WI Republicans this week ignored their 'Stop being the stupid party' directive

I know that younger Republicans may have forgotten that obstruction and transcripts helped drive Pres. Nixon from office, but ex- Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal's more recent warning to 'stop being the stupid party' also seems to have slipped past the GOP here.

In just the last few days:

* The Republican-controlled White House thought it was a good idea to send US Ag Secretary Secretary Sonny Perdue to Wisconsin for a discussion of dairy farming.

Though the White House ID's Perdue as "born into a farming family," you'd never know it - - or that he gave a fig about family farming in Wisconsin as he opined that dairy farmers in Wisconsin needed to 'get bigger or go out.'

Perdue laid that political egg while milk prices are at a five-year low, Wisconsin leads the nation in farm bankruptcies, and about 40% of the state's dairies have shut down in the last decade (a/k/a 'the Walker era'), as this recent report notes.

Not to mention that as dairy farms in Wisconsin morph into sprawling factories - - and Walker used state programs and money to boost their output into a crushing oversupply - -  we also have more manure overflows and reports of polluted drinking water. 

And skyrocketing contaminated rivers, lakes and streams, official data show.

Somehow this official GOP contempt for small towns and rural life has escaped a lot of Wisconsin voters.

* The influential GOP WI State Rep. John Nygren harrumphed that he had no intention of contributing a dime to the $200,000 settlement ordered by a judge because Nygren and GOP Speaker Robin Vos had illegally blocked access to their official Twitter accounts. So stupid, and arrogant, to boot.

And you thought thew GOP was the part of personal responsibility? Since when?

* Then there was Glenn Grothman's expressed delight at the Trump administration's plan to further strip food from to low-income Americans, including another 40,000 Wisconsin residents.

This from a man with a refrigerator-stocking, taxpayer-provided annual salary of $174,000, access in Washington, DC and Wisconsin to plenty of meal-time events, and multiple, publicly-blessed restaurants inside the US Capitol itself - - no need to even leave the halls of Congress - - and which are not required to operate at a profit. 

What, you thought these Republicans hate the welfare state?

So stupid, arrogant and hypocritical, too.

Grothman and other Republican leaders in Wisconsin  had themselves an especially clumsy and hypocritical week.

* If Grothman's cold heart and warm belly also conjure up a double-standard, wait until you absorb the details of the Ron Johnson Heavy Hypocrisy Week.

Johnson has embracing Trump's White House calls for 2020 election help from foreign countries and while forgetting their oaths of office - - and also that he, Johnson, had in writing asked Ukraine to clean up its prosecutor's office just as then-Vice President Joe Biden had done.

Whom Republicans want castigated, investigated and maybe even incarcerated.

In other words, Johnson's words and actions again check all the party's boxes this week - - stupid, arrogant and hypocritical - - despite his too-obvious, two-faced spin.

GOP senator says he doesn't remember signing 2016 letter urging 'reform' of Ukraine prosecutor's office

"I send out all kinds of oversight letters ... I don't know which 2016 oversight letter you're referring to so I will look at that and then we'll issue a press release, statement, or something — but I don't engage in hypocrisy. I'm looking at getting the truth,” Johnson said when asked about the letter. 

Not much Truth-in-Advertising there. 

RoJo's 'I know you are but what am I' Ukraine double-standard

Poor RoJo. He say he forget he'd asked the Ukrainians - in writing - for the same reforms Biden sought, which Trump says was a corrupt ask and that RoJo has been demanding be investigated.

"I send out all kinds of oversight letters ... I don't know which 2016 oversight letter you're referring to so I will look at that and then we'll issue a press release, statement, or something — but I don't engage in hypocrisy."

I don't think this is actual video of Johnson's response when he took questions today about his double-standard being revealed - - 


- - but it's close. 

So that business about not being a hypocrite? Please.

And - - Haha!

Fealty alert: Ron Johnson gives Trump even bigger bear hug

Oath-busting, democracy-trashing, Constitution-mugging alert:


Trump just added China to drive his 2020 overseas dirt-digging machine and Wisconsin's senior US Senator on board.

Ron Johnson OK with President Trump asking China to investigate 2020 political rival

Throw in the 2016 Russian assistance, and Trump becomes the recipient of a third nation's targeted foreign aid.

Oh, wait, make it six. I forgot about Australia, Italy and the UK.

And maybe this is what happens when the White House does you a favor and makes your key demanded amendment part of its major tax 'reform' bill:

For the second time this year, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin gave a last-minute endorsement of a key piece of Republican legislation, this time allowing the GOP's tax bill to squeak past a major hurdle by the slimmest of margins. 

Johnson, who said as recently as Monday that he would not vote for the tax bill if it wasn't changed, said Tuesday, November 28th that he got a personal guarantee from President Donald Trump that Republicans would address his concerns. He cast the deciding vote in the Senate Budget committee, and the measure passed, 12-11.

His amendment had been called self-serving:

Noted railophobe bravely rides subway

He killed Amtrak rail expansion in Wisconsin, opposed Milwaukee light rail, used his budget to block regional transit authorities so there would be an end to  commuter rail planning, and tried his best to stall the city's streetcar - - so I'm proud of our defeated Governor for using Twitter to share his courage:

·

Oct 1

Took the subway from the World Trade Center to Central Park.
--------------------------------------------------------

WI State GOP Rep. Nygren to taxpayers: Drop Dead.

Hey, suckers: The co-chair of the state's Joint Committee on Finance 

has a self-serving, responsibility-free way to finance a court-ordered settlement, the Journal Sentinel is reporting. 

A top GOP lawmaker is signaling he won't help reimburse taxpayers for $200,000 in legal bills he and other Republicans racked up when a court found they had illegally blocked a liberal group on Twitter.

Nygren is from Marinette, and was first elected in 2006, so not a clueless, rookie lawmaker. 

Next step, a Foxconn empty-building-buying-binge in IL, too?

Hello, Illinois. Bucky, here.  Say, if you're jazzed about that $50 million commitment from Foxconn, you might ask UW-Madison how its even bigger Foxconn pledge is coming along.

Actually don't bother calling. 

Spoiler alert; it's not going well.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2019Foxconn's $100 million commitment to UW-Madison is less than 1% funded

Foxconn has reduced the size and scope of its Mt. Pleasant project, too.

More about Foxconn's still-empty building acquisitions statewide, here, and a complete Foxconn archive is here.

Less food for the poor. Millions added to taxpayers' tab. Grothman happy.

The Journal Sentinel reports in a story currently behind its subscriber pay wall that the Trump administration is pushing a rule change that a) will cut food aid to 40,000 Wisconsin residents, b) hit taxpayers with millions of dollars in new administrative costs, and c) makes Glenn Grothman giddy

because he tells the Journal Sentinel that some millionaires will soon be ineligible for food stamps.

“A lot of people didn’t know that millionaires are eligible for food stamps,” he said. “I’m glad Donald Trump came along and decided to put a stop to it.”

This is not the first time that Grothman has twisted numbers to justify an attack on people without his $174,000 annual helping at the public trough:

“So your viewers are aware, a single parent with a couple kids can easily get $35,000 a year in total benefits between the health care and the earned income credit and the FoodShare and the low-income housing and what have you,” Grothman said during an interview on “UpFront with Mike Gousha,” a statewide television program. “ 

And that’s after taxes. How many people make $35,000 a year after taxes? Most people don’t.” 

“When you look at that amount of money — which is in essence a bribe not to work that hard or a bribe not to marry someone with a full-time job — people immediately realize you have a problem,” he added. “Then as soon as you realize you have a problem and something has to be done, then you look at the generosity of the benefits and see what you can do to pare them back.”

Taking food off poor people's tables has been a right-wing GOP staple in Wisconsin for years. Walker even inserted that kind of heartlessness I discovered in in his first budget: 

...let's review one telling Walker action which never got the broad attention it deserved, though it spoke volumes about his hard-edged Tea Party modus operandi and willingness to tilt the playing field through Big Government power and hammer people who are generally without the means to fight back.

I am referring to an item buried in his first budget - - an across-the-board $20 per month cut from W-2 recipients.

I'd written about it here, with language taken directly from the budget's text, on page 65, in the "Health and Human Services" section:

"To further encourage W-2 recipients to recognize that the goal of W-2 is for participants to secure unsubsidized employment, reduce the monthly benefit check by $20."  

And the negative impact was multiplied by other Walker budget changes that reduced the value of two tax credits that helped low-income families stay in their homes and on a payroll.

There's a straight line from that kind of thinking and arbitrary punishment by government action - - the loss of a few boxes of disposable diapers, or maybe seven or eight gallons or milk, or bus fares to a job, a day care or the pediatrician  - - to Walker's more recent slams at the poor - - a refusal to increase the minimum wage of $7.25/hr., and his stated plan to mandate urine testing for food stamp recipients.

Your modern-day Republican Party at work. 

Climate change photo exhibit to open Oct. 18th in Milwaukee

Clear your 10/18 calenders:

The Walker's Point gallery and educational organization Arts@Large is bringing Madison-based Michael Kienitz's dramatic photo-journalism from Iceland for a Milwaukee run beginning October 18th.

Iceland's Vanishing Beauty: Photography by Michael Kienitz

Exhibition | October 18 - December 31

Opening | Friday Oct 18 | 5pm - 8pm

Community Conversation with the Artist | December 5 | 6pm - 7pm

Award-winning Photojournalist Michael Kienitz calls upon his deep photographic experience to capture the incredible, but disappearing landscape of Iceland’s active volcanoes, ice caves, beaches, canyons, waterfalls, wetlands, black sands, and mountains.  Iceland’s Vanishing Beauty features Kienitz’s five-year work collecting images from southeast Iceland’s ice caves and glacial formations in the region’s glacial tongues.  Michael Kienitz has been a photographer for more than forty years. His traditional photography has appeared in Life, Time, Newsweek, Elle, Rolling Stone and other major publications worldwide.
----------------------------
So book the exhibit, and here's the book:

Trump would remake Dairy State into CAFO state

Bucky to US Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue: No!

Trump ag secretary Sonny Perdue says dairy farms will survive, but may have to get bigger

Exhibit "A."

Manure spill...Kewaunee County...Again...

 

Republicans with short memories also skipped American Presidency 101

Waiting for the sequel to "All the President's Men" to hit the bookshelves.

* Let's start with Rudi Guiliani, already with subpoena in hand, apparently forgot what happened to Trump's previous personal attorney after blind loyalty to Individual 1.

• President Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen heads to prison to begin serving a three-year sentence.

* Then there's Bill Barr, Attorney General and Trump's new Roy Cohn. Barr needs to read up on Richard Nixon's fall, especially that chapter on John Mitchell: 'When AG's go bad.'

Former Attorney General John Mitchell, jailed for his role...

Mitchell was serving as Nixon's campaign manager when he went to trial; the Nixon-Trump comparison is strengthened by the prison term which Trump's campaign manger Paul Manfort is already serving.

* And here's a pretty comprehensive account of whom else may walk the plank for their service to Trump instead the country.

•  

Walker, Tiffany & Trump. Talk about a toxic trio.

There's your modern Republican party, in which Scott Walker is raising money for WI GOP State Sen. Tom Tiffany - - the long-time Walker water-carrier and eager Trump tool who's running in a special election for Congress up North.

I'll post excerpts from Walker's fund-raising pitch below, and when you read it remember that it was Tiffany who a) asked climate science scrubber Walker to get rid of WI DNR scientists, b) later sped a bill to Walker's desk opening more of Wisconsin to metallic mining after c) having agreed to be Walker's go-to Penokee mountain top removal legislative insider, as I'd earlier noted: 

• David Storey, lobbyist for Gogebic Taconite, sent e-mails to then-Rep. [and now State Sen.] Tom Tiffany, and Walker policy adviser Eileen Schoenfeldt that discussed forming a "response team" to combat negative PR once the final mining bill was released. Read the emails here:
  http://www.wispolitics.com/1006/Storey_Emails.pdf[blog note: the link is dead]

  I took a look at the emails among Storey, the Governor's staff and Tiffany; towards the end of the file there is a request for a meeting with Tiffany and then a thank-you from the lobbyist to Tiffany for getting "on board." 

  With further thanks from the lobbyist for Tiffany "agreeing to play an important role," to be that important "someone within the legislative process in a position to respond..." and "agree[ing] to your individual roles..."

From Walker's pro-Tiffany fund-raising pitch:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Friend, I was thrilled when Tom decided to run because he is exactly what we need in Congress now: a staunch conservative, proven reformer, and unapologetic Trump ally. He is ready to stand up and carry the conservative mantle for Wisconsin... Once again, the eyes of the nation will be on the critical state of Wisconsin in what will be the first real test of 2020. The Democrats and liberal special interests will flood our state with money and attack ads in the hopes of seizing the early election year momentum... Tom was a trusted ally when I was governor...In Washington, Tom will be a trusted ally for President Trump and his bold, conservative agenda. He will defend the lives of the unborn and ensure our Second Amendments rights are safeguarded.... There are just hours left before the deadline. Contribute now. Let’s do this! Scott Walker --------------------------------------------------------------- I

Trump's enabled by Johnson's own words, despite WTMJ radio's redactions

AM 620 WTMJ has posted a transcript of its morning interview with Ron Johnson.

As per usual, Johnson is an embarrassment.

Some takeaways:

* He is a complete apologist for Trump. Nothing new there, but please read past the headline and file it under 'we'll see!' 

Senator Johnson on President Trump-Ukraine quid pro quo. 'Nothing could be further from the truth'

* The radio station also notes: 

We are sharing Senator Johnson's words in full, with some words redacted for grammar. You can listen to his full comments above.

Seriously, WTMJ. "Redacted for grammar?" What kind of news operation are you? What kind of reportage is that? Is it your job to clean up Johnson's struggle with the English language?

As a reader and consumer of news, I shouldn't have to be directed to a more than 46-minute recorded segment and compare it with a printed version which I can more quickly read and quote from to spot the redactions.

That's pretty dismissive of the reading audience and burnishes Johnson's persona.

And in the context of a political firestorm over a White House call transcript, brutally ironic.

* And New Yorkers and Wisconsinites alike should be insulted Johnson's superficial and demeaning stereotyping as well as his acceptance of Trump's interpretation of "his job' - - the Presidency, which is there to serve the nation, not one aberrant personality: 

"I realize the narrative from Democrats and most members on the media, putting the worst possible construction on that phone call. I've spoken with the President enough on the phone and in person. It's how he approaches his job.  

"He's a New York business guy, he's different than a Wisconsinite. When he says it's a beautiful phone call, I take a look at that, that it's a pretty gracious phone call."

Does Johnson think the way Trump "approaches his job" correctly extends to arresting the House Intelligence Committee for committing treason?

Or to Trump's reckless retweeting that his impeachment could lead to a civil war?

Trump on Monday was thundering through a new round of counter-punches against his opponents by hammering home the suggestion that they should be arrested and charged with treason and could launch a civil war – or a combination of those.

Remember, Johnson is chair of the Senate's Homeland Security Committee, as he often reminds us, but remains obliviously tolerant of Trump's descent into dictator mode..

Johnson's reflexive Trump embrace worsens a homeland increasingly imperiled by an unstable and dangerous President put in office by a minority of the voters, covered-up campaign finance violations and with Russian assistance. 

Mt. Pleasant might have found its timely municipal motto

A senior Mt. Pleasant Foxconn water-carrier came up with the perfect five-word status check following the company's earlier confidence-building 'who has the crystal ball' as we learned that another piece of the dream had gone poof last week. 

MOUNT PLEASANT — A planned 80-unit, five-story apartment complex announced in late 2017, which was to be built at the intersection of highways 20 and H, has been shelved indefinitely.  

Milwaukee-based Blue Ribbon Management had planned the project, which would have been the company’s first in Racine County, in anticipation of Foxconn creating more demand for housing....

“You can’t win them all,” commented Village President Dave DeGroot.

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

Screen shot of the company's glitzy promotional video.

A full archive of Foxconn posts dating to June, 2017 is here.

Cities can replace aging pipes & save trees at the same time

Urban trees matter. 

So does safe drinking water. Glad to see there communities are looking at alternatives to business as usual which coordinate both.

The City of Chicago will pilot two programs to limit the environmental impact of water pipeline repair construction, particularly by not requiring the excavation of trees in neighborhoods. The programs were announced [recently] amid outcry from residents and city aldermen over tree removal.  

One technique, known as cured-in-place pipe (CIPP) will place a resin-soaked textile liner tube in an existing pipe. Once it hardens, it forms a corrosion-resistant replacement pipe, and can be inserted without excavating the entire length of the pipe....The technique has also been used in cities like Toronto for years, and has some Chicago suburbs have successfully employed the solution. 

DNR-Riveredge sturgeon release adds fish, Lake Michigan allies

The annual sturgeon fingerling release Saturday into Lake Michigan within walking distance of Milwaukee's downtown does two important things:

1. It provides a nice boost to the sturgeon population.

2. And more Great Lakes water awareness and wildlife appreciation allies are created on the spot.

We wandered over to the event in the urban gem Lakeshore State Park on a whim and bought the last two fund-raising tickets, allowing us each to release a six-inch fingerling into the lake, where we hope it reproduces and lives a hundred years.

As dad watches, Sarah and Olivia send a sturgeon fingering into Lake Michigan

All the more reason to pressure the state for much tougher enforcement of water quality standards in both of our Great Lakes' watersheds to stem phosphorus discharges and prevent CAFO runoff from reaching drinking water taps, and eventually the lakes, as happens far too often.

Manure spill...Kewaunee County...Again...

Lake Michigan, the Great Lakes, our drinking water - - all one system in need of high-quality stewardship.

A more complete Waukesha diversion review is sought

A coalition of groups continues to raise questions about the way Wisconsin's DNR greenlit a diversion of Lake Michigan water 

to Waukesha.

The coalition is requesting that the DNR prepare more thorough documents and consider alternatives to make the agency's review and conclusions more credible, comprehensive and transparent.

These are reasonable requests in the public interest, given the precedent-setting nature of the diversion and the widespread acknowledgment that climate change is warming the planet and accelerating a water crisis.

Here is a link to the coalition's full communication to the DNR and to a coalition news release about it:

Great Lakes Coalition Objects to Incomplete Environmental Review of Waukesha Diversion  

DNR Urged to Provide Opportunity for Meaningful Public Participation

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 9/27/2019

CONTACT: Attorney Rob Lee, (608) 251-5047 x 8: rlee@midwestadvocates.org

Peg Sheaffer, Communications Director, (608) 251-5047 x 3: psheaffer@midwestadvocates.org

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

MADISON, WI— The Compact Implementation Coalition and several partner organizations have submitted aletter to Wisconsin’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) outlining concerns about the recently released Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) DNR prepared for the City of Waukesha’s planned diversion of Great Lakes water.

The EIS was the subject of a public informational hearing held by DNR last month at Carroll University in Waukesha. Among the coalition’s concerns are DNR’s failure to consider all reasonable alternatives to the project and inadequate opportunity for public participation in the environmental review process.

There have been significant changes to the Waukesha Diversion project since the public was allowed to comment on the draft EIS, which was released in June 2015. Those changes include a change in water suppliers from the City of Oak Creek to the City of Milwaukee.The most recent EIS also identifies and analyzes three alternatives to the Milwaukee supply route that were not previously considered.

According to Midwest Environmental Advocates Attorney Rob Lee, “Each alternative follows a different route than identified in earlier versions of the EIS and would have unique impacts on the environment and on property owners. Although DNR has accepted public comments on the most recent EIS, DNR has not committed to responding to or making necessary changes to the EIS based on those comments, effectively denying the level of public participation the law requires.”

When it comes to identifying and analyzing possible routes for returning Waukesha’s treated wastewater to Lake Michigan, the EIS released in August is equally problematic. It fails to analyze any alternatives that would send return flow to Lake Michigan via the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) and is instead limited to alternatives that send return flow to Lake Michigan via the Root River. 

Without including an analysis of MMSD return flow alternatives, DNR not only lacks all the information relevant to its decision-making, it also deprives the public and stakeholders of the opportunity to analyze and supplement that information during the public review process.

The Compact Implementation Coalition (CIC) advocates for strong protections for the Great Lakes and monitors the implementation of the Great Lakes Compact. CIC groups signing on to the letter include Waukesha County Environmental Action League, Milwaukee Riverkeeper, Wisconsin Wildlife Federation, League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, River Alliance of Wisconsin, and Midwest Environmental Advocates. The letter was also signed by Alliance for the Great Lakes and Sierra Club – John Muir Chapter.

Midwest Environmental Advocates is a non-profit environmental law center working to defend public rights, protect natural resources, and ensure transparency and accountability in government. Learn more about Midwest Environmental Advocates on the web at midwestadvocates.org, like MEA on Facebook or follow @MidwestAdvocate on Twitter.
###

Manure spill...Kewaunee County...Again...

Not the mess of 9/12, and/or earlier, and comprehensively laid out - - in 2015:

A Wisconsin County is in Crisis

This one:

By Central Office September 26, 2019 

MADISON, Wis. - The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources staff, along with Kewaunee County Land and Water Conservation District, continue to monitor the cleanup effort at the site of a manure spill into a ditch in the town of Pierce near Algoma. 

The farm, Ebert Enterprises, has stopped the discharge and is continuing to work to identify the source of the issue. They are pumping manure from a storage pit and moving it to another temporary location. Once the pit contents are reduced, they can excavate around the pit to investigate the cause of the discharge. 

The DNR will share additional information as it becomes available.

Documented as dangerous, and unacceptable- - as you can see from this previous Kewaunee County image.

Banking report: Industry knows a lot about water crisis, climate change

So says Morgan Stanley: 

A global water crisis has been long in the making. Depleted aquifers, droughts made worse by climate change, advancing desertification, the decline of once dependable glacial melt-off, even as growing demand from larger populations and economic activity all put unprecedented pressure on the supply of fresh water. It’s created what the World Economic Forum calls the fourth greatest global societal risk by impact—after weapons of mass destruction, failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation and extreme weather events. The global consequences of insufficient safe drinking water range from higher child mortality and other health issues to social instability and mass migrations. 

The growing scarcity of fresh water also affects the global economy, especially industries with high water usage, which run the gamut from food companies and energy firms to textiles and technology manufacturers.

Hat tip, Axios AM.

And look, I know that major financiers worldwide have been bankrolling greenhouse-gas emitting, water-hogging corporations since forever, but I find the report a credible counter to denialist ideologues like Ron Johnson, and I also note these jaw-dropping and guilt-tripping data I need to address:

* A single kilogram of beef takes more than 15,000 liters of water...

* ...growing, washing and dyeing the cotton used to make a single pair of jeans requires 9,500 liters of water.

* Producing a single smartphone requires more than 12,000 liters of water. And on that point, far more, here.

For the record, I rarely eat meat anymore, but I am wearing jeans and have an iPhone in my pocket.

Separately:

I'm still wondering how much Lake Michigan water - - 

 

- - it would take for the highly-subsidized Foxconn plant going up in Mt. Pleasant to produce one device with an LCD screen should something actually roll off the assembly line there.

A Wisconsin judge agreed in the face of strong counter-arguments that the company can access a controversial, piped-in diversion of up to seven million gallons a day from Lake Michigan equal to 1,100 large water tanker trucks in a 14-mile line.

The company says it will use less, but the company's product lines have been, shall we say, in flux.