An Election With Something for Everyone

The Democrats jubilantly predicted that there would be a mighty
"Blue Wave" which would sweep them into power, driving out
scads of Republican members of Congress in both chambers,
as well as change the political landscape of many states with
new governors and new legislators. The Republicans confidently
asserted that they would stop any "Blue Wave" with a red one of
their own. After the dust settled, neither color wave prevailed
but each side made gains, some of which were surprising in
scope and some in even happening at all.

The Democrats captured control of the House, while the Republicans
added a couple of seats to their slim majority in the Senate.
I have yet to see the tallies for the governors and state legislatures,
but with great sorrow I must report the defeats of my state's
courageous and principled governor, Scott Walker, who lost by a
razor-thin margin to an over-glorified bureaucrat, Superintendent
of Public Instruction Tony Evers (he oversees the public education
system of Wisconsin), a very left-wing ally of the teacher's union.
Your observant Peasant listened to the election returns on
WISN1130 AM Milwaukee, and just around 11:00 PM one of the
co-hosts for the broadcast announced "Breaking news! Breaking
News!", then said that some bags containing cast ballots suddenly
appeared in Milwaukee County. With Governor Scott Walker
starting to pull ahead in the statewide vote tally against Democrat
challenger Tony Evers, this discovery could certainly have great
bearing on the electoral outcome. Well, it certainly proved to do
that; after the counting and adding of all of the votes, Evers finished
ahead of Walker by 1.2%, just enough over the 1% threshold in which,
by a law signed by Gov. Walker, put the results just out of reach
for an automatic recount as mandated by the state and paid for by
same. Attorney general Brad Schimel lost his contest by a similar
percentage to Democrat challenger Josh Kaul. Interestingly,
the Republicans held onto their majorities in the Assembly and
the Senate, even adding a few seats in the process. Lots of
ticket-splitting here, to be sure. But why would our state's voters
cast out Walker and Schimel, as well as elect Democrats to the rest
of the state's Constitutional offices (Treasurer, etc.), but keep the
GOP in control of both chambers of the state legislature? Most
curious.

Now, Walker could still have requested a recount, but would have had
to pay for it himself, that is, his campaign team and/or the Wisconsin
Republican Party would have had to foot the bill. Or, Walker could
have asked for an investigation by the state's Election Commission to
investigate the matter to see if there was any shenanigans.
Your inquiring Peasant asks this question: How was it that these
ballots, most of which happened to have been cast for the Democrats'
candidates for Governor as well as for Attorney General Josh Kaul
(who likewise edged incumbent Republican Brad Schimel), were
--- lo and behold! --- found so late in the count, and right at the time
when both Walker and Schimel were starting to take the lead in
their respective races? How very convenient for the Democrats!
And now we Wisconsinites are out two excellent public servants who
had greatly improved the quality of life in the Badger State.
More bad news from here: my longtime Assemblywoman and State
Senator Leah Vukmir lost her race for the U.S. Senate to incumbent
Democrat Tammy Baldwin. I'm still trying to figure out how that
happened! One key factor: Baldwin and the Dems raises three times
as much money for Baldwin's campaign as had Vukmir. And your
favorite Peasant has a sneaking suspicion that some conservative PACs
and similar groups which had funded Leah's GOP primary
opponent Kevin Nicholson may have petulantly given little or
mo money to her campaign after her primary victory. I shall of course
investigate this matter to see what happened and shall report what
I discover here for you, my tremendous readers, to read and mull over.

There were similar happenings in the gubernatorial races in Georgia
and Florida, and the U.S. Senate race in the latter, but happily the
Republican candidates fared better in these three contests.
U.S. Representative Ron DeSantis overcame a mudslinging campaign
by Florida Democrats and their candidate, Tallahassee Mayor Andrew
Gillum (an avowed socialist, by the by; gee, the Dems are nominating
more and more of such candidates in state-wide and national races!).
Gillum and chums tried to paint DeSantis to be a racist, but not many
Florida voters were buying it. Outgoing Gov. Rick Scott also won a
whisker-close race against incumbent Democrat U.S. Senator Bill
Nelson, after nearly two weeks of a contentious recount took place
showing Scott winning by 10,033 votes, after Scott had been at first
declared the winner with over five times that many votes. Nelson
wisely conceded the race after a manual recount was done, showing
the narrower margin of victory for the Scott.

In Arizona, very far left-wing Democrat Kyrsten Simena, who has
stated in an interview just before the election that she had "no
problem" with any American going off to join Al-Qaeda or any other
terrorist group in the Middle East and repeated a reprehensible joke
uttered on The Daily Show calling Arizona "the meth lab of
Democracy" won a nail-biter for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by
retiring Republican Senator Jeff Flake, defeating GOP opponent
Martha McSally amid some questions regarding voting irregularities
there. Could this be an electoral pattern with the Dems?

The Democrats captured the House of Representatives, gaining a slim
majority, while the Republicans added two seats to their very slim
majority in the Senate. I have yet to see all of the gubernatorial and
state legislative race results, so I don't know which party has what
in terms of either. But I will say this: At least as far as my state goes,
there were two factors which made for much closer races for governor
and attorney general than there should have been.

Here in Wisconsin both the Republicans and the Democrats superbly
turned out their voters. The polls, especially in Milwaukee and Dane
Counties (Madison, our capital city, is in Dane County), were absolutely
slammed by the voters coming to cast their votes. However, the Dems
did an even better job of this, as their voters were motivated by their
long-standing hatred for Gov. Walker, fueled by his signing his massive
reform package featuring Act 10 (which clipped the public sector
workers' unions' wings as far as their hold on their rank-and-filers
as well as tremendous influence on state budgets) as its centerpiece,
then fanned by the winds of failure to do anything about it all until
this election. What put them over the top in the gubernatorial and
attorney general contests was the discovery (!) of 45,000 uncounted
absentee ballots after 11:00 PM, three hours after the polls closed.
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the city waited to count
those ballots until after they counted the ballots. Okay, fair enough
so far. But Brian Reisinger, a spokesman for the Walker campaign,
stated "Thousands of ballots were damaged and had to be recreated,"
what supposedly happened is some of the ballots were damaged by
a machine that opens the envelopes in which they were sealed before
being brought to the election officials' tables for counting. "Until
there is a comparison of the original ballots to the recreated ones
(replacing the damaged ones), there is no way to judge their validity."
Milwaukee County Clerk George Christenson said that Evers
received double the votes cast in Milwaukee County as did Walker,
the breakdown being 263,199 votes for Evers against 124,880 votes
for Walker. Although Walker has long had a contentous relationship
with Milwaukee's municipal and county governments, he was quite
popular with much of the electorate when he restored order and
integrity to the county government and its budget in the wake of
the Tom Ament pension shenanigans after Walker defeated Ament
in a recall election to become the County Executive. Milwaukee
County is, and perhaps always will remain, a very blue (Democrat)
county, but Walker attracted more votes in his races there, including
the 2018 gubernatorial contest, than many other possible GOP
candidates would have. Your dependable Peasant, who takes nothing
for granted, asks another question; if there were damaged ballots,
and plenty of them (and maybe there were), was there any switching
of some votes for Walker and Schimel, thus given to Evers and
Kaul? What an opportunity for such mischief with there being
damaged ballots, or even merely the claim of there being damaged
ballots! Again, all the more reason why Walker and Schimel could
have, and should have, called for an investigation.

Finally, your quizzical and sorrowful Peasant has to ask: How many
voters who had elected Scott Walker governor in the first place, and
had voted to keep him through the controversial recall attempt and
his campaign for another full term after that. turned around and gave
Walker the boot? What was your reasoning? What did he say or do
that suddenly put you off, what legislation did he sign or veto which
angered you? Perhaps some of you turned him out because you thought
it was "time for a change", that someone from the other party should
have a turn as governor like a child having a turn at riding a shiny new
bike bought for his brother so said brother wouldn't "hog" the bike?
I personally do not know anyone who voted for Evers against Walker
for this vapid reason but anyone here in Wisconsin who did so as
far as I'm concerned can take a long walk off a short pier wearing
cement swim trunks! People who vote for such nonsensical reasons,
who don't care about the stands of the candidates on the burning issues
of the moment, who don't give any thought to the direction of their
communities, their state, the country itself should simply stay home,
or at least do anything other than vote! For they have neither the good
sense nor the maturity to inform themselves about the candidates and
the issues in order to make a rational, logical, and informed decision
about our governance and are therefore derelict in their duty as
citizens. These people are not fit to govern themselves, nor to
have a hand in deciding who should govern us.

So, as far as the battle for the direction of our states and our country
goes, this election was a push, a draw, a wash. But it can certainly
be said that in the election results there was something for everyone.


MEM

Happy Thanksgiving to All!

My magnificent readers, your faithful Peasant wishes you all
a Happy Thanksgiving, and also wants to tell you that I am
taking some extra time to prepare a post regarding our very
recent election. I am gathering my thoughts and impressions,
as well as pertinent information to weave into the piece along
with some careful analysis and a few predictions, as I want to
give this subject matter the treatment it richly deserves.

Meanwhile please accept my utmost gratitude for your under-
standing. And enjoy the holiday which honors and celebrates it!


MEM

Veterans Day Gratitude

Today, November 11, is Veterans Day, the day we Americans
give thanks to all our veterans, past and present, those among
the living and those who made the Ultimate Sacrifice so that
we can have a country with a way of life filled with abundance,
a cornucopia of freedom, comfort, safety and security. Although
one should give thanks every day for these gifts that our brave
and selfless veterans made possible for us, and in fact many of
us do, it is good to have a nationally established and recognized
day to focus our attention on all this, especially with our workaday
lives and their relentless schedules of duties and recreation too
easily fill our time and our heads to the point that we tend to take
what we have as citizens of a free and strong country for granted.

Please take time, all who are reading this post today, to thank our
vets for these fruits of their hard and dangerous work on our behalf.
At the very least, say a prayer to them, to ask God's blessings on them
and their families, and to take heavenly good care of those who have
gone to glory, including of course by way of a battlefield. We owe
these courageous men and women a debt so great that we can never
even begin to repay, but that does not excuse us from trying.

I realize that Memorial Day is the day to honor our passed veterans
and that Veterans Day is the day to honor our living vets, but your
grateful Peasant's gratitude for our all our veterans knows no bounds,
so I always have an overflow! Please don't be put off by this, as I
mean only the utmost gratitude and respect. And I am thus grateful
each and every day of the year!

The Peasant salutes you, all who have served, suffered, sacrificed,
and toiled to make and keep our country great and free. God bless.


MEM

Three More Brief Endorsements

Your hurried and harried Peasant wants to get these endorsements
out before the big day, which is of course tomorrow.

My fellow Wisconsinites, let us return Attorney General Brad Schimel
to office for another term! In his first term as our state's top lawyer,
he has taken a tougher stand on crime and criminals than has his
predecessor, and has been in the forefront of handling the opioid crisis
which has been troubling our nation and now has come to Wisconsin.
Brad Schimel has combined an emphasis on more and better treatment
programs for opioid addicts along with tougher measures in dealing
with the dealers of these powerful drugs. Schimel is also pro-life and
will continue to fight for the right to life for the unborn. His Democrat
opponent has never prosecuted a criminal case, and his campaign has
been propped up by much out of state money from big-moneyed
left-wing interests who hope to have a minion in one of our state's
high offices.

Travis Hartwig, the Republican candidate for Treasurer, is another
endorsee of the Peasant. His private sector experience, which includes
having been Mutual Funds Administrator for U.S. Bank Fund Services
in Downtown Milwaukee where he worked with auditors during highly
complex audits. Hartwig was a double major in Finance and Economics
in college while minoring in Accounting, making him very knowledge-
able in regards to money matters on a large scale. While in college
he was also active in the College Republicans, and in 2011 Hartwig
went to Madison to protest the protesters who railed against
Governor Scott Walker and Act 10, exposing himself to danger
amid the wild and menacing throng of radicals. This shows you
the man's committment to conservatism, the rule of law, and the
will of the people! Exactly the kind of candidates we should strive
to elect to all offices! Furthermore, I have had the pleasure of meeting
and discussing the issues with Travis, and I can attest that he is
articulate, whip-smart, and quick on his feet with answers to
questions regarding the issues the next state treasurer will contend
with!

Finally, for those in Leah Vukmir's state senate district which includes
Wauwatosa, Brookfield, Elm Grove, and a few other suburban
communities near Milwaukee, do come out and vote for Assemblyman
Dale Kooyenga as he is running to succeed Leah as that district's
state senator. Dale is also very well-schooled and knowledgeable in
monetary matters, as he is a CPA and has been instrumental in
crafting Act 10, Gov.Walker's sweeping fiscal reform legislation.
I have known Dale for several years, and have much regard for
him and his fiscal and political acumen. He will be as fine a state
senator as he has been an assemblyman.

And as for the rest of the ballot, VOTE RED VOTE RED VOTE RED!
Don't give any quarter to the Democrats, and don't be fooled by any
of their candidates who may have uttered some conservative or
moderate sounds on the campaign trail. They are just trying to con
you to reel you in, and if they get enough of your votes to get into
office they will then revert to their true political selves and vote
uncompromisingly left on everything, having successfully worked
their "Gotcha!" ruse. Accept no substitutes! Let us elect as many
conservatives as we can! Even a moderate Republican will be better
than a hard lefty Democrat, for at least the moderate GOP candidate
will vote our way some of the time as opposed to the Democrat
who will not vote our way at all. Wherever you live in our great and
wonderful country, please please please VOTE!

The polls will be open from 7:00 AM until 8:00 PM. For those of you
who haven't voted early or absentee you should thus have ample time
to get to your polling places. Let's do this!


MEM

Two Brief Endorsements

A note to my fellow Wisconsinites:

Two endorsements from your faithful Peasant ---

Scott Walker for another term as Governor
and Leah Vukmir for the United States Senate!

Gov. Walker's record speaks for itself, with the
preponderance of jobs and people going back to
work, many after months or even years without
a job! And the improvement of our state's economy
to make that happen is but ONE accomplishment!
State Senator Leah Vukmir has been a big help to
Gov. Walker in this regard, as well as on other issues
of importance to we Badger Staters, and has much
respect and regard for our veterans, unlike the incumbent
whom she is running against. Besides, Leah has a son in
our army and she is a nurse by profession!

Now, Election Day is on November 6 --- just three short
days from now! Be sure to get to your polling precincts
if you have not voted early! And make a surging Red Wave!
RED RULES: BLUE DROOLS!

And God Bless America!


MEM