Elect Tony Evers/Mandela Barnes For Integrity and Honesty

By Jeff Simpson 

The election is one week away and time to make my endorsement of  the Tony Evers/Mandela Barnes! 

Any reader of CogDis knows that we have never been fans of Scott Walker.  We have written about his failings as a Governor, failed Presidential candidate and human being numerous times.  We have covered him from his bromance with Tim Russell, to his infamous fundraising email asking you to give him all of your kids Christmas money, to his wanting to "wall off Canada" to his public drunkenness, to his son stealing a state van and his being a keynote speaker at a White Power conference. 

After all of that, and plenty more, an endorsement from me is far from a surprise.   However, this endorsement is different.  It is not I endorsing Tony Evers, as much as it is some of the people who know him the best.   

We pointed out recently, that four of his highest ranking officials within his administration, recently co-wrote a letter endorsing Tony Evers, and pointing out that Scott Walkers main priority is Scott Walker. 

Then Peter Bildstein, former Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions, decided to expand a bit more on this: 

Even early on, however, I noticed that not everything was as it should be. At more than one Cabinet meeting, the secretary of the Department of Administration, Mike Huebsch, told us never to send him or the governor any electronic documents of consequence, and to avoid the use of our state-issued cellphones. “If you send me an important report electronically, I won’t open it,” I remember him saying, “and if you call me on your state phone, I won’t answer it.” If we had any important documents, they were to be “walked over” and hand-delivered to the governor’s office. As a result, open-record requests by the media or political opponents would be almost futile. This lack of transparency would be a hallmark of the Walker administration.

Things have gotten so bad, even the Scott Walker friendly Wisconsin State Journal endorsed Tony Evers! 

Evers may lack polish and seem boring at times. But electing a lifelong educator instead of a professional politician should appeal to many voters tired of the bickering and partisan games at the state Capitol.
Change is needed at the top after eight years of Gov. Walker sowing division, undermining good-government protections, and skimping on basic services such as roads while running up debt.
The State Journal endorses Evers for governor in the Nov. 6 election. 

Even though, some of the most qualified people in his administration endorsing his opponent should be enough, however, as we know there is always more. 

WSAW7 recently committed a blatant act of journalism.   Ed Wall, Walkers former Corrections Secretary, recently came out with a "tell-all" book regarding his time in Walker's administration and how incompetent and lacking anything but blind ambition that defines Scott Walker.

Thats were a blatant and rare act of journalism happened.  WSAW7  did an open Record Request and found that, while Walker took every opportunity to smear Mr. Wall, was actually lying and Wall was telling the truth. 

As 7 investigates has previously reported documents show one of the governor’s main aides in 2012, Alex Ignatowski, received a letter from Racine County Judge Richard Kruel expressed shock over the treatment of a Racine County juvenile housed at Lincoln Hills, and held onto that document for more than one month.

Judge Kruel’s letter to Gov. Walker was written one year after the governor’s 2011 budget closed most of the state’s youth prisons, causing all of the state’s juvenile offenders to be moved to the Lincoln Hills/Copper Lake Schools in Irma. Opponents of the move have argued this decision led to years of problems inside the youth prisons, including inmate and staff injuries, under Walker’s leadership.
Full statement from Gov. Scott Walker to 7 Investigates
7 INVESTIGATES : You have personally said you did not order a cancellation of the independent review into Lincoln Hills?
GOV. WALKER: I did not.
7 INVESTIGATES: You did not? And no one on your staff did, as well?
GOV. WALKER: To my knowledge, no.
7 INVESTIGATES: Have you Investigated that at all.
GOV WALKER: No.
 

It is hard to get your Wisconsin calendar correct if you are never in the state.   When the Governor says he has no interest at all in visiting the prisons in your state, or pardoning anyone, you see how he feels about actually doing his job. 

After eight years, we see that Scott Walker has an interest in, and does one thing very very well -  Fundraise! 

Wisconsin, we deserve more! 

Please join me in voting for Tony Evers and Mandela Barnes on Tuesday November 6th. 

Time to restore, honesty, character, decency, morality and virtue back to the Governors Mansion! 


PS:  One last observation.  When was the last time you saw Scott Walker and Rebecca Kleefisch working together?  Could it be that he does not respect her and she does not fit into his Republican climbing ambitions?   

Republican Debate Distress

By Jeff Simpson 

There is a trend happening around the country, the Republicans are ducking debates.   It has even reached Texas where Ted Cruz has pulled out of a debate with his opponent Beto O'Rourke. 

Brownsville, TX - CNN reports Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz has backed out of a debate between Democrat challenger Beto O'Rourke. The debate has changed to a town hall set for thursday, October 18, at the McAllen Performing Arts Center. According to CNN, "Sen. Ted Cruz's campaign initially accepted CNN's invitation to participate" but has since declined. CNN Chief Political Correspondent Dana Bash will moderate the one-hour town hall live at 10 p.m. ET/9 p.m. CT.

So now Beto gets an hour of TV, all by himself,  talking directly to the people of Texas,   The guy who cowered to The Donald, also runs from Beto.   Let's hope the good people of Texas, see his cowardice, and send Terrible Ted packing.

While the cowardice bug afflicted Ted Cruz, it is widespread in Wisconsin.   We will try and address the widespread problem soon, but there is one specific instance I wanted to address, 

The 60th Assembly district.   

Republican Rob Brooks, who is currently was the Assistant Assembly Majority Leader,  is the current Representative of the district.   He is also the only Republican in my memory that Scott Walker has asked to resign.   The blatant racism of Bob Gannon, the fact that Robin Vos was sleeping with someone who reported to him, His right hand man trolling teens online, Wild Bill Kramer a known sexual predator, etc... and Walker was always quiet as a church mouse when asked about them. 

This time it is different.  In the home stretch of this election season, Scott Walker is obviously worried about how he polls with women and decided that for the first time in his political life, he was offended by something a fellow Republican did or said. 

"Representative Brooks' comments are offensive and disrespectful," Walker said in a tweet. "They have no place in our society and are inconsistent with the high standards that must be held by those in public office. He should resign from office, period."

What did Brooks do that upset this guy? 

Brooks attended a GOP function in the Wisconsin Dells (probably paid for by all of us) and decided to get drunk as Dale Kooyenga on budget voting day.   The problem with Brooks getting drunk, the real Rob Brooks apparently came out:

Rep. Rob Brooks (R-Saukville) directed a racial remark at fellow GOP Rep. Jessie Rodriguez of Oak Creek — the only Hispanic Republican in the Assembly — at a restaurant after an Assembly GOP caucus event in Wisconsin Dells, according to sources familiar with the incident.
An obviously inebriated Brooks said he was buying drinks for everyone "except Jessie because she's Hispanic," said one source.
Some at the gathering thought it was a really bad joke by an intoxicated individual because it was not delivered in a hateful way. But sources said Brooks proceeded to purchase alcohol for several Republicans. Rodriguez was not among them.
Brooks also made sexual comments to Republican Reps. Cindi Duchow of Delafield and Amy Loudenbeck of Clinton at the restaurant, but it is not known what exactly he said to them.

We will not know what is said because the Republicans, in the heat of the #metoo movement made a rule that they will not disclose any information about any harassment to the public.  They decided the best way to handle, for the long term health of their gerrymandered majority, is to take care of it internally with a slap on the wrist and a vow to never speak of it again. 

This was tried in this case but somehow word of his misogynistic sexism and blatant racism leaked out.  All of the women who were victimized by Brooks, all "want to put this behind them".  It will be interesting to see as we move forward, what exactly Robin Vos offered them to "put it behind them".

Which leads us to the reason of this post.   While Brooks had a few drinks and was not scared to say anything, now he is ducking debates with his opponent Chris Rahlf.   

The people of the 60th district deserve better than a rep who will only talk when he is drunk and then say things that no one should be saying. 

They deserve to be able to see both candidates, together discussing the issues and then decide. 

If  Rob Brooks is refusing to give his constituents that, then he has the same disgust for them that he has for women. 

Tell Rob Brooks to Debate Chris Rahlf. 

Campaign
204 East Dekora Street
Saukville, WI 53080

Capitol
State Capitol, Room 309 North
Post Office Box 8952
Madison, WI 53708-8952
Phone: 608-267-2369
Fax: 608-282-3660
Toll Free: 888-534-0060

@RepRobBrooks

If he still refuses, then let us help Chris Rahlf actually represent everyone in the 60th.  

Go to her website, like her Facebook page, follow her on twitter, give her a few bucks, or a few hours and for sure, call everyone you know in the area and tell them to get out and vote on November 6th for Chris Rahlf.  

Chris grew up in a military family.  Her father, a retired Air Force Chief Master Sergeant who served in Vietnam, taught her that leadership means putting the needs of others before yourself.   That is a lesson she took to heart during her service in the Navy and subsequent civilian  business career.
Unfortunately, it seems that state government has forgotten for whom they serve.  They put the interests of out of state donors and corporations before the people of Wisconsin.  They play partisan politics with important issues that affect every Wisconsinite's well-being like healthcare, education, and the environment.  
We need leaders like Chris who will stand up to the dysfunction and divisiveness rampant in our state capitol and work with all sides to solve the problems facing our state.   She will put people before politics.

Ron Johnson Fails All His Tests

By Jeff Simpson



Wisconsin Right Wing Senator Ron Johnson, the former Gopher who married his way into prosperity, decided in 2010 to run for Senate, and his Father-in-law's company(PACUR) staked him $10 million dollars to buy his seat. 

Johnson, who graduated from U-Minnesota in 1977 with a degree in business and accounting, has decided that since he was so successful marrying a rich girl, he must be an expert in everything, so he has dabbled over his head.

RoJo took a shot at dabbling in science and told us Sunspots cause climate change and is unsure about Evolution.   F in Science! 

Then RoJo took a stab at world history and told us that Greenland was called that for a reason:

“There’s a reason Greenland was called Greenland,” he said. “It was actually green at one point in time. And it’s been, since, it’s a whole lot whiter now.”

 A quick reality check shows that Greenland’s ice cap is hundreds of thousands of years old and covers over 80% of the island. The vast majority of land not under the ice sheet is rock and permafrost in the far north. How different could it have been just 1,000 years ago?

World History is an F also! 

Then RoJo, being the uber Catholic he is, dabbled in religion and just as Jesus would do, testified to defeat the victims rights bill so that pedophile Catholic Priests can be protected. 

  As a member of the finance council for the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay until he resigned to run for Senate this year, Ron Johnson served alongside a bishop named Robert Morneau who, as a Church leader, had been made aware over two decades ago of the abusive tendencies of Rev. John Feeney.
Rev. Feeney was convicted in 2003, before Johnson joined the council, for sexually assaulting two brothers in the late 1970s. But according to documents obtained by the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests (SNAP), the Church sought to cover up his crimes, which one reverend called “sexually very inappropriate.”
Seven years later, Johnson testified before the Wisconsin State Senate against legislation to eliminate the statute of limitations for such crimes, making it easier for victims of sexual abuse to seek damages from the Church or any other culpable institution.

Wow, he was on the council of a local  Catholic church that was covering up their own sexual predator, then not learning his lesson and testifying to make sure pedophile priests do not have to pay for their crimes. 

Ron Johnson earns an F- in Religion.  

Now Ron Johnson is stepping up his ignorance game.   In the wake of Dr. Blasey Fords testimony under oath that Brett Cavanaugh attacked her at a party in high school, Ron Johnson used his accounting degree, to diagnose her as having "false memories" . 

 In a video taken by a local filmmaker of Johnson at Mitchell International Airport on Friday afternoon, the Wisconsin Republican senator said he would be voting to confirm Kavanaugh, calling him a "good, decent person" and a "great judge."
Asked what he believes motivated Ford to testify this week, Johnson responded: "Read about false memories. Read about people who have actually confessed to crimes and then later proven totally innocent, OK?"

Apparently after watching Scott Walker and Paul Ryan speak of their incredible accomplishments the lats eight years, Ron Johnson is very familiar with "false memories". 

Ron Johnson also fails his Psychology class! F

Unfortunately, for women in America, Dr. Blasey Ford is ten times smarter than anyone who tried to explain away the sexual assault on her and the GOP members who keep desperately trying to do so are embarrassing themselves and their heirs!   

I guess, with Ron Johnson allowing his staffer to be sexually assaulted and preyed upon by WISGOP leader Wild Bill Kramer, for the good of the Republican party, We know where his loyalties lie.    Crimes, and lives, do not matter if it might mean losing a seat in power. 

I guess since the GOP has a Bro Caucus, and GOP women say no biggie, all boys attack women, and being groped against your will is no big deal, Nothing should surprise me anymore!

Jason Miller Embodies Republican Values

By Jeff Simpson

The tangled web that we weave. 

No one knew, when The Donald got into the Presidential race, with 16 other Republicans, that it would end up with David Dennison being sworn in as the 46th President of the United States.

Part of the reason he won, because his team handled the daily press barrage well.  Two of the people most responsible for that was Jason Miller and AJ Delgado.

While these two helped The Donald overcome the odds, lack of intelligence, experience and morals to actually become The President.   Their story also could not be any more GOP, Washington DC, Politics, Donald Trump if Dinesh D'Souza had written it himself.

Miller and Delgado were working the campaign together and ended up getting involved.   While Miller was married at the time, he told Delgado that he and his wife were seperated. 

The two began dating in mid-October, Delgado said, adding that while she knew Miller was married, he told her at the time that he was separated from his wife. “Among other things, I was really drawn to his talent,” she told me. “He is the best at what he does.” 

Delgado though made a major mistake to live in this world(besides believing the lies), she got pregnant and refused to have an abortion. 

But just a couple of weeks after Election Day, Delgado discovered she was pregnant. She held off at first on sharing the news, unsure of how Miller would take it.
“I finally told him one night when we were in bed and I couldn’t fall asleep,” she said.
Miller reacted calmly, Delgado recalled, but came back with some complicating news of his own. “Well this is going to be extra awkward for me to handle,” she remembers him saying, “because my wife is expecting.”

Ahh yes, Miller meant separated at that moment.   Delgado learned the hard way, that women are second class citizens in the new Trumpian GOP, and once people found out she was pregnant from the affair, she was ostracized. 

Miller however was rewarded with the job of White House Communications Director.  Apparently getting two women pregnant at once was very impressive to the Donald.  Unfortunately, for Jason, Delgado took to social media to let everyone know and Miller was forced to resign.

CNN however, the subject of much ridicule and scorn from the Trump administration, was not scared to show us how Stockholm Syndrome actually works and gladly hired Miller on as an "analyst". 

But wait there is more.  There is always more. 

It turns out Miller always considers himself separated from his wife when he in on the road because in 2012, he got a stripper in Orlando Florida pregnant (apparently condoms are not allowed in Trumpian GOP) and welcomed that news by making his stripper mistress a smoothie one day with the main ingredient being an abortion pill(unbeknownst to his mistress).

Millers problem was solved as his mistress lost the baby and bled out and almost died herself.   That absolved Miller of having to tell his wife about the stripper and have yet another child with his genes he refused to help pay for. 

It also allowed Miller to continue working Republican Communications to help get "pro-life" candidates elected.

God Bless America! 

 
But wait there is even more.... Miller, after he was forced out of CNN, was then hired as Managing Director of TENEO Holdings.  In case you do not know(and why would you), Teneo holdings was founded by Doug Band and Declan Kelly.  Both of these men are good friends of the Clintons and Band was actually Bill Clintons chief advisor for 9 years. 

It is a big club and you are not in it...but you do pay dearly for the dues. 

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 GOP Conga Line To Nowhere!

By Jeff Simpson

As Capper pointed out recently, Wisconsin's favorite Married into money Senator, Ron Johnson spent Independence Day 2018 in Russia of all places. 

Apparently RoJo felt that he would rather hang at the Kremlin than with Scott Walker and his fellow Republicans at the Governor's mansion. 

It appears that RoJo may have made the right choice by seeing this:

Than this: 

Honestly no one really wants to see that.   Had RoJo been stuck in Wisconsin, he would have ended up as the Caboose on this Conga line, after too many Coors Lights, and had traumatic flashbacks to his middle school days in Minnesota. 

Who knows how that would have affected him and how much more we as taxpayers would have had to pay to cover his health insurance.  

We can skip over the zombie Scott Walker mindlessly leading a group of 6 flailing white people(amongst a bigger party) around aimlessly, and focus on Leah "unhinged" Vukmir, who is blindly following her leader into the abyss.  

Vukmir,  who will be spending the next week talking about how extreme Tammy Baldwin is, because Senator Bernie Sanders will be making a visit to Wisconsin to campaign with Senator Baldwin.   

If you want to see the perfect example of extreme, this is from an Independence Day parade: 

Nothing says I love my country, more than a grown man wearing American Flag footy jammies out in public.   I would guess if you are an adult wearing footy jammie, the TRUMP flag is an automatic accessory. 

We can not blame her, after listening to The Donald recently in Montana, I have no doubt that he spoke directly to Leah!

For those who can not stomach listening to The Donald or can not believe what you hear....here is the actual transcript!

Ahhh Nakita, it all comes back to The Donald and his love for Russia!  

The Flynn Finagle

By Jeff Simpson

Democratic candidate for Governor Matt Flynn, has been the subject of a firestorm lately.    By now, everyone knows about the Catholic Priest abuse scandal.   As one would think, Wisconsin was not spared this nightmare.  While I am not going to re-litigate that tragedy, I would like to address Matt Flynn's role in it. 

There have been stories, and videos, expressing outrage at Matt Flynn and his role in this far reaching scandal. 

While an attorney for Quarles and Brady — the tony law firm that counts the Archdiocese of Milwaukee among its most important clients — Flynn became lead defender in the sex-abuse case with the nation’s fourth-largest number of alleged victims

Flynn issued a press release to answer these accusations:

 I have been a Catholic all my life. When I learned of the abuses, I knew that to be in alignment with my
conscience, I had to do something, not merely voice disapproval. In my work almost twenty years ago, I
worked with others to put into place procedures to identify and remove abusive priests, notify the
authorities, and prevent their transfer. It was imperative that we work to create a system that would
ensure that crimes such as these could never be committed and allowed to persist.

In an era of battling over the 1st and 2nd amendments, the 6th amendment is equally important.   

Sixth Amendment
The Sixth Amendment guarantees the rights of criminal defendants, including the right to a public trial without unnecessary delay, the right to a lawyer,  the right to an impartial jury, and the right to know who your accusers are and the nature of the charges and evidence against you.  It has been most visibly tested in a series of cases involving terrorism, but much more often figures in cases that involve (for example) jury selection or the protection of witnesses, including victims of sex crimes as well as witnesses in need of protection from retaliation.

Everyone in our society, from Jeffrey Dahmer, to Henry Kissinger, to John Wayne Gacy, to Joe sixpack to the Catholic church deserves legal representation and the ethics of legal representation are as follows:

*  represent their clients with undivided loyalty
*  keep their clients' confidences
*  represent their clients competently
*  represent their clients within the bounds of the law, *  put their clients' interests ahead of their own

While the priests who were the actual pedophiles are too blame, there are many many people who took part in the coverup.    From Bishops, other Priests, law enforcement, church members, etc...  There is much blame to go around but I personally believe that Matt Flynn does not belong in that circle.  No matter how hard he worked for his clients.   

Another thing I want to address, is this from the discussion: 

If Flynn were to win the nomination, GOP attacks on this front would be a daily occurrence.

 A quick look and we see that Republican Senator Ron Johnson testified in favor of protecting the Catholic Church from lawsuits.  RoJo was not their lawyer, or even a player at all in the game, but decided to pick up this cause as his major cause that he wanted to make his first major public appearance.   

The Sixth Amendment is just as important as every other amendment and it is imperative that everyone has legal representation.    I personally do not like that Scott Walker was never charged in the John Doe investigation, but I do not hold the lawyers he paid a million dollars to keep him out of prison responsible.   

Let us also not forget that the whole of the Republican Party rallied around a known child predator in Judge Roy Moore for Senate recently. 

They would attack Matt Flynn for sure if he is the candidate but they would have no legs to stand on.

I feel it is imperative that Democrats never make a decision based on what the Republicans might do. 

That all being said, I do not feel that Matt Flynn has handled the fall out of this very well. 

 Democrat Matt Flynn says anyone who wants him to drop out of the governor's race because of his past work defending the Milwaukee Archdiocese can "jump in a lake."

NOT the best way to handle that.  

I am not endorsing Matt Flynn, nor have I ever.  Everyone has to look at the field and come up with who they support based on their ideals and policies and personality. 

If Flynn is not your favorite candidate, that is perfectly fine and acceptable, but please do not dismiss him for doing his job to the best of his ability or what ads the GOP might run.    

I personally am supporting Michael Crute, so if Matt Flynn does not win the nomination, I am fine with that.   

However, let us talk about the issues that matter.   We win on those issues.   

Paul Ryan - Head of the Morlino Sect

By Jeff Simpson

  “Padre, you just got to stay out of politics.” Paul Ryan to Father Patrick Conroy. 

Capper told us about Paul Ryan recently firing a priest, the House Chaplain - Father Patrick Conroy.   However, his extremist views, while pretending  to be mainstream Catholic has been a problem of Paul Ryan's for as long as he has been in the public spotlight.   

The local Catholic Bishop that covers Janesville, WI area is Bishop Morlino.   Bishop Morlino extreme right wing views, has not been very popular with the public.   As a matter of fact, Bishop Morlino is a big reason that I personally left the Catholic Church.    

With leadership like Morlino, it is no surprise that a follower like Paul Ryan would act the way that he does.  Let's take a little deeper dive into the Sedevacantism, of Paul Ryan. 

In March of 2013, the current Pope, Francis was named Pope and shook up the Catholic Church.   Pope Francis has spoke up about the danger of Global Climate Change and how it is our responsibility to take care of the poor and address poverty.    Pope Francis has spoken out about treating our LGBTQ friends with respect, allowing divorced Catholics back into the church and even has started the discussion of allowing women a larger role in the Church(gasp). 

Then came this gem: 

In this context, some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system. Meanwhile, the excluded are still waiting. 

When anyone talks of the ridiculousness of trickle-down economics, Paul Ryan takes it personally.   Personally enough to let the Pope know that he is a fool.   It takes a lot of guts to tell someone they do not know economics after you just oversaw raising our deficit to over 20 trillion dollars that you are the expert on the economy.  However Mr. Ryan has a cause and he believes deeply in it.   Cutting the social safety net.  

The signs have always been there, but for some reason the media has always treated Paul Ryan as if he is a serious Congressman and even pretend he is a policy wonk.  

Paul Ryan, who used his social security survivor benefits to pay for college, now wants to cut those very benefits for everyone else.  No need for anyone else to use the ladder to climb up after him.  Yet that is never a question he has to answer.  

Another huge clue, is Ryan's love for Ayn Rand.  While they both have in common, that they had no problem collecting social security benefits while trying to make sure no one else gets the same.   The reality is anyone watching could see that the hardcore Catholic act that Ryan likes to play, is in direct opposite philosophy as the objectivism and individualism of the Randian cult.   

Galatians 6:2  Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

Ok so his whole career has been a scam, and every reporter in Wisconsin has swallowed it hook, line and sinker. 

As we say, there is more, there is always more, so let us keep digging. 
In 2012, a bus full of Nuns, decided they had enough of no one speaking up or helping the poor, so they jumped on a bus and went to lobby Mr. Ryan.  

For Instance just a few months ago, long after same sex marriage was settled law, Bishop Morlino issued guidance to Priests in his Diocese to think long and hard before performing the funeral rights of a gay human being. 

Paul Ryan, while voting for any Anti Gay legislation he possibly could, has made it clear that, like the poor, our LGBTQ's friends rights are of no interest to him.   It is just an annoyance by the Evangelicals that keep getting in the way of his tax cuts.   

This is also in direct conflict with Pope Francis:

The Catholic church and other Christian communities must apologize to gay people and to many groups they have let down or offended throughout history, Pope Francis has said.
In a press conference Sunday on the flight back to Rome after his weekend trip to Armenia, the pontiff said bluntly: "The church must say it's sorry for not having comported itself well many times, many times."
"I believe that the church not only must say it's sorry ... to this person that is gay that it has offended," said the pope. "But it must say it's sorry to the poor, also, to mistreated women, to children forced to work."
"When I say the church: Christians," Francis clarified. "The church is holy. We are the sinners."

Being the GOP wonderboy, means never having to say you're sorry:

“I suppose that there are some Catholics who for a long time thought they had a monopoly of sorts ... on the social teaching of our church,” Ryan said during a speech that attracted a full audience and a number of of protesters. “Of course there can be differences among faithful Catholics on this. The work I do as a Catholic holding office conforms to the social doctrine as best I can make of it.”

While many in the Catholic church had major problems with Paul Ryans career, and his former Priest in Janesville(He left that church because the Father was talking too much about helping the poor) has been worried about him. 7,000 Catholic Sisters even got together to condemn him.

Paul Ryan will now be free to do what he does best, fundraise.  While he said he would be home every weekend as speaker to be a dad, the reality is he spent most weekends fundraising. 

As Jesus taught us about the pursuit of money:

"No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money." Matthew 6:24

That is a lesson that Mr. Ryan must have missed, but when you are part of the Bishop Morlino Sect, you do not get most of the teachings of Jesus. 

Yet like most Relogious Radical Zealots, not understanding and misinterpreting the Bible does not deter you from forcing your extremist views on everyone around you.

Good bye Paul Ryan..... You will not be missed! 

Screnock The Supreme Sham

By Jeff Simpson

Next week, we get a chance again to tweak our Wisconsin Supreme Court.  The choice is down to Hard Core right winger Mike Screnock and Rebecca Dallett.   While Dallett has run an all over the board, low road campaign, she has to be the choice. 

Screnock, who likes to pretend he is nonpartisan and will follow the rule of law to a T, yet his whole career has proven the exact opposite.

When Screnock was younger, he took time away from playing tennis and the tuba for the Baraboo Thunderbirds:

To get himself arrested twice for blocking women's access to healthcare and refusing to give his name to the police when arrested. 

It is always nice when the Supreme Court Justice can share his mugshots. 

But wait there is more, there is always more:

Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC), Scott Walkers boss, have spent north of $600,000 to elect Screnock.  The Republican Party of Wisconsin, is in for about $150,000, The NRA has given him their strong endorsement and Right Wisconsin gives him unlimited free press because he is their largest advertiser.

Screnock has hired some of the worst of the worst right wing extremists to run his campaign:

 His campaign is staffed by longtime Republican operatives including Sean Lansing and Luke Hilgemann, both formerly with the Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity, and Nathan Conrad, formerly a spokesman for the state GOP.

To make matters worse, Screnock knows that he is running as a GOP Justice and has unlimited funds trying to get him elected.   That means he has no interest in even attempting to do the work needed to win grass roots support!

Screnock has blown off candidate questions from the League of Women Voters. He avoided some joint appearances prior to the primary and backed out of a March 13 debate before the Dane County Bar Association, after originally agreeing to take part. The group’s treasurer, David Friedman, says that “to the best of the DCBA’s knowledge,” no other major candidate for state Supreme Court has ever failed to appear at its candidate forum. 

Screnock has even engaged in artful dodging to avoid discussing his own actions in court.

While Mike was in Mock Trial his senior year, it seems that all he has learned to mock are the citizens and voters of Wisconsin.

It is time to upgrade our Supreme Court even if it is only slightly.

Please do not vote Screnock! 

The Shrine of Paul Ryan

By Jeff Simpson

With the latest announcement that Trey "Benghazi" Gowdy will not seek re-election, there are too many GOP elected officials to count who are quitting.   

Trey is as bad a Congressman as his dad Curt was a great sportscaster.    America is automatically better today because of this news. 

There has even been speculation, that Janesville's own Paul Ryan is considering "retirement". 

While Gowdy's legacy will be an unnatural obsession with Hillary Clinton, Paul Ryan is leaving a different legacy one in his own home town that had ripple effects throughout the Nation. 

Ryan recounts friends losing their jobs at GM’s assembly plant and compares Detroit and Janesville in the opening chapter titled: “A Tale of Two Cities.” His father, Paul M. Ryan lost part of a finger, which was surgically reattached, when he worked at the factory in college to pay for tuition and books.“The struggle isn’t immediately apparent the way it is in a place like Detroit,” Ryan wrote. “The fall of Detroit, and the unease in Janesville, should be warning flags that force us all to confront our failure to take the future seriously.”

While you could not find any better pictures to document the results of Paul Ryan's career, these pictures are of the Janesville GM Plant that closed. 

   "We will not spend four years blaming others, we will take responsibility." Paul Ryan

 Also, do not forget what Republicans in WI, think about the closing of the Janesville GM plant.  Scott Walker trolled all of Janesville, when he put this billboard up inside the shuttered plants grounds:

One Last Wish

By Jeff Simpson

Recently an long time Democratic activist from Beloit WI, Helen Forbeck, passed.   In her obituary, her last act on this earth, she was able to get one more message across! 

The greatest hope she had for this world as she left it is that our current president leaves office as soon as possible, along with any other bigots, homophobes, and racists. She asked those who support such beliefs to not dare to attend her visitation or funeral.

RIP Helen....We will deliver on your greatest hope this November. 

In honor of Helen, please donate a few bucks or an hour or two of your time to change our government for the better in November, and do it in Helen's name!