WISCONSIN TO BECOME THE DUMBEST STATE IN THE NATION...FREEDOM

[jodymarie aimee]

My November letter to the editor....I publish monthly .....be glad you don't live in our state....we have been burned to the ground by these fuckers. And they just don't quit.....witness......
WISCONSIN TO BECOME THE DUMBEST STATE IN THE NATION...FREEDOM


Republicans in the Wisconsin legislature gave everybody a 4th grade math test and let the bottom five scores run the joint. Those who answered "What's 3 plus 6" with "Pudding" have another bizarre and destructive race-to-the bottom trick up their sleeves. You may not have heard about it because it happened exactly at the same time as the Foxconn hearings.

Are you a licensed professional or do you use the services of one? The Republican Senate recently passed two bills setting up a process to delicense ALL professional occupations in our state. SB288 establishes a partisan appointed Occupational License Review Council that reviews licensing and is given the authority to write legislation. And SB296 creates a process of self certification, allowing anyone to claim "state certification" regardless of whether they have training or experience in their chosen field.

Electricians, nurses, CPAs, plumbers, physical therapists, doctors, will be reviewed by a Walker/Koch/ALEC Mafia which has the power to write bills--got that?--not lawmakers. And this mafia is partisan, with a capital P.

A drug dealer becomes a pharmacist and the perfume sprayer a chemist. You doctor, who binge-watched Grey's Anatomy during a layoff from Herschners, diagnoses you. Minutes later, when you collapse on the hospital lawn, the teen who cut your grass that morning is now your EMT. They send your body to the mortician, a needlepoint enthusiast.

These bills are stupid and dangerous and meant to undercut labor. They jeopardize consumer protections and might even kill people. Who gains? Not small business and not us. The 1% would pay more for good services, while the rest of us fall prey to shysters and frauds.

In the past 43 years there have been only eight instances of delicensing SINGLE occupations: egg candlers in Colorado; watchmakers here; barbers in Alabama. All were unsuccessful. We know Walker always goes bold--boldly deregulating privatizing and destroying our state. Walker appointees want to remake Wisconsin in their own ideological image A/K/A a shadow legislature.

"Burden" and "freedom" are two words bastardized by the Republicans. According to Jethro Bodine, with a 6th grade education, one could aspire to be a fry cook, brain surgeon, movie producer or a double aught spy. If anybody asks, Wisconsin, just tell them you're clumsy and you fell.

I am fortunate the majority of my life has been lived in a time of liberal consensus. Future generations won't be so lucky. I could be wrong, I hope I am. If the Republicans prevail, Wisconsin will become the dumbest state in the country. Perhaps they'll rename it "Gozinta". In eight years Walker has shown his disdain, nay contempt for education. Vote Democrat in the 2018 Elections and put and end to this madness. P.S. When I posted this on a national blog, one guy said he would never visit, eat or have an operation in our state again.

[Angry Dragon]

1. Room for you in Minnesota

[Wellstone ruled]

2. Yup,get on the 94 and head West my friend.

[MuseRider]

3. I saw this and thought

oh yeah, so what. I LIVE in the state the Koch brothers learned on and still occupy. How could you possibly complain until you have had them around for 30 years working on you?

Well, I am sorry. You actually have bypassed Kansas with this one.

I see you are not welcome in Minnesota? Wow lovely, very nice. Come here. We are bad but trying and beginning to get better and we thankfully never hit that point where we were delicensing professions. This is CRAZY!

Brownback was too busy trying to climb that ladder to heaven to go this far.

[Skittles]

4. I was originally going to retire in Wisconsin

not anymore

I don't even recognize Wisconsin since repukes took over

[a kennedy]

5. I know.....the once proud leader of workers rights.....

Unemployment benifits, worker compensation benefits, the original Public Radio...... oh yah, Wisconsin the once proud State of worker rights, and a leader, now, has become the state of big business, and big interests of the wealthy. I cry for my once leader to now the follow along State of the depressed and loser.

[Hortensis]

6. Well, it may still end up being a great place to retire.

And be proud of. A Kennedy, don't you think these extremists revealing themselves will finally become too much, cause reaction?

After all, the New Deal was ultimately the product of laissez-faire viciousness and greed. And murder. If our grandparents could do it...

[Wellstone ruled]

7. Good luck with that idea.

Walker and friends have wrecked the Health Care System for those who are Retired . Depending on your selected locality,your Real Estate Taxes are brutal. There is a lousy and failing Saftey Net. Just a Kansas with tons of trees and Lakes.

[Hortensis]

8. Hi, Wellstone. I am speculating about reaction, and

much as wealthy archconservatives are trying to suppress it, successful reaction seems a lot more likely than nonreaction continuing indefinitely. Just...when?

After all, the huge advances of the New Deal were not just a reaction to the Great Depression. That reaction built over 40 years and more of increasing abuse by controlling wealthy classes. The big crash precipitated enormous change, did not cause it on its own.

And coming up on 40 years of increasing exploitation and income and power redistribution to the wealthy is pretty much where we are now.

[Wellstone ruled]

11. You have best described

the last forty plus years.

Growing up in the most Progressive State in the Union gave many optimism and hope for the future. We went from the most Pro-Growth of what is called the Worker Class Persons to what I discovered last year when we went back to take care of family loose ends,and that being those same Pro-Growth Progressive Ideals replaced by a dependent Society. So many People trapped in a failing negative Growth Society,dependent on the whims of a few.

People trying to make do,when you have a Casino as your major Employer,you are in a Major World of Hurt. Total failure of future planning by a hand full of Connected Locals who circled their wagons to protect themselves from those so called Working Slobs.

Noticed Walker wants to continue his Kansas Experiment once again. Knowing what we saw a year ago,he most likely will be a shoe in.

[Hortensis]

12. If this transition were carefully investigated, might it possibly

be discovered (more speculation here of course) that archconservative billionaires felt their plotting would be endangered by comparison of a marked decline in prosperity and general wellbeing in conservative states to Wisconsin under liberal and progressive governance?

Especially since Wisconsin is part of America's "heartland" where the "real" Americans live and what was right across the borders was all too on view from adjacent red states.

Given what we now do know about the enormous efforts to turn this nation and their increasing size and sophistication every year in every decade, it'd almost be surprising if liberalism in Wisconsin wasn't specially targeted for takedown.

Again, though, just speculation. But, more obviously, Koch Industries has been operating in Wisconsin all along, and Wisconsin's liberal interference in their literally deadly activities must have frequently offended their arrogance.

[Wellstone ruled]

14. Believe you have touched the truth.

Koch Industries had one foot print up till the Sixties,and that was a Refinery in Superior area. With the Nixon Administration and Corporate Tax Changes,the Koch Family started their Acquisition of Pulp and Paper Industries via the use of the accelerated Deprecation rules in the new Federal Tax Code. They basically raided the Paper Industry for Tax write offs. And in the same time frame,they were back door funding bogus front groups who advocated anti Union and anti Public owned Entities of any nature.

Being honest,there were willing individuals who opened the doors for these things to occur. The first being what at the time was a Association of Seven Counties in the Northwestern quadrant. Dubed Impact Seven,and from the day this group was founded,the region went from liberal progressive to anti every thing it seemed like.

Proof today of this effect is,zero Industrial growth outside of a large relatively new Cheese Manufacturing facility which replace the owners old out dated Plant and still paying non union sub par wages. Other than that. Fracking Sand Mines are destroying the Environment and impacting the Tourist Industry ,which is under promoted do to political interests.

With Walker and Fitzgerald doing their best to wipe out the one time Gold Standard for Public Education for some half ass Voucher privatized White's only system. Again,we are seeing the true ALEC/Koch program be implemented. Creation of another Brownback-isstan. It has taken them forty years to create this,but the GOP has always played the long game,where we Dems get excited with the next up coming election. My guess is,there are not any Young Democratic Party Clubs on the College Campuses any more. Probably have more White Nationalist Groups than most others.

[Hortensis]

16. Strangely, what they are pushing congress to do now

looks surprisingly reckless and short game. Or is it? Are they really betting everything that they can mug America now, while the nation watches, and still keep control of congress in 2018? Or do they have good reason to believe they can proceed and also keep and consolidate power in 2018?

The mere fact that Pence chose to abandon his governorship for what then looked like sure, multiply humiliating career suicide as Rump's running mate suggests they were able to convince Pence that Rump would win. What would they have had to know, when did they know it, and what did they do to make that happen?

[Wellstone ruled]

17. Yes,the Koch Brothers

with the help of other Billionaire Libertarians,have been moving their personal Agenda forward for five decades or more. Our Nation has been slow walking towards Fascism since the days of Nixon. When money and Lobbying became the rule rather than the exception,we only need to look at certain people who pioneered this process. Buckley with his PBS Libertarian message,Lee Attwater and his no hold bares campaign tactics,along with Roy Cohn,Paul Manafort,Roger Stone and of course,Roger Ailies.

All of the a fore mentioned individuals bought and paid for via Corporate money funneled through various so called K Street Think Tanks and Law Firms.

Until the populace wakes up and understand the Corportist's are not your friends and do not produce a single Job or benefit to our Society. We have a Corporate Welfare System with millions in Indentured Servitude .

[Hortensis]

18. Yes. Those who study government takeovers

through corruption are pointing out that it is not a disorder of systems but rather a deliberate reordering of those systems to serve a few. And, by turning the right into a subversive took, they have gotten enough of a foothold in ours to show clearly that it is happening here.

What I was thinking before is that, for all the Kochs especially have seemed to stay carefully away from the Trump circus, they are very possibly illegally connected to the subversion of the 2016 election.

Btw, as you know, Trump is not the only one who uses family members as his agents. The Kochs do also.

[Wellstone ruled]

19. We have seen this attempt at

over throw of our Government before and by the Same Family of Players. That was well documented by Historians who woke up to what was happening before and during World War 2. Same outline same tactics,just more money being expended,a more corrupted group Senators and Congress Persons playing lets make a deal this time around.

What is scary in my opinion is this,the last time this crew tried to do a Coupe,we had a Fourth Estate that was very Independent,this time we have the threat to our Democracy owning the Media that is failing in it's duty to report and keep our Nation informed to the Corporate threat to our Democracy.

As you have said,the Agents of influence and their Family ties are very evident. Again,flushing these persons out in the open,is the job of Journalism,but,tons of failures in that regard.

[Hortensis]

20. Yes, this era they set out to corrupt and infiltrate our

best media, and created the worst, early on.

The NYT and Associated Press worked against the Democratic Party by publishing very biased coverage, and of course especially Hillary, all through the election period. Of course it's still going as heavy as ever.

A few nights ago, while the WaPo editorial board was disgracing the WSJ by printing flat-out lies, PBS NewsHour did the same by having a Fox-style propagandist on to tell flat-out lies to its audience. And this is just the tiniest sampling of what's happening right now.

Makes me feel sick. It's bedtime too.

[Wellstone ruled]

21. I read these same statements made by these people,

and,wonder just what the hell. Once was a follower of PBS,those days are so gone. Once the Andrus-ADM investigative story was,for the most part,scrapped,that did it for myself and am sure others. From that day forward,the Corporate threat was more important than truth and good Investigative Reporting.

We seen this same scene with Dan Rather being knee capped by his Boss as well as a fellow College at CBS,all to protect a AWOL Drunk who became President.

And we come to the end of another beautiful day in the Vegas Valley. Peace!!

[DrDan]

9. thanks for taking the spotlight off Florida . . . you win

[Luciferous]

10. I'm from Wisconsin and my family is still there. It makes me sick to see what

Walker and the Kochs have done in a relatively short amount of time. I would like to be closer to my family but there is no way I would move back there now.

[Scruffy1]

13. I left in the early 80's.

I could see where the state was going. As the heavy industry in the eastern part of the state died off, it was taken over by troglodytes.

[Lee-Lee]

15. Im kind of torn on licensing requirements

Some are good. You want you EMT licensed and certified.

Some go overboard and have pushed way past the need for regulation and safety and are serving as de-facto ways for those in the business to keep competition away.

As an example- barber shops here in NC. Sure, I can see a need for some testing in regards to health and safety. That shouldn’t take up more than 20-40 hours to complete.

NC requires 1500 hours of training and internship to get licensed as a barber. To give a basis to compare, it takes fewer hours than that to be a Paramedic. Not EMT, but full fledged Paramedic passing EMT-B, EMT-I and Paramedic courses.

That’s insane.

And the biggest victims of this overzealous requirement are your low income people who want to be barbers, especially in minority populations. They get locked out of the chance to earn an income doing something like cutting hair because they can’t go to school full time for 10-12 months. Especially when most of them have the skill and ability now.

And this requirement is advocated by the lobbying interests of existing barbers who want to keep the amount of competition low and by the barber schools who want people forced to attend.

Regulation is good- as long as you don’t let it go to the point of being bad.