Walker chairs GOP group that created misleading 'news' site

If you want help putting up a sleazy website, ask a sleazeophile.

No one in Wisconsin will be surprised by the disclosure that right-wing WI GOP Governor Scott ("John Doe") Walker is at the helm of the Republican Governors Association that established this summer a propaganda website that slams Democrats but is designed to look like an Internet-based news operation.

It may look and feel like a standard conservative news source — with the headlines, name and features to match — but The Free Telegraph is anything but. It’s actually a publication funded by the Republican Governors Association.

Props to the AP for outing the fakers and noting that Walker ditched its request for more information. 

Only after The Associated Press inquired about the site last week was a disclosure added to The Free Telegraph’s pages identifying the publication’s partisan source...

“It’s propaganda for sure, even if they have objective standards and all the reporting is 100 percent accurate,” said Republican communications veteran Rick Tyler, whose resume includes Ted Cruz’s 2016 presidential campaign.

RGA Chairman Scott Walker, governor of Wisconsin, deferred questions through a spokesman to the group’s national staff. At RGA, spokesman Jon Thompson said the site is “just another outlet to share those positive results” of the GOP’s 34 Republican governors.

This is the same RGA that has been distorting Foxconn for Walker's benefit - - and this is the same Walker who ran for Governor pledging loyalty to transparency: 

When he says he believes in government transparency, it's not just a campaign slogan, Walker said. 

"I don't just say that, I've lived it," he said.

 

Ice Shelf The Size of Connecticut Close To Collapse

Ahh, that global warming stuff is all propaganda. There's no evidence...wait...what? A mass of ice the size of Connecticut is about to break apart in Antarctica?

Whew...I was was afraid you were going to offer some evidence about global warming. Like I said, it's all propaganda.

Isn't there some news about Britney Spears we can talk about?

Walker retweets self-serving jobs' propaganda

These are the facts about Scott Walker's Wisconsin:

His 250,000 new jobs promise is two years behind schedule, major employers like Oscar Mayer, Caterpillar, and Manitowoc Crane are pulling out and job-creation in a stalled economy is concentrated in low-wage categories where he has frozen the minimum wage at $7.25/hr. - -  and called it a 'livable wage' - - yet he retweets this propaganda to make himself look more attractive and less culpable:

1.  Governor Walker Retweeted

   Wis Dept of Revenue ‏@wi_revenue  Dec 7

   Wisconsin is 7th in nation for labor force participation, DOR economist John Koskinen tells @FoxCitiesChmbr members. #WIWorking

   

Republican math troubles are all about propaganda that hides facts

Republican math is looking bad again - - because the facts again are worse.

Trump last week said Coronavirus cases were at 15 (when they were much higher) and predicted they'd soon go "close to zero." 

The latest count is over 700 - - that trend, like the death toll, is worsening - -  and wait until those long-delayed test kits which Trump also had earlier mis-estimated and under-supplied begin to produce unfortunate, reportable results.

Trump's self-protecting manipulations are hardly surprising, as we watched Trump and his loyalists lie against the obvious photographic evidence about the size of his inauguration crowd, and, more lately, about the size of many of his campaign rallies:

For example, Trump claimed 50,000 people were outside a rally in Houston because they couldn’t get in, but the city’s police chief said the number was much lower: 3,000. In Cleveland, Trump claimed “thousands” of people were outside because the venue was packed. But Twitter users at the event posted evidence that Trump didn’t fill the venue and that only a handful of people were milling around in the parking lot.

Regrettably, this is not just a Trump situation - - it's a Republican Party phenomenon and Wisconsin's GOP 'leaders' have provided many of their own fact-based challenges, including.

* Walker's boast about creating 250,000 new private sector jobs in four years. 

Didn't happen.

* Or Robin Vos's claim that Wisconsin's economy would take off like a rocket were Walker to win the recall election - - a boast which Walker himself had also made:

WI Republicans repeating failed Walker/jobs' fairy tales

...Walker himself mouthed the self-serving talking point about how his plans would spectacularly bring new jobs to Wisconsin:

Gov. Walker says business hiring will skyrocket after he wins recall election

Tuesday, April 17, 2012 

SPRINGFIELD, IL (WTAQ) - Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker told an Illinois business conference today that quote, “like a rocket, you’ll see businesses hiring” after the June fifth recall election. 

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2013 

As Wisconsin's Economy Remains Stalled, We Remember... 

The economic prediction of state legislator Robin Vos, now Assembly Speaker, who spoke with certainty in April 2012 about the coming boom in Wisconsin once Scott Walker nailed down the recall win: 

Once June 5 hits and Gov. Scott Walker is securely re-elected, “our economy is going to take off like a rocket,” state Rep. Robin Vos, R-Rochester, said Monday during a meeting with The Journal Times Editorial Board.  

So, why does Forbes rank Wisconsin 41st for business?  

Gee, how come such trouble with numbers, and therefore about matters of finance and economics, which are sciences based on, you known, numbers, er, data.

Because The Walkers and Voses and Johnsons and Trumps of the political world think that propaganda can magically make things real - - better to lead gullible supporters around by the nose, and perhaps some donors, too - - when, in fact, numbers are facts that represent and explain greater facts - - a reality that Republicans shrug off the way they have twisted, abused, denied or buried facts about everything from coronavirus infections to redistricting to Foxconn and 13,000 [Sic] jobs - - 

From NBC Nightly News, 7/21/19

- - to climate change to wage growth during President Obama's tenure to science altogether.

And if all else fails, if there is something incontrovertibly scientifically all-facted-up because a machine is measuring it in real time, then just move the da*n machine to a place where it will gather different facts and tell the story which GOP special interests want told, and, presto! - - alternative fact - - problem solved, Walker and Trump and all Republicans move on, happy:

A bill to block use of an air quality monitor in Kohler-Andrae State Park has touched off a scientific and political debate. The discussion comes as Sheboygan County is trying to become the last full county in Wisconsin to meet federal standards on ozone pollution. 

The Republican-sponsored legislation would ban state funding of the air monitor and ask the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to stop using readings that show Sheboygan County exceeding federal ozone limits.

Here are WI plant, facility closings/layoffs data bases

[Updated] Let me post below some information about one specific plant closing in Waukesha County, and then links to bigger-picture state data bases so you can understand how phony is that "Open for Business" propaganda GOP Gov. Scott Walker installed at our state borders.

I posted an item Sunday about a Wisconsin plant closing in Waukesha County where 39 union workers will lose their jobs.

Waukesha County reliably supplies GOP Gov. Scott Walker and his pro-business party with their biggest block of votes.

But the unattractive state economy Walker has led for six years - - highlighted by now-sickly-ironic  "Open for Business" billboards at the borders, plus...

 misleading tweets, staged pep talks, broken political promises, apparently useless trade missions and incoherent and ineffective policies managed by scandal-ridden departments - - isn't creating jobs and does nothing when companies pull out from Brillion to Madison (Oscar Mayer) to South Milwaukee (Caterpillar) to Manitowoc Crane.

And Team Walker can't even save good jobs in the heart of his base.

The facility for Walter USA, a division of a Germany-based tools company, is at N22 W23855 RidgeView Parkway West in Waukesha...

Hourly union employees are represented by District Lodge No. 10, Inernational Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, AFL-CIO.

Note that the company being closed is owned by a German firm, which makes the PR shoved out by Walker's office last year (cited in a link above) when he made a no-politics (wink-wink) trip to Germany.

-----------------------------------------------------
Here is a link to a Department of Workforce Development data base about plant closings and layoff notices which met certain criteria that were filed with the state as required by law.

And here is a second link with the details of more than 90, facility-by-facility, location-by-location such notices filed with the state so far this year in Wisconsin affecting more than 7,000 workers.

Consult this the next time you read a posting or story or Tweet from Scott Walker about what a jobs' success he's been.

Trump's gun-toting 'guards' to WI? Others served GOP allies here before

Imitating his favorite despots, Trump has dispatched unaccountable armed troops to beat and snatch protesters on Portland streets.

And Team Trump has threatened to send Trump's taxpayer-paid personal army to Milwaukee during the Democratic National Convention where they could provoke violence and stage manage GOP election propaganda.

If armed outsiders do show up in Milwaukee it would be thesecond time in recent years that big-caliber guns carried by outsiders with sketchy credentials were coordinated in Wisconsin for GOP partisan interests during a campaign.

Do you remember when, without warning, armed guards in forest-blending camouflage uniforms appeared in the North woods ostensibly to secure the perimeter on state-subsidized land which Walker and the GOP had been ram-rodding?

Photos of three guards in masks and camouflage carrying semi-automatic rifles made a splash in local news and went viral on the Internet, stoking a heated debate over the proposed Gogebic Taconite mine. 

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker pushed controversial legislation that fast-tracked the mine by weakening environmental regulations and superseding local government control. The armed guards personified local citizens' sense that outside forces were seizing control of the land in Wisconsin where the GTac mine would go.

"We are calling on you to immediately remove the heavily armed masked commando security forces currently hired to protect your company's property in the Penokee Hills," wrote Wisconsin state senator Bob Jauch (D) and Rep. Janet Bewley (D) in a July 8 letter. "The images are horrifying. ... These kinds of security forces are common in Third World countries but they don't belong in Northern Wisconsin.

The mining company's owner also quietly sent Walker's 2012 recall campaign $700,000 through a third-party conduit designated by Walker to receive the money, records showed.

Further, do you remember that two key WI GOP state legislators at the time but who are now serving in Congress - Glenn Grothman and Tom Tiffany - tried unsuccessfully to assist the armed guards' mission with a special state law - 

Bill would bar public from forest around mine site

A heavily armed, camouflaged security detail guarding the site was pulled out in July for lack of proper licensing from the state, but was approved to resume work in early August. 

- even though the forest land had received substantial state tax breaks in exchange for public access to the acreage?

Mike Wiggins, the region's Bad River tribal chairman, succinctly summed up the guards' presence at the time, and his words fit Trump's troopers if they roll into Milwaukee:

“I’ve got two words: unjustified and unnecessary, Wiggins said.” 

About That Glitzy WisDOT Zoo Interchange PR Mailer...

Three things about the arrival in the mail today of this piece of highway-expansion propaganda/Spring 2013 Newsletter - - "This project is a significant investment in the infrastructure of Milwaukee, creating construction jobs and long-term economic benefits..."

* Isn't it a little presumptuous to be sending around project schedules and justifications when a federal judge is about to schedule a hearing to discuss the project's lack of transit components that violate the rights of low-income plaintiff residents?

Residents whom the judge said were likely to prevail on the merits of their discrimination allegations, so some sort of remedy is going to be ordered.

And..

* Why is WisDOT spending money on multi-color, five-page mass mailings, what with the Internets available?

* "What's next?," the newsletter asks. "Construction in later 2013." Maybe with a little more lead time, the Fall newsletter touted will have news about transit and transit lines inked in.

WEDC sets state record for shameless, self-serving spin

I've been in and around government at several levels for more than 40 years,  and I have never seen a more intellectually shameful op-ed.

Ever. It's not public relations. It's taxpayer-paid propaganda.

WEDC takes bold approach to economic development

For a wee bit of balance.

"Wrong Way, Walker!" Clap, Clap...Clap, Clap Clap. Circa 2011!

File this in your "Great Minds Think Alike" folder.

I'd noted over the weekend that Scott Walker is the deserved heir to the "Wrong-Way" nickname because of Wisconsin's stalled economy and poor job-creation numbers.

You can almost hear the chant, a la "Let's Go, Brew-ers." Clap, clap...clap, clap, clap.

"Wrong-Way Wal-ker." Clap, clap...clap, clap, clap

Anyway - - after putting up the 'wrong-way' posting (I later added a specific case study, here.), a reader sent me the text of an unpublished essay he'd written in 2011. 

Same theme, same meme. Fascinating.

I'm reprinting it below:

11//23/2011

Wrong Way Walker

Watching the Scott Walker administration job creation efforts reminds me of

William Blatty's tale of John "Wrong-Way" Goldfarb. The protagonist in this story was college football star who once ran 95 yards for a touchdown in the wrong direction.

While the Walker publicity, spin and propaganda machine funded by wealthy conservative groups such as Americans for Prosperity and the MacIver Institute make great efforts to suggest they are running up the score. The true game score from the Bureau of Labor Statics provides the real score card. The September report indicates a loss of 12,400 jobs in Wisconsin. 11,500 of those jobs were in the public sector. Wrong way Walker!

The Walker Administration turned down $810,000,000.00 in federal funds to improve Wisconsin railroads and build a high speed train to link Madison, Milwaukee and Chicago. Thousands of jobs were lost with that move. Wrong way Walker!

Scott Walker and his allies are responsible for the loss of hundreds high paying engineering, manufacturing and construction jobs associated with the shut down of Wisconsin Wind Energy projects. Five projects have been cancelled or suspended in recent months. Wrong way Walker!

Instead of working to put Wisconsin residence to work Scott Walker and his Republican allies have focused great efforts to protect their position of power by rushing through a partisan redistricting plan and rigging the election rules making it much more difficult for working people, students, elderly and poorer citizens to vote. Wrong way Walker!

Scott Walker created a crisis out of a budgetary deficit that had grown over the past 10 year. He used that manufactured crisis as an excuse to pass legislation destroying collective bargaining for state employees and then attempted to balance the budget entirely on the back of state and local government employees. At the same time he gave millions in tax cuts to industries that have already been seeing great profits. By taking money away from the middle class and giving it to the wealthy Walker has hurt the Wisconsin economy and the small business. Wrong way Walker!

The Walker Administration and its Republican allies talk allot about creating jobs but the legislation they have worked on has mostly been right wing social agenda and ALEC agenda items. Wrong way Walker!

It is time to bench this guy. Recall Wrong Way Walker.

For Foxconn, Walker bulldozes the language, too

Walker's twitter feeds have been almost non-stop Foxconn-fawning for the last two days (I know, much longer.)

And this tweeted phrase of his a few hours ago that lauded his subsidy-drenched-Foxconn-deal as an historic "corporate attraction project" caught my eye.

That's today's contortion of 'corporate welfare' after it went through the GOP propaganda scrubber, because, you know, 'welfare' is only for those who'd use it as a 'hammock, not a trampoline.' (Shhhh, hear the dog whistle?)

A few more Foxconn-related slogans for the Walker re-election voter and donor attraction project come to mind:

* Don't fret about increased air and water pollution, or the misuse of Lake Michigan approved by Walker and state 'regulators. Think of the the 'Asthma inhaler and metallic-contaminate enhancer attractions.'

* When questioned about potholed state roads and aging bridges he's ignored, Walker can pitch them as his 'auto repair shop attraction project.'

* Similarly, the groundwater pollution he's enabled near large-scale dairy and animal feeding operations can be recast as 'bottled water industry attraction projects, or 'brown water dilution development opportunities.'

* Not to mention Walker's giveaway of public land, and green-lit destruction of rare dunes, vital wildlife habitat, water rights and other vital resources now to be called the 'State Park paving attraction program'

* People being forced from their with homes and farms on the Foxconn site by Walker's 'corporate attraction project, or imaginary 'blight,' or big government declarations of eminent domain can be hailed as pioneers in 'a real estate agent attraction project.'

Cabbage fields on the 'blighted' Foxconn site, 2017

* The flood-mitigating wetlands on the site and in a flood-prone county exempted by the Walker deal from draining and filling protections sahllled be now identified as as 'underutilized water attracting acreage.'

* And the Wisconsin taxpayers being soaked by $4.5 billion in subsidies must be reminded they are funding an 'Illinois millennial attraction project.'

Feel free to add any more new language 'attractions' in the comment section.

And I have added today's post to my continuing Foxconn archive, here.

More GOP budget outrages, including forced water sales between communities

Hap tip to the Blue Cheddar blog for listing more of the dictatorial GOP/Walkerite special interest provisions slipped into the budget at the last moment by the GOP-led Joint Committee on Finance and the chairs who should be recalled  for this brazen attack on democracy in Wisconsin- - Sen. Alberta Darling and Rep. John Nygren.

Note this major change that pre-empts local water conservation and land use policies statewide by requiring one municipality to extend water and serve service to another community, upon request, that wants it.

This could blow a hole in the Great Lakes Compact and the legitimacy of Wisconsin as an honest steward of waters in the Lake Michigan and Superior watersheds just as  Waukesha's Great Lakes diversion request is primed to be moved to the other seven Great Lakes states and two Canadian provinces because the Compact establishes regional rules for water transfers and emphasizes conservation. 

Developers win! Sprawl everywhere. Border wars and litigation forever. Heads-up, Milwaukee Water Works - - they're coming for you.

And more evidence that Walker and his gang are the champions of Big Government, and always have been despite all the propaganda.

From Blue Cheddar:

#66 Extension of water or sewer service between municipalities(this coupled with the changes in the Madison Sewer and Water + Contemplating the Waukesha wanting water out of Lake Michigan thing – LOOKS BIG)

Last Of The Country Club GOP Tickets

I'm not in the election prediction business, so don't look for any outcome bets from me.

But I guarantee this: If Romney-Ryan lose, it's the last country club pairing for the GOP.

Because all the demographics are against it.

Team Obama looks and reacts more like the America of 2012 than the Romney-Ryan America of the Eisenhower '50's.

And while the Electoral College could be the last national election firewall for rural, small-state power against the biggest states with their big, minority-majority populations, I think that's coming to an end, too.(See swing state, Nevada, for example).

Powerful GOP SuperPacs and the politically-active conservatives who finance them, like the Koch brothers, and the fear promoters like Rush Limbaugh and Michael Savage who handle the propaganda and histrionics are exclusionists who are trying to keep a grip on a disappearing status quo.

Mitt Romney represents the end of that line.

In Which The Journal Sentinel's Managing Editor Sandbags A Columnist

I enjoyed this exchange on Facebook about a column written by the in-house conservative, Patrick McIlheran, which I posted as recommended reading for my Facebook friends.

The first comment is by George Stanley, the managing editor, whose newsroom team has done extensive, award-winning coverage of plastic residues.

James Rowen recommends a link.

Bisphenol A? 'No noteworthy risk,' says big German toxicology panel - JSOnline

www.jsonline.com

The German Society of Toxicology recently reviewed thousands of studies of the chemical found in many plastics and concluded that “exposure represents no noteworthy risk to the health of the human population, including newborns and babies.”

21 hours ago

James Rowen Somebody has to speak up for plastics in the food chain. Enjoy. 
21 hours ago ·

• • 
  • George Stanley The acknowledgments section reveals that the scientists all have financial ties to the plastics industry -- just as we have found over and over again, as the industry fights a propaganda war to protect its $7 billion product: http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/34405049.html
    

    11 hours ago ·
    
    
  • 
    

    James Rowen Still, every down-trodden institution and beaten-down interest needs a champion.
    

    11 hours ago ·

All eyes will be on this huge WEDC grant

Just saying:

Quad/Graphics Inc., which won a major new magazine printing contract this year, plans to create 500 more jobs in Wisconsin in the next few years. 

The company will be eligible to earn $15.7 million in state tax credits from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. as part of the planned expansion.

Given the bigger picture in recent focus:

Wisconsin's troubled jobs agency did not independently verify whether businesses receiving tax dollars created the jobs they promised, state auditors told a panel of lawmakers on Wednesday.  

Addressing the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, officials with the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau detailed a May audit of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation. The audit found cases in which WEDC didn't comply with state law or its own policies, made awards without the proper review and didn't require confirmation that jobs were created after businesses received awards.

And this bit of fresh official, WEDC shoulder-shrugging:

Walker's signature Wisconsin job-creating agency failure doesn't have the time or the will to crack down and police itself after being caught giving public subsidies to companies sending work overseas. 

No matter that it's an old story; we're on The Big Government Real Slow Time Clock these days, Bucky. 

Or that when the WEDC was in full buzzword-and-propaganda mode, the agency used to brag about how "nimble" it was.

WEDC board puts off outsourcing issue for a month

WEDC’s mission of supporting economic development and job creation through bold initiatives aimed at propelling Wisconsin’s economy forward remains intact.  

While undergoing a complete restructuring of human resources, information technology and accounting systems as part of its transformation, WEDC has successfully created a nimble, efficient, customer-focused organization—one that is better positioned to meet the needs of businesses operating in an intensely competitive global economy than the old Wisconsin Department of Commerce.

Sloppy Sleaze Supporting Mine

The Wisconsin State Journal sheds light on heavy-handed political work by Americans for Prosperity - - a Koch Brothers-funded right-wing advocacy organization - - aimed at defeating grassroots candidates who oppose the proposed controversial open-pit iron ore mine in Iron County.

Heavy-handed and ham-handed, too, as the group's big-dollar, door-to-door literature misidentified one well-known mine supporter as an opponent, and mistakenly published his neighbor's phone number, to boot.

The flyer listed phone numbers for each of the seven candidates challenging county board members.  

"Call these anti-mine radicals and tell them to stand up for you and your local jobs, not radical environmental policies," the mailer urges in bold red lettering.

An out-of-state organization claiming others are influencing local issues is pure projection propaganda, given its underlying hypocrisy.

Similar efforts by the group have been noted in local Iowa, Nebraska and Ohio elections. 

The northern Wisconsin leaflet is not the first indication the outside right-wing advocacy group has ties to the controversial mine plan.

In November, I'd noted the mining company - - GTac, owned by Floridian Chris Cline - - and Americans for Prosperity had hired the same lobbyist for Wisconsin activities.

Milwaukee Business Leaders Meet Their Worst Enemy - - Themselves

Our hometown business leaders, in love with China, rip their city, and in the process, probably help Colorado win the Coors/Miller merged headquarters.

Nice work, fellas.

It's that old story: Milwaukeans just can't stop beating themselves up, but those guys do it in print. Go figure - - especially since there's more than enough data and reporting around that indicates China may not be the most attractive production model for American business leaders to follow.

I've added some contextual updates about that below, but first - - want to see how a progressive business leader can sound when addressing a business audience with a fully open mind, about issues which, again, other Wisconsin business leaders have been negative?

Give this a read. It's about the need to preserve the Great Lakes, differing substantially from the isolationist and self-interested propaganda about Great Lakes water coming out of the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, Metropolitan Home Builders Association and the Waukesha Chamber of Commerce.

Update:

The Journal Sentinel carries its own version of the business leaders' anti-Milwaukee complaints, wherein we learn that when our CEO's fly to China they love being met at airports in escorted limousines, like potentates, emergency lights flashing.

Turns out that visiting business bigwigs just love the fawning attention they receive in a Communist dictatorship.

Oh, the ironies.

Yes, the Chinese government and its tightly-controlled corporate infrastructure can provide what our business leaders most crave: low costs.

That's because China runs on minuscule wages, crappy environmental standards, laws against unions, and other favors that can only be guaranteed in a one-party, military state.

NPR recently carried an interview with experts who monitor plants in China that produce goods, including popular brand name shoes and clothing, for US retailers.

It turns out that many Chinese workers make 55-60 cents an hour and must work mandatory overtime - - pay that is often withheld from female workers who also are harassed, even sexually assaulted on the job.

And without a union to take up their cases.

Further Update:

Chinese officials beat a blogger to death, according to CNN.

OK, so not every country enshrines free speech to the extent of the US Constitution, but where's the outrage about this event. Note that the report says "officials," or what we here call "under the color of law."

And remember a few months ago that the Chinese government executed the head of their Food and Drug Administration equivalent for poorly regulating the sale of lead-tainted toys?

If we imitate that model, a lot of the top people at our Consumer Products Safety Commission and other agencies and manufacturers would have relocated to Brazil by now.

Further, Further Update:

The death toll in Chinese coal mines last year was nearly 3,800 miners, according to official sources. That's more than ten dead miners a day. Any US business leaders want to step up and endorse that lovely safety record as worth emulating?

Based on tons of coal mined, China's death toll annually is about 100 times higher than the US miner's fatality toll. In some recent years, that data shows the number of Chinese miners killed above 5,000, when the number in the US was under 25.

China is the model for how we should do business here?

I hope not.

Rolling Stones's Piece About Fox News, Roger Ailes A Must-Read

The current Rolling Stone documents the creation by Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch of the Republican and right-wing propaganda platform known as Fox News [sic].

Outstanding journalism, disturbing subject.

Paul Ryan's hometown showcases economic abandonment

A Washington Post staff writer discovers in book-length fashion Janesville, WI, where General Motors closed its historic assembly plant and The Great Recession upended thousands of middle-class people in a traditional union town.

Janesville is the very sort of place which would benefit if Donald Trump and hometown House Speaker and local one-percenter Paul Ryan made good on their promise to make America great again.

Ditto if GOP Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's famously-broken 250,000 new jobs pledge had ever any depth beyond campaign propaganda - - but along with Walker's approval of 'right-to-work' legislation and other wage-depressing moves - - Wisconsin is entrenched in the slow-growth, low-wage bottom third of US state economies and Republicans serving big business agendas are fine with that.


The Ryan/Trump Obamacare demolition bill which was really a tax break bill for the wealthy would have further pushed Janesville's working class further down the ladder.

And the rest of the Ryan/Trump reward-the-rich-tax reform plans coming soon to the Congress, so about Janesville being the Wisconsin Capitol of a Newly Great America, my eight-ball says, 'don't bet on It.'

WI DNR can't clean water, do science; can shill for Walker

Under rightwing GOP Gov. Scott Walker's "chamber of commerce mentality" direction, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources can't protect Wisconsin ground and well water, protect its science staff or keep climate change information on its public websites, and even though Walker has failed to keep in six years the 250,000 new jobs promise he pledged to complete in four, the DNR is using it its official Twitter page to shill for Gov. Walker with preposterous propaganda better suited to the partisan re-election ads Walker will air later this year: 

Wisconsin DNR ‏@WDNR  57s57 seconds ago57 seconds agoGreat #WIWorking story to be told during the State of the State Tuesday-3pm. Preview at https://walker.wi.gov/wiworking . #AccountableGov

This is why I call the DNR Wisconsin's new Department of Commerce. 

And if Walker announces tomorrow that he indeed is killing the DNR by breaking it for his corporate clients into scattered pieces, no doubt agency Secretary Cathy Stepp - - leading Walker and Donald Trump cheerleader - - will be touting the agency's destruction with the same enthusiasm as she brought to the table when she was the DNR's loudest and most sarcastic critic before Walker handed her a $100,000-per-year, taxpayer-paid-and-pension- boosting perch to undo the department from atop and within.
  

Despite Right-Wing Propaganda, Most Americans Support Public Option In Health Insurance Reform

It makes sense that consumers - - well-trained in the logic of the marketplace and adept at turning off the Right-Wing spin machine - - tell pollsters that they want the option of buying government-run health insurance to compete with private plans.

Choices.

That's what consumers are saying.

If it's too expensive, consumers will maintain or return to private plans.

And if it's a better deal - - as each will define for him or herself - - then the government plan gets the contract.

Righties can yammer all they want as a distraction about the Postal Service (I think fourty-four cents for airmail, then door-to-door delivery is one of the world's great remaining bargains, but I think the message is clear and I expect the Congress to set the public option in motion.