Sorry for posting twice in one day, but this one was too good to pass up.
The BS was pretty thick over the weekend as Wisconsin Republicans held their convention where they slapped each other on the back over their (real or imagined) accomplishments. The only surprise is that they held it in Milwaukee and not in some blood red county in the state. They have spent years trying to destroy Milwaukee and Madison and they’re making progress on that desire.
Naturally, recent Democratic victories in long time Republican districts weren’t even mentioned, but they were all warned about the impending “blue wave” that we’ve all seen coming. Even Walker hastily tweeted the latest Wisconsin election results were a “wake up call".
He also added:
Mobilize quickly, or everything we've done since 2011 is at risk.
More like a call to arms with as many lies and as much baloney as they can spew as fast and loud as they can. After all, Wisconsin is saturated with RW media and often a choice between 2 different RW stations no matter where you are in the state. Our traditional print and broadcast media are also notoriously pro-Walker so they will get their bogus talking points and false claims out and quickly repeated.
As a result, they’re selling their Republican snake oil as fast as they can, lying about their “accomplishments”, and, naturally, playing the victim. The latest talking point? Claiming that Democrats are angry and full of hate.
Scott Walker said:
"Sadly, the left seems consumed with anger and hatred," he added. "They’re angry at me. They’re angry at the president. They are angry at all of you. They are angry with just about anyone who dares to agree with Republicans."
Walker said that anger and hatred "are pretty powerful motivators" and he urged delegates to counter it "with optimism and organization."
He should know all about anger and hatred being powerful motivators. He’s used them in campaign after campaign and these claims are the usual fodder tossed at viewers (cult followers) of Faux Newz (never fair or balanced). He’ll need a powerful motivator since he’s already done with all that dividing and conquering.
Of course, it’s projection. He’s skilled at that because he wants to deflect attention from his own tactics of division, anger and hatred. He always lets the dark money groups spew their hate-filled ads at opponents so his hands look clean. And his Republican Legislature made sure that coordinating between dark money groups and campaigns (the heart of the John Doe investigation) is now perfectly legal so we’ll see that in full force this year.
We’re not angry or filled with hate. What fills us is disgust at what Republicans have done to our once fine state. It’s so bad that many people are actually leaving the state in disgust (one of the real reasons unemployment is low) and graduates of our once-envied state university system don’t feel any need to stick around in Wisconsin either.
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wi 01) gave his farewell address to the convention which included nothing worthy to note other than his usual talking point about wanting to spend time “being a great dad”. Yeah, right. He’s running like a scared chicken so he won’t be unceremoniously booted out of office now that voters in Wi-01 know who he really is.
Worthy to note, however, is the endorsement the Wisconsin GOP gave to Leah Vukmir, currently my own Republican State Senator, to run against Tammy Baldwin for the US Senate. If you think Ron Johnson is dumb, wait until you get a good look at Vukmir. She makes Johnson look like a Rhodes Scholar. She still has to win the Republican primary before she actually gets an opportunity to show us how clueless and ignorant she really is.
Her only qualifications are her close ties to Scott Walker and fierce anti-choice activities.
Bonus Material:
It’s 2018 and you know what that means for Scott Walker — campaign time. It’s a never ending series of outright lies, attacks against opponents, unsubstantiated claims that Wisconsin is just doing great under his “leadership”, and, of course, playing the victim. More on that later.
He’s funded by mega donations from special interests and industries that are well-served by their “investments” in his campaign. And every time he’s up for re-election, they kick back a small portion of the largess he’s put into their pockets to make sure he continues to serve their interests.
Expensive ads are already blanketing the state to propagandize the masses into voting against their own interest. These 2 are the most seen:
He just loves to be seen with first responders (their unions continue to endorse them and were exempted from the odious effects of Act 10 that all but destroyed other public sector unions).
As for him “helping people like me” — it’s all smoke and mirrors. He cut $2 billion in funding for schools, technical colleges, and our state university system at the same time he froze tuition costs. He wanted the money to come from reducing or eliminating teacher benefits and pay.
While this paramedic may not have had to pay more herself, the technical college she attended is serving less students with less money and trying to deal with the outflux of teachers leaving the state for better pay and benefits elsewhere. Ditto our university system where the buzzards have been circling picking off great faculty members for other colleges since 2011.
In order to claim credit for better funding for schools, he recently sent a few crumbs their way. It wasn’t much — just enough to avoid a Pants on Fire rating from PoliFact when he makes his outlandish claims that he increased funding to schools. He hopes nobody remembers how he decimated funding since 2011.
Here’s another one:
Yes, Scott Walker is so concerned about opiate addiction that he kicked 135,000 people off Badger Care (Wisconsin’s Medicaid system) in 2011 by severely tightening eligibility requirements and refusing the expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. He must seriously think that either rehab is free or that this kind of bullshit will sell his tiny, callous heart as kind and understanding.
Expect his future ads to contain even more cloying BS coupled with enormously bogus claims.
His theme for this campaign?
Wisconsin Wins the 21st Century
He cleverly denies the truth shown when Wisconsin and Minnesota were compared and our state looks rock bottom in comparison to our thriving neighboring state. And, of course, our media is buying that hook, line, and sinker as it was served up to reporter Mike Gousha during his Sunday night program, Up Front with Mike Gousha (sorry, the video wouldn’t embed).
Of course, Walker will once again claim to be the victim. He’s already citing unsubstantiated “hatred and anger” from the left in order to motivate his supporters to hate liberals and Democrats even more than they do now. The slightest side eye given to him will be blown out of proportion as “proof” that “the left" is out to get him. We are out to get him — out of office.
Lie and deny. It’s all they’ve got between blowing their racist dog whistles. The sleazy tactics are just getting started and it will be ugly.