GOP pols and activists increasingly seem to be a mix of ridiculousness and malevolence. It is tempting not to take them seriously because they are so inept and foolish. However, we should never forget that they are deadly serious concerning their aims: to keep power and harm their political opponents. Perhaps most alarming, the general public seems to be totally unaware of (or unconcerned about) the dangerous irrationality of GOP pols. Republicans have a good chance of retaking the House and a fair chance of retaking the White House.
Dems have got to improve their messaging. Republicans appeal to the ‘Basic Selves’ of voters by scaring them about crime, takeover by immigrants, and ‘radical leftists’ who will come to forcibly take their guns. Dems respond with ‘10 point plans’! Dems have to learn how to talk to voters in mythic terms that illustrate a safe and improved future.
In a statement to the Journal Sentinel, Vos said the review “will now turn its focus to resolving the lawsuits that have been brought against our efforts by liberal activists.” That may be a reference to the watchdog group American Oversight, the organization that sued over the unfulfilled records requests, which in turn led to Vos being held in contempt.
Funny how being held in contempt lessens the appeal of letting this clown show continue.
Gableman is notable solely for being perhaps the ickiest hack ever appointed to a state supreme court. In Vos we have a legacy fascist pol in the state of Kochland. On Wisconsin!
Responding to the AP article posted on WH Gift Records – Reading the State Department Office of Protocol gobbledygook-speak, I am totally astounded by the level of BS-edness of their language. Who can even write this scat:
Regarding the 2020 gifts, the department said it had “made attempts to collect the required data from the current authoritative sources … but it has confirmed that potentially relevant records are not available to the State Department’s Office of the Chief of Protocol under applicable access rules for retired records of the Executive Office of the President and the Office of the Vice President.”
“As a result, the data required to fully compile a complete listing for 2020 is unavailable,” it said.
The DOS might have not even asked!
The report notes that the lack of gift information could be related to internal oversights as the protocol office neglected to “submit the request for data to all reporting agencies prior to January 20, 2021,” when the Trump administration ended and the Biden administration began.
Which is worse – the DOS statements or the AP reporting?
Hope TPM and others follow up on the contempt violation, due to start April 14 by my clock at $1000/day.
I thought this amount too low for Vos and thee Assembly to move their heinies, but American Oversight already awarded costs and fees, and $1000 is mid-range of state limit ($2000).
When in government employ writing gobbledykook-speak is a high art form and valued by career professionals. Part of my professional life was writing grants to various groups and government institutions. Rejection letters wasted no effort, were short and quite curt intending to get the message across “don’t bother us further”… But letters informing of acceptance of our laboratory game plan could get quite flowery and utterly meaningless… except in the amount of funding provided. Grant writing was the main reason we as a group in my lab decided to close it down in 2012. It got just too hard to squeeze dollars out of majority GOP outfits populated by men who saw no real worth in esoteric pursuits like working out early detection methods for ovarian cancer.
I so totally agree with this “quixotic” nature of big grant funding - NIH, NIMH, Robert Wood Johnson, etc… MOST of my professional life was at least half writing grants. I helped in two really wonderful grants – The final one was for 5 years, and $5 Million ( I was a part of a really tight, great coalition. All credit goes to them/us!) True, the money dried up in about 2006, we wrapped things up in 2008, and I was RIFed in 2010, when the grant ended. Two years left before I could retire. Got a new gig and retired in 2012. Never looked back!
As the saying goes, it’s not the meat, it’s the motion.
They mainly only want “investigations” to continue. Because that gives them credibility among the followers of Hannity, Carlson, et al. That’s what Trump told Zelensky: just say you’re investigating Biden, and we’ll take it from there. Sewing doubt is a win.
I know some of Gableman’s former law clerks. They were scathing in their assessment of him as a justice and as a human being. His handling of the bogus investigation confirms the clerks’ view on both scores. I suspect he wants to continue the investigation because it’s probably the only job he can get that’ll pay him as much as $11,000 a month and will let him hobnob at taxpayers’ expense. In Wisconsin, you know how much off the rails Gableman is when Robin Vos actually begins backing away from him.
Dems have to learn how to talk to voters in mythic terms that illustrate a safe and improved future.
