Sunday, July 22, 2018

June Wis jobs bounce back, but still a lousy 2nd quarter

Late last week, we got the Wisconsin jobs report for June. And the numbers were pretty good.
Place of Residence Data: Wisconsin's preliminary seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for June 2018 increased slightly from the record-low of 2.8 percent in April and May, to 2.9 percent in June, due to 3,300 individuals entering the labor force. Wisconsin's labor force participation rate remained at 68.9 percent in June, a full 6 percentage points higher than the national rate of 62.9 percent. A significant 41,500 more people were employed in June 2018 when compared to June 2017. Wisconsin again set a new state record for number of people employed in June 2018, with 3,092,100 people employed. (They always leave out “Thanks Obama!” for the non-accomplishment of “most people employed”).

• Place of Work Data: From June 2017 to June 2018, Wisconsin added 25,900 private-sector jobs, a significant 30,000 total non-farm jobs and a significant 17,600 manufacturing jobs. Over the month, Wisconsin added 5,500 private sector jobs and 7,400 total non-farm jobs. Through the first six months of 2018, Wisconsin has added 12,100 manufacturing jobs.
Do we really believe that nearly 70% of the private sector jobs added in the last 12 months were in manufacturing? Yeah, me neither.

But outside of that sketchiness, the jobs report is a needed bounce-back after two bad jobs reports in April and May. Also not mentioned is an upward revision for May of 4,800 private sector jobs and 4,900 jobs overall, which means that we merely flatlined in that month instead of falling far behind (as was originally reported).

Of course, one decent month doesn’t cover for the bad results of the prior 7 years in the Age of Fitzwalkerstan, and despite a bit of narrowing in June, the Walker jobs gap still sits at more than 140,000.





And even with the good June jobs report, Wisconsin still is a laggard among the Midwest over recent time periods. For the last completed quarter, Wisconsin dug itself out of its “50 out of 50” status it was in after the first two months, but it still doesn’t look good.

Private sector jobs change March 2018 - June 2018
Ohio +29,900
Ill. +20,400
Minn +14,500
Mich +8,800
Iowa +2,700
Wis. -900
Ind. -6,400

And the story is similar for the 12 months that made up State Fiscal Year 2018, although at least in this time period we end up above water and end up beating the FIBs.

Private sector jobs change June 2017 - June 2018
Ohio +1.45%
Mich +1.35%
Iowa +1.09%
Minn +1.07%
Wis. +1.02%
Ill. +0.87%
Ind. +0.62%

The question going forward is when will the slate of store closings that happened in late June and will happen in the near future show up in the jobs report in this state. The Wisconsin WARN notices associated with those store closings gave layoff dates in June, but at least in Madison, Toys R’ Us and Boston Store still had their locations open at that time, and many aren't anymore.

We also haven’t seen much in terms of dairy businesses closing in light of plunging prices as a result of the Trump Trade Wars, but I wonder if the recent notice of 51 layoffs at Schuman Cheese in Fall Creek is a bad sign of things to come.

However, for at least one month the bad trend of layoffs that we saw in the Spring 2018 didn’t continue, as we went into Summer in Wisconsin. But the big picture shows a state still well behind the rest of the county, and many of its Midwestern neighbors.
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Haderade, or Hater-aid?

My wife and I and others went to the Brewers game last night, and the Crew ended up with a surprising comeback win against future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw and the Los Angeles Dodgers, breaking a 7-game losing streak. Somehow I have seen 2 of the last 3 Brewers wins in person, despite having nearly 2 weeks between games.

A big part of that win was the performance of the Brewers bullpen, as rookie Corbin Burnes came in with the bases loaded and none out in the 5th, and got out of it without the Dodgers scoring a run. It also included anther dominant performance by Brewers lefty Josh Hader, who pitched a scoreless 7th and 8th, and striking out 4 Dodgers, including all 3 Dodgers batters in 8th.

Then I woke up this morning, and noted Tweets like this one from SportsNet New York's Taylor Rooks and ESPN's Darren Rovell, which wanted to talk about Hader, but not his strikeouts.





That video makes it looks like most of Miller Park was standing and cheering for Josh Hader in his first appearance for the Brewers after his racist and homophobic tweets from high school surfaced during this week's All-Star game. I was under the 200 level stands with my group (we had relocated at the 5th to meet friends, and then the game was going so well, we just stayed there). I saw a few people standing, but otherwise, it didn't strike me as overly loud or unusual when Hader was introduced upon entering the game.

I was fearing there would be a "stick it to those 'PC' types" of mentality, where the cheers have an ugliness to them (watch any Trump rally if you're confused on what I mean), and I didn't sense a lot of that. I was also interested in seeing if Hader's head was in the game after all of the attention, and he seemed like the same Haderade that made him an All-Star in the first half of the season. Which is a good sign if you're a Brewers fan that wants to see this team get back on track for a playoff run in these final 62 games.

My thoughts on the Hader situation are as follows - Yes, the tweets are unacceptable and Hader deserved to be called out and have to own up to them. And Hader has owned up to it (including the night the tweets were revealed and at a press conference in Milwaukee before Friday's game), and taken the heat that he deserves. I also think the Brewers and MLB have done a good job in not blowing it off and sending the message that when someone says words like this, it's not something that you can look the other way on.

That being said, a 17-year-old white high school jock in small-town Maryland is not the same person as a 24-year-old man who has spent the last 6 years being around many people of color and different nationalities on a daily basis. And Brewers teammates overwhelmingly said this week that Hader is a good guy that doesn't seem to be someone who carries those repugnant views today. That was the case whether the player was white or of color, and it's what I've cued a lot of my reaction off of.

An example is this tweet from fellow Brewers All-Star Jesus Aguilar, a dark-skinned Latino from another country.


I think we should understand that some people really do grow up between high school and their mid-20s, especially if they get to live outside of the communities they grew up in and meet other people. They also might understand the destructiveness behind words of hate, and have less impulsivity to do stupid things in general. The awful things you may have done at 17 shouldn't wreck you for the rest of your life - they should be lessons to learn and grow from, and hopefully become a better person as a result.

By the way, that reality that people can advance past who they were at age 17 makes it odd to me that many of meatheads who overcheered Hader yesterday don't think that 17-year-olds who commit certain crimes aren't worthy of the same ability to rehab themselves and become productive adults. Instead they claim that those teens should be locked up and sent into the downward spiral that often results from that punishment. Wonder what's different between those cases?

This guy doesn't wonder.


And that hints at the bigger problem in the pictures of some Brewers fans boisterously cheering Hader - it adds to an already-bad image of Milwaukee as a regressive, racist city. If you check out the tweets below Rooks' comment, you'll see many are along the lines of "what do you expect? It's Milwaukee, it's Wisconsin, they voted for Trump." That image repels people with talent from locating in Milwaukee and Wisconsin, and it's one that has driven many people that grew up in the white Milwaukee suburbs from staying in the 414 or the 262 after they turn 18.

That's what people who grew up here and know Milwaukee think. Now look at the reaction of Dylan Hernandez of the L.A. Times. Hernandez was in Miller Park last night, and pointed out that the fans' reaction to Hader gives a reflection of Wisconsin's largest city to the rest of the country. Hernandez says it makes us look as idiotic as the Texasses who stood behind one of their pro athletes who did a racist act during last year's World Series.
The most charitable view was that [Brewers fans] wanted to back a player whose life was turned upside down over the last few days. But Hader was responsible for the ordeal. He wasn’t a victim and didn’t ask to be treated like one.

Or was it something more sinister? Were the fans taking a tone-deaf stand against political correctness? Worse, were they supporting the discriminatory messages?

The same questions had to be asked in the World Series after Yuli Gurriel made a slanted-eye gesture on the Houston Astros bench after hitting a home run off Dodgers right-hander Yu Darvish, who is from Japan.

In this column space, I asked readers to temper their reactions toward Gurriel, citing how racially charged language and gestures aren’t made with the same level of malice in Latin America as they are in the United States. But even I was taken aback in the next game when Gurriel received a standing ovation from his home fans. What did he do to deserve this? Or were they applauding some misguided form of free speech?

In both Gurriel’s and Hader’s cases, maybe this really was about backing the local baseball team and nothing more. It didn’t matter. The doubts did damage. Houston looked small on that night of the World Series, just as Milwaukee looked small on Saturday night.
Are the reactions from last night's game going to keep me from rooting for Josh Hader or the Brewers this year? Hell no! I hope Josh continues to serve the Haderade is massive portions for the rest of the year and for years to come in Milwaukee. I think that his high school tweets can be left in the past as long as Hader continues on the right path that he seems to be on today.

But what's going to stick for far too many is the reaction of a few meatheaded Brewers fans that seemed to condone what was in the tweets. It adds to a theme of "Milwaukee and Wisconsin are filled with racist dumbasses" that has hurt this state for a long time, and likely won't end soon unless we improve our ways both socially, and at the ballot box.
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Saturday, July 21, 2018

Higher interest rates, stronger dollar, and exploding budget deficits? What's gonna give?

Since going down on his knees to please his pal Vlad isn't going over well back in the States, President Trump tried to distract and talk about something else yesterday. So he chose... to complain about the dollar and higher interest rates from the Federal Reserve?
In an earlier tweet sent Friday morning, Trump complained about what he believes is currency manipulation from both China and the EU.

“China, the European Union and others have been manipulating their currencies and interest rates lower, while the U.S. is raising rates while the dollars gets stronger and stronger with each passing day – taking away our big competitive edge,” Trump said….

Friday’s tweets from Trump comes after a clip of his interview with CNBC that aired Friday morning was released Thursday afternoon in which the president says he isn’t thrilled with the Fed’s current policy stance.

“I’m not thrilled,” Trump said in his interview with CNBC. “Because we go up and every time you go up they want to raise rates again. I don’t really — I am not happy about it. But at the same time I’m letting them do what they feel is best.”
It’s almost like Trump doesn’t understand that if rates aren’t raised in a time of full employment and a continued economic expansion, we'll get high inflation. Well, unless the majority of us aren’t getting wage increases and the rich are taking all of those gains for themselves (hey, wait a minute…..)

As “Budget Guy” Stan Collender points out, higher interest rate needs are the result of Trump’s and the GOP’s own fiscal illiteracy, which have increased budget deficits, requiring encouragements to get people lend money to Uncle Sam.


As for Trump’s complaints about currency manipulation and the overly-strong dollar, he’s actually got a point here. A stronger dollar makes imports cheaper and our exports more expensive for other countries to buy. Combine that with the Trump trade wars, and it could really put a halt to job growth among American manufacturers (they've been averaging 20,000 new jobs a month since Trump took office).

It’s also odd that our dollar has risen over the last year, given that our rising budget deficits should make dollars more plentiful, especially given that it's due to tax cuts and increased federal spending. That printing of money should lower the dollar's value, or if it doesn't it should mean that US interest rates should be rising even more, because foreign investors have to spend more to buy our debt, so they’ll need a better rate of return.

But as you can see, the benchmark 10-year note has retreated from its late-May highs of 3.1% (it did jump yesterday after Trump's blustering).



It reiterates a general “what’s going on here?” feeling that I’ve had in recent months, as the US economy keeps moving ahead despite a lot of fundamentals that seem contradictory. This includes full employment with no real wage growth, a strengthening dollar despite higher budget deficits, and lower savings rates and increasing household debt in a time of rising interest rates.

I just wonder when we these fundamentals start to be more sensible. And when they do, Trump might be hoping that higher inflation is all we end up with, as the alternatives seem to be recession and/or a popping of our stock market and real estate Bubbles. We’ve seen that movie before, and I don’t care to see it again.

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Thursday, July 19, 2018

Wheel taxes keep piling up in Fitzwalkerstan

As the latest Marquette School poll shows that many people are unhappy with the condition of Wisconsin roads, two population centers in the state are forced to put a fee onto its citizens to pick up where the Walker Administration and WisGOP Legislature have left them behind.

The Green Bay and Eau Claire areas are set to become the latest places to resort to a local vehicle registration fee, or "wheel tax". Green Bay took their next step toward a new $20 wheel tax with a vote from their Common Council this week, and it follows a similar sign of approval from a GB Council meeting last month. Back in June, city officials noted that the added registration fee was preferable to the current system the city had when it came to paying for local street projects.
It's a move that a growing number of local governments around Wisconsin have taken in recent years to fund infrastructure projects amid tight restrictions on property tax increases and lagging state transportation aid.

"The more you put off repair work, the more it costs in the long run," said Alderman Bill Galvin, who voted in support of the measure.

Under the plan, wheel tax revenue would enable the city to eliminate residential special assessments, which are fees charged to property owners who live along streets being repaired. Assessments can vary widely, from hundreds of dollars to tens of thousands of dollars, depending on the amount of frontage.

The additional tax revenue should also enable the city to repair more roads each year, Public Works Director Steve Grenier said.

The approval comes less than a year after the City Council voted down a similar $20 wheel tax proposal. Council support for the tax has grown in recent months, in part because some aldermen opposed to it were replaced in April by wheel tax proponents. A recent uproar over expensive special assessments also solidified support.


You gotta get the money to fix it from somewhere.

We also found out this week that another 103,000 Wisconsinites on the other end of Highway 29 will also be paying extra on their car registration. Eau Claire County residents will start pay a little less than $2.4 million a year with the new wheel tax that their county board just approved of.
To repair Eau Claire County’s roads, a $30-per-vehicle registration fee will need to be in place for at least a decade, according to the County Board Highway Committee’s vice chairman.

“Our projection to get the highway situation corrected is at least 10 years,” said Supervisor Steve Chilson, one of 20 supervisors Tuesday voting to enact the fee….

“I have been looking for a long-term solution to fixing our roads,” he said Wednesday. “In my eight years on the board, we haven’t found it. (The reality is), there is a need, but there are no other options.”

Eau Claire County has borrowed increasing amounts of money in recent years to repair and maintain its roads. Such borrowing is necessitated by state-imposed revenue limits that mean the county can’t increase its local tax collections at a high enough level to pay for its current services and road repairs.

Borrowing is exempt from revenue limits, but continued borrowing at current levels isn’t feasible into the future, county officials have said, because the interest on that borrowing becomes too costly.
So add those 200,000+ Wisconsinites to the growing list of car owners who will be paying a local wheel tax. They will be joined by nearly 37,000 residents in Green County who will start paying a $20 wheel tax in August, and over 536,000 people in Dane County who start paying $28 in October.

That means there are over 750,000 Wisconsinites that will pay a higher registration fee in the next 6 months from these 4 places alone. Scott Walker may claim HE didn’t raise taxes or fees to pay for the (deteriorating) roads, but he and the similarly negligent WisGOP legislators have absolutely caused Wisconsinites to pay more to register their vehicles as a result of their underfunding.
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Foxconn won't give good-paying jobs to Racine Co, but you'll still pay the bills

While our Fair Governor flew off to DC today to meet with the president* for a Foxconn-related photo op, recent developments continue to expose the lack of planning that went into this scam, and that it isn't going to be all that proponents claimed that it would.

Bruce Murphy notes another reason to hate the Fox-con in a recent column titled, “Foxconn Deal Allows Low-Ball Wages.”
At issue was the company’s promise to pay workers at Foxconn an average wage of $53,875, which the state was requiring in order for the company to get the massive, multi-billion state subsidy — the largest ever given in America to a foreign company — the Walker administration was promising. The story by reporter Arthur Thomas [in the Milwaukee BizTimes], who continues to scoop the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in covering Foxconn, reveals the Walker administration originally proposed to count only wages under $100,000 in computing the average wage while Foxconn’s negotiators wanted no “artificial cap” on the average wage. “Foxconn expects all wages to be considered for the average annual wage calculation,” attorneys for the company wrote.

The state’s negotiations were handled by the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, which has a dreadful record of protecting taxpayers. A 2017 Legislative Audit Bureau report found that of hundreds of millions in tax credits, grants and loans authorized since 2011, the agency “cannot be certain about the number of jobs actually created or retained as a result of any awards.” In fact only 12.5 percent of contract awards “even had an expected result of job creation or retention.”..

Under a $100,000 cap, Thomas notes, Foxconn could have paid 65 percent of its workers a $30,000 salary and “still met its average salary commitment. A $400,000 cap allows for 93 percent of the workforce to be paid $30,000 while still meeting the requirement.” In short, WEDC simply caved in to Foxconn’s demand.
And this is where the recent photo ops that Walker/Foxconn/WEDC have held in Milwaukee, Green Bay and Eau Claire play in, along with Walker’s and WisGOP’s transparent attempt to sell this boondoggle to skeptical outstate voters.

While these white-collar and engineering offices won’t account for all that many jobs, they will likely be high-paying, and raise the average wage level that allows for 17% of all wages from all jobs to be sent back in bags of cash to Foxconn. Meanwhile, Foxconn can pay workers at the Racine County plant bargain-basement wages and write those jobs off too, as long as they reach $30,000 a year (or around $14.43 an hour).

Or Foxconn can even offer less than that, if they don’t want to get the 17% kickback from the state for those low-wage jobs. This is a situation Foxconn might be OK with, since they’ll get a 15% kickback on all costs involved in building their factory (whether staffed by robots or humans), and would still get 17% off the higher-paying jobs in other parts of the state.

Even if you assume Foxconn does pay their factory workers $30,000, Murphy points out that the taxpayer costs will not end with that 17% kickback on wages in many instances.
…Walker knew that up to 93 percent of these jobs could be anything but high tech and instead could pay so low a salary the workers could be eligible for Food Stamps. At $30,000 for a family of four, these workers would also be eligible for a tax-paid subsidy of more than $7,000 under the Affordable Care Act.

This, in short, is a deal that offers a guarantee that only 7 percent of the jobs being offered will pay family supporting salaries. And to get this the state has agreed to give Foxconn a total subsidy that is now at $4.1 billion and counting, and which will cost the state’s taxpayers $1,773 per household. Yet even with this massive subsidy, the greatest ever given to a foreign company in America, the taxpayers could also be on the line to help pay federal subsidies for food assistance and health care to these workers.


Another problem that has emerged with the Fox-con is how to house workers that might want to relocate to the Southeastern corner of Wisconsin. As Nate Beck wrote in the Daily Reporter this week, the fact that we don’t know how much (or how little) workers will be paid at the Foxconn plant means that it is difficult to figure out what type of housing is needed in the area.
Jerry Franke, a real estate developer enlisted by Racine County officials to encourage housing development, said the village of Mount Pleasant won’t be able to realize in full the promised benefits of Foxconn’s planned $10 billion factory unless the people working there ultimately decide to take up residence locally. Speaking a briefing on Monday about the project’s progress, Franke said local officials are hopeful the Foxconn deal will bring a market-rate apartment complex to Mount Pleasant, something the village hasn’t seen in 20 years.

But developers are now showing reluctance to pursue projects in the village — which is contending skyrocketing land prices and various regulatory barriers. One reason for the hesitancy: Foxconn has yet to release a detailed report showing how much it will pay the bulk of its workers in Wisconsin, Franke said. Without those numbers, it’s hard for developers to know what kind of housing to build.

“Foxconn needs to give us a breakdown of the wages by jobs. Right now, to say, ‘(The jobs will pay) an average of $53,000,’ that doesn’t do anything,” Franke said. “Until we’ve got that stratification of income and jobs, we’re shooting in the dark.”
Makes me wonder why Walker, WisGOP and WEDC were rushing through this deal in a matter of weeks without these details becoming better known. That “headlines over details” mentality continue to cost us with the Fox-con.

In addition, Beck’s report points out that Foxconn-related land speculation and buyouts of current residents in the area means that Mount Pleasant has seen its residential property assessments go up by 10% this year. That might be nice if you view a home as an investment, but it’s also going to raise your property taxes for next year- and your taxes were already going up to pay for the hundreds of millions of dollars of property-tax exempt subsidies being given to Foxconn.



Sucks if you live inside this zone...or near it

So, what is Mount Pleasant Village President Dave DeGroot thinking of doing? Giving another tax break to developers.
DeGroot said local officials may also have to reconsider policies meant to ease the way for development. He said they should look at rewriting local zoning laws to allow for more density and changing the Racine Water Utility’s so-called REC fee, a charge developers pay for sewer and water infrastructure.

And if the developers aren’t paying for the new sewer and water pipes, guess who is? The existing taxpayers of Mount Pleasant. What a deal!

Is anyone going to be better off under the Fox-con by the time this is done? Outside of a few well-connected companies and paid-off elected officials, of course. It’s cronyism at its worst, and the 99% of us outside of the inner circle are going to be stuck with the bill.
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Wednesday, July 18, 2018

It ain't just the Russians that are laundering money and buying WIsGOPs

Yes, it's horrible and disqualifying enough that Russians and the NRA are clearly using Wisconsin Republicans as a group of people to invest their laundered money in. But let's not forget that there are plenty of oligarchs in Wisconsin that also are working hard to buy off WisGOPs. The good people at One Wisconsin Now have looked at the recent fundraising figures that have been submitted, and here are some of the standouts.

As you'll see, they include some of the usual sleazebuckets trying to keep crooked Brad Schimel in power as Attorney General.






And our buddies at Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce are choosing to invest their tax cuts from GOP Tax Scams in both DC and Madison. Not surprisingly, they aren't hiring workers or improving society with their windfall, but are instead using it to buy up Scott Walker and other politicians.


Which reminds me that I haven't posted the LIST OF SHAME that is the WMC Board of Directors in a while. After seeing that $1.25 million of profit sent to the Republican Governors Association, it seems like a good time to fix that.

WMC OFFICERS
CHAIR
JAY L. SMITH, Chairman & CEO
Teel Plastics, Inc., Baraboo

VICE CHAIR
STEPHEN D. LOEHR, Vice President
Kwik Trip, Inc., La Crosse

PRESIDENT/CEO
KURT R. BAUER
Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC), Madison

SECRETARY
TOD B. LINSTROTH, Senior Partner & Past Member & Chair of Management Committee
Michael Best & Friedrich LLP, Madison

TREASURER
GINA A. PETER, Executive Vice President, Commercial Banking Division Manager
Wells Fargo Bank, Milwaukee

WMC BOARD OF DIRECTORS
DARYL ADEL, Business President
Kerry, Beloit

SIDNEY H. BLISS, President & CEO
Bliss Communications, Inc., Janesville

DAMOND WILLIAMS BOATWRIGHT, Regional President – Operations
SSM Health Care of Wisconsin, Madison

STEVEN G. BOOTH, President/CEO
Robert W. Baird & Co., Inc., Milwaukee

DAVID H. BRETTING, President & CEO
C.G. Bretting Manufacturing Company, Inc., Ashland

THOMAS A. BURKE, President & CEO
Modine Manufacturing Company, Racine

NATE CUNNIFF, Senior Vice President – Business Banking
BMO Harris Bank, Brookfield

DANIEL DEFNET, Executive Vice President, Commercial Banking
Johnson Financial Group, Racine

BRAD W. DENOYER, CPA, Partner
Baker Tilly Virchow Krause, LLP, Madison

JOHN N. DYKEMA, President/Owner
Campbell Wrapper Corporation; Circle Packaging Machinery, Inc., De Pere

PHILIP B. FLYNN, President & CEO
Associated Banc-Corp, Green Bay

JEFF T. FRENCH, National Managing Partner, Consumer & Industrial Products
Grant Thornton, LLP, Appleton

PHILIP C. FRITSCHE, SR., President
Beaver Dam Area Chamber of Commerce, Beaver Dam

LOUIS P. GENTINE II, CEO
Sargento Foods Inc., Plymouth

ROBERT GERBITZ, President & CEO
Hendricks Commercial Properties, Beloit

MICHAEL F. HAMERLIK, President & CEO
WPS Health Solutions, Madison

STEVEN H. JOHNSON, Factory Manager
John Deere Horicon Works, Horicon

WILSON R. JONES, President & CEO
Oshkosh Corporation, Oshkosh

PATRICIA LEONARD KAMPLING, Chairman & CEO
Alliant Energy Corporation, Madison

ROBERT L. KELLER, Chairman
J.J. Keller & Associates, Inc., Neenah

SUZANNE KELLEY, President & CEO
Waukesha County Business Alliance, Waukesha

CLIFFORD J. KING, CEO
Skyward, Inc., Stevens Point

JAMES M. LEEF, President & CEO
ITU AbsorbTech, Inc., New Berlin

ALLEN L. LEVERETT, President
WEC Energy Group, Milwaukee

SCOTT A. MAYER, Chairman & CEO
QPS Employment Group, Brookfield

JAMES J. McINTYRE, President and CEO
The Greenheck Group, Schofield

J. R. MENARD, Executive Vice President & Treasurer
Menard, Inc., Eau Claire

ROSALIE F. MORGAN, President
EMCS, Inc., Milwaukee

ROBERT MOSES, President & CEO
Prairie du Chien Area Chamber of Commerce, Prairie du Chien

BARBARA NICK, President & CEO
Dairyland Power Cooperative, La Crosse

MICHAEL NIKOLAI, President, COO & CEO
Waupaca Foundry Inc., Waupaca

JAMES J. OSTROM, President & CEO
Milk Source LLC, Kaukauna



And the topper from this week, which was snuck through on the same day Maria Butina was arrested for allegedly being a Russian spy that was working with the NRA and the GOP.


As if we didn't know it already, that ruling reveals the REAL reason behind that fake IRS "scandal" that the GOP tried to generate a few years ago. They wanted to hide the names of their dark money donors, and allow their fake front groups to avoid paying taxes by being called "charities" and "social welfare" organizations. Now the Trump-controlled IRS would let them do that.

Here's my question- Should I throw all of my 401k funds into this?

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Tuesday, July 17, 2018

1974 or 2018? What's changed?

I finished up reading the Woodward abd Bernstein book The Final Days, and boy are things not that different today. Even down to the fact that the amoral GOP President goes to Russia/the Soviet Union in the Summer, and gets rolled in a 1-on-1 meeting with the Russian leader.

But this sequence in May 1974 really rings loud today.
[GOP leadership] would quietly poll the House Republicans. Each would talk,to about twenty-five members.

The message - and it came back very fast - was political: Above all else an overwhelming majority of House Republicans were terribly worried about their political futures, and the last thing they wanted to see was a March on the White House by their leadership. They didn't want to vote on impeachment until after the election, they didn't want to vite on impeachment period. They needed hard-core Republicans to win in November. They needed the people who run local campaigns, ring football's, raise the money. Nixon's fight was their fight. Those people saw Nixon as an underdog, a man under attack by their own enemies-the press and the Congressional liberals.

The only differences between Summer 1974 and 2018?

1. The Dems ran Congress in 1974, so GOPs couldn't avoid holding hearings and having subpoenas fly against the crooks.

2. Nixon wasn't getting help by the Russians and vote suppression from GOP guvs and legislatures at the state level.

3. Koched-up SuperPACS to try to keep rogue GOPs in line.

But worth noting- 3 months after that passage where GOPs were sticking with Nixon? Tricky Dick had barely 20% in either the House or Senate that didn't want him gone.

3 months later, the GOP got their asses rightfully kicked in the midterms. It better happen again in 2018, for everyone's sake.
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