The Foxconn Con Job - An Epic Republican Fiasco

A year and a half ago, former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (I still love saying that!) penned a handwritten note with Foxconn promising the company $3 billion dollars for a manufacturing plant they were so supposed to build in Wisconsin and to create 13,000 jobs. Both Walker and Lyin' Paul Ryan immediately made this cornerstones of their reelection campaigns. Ryan ended up quitting and running off with his tail between his legs and Walker was fired in the midterm elections.

Critics immediately raised the alarm, citing the disaster in Pennsylvania where Foxconn just took the money and ran, leaving taxpayers in the lurch.

It didn't take long for the wheels on the Wisconsin deal to come flying off either. First the number of jobs being promised dropped from 13,000 to maybe 2,000 if we were lucky. Meanwhile, the $3 billion in state aid quickly blew up to over $4.5 billion in state and local aid, with Foxconn, sensing they had some real suckers on their hands, kept asking for more and more.

Now, Foxconn is pulling back on the thought of building the manufacturing plant altogether:

Now, those plans may be scaled back or even shelved, Louis Woo, special assistant to Foxconn Chief Executive Terry Gou, told Reuters. He said the company was still evaluating options for Wisconsin, but cited the steep cost of making advanced TV screens in the United States, where labor expenses are comparatively high.

"In terms of TV, we have no place in the U.S.," he said in an interview. "We can't compete."

When it comes to manufacturing advanced screens for TVs, he added: “If a certain size of display has more supply, whether from China or Japan or Taiwan, we have to change, too.”

Indeed, Foxconn has already suspended all construction.

Republican lawmakers, the same ones who ramrodded this hunk of corporate welfare through the state legislature, are now trying to pin this latest failure on Governor Evers, who hasn't even been in office for a month:

"We don’t blame Foxconn for altering plans in an ever-changing technology business. It’s also not surprising Foxconn would rethink building a manufacturing plant in Wisconsin under the Evers Administration," Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said in a joint statement about the company's plans.

The Taiwanese tech giant attributed its deliberations to high labor costs and not to the election of Evers.

[...]

Though Woo told Reuters the company had concerns about the steep cost of making advanced TV screens in the United States, the Republican leaders said, "the company is reacting to the wave of economic uncertainty" brought by Evers.

"Governor Evers has an anti-jobs agenda and pledged to do away with a successful business incentive for manufacturing and agriculture," Fitzgerald and Vos said, referring to Evers' proposal to pay for a middle-class tax cut by scaling back a tax credit for manufacturers and agriculture producers.

Like everything else that comes from the Republicans, this doesn't hold water. It was Vos and Fitzgerald that called for the extraordinary session after the midterm elections to pass a slew of lame duck laws, including the protection of their Foxconn con game.

Last and least, even Walker had to tweet in to try to defend his failed legacy:

Foxconn earns state tax credits based on actual investment and job creation. No jobs/investment? No credits. Period.

— Scott Walker (@ScottWalker) January 30, 2019

What Walker doesn't want people to remember is that as of one year ago, he already handed over more than a billion dollars to Foxconn that had absolutely nothing to do with job creation.

Not only are Republicans no good at leading, but they don't even make good liars anymore.

Cross posted from Crooks and Liars

The Walker Legacy

By Jeff Simpson

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

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

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

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

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

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

and this:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What do you think the Scott Walker legacy is?

The Week In Walker

By Jeff Simpson

With so much bad and crazy happening on a breakneck pace everyday, it is hard to keep up with it all.   Let's try and catch up with some of Scott Walker's recent hits.

1.  Get ready, coming smack dab in the middle of the state, will be lots of layoffs and changes at UW - Stevens Point!

 Kristen Hendrickson, the university’s chief financial officer, laid out three scenarios for UWSP's structural deficit that largely depend on enrollment numbers for this year.
If the university enrolls 8,000 students, the total deficit may sit at about $2.4 million.
If 7,500 students enroll, the total deficit may grow to $5.4 million.
If enrollment falls to 7,000, the total deficit may grow to $8 million.
The university’s academic division might need to make cuts ranging from $4 million to $6 million, eliminating as many as 60 to 70 full-time jobs, if enrollment falls to 7,000 students, Summers wrote in the Aug. 27 letter.

 2.  Small Government Scott Walker is taking people's homes.

Unless you know the right people, then Foxconn is the jackpot!

3.  While Walker's signature promise was to create 250,000 jobs (as his floor) and after 8 years still has not come close to that number.  In fact, Scott Walker has cost Wisconsin some 80,000 jobs.

The average from both models points to a Walker administration which cost Wisconsin 80,000 jobs. This loss was masked by national job growth. If Wisconsin had followed the same pattern relative to its neighbors as under previous administrations, jobs would have grown by an additional 33 percent — quite a difference. To put the shortfall in perspective, the 80,000-job loss is six times the 13,000 jobs promised from the Foxconn development in Racine.
It is hard to identify possible causes for Wisconsin’s jobs lag other than the administration’s policies. It is not as if the state is dependent on a single industry. Rather, the underlying cause seems to be the triumph of ideology over evidence as to what grows an economy. 

4.  Have to admire Badger Meters business sense, and be amazed at how cheaply Scott Walker can be bought.

Top executives of a company that was awarded $250,000 in state welfare have contributed nearly $26,000 to Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s campaigns.
Badger Meter, which makes flow measurement tools for water utilities and commercial and industrial businesses, plans to expand its Mount Pleasant operations in Racine County and create up to 40 jobs in the next three years. Walker’s economic development agency, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., said Thursday it will provide up to $250,000 in tax credits to train the new employees.
Overall, Badger Meter employees contributed $36,850 to legislative and statewide candidates between January 2010 and December 2017. All but $300 went to Republican candidates.
The top recipients of the contributions were Walker, $25,900, followed by Republican Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, $6,000, and GOP Rep. Dale Kooyenga, of Brookfield, $2,000.
The company’s top contributor to legislative and statewide candidates between January 2010 and December 2017 was its chief executive officer, Richard Meeusen, of Pewaukee, and his wife, Maribeth, $34,750. That’s 94 percent of the contributions from all employees of Badger Meter. Walker received $24,500 of those contributions from the Meeusens.

5.  Another way to get your hands on some easy Wi Taxpayer funds in Scott Walker's WI?  Abuse teenagers at Lincoln Hills. 

– For the second and third times, Gov. Scott Walker’s administration has given cash settlements to guards who it determined had used excessive force on juvenile inmates, state records show.
The payoffs — including one totaling $9,000 — were reached as the FBI continues a criminal investigation of Lincoln Hills School for Boys and Copper Lake School for Girls, which share a campus 30 miles north of Wausau. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel last year reported officials at the prison complex trained staff improperly, failed to preserve video evidence, didn't document serious incidents and often shirked their duty to report matters to parents, police and social service agencies.

 6.  In Election Season, Scott Walker will say absolutely anything to get elected.   Here is a clip in 2010 telling us how he would never cut education funding.

7.  Scott Walker is out with his 21st political ad already.  I guess he can not find one that people will believe.  However this one is very typical of Scott Walker.  He starts out complaining about attack ads, then starts attacking.

Tone deaf? Desperate? Dishonest?   We report, you decide. 

It stays with the theme he has been working for months.  That Scott Walker, the king of outside money, fears outside money.   
I guess that the Kochs, Sheldon Adelson and loony Uihlein are all above board WI residents, or maybe he just a hypocrite. 

Finally, as Bruce Murphy points out in his great piece at Urban Milwaukee, everything Walker does is for sale. 

Two of his biggest supporters have been the Koch Brothers, who have donated $4.8 million to Walker’s campaigns, and the state’s biggest business group, Wisconsin Manufacturer’s and Commerce, which has given $9.5 million to his campaigns.
Walker’s signature law, Act 10, which decimated public employee unions, was backed the Koch Brothers and WMC. The two groups also supported the Right to Work law, which makes it difficult to organize private unions and which Walker had promised unions supporting him in 2014 that he would never support. But he signed it into law in 2015. 

Readers of this humble blog know, that everything Scott Walker sells, he sells cheap! 

The Ideas Lab Is Uninhabited

By Jeff Simpson

For quite some time, the only employed opinion writer of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel was right wing hack and Bradley Foundation gopher, Christian Schneider. 

Recently, JSonline finally showed Schneider the door.  A few years ago, Schneider used his platform, to "break the news" that Congressman Mark Pocans husband, beat up his opponent in the upcoming election.  Of course it was all made up, and the paper just deleted the story (instead of issuing a retraction), like nothing ever happened.

Yes, excellent writer, who was a once a week, free lance opinion writer, credited Schneider with recommending her in her last column.   Schneider also worked to get rid of everyone else who had ever written for JSonline in their opinion pages(including myself).   His fragile ego is only surpassed by The Donalds.

That being said, here is a perfect example of the right wing scam that the Journal has pulled on its readers(2013):|

The Journal Sentinel hired Christian Schneider from the right-wing Bradley Foundation as a columnist and let him keep both jobs until public pressure forced Schneider to leave Bradley. Today, the Walker Administration leaked details of their Medicaid decision through Schneider, who was then cited as a source by the news division of the paper to break the story. Now Schneider's op-ed defending the decision has been placed on the front page of the paper without an opposing editorial.   

A brief history of where the Journal Sentinel came from and while the stain of Schneider is still fresh and does not come out with the first washing, now David Haynes wants to switch the editorial page to an "ideas lab".  In Haynes own words:

In the Ideas Lab, we’ll kick the tires on ideas meant to solve problems. We’ll report on and evaluate these ideas based on independent evidence. We'll search for the best practices out there. 

Giving them the benefit of the doubt, we see that they started their "ideas lab" out with reporting by David Haynes himself, with a cheerleading post for some of the bigger businesses in Milwaukee area.

 That's why Tuesday's announcement that Foxconn is partnering with three of Milwaukee's most prominent corporate citizens to create a venture capital fund has the potential to be a watershed moment for southeastern Wisconsin.
It's a given that Foxconn Technology Group’s massive factory in southern Wisconsin could have a profound impact on the state’s economy. It’s a $10 billion investment, after all, a mammoth plant that could employ as many as 13,000 people.
 Now, Foxconn, Advocate Aurora Health, Johnson Controls Inc. and Northwestern Mutual have raised a $100 million venture capital fund to focus on investments in companies that employ Foxconn’s technology. The Wisconn Valley Fund will be based in the company’s North American headquarters at 611 W. Wisconsin Ave. The announcement came a day after Foxconn announced it had pledged a $100 million matching gift to the University of Wisconsin-Madison to establish a new research center in the College of Engineering.

Let us take a look at:   

 • Expert, solutions-focused essays on issues the community cares about, by people who have shown success in addressing the problem at hand.

* The four companies Foxconn, Aurora, Johnson Controls and Northwestern Mutual are loaded with executives who have donated thousands to Scott Walker and the Republicans.    Their investment at this time in the election process is not uncoincidental. 
     
*  Of the four, Johnson, Northwestern and Foxconn are all known for laying off thousands of employees, and while Aurora has not, they recently took part in a major merger where they will need the support of the Governor. 

- Maybe not the best group to have "shown success" in the problem at hand.   

*  Foxconn.   To say Foxconn "could" create 13,000 jobs is technically true.  It is also technically true that the Milwaukee Bucks could trade for Lebron and dominate the next five years of the NBA.   No one expects it to happen but it most definitely could. 

Foxconn has been handed $4+ trillion dollars of Wisconsin taxpayer money to build their new factory here in Racine.   This money has helped displace Wisconsin citizens from their dream homes, moved around highway funds to help expand roads to access Foxconn, steal 7 million gallons of water from Lake Michigan a day, and also offers up 100 million dollars of our money to the UW-System as long as they can match it and educate students as Foxconn wants them too?

 - Maybe touting the company that has broken many promises, made $149 billion in profits last year and is known for their suicide nets at their factories in China, is not the place to start out looking for successes at hand. 

Now in keeping with the theme at hand, let's look at actual solutions to the problems at hand.   - New Business and Jobs. 
1.  Health Insurance.  The number one reason people go broke in America is for unexpected medical bills.   It takes a supreme amount of confidence and luck, to start a business and have no health insurance for you and your family.

IDEA - Lets expand Medicaid for all, so you are not deciding between eating and going to the Doctor.  We need to make sure that the biggest worry that someone who starts a small business has, is how do I increase my market share, and not I hope this unknown pain goes away. 

2.  Public Education.  The heart and soul of every town, village, city, municipality is the public schools.  School events bring the people together, their favorite teacher is their kids hero, etc...  To have the attack on public education that the Governor and his group have enacted over the last 8 years has done every one, but Scott Walker, a huge disservice and we are starting to pay the piper.   There is a reason Walker is spending millions advertising to millenials trying to get people to move to WI.

Idea - We need to start funding education like we need to and stop the war on teachers.   Understand that a strong public education system is the one thing that attracts people to WI to want to grow their roots. 

3.  Technology.   There is no need, with the ability we have to communicate, that small business start ups, can come from anywhere as long as they have access to high speed internet and the ability to get to the post office.  It is unfortunate Scott Walker gave back 23 million dollars earmarked to increase broadband access to rural Wisconsin. 

IDEA - make high speed internet access available and affordable for every single Wisconsinite!

With Friends Like Cory...

By Jeff Simpson

We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately. Benjamin Franklin

In this very important race for Governor, one of the key issues will be the Foxconn debacle.  Every person running, has addressed in their key issues, how to minimize the damage to Wisconsin.

That is why it was so surprising to see Mayor Cory Mason, the former Democratic Assembly Rep, take the time out of his busy schedule, to help Scott Walker write a re-election ad to praise this awful company. 

There are challenges to overcome, and there is work to be done, but I believe that the arrival of Foxconn creates the best opportunity in my lifetime to rebuild our middle class and build a stronger community for all of us.

Apparently this is Mr. Mason's view of the ideal middle class in WI.

At least Scott Walker is very appreciative(Hopefully Mason at least got an official pen):

 I thank all the Republicans and Democrats who supported this bill and made the right call. 

 However, beyond a bunch of Republicans who know nothing of economics, and a few self serving "Democrats", not everyone is on board with the FoxConn Debacle.

The 2800 acres of privately held land in the Mount Pleasant area, was declared blighted so that the local officials could take land(and houses) held by Wisconsinites so they could then hand it to a foreign company, that turned a profit of $70+ Billion last year in the fourth quarter alone. 

A local resident, Kimberly Mahoney, who recently built her dream home, only to have the Village Board declare it blighted and take it from her. 

“I was like ‘You’ve got to be kidding me,’ ” James said. “How can you tell us they’re taking our property? This is our property. We bought this property. How can you be taking our property with our brand new house?”
Their daughter Reese came home from school to celebrate her 12th birthday and asked her parents about it saying, “what happened with Foxconn?”
“She thought we were kidding when we told her we had to move,” Kimberly said. “She just started bawling.”

What is a dream house to one family, when it means keeping the Walker family in the Governor's Mansion and Alex free access to all state vehicles?

To be fair, not everyone hates Foxconn, some people heart it!

We have not even covered the 7 million gallons of water a day, that Foxconn will be taking from our greatest natural resource, Lake Michigan! 

Whats 7 million gallons of freshwater from one of the biggest money making, life sustaining, tourist attractions in WI? 

"It's tough to know the value of water until it's gone." Mark Udall 

Well at least Cory Mason can sleep well, they did not declare his dream home blighted, he just used us all for his personal ambitions and goals, and made it that much harder to defeat Scott "John Doe" Walker in November. 

I guess Mayor Mason is just trying to make Wisconsin Better!

 “Better never means better for everyone... It always means worse, for some.”― Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale

Trump Still Suffering From Electile Dysfuntion

Trump came to Wisconsin last week to hold a fundraiser for the Republicans and pose for holy pictures with Scott Walker and Paul Ryan at the groundbreaking for Foxconn, one of the largest acts of corporate welfare in this country's history.

After posing with their gold-plated shovels, the politicians scurried in to an air-conditioned building where they performed a circle jerk, praising each other for again ripping off the taxpayers.

In the midst of it, Trump, succumbed to his fierce insecurity and started spewing alternative facts regarding his election. Nearly two years later, and he can't get over himself and asterisk that follows his name regarding the election. It wasn't until well after the fact that the media got around to doing the easy fact checking to see what a huge liar Trump really is.

From Politifact Wisconsin, which gave him a pants on fire rating:

In the midst of it all, Trump took a moment to hail his own 2016 victory in Wisconsin, a win that was vital to securing the presidency.

Wisconsin, Trump said on June 28, 2018, "hadn’t been won by a Republican since Dwight D. Eisenhower, in 1952."

He went on:

"And I won Wisconsin. And I like Wisconsin a lot, but we won Wisconsin. And Ronald Reagan, remember, Wisconsin was the state that Ronald Reagan did not win."

(He made a nearly identical claim the night before, at a rally in Fargo, N.D.)

Say what, Mr. President?

A look at the numbers

According to the American Presidency Project, the following Republicans have won Wisconsin’s presidential vote since 1952:

1956: Dwight D. Eisenhower

1960: Richard M. Nixon

1968: Richard M. Nixon

1972: Richard M. Nixon

1980: Ronald Reagan

1984: Ronald Reagan

2016: Donald Trump

The Republican presidential dry spell stretched from the 1988 election, when Democrat Michael Dukakis won Wisconsin, through 2012 when Democrat Barack Obama won Wisconsin.

But it did not stretch back to Eisenhower.

And, for the record, the one state Reagan lost in 1984 was neighboring Minnesota, not Wisconsin.

Interestingly, neither Walker or Ryan said a word about it. Maybe they just didn't know the truth themselves.

This Week in Fitzwalkerstan

By Jeff Simpson

Now that the Spring elections are over, its time to catch up on all we have been missing.   Here are some stories that have not gotten any, or at least real, coverage in the news.

1.  Scott Walker, desperately tried not to hold special elections for two seats that were open, because of he appointed some fellow Republicans to cushy state jobs to pad their pensions. 

One of the reasons Walker held off on filling the seat of Frank Lasee, was because he knew the end result would not be pretty for the WISGOP again.    He knew that Andre Jacque would then run for the Senate seat opening.

Andre Jacque was first elected in the right wing wave of 2010 and has been a solid player in the cuckoo caucus of Wisconsin Republicans ever since.  While he has a solid layer of support amongst the far right Appling contingent.

Jacque however, has zero support amongst the ALEC/WMC employees who treated him like a circus clown who performed for them when they needed his vote.

Now that Walker was forced to call a special election, and Jacque is running for the Senate District 1 seat, all of the people that work with Jacque are supporting a no name "business" man who refuses to ask or answer questions. 

The GOP have nothing but true disdain for the far right "evangelicals", especially when they start straying from the reservation and want to actually set the agenda and pass legislation.

Here, the lady that hit a cop, gives the wisgop a forum to hammer on Jacque(starts around 17 minutes in).

Jacque and Walker exposed that fact, we will see if Julianne and her friends can see that.

*  In Racine County, our valuable Wisconsin taxpayer dollars are being spent to kick Wisconsin Citizens out of their new homes because they are "blighted".

On the evening of March 20 a full room of Racine County residents assembled to make and hear public statements before the board of the Community Development Authority of Mt. Pleasant, Wisconsin. One item was on the agenda: the board’s first step in the designation of some 3,000 acres of agricultural land, farm houses and scattered, neatly maintained single-family homes as “blighted.” It would be the final step for the local authorities — vital cogs in the Foxconn-booster leadership chain that runs from local Tea Party officials, to Governor Scott Walker, and all the way up to President Donald Trump — to fulfill the promise to Taiwanese tech giant Foxconn to obtain and then turn over the land for their proposed industrial complex. 

The WisGop used to at least pretend to care about smaller government and local control! 

If you are upset that the Government is taking away beautiful dream homes at pennies on the dollar, just "Go Suck Lemons!"

*  Kentucky Governor Matt Blevins, is following the Walker public education plan and gutting it.   The teachers took the day to head to the Capitol to protest and make their voices be heard.   Bloviating Blevins had this to say:

"I guarantee you today, somewhere in Kentucky today, a child was sexually assaulted that was left home because there was nobody there to watch them," Bevin told reporters on Friday, April 13.

 The Governor, feels that teachers are babysitters and not teachers and while he thinks they are the first line defense for child molesters he still does not think that that warrants a fair days wage.

By the way if you want more words of wisdom from Mr. Blevins, he will be the keynote speaker this year at the Wisconsin Republican Convention.  Let's hope no child gets sexually assaulted while the parents are busy watching him give a brilliant speech. 

*  As the WisGOP continue to deny reality, one thing many of the far right nuts were complaining about was that the multi arrested Screnock did not hit Rebecca Dallet enough for giving a speech in San Francisco.

However, these same nonpartisan, impartial watchdogs, have been and continue to be extremely quiet about their hero, Scott Walker, traveling the country and begging for money from some of the worst people in the world.

One of those disgusting people, that Walker runs to often to kiss his rings, is the old fossil from Vegas Sheldon Adelson.

LAS VEGAS — Republicans made their annual sojourn to the lavish Venetian hotel here this weekend to kiss the ring of a benefactor they need more than ever: casino mogul Sheldon Adelson.Confronting the potential loss of one or both chambers of Congress in the midterms, and struggling to raise money against an energized Democratic base, the party is desperate for Adelson’s millions. So the praise at the annual Republican Jewish Coalition conference he hosts overflowed, even though the billionaire, attending the funeral of a close friend in Israel, wasn’t on hand.

The disgusting Adelson, will not be mentioned on our friends from the right wing's blogs between now and the election.

*  Scott Walker's good friend and all around horrible guy - Missouri Governor Eric Greitens, who has been indicted for blackmailing a woman he had an affair with to keep quiet, has now filed a restraining order to keep his Attorney General away from him. 

If these two do not define "Conservative reforms", no one does. 

* Finally we will leave you with this quote from our current Republican President, that will go down in history as one of the most inspiring:

Are we ready for another few years of a ridiculous circus act or will we vote adults in charge in November?   

WEDC's History Raises Concerns About State's Ability to Oversee Foxconn Deal

By Kathleen Vinehout 

"Can you find out the nuclear flaw in the Foxconn deal?” a woman asked me. She was referring to words leaked out of secret negotiations between the state and a Taiwanese billionaire.

Lawmakers, who recently voted in favor of the Foxconn deal, did so without seeing any contract. They put faith in a state operation known as Wisconsin Economic Development (WEDC).

Despite being paid for entirely with public funds, the $3 billion contract with Foxconn is not public. Nor do lawmakers who approved the plan know what problems exist in the draft contract. As the saying goes, the devil is in the details. Lawmakers and the public cannot see the details and are asked to trust WEDC negotiating the deal and later overseeing the Foxconn’s compliance.

But is WEDC worthy of our trust?

For years, the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB) reported concerns about WEDC’s administration and oversight of economic development programs.

In 2013, nearly two years after WEDC was created, auditors could not report on state dollars spent by WEDC because their financial and accounting systems were not adequate. Members of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee learned spending was tracked largely by credit card statements. To remedy this serious problem, legislators passed a new law that included an independent audit of all WEDC financial statements. Financial statement preparation should be basic for any state agency.

At an October 2013 Audit Committee public hearing, WEDC leaders promised they had complied with all the LAB recommendations. However, a year later, auditors reported many problems related to basic operations and the tracking of money. For example, auditors found some spending not recorded in the accounting system and found past due loans that were missing.

By 2015, auditors discovered a larger than necessary cash balance at WEDC. By the end of June 2015, WEDC had accumulated in excess of $85 million as reported in a 2017 audit.

Losing loans and not properly accounting for internal expenses are problems associated with the operation of a troubled agency. But the problems WEDC could encounter in overseeing a large project like Foxconn are related to the independent evaluation of the company’s promises compared to their actual records.

Four years after WEDC was established auditors finally could report that WEDC made ANY effort to obtain information about jobs were actually created. However, further review by auditors showed the attempts made by WEDC only compared a company’s own promises to report and the reports a company itself filed. WEDC made no effort to verify the information submitted.

In its most recent audit, the LAB reported WEDC paid an outside consultant $24,900 to do the work they were required to do since their existence in 2011. Auditors found concerns including that the contractor’s work was limited and did not include grants.

In the LAB’s own evaluation of completed economic development projects, auditors’ findings included: companies gave money for job creation without any contract requiring such, companies quitting before the end of their contract period without delivering promised jobs, contracts to create jobs were written with no specific number of jobs to be created, WEDC forgave loans even though the company created or retained a lower number of jobs than required, and WEDC counting twice the number of jobs created by a company.

If Wisconsin taxpayers cannot be confident after seven years and the investment of hundreds of millions of state dollars that promised jobs were created, how can we possibly be confident WEDC can negotiate and oversee a $3 billion contract?

No local government would ever agree to spend money without seeing a contract. No banker would agree to loan funds without a contract. No businessperson would ever commit funds without a contract.

Lawmakers bought a pig in a poke – an unknown deal.

WEDC has not earned lawmakers trust, nor that of the public. Lawmakers can and should do more to oversee this project. 

Scott Walker's Spending Spree

By Jeff Simpson

End of Summer and Back To School allows way to many activities to pay attention to, so let us catch up:

We know the Assembly Democrats have decided to move on from Peter Barca as their leader.    The Governor, who perpetually puts politics over everything, find time from his incredibly busy schedule (sarcasm alert), to let everyone know how much he loves Peter Barca:

Yes Scott Walker, who once rescinded an appointment of a college kid to the Students Board of Regents because he found out that he signed the recall.    Scott Walker is the same Governor, who sent thousands of jobs to Illinois, along with $50 million of our taxpayer dollars before he even took office.

Yes this is the positive vision Scotty Walker:

Nothing more positive about the future than comparing a bunch of teachers, nurses, police, fire, etc... walking around the Capitol to the number one terrorists organization in the world.   Lombardi he isn't!

About those good paying, family supporting jobs.  Now that the legislature has agreed to give them $3 billion dollars to come here, who gets the first (and maybe the only) good paying job from this fiasco?  

Keith Gilkes of course! 

MADISON, Wis. — Any doubt campaign politics is the driving force behind Gov. Scott Walker gambling $3 billion on a subsidy for Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Foxconn has been dispelled by the creation of a single job. According to a report from Wispolitics.com, the lobbying firm hired by Foxconn has brought on Keith Gilkes, Walker’s longtime campaign manager and the head of the Unintimidated PAC that supported his presidential ambitions, to do “public affairs and communications.”

While Gilkes is knee deep in pretty much every walker scandal, including Walker Gate and the John Doe investigation, my favorite story about Gilkes involves the O'Donnell Park tragedy.  At O'Donnell park, on the opening of summerfest, the Milwaukee County infrastructure under Milwaukee County Exec Scott Walker, crumbled.  It not only crumbled, but it fell on and killed a teenager, right in front of his parents.  

While the dust was still settling on the crumbled parking structure, Keith Gilkes sprung into action:

Gilkes, in an email written the day of the accident, advised Walker's county staff to "make sure there is not a piece of paper anywhere that details any problem at all." News organizations and lawyers representing victims and others filed numerous open record requests after the O'Donnell Park accident for inspection reports and other documents on its construction.

In the wake of an incredible tragedy, Gilkes did what almost no one else would do.  His first thought was, we need to shield Scott Walker's career from this.  So glad that he found a way to capitalize on our tax dollars some more!

But Wait there is more!

Scott Walker released his budget earlier this year, and in his budget, he forgot to include millions of dollars to upgrade Wisconsin Rapid's Alexander Field Airport, so billionaires can fly their private planes into the airport and golf at the Sand Valley Golf Resort.  

So the owner of the resort, Michael Keiser, donated $25,000 to the Republican Party of WI and another $65,000 to Scott Walker and incredibly coincidentally, $4 million dollars of upgrades to Alexander Field magically appeared in the budget.  

We know that there was absolutely NO quid pro quo on this airport deal because Scott Krug told us so:

Republican state Rep. Scott Krug, who is not on the budget committee but whose legislative district includes the golf course, said the donations don’t have anything to do with the airport project getting funded.
Krug said Keiser’s donations were to support Republicans who were doing good things for the Wisconsin economy, not to win approval of the airport funding.

If you can not believe Scott Krug, who can you believe?

One last note about Foxconn.  When The Governor offered the company that showed profits of $149 Billion dollars last year, $3 Billion dollars of our money to possibly relocate in Wisconsin, he wrote the agreement on a Post It note and signed it like it was actually binding!

We at CogDis are efforting to confirm that, Scott Walker also Pinky swore and said

"Cross my heart (and hope to die), stick a needle in my eye."  



 

Scott Walker - Trump U's School of Deal Making's Star Student

If you're a semi-literate Republican governor, underwater in the polls and facing reelection next year, what do you do?

Why, you bust your state's budget to pull off the political con job of your life, of course!

A few weeks ago, Scott Walker, along with Trump and Lyin' Paul Ryan announced this "big job creating" deal with Taiwanese manufacturing giant Foxconn. So what if it will cost $1 million per job? So what if it rolls back all environmental regulations and oversight? It's a good deal because JOBS! And that's if the deal even goes through and if Foxconn keeps their word about it, which they have a poor history of doing.

But now even more sordid details of how the deal came to be made is being revealed.

Foxconn CEO Terry Gou was looking at least four states to build their plant in. When he met with Walker, he realized he had a real patsy on his hand and set about seeing how much of a rube Walker really is.

In a deal that started with the state offering $1.25 billion to the company, it quickly escalated to $3 billion as Gou continued to reel Walker in. Of course, Walker doesn't want the public know what a gullible fool he was and so had redacted much of the deal-making:

The Walker administration has yet to say whether the increase in the plant's size and employment reflects a change in the company's business plans or a simple increase in the state's subsidy.

It's not entirely clear, however, how much the state increased its proposal because the governor's office blacked out certain parts of a June 2 offer from a Walker administration official to a Foxconn representative.

In the letter from Mark Hogan, the head of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., to consultant Brian Smith of Ernst & Young, Hogan offers the company $1.25 billion in "state and local incentives." But the words to either side of that amount are redacted — it appears a second dollar amount has been hidden but that could not be confirmed because of the redaction.

A second June 26 letter from Hogan to Smith did spell out that one portion of the state's incentive package had increased substantially.

The state's June 2 offer would have paid Foxconn 10 cents in cash for every $1 in qualifying wages the company paid to workers, this letter says. The final deal offered to Foxconn would pay the company 17 cents for every $1 in wages.

Normally, the state offers to offer no more than 7 cents for every $1 in wages.

Walker's spokesman Tom Evenson said the governor's office had blacked out parts of the state's June 2 and June 26 offers because it could hurt the "competitive nature of the project." He didn't explain how releasing details from the state's outdated offer would hurt the state's competitiveness when the current offer has been released in its entirety.

But there's more. There's always more.

Walker was so eager to have this talking point for his reelection, he signed off on the deal with a handwritten note on his stationary:

And just in case you thought it was just good governing and not a political stunt, Walker tipped his hand last week when he lied about why Foxconn reneged on their deal with Pennsylvania. Walker claimed that it was because Pennsylvania switched from a Republican governor to a Democratic one. PolitiFact called his explanation for what it was - false. There has been no movement by Foxconn for over a year.

About the same amount of time until Wisconsin chooses whether to keep Walker or throw him out with the rest of the trash.

Random Stories

By Jeff Simpson

Sometimes I save things that just never warrant a full post but also need to be shared.  So here is a collection of some interesting, stories and tidbits about recent happenings.  

                                                                Picture of the year!

Paul Ryan says we must do better and listen to each other but has not had a townhall in almost 700 days

Louise Linton, posted a selfie of her and her hubby, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, getting off a government jet for a quick getaway but took the time to tag all of the expensive name brands she was wearing.  So much for draining the swamp.

Why are our friends in IL so happy about Foxconn?  Its because they already were suckered into the same thing in the late 90's.  Lyle Lanley lives!

Wanna know where the money you give to your favorite sports team goes?

For those that think Nazi's were socialists, not so much!

Governor Walker’s Foxconn Scheme Doesn’t Add Up

By Chris Taylor

MADISON – Tomorrow, the Joint Committee on Finance is scheduled to hold a public hearing in Southeast Wisconsin on Governor Walker’s Foxconn legislation, Special Session Assembly Bill 1.  This bill passed the State Assembly last week, and authorizes up to $2.85 billion payments to Foxconn, a Taiwanese electronics manufacturer, for building a manufacturing plant, creating jobs, discounted electricity rates, exemptions from the sales and use tax, and an exemption from significant environmental regulations.

Since the initial public hearing over two weeks ago, where no Foxconn representatives testified, there have been significant new disclosures about this proposal that further raise alarms:

·         Under the best case scenario, it would take 25 years for Wisconsinites to recoup the billions of potential payments to Foxconn;

·         An original analysis by Baker Tilly, paid for by Governor Walker’s jobs creation agency and not made available to the public, estimates that only 4,784 Wisconsin jobs will be created in the manufacturing plant, as opposed to the unverified 13,000 employees Foxconn reports;

·         That hourly employees, consisting the vast percentage of potential employees, are expected to work 20% overtime;

·         Buried in the bill is a provision that allows Foxconn to dump pollution in Wisconsin streams.

  

“With each day that goes by, the more concerned and frankly, outraged, I am over this “deal” being peddled by Governor Walker and legislative Republicans.  They are committing nearly $3 billion in taxpayer cash to a foreign corporation based on its rosy and unverified representations about job creation when they don’t even have to hire Wisconsin workers.

  

“Summer is coming to an end and it’s time Governor Walker takes off his rose-colored glasses and seriously scrutinizes Foxconn’s representations that seem more fiction than fact.  If JFC is doing a roadshow on this scheme, they should travel to parts of the state outside of the southeast to hear from Wisconsinites who will also be required to foot this bill with a staggering price tag.

“Even the nonpartisan Politifact agreed that it is entirely possible that Wisconsin could end up spending nearly $1 million per job that Foxconn creates.  That’s not economic development.  That’s not free market economics.  That’s extortion.  Instead of dumping billions of Wisconsinites’ cash into the pockets of a billion dollar, multinational Taiwanese company, we should be investing in our homegrown Wisconsin companies, our public school system, and our local roads.  That’s something we all can get behind.”

Foxconn Cheat Sheet

By Gordon Hintz

Claim: Foxconn will invest $10 billion in constructing a new plant in Wisconsin

·         Foxconn has not invested $10 billion over the last five years on all of its factories combined.

·         The more Foxconn spends on infrastructure, the less likely it will be adding actual human jobs as the significant infrastructure spending would be for automation. Foxconn has rapidly moved towards automation in recent years replacing 60,000 workers in 2016 with robots.

·         In the past year, Foxconn has pledged investments of $5 billion investment in India; $3.65 billion in Kunshan, China and $8.8 billion in Guangzhou, China. Including the pledge of $10 billion in Wisconsin, Foxconn has pledged $27.5 billion in this year alone. This would be more than they have spent over the past 23 years.

Claim: Foxconn will create 13,000 jobs

·         Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou made no reference to the number of jobs the facility would create.

·         And in a news release, Foxconn was notably more measured than Governor Walker was, using the word "potential" in saying the plant would "create 3,000 jobs with the potential to grow to 13,000 new jobs."

·         President Trump used the same word, saying 3,000 jobs would be created "at a minimum, with the potential for up to 13,000 jobs in the very near future."

·         The company has said the plant would employ 3,000 workers at the beginning but the state's agreement in principle with Foxconn has no minimum jobs requirement.

·         If Foxconn spends $10 billion, the only way to make it economically viable is to keep the numbers of workers low and lean on automation to enhance productivity. If the LCD factory happens, it will be either labor intensive or highly automated. It will not be both.

Claim: Foxconn jobs will pay an average $53,900 a year

·         Foxconn has told the state that plant salaries would start at $41,600.

·         Of the 13,000 “potential” jobs, 75% of the jobs would be hourly operators and techs, presumably starting at $41,600, which would make the median wage at Foxconn $41,600.

·         However, any job paying $30,000 or more would qualify for the state incentives. A $30,000 job at Foxconn would mean that given the state 17% subsidy, Foxconn would be paying a little more than $12 per hour.

Claim: Foxconn has to create jobs to get the cash payments

·         Under the Foxconn bill, the company could get up to $1.35 billion in cash for making the full investment in the plant and robots — even if the market changes and the company is forced to abandon the plant.

Claim: It will take 25 years to recoup state taxpayer investment

·         According to the LFB, under the best case scenario, it would take 25 years to recoup the $2.85 million of taxpayer investment assuming:

o   The company invests $10 billion.

o   10,200 construction workers and suppliers earning an average of $59,600 per year during the four year construction period (2018-2021).

o   13,000 direct jobs at an average of $53,875 per year are in place and filled by calendar year 2021. This includes 1,040 jobs in place and filled by June of 2017.

o   22,000 indirect jobs averaging $51,000 per year are in place and filled by calendar year 2021.

o   If Foxconn falls short of job targets but still invests $10 billion (think robots) the pay back date could be closer to 2075.

Claim: Wisconsin will develop a supply chain for the LCD panels produced at Foxconn

·         Creating an entire supply chain requires the kind of low-skill assembly line jobs that Apple now offshores to countries like China for compensation well below minimum pay in the U.S.

·         As a result, it is unclear whether the company will even source its LCD panels from the Wisconsin factory. There are hundreds of parts that go into LCD panel production. It is unrealistic to have a supply chain by definition in the United States in 2017 and beyond.