• MARK SOMMERHAUSER

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin said Thursday she will oppose confirming President Donald Trump’s pick for the U.S. Supreme Court, Judge Neil Gorsuch.

The move is a sign Baldwin is joining the ranks of congressional Democrats who, at the urging of their political base, are ramping up efforts to push back on Trump’s agenda just two weeks into his presidency.

Full Story....Here

by KEVIN D. WILLIAMSON
The popular progressive understanding of the Republican party and conservative movement is something like this: It is, at heart, a conspiracy of corporate oligarchs who use a collection of so-called social issues — religion, bigotry, racial resentment, anti-immigrant sentiment — to stir up the rubes in support of its own parochial economic agenda, tricking them into “voting against their own interests” in the popular progressive phrase. Wall Street guys pulling the strings and writing the checks, foot-washing snake-handlers manning the barricades.

Here is one possibility: The Democratic party in reality is the cartoon version of the Republican party stood on its head, with cold-eyed self-serving economic interests using the so-called social issues to stir up the rubes while they go about seeing to their own paydays and pensions. Full Story....Here

by JULIE KELLY

It looks like the EPA will be the agency hardest hit by the Trump sledgehammer. For eight years, President Obama used the agency as his de facto enforcer of environmental policies he couldn’t pass in Congress even when it was controlled by his own party. If Obama was the climate-change bully, then the EPA was his toady, issuing one regulation after another aimed at imaginary polluters who were allegedly causing global warming. Jobs were lost, companies were bankrupted, and an untold amount of economic growth was stymied out of fear of reprisals from this rogue agency. The courts halted many of the EPAs most overreaching and unlawful policies initiated by Obama — such as the Clean Water Rule and Clean Power Rule, two regulations aimed at farmers and coal producers. Unsurprisingly, people in these sectors voted heavily for Trump. Full Story....Here

President-elect Donald Trump replaces President Faily McWorsethancarter Friday, but we’re not going to be able to Netflix and chill in the fight for freedom. The left and its establishment allies are desperate to regain the power they see slipping away, and we need to understand that the only way to stop them is to beat them to a pulp and leave them whimpering in the fetal position, crying out for their gender fluid mommies. Full Story....Here

The intensity of the hatred for a newly elected president faced by Donald Trump is equaled only by the reaction of the Confederacy to the election of Abraham Lincoln.  That ended up in civil war, a precedent that one hopes will not be equaled.  But there has been a remarkable fury at people who do not shun Trump: boycotts of a company whose shareholder contributed to a PAC supporting  Trump, attempts to pressure the president of a historically black college to prevent its marching band from performing at the inaugural, and hateful rhetoric at Hollywood awards ceremonies.  With much more to come. Full Story....Here

Over the past few weeks, the left has expertly hacked the right by putting out the fake "The Russians Did It" narrative, referring to the reputed source of the 30,000+ Clinton campaign emails published by WikiLeaks.  The right is off balance and off message making excuses and denials, while the Trump transition team has temporarily veered from its focus on fulfilling campaign promises to engage in a useless mini-war with the U.S. intelligence establishment and president Obama.  This idiotic Russia craze has consumed endless news cycles with far too much air time and punditry.

Full Story....Here

Here's something for the real political junkies. The link is to the conclusion of a 5 part series. One of the things I found interesting is how the Democrats are concentrating their power in the large cities, most of which are already in solid blue states or in states that also have large rural areas that can counter the large city vote. From an Electorical College standpoint they are adding votes where it doesn't do them any good.

Another very important bit of information is how the rural areas and small towns and cities are voting much heavier for Republicans. This reinforces, to me, how important the work done by Barron County Republican Party is. 

By Sean Trende & David Byler

As a few observant readers have noted, one thing that has been missing entirely from this series is race.  This is a bit odd, given that virtually all election analysis this cycle has focused on that aspect of Trump’s win.

There are three reasons for this, the last of which leads to our conclusion.

Second, the impact of demographics is often overstated. For example, Democrats lost Colorado by 100,000 votes in 2004, but won it by 130,000 in 2016.  Based upon the exit polls and statewide vote totals, Democrats picked up about 110,000 votes from Hispanics – enough to flip the state – but Republicans picked up 50,000 of their own.  What really flipped the state was that Democrats picked up 284,000 votes from whites, while Republicans picked up just 53,000.  Hispanics are still just over 10 percent of the electorate in Colorado, and Republicans still win a significant number of their votes. Read the whole article....Here  And be sure to read the article on the Midwest.

Donald Trump’s inauguration proceedings this Friday officially confirmed his new job as 45th President of the United States.

HERE are some of the best images captured during the ceremony and its aftermath.

   Important message from Dr. Lowell Holtz, Candidate for Wisconsin Superintendent of Public Instruction. 

Betsy DeVos and School Choice

Tuesday’s congressional hearing for President Trump’s Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, is a watershed moment for children, especially for disadvantaged students who are stuck in failing schools across our country.  Never before has the future of education been placed in the hands of a stronger advocate for personal freedom and school choice, placing educational decisions in the greatest form of local control – a household, where parents know what's best for their children. Full Statement....{phocadownload view=file|id=9|target=s}