An Open Letter To The Super Delegates

By Jeff Simpson

Hello to all of the Super Delegates of the Democratic Party.  I must start out by saying that I feel that Super Delegates are a very bad idea and one that should be abolished.   I also respect that fact that people who are Super Delegates, are people that have a long time established themselves as working within the Democratic Party.   I appreciate that also.

That being said, I am going to make a pitch on why Bernie Sanders is the ONLY choice for you to make at the convention.    I know many will say, you don't like them and now you want them to back your candidate?  The simple answer is YES.   I do not like the new Voter ID law but plan on bringing my ID every time I vote until we can get the law changed.  We are forced in many ways to comply with rules/laws/policies that we disagree with.

I truly believe, like many, that Donald Trump is a disaster waiting to happen.  I believe that the Republican Party managed to find a business person who was actually more incompetent than Carly Fiorina and made him their presumptive nominee.   That takes some doing!  

Since priority number one is to defeat The Donald, we know for a fact that the one person who polls the best and will beat him is Senator Bernie Sanders.   Sure Hillary also out polls Trump and will Probably beat him, but it is a certainty that Bernie would.  Are you willing to make that bet?

We know Hillary has been grooming herself for this for years, and has waited in line and earned her turn.  I appreciate that but this is a new era of politics and lately the next in line succession has not done very well. Especially in Wisconsin, as Governor McCallum and Governor Green will testify too.  Besides, there is very good evidence that it was Bill Clinton who actually talked Donald Trump into running and unleashing the monster.   Maybe being so close to Donald in her personal life somewhat explains her way to cozy relationship with Henry Kissinger.

At the recent Wisconsin Democratic Convention, there was a session on how to engage the youth and get them active and voting.  That answer is right in front of us, if we want to see it:

 

Senator Sanders has been able to draw large crowds of youth, new voters and people who were disenfranchised with politics as usual.   As Matt Taibbi pointed out in Rolling Stone:

 If they had any brains, Beltway Dems and their clucky sycophants like Capeheart would not be celebrating this week. They ought to be horrified to their marrow that the all-powerful Democratic Party ended up having to dig in for a furious rally to stave off a quirky Vermont socialist almost completely lacking big-dollar donors or institutional support.

Thomas Frank, who has made a career  trying to figure out why Democrats continually shoot themselves in the foot every election cycle, had this to say:

The rest of us, meanwhile, will get to pass the remainder of the year under the slowly dawning certainty that nothing is going to change. The policies of the last eight years are to be the policies of the next eight. Minus, of course, the enthusiasm that followed Barack Obama along the campaign trail in 2008. Nobody will be partying in Grant Park on the day Hillary is elected. And nobody will parade triumphantly through the streets of any city other than Washington when the Clinton restoration is complete.

In a Politico piece, Yves Smth believes many of her progressive leaders will vote for Trump.

 The Clintons’ dismal record, which Hillary cannot run away from, speaks for itself. And this is what makes many progressives I know unable to support her, even if she wins the nomination.  

None of the even takes into account the email scandal she has her self embroiled in.  While I personally do not think it will amount to much of anything, but showing Ms. Clintons ignorance of technology, it is never good to have to explain criminal investigations while running.  

There is also a popular myth, that Bernie could not handle the scrutiny of Republicans if he were the nominee, which Josh Atchison disproves in his piece on Commondreams:

There’s two things wrong with this story, however.
First, Sanders has been under a concerted and systematic assault in the mainstream media and from the Democratic Establishment since he began to threaten Hillary’s “inevitable” candidacy, yet his numbers have continued to skyrocket up in the polls. There’s little more the Republicans could do in this regard.  Which brings us to the Establishment’s second error.
Any political consultant will tell you that the two most important numbers in predicting a candidate’s performance are their unfavorability/favorability ratings and how trustworthy voters perceive the candidate to be.  

While I adamantly support Senator Sanders for President and ask that you use your very powerful super delegate vote to also support Senator Sanders.   I understand the courage it would take to do this.  It always takes courage to make history and do the right thing when everyone else expects status quo.   I believe it is quite obvious at this point, that the status quo could be the most toxic campaign issue that we have seen in our lifetime.

The voters are desperate for change and sick of being told how great that our politicians are doing while poverty is the highest it has been in 30 years.  The people see a different America then the politicians tell us is happening in their neighborhood.

Senator Sanders understands this, saw it coming, and has been talking about it for the last thirty years!  He actually has 'street cred" on this issue.

If I still have not convinced you to support Senator Sanders with your Super Delegate vote yet, let me give you maybe the most compelling point!

As of February 2016 there were 191 Bernie Democrats running for office throughout the country.   That number has increased since then, just checking the GAB list of candidates on the ballot this fall, there are numerous Bernie inspired candidates up and down the ballot.

There has been talk for as long as I have paid attention to politics that the Democrats need to build their bench.   No candidate that I have ever seen has inspired so many new people to not only get involved in the process, but to actually do something about it and put their name on the ballot.

That is what happens when someone comes out with a progressive populist ideas and campaign.

People are desperate for change.  People are sick of politicians telling us what we cant do.  In the 60's President Kennedy challenged the country to put a man on the moon and the country accepted the challenge successfully.  

That is what American exceptionalism is all about, when you work with all people towards a common goal.  Not when Wall St., Fossil Fuels and Multi National Corporations get to eat until they are stuffed and the rest of us get the crumbs.

I beg, plead and ask to please use your Super Delegate vote to help put Senator Bernie Sanders in the White House.  It will help down ticket races and inspire a new generation that will see that they too can make a difference without needing to be a multi millionaire.  

Our Country, Our State and our children need your help!

Let's make this a priority:



Not this:






Respectfully

Jeff Simpson


PS:  Martha Laning we are counting on you to keep your promise and vote for the person who handily won the Wisconsin Primary!   The whole state is watching!

Ron Johnson Forgets Six Years

By Jeff Simpson


Ron Johnson is out with his first ad, and I am not sure if he lacked an editor or it was one he forgot to run in 2010.  

Let's take a closer look at his ad:

"Some companies export jobs," Johnson says. "We export our products. Been doing it for decades, helping to create more Wisconsin jobs.   


Captain American Jobs has voted for fast track on TPP and will not take a position either way on the job killing free trade agreement, partly out of fear and partly because he will not take the time to read it - he has other priorities.   


"Career politicians manufacture hogwash," he says while a forklift operates in the background. "I manufacture plastic. And I respect you enough to tell you the truth."

Of course on Politifact, RoJo has been ranked to be lying on 70 % of his statements that they have checked.  I guess he does not respect us that much.  

"And I've stayed put, right here in Oshkosh, for 37 years," he added.  

Or not:

Case in point: Sen. Ron Johnson, who lives in a $1 million house near Capitol Hill.

News of the 2,430-square-foot (three bedrooms, 3.5 bath) home, purchased just a month after Johnson took office in January, didn’t become public untilreported by Milwaukee’s Journal Sentinel last month. Technically, he rents the property; it’s owned by the Ronald H. Johnson and Jane K. Johnson Irrevocable Endowment Trust, a family trust.

And he does NOT like "idiot inner city kids" on his lawn! 

“It’s unbelievable to me that liberals, that President Obama, of course he sends his children to private school, as did Al Gore, and Bill Clinton and every other celebrated liberal,” Johnson said Monday on 1310 WIBA–Madison. “They just don’t want to let those idiot inner city kids that they purport to be so supportive of…they don’t want to give them the same opportunity their own kids have. It’s disgraceful.”

No wonder he supports the Donald! 


Also a closer look at this line 

"I manufacture plastic. And I respect you enough to tell you the truth."

Actually, Ron Johnson has been the US Senator from WI for the last 6 years and he does not manufacture plastic and if this ad is any indication, he is leading Washington in manufacturing hogwash!  

The Return of Walker 2016

Well, that escalated quickly.

On Monday, Scott Walker had this to say about presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump:

A week after fellow Wisconsinite Paul Ryan endorsed Donald Trump's bid for president, Gov. Scott Walker said Monday he will have no problems supporting the presumptive Republican nominee even though "he wasn't my first choice."

Walker, in the Fox Cities Monday for a listening session, said in an interview with USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin that he believes Trump is a better fit for the presidency than the expected Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton.

Walker, a onetime presidential candidate, said he has made it clear since the Aug. 6 Republican presidential debate in Cleveland that he would support his party's nominee, no matter who it is. That includes Trump.

"I said it then, and I'll repeat it now, that I felt like any of the people on that stage were better than Hillary Clinton," Walker said. "He wasn't my first choice. He wasn't my choice in Wisconsin. There are issues, not the least of which lately with his statements about the judge he commented on, which I just fundamentally disagree with him on, so just saying that I'll support him over Hillary Clinton doesn't mean I embrace all the things that he says or all the ways that he says it."

Walker said his support for Trump isn't a matter of party loyalty, but rather that he doesn't trust Clinton.

Not a warm embrace, but definitely supportive.

But by Wednesday, Walker had amped up his criticism of Hair Furor and the racist statements he had made towards U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel:

Gov. Scott Walker blasted presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump’s remarks about U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel on Wednesday.

“I’m focused on calling out the fact that I believe what he said about the judge is wrong, not as a Republican or Democratic or as a political person but just as an American,” the Republican governor told reporters at the Alliant Energy Center. “In this country, we don’t judge people based upon their race, their sex, their ethnicity, their religious beliefs. That’s just a fundamental principle going back to the founding of our country. “

Obviously, racist statements made by Trump is a bad thing, although he didn't mind it so much within his own campaign and staff.

On the same day, Walker served up some waffles strongly fortified with irony (emphasis mine):

In an interview with Madison, Wisconsin’s WKOW, Walker, who dropped out of the GOP race in September 2015, lamented the general-election matchup between presumptive nominees Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton.

“It’s just sad in America that we have such poor choices right now,” he said.

Walker, who endorsed Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in the Wisconsin primary, had previously pledged to support the Republican nominee “whoever that is,” arguing that any GOP candidate would be preferable to Clinton. On Tuesday, however, the Wisconsin governor seemed less certain of his ability to back Trump, pointing to the candidate’s accusations of bias against a Hispanic federal judge as especially troubling.

“He’s not yet the nominee. Officially that won’t happen until the middle of July, and so for me that’s kind of the timeframe,” Walker said. “In particular I want to make sure that he renounces what he says, at least in regards to this judge.”

Whoa! It takes some nerve for a guy that was so quickly and soundly rejected by both the voters and his own backers in his own presidential bid to be calling anyone "a poor choice." And that's not getting into his own underwater approval ratings.

The right wing site Red State started speculating that Walker is considering being the nominee of Trump is finally rejected at the Republican convention:

"He's not the nominee yet" really can only mean one possible thing: Walker is among the people who are at least entertaining the possibility that something might happen to prevent Trump from becoming the nominee in July.

When Jessie Opoien of the Cap Times asked Walker about these rumors, he downplayed them:

Gov. Scott Walker shook his head at rumors floated Wednesday that he is open to accepting the Republican nomination if Donald Trump's candidacy falls apart before the party's convention in July.

"I am completely committed to being governor," Walker told reporters. "If I run another campaign in the future, it’ll be running for re-election for governor in 2018, and I won’t make a decision on that until after the elections and after the budget. But that would be the only campaign I’d consider in the future."

Asked what he would do if the possibility were raised on the convention floor, Walker laughed.

"I think, we could talk about hypotheticals all day long. I don’t think any of those are likely," he said.

It would be easy to believe that Walker is just trying to hype this controversy and is making these speculative statements in order to help him restart his stalled fundraising efforts to pay off the $900,000 he still owes from his spectacularly failed presidential bid.

But the gentle reader should remember that Walker alluded to something like this two months ago. The gentle reader should also remember that the two chairs of the convention, Paul Ryan and Reince Priebus, are BFFs with Walker.

And with the way this election season has gone, can we really rule anything out?

Scott Walker's One Liner

By Jeff Simpson

He really did say this with a straight face:

“It’s just sad in America that we have such poor choices right now,” Scott Walker said.
 “So we’ve got someone who has systematically lied to the American people and in doing so, in some ways has actually put America’s national security at risk,” Walker said. “And someone who at least of late has been saying things that run directly at odds with our core beliefs and principles in this country.”

So Scott "college dropout, subject of a recall, owner of a criminal defense fund, whose 6 of his top advisers have been convicted of felonies, who was one of 17 contenders for the GOP nomination and after spending $7 million dollars, and campaigning full time, in 71 days ended up polling 0% in the Republican Primary" Walker is sad that we have poor choices.  

 

RoJo Wants Feingold To Denounce Clinton

Having trailed Russ Feingold by double digits from the time Feingold announced, Ron Johnson is starting to get desperate already.

His latest thing has been to demand that Feingold denounce Hillary Clinton because emails!:

Late Tuesday, the Johnson campaign sought to turn the subject to its favor, questioning why Democrat Russ Feingold hasn't backed off from Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee. A private email server used by Clinton while she was secretary of state has been the subject of a continuing FBI investigation.

"When is Senator Feingold going to withdraw his support for a candidate under investigation by the FBI for email practices that jeopardized our national security?," Johnson spokesman Brian Reisinger said in a statement.

"Ron has vowed to hold both candidates accountable when they're wrong, just as he did (Monday) when he took the clear step of calling for a candidate he intends to support to retract his statements. That's something Senator Feingold has shown he won't do," Reisinger added.

At least it's not his usual screaming about Benghazi. But RoJo's problems with this line of attack is threefold.

One, like the whole Benghazi thing, the email schtick is just an unsubstantiated and false witch hunt with the sole purpose of trying to smear Clinton.

Secondly, even though RoJo finally called on Trump to retract his statement about U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, calling him biased because he was Mexican, RoJo still is embracing Trump's racism. As Team Feingold put it:

"Sen. Johnson said that if Trump said or did anything that "crossed a line," he'd have to withdraw his support for the Republican nominee," said Feingold campaign spokesman Michael Tyler."It's clear from his response that racist comments from Trump don't rise to that level for Sen. Johnson."

It must also be noted that RoJo hasn't said anything about all of the other racists comments that Trump made, including the "my African American" line or his claims that Mexicans are drug dealers, rapists and murderers.

Thirdly, RoJo is going around the state campaigning with Scott Walker, who has had his own troubles with emails and secret routers. The gentle reader surely remembers that Walker has been the subject of not just one, but two major criminal investigations.

But in RoJo's world, IOKIARDI

Unfortunately, it's only a matter of time before other vulnerable Republicans start up their own nonsense along this line.

RoJo's ouster cannot come soon enough.

Trustee Hendricks - Response

By Jeff Simpson 

I sent Beloit College, President Bierman expressing my dismay that Diane Hendricks is a Trustee of Beloil Colleeg and also VP of the Trump Victory Fund.

This is President Bierman's response to me:

Dear Jeff, Thanks very much for your note. I can easily appreciate your perspective. Having said that, I do not agree that the college should be severing relationships with members of the community who support the presumptive republican candidate for president. If I understand your argument, it is that being on a board that supports Beloit College and on a board that supports Mr. Trump constitutes a conflict of principles. In my decades of citizenship, it is likely that nearly every single presidential candidate has said things or done things that can be interpreted as being at odds with key college principles. I think making decisions about what college relationships pass a principles test based on politically charged interpretations is dangerous. Furthermore, I do not see why your argument would only apply to joint “board” membership and not to other joint relationships. I guess there is a “visibility” case you are making about being on two boards (e.g. the alleged damage to the college’s reputation), but that seems thin at best. In my opinion, this makes a principles test even more dangerous. On a different note, it is worth saying, that in the time that Diane Hendricks has served on Beloit’s Board of Trustees she has embraced and supported the college’s mission in every way. There is no exception. It is with great pride that I call Diane a member of the Beloit College family. Thanks again, Jeff, for reaching out. Sincerely,Scott

Dear President Bierman, 

Thank you for replying to my letter stating my concerns with Ms.  Hendricks representing Beloit College as a Trustee.  While I vehemently disagree with Ms. Hendricks politics, this has nothing to do with politics.  You notice I did not send this letter while she was donating millions to our Governor and hundreds of thousands of dollars to his legal defense fund.    She has a right to her opinions and beliefs.  I support that fully and while I will work individually to make sure her candidates lose, I would never seek to deny her any position outside of the political spectrum. 

However, I truly believe that the reason that supporting Donald Trump so publicly is a conflict of interest for Beloit College because the vitriol that Donald Trump brings is almost unprecedented in our history.   I am sure I do not need to rundown his offenses for you but let me just touch on a few.  

Donald Trump started the original "birther movement" where he tried to discredit the first African American President in our History as not being a "Real American."; Has called most Mexicans who have crossed the border, Drug dealers and rapists(although did allow wiggle room by sayings some of them are possibly ok).  has had visions of dating his daughter, has continually shamed women and treated them as second hand citizens, has called for the deportation of all Muslims, has promised to build a wall between the USA and Mexico. derided Senator McCain for getting captured in Vietnam, and mocked a disabled reporter.  

Nothing in that list, is (I hope) partisan at all.  It is about Ignorance and hate not Democrats and Republicans.  

On February 27th of last year, there were racial incidences around Beloit College, where you addressed the problem of racism on campus by starting a campus wide initiatiev initiative of "Inclusive excellence".   

Then you had this to sau in your Spring 2015 Beloit Magazine:

These have been some of the hardest weeks I’ve known in my career. To see students, faculty, and staff I admire stung by overt acts of racism, and then hurt by my own mistakes and shortcomings has been hard.
But, discomfort needs to be converted into thoughtful action and sustained change.
There are many on this campus who feel or have felt embattled, endangered and excluded. Some of them are our people of color. Others have been women (and yes, men) who were sexually assaulted by classmates and friends. Many of these came to Beloit believing this would be the place where they could finally, totally be themselves—only to find that acceptance fleeting or incomplete.

While these kind of incidents have happened all over the country, it has also happened in our own backyard.  Latina members of the Beloit Memorial women's soccer team were greeted with calls of "Donald Trump Build that wall" by the opposing team recently.   

Beloit Memorial girls soccer coach Brian Denu said the Elkhorn students taunted black and Latina girls soccer players with racial slurs and chants like "Donald Trump, build that wall."
"Those are just words you'll never be able to take back from those kids and an experience that you wish you could take back," Denu said. "It was really disturbing for them."
Denu said the chants affected some of his players to the point they had to leave the game.
"They came off the field and weren't able to finish the game because they were too upset and distraught over what happened to them," Denu said. "One of the girls was cradled in the arms of one of our assistant coaches for a good 15 to 20 minutes."
Denu said even though the chants came from a small group of Elkhorn students, their words had a big impact on his players.
"I could just see the hurt and pain on their face and know that this was obviously something that they hadn't seen before," Denu said. "You know, it was from a small pocket of the Elkhorn fans, but those words are things you can't take back."
Denu said he and other coaches consoled players during and after the game.

I would argue that these kind of incidences are worse than racist Graffiti, because now that the GOP nominee for President has made it "OK" to say things like this in public, the racists no longer need the cover of darkness to hide their hate.   

As you know, the Beloit community is very diverse:

The Beloit College community is diverse and noted for its passionate engagement with ideas and the world. Its 1250 students are from nearly every state, the District of Columbia, and 40 nations. Twenty-seven percent of its students are domestic minorities or students from countries other than the United States. No more than ten percent of a graduating class is represented in any one of Beloit's majors.

All of this and Mr. Trump seems to be getting more extreme by the day.  The whole world is watching us as a country to see how we treat Mr. Trump.   

The Beloit College community, our children, friends and community members are watching to see if the College makes the right decision here and stands up for our friends and community. who Mr. Trump has decided to attack.  

As you once said:

We owe them better than that.  Beloit can do something. We will do something. Tomorrow can be a great day to be a Beloiter.

Tomorrow is here today!    Let's do something!  

Have a great day,

Jeff 

 

Trustee Diane Hendricks

By Jeff Simpson 

As an alumnus of Beloit College, I was greatly disturbed when I heard that one of our Trustees, Diane Hendricks is VP of the Trump Victory Fund.   

Here is the letter that I sent our President Scott Bierman:

 Dear President Bierman:

My name is Jeff Simpson and I am a proud alumnus of Beloit College, class of 1988. I am writing because something has been bothering me the past couple weeks. I am deeply disturbed that Trustee Diane Hendricks, is also vice chair of the Donald Trump Victory Committee.

This has nothing to do with my personal political beliefs. I did not write you while Ms. Hendricks has been the largest donor to Governor Walker. Nor did I call attention to the conflict of interest when Ms. Hendricks has given millions to a Governor who has ended tenure at the public University of Wisconsin system, while having a say in who gets tenure at our fine institution. Despite the fact that I vehemently disagree with her on these, and many other, issues. I understand what makes America, and Beloit College, great is a variety of opinions and viewpoints all brought together.

That being said, Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump takes things to a different level. Mr. Trump has shown us continual flashes of racism, sexism, xenophobia, misogyny, hatred and calls to violence throughout his campaign. He has been endorsed by white nationalists all over the country and has landed his latest supporter – the communist Government of North Korea.

The whole world is watching America in this election season and Donald Trump is not showing a shining example of who we are or what we as a country could/should be.

The Beloit College mission states in part “Our emphasis on international and interdisciplinary perspectives, the integration of knowledge with experience, and close collaboration among peers, professors, and staff equips our students to approach the complex problems of the world ethically and thoughtfully”.

Mr. Trump, with his talk of building walls, deporting foreigners, banning Muslims, abhorrent treatment of women, making fun of the disabled and giddiness over people who have struggled through the last recession, among many other disgusting examples has shown to stand for the exact opposite of what Beloit College stands for.

As you know, Beloit College welcomes students from 46 states and nearly 40 countries throughout the world. Is having one of our Trustee’s working very hard to elect and one of the faces of the Trump campaign, the message we want to send these prospective students, current enrollees and alumni as representative of OUR college?

I came to Beloit College fresh off the farm, where the most diversity I have dealt with was the kids who wore Lee Jeans and the ones who wore Levi’s. Attending Beloit College amidst its diversity of races and locations, is what really helped me grow and become the person I am today. On one side of me my freshman year was a classmate from Sweden and on the other was a gay male. Being exposed to and learning to not only get along but become friends with people who I had never seen or associated with before is what gave me the amazing college experience that I treasure.

Let’s not put up a “Not Welcome” sign to people that look and believe and worship differently than me.

I do not have a problem with Ms. Hendricks serving on one board or the other, but I believe for her to serve on both boards simultaneously is not only a conflict of interest, but also will do lasting damage to the excellent reputation Beloit College has earned and deserves.

Thank you!

Jeff Simpson 

Lyin' Ryan: I'll Win The White House For Us

Initially, it was supposed to be Paul Ryan, Scott Walker and Reince Priebus working in tandem to force their special interest overlords' agenda on the country.

After Walker bombed out in spectacular fashion, they decided that they would settle for any presidential candidate that they could control, as long as it wasn't Donald Trump.

When that planned failed, it was time to push for a brokered convention so that the Republican establishment could simply anoint the candidate of their choice.

After Trump clinched the nomination, Ryan quietly caved and endorsed Trump.

It took only a day before Ryan to start waffling and trashing Trump:

House Speaker Paul Ryan says he hopes his endorsement of Donald Trump — and next week's unveiling of a wide-ranging conservative agenda — will be a turning point in the 2016 race.

But in the same interview, just one day after he endorsed Trump, Ryan disavowed the presumptive Republican presidential nominee's accusations of bias against a judge because of his "Mexican heritage."

"We shouldn't be speaking to fellow citizens in ways that divide us," Ryan told the Journal Sentinel on Friday. "I think the comments about the Mexican-American judge are not called for, and I don't even understand the line of thinking behind it."

But have no fears, Republicans, Ryan is coming to save the day with his new agenda, "A Better Way," which is nothing more then the same agenda he's been pushing for the last umpteen years. Y'know, starving grandma, denying healthcare to the poor and giving away even more tax breaks and corporate welfare to the wealthy:

Ryan has been working to shift the 2016 presidential race away from a personality contest to one focused on ideas. Those efforts have so far been unsuccessful, but the Janesville Republican is hoping the new GOP agenda, dubbed "A Better Way," will change that.

"Yes, this has been more of a personality contest election. Until now, that is, as far as we're concerned," Ryan said. "We believe — we being House Republicans — we believe we can add some substance to this conversation."

Last month, Ryan made it clear he was not ready to endorse Trump, saying the real estate mogul first needed to unify the GOP and show a commitment to conservative principles.

I'm sure that will be a hot seller, just like it was four years ago when he helped dragged Mittens Rmoney down in that race.

Scott Walker Mines Fools Gold

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     :

By Jeff Simpson

Scott Walker finally sold his house in Wauwatosa, thus allowing him to completely live on the taxpayers dime. Scott Walker moved his parents in to shield himself from protesters during his takeover of the state and recently moved them out.

However, in selling his house in this middle upper class neighborhood, he had to face some harsh realities.  That the Walker economy is not one that is very beneficial for personal financial success and that no one is in a hurry to move into Wisconsin.  

The Walkers, who paid $310,000 for the house in 2007 and sold it for $323.500 recently.  To no ones surprise, Scott Walker could not get the assessed value($359,900) of his house.   The person who buys his house will get the pleasure of paying $8,263 in taxes.  Thank Goodness for Walkers tax cuts or else it would be $8,266.  

He could not even get a rich donor to pony up a a half million to buy his house like a good Republican would, is he falling out of favor with the bosses?

What should we expect though from a person who is economically illiterate as Scott Walker anyway?  Everything he has touched has turned to fool's gold.

As Jud Lounsbury reports in the Progressive, Walker is still drowning in debt:

 However, according to Walker’s most recent Statement of Economic Interests (SEI), filed for the year of 2015, thatstatement wasn’t exactly true.In fact, since the time Walker made the comment that his personal finances were improving, they have actually gotten worse.According to the latest SEI, Walker still owes somewhere between $10,000 and $100,000 in high-interest credit card debt and has three conventional bank loans totaling well over $100,000, but he also added a fourth bank loan to his family:  A Wells Fargo loan that is defined as being between $5,000 and $50K.(Oh, and just for fun, I went back and looked at Walker’s previous pre-2014 SEI and—are you sitting down?—he’s had most of this “temporary” debt, including high interest credit card balances, for years now.)

With Walker's poor personal financial history, and massive personal debt, he would not be able to pass a background check to be hired at a financial institution and yet we trust him with our future?

Donald Trump: The Face Of The Republican Party

Remember, Republicans voted for Donald Trump to be their face in the upcoming presidential election because he most resembles their values and beliefs:

"Oh, look at my African-American over here. Look at him."

Paul Ryan's Obedience

By Jeff Simpson 

“When people show you who they are, believe them.” Dr. Maya Angelou


Paul Ryan just endorsed this! 

Andy Borowitz

May 30 at 6:40pm · 

I know Paul Ryan thinks he is making a big statement by delaying his endorsement of Trump. But if you wait an extra hour to eat shit you still have, in fact, eaten shit.

Also some other views of the Submissive Paul Ryan (R-cowardice). 

From the Washington Examiner - Paul Ryan is Delusional about Donald Trump:

For all Ryan's talk of wanting to embrace a more open Republican Party that appeals to everybody, by endorsing Trump, he is turning a blind eye to Trump's disgusting record of racism and sexism. Sure, Ryan may argue that he'll choose a different tone than Trump, but at the end of the day, the message has been sent: Bigotry is something that can be tolerated within the GOP by its most prominent leaders. This reality will taint Ryan and the policies he pursues for a long time to come.

Esquire's Charles Pierce on Paul Ryan:

 Biggest. Fake. Ever.

Think Progress points out:

Paul Ryan left a meeting with the nation’s oldest interfaith peace organization, the Fellowship of Reconciliation,  where he promised the group that he would speak out publicly against inflammatory anti-Muslim rhetoric.  Then went and endorsed Donald Trump! 
The Fellowship of Reconciliation has been one of several groups monitoring the impact of Trump’s rhetoric about not only Muslims and refugees, but Latinos and other people of color. Both they and other human rights groups have observed a spike in threats, harassment, vandalism, and physical violence directly inspired by Trump’s words.

“Words matter, and this narrative of fear and hate has a visceral and dangerous impact,” said Grimes. “We are seeing a quantifiable increase in violent attacks on places of worship and people perceived to be foreign.”

Ryan, who has for the past few years has chastised his own party for driving away people of color, including nothing in his written endorsement of Trump about racial and religious tolerance.

More on Paul Ryan's History here! 

Democrats and Independents in Paul Ryan's District can rid the country of this snake oil salesman in August!   

Here you can watch Donald Trump tell us what he really thinks of Paul Ryan:

Be on the Lookout for flying pigs!  

Be Bold, Change The System

By Jeff Simpson

THIS is what being Bold means and this is what being Progressive means

BERNIE!

Kremer's Army

By Jeff Simpson

We have written many stories on how Jesse Kremer (R-Westboro Baptist Church), has been attacking the poorest and weakest in society in the name of Jesus.  

We know now, that Jesse does not stand alone.   I mean more than his second in command Republican Steve nASS (R-Big Brother).  

Kremer has found his chaplain for the war he is trying to start!

So this bloodthirsty asshole has a solution to the problem: Fathers should take the matter into their own hands and begin shooting any trans person they happen to see. James Dobson writes:
“If you are a dad, I pray you will protect your little girls from men who walk in unannounced, unzip their pants and urinate in front of them. If this had happened 100 years ago, someone might have been shot. Where is today’s manhood? God help us!”Y“Obama, acting like a king, is wielding dictatorial powers never envisioned in the law. He is determined to change the way males and females relate to one another, and worse, how children perceive themselves. If you are a married man with any gumption, surely you will defend your wife’s privacy and security in restroom facilities. Would you remain passive after knowing that a strange-looking man, dressed like a woman, has been peering over toilet cubicles to watch your wife in a private moment? What should be done to the pervert who was using mirrors to watch women and girls in their stalls?”

Shooting our friends in the LGBTQ community is exactly what Jesus would have wanted!

But wait there's more:

Kremer has found a great American to stand with Steve nASS and himself in this war! 

 Esten Ciboro was recently in the news for protesting Target’s new policy of allowing transgender people to use the restroom of their choice. Now it turns out that he has been arrested for keeping a 13-year-old girl chained inside his basement. The girl, who has not been identified, was forced to use the restroom in a bucket and was fed scraps of spoiled food.
The girl said her captivity was punishment for wetting the bed and that she escaped using a spare key she stole from her captors after they went jogging. According to the police, Ciboro and his father, Timothy, were trying to flee when law-enforcement officials arrived on the scene. It’s unclear how long the girl was kept in captivity, though court documents report that it could have been as long as a year. Both the girl and two other children were placed in state custody and sent to a foster home. Timothy Ciboro made the following statement concerning the children:

Like a true "Conservative", he took personal responsibility for his actions  he had her chained in the basement in God's Name!  

‘I miss my babies with all my heart. I want them to do right. That’s the way they were raised. If they have any questions, all they have to do is open the Bible and they will have all the answers.’

Also like a true "Conservative", we will be paying for him for many years :

 Ciboro and his father were both arrested and are facing charges of kidnapping and child endangerment. Both are currently being held in jail awaiting bond and have sought a public defender, though no date has been set for the trial.

Jesse Kremer and Steve nASS should be very proud of the company they keep with such like minded individuals!  

The High Cost Of Walker's Act 10

Earlier this year, Scott Walker and the other Republicans were doing victory tours around Wisconsin, bragging that Act 10 - a Right to Work law aimed solely at public sector workers - had saved taxpayers some $5 billion over the past five years. Of course, these claims came from cherry picked data and fudged math and didn't stand up to any type of analysis.

In reality, Act 10 didn't save any money. It merely shifted the burden onto the counties and municipalities. And despite that, state spending has been increasing, despite the drop in revenues and the supposed savings.

But in Milwaukee County, Act 10 did not only not save any money, it is proving to be extremely expensive.

In 1991, Milwaukee County enacted the "Rule of 75," which meant that when an employee whose age and years of service totaled 75, they were eligible to retire with full pension benefits. However, this rule only applied to non-union represented employees or represented employees that were hired in 1993 or earlier. Represented employees weren't eligible for full benefits until they reached the age of 60 or 64, depending on their date of hire.

When Act 10 was enacted, AFSCME, the union representing public sector workers, chose not to play the Republicans' union busting games and didn't bother holding a vote to recertify. Their contention was that only the unions could decertify themselves and AFSCME wasn't about to do that. Thus, Milwaukee County chose to not recognize the union and claimed that all of its members were now non-represented.

This meant that over 1,000 employees suddenly became eligible for the Rule of 75.

Recognizing this loophole, the county then passed a resolution which basically said that if the employee wasn't eligible for the Rule of 75 then, they weren't eligible for it now.

AFSCME filed a class action lawsuit, arguing that the previously represented employees were now eligible. In other words, the county was trying to have it both ways.

Recently, the Honorable Stephanie G. Rothstein issued her decision in the matter, ruling for AFSCME, and agreeing that these 1,000 employees were indeed eligible for the Rule of 75:

Rick Badger, executive director of AFSCME Council 32, announced today that the Union has received a favorable decision from a Milwaukee County Circuit Court in its ongoing battle on behalf of Union members who work for Milwaukee County. Judge Stephanie G. Rothstein issued her 10-page decision dated May 27, granting Union members additional early retirement benefits on terms previously available predominately to non-Union employees.

Noting that Act 10 “prohibits bargaining over all subjects except for ‘base wages’,” Judge Rothstein determined that the County’s Ordinance, passed on Sept. 29, 2011, granted the Rule of 75 to employees who were hired prior to January 1, 2006, so long as they are “not covered by the terms of a collective bargaining agreement.” Previously, Union employees were granted the benefit only if hired prior to 1994. The Judge decided:

[U]pon the effective date of Wisconsin 2011 Act 10, there was no collective bargaining agreement in effect, or executed, or even being negotiated; there was no status quo protection existing under MERA with regard to “conditions of employment;” and therefore there was no pre-existing legal obligation between the parties as it related to conditions of employment beyond wages. Therefore, because no collective bargaining agreement was in effect, the plaintiffs were not “covered by the terms of the collective bargaining agreement” as used in Ordinance 11-15 for purposes of evaluating their eligibility for the Rule of 75.

Badger said that the Union continues to insist that its members be treated fairly. “This case demonstrates yet another consequence of the state’s demolition of collective bargaining. When the county is left to its own unilateral actions, the give and take of collective bargaining is gone,” Badger said.

The process the county used led to them granting benefits in an ordinance change that the county argued to the Court was meant to ensure that employees “would not be eligible for the Rule of 75.”

Mark Sweet, an attorney at Sweet and Associates, LLC, representing the Union, noted that the Court cited longstanding Wisconsin Supreme Court precedent in holding the County to the language it enacted in the ordinance. As cited by the Court, “It is the enacted law, not the un-enacted intent, that is binding on the public.”

This would mean a cost in the hundreds of millions of dollars to the county's pension fund.

Ironically, the current county executive, the conservative "Democrat" Chris Abele, is known to sing the praises of Act 10, and how it saved the county so much money. It is not known if he still feels that way now.

It is a sure bet that the county will appeal this decision all the way to the state supreme court, which has been known to ignore the law and rule in the way that their conservative funders want them to rule. But then again, the conservatives love to stick it to Milwaukee, so who knows how this will end up.

But for now, there are a lot of very happy county employees.

The actual court ruling can be seen here.

Two Righties Make Two Wrongs

Everyone knows the old saying "Two wrongs don't make a right."

Now we can add a corollary, "Two rights make two wrongs."

Paul Nehlen, who is running against Paul Ryan in the August primary, is very prolific with his press releases, sending one out almost every day.  In Tuesday's edition, Nehlen is accusing Ryan supporters of acting like Trump supporters, or, if you will, typical Republicans:

“When your opponent’s supporters feel the need to vandalize your campaign property, you know you’ve gotten under their skin,” said Paul Nehlen today in response to significant vandalism sustained by his campaign’s Dump Ryan dump truck during a Memorial Day parade in Rochester, WI. Nehlen is the insurgent candidate running to unseat Ryan in Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District.

Painted bright yellow, the GMC dump truck is a part of the Nehlen campaign’s effort to let people know about the many ways Paul Ryan has failed his constituents. It has proven a popular gimmick with the public.

“The truck has really become a mascot for this campaign. People honk when they see the truck going down the road. They like to have their picture taken with it. They even post sightings of it on Facebook and Twitter when they spot it driving down the road. It’s a great conversation starter,” said Nehlen. “We’ve even had those squeeze-type stress relievers made up in the shape of the dump truck. There’s been huge demand for them among our campaign supporters.”

On Monday, while parked in a lot at the U.S. Post Office along the Memorial Day parade route in Rochester in Racine County, one of the truck’s tires was intentionally deflated, some lettering was torn from one side of the vehicle, and duct tape was used to cover large portions of the truck’s message: “To get the dirt on Ryan, go to DumpPaulRyan.com. Trash was also thrown in the bed of the truck.

Campaign staff have filed a case report with the Racine County Sheriff’s Department. The incident has been assigned a case number: 16-3464.

“It’s unfortunate that the truck was damaged,” Nehlen added. “But this campaign is undeterred. In fact, we know now more than ever that we have the Ryan camp worried. We’re pressing on.”

If what Nehlen says is true, these actions should be condemned. It brings politics to the lows being set on a national level with the bloviating Donald Trump and his supporters.

That said, Nehlen's next press release should be an apology to the families and the memories of the fallen soldiers. The parade was to commemorate and honor the brave men and women who gave their very lives for this country.  It is inappropriate to use that occasion to do political campaigning.  It is disgraceful and utterly tasteless.

Perhaps it's time for a second corollary..."Two wrong righties make for a good leftie."

What it means is that unless a person actually approves of the boorish and immature behavior by these Republicans, it's time to look at the progressive candidate, who in this case, is Tom Breu.