By now, everyone knows what a bad night it was for Democrats in the Nation and especially Wisconsin. The Democrats had high priced consultants, lots of money, some excellent candidates and still ended up taking a beating. For some reason, which we have already discussed here, the Dems could not seem to connect with the voters.
Instead of high priced consultants and a professional political class who are pointing fingers elsewhere, the actual answer is right in front of them.
School districts asked voters to endorse nearly $700 million in borrowing for new construction and building updates, and more than $150 million in increases in school district budgets — dollar amounts that were the largest put before voters at the annual spring election going back at least a decade. (For more on that, read our blog post from last week) Voters approved 55 of the 71 referendums on the ballot, including $492 million in borrowing for building upgrades and construction projects, $128 million to expand school district budgets for a set amount of time, and $10 million to expand school budgets on a recurring basis.
I know, because we passed one in April, what goes into them. It is not tens of thousands of dollars, high priced consultants and dictating from the state above. What passes these referendums, is citizen committees, community meetings, defined jobs, a clear plan, understanding your opponents and a clear concise message.
That is what is going to take our Legislature back, community organizing, discussions, engagement and a concise, consistent message that is told by every candidate from Superior to Footville.
Then we can start to see even the gerrymandered districts turn!
One lesson that this election season has taught us is that the Democratic Party is not with us. From the DNC stacking the deck to give us the candidate with the most negatives ever to run for President(who gets less popular by the day), to the progressive disaster yesterday in Florida to right here in Wisconsin where after Bernie's overwhelming victory, Democratic Party chairwoman Martha Laning moved the goalposts to make sure Hillary had WI support, to how poorly the WISDEMS treated public school advocate Mandela Barnes in his campaign.
The other lesson we have yet to learn, but that we easily can, is that we do not need the Democratic Party of Wisconsin to be successful As a matter of fact, the best bet for WI is to not rely on them and work to get local progressive candidates elected. In the year where we will probably have the first woman elected, how ever poor of a candidate she is, we have it within our power to elect Wisconsin women who are real progressive champions.
The first amazing woman I will direct you to, is one of my all time favorite Wisconsin legislators - Mandy Wright, Mandy is a former/current teacher and a true champion of public schools. We have sung her praises here before, and you can help her by going to her facebook page and her website(send her a few bucks or go volunteer).
Let's show the Nation that Wisconsin is back on the map an sending intelligent, progressive, amazing women to represent us and be a model to the Nation again!
Share their sites, talk to your neighbors and friends and family members all over WI and tell them, how ever they feel about the top of the ballot, the bottom of the ballot is what will steer the ship in the coming years for our state and our nation. Send them a few dollars if you can, and when you get the DNC fundraising emails, and letters, remember that while we are not enemies, we really are not on the same side at this point.
Let's win these races and then re evaluate how we work with the party going forward after the elections!
Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Joe Donald, one of two candidates vying to unseat Justice Rebecca Bradley on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, endorsed Bradley's 2013 campaign to remain on the Milwaukee County Circuit Court and served as a reference for her application to the 1st District Court of Appeals in 2015.
So why would an "impartial" Judge give glowing recommendation to a bitterly partisan Judge who has not earned her own stripes and is just there to do Scott Walker's bidding?
"Joe usually, unless he has a serious problem with the person, usually supports the incumbents. Left, right, doesn’t matter," Suchorski said. "That was primarily it: as a fellow incumbent judge, he supported her."
Let's look at that again and really let it sink in:
"Joe usually, unless he has a serious problem with the person, usually supports the incumbents. Left, right, doesn’t matter," Suchorski said. "That was primarily it: as a fellow incumbent judge, he supported her."
The Donald campaign is telling us that Judge Donald's word means absolutely nothing. That Judge Donald has decided if you have the job of Judge you might as well have it forever and it does not matter how qualified you are (or are not), Judge Donald will write you a recommendation.
Many positions rely on recommendations in hiring qualified people. If you recommend people who you feel are not qualified you are doing a great disservice to the people who are being recommended, the people looking to hire and your own reputation?
According to Donald's campaign manager, Mr. Donald does not care about any of the above issues and will just give anyone a standard recommendation that asks.
How does that laziness, and lack of effort translate into how he will research a tough issue and rule on it according to the law?
That is up to you to decide, but in my mind it is very troubling.
The "Your America” Calendar features photos of what the American Dream means to supporters across the country — whether that’s a serene view of our lands’ natural beauty or your grandchildren waving the American flag for their very first time. Get your Official GOP 2015 “Your America” Calendar by submitting $9.00 or more to the RNC.
"It's my opinion it has to come up early" in the session that begins in January, Fitzgerald told reporters. "I don't know how we get through the session without having this debate.
Spend months ducking the issues and spend millions muddying the waters, then when you are elected, claim a mandate and start talking about extremist legislation like it is why you won the election.
(the term)comes from the 19th-century American practice of selling cure-all elixirs in traveling medicine shows. Snake oil salesmen would falsely claim that the potions would cure any ailments. now-a-days it refers to fake products.
Among the items the Chinese railroad workers brought with them to the States were various medicines —including snake oil. Made from the oil of the Chinese water snake, which is rich in the omega-3 acids that help reduce inflammation, snake oil in its original form really was effective, especially when used to treat arthritis and bursitis. The workers would rub the oil, used for centuries in China, on their joints after a long hard day at work. The story goes that the Chinese workers began sharing the oil with some American counterparts, who marveled at the effects.
In our capitalistic system, when something is popular, others try and replicate it. The problem often is they can not do it as well or with the same effects. Snake oil was no different as they did not have any Chinese water snake's handy so they used American rattlers. The main person who did this was entreprenuer Clark Stanley, aka The Rattlesnake king:
This set the stage for entrepreneur Clark Stanley, aka The Rattlesnake King. In an 1897 pamphlet about Stanley's life and exploits, the former cowboy claimed he had learned about the healing power of rattlesnake oil from Hopi medicine men. He never publicly mentioned Chinese snake oil at all. Stanley created a huge stir at the 1893 World's Exposition in Chicago when he took a live snake and sliced it open before a crowd of onlookers.
Stanley's version of snake oil was so popular he opened up two seperate production facilities(a true "job creator"). As so often happens in our Capitalist society, short term profits trump people, and it turns out that the one ingredient that Stanley's snake oil did not have was - snake oil.
As the saying goes, "Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it".
“Again this is based on no growth, no change in expenditures. Our record has been every year we’ve been in office, we finished the year with a surplus. Going forward, every year I’m in office we’ll finish with a surplus,” Governor Walker said.
The Walker amen chorus even weighed in on this in this very paper:
Upon release of the numbers, Walker immediately boasted, that over the course of the year, that three-month $55 million number would become $220 million, which would come close to wiping out Burke's "$1.8 billion deficit" claim. This is also tenuous math, as it again assumes the economy will be cryogenically frozen for four years. But as long as Democrats are able to get away with such a bogus figure, why not use their own formula to defend yourself? The $1.8 billion figure was widely reported around the state; stories pointing out that the number almost has been eliminated have been harder to find than Kim Jong Un.
"Wisconsin does not have a deficit," Darling said in a news release, which was issued with GOP Rep. John Nygren of Marinette. "Thanks to Republican reforms, the 2014 budget will begin with a $443 million surplus."
It was actually legislation, The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, not the free market, that ended the masive fraud that Clark Stanley was pulling on the American people.
As for what happened to Clark Stanley after it was found that his whole empire was based on a lie? He was fined $20 (that's about $429 in today's dollars) for violating the food and drug act and for "misbranding" his product by "falsely and fraudulently represent[ing] it as a remedy for all pain."
* BUT YOU HAVE SCOTT WALKER, AND THEIR SOMEONE IN MY -- IT'S DIFFICULT
FOR MY PARTY TO UNDERSTAND, BUT PEOPLE HAVE A GENUINE AFFECTION FOR HIM.
ESPECIALLY IN THE GREEN BAY MARKET AND NORTHERN WISCONSIN, THEY THINK
THIS IS A GUY THAT CAME IN AND TOOK BOLD ACTION. I DISAGREE WITH THE
ACTIONS HE TOOK, BUT HE DID TAKE BOLD ACTION.
Yes "Dropping the Bomb" on Wisconsinites is very bold action. Of course the definition of a bomb is:
1bomb
noun\ˈbäm\
: a device that is designed to explode in order to injure or kill people or to damage or destroy property the bomb : nuclear weapons
: something that is a complete failure
Technically Mr. Tate is right Scott Walker did take bold action. I do not know however, if that is praiseworthy.
* I'M THE SAME GUY THAT I WAS AFTER THE 2012 ELECTION,
* BUT MY FOCUS, WHETHER I RUN AGAIN OR DON'T, IS GOING TO BE HOW CAN WE KEEP MOVING FORWARD?
The best way to move the party forward is to have Mike Tate resign, effective immediately. Please sign this petition and contact the Democratic Party of Wisconsin and tell them it is time for a leadership change - (608) 255-5172 (voice) or info@wisdems.org.
Sharon Day, the co-chair, told the audience, "It's not going to be
an easy election, it's a close election. Like I said, much closer than I
can even understand why.
"I don't want to say anything about your Wisconsin voters but, some of them might not be as sharp as a knife."
Day appeared at the rally with Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch.
Not understanding the irony of talking about less intelligent people, while campaigning with Rebecca Kleefisch.
"We cant at this point
afford to just be handing out money to anyone. This is a slippery slope
in addition to that at what point are we going to OK marrying inanimate
objects? Can I marry this table, or this, you know, clock? Can we marry
dogs? This is ridiculous." Rebecca Kleefisch
Franklin generally agrees: “I think if you look at all of our data
over two years now, you do find something in the ballpark of 10 percent
that fall into this category of what you might call Walker-Obama voters,
and I have looked at them in some detail.
“They’re much more
likely to call themselves independents; they are much more likely to say
they are moderate rather than either liberal or conservative. They’re
considerably younger than the population as a whole. They pay less
attention to politics and are, of course, less likely to be partisan.”
The problem that we come into with this is that they make the false assumption, that both sides are the same. That the "far left" will play as poorly with the general public as the "far right". That is a false assumption, and the fact that not only the media but all to often the democratic party feeds into that has been a major reason for the election beatings the last few years.
A sampling of Representative Chris Taylor's bills:
Healthy Women/Healthy Families Part 1 and 2 (AB 348, AB 349): Restores state funding
to the state’s family planning program and essential Medicaid services for uninsured and
low-income women and families across Wisconsin. Let Them Drink Milk Initiative (AB 566): This bill restores funding for school milk
programs for low-income children. Mercury Bill (AB 744): Establishes rebate programs for the return of thermostats and
compact florescent lightbulbs that contain mercury in order to reduce mercury pollution
in landfills and in lakes, rivers and streams.
Section
1. 48.982 (2) (g) 2. of the statutes is amended to read:
2
48.982 (2) (g) 2. Promote statewide educational and public awareness 3campaigns and materials for the purpose of developing public awareness of the 4problems of child abuse and neglect. In promoting those campaigns and materials, 5the board shall emphasize nonmarital parenthood as a contributing factor to child 6abuse and neglect.
7Section
2. 48.982 (2) (g) 4. of the statutes is amended to read:
8
48.982 (2) (g) 4. Disseminate information about the problems of and methods 9of preventing child abuse and neglect to the public and to organizations concerned 10with those problems. In disseminating that information, the board shall emphasize 11nonmarital parenthood as a contributing factor to child abuse and neglect.
12Section
3. 48.982 (2) (gm) of the statutes is amended to read:
13
48.982 (2) (gm) Provide, for use by the board in its statewide projects under sub. 14(5) and for use by organizations that receive grants under subs. (4) and (6), 15educational and public awareness materials and programming that emphasize 16nonmarital parenthood as a contributing factor to child abuse and neglect and the 17role of fathers in the primary prevention of child abuse and neglect.
Glenn Grothmans(the author of the bill) view's:
Chris Taylor on SB 507:
Let's now look at a random video of each
Glenn Grothman pointing out how rough white males have it in America:
Representative Chris Taylor regarding the Republican legislative agenda:
Do you really think we can equate the "far left" with the "far right"? Are the people of Wisconsin more aligned with Grothman or Taylor? Are there people in Wisconsin who say, I want to force ultrasounds on women and have corporations tell me how much BPA is in the plastic container I just bought? Are there voters who say i want to make sure we crush the unions and allow minorities to vote, so I am torn on who to support?
Is that the voter we need to reach? want to reach? is reachable?
As Fanlund himself puts it:
Whatever, Walker’s re-election fate will apparently hinge on the sort of
political non-combatants reflected in Franklin’s polling. It has always
seemed to me, I said to Franklin, that about 45 percent of Wisconsin
voters adore Walker, another 45 percent loathe him, and those with much,
much less passion get to decide his fate.
So 90% of the people have their minds made up in terms of what side they are on leaving 10% apathetic. The one thing no one addresses is that while 90% of the people have their mind made up, less than 50% of the people VOTE.
In Wisconsin we have (roughly) 5,700,000 people of which, approximately 2,500,000 people voted in the last gubernatorial election. take into account that (roughly) 1,300,000 people are under 18, that leaves roughly 1,900,000 people who do not vote. The ten percent(which is a very high guesstimate) of undecided's would equal approximately 570,000. This still leaves over 1,300,000 people who represent a party and have not been motivated to move to the polls to fill in the line. (FYI for perspective - Tom Barrett lost the recall election by 171,106 votes).
Who amongst the do not vote category is more likely to turn up on election day? Someone who identifies and likes a candidate or someone who has no idea whats happening in our day to day society?
Now let's break it down even further. We know that there are more Democratic voters in Wisconsin than republicans. While Wisconsin is a purple state it definitely leans to the left of center.
Says Franklin of his latest poll: “Support for increasing the minimum
wage, support for extending unemployment benefits, opposition to
refusing Medicaid expansion. There’s quite a list of things that we
polled on that show majorities that are typically Democratic sides of
the issue.”
Last summer, Walker quietly signed into law a bill
requiring women to have an ultrasound before an abortion, an action
opposed by 56 percent to 38 percent in Marquette’s October poll.
Now let's sum it up. There are more Democratic voters in Wisconsin than republican, the Core issues that matter most to Wisconsinites, are traditional Democratic strong hold issues and the current Democratic candidate for Governor is running as "anything but a rabid Democrat".
Posts
