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MADISON, Wis. (AP) Democratic Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers wont be in his office on Tuesday when Vice President Mike Pence is scheduled to give a speech just a few feet away in the rotunda of the state Capitol, possibly the first visit by a sitting vice president or president in the buildings 103-year history.

Pence is scheduled to give a speech at an event celebrating Wisconsins school choice program. It is on the same floor and just around the corner from Evers office. The governor said he welcomes Pence to the state but that he wont be around to personally greet him. Evers did not say where he would be and his spokeswoman did not immediately respond to an email asking about his schedule.

When asked about the event Monday, Evers said he hoped someone would ask Pence if he agrees with Sonny Perdue, Trumps agriculture secretary, who suggested during a visit to Madison in October that Wisconsins small dairy farms need to get bigger in order to survive. Democrats have latched onto the comments in an attempt to portray Trump as being out of touch and uncaring about the plight of Wisconsins struggling dairy industry.

Wisconsin is a key swing state in the presidential race this year. President Donald Trump won Wisconsin by fewer than 23,000 votes in 2016, becoming the first Republican since 1984 to carry the state. Trump came to Milwaukee two weeks ago for a rally, just a couple blocks away from where Democrats will hold their national convention in July, and now Pence is coming to Madison.

The Capitol in Madison, perched on a hill with its granite dome just three feet and one-half inch shorter than the nations Capitol in Washington D.C., is frequently used as the backdrop for political rallies both large and small. But it appears no president or vice president has ever gone inside, at least officially.

Capitol Police and the Wisconsin Historical Society said they have no records indicating any prior visits by a sitting president or vice president. The Historical Societys photo library has an image from when then-Vice President Richard Nixon spoke on the lawn of the Capitol in 1958, an event that appeared to have attracted about 3,000 people. It had no images of visits inside the building by Nixon or any other past presidents or vice presidents.

Madison, also home to the University of Wisconsins main campus, is a reliably liberal city that more often plays host to Democratic candidates looking to show the strength of their support. For example, then-President Barack Obama came to the shadow of the Capitol for a rally with Bruce Springsteen the night before the election in 2012, an event that drew nearly 20,000 people.

Pences visit is an official event, not a campaign rally. School Choice Wisconsin, which is organizing the event, expects at least 1,000 people to attend, many of them school children. Building capacity for the Capitol is 4,000. While public access will be restricted, the Capitol will not be shut down on Tuesday.

Even though concealed weapons arent permitted in the Capitol, no one will be allowed in on Tuesday with a concealed weapon. Capitol Police notified building employees that if they typically store a weapon in their office or work space, they cant bring them out on Tuesday until after the end of the Pence event.

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Democratic Gov. Evers won't be in Capitol for Pence visit - WSAW

The following is satirical.

President Trump sent out a tweet today wishing America a Good Morning.

At CNN, Brian Stelter led a panel discussion on the fascist undertones of the tweet. Addressing the CNN audience as the audience ran to catch his flight to Duluth, Stelter said, Trump is clearly blowing a dog whistle to the white supremacists at Fox News who deceptively allow openly conservative hosts to express openly conservative opinions unlike our fair-minded journalists who spread left-wing propaganda we call news.

Stelters guest, unindicted co-conspirator John Brennan, spoke from the shadows with a disguised voice, saying, Its egregiously insidious at this nefarious confluence of flagrantly imperious disputacious peregrinations to expostulate duplicitous expressions of benevolent ante meridianism. Brennan then slipped off into the darkness to avoid arrest.

At The New York Times, a former newspaper, a front page analysis denounced Trumps Good Morning Tweet, asking, Is it really a good morning for black and brown people? Or is that just the self-satisfied voice of whiteness speaking in recognizably male tones meant to send a chill of fear into the heart of every non-binary person trying to establish his-slash-her identity in a nation founded on the flagrant oppression of gender expression, unlike the peaceful tribes of Futa Jaloo where any man can declare himself a female in a moving ceremony of acceptance just before shes sacrificed to Baal.

On reading Trumps Good Morning Tweet, Democrats in the House opened a new impeachment investigation with Nancy Pelosi wearing a military dress uniform with enormous epaulets while declaiming the Pledge of Allegiance until her personal assistant dropped the cue cards and she couldnt remember the rest of it. In a 17-hour speech in the capitol Mens Room, Adam Schiff declared that if the president is allowed to wish people good morning without an intra-agency consensus, he is no better than a king.

NBCs Chuck Todd was so moved by the speech he shook Schiffs hand and then later remarked, Hey. Wheres my watch?

Related:Trump Unloads On Bolton Over New Ukraine Claims

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Democrats Call For New Investigation After Trump Tweets 'Good Morning.' [Satire] - The Daily Wire

When Jair Bolsonaros culture secretary published an official video paraphrasing Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, it wasnt just Brazilians who were stunned. The video, in which Roberto Alvim called for a rebirth of art and culture in Brazil while Adolf Hitlers favourite Wagner opera played in the background, sent shockwaves around the world.

Alvim was sacked within hours, as Brazilians asked: was this an aberration, a one-off, or even a communist trick? And what did it say about the far right presidents communications masterplan?

Analysts said the use of such extremist tactics is typical of the brinksmanship, trolling and meme tactics used by the US alt-right who are often referenced by powerful members of Bolsonaros government.

The term alt-right was popularised by white supremacist Richard Spencer and has been linked to Stephen Miller, a white nationalist and senior adviser to Donald Trump who has himself benefited from far-right support and at times nodded to it.

Pushing the limits and goading liberals are classic alt-right tactics, said Rodrigo Nunes, a political philosophy professor at Rio de Janeiros Pontifical Catholic University.

This is done in the US by people on the fringes of the public debate, and here it is done by people in the government, Nunes said. Sending messages to people in the most extreme fringes of the far right.

Alvim denied knowing he had quoted Goebbels. Brazilian media reported that he was well aware that he was echoing Hitlers propaganda minister and even joked he would be called a Nazi.

The playbook is the American alt-right, Nunes said. In that sense, Brazil is the first alt-right government in the world.

Its not hard to find other such rightwing dog-whistle messages around Bolsonaros government.

His congressman son, Eduardo, and special adviser of international affairs Felipe Martins both have Twitter profile pictures which use a sci-fi, collage aesthetic called vaporwave or fashwave associated with the alt-right.

Martins profile quotes Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night the Dylan Thomas poem quoted in the manifesto of far-right terrorist Brenton Tarrant, accused of killing 51 people in the Christchurch mosque attacks.

These are common tropes, said Alexandra Minna Stern, a professor in the American Culture department at the University of Michigan and author of Proud Boys and the White Ethnostate. In turn, the US alt-right is interested in Brazil because they like Jair Bolsonaro and the way he and his supporters have used social media, she said.

Another alt-right favourite is the Latin phrase deus vult (God wills it) a Crusader slogan which has often been used by figures in the alt-right as well as Alvim and foreign minister Ernesto Arajo.

The Bolsonaros also use offensive statements to distract media attention from damaging scandals. In the past month alone, the president told a reporter he looked terribly like a homosexual as explosive details about a money laundering inquiry into his senator son Flvio swirled. Last week, he said on Facebook live that Indigenous people are increasingly becoming human beings just like us.

Thats part of the spectacle, like the shock and awe going on in the US, said Stern.

Like Trump, leading Bolsonaristas are good at plausible deniability making an extreme comment, then withdrawing it or claiming it was misconstrued.

Eduardo Bolsonaro and finance minister Paulo Guedes have both said Brazil could reintroduce notoriously repressive legislation from Brazils military dictatorship if street protests like those in Chile were to erupt. Both later backed off, but the subject had entered the national conversation.

And while Alvims conservative art competition has been suspended, many Bolsonaristas still believe that Brazilian culture is decadent, infested with leftist ideals, and in need of a conservative transformation.

Its back to Nazi ideas of what is degenerate art, how young families are being corrupted, Stern said. [The idea] is out there and its entering the discourse.

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'The playbook is the American alt-right': Bolsonaristas follow familiar extremist tactics - The Guardian

The internet is a vast place. Not only are there fun memes and puppy videos to grace our feeds every morning, there is the entire dark web, too.

I dont know much about the latter I am a theater major who vehemently resents social media, instant messaging and ad-polluted shopping sites. Veering off the beaten path has never been on my radar, but playwright Javaad Alipoor is an encyclopedia of knowledge on how the internet is undermining democracy and instantaneously reshaping the world.

The central storyline in Alipoors new play, The Believers Are But Brothers, follows two Muslim men residing in different parts of England and their experience of getting recruited by ISIS. Ive found that trying to explain the complexities of their recruitment gives away the show and is far better depicted by Alipoor, so my best bet is just to implore you to go see it at the Arthur Miller Theater.

The show dumped a ton of information related to the world of the dark web on the viewer without slowing down to hold anyones hand, so its no surprise that The Believers are but Brothers was rewarded with the largest retention of people for any Q&A I have seen at my four years at the University.

While I sat in the theater, I could not shake the feeling that what Alipoor was doing was dangerous. He spoke so much truth about ISIS successful recruitment of young

Muslims in the Western world while simultaneously depicting a young, white supremacist who never leaves his computer screen. In doing so, he allowed the audience to realize how much damage comes from each side. Spoiler: both do an astounding amount of rallying for their respective causes online.

Therefore, as Alipoor dished out fact after fact in a state that swung red in the last election, I was frightened that maybe someone who did not agree with him could be inspired to protest or even incite violence.

Maybe thats part of the show. If we are constantly attached to these devices and mediums of communication that have the potential to ensue such violence and hate, what is the difference? According to this show, the alt-right is far more advanced in digital manipulation that prompts the banding together of white supremacy groups,online hate speech and controlling elections. The left is far behind in the advancement of that sort of asset, if you can call it that. During the Q&A, American culture professor Lisa Nakamura said she believes the left underestimates the value of spectacle online that the alt-right has come to master.

I dont think we are supposed to be overstimulated this much. There is a part in the show near the end where Alipoor is playing Call of Duty while the whole rest of the stage is lit up in all sorts of media for a couple of minutes. I couldnt help thinking about how monstrous it all is.

Scenes jumped between direct address to the audience, Skype, Youtube and even WhatsApp. In each medium, the audience acted as an avid participant. At the beginning, Alipoor shared memes with us that any person under 30 would recognize like Pepe the Frog or Doge. By the conclusion of the play, however, these memes were boiled down to the basic ideologies that fuel the worlds most violent groups, like white supremacists and ISIS.

Memes to terrorism is a big jump, I know. I still have a plethora of questions that I want answered, but just like going down the internet rabbit hole, finding answers leads to more questions. Alipoors play feels a bit like going down the internet rabbit hole. At times, this made it hard to follow what train of thought he was going down.

The panel afterwards was led by Alipoor, Nakamura (known for her gender videogame class) and Alexandra Stern (author of Proud Boys and the White Ethnostate: How the Alt-Right is warping the American Imagination) and School of Information professor Clifford Lampe. All four had fascinating insights into how the internet is shaping humanity.

When asked if we are just looking too closely at the internet by blaming it for the evils of the world, the panel acknowledged the sentiment, but Alipoor restated that there are worlds being destroyed because of the technology.

There is a way that we as humans, for better or for worse, are able to communicate that we havent even begun to scratch the surface of yet,Alipoor said.

Its exciting and frightening to think of what happens past the internet. We have the history of mankind at our fingertips, the ability to overthrow governments or create blackweb armies that can be just a few clicks away, so what happens next?

Now, if youll excuse me, Im going to go scroll through Facebook to shake off all this internet anxiety.

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UMS presents 'The Believers are but Brothers' - The Michigan Daily

This article is part ofTPM Cafe, TPMs home for opinion and news analysis.

With the impeachment of Donald J. Trump, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine is again in the national spotlight, as she looks like she just might vote to hear witnesses at the Senate trial. That impending Collins votebecame especially crucial this morning, when new allegations against Trumps involvement in the Ukraine pressure scheme surfaced in the unpublished manuscript of ex-National Security Adviser John Boltons new book. Collins indicated on Twitter the news may sway her vote, arguing the accusations strengthen the case for witnesses and have prompted a number of conversation among my colleagues. If Collins votes to allow additional documents and witnesses, shed be one of the few Republicans to do so. If it happens, its likely shell be lauded for her independence, and headlines in Maine will likely make this their focus.

National and local reporters typically frame Collins sometimes departure from the Republican fold in terms of a tension between two constituencies. The basic narrative: Collins has to keep Republicans happy, lest she face a primary challenge, but she also has to appeal to the broader electorate. A more historically grounded variant points to the decline of Republicanism in New England, at least when it comes to Congress and presidential votes. This is a shift that has gotten far less attention than party shifts in the South. The upshot is that Trump won just one electoral vote in New England, in Maines second congressional district, and Collins is now the only Republican office-holder from New England in Congress.

But what both of those perspectives on Collins leave out is something central to Maine political culture, a model against which Collins often is judged. Theres a vision of leadership Mainers have long touted and from which Collins previously benefited politically. In that vision, the best political leaders are respected nationally, civil, not politically extreme, involved in working across the aisle, committed to principle and independent.

Theres a political pantheon of Maine, made up of elected officials who fit that model. Margaret Chase Smith is among the purest exemplars. Smith was the Republican senator who stood up to Joe McCarthy in inveighing against character assassinations, while defending the right of independent thought, and proclaiming that she didnt want to see the Republican Party ride to political victory on the Four Horsemen of Calumny Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry and Smear. Smith is regularly cited in Maine and Collins has identified Smith as a role model.

Others in the pantheon include Republicans Bill Cohen and Olympia Snowe, as well as Democrats Ed Muskie and George Mitchell and independent Angus King.

Collins has sometimes been included in the pantheon. Her vote against the repeal of the Affordable Care Act gave her place there great credibility, as did her announcement in the summer of 2016 that she would not back Trump for the presidency.

Over time, two key pillars of Collins reputation for independence were her support for legal and safe abortion and her environmentalism. And in the past, Collins was able to tout endorsements from pro-choice and environmental groups. But now, after voting for anti-choice judges, most importantly Justice Kavanaugh, and earning just 21% in the League of Conservation Voters 2018 scorecard, those endorsements have gone to a top challenger, Democrat Sara Gideon.

Her comments and actions on impeachment pose another threat to Collins reputation as an independent. Here, Collins most pertinent Maine comparison is to Republican Bill Cohen, who served on the House Judiciary Committee during the Watergate investigation and on the Select Committee that probed the Iran-Contra affair. In both cases, Cohen stood up to presidents of his own party.

Like Margaret Chase Smith, Bill Cohens political courage and independence is still remembered in Maine.

Comparisons between Cohen and Collins were sure to be inevitable. Both have been viewed as independent and both are Republicans who have been confronted with presidential abuses. Collins was an intern for Cohen during the summer of 1974 when Cohen helped craft and pass articles of impeachment. Facing considerable political pressure from Nixon backers, Cohen made the articles more specific and thus stronger. Cohen characterized his position as on a high wire that was strung between disloyalty to party and disloyalty to principle and cited the exemplar of Maine independence Margaret Chase Smith.

But Cohens impact is not just as an historical example.

Cohen comes to the state frequently and hasnt held his tongue on Trumps wrongdoing. This fall Cohen said he believed Trump pursued a quid pro quo with Ukraine and this warranted impeachment, and warned there will be no rules that will be unbroken if Trump wins a second term. Just last week he said that Trumps actions in Ukraine were done for a corrupt purpose. Cohen also said that further evidence about Trump is going to come out and when it does senators will be called upon by their constituency: Well, why didnt you at least go forward and ask for more evidence so that you could be informed, so that we could be informed?

And it is in this broader context a backdrop of a Maine political vision of independence that Collins is often judged.

Collins waffling on witnesses is nothing new as a style and practice, as she often takes considerable time to announce her decisions. Reporters and pundits have often explained her purported indecision as her grappling with political pressures from multiple sides, and her defenders contend it shows her seriousness in assessing arguments.

But what might be seen as concern for a careful decision currently appears to many as some mix of tortured indecision, studied ignorance and political cravenness.

Under greater scrutiny now, Collins hasnt seemed as politically deft as in the past and certainly is not secure politically. When she won 69% of the vote in 2014, she had the support of 39% of Democrats and 69% of Independents, including 41% of Democratic women and 67% of Independent women. That is highly unlikely to happen in 2020. Collins Kavanaugh vote hurt her and her approval numbers have dropped considerably. The most recent Morning Consult poll found her underwater in approvals. Even as Collins would want to continue to hold a place in the Maine pantheon, the state itself has changed and that includes the Republican party. The current Vice-Chair of the Maine Republican Party promotes alt-right ideas, claiming that immigrants are the vector of disease and crime. Its successful gubernatorial candidate in 2010 and 2014 was Paul LePage, who declared himself Trump before Trump. Yet, while an independent candidate strongly supportive of Trump has emerged, LePage backs Collins and purportedly pressured a primary challenger to drop out of the race.

Intensive organizing and stakeholder pressure pushed Collins to vote against repealing Obamacare but mobilizing to try to get Collins to oppose Kavanaugh did not work. After working hard to flip the second congressional district from red to blue in 2018 and achieve a Democratic trifecta in the state with the governorship and both houses of the Maine Legislature, activists are already working on defeating Collins. They have asked her to hold town meetings but Collins has not done so for decades and there is no prospect she will do so. Instead Collins appears before invited audiences and gives media interviews.

Collinss overall campaign strategy has been to run ads saying shes independent, to criticize Democrat Sara Gideon and to try to use incumbency advantages. Collins engages in credit-claiming, touting grants and other help to Maine. Her offices carry out effective constituency service. Its a strategy thats worked for Collins in the past and it may work again. Beating a senatorial incumbent who has been as popular as Collins is tough. Its possible but will be no slam-dunk.

One new aspect of the Maine Senate race that might matter is the use of ranked-choice voting. Under this system, its not enough to gain a plurality the most votes. If no candidate wins an outright majority, the instant runoff process kicks in until one candidate has a majority. Collins may face a ballot with a Democrat, a Green party candidate, at least one independent to her left and an independent who strongly backs Trump. Those may bring Collins initial vote to under 50% and, if this happens, its quite possible that supporters of candidates to Collins left will rank the Democratic candidate after theirs and supporters of the strongly pro-Trump candidate wont rank anyone else. That pattern of ranking seems likely, given that Maine Democrats and independents like the ranked choice system much more than Republicans and ranked candidates more.

What does all this mean for what Collins will do on impeachment? One incentive she faces is that of appearing independent, given Maines political culture and its political pantheon.

However, casting a vote for witnesses after voting not to wont necessarily help Collins, for this sort of sequence is now often seen as too clever by many Mainers. In 2016 Collins said she wouldnt back Trump when it looked like he wouldnt win. She may vote for impeachment witnesses when shes not the deciding vote for passage. And, now under greater scrutiny, Collins could get the headlines saying shes independent while facing an electorate that includes Trump backers who wont like it and Democrats and independents who backed her before but are skeptical about whether that label is really deserved.

Amy Fried is the chair of University of Maines political science department and she oversees the schools Maine Policy Scholar Program.

Excerpt from:
Mainers Care About Collins' Impeachment Vote. But Her Reelection Is About More Than That - TPM