Recall Walker Countdown: Scott Walker Thought All They Cared about Was Their Paychecks. He Was So Wrong.

I took this photo on the Capitol grounds on March 4, 201.

Scott Walker and his buddies the Koch brothers love to play divide and conquer, playing different groups off against each other so that they're less likely to notice that the rich are getting all the goodies. They pitted union workers against non-union workers, public employees against private employees and the middle class against the poor in order to sell their "race to the bottom" budget that provided a lavish banquet for the rich and left the rest of us to fight over table scraps.

Because their minds are constructed to think in terms of narrow self-interest, Walker and his minions thought they were being really smart by exempting police and firefighters from the union-busting provisions of Walker's budget. The old divide and conquer tactic all over again. But they misjudged Wisconsin's police and firefighters. Instead of supporting Walker, they threw their support behind their fellow public employees in overwhelming numbers. They inspired a lot of people with their strong presence -- including entire families -- at the rallies last winter. This is the sort of solidarity that will help make Scott Walker a less-than-1-full-term governor -- and a footnote in the history books.

Taking the new lens on a ride

I liked the interplay between the colors of this battered old truck and the landscape. My favorite birthday elf picked up on my interest in the 35mm f/1.8 DX Nikkor lens for my D90, and I've been playing with it. Nice to be shooting with a "normal" prime for a crop-sensor DSLR (the lens is equivalent to a 52mm on a full frame sensor). One of its nice features is that the fast aperture means the camera focuses more quickly and positively in Live View, without endless aimless focus-seeking -- handy for photography at the wheel.

For many years as a film photographer, a normal lens was all I used (ranging from 45 to 52mm depending on the camera), In many ways, photography then was more about what my eye saw rather than what a collection of zooms and other lenses saw. Nice to try it out again.

Recall Walker Countdown: It's a farmer's issue, too

I took this photo during the Tractorcade on the Capitol Square March 12, 2011. That's when Tony Schultz so eloquently explained in this video why the Walker budget fiasco is also a farmer's issue. In four days we'll start to see what they do about it.

Recall Walker Countdown: Think of Them as Recall Petitions

I photographed this March 2, 2011 at the Wisconsin State Capitol. One of the most moving things about the protests last winter was the way that people used the locked doors of the Capitol as community bulletin boards to post their grievances on brightly colored Post It Notes -- thousands of them.

Some were funny: "Dear Mr. Walker, Who hurt you so badly as a kid?"

Some were heartbreaking: "No Medicaid will KILL ME!"

Beautiful, poignant and prescient. Think of them as recall votes.

Recall Walker Countdown: Union busting isn't the only reason

There's also Scott Walker's savage cuts that are coming soon to Badgercare and Medicaid to pay for his giveaways to the rich. Once again, the 1% being enriched at the expense of the other 99%. In six days and counting we can do something about it.

This is how it begins

A little bit here, a little bit there, and all too soon the whole world is white.

Recall Walker Countdown: Ohio's SB5 repeal builds momentum for recall in Wisconsin

I took this photo Feb. 15, 2011, the day after Valentine's Day, at one of the most thrilling moments of the protests that were just starting at the State Capitol. It was when the firefighters and the police showed up in support of the public workers who would bear the brunt of Scott Walker's union-busting budget bill. Walker had cynically exempted the police and firefighters from the bill. Their rejection of this strategy helped turn the demonstrations into a broad public uprising that united all walks of life in Wisconsin against Scott Walker's pro-corporate, anti-worker agenda. Scott Walker betrayed the voters' trust, and in in just one week the voters will begin the process of pursuing the remedy provided by the state Constitution:

The qualified electors of the state of any congressional, judicial or legislative district or of a county may petition for the recall of any incumbent elective officer after the first year of the term for which the incumbent was elected, by filing a petition with the filing officer with whom the nomination petition to the office in the primary is filed, demanding the recall of the incumbent.

It looks as if Ohio voters today are helping build momentum for our recall. Early returns show them rejecting former-GOP-rising-star Gov. John Kasich's union busting legislation in a binding referendum by an overwhelming margin -- despite being vastly overspent. The tide is turning.

Krugman's chart today says it all about what's been happening to the 99%

What Reagan Revolution? It makes much more sense to call it the Reagan Counterrevolution -- against the postwar rise of the average, working Americans, under the guise of deregulation. Paul Krugman graphically illustrates the point in his blog today.

Here’s a comparison of the postwar boom with the deregulation alleged boom, using real average family income from the Census and real average income for the top 1 percent from Piketty and Saez.

If you’re looking at the average, the last generation is a poor shadow of the postwar boom. But if you’re talking about the 1 percent, wonderful things have happened.

No wonder then, that Very Serious People — who, after all, get to be considered Very Serious because the elite likes them — have retained faith in deregulation despite repeated disasters.

No wonder the Very Serious People are having a hard time understanding what Occupy Wall Street and local Occupy movements it inspired are all about.

Late Afternoon Walk Along Lake Michigan at Kohler-Andrae State Park

We had Kohler-Andrae almost to ourselves yesterday for our late afternoon walk. Quiet and serene. The late afternoon sun slanting from the west turned the grasses along the dunes into golden flame. We were fortunate to see the park's little herd of deer, including a doe looking out over the crest of a dune at Lake Michigan. Later, as we walked along the beach we saw lots of deer tracks. They seemed to have been gamboling at the water's edge. Wish we had seen them.

Recall Walker Countdown: "People Have the Power to Wrestle the World from Fools"

Love that sign. The wrestling match started last winter in the ice and snow (photo taken outside the Wisconsin State Capitol Feb. 26, 2011). Nine months later, the end game is in sight.

Return to Standard Time

What a difference an hour makes. The sun sets a lot earlier, and the darkness seems darker.

Recall Walker Countdown: Soon librarians and the rest of us thugs will have our say

Back last winter and spring, when many tens of thousands of Wisconsin people were coming to the Capitol to protest Scott Walker's union-busting budget "reform" bill, Walker's minions complained about the "union thugs" taking over the Capitol. I took this photo on March 5, 201 on the Capitol Square, and it's become one of my most-viewed photos on Flickr. Does she look like a thug to you? Yeah, me too. If she's a thug, sign me up. Last winter we protested with our feet. In just nine days, we'll be able to protest with our signatures on recall petitions.

Goodbye, Autumn's Golden Glory

Now that it's November, not many afternoons like this left. Wingra Park, Madison.

I made a lot of exposures with a 200mm lens trying different focal points in the slanting light of a windy late afternoon. This is one in which the combination of sharply focused leaves and out-of-focus leaves and grasses seemed to perfectly suggest that windy, autumnal rustle of the last leaves blowing away.