The US right adheres to a socio-political takeover blueprint

The right has endless business-driven funding and coordinated institutions that keep compliant Republican politicians in power.

That didn't happen by accident.

And this isn't a conspiracy theory - - just a true story about political planning and discipline.

And now that we have learned about a) the spreading national influence of super-wealthy Milwaukee-based Bradley Foundation, and b) watched it openly take control of the Walker for Governor campaign which c) Koch interests also boosted as far back as 2007, and 

d) seeing the consequences of Wisconsin's clean air and water being handed to private interests under Walker's chamber of commerce mentality' direction while e) he and his State Capitol allies have a new plan to advance that agenda through a conservative 'leadership' center on the taxpayer funded UW-Madison campus, it's the right time to familiarize yourself with how and where this right-wing movement began:

In a lengthy, must-read blueprint forwarded confidentially as a memo years ago to the US Chamber of Commerce by corporate attorney Louis Powell whom GOP President Richard Nixon was about to elevate to the US Supreme Court.

,,,the Chamber and corporate activists took his advice to heart and began building a powerful array of institutions designed to shift public attitudes and beliefs over the course of years and decades. The memo influenced or inspired the creation of the Heritage Foundation, the Manhattan Institute, the Cato Institute, Citizens for a Sound Economy, Accuracy in Academe, and other powerful organizations. 

Powell wanted powerful conservatives and groups to back a system of well-funded right-wing alternative scholars, campus speakers, television, print media, books, and more - - and his pitch pre-dated Citizens United and the Internet.

When I see that Wisconsin Republicans are planning a conservative-focused center on the UW-Madison, or that Walker's DNR is promoting pro-industry ideological information instead of consensus climate change science, and that the Bradley Foundation wants to take its Wisconsin 'successes' national, I see an amped up, 21st-centry version of the Louis Powell right-wing takeover memo still influential after almost 50 years.

Robin Vos has political dreams for UW 'leadership' center

I'd noted recently that Wisconsin GOP leaders were launching through the pending state budget the umpteenth facility named after former GOP Gov. Tommy Thompson - - purportedly an academically-credible 'Leadership' Center on the UW campus - - but then veteran UW-Madison thought controller and partisan eager beaver GOP Assembly Speaker Robin Vos forgot out loud the cover story:
In addition to statements about bipartisanship in announcing the center, Vos spoke of his long-held belief that conservative ideology gets short shrift at UW. 

“Hopefully it will be able to offset some of the liberal thinking," Vos said of the center to Wisconsin Public Radio. 

"This is just hoping that we can have a balance of thought on campus."

I guess everyone is entitled to his or own version of the Wisconsin Idea - - like Walker did not too long ago when Vos concluded Walker's timing was off.

And I see Vos' point, as Wisconsin-based conservative groups like the Bradley Foundation can't afford to underwrite studies and writers and advocacy and think tanks.

Golf course annexation scheme gets 5/30 public review

Talk about the rich and powerful tilting the playing field in the middle of a game.

Frustrated with local opposition in the Town of Wilson to the Kohler proposal to convert a 247-acre wetland/rare dune/native artifact rich-nature preserve 

into a high-end golf course, Kohler interests have launched an annexation petition that would repress the opposition by moving the property's boundaries into the City of Sheboygan for perhaps a more favorable reception.

The annexation scheme is on the City's Plan Commission agenda Tuesday, May 30 at 4:00 p.m, beginning with a public input period:

2.2 Approval of the Plan Commission minutes from May 9, 2017.

2.3 Kohler Annexation--Public Input

2.4 R. O. No. 32-17-18 by the City Clerk submitting a communication from Reinhart Attys. at Law at the request of their client, Kohler Co., a Wisconsin corporation ("Kohler"), enclosing the Annexation Petition for lands in the vicinity of Stahl Road (CTH KK) and 12th St. (CTH V) in the Town of Wilson.

2.5 Gen. Ord. No. 4-17-18 by Ald. Bohren and Sorenson amending the City's Zoning Map of the Sheboygan Zoning Ordinance to change the Use District Classification of property being the entire area included in the annexation petition as shown on the attached map received and dated May 15, 2017, from Town of Wilson P1, A2, A3 and R1 to Class Suburban Residential (SR-5) Classification.

Beware privatized roads' siren songs

There has been talk about creating toll roads in Wisconsin,

or Donald Trump making it easier for states like Wisconsin to convert highways into private-sector cash cows while chickening out on making tough fundamental tax and spending decision-making.

You may hear tall tales from proponents about these can't fail schemes - - but remember that Indiana turned its toll road over to the private sector, only to see the deal go bankrupt, and rates skyrocketed when the City of Chicago privatized its parking meter system"

Some details I posted in 2014: 

-----------------------------------------

Privatization alert II. Or shall we call it - -  Ex-Gov. Mitch Daniels, (R), fail:

In filing for bankruptcy, the company that operates the Indiana Toll Road has reignited an old debate about the controversial privatization of the Toll Road in 2006.

Those who opposed leasing the highway in 2006 are now outspoken, citing concerns about the future of the road and quality of its upkeep.

As we noted here, earlier, warning against these schemes:

FRIDAY, MARCH 22, 2013

Privatization Alert: Why Chicago On-Street Parking Is $6.50/Hr.

File this away as Walkerites at the Capitol look to transfer public assets to private interests for ideological satisfaction, short-term budget gains and long-term added costs to taxpayers, consumers, shoppers and commuters.

One case in point: outrageously expensive parking - - now $6.50/hr.- -  at Chicago ramps and on-street now leased seemingly forever to private operators:

[Consultant Richard Layman] wrote almost one year ago ("A lesson to cities that they need to be very careful when leasing assets to public private "partnerships") about the continuing debacle of Chicago's long term lease of its parking garages and parking meters to a for profit consortium.

Hat tip, streetsblog.net 

Same sort of big toll increases continue since its leasing at the Chicago Skyway:

On January 1st, drivers who use the Chicago Skyway toll road will be paying more to use the 7.8 mile length of tollway...from the current $3.50 to $4.00.

According to a report from Fox News citing the Federal Highway Administration, the Skyway was already the costliest interstate toll road in the U.S....

The City of Chicago leased the Skyway, which links the Dan Ryan to the Indiana Toll Road, to a private investment group in 2005 for 99 years and $1.83 billion dollars.

The fatter toll policy after long-term privatization continues right into the
the Indiana tollway, too:

Study calls Indiana Toll Road lease a bad deal

The Indiana Toll Road lease may have paid off in the short term, but a new study concludes it'll be a bad deal for taxpayers in the long run.

Bannon's War Room Strategy: There's Jared!

Watch Bannon

refocus the Trump White House signature circular firing squad at his main rival.

Steve Bannon to head Trump's Russia war room of legal 'A-Team,' street fighters and surrogates

Jared, Trump's bestie surrogate son.

More disconnects between WI beauty, tourism & toxic mining

I had noted the other day that right-wing GOP Gov. and chief state environmental trasher Scott Walker was again touting to tourists the same wetland-and-waterfalls-rich area he'd worked to change with dynamite, drilling and deforestation into North America's biggest open-pit iron ore mine.

Now here's yet another example.

The Journal Sentinel is running another in its 'see Wisconsin' parks and hikes series, this time directing people to scenic sites along the Menominee River on the state's border with Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

But where yet another open-pit mine is planned which could discharge toxic sulfide residue into important waters including into the river, Green Bay and Lake Michigan.

Note these comments in a Michigan publication:

The River Alliance of Wisconsin, the Front 40 citizens group and the Wisconsin Resources Protection Council oppose the mine over fears that pollution could contaminate the adjacent Menominee River, a major Lake Michigan tributary flowing into Green Bay which is the focus of state and federal downstream fishery projects aimed at restoring lake sturgeon populations...

Joan Delabreau, Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin chairwoman, said she was "sickened" by the DEQ draft decision to permit a mine on historic burial grounds. 

I'd written about this, and more than once:

I'd posted about this travesty a few months ago - - 

Regulators in Michigan thought few people would notice on the first day of the three-day Labor Day holiday weekend that the state began formally moving to approve an environmentally and culturally destructive open-pit mine at the water-rich Michigan-Wisconsin border on land sacred to the Menominee Tribe of Wisconsin - - 

- - and now it looks like the mine thanks to right-wing GOP Rick Snyder's water and environmental 'regulators' is a big step closer to opening.

And by the way, anyone think Walker's 'chamber of commerce DNR' will do anything but help out Walkers bestie Rick Snyder? 

GOP pols misunderstand "Bully Pulpit," project "Ugly American"

Trump got elected President despite ginning up supporters to "knock the crap" out of certain people at his rallies and creating a hostile atmosphere for reporters covering his campaign, so it's not surprising that his GOP ally Greg Gianforte

could win a Congressional seat in Montana last night after knocking the crap out of a reporter the day before.

The penalty for misdemeanor assault in Montana is a $500 fine, or a six month jail sentence, or both, but apparently there's no penalty for knocking the crap out of a reporter and then lying to the public about who knocked the crap out of whom.

Neutral witnesses noted and publicized the incident's actual true facts, and the congressional candidate who won the election in heavily-Republican Montana where most voters cast early ballots did apologize on election night for knocking the crap out of the reporter but did not apologize for the coverup lies his campaign told on his behalf after the assault.

The country is in deeper trouble if a Congressional candidate can knock the crap out of a reporter, offer a half-apology and be seated in the US Congress.

"Bully pulpit" is a phrase coined by former US President Teddy Roosevelt to describe the virtues and opportunities of Presidential leadership.

The Trumpian breed of GOP politician is light years away from TR because they are taking "bully" as a blueprint.

Trump even shoved aside a world leader for a better spot in a photo op, so that became photographic proof of Trump's bullying penchant.

These Republican power trippers better look to "Ugly American," and instead of knocking the crap out of people, trying just knocking it off.

Walker to make WI #1 in cold-hearted citizen humiliation

[Updated] Wisconsin under right-wing GOP Governor and career public benefit recipient Scott Walker

ranks poorly among the 50 states on everything from job creation to clean well water to road repairs to new business start-up activity - - more facts about his record, here - -  but, by God, he's figured out a way to make us first in something:

Drug-testing some low-income health care applicants before they get the aid, regardless of the cost to taxpayers or the health-care recipients state of mind.

And as to the cost to taxpayers, note the waste in this stupid power play:

As of March, about 1,900 W-2 participants had been screened for drugs, with only nine of those — less than one-half of 1% — referred for treatment and none successfully completing it, according to the Legislature's nonpartisan budget office.

If you want to drug-test Wisconsinites when public dollars might at risk and whose judgment might be clouded by substance abuse, how about testing the people who repeatedly gave away or pocketed millions of public dollars without routine accountability?

Update: The GOP-led, Walker-obesiant Legislature's budget-writing committee has also approved a host of measures further restricting food stamp and other assistance to the poor. 

The real message is: move out!

Trump's Great Lakes pro-pollution budgeting would sacrifice these waters

Donald Trump's so-called budget which also reflects Paul Ryan's end to public services would cancel funding for Great Lakes restoration. 

Twenty percent of the world's fresh surface waters are in Lake Michigan, below, and its four sister lakes - - Superior, Huron, Erie and Ontario - - 

which are under major stress from invasive species, manure and chemical runoff and other legacy problems which Trump's budget as proposed would absolutely worsen.

Trump's jargon-addicted budget drafters say state and local governments could pick up the loss of hundreds of millions of federal dollars annually which the Great Lakes and the economies they support need to survive - - 

States may be able to adjust to reduced funding levels by reducing or eliminating additional activities not required under federal law, prioritizing programs and seeking other funding sources, including fees," the budget office's written narrative says.

- - thus displaying Team Trump's abject ignorance about the paper-thin budgeting margins these governments already live with and further ignorance of taxpayer efforts like this at Milwaukee's Bradford Beach and elsewhere along the Lakefront

to keep the Great Lakes clean.

The Trump budget also wipes out a similar clean-up plan for the Chesapeake Bay watershed and cuts the US EPA budget by about one-third.

I guess if you're cutting the Medicaid/health insurance and other social safety net programs, it makes 'logical' sense to cut the environment's safety net programs, too.

Wisconsin dominates drunkest-cities' rankings. At what cost?

Nothing to boast about: 

Seven Wisconsin cities are within the top ten of a list of the drunkest cities in America. Ten Wisconsin cities are on the top 20 list.

24/7 Wall St.’s Drunkest Cities in America list puts Green Bay at the top, followed by Eau Claire at No. 2, Appleton at No. 3, Madison at No. 4, Oshkosh at No. 6, Wausau at No. 9, La Crosse at No. 10, Fond du Lac at No. 12, Sheboygan at No. 15 and Milwaukee at No. 20.

 
It does help explain why Wisconsin is the only state to treat a first OWI arrest as a ticket, but you have to wonder if the lost productivity and related health, social and community consequences from heavy drinking acknowledged by the State of Wisconsin in a November, 2016 report - - 

Alcohol Use Remains High
The per capita alcohol consumption rate in Wisconsin is 1.3 times higher than the national rate. The alcohol consumption rate for adults is 10 percentage points above the national rate (63% vs. 53%). Heavy drinking among adults is more common in Wisconsin than the nation as a whole. Wisconsin’s rate of adult binge drinking (22%) is third highest across all states and U.S. territories. Wisconsin women of childbearing age consume alcohol at levels higher than their national peers.

Consequences of Alcohol Consumption Outpace National Rates
Given Wisconsin’s alcohol consumption patterns, it is not surprising that the rates at which Wisconsin experiences the consequences associated with alcohol use have also tended to be higher than national rates. Since 2008, rates of alcohol abuse and dependence have been higher in Wisconsin than the nation as a whole. Wisconsin's rate of death from alcohol-related liver cirrhosis has risen since 2008 as has the rate of alcohol-related deaths from causes other than liver cirrhosis. The latest available data show that Wisconsin has 1.2 times the national rate of arrests for operating while intoxicated (OWI) and almost three times the national rate of arrests for liquor law violations.

- - are in any way connected to the state's persistent economic stagnation and well-documented entrepreneurial failure.

Note also that the State Department of Health Services produced an undated draft report on these matters labeled "not for distribution" but which is posted on the Internet, minced no words and cited 2015 data said state's abusive drinking had been connected in 2010 to more than 5,200 deaths and injuries and more than 67,000 arrests.

According to America’s 2015 Health Rankings, Wisconsin ranks 49th for Binge Drinking and 45th for Chronic Drinking. Wisconsin ranks 23rd for drug deaths... 

Wisconsin continues to rank among the worst in the nation for both heavy drinking and binge drinking among adults. Approximately one in four (24.3%) Wisconsin adults engaged in binge drinking in the previous month, compared to the national median of 18.3%; and 9.8% of Wisconsin adults engaged in heavy drinking, compared to the national median of 6.6% (data not shown).

In 2013, the total bill for the state's binge drinking was reported at $6.8 billion every year. That's a substantial penalty, and its implications demand more policy attention.

I've posted items on this theme over the years - - a sample, here - - and former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk did her best some years ago to focus the public's awareness, but few others followed her lead.

Pressure mounting on Milwaukee County to save its public grounds

[Updated] A reminder that today's the day. so call your Milwaukee County Board supervisor now or attend the Board meeting today at 1 p.m. in support of ceasing road-building and other 'development' on what's left of the County Grounds.
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The latest from the citizens who are forcing Milwaukee County leaders to keep the bulldozers and chains saws and road-builders out of what's left of the precious County Grounds:

The public outcry is working! Thanks to you and your attendance, letters, emails and calls, the door is open for a new Resolution to the County Board to be on the agenda for Thursday May 25th (approximate agenda time, 11am)  at the Milwaukee County Courthouse, 901 N 9th St.,  Milwaukee, WI, 53233, Room 200 Here’s another opportunity to make a call, write another email, and if you can, attend the meeting to support the new resolution requesting that the City of Wauwatosa rezone the remainder of the County Grounds as County Parkland!   Please contact your Supervisor and cc ALL the Supervisors AND the County Supervisor, urging them to support the resolution to request Wauwatosa to rezone the remaining parcels on the County Grounds as Parkland.  All County Supervisors and the County Executive contact info can be found at: http://www.countygroundscoalition.org/contacts%20at%20county%20(002)1.pdf Phone calls would be great, as well. (#’s in the link) Key points to consider:  Wauwatosa has asked the County for their interests for this land, and this is the means and the moment to tell them that the land should be rezoned as parkland.  This resolution will set in motion actions needed for Wauwatosa to rezone and protect this precious area.  Wauwatosa is asking to develop on precious land and asking to loosen restrictions of the UWM land, including the Monarch Conservancy. There will be no stopping Wauwatosa from over-developing the County Grounds UNLESS we continue to make our voices heard. Ask the County Board of Supervisors and the County Executive to SAVE ALL the remaining natural areas on the County Grounds.  This resolution will request a “suspension of the rules” (which requires a 12+ member vote) and states: Be it Resolved, that the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors hereby opposes land sale, land swap, rezoning/re-designation, or compromise of the acreage of County Grounds Park; and Be it Further Resolved, that Milwaukee County supports and encourages the City of Wauwatosa to rezone the remaining parcels of the approximate 43 acres of wooded area under Taxkey # 372999917 and Taxkey #373999907, known as Sanctuary Woods, to the appropriate designation equivalent as parkland to expand the boundaries of County Grounds Park, and be subject to the protections granted under Wisconsin Statutes Section 59.17(2)(b)(3) that prohibit the sale of parkland. Thank you so much for helping protect this precious bit of land – our heritage and our legacy...

Ryan's GOP US House bill gains death panel status

This hurriedly approved gift to the rich at the expense of lower-income Americans - - how does an 850% premium increase strike you? - - this craven and inhuman partisan garbage - - belongs to US House of Representatives Speaker

and Badger State embarrassment Paul Ryan:

WASHINGTON — A bill to dismantle the Affordable Care Act that narrowly passed the House this month would increase the projected number of people without health insurance by 14 million next year and by 23 million in 2026, the Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday. That 10-year figure is slightly less than originally estimated... 

And in states that seek waivers from rules mandating essential health coverage, the new law could make insurance economically out of reach for some sick consumers.

Pope Francis signal sent, received

Besides his grim visage, note the Pope's distance from his guest and sad sack entourage. Body language keeper.

Great Lakes GOP leaders own Trump's Great Lakes trashing

What with Trump's budget ending Great Lakes Restoration and crucial, related Sea Grant funding, and cutting more clean water grants to states by 45%, it seems like a good day to acknowledge two literally sickening realities:

*  Donald Trump and his team - - the true invasive species threatening the region's waters - - do not know one thing or give a damn about the very Great Lakes states like Wisconsin and Michigan where his misled and manipulated voters gave him the Electoral College votes that put him in the White House.

Just as doesn't give a damn about their health care, public schools, clean air, and any other human need which government is supposed to improve, and to which government should at least do no harm.

*  And a solid wall of Wisconsin Republican elected officials - - Walker, Ryan, Sensenbrenner, Johnson, et al, 

in our state which borders and relies upon two of the five Great Lakes and has already under our Brown Water Governor flouted exiting clean water obligations, reduced water pollution inspection and enforcement and tolerated more phosphorous discharges impairing lakes and rivers that pollute the very Great Lakes Trump would officially ignore - - told presidential election voters here repeatedly that Trump was the best person to put into office and to write the next federal budget.

Under Paul Ryan and fellow Wisconsinite Reince Priebus' purportedly expert insider tutelage, who, like Walker and the rest of his in-state Ignoramus Caucus would rather cut taxes for their wealthy donors than make sure everyone else had cleansed, swimmable, fishable rivers and lakes, Great and otherwise.

Somehow all these incompetents and ideologues got on board their preferred Ship of Fools to the obvious detriment of our state and region's most important and already greatly endangered water resource and economic driver - - the Great Lakes.

Tommy Thompson made King of WI Naming Rights. Again.

Finally, some good news about the Wisconsin fiscal picture. 

The state's GOP leadership has found a few extra million bucks and knows how to spend it, so let's just say there's gonna be another Tommy Thompson trading card for your collection!

You've already got your Governor Thompson State Park card, and one of those Governor Tommy G.Thompson State Fish Hatchery cards


and the Tommy G. Thompson WHEDA Commerce Center card, and a Tommy G. Thompson Youth Center at the Wisconsin State Fairgrounds card in that album of yours - - not to mention the rare Governor Tommy Thompson Amtrak locomotive card - - for those still searching eBay for an affordable example, some photos of AMTK 182 are here.

But soon...drum roll, please...make a space for a Tommy G. Thompson Center on Public Leadership on the UW Madison campus card.

On a campus where there's already a public policy school.

No matter. 

Funded through a budget that will not provide enough money to fill the potholes in your streets, or finance buses for people without cars to get to jobs or make a dent in processing Attorney General Brad Schimel's backlog of untested rape kits.

No matter - - Wisconsin Republicans have their priorities. 

And imagine what Republicans have in store for us when Scott Walker finally gets a retirement job.

GOP infighting ties up WI legislature, US Congress

So right-wing Wisconsin Republicans run the whole show here, but State Senators, Assembly reps and the Governor can't agree on budgetary basics, meaning that Walker is threatening to veto in toto what his alleged allies 

send him if the details doesn't meet his precise and phonied-up re-election campaign specifications.

Kind of like the budgetary hangups among factionalized, similarly-paralyzed, can't govern-GOP Members of Congress and their Maximum Leader.

Is it a coincidence that GOP politicos Reince Preibus and House Speaker Paul Ryan are also from one-party, Republican-dominated and dysfunctional Wisconsin?

Where the state motto is the now-inaccurate "Forward."

Correcting Walker's bad math, phony claims & partisan propaganda

Right-wing GOP WI Gov. and habitual self-promoting propagandist Scott Walker

has spun and tweeted some cherry-picked numbers into alternative facts and half-baked re-election campaign claims that need some sunlight and correction.

*  For example, Walker says the state's workforce is the largest in Wisconsin history.

Well, so is the state's population, and yet Wisconsin under Walker:

* Regularly ranks in the bottom third for job growth.

*  Never came close after his more than six years in office to creating the 250,000 new private-sector jobs he repeatedly promised to create after a mere four - - more about that, here.

*  Has kept the minimum hourly wage frozen at a rock bottom $7.25, added jobs that are principally in low-wage categories, so no surprise that Wisconsin under Walker led the country in loss of middle-class incomes.

Additionally:

*  Walker says the state is in the top ten for fully-funded pension systems.

The Wisconsin pension system is a known, carefully-constructed national success he inherited, belongs to the workers and retirees who contribute to it and has nothing to do with his ideology or handiwork. 

*  He again touts a business opinion survey of CEO magazine readers who ranked Wisconsin as a top ten state for doing business, but does not mention a broader, data-driven survey for business start-up activity which ranked Wisconsin dead last among the states for the third years in a row, as I noted.

*  He also says Wisconsin's borrowing for highways is the lowest in years, but does not mention that because he has long championed overspending on new lanes and major projects, the condition of Wisconsin's roads is rated second-worst nationally, as I have also reported.

Also nowhere on Walker's list:

*  Our state's 12th-from-the-bottom ranking on a measure of well-water contamination.

*  Our 7th from the bottom ranking nationally for attracting new residents with college degrees, a measure of the so-called "brain-gain' index.

Maybe they've heard about the bad water. Or the middling-to-crummy job market. Or the measurable disinterest in entrepreneurship.

Or Walker's hard-right obsession with blocking ballot box access, using the poor as campaign cudgels, cutting science and climate change information from state agencies and handing over groundwater, wetlands, woodlands and clean air to private interests to whom quality of life is just another commodity to sell to the highest bidder.

These inequities, omissions, disparities, and partisan sleights-of-hand are better explained by additional numbers Walker never discuses - - his PolitiFact truth-telling ratings.

Currently, his vetted statements are rated at 13% True, a combined 29% False or Pants on Fire, with the rest somewhere in between.