We have had the worst criminality in our statehouse ever, just during the past half dozen years. The first step in this process began when the results of the first election our current Governor, Scott Walker stood for were tampered with. Oddly enough, the John Doe proceedings that were meant to get to the bottom of that issue were stopped by Walker appointees in the justice department. Even before the governor took office, he was plotting ways to spend wildly on corporate donors and stifle any real positive changes that we the people of Wisconsin had worked for through the generations. One of the things I worked my whole life on was to reestablish the rail service between Green Bay and Milwaukee. I have written every Governor since the mid eighties to request that they help with this much needed transportation link. On day one of his taking office, the current leader of our state killed the legislation that would have re-established the first leg of rapid transit here in Wisconsin. It would not have connected the million people between Green Bay and Fond du Lac with Milwaukee, but rather the quarter of a million or so Madison residents and Milwaukee. One of the busiest and most deadly highways in the state runs between Green Bay and Milwaukee, but the highway that connects Madison and Milwaukee is not far behind.
Also, since the state was already under contract for buying the rail cars and motive force (engines), we were liable for the lion's share of the price, without ever having the equipment delivered or the rails to run the trains on. In other words, we didn't save any money. In fact, we lost jobs and made it far more expensive to continue driving point to point on the most congested roadway in the state.
I can continue to delve into the transportation issue, but believe me, most people in the state of Wisconsin have heard more than enough about this terrible governor and his screwing the pooch on this and other issues. With the cuts in education, social services, health care and the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), there are less and less reasons to drive and without increasing wages, there are fewer and fewer compelling reasons to go out for a drive. This impacts revenue generated by gas tax. as even a child can understand, if your highway funding budget is based on gas tax, less driving will leave even less money available for infrastructure improvements.
When we add in a healthy dose of not wanting the black President to shine, we saw hundreds of "shovel ready" projects denied funding because in some demented myopic vision of Teathuglican logic, denying federal monies earmarked for infrastructure improvements and regular maintenance is living too large. Now, we have delays in the highway construction budget that will keep roads unfinished for at least two more winters. Just what road crews want, having to shovel ice and snow out of the unfinished holes left because the state has run out of money for even projects that had been budgeted for more than six years ago! Meanwhile, perhaps to mitigate the anger and hostility over the lack of transit funding, governor Walker unilaterally raised the speed limit to seventy miles per hour on several hundred miles of highways across our state, increasing traffic deaths by nearly thirty percent. more than an extra one hundred people will die each year because of his terrible highway speed and funding decisions.
We keep getting more and more legislation that only serves his largest donors and none of the ideas are coming from the general public. just the increased fuel use on the roads with the higher speed limits are shifting 15-20% more revenue to fossil fuel producers, at a time when we need to be cutting back fossil energy use, not increasing it! When documents surface that prove collusion and nepotism or outright breaking of election law, the current Governor seals or steals the documents, using the very justices that he has appointed over the years. He has gone as far as writing shielding legislation that prevents the governor from being the "subject" of a John Doe investigation. Those who know how John Doe proceedings are supposed to happen, they do not have a specific person that is being investigated. They are designed to be fact finding investigations so that enough information can be amassed to understand whether crimes were committed at all and only after they clarify what actually happened, specific charges are recommended to the district Attorney in the jurisdiction where any crimes were committed.
Governor Walker is the only person I have ever heard of who retained council and had a defense fund even before the John doe probes were started. Normally you wait for a subpoena and then go to testify (as a witness) because there is no fear of prosecution. John Doe investigations are not court cases, so they are not charging anyone or even suspecting them, until after they have heard all of the testimony. Yes, I did use the plural. Here in Wisconsin, we refer to them as John Doe I and John Doe II. The first was to find out whether state election laws were violated by the Scott Walker campaign before he was elected Governor and lo and behold, they found that there were and that not only were his taxpayer funded offices used to coordinate his campaign, but workers in his offices were instructed to use hours paid for by the taxpayers to campaign for their boss (the current Governor). There have even been reports from the company that installed servers in the offices, again, to run the illegal campaigning that was done at taxpayer expense, with the full knowledge and at the behest of future Governor, Scott Walker.
As all good organized criminals know, it is always best to have a fall guy picked out ahead of time and this he did. even though he instructed his people to break the law, for some reason the half dozen people serving jail time seem to have refused to say exactly who coordinated the activities for the sake of winning the first election. The second john doe investigation found that in order to win the governor's recall election, he took massive campaign contributions from corporate donors in exchange for legislation that shielded them from prosecution and eliminated important routes through the courts for getting satisfaction when people are hurt or injured by the abuses and neglect of corporations. This entire sham government that we live under today is bent on removing any and all corporate responsibility and making the poorest people of all, the general public who are now voiceless in our state pay for the damages themselves.
this is all coming to a head at the same time that Wells Fargo is using low level employees to take the fall for another multi-billion dollar robbery that has been perpetrated upon the American people. welcome to the land of the free to lie, cheat and steal, as long as you buy the appropriate politicians.
Also, since the state was already under contract for buying the rail cars and motive force (engines), we were liable for the lion's share of the price, without ever having the equipment delivered or the rails to run the trains on. In other words, we didn't save any money. In fact, we lost jobs and made it far more expensive to continue driving point to point on the most congested roadway in the state.
I can continue to delve into the transportation issue, but believe me, most people in the state of Wisconsin have heard more than enough about this terrible governor and his screwing the pooch on this and other issues. With the cuts in education, social services, health care and the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), there are less and less reasons to drive and without increasing wages, there are fewer and fewer compelling reasons to go out for a drive. This impacts revenue generated by gas tax. as even a child can understand, if your highway funding budget is based on gas tax, less driving will leave even less money available for infrastructure improvements.
When we add in a healthy dose of not wanting the black President to shine, we saw hundreds of "shovel ready" projects denied funding because in some demented myopic vision of Teathuglican logic, denying federal monies earmarked for infrastructure improvements and regular maintenance is living too large. Now, we have delays in the highway construction budget that will keep roads unfinished for at least two more winters. Just what road crews want, having to shovel ice and snow out of the unfinished holes left because the state has run out of money for even projects that had been budgeted for more than six years ago! Meanwhile, perhaps to mitigate the anger and hostility over the lack of transit funding, governor Walker unilaterally raised the speed limit to seventy miles per hour on several hundred miles of highways across our state, increasing traffic deaths by nearly thirty percent. more than an extra one hundred people will die each year because of his terrible highway speed and funding decisions.
We keep getting more and more legislation that only serves his largest donors and none of the ideas are coming from the general public. just the increased fuel use on the roads with the higher speed limits are shifting 15-20% more revenue to fossil fuel producers, at a time when we need to be cutting back fossil energy use, not increasing it! When documents surface that prove collusion and nepotism or outright breaking of election law, the current Governor seals or steals the documents, using the very justices that he has appointed over the years. He has gone as far as writing shielding legislation that prevents the governor from being the "subject" of a John Doe investigation. Those who know how John Doe proceedings are supposed to happen, they do not have a specific person that is being investigated. They are designed to be fact finding investigations so that enough information can be amassed to understand whether crimes were committed at all and only after they clarify what actually happened, specific charges are recommended to the district Attorney in the jurisdiction where any crimes were committed.
Governor Walker is the only person I have ever heard of who retained council and had a defense fund even before the John doe probes were started. Normally you wait for a subpoena and then go to testify (as a witness) because there is no fear of prosecution. John Doe investigations are not court cases, so they are not charging anyone or even suspecting them, until after they have heard all of the testimony. Yes, I did use the plural. Here in Wisconsin, we refer to them as John Doe I and John Doe II. The first was to find out whether state election laws were violated by the Scott Walker campaign before he was elected Governor and lo and behold, they found that there were and that not only were his taxpayer funded offices used to coordinate his campaign, but workers in his offices were instructed to use hours paid for by the taxpayers to campaign for their boss (the current Governor). There have even been reports from the company that installed servers in the offices, again, to run the illegal campaigning that was done at taxpayer expense, with the full knowledge and at the behest of future Governor, Scott Walker.
As all good organized criminals know, it is always best to have a fall guy picked out ahead of time and this he did. even though he instructed his people to break the law, for some reason the half dozen people serving jail time seem to have refused to say exactly who coordinated the activities for the sake of winning the first election. The second john doe investigation found that in order to win the governor's recall election, he took massive campaign contributions from corporate donors in exchange for legislation that shielded them from prosecution and eliminated important routes through the courts for getting satisfaction when people are hurt or injured by the abuses and neglect of corporations. This entire sham government that we live under today is bent on removing any and all corporate responsibility and making the poorest people of all, the general public who are now voiceless in our state pay for the damages themselves.
this is all coming to a head at the same time that Wells Fargo is using low level employees to take the fall for another multi-billion dollar robbery that has been perpetrated upon the American people. welcome to the land of the free to lie, cheat and steal, as long as you buy the appropriate politicians.
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