Showing posts with label Sheldon Adelson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sheldon Adelson. Show all posts

Saturday, September 22, 2018

The Week In Walker

By Jeff Simpson

With so much bad and crazy happening on a breakneck pace everyday, it is hard to keep up with it all.   Let's try and catch up with some of Scott Walker's recent hits.

1.  Get ready, coming smack dab in the middle of the state, will be lots of layoffs and changes at UW - Stevens Point!
 Kristen Hendrickson, the university’s chief financial officer, laid out three scenarios for UWSP's structural deficit that largely depend on enrollment numbers for this year.
If the university enrolls 8,000 students, the total deficit may sit at about $2.4 million.
If 7,500 students enroll, the total deficit may grow to $5.4 million.
If enrollment falls to 7,000, the total deficit may grow to $8 million.
The university’s academic division might need to make cuts ranging from $4 million to $6 million, eliminating as many as 60 to 70 full-time jobs, if enrollment falls to 7,000 students, Summers wrote in the Aug. 27 letter.

 2.  Small Government Scott Walker is taking people's homes.


Unless you know the right people, then Foxconn is the jackpot!

3.  While Walker's signature promise was to create 250,000 jobs (as his floor) and after 8 years still has not come close to that number.  In fact, Scott Walker has cost Wisconsin some 80,000 jobs.

The average from both models points to a Walker administration which cost Wisconsin 80,000 jobs. This loss was masked by national job growth. If Wisconsin had followed the same pattern relative to its neighbors as under previous administrations, jobs would have grown by an additional 33 percent — quite a difference. To put the shortfall in perspective, the 80,000-job loss is six times the 13,000 jobs promised from the Foxconn development in Racine.
It is hard to identify possible causes for Wisconsin’s jobs lag other than the administration’s policies. It is not as if the state is dependent on a single industry. Rather, the underlying cause seems to be the triumph of ideology over evidence as to what grows an economy. 
4.  Have to admire Badger Meters business sense, and be amazed at how cheaply Scott Walker can be bought.

Top executives of a company that was awarded $250,000 in state welfare have contributed nearly $26,000 to Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s campaigns.
Badger Meter, which makes flow measurement tools for water utilities and commercial and industrial businesses, plans to expand its Mount Pleasant operations in Racine County and create up to 40 jobs in the next three years. Walker’s economic development agency, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., said Thursday it will provide up to $250,000 in tax credits to train the new employees.
Overall, Badger Meter employees contributed $36,850 to legislative and statewide candidates between January 2010 and December 2017. All but $300 went to Republican candidates.
The top recipients of the contributions were Walker, $25,900, followed by Republican Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, $6,000, and GOP Rep. Dale Kooyenga, of Brookfield, $2,000.
The company’s top contributor to legislative and statewide candidates between January 2010 and December 2017 was its chief executive officer, Richard Meeusen, of Pewaukee, and his wife, Maribeth, $34,750. That’s 94 percent of the contributions from all employees of Badger Meter. Walker received $24,500 of those contributions from the Meeusens.
5.  Another way to get your hands on some easy Wi Taxpayer funds in Scott Walker's WI?  Abuse teenagers at Lincoln Hills


– For the second and third times, Gov. Scott Walker’s administration has given cash settlements to guards who it determined had used excessive force on juvenile inmates, state records show.
The payoffs — including one totaling $9,000 — were reached as the FBI continues a criminal investigation of Lincoln Hills School for Boys and Copper Lake School for Girls, which share a campus 30 miles north of Wausau. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel last year reported officials at the prison complex trained staff improperly, failed to preserve video evidence, didn't document serious incidents and often shirked their duty to report matters to parents, police and social service agencies.


 6.  In Election Season, Scott Walker will say absolutely anything to get elected.   Here is a clip in 2010 telling us how he would never cut education funding.


7.  Scott Walker is out with his 21st political ad already.  I guess he can not find one that people will believe.  However this one is very typical of Scott Walker.  He starts out complaining about attack ads, then starts attacking.


Tone deaf? Desperate? Dishonest?   We report, you decide. 

It stays with the theme he has been working for months.  That Scott Walker, the king of outside money, fears outside money.   
I guess that the Kochs, Sheldon Adelson and loony Uihlein are all above board WI residents, or maybe he just a hypocrite. 

Finally, as Bruce Murphy points out in his great piece at Urban Milwaukee, everything Walker does is for sale. 

Two of his biggest supporters have been the Koch Brothers, who have donated $4.8 million to Walker’s campaigns, and the state’s biggest business group, Wisconsin Manufacturer’s and Commerce, which has given $9.5 million to his campaigns.
Walker’s signature law, Act 10, which decimated public employee unions, was backed the Koch Brothers and WMC. The two groups also supported the Right to Work law, which makes it difficult to organize private unions and which Walker had promised unions supporting him in 2014 that he would never support. But he signed it into law in 2015. 

Readers of this humble blog know, that everything Scott Walker sells, he sells cheap! 


Friday, April 20, 2018

This Week in Fitzwalkerstan

By Jeff Simpson




Now that the Spring elections are over, its time to catch up on all we have been missing.   Here are some stories that have not gotten any, or at least real, coverage in the news.

1.  Scott Walker, desperately tried not to hold special elections for two seats that were open, because of he appointed some fellow Republicans to cushy state jobs to pad their pensions. 

One of the reasons Walker held off on filling the seat of Frank Lasee, was because he knew the end result would not be pretty for the WISGOP again.    He knew that Andre Jacque would then run for the Senate seat opening.

Andre Jacque was first elected in the right wing wave of 2010 and has been a solid player in the cuckoo caucus of Wisconsin Republicans ever since.  While he has a solid layer of support amongst the far right Appling contingent.

Jacque however, has zero support amongst the ALEC/WMC employees who treated him like a circus clown who performed for them when they needed his vote.

Now that Walker was forced to call a special election, and Jacque is running for the Senate District 1 seat, all of the people that work with Jacque are supporting a no name "business" man who refuses to ask or answer questions

The GOP have nothing but true disdain for the far right "evangelicals", especially when they start straying from the reservation and want to actually set the agenda and pass legislation.

Here, the lady that hit a cop, gives the wisgop a forum to hammer on Jacque(starts around 17 minutes in).

Jacque and Walker exposed that fact, we will see if Julianne and her friends can see that.

*  In Racine County, our valuable Wisconsin taxpayer dollars are being spent to kick Wisconsin Citizens out of their new homes because they are "blighted".
On the evening of March 20 a full room of Racine County residents assembled to make and hear public statements before the board of the Community Development Authority of Mt. Pleasant, Wisconsin. One item was on the agenda: the board’s first step in the designation of some 3,000 acres of agricultural land, farm houses and scattered, neatly maintained single-family homes as “blighted.” It would be the final step for the local authorities — vital cogs in the Foxconn-booster leadership chain that runs from local Tea Party officials, to Governor Scott Walker, and all the way up to President Donald Trump — to fulfill the promise to Taiwanese tech giant Foxconn to obtain and then turn over the land for their proposed industrial complex. 
The WisGop used to at least pretend to care about smaller government and local control! 

If you are upset that the Government is taking away beautiful dream homes at pennies on the dollar, just "Go Suck Lemons!"

*  Kentucky Governor Matt Blevins, is following the Walker public education plan and gutting it.   The teachers took the day to head to the Capitol to protest and make their voices be heard.   Bloviating Blevins had this to say:
"I guarantee you today, somewhere in Kentucky today, a child was sexually assaulted that was left home because there was nobody there to watch them," Bevin told reporters on Friday, April 13.
 The Governor, feels that teachers are babysitters and not teachers and while he thinks they are the first line defense for child molesters he still does not think that that warrants a fair days wage.

By the way if you want more words of wisdom from Mr. Blevins, he will be the keynote speaker this year at the Wisconsin Republican Convention.  Let's hope no child gets sexually assaulted while the parents are busy watching him give a brilliant speech. 

*  As the WisGOP continue to deny reality, one thing many of the far right nuts were complaining about was that the multi arrested Screnock did not hit Rebecca Dallet enough for giving a speech in San Francisco.

However, these same nonpartisan, impartial watchdogs, have been and continue to be extremely quiet about their hero, Scott Walker, traveling the country and begging for money from some of the worst people in the world.

One of those disgusting people, that Walker runs to often to kiss his rings, is the old fossil from Vegas Sheldon Adelson.

LAS VEGAS — Republicans made their annual sojourn to the lavish Venetian hotel here this weekend to kiss the ring of a benefactor they need more than ever: casino mogul Sheldon Adelson.Confronting the potential loss of one or both chambers of Congress in the midterms, and struggling to raise money against an energized Democratic base, the party is desperate for Adelson’s millions. So the praise at the annual Republican Jewish Coalition conference he hosts overflowed, even though the billionaire, attending the funeral of a close friend in Israel, wasn’t on hand.
The disgusting Adelson, will not be mentioned on our friends from the right wing's blogs between now and the election.

*  Scott Walker's good friend and all around horrible guy - Missouri Governor Eric Greitens, who has been indicted for blackmailing a woman he had an affair with to keep quiet, has now filed a restraining order to keep his Attorney General away from him. 

If these two do not define "Conservative reforms", no one does. 

* Finally we will leave you with this quote from our current Republican President, that will go down in history as one of the most inspiring:

Are we ready for another few years of a ridiculous circus act or will we vote adults in charge in November?   

Friday, January 9, 2015

The Scott Walker Degree



BY Jeff Simpson 

Scott Walker, who likes to campaign Al Dente, has changed his line about not having a college degree once again.   

What about not having a college degree?"I say I’m like the majority of people in America. I’m someone who went to college, had the opportunity in my senior year to go and take a job full-time, which was not the only reason I went to college, but one of the biggest reasons was to get a job. And the American Red Cross offered me a job my senior year, and I took it, thinking someday, maybe, I’d go back. But a few years later, I met my wonderful wife, Tonette, a year after that, we had Matthew, the year after that, we had Alex. And now like a lot of folks in America, you know, your family and your job take the time away from you from finishing it up. But I don’t think anybody -- and I’ve got a master’s degree in taking on the big-government special interests, and I think that is worth more than anything else that anybody can point to."
Once you get past the fact that he changes his life story more than Robert Van Winkle ever did, one interesting line stands out.  

and I’ve got a master’s degree in taking on the big-government special interests - Scott Walker
Well we at CogDis did some digging and we found a partial course listing of classes that Mr. Walker Had to take to earn his imaginary Master's degree.  

 How to please your boss, yet look independent 202:  This course we will teach you how to say one thing to the general public while spilling your true strategy to people who pay for that privilege. By the end of this class, you will learn how to soak millions out of rich widows.  



Kiss the right rings(there is lots of money in Las Vegas) 300:  This course will show you, how to fund raise nationally while traveling secretly.  The more advanced learners in this class, will learn how you can phone reporters in your home state, while traveling, to complain about "out of state special interests".



You have access to unlimited money, use it 220:   This class will show you how to do whatever you want in office because you have unlimited access to taxpayer money to hire lawyers.  If time allows, the student will also learn how to hire consultants to keep from having to make a decision on your own.



Meet the right people - 100:  This is a refresher course to help the student understand that the person you are nice to today, could grow up to become a Supreme Court Justice, who will not only suspend ethics rules to do your bidding but be willing to choke anyone who gets in the way!



You are always, always, always on - no one is bigger than your ambition 400 :  This is an upper level graduate course for those who are willing to do anything to become President of the United States.   This course will teach you to hire felons, snakes, and loons.  You will also learn the importance of hiring your donors to major positions within the Government and the equal importance of throwing them to the wolves the second you need a scapegoat.  Students will also learn that the more taxpayer money you can give to your friends, the more money they will give you.  



You can see with five classes last semester, Mr. Walker had a full course load but it allowed him to attain his imaginary masters degree.

Congrats to you Scott Walker,

Let's hope the walk you take to get this degree involves handcuffs and disgrace!



Sunday, March 30, 2014

Scott Walker 's Beauty Contest


 

By Jeff Simpson

Scott Walker left Wisconsin yet again, no not to watch the Badgers win and get to the Final Four, he went to Las Vegas to participate in his own tournament.  This tournament was a "beauty contest" to see who despicable billionaire Sheldon Adelson wanted to bring to the prom.




Sheldon Adelson, who has already paid Scott Walker $250,000, for services rendered, now is deciding who gets his largess in the 2016 Presidential race(remember this trip every time Scott Walker tells us he has not thought about 2016).   Adelson has a loooong history and its not pretty, unless you are GOP member running for office since he has spent well north of $100,000,000 trying to get republicans elected.  

Scott Walker lost the swimsuit competition(do not blame me if you click here)!

Then Scott went on to the interview, again he gave Miss South Carolina a run for her money.  The Governor who has stated his goal of Governing as "divide and conquer":


Had this to say in front of a different audience:
 "What voters in the middle want more than anything... is leadership. They want people to lead. They're so cynical with politics today," Walker said. "It's a sad commentary where we're at in American society that sometimes I get called courageous just because I kept my word. Everywhere else in life that's expected, but somehow in politics, that's exceptional."
 Not sure if Scott Walker has forgotten his number one campaign pledge or just feels that all the rules that apply to everyone else, does not apply to him, but let's take a trip down memory lane:


Who is that guy talking?   By the way where is he on the jobs pledge?  Not even halfway!

Do we want someone who blatantly dismisses reality as our next Governor?

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

What's Your Name Again?

I Love This

Multi Multi Millionaire Mitt who spent his whole life trying to become President of the United States as some sort of birthright!

  Yet in the end, Willard ended up with an extremely poor VP choice, and 47% of the vote(the same 47% who feel entitled to 'gifts' and wont take personal responsibility for their lives obviously).  

The person who ran for the republican nomination for President for six years and made it through a brutal primary season as THE  absolute best, most qualified person in the republican party, to run for President.  The Mitt Romney, who was endorsed by the Wisconsin State Journal AND Senator Ron Johnson, just picked up another award! 


Least Influential person in America(H/T GQ)! 

 “Was anyone inspired by Mitt Romney? Did anyone vote enthusiastically for Mitt Romney? Of course not. Voting for Romney is like hooking up with the last single person at the bar at 4 a.m. The only successful thing he did this year was embody every black stand-up comedian’s impression of a white person. Thank God the election’s over. No more endless photos of Mitt staring winsomely off-camera with that attempted smile on his face. No more glaring campaign mishaps week after week after week. No more labored media efforts to make him look like anything other than Sheldon Adelson’s pampered money Dumpster.”


 Was anyone inspired by Mitt Romney? Did anyone vote enthusiastically for Mitt Romney? Of course not. Voting for Romney is like hooking up with the last single person at the bar at 4 a.m. The only successful thing he did this year was embody every black stand-up comedian's impression of a white person. Thank God the election's over. No more endless photos of Mitt staring winsomely off-camera with that attempted smile on his face. No more glaring campaign mishaps week after week after week. No more labored media efforts to make him look like anything other than Sheldon Adelson's pampered money Dumpster. Good-bye, Mitt. I hope you enjoy the rest of your life quietly ensconced at Lake Winnipesaukee, blissfully ignorant of the plight of anyone who doesn't have $300 million squirreled away in the Bahamas.

Read More http://www.gq.com/entertainment/celebrities/201212/least-influential-people-2012#ixzz2DWrQq1FA

 Was anyone inspired by Mitt Romney? Did anyone vote enthusiastically for Mitt Romney? Of course not. Voting for Romney is like hooking up with the last single person at the bar at 4 a.m. The only successful thing he did this year was embody every black stand-up comedian's impression of a white person. Thank God the election's over. No more endless photos of Mitt staring winsomely off-camera with that attempted smile on his face. No more glaring campaign mishaps week after week after week. No more labored media efforts to make him look like anything other than Sheldon Adelson's pampered money Dumpster. Good-bye, Mitt. I hope you enjoy the rest of your life quietly ensconced at Lake Winnipesaukee, blissfully ignorant of the plight of anyone who doesn't have $300 million squirreled away in the Bahamas.

Read More http://www.gq.com/entertainment/celebrities/201212/least-influential-people-2012#ixzz2DWrQq1FA
1.  Mitt Romney
 Was anyone inspired by Mitt Romney? Did anyone vote enthusiastically for Mitt Romney? Of course not. Voting for Romney is like hooking up with the last single person at the bar at 4 a.m. The only successful thing he did this year was embody every black stand-up comedian's impression of a white person. Thank God the election's over. No more endless photos of Mitt staring winsomely off-camera with that attempted smile on his face. No more glaring campaign mishaps week after week after week. No more labored media efforts to make him look like anything other than Sheldon Adelson's pampered money Dumpster. Good-bye, Mitt. I hope you enjoy the rest of your life quietly ensconced at Lake Winnipesaukee, blissfully ignorant of the plight of anyone who doesn't have $300 million squirreled away in the Bahamas.

Read More http://www.gq.com/entertainment/celebrities/201212/least-influential-people-2012#ixzz2DWrIGxpR

1.  Mitt Romney
 Was anyone inspired by Mitt Romney? Did anyone vote enthusiastically for Mitt Romney? Of course not. Voting for Romney is like hooking up with the last single person at the bar at 4 a.m. The only successful thing he did this year was embody every black stand-up comedian's impression of a white person. Thank God the election's over. No more endless photos of Mitt staring winsomely off-camera with that attempted smile on his face. No more glaring campaign mishaps week after week after week. No more labored media efforts to make him look like anything other than Sheldon Adelson's pampered money Dumpster. Good-bye, Mitt. I hope you enjoy the rest of your life quietly ensconced at Lake Winnipesaukee, blissfully ignorant of the plight of anyone who doesn't have $300 million squirreled away in the Bahamas.

Read More http://www.gq.com/entertainment/celebrities/201212/least-influential-people-2012#ixzz2DWrIGxpR

Sunday, July 8, 2012

The GOP's Greatest Fear

Three months ago, I wrote an article for the Shepherd Express which took a look at the right wing "news media sources" like MacIver Institute, Wisconsin Reporter and Media Trackers and whether these groups have violated the law. I also pointed out to a complaint that had been filed against them for violating their tax exempt status by actively advocating for politicians like Scott Walker:
These connections raise questions about potential coordination between Walker's campaign and these third party groups, which is illegal. Even the controversial Citizens United ruling does not provide coverage for this sort of activity, according to the Alliance for Justice:

"The decision does not change the electoral activities permitted by 501(c)(3)s. Regardless of the changes Citizens United made to election law, federal tax law still absolutely prohibits 501(c)(3)s from supporting or opposing candidates for public office. 501(c)(3)s cannot endorse candidates or make independent expenditures suggesting who is the 'better' candidate without jeopardizing their tax-exempt status."

In March, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign (WDC) announced that it had filed a complaint with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service against the MacIver Institute, the Heartland Institute and Americans for Prosperity (AFP), another group that has received funding from the Koch brothers and the Bradley Foundation. In its complaint, WDC accuses AFP and MacIver of violating their 501(c)(3) status by creating their "It's Working Wisconsin" project, which spent $1.2 million on advertising alone, urging people not to sign the recall petitions. In addition, WDC accused these groups of holding public meetings and other activities to try to influence the outcome of the recalls. WDC also alleged that the Chicago-based Heartland Institute's planned "Operation Angry Badger"—a public relations effort to support Walker in the recall—would violate the group's tax-exempt status.
The game continues, but now on a national level. The Koch Brothers, founders and financiers of the above-named propagandist groups, have pledged $100 million to buy the White House. Likewise, billionaire Sheldon Adelson and his wife have pledged unlimited millions of dollars to defeat President Obama. Likewise, thanks to Citizens United, there are countless businesses that are willing to put their money into the pool to help buy the White House.

But businesses don't like to do this openly, so they use front groups like Americans for Prosperity, Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity and all their subsidiary groups. And now there are also groups like Karl Rove's Crossroads GPS, that allow all these businesses and uber-wealthy donate without fear of repercussions since they can do so anonymously.

To put some balance back into the electoral system, the Disclose Act was introduced. The Disclose Act would close this loophole and require that these donations, which are used for political purposes, be made public information.

And this has the Republicans and their corporate overlords scared as hell. Like cockroaches and earwigs, they hate to have their activities exposed in the light of day and go scurrying for cover whenever anyone shines a light in their direction.

US Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) has resorted to the fear and smear tactics favored by Republicans and their sponsors by penning a piece with the hyperbolic, histrionic and utterly false accusations that Obama would use this information to "punish" his critics and those who support his opponent. (News flash for McConnell, it's the Republicans like Scott Walker who does that kind of crap.)

The New York Times calls McConnell out on his selective outrage and points out that McConnell has also added to his enemies list, including bloggers of all people:
In a related speech last month, Mr. McConnell said disclosure was an enormous price. Bloggers and cable television hosts have said terrible things about the president’s critics, he said, as if revealing a crime. The Koch brothers, who have pledged $60 million to defeat President Obama, have received some obscene messages, and have even been criticized directly by the president. The obscenity was unfortunate, but did the Kochs really believe they could use their money to dominate the political system and not receive some push-back?

Mr. McConnell’s charge that the president has loosed the Internal Revenue Service on his enemies is breathtaking. After several years of indifference, the I.R.S. is finally examining whether these “social welfare” groups are abusing their tax-exempt status by spending anonymous donations on political attack ads. The senator compares them to the N.A.A.C.P., but Crossroads GPS and the like exist for no other purpose than to run political ads.

That is a clear violation of the tax code, which says political activity cannot be their primary purpose. The I.R.S. is doing its job, at long last, and that’s what has Republican leaders like Mr. McConnell so worried.
What is really remarkable to me is this: If the Republicans' agenda was so good for the country and for the people, why do they have to resort to such dishonest and secretive tactics?  You think they would want to proudly show that they support something that is supposed to be so good for the people.

I mean, just look at Scott Walker's accomplishments.  In just eighteen months, he's put their plan into place and we now have less jobs than when he took over, our taxes are going up, our public safety is going down, our environment is in danger and we have lost more rights than I care to think about right now.

So why are his corporate backers afraid to go in front of the people and accept full responsibility for the results of their buying the governorship for Walker?  Why are they afraid to openly support buying the White House for Mitt Romney?

Do you suppose they might be lying about exactly who benefits from their agenda and what those benefits will cost the rest of us?

Regardless of their reason or reasons, it's time we turn the lights on them and keep them on.