15 now and still counting
One day after signing
his Presidential Campaign Promotion ...
Republican Austerity Gone Wild ...
Reward Your Donors and Hammer Your Opposition ... the Wisconsin State Budget, Scott Walker
officially announces his long-anticipated entry into the 2016 Republican Primary with an announcement later and video.
He originally planned to make his flag-waving, uber patriotic announcement during the Independence Day weekend, but chaos in the Legislature caused by his long absence made the state budget weeks late as Republicans kept introducing ever more embarrassing non-budgetary wish list items into the already bloated budget. This might be the first budget with more non-budget policy items in it than actual budget measures.
Warning: Have your barf bag handy and keep your BS Meter protected from overload:
Of COURSE comments are disabled on You Tube the same way that the general public is never allowed into Scott Walkers so-called "public" events (at his "official announcement", you must have a ticket AND present a valid photo ID to enter the event which is being held at a public facility in blood red Waukesha County). Ditto "public" bill signings or speeches. All in front of a captive-employee audience or hand picked supporters waving tickets to the event.
He doesn't want anyone to be confused between what he says or claims and factual reality. Yes, he is still touting himself as a "job-bringer" despite his miserable record on jobs (Wisconsin is dead last in the Midwest in new jobs). For Walker, propaganda works which is why he hammers so hard on any opposition, holds "public" events in private facilities so he only appears in front of hand picked audiences, has direct line access to local RW radio hosts across Wisconsin, and generally makes himself unavailable to the media.
And our media, who so faithfully broadcast and print his talking points and propaganda like gospel, who rarely ask anything besides softball questions with virtually no follow up, who generally ignore bad news and fluff him up at every opportunity? Yeah, he still treats them like shit and has them begging for more. Go figure.
He must now bid adieu to the unlimited fundraising he's been feverishly doing since being re-elected Governor of Wisconsin. Now, his funds will be limited and reported (well, except for those dark money groups that got him into hot water with the John Doe II prosecutors). The dark money groups that poured huge sums into his 2010 run for Governor, the 2012 recall, and were once again out in full force last year will continue to play a prominent role in Scott Walkers' quest for the White House.
But .... Scott Walker for America? No. Not really. Not ever.
It's really Scott Walker for Scott Walker. In fact, he's using the same URL (scottwalker.com) he's always used, just fancied up with a new name. Walker has always used each elected office as a springboard to his next, higher goal. He never does the job he's elected to other than to reward donors, please his voter base, and abuse his opposition, whether real or imagined. He leaves each area worse off for his having been there in a position to rule.
For a fuller look at Walkers' history, go here and have a look around.
I could write a book about this guy, but below the cheese curl I'm going to unravel only one of his claims: that he's a "bold leader".
Scott Walker has always been about promoting himself. When he was Milwaukee County Executive, he travelled the state at taxpayer expense claiming he was promoting Milwaukee County. No, he was promoting state-wide name recognition for himself for a future state-wide run. He's done the same as Governor of Wisconsin, travelling the US and foreign countries on the taxpayer dime promoting himself and artificially plumping up his non-existent foreign policy credentials.
His lie filled tome, Unintimidated, filled with lies and distortions, didn't sell despite outrageous red meat claims of "attacks" by protestors and "threats" to himself and his family that never happened. Had anything like that actually occurred, it would have been front-paged news.
A better name for that useless door-stopper would have been I Crapped My Pants When Tens of Thousands of People Showed Up to Protest. As the recorded phone call with the phony Koch Brother showed, Walker was deliberately vicious in his attacks on public sector workers. He described it as "dropping the bomb" after he had promised to negotiate with state workers in his successful attempt to get the State Legislature to not approve the already-negotiated contract with the unions.
He had already put the Wisconsin National Guard on alert even before anyone showed up with a sign. He WANTED trouble in order to gain media attention.
But he went further - even to the point of considering "putting troublemakers into the crowd" in order to provoke a response. The reason he didn't? Concern for the children and families in the crowd? Concern about injuring someone? No. His ONE AND ONLY CONCERN was that any trouble might have created public pressure for him to negotiate with the protestors and he wasn't going to have any of that.
For his own cowardly self? An even bigger security detail than the one he already had. And then he took exclusive control of a secret tunnel that led to the Capitol which was used for deliveries to local business. Now it became the route he'd use to sneak in and out of his office and it's still in use today so he will never fear running into some pesky peasant.
When Walker claims to be bold - remember what a genuine coward he truly is. Remember that he holds events in front of hand-picked audiences so his support appears unified. Remember his secret tunnel and massive security detail.
But, most of all, remember his lies. You'll know Scott Walker is lying when his lips are moving.
More to come in the future as this new, slippery clown squeezes his way into the Republican Clown Car. You know I have plenty more to talk about, too.
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UPDATE:
Well, he gave his shiny official speech in front of a hand picked (ticket and valid photo ID required) audience who would have cheered wildly if he would have come and picked every ones' pockets.
I've given my spine-chilling, overall takeaway in a comment, below, but his use of the royal "we" should tell everyone how enormous his ego is as well as his idea of going to war virtually everywhere and using scare tactics to do it. His ego is so large that he's now using the American Flag to substitute for the "E" in his last name.
Simply put, he's a liar, flip flopper, and will say or do anything to benefit himself and his own personal ambitions. His record speaks for itself.
And, it seems, he's thrown his red tie and pale blue shirt under the bus now that he's officially running for President.
The man does give a good speech. He has a real future in selling snake oil to rubes.
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