." 

Walker walking backwards with Drug Testing during Labor Shortage, and Business is moving forward.

The recent court decision stopping work requirements for Medicaid recipients made it perfectly clear why: Medicaid wasn't designed to be a jobs program, it's a healthcare program. 

As I've mentioned before, the inhumane idea of withholding their health care to force people to work is beyond cruel, it's unthinkable, Dickensian. Yet it's being treated as another brilliant idea by Republicans dead set on blaming someone for something, anything, including the sin of unemployment.  

Now add to that, drug testing for health care and even food stamps, which is weaponizing the politics of resentment:

DWD: Pre-Employment Drug Testing Program Helps Workers Move from Dependence to Independence by Secretary Ray Allen: We have nearly 100,000 jobs available on Wisconsin's JobCenterofWisconsin.com website, and approximately 89,000 individuals in Wisconsin are unemployed. That’s right, we have more available jobs than we do people to fill them.

Not exactly. It makes more sense that during this worker shortage, businesses won't be so quick to walk away from a drug using job seeker, especially experienced potential employees. 

Something else. Wouldn't the state be giving "health care" to treat drug users anyway? 

Check out this great point by point easy to understand assessment of the jobs picture now and in the future by Manpower Group's Becky Frankiewicz. At about 2:30 into the clip, drug testing comes up, and Frankiewicz reveals that companies have changed their minds about using drug testing as a disqualifier. 

In other words, Scott Walker is going in the opposite direction of businesses. Which makes his policy strictly ideological and a waste of taxpayer money and time. But that's how it has been for 8 years: 

1. 46 percent of businesses are finding it difficult to find skilled workers, up from 14 percent right after the Great Recession.

2. 61 percent say communication skills, written and verbal are most important now.

3. Finally and long overdue, half of the companies are training workers, up 34 percent over the last 4 years. They have to build their own talent. Walker would have the state finance part of that instead.

4. Relaxing education standards. Because jobs and skills are changing so quickly, it's much more about what you can do, than about what you did in the past.

5. Borrowing the talent, meaning hiring free lancers and independent contractors.

6. Relaxing drug testing and criminal background history.

7. The workforce of tomorrow is actually the workforce of today. Yikes.

May the Space Force be with Us.

Vukmir's wrong about ICE: "...false and ridiculous...Vukmir's claim Pants on Fire!"

Just what we need besides a clueless Trump, a Senator who doesn't understand how government works. A little research would have taken too much time?:

But enforcing the border is not even ICE’s job. Rather, the federal agency pursues unauthorized immigrants who are already inside the country. A different federal agency is responsible for patrolling the border, so border enforcement would continue even if ICE were eliminated. And, in any case, Pocan is not proposing to end border enforcement.

For a statement that is false and ridiculous, we rate Vukmir’s claim Pants on Fire.

The Face of a MAGA Trump Worshiper!!!

No really, this is how I see mindless MAGA Trump wallowers, allowed by law enforcement to rub their stupidity in other Americans faces:

vjh

Farmers put faith in NY Huckster Trump's Trade War Fiasco!

I have supported rural voters for years, offering solutions and recognizing their problems with disappearing schools and teachers, broadband, roads, the loss of dairy farming, mining, and contaminated drinking water, but after witnessing their recent blind allegiance to our grifting president Trump, I'm wondering why I should care. They've invested more into being true believers than they have trying to solve their own problems, giving Trump unthinkable latitude than is rationally healthy.

Yet just by coincidence, the trade war isn't hitting Ivanka Trump. Funny how that works:

Donald Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods won’t touch Ivanka Trump’s foreign-made products for her fashion line. While Trump rails at Harley-Davidson motorcycles for moving some production to Europe to dodge EU tariffs, the first daughter and senior White House adviser has never manufactured a single product for her Ivanka Trump brand on American soil. Trump enacted tariffs Friday morning on $34 billion worth of Chinese goods, affecting hundreds of products from boats to medical devices and auto parts. Products spared include those manufactured by his daughter.

Farmers Blindly Stand with Trump: Yes, many rural voters bought the idea that Trump was a successful businessman. Sure, if just naming buildings, building hotels and failing in the casino business with no responsibility to shareholders...or anyone for that matter instills confidence and certainty, Trump's your guy:

Not everyone is buying this is a crisis. Standing on the edge of his bucolic dairy farm close to Sartori’s cheese plant, Scott Ditter, a dairy farmer with 60 cows whose sole client is Sartori, is unfazed.

“This guy is smart,” says Ditter. “He’s got a plan. That’s why he does what he does. He’s a rattler and he knows how to rattle cages." It is time that the US’s “so-called trading partners” cut the US a fair deal, he says. "China literally rapes American companies of their technology." The cards have been stacked against the US for too long, Trump’s tariffs will finally force its trading partners to deal fairly, he believes. There’s too much milk out there as it is and some farmers will fail, they would have anyway, says Ditter. For him a bit of pain now is worth it if Trump can get a better deal for the US. “A lot of farmers I speak to think we are doing the right thing, putting our foot down and saying enough is enough,” he says.

Double Whammy, Cheeses getting Mysterious New Names: Adding insult to Trump injury:

WSJ: Analysts say that unless an international court sides with the United State’s position that all cheese names are generic, no one is sure when the naming problem will get fixed.

The U.S. has been battling the EU over the geographic naming restriction. Sartori Cheese's president Jeff Schwager says the EU got the upper hand by taking an aggressive approach toward completing agreements with almost all of trading partners ... Since the agreement was signed, the EU’s share of the imported cheese market in Canada has climbed 12 points to 70 percent, he said.

The EU-Mexico deal includes a provision restricting Mexico’s other trading partners from selling products with names that correspond to a region in Europe. The EU’s trade agreement with Mexico also prohibits U.S. cheesemakers from using protected names in marketing campaigns ... So after Sartori renamed its Asiago sold in Mexico to Sartiago, it couldn’t run ads in Mexico saying, “Our Asiago is now called Sartiago.”

Cattle Ranchers Blindly stand with Trump Too: No regrets voting for Trump, they don't blame him, they're hoping for more of those rumored accomplishments tied to his legend...not the bankruptcies or contractor lawsuits left in Trumps wake.

AG Schimel is against Prison Reform? Yes.

This blog post is an easy one, and proof AG Brad Schimel is first, not so smart, and second was never really qualified for the job. We all know that "tough on crime" truth in sentencing laws were costly and disastrous. That goes without saying.

Running Wisconsin’s prisons costs state taxpayers more than $1 billion a year. The facilities in recent weeks have held more than 23,600 adult inmates, putting the prison system at a record high.

So the Democrats decided to run on the least controversial prison reform plan ever, something that's  already been implemented by 35 states, both Democratic and Republican:

JS: Some 35 states cut both crime and incarceration between 2008 and 2017, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts (separate from the Pew Research Center). Much credit is due to state-level efforts to provide alternative forms of accountability for nonviolent offenders, streamlining of release for parole-eligible inmates — and other reforms. President Barack Obama’s efforts to reduce the federal prison population, while perhaps mostly symbolic (the federal system accounts for a small share of all incarceration), focused public attention on the issue.

Money saved could go to schools, infrastructure, healthcare etc., but no, Schimel apparently doesn't do much reading or is blindly taking orders from Scott Walker and the GOP legislators still pushing outdated ideas everyone is moving away from;

Democrats running for governor are deceiving the public into believing prisons are full of marijuana users, Attorney General Brad Schimel said Monday.

Schimel ripped the candidates in a call with reporters, saying their plans to significantly cut the number of inmates in state prisons shows either a lack of knowledge on the candidates’ part of how the state’s criminal justice system works, or an intent to mislead the public about the kind of offenders prisons house. “I’m stunned at the irresponsible proposals being made,” Schimel said. Schimel called on the candidates to identify which kind of offenders would be released under their plans to cut prison populations.

Schimel's request granted...

These policies prioritize costly prison space for violent and career offenders, adjust lengthy prison terms, expand prison alternatives for nonviolent offenders, and direct the resulting savings into programs that reduce recidivism.

The Pro-Life Lie Busted, and Trump's Chinese 2020 reelection U.S. Flags! Blame Robots for WI Clinton Loss!!!

Here's a couple of topics I want to clear off the table as the new week begins:

As President Donald Trump levies tariffs and threats against China for “stealing American jobs,” a Chinese factory says it’s been hired to manufacture flags for Trump’s 2020 campaign, according to a Tuesday episode of NPR’s “Indicator” podcast.

Factory owner Li Jiang told NPR that his workers are producing hundreds of thousands of blue and white Trump flags similar to those they manufactured for his 2016 campaign.

Pro-Life they Ain't: For years I've been saying supposed pro-life groups really aren't what they say they are, since so many more people are dying from guns, lack of healthcare, and polluted air. They could equally take on these issues if they wanted to but instead chose to totally ignore life after birth. Thank you, Michelle Wolf, the right wings latest declared enemy of freedom: 

“I know some people call themselves ‘pro-life,’ but pro-life is a propaganda term that isn’t real, like healthy ice cream and handsome testicles,” she said on “The Break.” “Get the terminology straight.” Then she really unloaded:

“First of all, these people are anti-abortion, which means they’re anti-woman. If these people were actually pro-life, they would be fighting hard for healthcare, childcare, gun control, education and protecting the environment. But these anti-abortion people do not care about life, they just care about birth.

Robotics/Automation killed Clinton's chances in Wisconsin: While most of us still get angry over offshoring and cheap overseas labor replacing the U.S. workforce, we never noticed...the robots:

The big picture: In a new paper in the Oxford Review of Economist Policy, U.K. economist Carl Frey and two co-authors argue that the 2016 U.S. presidential election — and the effects of industrial automation during the decades before — may be a signal of worse to come.

1. From 1979 to 2013, productivity rose by 65% but hourly wages for 80% of the workforce were up by just 8.2%. Since they were also working more hours as well, they may have lost ground.

2. And from 2000 to 2013, wages for 70% of workers were either flat or fell.

To assess any link between automation and the 2016 election, the authors used local mechanization data from the International Federation of Robotics and county-level voting data from Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. They say they controlled for other factors in joblessness — like offshoring of manufacturing and trade deals. Among their results:

1. There is a correlation between automation in the years before the election, and how people voted.

2. At a 10% lower robot exposure, Michigan would have swung in favor of Clinton.

3. If robots barely increased in the years leading up to 2016, Clinton would also have won Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

What the Trump Administration is thinking...?

Trump Party again outraged over Declaration of Independence, twice!!!

My Trumpian conservative friend in Milwaukee just emailed me the latest conservative outrage blaming Facebook for removing a part of the Declaration of Independence for dated racist references...

But it only made sense...here's why, from SNOPES:

Misdirection Play; Trumpian MAGA losers may want to hold back their outrage, and be just a little embarrassed for their own unAmerican mistake, which was a whole lot worse:

Across the nation, citizens will gather to celebrate the birth of the nation with fireworks and apple pie; and they will watch, once again, as Donald Trump supporters accuse National Public Radio of inciting a treasonous uprising against the president by tweeting out the Declaration of Independence.

As per its own annual tradition, NPR last year tweeted out the Declaration of Independence line-by-line ... Defenders of the president attacked NPR for “calling for a revolution” by tweeting phrases like “A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.”

Horror movies "Keep America Great" new Trump Slogan!!!

"Keep America Great?" Let's hope that the 19-29 percent of hardcore Trump worshipping "Americans" don't somehow get this guy elected again. In that spirit, Trump's 2020 reelection is starting off with an ominous parody slogan pulled from an unsettling dystopian movie reflecting Trump's presidency:

Apparently unbeknownst to Trump, his lawyer and The Washington Post, the slogan had already appeared in a poignantly titled 2016 horror movie: “The Purge: Election Year.”

 via GIPHY

With the release of “The First Purge,” the latest installment in the 5-year-old dystopian franchise about government-sponsored killing sprees, you might be wondering, “Huh, is President Donald Trump still planning on using that ‘Keep America Great’ slogan that was ripped straight from the horror movies?” Well, readers, he is.

Tump Mouthbreathers Love Author Trump: The actual author of the Art of the Deal told by fans he didn't write the book:

Really? Here's what Tony Schwartz said...

Trump, facing a crowd that had gathered in the lobby of Trump Tower, on Fifth Avenue, laid out his qualifications, saying, “We need a leader that wrote ‘The Art of the Deal.’ ” If that was so, Schwartz thought, then he, not Trump, should be running. Schwartz dashed off a tweet: “Many thanks Donald Trump for suggesting I run for President, based on the fact that I wrote ‘The Art of the Deal.’ ”

If he were writing “The Art of the Deal” today, Schwartz said, it would be a very different book with a very different title. Asked what he would call it, he answered, “The Sociopath.”

Trump opposes Breastfeeding, chooses Infant Formula Profits!

Just when you thought the Trump administration couldn't plunge to lower moral depths...

Trump's America opposes Breastfeeding, supports Corporate Infant Formula industry: This story boggles the mind, proving big corporate special interests and money are more important than breastfeeding babies. Wow: 

A resolution to encourage breast-feeding was expected to be approved quickly and easily in Geneva for the United Nations-affiliated World Health Assembly. Based on decades of research, the resolution says that mother’s milk is healthiest for children and countries should strive to limit the inaccurate or misleading marketing of breast milk substitutes.

Then the United States delegation, embracing the interests of infant formula manufacturers, upended the deliberations:

1. Sought removing language that called on governments to “protect, promote and support breast-feeding.”

2. Sought removal of another passage that called on policymakers to restrict the promotion of food products that many experts say can have deleterious effects on young children.

3. When that failed, they turned to threats, according to diplomats and government officials … The Americans were blunt: If Ecuador refused to drop the resolution, Washington would unleash punishing trade measures and withdraw crucial military aid. The Ecuadorean government quickly acquiesced.

The issue was recounted by more than a dozen participants from several countries … “We were astonished, appalled and also saddened,” said Patti Rundall, the policy director of the British advocacy group Baby Milk Action. “What happened was tantamount to blackmail, with the U.S. holding the world hostage and trying to overturn nearly 40 years of consensus on best way to protect infant and young child health.”

It wasn't enough to try and deny health care to tens of millions of Americans putting their health and lives at risk, Health and Human Services then took their brutality global, using successful ploys like "victimization" and "resentment" to win over support: 

The Department of Health and Human Services, the lead agency in the effort to modify the resolution, explained; “The resolution placed unnecessary hurdles for mothers … These women should … not be stigmatized...”

The confrontation was the latest example of the Trump administration siding with corporate interests on numerous public health and environmental issues.

Russia Heroically takes Moral Highground from U.S.:

In the end, the Americans’ efforts were mostly unsuccessful. It was the Russians who ultimately stepped in to introduce the measure — and the Americans did not threaten them. “We’re not trying to be a hero here, but we feel that it is wrong when a big country tries to push around some very small countries, especially on an issue that is really important for the rest of the world.” 

That’s not all, the U.S. tried to require the words “evidence-based” to breastfeeding, meaning ethically challenged double-blind studies would have to be conducted:

The United States also insisted that the words “evidence-based” accompany references to long-established initiatives that promote breast-feeding, which critics described as a ploy to undermine programs...Scientists are loath to carry out double-blind studies that would provide one group with breast milk and another with breast milk substitutes. “This kind of ‘evidence-based’ research would be ethically and morally unacceptable,” Ms. Sterken said.
 A 2016 Lancet study found that universal breast-feeding would prevent 800,000 child deaths a year across the globe and yield $300 billion in savings from reduced health care costs and improved economic outcomes for those reared on breast milk.

Trump tries to Limit Lifesaving Medicines...my god: Trump to increase big Pharma's bottom line at the expense of peoples lives:

The Americans also sought, unsuccessfully, to thwart a W.H.O. effort aimed at helping poor countries obtain access to lifesaving medicines. Washington, supporting the pharmaceutical industry, has long resisted calls to modify patent laws as a way of increasing drug availability in the developing world, but health advocates say the Trump administration has ratcheted up its opposition to such efforts.

This wasn't the only time Trump took a stand against breastfeeding:

Donald Trump had an "absolute meltdown" when a lawyer requested a break from a 2011 deposition to pump breast milk. "He got up, his face got red, he shook his finger at me and he screamed, 'You're disgusting, you're disgusting,' and he ran out of there," attorney Elizabeth Beck told CNN's Alisyn Camerota on Wednesday morning.

Republicans against Breastfeeding, but love "small government?" In New Hampshire, back in December of 2015, this exchange tragically happened:

Conservative Activist Supreme Court redefines "Academic Freedom," strikes blow against "Liberal" Campuses

The national laughing stock we call the Wisconsin Supreme Court is now that finely tuned, shaped and twisted conservative hammer Scott Walker and the legislature envisioned it to be.

Their decision not only told a Catholic private college what it can or can do, but also redefined "academic freedom" and intentionally gave conservatives another weapon to silence dissent; exposing personal information under the guise of "academic freedom," to threaten dissenters who oppose their righteous cause.

Think I'm kidding? As Marquette University explained...

"At Marquette University, we are proud that we have taken a stand for our students, our values and our Catholic, Jesuit mission. This case has always been about Associate Professor John McAdams’ conduct toward a student teacher. The professor used his personal blog to mock a student teacher, intentionally exposing her name and contact information to a hostile audience that sent her vile and threatening messages." She left the university to finish her studies in Colorado.

She left Marquette, that's how bad it got. The part "vile and threatening" should have tipped off the justices...nope.

In a 4-2 ruling, the Court ruled that Marquette University political science professor John McAdams, 72, was improperly suspended after he publicly criticized a graduate student by name on his politically conservative blog, leading to threats against her. 

It got so bad that it forced the graduate student to leave the university. So using her name and posting her personal email is now considered "academic freedom?" McAdams attorney said yes, using the term "painting a target on their back" to send the not so subtle message, it's open season folks:

Esenberg said the university's claims that McAdams had endangered the graduate instructor were overblown. "If criticizing somebody amounts to 'painting a target' on their back … then none of us are free to say anything."

How partisan and embarrassing is our Republican Supreme Court? Our newest right-wing Justice unintentionally exposed her deep-seated anger over the myth that conservative students are picked on and threatened on "liberal" college campuses. With buzzwords like "offending" and "sensitivities," Bradley was not making a legal argument:

Justice Rebecca Grassl Bradley stressed the importance of academic freedom, saying it was being increasingly undermined on college campuses.

"Academic freedom means nothing if faculty is forced to self-censor in fear of offending the unforeseen and ever-evolving sensitivities of adversaries demanding retribution." 

The majority opinion written by Justice Daniel Kelly...

"The undisputed facts show that the University breached its contract with Dr. McAdams when it suspended him for engaging in activity protected by the contract's guarantee of academic freedom." The conservative-leaning court ordered the Jesuit university to immediately reinstate McAdams and sent the case back to a Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge to award damages, including "unimpaired rank, tenure, compensation and benefits."

Academic Freedom means you can expose someone else's personal information? How odd it must have been when the Circuit Court strongly defended the university and the graduate student:

Milwaukee County Circuit Judge David Hansher ruled in May 2016 that the professor was prohibited by professional standards from bringing negative public attention to a student ... dismissing all six of McAdams' claims against Marquette in a 33-page ruling with a recitation of what academic freedom is — and is not. Academic freedom, Hansher wrote, "does not mean a faculty member can harass, threaten, intimidate, ridicule."

And like most conservative activists I know, when it comes to their actions and deeds, it's never their fault:

McAdams maintains that the "unkind" emails the graduate student instructor received were the result of other media writing about it; not his original blog post.

Cranky McAdams used the finely tuned right-wing media machine to do the rest. You'll notice that Fox News and McAdams both failed to mention the use of someones personal information:



The two supposed "liberal" Justices (anyone who isn't far right apparently) pointed out the obvious in their dissent:

Justice Ann Walsh Bradley said the majority erred "in conducting only half of the academic freedom analysis. It fails to recognize, much less analyze, the academic freedom of Marquette as a private, Catholic, Jesuit university. As a result, it dilutes a private educational institution's autonomy to make its own academic decisions in fulfillment of its unique mission. Apparently, the majority thinks it is in a better position to address concerns of academic freedom than a group of tenured faculty members who live the doctrine every day."

It's sad that Marquette won't continue to defend themselves. Conservative right-wing groups wouldn't hesitate.

It appears Hobby Lobby has greater religious rights than private Catholic college like Marquette University? You can't make this stuff up. But it's getting scarier.

Feel free to post McAdams address and number here, and continue that discussion of free speech on a more personal level. I found a number and address with a simple search, not confirmed, but John Charles McAdams should be out there. 

Walker's back to work to-do list 2

Homeland Security's Ron Johnson in Russia on 4th of July? Can Trump Party do anything now?

Only a few days ago...

...and just yesterday, despite the Senates own findings, Wisconsin's own Sen. Dumb Ron Johnson made a courtesy call to Russia anyway as a reward for...meddling?

ArabNews: “I am here not to accuse Russia of anything, I am here to try to find ways to improve relations,” Sen. Shelby told Russian lawmakers, according to a transcript published on the Duma website. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Kremlin was “very satisfied” that the senators were visiting Russia.

Nothing seemed more tone deaf and outright bizarre than a Russian trip by Johnson and the gang of 8 other senators...

Predictably, a Twitter storm justifiably followed...

Washington Post's Dana Milbank pretty much summed it up for me:

For the Wisconsin Republican, it meant, specifically, the freedom to spend July 4 in Moscow with seven other Republican lawmakers posing for propaganda photos with Russian officials. On the same day it was reported in Britain that two more people had been poisoned by a Russian nerve agent ... the day after the Senate Intelligence Committee affirmed the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia interfered in the election to help Donald Trump. Johnson and his colleagues ... also exercised their freedom to soft-pedal their criticism of the Russian government, leading Russian politicians and state media to mock them as supplicants.

“I’m not here today to accuse Russia of this or that or so forth,” Shelby told Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin. “I’m saying that we should all strive for a better relationship.”

Yes, let us strive for camaraderie with a government that attacks us with cyberwarfare, meddles in our elections, denies entry to American officials who are critical of Moscow, destabilizes Europe and the Middle East, kills critics at home and abroad, occupies its neighbors’ land and shoots down the occasional passenger jet. Or, as Shelby put it, “this, that or so forth.”

One can hardly wait to see the lawmakers’ next codel: meeting with wounded Taliban fighters on Veterans Day? A Memorial Day wreath-laying for fallen members of Saddam Hussein’s Republican Guard? Flag Day at a street protest in Tehran?

Walker doesn't have time for Tariffs, Harley-Davidson, Dairy Farmers and Immigrant Labor!

BREAKING - 7/5/2018: I guess you can forget everything I wrote below now because no one from Harley-Davidson asked for Walker's help to say something...anything?

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Back to the original blog post...

Republicans botched it up again, this time with the new and growing hemp farming industry in Wisconsin. Frightened Republicans stayed clear of "hemp" for decades, too similar to pot, while other states were drowning in the agricultural cash. In fact, they thought other farmers might treat many of their hemp growing neighbors as criminals and druggies.

Shhh! It's a Hemp Farming Secret: You won't believe what they wrote into the law legalizing hemp farming:

The new law legalizing hemp keeps confidential all contact information for hemp growers and processors in the state. This makes it difficult for farmers to find buyers for their crops in Wisconsin. 

Rob Richard of the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation (WFBF) and Senior Director of Government Relations: “We were concerned growers would be harassed by people who didn’t understand hemp. Perhaps lawmakers should rethink keeping hemp growers and processors confidential ... allow farmers and processors to “opt in or opt out of public information so growers can access the list.” 

Walker oblivious to growing Dairy Farm Immigrant Labor Shortage: On separating immigrant children from their parents and the state's dairy farm dependence on immigrant labor, Scott Walker is nowhere near sounding the alarm to fearless leader Trump on border and trade policy. It's all election year photo op headlines and talking points. This is a red alert problem Walker doesn't see as an insane policy, like it has nothing to do with Wisconsin:



Yup, why comment about anything that might be incredibly important to America's Dairyland?

Half of all workers on U.S. dairy farms are immigrants, and the damage from losing those workers would extend far beyond the farms, nearly doubling retail milk prices and costing the total U.S. economy more than $32 billion, according to a new report commissioned by the National Milk Producers Federation ... 80 percent of dairy farms surveyed continue to hire immigrants ... More than 7,000 dairy farms would close ... It concluded that a complete loss of immigrant labor could cause the loss of one-in-six dairy farms and result in 208,000 fewer jobs nationwide. Some 77,000 of the lost jobs would be on dairy farms.

And Trump's reckless and ever-changing tariff war that's negatively impacting Walker's own rural farm voters...that's something far off in the future for Scott Walker. Like Walker said, if we had no tariffs, that would be better. That's a position? And anyway, he can always pass the blame off on Trump later, keeping his own reputation intact. Peas in a pod here:



"Foxconn Walker abandons Harley-Davidson too: Walker did the impossible; he made bringing an industry leader like Foxconn to Wisconsin a nerve-wracking divisive decision that should have been welcomed with open arms. Who does that?

So it should come as no surprise Walker never thought to defend Harley-Davidson from leader Trump's trade war. Asked specifically about Harley, Walker repeated the same pat answer from the previous video...uh we're talking about Harley, remember?:

Walker praised Trump's negotiating position during a luncheon with other governors at the White House. "The best thing you said at the G7 is the ultimate goal is let's just get rid of all tariffs," Walker told Trump. "You were brilliant to point that out. That's the ultimate answer."

With Walker's support and lack of concern for Harley, Trump felt compelled to double down.

Trump has no idea what makes Harley so unique, why it's not like any other motorcycle on the market. Incredible, and a reason Walker should be on the front lines saying something...anything?

Apparently, no one would dare try and correct Emperor Trump, or maybe google a few simple charts. Wisconsinites have been reading about Harley's falling profits for years, and the growing markets around the world:

“Harley’s primary issue is U.S.-related due to shifts in demographics, which began well before any talks of tariffs and trade wars. Trump’s reaction seems emotionally charged. Harley is simply playing the hand Trump dealt them,” Bernstein analyst David Beckel said.

Trump on Tuesday also appeared to incorrectly tie Harley’s June announcement to its sales last year, saying Harley customers were unhappy with the move and that sales had fallen 7 percent in 2017.

The final word...

Benn Steil, the director of international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations, joked that the Harley customers must be psychic.

"To punish Harley-Davidson for shifting production out of the US in response to Trump's trade war, Americans went back in time to reduce the company's sales in 2017 — the year Trump thanked them for building in America. Astounding!"

One Narcissist under God...

Trump's "Space Force" supporters clearly in charge of White House agenda!!!

Trump is running the country to please his Trump Party voting base, which puts them in charge and that should be scary to everyone. While they may hate criticism and jokes about their dumbest public comments and Trump-wear, it's all deserved...unless you can ignore the Daily Shows recent visit in Trump country:

.@michaelkosta heads to a South Carolina Trump rally to learn more about Space Force. pic.twitter.com/VgYLggyx2H

— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) July 1, 2018

Walker's campaign List a work in progress...