The West Bend Wave

By Jeff Simpson

Once again, West Bend made national news, challenging "Florida man" for biggest the Darwin Awards. 

Let's rewind a bit first.  The Guardian decided to follow The Donald around the country to his "I Love Me" rallies and assigned a different emotion to each rally they attended.  The emotion they assigned to the WI rally (where Scott Walker, Leah Vukmir, Paul Ryan, et al spoke), was HATE.

On the morning of the fourth rally, the outside world blasts its way into Trumpland. Shortly after 10am, as CNN anchors are telling their viewers about a series of pipe bombs mailed to the Clintons, the Obamas and to George Soros, they have to rush off air because the network has received its own explosive device.
At the same time, Jacob Spaeth and three of his buddies are lining up in a field in Mosinee, Wisconsin. They are all wearing the same distinctive red T-shirt. It bears a cartoon sketch of a smiling Trump urinating profusely over the CNN logo.
Today, after the CNN pipe bomb became headline news, a merchant says he’s sold about 15 of them in quick succession at $20 each.
Spaeth, a 19-year-old college student, doesn’t want to comment on the bombs. But he’s happy to discuss CNN.
“It’s not just CNN, it’s the whole media. They are very unfair to Trump. They’re manipulating kids, telling them that Trump is a horrible guy and that he wants bad things.”
Spaeth never watches CNN – he occasionally sees clips of it on Facebook. He gets his information from Infowars, the website of Alex Jones. Jones, a conspiracy theorist, is on the record as saying 9/11 was a government set-up and that the 2012 Newtown school shooting in which 20 children were killed was fabricated. Within hours he will be broadcasting that this week’s pipe bombs are also a hoax.
Spaeth embodies one of the most puzzling aspects of my week in Trumpland. Throughout the five rallies, I talk to scores of people, all of whom, without exception, are welcoming and pleasant. Yet hours later, in the pressure-cooker of the rally, they will turn on me and my mainstream media colleagues and hurl insults at us.
Spaeth admits that when he went to a Trump rally in Minnesota last month he took part in the finger-jabbing and the chanting of “CNN sucks”. It made him feel happy to be able to express his feelings so openly among like-minded folk. “I don’t see it as bullying,” he says.
There’s only one explanation for this pattern of behavior: that Trump enables good, civil Americans to metamorphose into media baiters. “Those people, fake news,” the president says sneeringly at almost every rally, pointing to the caged pen where reporters are cooped up during his speeches.
It’s a trigger mechanism: as soon as he says it, the chants begin. “CNN sucks! CNN sucks!” Many of the people chanting are also laughing – it’s that humor thing again. But CNN is taking no chances: they bring private security guards to every rally.
Tonight, he talks about the need to “bring our nation together”. It’s an extraordinarily cordial message coming from him. But listen closer. His call to unity is in fact a veiled attack on his political enemies.
In the name of “peace and harmony”, he tells politicians to stop treating their opponents – for which read Trump – as “morally defective”, and he references the “mob” – for which read Democrats. Remarkably, he is actually mocking the very concept of national unity while calling for it.

But wait there is more, there is always more.  Also attending the rally in Mosinee, was  Steve Spaeth from West Bend.  The hometown of Owen Robinson( who thanks to guys like Spaeth, the moral he pushes for is improving).  

Spaeth was more than happy to give an interview!   

Tonight in Wisconsin, the crowd are focused on only one thing – hearing their leader. It includes Steve Spaeth (no relation), 40, who runs a home exteriors company in West Bend. I ask him who he regards as his political enemies, and whether “hate” is too strong a word.
“Not at all,” he says. “I have a deep and absolute disgust for these human beings.”
Which ones?
He rattles off CNN, Soros, Clinton, Waters, Booker, “Pocahontas” AKA Elizabeth Warren, and others.
Why do you hate them?
“They want to turn America into a socialistic country. It’s disgusting.”
I ask Spaeth how far he is prepared to take his hatred. In reply, he tells a story. The other day he talked to his sister, who is liberal and votes Democratic. He said to her: “If there is a civil war in this country and you were on the wrong side, I would have no problem shooting you in the face.”
You must be joking, I say.
“No I am not. I love my sister, we get on great. But she has to know how passionate I am about our president.”

Yes Mr. West Bend (does that statement qualify him for Mayor now) will shoot his sister in the face if this guy tells him too:

I highly recommend anyone that is mesmerized with the Donald and the current GOP spend an hour and watch this old 70's movie The Wave.  

Dr, Phillip Zombardo,  the Stanford professor best known for his famous 1971 prison experiment, feels the answer lies in what people are willing to do to go from a feeling of powerlessness to one of being empowered.   “For most people it’s an awful lot,” remarks Dr. Zimbardo.  “People will transgress a lot of personal values to step across the line.”

Please do not stay home this election, we need to stop this dangerous crap before it gets out of control and lunatics like Spaeth actually start shooting people. 

Vote on Tuesday!   Vote blue and if you can not bring yourself to do that, vote libertarian or write in ...we need to change out those in power badly. 

A Turkey In West Bend And For Once It Wasn't Owen Robinson

My mind automatically goes to Owen Robinson whenever I hear the words turkey and West Bend in the same sentence.  For once, it wasn't him:

On Sunday afternoon, residents of a home in the Town of West Bend heard a "commotion" from inside an upstairs bedroom.

They cracked open the door and were startled to see a turkey on the bed.

The homeowners called sheriff's deputies, who arrived five minutes later to find the turkey "destroying" the bedroom, according to a popular post on the department's Facebook page.

The turkey had broken through a second-story window. Deputies had a "plan to safely take the bird into custody without knocking the stuffing out of it," wrapped the bird in a blanket and took it outside.

"Although the deputies suspected fowl play, the turkey was released from custody with no charges," officials joked in the Facebook post.

Then again, on second thought, maybe it was.

Right Wing Blogger Mars Memorial Day With McCarthyism

The school district for West Bend is looking for a new superintendent. The old one is stepping down after having used Act 10 to drive the district into the ground and to terrorize his staff.

Judy Steffes, writing at the West Bend Insider, has an article about whether or not the three finalists to be the new superintendent had signed the petition to recall Scott Walker.

No, seriously.

No word on qualifications.  Just whether or not they signed the recall petition.

Right wing blatherer and plantation economist Owen "Old Lady" Robinson celebrates the news that none of the finalists signed the petition and calls the question an important litmus test for the candidates:

In the comments of the post at the Washington County Insider, former West Bend Mayor Kristine Deiss asks, “What has whether or not they signed the Walker recall got to do with being qualified for the job? I would hope our School Board did not ask this question.”

It’s a valid question, but it is important and I do hope that the School Board asks about it. Act 10 is the single-most important school reform in this millennium (it sure sounds impressive that way, doesn’t it?). We need to know if the incoming superintendent view Act 10 as a detriment to public education or as a tool with which to make the West Bend School District better. Given that the citizens of the district overwhelmingly support Act 10 and turned out in huge numbers to vote for Governor Walker during the recall election, a new superintendent who hates Act 10 will come in immediately out of a step with the community he or she is supposed to serve.

So yes… ask the question. Do the due diligence.

As if this display of McCarthyism wasn't vulgar enough, Robinson does it on Memorial Day weekend.

Memorial Day is the time that the nation stops and joins together in paying tribute to the brave men and women who have given their all to protect the rights and freedoms that we all enjoy today.

Robinson, of all people, being a veteran himself, should know that.

Yet here he is, demanding that a candidate to lead his community's school district have shown their fealty to the present regime.  Apparently, being qualified as an educator and a leader is secondary to needing to know whether or not they are loyal to the petty tyrant, Scott Walker.  Instead of celebrating freedom, Robinson is trying to enforce fascism.

Robinson should write an open letter of apology to the families of our fallen veterans for showing such disrespect to the sacrifices their loved ones had made for us all.  But he won't. That would require an ounce of decency.

In Aftermath Of More Mass Shootings, Gun Nuts Stick To Their Guns

Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Flynn and Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm had a presser on Wednesday at which they pointed out the obvious - there is a clear correlation between the Republicans loosening the gun laws and the spike in crime:

Two top law enforcement leaders in Milwaukee County took aim at the state's concealed carry law as a possible contributing factor in Milwaukee's spike in gun violence this year.

"Since that law has passed, almost every single year, the number of crime guns seized by this department has gone up and the time-to-crime on our most frequently used weapons has decreased," Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn said Wednesday.

"Now that's correlation not causation, but it's a pretty strong correlation."

The average time-to-crime, which is derived from the date of a gun's original purchase to the date of recovery, has dropped from 10.6 years in 2012 to 8.6 years in 2014 for all guns, according to the department.

In each of 2013 and 2014, 20% of the handguns recovered had a time-to-crime of less than six months.

Flynn made his remarks during a Milwaukee Community Justice Council meeting, which focused on rising numbers of nonfatal shootings — 552 people have been shot this year in the city of Milwaukee as of Nov. 11 — and homicides, which already have reached a decade-high this year.

During the meeting, Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm also said his office was concerned about people lawfully carrying concealed weapons "in collaboration with or close proximity or directly with somebody that doesn't have a firearm and next thing you know they're using the lawful firearm for an unlawful purpose."

These simple facts have gotten a couple of local bloggers to get their undies in a bundle.

Sam Hagedorn says that these are lies, all lies!, because if they were true, the cops would have released the numbers of licensed concealed carriers to back up their statements.

Old Lady Robinson makes the same lame argument and adds that Milwaukee is the only place in the state that has seen an uptick in crime.

First, let's take care of that straw man.

If either of these idiots could read, they would have noted that neither man had said that the problem was exclusively with licensed concealed carry people.  Rather, it's more related to the sudden influx of guns that can be stolen, sold or handled irresponsibly.

Secondly, thanks to the NRA, it's not so easy to "just pull up the numbers":

Only upstanding citizens get permits, we were assured. The legislators, the NRA and other pro-gun groups painted pictures of fearless folks armed with a pistol saving a bank from being robbed, a woman from being attacked, a house from being intruded upon, or themselves from being injured. Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald heralded the new law as a great victory for Badger State residents and the Second Amendment.

The Wisconsin politicians, however, made sure that it would be difficult to determine whether the new law actually does what they claim it will do. As in most concealed carry states, the names of people who get permits are not subject to the open records law. So if there’s an incident involving a shooting, for instance, it’s difficult, if not impossible, to determine whether either the person doing the shooting or the one who is shot has a permit.

That also means that news media and other public watchdog organizations will have a difficult time determining whether public officials are diligently checking the backgrounds of those who are awarded permits.

Ironically, the shielding of concealed carry permits from public inspection has been a major reason why the gun lobby has been able to claim that concealed carry laws have not caused any problems. The trouble is, because of the secrecy, it’s virtually impossible to prove whether they do or they don’t.

So either these two loudmouths, Hadedorn and Robinson, are damn ignorant or are purposely lying to their readers. I'll let them tell you which they are (but I'd go with both).

And if Robinson thinks that Milwaukee is the only place in the state that's seen an increase in crime, he has his head either in the sand or in his butt.  Again, I'll let him tell you which.

What makes these two clowns shooting off their mouths like they were shooting off their guns is that it comes immediately in the wake of two more mass shootings, bringing the number of mass shootings in this country to more than 350 in just this year.

Republicans Drink Kool Aid, Believe In Pixie Dust

Scott Walker is floating an idea out there to tie tuition hikes at the University of Wisconsin to the rate of inflation.

Owen Robinson, aghast at the thought, clutched his pearls and swooned back on his fainting couch at the very notion:

What I don’t like about this proposal is that it assumes that the current tuition is appropriate compared to the average Wisconsinite’s other relative costs. Is it? Could it cost less and still provide the same or better education? Just because a family’s other expenses increase, does that automatically mean that tuition should go up by the same amount? Why? Why shouldn’t the legislature’s efforts go into driving down the price of tuition relative to a family’s overall expenditures as a tuition freeze does over time? Wouldn’t that be preferable to locking in automatic tuition increases every year? And yes… I assume that if this is in place that UW would jack up tuition by the rate of inflation every year if they were able to.

One thing you should know about Old Lady Robinson is that he grew up in Texas, where plantation economics has been drilled in their heads for generations, thus he has a skewed sense of reality.  That also explains why he is gullible enough to think that austerity works and that everything Americans for (the Kochs') prosperity is gospel truth.

That tea-flavored Kool Aid is powerful stuff.

What Robinson forgets (or ignores) in his greed is the fact that universities used electricity, natural gas water, and other essentials just like everyone else.  He also forgets (or ignores) that the faculty at the universities are staffed with the people who have families that also see their cost goes up.

Apparently Robinson has drunk so much of the Kool Aid that he thinks that universities - and their staff - all use free pixie dust to light and heat their buildings, power their vehicles and keep their staff fed and clothed.

What Robinson can't admit to himself, much less anyone else, is that maybe if he, his company and his church carried their fair share of the tax burden, his taxes wouldn't have to go up at all.  In fact, they would actually go down.

Before Robinson could even begin to comprehend this, he'd have to get off the hard stuff first.

The Real World Intervenes!

After the shootings in Sandy Hook, we know the right wing was in a tizzy to stop any kind of sensible gun regulations whatsoever.   Paid Hacks like Wiggy wrote pure NRA apologist drivel, then his less well paid echo chamber cheerleaders at Boots and Sabers threw him a big thumbs up! 

Wiggy was so ahead of the curve that he made(lame attempts at) jokes about the killings! 

While I get that these guys need to make a living, and they are immensely unqualified to do anything else, the problem with the right wing talking points, is always - reality.  In this case, more so than normal!

Veronique Pozner, the mother of the youngest victim of Sandy Hook Elementary spoke up about her son:

 The family placed stuffed animals, a blanket and letters to Noah into the casket. Lastly, Veronique put a clear plastic rock with a white angel inside — an “angel stone” — in his right hand. She asked the funeral director to place an identical one in his left, which was badly mangled. Noah’s famously long eyelashes, which she spoke about in her eulogy, rested lightly on his cheeks and a cloth covered the place where his lower jaw had been.

I wonder if James Wigderson would like to discuss with  Ms. Pozner how "doing something worse than nothing".

 Please tell me again about your rights to own guns and what the Founders felt.  

As a father of 6 year old, I can not begin to imagine the pain and grief that the Pozner family feel.  I can however share the disgust and contempt  for the people who write such BS as Wiggy and Owen(and many others) did, and put protecting their own self interests over those of the rest of America.  Especially when it effects our children and before we can even properly bury them!   All for the temporary approval of some powers that be, that hold the purse strings!

RIP Noah Pozner! 

I'll Take One Teacher Over Ten Businessmen Any Day

There was a letter to the editor in the West Bend Daily News that got Owen Robinson all perturbed. The letter writer was complaining of the comparatively lesser pay teachers receive compared to a business person. As I noted, Robinson took great umbrage from this and wrote quite the rant:

There are three really glaring issues with this. First is the notion that the level of one’s education should determine one’s level of compensation. While in the aggregate the level of education trends with compensation, it is not universal by any means. The level of a person’s compensation is determined by the demand for skills coupled with the supply of people who have those skills. If we were silly with neurosurgeons, they wouldn’t make very much. Conversely, if there were only three guys in Wisconsin who know how to drive a truck, they would make a fortune. Specifically in this case, we currently have plenty of people qualified to teach as indicated by the number of qualified applicants whenever positions open up. The taxpayers, as the employer, should only pay what is required to attract and retain a qualified teacher - and not a penny more.

The second thing is related to the first thing. To say that a starting teacher makes $33,000 is to reveal the effect of union contracts that relegate everyone to the same level. If the market were at work, then we may be talking about the “average starting pay” for teachers. Some teachers, whose skills are more commonplace may not deserve a starting pay of $33,000. Other teachers, whose skills are more rare, may deserve quite a bit more.

The final thing that irks me is the same as the second. The notion that all “business persons” are the same. What does that term mean? Business degrees range from management to finance to accounting to marketing and on and on. To say that a starting “business person” is paid $50,000 means nothing. When I got out of school (yes, I have one of those nasty business degrees), some of my peers started at $80k+ and others at much less. My first salary was $19,500. I earn considerably more now and yet I still have the one and only degree. We again return to the fact that one’s compensation is, and should be, derived by an equation of one’s skillset, the demand for that skillset, and its scarcity. If you don’t feel like you earn enough, then develop a skillset with more demand or more scarcity.

You can just feel the vitriol dripping from this. You can also can get gobsmacked by the stupidity of it.

In the first paragraph, Robinson complains that a person's education level shouldn't be a factor in their pay, but rather their "skillset," by which I believe he means skill set. He cites neurosurgeons as an example, pointing out their scarcity and expertise. What he fails to realize is that the neurosurgeon's specialized skill set is due to the fact that they got a higher level of education.

Owen then makes another mistake in implying that the fair market is at work when it comes to determining the income for business person as opposed those evil union workers, and that compensations is some how only relevant to one's skill set and its scarcity.

That's easily proved to be a false notion with one of Robinson's favorite people - U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-Sunspots). RoJo didn't make his millions by having a particular skill set, unless you consider marrying into a wealthy family and then having your father-in-law support your company - which he also started - as a marketable skill set.

Another fine example of how bogus this claim is any of the myriad of stories of the executive that drove his company into the ground but then walked away with millions, or more often, tens of millions of dollars in bonuses, severance pay and other golden parachutes. A recent example of this nonsense is what happened at Hostess. Management drove the company into the ground and then drove away with millions of dollars. I can't even imagine how Robinson or anyone else could rationalize how failure is worth all of that money.

Owen's third mistake is saying that there hasn't been mass layoffs of teachers. When Scott Walker, another one of Robinson's BFFs, implemented his agenda, thousands of teachers in Wisconsin were laid off. If I recall correctly, Robinson didn't exactly lament the loss to our educational system. And that doesn't even count the years of smaller layoffs before Walker's attack on students.

The bigger picture that Robinson is missing is that the "free market" has misplaced priorities. To think that a business person is worth more to society than a teacher is a sign of sick world.

It doesn't matter how good of a widget maker a person is, the world isn't dependent on widgets to carry on. However, it does need well-educated people to conceptualize the widget and to find better ways of making them. And to get that education requires good teachers. Conversely, the good teacher doesn't necessarily need the widget in order to educate their students.

Finland provides a good example of how education should be run:



Higher expectations from teachers, proper respect and pay for teacher, no private schools, no standardized testings, and they have the best education system in the world.

The most egregious part of Robinson's diatribe is the fact that he wrote it while the nation is still reeling from the tragedy in Newton, Connecticut, and while stories of the heroic teachers, like Victoria Soto, started to come out:

When Adam Lanza stormed into Victoria Soto's first-grade classroom, he was armed with semi-automatic weapons with which he had already killed 20 small children. She had only her courage, and her instinct to protect her class.

Ms Soto, 27, faced the killer, and saved her children. Accounts of what happened differ. One, posted on Tumblr by a friend, says that she had bundled the class into a large closet, and told the gunman that they had gone to the gym. Another says she was found huddled over the children. Either way, Lanza shot her, and then turned the gun on himself. Her cousin, Jim Wiltsie, told ABC News: "I'm just proud that Vicki had the instincts to protect her kids from harm. It brings peace to know that Vicki was doing what she loved, protecting the children, and in our eyes she's a hero."

We entrust our children to their teachers every day, not only to educate them, but to keep them safe. This is not a job that just anybody can or should do. It is one of the noble callings, same as police officers, firefighters, nurses, EMTs and so many others.

And since it is a noble calling, it only makes sense that they are treated with respect and with proper compensation.  And since Robinson points out that we, the taxpayers, or their employers, if we don't treat them the right way, that means we are bad bosses.

These Guys are Ding Dongs!

Recently, Hostess brands declared bankruptcy and quickly pointed their finger at the unions.   The extremist on the right,  which includes the hate talk radio, fox news and the numbskulls who blog were giddy with excitement that thousands of unions members(IE Americans....) would be losing their jobs! 

Here from 2 of our very own WI blogs:

1.  Kevin Binversie wrote this(emphasis mine): 

pos­si­ble suit­ors for the brands of Host­ess are already cir­cling ready­ing their builds after the company’s 3,000 union bak­ers sank the other 15,000 employ­ees last week.

2.  Owen from the Boots & Saber blog(which is just a generic parody of the Boots & Kittens blog), had this to say?

Nice work, bakers union. You just cost 18,000 people their jobs.

The problem with both of their blogs(besides being boring) are just flat out untrue.   Far be it for anyone on the right to do any actual research on a topic,so let me give them a freebie.

The actual reason that Hostess went bankrupt was ...(Drum roll please) Mismanagement!!

 According to a report by the Wall Street Journal , Hostess’ CEO, Gregory Rayburn, essentially admitted that his company stole employee pension money and put it toward CEO and senior executive pay (aka “operations”). While this isn't technically illegal, it's another sleazy theft by Hostess executives - who've paid themselves handsomely while running their company into the ground. Just last month, a judge agreed to let Hostess executives suck another $1.8 million out of the bankrupt company to pay bonuses to CEOs. 

That damm union, allowing the executives to steal money from the company like that!    I wonder if it was the collective bargaining agreement that let the executives keep cashing out!   If only the unions had agreed to even MORE concession, then maybe the executives could have had a real Merry Christmas! 

So boys & girls, the moral of the story is:

Never believe a word you read on the right wing blogosphere!  

PSS: Do not hold your breath waiting for a retraction or correction.   

How Right Wing Sausage is Made

Science Fiction Writer and WPRI paid hack Christian Schneider wrote a fable the other day, one of his best pieces of work. 

Beaten for being a gay republican!  Over 1300 words of pure republican bliss!

The story however had one major tell:

To date, Wood has been reluctant to talk to any media, especially on-camera.   “I’m not going to win Princess Kay of the Milky Way or anything anytime soon, I look a little rough,” he joked.

Wood was reluctant to talk to the media because he knew he was lying, however his fake story had to be told so he chose people who were NOT the media.   Schneider of course, The Daily Caller and mediatrackers for some examples to make sure and get their message out to as many people  as possible before the house of cards fell!

This was yet another great example of how the echo chamber works.  They make up a story and a couple people run with it, allowing fellow paid and unpaid hacks to repeat repeat repeat!   Wisconsin reporter, Crazy Fred Dooley , Alpha Male Randy Hollenbeck and  Boots and Sabers(owen deleted the story like it never happened- no apologies or retractions) to name a few!   

This was an excellent example of the republican noise machine.

* Make up a story.

* Get it out there to as many people as possible in the 24 hour news cycle(shame on the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for giving Schneider a forum).  Extra credit here for being incredibly upset and emotional about this story!

*  When story is proven to be false, either pretend you knew it all along or pretend nothing ever happened.

* Lather, Rinse, Repeat!   

This is how right wing sausage is made, and it is as ugly as regular sausage!  The thing to know is when there is a story spreading through the right wing blogosphere and hate radio squawkers, wait a couple days for the actual truth to come out! 

PS:   In case your wondering about how Schneider addressed his ridiculous fable as being false.  He amended his 1300+ story to add this at the end.

UPDATE: on October 29, Wood recanted his allegations to the Madison Police Department.

Yes he is THAT dishonest!


Much more on this story here and here!  

Correcting The Wrongs Of The Right

Since Owen Robinson has seen fit not to let me comment on his blog anymore, I am forced to correct his factual errors here.

My friend, Jenni Dye (the famed @legaleagle on teh twitter) wrote a thought-provoking opinion piece for the Isthmus regarding what she feels needs to be done to pull the Democratic Party and the progressives out of the quagmire of Fitzwalkerstan and lead the state back to where jobs are created and people are respected.

Robinson found the article interesting, but offered a couple of his own skewed observations.

The first one:

Where the author gets it a bit wrong is in from whence those new folks should hail. The Democratic Party of Wisconsin is currently being led by folks from the radical activist wing of the party. They are the ones who have driven the party into the wilderness. The party needs new blood, but putting up Blue Fisters hasn’t worked and it won’t work in the future. You can’t win the majority when you spend your time telling folks with whom you disagree how stupid/bigoted/sexist/oppressive/etc. they are. You have to actually communicate with them at some point.

The funny thing is that Ms. Dye was just elected this past spring as a Dane County Supervisor, even though she was on of the most recognized "blue fister" who he says can't ever be elected.

So much for his theories.

But the real kicker, which I will post with no further comment, except for emphasizing the pertinent parts, so that the gentle reader can get their licks in, is this "observation":

That’s where Republicans in Wisconsin have been successful in recent years. They have effective, principled people who communicate a positive vision of Wisconsin based on their values. They don’t denegrate those who oppose them and they don’t bash their opponents as bad people - just people with bad ideas. Of course there are exceptions, but the Republican Party has been quite disciplined as of late.

Oh, I guess I spoke too soon. I just have to point out that his first commenter, Kevin Binversie, who has recently called me a "liar" and a " loony, bat-shit crazy, AFSCME hack" rather shows just how wrong Robinson got it.

Some days, it is really beyond me how anyone can take these stooges seriously.

Poverty Will Set You Free?

Owen Robinson, RWNJ blogger at Loots and Slobbers, is celebrating the fact that union membership has dropped considerably since Scott Walker and his Republican cronies illegally rammed through Act 10:

Wow. Thousands of people are finally free from the unions that they were forced by law to join and finance. It’s a beautiful thing.

But Robinson, being the irrational union-phobe that he is, lets his hatred keep him from admitting, or even recognizing the truth.

Putting aside the fact that people could opt out of unions if they wanted to, he either ignores or is completely ignorant of the fact that this isn't a matter of choice, but of economic necessity for many people.

As Jeff pointed out the other day, Act 10 has serious financial consequences for working families across the state.  And it's not just the public sector workers who have had their wages docked by as much as 10 to 20%, but are also facing higher costs to see the doctor or to get medication.  There are public sector workers that now qualify for financial aid and food stamps because of Act 10.

People in the private sector, most notably the service industry, are also getting hurt as the demand dries up as the cash is being taken out of our economy.  This is why we're seeing more businesses shutting their doors and more and more people getting laid off.

Another way that this malicious sabotage of our economy is hurting is by driving highly qualified people from their fields, because they can no longer afford it or deal with the stress of it:

Stephanie Kline resigned from her position as an 8th grade math teacher at New Richmond Middle School in Wisconsin. Her last day of teaching is June 6, 2012.  A final straw for Kline came when her 5-year-old son was refused services at her New Richmond Clinic for an outstanding medical bill accrued this past year.  Her medical deductible increased $3,500 coupled with a salary decrease of $2000 in the 2011-2012 school year.  The decreasing ability to support her family, along with stress, uncertainty, and lack of communication has pushed her out of the teaching profession. Her story may resonate with many workers around the state who have experienced changes in their profession due to public policy choices. However, Kline’s story is a personal one.  She states several times throughout this interview that she is “only speaking for myself, and not other teachers.”

What Robinson is celebrating is not the liberation of thousands of people suddenly freed from a tyrannical union, but people having to drop their memberships because they need that money to put food on the table, keep a roof over their head and make sure their families get the medical care they need.

What Robinson is celebrating is the impoverishment and indenturing of tens of thousands of families, just so that he can save a whopping $12 on his property taxes.

Is it any wonder that this greed-driven miscreant supports the sociopath Walker, even with all of his corruption?  It takes a special kind of depravity to take enjoyment in needlessly hurting others, a quality that these two have in common.

Secret Video From Walkersha Rally

I reported earlier in the week that the Koch Brothers-funded front group, Americans for Prosperity, was hosting a pep rally in the deep heart of red country, Walkersha County.  Here is a video secretly taken from that rally and smuggled to the free world:

We are unable to confirm whether that is Owen Robinson at this time.

And The Predictable Result Of CCW Happens

You just knew something like this was going to happen when Scott Walker and the Republicans rammed through the unwanted concealed carry law:

After a Kia Rio cut off a semitrailer truck Tuesday traveling north on Interstate 94 near College Ave., the truck driver flashed his brights at the Kia, whose driver then pointed a handgun back at the truck. The truck driver and his passenger then called 911 to report the incident, and gave the Kia's plate number.

Milwaukee County sheriff's deputies pulled Manning over near I-43 and Brown Deer Road and found two loaded handguns in the car, a .45 and a 9mm. When told he was under arrest, Manning told a deputy he was acting in self-defense because the other driver was using the truck as a weapon.

The complaint states that Manning had a concealed carry permits from Indiana and Arizona, either of which makes it legal for him to carry weapons in Wisconsin.

While being booked at the jail, Manning -- who was still wearing a holster -- told other inmates that he was being tailgated by a semi, and that if the trucker hadn't backed off, "I would have put four rounds right in the engine block."

This has nothing to do with self-protection. It's all about intimidation and bullying, the only things left in the Republican repertoire.

I'm just waiting for Owen Robinson to tell us that this is "awesome".

The Pride Of West Bend

No, I'm not referring to Owen Robinson.

I'm referring to the clown that couldn't cope with the fact that the majority of people have come to the realization that Scott Walker is not good for this state or its citizens.  Because of his inability to deal with this simple fact, he resorted to defacing two recall petitions.

Fortunately, the thug probably didn't cause any real damage that would harm the recall.  In fact, by this time, odds are that the petitioners have been able to find the people whose signatures were damaged and had them re-sign new petitions, since that is allowed.

The sweet irony is that for his troubles, he is now facing two felony charges.  If convicted on either one or both of the charges, he won't even be able to vote to save his beloved leader from his certain recall.  (I also hope he's a gun nut too, since he'll have to give those up too.)

And in related news, a woman in Chippewa Falls demonstrated her ineffective coping technique on a Recall Walker sign.  For her troubles, she was cited with disorderly conduct and destruction of property.

Is it any surprise that the people that can't handle reality are the ones supporting Walker?

Walker Announces He'll Clean Up His Own Mess, Acolytes Sing Paeans

Scott Walker made a grandiose state on Thursday, announcing that he is creating a new position of inspector general to go after all of the fraud that is happening in the various DHS programs which are aimed at aiding the poor, the disabled and the elderly.

Walker acolyte and yes man, Owen Robinson, is besides himself in pleasure of this announcement.  He even goes as far as to state that the position should be paid on commission instead of a salary, despite it being a civil service job.  He must be so used to Walker's long history of pay to play that he actually thinks it's a way to run government.

The funny thing about all this is that it is the equivalent of Walker announcing he is going to clean up some milk that he spilled.

When he was Milwaukee County Executive, he actually helped foment and grow the problem by cutting the number of staff that were assigned to do fraud investigation.  His mismanagement of this entire program led to a class action lawsuit being filed against Milwaukee County and the State of Wisconsin.  Governor Jim Doyle saved Walker's political hide by taking over the state and bringing the program back to full staff and within compliance of the law.

One of the county workers that did do fraud investigation, Cynthia Jaeger, who was a county worker until her retirement a three years ago, was so good at her job that she won state recognition for her work and was the only worker in the entire nation to recoup more than $1 million in a single year.  Cindy saved tax payers more than $5 million in a three year span.  And she did that just at county wages, including furloughs.

So how did Walker, who claims that "preventing waste, fraud and abuse of tax payer dollars" is his top priority, recognize the hard work of Ms. Jaeger  and all of the money she saved the tax payers?  Employee of the month? Special commendation?

Nope, he let her retire without a word  and without filling her then vacant position.

Walker's only priority is to lie, cheat and steal his way into conning people into thinking he is anything more than a puppet for the big-moneyed special interests.  And he's not even doing that very well.

I wonder if the inspector general will do anything about the biggest cause of fraud and abuse of tax payer dollars...or if he's just going to wait until the people recall Walker.

And The Booby Prize Goes To...

An eighth grade girl has filed a federal lawsuit against her school.  The issue at hand is that the principal has banned bracelets that read "I [heart] boobies (keep a breast),"  and is meant to raise awareness of breast cancer. The girl and her mother contend that it's a violation of her free speech rights.  The principal is threatening anyone wearing one of these bracelets could get detention, suspension or other punishment.

Some right wingers have already responded to this.

Kevin Binversie feels that it is a frivolous lawsuit and goes on to mock the girl, her parents and the courts.

Owen Robinson echoes the sentiment and adds that it should fail.

Dad29, a known misogynist, adds his two cents worth in a comment at Owen's site when he quips this:

Some people who comment here still don’t understand why the TEA party exists—-nor why the law is an ass. Nor do they understand why we don’t want kids playing in gutters.

Now for some facts.

Breast cancer is still a serious disease that affects too many women, and yes, it can strike teenage girls.

Secondly, per my Royal Barrister and others, the law and precedents appear to be in the favor of the girl.

Odds are that almost every thirteen year old child has already heard the word "boobies," and worse, and knows what these words mean.

So, given all the facts, the question, dear reader, is this: Who's the biggest boob?

• The principal who made a stink of a harmless bracelet.promoting breast cancer awareness,
• Binversie for mocking not only the lawsuit but the family as well.,
• Robinson for saying the girl shouldn't have free speech,
• Dad29 for his utterly inane comment comparing breast cancer awareness to playing in a gutter (not to mention his misunderstanding of the TEA Party)
• All of the above for trying to tell women that they're bodies and health are secondary to their concept of decency. (What's so decent about trying to keep children in the dark about health concerns and how to detect a problem early is something I won't pretend to understand.)

As Owen Says: They Came, They Spent, They Lost

Owen Robinson, transplanted right winger from Texas, tries to be cute by spinning the recall elections in the favor of the Republicans, in a hack piece which he titled "They came, they spent, they lost."

His spin aside, the title is accurate.

The Koch Boyz dumped millions of dollars in these races, either directly or more commonly, indirectly through their front groups like Americans for (Kochs') Prosperity or Wisconsin Club for Growth (of Kochs' riches).  And who could forget the traveling Tea Party Song and Dance Revue?!

So they came in and spent like there was no tomorrow in order to continue their reign of corporate statehood.

But they fell short.

They had four candidates win.  The Democrats had five win.

Unless you're doing Scott Walker's budgeting, five is greater than four.

And things are so bad for WISGOP that their chair can't even comment on Tuesday's failed attacks on two Democratic senators.  They have to bring in the National GOP chair to try to spin a victory out of the jaws of delusion.

What is means is that the majority of Wisconsinites have regained their senses and are rejecting the notion of corporate serfdom.  But it also means that not enough have hit rock bottom yet and will need time before attempting to recall Scott Walker.  Not as long as the Democrats are hoping, but maybe in the spring when people are finding out that they are paying much higher fees for everything and that their schools are about to see the true impact of Walker's budget.

The Kaukauna Is A Lie!

Yesterday, I shredded the lie being echoed among right wingers like Owen Robinson (not a new thing for Owen, sadly) that Scott Walker's budget busting bill is "awesome" or "a positive impact for tax payers," by pointing out the fact that people will be paying a heckuva lot more but receiving less for their money.

Today, Jake in his Economic TA Funhouse take his turn by showing that the Kaukauna School District, which Walker has been using as a talking point, is nothing but a lie:

So this wasn't a "union costs exploded for 2011-2012" problem. This was a "budget cuts from Scott Walker and WisGOP in Madison are screwing us on the local level" problem. In fact, the original budget proposal from the guv resulted in a drop of Kaukauna's available revenues of $2.16 million (a bit under 5% of their total), and $2.75 million from the state (check out your favorite district's cut here, Kaukauna's on Page 5). The unions responded by proposing $1.8 million in concessions, which combined with the district $345,000 in surplus funds from 2010-11, would have taken care off all of the state cuts put into Kaukauna's budget. The Kaukauna School Board turned them down and asked for layoffs of 14.5 full-time positions instead, and decided to wait on the Legislature and State Supreme Court to do the dirty work of putting the screws on the teachers, and hope for large numbers of teacher retirements.

Which is exactly what happened. The Kaukauna teachers will now have to chip in over 18% of their pay in health care and pension contributions, with no corresponding increase in salary. And for all the talk about "Kaukauna class sizes going down," even Kaukauna School Board President Todd Arnoldussen admits it's projected class sizes being reduced, and those are reductions from huge INCREASES THAT WERE PREVIOUSLY PROJECTED. In other words, little to no change will result from what students would have seen this year. Class sizes DID NOT GO DOWN, as much as the deceptive press releases may indicate.

And I'm not even bringing up the fact that I wish Kaukauna good luck in attracting and retaining quality teachers when they're getting a huge cut in their take-home pay. Strangely, those "free-market" types that are always bashing public educators leaves out the free market reality of lower pay = lower quality. (But when has consistency and reality ever been part of the equation for those haters, anyway?)

In other words, like the supposed budget crisis when Walker took over, he "fixed" a problem that didn't even exist until he created it.

Just like when he was county executive, he is selling snake oil and false promises based on a house of cards.  Unfortunately, the corporate press just echoes his false talking points without actually looking into them and the gullible and/or the dishonest buy into them, not realizing their mistake until it's too late.

As Jake points out at the end of his piece, let's see how things are in a year's time. Heck, let's see how things are in two months time. That's when the pain really starts.

Loots And Slobbers

Owen Robinson, rabid anti-union blogger at Boots and Sabers, really put his army boot in his mouth while jumping on Scott Walker's union busting agenda.

Robinson links to a story, one of several that Walker and his acolytes are trying to foist on the unsuspecting public, showing "all the wonderful savings" which stem from Walker's assault on the working class. In this specific example, it's the Hartford School District.

Robinson sounds off with pride, first calling it "Awesome!" and then adding this:

Walker’s collective bargaining changes continue to have a positive impact for taxpayers across the state.

Considering that the "savings" from Walker's union busting is about $300 million out of a $66 billion budget, that's like cheering on the guy using a teaspoon to bail out the Titanic.

But is it really having a positive impact?

Consider this: In Milwaukee County alone, there are somewhere around 48,000 government workers, including state, county and all the municipal employees.  Walker's union busting will remove $155 million from the local economy, because that's the money that these workers won't have any longer to spend.

The people that get hurt by this are the owners and employees of the small stores, restaurants and taverns, since those are the areas people first cut in their personal budgets.  Then bigger companies will feel the pinch, like cable companies, as people realize that they'll need to cut back on luxuries.  Also, big ticket purchases will drop, which will lead to things like more real estate problems and less cars being sold.  And you know the companies aren't going to allow a hit to their profit margins, so that means they raise rates and/or lay off workers.

The estimates of people in the private sector that are going to lose their jobs just from this one bill is continuously being added to, but the latest I've seen is 31,000 people around the state will lose their jobs because of this decrease in flow of money.  To be honest, even that number seems low to me.

So, now we have teachers and other public employees making even less money (even though they already were making less than their private sector counterparts). This, in turn, has a negative impact on local businesses, causing further job losses, a further drop in spending and so the downward cycle continues.  Not exactly what I call "a positive impact," but that's the whole problem with the right's trickle down economics theory, isn't it?  Something's trickling down, but it sure as hell ain't money, much less enough to keep the economy going or growing.

Now, any conservatives that bothered reading this far are probably screaming at their monitors, "[Redacted] you, capper, you damn union thug. At least Walker's lowered our taxes, you dumb [redacted]!" or something akin to that.

Well, technically, that's a true statement.  But before they celebrate, they need to open their myopic eyes and look at the whole picture, which is provided by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau:

In summary, the changes included in the Joint Finance Committee's budget would decrease net taxes by $23,572,000 ($5,135,000 in 2011-12 and -$28,707,000 in 2012-13) and would increase net fees by $111,340,800 ($37,248,900 in 2011-12 and $74,091,900 in 2012-13).

As the gentle reader can see, the increase in fees the first year alone is greater than all of the tax cuts for both years combined.  And then the fees double again in the second year.

Now, in summary, we will have even less of money circulating in the state, causing higher unemployment and some businesses to close down altogether.  Compounding the pain, we also will have exponentially higher fees to pay each consecutive year of Walker's regime.

If that's a positive thing for the tax payers, I'd hate to see what the hell a negative impact would be.

Did Christopher Thomas Die In Vain?

Owen Robinson, in his usual foaming-at-the-mouth union-bashing mode, went after the Shorewood School District because they would rather act like adults as opposed to our emotionally stunted, temper tantrum throwing excuse for a governor.

In the comment thread of said union-bashing post, Robinson wrote this:

If it sucks so bad, quit. If we can’t replace you with comparable talent, compensation will have to rise. That’s how it works. If you don’t quit, then I have to assume that your compensation is adequate for the services you provide.

This caused something to click in my mind.  It exemplified what was wrong with Walker's Budget Disrepair Bill, why the right cannot understand why it is wrong, and the full impact this bill could have on our lives.

You see, I've seen this happen before.  And it's not pretty.

In the early and mid 1990s, Governor Tommy Thompson had a bad habit of regularly underfunding different mandated services and programs, especially those in Milwaukee County.  Thus, the county operated child welfare system (read foster care) was underfunded and children's civil rights were being denied. Three different independent audits came up with the result that all of the foster care system was grossly underfunded.

Thompson and the Republicans disagreed and said it was mismanagement by county officials.They said that they could do it better.

As a result, in 1996, Alberta Darling was again spearheading some real bad legislation.

As part of that year's budget, she introduced a small clause that caused big problems.  That clause was that the State of Wisconsin would take over the child welfare system of any county with a population of over 500,000 people.

Because of this clause, the Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare was created.

In 1998, they took over.  However, when they took over, they only kept one part, dividing the rest amongst the county and three different private agencies.  That meant there were now five different agencies doing the work that one used to do, and the price tag to the tax payer went up by almost half again of what it was.

Even though showing the best records in performance, the state had pushed Milwaukee County out of the way and privatized the whole system, with the small part they controlled as the only exception.  It should be noted that the only agency that was still one of the originals was La Causa.

During the next decade, there were problems galore.  One of the biggest issues was the staff turnover amongst the front line case workers.  Even as recently as two years ago, turnover rates among workers were at unacceptably high numbers:

According to the report, the bureau started 2008 with 179 ongoing case managers. By December, 105 had left. That would seem to mean the turnover was 59%.

The reason for this turnover was that instead of investing the money into workers or services, the private agencies were more concerned with their profit margin and paying extravagant salaries to their executives. With low pay, high case loads and no support, workers were quick to look for and find other lines of work.

The only thing that slowed this down was by increasing the money paid to the workers.  But in order for this to happen, instead of demanding that the executives lower their pay or that they stop buying $9,000 conference tables, the state, led again by Darling's efforts, just threw more tax money at them.  Even with the increase in pay, turnovers are still at a high rate.

As a result of these turnovers, the foster children were the ones paying a price greater than the tax payers. They would have a new worker even as often as every month.  This new workers, unfamiliar with the system, the laws around foster care, or even the scope of their job, were often overwhelmed and things kept falling apart.

Eventually, as anyone who was watching this debacle unfold could've told you would happen, the system finally had one tragedy too many occur.  Because of the way the system was set up, Christopher Thomas died due to severe injuries suffered at the hands of his abusive aunt.

The lesson that the Republicans failed to learn from Christopher's death, as well as the deaths of the other children that the system failed, is that government simply cannot be operated like a business.

Businesses provide a service or produce a product with one goal: to make a profit.  A government exist simply to provide a public service for the common good, whether it is law enforcement, fighting fires, taking care of the ill, the elderly, the disables or abused children.

When you try to combine those two mentalities, profit margins take precedence and people...real people...suffer for it.  And that is not acceptable.

Yes, it is important to keep costs down as much as possible.  Workers need to understand they have to take that into consideration when negotiating their contracts.  But if you take away that right (and yes, Owen, it is a right), then you set yourself up to have a system that is guaranteed to fail, and fail at a cost far, far greater than any money you might have saved in your stinginess.

If you don't like the contract that the government agreed to on your behalf, the answer is simple. Don't elect that person again.

Of course, then again, if you aren't happy with the cost of the government employees' benefits, that too can be fixed.  Reinstate regulations on the health care industry and you will control the out of control escalation of the health care costs.  Likewise, don't elect people that cause Great Recessions, like George Bush, and the pension funding would not be an issue either.

There are solutions to the problems we are facing as a state, but taking away people's rights, not to mention the other atrocities that are in the disrepair bill, is not only not a solution, but will actually make the problems worse.