Wisconsin Republicans support their state’s right to secede.
They say the 10th Amendment says they can, if they please.
But if they give the 49 the axe,
They’ll have to charge import/export tax,
And who’s going to pay extra for regular old Wisconsin cheese?
Prison inmates have replaced union workers in Racine County, Wisconsin, thanks to the changes to the states collective bargaining laws that went into effect at the end of June.
The Journal Times reported prison inmates will now be able to do tasks such as landscaping, painting, and shoveling sidewalks in the winter that were previously performed by unionized employees.
Inmates are not required to do any work for the county, but can receive time off their sentence if they do. Racine County Executive Jim Ladwig said the use of prison labor would not result in any public works staff reductions.
“We’re gonna have them do landscaping at county buildings, have them pick up trash on the roads,” he told local Fox News 6. “So we can use some of the county personnel to do difficult tasks, such as putting in a parking lot at the park.”
Next up: Arrest people for joining unions and send them to prison where they will work for free.
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On her MSNBC show last night, Rachel Maddow took an in-depth look at the stark contrast between Republicans’ campaign rhetoric about limited government and what they actually do when they gain power, which is to use the government to curtail the rights of the citizenry.
The prime example of this today is union-busting:
MADDOW: Your freedom to associate in this country is guaranteed by the Constitution, your freedom to join a union if you want to. But to the extent that the government can be used to limit that right of yours, Republicans in Wisconsin and in Ohio and in Indiana and in New Hampshire and in Florida and in Tennessee and in Oklahoma and in Nebraska, Republican governors and legislators in all these states all over the country are stretching the power of government to try to end that right of yours.
Beyond union-busting, the current crop of Republican governors have put their states on a forced march toward authoritarianism:
[…]
NEWT GINGRICH: There’s no question at times of my life, partially driven by how passionately I felt about this country, that I worked far too hard and that things happened in my life that were not appropriate.
Wisconsin state Sen. Randy Hopper, R-Fond du Lac — the most vulnerable of the senators facing a recall because of their support for Gov. Scott Walker’s union-busting bill — may need to try that excuse himself now that his constituents have discovered that a) he is having an affair with with a much-younger lobbyist and b) he has left his wife and two children and is living with his girlfriend in the state capital. It appears he has been living outside his district since he filed for divorce last August, if not before.
The way voters in Hopper’s district found out about his new living arrangements is almost as comical as Gingrich’s suggesting that excessive patriotism drove him to have extramarital affairs. First, on Friday, Hopper issued a statement saying he would not be attending the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Fond du Lac on Saturday, citing a purported death threat:
“This is what democracy looks like,” GOP Rep. James Sensenbrenner’s constituents shouted as he scurried away after abruptly adjourning a town hall meeting in his Wisconsin district in order to stifle dissent.
Sensenbrenner shut down the meeting after the crowd reacted derisively to GOP State Sen. Leah Vukmir’s false claim that Gov. Scott Walker’s “budget” bill would not end collective bargaining for state employee unions.
This is not the first time Sensenbrenner has adjourned a meeting to shut off debate. In June 2005, when Sensenbrenner chaired the House Judiciary Committee, he gaveled a hearing on the PATRIOT ACT to a close because he did not like Democratic criticism of the bill.
Sensenbrenner is perhaps best known for serving on the House prosecution team during the Clinton impeachment.
A new poll by a right-wing group based in Wisconsin finds nothing but bad news for the state’s GOP governor and his union-busting crusade. Despite the conservative bias of the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, which sponsored the poll, the results clearly show that Gov. Scott Walker has lost support across the board in his campaign to end collective bargaining rights for state employee unions.
The most compelling example of eroded support for Walker may be on the question of compromise. When asked whether “Gov. Walker should stand strong for the plan he has proposed no matter how long the protests go on, OR Gov. Walker should negotiate with Democrats and public employees’ unions in order to find a compromise solution” — just 33 percent felt he should stand strong while 65 percent chose compromise.
Tea partyists’ misspelled signs like this one from a Donald Trump fan are the gift that keeps on giving. This one is especially good because teachers are among the public employee union members tea baggers are attacking.
Respondents heard a list of people and groups involved in the controversy and were asked, for each one, if they agreed “with the positions they are taking in the current situation in the state capitol.” The results presented in the following chart prepared by the pollsters show large majorities agreeing with “public employees” (67 percent), “protestors at the state capitol” (62 percent) and “unions” (59 percent) but far fewer agreeing with “Republicans in the Legislature” (48 percent) or Scott Walker (43 percent agree and 53 percent disagree).
Pundits say that Trump’s $5,000 midterm bribe was an overreach,
And they agree that if lies were a crime, he’d be impeached.
Despite all the dividend promises he’s made,
The fact is, not one has ever been paid,
So even before the midterms, he already owes us $8,000* each.
*$5000 stimulus checks via “DOGE dividend”; $2000 stimulus checks via a “tariff dividend”; $1000-plus checks via “savings” from expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies
