fade5 posted:

He also compared union protesters to ISIS. Yes, seriously:

This comparison is of course completely moronic, incredibly loving insulting to both union members as well as the people killed by ISIL, and tone deaf as all gently caress.

So yeah,

Seeing him down at ~5% in recent polls and seeing the Koch's wet dreams of an empty suit union-busting President go down in flames so fast has been a lot of fun to see.

Stereotype posted:

He will hopefully be voted out of office in Wisconsin next season too, but you can never really be sure with all the racist white flight conservative Republicans that moved north from Chicago.

Shageletic posted:

Alternative angle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdE7XQF-6K0

Note the shame sitting stance

Fried Chicken posted:

Oh, hey, House Republicans now calling for the senate to abolish the filibuster so they can force a veto fight on the Iran Deal

They are really not happy about the Democrats using their own tactics against them.

Fried Chicken posted:

So fun fact: The guy she's beating down there? He advocated that they pull a false flag attack to force a war between the US and Iran










Anyways, everybody remember that Colbert takes over the Late Show tonight, and Jeb Bush! is his first guest. Regardless of how it goes for Jeb I think Hilary will end up regretting not taking the offer when it came to her, it is going to be a lot of free eyeballs

Fried Chicken posted:

Oh, hey, House Republicans now calling for the senate to abolish the filibuster so they can force a veto fight on the Iran Deal

They are really not happy about the Democrats using their own tactics against them.

Fried Chicken posted:

Oh, hey, House Republicans now calling for the senate to abolish the filibuster so they can force a veto fight on the Iran Deal

They are really not happy about the Democrats using their own tactics against them.

DemeaninDemon posted:

OK get rid of the filibuster for all time so Obama can turn around and flop his veto dick so hard his desk breaks.

Darth Walrus posted:

Mind 'explaining to someone from another country who's not totally up on USpol why Walker's so especially loathed?

Shageletic posted:

A wrap up of Walker's recent accomplishments for people new to the Wisconsin Wonder:

quote:
1. Leads all-out war on workers, but fails to generate jobs and higher wages: In recent months, Walker has intensified the assault on workers, the poor and most vulnerable with punitive new laws and provisions of his new two-year $73 billion state budget. Since taking office, Walker has been staging this relentless war on worker rights and wages, despite already-declining household incomes—especially sharp in Wisconsin-- and the shrinkage of union power.

• Walker’s attacks on union rights build upon his 2011 “Act 10” which simultaneously abolished almost all collective bargaining rights of public employees to union representation and drove down the take-home pay of public employees by over 10%. These attacks on public employees clearly carried a sub-text of white antagonism toward African-Americans and Latinos, argue professors Hannah Walker and Dylan Bennett because of minority workers’ concentration in the public sector and the economic anxieties of whites.

• This spring, Walker’s signed a new anti-union “right-to-work” bill—contradicting previous promise to labor leaders and the public—that will surely further weaken the already-limited bargaining power of private-sector unions. The aim of this bill, with deeply racist roots, is to drive union membership in Wisconsin to Southern-style microscopic levels.

• Walker’s new state budget severely weakens “prevailing wage” protections for construction workers on public projects, outright elimination of the living wage concept which had been central to setting the state’s minimum wage, and the erosion of tenure and layoff protections for UW faculty.

• Walker’s anti-worker attacks and lavish corporate subsidies handed out by his newly-privatized and scandal-wracked Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation have failed to produce the family-sustaining jobs long promised by Walker. WEDC has been involved in providing funds for major firms shipping family-supporting jobs to offshore sites, along with aiding major Walker donors.

• He also has attacked the ‘living wage’ concept in state law. The new budget eliminates entirely a requirement that the governor consider what constitutes a “living wage” in working to establish an appropriate minimum wage for Wisconsin. Wisconsin’s minimum wage in the Walker years has been stuck at the $7.25 federal-set level, while 29 states and numerous cities have enacted far higher minimums ranging as high as $15 an hour.

The results have not helped the public. Examining both job gains and losses, Wisconsin’s drop in middle-income jobs have meant that only “low-wage” jobs have been increasing 2010 to 2013, according to Census Data. Even these undesirable jobs have been slow in arriving, with Wisconsin ranking 35th in job creation under Walker, as Politifact reported that the total number of jobs created under his administration was just 111,295, despite a 2010 pledge of generating 250,000 jobs in his first four years, which was central to his 2010 campaign.

Notably, state income growth has been terrible. Perhaps most painfully-experienced has been Wisconsin’s drop in household income as outlined in a Pew Research report released in March. Summarizing the findings, Capital Timesreporter Mike Ivey noted, “Wisconsin ranks worst among the 50 statesin terms of a shrinking middle class, with real median household incomes here falling 14.7 percent since 2000.

Wisconsin’s loss of household income amounts to more than double the national average drop of 7.2% according to the Pew report. While Walker cannot be held responsible for all of the trends underlying the fall in household income, Wisconsin’s economy has consistently lagged behind both Midwestern states and the nation, as Prof. Marc Levine has documented.

2. Undermining Wisconsin’s prized public education system. Public education in Wisconsin has ranked as among the best in nation, where it is widely viewed as a foundation of a democratic society. However, since in office, Walker has sliced funding for K-12 schools while consistently boosting funding and loosening standards for privatized voucher schools. He has also widened his attack by orchestrating a “hostile takeover” of powers held by the democratically elected Milwaukee Public School board, by usurping and transferring them to neo-liberal County Executive Chris Abele. He has also lowered the standards for teachers, with the new state budget eliminating qualification requirements for hiring teachers.

Walker hasn't stopped there, however. He's taken his anti-union agenda to the state university system, where he has tried to recast it as a narrow pathway serving ould-be employers and not a center of academic inquiry. He's tried to replace a century-long university mission of the search for truth and public service with a narrow, pro-corporate new vision of “providing state workforce needs.” While Walker initially claimed that he and his staff had no role in this proposal, media investigations showed the direct intervention of his staff in pushing the new budget language.

Walker also is imposing $250 million in budget cuts on the highly-esteemed University of Wisconsin system, ranked 19th best in the world. Other provisions call for virtually eliminating tenure and strengthening university administrators’ power over faculty, which is pandering to the long-held right-wing gripe that universities are hotbeds of liberal thought. Among the already-emerging results are older faculty seeking to flee UW and promising young professors steering clear of UW because there is no guarantee of tenure.

3. Less accountability and transparency. Walker's latest gambit to impose government secrecy has ignited a furor. Some of the most controversial features of the budget were prepared secretively and quickly rammed through by Republican allies in late-night meetings of the GOP-dominated (12-4) Joint Finance Committee. Even far-Right Republican Attorney General Brian Schimel denounced the tactic and substance, which include narrowing open record laws. He said, "Transparency is the cornerstone of democracy, and the provisions in the budget bill limiting access to public records move Wisconsin in the wrong direction.”

Walker, meanwhile, has acted with impunity, by insisting on secrecy for his records, as if the provision were already in effect. Yet, a near-universal wave of opposition forced withdrawal of this proposal tucked into the budget.

4. Humiliating and harming the vulnerable: The meaning of a Walker presidency was vividly made clear by his budget and recent laws he has signed. Looking at elements section by section reveals his harsh values and the agenda he would seek to impose in the nation if elected president.

• Attacking environmental protection. Numerous Dept. of Natural Resources scientists will be laid off, thereby silencing highly-credible analysis and criticism of his policies on air and water safety.

• Rolling back abortion rights. A key new item added to Walker’s right-wing checklist is a draconian 20-week limit on abortions without regard for rape, incest, or health of the mother.

• Humiliating public assistence recipients. He has required drug testing for food stamps and unemeployment insurance recipients. The federal government has moved to block such testings. Experiments in South Carolina and Florida showed a miniscule rate of drug use by aid recipients. Yet Walker persists in promoting this humiliating and insulting proposal.

Viewed as whole, the Walker-Republican budget combines a set of highly-regressive economic shifts benefitting corporations and the wealthy at the expense of workers with a host of anti-democratic measures ranging from weakening faculty involvement in university decision-making to re-shaping non-partisan state agencies to give them a profoundly Republican tilt.

The Public Isn't Buying It

But ominously for Walker, his personal approval rating has fallen to an all-time low of just 41% as of mid-April, according to a poll taken in April by MU Law School.

Walker has only deepened public disaffection with his continuing long absences from the state while intensely campaigning for the GOP nomination, which have consumed about 44% of his time in recent months. Walker’s disapproval rating has thus climbed from 48% in October 2014 to 56% in April of this year.

Walker, despite fairly narrow election victories of about 53% to 47% in 2010, 2012, and 2014, nonetheless feels a strong incentive to convert Wisconsin into a laboratory for rightist policies as part of his presidential campaign. His policies fit in with his long-standing goal of mobilizing a right-wing for 2016's Republican caucuses and primaries.

He and his GOP legislative allies can act with impunity because their highly secretive and partisan re-districting virtually guaranteed legislative domination into the future. In 2012, the Democrats won 60% of votes for the State Assembly but won only 39% of seats.

Walker has used the power of his office to impose his vision of a “Wis-issippi” with low wages, minimal corporate taxes, widespread crony capitalism, and a depleted public sector. This is the legacy he has brought to Wisconsin ad would seek to impose on the nation if his presidential aspirations are successful.

Shageletic posted:

An old post from the Presidential thread:

http://www.list.alternet.org/electi...ose-all-america

Brannock posted:

Thank you, my utter and complete despising of Walker had been waning somewhat the last couple months as he floundered on the national stage, but this is helping to restore it somewhat. What a completely inimical person. I can't believe he's done this to my state.

Evil Fluffy posted:

They won't be investigated, let alone disbarred, though. There's no way it'll be seriously looked in to.

Joementum posted:

The latest tortilla-n-guac fueled plan from the House Freedom Caucus is to insist on defunding Planned Parenthood as a condition of funding the government and then (in the off chance Boehner can't deliver) to oust the Speaker from his chair.

Note that there's been a bill brewing since the day before the recess to oust Boehner. Note also that Gohmert and Co. are convinced Pelosi will give them the votes to do this.

Brannock posted:

4,400,000~ people live in Kentucky. That's a whole lot of people to write off access to civil rights and health care.

JT Jag posted:

Hm, put a Tea Party crazy into the Speaker chair or keep the spineless douchebag who is forced to grovel to you for votes in place?

I wonder what Pelosi will do

Joementum posted:

My guess: since electing a Speaker requires a majority vote, she'll get all her colleagues to vote for her and watch the Republicans descend into multi-round ballot madness, while leaning back and sipping a glass of wine in eye-shot of a thirsty Boehner.

Brannock posted:

Thank you, my utter and complete despising of Walker had been waning somewhat the last couple months as he floundered on the national stage, but this is helping to restore it somewhat. What a completely inimical person. I can't believe he's done this to my state.

JT Jag posted:

That sounds like something worth tuning into C-SPAN for.

icantfindaname posted:

Lol at anyone who thinks Wisconsin (or the Midwest in general) is a blue state

To tell you the truth it's pretty incredible IMO how well blue-collar Democrat support has held on here considering how incompetent the local Democratic organizations are and how bad the economic situation is

ReidRansom posted:

I think Boehner crushed the last attempt before it got that far. Don't clearly recall though.

Joementum posted:

Well, the HFC put Gohmert in charge of whipping the votes and had members reading their TOP SECRET DO NOT SHARE emails on giant ipad screens on the House floor.

Acebuckeye13 posted:

Now that I live in the DC area I really want to swing by that restaurant sometime just so I can see incompetence in action.

ReidRansom posted:

Putting Gohmert in charge of anything was their mistake. Like, anything.

ReidRansom posted:

Putting Gohmert in charge of anything was their mistake. Like, anything.

ReidRansom posted:

I think Boehner crushed the last attempt before it got that far. Don't clearly recall though.

JT Jag posted:

Hm, put a Tea Party crazy into the Speaker chair or keep the spineless douchebag who is forced to grovel to you for votes in place?

I wonder what Pelosi will do

Joementum posted:

The latest tortilla-n-guac fueled plan from the House Freedom Caucus is to insist on defunding Planned Parenthood as a condition of funding the government and then (in the off chance Boehner can't deliver) to oust the Speaker from his chair.

Note that there's been a bill brewing since the day before the recess to oust Boehner. Note also that Gohmert and Co. are convinced Pelosi will give them the votes to do this.

MaxxBot posted:

Unless it involves making ribs, I hear he's pretty good at that.

Joementum posted:

Dude picked his office out specifically because it had a ledge outside the window for his BBQ, so I'd put him in charge of fixin' a roast.

ReidRansom posted:

OK fair enough, but I'm gonna drop a hard "told ya so" when he burns down the capitol.

Joementum posted:

Joementum posted:

Joementum posted:

Joementum posted:

Joementum posted:

Raskolnikov38 posted:

Igniting marble would certainly be a task.