#WMC #WMC-IMC -> Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce -> Incognito

What are their real interests?  Who do they lobby for?  Evidently "Willie Horton" ads are their specialty and style.

Willie Horton Revisited

Willie Horton. The name is enough to make a politician blanch. Ever since 1988, when the George H. W. Bush presidential campaign machine wielded the Horton horror story against his Democratic rival, the threat of being “Willie Horton’ed” has shaped the politics of crime and punishment. “The ghost of Willie Horton has loomed over any conversation about sentencing reform for over 30 years,” says Sen. Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., co-sponsor of one such proposal.

Jim Pugh, Vice President & Treasurer of WMC IMC

Jim Pugh is an award-winning public affairs professional and innovator in corporate public policy issue advocacy at Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce – Wisconsin’s chamber of commerce. Pugh serves as the vice president and treasurer of WMC Issues Mobilization Council, Inc., (WMC IMC), the issue advocacy arm of the Wisconsin chamber.

Pugh served on Governor Scott Walker’s transition team in 2010 and provided public policy guidance and communications support for public employee union reforms.

He has played a leading role at WMC using issue advocacy to drive Wisconsin’s business agenda with the public. He managed issue advocacy campaigns that help Wisconsin’s chamber lobbyists deliver tax cuts, regulation relief, lawsuit reform, Right to Work, public employee union reforms and other wins to improve the state’s business climate. He has managed more than $30 million in issue advocacy from 2006 to 2014 to educate the public about elected officials and candidates for public office.

Why you don't want a packed court ... so much for non-partisan.

Walker will ask state Supreme Court to overturn appeals court's denial of delay for special elections

The seats were vacated in late December when Walker appointed Sen. Frank Lasee, R-De Pere, and Rep. Keith Ripp, R-Lodi, to administrative positions.  [In the Walker Administration.  The GOP lost another special election in a supposedly safe seat.]

3/28/2018 ... Now the elections will be held and the State Senate drops it plans to prevent voters from having representation.  Afraid to call attention to the sham of electing GOP Grifters to the State Supreme Court.

#WMC #WMC-IMC -> Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce == #WillieHorton types <- Incognito - Masquerading  Ended - Congrats WI 4/3/18 ... remember next election for justice

#Tillerson #Trump #NewsCycle Management #Pennsylvania Conor #Lamb

Pick a day, any day.  Trump and friends must be very uncomfortable about Conor Lamb winning in Pennsylvania.

Why else would you step all over a news event where a Republican wins the special election.

Firing Tillerson is a perfect news cycle distraction, perhaps inevitable but why today except to bury other bad news for the Trump Administration.

It also distracts Trumps backtracking on "guns" ... NRA wins again.

What do Trump and Tillerson have in common.  They won't talk!  One about Stormy Daniels and the other about whether he call Trump a Moron.


#Tillerson #Trump #NewsCycle Management #Pennsylvania Conor #Lamb ... does this suggest Lamb, even losing, is such bad news that Trump wants it buried in the coffin with Tillerson and talk of reasonable guncontrols ?

GOP Tax Giveaway to High Income -- How much has your take home changed -- same, smaller, ?

How Tax Cuts Could Decide the Midterms ... The Atlantic

...Yet evidence is growing that companies are devoting far less money to workers than to stock buybacks that benefit their shareholders, at a time when the top 10 percent of families own more than four-fifths of all stocks. While media tallies show companies have issued about $6 billion in bonuses, they have already announced $171 billion in stock buybacks in 2018, a record high and over double the level at this point last year. Spending on buybacks almost certainly will remain elevated, because executives feel a kind of arms-race pressure to lift their own stock prices while other companies are doing the same. “Once some companies start doing it, people say, ‘We’ve got to keep up,’” said William Lazonick, an economist at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, who has studied buybacks.

PBS - The 1% are getting wealthier, and lobbying has a lot to do with it


#GOP #Tax Giveaway to High Income, #Wealthy -- How much has your take home changed -- same, smaller, ?

$$$ #OpenSecrets.org WI 1848 Forward: #OXFAM #PBS - The #1% getting wealthier & #lobbying has a lot to do with it !  #Trump #Tax Giveaway to friends in the SWAMP

Michael Screnock ... Walker Crony appointee, WMC secret favorite ... WI Supreme Court bias

Right Wing Hits Panic Button as Their Spending on Michael Screnock Skyrockets: Republican Party of Wisconsin and Right-Wing Cabal at Nearly $670,000 in Spending With a Week to Go Before Primary Election 20180213

MADISON, Wis. — State Republicans and their allies have pushed the panic button on the race for the state Supreme Court, already forking out nearly $670,000 for the benefit of the campaign of Michael Screnock before the February 20 primary election. Spending by right-wing special interests like the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce and the Republican Party of Wisconsin to elect high court judges is not new. But, One Wisconsin Now Research Director Joanna Beilman-Dulin noted, with such massive outlays already occurring, Screnock could be on the receiving end of record amounts of spending to try to boost his electoral prospects if he advances to the general election.

“The right-wing cabal in Wisconsin has always opened their checkbooks to pack the state high court with their favored judges,” commented Beilman-Dulin. “But with a nearly $670,000 down payment on Michael Screnock with a week still to go before the primary election, they seem poised to set records on this race.” ...

Michael #Screnock ... #Walker Crony appointee, #WMC secret favorite ... WI Supreme Court bias -
 WI #SCOWI - #GOP #GriftersOnParade <- defeated

Don't Go Down This Road: #Tolls ... #Vos and #Fitzgerald - Discriminates - More Bureaucracy - Poor Planning

Moving people from point A to point B can be done in so many ways - bike, walking, train, bus, or other mass transit, even closein neighborhood (re)development.  WI GOP seems to favor policy that covers up "public costs" and obscures benefits and allows them to hide implied "taxation".

If you can afford it you can drive on it; if you can afford a car.  This reinforces inequality.  It most likely harms the environment further; in short and long term ways.

Which private interests benefit (the developers, the landowners, the operating authority) and when - what is the timeframe.

Basically the GOP wants to create and lock in yet another bureaucracy far removed from public scrutiny.

Fitzgerald Pushes For Toll Roads In Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader: Open Road Tolling Is Only Way State Will Qualify For Influx Of Federal Funds Wednesday, February 7, 2018, 10:50am By Shawn Johnson

... While the next state budget debate is still more than a year off, the issue of transportation funding received renewed focus after President Donald Trump called for a new federal infrastructure plan.

Trump's plan would offer states a chance at increased federal funding for infrastructure projects as long as states put up most of the funding themselves. 

That could be difficult in Wisconsin, where the state has delayed major road projects because of a lack of revenue and Republicans who run state government have been unable to reach an agreement to raise the gas tax or vehicle registration fees. 

When Gov. Scott Walker was asked about Trump's plan last week, he said he'd be open to raising the gas tax as long as the state cut taxes by the same amount somewhere else. 

Fitzgerald said he wasn't sure that could ever pass the Senate, and even if it did, he said it wouldn't be enough to tap into federal funds to pay for a backlog of road projects that he estimated at $6 billion. ...

Market Economy versus Market Society: Inequality and Civic Decisions - TED - Michael Sandel

Here's a question we need to rethink together: What should be the role of money and markets in our societies?

That quote is from the first line of a TED talk by ... I recommend it ...

Michael Sandel: Why we shouldn't trust markets with our civic life

Don't Go Down This Road: #Tolls ... #Vos and #Fitzgerald (Stooge for #Trump in DC)- Discriminates - More Bureaucracy - Poor Planning - Market Society vs Market Economy - #Sandel 

Trump wants a crisis. Will it lead to violence?

The question is how will Trump use it ... or rather abuse it.

For example, DACA was humane, so like the sleeping dog, he kicked it to create a crisis and he thinks to create a hollow political advantage.

Will this, lately, "Wall Street" 1175 decline be an excuse.  I read that the TREASURY borrowed $500 Million last year.  Their new projection is the "Trump tax cuts" are going to cause Treasury to borrow $1 Trillion this year -- reduced tax receipts.  This may be the real crisis ... how will Trump abuse it?

GOP Tax Bill: 2017 - Recession even Depression More Likely not Expansion - Tax Cuts and Jobs Act  12/04/2017

Somethings are reasonably understood.  Shock systems and they behave in unpredictable ways.  Politicians,  democratic political leaders and not so democratic leaders use the chaos they create to take even more unreasonable steps.

Genocide, demonizing ... how and why!  How do you stop it ... not with just speeches!

Political correctness. Free speech. Terrorism. On this week's Radio Replay, we look at the language we use around race and religion, and what that language says about the culture in which we live. This episode draws upon two of our favorite podcasts, "Is He Muslim?" and "Hiding Behind Free Speech."

Ervin Straub

Ervin Staub (born June 13, 1938) is a professor of psychology, emeritus, at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He is the founding director of the doctoral program on the psychology of peace and violence.^[1] He is most known for his works on helping behavior and altruism, and on the psychology of mass violence and genocide. He was born in Hungary and received his Ph.D. from Stanford. He later taught at Harvard University.^[2] He worked in many settings, both conducting research and applying his research and theory. He worked in schools to raise caring and non-violent children, and to promote active bystandership by students in response to bullying, in the Netherlands to improve Dutch-Muslim relations, in Rwanda, Burundi and the Congo to promote healing and reconciliation.^[3] He has served as an expert witness, for example, at the Abu Ghraib trials,^[4] lectured widely on topics related to his work in academic, public, and government settings in the U.S. and other countries, and is the recipient of numerous honors.

His most recent book is Overcoming evil: Genocide, violent conflict and terrorism. 2011. New York: Oxford University Press.

#Trump wants a #crisis ... The question is how will Trump use it ... or rather abuse it.  #DACA was humane so Trump canceled it to create an #immoral "local" humane crisis at home.  Various faces of #Genocide - lies to create it and chaos!

Open Secrets ... who is "American Action Network"

Feel free to distribute or cite this material, but please credit the Center for Responsive Politics. For permission to reprint for commercial uses, such as textbooks, contact the Center: info@crp.org

has the data ...

Top Donors, 2018 Cycle

Targeted Candidates, 2016 Cycle

American Action Network ... who are they ... supposedly "center right"! 

January-February 2018

They are running heavy, on MSNB, attack adds in the am against Nancy Pelosi.  The style makes her look like some CEO megalomaniac with her "visage" being broadcast on skyscraper building facades.

Like you would expect President Donald J Trump to be envious  :)

Top Donors, 2018 Cycle

Targeted Candidates, 2016 Cycle

When I get weird comments/replies I post them ...

#OpenSecrets ... who is " #AmericanActionNetwork " #RightWing - Targeting #Pelosi as evil on #MSNBC ads