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You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

T R E 4 5 O N

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The snowflake in chief appeared visibly frustrated when questioned by a reporter about egg prices.

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Hot air and ill-informed banter

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You are here: Home / Politics / Political Action / Do You Live In Wisconsin? You Have One Job.

Do You Live In Wisconsin? You Have One Job.

by | 51 Comments

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Update at 7:30 pm

If you live in Wisconsin, you have one job today.  Make this call.

If you don’t live in Wisconsin, do you know someone who does?  Your job is to contact everyone you know in Wisconsin and get them to call.  (Everyone call Omnes and Mousebumples, stat!)   Hopefully you know some folks in real life, also.

Take 5 minutes to defend democracy and the rule of law.

Don’t want to go to twitter?   CLICK THIS LINK

Don’t know what this is about?

The voters in Wisconsin elected Judge Janet P. to the WI Supreme Court, tipping the balance to progressive judges, by just one vote.  Republicans no longer believe in the rule of law, or in the bedrock of this country – that people get to elect the officials that serve them.

Wisconsin GOP’s impeachment plan: Another MAGA coup against democracy

Let’s stop them in their tracks with an overwhelming response to this un-American effort to overthrow the will of the people.

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

51Comments

  2. 2.

    SiubhanDuinne

    The only people I know in Wisconsin are my flat-earth-believing, climate-change-denying, Moon-landing-was-a-Kubrick-film-adhering, Covid-vaccine-refusing, Trump-loving, Biden-hating brother and sister-in-law.

    So I don’t think I’ll call them.

  10. 10.

    Another Scott

    I assume OO is burning up the phonelines.

    On Wisconsin!!

    Meanwhile, …

    ‘Units (they/them)
    @[email protected]

    Never posted this, but went into journalism believing in journalism

    Got a slightly shitty gig, but Barry Carridy’s arse shone the chair I sat in. That felt good. Until I started doing journalism

    Turns out the local aged care unit had the lowest rate of COVID vaccination in Victoria, circa 2021, smack bang in the middle of a plague. Kind of a big deal

    So I wrote it up, nothing but federal health data and a big ball of that’s regrettable

    Advertising went nuts. Publishing went nuts. Turns out the hospital who ran the aged-care unit were huge spenders and it would be ‘regrettable’ to publish such stats

    Not being one to back down or take any kind of shit from marketing, ran it up the flag poll to the owner I was certain would back a solid data-yarn.

    They did not, waving a wand over ‘considerations’. Was ordered to run all future copy past said advertiser

    The advertiser. That demonstratively risked the life of every elderly patient in their care

    /endmediacareer

    Sep 09, 2023, 02:36 · Edited Sep 09, 02:50

    I’ll bet that is really, really, really common. It’s (mostly) not that big media outlets are pushing some nefarious agenda. It’s mostly that they are prisoners of their advertisers (and not wanting to offend people who are customers of their advertisers).

    And that’s a big, big problem. As long as media depends on ads, and people are unwilling to directly pay for stuff that they value (and stop assuming everything on the web is and forever should be “free”), it likely won’t get any better.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  11. 11.

    danielx

    Is there like a competition for ‘worst Republicans north of the Mason Dixon line’? If so, Wisconsin variety is well up there in the running.

  13. 13.

    MagdaInBlack

    @WaterGirl: But it is maintaining control, by whatever means necessary.

    Eta: my parents were active republicans, party of Lincoln and all, but my mothers last presidential vote was for Obama.

  14. 14.

    wjca

    What’s notable in Wisconsin is not that they are cheating because they can’t win an election.  It’s that they are cheating so blatantly.  It’s like they don’t only know they can’t win otherwise.  They also know that everybody in their state already knows they have to cheat to win, so there’s no reason to bother to hid it.

    Kind of hoping that everybody there does know.  It might turn the win on the judges election into enough wins next year, despite gerrymandering, to flip the state legislature.  FAFO time.

  15. 15.

    Eolirin

    What they’re threatening to do is far worse than impeachment. They’re threatening to start impeachment proceedings and then deliberately never try them in the state senate so that she is both not removed but also not exonerated, freezing her seat on the court as she can’t try cases until this is resolved, which it never will be, and preventing the governor from appointing a replacement. She’d have to resign to avoid the situation putting her seat into a permanent limbo.

    It’s a transparently cynical abuse of power and I can’t see this improving their margins in future elections. It might even piss off enough people to start breaking their gerrymanders, but it almost certainly puts the state out of play in 2024. But there’s no reason for the state legislature, for whom her appointment is an existential threat, to care about that.

    The Republicans aren’t even party before country anymore, they’re run by self interest first and party is just a means to an end there. It’s why they can’t mount an effective defense against Trump. It’d hurt them personally, never mind what’s best for the party.

  17. 17.

    narya

    @Another Scott: Back when I was an unemployed, indebted, newly minted Ph.D., I was applying for jobs–via newspaper ads! As you might imagine, I was pretty desperate, especially as the unemployed months piled up. I remember seeing an ad for a newsletter writer for a Big Health Insurance Company, and . . . I could not bring myself to apply for it, even in my dire straits. I’m not patting myself on the back, mind you, just sympathizing with that writer. In some ways, I was grateful for my visceral reaction–I realized that, for my own mental health, I had to use my powers for Good rather than EvilBullshit. Eventually, a substance abuse treatment agency–basically a bunch of ex-con recovering alcoholics and drug addicts–took a chance on me, and I’ve been grateful to them ever since.

  18. 18.

    Villago Delenda Est

    “At the end of the day, we must respect the will of the voters”

    NO WE DO NOT! — Robin Vos

  22. 22.

    Jude

    I live in WI and still feel the sting of the rejected Scott Walker recall efforts I helped in. WI people will fight even for people they abhor to respect an election. At least that’s what happened during that campaign.

    The thing is, as much as I wish it were true, WI doesn’t HAVE 11% more Ds than Rs. That means some Rs voted for Janet. And some left it blank because they knew what a sh1tstain Kelly, her opponent, was.  They are going to be PISSED.

    Will share this info on my Dem county FB page. TX.

  23. 23.

    WaterGirl

    @Hungry Joe: Honest to god, cross my heart, when I read SD’s comment earlier, I nearly wrote that she should prank call them and ask if they have Prince Albert in the can, and why don’t they let him out?

    !!

  24. 24.

    Eolirin

    @Jude: It doesn’t really mean that, it means Dems were far more motivated to turn out than Republicans. This isn’t going to diminish that motivation for sure. But most elections, especially in close states, are decided on turnout. We have too many marginal voters, on both sides. Trump’s 2016 victory was largely driven by turning out large pockets of non and low propensity voters in key states. But this is especially true of non-presidential and special elections. Turnout is always down, sometimes by a very large amount in those elections, so motivation becomes even more determinative.

  25. 25.

    Mousebumples

    Thanks for front paging this! If I recall from previous threads, OO called his reps earlier this week, and I called mine yesterday.

    • GOP Rep – tracking calls, no actual articles of impeachment, “probably not going to happen” but refused to give me a straightforward, refusal to support. “aware of constitutional role”… Whatever that means.
    • GOP State Senate – no plans to support impeachment. Which, after the call, I realize could mean no plans to push leadership to bring such a vote up (to NOT impeach) if passed by the Assembly.

    Might pretend I still live by my parents and call their reps next week.

  26. 26.

    Mousebumples

    Also – if anyone wants to volunteer, they are phone banking to get the word out.

    https://www.mobilize.us/wisdems/

    This might be an empty threat by the WI GOP, but WisDems are much stronger than they were in the early 2000s. Thanks, Ben Wikler!

    (also, extra voter contact ahead of Sen. Baldwin & President Biden’s reelection campaigns are a net good, I’d think!)

  27. 27.

    New Deal democrat

    @Eolirin: This is a clearer case than anything I have seen in my lifetime that way back in the day when Congress took its powers seriously, would call for the invocation of the Constitutional clause guaranteeing a “republican form of government” to the States. You literally have an entrenched minority refusing to allow a majority to exercise the power by those who they duly elected.

    No, of course Congress will never do this, even if the Democrats have a trifecta.

  28. 28.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Jude: ​
      Your point about the recall is a good one. A significant number of people voted against the recall because they thought that it was trying to throw out the results of an election.

    I did not need to call my rep because I live in Madison. I did call the rep from my hometown who is a Republican. The staffer I talked to indicated that they had received “several calls” already. He had not yet decided.

    GOP Rep. Scott Johnson has already announced that he will not vote for impeachment. The calls are having an effect.

  31. 31.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Alison Rose: It was early in the day and their districts aren’t that big.  Only 24,000+ voted in that district in the last election.  I know they received several more calls because I called family members, gave them the number, and had them call.  I sure not all of them did, but I know some did.

  32. 32.

    Mousebumples

    @Omnes Omnibus: Thanks for that link!

    I’m debating if I should call again next week to see if there’s any change in thoughts or decisions. Might see if my grandma wants to call her (GOP) reps too. As a retired teacher and poll worker, she’d have Opinions, I’m sure.

  35. 35.

    Hoppie

    @Eolirin: Also, especially in Wisconsin, the Russian troll farms were actively using “social media” to discourage African-American turnout, and gin up Hillary-steria.  It frustrates me that our enemies sometimes know more about the nitty-gritty of the US electorate than the MSM does.

  36. 36.

    Shalimar

    I don’t know about calling the Supreme Court Justices and putting pressure on them that way.  They theoretically should be above partisan politics.  But Bradley is up for re-election in 2026 and Ziegler in 2027.  They need to be aware they’re going to lose if the current Republican anti-democracy movement continues.

    Impeaching Protasiewicz may sound appealing to win this one battle,  but it will hurt them in the war for long-term power.  Their better option is to come back from the abyss and try to find policy positions that can win majority support again.

  37. 37.

    Bobby Thomson

    Republican judges are so nakedly corrupt in Wisconsin they would be disbarred if the local bar had any ethics whatsoever.

  38. 38.

    Mousebumples

    @Citizen Alan: I envy you. My RWNJ sister is a retired teacher with two children just starting out as teachers, who voted Trump and luuuurves Desantis.

    My dad is GOP leaning (fan of Dubya), but has refused to vote for Trump x2. My mom is more independent but leans Dem. Wisconsin, overall, has a pretty strong independent streak, and there are a fair number of independent voters at play each election cycle.

    I have teacher cousins who volunteer at local Pregnancy Help Lines – pre Dobbs anyway. Evangelical church teachings at work…

  39. 39.

    Bobby Thomson

    @Shalimar: Impeaching Protasiewicz may sound appealing to win this one battle,  but it will hurt them in the war for long-term power.

    I have absolutely no faith in the heavily gerrymandered Republican supermajority to care, and barely more in the ability of the voters to do anything about it.  We need a new Voting Rights Act that puts Wisconsin in the pre-clearance states.  Short of that, democracy will never return.

  40. 40.

    Eolirin

    @Shalimar: As true as that is, it comes back to how that’s about the party’s survival, not the individuals’; fair maps will toss a lot of them out of their seats.

    Yeah, the party can recover from that, especially if it can manage to moderate, but the individuals won’t. There need to be enough members who can see the writing on the wall who are willing to put the party first. We’ll see if there are.

  41. 41.

    Mousebumples

    @Bobby Thomson: Republican judges are so nakedly corrupt in Wisconsin they would be disbarred if the local bar had any ethics whatsoever.

    I’m not a lawyer, so I won’t chime in on what the bar will or won’t do… But the above impeachment threats aren’t coming from conservative jurists. They’re coming from right wing, gerrymandered state Assembly/Senate leaders.

  42. 42.

    Geminid

    There was a good, long article about Wisconsin politics published August 31 and titled, “Abortion fight unites Democrats, rattles Republicans in Wisconsin battleground.”

    The reporter interviewed prospective voters in Door County. The county is a “bellwhether” county that has voted for the winning Presidential candidate, Republican and Democrat, since the 2000 election.

    One passage is about the Door County Fair, where a Republican booth gave passers-by a chance to take part in a straw poll of Presidential preferences.

    Democrats took a different tack, inviting people to drop beans into mason jars labled with different issues. A Ms. Jenson-Olson greeted fair-goers:

       “Drop a bean into the ones you care about,” said Jenson-Olson…as a woman with cropped blond hair, red framed glasses and a can of Mug root beer walked up.

    “Let me see,” said Susan Lindner, 53, a dishwasher at a lakefront resort in town.

    Inflation? The environment? Affordable housing? Reproductive rights?

    She plunked a bean into reproductive rights.

    Lindner declined to sign up for Party emails, saying she did not consider herself a Democrat or a Republican. She liked to vote by the candidate. In 2020 though, Lindner did not vote at all because she had just moved and did not know her polling place.

       This time around, Lindner felt more motivated, recalling how, 15 years ago, she was almost raped by a man she trusted.

    “If I had gotten pregnant…”

    Lindner didn’t want to like to think about what could happen to a victim of sexual assault.

    “It’s the women who are punished,” she said.

  46. 46.

    catclub

    @Hoppie: ​
     

    It frustrates me that our enemies sometimes know more about the nitty-gritty of the US electorate than the MSM does.

    On the other hand, I was amazed to learn that Barack Obama is spending time rent free in Tucker Carlson’s head, and the heads of his followers. And those people think that Democrats are being ruled by Obama.

  48. 48.

    WaterGirl

    @Shalimar:

    I don’t know about calling the Supreme Court Justices and putting pressure on them that way.

    Who is calling the Supreme Court judges?  I believe that WisDems is calling people in the legislature.

  50. 50.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    I don’t live in Wisconsin and I have two jobs. Nice try. You can’t fool me.

  51. 51.

    Chris T.

    @noncarborundum:

    “Is your refrigerator running?”

    “No, it’s just sitting there in the kitchen, chillin’.”

    I’m a big fan of “clarifying questions” myself, and even when I get legit polling calls (sort of rare now, though I’ve gotten a few WA-based ones on my cell phone even though it’s not a WA cell phone number) I often have to ask for more specifics.

    Sometimes, the caller can’t supply them!

    In this case I’d probably ask: “What do you mean by running? For example, do you mean evaporator pump currently engaged, overall function sufficient, specifics about icemakers, and so on?”

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