Wednesday, January 31, 2018

The Shrine of Paul Ryan

By Jeff Simpson


With the latest announcement that Trey "Benghazi" Gowdy will not seek re-election, there are too many GOP elected officials to count who are quitting.   

Trey is as bad a Congressman as his dad Curt was a great sportscaster.    America is automatically better today because of this news. 

There has even been speculation, that Janesville's own Paul Ryan is considering "retirement"

While Gowdy's legacy will be an unnatural obsession with Hillary Clinton, Paul Ryan is leaving a different legacy one in his own home town that had ripple effects throughout the Nation. 

Ryan recounts friends losing their jobs at GM’s assembly plant and compares Detroit and Janesville in the opening chapter titled: “A Tale of Two Cities.” His father, Paul M. Ryan lost part of a finger, which was surgically reattached, when he worked at the factory in college to pay for tuition and books.“The struggle isn’t immediately apparent the way it is in a place like Detroit,” Ryan wrote. “The fall of Detroit, and the unease in Janesville, should be warning flags that force us all to confront our failure to take the future seriously.”











While you could not find any better pictures to document the results of Paul Ryan's career, these pictures are of the Janesville GM Plant that closed. 

   "We will not spend four years blaming others, we will take responsibility." Paul Ryan
 Also, do not forget what Republicans in WI, think about the closing of the Janesville GM plant.  Scott Walker trolled all of Janesville, when he put this billboard up inside the shuttered plants grounds:


Tuesday, January 30, 2018

Paul Ryan Quote of The Day

By Jeff Simpson

This was too good not to share, by the best columnist going now!

You can put Paul Ryan’s essential patriotism in a shotglass and have more than enough room for the whiskey. He’s the biggest fake in the history of the Congress, and that’s saying something.

Rep. Mark Pocan, Randy Ironstache Bryce Pwns WISGOP



Randy Ironstache Bryce is going to Washington.

Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) invited Randy to be his guest at the State of the Union on Tuesday. Even though Randy has told me that he's not looking forward to listening to Trump drone on and on about he's a legend in his own mind. Nor is he looking forward to watching Lyin' Paul Ryan's smug face as he gazes adoringly on his BFF, Trump. But Randy has never been one to back down from a challenge or from a job that needs to be done.

Not only is Randy going to Washington, but during the speech, he'll be running the above ad during the speech.

When I first heard about Randy going to SOTU, I chuckled a little but didn't think too much of it. But given how the right wing is having major conniptions about it, I see that I was wrong. Actually, this allows Pocan and Bryce to own the GOP and live in their heads. All day long, right wing heads in Wisconsin have been popping as they learned what's happening.

Their faux outrage culminated in this whiny press release from Rep. James Sensenbrenner, who is simply aghast at the though of riff raff like a blue collar worker attending the address:
As the President addresses the American people, he does so from the House Chamber, a place rich with history. Members of Congress are afforded the opportunity to invite a guest to join them at the speech. These special guests are seated in the House Gallery to witness the speech. Often the opportunity goes to a constituent or a family member, or even a lucky staffer. Members take great care in deciding who receives this guest ticket.

It is not a venue to score cheap political points.

Unfortunately, in a disheartening attempt to cash in on Speaker Paul Ryan’s prominent role in American government, Congressman Mark Pocan has invited Randy Bryce, Speaker Ryan’s Democrat opponent, to be his guest.

This is an attempt to sow political discourse and deepen a divide in an already fractured political environment. Creating a spectacle like this – regardless of position or party – is disrespectful and out of bounds. Worse, Mr. Bryce is using it as a tool to actively raise campaign funds.

As the Dean of the Wisconsin Congressional Delegation, I expect my colleagues to maintain Wisconsin values and treat each other with respect, civility, and deference. Unfortunately, Congressman Pocan has already disrespected Speaker Ryan by holding town hall meetings in Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District, a District in which he was not elected.

By using the State of the Union to prop up a campaign in the hopes of getting a rise out of Speaker Ryan, Congressman Pocan erodes the tradition of basic comity in the Wisconsin delegation.

I call on Congressman Pocan to reconsider the blatant stunt of inviting candidate Randy Bryce as his guest.”
Pocan wasted no time issuing his response, which is short, sweet and cuts right to the bone:
“Speaker Ryan is a nice guy, but it isn’t nice to write a bill that would kick 23 million people off their health care, or pass tax cuts that primarily benefit the top 1%, rather than his own constituents. Worse, Speaker Ryan has now collected $500,000 in campaign funds from the Koch brothers for passing tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy. The sad reality is that Speaker Ryan has abandoned his Wisconsin values by refusing to face his constituents in a truly open town hall, which is at the core of our jobs, and by not standing up to the President when necessary.

“Republicans have zero credibility to discuss the state of political discourse in America or what is disrespectful or out of bounds. I must’ve missed Mr. Sensenbrenner’s remarks when the President disparaged foreign countries as sh*tholes, called neo-Nazis and white supremacists ‘very fine people,’ bragged about sexually assaulting a woman, or even reportedly asked his lawyer to pay off an adult film star using campaign funds. Apparently tax cuts for GOP donors come at any cost.”
I also don't remember Sensenbrenner - or any other Republican - being upset when Rep. Vance McAllister (R-La.).invited Willie Robertson to one of Obama's SOTU addresses. Nor did they make a peep when Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX) invited Ted Nugent, who had once threatened Obama's life.

Heck, even Ryan himself had tried to score cheap political points when he invited members of Little Sisters of the Poor and who were opposed to Obamacare in their anti-abortion zealotry.

The Republicans have nothing to say about who Pocan invites. They just need to sit back, enjoy their leader's speech and watch their majority and the midterm elections continue to slip away.

Monday, January 29, 2018

Media Trackers: Still Lying Like Crazy After All These Years

During the recalls of 2011, right wing propaganda group Media Trackkkers made laughing stocks of themselves by accusing people of bribing two underage African American women into signing the petition.

Of course, this was a Fox News level lie.   The women were neither underage nor were they bribed.

Today, seven years later, Media Trackkkers has a whole new writing staff.  Well, a completely different set of contributors, anyway. But they are still telling the whoppers.

One example is Kevin Binversie.  Binversie, whose only other claim to fame his his Green Lantern pajamas, is still adamant that a fundraiser for Randy Bryce, featuring Chelsea Handler, had been cancelled.  Of course, Binversie's only proof is that no one dumped information into his lap.

Maybe Binversie can explain this email I got last week (the names have been redacted to protect the hosts form harassment):


Apparently, the motto at Media Trackkkers is "It doesn't have to be true, as long it proves our point."

But wait, there's more!  There's always more.

There is our pal, James "Wiggy" Wigderson, who writes for more fake news/propaganda sites than anyone else in the state.  Apparently, Wiggy stands for wigged out.

Wiggy has his undies in a bundle (I do apologize for the visual that might create in the gentle reader's mind) over Bill Penzey, the owner of Penzey's spices, referring to Trump and his acolytes, like Lyin' Paull Ryan, as Nazis.

Perhaps, Wiggy somehow missed that little demonstration in Charlottesville last summer, when this was a common sight:


In fact, things have gotten so vulgar and depraved in this country because of the Republicans that Mike Godwin, creator of Godwin's Law, has said that it's perfectly fine to compare "these shitheads to the Nazis.  Again and again. I'm with you."

Perhaps Wiggy should put down the Snickers bar for a minute and take a look outside of his own little bubble.  He just might learn something.

Then again, people like Binversie and Wigderson never do seem to learn.

Sunday, January 28, 2018

Lyin' Ryan To Donate Money He Received From Wynn

Behold the power of Cog Dis!

Yesterday, Jeff Simpson pointed out the right wing's hypocrisy.  While they're clutching their pearls and swooning on their fainting sofas over a tweet by Chelsea Handler, they are totally mum about their own (former) RNC Finance Chairman, who has sexually harassed multiple women.

I took Jeff's post and went one step farther, calling on not only Scott Walker but also Paul Ryan to give back the money they got from Wynn:

Well, lookie there!

The Hill is reporting that Ryan is going to donate $1,000 that he had received from Wynn in 2016:
Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) will donate money he received from an organization with ties to casino mogul Steve Wynn, who announced he was leaving his position as finance chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC) after multiple women accused him of sexual misconduct.

Ryan received a $1,000 donation in 2016 from Wynn Resorts Limited Initiative for Public Policy. Ryan will donate that money to a local charity, a spokesman confirmed to The Hill on Sunday.
Well, it's a start anyway.

There is no word about how much of the hundreds of thousands of dollars that Wynn donated to the GOP went to Ryan or what he's going to do with that money. There is also no word from Scott Walker - or any other Republican - on what they are going to do with money they got from Wynn, directly or indirectly.

Saturday, January 27, 2018

Walker$ Wretched Wynn Wad of Dirty Money

By Jeff Simpson




 Trump attorney Michael Cohen, who serves as deputy chairman of the RNC's finance committee, told NBC News: "Steve [Wynn] is a truly great man who has been the driving force behind the RNC finance committee."
While the faux outrage of the Wisconsin right wing echo chamber was all up in arms over Actress Chelsea Handler's tweet about Lindsay Graham, they have been predictably silent over the disgusting revelations about Steve Wynn, the finance chairman of Republican National Committee. Apparently, mediatrackers, is not tracking much of the media these days! 

Since the "watchdogs" are neutered whenever it comes to Scott Walker, it is up to us to get answers. 
If Democrats had a Harvey Weinstein problem last fall, Republicans almost certainly have a Steve Wynn problem right now. On Friday, the Las Vegas casino mogul and Republican National Committee finance chair was accused of of decades of sexual misconduct with his employees after the Wall Street Journal interviewed 150 current and former employees. He’s also given millions of dollars to the GOP.
The Journal’s story said that Wynn, who turned 76 on Saturday, allegedly harassed or abused multiple women who worked for him over the years; the paper’s reporters uncovered a $7.5 million settlement Wynn paid to a manicurist he coerced into having intercourse with him in 2005. 
Want to see where we are as a Nation:

RealDonaldTrump liked this tweet:


The Wall Street JournalVerified account @WSJSteve Wynn, one of the most powerful men in Las Vegas, pressured employees to perform sex acts, according to people interviewed by the Journal.
Want to see where we are as a State:
As the DNC so correctly pointed out:
“The RNC and Ronna McDaniel have helped fund the campaign of an alleged child molester, blindly supported the GOP’s attacks on women’s health, supported a President who has been accused of sexual misconduct by over a dozen women,” Sabrina Singh, the DNC’s deputy communications director, said in a statement, “and now they remain silent amid sexual assault allegations involving Steve Wynn, one of their party’s most senior officials.”
Now we can expect complete silence from Scott Walker on the thousands he collected in Las Vegas (PS: notice the date is a Thursday afternoon, not sure that Scott Walker ever actually works in WI). 
However we as his constituents can DEMAND more!  Let's contact the Governor and tell him we expect him to give the dirty Wynn money to a charity that helps abused women. 

I recommend DAIS, but there are many ways to help victims of sexual abuse.   

The first step is to contact the Governor and tell him to give the wretched wynn money back and stand up for women! 
@govwalker 
@scottwalker 
Office of the Governor
PO Box 7863 
Madison, WI 53707
(608) 266 - 1212
#GiveWynnsWadBack
Edit Note:  There is a Chelsea Handler/Randy Bryce event coming up, just another thing the local right wing bloggers got completely wrong!    

Thursday, January 25, 2018

The Real Activist Judge

By Jeff Simpson

The definition of irony! 

Today on the RightWisconsin website, Matt Kittle, the blogger who I think is currently being paid by Mcgyver, wrote a story about the Supreme Court and how Tim Burns and Rebecca Dallett are going to be "activist judges".
The forum, moderated by University of Wisconsin-Madison Political Science professor Ryan Owens, in large part proved to be a bare-knuckle political brawl between the two left-leaning candidates, Madison attorney Tim Burns and Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Rebecca Dallet. The other candidate, Sauk County Circuit Judge Michael Screnock, the conservative in the race, mostly remained above the fray, periodically asserting that his opponents are effectively Activist Judge 1 and Activist Judge 2.
On the same page of the extremist blog, is an interview that The "above the fray" Judge Screnock,  who spent his formative years getting arrested throwing himself in front of a woman's health center in Madison to keep women from entering, gives an interview to friend of CogDis, the voter cager himself, Jimmy "Wiggy" Wigderson


Nothing says I am "above the fray" like running to a far right wing blog.    A quick look at Screnock's twitter and you see that he likes to finish his tweets with #wiright. 

Apparently #wiright means independent and nonpartisan! 

While I am adamantly supporting Tim Burns in this race, this part of the story showed why I am 100% correct in my decision! 

H/T Amanda Brink, for recognizing the fact that there is no "news" in Maciver!

 Burns’ campaign handler refused to allow the candidate to speak to MacIver News Service following the forum, even as he was being interviewed by another media outlet.


Wednesday, January 24, 2018

The Donald's Priorities

By Jeff Simpson 

More White Male Terrorism being suppressed by the news recently so lets shine a light!



Recently, The Donald, apparently having nothing else to do, decided to give out his "fake news awards". 

One example:

3. CNN FALSELY reported that candidate Donald Trump and his son Donald J. Trump, Jr. had access to hacked documents from WikiLeaks.
 Of course then almost like clockwork, with dear leader setting the stage and sending out signals, this happens
A Michigan man has been arrested after allegedly calling CNN 22 times earlier this month, repeatedly threatening "to gun you all down" and hurling racial epithets, according to court documents unsealed Monday.
The man, identified in court documents as Brandon Griesemer, began calling a publicly listed number for CNN's Atlanta headquarters on Jan. 9, and made a series of threats to kill employees at the company, according to an affidavit filed in a Michigan federal court. Griesemer, who lives in the Detroit area, was arrested last week and is accused of making threats across state lines.
The case began Jan. 9 when a man — who investigators later concluded was Griesemer — called CNN and described the network as "fake news," then added that "I'm coming to gun you all down. Fuck you, fuckin' ni***rs," the documents state. Minutes later, the man allegedly called back from the same number and said an attack was imminent.
"I am on my way right now to gun the fuckin' CNN cast down," the caller reportedly continued. "Fuck you."
Half an hour after that, the man allegedly called back once again and said he was "coming for you, CNN."
"I'm smarter than you," the man said, according to the documents. "More powerful than you. I have more guns than you. More manpower. Your cast is about to get gunned down in a matter of hours."

But wait there is more!

Another day, another school shooting, this one in Kentucky!  2 dead, 18 injured, shooter captured and The Donald who likes to keep up on these things via Twitter had this to say when it happened:

I know, I know it is Obamacare's fault!

Now that Mr. Griesemer will be busy dealing with orange jumpsuits and lots of public defenders, The Donald needs a new #1 fan. 

Luckily he found one:

Ugandan leader Yoweri Museveni has hailed President Donald Trump as "one of the best presidents ever," thanking him on Tuesday for speaking "frankly" to Africans after the U.S. leader reportedly described African nations as "shithole countries."
"America has got one of the best presidents ever, Mr. Trump," Museveni said to members of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) in Uganda's capital, Kampala, according to AFP.
"I love Trump because he speaks to Africans frankly. He talks about Africans' weaknesses frankly," he said.
For those of you who do not know who Mr. Musevini is, let me help:

Foreign Policy magazine, a global publication that predominantly concerns itself with international affairs has published a list of the world’s ‘worst of the worst’ dictators and or tyrants in which our very own President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni is named as the third worst dictator on planet earth.





WISGOP Fires Ethics, Election Heads Weeks Before Election

In Wisconsin, the spring primary elections are on February 20th, less than a month away. The fact that these elections are just around the corner didn't slow Wisconsin Republicans from blowing them up by firing the heads of the ethics commission and the elections commission for no reasons other than retaliation and pure pettiness:
.The Wisconsin Senate voted Tuesday to oust leaders of the bipartisan state agencies charged with running elections and overseeing ethics laws, the latest move by Republicans to exact revenge on anyone connected with a now-closed investigation into Gov. Scott Walker and other conservatives.

The highly unusual Senate vote was designed to force out two former employees of the now-shuttered agency that approved the Walker probe who were later selected to head the newly created bipartisan Elections and Ethics commissions.
And when I say retaliation and pure pettiness, I wasn't kidding:
Fitzgerald said he could never support Bell or Haas because of their work for the GAB, which conservatives believe unfairly investigated Walker and other Republicans for alleged illegal campaign coordination. The Wisconsin Supreme Court ended the secret investigation, known as a John Doe, in 2015 and no one was charged.
The vote, which was taken without a public hearing beforehand, as is the norm, was also without merit:
The Ethics Commission on Monday night, just hours before the vote, released findings of its own internal investigation conducted by a former federal prosecutor, Patrick Fiedler, and his law firm. Their investigation determined “there is not a scintilla of evidence that Brian Bell has ever performed any of his governmental duties in a partisan manner.”

[...]

Haas did not work directly on the John Doe investigation, but did review legal filings made in lawsuits over the probe. Bell did not work on the investigation and publicly criticized the former GAB last week, saying he left it because he thought it was mismanaged and unfairly enforcing the law.
As if it wasn't clear before, the dark money syndicate is in charge of the State of Wisconsin and they don't even care about hiding their misdeeds anymore.

I'm sure the Republicans also see the added bonus of making it easier to commit election fraud in an effort to stem the Blue Wave that's already hit the state once in a special election last week.

Monday, January 22, 2018

Lyin' Ryan Proves Himself A Liar On Military Pay Issue



On Sunday, Lyin' Paul Ryan appeared on Face the Nation, where he got into it with host John Dickerson about whether the troops got paid during the government shutdown by 2013:
PAUL RYAN: Look, I'm not going to comment. I just saw that. I don't know if that's necessarily productive. It's no secret the president has strong views on immigration. But what is not productive is a pointless government shutdown that the Senate Democrats have hoisted on this country.

Just so you know, you said this in your opening, tomorrow people don't get paid. People get furloughed. We have soldiers fighting for us, troops overseas fighting for us who will not be getting paid. This is ridiculous. And so look, we've done this before. It didn't work. It's not working now. Let me just give you a quick-- Chuck Schumer said--

JOHN DICKERSON: Hold on. Hold on. This military question's important, though. I'm sorry to interrupt. But, you know, in 2013 the president, then-candidate, Trump said, "Here's the truth. The government doesn't shut down. All essential services continue. Don't believe the lies." On this question of the military, in 2013 the payments continued. So they don't continue now?

PAUL RYAN: Well, I-- I'll let--

JOHN DICKERSON: Because I've looked at a lot of facts.

PAUL RYAN: You can ask the O&B (?) director that in a minute 'cause I know you have him coming on. But--

JOHN DICKERSON: But it's quite a volatile thing to say they're not getting paid. 'Cause they are getting paid--

PAUL RYAN: Yes, they don't-- their payment gets deferred. They don't get--

JOHN DICKERSON: Why can't--

PAUL RYAN: They don't get paid--

JOHN DICKERSON: Why couldn't Congress have fixed that?

PAUL RYAN: We did. We passed a bill. It's sitting in the Senate. They've-- they've filibustered--

JOHN DICKERSON: Why didn't-- but why didn't-- the Democrats didn't filibuster the payment for the troops separate apart from the--

PAUL RYAN: The bill we passed paid troops. It pays the park service. It pays the border patrol. It pays people doing basic health research.

JOHN DICKERSON: Right. But in 2013 when there was a shutdown, they did in fact get paid, right--

PAUL RYAN: No, their pay gets deferred. Here-- let me just say something. I believe in immigration reform. What if I persuaded my caucus to say, "I'm going to shut down the government. I'm not going to pay our bills unless I get my way." It's a politics of idiocy, confrontation, and paralysis. That's Chuck Schumer in 2013.
In my best Maury Pauvich imitation, "Paul Ryan, you say the military didn't get paid during the military shutdown in 2013. Paul Ryan, your own website shows you're a liar."

Indeed, as Timmy Christopher caught, Ryan's own website, on a FAQ page regarding the shutdown, we see this:

Click on image to embiggen it

Question: Will members of the military be paid?

Answer: On September 30th, the President signed H.R. 3210, the Pay Our Military Act, which ensures that our military personnel on active duty –including reserve component personnel on Federal active duty – continue to be paid through the shutdown.
Lying is like a compulsion with Ryan. He just can't help himself.

And before he gets started again, someone point out to Lyin' Ryan that it was his Senate couterpart, Mitch McConnell that killed a proposal to make sure the troops keep getting paid, as they did in 2013.

At least with Randy Bryce, a veteran himself, we know that our troops will be taken care of above all else.

Do You Remember These???

By Jeff Simpson 



 The boogie man, lemonade stand and taking your tonsils outIndian burn and wait your turn and four foul ballsYou're out! Cigarette loads and secret codes and saving lucky starsCan you remember back that far?
Scott Walker came out today with a "new" proposal.  Well new to his mouth but one that has been hanging around for a while because the Democrats wrote it!

After years of fighting Obamacare, Gov. Scott Walker is now seeking to stabilize the state marketplace under the law.
The state will also ask to permanently continue SeniorCare, a prescription drug program Walker has previously sought to pare down, he said.
Walker also said he’ll ask the state Senate to pass a bill authored by Democratic lawmakers and passed by the Assembly that would enshrine into state law access to private insurance for people with pre-existing conditions.
One thing our friends on the right seem to forget is that in the year 2018, we have things they have said in the past documented! 

Let us take a quick look:

Gov. Scott Walker said Tuesday he would scrap President Barack Obama’s signature health care law on his first day in office and replace it with a health insurance system that relies on refundable tax credits based on age instead of household income to help individuals pay for health coverage.  8/19/2015
WALKER: I think long-term a much better option for us here in Wisconsin and across the country is to replace it with something market-driven. But for us, we didn't take the Medicaid expansion. We didn't do a state exchange. But long-term we can't go back to the status quo. What we need to do is go to a market-driven position. 12/1/2013
Scott Walker says, "It starts out with the premise that on my very first day as President of the United States, I will send legislation to the Congress to once and for all repeal Obamacare entirely." 8/18/2015
 Gov. Scott Walker said Friday that he would consider seeking a waiver to let insurers raise premiums for people with pre-existing medical conditions if the House Republicans’ health care plan becomes law. 5/6/17
Yes those were all said by the same guy.  The same guy who is running for re-election for Governor of Wisconsin.   Scott Walker will obviously say or do anything to be re-elected. 

However, those of us with pre-existing conditions, must not be fooled by the snake oil salesman.  We know, from his history, that anything he says now, will be immediately forgotten the minute he is declared the winner. 

We have to make sure that does not happen! 

Remember this in November! 

Knock, knock jokes 
Who's there?
Dewey
Dewey who?
Dewey
Remember these
Yes we do!
Oh do we?
Do we remember these!


Sunday, January 21, 2018

Kochs Give Lyin' Ryan His Good Boy Treat For Tax Bill

Image courtesy of Shane Bakken
Last week, Randy "Ironstache" Bryce announced their 4th quarter fundraising was a huge success again:
Randy Bryce, one of the Democrats hoping to take on House Speaker Paul Ryan, raised $1.2 million at the end of last year, his campaign said.
Team Stache also reports that the donations came from over 80,000 donors and averaged about $25-30 each. How did Bryce raise so much? Well, as he said:
Bryce, a union ironworker and military veteran, was asked by Katy Tur on MSNBC in an interview Monday why he's raised so much money.

"People are seeing this wave. This resistance is very real," Bryce said. "People have had enough with where the president is taking us, and we're tired of not having a Congress that's acting as a check and balance to stand up to him."
A few days later, Ryan came out with his numbers. He reportedly raised $1.4 million during the same time frame, putting Ryan and Bryce at about an even pace.

But when you look at where the money comes from, there's a different story:
In the fourth quarter, Team Ryan raised nearly $5 million.

The Janesville Republican hasn't formally announced whether he'll run for another term representing the 1st Congressional district.

Ryan's re-election campaign announced it had nearly $10 million on hand at the end of 2017.

Of the $1.4 million raised by the campaign in the fourth quarter, more than $270,000 was raised directly in Ryan for Congress. The rest came from transfers from the speaker's joint fundraising committee.
In other words, he's using his position as Speaker of the House as a fundraising tool.

Ah, but there's more, friends. There's always more.

Mary Papenfuss at HuffPo points out that a great deal of the money came from Charles Koch and his wife and few other multibillionaires:
Just 13 days after the tax law was passed, Charles Koch and his wife, Elizabeth, donated nearly $500,000 to Ryan’s joint fundraising committee, according to a campaign finance report filed Thursday.

Five other donors, including billionaire businessmen Jeffery Hildebrand and William Parfet, each contributed $100,000 in the last quarter of 2017, according to the records.

“It looks like House Speaker Ryan is quickly being rewarded for passing this legislation that overwhelmingly benefits the Kochs and billionaires like them,” Adam Smith, spokesman for campaign finance reform nonprofit Every Voice, told the International Business Times, which first reported the Koch contributions.

The Koch donations were paid into Team Ryan, which raises money for the speaker, the National Republican Congressional Committee and a PAC run by Ryan. On the same day, Charles and Elizabeth Koch also each donated $237,000 to the NRCC.
Without the dark money, Bryce is keeping pace with Ryan, and could actually be doing better.

And Bryce made sure people take notice of Ryan's dirty money:
And Ryan’s Democratic challenger, ironworker and military veteran Randy Bryce, made sure that these massive gifts and the context around them did not go unnoticed.
Paul Ryan passed a 1.5 trillion dollar tax bill that takes from working people to give to the super rich.

Days later, he got $500,000 in Koch contributions.https://t.co/mctzh9RYu8

— Randy Bryce (@IronStache) January 21, 2018
Ryan would be hard-pressed to claim that these donations had nothing at all to do with the passage of the bill, considering the Koch brothers spent millions on the effort to sell the scam to the American people.
It needs to be also pointed out that the Kochs and Ryan's other benefactors are using our own money against us, seeing how they will gain exponentially more money from Ryan's tax plan. Thanks, Citizens United!

If you can, please help Randy keep getting his message out so that he can kick Ryan out. Give whatever you can to help the cause of regaining our country from the plutocrats and oligarchs that are pulling Ryan's strings. Don't let Ryan and his dark money overlords buy another election.

One Last Wish

By Jeff Simpson



Recently an long time Democratic activist from Beloit WI, Helen Forbeck, passed.   In her obituary, her last act on this earth, she was able to get one more message across

The greatest hope she had for this world as she left it is that our current president leaves office as soon as possible, along with any other bigots, homophobes, and racists. She asked those who support such beliefs to not dare to attend her visitation or funeral.
RIP Helen....We will deliver on your greatest hope this November. 

In honor of Helen, please donate a few bucks or an hour or two of your time to change our government for the better in November, and do it in Helen's name! 



Monday, January 15, 2018

Athletes Attacked

By Jeff Simpson




I am starting to see a trend and it all fits within the same Venn Diagram.

First, Scott Walker lets us know that he and his van stealing son, were very disappointed and angry that Ryan Braun lied about taking steroids.   The Governor, who has a "true" rating on the right leaning politifact of 13%, is upset that Ryan Braun lied to him. 

It is easy when your one strength is dividing people:


  to attack pro athletes, most of whom are minorities, to get people turned against them.   We all love playing baseball, why cant they just enjoy the fact that they make millions playing a game we wish we could......  

It is a page right out of the right wing playbook and now Tom Ricketts, the owner of the Chicago Cubs, is playing that card with Sammy Sosa.   Ricketts recently let everyone know, that before Sosa would be welcome back to Cubland, there were conditions needing to be met. 

"Players from that era owe us a little bit of honesty," Ricketts said Saturday during the team's annual fan convention. "The only way to turn that page is to put everything on the table."
---
"I just think we need to put everything on the table and move forward, full stop," Ricketts said.
Sammy Sosa was one of the greatest former Cubs, who helped bring fan interest back to the game of baseball after the strike and who also took steroids.  Sosa, has been demonized and ostracized ever since and while the rich white men of the era (Bud Selig) are immortalized, the players who brought the game back to major profitability were thrown under the bus. 

Even though, Ricketts, had absolutely no ties to Cubs during the Sammy Sosa era, he is going to make Sosa come begging to him to get back in the clubs good graces.

Ricketts, has different categories of who he expects honesty from.   Ricketts was a major donor to the Scott Walker for President campaign (he knows how to pick a winner), then when Scott Walker blew through over $10 million dollars in three months, received 0.0% support in the Republican presidential primary and went home with his tail between his legs, transferred his support to The Donald.   That support equaled over one million dollars!

While Mr. Ricketts says he wants to keep the Cubs and Politics seperate, that is fine, but he can not seperate from his own hypocrisy. 

While Ricketts has never had to pay a penny to Sosa, he expects a "little honesty" from him before he is allowed to be associated with the team he just bought.

Ricketts has given over $1 million to The Donald, who tells approximately 5.5 lies a day, and has never once asked for a "little honesty" from him.

Maybe, Ricketts just believes that everyone should follow the rules and that there should be no exceptions, even if they are on your team. 

Unfortunately that is not the case either, because TD Ameritrade (the company his father founded and allowed him his life of privilege), has been fined numerous times for breaking the law.  I doubt that Ricketts has asked his dad for a "little honesty" before he was allowed in the park.

The reality is too many politicians know how to push buttons to make sure that you are looking over there and not at them.

It is also one of the specialties of their good friend - The Donald!


“Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out! He’s fired. He’s fired!’” 

While professional athletes make it easy to attack, they are fair game of the Walkers/Ricketts mainly because of their race.  They want to make sure that they know their place in our society. 

Gladiators only..... 




Is Serb Hall's Fish Deep Fried?

Long time readers of this here blog might remember back almost six years ago to the saga of Serb Hall and the Solidarity Fish Fry.

The management at Serb Hall were trying to bust their union, blaming the union workers for costing them too much money. When we learned of the news, Randy Bryce (yes, THAT Randy Bryce) and I spearheaded one of the most unique direct actions in labor history.  Instead of the usual informational pickets or even a boycott, we organized the Solidarity Fish Fry.

The idea of the Solidarity Fish Fry was, instead of avoiding Serb Hall, everyone would go to Serb Hall every Friday for the then famous fish fry and eat to their heart's content.  The thing though was that when the people were to be seated, they needed to ask for a union table.  If a union table was not available, then you'd say you'd wait for one. 

The effects were clear on the first night when scores of people showed up for dinner.  Randy and I did this week in and week out for six straight months.  We had people from all walks of life - and from all parts of the globe - come join us to raise their forks in solidarity.

Unfortunately, it did not work out the way we had hoped.  During negotiations, the management declared an impasse and broke the union.  As it turned out, they also broke their own backs at the same time with businesses dropping as word got out.

The reason that I bring all this up now is that over the weekend, I had run into one of the union waitresses Randy and I and few score of our closest friends tried to help.  She said that she was still at Serb Hall but only part time because things were going to badly.

As we talked, two things that she said really struck me.

One, she said that Serb Hall's business had cratered so badly that they were having problems meeting payroll.  Sometimes workers were going for days after payday before receiving their checks, putting the worker's personal budgets into tailspins.

The other thing was that whatever money problems Serb Hall was having had nothing to do with the unions.  It turned out that one of the managers was embezzling tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars every year.  But given the top manager's boorish and idiotic tendencies, I would not be surprised to learn that he new about it for a while but still blamed the unions.  I hope he's proud of killing the business out of spite and ignorant hatred.

Greed never wins.

ADDENDUM: Oh, Randy, if you're reading this, I'm supposed to tell you that the waitresses are cheering for you in your race to repeal and replace Lyin' Ryan!

Saturday, January 13, 2018

Ryan Reluctantly Calls Trump's Shithole Comments "Unfortunate, Unhelpful"

Lyin' Paul Ryan hadn't commented for a whole day after news of Trump's racist shithole comment broke. It was only when pressed to do did Ryan give a response to it, and to say it was lackluster would be an understatement:
"I read those comments later last night," he said. "So, first thing that came to my mind was very unfortunate, unhelpful. But you know what I thought of right away, I thought about my own family.

"My family, like a whole lot of people, came from Ireland on what they called the coffin ships then. Came here and worked the railroads. The Irish were really looked down upon back in those days. I hear all these stories from my relatives about 'Irish need not apply.' We could basically get construction jobs, cops and firefighter jobs."
Ryan spent most of his time as he usually does, trying desperately to get someone - anyone - to like his tax cuts for the wealthy.

Of course there was no mention at all of censuring Satan's Oompah Loompah.

Ryan's Democratic opponent, Randy "IronStache" Bryce laid it out clearly:

Personally, I think Randy was a little harsh on Ryan. After all, I'm sure it's hard for Ryan to take a stand against evil when he doesn't even have a spine.

But the clear difference between the two candidates is part of the reason why IronStache continues to run such a strong campaign. He's connecting with people on their level. That would also explain why in the last quarter of last year, Team Stache raised $1.2 million from 82,000 people, averaging $24-25 per donation.

If you want to be part of the Blue Wave that sweeps Ryan out of Washington and replaced by Randy, you can help out here.

Friday, January 12, 2018

Dan O'Donnell Outdoes Himself

By Jeff Simpson

Remember this:


Thanks to Dan O'Donnell - local radio hate talker, we have our own version.   While he sings the praises of ACT10, all but ending teachers unions, he also testified for a horrendous bill wrongly called - The Teacher Protection Act. 

After testifying, he went to a local blogger with MacIver and had this to say:

O’Donnell praised the bill, stating, “We have a system in which teachers do not feel they are being heard.
WOW, who woulda thunk it.  We eliminate Teachers Unions, then do a report on how teachers are not being heard!

Sometimes I wonder if these radio yakkers actually listen to the crap they spew. 

Thursday, January 11, 2018

Another Conservative Reformer Is Reforming

By Jeff Simpson




Conservative family values Gov. Eric Greitens, the guy who campaigned on family values:

His campaign capitalized on his military service as a Navy SEAL, his work as founder of a veterans’ charity “and most importantly, a proud husband and father”.
The problem is, Mr. Greiten was also sleeping with someone else's wife at the time(still checking to see if he is related to Robin Vos).   The thing is this Navy Seal knew how to keep himself out of trouble, because he tied his mistress up, took pictures of her naked and let her know that if she told anyone he would plaster her nude pics all over the Internet. 

Surprisingly, this did not set very well with Greiten's mistresses husband:


Looks like someone in Missouri did not vote Republican.   

The family values GOP rising superstar is so confident in his abilities that he has already purchased ericgreitensforpresident.com.  Imagine the affairs he can have in the White House with Air Force One and the world at the palm of his hands.   

One thing we know for certain, is that wherever Greitens career takes him, we know who his biggest fan is: