The Sara Rodriguez Campaign Is A Breath Of Fresh Air

Shortly after Governor Tony Evers announced that he was not running for reelection, Lt. Governor Sara Rodriguez became the first Democrat out of the gates.  And she is off to quite an impressive start.

She started with this introductory video:

 In just two and a half minutes, she gives you her entire bio without losing your interest.  She is also impressive with her focus and directness but keeping it homey and relatable at the same time. (Hi Sara's mom!)

And her last line about "earning" our votes was just the chef's kiss.

While Rodriguez was impressive in her introductory video, her first campaign event was something special.  

Most candidates have big, flashy campaign kickoffs, with other politicians to show their support, lots of speechifying, and of course, their palms out.  But Rodriguez did none of those things.  Her first campaign event was to go to Milwuakee and hold a listening session with veterans.  A listening session!

Many candidates kick off their campaigns with big launch parties where they do most of the talking.

Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez decided to listen instead.

Rodriguez, the first Wisconsin Democrat to announce a campaign for governor in the 2026 race, had a discussion with about a dozen veterans in Milwaukee on Aug. 14. It was her first public campaign event in the Milwaukee area since she announced in late July that she was running for the state's highest office.

In all the time I've been watching politics, I have not seen one candidate do this.  How absolutely refreshing it is to have a politician actually listen to the people.  Republicans don't even pretend to listen to people, dodging town halls and only doing very strictly controled events at companies that support them.  And too many Democrats only pretend to listen until they tell you to shut up and vote the way they tell you.  

The more I think about it, the more refreshing her campaign is.

And just because she was a nurse, a mother, says Hi to her mother, don't think for one second she is a pushover.  Shortly after she started her campaign, some sleazebuckets went after her husband, questioning his immigration status.  She not only fired point blank at them, she reloaded and fired again!

Click to embiggen

I'm not ready to make an endorsement quite yet because it's still early.  But I will say that I would have no problem supporting Rodriguez.  She's obviously very intelligent and she's repeatedly proven herself.  She not afraid to speak plainly and directly without pulling punches (and she is correct about the maniac in the White House). But most impressive to me is that she listens. It's so unusual, it's hard to believe. It's almost too good to be true.

I sincerely hope she continues on the path she is on because so far, she is doing everythng picture perfect.

To learn more about Sara Rodriguez, including how to help her, please visit her website.

Zelensky Speaks Fluent English, Too Bad Donald Trump Doesn't

 or maybe they could negotiate in Ukrainian? Well, I guess not.

Who's Really To Blame For Milwaukee County Transit Deficit

The Milwaukee Country Transit System is a hot mess right now.  It is nearly $11 million in the hole right now.  MCTS officials blame their deficit on unexpected overtime, lower ridership, people getting on board without paying their fare and private contractors not meeting their obligations.

To make matters worse, transit officials have known about this for months, but have only just now come clean on it. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the finger pointing game is already ridiculous:

 "It's like they're way too reactionary. They're way too slow moving, and the fact it takes weeks to notify us that you're starting to see a problem, that is an issue," Supervisor Steve Taylor, the finance committee's vice-chair, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel after reviewing the timeline.

The report also shows on June 23, following the agency's release of its May financial report, the County Executive's Office shared concerns with MCTS that it had not communicated the "severity of the budget situation" with supervisors prior to notifying the public, and "acting independently regarding major implications of service changes."

Days later, county Comptroller Liz Sumner said she was "stunned to learn through the media" of MCTS' projected deficit for 2025, given the reports she had been receiving projected a "balanced budget" for the end of the year. Sumner called for an audit of the agency as well as an analysis of the agency's finances to be carried out by her own office.

On July 1, Donna Brown-Martin, executive director of the county transportation department since 2018, resigned. A week later, Interim President and CEO Julie Esch resigned from MCTS

OK, so the two top MCTS officials resigned. That's just a start though.  

I need more answere from Summer on how she didn't know and only learned it through the media.  Where was she for the past six months?  Maybe we should do an audit on her office as well as MCTS.

The fact of the matter is that this has been a long time coming.  There once was a time when this sort of thing would never have gotten this big or gone on for so long before the Milwaukee County Board would have caught it and taken action.  

Their ability to do that ended about ten years ago, when then Milwaukee County Executive and Plutocrat Chris Abele colluded with Republican state legislators to pass Act 14, which gutted the county board and made them less than half-time employees. Act 14 also decimated the system of checks and balances that exists in functional governments.   

While most of the damage was done, the voters approved of this by large numbers, thanks to a strong advertising blitz by Abele, the Republicans, and people like Bruce Murphy, editor of Urban Milwaukee.

It should be noted that current leaders like the current county executive, David Crowley, hasn't lifted a finger to fix the problem, or even pretend to care.

Remember this when we go to vote next year.  All levels of government needs a good cleaning and purging of thos that serve the wealthy and not the people.

Once Upon A Time

 We had a President that knew how to handle Russia: 

Now, we have a president who can't even find Russia on a map, much less handle it:

This is not what winning looks like. 

Putin Owns Donald Trump

I haven't had the energy to wade into all of the commentary coming out in the media about the Alaskan clam bake...but from the headlines and brief bits I am seeing, Putin totally owns Trump.

Some Often Overlooked Side Effects Of Calling Out The National Guard

I don't know if I've written about this before or not, but it is worth bringing up again. Besides the obvious insanity of using the National Guard to handle police activities or cater to the blatant infantile proclivities of the sitting president, there are other negative factors in calling up the guard.

The National Guard is an organization of dedicated and brave citizen soldiers. They are an important force in the overall defensive strategy of our nation and a reliable resource in the face of disasters. But they should never never be the face of political theater. 

And why is that? Because they are citizen soldiers and spend most of their days as civilians. So calling them up takes them out of their homes and away from their families and loved ones...and puts them in harm's way. Not only does that put stress and worry into their own day to day, but it also stresses out their families...which is a crime in itself when the guard is called out unnecessarily. 

And? Because they primarily lead civilian lives, they have civilian jobs. And calling them up takes money out of their pockets and puts stress on the businesses that employ them...losing qualified and loyal employees for unknown lengths of time. In a defense call up or disaster recovery role, businesses understand and appreciate the sacrifices that their employees make and understand and accept the sacrifices that they too must make. But to lose their employees to frivolity? 

Senseless use of the National Guard not only harms the areas where they are deployed but can do far reaching damage to other localities that lose their family members, employees, and community stability from political insanity.

Trump Response To Crime In The Streets of DC Is More Than Six Years Overdue:

I mean, he should have called out the National Guard on January 6, 2021 when actual criminals overran the Capitol and threatened the lives of real Americans, yes? Oh wait, wasn't there a question about the president's authority to call out the Guard in January 2021? But he can do it now, right?

Trump Is Hosting P:utin At An American Military Base? I Mean What The Actual Flock?

White House lands on Trump-Putin summit location as officials race to prepare for historic Alaska meeting 

 Organizers of the summit soon came to believe the only city in the massive state with viable options for the summit would be Anchorage. And only Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, on the northern edge of the city, would meet the security requirements for the historic meeting, though the White House had hoped to avoid the optics of hosting the Russian leader and his entourage on a US military installation. So yes, Trump is hosting an enemy combatant on a US military base. WTAF?

Just A Reminder from 1776 Or So:

 

Tom Tiffany Is Right As He Exposes A Self Fulfilling Prophecy

Rep. Tom Tiffany targets visa program exception that UW uses to hire for hard-to-fill jobs

Wisconsin Republican US Representative Tom Tiffany is right...the UW system is having issues filling high level faculty positions because of a shortage of qualified American candidates. And he is blaming the educational systems in the state of Wisconsin and the nation for doing a poor job in educating our youth. 

Probably all true...but guess who the culprits are. Not Wisconsin's public school system and not the University of Wisconsin system. It is Tom Tiffany who, when a state legislator, joining the anti-education GOP cabal in Madison, intentionally underfunded education in Wisconsin at all levels. If education here is falling behind, it is Tom Tiffany's fault. 

details from the link:

[The Republican congressman representing northwestern Wisconsin introduced a bill in Congress to end an exception in the H-1B visa program that allows universities to hire an unlimited number of specialized workers from other countries.

Local immigration attorneys said universities generally hire H-1B workers as a last resort for specialized jobs they are unable to fill with U.S. workers.

To Tiffany, though, universities feeling forced to look overseas for qualified applicants is a red flag for higher education as a whole.

"If we have to go to other countries to get the best and brightest, that is a real indictment of our educational system, both here in Wisconsin and in America," he told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.]

Step up Tom and send us some dollars...before you run for governor.

 

 

Trump Wants You To Pay For India's Russian Oil

Well not exactly but here's how it goes. Because India continues to buy cheap Russian Oil, Donald Trump doubled tariffs on India to 50%. And once again he's lying to you and me saying India is paying these tariffs. But as always, YOU and I will be paying for them in the end prices we pay for items imported from India.

So yes, India may suffer some hardships if the U.S reduces imports of Indian produced goods. But it's the American public who will actually be the ones paying the price. 

If Trump actually wants to punish India for buying Russian oil, he would be better advised to use other financial incentives and sanctions instead. Things that aren't going to raid our wallets. 

 

If Only We Had A Universal Single Payer Health Care Plan, We Wouldn't Need To Do This

 "The Trump Administration announced a new initiative on Wednesday designed to allow Americans to share their medical records across a host of apps and programs managed by private tech companies—a move that proponents says will facilitate easier access to those records across the country’s fragmented health care system, but that digital privacy experts fear will risk making patients’ data less secure."

Another boondoggle and another method to allow big tech access to your personal records. And as I said in my headline, a universal single payer plan would mean one data base of medical information available to only providers...in one place...and it wouldn't need to include Google,Amazon, Apple, etc, etc, etc. 

For more details: Trump to Launch Private Health Tracking System With Tech Firms

"The Administration “secured commitments” from more than 60 tech and health care companies—including Amazon, Apple, Google, and OpenAI—“to begin laying the foundation for a next-generation digital health ecosystem that will improve patient outcomes, reduce provider burden, and drive value,” according to a press release from the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)."

"...a move that proponents says will facilitate easier access to those records across the country’s fragmented health care system, but that digital privacy experts fear will risk making patients’ data less secure."

And of course the answer is right there in front of their face and actually coming out of their mouth. We have a fractured health care system...fix that and the issue resolves itself! 

And 60 tech companies? Does that sound easier to you??

 

 

Trump Cabinet Should Pass The Citizenship Test En Masse, Before They Suggest Changing It.

 

US citizenship test to get a Trump-era update

"The Trump administration will soon move forward with changes to the U.S. citizenship test, which the new head of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has called too easy.

Recently appointed USCIS Director Joseph Edlow told The New York Times the current test doesn’t have a high enough difficulty level."

Not difficult enough? I would like to see the whole Trump Administration cabinet take the test at their next meeting, including the president and vice-president, no devices, and properly proctored by someone from the State Dept. I am assuming they can all read and write English at an adult level. Let's see the grades before we decide what's hard enough. Aina?