The Walker Legacy

By Jeff Simpson

Yesterday, as Scott Walker keeps trying to burn the state down on his way out of town, he decided it would be a good day to hand 28 million of our taxpayer dollars to Kimberly Clark.  Walker, the self proclaimed "fiscal conservative" was very proud of himself after.

I want this to be my legacy," Walker said. 

Kimberly Clark currently has plans to lay off up to 5500 workers, while also enjoying an operating profit last year of $3.3 Billion dollars.     Unfortunately for Scott Walker, he has made a habit of sending millions of our dollars to companies that have profits in the billions, so this final(hopefully) giveaway, will not be his legacy.

However after eight long years, what Scott Walker's legacy will be is open to date.  Let's take a look at some options.

1.  The first option, is the infamous video where Scott Walker tells his boss the strategy he has to screw over the working class of WI. 

2.  The next option would be, when, shortly after his inauguration, he called his cabinet together and told them to get ready, because he planned on "dropping a BWOMB on the people of WI."   Which led to this:

and this:

3.  The next option would be the Senators heading to Illinois, the recall and probably the real highlight of Walker's career - the fake phone call with "Charles Koch" which turned into the most honest 10 minutes of his life. 

4.  Which led to the beginning of the Solidarity singers.  When you are a complete partisan tribal hack the way Scott Walker is, you get disgusted anytime a group of people you disagree with gather in public.  Which led to Scott Walker and the WISGOP completely dismissing the first amendment, and arresting anyone who looked liberal and stepped foot in the Capitol (at great cost to the taxpayers).  Here is American hero Will Williams getting manhandled for daring to be in the people's house. 

5.  There was also the time when Scott Walker asked the people of Wisconsin. to skip out on buying their kids Christmas presents, and send the money to him instead(that really happened).   

Friend,
Instead of venturing into the cold this Black Friday, stay in and give your children a gift that will keep on giving.
This year, we are celebrating the Holiday Season with a Black Friday special that is better than any deal found in stores. Donate $5, $10 or $25 to help Governor Walker get reelected and save your children from a future of double-digit tax increases and billion dollar budget deficits.
Instead of electronics or toys that will undoubtedly be outdated, broken, or lost by the next Holiday Season, help give your children the gift of a Wisconsin that we can all be proud of. Governor Walker is helping Wisconsin move forward to a future where your children and grandchildren can experience:
Economic Prosperity
Improved Schools
Freedom From Government Dependence
The Governor wants his sons to grow up in a Wisconsin as great as the one he grew up in. When asked why he never stopped fighting for Wisconsin during the Recall, Governor Walker says he has two reasons, his sons Matt and Alex.
With your help, Governor Walker is enacting reforms that are securing a strong state for the future of Wisconsin’s children. This Black Friday, donate $5, $10 or $25 to help Governor Walker win reelection so he can continue to help Wisconsin move forward.
A strong Wisconsin is the best gift you can give.
Respectfully,
Taylor Palmisano
Friends of Scott Walker

6.  Then there was his incredible ego, and a conversation with God, that led Scott Walker to think(after promising he had no interest and would not do it) he could be the next President of the United States.   However the real story here, besides God's sense of humor, is that he burned through over ten million dollars, while making  drunken fool of himself for three months and ended up with 0.0% support! 

7.  Or the fact that when he finally dropped out of the race to be the Republican Presidential Nominee, he said he did so, to make sure that The Donald would never be President.

8.  Let's not forget also, that the one big policy point that made Scott Walker stand out when he was running for President.   He wanted to build a northern war between the US and Canada. 

                                “So that is a legitimate issue for us to look at.”  

9.  We also can not forget that Scott Walker, is the only Governor to have a "Criminal Defense Fund".

10.   While those are all important parts of the Scott Walker legacy, if I had to sum up his eight years into one picture, this is what I would choose!

What do you think the Scott Walker legacy is?

Robbin Robin

By Jeff Simpson

By now we all know the ridiculous temper tantrum power grab that the Republicans, led by Robin Vos and Scott Fitzgerald just pulled off to diminish the power of the election winners this last week.

I am not going to rehash that here, if you need to know more about it, or anything about it, there is not a person who covered this, better in the country than James Rowan at the Political Environment.  Go here and read up/catch up on it! 

Here is the account that was up on Madison.com. 

Republican lawmakers, after an all-night push made mostly behind closed doors, passed legislation Wednesday morning diminishing the powers of incoming Gov. Tony Evers and Attorney General Josh Kaul and curtailing the timeline for early voting.
A Senate amendment to the bill was made public shortly before 5 a.m. Wednesday, and senators passed it at about 6 a.m.
The vote was 17-16, with Sen. Rob Cowles, R-Green Bay, the lone GOP "no" vote and all Democrats opposed.

Thank you to Senator Cowles for his courage.   (608) 266-0484 / Sen.Cowles@legis.wisconsin.gov

 What I want to focus on here is the current face of the Republican Party - Robin Vos. 

I have been documenting his unethical exploits for ages.   From my time at Blogging Blue - Here, here, here, here etc... and of course here at CogDis.  Others have had plenty to say also like here and here. 

There is plenty of places to go to see the egregious things that Robin Vos has done, here, we will take a look at who Robin Vos is. 

Robin Vos is a 50 year old, UW-Whitewater graduate, who has roomed with Reince Priebus and Scott Suder. Vos is now the owner of 21 rental properties in Whitewater, WI under the unoriginal name of Whitewater College Rentals.  As one would expect, his history as a landlord is not a very good one, and he is not Better Business Bureau accredited.  I know housing is a major problem in America, but if you can avoid renting from Robin I would highly recommend it!

Vos also owns a popcorn business called RoJos Popcorn (if you were Robin Vos you would not use your name on your company either).   You can leave a yelp review here.   Like Vos has treated ethics in Wisconsin, he has let his website slide to non existent, so I can not guide you to that.    I hope you all make sure never to buy a single kernel of "Rojo's Popcorn". 

Rojo's Popcorn 140 Long meadow DrBurlington, WI  53105 (262)763-9434 

Vos, also has problems in his personal life.  For all of you ladies out there, the thrice married Vos has described his turn ons as:

 His "turn-ons: Long hair, Skinny dipping, Flirting, Public displays of affection, Dancing, Power, Money, Brainiacs, Boldness/Assertiveness.

As the unmarried(but has a friend) Julainne Appling points out:

Julaine Appling, president of Wisconsin Family Council says, “Governor Walker’s proclamation rightly identifies the benefits of marriage and the costs of marital breakdown, not only for the men, women and children directly involved, but also for the entire state.” The proclamation reads in part, “Marriage breakdown takes a toll on the emotional, physical and financial well-being of the entire family, and increases the public cost for human service programs.”  

As Robin Vos has said in the past:

  Robin Vos, R-Burlington, who announced last week that he is a single guy and that, "Saying I am against birth control is to say I am against water." His profile says he does want two children, though.(edit note: he finally got his two kids, just took him three marriages to do it)

 The Ladies Man from Burlington, has a history of control issues also.  First he actually was with former married Rep. Michelle Litjens(while he was also married) and as Speaker of the Assembly, was technically Litjens boss.   Our friends at One Wisconsin Now also unearthed that Vos has kept Representative Samantha Kirkman on his payroll for the last 5 + years.  It is best to have the members beholding to you in as many ways as possible.

But WAIT there is more.  The best man(term used loosely) at Robin's third wedding was former House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger, a Republican from Ohio.  Cliffy is not a former Speaker of the House in Ohio because he had too much fun at the Vos/Litjen soiree.   Rosenberger is no longer House Speaker because he is dirty!  The FBI was looking into his travel and spending habits since he liked to take international trips paid for by lobbyists. 

Before you ask, Rosenberger traveled with more than just lobbyists, Robin Vos was his travel partner.   No need to worry though, what the Lobbyists did not pay for, the Wisconsin taxpayers did. 
We can assume that Vos makes for a good travel partner because he has no scruples, can be bought as easily as Rosenberger and likes to tell stories of his sexual exploits with Litjens(sorry if you were eating).

Then there is the latest power grab, while Vos is being criticized from Historians, pundits, politicians and citizens all over the country, Vos is desperately trying to stop the attacks.   Vos started with this:

The first act of every elected official is to take the oath of office and swear to uphold the law. So it’s troubling that after being elected governor of Wisconsin, Tony Evers’ first promise was to undermine a state law that requires welfare recipients to work.

Luckily, while the media is missing in many parts of our political atmosphere, people are stepping up and taking their place.  Here a Professor from Georgetown weighs in. 

Robin Vos, one of the architects of the WI Power grab has an op-ed in @USAtoday justifying his actions. If you know the history of WI politics, its an incredibly disingenuous piece of propaganda. So here is some context...1/https://t.co/gwFGcUcTEt

— Don Moynihan (@donmoyn) December 8, 2018

So Robin Vos was shown to be disingenious(who knew), so he tried again(with the same results). 

 The hyperbole has been excessive during the last week.

If anyone would know hyperbole it would be Robin Vos.    Like the time he said 1 in 4 public schools are failing, and was given a pants on fire rating.  The time when Robin Vos, attacking one of the leading research institutions of the world, UW-Madison, by saying their professors are preying on the taxpayers by wasting time studying "the ancient mating habits of whatever" .   or the time he called three WISGOP Senators "terrorists" because they negotiated a deal with Scott Walker on he budget and did not include him.    While far from the last, one of my personal favorites, was when he compared recall elections to cancer.  Apparently, depending on how the election goes, depends on if should listen to the voters or not. 

The guy who has, at great cost to taxpayers, gerrymandered our state to ensure he runs it from the Assembly, is never scared to bring full blown ignorancy or hyperbole to any debate, and now that he is caught and exposed for the power grab he is doing he is speaking up against what he has built his career on. 

Robin Vos should be ashamed. 

Let him know how you feel:

(888) 534-0063

rep.vos@legis.wisconsin.gov@repvos@speakervos 

Walker Exits As He Came In - With Lies, Chaos And Corruption

When Scott Walker became governor of Wisconsin, one of the first things he and his fellow Republicans did was work into the wee hours of the night to pass laws that would end up devastating the state's economy, environment and the rights of most people. These include things like Act 10, the attack on public workers such as teachers, even though Walker not once mentioned this during his campaign.

Eight years later, when the voters of Wisconsin finally had enough of Walker and his lies and corruption, they ousted him from office. Sadly, Walker has chosen to leave office the same way he came in - with lies, chaos and corruption.

After the elections, Republicans called for an extraordinary session of the legislature to pass a last minute corporate welfare bill for Kimberly Clark, a paper manufacturer.

Last week, the Republican legislature worked into the wee hours of the night to pass an unprecedented power grab. They stripped the incoming Democratic governor-elect, Tony Evers, and the incoming Democratic attorney general-elect, Josh Kaul, of much of their powers. They even found time to give the wealthiest of the state yet another tax break, put work requirements on healthcare and to greatly curtail early voting.

The one thing they never even discussed was the bailout for Kimberly Clark, which was supposed to be the whole purpose of the session.

Now that these power grab bills are with Walker, he is trying to simultaneously rationalize and minimize these bills with a lengthy Facebook post:

Let’s set the record straight – the new governor will still have some of the strongest powers of any governor in the nation if these bills become law. He will have the power to veto legislation and he will have some of the broadest line-item veto authority of any governor in the nation.

The new governor will be able to appoint members of his cabinet and of various other state government posts - as well as judges, district attorneys, sheriffs and other officials.

The new governor will be able to sign off on administrative rules. He will be able to present a biennial state budget. He will be able to pardon convicted felons.

None of these things will change regardless of what I do with the bills passed in the state Legislature last week.

:He goes on to outline the supposed criteria he is using to evaluate the bills. In truth, he only uses only two criteria:

• Will it help forward my future political aspirations?
• Will it please my corporate special interest masters?

Walker has given every indication that he's going to sign these bills, despite the fact that he had vetoed some of them before and had advocated against others:

Walker's openness to providing more say to the Legislature over state agencies comes after rejecting similar measures in his last state budget that would require state agencies to report to the Legislature.

In vetoing the measures, Walker said the language would put an unfunded mandate into state law and would "encroach" on his office's "responsibility to manage state agency programs within the statutes and funding levels set by the Legislature."

Walker also advocated against reshaping state government in the final weeks of an outgoing governor's term in 2010 when he asked then-Gov. Jim Doyle not to act on a number of measures, including making permanent appointments, and asked the Legislature not to approve public employee union contracts.

Now, Walker has appointed Department of Administration Secretary Ellen Nowak to the Public Service Commission and Attorney General Brad Schimel as a Waukesha County judge.

It should also be noted that they had already tried to limit early voting on the major urban areas like Madison and Milwaukee, both Democratic strongholds, but these laws were struck down in court.

So, why would Walker sign these now when he was against them before. Let's look at his personal criteria. Walker's political career is dead for all practical purposes, so that's not it.

But it will appease his masters, like the Koch Boyz and the Bradley Foundation. He's probably hoping to gain their favor so that they give him a do nothing job where he can collect a paycheck for doing an occasional dog and pony routine when they want him to.

Walker's legacy will be able to summarized in one short phrase - Once a weasel, always a weasel.

Republicans Change the Rules

By Jeff Simpson

Courtesy of our friend Heather at the Wisconsin Public Education Network! 

Dear friends of Wisconsin public schools,

"Who is asking for this?" "This is not democracy."

We were there last night to bear witness on behalf of our children as the Joint Finance Committee (JFC) adjourned just after midnight, after hours of testimony during which only one person spoke in favor of any measure, Ironically, that one measure (changing the date of the spring 2020 election) was the only bill that did not advance last night. Not even the authors of the bills attended to speak in favor of this unprecedented power grab.

The Senate and Assembly will now take up the three bills that moved forward. THESE BILLS WILL HAVE LONG-TERM IMPACTS ON OUR STUDENTS AND SCHOOLS, and are widely opposed by members of both parties. Even the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial team is taking a strong stand: Once again, it's time for Wisconsin citizens to let politicians know who's the boss. "If you think votes matter, if you think citizens should be in charge of their government, you can stop them by raising your voice."

Capitol staffers tell us the Senate will be called into session at 10 am, and the Assembly at 1pm. IF YOU HAVE NOT ALREADY DONE SO, PLEASE CONTACT YOUR LAWMAKERS NOW. Find contact info for your legislators here: http://legis.wisconsin.gov

"The optics problem looks bad." - Senator Luther Olsen

The bills are most vulnerable in the Senate, where several members have expressed qualms over the sweeping measures. We also urge you to take a moment to make a call to the following Senators and ask them to put people before party politics:

Senator Howard L. Marklein, Spring Green - (608) 266-0703 - Sen.Marklein@legis.wi.gov

Senator Rob Cowles, Green Bay - (608) 266-0484 - Sen.Cowles@legis.wisconsin.gov

Senator Dan Feyen, Fond du Lac - (608) 266-5300 - Sen.Feyen@legis.wi.gov

Senator Luther Olsen, Ripon - (608) 266-0751 - Sen.Olsen@legis.wisconsin.gov

Senator Jerry Petrowski, Marathon - (608) 266-2502 - Sen.Petrowski@legis.wisconsin.gov

Senator Patrick Testin, Stevens Point - (608) 266-3123 - Sen.Testin@legis.wi.gov

Our message remains the same (and you're welcome to customize it as you see fit):

Stop playing politics, and stop playing games with democracy. Voters said in November that they are ready for a new era of civility and working together for what's best for our children and our communities. Let's respect that and get to work. Vote NO on each of these bills and take time now to start working on policy that ensures the success of our students, schools and communities.

These are the bills that moved forward:

AB1069 Relating to: state and local highway projects; expenditure of transportation moneys received from the federal government; determining a reduction in individual income tax rates; and election of pass-through entities to be taxed at the entity level.

https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/.../session/2017/REG/AB1069

AB1070 Relating to: legislative powers and duties, state agency and authority composition and operations, and administrative rule-making process.

https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/.../session/2017/REG/AB1070

AB1072 Relating to: federal government waivers and other requests for federal approval; public assistance programs; waivers from work search and registration requirements for certain unemployment insurance benefit claimants; granting rule-making authority; and making an appropriation.

https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/.../session/2017/REG/AB1072

Thank you for taking action to support strong schools and good government!

- Heather

Also for some fun reading, the world is watching Wisconsin again.

On CNN, they compared the WISGOP to Walter White.

Scott Fitzgerald doesn't trust Tony Evers.  Who knew gaining BIG Ftz's Trust was the final step to getting elected?   I guess we now have the new "voice of reason" in Wisconsin.  This guy:

The New York Times is covering the attack on democracy.

We might just be getting started.   

Even one of Scott Walker's bosses, is sick of him.