Republican shakedown Univ of Wisconsin, demand Conservative Speakers in exchange for Funding

[riversedge]

Damn--things go from bad to worse!!



Spud Lovr ?@SpudLovr 24m24 minutes ago

Republican shakedown UW, demand Conservative Speakers in exchange for Funding http://democurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2016/09/republican-shakedown-uw-demand.html?spref=tw … #wiunion #wiright #wipolitics



Tuesday, September 6, 2016



Republican shakedown UW, demand Conservative Speakers in exchange for Funding!!!
It’s budget time again, and Republicans are gearing up to extort the UW system again. But really, this is friggin over the top:

Now that's what I call BIG GOVERNMENT Republican meddling.

Yes, the super majority Republicans and governor are worried that there aren’t enough young malleable minds receiving their specific kind of indoctrination. It's simple too; use a few “trigger” words that set off the wondering conservative mind; Black lives Matter, I hate Scott Walker, Food Stamps, Tax Cuts, Big Government, Climate Change…etc. and your done converting the few low information voters in the class caught drooling.

One problem, and it's well documented, paranoid conservative speakers require heavy security that most colleges just can't afford to provide. They fear being questioned.

But that won't stop Rep. Robin Vos from inserting government bureaucracy into the funding

formula for the UW System. Can you say extortion?

Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos is calling on the UW System to invite more conservative guest speakers to its campuses. Vos' remarks come as another contentious state budget debate looms in 2017, which again could put UW System funding on the chopping block.

For Robin Vos, free speech means forcing certain conservative speakers on campus...wait, I'm sorry, "extorting" is a even a better word:

[Buzz Clik]

1. Wisconsin has fallen totally over the edge.

[Zambero]

2. A counterbalance

Since ungodly secular universities promote that "science stuff". If it ain't in the Bible, well, it ain't!!!

[Grins]

3. California part 2....

I lived in Wisconsin for a while but I always considered the U. of California system one of the finest things the state ever did. Great schools and the envy of other states and countries.

Wisconsin? They were a close #2!!! Really good and getting better all the time.

And then came Howard Jarvis and his Proposition 13 that got on the California ballot in 1978 that cut property taxes a whopping 30% and capped the rate of tax increases in the future. And what state agencies took the hit for this tax cut? The U. of California's university system. And it has been all downhill since then. Wisconsin moved into first place.

And then in 2015 Scott Walker decided to gut the U. of Wisconsin system. Walker wanted to eliminate tenure for professors at the University of Wisconsin, while cutting the U. of W's budget by $250 million! Why? To give it to wealthy hedge fund managers to build a new basketball arena for the Milwaukee Bucks. Can't get any more Republican than that!

Wisconsin was emulating California and the university system was going down. It may not be the jewel of the state anymore.

Maybe this will change. In 2012, California voters approved Prop 30, which injected cash into its hemorrhaging education system, along with a slew of other progressive tax reforms. It took 34-years but Prop 13 may no-longer a 3rd rail in California politics.

Maybe the same will happen in Wisconsin one day....as soon as they rid themselves of ideology-driven Conservative Republicans.

[Still In Wisconsin]

5. Right now we've got way too many racist suburbanites and rednecks for anything to change.

Walker's poll numbers, in the mid 30's after his presidential "candidacy," have almost completely recovered, and Trump is statistically tied with HRC.

Yes, we are THAT dumb as a state.

[Still In Wisconsin]

4. I am in a position to know (faculty) and I PROMISE you the UW is sinking fast.

If you're a bright, talented, up-and-comer, there are many, many better opportunities available to you other than a UW faculty position. And if you're a proven faculty member with a decent number of years left in your professional career, you're probably actively looking for a way to get the hell out.

It's a slow-motion train wreck. Look at the UW in 3-5 years and it will be nowhere near the quality it is now, even after almost six years of Walker and the Republican supermajority. Add to this the fact that the Republicans here have done a better job of gerrymandering than anyone else in history (this has been documented elsewhere) and about the only way to change this situation is to get rid of one Scott Kevin Walker.