A couple of days ago I was stumbling around OS and noticed a blog “thanking” Scott Walker in a sarcastic manner; this blog had Scott Walker in the authors tags and just out of curiosity I decided to see how busy his tag name was and when it became popular. Apparently he first became popular suddenly on February 17 when the second blog was posted with him in the authors tags and this was followed by dozens more many of which came on that day or the next week after. Wait a minute if this was the second what was the first and what did he have to say? Apparently on September 28 Steven Blackwood noticed that Scott Walker is an Immature Ass.
The incident that set this observation off was apparently the latest of many immature acts that involved reissuing a 3 page jobs plan with large font that would stretch it out to 68 pages. This means it should have been obvious to many people that this guy clearly didn’t have any credibility and it is hard to see why anyone would have elected him in the first place. Now there is a recall election coming up and according to some polls cited by Rachel Maddow last night three out of six of the Republican races are close; while the other three are being led by the democrats; the three recalls of the Democrats are presumably safe. This leads me to wonder what is wrong with so many people. Why would there be so many people that would even consider the possibility of voting for so many obviously corrupt and incompetent voters? Presumably this is for the most part either members of the now famous Tea Party or people with a very similar and narrow thought process that enables demagogues controlled by the wealthy to indoctrinate or manipulate them so that they would vote for them without paying much if any attention to the issues which presumably they hardly understand at all.
Obviously once Scott Walker was in office he didn’t get any more mature, if anything he became even more manipulative and corrupt with his behavior busting unions and wasting money for political reasons while claiming that he is trying to reduce the deficit. The people in the Republican controlled State Senate are clearly no better than Walker. I suspect that Wisconsin’s moderate voters are getting a much bigger wakeup call and call to action than the media is reporting on; or at least I hope they are. Unfortunately the demagogues that are working for the authoritarian business leaders are also working in overdrive. Regardless of what happens next Tuesday this almost certainly won’t be over for them; In January I think more Republican’s will be eligible for recall petition drives, including Scott Walker himself. We will probably be watching this all over again at the same time next year while Walker continues to play his silly immature games for the benefit of the most corrupt people in power.
There is no doubt that Scott Walker is an immature ass; however it appears as if he has managed to get enough votes to obtain the office and he isn’t the only one. I’m not as familiar with Wisconsin elections as many other people on this board, including some that are from that area, but this problem clearly isn’t limited to that area. Many of the most corrupt authoritarian politicians and businessmen routinely take advantages of appeals to emotions to manipulate a large segment of the public. In a previous blog I reviewed some articles written by political psychologist and came to the conclusion, which was probably obvious to some, that Political psychologists are suppressing democracy. The current political debate isn’t about issues at all instead it is about manipulating people’s emotions and enabling the most powerful people in this country to implement their own policies and ideologies with little or no input from the public; instead they just give them whatever propaganda they seem to think will enable them to maintain power and keep the public complacent. Recently even that hasn’t happened; instead they seem to be giving the public a large batch of candidates that are downright insane or blatantly corrupt and the public is still, for the most part electing them and accepting the false choices that are being presented by the Mass Media which is now obviously nothing but a corporate propaganda machine.
This isn’t actually completely new, in the past there have been plenty of elections decided on emotional issues like the famous “hands ad” with different pairs of black and white hands that enabled Jesse Helms to get elected at least one time. Now however there appears to be much more research into the subject that enables the political operatives to manipulate the public more effectively although I have some doubts as to whether or not they’re acknowledging the full implications of a lot of this research. In New Hampshire Kelly Ayotte was recently elected despite a major scandal involving Financial Resources Mortgage Inc. by letting her underlings take the blame of this scandal which included the illegal deletion of her E-mails which are conceded by many state owned since they involve state business. She didn’t do this by addressing the issues; instead she ran a campaign that ignored the issue for the most part and showed her on TV on numerous occasions in a jogging outfit that made her look like the cool girl in high school and she playfully made fun of her democratic opponent, Paul Hodes. This indicates that many people may have voted for her because they were treating this more like a popularity contest for teen prom queen than they were treating this like an election to hire the most qualified person for the job that would represent the public’s best interest in the most effective way possible. This is just one of many examples; in fact if I made a list of all the examples I could think of it would take all my time and I still wouldn’t be able to complete it.
The elections that took place last year that elected, or nearly elected a stunning amount of flaky candidates should be enough to wake people up but if they haven’t been enough there’s plenty of other reasons why we should consider the next election worthy of much more attention and efforts to get the candidates to answer to the public on many issues. These reasons include the recent budget deal which will clearly leave the majority of the public paying for the massive debt that we have built up without holding the corrupt business interests that caused it accountable. Instead they’re putting the loot that was stolen from the public through a variety of corrupt corporate welfare projects, union busting, military waste, planned obsolescence and many other activities off limits and putting the burden of this debt on the backs of those with the least amount of political power or money to pay for it. This will essentially turn this country into a virtual slave nation, assuming it isn’t already one. And if the establishment candidates continue to refuse to respond properly then that is all the more reason why we should look to no establishment candidates that actually listen to voters and respond to the interests of the majority based on accurate perceptions of reality. The mere fact that I feel it necessary to use the phrase “accurate perceptions of reality” should be enough to raise doubts about how insane the election process has become; assuming you think this election process is as insane as it clearly appears to me.
We are desperately in need of an educational revolution or something similar that enables the voters of this country to have access to information they need to make rational decisions and enables them to learn how to think in a manner that isn’t constantly manipulated by demagogues that pay little or no attention to the issues. Once the public is better informed and educated then they could do a much better job implementing election reform; even if the public isn’t well enough educated right away they could clearly take an enormous amounts of steps in the right direction if they could have access to candidates that would at least try to do what is in the best interest of the public instead of doing whatever the corporate interests want regardless of what it costs the majority of the public.
On another note I noticed that Steven Blackwood’s blog received very little attention when it was first posted. He was clearly the first one on OS to notice that Scott Walker is an Immature Ass and yet he only received one rating for those of you who care about that. This has since been doubled to two; if you think this subject is worth rating then please rate his. I don’t consider this as important as the attention to the issues but if it is worthwhile to some then he clearly deserves the ratings, for what it’s worth, more than me; after all I blatantly stole his blog title without asking for permission. In fact I would actually be disappointed if I somehow managed to get as many or more ratings as Steven Blackwood although I rarely get many anyway. ;-)
Update August 11: the recall elections were, depending on how you look at it, either a sign of improvement or and indication of how much more needs to be done to educate the public in Wisconsin as well as many other parts of the country where voters were educated or indoctrinated in the same manner. The democrats just barely won two out of six of the recalls which many on the right are portraying as a major victory for the Republicans. This is clearly a misrepresentation of the facts since these six districts that are being contested are among the strongest Republican districts in the state including some that have been held by republicans since Grover Cleveland was president.
However this is also disappointing since they didn’t get the three they were hoping for; and frankly with the behavior of the republicans and the fact that as far as I can tell the democrats were much more engaged with the electorate than most politicians are it seems to me as if it should have been a route that recalled all six or for that matter eight if you count the other two that were eligible but apparently enough signatures weren’t collected.
Clearly these republicans aren’t interested in a sincere democracy; yet they won four of the elections anyway. As indicated previously this should raise a question about why the electorate votes the way they do. It seems to me that this is almost certainly because many voters in these areas and many others around the country have raised in and authoritarian manner (more details in previous blog) that involves teaching them to believe what they’re told by their leaders; this often means that they only listen to the appropriate leaders from their own group instead of sorting through the details themselves. As indicated in several other blogs including the one about authoritarianism this is done at an early age by using corporal punishment and/or intimidation to teach children to believe what their told by the parents instead of taking the time to teach them to sort through the details. This actually takes just as much time in the long term since it doesn’t really work unless it is repeated over and over again and it also leads to angrier and more closed minded adults who tend to go along with the group. If this wasn’t the case I suspect that these voters almost certainly would have seen how absurd their leaders have been behaving, including Scott Walkers antics plus the activities of the Supreme Court Justice Prosser and the senators that were up for recall. They’re not supposed to be electing the people they like best for a high school board or prom king and queen; they’re supposed to be electing the people that are most qualified to run their state. It is clear by the activity of many voters all over the country over the centuries that they don’t seem to understand this. This is presumably because they weren’t taught as a child that part of their job as a citizen in a democracy should involve learning about the issues so that they can do their part to hold their elected officials accountable.
Fortunately in Wisconsin this isn’t the end; as indicated before presumably in January they will be able to begin to collect signatures for more recalls including Scott Walker and perhaps as many as eleven other senators most of whom are probably in less conservative districts. The democrats probably won’t be eligible4 for another recall since they have already gone through this except for the two that are up for recall next week and they’re supposed to be easy elections for them to hold. If my assumptions are correct as I suspect they are, based on sources that I have cited including Alice Miller, Philip Greven, Murray Straus and others, then this is more indication of why we should have a public relations campaign to prevent child abuse and educate parents better about how to help raise their children, especially in poor areas.
As of this writing blogs from Open Salon are about to be taken down. The following is the original article cited from Steven Blackwood, which will only be available for another week or so on Open Salon.
Scott Walker is an Immature Ass by Steven Blackwood 09/28/2010
Recently, Democratic candidate for Wisconsin Governor Tom Barrett issued a 67 page jobs plan. Not to be outdone, Scott Walker, the Republican candidate issued a 68 page plan. The only problem? Walker's plan was in a 58 pt. font while Barrett's was in a more normal font. Plus, the Walker plan was simply a re-formatting of his original 3 page plan.
http://www.scottwalker.org/sites/default/files/SCOTT%20WALKER'S%2068%20PAGE%20JOBS%20PLAN!.pdf
Barrett lambasted the stunt as "juvenile" but this isn't the first time our boy Scott has been juvenile. In 1988, he ran for Marquette University student government president. This election, which Scott lost in the finals, had as its highlight, the spectacle of Scott Walker's campaign workers going around gathering up copies of the Marquette Tribune (campus newspaper) and throwing them in the trash after said publication endorsed his opponent while also stating the either candidate would be acceptable leaders for the coming year. This stunt and a scurrilous handout distributed in the closing days of the campaign, led the TRibune to declare Walker as 'unfit'.
Oh, and Walker left MU 36 credits short.
It's easy to see why Walker might be an attractive candidate for governor. He still has boyish good looks, is very glib, and has always found ways to get himself on television and radio, going back to his days as an assemblymen from Wauwatosa. But, does Wisconsin really want someone who pulls childish stunts, not just as a college student but still does. He always manages to keep a certain level of deniability in that he doesn't personally do these things. However, company he keeps should say something about his character (or lack thereof).
Recently, Democratic candidate for Wisconsin Governor Tom Barrett issued a 67 page jobs plan. Not to be outdone, Scott Walker, the Republican candidate issued a 68 page plan. The only problem? Walker's plan was in a 58 pt. font while Barrett's was in a more normal font. Plus, the Walker plan was simply a re-formatting of his original 3 page plan.
http://www.scottwalker.org/sites/default/files/SCOTT%20WALKER'S%2068%20PAGE%20JOBS%20PLAN!.pdf
Barrett lambasted the stunt as "juvenile" but this isn't the first time our boy Scott has been juvenile. In 1988, he ran for Marquette University student government president. This election, which Scott lost in the finals, had as its highlight, the spectacle of Scott Walker's campaign workers going around gathering up copies of the Marquette Tribune (campus newspaper) and throwing them in the trash after said publication endorsed his opponent while also stating the either candidate would be acceptable leaders for the coming year. This stunt and a scurrilous handout distributed in the closing days of the campaign, led the TRibune to declare Walker as 'unfit'.
Oh, and Walker left MU 36 credits short.
It's easy to see why Walker might be an attractive candidate for governor. He still has boyish good looks, is very glib, and has always found ways to get himself on television and radio, going back to his days as an assemblymen from Wauwatosa. But, does Wisconsin really want someone who pulls childish stunts, not just as a college student but still does. He always manages to keep a certain level of deniability in that he doesn't personally do these things. However, company he keeps should say something about his character (or lack thereof).
(For more information on Blog see Blog description and table of context for most older posts.)
The following are the original replies when this was first posted on Open Salon.
From Steve's Blog:
Yep. Sounds like an ass to me.
Michael Rodgers September 28, 2010 08:56 PM
If this guy were a character in a movie, everyone would think it was way overdone. Seems like the Repubs have a competition this year for the most ridiculous candidate. The prize must be a dandy as there are so many contestants.
Abrawang September 29, 2010 01:47 AM
I hope you don’t mind but I decided to steel your blog title for my own blog, Scott Walker is an Immature Ass. In my opinion it time to recall him and many other politicians who are all immature asses! In fact I think many more people should have paid more attention to your blog when it was first posted and not elected him in the first place!
zacherydtaylor August 03, 2011 02:12 PM
Something about those boys with severe arrested development that makes the public embrace them. Sigh. thanks for this.
Zacharyd sent me. [r]
libby
libbyliberalnyc August 03, 2011 02:40 PM
And from mine:
Maybe this is over simplification, but I think there are two kinds of people in the world. There are the rational, who are able to digest the facts about a situation and arrive at a knowledge based conclusion AND they are willing to re-examine their conclusions when faced with contradictory information. Then there are the irrational who hold firmly to a static set of beliefs based on gut instinct and they can not be swayed by the actual facts.
In other words - it boils down to Conclusions vs. Beliefs. And once you can make someone believe something, like all government is evil, you've got them without question.
Mr. Culture August 03, 2011 02:42 PM
So much wisdom you convey -- so little time, but we have to make the time, the re-education of America!
One slight quibble with very end of this brilliant passage:
"We are desperately in need of an educational revolution or something similar that enables the voters of this country to have access to information they need to make rational decisions and enables them to learn how to think in a manner that isn’t constantly manipulated by demagogues that pay little or no attention to the issues."
The demagogues are quite well-acquainted with the REAL issues which is why they are so adept at strong-arming attention away from them. PROFITS over humanity. The greed for money and power has reached grotesque dimensions at this point. The inertia of evil one might call it, huh? In 2009 the top 10 hedge funders earned an average of $900,000 an hour. I am finding it hard not to vomit as I read about the awesome injustices and flagrant thievery which is normalized by our government leadership (that word makes me want to vomit ... our anti-leadership) and the media that teaches America that POWER IS GOOD, GREED IS GOOD ... and that we must respect and bow down to power no matter how it was achieved. Morality? shelved from discussion and consciousness. thanks for this. [r] libby
libbyliberalnyc August 03, 2011 02:47 PM
Mr. Culture, in some ways it may be an oversimplification; however that is often helpful as long as it is put in perspective. sometimes it is easier to focus on certain aspects which is fine as long as it is followed up by reviews of other relevant aspects. You're points are quite "rational."
Libby, you're right of course they do understand the issues at least to some point; however my point was of course that they don't present that to the public. However that quibble is slight, as you say.
zacherydtaylor August 03, 2011 03:10 PM
I will go and rate Steven Blackwood post haste. The people in Wisconsin were sold a bill of goods, that looked good in headlines. But, they and some other states that elected republicans governors, soon found out there is such a thing as fine print. When they started firing teachers and other union workers, what Scott didn't realize was, when he excluded the police and fire dept., that they would turn on him and back the other unions. The people in Wisconsin, who I think are showing the rest of the country a lesson in democracy, rallied the people and did a miraculous job of re-calling these teabaggers who do not understand the rich are using them to get richer. All Hail Wisconsians!!
scanner August 03, 2011 03:17 PM
Scanner, no doubt they fell for the fine print as usual and so did many of the rest of us but there was something different this time and it was actually initiated indirectly by the republicans when they somehow came to the conclusion that they no longer had to even try to give the public a good BS story or even a bad one. They seem to have come to the conclusion that they’ve been getting away with so much for so long that they no longer had to pretend.
They were badly mistaken.
Hopefully this mistake will spread across the country, or at least the grass roots response and every one will learn to be in the habit of looking closer at the fine print.
Jane, I don’t listen to NPR much but I suspect it is the current version of “liberalism,” even though, as you say, they don’t ask many simple questions or point out many simple facts. One thing they could and should be doing is reminding the public that the purpose of the economy is supposed to be to enable people to pool their skills to improve their quality of life, everyone’s quality of life, not just the quality of life of those that control the powerful institutions, while the rest do all the work!
zacherydtaylor August 04, 2011 09:30 AM
From Steve's Blog:
Yep. Sounds like an ass to me.
Michael Rodgers September 28, 2010 08:56 PM
If this guy were a character in a movie, everyone would think it was way overdone. Seems like the Repubs have a competition this year for the most ridiculous candidate. The prize must be a dandy as there are so many contestants.
Abrawang September 29, 2010 01:47 AM
I hope you don’t mind but I decided to steel your blog title for my own blog, Scott Walker is an Immature Ass. In my opinion it time to recall him and many other politicians who are all immature asses! In fact I think many more people should have paid more attention to your blog when it was first posted and not elected him in the first place!
zacherydtaylor August 03, 2011 02:12 PM
Something about those boys with severe arrested development that makes the public embrace them. Sigh. thanks for this.
Zacharyd sent me. [r]
libby
libbyliberalnyc August 03, 2011 02:40 PM
And from mine:
Maybe this is over simplification, but I think there are two kinds of people in the world. There are the rational, who are able to digest the facts about a situation and arrive at a knowledge based conclusion AND they are willing to re-examine their conclusions when faced with contradictory information. Then there are the irrational who hold firmly to a static set of beliefs based on gut instinct and they can not be swayed by the actual facts.
In other words - it boils down to Conclusions vs. Beliefs. And once you can make someone believe something, like all government is evil, you've got them without question.
Mr. Culture August 03, 2011 02:42 PM
So much wisdom you convey -- so little time, but we have to make the time, the re-education of America!
One slight quibble with very end of this brilliant passage:
"We are desperately in need of an educational revolution or something similar that enables the voters of this country to have access to information they need to make rational decisions and enables them to learn how to think in a manner that isn’t constantly manipulated by demagogues that pay little or no attention to the issues."
The demagogues are quite well-acquainted with the REAL issues which is why they are so adept at strong-arming attention away from them. PROFITS over humanity. The greed for money and power has reached grotesque dimensions at this point. The inertia of evil one might call it, huh? In 2009 the top 10 hedge funders earned an average of $900,000 an hour. I am finding it hard not to vomit as I read about the awesome injustices and flagrant thievery which is normalized by our government leadership (that word makes me want to vomit ... our anti-leadership) and the media that teaches America that POWER IS GOOD, GREED IS GOOD ... and that we must respect and bow down to power no matter how it was achieved. Morality? shelved from discussion and consciousness. thanks for this. [r] libby
libbyliberalnyc August 03, 2011 02:47 PM
Mr. Culture, in some ways it may be an oversimplification; however that is often helpful as long as it is put in perspective. sometimes it is easier to focus on certain aspects which is fine as long as it is followed up by reviews of other relevant aspects. You're points are quite "rational."
Libby, you're right of course they do understand the issues at least to some point; however my point was of course that they don't present that to the public. However that quibble is slight, as you say.
zacherydtaylor August 03, 2011 03:10 PM
I will go and rate Steven Blackwood post haste. The people in Wisconsin were sold a bill of goods, that looked good in headlines. But, they and some other states that elected republicans governors, soon found out there is such a thing as fine print. When they started firing teachers and other union workers, what Scott didn't realize was, when he excluded the police and fire dept., that they would turn on him and back the other unions. The people in Wisconsin, who I think are showing the rest of the country a lesson in democracy, rallied the people and did a miraculous job of re-calling these teabaggers who do not understand the rich are using them to get richer. All Hail Wisconsians!!
scanner August 03, 2011 03:17 PM
Scanner, no doubt they fell for the fine print as usual and so did many of the rest of us but there was something different this time and it was actually initiated indirectly by the republicans when they somehow came to the conclusion that they no longer had to even try to give the public a good BS story or even a bad one. They seem to have come to the conclusion that they’ve been getting away with so much for so long that they no longer had to pretend.
They were badly mistaken.
Hopefully this mistake will spread across the country, or at least the grass roots response and every one will learn to be in the habit of looking closer at the fine print.
Jane, I don’t listen to NPR much but I suspect it is the current version of “liberalism,” even though, as you say, they don’t ask many simple questions or point out many simple facts. One thing they could and should be doing is reminding the public that the purpose of the economy is supposed to be to enable people to pool their skills to improve their quality of life, everyone’s quality of life, not just the quality of life of those that control the powerful institutions, while the rest do all the work!
zacherydtaylor August 04, 2011 09:30 AM
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