We're all living now in Robin Vos's basement

And he's shouting again from the top of the stairs. 'You'll do what I say as long as you're living under my roof.'

The fresh evidence is Vos's immediate, misleading and snarky dismissal of the plan Gov. Evers announced in his State of the State speech Wednesday night to create a nonpartisan commission to draft fair redistricting maps once the 2020 census is complete.

“He can form whatever kind of fake, phony, partisan process he wants to create, but I have no doubt in the end we will do it the way we have always have, which is to follow the constitution," Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said.

Two comments:

* Note this description of his mapping commission which Evers tweeted Tuesday evening is what Vos quickly labeled "fake, phony, partisan."

The People’s Maps Commission will be comprised of folks from all across Wisconsin--not politicians, lobbyists, or high-paid consultants--real people from our state who will visit every district, hear directly from Wisconsinites, and draw The People’s Maps. #WISOTS
7:35 PM - Jan 22, 2020 

* And I said "misleading" because Vos' Assembly team used with public funds a partisan, secretive map-drafting process following the previous census to create the current maps - - maps which have given Republicans a blatantly gerrymandered and disproportionate number of legislative seats relative to statewide voting tallies: 

Despite Democrats winning every statewide office on the ballot and receiving 200,000 more total votes, Republicans lost just one seat in Wisconsin’s lower house this cycle. And that victory was by a razor-thin 153 votes. Democrats netted 1.3 million votes for Assembly, 54 percent statewide. Even so, Vos will return to the Capitol in 2019 with Republicans holding 63 of 99 seats in the Assembly, a nearly two-thirds majority.

But we have seen this arrogant, ultra self-serving GOP power-tripping before:

* In the secretive drafting of lame-duck laws that stripped power from the Democratic Governor and Attorney General after the 2018 statewide repudiation of all GOP constitutional office holders.

* In the instant rejection of any floor consideration of Evers' 2019 package of gun safety bills. Though the measures were polling at 80% approval, Vos said that even allowing debate was "playing politics."

* And, of late, in the disclosure that the Capitol staffers Vos added to Republican payrolls after the 2018 elections are now being used at his direction to keep tabs on Evers' appointees and other public employees.

Wisconsin state Assembly Speaker Robin Vos is deploying staffers to closely monitor Gov. Tony Evers’ administration, including the social media accounts of agencies and top appointees, as part of a continued push to counterbalance the Democratic executive. 

So voters and public employees are locked into a long-term lease as unwilling tenants in Vos's basement, bound by a lease he's drafted and rules he's determined to make permanent.

As with the permissions for authoritarianism which Vos's US Capitol counterparts like Mitch McConnell and Ron Johnson are handing to Donald Trump, the GOP prescription in Wisconsin for fairness and transparency bodes badly for democracy.

Impeachment juror Ron Johnson displays his attentiveness

We'd been aware that presidential apologist Ron Johnson was knee-deep in Trump's Ukraine web

but we now also know that Senator Johnson, suddenly an institutionalist, has been listening closely and is shocked, shocked I say, at some of what he's been hearing, as CNN reports:

At one point during the debate, [Democratic House impeachment manager Jerrold] Nadler accused Republican senators of "voting for a cover-up." 

"So far, I'm sad to say, I see a lot of senators voting for a cover up. Voting to deny witnesses, an absolutely indefensible vote, obviously a treacherous vote," Nadler said...

"You don't come into the Senate and accuse senators of engaging in a cover-up or saying that we're on trial. No, we're not," the Wisconsin Republican said, calling the comments "jaw-dropping, couldn't really believe what we were hearing."

Wisconsin man forgot voters didn't buy what he was selling

Desperate for attention, a defeated Scott Walker 

12/11/18, about 5 weeks after his defeat

 disclosed Wednesday that he lives in an irony tower.

Scott Walker: Wisconsin voters aren't buying what Democrats are selling

And he had the nerve in his Trump obeisant screed to write these words:

Wisconsinites don’t want candidates who would sacrifice our prosperity in the name of radical climate ideology, but that’s the only kind of candidate the Democrats have to offer.  

He also forgot that his own climate change ignorance and denial had taken a bite out of Wisconsin's prosperity on his watch. 
Man on an island. Judith Davidoff photo also credited here.

Wisconsin not focused on drinking problems, steep health ranking decline

Impeachment and climate crises may have pushed this stunning reporting off your screens, but it's definitely worth absorbing:

Deaths from boozing and bingeing more than doubled in the past two decades, as alcohol consumption per person rose 8 percent, with sharp increases in the rate for women and middle-aged people.

I'd like to see Wisconsin educators, public officials - - and media beyond TMJ4's 'Drive Sober' awareness and action effort - - confront these known but tolerated facts in our state:

* Wisconsin second in US for binge drinking, study finds

The study puts the total cost of binge drinking in Wisconsin at $3.9 billion, primarily in lost productivity. "There are also costs associated with health care, (and) criminal justice," [study co-author Sarah] Linnan said. 

"Then there's an 'other' category that captures things like motor vehicle crashes, fire losses, fetal alcohol syndrome and things like that."

* Life expectancy drops in Wisconsin due to alcohol, drugs 

Wisconsin's alcohol-related death rate rose more quickly than the national average from 1999 to 2017. In Wisconsin, the rate was 13.5 deaths per 100,000 in 2017 compared with 11.0 per 100,000 nationally. 

Wisconsin's alcohol-related death rate was more than double in 2017 what it was in 1999 — increasing from 356 deaths to 780. 

Wisconsin's alcohol death rate increased by 101.5% in that span, which is above the national rate increase of 57%. 

* The latest excessive drinking and health ranking from the Centers for Disease Control:  

Excessive Drinking

U.S. Value: : 18.2%

Healthiest State: Utah: 11.3%

Least-healthy State: Wisconsin: 25.0%

Definition: Percentage of adults who reported either binge drinking (having four or more [women] or five or more [men] drinks on one occasion in the past 30 days) or chronic drinking (having eight or more [women] or 15 or more [men] drinks per week)

Data Source & Year(s): CDC, Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, 2018

Suggested Citation: America's Health Rankings analysis of CDC, Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, United Health Foundation, AmericasHealthRankings.org, Accessed 2020. 

WHY DOES THIS MATTER? 

Alcohol is the third leading preventable cause of death in the United States behind tobacco and poor diet/physical inactivity. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines excessive drinking as binge drinking, heavy drinking, and any drinking by individuals younger than 21 years or by pregnant women. Excessive drinking comes with short-term and long-term risks.

* Wisconsin's overall downward health trend relative to the other states from #7 to #23. 

 I've noted these issues often on this blog, here: 

 

* 2008:
Kathleen Falk, guest post: Confronting Wisconsin's Drinking Abuses

* 2009:
Wisconsin, Assembly, Under the Wrong Influences, passes weak OWI package

* 2009 

Wisconsin's Drinking Culture Needs Profound Attention

* 2012 
Wisconsin needs bipartisan push for stronger OWI laws

* 2013
Wisconsin's Costly Drinking Culture on Further Display

* 2014: 
Wisconsin Officials Under Alcohol Lobbies' Influence

* 2017
Wisconsin dominates most-drunken cities' list: At what cost?

* 2018
Wisconsin dominates most-drunken cities' list. Again.

WI GOP-led Senate opens session with half-measures, partisan games

The GOP-led legislature managed by design Tuesday to earn an incomplete as it  went back into session. A wrap-up is here; note these deliberately dim low-lights:

* Some controls were were passed by both legislative houses to restrict the use of dangerous contaminants in fire-suppressing foam known as 'forever chemicals' - - but cleanup issues and controls on other types and sources of the chemicals were ignored, or not fully addressed. 

More background, here, from the Midwest Environmental Justice Organization.

And also remember that the far more ubiquitous presence of nitrate contaminants in ground, surface and drinking water has yet to see promised remedies. 

Note this blog item:

Nancy Utesch, guest post: Kewaunee, others, long overdue for clean water 

* Two more of Gov. Evers cabinet nominees were approved by the Senate after more than a year in office, but nine more, exactly half of the positions, remain unconfirmed and some may be permanently saddled with the diminished, 'acting' title. 

I have been tracking this Fitzgerald-to-Evers FU for a while.

Why the delays? So that Senate Majority Leader Fitzgerald and GOP Congressional candidate can continue to play his partisan, 'I'm in charge here' extension of the GOP's anti-Evers-lame-duck power play game.


* As discussed in a Sunday blog item, Fitzgerald's Senate approved the release funding for only one of eight measures already passed by the Assembly to help the homeless. 

The homeless in Wisconsin include veterans and families with children whom the GOP-led Senate has decided should pull themselves up by their own bootstraps while also holding onto their tent poles with or without winter gloves.

Tuesday is dairy lobbying day at the State Capitol

There is a media alternative to the Trump Impeachment trial which opens Tuesday, as WisEye will cover the powerful Wisconsin dairy industry's 
 
second annual State Capitol Dairy Day event beginning at 10:15 a.m., the group reports:

This year's event is being held in conjunction with the annual Dairy Strong Conference (Jan 22-23) so register early and make plans to help DBA amplify dairy’s voice in the state Capitol.

We encourage DBA corporate and farmer members to participate in this event. This is our opportunity to share real-life experiences from the farm that will inform elected officials regarding pros and cons of legislation before them.

• Time: 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
• Where: Wisconsin State Capitol, Room 412 East

ABOUT DAIRY DAY:

Join DBA members and staff on January 21st in Madison as we hear from legislative leaders and administration officials as they provide updates on important agriculture and dairy matters pending before the Assembly and Senate. Help educate lawmakers and their staff on important issues like dairy/milk labeling, crop insurance, nutrient-trading, livestock facility siting, and more, as we conduct office visits and talk personally with individual legislators and their staff.

With the legislature set to adjourn in early Spring and lawmakers heading home to campaign, making your voice heard now is critical. You can help shape the legislative agenda and impact what gets done, or doesn’t, in Madison. Mark your calendar and make your voice heard on Tuesday, January 21st with DBA at Dairy Day at the Capitol.

Note the DBA's strong connections to GOP pols like Scott Walker, as reported by Wisconsin Democracy Campaign:

The Dairy Business Association (DBA), which was created in 1999 and is based in Green Bay, is run by agri-business and large dairy interests that support looser agriculture and environmental regulations and enforcement. The group is backed by dozens of wealthy special interest sponsors that have contributed more than $2.1 million to statewide and legislative candidates, including more than $710,000 to Republican Gov. Scott Walker in recent years.

Those sponsors (Table) include big-name law firms, banking, energy, and large agri-business interests, like Foley and Lardner, Alliant Energy, American Foods Group, BMO Harris Bank, Cargill, Merck, and Monsanto.

The DBA’s backers give it considerable political clout that helps it move a lobbying agenda, which includes legislative bills and state rules to loosen land use, high-capacity well, wetland, groundwater protection, and factory farm regulations and enforcement. Factory farms are formally called concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) and house several hundred or thousands of cows, hogs, chickens and turkeys. 

Additional background from this blog, here. 

Minimal-to-zero MLK Jr. Day buy-in by WI GOP 'leaders'

I'll track whatever once-a-year political pieties get posted on Martin Luther King Jr Day from the same WI GOP rightwing pols who used state power to undermine Dr. King's life's work - - voting rights, living wages for low-income workers for which he was organizing in Memphis when assassinated, and a more fair, just and inclusive America.

For example, I see that Walker 

     Scott Walker

@ScottWalker

·

2h #MLK2020

took a a few seconds on Twitter to paste in a King quote - - 

"We must learn to live together as brothers or we will perish together as fools."  

The Internet helps those who cannot think for themselves or write from the heart.

I'd say Walker put more time into finding this selfie with Nikki Haley and posting it on her special day. 

Scott Walker

@ScottWalker

·

37m

Happy Birthday to my friend

@NikkiHaley

!

On the matter of voting rights, the suppressionist Badger State trio of Walker, Fitzgerald and Vos were all architects of restrictive voter ID laws, illegal barriers to early voting, and gerrymandering's deliberate dilution of fair representation.

100% diametrically opposed to everything which defined Dr. King.

These same GOP opponents of unfettered ballot box access are also responsible for keeping the minimum wage in Wisconsin frozen for years at the rock bottom rate of $7.25 an hour. 

Remember when Walker said during his failed 77-day run for President that the whole concept of a minimum wage was "lame."

Not sure how that belief, or the GOP legislators refusing to release homeless assistance during a brutally cold winter does anything about 'living together as brothers or perishing together as fools.' 

Well, except for that perishing part.

So far, scanning Twitter, I see nothing about Dr. King or the meaning of the holiday today from Vos for Fitzgerald; maybe they'll get to it, or maybe they know they shouldn't even try to fake it.

A special shoutout goes to Glenn Grothman, who opposed designating Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday as a holiday because, as he said, "let's be honest" - - no one really does anything to honor King on his birthday because they've gone "shopping at the mall" or are on "an extended vacation."

For those quotes, and more, watch a four minute montage of Grothman's clips courtesy of HBO's John Oliver, here.

For the record, I see nothing on the matter at hand today on Twitter from Grothman. This is his latest tweet, which has all of two retweets and 10 likes.

Rep. Glenn Grothman

@RepGrothman

·

18h

Go Pack Go! Can’t wait to watch the soon-to-be NFC champions march to victory today and head back where we belong… the Super Bowl. #Packers #Titletown