Last winter, the Greater Whitewater Committee, a local 501(c)(6) business league, invited Matt Moroney (a longtime Walker operative) to speak to residents on Foxconn’s many supposed benefits. The Daily Union‘s longtime stenographer correspondent dutifully and uncritically reported on Moroney’s remarks. See A Sham News Story on Foxconn. Over the years, key leaders of this business league have served…
Gov. Walker
Bad Ideas, City, Economy, Employment, Foxconn, Gov. Walker, Government Spending, State Capitalism, State Government, Trump, Uncategorized, WEDC
Foxconn’s (Overwhelmingly) Low-Paying Jobs
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Residents of Whitewater (or at least the ones attracted to corporate welfare) had a chance this winter to hear a state operative extol the benefits of billions in public money for Foxconn. The local 501(c)(6) business league, the Greater Whitewater Committee, brought in a guest speaker to tout the project. See A Sham News Story on…
Bad Ideas, City, Economy, Employment, Foxconn, Gov. Walker, Government Spending, State Capitalism, State Government, Trump
Foxconn’s Bait & Switch
by JOHN ADAMS • • 4 Comments
It’s a groundbreaking ceremony for (a much smaller) Foxconn today. This very morning one reads confirmation – yet again – that taxpayers’ billions for Foxconn are paying for a project that’s now a giant bait & switch. Rick Romell reports Foxconn scales back plans for its first factory in Mount Pleasant: The Foxconn Technology Group manufacturing…
Bad Ideas, City, Economy, Employment, Foxconn, Gov. Walker, Government Spending, State Capitalism, State Government, Technology, Trump
Foxconn’s Shabby Workplace Conditions
by JOHN ADAMS • • 1 Comment
One reads that God, hearing the grumblings of the ancient Israelite community, once fed that people: 11 The LORD said to Moses: 12 I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them: In the evening twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will have your fill of bread, and then you will know that I,…
CDA, City, Corporate Welfare, Development, Economy, Free Markets, Gov. Walker, Marketing, Politics, Poverty, State Capitalism, State Government, Taxes/Taxation, That Which Paved the Way, Trump
About that Trump Tax Plan
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
In Whitewater, by press release (twice), one can read about the supposed benefits of the Trump tax plan. The Whitewater Community Development Authority’s executive director, Dave Carlson, was quick to push a portion of the plan as good for Whitewater. In doing so, he conceded what anyone observing Whitewater with care and concern already knew:…
City, Conflicts of Interest, Corporate Welfare, Economics, Economy, Ethics, Gov. Walker, Local Government, Mendacity, Paul Ryan, Politics, State Capitalism, That Which Paved the Way, Trump
The Price of Trumpism is Ruin
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Craig Gilbert looks at the careers of Priebus, Ryan, and Walker: They led the “Cheesehead Revolution,” the GOP’s audacious conquest of Wisconsin. They offered a model for bridging Republican frictions between establishment and base. They became national figures. They ran into Donald Trump. They suffered. They bent to his rise. Now one (Priebus) has left…
Business, Economy, Foxconn, Gov. Walker, Government Spending, State Capitalism, Trump
The Man Behind the Foxconn Project
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Embed from Getty Images You may have read, recently, of a public official who came to Whitewater to talk about the Foxconn project. Why settle for the tired claims of a mid-level state-government operative when one can hear about Foxconn from the one man behind the entire project? Matthew DeFour reports on the real force…
Elections, Gov. Walker, Trump, Wisconsin
Trump and Walker
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
In 2014, Gov. Walker ran for re-election, and two years later Trump ran for president. The two-party results for the GOP candidates in the City of Whitewater were much different. In 2014, Gov. Walker narrowly lost the City of Whitewater to Mary Burke: Walker 2,616 49.8% Burke 2,634 50.2% In 2016, Trump decisively lost…
Foxconn, Gov. Walker, Government Spending, State Capitalism, WEDC, Wisconsin
Foxconn? What’s Foxconn?
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
One reads that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker downplays Foxconn because deal not a sure campaign winner: MADISON – Scott Walker said the state would ink a $3 billion contract this week with Asian tech giant Foxconn Technology Group, even as he downplayed the deal and pointed to other jobs being created through his administration. As Walker launches…
Gov. Walker, Politics, Presidential race 2016, Press
Last Night’s GOP Debate
by JOHN ADAMS • • 1 Comment
I’m not a major-party voter, but like millions I have watched the GOP presidential debates (and will watch the Democrats’ debates, too). There’s a lot to learn from watching the candidates, for all the showiness, the pre-debate theatrics, etc. The key point about all these encounters is that they are intra-party affairs – it’s a debate…
CDA, Economics, Economy, Gluttony, Gov. Walker, Government Spending, WEDC
The WEDC Taints Walker (and local officials even more)
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
The WEDC is a state and national story that has local implications. Some of the toughest political battles are intra-party ones: Republicans or Democrats fighting against fellow party members for their respective primary nominations. For rival Republicans, Gov. Walker’s creation of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation will offer a legitimate and compelling line of attack against his…
Gov. Walker, Government Spending, Politics, Religion, Science/Nature, State Government, Wisconsin
Budget First
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
Last week, Gov. Walker declined to answer Englishman’s question about whether he, Scott Waker, believed in evolution. Today, in the Journal Sentinel, one learns that Assembly Speaker Robin Vos does believe in evolution. (I’ll bite: I was raised in a liturgical, high-church tradition that taught that the theory of evolution was consistent with faith. I…
Education, Gov. Walker, Government Spending, Presidential race 2016, University
Gov. Walker, In-State and Out-of-State
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Two posts about Gov. Walker this week, one on how he’s come to propose a budget with so many education cuts, and the other on his considerable fundraising potential as a national candidate, are especially informative. Over at Urban Milwaukee, Bruce Murphy write about Waker’s budget proposal, in Why Walker Had to Cut UW Funding:…
Corporate Welfare, Education, Gov. Walker, Government Spending, Innovation Center/Tech Park, Labor, Liberty, Local Government, School District, University, WEDC, Wisconsin
Education: Substance & Spending
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Following comments to yesterday’s post on proposed cuts to the UW System schools (Caution arrives late, doesn’t recognize its surroundings), here are nine quick comments about education. 1. Act 10 as a budgetary tool. This centrally-planned idea didn’t work. Reductions in public-union bargaining powers in exchange for the ‘tools’ to balance school and other public…