It really just doesn’t seem that funny anymore, does it, Scott?
Things are not looking too good for the hapless prick running the state of Wisconsin into the ground. As yet another group of craven Republican shits supporting this son of a bitch have been outed, and as anti-Walker groups announce that they’ve already got more than half of the signatures necessary to trigger the recall election, now Scott Walker gets this news!
Under Walker, Wisconsin now leads the nation in job losses.
In fact, of the states that the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics described as experiencing “statistically significant unemployment changes” in October, only one actually lost jobs: Wisconsin.
Wisconsin lost 9,700 jobs in October, almost all of them in the private sector.
But that is not the worst news. The worst news is that the job losses are part of a pattern that began around the time that Walker’s “reforms” took hold.
Wisconsin did not just lose jobs in October.
Wisconsin lost jobs in September.
Wisconsin lost jobs in August.
Wisconsin lost jobs in July.
Back in May, when Walker was bragging about how he had “fixed” Wisconsin, the latest figures put the state’s unemployment rate at 7.3 percent.
Now, the latest figures put the rate at 7.7 percent.
How does that compare with the national average? During the same period when unemployment went down one-tenth of a percentage point nationally, it rose four-tenths of a percent under Scott Walker.
There are a lot of reasons why Wisconsinites are lining up to sign recall petitions. Citizens are concerned about the governor’s assaults on basic rights and his undermining of the authority of elected schools boards and town boards. They are angry that he said one thing on the campaign trail in 2010 and did something else altogether as governor.
But the damage the governor’s policies have done to Wisconsin’s economy is no small factor in the popularity of the recall movement. When Illinois is creating jobs while our state is losing them, it is clear that Walker isn’t working for Wisconsin.
So this is what REALLY happens to a state when those union-busting, tax-cutting Republicans control the statehouse? Numbers don’t lie, as the saying goes.
Scott Walker with his dumb, Charlie Brown face, and through his own idiotic efforts, has become one of the most notable human punchlines in the crowded field of today’s completely insane, increasingly divorced from reality, Republican Party. Because of fucking ridiculous people like Walker, Bachmann, Cain, Perry, Gingrich, and Florida’s Gollumesque governor Rick Scott, etc, it must be a humiliating time to be a GOP voter. I sometimes feel sorry for Jon Huntsman, but it’s his fault for being a Republican, isn’t it?
The GOP “philosophy,” such that it is, is but an an organized system of ignorance, an anti-science religion of flaming stupidity and rampant cupidity. Such a pleasure to see a cretinous jerk like this about to be tossed out on his ass by informed people making an INTELLIGENT decision about what type of place they want to live in. And the motherfucker knows it, too. Walker’s blood is in the water. The unions and the Democrats can taste it.
The Republican party, so obviously on the wrong side of history, seems so limp and silly and so impotent, that it’s hardly even worth becoming irate about them anymore. After next year’s election is over and done with, and the Reichwing has been beaten up good and put in its place, then it’s going to be high time to start getting irate with the fucking Democrats.
Read more of Under Walker, Wisconsin is No. 1 job loser (The Cap Times)
Happy Thanksgiving, American readers and, um, happy uh, regular Thursday to the rest of you.
Thanksgiving is, of course, for all of you foreign heathens, the day Americans are supposed to be thankful for being American and for the lucky accident of being born in this great country of ours.
We celebrate this, primarily in three ways: eating gluttonously; falling asleep afterwards watching football; and then engaging in an annoying, soul-crushing, stressful day of “Black Friday” shopping, beginning bright and early the following morning.
I shouldn’t say “we” because some of us (hand raised) avoid this ritual like the plague (Unlike my lovely wife who was obligated to ditch her taxi and walk nearly a mile to LAX because traffic was backed up so badly at 9pm Sunday night, I also don’t travel on holidays).
I don’t mind the eating part. The consumer shit and the travel I can definitely miss, but the main reason I like to avoid the whole Thanksgiving thing is to sidestep having to face some of my reactionary, ignorant, Fox News watching relatives (Should you be one of my reactionary, ignorant, Fox News watching relatives reading this wondering “Hey, is he referring to me?” Yes, I am referring to you.). Having to listen to Tea party stuff last year was the final straw. No way would I venture into another round of that with what’s going on this year.
HOWEVER, if you, dear reader, can’t wriggle out of your obligations as easily as I could, why not have a little fun at the expense of your blowhard uncle who listens to Rush Limbaugh every day, by ditto’ing some sense into his head?
There’s a useful guide to “talking turkey” from the Working America website. I’m reposting it here, nearly in full because a) I agree with what’s written here and b) I don’t think they’ll mind at all…
FACTS ABOUT THE 99 PERCENT AND THEIR HAPPIER COUNTERPARTS, THE 1 PERCENT
The average wealth of the 1% is 225 times bigger (PDF) than the wealth of the typical household - perhaps the highest it’s ever been. In just the last generation, the richest 1% almost quadrupled their incomes.
Three decades ago, CEOs made about 40 times as much as an average worker - now CEOs make almost 200 times as much as regular employees.
(Sources: Wall Street Journal, Media Matters, Economic Policy Institute, National Employment Law Project)
COMMONLY TROTTED OUT FALSEHOODS/MYTHS/SPIN AND YOUR FACT-BASED ANSWERS
“We have serious economic problems, and that means everybody has to tighten their belts.”
Laying off nurses, teachers and firefighters doesn’t make our communities stronger - it just puts more Americans out of work and puts our safety at risk.
It is economic suicide to lay off state workers and undermine the services we rely on just to fund huge tax cuts for the wealthy.
Instead of taking away the rights of hardworking Americans to negotiate their pay and benefits - which does nothing to address deficits or create jobs - let’s start with getting rid of tax breaks to millionaires and corporations that send our jobs overseas.
Corporate profits are at an all-time high, but corporations are paying lower taxes than ever - and some aren’t paying any at all. Politicians who refuse to ask them to pay their fair share just don’t get it.
“The Occupiers are all elite anarchist vegan violent hippie communist jobless tattooed America-hating thugs.”
Um, no.
The Occupiers are part of the 99 percent, and come from all walks of life. They are teachers, nurses, jobless workers, working moms, disenfranchised people, young people, older people, working professionals, activists. They are construction workers, firefighters, artists, business owners.
They have a very clear message and that is that for too long, the 1 percent has had continual, astronomical earnings and benefits while the 99 percent suffer or are turned on one another.
This kind of public protest is part of a proud American tradition, one that is protected by the Constitution.
“Corporations should not be taxed because they create jobs.”
Tax giveaways for the rich don’t get the economy moving or create jobs because millionaires and billionaires don’t need or spend the money - they just hand it over to their hedge fund managers, send jobs overseas and continue to enjoy overseas tax shelters and other corporate loopholes.
Working people like you and me spend that money to pay bills, buy milk and bread, and see The Muppet Movie at the multiplex. Are you saying you oppose the Muppets?
CEOs are currently making an average of more than 200 times as much as the average worker. And yet they do not create jobs here at home because they are consistently rewarded for it with?more tax breaks.
“Too much government is the problem.”
Wall Street control of government is the problem. When there’s a revolving door between lobbyists on K Street and Capitol Hill, and corporate elites determine political and legislative goals, then you have total corporate control of government.
Lack of government regulations has led to unfettered Wall Street greed that continues to this day - look at Enron, the Wall Street Meltdown and the Gulf Oil spill. Nobody can say with a straight face that we need less oversight and less accountability.
Here’s a video of Jack Abramoff, a famous former lobbyist convicted of illegal activity, explaining how the revolving door of lobbyists and Capitol Hill works on 60 Minutes. Watch it with your family! (Before or after The Muppet Movie.)
“We need to balance our budget first. We need to fix the deficit before we can invest in jobs.”
Major economists agree that the WORST way to handle the deficit is to put more Americans OUT of work. We need to stop tax giveaways for millionaires who don’t create jobs and corporations that send our jobs overseas and use the money to put Americans back on the job.
“We need a free market. Government regulations destroy jobs.”
Do you want someone to make sure your food and water are safe to eat and drink? An unregulated free market creates a system that is rigged against the 99 percent. It is what paved the way for predatory, unregulated lenders and bankers to hijack our economy, and its influence is what led to the appalling bank bailouts given to the “too big to fail” 1 percent, leaving the 99 percent out in the cold - literally.
Again: an unregulated free market, crony capitalism and unfettered Wall Street greed is what caused the financial crisis.
“The reason people are struggling is their own fault. I could find a job if I wanted to right now.”
Right now there are five jobless people for every one job opening. Millions have been laid off through no fault of their own. Unable to pay for basic things like groceries, rent and bills, people are now being punished for being jobless by employers who discriminate against them and rhetoric that blames them for an economy wrecked by Wall Street greed.
“Unemployment insurance keeps people unemployed and causes unemployment to increase.”
Unemployment insurance is one of the most effective ways to help get our economy going again - economists estimate that for every dollar spent on unemployment insurance, the economy grows by one and half times as much.
People who are out of work cut back on spending - meaning less money flowing into our economy. Unemployment benefits mean people who are out of work are putting money back into the economy.
“Tax cuts increase revenue.”
That…doesn’t even make sense.
Tax breaks mean less revenue, not more, and they don’t create jobs or grow the economy - the Bush tax cuts led to record budget deficits that we’re still dealing with.
Let’s put money into the hands of the real job creators in this country - working- and middle-class Americans - and stop giving special tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires who don’t need it and don’t spend it.
“The United States has the highest corporate tax rate in the world.”
The United States has the second-lowest corporate tax rate in the developed world, and many of America’s largest corporations don’t pay any taxes at all.
The middle class has sacrificed enough. It’s time for big corporations to start paying their fair share.
“This is class warfare.”
I think it is safe to say that it wasn’t our teachers, firefighters and nurses that tanked the economy; it wasn’t the middle class or working class who gambled away people’s life savings.
No middle-class family should have to pay higher taxes than any millionaire.
America was founded as a country where we reward hard work more than how much money anyone’s family has. But right now, a paycheck earned from working in a job is taxed higher than the money that millionaires and billionaires make off money they already have.
As Warren Buffett tells it, the only “class warfare” in America is being waged by his class - and they’re winning.
“We don’t need tax increases to get our fiscal house in order.”
Experts, including conservative economists, agree that spending cuts alone are not enough. We need serious solutions, not irresponsible tax pledges.
They tried tax handouts to the richest few that never trickle down, and they tried giant tax breaks for big corporations that lay off Americans and ship our jobs overseas. We’ve all had enough of their schemes that don’t work.
We can’t afford millionaire tax giveaways when jobs are what we need.
Plus, we’re not talking about raising YOUR taxes. Unless you’re a multimillionaire, in which case, these mashed potatoes should be way better.
When Presidents Reagan, Bush Sr., and Clinton told millionaires and big corporations to pay their fair share, it was followed by millions of new jobs and strong economic growth.
“Out-of-control entitlement spending is responsible for the deficit.”
You’re going to say that with grandma sitting right there?
They’d rather gut Social Security and Medicare than make millionaires and big corporations pay a few more cents on the dollar in taxes.
Social Security doesn’t add a penny to the deficit, and Medicare is the most cost-effective way for our seniors to get health care. But Republican politicians never liked Social Security or Medicare and still want to take them away.
When Republican politicians take away the benefits our seniors have earned, they take money out of the pockets of middle-class Americans. That takes away customers from our businesses - and that means less hiring and fewer jobs.
If they were serious about deficits, they wouldn’t have fought so hard for the Bush tax cuts and two unfunded wars that led to the record deficits we’re dealing with today.
“Unions are bad for business or only care about their members.”
Today, unions across the country are on the frontlines advocating for basic workplace reforms such as increasing the minimum wage and pushing lawmakers to require paid sick leave. For all workers.
It’s easy to forget that we have unions to thank for a lot of things we take for granted today in today’s workplaces: the minimum wage, the eight-hour work day, child labor laws, health and safety standards, and even the weekend.
Studies show that a large union presence in an industry or a region raises wages even for nonunion workers. That means more consumer spending and a stronger economy for us all.
A recent Harvard University study revealed that the rising income inequality of the last three decades directly correlates to the decline in union membership.
*****
Here are some ‘turkey talk’ bonuses for you:
Fox News successfully creates climate confusion, but only among conservatives (Ars Technica)
By now you’ve probably heard that the efforts to recall Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker got off to a rousing start with just under 10% of the 540,000 signatures needed to force the recall election collected in the just first two days (no thanks to losers like this).
Walker, who can raise unlimited funds to fight the recall, released his first TV commercial recently touting some rather dubious “successes” of his short time in office. The Democrats and the unions in Wisconsin answered the ad with the punch to the throat you can watch below.
It’s about TIME that progressives realized that they are going to have to play HARD—not “dirty” like the WI GOP and the Koch Bros have, but HARD so their punches land and HURT—and I, for one, loved seeing this commercial. I thought it kicked ass. Scott Walker’s ass.
Read this: Retired Pastor Opens Mind, Front Yard to Walker Recall Movement (Wauwatosa Patch)
Sabotage? Caledonia Man Claims He, and Others, Plan to Shred Signed Walker Recall Petitions (Wauwatosa Patch)
Donate to the efforts to pink-slip Scott Walker and Wisconsin Republicans at ActBlue.
How much MORE hapless-looking can someone GET than beleaguered WI Governor Scott Walker?
The historical efforts to recall Republican Gov. Scott Walker will be kicking off Tuesday in Wisconsin with a late-night rally and early morning pajama parties. One hundred events across the state are planned for tomorrow as Democrats and unions begin signature gathering in earnest to recall Walker, Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefsich and at least three more Republican state senators in addition to the two who lost their seats earlier this year.
“I fully anticipate there will be signatures collected in every single Wisconsin county tomorrow,” said state Democratic Party Chairman Mike Tate, adding that he hoped to collect at least 600,000 signatures by the January 17, 2012 deadline. 540,000 names are required to trigger the election.
“We’ve made a lot of progress,” muttered the increasingly hapless-looking, politically tone-deaf Walker. “It’s a new day in Wisconsin.”
It’ll be a new day in Wisconsin when Gray Davis is buying you a beer, asshole!
After seeing over two million voters deliver a whopping 61% to 39% rejection of his party’s strong-arm tactics to strip collective bargaining rights from public employees, Ohio Republican Governor John Kasich did one of those “open mouth and remove all doubt” things they tell fools not to do:
At a news conference Tuesday night, Mr. Kasich congratulated the winners and said he would assess the situation before proposing any new legislation. “It’s time to pause,” he said. “The people have spoken clearly.”
When asked about the people’s message, Mr. Kasich said, “They might have said it was too much too soon.”
“They might have said”? Might? Might nothing asshole, it was a 61% to 39% vote! Even reliably Republican counties voted against harming their friends and neighbors. No one except stupid people in the state ever believed GOP union-busting had anything to do with creating jobs. And to demonize teachers, fire fighters and police officers as lazy, coddled bums? I mean the whole thing was just so… predictable.
“Too much, too soon”? Jon Stewart, here comes an easy work day, courtesy of one of the most tone-deaf politicians in America.. More people turned up to vote against SB-5 than voted for Kasish himself in the last election, even. This man is a fucking plank.
Attention Republicans! Let me spell it out for you:
The majority of the general public—the ones who aren’t braying asses, at least—does not want to cut government programs for people like themselves.
The American people are starting to wise up in an unprecedented manner to the bleak future our corporate overlords and their craven vassals like Kasish have planned for us. And so the Reichwing is starting to get a better sense of how deep the backlash is. This is why the GOP is stepping up their efforts to discourage voter registration among younger, older and poorer voters who tend to vote for Democrats. If you can’t beat ‘em… uh… try to change the rules mid-game, I suppose?
There’s a big problem in their math, though, and it’s a fatal error indeed: There are more of us than there are of them…
99 to one? I’ll take those odds!
As I am fond of reminding myself, demographics are a bitch for the Republican party... Even with the 1%‘s special interest money behind them, they’re still gonna lose and keeping losing until they’re just a minority party of cranky racist stingy “olds.” That’s pretty much what they are now, but when the Baby Boomers start dying off en masse (and it won’t be long before that happens) the Republican Party is toast.
Think of Republicans as newspaper subscribers. That’s how I think of them. Comforting thought isn’t it?
Meanwhile over in Wisconsin, Scott Walker must be absolutely pissing himself as he contemplates how brief his tenure in the governor’s office will have been and what his next career move will be since elected politics will probably not be much of an option for him moving forward…
The Walker recall efforts in WI got a big shot in the arm from labor’s HUGE win in Ohio. If you’d like to contribute to boot that Koch whore from office, you can donate at ActBlue.
With today being the first day that recall petitions can be filed in Wisconsin against officials who were elected in November 2010—like say extremely unpopular Republican Governor Scott Walker—we’re happy to report that the first paperwork has indeed been filed with state elections officials to get this sleazy son of a bitch out of office.
WI’s Government Accountability Board confirmed that the request was filed Friday, the first possible date to file a recall petition. Now it’s up to the unions and Democrats in WI to gather 540,000 in the next 60 days to force the recall election. Walker is able to engage in unlimited fundraising now that this initial petition has been filed. The game is on.
The first petition to recall Walker was filed by David Brandt of Muskego in Waukesha County. It’s suspected by some WI Democrats that Mr. Brandt is a Walker supporter who filed the petition today so that Walker’s fundraising could begin immediately. Whether that’s true or not hasn’t been determined, but apparently Brandt gave Walker’s campaign $50 in 2010. It doesn’t rule out that he came to loathe Walker like many others in the state (and nation!) came to loathe this stupid-faced scumbag.
But who cares anyway? It’s not exactly like Walker has the wind at his back or anything, so why wait even one more day? The Republicans are on the run in WI and they are very well-aware of it, too, so why not just get down to the business of ending Scott Walker’s political career ASAP?
GOP efforts to hamstring recall efforts with a plan that would require each recall petition to be notarized were defeated earlier this week and so was a motion to have recall elections take place under a new legislative map favoring the GOP. The Republican efforts to hinder the recall efforts have been moot.
With the threat of these procedural roadblocks now behind them, Wisconsin Democrats plan to file separate recall petitions against Scott Walker and Lt. Governor Rebecca Kleefisch soon.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker was heckled for six solid minutes this morning by fifty Occupy Chicago supporters in front of an audience of 300 people at a breakfast appearance.
When they were finished harassing the hapless, soon-to-be-former WI Republican governor, the protesters left the event at Chicago’s Union League Club.
Around fifty people chanted things like “Union busting. It’s disgusting” and “We are the 99 percent.”
After the protesters left, politically tone-deaf, about-to-be-recalled-from-office Walker said, “The bottom line is, no matter how loud you shout, the facts are the facts. The facts are that our reforms have worked and continue to work in the state of Wisconsin.”
Look into his beady little eyes. Even Walker’s eyes look like they’re sweating. This is a man terrified on one hand, and yet in deep, deep denial on the other. As the Firesign Theatre once said: “A stiff idiot is the worst kind.”
Increasingly hapless Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, still trying to prove how utterly and spectacularly clueless he is, took his show on the road this weekend to the small town of Washburn in Bayfield County, WI. Walker spoke at an invitation-only event where he was met by a large, angry and very vocal group of people who hate his guts. The video below is what we can now safely refer to as “Classic Walker”—boy, this motherfucker is DENSE! He honestly seems to think this is going to blow over! He suffers from this weird, pathological delusion that he’s right! Reality is going to be smacking Scott Walker in the face—HARD—in the very near future. From the Duluth News Tribune:
Walker arrived in a convoy of six unmarked police cars that pulled up at 5:45 p.m. to the Steak Pit for a Republican Lincoln Day fundraiser. The large, boisterous crowd, which had been lining the streets leading to the restaurant since 4:30, quickly recognized him and erupted in boos and shouts of “Recall Walker.”
The convoy moved through quickly and without incident, and most of the protesters began to follow a circuitous route on public pathways to a spot behind the restaurant where they continued the protest within earshot of the Republican Party faithful inside.
Bayfield County Sheriff Paul Susienka said Saturday evening that he didn’t have a crowd estimate, but various people had estimated the size at between 2,000 and 5,000. So the protest
probably at least doubled the size of Washburn, which has a population of 2,271.
—snip—
People were definitely saying their piece, greeting each vehicle that arrived for the dinner with shouts of “Shame!” while waving protest signs and shaking their fists. One person videotaped the license plates of at least some of the vehicles that entered.
Protesters banged pots, shook tambourines at car windows and sounded horns. Most of the drivers and their passengers stared straight ahead. They had to navigate through a narrow tunnel formed by protesters on both sides, held back by Bayfield County sheriff’s deputies and rally organizers.
Signs included “Gov. Walker, you probably can’t remember me, but ... I can recall you” and “At least my Grandma’s Walker helps her.”
—snip—
“The thing that really got me here is the disparity of wealth that has grown way too out of hand,” Griffiths said. “This is not a Wisconsin thing. This is a global pandemic of wealth buying power.”
Richard Bergsrud, 26, of Duluth agreed that it wasn’t just a Wisconsin thing. The way Walker’s proposal to strip public employee unions of most collective bargaining rights was passed into law was wrong, Bergsrud said.
“It should be a dialogue, not a monologue,” he said.
Bergsrud acknowledged he felt a little bit sorry for people arriving to the event. But he said they were wrong for supporting actions that deprived public employees of long-fought-for rights.
Not everyone who disagreed with the protesters was in the Steak Pit.
Mark Goodrich, a building contractor in Ashland, stood at the corner where protesters passed between Stage North and the entrance to the Steak Pit with a large sign bearing the words, “God Bless Gov. Walker.”
Goodrich said he had heard a few taunts from protesters.
“I know some of the people,” he said. “I have friends on both sides.”
But he added: “Collective bargaining is not a right. It’s never been a right.”
Not sure if I am reading this correctly, but was there just one idiot in the whole town who “stood up” for Dead Man Walker against all the other protesters who loathe him?
That’s a visual! One I don’t expect was very comforting for the embattled Republican governor, do you?
It would be amusing to know whether or not class traitor Mark Goodrich was invited in out of the cold by the Republicans for his misguided efforts on their behalf, wouldn’t it?
