Not about "Protecting Kids." Republicans alone want to Own the Youth and Gain the Future!

Who knew Hitler was right all along? MAGA Republicans seem to think so, using Hitler's genius to reform and weed out "woke" public education. 

The Walker Youth Movement, Pre-DeSantis. Goin after the kids: When voters kicked Scott Walker out as governor, he took aim at America's youth, becoming the president of the Young America's Foundation (YAF). Playing off the "liberal indoctrination" myth, he was pretty clear...

Walker said another priority of his, both at the high school and university level, would be to promote more objective teaching of American history, global history, economics, and simple financial literacy: “If you just give people the facts, if you don’t put your spin on it, the facts will overwhelmingly lead people to be more aligned with our point of view.” He added that because of progressive professors and liberal politicians, “this generation just doesn’t believe what the facts show to be true.”

“YAF has been great – but we have to multiply it a thousand times over and reach more students and more campuses and earlier. Not just in college and high school, but teens and pre-teens, to find more ways to expose people to the truth,” he said he told the board.

White Religious Nationalism Indoctrination Okay? You would have thought some of the $3.5 billion proposed tax cut could have gone instead to our public schools and the UW Engineering Department, but no. Rep. Robin Vos bravely doubles down the imagined enemy of public education, liberal indoctrination:

“They tell me we don’t have enough people to be in engineering. We don’t have enough folks who are teaching an awful lot of careers. But. boy are they able to find millions of dollars to put into a curriculum and an ideology,” Vos added. “So, if they have extra money then I think it should be taken back, and the taxpayers of Wisconsin will have a chance to use it for something better than indoctrinating kids with left-wing ideology. It should not be indoctrination, where you’re only allowed to have one point of view.”

Then there's the idea that students aren't allowed to present a different opinion in class. Not true. It turns out conservative students know their view might be unpopular, so they self-censor. No one is shutting them down. From a YAF poll, mirroring a similar recent result from a UW poll:

46 percent admit they "have stopped myself from sharing my ideas or opinions in class discussions." As for why these students refrained, it appears that peer pressure is the dominating factor as 50 percent said they held back their opinions because they "thought my classmates would judge me."

That's not on the instructor or the other students. 

GOP's Religious Nationalism and Hitler's Comeback: The following clips may be from around the country, but they clearly represent Wisconsin's gerrymandered Republican majority. Saying the quiet parts outload now, proving "liberal indoctrination" never did work if it ever did exist, here are a few amazing examples: First, openly admit what you're doing...

...and pointing out who inspired you...

...doubling down via Moms for Liberty, who hope to "own the youth," which in someway "empowers parents?" 

...to a history loving 20 year old school board candidate casually quoting Hitler to make his case to voters:

Not going to take it anymore: What more can be said, it's all here...

NOTE: I thought this is something we should get an update on; the health of democracy in Wisconsin: 

 Here's what happened to democracy in Wisconsin. Surprise, it's not all "freedom and liberty:"

The conclusions were clear: The GOP is the problem. “Results suggest a minimal role for all factors except Republican control of state government, which dramatically reduces states’ democratic performance during this period,” he writes. While many researchers have attempted to quantify the health of democracy in different countries around the world, Grumbach’s paper is the first effort to develop some kind of ranking system for US states. And it’s yet another piece of evidence that the Republican Party has become an anti-democratic political faction.

 

Stopping the Red State Grift taking Blue State tax dollars.

Is it intentionally ironic how Republicans are demanding we not use public tax dollars to fund DEI programs because they're part of a "WOKE" left wing agenda, while at the same time blatantly accept Blue State tax dollars to fund authoritarian one-party rule and tax breaks in Red States? 

While I would have like to have seen the House Republican's cut all wasteful "spending" first in red states, just to test out their theory of austerity, I think Thom Hartmann's suggestion below should be taken very seriously. 

The idea below really does hold Republican states feet to the fire:

When the Biden administration tried to just slightly slow down the Red state gravy train, specifying in the American Rescue Plan could not be misappropriated and redirected to tax cuts for local billionaires, their politicians — dancing to the tune of their in-state oligarchs — went ballistic. As Forbes documented:

“In a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, 21 Republican state attorneys general described it as ‘the greatest attempted invasion of state sovereignty by Congress in the history of our Republic.’”

Federal policy fails to equalize revenue flowing to Red states against the tax money they send Washington DC. This loophole in US tax law is driving this bizarre process where citizens in Blue states are forced by law to pay for all-white “Christian” academies, enforcement of abortion restrictions, persecution of asylum seekers and immigrants, and political attacks on queer people.

Red state “welfare queen” governors and legislatures are going to happily continue this grift as long as we let them get away with it. Congress should pass legislation mandating that Red state revenues to DC must at least match 90 percent of the money they get back; 100 percent would be better, and help hugely with our nation’s budget deficit.

It’s time to end Red state welfare!

Here's an example:

Cartoonist found Alive!

 

Vos Republicans plan to punish UW, again! Adopt fabricated MAGA policies attacking Equity and Diversity or lose funding.

Apparently, Republicans denying state funding for the expansion of the job creating engineering department due to high demand, wasn't enough of an economic killer for the state. 

The UW-Madison College of Engineering receives some 8,000 applicants annually but only has the space and teaching resources to accept about 1,200. The $347 million building would allow the state flagship to graduate at least 1,000 more undergraduate engineers annually, as well as hire more faculty and expand research. “Today is certainly a sad day for UW–Madison, but the real tragedy is for the state of Wisconsin,” Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin said in a statement. "This building would promote the state’s economic development. It would create significant workforce opportunities. It would propel innovation. And without it, we harm businesses all across Wisconsin."

Where's Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC), who were big supporters of the expansion? Business was also shocked:

CEOs were "terrified" and confused as to why Wisconsin wouldn't fund the project, which would make it even more difficult for businesses to hire engineers ... some companies are offering jobs to students two years before graduation.

This isn't really an Issue: Now the ridiculously gerrymandered Republican majority wants to spew their party's racism and bigotry into the UW System by banning equity and inclusion. It's still surreal to think anyone would be against equity and inclusion, but hey, their MAGA voters will buy into anything. So, bring out the torches and pitchforks for their latest fabricated outrage.

Keep in mind, Republicans have always found some way to punish the UW System, the state's economic engine, for its liberal reputation. So, why the labor shortage? Gee, I don't know...  

The fight this year centers on issues of free speech and UW's work to advance diversity and racial equity. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said he wants to cut all funding the university system would use for diversity initiatives. 

“I want the university to grow and succeed, but if they are obsessed with spending all the scarce dollars that they have on programs that are clearly divisive and offer little public good, I don’t know why we’d want to support that." Republican lawmakers this year have proposed more than 30 bills in 12 states to limit diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in higher education. 

The horror, right? Maybe we should limit all those "diverse" right-wing speakers and topics at the UW? Cuts both ways.

Democratic Sen. Kelda Roys said. "The UW is the economic engine of the state. Making any cuts to the UW, especially politically motivated ones, is just going to harm every person in this state.”

How bad can it get, and who will eventually pay for this? Parents and students. Sweet. "Come to Wisconsin?" Dream on.

UW regents asked the Legislature for a total spending increase of nearly $436 million in state money over the next two years, citing low revenue from a decade long tuition freeze and rising costs due to inflation. Vos said the budget committee plans to reject that request. Tuesday's vote could leave the UW System nearly half a billion dollars short of what school officials say they need.

Wisconsin, we're going Nowhere Fast...

The shocking lack of progress in Wisconsin has now become glaringly obvious. Anti-job legislation doesn't even get a passing glance by Republican voters anymore. Hey, it's just the way it is. Trapped in amber;

1. "Strip out All of the Milwaukee things!" Republicans have been trashing Milwaukee for decades, so guess what? Despite being one of the top economic engines statewide...

After credit downgrade, Vos smells blood in the water, and threatens to strip Milwaukee provisions from government funding bill...

WPR: "If we do not get a deal this week, I think we should strip out all of the Milwaukee things," Vos told reporters Wednesday. "And we will just focus on the balance of the bill, which is repealing the personal property tax and making sure that every community around the state is not held hostage by Milwaukee's problems."

So why aren't Milwaukee's problems the state's problem? After Milwaukee's credit rating was downgraded due to inadequate funding by Republican over the last decade, now it's Gov. Evers responsibility? 

If an agreement is not reached, Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu said the Senate would pursue a shared revenue bill that does not include a sales tax option for Milwaukee. "The governor has a chance to save Wisconsin's largest city and most populous county from bankruptcy. We hope he takes it."

2. WI Republicans denounce progress by protecting gas guzzling machines and power equipment. TMJ4:

The Environmental group Wisconsin Conservation Voters told lawmakers last month that the measure “is at best a solution in search of a problem” given that no community in Wisconsin or the state itself is attempting to ban any type of fuel.

3. Public Health is Tyranny: This is an issue? WI Republicans decided meningitis isn't a real danger after all, forget about protecting the children. But drag shows...yup, just more WOKE tyranny:

This is what we get for trying to stop the COVID pandemic...

The state Assembly and state Senate voted to bar Democratic Gov. Tony Evers' administration from implementing a new rule that would have required seventh graders to get vaccinated against meningitis and mandated parents to show proof their children were infected with chickenpox before obtaining a waiver from the state's chickenpox vaccination requirement...voted in March to block the rule after a GOP members questioned the decision-making of state health officials, largely because they disagreed with their orders to shutter businesses in the weeks after Evers declared a health emergency over COVID-19 and to wear masks during the most threatening periods of the coronavirus pandemic.

4. Forget Job Creation, Republicans Punish UW System...Again, by Rejecting Engineering Expansion: With one third already funded, all the state had to do was contribute the rest, with a massive budget surplus as a cushion. Nope. 

UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin in February called it a “critical project” that would help boost economic development in the state. "Investing in this facility will help address a crucial workforce shortage in the state as well as enhance the world-class research that draws talent into our state and drives economic vibrancy. We will continue to champion this vital project.” JSONLINE: The UW-Madison College of Engineering receives some 8,000 applicants annually but only has the space and teaching resources to accept about 1,200. The $347 million building would allow the state flagship to graduate at least 1,000 more undergraduate engineers annually, as well as hire more faculty and expand research.

 WPR:

Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison) said defunding the UW engineering building “makes no economic sense” and blamed it, and other UW-related funding cancellations, on hostility toward the university by Assembly Speaker Robin Vos. “It only make sense if you think about it as political retribution,” Roys said.

 

Around $100 million in private donations for a planned engineering building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are at risk after Republican lawmakers pulled the $347 million project from the state's capital budget.

It was first included in Gov. Tony Evers' 2021-23 capital budget recommendations. Evers included the project again in his current $3.8 billion capital budget proposal.

But the engineering building — singled out as the top priority both for the university and for the UW System — was axed. Rep. Mark Born, R-Beaver Dam, said "it shouldn't be surprising" that Republicans trimmed down Evers' original request. Born said Evers' capital budget "was unrealistic and spent beyond the state's means."

5. WI Republicans Kill High Speed Broadband Rollout, AGAIN: This affects rural Republican voters most, but they're watching distraction TV and reading alt-right media instead. 

The GOP lawmakers who hold three out of four seats on the Joint Finance Committee (JFC) rejected Evers’ proposal to put $750 million in state funds into broadband internet service expansion, saying that pending federal infrastructure money would be more than enough for that purpose through the 2023-25 budget cycle. According to a Legislative Fiscal Bureau report, the state will receive $700 million to $1.1 billion in federal broadband funds starting by July 1 from the bipartisan infrastructure law enacted in late 2021.

6. WI Republicans may turn down Federal Money for EV Charging stations: Republicans don't quite fit in to the 21st century, you know. 

WPR: The Wisconsin Department of Transportation hopes to nearly double the number of publicly-available electric vehicle charging stations around the state with an infusion of federal dollars — but an outdated state law stands in the way. But federal requirements stipulate those stations need to charge customers by the amount of electricity used, also known as kilowatt-hour. In Wisconsin, only regulated utilities are allowed to charge per kilowatt-hour.

Recent attempts to change the law have failed. A bill was introduced in the state Legislature last session, but died in the Assembly after being approved by the Senate. The language change was included in Gov. Tony Evers' budget, but was removed earlier this year by the Republican-controlled Joint Finance Committee.

7. ...and finally, illegal recreational Marijuana, WI is the island in the Midwest:

It's time to join our neighbors in legalizing and taxing marijuana, much like we already do with alcohol. https://t.co/DOgahR38h7

— Governor Tony Evers (@GovEvers) June 5, 2023

MAGAs at War with Everything, Everywhere all at Once.

No matter what you say or do, even with pictures, you'll never change the mind of MAGA. I sent these Biden success stories to my MAGA friend:

He texted back...

I know, it's hard to imagine such breathless, panting, love sick adulation. But he will believe anything Trump lie to make himself feel better. 

John Pavlovitz recently blogged this perfect description of these proudly deplorable MAGAs:

And now we find America brutalized by a group of people who are fiercely and unrelentingly at war—with everything.

They rage against the LGBTQ community,
people of color,
against the rights of women,
against immigrants, and Muslims and Jewish people.

They go to battle with scientists,
with medical professionals,
with Atheists,
with the FBI.

They crusade against election results,
against Liberals,
against the Media,
against the Constitution.

They mount their incessant brutal assaults upon athletes and entertainers,
upon librarians and school teachers,
upon theme parks and drag queens,
upon beer companies and participation trophies.

To hell with the sick and the poor; with the evaporating natural resources and the rapidly-warming planet; with the unemployed, underserved, and underfed; with the daily mass assassinations at schools and shopping malls. To hell with sorrow and need and loneliness. Those inconveniences merit no urgency, garner no grieving, elicit no such passion. War, after all, is hell—even if it means putting others through it.

 A simple protest supporting LGBTQ rights at a school board meeting turned into a riot? You won't hear any MAGAs criticizing this brawl because this is how they see the future, and they're not afraid of it:

Anti-LGBT protestors attack Pro-LGBT demonstrators outside of a Glendale, CA schoolboard meeting.

The schoolboard is voting on recognizing June as Pride month. pic.twitter.com/T1zqZMTn7D

— Brennan Murphy (@brenonade) June 7, 2023

Bad "Parents Rights" groups lose court challenges against Transgender Student Policies!

The irresponsible "Parental Rights" movement, where bad parents try to foist off their inability to guide and communicate with their children to schools and teachers, continues. 

Seriously, if a parent doesn't even notice their own kid's behavior enough to just ask, why is this a school problem? 

Here's the latest from EdWeek, a subscription-based publication (my last free article of the month):

Over the last three years, parents in at least six states have sued school districts over policies the districts say support transgender, gender nonconforming, and nonbinary students … claim that their 14th Amendment rights to direct the upbringing of their children are violated when schools do not inform them of their children’s pronouns or names, or aid in their social transition at school in any other way.

None of the parents suing schools over this issue have won a legal argument against a school district yet. Two cases have been dismissed after judges ruled that the school districts did not violate any laws. In two other cases, parents have appealed the court’s decision and the final verdict is pending. The latest case was filed last month, and no further action has been taken so far. So far, no school district that was sued has walked back its policies.

Chris Erchull, an attorney for GLAD, a legal organization that defends LGBTQ+ rights: GLAD has filed amicus briefs in support of school districts’ transgender student policies, supporting lawsuit dismissals, in four of the six cases.

However, these cases are a part of a national effort to restrict the rights of transgender students. For example, Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal advocacy group, has been involved in multiple pronoun lawsuits. “What we’re seeing right now is an effort to single out one aspect of student identity development for its special scrutiny and special surveillance and special reporting requirements,” Erchull said. “What we see as a theme that ties all this together, is that it’s about targeting transgender youth and preventing them from having access to the education that they need, to the health care they need, to everything else they need to be to thrive and to be successful as they as they grow into adults.”

Here’s a roundup of some pronoun-related cases in six states, and where they stand.

Judge dismisses lawsuit challenging transgender student policy in Wisconsin school district, appeal filed

In February 2020, a few parents anonymously sued the Madison Metropolitan School District in Wisconsin, alleging that the school district’s transgender and nonbinary student policy violates parental rights by allowing students to use names and pronouns at school different from those they were assigned at birth, without providing parental notification absent a student’s consent.

This appeared to be the first lawsuit of its kind, soon followed by others across the country.

The district’s policy states that “students will be called by their affirmed name and pronouns regardless of parent/guardian permission to change their name and gender in MMSD systems.” However, to change their affirmed name and pronouns in the district-wide student system, students need the permission of one parent or legal guardian, according to the policy.

The parents who sued asked to keep their names entirely confidential, which was not permitted based on a decision by the appeals court. The Wisconsin Supreme Court affirmed the decision of the court of appeals to require the parents to disclose their identities to opposing attorneys, while allowing them to keep their names sealed and confidential from the public and the district.

The parents also sought a temporary injunction to make the district stop enforcing its transgender policy, which was denied. Last November, a judge dismissed the case, ruling that the sole remaining plaintiff after the request for anonymity was rejected did not have standing because the child’s hypothetical chances of changing their name and pronouns without informing the plaintiff were too remote to justify any judicial intervention, according to the judge’s opinion. The plaintiff has filed an appeal of that dismissal.

Maryland school district triumphs as judge rejects lawsuit on gender identity guidelines

In 2022, three parents anonymously filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court objecting to the Montgomery County, Md., district’s guidelines for student gender identity, saying it violated their constitutional rights as parents.

Last August, U.S. District Judge Paul Grimm ruled in favor of the district and threw out the lawsuit. The Maryland decision marked the first ruling of its kind amid half a dozen similar lawsuits. In that case, the judge not only ruled in favor of the district, but also called its guidelines necessary and flexible.

However, a panel of conservative U.S. appeals court judges may revive the legal challenge, Reuters reported in March.

____________________________________________________________________________

The following story is shocking in what it might allow teachers to claim in the future, and eventually be broadened to include other topics. They're asking that their "free speech" rights be allowed to trample on other students' speech rights, which is what the courts are supposed to protect against. 

Court dismisses parents’ claims, but teachers’ lawsuit continues against Virginia school district

Six parents and teachers sued Harrisonburg City Public Schools last year over its gender identity policy, which requires teachers to ask students for their preferred names and pronouns and then use them. The teachers alleged that the district violated their state constitutional rights by “compelling speech with which teachers strongly disagree. They also claimed that the district violated their free speech rights by forcing them to withhold “medical information” from parents.

A judge dismissed the parents’ part of the lawsuit, but not the teachers’ claims, according to the Harrisonburg Citizen. Teachers and staff will not face disciplinary measures if they do not use a student’s preferred name or pronoun or for sharing (or withholding) that information with parents, the judge’s opinion noted.

________________________________________________________________________________

New Hampshire Supreme Court hears arguments in appeal of parents’ lawsuit over notification policy

In April 2023, Judge Amy Messer dismissed a lawsuit filed by a mother against Manchester city schools over its policy that prevents officials from informing parents about their child’s social transition without the student’s permission.

The superior court judge determined that the protocol did not infringe on parents’ rights, and the district had a right to enact these kinds of policies to protect all students from discrimination, Messer wrote in her ruling dismissing the suit.

“While the defendants concede that the plaintiff has a fundamental right to raise her child as she wishes, they assert that the plaintiff’s right to parent does not include the ability to direct how the school teaches her child,” Messer wrote. “The court rejects the plaintiff’s argument that the policy violates her fundamental right to parent.”

Maine school district faces parent lawsuit for providing chest binder to student

Earlier this year, a Maine mom sued the Great Salt Bay Community School for allegedly violating her parental rights after a school counselor gave her child a chest binder, which is a garment worn to flatten breasts.

School counselors and staff were also using the student’s chosen name and pronouns without informing the parent, according to the lawsuit.

The district received three bomb threats because of the parent’s complaints at a school board meeting, according to communication sent by school and district leaders. It has continued to defend its transgender student policy.

This is the latest in a series of cases about transgender rights policies, however, in this case, the parent’s lawyers in this case said they’re solely focused on parental rights, and not on whether schools should support transgender students.

 

4 Job Searches a Week angering/costing Businesses money, causing applicant Ghosting of interviews.

Compare the two following responses, Democratic vs Republican. The contrast is so dramatic, that I had to feature it here. 

Deceptive Work Requirement Referendum: No surprise...

Wisconsin voters supported in an advisory referendum a work requirement for recipients of taxpayer-funded benefits.

But Republicans want you to think it has something to do with cuts to unemployment benefits. Unemployment is an insurance program that's set up just like SS and Medicare, paid for by hard working employees and employers. It is NOT a taxpayer-funded "welfare" program. So, it's not part of the referendum.

Point:  GOP Punishment...4 Job Searches a Week = Ghosting: That's the case I'm making here. State Rep. Jerry O'Connor (R) highlights the problem below, oblivious to the job search requirement that made "ghosting" a huge problem. Having been a blue-collar worker myself, I've been on unemployment a bunch of times, and you will eventually run out of places for your skill set. Sure, employers are angry about the cost of setting up interviews that never happen, but that's a newer GOP created problem: 

Counter Point: While Rep. O'Connor struggles to identify a failed GOP job search requirement, Democratic Rep. Katrina Shankland points out how this is really an attack on workers, ignoring what unemployment insurance was designed to do. The difference in actual governing is shocking: 

Shankland: "This is an insurance program you earned, because you worked...what my colleagues across the aisle intended to do with this legislation is one missed interview, one car breaking down, one losing your childcare slot for the day or week, and you would lose unemployment for that week as well."

Bottom line? Republican would rather punish workers than have to deal with the complexities of the insurance program itself. Oh, and more importantly, Republican want to lower the cost to employers for the insurance program. See how they did it below the video...

 

From February 2016: Here's how Republicans help businesses, but then screws and punishes workers...and taxpayers:

The Dirty Little Funding Secret: Republicans and employers hate putting money into the state's unemployment fund so much that they conceived the scam below. This is corporate welfare on steroids, from a posted I wrote July 11, 2013:

jsonline: Under changes to the state's unemployment insurance system adopted by the Legislature's budget committee Wednesday, taxpayers would spend $26 million over two years to prop up the unemployment fund, To avoid having employers face new assessments this year, the committee voted to use $26 million in general tax dollars to pay down interest on that loan.

Think that’s bad? Taxpayers will be used to scam the federal government. Republican will borrow our hard-earned taxpayer dollars to shore up the unemployment fund, so the fed won’t raise taxes on EMPLOYERS, the ones who actually fund the account.

Additionally, the committee proposal would allow the state Department of Administration to lend up to $50 million in taxpayer money to the unemployment insurance fund. That loan would help the state ensure that the unemployment fund has a positive balance in 2014, which in turn would keep the federal government from raising taxes on employers by $191 million in 2015.

Instead of employers taking responsibility for funding their own insurance program, Walker Republicans have shifted that liability over to taxpayers. All is well in "Stand with Walker" land.

WI Republicans reject tech economy, increasing teacher workforce, mental health programs again, and medications in schools that reverse opioid overdoses.

For WI MAGA Republicans, the massive budget surplus (partly due to letting the state's infrastructure and social programs go to hell) means that it's time for more tax cuts, especially for the victimized wealthy in those higher brackets. GOP leaders are now openly saying that the unfair higher tax brackets must be reduced with a flat tax. But...

...the state’s average income tax rates are more favorable to high- and middle-income residents and worse for those with lower incomes, the Wisconsin Policy Forum reported last year.

Conservative voters should be embarrassed by what was cut from Gov. Evers budget, but they aren't.

WISGOP Values? None: Here's the breathtaking list of rejected budget items Vos Republicans found a little too "woke." Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: 

1. They didn't really mean it...Rejected up to three months of a paid leave of absence for family and medical reasons. Anti-abortion lobbying groups initially showed support after overturning Roe v. Wade, and Republican challengers to Evers embraced the idea as well. Never mind.

2. Forget about preventing gun violence...Cut Evers’ mental health initiatives, including funding for mental health staff and suicide prevention programs.

3. Teacher shortage? What shortage...Cut Evers’ proposals for building the state’s teaching workforce, including stipends for student teachers and “grown your own” programs that help school staff earn higher degrees.

4. Once a must have by Republicans...Cut funding for financial literacy.

5. Too 21st Century? Worst way to attract or keep young job seekers? Cut funding for computer science and math programs. 

6. Are you sitting down for this mindblower? They cut a requirement for schools to carry naloxone or other medication that can reverse opioid overdoses.

7. Maintaining that Dragnet's Joe Friday was right, rejected...Evers proposed legalizing marijuana for users 21 and older. Legalization is estimated to generate $166 million in revenue that Evers has said he wants to use to help fund schools. Wisconsin is in the minority of states that haven't legalized marijuana use in some form.

8. Too easy?...Wisconsin drivers would have been automatically registered to vote under another of Evers’ proposals.

9. While spending taxpayer money supplying communities with bottle water and testing, can we ever have too much of a cancer-causing chemical in our drinking water? Eliminated were the proposals for PFAS standards.

10. Because hiding a dumb and unpopular decision is safer, Republicans...Eliminated a provision in Evers’ budget that would have put an end to anonymous objections to stewardship program proposals by the Joint Finance Committee, requiring the release of a legislator's name.

No, really, this is what real women do...they buy a Real Women of Politics Koozie.

Okay, I can't pass up this real, not kidding, Gov. Sanders jaw dropping ad finally defining what real women do... 

Mind fucking insane...and real. https://t.co/zDM1PrT5pr

— John Peterson (@democurmudgeon) April 24, 2023

Impeach a Supreme Court Justice, spend Tax Cut money on Inflated Prices, and Raise Brewer Ticket Prices. WI MAGA Republican's governing solutions.

Remember the perpetually aggrieved MAGA's never ending whining about how Democrats never gave Trump a chance and wanted to impeach him before he was even elected? Well...

...playing up the high crime rate in Milwaukee caused by starving the city of shared revenue funding to hire more police and the constant loosening of gun laws, time to blame...the judges? Sure:

The Wisconsin Constitution allows lawmakers to remove state officials "for corrupt conduct in office, or for crimes and misdemeanors," but Republican state Senate candidate Dan Knodl said he would consider launching impeachment proceedings for criminal justice officials "who have failed" at their jobs. "Milwaukee County justice system is failing" and circuit court judges "need to be looked at"

Knodl says if his election gives Senate Republicans a two-thirds majority, he would "certainly consider" support launching impeachment proceedings against Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Janet Protasiewicz. "She has failed," Knodl said.

WISN-TV:  

State Senate candidate Habush Sinykin told WISN-TV on Sunday said if she is defeated by Knodl on Tuesday, she expects Republican lawmakers of launching impeachment proceedings against Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, Attorney General Josh Kaul and other officials.

Tax Cuts and Ticket Prices: Knodl's MAGA solutions to Inflation and keeping the Brewers? Pricing out hard-working Brewer fans to pay for stadium renovations, despite massive surpluses, continues the Republican war on revenue generating Milwaukee.

Instead of considering $290 million from the state's surplus, raise ticket prices...always thinking of the hard-working middle class: 

How do you fight inflation? I'm not kidding here, Knodl wants to give a tax cut so you can spend that extra money on higher priced goods? Of course, they could raise the minimum wage...

Republican defunding eventually priced college, the ticket to the middle class, out of reach to so many millions of Americans!

Like the deregulated railroads and banks, Republicans continue to create cleanup jobs for Democrats. After decades of defunding our state colleges, despite their massive economic contribution to Wisconsin, Republicans forced higher education to increase tuition dramatically. That gave the GOP the opportunity to feign outrage over those greedy liberal indoctrination centers, an excuse to further cut funding and to blame federal loan programs for making it worse. Round and around it goes.  

It now requires the Democratic Biden administration to offer a loan forgiveness program to get the economy back on track. 

Exposing that myth, NPR uncovered this...: 

SHAPIRO: How do you respond to the argument we just heard, that this plan effectively asks taxpayers who chose not to take on debt to subsidize the decisions of those who did?

MCHEE: This big new policy is in the larger economic interest of the nation. It is going to be great for our economy to help unshackle 20 million borrowers. And 90% of the money is going to people who earn less than $75,000 a year.

First of all, it was the decision of politicians to create a debt-for-diploma system, where, because of cutbacks at the state level of public colleges and the shift at the federal level from grants to loans, we pushed the cost of college out of reach for working-class families at the exact same time that politicians decided to make a college degree the ticket to the middle class.

SHAPIRO: Explain why that shift in state funding for education is so essential to understanding this debate.

MCHEE: You know, college used to be virtually free at the public level, not because it didn't cost anything, but because the government picked up the tab with state funding that was generous. And whatever was left over would be made up often by a grant, not a loan. And so it was a political decision to cut state funding for public colleges. So young people have been paying for that political decision, and now they get to benefit from a smarter political decision by the Biden-Harris administration.

MAGA Fascism hits speed ramp...pt 3!

The best example of political overreach is DeSantis' authoritarian anti-woke policy downsizing public education. It's now bleeding out programs designed to deal with festering problems children are dealing with that need attention.

1.  Arkansas, Texas, Kentucky and South Carolina push Death Penalty for Women who've had Abortions: Imagine this being the first question asked by reporters in elections. From "personhood" abuse charges, to homicide charges that will "explicitly target medication abortion and self-managed abortion;"

The bills have been introduced in states such as Texas, Kentucky, South Carolina, Oklahoma and Arkansas. Some explicitly target medication abortion and self-managed abortion; some look to remove provisions in the law which previously protected pregnant people from criminalization; and others look to establish the fetus as a person from the point of conception.

“This exposes a fundamental lie of the anti-abortion movement, that they oppose the criminalization of the pregnant person,” said Dana Sussman, the acting executive director of Pregnancy Justice. “They are no longer hiding behind that rhetoric.”

Laws that establish fetal personhood also bring the risk of opening pregnant people up to battery and assault charges for endangering a fetus. Such charges have already been documented in hundreds of cases, using criminal laws championed in recent decades by the anti-abortion movement that recognize fetuses as potential victims.

...one in Arkansas, allow a partner to file an unlawful death lawsuit against a pregnant person who has had an abortion.

“The ways in which pregnant people could become a mere vessel for an entity that has separate and unique rights is becoming closer and closer to reality."

2. Florida NO PLACE for Social-Emotional Learning, that supports Students shaken by COVID aftermath. Also...

The longstanding practice is largely aimed at improving students’ skills in areas such as self-management and social awareness — competencies that research has tied to stronger academic outcomes and improved student behavior.

In a memo Commissioner of Education Manny Diaz called on districts and charter schools to do a “thorough review” (of) Purpose Prep.

Diaz: “Edgenuity/Imagine Learning’s divisive and discriminatory content branded as ‘social-emotional learning (SEL)’ has no place in Florida’s classrooms." The memo didn’t make clear what language or topics were considered “divisive and discriminatory.”

Social-emotional learning saw a massive spike in interest after the pandemic, as many districts ... looked for tools to support students and families who were shaken by COVID and its aftermath.

3.  So much for Election integrity, Florida, Missouri, and West Virginia back out of ERIC: Why? Red states want to remove "the requirements to encourage voter registration." Surprised? 

“The only thing I can come up with is they don’t actually want election integrity. They want more chaos.”

Without evidence, critics (and election deniers) accused ERIC of sharing data with liberal groups, and they have claimed that the real purpose of the group is to blindly encourage voter registration, not to maintain registration lists.

4. Tenn Rural community Schools Threatened with Closure, kill Towns, under Charter Plan: 

That plan, prepared by one of the most powerful lobbying forces on Tennessee's Capitol Hill, lays out a vision for a dramatic expansion of taxpayer-funded, privately operated charter schools into every part of the state — including suburban and rural areas that have not been targeted by school privatization forces. SCORE is made up of the state's wealthiest people, billionaires and millionaires who think they know what's best for Tennessee's school children, along with funding assistance from billionaire Bill Gates.

J.C. Bowman, executive director of another teachers group, Professional Educators of Tennessee agreed, "Who's the largest employer in most rural communities? It's the school system. Most of the parents will tell you they support their community schools."

Tennessee Education Association's Jim Wrye added, "There is a real cultural pride and academic pride in these places, that somebody saying we'll do it for you is kind of insulting in that way. There's no doubt about it. And school consolidation, when you close the school, you kill the town."

5. Child Labor Returns after Arkansas repeals regulatory Safeguards: Getting around new naturalized immigrant citizens from other countries... 

Sanders believes the provision was “burdensome and obsolete,”

The law eliminates requirements for the state to verify the age of children younger than 16 before they can take a job. 

Federal officials have discovered hundreds of violations in meatpacking plants and after press reports emerged of children working in hazardous occupations around the country. The Labor Department fined Packers Sanitation Services, a subcontractor for meatpacking plants, $1.5 million in February for illegally hiring children, some of whom sustained chemical burns after working with caustic cleaning agents.

Other states are also considering loosening child labor protections. A bill advancing in Iowa would allow 14- and 15-year-olds to work certain jobs in meatpacking plants and would shield businesses from civil liability if a youth worker is sickened, injured or killed on the job. 

6. DeSantis' ban on mandated Vax and Masks actually Killed Floridians: The nice thing for Desantis is that those now lost voices won't impact his campaign. All just part of the plan, and he oddly, despite that record, got a public vote of confidence in his reelection: 

Bill Hanage, an associate professor of epidemiology at Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health, says DeSantis politicized the public health crisis. His policies, Hanage believes, led to an increase of deaths in Florida from COVID. "If you compare it with California, New York, Massachusetts and the United Kingdom," Hanage says Florida is "the only one to have more deaths since vaccines were available, than before. The only one of them."

In analyzing data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, Hanage found that in Florida, 60% of the total deaths occurred after vaccines were available. In the other places, the number of deaths after vaccines became available are 40% of the total or less.

DeSantis dismisses the criticism, saying Florida voters looked at his record on COVID in November and gave him a resounding vote of confidence.

Killing your critics is one way to achieve that confidence.

MAGA Politicians shutdown Student participation because it's not really about them.

The most infuriating thing about the "parental rights" exploitation movement in school districts around the nation is the profound lack of confidence they have in their own children. They don't seem to be ready for anything. 

As a family and having helped our 20 something sons make their way through the last 18 years of school, what I'm hearing from the MAGA mob is not even close to what we experienced. Our family discussions and debates about social, historical, and political issues have given our guys a platform to bank their ideas off our own life experiences. Isn't that what the American family is all about? 

That's why I'm giving the video below its own post. The MAGA politicians' treatment of smart civically minded kids just trying to participate and make a difference is disgusting.    

If this doesn't piss you off...

Several students from the Little Rock School District came to speak against the bill. Every speaker was made to stop talking by the committee chair, Republican Sen. Jane English, who said their comments were not specific enough to the amendment.

 

Little Rock School Board member Ali Noland gave the final public comment:

“The way that you all are treating these students who have shown up to participate in the legislative process by pointing out things that are not in the amendment but should be, which is speaking on the amendment, is so disappointing,” she said, “Believe me, you are giving them much more of a platform than if you had just listened to their criticism of the amendment.”

That platform is right here.

MAGA Fascism hits speed ramp...pt 2!

Continuing the previous post on the DeSantis-like rush to fascism, the following is just a partial list that I will add to for a while...a growing list of examples hitting the shit fan daily. 

Imagine if we didn't have Gov. Evers...we'd be here. 

1. John Oliver derails the DeSantis fascist train to authoritarianism, verbally of course. Must see...

The Don’t Say LGBTQ policies are part of a coordinated campaign by the DeSantis Administration. They are the epitome of the administration’s effort to wage culture wars against academic freedom, parental rights, and diversity, equity, and inclusion as part of a broader strategy to challenge the Governor’s former mentor Donald Trump for a presidential nomination. The Desantis Administration’s obsession with far-right Presidential primary voters are why we have seen one of the country’s largest state university systems subjected to a McCarthy-era witch hunt for equity and diversity programs and provision of transgender healthcare, sweeping censorship of books by Black and LGBTQ authors, doctors’ careers threatened for providing transgender Floridians life-saving healthcare, and even a complete far right take over of the New College of Florida. Florida stands in the midst of an unprecedented campaign of censorship and surveillance, targeting anyone who doesn’t share the increasingly extremist ideology of Governor Ron DeSantis.

2. Alaska State Rep. Eastman accidently discloses MAGAs cruel use of Children for Political Control: Like they really care. 

State Rep. David Eastman (R-Wasilla) faced criticism from ... the House Judiciary Committee, which featured a presentation from experts on adverse childhood experiences. In response to a statistic that listed the lifetime cost of fatal child abuse at $1.5 million per victim, Eastman referred to a counterargument that the death of abused children is “actually a benefit to society.”

“It can be argued, periodically, that [fatal child abuse is] actually a cost savings because that child is not going to need any of those government services that they might otherwise be entitled to receive and need based on growing up in this type of environment,” he said.

After his crazy comment featured below, another Representative came up with this doozy as a defense...: 

"One of the arguments for abortion has been that it’s better to terminate that child’s life before they become a burden to society.”

Noooo...not familiar with that one.

_________________________________________________________________________

3. MAGA's Abandon "Academic Freedom" for political takeover of Liberal Arts Colleges: We're all familiar with this...

DeSantis replaced six of the 13 members on the college’s board of trustees with conservative allies, including Christopher Rufo, who has fueled the fight against critical race theory.

...which predictably grew into this lunacy...

A similar plan didn't turn out well in Idaho...

Trustees backed by the Kootenai County GOP took over the governing majority of North Idaho College and denounced alleged liberal "indoctrination" by the faculty and vowed to root out "deep state" corruption in the school administration, but their leadership resulted in lawsuits from two of the past five school presidents and Moody's downgraded their debt over “significant governance and management dysfunction," reported the New York Times. GOP activists set their sights on the college after its diversity council issued a statement of support for social justice demonstrations after the police killing of George Floyd.

Former college president Rick MacLennan said the school was a warning to other institutions facing partisan attacks and hostile takeovers by Gov. Ron DeSantis and other Republican leaders.

NO KIDDING: DeSantis takes over State Education: H.B. 999 is “laden with unconstitutional provisions hostile to freedom of expression and academic freedom.”

4. DeSantis will Control Disney Content? He even bragged about this when he campaigned in California, where the original Disneyland is located. Jonathan Chait wrote:

Last fall, I attended the National Conservatism Conference, where the attendees laid out rather plainly their ambition to turn DeSantis into a model for a ruthless, illiberal party that would use the organs of the state to crush its enemies. Since those pieces appeared, DeSantis’s actions have made me more, not less, concerned.

While the board handles infrastructure and maintenance, DeSantis boasted that it could use its leverage to force Disney to stop “trying to inject woke ideology” on children.

“When you lose your way, you’ve got to have people that are going to tell you the truth,” DeSantis proclaimed. “But I think all of these board members very much would like to see the type of entertainment that all families can appreciate.”

It is worth pausing a moment to grasp the full breadth of what is going on here. First, DeSantis established the principle that he can and will use the power of the state to punish private firms that exercise their First Amendment right to criticize his positions. Now he is promising to continue exerting state power to pressure the firm to produce content that comports with his own ideological agenda.

5. LGBTQ Discrimination now Legal in Alaska: Quietly reversed...

It published new guidelines in 2021 saying Alaska’s LGBTQ protections now extended beyond the workplace to housing, government practices, finance and “public accommodation.” It updated the website ... a “sea change under Alaska law for LGBTQ+ individuals’ rights to be free from discrimination.”

But a year later, the commission quietly reversed that position. It deleted language from the state website promising equal protections for transgender and gay Alaskans against most categories of discrimination, and it began refusing to investigate complaints. Only employment-related complaints would now be accepted, and investigators dropped any non-employment LGBTQ civil rights cases they had been working on.

6. And because I think it needs to be said and repeated often:

7. Anyone hurt by Drag Shows? Drag Shows; normal, sometime outrageous, so what's the harm? As I've stated many times, I always go back to the original intent of Republican bills, because it exposes what they're thinking: 

Republican lawmakers are intensifying their ongoing, all-out assault on trans existence. More than 300 anti-LGBTQ+ bills were either passed or introduced in 2022, the majority taking aim at trans youth through health care bans, sports team restrictions, and bathroom bills, and removing Medicaid coverage for trans adults’ health care too. Meanwhile, drag performances, particularly family-friendly drag brunches and drag queen story hours at libraries, have become a focal point of histrionic Republican rhetoric and far-right militia attacks. With obsessive ferocity, the right is attempting to criminalize, harass, and legislate gender nonconformity out of existence. A bill moving at pace through the Arkansas legislature, for example, would constitute a ban on all trans adults using bathrooms in public.

8. Drag Show Legislative Circus: The best argument yet...