It Could Buy Me A Boat...

By Jeff Simpson

Multi Billionaire Betsy DeVos married heir to the Amway fortune, and unfortunately current Secretary of Education was reportedly in Milwaukee this week.

Of course not to visit our Milwaukee Public Schools, as she has only stepped foot in 12 of them in the country since being confirmed(which is 12 more than prior to being confirmed), as a GOP public official (only making $207,800/yr) being paid by taxpayer dollars, we are not entitled to know her schedule or speak to her.

Apparently, the Tea Party feels no access to public officials falls under the category of "strict Constitutionalism".

Another thing that Ms. DeVos was NOT doing in Milwaukee, was figuring out how to work with the fact that over 50% of the students in the MPS qualify for free and reduced lunches.

Her Yacht only has a crew of 12, and while she is adamant that she wants to build "God's Kingdom" in our public schools, she takes the feeding of 5000 with a single loaf of bread literally.    I also doubt she feels the need to share her caviar or Filet Mignons with any of the hungry public school children.

It was nice of Ms. DeVos, who fully supports The Donald's horrendous budget, to step away from her home and take a leisurely sail down the Great Lakes(before Trump,  Foxconn and Waukesha have a chance to ruin them).

 

Well, As Ms. DeVos says about the public schools that she is in charge of:

“At what point do we accept the fact that throwing money at the problem isn’t the solution?” Ms. DeVos asked.

Maybe Ms. Devos is correct and more money will not solve the achievement gap, or raise our test scores, or bring equalization to our schools or even happiness....

But it could buy me a boat!

PS;  to help clear up confusion, the yacht that Ms. Devos sailed to Milwaukee was the Seagate, not the Legacy or the Kitsune which they also own.

Tom Tiffany Endorses Killing Bald Eagles!

By Jeff Simpson



In a story that could not be any more symbolic,  a couple hard core republican donors were recently charged with poisoning bald eagles.   As JSonline reports:

Alvin C. Sowinski, 65, and Paul A. Sowinski, 46, of the Town of Sugar Camp in Oneida County, also face penalties of up to $100,000 each and up to a year in prison at their sentencing in May, according to the U.S. attorney's office for the western district in Madison.

According to documents filed by prosecutors, Alvin Sowinski used poisoned bait piles to try to kill predators such as coyotes and gray wolves.

There was no evidence that wolves, a federally protected animal at the time of the investigation, were poisoned.

The two men also permitted hunters and trappers to kill predators to improve hunting for penned pheasants, grouse and deer for the Sowinskis and friends.

One such hunter and trapper was an undercover officer of the state Department of Natural Resources, who was told by Alvin Sowinski how he used poison to target predators.

While poisoning of wildlife is known to occur throughout the state, prosecution of such cases are "extremely rare," according to U.S. Attorney John W. Vaudreuil, who said his office has prosecuted only one or two cases in the past 30 years.

Among the wildlife poisoned with pesticides by the Sowinskis between 2007 and 2010 were at least two bald eagles, a turkey vulture, nine coyotes, one bobcat, three ermine, crows, songbirds, squirrels, skunks and other unidentified animals.

Vaudreuil called the acts "incredibly selfish" for someone to "purposefully want to kill predators, and then they use this very horrible pesticide."

 

By my rough estimate  Tom Tiffany  has received approximately $3700 and Scott Walker $100 from the Poisoning Sowinski family and not a nickel has been returned.  While keeping the money from these POS is an endorsement of the terrible things they have done, I do not recommend giving the money back to them.  If they truly were disgusted by what the Sowinski's did, they would donate the money they gave them to organizations that work to undo the damage the Sowinski's did. 

Here are ten organizations that could use that money!   

However do not hold your breath that Mr. Tiffany or Mr. Walker will be doing the right thing.  Besides if you think what their good friends the Sowinski's have done to WI is bad, wait until you see what their friends Eco -Terrorist Bill Williams and Chris Cline do to the Wisconsin environment when they get the chance!  

To Gogebic Taconite (GTac), owned by the Florida-based Cline Resource and Development Company, it’s an opportunity to dig an unprecedentedly large hole in order to liberate nearly 300 million tons of taconite. Taconite— a low-grade iron trapped inside tons of unusable rock—is used to make steel. The Cline Company is new to iron mining and, until recently, was known mainly for its coal mines in West Virginia and Illinois. In 2011, GTac purchased a lease/option for the mineral rights to a 4.5–by–22-mile stretch of the Penokees. The company wants to dig a $1.5 billion open-pit mine that would extract billions of tons of rock over the next 35 years. The proposed mine would be the largest development project in the history of Wisconsin.

Chris Cline, a 55-year-old billionaire mining magnate, has recently appeared in the gossip rags thanks to his relationship with former model Elin Nordegrin—Tiger Woods’ ex-wife. Cline is viewed by many in the working-class Northwoods as an out-of-touch businessman, incapable of recognizing what this pristine area means to those who live here. (That he named his 164-foot yacht Mine Games isn’t helping his case.) The Chippewa sobriquet for GTac’s current president, Bill Williams, is “Dollar Bill.” De- Main puts it this way: “When big money comes into the room, spirituality and neighborliness exit.”