WI GOP and rightist allies push ahead on permanent, one-party state

It's all out in the open, folks.

There are more signs that the right's goal in Wisconsin is to harden GOP rule and keep our swing state's electoral votes reliably Republican and permanently maintain Wisconsin as a low-wage, pro-polluter, one-percenters' playground with an intentionally-weak and underfunded public sector, including:

[9:40 p.m. update. Three hours after I put up this post, the right-leaning Wisconsin Supreme Court agreed to fast track 
litigation by GOP-allied attorneys who want to bar the way Evers' crafted several vetoes and nullify their budgetary and policy effects.]

* Restrictive Voter ID laws which persistently hamstring legitimate ballot box access.

* The partisan, secretly-crafted 2012 gerrymander which embedded lopsided GOP majorities that continue to devalue Democratic voters' influence statewide and confers undeserved authority on Republican legislators ready, willing and delightfully able to deploy.

* The lame duck laws adopted hurriedly by Wisconsin's little legislative dictators which stripped powers from the Democrats who had the temerity statewide to oust Republicans from the Governor, Lt. Governor and Attorney Generals' offices.

This WI GOP's power grabbing began with voter ID and related balloting restrictions, strengthened through 2012 gerrymander, and accelerated with the lame duck legislative package and now fresh moves to purge voting roles, strip down the Governor's veto power and hand Assembly Speaker Vos and his caucus more authority.

As Vos said in reaction to the GOP's 2018 defeats, "I am also not going to sit idly by...."

* A neutral Wisconsin Supreme Court to adjudicate such matters? Forget it.

Hagedorn exults with GOP over fresh State Supreme Court chokehold

* A new move last week to give the GOP Assembly members additional authorities through rule changes no one saw coming.

* Additional, almost simultaneous plans to whittle away at the Governor's veto powers which were just fine with GOP legislators to have on the books until Walker was ousted.

* And a separate power play to remove voters from polling records.

Make no mistake about it: Republicans and their allies have a multi-front attack underway to minimize Democrats' influence, hold on to legislative powers and keep the state's electoral votes safe in 2020 for Trump, and beyond.

And they have the money, means and methods to do it, making control of the State Senate in 2020 a keystone election.

I am waiting for a Democratic presidential candidate to do this

Swat away a question from the brain cell-killing panelists, and say, "If you're not going to ask us about climate change, I will. Here's what I think about it, and I urge all the other candidates to do the same thing."

Flooding during historic rains in Dane County in 2018 caused millions of dollars in damage and drowned one city resident.

That candidate can devote the closing statement time to summarize what needs to be done.

And jump 10% in the polls.

What are you people waiting for?

Just because Jay Inslee dropped out didn't mean the issues went away with him.

Without a focus on climate change, these debates are becoming increasingly irrelevant.

CNN and the New York Times skip climate change in the fourth Democratic debate

Evers continues to surpass the cold callous Walker

For our thickening "Elections have consequences" file - - another example - -  as WI Gov. Tony Evers used a school setting 

to declare Monday Indigenous Peoples Day in Wisconsin.

An intimate ceremony was held at Indian Community School in Franklin, Wis. Evers and Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes stood before dozens of students, faculty, tribal leaders and other leaders from across the state who gathered to witness a historic moment that some say was long overdue for Indigenous people here: the signing of an executive order that would declare the second Monday in October Indigenous Peoples Day.

Remember how defeated Gov. Walker approached disrespected these issues - - like his eagerness to clearcut and dynamite the Bad River watershed regardless of tribal treaties, food and water rights - - which is why it's wonderfully ironic that the ceremony took place at a school.

Nearly six years ago, Walker signed a bill rolling back Wisconsin law designed to make it more difficult to retain school nicknames and mascots which were insulting to Native American citizens, as I noted at the time: 

On Race-Based Names, Walker Has No Conviction, Courage 

As I'd predicted here more than once, Gov. Walker told the AP today he will sign a bill to make it easier for Wisconsin school districts to retain race-based names, mascots and logos that stereotype Native American people....

Furthermore, Walker and his administration have consistently substituted state government power for local controls when suspending, overriding or diminishing local authority in collective bargaining, iron and sand mining regulation, wetlands preservation, shoreline protections and women's health care services, among others.

Rediscovering the local control talking point and sticking it to Native Americans is shallow, convenient hypocrisy; wrapping intolerance in the First Amendment is as shameful as adding the gubernatorial signature that embeds it into law.

Unintimidated becomes Unprincipled.

Att'n. media. Lay off Ron Johnson; there's too much there there.

Ron Johnson is right: As he wrote in an op-ed for The Hill. biased media won't ask Democrats tough questions.

So good on him for pointing out how it's unfair to be confronted on "Meet the Press"

 - - whose invitation to appear he accepted - -  with really daunting, partisan queries like, "can we please answer the question I asked you....?" about first-hand knowledge of minor matters like truth-telling about alleged Presidential law-breaking and extortion?

Though a question about some wording in his op-ed for The Hill begs this question: Were these lines dictated by Donald Trump, or does the staffer who wrote or signed off them still have a taxpayer-paid job? 

The fact that Donald Trump fearlessly and pugnaciously challenged media bias helped him secure the Republican nomination and continues to deepen the support he enjoys among his base. His supporters also sympathize with what he has had to endure since the day he was elected.

And here's a related question: The response on "Morning Joe:" Best analysis, or best analysis ever?

Co-host Joe Scarborough called out Johnson’s “sniveling, quisling-like performance” before throwing to Mike Barnicle, who said the Republican senator “appears to be very limited intellectually.”

And, golly: Look at the additional questions and subjects that might pop up anytime Johnson opens his mouth for a reporter who might want to know more about an earlier time Johnson opened his mouth, like:

* How, exactly, are environmentalist activists jihadis and Stalinists?

* And on a related matter: How is it that sunspots cause climate change?

* Can you give an example of why you said Ayn Rand's writing was "foundational," was this an original thought balloon or were you channeling Paul Ryan at the time, and if Obamacare is "the greatest assault on our freedom in my lifetime," where does 9/11 fit in? 

* And a follow-up question? We know that Russian election meddling in 2016 was not the greatest assault on our freedom in your lifetime because you said it was "overblown," but speaking of Russia, can you provide us with a fuller account of your July 4th trip to Russia?

* One more follow-up, please? Since you received the 4th largest reported amount of funding for the 2016 elections from the NRA, and it's become known that the NRA was a conduit for Russian influence and financing, according to some people you work with every day - - a US Senate committee controlled by your party - - can you give us a fuller account of your July 4th trip to Russia?

* And, again, on the matter of freedom, you told a high school class that access to health care was a privilege and not a right because government in America is only obligated to guarantee freedom, not things like health and housing. So what about food? Privilege, or right? Oh, sorry, you already said food was a privilege, too. My bad.

* Was failing to notify the police of an alleged sexual assault against one of your own staff members the best way to deter such offenses? (Spoiler alert: No.)

* Was a television station's recent deleting some of your words "for grammar," as it explained, your idea, and/or a good one?

As Republicans 'act' on our drinking water, two takeaways

Key points by the WI DNR under Gov. Evers' direction on Friday to recent Federal and WI State Legislative 'responses' to lead contamination in our drinking water: 

* Takeaway #1: 

MADISON, Wis. - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) this week announced a proposal to address how communities across the country can reduce lead in public drinking water. EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler revealed the proposal at events in Green Bay on Thursday and Milwaukee on Friday....Although the EPA has set a maximum contaminant level goal for lead of zero, unfortunately, the proposed rule revision did not call for mandatory replacement of lead service lines....

While staff at the Department of Natural Resources review the 347-page proposed rule, the DNR initially concludes that the draft rule revisions do not adequately address full lead service line replacement, which the department recommends as the best way to reduce exposure to lead from drinking water. 

EPA photo 

Takeaway #2: 

To help expedite lead service line replacement, Governor Evers proposed $40 million in bonding for the budget that would provide critical state cost-sharing to local water utilities that do not have the resources to replace the lines on their own. The state legislature removed the $40 million from the budget. 

In other words, the Republicans' solution to lead in the drinking water is weak 'regulation' - - and what else would you expect from the anti-EPA administrator and former coal lobbyist Wheeler, and 'policy' as the manure keeps flowing from the special-interests-and donors-controlled, anti-Milwaukee GOP-run WI Legislature? 

For Milwaukee, Vos says 'no.' With attitude.

[About] repairs to lead-laden drinking water piping, where data show the need is greatest in Milwaukee, the city on which Vos recently heaped some Tweet-shaming: Speaker Robin Vos Retweeted May 20
More
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos applauds the City of Madison for replacing all privately owned lead lateral pipes on its own, and wonders why City of Milwaukee needs a handout from state taxpayers to do the same. 

Vos continues to 'lead' through grandstanding and humiliation

[Updated from 10/9]: The rule changes passed, so Vos & Co. continue their contemptible scheme to use Anderson's plight for partisan advantage.]
-------------------
You may remember that WI GOP Assembly Speaker Vos decided that obstruction and humiliation were the best ways to deal with a request by paralyzed Democratic State Representative Jimmy Anderson who sought permission to occasionally call into meetings when he could not be driven with his wheelchair to the State Capitol.

Back when this issue arose, and Vos was stung when Anderson publicly aired a complaint about the speaker's refusal to act, Vos responded by accusing Anderson of "grandstanding."

History, here.

Let that sink in for a minute. Vos became the victim and called out a quadriplegic confined to a wheel chair for grandstanding.

And you say to yourself or to anyone who is listening, 'what kind of a person would actually say that?'


Well, the same kind of a person who would wait more than two additional months before doing what everyone knew he had to do or lose a discrimination lawsuit, and that is meet Anderson's simple, humane and completely reasonable request.

Except that Vos could not bring himself to cleanly meet - - shenanigan-free - - Anderson's request, because a) Vos wanted to fold the 'solution' into a package of unrelated rule changes to award Republicans multiple new partisan procedural advantages, while, oh, yeah, b), include in an announcement a concession to Anderson's paralysis and dependency on care-givers' by allowing any Representative with a certified and officially-disclosed-and-noticed disability blah blah blah to call into meetings...if...iff...ifff....that Representative gives two hours advance notice.

All of which is laid out in this complete Madison Capital Times story, which includes this spot-on summation from the Governor's office: 

Evers spokeswoman Britt Cudaback slammed the proposal on Twitter, writing: "It’s wholly unsurprising that Vos would pass on the chance to do the right thing for the right reasons and instead turn it into an opportunity for political retribution." 

The two-hour window will no doubt nullify the call-in arrangement from time to time because no Representative like Anderson can know on which days or parts of days physical movement to the Capitol would be impossible. 

That reality could have been communicated to Vos had he worked on the details of a proposed call-in participation plan with Anderson - - commonsense, don't you think? - - since Anderson is the person at the heart of the issue - - common courtesy, don't you think - - and is the Capitol's resident expert in such matters.

But Vos has made it clear from the beginning of the ugly political mess he's made that he definitely does not see Anderson as a resource, let alone a colleague, and especially one with value.

The two-hour window was not included because it would take legislative staffers two hours to set up a speaker phone. That, and a call, email or text from Anderson shouldn't take more than fifteen minutes. Twenty minutes, tops, should the speaker phone have to be carried to the farthest reaches under the Rotunda.

The two-hour window was included so that Vos, in all his signature pettiness and ever-present arrogance, could exact another measure of control over Anderson, limit his participation in the legislative process and diminish quality of representation Anderson can provide to his constituents.

Control and burdens Vos would never have laid on a Republican Representative. 

The framers of the Wisconsin Constitution vested strong powers in the Office of the Speaker to create a problem-solving leader in the government.

Little did they know that in 2019, a partisan, power-addicted potentate would use the position to pervert the people's business through small-minded grandstanding and personal, bullying humiliation.

Science affirms cruelty of state-sanctioned WI wolf-dog fighting

Readers of this blog know I track the annual state enabling that reimburses hunting hound owners who let their dogs chase wildlife off-leash and right into violent encounters with wolves.

21st WI hound since 7/7 sent into fatal fight with wolves. Check, please.

The last seven hunting hounds sent to their violent deaths in what amounts to state-sanction-and-subsidized wolf-dog fighting in Wisconsin were all Plott hounds, perhaps like this one.

So I thought this interesting piece in The Washington Post shines another needed bright light on the unethical thoughtlessness that underpins this only-in-Wisconsin throwaway dog program as it closes out its 34th bloody year: 

What makes dogs so special and successful? Love.

Clive Wynne, a psychologist and founder of the Canine Science Collaboratory at Arizona State University, has a new book that walks readers through the growing body of dog science. In it, he argues that what makes dogs remarkable is not their smarts, but their capacity to form affectionate relationships with other species — in short, to love. 

I’m not saying human and dog love are identical. I’m just saying there’s enough similarity between how dogs form strong emotional bonds and how people form strong emotional bonds that it’s fair enough to use the love word.... 

If you show dogs in MRI scanners objects that remind them of either food or the presence of their owners, you can see how their brains light up. And the reward centers of the brain light up more strongly to signals that say “Your owner is nearby” than to signals that say “You’re going to get a piece of sausage.” That’s really strong evidence inside the brain that the presence of a beloved human is rewarding to a dog in itself.

More manure in WI waters

The WI DNR has documented another rural manure runoff across land and into nearby surface water. 

The runoff was in Marathon County northeast of Colby and "has flowed overland to Elm Creek," the agency said.

That location, in central Wisconsin, is far from hard-hit Kewaunee County to the east 

One of Kewaunee County's many manure flows off the large cattle feeding operations concentrated there

which suffered another overflow in September, and is distant from communities in the Southwestern Wisconsin where an August study disclosed shockingly extensive drinking water contamination:

Study: Private wells in rural southwest Wisconsin are 91% polluted

Add to that reporting a report this week by Michigan-based based writer Gary Wilson: 

In the last five years there have been 450 “manure spills” in Wisconsin ranging from a negligible quantity to 1,900,000 gallons in October 2016 when heavy rain forced runoff into a creek, according to data provided by the Department of Natural Resources.

The agency confirmed that there have been spills to Lake Michigan and its tributaries but did not provide details.

In a late September meeting, Wisconsin’s Natural Resources Board ordered an expansion of a rule-making public comment process on manure spills being conducted by the Department of Natural Resources. 

Buying 'Trump being Trump' means owning 'Rudy being Rudy,' too

We remember that Ron Johnson 

Johnson excitedly stood with Trump on Meet the Press Sunday

defended to media the Ukrainian shakedown Trump directed from the Oval Office by saying it was just "Trump being Trump."

But given the direction the story took Thursday - - 

2 Giuliani Associates Tied to Ukraine Scandal Arrested on Campaign Finance Charges

- - and 

- - you wonder if RoJo understood or cared that defending Trump also meant standing up for Rudy being Rudy? 

WI DNR raises multiple concerns over proposed Superior power plant

Keep your eyes on these dramatic and surprising developments: an environmental review by the WI DNR has raised several substantial, interconnected concerns about a major gas-fired generating plant proposed in Superior.

DNR: Proposed natural gas power plant could harm groundwater

The $700 million natural gas power plant proposed for Superior could negatively impact nearby groundwater, according to Wisconsin regulators....  

Ian Anderson, a DNR hydrologist testified that the state agency could not determine the project “would not have a significant detrimental effect on the quantity” of the groundwater.

Additionally, the agency's official review raises concerns about the plant's likely release of harmful greenhouse gases.



And the DNR also cited damage to the environment and threats to public health related to fracking used to extract the proposed plant's fuel - - natural gas - - and further noted the negative impacts of widespread frac sand mining in Wisconsin.

This isn't a rejection of the plant: the final permitting decision is in the hands of the Wisconsin PSC and a 2-1 Walkerite majority - - and once again we understand that the GOP's lame-duck power grabs kept the defeated Walker's PSC majority intact - - but it's great to see a revitalized DNR raising and connecting important clean air, groundwater and public health issues which Team Walker intentionally ignored and deleted.

And props to Gov. Evers' and DNR Secretary Cole for following through on their pledges to return science to the agency mission.

Saving important Milwaukee County Grounds acreage moving forward

Photo-journalist Eddee Daniel, and others, are spreading the word:

The Wauwatosa Plan Commission voted on Monday to recommend that Sanctuary Woods be rezoned as Conservancy. 

Read the details and see some new photos:https://awealthofnature.org/wauwatosa-plan-commission-votes-unanimously-to-rezone-sanctuary-woods-as-conservancy/

From Eddie Daniel's "Wealth of Nature" blog

A related post from The Political Environment blog, here. 

Ron Johnson, further hysteria and hyperbole alert

I thought RoJo had set an insurmountable bar with this nuttiness about Obamacare: 

Ron Johnson won his Senate seat in 2010 on an anti-Obamacare campaign, railing against the law as “the greatest assault on our freedoms in my lifetime.”

Not to mention other indefensible statements and actions.

But then RoJo turned himself into a scatter-brained, Trump-defending Rudy Giuliani clown/clone on Meet The Press last Sunday - - 

- - and later went on right-wing radio, quoted here, to declare that "the greatest threat to our democracy right now is this effort to sabotage a new President." 

(Simple fact-checking would reveal GOP Senate leader McConnell, a Johnson colleague, had vowed to use state power to make President Obama a one-term President, which Johnson surely has forgotten.)

Scott Fitzgerald confirms he doesn't have an original thought

More GOP Bootlicking 101, as Scott Fitzgerald 

signals he'll pick right up in the Cult of Trump Caucus where the servile Sean Duffy left off:

Republican congressional candidate Scott Fitzgerald calls impeachment inquiry 'political witch hunt'

How is it that Wisconsin Republicans keep offering up such obsequious drones - - Duffy, Grothman, Ryan, et al - - to serve in the US Congress?

The people pay members of Congress $174,000 annually. Fitzgerald's robotic repetition of one of Trump's most banal slogans is proof that the public would get more bang for its buck if the northern Wisconsin congressional salary were air-dropped over the district every month so almost $15,000 would find its way directly into the economy a dozen times a year.

Wash Post writer cites RoJo's exceptional 'bootlicking cowardice'

And it isn't just home state opinion writers who have teed off on Johnson's cult-like fealty before Trump.

The Washington Post's Pulitzer Prize winner Eugene Robinson gave the occupant of our wasted Wisconsin Senior Senate seat this special treatment in the Washington Post Monday. I hope it sticks. 

The GOP’s bootlicking cowardice knows no bounds

The bootlicking cowardice of today’s Republican Party knows no bounds.

Perhaps none has embarrassed himself more than Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who had a rough time Sunday on “Meet the Press.” 

Robinson opines that Johnson beat out some strong competition.

Runner-up for some sort of Profiles in Spinelessness award is Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who said that when Trump stood on the White House lawn and called on the despotic Chinese government, with its kangaroo-court justice system, to investigate a former U.S vice president and his family, he was just kidding around to get a rise out of the media. 

The Bootlicker?

I like it. 

In case you missed Trump's sociopathetic narcissism...

Here's what the Commander-inChief posted on Twitter about his single-handed abandonment of Kurdish fighters who were our allies, as Turkey and Russia sought. Blood on his hands.

As I have stated strongly before, and just to reiterate, if Turkey does anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits, I will totally destroy and obliterate the Economy of Turkey (I’ve done before!). They must, with Europe and others, watch over

Donald J. Trump

....the captured ISIS fighters and families. The U.S. has done far more than anyone could have ever expected, including the capture of 100% of the ISIS Caliphate. It is time now for others in the region, some of great wealth, to protect their own territory. THE USA IS GREAT!

Lesser-known markers help explain WI GOP Sen. Ron Johnson

I see a lot of questions on social media that fall into the category of who is this guy, anyway? afterJohnson's self-inflicted time in the impeachment barrel this week.

Everyone has a favorite Johnsonism, from sunspots causing climate change, to health care and food being privileges, not rights, to Obamacare rating as the worst threat to freedom in his lifetime - - but a few perhaps lesser-known markers help explain where Johnson came from politically, what moves him and how he's chosen to operate:

* He said he decided on his eventual 2010 Tea Party run for the US Senate seat held by Democrat Russ Feingold because he was touched by a Fox News commentator's plea for a candidate: 

During a press conference announcing his candidacy, Johnson explained: “I was sitting at home watching Fox News and Dick Morris came on and said 'Hey, you know, Feingold is vulnerable. You know, if you're a rich guy from Wisconsin, step up to the plate.' I kind of looked at (my wife) Jane and said 'is he, like, talking to me?'”

* What may have been his first public defining ideological reveal was a statement he read before a Wisconsin legislative committee opposing extending the period during which child assault victims could sue for damages.

Here is the video 

in which then-business owner Johnson sided with employers.

And, separately, here is a link to a Journal Sentinel Dan Bice story which explained how Johnson came to make these remarks: 

"I believe it is a valid question to ask whether the employer of a perpetrator should also be severely damaged, or possibly destroyed, in our legitimate desire for justice."

Johnson had little to say about the victims of sexual abuse in his testimony. His was largely a financial concern....

"This bill could actually have the perverse effect of leading to additional victims of sexual abuse," he argued, "if individuals, recognizing that their organizations are at risk, become less likely to report suspected abuse."

So it was not completely surprising years later when it was learned that Senator Johnson had failed report to authorities a female staff member's complaint about being groped and assaulted by a GOP state legislator at a Republican fund-raising event - - a matter which became public after more allegations were made by additional victims against the same legislator which led to his arrest and conviction.

All of which is reprised in this 2017 post. 

But I'm not trying to paint Johnson as some sort of empathy-free politician, because this recent headline shows he has a heart.

US Sen. Ron Johnson says he feels sorry for President Trump

Johnson, Trump & Sonny Perdue sing from same cold, corporate hymnal

You'd had to be deep sea diving in Tahiti this week to miss the furor unleashed in the Dairy State when US Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue dropped in representing The Tariff King and told small dairy farmers it was time to go away.

Though the Trump 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 milk production into a crushing oversupply - -  we also have more manure overflows and reports of polluted drinking water. 

This rural version of standard Republican big business favoritism - - seen in the Trump/Ryan more-tax- breaks-for-corporate-America, or Walker's record-breaking subsidies-and-environmental-shortcuts-for Foxconn - - reminded me of two things central to Johnson and his politics:

 

1. Johnson withheld his key vote on the 2017 Trump/Ryan 'tax breaks for the rich' bill until he was assured that a provision tailored for the kind of business Johnson's family runs in Oshkosh was included in the legislation.

Talk about the privilege of self-interested leverage, as the Washington Post noted: 

Sen. Johnson is a ‘no’ on the tax bill. He says it hurts businesses (like his own).

2. More to the point, Johnson would be fine with Perdue's easy sacrifice of Wisconsin's family dairies because Johnson believes in the disposability of businesses through the cold-hearted law of economics of "creative destruction."

Throw in some creative use of 'blight' for a corporation's need or the bulldozing of state park land and public employee credibility to these power equations, too.

Of course, it's easier being on the surviving side of 'creative destruction' if the business you've married also got a boost in its early days from a public agency loan and government-built freight shipping line, too - - before Johnson's tax law access works its magic.

But if you're a salt-of-the-earth Wisconsin dairy operator and not a government-enabled CAFO, the creative destroyers and their corporate welfare cronies have sealed your fate, as The New York Times puts it:

Stung by Trump’s Trade Wars, Wisconsin’s Milk Farmers Face Extinction

Ron Johnson qualifies as impeachment witness. For the Democrats.

Oh, RoJo: You weren't supposed to help make the quid pro quo case, but thank you for the stumble, which the Journal Sentinel reports this way: 

Ron Johnson says he was blocked by President Trump from telling Ukraine foreign aid was coming

With his comments Friday, Johnson made clear that he was aware of allegations Trump was withholding aid to Ukraine for political reasons weeks before the public knew.  

And, wow, is Johnson having a bad day:

Johnson on Friday also sought to walk back comments he made Thursday about whether the president acted properly by calling on a foreign government to investigate Joe Biden, the former vice president who is running for president....That's in contrast to comments Johnson made Thursday to reporters in Wisconsin.

You know, with walking-back friends like these, Trump doesn't need any enemies.