Wisconsin Gov. Walker Threatens To Deploy National Guard Against Unions

The article mentions an alternative unheard of Increasing tax revenue by raising the currently very low taxes. Just sayin' ...

Maybe current (especially corporate) tax rates are just too low for a modern state to function on? Just askin' ...

NO! Cuttin' taxes is good for and against everything. One must not, ever increase taxes, from the comparably pathetic levels they're currently on. The sky will fall! And America will face socialism and certain ruin!

 

A race to the bottom will only get you to the bottom. There will always be a place that is somewhat cheaper. When Texas becomes a hollow state they can have zero corporate taxes - no one in his right mind will want to go there. Schools matter, infrastructure matters, governance matters. A state isn't just courts and jails. All that costs money, and my strong impression is that Republicans don't see that.

The Swiss have high taxes. We have high taxes. The Swedes have even higher taxes. We all do good business, have good schools, good infrastructure, good governance and a decent standard of living. We have probably somewhat smaller growth, but growth isn't everything.

 

So I can expect my kids to be home from school an extra day during the week, like they do in Cali? That's fine, they need the extra rest anyway.

 

It's ironic -- a good friend of mine moved here from Cali because of the problems with the schools there [he's got 3 kids, like I have]. I hope it doesn't get that bad here. Texas is, at least at the moment, a pretty good place to have a family. But if you are single, there are much better places to be, at least in my opinon.

 

What is that Republican mantra again, something about they are cutting because they don't want to "burden our children's future with debt?" I guess what they are really saying is that they don't want to pay for our children's future today.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42441377

 

Unlike in most professions where the people with the least seniority are most in jeopardy at a time in layoffs, the opposite tends to happen in school districts. The teachers with the most experience (and subsequently higher salaries) are usually the first ones to go because they save the school district the most money.

Such was the case that happened in one county Maryland at the end of last year. The first people let go were the teachers that were already over 65. Then they went and cut all who were old enough to start collecting their pensions - 20 years in the system and at least 55 years old. All told, they got rid of 300 teachers. But the end result was not 300 fewer teachers, because most of those laid off were replaced by new teachers fresh out of college, who could fill the roles of the laid off teachers at a fraction of the cost.

It varies by county, but most 20-year teachers with a Masters degree in Maryland make around 75K per year, whereas a new hire with just a bachelors fresh out of college makes less than half of that.

 

The odd thing is, that it is illegal in the US to hire, or fire based upon age. At least I thought it was....

 

To somewhat steer back to the original topic of this thread, Walker's approval ratings have nose-dived since all this went down. He went from a net +16 favorable in February, down to a net -12 unfavorable currently. Many in the state legislature are expected to face recall votes this summer.

 

I see, BTA. Kinda like the old excuse to fire young people, but in reverse: "Last hired, first fired." Now it's, "first hired, first fired." Merit has nothing to do with their job security, it appears. We really are becoming like China.

 

You won't believe what just happened in Wisconsin - A huge clerical error decisively swings the race in favor of the Republican candidate for the state Supreme Court:

What a scatterbrain!

Some people have a luck just as if they were cheating. I guess they're just blessed. You know, He works in mysterious ways.

Spoiler

* apparently it's about this (bold):

 

You are quite right, Ragusa - It's amazing she has been able to keep her job, with all the problems in the past elections given to "human error" status [good thing she isn't a teacher in that state]. I guess she is just "lucky" to have a friend in high places.

 

While it certainly looks suspicious, everything that has come out thus far suggests that the error was the result of stupidity - or at least carelessness - and that there was no nefarious actions taken by Ms. Nickolaus.

 

Of course, we all know the reactionaries won't be seeing it that way...

 

Maybe and maybe not. She seems to feel she should keep vote totals on her personal computer which she takes home with her-not a standard practice.

Plus there seems to be a jump in difference between number of ballots cast and votes counted that coincided with her assuming her current position.

That said it is possible that Prosser was re-elected, there was an ad in the race that backfired and Kloppenburg didn't have the class to distance herself from it when he tried to hold it against her in a debate or the smarts to note that he didn't distance himself from an ad that lied about her (either way of handling it would have nullified the impact of the ad I suspect).

That said my lying governor has made the paper for putting an under-qualified son of a campaign donor (or head of the organization that donated to his campaign rather) in a state government position over a couple of people with both experience and degrees.

Why promote capability when you can simply rely on political loyalty-cronyism at its best.

One of the other little joys of his "budget repair bill" is that it makes more civil service positions his "at will" appointees.

Still have to wait until November until it is legal to start recall efforts against him.

 

Recall petitions against state senators with the required signatures are getting turned in and right now more recall campaigns against democrats than republicans are coming up short (there are going to be more Republican state senators facing recall elections).

And this is in spite of the fact that it was found out that the GOP was using paid people instead of just volunteers to collect recall signatures.

One particular event of interest was when an out of state felon who was working for the GOP (he and others had been brought in from out of state and were staying at a hotel) tried to steal someone's bag at Lambeau Field in Green Bay.

http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com...drops-recall-worker-cited-Lambeau-Field-theft

Now this is really funny to me as this man seems to be a thug and I've seen GOP people complaining about "union thugs" I don't know how often.

And on top of that they were accusing protestors in Madison of being paid and from out of state.

As someone who actually was there I can easily say I'm from Wisconsin and nobody paid me to be there-ditto for many of the other people who protested. But I think I may have talked about that a bit already.

Still the irony is humorous.

 

It's no real surprise that there will be more Republicans who are facing recalls. They were the ones that passed the union busting bill. I don't think there were that many avid supporters of union busting in the state, but there certainly were a bunch of people who were avidly against it.