Do You Remember These???

By Jeff Simpson 

 The boogie man, lemonade stand and taking your tonsils outIndian burn and wait your turn and four foul ballsYou're out! Cigarette loads and secret codes and saving lucky starsCan you remember back that far?

Scott Walker came out today with a "new" proposal.  Well new to his mouth but one that has been hanging around for a while because the Democrats wrote it!

After years of fighting Obamacare, Gov. Scott Walker is now seeking to stabilize the state marketplace under the law.

The state will also ask to permanently continue SeniorCare, a prescription drug program Walker has previously sought to pare down, he said.

Walker also said he’ll ask the state Senate to pass a bill authored by Democratic lawmakers and passed by the Assembly that would enshrine into state law access to private insurance for people with pre-existing conditions.

One thing our friends on the right seem to forget is that in the year 2018, we have things they have said in the past documented! 

Let us take a quick look:

Gov. Scott Walker said Tuesday he would scrap President Barack Obama’s signature health care law on his first day in office and replace it with a health insurance system that relies on refundable tax credits based on age instead of household income to help individuals pay for health coverage.  8/19/2015

WALKER: I think long-term a much better option for us here in Wisconsin and across the country is to replace it with something market-driven. But for us, we didn't take the Medicaid expansion. We didn't do a state exchange. But long-term we can't go back to the status quo. What we need to do is go to a market-driven position. 12/1/2013

Scott Walker says, "It starts out with the premise that on my very first day as President of the United States, I will send legislation to the Congress to once and for all repeal Obamacare entirely." 8/18/2015

 Gov. Scott Walker said Friday that he would consider seeking a waiver to let insurers raise premiums for people with pre-existing medical conditions if the House Republicans’ health care plan becomes law. 5/6/17

Yes those were all said by the same guy.  The same guy who is running for re-election for Governor of Wisconsin.   Scott Walker will obviously say or do anything to be re-elected. 

However, those of us with pre-existing conditions, must not be fooled by the snake oil salesman.  We know, from his history, that anything he says now, will be immediately forgotten the minute he is declared the winner. 

We have to make sure that does not happen! 

Remember this in November! 

Knock, knock jokes 

Who's there?
Dewey
Dewey who?
Dewey
Remember these
Yes we do!

Oh do we?
Do we remember these!

Kochs Give Lyin' Ryan His Good Boy Treat For Tax Bill

Image courtesy of Shane Bakken

Last week, Randy "Ironstache" Bryce announced their 4th quarter fundraising was a huge success again:

Randy Bryce, one of the Democrats hoping to take on House Speaker Paul Ryan, raised $1.2 million at the end of last year, his campaign said.

Team Stache also reports that the donations came from over 80,000 donors and averaged about $25-30 each. How did Bryce raise so much? Well, as he said:

Bryce, a union ironworker and military veteran, was asked by Katy Tur on MSNBC in an interview Monday why he's raised so much money.

"People are seeing this wave. This resistance is very real," Bryce said. "People have had enough with where the president is taking us, and we're tired of not having a Congress that's acting as a check and balance to stand up to him."

A few days later, Ryan came out with his numbers. He reportedly raised $1.4 million during the same time frame, putting Ryan and Bryce at about an even pace.

But when you look at where the money comes from, there's a different story:

In the fourth quarter, Team Ryan raised nearly $5 million.

The Janesville Republican hasn't formally announced whether he'll run for another term representing the 1st Congressional district.

Ryan's re-election campaign announced it had nearly $10 million on hand at the end of 2017.

Of the $1.4 million raised by the campaign in the fourth quarter, more than $270,000 was raised directly in Ryan for Congress. The rest came from transfers from the speaker's joint fundraising committee.

In other words, he's using his position as Speaker of the House as a fundraising tool.

Ah, but there's more, friends. There's always more.

Mary Papenfuss at HuffPo points out that a great deal of the money came from Charles Koch and his wife and few other multibillionaires:

Just 13 days after the tax law was passed, Charles Koch and his wife, Elizabeth, donated nearly $500,000 to Ryan’s joint fundraising committee, according to a campaign finance report filed Thursday.

Five other donors, including billionaire businessmen Jeffery Hildebrand and William Parfet, each contributed $100,000 in the last quarter of 2017, according to the records.

“It looks like House Speaker Ryan is quickly being rewarded for passing this legislation that overwhelmingly benefits the Kochs and billionaires like them,” Adam Smith, spokesman for campaign finance reform nonprofit Every Voice, told the International Business Times, which first reported the Koch contributions.

The Koch donations were paid into Team Ryan, which raises money for the speaker, the National Republican Congressional Committee and a PAC run by Ryan. On the same day, Charles and Elizabeth Koch also each donated $237,000 to the NRCC.

Without the dark money, Bryce is keeping pace with Ryan, and could actually be doing better.

And Bryce made sure people take notice of Ryan's dirty money:

And Ryan’s Democratic challenger, ironworker and military veteran Randy Bryce, made sure that these massive gifts and the context around them did not go unnoticed.

Paul Ryan passed a 1.5 trillion dollar tax bill that takes from working people to give to the super rich.

Days later, he got $500,000 in Koch contributions.https://t.co/mctzh9RYu8

— Randy Bryce (@IronStache) January 21, 2018

Ryan would be hard-pressed to claim that these donations had nothing at all to do with the passage of the bill, considering the Koch brothers spent millions on the effort to sell the scam to the American people.

It needs to be also pointed out that the Kochs and Ryan's other benefactors are using our own money against us, seeing how they will gain exponentially more money from Ryan's tax plan. Thanks, Citizens United!

If you can, please help Randy keep getting his message out so that he can kick Ryan out. Give whatever you can to help the cause of regaining our country from the plutocrats and oligarchs that are pulling Ryan's strings. Don't let Ryan and his dark money overlords buy another election.

One Last Wish

By Jeff Simpson

Recently an long time Democratic activist from Beloit WI, Helen Forbeck, passed.   In her obituary, her last act on this earth, she was able to get one more message across! 

The greatest hope she had for this world as she left it is that our current president leaves office as soon as possible, along with any other bigots, homophobes, and racists. She asked those who support such beliefs to not dare to attend her visitation or funeral.

RIP Helen....We will deliver on your greatest hope this November. 

In honor of Helen, please donate a few bucks or an hour or two of your time to change our government for the better in November, and do it in Helen's name! 

Athletes Attacked

By Jeff Simpson

I am starting to see a trend and it all fits within the same Venn Diagram.

First, Scott Walker lets us know that he and his van stealing son, were very disappointed and angry that Ryan Braun lied about taking steroids.   The Governor, who has a "true" rating on the right leaning politifact of 13%, is upset that Ryan Braun lied to him. 

It is easy when your one strength is dividing people:

  to attack pro athletes, most of whom are minorities, to get people turned against them.   We all love playing baseball, why cant they just enjoy the fact that they make millions playing a game we wish we could......  

It is a page right out of the right wing playbook and now Tom Ricketts, the owner of the Chicago Cubs, is playing that card with Sammy Sosa.   Ricketts recently let everyone know, that before Sosa would be welcome back to Cubland, there were conditions needing to be met. 

"Players from that era owe us a little bit of honesty," Ricketts said Saturday during the team's annual fan convention. "The only way to turn that page is to put everything on the table."
---
"I just think we need to put everything on the table and move forward, full stop," Ricketts said.

Sammy Sosa was one of the greatest former Cubs, who helped bring fan interest back to the game of baseball after the strike and who also took steroids.  Sosa, has been demonized and ostracized ever since and while the rich white men of the era (Bud Selig) are immortalized, the players who brought the game back to major profitability were thrown under the bus. 

Even though, Ricketts, had absolutely no ties to Cubs during the Sammy Sosa era, he is going to make Sosa come begging to him to get back in the clubs good graces.

Ricketts, has different categories of who he expects honesty from.   Ricketts was a major donor to the Scott Walker for President campaign (he knows how to pick a winner), then when Scott Walker blew through over $10 million dollars in three months, received 0.0% support in the Republican presidential primary and went home with his tail between his legs, transferred his support to The Donald.   That support equaled over one million dollars!

While Mr. Ricketts says he wants to keep the Cubs and Politics seperate, that is fine, but he can not seperate from his own hypocrisy. 

While Ricketts has never had to pay a penny to Sosa, he expects a "little honesty" from him before he is allowed to be associated with the team he just bought.

Ricketts has given over $1 million to The Donald, who tells approximately 5.5 lies a day, and has never once asked for a "little honesty" from him.

Maybe, Ricketts just believes that everyone should follow the rules and that there should be no exceptions, even if they are on your team. 

Unfortunately that is not the case either, because TD Ameritrade (the company his father founded and allowed him his life of privilege), has been fined numerous times for breaking the law.  I doubt that Ricketts has asked his dad for a "little honesty" before he was allowed in the park.

The reality is too many politicians know how to push buttons to make sure that you are looking over there and not at them.

It is also one of the specialties of their good friend - The Donald!

“Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out! He’s fired. He’s fired!’” 

While professional athletes make it easy to attack, they are fair game of the Walkers/Ricketts mainly because of their race.  They want to make sure that they know their place in our society. 

Gladiators only..... 

Is Serb Hall's Fish Deep Fried?

Long time readers of this here blog might remember back almost six years ago to the saga of Serb Hall and the Solidarity Fish Fry.

The management at Serb Hall were trying to bust their union, blaming the union workers for costing them too much money. When we learned of the news, Randy Bryce (yes, THAT Randy Bryce) and I spearheaded one of the most unique direct actions in labor history.  Instead of the usual informational pickets or even a boycott, we organized the Solidarity Fish Fry.

The idea of the Solidarity Fish Fry was, instead of avoiding Serb Hall, everyone would go to Serb Hall every Friday for the then famous fish fry and eat to their heart's content.  The thing though was that when the people were to be seated, they needed to ask for a union table.  If a union table was not available, then you'd say you'd wait for one. 

The effects were clear on the first night when scores of people showed up for dinner.  Randy and I did this week in and week out for six straight months.  We had people from all walks of life - and from all parts of the globe - come join us to raise their forks in solidarity.

Unfortunately, it did not work out the way we had hoped.  During negotiations, the management declared an impasse and broke the union.  As it turned out, they also broke their own backs at the same time with businesses dropping as word got out.

The reason that I bring all this up now is that over the weekend, I had run into one of the union waitresses Randy and I and few score of our closest friends tried to help.  She said that she was still at Serb Hall but only part time because things were going to badly.

As we talked, two things that she said really struck me.

One, she said that Serb Hall's business had cratered so badly that they were having problems meeting payroll.  Sometimes workers were going for days after payday before receiving their checks, putting the worker's personal budgets into tailspins.

The other thing was that whatever money problems Serb Hall was having had nothing to do with the unions.  It turned out that one of the managers was embezzling tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars every year.  But given the top manager's boorish and idiotic tendencies, I would not be surprised to learn that he new about it for a while but still blamed the unions.  I hope he's proud of killing the business out of spite and ignorant hatred.

Greed never wins.

ADDENDUM: Oh, Randy, if you're reading this, I'm supposed to tell you that the waitresses are cheering for you in your race to repeal and replace Lyin' Ryan!

Ryan Reluctantly Calls Trump's Shithole Comments "Unfortunate, Unhelpful"

Lyin' Paul Ryan hadn't commented for a whole day after news of Trump's racist shithole comment broke. It was only when pressed to do did Ryan give a response to it, and to say it was lackluster would be an understatement:

"I read those comments later last night," he said. "So, first thing that came to my mind was very unfortunate, unhelpful. But you know what I thought of right away, I thought about my own family.

"My family, like a whole lot of people, came from Ireland on what they called the coffin ships then. Came here and worked the railroads. The Irish were really looked down upon back in those days. I hear all these stories from my relatives about 'Irish need not apply.' We could basically get construction jobs, cops and firefighter jobs."

Ryan spent most of his time as he usually does, trying desperately to get someone - anyone - to like his tax cuts for the wealthy.

Of course there was no mention at all of censuring Satan's Oompah Loompah.

Ryan's Democratic opponent, Randy "IronStache" Bryce laid it out clearly:

No @SpeakerRyan, Donald Trump's remarks aren't "unfortunate." They're racist, bigoted, and un-American. And if you can't see that, you just might be too. https://t.co/w5VTY8hzo8

— Randy Bryce (@IronStache) January 12, 2018

Personally, I think Randy was a little harsh on Ryan. After all, I'm sure it's hard for Ryan to take a stand against evil when he doesn't even have a spine.

But the clear difference between the two candidates is part of the reason why IronStache continues to run such a strong campaign. He's connecting with people on their level. That would also explain why in the last quarter of last year, Team Stache raised $1.2 million from 82,000 people, averaging $24-25 per donation.

If you want to be part of the Blue Wave that sweeps Ryan out of Washington and replaced by Randy, you can help out here.

Dan O'Donnell Outdoes Himself

By Jeff Simpson

Remember this:

Thanks to Dan O'Donnell - local radio hate talker, we have our own version.   While he sings the praises of ACT10, all but ending teachers unions, he also testified for a horrendous bill wrongly called - The Teacher Protection Act. 

After testifying, he went to a local blogger with MacIver and had this to say:

O’Donnell praised the bill, stating, “We have a system in which teachers do not feel they are being heard.”

WOW, who woulda thunk it.  We eliminate Teachers Unions, then do a report on how teachers are not being heard!

Sometimes I wonder if these radio yakkers actually listen to the crap they spew. 

Another Conservative Reformer Is Reforming

By Jeff Simpson

Conservative family values Gov. Eric Greitens, the guy who campaigned on family values:

His campaign capitalized on his military service as a Navy SEAL, his work as founder of a veterans’ charity “and most importantly, a proud husband and father”.

The problem is, Mr. Greiten was also sleeping with someone else's wife at the time(still checking to see if he is related to Robin Vos).   The thing is this Navy Seal knew how to keep himself out of trouble, because he tied his mistress up, took pictures of her naked and let her know that if she told anyone he would plaster her nude pics all over the Internet. 

Surprisingly, this did not set very well with Greiten's mistresses husband:

Looks like someone in Missouri did not vote Republican.   

The family values GOP rising superstar is so confident in his abilities that he has already purchased ericgreitensforpresident.com.  Imagine the affairs he can have in the White House with Air Force One and the world at the palm of his hands.   

One thing we know for certain, is that wherever Greitens career takes him, we know who his biggest fan is:

Missouri taxpayers spoke loudly tonight by electing @EricGreitens, a conservative reformer ready to lead. Congratulations! #MOgov pic.twitter.com/33Ny10Qx7m

— Scott Walker (@ScottWalker) November 9, 2016

Scott Walker: Public Relations Failure!

By Jeff Simpson

Scott Walkers, meltdown continues.  As we pointed out earlier, Madison Mayor Paul Soglin entering the Governors race has really gotten under Walker's skin.

The last thing we need is more Madison in our lives. @Paulsoglin is the latest extreme liberal who wants to take our state backward -- just like he did in Madison, where businesses have left and murders have gone up. We want to go forward.

— Scott Walker (@ScottWalker) January 10, 2018

The last thing we need is more Madison in our lives, says the Madison resident.   

But wait, there's more:

.@ScottWalker notes that murders have gone up in Madison under @Paulsoglin. The 10 last year tied 2008 for record high. But under @GovWalker, homicides statewide have increased from 138 in 2011, his first year in office, to 230 in 2016, the most recent year available https://t.co/DjqCgOB380

— Scott Bauer (@sbauerAP) January 10, 2018

But wait there is even more yet! This is a big one:

.@ScottWalker says "the last thing we need is more Madison in our lives" while his @WEDCNews launches $1 million ad campaign promoting Madison, Wisconsin with one spot showing people having drinks with Capitol in the background, others boating on Lake Monona https://t.co/DjqCgOB380

— Scott Bauer (@sbauerAP) January 10, 2018

Actually, the $1,000,000 figure is rather low, Scott Walker has asked for another $6.8 million dollars of taxpayer money, to expand their ad campaign of selling Madison, to our neighbors from the South.

Not that you need to sell Madison:

By the way Scott, to borrow one of your favorite taglines, It is Working!, at least in Paul Soglin's Madison!

Congratulations, Madison! You have lower unemployment than Wisconsin overall and decreased unemployment at a greater rate (62.5% to 60.5%) than the State since 2010. https://t.co/RB9asgnUb0

— Max D (@MaxMKE) January 10, 2018

I wonder if the stress of the campaign, especially with such a poor record to run on, is too much stress for Mr. Walker too handle! 

In a career full of saying really stupid things, this could top the list! 

Scott Walkers Bad Company

By Jeff Simpson

A man is known by the company he keeps 

Madison Mayor Paul Soglin has entered the race for Governor and shortly thereafter, Scott Walker had a meltdown. 

He has shown a definite fear of Mayor Soglin entering the race for quite sometime. 

The "Moving WI Forward" Governor was tweeting this shortly after the new year.

.@paulsoglin praised & defended brutal dictator Castro as "leader who inspired generations of Cubans" https://t.co/dQTJeSDBG1

— Scott Walker (@ScottWalker) January 4, 2018

Nothing says 2018 like a story and photo from 1975.   Of course there are more time relevant pics that Scott Walker has not tweeted out, so let me help a bit!

Scott Walker and the White Power conference:

Scott Walker and the pedophile:

Scott Walker and the petulant sexual predator:

Scott Walker and the GOP Serial Abuser and Criminal: 

Scott Walker and the Six Convicts:

Scott Walker and the Van Thief:

We got Alex 21 Wisconsin beers & a beer cap map for his 21st birthday. Happy Birthday Alex!!! pic.twitter.com/3uax5ynlik

— Scott Walker (@ScottWalker) July 31, 2016

Scott Walker and the Bad News Elephants:

 While it reads like a dime store rate Harry Potter knockoff, the reality is that Scott Walker, who has his own problems of picking friends, shows his desperation with his attacks on Mayor Soglin.  He is very vulnerable and he knows it!

Our character is reflected in our choice of friends.

WI Republican Gets Firm Finger Wagging For Ethics Violation

Last October, Wisconsin State Representative Bob Kulp (R - Stratford) was caught promoting his roofing company on his official state social media sites:

Bob Kulp is clearly proud of his Ford F-150. He tweeted a picture of the truck when it got new labels for his roofing company. He leaned against it for a Facebook snapshot. And this month, he tweeted a selfie with its logo-covered door.

Nothing unusual for a business owner in the digital age — except Kulp is an elected member of the state Assembly and the pictures of his truck were shared on social media via his legislative office's accounts.

State ethics laws forbid legislators from using government resources or their official positions for personal advantage, and violations could result in heavy fines. Yet over the past two years, the central Wisconsin lawmaker has often posted material referencing his roofing work on social media feeds that appear on his legislative website.

Beyond featuring his truck in social media posts, Kulp has shared pictures of a past project completed by his roofing business, the interior of his Stratford office and coworkers visiting the state Capitol. Two pictures of his truck have shown the company's phone number.

Image courtesy of jsonline.com

The Republican-created ethics panel jumped to action and really gave it to Kulp - a severe finger wagging he won't soon forget:

State authorities found "reasonable suspicion" last month that a central Wisconsin legislator violated state ethics laws, but he won't be referred to prosecutors or face other penalties, USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin has learned.

[...]

State laws forbid legislators from using government resources or their official positions for personal advantage. Violations can result in heavy fines or prosecution. Or, as in Kulp's case, authorities may issue a warning rather than seek prosecution.

I hope that the ethics panel wasn't too harsh on Kulp. We wouldn't want him to have his fee fees hurt just because he violated the law. After all, he was just being a good Republican and trying to profit off of his office a little.

QOTD: Charles Pierce

The esteemed and renowned columnist Charles Pierce hits it right on the head with this paragraph:

They [the Republicans] aren’t going to pull back. They aren’t going to stop. They aren’t going to do their jobs. Their patriotism extends only as far as a donor’s wallet and their devotion to the Constitution can be measured with an eyedropper. Nobody truly can be said to be NeverTrump anymore who is not also NeverMcConnell, NeverRyan, and, frankly, NeverGOP, at least in its current manifestation. The prion disease has triumphed completely. The patient is brain-dead, but still deadly in its contagion.

And since I'm quoting Pierce, I feel obliged to gratuitously share this picture of the time I got to meet him:

And yes, that's Randy Bryce photobombing us.

Adam Jarchow Sends A Message

By Jeff Simpson 

Sheila Harsdorf was appointed as Ag Secretary by Scott Walker leaving Senate Seat of District 10 open.  There is a special election on January 16th for this important Senate seat.

 Republican state Rep. Adam Jarchow will face Democrat Patty Schachtner in a special election in western Wisconsin to replace state Sen. Sheila Harsdorf.Jarchow, of Balsam Lake, beat fellow state Rep. Shannon Zimmerman of River Falls in Tuesday’s Republican primary, according to Wisconsin Public Radio. Schachtner, the chief medical examiner for St. Croix County, won a three-way Democratic primary.Libertarian Brian Corriea is also running in the Jan. 16 special election.The seat came open when GOP Gov. Scott Walker appointed Harsdorf, a Republican from River Falls, to be his agriculture secretary last month.The district has long been held by Republicans, but Democrats argue they have a shot at winning given successes by their party around the country this year. Republicans control the Senate 19-13.In the GOP primary, Jarchow had 56% of the vote and Zimmerman had 44%, according to unofficial results cited by Wisconsin Public Radio.Schachtner got 70% of the vote in the Democratic primary, besting John Calabrese of Glenwood City and Reuben Herfindahl of River Falls.

As they get ready for their primary, Adam Jarchow thought it best to send a message and this is the billboard he came up with:

Overlooking that he is pirating a trademark of Dr. Seuss Enterprises, he is then showing us an image of his opponent, Ms. Schachtner, being hung by the Grinch. 

Apparently it is ok to threaten death upon your opponent in Wisconsin, knowing that the Attorney General will never prosecute a fellow Republican and any attempt by Dr. Seuss to sue for trademark infringement will end at the Wisconsin Supreme Court. 

One party rule is working very well for the one party, not so much for the rest of us. 

If you are in the 10th Senate District, do you really want to reward someone who thinks its funny to threaten his female opponent with a hanging?   I guess that is why Mr. Jarchow made such a good delegate for The Donald, at the Republican National Convention. 

At what point do we hold our elected leaders accountable for their actions?  Al Franken was just forced out of office for an old photograph while he was on a comedy tour, and it is now time to hold both sides up to the same high standards! (Standards SHOULD be high)! 

Please contact Adam Jarchow and let him know that as someone who wants to represent the people that you expect more and an apology!

Mailing Address

2071 Glacier Drive,
Suite 3 PMB A182
St. Croix Falls, WI 54024

Phone: 866-895-0939
campaign@jarchowforsenate.com

@repJarchow

@adamjarchow28  

Ask Adam how he would feel if that was his wife, mom or daughter depicted being hung on a billboard for everyone to see! 

Edit note:  A couple other things stand out to me from the billboard.  

1.   One of the two things that Jarchow focuses on is drug testing welfare recipients and calls Ms. Schachtner out for not supporting that program.  Since it has been ruled UnConstitutional, she should be commended for her stance there! 

2.   The line "Vote AGAINST Patty Schachtner" is a telling one.   When you have nothing to run on,  all you can do is trying and smear the competition.  I hope at some point, if Mr. Jarchow does manage to win, that when he says the people have spoken and they want more of the GOP policies, that someone has the cajones to point out that he is running on how scary that his opponent is and not anything about what the GOP has done the last 8 years of one party rule!    

Paul Ryan Has Special Visitors

By Jeff Simpson 

I know it is only January 4th, but we already have a contestant for the picture of the year:

Who is that you might ask?  - Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Chris Wray.  

What is so interesting about these two guys walking in the Capitol?  The fact that they are going unannounced to Speaker Paul Ryans (R-Wall St.) office. 

Don't look for Ryan to use this as a 5 minute photo op the way he did with childhood cancer survivors!

Maybe one day, Wisconsin will stop electing politicians who spend so much of their time running from the law!    

My New Years Resolutions!

By Jeff Simpson

1.  I will resolve to continue to fight for public education.  There is now, more then ever, a concerted effort to profit off of public education.  With sham "non-profit" organizations like Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty(for some) and extremist propaganda blogs like Right Wisconsin , mediatrackers, Maciver, and the inexplicably employed Christian Schneider continue to not only have a forum but are also treated as legit news sources by our statewide media.   We will continue to bring you the unadulterated facts and point out the spin and the lies. 

2.  We will also continue pointing out the hypocrisy, blandness, sucking up and ignoring of the facts of the Wisconsin media.   While many of them are good people, and occasionally stumble upon a real story, they have also buckled under the pressure of our friends mentioned above, and have been scared to do much real reporting on the state takeover of the Republican party.

3.    I also resolve to focus my energies on getting rid of the worst offenders and dead weight in Wisconsin politics.  Special focus on the biggest offenders - Scott Walker, Paul Ryan, Robin Vos, Dale Kooyenga, Leah Vukmir, Scott Krug, among many others.   

4.  While I also resolve to focus almost exclusively on Wisconsin politics and happenings, I also resolve to never call the imbecile in the White House the President.  He will always be referred to as "the Donald". 

5.  I also resolve to stay out of the first Congressional Race.  I like and dislike things about both candidates so I will let the people of the 1st CD decide who they want to represent them.  I will however not stay away from writing about how bad Paul Ryan(R-Wall St.) is, even though it is low hanging fruit, there is so much bad to report on.

6.  I resolve to continue to hold the Democratic party, Democratic candidates and others in public service accountable, who are supposed to be and have to be better than the members of the WISGOP.

7. I resolve to continue the political conversation with everyone of all stripes and opinions respectfully.  I resolve to give all candidates the respect they deserve and let everyone who has the guts and gumption to put their name on the ballot.    I also resolve to look at candidates financial reports the same way I look at standardized tests scores of schools - with disdain.

8.   Finally, I resolve to continue using less of everything, shopping local when possible, drinking only WI craft beers, eating better, turning out lights, and doing everything I can to lower my carbon footprint! 

What are yours?