As policy failures pile up, WisGOP can only play resentment game

2 items from today to riff on.

The first concerns this, as Legislative WisGOPs desperately try to play the resentment game since they can't win on the issues.

The governor is taking money from local road construction to fund Milwaukee’s trolley to nowhere. Rural Dems should push back – veto override! https://t.co/jmOziocnU4

— Scott Fitzgerald (@SenFitzgerald) July 18, 2019

And note Fitz's "source", MacIver News, which is extrapolating from this grant announcement by WisDOT which says that the $75 mil that was added to the budget can go to "transportation projects."

This could include roads and bridges, but could also include rail, harbor projects, bike lanes, and yes, transit. Naturally the righties MacIver that into meaning "money for the Milwaukee streetcar", and feeds it into a human centipede that includes AM 620/1130 and WisGOP legislators.

Pathetic and kinda racist, but that's WisGOP in the 2010s for ya. I also have to laugh, because earlier WisGOPs were whining that Evers reduced this one-time funding by $15 million, which meant less pork for their rural communities. "Fiscal conservatism", ya knooow.

The other story I saw reach the Northwoods today was another Wisconsin jobs report that wasn't too hot. This one says that we lost 2,300 more private sector jobs in June (seasonally adjusted basis), lost another 3,400 people out of the labor force, and 4,800 fewer Wisconsinites were described as employed.

This means that after finishing 39th in the country for job growth in 2018, Wisconsin has now lost 3,100 private sector jobs in the first 6 months of 2019. In addition, our labor force and "employed" totals are also smaller than they were at the end of 2018.

As mentioned before, we are far from the only Midwest state that has stagnated over the last 1 1/2 years, which might help to explain why President Trump was 9-15 points underwater in the Rust Belt/Plains states he has to win in 2020. While Wall Street may be liking the casino economy that's re-emerged in this country, it hasn't done much for the Heartland.

Which explains why Trump/GOP is leaning so heavily on racism these days. They can't win on their Tax Scam, so what else do they got? Have to keep the rubes distracted from their real problems, right?

Now it's time to grab a view before it hits 90 tomorrow.