Act 10 Has Been Very, Very Good To Me - But It Can Go Away Now

Act 10, Scott Walker's legacy legislation attacking public sector unions is being challenged again in the court system.  There's a very good chance that that unconstitutional law will finally be put out of our misery, especially now that justicehas been brought back to Wisconsin with the election of Justice Janet Protasiewicz.  

Right wingers, knowing that a major key to their reign of terror is about to end, are in a panic.  Their propagandists are spewing their thoroughly debunked numbers of how much money Act 10 allegedly saved, although Scott Walker testified, under oath, that Act 10 had no fiscal ramifications whatsoever.  

But, having been a Milwaukee County employee for over 24 years, I have a slightly different perspective than my fellow union members or from the right wing nut jobs.

Milwaukee County has a policy called the Rule of 75, which means that when a person's age and years of experience totaled to 75, they were eligible to retire with full benefits.  However, the Rule of 75 did not pertain to union members represented by AFSCME.  

When Walker and his fellow Republicons rammed through Act 10, the Milwaukee County Executive Chris "Walker-Lite" Abele immediately turned around and said Milwaukee County was no longer recognizing AFSCME and that considered its members to be non-represented employees.  

But by virtue of doing so, he automatically made 1,100 workers, including myself, eligible for the Rule of 75.  

Abele and the county board tried to deny this simple fact, which led to eight years of court battles between AFSCME and Milwaukee County.  Ultimately, the state supreme court sided with AFSCME, in a decision written by Rebecca Bradley - yes, THAT Rebecca Bradley!

Thus, five years ago today, I punched out for the last time, seven years ahead of when I was supposed to be eligible for retirement, as a Milwaukee County employee and have been enjoying my retirement ever since, along with our three dogs.

But that said, Act 10 has done a lot more damage than good.  Two very recent examples include the multiple inmate deaths at Waupun prison and the murder of a youth worker in Lincoln Hills.  And that's doesn't even include the Scottholes all over our roads, the soaring overtime costs in almost every department, the decrease in services that people depend on, and - well, this list is almost endless.

So, all in all, while Act 10 helped me and some of my coworkers out, it's long past time to finally get rid of that law that should never have been in the first place.

The David Chokehold Prosser Law Library Gets Major Upgrade

Another great injustice has been corrected by the new and improved Wisconsin Supreme Court. The Wisconsin state law library is not named after the state's first woman attorney, Lavinia Goodell. From 2016 until now, the law library was inappropriately named after the infamous former Justice, David Prosser. Predictably, the name change caused faux outrage among the current and past fascist members of the court:

There was no apparent opposition within the court to honoring Goodell, but there was not unanimous support for removing Prosser's name from the law library. "There are many ways to honor Lavinia Goodell, which is entirely appropriate, without dishonoring a lifelong public servant like Justice David Prosser," Chief Justice Annette Kingsland Ziegler told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Wednesday.

As for Prosser himself, he was less outwardly outraged, but did prove that he was the same old liar he has always been:

"I was a person, for 18 years, who probably used the library … as much as anyone, and more than a lot of people," Prosser said, adding that he has continued to support the library financially since his retirement. When the library was named for Prosser, then-Chief Justice Patience Roggensack said, "no justice has been more dedicated to the research that happens in the law library than Justice Prosser."

Those claims of being a patron of the library sure as hell weren't true in 2011, when Prosser issued a legal ruling regarding Act 10 and open meeting laws, without "apparent deliberation or research of the laws. Prosser must be really seething that "his" law library was named after a woman, given his long history of misogyny. In 2010, Prosser got in trouble for threatening then Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson:

The Feb. 10, 2010, incident occurred as the court privately discussed a request to remove Justice Michael Gableman from a criminal case. "In a fit of temper, you were screaming at the chief; calling her a 'bitch,' threatening her with '. . . I will destroy you'; and describing the means of destruction as a war against her 'and it won't be a ground war,' " [Justice Ann Walsh} Bradley wrote in a Feb. 18, 2010, e-mail to Prosser and others.

But there's more. There's always more. I would be grossly remiss if I did not include the incident in which Prosser assaulted Justice Ann Walsh Bradley and put her in a chokehold:

It all started when the story was finally brought out that Justice Ann Walsh Bradley accused her fellow Justice David Prosser of choking her. What earned her his wrath and alleged attempt of dispensing corporeal-bordering-on-capital punishment was telling him to leave her chambers.

For any of these examples, Prosser should not have even been allowed to stay on the Court, much less be honored by naming a building after him. The significance of what the liberal justices were doing was not lost on them either:

"Lavinia Goodell was a pioneer for Wisconsin women and the legal profession," said Justice Jill Karofsky in a statement. "She never backed down from this critical fight, which paved the way for so many women in our state who have proudly served as lawyers, judges, and justices." When people enter the library, Protasiewicz said in a statement, "they need to know they are somewhere named after a leader who inspired others to do good and do what is right."

Every time that SCOWIS corrects another wrong, it's like another breath of fresh air blowing across the state.

Charlie Sykes Criticizes Trump For Acting Like Sykes

When one deals in politics long enough, you come to expect hypocrisy and outright lying from right wingers.  But sometimes, they take it to such extremes that even the most hardened are left with their mouths agape. Charlie Sykes reached that plateau on Friday morning when he made an appearance on Morning Joe to discuss Donald Trump's dissing of Milwaukee:

 

Sykes actually had the audacity to say this:

This was probably not the most significant thing. But this is going to stick. It's going to stick around here. You know that it's going to be mentioned every single day, if not every single hour, during the RNC convention here in Milwaukee. 

I will tell you one caveat, that one of the things that, you know, the Trump Republicans are going to try to do is they're going to try to divide the rest of Wisconsin from Milwaukee and say, yeah, you know, Milwaukee is this terrible thing and have other people in Wisconsin, you know, go along with that kind of view. I don't think that that's going to work because, and I think you touched on it, cities like Milwaukee have a great deal of pride, but they also have a chip on their shoulder. They have a little bit of a sensitivity to this sort of thing. 

You know, back in the 1950s, you know, when the Milwaukee Braves defeated the New York Yankees in I believe was the 1957 World Series, remember the there was there was a lot of sort of sneering about Milwaukee, you know, being, you know, being in a small town and Milwaukee's resented that. Right. So Donald Trump has messed with a city that, you know, we may here in Wisconsin be willing to criticize ourselves and, you know, talk about the problems they have, but we don't need Donald Trump coming in and dumping on on a city that we love and that I think is going to really shine next month.

Even more amazing was that Sykes said that with a straight face. 

What makes it so breathtaking in its hypocrisy is that Sykes spent over 20 years ripping on Milwaukee day in and day out while he was a squawk radio host in Milwaukee for WTMJ-AM and on Sundays when he hosted a TV show on TMJ4. He would rip on everything fromm the city's infrastructure, such as the Deep Tunnel project which helps abate some of the raw sewage runoff into Lake Michigan, to smearing and even libeling local elected officials, like inferring that then County Executive Chris Abele was a pedophile. And he did that after getting his employer sued and nearly losing his job for committing libel against a community activist. Sykes, along with fellow squawker, Mark Belling, have been credited for the ultimate demise of Northridge Shopping Mall through repeated criticism of alleged crimes, lack of security and various racebaiting statements:

...“Sykes is credited with, among other accomplishments, having blocked public funding for needle-exchange programs and having helped drive into bankruptcy an urban mall after harping on security issues there.” Sykes disputes the second part of this sentence, a reference to the closure of Northridge Mall in 2003. But he was credited for contributing to the mall’s woes, by a former Milwaukee County supervisor, Democrat Jim McGuigan, who wrote in a 2006 blog post that “for me and many of my neighbors the reason for Northridge malls demise has a great deal to do with talk radio show host Charlie Sykes personal harangues against security at the mall and implications that black kids at the mall were creating an unsafe environment.” 

[...] 

I reached McGuigan late last week and asked him whether he stood by that assessment and he said he did. “Charlie was one of the big people who were railing on Northridge Mall. I’m sorry if they don’t want to take credit for damage they did—too bad, too sad,” he said. “We don’t have a mall there because they were screaming about [security].”

In fact, Sykes' racist attacks led to the ongoing "white flight" Milwaukee has seen over the years. Likewise, Sykes's reckless rhetoric only fed into the anti-Milwaukee attitude that Republicans have fostered in the rest of the state, painting Milwaukee has a wild, crime-ridden city and feeding into their own racist phobias they already have against Black people and other minorities.

Woman Fired Twice By The State Now Running To Be A State Rep

 

Milwaukee County Supervisor Deanna Alexander, a Republican, is reporteddly running for State Assembly.  That's a pretty gutsy move for a woman who was fired from the state not just once, but twice.

In 2016, Alexander was fired from Economic Support for using her position to get favorable treatment. She was late in getting her renewal for child care in and trying to use her position to have it bumped up instead of waiting in line like everyone else would have to do.

Somehow, she managed to then land an $86,000 a year job as a section chief overseeing parts of the Milwaukee County Child Welfare System (foster care).  She was fired from that job in 2018 for illlegal politicking.  She was helping a woman run her campaign while she was on the state clock.  

It's more than a little ironic that she would get fired for that by Scott Walker, since that is how he got elected and stayed in office.

But there's more.  There's always more.

Alexander is running as an independent for the state rep position. That is because then she can bypass that pesty primary business and wait until November before losing.

However, it is amusing that Alexander keeps applying for all these other jobs and running for all these other seats.  She must not have been happy about the consequences of voting to cut her salary as a county supervisor in half.  Poor widdle diddums.

Virginia School District Can't Quit Their White Supremacy

The school board in Shenandoah County, Virginia, did the right thing a few years ago by trying to catch up to modern times by losing the Confederate names to their schools. It was more than their feeble minds could handle.

Mountain View High School will go back to the name Stonewall Jackson High School. Honey Run Elementary School will go back to the name Ashby-Lee Elementary School. 

The board stripped their names after a Minneapolis police officer murdered George Floyd, fueling a national racial reckoning. The calls for racial justice and equity inspired some communities to remove Confederate symbolism and statues of Confederate generals. 

But in Shenandoah County, the conservative group Coalition for Better Schools petitioned school officials to reinstate the names of Jackson, Lee and Ashby. “We believe that revisiting this decision is essential to honor our community’s heritage and respect the wishes of the majority,” the coalition wrote in an April 3 letter to the board, according to a copy posted online. The board considered a similar motion in 2022, but it failed because of a tie vote.

So they're claiming that their heritage is white supremacy? Pretty soon their heritage will be unemployment. The only thing shocking about this story is that Rick Esenberg and WILL weren't involved.

Eric Hovde: The Ultimate Carpetbagger

Pornstache Carpetbagger

Everyone knows that Eric Hovde, aka Pornstache Carpetbagger, is really a Californian banker.  He lives in Laguna Beach, California and was awarded Citizen of the Year in Orange County for three years running. 

But apparently, old Pornstache is such a carpetbagger that he might not even be from this country.  Take for example, via Heartland Signal, a few days ago when he tried to pretend to be a Wisconsinite by going to the Slinger Speedway.  After giving a short speech of monolistic jingoism - America is great. Yay. - he wanted to lead the crowd into a rousing rendition of the Pledge of Allegiance.  But as soon as he started, you could see his mind blank out and he started looking like a deer caught in the headlights.  And it only got worse from there.

He even got help and he still could get it right!

But wait! There's more! There's always more!

When his totally ineffective spokesperson, Ben Voelkel, tried to do damage control, all he could do was point and yell, "Squirrel!"

Hovde's campaign spokesman, Ben Voelkel, responded that President Joe Biden is also known to stumble over words and phrases, including while on the campaign trail in Wisconsin.

Voelkel added that the media should instead focus on other things: "Families are struggling to afford groceries, terrorists and hundreds of thousands of criminals pour into the country illegally, mortgage rates are almost 8 percent, and leftist anti-Semitic protests rage across college campuses."

I wonder, is Hovde a Russian name, perchance?  I don't know, but given the stilted way he tried to be All American Guy and not being able to recite the pledge even with help, I'm no longer sure Hovde is actually American.

Everything Old Is New Again

 In breaking news, The Onion has just been sold and will be soon returning to its former glory.  

It's just another example of how things come around to a full circle.

Another example is that I am back home, at long last. 

I started this blog some 15 or so years ago.  Then I got invited to write for Crooks and Liars, an opportunity I eagerly accepted.  I thought I could manage both blogs, but with me retiring, Jeff passing away and other parts of life getting in the way, it turned out to be too much. 

But things change, life moves on and, well, Whallah!, I am back.  Oh, I'll still be writing at C&L as long as they will let me, but I will be able to spend more time here as well.  

Anyway, while I've been gone, there as been some marked improvements in the state, with the most notable being the election of Justice Janet Protasiewicz and justice finally returning to Wisconsin after all these years.

However, there is still a lot more work to do and it's not going to do itself.  Yes, there's more.  There's always more.

So, what do you say, gentle reader?  Shall we roll up our sleeves and get to it?  

Propagandist Dan O'Donnell Pulls Out A Big Nugget Of Hypocrisy

Dan O'Donnell, squawk shock jock at WISN and propagandist hack for the MacIver Institute, followed orders, dug deep and pulled out a big, old nugget of hypocrisy as he tried to spin Tuesday's election results as a win:

Wisconsin voters spoke loudly and clearly Tuesday, striking a blow for democracy by forever banishing private money from election administration. Such donations, commonly known as “Zuckerbucks,” led to an utterly lawless 2020 presidential election in Green Bay and the illegal coordination between liberal activists and Milwaukee election officials. On Tuesday, however, voters approved a pair of constitutional amendments that will prohibit this sort of interference. The first, which bans private election funding, passed in a 54%-46%, 100,000-vote landslide. The second, which reaffirms that only election officials (not liberal activists hired with private donations) can administer elections, passed with an even greater margin—59%-41% and nearly 200,000 total votes. The most likely reason for the nearly 100,000-vote discrepancy between the two was the confusing wording of the first ballot question, which prompted many voters to believe that voting “no” would have banned private funds. Despite that, the fate of Zuckerbucks in Wisconsin was never really in doubt.

Now, we all know that in reality, the results of those amendments means that elections will continue to be underfunded and understaffed, meaning having to travel further and to stand in longer lines in order to vote. In other words, they are trying to make it more difficult to vote, especially in more liberal communities and in minority communities. The Republicans are hoping that this will keep people from the polls, because, as we all know, when more people vote, Republicans lose. 

 But that's not the hypocritical part. That comes from as a side comment from Dan Bice:

One Republican insider noted that Vos helped push through "two election integrity referendums that address the thing his haters say he refused to address." He got a helping hand from the conservative MacIver Institute and the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, which combined to spend more than $100,000 on the proposals.

You read that correctly. 

The amendments passed because of more than a $100,000 being laundered from outside special interests and used to interfere with an election. And one of those money launderers is Danny Boy's own employer, MacIver. Of course, Danny Boy doesn't mention that tidbit. Telling the truth is not his job. In fact, it's anathema to what he gets paid to do. 

And as added bit of irony, the same people that were touting the passing of the amendments are also the ones whining about a late batch of absentee ballots in Milwaukee that helped pass an education referendum. Wait until they realize that this will become more and more of the norm due to their amendments. 

Just don't hold your breath for the Republicans to fix another mess they made.

He's Not Even A Drag Queen

 If you listen to the right wing nut jobs, especially the ones in hate groups like Moms for Fascism or Proud Little Boys, you would think that every drag queen was a serial sexual predator of children and that every time a kid was victimized, it was by a drag queen.  Obviously, that is as far from the truth as anything.  

Take this lecher for example:

A former Fayette County deputy was arrested and charged with child sex crimes in McNairy County.

David Kelso, 30, is charged with contributing delinquency of a minor, incest, rape, and sexual battery by an authority figure.

On July 25 at 8:00 a.m., deputies received a child sexual assault report.

According to the affidavit, Deputies interviewed Kelso’s stepdaughter at the Selmer Carl Perkins Center, where she told deputies about sexual contact with her stepfather.

I don't know about you, but to me he seems much more likely to be one of those nut jobs than a drag queen.

WISGOP Desperate Not To Face Another Fair Election

 

Meagan Wolfe courtesy of WEC

Ever since the 2020 presidential election, MAGAts and WISGOP, but I repeat myself, have been scapegoating Meagan Wolfe, administrator for the Wisconsin Elections Commission, for running a clean and fair election.

With 2024 fast approaching, the were bound and determined to get Wolfe out of there so that they didn't have to face another fair election.  They didn't want her there because, as we all know, when people are allowed to vote, Republicans lose.

So the MAGAt WISGOP thought they would be clever.  When Wolfe was nominated for another term as the WEC administrator, the Senate Republicans would shoot her down.  With her out of the way, they could put in one of their own people, who would make damn sure that the Republicans won in 2024, no matter how much they had to cheat.

But before Wolfe could be the nominated, she had to be approved by 4 of the six elections commission board members.  When it came time for them to vote, the three Republicans all voted for Wolfe.  

However, in a beautifully played counter to foil the MAGAt GOP, all three Democrats abstained, thus preventing Wolfe from being nominated.  Making the move even sweeter, per a State Supreme Court ruling in 2022, this meant that Wolfe would be the administrator indefinitely, until such time that she would withdraw her name or she gets the fourth vote and moved to the Senate for their consideration.

This left the GOP in conniptions.  They rattled their swords and made impotent threats of lawsuits.

However, on late Wednesday, the Senate Republicans just figured they would ignore the laws that they themselves had written and just consider Wolfe to be the nominee.  As pointed out earlier, she cannot be considered the nominee because she had not gotten the minimum four votes required.

The GOP's logic was as twisted as one would expect:

State law requires two-thirds of the six-member commission to nominate an administrator for a new term. But LeMahieu told reporters on Wednesday the commission's vote of three Republican members voting in favor of reappointing Wolfe and three Democratic members abstaining from voting at all qualified as a two-thirds vote.

"They could have voted no. They didn’t vote no. That would have been a tie vote. But it was a unanimous vote," LeMahieu said. "3-0 is a two-thirds vote."

Someone might want to cue LeMahieu and the other GOP that voting to abstain doesn't mean they did not vote and thus it was not an unanimous vote.  If the GOP ill-advisedly proceeds, you know this will end up in the courts.  Then Wolfe will still have her job and a chance for a nice little pay out to boot.

All because the GOP is really, really scared to face another fair and clean election.

Vos: Let Them Sell Cake!

Memberes of the Milwaukee Common Council had a few choise words for the local government funding bill that WISGOP is forcing down our throats, rightfully calling it "overreaching, micromanaging, and frankly racist." Proving that the truth hurts, Wisconsin Speaker of the Assembly Robin Vos had to show that he really is a racist little weasel with this response to the criticism:

Before the state Assembly went into session Wednesday, Vos said liberals "want race, color and gender to be a part of everything and almost mandated for what people should believe." 

"That's not what taxpayer dollars should be for," he said. "If you want to raise money in the private sector, if you want to have a bake sale or put money into your own ideology, you have every right to do that because we live in America. But it's not the right to use taxpayer dollars to try to push one ideology over another."

Um, no. Equality and respect are not ideologies. They are common courtesies and constitutional rights. Only a white supremacist and a bigot would think of equality and respect as an ideology. 

 There was no word if Vos donned his white hood before or after entering the chambers.

Worker's Memorial Day

 A day of mourning

It's A Nice Day For A Red Wedding

 It's already been quite the week, hasn't it?

Don Lemon got fired from CNN.

But that got quickly drowned out by the fact that Fox actually canned their sacred cash cow, Tucker Carlson!   This has led to an ongoing countrywide celebration. 

But don't feel bad for Carlson.  Word is that he already has a job offer from his friends at RT.  I think he'd be a natural fit there.

And just as people were catching their breath from all the dancing at Carlson's demise, news came out that the Aaron Rodgers trade with the JETS had finally gone through.  I joined all the other Wisconsinites in saying "We'll never forget you Karen!"  

And even though Rodgers just had his first news conference today, he's already in mid season form!

And all that happened just on Monday.

Other than that, not much else has been going on worthy of noting.

Except maybe that I'm back in action after a way too long hiatus.  But please be patient with me.  The format has really changed here and it's gonna take me a minute to figure out all these buttons and other doohickeys.

Also, while my focus will still be primarily on Wisconsin and Milwaukee, I will also be covering stories from elsewhere.  And, of course, I will still be writing at Crooks and Liars as long as they let me.

Make sure you update your readers and bookmarks.  Now, let's go cause some good trouble, and lots of it!

PS: This is for you, Jeff Simpson.

Lyin' Bryan Steil Is The Candy Corn Of Congress

 The campaign for Ann Roe, who is running for Congress against Lyin' Bryan Steil has come out with the best one-liner of this cycle so far:

I can't argue with that either.  He is unappealing, his positions leave a bad taste in the mouth and most people would rather have anything else.

But given that he is a full throated MAGAt, perhaps the next fundraising email should compare him to pumpkin spice.

Tiffany, Fitzgerald Compare Biden To Hugo Chavez

US Representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Fitzgerald, both devout MAGAts and GQP, sent out a fundraiser letter in which they tried to compare Joe Biden to the late Hugo Chavez.

The report comes from James Wigderson at White Wisconsin, er, Right Wisconsin, who took over the site when Charlie Sykes left for the glamour and big bucks of national TV:

Congressmen Tom Tiffany (R-WI) and Scott Fitzgerald (R-WI) are asking for your money to prevent President Joe Biden from doing to America what Hugo Chavez did to Venezuela.

No, really. We can’t make this stuff up.

“It took Hugo Chavez years to push Venezuela’s once-prosperous economy to brink of collapse,” Tiffany and Fitzgerald wrote in an email to their fundraising list. “But just over 100 days into Joe Biden’s term, he and Nancy Pelosi’s ‘rubber stamp’ Congress are taking our country down that same dangerous road.”

The “road” the congressmen then describe is the shutdown of an oil pipeline due to cyberterrorism, which they claim is the fantasy of Biden, Pelosi, Michigan Governor Christine Whitmer and the rest of the Democratic Party.

“If they get their way, the gas lines and fuel shortages gripping parts of our country today could go national tomorrow,” Fitzgerald and Tiffany wrote.

Wigderson goes on to remind his readers of who Chavez was and what he did:

Let’s remember what Chavez actually did in Venezuela. He declared “economic war” on wealthy opponents, nationalized industries, used mobs to attack his opponents, violently suppressed the previously-free press, and arrested his critics. In addition, Chavez ran up deficit spending and instituted prices controls, resulting in shortages across the country (including food). In directing Venezuela’s foreign policy, Chavez preferred the support of dictatorships. At home, Chavez expressed his admiration for past dictators in South America and even employed Cuban and Peronist advisors.

Gee, doesn't that sound more like their beloved Trump than anyone else?

Obviously, Tiffany and Fitzgerald are hoping to appeal to their fellow QAnon conspiracy believers for cash.  Chavez is a popular bogeyman among that crowd since they believe that Chavez, who dies in 2013, was one of the lead culprits in "stealing" the election for Biden.

It's amazing how much cognitive dissonance they are willing to display so as not to upset their fragile sense of reality.