Jason Miller Embodies Republican Values

By Jeff Simpson

The tangled web that we weave. 

No one knew, when The Donald got into the Presidential race, with 16 other Republicans, that it would end up with David Dennison being sworn in as the 46th President of the United States.

Part of the reason he won, because his team handled the daily press barrage well.  Two of the people most responsible for that was Jason Miller and AJ Delgado.

While these two helped The Donald overcome the odds, lack of intelligence, experience and morals to actually become The President.   Their story also could not be any more GOP, Washington DC, Politics, Donald Trump if Dinesh D'Souza had written it himself.

Miller and Delgado were working the campaign together and ended up getting involved.   While Miller was married at the time, he told Delgado that he and his wife were seperated. 

The two began dating in mid-October, Delgado said, adding that while she knew Miller was married, he told her at the time that he was separated from his wife. “Among other things, I was really drawn to his talent,” she told me. “He is the best at what he does.” 

Delgado though made a major mistake to live in this world(besides believing the lies), she got pregnant and refused to have an abortion. 

But just a couple of weeks after Election Day, Delgado discovered she was pregnant. She held off at first on sharing the news, unsure of how Miller would take it.
“I finally told him one night when we were in bed and I couldn’t fall asleep,” she said.
Miller reacted calmly, Delgado recalled, but came back with some complicating news of his own. “Well this is going to be extra awkward for me to handle,” she remembers him saying, “because my wife is expecting.”

Ahh yes, Miller meant separated at that moment.   Delgado learned the hard way, that women are second class citizens in the new Trumpian GOP, and once people found out she was pregnant from the affair, she was ostracized. 

Miller however was rewarded with the job of White House Communications Director.  Apparently getting two women pregnant at once was very impressive to the Donald.  Unfortunately, for Jason, Delgado took to social media to let everyone know and Miller was forced to resign.

CNN however, the subject of much ridicule and scorn from the Trump administration, was not scared to show us how Stockholm Syndrome actually works and gladly hired Miller on as an "analyst". 

But wait there is more.  There is always more. 

It turns out Miller always considers himself separated from his wife when he in on the road because in 2012, he got a stripper in Orlando Florida pregnant (apparently condoms are not allowed in Trumpian GOP) and welcomed that news by making his stripper mistress a smoothie one day with the main ingredient being an abortion pill(unbeknownst to his mistress).

Millers problem was solved as his mistress lost the baby and bled out and almost died herself.   That absolved Miller of having to tell his wife about the stripper and have yet another child with his genes he refused to help pay for. 

It also allowed Miller to continue working Republican Communications to help get "pro-life" candidates elected.

God Bless America! 

 
But wait there is even more.... Miller, after he was forced out of CNN, was then hired as Managing Director of TENEO Holdings.  In case you do not know(and why would you), Teneo holdings was founded by Doug Band and Declan Kelly.  Both of these men are good friends of the Clintons and Band was actually Bill Clintons chief advisor for 9 years. 

It is a big club and you are not in it...but you do pay dearly for the dues. 

The Week In Walker

By Jeff Simpson

With so much bad and crazy happening on a breakneck pace everyday, it is hard to keep up with it all.   Let's try and catch up with some of Scott Walker's recent hits.

1.  Get ready, coming smack dab in the middle of the state, will be lots of layoffs and changes at UW - Stevens Point!

 Kristen Hendrickson, the university’s chief financial officer, laid out three scenarios for UWSP's structural deficit that largely depend on enrollment numbers for this year.
If the university enrolls 8,000 students, the total deficit may sit at about $2.4 million.
If 7,500 students enroll, the total deficit may grow to $5.4 million.
If enrollment falls to 7,000, the total deficit may grow to $8 million.
The university’s academic division might need to make cuts ranging from $4 million to $6 million, eliminating as many as 60 to 70 full-time jobs, if enrollment falls to 7,000 students, Summers wrote in the Aug. 27 letter.

 2.  Small Government Scott Walker is taking people's homes.

Unless you know the right people, then Foxconn is the jackpot!

3.  While Walker's signature promise was to create 250,000 jobs (as his floor) and after 8 years still has not come close to that number.  In fact, Scott Walker has cost Wisconsin some 80,000 jobs.

The average from both models points to a Walker administration which cost Wisconsin 80,000 jobs. This loss was masked by national job growth. If Wisconsin had followed the same pattern relative to its neighbors as under previous administrations, jobs would have grown by an additional 33 percent — quite a difference. To put the shortfall in perspective, the 80,000-job loss is six times the 13,000 jobs promised from the Foxconn development in Racine.
It is hard to identify possible causes for Wisconsin’s jobs lag other than the administration’s policies. It is not as if the state is dependent on a single industry. Rather, the underlying cause seems to be the triumph of ideology over evidence as to what grows an economy. 

4.  Have to admire Badger Meters business sense, and be amazed at how cheaply Scott Walker can be bought.

Top executives of a company that was awarded $250,000 in state welfare have contributed nearly $26,000 to Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s campaigns.
Badger Meter, which makes flow measurement tools for water utilities and commercial and industrial businesses, plans to expand its Mount Pleasant operations in Racine County and create up to 40 jobs in the next three years. Walker’s economic development agency, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., said Thursday it will provide up to $250,000 in tax credits to train the new employees.
Overall, Badger Meter employees contributed $36,850 to legislative and statewide candidates between January 2010 and December 2017. All but $300 went to Republican candidates.
The top recipients of the contributions were Walker, $25,900, followed by Republican Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, $6,000, and GOP Rep. Dale Kooyenga, of Brookfield, $2,000.
The company’s top contributor to legislative and statewide candidates between January 2010 and December 2017 was its chief executive officer, Richard Meeusen, of Pewaukee, and his wife, Maribeth, $34,750. That’s 94 percent of the contributions from all employees of Badger Meter. Walker received $24,500 of those contributions from the Meeusens.

5.  Another way to get your hands on some easy Wi Taxpayer funds in Scott Walker's WI?  Abuse teenagers at Lincoln Hills. 

– For the second and third times, Gov. Scott Walker’s administration has given cash settlements to guards who it determined had used excessive force on juvenile inmates, state records show.
The payoffs — including one totaling $9,000 — were reached as the FBI continues a criminal investigation of Lincoln Hills School for Boys and Copper Lake School for Girls, which share a campus 30 miles north of Wausau. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel last year reported officials at the prison complex trained staff improperly, failed to preserve video evidence, didn't document serious incidents and often shirked their duty to report matters to parents, police and social service agencies.

 6.  In Election Season, Scott Walker will say absolutely anything to get elected.   Here is a clip in 2010 telling us how he would never cut education funding.

7.  Scott Walker is out with his 21st political ad already.  I guess he can not find one that people will believe.  However this one is very typical of Scott Walker.  He starts out complaining about attack ads, then starts attacking.

Tone deaf? Desperate? Dishonest?   We report, you decide. 

It stays with the theme he has been working for months.  That Scott Walker, the king of outside money, fears outside money.   
I guess that the Kochs, Sheldon Adelson and loony Uihlein are all above board WI residents, or maybe he just a hypocrite. 

Finally, as Bruce Murphy points out in his great piece at Urban Milwaukee, everything Walker does is for sale. 

Two of his biggest supporters have been the Koch Brothers, who have donated $4.8 million to Walker’s campaigns, and the state’s biggest business group, Wisconsin Manufacturer’s and Commerce, which has given $9.5 million to his campaigns.
Walker’s signature law, Act 10, which decimated public employee unions, was backed the Koch Brothers and WMC. The two groups also supported the Right to Work law, which makes it difficult to organize private unions and which Walker had promised unions supporting him in 2014 that he would never support. But he signed it into law in 2015. 

Readers of this humble blog know, that everything Scott Walker sells, he sells cheap! 

Hurricane Donald Is All Wet

By Jeff Simpson

How you handle crisis is the mark of a true leader, I am not sure what we are witnessing with the Donald currently inhabiting the White House.

As Hurricane Florence hammers the east coast, the United States Commander in Chief had this brilliant piece of information to tell us.

pic.twitter.com/G0BjCXEnaX

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 18, 2018

 'one of the wettest we've ever seen from the standpoint of water' The Donald

Yes you heard that right.   The best/worst part of this is he filmed that.  He could have, or someone on his staff could have, just called cut and filmed another take.  I am guessing they figured that was the pinnacle, the best they were going to get, so they moved on.

Now that we know the Hurricane is wet from the standpoint of water, what's next?  Sorry you asked!

The Donald decided to do a photo op by handing out food to displaced residents and told them to "have a good time".   The Donald, in true David Dennison fashion, was actually able to Trump that, he told one victim of Hurricane Florence - "At least you got a nice boat out of the deal". 

According to White House pool reports, Trump spoke with an older man standing in front of a small brick house, behind which was a large yacht that had washed ashore and was shipwrecked against the man’s wooden deck.
When asked if this was his boat, the man told Trump, “no.” He went on to complain to the president that his insurance company didn’t want to pay for the damage to his home from the storm.
Responding to the man, Trump assured him he would find out the name of his insurance company, and said, “At least you got a nice boat out of the deal.”
“I think it’s incredible what we’re seeing,” Trump continued. “This boat just came here.”
“They don’t know whose boat that is. What’s the law? Maybe it becomes theirs,” he added.

People are going to have a very hard time explaining to their grandkids how we ever allowed this imbecile anywhere near the White House.   For the record(and my grandkids):  I never have and never would vote for him! 

Ryan Takes The Low Road Out Of Office

More than a year ago, Randy "Ironstache" Bryce introduced to himself to the world and announced that he was running to repeal and replace Lyin' Paul Ryan. The video quickly went viral and his campaign became a juggernaut.

As the gentle reader knows, he already repealed Ryan who announced his retirement rather than try to take on Bryce and his swelling grassroots campaign. In his stead, Ryan offered up his hand picked successor and clone, Lyin' Bryan Steil. In no time, it was apparent that Steil was faring no better than Ryan.

To bolster Steil's flailing and failing campaign, Ryan decided to have his super PAC launch $1.5 million dollars worth of attack ads. In two consecutive days, he's put out two such ads. The first ad tries to besmirch Bryce for 20 year old traffic tickets and a couple of recent arrests when Bryce was protesting Ryan's malicious agenda and standing up for DREAMers.

Ryan's second ad really bottoms out when he has Bryce's own brother expressing faux outrage at Bryce's "anti-police behaviors." This is a rather odd line of attack since Bryce's father was a cop and Bryce's brother is a cop. It's not surprising, though, that Bryce's brother would be a willing participant in this smear job. He is a Republican, has donated to both Ryan and Steil, and had even considered running against Randy himself but couldn't get any support from the Republicans.

Ryan really put his foot in it when he decided to air this ad. He got Momma Bryce very upset and everyone knows that there is nothing fiercer than a mother whose baby is being put in harm's way.

Randy's mom, Nancy, penned a letter and sent it to the media:

The mother of Democratic congressional candidate Randy Bryce said she was deeply hurt to see a Republican group launching an attack ad featuring Bryce's brother.

Nancy Bryce called for that ad, which is part of a massive $1.5 million media blitz by the Congressional Leadership Fund, to be taken off the air.

"I’m used to my sons getting into disagreements with each other — every mom is. And I understand that my boys see the world differently when it comes to politics," Nancy Bryce wrote in a letter provided to the Journal Sentinel by the Bryce campaign.

"There is now a group of people from Washington who consider it a good idea to pit my boys against each other for their own political gain. But they didn’t consider a mother’s pain at seeing her children used as tools in a political fight, splashed with millions of dollars of ads across the airwaves."

Mama Bryce also called for the ad to be taken off the airways.

Randy also replied to Ryan's smear job with his own ad, basically admitting that he had made mistakes and that he owned up to them:



This much honesty is unfathomable to Lyin' Ryan or Lyin' Bryan who haven't taken responsibility for anything in their miserable lives.

Seeing how Ryan is willing to put limitless money into this race, it is all the more important that we support Randy anyway we can. Please help, if you can.

The Real Rebecca Shows Up

By Jeff Simpson

Only 50 days from the election and Rebecca Kleefisch has come out of hiding and still has not seen her shadow. 

  Many of us political junkies woke up to Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch on Capital City Sunday and it was the most embarrassing eleven minute interview I have ever witnessed. 
Ms. Kleefisch sounded great if she was a junior telling the loca news team what great events that they had planned for homecoming week. 
Unfortunately, for the State of Wisconsin, she is one breath away from being our Governor.
That scares me.
Quick Question: When was the last time you heard anything about Rebecca Kleefisch?   
My answer:  When she held a closed door meeting with a bunch of Walker Donors and used the famous line:

“We want to know how we can love you more,” Kleefisch told the group of about 30 executives, managers, accountants and others during the 1-hour, 40-minute session.  1/3/2014 

We know from the John Doe WalkerDocs that Scott Walker had nothing but disdain for Rebecca Kleefisch when she was running in her original primary.

On March 2, 2010, Rindfleisch wrote to Keith Gilkes, who was running Walker's gubernatorial campaign: "I'm REALLY beginning to dislike [Kleefisch]."
On March 16, Rindfleisch's "dislike" had turned to disgust. She wrote to a fellow campaigner for Davis: "She makes me sick."
Gilkes himself was no fan of Kleefisch. On June 30, he wrote to Rindfleisch: "We are not touching anything to do with Kleefisch -- she is radioactive and not worth the time. Brett should work on Mayor [David] Ross and turn it into a two person race to kick her ass."
On March 15, Kathleen Kiernan, who was associated with the Davis campaign, wrote: "YUK.... I cannot see how anyone can take this woman seriously."
Another woman working on Davis' campaign wrote: "tell you what, she could be a one-woman circus that's for sure!"

OUCH.    There is a reason why Scott Walker gives her no responsibility and keeps her in hiding until election season.  He can not stand her.   Now he is wishing she was still in hiding. 

Despite the pure hatred and derision coming from the Walker crew towards her, she still is throwing the little shreds of dignity she has left, to the wind to help Scott Walker.

Yes, she does have to do what Scott Walker says, if she wants to get re-elected and continue on her taxpayer excursion of no responsibility. 

However when she is allowed out, it does not bode well for her or him in election season. 

Rebeccaforreal, really stepped in it after that, because she decided to falsely attack her opposition on the ballot - Mandela Barnes.

   GLENDALE - GOP Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch on Monday accused her opponent of kneeling during the national anthem at a public event last month but said she did not see it herself and was unable to name any witnesses who did.
Kleefisch claimed the kneeling incident happened at the opening of the Wisconsin State Fair at a ceremony Kleefisch and Barnes attended. In an interview, Barnes denied it happened and said "the whole damn program would have stopped" if he had taken a knee at the event.
"I was around so many people. I was right next to the cameras," Barnes said. "This is too stupid to respond to."

Yes it is too stupid to respond to, but Barnes did anyway, and he could not have responded any better. 

"This is like me saying my neighbors saw her buying a tiki torch at Menards," Barnes said in a text message. 

That should have been the end of it, but Rebecca has not learned the age old advice of when you are in a hole, STOP DIGGING!

Instead Kleefisch put the cherry on top of the crow she keeps eating.

But here’s the thing: the National Anthem is not like tiki torches. It’s a big deal that matters. (Just like abortions are not like tonsillectomies.)

— Rebecca Kleefisch (@RebeccaforReal) September 17, 2018

Yes the National Anthem is the antithesis of the tiki torch.  You sure got that one right!

Now Rebecca, my neighbors told me you were buying tiki torches...is that true? 

A couple final things.  

*  If Rebecca was truly surprised at the question that Emilee Fannon asked her about Mandela, that means that she is not allowed anywhere near the strategy sessions of the "Friends of Scott Walker".  

*  Will there be a debate between the two Lieutenant Governors this time?  Rebecca Kleefisch has ducked the prior three and it is time she met Mandela Barnes in a debate for the whole state to watch.   

Send them both a Tweet.  @Rebeccaforreal @theothermandela #RKdebatethistime  

I Do Not Trust Scott Walker To Keep Me Alive

By Jeff Simpson

U don’t need Obamacare 2 protect ppl w/ preexisting conditions. It’s just the only thing about O-care everyone likes. Scott will make sure preexsistings r covered, but u can do that w/out horrors of socialized medicine: long waits, cancelled surgeries, gov’t picking who gets care https://t.co/UUJ91aoGCR

— Rebecca Kleefisch (@RebeccaforReal) September 14, 2018

As someone who has been battling cancer for the last 8+ years, the fact that Becky has used (and continues to use) socialized health care to fight her cancer and keep her alive, while trying to take my protections away brings me incredible frustration. 

I continue trying to decide if she is evil, ignorant, selfish or just incredibly ambitious.

I have already documented how My Senator Ron Johnson is trying to kill me, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan is trying to kill me, and now Scott Walker is sticking a knife in my back while asking if I am OK.

As Dave Weigel puts it:

Absolute strangest story in politics right now is GOP govs suing to kill the popular parts of Obamacare while insisting they will pass state legislation to restore the popular parts of Obamacare. https://t.co/o3yTx2BjfB

— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) September 15, 2018

Scott Walker wants to kill all of Obamacare, because the guy who passed it was the wrong color,  then wants to pass the same bill under his name and take all of the credit. 

Which I get is politics but it is also deadly. 

Kleefisch is featured in a new television ad in which she says as long as she and Walker are in office, people with pre-existing conditions will be guaranteed health insurance.

 “Today in Wisconsin, people with pre-existing conditions are already covered,” Kleefisch said, without noting that they are covered only because of the national law Walker opposes. “And as long as Scott and I are in office, they always will be.”

That protection is extended under former President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, which Walker has been working for years to repeal. He signed off on Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel joining a multistate lawsuit this year that seeks to undo the law and the pre-existing conditions protection.

Scott Walker says we need to repeal Obamacare and do not worry, I will take care of you. 

 “If something were to change, Scott Walker would call a special session in a heartbeat and get it passed,” Walker’s campaign spokesman, Brian Reisinger, said Friday

The problem with that is Scott Walker does not have that much power.  The Legislature has no interest in helping Scott Walker's career at the expense of their own. 

But Walker this year also called for the Legislature to pass a state law guaranteeing coverage for people with pre-existing conditions. The bill did not pass.

This is not just about me either. there are close to one million people in Wisconsin with Pre-existing conditions that could prevent us from having health insurance if we repeal Obamacare and go back to the "free market" solutions of the Bush administration health care.

Scott Walker promising that if he gets his way and ends Pre-existing condition coverage, is not a promise I am willing to bet my life on. 

Please, when you go to the polls in November, I ask that you also do not bet my life on that promise. 

Thanks! 

Scott Walker Risque Past

By Jeff Simpson

Before we begin, let us start with the phrase that Scott Walker opened his campaign with.

"we’ve done positive things for the people of WI and we have an optimistic vision for the future."

Captain Positive has an optimistic vision for the future but he can not seem to stop obsessing over porn.  Luckily, for Scott Walker, the media continues to obsess over it also and continues pushing the story like there are two sides to it that are open to interpretation.

However, let's look at the actual facts of the case(Via our friend Heather):

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED IN THE "TEACHER PORN" CASE AT THE HEART OF WISCONSIN'S GUBERNATORIAL ATTACK ADS?
I've had a lot of questions about this and thought I would just make shareable what I know. Happy to answer additional questions and welcome insights from others more familiar with the case.
In 2010 a Middleton teacher was found to have received and shared racy emails at school. These are called "porn" in the ads and in the press and were totally inappropriate (as was his showing them to a female colleague), but I reviewed the files a few years ago when Tony was running for reelection and none of what I saw was what you would call hardcore porn (or what people are probably thinking of when they hear a teacher was watching porn at school). It was a lot of forwarded emails - very inappropriate, sexually explicit and sexist "jokes" and graphics (not funny, dude). The teacher was removed by the board and his union fought the decision; an arbitrator was brought in and sided with the teacher. The district objected to the decision and the case went all the way to the State Supreme Court, which in 2014 refused to take up the district's case, and he kept his job.
MEANWHILE, the district had asked DPI for guidance and was upset that legally there wasn't much DPI/Tony Evers could do. In the year that followed, Tony Evers was instrumental in changing state law so that DPI COULD revoke the license of a teacher in instances involving pornography. By 2011, the law was changed.
BUT in 2014 when the case made headlines again b/c of the Supreme Court case, Walker called on Evers to revoke the license, which of course DPI could not legally do b/c the case occurred before the law had been changed.
So this case has been used by Evers' political opponents in every race against him since 2010, and Politifact keeps calling foul on everyone who tries to use it against him.
In short: the Superintendent of Public Instruction did his job as allowed and required by law, and was succesful in changing that law to allow him to do his job better, and the Governor is grasping for straws and playing to people's emotions and disparaging views of educators with a grossly misleading ad campaign, because when you run against a squeaky-clean opponent, you try to find people near him who look muddy.

 We know now, that captain positive, is smearing Tony Evers for something that Tony had nothing to do with, and no power whatsoever to change.  Who knew that dishonesty was so positive?

As you know from reading CogDis, there is more, there is always more, and when it involves Scott Walker it is never good. 

First, we need to go back to Scott Walker's past where we check in on his right hand man and good friend Tim Russell:

Tim Russell, was behind the secret router, stole lots of money from a veterans group, and was busted with his partner in a van trying to lure a 17 year old boy in.  Russell never lost his access to Walker until he went to prison.  In return, Walker never once tweeted about Russell's illegal escapades. 

Next of course, is former @wisgop Assembly leader Wild Bill Kramer.  If you remember, Kramer was the serial sexual assaulter who every one knew was drunken trouble but no one said anything about it.   No one wanted to bring bad news to a Republican take-over of WI and it subjected countless women to not being safe at Republican drunk fests.  Senator Ron Johnson knew and did absolutely nothing to protect these women and even one of his staffers.  I have added up the number of tweets that Scott Walker sent, outraged over this predator and have come up with none.

Scott Walkers sudden bit of caring for Wisconsin children starts and ends in Middleton.  Walker is in charge of the mess at the Lincoln Hill Boys School, and he has authorized thousands of dollars in payments to guards who abused Wisconsin kids.  Scott Walker's response:

Gov. Scott Walker said Tuesday he sees "no value" in visiting the Wisconsin prisons that he runs and that cost taxpayers more than $1 billion a year. 

Then there is the 2014 State of the State address, where Scott Walker brought a Wisconsin worker out to showcase someone who had turned a seasonal job into a full time welding job.

 Christopher Barber was one of several people mentioned by Walker in his remarks as examples of "people hired since I took office" and who represent "the faces of an improving economy."

Christopher Barber is also:

The Journal Sentinel reports: "Records show that he is a registered sex offender with two felonies and three drunken-driving offenses. Because of his checkered past, Barber has been in and out of jail and prison for much of the past decade, with his probation having been revoked at least twice."

Who can ever forget his love of this serial sexual assaulter either:

Now back to the Middleton case.   Scott Walker is so upset about the case, and wants to protect the children in our state so badly,  that he sent this flyer and blanketed television with a TV ad that included this:

Yes there is Mr. Positive blanketing everywhere with "Blow Job". 

So Classy.

But wait there is more.  Walker also came up with this commercial where he focuses on middle school girls breasts.


Scott Walker is not fit to be trusted with our state again. 

Vote Evers/Mandela! 

Scott Walker Blew His Dog Whistle On The Wrong Person

Scott Walker is feeling rattled and it's really starting to show. Polls are showing that Walker has consistently been trailing his Democratic opponent, Tony Evers.

So what does Walker do? He takes a page from Trump's playbook and tries to attack Evers on Twitter using Evers' running mate, Mandela Barnes:

Tony Evers’ running mate says “Take a knee.” Does Evers share that belief or does he believe that everyone should STAND UP for the national anthem out of respect for our Veterans and service members? pic.twitter.com/0zT9X4tO7H

— Scott Walker (@ScottWalker) September 6, 2018

If Barnes' name rings a bell, it's because he got booted from Walker's presidential bid announcement because he refused to be the token black person on stage with Walker. And this is while he had a Russian operative there. Russian spies are OK, uppity black men are not.

But Walker thinks so little of black folks that he won't even utter Barnes' name, much less address him directly.

Then he goes a step further and attacks all the NFL players that think the way African Americans, especially the young men, are being treated in this country is wrong:

Tony Evers’ running mate says “Take a knee.” Does Evers share that belief or does he believe that everyone should STAND UP for the national anthem out of respect for our Veterans and service members? pic.twitter.com/0zT9X4tO7H

— Scott Walker (@ScottWalker) September 6, 2018

What the hell is up with that bitmoji? Is that supposed to be Walker? If it is, the caricature has way too much hair.

But Walker blew his dog whistle on the wrong guy. Barnes isn't the kind of guy to keep quiet and he fired a strong retort to Walker:

Feel free to @ me next time. Also, your president should learn the words. Also, shows you just don't get it. Also, you could have served in THREE wars, why didn't you stand up then? https://t.co/yTunbMWzmc

— Mandela Barnes (@TheOtherMandela) September 6, 2018

Barnes follow up with sending a second tweet with this picture:

In an apparent effort to make Walker look like the smart one, Lieutenant Governor Rebecca "Blinky" Kleefish had to chime in with a tweet that not only makes no sense but is a complete lie:

My opponent has made clear that he believes in kneeling for the National Anthem. In fact, WI neighbors have told me that they have seen him do exactly that. https://t.co/knyWcObyz3

— Rebecca Kleefisch (@RebeccaforReal) September 6, 2018

Besides blowing his dog whistle at the wrong guy, he really picked the wrong topic to try to attack with. Putting aside Walker never having served himself, his track record for veterans is as deplorable as he is.

Under Walker's watch, the King Veterans Home in central Wisconsin has suffered from severe staffing shortages, systemic neglect of the veterans living there - sometimes leading to death, and much needed funds being diverted to fill budget gaps elsewhere:

Democratic state lawmakers are calling for a federal investigation into a state-run veteran's retirement home in Waupaca County after a media report was published alleging negligence towards veterans and surplus funding being diverted from the facility.

"It is absolutely tragic and heartbreaking to learn that due to the failed leadership of Gov. (Scott) Walker and legislative Republicans, our veterans' homes are providing substandard care to the men and women who have dedicated their lives to serving our country," Democratic leaders Jennifer Shilling (D-La Crosse) and Peter Barca (D-Kenosha) said in a joint statement.

The report from the Capital Times, a Madison-based weekly newspaper, stated the facility is experiencing staffing shortages, allegations of negligence from family members of veterans, and cost-cutting.

Even before then, Walker was using a supposed fund supposedly for veterans and their families as a cheap campaign gimmick. To make matters worse, Walker authorized one of his top aides to steal from this fund to buy things like personal vacations and a campaign website for Walker.

My advice to the gentle reader is to stock up on some popcorn but even worse and dumber things are coming from Walker's campaign. There will be more. There's always more.

White Power Wigderson

By Jeff Simpson

Charlie Sykes, when he was playing the part of far right Republican and helping get his friends, Scott Walker and David Clarke elected, started a website(Using JSonline resources) called - Right Wisconsin. 

Capper appropriately re-named them White Wisconsin.

Then when Charlie Sykes decided to change his stripes and play the part of thoughtful moderate, he gifted the website to James Wigderson.

Wiggy has run it with the same amount of racism, but has eliminated the search option and comments.  He is being paid to tell you what to think, not have a discussion.  Jimmy has never had much interest in a debate (or in minorities voting but that's another blog).  At least he knows his weaknesses.

Wigderson recently, tried to spin a tale of getting his son off to his senior year of high school. Which apparently is quite a feat.

First off, he takes his obligatory right wing shot at public education and then spins a yarn of overcoming all odds to come out of his school educated. 

Yes, it was possible for me to get a good education there, in part because I sought it out against the odds. I spent my lunch hour my senior year hanging out in the Social Studies study lounge and my other free time in the math department office. I rewrote my school schedule to eliminate gym class starting my sophomore year so I could take extra academic classes and managed to find a guidance counselor to sign the new schedule.
Somebody had to look out for my education.

Or more likely, the staff had to find a way to keep tabs on the weird white loner, who no one liked for the safety of all. 

Next he takes another shot at his old high school - Milwaukee Vincent.  Which has a DPI report card failing rate that looks like one of Zeus Rodriguez's charter schools. 

The school has only gotten worse since my days there. The school “fails to meet expectations” according to the state of Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction and it’s not even close. Yet nothing will be done about Vincent and 999 kids will be trapped in a failing school this year. Some students will succeed but the odds are horribly against them. But at least it’s a union school, right?

Now that Wiggy has set it up, it is time for the full blown racist punchline.

So imagine my surprise when, thanks to the Facebook page for an upcoming high school reunion, I learned the school is getting a new $5.7 million stadium. The stadium will have artificial grass and a new track for WIAA events. The report I saw didn’t mention metal detectors, but it would be a good idea.
The new stadium is part of an $11 million improvement in athletic facilities for Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS), presumably so the little convicts can have the best facilities before being sent to the penitentiary.

Overlooking the fact that the new stadium for his old high school has been reported on extensively in the news, the kicker is this line. 

The new stadium is part of an $11 million improvement in athletic facilities for Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS), presumably so the little convicts can have the best facilities before being sent to the penitentiary.

Yes all athletes in the Milwaukee Public Schools are convicts...well at least all black athletes anyway.   

Wiggy when posting this garbage, linked to this story about a black basketball player at Milwaukee Washington who committed armed robbery but was still allowed to play in the tournament. 

I would explain to Wiggy that Basketball at Milwaukee Washington and Football/Track at Milwaukee Vincent are completely different.  I would also explain that one case, with one athlete of thousands, is hardly representative of all student athletes regardless of color.    However, I do not think he would get it, or even come close to getting it. 

It is important to meet people where they are at so I would approach Wiggy with the understanding, that just because you commit one illegal act that does not define you for the rest of your life. 

Even when it shows a serious pattern of racism. 

The Ideas Lab Is Uninhabited

By Jeff Simpson

For quite some time, the only employed opinion writer of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel was right wing hack and Bradley Foundation gopher, Christian Schneider. 

Recently, JSonline finally showed Schneider the door.  A few years ago, Schneider used his platform, to "break the news" that Congressman Mark Pocans husband, beat up his opponent in the upcoming election.  Of course it was all made up, and the paper just deleted the story (instead of issuing a retraction), like nothing ever happened.

Yes, excellent writer, who was a once a week, free lance opinion writer, credited Schneider with recommending her in her last column.   Schneider also worked to get rid of everyone else who had ever written for JSonline in their opinion pages(including myself).   His fragile ego is only surpassed by The Donalds.

That being said, here is a perfect example of the right wing scam that the Journal has pulled on its readers(2013):|

The Journal Sentinel hired Christian Schneider from the right-wing Bradley Foundation as a columnist and let him keep both jobs until public pressure forced Schneider to leave Bradley. Today, the Walker Administration leaked details of their Medicaid decision through Schneider, who was then cited as a source by the news division of the paper to break the story. Now Schneider's op-ed defending the decision has been placed on the front page of the paper without an opposing editorial.   

A brief history of where the Journal Sentinel came from and while the stain of Schneider is still fresh and does not come out with the first washing, now David Haynes wants to switch the editorial page to an "ideas lab".  In Haynes own words:

In the Ideas Lab, we’ll kick the tires on ideas meant to solve problems. We’ll report on and evaluate these ideas based on independent evidence. We'll search for the best practices out there. 

Giving them the benefit of the doubt, we see that they started their "ideas lab" out with reporting by David Haynes himself, with a cheerleading post for some of the bigger businesses in Milwaukee area.

 That's why Tuesday's announcement that Foxconn is partnering with three of Milwaukee's most prominent corporate citizens to create a venture capital fund has the potential to be a watershed moment for southeastern Wisconsin.
It's a given that Foxconn Technology Group’s massive factory in southern Wisconsin could have a profound impact on the state’s economy. It’s a $10 billion investment, after all, a mammoth plant that could employ as many as 13,000 people.
 Now, Foxconn, Advocate Aurora Health, Johnson Controls Inc. and Northwestern Mutual have raised a $100 million venture capital fund to focus on investments in companies that employ Foxconn’s technology. The Wisconn Valley Fund will be based in the company’s North American headquarters at 611 W. Wisconsin Ave. The announcement came a day after Foxconn announced it had pledged a $100 million matching gift to the University of Wisconsin-Madison to establish a new research center in the College of Engineering.

Let us take a look at:   

 • Expert, solutions-focused essays on issues the community cares about, by people who have shown success in addressing the problem at hand.

* The four companies Foxconn, Aurora, Johnson Controls and Northwestern Mutual are loaded with executives who have donated thousands to Scott Walker and the Republicans.    Their investment at this time in the election process is not uncoincidental. 
     
*  Of the four, Johnson, Northwestern and Foxconn are all known for laying off thousands of employees, and while Aurora has not, they recently took part in a major merger where they will need the support of the Governor. 

- Maybe not the best group to have "shown success" in the problem at hand.   

*  Foxconn.   To say Foxconn "could" create 13,000 jobs is technically true.  It is also technically true that the Milwaukee Bucks could trade for Lebron and dominate the next five years of the NBA.   No one expects it to happen but it most definitely could. 

Foxconn has been handed $4+ trillion dollars of Wisconsin taxpayer money to build their new factory here in Racine.   This money has helped displace Wisconsin citizens from their dream homes, moved around highway funds to help expand roads to access Foxconn, steal 7 million gallons of water from Lake Michigan a day, and also offers up 100 million dollars of our money to the UW-System as long as they can match it and educate students as Foxconn wants them too?

 - Maybe touting the company that has broken many promises, made $149 billion in profits last year and is known for their suicide nets at their factories in China, is not the place to start out looking for successes at hand. 

Now in keeping with the theme at hand, let's look at actual solutions to the problems at hand.   - New Business and Jobs. 
1.  Health Insurance.  The number one reason people go broke in America is for unexpected medical bills.   It takes a supreme amount of confidence and luck, to start a business and have no health insurance for you and your family.

IDEA - Lets expand Medicaid for all, so you are not deciding between eating and going to the Doctor.  We need to make sure that the biggest worry that someone who starts a small business has, is how do I increase my market share, and not I hope this unknown pain goes away. 

2.  Public Education.  The heart and soul of every town, village, city, municipality is the public schools.  School events bring the people together, their favorite teacher is their kids hero, etc...  To have the attack on public education that the Governor and his group have enacted over the last 8 years has done every one, but Scott Walker, a huge disservice and we are starting to pay the piper.   There is a reason Walker is spending millions advertising to millenials trying to get people to move to WI.

Idea - We need to start funding education like we need to and stop the war on teachers.   Understand that a strong public education system is the one thing that attracts people to WI to want to grow their roots. 

3.  Technology.   There is no need, with the ability we have to communicate, that small business start ups, can come from anywhere as long as they have access to high speed internet and the ability to get to the post office.  It is unfortunate Scott Walker gave back 23 million dollars earmarked to increase broadband access to rural Wisconsin. 

IDEA - make high speed internet access available and affordable for every single Wisconsinite!

Vukmir Wants To Replace Obamacare - All Of It

Mike Pence came to Milwaukee to stump and attend a fundraiser for Wisconsin State Senator Leah Vukmir, the Republican challenger to U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin. Per Pence, one of the big reasons that the Orange Reich is supporting her is because they want to go back to their multiple attempts and failures to repeal Obamacare.

Wisconsin Democrats jumped on this, pointing out that Vukmir wants to do away with not just Obamacare but all of it, including protections for preexisting conditions.

Vukmir, who claims to be a nurse, denied this and issued a press release pointing to a a news story from CBS News and specifically citing this paragraph:

:no mistake about it: patients with pre-existing conditions should be covered," Vukmir, who supports a full repeal of the ACA, said. "People shouldn't buy in to Tammy Baldwin's lie that taking care of those who need pre-existing coverage and providing all Wisconsinites with more affordable options are mutually exclusive."

Well, alrighty then! We'll just ignore the paragraphs before and after pointing out that the Republicans are only starting to pretend to like healthcare coverage for everyone because they keep getting burned on it.

Instead, let's focus on what Vukmir's proposal is, which is going back to what her good buddy, Scott Walker, has in place before Obamacare, or as we behind the Cheddar Curtain call it, Walkercare. Walkercare is basically a high-risk pool coverage model for people with preexisting conditions.

So how well did that work out? I'm glad you asked!

From the Wisconsin State Journal:

... Critics note Wisconsin’s high-risk pool system was too expensive for many to afford, left more than half a million state residents uninsured, included a six-month waiting period for coverage of pre-existing conditions and imposed a lifetime coverage cap of $2 million.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel went into greater detail what Walkercare was:

HIRSP [Walkercare] covered about 20,000 people at rates that were generally 20% to 30% higher than the overall market.

It was subsidized by a fee on health insurance sold in the state. The fee accounted for roughly 30% of its $160.1 million in revenue in 2012. The balance came from premiums.

Hospitals, doctors and other health care providers also accepted rates that were below those paid by health insurers but a bit above what Medicare pays.

“It had buy-in from everyone,” Catlin said. “And everyone was OK with it.”

HIRSP had a six-month waiting period for people who did not have insurance but no waiting period for people who had exhausted their COBRA benefits from an employer.

It's really no surprise that Vukmir would go along full-heartedly with a plan that would not quite eliminate coverage for preexisting conditions but in reality did make it too expensive for people to afford. It's based on the design concocted by that the ultimate dark money think tank, ALEC.

And whatever ALEC wants, Vukmir will work on getting, since she is on their Board of Directors.

Apparently, the oath of fealty she gave to ALEC is more important to her than the Florence Nightingale Pledge she took as a nurse. I guess to deal with that cognitive dissonance, she chose to be like Nurse Ratched.

Cross posted from Crooks and Liars.

WILL Wilfully Misleads On ACT 10

By Jeff Simpson

Hallelujah!  The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL) just completed a study about the incredible wonders of ACT10. 

 WILL’s latest study, Silent Successes, shows how, over seven years, the tone of the media coverage has been overwhelmingly negative. In fact, only two percent of stories about Act 10 have been positive.

For the worst bill in my lifetime, I think 2%(not sure how they came up with that number) is a bit high. 

 This "study" (term used loosely), tells us that:

 A review found that districts all over Wisconsin are using Act 10 reforms in important ways.  

This was their criteria:

  Due to collective bargaining agreements, schools could not pay their teachers or reduce their staff based on what their school needed, but were subject to ‘last hired, first fired.’ For teachers, compensation wasn’t determined by classroom performance.Since Act 10, schools have been given the tools, often found the private sector, to innovate. There are offering more competitive benefits, have instituted merit pay, and can retain teachers who are better suited for the school as well as curriculum and student needs.

While loyalty and retaining long term employees is pretty much in anyone's top 3 of best ways to run a successful business, the folks at WILL are stuck in the 1930s way to run a business. 

But wait there is more, there is always more!

Apparently they mistakenly think "merit pay" has merit: 

Merit pay at the discretion of the school board allows districts to pay a teacher more for exceptional work. Elmwood School District, Mondovi School District, Monona Grove School District, Southern Door County School District, Swallow Elementary, and Oconomowoc School District all included a clause in their teacher contracts that says their respective “Board” reserves the right to pay above the pay schedule for “meritorious” service. In the performance evaluation model, teachers who score higher in evaluations, whose students perform better on tests or get better grades, and teachers who put more time and effort into their school and duties earn more, like at Cedarburg or Brillion School District. Either way, teachers who do more earn more.

Yes they included the Monona Grove School District as one that has used the ACT10 "tools" to implement merit pay. 

As a member of the Monona Grove School Board going on my 7th year, it is flat out false.

We do not now, nor will we ever, institute a merit pay system while I am on the Monona Grove School Board.  We are actually all united against merit pay, because it fails in the private sector and is a flat out joke in the public sector. 

 Notice they threw out at the end:

teachers who do more earn more.

That has always been the case, with the step and ladder system and the new system, in pretty much any workforce in America.   

You get your masters, you move up.  You are head of a department, you make more money, you coach, you get compensated more. 

It really is a simple concept but one apparently WILL's Lauren Tunney was unable to grasp. 

So pay attention from now on, dear readers and know that any "report" coming from WILL, even if they label it "silent success" is really just total bullshit.   

At least now we know what The Donald means when he says #fakenews 

Edit note:  No where can I find the actual existence of Lauren Tunney on their website.  Maybe they made her up to take the brunt of the made up study if they got caught!