If I had to find a positive about living in Wisconsin, it is that Wisconsin provides an almost limitless stream of political ineptness unmatched anywhere else in the United States, from which I can mine great blog material.
Scott Walker. He is the epitome of republican ideology; and his radical ideas have truly changed the state, but not for the better. I don't know why this moron thought his ideas for a new world could be implemented anywhere, but he did. Here is one result:
Let's just narrow it down to the abolishment of Wisconsin's Commerce Department, and the start up of Scott Walker's brain child "Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation", a semi-private agency that was supposed to bring 250,000 jobs to the state, provide training, and do all kinds of wonderful things for all citizens here in Walkerland.
The agency was royally lambasted in a recent audit by the non-partisan Legislative Audit Bureau. Here are some of the ridiculously inept mismanagement highlights:
WEDC did not require financial statements from companies receiving incentives. They gave monetary awards to ineligible businesses and ineligible projects. They awarded nearly $1,000,000 in tax credits to companies for actions taken before those companies had signed their contracts with the state. There was no follow up by WEDC to see if jobs were created and they never clearly reported job numbers they were able to obtain.
WEDC staff used agency credit cards to buy inappropriate items, including alcohol, football tickets and travel expenses for WEDC agency families.
WEDC had no policies in place for tricky questions, such as when to forgive loans that weren't repaid. They made new loans to businesses that hadn't paid back a prior loan.
WEDC lacked invoices or other contractually required documents which would have shown authorized costs for seven of twenty-nine grant and loan awards reviewed. Recipients of at least $100,000 had not submitted the required financial statements, despite the fact they spent all the funds awarded to them.
One recipient of WEDC funds wasn't paying some of its employees the required wage.
Expected results were never established for ten of WEDC's thirty programs.
A November 2012 report from WEDC contained inaccurate information and did not honestly present the number of jobs created or retrained as a result of WEDC programs. Auditors were unable to determine or assess the effectiveness of WEDC programs in light of WEDC's inability to properly manage its programs or its financial reporting.
Face it folks, Scott Walker's idea was a bomb; and it appears that all kinds of millions are out there unaccounted for. I'll wager a bet that WEDC was set up as nothing more than a dummy corporation to line the pockets of Scott Walker's cronies. This is taxpayer money, and I am experiencing taxpayer outrage.
Let's get rid of Scott Walker in the next election; because we simply can't afford to have the wolf minding the hen house one day longer!
Excuse me now. I have to fill out my one paragraph application for a WEDC $1,000,000 grant to continue to write my blog. I figure, it'll be no problem at all! I'm gonna be rich! Thanks Wisconsin Taxpayers! I'm perfectly within the law. I hired my cat to lay on my feet while I write, training him not to move (by keeping my foot on his tail) thereby keeping me chill-free through an ugly Wisconsin spring. I pay him $75 per hour for this service. I'm the perfect candidate for WEDC funds, don'cha think?
Thursday, May 2, 2013
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Schizophrenic Wisconsin
Last week Wednesday, I was driving home in an ice pellet storm and the temp was about 34 degrees. Today, my magnolia bloomed in full, my garden is already full of flowers (and weeds) and I'm writing this post stripped down to underpinnings because it's hot in my bedroom.
Well, at least we're finally in the five months of Wisconsin weather than I can actually tolerate.
Of course, the next few days will be in the forties and rainy. As much as I might lament the ever changing weather here, rain and cool will preserve the magnolia blossoms and toughen up the delicate plants that are just starting to poke their heads thought the soil.
I'm going to go get all my hair cut off as I can't stand myself right now almost as much as I can't stand living in Wisconsin. Maybe, with a new hair style, I'll feel inspired. Then again, maybe I'll hate it and shave my head, starting from scratch, once again. Frankly, I can't even imagine what my hair actually looks like without all the manipulation from my stylist. Maybe it's time to find out. I'd do it, too, but I think my head might be misshapen. All that banging it against the wall, you know?
Anyway....here I am in schizophrenic Wisconsin where the Governor's new agency for the creation of jobs has fallen under scrutiny for absolute malfeasance. What else can we expect from this yokel and his band of misfits.
Ah Wisconsin! Bring on the mosquitoes, the never ending roar of Harleys and the OWI's. It's almost summer!
Well, at least we're finally in the five months of Wisconsin weather than I can actually tolerate.
Of course, the next few days will be in the forties and rainy. As much as I might lament the ever changing weather here, rain and cool will preserve the magnolia blossoms and toughen up the delicate plants that are just starting to poke their heads thought the soil.
I'm going to go get all my hair cut off as I can't stand myself right now almost as much as I can't stand living in Wisconsin. Maybe, with a new hair style, I'll feel inspired. Then again, maybe I'll hate it and shave my head, starting from scratch, once again. Frankly, I can't even imagine what my hair actually looks like without all the manipulation from my stylist. Maybe it's time to find out. I'd do it, too, but I think my head might be misshapen. All that banging it against the wall, you know?
Anyway....here I am in schizophrenic Wisconsin where the Governor's new agency for the creation of jobs has fallen under scrutiny for absolute malfeasance. What else can we expect from this yokel and his band of misfits.
Ah Wisconsin! Bring on the mosquitoes, the never ending roar of Harleys and the OWI's. It's almost summer!
Saturday, April 27, 2013
Governor Scott Walker's Continuing Plan to Destroy Poor People
In Governor Walker's budget for the next fiscal year, he is allowing Rent-to-Own companies to operate without disclosing their interest rates.
Typically, rent-to-own companies operate like this. They sell you a $1000 refrigerator on a time payment plan. After six years of paying for the refrigerator, you will finally own it, and you will have paid about $5000 for it. These companies prey on disadvantaged families who cannot get credit through conventional lending companies. In Walker's budget, these companies would be allowed to operate without telling the consumer just how much their financing plan is going to actually cost them.
I understand we live in a predatory society --- survival of the richest at its core. But this is just plain homicide by interest rate.
Here is my advice to people who find themselves in this situation. Go and buy a houseful of furniture from these parasitic companies. Then move. No forwarding address. Use a fake social security number to obtain the credit; preferably that of a long dead relative. I'm telling you to break the law by any possible means to get what you need. These people are breaking a moral code to get your business in the first place. On the streets where I've learned my lessons, fight fire with fire.
Typically, rent-to-own companies operate like this. They sell you a $1000 refrigerator on a time payment plan. After six years of paying for the refrigerator, you will finally own it, and you will have paid about $5000 for it. These companies prey on disadvantaged families who cannot get credit through conventional lending companies. In Walker's budget, these companies would be allowed to operate without telling the consumer just how much their financing plan is going to actually cost them.
I understand we live in a predatory society --- survival of the richest at its core. But this is just plain homicide by interest rate.
Here is my advice to people who find themselves in this situation. Go and buy a houseful of furniture from these parasitic companies. Then move. No forwarding address. Use a fake social security number to obtain the credit; preferably that of a long dead relative. I'm telling you to break the law by any possible means to get what you need. These people are breaking a moral code to get your business in the first place. On the streets where I've learned my lessons, fight fire with fire.
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
The First Warm Day in Wisconsin
Here's a picture of the first warm day in Wisconsin:
1. It probably will never get here.
Errr, sorry, just feeling rabidly pessimistic these days. Try again:
2. Great clouds of flies and mosquitoes will begin biting viciously.
3. Rabbits will eat all the garden plants.
4. Giant white lumps will take over downtown, smelling like yeast dough rising. Just before everyone panics, these lumps will be recognized as people's arms and legs, which haven't seen the light of day in months. They've been doubling in size since September, they're almost ready now!
5. The pot holes will give way to sink holes, swallowing all cars with spinner hubcaps. Did you ever see a Lexus with spinner hubcaps? You can sure see one here in Milwaukeeland. If there's something ridiculous that can be done to a car, it is done here, full tacky.
6. I will uncover half a dozen of my shoes (not pairs of shoes, just odd lot shoes) that my dearly departed dog has buried around the back garden. Won't matter, because I've already thrown out the matching shoe in frustration.
7. Lake Michigan will cough up a few dead bodies.
8. The wiener carts will make an appearance on downtown street corners. Personally, I can't wait for this! Nothing like a tube steak and a Coca Cola on a hot day. Makes you feel like you're at the ballgame instead of at work.
9. Muffin tops will poke their round little faces out of midriff shirts, and some navels will have become elongated smiles. Why not. Everybody's happy it's warm outside!
10. Aging men will wear Bermuda shorts and tennis shoes with black knee highs. On the first warm day, we can flaunt our fashion sense because we don't have to wear puffy coats anymore. Milwaukeeans will truly celebrate! It will be a sight. I should get my camera and prove this to you. Stay tuned for future pictorial documentation!
1. It probably will never get here.
Errr, sorry, just feeling rabidly pessimistic these days. Try again:
2. Great clouds of flies and mosquitoes will begin biting viciously.
3. Rabbits will eat all the garden plants.
4. Giant white lumps will take over downtown, smelling like yeast dough rising. Just before everyone panics, these lumps will be recognized as people's arms and legs, which haven't seen the light of day in months. They've been doubling in size since September, they're almost ready now!
5. The pot holes will give way to sink holes, swallowing all cars with spinner hubcaps. Did you ever see a Lexus with spinner hubcaps? You can sure see one here in Milwaukeeland. If there's something ridiculous that can be done to a car, it is done here, full tacky.
6. I will uncover half a dozen of my shoes (not pairs of shoes, just odd lot shoes) that my dearly departed dog has buried around the back garden. Won't matter, because I've already thrown out the matching shoe in frustration.
7. Lake Michigan will cough up a few dead bodies.
8. The wiener carts will make an appearance on downtown street corners. Personally, I can't wait for this! Nothing like a tube steak and a Coca Cola on a hot day. Makes you feel like you're at the ballgame instead of at work.
9. Muffin tops will poke their round little faces out of midriff shirts, and some navels will have become elongated smiles. Why not. Everybody's happy it's warm outside!
10. Aging men will wear Bermuda shorts and tennis shoes with black knee highs. On the first warm day, we can flaunt our fashion sense because we don't have to wear puffy coats anymore. Milwaukeeans will truly celebrate! It will be a sight. I should get my camera and prove this to you. Stay tuned for future pictorial documentation!
Sunday, April 21, 2013
The Daily Koch
Rumor has it that the billionaire industrialists, the Koch Brothers, are looking to buy eight major newspapers, which they will surely use as a method to get out their conservative message of less government (and less taxes for the uber wealthy).
This should be very concerning to American citizens who trust that journalism and the papers they read will be held to high standards.
Fortunately, the focus group for the Koch's message do not read newspapers; depending instead on such media celebrities as Rush Limbaugh to form their ideas. Whenever someone tells me they don't read newspapers, I, almost immediately, have a very biased idea about their IQ score. Granted, it's unfair, but it's almost a Pavlovian response for me. Doesn't read newspapers = doesn't even attempt to get much.
Once our media is firmly in the hands of people with a very definite agenda, it will be difficult to live in a supposed "free" country, because that free country won't exist anymore, except as designated by a bunch of suits deciding what information is acceptable to publish.
Big Brother rewrote all history in the novel 1984 and it is certainly possible that the Koch Brothers are America's own Big Brothers.
If the Koch Brothers are going to go into the newspaper business, it spells big trouble for little people. Beware of these bastards, people. They are totalitarian, tax evading twits, out to twist history to their liking.
This should be very concerning to American citizens who trust that journalism and the papers they read will be held to high standards.
Fortunately, the focus group for the Koch's message do not read newspapers; depending instead on such media celebrities as Rush Limbaugh to form their ideas. Whenever someone tells me they don't read newspapers, I, almost immediately, have a very biased idea about their IQ score. Granted, it's unfair, but it's almost a Pavlovian response for me. Doesn't read newspapers = doesn't even attempt to get much.
Once our media is firmly in the hands of people with a very definite agenda, it will be difficult to live in a supposed "free" country, because that free country won't exist anymore, except as designated by a bunch of suits deciding what information is acceptable to publish.
Big Brother rewrote all history in the novel 1984 and it is certainly possible that the Koch Brothers are America's own Big Brothers.
If the Koch Brothers are going to go into the newspaper business, it spells big trouble for little people. Beware of these bastards, people. They are totalitarian, tax evading twits, out to twist history to their liking.
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Is the NRA America's Top Terrorist Cell?
The NRA constantly promotes the ownership of guns for all American citizens. Let me clarify. The NRA constantly promotes that every American should be able to own an assault rifle and unlimited access to ammunition.
Does this not promote terrorist principals? The NRA says we need these guns to protect ourselves from a democratically elected government. Excuse me? Since I've lived in the United States, not one government agent has come knocking on my door, threatening my safety. Not the President. Not the Senators. Not the Congressmen. Not the Governor (although he does threaten my idea that I live in a rational world). Not the Mayor. In fact, not so much as a census taker has come to my door and made me believe I need to own an assault weapon.
I think the NRA is just a mouthpiece for gun manufacturers. That fact, alone, should disqualify them as any kind of meaningful organization.
The NRA needs to be abolished as its core values are in direct conflict with global peace. Why we tolerate this group, America's very own Al Qaida, is beyond me. I understand America has more rednecks than a Texas pool hall on a Saturday night, but do we honestly need to have these yahoos spewing their uneducated vitriol into every corner of our society? You can dress a redneck in a suit and tie and give him national media coverage, but it doesn't change the fact that their message is the promotion of violence.
While we change the gun control laws in this land, let's also change the deeply entrenched idea that the National Rifle Association is an organization which does any good whatsoever. They are America's very own, homegrown terrorist nation. And they need to be stopped right along with the sale of assault weapons.
Does this not promote terrorist principals? The NRA says we need these guns to protect ourselves from a democratically elected government. Excuse me? Since I've lived in the United States, not one government agent has come knocking on my door, threatening my safety. Not the President. Not the Senators. Not the Congressmen. Not the Governor (although he does threaten my idea that I live in a rational world). Not the Mayor. In fact, not so much as a census taker has come to my door and made me believe I need to own an assault weapon.
I think the NRA is just a mouthpiece for gun manufacturers. That fact, alone, should disqualify them as any kind of meaningful organization.
The NRA needs to be abolished as its core values are in direct conflict with global peace. Why we tolerate this group, America's very own Al Qaida, is beyond me. I understand America has more rednecks than a Texas pool hall on a Saturday night, but do we honestly need to have these yahoos spewing their uneducated vitriol into every corner of our society? You can dress a redneck in a suit and tie and give him national media coverage, but it doesn't change the fact that their message is the promotion of violence.
While we change the gun control laws in this land, let's also change the deeply entrenched idea that the National Rifle Association is an organization which does any good whatsoever. They are America's very own, homegrown terrorist nation. And they need to be stopped right along with the sale of assault weapons.
Saturday, April 13, 2013
Wagging the Dog Yet Again
Here we go again; America wagging the dog, Korean style.
Any entity which bases its success on the misery and decimation of other people (what the United States has been all about since Day 1) is doomed to failure.
Can't happen soon enough, in my opinion. Let's face it, the U.S. has had a good run, building itself into the world's superpower at the expense of - well - everyone on the planet.
Anyhow, between a government that can't be trusted, a populace that can't (seemingly) be educated and an agenda that is clearly not in keeping with intelligent, forward and global thinking, why do we accept the United States as functioning? It certainly seems to be one of the most violent, unhappy places on the planet.
What astounds me is that we accept this.
Where's the revolution? Where's the youth who inherit this disaster and where is their understandable outrage?
I guess we're all socially autistic, so connected to our devices that our tunnel vision has turned into having the wool pulled over our eyes.
Ah Americans, what fools.
Any entity which bases its success on the misery and decimation of other people (what the United States has been all about since Day 1) is doomed to failure.
Can't happen soon enough, in my opinion. Let's face it, the U.S. has had a good run, building itself into the world's superpower at the expense of - well - everyone on the planet.
Anyhow, between a government that can't be trusted, a populace that can't (seemingly) be educated and an agenda that is clearly not in keeping with intelligent, forward and global thinking, why do we accept the United States as functioning? It certainly seems to be one of the most violent, unhappy places on the planet.
What astounds me is that we accept this.
Where's the revolution? Where's the youth who inherit this disaster and where is their understandable outrage?
I guess we're all socially autistic, so connected to our devices that our tunnel vision has turned into having the wool pulled over our eyes.
Ah Americans, what fools.
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