Sunday, July 29, 2018

Scott Walker the UNeducation Governor

By Jeff Simpson



Scott Walker is desperate and informed.  The numbers are in and public education is going to be the determining factor in the gubernatorial race this year.

Walker also knows that if that is the case he is sunk, which is why he is desperately trying to rewrite history and change the narrative!  He has even taken to trying to give himself a nickname - The Education Governor. 

Setting aside the fact that only porn stars and four year olds give themselves their own nicknames, Walker (the fiscal conservative with money to burn) has just produced his third ad "proving" he is the education Governor.

The first ad:
The first Walker education ad features Anita D'Abbraccio, a special education teacher in the Racine Unified School District. D'Abbraccio praises Walker for giving schools "flexibility to put money where it matters most, in our classroom." The flexibility D'Abbraccio references is Walker's signature Act 10 legislation, which eliminated most public employees' collective bargaining rights and required them to pay more into their pensions and health insurance premiums.
  Act 10 was not an education bill it was a political retribution bill.  It was designed with one purpose in mind - to cut off the legs of one of the strongest groups who oppose Scott Walker - the public employee unions.   By virtually eliminating teachers unions, it kept an organizing and money backer of his opponent toothless. 

Conversely, by undermining teachers unions, it made schools less safe, the teaching profession less professional and greatly affected our children's ability to learn. 

Second ad:

A second education-focused ad focuses on a bill Walker signed into law in March increasing sparsity aid for small, rural schools. That legislation also allows districts that spend less than most others to raise their revenue limits without a vote from local property taxpayers. Similar provisions were added to the 2017-19 budget by lawmakers but vetoed by Walker. He then offered his support for the measures as separate legislation.
The budget Walker signed into law in September 2017 included a $639 million funding boost  to K-12 schools.
The ad features Jeanie Hatfield, a recently retired elementary school teacher also from Racine, praising Walker for putting "more resources in the classroom this year."
Hatfield, who spent about 30 years working in public schools before retiring and starting a business, said in an interview that she was pleased with Walker's $200-per-student funding boost in this year's budget, followed by a $204-per-student increase next year. 
Have to love this one.  Scott Walker is campaigning on allowing smaller school districts, the ability to raise taxes without taxpayer approval because, because he has so dramatically cut their aid that they are seriously struggling.

Yes, in his last budget, Scott walker allocated $639 million extra dollars towards education(but gave voucher schools more than their fair share) and likes to tout that as an accomplishment. Prior to this budget. he has cut public education over a Billion and a half dollars, more then any Governor in our history.   His new "investment" is an attempt that has fallen short of righting a wrong.

I would also like to point out, that when trying to find someone to advocate for his "sparsity aid" to rural schools, found someone from Racine (the fifth largest city in WI) who is no longer a teacher. 

Latest ad:

From @scottwalker tweet:
Scott Walker

Verified account

@ScottWalker
Check out our new ad! It talks about how we’re supporting Fab Labs in public schools so our smaller communities, like Three Lakes, can keep more of their graduates close to home
As Homer Simpson would say - D'oh! 

 THREE LAKES (WAOW) -
The Three Lakes School district will stay open, after voters passed a nearly $15 million referendum Tuesday night.
750 people voted in favor of the referendum, while 294 votes opposed it.
The money will be divided over the next five years and will be used for operating costs to keep the school running. 
Nothing like begging for money to keep the doors open of your local public school.   Scott Walker forgot to brag about that part in his campaign ad. 

The logical next step for the folks in Fitswalkerstan is to assign their sycophants and Walker Go-fers to give him coordinated back up. 



Christian Schneider is of course the first one to answer the call(forgive me Father, for clicking on Schneiders garble):


 Walker, on the other hand, has challenged the narrow meaning of the word “education.” During the Act 10 debate, he argued mere spending increases didn’t do kids any good if they were primarily used to prop up lavish health and pension benefits for public school teachers. His reforms both poured more money into classrooms and allowed school districts more flexibility in hiring younger, more dynamic teachers. No longer are districts hamstrung by turgid union rules meant to benefit the teaching establishment over kids.
Christian is of course, all foam and no beer. 

We have covered the ridiculousness of anyone thinking ACT10 was about education reform.    It did not "pour more money" into classrooms, nor did it give districts more flexibility in "hiring younger, more dynamic teachers".

Time out. 


What the hell does that even mean?  I know Schneider is an untouchable at the "dead tree", because of the Bradley Foundation money they so desperately need, but could someone at least fact check him once in a while?   Does he think that School districts were unable to hire younger teachers before?  Or maybe he thinks because of the union that districts could only hire younger teachers who were not dynamic?  Possibly he believes that at a certain point the elder teachers are no longer capable of teaching(however ACT10 did not eliminate complete age discrimination, maybe they can go after that next).   Now you see why Schneider is 24 cents short of a quarter. 

I digress....back to the story -

The common misperception amongst the group thinker, coffee getters of the right, is that unions only benefit the teaching establishment over the kids.   Schneider has probably not stepped foot in a public school in this century, and likes to make sure that facts and research are taboo in his writing should know that google is his friend.

In Seattle earlier in the year, the teachers went on strike and eventually settled on the following:
 • Recess: Guaranteed 30 minutes of recess for all elementary students.
• Reasonable testing: New policies to reduce the over-testing of our students.
• Professional pay: Base salary increases of 3 percent, 2 percent and 4.5 percent, plus the state COLA of 4.8 percent
• Fair teacher and staff evaluations: Test scores will no longer be tied to teacher evaluations, plus there is new contract language that supports teachers' professional growth.
• Educator workload relief: Additional staff to reduce workloads and provide student services.
• Student equity around discipline and the opportunity gap: Creating race and equity teams at 30 of the district’s schools.
• The administration’s proposal to lengthen the school day: Teachers will be compensated for additional work.
Teachers striking for more less testing, more recess and equity.  Last I saw it was the kids who benefited greatly from those concessions. 

Now on to my good friends at MacIver.   The ability to make Scott Walker an education Governor was a bridge to far for the regulars so the intern got handed that job.

Like Scott Walker's presidential run, she failed miserably


Facing falling revenues,On the heels of the Bush Great Recession, Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle’s 2009 budget hiked state taxes by $2 billion, property taxes by $1.5 billion, and cut state aids to K-12 education by $284 million. It’s interesting how often those on the left turn straight to Walker’s very first budget(Which cut education close to $1.6 Billion(PS: FYI Ola - 1.6 billion is much more than 284 million), ignoring what had happened just two years prior. Facing a manufactured crisis, Walker cut took a machete to state funding to schools – while also giving them the tools  forcing districts to dramatically cut teachers already low salaries,to make up the lost aid, including opening up healthcare plans to new bidding. Selective memory is a funny thing.      Bullshit Propaganda is not that funny.  
But wait there is more!
To mainstream Democrats, Act 10 has been a political pariah that very inconveniently helped out school budgets. 

Yes it has helped out school budgets so greatly that almost every district in Wisconsin, has had to go to an operating referendum in the last few years to keep the lights on and the doors open. 

I would suggest that Ola follow her owna advice and check out a school budget.   If she had an editor maybe he/she could have pointed out the blatant hypocrisy of her final points. 

The first was that thanks to Scott Walker, graduation rates are up in Wisconsin(all hail Hydra I mean Scott Walker) but in Milwaukee they are falling tremendously(not his fault).

The next is, thanks to Scott Walker, everyone is taking the same test (ACT). Now if we could only get the voucher schools to bring their test scores up to where the public schools are, then maybe Ola will actually luck into a point.

One of the most fitting stories this year in public education, is the story of the "Education Governor's" home school district - Delavan-Darien

 A failed referendum at Delavan-Darien schools has the district cutting 20 percent of its teaching staff.On Wednesday, the district told TODAY’S TMJ4 it is cutting several other positions district-wide to balance the budget...The district plans to cut 39 teachers, an undetermined number of non-teaching staff and close Darien Elementary at the end of the school year. 
The tools that Scott Walker gave his home town schools, was a wrecking ball! 

The reality is, according to the facts on the ground, state school funding has steadily declined under Scott Walker, and not just for teacher salaries but safety, security and special needs.  

How can a rural school meet critical needs when money for schools is less than adequate?
“A school board member went door-to-door asking for support,” Birchwood Superintendent Diane Johnson said to members of the Blue Ribbon Commission on School Funding. “He raised $3,000 to get the front doors locked.” The money raised was for purchase of a long-needed intercom system at the front door. “The doors were not locked during the day until this month,” Dr. Johnson told Commission members in May.
Dr. Johnson went on to say next would come an effort to buy key fobs for the staff and re-key the doors. The school didn’t lock the doors or change the locks for over 50 years. With a population of less than 500 in Birchwood, “everyone has a key to the school.”
School funding is not adequate for students in many communities across our state. Mounting mental health and school safety issues are just some of the problems facing superintendents, school boards and bookkeepers like Birchwood’s Bonita Basty.
Ten percent of Birchwood’s tight school budget must be transferred to cover required costs for students with special needs, Ms. Basty explained. In addition, the small district is depleting its reserve funds to cover increasing costs for students with special needs.

For the sake of our children, and the future of our State...In November show up to vote and make sure that we show that we are educated enough to know that Scott Walker is as far from the "Education Governor"as Donald Trump is to a model husband!














Friday, July 27, 2018

Milwaukee's New Sheriff, Same As The Old Sheriff



It is no deep secret that when David Clarke was Milwaukee County Sheriff, he didn't do much but shoot off his mouth and acted like a bully. It was not unusual to see stories of Clarke abusing the powers of his office to harass, intimidate or retaliate against anyone - deputy or private citizen - who would defy him, show him up or embarrass him

So it should be no surprise that he filled his command staff with loyalists who behaved much the same way as he did.

Before Clarke fled to Washington DC to become a top acolyte to Trump, he spent most of his time gallivanting about, collecting hefty speaker fees, stumping for Trump and/or schmoozing up to Russian spies. During these times, he would leave his right hand man, then Inspector Richard Schmidt in charge. These times included when six inmates died in the county jail, including one that was denied water for a full week.

When Clarke did finally make his exit stage radical right, Scott Walker appointed Schmidt to be acting sheriff. Now, a year later, Schmidt is running in his first election bid. Just as Clarke did, Schmidt is running as a Democrat even though he is anything but one.

While no polls have been done on this race, campaign finance reports indicate that Schmidt is running a distant second to the front runner, Earnell Lucas. Schmidt knows this too as shown by him becoming increasingly negative and pandering to special interest dark money to bolster his failing and flailing campaign.

Unfortunately for Schmidt, his past will continue to haunt him going into these final weeks before the primary, which is actually the general election since no one is running as a Republican. This would include his above-mentioned deaths in the jail he was overseeing.

Recently, a letter from three years ago has surfaced. The letter is a complaint against Schmidt, accusing him of harassment, retaliation, sexist remarks and defamation of character. It was filed by a woman captain that was denied a promotion and punished after suing to protect her rights.



Some Schmidt apologists have tried to defend him by saying he was just following Clarke's orders, but that is a lame excuse. First of all, any person, but especially a law enforcement officer, should always do the right thing, even if it might make them uncomfortable. Secondly, it is sincerely doubtful that even Clarke would have ordered Schmidt to tell a woman that she just "find a rich guy, get married and quit."

Schmidt, like Clarke, is obviously unfit for office and needs to be voted out. Hopefully, Milwaukee County voters won't keep making the same mistake this time around.

Wednesday, July 25, 2018

Lyin' Ryan, Cathy Myers Try To Slow Down Randy Bryce's Momentum

Every since Randy "Ironstache" Bryce ran his introduction video last year, his campaign has only continued to pick up momentum and energy. This led to Bryce repealing Ryan earlier this year and has continued as he steams towards replacing him.

What the reader might not be aware of is that Bryce has to get past a primary first. Bryce's democratic opponent is Cathy Myers, an Illinois school teacher who lives in Wisconsin, just north of the Wisconsin state line. She has been desperately trying for a year to gain any sort of traction, becoming increasingly desperate and increasingly negative.

After the first debate between Bryce and Myers a couple of weeks ago, Paul Ryan's super PAC, the Congressional Leadership Fund, came out with their results of a push poll they did. In their bogus poll, they showed that Bryce and Myers were in a statistical dead heat even though they provided no proof of how they reached their conclusion. Interestingly, it is the only time that Myers even registered on a poll.

Either unaware or not caring that it was a bogus poll put out by Ryan's group, Myers has been trying to run with it, using it as a talking point to raise funds:



Now that there is only a couple of weeks until the the primary on August 14th, there is evidence that Ryan and his super PAC are at it again. People are starting to ask about a push poll phone call they received which was heavily slanted towards Myers and paid for by Ryan's super PAC:


While it is not surprising that Ryan is trying to interfere with the Democratic primary for his old seat in order to help his hand-picked, would be successor, it is annoying. On the bright side, it is a clear sign of just how scared the Republicans are of Bryce and how desperate they are not to face him in November.


Saturday, July 21, 2018

Win By Any Method and At Any Cost?

Cathy Myers, who is running against Randy "IronStache" Bryce, to be the Democratic nominee for Wisconsin's First Congressional District, has run a very negative campaign for almost the entire duration.  Now, with only a few weeks to go until the August 14th primary, she has increased her negativity to a scorched earth campaign, not caring about anything but winning.  She and her campaign staff will smear Randy any and every chance they get, even if they have to make crap up to do so.

And I'm not the only one who has noticed this and found it to be a strong reason not to vote for her.

The following is an essay written by Chester Todd, Jr., who makes his own observations about the race and the different campaign styles of the two candidates.  I find it to be very well written and very eloquently stated, and is reproduced her with Mr. Todd's permission:
I would think some type of party reprimand should be in store for the Democratic Congressional primary candidate, Cathy Myers!

I am referring to the recent one-sided attack of Myers against her primary opponent, Randy Bryce, who is also running for the Congressional seat presently held by Paul Ryan.

Apparently, someone in Myers campaign investigated and exposed to the media, some personal business from candidate Bryce’s past pertaining to his legal dealings with another person. It is understandable that Myers wants to win; however, by any means necessary or should I say, victory at any cost?

Is it any wonder that the party has a tough time winning significant seats when some of their candidates are allowed to engage in such negative, internal traitorous behavior? Is there not such a thing as, party loyalty or integrity? Oh, and just to be clear, as of this moment, I personally, have not heard Mr. Bryce publicly or otherwise, throw any negatives at Myers, if he has and I missed it, I stand corrected.

Is winning the primary that important to Myers that she would put herself ahead of the best interest of the party?

Myers should consider, how could I or any solid liberal progressive, Black or otherwise, cast a vote in her direction knowing that she is this self-centered? If she will literally attempt to throw a fellow party member under the bus, then just think what she would do to a distant or dissatisfied constituent!

One of the main reasons Blacks do not vote in Mid-term elections is the matter of trust. Let there be no misunderstanding about what I am saying, up until now Blacks have never had anyone, running for an office of this magnitude, who has shown the amount of interest and empathy pertaining to issues affecting our life chances like Bryce, in fact, when compared to some candidates from either party, Randy is a rarity.

To be frank about what I am saying, I would be very reluctant to vote for someone who uses personal issues of this nature to go after their same party's primary opponent, especially in an election of this importance.

The way I see it, Democrats, poor, middle-class and beyond, need this seat and although I might have been misled on some of my choices in the past, of this I am sure, Randy Bryce is by far the best candidate in this primary and with all our help he will prevail and continue on to victory in the general election.

C.T. 7/20/18 Chester Todd’s One Black Man’s Opinion OBMO
Again, very well done, Mr. Todd. It's much better than I could or would have said. Thank you again for agreeing to share this with us.

If you live in this district, please give serious thought to voting for Randy Bryce.  And if you don't live in the district, or even if you do, please help support him so that we can gain this seat back for Wisconsin.

Wednesday, July 18, 2018

Bryce vs Myers: The Bernie Test



In advance of the upcoming primary, left leaning voters have been looking at the candidates, especially as to where they fall on certain issues.  One of those issues is where the candidate stood in the 2016 presidential election.  Were they standing with Bernie Sanders or did they support Hillary Clinton?

Randy Bryce has undoubtedly been a Bernie backer from the beginning.  In fact, Bernie asked Randy to speak at one of his rallies when he was running for president.  While Randy will readily admit that he voted for Clinton in the general election, that was only after Bernie dropped out and asked his supporters to support Clinton instead.

This year, Bernie has been here in Wisconsin for two separate rallies in support of Randy.  

But what about his opponent, Cathy Myers.  Myers also claims that she was a Bernie backer and denies repeated statements from people who were at the 2016 convention that she supporter Clinton.  However, there is no evidence of any pictures of Myers with Bernie or even at a Bernie rally.

But the thing that really blows holes in Myers' lies is the actual list from that convention on who was caucusing for Clinton.  If you look at the top of the list, you will see that Myers was one of the eight delegates from that district that were eligible to be a delegate for Clinton.

Click on image to embiggen it


It also blows her claim of being the more progressive candidate out of the water as well.

The sad part is that this far from the first time she's tried to mislead the voters and most assuredly won't be the last.

GOOD LORD We Need A New Health Commissioner!


Here are just the first ten reasons why Milwaukee needs a new Commissioner of Health.

1) Interim Commissioner Patricia McManus has released a draft plan to tackle the lead disaster only to the state. She won’t let the public see the plan. Simultaneously, she is saying she can’t get her work done (it took her six months to even issue even a draft plan), and that the city won’t give her files to get her work done. The best she could come up with in six months was that they need “very strict protocols?” They had those already.  They clearly didn’t follow them. Once the public can see this plan it had better contain a much more substantive process, given it’s the only tangible item she’s produced in six months. She applied for multiple extensions from the state. Our guess? The plan is pretty short on meaningful change.

2) McManus claimed in a Journal-Sentinel article on July 4 that “…It’s a matter of being uncomfortable with having people of color run things that they never have before” which is a strange comment. How can she have amnesia about who had that job before her for 13 years? Maybe somebody with connections at the health department can find out the vacancy rate under Baker vs. McManus?

3) How much of McManus’s plan to "clean up" the health department includes firing staff and replacing them with cronies with no health training? Why are there still no performance evaluations being done at MHD?  She’s clearly upset that she can’t just outright fire people with no due process. Watch this word salad and see if you can make sense of it. Is it the system? The managers? The dysfunction? Look between 2:03-2:05, give or take. http://milwaukee.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=1681

4) The selection of the new Commissioner of Health IS NOT the mayor’s pick. The decision was made by Common Council members themselves (2:06, video above).  But McManus and local activists, in an attempt to keep her around in this role longer, will continue to paint this individual (who has a PhD and an MPH) as undesirable because “the mayor picked her.”  Thanks to Alderwoman Lewis’ explanation, it’s pretty clear to see this is not up to the mayor.

5) How badly do you have to be running a department to lose 12 managers in six months?  Somebody please start finding these people and ask them about their experiences. It will be enlightening.

6) Twice on McManus’s watch, and because of Tasha Jenkins’ decisions on the program, poor women have not been able to get cervical or breast cancer screenings.  McManus recently lied to the Journal Sentinel, saying seeing it in the newspaper is the first she’d ever heard of it.  Funny, because she was at the Finance and Personnel Committee on June 13 talking about it in detail before lying to the newspaper, saying she never heard a thing about it. Check her out at about 2:15 at the video link. See if you can make sense of this—it’s the state’s fault, it’s Kenosha’s fault—you get the routine.  The bottom line is that hundreds of poor women went without screenings TWICE on McManus’s watch.  http://milwaukee.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=1667 

7) Why have so many people had to retain lawyers under her leadership?  Many of these people will successfully sue the city for harassment, toxic work environment, and intimidation.  McManus will claim this is “reverse discrimination”, saying it’s about racism, but harassment and intimidation don’t have a reverse. All of these people worked for Commissioner Baker, so some of them likely outlasted their last Black boss who was there for 13 years. As long as the public somehow doesn’t know the Commissioner Baker was a black man, this works. But who doesn’t know that?

8) She has let several large federal funding opportunities slip by on her watch. Millions of dollars that only health departments/programs would be eligible for, that she left on the table, and she didn’t even bother applying for. Milwaukee is one of the most poorly funded health departments in the country compared to need, and somehow it will be even worse off when she finally leaves. And that’s before the city has to settle the lawsuits.  All told, we aren’t going to get out of this for under $5 million, but considering the opportunity cost of the funding that we might have received, it’s probably higher.

9) McManus went from protesting the idea of being appointed, to being appointed but saying that she would only stay while they looked for someone else, to getting angry if people called her “interim”, to now insisting on staying to “finish her work”—again we ask—what work?  The lead plan nobody can see?

10) Anybody who is betting on McManus actually helping their case to oust Barrett is as delusional as the people who watched her more than a month ago saying she knew all about the Well Woman Program being discontinued and then saying she knew nothing about it a few weeks later. It's time to stop pretending you don't know what's going on, Milwaukee elected officials. 

It’s pretty certain that McManus will claim that any attempt to usher in a change in leadership is racism, but let’s take a look at who she replaced and who is the nominee to replace to her to check how accurate that is.  Come on, Common Council. Get it together. It’s time. Somebody, DO something.





Tuesday, July 17, 2018

Scott Walker's Sunday Drive

By Jeff Simpson



Scott Walker decided to borrow a Harley for the weekend and drive around WI.  We already know that the Harley Walker rides is an election year prop.  No one in the history of Harley Davidson has looked more awkward actually riding one.

Beyond that, the ever hip Walker, decided to tweet out various stops along his way, and instead of showing what a "regular Wisconsinite" he is, he actually was on a "why I should not be re-elected" tour and did not even know it. 

Let's take a look at some highlights.

First we should point out that while Scott, drives his rented Harley around the state, the Donald is constantly threatening Harley Davidson and Scott Walker does not have the courage to speak up and ask him to stop


First stop was a typical Walker hangout.  A crowd of people who are 100% on his side that is all white and older.  This time though, he has taken a page out of his good friend the Donald's book on marriage.  Scott is the star and Tonette is along for the ride and shoved to the side.   Nothing to take any attention away from the candidate. 

Next stop lunch and look what we see, the same crowd of older white walkers(extra credit for those who can find tonette in that crowd).  Still efforting to see if he gets his crowd of henchmen from the same place that the Joker gets his.

Then he made a quick stop 



Umm Scott, I know public education is not your thing, but there are no kids there. 

Ok it has been a long day in the sun, and I am guessing you ordered kids for photo shoot and Keith Gilkes dropped the ball.

So we move on.  Next stop a local technical college(Tonette was waiting on the car).

Great to visit Nicolet Technical College to learn about their welding and IT programs – we’re working to help students get the skills needed to fill all the jobs from those “help wanted” signs around the state!


Did no one tell Scott that he actually cut over $60 million dollars from Wisconsin technical colleges during his reign?

The state’s investment in technical college education has actually plummeted during Gov. Walker’s time in power despite a looming skilled labor shortage.
In his first budget (2011-2012) Walker slashed Wisconsin Technical College funding by $71.6 million, a 30 percent cut, reducing state support (General Purpose Revenue) for all sixteen technical colleges to only $83.5 million. That was actually less total dollars than the state invested in the WTCS 23 years earlier in 1988/89.
Funding remained flat until 2015 when, during his re-election campaign, Walker restored a mere $5 million of the $71.6 million he had previously cut. That was only 6.9 percent of what Walker had cut just four years before!
Be careful guys, that is a knife Walker is sticking in your back! 

Next stop for "cold ice cream"  on National Ice cream day: 

Leave it to Scott Walker, in the dairy state, on National Ice Cream Day, to find a cheap soft serve cone.  While soft serve is technically ice cream(like Walker technically got an education) it is filled with chemicals, less actual milk and more air.   It is also served from a machine made in Illinois

Finally we stop eating and taking pictures with his motorcycle gang, and we head to the grand finale.  What should be the straw that breaks the Governor's campaign....this picture:

Scott Walker
@ScottWalker
 Jul 15
More
Enjoying the amazing views on our ride.

Once again, the Governor is clueless, I guess it is all of that time spent traveling out of state. What I, and most Wisconsinites see, is a nice stretch of country crumbling roads:

Gov. Pothole has allowed Wisconsin’s roads to decay to 2nd-worst in the country, costing motorists repair penalties reaching an estimated $700 annually in the Milwaukee area, data shows.

Wisconsin lost 500 dairy farms in 2017, and about 150 have quit milking cows so far this year, putting the total number of milk-cow herds at around 7,600 — down 20% from five years ago. "Drive around Wisconsin and you will see empty barns all over," said Elizabeth Schlintz, a dairy farmer from Bangor, Wis., and a lender with a community bank.
 Federal court data shows western Wisconsin had the highest number of Chapter 12 farm bankruptcies in the nation in 2017. That's only a glimpse into the problem since Chapter 12 is a relatively rare tool used in bankruptcies.
Farmers say the downturn is worse than one they experienced in 2009 because it has lasted longer and their costs are higher now. Many dairy operations are drowning in debt. In some cases, they have a half-million dollars in unpaid bills. 
Not really much of an amazing view in my eyes.

Monday, July 9, 2018

The GOP Conga Line To Nowhere!

By Jeff Simpson

As Capper pointed out recently, Wisconsin's favorite Married into money Senator, Ron Johnson spent Independence Day 2018 in Russia of all places. 

Apparently RoJo felt that he would rather hang at the Kremlin than with Scott Walker and his fellow Republicans at the Governor's mansion. 

It appears that RoJo may have made the right choice by seeing this:

Than this: 

Honestly no one really wants to see that.   Had RoJo been stuck in Wisconsin, he would have ended up as the Caboose on this Conga line, after too many Coors Lights, and had traumatic flashbacks to his middle school days in Minnesota. 

Who knows how that would have affected him and how much more we as taxpayers would have had to pay to cover his health insurance.  



We can skip over the zombie Scott Walker mindlessly leading a group of 6 flailing white people(amongst a bigger party) around aimlessly, and focus on Leah "unhinged" Vukmir, who is blindly following her leader into the abyss.  

Vukmir,  who will be spending the next week talking about how extreme Tammy Baldwin is, because Senator Bernie Sanders will be making a visit to Wisconsin to campaign with Senator Baldwin.   

If you want to see the perfect example of extreme, this is from an Independence Day parade: 
Nothing says I love my country, more than a grown man wearing American Flag footy jammies out in public.   I would guess if you are an adult wearing footy jammie, the TRUMP flag is an automatic accessory. 

We can not blame her, after listening to The Donald recently in Montana, I have no doubt that he spoke directly to Leah!
For those who can not stomach listening to The Donald or can not believe what you hear....here is the actual transcript!

Ahhh Nakita, it all comes back to The Donald and his love for Russia!  












Wednesday, July 4, 2018

RoJo Sends Fourth Of July Thoughts - From Russia




Ron Johnson, our dumb senator from Wisconsin, tweeted a jingoistic message for the Fourth of July.
But before you start to cheer and wave those little American flags that were made in China, you ought to know that he sent this tweet from Mother Russia, where he and other Republican lawmakers are currently laughing it up and toasting the real president, Vladimir Putin, with shots of vodka:
Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard C. Shelby told Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov Tuesday that he hoped for an improvement in relations between the United States and the Russian Federation.

“We have a strained relationship, but we could have a better relationship between he U.S. and Russia, because there’s some common interests around the world that we hopefully can work together on,” Shelby said, according to video from the meeting in Moscow. “We can be competitors. We are competitors, but we don’t necessarily need to be adversaries.”

“So, we’re hoping that coming out of the Putin-Trump meeting in Helsinki we will see the beginning, maybe of a new day,” the Alabama Republican said. “The world’s better off, I believe, if Russia and the U.S. have fewer tensions.”

Shelby has been leading an all-Republican congressional delegation to Russia, of mainly appropriators. The lawmakers were joined for the meeting with Lavrov by U.S. Ambassador Jon Huntsman.

[...]

GOP lawmakers on the trip with Shelby include Sens. Steve Daines of Montana, John Hoeven of North Dakota, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, John Kennedy of Louisiana, Jerry Moran of Kansas and John Thune of South Dakota.
That's a far cry from what RoJo was saying just a few months ago, when he said that world needed to unite against Russia:
Republican Sen. Ron Johnson said Sunday that the U.S. and Western allies must stand up to Russian President Vladimir Putin in the face of “aggression” and “provocations” from Moscow.

“We have to have the resolve, I mean, we have to,” said Johnson, R-Wisc., the chairman of the Senate's Homeland Security Committee, in an exclusive interview on "Meet The Press.”

“I wish Russia were no more than a friendly rival,” Johnson said. “But unfortunately, they're an unfriendly adversary. And it's been their aggression, their provocations, that have really resulted in a relationship that is not healthy for the world, for world peace.”
What a difference a few million dollars from Russian can make!

Ironically, RoJo did tell the truth in his message. We are indeed losing our freedom.

The good news is that the Republican majority will soon be washed away by the coming Blue Wave of 2018. Once we clean out the miasma the Republicans have created, we can start restoring our freedoms.

With Friends Like Cory...

By Jeff Simpson


We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately. Benjamin Franklin



In this very important race for Governor, one of the key issues will be the Foxconn debacle.  Every person running, has addressed in their key issues, how to minimize the damage to Wisconsin.

That is why it was so surprising to see Mayor Cory Mason, the former Democratic Assembly Rep, take the time out of his busy schedule, to help Scott Walker write a re-election ad to praise this awful company

There are challenges to overcome, and there is work to be done, but I believe that the arrival of Foxconn creates the best opportunity in my lifetime to rebuild our middle class and build a stronger community for all of us.

Apparently this is Mr. Mason's view of the ideal middle class in WI.

At least Scott Walker is very appreciative(Hopefully Mason at least got an official pen):
 I thank all the Republicans and Democrats who supported this bill and made the right call. 

 However, beyond a bunch of Republicans who know nothing of economics, and a few self serving "Democrats", not everyone is on board with the FoxConn Debacle.

The 2800 acres of privately held land in the Mount Pleasant area, was declared blighted so that the local officials could take land(and houses) held by Wisconsinites so they could then hand it to a foreign company, that turned a profit of $70+ Billion last year in the fourth quarter alone. 


A local resident, Kimberly Mahoney, who recently built her dream home, only to have the Village Board declare it blighted and take it from her. 
“I was like ‘You’ve got to be kidding me,’ ” James said. “How can you tell us they’re taking our property? This is our property. We bought this property. How can you be taking our property with our brand new house?”
Their daughter Reese came home from school to celebrate her 12th birthday and asked her parents about it saying, “what happened with Foxconn?”
“She thought we were kidding when we told her we had to move,” Kimberly said. “She just started bawling.”

What is a dream house to one family, when it means keeping the Walker family in the Governor's Mansion and Alex free access to all state vehicles?

To be fair, not everyone hates Foxconn, some people heart it!


We have not even covered the 7 million gallons of water a day, that Foxconn will be taking from our greatest natural resource, Lake Michigan! 

Whats 7 million gallons of freshwater from one of the biggest money making, life sustaining, tourist attractions in WI? 

"It's tough to know the value of water until it's gone." Mark Udall 
Well at least Cory Mason can sleep well, they did not declare his dream home blighted, he just used us all for his personal ambitions and goals, and made it that much harder to defeat Scott "John Doe" Walker in November. 

I guess Mayor Mason is just trying to make Wisconsin Better!

 “Better never means better for everyone... It always means worse, for some.”― Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale