The Writing On The Wall

Republicans have seen the writing on the wall. Decades of indicators have shown the majority of voters align with Democrats' policies. This is why Republicans have gerrymandered, suppressed votes, pushed voter identification, closed polls, and just generally tried to make it harder to vote or exclude people from voting. It's the only way Republicans have been able to win elections. The Republicans don't really have any ideas for public policy. And, they really don't care. Power is their ultimate goal. The power to control the purse strings of the government. Hence, they are continually trying to make it so that only those voting Republican can vote.

Republicans threaten a government shutdown unless Congress makes it harder to vote

  

No Brain Necessary: Trumpers in Waukesha, Wisconsin

Screenshots of Wisdom

 

Voting By Mail

There Is No Evidence Of Mail-In Voter Fraud

Weekend Reading: The Myth Of Voter Fraud Edition

Mass Voter Fraud Is A Myth - And Kris Kobach Just Got Sanctioned Trying To Defend It
The Misleading Myth Of Voter Fraud In American Elections
Purges: A Growing Threat To The Right To Vote
Resources On Voter Fraud Claims
Debunking The Voter Fraud Myth
The Voter Fraud Myth Is Just Embarrassing At This Point
The Bogus Voter Fraud Commission Is Dead, But The Myths Aren't
A Trump Nominee's Illegal Vote Exposes The Voter Fraud Charade

Sunday Reading

Monopoly Rents And Corporate Taxation
Basically Every Problem In The US Economy Is Because Companies Have Too Much Power
The Hit Job On Chief Flynn
UW's Noah Williams Isn't Just A RW Hack. He's A Koch Addict
Harvey Shows Anti-Government Crowd's Utter Hypocrisy
Tax On Hybrids And Electric Vehicles Is Poor Economic Policy
David Brooks Gets Story On Wage Growth And Productivity Completely Wrong
How Local Housing Regulations Smother The US Economy
The Voting Commission Is A Fraud Itself
Why American Workers Pay Twice As Much In Taxes As Wealthy Investors
Houston's Flooding Shows What Happens When You Ignore Science And Let Developers Run Rampant
Why America Still Hasn't Learned The Lessons Of Katrina
Exempting Suburbia
Have Smartphones Destroyed A Generation?

Weekend Reading

California Leads U.S. Economy, Away From Trump
Researchers Have Answered A Big Question About The Decline Of The Middle Class
Who's Watching Wall Street? The Feds Turn A Blind Eye To Goldman's Game
Simple Math Is Why Elon Musk's Companies Keep Doing What Others Don't Even Consider Possible
A New Olympics Reality: Fewer Cities Want To Host The Games
See One Of The World's Rarest Cats Captured On Camera
Disturbing Photographs Show Pollution in the Great Lakes Before the Clean Water Act

A Call For Clean Water

Trump Announces Commission To Investigate His Baseless Widespread Voter Fraud Claim

U.S. life expectancy varies by more than 20 years from county to county

Weekend Reading

Choice Schools Must Share Data
Tom Barrett Signs Milwaukee Lead Pipe Removal Ordinance
5 Ways of Redrawing The U.S. Electoral Map That Actually Makes Sense
All This Talk of Voter Fraud? Across The U.S., Officials Found Next To None
Did Voter ID Laws Hurt Election Turnout? Look At Milwaukee
Tom Brady's Personal Guru Is A Glorified Snake-Oil Salesman
The Electoral College Is Great For Whiter States, Lousy For Cities
The Irrationality Within Us
Keynesian Economics: Is It Time For The Theory To Rise From The Dead?
Under Trump, Red States Are Finally Going To Be Able To Turn Themselves Into Poor, Unhealthy Paradises
Obama's Economy
Trump Inherits Obama Boom
Seattle Offers Lesson For Milwaukee
Minimum Wage Foes Tripped Up By Facts
Memo To Corporate America: Pay More. Treat People Better.
The Really Rich Got Richer, According To IRS's Top 400
The U.S. Is A Low-Tax Nation

The Election Was Rigged!!!

Donald Trump was right, the election was rigged. I hope he doesn't accept the results of such a phony, rigged election.

GOP States Keep Ignoring Court Orders to Restore Voting Rights

 GOP States Keep Ignoring Court Orders to Restore Voting Rights

 Wisconsin, Ohio, Texas, and North Carolina won’t stop suppressing the vote.



On July 29, US District Judge James Peterson called Wisconsin’s process for issuing voter IDs “unconstitutional,” “a wretched failure,” and “pretty much a disaster.” The state’s strict voter-ID law “has disenfranchised a number of citizens who are unquestionably qualified to vote, and these disenfranchised citizens are overwhelmingly African American and Latino,” he wrote. 

The judge ordered that “Wisconsin may adopt a strict voter ID system only if that system has a well-functioning safety net” and that the state must “promptly issue a credential valid as a voting ID to any person who enters the [ID petition process] or who has a petition pending.” 

But Wisconsin never followed the court’s order. On September 22, the same day Wisconsin assured the judge in a legal filing that everything was hunky-dory, Zack Moore, a 34-year-old homeless African-American man who moved from Chicago to Madison, was turned away from the DMV without a voter ID despite bringing an Illinois driver’s license, Social Security card, and proof of Wisconsin residency. He was told to go back to Illinois and get his birth certificate, or else it would take six to eight weeks for him to get an ID for voting, despite a sign in the DMV that said, “Get your ID to vote! No birth certificate? No problem!” 

Reporting in The Nation and the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, based on DMV recordings provided by VoteRiders, confirmed that across the state Wisconsin was systematically failing to promptly issue IDs for voting as required by the court order. In response, Peterson ordered an investigation and held a hearing on October 12 and 13. 

Kristina Boardman, the DMV’s administrator, admitted on the stand that for two months after the court’s July order, the DMV was giving voters incorrect information about the voter-ID law. “I’m very disappointed to see that the state really did nothing in response to my order,” Peterson said on October 12. “There was really, as far as I can tell, no effort made…to inform the public.” He called the DMV’s voter-ID training “manifestly inadequate” and said, “Undeniably there are people who have been disenfranchised.” He concluded, “The state really needs to step up and make sure the IDs get into the hands of voters who can’t have them [under the current system].”

Wisconsin Reading

Leaked Documents Show Waste Of Millions Just To Stir GOP Voters

In the piece written by Daniel Bice (“John Doe leak offers insights”), a leaked document (email) has Baas discussing making up concerns about voter fraud in an effort to stir up the Republican base immediately after then-Supreme Court Justice David Prosser barely squeaked by challenger Joanne Kloppenburg in April 2011. 

In the April 6, 2011 email Baas states: “Do we need to start messaging ‘widespread reports of election fraud’ so we are positively set up for the recount regardless of the final number? I obviously think we should.”

Scott Walker Confronts Alarming New Allegations In Wisconsin

Gov. Scott Walker and the GOP-controlled Legislature approved a measure aimed at retroactively shielding paint makers from liability after a billionaire owner of a lead producer contributed $750,000 to a political group that provided crucial support to Walker and Republicans in recall elections, according to a report released Wednesday. 

Citing leaked documents gathered during a now-shuttered investigation into the governor’s campaign, the Guardian U.S., an arm of the British newspaper, reported that Harold Simmons, owner of NL Industries, a producer of the lead formerly used in paint, made three donations totaling $750,000 to the Wisconsin Club for Growth between April 2011 and January 2012.

Scott Walker Put Wisconsin Up For Sale

Among the documents are several court filings from the case, as well as hundreds of pages of email exchanges obtained by the prosecutors under subpoena. The emails involve conversations concerning Walker, his top aides, conservative lobbyists, and leading Republican figures such as Karl Rove and the chair of the Republican National Committee, Reince Priebus. Trump also appears in the files, making a donation of $15,000 following a personal visit from Walker to the Republican nominee's Fifth Avenue headquarters. In addition to Trump, many of the most powerful and wealthy rightwing figures in the nation crop up in the files: from Home Depot co-founder Ken Langone, hedge-fund manager Paul Singer and Las Vegas casino giant Sheldon Adelson, to magnate Carl Icahn. "I got $1m from John Menard today," Walker says in one email, referring to the billionaire owner of the home improvement chain Menards.

Walker Wants To Start New Projects, Delay Others

In a series of four events that began alongside I-39/90 south of Madison, Walker plunged ahead with his no-new-gas-tax pledge, betting his next budget on his belief that voters prefer delays on some major projects to pennies more at the pump per gallon.

GOP Operatives Discussed Ginning Up 'Voter Fraud' Reports

The mining firm Gogebic Taconite secretly donated more than $1.2 million to two conservative political groups in 2011 and 2012. 

The Journal Sentinel had previously reported that Gogebic Taconite had given $700,000 to Wisconsin Club for Growth, a pro-Walker group then headed by one of his campaign advisers. After that contribution, the GOP-controlled Legislature and Walker approved legislation aimed at streamlining regulations for an iron ore mine in northern Wisconsin. 

But the figure actually turns out to be higher. According to one of the John Doe records, the mining firm gave at least $930,000 to Wisconsin Club for Growth and another $300,000 to the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce -Issues Mobilization Inc. — another conservative dark money group — during 2011-'12.

Republican Wisconsin senator disputes 'pay-to-play' allegation regarding lead paint vote

In a statement, Shilling said that both Olsen and Harsdorf used their positions on the committee "to push through controversial changes in 2013 that shielded lead paint manufacturers after receiving secret financial help in their 2011 campaigns."

"We knew Gov. Walker was at the center of this ‘criminal scheme’ to coordinate efforts with dark money special interest groups," Shilling said in a statement. "What we didn’t know was how closely Senate Republicans worked with these special interests and how favors were doled out to lead paint manufacturers that bankrolled these secret campaign efforts. These new documents clearly highlight a disturbing pay-to-play scheme between out-of-state lead paint manufacturers and Senate Republicans."

Because Scott Walker Asked

Scott Walker was under pressure. It was September 2011, and earlier that year the first-term governor had turned himself into the poster boy of hardline Republican politics by passing the notorious anti-union measure Act 10, stripping public sector unions of collective bargaining rights. 

Now he was under attack himself, pursued by progressive groups who planned revenge by forcing him into a recall election. His job was on the line. 

He asked his main fundraiser, Kate Doner, to write him a briefing note on how they could raise enough money to win the election. At 6.39am on a Wednesday, she fired off an email to Walker and his top advisers flagged “red”. 

“Gentlemen,” she began. “Here are my quick thoughts on raising money for Walker’s possible recall efforts.” 

Her advice was bold and to the point. “Corporations,” she said. “Go heavy after them to give.” She continued: “Take Koch’s money. Get on a plane to Vegas and sit down with Sheldon Adelson. Ask for $1m now.” 

Her advice must have hit a sweet spot, because money was soon pouring in from big corporations and mega-wealthy individuals from across the nation. A few months after the memo, Adelson, a Las Vegas casino magnate who Forbes estimates has a personal fortune of $26bn, was to wire a donation of $200,000 for the cause.

Long Lines At The Wisconsin Primaries

Voting

GOP Zombies Lumber On

There is a zombie party, but it's not the GOP

"Dysfunction" was hardly the scene in the House last week as Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan took hold of the speaker's gavel — an act unthinkable even to Ryan just a few weeks prior. The young, attractive Ryan always has been seen as the future of the Republican Party, able to bridge the gap between the GOP's more ardent wing and those more interested in governing. (In the end, only seven of the Tea Party's "Freedom Caucus" members voted against Ryan, proving the group's opposition to Ryan was overblown.)

WOW. Talk about trying to polish a turd. Nobody revises history quite like the Republicans.

Even Schneider, in the article, writes that Ryan becoming speaker was unthinkable weeks ago. But the Republicans did what they do best when between a rock and a hard place, a well-staged photo opportunity. Hence, even Schneider doesn't have much more to say about Ryan other than "young, attractive." Ryan's previous attempts at serious policy analysis have been shown to be nothing more than flim flam.

For the past few weeks (more so than usual), dysfunction was the entire scene for the Republicans. 20 or so presidential candidates, a Tea Party caucus holding the rest of the party hostage, and seemingly no one wanting to become the new speaker.

Paul Ryan was the only Republican left that the party felt the public may actually pay some attention to at this point. Because Ryan and Rubio are younger, the Republican party is alive and well, according to Schneider.

Schneider details how the Republican party still has a hold on America and the demise of the party is premature:

In fact, Republicans — y'know, the party that has ceased to function — currently hold majorities in the U.S. House, Senate and claim 31 governorships.

He forgets to mention much of this is due to gerrymandering and voter suppression tactics. For Schneider, just like his new hero Paul Ryan, details aren't that important.

I know this is the Republican playbook - claim the opposite of reality and always act as if everything is just what the Republicans planned and wanted (and Schneider's sole purpose is to regurgitate some version of this fantasy in every article he writes). But, aren't even the conservatives getting tired of the willful distortion of reality?

Wisconsin Voter Suppression

Walker says ID law won't disenfranchise voters

To vote under the law, people must show poll workers their driver's licenses, state ID cards, passports, limited types of student IDs, military IDs, naturalization certificates or IDs issued by a tribe based in Wisconsin.

There the Republicans go again ... solving problems that aren't there.

There is no voter identification/fraud issue in America. There has only been a handful of hucksters across the country who've perpetrated voting illegalities over the past decade. That's millions of votes with only a few bad apples. (And the majority of those bad apples were actually voting Republican.)

The demographics of the country are turning to the Democrats. The Republican "ideas" just aren't appealing to many voters. The only way the Republicans can win elections is through gerrymandering and voter suppression (one must have an ID, even if you've been voting at the same location for decades).

Even more curious, how many jobs does Scott Walker believe this policy will create? 

For a guy who isn't even going to create half of the jobs he promised, focusing on an issue that has nothing to do with job creation seems odd. 

But when your interest is not for the State or its citizens (or for democracy), when all the Republicans actually care about is winning elections and maintaining power, their policies are simply a means to an end for outcomes in their favor.

Hence, the Walker administration has loosened regulations on business, funneled public dollars to corporate buddies, weakened Labor, reduced education spending, increased regulations on the poor, and created obstructions for voters. Using public office to further personal political aspirations and to enrich dutiful donors. Crony capitalism at its finest. Great for Republican's moneyed-friends, but terrible for citizens.

With such low voter-turnout in so many of our elections (is this the miracle democracy we keep trying to spread across the globe?), we should be trying to encourage more participation, not less. 

Get These Kids Gun Permits

Taxes, Voter Fraud & Campaign Finance

For Further Reading:

The Fraudulence Of Voter Fraud
The Myth Of Voter Fraud
The Voter Fraud Hoax
Voter ID Fact Sheet
Voter Identification
The Right To Vote & Voter Suppression
Voter Suppression

Voter Identification

Misplace Priorities: Voter ID In Wisconsin

The Myth Of Voter Fraud

Voter Identification Factsheet

Voter Identification

Republicans and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel are doing their yearly voter ID song-and-dance routine. They are pounding the drum about a fictitious scenario of widespread voter fraud, and therefore the need for voter identification.

Republicans unveil plan for voter ID

They conveniently ignore the fact that over 20 million American do not have the necessary paperwork to obtain identification. Typically these people are elderly and minority voters, whom usually vote Democrat. Republicans are using the voter fraud myth as a tool for voter suppression. Not the most inclusive, big-tent platform. Nor is this the most important issue to address while the country faces double digit unemployment. In fact, tackling campaign finance is a much more important and effective way to address voting, elections, and to improve our democracy.

Open for business? Trying to create jobs? More plausibly just trying to push through the same old destructive conservative platform of cronyism and class warfare.

For Further Reading:

Republican War On Voting

War On Voting Rights