Trump's 14th Amendment Nonsense Made Fool of Gov Scott Walker in 2015

Brown people are invading and the Jews are helping.
So say Trump, Scott Walker and the whole bunch of
mass-murdering, anti-Semitic whacks, (Twitter).

Madison, Wisconsin — In 2015 Donald Trump was scoring points with white supremacists voicing his intentions to somehow halt the 14th Amendment citizenship guarantee.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) said, me too, making a fool out of himself in the process, (Mal Contends).

Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post had fun at Walker's expense, reporting the Wisconsin governor's multiple interpretations of the14th Amendment, weeks before Walker ended his campaign for the Republican Party nomination for president amid God's calls for Walker to quit the race.

Reports Johnson:

Walker said Monday that he supports ending birthright citizenship, then said later in the day that the problem could be addressed by enforcing other laws. On Tuesday, a prominent donor confronted Walker on the topic and walked away satisfied that the candidate wouldn't do away with birthright citizenship. On Friday, Walker said he didn't have a position on the issue. Then Sunday, Walker said he does not want to alter the 14th Amendment.

And writes CNN's Eric Bradner at the time:

The Wisconsin governor and Republican presidential candidate was asked on ABC's 'This Week' whether he backs Trump's push to end the 14th Amendment's mandate that all children born in the United States are automatically granted citizenship.

'Well, I said the law is there. And we need to enforce the laws, including those that are in the Constitution,' Walker said

Laws in the Constitution?
 ---
Now, Trump is hoping to excite Republican Party racists for the midterm elections by claiming the power to change citizenship law and the 14th Amendment through executive order.

Trump and Walker are racists.

While this Trump stunt may seem a distraction to some, there is a fight to be had as events the last week make abundantly clear.

It's the fight Trump and Walker want. So be it.

Opposing Trump is a civic duty and moral responsibility.

And these people are racist lunatics.

Trump wants to unconstitutionally end birthright citizenship but add a discriminatory question about US citizenship to the 2020 census. That tells you everything you need to know

— Ari Berman (@AriBerman) October 30, 2018

Wisconsin Senate Republicans Ban Voter Registration Drives

Update: See GOP Still Tampering with Our Democracy by State Senator Julie Lassa.

Wisconsin Republicans really, really would like it if you would not vote. Leave voting to the Republicans.

Republicans' latest anti-voting rights bill is Senate Bill 295, passed along a party-line vote yesterday.

The bill would "(eliminate) the position and responsibilities of special registration deputies," halting voter registration drives of disfavored citizens, (Legislative Reference Bureau).

SB 295 is being fast-tracked to the state assembly for passage and eventual signing into law by Scott Walker.

Both Wisconsin legislative chambers are gerrymandered to elect Republicans.

Since gaining power in the 2010 mid-term election, Republicans have passed numerous anti-voting laws designed to obstruct minorities, the poor and younger voters from casting votes, and reshaping Wisconsin elections to benefit Republicans.

Scott Walker Was the Rick Perry of the 2016 Campaign

Scott Walker's SuperPac running
today on Google ads -
Unintimidated

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel columnist, Dan Bice, wrote in April 2013 that Scott Walker is not an "ideas guy," suggesting someone as error-prone as Walker who can't think on his feet "could earn him the distinction of being the Gov. Perry of the 2016 campaign." (Daniel Bice chat transcript on Thursday, April 18, 2013) (Mal Contends)

Ooops.

Bice turned out to be right. Hope the Journal-Sentinel doesn't fire the guy.

Walker's attempt to answer (and mostly avoid) fundamental public policy questions doomed his campaign making Walker's bosses, the moneyed special interests from whom Walker takes orders, nervous they backed the wrong sock puppet.

For fun reading before the Noon games today:

• Juan Cole's Top Cringe Worthy Foreign Policy Moments in GOP Debate
• Mike Allen and Alex Isenstadt's 'It's a f---ing bitch, man,'  
• Frank Bruni's Scott Walker’s Cocktail of Ignorance

An Ooops moment, Scott Walker's whole campaign is a Ooops moment.

Scott Walker Earns Seat at Kids' Table

It took three questions—addressed to Carly Fiorina, Donald Trump and Rand Paul—from CNN debate moderators for attention-starved Scott Walker to interrupt, inform the country what's important, get in his rehearsed line abut Trump and lie about Wisconsin.

From last night (Time Magazine transcript):

Scott Walker: But Jake, Jake, Jake, Jake ....

Scott Walker: But Jake, this — this is — this …

Scott Walker:  Jake, this is — this is — this is …

Donald Trump:  But I have to say …

Scott Walker: This is actually what’s wrong — this is what’s wrong with this debate. We’re not talking about real issues. And Mr. Trump, we don’t need an apprentice in the White House.

(APPLAUSE)
We don’t need an apprentice in the White House. We have one right now. He told us all the things we wanted to hear back in 2008. We don’t know who you are or where you’re going. We need someone who can actually get the job done. And you talked about business.

Donald Trump: Well, in Wisconsin …

Scott Walker: You — you — let me finish …

Donald Trump: Excuse me.

Scott Walker:  No, no…

Donald Trump: In Wisconsin, you’re losing $2.2 billion right now.

Scott Walker:  You’re using the talking …

Donald Trump I would do so much better than that.

Scott Walker: Mr. Trump, you’re using the talking points of the Democrats…

Donald Trump: No.

Scott Walker:… and as we all know …

Donald Trump: I’m using facts.

Scott Walker: … You can’t take America into bankruptcy. That’s what’s wrong with the politicians in Washington right now. They think we can take a country into bankruptcy.
---

Shortly after, Donald Trump took a look at Walker and said, "When the folks of Iowa found out the true facts of the job that you’ve done in Wisconsin, all of the sudden you’ve tubed. He was number one now he’s number six or seven in the polls. Look, we brought it out. You were supposed to make a billion dollars in the state. You’ve lost two point two ($ Billion). You have right now a huge budget deficit. That’s not a Democratic point. That’s a fact, and when the people of Iowa found that out, I went to number one, and you went down." (Easley, Politicususa)

Walker went on to demonstrate his condition as a pathological liar, assuring the debate audience that in Wisconsin he stands up for "working families, family farmers, small business owners and senior citizens."

Walker has specifically targeted the living and prevailing wages and benefits of working families, promoted industrial CAFO-factory farms over family farmers, used a state agency to reward campaign donors over small business and went after the popular SeniorCare, Family Care and IRIS Care.

Scott Walker Cannot Help Self-Aggrandizement

'If you’re asking whether the idea for Occupy Wall Street emerged out of the Madison protests, the answer is no'

Updated - Scott Walker's lack of aptitude for the presidency is becoming apparent, another defining characteristic of Scott Walker is his self-aggrandizement.

Walker's public statements reveal both a pathological capacity to lie and a delusional self reverence as a historical American figure.

White Republicans voters love the stories Walker tells, though Walker's authenticity is now under question as the Des Moines Register news coverage tries to keep Walker's wavering campaign afloat.

Conventions of political journalism constrain corporate reporters from writing the obvious: Walker is a sock-puppet for billionaires, and he does what is told.

Another Scott Walker Lie Debunked 

This morning, the Washington Post is out with another debunking of an oft-repeated Walker lie: "The Occupy Movement didn’t start in Washington, didn’t start in Wall Street, it started in my capitol," said Walker.

One is compelled to note that the Wisconsin State Capitol is the center of Wisconsin civic discourse to which all of the Wisconsin citizenry has claim and the capitol is not Walker's, a fact the Walker administration tried to erase from history during the First Amendment federal case, Kissick vs. Huebsch and Erwin, which Walker lost (Mal Contends).

Walker offers variations of his assertion, including in his memoir written by Marc Thiessen, though Walker claims co-authorship. In the memoir, Walker asserts: "The [budget] hearing would soon claim a more ignominious place in history — as the moment that gave birth to the ‘Occupy’ movement." (Lee, Washington Post)

Walker hates Americans assembling and expressing what they believe they should to with their country, hence the word "ignominious" that Thiessen uses.

Walker says the sneak attack, the "bomb," Walker dropped on Wisconsin gave rise to the national movement, Occupy Wall Street which challenges the massive wealth inequality of American society, and the unsustainability of a consumerist, low-wage society.

Walker refers specifically to the February 15-16, 2011 Joint Finance Committee hearings on Walker's 'Budget Repair Bill" as the birth and start of the Occupy Movement, a falsehood (Davidoff, Isthmus) (Ballotpedia, Timeline of Wisconsin Act 10, the "Scott Walker Budget Repair Bill" (2011)).

In fact, the Occupy Movement traces its roots to December 2010 and the earlier public stirrings of the Arab Spring, and Occupy and affinity groups were running material contemporaneously on the Net as represented by Ad Busters' Feb. 2, 2011 call for A Million Man March on Wall Street.

"The mass protests that have erupted in Cairo's Midan Tahrir square, and are close to toppling Mubarak's regime, were orchestrated by a handful of Internet-savvy organizers known as the [April 6 [2008 Youth Movement]," writes Kono Matsu in Ad Busters, just three years after Wall Street nearly crashed the world economy in a global economic crisis not seen since the Great Depression.

Writes Michelle Ye Hee Lee in the Post:

Occupy Wall Street was inspired by uprisings around the world, particularly the Arab Spring and the populist protest Acampada in Spain [begun in 2008-09], and its international roots helped spawn global spinoffs of Occupy Wall Street, White said.

'It is a difficult question that ultimately comes down to a matter of perspective on history. There are many different origin stories for Occupy. It is true that the Madison protests preceded Occupy. And there were other protests, too, that preceded Occupy. For example, ‘Bloombergville’ in NYC. Early 2011 was a period of sustained global unrest,' said [Micah White, a major figure with Occupy Wall Street]. 'However, if you’re asking whether the idea for Occupy Wall Street emerged out of the Madison protests, the answer is no.' 

Facts and analysis are not Scott Walker's long suit, nor is history, what Walker calls "past hypotheticals."

Lying and delusion remain the defining characteristics of the man not-intelligent-enough-for-even-the-Republican Party.

Scott Walker's False Claims He Has Held "Listening Sessions" Across Wisconsin

Scott Walker appears on ABC News This Week
and offers his third position on amending
the Fourteenth Amendment in seven days.

Updated - "The impression is fast setting in that Scott Walker, former King of Iowa, is a nonsense person and a ridiculous presidential candidate. (Newell, Salon)"
 ---
To understand Scott Walker is to see an undeveloped psyche, a man with no essence who will say anything with facts posing no barrier.

This morning the Wall Street Journal reports Walker saying, "We’re doing the hard work of the town-hall meetings, the small-group sessions. I think that pays off because, while the national media is focused a lot on another candidate, in the end, voters in these early states clearly take this stuff seriously." (O'Conner, Wall Street Journal)

Last week, Walker said his flip-flop on Common Core education standards is the result of holding listening session across Wisconsin: "We'd hold sessions around the state, we'd listen to people, we'd talk to people," said Gov. Walker. (Neumann, WKOW-TV)

Actually, Scott Walker has held zero townhall-style, unscripted listening sessions in Wisconsin.

Walker's recent false claims to the contrary are asserted out of concern that Walker doesn't know much about public policy, displaying not-even a pedestrian grasp of major public policy issues, ala Sarah Palin with whom Walker does not wish to branded this early in the campaign.

This is a guy whose press office demanded that all questions be pre-screened on a press phone call on Walker's healthcare plan 'to phase out ObamaCare on Day One' last week. (Politico)

This is considered open and accessible for Scott Walker who regularly bans reporters in an attempt to keep his lack of policy knowledge a secret.

This is not a well-kept secret, it's just not many in the campaign press write about it. Writes Dylan Byers in the right-leaning Politico:

In March, Walker made public appearances in Texas and South Carolina but closed the events to press and refused to take questions from the media. In April, while visiting Europe, he held no public events and took no questions from reporters. In May, while visiting Israel, he did the same. An aide told the Journal that Walker was going to 'focus on educating himself about Israeli issues and won’t hold public events or take questions from reporters.'

Walker's refusal to hold listening sessions, from the Midwest to the Middle East, should be news, as should his lying about it.

It is understandable from Walker's point of view why Walker avoids unscripted question-and-answer sessions.

Take this the latest headline on CNN: Scott Walker on birthright citizenship: 3 positions, 7 days. Writes CNN's Eric Bradner:

The Wisconsin governor and Republican presidential candidate was asked on ABC's 'This Week' whether he backs Trump's push to end the 14th Amendment's mandate that all children born in the United States are automatically granted citizenship. 

'Well, I said the law is there. And we need to enforce the laws, including those that are in the Constitution,' Walker said

United States Constitution

What "laws" are in the United States Constitution?

For Scott Walker's edification, here is a link to the Leonere Annenberg Institute for Civics explaining the United States Constitution. There are no laws in the Constitution.

Walker would do well to begin with Article 1, Section 1:

Section 1 - The Text
All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.

Section 1 - The Meaning
The framers of the Constitution separated the powers of government into three branches, granting legislative power (the power to pass laws) to Congress, executive power (the power to administer the laws) to the president, and judicial power (the power to interpret and enforce the laws) to the courts. The unique and limited powers of Congress are contained in Article I.

Fourteenth Amendment Citizenship Clause

With respect to Scott Walker's on-again, off-again commitment to amend the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution, Jenna Johnson in today's Washington Post has a timeline of Walker and his campaign's statements over the last week. It's pretty funny and at Walker's expense. Last Monday evening Walker blamed his change-the-Fourteenth Amendment-citizenship-clause position on a confusing "three-hour roving [press] gaggle."

Last Friday, Walker explained he was for changing the Fourteenth Amendment citizenship clause because he was "tired." (Blue Cheddar) (ThinkProgress) (CognitiveDissidence) (Mal Contends)

Johnson's piece ends with a quote from AshLee Strong, Walker's campaign spokeswoman, saying in part: "His position is very firm."

Firm, and strong and bold. Unfortunately for the nation, Walker's idea of a bold unscripted question-and-answer session is to yell at an audience, "Unintimidated! I am not intimidated by you, sir, or by anyone else out there."​

Scott Walker Now Refuses to Take "Position" on 14th Amendment Citizenship Clause

Scott Walker heard Donald Trump's reading of the citizenship-birthright clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and had to get in on this toxic appeal to nativism and bigotry—Walker's political wheelhouse.

"Shortly after Donald Trump released his immigration policy proposal on Monday, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker assured reporters that he agreed with Trump's opposition to 'birthright citizenship,'" reported Phillip Bump in the Washington Post. "Absolutely," we should end "birthright citizenship," Walker said to NBC's Kasie Hunt.

On Friday, Scott Walker changed his mind and told CNBC's John Harwood that "I’m not taking a position on it one way or the other." (CNBC - Scott Walker talks birthright citizenship)

How can a candidate for the presidency not take a position on this pillar of American citizenship enshrined in Section One of the Fourteenth Amendment?

Scott Walker can because Walker does not have the slightest conception of common law, constitutional law and judicial policymaking.

Walker did explain in a Tweet Friday that he earlier agreed with Trump's position on the Fourteenth Amendment because he was "tired." (Blue Cheddar) (ThinkProgress) (CognitiveDissidence)

What?

Don't look for a detailed position paper outlining Walker's Constitutional analysis: 'It's August-hot in Iowa and I'm tired, enough of Section One of the Fourteenth Amendment.'

Walker did hint at his Constitutional acumen in 2013. In determining the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of expression does not apply to speech that is critical of Walker, Walker's administration ordered 100s arrested and fined.

U.S. District Court Judge William M. Conley and state courts disagreed with Walker and ordered restoration of the First Amendment at the Wisconsin Capitol, as well as civil recovery of attorneys' fees and other costs. (Mal Contends)

This is why Scott Walker avoids townhall-style listening sessions and unscripted sit-down interviews. He doesn't know anything, ala Sarah Palin. (Mal Contends)

No one expects a presidential candidate to be a Laurence Tribe or a Richard Posner, but being a student of the United States Constitution is critical to serving as POTUS.

This has been a bad month for the candidate of the Koch brothers, the Milwaukee-based Bradley Foundation and the corporate bill mill, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

As Walker is forced into discussing public policy, it is becoming readily apparent that Walker is in over his head.

This ignorance is dangerous, as seen when Walker pushed for more secrecy in Walker's aborted scheme to gut Wisconsin's Open Records law.

Walker is a lightweight who takes orders from billionaires and other donors funding his campaign.

Can you imagine Scott Walker as president?

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel columnist, Dan Bice, wrote in April 2013 that Scott Walker is not an "ideas guy," suggesting someone as error-prone as Walker who can't think on his feet "could earn him the distinction of being the Gov. Perry of the 2016 campaign." (Daniel Bice chat transcript on Thursday, April 18, 2013) (Mal Contends)

We're there.

Five weeks-plus into his campaign after his July 13 announcement for the presidency, Scott Walker has earned the distinction of being the candidate who does not, like, know anything, to borrow from Juan Cole.

Scott Walker—Screened Questions from Press, Lies, and Fades in Wisconsin

A desperate Scott Walker tanks in Wisconsin as favorability
rating falls into the 30s (Milewski, Capital Times)

"Was on Gov. Walker health plan press call. First time as a reporter I've ever had my questions pre-screened before I could ask them," said Stephanie Armour, The Wall Street Journal's health care policy reporter. (Byers, Politico) (Caffeinated Politics)

That mean Stephanie Armour was likely going to ask some public policy question of the erstwhile candidate for the presidency.

Meanwhile, Scott Walker's allies in the Wisconsin legislature want to exempt public integrity and public corruption crimes from Wisconsin's John Doe law that has been on the books since the 19th century (Opoien, Capital Times) (Berghahn, Hurley, Burish and Stanton)

Walker's favorability rating has dropped into the 30s in Wisconsin. (Milewski, Capital Times)

And Walker keeps on telling his made-up story on the stump about a teacher who has again requested Walker stop it. (Strauss, Washington Post)

Maybe Walker could ask the teacher to offer a lesson on the Fourteenth Amendment.

See why Walker avoids townhall-style, question-and-answer sessions, holding precisely zero as governor of Wisconsin?

Scott Walker is depicted at below-right:

Scott Walker's Voter Obstruction Efforts Highlight Anti-democratic Sentiments

The Republican Party and Scott Walker in particular have long made voter obstruction a major policy objective.

Through cutting early voting, photo voter ID, gerrymandering, and other work on behalf of corporations funneling anti-democratic bills through ALEC, (NBC News) Walker has become a front-man in Wisconsin to stop those politically opposed to him from voting, with a particular animus for ethnic minorities. (McGillis, TNR)

The Republican Party's war against voting is a nation-wide effort, but Walker has taken the lead in Wisconsin for years using public policy and campaign appeals as a means to divide and conquer disfavored citizens.

A grotesque effort, but conquering citizens has a long and sordid history known in the 20th century as fascism.

Walker's political allies are featured in yesterday's New York Times Magazine in a cover piece on the 50-year campaign to roll back the Voting Rights Act. (Rutenberg, New York Times)

Stopping black and brown folks from voting, this is the America Scott Walker wants, where Walker with his hands out to special interest money is considered among the few proper activities.

In 2012 the stakes were high, in 2015-16 the stakes are higher and Walker remains an inadequate personality, and a pathological liar still in fear of facing the Wisconsin people, but scheming to rob them of their rights.

NYT's Account of Scott Walker and a Lie

Dan Kaufman's exposé in the
New York Times of Scott Walker
and his lies to workers, and Walker's
concerted attack on working families.

I looked ... at [Scott Walker], and I said, ... 'If you can tell me that right-to-work will not come on your desk, then I will take you for your word.' He looked me in the eyes, and he said, 'It will not make it to my desk.'

Updated - A prominent Scott Walker flaw is Walker's condition of a pathological liar, a man without a conscience. (John Dean, Verdict) [Another illustration of Walker's pathological tendency to lie: Prime Minister David Cameron disputes an assertion by Scott Walker Cameron spoke ill of U.S. President Obama, after Walker made up a story about Cameron in his overheated talk to a roomful of Republican donors (Miller, Time Magazine]

In Dan Kaufman's explosive and ominous exposé in the New York Times Magazine of the betrayal by Scott Walker of the Wisconsin working class, Walker's deceit and lack of a conscience come to life.

The ease with which people as Nixon and Scott Walker lie and deceive is breathtaking, and is now on record as fact for the 2016 presidential campaign.

Kaufman's description of Walker stands out with an implicit warning that Scott Walker wants to take national the Koch brothers and ALEC's rightwing legislative agenda that Walker used, deceitfully, against the people of Wisconsin:

Writes Kaufman:

Last fall, [Terry McGowan, the president of [International Union of Operating Engineers. Local 139], a statewide union of 9,000 heavy-­machinery operators] met with [Scott] Walker, who was seeking a contribution and another endorsement for governor, at a small campaign office in Wauwatosa, outside Milwaukee. "I looked across the table at him, and I said, ''We are both God-­fearing men,'" McGowan told me. "'If you can tell me that right-to-work will not come on your desk, then I will take you for your word.' He looked me in the eyes, and he said, 'It will not make it to my desk.' He was looking for a contribution, and I was looking for a commitment. We both got what we came for. He kept his, and I lost mine." ...

In early March, I visited Dave Poklinkoski, the president of Local 2304, an electricians’ union, at his office in Madison, where he was drawing up a right-to-work-­compliant union contract. "Divide and conquer, it works," Poklinkoski said. "It works real well." He dug out his iPad from under a pile of papers and pulled up an editorial cartoon by Mike Konopacki that showed a bloodied Terry McGowan, the Local 139 president, with a sword in his back, the hilt and handle in the shape of Walker’s head, labeled "R-T-W."

Scott Walker Does Not Know as Much as Jeopardy's Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings

Readers who DVR Jeopardy (Sony Corp) know last week featured Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings in the Battle of the Decades.

Rutter and Jennings are amazing minds, dominating this American gaming institution like Roberto Duran dominated the lightweight division in boxing in the 1970s and, I can't think of another example.

To hear Scott Walker, he simply does not have an immense general knowledge base rivaling Rutter and Jennings,' and doesn't know his mind as well, what with god inserting some many thoughts.

Part of what make these two millionaires so great at Jeopardy is not just that they know so much and are fast in clicking in on a question.

Rutter and Jennings also know their minds with striking clarity, often clicking in to be first and then voicing the correct answer (question) on occasions when they didn't know the answer when they clicked, but knew the answer would come to them fast.

This came to mind because Saturday the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel editorialized against dark money and asked Scott Walker if he knew about a well-publicized $700,000 contribution from Gogebic Taconite (GTac) LLC, a mining company that wrote a Republican mining bill before proposing its massive project that would devastate a pristine area in Iron and Ashland counties with North America's largest open pit mine.

Writes the Journal-Sentinel:

Gov. Scott Walker says he had nothing to do with soliciting a $700,000 donation from the mining company Gogebic Taconite for Wisconsin Club for Growth during the 2011 and 2012 recall elections. Asked whether he was aware of the donation, he responded with "not to my knowledge." (Which means exactly what?)

It means, if Scott Walker is to be believed, that Scott Walker simply does not know to his knowledge if GTac gave a $700,000 contribution to Club for Growth as Walker urged that all contributions be laundered through Club for Growth, a pro-Scott Walker group directed by Walker's campaign adviser.

If Walker loses in November, he can forget Jeopardy.

Walker is programmed by his attorneys and is attempting to be reelected without answering a question about the fact Walker was at the center of a criminal scheme placing him in criminal jeopardy, but we should give Walker a break about not being Rutter or Jennings.