Today in People Who Should Have Been Drowned at Birth

I give you the  Waukesha, Wisconsin school board, whicheliminated their free for all school lunch program because they thought that it would "spoil" the kids.

Note that this program cost them no money at all, in fact, opting out the federal program cost them money, they literally spent money just to to hurt poor people in general, and black and brown people in particular.

How people like this are not cast out of society to live their days in a cave is beyond me.

They just want to hurt people, and that their victims are just children does not matter to them:

With two girls in elementary school and a mother who is a teacher, the Dringenburg household in a Milwaukee suburb had been joyous and excited about back-to-school season — until this year, when the Waukesha School District board decided to opt out of a federally funded program that would give free meals to all students regardless of family income.

The board voted June 9 to return to the pre-pandemic National School Lunch Program, which offers free and reduced-price lunches to students who apply and receive federal money for them. Waukesha is the only eligible school district in the state to eschew the funding.

………

Since June, the Alliance for Education in Waukesha, about 900 parents and teachers who connected over social media, has pressed the district to switch back to the “universal” or free-for-everyone meals after board members decried the program’s potential to produce an “addiction” to the service — a stigma that some experts have disproved. Their efforts come amid a coronavirus pandemic with economic effects that are hurting families across the nation.

………

All school districts that had participated in the National School Lunch Program were eligible for the Seamless Summer Option. Of Wisconsin’s eligible 408 districts, Waukesha is the only one choosing to opt out, according to the state Department of Public Instruction. All of the state’s public schools adopted the universal meal program in March 2020, the nascent days of the pandemic.

………

In June, the board voted to forgo the U.S. Agriculture Department’s Food and Nutrition Service’s extension of the Seamless Summer Option, a program to provide free meals to all students through June 30, 2022, because the pandemic was expected to burden some children’s nutrition.

“The covid-19 public health and economic crisis has highlighted the essential role that school meals play in addressing childhood hunger,” Alan Shannon, a spokesman for the Food and Nutrition Service, said in an email to The Washington Post. He highlighted the universal program’s lack of application as a victory for families and for local authorities who otherwise would be tasked with processing them.

Forgoing the Seamless Summer Option, Shannon added, could mean a loss of revenue for the Waukesha School District. The reimbursement for schools operating under the universal meal program is $4.32, he said, and the National School Lunch Program’s is $3.90 for free meals and $3.59 for reduced-price meals. 

………

Karin Rajnicek, a school board member, said the free program made it easy for families to “become spoiled.” Darren Clark, assistant superintendent for business services, said there could be a “slow addiction” to the service.

Heaven forgid that poor children develop a"Slow Addiction" to ……… You know ………EATING!

While that this may not exactly fit Hannah Arendt's definition, but it does seem to be a good definition of the, "Banality of evil," to me.

Wisconsin Recall Update

As it stands right now, 2 Republicans were recalled, and 3 survived the vote, and one race, the race between Alberta Darling (R) and Sandy Pasch (D), is too close to call.

I'm not going to be up late enough to call this, but considering the fact that part of the district is in Waukesha County, where Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus mysteriously found a few thousand votes for Supreme Court Justice David Prosser in April, I'm going to say that a surprisingly robust turnout from Waukesha County county will likely have 'Phant winning.

Nicklaus is either incompetent or corrupt, but each time something comes up, the irregularities cut in favor or Republicans, so I'll go with corrupt.

This means that the Republicans will maintain control of the Senate, which is a bummer.

Yes, recalls are hard, and the performance was historically good, these were Republican leaning districts, and the elections were close, but this is going to be spun as a Republican victory by the media and the conventional wisdom.

I will bet heavy odds that in the next few weeks, a senior administration official will be anonymously quoted excoriating the grass roots over wasting all that money and effort, just like they did over the Blanche Lincoln primary challenge.

In any case, I am turning off the teevee and going to bed.

(Morning update via mobile)
Confirmed. Only two pickups. Damn.

Wisconsin Assholes Cave

After deciding to opt out of a free school lunch program, because they wanted to be cruel for their own amusement, the Waukesha school board has reversed this decision following nation-wide outrage. 

It turns out that, "The cruelty is the point," politics does not play well with the bulk of the American people, even though it still does with the Talibaptist wing of the American body politic:

Waukesha school board members reversed their controversial decision to leave a federal free meals program with a split vote Monday, following national uproar andlocal protests. 

In an incendiary meeting with two lively overflow rooms, debate ranged from the finer points of feeding students to ideological arguments linking free meals to mask mandates and critical race theory.

Board members voted 5-4 to rescind their previous decision, and opt to participate this school year in the federally funded program that has already been providing free breakfast and lunch to all students in response to the pandemic. 

The district had been the only eligible district in the state to opt out of the program, according to the state Department of Public Instruction. 

Superintendent James Sebert asked board members to reconsider their previous decision, noting the program would help families "experiencing situational poverty due to the pandemic" who might not qualify for free meals under the district's traditional program.

Protests can make a difference.

One hopes that Waukesha voters remember what happened in the next election.

Projecting Much?

The reason that Republican constantly accuse Democrats of various versions of electoral fraud is because that is what they do.

Understanding Republicans is a lot like understanding the Soviet Union back in the day, they were doing whatever they accused you of: 

A former Waukesha County school board member now faces criminal charges, a tip our I-team has been tracking for several weeks now.

Last week, 28-year-old John Harter abruptly resigned from the Hartland Lakeside School Board.

On Friday, he was charged with three counts of election fraud after the DA's office said he falsified his voter registration address for the last three years.

According to the criminal complaint, Harter told others that he filed the candidacy documents using his father's address in Pewaukee because he visits his father's house when he is not working and that is the house he grew up in.

His father, Tom Harter, is Hartland Lakeside School Board's former president and is still on the board.

It's so refreshing to see a family engaging in a criminal conspiracy.  Maybe they will get to share a cell.

And yes, he IS a Republican, who achieved some notoriety a few months back when he used the term "Colored students" to describe black students.

Also, he is a Republican, the campaign finance documents show this.

This Smells Like Karl Rove Punking Dan Rather

We have a story that Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker fathered a child out of wedlock, and was rather a cad about it, by noted brain injury specialist Dr. Bernadette Gillick, who said that it was her roommate.

There has since been a denial from the woman in question. (Actually, within hours of the publication of the story)

It smells to me a lot like the punking that Rove gave Dan Rather over George W. Bush's Texas National Guard service (or lack thereof).

In the case of W, the stories were probably true, and the false story was likely floated in order to defuse the issue.

In the case of Scott Walker, I'm not sure if there is an actually baby that he abandoned, or this is an attempt to distract attention from the John Doe investigation which has already snared his closest political advisers, but it smells like a 'Phant false flag operation.

In related news, the DoJ will be sending observers to monitor the elections.

I hope they bring cuffs to Waukesha county, because with county clerk Kathy Nickolaus running elections there, despite having been forced to delegate her duties to her deputy, I expect it to be an orgy of irregularities there.

Wisconsin Election(s) Update

In the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, JoAnne Kloppenburg filed a petition with the Government Accountability Board for a recount, which is automatic, and at state expense, because the margin was less than the ½% margin.

She also called for an investigation of the actions of Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus, who has been using odd methods, and generating odd results, for years.

I don't know how this will turn out, but given that Wisconsin uses paper ballots, my guess is that Ms. Nickolaus will not look good at the end of this, because even if she isn't shown to have engaged in ballot fraud, her history of incompetence is well documented.

Additionally, it looks like Wisconsin will be more than doubling its recall elections in its history, there have been 4 total in history, but now 5 recall petitions have already been filed against state senators, which means that there should be at least 5 recall elections.

I would expect a lot of money from the Koch brothers to flow in for both the recount and the elections.

Wisconsin Election Board Certifies Prosser Winner of Supreme Court Race

So the right winger who threatened another judge has been declared the winner.

It is unclear at this point whether his challenger, JoAnne Kloppenburg, will be taking this to court.

She probably should, if just to turn over the rocks that is the Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus (probably deliberate) exercise in incompetence in counting votes, but my guess is that she won't, because Democrats are wimps.

If it were turned around, we would already have James Baker showing up and saying that it's not fair.

In any case, she has to make her decision by May 31.

JoAnne Kloppenberg Concedes Wisconsin Supreme Court Race

She made some noises about electoral reforms in the unspecified future, but absent an adversarial proceeding with full discovery, i.e. a full legal challenge which she eschewed, it's not gonna happen.

If the election were just about a difference in philosophy, as opposed to the explicit statements by David Prosser that he would specifically support Scott Walker's agenda, perhaps there could be an excuse for playing nice, but in this case there is no such excuse.

There were clearly extensive and pervasive irregularities, particularly in Waukesha County, and even in a losing effort, exposing the corruption and incompetence of that county clerk is an independent good that any officer of the court should pursue.

Feh on her.