Once again, it is time to check in with the Bizarro Blogger on the Right. Jimmy Wigderson, the person the racist extremist Charlie Sykes willed White Wisconsin too, when he decided to leave his extremist hate filled ways behind and pretend that he had no hand in the rise of the white trash racism that has taken over our country.
There is a line, one that far-right politicians know they must not cross. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, once described undocumented Mexican immigrants as drug mules and likened them to dogs. He supported the end of birthright citizenship and has repeatedly lamented the declining white birth rate. He praised the books and amplified the tweets of neo-Nazis. All along the way, King got the endorsement of Iowa voters in his district, who returned him to Congress every two years since 2003. He received occasional criticism from Republicans insistent that King’s ideas were not their own, while some Democrats said his public comments revealed a bigoted streak, an affinity for white nationalists and an eagerness to make America a less equal place.
All of his previous actions withstanding, it took one simple question by King to pull the curtain back:
Why was this one moment in the political life of King too much, too far, too outrageous? King’s comment — “White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?” hetold The New York Times— was lacking in all plausible deniability and nuance, devoid of the high and low pitch tones calibrated for certain ears, experts say. It was an endorsement of white supremacy in the form of a rhetorical question. And it came at a time when King’s Republican Party is struggling with its political prospects.“King is not alone in his ideas, not his ideas on immigration, not his ideas about policy,” said Nell Irvin Painter, professor of history at Princeton University and author of “The History of White People.” “But, he is a fairly unusual character, today, in how obvious he is with his racism. The president operates on the side of euphemism, just this side of euphemism, whereas Steve King has used the actual language of white supremacy, the actual words with an endorsement.”
Now to the irony of the situation, apparently Wiggy had a "meeting" planning the "future" of White Wisconsin. In layman's terms. the Bradley folks told them they cant be paying them to write such BS and get their ass kicked in elections like just happened. Wingnut welfare only goes so far.
The question that came out from these meetings was this:
An easy question should be, what do we do about the racists in our midst?
As we have also pointed out, if you could sell the irony that Wisconsin Republicans put out on a daily basis we could actually afford to pay Foxconn what Walker promised them.
In the meantime, a quick answer to Wiggy's burning question is simple.
Get rid of the racist editor of Right Wisconsin and put it in the hands of someone who is logical, intelligent and open minded(good luck finding someone). Then you can have some credibility when talking about the Steve King's of the world.
Labor day is typically the home stretch for election season and baseball season. Unfortunately in Wisconsin, we have too much election season and not enough baseball.
While I believe the Milwaukee Brewers will end up in the wild card game, lets focus on the election season and what to expect.
The race between Tony Evers and Scott Walker will steal most of the headlines, with just a few left over for the Tammy V Leah race.
The race that will be the most interesting is the Governors race. I truly believe, at this moment, that this race can go either way.
Let us take a look at what to expect.
* Why Scott Walker can win:
Typically the incumbent always has the best chance to win. Walker is a two term incumbent and a career politician.
While not having many, one of his strengths is to perpetually stay on message and never stray. Walker has the ability to speak and speak without ever saying anything and the incredible ability to say things that are patently false without ever breaking a sweat.
Walker has also learned how to play the media. After 8 years as Governor, he knows that they will print anything he wants them to print, no questions or fact checks asked.
Walker also has a humongous advantage in money. When you add the "Friends of Scott Walker", Club for Growth, Republican Governors Association, WISGOP, and countless other PACS, SuperPACS, out of state billionaires, slimy casino owners, etc... all spending money hand over fist to make sure their employee continues running the state.
The right wing echo chamber. While Chuck Sykes isgone from the radio and an imbecile is running his old website, there is still a right wing echo chamber pushing hate, ignorance and racism that too many people listen to. The Mark Bellings, Vicki Mckennas and Dan O'Donnells of the world are still there whipping up the fear to far too many people.
Finally, apathy. Wisconsin has been stuck in perpetual election season, and now that we are in the final stretch, the negative and disgusting ads will be flying non stop. They are meant strictly to turn people off from voting and getting involved. If they did not work, they would not spend millions running them. Voter apathy has helped many a crappy politician continue in their careers.
* Why Scott Walker can lose:
Scott Walker is a career politician and people are sick of career politicians. So sick of career politicians that they have started electing reality TV "stars".
Walker, has been on the state stage for 8 years (and on the national stage for 8 seconds) and people know him. To know Scott Walker is not to love him. You realize that once you see beyond the incredible ambition that there is no there there. An empty husk that stands only for Scott Walker and what is best for Scott Walker, Wisconsin and its citizens are not even in his radar.
Public employees, and unions. Scott Walker has made a career of making enemies of public employees and union members. Eventually the chickens come home to roost.
He gambled hard on divide and conquer. It worked well, but after 8 years the people of Wisconsin have come to realize that their neighbor the teacher or snow plow driver is on their side and the politicians in WI, especially the Governor are not.
Finally jobs. While Scott Walker runs around touting his amazing unemployment stats, people in WIsconsin are not seeing it. Yes people have jobs, sometimes they have 2-3 jobs at a few hours a week desperately trying to make ends meet., The ones who do have good living wage paying jobs, are both working too many hours and are scared that the next communication from their company is the one that says they are closing the doors.
By the way, Scott Walker still has not created the promised 250,000 jobs in WI.
* Why Tony Evers can win.
This is a public education election, and Tony Evers personifies public education in Wisconsin. There is a reason Scott Walker has tried to rebrand himself as "the education Governor", and has run ad after ad about how much he loves public education.
The people in Wisconsin, much to the WISGOP surprise, have been passing education referendums at an almost 80% clip and now they are understanding what the damage of Scott Walker $1.5 billion cut to education has done to their local school.
Scott Walker, basically enacted Tony Evers education budget, because he was worried that Tony would be his opponent and wanted to neutralize the public education part of the race. He failed.
Secondly, Mandela Barnes. Mandela is an up and coming star in Wisconsin politics and the perfect partner on the Tony Evers ticket. I would highly recommend that Tony come up with some actual responsibilities and make Mandela a true partner, and not the figurehead, money sucking position it is now.
Tony also has a huge advantage in character. Unlike his opponent, Tony is a good man of character, ethics and integrity. Tony is not full of ambition, Tony is not using Wisconsin to run for President, advance his career in the party, or use it to fundraise and increase his bank account.
Tony wants what is best for Wisconsin. period. End of sentence.
What is best for Wisconsin right now is electing Tony Evers Governor.
* Why Tony Evers can lose:
M O N E Y. Money makes the world go round, and it also buys hours of negative nasty ads. Scott Walker has unlimited money, Tony will have a decent amount but nowhere near as much. It is not insurmountable but it will be an obstacle.
The Democratic Party. In a state which leans blue, where Progressives were born, which has a history of being involved in politics, the Democratic party has a history of losing elections.
Now they have done it again. They hired the campaign manager for Russ Feingold's latest loss, to come up with a strategy to win WI. Yes they decided to hire the campaign manager for one of the most popular politicians in Wisconsin history, who led his candidate to a loss to one of the dumbest politicians in Wisconsin history to help Tony Evers win.
While there are no words for the perpetual rewarding of incompetence, it is also not surprising. You see lots of people being hired onto the Evers team, whose experience comes from the Hillary or Burke campaigns. Without relitigating those candidates, their campaigns were run horribly. Why anyone would think this is a good idea, is beyond me but it is.
The media is also an obstacle to overcome. They are used to 8 years of taking dictation for Scott Walker. The night Tony won, Walker put out an ad falsely claiming that Evers should have taken a license from a teacher in Middleton that he had no jurisdiction to take.
The media, instead of asking why his first ad was negative against his opponent when Walker has said he was going to run a positive issues oriented campaign only, treated the story like there were two legit sides to this story. There is not.
Voter apathy. Anger gets people to vote and get involved. Hard core Republicans are always angry. They, with the help of right wing radio and politicians, understand that every thing bad that ever happens to them is the fault of the PC liberals.
They get a sliver, a flat tire, lose their job, run out of gas, burn their toast and it is the liberals fault and they need to get out and vote to make sure they never burn their toast again.
The Democrats on the other hand need a reason to vote. They need to be in love with someone who mostly respects their views to get out and vote for them. The ads Scott Walker will run will mostly be made to keep you from falling in love with Tony Evers so you stay home on election day.
Now my advice, on how we win in November.
Decide today that you like Tony Evers, he is not perfect and there will be things that he has done and will say(we will really consider tolls?) but understand that no matter what he does or says, he is better than Scott Walker on his worst day. |
Secondly, ignore the party. They will do and say things that are head scratchers because too many in power care about staying in power, and not winning elections. We care about winning elections, so ignore the stupid things the party does and will do and work to get Tony/Mandela elected the best way you know how. Talk to your friends and family about how important it is to vote and especially how important it is to elect Tony.
Finally, and this is the most important way to change our state, if you are going to work for, or donate to a candidate, pick your local (or a local) race for state Assembly or Senate.
If you have a race in your district for either Assembly or Senate(or both), understand that it IS a competitive race.
Your candidate can win. Period.
There will be many people who think they are experts, who will tell anyone who listens, that only certain seats are winnable. That is not true. We will not win them all but we absolutely can win some of the "unwinnable" seats.
The best way to win statewide, is to win district wide. If we can steal some seats we are not supposed to with local candidates that no one expects, not only will Madison be more representative of the people, but the increased Democratic turnout in these districts are what will push the upper part of the ballot over the edge.
Like an economy, we will win these races from the ground up not the top down.
We will be addressing some of the down ballot races between now and the election here at CogDis.
Stay Tuned but for now, lets be prepared to talk to our neighbors like our kids futures depend on it!
While Bader says it is because he is a never trumper, the reality is he is a small fish in a big pond and always thought of himself as a Muskie.
His perpetual attempts to be a poor mans Charlie Sykes, turned out to be more worthy of pity than audience share.
In an era where businesses are cutting costs and employees, one where Republicans like to tout the free market when hundreds get laid off, was bitten by the same bug that has brought him so much joy these last few years.
His radio show was boring stale and unimaginative. While his old employer still has hate talkers, Rush, Levin and Hannity are still being played on the airwaves, the station does not have to provide them with insurance, benefits or expenses.
The free market in action.
When Charlie Sykes defends you, there is nothing else that needs to be said!
Charlie Sykes @SykesCharlie Bader was a courageous, principled voice, who refused to join other talkers on Trump train despite threats from management. #Respect
Bader has another job. he works for Mediatrackkkers(which is part of the wing nut welfare system of WI). In the history of their ridiculous blog, no one who has written for them has ever had even an inkling of principle.
Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
Justice today, was served!
The Law of Karma is also called the Law of Cause and Effect, Action and Reaction and: as you sow, so shall you reap.– Sham Hinduja
We pointed out recently, that the Dem Party has not learned any lessons from the last few years of losses. Dana Wachs was the worst offender spending almost $40,000 and then hiring Jake Hadju to be his campaign manager. For those that do not know, Jake Hadju was executive director of the WISDEMS during the election debacles of the last few years, then moved on to run Hillary for Wisconsin campaign. Apparently running the campaign that lost Wisconsin for the first time in 32 years (1984) was all the qualification needed to get hired on to run the next campaign. However. as in many things, people will show you who they are. Jake Hadju, Dana Wachs campaign manager, did just that!
His campaign manager, Jake Hajdu, wrote in an August 23rd memo that Wachs was the only Democratic candidate "that has strong progressive values without the veneer of a Milwaukee elitist or a Madison liberal," and that other current candidates are "exactly like" other failed candidates since 2010.
For those of you scoring at home - While Jake Hadju has been working inside of Democratic politics for years in WI, he views Milwaukee as elitist, uses liberal as a criticism and thinks of Mayor Barrett and School board member Burke as "failed". Charlie Sykes could not have said it better himself. So now we see what Dana Wachs is made of. In true Scott Walker fashion, he distanced himself from Hadju.
"I didn't write that memo. It was put out by some members of my team," he said in an interview with FOX6 News. "I think what they're getting at is, we've run folks from Madison and Milwaukee in the past, and they're fine people. Mayor Barrett's a wonderful human being and a great Democrat, as is Mary Burke, but it's time for something different."
If that is what they are getting at, and compared to what Hadju wrote, then he probably should not be writing anymore as he is not even in the same zip code. If Dana Wachs is serious about running a campaign that appeals to people in Sawyer County, Milwaukee County, Dane County and Door County he needs to rid himself of these political insiders and high paid consultants and be Dana Wachs. As long as Hadju is his campaign manager, this "Madison Liberal" can not take the Wachs campaign serious.
Right Wisconsin, the website powered by the "turned over a new leaf" Charlie Sykes, and also a landing spot for various other unemployable deplorables from the right, has forgotten to turn over a new leaf so they are still the white supremacist powered racist website they have always been, I have pointed out that Sykes, (Mr. I am not sure if I contributed to the divisive nature of politics these days or not), still has a section of his website where he points out the liberal "loser of the day". To have a liberal loser of the day section, it also means he has a "winner of the day" section usually reserved for people like Scott Walker and Paul Ryan. However yesterday, they reserved the "winner of the day" for Colin Kaepernick for being listed on Time Magazines top 100 most influential people.
Congratulations to Colin Kaepernick, the one-time quarterback in the National Football League who made himself look foolish with his refusal to stand for the national anthem, inspiring so many other non-thinking copycats at all levels of the sport. Kaepernick was named one of Time Magazine's 100 most influential people. We haven't seen a clown this influential since Caruso played Pagliacci. Kaepernick is so influential, he's influenced himself right into the unemployment line. Teams are afraid to even look at him because he's not worth the controversy, even though Kaepernick promises he's done protesting whatever it was that he was protesting. We remember a bygone era when Time was even more influential than Kaepernick. This was not the way to regain that influence.
"I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color," Kaepernick told NFL Media in an exclusive interview after the game. "To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder."
I guess if the folks at White Wisconsin think that black people in America are not oppressed, who are we to argue with them? * inspiring so many other non-thinking copycats at all levels of the sport, Colin Kaepernick did inspire such silent protests all over the country because there is massive racism and oppression all over the country. With Wisconsin being the absolute worst state for African Americans, it is not the least bit surprising that the go to right wing blog in Wisconsin would not only not see it, but would ridicule those who live it! The blog that spent months attacking DA Chisholm for investigating illegal campaigning by the Governor, is calling others "non-thinking". *Kaepernick is so influential, he's influenced himselfright into the unemployment line. Teams are afraid to even look at him because he's not worth the controversy, The reason Kaepernick has not signed yet is because he still considers himself a starting QB and the league considers him a backup. No one has offered the money he thinks he is worth yet. When a political website rarely gets politics correct, I do not expect them to get sports correct. Colin Kaepernick has done more to help his fellow Americans than anything anyone who is associated with Right Wisconsin has done combined! Just understand that when you go to Right Wisconsin you are not going to get a story steeped in facts or research but you will get a story that crosses the line of racism, misogyny, sexism and bigotry(you can really see James Wigdersons influence). But then, to be fair, that is what their audience wants!
One of the things that most amazes me, is after years and years of dog whistles, leading the debate and using his platform on the biggest stick in the state to push far right wing candidates and ideologues is the media fawning all over themselves to help Charlie Sykes rewrite his history.
“When I would deny that there was a significant racist
component in some of the politics on our side, it was because the people I hung
out with were certainly not,” Sykes says. “When suddenly, this rock is turned
over, there is this—‘Oh shit, did I not see that?’ “I kind of had that reaction this morning, with that woman:
Did we ignore this? There’s got to be some serious introspection, because of
the things that we either didn’t see, or that we ignored, or that we enabled.”
Let's take a look at what Charlie Sykes continues to enable. In case you did not know it, Sykes still runs the website - Right Wisconsin
About Wisconsin's New Conservative Community -RightWisconsin.com Powered by Charlie Sykes.
For those of you who have not checked out Mr. Turn over a new leaf's website(and really why would you), if you wasted your time checking it out you would see prominently displayed a (liberal) loser of the day. Charlie Sykes, new leaf has only been turned over so far.
Recently, they named my friend Kelly Gallaher their (liberal) loser of the day. It seems that there is a business in her hometown that has been operating illegally for many years. Thanks to connections in local city hall, they are able to run an unsafe business, not pay their fines or live under the rules that everyone else in the village has too. Ms. Gallaher thinks it is time they lived by the rules everyone else has to in our society and called them out.
That upset the crew over at Charlie Sykes powered website and made her the loser of the day. When Mr. Sykes wonders what he has enabled let me show you.
Ms. Gallaher posted the story of her being named (liberal) loser of the day and was promptly greeted with a message from one of Sykes solid supporters calling her the C word amongst many other things.
Here is the NSFW screen shot:
Despite the calls by her friends to block the unhinged righty, Ms. Gallaher calmly explained the facts of the issue and something that I have never seen before. He realized that he was massively led astray by Charlie Sykes and the Right Wisconsin crew and apologized.
Is there anything more telling of Right Wisconsin than one of their loyal followers apologizing and saying the magic words - "Wish I would have done more research".
Even the local Village President attacked her(via Right Wisconsin):
Did Sykes enable people to be racist, hateful and violent towards Democrats and people they disagree with ideologically? The correct answer is no in the past tense, because he continues to do so despite the fake persona he portrays on TV.
I sent Sykes some questions about the website and he responded per usual, “just make it up as you usually do.” To which I responded, “hey, I thought you’d changed your views. How about a different response for me?” To which he responded: “Not about you.” Okay, so Sykes won’t be recanting his view of me.
Of course he hasn't changed his view on anyone he has smeared, unless they can help his career of course.
My suggestion is to never, ever, ever watch a show that has Sykes on and when you are, turn it off and tweet the host what you just did!
Today, for some reason I have not fathomed, Charlie Sykes
was allowed column inches in the New York Times)I would offer a link but he has
had enough attention, but we will dissect it).
Sykes is on a "mea culpa" tour where he is trying to rewrite
history, where he does not play a part.
* MILWAUKEE — If
President Trump’s first tumultuous weeks have done nothing else, at least they
have again made us a nation of readers.
As Americans grapple with the unreality of the new
administration, George Orwell’s “1984” has enjoyed a resurgence of interest,
becoming a surprise best seller and an invaluable guide to our post-factual
world.
* On his first full day in office Mr. Trump
insisted that his inaugural crowd was the largest ever, a baseless boast that
will likely set a pattern for his relationship both to the media and to the
truth.
* Mr. Trump
understands that attacking the media is the reddest of meat for his base, which
has been conditioned to reject reporting from news sites outside of the
conservative media ecosystem.
For years, I observed with dismay as employees of one
division of the former Journal Communications—WTMJ-AM—savaged another division,
the Journal Sentinel. Weekday-radio Republican frontmen Charlie Sykes and Jeff
Wagner relentlessly assaulted the politically moderate newspaper for its
alleged liberal bias. More damaging, they repeatedly suggested the newspaper
was out of touch or outmoded, assailing it as “The Dead Tree.”Sykes and Wagner
mocked the Journal Sentinel’s news coverage and frequently personally attacked
members of the editorial staff and top management. It’s incomprehensible that
Journal Communications management condoned this daily trashing while signing
the verbal-snipers’ paychecks.
But hey, Charlie has an excuse:
* We thought we were
creating a savvier, more skeptical audience.
Sykes' response to the reporter who had asked what he based
his allegations on was absolutely breathtaking in its arrogance and revealed
Sykes' true character: Sykes went on to label his remark "an off-hand
wisecrack" -- "You know, humor, hyperbole, joke." Hilarious, huh? And Sykes, like his counterpart Mark Belling did awhile
back, cheerfully admits he made it up, as though that is perfectly OK: "My ‘evidence’? Absolutely none." Nothing makes his audience more savvy than giving them made
up facts on a daily basis!
* The news media’s
spectacular failure to get the election right has made it only easier for many
conservatives to ignore anything that happens outside the right’s bubble and
for the Trump White House to fabricate facts with little fear of alienating its
base.
Unfortunately, that also means that the more the fact-based
media tries to debunk the president’s falsehoods, the further it will entrench
the battle lines.
While Charlie
excoriates the Trump team for perpetually "debunking" the fact based
media, he is strangely silent about his employers, the Bradley Foundation team
in Wisconsin that do the exact same thing.
Find me a place where Sykes has even remotely criticized,
Jimmy Wigderson, Kevin Binversie, Rick Esenberg, Maciver, Wisconsin Watchdog,
Right WIsconsin etc....then I will know that he cares about alternative facts
and entrenching the battle lines.
* During his first
week in office, Mr. Trump reiterated the unfounded charge that millions of
people had voted illegally. When challenged on the evident falsehood, Sean
Spicer, the White House press secretary, seemed to argue that Mr. Trump’s
belief that something was true qualified as evidence. The press secretary also
declined to answer a straightforward question about the unemployment rate,
suggesting that the number will henceforth be whatever the Trump administration
wants it to be.
He can do this because members of the Trump administration
feel confident that the alternative-reality media will provide air cover, even
if they are caught fabricating facts or twisting words (like claiming that the
“ban” on Muslim immigrants wasn’t really a “ban”).
Let me take you back to the Supreme Court race between David
"Ike Turner" Prosser and Judge JoAnne Kloppenburg. The election night ended with the race to
close to call and our friends on the right thought at the time they were going
to lose.
Q. The right wing
network of propaganda hate talk radio of which Charlie Sykes was one of the
leaders. If you answered A, How did they disseminate the phony claim of
voter fraud? You win double Jeopardy and we all lose!
"Do we need to start messaging 'widespread reports of
election fraud' so we are positively set up for the recount regardless of the
final number? I obviously think we should," wrote Steve Baas, a senior
vice president with the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, to a
group of conservative operatives on April 6, 2011, a day after the
Prosser-Kloppenburg contest. "Yes. Anything fishy should be highlighted," wrote
former Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen, a Republican. "Stories should be
solicited by talk show hosts."
Way back when The Donald was cheating on his second
wife, before he had any interest in
politics, Charlie was hosting these guys, who you might have heard of, telling
us about the (unsubstantiated) cases of rampant Democratic voter fraud.
Madison - The chairman of the Republican National Committee claimed Wednesday that voter fraud
in Wisconsin is far more pervasive than official reports have shown, and said
GOP candidates need to perform 1 or 2 percentage points better than they otherwise
would in order to overcome it. "I'm always concerned about voter fraud, you know,
being from Kenosha, and quite frankly having lived through seeing some of it
happen," Reince Priebus said. "Certainly in Milwaukee we have seen
some of it, and I think it's been documented. Any notion that's not the case,
it certainly is in Wisconsin. I'm always concerned about it, which is why I
think we need to do a point or two better than where we think we need to be, to
overcome it.
U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) believes voter fraud was
committed by the busload during the recall elections on June 5th. At Mitt
Romney's campaign event in Janesville this week, Johnson claimed that recent
abuses at the polls illustrate why Wisconsin should require voters to verify
their identity with a photo ID before casting a ballot. "There have been a number of incidents
documented," said Johnson, "of busloads or van loads of people voting
multiple times at different voting booths with pretty flimsy IDs."
Don't waste your time
googling Charlie being upset about this.
* Mr. Trump and
company seem to be betting that much of the electorate will not care if the
president tells demonstrable lies, and will pick and choose whatever
“alternative facts” confirm their views.
The next few years will be a test of that thesis.
Here, let me fix that for you Mr. Sykes:
Mr. Trump Walker and company seem to be betting that
much of the electorate will not care if the president governor tells demonstrable lies, and will
pick and choose whatever “alternative facts” confirm their views.
The next last few years will be was a test of that thesis.
* There may be
short-term advantages to running headlines about millions of illegal immigrants
voting or secret United Nations plots to steal your guns, but the longer the
right enables such fabrications, the weaker it will be in the long run.
Charlie, Charlie, Charlie, are you that old that your memory
has failed you? Do you not remember
this?
Dems need to realize how badly their embrace of gun control
is hurting them in rural/blue collar areas. — Charlie Sykes (@SykesCharlie) November 9, 2016
SYKES: In the city of Milwaukee, we have the mayor of
Milwaukee, who's running for governor, who's made it absolutely clear how
seriously he takes voter fraud. TOM BARRETT [audio clip]: Well, name the name. Name the
name. I'm waiting for the first name. SYKES: There is a group that in fact would provide that
name. You might remember the "Verify the Recall" folks -- this was a
group, the headquarters is in Texas. They did an absolutely outstanding job of
coming up and making a database that allowed people to find out who signed the
Walker recall petitions. Right, remember all of that? Well, they're affiliated
with a group called the King Street Patriots. This letter, this came out yesterday. What shocked me the
most, I think, about this, is that it came from Phil Walzak, Barrett for
Wisconsin. It's the kind of thing that you would expect from some demented
extremist like Graeme Zielinski. "Steve, the King Street Patriots, a group of Texas
extremists" -- they are, they are Americans who are concerned about voter
fraud. "Have arrived in Wisconsin. They believe that voter
registration for the poor is un-American" -- flat-out lie -- "and
would destroy the country." Flat-out lie. "They have already come to Wisconsin once and
intimidated recall petition signers" -- lie -- "and now they've
dropped so-called election observers into poll locations across the
state." Yes, Mayor Barrett, because they are doing the job that you
refuse to do. And the mayor of Milwaukee, instead of saying, "Hey, we've
got nothing to hide, come in and observe," puts out a letter on his own
campaign stationery smearing this citizen group. "Our voter protection team is on alert. We need an
additional $100,000 before tomorrow to make sure every last vote is counted.
After emailing threats and racial slurs ahead of the 2010 election failed to
stop courageous voters from turning out to vote in Houston, the King Street
Patriots showed up at the polls and intimidated voters directly." Tom Barrett is lying.
To end the year, Charlie Sykes website, Right Wisconsin, always has their recipients of wingnut welfare give their predictions for the coming year. Many try and be serious, some try and be witty even though creativity and sense of humor is lacking. One such "contributor" who is the embodiment of this is Kevin Binversie. Binversie is actually employed by RightWisconsin/Bradley Foundation and his attempt at "looking into the crystal ball" brought us this bit of "wisdom":
Yes, Pope Francis has talked about income inequality being the root of much evil in this world, he is the "de facto leader" of "the left" so he must die. Binversie also takes the time to point out that Pope Benedict, the Pope who resigned because he was hiding pedophilia and was taking too much heat, is still alive and well.
Good job Kevin, for showing your true stripes. I can only imagine the faux outrage if these ridiculous words were written on say CogDis.
Its nice that a whose who of far right wing bloggers and operatives stand with Mr. Binversie in his despicably "predicting" the Pope's Death. It is also nice the Charlie Sykes keeps him employed as the face of Right Wisconsin
Welcome to the new right wing voice of reason Charlie Sykes, same as the old extremist arrogant Charlie Sykes, they just changed the packaging.
After 23 years of blowing dog whistles, smearing liberals and bullying Republicans that don't toe the line, Charlie Sykes, the Milwaukee-based radio squawker, is finally hanging up his headphones and turning off his microphone. Monday was Sykes' last day on WTMJ-AM.
Ever since then, the right wingers have been gushing about Sykes, ranging from the maudlin to the nauseous. Even the lunatic fringe had to say something nice about him, even though many of them are still pissed because of his #NeverTrump theatrics. Things went so far as having Scott Walker declare Tuesday to have been Charlie Sykes Day in Wisconsin.
As much as Sykes would surely like not to remember these things, the following are the five things that Sykes would rather not have people focus on as that they encapsulate who Sykes really is.
5) Charlie Sykes meets John Doe
Sykes was neck deep in the illegal politicking that Walker used to propel himself into the governor's seat and then onto the national scene as a presidential wannabe. The emails released from the investigation show Sykes receiving numerous emails from Walker's staff - both his campaign staff and his government staff - feeding him the talking points that they wanted Sykes to run with.
Things go the point where Sykes was about to be subpoenaed to testify about his level involvement in the corruption that has taken over the state.
4) Sykes in bed with dark money groups
For now, let's ignore the fact that Sykes' third wife (more on that later) is the director of communications for the extreme right wing Bradley Foundation and he has had a long and incestuous relationship with them. After all, this is not even his most egregious example of being in bed with the dark money groups.
More outrageous is the menage a trois between Sykes, the Wisconsin Club for Growth and his former employer, Journal Broadcasting to give birth to White Wisconsin, er, Right Wisconsin, their deformed and depraved love child:
But in all the reporting so far, what has not been touched are the 800 pound squawking gorillas in the room - Journal Communications, Charlie Sykes and White Right Wisconsin.
White Wisconsin is the result of the unchecked collaboration and collusion between the dark money groups, the corporate media and WISGOP. It is a website that is hosted by Journal Broadcast Group and sponsored by the Wisconsin Club for Growth and "powered" by Charlie Sykes. It offers a free platform for politicians, political operatives and propagandists to spew their vitriol in an effort to sway low information voters into voting against their own best interest.
To add to it, Journal Broadcast Group also allows Sykes to use the airwaves of WTMJ-AM to continue to spew their propaganda, continue the lies and most significantly, give politicians like Scott Walker free air time to do their campaigning.
Let me re-emphasize this.
White Wisconsin is an aggregate website paid for by Wisconsin Club for Growth, a Koch Brothers front group. The website is hosted by Journal Broadcast Group, which includes WTMJ-AM, the home of Charlie Sykes, who is the "power" behind the website. The goal of the website is to promote the Teapublican agenda. And the most ironic part is that the sheeple that actually believe their noise has to pay for it. Presumably, the bulk of this money is going right back to the Koch group to continue their illegal collaborations with political campaigns.
3) Liz Woodhouse
About ten years ago, Sykes introduced a new guest to his show, a woman named "Liz Woodhouse." Sykes said that she wasn't a political operative or anything like that. He described as just a very intelligent and insightful woman who has important things to say.
Later, it was revealed that Liz Woodhouse was a pseudonym for Janet Riorden, who he described as a local chanteuse. He said that he didn't want to reveal her real name out of fear that it would affect her professional life, which in hindsight is highly ironic.
It turns out that Riorden is really the director of communications for the Bradley Foundation. But Sykes and Riorden have an even closer relationship than that. Sykes cheated on his second wife, Justice Diane Sykes, with Riorden. This all came to light when he and Riorden got busted shooting off fireworks in a park after closing time.
After Riorden broke up his happy family, she and Sykes got married.
2) Sykes vs Miranda's rights
More than ten years ago, Sykes penned a column that ran in the Spanish Journal in which he claimed that Robert Miranda had been "one of the organizers of what became a violent shout-down, during which coins, hard candy and ice cubes were thrown at [conservative radio host Mark Belling] during a Pro-America rally at [the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee]."
Sykes' source for this claim was an email he got from "a listener." Sykes claims that when he found out the allegations were utterly false, he scrubbed the post. However, Miranda sued Sykes and his former employer for libel. Just before the hearing was about to start, Journal Broadcasting settled out of court, agreeing to pay a $5,000 scholarship to a student in Milwaukee's South Division High School who wanted to study who wanted to study journalism.
Sadly, instead of apologizing, Sykes tried to play the victim card, claiming it was all an eeeeeeeevvvvvvvvvviiiiiiiiil liberal scheme to stifle conservative voices.
Ironically, Sykes also doesn't like to admit that he almost lost his job. The only reason he was allowed to stay on the air was because of the Sykes' union. I still don't understand why Sykes has spent so much time to help in the Republicans' efforts to bust the unions despite one saving his worthless hide.
1) "My evidence...absolutely none."
Like most right wing squawking heads, Sykes is more than willing and able to twist, screw, distort and spin any story to fit their agenda. If that can't be done, he'll gladly conflate it and/or confabulate it. And if that still doesn't work, he'll be more than happy to just make shit up.
In 2010, Sykes accused then Governor Jim Doyle of corruption, claiming that Doyle was using a trip to watch the Badgers play in the Rose Bowl for his political friends and campaign donors. PoliticFact decided to check out the claim and found Sykes' pants to be on fire.
Sykes' response to the reporter who had asked what he based his allegations on was absolutely breathtaking in its arrogance and revealed Sykes' true character:
And Sykes, like his counterpart Mark Belling did awhile back, cheerfully admits he made it up, as though that is perfectly OK:
"My ‘evidence’? Absolutely none."
Sykes went on to label his remark "an off-hand wisecrack" -- "You know, humor, hyperbole, joke."
Hilarious, huh?
Many on the left are celebrating that Sykes is now off the air. I am not.
Sykes was able to leave on his own terms instead of being forced out or shamed into it. Furthermore, he's not done polluting the airwaves with his crap. He has a paid gig as a returning guest at MSNBC.
Lastly, there has been rumors that Sykes is planning on running for public office, including possibly a federal seat. The potential of this alone is cause enough not to celebrate, not quite yet anyway.
If you woke up anywhere near Southeastern Wisconsinm or in the listening area of 620 AM WTMJ , that sweet sound to your ears is the fact that Charlie Sykes is no longer squawking at you.
His gentle tone of "who me?" extremism will not be missed by anyone in the state who does not have right wing political ambitions.
One thing we know about the WISGOP, is they are a bunch of sheep that like to be led. From their reliance on ALEC and Scott Jensen to make decisions for them, to Charlie driving the debate and telling the rest of the hate radio garblers(yes im looking at you Vicki Mckenna, Mark Belling, Jerry Bader, et al.) what to think and discuss that day. Charlie was also important as the safe space for Wisconsin Righties, they knew they could join his show, push their agenda and hit balls off the tee.
Charlie paid such an important part in Scott Walker's ambition political career that the Governor wasted precious Wisconsin resources to declare December 20, 2016 - Charley Sykes day(not kidding).
Whereas after 23 years of spewing, racist, hate and receiving wingnut welfare, Charlie Sykes has quit his show: and Whereas Charlie Sykes was the true father of fake news, racism, extremism and driving force behind the career of such Wisconsin GOP icons as David "Vacation" Clarke, Bill "the grabber" Kramer, Justice David "Ike Turner" Prosser, and Justice Rebecca "Id rather have AIDS than Cancer" Bradley, all while staying insulated and far away from opposite ideas and viewpoints: And Whereas Charlie is the "author" of seven books(edit ? - how long on google did it take our Gov to find the names of all of Chucks books?) that all say the same thing - liberals are ruining this country, and he is not sure if he contributed to the divide. (edit note: One good thing about Charlie's writings, if you ever decide to show up to an author's talk, you will get plenty of one on one attention!); and
PS: Jeff Wagner has currently taken over Sykes spot in the morning,. Please be careful operating a motor vehicle while Wagner is on the radio, the side effects are he can make someone very very sleepy!
Charlie Sykes, who has helped shape conservatism and some of its leading local figures for more than two decades, is leaving the air at the end of the year.
What Bice meant to say was that Charlie helped define a new brand of conservatism(Who is Ike anyway?)in the eastern corner of Wisconsin. Sykes, as we have seen by the lack of actual influence of Wisconsin Republicans on the national stage, has had a very minimal effect on national "conservatism".
“Yeah! Let me make a comparison, and I don’t mean this in a
bad way,” Audrey says. “They’re talking about phasing out breeding of pit
bulls. Well, not all pit bulls are bad.” “You’re comparing American citizens, Muslims, to rabid
dogs,” Sykes responds. “No, I’m saying, they’re talking about phasing out the breed
because so many are bad. No one wants to phase out poodles! I mean, there’s no
Lutherans doing this! We never know when one of these people are going to be
radicalized.” “One of these people,” says Sykes. Sykes ends the call. He’s silent, broadcasting dead air. He
looks upset, like he’s stopped breathing. He goes to a commercial break. “OK, that doesn’t happen very often,” he says off-air. “I’m
not usually absolutely speechless.” He says his listeners never talked like
this until recently. “Were these people that we actually thought were our
allies?” he asks.
Interesting question Chucky, the quick answer is YES!
The Politico piece was written in August, where the blatant racism took Charlie's breath away.
Charlie recovered quickly though, and within a couple months, was back at it with winks and nods towards the Audrey's of Wisconsin.
Our Friends at Wisconsin Law and Liberty (WILL) will be holding a Soiree in Milwaukee coming up, where there is a $100 entry fee to see a conversation between Dr. Charles Murray and (you guessed it) Charlie Sykes.
While $100 seems expensive, it is a small price to pay, when you can gather a room full of people who look like you and find an "expert" to tell you that you are superior to everyone who does not look like you!
Cash Bar will be open at 6:00, followed by a serving of bigotry, discrimination and narrow-mindedness, dessert will be a fresh serving of Jim Crow, made from Charlie Sykes own recipe.
In between the courses, Charlie Sykes and Dr. Murray will be discussing the wonders of white people.
In the end its no surprise that Charlie Sykes will be the lone person on stage with Dr. Murray.
The question that needs to be answered though, is will Audrey be in the front row?
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Republican state senator says a new diversity outreach program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is "sinister." Sen. Steve Nass made the comments Thursday in reaction to UW announcing its plans to improve the experiences of minorities. The plan calls for having new students discuss social differences, a new cultural center for black students and increased opportunities to take ethnic studies courses. Nass says university leaders "constantly complain about lacking money" but "they never lack money for advancing new and more sinister ways of liberal indoctrination of students.
Years ago,business leaders DID want a more diverse-friendly college campus in Madison. And when it was evident that was not what they were getting at UW, recruiters from major American companies were pulled from the university. From Pat Schneider of the Cap Times (Emphasis in bold added by me):
Diversity is good for business, which makes it an imperative for U.S. business schools, say Wisconsin School of Business administrators.
If the business school community does not have a mix of students, faculty and staff that can prepare students for a global economy, students will go somewhere else and so will business recruiters. That has already happened at UW-Madison. A decade ago, big corporations like Procter & Gamble, General Motors and Alcoa stopped recruiting in Madison because of a lack of diversity among business school students.
“No, I’m saying, they’re talking about phasing out the breed because so many are bad. No one wants to phase out poodles! I mean, there’s no Lutherans doing this! We never know when one of these people are going to be radicalized.”
“One ofthese people,” says Sykes.
Sykes ends the call. He’s silent, broadcasting dead air. He looks upset, like he’s stopped breathing. He goes to a commercial break.
“OK, that doesn’t happen very often,” he says off-air. “I’m not usually absolutely speechless.” He says his listeners never talked like this until recently.
“Were these people that we actually thought were our allies?” he asks.
On Tuesday, (Paul)Ryan rolled out endorsements from all 16 Republican state legislators who represent portions of the 1st Congressional District.
The endorsers include Assembly Speaker Robin Vos of Rochester and four state senators, Steve Nass of Whitewater, Chris Kapenga of Delafield, Mary Lazich of New Berlin and Van Wanggard of Racine.
In a statement, Nass said that he has known Ryan since the early 1990s and during that time the Janesville native's values, principles and integrity 'have not changed and they never will.'
So much for the Alt-right... As John Nichols has pointed out:
In Paul Ryan's WI district, the Trump-Ryan message is amplified by local Republicans. No degrees of separation. pic.twitter.com/UumlZ7dQqC
So when you hear talk of the "alt-right" just remember there is no difference between them and the regular WISGOP, except they have been empowered to speak their mind in public instead of in private. The Ironic thing is the same people who are trying to run away and wash their hands of them, are the people who were the ones who empowered them!
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