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Immigration, Trump

Does Trump Think Sicario: Day of the Soldado is a Documentary?

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Mary Papenfuss reports Rachel Maddow: Trump May Have Cooked Up ‘Taped Women’ From ‘Sicario’:

President Donald Trump has been obsessively repeating a horror tale of trafficked women in cars at the southern border, their mouths taped shut, so they “can’t even breathe.” The problem is that trafficked women and border officials apparently have no idea what he’s talking about. Now Rachel Maddow, along with some media outlets, believe it could be possible that Trump witnessed it with his very own eyes — on the violent movie “Sicario: Day of the Soldado.”

The film shows such a scene at the Mexican border, eerily similar to what Trump has described. There is also a scene of Muslim prayer rugs in the southern desert, which has also popped up in a Trump tweet. He has talked about the smugglers’ amazing cars, just like in the movie.

All are “plot points in the same movie — which is fiction,” Maddow emphasized Monday.

“Now in any normal  administration it would be insane to suggest … even joke about the president of the United States seeing stuff in a movie … and maybe thinking it was real — or at least real enough to justify an actual military deployment of thousands of active duty U.S. troops to the border,” she said.

Update: Quinn Owen and Matt Gutman report Fact Check: No evidence for Trump’s tales of duct-taped women, prayer rugs at border (“An internal administration inquiry turned up no evidence of Trump’s claim.”).

Trump’s own administration can’t find evidence of his claims; the theory that Trump’s lurid tales come from a movie is looking more likely by the minute.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 1.31.19

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Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of four below.  Sunrise is 7:09 AM and sunset 5:07 PM, for 9h 57m 42s of daytime.  The moon is a waning crescent with 16.5% of its visible disk illuminated.

 

On this day in 1950, Pres. Truman announces plans to develop a hydrogen bomb.  (Scientists successfully detonated an h-bomb two and a half years later.)

Recommended for reading in full:

 Tom Winter reports Mueller says Russians are using his discovery materials in disinformation effort:

Russians are using materials obtained from special counsel Robert Mueller’s office in a disinformation campaign apparently aimed at discrediting the investigation into Moscow’s election interference, federal prosecutors said on Wednesday.

One or more people associated with the special counsel’s case against Russian hackers made statements last October claiming to have stolen discovery materials that were originally provided by Mueller to Concord Management, Mueller’s team said in court documents filed on Wednesday in the Russian troll farm case.

That discovery — evidence and documents traded between both sides of a lawsuit — appears to have been altered and disseminated as part of a disinformation campaign apparently aimed at discrediting the ongoing investigations in Russian interference in the U.S. political system, according to the documents.

Concord Management, a company owned by a Russian oligarch known as President Vladimir Putin’s “chef,” is one of three Russian entities that were accused by the special counsel last February of helping to mastermind the social media meddling into the 2016 election. Thirteen Russian citizens were also indicted and accused of taking part in the widespread effort.

According to the documents filed Wednesday, a Twitter account called @HackingRedstone tweeted: “We’ve got access to the Special Counsel Mueller’s probe database as we hacked Russian server with info from the Russian troll case Concord LLC v. Mueller. You can view all the files Mueller had about the IRA and Russian collusion. Enjoy the reading!”

The account has since been suspended.

  Pete Madden and Matthew Mosk report NRA says 2015 Moscow trip wasn’t ‘official.’ Emails, photos reveal gun group’s role:

The National Rifle Association made its first public attempt this week to distance itself from any formal involvement in a now infamous trip to Moscow undertaken by a group of its high-ranking members, but internal NRA emails and photos posted on social media reviewed by ABC News appear to show the organization was significantly involved in planning it.

Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat who has launched an investigation of the NRA and written a series of letters seeking “information and documentation” about the trip, disputed the NRA’s public attempt to distance itself from the trip.

….

Emails sent by NRA officials before the trip, as well as photos taken during the visit, offer greater detail about the organization’s role in arranging the excursion.

….

Other emails suggest that the NRA would pay for travel expenses for two delegation members and provide formal NRA “gifts” for the delegation to present to their Russian hosts.

  How Balloons Pop:

Babbittry, Bad Ideas, CDA, City, Corporate Welfare, Economy, Employment, Foxconn, Government Spending, Local Government, Scott Walker, State Capitalism, State Government, That Which Paved the Way, Tony Evers, WEDC, Wisconsin

WISGOP Assembly Speaker Vos Hopes You’re Stupid

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With the news that Foxconn plans to drop manufacturing at a plant that was supposed to hire thousands of workers, for which people lost their homes, and that was the centerpiece of Scott Walker’s corporate welfare and crony capitalism, Speaker Robin Vos blames…newly-elected Gov. Tony Evers.

Oh, brother: Vos must hope that Wisconsinites are stupid enough to believe that after a year of national economists’ criticism of the project as unworkable from the start (linking to one example of many), the failure of the effort rests on what happened at the ballot box since November.

No, and no again: economists of the left, center, and right all warned this was a bad deal, and doomed to fail.

Vos relies futilely on the prospect that Wisconsinites are too stupid or too ignorant to read serious publications outside the WISGOP media bubble. They aren’t like that; they’re knowledgeable.  (Actually, Evers never opposed the program, and did not seek to end it, or even the WEDC: “But Evers did not pledge to stop the company’s plans and has since backed off his plan to eliminate the jobs agency [WEDC] after Republican lawmakers passed new laws curbing his authority over the agency.”)

Update, 1.31.19: In less than 24 hours, WISGOP Speaker Vos is completely refuted in his attempt to blame Foxconn debacle on Gov. Evers:

Mark Hogan, CEO of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., said Evers never sought to re-negotiate any element of the Foxconn project.

“I have been involved with the Foxconn project from day one and there never have been any side deals and the contract stands on its own,” Hogan said Thursday. “In addition, there have been no attempts by either the company or the Evers’ or Walker administrations to renegotiate WEDC’s contract.”

He said Evers and his administration “have done a very good job of reaching out to company officials and developing a relationship that will protect our taxpayers’ interests and at the same time, give Foxconn the ability to  be successful in Wisconsin.”

….

“All interactions to date with Governor Evers and his team have been constructive and we look forward to further discussions as we continue to invest in American talent and broaden the base of our investment within the State of Wisconsin,” the company [Foxconn] said.

By the way, look how weak Vos’s argument is:  under his reasoning, Foxconn was never a sure thing, but in fact a politically-inspired and sustained program that could disappear after an election.  Vos’s attack begs the conclusion that the whole program was politically contingent.  He’s inviting a dispositive reply, but either is too slow to see that he is, or hopes others are too slow to make a reasonable riposte.  Vos may be lacking, but most people are sharp and will see the weakness in his claim.

WISGOP Assembly Speaker Vos hopes that Wisconsinites are stupid, yet his dark hope is in vain.  He presents a laughably weak argument, but national economists long ago saw through this project, Wisconsinites saw through its key backer in November, and both will be remembered only with deserved derision.

Previously: 10 Key Articles About Foxconn, Foxconn as Alchemy: Magic Multipliers,  Foxconn Destroys Single-Family Homes, Foxconn Devours Tens of Millions from State’s Road Repair Budget, The Man Behind the Foxconn Project, A Sham News Story on Foxconn, Another Pig at the Trough, Even Foxconn’s Projections Show a Vulnerable (Replaceable) Workforce, Foxconn in Wisconsin: Not So High Tech After All, Foxconn’s Ambition is Automation, While Appeasing the Politically Ambitious, Foxconn’s Shabby Workplace Conditions, Foxconn’s Bait & Switch, Foxconn’s (Overwhelmingly) Low-Paying Jobs, The Next Guest Speaker, Trump, Ryan, and Walker Want to Seize Wisconsin Homes to Build Foxconn Plant, Foxconn Deal Melts Away, “Later This Year,” Foxconn’s Secret Deal with UW-Madison, Foxconn’s Predatory Reliance on Eminent Domain, Foxconn: Failure & Fraud, Foxconn Roundup: Desperately Ill Edition,  Foxconn Roundup: Indiana Layoffs & Automation Everywhere, Foxconn Roundup: Outside Work and Local Land, Foxconn Couldn’t Even Meet Its Low First-Year Goal, and Foxconn Talks of Folding Wisconsin Manufacturing Plans.

 

 

Babbittry, Bad Ideas, CDA, City, Corporate Welfare, Economy, Employment, Foxconn, Government Spending, Local Government, Scott Walker, State Capitalism, State Government, That Which Paved the Way, WEDC

Foxconn Talks of Folding Wisconsin Manufacturing Plans

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No one who thought about Foxconn seriously would be surprised to read from a Reuters exclusive that Foxconn [is] reconsidering plans to make LCD panels at Wisconsin plant. The Taiwanese manufacturer has already broken its promises on the kind of panels it would build at the plant, and failed to meet even its low, first-year hiring goals.  Jess Macy Yu and Karl Plume now report that

Foxconn Technology Group is reconsidering plans to make advanced liquid crystal display panels at a $10 billion Wisconsin campus, and said it intends to hire mostly engineers and researchers rather than the manufacturing workforce the project originally promised.

….

Foxconn, which received controversial state and local incentives for the project, initially planned to manufacture advanced large screen displays for TVs and other consumer and professional products at the facility, which is under construction. It later said it would build smaller LCD screens instead.

Now, those plans may be scaled back or even shelved, Louis Woo, special assistant to Foxconn Chief Executive Terry Gou, told Reuters. He said the company was still evaluating options for Wisconsin, but cited the steep cost of making advanced TV screens in the United States, where labor expenses are comparatively high.

“In terms of TV, we have no place in the U.S.,” he said in an interview. “We can’t compete.”

….

“In Wisconsin we’re not building a factory. You can’t use a factory to view our Wisconsin investment,” Woo said.

Earlier this month, Foxconn, a major supplier to Apple Inc., reiterated its intention to create 13,000 jobs in Wisconsin, but said it had slowed its pace of hiring. The company initially said it expected to employ about 5,200 people by the end of 2020; a company source said that figure now looks likely to be closer to 1,000 workers.

….

Rather than manufacturing LCD panels in the United States, Woo said it would be more profitable to make them in greater China and Japan, ship them to Mexico for final assembly, and import the finished product to the United States.

….

Currently, to qualify for the tax credits Foxconn must meet certain hiring and capital investment goals. It fell short of the employment goal in 2018 – hiring 178 full-time jobs rather than the 260 targeted – failing to earn a tax credit of up to $9.5 million.

The company may be prepared to walk away from future incentives if it is unable to meet Wisconsin’s job creation and capital investment requirements, according to the source familiar with the matter.

Each and every person – including Whitewater’s public officials, business lobbyists, and local reporters – who kept pushing Foxconn is either disqualifyingly ignorant or disconcertingly mendacious. 

Previously: 10 Key Articles About Foxconn, Foxconn as Alchemy: Magic Multipliers,  Foxconn Destroys Single-Family Homes, Foxconn Devours Tens of Millions from State’s Road Repair Budget, The Man Behind the Foxconn Project, A Sham News Story on Foxconn, Another Pig at the Trough, Even Foxconn’s Projections Show a Vulnerable (Replaceable) Workforce, Foxconn in Wisconsin: Not So High Tech After All, Foxconn’s Ambition is Automation, While Appeasing the Politically Ambitious, Foxconn’s Shabby Workplace Conditions, Foxconn’s Bait & Switch, Foxconn’s (Overwhelmingly) Low-Paying Jobs, The Next Guest Speaker, Trump, Ryan, and Walker Want to Seize Wisconsin Homes to Build Foxconn Plant, Foxconn Deal Melts Away, “Later This Year,” Foxconn’s Secret Deal with UW-Madison, Foxconn’s Predatory Reliance on Eminent Domain, Foxconn: Failure & Fraud, Foxconn Roundup: Desperately Ill Edition,  Foxconn Roundup: Indiana Layoffs & Automation Everywhere, Foxconn Roundup: Outside Work and Local Land, and Foxconn Couldn’t Even Meet Its Low First-Year Goal.

 

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 1.30.19

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Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of twelve below, and much colder wind chill temperatures.  Sunrise is 7:10 AM and sunset 5:05 PM, for 9h 55m 20s of daytime.  The moon is a waning crescent with 24.4% of its visible disk illuminated.

 

On this day in 1948, an assassin kills Gandhi.

Recommended for reading in full:

 Conservative Michael Gerson writes Trump is a fraud:

His reputation as a self-made billionaire lies in ruins. An extensive New York Times article on Trump’s wealth found a bassinet millionaire, consistently bailed out of bad bets, who dodged gift taxes, milked his empire for cash and cultivated a deceptive image of business brilliance. And special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation may reveal serious corruption and perjury in cataloguing Trump’s 30-year panting desire to sell his brand in Russia.

And who can take Trump seriously as a manager? He has a talent for weeding out the talented and responsible. He is a world-class nepotist. He is incapable of delegation or of taking conflicting advice. He is unreliable in dealing with his allies. He is capable of taking several conflicting policy views on the same topic — be it health care, or the “dreamers,” or gun control — in a matter of days or hours. He often has no clear goals. He has no attention span and is consistently ignorant of details. He is prone to vicious and public abuse of rivals and of employees. Try to put that profile up on LinkedIn.

Those 37 percent who approve of Trump’s performance may point to the state of the economy or the composition of the Supreme Court. They may be impressed by his destruction of norms or enthused by his promotion of exclusion. They may want a president who speaks his mind, even when it is hateful gibberish. They may want a president who is an institutional arsonist, even if the result is mere destruction.

….

We have plumbed the shallows of his boasts. They are refuted lies. And whatever else the president may be, he is a fraud.

  Chuck Rosenberg writes Roger Stone’s Arrest Was Appropriate, Not Heavy-Handed:

Read, for instance, page 20 of the indictment, where prosecutors note that Stone emailed one witness and called him a “rat” and a “stoolie” and threatened to take that witness’s dog away from him. In another email that same day to that same witness, according to the indictment, Stone wrote “I am so ready. Let’s get it on. Prepare to die [expletive].”

Law enforcement simply does not hand a summons to someone who threatens to kill a witness and trust that person to act responsibly with it.  No conscientious prosecutor would think a summons appropriate there, or think that a threat to kill a witness is simply what targets of grand jury investigations routinely do.

The witness tampering alleged here is more than just someone asking another, “pretty please,” to lie.  Rather, it includes a death threat against a witness:  “Prepare to die [expletive].”

  Bringing a fossil to life by reverse-engineering locomotion:

Authoritarianism, Federal Government, Law, Race, Trump

Undermining His Own Case for a National Emergency

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Elizabeth Goitein observes Trump Is Destroying His Own Case for a National Emergency (“By waiting for Congress to act, the president is undermining the legal basis for any declaration”):

Here’s how the legal process for emergency powers works: Under the National Emergencies Act, passed by Congress in 1976, the president has broad discretion to declare a national emergency. Upon issuing the declaration, he gains access to special authorities provided in 123 provisions of law that have been enacted over many decades. These laws authorize presidential action across all areas of government, from military deployment to agricultural exports to energy production. Like an advance medical directive, in which a patient specifies actions a doctor may take in a range of extreme situations when the patient cannot make her wishes known, they represent Congress’s best guess as to what powers a president might need in a crisis that is unfolding too quickly for Congress to respond.

As this legal framework makes clear, emergency powers are not a license for the president to sidestep Congress. To the contrary: The only powers the president can access during a national emergency are those Congress has granted. However potent some of these powers might be, the source of the president’s authority in all cases remains a legislative delegation—one that is granted in advance because true emergencies require immediate action. A president using emergency powers to thwart Congress’s will, in a situation where Congress has had ample time to express it, is like a doctor relying on an advance directive to deny life-saving treatment to a patient who is conscious and clearly asking to be saved.

Of course, Trump’s hesitation also belies his claim that there is an emergency at the border. Presidents don’t dawdle in the face of real emergencies. President George W. Bush did not spend weeks scratching his head about whether to issue an emergency declaration after the terrorist attacks of 9/11. But even if a real crisis existed, emergency powers are designed for situations in which Congress has no time to act. If Congress does have time, then there is no justification for bypassing the ordinary legislative process.

Goitein’s right, if one looks at this – as one should – as a legal matter (as no one is above the law).  Trump, however, doesn’t respect the law.  It seems more likely that Trump’s wants a herrenvolk government for America, and that his desires rest on a blood and soil policy.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 1.29.19

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Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of two.  Sunrise is 7:11 AM and sunset 5:04 PM, for 9h 53m 00s of daytime.  The moon is a waning crescent with 33.6% of its visible disk illuminated.

 

On this day in 1865, the 12th Wisconsin Light Artillery fights a skirmish at the Combahee River on the coast of South Carolina, and the 3rd Wisconsin Infantry fights another one 50 miles west at Robertsville, South Carolina.

Recommended for reading in full:

Yian Mui reports The government shutdown cost the economy $11 billion, including a permanent $3 billion loss, Congressional Budget Office says:

“Among those who experienced the largest and most direct negative effects are federal workers who faced delayed compensation and private-sector entities that lost business,” the report said. “Some of those private-sector entities will never recoup that lost income.”

  Michael Scherer and Scott Clement report Democrats’ 2020 presidential contest is wide open as danger mounts for Trump, new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows:

A 56 percent majority of all Americans say they would “definitely not vote for him” should Trump become the Republican nominee, while 14 percent say they would consider voting for him and 28 percent would definitely vote for him. Majorities of independents (59 percent), women (64 percent) and suburbanites (56 percent) rule out supporting Trump for a second term.

….

While 75 percent of Republicans and GOP-leaning independents approve of Trump’s performance in office when asked separately, nearly 1 in 3 say they would like to nominate someone other than Trump to be the party’s candidate for president.

 Patrick Marley reports Gov. Tony Evers to use private attorneys after AG declines to defend lame-duck laws:

Attorney General Josh Kaul has declined to represent Gov. Tony Evers in a suit over lame-duck laws limiting their powers, prompting Evers to spend up to $50,000 of taxpayer money on private attorneys.

The move comes soon after Republican lawmakers approved billing taxpayers for their own private attorneys in the legal fight. They have not said what firm they plan to use.

The Democratic governor selected the Madison firm Pines Bach to represent him last week after Kaul told Evers he couldn’t represent him because of a conflict of interest.

….

Kaul sent Evers a letter Jan. 18 telling him he would not represent him because one of the lame-duck laws in question curbed the power of Kaul’s Department of Justice.

“DOJ has a direct and substantial interest in this case that is in conflict with the defense of this case,” the Democratic attorney general wrote.

….

GOP lawmakers recently agreed to pay the Chicago firm Bartlit Beck up to $840,000 to represent them in a lawsuit over legislative maps they drew in 2011. Including previous expenses, those maps and the lawsuits they spawned are on track to cost taxpayers $3.5 million.

(The contrast between the WISGOP-controlled Assembly’s use of public money and Evers’s use of private money is stark.)

  LG’s New TV Rolls Itself Up When You’re Not Watching:

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 1.28.19

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Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will see snow in the morning and a high of twenty-five.  Sunrise is 7:12 AM and sunset 5:03 PM, for 9h 50m 43s of daytime.  The moon is a waning crescent with 43.7% of its visible disk illuminated.

 

On this day in 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger breaks apart shortly after liftoff, killing all seven members of the crew.

Recommended for reading in full:

Colten Bartholomew of the Lacrosse Tribune reports Tribune investigation: UW-Whitewater defensive schemes sent to UW-La Crosse football:

An email containing eight PowerPoint presentations that detail the Warhawks’ defensive principles, coverage rules and alignments against a number of opponents’ formations was sent to UW-L coach Mike Schmidt on Aug. 22 and sent from Schmidt to UW-L offensive coaches on Sept. 17.

The email containing these PowerPoint files was sent to the Tribune as part of an open records request into the reassignment and eventual resignation of former La Crosse offensive coordinator Luke Bengtson.

The five-times-forwarded email chain started with craigsmith0306@gmail.com — Craig Smith was the former offensive coordinator at UW-Whitewater, whose contract wasn’t renewed after the 2017 season. The Tribune confirmed it was the account of that Craig Smith via email.

The account emailed the PowerPoint documents to edmondsnelson@gmail.com, which forwarded it to NEdmonds@dbq.edu, the University of Dubuque account of Nelson Edmonds, the dean of student engagement and services and a former assistant coach at Whitewater. Edmonds forwarded it to the university email of Stan Zweifel, the Spartans football coach, who then forwarded it to Schmidt.

The Tribune confirmed that the PowerPoint documents were accurate and featured code words that pertained to Whitewater schemes this season.

Dubuque lost to Whitewater 38-6 in the season opener, and La Crosse fell 30-7 in the first WIAC game of the season.

 Craig Gilbert writes Latest polling data point to major re-election challenges for Trump in Wisconsin:

In 10 Marquette polls since Trump took office, his approval rating has never topped 47 percent. The share of voters who disapprove of him has equaled or exceeded 50 percent in the past nine polls dating back to June 2017.

….

Among Republicans, 58 percent said they would definitely vote for Trump, 22 percent said they would probably vote for Trump, 6 percent said they would probably vote for someone else and 10 percent said they would definitely vote for someone else. That is a party with a few cracks in it. Fewer than six in 10 GOP voters say they are certain they would support the Trump in the next election.

Among Democrats, there isn’t much doubt: None said they would definitely vote for Trump, 1 percent said they would probably vote for Trump, 4 percent said they would probably vote for someone else and 95 percent said they would definitely vote for someone else.

….

The intensity of public opinion matters a lot in politics and it is not on Trump’s side: 30 percent of Wisconsin voters “strongly” approve of him and 46 percent “strongly” disapprove.

  How Toy Story Creator Pixar Revolutionized Animation:

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 1.27.19

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Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be mostly cloudy with snow this evening and a high of nine.  Sunrise is 7:13 AM and sunset 5:01 PM, for 9h 48m 28s of daytime.  The moon is a waning gibbous with 53.5% of its visible disk illuminated.

 

On this day in 1888, the National Geographic Society is incorporated.

 

Recommended for reading in full:

 The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign writes Walker Far Outspent Evers in Election: 

Republican candidates and the special interest groups that supported them spent an estimated $57.7 million, which was about 63 percent higher than the more than $35.3 million spent by Democratic candidates and groups. Minor party candidates spent about $32,550.

The 20 major and minor party candidates for governor, and the two major party lieutenant governor candidates who won their primaries, spent more than $52.4 million. Former GOP Gov. Scott Walker and his running mate, Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, led candidate spending with nearly $36.2 million. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and his running mate, Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, spent a combined $10.8 million.

Independent expenditures and phony issue ad groups often funded by wealthy, secret contributors that represent ideological, business, and labor interests, spent $40.6 million (see table below). Groups that supported Walker and Kleefisch spent about $21.5 million and groups that supported Evers and Barnes doled out more than $18.6 million. Three groups also spent about $427,000 to support unsuccessful primary candidate Mahlon Mitchell.

All told, nearly $58 million or 62 percent of the $93 million spent on the governor’s race supported the Walker-Kleefisch ticket.

(Eight years as the incumbent governor and still – with millions more in campaign contributions, Walker lost. Craig Gilbert is right: “In short, the man who dominated Wisconsin politics for nearly a decade was never terrifically popular.” )

 James Rowen writes Gerrymandering Costs Taxpayers Millions:

The Wisconsin GOP’s principles include “sound money management should be our goal,” but its legislative leadership is spending money on itself like it won the lottery.

Self-anointed shadow Wisconsin Governor and ‘man slapped silly by the same Federal judge twice’ Robin Vos just revealed under pressure the $840,000 contract he approved for a Chicago law firm to fight for a partisan gerrymandering plan already ruled unconstitutional by a federal appeals court.

Recall that Legislative Republicans had already spent more than $2 million in state funds to write their plan in secret, as I’ve previously written:

It has become known that redistricting work took place, though publicly-funded, in private attorneys’ offices near the State Capitol into which GOP legislative leaders’ staffers were moved, and Republican legislators who were invited to those offices to review maps and boundaries proposed for their districts had to sign agreements requiring them to keep quiet about what they’d seen seen.

The Journal Sentinel now computes all the costs of redistricting litigation to state taxpayers at $3.5 million, which must be why the GOP’s principles said sound money management “should” be the goal, not ‘must be.’

  This Mountain Has Been Home to Monks for 12 Centuries:

City, Film

Film: Tuesday, January 29th, 12:30 PM @ Seniors in the Park, The Wife

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This Tuesday, January 29th at 12:30 PM, there will be a showing of The Wife @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin community building:

The Wife (Drama)

Tuesday, January 29, 12:30 pm
Rated R (Language; sexual content); 1hour, 40 min. (2018)

With her husband about to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature in Stockholm, the loyal wife (Glenn Close) questions her decision to have always taken a back seat to her husband’s grand ambition. Behind any great man, there’s always a greater woman…

Glenn Close has been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role and has already won a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama.

One can find more information about The Wife at the Internet Movie Database.

Enjoy.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 1.26.19

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Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of nine.  Sunrise is 7:14 AM and sunset 5:00 PM, for 9h 46m 14s of daytime.  The moon is a waning gibbous with 64.6% of its visible disk illuminated.

 

On this day in 1925, a fire destroys the Whitewater Hospital (“monetary losses were estimated at $20,000, but no deaths were reported.”).

 

Recommended for reading in full:

Philip Rucker, Josh Dawsey, and Seung Min Kim report ‘Prisoner of his own impulse’: Inside Trump’s cave to end shutdown without wall:

His poll numbers were plummeting. His FBI director was decrying the dysfunction. The nation’s air travel was in chaos. Federal workers were lining up at food banks. Economic growth was at risk of flatlining, and even some Republican senators were in open revolt.

So on Friday, the 35th day of a government shutdown that he said he was proud to instigate, President Trump finally folded. After vowing for weeks that he would keep the government closed unless he secured billions in funding for his promised border wall, Trump agreed to reopen it.

He got $0 instead.

Trump’s capitulation to Democrats marked a humiliating low point in a polarizing presidency and sparked an immediate backlash among some conservative allies, who cast him as a wimp.

….

“He was the prisoner of his own impulse and it turned into a catastrophe for him,” said David Axelrod, who was a White House adviser to President Barack Obama. “The House of Representatives has power and authority — and now a speaker who knows how to use it — so that has to become part of his calculation or he’ll get embarrassed again.”

(If Axelrod should be right – and it seems so – then a disordered man like Trump, in the grip of his impulses, will get embarrassed again. Such a man will learn nothing from past mistakes.)

Kelly Meyerhofer reports $840,000 redistricting contract released after Robin Vos initially refused to provide it:

A law firm hired by Republican state lawmakers to help defend them in a redistricting lawsuit can collect up to an $840,000 fee, but taxpayers could end up paying even more, according to a newly released contract.

The lawsuit is part of an ongoing court battle over Wisconsin’s legislative district maps passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature and then-Gov. Scott Walker in 2011. Before the latest contract, taxpayers had already paid some $2.5 million to outside law firms to draft and defend the maps in court.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, initially refused to release the latest contract to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in late December, citing an attorney-client privilege exemption in the state’s open records law.

Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council president Bill Lueders said at the time that he believed the denial of the newspaper’s request was illegal.

(Vos relented and released this contract, but claims a right to withhold other similar contracts in the future.)

Here’s the contract:

[embeddoc url=”https://freewhitewater.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/voslegislaturecontract.pdf” width=”100%” download=”all” viewer=”google”]

  Carmen Sandiego: The True Story:

Economy, Federal Government, Never Trump, Transportation, Trump

Commerce Slows

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Update, Friday afternoon: Trump folds under pressure agrees to a three-week re-opening of the federal gov’t.  Of his Rose Garden address this afternoon (one that I watched in full), Jennifer Rubin observes “[m]aybe this is part of an insanity defense for the Russia probe.”

One reads that under the shutdown, interstate commerce now slows:

Significant flight delays were rippling across the Northeast on Friday because of a shortage of air traffic controllers as a result of the government shutdown, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

The agency said it was slowing traffic in and out of the airports because of staffing problems at facilities in Washington and Jacksonville, Fla.

The delays were cascading along the Eastern Seaboard, reaching as far north as Boston. But La Guardia was the only airport closed off to arriving flights from other cities because it was so crowded with planes taking off and landing on a weekday morning.

Via Airport Delays Ripple Across Northeast Due to Air Traffic Controller Shortage.

Perhaps, just perhaps, a businessman known for self-promotion, serial bankruptcies, and junk products wasn’t the person to oversee the executive branch of the federal government.