Saturday, June 1, 2013

This Is What Plutocracy Looks Like

The Day of the Plutocrats has finally arrived.  On Friday, without much advance notice in a tightly controlled environment, Scott Walker signed over the rights of the voters and citizens of Milwaukee County and put them in the hands of his doppleganger, Chris Abele.

Little Walker, er, Abele, was so celebrant of the occasion he had to post the picture on his official Facebook page:


Egads! Just look at Abele.  He looks like he can't wait for Walker to sign the bill into law so he can get busy selling the county's assets to his cronies in the Greater Milwaukee Committee (GMC).

And just look who else is the picture:
  • Joe Sanfelippo, the sponsor of the GMC bill. You'd think he'd look happier, but he's probably worried about losing his taxi cab monopoly.
  • Chris Kliesmet and Orville Seymour of Citizens of Responsible Government.  Y'know, the depraved henchmen that would do anything for Walker and now for his protege, Abele.
  • Deanna Alexander, who is so far over her head that she doesn't even know it yet.
  • Alberta Darling, who surprised me by not having a drink in her hand.
  • Julia Taylor, who thought that Tim Russell did nothing wrong and should still have his job.
  • Perhaps the most surprising appearance was that of Don Pridemore, failed candidate for Superintendent of DPI and hater of puppies and women who don't get abused enough.  Pridemore neither lives in or represents any part of Milwaukee County.  Why was he at the signing, unless he was looking for a piece of graft.
But there is someone noticeable by their absence.  Lena Taylor, the Democratic sellout, isn't in that picture.  In fact, there are no African Americans in that picture at all.  

Likewise, there are no progressives or liberals in that picture either.

Just plutocrats and Teapublicans.  Now tell me again how this is a "bipartisan" law or how it's supposed to improve anything.  When was the last time that the Teapublican state legislature made anything better?  

It should also be noted that Walker and his groupie were having a BS contest too.

Walker was holding up one of his old campaign cards from 11 years ago, trying to claim he kept a campaign promise he made back then:
The governor held up a pledge card he used when he was a candidate for Milwaukee County executive in 2002, noting that he had promised to work to cut the board to part time. He introduced a resolution to do that, but the board promptly voted it down, Walker said.
If the reporter had bothered to do any fact checking, he would have learned that no, Walker did not do that.  That's because Walker was politically savvy enough to know that he would need a scapegoat when all his idiocy proved to be just that.

Now that he doesn't have anyone else to blame for his failures, Walker is reliant on the corporate media to keep the lie alive or making some really inane excuses, such as jobs are down because it rained.

In an effort to keep up with his hero and BFF in the BS department, Abele came up with this:
Abele said the public likely won't immediately notice any difference in the way county government operates. He said the new law merely clarified the roles of the County Board and executive as they were intended when the Legislature in 1959 created the elective office of county executive. 
He and other backers of the measure have said it's needed to help supervisors focus on major policy and remove them from day-to-day county operations.
What a load of poppycock!

Abele has been working for months behind the scenes, doing things behind the Board's back, such as getting bids for privatizing many services, pushing people out of the mental health complex against medical advice and against the guardian's wishes and cleaning up county buildings and other assets in preparation for sale.

And if the public hasn't noticed that Abele has cost taxpayers more than $10 million already with his illegal actions and extraordinary ineptness, well, then they can't really be too worried about high taxes.

I'm sure that now Abele is going to be without anyone to monitor and check is spendthrift ways, it will be no time before people start feeling the pinch in their taxes and in services.

Furthermore, this is the time of year that Abele starts to get his requested budget in order.  As this gets released, just how badly they screwed up by giving Abele so much power will quickly be evident.

The County Board is having lawyers look at the law to see if it's even constitutional, much less doable.  And there are flaws with the law, despite the protestations of Walker, Abele and Sanfelippo to the otherwise.

As the adage goes, "Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it."

I have a feeling there is going to be a lot of buyer's remorse coming up for a lot of people.

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