GOP Capitol Hill 'protest' Wednesday was oh-so-situational

Cry me a river over the short memories, sincerity deficits and faux outrage surpluses which turned some US House Republican members Wednesday into 'protestors.'

Their disruptive takeover of a secure hearing room in the Capitol - - 

Cell phones, for example, are not allowed in Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities (also known as SCIFs). But the Republican members who barged into those facilities had taken their phones with them inside the room.  

- - is even more transparently phony if you remember how indifferently Republicans reacted when Democrats peacefully stayed after-hours on the House floor to protest gun violence.

GOP unmoved after Democratic sit-in on guns 

Unyielding Republicans who control the chamber branded the move a publicity stunt and summarily adjourned the chamber at around 3:15 a.m. EDT until after the Fourth of July. 

Maybe these crybaby, Trump-enabling Republicans should ask their colleague John Lewis for a short course on righteous, non-partisan and peaceful protest. 

Wisconsin voters: sweep out the rest of the autocrats

Now that Wisconsin’s little dictators have moved to full-on, the-people-be-damned autocracy:

Fitzgerald says vote on gun-control legislation 'not going to happen'

Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, said Tuesday he has not yet discussed the matter with his fellow Republicans but said he expects to adjourn the Nov. 7 special session immediately after calling it to order. 

The state's democracy can be rescued from arrogant, self-dealers


who gerrymandered themselves into power and auctioned their oaths by adhering to a long-range strategy that worked in Wisconsin in 2018:

The only thing that can stop a bad officer-holder with ill intent is a good candidate with better ideas.

Shorter version:

Organize, organize, organize. 

Update:

This is timely:

Oct. 24: WisPolitics luncheon with Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald
 

Join WisPolitics.com for lunch at The Madison Club, 5 East Wilson St., Madison, on Thursday Oct. 24 with Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald.
 

Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, will discuss the fall legislative session as well as his run next year for the 5th Congressional District.
 

Check-in and lunch begins at 11:30 a.m., with the program going from noon to 1 p.m.
 

WisPolitics.com subscribers and members as well as Madison Club members and their guests receive discounted pricing for WisPolitics luncheons of $19 per person. Price for general public is $25 per person.

This luncheon is sponsored by: Husch Blackwell, American Family Insurance, Xcel Energy, Walmart, AARP Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Hospital Association.

To register, visit: 
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/wispolitics-luncheon-with-scott-fitzgerald-tickets-72713557207

Other upcoming WisPolitics events:
https://www.wispolitics.com/category/events/featured-events/

GOP legislative mediums see no need for gun safety measures

Add the Ouija Board to foam cheeseheads and Lambeau Field to what gives Wisconsin its identity.

Said to be the original Ouija Board, circa 1894; something like it may still be running the Wisconsin Legislature in 2019

Which is why apprentice mediums and skilled anthropologists alike will be flocking to the Badger State after two Wisconsin seers - - both are legislators; one is a politically-ambitious Wisconsin horse breeder and the other multi-tasks as a prominent college town landlord and popcorn maker - - seem to know there won't be any more sketchy firearm sales or unhinged gun owners perpetrating mass shootings or domestic violence in Wisconsin.

Fitzgerald says Senate will quickly end gun special session 

The Republican leader of the Wisconsin state Senate said Tuesday he plans to convene and then immediately adjourn a special session Democratic Gov. Tony Evers called on a pair of gun control measures, without debating or voting on the proposals.

Don't get the impression that the GOP legislative leaders nixed the special session because they only like legislating during the regular session calendars.

If they see a power grab opportunity then go for it in special session, straight through the night.

Senior WI officials define the drinking water challenges. Action needed.

I've used the phrase "Marshall Plan" in an interview with Michigan-based environmental writer Gary Wilson to describe what Great Lakes neighbor Wisconsin must do to effectively address its clean water challenges.

And I'd say the term I chose for dramatic effect describes what three of Gov. Evers' cabinet officers accurately laid out in a multi-agency document released last week "to reach a day when all [Wisconsin] is safe to drink."

Their recommendations cover these known, major issues:

Nitrates in groundwaterNonpoint pollutionForever (PFAS) chemicalsLead contaminationPathogens

They were highlighted at meetings this year of the Speaker's Task Force on Groundwater, and it's obvious that a lot of funding, inter-agency and bi-partisan cooperation is needed to make real, not marginal or incremental progress.

In the January words of Nancy Utesch, long-time clean water advocate in manure-soaked, CAFO-heavy Kewaunee County:

 'We have waited long enough."

What's needed now? More citizen involvement, serious funding and even more serious statewide and bi-partisan cooperation. Plus, honest commitment from office holders at all levels, or their replacements come election time.

Talll but necessary orders.

Manure flowing from a Kewaunee CAFO.

Running for Congress, Fitzgerald enjoying State Senate perks

I read WI GOP Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald's dismissive, fear-mongering news release about gun safety measures Gov. Evers proposed Monday. Here's the full text.

[Madison, WI] — Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald released the following statement today regarding the special session announcement from Governor Evers:

“Liberals across the country are upping their rhetoric in support of taking guns from law-abiding citizens. After the governor opened the door to a long-term plan of gun confiscation at his press conference last month, it’s easy to see how today’s action could just be the first attack on the Second Amendment. The Senate will not be part of a drawn-out strategy to infringe on constitutional rights.”

Then I went to Fitzgerald's campaign Twitter feed, and found it had retweeted verbatim the heart of the release which Fitzgerald had also posted on his official Senate Twitter page, @SenFitzgerald

Scott Fitzgerald

@SenFitzgerald

·

22h

After the governor opened the door to a long-term plan of gun confiscation at his press conference last month, it’s easy to see how today’s action could just be the first attack on the Second Amendment.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Maybe he should reimburse taxpayers for the public time involved, or at least tell his campaign staffers to write their own partisan material:

Scott Fitzgerald

@FitzgeraldForWI

Scott Fitzgerald Retweeted

@21 he's After the governor opened the door to a long-term plan of gun confiscation at his press conference last month, it’s easy to see how today’s action could just be the first attack on the Second Amendment.

Syracuse, NY highway tear down echoes Milwaukee history

Milwaukeeans reading about the damage done by an intrusive highway through an African-American community in Syracuse know that the same thing happened on Milwaukee's north side. 

This city’s south side was devastated when a highway section went up. Now that there’s talk of taking it down, residents think they should be protected — and compensated.  

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — When Ryedell Davis heard the 1.5-mile stretch of elevated highway slicing through this city might be torn down, he had a vision about what could emerge from its dust. He could open a restaurant, near the one his grandparents had before it was bulldozed to make space for Interstate 81. 

Surrounding it could be other black-owned businesses, largely absent from the city’s south side because banks historically refused to give loans there. Maybe, he thought, the state would give them all tax credits or offer financial assistance to address the past injustice.

That same kind of destruction was done in Milwaukee with public funds for Interstate highway expansion to speed commuters to predominantly-white suburbs. The Milwaukee story is well documented.

When federal, state, and local governments began construction of Interstate 43, the fabric and core of the black community was disrupted. Walnut Street, a major retail corridor that serviced black Milwaukee, suffered and merchants shuttered their stores. Tracts of houses were razed and their residents were relocated into nearby working, lower-middle-class white communities — which resented their new neighbors.... 

Third Street, the main corridor of the North side, also took a hit from those earlier policy decisions. By 1967, Third Street, a major north-south thoroughfare that ran through Milwaukee’s predominantly black neighborhood, had already become an anemic retail strip...nearly none of which were black-owned. 

Some proposed freeway system segments were never built, but the damage was widespread: 

The '60s were the high-water mark for freeway construction in Milwaukee, with roughly 10 miles of new freeway were completed every year. But those miles were coming at a significant cost -- not just to taxpayers. More than 6,000 homes were demolished, forcing 20,000 people to relocate in order to make way for freeways.... 

One elevated freeway segment at the north edge of downtown was subsequently torn down through persistent advocacy by former Milwaukee Mayor John O. Norquist (full disclosure, I worked in his office during that process):

Gizmodo: Park East freeway demolition changed Milwaukee forever

And Norquist's earlier work in the Legislature had helped stop more concrete intrusions through neighborhoods on the south side, and elsewhere.

Long a transit advocate and foe of smashing highways through cities, Norquist had this to say in an op-ed he wrote last year for this blog:. 

By the mid-1970s, the main north-south and east-west freeways were built. I-94 from Marquette to 100th Street was built over the Interurban [railway] right of way that once connected the western suburbs with downtown.  

The freeways had huge impacts on land use. Retail spread away from the city. Downtown, which had been the #1 retail district in the state fell out of the top 10 by 1980. North 3rd Street (now King Drive) had been #2 and by 1980 was not even in the top 40. 

While not the only factor, removing quality transit and installing high speed highways did not add value to Milwaukee.

So the public is left with minimal transit and continuing billions of dollars in freeway maintenance and expansion costs, notably promoted by then-Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker who, later as Governor, further kept Milwaukee residents walled of behind congested and polluted highways by obstructing options like light rail, street car and Amtrak expansion.

So whether it's in Syracuse, or Milwaukee, let's understand the relationships between public planning, taxpayer-paid transportation policies and real-life consequences - - a theme on this blog for years: 

Little wonder that there are profound political southern-style separations between city/suburban-wealthy/low-income and black/white people in our region. 

Enabled, in part, by state, regional and local governmental power.

Public safety votes to highlight reach of WI GOP gerrymander, gun lobby

The defeat last year of two-term gun lobby favorite Scott Walker is about to produce important, visible consequences: acid test votes, though GOP legislators may evade that formality through official leadership disinterest, and lessons about how a tainted partisan gerrymander can continue to devalue democracy by squashing public opinion.

While WI GOP legislative leaders have gerrymandered themselves into illegitimate authority and already stated their predictable no, never posture, the special session Gov. Tony Evers 


just called on two common sense gun safety measures which enjoy broad public backing will force every legislator to declare if they stand with the gun lobbies or the people. Here is the text of the Governor's order:

Gov. Evers Signs Executive Order #54 Calling for a Special Session on Legislation to Address Gun Violence

MADISON — Gov. Tony Evers today signed Executive Order #54 calling the Legislature to meet in a special session on Nov. 7, 2019 to address gun violence in the state of Wisconsin.  "Since taking office in January, I have called on the Legislature to take action and pass commonsense gun safety reform time and time again, giving Republican leadership the opportunity to hear the people of our state and to do the right thing," Gov. Evers said. "Today I am delivering on my promise to call a special session to address gun violence across our state and I'm calling on Republicans to work with Democrats to get this done." In the Executive Order, Gov. Evers requests the Legislature act on two critical proposals that are supported by 80% of Wisconsinites. The proposals outlined include:  Legislation to close the background check loophole by requiring universal background checks for all firearm purchases in the state of Wisconsin.  Legislation to create an extreme risk protection order (ERPO) process that will give family members and law enforcement officials the tools they need to intervene when an individual is at risk of harming themselves or others.  Executive Order #54 can be found here.

Hiring Duffy, CNN aims to be the Comedy News Network

No other way to put it.

CNN Hires Former GOP Congressman and Trump Loyalist Sean Duffy as Political Commentator

Here's some recent Duffy commentary from Twitter:

.@RepSeanDuffy: "I don't buy into the idea President Trump doesn't have control over his admin.," it's his strategy 

And this promo from Duffy when he was still raising money for a congressional re-election bid:

Aug 24
Wisconsin came in HUGE for President Trump in 2016 -- and in 2020, we’re going to have to do it again. Get your “Stand With Trump” sticker today and help us keep Wisconsin RED >>> http://bit.ly/2N4U3SATW

Attention, Ron Johnson, Scott Walker and Republicans everywhere

Admire your man's handiwork.

C-SPAN.ORG

Trump Flips Off Women Astronauts

When gently corrected by one of the astronauts about how other 
women have spacewalked, Trump uses his middle finger to 'fix' his hair.

Make sure you go to Twitter

Dr. Jack Brown

@DrGJackBrown

·

Oct 18

16/ The President then shows us something he rarely does on camera — he touches his face (2:13 - 2:16). Moreover, he does so in a very particular manner. With his right middle finger extended, Donald Trump first touches the upper part of his nose, between his eyes.

11

144

535

Dr. Jack Brown

@DrGJackBrown

·

Oct 18

17/ Notice his other fingers are, to varying degrees, partially contracted (flexed).

and see this 30-item thread posted frame-by-frame from the video by a body language expert - - 

Dr. Jack Brown

@DrGJackBrown

18/ Maintaining his extended middle finger, he then rubs upward to his forehead.