Most of you probably know that Elon Musk is South African and a naturalized American citizen. But what often gets overlooked is that he is a Canadian citizen as well via his mother. So given his current 'influence' on the Trump Regime, you have to wonder where his actual allegiance lies given that he has NOT given up his Canadian citizenship.
But it might not be up to him:
As you might have seen, last week the WISGOP went right to work in seeing how they could cause more damage to public education. One of their stunts, as Rep. Amanda Nedweski explained, was the introduction of a bill that is designed to stop giving our children a well-rounded education, including critical thinking, instead of just jingoistic propaganda:
Another troubling trend is the growing ideological divide among our young people, alarmingly 45% of Americans aged 18 to 24 view socialism as the ideal economic system, despite its historical and real-world consequences in other countries. AB4 ensures that students receive a comprehensive understanding of different government systems and how they compare to ours, helping them to recognize the value of their freedoms, the dangers of the systems that restrict those freedoms, and their responsibility to protect and defend our liberty.
Troubling trend? Maybe it's troubling to her because the kids are smart enough to see the crap the Republicans are pulling, whether it is in Washington, DC, or in Madison, and they are getting sick of it. I remember learning that the City of Milwaukee has a few socialist mayors back in the day and things were going pretty well. A lot better than they are these days, anyway.
This seems to be precisely the kind of nonsense spending and fraud that Trump and Musk claim to be rooting out in Washington DC. Yet it is precisely what Trump is actually engaged with:
NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland — The Department of Homeland Security has budgeted up to $200 million to run anti-immigrant ads in the United States and overseas that repeatedly thank President Donald Trump for leading an immigration crackdown. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Friday night that these ads were Trump’s idea, and during the administration’s transition to power, the president asked her to star in ads thanking him “for closing the border.”
Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference’s Ronald Reagan dinner on Friday night — at a tux and gown affair that served striploin, mashed potatoes, and raspberry cake — Noem recalled Trump telling her after she was nominated: “I want you to do [ads] for the border, and I want you to do those everywhere, not just in the United States, but I want them around the world. I want you to tell people not to come to this country if they’re going to come here illegally.”
She said the president continued: “We’re not going to let the media tell this story, because the media will never tell the truth. We’re going to run a marketing campaign to make sure the American people know the truth of what you’re doing.”
So when will Musk put an end to this???
This recently appeared in a Today In History Column, way back on February 6th, 2025:
(in 1985) In his State of the Union address, President Ronald Reagan defined the mission of American foreign policy as to "nourish and defend freedom and democracy, and to communicate these ideals everywhere we can" The Reagan Doctrine, as it became known, went on to touch specifically on Cold War concerns: "We must not break faith with those who are risking their lives - on every continent, from Afghanistan to Nicaragua - to defy Soviet-supported aggression and secure rights which have been ours since birth."
Does that sound anything like the things coming out of the mouth of Trump, Vance, Hegsseth, or Rubio in 2025?
Could you imagine Trump confronting Putin along the lines of Reagan's famous speech including: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"?
Nope. Not gonna happen.
During his presidency and vice-presidency and time in the US Senate, Joe Biden was an avowed and apparently devout Catholic. And we often saw press photos of him going to or leaving a Catholic Church for Mass.
Now, Donold Trump is the hero of the evangelical Christian milieu and often cites his own belief and support of Christianity. But except for national services held at the National Cathedral in Washington, there is never any mention or story or photo of Trump attending a service. And we don't even know what denomination he is. Is he a Baptist, Lutheran, Episcopalian, Anglican, Methodist, or ??
WWJD?
This has been stolen from social media, but it makes a lot of sense in the current environment. As the Donold Trump/Elon Musk administration continues to cut funding and staff...it is going to have major impacts on the programs of state and local governments as that funding dries up.
MAKE SURE YOU CLEARLY STATE THE REASON WHEN SHUTTING DOWN OR PUTTING A POPULAR LOCAL PROGRAM ON HIATUS WHEN THE CAUSE IS THE CUTS IN FEDERAL FUNDING. UNDER NO REASON SHOULD YOU TAKE THE HIT!!
For many of you reading this you are certainly aware that back in the golden era of political blogs, Blogging Blue and Cognitive Dissidence were the big men on campus of the liberal Wisconsin political blogs. And like Cog Dis, Zach W, the founder of Blogging Blue asked a number of area pundits to join and contribute to the blog. He asked me in 2010 and I immediately leapt at the chance and eventually took on the role of publisher from 2017 through 2020 as well. I felt a bit overwhelmed at that point and handed the reins back to Zach. Something I kinda regret but...
Anyway, I continued as a contributor through the 2024 elections but then something odd happened. During the weekend of November 9/10 2024 the website crashed and crashed hard. I have never been told exactly what happened but I am suspecting a hack since the vendor said that the site couldn't be recovered. So sadly, we could never give the site a good send off and let our readers know what happened.
But Capper reached out to me recently and asked if I was still interested in writing about politics. I am! So I jumped at the chance to join Cognitive Dissidence. I still have a bit of burnout and I am not getting any younger...but I still have some things to share. I may not post as often as I did at BB and maybe not as in depth...take some pot shots instead of writing treatises...but I will share when the mood hits!
So thank you again Capper!!! And thank you readers of Blogging Blue and Cog Dis who have supported me all of these years!
State Rep. Joel Kitchens gave this week's GOP propaganda, er, I mean, radio address, in which he laments about what the GOP has done to the state's education system:
I want to take a little bit of your time today to discuss the disappointing results released by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Assessment of Educational Progress test. This test is usually referred to as the “Nation’s Report Card.”
Fourth and Eighth graders are tested based on proficiency in math and reading. According to this study, only 31% of our fourth graders are proficient in reading. That’s down from both pre and post-pandemic test results. It’s not just reading scores that are troubling. Our fourth graders are only testing at a 42% proficiency in math.
Sadly, our eighth graders are not any better. It was reported that only 31% of eighth graders were proficient in reading and only 37% were proficient in math. Wisconsin has the largest gap in reading and math scores between Black and white students of any state in the United States. The scores are horrific for minority students. Our black students are ranked worst in the nation in 4th-grade reading and math. Only 8% can read and only 5% are proficient in math.
OMG! How did it get things get so badly when the GOP controlled the legislature for the past 15 years? Where did we go so wrong?
The answer to those questions is just a matter of following the money. The Bradley Foundation, which is located right here in Milwaukee, is one of the biggest sources for dark money in the state and they have bought many politicians, almost all of them Republicans. But the Bradley Foundation wasn't interested in just their tax cuts.
The Bradley Foundation has a long, long history of spending tens of millions and thousands of millions of dollars just in Wiscconsin just for the purpose of destroying education, especially public education and the teachers union.
In an effort to do a reverse Robin Hood - robbing the poor and giving to the rich - the fascist oligarchs at the Bradley Foundation paid for a study called The Bell Curve, which came to the conclusion they wanted::
The Bell Curve's key educational policy recommendation dovetails with the Bradley Foundation's top education priority: support for school choice, including public funds for private and religious schools. This bolsters the case of those who argue that despite the rhetoric of choice, many voucher advocates have abandoned the vision of a quality education for all children. Says Robert Lowe, associate professor at National Louis University and an editor of the journal Rethinking Schools: The Bell Curve is a smoking gun. It maintains that the poor—including the majority of African Americans—are generally incapable of benefiting from education....
So, there you have it.
The Bradley Foundation pours money into the campaign coffers of the Republicans. In returrn, the Republicans dutifuly and systematically destroy public education and push privatized education, from which members of the Bradley Foundation profit greatly.
And for those poor kids who get the cold shoulder from this privatized education system, well someone's gotta keep those privatized prisons full, amirite?
At the end of Kitchen's propaganda spiel, he begs the Superintendent of Public Instruction to just focus on fixing the damage the Republicans have done on the behalf of the Bradley Foundation and others like them, and to stop holding them accountable.
No wonder the GOP is so deadset against teaching history. They always end up being held accountable.
At the end of last year, sad news hit the Cheddarsphere with the demise of Blogging Blue:
Sadly, with Blogging Blue's end also meant another voice lost, just when we need as many voices as we can get to fight the tyranny in Washington, D.C. as well as prevent the tyranny from returning to Wisconsin.
After seeing the news, I reached out to Ed Heinzelman, who was the chief cook and bottle washer over at Blogging Blue. I am pleased to announce that Ed's voice won't be lost after all as that he has agreed to add it to this here blog, along with little old me.
Now, if only I can get the rest of the gang back together too...
Paging folkbum, Illy-T and grumps. It's time to get back to work.
The United States has a long history of opposing fascism. Our country was founded by people looking for freedom of religion. We had a bloody civil war to end slavery. We fought in WWII to stop the Nazis because they were killing Jews, homosexuals and anyone else that didn't meet their approval. That is why we call the brave people that fought against the Nazis The Greatest Generation.
But this country has now lost its way.
Last week, during the Orange Felon's inauguration (note to MAGA - it was an inauguration, not a coronation), his puppet master, Elmo Musty, deccided to do a Nazi salute, not just once, but twice. And yes, it was a Nazi salute. To make sure everyone knew that he was a fascist pig, Elmo then went on to crack jokes about the Holocaust and spoke to a neo-Nazi party in Germany, telling them to let go of past guilt for killing millions of people.
Like millions of other Americans, CBS58's then meteorologist Sam Kuffel, expressed her outrage on her private social media account on Instagram. That is what true Americans do. It's what our parents, grandparents and great grandparents would have done.
But like I said, the country has lost its way.
Right wing squawkere Danny Boy O'Donnell got wind of Kuffel's posts, and being the Nazi collaborator that he is, squealed like a pig about it, calling her posts "vulgar" and "lies." If O'Donnell was alive in Nazi Germany, he would have been the guy who ratted out Anne Frank.
O'Donnell and his other Nazi sympathizers raised such a stink that CBS58 removed their own spine and fired Kuffel.
Yes, you read that right. Kuffel was fired for condemning a Nazi salute.
Apparently, CBS 58's news director, Jessie Garcia felt that their ratings were too high or something.
From what I've seen on the various social media platforms, Garcia might have her wish come true. Thousands of people have been barraging the "news" station with angry emails and phone calls. And a lot of people have said that they are done with CBS "news" and maybe even the station entirely.
When people can get elected besides being a convicted felon and an adjudicated rapist but get critized for a Nazi gesture, well, our grandparents and great grandparents that fought in WWII must be rolling in their graves right now.
If we allow this to continue, we will become known as the Least Generation.
ADDENDUM: This is O'Donnell showing his white supremacy for the world to see:
I don't think that anyone could come up with anything more symbolic for the new year than this:
Buckle up. It's gonna be a bumpy ride.
Dane County Cirguit Court Judge Jacob Frost confirmed what we all knew for the past 13 years - that Scott Walker's self-proclaimed legacy, Act 10, was indeed illegal and unconstitutional. Furthermore, Frost proclaimed that the law is so broken, there's no way it can be fixed:
“Nobody could provide this Court an explanation that reasonably showed why municipal police and fire and State Troopers are considered public safety employees, but Capitol Police, UW Police and conservation wardens, who have the same authority and do the same work, are not," Frost wrote in his July ruling. "Thus, Capitol Police, UW Police, and conservation wardens are treated unequally with no rational basis for that difference."
In his Monday ruling, Frost determined that more than 60 sections of Act 10 are no longer enforceable — as well as several sections of Act 55, a 2015 follow-up to Act 10, which the plaintiffs in the 2023 lawsuit also allege violate the state Constitution by treating certain public sector employees differently.
“Act 10 as written by the Legislature specifically and narrowly defines ‘public safety employee.’ It is that definition which is unconstitutional,” Frost wrote.
Many of the sections struck down by Frost pertain to setting wage increases for municipal employees and bargaining power of such employees.
Even though the ruling does give public sector unions the right to get back to the negotiating table, they are in no hurry to do so, knowing that the Republicans can't give up without a fight dare they lose their checks from the dark money groups like the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce and the Bradley Foundation.
Robin Vos had said as much:
Wisconsin Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos promised as much in a statement Monday afternoon criticizing the judge's ruling.
“This lawsuit came more than a decade after Act 10 became law and after many courts rejected the same meritless legal challenges. Act 10 has saved Wisconsin taxpayers more than $16 billion. We look forward to presenting our arguments on appeal," Vos said.
No appeal has yet been filed.
The law has withstood a number of legal challenges in the past, including in 2014 when the then-conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit that sought to paint Act 10 as unconstitutional.
I can't wait to see his face when he is reminded that the Wisconsin Supreme Court now serves the Constitution and the people again and not the dark moneyed special interests.
Meanwhile, let's collect as many of the right winger tears as we can. They make an excellent mixer in brandy old fashions or whatever your favorite drink might be.
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| Former State Rep. Amanda Stuck, Alderman Jonathan Brostoff and Bandit |
I first met Jonathan we were both working for Milwaukee County. He was an aide to then County Supervisor Chris Larson and I was a social worker, union thug and still-wet-behind-the-ears blogger. You could tell that he was a mensch then. This impression only grew stronger as he became a state representative for the Milwaukee hip East Side. Eventually, with a family, including his wife Diane and four young children, he ran for and became a city alderman so that he could be home more.
Everything about Jonathan proved that he was a true mensch. He was well-informed but never judgmental. He was passionate and compassionate. He would never hesitate to get his hands dirty or do the right thing, even if he got his head bloodied doing it.
Throughout his time, Jonathan was always a good friend of Labor. He was always seen marching in the Labor Day parade and enjoying Laborfest afterwards. And with Jonathan, it was never just about a photo op, shaking hands or kissing babies. He was ready to fight the good fight, regarless of what level of government and he walked more than a few picket lines, even when he wasn't up for reelection.
I voted early, but I did vote no on the Republican dog whistle referendum and yes on the local school districct referendums.
I also vote for Angelito Tenorio for AD14 and to send Tammy Baldwin to the US Senate.
And I voted against the Orange Felon because to do otherwise would be unconscionable.
Now get out there and vote!
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