Ever since Tuesday's elections where Susan Crawford handed Brad Schimel's a severe butt-whooping, the Wisconsin Republicans have been besides themselves trying to understand what happened. Let me tell you, each and every one of them have been stuck on stupid during this futile exercise.
One group, the data wonks, are poring over the numbers and determined that not all the people who voted for The Felonious Kumquat voted for Schimel. Well, no shit, Sherlock!
Hilariously, they accredit this to Ben Wikler and the Democrats having a better GOTV game. That would be a nifty trick since Wikler spent a large part of the election looking for his own escape route from the state via the DNC.
There is another faction that is blaming GOP Chair Brian Schimming and wanting him to resign or be ousted, even though he was just reelected not too long ago. Personally, I think the GOP showed that they are not serious people by electing him in the first place, especially in light of the fake elector scheme he was involved in.
The most hilarious of them all is the faction that thinks Republicans aren't "MAGA enought." They only want politicians that are more like The Felonious Kumquat or President Elmo. Leadership doesn't matter to them as much as the WWE-type showmanship.
To get to the truth isn't so hard. Schimel had promised to be a rubber stam for the Kumquat and was groveling for his endorsement. President Elmo took a break from stealing taxpayers' money and their identies and sending the whole government into disarray with illegal firings, call backs and literally killing people through him immaturity and the immaturity of others like him.
Instead of paying attention to current events, like pissed off Republicans cramming into townhalls to confront their representatives (or at least the ones with enought integrity to have a townhall meeting), they dismissed it with extravagant conspiracy theories.
In other words, people are so pissed at President Elmo and the Orange Shitgibbon that being tied to them like Schimel was is caustic and toxic to the candidate. Even in Florida, Republicans won by greatly narrowed margins.
And it wasn't just Schimel that made that mistake. Two years ago, the same damn thing happened when the GOP ran the MAGA moron Dan Kelly. He tied himself to the Kumquat and The Big Lie and lost by an even larger margin to Justice Janet Protasiewicz.
I just hope that they keep eating their own into next year's elections. And they way President Elmo and Felonia are going, it seems likely they will.
I pointed out yesterday, that career politician Scott Walker, for the first time in his life, has criticized a fellow Republican and actually asked him to step down. Of course Brooks ignored Walker's plea because after 8 years Walker has completely lost any effectiveness he even had in his own party.
Vining is a founding board member of Exploit No More, which works to end child sex trafficking. According to Vining, the Greater Milwaukee region has become known nationally as a hub for sex trafficking, and it’s a problem that occurs in every county in Wisconsin. She is also the founding member of Help Portrait Milwaukee and The Milwaukee Portrait Project, initiatives that serve some of the city’s most vulnerable residents. Help-portrait is a global movement of photographers using their time, gear and expertise to give back to those in need. Vining and her family moved to the 14th District a decade ago. She has bachelor’s degrees in psychology and fine/studio arts from James Madison University and a master’s degree in religion from Trinity International University. Vining is a former pastor turned entrepreneur who has spent the past nine years building a successful photography business. She recently launched Folio MKE, a collaborative workspace/community for women entrepreneurs. She was awarded the United Way’s Philanthropic 5 award in 2013 and was named American Mothers’ Wisconsin Mother of the Year in 2017 in recognition of her commitment to the community. Her children are 12 and 14. Vining lives in Wauwatosa with her husband of 17 years (a professor), their children and rescue boxer.
Mom of the Year, Pastor, Masters Degree, photographer, business woman who found a need and stepped up and started a much needed organization to help address sex trafficking in Milwaukee.
Seems like one of the easiest choices on the ballot, especially when compared to her opponent.
Republican Matt Adamcyzk,
Matt is currently the State treasurer where he ran on a promise to end the position, When he was rejected soundly by the voters of WI, he moved on to try and win an Assembly seat. He found out that while he is anti Government, he really means he is anti Government for everyone but himself.
Adamczyk likes being on the public dole, with taxpayer funded health insurance, a set salary, no one to answer to for being an anti social ass and bully and lots of perks.
Unfortunately for Adamczyk, he has a record. The State Treasurer is one of three people on the Board of Commissioners of Public Land, which operates a trust that provides funding for school libraries and makes loans to municipalities and school districts.
Matt, being a Bully, probably had very bad experiences in his school libraries when he was actually forced to read a book, so he came in from the far right and wanted to prove his "conservative" credentials.
Instead, he fit right in with the new Trumpian era and came up with such ideas as:
Wisconsin's new state treasurer is making waves on an obscure state board — trying to get it to cancel its subscription to The New York Times, change its letterhead so the top administrator (Tia Nelson)doesn't appear on it anymore and make sure any references to global warming are dropped from its website.
Nice way to start, coming in with his best Augustus Gloop impersonation.
Now here is Matt Adamcyzk interview with WI eye Its not even
This is where the political surprise of the century comes in. As the OOmpa Loompas say "Matt Adamcyzk is so big and vile, so greedy, foul and infantile", that the ultimate Republican Hack Brad Schimel has criticized him. Schimel overlooked the crimes/sins of Ken Kratz and Scott Jensen but was pushed to the brink by Augustus Adamcyzk,
"Matt, I gotta tell you, I’m counting the days till you’re not on this board. I’ve had enough. Doug is absolutely right. The string of demands you've made on the people who work hard on this agency has been unreasonable and abusive and I’ve said this before on the record and I'm going to say it again on the record: Your personality and approach to these people is abusive and unreasonable so we’re done with this. You made your unsubstantiated allegations for the whole world by claiming these guys are unqualified ... they have performed very well in the functions they are doing," Schimel said. Schimel went on to say that he's anxious for Adamczyk to be done with the board and said he's scared they would otherwise have to hire new staff because current employees would quit over how they're being treated.
For once we can work across the aisle and make sure that Matt "Agustus Gloop" Adamcyzk is done sucking taxpayer funds to bully people and done very soon.
Let's Help Robyn win the 14th for all of WI:
Go to her website and give her a couple bucks or more importantly a couple hours of your time.
Especially call anyone you know(family, friends) in her district and tell them to make sure for all of our sake to show up on November 6th and Vote for Robyn!
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
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.
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
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.
Wisconsin Attorney General was on the air with a right wing squawker, bragging about the damaging effects of the state's draconian Voter ID law:
Election officials and Democrats in Wisconsin have repeatedly argued that the state’s strict voter ID law allowed Donald Trump to win the state in 2016 by keeping thousands of voters—predominantly in Democratic-leaning areas—from the polls. Now a top Republican official in the state is saying the same thing.
“We battled to get voter ID on the ballot for the November ’16 election,” Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel, who defended the law in court, told conservative radio host Vicki McKenna on April 12. “How many of your listeners really honestly are sure that Sen. [Ron] Johnson was going to win reelection or President Trump was going to win Wisconsin if we didn’t have voter ID to keep Wisconsin’s elections clean and honest and have integrity?”
Of course, when sued, Schimel couldn't identify one case of voter fraud where voter ID would have stopped it.. Not one.
But it has been proven time and time again that the law did keep tens of thousands of Wisconsinites from the polls:
I don't know that this is the best thing for Schimel to brag about, especially when he's up for reelection this fall. Then again, he's been too busy being the top attorney for the Republicans and buying scads of swag to actually do his job, much less do it well. Otherwise, the state wouldn't be facing a backlog of thousands of untested rape kits.
Fortunately, he does have a very qualified opponent this year - Josh Kaul. Kaul is the son of the late former Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager and the lead attorneywho's been taking it to Schimel regarding the Voter ID laws:
Kaul's lawsuit challenged a broad swath of voting rules. In July 2016, a federal judge kept in place the requirement to show ID at the polls, but struck down a number of other laws, including restrictions on when and where early voting could occur.
Judge James Peterson found Wisconsin's voting laws discriminated against minorities and labeled the voter ID law "a cure worse than the disease" that tried to address "mostly phantom voter fraud." His ruling forced the state to make changes to the system it uses to issue IDs to those who have the most difficulty obtaining them, such as people who don't have birth certificates or Social Security numbers.
It's as they say, when people vote, Republicans lose. Schimel just verified that.
By Jeff Simpson The holiday weeks get a bit too crazy and I end up getting backed up. Time to catch up on some stories under the radar.
1. Christian Schneider, the hack Bradley "columnist" at USA today, has weighed in on the Judge Roy Moore for Senate campaign. It did not disappoint as he weighed in exactly where I expected him too. Vote for the pedophile to save the Republican tax cuts. Moore's evident predilections for young girls have put Republicans around the nation in an untenable position. If Moore were to lose the seat to Democratic challenger Doug Jones, the GOP majority would slip to 51, making it tougher to keep promises like tax reform. But if Moore were to win, the Republican Party would be saddled with a likely pedophile within its ranks — typically a sub-optimal message for a party facing crucial midterm elections next year. 2. As Donald Trump campaigned on this issue:
If I am elected President I will immediately approve the Keystone XL pipeline. No impact on environment & lots of jobs for U.S. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 18, 2015
Actually all of the GOP members of the Presidential contender clown car supported approving the Keystone XL pipeline. Including this guy: Scott Walker
“We need a president who will approve the Keystone pipeline on the very first day in office and then seek to level the playing field for all sources of energy,” he said during his campaign launch speech in July.
AMHERST, S.D. (AP) — TransCanada Corp.'s Keystone pipeline leaked an estimated 210,000 gallons of oil in northeastern South Dakota, the company and state regulators reported Thursday.
The Green Bay Packers handed out small American Flags during the Packers-Lions Monday Night Game, as part of the NFL's Salute to Service Military Campaign. "During the National Anthem, everybody was waving (their flags) and singing," Marine veteran Tegan Griffith told WTMJ. "It made me feel very good." However, by halftime, Griffith says she and her fellow veterans noticed many of the flags were discarded. "We started noticing people leaving (flags) on the ground, next to food wrappers and beer cups," Griffith explained. "We found a couple on the bathroom floor. The veterans I was with started to get a little upset." After the game, the flags were seen everywhere.
MADISON - Gov. Scott Walker's administration helped give a contract worth at least $35,000 to a firm affiliated with Walker's campaign treasurer, state records show.
Not a single person in Wisconsin is surprised. 5. Ever wonder what Brad Schimel does on his weekends? Hint: It sure isn't processing the incredible backlogs of rape kits in WI!
Madison – Last weekend, according to an agenda obtained by MapLight, Brad Schimel appears to have attended an opulent retreat and fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago that the Republican Attorney’s General Association (RAGA) did its best to hide. The weekend’s activities included: a dinner with $125,000-per-year donors to the RAGA, golf tournaments, catamaran tours and numerous fundraisers. Most alarmingly, on the agenda, was a panel dubiously titled “Rule of Law Restoration Update: 370 Days since the election of President Trump.” Secrecy for the event was a top priority, as it was not made public and the agenda notes that “cell phone use and picture taking is prohibited in all areas.”
Again the people of Wisconsin are not surprised. 6. In more unsurprising news, we get a glimpse of the incompetence of Wisconsin Republicans that led Wisconsin to be this much of a mess. First term Assembly Rep. Shannon Zimmerman (R- River Falls) put out a press release telling everyone how proud he was to vote for Scott Walkers backwards budget.
“I am proud to have voted for the recently approved Wisconsin state budget, a budget that provides the largest increase in K-12 funding in state history and directs funds to training that will close our skills gap, all while keeping property taxes in check and our financial house in order, including a substantial increase to Wisconsin’s rainy day fund,” said Zimmerman.
The problem however is Mr. Zimmerman did not vote for (or against) the budget as he was shirking his duties as a taxpayer paid full time legislator and was actually in Amsterdam.
The 45-year-old businessman was stuck at the airport in Amsterdam, where he had gone on a business trip for Sajan Inc., his language translation business. Many flights had been grounded in Holland's capital that day because of poor weather conditions. On the roll call for final passage of the budget in the Assembly, Zimmerman was recorded as the only state rep to be absent for the vote. The bill passed on a 57-39 vote.
Zimmerman, with his ability to think he votes on bills when he was thousands of miles away, he is going to take his crackerjack job as a first time assembly rep and run for State Senate. When called on it he channeled his inner Charlie Brown:
"I'm not trying to be deceptive at all, good grief," he concluded.
I guess when it comes to taking tough important votes Rep. Zimmerman is
This story has been circulating for a few days but I ignored it because I did not think it could actually be true in the year 2015. Unfortunately it is.
Wisconsin state officials on Tuesday banned employees of a state agency from discussing climate change, conducting any work on the topic, or even responding to an email about the warming climate, Bloomberg News reports.
The ban applies to state employees who work for an agency that oversees a Wisconsin public land trust. The effort was spearheaded by State Treasurer Matt Adamczyk, a Republican, and enacted by a vote of Wisconsin’s Board of Commissioners of Public Lands.
H/T Democurmudgeon for reminding us that this all started with our Republican politicians signing a pledge to the Koch Brothers to put their profits over the Wisconsin environment and budget.
Signers of the pledge, now numbering 411, promise to "oppose any legislation relating to climate change that includes a net increase in government revenue” ... They include all Republicans, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, U.S. Reps. Jim Sensenbrenner, Sean Duffy and Reid Ribble, state Sens. Leah Vukmir, Alberta Darling, Rep. Glenn Grothman and Mary Lazich, and state Reps. Dale Kooyenga, Don Pridemore, Jim Ott and Bill Kramer. Governor Scott Walker,Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch … for ideological reasons and because of the state's wealth of frac sand.
Here Secretary of State Doug LaFollette explains it very well:
The two people who voted for this are new Attorney General and Scott Jensen puppet bitter Republican partisan Brad Schimel:
The Wisconsin Radio Network reported that when Huebsch was questioned on his climate change opinions in his confirmation hearing over the week, he said:
“I believe that humans can have an impact to climate change, but I don’t think it’s anywhere near the level of impact of just the natural progression of our planet. You know, the elimination of essentially every automobile would be offset by one volcano exploding. You have to recognize the multiple factors that go into climate change.”
Ninety-seven percent of climate scientists agree that climate-warming trends over the past century are very likely due to human activities,1and most of the leading scientific organizations worldwide have issued public statements endorsing this position.
U.S. Global Change Research Program"The global warming of the past 50 years is due primarily to human-induced increases in heat-trapping gases. Human 'fingerprints' also have been identified in many other aspects of the climate system, including changes in ocean heat content, precipitation, atmospheric moisture, and Arctic sea ice." (2009, 13 U.S. government departments and agencies)12
Honesty (Students will be trustworthy and truthful, no matter what the consequence.)
The Elmbrook School District hasa special policy on Academic Honesty:
Policy 5131.2 - Academic Honesty The District regards academic honesty as vital to the academic, social and emotional development of all students. Honest and ethical behavior is an essential component in the learning process. Academic honesty requires that all academic work is the legitimate, truthful effort and product of the student. In contrast, academic dishonesty is an attempt by students to claim and show possession of effort, knowledge and/or skills that are not their own. Academic dishonesty in any form shall not be permitted.
Which brings us to the issue of the day, public education, and the recent November elections.
We will see an expansion of "school choice" and the head of the "school choice" movement in Wisconsin is formerly convicted felon,Scott Jensen. Jensen was basically given a "get out of jail free' card from his good friend and fellow Republican, Attorney General elect Brad Schimel.
After Jensen left in disgrace, he went right to be head lobbyist for American Federation for Children(AFC). AFC is funded by the Walton and DeVos family and their main goal is to privatize our public education.
AFC's visions is defined as(emphasis mine):
The American Federation for Children envisions an education system where parents are empowered to choose the best educational environment for their child, where innovation and entrepreneurism revolutionizes our education system, ensuring all children, especially low-income children, are provided with the opportunity to receive the finest education possible, whether it be in a traditional public school, public charter school, virtual learning, private school, home school or blended learning.
Doesn't there seem to be a disconnect that the organization that just wants parents to be "empowered to choose the best educational environment for their child" hired as its point person someone who has a proven history of not being able to be trusted to help serve the public?
School choice proponents, many from out of state, funneled $64,000 directly into candidates’ coffers in 2014, through AFC and another group. (The AFC-affiliated funder, Wisconsin Federation for Children Political Fund, filed its last report Nov. 26, a month late, risking a penalty of up to $500. Its Washington, D.C.-based administrator did not respond to an emailed question about the late filing.)In addition, AFC made independent expenditures of $866,000 to boost or oppose candidates. This adds to the nearly $10 million in state electoral spending by school choice proponents between 2003 and 2012, as tallied by the nonpartisan Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. AFC’s spending in the Nov. 4 elections included $148,000 to help narrowly defeat Democrat Rep. Mandy Wright, a former teacher and school choice critic. It spent $123,000 to help Republican Todd Novak score a razor-thin win over Democrat Dick Cates. And it poured $240,000 into GOP choice proponent Howard Marklein’s successful bid for an open Senate seat.**
** To put things in perspective, while they are spending tens of millions of dollars on elections, our annual budget(approximately 3200 kids, 250 staff, six buildings is $32 Million). Also average teacher pay in WI is approaximately $47,000/yr, while Scott Jensen makes a over $200,000/yr.
Yet, in its electioneering, AFC commonly doesn’t even mention school choice. It attacked Wright for allegedly using sick leave to attend a protest, which she insists is not true. It went after Cates for his vote on the local school board concerning the Pledge of Allegiance. And it ripped Democratic Rep. Gordon Hintz for threatening a female colleague and being cited in a massage parlor sting operation, both in 2011.
Now let's sum it all up, we have a disgraced former elected rep, who is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in small time races, to attack certain candidates disgracefully and dishonestly, late in the game, about every issue BUT school choice, and then AFC wins by razor thin margins. Then Mr. Jensen declares:
Jensen is proud of these victories, which he says give it “a school choice majority in both houses.” He attributes this success to public support for school choice.
How Jensen sleeps at night is something he will have to answer, but why we continually reward this behavior in our political system is something that we have to take a long look at.
Mr. Jensens behaviors, if he were a student in our district, would result in probably suspension and possible explusion(depending on the behavior plan we would work out between the principal, his teachers and parents).
Is the person who would not be able to be hired into our schools, the person we want entrusted with millions of public education dollars?
Do you feel safe knowing that YOUR children's future is in Scott Jensen's hands?
There has been a distrubing trend lately in Wisconsin and national politics. We have been holding every other position in society to a higher standard than politicians.
In yet another case of truth being stranger than fiction, the person that the Republicans chose to replace Mr. Kramer was Jim Steineke(R-Kaukana) to be the new Majority leader. While Mr. Steineke does not have sexual assault on his resume, it is about the only crime missing. Steineke has a past filled with criminal trespass, obstructing police and too many driving citations to list. To be fair, this former real estate agent and proponent of limited government, has not had multiple citations for breaking the law since 2010. However this resume has allowed him to be promoted to a position of leadership in the Republican party, and by his own words, "he mentors new representatives and their staff".
I guess if it works for Frank Abagnale, it can work for Jim Steineke.
Now contrast these stories to a Kindergarten teacher from Germantown. At a county fair this summer, completely off the clock, destroyed a couple Scott Walker campaign signs. This teacher was rightly charged with disorderly conduct and given a $169.00 ticket(which she has paid).
This teacher, for the act of destroying a few cardboard signs, has been the subject ofnumerous stories a political witchhunt(For those scoring at home, number of stories said website did on this sign destroying incident - 7, number of stories about all incidences involving Vos, Kramer, Steineke listed above - 0)on Michael Grebe funded "investigative" websites since the incident happened. By the way, the teacher involved is STILL SUSPENDED.
Do we really think that Sexual asault or pay to play shakedowns by politicians are less important to the general populace than someone destroying political signs?
What stuns me most about contemporary politics is not even that the system has been so badly corrupted by money. It is that so few people get the connection between their lives and what the bozos do in Washington and our state capitols. "I'm just not interested in politics." "They're all crooks." "Nothing I can do about it, I'm just one person. I can't buy influence."
Politics is not a picture on a wall or a television sitcom you can decide you don't much care for. Is the person who prescribes your eyeglasses qualified to do so? How deep will you be buried when you die? What textbooks are your children learning from at school? What will happen if you become seriously ill? Is the meat you're eating tainted? Will you be able to afford to go to college or to send your kids? Would you like a vacation? Expect to retire before you die? Can you find a job? Drive a car? Afford insurance? Is your credit card company or your banker or your broker ripping you off? It's all politics, Bubba.
You don't get to opt out for lack of interest.
Maybe if we could see who these people truly are during non-election season, we would be in a hurry to make bacon out of the politicians and not be swayed by the millions of dollars of ads that the outside groups spend putting lipstick on their pigs!
Nothing would scare the politicians and lobbyists in Madison more, than all of us paying attention.
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