Trump's has well deserved Rubio moment. What a petty loser.

What a train wreck:

Republicans embrace Tax Cuts for Billionaire donations, Pedophiles over Democrats, it's that simple!!!

The ugly hideous vision Republicans apparently have of the US goes something like this; America is a shell country for funneling money to business and Republican politicians campaigns.

Don't forget, billionaire political donors gave the Republicans an ultimatum: Cut their taxes or lose campaign funding. Pretty powerful stuff.

Supply Side-Trickle-Down-Voodoo Economics: So will corporate tax cuts get corporate CEO's behind expanding their businesses with capital investments...well this not so shocking reaction isn't just funny, it's karma:



Sen. Orin Hatch says he's fed up with Democrats saying he's giving tax cuts to the rich...he said Democrats are overplaying that all the time, and it's getting old. Remember, Republicans pulled this same stunt, and it worked, when they said being called racist was getting old.

Plus, Republicans claim Democrats won't let these expiring middle-class tax cuts expire...but if that were true, then the whole $1.7 trillion would be added to the deficit. NOTE: Washington Post Columnist Catherine Rampell explains the devastating effects the grad student deduction repeal would have on the cost of higher education and innovation:



Repealing the ACA Mandate Hits Lower and Middle-Class: It's still hard to understand how they ever came up with this one. Not to mention cuts to Medicare:



Watch this GOP takedown by Joy Reid on MSNBC. no one could say it any better (I will be using this clip often):

If the GOP politicians had brains...

The Schemes used by Climate Change deniers, and the bigger problem of Ethanol production.

Note: Ideological purity is the lifeblood of the Republican Party, from no tax pledges that rule out solving problems by paying for things, the first ever free-market health care system, and supply-side trickle-down economics that has failed time and time again.

With that in mind, I noticed 3 major points the GOP claims are liberal ploys, when in fact, they're not. Instead, Republicans take the following purely ideological positions. I would call it projection. From a Wikipedia post on climate change:

Point #1: Senator James Inhofe (Republican, for Oklahoma) concluded, "With all of the hysteria, all of the phony science ... in which the facts are predetermined, and ideological purity trumps technical and scientific rigor." 

Point #2: The Cooler Heads Coalition notes "an elaborate conspiracy in which hundreds of climate scientists have twisted their results ... to protect their research funding."

Point #3: William M. Gray said in 2006 that global warming became a political cause because of the lack of any other enemy ... its purpose was to try to introduce a world government, and to control people, adding, "I have a demonic view on this."

The highlighted points are part of an arsenal of weapons to attack liberals, Democrats, and progressives, their "demonic" "enemy" pushing climate change. 

Ironically, Trump's own government report says the president and climate deniers are lying: 

The conclusions of the 600-plus-page Climate Science Special Report, which is part of an even larger scientific review known as the fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4), is the nation's most authoritative assessment of climate science ... states that the global climate will continue to warm ... Without major reductions in emissions, the increase in annual average global temperature could reach 9 degrees Fahrenheit relative to pre-industrial times. Efforts to reduce emissions, it says, would slow the rate of warming.

 Now we're finding out ethanol production is worse than the problems posed by fossil fuel use:

A University of Wisconsin-Madison study shows that the shift of more than 7 million acres into cropland led to massive releases of carbon emissions into the atmosphere after a 2007 federal law mandated ethanol in gasoline.

The increased carbon emissions are equivalent to 20 million new cars driving down American roadways every year, according to the researchers' estimates in the study released Wednesday. 

While pro-ethanol special interests tried to downplay the findings:

Many pro-ethanol groups say ethanol has been a boon to farm income. Corn prices, for example, jumped higher. Geoff Cooper, executive vice president of the Renewable Fuels Association, said "the additional corn needed to support expansion of the ethanol industry came from increased productivity on existing cropland — not from converting native grasslands into new cropland,"

But...

However, in Wisconsin, figures show that more land went into corn production beginning in 2008. Corn production rose 14% from 3.8 million acres to 4.35 million acres between 2008 and 2012, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Production remained above 4 million acres and fell to 3.9 million acres this year, the Agriculture Department reported.

A great little video summarizing the science surrounding climate change, like why it's warmer some places and cooler in others, and how warming oceans are making weather conditions more extreme. No, Al Gore does not make a cameo appearance...

The Bump Stock explained!!! Cell phones too...

NOTE-11/18/2017: The bump stock tech video was removed by JerryRigEverything. I'll assume the loudmouth whiners and brutal back and forth got to be too much. Enjoy his recommendation of the LG V30 below.

Once a Windows phone family once, but were forced into Android phones once Microsoft abandoned their mobile platform. There's no way I would buy anything Apple...ever. That search leads us to the guy you're about to see below, JerryRigEverything, who normally tests the durability of the latest cell phones; with the bend, scratch and burn tests.



Tip: Here's JerryRigEverything's look at the best android phone on the market. You can also search your favorite phone and see how it holds up:



That same phone teardown video should give you an insight of how these quality phones are built:

Almost Thanksgiving.....

Americans would keep ACA Mandate if people had to pay more or started losing their Insurance!!!

Repealing the ACA mandate is the silver bullet Republicans knew would destroy ObamaCare. So what if 13 million people will lose their insurance, the voting public isn't paying Republicans enough to look out for them, they're serving the corporate power donors:

After the Senate bill was released on Tuesday, the majority leader, Mitch McConnell, explained its inclusion: Repeal would raise revenue, help offset the effects of tax reductions elsewhere in the bill and make it easier for Republicans to make a lower corporate tax permanent. It helped, he added, that it was unpopular and that every Republican senator supported repeal.

The mandate makes sense...

...a benevolent technocratic necessity, born of economic models and real-world experience. When the outcome is so obviously positive, concerns about government power are irrelevant. But to many of Obamacare’s critics, those concerns are of the highest importance. In this view, the mandate is a form of unacceptable government overreach, a violation of the individual right to avoid engaging in commerce.

Poll shows Americans would Keep Mandate if people lost insurance: 

The Kaiser Family Foundation released a new poll Wednesday finding that 55 percent of Americans support the idea of repealing the individual mandate. That number rises to 73 percent when you look at the respondents who identify as Republican.

The Kaiser poll shows what happens when people are asked whether individuals support repealing the individual mandate. They then followed up with a second question, about whether their opinion would change if they heard that it would increase the number of people without health insurance by 13 million over the next year. Support for mandate repeal dropped by 17 percentage points after hearing that fact.

The Boston Globe had this incredibly interesting article on solving domestic violence, the possible predictor of mass shootings:

No demands for sweeping policy changes are emanating from Trump or other Republicans after the mass shooting in Texas because the gunman was not Muslim. I was almost going to write that we'll see what action Congress takes today in response to the murders -- silly me. Once the right wing, with its pusillanimous fealty to the deep-pocketed NRA, refused to do anything about little kids being slaughtered in their classrooms five years ago, it became clear that they'll never do anything, ever, no matter how many people are murdered with guns. BTW, it's 13,150 so far this year. That's about 43 people a day. We are so much better at killing Americans than our enemies are. ISIS has nothing on us!

I'm also tired of hearing residents of the latest victimized community say that they never imagined such a thing could happen in their town. Are you kidding? We live in the United States! There are more guns in this country than there are people. We're 25 times more likely to be killed by a gun than the residents of any other developed country in the world. To think that there is a single safe space anywhere in the US is beyond naive.

Also not surprising: The gunman had a history of domestic violence,which is a "screaming red flag" for future mass shootings. Many mass shooters practice on their wife and kids first: The Fort Lauderdale airport shooter, the Pulse nightclub shooter, the Planned Parenthood shooter, the Lafayette movie theater shooter, the California McDonald's shooter, and on and on. Adam Lanza shot his mother before he killed the little kids at Sandy Hook. The Virginia Tech shooter had harassed women on campus. The cafeteria shooter in Killeen, Texas, stalked women, and during his shooting spree, passed by men in order to target women. Stephen Paddock verbally abused his girlfriend in public in Las Vegas -- and who knows what he did behind closed doors. The Texas church shooter was kicked out of the Air Force and served a year in the brig for assaulting his wife and child, yet he was able to buy a Ruger AR-556 assault rifle at a San Antonio gun store last year. (Latest news: His in-laws attended the church he shot up, although they were not there yesterday. Hardly a coincidence.)

What's NOT a predictor of mass shootings? A history of mental illness.People who are mentally disturbed are far more likely to harm themselves than others. But that's the canard Trump resurrected in Japan -- without knowing anything about the Texas shooter. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe should school Trump in how to virtually eradicate gun violence; Japan has had just one gun death so far this year. One.Like every other developed country, it's a very, very simple solution: The fewer guns, the fewer gun deaths. (Massachusetts, with very tough gun laws, has the lowest rate of gun deaths in the US.)

By the way, Texas Governor Greg Abbott was embarrassed two years ago by the massive number of guns being purchased in his state. Embarrassed, that is, because Texas was No. 2 behind California. "Let's pick up the pace Texans," he tweeted.

One Good Guy with Gun vs 22 Unarmed Citizens stopping mass shootings, and violent crimes increased.

Keep this one thought in mind, the best argument against armed citizens:

So let's take a look at good guys with guns, and how "successful" the nationwide movement has been:

NPR's Robert Siegel talks with Stanford University law professor John Donohue about his research on whether or not increased gun ownership helps decrease crime ... we were looking at data across all 50 states and the District of Columbia over the period from 1977 through 2014.

The basic finding was that the net effect of allowing citizens to carry concealed handguns was an increase in violent crime, which essentially rose to about a 15 percent increase after 10 years of existence of the right-to-carry law ... the single biggest effect seemed to be an increase in aggravated assaults. And also because increased right to carry does complicate the task for police and therefore sort of serves as a impediment to good policing. And the one thing we know is good policing is probably the single most important thing in curtailing crime.

The interesting thing is the FBI did a very intensive study of 160 mass shootings over the period from 2000 to 2013. And what they found was that over that period, in the 160 cases, there was only one incidence of a private citizen who was not security personnel or a police officer who effectively intervened in the mass shooting, and that individual was an active duty Marine. On the other hand, 22 unarmed citizens intervened to stop those mass shootings, typically when the individual was reloading. And so it gives you a sense of the relative effectiveness of relying on someone with a gun to intervene in an active shooting scenario.

Sociopathic Trump Copy/Pastes Condolence tweet for Wrong Mass Shoot! It really happened

Just un-f**king believable:

The response....

Republicans are saying; let's throw in a few drinks, inexperienced driving, immature recklessness and a lot of cell phone use to mark our 19-year-old's adulthood.

Busy hands are happy hands? Nothing else explains the rash of ridiculous and unnecessary - even dangerous - laws put out there by Republicans. No age limit for hunting or carrying a gun? Really?

Are you ready for this one? Lowering the drinking age to 19:

A proposal to lower the state’s drinking age to 19, circulated Wednesday by three Republican lawmakers including the former president of the Wisconsin Tavern League..."

Why would we do that? Dumb, dumber, and dumbest gave these reasons:

1. 38-year-old Rep. Adam Jarchow, of Balsam Lake said, “At 19 years old, there are very few things that you cannot do" ... have legally been an adult for one year, can enlist in the military and be sent thousands of miles away to fight, but can’t “enjoy an alcoholic beverage.”

What we're really talking about here is drinking and driving. First, 19-year-olds aren't experienced drivers yet.  Second, they haven't reached a maturity level that makes their choices reliably good.

2. The bill also would save “countless hours and hundreds of thousands of dollars” enforcing drinking laws in the state, especially on college campuses.

Ah, drinking at 19 doesn't change one thing regarding enforcement. Nothing, we still have to check.

Biggest Reason? Kinda missed the age of Cell Phones: Did Republicans miss the now dangerous use of cell phones while driving, where it is now one of the major reasons for traffic accidents and deaths?

Just to be clear, Republicans are saying; let's throw in a few drinks, inexperienced driving, immature recklessness and a lot of cell phone use to mark our 19-year-olds adulthood. 

Republican Tax Cuts hammer Medicare, repeal ACA mandate resulting in Death Spiral, kills Long Term Drug Discounts for charity & rural Hospitals, cuts research Grad Students tax breaks...Etc!

Republicans are plundering the lower and middle class tax breaks and seniors to pay for corporate tax rates. Why? Because...and I know this sounds cliched, they're doing it for their billionaire donors, who've threatened to cut off campaign donations if they fail to follow orders. Meaning this has nothing to do with simplification or tax relief, and more about pure political power. Yea, this is fascism.

Oh, and about "keeping more of your hard-earned money?" Take it away Scott Walker (literally):

"President Donald Trump’s tax reform plan will allow entrepreneurs and small businesses more room to improve, invest and expand, propelling economic growth and creating more family-supporting careers, all while freeing up Americans to keep more of their hard-earned money. ...

Nope!!! The point is, if you were one of the lucky ones to get a tax cut, you'll be spending your savings on increased fees, insurance premiums and educational costs from the rising price of every plundered program.

And just like the reconciled Bush tax cuts, the lower and middle class tax cuts will expire too. Republicans are banking on Democrats renewing these expiring cuts, even if plunging revenues make that almost impossible. It's a trap, while all the corporate tax rates stay in place, a change that does not expire.

Defunding Medicare for Tax Cuts: The latest was this big takeaway Republicans could use later on to make the argument Medicare is going broke...thanks to them:

Steal $338 Billion for Corporate Tax cuts Repealing ACA Mandate: Get ready for insurance premiums going through the roof:

The (repeal of the) individual mandate raises a lot of revenue for the tax cuts ... CBO estimates it would save the federal government $338 billion over the next 10 years ... comes from people losing insurance. When fewer people have insurance there's less money the government has to spend on subsidies. 

You'd see something called a death spiral; with the healthy people exiting, the rates go up and up. A few states tried to do health reform without a mandate; Washington state in the 1990's ... they had a death spiral happen, and they had no insurance companies willing to sell coverage to individuals by the end of that experiment. We know that it doesn't work very well.

What else is targeted to help pay for tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations?

A Trojan horse: It would establish the proposition that a “better” inflation measure exists and should be employed across the government. Even if this specific legislation doesn’t touch Social Security, make no mistake: It puts Social Security under threat.

Repealing Discounts Charity's and Rural Hospitals got for long-term Drug purchases: Jaw-dropping:

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services essentially wipe out steep and long-term drug discounts received by charity and rural hospitals ... last month’s rule change to the 340B program (cut) $1.6 billion to the federal drug discount program known as 340B. Hospital leaders also contend that the latest rulemaking adds to an already confounding regulatory arrangement.

Research Grads Education Tax Break Repealed: Just one of many cuts to student tax breaks:

"Marketplace," hosted by Kai Ryssdal, featured on a 11/09/2017 show the quote "That's the end of research in the United States," said by policy analyst Barmak Nassirian  when he saw the tax bill. He was thinking of the graduate students who work as research assistants and take advantage of certain tax breaks to offset the cost of their education, which is one of the deductions Republicans working on the bill are looking to slash.

Taxing Endowment Earnings used to fund undergraduates from low income families: In the words of conservative George Will looking out for private colleges:

A 1.4 percent excise tax on the endowment earnings of approximately 70 colleges and universities with the largest per-student endowments ... to raise less than $3 billion in a decade ... Princeton University’s endowment earnings fund more than half its annual budget and will support expansion of the student body ... They also enable “need-blind” admissions: More than 60 percent of undergraduates receive financial assistance; those from families with incomes below $65,000 pay no tuition, room or board; those from families with incomes below $160,000 pay no tuition. No loans are required. PhD candidates receive tuition and a stipend for living costs. It is astonishingly shortsighted to jeopardize all of this, and it is unseemly to do so in a scramble for resources to make a tax bill conform to the transitory arithmetic of a budget process that is a labyrinth of trickery.

You're not Victims, you're White Nationalists!

The Republican Party's victim act is not just getting old, but needs to stop, now.

Being an adult, and applying just a little common sense tells us this has gone too far. Oh, and the use of these two magic words, "left wing," doesn't suddenly make racism disappear:

WHA: Trump supporters, such as National Review Online contributing editor Deroy Murdock, contend that tying Trump to white supremacy is no more than a cynical political ploy. "The 'Donald Trump = David Duke' narrative is a bright, shining, left-wing lie."

And don't you love the switcheroo where Republicans, who terrify white voters with threats of illegal immigration, Black Lives Matter, and the Muslim faith, falsely blame Democrats for using that very tactic. It's the old second-grade retort "I know you are but what am I?"

"It’s designed to make Trump radioactive, sandbag his agenda, and terrify black voters so they’ll stampede the polls and save the Democrats’ bacon in November 2018. The Left deserves universal scorn for deploying such political plutonium," said Murdock.

Walker thinks it's Obama's Fault Republicans are terrifying whites

Political plutonium? The ploy here is to use "bright and shiny" words that are so over the top, that at least a little of that must be true, right? But just a little common sense cuts through the fear-mongering:

Heidi Beirich, director of the Intelligence Project at Southern Poverty Law Center. "The

rise in hate groups started in 2000, and that’s the year when the census said white people will become a minority in 2040s. Trump played into racist instincts. They (white supremacist groups) view Trump as a good political force for their beliefs."
Alix Olson, a retired Madison Police Department detective who founded the organization Seeking Tolerance and Justice Over Hate, said Trump’s election has emboldened hate groups "who felt before that they didn't have a voice. This administration has given carte blanche to white supremacy. Everything is starting to become undone to the detriment of people who have way less power than white people do."

The abandonment of common sense has gotten so bad that even this clueless former president couldn't hold back from saying the obvious:

Former president George W. Bush to call on the public to reject white supremacy and racism. "Bigotry or white supremacy in any form is blasphemy against the American creed. Bullying and prejudice in our public life sets a national tone, provides permission for cruelty and bigotry, and compromises the moral education of children."

U.S. will lose Corporate Profits and Investment due to Territorial Tax...hear that sucking sound?

After reading the following, you might want to rethink what Republicans might really have in mind for the U.S. economy, and who it benefits...and it ain't you and me:

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: Under a “territorial” tax system, U.S.-based multinational corporations wouldn’t pay U.S. corporate taxes on their foreign profits. That is, they would face a zero U.S. corporate tax rate, and such a massive, permanent tax advantage for foreign profits over domestic profits would not help the U.S. economy. It would create a powerful incentive for companies to shift profits and investments overseas, could harm many U.S. businesses and workers, and would likely increase deficits. Corporate tax reform should focus on tax policy changes that would help create jobs, reduce deficits, and raise incomes, especially for workers whose incomes have been close to stagnant while corporate profits have soared

The tax avoidance savings that corporations would reap would favor profitable U.S. multinationals, especially those in industries that can easily move profits overseas, such as pharmaceuticals and software.

If a lower U.S. tax rate on foreign profits encourages U.S. corporations to move investments offshore, it could hurt U.S. workers’ wages and productivity. As Congressional Research Service tax economist Jane Gravelle testified before Congress, “[Moving to a territorial system] would make foreign investment more attractive. That would cause investment to flow abroad, and that would reduce the capital which workers in the United States have, so it should reduce wages.”

A zero tax rate on foreign profits would make U.S. domestic and small businesses less competitive relative to large U.S. multinationals.

Claims that cutting U.S. companies’ worldwide tax rate would encourage more firms to locate or keep their tax residence in the United States and thereby increase the number of high-quality jobs at U.S. corporate headquarters are dubious. Currently, whether or not companies can claim U.S. tax residence doesn’t depend on where they locate their management operations.

GOP Tax Cut Plan: "If you have kids and make under $100,000, your taxes are going up!"

The GOP tax cuts are a con, filled with little middle-class tax increases over time, that no one will notice but will still feel frustrating...making Americans beg for even more cuts.

Lawrence O'Donnell's two guests, NY Times columnist David Leonhardt and George H.W. Bush Treasury official Bruce Bartlett gave us the bad news. The takeaway? Republicans will create revenue shortfalls that will justify cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid:



This tweet made it even easier to understand:

Or this:

Promoted as needed relief for the middle class, the Senate Republican tax overhaul would increase taxes for some 13.8 million moderate-income American households, a bipartisan analysis showed Monday.The analysis found that the Senate measure would actually increase taxes in 2019 for 13.8 million households earning less than $200,000 a year. That group, about 10 percent of all U.S. taxpayers, would face tax increases of $100 to $500 in 2019. There also would be increases greater than $500 for a number of taxpayers, especially those with incomes between $75,000 and $200,000. By 2025, 21.4 million households would have steeper tax bills. The analysts previously found a similar magnitude of tax increases under the House bill.

If that wasn't bad enough, Americans will be paying more for everything relating to health care, thanks to "spending cut" on the federal level, that shifts the burden to the sick:

Joe Grogan, director of health programs at the White House’s Office of Management and Budget ... essentially wiped out steep and long-term drug discounts received by charity and rural hospitals ... easing reporting requirements for doctors ... exempting more employers from paying for birth control to rolling back drug discounts — have Grogan’s mark on them in some way.

7 yrs later, Scott Walker can't stop talking about and still blames Gov. Doyle for Republican Great Recession that produced Job Losses and State Deficit.

Scott Walker recently said Wisconsin's economy is "on fire," so that's why he's still falsely blaming former Gov. Jim Doyle for job losses and high deficit resulting from the failed Republican free-market experiment that gave us the Great Recession?

Without that false comparison, Walker would have nothing, basically no villain to blame to make his numbers look good. Walker could thank the economy in general but instead will take credit for Obama's "slow" recovery.

From Upfront with Mike Gousha, far to the right Scott Walker said:

Walker: "To me, they're all the same, they're all far to the left, they'll all take us back as we said before, to the kind of policies we saw, that lost us 133,000 jobs in the four years before we took office..."

And again, if you were still not sure... "we don't want to go back to those days"...you know, when we had the Great Recession:

Scott Walker joins fellow Republicans to elect accused and "if it's true" Pedophile Roy Moore...

UPDATE: Our gutless Trump-wannabe is now mirroring Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell in calling for Moore to "step aside." Pretty bold position huh? Risky? We'll see.

It's almost comical watching Scott Walker try to be just like Trump. Almost word for word, kinda, was Walker's response to Roy Moore's reported pedophilia.

Slate

Trump: “Honestly, I’d have to look at it and I’d have to see. Because, again, I’m dealing with the president of China, the president of Russia, I’m dealing with the folks over here."

Here's what Scott Walker said on Upfront with Mike Gousha, after hearing John McCain and Mitt Romney said Roy Moore should step aside. A real tough question for Walker:

Walker: "If it's true. That's a great qualifier...Maybe they've looked at the details, where I'm more focused on Wisconsin than I am on the U.S. Senate, certainly Alabama, I heard a little about the news, but I don't know the details to know."

What Swing "Undecided" Voters really Think in Wisconsin!

As much as I hate Republicans, and the Democratic Party's lack of fight and framing, I'm encouraged by the idea that there are actual "undecided's" in the state. I thought they were as real as unicorns...but there they are, in the "driftless" (untouched by glaciers) region of southwest Wisconsin. Great reporting by Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Craig Gilbert:

The Driftless Area that extends into Iowa, Minnesota, and Illinois — contains the largest cluster of blue and purple counties in rural, white America. It boasts the nation's greatest concentration of Obama-Trump counties -- places that voted for Obama in 2012 and Trump in 2016. 

Southwest Wisconsin defies one other stereotype about our polarized politics — that America is increasingly composed of separate red and blue communities. In a very partisan age, the region is dominated by neither party. Like its serpentine roads and rivers, its voters wind this way and that. Last fall, five of the seven southwestern counties voted for Republican Trump for president and Democrat Russ Feingold for the U.S. Senate. Six of the seven voted for Obama twice before swinging to Trump. Weak party loyalties help explain a history of big election swings. 

On a recent morning at Dan Anderson’s saw shop, five guys sporting beards and boots joked about how many guns and chainsaws they owned. None of them voted for Trump. 

A Dutch news crew showed up at Jo’s Kountry Bar in Steuben (pop. 131), a Crawford County village that voted for Barack Obama by a margin of 35 points and then for Trump by 38 — the biggest swing in percentage terms in Wisconsin.

Here are a few other highlights. Check out the whole story though, it's a fun read: 

Richland Center – It was just over a year ago that this rural battleground region swung hard for Donald Trump in a clamor for political change ... But today that frustration with politics appears undiminished by his election and is aimed in all directions — including Trump’s. 

“I am a political science major. I am starting to hate politics — actually, not starting. I do hate politics: the vitriol and the vulgarity and the lack of willingness to talk to people,” said Kari Walker, co-owner with her husband of the Touchdown Tavern in Reedsburg.

And they complain they are utterly dismissed or demonized by liberals and Democrats for the choice they made. It's, "How can you possibly think that way?" said Ken Ogi, who was at the lutefisk supper. “Why can’t we have civilized conversations and not be hollered down?”

“I look at (Trump) as possibly being the savior of democracy for the United States,” said Dick Bartels, a Marine veteran who was guiding cars into the parking lot outside the lutefisk supper.

In more"than 30 interviews over five days here, most voters and political observers – including many Trump supporters – said they viewed what happened last fall as more of a vote against Clinton than for Trump.

Some, like Obama-Trump voter Nell Justiliano of Spring Green, now have meager expectations of his presidency. “I did vote for him. It was really hard … (but) “I’m so embarrassed by what a (expletive) show it is. Because it is a (expletive) show,” she said, citing the turnover in the administration, deriding Trump’s diplomatic and leadership skills, and bemoaning his behavior. “You want change, then you just get really discouraged when it doesn’t happen,” she said.

While there was no great clamor for tax cuts in interviews with voters here, there was a generalized but plaintive cry for less noise and more action.

Debate Over: Republicans choose Corporations over People! Period!

It's kinda ironic that those resentful "forgotten" voters everywhere are unfailingly behind Trump and Trump wannabe/impersonator Scott Walker. The Republican tax reform bill pushed by Paul Ryan just gave us our epiphanic moment. But will low information trolls be moved by their own instinctive twinges of self-preservation to change their minds?

Washington Democrat Suzan Delbene offered up a simple but striking comparison between the two parties. Can the Democratic message be this clear, and be repeated, in 2018?






Check out Jakes Economic TA Funhouse for analysis. Here's a taste:

As the House GOP tax bill was being debated in Committee this week, we were treated to this masterpiece of researching and framing questions by US Rep. Suzanne DelBene (D-Wash). In this clip Rep. DelBene is asking the Chief of the Joint Committee on Taxation (the independent organization in Congress that gives information about tax bills) about what types of expense deductions go away for individual workers like teachers and fire fighters who buy their own supplies, and contrasts it with the fact that corporations would still be able to write off the exact same expenses.

Tax Cuts = Jobs? Despite the body of evidence proving tax cuts don't create jobs, Republicans are sticking with their old mind-numbing talking point, because it's their biggest argument for trickle-down economics. NPR's Marketplace rips that to shreds:

Trump gives China the lead in Electric vehicles and green technology!!!

BYD, or "Build Your Dreams," build batteries and electric vehicles now in China, with government subsidies. China is determined to be the leader in electric cars and the required technology.

That's just the opposite of Trump's plan to repeal all subsidies, and world leadership.



While China invests and is helping develop world leadership in hybrid and electric vehicles, Trump is betting his business reputation on tax cuts and big oil:

Union of Concerned Scientists: The draft tax bill released today by the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee would eliminate the electric vehicle tax credit, axe the permanent 10 percent Investment Tax Credit for solar and geothermal power, and reduce the Production Tax Credit for wind power by more than a third.

Michelle Robinson, director of the Clean Vehicles Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists said, “It’s a mistake ... Electric vehicles are a new industry, and the electric vehicle purchase incentive has been a vital part of getting it off the ground. We should keep these incentives in place to make sure that more drivers can take advantage of the benefit of driving electric. Instead, this bill would drop the incentives completely and immediately, throwing the market into disarray.

“Taken together, these changes would increase pollution and undermine America’s leadership in energy innovation. We’d squander the progress we’ve made. This bill would set us back at a time when we need to build cleaner transportation and energy systems to fight climate change and create jobs that will last into the future. Ultimately, this tax plan is a bad deal for most Americans.”

Walker works at a state level accomplish similar results: I  still can't get over one Republican-designed punishment for environmentally concerned owners and purchasers of hybrid or electric vehicles. Remember, this would be on top of the new $150 fee for hybrids/$175 for electric vehicles passed in the budget:

People who drive hybrids and electric cars would be the exceptions. Hybrid registration fees would go up by $30 per year, while electric car registration fees would go up by $125 annually.

The thing is, hybrids users in Wisconsin will end up paying for replacing/repairing Wisconsin roads, while drive through traffic from out of state won't. See my previous post.

I waited 15 years for hybrid vehicles to become affordable used cars, and now I get socked for my patience? 

Hybrid and EV sales are taking off and recognized as not just the future in transportation, but a job creator as well. But instead of embracing a cleaner way of getting around and the new economy, we've joined a small club of states penalizing progress:

At least thirty-four states and the District of Columbia offer incentives—as of July 2017. Some states, such as Connecticut, Illinois, and the District of Columbia have reduced annual registration fees for electric or alternative fuel vehicles. Eighteen states, however, have imposed additional annual fees for the registration and licensing of certain hybrid and electric vehicles.

Most of the alternative fuel vehicles in Wisconsin are hybrid-electric, and most of those exist in Milwaukee County, where there are between 150 and 200 such vehicles per five square miles, according to the federal data. There are between 50 and 60 hybrid-electric vehicles in Dane County per five square miles. In Waukesha County, there are about 40-50 vehicle owners in the same size area and 10-20 vehicle owners in Winnebago County. Those four counties also have the highest number of electric vehicles, according to the data.

Promoted at MGE's website, this is just a preview of what's to come:

MGE: Wisconsin has seen more than a 50 percent increase in electric vehicles purchases since 2015, and six new electric models are expected in 2018-2019. 

According to an article on forbes.com, U.S. sales of EVs "soared" in 2016, increasing 37% compared to 2015. When drivers plug in at our charging stations, they are fueling up with 100% renewable electricity produced by wind farms in Wisconsin and Iowa. Fast chargers can charge a fully depleted, standard EV battery to 80% in about 30 minutes for travel up to 90 miles.

The Bolt can travel on battery up to 238 miles! Think of how many miles you travel each day. And, it's quick! The Bolt can go zero to 60 miles per hour in fewer than seven seconds, so you're not sacrificing performance by going all electric.

Research by Bloomberg New Energy Finance puts the number of EV models at more than 120 by the year 2020! Car makers are investing heavily in developing EVs of all types.

Republicans cut to Student Tax Break means, "the end of research in the United States."

Republicans are either lying or truly convinced that supply-side economics works etc. But economists continue to point to real-life examples of trickle down not working, even making things a whole lot worse in the future.

Paul Ryan again misdirects Americans by insinuating simplification of the tax code will spur on economic growth. But repealing tax breaks that will destroy groundbreaking research at our universities...the same research that made the U.S. the innovative power we are today...bad idea, again. Audio below:

"Marketplace," hosted by Kai Ryssdal, featured on a 11/09/2017 show the quote "That's the end of research in the United States," said by policy analyst Barmak Nassirian  when he saw the tax bill. 

He was thinking of the graduate students who work as research assistants and take advantage of certain tax breaks to offset the cost of their education, which is one of the deductions Republicans working on the bill are looking to slash.