Trump The Tariff King is all Walker, Ryan's

It's embarrassing to watch Wisconsin's GOP leaders ever so cautiously try and manage the new Tariff King whose persistent crazed and destructive behaviors never provoked a true, principled break.

Assaulting women? Ah, female voters. Pfftt!

Coddling Nazis and racists? That'll blow over.

Dismantling the EPA? Now you're talking.

But now the Tariff King whom Walker endorsed from the stage of the GOP nominating convention in 2016 and whom Ryan has excused and enabled as an apprentice the Speaker could tutor is upending the state's leading Republican geniuses just as they are fine-tuning their re-election campaigns by exposing state farm products exporters and manufacturers like Harley-Davidson and MillerCoors and all sorts of smaller shops to trade war retaliation as well as higher prices for steel and aluminum which keep Wisconsin's economy afloat.

Walker responded with a meek request for reconsideration submitted "respectfully" to Trump.
Three problems with that tact: 1. Respectfully is a four-syllable word directed at an intentional know-nothing for whom reading is a burden. 2. Trump respects no one outside of his immediate family. 3. And he does not reconsider things when doing so would be interpreted as weakness, flip-flopping.

Ryan threw together for Trump an equally timid and self-defeatingly polysyllabic plea filled with "unintended consequences" - - like no one could have possibly seen what's coming, and "moving forward," as if Ryan has any remaining cred with The Donald.

Trump still blames Ryan for foisting on the White House the hapless Reince Priebus and for failing to deliver the exhaustingly-overpromised Obamacare repeal-and-replace which mired Trump's first year in quicksand.

Do either of these Wisconsin 'leaders' understand just how Trump ended up being President, and they played key roles in what turned out to be a key electoral win for Trump that gave him the power to blow up the state's economy?
It's terrible that working Wisconsinites have to bear new burdens that Trump can create unilaterally after already being ignored while Ryan and Walker helped shower favors and tax breaks and power and prestige on their already-entitled donors.

So make sure you remind Wisconsin's GOP in every setting, and especially at the polls, that they wanted Trump, and got him - - winning!! - - and have to live it until we replace them all.

"Gold"-level tix to Illinois event featuring Walker cost $50,000

Attention Illinois Republicans with way too much money to blow:

You better like goofy syntax, highly-nasal Wisconsin anecdotes and rubber chicken by the ton.

Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and the state GOP already are planning past his March 20 primary race against state Rep. Jeanne Ives, announcing a fundraising dinner in April featuring Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. 

Tickets for the fourth annual Illinois Republican Party Governor’s Dinner in Chicago start at $500 per person and go all the way up to $50,000 for the honor of being a “gold sponsor." That includes four tickets to a “private roundtable,” 10 reception tickets with a photo and a “premium” table for 10 for dinner, according to an invitation.

Here - - you can have this for free:
  

Scott Walker schooled by Bob Dylan, Buffalo Springfield

Bob Dylan sang in 1964 "the times they are a-changin'."

The musical group Buffalo Springfield sang some years later "there's something happening here, but what it is ain't exactly clear." 

So I'm glad to see this strong story in the Wisconsin State Journal that suggests that indeed the times are a-changin' because there's something clear happening here:

Unease growing in Wisconsin GOP base over environmental rollbacks

Since taking over state government in 2011, Republicans have eased pollution enforcement, sold off public lands, rolled back protection of ground water, curtailed Department of Natural Resources scientific research, and silenced DNR experts who once were free to publicly comment on legislative proposals...

But Republican-leaning hunters and anglers have begun debating whether the changes have gone so far that they are threatening the lakes, streams and access to hunting land that have made the state great, said Rodney Sempf, a middle school teacher in northeastern Wisconsin who loves to hunt and fish.

I've argued that Walker's contemptuous enabling of widespread and continuing environmental pollution harms traditional Wisconsin values and treats his voting base with a contempt which would catch up with him:

Walker's politics of indifference ignores base, basics

I'd argue that of late he's taking his successes for granted and following...the Politics of Indifference - - when it comes to much of his base, and to basic governance, too.

Exhibit "A?" Yesterday's solid defeat in North Western Wisconsin of a key Walker GOP legislative ally in a special State Senate election for a seat which Republicans have held for the last sixteen years.

Here are several more substantive examples where Walker's stale careerism, distraction by presidential ambition and mail-it-in lassitude towards a base he's taking for granted could spark his undoing in November, 2018... 

what constituencies - - rural well water users, outdoors' business owners, anglers, hunters, hikers - - are served by the skyrocketing numbers of polluted waterways in the state, as well as the expanding numbers of big farms and dairy operations whose fertilizers and manure run off downstream or leach into the water table?

As I said last year, the GOP had rebranded itself as The Pollution Party:

How else to frame the selloff of the Wisconsin environment which[former WI DNR Secretary Cathy] Stepp carried out in the names of Walker's 'chamber of commerce mentality' and his big business bellhops in the Legislature and Attorney General's office as they sped up the giveaway of the state's rivers, wetlands, clean air and streams to any mining company or developer or manure manufacturer who wants them?

Here's the logo of the new Pollution Party.

And it's exactly clear. 

Foxconn road work endangers at-risk plants. Monarch habitat, too.

The DNR said last year that the Monarch butterfly population has "declined by 90 percent since the 1990s and need whatever help they can get from government agencies...."

On the other hand, the DNR said last week that there may be losses of some of the very host plants vital to Monarchs' survival through "the incidental taking of some plants," so let's look closer at the contradiction.

Call it another bad day in an exceptionally-bad month for the environment where the Wisconsin DNR is led with a "chamber of commerce mentality."

That was Walker's 2010 justification for putting former McDonald's store manager and home-builder Cathy Stepp developer atop the agency in 2011, while the DNR is now run literally with a chamber of commerce mentality because Stepp's recent replacement is Dan Meyer, the former Executive Director of the Eagle River, Wisconsin, Chamber of Commerce. 

For one thing, I always flinch when I see public agencies like the Wisconsin DNR use the terms "incidental taking" or "incidental take," to describe official actions that can lead to losses of endangered or threatened species - - in this case, road-building tied to the Foxconn project. 

MADISON - A project to reconstruct the I-94 and State Highway 11 Interchange may result in the "incidental taking" of two rare plants under an authorization the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources proposes to issue for the project. Incidental take refers to the unintentional loss of individual endangered or threatened animals or plants that does not put the overall population of the species at risk.

Remember that these fauna, flora, wildlife and other natural life forms belong to the people, held in trust for the public by state officials. Yet notice how easily "incidental taking" slides into "unintentional loss" - - and think about it: It's not really "unintentional" if the loss can be predicted. 

'Intentional, but officially tolerable,' would be more accurate. 

Two more things here from the DNR's release:

1.  The area to be "disturbed," as the DNR puts it, ain't insignificant:

The area to be disturbed under Project I.D. 1030-24-72 is 29 acres and under Project I.D. 1030-24-71 is 9 acres for a total area to be disturbed of 38 acres. 

The presence of the state threatened prairie milkweed (Asclepias sullivantii) and state endangered purple milkweed (Asclepias purpurascens) have been confirmed in the vicinity of the project site. DNR staff determined that the proposed project may result in the incidental taking of some plants.

2. Purple Milkweed is a known and crucial host plant for endangered Monarchs like these below raised and released by Friends of the Monarch Trail on the continually-endangered remnants of the Milwaukee County Grounds.

Ironically, a separate, recent DNR posting about the Monarch situation acknowledges the species needs milkweed plants, notes its program to improve milkweed availability and says habitat loss is why the butterfly is disappearing:

The Department of Natural Resources recently learned its Natural Heritage Conservation program has won a $69,800 grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to restore and enhance critical monarch butterfly habitat along the Mississippi River...

"Monarchs have declined by 90 percent since the 1990s and need whatever help they can get from government agencies, private industries, universities, property owners, and volunteers," says Drew Feldkirchner, who leads DNR's Natural Heritage Conservation program.

"We're excited this grant will help us restore habitat on the ground and advance our partnerships to help monarchs and many other species." 

 SLIDE SHOW | 8 photos

Habitat help for monarchs

Habitat loss throughout the monarch's breeding range, which includes Wisconsin, is considered the primary cause of the monarch population's crash, Feldkirchner says.

Many Wisconsin organizations and individuals are taking steps to reduce the monarch's dramatic decline and increase its chances for future recovery, says Owen Boyle, Natural Heritage Conservation species management section chief. 

The National Wildlife Federation also lists Purple Milkweed among 12 varieties sustaining the Monarchs:

The monarch butterfly population in North America has plummeted by over 90% in just the last 20 years. Destruction of America’s grasslands ecosystems, commercial agricultural practices and even conventional gardening have all contributed to the precipitous decline of this iconic species. National Wildlife Federation has launched a comprehensive campaign to help save the monarch, and there are many ways you can get involved.

One of the biggest factors in monarch decline is the increasing scarcity of its only caterpillar host plant: milkweed. Without milkweed, monarchs can’t successfully reproduce and the species declines. By planting milkweed in your own garden, landscape and throughout your community, you can help reverse the fortune of these beautiful insects.

Purple Milkweed (Asclepias purpurascens) 

Purple Milkweed. Photo Credit: Christopher Benda, Flickr Creative Commons

So, again, Foxconn and the road-builders rule Wisconsin politics and the political environment.

Trump's GOP, biz WI allies harrumph over Trump's tariffs

They loved him when he mocked Hillary Clinton and showered them with tax breaks and ego-stroking White House photo ops 
and signed on to their drug testing for food stamps 'compassion,' but today, with their profits and entitled wealth at risk, it was 'How Dare You, Sir!"

Gov. Scott Walker and the state's business lobby -- in a rare break with Republican President Donald Trump -- are coming out against Trump's planned tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, saying they could harm Wisconsin companies, outsource U.S. jobs and spark a global trade war with far-reaching consequences.

1 question about that WI Lake Michigan diversion bid, 3/7 hearing

What is the seven-letter word missing from this document? The comment section awaits your input. Could this be another Walker 'drafting error"?

STATE OF WISCONSIN DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES

Public Notice of an Application to Begin a Diversion of Great Lakes Water

January 31, 2018

The City of Racine (City) submitted an application to the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to begin a diversion of water from Lake Michigan to an area outside of the Great Lakes Basin, within the straddling community of Mount Pleasant. The City of Racine' s application materials include a diversion application and a water conservation and efficiency plan.

Name and Address of Applicant

City of Racine, Racine Water Utility, Keith Haas, Manager, 800 Center Street, Room 227, Racine WI 53403-1481

Brief Description of the Proposal

The City of Racine, a public water supply system, has applied to DNR for permission to dive1t Lake Michigan water to supply parts of Mount Pleasant, WI that are outside the Great Lakes Basin. All water proposed to be diverted would be returned to Lake Michigan, less an allowance for consumptive use.

The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resomces Compact (Compact) prohibits diversions of Great Lakes water, with limited exceptions. One exception to the Compact's ban on diversions allows water to be served to portions of a "straddling community" lying outside the Great Lakes basin if requirements under Wisconsin Statutes s. 281.346 (4)(c) are met. Under the Compact, a "straddling community" is one whose boundaries are partly within the Great Lakes basin and partly without, but wholly within a county at least partly within the Great Lakes basin. Mount Pleasant meets the definition of a straddling community.

The City is requesting to divert an average of 7.0 million gallons per day (MGD) to areas within Mount Pleasant outside of the Great Lakes basin. All wastewater, less an allowance for consumptive use , would be treated and returned to the Lake Michigan via Racine's wastewater treatment facility.

Application Review

DNR will review the application materials submitted by the City of Racine. DNR's review will include a minimum 30-day comment period (referenced below) and a summary of public comments. Following this process, the DNR will either approve or deny the City of Racine's diversion applic atio n. You can review the application materials on-line at: http://dnr.wi.gov keyword search " Racine Diversion" or request materials at the address below.

Public Comments

Persons wishing to comment on the diversion application should do so by close of business on March 21, 2018. Comments should be sent to:

WDNR, Bureau of Drinking and Groundwater DG/5 Attn: Adam Freihoefer

P.O. Box 7921

Madison, WI 53707-7921

Comments may also be submitted electronically to: DNRRacine Diversion Comments@wiscons in.gov

Public Informational Meeting and Hearing

Pursuant to Wis. Stat. s.281.346 (9)(d), DNR will hold a public hearing to receive public comments on the application.

The public hearing will be held on March 7, 2018 starting at 6:30 pm, with an informational meeting from 6:00 pm - 6:30 pm, at the following location: SC Johnson iMET Center, 2320 Renaissance Blvd, Stmtevant, WI 53177

Reasonable accommodation, including the provision of informational material in an alternative format,

will be provided to qualified individuals with disabilities upon request.

STATE OF WISCONSIN

DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES

For the Secretary

Date

Bureau of Drinking Water and Groundwater
---------------------------
Editor's note/Spoiler alert. This guy knows the answer is "Foxconn."

Background material, here.

Foxconn water diversion undermines Great Lakes Compact

Full Foxconn archive, beginning in July, is here. 

A Foxconn Fever Primer

 

WI GOP legislator-wordsmith calls it quits

State GOP Rep. Adam Jarchow - - would-be legislator for private landowners - - and also for free-for-all wolf hunting - - is throwing in the towel.

The Wisconsin Gazette also had noted that Jarchow said he was for "reigning (sic) in the DNR." 

Though in the give-credit-for-wordsmithing-department, when Jarchow complained that wetland-filling legislation he'd supported had been ruinously watered-down, he did get the phrase "pared-back pin-prick" on the record.

Legacy stuff.

You mean 'stupidly, he lied.' More to follow.

The ubiquitous  b.s.-justifying phrase "walks back" adds to the dishonest discourse 

and only enables them:

WH walks back Trump support for universal gun background checks

And here.

Trump Walks Back Russia Remarks

And here: 

White House walks back Trump Tweet on Puerto Rico debt

And here:

Walker walks back support for Trump 

And here:

Walker walks back suggestion for Canada border wall 

And here:

Scott Walker walks back President Obama comment 

For WI environment, February was 28-day GOP siege

February is the shortest month, but Wisconsin special interests and their government enablers used it all to broadly advance their war on the environment.

Consider:

*  February 1st was the day on the Wisconsin DNR, after an assembly-line review, effectively added five years and additional capacity to permitted operation at Kinnard Farms, one of the highest-profile and controversial so-called CAFOs in Kewaunee County where fecal contamination in residential water is a persistent, known health hazard.

You may remember that Kinnard operations were the subject of what is called a contested hearing a few years ago at which opponents won a ruling by a judge who found that the DNR could address groundwater contamination by limiting the size of a CAFO herd - - history, here - - a ruling which then-DNR Secretary Cathy Stepp said she would not enforce.

Wisconsin GOP Attorney General Brad Schimel backed Stepp up, though a Dane County judge subsequently sided with the hearing judge because the DNR's role does include the cumulative effects of groundwater usage.

More on Schimel's broad support for deregulating groundwater at the expense of the public interest and further undermining state environmental rules, is here.

*  Speaking of contested hearings, there was another such proceeding underway all this week at which opponents have been opposing the DNR's approval of a permit so a Georgia-based sand processor can destroy a wetland and rare timber stand in Monroe County.

And while the hearing was exposing problems with the permit and former DNR staffers testified that senior agency political appointees had applied pressure internally to get the permit issued, a freshman GOP legislator who does not represent the district in which the proposed sand processing facility would be located got the Assembly on February 22nd to pass a bill amendment at the 11th hour prior to session adjournment that if signed into law will void the hearing so the wetland and timber destruction could proceed.

* On February 20th, the Legislature sent to the Governor a bill removing state protections from an estimated 100,000 wetland acres statewide.

The fill-the-wetlands crowd said Wisconsin's state-level protection was an overreach avoided by nearly all other states - - though if adhering to other states' practices is the new Wisconsin standard, then we await Wisconsin GOP-led legislation to stop routing state taxpayer-paid millions to private, parochial schools tuition.

And also to legislate an end to the only-in-Wisconsin treatment of first-time OWI arrests as mere tickets.

* And on the last day - - February 28th - - of this cruelest of months in recent Wisconsin environmental history - - the Wisconsin Natural Resources Board - - the DNR's 'oversight' body now dominated by Walker appointees and the 'chamber of commerce mentality' direction he installed atop the DNR from the first day of his administration - - granted a powerful Walker donor the access rights he'd ought to public acreage inside a popular Lake Michigan shoreline state park.

That Board's decision will help the donor more easily construct a privately-owned, upscale golf course, with a clubhouse, driving range, dining room, parking and maintenance facilities, on much of a 247-acre wetland-woodland-wildlife habitat-rare dune-and-native inhabitants' artifact-rich nature preserve set to be remade and essentially flattened.

So...February was quite the month for Team Walker and the special interests whose water he and Schimel and GOP legislators carry in the State Capitol.

As to the clean water everyone else needs - - and which Wisconsin Constitution says belongs to everyone - - February went badly.

And just wait until the substantial, unregulated and unprecedented, review-free Foxconn wetland fillings advance...and toxifying metal mining companies have their way with recent Walker's blessing on sensitive lands...even at the river's edge...and already-intensifying and destructive rains keep coming.

Money will be spent on sand-bagging, and always-campaigning Walker will play Governor and go on one of his flood inspection tours, and money will be spent on everything from drying basements and replacing furniture to extensive efforts to clean our growing list of polluted waterways - - but know this:

*  None of what took place last month was an accident.

*  Nature bats last.
 

WI resource 'oversight' body OKs Walker donor parkland ask

[Updated at 4:40 p.m. with information from a Facebook page and petition website from Friends of the Black River Forest, the grassroots leading the opposition. See additional material, below]:

Public land within popular Kohler Andrae State Park will go private, as requested - - for private vehicle and maintenance materials storage, traffic flow, and parking.

Today's post updates an ongoing thread and related analyses on this blog since 2014: 

The Wisconsin Natural Resources Board Wednesday approved a land trade with a prominent Walker donor so he could obtain acreage in a popular state park for privately-owned roads and golf course vehicle and maintenance equipment storage - - all to help enable the construction of a privately-owned, high-end golf course, driving range, clubhouse, dining room and parking lot.

The 18-hole course is to be principally sited on this 247-acre wetland-timber-habitat-rare dune-native-artifact-rich site adjoining Kohler Andrae State Park, seen from the Lake Michigan shoreline at the southern tip of a newly-expanded City of Sheboygan boundary see in part below:

Giving away state park land to suit the demands of one influential Walker donor's privately-owned development is what passes these days for public purposes on public property in Wisconsin.

Where, coincidentally, the State Assembly just quietly voted to void an ongoing wetland filling permit hearing unfolding this week before an administrative law judge - - an action that strips away citizen rights while aiming to let a sand mine processor more easily rip up a 16.25-acre wetland with a stand of rare trees.

Because that's what we get when the 'chamber of commerce mentality' Walker installed atop the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources slops over into the DNR's oversight board - - and into Walker's Department of Administration for a fast-tracked annexation to move the project along - - and separately, into the Department of Transportation and broadly across the Legislature for other Walker/GOP/WMC-blessed priorities.

In a nutshell, special interests and partisan advantage in Wisconsin are strengthened while the people and the environment lose - - seven+ years of history summarized, here.
-------------------------

From Friends of the Black River Forest

Yesterday the Natural Resources Board approved a DNR request to remove valuable Kohler Andrae State Park land from state park inventory in an exchange for inferior Kohler land located across a marsh that had been previously bulldozed. 

The DNR staff presented the land in view of the park entrance as not used for conservation purposes. This had clearly had been refuted by experts, resident speakers and extensive written testimony by James Buchholz, former KASP superintendent.

The DNR said it could use Kohler's land to house people who came to work there. They claimed Kohler's land was more valuable than the ecologically diverse dune land where Kohler will mix chemicals and pesticides and store fuel. The land is visible to visitors upon entering the park. The DNR says it will be heavily bermed.

The NRB members never asked why this had to be. Kohler has his own land north of his 247 acres which can be used for ingress and egress to a course. The DNR staff said all options had been studied and this option provided the least impact to wetlands.

This has been refuted again and again. The least impact to wetlands would be Kohler using his own land. Now any developer can force insignificant scrub land on Wisconsin residents and take land out of any state park. It is well known that the NRB members were heavily leaned on by the governor's office. In our recent post DNR retirees speak of the pressure on DNR staff to get permits approved, regardless of the negative impacts.

FBRF reviewed the decisions of the NRB, looking for instances of voting for the preservation of resources over the interests of business. There were none. Illegality, deception, corruption and collusion rule in Wisconsin. FBRF has filed legal challenges to the DNR and we need your help. 

Sign this Change.org petition.

The Kohler Company has proposed building a golf course in a pristine forest and sensitive environmental corridor in Sheboygan County, Wisconsin.

 We are asking the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to DENY the Kohler Company's request for an easement across heavily used public recreational lands which are part of the Kohler-Andrae State Park.  We ask the DNR to DENY the Kohler Company's request to build a private maintenance shed on over 12 acres of public land. 

The DNR must tell the Kohler Company they can NOT destroy wetlands, bulldoze rare dunes along the Lake Michigan shoreline,  clear cut over 125 acres of forest and use public lands for a private, for-profit, Golf course.

The DNR must NOT set a precedent of stealing land from Wisconsin residents and giving to the highest bidder.  We are requesting the Wisconsin DNR to PROTECT OUR ENVIRONMENT AND PRESERVE WISCONSIN'S PUBLIC LANDS.

http://www.friendsblackriverforest.org