Ring That Bell

On 4-24-16 CBS 60 Minutes ran an exposé entitled “Dialing For Dollars” with Norah O’Donnell. “The American public has a low opinion of Congress. Only 14 percent think it’s doing a good job. But Congress has excelled in one way. Raising money. Members of Congress raised more than a billion dollars for their 2014 election. And they never stop. Nearly every day, they spend hours on the phone asking supporters and even total strangers for campaign donations — hours spent away from the jobs they were elected to do. The pressure on candidates to raise money has ratcheted up since the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision in 2010.” “By law, members of Congress cannot make fundraising calls from their offices. So both parties have set up “call centers” just a few blocks away. This is where the Republicans have theirs.” O’Donnell quotes Republican former Florida congressman and current GOP Senate primary candidate David Jolly: “It is a cult-like boiler room on Capitol Hill where sitting members of Congress, frankly I believe, are compromising the dignity of the office they hold by sitting in these sweatshop phone booths calling people asking them for money. And their only goal is to get $500 or $1,000 or $2,000 out of the person on the other end of the line.” How exactly does that work? Jolly: “We sat behind closed doors at one of the party headquarter back rooms in front of a white board where the equation was drawn out. You have six months until the election. Break that down to having to raise $2 million in the next six months. And your job, new member of Congress, is to raise $18,000 a day. Your first responsibility is to make sure you hit $18,000 a day.” Rick Nolan, Democrat Minnesota congressman, is quoted as saying: “Well, both parties have told newly elected members of the Congress that they should spend 30 hours a week in the Republican and Democratic call centers across the street from the Congress, dialing for dollars.” New York Democrat congressman Steve Israel concurred: “I’d have to put in about an hour, maybe an hour and a half, at most, two hours a day into fundraising. And that’s the way it went until 2010, when Citizens United was enacted. At that point, everything changed. And I had to increase that to two, three, sometimes four hours a day, depending on what was happening in the schedule.” Today, The Newark Advocate headlined that Licking County’s own congressional representative Pat “Tiberi eyes Senate bid in 2018” (Deirdre Shesgreen, Gannett Ohio, 2-27-16). “Earlier this month, the congressman’s campaign sent out a news release touting his fundraising prowess. The missive noted that Tiberi had more money in the bank than Ted Strickland, the former Ohio governor and Democrat running against Portman. Tiberi, who has a safe Republican congressional district, closed the first quarter of 2016 with nearly $4 million on hand, compared to Strickland’s $1.2 million.” Analysis finds this to be a sure sign of a hard worker. “Norah O’Donnell: You’re saying members of Congress are becoming like telemarketers? Rep. Rick Nolan: Well, 30 hours a week, that’s a lot of telemarketing. Probably more than most telemarketers do.” Pat Tiberi, hardest working telemarketer central Ohio has sent to Washington. Ring that bell!

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What Unites Trump And Clinton Backers

Ann (not her real name) is confident, and quietly ebullient about a woman finally breaking the glass ceiling, becoming the president of the United States. She says it has been long overdue and that the current candidate deserves it, has earned it. Why, she was unflustered after 11 hours of grilling by a legislative committee, has a long history of public service, and claims continuous engagement with the country’s problems. Ann and her husband identify with that as they themselves have had a lifetime of public sector work as college educated “low level” professionals, always in unelected positions. They also worked hard, put their two kids through college, and now scramble to find the means to be with their new grandchild. Ann’s husband had lost his job at the tail end of the first Clinton administration and never found like employment after that (or work that he liked). Hillary, after the NY primary, is emphatically reasserting her inevitability by changing the topic of conversation to one she can manage. Gun control has been something relatively incidental to the primary debate thus far though her husband Bill pointed out to protesters demanding he admit his own culpability — police don’t kill black people, black people kill black people. Pundits have pointed out that though essentially inevitable in being dismissed as viable presidential material, Bernie Sanders has continuously set the topic of debate, the subject matter of the Democratic primary, the agenda of concern. Now that it is all over but the shouting, Clinton redirects what is to be the public concern. Ann is unfazed when it is pointed out that Hillary’s income for a single evening of speaking amounted to what is 2 years of adjusted gross income on Ann and her husband’s joint returns.

A half century ago there were still low ceiling coal mines in Carroll County, Ohio (long since gone). Analysis was surprised when NPR’s Morning Edition broadcast live out of Tennessee and interviewed a man who had lost his job working in one within the recent past. Dan (not his real name) worked every day crawling on his hands and knees in the 36 inch high tunnels following the narrow seam of coal (a man does what he has to do). He backs Donnie Trump. For Dan, Donnie is success personified, and that can’t help but rub off on the rest of us and the area he lives in. Trump has a no nonsense approach to playing the game and, unlike Hillary, he is setting the agenda of what concerns Americans, the mark of a winner. For Dan, having clear cut winners and losers matters. Trump is a winner. When the game is played, those who win are entitled to the spoils of victory. For Dan, this is a fairness ethics learned on the athletic playing fields of his youth. Why a mega winner like Donald Trump should be concerned with the collateral damage of his deals, which just may include someone like Dan himself, leaves Dan unperturbed. What is right, is right.

Analysis finds both candidates and their followers to be an awful lot alike (truly awful). Both are drawn to and emphasize the inevitable winner. Both win through playing the game, claiming to do it by the rules. Politics is its own rules. Both campaign and offer solutions on a cause and effect basis. Problems like crime (statistically not) are caused by illegal activity, hence those active in such are illegal’s. Get rid of the illegal’s (literally in Trump’s case) or through manipulating what is and isn’t illegal (precedent policy in the first Clinton presidency) are simple cause and effect solutions. Analysis finds repeated statistical evidence of the percentage of mental illness involved with shootings of civilians by police (25% if not more by current studies) and by other civilians. Current U S mental health care provided is severely underfunded, inadequate, and not universally available (the “conventional wisdom” that accounts for this must be that those suffering this malady will make inordinate effort to seek out treatment). The addiction epidemic (a true concern not manufactured by either candidate) is likewise aggravated by mental health challenges. But these are complicated issues not neatly tied up by “cause and effect” approaches. Both candidates are embraced by their constituency for favoring incremental change – Trump through a trickle down economics, Clinton building slowly on the rearrangements of past Democratic administrations. Complete and full change is favored by neither – Clinton wants all to succeed, Wall Street as well as Mickey D’s employees, Trump wants to Make America Great AGAIN. What unites Trump and Clinton backers almost completely is the near universal indifference, if not downright denial, to the no man’s land that separates the backers from the candidates themselves (who reside in a virtual and invisible gated community). Ann enjoyed family celebrations, suffered heartbreaks and lived a plethora of experiences within the 2 years needed to earn what her candidate was reimbursed for in an evening of “speaking”. What kind of life experiences did Hillary have during the nano seconds between syllables? Dan got dirty, sweated and ached, grew numb delivering “product” for a company that ultimately played the game by going bankrupt to avoid contractual commitments regarding retirement, health, alternate job training and employment. Did Donnie go numb with each of his multiple bankruptcy filings?

Trouble In Mind

Analysis always finds it disconcerting to pick up on area news from an outside the area source (see archive Not News, 3-9-16). Again, “Ohio State Turns the Concept of ‘Safe Space’ Against Student Protesters; Activists were cleared from a building by officials who claimed that they were making university employees feel scared.” By Conor Friedersdorf for The Atlantic (4-14-16) creates this disruption of confidence in local news access. The story itself is troubling. “At Ohio State last week, a sit-in and protest inside a university building was cut short when students were warned that they would be forcibly removed by police, arrested, and possibly expelled if they did not vacate the premises within a few hours, by 5 a.m.” Again, from “outside the bubble” as Harry Shearer would say, we learn that outdoor demonstrations against new labor law reforms in France have been taking place nightly in Paris since March 9, 2016. The movement, entitled “Nuit Debout” (Standing Night) has since spread to 30 cities outside Paris, with the latest confrontation involving the arrest of children in Montpellier (France: Riot police spray Montpellier students with tear gas during protest By Alex Wheeler, International Business Times, 4-14-16). All very much akin to last summer’s unreporting of “Every Saturday for nearly two months, Constitution Square outside Guatemala City’s National Palace has overflowed with thousands of protesters demanding an end to corruption and the resignation of President Otto Perez Molina.” (from the UK’s Telegraph) You may also like the AP’s More UMass student protesters arrested during second sit-in (4-14-16). “Police say the 19 students booked on Wednesday were protesters who did not exit the building peacefully after a dispersal order was issued. They were charged with trespassing and were arraigned in Eastern Hampshire District Court. Fifteen protesters were similarly arrested at Tuesday night’s sit-in.” Then again, a Yuuuuge demonstration has evolved on line for tonight in front of the Grand Hyatt hotel in Manhattan where Donnie Trump, Ted Cruz and John Kasich are scheduled to speak. But back to the unreported Ohio State Student Union demonstration which is much more troubling in its broader implications. Just a little over a year ago a non-demonstration outside the Ohio Student Union was brutalized by Columbus police using horse mounted officers and pepper spray (Riot Cops Use Tear Gas on Columbus Crowds After Ohio State Win, NBC News, 1-13-15). Bear that violence in mind as Friedersdorf quotes Dr. Drake’s representatives: “Our goal, because I want you to understand why we would do something like this—I didn’t think we were going to—but the consensus of university leaders is that the people who work in this building should be protected also. They come to work around 7 o’clock. Do you remember when you all made the rush down there and chanted to the folks outside the doors a minute ago? That scared people.” Friedersdorf goes on to write: “That elicited disbelief from protesters. Who was scared, they scoffed, the police officers with guns? Said the university messenger, “If you refuse to understand what I’m trying to tell you—I’m not going to answer that question,” meaning he refused to say who it scared. Soon after, his sidekick steps in, saying, “It would scare employees who are wanting to do their work in this building.” Added the first messenger, “The employees who work past five o’clock left early this evening. Do you know why? Because they were scared you were going to do something.” Said messenger two, “That’s the truth you guys. I talked to several of them when they walked out of here.” Their consensus position: “The people in this building have a right to a safe environment, and to an environment where their jobs won’t be interrupted.”” Analysis wonders if this is a new variation on the ongoing Right To Work laws or something else. Analysis finds this to be something else, a new variation on the oft repeated theme for police/paramilitary shootings where the shooter “feared for their life” as justification for the shooting (George Zimmerman’s purported rationale, repeated since ad nauseam by various shooters). This is particularly insidious in light of the Constitutional Rights which are disregarded (trampled on) for the sake of being scared, in fear of one’s life, terrified (which leads into the war on those who terrify, the war on terror). While the second amendment right of bearing arms, whether through concealed or open carry, is not sufficient cause for being scared, in fear for one’s life, or terrified, people assembled or exercising speech is considered scary. This new line of policing is even more pernicious in light of the SCOTUS ruling not allowing for “safe spaces” in front of abortion clinics in order to keep those entering or working there from being scared, fearing for their lives, or being terrified by the folks outside exercising their Constitutional Rights of assembly and speech. Analysis finds all of this occurring within the Patriot Act environment, manufactured specifically to protect citizens from being scared or terrified, to be quite troubling.

League Of Leaders

Like the swallows returning to Capistrano (wiki it), the area public airwaves have filled with numbers to call for sustaining donations. Of course, donate whatever you can, at whatever amount you are comfortable with. But the recipients of the donor’s largesse offer bonuses and incentives – funding levels. One area station offers the requisite coffee mug/keychain for the minimum contribution, rising up through Tee shirts and decorated throws all the way to membership in the League of Leaders, where instead of receiving something, the sugar daddy (or mommy) gets to give their advice, business direction, management expertise to the ever attentive program director herself, etc. If the present presidential election is any barometer of culture, Americans like their leaders to be wealthy. Quick, without looking at your smartphone, who was the last white, un-wealthy leader you can think of? Ralph Nader? Maybe. Richard Trumpka? For a while. Let’s hear from the ladies out there? Can I get a witness? The silence is deafening. People of color? Oh plenty when we go down that road, whether radical or conventional. Why is that? Then again, that too is changing. No, it is a safe overgeneralization and simplification to state that Americans associate leadership with wealth. Somehow that makes us feel comfortable. No sense to go through the 1%, 99% stats of how CEO’s of companies make beaucoup more salary (and perks) than those making their wealth possible. How often does one hear that tax funded public institutions must offer continuous pay scale upgrades to attract “the best” for their leadership positions, be it superintendent, manager or even coach? In wealth we trust. To those having acquired it we attribute various virtues and qualities like foresight, wisdom, talent, affability, and in general, the taste and discernment of what is the best for all. Recently, a league of leaders, the majority of which were not elected (but well funded just the same), toured the tottering relic of Dave Longaberger’s corporate vision and foresight. For the pre-wiki generation, Dave was a beacon of business leadership in this part of central Ohio. He “saved” the Midland theater, as well as the present, and only, hotel in town. He brought “jobs” to the Dresden/Frazeysburg area, and eventually the corporate headquarters to an annexed just-for-you part of Newark. Now the paint is coming off the handles of his basket dream. Sigh. Another league of leaders gathered in the state’s capital recently to decide whether to fund First Energy’s and AEP’s request for a corporate welfare fee to be imposed on its customers to ensure continued ownership of redundant coal fired power plants. Like the Newark league, the utility commission is also primarily unelected, appointed “leaders”. The leaders ultimately voted to allow the corporate welfare fees to be imposed. Bear in mind, dear reader, this took place after a moratorium was put in place on state renewable energy requirements by, in this case, the very elected leaders who previously had mandated the requirements. Today we learned that Peabody Coal, the nation’s largest coal mining company, filed for bankruptcy. AP’s Jim Salter reports (Peabody, largest US coal miner, seeks bankruptcy protection, 4-13-16) “The bankruptcy filing comes less than three months after another from Arch Coal, the country’s second-largest miner, which followed bankruptcy filings from Alpha Natural Resources, Patriot Coal and Walter Energy.” It is no surprise that one of the top contenders for the 2016 presidential race has been in bankruptcy filings several times. His actual wealth is not accounted for or verified. Like Peabody, Longaberger, and many, many others (both league members and not), his wealth is assumed, as is his leadership. Analysis finds all of this akin to what in sports reporting (and economics) is described as a bubble. The association of wealth with leadership creates completely uncritical conclusions like that leadership contributes to wealth, and that members of the league of leaders, through their “contributions”, have the public’s best interest as a priority.

Welcome Homeless Home

At the start of the year (1-5-16) Rebecca McCray at Takepart.com headlined “One of America’s Poorest Cities Is Close to Ending Chronic Homelessness”. McCray writes “Advocates in Buffalo, New York, working to end homelessness in their city are crowing about an exciting new number: 22. That’s how many chronically homeless people are living on the streets as of early January, and the number is still falling, according to Dale Zuchlewski, executive director of the Homeless Alliance of Western New York.” A program entitled “Housing First” provides the homeless with, you guessed it, a permanent home. “By getting people into permanent, subsidized housing as quickly as possible with the help of grants from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Zuchlewski and other advocates have found that people are more likely to stay off the streets than if they are made to wait while resolving other issues. “There was an old belief that people had to be ready for housing—you had to be clean and sober, you had to be taking all your medication, you had to be seeing a primary care physician,” Zuchlewski said. “When you look at the general population, very few people are like that.” In other words, it’s easier to address problems like substance abuse and mental illness with the aid of a caseworker after the most basic need—shelter—has been met.” Analysis notes today’s The Independent headlining “One US city has found a unique solution for its homeless problem” by Feliks Garcia (4-6-16). At the other end of the country, in Texas, “Community First Village (CFV) opened in Austin on Saturday with the hopes of alleviating some of the capital city’s troubles with homelessness. The nonprofit organization aims to house 250 people in its 140 of its so-called “tiny homes” by the end of 2017.” “The initiative is run by veteran homeless advocate Alan Graham, who serves as CEO of the Christian organization Mobile Loaves & Fishes behind CFV.” ““I got the idea that we could lift a chronically homeless individual up off the streets into a gently used recreational vehicle,” he said. “I had this wild and crazy idea to develop an RV park on steroids.”” “The tiny homes will primarily function as bedrooms, while the community offers shared kitchens, bathrooms, and laundry facilities.” “Mr Graham, who was not immediately available for comment, believes that his efforts to help the homeless will relieve the economic burden placed on Austin taxpayers”. While at the other end of the country “In Buffalo, for example, supportive housing costs roughly $50 per night, according to Zuchlewski. Meanwhile, a night in jail or the emergency room—where many homeless people wind up—could cost $150 or $1,500, respectively.” Analysis can’t help but wonder if you couldn’t do that with a giant market basket? Welcome home!

Today Reuters reports “Voting rights advocates sue over Ohio’s voter roll purge process” (Brendan O’Brien, 4-6-16). “In their lawsuit filed in federal court in Ohio, the American Civil Liberties Union and advocacy group Demos accused Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted of breaking federal voter registration law. They want the court to order the state to stop using its current process to purge voter rolls, according to court records.” “The lawsuit said that over the past several years, Ohio voters were illegally removed from the rolls if they failed to cast a ballot in three consecutive federal elections or in the intervening local elections, or for failing to complete a change-of-address form and send it back to the state.” What’s the Secretary of State’s reasoning? “”This lawsuit is politically motivated, election-year politics, is a waste of taxpayer dollars and opens the door for voter fraud in Ohio,” Husted said.” And Husted should know a thing or two about fraud having survived a challenge regarding his own housing when he and his family lived in Upper Arlington while claiming to be residents of the district he represented in Dayton by “owning” a vacant house there (a homeless home!). Another good reason for Housing First – along with a slew of other things, you can’t vote without a home address.

Super Hero Welcome

Hot on the heels of disclosure that the indefatigable presidential candidate and never resting current Ohio Governor intends to require Medicaid recipients to hand over a monthly premium for the ACA empowered program or receive no health care, AND news of Newark’s own congressional representative’s aggressive drive to further cut Job and Family Services’ funding (in tandem with his tag-team partner, the hardest working presidential wannabe in America) Analysis uncovers “The controversial reason tens of thousands of people just lost their food stamps” by Max Ehrenfreund and Roberto A. Ferdman of the Washington Post’s Wonkblog, 4-1-16. During the Dot Com era of affluence (when the internet promised to be whatever its users wanted it to be) the postal worker’s son passed “welfare to work” legislation that is still in effect 20 years later (post 9/11, post the son’s own former employer- Lehman Bro’s – going belly up, post globalization and great recession). “Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R), who helped author the work requirement as a congressman in 1996, is among the conservative politicians arguing that able-bodied adults should not receive SNAP benefits if they are not working. At the end of 2013, Kasich decided not to request an extension of the statewide waiver of the work mandate, enforcing the rule in all but the most economically depressed, rural counties in Ohio. A spokesman for Kasich, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, said the reinstatement of the requirement would prod people to seek work in the improving economy.” Later they write “”Making people hungrier isn’t going to make them find work faster,” said Rebecca Vallas, managing director of the Poverty to Prosperity Program at the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank. “One of the most helpful things for someone looking for work is helping them not worry about putting food on the table.”” Speaking of food, Analysis finds the preemptive planning and projection of the tattered Longaberger Basket case as a visitors welcome center by Newark’s Super Heroes ““Mayor Jeff Hall, former Longaberger President Jim Klein, developer Jerry McClain, chamber President and CEO Cheri Hottinger, County Commissioner Tim Bubb, Newark Development Partners Director Fred Ernest, Grow Licking County Director Nate Strum and representatives from higher education and local foundations” to be irresistible (see previous post Is Everyone Unhappy?). After the county crusader’s unscripted dismay at cuts to Job and Family Services funding (“It’s just a (federal) line item, a drop in the bucket,” previous post Where’s The Crime In All This?), the Bubbman ultimately demurred, then deferred to Captive America Tiberi’s superior priority (““Maybe it’s not as effectively used elsewhere. I have no idea. For Pat Tiberi, it’s not just a Licking County question, it’s a United States question. I’m not going to be critical of Pat.”” The Newark Advocate, Flexibility of abuse grant attacked, praised by Kent Mallett, 3-29-16. Analysis recommends Better Living Through Criticism by A. O. Scott). Analysis finds more Donnie than Ted in the projected use of the failed public private partnership being “saved” by the continued infusion of “hard working [Newark} Americans’ tax dollars” (Captive America’s 3-27-16 guest column). This vampire embrace by the private parts of this failed public/private partnership producing a visitors welcome center while cutting off aid for non-voting youth and under employed/unemployed adults perfectly reflects the oligarchic Super Hero approach to self-governing democracy. The public part of the partnership must pony up while the private parts will only perform if paid (evidenced by one of the super heroes’ downtown historic school apartment project not proceeding without the guarantee of tax credit welfare checks). A giant market basket of commercial bounty made possible by the unseen working poor that rely on (equally) unseen food banks for their children and themselves is an accurate architecture for a Super Hero welcome.

Is Everyone Unhappy?

“I’m not happy unless you’re unhappy” seems to be an underlying, almost subliminal mantra within a good part of the political aspirant for the future of self-governance here in the US of A (both individual as well as ideological). Quick, without checking a smartphone, what was the reason given by the freshly, first time elected Mayor Jeff Hall for why Newark’s streets could not be paved? No, you don’t need to phrase it in the form of a question. That’s right, the bungled Longaberger public- private partnership. Well, just like Arnold, it’s back. The Newark Advocate headlines “Leaders discuss Big Basket future without Longaberger” by Kent Mallett (3-31-16). “The company [parent company JRJR Networks] owed $472,859 in delinquent property taxes for the Big Basket on Feb. 17, and will owe $568,132 at the end of the year.” But wait, superheroes “Mayor Jeff Hall, former Longaberger President Jim Klein, developer Jerry McClain, chamber President and CEO Cheri Hottinger, County Commissioner Tim Bubb, Newark Development Partners Director Fred Ernest, Grow Licking County Director Nate Strum and representatives from higher education and local foundations discussed ideas for the building.” Holy love handles, Bubbman, this could be fraught with danger! No problemo, Wan Woman “Hottinger said the building could be used for seminars. It has a large cafeteria area and a 100- to 120-seat theater, with a stage, several conference areas for board meetings or training. The building could have a tourism function to it, she said, but still needs multiple tenants and at least one pretty large company before it also could be used as a visitors’ center.” According to the official Licking County website “‘Grow Licking County’ is a Community Improvement Corporation and a cooperative effort between Licking County Government, The Heath-Newark-Licking County Port Authority, and the Licking County Chamber of Commerce.” “based at the Licking County Chamber of Commerce”. So much for getting the streets paved, Boy Blunder. On the state level we find “Republican Gov. John Kasich’s administration is moving forward with plans to require more than 1 million low-income Ohioans to pay a new monthly cost for Medicaid or potentially lose coverage.” (Waiver readied to require cost-sharing in Medicaid, Ann Sanner for AP, 3-31-16). For those of you keeping score at home, we just learned of Jobs and Family Services losing funding through a program promoted by Newark’s US Congressperson (and all around good guy) Pat Tiberi after losing previous funding from the State, never restored by its wannabe US president. That self same presidential candidate nationally justified his embrace of Medicaid (while vowing to destroy the ACA), on religious (compassionate) grounds. Folks are on Medicaid because they can’t afford medical care (let alone premiums). “But I can’t be happy, till I make you unhappy too.” Is everyone unhappy? Almost, but not quite! “Ohio assures profits for 2 energy companies” by Jessie Balmert for Gannett (3-31-16) reports that “The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio in a 5-0 vote Thursday approved plans from Akron-based FirstEnergy and Columbus-based American Electric Power that require customers to subsidize aging plants.” And “Ohio Consumers’ Counsel initially estimated the plans would cost customers as much as $6 billion over eight years. That amounted to an extra $800 for every FirstEnergy customer and $700 for every AEP customer over that time.” After what we’ve witnessed with the price of petroleum, FirstEnergy and AEP must be very happy. But wait, there’s more! “Republicans lied in Wisconsin: Here’s how you know the state’s voter ID law is a complete sham Wisconsin GOPers insisted the law wasn’t intended to suppress the vote. A new report suggests that wasn’t true” by Elias Isquith, staff writer for Salon (3-30-16). “On April 5, when voters cast ballots in Wisconsin’s Republican and Democratic primaries, the state’s controversial voter ID bill will face its biggest test since Governor Scott Walker signed it into law in 2011. For the first time in a major election, citizens will be required to show approved forms of identification in order to vote. The law mandates that the state run a public-service campaign “in conjunction with the first regularly scheduled primary and election” to educate voters on what forms of ID are acceptable. But Wisconsin has failed to appropriate funds for the public education campaign.” Not only that, but “the Government Accountability Board [“the nonpartisan agency responsible for producing voter education materials”] decided against making a formal funding request to the legislature, which had already introduced a bill to dismantle the agency.” Isquith concludes “With anywhere between 200,000 to 350,000 Wisconsin citizens potentially facing disenfranchisement, according to [Pro Publica’s Sarah] Smith’s report, the voter ID law is on pace to work exactly as intended.” Is everyone unhappy?