An Actual Photo Of The Immigrant Who Is Stealing Your Job(s):

 

and no, I didn't 'think' this up. It's based on a meme running around the internet. I haven't seen the actual meme but a friend told me about it yesterday.

An Economy that Works for Everyone

By Chris Taylor 

Last fall, I had the opportunity to travel across Wisconsin.  No matter where I went, I found stagnant wages, underemployment and was confronted with a growing sentiment that our economic system is rigged against hardworking Wisconsinites.  It’s easy to see why.

Over the last three decades, the average incomes for Wisconsin’s top 1 percent have increased by 120 percent, yet the incomes of the remaining 99 percent grew by just 4 percent (Pulling Apart 2016, by the Wisconsin Budget Project and COWS).  Not only are middle income people paying the largest percentage of their income of any group in state and local taxes (Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy), but the number of Wisconsin middle income families is declining faster in Wisconsin than any state in the nation (Pew Charitable Trust).

Wisconsin’s economic system is rigged to benefit those at the top and one need not look further than the Manufacturing and Agricultural Tax Credit beloved by Governor Walker and legislative Republicans.  The biggest corporate tax giveaway in Wisconsin history, this corporate handout is projected to cost more than $650 million over the next biennium, with 88 percent of this tax giveaway going to individuals making more than $500,000.  11 millionaires, making more than $35 million each, will receive nearly $22 million in tax breaks, funded by your tax dollars.  Despite claims that this drives economic development, recipients are not required to create one single job and can even outsource jobs!  In fact, Wisconsin had roughly 4,000 fewer manufacturing jobs in September 2016 than September 2015.

While Wisconsin’s wealthy continue to receive bountiful handouts, most other working families continue to struggle, working harder and harder just to get by. This is why last week I joined several of my Democratic colleagues in introducing legislation that provides Wisconsin’s middle income families with the raise they need.

Combined with instituting a millionaire’s tax on families making more than $1,000,000, we take the money Republicans want to send to Wisconsin’s wealthy and we instead give a tax break to the low and middle class families who need it the most.  Our tax cut is targeted to individuals earning between $12,000 and $60,000, and married couples making between $20,000 and $100,000, with the average family of four earning an annual income of $45,000 receiving a $607 tax break.  From needed car maintenance to additional extracurricular programs for the kids – we know Wisconsin families benefitting from our tax cuts will reinvest this money in Wisconsin’s economy.  A thriving middle class isn’t just the result of a strong economy – a strong middle class builds a strong economy.  This proposal puts more money into the pockets of Wisconsin’s families, which means more money in our local economy.

To the hard working families of Wisconsin—we hear you. We understand the struggles you face every day.  We are committed to doing everything we can to give you a needed raise and to build an economy that works for you, not just those at the top.

Office of Representative Chris Taylor

306 West – (608) 266-5342

PO Box 8953

Madison, WI  53708

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs! The Big Shift!

By Jeff Simpson 

Once again the future jobs outlook looks very bright in Wisconsin.   Just ask Manpower:

According to the Milwaukee-based temporary services firm ManpowerGroup, 24 percent of Wisconsin employers expect to add jobs during the next three months, 2 percent of the employers are forecasting layoffs, and the remaining are predicting no change in staffing.
Manpower's Chris Layden said the state's 22 percent net employment outlook is up from earlier this year.
"Now this is up, almost 10 points, from the first quarter of the year," Layden said. "So you are seeing from a quarter to quarter standpoint, some nice growth projected in Wisconsin, getting us back to levels we saw in early 2016." 

 Of course that means we should ignore the fact that Wisconsin is currently ranked 32nd(out of 50 for those scoring at home) in actual job growth.

Among 10 Midwest states, Michigan, Indiana, Minnesota, South Dakota and Ohio all added private sector jobs at a faster rate than Wisconsin, while Wisconsin outpaced growth in Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois and North Dakota.
The numbers marked a continuation of a trend for Wisconsin.  In the previous three quarterly reports, Wisconsin has ranked 30th, 33rd, 36th in private sector job growth. Wisconsin ranked 36th in the same report a year ago.

 It was nice of Mr. Layden to take time out of his incredibly busy schedule to tell us about the uptick in hiring that he was expecting.,    What was Mr. Layden doing that was taking his time, while he was telling us about the rosy job outlook in Wisconsin?   Figuring out how many people to lay off from Manpower of course:

"Unfortunately, over the next three to twelve months there will be approximately 150 job losses in our Milwaukee headquarters as we continue to automate and digitize our business. We have great people and those that are impacted are being supported with outplacement and career transition benefits.

Nothing says uptick like lay-offs!   Welcome to Bizarro Wisconsin where things are rarely as we are told they are.

What does Scott Walker have to say about jobs, after all, he was the one who promised a floor of 250,000 jobs.....

 Gov. Scott Walker is brushing off a Milwaukee newspaper article claiming Wisconsin is about 60,000 jobs short of his 2010 promise to create 250,000 private-sector jobs in four years.Walker told the Rotary Club of Milwaukee on Tuesday that he's adjusted that pledge, saying he's focusing on getting more people trained for the workforce.
"I qualify that now saying ... I got more people employed than ever before," Walker said. "You ask people on the street who are hiring, it's not how many jobs are created, it's how many people are there to fill them. And so, I've shifted from that, and said my number one issue is workforce. I need to find those people."

Basically :

Who knew that you can "shift" your promises to bend how you want them to sounds when you decide to break them?  What Scott Walker is telling us is , he would have easily fulfilled his promise if only people in Wisconsin were smart enough to fill the jobs....  

Scott Walker - Model of Inconsistency

By Jeff Simpson

Today was a big day at the Capitol....it was dubbed the "Day Without Latinos" and it was a massive pro-immigration rally.

 Bused in from across the state, some 20,000 Latinos amassed at the Capitol Thursday for a "Day Without Latinos" rally demanding to halt bills that would limit local officials from issuing photo IDs and withhold funding from so-called sanctuary cities.

20,000 Wisconsinites all gathering at the Capitol  to protest bad Republican bills and let their voices be heard.  Today was an important day, because the legislature set a goal of working today and not again the rest of the year(yes it is February 19th and they plan on calling it a year in the Capitol and collecting their full time pay).  

One would think that politicians could be moved by the massive show of force, and one would be wrong.  The Republicans had no problem passing their horrible bills including one that calls for fines of local governments who become sanctuary cities.

This was a very important bill to show that we hate immigrants and they are not welcome here(if you are scoring at home, Wisconsin has exactly ZERO sanctuary cities)!

Thanks guys for taking the time to accomplish absolutely nothing!


 

Was Scott Walker moved by the massive gathering of his constituents?



In a word NO.

Of course when Mr, Walker says this:

"There are protests all the time at the state Capitol. It doesn't affect the economy one way or the other. And today, we're going to focus as we do every day on how we help improve the business climate so we put more people to work and provide more opportunity," Walker said.

We have to ignore the fact that Scott Walker has massively failed in creating jobs, we have to pretend that making sanctuary cities(of which we have none in WI) illegal will create jobs and we have to completely ignore the fact that it was not too long ago and Scott Walker had this to say:

Scott Walker: Well it’s interesting, look at the March to march numbers, March of last year to March of this year, there’s a reason why we had some challenges there, particularly early on. In March, April and May, people can remember what was happening, thank goodness its passed now, you can remember what was happening last Spring in our state’s Capitol. There was a lot of uncertainty, particularly for small businesses, I know having held listening sessions all around this state, small business owners more than anything want certainty, they didn’t see that around the Capitol last year so that was one of the biggest challenges out there. - 

So sometimes protests hurt business and sometimes they do not effect the economy one way or the other.  My guess is that in Republican terms, white people protesting hurts business but since no one on the right,  pays attention to minorities the republicans do not even know that they are there.  

That or Scott Walker just says what is most convenient at the time, and hopes that people forget what he said last week.  

Of course Mr. Walker is lying, protests like this rarely happen.  The last time was in 2011 when the people in WI protested ACT10:



While most politicians can go a full career without bringing thousands of protesters to your front door, Scott Walker is special in that he gets protested everywhere he goes.   The thing is though, now that it is 6 years later, most of the protests at the Capitol look more like this:



The Solidarity singers have been consistent and for the most part sparse.  When Scott Walker says "there are protests all the time" it is insulting to his constituents who took the time to come to Madison and take place in their Democratic Republic and it is also Mr. Walker's attempt to dehumanize anyone who disagrees with him.

It is a look and an action that is not very professional nor becoming of someone who has delusions of grandeur that they could one day be President of the United States.  

Its time we all worked together to retire Mr. Walker.  

 

The Real Deficit!

By Jeff Simpson


As Paul Ryan says :

The debt and the deficit is just getting out of control, and the administration is still pumping through billions upon trillions of new spending. That does not grow the economy.

Of course Mr. Ryan thinks that way because he has no interest in Americans working.  For all of his crowing about the national debt and deficit, the real enemy to growth and whats holding our future back is our trade deficit.

   The U.S. Census Bureau reported Tuesday that the April goods and services trade deficit was an enormous, humongous $40.9 billion, down from an enormouser, humongouser $51.4 billion in March. (March was revised to $50.6 billion in today’s report.)

• The monthly U.S. goods deficit with China dropped from $38.9 billion in March to $27.5 billion in April. However the deficit is up $12.4 billion year-to-date compared to 2014.

• Our goods deficit with Japan was $6.7 billion in April and is up over $1.5 billion year-to-date compared to 2014.

• The U.S. goods deficit with South Korea was $2.1 billon in April, up nearly $3 billion this year.

Even that playing field out and the Debt and Deficit would disappear quickly.   As Scott Paul says:

“The monthly decline in the trade deficit masks an uncomfortable truth: Global industrial overcapacity, an overly strong dollar, and unfair trade practices are contributing to a surge in our 2015 trade deficit. All the year-to-date numbers are headed in the wrong direction, and they help to explain the sudden drop in manufacturing hiring so far this year.
"Underinvestment in domestic infrastructure and research, combined with a flood of manufacturing imports, are stifling manufacturing’s comeback. Our workers and businesses are doing all that they can to be globally competitive, but Washington stands in the way. Passing a robust and long-term infrastructure plan, boosting trade enforcement efforts, and penalizing currency manipulation are essential ingredients in a true manufacturing resurgence. ”

To think, if we had a Republican president, GM and Chrysler would be out of business now making this gap even bigger!

The UW System Cuts Disaster

By Jeff Simpson

 Even though we have had five years of complete Republican rule, and the Governor and his co-horts campaigned on us having a surplus, the sad reality is that we have a bigger budget deficit than when Scot Walker took office.  That led to a ridiculous austerity budget and one of the places where they proposed the biggest cuts was to the University of Wisconsin system.

While it is too late to do anything about the Republican dishonesty, it is not to late to stop these devastating cuts to the UW System.

Thanks to WisconsinBudgetProject, we know how bad they can be.




Scott Walker is definitely "focused like a laser beam" on jobs.....unfortunately his focus seems to be on eliminating jobs.   

Scott Walker Touts His Record

By Jeff Simpson

Scott Walker, made a surprise appearance in Wisconsin(the state he supposedly works in) to tout his record. 

RACINE — As he ramps up his expected bid for president, Gov. Scott Walker touted his record on business Wednesday night in front of about 500 people at Festival Hall.

What better place than Racine to show up and see Walker's policy in action?

CITY OF RACINE LEADS STATE IN UNEMPLOYMENT ONCE AGAIN!!!!
The Department of Workforce Development released their local employment and unemployment rates for the State of Wisconsin today. Preliminary May 2014 rates decreased or remained the same in 23 of Wisconsin’s 32 largest municipalities from rates in April 2014, and they decreased in all 32 municipalities compared to rates in May 2013. The latest May 2014 rates ranged from 3.2 percent in Caledonia to 9.7 percent in Racine.
 

Yes we all can not wait for Scott Walker to rollout his special version of heavy spending and no jobs to he rest of the country! 

Walker Is About To Outdo Himself

Thanks to Scott Walker's policies and budgets, Wisconsin is lagging behind every state in the Midwest, and most of the nation, in job creation and wage increases. Things are so bad that Walker has been trying to rewrite his own job creation history.

Now that Walker has passed right to work (for less) legislation and is about to devastate the state with the worst budget ever, he might want to get a bigger pencil with a really big eraser for another rewrite as he is about to break his own record for layoffs in one year:

By the end of last week Wisconsin employers had already notified the Department of Workforce Development (DWD) of 3,543 planned layoffs, putting the state on pace to eclipse 10,000 in 2015.

That would be the highest number of layoffs announced in Wisconsin since 2011, when Gov. Scott Walker first took office. The total number of layoff notifications topped 9,000 that year.

By comparison, employers notified the state of 6,511 layoffs in 2012, 7,029 in 2013 and just 6,186 layoffs in 2014. The state records the notifications on the date when they are informed about the layoffs, which can then sometimes take effect over the course of a year or several years afterwards.

Many of the 2015 layoffs will impact hundreds of employees here in South Central Wisconsin. Last week alone, 93 employees at the Eaton Corp. plant in Watertown and 119 workers at McCain Foods in Fort Atkinson were told they will be out of a job by the end of the year.

"I just think our economic climate is not very healthy here," said Rep. Deb Kolste (D-Janesville), who sits on the Assembly Committee on Workforce Development.

Rep. Kolste said both workers and employers are feeling the pinch of the state's economic woes.

"We haven't created an environment where there's been robust wage growth and we are a consumer nation and if people aren't spending money - then we don't have the job growth," said Rep. Kolste.

And just think - he wants to repeat this level of "success" nationally.

The Apple Did Not Fall Far From The Tree

By Jeff Simpson

Anyone paying attention, has seen that the right wing Blargh o sphere is all over the "Story" that the protesters outside of Mr. Walkers house recently were actually protesting his parents.  

Where in the world would they get such a silly idea?

  

Matt Walker @Walkermatt16 · Feb 17"Union mob protests at Scott Walker's parents' house" | http://fxn.ws/19sNi5Z 

Of course what do we look at first?  Scotts' kid calling a bunch of concerned citizens peacefully protesting, a "mob",?  No that kind of ridiculous rhetoric is what he has grown up with.

How about the fact that they peaceful protesters were NOT at "Scott Walker's parents house" they were actually at Scott Walker's house and his parents happened to be there.  

Walker said during the interview that his parents, who are in their mid-70s, have lived at the house since he took office. He said Monday's demonstration didn't approach the "literally thousands of protesters" who gathered outside the house during the 2011 protests over Act 10.

Now I don't expect too much from the walker offspring, but to know where his parents live is kind of where I set the bar.  Its unfortunate that Matt failed that one.  

Matt never claimed to be an Eagle Scout so instead of teaching him how to tie a knot, his father has taught him how to master the art of deception and outright lying.

Unfortunately, that is an art form that will take you far in 21st century Wisconsin.  

Inside China!

By Jeff Simpson


Remember when Ron Johnson(R-Our Dumb Senator) was touting the wonders of China and how it is a better environment for work and jobs than the US?

"I’d encourage people to go onto Youtube and type in Steve Wynn. He does about a five-minute piece where he’s talking about- he’s the fellow who does Wynn resorts in Las Vegas. He’s also creating resorts in Macau in China, communist China. And his point is, the level of uncertainty, the climate for business investment is far more certain in communist China then it is in the U.S. here."  [Ron Johnson, Wisconsin Radio Network, 8/30/10]

 H/T Earthporm:    I wonder if this is RoJo's vision for Wisconsin?

Maybe he has visions of Lake Winnebago turning into this, it is Badger Red at least:




Maybe this for Lake Mendota?:



Lake Owen's future?



If Rep Kooyenga and Sen. Darling have their (ALEC)way relieving regulations we can turn Milwaukee into this:




While everyone knows man made pollution has no effect on the environment, I highly recommend checking out all of the photos of China here!

The Ghost of Walker Yet To Come

By Jeff Simpson

Scott Walker will let you know he wants to do to the country what he has done to Wisconsin.  

He even has the ad to prove it!

Scott Walker is so proud of his accomplishments that he is showcasing them here for all of the world to see.  In order to survive as a middle class family, you need two job(at least).  

At 1;19 Mr. Smith is working at the factory for $11/hr, hoping to get in 30+ hours so he will be able to keep his healthcare and his son with diabetes and his daughter with Asthma, the care and meds that they need:

Immediately after his shift is over Mr. Smith has to do the McDonalds drive thru value menu to grab a bite to eat and head to his second job.  He run a local store, which has been in the family for 4 generations but now employs a bare bones staff and forces him to work an extra 30+ hours a week to keep the doors open.  He occasionally wishes that WEDC would hand him $7,000,000 in taxpayer money to open his business, instead of the out of state company that wants to relocate here and is trying to put him out of business.   

At least he gets to work with his wife and they get to take turns watching their sons plays and their daughters basketball games.  Well the home ones anyway.   

I know you will say, what a great hard worker he is, working 70 hours a week.  He knows what its like to be a true American.  Agreed! What could possibly go wrong with working multiple jobs?    

We at Cogdis were not able to ge ta full interview with Mr. Smith, apparently once the owners broke the union, the break times went away also.   However, we were able to ask him, with as much as he works, how is he able to keep such a big smile on his face? 

The answer is simple.   He is one of the few that work at the factory. that still have all of their fingers!   

H/T Rebecca and Nicole for catching and capturing this!  

Promises, Promises...Why Do We Believe?

By Jeff Simpson

Remember this?

"Under the administration of Gov. Scott Walker, northern Wisconsin’s mining economy is moving forward and more people are getting good, high-paying jobs."
— Americans for Prosperity on Friday, October 3rd, 2014 in a direct mail flier

Or this?

 Gogebic Taconite, a unit of Florida-based Cline Resource and Development, pushed for changes in mining laws shortly after representatives of the company announced their plans in 2011 for an iron ore mine in Ashland and Iron counties. The mine would operate for at least 35 years and run for about four miles. Gogebic says the mine would generate 700 jobs, but all told would create more than 2,800 jobs in trucking, housing and other industries

Or this?

"On behalf of the unemployed skilled workers in our state who will benefit from the thousands of mining-related jobs over the next few years, I say thank you," Walker said in a statement.

Or this even?

At stake are more than the 700 jobs at the mine itself. The proposed mine could lead to thousands of jobs statewide, many involved in the manufacture of equipment for the proposed mine.

Why does reality never match Republican talking points?

Meanwhile, the company has cut its workforce to a half-dozen employees who are trying to redesign plans in light of an unexpected proliferation of wetlands that were found on the site last year, 

For those of you mathematically challenged, half dozen = 6.  6 is less than 700.  6 is also less than thousands!

Is Chris Kline an idiot? He really paid $700,000 for this?

One last thing, shouldn't a legit news organization be obligated to mention that Bill Williams is wanted in Spain for crimes committed?

Scott Walker Leaves His Political Bubble And Gets Popped

For most of Scott Walker's career, he has lived in a protective political bubble.

Even though he's been in campaign mode for almost the entire span of his political career (which as been all of his entire adult life - and I do used the term 'adult' very loosely), Walker has seldom hit any bumps. The only real time that he had problems was in 1990 when now US Congresswoman Gwen Moore routed him in a race for the state legislature.

And why should he have had many problems?

He has had a lot of support - to the point of collaboration - from the dark money special interest groups, and from his friends like Reince Priebus.

Just as important as the flood of dark money and collaborated campaigns is the fact that he's had the corporate media in his back pocket. The corporate media, especially in Milwaukee, would seldom accurately report the news, especially if it was bad for Walker. They would gloss over the bad news, minimizing its impact, if they reported it at all. They would also bend the truth to make any good news seem better than it really was.

But now that Walker has the White House in his aim, he is forced to leave this protective political bubble and he's finding that it's a cruel world out there.

First, Walker got a history lesson from a fellow Republican, Ohio Governor John Kasich.

During the 1995-96 budget dispute between Clinton and the Republican-controlled Congress, Walker said, “Clinton did not say the Republicans in Congress aren’t going to work with me so I’m going to do an executive order.”

“He sat down with them,” Walker said.

Kasich, who like Walker just won re-election to a second term in a Rust Belt, labor-dominated state, snapped almost matter-of-factly.

“No, he shut the government — the government got shut down first,” Kasich said.

The audience laughed. And then the two men, both of them likely to run for president in 2016, began to talk over each other as NBC’s "Meet the Press" moderator Chuck Todd stroked his red goatee in delight.

“There was tremendous animosity,” Kasich said, almost yelling, to remind the younger Walker that he, Kasich, had been there himself as a member of Congress.

“It wasn’t —” Walker tried to get out before Kasich cut him off.

“Scott, it was!” Kasich said. “I’ll tell you, when you’re sitting around and we’ve got Newt Gingrich and Bob Dole at each other over a shutdown, it wasn’t easy either.”

Then on November 9, 2014, fresh from his reelection, Walker appeared on Meet the Press in which he got slapped around again by host Chuck Todd.

Todd accurately showed that Wisconsin's job numbers and wages are lagging behind that of the national averages even though Walker tried to spin it until everyone's head was spinning.

Ironically, but not surprisingly, the Wisconsin corporate media giant Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, in their version of PolitiFact, also tried to spin things in Walker's favor even as they admitted that Todd was correct:

The quarterly time frames don’t match up precisely with Walker’s time in office because, as we noted, there is a lag of several months in reporting the figures. But when compared March 2011 to March 2014, and December 2010 to December 2013, the results were essentially the same: Wisconsin has lagged the national average on job growth, but was slightly higher on wage growth.

Some people never learn.

Cross posted at Crooks and Liars

Scotty Flip Flop!

By Jeff Simpson


Flip

Walker Administration, January, 2011: The monthly jobs numbers are "unreliable employment statistics out of Washington [that] misinform the public and create unnecessary anxiety for job seekers and job creators about the shape of our state’s economy.”

Flop:

 Walker Administration, October 2014: The monthly jobs numbers are “more great news for working families and it’s more proof that Wisconsin is heading in the right direction.”

Walker's Two Employment Gaffes

In Friday night's debate between Scott Walker and Mary Burke, Walker had two major gaffes when it comes to his dismal record regarding jobs and workers.

The first gaffe, as my friend karoli points out, came when Walker said that we don't have a job a work problem."  In other words, there's plenty of jobs out there, it's just that we Sconnies are too stupid, too lazy and/or are all druggies and can't fill those jobs.
problem, we have "

Fortunately, someone at Team Burke was actually on the ball and jumped on this gaffe:

On Saturday, Burke pounced on the comment during an appearance at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

"I don't know how many of you watched the debate last night, but Governor Walker said in the debate that he didn't think Wisconsin had a jobs problem. Right?" Burke said. "Well, I want to be a governor who acknowledges the challenges that we have and is going to focus on the ideas that are going to move us ahead and will make sure that Wisconsin has a vibrant, growing, thriving economy so that when you graduate from college, there are going to be job opportunities for you to be able to stay in this state."

Democrats appeared eager to provide their own spin on Walker's statement, suggesting that the governor was somehow saying that anyone who really wants to work could find a job in Wisconsin.

Unfortunately, they miss the fact that the real problem isn't a skills gap, but a pay gap. We have a lot of skilled workers, but the companies don't want to pay the workers a fair wage. Therein is the real problem. If the companies would show a little respect and pay a fair wage, they would have more applicants than what they know what to do with.

The other gaffe, as I pointed out at Crooks and Liars, came during Walker's closing statement, when he said:

"You know, a lot has changed over the past four years. Think about it, we have the lowest employment rate we've had, well, since almost six years ago."

How about that?! Walker finally admitted that his agenda is not working - for us anyway.

Oh, I know that his apologists will point to the state having a supposed 5.8% unemployment record, but I addressed that issue as well:

Along with his other ALEC-driven policies, Walker and his Teapublican allies in the state legislature set about to screw with the unemployed.

Even though new unemployment claims were at an all time high, Walker understaffed the call center for unemployment compensation. Hey, if people can't get through, they can't file claims and thus they can't be counted as unemployed.

Then Walker and friends put an even tighter squeeze on the unemployed. They passed changes to the rules to make it harder to get unemployment compensation, wait up to six weeks for the first check if one was approved and made it harder to keep receiving benefits. Showing what cowards they are, they made these changes without so much as a public hearing.

Nothing like kicking people when they're down.

Now it's time for Wisconsin voters to kick him down and out.*

*Geez, I hope I don't get accuse of plagiarism now!

Quince & Apple

Quack Walker

By Jeff Simpson 

Scott Walker has proven, four years into being Governor, that he likes to take Wisconsin backwards.   Walker, being ever the opportunist, and master campaigner, has decided to cash in on his regressive policies!   

Annual fall, play duck hunt with Gov. Scott Walker

W9489 Affeldt Road,
New London.

$1000 per person to play duck hunt
$250/$500 for just a hot dog and a jolly good.

Please make checks payable to: Friends of Scott Walker

To express your dismay, please contact
Laura Gralton at 414-881-1005 / Laura@Graltonconsulting.com or
Colleen Coyle at 608-239-5601 or Colleen@ScottWalker.com

In our depressed Walker economy, its amazing that people still have $1000 of disposable income to play a thirty year old video game!   It does make sense though, over the years Atari has been owned by several different entities and so has Scott Walker.

As always, we at CogDis are on the cutting edge and are able to bring you a picture from last years astounding play duck hunt event! 

Also rumor has it that Dick Cheney will be in attendance(unconfirmed), so make sure all of your affairs are in order before attending!  

Quack Quack

        

Ryan Murray...Is Causing Deep And Lasting Harm...

By Jeff Simpson

Scott Walker's pet project, WEDC, has been a miserable failure in terms of job creation and a taxpayers money pit.    While there is too much incompetence to list at this time, there is one thing that really stands out!

The Incompetence of Ryan Murray.   




   

Even though we at CogDis have been pointing out that Ryan Murray is beyond incompetent.  It was not Murray's bang up job responding to "citizens policy questions" as much as it was that Ryan's daddy - Mike Murray of RJS Construction.   

When you run a business as successful as RJS Construction, you can not have incompetent boobs like Murray working in the office.   So you call in favors and get him in charge of tens of millions of tax payer dollars.  He can see the world, make a good living and not affect your family's bottom line.

On the other hand, Ryan Murray, as a child of privilege who never had to work for anything in his life, yet was handed everything.   Murray, who couldn't cut it going away to college, has always needed daddy to bail him out.   Murray, has bounced from one right wing campaign to another until Scott Walker handed him power.  Now the power that the Governor has given him has went to his head and it is  not pretty.

Lee Swindall, WEDC's vice president of business and industry development,recently quit because he could not stand Murray.   He was eventually talked into staying, but before that he sent this letter! 

"As a leader of the organization and its mission, I can no longer align with the management methods employed in policy development or deployment. I believe Ryan Murray, lacking either the talent or experience to function as the Chief Operations Officer of the WEDC, is causing deep and lasting harm through the application of control-style management rather than consultative management.

"Murray confuses rigid control with stability and sound management. What he is producing instead is instability, opposition and resentment in WEDC. This state of growing unrest will corrode the ability of the agency to perform and reach goals, not secure it. Ryan Murray is too committed to his own consolidated power to either notice or care about the swelling discontent in WEDC."

The letter came after one clash after another in which Murray reprimanded Swindall for what he saw as chronic flouting of agency procedures and rules — at a time when Murray was tasked with running a tighter ship.

Murray, called out as incompetent by a peer, is now in charge of tens of millions of dollars of taxpayer money.   No wonder Scott Walker can not create jobs.   


This is what you get when Scott Walker is in charge.  Walker cares more about rewarding donors than actually governing and his appointments and actions prove it.

We do not need four more years of incompetence and cronyism.  Let's make Ryan Murray try and get a real job,disband WEDC and vote Scott Walker out of office in November

Our tax dollars and our jobs depend on it!   

Scott Walker: Out Of Work? It's Your Fault, You Lazy Bum!

Scott Walker has come out with a couple of commercials in the past few weeks. Walker has made a sudden and severe shift in his campaign strategy with these ads.  Instead of the long string of ads attacking Burke for not fixing the Bush/Cheney deficit and attacking former Governor Jim Doyle (who isn't even running), Walker has decided to fall back on his old faithful strategy of lying his butt off about his own record.

First, he ran a commercial about six white people that supposedly got jobs thanks to Walker.  Now he is running another commercial about how much "success" he's had in meeting his original campaign goals, even though he hasn't met any of the ones he is bragging about.

Now, I could go into how he said that the 250,000 jobs was just the minimum of the jobs he was going to create:



Or I could talk about how over a third of the jobs Walker is boasting about actually came in the first six months of his term, when Doyle's policies and budget were still in effect. Or I could point out that Walker's track record is worse than if he had done nothing at all.

But there is something about Walker's last two ads that I find exceptionally disturbing.

In both ads, he has a tag line of "We won't stop until everyone who wants a job can find a job."

Notice how he won't say it will be a good paying job?

The real disturbing part about this is the blaming the victim mentality of that line, which is all to common among conservatives.  He is saying that if there are people who are unemployed, it's because they don't want a job.  It reminds me of when conservatives used to say that there are so many homeless people because they choose to live on the streets.

Sadly, this is also just another version of the conservative race-baiting claim that people - usually referring to African Americans - are too lazy to get a job or that they don't need a job because they are living so well on that $40 a month in food stamps.  I can already hear race-baiters like Charlie Sykes and Brian Sikma making the claim that the people who are unemployed are only unemployed because "those people" don't want to find work.

The only thing that people need to listen to when Walker starts talking about jobs his is campaign pledge to create 250,000 jobs by the end of his first term - and to hold him accountable when he fails to meet that.  And the only way to hold him accountable is to get out and vote him out of office in November.

Bruce Walkner - Scott Raulkner

By Jeff Simpson

Sometimes it is hard to tell the players apart.  

In Illinois there is a gubernatorial race between Incumbent Pat Quinn and 1%er Bruce Rauner.  Rauner, perpetually states his low expectations for his success by letting everyone know his role model is Scott Walker. 

“Rauner says he would model his governorship after those of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels.” – Associated Press, http://bigstory.ap.org/article/illinois-voters-pick-gop-governor-nominee 

Rauner “calls Scott Walker and Mitch Daniels his political mentors” – National Review, http://www.nationalreview.com/article/373679/illinoiss-scott-walker-eliana-johnson/page/0/1

Chicago Magazine: “Which governors do you admire?” Rauner: “… Scott Walker in Wisconsin has done good things” http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/July-2013/Rauner-Interview/

Now we see that he truly means it:

Rauner said: "We may have to go through rough times. We may have to do what Ronald Reagan did with the air traffic controllers. Sort of have to do a do-over and shut things down for a little while. That's what we're gonna do."

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