Vos Visits Trump to gain back Cred with QAnon Cultists who can't Accept Vote.

UPDATE 8/25 WED: Like I mentioned below this update, Vos is about to dole out subpoenas! Republicans voters apparently like getting this played no matter how obvious it is. Here it comes;

JSOnline: Reince Priebus described the plans three days after Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos of Rochester met with Trump about his plans to review the election. "I’m told
that subpoenas are going to be issued in the next week or two. There'll be more outside money coming into Wisconsin."

Robin-the-vote Vos said, "We believe a cyber-forensic audit is necessary to ensure issues did not happen in 2020." Rep. Mark Spreitzer, a Beloit Democrat said Trump's recent meeting with Vos — and the photo of it Vos posted on Facebook — proved to be a turning point. "He needed the photo op so that he could satisfy Republicans back here in Wisconsin. 

 

Jefferson Davis, a former village president of Menomonee Falls who pleaded guilty to misdemeanor campaign finance violations in 2005, said he is helping line up thousands of volunteers and donors. "This is the most sick, despicable, evil, toxic thing you could ever imagine in the history of our state," Davis said of the way the 2020 election was run. "And we are never going to allow that to happen."

GQP want to keep Voters Angry till 2022 Election: How much more obvious does all this have to get. And despite the lawbreaking scum still taken seriously by GQP voters, this charade continues:

Bannon was indicted for wire fraud and money laundering related alleged misuse of funds raised through the “We Build the Wall” campaign, but was pardoned by Trump

________________________________________________________________________________________

Here's the original story leading up to this lunatic fiasco

The gathering of right-wing losers, otherwise known as the Cyber Ninja's, may be a national laughing stock...

…but the Wisconsin Republican gun for hire, and former State Supreme Court Justice (I wish I were kidding), thinks the AZ's audit circus is serious stuff:

The pressure is on of course, because QAnon Wisconsin believers were told by MAGA president Trump the Big Lie is true, and gerrymandered elected Republicans have no choice but to jump. Again, the odd GOP style of governing is based solely on anecdotal things people hear from other people who say they heard from someone else...ugh, you get the picture. 

“Legislators have been hearing from thousands of disgruntled constituents..."

 …but they're wrong!

Running against what representative government is supposed to be … They ought to tell their constituents, you're wrong. And that's a big problem when you have too many party people willing to indulge their constituents if their constituents truly believe that."

So who was surprised when this happened...

The chair of the Assembly committee on elections Rep. Janel Brandtjen subpoenaed Milwaukee and Brown counties on Friday for election materials — including ballots and voting machines — to aid an ongoing committee investigation into the November 2020 presidential election reminiscent of an Arizona-style recount effort.

Since Brandtjen doesn't have the power to dole out subpoenas, my theory is Leader Robin Vos will keep her out there getting press, dragging this out to maintain voter anger. Then, when Vos returns from kissing Trump's ass, he will allow the subpoenas.

First, Vos was the target of Trump's ego driven lie about the stolen election:

Then...

Trump, a loser in every imaginable way, maintains control over Vos. It would be interesting to find out who paid for round trip tickets: 

The Surreal QAnon Enhanced Brandtjen Interview: I wanted to, but couldn't edit a single word out of Elections Committee Chair Janel Brandtjen's interview with WKOW's Capitol City Sunday host A.J. Bayatpour. AJ's relentless fact driven interview countering Brandtjen's anecdotal answers exposed how hollow all this really is. Posers like this can't govern, but sure can spin a lie:

Treating the Cyber Ninja's like they're a real group of election professionals...

Brandtjen did not directly answer questions about whether she trusted Cyber Ninjas - which Gov. Tony Evers has derisively called the "Ninja Turtles" - to conduct a similar audit in Wisconsin.

"We're not talking about the Ninja Turtles then anymore, we're talking about truly the Cyber Ninjas...Either we have issues with the machines and we have issues with voters being able to legitimately cast their ballot or we don't."

I've got an idea, I could start a group called the DataHogs and request the governor and/or AG invite us to examine the Republican WOW county ballots. Let's compare.

But wait, Republican districts do not have the same corrupt officials stealing the vote:

Republican Rep. Todd Novak: "I have no doubt elections in my area are run fair, right, and by the book. My clerks are very efficient and I trust them." 

Nothing anecdotal about that.

After Ten years controlling Legislature, Vos-Republicans still have no plan to attract labor or families to Wisconsin, blaming powerless Dems!

This is about preserving an unhealthy number of festering Wisconsin problems in amber, by an unimaginative and incompetent gerrymandered Republican legislature, who are willing to treat untrue and anecdotal constituent feedback as "fact." It's on purpose of course:

We "heard from constituents...voiced concerns...the possibility that..." 

Republican Jeff Flake said this was a an obvious political copout:  

"We're changing what it means to be an elected official in a representative government...my colleagues will say they are simply representing their constituents when that really runs against what representative government is supposed to be … when they ought to tell their constituents, you're wrong. And that's a big problem when you have too many party people willing to indulge their constituents if their constituents truly believe that."

Republicans have No Plan to attract People/labor force to Wisconsin: Watching WKOW's Capitol City Sunday, I was startled by utter cluelessness of Dodgeville Rep. Todd Novak when it came to the states labor shortage, and the detailed list of issues posed in a question by host A.J. Bayatpour, who did way more research than this freeloading Republican politician. It begs the question; can we actually govern based on anecdotal comments that are factually wrong? 

Bayatpour question about unemployment bonus checks: "...you have different analysts from Oxford to Goldman Sachs say they're not seeing much change in states that ended the extra pay, so why was this a good use of the legislatures time and the taxpayer dollar?"

Rep. Todd Novak: "I invite anyone who doesn't think this half payment has any affect on employment to come to my district...I just talked to a restaurant yesterday paying $14 to $16 an hour and they still can't find people..."

Again, watch Bayatpour ask a detailed question Novak was unprepared for. Embarrassing and pathetic: 

Bayatpour: "How much of this could also be tying into what we've seen for years, it's been mentioned by groups like even WMC, that labor shortages have long been something people are worried about in Wisconsin. So how much could this be a part of the fundamental challenges we've seen and will continue to have to address such as keeping people in the state, but also attracting young talent both into Wisconsin and into some of the states smaller and midsized communities?"

Rep. Todd Novak: "Oh, I mean, that's part of it, um...I mean...you go to school and you have job opportunities...but I will tell you every business I talk to is struggling, mentions the half benefit is a big issue for them."

Novak has no real grasp of the decades long problem he and Scott Walker have refused to take seriously or solve. Instead, for convenience, why not blame the half benefit. This again puts off a real solution for another year until they can blame something else on Evers or Biden. 

There's this crazy Vos-Republican idea that low taxes will increase population growth or attract labor. What they don't get, and what they've always ignored is the real attraction; better schools, faster high speed internet, and a quality of life in a state not prone to natural disasters, that's the difference. And having lived in Wisconsin my entire life, higher taxes have always been an acceptable price to pay until Walker's austerity and freeloading agenda caught on. 

Forget about updating IT Unemployment System, I know how to spend my money...

 

Scott Walker and Rich Scott beg, "Save our Paychecks." Who's, theirs? More grifting, lying,

Republicans rule by the "Contradictory Belief System of Self-Interest." 

Divorced from Reality: Scott Walker's failed theoretical belief system doesn't bother solving festering public problems because liberal "socialist" created the problem in the first place. 

Save our Paychecks Circus Tour: Scott Walker's simple minded message? Keep wages low so prices stay low; and repeat what GOP friendly businesses say about the labor shortage, even though Walker did nothing to lure workers to the state. No, the poorly messaged, policy free media ad that ran in Illinois didn't count. When you ignore the minimum wage, lack high speed broadband, create a maze of nightmare rules for unemployment, and then limited access to health care and transportation, what do you expect.

Mega millionaire Sen. Rick "Voldamort" Scott started with this ridiculous "hard times" story. Imagine being so rich you don't have to "watch what everything costs" sigh:"

We lived in public housing, I had a single mom, and I watched what she went through when we had inflation. We had to watch what everything cost, because things went up in price ... We're doing the exact same thing to the families in this country right now."

You mean you don't have to "watching what everything costs?" Striking disconnect. 

So Walker and Sen. Rick Scott have teamed up to peddle laughable exaggerations and absolute nonsense scenarios devoid of facts, science, and just plain old common sense.

Walker is speaking to QAnon'ers here, who were more than happy to blame immigrants and not their obvious anti-mask/anti-vax idiocy. Here's a recent text from my own Trump idol worshiper in Milwaukee:

 This recent COVID infection map exposes the bullshit "illegals" and "border" lie. (check out interactive map here):

Low Wages = Low prices, Cheap labor =  GOP Plan: If you didn't know why Republicans won't hike the minimum wages , it's should be crystal clear now. Walker's penchant to divide and conquer, with a dash of fear mongering, hit a new high with this "Debbie Downer" tweet...it really isn't true. But to Walker, helping Americans is never a good thing:

Overall, the payments were effective in helping those who were financially affected by the pandemic as the majority of households who had lost employment-based income received a payment. In fact, according to a study by the American Enterprise Institute, the impact payments played a pivotal role in preventing many Americans from falling into poverty last year. Overall, the $867 billion in direct payments, combined with the trillions of additional relief dollars enacted by Congress, prevented a drop in and actually increased personal income during the economic downturn.

And inflation was not all doom and gloom, as supply chains continue to ramp up...

All evidence suggests that current price increases are temporary and are driven by a few isolated goods and services, such as used cars and airplane tickets, that play a disproportionate role in influencing overall price jumps. Moreover, consumers can and do avoid many of the costlier items and substitute them with less expensive alternatives. Those substitutions—which reduce the effect of price increases in people’s experienced inflation—are not fully reflected in the reported inflation measures.

The additional investments in transportation and infrastructure will produce sustained improvements in inflation-adjusted incomes for families at all income levels. Low- and middle-income Americans would especially see meaningful gains from faster employment and wage growth. Moreover, these investments would not trigger inflation.

State Polling says we're going in wrong direction, yet...

 

Democrats $3.5 Trillion Reconciliation Bill = $350 Billion a year, for 10 years. Not so Massive!

We already know Democrats are horrible at messaging, especially when it comes to their agenda and accomplishments, but their incompetence leaves a big hole for Republican talking points to become the media default argument. 

Sinema's reservations about the "human infrastructure" push (too expensive) could force Democrats to scale back the budget reconciliation bill.

How hard would it have been to explain the supposed "massive" reconciliation bill, that's actually not so massive after all, the following way? These tweets tell the story:

In other words...

First WI GOP wanted to ban passports and UW Student testing for Covid, now they're fighting for anti-vax health care nurses! WI's Death Cult Party digs it!

We've always had our suspicions...but now we know; Sen. Chris Kapenga is no doctor, and certainly no genius. For an accountant, his conclusions just don't add up. 

Kapenga is now defending the "rights" of just a few anti-vax nurses willing to endanger everyone else based on their reckless belief they have the freedom to infect others. 

In a recent press release, Kepenga cranked out another twisted, condescending and snarky know-it-all diatribe.

Not really a smart guy: Thanks to anecdotal "evidence," Kapenga draws some radical conclusions. Let's take a look, piece by piece.

1. Can't tell our "Hailed as heroes" anti-vax health care workers what to do:

“Once they were hailed as heroes; but now, those who refuse to get the Covid-19 vaccine
might very well find themselves fired from their jobs! You are still our heroes even though the executives have made the choice to turn their backs on you. Lead the way in this pandemic. 

2. Game of Chicken? Only if you never took COVID seriously, why not. Shut down the hospitals? Yup: 

“I want to encourage the groups that are forming to stick to your principles and don’t give in! Based on what I am seeing, it will be impossible for the hospital systems to function without you. If you stand up for your protection now, others who are considering implementing the vaccination mandate will back off, and you will once again be leading in the protection of our health.

What Protection? "Standing up for your protection," and "lead in the protection of our HEALTH" is nonsensical babble. In the words of Amazon's "Greasy Strangler:"

3. Using Liberal buzzwords like "woke" and "the left," pushing resentment instead of public health, is getting so tiresome. Kapenga imagines a "large number of people" who think like him. Come on Chris, give us a number, it should be easy for an "accountant:"   But wait, these health care "heroes" protect themselves with masks all the time, maybe that should go too. Don't you love a society where Republicans have clearly defined our heroes and villains: 

"To those executives who are bowing to the woke culture being pushed by the left, don’t underestimate the large number of people who see what you are doing and don’t appreciate it. Do the right thing by ending these mandates and protect our heroes.”

Platform-Actions have No Consequences for Republicans: So which is it, give power to businesses maintaining low wages, fewer benefits, and no voice in working conditions...or control what businesses do by threatening them with walkouts (they didn't like it when unions did this) for requiring vaccines as a condition of employment? 

Kapenga said, "The reality that is in front of us is either you get this shot or we will walk you out the door and that is totally inappropriate with an experimental drug."

Yea, that's the reality.

It's the One Big campaign Issue: How is it the Republicans total disregard for the health and lives of their constituents isn't the one and only issue on the ballot in 2022? 

Republican lawmakers like Kapenga have long opposed such requirements and have largely refrained from promoting the idea of getting vaccinated to prevent more deaths and serious health complications.

In Wisconsin, the seven-day average of new cases has spiked again to 1,000 — a level not seen since early February, before vaccines were widely available. Gov. Tony Evers' spokeswoman said Kapenga's statement was "absolutely irresponsible."

"Wisconsin activated a field hospital last fall because our hospitals and healthcare infrastructure were overwhelmed by COVID-19 cases. This is dangerous and reckless rhetoric at a time when our state is seeing alarming case trends," spokeswoman Britt Cudaback said.

Steve Nass battles "Delta-variant hysteria" with ban on UW System health "mandates."

Only Vos-Republicans think the smart government thing to do is put vehement opponents of specific issues in charge of managing their eventual destruction. Case in point; Sen. Steve Nass' brutal dismantling of public education.

Here's how Nass describes his latest COVID denial effort endangering the lives of children and their parents: 

"Take back their public schools" from what? The threat of private vouchers schools? No. Nass is responding to, get this, just 20 anti-mask parents and student protesters:

Huge crowd too...actual story snapshot:

Minority Control? How can you argue with the publics anti-science brain dead lunacy like this?

Tami Hajcak spoke against the mask mandate. “The vast majority of students have returned to their unmasked lives. We are no longer in a pandemic.

Jade said, “I’m in 5th grade at the middle school my muscles get tense and they don’t get the oxygen they need. It makes me anxious and I can’t see the smile on people’s face.”

Amanda Roedl: “Our kids learn through emotion. How do you expect our kids learn through emotion with a mask?”

Tzvia Springer explained her background in science and said the science does not support the efficacy of mask wearing. “When my son returns for instruction in fall 2021, he will not be wearing a mask.”

Star Trek's George Takei has their answer:

Fear Mongering Delta Infection Sweeping Country?: Sen. Nass wasn't done yet, passing his latest insane attack on our kids...WKOW: 

Nass believes our "liberal" UW System is... 

"...take advantage of the Delta-variant hysteria to enact excessive COVID-19 mandates."

The senator pointed to public health measures including "newly announced Covid-19 mandates such as requiring healthy unvaccinated students submit to weekly Covid-19 testing, requiring students to submit their Covid-19 vaccination status and pending announcements on mandatory masking," as the reason for his proposal. "Unfortunately, some chancellors in the UW System consider themselves mini-Andrea Palms not beholden to following state law and moving quickly to take advantage of the Delta-variant hysteria to enact excessive COVID-19 mandates."

Nass, stating total nonsense as fact, doesn't like to be challenged in the "control/compliance" department:

How about today's data on the "Delta-variant hysteria"...

WISN in Milwaukee: 

Throughout the United States, all public school districts require a vaccination record prior to enrolling a student. It is interesting that in many Republican-dominated states that reject the notion of requiring its students to be vaccinated against COVID-19, there is no opposition to requiring vaccinations for many other life-threatening diseases such as measles, mumps, rubella etc.

Smarter in 1905? Yes: A challenge is likely at the State Supreme Court level, but after rejecting and describing Gov. Evers efforts to stop the deadly virus as "tyrannical," ya kinda know where this is going. Yet even they can't ignore the federal Supreme Court Ruling in 1905, which we hope may win the day:

There is a Supreme Court precedent allowing any state to “enforce compulsory vaccination laws” regardless of anyone’s claim of individual or religious liberty protections.

In the 1905 Supreme Court case, 197 U.S., Jacobson v. Massachusetts, the High Court upheld the authority of states to enforce compulsory vaccination laws. The Court’s decision articulated the view that individual liberty is not absolute and is subject to the police power of the state.

Recognizing that public health is more important than an individual’s personal liberty, the High Court held that:

“In every well ordered society charged with the duty of conserving the safety of its members the rights of the individual in respect of his liberty may at times, under the pressure of great dangers, be subjected to such restraint, to be enforced by reasonable regulations, as the safety of the general public may demand. Real liberty for all could not exist under the operation of a principle which recognizes the right of each individual person to use his own liberty, whether in respect of his person or his property, regardless of the injury that may be done to others.”

National Movement to UNMASK: It's still hard to imagine "adults" ranting juvenile tantrums like this, since right wing COVID denial is actually prolonging the slow return to schools:

Space Junk in space...

 

Dumb Ron Johnson still trying to get us to understand the problem first...

 

Computer upgrade nightmare continues but ending soon..

Sorry about the long break here, but upgrading entire computer system and software, and some of it didn't go well. Soon...

Vos-Republicans Exposed: Attack Cities, Kill Businesses and Jobs, Strangle Local Governments limiting Shared Revenue, and Refuse allowing Local Sales Tax!!!

Fairly conservative columnist Tom Still continues to inadvertently criticize the Vos-Republican economic policies for killing jobs and new businesses. From ignoring broadband to defunding the huge economic engine of this state...the University of Wisconsin. 

Republicans Killing Wisconsin Economy and Reason NOT to Live Here #1: Here's what floored me; Republicans decided not fund the UW's Engineering Department. There is no blowback of any kind from capitalist loving conservative voters. Let's start with federal funding:

The federal government is poised to make its biggest investment in research and development since the end of World War II, with 100 billion dollars to improve U.S. competitiveness in a changing world. With one of the nation’s leading research universities, other academic research hubs and a vibrant manufacturing sector, Wisconsin should be positioned to vie for those dollars once approved by Congress and the president.

But absent more state investment in Wisconsin engineering centers at the heart of the federal effort, that might not be the case.

The U.S. Innovation and Competition Act would establish partnerships between universities, government and industry, with 10 interdisciplinary research hubs to transfer science and technology into innovative goods and services while boosting metro, state and regional economies.

Wow, what an opportunity wasted. That's right, the Vos-Republican multi-billion dollar tax cut crossed Wisconsin off the list of jobs and business:

The Wisconsin Legislature’s decision not to fund a two-part plan to build the first new engineering complex on campus since 2002 to replace a research and instructional facility that dates to 1930. The state budget proposal didn’t survive the final cut in the Joint Finance Committee. 

Republicans Killing Wisconsin Economy and Reason NOT to Live Here #2: It's now very clear that TAX CUTS have absolutely replaced everything, including investments in education, infrastructure, people, public health, and businesses. They have sold their souls, short changing share revenue to cities, just to turn rural communities against cities filled with liberals. 

Strangling Shared Revenue, It's Killing our State: Here's the whole story, a must see. Here and Now:

Steve O’Malley is the La Crosse County administrator: "For most of the last two decades, we’ve seen little growth in any form of state or federal revenue. And we have the most restrictive levy limits in the nation." O’Malley says state and federal mandates require them to maintain highways, the jails, the courts and provide human services all without additional revenue. "You end up having to cut budgets. You have to cut positions. We’ve steadily decreased the number of full-time employees within La Crosse County, as have most counties across the state." 

Plus...

Roger Stanford is president at Western Technical College, which covers an 11-county area centered in La Crosse. They too had limited authority to raise property taxes wiped out by Governor Walker. "Right now, those limits are going to really strangle us."

Andrew Reschovsky is a professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin. He studies public affairs and one of his studies found only about half of the school levy credit goes to Wisconsin homeowners. The rest of the credits go to the owners of farmland, commercial property, industrial property and out-of-state owners. Most of the credit goes to wealthy property areas.

Janesville tells the same story, from WKOW's Capitol City Sunday: 

Julie Underwood, former dean of the UW-Madison School of Education and board president for the Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools, explains how dramatic it was to see no money for schools:

I recently posted this out of Milwaukee, Mayor Tom Barrett's plea for more shared revenue and an added half cent sales tax:

This is a problem created by Republicans, who have been indirectly defunding the police through reduced shared revenue, and it's no accident. Marketwatch: 

The state’s revenue had increased 61% over the past two decades, yet Milwaukee would receive $272 million in 2021, less than the $284 million the state shared in 2003, when the city’s general fund was 25% smaller.

As its income dwindles, Milwaukee has lost 160 sworn police officers, or nearly 10% of its force, over the past few years.

That "Defund the Police" outrage just Projection: 

“Without a doubt, the most effective defunder of the police in Wisconsin is the Republican-led legislature,” Mayor Tom Barrett, a Democrat in office since 2004, told MarketWatch. “I’ve been arguing for years to give me more resources. They’re essentially trying to strangle local governments.”

This is a National Republican Strategy, Stopping Progressive Future Change from ever Proving it Works: 

But to Barrett it’s ironic that Wisconsin finished fiscal 2021 with a $2.6 billion surplus, and expects an even larger surplus in 2022, yet legislators can’t find a way to share any of that with locals. And lawmakers don’t seem any more inclined to “review” their restrictive policies than they were before the pandemic. “They have a surplus, and they won’t throw us a bone,” Barrett told MarketWatch. “They’ve won. They strangled us. We don’t have much left.”

Here's more from Marketwatch, exposing how Republicans are purposely making the problem worst:

A 2018 National League of Cities report noted that state legislatures had used pre-emption: “Recent pre-emption has pitted rural- and suburban-dominated state legislatures against cities with large populations of low wage earners and ethnic minorities.” 

Barrett said, “I think it’s a winning (Republican) political philosophy for the rest of the state to be pitted against Milwaukee and Madison.” 

Matt Fabian, a partner with Municipal Market Analytics said, "In general when cities default it’s less about finances and more about what the state does to not help the city navigate a situation.

Napoleon Wallace and Activest, a research firm he co-founded, said “When state legislatures limit the agency and capacity of local government to meet the demands of their residents, the result is generally a broken fiscal environment that harms communities of color and restricts [cities’] ability to operate in the best interest of their residents.”

“In a lot of areas, the role of state pre-emption and the ability to limit taxing at the local level is a very well-constructed apparatus that allows for gerrymandered state legislatures to impose their will on diverse cities,” he said. When states limit cities’ policy-making abilities, “you make it hard for progressive interests even when they have support among residents. You hamper their ability to finance progress.”

Vos calls off vaccine + free bag of popcorn...lack of interest.

 

Evers campaign gears up...

 

Never real, COVID-19 deniers now pulling vaccines, a breathtaking deadly radical turn in Tennessee!

Seriously! 6 months after the insurrection we're seeing an explosion of radicalization, where QAnon Republicans are disintegrating society. I never thought this was possible.

This was the tweet that marked the end for me. There is no coming back from this, and it's not going to end well at all: 

Then...

…and the final nail in the coffin...

Aaron Rodger, Will he stay or will he go...

 

COVID relief in Wisconsin...

 

WI Republican Starve Shared Revenue to Large Cities, resulting in Defunding the Police!!! Yea, why can't Democrats run anything?

Let's finally open our eyes and wakeup to what Wisconsin Republicans have been doing for years at an insane rate, reducing revenue sharing to major cities because they're Democratic strongholds. 

Republican tried but failed to pass a bill that reduced state funding to cities that "defunded the police" (actually just reformed them), an untrue but viral QAnon talking point. That would have devastated city budgets and public services just to maintain local law enforcement.   

This is a problem created by Republicans, who have been indirectly defunding the police through reduced shared revenue, and it's no accident. Marketwatch: 

The state’s revenue had increased 61% over the past two decades, yet Milwaukee would receive $272 million in 2021, less than the $284 million the state shared in 2003, when the city’s general fund was 25% smaller.

As its income dwindles, Milwaukee has lost 160 sworn police officers, or nearly 10% of its force, over the past few years.

That "Defund the Police" outrage just Projection: 

“Without a doubt, the most effective defunder of the police in Wisconsin is the Republican-led legislature,” Mayor Tom Barrett, a Democrat in office since 2004, told MarketWatch. “I’ve been arguing for years to give me more resources. They’re essentially trying to strangle local governments.”

From WKOW's Capitol City Sunday, host A. J. Bayatpour talked to Democratic State Sen. Kelda Roys about the shared revenue shortfalls:

Democratic Cities are the right wings deadly gun violent Villains: Spoiler alert - it's a gun problem! But not for Republicans, because that would get in the way of turning Wisconsin into an authoritarian police state first. A.J. referenced Republican Rep. Joe Sanfillipo, who believe it or not, actually thought this was a great idea just a month ago:  

Check out Sanfellipo now, demanding more police while shortchanging Milwaukee's share revenue funding. Again, Republicans are "defunding the police," while distracting us from the out of control gun problem they won't do anything about. NOTE: This is also about telling Gov. Evers how to spend the COVID relief funding Evers wouldn't let Republican control. Tantrum much?:

 

This is a National Republican Strategy, Stopping Progressive Future Change from ever Proving it Works: 

But to Barrett it’s ironic that Wisconsin finished fiscal 2021 with a $2.6 billion surplus, and expects an even larger surplus in 2022, yet legislators can’t find a way to share any of that with locals. And lawmakers don’t seem any more inclined to “review” their restrictive policies than they were before the pandemic. “They have a surplus, and they won’t throw us a bone,” Barrett told MarketWatch. “They’ve won. They strangled us. We don’t have much left.”

Here's more from Marketwatch, exposing how Republicans are purposely making the problem worst:

A 2018 National League of Cities report noted that state legislatures had used pre-emption: “Recent pre-emption has pitted rural- and suburban-dominated state legislatures against cities with large populations of low wage earners and ethnic minorities.” 

Barrett said, “I think it’s a winning (Republican) political philosophy for the rest of the state to be pitted against Milwaukee and Madison.” 

Matt Fabian, a partner with Municipal Market Analytics said, "In general when cities default it’s less about finances and more about what the state does to not help the city navigate a situation.

Napoleon Wallace and Activest, a research firm he co-founded, said “When state legislatures limit the agency and capacity of local government to meet the demands of their residents, the result is generally a broken fiscal environment that harms communities of color and restricts [cities’] ability to operate in the best interest of their residents.”

“In a lot of areas, the role of state pre-emption and the ability to limit taxing at the local level is a very well-constructed apparatus that allows for gerrymandered state legislatures to impose their will on diverse cities,” he said. When states limit cities’ policy-making abilities, “you make it hard for progressive interests even when they have support among residents. You hamper their ability to finance progress.”

The recently passed Vos-Republican budget tantrum focused solidly on blackmailing the governor to spend the COVID relief funding the way they wanted it to be spend, in retaliation for Gov. Evers refusal to give them that power. And it worked.