Cheap Child Labor next after recent Tax Cut for the Wealthy in Wisconsin!

 So, we have to argue this, the Gilded Age, all over again...

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Keep in mind, this just happened. 

Three out of four of Wisconsin’s households will see less than $7 a week on average in additional cash.

The bulk of the benefits from the tax cut proposal will go to the wealthiest one-quarter of the state — people with incomes ranging from more than $80,000 to more than $1 million. For that group, the average tax savings would range from about $450 to $2,935 a year.

“We have this economic divide, and we’re doubling down by excluding people with low incomes from a huge tax cut,” says Tamarine Cornelius, an analyst for the Wisconsin Budget Project and Kids Forward, a policy organization that advocates for children and families.

Vos-Republican's eye Child Labor for the 21st Century: What a goal, huh?  

Under the bill, SB-332, Wisconsin employers that are exempt from the Federal Labor Standards Act could schedule teens younger than 16 to start work at 6 a.m. Those employers could schedule them until 9:30 p.m. if the next day is a school day, and until 11 p.m. if the next day is not a school day. The bill would also require that 14- and 15-year-old employees who work past 10 p.m. must have at least eight hours between shifts.

And China's nationalist tabloid The Global Times took note of this little story out of WI and couldn't wait to chime in...

Wisconsin Child Labor, and their often-repeated Lie, "Parents know what best for their kids Education:" Republican Gov. Scott Walker took office and immediately attacked child labor laws:

In 2011, Walker signed into law a provision in the 2011-13 state budget which eliminated restrictions on 16- and 17-year-olds working more than 26 hours during a school week and more than 50 hours a week during vacations.

Then, around May of 2017, Walker decided "parents DIDN'T know what's best for their kids education" when he told 16- and 17-year old's to ignore their parents, and go to work.

The GOP-controlled legislature has given final approval and sent to Republican Gov. Scott Walker a bill that would loosen child labor laws. Assembly Bill 25 removes the requirement for 16- and 17-year-olds to obtain permits signed by a parent or guardian in order to work. The measure was approved on a party line 20-12 vote. Democrats maintain the bill would allow children to make important life decisions that could adversely affect their educations — against their parents’ wishes.

Welcome back to those nostalgic days of pre-Depression labor.

I didn't even know these restrictions were lifted, as pointed out by Milwaukee Gazette:

The Child Labor Coalition said that change allowed employers to leverage cheap child labor to avoid paying a living wage.

“Research suggests that when teens work more than 20 hours a week, their grades go down, they drop out of school more often, and they have more behavioral issues,” said coalition coordinator Reid Maki of the 2011 law. 

A more nefarious reason for the law? The Wisconsin AFL-CIO explained:

Supporters of the bill claim that the signature requirement is a hurdle that keeps some kids out of the workforce. In reality, if no parent or guardian is available, a DWD officer can sign off for a child worker. These officers are funded by a $10 permit fee paid by the employer. A portion of the fee also goes to the state’s General Treasury. By eliminating this fee, Republicans are cutting funding for the enforcement of child labor laws and at a time when every penny counts needlessly reducing state revenue.

Just before passage, here's what legislators had to say, noting the bizarre Republican reason to bypass parents...

Rep. Amy Loudenbeck: "...what we're hearing from the kids...Jamial (inaudible) who was on the front page of the Journal Sentinel a couple of weeks ago, who scored a perfect 10 on the ACES...you know what, she falsified her parents signature on the work permit, got her first job at Goodwill and told us it was the best thing that happened to her..."

Now that uplifting story is something to base legislation on.

From the archives, here's that debate, arguing against parental control, the ones who know what's best for their kids. 

Vos-Republicans admit again, No more money for schools! They shift tax hikes to local Referendums!

 Around September 25th 2021, Vos stripped away all his bullshit and let it rip...

Robin Vos: “Throwing even more money at the problem will not fix it. Evaluating curriculum, academic testing and allowing parents to be a part of the conversation are real solutions Legislative Republicans will continue to fight for in the classroom.”

Fast forward to now, October 27th, after another bold and very clear confirmation that school funding is never going to happen under Republican rule:

Rep. Janel Brantjen: "The amount of money that we spend on education in this state, probably one of the highest out of all 50 states...

Democrats warned when Gov. Scott Walker cut education funding, the effects would be felt sometime in the future. That future is here:

Wisconsin’s educational decline, meanwhile, has not occurred in a vacuum. During the last decade the state drastically reduced resources for public schools, starting with former Gov. Scott Walker’s biggest cuts to school funding in state history in 2012

So, this confirms what we have been trying to tell conservative voters, "Funding schools" isn't really a thing, but it did result in another Vos-Republican tax cut that local voter's will backfill with another referendum to increase their own taxes. 😡 They never seem to get tired of that game.

After the gerrymandered Republican majority squandered a huge projected state revenue surplus on a $3.4 billion tax cut. $408 million of that became a property tax cut instead of an investment in our public schools: "...what appears to be an increase in state education funding but is actually a property tax cut."

It was expected that cuts to education and a lack of progress would be blamed on school administrators and teachers, and not the politicians who made things worse. Still, angry fed-up voters keep voting for angry Republicans complaining about public schools. 

“It is disingenuous and it borders on open deception to try and pretend that there wasn’t the largest cut to education in Wisconsin history in 2011,” Larson said, adding that Republican policies ending collective bargaining for teachers and making further cuts to schools that had low scores on school report cards contributed to a teacher shortage and the decline in the quality of education. The bipartisan Blue Ribbon Commission on School Funding made a series of recommendations, he pointed out, “and the Legislature said, ‘Nope, we’re not going to do Jack Squat with that.”

“That’s not a failure of our kids,” he added, “that’s a failure of the Legislature.”

National School Board normalizes Threats of Violence and Death, with shocking apology! RadicalRebecca supports threats!!!

The ugly part of watching this version of the Democratic Party is how bad they are in a fight. 

The right-wing QAnon types have threatened and nearly succeeded in taking over the Capitol and overturning the presidential election, utilized white nationalist militias at BLM protests, and have terrorized election and health officials for simply doing their jobs. The push back by Democrats is almost invisible and getting worse. 

BREAKING-AP: Normalizing threats not exactly a reasonable way to govern a state? This shocking statement...

Evers’ campaign spokesman, Sam Roecker, called Kleefisch’s comments “absolutely abhorrent. No one in Wisconsin should be encouraging violence of any kind, much less a candidate for governor,” he said.

The horror of vuvuzelas and drums and sleeping two by two in sleeping bags '...cowbells? Here's Radical Rebecca with "whataboutisms" normalizing threats of violence and death for school board members...

Kleefisch: "I would love for these folks to have gone through what Gov. Scott Walker and I went through during the recalls:The vuvuzelas and the drums, and the death threats, and the people who were showering inside the public restrooms, sleeping two-by-two in sleeping bags, banging on cars, threatening my children, spreading lies and intimidating us,” Kleefisch said in audio obtained by the liberal advocacy group American Bridge 21st Century and provided to The Associated Press on Wednesday. “Imagine if school board members felt something like that. Instead, all they feel is the pressure of their actual constituents asking them to do their job.”

National School Board Apologizes for Reacting to Right-Wing Death Threats? Yup. Big money conservative billionaire activists and gullible parents have disrupted school board meetings shouting down board members for teaching “critical race theory,” and instituting mask mandates. But Sen. Chuck Grassley wrote in a letter...: 

"Parents should absolutely be involved in public debates over what and how our public schools teach their children, even if those discussions get heated.”

Wisconsin Examiner: NSBA’s Board of Directors wrote to its members that “we regret and apologize for the letter.” The six-page Sept. 29 NSBA letter to Biden asked for federal assistance and detailed, at length, threats and harassment that school board officials and teachers across the country are facing.

“As these acts of malice, violence, and threats against public school officials have increased, the classification of these heinous actions could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes.”

The threats are real. Here's a video featuring some of the actual audio recording of these threats, threats the NSBA is oddly now apologizing for taking so seriously (contains graphic language):

NSBS said: "However, there was no justification for some of the language included in the letter."

Really? VICE: 

As one school board pointed out:

“When these behaviors are ignored, when there’s no accountability for these actions, they become normalized and acceptable, and they get reinforced,” Brevard County School Board member Jennifer Jenkins said during a Monday Zoom conference, the Phoenix reported.

Here are more examples:

In Wisconsin, several school board members have quit in the middle of their terms; others are facing recalls; and a host of local elected citizens report being shouted at, sworn at, followed and threatened with physical harm.

In Florida, the Florida Phoenix reported that several school board members detailed threatening text messages, vandalism and harassment they continue to face over masking requirements amid the pandemic.

Jenkins also detailed in a Washington Post opinion piece how someone outlined the letters “FU” in weedkiller on her front lawn and she said that someone falsified a report accusing her of abusing her child. “My 5-year-old daughter was on a play date last month when an investigator from the Florida Department of Children and Families sat at my kitchen table to question me about how I disciplined her, then accompanied me to the play date to check for nonexistent burn marks beneath her clothes,” Jenkins wrote. “Someone had falsely reported that I abused my child. The report was quickly dismissed, but this was the low point in the short time I have been a Brevard County School Board member.”

Republicans are Outraged DOJ Investigating Threats? Yes, they are. Here, show-boat insurrectionist supporting Rep. Jim Jordan feigns outrage over conservative terrorists being investigated by the DOJ for threats of violence: 

Sen. Tom Cotton is not just supportive of threatening public officials, but he's outraged the DOJ reacted quickly to the threats. Can't make this stuff up: 

Chaos Destroys Local School Board Control: What's next? Well, here's a frightening peak at how this can morph into something so much worse. And this is just one example: 

Ban(A)non...

 

Vos vilifies "turning out minorities," and "imagines" Koch's not appealing to white voters, because "that would be crazy" right?

So, just to be clear, Vos-Republicans aren't drawing any conclusions about possible election fraud, BUT they are comparing it to a "murder probe?" 

AP: Wisconsin Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos on Tuesday defended not releasing
documents related to an ongoing investigation he ordered into the 2020 election, saying putting them out now would be like police revealing details of a murder probe.

The Vos-Republican focus is on the nonprofit Center for Tech and Civic Life, who granted money to helped run local elections, something tightwad WI Republicans intentionally did not want to do. Mark Zuckerberg's donation foiled their plan. 

Vos loves Trump's New Plan: Instead of the big lie...

Salon: Trumpist writer Mollie Hemingway, a frequent voice on Fox News, clearly feels she's found a more sophisticated justification for the baseless accusations that the 2020 election was "rigged." She's even tied the conspiracy theory to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, cleverly wielding his well-known status as a villain to push this nonsense about a "rigged" election.

Hemingway rolled out her cleaned-up version in her new book, "Rigged: How the Media, Big Tech, and the Democrats Seized Our Elections." In it, she cleverly ... rewrites the Big Lie to focus on money that Zuckerberg gave — which she derides as "Zuck Bucks" — to a couple of voting rights groups, money that was spent on making it easier for marginalized people to vote.

By her own admission, all the group did was reach out to voters to make sure they turned their ballots in on time, assist voters who needed to make sure their ballots were filled out correctly, work to reduce the lines at ballot boxes, and help voters figure out the mail-in ballot system. This basic pro-democracy work done by these groups is morphed, in Hemingway's telling, into "tech oligarchs' buying the administration of the state's elections" and even the "privatizing" of elections. It's a fancy update on a very old right-wing talking point that paints any activist effort to assist voters — like offering rides to the polls, distributing food or water to voters waiting in line, or organizing "souls to the polls" events through churches — as somehow malevolent.

Former conservative activist State Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman came right out and said what he was asked to do in his "fraudit" by Trump toady Vos:

WOW; Vos vilifies "turning out minorities," and "imagines" Koch's not appealing to white voters, because "that would be crazy" right? He really said this without the media pointing out the racism: 

“Imagine if it happened in reverse, where the Koch brothers gave millions of dollars to only turn out people of white background in the suburbs. People would say, ‘That is crazy.’ Well, that’s exactly what happened with the money from Zuckerberg in reverse, where they focused only on turning out minorities in large cities.”

1. Vos blatantly vilifies "turning out minorities." No hidden meanings here. 

2. It's like "the Koch Brothers gave millions of dollars to only turn out people of white background...:" You mean, like this from Jane Mayer, and others...

The Nation: The overwhelmingly white Republican base is rewarded with a story that is easier for them to accept than the true one—a story where they are both the heroes of American history and the true victims of the American present, oppressed by “political correctness.”

As UnKoch My Campus wrote in our expansive report, “Advancing White Supremacy,” the Koch network has purposefully exploited this relationship for years. The network has long-standing ties to white nationalist scholars and has used their research to drive policies that serve its economic goals at the expense of people of color, including efforts to resegregate our nation’s schools, dismantle voting rights, and expand the prison-industrial complex.

...A very "people of white background" agenda, wouldn't you say? Then there's this...

    

"Turning out Minorities in large cities..." the Horror:  On WPT, Here and Now (Oct 15, 2021) focused on that funding donation, and how other conservative areas received similar funding donations. Exact totals were not released yet, but they are based on population (click image to enlarge):

 

Back to the Koch funded "grassroots" protests against critical race theory and mask mandates. 

Republicans Defend Threats Against Public Servants: Republicans are now against having U.S. AG Merrick Garland investigate serious threats nationwide against school board members, city leaders, state public health officials, etc. Republican wacko Rep. Jim Jordan was outraged Garland would simply take the word of the National School Board Association about the uncivil meetings and threats. Yea, who are they? 

Citing a spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence against public school officials, AG Garland said he has directed the FBI to meet with local officials to coordinate a response.

Here's a glaring hypocritical moment about reporting threats. In Wisconsin, Vos-Republicans wrote a bill that gave the public this amazing power against anyone teaching racial history:

The proposal also gives parents or guardians the power to bring a legal challenge against a school district or private school operator that violates the law and requires school boards to post online all curricula used in the school district.

And yet, in the same universe, Republicans are against any such accountability:

Garland announced the memo earlier this month, directing FBI officials and federal prosecutors around the country to meet with local counterparts to discuss potentially criminal threats against school officials and teachers and to establish "dedicated lines of communication for threat reporting." Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) called it a "snitch line on parents" who criticize school board initiatives regarding issues like the teaching of critical race theory.

Vos' list of more banned words and phrases...

 

Kleefisch can't say she won't reverse election results!

Former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch's bubbly, happy-go-lucky jump into the gubernatorial race is shockingly devoid of preparation. Did she not think about her pandemic response in the last two years or her support for the "Stop the Steal" insanity? Even worse, she doesn't have policy, just a list of grievances she desperately wants her base to know she'll pounce on in a heartbeat.   

On WKOW's Capitol City Sunday, A.J. Bayatpour wrote: 

Kleefisch declined to say whether, as governor, she would sign a bill that made lawmakers the ultimate decider of who won an election. Kleefisch said she hadn't seen any bill language drafted proposing to give election certification powers to the legislature.

Well, isn't that a flat out lie? 

Kleefisch: "An idea I have never heard discussed among legislators or even the folks I've been talking to across the state." 

So, Vos-Republicans and rabid GQP Kleefisch supporters have never said anything about overturning the election, now or in the past? Uh, well...I count 3 times at least:

1. In an emergency petition filed Nov. 24 with the Wisconsin Supreme Court by the Wisconsin Voters Alliance is asking for a slate of electors who would support President Trump. The emergency petition asks the court, which is dominated 4-3 by conservatives, to void the election and order that the “choice of the Presidential Electors revert back to the State Legislature.” In December, PBS Wisconsin reported two Republican state representatives, Rep. Jeff Mursau (R-Crivitz) and Rep. David Steffen (R-Green Bay), joined a lawsuit arguing state legislatures should have the final word on certifying a state's election results. A federal judge dismissed the suit in January.

2. Days after the election, Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos ordered an investigation into Wisconsin’s election results.

3. Republican state Rep. Joe Sanfelippo said in a Nov. 9 statement the results of that investigation could — and perhaps should — lead the state to nullify its outcome. “We need to either declare this past election null and void and hold a new election or require our Electoral College delegates to correct the injustice with their votes.”

So Kleefisch's comment should not be forgotten in this campaign:

Kleefisch said, "So I think it would probably be awfully premature for me to comment on a bill that hasn't even been drafted nor an idea that I've heard floated." 

But wait, another idea just recently surfaced in the Legislature:

A new bill authored by Rep. Gary Tauchen (R-Bonduel) would picked its Electoral College delegates using a congressional district method. For Wisconsin the congressional districts are gerrymandered by Republicans to favor Republicans, five of the eight districts are held by Republicans. President Donald Trump would have received the majority of Wisconsin’s 10 votes in 2020. Six, to be precise. It would make Wisconsin a state where the winner of the popular vote does not get all — or even necessarily the most — Electoral College votes. Tauchen’s bill (LRB 0513/1).

Kleefisch Projection: Hoping Wisconsinites Just Walk Away from Voting: Every threat to freedom and liberty is actually a special part of the game plan. 

Voter suppressions hoops and mazes along with losing complete faith in our voting system, is the desired end. It's here that Becky lets it slip; she doesn't want people to come out and vote. She repeats it over and over all the while calling into question the integrity our out elections. Upfront with Adrienne  Pedersen did a great job of putting Kleefisch uncomfortably on the spot: 

She wants to "make people feel secure and not disenfranchised?" After the Arizona audit, and Biden actually gained even more votes...it did not make a difference:

The bumbling Gableman Fraudit sh*t hits the fan...

There is no question who's to blame for the cluster f**k election "fraudit" in Wisconsin; Robin Vos take a bow:

UPDATE Thurs. 10/28/2021: Cloaked in secrecy despite being paid for by taxpayers, the Gableman debacle takes an even more bizarre turn for the worse. From my JSonline email:

A woman named Carol is helping Wisconsin Republicans review the 2020 election. No one will provide her last name.

• Assembly Republicans have hired someone named Carol to help answer their questions about the 2020 election. Just don’t ask Carol or her bosses what her last name is. "No comment," she said Wednesday before hanging up on a reporter. • The hiring of Carol is the latest example of the opacity of a review of the 2020 election being overseen by former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman at a cost to taxpayers of $676,000. The names of state employees and their contractors are ordinarily public. No one has offered any justification for not disclosing Carol's last name. • The woman, who signs her emails “Carol M.,” has been contacting attorneys for election officials recently to discuss subpoenas Gableman has issued. She has not told them whether she is a lawyer, an administrative assistant or holds some other post, the attorneys said.

How bad can it get? Rachel Maddow deconstructs this election fraud witch hunt by former Justice Michael Gableman. Never mind how bad this is also making our activist rightwing Wisconsin's State Supreme Court look, again:

And this isn't embarrassing or a career ending fiasco from Robin Vos? Republicans seeking to discredit Wisconsin elections off to a bumbling start https://t.co/4FP5j3gfAZ via @msnbc

— John Peterson (@democurmudgeon) October 9, 2021

The Millwaukee Journal Sentinal followed up with a few important developements: 

...and...

Assembly Republicans are using an attorney for their review of last year's election who has maintained without evidence that the election was stolen and argued that conservatives need prosecutors who will "let our boys off the hook."

The lawyer, Andrew Kloster, worked in the White House under former President Donald Trump. He told the Assembly Elections Committee in March he is not an election attorney and has a "limited understanding" of election laws.

Republicans using "Unelected Bureaucrats" to seize Control of Government!

What is it about all these "unelected bureaucrats" the Republicans keep complaining about? 

This is a story about negating federal and local administrative department secretaries' power. And very conservative activist state and federal Supreme Court Justices are taking over. It will bring chaos to governing like we've never seen. 

Republican push for One Party Authoritarian Rule: It's no joke, and it's just two years away. Attacking "unelected bureaucrats" is one way to concentrate authoritarian power while neutralizing those "socialist" Democratic administrative departments they hate so much.

But wait...at the same time, Vos-Republicans oddly want to add 3 more "unelected bureaucrats" to the list? Sure, it's a way to dictate right-wing curriculum from the governor's office, but it could also be another way stripping away your choices and to discourage voting entirely.

Here's how WKOW's A.J. Bayatpour squeezed the truth out of Republican Rep. Shae Sortwell, who appeared to be completely unprepared to answer any questions. He's pretending Republicans aren't holding up many the governors' appointments saying that they are just unelected bureaucrats ignoring the legislatures power?  

AP: Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin have introduced a plan to end elections for three state constitutional offices and let governors fill the positions. Rep. Shae Sortwell told the Journal Sentinel that he thinks the plan to make all three officers appointees will have a better chance to succeed because it would allow the governor to give the treasurer and secretary of state more duties.

“We’re not eliminating anything,” Sortwell said. “We’re putting them under the governor so we can give them more responsibility and more accountability.”

Unelected Bureaucrat, Andrea Palm: For example, take our own state Health Secretary designee Andrea Palm, who was acting within state statute but NOT the way Vos-Republicans thought appropriate during a global pandemic. They sued: 

The filing Wis. Legislature v. Andrea Palm states that Palm “Purporting to act under color of State law, an unelected, unconfirmed cabinet secretary has laid claims to a suite of czar-like powers – unlimited in scope and indefinite in duration – over the people of Wisconsin.”

Chief Justice Patience Roggensack: "This case is about the assertion of power by one unelected official, Andrea Palm, and her order to all people within Wisconsin to remain in their homes … to close all businesses that she declares are not 'essential.'" This was ironic because the Supreme Court justice who provided the deciding vote in the 4-3 decision was Dan Kelly, himself an unelected official.

CapTimes: Justice Rebecca Bradley asked:

 "Could the (Dept. of Health Service) Secretary under this broad delegation of legislative power or legislative-like power order people out of their homes ... to combat the pandemic? What are the limits, constitutional or statutory? There have to be some, don't there, counsel?" The state’s statutes say DHS “may authorize and implement all emergency measures necessary to control communicable disease.”

What is at stake is the power of administrative departments under the governor and the President of the U.S.

When Trump's challenge to the election was rejected in WI, this is what Bradley wrote in her decent:

“A majority of this court passively permits the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) to decree its own election rules overriding ... the election laws enacted by the people's elected representatives. Allowing six unelected commissioners to make the law governing elections, without the consent of the governed, deals a death blow to democracy.”

In the NPR program 1A (short for the 1st Amendment), the focus was on a small but significant case that would go after "unelected bureaucrats," put the final department decisions in the court's hands, and destroy administrative powers everywhere, not just at the federal level:

If Life were like a Football game...

 

YouTube blocking me from uploading new videos for one week after Criticizing Fox News Vaccine Misinformation?

Google has a new and stricter policy that takes a sledge hammer to medical misinformation posted on YouTube. Talk about unintended consequences!

NPR: "We've steadily seen false claims about the coronavirus vaccines spill over into misinformation about vaccines in general, and we're now at a point where it's more important than ever to expand the work we started with COVID-19 to other vaccines," the company said.

YouTube policy Silences Critics fighting AGAINST Anti-vax Spreaders of Misinformation!!! You can't make this stuff up. YouTube blocked my video uploads and postings for one week after they decided I was violating their "terms and agreements," even after I appealed their decision twice, pointing out how Media Matters and Eric Boehlert both highlighted the absurdity of misinformation in a compilation video of crazy cures:

Normally, as a precaution, I record video clips as a backup just in case the original is deleted or moved. Below, I captured the entire tweet as you see it here, not just the video, using Eric Boehlert and Media Matters as the disclaimer saying this was misinformation. That wasn't enough apparently:

there’s a free, safe vaccine… https://t.co/IoeJDkBaNC

— Eric Boehlert (@EricBoehlert) September 29, 2021

Take Away: Even pointing out the absurdity of many of these claims is now being blocked. 

This also happened with a video clip of a woman claiming she became magnetized after getting the vaccine. That strike against my channel has finally expired. 

What YouTube's actions mean today? 

This is now preventing me from posting the insane Becky Kleefisch comments about how she would have responded to the pandemic if she were governor, and the Assembly Republicans desire to put "unelected bureaucrats" (which they hate and use to energize their voters) in what are now elected statewide posts. 

It's not about Critical Race Theory, it's about preserving and concealing Racist movement today!

After Trump made racism and "replacement theory" an open and acceptable bragging point for his cult followers, some are now trying to repair their long history of racism by banning it. 

You'd never know this was a purple voting state: Vos-Republicans in the Assembly voted to 
ban critical race theory, a course taught in law school.

Hey Republicans, this is actual Censorship! They just want to make sure kids K-12 and those attending four year colleges don't get the wrong idea about America's struggle with racism. Oh, and they included a grocery list of words and terms critical to explaining race in American history. So much for "academic freedom" and the First Amendment. I highlighted some overly broad terms that would essentially ban everything. Wisconsin State Journal:

Among those words: “Woke,” “whiteness,” “White supremacy,” “structural bias,” “structural racism,” “systemic bias” and “systemic racism.” “Social Emotional Learning,” “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion,” culturally responsive teaching, anti-racism, conscious and unconscious bias, culturally responsive practices, diversity training, microaggressions, multiculturalism, patriarchy, restorative justice, social justice, white privilege,” among others.

The bill would also bar “abolitionist teaching,” in a state that sent more than 91,000 soldiers to fight with the Union Army in the Civil War.

There is one positive; this will be an exceedingly uncomfortable question during the gubernatorial debate next year for the Republican candidate. Good luck with that one.

MSNBC's Chris Hayes spotlights our controling idiot's of Wisconsin again, along with a scathing critique from the founder of Equal Justice Initiative, Brian Stevenson. Hint, it's an actual threat to a functioning democracy, not that that matter to MAGAts:

Republicans continue Anecdotal Governing! What could go Wrong?: "Concerns raised by parents" and "I heard someone say" constituent comments are oddly never corrected by gutless Republicans who are too afraid to correct misinformation, or simply say they're wrong. 

Bill co-author Rep. Chuck Wichgers, R-Muskego, said the bill follows concerns raised by parents over materials being taught to their children in primary and secondary schools (and) prohibit the same concepts from being taught in universities and technical colleges.

Just as ridiculous, Rep. Robin Vos piled on with a hyperbolic fantasy..."idea"...that teachers would say what he confidently claims they are saying in our schools. Yes Robin, "That is preposterous:"

“The idea that we are going to say that one race is superior, that one religion is better than the other, that one sex has certain characteristics that make it better than the other, that is preposterous, it should never happen.”

Well, guess what, it doesn't happen!!!

Words and Concepts Banned from history: Remember when Scott Walker banned references to "climate change," like it wasn't happening, all the while it was happening and getting worse? Well, here we go again. Yet "academic freedom" is a big thing with the college group YAF. 

WisTexas Idea or Never a Republican Original Thought: The list of words Vos-Republicans put together were a copy paste job by our lazy legislature. See if you agree after looking at the following poster: 

It Could Happen Here: If you were wondering what the Republican end game is, well, wonder no more:

The Johnston Co (NC) Sch Bd was just forced to adopt a new patriotic history policy, after the Bd of Commiss voted to withhold 10% of their budget. They must now teach that all people who “contributed to American society must be presented as reformists, innovators and heroes.” pic.twitter.com/B5X2FwsuAA

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) October 4, 2021

________________________________________________________________________

Gerrymandered Republicans have a long history of Censorship, so none of this should be a shocker. First, way back when Vos had this take on education:

How times have changed.

Example #1: Remember when a Marquette University political science professor, who doxed a graduate student by publishing all her personal information resulting in death threats, had his suspension reversed by the WI Supreme Court? This broadened the definition of academic freedom to a surreal level:

In a 4-2 ruling Justice Rebecca Bradley stressed the importance of academic freedom, saying it was being increasingly undermined on college campuses.

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

Sound insane? Yup, especially when you consider what the Justices overturned:

Milwaukee County Circuit Judge David Hansher ruled in May 2016 that the professor was prohibited by professional standards from bringing negative public attention to a student … Academic freedom, Hansher wrote, "does not mean a faculty member can harass, threaten, intimidate, ridicule.

Example #2: Republican Rep. Dave "Academic Freedom" Murphy has encouraged similar freedoms before:

In late 2016, Murphy asked UW-Madison to cancel a course titled “The Problem of Whiteness” because he said it was inappropriate and a waste of money. School officials defended the course. Two years later it is still listed as a course offered in the spring 2019 semester.

Example #3: Educations Darth Vader, State Sen. Steve Nass:

State Sen. Steve Nass blasted a UW-Madison economics professor in a scathing email ... calling the academic's report on right-to-work legislation and economic performance "partisan, garbage research."

The email, sent to Senate and Assembly Republicans and UW System officials with the subject line "UW-Madison Professor Steven Deller Uses State Resources to Trash Right to Work," cites a two-page fact sheet written by a Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics faculty member.

"Attached is yet another example of wasted resources at the UW-Madison/UW Extension to issue a trumped up report from a partisan academic against Right to Work. Hiding behind academic freedom to issue partisan, garbage research is what we have come to expect from some of the overworked and stressed faculty at UW-Madison.

I will certainly forward this email on to UW System President Ray Cross and UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank, as just one suggestion of a faculty member with time to teach more courses. Or maybe not!"

Example #4: Gov. Scott Walker....

It’s rare for a governor to attack the flagship university in his own state. First, back in January he proposed an enormous $300 million cut to the University of Wisconsin’s budget, at a time when other state universities are finally recovering from the recession. Now he’s proposing to get rid of academic tenure, not only threatening faculty jobs but also destroying academic freedom for professors at the University of Wisconsin.

Example #5: Charlie Kirk-Turning Point USA:

Turning Point USA has put together a list of academics that they say discriminate against
conservative students and use their lectures to push their left-wing propaganda. But what about the first amendment?

Example #6: More Steve Nass...

Rep. Steve Nass shreds First Amendment, Censors Art and Political Speech.

The Progressive: Mike Konopacki, a labor cartoonist who was working on the “Art in Protest” event, is not happy about this outcome … “I’m getting e-mails from artists who are saying, ‘What the hell is going on?’ This is a direct attack on freedom of speech, on freedom of expression, on academic freedom, and on labor education,” says Konopacki. “We were celebrating all the art and creativity that people come up with at these protests. It’s beautiful stuff. We’ve had the largest outpouring of protests in the state’s history, and the School for Workers is not allowed to display this?”

Konopacki is worried that the Republicans in the Wisconsin legislature want to kill the School for Workers … “The School of Workers survived McCarthyism,” he says. “It may not survive Walker.”

Green New Deal creating 10,000 Ford truck jobs in...Republican anti-alternative energy Tennessee and Kentucky!

Not Foxconn: Well, doesn't Scott Walker's deal with Foxconn look even more ridiculous and desperate:

Tennessee is putting up $500 million in economic incentives. Ford will spend $5.6 billion in Stanton, Tennessee, to produce electric F-Series pickups (plus a) battery factory on the same site.

Here's the deal on F-Series batteries. The story noted this is a market driven move that only Republicans are unaware of:

Democratic Gov. Beshear, who led the push that landed the state's single largest economic development project ever (battery factories), said the private sector is leading the conversion toward green jobs. “And so everybody else is going to have to get on board.” 

(There will be) twin battery plants in Glendale, Kentucky. Ford estimated the Kentucky investment at $5.8 billion. The single largest manufacturing venture in the iconic company's history will create an estimated 10,800 jobs.

Democrats weren't lying about Green Deal Jobs: The irony is that the wrong most misguided states are going to benefit:

AP: When Ford revealed plans to ramp up its commitment to the fledgling electric vehicle sector, the automaker chose to create thousands of jobs and pump billions in investments into two states where Republican leaders have vilified the push for green energy and defended fossil fuels. 

Choosing Tennessee and Kentucky for the coveted mega-projects created an ironic disconnect between the automaker ... and the rhetoric from many Republican leaders who have railed against a shift toward green energy and away from fossil fuels.

Bullshit Artist Republican Hypocrites: That about sums it up: 

For: On Monday, Sen. Mitch McConnell applauded Ford for giving an economic boost to Kentucky, saying it solidified his home state's position “as a world-class automotive state on the cutting edge of research and development.” 

Against: McConnell sounded a different theme two months earlier, when he took to the Senate floor to blast Democrats for wanting to “wage war on fossil fuels” and tried to turn their efforts to promote electric vehicles into a wedge issue. “They want to further expand giant tax credit giveaways for costly electric cars — when 80% of it is going to households earning six figures and up. They also want money and mandates to push the entire federal government fleet toward electric cars, too. Wouldn't you just love to see an IRS auditor pull up to your tax audit in a $97,000 Tesla?”

______________________________________________________________________________

For: Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul, who tweeted out his thanks to Ford for its latest investment in the state, routinely lambastes the Green New Deal. 

Against: In 2019, he condemned it as an “industry-killing, all-out assault on our way of life in Kentucky” and an attack on automobile makers.

_________________________________________________________________________________

For: Tennessee GOP Sen. Marsha Blackburn said the project “will transform the landscape of West Tennessee.” 

Against: Last month, she said that Tennesseans “don’t want the Green New Deal.” In explaining her vote against a $1 trillion infrastructure plan, she said much of the legislation amounted to a “gateway to socialism — a lot of Green New Deal in there.” 

This is the one odd thing:

Ford CEO Jim Farley said he picked the Kentucky and Tennessee sites in part because of lower electricity costs...Battery factories use five times the electricity of a typical assembly plant to make cells and assemble them into packs, so energy costs were a big factor.

But...

And then there's this wildly wrong reason:

...as well as being less exposed to flooding and hurricanes than other states. 

But what about tornadoes! Hurricanes are the least of their worries, but regardless...:

To put this increase in perspective, over the past decade, a region from western Kentucky and western and middle Tennessee has experienced more EF-4 tornadoes than any other location in the country. ... 

WI Republicans push "boondoggle" clown show, even after Arizona audit gave Biden bigger Win over Trump!

ALERT!!! I had to include this incredible comment from Republican Robin Vos that appeared in this mornings paper. Uh, talk about shaping the "fraudit" around this predetermined outcome. WOW:

Vos said, “I am supremely confident that at the end of the day, Justice Gableman will produce a report that will show that there are issues with the 2020 election, where potentially changes could be made to make it better."

Okay then...back to the original post:

For starters, consider this:

Gableman told a group of Trump supporters in November that he thought the election was stolen.

In an interview with Upfront, Gableman "clarifies" his comment by essentially saying it was just raw meat for his audience:

Gableman: "I didn't say it was a stolen election...I can't think of anything more unjust, than a corrupt or unlawful election in a democracy. Whether that occurred here is very much a question to be examined."

Host: "So you're saying you weren't saying that after the election, at a pro-Trump rally, because you believe it was a stolen election?"

Gableman: "I try to be very careful about my words, obviously most of the attendees there had a very particular viewpoint."

Now take a look at this important detail from Matthew Rothschild's recent column, at the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign website. This major jaw-dropper about special counsel Michael Gableman's "forensic audit" says it all:

One of the most grotesque things that former Justice Michael Gableman has done recently is to team up with Andrew Kloster, an attorney from the Trump Administration. He’s the guy who sent the email to clerks from an unsecured gmail account.

 An unsecured gmail account? You can't make this stuff up...

Gableman's first email to election clerks confused many, as it came from a Gmail address under the name “John Delta” and contained an attachment. Many counties flagged it as a potential scam and it landed in the junk email folder for others.

Kloster, in an April 12 posting, glorified the Proud Boys and rightwing violence, as Patrick Marley reported in the Journal Sentinel..

Kloster: “We need our irate hooligans (incidentally, this is why the left and our national security apparatus hates the Proud Boys) and our own captured DA offices to let our boys off the hook.”

That quote alone is grounds for Gableman and Kloster to be fired immediately.

Arizona's "audit" didn't put their taxpayers on the hook like Wisconsin's audit, especially liberal and independent voters who are being forced to help pay for the partisan Vos-Republican "boondoggle:" 

Gov. Tony Evers: “It’s a $700,000 boondoggle to prove something that’s already been proven probably 100 times. You don’t have to prove a negative in court, you don’t have to prove a negative in any other place except Justice Gableman’s court here.

I hate to see an inquisition like this, especially when you're being told you have to prove it was a good election. Everybody knows it was a good election."

Even this Republican seems to have had enough:

State Sen. Kathy Bernier, chair of the Senate elections committee: “There is not a reason to spread misinformation about this past election when we have all the evidence that shows otherwise.”

FINAL WORD: Dumb Ron Johnson's know-it-all arrogance betrays the Trump lie. You gotta laugh:

Of course, what Vos-Republicans want to do is drag this to the election next year, keeping the base agitated. 

But even a forensic audit will never be good enough. Take a look at this bizarre reaction out of Arizona: