On jobs, and moral leadership, a persistent Walker con
[Updated] I gave up a few minutes of my life this morning I can't get back to see if our right-wing and perpetually-self-absorbed-and-campaigning Governor had added anything to his Twitter feed after having posted on Saturday a very few characters of condolence after the terroristic murderous mayhem in Charlottesville without mentioning terror, terrorism, the KKK, Nazis, neo-nazis, white supremacists, anti-semitism, an innocent's death, the many injuries, and so on.
I'll save you the trouble.
He did not.
Though he had time to put up several tweets with photos from the Brewers game he saw that night, the State Fair he visited, a business he stopped at, a photo op with Vice-President Pence, and more.
You say it's not his job to comment in detail on national events?
Bunk.
He criss-crossed the country not long ago running for President.
He went to Israel, England, Germany, France and Spain to present himself as world-leader-worthy with opinions that mattered.
He talked about the big picture, trade, taxes, farm policy, energy, and even ISIS, which he said he could defeat because he'd taken on 100,000 retirees, teachers, nurse and kids carrying protest signs at the State Capitol.
He even said he wanted to go to Washington, DC as our newly-elected President and "wreak havoc."
How does that sound now that we've seen what real havoc looks like?
Not so Presidential.
On the other hand, he's always had a moral leadership deficit, something I wrote about in early 2011 when he sprung Act 10 on an unsuspecting electorate and public sector workforce.
I forgot to mention that while failing to supplement his Twitter feed with an accurate and sensitive remark as even President Trump clumsily and belatedly managed to do, Walker did put up several more self-serving tweets about Foxconn.
That's all he cares about these days.
He's willing to distort and drain the state treasury of $3 billion, commit local government and their taxpayers to very expensive infrastructure perks for the company, and fill in wetlands with the people's water beneath stands of forests and along streams or on shorelines and at the bottom of lakes to do one thing:
To get you to forget he ever promised to create 250,000 new jobs in Wisconsin in four years, and failed to hit the number after more than six-and-a-half years in office with a GOP-led legislature that gave him every tax cut and pro-business program in their playbook.
To get you to forget the stupidest thing that ever came out of his mouth - - a violation of Politics 101 - - that promise to deliver something numerically specific, extensive and expensive and obviously beyond the reach of a single politician, even a governor.
But remember that an arrogant Walker was riding high at the time, living the dream of a career-advancing statewide campaign by airplane and Harley ride to escape a tortuous municipal nuts-and-bolts job of Milwaukee County Executive he grabbed only as a stepping stone, nurturing the fantasy of his own Presidential campaign down the road, even writing a brash, public letter taking on the sitting President Obama and pledging to kill the administrtion-funded Amtrak connection to Madison that was a signature Jim Doyle achievement, too.
Job-creation? Republican-boilerplate. No sweat. He'll just snap his fingers and watch that WEDC he set up and chaired until it got too embarrassing - - and which we learn today to no one's surprise that it continues its sloppy, slothful, scandalous behavior by not yet verifying Foxconn's bona fides - - to run show Democrats how easy job-creation really is.
And if he's asked about that broken 250,000 new-jobs pledge he said he wanted his incoming cabinet appointees to tattoo on their foreheads, Walker will pivot to Foxconn, Foxconn, Foxconn, distracting and fudging the numbers as he did with a quiet amendment on Twitter this morning to Foxconn PR about spin-off jobs:
And potential maximum number of jobs at what Walker misleadingly keeps calling the Foxconn "ecosystem" - - where an authentic ecosystem is slated for permanent damage - - under the best of scenarios will not erase documented job losses on his watch at Oscar Mayer, Manitowoc Crane, Wausau paper, Harley-Davidson, Caterpillar - - also Terex, Walter USA and GE in Waukesha County - - or compensate for the deep damage he's done to solar, wind and Amtrak-related workforces and businesses.
And when the bloom falls off the Foxconn rose, as it has already begun to do with a smaller-by-$100 million projected Foxconn payroll and the diminished spin-off job projections making the news, Walker will just stand behind the smaller numbers he did today on his Twitter feed today without any clarification and shout "Foxconn" even louder.
PolitiFact has tracked and vetted years of Walker statements; "False" and its even-worse companion category "Pants on Fire," taken together, still exceed any other PolitiFact single grade.
So it's not surprising that someone with so little regard for the truth, and a history of calling for wreaking havoc as official US policy would fail to muster more than a few vague words about murder and mob violence by Nazi's and flag-waving KKK sympathizers in an American city.
He's proven time and time again, and historians will carve it into his post-gubernatorial assessment, that if it wasn't about himself, and couldn't be spun it to his advantage regardless of the public impact, Walker was never interested.
I'll save you the trouble.
He did not.
Though he had time to put up several tweets with photos from the Brewers game he saw that night, the State Fair he visited, a business he stopped at, a photo op with Vice-President Pence, and more.
You say it's not his job to comment in detail on national events?
Bunk.
He criss-crossed the country not long ago running for President.
He went to Israel, England, Germany, France and Spain to present himself as world-leader-worthy with opinions that mattered.
He talked about the big picture, trade, taxes, farm policy, energy, and even ISIS, which he said he could defeat because he'd taken on 100,000 retirees, teachers, nurse and kids carrying protest signs at the State Capitol.
He even said he wanted to go to Washington, DC as our newly-elected President and "wreak havoc."
How does that sound now that we've seen what real havoc looks like?
Not so Presidential.
On the other hand, he's always had a moral leadership deficit, something I wrote about in early 2011 when he sprung Act 10 on an unsuspecting electorate and public sector workforce.
I forgot to mention that while failing to supplement his Twitter feed with an accurate and sensitive remark as even President Trump clumsily and belatedly managed to do, Walker did put up several more self-serving tweets about Foxconn.
That's all he cares about these days.
He's willing to distort and drain the state treasury of $3 billion, commit local government and their taxpayers to very expensive infrastructure perks for the company, and fill in wetlands with the people's water beneath stands of forests and along streams or on shorelines and at the bottom of lakes to do one thing:
To get you to forget he ever promised to create 250,000 new jobs in Wisconsin in four years, and failed to hit the number after more than six-and-a-half years in office with a GOP-led legislature that gave him every tax cut and pro-business program in their playbook.
To get you to forget the stupidest thing that ever came out of his mouth - - a violation of Politics 101 - - that promise to deliver something numerically specific, extensive and expensive and obviously beyond the reach of a single politician, even a governor.
But remember that an arrogant Walker was riding high at the time, living the dream of a career-advancing statewide campaign by airplane and Harley ride to escape a tortuous municipal nuts-and-bolts job of Milwaukee County Executive he grabbed only as a stepping stone, nurturing the fantasy of his own Presidential campaign down the road, even writing a brash, public letter taking on the sitting President Obama and pledging to kill the administrtion-funded Amtrak connection to Madison that was a signature Jim Doyle achievement, too.
Job-creation? Republican-boilerplate. No sweat. He'll just snap his fingers and watch that WEDC he set up and chaired until it got too embarrassing - - and which we learn today to no one's surprise that it continues its sloppy, slothful, scandalous behavior by not yet verifying Foxconn's bona fides - - to run show Democrats how easy job-creation really is.
The state's top jobs agency has yet to run a full check on the finances and market position of Foxconn Technology Group — the Taiwanese company seeking up to $2.85 billion in cash from state taxpayers in exchange for thousands of new jobs.
In the past, taxpayers have suffered after the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. neglected to make careful checks on companies receiving state incentives.So during the 2018 campaign that is obviously underway, and assuming the Legislature capitulates to Walker's whim and delivers what he needs, you will hear "Foxconn!" minute-by-minute from Walker for months on end.
And if he's asked about that broken 250,000 new-jobs pledge he said he wanted his incoming cabinet appointees to tattoo on their foreheads, Walker will pivot to Foxconn, Foxconn, Foxconn, distracting and fudging the numbers as he did with a quiet amendment on Twitter this morning to Foxconn PR about spin-off jobs:
Scott Walker @ScottWalker Foxconn’s historic investment will create some 22,000 ripple effect jobs -- proof hard-working WI families are winning!Even though the projected spin-off jobs total has been lowered substantially by an independent analyst.
And potential maximum number of jobs at what Walker misleadingly keeps calling the Foxconn "ecosystem" - - where an authentic ecosystem is slated for permanent damage - - under the best of scenarios will not erase documented job losses on his watch at Oscar Mayer, Manitowoc Crane, Wausau paper, Harley-Davidson, Caterpillar - - also Terex, Walter USA and GE in Waukesha County - - or compensate for the deep damage he's done to solar, wind and Amtrak-related workforces and businesses.
And when the bloom falls off the Foxconn rose, as it has already begun to do with a smaller-by-$100 million projected Foxconn payroll and the diminished spin-off job projections making the news, Walker will just stand behind the smaller numbers he did today on his Twitter feed today without any clarification and shout "Foxconn" even louder.
PolitiFact has tracked and vetted years of Walker statements; "False" and its even-worse companion category "Pants on Fire," taken together, still exceed any other PolitiFact single grade.
So it's not surprising that someone with so little regard for the truth, and a history of calling for wreaking havoc as official US policy would fail to muster more than a few vague words about murder and mob violence by Nazi's and flag-waving KKK sympathizers in an American city.
He's proven time and time again, and historians will carve it into his post-gubernatorial assessment, that if it wasn't about himself, and couldn't be spun it to his advantage regardless of the public impact, Walker was never interested.
3 comments:
If the Democrats wake up, they can get back the governor's office and the senate. The assembly was easier to gerrymander due to the large number of districts, so that won't happen overnight.
Watching Wiseye, I was impressed with how Stuck, Sinicki, Fields, and Crowley stated their case. Ballweg is a blooming idiot as well as the guys from Stratford and Green Bay. The Stratford guy really ticked me off when he stated how he can't stomach corporate aid, with this case being the exception. Kleefish is a clown. Only one guy on the GOP side appeared to listen and that was the chair.
If, and only if, the Dems wake up and unite against this (Barca), it can be the "read my lips...." George H moment.
On the main topic: Walker should keep his mouth shut. He campaigned on hate with a us vs them platform, he will always attack the people he hates: teachers, state workers, county workers, poor people, ... Why does he hate them? because they gave money to the other side.
Has said ZERO in the last 3 days as Trump has given comfort to Fascists. And likely won't, and will hide from the media if someone ever asks him.
A pathetic amoral coward who has no core values other than "pay me."
Keep it up James. It's well past time Walker and the rest of WisGOP and WisGOP media pay a hefty price for playing footsie with the disgusting underbelly of this state.
Martin Luther King Jr. said a couple of things that pertain here:
“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
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