Scott Walker's Sunday Drive

By Jeff Simpson

Scott Walker decided to borrow a Harley for the weekend and drive around WI.  We already know that the Harley Walker rides is an election year prop.  No one in the history of Harley Davidson has looked more awkward actually riding one.

Beyond that, the ever hip Walker, decided to tweet out various stops along his way, and instead of showing what a "regular Wisconsinite" he is, he actually was on a "why I should not be re-elected" tour and did not even know it. 

Let's take a look at some highlights.

First we should point out that while Scott, drives his rented Harley around the state, the Donald is constantly threatening Harley Davidson and Scott Walker does not have the courage to speak up and ask him to stop. 

First stop was a typical Walker hangout.  A crowd of people who are 100% on his side that is all white and older.  This time though, he has taken a page out of his good friend the Donald's book on marriage.  Scott is the star and Tonette is along for the ride and shoved to the side.   Nothing to take any attention away from the candidate. 

Next stop lunch and look what we see, the same crowd of older white walkers(extra credit for those who can find tonette in that crowd).  Still efforting to see if he gets his crowd of henchmen from the same place that the Joker gets his.

Then he made a quick stop 

Enjoyed attending the grand opening of the Farm Wisconsin Discovery Center. What a great opportunity to teach kids about the farming industry. pic.twitter.com/oHtQOKL6gC

— Scott Walker (@ScottWalker) July 16, 2018

Umm Scott, I know public education is not your thing, but there are no kids there. 

Ok it has been a long day in the sun, and I am guessing you ordered kids for photo shoot and Keith Gilkes dropped the ball.

So we move on.  Next stop a local technical college(Tonette was waiting on the car).

Scott Walker‏Verified account @ScottWalker 7h7 hours ago

Great to visit Nicolet Technical College to learn about their welding and IT programs – we’re working to help students get the skills needed to fill all the jobs from those “help wanted” signs around the state!

Did no one tell Scott that he actually cut over $60 million dollars from Wisconsin technical colleges during his reign?

The state’s investment in technical college education has actually plummeted during Gov. Walker’s time in power despite a looming skilled labor shortage.
In his first budget (2011-2012) Walker slashed Wisconsin Technical College funding by $71.6 million, a 30 percent cut, reducing state support (General Purpose Revenue) for all sixteen technical colleges to only $83.5 million. That was actually less total dollars than the state invested in the WTCS 23 years earlier in 1988/89.
Funding remained flat until 2015 when, during his re-election campaign, Walker restored a mere $5 million of the $71.6 million he had previously cut. That was only 6.9 percent of what Walker had cut just four years before!

Be careful guys, that is a knife Walker is sticking in your back! 

Next stop for "cold ice cream"  on National Ice cream day: 

Leave it to Scott Walker, in the dairy state, on National Ice Cream Day, to find a cheap soft serve cone.  While soft serve is technically ice cream(like Walker technically got an education) it is filled with chemicals, less actual milk and more air.   It is also served from a machine made in Illinois. 

Finally we stop eating and taking pictures with his motorcycle gang, and we head to the grand finale.  What should be the straw that breaks the Governor's campaign....this picture:

Scott Walker

‏@ScottWalker

 Jul 15

More

Enjoying the amazing views on our ride.

Once again, the Governor is clueless, I guess it is all of that time spent traveling out of state. What I, and most Wisconsinites see, is a nice stretch of country crumbling roads:

Gov. Pothole has allowed Wisconsin’s roads to decay to 2nd-worst in the country, costing motorists repair penalties reaching an estimated $700 annually in the Milwaukee area, data shows.

that take us past a bankrupt dairy farm.

Wisconsin lost 500 dairy farms in 2017, and about 150 have quit milking cows so far this year, putting the total number of milk-cow herds at around 7,600 — down 20% from five years ago. "Drive around Wisconsin and you will see empty barns all over," said Elizabeth Schlintz, a dairy farmer from Bangor, Wis., and a lender with a community bank.

 Federal court data shows western Wisconsin had the highest number of Chapter 12 farm bankruptcies in the nation in 2017. That's only a glimpse into the problem since Chapter 12 is a relatively rare tool used in bankruptcies.
Farmers say the downturn is worse than one they experienced in 2009 because it has lasted longer and their costs are higher now. Many dairy operations are drowning in debt. In some cases, they have a half-million dollars in unpaid bills. 

Not really much of an amazing view in my eyes.

Kimberly Clark, Harley and Walker! #ItsNotworking

By Jeff Simpson 

Harley Davidson, a staple Wisconsin company since 1903 is starting to change their business model. 

They just announced that they will be closing their Kansas City Assembly plant leaving 800 American workers without a job. 

It is a stunning end to what was at the time a glorious beginning when Harley announced in 1996 that it was putting down roots here.
Kansas City beat out 30 other cities in 10 states in a months-long competition.
Then-Mayor Emanuel Cleaver called it “a once-in-a-century catch for Kansas City.”
It came at an opportune moment. The Kansas City area was then in the midst of a several years of disappointments that would see the area lose the headquarters of the NCAA, the Big 12 athletic conference headquarters and the annual FFA convention.
Winning the Harley plant mitigated the blows somewhat.
But that success did not come cheap. Area leaders said the $85 million to $100 million assembly plant was well worth the initial $6.4 million-incentive package that the state, city and Platte County offered. Those tax credits and other subsidies would over time grow by tens of millions of dollars.

While they say they will be moving production to their York, PA plant, they also had another announcement today.

Harley-Davidson (HOG) is building a new plant in Thailand, reflecting the industry’s push for global sales growth.
The iconic American motorcycle maker was part of President Donald Trump’s focus on U.S. manufacturing in the early days of his administration. Executives visited the White House in February to meet with Trump, who thanked Harley-Davidson “for building things in America.” But even Harley-Davidson had a manufacturing footprint overseas, and the Milwaukee-based company says the facility in Thailand will improve its ability to serve markets where demand is on the rise.  

So much winning!  But Wait there is more --  It is not working just at Harley, Kimberly Clark also informed 5500 American workers that their winter got alot colder and they will not be employed much longer! 

Kimberly-Clark has announced plans to cut 5,000 to 5,550 jobs in an effort to restructure and save money, the company announced Tuesday during the release of its year-end results and 2018 outlook.  The job cuts amount to 12-13 percent of the company's workforce.
Kimberly-Clark also plans to close or sell 10 manufacturing plants and expand production at other plants.
The company anticipates this plan will generate pre-tax savings of $500-$550 million by the end of 2021.

With someone like this touting your products, who needs enemies(Alex prefers to steal vans, so no Harley shirt).   

Whatever Scott Walker and The Donald are doing, it is NOT working.  While we get a chance to change course to one that actually works for WI this November, in the meantime, maybe we should listen to The Detroit News and stop chasing companies with tax dollars!  

There’s a lesson to be learned from Detroit’s failure to make the 20-city short list for Amazon’s “HQ2” project(edit note: both Milwaukee & Madison bid on this and lost also) Let’s not do this any more.
The national frenzy over Amazon’s second headquarters should teach us it’s time to stop being one of 50 states or one of 200-plus cities getting played against each other by giant companies. Rather, let’s opt out of the corporate welfare hustle altogether, stop our politicians and bureaucrats from trying to micromanage the economy and make them put the money back into our communities where it came from in the first place.

Those plans rarely work, anyway. In business, it’s a truism that, “There’s always someone with a lower price.” In economic development, as we saw with Amazon, there’s always some other state or city with a bigger subsidy. We saw this play out in recent history with movie subsidies in Michigan. We spent hundreds of millions of dollars writing checks to Hollywood, but ended up with fewer people employed in the film industry in the state than when we’d started.
Whether we’re building the Batcave, the tallest skyscraper in Detroit, a battery plant or an e-commerce corporate headquarters, this money isn’t free. Governments can only give companies like Amazon free money if they first take it from someplace — or someone — else. But every dollar taxed away from an existing business is a dollar it can’t use to grow. Every dollar we take from a family to fund a corporate project is one they’re not going to be able to spend at an existing local grocery store or restaurant where their neighbors are employed. That’s real money — academic research from the University of Missouri at St. Louis suggests that nationally, “economic development” costs us each individually about $250 a year, close to an average week’s income for a family of four — and it’s coming right out of the economy it’s supposed to be “developing.”

Harley Won't Endorse Walker

As the gentle reader knows, Scott Walker has long used a Harley Davidson motorcycle as a political prop in a vain effort to show that he is an every day kind of guy.

Sadly for Walker, Harley Davidson won't return the love:

But Harley says the company is staying out of presidential politics.

"While there’s no official relationship between Harley-Davidson and Governor Walker, he is passionate about our brand like the millions of other loyal Harley-Davidson customers around the world," Harley-Davidson spokeswoman Maripat Blankenheim said in an email.

She added that Harley dealerships are independent businesses.

“It’s important to note our dealerships are independently owned and operated businesses,” Blankenheim wrote. “Harley-Davidson Motor Company does not endorse any candidate and remains neutral in political campaigns.”

I can't say that I blame them. After all, if they were to endorse Walker, or any other candidate, they'd have nothing to gain and a lot to lose.

Besides, who would want to have their brand linked to this?

That sort of thing will have people imaging this every time they see a Harley:

Surely, that wouldn't be good for business at all.

Scott Walker - The Great Pretender

By Jeff Simpson 

Scott Walker likes to bill himself as the "Harley candidate" and let everyone know that he is "the real deal",

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is still maintaining his early lead here even as hordes of Republican competitors scour the state. When Walker rolled up recently in black leather for Sen. Joni Ernst's inaugural "Roast & Ride," we were most interested in finding out whether his credentials as a Harley rider would automatically lock down a solid bloc of votes.
The answer? Unclear.
All the optics were working for Walker during the 38-mile ride this past weekend. He jokingly flashed his worn motorcycle gloves and license for reporters to show he was the real deal. He was swarmed by riders looking for a handshake and a word about their shared love of the road. Zipped inside the pocket of his leather jacket was a black polished stone given to him by a veteran that he carries whenever he rides.

 But for some riders like Matt Howell, who heads a Des Moines-based Harley group, Walker's love of bikes showed traits that he wants to see in the eventual Republican nominee -- and he said it would be a factor in his eventual decision on who to support."If you talk to the hard core supporters that ride, I think that would take it to that core demographic," Howell said.

Scott Walker even calls his Harley "his escape".

  Walker says his bike is his escape, and says he rides to get away from it all. He insists on riding alone, and says a few nights each week this past summer, he left the seclusion and safety of the Governor’s mansion, and headed out to explore Wisconsin’s roads – the same roads he traveled last fall as a gubernatorial candidate. The irony of trying to ride away from the recall talk, is that everywhere he rode, he was reminded of it, from his own street, to country roads, as Wisconsin is awash in “Recall Walker” signs, but Walker says he doesn’t let it get to him.

“To me, it’s just one more thing flying by on the road,” Walker said.

Unfortunately for the people of Wisconsin, Scott Walker just can not tell the truth, no matter the subject.   Here is a recent pic of Scott Walker's 2003 Harley-Davidson Road King(which he bought in 2008):(H/T Abe Sauer)




Yes that is a whopping 6333 miles in the 12 year old bike.   If he bought the five year old bike with zero miles on it, that means driving his Harley everyday he put a whole 900 miles a year on it.

Vote for him though because he can occasionally be pictured sitting on a Harley.  

O and he took down the terrorists teachers, firemen and police officers of Wisconsin also:

Walkergate: John Doe Rides A Harley

As I mentioned in my previous post, I've been decrying the foul corruption of Scott Walker and his underlings since my first days as a blogger at folkbum's rambles and rants. Among the first things and top things that I had continuously harped on was Walker's "Executive Rides," thinly veiled campaign tours which he pretended were trips to promote tourism in Milwaukee County.

These "Executive Rides" have long been a thorn for both those of us who want clean government and for Walker himself. I say they've been a problem for Walker because he has been so inept and so corrupt, he kept tripping himself up every time he took one of these trips.

Image by Stuart Carlson

In 2005, when Walker was making his first gubernatorial run, he started to get called out for using county funds to promote his campaign bike rides.

The water got a little hotter when he was busted handing out $19,000 worth of goodies to people. He gave these goodies to the media in order to win friendly press and to non-media types who were supporting his campaign.

After Walker got bumped out of the 2006 race, things settled down for a little bit, although he was still using taxpayer dollars to promote himself on these Harley Davidson rides.

When Walker started gearing up for his second run for governor, so did his "Executive Ride" related antics.

In 2009, he got Air Tran to sponsor part of his campaign bike ride, which in itself was illegal. But he also had his scheduling secretary book reservations for the people that wanted to come along. Even though she was a county employee, he had her use her personal email to make the arrangements.*

Walker claimed that the illegal corporate donations were to save taxpayer money on his campaign rides, but the truth was that he was still using taxpayer dollars laundered through groups like ChooseMilwaukee.com and The Milwaukee 7, both of which Walker was a board member.

It was later learned that Walker had given Air Tran a contract for a much larger space at the county-ran Mitchell Airport about the same time they were making the announcement that they were sponsoring his bike ride.

That same year, Walker made a stink about two county supervisors who went to Washington, D.C. to see Obama's inauguration, calling the expense "mind-boggling." What he didn't mention is that these same supervisors came back with millions of dollars in stimulus funding. This was a much better deal than the thousands of tax dollars spent for his bike rides which only paid out in campaign contributions for Walker.

The year 2010 brought even more audacity from Walker.

Instead of taking his campaign bike ride at the end of June like he normally did, that year Walker moved his bike ride up to mid-May. He claimed that he did this because after years of this stunt, it was suddenly too hot at the end of June to ride a motorcycle. Just because this new dates for his campaign ride just so happened to end as the same time the Republican Convention was strictly coincidental, or he tried to get us to believe.

By now, the gentle reader is probably wondering just how the hell Walker was able to get away with all of this for all those years.

Well, the answer is pretty simple.

Walker was the person who appointed the people to the Milwaukee County Ethics Board.
In late spring, after the Ethics board had their quarterly meeting, Walker would run his bike ride past his hand-picked chairman of the board, who would rubber stamp it. By the time got around to reviewing the proposal for the ride, it had already happened, so the board would just approve it.

However, 2010 brought things that were too big for the Ethics Board to rubber stamp.

The Democrats got smart and finally sent someone to tag along to videotape Walker's trip. They got some interesting videos, too.

They got one where Tim Russell was seen unfurling Air Tran banners, even though he was supposedly acting in his official capacity as a county employee. In another video, Russell, sporting an Air Tran t-shirt, is arranging a photo op with local Republican politicians, including Senator Luther Olsen. Please note how Walker had to correct the group to say "Tourism" instead of "Republican" as the photographer had told them to say.

The Democrats took their videos** to the GAB, who then directed them to take it to the Milwaukee County District Attorney. Remember this the next time Walker tries to claim he initiated the Walkergate investigation.

And as a fun side note, the 2010 also featured a rider named Judith Rhodes-Engels, who is more infamous for being Senator Scott Fitzgerald's campaign fundraiser and close confidante.

So, why do I bring all this up?

Well, I was reminded of it when it was reported that a Harley Davidson dealer named Christopher Brekken filed a frivolous lawsuit against Assistant District Attorney Bruce Landgraf, the main prosecutor handling Walkergate. From said article:

The suit, filed in Barron County Circuit Court in September, claims that Brekken could not produce or obtain the very specific information that had been subpoenaed, and he told Landgraf he could not.

But a bench warrant was issued for Brekken in October 2010 that required him to travel to Milwaukee that November to again affirm under oath that he couldn't find out the full credit card number used by specific person on a specific date at Rice Lake Harley.

In quoting the subpoena, the lawsuit redacts the name, date, amount and partial credit card number.

This does raise some interesting questions and opens the door to some even more interesting speculation.

Since Landgraf knew the identity of the person making the purchase, the date on which the purchase was made, one could logically conclude that he also knows what was purchased.  The only thing he apparently already didn't know was the full credit card number.

This leads me to believe that he found a receipt for a purchase made at that specific dealership.  The receipt would have the date, the amount and the name of the person making the charge.  However, all but four numbers would have been blocked off.

We know that the DA's office did very thorough raids on Walker's executive offices in the Milwaukee County Courthouse and on Tim Russell's county office and his home.  The receipt most likely came from one of these places and the purchaser was most likely either Walker or Russell.

And let us not forget that Russell already has a history of misusing government credit cards for personal purchases.

I don't know if we'll ever know who bought what, or whether it, whatever it is, was bought using a county credit card.

But it does show us just how thorough the DA's Office has been and how corrupt Walker and his gang has been, as if we need further proof of either of those things.


*This is something that has recurred in his time as governor, where he would have potential contractors submit their bids to his staff's personal email. He did this in an obvious attempt to elude open record request.

**Scott Wittkopf has two more videos that even I hadn't seen before.

A little post election fun!

Caption this:

Walkergate: The Caucus Scandal Rides A Harley

In what seems like a lifetime ago in some ways, but was really only five months ago, I wrote "An Introduction to Walkergate." In that piece, I mentioned the suspicious motorcycle ride that Scott Walker took on the pretense that he was promoting tourism in Milwaukee County, even though everyone could see that it was a campaign stunt:

Also in May of last year, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin followed Walker on his annual bike ride to promote his candidacy Milwaukee County.  This bike ride has long been a source of contention, with many, including myself, who kept pointing out that it was a thinly veiled publicly-funded campaign exploit.  Sure enough, they got lots of evidence, including footage, of long-time aide, campaign worker and close friend, Tim Russell, doing non-county work, even though he was traveling as a county employee. In August 2010, the Sheriff's Office did a search of Russell's office, confiscating his computer, his Blackberry and boxes of papers.

Little did I realize at the time what a big deal that motorcycle ride was going to be after all.

But since then, we've discussed the questionable way that the bike ride was funded by a private company that had just gotten a big deal from Milwaukee County a few weeks before. And don't forget the gaffe of "Say Republican!"  And don't forget that Walker had moved the bike ride up by several weeks because the end of June was just "too hot" to ride a motorcycle - never mind that the ride conveniently ended as the Republican state convention was kicking off in Milwaukee.

Another thing that we had discussed much more recently is the turn that Walkergate was taking to make it closely resemble the caucus scandals from ten years ago. Sure enough, five days after I wrote that, Kelly Rindfleisch, who had been part of the original caucus scandals, was arrested for campaigning and fund raising on county time and from her county office.

Well, now there is a tie between these two aspects of the Walkergate investigation.

That tie is named Judith "Judi" Rhodes Engels.

Ms. Rhodes Engels was part of the caucus scandal from a decade ago, at least according to the criminal complaint against Scott Jensen (scroll down to page 16):

[DCI Special Agent] Strauss reports that she has participated in interviews with Judith Rhodes Engels (“Engels"), who has stated in part the following. Engels was state-employed in the Ladwig Capitol office November 1996 - March 2001. Sherry Schultz was in charge of fundraising for individual Republican members of the Assembly, including completing their campaign finance reports and assisting in fundraisers. After the 1998 elections, Engels and Ladwig discussed the fact that Schultz was “creating a monster” in that legislators were becoming too dependent on Schultz and her campaign finance related services. Engels worked with Schultz on fundraising issues. Schultz did not appear to have any duties other than fundraising. Engel's job was to keep track of contributions from legislators to RACC, which are referred to as "assessments." Schultz's duties included keeping track of where this money went for the individual campaigns. On occasion Engels received checks for individual campaigns and provided them to Schultz. Schultz created various documents regarding fundraising at RACC meetings held in Jensen's Capitol office. In a RACC meeting after the 2000 election in Jensen’s Capitol office, Jensen thanked Schultz for all she did for members of the “team” in connection with the money that had been raised.

Sometime after the caucus scandal, Rhodes Engels ended up working in the legislative office of Senator Scott "Snit Fit" Fitzgerald.

By 2007, she was working for WISGOP, but still helping out Fitzgerald and his brother:

Monday, December 10, 2007

Senator Scott Fitzgerald and Representative Jeff Fitzgerald Christmas Reception
5:00-7:00 PM
Erin’s Snug Irish Pub
4601 American Parkway
Madison, WI
Host options: Shamrock host level: $250/ couple (includes lapel pin), Pot o’ Gold host level: $100/ couple. Sorry, no PAC or corporate contributions. Please make checks payable to: Scott Fitzgerald for Senate and/ or Jeff Fitzgerald for Assembly, PO Box 2741, Madison, WI 53701. For questions or to RSVP, please contact Judi Rhodes at (608) 345-3780 or jrhodes@wisgop.org.

(If anyone could tell me what WASS stands for, that would be great.)

Ms. Rhodes Engels turned up again in 2010, but not as a fund raiser for the Fitzgeralds. Instead, she was one of the many GOP operatives that went along with Walker for that infamous motorcycle tour of the state to promote Walker's campaign tourism:

Two people not talking about any controversy are Judy Rhodes-Engels and her daughter. They are just two of the 140 riders joining Walker on his ride through much of Wisconsin, plus parts of Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois and Michigan.

Rhodes-Engels said she is a fan of the attention their group gets as they roll into town on their choppers.

"When you're in a big massive group like this," said Rhodes-Engles, "everyone looks at you everywhere you go."

[...]

Most of the participants in the Executive's Ride aren't concerning themselves with any political bickering. They said they're just happy to be along for the trip.

"It's a great experience to share everything about Milwaukee with the rest of the state and even some of the other states that may not have been there," said Rhodes-Engles.

Well, isn't that just special?

As with all things Walker, there are a few special problems with this.

In 2010, Ms. Rhodes Engels was living in Cottage Grove, WI, which is in Dane County, some 70 miles to the west of Milwaukee. Another problem is that, when she was not donating $700 to Walker's campaign, she was still working for WISGOP:

(click to embiggen)

On a side note, her 2011 donations total nearly $2,000, with a really odd one for $8.50. I bet there's a strange story behind that one.

In sum, we have a WISGOP operative, who lives in Cottage Grove, WI and specializes in fund raising for Senator Scott Fitzgerald, going on the Harley Davidson tour and we're really supposed to believe that this was to promote tourism in Milwaukee County and had absolutely nothing to do with Walker's campaign? Really? Really?

I think it would be very interesting to know what Scott Fitzgerald has to say about this.  Not to mention Reince Priebus, who was the head of WISGOP at the time.

I'm also wondering if Ms. Rhodes Engels had something more to do with the bike ride than just being a tag along.

I'm also wondering if Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisolm is aware of all of this.

And isn't this picture of Ms. Rhodes Engels just so symbolic of the Walker/Fitzgerald regime?

Is This What They Really Want?

As Scott Walker's numbers are dropping faster than a rock, the Koch Brothers are kicking in more money to support their favorite marionette.

In the latest assault on our intelligence, one of the myriad of Koch-funded front groups, this time the Club for Dolts Growth, has a misleading radio ad which points to the sacrifices of the union members who work at places like Harley Davidson and Mercury Marine.

But is this really the examples they want to cite?

While Harley workers gave up so much, their CEO was walking around with a whopping $6.5 million, and that was just in one year!

And the story of Mercury Marine is even worse.  Not only did the workers get the short end of the stick from Mercury, but the tax payers also took a bath in supporting just this one company.  And as with Harley, it was the executives and board members that walked away, laughing all the way to the bank.

So is this what the right wingers really pushing, that we deny ourselves a decent wage, safe work conditions, and our self-respect, just to become corporate serfs?  No wonder they have to lie, cheat and steal to get anywhere with this unethical maneuvering from the Republicans.