By Jeff Simpson
This story has been circulating for a few days but I ignored it because I did not think it could actually be true in the year 2015. Unfortunately it is.
Wisconsin state officials on Tuesday banned employees of a state agency from discussing climate change, conducting any work on the topic, or even responding to an email about the warming climate, Bloomberg News reports.
The ban applies to state employees who work for an agency that oversees a Wisconsin public land trust. The effort was spearheaded by State Treasurer Matt Adamczyk, a Republican, and enacted by a vote of Wisconsin’s Board of Commissioners of Public Lands.
I was hoping the stupid was confined to Florida. Unfortunately I was wrong.
H/T Democurmudgeon for reminding us that this all started with our Republican politicians signing a pledge to the Koch Brothers to put their profits over the Wisconsin environment and budget.
Signers of the pledge, now numbering 411, promise to "oppose any legislation relating to climate change that includes a net increase in government revenue” ... They include all Republicans, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, U.S. Reps. Jim Sensenbrenner, Sean Duffy and Reid Ribble, state Sens. Leah Vukmir, Alberta Darling, Rep. Glenn Grothman and Mary Lazich, and state Reps. Dale Kooyenga, Don Pridemore, Jim Ott and Bill Kramer. Governor Scott Walker,Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch … for ideological reasons and because of the state's wealth of frac sand.Here Secretary of State Doug LaFollette explains it very well:
The two people who voted for this are new Attorney General and Scott Jensen puppet bitter Republican partisan Brad Schimel:
Brad's contact information:
@wisDOJ
U.S. Mail:
Wisconsin Department of Justice
P.O. Box 7857
Madison, WI 53707-7857
Phone: (608) 266-1221
Fax: (608) 267-2779
(Matt Adamczyk has worked in the family business, Adamczyk Heating & Air Conditioning, 6019 W. Bluemound Road, Milwaukee, phone:414 258-7880)Mr. Adamcyzk contact information is:
@voteadamczyk
Wisconsin Office of the State Treasurer • B41 West • State Capitol • Madison, Wisconsin 53701
Phone: 608-266-1714
Matt.Adamczyk@Wisconsin.gov
The stupid does not stop at this agency either, as Mike Huebsch felt the need to weigh in and embarrass himself once again:
The Wisconsin Radio Network reported that when Huebsch was questioned on his climate change opinions in his confirmation hearing over the week, he said:
People actually elected this guy at one time?“I believe that humans can have an impact to climate change, but I don’t think it’s anywhere near the level of impact of just the natural progression of our planet. You know, the elimination of essentially every automobile would be offset by one volcano exploding. You have to recognize the multiple factors that go into climate change.”
By the way, if you can just wash away the lunacy for a minute and spend five minutes on google. you would see that Global Climate Change is very real and very much a problem for our world.
Ninety-seven percent of climate scientists agree that climate-warming trends over the past century are very likely due to human activities,1and most of the leading scientific organizations worldwide have issued public statements endorsing this position.
U.S. Global Change Research Program"The global warming of the past 50 years is due primarily to human-induced increases in heat-trapping gases. Human 'fingerprints' also have been identified in many other aspects of the climate system, including changes in ocean heat content, precipitation, atmospheric moisture, and Arctic sea ice." (2009, 13 U.S. government departments and agencies)12
Scientists at DNR...
ReplyDeleteYou're OUT of here!
Next...
There is no CWD infecting deer in Wisconsin.
Any state employee who says otherwise...
You're OUT of here!
The Republicans are owned by fossil fuel giants and they care nothing for the health of the planet only the health of their campaign bank accounts!
ReplyDeleteAnd go look where the new Secretary of the DOA came from- Madison Gas and Electric! Scum and sleaze from the dirty fuel industry are all over this administration.
DeleteThe biggest threat to our environment is the massive amount of flatulence emitted by Gov. Scott Walker as he continues to exploit the rubes in Wisconsin for his presidential aspirations. The offensive, odorous, toxic vile methane Scott Walker leaks as he farts his way onto the White House trail is doing more do increase global warming than all the Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO) in Wisconsin COMBINED!
ReplyDeleteNo wonder they have to ban people from talking about it. Scott Walker is runnin' fer President for Pete's sake!
OT but important: Another in-state blog where the author has not been kicked out of the bogus "purple" lie at jsonline continues to shield that organization for scrutiny. Right now, this “professional journalist” and consultant is promoting a Salon story that misrepresents Wisconsin’s hard-right politics as being the result of:
ReplyDelete“[First] …while Wisconsin has a progressive streak of the sort that once put socialists in office, there is a history of conservatism and reactionary politics to the state that Joe McCarthy of all people called home. Wisconsin has a nativist culture, born of homogeneous white northern European immigration patterns, that is still fearful of outsiders, suspicious of change.
“Second…More people live in the suburbs, or in its small, rural communities, creating a strong political base for Republicans.
“Third, the economic landscape of Wisconsin has altered dramatically over the past several decades...Wisconsin has not fared as well as neighboring Minnesota, which has become a hub for bio-technology…”
How convenient, no one looks at the massive amount of propaganda that has been used by the state's largest media outlets to inflame racism and actually create the "white flight" that results in the demographic changes.
I understand why Salon might miss this, though that is not an excuse for their inaccurate and incomplete reporting, but I don't understand why even the alternative media in Wisconsin appears to be afraid to call out the larger media outlets in any meaningful way.
It is meaningless to just proclaim that larger populations in rural/suburban areas created a hard shift to the right.
1. Those people were encouraged to leave the cities and continue to be fed nothing but a diet of anti-urban, largely racist "news."
2. Once our urban communities become hyper-segregated, the media abandons this core of urban areas and provides nothing but negative coverage of areas of the city that have been economically abandoned by policy makers, legislatures, county government, and our Governor.
I will have to contact Salon directly about how they have given right-wing media a free-pass on this story. I don't understand why an in-state blog like the one promoting this misleading story consistently gives the media a free pass on their role. Is this author afraid to speak the truth to Milwaukee Journal Sentinel? (he’s a big “purple” sham contributor)
I know from the experience of myself and others that comments are no longer allowed to be seen there if they question the role of Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in creating the very divisive political climate and hard-right transformation of a former leader in national progressive initiatives.
Prohibiting state employees from doing political work on the taxpayers' dime? I guess it depends on the politics.
ReplyDeleteFor most normal people, science is not political.
Deleteunfortunately, with the party of stupid in charge it has become such.
In the real world, doing things like campaigning in Iowa, New Hampshire and Florida and talking smack at an NRA convention, all on the WI taxpayer dime, would be off limits.
Unfortunately, we do not live in normal times
Blaska...the sound of liquid stool and gas expleed after a bad night of drinking and low quality tex mex. also thwe sound of a moron trying to confuse that which is simply real...wiith politics....because, "like them scientists is just tryin' to take away everyone's petroluem products...because....well...for some reason anyway...bI mean... you know how they arem, right"?
ReplyDeleteDavid Blaska,
ReplyDeleteI salute you as someone who "gets it."
Science has no place in politics as it is biased. Governor Walker is demonstrating true leadership by showing the door to those DNR scientists who think their idea of science can shed insight into how to manage the deer herd.
As a Sportsman for Walker, I salute Scott Walker and Cathy Stepp for ridding the DNR of science. Now we can ignore Chronic Wasting Disease as the liberal conspiracy it is to kill our deer heard.
No more Climate Change.
No more CWD.
I am one happy Sportsman for Walker.
This gives new meaning to "See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil."
ReplyDeleteYou're not supposed to shout "Fire!" in a burning house.