July 12, 2015
Since this story was first published in February, Scott Walker has continued the patterns of deceit, corruption, and vindictiveness described in the original article. Most noticeable is his failed effort to enact what would have amounted to a “Wisconsin State Secrets Act,” and his subsequent clumsy attempts to deny responsibility.
Open Records Law has been the bane of Walker’s governorship, and there is little doubt that Walker views the Law as an intolerable obstacle in his unintimidated march to the White House. Even before the State Secrets Act was proposed as a formal law, Walker was acting as if it was already in effect.
Among the unsavory secrets that have emerged from recent applications of Open Records Law to Walker is the revelation that the “Wisconsin Economic Development Agency” (WEDC), the department Walker created to replace the Department of Commerce and the main agency tasked with creating jobs, has become little more than a tool for Walker to give public money to his financial backers in the form of “loans” awarded with little or no review or expectation of repayment to sketchy businesses owned by these backers.
With Walker set to officially announce his candidacy for president tomorrow (July 13th), perhaps his free ride with the press will end, with reporters and pundits finally realizing that Walker’s behavior in Wisconsin is relevant to his potential behavior as president. For that reason, it is all the more important that the facts about Scott Walker become as widely known as possible.
In addition to this article, a compendium of those facts may be found here: “THE WALKER FILES” and here: “SCOTT WALKER FACTS LITTLE KNOWN OUTSIDE OF WISCONSIN.”
______________________________
February 15, 2015 by WCMC
Photo: Michael Matheson
So … Scott Walker is all but officially running for president, and the country is getting a look at a man whom we residents of Wisconsin have been living with since before he became governor. While the national press has focused on the policies and conservative ideology that Walker has imposed on our state, these don’t define the man or explain the mayhem he has caused here.
The massive protests against Walker in 2011 began with “Act 10,” which stripped public employee unions of almost all of their rights and power. Walker loves to leave the story there and depicts ongoing opposition to him as a fight between him and the unions. It’s a narrative that sells well to his donors and to a national press eager for narrative simplicity.
But Act 10 was only a triggering event, not the sole or even primary motivation of Walker’s opponents. While much of the opposition to Walker centers around his policies, there is more to it than that. It is the way he implements these policies, the way he deals with opposition, and the way he rewards his allies that make Walker not just divisive, but frightening. Even conservatives who share Walker’s ideology should distrust him, and dread the prospect of him becoming president.
Why? Here is a brief primer on Scott Walker, drawn from what we have learned about him first-hand here in Wisconsin. These are things that the rest of the country should know in order to avoid learning the same lessons the hard way—on a national and international platform of the presidency.
1. Scott Walker is a liar.
“So what?” you ask, “Aren’t all politicians liars?” Probably, but Walker lies about so much, even inconsequential things, that it seems compulsive.
His recent lies explaining how “searching for truth” and other aspects of the “Wisconsin Idea” came to be stricken from his rewrite of the University of Wisconsin mission statement were astounding enough to draw rebuke from the New York Times editorial board, but such lies compose a large part of almost all of Walker’s public statements.
Like most politicians, Walker lies when it is politically convenient to do so; unlike most politicians, Walker lies when the truth is already firmly established, such as when he claims that Wisconsin has a budget surplus (it doesn’t), or that he never considered planting agents provocateurs among the demonstrators (he did). For Walker, deceit is not only a tool; it is an end in itself, his default mode. Walker even lies about things that have no obvious political angle, like the date of the births of his sons and how he got his bald spot.
Walker’s lies often take the form of self-aggrandizing fantasy, a large helping of which he served up in his ironically titled [for someone who almost never appears in public] ghost-written political autobiography, Unintimidated: A Governor’s Story and a Nation’s Challenge. In it, for example, Walker recounts how during the peak of the 2011 protests, a mob surrounded his car and tried to tip it over. This incident never happened, at least not to Walker, though Walker’s story bears a remarkable similarity to a 1958 attack on Richard Nixon’s car in Venezuela.
Sen. Tom Tiffany, a driving force behind Walker’s efforts to remove local control over mining and intimidate mine opponents.
2. Scott Walker is astoundingly corrupt, even by current political standards.
He is so corrupt the corruption itself gives him cover, because an objective description of it sounds like a hyperbolic screed, leading to an “Oh, come on, he can’t be as bad as all that” from people who don’t know his history.
He IS that bad. Here’s his tea party brag that shows he’s more extreme than conservative. During the past few years, the fact that he has not yet actually been indicted for a crime is the strongest defense of his character that his supporters have been able to mount.
Walker’s reputation for political cunning, reflected in the oft-repeated warnings to not underestimate him, derives from his lack of moral restraint and his willingness to do anything to get what he wants, rather than from any tactical brilliance or deep understanding of people. It’s “the ends justify the means” on steroids. This, combined with the ineptitude of the Wisconsin Democrats and the Wisconsin press, answers an obvious question about Walker: How could someone of such mediocre abilities be so successful?
Walker’s known political career began in 1988, when he ran for president of the Associated Students of Marquette University. He didn’t win, but he was found guilty of violating campaign rules. After trying to lie his way out of it, he was forced to admit the truth of the charges. The Marquette Tribune ran an editorial before the election declaring that Walker was “unfit for presidency.” Like much of Walker’s past, the details of why he left Marquette before graduating are secrets.
It may seem petty to bring up an incident from so long ago, but Walker has continued to show the pattern he revealed at Marquette in every job he has held since about which there is any public information. His lies about the “Wisconsin Idea” and getting caught in them prove he has not changed. In fact, past and ongoing criminal investigations into Walker’s administrations, both as Milwaukee County executive and as governor, have resulted in multiple felony convictions of close Walker associates, and charges ranging from misuse of county resources for political purposes, to embezzling funds raised to help wives and children of veterans, to child enticement.
Among the felons is Tim Russell, Walker’s political mentor from shortly after he left Marquette, and one of the very few people who can be identified as a personal friend of Walker. Walker himself so far has escaped indictment, but public records of the investigation, some accidentally released, leave little doubt that Walker knew about and used (and perhaps continues to use) an illegal in-house email system to illegally coordinate his public offices with his political campaigns, and to evade open records laws. The latest criminal probe has identified Walker as part of a “criminal scheme” to evade campaign finance laws by arranging to have donations to his recall election laundered through Koch-funded super PACs.
But lies and corruption are not the end of the story. They merely set the stage for what is truly frightening about a possible Walker presidency.
3. Walker does not tolerate opposition.
Peaceful protester being arrested at Capitol. Photo: Erin Proctor
This applies not only to opposition from other politicians (although it certainly applies to them, too—see the fate of Mike Ellis) but to everyone. Suppression of dissent through intimidation is one of the chief features of the Walker governorship, and a main source of the fear and discord Walker has inflicted on his state.
Walker uses the power of his office to punish opponents. His administration ordered unconstitutional mass arrests of peaceful political dissidents in the Wisconsin State Capitol. In the state legislature, which Walker controls, laws have been introduced to eliminate the ability of local governments to block industrial projects of Walker’s donors, to eliminate independent government oversight panels, to eliminate the office of Secretary of State (currently held by Douglas La Follette, a staunch opponent), to remove the Chief Justice of the State Supreme Court, who has sided against Walker in several cases.
But much of the dirty work of intimidation is carried out by a network of right-wing groups that operate with a wink and nod from the administration, allied with unscrupulous legislators, Koch-funded lobbyists, and new right-wing media outlets set up by out-of-state billionaires. The most obvious of these intimidation efforts is a digitized, searchable online database of the one million people who signed a petition demanding Walker’s recall. The barely unstated purpose of this list is to keep petition signers from being hired by pro-Walker businesses. Walker himself withdrew the student representative nominee for the Board of Regents because his name appeared on the list.
People who do not limit their dissent to petition signing can expect harsher treatment. Opponents of Walker’s mine deregulation legislation, crafted specifically to allow Florida billionaire Chris Cline to open an iron mine in northern Wisconsin (and Walker’s one and only “jobs initiative”) have been attacked openly in right-wing outlets like the Bradley-funded “Media Trackers,” and behind the scenes by state legislators. Mine opponents have had their jobs threatened, sometimes with success. Many have received death threats.
Bulletproof Security, operating illegally in Wisconsin. Photo: Rob Ganson
4. Under Walker, Wisconsin literally has become a lawless state, a playground for the Walker regime and its supporters, and a dangerous place for the rest of us.
State agencies, most notably the Departments of Justice, Administration, and Natural Resources are fully under the control of Walker and his minions. Scientists and professionals have been replaced by political cronies who know nothing about the jobs they are supposed to do.
Ultimately, corruption and intimidation are unchecked in Wisconsin for two reasons: the State Supreme Court and the Wisconsin press. The State Supreme Court is controlled by four ethically challenged Walker allies who barely even pretend to be honest, and who Walker and his friends can count on to make problems go away.
Meanwhile, the Wisconsin press has mostly been asleep. A few articles describe each new revelation of Walker’s deceit or corruption, with follow-up articles giving Walker’s explanation, and there the matter is left. Walker is almost never asked difficult questions or pressed to explain his often incoherent answers. Thus Walker’s friends can openly violate the law with little fear of either prosecution or sustained scrutiny. When Chris Cline, in clear violation of state law, sent heavily armed and unlicensed mercenaries to his proposed mining site in the Penokee Mountains, a publicity stunt designed to raise the specter of “eco-terrorism,” no charges were ever filed and press coverage of the story quickly vanished.
Duct taped ballot bags from the Village of Menomonee Falls are presented to the election judge.
The mysterious late “discovery” of 14,000 votes in Waukesha County, which swung a State Supreme Court election to Walker ally David Prosser and thereby maintained Walker’s control over the court, has never been adequately investigated, despite hundreds of suspicious irregularities and serious evidence of ballot tampering discovered during the state-mandated recount. The Government Accountability Board, the state agency that should have investigated this evidence, did not even look at it before certifying the election results.
Discrepancies like these compromised ballot bags from the 2011 Supreme Court recount were never fully investigated.
The press accepted the results without question and never reported on the evidence of fraud. Illegal campaign donations, physical attacks on Walker opponents circulating recall petitions, online threats by pro-Walker groups such as “Knot my Wisconsin” and “Operation Burn Notice” have all gone unpunished and largely unreported.
Scott Walker has damaged the legal and political system of Wisconsin so badly that it may never recover. His house of cards is collapsing and even the state GOP knows it. It is only because Wisconsin is just a state within a larger country, and not an independent country on its own, that it has not descended into totalitarian dictatorship. Scott Walker does not scorn moral constraints on his actions. Rather, he seems to not comprehend such constraints. Walker’s only limit is the limit of his power, and it is this limit that Walker wants to eliminate by becoming president.
Wisconsin Citizens Media Cooperative 
great article representing the truth. I’ll probably be tracked down for commenting this, all his mentions of FBI debriefings and being afraid lately are freaking me out.
Scott Walker and his Koch Bros. allies are evil people.
Scottie (beam all non-supporters up to never being seen nor heard from again) has consistently demonstrated the hallmarks of what the DSM identifies as an “anti-social personality disorder”. In other words, the dude is a sociopath. If he is elected POTUS, expect many people (alethio and myself included) to get a knock on the door at 3 AM. It won’t be Flowers to Deliver. It’ll be several husky dudes with duct tape to wrap quickly around our heads, covering our mouths. Then we will never be seen nor heard of or from, again. My wife will wake up in the AM, with no idea what happened to me. If this guy gets elected, it will likely be 100 rivets in the coffin of democracy in the US.
Its becoming harder to deny these allegations, when multiple sources report the same thing. And the writer of this article took shots at the democratics as well, which show a kind of an ‘unbias’ view. This level of corruption has been plaguing the us for years and it needs to stop unfortunately our two party system is too broken, we need the common people to run society the people at the bottom who know what the problems are as a community. So then If Walker wants to have me arrested or killed I say come find me.
Did you read the article? It contains many facts.
Did you read the same article that I just read?
I imagine were these examples presented as an indictment of President Obama Larry Hubble would be glad to believe them. All politics is partisan.
He exacts revenge on those he doesn’t like out of all proportion to the alleged offense. One of the identifying features of the anti-social personality disorder.
Wendigo Politics: WCWCW Response to Governor Walkers 2015 Budget Address
http://www.wcwcw.com/feature101.html
How did a historically democratic state allow all this to happen and elect such a conservative criminal? What happened to all the liberals and independents in WI? Were you all sleeping? Time to wake up and FIGHT!!!!
I have wished for a long time for a clear, concise article that I can link to for out-of-state friends and family who ask “What’s the deal with Walker?” This is that article. Excellent job, WCMC!
Exactly what I was just thinking. A friend from Illinois just recently said he heard good things about Walker (he was watching Fox unfortunately) and I didn’t even know where to begin to set him straight. He honestly thought WI was doing well with job creation and budgets and was surprised to hear that we are last in the Midwest in job creation and have deficit issues…and we didn’t even get into the latest controversies like the defunding of the stewardship program, education cuts and the “drafting error” regarding the Wisconsin idea. I am forwarding my friend this article right now and I’ll ask him to forward it some more.
Fox is being taken over by the Koch bros. Scottie is high up in their vetting the next POTUS to be the one to bring their vision of an obscurantist plutocratic corporatist dictatorship to the US.
At least this was written objectively…
5. He has a bald spot on the top of his head–less important, but worth noting.
It’s that he lied about how he got it. Who lies about how they got their bald spot? It’s compulsive.
a sociopath?
My sloppy handwriting has finally paid off, I signed the petition, but the first two letters are completely wrong. I blame my lefthandedness!
Holey Cow, it’s worse than I thought…I will forward this on to all my family and friends in Iowa before they drink the Kool Aid…
The link from “He IS that bad” doesn’t seem to be the right link. Is there a better one?
Even the recall results are questionable since they were sent to a computer in Minnesota near Bachmann’s office before going to Madison. Hard to imagine there was no tampering with the results like in the Prosser “eelction”.
I did not know this, wondered how he won that recall.
This guy is beyond scary – I don’t know how the tell he became the governor – not once but twice. I fear for the State of Wisconsin more than ever and don’t know what other eveil ness he is going to do any given day. As a citizen of the State of Wisconsin – I am totally disgusted by this person – and if given the chance he will do the same to the United States of America
There are 68 million reasons why he won the recall and re-election. He spent 38 million on the recall and 30 million on re-election. In a state like Wisconsin those are huge sums of money for a campaign.
Hey! He has the biggest money bags in the country “on his side”! (note) watch’in a windmill in my yard!reminds me of walker—-Round and Round and round—-but no good sense coming out!
Scott walker would be great for the rich but not the middle class or the poor.
GOOD NEWS: Scott Walker will never be president.
I’m hoping not, but a little Koch money can go a long way.
and people are easily bought, as evidenced by the recall election.
And a LOT of Koch money goes MUCH further.
Too far unfortunately…the terrifying truth nonetheless. It’s hard enough convincing voters on the fence that their vote matters when looming behind the scenes are the Koch brothers.
Seems like people just have not or are not willing to realize these people campaign on populist conservative themes, but once is office they reveal their true agenda of classical conservatism, the protection of power and privilege for the elite. That’s what is destroying our country, tax cut by tax cut.
Really Tom? Who would have thought “W” could have become elected (legally or not). I never thought a B rated actor could ever get elected POTUS.
Thank you! It is an all too real possibility. I can’t support this site enough for spreading the word, but even that can only go so far and do so much.
I am so glad to see the truth coming out regarding Walker-he is trouble for Wisconsin-I can’t even imagine our poor country under him. He stirs up trouble.
Scott Walker has carved out apolitical niche that only one of the most vilified politicians ever has done previously and that is Adolph Hitler. Scot is growing the little nose curtain now isn’t he ? He lies almost at every turn.
I am from MSP in Minnesota and he has bragged about “creating jobs” in a booming Wisconsin economy. FY, the most recent Forbes magazine business climate survey has Minnesota at #9 and Wisconsin at #32. So much for the bragging Gov Scott.
Now for his initial campaign he advertised in the MSP sports talk radio market as I was listening and heard the ads. The same ads played in his recall election. Now one might ask why he advertised in a state that cannot vote for him. Minnesotans don’t drive to Hudson to vote FOR Scottie the DOG Walker. So he knew that most western Wisconsin residents drive to the Twin Cities of Minnesota, a high tax state with GREAT education (note the polar opposites of the neo fascist Scott…..) that has a lot of middle class jobs that Wisconsinites have held for years and years.
So first, his “SMALL government ideas” are pretty much antithetical to education and job creation. The only jobs that he creates are minimum wage and they is just like Texas which led the Nation in minimum wage job creation under the great leadership of Rick Perry. So Scott is cookie cutter TEA Time b.s. The jobs that Minnesota has always had and yet does (we have an unemployment rate of 3.6% at last report) is due to the premium that Minnesota places on GOOD education. Scott’s latest anti education campaign is to “SAVE” taxpayers the expense of funding post secondary higher education .
He has defunded the State University system for inexplicable reasons, but he is Napoleonic in envy of the liberal “intelligentsia” so he wants to create chaos among the professorial types of liberal education. That is SOOOO forward looking into a fascist state it is just incredible. WAKE UP Badgers, Scott is the newest plague of TEA Time and as close as you will get to your most famous Senator Joseph McCarthy. Famously a commie hunter in the 1950’s and then censured at the end of his reign of TERRORISM in the Senate inquisitions that he orchestrated. Poor Joe died of alcoholic liver cirrhosis at the age of 48. That is a fitting ending and deliverance of Karma to a great Commie hunter.
Scott? Who knows but America cannot be so foolish to believe anything this guy says, can they? After Nov 2014 elections, I am not convinced that the collective IQ of America is over 100. Sadly, he might just get enough attention to make some progress towards a nomination for 2016 Presidency. So you choose between Hillary Clinton, wise and experienced or Walker a lying neo facist. It isn’t much of a contest as far as I can see. SAD and frightening at the saeme time Wisconisn. 😦 😦
As comedian George Carlin used to say it is truly frightening to realize that half of the population is below average!
Yes, because our ed. systom is being torn down buy Repub. fascists. Stupid is a money maker!
Will repeat what I read elsewhere: “Not everyone who is conservative is stupid, but almost everyone who is stupid is conservative”.
Walker defunded the UW because he’s desperately scrambling to make up a $2 billion budget deficit, after massive cuts his first term. He’s accomplished NOTHING for Wisconsin. The only thing about this article that surprised me is that it makes him sound smarter than he is.
Some of this seems so far fetched that it must be made up, but it’s not. Sadly this is what Scott Walker has done to Wisconsin in his goal to advance his political career.
Education is one thing walker could not withstand. Has the United States got this hard up for a presidential candidate.??? Let’s hope not.
His rise of late will pale in comparison to his fall…. If by chance he wins the nomination the democrats will pick their teeth with his bones…
One can only hope!
Warning, Scott walker and, the GOP state is becoming an international menace. The GOP state is expanding beyond it’s base from out of Wisconsin, Ohio, Texas, Michigan, Indiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, South Carolina, Tennessee. All these red states have tea bag Governor leadership Everyone of these Governors are ideological lap dog zealot’s who merely do what their donors and handlers tell them to do. Tax distribution in every one of these states looks like a staircase going down, Where as your income goes up, your tax rate goes down. Under this kind of leadership, all the prosperity floats to the privledged benefactors at the top. While you stay in debt.
Powerful truth, thank you. Too bad disenfranchisement and a forcibly uneducated citizenry ensure otherwise unelectable dictatorship in nouveau slave-states of Un-America.
Although I’m not a trained psychologist, it seems to me that this article as well as numerous others that I’ve read about Scott walker over the years paint a picture of the classic sociopath.
Although numbering 1 in 15 of the general population, sociopaths are found at much higher percentages within business and political leadership positions.
Suggested reading: ‘People of the Lie’ – M. Scott Peck
This well researched book will both inform and horrify you regarding this highly toxic personality disorder.
My thoughts exactly – a sociopath. Andrew Cuomo and a few others, too. Can be very intelligent, seem normal in many regards, function in relationships, but there is a screw loose. They are expert manipulators. For the person who said this house of cards is falling down – I hope you’re right.
Bingo ..when narcissistic personality disorder
Have you had a chance to view “I Am Fishead” – it’s a documentary about corporate psychopaths. Wow, that was an eye-opener. People of the Lie is illuminating and terrifying – read it many years ago, and had a hard time getting through it – now we’re living in it.
Scott Walker not only created a searchable database of people who signed the recall petition against him, but made it link to a Google search of a person’s name which then highlights any Wisconsin court record that would be damning or embarrassing to the signer. He brings the Wisconsin open records law to a new level of misuse and abuse. I was hoping the article would mention this little intimidation tactic but it might not be well-known.
Let him come to Iowa. I’ll make sure everyone I know knows about the real Scott Walker. We’ll ask the tough questions and we all have highly-tuned BS meters at our ready. Mine has been going off since he gutted workers’ rights. I love Wisconsin but makes it hard to travel and stay there knowing I’m leaving some of my money behind for Walker to play with.
Thank you for your support and efforts to educate your fellow Iowans, Pete. We need you!
You can, without regret, spend your money in Wisconsin with businesses which supported the Recall! There are many places to spend that are smaller businesses, that are pro-worker’s rights, that are liberal and/or just plain old well-informed. In most cases, you can find donors to Walker’s campaign on this website:
http://scottwalkerwatch.com/boycott-center/
Or this one:
http://www.followthemoney.org/entity-details?eid=4656950
Let him come to Iowa? He already set up his make believe running for President headquarters there,….he’s already hiding in plain sight. His made up story about wrestling with unions and coming out triumphant left out all the unions he didn’t touch…police, bricklayers, carpenters, firemen….the “men” who could have kicked his pointed butt down the road….no he picked on teachers and “some” state employees (not his own….) by signing Act 10….he didn’t really fight with them. Fortunately, there are many now who are wise to him…he wouldn’t be elected dog catcher in Wisconsin after his actions….FINALLY.
I ‘am with you Pete. I won’t spend any of my money in Wisconsin, or Indiana, or Michigan. The only reason I spend any money in Missouri is because of family visits there. I’ll keep my money in Illinois.
Yes, why? Please answer your own question for us.
interesting the comment on why he left Marquette. Rumor has it from people that were there at the time that he was caught cheating and left rather than get thrown out. Someone should really delve into that.
To do that, you need access to Walker’s student records and that requires his consent under FERPA. He won’t give it.
http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/article/2013/dec/18/scott-walker-early-years/
It’s not about who voted, it’s about who stayed home. Many Dems who voted for Obama do not support the Recall process on principle. They would not vote to recall him, citing that they would wait til the next election and vote him out then. Many of us knew he’d put Wisconsin in his rear view mirror immediately afterward to go on to campaign for President, and even though he lied in the debates and said he was going to serve his full term as Gov, we knew it was a ruse. Dems in Wisconsin also have a notoriously low turnout during mid-terms, so, he kept his seat. For now. His popularity is sinking like a rock now.
You’ve nailed it, Rhoda. No amount of election-fatigue from the Recall could excuse not turning out at the mid-terms. Did we mean what we said, what we fought for, or not??? And so many Democrats were lukewarm about Mary Burke, because she wasn’t “liberal enough.” What do we REALLY want? A violently divided State, or a centrist who can bring a perspective that allows them to work with both sides of the two-party system? But the Democrats in Madison–the workhorse of the election strategists–stayed too MUCH in our bubble of liberalism. What was more important–electing someone who resembled Fighting Bob LaFollette, or electing someone who was at least reasonably sane and also NOT WALKER? “We” blew it.
Hold on…Walker NEVER PROMISED to complete this full term in office. Have you not been listening to his defenses on anything? Walker said he planned to complete these next four years as governor. WHEN he runs for president and if he were asked about his promise to complete governorship … i’m willing to bet he will ademently state he did not promise to finish those four years. His political life is all in the wording. He hates confrontation on what he said in the past as it becomes more difficult to recall which lie. No doubt it would be considered an error in the recording as he never stated he would positively complete his term.
Of course he left Wisconsin behind! It should be kind of obvious by now as to what kind of a guy we’re dealing with here! He is the BIGGEST LIAR IN THE WORLD and one of the most CROOKED MEN IN HISTORY and he should be done away with! I sure would not miss him and I live in the South!
More People voted for Walker in The recall election. Than voted for Him in the General Election. It was more of a backlash of the strong arm tatics of union influence.
Actually Jerry, not so much. Before the elections Command Central offered an illegal deal to county clerks, to switch every one optiscan machine, which provides for paper ballots, for two touch screens known to be hackable. We also found bountiful evidence of fraud at the Supreme Court recount and then sent people in to photograph Walker’s first “win” ballot which looked a despicable as the recount.
Command Central has since refused to return the prom pacs for the hackable machines after the elections. Really did an end around. So, while I know there are some people who support walker, there are many many more whose votes were probably stolen by these machines. Not to mention the secret redistricting where the GOP heads threatened the Republicans. So no. Not so much.
http://wcmcoop.com/2012/05/22/meet-command-central-the-people-in-charge-of-wisconsin-voting-machines/
And tell me why oh why would counties that vote FOR Obama overwhelmingly appear to vote to Walker? would YOU? Do some research past the party line and you come up with some pretty convincing evidence.
http://wcmcoop.com/2014/10/25/wisconsins-dramatic-vote-swings-raise-election-integrity-concerns/
Because they were largely influenced by Koch money!
We tried and we cried.
When Scooter became the Milwaukee County Executive the parks and recreation services were cut to the bone. Our beautiful parks were neglected beyond repair. Milwaukee knows how corrupt and unimaginative this career politician is. I could go on but as a 35+ year teacher and I had to take a FMLA after he pulled the dismantling of teacher’s union stunt, I couldn’t get back into the teaching system and I’ve relocated to another state to work as a teacher. Why did people vote him into office? The concept of divide and conquer is alive and well in Wisconsin.
Wisconsin is becoming a great place to be from and not going to.
Holy smokes. I just read this because a friend in WI posted it on Facebook. The responses to his post (by Walker supporters) are the most asinine, illiterate, ridiculous, unconsciously self-defeating words I’ve ever read. Hilarious.
I am not sure why you say we have presented no evidence.
The link to the budget lie is there, the link to the Wisconsin Idea lie is there, the link to the Marquette lie is there, the link to the New York Times taking him to task is there…on and on and on. It’s all in the article. These are not “unsubstantiated” by any means. The misuse to county resources, the John Doe stuff, it’s all there. Reliable sources.
Liberals and conservatives alike should be appalled at what has happened to our state. As someone who has logged many many hours in the gallery, on the front lines of the mining stand up north, who saw with my own eyes the questionable ballot bags in Waukesha and was the one who found the touch screen poll tape dated March 29 at 1 AM for an April 5th election, this has nothing to do with left vs right. It’s right vs wrong, and Walker is clearly and with undeniable proof lying, cheating and stealing his way through Wisconsin. Read it and weep.
hint: the type in red are links to the articles that substantiate the story. That night help.
Here is another example of his lies. Here is a video of Walker talking about welcoming immigrants and finding a way for illegal immigrants to get citizenship.
http://www.wausaudailyherald.com/videos/news/2015/02/04/22878599/
Here he is lying about it, refusing to own up to HIS OWN WORDS recorded in the above video for all the world to see.
The guy is a compulsive liar.
I truly appreciate your post. One example from an abyss of wrongdoings. Though it fuels my fear for the future I can only hope many more get a glimpse into the abyss before it swallows us whole.
There is no way in hell Walker will ever be elected President. This fucking dolt is only a high school graduate. Just because Wisconsinites chose to drink the kool- aid and swan dive down the rabbit hole doesn’t mean the rest of the country will buy into his crap. This boy comes with too much baggage and from the fake Koch phone call to sending elder WISCONSIN citizens into the hands of private business forcing them into nursing homes against their will, all will have to be accounted for. This little pies ant may be a big shot in the cheddar state but he’s a nobody everywhere else.
We can only hope…
It’s high time for WALKER TO TAKE A WALK !
We did not all drink the Kool-Aid, many of us are hostages waiting to be rescued since our votes seem to do nothing in this corrupt system the billionaires own.
We in Texas salute you.
Narcissism personified.
Walker is worse than that. That guy’s GOT TO GO ! That would be a blessing for our country ! The guy is PURELY EVIL! FACT ! !
The personality characteristics of Walker described in this article are classic of the psychological term: the Dark Triad, which is Machavillianism, Sociopathy, and Narcissistic PD. This personality type is now common in all levels of our government and business world. It is a very sophisticated type of authoritarianism (bullying) that was best described by Robert Louis Stevenson in his literary classic Dr Jekell Mr Hyde. Stevenson wrote about it just from having observed it, and before there was knowledge about personality disorders. A psychological profile of Walker’s childhood would show that he grew up in a very authoritarian “bullying” environment with chronic fear and helplessness on a level of traumatic stress. He has all the symptoms of childhood PTSD/Dissociative Disorder . Why are the psychiatrists and mental health professionals who can recognize his dangerous personality disorder not pointing it out? Why are those in Wisconsin who recognize his abuse of power so submissive and silent ? This new sociopathic authoritarianism is like that if Germany prior to WWII. Adults who are conditioned in childhood authoritarianism will put their trust in abusive leaders because they can’t recognize psychological abuse. This is a growing tragedy in the U.S that is causing the destruction of our democracy and making us a police state of totalitarianism. But, it is a preventable tragedy if people would wake up from their dissociation and find moral courage to fight it with peaceful resistance .
Reblogged this on Mark Solock Blog.
As Scott Walker’s campaign for president gains steam, his record on jobs and the economy is finally getting a more thorough examination. Reuters is taking a look at the loss of millions of dollars in taxpayer funds, unprecedented staff turnover, lack of accountability, and significant shortcomings on his own job creation goals.
MADISON – As Scott Walker’s campaign for president gains steam, his record on jobs and the economy is finally getting a more thorough examination as national media shines a light on the governor’s “middling” record on job creation and his failed flagship jobs agency, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation.
Following a campaign trip to the United Kingdom billed as a state trade mission, Reuters is taking a look at the failures at Walker’s Economic Disaster Corporation, which include the loss of millions of dollars in taxpayer funds, unprecedented staff turnover, lack of accountability, and significant shortcomings on its own job creation goals.
A series of scathing audits in 2012 show Walker’s Economic Disaster Corporation lost track of $56 million worth of taxpayer funded loans and found that the agency lacked basic internal accounting controls.
From 2011 to 2013, Walker’s flagship jobs agency only managed to create 5,840 new jobs. During the same two-year period, 13,616 jobs were lost in Wisconsin due to layoffs or closures. Even after $203 million left WEDC in the form of grants, loans, and bonding authority, Wisconsin lost more than two jobs for every job gained. In December of 2013, WEDC released an annual report showing the agency fell well short of their own economic development goals despite spending $330 million on economic development initiatives, forcing them to slash economic goals for Fiscal Year 2014 by more than 50 percent.
The audits also revealed stunning levels of managerial incompetence as 56 percent of credit card purchases by the agency included no description of their purpose on expense reports. WEDC spent taxpayer funds on alcohol, iTunes gift cards, and Badgers football season tickets.
Citing economic development experts who work closely with the agency, Reuters reports that one of the reasons for the failures at WEDC is that Walker’s overhaul of the state bureaucracy drove away seasoned development workers.
Walker ran for office on a campaign promise to create 250,000 new private sector jobs in his first term; the most recent federal jobs data shows that Wisconsin has added just 158,000 private sector jobs under Scott Walker, a 6.8 percent rate of growth trailing both the national pace, at 8.4 percent, and the pace in the rest of the Midwest, at 7.1 percent.
Marc Levine, a senior fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Center for Economic Development, told Reuters: “Essentially we’ve been surfing on the national recovery… [t]he idea was that Wisconsin policies are better than the national policies and we were going to move ahead of the national rate. That clearly hasn’t happened.”
“Scott Walker’s rise to prominence in the crowded Republican presidential field is a double-edged sword – he’s getting more attention from caucus voters in Iowa and New Hampshire but his record of failure on jobs and the economy is no longer free from scrutiny,” Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate said Monday. “By nearly every metric, Walker’s Economic Disaster Corporation has been a stunning failure that has cost Wisconsin taxpayers millions of dollars and the governor must be held accountable for it, here and on the presidential campaign trail.”
Come on folks, Barbara just revealed herself to wealthy and conservative in this response to Joe. I have no dog in this fight since I live in Iowa. Where we are dealing with our own little issue called Terry Branstad. I do drive through Wisconsin to get to the U.P., but Barbara seems to me to be a shill. Of course someone who is wealthy and conservative views SW through a different lens. Although it does seem to me to be backfiring on her as every post of her’s I’ve read is devoid of any facts or supported arguments, she is giving the other side a chance to re-state for an every-growing audience what SW has done, is doing, and is trying to do. I already knew after what he did to teachers and other union members that I would never vote for him for president. Keep spreading the truth. The liars and schemers hate the light of day.
>
I would not be so fast to call us idiots. Do some research into election fraud. Read up on hackable voting machines. Look at the research done after the recall about the highly suspicious voting trends in the blue counties who elected Obama. Ask yourself, why would a county that overwhelmingly elected Obama reelect this thief? Perhaps because our systems are rigged.
I was at the Supreme Court recount and I saw the massive evidence of fraud that was overlooked. I was at the Government Accountability Board meeting in July after the recount when the Board admitted they had not seen this massive evidence before they declared Prosser the winner. Because of those horrors (yes when you realize they can steal our votes, you realize this is what can happen…make it look like we all want Walker when indeed we are trying to bring him to justice) then you realize why many refer to Wisconsin as a fascist state.
Here are some ideas to get you going on why I don’t believe the majority of Wisconsinites voted for Walker. And by the way, an investigation into the ballot bags from his first governor’s “win” revealed them to be in as bad shape as the Supreme Court ones.
Add to this voter suppression of minorities and the poor, redistricting in secret and WALA, he “wins.” No matter how much the Walker-ites protest about how many of us love him, my first hand experience says we have been hacked.
http://wcmcoop.com/2012/05/22/meet-command-central-the-people-in-charge-of-wisconsin-voting-machines/
Here is some statistical information about how Walker and his handlers have been stealing our elections. Look at the research done. It’s truly frightening.
http://wcmcoop.com/2014/10/25/wisconsins-dramatic-vote-swings-raise-election-integrity-concerns/
Actually Larry is is working. This article is getting read by hundreds of thousands of people. And actually, Larry, I was one who was targeted with death threats. The Knot My Wisconsin people were allowed to keep those death threats up and online. There was nothing anyone could do about them threatening to shoot and kill me if I stepped foot on the highly dubious “Forbidden Zone” that Tom Tiffany created around the fake mine site.
The “smallest things” to you are actually fairly sizable. Let’s take the mining law. I was at every public hearing there was. Overwhelmingly, the public did not want the bill. By the last hearing, over 90% of the testimony was against the bill. Elected officials from all over the Lake Superior region came out against such a mine. And yet, WALA, the corporate minions pass it, screw what the PEOPLE think. Be VERY concerned about that.
The scientists who provided scientific evidence that there are sulfides and grunerite in the hills that are significant health threats were attacked. Some even lost their jobs because of the witch hunt. Now we see Walker’s new budget has him removing those scientists in the DNR who will repute his false stories about the dangers with lobbyists and political appointees. That means my very life is being threatened because they refuse to believe the truth. The grunerite is a well documented presence for years. Suddenly its gone? And what happens if they start exploding the hills in my back yard? All that grunerite sends out particulates that cause mesothelioma.
These are not “opinions” but that’s the MO of the Walker regime: take science and pretend it’s just an opinion. Like Bob Seitz, mining company lobbyist (who was just appointed a job at the Public Service Commission–be very afraid) called us all extremists. “Eco-terrorists” for trying to warn people of the vast wetlands up north. For YEARS he mocked us and denied this truth. Then suddenly WALA GTac has to “slow down” because they “Discovered” there were wetlands up there. Don’t mention that they failed to pay their leased land payment ($10K) because they were so broke (Of course their leader Chris Cline meanwhile has a yacht worth 100 times that much….oh well must be rough).
Stop buying the BS and start thinking for yourself. Ask yourself why you are supporting someone who is clearly trying to ruin you. Start investigating the truth, not listening to Walker and his handlers line of crap. But I will warn you, be prepared to be mortified by the truth.
Oh and BTW I welcome any hard evidence that this is conjecture. So far none of the tea baggers can do anything by whine.
OK start refuting. Feel free to use this as a forum to prove us wrong. Unless you are willing to do that, you are just perpetuating the very thing you are accusing us of. But then again, that is another Walker MO.
Have you not followed his trail from his politicsl job in Milwaukee County? I heard different negative things about Walker before his 1st election as governor so searched out information other than Fox News, talk shows on radio and TV. I learned that I disliked his deceptions in how he handled situations. As governor he ran on an agenda and days after being sworn in slams the state with an agenda he NEVER mentioned while campaigning, like gutting the state of unions, education, health care, assistance for people in need, environmental issues and the list goes on. For a governor who is rarely in his own state, he cares not for the residents. Wisconsin needs a full-time governor and Walker was not the best choice.
Recently WTMJ radio host Charlie Skyes has started trolling the COMMENTS sections of online publications and reporting on his radio show anything negative said about Walker it’s McCarthyism on steroids!
Wow, Walker trolls. Cool. It’s like they say, the brighter the light, the more the moths. WCMC must be striking a sore spot in little Scotty’s armor to bring out the troll army. Keep it up, WCMC! Great article.
And to Walker’s troll…truth hurts, doesn’t it. Barbara With, and the rest of WCMC, you have many allies.
Barbara, I owe you an apology. In reading the back-and-forth postings I have been reading as emails, It first appeared that you were shilling for SW. Now that I have come to the website, I can see that you are the one with the facts, statistics, history, and reliable sources that are educating me about SW. Sorry. I should have realized that your writing and thinking were way to cogent to be from the pro-SW group.
I’ll write some more later because I think it is important to look more closely at what “Joe” has revealed about himself. Being wealthy, conservative, and well-educated (put a hold on that last claim for now), doesn’t necessarily make you a SW lover.
Pete
An Iowan that Loves Her Neighbor
Pete its easy to get confused when you are dealing with Walker. But I am not sure where you got the idea ever in this that I was shilling for him. I have worked since he was elected to reveal the truth about him. I have seen it first hand. Here’s another interesting piece from BLOOMBERG: Walker is skipping a debt payment to try and make our ends meet. Wait! I thought…we have a surplus! That’s what he told us before he was elected….what a liar
http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-02-18/wisconsin-to-skip-debt-payments-to-make-up-for-walker-s-tax-cuts?cmpid=yhoo
And Pete I am neither wealthy, conservative or well-educated. I never went to college. I live quite minimally and the only conservation I believe in is economic and environmental.
Sounded more like they were describing Obama.
Obama has more class and respect for America then all your narcissistic GOP together. Walker has destroyed our state one great program at a time. His recall was fixed and money kept this corrupt piece of garbage in Wisconsin. May you face the truth of this criminal, it might just set you free.May he rot in the hell he has cast upon the great informed people of Wisconsin.
Your problem is that you are part of the “reality-based community”. Walker is a posterchild of Rove’s playbook:
‘The aide said that guys like me were “in what we call the reality-based community,” which he defined as people who “believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.” … “That’s not the way the world really works anymore,” he continued. “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors…and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”‘