The Week In Walker

By Jeff Simpson

With so much bad and crazy happening on a breakneck pace everyday, it is hard to keep up with it all.   Let's try and catch up with some of Scott Walker's recent hits.

1.  Get ready, coming smack dab in the middle of the state, will be lots of layoffs and changes at UW - Stevens Point!

 Kristen Hendrickson, the university’s chief financial officer, laid out three scenarios for UWSP's structural deficit that largely depend on enrollment numbers for this year.
If the university enrolls 8,000 students, the total deficit may sit at about $2.4 million.
If 7,500 students enroll, the total deficit may grow to $5.4 million.
If enrollment falls to 7,000, the total deficit may grow to $8 million.
The university’s academic division might need to make cuts ranging from $4 million to $6 million, eliminating as many as 60 to 70 full-time jobs, if enrollment falls to 7,000 students, Summers wrote in the Aug. 27 letter.

 2.  Small Government Scott Walker is taking people's homes.

Unless you know the right people, then Foxconn is the jackpot!

3.  While Walker's signature promise was to create 250,000 jobs (as his floor) and after 8 years still has not come close to that number.  In fact, Scott Walker has cost Wisconsin some 80,000 jobs.

The average from both models points to a Walker administration which cost Wisconsin 80,000 jobs. This loss was masked by national job growth. If Wisconsin had followed the same pattern relative to its neighbors as under previous administrations, jobs would have grown by an additional 33 percent — quite a difference. To put the shortfall in perspective, the 80,000-job loss is six times the 13,000 jobs promised from the Foxconn development in Racine.
It is hard to identify possible causes for Wisconsin’s jobs lag other than the administration’s policies. It is not as if the state is dependent on a single industry. Rather, the underlying cause seems to be the triumph of ideology over evidence as to what grows an economy. 

4.  Have to admire Badger Meters business sense, and be amazed at how cheaply Scott Walker can be bought.

Top executives of a company that was awarded $250,000 in state welfare have contributed nearly $26,000 to Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s campaigns.
Badger Meter, which makes flow measurement tools for water utilities and commercial and industrial businesses, plans to expand its Mount Pleasant operations in Racine County and create up to 40 jobs in the next three years. Walker’s economic development agency, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., said Thursday it will provide up to $250,000 in tax credits to train the new employees.
Overall, Badger Meter employees contributed $36,850 to legislative and statewide candidates between January 2010 and December 2017. All but $300 went to Republican candidates.
The top recipients of the contributions were Walker, $25,900, followed by Republican Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, $6,000, and GOP Rep. Dale Kooyenga, of Brookfield, $2,000.
The company’s top contributor to legislative and statewide candidates between January 2010 and December 2017 was its chief executive officer, Richard Meeusen, of Pewaukee, and his wife, Maribeth, $34,750. That’s 94 percent of the contributions from all employees of Badger Meter. Walker received $24,500 of those contributions from the Meeusens.

5.  Another way to get your hands on some easy Wi Taxpayer funds in Scott Walker's WI?  Abuse teenagers at Lincoln Hills. 

– For the second and third times, Gov. Scott Walker’s administration has given cash settlements to guards who it determined had used excessive force on juvenile inmates, state records show.
The payoffs — including one totaling $9,000 — were reached as the FBI continues a criminal investigation of Lincoln Hills School for Boys and Copper Lake School for Girls, which share a campus 30 miles north of Wausau. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel last year reported officials at the prison complex trained staff improperly, failed to preserve video evidence, didn't document serious incidents and often shirked their duty to report matters to parents, police and social service agencies.

 6.  In Election Season, Scott Walker will say absolutely anything to get elected.   Here is a clip in 2010 telling us how he would never cut education funding.

7.  Scott Walker is out with his 21st political ad already.  I guess he can not find one that people will believe.  However this one is very typical of Scott Walker.  He starts out complaining about attack ads, then starts attacking.

Tone deaf? Desperate? Dishonest?   We report, you decide. 

It stays with the theme he has been working for months.  That Scott Walker, the king of outside money, fears outside money.   
I guess that the Kochs, Sheldon Adelson and loony Uihlein are all above board WI residents, or maybe he just a hypocrite. 

Finally, as Bruce Murphy points out in his great piece at Urban Milwaukee, everything Walker does is for sale. 

Two of his biggest supporters have been the Koch Brothers, who have donated $4.8 million to Walker’s campaigns, and the state’s biggest business group, Wisconsin Manufacturer’s and Commerce, which has given $9.5 million to his campaigns.
Walker’s signature law, Act 10, which decimated public employee unions, was backed the Koch Brothers and WMC. The two groups also supported the Right to Work law, which makes it difficult to organize private unions and which Walker had promised unions supporting him in 2014 that he would never support. But he signed it into law in 2015. 

Readers of this humble blog know, that everything Scott Walker sells, he sells cheap! 

White Trash Walker

By Jeff Simpson 

Capper pointed out recently that Scott Walker is selling his house in Wauwatosa.  The Walker family, paid $310,000 for the house in 2007 and now have it on the market with a slight uptick at $338,000.   Mr. Walker was never one to truly understand economics as his house is assessed at $359,900.

Capper pointed out that Mr. Walker might be selling his house because he was so far in debt. However, Mr. Walker has made it clear that the money he makes selling his house will not be going to pay off debts he has run up.

Skipping out on his bills, has become one thing Scott Walker is well known for.

As we always say, "but wait there is more" and boy is there more telling information about Scott Walker regarding his house for sale.

We know that Mr. Walker completed, the minimum amount of work/upgrades on this house while living there for 8 years.

It appears the home on N. 68th St., which was built in 1924, was listed on Saturday. Since purchasing it in March 2007 for $310,000, Walker has painted the home's exterior, rebuilt the chimney and replaced the pool liner. Walker's home features 2 1/2 baths and a full basement on a quarter-acre. Assessed at $359,900, the home's tax bill in 2013 was $8,381.

If you remember, Scott Walker moved his parents into his house to hide behind them when people protested his home.   While Mr. Walker used his parents as a prop, the $144,000/yr+ that Walker makes, not a penny of that was put into upgrades to make the house comfortable for his elderly parents.  

That is NOT all:

Mr. Walker is showing the same ignorance in selling his house as he showed in creating jobs.

Two minutes on Google, and you see there are basic generic rules to follow when selling your home.    As we found out with the secret router, rules in Scott Walker's world are made to be ignored.

Two of the major rules are as follows:

Spruce up the outside. Add a new doormat, new house numbers and maybe a new mailbox. Paint the front door. The little stuff matters here.
Refresh your landscape. Clean up flower beds, add fresh mulch and plant flowers. Make sure bushes are trimmed and neat.

OOPs:

But an inspection of the photos show that Governors’ teenage sons are apparently exempted from the domestic responsibilities typical of their peers. Here a tottering wooden fence begs to be whitewashed before rot overcomes it; there a line of Hostas remains un-deadheaded weeks after their blooms have expired; shrubs and trees are untrained, potted flowers languish, the lawn turns to dust and the whole begs for water to pour forth from the neglected hose.
Yet for all of this, the bureaucrats at the Wauwatosa City Hall rate the landscape as “Same as Neighboring.” This is an affront to the neighbors!
In front of the home, a pole light fixture attempts to provide decorative illumination, yet only one of its three branches glows, while the other two have burnt out.
Question: How many governor’s sons does it take to change a lightbulb?

In 8 years of home ownership, Mr. Walker also never touched the basement:

The first family of Wisconsin have a full, “unfinished” basement of 816 square feet underpinning their home. The subterranean level includes a half-bath and shower in the basement. 

Here is a picture of the ancient rotting fence outside the Walker abode:

 

Here is a picture of the two burned out light bulbs.  Apparently its beyond the Walker family capabilities to change a light bulb!



Anyone spot what is missing in Mr. Walker's yard?

Wood!

 A natural wood fireplace helps the gas-fired, hot-water heating system keep the governor’s home toasty through the chilly winter,

If no one in the Walker family can take the time, energy or intelligence to change a light bulb, I doubt very much that they would spend the time cutting wood(or even buying it).  

Except for the brand new Wisconsin taxpayer funded squad car, perpetually in his driveway, the rest of the house is pretty trashy.  The only thing the Walker family appears to be missing is blankets for curtains and a confederate flag flying proudly in the lawn.   

The big question we need answered now, is there a separate beer fridge in the Governors Mansion? 

Walker: To Win A State, Sometimes You Have To Destroy A County

Scott Walker wants to be governor in the worst way. Unfortunately, the path he is choosing to give him the best chance for the job is the worst way.

Walker, since Day One, has made his one and only campaign plank about not raising taxes.

Due to that single-mindedness, it has led Milwaukee County into one disaster after another.

First, he wanted to close the pools early, during one of the hottest summers on record. This led to the predictable outcry from the public, and Walker backed off of the plan, and shifted the blame onto then Parks Director Sue Baldwin.

Then, there was the crisis involving the poor care the chronically mentally ill were receiving. This only turned around after the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ran a series of stories about it and the public again raised their voices in protest.

The list goes on and on, from the poor supervision at the House of Correction, culminating in the death of a young man, to a decaying infrastructure which will cost taxpayers millions of dollars, to the failing transit system while other systems around the country are have a resurgence in ridership.

To make up for his lack of any real substance, Walker has tried to fill the hole in his leadership with a lot of showboating and bluster. There are too many incidents of this to list, but one key example that should be highlighted is in regard to the last bout of union contract negotiations. During his last run for governor, Walker tried to present himself has a real hard nose when it came to the unions. Unfortunately for him, history has shown him to be nothing more than a hypocrite and a liar.

Now that Walker is running again for governor, his bluster has ramped up exponentially. In fact, his showboating has transformed into a massive power grab by Walker, using a page from the Bush administration's playbook on how to be a bad leader.

Walker started out by creating a shadow budget that not even the County Board could fix. A prime example is how he claimed to be expecting about $7 million in revenue in land sales, even though he abolished the position that was responsible for peddling the land. Even when offered a fix to his surely doomed budget, in the form of the American Restoration and Reinvestment Fund (stimulus dollars), he tried to sabotage those dollars from coming here, until the County Board quickly intervened and slapped him back down.

Despite this, Walker still claimed that the County was in a fiscal crisis, and has used that excuse as the reason for his latest round of lunacy, and continues to overstep his authority. His apparent hope is too be able to present himself as a strong leader for the rest of the state, hoping that they notice that he is attacking his own county with a scorched earth approach in doing so.

But this could very well prove to be his undoing.

Walker has claimed that after only three months into the fiscal year, Milwaukee County is in a fiscal crisis, and that there is a projected deficit of nearly $15 million. Walker has used this alleged deficit for bashing both the unions and for bashing the citizenry, especially the elderly, the poor, the minorities and the children.

Walker has used this supposed crisis to help push along the ill-advised sale of the county grounds. He has used this supposed crisis to try to force the unions into an indefinite furlough and to accept hundreds of layoffs, to show how tough he can be as a leader. As a wise man once told me, a rule of thumb in politics is that you can always win more votes running against the union than you can get running with them.

It just so happens that the County is again in negotiations with the unions, and have been since last fall. However, Walker has not allowed the county's labor negotiators to sit down and work with the unions to hammer out an agreement. I cannot go into specifics at this time, as that the contract talks are still supposed to be going on, and given that I am a county employee and active in the union (but not on the negotiating committee), but I will say this much: Walker is lying through his teeth about what is happening between the County and the unions. When the contracts are signed, trust me, I will tell you the whole story.

Walker has also used this alleged crisis to usurp power that rightfully and legally belongs with the County Board. His power trip includes doing such draconian and immoral things such as stealing the money that senior citizens have paid for year round passes to Noyes and Pulaski Parks' indoor swimming pools, and then closing the pools. He also wants to create a new fee on the use of the splash pads, taxing toddlers, even though by law, he cannot do this.

I have learned tonight that Walker also wants the County's Treasurer's Office to impose much stricter and much steeper fines on people going through foreclosure on their homes. (Interesting on how that ties in to his threats of lay offs.)

But there are some problems with Walker's Machiavellian scheming.

One is that, well, Walker is a liar. There is no $15 million deficit.

Acting on some tips, from myself and others, that Walker's furloughs and layoffs would hurt the county's revenue stream, the County Board ordered the county's auditor, Jerome Heer, and the Board's fiscal and budget analyst, Stephen Cady, to look at Walker's claims of a deficit and his proposed plans to fix it. Their findings were astonishing, even to me.

I knew from talking to both County and union officials that there was no $15 million dollar deficit. But never did I imagine that it was so low as being only $650,000:

Milwaukee County's budget shortfall this year would be only a small fraction of the $15 million figure County Executive Scott Walker has used to justify cutting employee pay, curtailing services and threatening hundreds of layoffs, according to a report released Monday.

The county faces a $650,000 shortfall for 2009, according to the report by County Auditor Jerome Heer and Stephen Cady, the County Board's fiscal and budget analyst.

A four-week furlough of County workers, which the union is not contesting, despite Walker's false claims otherwise, would cover that and then some. But even the furlough isn't absolutely necessary since the County Board, after years of dealing with Walker's shenanigans, have learned to put in a multimillion dollar contingency fund, to cover the inevitable shortfalls that come with any Walker budget.

Needless to say, the unions and the County Board are rightfully angry about Walker's behaviors.

As mentioned above, the county and the unions are in the midst of contract negotiations. Walker's public grandstanding, while it may convince some that he for the "little guy" is really only bad faith bargaining. Not only that, but it has been roughly estimated that Walker has already cost the taxpayers around $2 million dollars in lost savings by not having a new contract in place. I certainly hope that union leaders, besides grieving the illegal indefinite furlough, are also pursuing legal recourse regarding his bad faith bargaining and even notifying WERC about this as well.

The County Board is also taking several steps regarding Walker's malicious abuse of power. Their various committees are having a series of special meetings to address Walker's dishonesty, his usurpation of power, and how to fix the fiscal deficit that Walker's deceit and/or incompetence has caused.

I have also learned that Supervisor John Weishan is leading an effort to have this matter be brought to court. Supervisor Weishan told me that it shouldn't matter who the County Executive is, they should not have the ability to abuse the power of their office in this fashion.

He is absolutely correct. It is immoral and unethical for any elected official to falsely declare a state of emergency, whether it is a fiscal crisis, as Walker is claiming, or to exploit a true crisis, like a national security issue, as George W. Bush did, in an effort to take control and ram through their own special agendas for personal and/or political gain.

I also encourage the members of the County Board to consider making a request of the Attorney General, or even better, the U.S. Attorney, for an investigation into possible misconduct in office charges.

Please contact Scott Walker by calling him at 414-278-4211 or emailing him at countyexec@milwcnty.com and tell him to stop playing politics with people's lives.

See also: Jason Haas' Walker's Scare Tactics and James Rowen's Scott Walker: Master of Disinformation.

For Sale - Cheap!

By Jeff Simpson

We already know the republican legislature is for sale, either as an individual sale, or as a whole package.  Now Scott Walker wants the ability to start selling off our assets  - Cheap(and unaccounted for)!

  Gov. Scott Walker's administration would gain broad authority to sell state property - including prisons, highways, heating plants and university dormitories - under a plan legislators will take up Tuesday.
Proceeds would be used to chip away at the state's $8 billion debt, but the state entities that formerly owned the properties might not see any benefit from the sales. So, a dorm built with student fees could potentially be sold to pay down the debt for a highway expansion, or vice versa.
Critics say the plan that's part of the GOP governor's budget proposal could saddle the state with higher day-to-day costs - such as buying power and steam to heat prisons and dorms - after it sells the properties.
Under the governor's plan, the state also could negotiate sales with individual buyers without going through a public bidding process. Any sales would have to go through a "competitive and transparent process," though that process is not defined and includes no explanation of how negotiations with a single buyer could be competitive.
The plan has generated fierce opposition from supporters of the University of Wisconsin System, who say allowing the sale of UW buildings without the approval of the Board of Regents could be detrimental , especially if the buildings were paid for with the help of student fees or private donations. Currently, the regents have a say in the management of all UW buildings.

What is the worse thing that could happen with this? O yea:

Student leaders worry that student unions, such as the landmark Memorial Union at UW-Madison, could be sold and no longer controlled by the university. Student unions, built with student fees, are central to student life, as are residence halls that also potentially could be sold under the governor's proposal, said Matt Guidry, communications director for United Council of UW Students.

 No need to worry though:

 "Legislators have told us that selling these buildings isn't their intent," Guidry said. "We believe that's their intent today, but the next person down the road may feel differently."

 This group of republicans is ALWAYS up front, open, honest and transparent!  

This bill is so bad it has upset some of his major contributors(who also contribute to their favorite university). Sheldon Lubar, who has donated millions to the Universities of Milwaukee and Madison, and apparently has not paid attention to Scott Walker's Governance the last couple years, was not very happy:

"I really don't think (Walker) thought this through and understands the negative impact this would have on the university," Lubar said.

 Has walker thought ANYTHING through in two plus years?   Well, true to form, if a republican donor is unhappy, so is his/her employee:

Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills), co-chairwoman of the budget-writing Joint Finance Committee, said she was surprised the proposal would allow the sale of highways and prisons and believed legislators would change it to provide more legislative oversight.
"I'm very reluctant to give up any authority that the Legislature currently has," Darling said.

 The Democrats response, typically intelligent, thought out, logical and meek:

Rep. Jon Richards (D-Milwaukee), a member of the committee, said he opposed the plan.
"I don't think we should be rushing to have a fire sale on state property with no bid-contracts," Richards said. "That is not good long-term stewardship of state property."

Things to look forward to under republican rule:

Walmart  Memorial Union - $50/join, $5 entry fee when its not closed for private parties. 

Rent A Center Randal - where the Badgers can pay a lease to rent games on Sunday, while losing all revenue from Sky Boxes.

ABC Supply Dorms  where rent has tripled and security is a broken down phone in the hallway

Ronald McDonald Kohl center where the Badgers basketball teams will not be allowed to play a home game in January thanks to the long term commitment to Ronald McDonald on Ice (bring the kids)

You get the idea...but hey at least the money we get from selling our treasures will go to the Friends of Scott Walker campaign fund!  

We can give up some conveniences to help Scotty get elected President can't we?  

Scott Walker: Tosa Deranger

In 2002, shortly after Scott Walker won the special election for Milwaukee County Executive, following the recall of Tom Ament, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel was kind enough to publish a list of Scott Walker's promises. Some are his own, some are he agreed to based on the platform of his pay for play buddies at CRG.

Since then, Walker has systematically gone about breaking each and every one of them, just has he has systematically gone about destroying Milwaukee County, all in the vain pursuit of the unattainable goal of being called Governor Walker.

The most recent broken promise affects the town he lives in, Wauwatosa. In 2002, Walker made this promise:

Oppose development of northeast quadrant of County Grounds for anything other than state forest.

Yet in the speech that was the unofficial kick off to the latest version of his perpetual run for governor, a speech he euphemistically called his "State of the County" address, Walker urged for the sale of the very land he said he would oppose:

Building a new School of Engineering for the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee on
the County Grounds is another project that will truly help stimulate the economy. We
negotiated a reasonable price for the land and now, we need to approve the deal and letUWM get on with their work.

I can hear my detractors now, "But, capper, the county grounds are so big. Obviously, he meant another part of them."

Au contraire, mon frere. We see in this article from UWM's own website that he is specifically targeting the area he promised to protect (emphasis mine):

One of the first steps is with the County Board Economic & Community Development Standing Committee, which has on its Monday, June 11, agenda, “discussions with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, or its designee, regarding their interest in a portion of the Northeast Quadrant of the County Grounds in the City of Wauwatosa for the development of a school of engineering, and biomedical and advanced automation research and teaching campus.”

Not only did Walker break one of his promises, again, he tried to shortchange the people of Milwaukee County by trying to sell the land for millions of dollars less than it's worth:

Last fall, the board approved negotiating a sale of the tract, which is on the Milwaukee County Grounds, east of U.S. Highway 45 and north of Watertown Plank Road. A UWM affiliate made the $11.8 million offer of privately raised funds for 89 acres.

The board's Economic & Community Development Committee voted unanimously Monday to hold the item until some changes, including an increase in the sale price, can be made. The proposal could return to the committee later this month.

UWM would pay $13.55 million for the land under an amendment proposed by Supervisors Jim Schmitt, whose district includes the County Grounds; Toni Clark, committee chairman; and Lee Holloway, board president.

Once again, the County Board had to come in and rescue the tax payers from Walker's ineptitude.

On top of all that, learned and/or invested people, such as James Rowen, Dave Reid and the Park People, all are opposed to building the new campus in Tosa, but would rather see it in downtown Milwaukee.

In fact, about the only people in favor of it are the land developers, Walker (who has benefited greatly in campaign contributions from said developers) and UWM Chancellor Carlos Santiago, who is looking to get out of Milwaukee anyway.

I will readily admit that I have not been overly fond of some of the things Governor Jim Doyle has done, but really, he stills appears to a prince when compared to the ever-lying Walker: Tosa Deranger.

Addendum: Don't expect the local paper to point this out. They think that "he's been honest and he's maintained his principles." That alone says something about the local paper, doesn't it.

*Credit for the picture goes to Jay Bullock.

Scott Walkers Surprise

By Jeff Simpson

The Governor is at it again.  This from his email, titled surprise, begging for more money.  We know that Mr. Walker begging for money is no surprise, that is all he has done his whole life.  The surprise came in the first sentence. 

If there is one thing the American people learned about me during our presidential campaign, it is that I am thrifty. 

Ummm Scott - 

Scott Walker’s 10-week presidential campaign raised $7.4 million but spent far more, according to the Wisconsin governor’s Federal Election Commission report released Thursday and people familiar with Mr. Walker’s finances.
Mr. Walker’s FEC report shows he spent $6.4 million between the mid-July launch and the end of September. But those figures don’t include $200,000 in Mr. Walker’s reported outstanding bills or debts the campaign pushed past Oct. 1 – a number that raises the Walker debt to more than $1 million more than his cash on hand, according to the people familiar with Mr. Walker’s campaign finances.

I know Mr. Walker never finsihed college but let me help out a bit,.

Simple Definition of thrifty: managing or using money in a careful or wise way

 Apparently Mr. Walker has a completely definition of thrifty then the rest of us.   

But wait there is more.  The example he used when describing it ---well let's look at more :

I like to use coupons, Kohl’s Cash, and shop the sale racks. I am not into the latest fashion -- unless a Packers jacket counts. Most of all, I don’t like waste. This applies to state government and leftover campaign merchandise.

I think we can all come to a bipartisan agreement that he is not into the latest fashion, or any kind of fashion for that matter, however he likes to brag of buying a shirt at Kohls for $1.  

No one has ever accused Mr. Walker of being an economic wiz, but when a company sells shirts for $1, what happens?  They tend to close down!  

However thrifty and a good shopper as Scott Walker considers himself to be, he thinks differently of you.

It was brought to my attention that we have a hodgepodge of campaign t-shirts left over. They are collecting dust somewhere and we lack the staff to organize them. I cannot stand to see them go to waste so we will give any supporter who contributes $45 or more to retire our campaign debt a t-shirt as a token of our thanks. 

Overspending and overvakluing his own importance have also been trademarks of Mr. Walkers career, but he will buy a shirt for $1 and expects you to buy a made in ChinaT-shirt for $45.

Seriously!

But wait there is more.  You do not even get to decide what size or color!

Due to our lack of resources, we are unable to honor size or color requests.
When Matt and Alex were little and fighting over what color cup or toy they wanted, Tonette and I used to tell them “you get what you get and you don’t get upset” and I guess that applies here too.

As is typical, Mr. Walker overspent his budget and is hoping that the taxpayers of WI will bail him out.

But wait there is more!!!   Big Government Scott Walker will send you a piece of crap apparel item that you can not wear but he will tell you what to do with it!

Tonette tells me there are crafty things you can do with t-shirts like framing them or turning them into a pillow or bag. Whether you wear it, store it, frame it, or turn it into something else,...:

 Thank Goodness he has a wife who can help him figure out what to do with a t-shirt.   However,if  Tonette believes that anyone would want to frame and display a Scott Walker for President T-shirt, I think we need to really question what she did with $500,000 of our money to remodel the kitchen in the Governor's mansion.  



If he was any kind of businessman, he would make his adoring fans pay extra for food stains!

Scott Walkers Deep Discounts

By Jeff Simpson 

While Scott Walker is working hard to hand $3 Billion of our tax dollars,  to a foreign company known for breaking deals and employee suicides, let us not forget what kind of a "businessman" that Mr. Walker is.

In 2014, Governor Walker wrote, had someone write a fictional book for him, which was poorly titled "Unintimidated".   After the initial rush, we found out that he sold a measly 16,000 books, most of which were bought by his PAC - "Friends of Scott Walker".  

At the time, Scott Walker was under the delusion that he could be President of the United States, and was selling autographed copies of his book for $150 each!

As everything Scott Walker plays out the same way - lots of fanfare and BS and no substance.   A favorite saying of mine - Big Wind, lots of dust and no rain.  

I received my second email in a week from the "Friends of Scott Walker" (not sure why it is plural) :

Jeff, 
We wanted to make sure you saw this special offer from Governor Walker. Your fellow conservatives are taking advantage of this deal and copies of the governor's book, "Unintimidated: A Governor's Story And A Nation's Challenge" are going fast! 
Act now to secure your signed copy of Governor Walker's book! 
Thank you, 
Team Walker 

Going fast?  

The email, that they wanted to make sure I saw:

We would like to reward YOU for your generous support.
Contribute $50 or more today and we will send you a signed copy of my book, Unintimidated, which details our battle against the Big Government Labor Bosses and the special interests. 

Thank you very much for "rewarding" me with paying $50 for a book I can buy for $2.99 on eBay and one you cant even give away.  

Next thing I know you will be passing legislation allowing foreign corporations to pollute our land and waters to help us, or pass a law forcing a 12% pay cut on the workers of WI, in order to "save" them money!  

The Walker/Wisconsin way....everything is for sale at a third of the price!  

Facing Crippling Debt, Scott Walker Puts House Up For Sale

Scott Walker is facing a mountain of debt.

His failed presidential campaign is a million dollars in the hole. Personally, he has tens of thousands of credit card debt. Even worse he must've missed some payments because he is paying 27% interest on that debt. Most of his debt probably came from the time he was privately paying silk-stockinged lawyers to defend him during the John Doe investigations - before he set up a legal defense fund and before the Kochs started picking up the tab.

On top of all that, he is helping his two unemployed sons with their student debt after sending them to Marquette University. (Apparently Walker recognizes that he's ruined the University of Wisconsin system and didn't want his boys to go there.)

Despite the fact that Walker has sent out numerous emails begging for money and makes $140,000 a year, he still can't make ends meet.

So what does he do?

He sends his parents packing out of his house and puts the place up for sale:

Gov. Scott Walker has put his home — the one in Wauwatosa, not the governor's mansion — up for sale.

The two-story, three-bedroom house has been listed by Delafield real estate agent Premar LLC for $338,000. The listing calls the home an "exceptional colonial!" that boasts "quintessential Tosa charm!" and mentions the in-ground swimming pool, bright white modern kitchen with Corian countertops and a front-entry sunroom.

Walker tweeted Sunday night about his sons: "Matt graduates from Marquette in May. Alex from UW next May. Like many empty nesters, we are looking to downsize our home."

It appears the home on N. 68th St., which was built in 1924, was listed on Saturday. Since purchasing it in March 2007 for $310,000, Walker has painted the home's exterior, rebuilt the chimney and replaced the pool liner. Walker's home features 2 1/2 baths and a full basement on a quarter-acre. Assessed at $359,900, the home's tax bill in 2013 was $8,381.

No open houses are scheduled, but prospective buyers can request a private showing. When reached by phone Sunday, Realtor Cathy Priem said she had no comment before hanging up.

I'm so glad that the local media clarified that it was his personal house and not the governor's mansion. We all know he sold the mansion to the Kochs and Bradley Foundation as soon as he took office.

Someone might want to check out the Madison area pawn shops to make sure that Walker hasn't hocked the mansion silverware.

Walker's Book Isn't Even Selling On His Website

Scott "The Grinch" Walker is a having a pretty crappy holiday season so far.

First, he sends out the worst Christmas email ever, telling people to not buy any toys for their children, but to give him the money instead.

In an attempt to bury his greed-filled email, he reveals that he has yet another racist staffer working for him and fires her. The odd thing about that is that he was OK with said staffer and her racist attitude all the time she worked for him, but it suddenly became an issue when the email - with her name on it- becomes a source of international ridicule and derision.

To try to pick up the pieces from that debacle, Walker goes ahead to say it's now OK to buy presents for your loved ones, as long as they are from his campaign website.  He has everything for sale - from shirts to phone cases to signed copies of his books.

Apparently, things still aren't going to well.

Now he's enlisted one of his son's to help out by announcing that everything is not just for sale, but is also on sale:

Friend,

I hope you’ve had a chance to read some of my dad’s new book Unintimidated. If you have not, you can read a new excerpt here.

For our supporters who haven't had a chance to pick up a copy we wanted to provide you with a special discount offer for the holiday season. Use the code XMAS15 to receive 15% off any book on our campaign store.

We are only offering this discount code until December 24th, so make sure to get your personalized copy of Unintimidated today. Due to our limited supply we ask that you place your order as soon as possible.

Use the code XMAS15 by December 24th to get access to your 15% off.

Hope you enjoy and happy holidays!

All the best,

Matt Walker

All purchases will be treated as campaign contributions to the Friends of Scott Walker campaign

Paid for by Friends of Scott Walker, Kate Lind, Treasurer

But remember - the sale is only good until December 24th! Because on the 26th, they will go on an even bigger sale and he'll start giving away copies with Charlie Sykes, since they have about the same popularity:

And for those who are interested, here is a screen capture of the email:

Walkergate: The Next Wave

OK, now that we've reviewed what has already come out of the ongoing Walkergate investigation, it's time to see what might be coming down the pike, some of which is already happening.

When Kelly Rindfleisch was sentenced last month, we gained a greater glimpse of the extent that the corruption that was the rule of thumb for Scott Walker and his motley crew. I then expanded on that, giving the gentle reader a reminder of who's who in the Walker syndicate.

As I had just mentioned, some of it is already happening:

Keith Gilkes, Gov. Scott Walker's former chief of staff and campaign manager, told reporters Thursday after a forum at Marquette University that he is cooperating with prosecutors investigating Walker's tenure as Milwaukee County executive, WisPolitics reported Friday.

Gilkes did not return a phone message left on his cellphone Thursday.

Gilkes is the latest former top Walker aide to provide information in the ongoing John Doe investigation that has resulted in convictions for four former Walker associates for illegal campaign activity and embezzlement.

Also cooperating are Walker's current spokesman, Cullen Werwie, and past spokeswoman, Fran McLaughlin; and his former chief of staff in Milwaukee County, Tom Nardelli.

Keith Gilkes

I wonder if Gilkes' supposed cooperation is the Darlene Wink type where he's singing like a bird or the Scott Walker type where he's stonewalling the investigation as much as he can.

My guess is that it will be more of the latter type, based on this:

Gilkes told reporters that he "had no knowledge" of a private wireless router system that allegedly was part of a secret email system in the Milwaukee County Courthouse.

Asked if a similar router exists in the state Capitol, Gilkes became angry.

"That's just absurd, I'm done," he responded and walked away.

Is it really absurd?

Remember that when Gilkes was Walker's Chief of Staff, he had lobbyists contacting him via his consultancy group's email address instead of through official channels. It would seem that there were trying to circumvent the open records laws in order to put the strong arm on people and companies wanting things from the Governor, such as Gogebic Taconite.

Gilkes also went on with the claim that the large amount of contact between the campaign and the county staff was just routine type of stuff.

For some reason, I don't see the advocacy of destruction of legal documents as being routine:

Gilkes, in an email written the day of the accident, advised Walker's county staff to "make sure there is not a piece of paper anywhere that details any problem at all." News organizations and lawyers representing victims and others filed numerous open record requests after the O'Donnell Park accident for inspection reports and other documents on its construction.

Then again, maybe destruction of documents is normal...for Republicans. I wonder how much they spend on paper shredders each year.

It should be noted that Gilkes was recently engaged, so that might give him some incentive to stay out of prison.

I recently wrote that Cindy Archer is also cooperating with the investigators, but to what extent is anyone's guess:

I have recently heard that Phase II of the Walkergate investigation has already commenced. Apparently Kelly Rindfleisch did give some information after all and gave up Cindy Archer.

Archer had been Walker's Director of Administration during the time Walker was Milwaukee County Executive. Criminal complaints and other documents from Walkergate show that Archer was deeply involved with the illegal campaigning and the collusion between county personnel and campaign staff.

Cindy Archer

Word is that Archer is already working on a plea deal even though she hasn't been arrested yet, much less charged. It's a maneuver called a negotiated issuance.

Interestingly, it's also been noted that Archer is selling her house, which she's owned for a long time. Speculation would be that she is selling it to pay her legal bills, but it should also be noted that she is reported to have a serious illness.

There's a couple of other things that I have heard about Archer. Besides raiding her home in Dane County, the authorities also did a search of her Milwaukee County home. Neighbors have reported that just days before the raid, they saw Archer and other moving a lot of boxes out of her home to another house just down the block.

Could there be a mole in the county somewhere that was giving the heads up on the potential searches. But who would have knowledge of the impending searches and have the ability and the interest to get in contact with Archer?

Well, let's not forget that Fran McLaughlin, who was eventually granted immunity in Walkergate, became the spokeswoman for Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke. She would have the the knowledge of the search warrants before they were executed, the ability to contact her friend Archer and an interest in keeping things on the hush, since she was also doing campaign-related activities on county time.

The other thing about Archer is that she had a major argument with the director of Milwaukee County's IT Department. He quit shortly thereafter and moved out of state. I have long wondered if that argument might have had to do with secret routers, secret email systems and open record requests.

But methinks that the person who could be the most interesting to watch is Tom Nardelli. Nardelli has long been known to be rather unsavory and untrustworthy. Nardelli has denied knowing anything about anyone, even denying he knew who hired Rindfleisch to be his Deputy Chief of Staff (we all know it was Walker). But the emails released during Rindfleisch's sentencing shows that he was in the thick of things as much as anyone else.

And Nardelli is no stranger to pay for play and strong arming tactics:

Nardelli had effectively neutered the Milwaukee Public School Board with his threat. The message was clear — do what I want or you’re screwed and I’ll make you look like idiots.

But there was something else. Why was Nardelli so adamant about this developer getting a slice of the city?

It turned out that the same family who had contacted me to work on their behalf had also contacted a reporter. I don’t recall the reporters name but he had uncovered that Nardelli had received fat campaign donations from the developer. Amazingly, it was swept under the table.

Also of interest is the fact that Nardelli's house is or was up for sale.*

It's also been reported that Nardelli has been looking pretty rough. Stress will do that to a person.

But I think Nardelli might be the most interesting to watch since he has the most to lose. He's closing in on being 70 years old and any lengthy sentence could be a life term for him.

Tom Nardelli

However, what is probably more important to the money-grubbing Nardelli is the fact that he is collecting three pensions - one from the military, another one from the City of Milwaukee and one from Milwaukee County. The ones from the city and the county add up to around $40,000 a year alone.

If Nardelli is convicted of a felony, he loses his pensions.

The loss of all that free income and health care, as well as the prospect of potentially facing the rest of his life in prison, is a pretty strong incentive for him to turn on whoever was above him in the food chain.

And the only person that is above Nardelli - and Archer, McLaughlin and Gilkes for that matter - is Scott Walker.

And let's not forget there are also many other unanswered questions and issues that need to be addressed.

There is the bid rigging and pay for play that was involved with county contracts for rental space.

Although if the DA's Office is following the trail of the illegal campaigning, the other stuff might be left to the feds for wire and mail fraud charges, or even RICO charges when one considers the apparent collusion between Walker's campaign, Walker's county office and the Koch/Bradley Foundation-funded groups like Americans for Prosperity and the other various propaganda groups.

Which leaves only two questions.

One is when - no if - Walker will meet John Doe.

That really depends on how cooperative Archer, Nardelli, Gilkes and the rest are. If they are able to reach plea deals with each of them, it could happen relatively quickly. If they try to fight it the charges out, like they did this year, that would obviously stretch things out, but would still be only delaying the inevitable.

And the other question which has been asked more and more often lately is whether this will also ensnare Reince Priebus, who was the chair of WISGOP during the time the scandal was occurring.

To be frankly honest. I have no idea. We do know that he was exchanging emails with Walker's county staff during the campaign. We also know that there were some events, such as Senator Scott Fitzgerald sharing his donor list with Walker, which would have been very difficult, if not impossible, without a high level of influence.

But no matter when it finally happens, or who else gets dragged down because of Walkergate, there is one thing that is undeniable. something that conservatives are starting to realize, which is making them exceptionally ornery.

That thing is that with Walkergate, there is always more. And no matter which arm of the investigation you follow, the path always leads to one person - Scott Walker.

*Perhaps so many people being dragged down in Walkergate accounts for the uptick in home sales this year.

Scott Walker Skips Parenting & Writes A Letter

By Jeff Simpson

With a national debate started by the NFL Players, and the President weighing in,  Scott Walker, ever the one for media attention, felt the need to weigh in. 

Scott Walker took time out of his busy schedule as head of the Republican Governors Association to write a letter to the NFLPA(because he has such a good relationship with unions) to tell them they should stop their protesting during the national anthem.   He let the African American Players know that their protests against police brutality against their community was not worth the time and they should focus on domestic violence. 

It is nice that Scott Walker is finally speaking out against La Crosse County Republican Party Leader Bill Feehan, but it is sad that a child of privilege, who has full security, and billionaires shoveling him money, feels that the African American community has no grounds to protest and it is time to move on. 

A lot has been made about National Football League (NFL) players protesting by kneeling, remaining in the locker room, or other means during the national anthem. Speaking up for what you believe in is a profoundly American idea, but disrespecting our flag, and the men and women who have fought to protect and defend our country, is not American in the slightest.

It is time for players in the NFL to stop their protests during the anthem and move on from what has become a divisive political sideshow. Instead, I encourage them to use their voices and influence to take a stand against domestic violence. With the NFL Fall League Meeting occurring tomorrow, during Domestic Violence Awareness Month, now would be an especially opportune time to strongly condemn domestic violence and lead the charge in supporting safe families across America.

Where to begin? 

Speaking up for what you believe in is profoundly American.....Unless of course you speak up against him. 

But disrespecting our flag:

and the men and women who have fought to protect and defend our country

When Scott Walker was Milwaukee County executive, his office obstructed a criminal probe into thousands of dollars missing from a veterans charity, two investigators said Friday in a federal court filing.
Daniel Bice of the Journal Sentinel reported in 2012 that records showed the John Doe investigation was opened in 2010 after investigators said they had been stonewalled by Walker's county executive office. At the time, Assistant District Attorney Bruce Landgraf wrote that Walker's office had been "unwilling or unable" to turn over records.
A former top aide to Walker, Tim Russell, was sentenced to two years in prison in January 2013 for stealing more than $21,000 from a nonprofit chosen to administer Walker's annual Operation Freedom veterans picnic at the zoo. Walker had named Russell to lead the group.
Ex-Walker appointee Kevin Kavanaugh was convicted of stealing more than $51,000 from money donated to help veterans and their families. He was sentenced to two years in prison, but served just over half that.

move on from what has become a divisive political sideshow. 

In related news, and speaking of disrespecting our flag and the men and women of our armed forces, The Donald held a press conference to let everyone know:

Trump said, “President Obama and other presidents, most of them didn’t make calls, a lot of them didn’t make calls. I like to call when it’s appropriate, when I think I’m able to do it.”

The problem being, The Donald was blatantly lying.

I am guessing that Scott Walker will let this disrespect stand unchallenged.

Luckily, San Antonio Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich, decided he needed to speak up! 

“I’ve been amazed and disappointed by so much of what this president had said, and his approach to running this country, which seems to be one of just a never ending divisiveness. But his comments today about those who have lost loved ones in times of war and his lies that previous presidents Obama and Bush never contacted their families are so beyond the pale, I almost don’t have the words.”

 “This man in the Oval Office is a soulless coward who thinks that he can only become large by belittling others. This has of course been a common practice of his, but to do it in this manner—and to lie about how previous presidents responded to the deaths of soldiers—is as low as it gets. We have a pathological liar in the White House, unfit intellectually, emotionally, and psychologically to hold this office, and the whole world knows it, especially those around him every day. The people who work with this president should be ashamed, because they know better than anyone just how unfit he is, and yet they choose to do nothing about it. This is their shame most of all.”

While I agree with coach Pop, I think soulless coward extends beyond Donald Trump. 

PS:  The one issue that Scott Walker has not offered up his opinion on?  Why his son stealing a State van of course!  

You're a 23 year old desperado & you steal a van from the State of Wisconsin. Will you be caught? Will your governor father, Scott Walker, get you out of trouble? Depends on how well you play...

GRAND THEFT AUTO: THE VAN

On sale now for $25.08! Just in time for Christmas! pic.twitter.com/CMcQWUkDal

— Jud Lounsbury (@JudLounsbury) October 16, 2017

Walker: Desperately Seeking Scapegoats

Full disclaimer: I am a Milwaukee County Employee and active in my union's local.

In less than a week, Scott Walker will officially present his proposed 2010 county budget. As in every previous year, Walker will royally screw it up in an effort to preserve the pretense that he is sticking to his campaign promise of not raising taxes, even though he really is raising them.

The County Board, who actually listens to the taxpayers on how the money should be spent, will try to correct his budget as much as possible, restoring services that Walker considers expendable, like aiding the poor, the elderly and the disabled. Unfortunately, this usually also involves a nominal tax increase.

Then Walker goes out and plays the martyr, pretending to have "fought the good fight" and blaming the County Board for doing what he knew he should have done all along. Besides scapegoating the Board, he will also blame Governor Jim Doyle, the unions and probably even President Barack Obama. In Walker's world, it is always somebody else's fault.

But this year is going to be an exceptionally tense and ugly budget process. This is for three main reasons:

1. The economy is still struggling to get out of the hole that Bush/Cheney put us in,
2. The County and AFSCME have spent most of the year trying to negotiate a contract, and
3. Walker is in the fight for his political life as he again runs for governor.

The state of the economy would have been less of a concern if Walker hadn't dinked around for several months regarding the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (stimulus dollars). Walker first made a grab at national attention by stating in a nationwide column that he was not going to accept any stimulus dollars. When he realized how stupid he sounded, and what a bad idea it was, he started to back pedal on this position, and then came up with some silly "conditions" on what he expected before taking stimulus dollars. He did this, of course, even though he did not have the legal authority to do so.

Fortunately the County Board quickly grew tired of his obstructionism and just ran him over and the County has been benefiting ever since.

As for the gubernatorial run, well, he has been doing that for seven years, so it is really nothing new. However, Walker has already shown the edge of desperation this year. If he fails to win the governor's race, his political career is basically over. Oh, he will have a job being the coffee-fetcher for Michael Grebe or something. But when he loses, his status as being a lifelong politician will be over.

That leads to the union contract negotiations. Due to the crappy economy and Walker's desperation, the union was caught between a rock and a hard place. And we realized it too.

That is why we were eager to get the contract, which was due at the end of last year, negotiated and settled so that this wouldn't be hanging over anyone's head by this time of the year.

Unfortunately, Walker felt that quickly resolving the contract was not to his best political advantage. I had throughout the year called for Walker to stop his shenanigans and to sit down and do some honest bargaining. He refused.

Three months ago, showing how things were going, I wrote this:

Walker has used this supposed crisis to help push along the ill-advised sale of the county grounds. He has used this supposed crisis to try to force the unions into an indefinite furlough and to accept hundreds of layoffs, to show how tough he can be as a leader. As a wise man once told me, a rule of thumb in politics is that you can always win more votes running against the union than you can get running with them.

It just so happens that the County is again in negotiations with the unions, and have been since last fall. However, Walker has not allowed the county's labor negotiators to sit down and work with the unions to hammer out an agreement. I cannot go into specifics at this time, as that the contract talks are still supposed to be going on, and given that I am a county employee and active in the union (but not on the negotiating committee), but I will say this much: Walker is lying through his teeth about what is happening between the County and the unions. When the contracts are signed, trust me, I will tell you the whole story.

Guess what. There is now a tentative contract that the union will be voting on next Tuesday, and I have now received clearance to speak on all of this.

In short, the tentative contract is rather similar to the one that the County Board Personnel Committee had originally authorized to be proposed at the beginning of the year. However, something happened on the way from the county board to the negotiating table, and the offer was altered into something that Walker knew the union would refuse.

This happened twice.

Then Walker went campaigning for days and weeks at a time, slowing down the contract proposal even more. Walker also did a delaying tactic by trying the illegal furloughs and continuous threats of layoffs. In fact, during the entire year, Walker has habitually practiced unfair labor practices by trying to negotiate the contract through the public media, such as the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Charlie Syke's radio show. This has happened as recently as this past week.

The reasoning behind Walker's game-playing was to paint the unions as being the heavies and to force the unions into either extreme concession, much like what recently happened at Mercury Marine, and/or give him an excuse to cut hundreds of workers. This way he could privatize services to his campaign backers and present himself on a statewide basis as being for the taxpayer, hoping they wouldn't see through his charade.

County Supervisor John Weishan also saw through Walker's smoke and mirror routine and said as much in a recent article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

[Walker] said a two-year pay freeze proposal for the county's largest union might not be enough to keep the budget balanced next year. Walker has warned of a potential $90 million shortfall in 2010 and the possible need for layoffs or county employee pay and benefit cuts.

Supervisor John Weishan Jr. said such remarks from Walker undercut negotiations with District Council 48 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. The board's Personnel Committee voted Tuesday to extend an offer to District Council 48 that includes a pay freeze through this year in exchange for a no-layoff guarantee.

If union employees accept the deal, it could set the stage for a showdown with Walker and lead to the contract issue going to a potentially more costly decision from an arbitrator, Weishan said.

"Walker's saying, 'I'm going to fund all these programs,' then say unrealistically, 'It's all the employees' fault for not taking wage and benefit concessions,' " Weishan said.

As I mentioned at the top of this post, the union and the County now have a tentative agreement on a contract.

However, the agreement goes beyond just the pay freeze that Walker is alluding to. The contract is for two years, 2009 and 2010. There is no pay raises for either year. There is an increase in what employees pay for health care, both in premiums and in copays. The copays for out of network providers really jumped up. This will affect mostly county retirees that have moved out of Milwaukee County, either up state or out of the state.

There is also language that would allow up to six weeks of reduced work time. In other words, by county resolution, all union workers, except for those in 24 hour per day, seven days per week jobs (like Sheriff's Deputies, Corrections Officers and workers at the mental health complex) will have their hours reduced to 35 hours per week for up to six weeks.

In other words, the unions, if they ratify this contract, will be voluntarily giving up two years of raises, paying more for their health care, and also giving up up to 30 hours of pay. In exchange, the unions are only asking to be allowed to keep their jobs.

Now I realize that for some people, the ones that just flat out hate unions and/or government workers, this won't be enough. But for those people, nothing would be enough. They would also be the first ones having a fit when the services they want are also cut.

For the record, I am planning on voting yes to this contract, and I strongly urge all of my union brothers and sisters to do the same.

As an end note, there is a new blog by rabid, pseudonymous and semi-literate Walker sycophants that just cannot believe that anyone would or could agree to a contract with a no-layoff clause. It just seems impossible to them and their anonymous commenter. I guess that only means that Mayor Tom Barrett has again shown himself to be a much more competent and able leader than Scott Walker.