It’s no secret the U.S. is polarized. To better understand national divisions, Chuck Todd traveled to Wisconsin and spoke with two of the state’s former governors.
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#ChuckTodd #Wisconsin #NBCNews
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I just want the division to implode the USA.
Northern wisconsinites couldn’t believe Biden won because all you see up there are Trump signs everywhere. But in the south, there are hardly any Trump signs or support.
The US senate is 50:50 but the 50 dem senators cover 60% of the population. The senate majority can be had with a minority of the population since every state has 2 senators.
Republicans can also win the US house this decade while losing the national popular vote by 3%. That's the least bad it has been for decades. Republicans lost the npv in 2012 by 1.1% and got the same seats that democrats got in 2018 during a blue wave when they won the npv by over 8%.
Similarly, republicans can also lose the npv for the presidential election by a few % but still win the electoral college.
In 2018, democrats won the WI state house popular vote by over 8% and republicans were just 3 sets off a supermajority. Democrats would have win the pv by double digits to have a chance to even get a bare majority of seats.
So looking at seats is not a good indicator that a state is 50:50 due to distortions in the electoral process. Just look at the popular vote.
I feel Ill and became temporarily paralyzed from undiagnosed disease about ten years ago. I travelled home to Wisconsin’s to heal at my parents house. The state of Wisconsin under the former Republican governor made it impossible to be eligible for Medicare or food stamps without jumping through all these hoops. Wisconsin decided they would just put me in a nursing home. My parents being far right evangelicals told me I didn’t deserve life liberty or freedom because I was a liberal.
I had to hitch hike in poor health to Minnesota. Once there I was immediately given health care, food assistance and therapies to get me mobile again.
Republicans are terrorists. Republicans are abusive, ignorant kkk unts!
I cannot believe Trump and Republicans said that J6 was nothing but peaceful gathering.
These rioters were calm and peaceful.
There is NO “George Sorros” left! And this from a judge? We are doomed…
Horror running backwards: in america: with out preparation or legislation
If Americans believe that segregation is the way! Well! Equality is the cure: but it would not please the the oppressors, becuse it would mean that they are powerless without the power to control the masses; sick enept fools.
Who the F is recording and mixing your audio? It's awful and has been for months. Way too hot, clipping everything. My grandfather was an audio engineer for nbc for 40 years and would be ashamed that this is what it's come to.
It is no longer "what do you think about politics" but rather "How do you feel about politics?"
GOP WILL RUN ON "FIX WHAT BIDEN BROKE".
You guys polarized, and fox…
I Hope the Farmers in Wisconsin remember what the Republicans and Donald Trumps China tariffs did to them.
Wisconsin is too drunk to vote. Maybe the Corn and Potatoes there should vote for them.
My dad was a Democrat but he said Tommy was good for Wisconsin. You have to consider that Republicans are trying to destroy all our institutions and hurt the working class. Back then they had policies that weren't like today
Chuck, retire already! You're no Tim Russert!!! 🤭
The cost of Wisconsin Republicans’ investigation of the 2020 presidential election results has risen to nearly $900,000, about $220,000 more than initially budgeted.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos initially budgeted about $676,000 for the probe. But the investigation has sparked five lawsuits. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Wednesday that invoices released under Wisconsin’s open records law show the lawsuits have helped push the cost to about $896,500.
MILWAUKEE — Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., acknowledged Tuesday that he exchanged text messages with one of Donald Trump’s attorneys before and after Johnson’s staff tried to deliver a package to then-Vice President Mike Pence on Jan. 6, 2021.
He added that the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack "smeared" him because it didn't publicize all the text messages between his and Pence's aides.
Johnson, in response to questions from NBC News, said “the entire episode lasted about an hour,” referring to his ties to a fake electors scheme he said he knew nothing about. He also said he didn’t know the contents of the package he said the attorney wanted to be delivered.
“You can’t even call it participation. I wrote a couple texts,” Johnson said.
Johnson has previously distanced himself from the scheme, telling WISN-TV of Milwaukee in August: “My involvement in that attempt to deliver spanned the course of a couple seconds.”
Johnson made the comments after he spoke to the Rotary Club of Milwaukee, where he was asked several questions about the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Johnson is locked in a tight re-election fight with Democratic Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes.
Johnson defended his previous remarks about the attack’s being mostly peaceful, saying he said the same of Black Lives Matters protests in 2020. Johnson said that in each case, he condemned violence if it grew out of those protests.
“To call what happened on Jan. 6 an ‘armed insurrection,’ I just think it’s inaccurate,” he said. “I’m sorry — that’s not what an armed insurrection would look like.”
Johnson argued that few weapons were confiscated but that protesters “did teach us how you can use a flag pole”
Of the electors scheme, Johnson said he communicated with Jim Troupis, a Wisconsin-based attorney who led legal efforts for Donald Trump in a recount of the state's 2020 results.
“What would you do if you got a text from the attorney for the president of the United States?” Johnson said. “You respond to it.
“I got a text from the president’s lawyer asking if we could deliver something to the vice president and if I could have a staff member handle it,” Johnson said. Asked whether he knew what it was he was being asked to deliver, he said: “No. I had no idea.”
Johnson said he turned it over to his chief of staff, who was new at the time. “Next thing I know he’s letting me know the vice president’s not accepting anything, so I just texted back ‘no, we’re not delivering it,’ end of story. Nothing happened. I had no idea there were even an alternate slate of electors.”
Johnson said the House Jan. 6 committee didn't publicize all of the texts between Pence and his aides, which he said indicated that Pence was expecting the package through the mail.
According to texts Johnson has previously made public, the Pence aide also said the vice president shouldn't receive any mail that hadn't been screened. He also referred to comments to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel by committee Chair Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., who said Johnson's involvement wasn't a "priority."
The Jan. 6 committee had no comment Tuesday on Johnson's remarks.
The fake elector scheme was an attempt by Republicans in seven battleground states Joe Biden won in 2020 — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — to offer phony slates of 84 Republicans with the idea of asking Pence to accept them as legitimate electors rather than recognize that Biden had rightfully won those states.
NBC News recently reported that the electors, many of whom are under investigation, are playing an integral role in the coming midterm elections, in many cases making up the GOP hierarchies in critical battleground states.
Natasha Korecki
It’s obvious everyone has chose their sides so I say we either do amicable national divorce or a winner take all situation
To be fair, the nation is usually polarized down the middle in the first place. It's just how our country is made.
If the people in Wisconsin like their crime their murders their food prices gas prices wide open border . let them keep voting for Democrats they will destroy their own families
FACT: Sen. Ron Johnson has repeatedly voted against funding and resources for law enforcement and supported the violent insurrection that injured 140 officers.
Ron Johnson in his own words: “Have I voted against [police] spending? Yeah.”
Johnson voted against nearly $14 million in law enforcement funding that created 58 police officer positions in Wisconsin and to withhold law enforcement funding from states that released gun ownership data.y
League of Conservation Voters: Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson “called climate change ‘bull—-’ during a record heatwave” and “raked in over $700k in fossil fuel cash.”
PolitiFact's ruling: True
Here's why: With passage by Democrats of a new measure aimed squarely at tackling climate change, the issue is taking on a new urgency in the fall election.
Those who opposed the measure, including U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., are being targeted by environmental groups and others
Johnson wants to put Social Security and Medicare on the Chopping Block: “Social Security and Medicare, if you qualify, you just get it no matter what the cost… We ought to turn everything into discretionary spending so it’s all evaluated.”
Johnson Wants to Gamble with Social Security and Medicare Funding by Putting it in the Stock Market: “Weeks after saying Social Security and Medicare should be subjected to annual budget talks — a stance that caused political blow back from his foes — Johnson once again weighed into America’s signature social insurance program. During a Wednesday campaign stop in Rice Lake, Johnson said Social Security “was set up improperly” and that the system’s funds would have been better off invested in the stock market…“Critics have claimed investing in stocks would raise uncertainty given the inevitable dips in the market, plus they contend the government might wield too much influence overseeing such a large amount of money invested in stocks.”
Johnson Wants Wisconsin Retirees to Rejoin the Workforce: “As U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson campaigns for a potential third term, he’s proposing a fix for Wisconsin’s labor shortage: Encourage seniors to rejoin the workforce
There was also a settled personal injury lawsuit against Michels. In 2021, a $4.5 million settlement was reached on behalf of a worker whose leg was ultimately amputated as the result of an injury from a fall from the top platform of a construction job trailer on Feb. 6, 2015, in Rossville, Ill. Michels was one of three defendants.
Bought and paid for by Big Pharma”: Ron Johnson complains that lowering drug prices hurts profits
Johnson worried that bill allowing Medicare to negotiate costs is "punishing the pharmaceutical industry"
Johnson told the Fox News host that "when you start punishing the pharmaceutical industry, you're gonna have less innovation; you're gonna have fewer lifesaving drugs. That's not a good thing.
Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) is advocating that Social Security and Medicare be subject to annual discretionary funding. Ignoring for a moment that Social Security is not presently part of the federal budget, this would subject both programs to Congressional votes every year. Yikes! With it taking 60 votes to get nearly anything through the Senate because of the anti-democratic filibuster, this would put grandma’s livelihood and healthcare in jeopardy every year
These "gray situations" will have "black and white" effects on patients, Wisconsin physicians said in a press call. After Texas passed its six-week abortion ban, research by Parkland Health and UT Southwestern Medical Center found that, compared to patients in states allowing immediate abortions, delayed treatment nearly doubled the incidence of serious health complicationsconsiders the statute outdated, vague — and severe.
Outdated because Wisconsin's law predates even foundational tenets of modern medicine such as germ theory. Vague because unlike Texas, Wisconsin does not spell out exceptions for ectopic pregnancies or removal of a fetus that has already died. Severe because unlike Alabama, Wisconsin does not allow intervention to "prevent a serious health risk" — only to save a pregnant person's life.
Molaska said this leaves doctors "between a rock and a hard place." She asked, "Where's the line that I let her get sick enough so that her life is in danger?" Or, she wonders, would a physician be barred from removing a deceased fetus if the body does not pass it?
examples belong to just a handful of clear-cut situations a physician can predict.
If a person's water breaks before the fetus is viable, or if the patient is hemorrhaging but the fetus still has some detectable cardiac activity, the approach is less clear.
"Now we're getting into the very nuanced, individualized situations where there may be situations that are life-saving indications and there may not be," Barroilhet said. "And you really have to look at the patient in front of you, and all the specifics of that situation to make the best decision and, of course, the patient's wishes factoring heavily into that."
Mere days after the Dobbs ruling, Goetz, the Marshfield doctor, received a call from a doctor at a satellite center. The patient had her water break at 17 weeks; normal gestation is 40 weeks, and viability is considered to begin at 24. The doctor was "a little at a loss" of what he could offer her, Goetz said.
She recalled telling her colleague that she believed the law prevented them from offering to induce labor.
Later, the patient went into labor naturally, delivering the pre-viable fetus on her own.
"But that's one of the types of cases that we're most concerned about as a group," Goetz said.
How can anyone vote for these Democrats high gas prices you can't afford to feed your family with the food prices not to mention the Border wide open fentanyl coming in Freely and it is killing literally hundreds of young people everyday. Sooner or later it will be someone you care about
Johnson, though, the priority is to shovel public money to his mega-donors (with a helping for himself), while siding with special interests instead of the public on everything from prescription drug prices (he likes them high) to outsourcing (he’s in favor) to Social Security (he wants to put it on the chopping block).
That record, and that platform, are indefensible. So what is he trying to do? Flood the airways with lies about Mandela Barnes. Calling him “different,” and “dangerous.” Darkening the color of his skin in the photos in their mailers.
Tim michels business interests are heavily invested in energy markets, being governor of Wisconsin is a conflict of interests and would make it not only advantageous, but convenient and likely he would abuse his authority and power
Kaeding/WPR
E: "The company announced in April that Michels
Pipeline, Inc.
to be the main contractor for the project. The company is owned by Michels Corporation. Tim Michels as a Republican running for governor against Gov. Tony Evers in April."
An Enbridge strategy is to "own" politicians. BEWARE of Michels.
Remember GTAC who literally wrote Wisconsin's mining laws with Walker? (And we still have them…) Same play book.
Environmentalists say Wisconsin failed to fully review an oil pipeline project's risks. The EPA agrees.
EPA issues nearly 200 recommendations for Wisconsin DNR to strengthen its review
MILWAUKEE — Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., acknowledged Tuesday that he exchanged text messages with one of Donald Trump’s attorneys before and after Johnson’s staff tried to deliver a package to then-Vice President Mike Pence on Jan. 6, 2021.
He added that the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack "smeared" him because it didn't publicize all the text messages between his and Pence's aides