Woo Hoo! Party Like It's 1939!

I came across this invitation for a party in the Northwoods of Wisconsin on Facebook:

THIS SUNDAY-TOMORROW!! KIM SIMAC-Northwoods Patriots & Concerned Women For America is our Keynote Speaker! Jeffrey Mursau, our 36th District Assemblyman will share what's happening in the WI State Legislature and Judge Robert Kennedy Jr. will speak about the President's Immigration Ban. There will also be Raffles & good food! Come and help us Celebrate this time in our history.

There is so much wrong with this short paragraph that it'll never be right.

First off, there is the irony of a judge named Robert Kennedy speaking at such an event.

Long time readers of Cog Dis might remember Kim Simac's name. She is teabagger that ran for office during the recall election against Democratic Wisconsin State Senator Jim Holperin. During her brief run, we learned that she doesn't like to pay taxes and can't spell worth a damn. We also learned that despite her poor spelling, she did write a pro-gun children's book called, "With My Rifle By My Side."

But the biggest question in my mind is what the hell are thy celebrating? The attacks on people for their skin color, their religion, their gender and/or their sexual orientation? That's not really a time in our history. It's more like a nightmarish reenactment of 1939 Nazi Germany.

Maybe they're celebrating the fact that a great many of them - the dairy farmers - are suffering under Trump's repeated attempts at an immigration ban:

Now living with their two young children on a Pepin County dairy farm in northwestern Wisconsin where Manuel works, the couple — who asked that their real names not be used because of their immigration status — are making plans to leave their life in America’s Dairyland and go back across the border, much sooner than they had expected.

They are among the estimated 51 percent of all dairy workers in the United States who are immigrants. A significant portion — more than three-fourths of the workers at some dairy farms according to workers, farmers and industry experts — are undocumented after entering the country illegally or overstaying visas.

Like the Jiménez family, some now live in fear of deportation because of vows by President Donald Trump — who in November used a strong showing in rural areas to become thefirstRepublican presidentialcandidateto carry Wisconsin since 1984 — to crack down on undocumented immigrants. It’s unclear how many immigrants working on dairy farms in Wisconsin are here illegally.

Dairy producers in Wisconsin increasingly struggle to recruit and maintain the immigrant workforce on which the state’s $43 billion-a-year dairy industry relies, Wisconsin Public Radio and Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism found in interviews this month with farmers, workers and industry experts.

Farmers say deporting immigrants working here illegally could harm Wisconsin’s signature industry, which ranks second in the nation for milk production and first for cheese. Milking cows can be a dirty, physically demanding job that includes long, irregular work hours; farmers say few Americans are willing to do it.

Or maybe their celebrating that even more of them are going to go bankrupt before succumbing to any major illness, thanks to Ryancare (or Trumpcare, if you prefer):

No congressional district in Wisconsin delivered a bigger victory margin for Donald Trump last fall (20 points) than the rural northern one represented by Republican Sean Duffy.

But by one key measure, no district in Wisconsin would lose more health care aid under the GOP plan to replace Obamacare.

Wisconsin is part of a national pattern in which the Obamacare enrollees who appear to be hit the hardest by the Republican plan fit the demographic and geographic profile of Trump’s political base.

These enrollees are in their 50s and early 60s. Trump won that group by 15 points in Wisconsin, according to exit polling.

And they disproportionately live in rural areas that voted for Trump and are represented by Republicans in Congress.

Being this kind of stupid has gotta be a pre-existing condition, so they wouldn't have been covered on that under Ryancare anyway.

But try as I might, I cannot fathom that much hatred, racism and bigotry that one would be willing to celebrate their own demise because of it.

Jason Cracks up the Crowd!

Not sure how good of a lawyer for Michael Best & Friedrich, Jason Thompson is, but he sure knows how to crack up the crowd!  The problem, like his father, is that he is lazy so he keeps going back to the same joke!

While Tommy denies it is happening and Jason apologizes to his law firm, he has been running around knocking them dead with his speeches.    The problem is that the sane people of Wisconsin have seen it and they are not amused.  

The question is does Michael Best & Friedrich have to issue a statement distancing themselves from Jason Thompson daily, or will they cut their losses and work on restoring their reputation?

No one has had a bigger hit to their reputation these last two years than Michael Best & Friedrich!

H/T Huff Po and Amanda Terkel:


At a "United for Freedom" rally(10/6/12), this is Jason Thompson warming up the crowd!   









Jason Thompson truly is an American idiot!


One last question, in case your wondering why this is perpetually a killer line, check out the line up of speakers and ask no more:

Senator Alberta Darling WI-8

Assemblyman Jeremy Thiesfeldt

. State Treasurer Kurt Schuller

US Congressional Candidate Dan Sebring

Jake Jacobs,

Noted Writer and SpeakerKim Simac,

Northwoods Patriots FounderPastor David King,

WI Senate CandidatePam Stevens,

WI Senate Candidate Rick Gudex,

WI Senate Candidate Tracy Heron,

Former Mayville Mayor Paris Procopis

MIke Schraa,

WI Assembly Candidate Kristi LaCroix

Santo Ingrilli

Joe Medina

One last thing, You will see some of these people on your ballot this fall. 

Vote these people OUT!  

No Time To Despair

I know it has been a rough week for the democratic party in Wisconsin but now is NOT the time to despair. I know I was in a funk last week when I wrote this piece.  What got me to step out of said funk, was to have the republicans start gloating and telling the dems how to run elections. 

First of all it was not as resounding of  a defeat as the republicans make it out to be.   The democrats did flip the Wisconsin State Senate! That is no small feat in itself.  

Secondly, many people on the left and the right have been saying the democrats have "no bench".  While I do think that there is always room for improvement, and I would love to see more people get involved in politics on a local and statewide level, I find this claim from the right to be downright laughable.   Lets exam this a little bit closer. 

It was a year ago that Wisconsin had their first round of recalls.   This was before the recall petitions were scrutinized so the republicans actually were able to file petitions to recall 3 democrats (as opposed to 6 republicans).   All three democrats easily held their seats, while 2 of 6 republican seats were flipped.  Keeping in mind that in terms of money and name recognition and the way the system has been set up(by the incumbents) it is virtually impossible to beat an incumbent (recall or regular election).

So instead of looking at just the actual results, you have to analyze the big picture.  I wrote about it at the time:

* The Democrats have legitimate candidates and talent ready to run and serve and the Republicans do not. While the Republicans are running people like David Vanderleest, and Kim Simac, the Democrats are running people like Jess King, Fred Clark, Shelley Moore, etc… Then you can look at the “bench” of potential candidates and spokespeople where the Democrats have rising superstars like Tony Schultz and Mahlon Mitchell and the republicans have Brian Schimming.

The republicans were licking their wounds when the best they could find to run against the recalled democratic Senators were David Vanderleest who probably belongs in prison( and is thinking of running for office again), and Crazy Kim Simac, who appears to be off of her meds when she speaks.

If you want another example of the lack of talent on the republican side, look at the current race to fill Herb Kohl's US Senate seat.    The best the republican's can come up with is an unrecognizable Tommy Thompson, professional jobber Mark Neumann who no one likes and some rich guy from who lives in Washington DC.  

Excuse me for not taking you seriously when these are the kind of candidates you continue to run. 

I agree that the democrats have some serious problems that need fixing.   When an unethical, under investigation, college drop out with no real world experience and a horrendous record as a politician can get elected twice in two years as Governor of this great state, then there are serious flaws in the democratic party that need fixing.  

We know that the republicans will bury us in money in any election that they are interested in, until we fix the horrendous Citizens United decision, that is NOT going to change.    We found out that with enough money the republicans are able to turn a net loss in jobs to a "supposed strength" in their candidate.   Heck they even ran ads touting his horrendous record on jobs.  

So that being said we need to emrbace and adapt to the changing landscape.   No matter what happened, we stull have the advantage in people power.

The network of activists and enthusiasm we built up on the progressive side can not be replicated by an expensive bus and some crazy speakers. 

Some amazing people have gotten involved in politics on our side and that will all pay off in the end.  What Lori Compas did in her district was literally unprecedented.   Tell me any example of anyone on the right who has or could come close to accomplishing what Lori Compas did.  There are activist's now getting involved in even the more republican of districts and mobilizing progressive's, liberals, democrats, moderates and independents in ways that they have never been involved.   That will pay of in the end. 

We do need, and i am sure when things calm down, we will have some inflection from the democratic party.  We need better messaging and less paid consultants.   Let's hope whoever came up with the messaging in this last recall election will never work in Wisconsin politics again.  We also need the party to listen to the people more and support and embrace the grassroots activists more openly.  I would also like to see more aggressiveness from the elected officials in the party.  

We have some big hurdles to overcome, all is NOT lost for the democratic party going forward in Wisconsin.   We have the extreme advantage of a republican party that is insane and incompetent.  Now it is time to start taking advantage of that!  

Attention: All Northern WI State Troopers And County Sheriffs!

Straight from Kim Simac's campaign website:

Kim will be driving around in her green GMC work truck with a crack in the windshield and a 4×8 Kim Simac Field sign in a wooden rig on the back of the truck

.
Here's a screencap:

I'm sure that's street legal.

I'm also sure I'll let the reader make their own cracks about Simac doing a tour of truck stops in their own mind.

H/T Democurmudgeon

Kim Simac: Defender Of Sweaty Street Drugs!

Photo courtesy of TPM

Kim Simac, the GOTeAA+ candidate running against State Senator Jim Holperin in next Tuesday's recall election is a very busy woman. ;She's got books to sell, you know, including that family favorite, "With My Rifle By My Side."

She's so busy that she couldn't be bothered attending an event hosted by a couple of aging advocacy groups. Instead, she filled out the questions in advance and had someone read them verbatim to the group.  I'm wondering if that person really did read them verbatim.  If so, I bet it was a laugh riot.

Why?

Well, just look at her answer to Question #4 which I reproduce here, with all spelling and grammar errors intact, but with my emphasis added:

4. Do you support collecting sales taxes on internet sales (e-fairness) to create a level playing field for Main Street businesses and increase revenues to support vital programs for the elderly?

I believe one of the problems with healthcare is that there are so many discrepancies and the lack of transparency in the cost of care, that includes perspiration drugs. levying a sales tax on internet transactions doesn't lower the cost of healthcare it makes the more affordable option more expensive. We should be looking at ways to make healthcare and perception drugs cheaper and that should include FDA approved internet suppliers. True competition will help lower the prices of prescription drugs, we shouldn't be looking to increase prices because of taxes, and this will only make this situation more difficult for our seniors.

At least by the third try, the spellchecker finally kicked in.

This gives me an idea for two new laws they could pass. One, candidates have to pass an IQ test to be on the ballot. Two, candidates must pass a drug test to be on the ballot.

Wisconsin's Own Michele Bachmann

Did you think that Minnesota had cornered the Midwestern market for crazy with Michele Bachmann? Well, Gentle Reader, before you put your money down on that, get a hold of Kim Simac in this clip courtesy of Zach at Blogging Blue:



I don't know exactly what rights the Constitution gives God, or why He would need a man-made rights to begin with, but our own Michele Bachmann apparently doesn't live in our reality either.

And if you thought that was bad, you should see the full clip, when Simac and the host, Dorothy Spaulding, try to out-crazy each other throughout the whole thing.

It also makes me wonder how desperate the GOP must be if this is the type of candidate they are putting up in these races.