Thursday, April 25, 2024

Eric Hovde: The Ultimate Carpetbagger

Pornstache Carpetbagger

Everyone knows that Eric Hovde, aka Pornstache Carpetbagger, is really a Californian banker.  He lives in Laguna Beach, California and was awarded Citizen of the Year in Orange County for three years running. 

But apparently, old Pornstache is such a carpetbagger that he might not even be from this country.  Take for example, via Heartland Signal, a few days ago when he tried to pretend to be a Wisconsinite by going to the Slinger Speedway.  After giving a short speech of monolistic jingoism - America is great. Yay. - he wanted to lead the crowd into a rousing rendition of the Pledge of Allegiance.  But as soon as he started, you could see his mind blank out and he started looking like a deer caught in the headlights.  And it only got worse from there.


He even got help and he still could get it right!

But wait! There's more! There's always more!

When his totally ineffective spokesperson, Ben Voelkel, tried to do damage control, all he could do was point and yell, "Squirrel!"

Hovde's campaign spokesman, Ben Voelkel, responded that President Joe Biden is also known to stumble over words and phrases, including while on the campaign trail in Wisconsin.

Voelkel added that the media should instead focus on other things: "Families are struggling to afford groceries, terrorists and hundreds of thousands of criminals pour into the country illegally, mortgage rates are almost 8 percent, and leftist anti-Semitic protests rage across college campuses."

I wonder, is Hovde a Russian name, perchance?  I don't know, but given the stilted way he tried to be All American Guy and not being able to recite the pledge even with help, I'm no longer sure Hovde is actually American.

Everything Old Is New Again

 In breaking news, The Onion has just been sold and will be soon returning to its former glory.  

It's just another example of how things come around to a full circle.

Another example is that I am back home, at long last. 

I started this blog some 15 or so years ago.  Then I got invited to write for Crooks and Liars, an opportunity I eagerly accepted.  I thought I could manage both blogs, but with me retiring, Jeff passing away and other parts of life getting in the way, it turned out to be too much. 

But things change, life moves on and, well, Whallah!, I am back.  Oh, I'll still be writing at C&L as long as they will let me, but I will be able to spend more time here as well.  

Anyway, while I've been gone, there as been some marked improvements in the state, with the most notable being the election of Justice Janet Protasiewicz and justice finally returning to Wisconsin after all these years.

However, there is still a lot more work to do and it's not going to do itself.  Yes, there's more.  There's always more.

So, what do you say, gentle reader?  Shall we roll up our sleeves and get to it?  

Thursday, April 4, 2024

Propagandist Dan O'Donnell Pulls Out A Big Nugget Of Hypocrisy




Dan O'Donnell, squawk shock jock at WISN and propagandist hack for the MacIver Institute, followed orders, dug deep and pulled out a big, old nugget of hypocrisy as he tried to spin Tuesday's election results as a win:
Wisconsin voters spoke loudly and clearly Tuesday, striking a blow for democracy by forever banishing private money from election administration. Such donations, commonly known as “Zuckerbucks,” led to an utterly lawless 2020 presidential election in Green Bay and the illegal coordination between liberal activists and Milwaukee election officials. On Tuesday, however, voters approved a pair of constitutional amendments that will prohibit this sort of interference. The first, which bans private election funding, passed in a 54%-46%, 100,000-vote landslide. The second, which reaffirms that only election officials (not liberal activists hired with private donations) can administer elections, passed with an even greater margin—59%-41% and nearly 200,000 total votes. The most likely reason for the nearly 100,000-vote discrepancy between the two was the confusing wording of the first ballot question, which prompted many voters to believe that voting “no” would have banned private funds. Despite that, the fate of Zuckerbucks in Wisconsin was never really in doubt.
Now, we all know that in reality, the results of those amendments means that elections will continue to be underfunded and understaffed, meaning having to travel further and to stand in longer lines in order to vote. In other words, they are trying to make it more difficult to vote, especially in more liberal communities and in minority communities. The Republicans are hoping that this will keep people from the polls, because, as we all know, when more people vote, Republicans lose. 

 But that's not the hypocritical part. That comes from as a side comment from Dan Bice:
One Republican insider noted that Vos helped push through "two election integrity referendums that address the thing his haters say he refused to address." He got a helping hand from the conservative MacIver Institute and the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, which combined to spend more than $100,000 on the proposals.
You read that correctly. 

The amendments passed because of more than a $100,000 being laundered from outside special interests and used to interfere with an election. And one of those money launderers is Danny Boy's own employer, MacIver. Of course, Danny Boy doesn't mention that tidbit. Telling the truth is not his job. In fact, it's anathema to what he gets paid to do. 

And as added bit of irony, the same people that were touting the passing of the amendments are also the ones whining about a late batch of absentee ballots in Milwaukee that helped pass an education referendum. Wait until they realize that this will become more and more of the norm due to their amendments. 

Just don't hold your breath for the Republicans to fix another mess they made.