The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
    SleepinJeezus's picture

    We Deserve Scott Walker

    By SleepinJeezus on Mon, 02/16/2015 - 8:23am |

    (NOTE: I originally posted this as comments accompanying a link submitted to the "In the News" section. But in retrospect, I think this deserves its own blog post.)

    *****************************

    Point to ponder:
    "State taxpayers are footing the bill for this junket, which isn’t doing a damn thing for Wisconsin’s economic prospects but merely making Walker the laughingstock of England."

    But it's okay. Really, it is. Just take a look at his state budget proposal and its treatment of our schools, our environment, our economic prospects, civil society itself, and so on. He hates you AND your friends anyway, so it really doesn't matter. His financiers are so proud of him and their own personal tax cuts/giveaways to be gained that they are willing to invest in his run at the White House with its expectantly great ROI, and that's all that counts. Wisconsin laid to waste is the price to be paid, so it really doesn't matter to where the money and her other assets go. They will be gone, "privatized" and otherwise plundered for the profit of speculators now funding Scott Walker. That's all that matters.

    Fools and suckers. And paperless voting machines. And Citizen's United monies by the pallet and truckload. It's what's for supper in Wisconsin everywhere they formally served up a vibrant and engaged democracy. It's shameful. This is Wisconsin, fer chrissakes, and we've been duped and rolled by the sleaziest sort of hucksters of a kind that prey on simpletons in the back lot of truckstops with a game called "Three-card Monte." (Google it.)

    "Vigilance is the price of Liberty" is a line attributed to many, even from the time before Jefferson, who would inspire us toward a better government created of, by, and for the people. Given the lack of vigilance in those who support this Vandal and his mates, we instead deserve and have suffered Scott Walker. I just hope we someday soon get past him with a hope and a prayer left that we can somehow survive the carnage left in his wake.

    Comments

    Thank you.  I was just over there and made a comment.  I follow you on face book and think you have a lot of insight into Walker. 

    More Please.


    by trkingmomoe on Mon, 02/16/2015 - 9:03am

    Thanks, Momoe! I think I may be haunting these pages again for awhile. I gotta vent my spleen and relieve this profound disappointment somehow. I come from a time when Henry Wallace and Fannie Perkins were revered as political heroes and celebrities, if you will. I awaken this morning and what do I see? Photos of Al Sharpton and Sarah Palin yucking it up together on the red carpet at last night's SNL event. Strange days, these.


    by SleepinJeezus on Mon, 02/16/2015 - 9:56am

    I saw that too.  We feel just as bad here in Florida.  


    by trkingmomoe on Mon, 02/16/2015 - 12:13pm

    I quit coming by because I was finding myself just DOWN all the time, and needed a break from all the negativity. 

    But I live in a RED world and am also feeling the need to vent, as well as to be around more like-minded people, so here I am. 

    I'm looking forward to getting reacquainted with the old gang and hopefully meeting some new people.

    I am flabbergasted that ANYONE is considering Scott Walker as a viable candidate for 2016, which just shows you how frickin' insane this country is getting to be.


    by stillidealistic on Thu, 02/26/2015 - 12:19am

    Glad to have you back again.  I know how you feel about being down all the time.  It's a crazy world out there and the sane ones have to deal with it as if we're, well. . .sane.   

    Good to see Sleepin', Tmac and Cville back, too.  Hope you'll all hang around for a while.


    by Ramona on Thu, 02/26/2015 - 11:00am

    I know what you mean about being in a sea of red all around. I just read the latest PP pole has Scott Walker in the lead.  I am from the school of thought of the late Jack Germond that these poles mean nothing this early out.  We went through a parade of "flavor of the month" in the GOP clown car during the last presidential election cycle. 

    I wonder what Chef Justice Walker thinks now that his grand experiment of Citizen's Untied has had time to work through a couple of elections cycles.  He gave the corporations unlimited spending in elections and they haven't spent their money on any one that can govern. There is some real train wrecks out there in politics. Walker is one of them.    


    by trkingmomoe on Thu, 02/26/2015 - 11:27am

    Here is a  nice link comparing the Minnesota Economy to the Wisconsin debacle:

    http://blogs.mprnews.org/newscut/2015/01/minnesota-economy-beats-wisconsin-7-charts-1-table/

    We are seeing the repub debacle playing out in other states like Kansas and Ohio and Pennsylvania and...

    And the repubs just double down.

    We have internet and all of its components and yet the Dems aint comin' out.

    If concerned citizens no longer believe that their vote counts or that government is irrelevant to their lives or that the repubs aint that bad...

    We are screwed.

     

     


    by Richard Day on Mon, 02/16/2015 - 11:08am

    DDay! Great to see you!

    The Dems most certainly ain't the solution. The individual Dems in the WI legislature are a pretty honorable lot but they are still impotent against the onslaught of the Vandals. And overall? The Dems ain't worth a bucket of warm piss toward resolving this crisis of war against the middle class.

    Yeah, we're still waiting here in Wisconsin for Obama to "put on those comfortable walking shoes and take his place on the picket line" as promised. To make it interesting, we've even invited him to bring Summers and Rubin along.


    by SleepinJeezus on Mon, 02/16/2015 - 12:27pm

    The Dems are the first required part of 'the solution' because they are not Republicans. The GOP needs to be drowned in the ballot box bathtub.

    The 'both sides do it' is MSM gospel, an intended device for perpetuating the status quo. It's saying give up, they're all the same, don't bother about what your representatives are up to, don't even bother to vote, voter suppression by whatever means works, and is a big part of 'the GOP plan'.

    Both sides do it muddys the waters for exposing GOP accountability for their lies, hypocrisy, economic disasters, tax cut failures, shutdown extortions, political chicanery.

    The GOP refuses to legislate mandatory disclosure of big campaign donors while they  simultaneously get billionaires backing at election time. That little fact in itself tells you what the GOP stands for, and who they serve.


    by NCD on Mon, 02/16/2015 - 1:14pm

    And so we still haven't learned a simple truth: The lesser of two evils is still evil.

    The owners who back both Obama and the Repub candidates thank you for your patronage, NCD.

    Go Hillary! Certain to knock Wall Street and the MIC on their asses once and for all. Bank on it! HaHaHa!


    by SleepinJeezus on Mon, 02/16/2015 - 1:18pm

    Here you come again NCD, with your blinders on.

     Republican Efforts To Cut Social Security...

    It is a fact; both parties represent monied interests, and it just so happens, the Democratic leadership gives you the mind numbing, Koolaid they think will work on you; to dull your senses and make you blind  

    Hellraisers Journal: Debs, "Differences as arise between ...

    The Labor Market.

    And the labor market follows the capitalist flag.

    ……..Twenty-five millions of wage slaves are bought and sold daily at prevailing prices in the American Labor Market.

    The Class Struggle.

    We are entering tonight upon a momentous campaign. The struggle for political supremacy is not between political parties merely, as appears upon the surface, but at bottom it is a life and death struggle between two hostile economic classes, the one the capitalist and the other the working class.

    The capitalist class is represented by the republican, democratic, populist and prohibition parties, all of which stand for private ownership of the mans of production and the triumph of any one of which will mean continued wage-slavery to the working class.

    The republican and democratic parties, or, to be more exact, the republican-democratic party, represents the capitalist class in the class struggle. They are the political wings of the capitalist system and such differences as arise between them relate to spoils and not to principles.

    With either of these parties in power one thing is always certain and that is that the capitalist class are in the saddle and the working class under the saddle.

    Deny it as may the cunning capitalists who are clear sighted enough to perceive it, or ignore it as may the torpid workers who are too blind and unthinking to see it, the struggle in which we are engaged today is a class struggle,

    The Democratic Party.

    ……..The radical and progressive element of the former democracy have been evicted and must seek other quarters. They were an unmitigated nuisance in the conservative counsels of the old party. They were for the "common people" and the trusts have no use for such a party.


    by Resistance on Mon, 02/16/2015 - 1:24pm

    Throw in a little gerrymandering and election fraud and you begin to see just how ludicrous it is to continue preaching the "god loves him some two-party" gospel.


    by SleepinJeezus on Mon, 02/16/2015 - 1:20pm

    And Billary's/Obama's TPP? Just the cure for what ails us, right?
    Alas, there are indeed none so blind as those who will not see.


    by SleepinJeezus on Mon, 02/16/2015 - 1:22pm

    One election or one candidate isn't going to 'cure us', or eliminate 'evil'. Get a grip on reality bro, you ain't no Jeezus to me.

    As long as you spout both siderism 'both evil' nonsense you are showing you are either actively aiding the work of the MSM to never hold the GOP accountable, or you are thoroughly brainwashed by MSM 'both sides' baloney. Probably the latter.

    One can move the nation in a better direction from where the other wants to go.

    GWB wanted to go into Iraq. He did. Now ISIS controls half of it. They also control half of Syria, using mostly guns and weapons they got in Iraq, after GWB 'got' Saddam and made it possible. Obama is not invading Syria. Both sides don't start US ground wars.

    You might read Michael's book on TR, there are no superheroes in politics.


    by NCD on Mon, 02/16/2015 - 5:05pm

    you are either actively aiding the work of the MSM to never hold the GOP accountable,

    Jon Stewart held both sides accountable, he wasn't about to drink yours or anyone else mind numbing Kool-aid  

    A neutral observer can clearly see;  It is you that is brainwashed as you have been deceived by the good cop / bad cop, kabuki theater. 

    Your "if only" scenario further enslaves the working class.

    Your Mantra  "If only the people would vote for Democrats; the people would "live happily ever after". 


    by Resistance on Mon, 02/16/2015 - 9:00pm

    Indeed, Resistance. The political system is such that Hillary Clinton is presented as a legitimate alternative to the best the GOP has to offer. That is simply ludicrous, and all the insistence that the Dems are representative of anythiung but their wealthy owners - the very same owners who fund the GOP - is a fool's play.


    by SleepinJeezus on Mon, 02/16/2015 - 9:20pm

    The logistic problem is that one party is actively working to suppress votes, supply more folks to corporate prisons, worsen the tax burden on the majority of citizens, and attack women's rights. These direct attacks are happening now. The most logical choice for many groups is to choose the Democrats as the best alternative today. Keep in mind that Florida, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin and Kansas voters gleefully elected Governors intent on killing the middle class. I do think there is enough of a difference between the two parties to make staying home during an election suicidal. When third party candidates actually show up and invigorate the populace, we can talk about viable alternatives.

    Holder did make changes in drugs laws at the Fedral level, Gays have made some gains. We are in agreement that the system is rigged, but you have a lot more convincing to do to not cast a vote against the GOP.


    by rmrd0000 on Mon, 02/16/2015 - 10:01pm

    You say that Wisconsin (among others) gleefully elected a governor intent on killing the middle class. You are at least half right in terms of Walker's character. But what proof do you have about his supposed election? Paperless optical scanners offer no such assurance (quite purposefully!) and are only ONE of the reasons to question one's reliance upon a political system that is corrupt to its very core. In the event you hadn't noticed, we have made steps backwards until we now approach the very gates of hell whilst you and yours preach that we simply must hang in there hoping for change. FEH!


    by SleepinJeezus on Mon, 02/16/2015 - 10:12pm

    So if the voting machines are rigged and the Democrats are worthless, what is your alternative?


    by rmrd0000 on Mon, 02/16/2015 - 11:16pm

    Once a person has gone that far into the dark places there's really only one alternative because its game over and we lost. So ignore the games of the powerful, keep a low profile, and do what ever makes you happy. There's no purpose served in reading about it or talking about it because "they" won and we lost and there's no going back. If they are so powerful they can decide who wins the election with their rigged voting machines they're also too powerful to ever be caught.

    I said the same thing once to someone trying to convince me Cheney blew up the Twin Towers on 9/11. If cheney is so powerful he can blow up the Twin Towers and not just get away with, but also convince the world and the vast majority of the American people Al Qaeda did it what's the purpose is spending time studying it or getting upset? If he's that powerful we lost, there's no going back, so let it go, find a pleasant niche and try to be happy in the 80 or so years we get to live.

    Funny though, he thought I was trivializing his very important issue. I've found it's those into the conspiracy theories that are most likely  to be the pushiest in trying to convince others.


    by ocean-kat on Tue, 02/17/2015 - 12:26am

    what is your alternative?

    The American people especially the Democratic party had their opportunity, their alternative; when Nader tried to launch a third party candidacy, in an attempt to break the strangle hold the two corporatist parties had on America . 

    But the true progressive Democrat supporters as opposed to the corporatist Democrats; were either too blind or dumb to see, that at some point an alternative, has to garner support in order to disrupt the deeply entrenched political hacks, that serve wealth, but the stupid progressive Democrat supporters couldn't figure it out. 

    Listening to folks such as yourself, who keep spreading the lie "the (r) democrats are better than the (R) republicans" 

    In regards to our current generation and it's struggles and our WATCH  1992 - 2008, Time was of the essence and time was running out for the working class to shake things up, as the corporatist were busy tightening the noose and suppressing the working class.

    Just as Nader warned was happening and was going to continue to happen, before Citizens United v FEC  proved what the people needed to fear.  MONEY in politics  

    Nader scared the heck out of the status quo corporatist, who did everything they could through their MSM lackeys and the suckers bought into the propaganda intended to discredit Nader or any other alternative the working class would consider then and now.  

    Nader was correct in identifying the problem, but he found no support, and

    NOW ....you ask...... what is the alternative?  

    TOO LATE .... the working class screwed.themselves, by listening to a Democratic Party who has no intentions of fully serving the working class but instead; serves the interest of individuals of wealth and privilege WHO finance their elections.

    Were you unaware; the pigs feed at the same (money) trough?

    Citizens United is evidence of the Golden Rule; He that has the GOLD RULES and controls  elections. 

    No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun


    by Resistance on Tue, 02/17/2015 - 7:01am

    The idea that democrats and republicans are the same is just ignorant. In only one way are they the same. Both support free trade agreements. Citizen's United is the result of republican appointments to the Supreme Court. All the democratic appointments dissented. The Bush tax cuts, a massive give away to the rich and the largest cause of the deficit, were passed with reconciliation to over ride a democratic filibuster. When they expired the republicans wanted them to continue but democrats returned the tax rates for the wealthy back to Clinton era rates. Romney stated clearly he wanted to eliminate the capital gains tax rate. The democrats want to raise it.

    I could go on, abortion, equal rights for women and minorities, in almost every way the democrats and republicans have a different view of how to move the country forward. Many times I'm unhappy with the democrats for not going far enough or moving fast enough but the republicans want to move us in the wrong direction. If you think they are the same you just haven't been paying attention.


    by ocean-kat on Wed, 02/18/2015 - 5:19am

    In what parallel universe did I ever say the Democrats are the same? Talk about your truly basic straw-man argument!

    Stone Cold Steve Austin is not the same as Randy Macho Man Savage. Trust me on this. But they play the same fixed game, carefully crafted not as a legitimate contest but to keep their audience engaged. The same people write the script for both.

    If you doubt that at all, just review as an example what happened during the ACA "debate" when the general public itself threatened to re-write the script by forcing single-payer into the mix as a legitimate option with momentum behind it sufficient to make it a reality at last. The Dems were extremely awkward as they re-grouped to kill this proposal before anyone got hurt. The strings from their handlers showed mightily during that episode for benefit of anyone who wasn't too blinded by party loyalty to see. And that is only one example. There are so many others.

    As we saw with ACA and all other matters of importance, the consequences of the fixed game of politics are far more sinister than whether Steve or Randy get to wear the Belt. But it takes the same kind of sucker to be a "true believer" in either arena.


    by SleepinJeezus on Wed, 02/18/2015 - 5:36am

    If you look closely you'll see my comment was addressed to resistance, not you, and he has repeatedly said democrats and republicans are the same. So it's not a straw man argument to him.


    by ocean-kat on Wed, 02/18/2015 - 6:27am

    I couldn't have said it better than Sleepin just wrote, but you'd have resorted to your usual name calling and insults attacking the person and not the thought. 

    I have always accepted what Eugene Debs noted about  the only difference between the two parties  

    The republican and democratic parties, or, to be more exact, the republican-democratic party, represents the capitalist class in the class struggle. They are the political wings of the capitalist system and such differences as arise between them

    relate to spoils and not to principles.

    With either of these parties in power one thing is always certain and that is that the capitalist class are in the saddle and the working class under the saddle.

    Under the administration of both these parties the means of production are private property, production is carried forward for capitalist profit purely, markets are glutted and industry paralyzed, workingmen become [?] criminals while injunctions, [and?] riot guns are brought into action to preserve "law and order" in the chaotic carnival of capitalists anarchy.

    Deny it as may the cunning capitalists who are clear sighted enough to perceive it, or ignore it as may the torpid workers who are too blind and unthinking to see it, the struggle in which we are engaged today is a class struggle, and as the toiling millions come to see and understand it and rally to the political standard of their class, they will drive all capitalist parties of whatever name into the same party, and the class struggle will then be so clearly revealed that the hosts of labor will find their true place in the conflict and strike the united and decisive blow that will destroy slavery and achieve their full and and final emancipation.

    The Democratic Party.

    In referring to the democratic party in this discussion we may save time by simply saying that since it was born again at the St. Louis convention it is near enough like its republican ally to pass for a twin brother.

    The former party of the "common people" is no longer under the boycott of the plutocracy since it has adopted the Wall street label and renounce its middle class heresies.

    The radical and progressive element of the former democracy have been evicted and must seek other quarters. They were an unmitigated nuisance in the conservative counsels of the old party. They were for the "common people" and the trusts have no use for such a party.

    Hellraisers Journal: Debs, "Differences as arise between ...


    by Resistance on Wed, 02/18/2015 - 9:26am

    Just as an example: This recent news about Monsanto in Ukraine is just fundamentally disastrous. I don't think anyone who has a few independent brain cells flashing at the synapses would look at this and think the world is a better place because this kind of international extortion is allowed to happen.

    Yet answer me this: Who will stand in the way of Monsanto? We might get a few Dems speaking against this as scripts are assigned here. But who would actually step in and say "No!" to Monsanto.

    All the elections and campaigns and other drama in the party ranks ain't gonna change that. It simply ain't gonna be allowed and, yes, you know it's true. So tell me again why the answer here is to keep our heads down and just continue playing the game?


    by SleepinJeezus on Wed, 02/18/2015 - 5:48am

    We could discuss issue after issue and likely agree that what the democrats are doing is little better than nothing. But I was responding to several posts by resistance that can be summarized with this line from his post above, spreading the lie "the (r) democrats are better than the (R) republicans"  Imo while the democratic actions are little better than nothing they are better than nothing. What we get from republicans is not just nothing, they want to roll back most of the gains we made.

    On almost every issue the democrats are moving, far too slowly, in the right direction while the republicans want to move us backward. I've given several examples, here's another. You complain about the ACA and we'd probably agree on most every point. But the ACA is better than nothing. Republicans want to end the ACA and in the bargain roll back medicaid and medicare.

    I'm not a great fan of Heinlein's politics but in one novel one of his characters, Jubal Harshall, discussed voting in a way that coincided with my views. One should always vote. There may not be anyone you want to vote for but there is always someone you want to vote against. The difference between bad and worse is greater than the difference between good and bad.

    I think that sums up the situation we're in right now. The democrats may be bad but the republicans are worse. And that's a big difference. It's not a lie, as resistance proposes, that democrats are better than republicans. I'm not saying we should keep playing the same old game. We need to push harder to move the democrats forward. There are ways to do it if more people would get involved. Here's another difference. If the left could wield more power the democrats would respond. The republicans would not, their foundational principals are antithetical to the liberal's views. So really its up to us to change things.


    by ocean-kat on Wed, 02/18/2015 - 2:42pm

    The (R)s are more obvious in their contempt of the working class and the (r)s want to hide their contempt;​ either way, those they serve, achieve their goals. 

    (R) openly stab the working class;  (r) tells the working class the story they want to hear, lulling the working class to sleep comfortably before they stab the working class.  

    Which to you is more humane? 


    by Resistance on Wed, 02/18/2015 - 3:12pm

    You continue to post the same bullshit without any evidence to back it up. I've given numerous examples of the differences between republicans and democrats and reason's why the democrats are better. You've addressed none of them. That's because your knowledge of the issues and the politics are superficial. It's also due to the fact that your contention is obviously flawed and unsupportable. You're simply not capable of having a discussion at the level most people here discuss these issues.


    by ocean-kat on Wed, 02/18/2015 - 3:30pm

    You don't want evidence, you ignore the discussion about the ACA, you make no comment about the TPP agreement or NAFTA being supported by the Democrats and then play stupid and ask, "where is the evidence?"

    Then as I said before, discussions with you, always digress  

    "How dare the commoner engage in a discussion with the great and powerful Ocean Kat"

    I cant solve Democratic conceitedness or purposeful blindness, it's always the same ol message  "Were better than others"  


    by Resistance on Wed, 02/18/2015 - 5:45pm

    you ignore the discussion about the ACA,

    No, I directly addressed it. "You complain about the ACA and we'd probably agree on most every point. But the ACA is better than nothing. Republicans want to end the ACA and in the bargain roll back medicaid and medicare." Do you disagree? I think its obvious. The house has voted to end the ACA about 50 times and several of Ryan's budgets called for cuts to medicaid and medicare. That's a very clear difference between democrats and republicans and I believe a significant one.

    you make no comment about the TPP agreement or NAFTA being supported by the Democrats

    No I addressed that as well. In fact that's the one area where I agreed with you. "In only one way are they the same. Both support free trade agreements."

    Your problem is you don't read or think so discussion with you is meaningless. You don't pay attention to other people's arguments long enough to even remember them, let alone offer a cogent rebuttal.


    by ocean-kat on Wed, 02/18/2015 - 9:06pm

    As for Obama care, the republicans know it's a POS and the democrats defend the POS believing that was the best they could get.

    The working class betrayed and sold out by their leadership and stupid enough to give more opportunities for the puppet masters to bend them in the direction the masters want.

    At least the French peasants were offered cake, but was vehemently rejected. 

    Torpid working class  "Yum; isn't this POS that fell from the masters table great? "  "We can always make it better;  how about passing the salt.". 


    by Resistance on Wed, 02/18/2015 - 11:29pm

    Maybe it is shit. So far about 12 million have signed up for it. You would prefer they have nothing? That's what the republicans want. And those on medicaid, you want them to have no health care at all? That's what the republicans want. The voucher program that Ryan proposes is just a slow motion phase out of medicare. Is that what you want? If so don't come here and pretend you care about the common man.

    You think Social Security is a good thing? Bush wanted to privatize it which is just another phase out. A way to end it in slow motion so people might not notice until it's too late. It was the democrats that stopped Bush and the republicans then. Don't give me any bullshit about the democrats being just as bad as the republicans. The difference is clear and it's significant.


    by ocean-kat on Thu, 02/19/2015 - 7:12am

    Thank you


    by rmrd0000 on Thu, 02/19/2015 - 8:05am

    said more simply? We deserve Scott Walker.


    by SleepinJeezus on Thu, 02/19/2015 - 8:42am

    Yes, you deserve Walker if you sit and do nothing. Giving up is not an option. Oppose his budget cuts to education. Oppose his union busting. Fight against his Presidential campaign. If you sit on the sidelines, you can't criticize those who are still fighting. If your option is to do nothing and wait for great voter enlightenment or blame Walker elections on rigged voting machines than yeah, Walker is your guy.


    by rmrd0000 on Thu, 02/19/2015 - 9:17am

    Bottom of page 


    by Resistance on Thu, 02/19/2015 - 10:37am

    Reply at bottom of page... John F Kennedy sounded the alarm. 


    by Resistance on Tue, 02/17/2015 - 6:44am

    So you are saying that three elections were stolen by Scott Walker, and the people of Wisconsin have no responsibility for this at all. The reason they don't is because even though the votes have been counted, you feel there is no proof Walker was elected three times.  

    But what proof do you have about his supposed election?

    Okay then.


    by tmccarthy0 on Tue, 02/17/2015 - 1:59pm

    The evidence showing abuse of the voting system and the elections/campaign process in Wisconsin is actually quite overwhelming and easily found for those who choose to see it. And lest you think it is a Wisconsin anomaly or something that only persists at a local level, I invite you to research Florida in 2000 or Ohio in virtually every Presidential election since that time.

    I will provide some links below to just some of the findings of fact in this regard, but will cite a couple points here that should make even the most obtuse observers sit back and say "Hmmmm..."

    1. Wisconsin has spent millions to 'upgrade" all voting machines to paperless, optical scan machines.
    2. The software and the counting of the votes is now essentially under the control of a single company that has rather strong political ties to the Republicans.
    3. These machines have been proven to be quite easily hackable.
    4. There is not a plausible reason in the world given why these machines should not provide a receipt/papertrail to ensure the actual integrity of the vote. Yet, the legislature refuses to even consider such protective measures as though that would take the fun out of it.
    5. One Wisconsin community actually refused en masse to vote either yay or nay on a Citizens United Amendment question during the last election - at least as recorded by the Optical Scan Machine. Little explanation has been offered as to how these machines - whose sole task is an accurate tally of the vote - can get it so wrong as this. What went wrong? We'll never know. The "protection of proprietary information" prevents that.
    6. The Kathy Nicklaus incident in Waukesha swung an election based upon "sudden discovery" of votes by a County Clerk very closely affiliated with the campaign that won seemingly as a result of her involvement. Included in this were improper hand-tallying being allowed to supplement the machine count and - most distressingly! - ballots in torn, unsealed bags being presented for the recount made necessary by the fouling of this election. Look at this case from start to finish and ask yourself one question: Just what would it take to actually nullify an election if this doesn't qualify? And then understand why there is a great intransigence against effectively pursuing cases of elections fraud if only because the consequence of its discovery is so horrifying.

    Enough for now. The game is fixed. To insist that Wisconsin can repair it by continuing to just play the game is ludicrous. But I'll tell you what, tmac. I bet you are awesome at three-card monte. Let me show you how it works sometimes. You'd probably break the house. Promise!
    ************************

    Care to look further into the research on election fraud? I suggest you start with Black Box Voting and, for more Wisconsin-specific data, Richard Charnin.


    by SleepinJeezus on Tue, 02/17/2015 - 4:05pm

    I can't take any of what you have posted seriously. Firstly that article on Kathy Nicklaus was from 2011. Which has little to do with Walkers 3rd win just last November. You are accusing Kathy Nicklaus of throwing an election and your only evidence is she was a Republican working in the state legislature before she became a county clerk. But according to that article, the mistake she made was just a mistake and it didn't appear to be any real purposeful wrong-doing. 

    At a Thursday news conference with Nickolaus, Ramona Kitzinger, the Democrat on the Waukesha County Board of Canvassers, said: "We went over everything and made sure all the numbers jibed up and they did. Those numbers jibed up, and we’re satisfied they’re correct."

    So it is clear that there is no real evidence of any election theft via Walker or his evil minions. But let's take on some of your other points, the linked points anyway.  So your contention is that because the machines malfunctioned in one precinct on one issue then the entire election is fraudulent.  And because Lana Kropf has never seen anything like this, then definitely there has been an election stolen and Walker didn't win.  Amazingly the Brad Blog did do an entire blog about those optical scanners and known problems with that particular model.  The ES&S DS200 paper ballot optical-scanners which are a computer tabulation system have been plagued with problems in many states over the years.  These are well known problems, except Lana Kropf knows nothing about those problems. But to you this is an indication that the election was stolen. To me it is an indication that the state has cheaped out on replacing voting equipment. 

     And your link to that Charnin guy, well, LOL, but he thinks all elections are stolen, especially if Democrats don't win. But that isn't the only thing about Mr. Charnin, he also thinks that there is a definite cover-up of JFK's Assassination, because of all the people who were witnesses who have died. He sounds just like Richard Melon Scaife and the Vince Foster suicide, or murder as Scaife lead folks to believe. And yet you think he should be taken seriously.

    So basically you subscribe to the conspiracy theory of life, if it doesn't conform to your beliefs, i.e. Winconsinites they just wouldn't vote for Walker therefore he stole the election.

    Okay. I guess we are done here. 


    by tmccarthy0 on Tue, 02/17/2015 - 5:46pm

    For what it's worth, I also believe that there is a definite cover up regarding JFKs assassination. Anyone who takes the time to look at the myriad facts of the case can come to no other conclusion, however those with skin in the game have successfully made anyone who questions the obvious holes in the official story, fit their description of a loony.  

    Just because someone believes that a conspiracy exists, doesn't make them a nut case. I also agree with Sleepin that the Ohio votes that threw the election to Bush the second time, were hacked.  I saw trial testimony about this from someone who was an employee of the company that made the voting machines.  It was the ONLY precinct where post-ballot polling was the reverse of the reported results. Also, it was why TurdBlossom had a hissy-fit in 2012. He couldn't believe that the Ohio  "fix" didn't work. 

    I know you are a computer expert. Can you give me ANY reason that paper documentation of voting machines is completely off the table?  Is there ANY legitimate reason for this?  I mean something like we get back every time we use an ATM -- I realize it is universal, so it is not a Dem or Rep thing, but why shouldn't voters have the reassurance that their votes were accurately counted?

    Sometimes there actually ARE conspiracies. Not always, and going full-bore into paranoia isn't the answer, but truly there really ARE bad people who conspire to do bad things and win; then they proceed to make all who call them on it look like idiots. 


    by CVille Dem on Thu, 02/26/2015 - 6:33pm

    If hackers can steal billions from multiple banks, why couldn’t they fix an election?

    Banking hack heist yields up to $1 billion - USA Today

    USA Today

    1 day ago - A hacking ring has stolen up to $1 billion from banks around the world in what would be one of the biggest banking breaches known, ...


    by Resistance on Tue, 02/17/2015 - 8:14pm

    Pretty simple, really. And then you have the legislators actively campaigning AGAINST any kind of verification regimes for these machines? Call me a rebel, but I think that point alone tends to diminish any faith that things are on the up and up.

    But that's just me, thinking only a fool defends the indefensible for fear that it's all she's got. Boo Yah! Go Team!


    by SleepinJeezus on Tue, 02/17/2015 - 9:01pm

    You two guys remind me of that scene from The Three Amigos where Chevy Chase tries to blend in with El Guapo and his band of villains, by piling on the many tales of bad stuff. For you two it's:

    El Guapo! They are all evil! Who can choose the lesser evil!

    We Don't choose or vote El Guapo!

    El Guapo! The election machines are hacked just like banks!

    Yes, the elections are all fixed!

    El Guapo! Voting is not for us!

    Chevy Chase chimes in "So Koch spends a billion on TV ads to get our votes!"

    Whereupon El Guapo says "Who the hell is that guy!"

    And Koch/El Guapo laughs...


    by NCD on Tue, 02/17/2015 - 11:23pm

    And Koch/El Guapo laughs...

    Because they know as House shills they'll get their money back playing the game  suckering the fools into believing, if they play the game, they might win. 

                  

    SUCKERS, You don't even know I control the votes. I laugh at your stupidity  and fart in your general direction   HaHaHa

    If the suckers lose faith in the game and decide they no longer want to play, then the ballot box wont control the rabble and they may overturn the rigged game.

    Then the suckers wont be so easy to control, and then the controllers will have to go to Plan B; 

    Start am ideological war and scapegoat the resistors of the rigged system as enemies of Democracy.

    McCarthyism & Red Scare

    The working class WILL play the game we've designed....or else    HaHaHAHA

    The Cold War and Liberalism's Communist Problem

    But this brand of anticommunist, Cold War liberalismhad its costs. There were both direct costs—purging talented Communist organizers deprived the labor and civil rights movements of many committed activists—and indirect costs—liberal efforts to weed out Communists fueled a national hysteria over Communist subversion

    Remember "Love it or leave it"  You wouldn't want to give aid and comfort to Americas enemies do you?  

    Continue to play the game or all hell breaks lose.       HaHaHa

     

     


    by Resistance on Wed, 02/18/2015 - 12:26am

    I agree with you NCD.

    Brownbeck tells the Kansans that it will take time.

    Get rid unions, get rid of health insurance, get rid of tax credits going to the poor, hell, get rid of tax credits going to the middle class, get rid of income taxes (except for the middle classes and the poor), get rid of minimum wages, get rid of any hope for 90% of all Americans.

    Get rid of voting rights and get rid of First and Fourth and Fifth Amendment protections for the middle class and poorer classes, get rid of internet protections....

    I GET SO GODDAMN MAD.

    We do have the governments we deserve I suppose.

    But money SPENT ON propaganda really grab our voters.

    We as a people will buy anything.

    WE ARE IDIOTS

    DAMN


    by Richard Day on Mon, 02/16/2015 - 3:33pm

    Thanks Richard. If folks think theres no difference, the Republicans win.

    They hope you don't vote. They'll kick you off the rolls if they can. They'll make sure the base is scared, misinformed or manipulated enough to, for sure, vote.


    by NCD on Mon, 02/16/2015 - 5:04pm

    Henry Wallace is perhaps the last, great Democrat we ever had who got even CLOSE to the levers of power; who had significant impact in Washington.

    Show me, NCD, how a Henry Wallace even comes close to getting past the Wall Street and MIC and Big pHarma "wing" of today's Dem Party and perhaps I will cede your argument. It ain't happening. We are instead presented with the lesser of two evils, all packaged and sold like a "New! And Improved!" laundry detergent. "Sure, Hillary's got her faults!" we're told. "But she ain't certifiably insane like those other guys. Gotta' vote for Hillary or the crazy guy wins!"

    The political system is broken. Structurally broken by intent and corrupted to its core. And the damage caused by the failure of the electorate to attend to THAT nasty bit of business is reaching many points of no return, as we now know only too well here in Wisconsin.

    Meanwhile, we are told to keep our head down and stay in the game.

    Go ahead, sport. Put your money down. Pick yourself an Ace.

     

     


    by SleepinJeezus on Tue, 02/17/2015 - 7:25am

    How do Elizabeth Warren and Barbara Lee stack up in your rating of Democrats?

     


    by rmrd0000 on Tue, 02/17/2015 - 9:12am

    I like most of what I've seen about Warren, although her fealty to Israel is a bit over-the-top. I know very little about Lee.

    But again, we are way past the time we can find us a candidate to represent us. The system is broken quite intentionally to serve its masters and owners. Warren - like Wallace before her and like Teddy Roosevelt before them - could do best by planting her feet and confronting the oligarchs straight-up. We need a movement, not just another chance at the cards.


    by SleepinJeezus on Tue, 02/17/2015 - 9:33am

    Sleepin, I believe that we came this close to having Henry as our President.

    I am an idolizer of Truman, of course.

    Ike had to end Korea , but Harry (another Henry) did desegregate the Armed Forces.

    And Harry upheld the FDR 'deal'.

    And Harry reined in the corporate pricks.

    I love movies where folks go back in time and almost always screw up the present.

    Why FDR ended the career of Wallace is beyond my understanding.

    With what Harry had to deal with, I am not sure how Congress would have treated Wallace.

    Surely, Congress would have gone after him like some Southerners went after Black Folks.

    We were coming out of a total socialist era, and Harry really had a lot to deal with.

    The government had almost totally taken control of all corporate functions in order to save the world.

    We had been under a real totalitarian government and I admit to a fantasy of American good.

    But I shall die with that same worship.

    Anyway, Henry Wallace is a hero to me.

    God love him!

    What was the question again?


    by Richard Day on Tue, 02/17/2015 - 12:19pm

    Sleepin and Richard, did you ever read of Wallace's tour of the Kolyma slave camps in Russia in 1944?

    The NKVD operators took down the machine gun towers, hid the starving slaves, and had the NKVD guards and secretaries act like workers. Wallace was totally duped. He saw what he wanted to see.

    Wallace was all praise for Stalin's methods. He didn't wake up to the fact he was duped until the 50's. I don't know what else he did but he seemed a dangerously naive fool. It may be guys like Wallace helped get McCarthy started on the commie inquisition as Stalin played the US like a fiddle during WW2.

    Wallace admits his errors on Stalin, 1952.

    FDR's own ambassador to the Soviet Union, Joseph Davies, a Wall Street guy, even attended and praised the Soviet show trials in the late 30's. Davies was a huge fan of Stalin and had no regrets about the Americans who were executed or sent to slow death in slave labor in Siberia while he was ambassador (1936-38)

    Under FDR's Davies the US embassy refused to help Americans who had gone to Russia seeking a socialist life in the 30's, realized their lives were in danger and went to the US embassy where nothing was done, very often they were then followed and arrested by the NKVD. Many never made it out alive. See The Forsaken.

    Walter Ruther, the UAW leader, did escape from Russia, he worked in the Ford plant the Ford Co. built in Gorky Russia, and Ruther hated the Soviets for what they did to US workerrs and emigrants to Russia the rest of his life.

    During the war Senator Truman sarcastically scoffed at giving loans and lend-lease to Stalin, and was quoted as saying while Senator, we should give aid to Stalin if Hitler is winning, and aid to Hitler if Stalin is winning, until they destroy each other.

    Truman also called for reigning in the CIA (he had started) coincidentally one month after the JFK assasination, in an op-ed in the WaPo, which disappeared from the paper by the afternoon edition. We were far better off with Truman than we would have been with starry eyed Wallace after FDR, perhaps FDR felt so which is why he dumped Wallace.


    by NCD on Wed, 02/18/2015 - 11:06pm

    Well, Harry saved us from Henry I guess.

    No I never heard of this scene involving Henry.

    DAMN!

    Like I said....

    Harry did not do that bad...

    There is no love lost between me and the USSR.


    by Richard Day on Wed, 02/18/2015 - 10:46pm

    The book I linked, The Forsaken, published in 2008 was cover to cover unbelievable detailed and footnoted account of the lack of action by the FDR administration to help Americans wnating out of Russia. There were thousands of desperate Americans trying to flee the Stalin purges of foreigners of all types in the late 30's

    It goes to show as I said, there are no superheroes in politics, no perfection, You have to inform yourself, and vote realizing that is never going to change.


    by NCD on Wed, 02/18/2015 - 11:20pm

    This has been interesting. Henry Wallace was really not on my radar screen. I only had a sketchy knowledge of the man. Thanks for pointing me in his direction.


    by rmrd0000 on Wed, 02/18/2015 - 11:07pm

    Thanks, a perusal of the Amazon book reviews on the book I linked gives some idea of what went on while Wallace and FDR were in office.

    FDR had Jack Warner make a slick propaganda movie in '43 called Mission to Moscow about FDR's Ambassador Davies life as a diplomat in Russia, how Stalin was a great guy and life was wonderful. The purpose being to quell 'conspiracy theorists' who doubted that Stalin was truly running a workers paradise.

    The fact was Ambassador Davies was a Wall Street guy and he saw Russian relations as a way to make money.

    When we admired them: the Soviet Pavilion at the 1939 NYC World's Fair. This is after Stalin sent millions to their deaths in the purges of the 30's.


     


    by NCD on Wed, 02/18/2015 - 11:34pm

    Lincoln changed from wanted to self-deport slaves to befriending Fredrick Douglass and enlisting Black troops. Fredrick Douglas threw Suffragettes under the bus to get votes for Blacks.LBJ used the N-word but signed the Voting Rights and Fair Housing Acts. MLK threw Fannie Lou Hamer under the bus to get the Voting Rights Act. The Congressional vote on the Acts were supported by Northern Republicans. Now, Republicans are in the forefront of demolishing both Acts. Their are few who pass scrutiny on every aspect of politics or their lives. Politics is the art of the possible. The Social Security Act of 1935 was all that was going to happen at the time. Single payer was not going to happen, so we got Obamacare. 

    If we take the point of view that the Suffragettes, Douglass, or King had it easy, we are delusional. If we think that there won't be pushback against every Progressive proposal we know nothing of history or the voting public.


    by rmrd0000 on Thu, 02/19/2015 - 12:34am

    This comment is so damn goooooooooood!

    Thank you, very much


    by Richard Day on Thu, 02/19/2015 - 1:54am

    Thanks. 

    Some spend a great deal of time noting that things are not perfect. Enacted programs are imperfect and are justifiably criticized. To sit on the sidelines doing nothing and complain that nothing is being done is ridiculous. To complain that people trying to do something about a situation are dupes unable to see the superiority of doing nothing is outrageous, This do nothing rather than do something nonsense comes in secular and religious forms. Both forms are justly ridiculed.


    by rmrd0000 on Thu, 02/19/2015 - 8:40am

    What I get from your post is that the ideals of dead white guys who were perfect in every way will win the future even if they could not win the past!


    by tmccarthy0 on Tue, 02/17/2015 - 1:46pm

    Hi Mac!

    It is the live and current white guys who scare the living crap out of me. hahahaha

    I am glad you showed up because I have an apology (or contrition actually) that has been brewing for sometime.

    Someone called you a liar and I attempted to defend you except I wavered.

    MAC IS NOT A LIAR AND ANYONE WHO SAYS OTHERWISE IS A LIAR.

    That is the best I can do.

    Thank you for showing up.

    I will scream at anyone who calls you a liar.

    I know you are busy and have real important things to do, but I am happy to read you any time.

    the end

     


    by Richard Day on Tue, 02/17/2015 - 2:29pm

    Haha.. Hi Dickon! How are you love?

    Thanks for defending me even if I didn't see it. smiley.

    Well work keeps me busy, isn't that important, the most important part is when I leave work to go home.. I miss seeing virtually seeing Dick, so it's good to see you in a virtual way!!


    by tmccarthy0 on Tue, 02/17/2015 - 3:14pm

    .


    by Resistance on Tue, 02/17/2015 - 8:35pm

    "... even if they could not win the past."

    Your attempt at snark is duly noted, but you'll have to do better than that tmac. I really shouldn't need to treat anyone like a third-grader here, but I guess in this case it might be necessary to suggest a Google search of "The New Deal" and perhaps even "The Great Society" to gain an appreciation of the legacy we were handed by these "dead white guys." You might even want to look up "creation of an American Middle Class" to gain some familiarity with what is at risk here by those who give the Dems a free pass to continue pursuing Wall Street bankers and corporate sponsors like cheesy little teen-age boys looking for a date for the Homecoming Dance.

    Sorry, but I believe I would look pretty silly on the sidelines dressed like a cheerleader at these games that have all the same integrity of character as a WWF event. You? I just bet you swooned over Macho Man Randy Savage as forcefully as you do the next Dem Candidate for President. And for much the same reason. He or she is YOUR guy or gal, after all. "SQueaaaa!!!"

    I can hear it now. It all plays so very well in the arena where our democracy has gone to die.


    by SleepinJeezus on Tue, 02/17/2015 - 5:32pm

    And also (HaHa!) you might wish to Google Fannie Perkins and explain just where she fits in the pantheon of "dead white guys" you sneer at as a way to diminish the character of REAL leaders from our past who are worthy of our respect by dint of having EARNED it.

    I know. What a concept! Being a Democrat wasn't enough for them. They actually had principles and (GASP!) ACTED upon them!


    by SleepinJeezus on Tue, 02/17/2015 - 5:38pm

    When you use the Google, you note that many programs were discriminatory. The Social Security act of 1935 excluded jobs that employed most Blacks. 

    http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=2&psid=3447

    The programs of the Great Society are under the direct assault of the Grand Old Party. The Voting Rights Act has been gutted and the Republicans on the Supreme Court are ready to gut the Fair Housing Act. I see a party, the GOP, that is conducting a personal assault on my community.


    by rmrd0000 on Tue, 02/17/2015 - 5:49pm

    The first is a non sequiter. I'm not certain what the point is in the fact that Soc Sec had its flaws as originally drafted. It STILL has its flaws, but it is still perhaps the single most important equalizer to have come out of the Twentieth Century. It was an astounding accomplishment, really, and it works.

    You say "I see a party, the GOP, that is conducting a personal assault on my community."

    Perhaps that is most informative in showing the way you and I differ. You see, I give a rat's ass about the GOP. They exist as an instrument of their owners, just as the Dem Party exists as an instrument to be used by its owners.

    The real rub here? The owners of both parties is pretty demonstrably shown to be the same people.

    And so it's not that "The GOP" is conducting an assault. Instead, we are in the midst of a Class War, and the GOP and DEM Parties are BOTH used against us. The latter is manipulated in more creative ways, is all, but the intent to undermine the position and advantage of the middle class is every bit the same in that agency than it is in the over-the-top GOP.

    Think Kabuki Theater. Where you can die laughing.


    by SleepinJeezus on Wed, 02/18/2015 - 11:32am

    The point is that the Social Security Act was a first step just as the Affordable Care Act is a first step that can lead to single payer. The past can be a guide to the future. Progress will happen, The moral arc will bend towards Justice. Y ou will merely be the old guy yelling for those moving the arc to get off of his lawn. If you have given up or if you are scared, just say you've given up or say you're scared. You don't seem to have viable plan to actually do anything. You find the fault in the voting machines rather than the voters. The GOP would not be focusing on gerrymandered or voter suppression if they thought actual votes did not count.


    by rmrd0000 on Wed, 02/18/2015 - 12:04pm

    Talk about naive. This story doesnt end wih some knight riding in on their white horse saving the working class.

    The political hacks have taken a page form the  National Crime Syndicate who divvied up territories. in order to prevent turf wars and infighting that disrupted the syndicates profit making abilities.    

    Last thing the REAL king makers want, is division amongst their fellow class members.

    Theirs  is a battle against the working class, their s ervants of capital and not amongst other industrialist and capitalists. 

    They fully understand    "A house divided against itself cannot stand."  

    As pointed out during the ACA hearings;

    M. “ Judas”  Baucus screwed the peasants and enslaved them to serve  his pirate friends. cause he knew who buttered his bread and feathered his bed; MB gave the Capitalists (interested in only profits), the spoils received from plundering the working class.

    Evidently you're a slow learner? Many a shining knight of the working class have met with the same fate,  Bobbie, Martin  and John 


    by Resistance on Wed, 02/18/2015 - 2:56pm

    We haven't seen the end of the ACA story. I used Social Security as an example because it took unti the 1950s and 1960s for the warm and fuzzy Social Security we know of today to take form. Without Obama and the bulk of the Democrats, there would have been no first step taken on health care. Single payer did not have the votes.


    by rmrd0000 on Wed, 02/18/2015 - 3:25pm

    "And the Health Insurance Industry - and Big pHarma - went wild!"

    It is an insult to pretend that Obamacare is intended to actually serve the interests of the health care consumer. It is more aptly referred to as "The Health Insurance Industry - and Big pHarma - Profits Protection and Enhancement Act."

    Talk about your kabuki theater! Anyone paying the least amount of attention to what went down KNOWS that the first order of business here was to ensure the health insurance industry and the other monied interests were taken care of. I suspect YOU know that, too. But go ahead. Insult me even further by offering the excuse I've heard so many times. Explain to me that it was necessary to take care of the lobbyists first or we would have gotten nothing.

    That common excuse makes my larger point, and those who continue making it on behalf of the Dem Party show themselves to be enablers and thus the problem, not anything like the solution.


    by SleepinJeezus on Wed, 02/18/2015 - 5:40pm

    You have no viable solutions. You are unwilling to accept that American voters have put people into place and feel that if the voting machines weren't rigged, Union-busting Scott Walker would not be in place. It took time to make Social Security into what it became, it will take continued effort to improve Obamacare. Nothing is easy. There are ongoing attempts to keep people from voting and having access to fair hoising. There will be a dedicated minority that will fight for these issues. You have given up and await a voter's revolution that will never come.

     


    by rmrd0000 on Wed, 02/18/2015 - 6:06pm

    This is posted over on Word Press.  I follow it. 

    http://wcmcoop.com/2015/02/15/president-walker-primer-4-things-you-should-know-about-scott-walker-before-its-too-late/

    They like to dig into Walker's compost pile and spread the manurer around a little.  In other words it is always a good read. 


    by trkingmomoe on Mon, 02/16/2015 - 1:52pm

    Don't call it an "assault Rifle"...it's just a varmint control weapon...

     

    Bulletproof Security, operating illegally in Wisconsin. Photo: Rob Ganson

     


    by jollyroger on Tue, 02/17/2015 - 12:56am

    Green is the new Brown?


    by Resistance on Tue, 02/17/2015 - 7:04am

    Hi Jolly!

    Varmints must be kept in their place. ahahahah

    Mitt and I keep our eyes out for varmints.

    hahahahaha


    by Richard Day on Tue, 02/17/2015 - 5:49pm

    A lesson in how to deal with the opposition 


    by Resistance on Tue, 02/17/2015 - 6:40am

    Indeed none so blind as those who will not see.

    No matter how many years have passed since the Democratic Party, became the party of wealth and privileged, the fools still believe the Democrats of your Grandfathers days, still serve the working class cause of today .  

    Over and over, year after year, you warn them and provide sobering evidence, what the consequences of their believing one wing of the same vulture will solve their problems,

    You plead with them to realize, that they are being deceived.

    The working classes plight worsens, because they will absolutely refuse to look

    They have bought into the deception - hook, line, and sinker!  

    TPP and the Democrats

    Trans-Pacific Partnership - Public Citizen

    Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP): Job Loss, Lower Wages and Higher Drug Prices

    The TPP would expand the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) "trade" pact model that has spurred massive U.S. trade deficits and job loss, downward pressure on wages, unprecedented levels of inequality and new floods of agricultural imports. The TPP not only replicates, but expands NAFTA's special protections for firms that offshore U.S. jobs. And U.S. TPP negotiators literally used the 2011 Korea FTA – under which exports have fallen and trade deficits have surged – as the template for the TPP.

    In one fell swoop, this secretive deal could:


    by Resistance on Mon, 02/16/2015 - 8:42pm

    See, Sleepin', don't you feel better?  I know I do...More broadly, most disturbing of all to me is the meta communication of the David Koch prank call.

     

    Once you listen to that call, you know that Walker is the stupidest motherfucker to ever stumble onto a successful electoral ticket, and the most ass licking venal toady imaginable.

     

    Precious Blood of the Sweet Baby Jesus, this guy's picture shoud be in the dictionary next to "Running Dog"...

     

    That said, welcome back.


    by jollyroger on Tue, 02/17/2015 - 12:43am

    Boy o' boy I can hear the TV ads now replaying that phone call over and over again. I am sure the opposition research has written several ads to test on that one. 


    by trkingmomoe on Tue, 02/17/2015 - 4:55am

    That said, it is fun to see you and Sleepin back together.

    ha

    EVERYTHINGS GOOOOOOOD!


    by Richard Day on Tue, 02/17/2015 - 5:54pm

     


    by Resistance on Tue, 02/17/2015 - 6:46am

    What part of "rigged game" do you not understand 


    by Resistance on Thu, 02/19/2015 - 11:45am

    What part of "do nothing" do you not understand?


    by rmrd0000 on Thu, 02/19/2015 - 11:55am

    Your solution is to go to the rigged voting booth, voting for people accepted by the puppet masters and their MSM lackeys and folks should listen to someone completely blind to the realities as you keep playing the fools game, trying to convince others theirs even a chance to overcome the rigged game.

    Stupidity is not a solution,; as OK basically wrote earlier, learn to be content and happy as a slave in a system meant to enrich the privileged.

    Someone suggested the Republicans want to remove Social Security, do you think the vote will stop them or fear? 

    The privileged class, wants you to "do something" for them. If it makes you happy being their pawn; then play your part as a dupe in the system they have created, to ensure their continued rule. 

    Accept a Healthcare program designed to invade your privacy and bank account while Dark money buys elections.

    Stupidity..... give up your rights for crumbs.

    Allow the capitalist class, to offshore jobs and bring in millions of replacement workers and wonder how the American working class will pay for their insurance deductibles and premiums. 

    Access if you can afford it  "You can keep your doctor .....if you can afford it or your doctor will accept less" . Suckers 

     


    by Resistance on Thu, 02/19/2015 - 4:29pm

    The Republicans have had a wet dream of privatizing Social Security for decades. They have been stopped by the threats of the voting public. 

    If the corporations that own the Republicans are as powerful as you suggest, why isn't Social Security a thing of the past.


    by Ipadrmrd (not verified) on Thu, 02/19/2015 - 4:50pm

    Your post rests on the unproven premise that the voting booth is rigged. Even forgoing the challenge to produce evidence you would have the obligation to explain why Romney lost in 2012. If the voting booth is rigged they must have rigged it for Obama since he won the "rigged" vote. Romney's policies were a list of gifts to the rich including the elimination of the capital gains tax cut. While Obama and the democrats clearly stated that they would not continue the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy when they expired. Is it your contention the they rigged the votes for Obama so that democrats could raise their taxes? That they decided that paying less taxes like Romney proposed was simply unamerican?


    by ocean-kat on Thu, 02/19/2015 - 4:59pm

    Are you surprised that the elites in this country didn't want a Mormon and  the alternative was acceptable if he could be reigned in and  especially after the populace was close to revolting over the financial meltdown the elites bowed ever so slightly to give the people a candidate they thought they could trust.  Have you already forgotten Timothy Geithner and Larry Summers and their role? 

    I suspect THE  elites knew Obama could be rolled, despite his rhetoric. 

    He winked on NAFTA and The Grand bargainer probably tipped his hand on Healthcare, long before the votes. 

    The elites believing Obama was already in their pocket and if not;  their were enough Senators to muck up the works. They knew Mitch McConnell of Kentucky would do what he could do 

    So now the Revolution is averted and contained because the pressure relief valve named Obama who didn't want to look back, saved their system.

    Edited to add 

    Can you ever recall where the elites ever gave the serfs much of anything without being confronted with FEAR? 


    by Resistance on Thu, 02/19/2015 - 7:45pm

    Your post rests on the unproven premise that the voting booth is rigged. 

    How naive of you, to have a presumption, that elections cant be rigged. 

    There is sufficient evidence throughout voting history that tampering with the vote is a means to gain an advantage and is desirable in some circles to keep contol. .

    The fact that all efforts have been made, to thwart those who want more transparency (Paper Trail)  raises questions about the voting booths integrity. 

    Even the criminal element knows  Proving who committed a theft is near impossible if evidence can not be found. DOH!


    by Resistance on Thu, 02/19/2015 - 8:06pm

    Can't answer the questions so you're changing the subject with a straw man. I don't presume elections can't be rigged. Of course elections can be rigged. That doesn't prove they are rigged. If the two parties are  the same, as you assert, why would they have to rig the election? The only reason to rig an election is if there are significant differences between the two parties.


    by ocean-kat on Thu, 02/19/2015 - 8:41pm

    As I have stated before, it's all about who gets the spoils, whether it be Capitalist Republican or a Capitalist Democrat, the working class is going to get screwed by both

    Not much of a significant difference if your on the receiving end of the abuse by either side  

    You think one is better than the other because one kisses you and tells you how much they love you while tickling your ears before they run off to engage in their adulterous behavior?  


    by Resistance on Thu, 02/19/2015 - 9:20pm


    by rmrd0000 on Thu, 02/19/2015 - 9:41pm


    by rmrd0000 on Thu, 02/19/2015 - 9:41pm

    .


    by Resistance on Thu, 02/19/2015 - 10:11pm

    Security Analysis of the Diebold AccuVote-TS Voting Machine

    .... Such attacks can be carried out without leaving any evidence of fraud in the ..

    The main findings of our study are:

    1. Malicious software running on a single voting machine can steal votes with little risk of detection. The malicious software can modify all of the records, audit logs, and counters kept by the voting machine, so that even careful forensic examination of these records will find nothing amiss
    2. Anyone who has physical access to a voting machine, or to a memory card …….., can install said malicious software using a simple method that takes as little as one minute. In practice, ……..

     Hacking Democracy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    Voting Machine Manufacturer Diebold Charged Over ...

    Electronic Voting Machines Still Widely Used Despite Security

    ELECTION FRAUD: It's the Voting Machines, Not the Voters


    by Resistance on Thu, 02/19/2015 - 11:51pm

    It is hard to 'review' a hundred comments.

    But this is a gooooooooood post even if I disagree with some sentiments.

    I did not perceive any attack on a blogger as being a liar.

    A lot of give and take was present and maybe a hint of attacks related to idiocy.

    It is good to see Sleepin again and all these folks I learned to love over the last seven years or so.

    And the numbers are good.

    We need to wake up sometimes.

    We need to disagree at times.

    If I had all the answers, I would not be where I am now.

    That being said, Wisconsin repub politicians suck!

    hahahaahahah


    by Richard Day on Thu, 02/19/2015 - 12:48pm