Watchdogging The Jesus Lunches

By Jeff Simpson 

Be careful not to perform your righteous acts before men to be seen by them. If you do, you will have noreward from your Father in heaven. 2So when you give to the needy, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be praised by men. Truly I tell you, they already have their reward. 3But when you give to the needy, do not let your left handknow what your right hand is doing, 4so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.…Matthew 6:1-4 

Wisconsin Reporter Watchdog "education reporter" is at it again.  He posts a column with knowingly false information.   Writing about the new version of the Jesus Lunch, he allows one of the founders of the Jesus Lunch to get away with a Trump-like statement of gobbeldy gook.

Helbach said she has had inquiries from other communities around the country about how to start a Jesus Lunch. “Our focus is here. Our focus is not on starting the Jesus Lunch in another location,” Helbach said. “But if someone wants information and to learn how, we’re welcome to talk to them about what we did. But we’re not actively going and getting the Jesus Lunch started somewhere else.”

As is typical for Wiggys work, five seconds on Google and you find that just is not true.   These Jesus Lunch families, who just focus on Middleton have a Facebook page and a website.   A quick check of their facebook page and we see this:

 Yes not trying to spread the "Jesus lunches" unless of course you attend her seminar on how to start your own Jesus Lunch.

Do not lie to one another, since you have taken off the old self with its practices, Colossians 3:9

But wait there is more!!

A quick look at their website and it reads like a Pat Robertson family dinner or a West Bend GOP Pints and Politics!  These moms that just threw this together, have a curriculum(and a lawyer) and this years curriculum focuses on "Who is Jesus".

The first place for us to begin this exploration of Jesus is in the Bible.  This is the book that tells the story of Jesus’ life.

What is the Bible? GOD’S ROAD MAP FOR OUR LIVES. You could think of the Bible as God’s GPS. When you need directions for a destination, what do you do? You go straight to your smartphone!  When you don’t know what to do in life, where should you go? Go to the Bible.

The Bible is a great place to start learning about Jesus, but if you want to learn more, they recommend you head here -  www.answersingenesis.org.

Let's take a look at some of the answers that the Jesus Lunchers recommend:

A 6,000-year-old earth? When you look up the Bible references, the math’s not that hard!We’ve all heard the horror stories. Teachers in government schools force students through strange, torturous machinations to do simple math. For example, many of us used to be able to add 121 + 13 in 1.72 seconds. The Common Core method takes 7 steps and 3 minutes and 18 seconds.For those who trust in an evolutionary view of history, determining the earth’s age is a complicated process. First, you have to find a meteorite, crush it up, and then send it to a lab for analysis. (Why a meteorite? I’ll get to that later.) Technicians measure the ratio of isotopes and enter that into a complex calculation that factors in the rate of radiometric decay. Out pops a number somewhere around 4,500,000,000 years (or at least that’s the expected result). That’s a whole lot of zeros!
Now you have the three pieces to add together, but I bet you can do this part in your head. From creation to Abraham is about 2,000 years. Abraham to Jesus covers about 2,000 years, and you are 2,000 years removed from Jesus. 2 + 2 + 2 = 6. That means the earth, and the entire created universe, is about 6,000 years old.

They also solved the problem with Noah and the Dinosaurs:

Did dinosaurs really live at the same time as humans? Genesis 1 claims that God created every “kind” of land animal on the same day as Adam. Later Noah took representatives of every kind on the Ark. That required only about fifty dinosaur kinds on board. (Dinosaurs are divided into only about fifty families.)Dinosaurs are used more than any other animal to persuade people to believe in millions of years and evolution. Yet God clearly claims that He created the land animals on Day Six along with man. In light of who God is and His eyewitness testimony, we should not be ashamed to build our understanding of dinosaurs upon His Word, even if some people disagree. Dinosaurs make perfect sense in light of the biblical history of creation and the Flood.There are thousands of dinosaur names, so some skeptics ask, “How could two of every kind of dinosaur fit on the Ark?” The key to unlocking the answer is found in Genesis 7:14–15.The Bible states that two of every kind of land animal and seven of some went onto the Ark. It doesn’t say two of every species went onto the Ark but “kinds.” There are thousands of species of dinosaurs, but there are only about fifty families of dinosaurs. And since the biblical kind is thought to correspond to the family level in most cases, there would have been only about one hundred dinosaurs on the Ark—not thousands.For instance, there are many different long-neck sauropods, such as Brachiosaurus, Camarasaurus,Saltasaurus, and Diplodocus, but only two needed to go onto the Ark if they were just one kind. This fact dramatically reduces the estimated number of dinosaurs on the Ark. Also, even though some dinosaurs grew to be large creatures, the average size was only about the size of a large sheep or bison. Even the largest dinosaurs were quite small when hatched. The Lord may have selected younger (and therefore smaller) representatives of some of the larger kinds, so there was plenty of room for all of the dinosaur kinds aboard the Ark.If dinosaurs sailed on the Ark, where are they today? Different animal species become extinct every day for various reasons. After the Flood, the environment and habitat were drastically changed. Many dinosaurs may not have been as suited to the post-Flood world because of these changes. Interestingly, it appears that some of the dinosaur kinds that did survive a long time after the Flood became known as dragons. Dragon legends abound all over the world.We can confidently build our understanding of dinosaurs—like everything else in life—on the truth of God’s Word.

It is unfortunate that those crazy unicorns were playing silly games when the rain started!

One thing that you can rest assured of now is the Jesus Lunch moms have obtained their caterers license so the kids should be getting a regulated free lunch.

I would hate to see their test scores though after a session of Jesus Lunch truth sinks in.

The Jesus Lunch moms also point out that it takes $1700 to feed these kids and make them a captive audience so God Bless you all, but send your money!!

Also if it is not Tuesday and you feel like eating for Jesus, you can join the Jesus Luncher family founders at the Coffee house they just opened on Madison's west side.  

Might as well cash in on the 15 minutes!  Maybe if we get really lucky, they will also build a life size Ark here in Madison!

In the meantime, maybe we will all win if the folks at Watchdog.org would spend a couple minutes on Google before they write a story!

Quote Of The Day _ Adam Jarchow

By Jeff Simpson 

Rep. Adam Jarchow Was recently a speaker at the AFP- Defunding the American Dream summit in Florida(why Wisconsin GOP speak everywhere but WI is another story),  Never short of irony, AFP named Mr. Jarchow, who no one  knows in Wisconsin was speaking in the "rising stars" section of the summit.  I guess when you have zero name recognition there is no where to go but up.

However the fun part was what Mr. Jarchow said in this conference.   Mr. Jarchow points out that, in his experience in the GOP caucus, the one thing you do not need to be to run for office is intelligent.

ORLANDO – Asked what he would say to citizens contemplating a run for office, State Rep. Adam Jarchow, R- Balsam Lake, urged courage and action.
“If you want to run, run. Believe me, after having served in the Legislature it doesn’t take a rocket scientist,” the first-term lawmaker told attendees of Americans for Prosperity’s 10^th annual Defending the American Dream Summit on Saturday. “If you think you are underqualified, you are probably not. So put your name on the ballot and run.”

Who knew that Mr. Jarchow was a member of A.I.M.?



Make Captain America, Iron Man and the people of Wisconsin happy and Support Mr. Jarchow's opponent!   Jeff Peterson for Assembly 

Scott Michalak For Assembly

Scott Michalak for Wisconsin Assembly District 38!

Like his Facebook page here!

GOP Team Photo

By Jeff Simpson 

A GOP team photo from Robin Vos (R-adulterer) facebook page:

Because when Robin Vos, Paul Ryan, Van Wanggaard and Mr. Clean get together, why wouldn't there be a couple confederate soldiers in the pic?

ALEC Aims to Privatize All Schools

By Chris Taylor 

On the heels of a newly passed state budget that again leaves our K-12 public schools behind without ample and consistent funding, I recently headed back to where the school privatization push all began—the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC.

ALEC and its members, including theAmerican Federation for Children (AFC), have become more powerful than our citizens’ voices at the State Capitol. Despite massive public urging from Wisconsin school superintendents, principals, teachers, parents and students for consistent and adequate K-12 public education funding, Republicans legislators chose to dump more money into an unaccountable private voucher school system.

Since Republicans took over our state Capitol in 2011, they have cut $1.2 billion from public K-12 education. Under this latest budget, 55 percent of school districts will get less general student aid than they did last budget cycle and Wisconsin is spending $1,014 less per public school student than it did in 2008.

Yet for the private school special interests, this budget was like Christmas morning, with presents that blew the student enrollment caps off the statewide private school voucher program, diverted an additional $600-800 million from public schools over the next decade and increased per-pupil spending in the statewide private voucher system more than what even Governor Walker had proposed. The cherry on top was the last minute, late night passage of the special needs voucher program, which funds private schools for special needs students without requiring specialized instruction, teacher training or current legal protections.

At ALEC’s recent conference, I saw firsthand how these successes have emboldened them. State legislators were urged to push further for universal vouchers with no income or eligibility limits and for funding parity for unaccountable, independent charter schools.

The most far-reaching model bill the ALEC Education Taskforce adopted, Education Savings Accounts (ESAs), was pushed by AFC, and recently adopted in Nevada. Public monies are deposited into individual student accounts that parents may spend on any educational system. According to Nevada lead sponsor state senatorScott Hammond, this bill impacts 94 percent of public school students and will open up the floodgates to private schools in Nevada, sending “shockwaves” throughout the country.

Though school privatization model policies originating from ALEC have traditionally contained income eligibility limits, their new suite of model bills expanding independent charter school funding and private school vouchers reduce state oversight and accountability measures, contain no income cap and provide the same level of state and local funding per pupil that public schools receive.

To make their case, ALEC is now targeting suburban, middle-income families with a new argument that public education is failing not just low-income students, but middle-income students. ALEC’s new goal is to enlist middle-income parents to make a case for public school privatization.

And state legislators are being called upon as the foot soldiers to carry out ALEC’s orders.  As Arizona SenatorDebbie Lesko rallied when concluding her remarks in support of Educational Savings Accounts—“We’re here to save our country. That’s what ALEC helps us do.”

Or, more accurately, destroy the foundation of our democracy—quality public education. ALEC and many Republican legislators in Wisconsin have no vision for public education because they do not want it to exist. But there is a way to stop ALEC’s destructive policies. With 78 percent of Wisconsinites opposed to public education cuts, it starts with you.

There was one piece of advice from Senator Lesko’s ALEC speech that we should listen to —“Elections matter.”

Republican Politburo

By Jeff Simpson


Robin Vos (R-adulterer) has decided that his version of small government is to tell the University of Wisconsin system that they are allowed to have any speaker they want, as long as he agrees with their message.

"Perhaps what could be most worrisome about going to college these days is the plague of political correctness that creates an environment that ends up stifling free speech," Vos wrote. "I challenge the UW System this school year to find more ways, beyond a two-page policy statement, to ensure that all perspectives, including conservative ones, are present in the classroom."

Vos spokesman Kit Beyer told the Wisconsin State Journal that Vos directly expressed his concerns to UW System President Ray Cross in a meeting Tuesday.

Mr Vos did an open records request(which he expects fulfilled, unlike the same requests that have been asked of GOP legislators) and found out that the top two highest paid speakers were:

The largest amount paid for a single speaker was at UW-Platteville, Vos said. The speaker was Kathy Ober, a former professor at University of Massachusetts-Amherst and co-founder of the Social Justice Training Institute -- who reportedly spoke three times for a total of $45,000.Michael Sam, the first openly gay player in the NFL, spoke at UW-La Crosse in December and also was one of the highest paid speakers, according to Vos.

Mr. Vos admits that he has no interest in Social Justice and listening to what someone from the LGBTQ community has to say.  Who knew that those two issues are partisan?  

Of course Mr. Vos has a history of being inherently lazy and did not offer up any suggestions, so that is where we are going to come in,  

We at CogDis are nothing if not here to help our friends on the right.  

Let's give some suggestions on who the UW System should bring in to speak to our college kids!

Let me start with a few:

1.   Number one on my list is Jonah Goldberg, of the National Review.  Jonah Goldberg is such a prolific writer, that he gave himself two Pulitzer nominations.   That takes skill!   What aspiring writer would not want to find out how to nominate yourself for the most prestigious awards there are?

2.  Everyones favorite right wing political pundit, Captain 9/12 Glenn Beck.   I would recommend that Mr. Beck be paid to speak to the school of social work so they can better learn how to deal with grief!

“When I see a 9/11 victim family on television, or whatever, I’m just like, ‘Oh shut up!’ I’m so sick of them because they’re always complaining.” ~ Glenn Beck

3.  The Scientists in the UW System will surely want to hear from Michelle Bachmann, since I am sure none of their professors taught them this!

“Carbon dioxide is portrayed as harmful. But there isn’t even one study that can be produced that shows that carbon dioxide is a harmful gas.” ~ Rep. Michele Bachmann

3. Best Selling "conservative" author and pundit Ann Coulter could be another that the UW System brings in.  The tall blonde has been preaching about liberal indoctrination for years.  

"If you wanted to teach people about the great things about America, a college campus is the last place you’d send them. Even fanatical Muslim terrorists don’t hate America like liberals do." Ann Coulter -- CPAC conference, 2002

Preach Ann, Preach!!   

4.  I would also recommend that Assembly Rep. Bob Gannon (R-White Hood) be allowed to speak also  He can speak to history classes about the Good ole days of the 1920's!

5. I also highly recommend that they have our Governor speak to the Engineering schools about how to build massive walls!

Finally #6, I would recommend they bring in Republican nominee for President, The Donald, who speak on numerous issues, from how to look presidential, to the plight of the disabled!

There are 6 different suggestions from us to Mr. Vos and University President Ray Cross to consider bringing in to speak this year on the UW System campuses.  

Help us out and give us some more suggestions, and I will make sure that Mr. Vos and Mr. Cross get this information!

Time to value public education again in Wisconsin

By Melissa Sargent 

Each new school year should be met with celebration. New school clothes and backpacks bring smiles to our students’ faces. I remember loving new art supplies and the smell of freshly sharpened pencils. With three kids in Madison public schools and one on his way to UW-Madison, I’ve witnessed these joyful occasions over and over.

This year, these feelings are tempered with the weight of the cumulative cuts to education at all levels through Scott Walker’s short-sighted and destructive agenda.

From our preschool children through our college graduates, no one has been able to escape the wide-ranging devaluing of both public education and the professionalism of our educators in Wisconsin. The long-term effects of these cuts cannot be overstated.

School districts around the state are barely functioning on current funding levels and many are dependent on local tax referendums — like the one that was just approved by the Madison School Board for the November election. Programs, teachers and other critical staff are being cut to compensate for this lack of funding. Teacher shortages across Wisconsin are forcing the Department of Public Instruction to act quickly to ensure that we simply have enough people to educate our children. At the same time professors are leaving to teach and research at universities in other states where they feel more respected.

We are no longer in the realm of normal budget fluctuations from one administration or party to the next. We are witnessing a dismantling of our public schools. This is a direct attack on our children’s future and the future of Wisconsin.

Budgets are about priorities. In fact, the last biennial budget was the largest in our state’s history, but the GOP prioritized tax giveaways to special interests and out-of-state corporations over fully funding education at all levels.

How is this good for our future prosperity? We need to be building a culture of curiosity and creating lifetime learners. Instead, the GOP is giving money to unaccountable private schools and treating public education as a nuisance rather than the cornerstone of our local communities.

It’s time to go back to the drawing board. The first step is a simple acknowledgement that educating our children, our future leaders, is our No. 1 job. If we are not in the business of providing the best possible education from preschool through college graduation, we will continue to fall behind our neighboring states in this most basic function of government.

We must act boldly. As progressives, we must stand together to restore full funding to our schools. We should also be proposing new, innovative plans. Things like universal pre-K child care, fair funding for our K-12 schools, and debt-free college.

We cannot afford to lose a generation due to the devaluing of public education at all levels by the Republicans. Our kids do not get a second chance at their education.

I am filled with pride to be a graduate of Wisconsin’s public schools and our fabulous University System. I know that they made me who I am today. We can return to that sense of pride and opportunity if we put our minds to it. These are challenging times, but Wisconsinites have never shied away from a challenge. For all of Wisconsin’s families, we need a public education system that provides each child the opportunity to achieve their fullest potential in life — the American Dream.

The Alt-Right Is Not So Alt

By Jeff Simpson 

For some reason, someone felt it was a good idea to talk to Senator Steve nASS(R-Doesnt pay child support) about a new diversity outreach program at UW-Madison.  

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Republican state senator says a new diversity outreach program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is "sinister."
Sen. Steve Nass made the comments Thursday in reaction to UW announcing its plans to improve the experiences of minorities. The plan calls for having new students discuss social differences, a new cultural center for black students and increased opportunities to take ethnic studies courses.
Nass says university leaders "constantly complain about lacking money" but "they never lack money for advancing new and more sinister ways of liberal indoctrination of students.

Of course what is more sinister of liberals, than trying to reach out to people of different races, religions and backgrounds?  Especially when, as our friends at Political Heat point out, there are dire consequences for not reaching out:

Years ago,business leaders DID want a more diverse-friendly college campus in Madison. And when it was evident that was not what they were getting at UW, recruiters from major American companies were pulled from the university. From Pat Schneider of the Cap Times (Emphasis in bold added by me): 

 Diversity is good for business, which makes it an imperative for U.S. business schools, say Wisconsin School of Business administrators. 

If the business school community does not have a mix of students, faculty and staff that can prepare students for a global economy, students will go somewhere else and so will business recruiters. 
That has already happened at UW-Madison. A decade ago, big corporations like Procter & Gamble, General Motors and Alcoa stopped recruiting in Madison because of a lack of diversity among business school students.

 That is one way to stop the brain drain of Wisconsin students, make sure no one outside of Wisconsin will want to hire them.   

Of course since Wisconsin is already the worst state in the nation for African Americans, there is no incentive for us to have a diverse workforce or college student body.   

Let's not forget, it was career politician Steve nASS who famously said:



It is always entertaining when people who do not understand business, lecture the rest of us who do on what needs to be done.  

Steve nASS is also a career politician, whose one signature bill that earned him a promotion within the WISGOP, was to make sure that communities could discriminate against Native Americans. 

Now Charlie Sykes is going to pretend he has no idea that racism is running rampant on the right?  From the recent puff piece written in Politico about him:

“No, I’m saying, they’re talking about phasing out the breed because so many are bad. No one wants to phase out poodles! I mean, there’s no Lutherans doing this! We never know when one of these people are going to be radicalized.”

“One of these people,” says Sykes.

Sykes ends the call. He’s silent, broadcasting dead air. He looks upset, like he’s stopped breathing. He goes to a commercial break.

“OK, that doesn’t happen very often,” he says off-air. “I’m not usually absolutely speechless.” He says his listeners never talked like this until recently.

“Were these people that we actually thought were our allies?” he asks.

Is Senator nASS and Ally?  

On Tuesday, (Paul)Ryan rolled out endorsements from all 16 Republican state legislators who represent portions of the 1st Congressional District.

The endorsers include Assembly Speaker Robin Vos of Rochester and four state senators, Steve Nass of Whitewater, Chris Kapenga of Delafield, Mary Lazich of New Berlin and Van Wanggard of Racine.

In a statement, Nass said that he has known Ryan since the early 1990s and during that time the Janesville native's values, principles and integrity 'have not changed and they never will.'

So much for the Alt-right... As John Nichols has pointed out:

                                    

In Paul Ryan's WI district, the Trump-Ryan message is amplified by local Republicans. No degrees of separation. pic.twitter.com/UumlZ7dQqC

— John Nichols (@NicholsUprising) September 3, 2016

So when you hear talk of the "alt-right" just remember there is no difference between them and the regular WISGOP, except they have been empowered to speak their mind in public instead of in private.  The Ironic thing is the same people who are trying to run away and wash their hands of them, are the people who were the ones who empowered them!

Who Will Be My Teacher?

By Kathleen Vinehout

“Who will be my teacher?” my son asked me years ago. For a brief point in time, the teacher was the most important person in his young life.

As children head back to school and parents scramble with new schedules, schools are facing their own scheduling headaches. This year a teacher shortage hit many local schools. Around the state, school districts have hundreds of vacancies.

Recently, I presented an overview of state education budget issues in Viroqua. At least a dozen local superintendents, school board members, principals and teachers were in the audience. Following my presentation, the conversation turned to the teacher shortage.

Educators described an environment in which teachers in certain high demand subject areas move from one school district to another based on the best offer.

Two superintendents from neighboring school districts laughed when they realized they spent the summer bidding against each other to snag the same teacher. “Now we have teachers who come back [to our school] and say, ‘I’m getting a $6,000 increase in an offer from another school.’”

A staff member paid a $12,000 raise creates problems in districts where teachers went seven years with little raise in pay. John, a local teacher, told the group, “The impact on morale is just horrendous.”

Many superintendents, including State Superintendent Tony Evers, saw this crisis coming. Mr. Evers took a number of steps, including the creation of a Working Group on School Staffing Issues.

“Act 10 created a ‘free agency’ environment where competition for high demand and talented teachers is fierce, and financial and geographic differences put many districts at a competitive disadvantage,” stated the group’s final report submitted this summer.

I recently spoke with former Durand Superintendent Jerry Walters who now administers CESA 11, a regional cooperative sharing educational services. He explained post-retirement benefits tended to “give teachers a sense of loyalty”. After Act 10, and the loss of benefits, teachers are like sports player – open to the highest bidder. Few districts can compete in this new world.

School districts have state-imposed revenue caps limiting what they can spend. People are the heart of the school and make up nearly 80% of a district’s budget. Some districts are very short on funds. They gave few raises for many years.

“But some have money to do this,” Mr. Walters told me. “Some Minnesota schools [for example] offer a $10,000 signing bonus… For districts left behind this creates attraction and retention issues…Ultimately it’s the smaller, poorer school district at the bottom of the food chain.”

Rural schools are at a particular disadvantage. Many rural school districts pay ten percent of their budget in transportation costs and have a low revenue cap, which means they don’t have the money to make special offers.

A teacher who worked in Milwaukee, Oconomowoc, Tomah and Westby said, “As long as there is a Middleton, we will lose teachers in Westby.”

To compound problems, fewer students are going into teacher education programs. An April 2016 Journal Sentinel story reported some teacher education programs have 20% to 40% fewer students than a few years ago.

At the Viroqua event, a local elected official, Karen Dahl told the group, “Young people don’t want to go into education because [some in] Wisconsin denigrate the profession and the value of education.”

State Superintendent Evers’ working group offered some solutions to the teacher shortage: cultivate “grow your own” teachers especially in rural areas; make it easier to hire in an emergency; add flexibility so teachers can take on new roles; strengthen ties between K-12 and university teacher education and change recent laws that limit retired teachers from part-time work.

But the simplest part of the solution starts with each of us. I spoke with a math teacher who closed her Facebook page because of negative comments about her profession made by “friends.” She said, “I was in the grocery store and a neighbor came up and said that he didn’t want to pay my salary because I ‘wasn’t worth a dime.’”

Words hurt. And you can help.

Providing every child a great education means getting great people to enter and stay in teaching. We must appreciate the work educators do every day. Our children need an answer to the question, “Who will be my teacher?”

Happy Labor Day From AFSCME

A little humor, albeit NSFW humor, for you on Labor Day, with a reminder of all we public union sector thugs do, even for you haters:

RoJo Pays for Purity

By Jeff Simpson

Everyone who pays attention to politics knows the Ron Johnson story. After college he was laboring in odd jobs and was a class ring salesman when he met a rich mans daughter and married into money  His father-in-law realized the lack of talent and set him up in a company where he only had to deal with one customer - Daddy.  RoJo was quite successful selling to daddy and his company(PACUR) flourished.

Ron was bored with little responsibility and on one of his trips to Madison, to testify against holding pedophile priests accountable for their crimes, caught the political bug.  His father-in-law, sick of covering for him at work, decided to stake him $10 million dollars for a run for Senate.  Knowing that it was a small price to pay to get RoJo out of the house and out of his hair.

The problem with RoJo is he seems to be the only one who is not aware of his history.  RoJo believes he was the one who started the company and led it too success.  Now he wants to make sure that when the time comes for him to leave our plane of existence that his children only get the money they were born into if they deserve it.

In case you were wondering, what would force the kids to be written out of the will, there are two instances only.

But under the section labeled “termination of benefits,” things become odd. Johnson and his wife decreed that his children could be cut off from receiving their share of the trust in just two cases: demonstrating egregious criminal behavior or having “more than one child” without being married. See the relevant passages below:

Ron Johnson Trust Probate Case-2 

 No egregious criminal behavior(thank goodness Scott Walker is not his son) and two children out of wedlock.   That means if the kids get/become pregnant, their options turn out to be give up their trust fund and work for a living or have an abortion.   It is nice for RoJo to spell it out for them in black and white.  

Of course, there is always more, so there is actually another option for the kids.   RoJo knows that instead of learning about sexual education or birth control etc...the best way to teach the kids would be to throw  a video in for them explaining the importance of abstinence.  

Ronnie is a busy guy so in order to do my public service I found a couple of videos he can show his offspring to make sure that there are no unwanted children until they are ready to walk down the aisle in holy matrimony.   

To the Johnson kids - You are welcome(sorry Ken Burns has not tackled this subject yet)!   

Milwaukee Police Rough Up, Arrest State Lawmaker, ACLU Staffer

On Tuesday evening, a group of about 30 or 40 people gathered in the Sherman Park neighborhood, near the site where police had shot and killed Sylville Smith. This killing had led to a couple of nights of racial unrest in an already volatile neighborhood.

A frustrated resident in the area had a go in with the group and called police. They showed up in force and arrested about ten people for disorderly conduct and resisting an officer.

A couple of hours later, Wisconsin State Representative Jonathan Brostoff and ACLU organizer Jarett English went to the neighborhood to speak with residents about public policy and to deescalate tensions.

That's when things went bad quickly:

"I was having a nice conversation with some folks," Rep. Brostoff told the Daily News on Wednesday. "As that conversion was going on, the police kind of rush over, tell me to get over by a car."

He said the officers told him and Jarrett English, a youth organizer for the ACLU, that they heard cursing. Officers threw English to the ground and handcuffed him, Brostoff said. He also said he started recording the incident on his cellphone, but police took his phone and threw him to the ground.

Brostoff said he was "totally compliant" and did nothing wrong. He said he was only in the neighborhood to help. When other people recognized him, cops let him go, and he convinced them to let English go as well.

The lawmaker told The News he saw a doctor Wednesday because his wrist was injured when he was slammed to the ground, and is awaiting test results. He said he wants to talk to Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and Police Chief Edward Flynn about what took place.

The ACLU issued a statement blasting the police and their aggressive policies:

“The Milwaukee Police Department has once again demonstrated its preference for occupation, excessive force and belligerence over genuine engagement, civil dialog, and de-escalation,” said Larry Dupuis, Legal Director of the ACLU of Wisconsin. “People have a right to stand on a street corner – to observe and record the police, as Jarrett was doing, or for any other reason. Unfortunately, rather than protecting people and their rights, law enforcement in this community all too often engages in the sort of destructive behavior to which Jarrett and Jonathan were subjected last night. Although no one deserves to be treated like this, the police made the mistake this time of abusing people who were in a position to insist on their rights.”

Jarrett English said, “The situation was confusing, because I really did not know what I was being arrested for. It was embarrassing and dehumanizing, and I did not feel that I was being treated with the dignity and respect that should be afforded any individual. But I was mostly thinking about all of the young people this happens to every day who don’t have anyone to call to get free. We cannot continue doing this to our people. It has to stop.”

A spokesman for the Milwaukee Police Department said that the incident was "under investigation" to make sure that proper procedure was followed. He then went on to blame Brostoff for not making his identity and his profession known to them earlier. He said that because they didn't know Brostoff, that led to "confusion." This is ridiculous since Brostoff has been in the area several times before and the police knew who he was.

Brostoff called their statement "unbelievable" and pointed out some of the real issues related to this incident:

On Wednesday, Brostoff said it wasn't right that he and English were arrested in the first place because they had done nothing wrong. It also was not proper, he added, for police to give him a break because he is a state rep.

"It doesn't matter what my job is," Brostoff said. "That's ludicrous."

Indeed, what happens to the hundreds of people this happens to and don't have the authority or the ability to speak out for their rights like Brostoff and English do?

I had the chance to briefly speak with Brostoff on Wednesday evening.

He told me that he still hasn't gotten the results of the tests taken on his wrist.

But being the kind of person that he is, Brostoff said that he did not want the focus to be on the incident or what happened to him or English. Instead, he wanted the discussion to be around the serious problems facing the community and ways to effectively address them.

Brostoff identified some of these issues as the need for better funding for Milwaukee schools so that children can receive quality educations so that they can improve their lives and their community. He also cited the need for good jobs with livable wages to come back to the area, which was once a thriving industrial/manufacturing hub. Brostoff also said that the police need to back off of their punitive policies and adopt a more preventative approach.

Brostoff also said that the City of Milwaukee's Office of Violence Prevention needs to be fully funded to carry on their mission.

As Brostoff also pointed out, with Walker and the Republicans in charge of the state government, Milwaukee cannot expect any substantial help from them. That makes all the more imperative that the people of Milwaukee take action locally to address these issues.

I'm With Her, Her and Her!

By Jeff Simpson

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).





Next up is someone we have also profiled here, Christine Welcher.  Christine is on facebook here and her website is located here,  .  Christine is going to retire Tyler August in November, with our help!  Christine's interview with Wisconsin Eye is here.



Finally, one more progressive woman I want to introduce to you - Sarah Lloyd.  Ms. Lloyd has taken the challenge of running against one of Wisconsin;s craziest natives - Glenn Grothman   Glenn Grothman used to be counted on to give crazy quotes on an almost daily basis, but since he won a primary to take over for Tom Petrie, the Republican Party has not allowed him much freedom or daylight to be caught saying something dumb that disqualifies him from being at the adult table.

Sarah is a farmer, advocate and will be a great representative for the 6th Congressional District and not embarrass the great State of Wisconsin.....if we help her get to Washington DC.

Sarah can be found on facebook here and her wesbsite is here!

Here is an interview that Ms. Lloyd gave to WPR, give it a listen.




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!