I’m loving me some Cocaine Mitch.
‘Experts from across the political spectrum agree that our colleague from Vermont is dead wrong on this,’ McConnell said, aiming the comments at Sen. Bernie Sanders. ‘Socialism for rich people is a terrible way to help the American families that are actually struggling.’
Organic and regular beef are just as environmentally damaging, they concluded — while organic chicken actually results in slightly more greenhouse emissions overall.
Based on their findings, the team propose that policy measures — ‘meat taxes’ — are needed to ‘close the gap between current market prices and the true costs of food.’
Such taxation, the team said, would call for a 40 per cent increase in regular beef’s cost, but only a 25 per cent rise for organic beef, which is already more expensive.
So we increase food insecurity for lower-income folks while funneling more money into the hands of politicians and bureaucrats.
This tragic story helps illustrate the issue with COVID death statistics:
Louisiana Rep.-elect Luke Letlow, who died while battling COVID-19, suffered a heart attack following a procedure, a hospital official said.
The 41-year-old was receiving treatment in the intensive care unit at Ochsner LSU Health in Shreveport when he died Tuesday, the Monroe News-Star reported.
LSU Health Shreveport Chancellor G.E. Ghali confirmed Letlow underwent an operation related to the virus and later went into cardiac arrest.
“It’s devastating to our entire team,” Ghali told the paper, adding that he “had no underlying conditions.”
We all saw the headlines when they came out. Things like, “Congressman-elect dies of COVID-19” and “Rising Republican Dies of COVID-19.” But was it?
We do not know the specifics of why he was undergoing heart surgery. They say it was related to his COVID illness, but how? What were they actually doing? And given the shock of the doctors, it seems that they did not think it was a high-risk surgery. Clearly it was the heart attack that killed him, but is the underlying COVID the real culprit? What a bit fat guy dies of a heart attack or diabetes, do we say that he was killed by obesity? No, so why label COVID as the problem here? If someone has a heart attack while driving and is decapitated in the crash, what killed her? It gets complicated. An argument could be made either way by rational people.
In the case of COVID, however, we have defaulted to classifying ANY death where COVID is present as a “COVID” death. We see the stats where this is happening. COVID deaths are increasing while it looks like we have virtually cured many other previously-deadly ailments. People who were shot, drowned, had heart attacks, strokes, etc. are all mixed in with the COVID death statistics. Sometimes, they are called a COVID death even if they do not have a firm diagnosis but the person had “COVID-like symptoms.” There is a distinct preference to label deaths as being caused by COVID if the slimmest of connection can be found.
The question is… why? Why have officials all across the country chosen to default to COVID when declaring the cause of death.
Hint… follow the money… follow the power.
Here is my full column that ran in the Washington County Daily News this week. Thankfully, this bill is still dead.
Gov. Tony Evers is urging the Republican leadership of the Legislature to pass his self-styled “compromise” bill addressing the ongoing health concern precipitated by COVID-19. Setting aside, for a moment, that Evers’ bill is not a compromise (hint: compromise bills are rarely announced by only one side) and that Evers has actually taken the Legislature to court over the legality of bills passed in a so-called “lame duck” session, let us examine the priorities of the governor during the ongoing health concern.
Evers’ bill consists of 17 provisions. Seven of the provisions are designed to expand government and/or reduce the government’s accountability to the people. Eight of them would make waste, corruption, and graft easier with taxpayer money. And two of them are regulatory overreaches that will wreak havoc on citizens and the economy.
Given Evers’ background as an educrat, it is not surprising that his bill begins with the absolution of the government education establishment from the strictures of accountability. Under his bill, government schools would not be required to administer pupil assessments and the State Department of Public Instruction would not be required to publish the annual school and school district accountability report for the 2020-2021 school year. Evers seeks to remove any evidence of just how much government education failed the children of Wisconsin this school year.
Ominously, Evers seeks to allow any state entity to waive in-person requirements until June 30, 2021, “if enforcing the requirement would increase the public health risk.” You will take note of the fact that no objective standard is given for what constitutes an increase to the public health risk. While this may impact things like court proceedings, Evers’ likely target it to waive in-person requirements to obtain official state photo identification and the spring elections. With this provision in law, Evers could provide a massive gateway for illegal aliens to obtain official photo identification and force the upcoming elections to be conducted 100% by mail.
The bill also seeks to funnel unemployment insurance payments into the hands of people who do not need it. It would permanently allow people who are receiving federal Social Security disability payments to also receive unemployment payments. Under current law, someone who is receiving money because they cannot work due to a disability is not eligible for unemployment payments because they are already being compensated for not working. The bill would also completely waive the requirement to seek work in order to receive unemployment payments until July 3, 2021. Wisconsin’s unemployment rate is at 5% and employers are again struggling to find workers. Anyone who is able and willing to work can find a job. Evers should focus his attention on fixing the unemployment payment backlog that his administration has allowed to languish for the previous nine months.
Evers is also sure to take care of the state bureaucracy. His “COVID relief” bill would allow state government employees to take their annual leave even if they have not completed the required six-month probationary period. Evers would lavish additional funding on the Department of Health Services and the Department of Administration while expanding their powers. The DOA would be given arbitrary discretion to shift money around to fund unemployment payments and DHS would be given a grand mandate to operate COVID testing and treatment facilities in perpetuity. The Department of Revenue gets a nod too with the arbitrary discretion to distribute grants to small businesses. The arbitrary discretion of any government official is an invitation for corruption.
Most shockingly, Evers would completely prohibit any foreclosures or evictions until July 1, 2021. He would do so without providing any relief for the thousands of property owners, big and small, who would be forced to completely pay for the housing for people unable, or unwilling, to pay their mortgage or rent. Should this provision go into effect, it will force a wave of bankruptcies for small- and medium property owners and force the prices up for people who do pay their bills. While one might be willing to grant Governor Evers credit for trying to stick up for struggling families, this measure is so breathtakingly stupid and destructive that no such credit can be issued.
Governor Evers’ bill is a mishmash of bad ideas interspersed with measures clearly designed to unshackle the state bureaucracy. Its only redeeming quality is that it will never pass. True to his character, Governor Evers announced this bill after a series of insincere discussions with the legislative leadership designed to give him the cover of having negotiated something. He did so while giving the Legislature a ridiculous deadline of less than two weeks during the holiday season to pass it. Thankfully, the legislative leadership has signaled that they will not be bullied by a duplicitous governor offering nothing but a list of destructive decrees.
The fact that Governor Evers is devoid of good ideas does not release the legislative Republicans from their duty to convene and pass meaningful legislation to help Wisconsinites who continue to feel the impact of COVID-19 and our government overreaction to it. They should start with universal school choice to allow families to escape government schools that failed so badly during this time, liability protections for employers, and prohibit state taxpayers from paying to bail out local governments that enforced more restrictive COVID-19 measures that crippled their own local economies.
Florida, Texas and Ohio are among the Republican-led states forgoing federal vaccination guidelines to prioritize the elderly ahead of frontline workers.
While medical workers and residents and staffers of long term care facilities are being prioritized for vaccines in virtually every state, local leaders are split on who gets the vaccine next.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines say under the second tier of vaccinations grocery store employees, transit workers, and other frontline staffers should receive the shot at the same time as those who are 75 and older.
But in Florida, Texas, and Ohio shots are being offered to the elderly first and frontline workers are asked to wait.
‘We are not going to put young, healthy workers ahead of our elderly, vulnerable population,’ Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said Saturday, allowing people 65 years and older to jump ahead of essential workers.
I can see both sides. On the one hand, prioritizing the higher risk groups first makes the most sense to reduce the death count as quickly as possible. On the other hand, prioritizing frontline workers first gets those industries back to work faster. Given those considerations, I’d prioritize the most vulnerable first.
Hornady says that ammunition sales first spiked in March, when the company saw an 86% increase over March of 2019. That, in essence, wiped out the company’s inventory, and they’ve been making and shipping as fast as they can ever since.
“The stuff that goes out today was literally put in a box yesterday,” he explains. “We’ve made one-third more ammunition than we did last year. Unfortunately we don’t have an extra factory laying around or anything else. We’ve got ‘X’ number of people, and we’re certainly trying to add as much capacity as we can.”
Hornady also addresses some of the rumors around the ammunition shortage; assuring customers that there isn’t a government conspiracy to buy up ammo and keep it off the civilian market. Apparently some folks have even suggested that Hornady could be making more ammunition if they weren’t busy making t-shirts, but Jason Hornady patiently explains that the company actually buys their shirts, so there’s no production time being lost by focusing on fashion.
“We understand it’s frustrating. It’s frustrating for us too,” Hornady says in conclusion. “Keep shooting, because we’re going to keep making more, we promise.”
[…]
Vanderbrink had to specifically say that the companies are not storing ammunition in “secret warehouses,” and that ammunition is being made and shipped every day in their factories. He noted that if the estimated 7-million new gun owners each purchased two boxes of ammunition, that would amount to an extra 700,000 rounds that would need to be produced. Factor in the ammo hoarding that’s been taking place for most of the year, and you can understand why the supply simply can’t keep up with demand.
Assembly Democrats are demanding legislators be allowed to attend floor sessions and other meetings remotely as Republicans signal they will require lawmakers to conduct much of their business in person during the upcoming legislative session, even as the coronavirus pandemic persists into 2021.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, indicated on Tuesday that the Assembly may no longer allow remote accommodations, representing a rollback of COVID-19 accommodations allowed during much of the pandemic.
“People all across Wisconsin safely go to work every day and members of the Assembly are capable of doing so as well,” he said in a statement. “The Assembly will convene safely as other legislatures across the country have done during the pandemic. Members and staff are being asked to follow CDC guidelines, practice social distancing, wear a mask and wash their hands frequently.”
Assembly Minority Leader Gordon Hintz, D-Oshkosh, and other Democratic members told Vos on Tuesday they want the chamber to continue current Assembly accommodations into the next session, such as remote-work options for staff and the ability for lawmakers to join floor sessions and committee hearings and sessions virtually.
First, Vos is right. People all over the state are going to work every day. They are doing so safely. We pay these legislators a full time wage and we, as citizens, have a reasonable expectation for them to put on pants and go to work. Perhaps they should lead by example for the rest of the state.
Second, there is value in doing this in person. Many of us have shifted to a more virtual work style through 2020. There are some good sides like saving on clothes/commuting expenses, save time between meetings, can squeeze more work into the day with that time savings, etc, but we also lose a lot without conducting business in person. Those hallway chats can be productive. Eating lunch together or helping a colleague dig their car out of the snow develops relationships. The infamous “grab a drink after work” builds rapport. Being able to read someone’s body language helps facilitate understanding. Humans are natural social animals and conducting complex negotiations successfully requires all of the senses to do it successfully. By being virtual, the Assembly is robbed of the social dynamic and people retreat into their virtual castles of dogma. The isolation of a virtual environment promotes distrust, linear thinking, and fear. Working with people on a screen is not the same as doing it in person. They become avatars instead of people.
These people are making massive decisions that impact the lives of millions. It is not asking too much for them to go to work to conduct the business of the realm.
From the email and for your edification/entertainment.
12/29/2020
Dear Friends, or as I shall call you, Bloggers:
I am Ronald S. Remmel, Ph.D., and I live in West Bend WI (see attached resume).
Today I am starting my run for the Democratic nomination for U.S. representative from the 5th Congressional District (or whatever it becomes after redistricting).
Why so early?
* Tom Palzewicz, the previous outstanding Democratic candidate, probably won’t run again???
* Scott Fitzgerald (R) won the election, and will start work in Washington on Jan. 3.
* I am better educatged than Fitzgerald, with a B.S. from Caltech, a Ph.D. from Princeton, and professorships in medical neurophysiology at the Univ. of Ark. for Med. Sci., and biomedical engineering at Boston Univ.
* I have successfully manufactured medical electronics (eye movement monitors) for 25 years, and have sold them profitably to 5 continents, including mainland China.
* Fitzgerald (R) had been the WI Senate Majority leader, and had sued and opposed Gov. Evers’ pandemic policies at every turn. Fitzgerald even refused to call the State Legislature into session to vote upon the kind Governor’s proposals!!! Meanwhile, thousands of Wisconsinites died and hundreds of thousands got sick.
Scott Fitzgerald is not a nice person.
* Things got so bad here in Wisconsin that, according to my calculations (see attached paper):
Wisconsin was the first state to approach herd immunity!
* Trump is now virtually gone, but lots of little alt-right Trumpies are still running around.
* Science describes how the world works. Our students are woefully behind much of the rest of the world in education. We need to emphasize STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and biomedicine to prevent another devastating pandemic.
* We need to develop cutting-edge technology right here in Wisconsin such as AI (artificial intelligence), self-driving vehicles, quantum computers, and customized medical treatments based upon gene sequencing.
* With my experiences in physics, medicine, biomedical engineering, and world-wide business, I am the best candidate to bring state-of-the-art education and technology to Wisconsin–not stonewall Fitzgerald.
———————————————–
I plan to head off Alzheimer’s disease as I travel all around learning EVERYTHING about EVERYTHING. Well not quite–the work of Congress is divided up into committees. I might be good on fusion research, or Mars, or epidemiology committees, but I am totally unqualified to be on the pork-barrel, or the lobbyist, or the penny-get-rich-quick-stock committees.
But I do know lots about fraud and scams because I wrote the book, “The Art of the Scam” (Amazon Kindle). Maybe I should be on the Federal Trade Commission or even supervise the FBI!
I have never to my knowledge told a lie in my adult life (but my friends will surely say, you forgot what you promised). But I won’t air all my dirty linen in public, either.
I WILL make mistakes, but my mother taught me to say, “I apologize; I was wrong.”
My jokes will be funnier than Ronald Reagan’s!
If elected, I have promised to take my girl friend Lorrie Meller to Manhattan on a $5,000 clothes buying spree (Sorry, I don’t have $100K like Sarah Palin spent when she was chosen VP). Then Lorrie and I can attend parties at the WH With Lorrie more stylish than Nancy Pelosi–ha, ha!
But I fantasize…
Two years of hard work to get elected. I welcome your support!
Prof Ron For Wisconsin
—————————-
Rules for this Blog:
Democracy thrives on the free exchange of ideas. If I am to effectively represent you in Congress, I need to hear from all of you. This Blog will help me to do so.
There is no such thing as a “Republican pothole,” or a “Democratic pothole,” only a pothole. Nearly all of the serious problems in America are nonpartisan.
IT WAS ABSOLUTE APPALLING TO ME THAT THE PANDEMIC BECAME PARTISAN.
There are not just good ideas and bad ideas, but sometimes only various poor ideas, like solutions to global warming. I welcome all of your contributions to this Blog–from the right and from the left–and let the other Bloggers critique them.
Actually, I have been carrying on my Email Blog for over a year, with hundreds of valuable contributions, even from 2 Canadians!
——————-
No religious comments. The Constitution says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free practice thereof.”
—————————
No conspiracy theories. Support arguments with facts.
—————————
No personal insults such as, “Dr. Remmel, you’re an IDIOT!” That may very well be 100% correct, but try rephrasing it to say, “I disagree with you for the following reasons…”
It’s fine. Everything’s fine.
After two decades of gradually reducing all seven major felony offenses in the city, killings in the city jumped 41% from 319 in 2019 to nearly 450 as of Tuesday, according to WNBC 4 — the largest single-year increase in 20 years and the most killing since 2011, when the city reported 515.
December alone has seen more than 100 shootings across the city in 2020, according to data from the New York Police Department — in 2019, there were 49. 2020’s figures pale in comparison to figures from decades past. In 1990, there were more than 2,600 murders in the Big Apple.
In September, when the city surpassed 1,000 shootings for the first time since 2015, a Brooklyn police officer said it was time for Mayor Bill de Blasio “to stop calling New York the safest big city.”
Officials cited the coronavirus pandemic as a key factor driving violent crime and protests against both police violence against black people and lockdown restrictions.
For the past few years, RightWisconsin has solicited predictions from local malcontents and ne’er-do-wells. As I think through my predictions for next year, let’s see how I did this year. Now, to be fair, COVID really messed with some of them, but my predictions are worth exactly what you paid for them. Here we go…
Carrie Underwood will win the Entertainer of the Year award from the Country Music Association. If not Carrie, it definitely won’t be a dude after the CMAs took so much heat in 2019 or failing to honor a woman.
WRONG. It was Eric Church. I underestimated the CMA’s political correctness.
2020 will see the first major political scandal that results from a politician saying something stupid/racist/sexist/illegal/etc. that is recorded by a smart speaker and leaked.
WRONG. At least, I can’t think of anyone, but it will happen.
LSU will win the College Football National Championship.
CORRECT.
Preparing for the inevitable, the Green Bay Packers draft a quarterback.
CORRECT.
2020 will end with the Democratic National Committee still owing money to Milwaukee and Wisconsin for the costs of their convention.
WRONG. This is one of those that COVID messed up. If there had been an in-person convention, this would have been correct. As it was, they just abandoned Milwaukee completely.
Speaking of the Democratic Convention, Senator Tammy Baldwin will not be given a prominent speaking slot despite the convention occurring in her home state.
CORRECT.
After Scott Fitzgerald wins a seat in Congress, State Senator Van Wanggaard is elected to be the next Senate Majority Leader.
WRONG.
Scheduled lock closures on the Illinois River will last longer than scheduled causing a small spike in corn and soybean prices.
WRONG. Hats off to the Army Corps of Engineers.
Governor Tony Evers will finally beat his wife at pickleball.
I’m going to call this one CORRECT despite a lack of video evidence. But they played a LOT of pickleball this year. Surely he won at least once.
The United Kingdom’s economy will boom after they leave the European Union.
UNDETERMINED. Their economy sank due to COVID and it’s not possible to measure the Brexit impact in isolation.
Wonder Woman 1984 will be the biggest movie of the year.
WRONG. Well, as of now it’s wrong, but this is another one where COVID disrupted the results. As of now, Bad Boys for Life is the highest grossest movie of 2020 because it came out on January 17th. It grossed $206 million domestically. I would have to think that WW84 would have beaten that.
The Sprint & T-Mobile merger will pass legal challenges and be completed.
CORRECT
Despite increasing the age at which people can buy vaping products to 21, more people will die from vaping in 2020 than in any previous year.
UNDETERMINED. I made this prediction based on the mysterious vaping deaths that were happening at the end of 2019. Remember that? Anyway, I can’t even find current statistics on this and death statistics from the CDC tend to take some time. I hope I’m wrong.
Finally, the wave of populism continues with the reelection of President Trump.
WRONG. The wave of populism has continued, but Trump was not reelected. Although, I do not have confidence in the election results.
Any suggestions for next year?
Remember that the kids who are learning nothing in these schools will one day be your mechanics, doctors, employees, and maybe your boss. Let’s hope that the can find an education after leaving school.
The San Diego Unified School District, for instance, moved this fall to abolish its traditional grading system. Students will still receive letter grades, but they won’t reflect average scores on papers, quizzes, and tests. Under the new system, pupils will not be penalized for failing to complete assignments or even show up for class, and teachers will give them extra opportunities to demonstrate their “mastery” of subjects. What constitutes mastery is not quite clear, but grades “shall not be influenced by behavior or factors that directly measure students’ knowledge and skills in the content area,” according to guidance from the district.
Across Milwaukee’s 15 aldermanic districts, the average assessment increased 9.14% from 2019, according to the Assessor’s Office.
Milwaukee residents also voted overwhelmingly in April in support of additional spending by Milwaukee Public Schools, and taxpayers are seeing the bill for the first time.
The school district can now exceed its state-imposed revenue limits by $87 million a year beginning in the 2023-24 school year, but it is ramping up to that sum by starting with $57 million in the 2020-21 school year.
The extra spending approved in the April referendum meant the school portion of city residents’ property tax bills increased by $1.60, from $9.58 to $11.18, for each $1,000 of home value — or about $240 a year on a home assessed at the median sale price of around $150,000.
It is rather amazing that as COVID-19 continues to rage (allegedly) that the common annual flu season has been all but eliminated. This indicates that many cases of flu are being misidentified as COVID-19.
(yes, I'm playing with new features)
References to decades-old computer software are included in the new Brexit agreement, including a description of Netscape Communicator and Mozilla Mail as being "modern" services.
Experts believe officials must have copied and pasted chunks of text from old legislation into the document.
The references are on page 921 of the trade deal, in a section on encryption technology.
It also recommends using systems that are now vulnerable to cyber-attacks.
The text cites "modern e-mail software packages including Outlook, Mozilla Mail as well as Netscape Communicator 4.x."
The latter two are now defunct - the last major release of Netscape Communicator was in 1997.
Welcome to Biden's America. Right after liberal states and municipalities hammered small businesses with lockdowns and restrictions, the IRS is going to audit the hell out of them.
The Internal Revenue Service is planning to ramp up audits of smaller businesses and their investors by about 50% next year, following years of persistently low examination rates, an agency official said Tuesday.
The result could be a surge in audits of companies ranging from mom-and-pop retail stores and technology startups to investment funds that have historically faced only infrequent checks thanks to the time and effort required at the IRS.
“The IRS is focusing our efforts to increase compliance activity in this area of not only partnerships, but also investor returns related to pass-throughs,” De Lon Harris, the IRS deputy commissioner of examination for small businesses, said at an American Institute of Certified Public Accountants event. For 2021 “we are planning for 50% more than we had in the previous year.”
My column for the Washington County Daily News is online and in print. I dig into Evers' COVID bill a little. Here's a part:
Gov. Tony Evers is urging the Republican leadership of the Legislature to pass his self-styled “compromise” bill addressing the ongoing health concern precipitated by COVID-19. Setting aside, for a moment, that Evers’ bill is not a compromise (hint: compromise bills are rarely announced by only one side) and that Evers has actually taken the Legislature to court over the legality of bills passed in a socalled “lame duck” session, let us examine the priorities of the governor during the ongoing health concern.
Evers’ bill consists of 17 provisions. Seven of the provisions are designed to expand government and/or reduce the government’s accountability to the people. Eight of them would make waste, corruption, and graft easier with taxpayer money. And two of them are regulatory overreaches that will wreak havoc on citizens and the economy.
I know. I'm shocked too. Next thing you know we'll find out that China is giving fake statistics too.
Russian officials acknowledged on Monday that the nation's COVID-19 death toll is in fact more than three times what had been previously reported, after months of President Vladimir Putin holding up the supposedly low fatality rate as a marker of the country’s success in battling the pandemic.
As The Guardian reported, the state-run statistics agency Rosstat said the total number of deaths between January and November from all causes had jumped by 229,700 when compared with the previous year.
“More than 81 percent of this increase in mortality over this period is due to COVID,” said Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova, which would indicated a death toll of more than 186,000 Russians, The Guardian reported. The update means Russia has the third-highest number of fatalities in the world, surpassed only by the U.S. and Brazil.
Russian officials have so far confirmed more than 3 million cases and only 55,265 deaths, The Guardian noted, a number far lower than other large impacted countries.
This will be an interesting case.
A computer repair shop owner who Hunter Biden handed his laptops over to in April 2019 is suing Twitter for defamation, claiming moderators labeled him a hacker.
John Paul Mac Isaac is seeking $500 million in damages from Twitter after The New York Post's story about Biden, obtained from the 50-year-old's laptop, was labeled as potentially coming from hacked material.
Facebook and Twitter both restricted viewing of the Post's story, and Twitter pointed to its ban on posting 'hacked materials' as an explanation.
Mac Isaac claims, according to The Verge, that Twitter specifically made this decision to 'communicate to the world that [Mac Isaac] is a hacker.'
He says that his business began to receive threats and negative reviews after Twitter's moderation decision, and that he is 'now widely considered a hacker' because of Twitter.
Ignore the Hunter Biden connection and the ridiculous dollar amount. This is a case where Twitter employees - not Twitter users - specifically labeled this guy a hacker and damaged his reputation and livelihood. The facts of the case are self-evident. So the court will have to decide if a company like Twitter can be held liable for the defamatory actions of its employees. In a normal world, this seems like it would be a slam dunk. After all, if a company like Microsoft or General Mills had their employees defame someone in public, they could be held accountable. But in today's hyper-charged environment, who knows?
Always be wary when the government starts making lists.
Spain is to set up a registry of people who refuse to be vaccinated against coronavirus and share it with other European Union nations, the health minister has said.
Salvador Illa said the list would not be made accessible to the public or to employers.
He said the way to defeat the virus was "to vaccinate all of us - the more the better".
[...]
"It is not a document which will be made public and it will be done with the utmost respect for data protection."
Uh huh. If you believe that the list won't find its way into the hands of anyone who wants it, I have a bridge to sell you.
I agree with the first one and disagree with the second one.
State Sen. Kathy Bernier, R-Lake Hallie, told the "UPFRONT" program that changing what constitutes an "indefinitely confined" voter will be at the top of the list. "UPFRONT" is produced in partnership with WisPolitics.com.
Bernier said "indefinitely confined" was supposed to apply to voters who are "frail elderly or developmentally disabled." Instead, she said, it was used by a wide variety of voters during the pandemic, including two state lawmakers. Indefinitely confined voters are not required to show a photo ID.
"That is just horrible, that is just wrong," she said. "That is not what that provision was for, and we will have to go back and fix it."
Bernier said she also will bring back up a change allowing in-person, absentee voters to feed their ballot directly into the tabulator. That change has been "sitting in the Legislature for quite some time" and it would help local clerks count absentee ballots faster.
"That would reduce an extraordinary amount of absentee ballots, and the question about the envelopes and where they've been, and whether they are accurate. That would reduce the number greatly," she said.
It is clear that the Democrats actively exploited the "indefinitely confined" loophole to allow people to evade the photo ID requirement. We need to close that loophole and use the "indefinitely confined" provision for its intended purpose.
I don't like the idea of counting in-person absentee ballots when they are submitted, but it's close for me. The problem they are trying to fix is two-fold. First, there is the issue of ballot security for absentee ballots. It is a risk to have thousands of completed ballots laying around for weeks before an election. If security is lax, those ballots could be altered or discarded before being counted. The second problem they are trying to fix is the issue simply the workload and confusion of counting all of those ballots on election day. By spreading it out, it makes the day run smoother.
The problem with counting them when they are submitted, however, is that election officials have a running tally of who is winning and losing prior to the election. This opens the door to election officials giving the heads up (illegal, yes) to candidates and parties. Then those candidates and parties can use that information to prepare target legal and illegal campaigns to sway the final results.
I would prefer to see the legislature focus on fixing the issue instead of creating a new one. Focus on ballot security for absentee ballots. Maybe digital safes where the combination is only given to local election officials on election day by state officials is a part of the plan. Video surveillance of ballot handling. Require 3rd party observation of ballot handling. RFID in the envelopes to track them. There are things we can do to better secure absentee ballots prior to election day. No system is perfect, but we can make it more secure.
The second problem of a rush of processing on election day seems like a non-issue. Almost all municipalities seem to be able to handle it with only a handful of corrupt and/or incompetent municipalities having issues. Focus on the problem children instead of punishing the whole class.
