The Days of Political and other kinds of Blogging Might be Over Soon: The EU's Article 13 is coming...

Pretty soon, the EU will once again force their overprotective internet rules onto everyone in the US. 

They want to end the internets free exchange of ideas.

Watch out for Article 11 and 13 (especially 13).

Nope, I'm not a big fan of EU meddling; they stopped Microsoft from including their Media Player. Then ... investigated the bundling of Internet Explorer with Windows operating systems, saying 'Microsoft's tying of IE to the Windows operating system harms competition between web browsers, undermines product innovation and ultimately reduces consumer choice.'" Wow, were they wrong or what?

Along with repealing Net Neutrality, the EU came up with the final few nails in the coffin: 

The Last Days of the Internet: Like the whining recording companies who had a fit over stolen music via P2P networks (their fault, they didn't like online digital music), we now have news media and others companies whining about a few of their paragraphs, sentences/links, being "stolen" by the likes of...Democurmudgeon, Google, and right-wing news shapeshifters.

Don't let anybody try to soft-peddle this. To comply, companies will play it overly safe banning everything, like they did recently after passing sex trafficking laws that ended many adult dating sites and apps. Here's a soon to be considered "stolen" excerpt and link:  

New digital copyright laws pushed forward by the European Parliament this week would make platforms like Google, Facebook and YouTube share more of their profits with creators, news organizations, musicians and artists. The laws would make them take more aggressive steps to filter copyrighted material. But critics, including YouTubers, say the law is so broad that it could lead to widespread censorship and even kill off internet memes. Article 13 requires certain platforms like YouTube and Facebook stop users sharing unlicensed copyrighted material.

Article 13, they say, is even worse. The legislation requires that platforms proactively work with rightsholders to stop users uploading copyrighted content. The only way to do so would be to scan all data being uploaded to sites like YouTube and Facebook ... and could be used as a mechanism for widespread censorship. This is why figures like Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales and World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee came out so strongly against the directive.

See if you spot anything here that won't be used as a sledgehammer to censor:

The Electronic Frontier Foundation and 56 other rights organisations sent an open letter to European lawmakers in October outlining their concerns about Article 13. "Article 13 appears to provoke such legal uncertainty that online services will have no other option than to monitor, filter and block EU citizens' communications if they are to have any chance of staying in business," it read.

Paul McCartney, Annie Lennox, Placido Domingo and David Guetta ... were among 1,300 musicians who urged politicians to enact the law ... Critics said the laws would stifle creativity - with Creative Commons chief Ryan Merkley observing that The Beatles would have been prevented from performing cover versions under the proposed rules.

For you and me, it could have resulted in text, music and videos posted to blogs, social networks and comment sections being yanked from the net at point of upload - somewhat like YouTube's controversial Content ID system on steroids.

Two Points: Many of my video clips have copyrighted material and Youtube simply allows rights holders to profit from advertising on those videos.

My second point is this; without exact quotes and pictures from articles and research, what I write will become nothing more than an untrustworthy opinion piece of writing offering nothing as proof.   

Walker officially abandons Roads and Transportation Funding, says so in reelection bid.

I am a big mass transportation guy. High-speed trains, commuter rail, buses, electric scooters, and bikes...

But what about our highways? As Wisconsin roads crumble under Scott Walker's weird vision of our transportation future, voters finally got a clear picture of how bad things will be getting:

"There are some groups out there that want to spend billions and billions and billions of dollars on more, bigger, wider interchanges across the state. I actually think we should be fixing and maintaining our infrastructure. I don’t know that we need bigger and better and broader right now when we have a changing transportation system."

I've never been on board with "liberal" groups that would love to take us back to deadly two-lane highways. With the proliferation of electric and hybrid cars, old arguments about cars trashing the environment are disappearing, albeit slowly, thanks to Wisconsin's love affair with trucks. But there are hybrid SUV trucks like the Toyota Highlander, so what's the problem here?

Scott Walker's Lying, a common 2018 GOP campaign platform: I didn't say it. That's straight from a diehard former 8 year GOP legislator:

Walker has been "increasingly inaccurate" when describing the state's highway system, said Mark Gottlieb, Walker's former transportation secretary. Gottlieb is the third former top aide to Walker to speak out against the governor in recent months. The GOP governor isn't telling the truth about road projects and is taking a high-risk gamble that could see the state invest billions of dollars in obsolete highways. 

Gottlieb reacted strongly to Walker's suggestion last week that the state could save money by declining to add lanes when it rebuilds roads ... 

Walker's sounding every bit as irrational as Trump about transportation, and these guys are the ones in control?

The governor contended people may drive less in the future, but Gottlieb noted traffic has been increasing since the country climbed out of the 2008 recession. "Most highways being actively considered for expansion in Wisconsin are already unacceptably congested today, causing delay, economic loss and higher crash rates," Gottlieb said in his statement. "How much risk are we willing to accept to see if the governor’s predictions hold true? If they don’t, we will have spent billions of dollars to duplicate 1960-era designs that will be obsolete the day they are built." Gottlieb said he was speaking out because Walker hadn't been honest about transportation.

Will voters buy into Walker's reasons for not funding roads? I'm not seeing a Gov. Doyle connection in the comment below, are you...

Walker campaign spokesman Austin Altenburg blamed former Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle for shifting money from roads to schools.

Really? So shifting money during the GOP's free-market gift to the world, The Great Recession, to schools was a bad thing? Fund roads not schools?

Gottlieb, a former Civil Engineer, should know: Walker also lost federal funding, more of our own tax dollars coming back to the state because he couldn't show how the state would "fund the work:"

Gottlieb said Walker's claims wrongly implied that decisions about expanding highways were made by outside groups ... state and federal laws require extended review and officials take into account public input. Gottlieb cited the study for rebuilding I-94 between the Marquette and Zoo interchanges in Milwaukee ... runs nearly 1,000 pages and cost more than $20 million to produce. "The governor’s seemingly offhand comment that the decision to widen our highways is driven by outside interests is not factually based, and is profoundly disrespectful to the professionals in the private and public sector who are trained to design and build safe and efficient highways for all to use," said Gottlieb, a retired civil engineer.

Walker initially backed the project, but shelved it last year after federal officials said they were prepared to withdraw their authorization for the project because the state couldn't show it had a way to fund the work.

Walker makes Federal Funding Disappear: Under Walker's "don't ask, ask and I still won't tell" policy, just assume the worst:

Odd, Schimel finally gets Rape Kits Tested 2 Months before Election. Job Saved?

It's amazing how much Scott Walker and AG Brad Schimel can accomplish around election time. Still, inaction for years is no excuse...or maybe it is?

Brad Schimel obviously didn't care too much about those rape kits until his reelection rolled around, but you won't believe what he's saying to explain away his incompetence: 

Johnny Koremenos, spokesman for Schimel, said Schimel is "the only reason Wisconsin’s decades-old accumulation of sexual assault kits have been tested," and that none of Schimel's predecessors "got the job done."

It was past AG's fault Schimel took so long? Anyone buy that?  Surreal.

Our bumbling AG needs to be shown the door, literally, please, someone show him where it is:

Josh Kaul, Schimel's Democratic challenger, said Monday: "It's unacceptable that it's taken this long for testing to be completed on the kits in the backlog — and that there are still over 1,200 kits on which testing results have not been confirmed."

While evidence related to about 4,100 cases have been tested, results for testing of 1,267 cases are still pending. "Brad Schimel's incompetence has meant that justice has been delayed for survivors and that dangerous criminals have remained on the streets longer than they should have," Kaul said.

Anyone want to talk about Scott Walker's transportation problem? I will...in another post:

Scott Walker can't explain his way out of this...

As you know, I've been begging someone to add up all the money Scott Walker has wasted bringing all his ideological fantasies to life. Well, it has finally happened.

The following list could probably be added to, but this is a great start. Who would have thought that taking back so much of our federal taxes would be so bad? Thank you, James Rowen, at Political Environment: 

7 Walker moves which cost, or lost, Wisconsin $2.6+ billion

Here are the 7 biggest financial fails by our fake fiscally-conservative Governor:

* $11 million in forfeited Federal Medicaid fraud award eligibility.

* $20.6 million and counting for settlements and payments traced to the youth prison crisis he ignored for years at Lincoln Hills.

* $23 million in forfeited Federal broadband expansion funding.

* $50 million in settlement awards and equipment losses over the Amtrak train set assembly facility contract broken by Wisconsin under Walker.

* $750 million to build an extra 19 miles of Milwaukee freeway lanes which planners had recommended against, but which Walker championed.

* $810 million in Federal Amtrak Milwaukee-to-Madison rail construction funds Walker forfeited.

* $1+ billion in Federal Medicaid expansion funding Walker has refused to accept through the end of the 2017-'19 state budget.

These forfeited programs or awards would have added jobs, taxable property, public revenues and spin-off development.

Who knew we had the luxury to reject all that? But wait, this UPDATE-10/4/2018: 
* That $900+ experts say are added to a Wisconsin resident's annual driving costs in maintenance and repairs traced to poor condition of Wisconsin roads.

Scottholes take money right out of your wallet because Walker has deliberately underfunded road aids, bridge repairs and other state transportation functions..

* The legal fees and lost personal time drained fighting state agencies which have enabled brown tap water, wetland losses and other capitulations to Walker donors big business by a deliberately weakened DNR.

* Including costly multiple battles for land rights, clean air, wetland preservation and Lake Michigan water kicked off by Walker's pet project - - Foxconn.

* And similar fights over the Menominee River shoreline mining plan, the Meteor sand mine, the Kohler golf course, thePenokee Hills iron ore proposal, and CAFOs from Kewaunee County to the Central Sands.

* Don't forget the costly legal work to get rid of voter ID and overturn blatant, partisan gerrymandering, and to fight limitations on early voting hours - - key elements in the Walker/GOP blueprint to use state power and public resources to remain in charge.

* And some portion of the hundreds of millions of dollars in personal and public losses in flooding still happening right now across the state can be laid at the doorstep of a Governor who ignored and deleted expertise and warnings that climate change was real and would hit property hard, including infrastructure paid for by taxpayers.

These costs need to be labeled "Walker taxes," all.

What next Scott Walker, child labor apprenticeships?

Scott Walker is pushing 7th and 8th-grade middle school vocational training because according to right-wing orthodoxy, people don't have worth unless they're working. Employers give them "value." Proof? Just look at the GOP backed work requirements for food and healthcare, two items they claim are earned privileges." You can't get any more obvious than that.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker would make the state's youth apprenticeship program available to seventh- and eighth-grade students under a plan he described this week ... Walker's proposal would expand the program. "We’re putting Wisconsin’s students in control of their learning and future," read a fact sheet from the governor's campaign.

Because 12 and 13-year-olds, 7th and 8th-graders, should be in control of their learning and future, right?

Welcome back to Turn of the Century Child Labor?: Coincidentally, I just happen to run across a Washington Post article about child labor, and then it came to me. The headline above took on a whole new meaning. By defining a person worth by requiring them to be "workers," the next step won't so hard to sell, which takes us back to early 1900's:

The National Child Labor Committee (the NCLC) mission wasn’t about showing the public that children were being used for financial gain — that was already a well-known fact. At the time, many believed the practice had substantial benefits. Youths could learn the value of hard work. Businesses could ... decrease the hourly pay. Parents could depend on their children to support the family, meaning the adults could work less or not at all. 

As one mother remarked to the NCLC in 1907: “I am really tired of seeing so many big children ten years old playing in the streets.”

Let's go back to child labor and fewer costly regulations?

Walker Plan Nothing like Germany's VET System: Republicans like Walker like to point to European success stories that supposedly justify their agenda and cancel out Democratic objections. But in every case, they always leave out that one important factor they would never agree to: Education, Health Care, and now Germany's VET job training program are all standardized by their national governments, an important issue no Republican would ever support. But without national standards, the programs could collapse into chaos. Vouchers are one great example; some work and many don't.

I highlighted a few facts below that separates what Walker's Wisconsin is doing and what Germany's training programs accomplish; Germany has tight federal control and standards, nothing like the unregulated patchwork of programs that are untested and probably thrown together by campaign contributors:

A Brief Description of Germany’s VET System: Despite being a federal country in which individual states have autonomy over educational matters, Germany has established a fairly uniform and highly regulated VET system nationwide. There are a number of different training programs including full-time school programs, but most vocational sector students enroll in the dual system. This system straddles ninth or tenth grade, and continue in vocational programs lasting two to four years. Participating companies are obligated to provide training in accordance with national regulations and pay students a modest salary ... regulated and funded by both the federal government and the German states ... the final graduation examinations are uniform throughout the country and lead to formal vocational qualifications. Graduates earn a state-examined or state-recognized vocational title or a journeyman certificate, all of which are official certifications recognized throughout Germany. 

The Nike ad drooling Trump Losers hate, exploiting the military to divide Americans!

Trump followers everywhere hate this Nike ad. Why? Their "orange" President Trump created a fake, drummed up, and twisted attack on all the players kneeling during the National Anthem to protest racial inequalities and police violence against minorities in America. It wasn't about the military or the flag. As one military group pointed out, veterans were being used by Scott Waker and Trump to divide Americans. Now that's respecting the military?

Don’t ask if your dreams are crazy. Ask if they’re crazy enough. #justdoit pic.twitter.com/Wd5L42egV8

— Nike (@Nike) September 5, 2018

Many veterans feel much different than the conservative flag-waving contingent so in love with car magnets and phony symbolism:

WaPo: One strand of criticism is particularly disturbing: the notion that kneeling during the anthem is a specific affront to veterans and service members. As Kurt Schlichter, a combat veteran and contributor for Fox News, put it, Kaepernick “is targeting us. He knows what this means to us. He knows how insulting it is. He knows how disrespectful it is, and Nike is empowering it.” Someone wrote: “Anyone not respecting our flag should be deported. Many veterans and servicemen and women have died and suffered grievous wounds for this flag and anthem and constitution. Have some respect.” This reasoning is rooted in a premise that is both wrong and dangerous. 

If kneeling for the anthem and the flag is a direct offense toward the military, that means veterans have a stronger claim to these symbols than Americans in general do. The argument insists that American iconography represents us more than it represents anyone else.

Yet the flag is not a symbol reserved for the military. It is a symbol of the United States of America, and it belongs equally to all citizens, including Americans who kneel during the anthem, or those who wear flag shirts (which is also in violation of the unenforceable flag code), or even those who burn the flag.

I think this sums it up...

What’s more, believing that we have a special claim to the flag conflicts with the fundamental values of the armed forces, which elevate service over self. Serving is an honor the American people grant us, and it is Americans — in their totality — whom we serve. This does not give us license to appropriate national symbols as our own exclusive banners. Service is a privilege, not a way to purchase greater moral authority.

Anti-Trump Hero...The Plaid Shirt Guy!!! Trump Rallies Hired Paid Despicables to look wildly rabid!

For fun, let's dig a little deeper into Trump's wildly fanatical campaign events of cheering despicables.

Trump's hired following is once again making the rounds because, well, it happened a few times before and he got caught and fined. More on that below.

The current twitter explosion involves the crowd changes just behind Trump. Fresh stand-ins?

 Let's start with our new hero - PLAID SHIRT GUY: It's fun to watch and watch and watch:

Who could not love this guy? Plaid Man was born...

But his heroism was short lived, when he was asked to leave for a more enthusiastic hired stand-in, along with a few others...see for yourself (no audio):



Apparently, like everything else around Trump, the crowd are partly "fake," including those hired to play a drooling dupe:

It's all happened before...

CNN-January 3, 2018: Next time you're watching a campaign rally for a politician, or a glitzy premiere, take a close look at the enthusiastic faces waving banners at the front. There is a good chance that some are paid performers. If they are, it is likely that one Adam Swart put them there. Los Angeles-based entrepreneur Swart has pioneered the 'supporter-for-hire' business. His start-up Crowds on Demand launched in 2012.

CheatSheet-March 4, 2018: Donald Trump was accused of breaking the law during his campaign by hiring paid actors to attend his rallies. Although the Federal Election Commission dismissed the charges, a lot of U.S. citizens haven’t. What’s worse is that he paid them a measly $50 apiece to come out and cheer, according to Business Insider. Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s campaign manager at the time, denied the charges The commission closed the case, saying that the Trump campaign admitted it paid $12,000 to Gotham Government Relations on October 8.

Here's the Plaid Shirt Guy's CNN interview:

Desperate Walker plays Race Card, scrapes bottom with Madman Trump's Faux Patriotic NFL Kneeling Outrage!!!

The following Scott Walker tweetstorm plays to his party's fears and to Walker's biggest strengths; divide and conquer, resentment, racism, and utter contempt of the 1st Amendment.

Another of Scott Walker's positive messages?

It looks like no one was buying the over-the-top blatant lying about Tony Evers and porn on a teachers school computer.

So trying to take down challenger Tony Evers a few percentage points by playing up his running mate and candidate for Lt. Governor Mandela Barnes as a symbol of Black Lives Matter is so white nationalist of him. But if it worked for Trump, why wouldn't it work for our sleepy-eyed sociopathic governor.

Scott Walker's got nothing but this now?

Yea, killing unarmed black Americans is all just so much drummed up fake outrage. Surprisingly, no ones told Walker that kneeling never had anything to do with the military?

Military Vets aren't buying this either:

As for unshakable Democratic candidate for Governor Tony Evers??

Lt. Governor Rebecca Kleefisch, facing challenger Mandela Barnes, posted this amazing head scratching nonsensical take, prompting Barnes to comment:

This was Barnes original response:

Walker and Kleefisch can take it up with Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers, or are they going to just boycott Packers games?



After glancing at his twitter feed over the last couple of months, it also surreal how all he's ever bragged about is the nationally produced low unemployment numbers in our state he's taking credit for and Foxconn's chameleon-like contract. What a record, what a history.

Kavanaugh's Bad Lying now Seared into my Memory!

We're all adults here, right? We all know what lying looks like, especially if you've got kids who have tried their hand at it a few times and failed miserably.

Let's be honest about Judge Brett Kavanaugh, he lied, and admittedly lied badly and got caught.

You would think this alone would have blown up his nomination and sent this guy packing. Not in Trump Party politics. Aw shucks, everybody lies nowadays.

Here's the complete (I edited out the protesters) back and forth between Sen. Kamala Harris and Brett Kavanaugh. Like I said, Kavanaugh's bad lying is now seared into my memory:

The Trump Party's Inhumane work Requirements for Medicaid relies on Snail Mail for a reason!!!

Human nature has been weaponized by Republicans, namely Scott Walker, the GOP legislature and Trump Party tribalists.

Who Cares about low tech Snail Mail anymore? Almost everyone I've talked to tosses their mail in the circular file or just stacks it up for later recycling. It's human nature. If it isn't a bill, see ya later. We're also too busy trying clear out or tame our exploding emails accounts.

Republicans know this and are counting on it to purge voter rolls, deny food stamps and drop Medicaid coverage by sending out cards and letters through the mail. Or Republicans never caught on to technology and the public move from paper to online billing and communications. But that can't be it because all responses have to be done online, even if they don't have a computer. It's a con job either way, and it's spreading.

Medicaid Work Requirements sent by Letter: Let's focus on Medicaid. Human nature says that mail gets thrown out, even those nagging notices requiring residents to report work to the state. Republicans are counting on it, and the research bears it out. Excerpt from my WaPo email:

1. As of last month, 5,426 people in Arkansas had not reported their status for June and July. Most of the correspondence about the looming reporting requirements were sent by regular mail, and there was no further outreach ... Some recipients may not have been able to properly read the letter or they could have limited access to a computer or the Internet because all the reporting has to be done online. 

2. There were 12,722 who "did not satisfy reporting requirements," according to state data. The great majority will simply lose coverage because complexity of the policy is difficult to understand. 

3. Writing in Health Affairs this week, researcher Jessica Greene, a professor of health policy at Baruch College, shared exchanges she had in Arkansas: Two-thirds of the Medicaid recipients I interviewed had not heard anything about the new work requirement. 

“First time I’ve ever heard anything [about it],” a 31-year-old man, who had started a vocational training program the day we spoke, said. “You’d think it’d be on the news or something. I ain’t seen it on the news, and I watch Channel 8 news every night.” 

Others echoed his surprise: “I’ve never even heard of it” and “I can’t believe I ain’t heard something about it on the news.”

4. Green wrote that half of the people she spoke to should have received the letter from Arkansas's Department of Health. Of that group, five weren't sure if they received a letter:

When asked about receiving a DHS letter, a 42-year-old woman said, “I don’t know, I’m going to have to check and make sure [I didn’t receive the letter], because I need my Medicaid card for my sugar pill and my blood pressure pills.” 

A 46-year-old man, who had recently completed an inpatient drug treatment program, kicking a multi-decade drug addiction, wasn’t sure either. “I may have [received the letter]…I’m horrible about opening mail….I probably throw’d it away.” 

Again, it's simply human nature to put off or throw out mail you first perceive as unimportant. Personally, I automatically look for my utility bills and that's it. Some mail looks like it's from the government but isn't. 

As for the people interviewed above...

While the three others did not believe they received the letter, they were all exempt by either working and/or having children in the home, but likely needed to report their hours and exemptions in the portal to maintain Medicaid coverage.

The sad thing is, it will take the loss of life-saving coverage in Arkansas to show how flawed this nasty GOP condition for health care coverage is before it's tossed out in the courts.

A final note: While Republicans cut rules, regulations, and reporting for businesses, they're increasing the paperwork and complexity of social services for the very people they're hired to serve. It would be nice if Democrats started to point this out.

Middleton's New Water Sport Activities...

The Long Aaron Rodgers IZOD ad, with Colin Jost

The shorter, slightly different take...

Tony Evers better brush on his Soothsaying if he wants to be Governor.

Here's one of the dumbest GOP ploys used to attack Democratic election opponents ever:

"If they care so much about ______, why didn't they do something back then?"

Just fill in the blank with whatever issue the Democrats didn't foresee in some distant future, to bring up and solve way back before anyone was aware of the problem. They've been saying this bat-shit crazy stuff for a few years now and each time it makes my head hurt.

More Phony and Sensational Computer Porn Outrage: At the top, I just want to know why TV stations are allowing false and misleading Walker campaign ads to hit their airwaves. This is what Walker calls clean positive messaging?

Since my son had this teacher for one of his classes at the time, I watch this case closely, and in the end, nobody but adults saw the computer porn and the district couldn't do anything. Plus, my kid liked the teacher.

 Here's the JS story with even more:

While it’s true Middleton teacher Andrew Harris looked at pornographic material at school, and showed an obscene image to a female colleague, a Department of Public Instruction investigation could not substantiate allegations from the female colleague that Harris made the comments about the students … She complained after her relationship with Harris and other teachers began to fray … But that teacher refused to swear to the allegations under oath, and the DPI did not have the power to subpoena her for testimony.

But, "If (Evers) cared so much about (porn in school), why didn't he do (more) back then?"Armed with absolutely no proof and with every intention to smear the un-smearable advocate of our children's education, Tony Evers, a couple of Republicans crawled out from under their rocks to leave a stinking trail of slime. I highlighted the BS:

Sen. Scott Fitzgerald and Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke (R-Kaukauna) held their conference call Wednesday to criticize Evers for not revoking the teaching license of a Middleton teacher who looked at pornographic material at work in 2009. Fitzgerald and Steineke contended Evers didn't do enough to advocate for the bill's passage. 

Fitzgerald contended that's because Evers was doing the bidding of the Wisconsin Education Association Council, the state's largest teachers union that has helped Evers win his superintendent elections. "The union wouldn’t let him touch it," Fitzgerald said. "Tony was told to back down and that’s exactly what he did."

Fitzgerald didn't cite evidence of Evers taking cues from the union.

Steineke said if Evers felt strongly about the bill he would have done more to pass it, such as by testifying on it and getting Democratic lawmakers to sign onto it. Rep. Sondy Pope (D) said Fitzgerald and Steineke's complaints were "absurd" because they didn't testify on the bill, while Evers' staff did. 

Again, why are local TV stations running complete bullshit? To misinform their viewers for the almighty ad dollars? Somethings wrong here, and I can't figure out why this isn't an even bigger story.

Oh, and why didn't Fitzgerald and Steinke defend Harley Davidson against Trump's boycott, and demanding Walker do more to fight back?

Lying Leah tells another one...

Sen. Leah Vukmir is a big liar. Liberal name calling? No, the truth. And she can't seem to stop apparently:

The 2011 protests against what would become Act 10 turned into a round-the-clock occupation of the Capitol, with demonstrators camping out in the rotunda. It was the largest series of protests at the Capitol since the Vietnam War, with crowds reaching an estimated 100,000 in early March, after the bill had been signed by newly-elected Gov. Scott Walker. Meanwhile, Ian’s Pizza shops delivered hundreds of free pizzas to the Capitol, with the cost picked up by contributions from all 50 states — as well as Bosnia, China, Egypt, France and 20 other countries.

But pizza deliveries in a riot zone?

The claim of "riots" in the Capitol was debunked in 2011 and rarely, if ever, has come up since. That is, until Vukmir put herself on the hot seat by recycling the claim. We still rate it Pants on Fire.

 Or who can forget... 3 clips Here, together again, showing her major jaw-dropping flip-flop:

A new video has emerged of Wisconsin U.S. Senate candidate Leah Vukmir holding her nose when describing how she and others would feel voting for then-likely GOP presidential nominee now President Donald Trump and saying that Trump is “offensive to everyone.” Vukmir herself was also exposed as mocking Trump supporters ... as “Trumpkins.” And she appeared on Fox Business Channel with Stuart Varney on Tuesday, who pressed her on whether she supports the president. In the video appearance, she lied again:“

I have always been there with him, I have stood with him, I continue to stand with him,” Vukmir said, leaving out when she refused to endorse Trump after he became the likely nominee for president.

New Prison Reform Research proves Scott Walker Wrong Again!

Scott Walker hates the idea of prison reform because he's worked so hard to do just the opposite with "truth-in-sentencing;"

Walker was the lead author as a legislator of the state’s “truth-in-sentencing” law, which ended parole. Though it was softened by the Legislature in the following decade, Walker and the Republican majority Legislature in 2011 reinstituted it and made it even harsher. Walker has never issued a pardon. 

Reform Doesn't Work Myth Busted: Walker has never visited a correctional facility like past governors because the people he's put in charge have done so well? Even though other states have succeeded in saving a lot of taxpayer money, there's a conservative vision that has to be maintained:

Walker: "No, to me there's no value to me visiting. To me, there's people that we hire to run the corrections system and, certainly, we'll allow them to do their jobs. When it comes to violent criminals in prison, I want to keep them in for their full terms. Many of my opponents — many of the Democrats running for governor — want to let them out. And want to let them out early ... dangerous ... a bit of a myth" that prisons are full of people incarcerated "merely for possession of marijuana.

The Democratic plan is simple, using the same formula that has worked in other states:  

Granting pardons and more paroles; releasing ill and aging inmates; expanding diversion programs, drug courts and other alternatives to incarceration; legalizing marijuana; and overhauling the truth-in-sentencing law so inmates have opportunities to get out early for good behavior.

Whew, that sounds like work, and career politicians like Walker aren't used to that. Here's PolitiFact:

Which leads me to the Sentencing Projects recent research that makes Walker look again, like a clueless ideologue and idiot. Hint to Walker: go online, learn, join the real world:

An even clearer picture emerges from this Wisconsin Budget Project story:

An article in the Wisconsin State Journal describes the official’s statements:

“Growing by 35 inmates each month, the state prison system is out of room and will need more beds within three years, the head of the state’s corrections system said Thursday.

The state spent $1.2 billion on corrections services in 2017, more tax dollars than the state spent on the University of Wisconsin System.

High flying Gov. Walker says we should take Uber or Lyft! Maybe a private plane?

So many of us have assumed that as our state roads crumble and get worse, Scott Walker would have to do something...well, we were really really wrong. And now we know why Walker has shown little concern for transportation funding:

"There are some groups out there that want to spend billions and billions and billions of dollars on more, bigger, wider interchanges across the state. I actually think we should be fixing and maintaining our infrastructure. I don’t know that we need bigger and better and broader right now when we have a changing transportation system."

Our career politician and governor loves flying the friendly skies now for trips to simple campaign ads and haircuts. But now after his two taxpayer raised sons entered the freeloading lifestyle of politics, he's convinced taking a plane or hailing an Uber or Lyft is normal. This, from a guy who does not believe in mass transit, commuter rail, or high-speed trains.

Tony Evers has to be smiling after Walker's completely insane public meltdown on transportation. Think I'm kidding?

Walker noted drivers are increasingly using hybrid and electric vehicles and questioned whether relying on the gas tax will remain a good way to fund roads in the future. "We can do it without a massive gas tax increase," Walker said of funding roads. 

We all must be like his overweight, silver spoon fed, right-wing kids, with pockets full of lobbyist  change for cab fare:

He also raised questions about how much people will drive in the future, saying his two sons in their 20s use ride-hailing services Uber and Lyft more than they drive.

Coal Pollution making White Guys Dumber!!!? True.

In the rabid age of Trump, this is all starting to make sense...

National Geographic: Breathing in dirty air damages our lungs, but new research is showing it might change how we think, too. A study published earlier this week in the Proceedings for the National Academy of Sciences found that long-term exposure to particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide led to cognitive declines in study participants as they age. Less-educated men were particularly impacted and had low verbal and math test scores.

Oh, but that's not all knuckheaded white Trump fans:

Previous studies have found that female brains on average have more white matter than male brains, meaning damage to white matter would put males, with lesser white matter, more at risk of experiencing cognitive declines ... associated with language ability.”  Studies have also linked air pollution with poor heart health and diabetes.

Coal Country Kamikaze Trump Supporters Rejoice? Let's build on the idea of cognitive decline, and the response by coal country Trump supporters like Steve Knotts:

“People here have had it with other people telling us what we need. We know what we need. We need a job,” miner Steve Knotts, 62, said at lunch hour at a Circle K in a tiny town between two coal mines, and 9 miles down the road from a coal power plant, the Grant Town plant. He says the last thing people in coal country want is the government slapping down more controls on coal — and the air here in the remote West Virginia mountains seems fine to him.

Yes, but they do care about telling everybody else what they need, like lung disease, damaged white matter of the brain, diabetes, and asthma.

EPA analysis says those pollutants would increase (and) 350 to 1,500 more people would die each year under Trump’s plan. But it’s northern two-thirds of West Virginia and the neighboring part of Pennsylvania that would be hit hardest, by far, according to Trump’s EPA … kill an extra 1.4 to 2.4 people a year for every 100,000 people in those hardest-hit areas, equal to at least a couple dozen additional deaths a year.

Another Trump voter chimes in:

About 160 miles to the south of Grant Town, shop owner Doris Keller figures that if Trump thinks something’s for the best, that’s good enough for her.

“I just know this. I like Donald Trump and I think that he’s doing the right thing,” said Keller. She lives five miles from the 2,900-megawatt John Amos coal-fired power plant. “I think he has the best interests of the regular common people at the forefront.”

It's better that people are killed than business, says "do the right thing" Trump:

“I’m getting rid of some of these ridiculous rules and regulations, which are killing our companies … and our jobs,” Trump said at the rally.

Walker can't deny these 6 Hard Truths !!!

Trump and Scott Walker are riding on the coattails of the Obama economy. They shouldn't be if the press reported the facts. But instead, Walker statements go unchallenged:

WSJ: Walker spokesman Austin Altenburg (said) “Scott Walker keeps his promises.”

1. Walker's biggest and most reckless promise was the creation of 250,000 jobs in his first 4 years. Even as a campaign promise, it was just a ridiculous goal, and many knew that. But the press ate it up and gave voters the impression it was possible. Wow. So, eight years later? 

JS: Gov. Scott Walker presided over an increase of 213,000 private-sector jobs in Wisconsin, short of the 250,000 new jobs the Republican promised in his first four years. Wisconsin lagged the nation in the pace of job creation in the seven-year period, when the nation added private-sector jobs at a 15.2 percent rate. Wisconsin ranks 34th out of the 50 states in the percentage increase (9.4 percent)

The reason?

The increase in private-sector jobs in Wisconsin in 2016 was 70 percent lower than the increase in 2015, and that the figure was based on data given to the WKOW TV by Walker’s administration. Democratic Sen. Kathleen Vinehout (Aug. 2017): "Under Scott Walker, Wisconsin is "still 16,000 manufacturing jobs lower than we were during the recession."

2. Walker Keeps Bragging about his Tax Cuts...that went to Property, Businesses, and Wealthy: 

Walker has cut taxes by more than $8 billion, largely benefiting property owners, businesses and the wealthy. 

But so many missed out on that "windfall..."

In 2016 33.34% of households were renters according to Census ACS data.

3. Walker takes Credit for Obama Era's falling Unemployment Numbers: Unless Walker policies were helping states nationwide. Low unemployment was also not Walker's doing:

Unemployment is at its lowest levels on record, below 3 percent, though the steep decline in the unemployment rate since Walker took office aligns with a nationwide recovery from the Great Recession.

4. Walker brags about Lower ACA Insurance Rates Nationwide? Yup, Walker knows lower insurance increases are on their way this year, and not just because of his not so unique "reinsurance" program (which many other states are doing):

The price of a 2019 policy sold on the ACA exchanges will increase less than 4 percent according to an analysis of preliminary filings from insurers in all 50 states by ACASignups.net ... premiums overall are rising at about the same rates as medical inflation, a big change from the last few years. 

Katherine Hempstead, a senior policy adviser at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (said) "After a very ... tortured birth and infancy, it sort of seems like the market is in some ways at a very stable place right now." She says insurance companies have figured out how to make a profit from the policies they sell on the ACA exchanges. 

5. Walker is rescuing us from Trump Party efforts to sabotage and kill the ACA. Which means...PREMIUMS WOULD HAVE BEEN LOWER NEXT YEAR:

Premiums would actually be falling next year but for the actions of the Trump Administration and Republicans in Congress that have weakened the ACA law itself and its markets. Those actions include getting rid of the tax penalty for people who don't buy health insurance, refusing to reimburse insurance companies for discounts they are required by law to offer to low-income customer, and encouraging insurers to sell stripped-down, short-term insurance. Those moves are draining healthy young people out of the ACA market. Analyst Charles Gaba says, "The reality is that if you didn't have those factors, if you didn't have the expansion of a short term plans, and especially the repeal of the mandate penalty for next year, average premiums would most likely be dropping by a good four or five percent."

The Wellmark, which abandoned the ACA market in Iowa last year, is returning. 

6. Wisconsin Wages Stagnant, workers ignored in Walker's Economy: Walker keeps feeding more money to those with more money. Nationally, wages fell:

 In Wisconsin:

Walker's Wisconsin can't even keep pace with Minnesota. And all that money going to robotic leader Foxconn?

Alternet: And (Americans) see their tax dollars pouring into the rapid development of a robot economy that will leave them and their children out in the cold.

The Haves and the Have-Nots... 

In the same year that workers took a pay cut, the CEOs of America's 350 largest corporations had an 18 percent jump in their pay, hauling in an average of $18.9 million each. In a lifetime of labor, the typical American worker would not be paid as much as those honchos took in one year. After all, workers can see in their daily job experiences that the Powers That Be -- corporate chieftains, economists, political leaders and others -- consider employees as a cost to be cut, not an asset to advance.

College Debt and Loan Performance for Colleges need Reform, but DeVos to protect predatory Private Colleges

One Wisconsin Now has been a great advocate for highlighting the problem of student loan debt. Strangely, that's not where our backward Trump officials are taking us, and Trump tankers don't seem to give a damn either. Don't they must have college kids too?

"Education Secretary" Betsy DeVos pushes "Buyer Beware" Student Loan Policy: Like everything else under Trump Republicans, including healthcare, a return to a "buyer beware" economy just makes consumer spending a lot more dangerous and a big safety gamble. Hold onto your seats, this is going to be a wild ride into abject poverty. And private colleges love the idea, no surprise. Notice "relevant and reliable data" below. It's as reliable as "new and improved" on cereal boxes:

Students who are defrauded by their schools would have a harder time getting their federal loans erased under new rules proposed by the Trump administration … students would be eligible for loan relief if they can prove their schools knowingly misled them to take out loans or enroll at the school. 

That would be a higher bar than rules finalized under Obama (for a simple) breach of contract (for promising employment).

DeVos' argued “Postsecondary students are adults who can be reasonably expected to make informed decisions if they have access to relevant and reliable data about program outcomes.” Schools deserve to defend themselves.
 (It would) force students into arbitration agreements barring them from suing the school, (which was) banned under Obama's rules (where) students were granted full relief for their loans.

That Obama, helping keep postsecondary students from getting ripped off by education con artists like Trump and his "universities."

Here's yet another report showing just how bad the problem is right now, and could get under DeVos:

NY Times: The typical student borrower will take out $6,600 in a single year, averaging $22,000 in debt by graduation, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Consider the official statistics:

1. The law requires that all colleges participating in the student loan program keep their share of borrowers who default below 30 percent for three consecutive years ... Among the group, just 93 of their colleges had high default rates after three years ... Two years later, after the Department of Education stopped tracking results, 636 schools had high default rates.

2. For-profit institutions have particularly awful results. Five years into repayment, 44 percent of borrowers at these schools faced some type of loan distress, 

3. Loan performance should also be tracked for at least five years instead of three.

4. Too many borrowers and defaulters are low-income students, the very people who would receive only grant aid under a rational system for college financing. 

So we know we have a dramatic problem, yet Republicans continue to make fun of Democratic proposals to somehow provide a free college education to students. Next time they do that, ask them why they've never been outraged by Republican stronghold Indiana, blue NY., and the heavily subsidized Wyoming guarantee for state residents. Are they the biggest freeloaders ever, or just smart?

But tax cuts and freeloading, not sound budgeting, have delayed an important return to economic sanity that can only help future generations, not stick them with the bill:

Collectively, these borrowers owed over $23 billion, including more than $9 billion in default. Nationally, those are crisis-level results, and they reveal how colleges are benefiting from billions in financial aid while students are left with debt they cannot repay.

One more thing; wanna make the economy roar? Let students graduate without debt. Is that worth the investment?