Rebecca Bradley - Through Others Eyes

By Jeff Simpson

Here at CogDis, both Capper and I have written plenty about how unqualified Ms. Bradley is to serve on the Supreme Court of WI, so its time to share what others are also saying about her.


*  Madison Super Attorney Lester Pines has four questions for Ms. Bradley(here is one):

4. Also, in 1992 you said this about those who voted for Bill Clinton in the 1992 election:
“We’ve just had an election which proves that the majority of voters are either totally stupid or entirely evil.”
Did you have the same reaction when a majority of Wisconsin’s voters chose Bill Clinton again in 1996, Al Gore in 2000, John Kerry in 2004 and Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012?

*  Attorney Mike Plaisted also wrote for his college paper:

Except that she wasn't that young and not drunk at all.  She meant what she said and she said it.  I've read a bunch of my old stuff in the past week and I don't have to apologize for any of it.  I'd write all of it again -- perhaps with a lot less use of the phrase "of course" -- I used that a lot.  What I wrote was part of what I was and still part of what I am.  I think college writers are all proud of what they wrote and they still have the same world view -- they just go after their goals in different ways. I know I do.
Bradley certainly has.  She has never swerved off the nut-right political path, serving as president of the radical-right bunch of lawyers called the Federalist Society and all manner of other right-wing groups and causes.  As late as 2006, Bradley was writing about how pharmacists shouldn't be "forced" to be "a party to murder" by doing their job and filling birth control prescriptions. It is written in the same kind of deliriously clueless writing from her Marquette days, without the name-calling.  The student apple didn't fall far from the adult tree. 

*  Emily Mills in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel believes Ms. Bradley is not ready for Prime Time:

Bradley is simply not a good fit, and she has demonstrated this in ways many and varied. It's not just about the (heinous) opinions spouted in college newspaper columns. Add in the money taken from right-wing political organizations, and her seeming disinterest in the judicial process (leaving oral arguments early to speak at a conservative fundraiser, casting the deciding vote in a crucial case essentially negating the Fourth Amendment even though she wasn't present for arguments), and it becomes crystal clear that this is a person unfit for the job.
This should serve as a stark lesson in the pitfalls of promoting people beyond their qualifications simply because they've been loyal to you or your cause. That's called cronyism and reliance upon it only leads to corruption. Not only that, but it tends to also lead to the destruction of systems people rely on to seek real justice and to live decently.
If Bradley were half the jurist she claims to be, she would own up to having been promoted beyond her capacity and drop out of the race. Something tells me that won't happen, especially given the combination of silence and deferral she's done since these most recent revelations.
It's up to Wisconsin voters to make it clear that we will not accept cronies and ideological puritans on the highest court in the state and that we value checks and balances. That means electing judges who demonstrate clear judicial impartiality, hard work and real curiosity and critical thinking.

* Alan Talaga from the Isthmus does not believe Ms. Bradley's apology:

"I wrote opinion pieces 24 years ago on a variety of issues, and they are opinions that some people may agree with, some people might disagree with," said Bradley in an interview with The Capital Times.“To those offended by comments I made as a young college student, I apologize, and assure you that those comments are not reflective of my worldview,” said Bradley in a press statement.
I cannot judge what is in Rebecca Bradley’s heart, but these read to me like the apologies of someone who feels bad their past caught up with them, not the apologies of someone truly regretful. ‘To those offended’ makes it sound like she feels bad for offending potential voters, not for having written the column in the first place.

*  Over at Democrumudgeon, John points out that Rebecca Bradley is sitting back and letting the right wing echo chamber speak for her.

   Unless I'm mistaken, it looks like every right wing flack and corporate lobbyist is getting media time defending Rebecca Bradley's unforgivable commentary that can't be reversed; can you still be a conservative and take back saying a majority of Clinton voters are either totally stupid or entirely evil? They're saying that now for gods sake. Or how about "degenerate queers," words no one else uses. And that's her public face.

H/T Democurmudgeon for this clip of Ms. Bradley unhinged:





*  Last and certainly not least, One Wisconsin Now points out how Ms. Bradley falsified records for their open records request:

MADISON, Wis. — Based on her comments in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Rebecca Bradley, appointed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court by Gov. Scott Walker in September, violated the state’s open record laws by providing falsified calendars to One Wisconsin Now in response to a request for her work calendar. One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross said the organization is consulting with legal counsel about potential action against Walker’s thrice-appointed judge.
“After repeated delays, Rebecca Bradley wrote us that she had fulfilled our simple open records request for her taxpayer-financed calendar,” said Scot Ross, One Wisconsin Now Executive Director. “Now it turns out the years of blank pages she gave and charged us at an exorbitant rate to retrieve were a complete fraud and fabrication.”

* By the way Do not tread on Rebecca Bradley!!


* To no ones surprise, Jimmy Wiggy thinks we should forgive and forget, because any kid not related to him is an idiot and besides she didnt write anything wrong:

It’s worth considering the context of the times when The Marquette Tribune ran Bradley’s op-ed and letters to the editor. AIDS was the big scary disease that at any moment was going to spread to the heterosexual community at epidemic levels, or so we were told. There was a real debate at how much and what kind of “AIDS education” was appropriate, and certainly this was true on Marquette, which was once a Catholic university.
Homosexuality did not have the acceptance it has now. This was before former President Bill Clinton ordered “don’t ask, don’t tell,” for the military. It was certainly before Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act, which was a federal effort to try to stop the courts from imposing gay marriage on the states. It was before President Barack Obama said he was opposed to gay marriage, and before his “growth” on the issue in 2012 and his sudden support for gay marriage.
It was at that time that a college kid tried to attract a little attention by throwing around language that today would have caused a near riot on campus. It was all but forgotten until it was dug up by an organization led by a political hatchet man who recently referred to a female
reporter former governor* as a “racist anus.”

 Edit note:  Wiggy is once again wrong, a little research shows that by 1992 we had a pretty good understanding of AIDS, and how it was not just a gay disease.  Magic Johnson had announced he had contracted AIDs in 1991 and truly made it a national discussion.

RoJo: Not All Elections Are Created Equal

On Monday afternoon, Our Dumb Senator, Ron Johnson, did an interview on WTMJ-AM, a Milwaukee-based squawk radio station. He started off bragging about his chairmanship of the Homeland Security Committee, even though he's missed more meetings than he's attended. He ended with bashing Hillary Clinton because BENGHAZI!!! and EMAILS!!!!

In between, he made a very peculiar comment. Just after bragging about his nearly nonexistent track record, he made an offhand remark that Russ Feingold wanted to "really ignore" the will of the 2010 voters by running for his old job back. Listen for yourself (about the 1:30 mark)



What makes this comment so peculiar is that it reaches a new level of hypocrisy, even for him. RoJo was the same fool that just a few weeks ago said that the elections of 2012 shouldn't matter in whether President Obama should nominate anyone for the Supreme Court:

"I strongly agree that the American people should decide the future direction of the Supreme Court by their votes for president and the majority party in the U.S. Senate," Johnson said in a statement released Sunday. "America needs Supreme Court justices who share Justice Scalia's commitment to applying the Constitution as written and to the freedom it secures."

My first thought was to wonder what RoJo would have to say a year from now when President Clinton or President Sanders makes their nomination, but realized that was an inane question. After all, it will be Senator Russ Feingold's decision in a year from now.

English Only

By Jeff Simpson 

When you have this being pushed nationally:

Republicans in both the House and Senate have introduced legislation that would declare English the official language of the United States and require the development of English language testing guidelines for those applying for U.S. citizenship.
The English Language Unity Act would set out a new chapter in U.S. code that imposes an obligation on U.S. officials to "preserve and enhance the role of English as the official language of the Federal Government."
Part of this chapter would include a "uniform English language rule" holding that "all citizens should be able to read and understand generally the English language text of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the laws of the United States made in pursuance of the Constitution."To ensure this outcome, the bill would require the secretary of Homeland Security to issue a proposed rule for testing the English language ability of candidates for citizenship. The bill envisions possible exceptions to this standard but says these exceptions "should be limited to extraordinary circumstances, such as asylum."
The bill also says English language requirements and workplace policies in the public and private sectors "shall be presumptively consistent with the Laws of the United States."

And you have this locally:

A Republican lawmaker has reintroduced a bill that would make English the official language in Wisconsin.
State Rep. Andre Jacque’s proposal also would require state and local government to write all their documents in English. Exceptions could be made in individual cases, as well as to teach another language and to protect a criminal defendant’s rights. The bill would not restrict the use of a language other than English for non-governmental purposes.

Then you get this:

Then Popp, according to witnesses, kicked in the door of the Vue family's apartment. The Vues and their four children and Phia Vue's sister Thoa Vue sought refuge in a bedroom, but Popp pushed his way into the bedroom while holding a black rifle, the criminal complaint says.
Authorities say Popp pointed the rifle at Phia Vue and told the man to leave the bedroom with him, and after the sound of gunshots rang out, Popp returned to the Vues' bedroom and told Mai Vue, her children and sister-in-law to follow him out of the apartment.
Popp began dragging Mai Vue out of the apartment with her two smallest children, and as Thoa Vue passed the bathroom she opened the door and saw her brother lying motionless on the bathroom floor, the complaint says. Thoa Vue and two of the Vues' children ran out of the apartment building. Mai Vue was later found shot to death in the building.
Popp surrendered to police within minutes after the shootings. When he appeared in court last week, his defense attorneys raised the question of his mental competency in further court proceedings.

The Bradley Scramble

By Jeff Simpson


By now, everyone in Wisconsin has heard about the hate speech op-eds of a young Rebecca Bradley.  
When Ms. Bradley was at Marquette, she had such strong hatred of the LGBQT community and almost as strong a hatred towards Democrats.

 

Ms. Bradley's heart and sould appear to be as empty as her calendar!  

Scott walker has a habit of hiring people for strictly partisan purposes and not caring too muchof their background.   He has been burned over and over(Dennis Smith for instance) for that but continues to do so.    Because vetting or rresearch was not part of the process, when One Wisconsin Now found these revolting op-eds, the right wing echo chamber was unprepared to defend her.  

Her good friend Vicki Mckenna tried to throw the reputation of Beloit College under the bus to save her but was unsuccessful.  

Vicki Pyzimski was not alone in poor attempts to justify the indefensible.  

This, from Rick Esenberg the well paid leader of the Bradley funded Wisconsin Institute Law and Liberty, was disgusted with the press for running with the story.  

Esenberg defended her and argued the race has become too focused on the politics of "personal destruction" rather than comparing judicial philosophies.
"This is one of the most vile and disgusting attack campaigns against anybody that I've seen in Wisconsin politics," Esenberg said.

Obviously Mr. Esenberg has a very very very short memory.  See Mr. Esenberg was one of the people who continually pushed the long debunked story that Mary Burke was fired from the company her family owned in 1993(one year after Bradley's hate speech).  The Journal Sentinel, actually practicing journalsim, realized that the one person making the 23 year old claim was head of the Jefferson County Republican party and also a lover of Swatikas.

.      

Gary Ellerman, who was fired from Trek, had this on his facebook page comparing our President to Hitler and then, out of the blue, a couple weeks before the election, magically remembered that Mary Burke was "fired"from her family's company in 1993.  No respectable newspaper could possibly run with the obvious smear job.   Mr. Eseneberg not only did not get the memo he refused to let it die.   

I don't know if the story about Mary Burke is accurate. I am sure that a dime store sexual politics won't help us answer the question.
Normally, I'd prefer a campaign limited to issues. But the Democrats have chosen to run someone for Governor whose resume, regardless of whether she was forced out in 1993, is astonishingly thin. To bolster the absence of a record , she has made claims about her long ago tenure at Trek that cannot be verified. Under those circumstances, this story matters and it can't be dismissed by attacking those who tell it.

For thsoe of you scoring at home, lets review.....   A local republican chairman, who was fired from Trek himself, suddenly remembered(amazingly a couple weeks before the election) that in 1993 Mary Burke was fired from the company she owned.  The word of one incredibly unreliable source, about in event that might or might not have happened in 1993 and that was very important to the election for Governor.  

Now we have the ACTUAL words of a Supreme Court Justice in 1992 that were full of hate and ignorance, and we know she also carried on an extramarital affair AND represented the man she was dating in court(while not illegal, highly unethical) and reporting on the ACTUAL documented events and facts of MS. Bradley's career is a "vile and disgusting attack".  

The Republicans need for power is all consuming too them!  

Wisconsin Legislature Point/Counterpoint

By Jeff Simpson


First the republicans in the legislature released this




Then Chris Taylor and Gordon hintz released this in response.

More Wit And Wisdom From Rebecca Bradley

Scott Walker's hand-picked political appointee to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, Rebecca Bradley, had a bad start to her week when it was revealed that she had written some very hateful comments as a student at Marquette University. Bradley had penned that she had no sympathy for "queers" or "degenerate" drug addicts or anyone else who had AIDS.

Her week has since turned into a horrible, no-good, godawful, horrendous week from hell.

It turns out that with Bradley, just like her friend, Walker, there's more. There's always more.

In another article by Bradley, she argued in favor of personhood and compared abortion to slavery and to the Holocaust:

"I recall a time in history when blacks were treated as something less than human for convenience and financial reasons. I recall a time in history when Jews were treated as non-humans and tortured and murdered. Now, at this point in our sad history, we are perpetrating similar slaughter, only we are killing babies," Bradley wrote in a 1992 column for the Marquette Tribune.

Unlike her comments regarding homosexuals and drug addicts, she cannot back peddle from this. She wrote another column in 2006 repeating similar arguments in favor of allowing pharmacists to deny birth control pills.

It was also revealed this week that Bradley sympathized with Camille Paglia, who had blamed rape victims for the crimes committed against them. On top of that, Bradley had a few choice words about feminists which revealed just how deep her hate goes:

"I intend to expose the feminist movement as largely composed of angry, militant, man-hating lesbians who abhor the traditional family," Bradley wrote, arguing that the feminist movement had been hijacked by the political left, abandoning its role as a defender of women's rights.

Well, gee, isn't that the writing of a well-balanced, impartial judge to be?

So what does Walker have to say now that all this crap is coming out about his hand-picked political appointee who is trying to get elected to a full ten-year term on April 5?

Not a helluva lot:

Speaking Tuesday, GOP Gov. Scott Walker said many people make mistakes in their youth and declined to say whether he would have appointed her to the state's highest court had he known of her anti-gay statements.

Walker said Tuesday that Bradley's 1992 views did not reflect those of young conservative activists, like himself, at the time but declined to condemn them.

"I think a good chunk of society probably has different views than they did in college," he said.

Walker later said that they had thoroughly vetted Bradley and that her judicial writings were just fine. I'm sure it didn't take them long since Bradley has only been a judge for the last three years, after Walker appointed her to circuit court. She spent even less time on the appellate court before Walker promoted her for the third time.

What the mainstream press hasn't caught on to yet, at least not publicly, is that Walker has painted himself into a corner.

If they did indeed do a thorough vetting of Bradley, Walker knew about these writings and her deep-seated and irrational hate and was just dandy with it.

On the other hand, the only other choice is that Walker did not thoroughly vet Bradley and only promoted her for her ideology, meaning he was indeed looking to load the Supreme Court with his cronies to cover his butt, say for a John Doe investigation.

The GOP Slams Our Veterans

By Jeff Simpson 

RepublicansVerified account

@NRSC

National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) • Dedicated to building a conservative Senate and keeping the #MajorityWorking. Follow us on Snapchat: 'thenrsc'

The National Republican Senatorial Committee was busy tweeting about how horrible the Democrats are and then felt the need to end this tweet.   Which of course was quickly deleted like it never happened, yet not a single apology.    







For those that do not know, Ms. Duckworth is a Democrat who is currently a Congressman and running for the Senate in IL.   Ms. Duckworth also is a veteran who paid a very heavy price for her country.  



Shows you exactly what the Republican party thinks of veterans that do not follow along the hard red party lines.  It also shows how little they really care about anything but being in power.

Disgusting.  

Abele Said Bradley Was "Compassionate About People"

As the gentle reader is surely aware, our friends at One Wisconsin Now uncovered some writings by Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley, in which she spewed derision on "queers," drug addicts and other victims of AIDS.  Clearly this in not the attitude of someone who should be in any public office and especially not the highest court in the state.

This is not the only time Bradley has been exposed as a bigot.  Remember that she also worked hard with various groups, including the Federalist Society, to promote voter suppression, target young minorities.

And as I have pointed out in the past, Milwaukee County Executor, er, Executive Chris "Boss" Abele had endorsed Bradley when she was running for reelection as a circuit court judge three years ago.

Not only did Abele endorse her, but his statement regarding the endorsement should leave one wondering about his own judgment and temperament (emphasis mine):

Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele has endorsed Judge Rebecca Bradley for Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge. While her opponent runs divisive political ads, Judge Bradley is drawing support from people all across the political spectrum because she is running a campaign committed to serving the Milwaukee community and not partisan interests.

“I have known Judge Bradley for many years, and I know that she is deeply committed to the Milwaukee community and public service,” said County Executive Abele. “She left a successful legal practice for the Milwaukee County bench because she wanted to give back to the community where she was born and raised. Judge Bradley has developed a reputation among her judicial colleagues and the attorneys who appear before her as an excellent judge with a respectful judicial temperament. I am proud to support Judge Bradley because she is compassionate about people and is making a positive impact on our community in Children’s Court. I am also proud of her commitment to a clean campaign, devoid of misleading attack ads, which show disrespect for the office and have no place in our judicial elections.”

Judge Bradley commented, “I am pleased to have the support of County Executive Abele. It is heartening that he and others recognize my commitment to the Milwaukee community. I will continue to stay positive and focus on the facts in my campaign.”

Given that Abele states that he had known Bradley for several years, surely, he must have picked up on her bigotry. Yet he still endorsed her and said that she was "compassionate about people."  One could conceivably say that her bigotry and hatred were very passionate but no one should call it compassionate.

Then again, if that is the type of attitude that he approves of in others, it could go a long way to explain why he has done the damage to the county and wants to do more.

Seriously, it does put a strong question on Abele's own values and shows that he is not fit to be county executive just as Bradley is not fit to sit on the bench at any level.

Vicki Mckenna lied!

By Jeff Simpson

Some old homophobic writings of right wing tool Rebecca Bradley that she wrote as a student at Marquette were uncovered.  

Bradley's true hateful homophobic colors being shown made for a panic on the right.


Her good friend from right wing hate radio, Vicki Mckenna had this to say to try and defend her.




I attended Beloit College when Ms. Pyzinski was there and I can unequivocally say that the Professors at Beloit College in the mid to late 1980's did NOT call vietnam vets "baby killers".    

So before MS. Pyzinski drags the great name of Beloit College down the drain with her in order to keep the Supreme Court packed with partisan cronies, I challenge Ms. Vicki to tell us EXACTLY which professors called Vietnam Vets baby killers.    

While you are at it, please also tell us which Professors encouraged you to "go over the top" because none of mine did.    

Come on Vicki you said it, now back it up.  

Rebecca Bradley's Slip Of The Tongue

By Jeff Simpson




The good folks at One Wisconsin Now did some reseach on Scott Walker's flunky Justice Rebecca Bradley and what they found was beyond ugly.  

It seems when Ms. Bradley was in college at Marquette in 1992, the Clinton/Gore election did not sit too well with her.





   

  

  
Here are her letters in full! 


While those statements are beyond hateful, there was something she said, in trying to cover for her pure homophobic hate speech, that unwittingly showed her true colors.

In a statement, Bradley apologized "to those offended by comments I made as a young college student," and said she assures "you that those comments are not reflective of my worldview. These comments have nothing to do with who I am as a person or a jurist, and they have nothing to do with the issues facing the voters of this state. 

 
They have nothing to do with the issues facing the voters of this state?  Maybe the white upper class GOP voters but not most of WI.   I would hate to be an LBBQT person hoping for a fair ruling from Ms. Bradley.  

But wait there's more .......

She said she wrote the columns "as a very young student, upset about the outcome of that presidential election and I am frankly embarrassed at the content and tone of what I wrote those many years ago."

She admits that she is so pure red, dyed in the wool Republican that when the Clinton/Gore ticket beat the George HW Bush/Quayle ticket she could not control her anger and lashed out at the people she hated/blamed.  The gays and the ignorant people of WI, who were not as smart as she is when she heads to the ballot box.    

I am certain now though that is is not a member in good tsanding of the extreme right and she will hear and rule on everything completely impartial.  At least the cases she decides to stay around and listen to, and not go campaign.



As a quick aside, NO judge in history(until now) has EVER left oral arguments to go campaign.  ever.

$147,403 dollars a year doesn't buy what it used too.   Her independence is as fake as her love of hunting!

Looks like Chris Martin and his shadow group - Wisconsin Alliance for Reform, will need to spend a heck of alot more than $700,000 to get this lazy bigot elected!




PS;  The one hilarious thing that came from this breaking story, was Charley Sykes little temper tantrum.

Sykes Tweet:

Charles Sykes‏@SykesCharlie

.@gneumann_wkow @JudgeBradleyWI Eagerly await breathless reports on student writings of Russ Feingold, Joanne Kloppenburg, Tammy Baldwin.

I know Charley is a little slow but let me help him out. 1. The so called "liberal" media had NOTHING to do with releasing these reports it was done with some good research by One Wisconsin Now. 2. If Only Charles had say a TV show, a radio show on the biggest tower in WI and a right wing propaganda website, then maybe he could actually dig up the student writings of stated Democrats. 3. What Sykes is doing here is working the refs....he is trying to guilt them into finding same stories on the Dems(so he does not have to do the work) or else making them hesitate in the future about reporting on such stories. 4. Pretty sure Chuck does not see any problem whatsoever in her writings.

It is essential in 2016 that we elect people who are not fresh out of central casting in 1950.  

Its imperative that we elect Judge Kloppenburg!!!

The Trump Phenomona

By Jeff Simpson

Like most big organizations, sometimes someone can come in and take control and sink it before you can stop it.   We are watching that happen to the Republican party right now.   In this Presidential election cycle, we have seen numerous front runners, 17 people total and one of the all time "strangest" election phenomenons ever in Donald Trump.  

People, especially people in the party, thought that Trump running for President was just a way to feed his ego and he would get bored eventually and go back to his life and start working on his fourth wife.   Then something happened, Mr. Trump rose in the polls and started winning primaries handily.  
While Donald Trump has done many outrageous, misogynistic and racist things, the GOP is panicking because he is winning and he is NOT part of the establishment!!  

That scares everyone involved.  If Donald Trump were to actually win the election(forgetting the pure devastation to our Country), but in the Republican party the people who are used to running the show would not be invited to the table.   That is unacceptable for the Michael Grebe's, Sheldon Adelsons, Karl Roves, Koch Brother of the party.  They know that they give enough money to the pure ambition politicians like Scott Walker/Ted Cruz, that they will do whatever they are told.  Donald Trump wont take orders and then brag about openly defying party directives.   Reince and the boys are scared.

When they get scared or things get out of hand, they have a plan.   They use Frank Luntzs focus tested lines and hand them out to their minions and give their right wing media echo chamber marching orders.

The GOP plan to try and take Trump down, is blame everyone on the liberals(I know they do this with everything, I never claimed they were genius).   For example is Grebe's gopher, Christian Schneider.

But Republicans are likely getting a little push on their road to obsolescence. There's evidence Democrats may be showing up to vote for Trump, which would significantly loosen up the ballot box for Clinton in November. If you're a Democrat who likes both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, you can pick one, or, in states with open primaries, you can cross over and vote for a Republican who will guarantee the election of either Democrat. It's not that hard of a choice.
This is perhaps why turnout records are being broken in state after state that is holding Republican primaries — because non-Republicans are showing up to stuff the ballot box for Trump. On March 1, Alabama, Oklahoma, Vermont, Virginia, Massachusetts, Georgia and Tennessee saw an astonishing 52% increase in turnout over 2008. At the same time, voters in Democratic primaries in those states dropped by 20% in the same time. Where are all those Democrat voters going? I have a guess.

  The problem with his theory(beyond being ridiculous as usual) is events like this happen regularly at  Donald Trump rallies.

Nothing says a room Is full of liberals, like a bunch of white men shoving and spitting at a young black woman.   Fortunately, there ARE people in media who actually do some research and to whom facts actually matter.  

Shaun King was rightfully upset about this video and did some research on who was doing the shoving.

No surprise what he found out!  

On Tuesday, in Louisville, Ky., what happened to young black protesters at another Trump rally wasn’t just racist — it appears to be outright criminal.

While we have already widely reported that white supremacists are openly proclaiming that they are fully emboldened and energized by Trump, the natural progression of their romance with Trump is now on full display.

We now know that those Trump supporters are open bigots, Neo-Nazis, and white supremacists belonging to many different groups including the Traditionalist Worker Party — a well-documented hate group. Their social media profiles are full of Nazi photos, KKK and white supremacist references, and some of the most insulting, despicable hate speech you'll ever see.

"I was called a n----- and a c--t and got kicked out," said Shiya Nwanguma, a respected student at the University of Louisville to a local interviewerin a video posted on Facebook.

"They were pushing and shoving at me, cursing at me, yelling at me, called me every name in the book. They were disgusting and dangerous."

What a group of intelligent nice men.  Does anyone anywhere think these guys would be voting for Bernie???  

I guess anything they can do without taking actual responsibility for the Monster they have created.  

It is impossible to fix a problem when you can not recognize it!  

Since Christian Schneider is propagandist who is not real interested in research or facts, I feel the need to help the poor guy out!

Hey Christian lets compare and contrast a GOP/Democrat rally!

Here is the GOP:

Here is a Democratic rally:

I know they are not the brightest bulbs on the tree, but I always find it hilarious when "Tea Party Patriots" whine about people protesting.   The irony is too thick!  




PS: ICYMI, it is not just the Donald that thinks its cool to have his supporters beat up protesters!

America - We HAVE to do better!!!  

Racists for Trump!

So this happened!

The scariest thing is Donald Trump would make a better president than Ted Cruz or Scott Walker.  

SS-Mann, deine Ehre heißt Treue!

By Jeff Simpson

Seriously.  This happened yesterday.   At a Donald Trump rally!



For those that attended voucher and private schools, here is a refresher:


By the way, for those ignorant of our history, that regime did not turn out very well.   Is America that desperate to be told that we are great?  Do people really hate the fact that our President is black, that badly?

While Godwin's law states that
As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1"^[2][3]—​​that is, if an online discussion (regardless of topic or scope) goes on long enough, sooner or later someone will compare someone or something to Hitler or Nazism.   I think people actually acting like the Schutzstaffel during an election year should now be called Reince's law.  

Thats why it is so important to support your public schools and universities.  Critical thinking has disappeared and ignorance rules these days.

This little clip is more relevant than ever.....

We have run experiments showing how easily we can be led back into the pits of fascism.

Will we ever learn?

At this point i think Donald Trump is in the joke and seeing how ignorant  the Republican base truly is.   

SS-Mann, deine Ehre heißt Treue! ("Man of the SS, your honour is loyalty")

Abele's Friends (With Benefits)

Last year, Milwaukee County Emperor Chris "Boss" Abele spent nearly two million dollars of his daddy's money to send out a barrage of mailers and run incessant commercials. The plan was to crush his opponent, State Senator Chris Larson, in the primary and cruise on to buy the general election.

But things didn't turn out the way Abele wanted.

Despite being outspent by a margin of more than 20:1, Larson won the primary outright.

Now, Boss Abele, in a sign of utter desperation, has gone completely negative, running a poorly run commercial trying to, of all things, to tie Larson in with Scott Walker.

Yes, you read that correctly.

Abele is trying to say that Larson, who led his fellow senators out of state to delay the Act 10 bomb, and who has steadfastly stood against the constant Republican assault on Wisconsin, was in cahoots with Walker.

Even funnier was Abele trying to present himself as "one of us."

This ad is taking a page right out of the Karl Rove playbook of attacking the opponent from one own's weakness.  You see, it's not Larson that is chummy with Walker and the other Republicans.  It's Abele that is in bed with them.

While Abele was falsely denying any consideration of a run for governor, he had this to say about his buddy:

"I ran because I wanted to make a difference in in the county. And frankly, I’ve got a good working relationship with the governor and I think between where his politics are and what he’s doing in the state and what I’d like to do at the county I would like to get as much positive out of that and productive change as possible.

[...]

But in office, Abele has emphasized his desire to work cooperatively with Walker.

And Walker isn't the only Republican that Abele is cozy with.

Three years ago, when the extremely right wing radical Rebecca Bradley was running in her first election, she had Abele's endorsement and support:

In other words, she has been and is bad news for the Milwaukee County court system.

So it shouldn't come as a surprise that some other people that want bad things to happen to Milwaukee County would support her.

People like Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele, who wants to make Milwaukee County a plaything for himself and his uber-rich friends at the Greater Milwaukee Committee, even though Abele has proven himself to be exquisitely inept at doing the job he's got now.

Now, given, Abele's endorsement might have stemmed from the fact that he and Bradley were more than just friends.

But the same can't be said for State Representatives Dale Kooyenga and Joe Sanfelippo. Abele gave both of these rabid Teapublicans campaign donations in return for favors rendered. Kooyenga wrote the bill giving Abele the authority to take over and privatize Milwaukee Public Schools. Sanfelippo is the one that pushed through two of Abele's other power grabs - usurping power from the county board and taking away the mental health system from the people's purview.

And for Abele, sometimes donating to Republicans just isn't enough.  So he holds fundraisers for them, like he did with Deanna Alexander.

It's not only right wing politicians that Abele is chummy with. He also loves him some of that right wing corporate media. A fine example of this is when Abele used county email to have a whinefest with Aaron Rodriguez, the anti-union and pro-education privatization calumnist for the local paper.

Furthermore, the dark money propagandist group, Media Trackkkers, has done repeated hit jobs on Larson. The gentle reader should wonder why this right wing group would help Abele by going after Larson if Larson was such a good friend of Walker's. If you said that it's because Abele is the Walker Mini-me and not Larson, give yourself a pat on the back. You got it right!

As a last note, it is important to be an informed voter. So keep in mind that despite Abele's desperation and histrionics, Larson is tied in with neither Scott Walker or dark money special interests.

Abele, on the other hand, is very cozy with Walker and the other Republicans. However, the plutocrat Abele, with all of his daddy's money, is not only tied up with the dark money special interests, he is one.

Budget Cuts to Education Cost All of Us

By Kathleen Vinehout

"We hired a great inorganic chemistry professor last year,” Mike, a UW-River Falls chemistry professor, told me. “Unfortunately she’s leaving in May for St. Olaf.” I visited St. Olaf in Northfield, Minnesota. They have a great chemistry department.

Mike told me his department used to have 15 professors. They now have 11 – soon to be 10. They plan to replace the person leaving but it’s getting harder to recruit and retain faculty.

The consequences of deep budget cuts to education are disparate but all around us.

Deep budget cuts to the UW system results in fewer course offerings and programs, larger classes and less staff. UW Extension is proposing to remove extension agents from many rural counties. The UW Madison Ag program announced the loss of the only dairy sheep program in the country. Faculty are moving on to greener pastures.

There is a similar story in K-12 education.

I spoke with Katie, an Eau Claire special education teacher who serves on the district’s compensation committee. The committee is working to find money to keep teachers. Katie said, “No raise in seven years is really hard for a lot of families.” Katie worked with an “amazing” special education teacher hired seven years ago who makes less than recently hired teachers.

Like so many other school districts, Eau Claire is considering options for a fall referendum. With declining state aid and rising costs, people across the state have voted to raise property taxes to keep their schools operating.

Alma passed a 38% increase in the school portion of property taxes to pay for a new furnace and keep the lights on.

Other school districts’ referenda aren’t successful. Prescott just lost a referendum to cover operating costs. They now face $1.5 million in additional cuts – over 10% of the district budget. Local people worry more teachers will leave for Minnesota – a state making significant investments in education.

At a recent Chippewa Valley legislative forum with local school officials, one of my colleagues abruptly left the event upset about a school board member’s comments that Minnesota was doing better financially than Wisconsin.

Specifically the board member mentioned Minnesota’s $1 billion budget surplus, funding for education and the big difference between the two states with regard to the prison population. The two states have a similar population and crime rate but Wisconsin incarcerates more than double the number of individuals.

My legislative colleague thought it unfair to compare. But is it?

According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, in Wisconsin 87% of children with at least one parent lacking a high school education are likely to be living in poverty. In Minnesota, 32% of children live in poverty while 39% of Wisconsin children live in poverty.

Among the risks of poverty is lack of education achievement, which can negatively affect life opportunities. Studies show that low education attainment and low incomes can increase the risk of incarceration. Minnesota incarcerates fewer individuals while Wisconsin spends more on prisons than on the UW system.

It is wiser to invest in breaking the cycle of poverty.

Poor children need resources – books, teacher time, health care, and food – things that cost money, which brings us back to school funding.

At the forum, we discussed needed changes to the school funding formula. I reminded everyone that State Superintendent Tony Evers submitted in his budget a proposal to change the formula called Fair Funding for Our Future.

Mr. Evers described his proposal as containing “a number of provisions to fix the funding formula by investing in all students, protecting rural and declining enrollment districts, making adjustments in the aid formula to account for poverty, providing property tax relief and increasing general school aid.”

This is the third time he introduced this proposal. It is the third time Governor Walker and the Majority in the Legislature chose not to pass it.

Education budget cuts end up costing us more. As state funds shift from education to safety (prisons and law enforcement), it becomes harder to break out of the cycle.

But break out of it we must. The investments we make in a child’s future don’t just help one family. The investments help all of us.