Trump's 'Make America Great Again' Call Is Normalized

DeForest, Wisconsin Police Chief Daniel Furseth is
a racist cop and noted scum-bag who rose through the
ranks of the DeForest Police Dept where racism
opens doors to white cop careers.

Donald Trump's work against American society alarms most everybody outside the Republican Party coalition as this lunatic has united the right under a call for the restoration of America.

The GOP's agitprop operation lends coherence and inspiring myths for generations of American whites who have divined anew the alleged evils of alien forces — the universities, the cities, enclaves of immigrants and Muslims, the lying press-fake news and identifiable blackish folks carrying on in public as they breathe and laugh.

A racist DeForest, Wisconsin, (a few miles north of Madison), Police Chief Daniel Furseth mocked and ridiculed a group of young black folks who simply gathered together to dine at a local Steak ‘N Shake restaurant.

A police intern came in possession of the video, (made in 2007), and bore witness to the vile, casual racism of DeForest, Wisconsin.

The racist cop Furseth spoke in a mocking accent on the video, mimicking the young group in what is supposed to be a faux, black English vernacular:

'Ok, we is out on our dates. We got the bitches, we gonna get them, and we gonna give them food. I got my cane, I’ve gots (sic) my suit,. Oh baby … Ok boys, let’s go in. This is the (fanciest) restaurant we ever been to and it’s called the Steak ‘N Shake.'

'Unbelievable,' Furseth continues, dropping the accent. ...

Furseth is typical of white cops in Wisconsin, and a plurality of white Wisconsinites who voted Trump into office.

Furseth accepted a severance package from DeForest in late June, (Phillips, Wisconsin State Journal), but the racist culture remains. Furseth rose through the ranks of the DeForest Police Dept not in spite of his racism, but because of his racism.

Wonder how a Evangelical troll like Scott Walker gets elected. Walker, like former Gov. Tommy Thompson, appeals to racism and that's an imposing base in Wisconsin.

To Wisconsin whites, the mere sight of black people in public is per force a problem requiring an armed response and constant police vigilance.

Trump's racist tropes trace directly back to the propaganda of 20th-century totalitarian terror states.

• The Soviet Union, the reactionary dungeon state that targeted, for example, everything from Noam Chomsky's cognitive psychology to anything American or libertarian, including any thinker who dared propose liberty, peace and humanity as the basis for a society vis a vis the USSR, (IndyMedia, CIA)
• NAZI Germany promising a return to traditional values and law and order against alien influences, (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)

Trump's Make America Great Again appeals enjoy only a plurality of support among the population.

Ruling with minority support is a strategic project of the Republican Party. There is no apparent bottom to what Trump and the Republican Party will do to destroy political opposition to Trump by the American people.

For starters, the United States Senate should be shut down next week unless Sen. McConnell agrees to deferring the Supreme Court hearing and vote until the next Congress in 2019.

Time for a Political Revolution in New York, Wisconsin, and Everywhere

Lessons from the Bronx and Queens for Wisconsin Dems.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is new face of Democratic Party.
(Scott Heins/Getty Images), (In These Times)

Madison, Wisconsin — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez just knocked off a leading corporatist House Democrat who did nothing for mass incarceration, social justice and human dignity during his tenure in Congress.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez did not come out of nowhere.

But much of corporate media and the Democratic Party can't figure out what to make of the New York congressional primary results this week.

And if you think about it for even a minute, you'll see how incredibly condescending & dismissive is this now-widespread attempt to reduce @Ocasio2018 to nothing more than demographics and an aberrational district. She ran a highly ideological campaign vehemently critical of Dems

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) June 29, 2018

The Democratic Socialist, which is to say the FDR-Eisenhower-LBJ Socialist, Ocasio-Cortez came from the community.

One hopes Wisconsin Democrats electing a candidate to face Gov. Scott Walker (R) listen to the community as well. Not to the Molochian call for sacrifice to the police state, and character assassination of reformists, not to a small group of people in Madison oozing slime into the political terrain because they know what's best for voters who get to ratify their typically ill-considered decision.

Listen to the community.

Miles Kampf-Lassin reports on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez' win for the community, dumping the Democratic Party machine:

"Economic, social and racial dignity for working-class Americans, especially those in Queens and the Bronx. We were very clear about our message, we were very clear about our priorities and very clear about the fact that, even if you’ve never voted before, we are talking to you," (In These Times, quoting from MSNBC, Morning Joe).
---
If Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were an unknown to most of the nation, she was well-known to readers of In These Times, a good and decent woman who wants to help.
---

In Wisconsin, Caleb Frostman (D-Sturgeon Bay) won a special state Senate election earlier this month after Scott Walker and Republicans went to absurd lengths to block the election in the northeastern Wisconsin peninsula.

Frostman was sworn in yesterday in Sturgeon Bay. Here's what Frostman had to say.

From WLUK-TV (Green Bay):

I am ready to serve and represent the people of the 1st State Senate District and look forward to meeting with constituents across the six counties I now represent. Our shared values will guide me in my work as a State Senator, and I will fight every day to expand opportunities and help everyone in our area succeed. I look forward to hearing from community members and encourage everyone to reach out to me for assistance or to talk about how we can improve our local schools and roads, protect access to clean drinking water and our natural resources, and strengthen our local communities.

At the end of a bad two weeks for America leading into the mid-week holiday, Frostman and Ocasio-Cortez offer hope for old-fashioned democracy and decency.

Gill v. Whitford — Court Opinions to Voters: Here's How You Win

In Wisconsin gerrymandering case, voters
have to wait while Republicans rampage.
Waiting image by Edward Hopper.

The United States Supreme Court did more than provide voters with a roadmap back to the Court in Gill v. Whitford, Wisconsin's gerrymandering case.

The four liberal judges' concurring opinion built a legal yellow-brick road and a fast-track for Wisconsin voters to prevail against the Republican state-election riggers, going so far as to suggest evidence, argument, type of plaintiff and harm claims that would presumably snag at least Justice Anthony Kennedy's vote.

That's a pretty good result from an order to remand to lower court that has Republicans pretending to ballyhoo.

The three-judge, lower-court panel, except for Federalist Society-linked, rightwing and corrupt Judge William Griesbach, will likely not be amused by Republican stalling this time around.

Wisconsin Republicans are lying about the no-decision, passing Roberts' opinion off as an unanimous decision on the merits, which it definitely is not, an indisputable fact that everyone except for Gov. Scott Walker (R) and Attorney General Brad Schimel (R) understands.

Gill v. Whitford is not a "reversal," as Schimel pretends. It's a do-over.

Concludes Chief Judge John Roberts: "The judgment of the District Court is vacated, and the case is  remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion," (p.22).

Further proceedings in this case means litigation at the three-judge panel in the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit jurisdiction, then directly back to United States Supreme Court.

Roberts went out of his way not to dismiss the claims, calling the claims "unsettled," (p.21) and unresolved. Kennedy likely forced this most-significant of concessions by Roberts. The two Soviet-minded justices, Thomas and Gorsuch, write in a concurring opinion they want the case dismissed.

Though Roberts frustrates voting rights by dismissing the argument that engineering one-party control of the legislature through gerrymandering is a mere "generalized" claim not sufficient for the Court to hear and decide, a ridiculous position, the take-away from Gill v. Whitford is obvious.

Roberts wants to decide the case, and wants a nationwide, precedent-setting (and narrow) remedy for voters getting the shaft on gerrymandering by craven state politicians.

Frustrating for sure, because now pro-democracy forces have to wait and Republican-appointed justices' forced a punt on a case they should have decided now.

But from a Supreme Court that is hostile to Due Process claims, perverse on the First Amendment and corrupted for Republican interests on political cases, there is ample reason in the opinions for voters to celebrate: A coming victory in a year or two assuming Anthony Kennedy does not retire.

Wisconsin Gerrymandering Case — Sent Back to Lower Court for Further Proceedings

Updated: "[P]artisan  gerrymandering  injures  enough  indi­viduals and  organizations  in enough concrete ways to  ensure  that  standing  requirements,  properly  applied, will  not often or long  prevent  courts  from  reaching  the merits  of  cases  like  this  one.  Or from insisting, when they do, that partisan officials stop degrading the nation’s democracy."
—Justice Kagen, joined by Justices Ginsberg, Breyer and Sotomayor, (p.2 of concurring opinion)
 ---
Wisconsin's Republican gerrymandering scheme is remanded back to lower court for further proceeding, the United States Supreme Court ruled today, (Howe, SCOTUSBlog).

The court sends the case back for further proceedings, "in the course of which those plaintiffs may attempt to demonstrate standing in accord with the analysis in this opinion," notes Amy Howe.

Decision is here.

Writes Howe:

The court explains that it would normally order the dismissal of the plaintiffs' claims, but this "is not the usual case. It concerns an unsettled kind of claim this Court has not agreed upon, the contours and justiciability of which are unreslved." So the court sends the case back to the district court to give the plaintiffs a chance to show that they themselves have suffered "concrete and particularized injuries."

by Amy Howe 9:21 AM

What happened is the swing-vote Kennedy is so weak and suspicious of liberty claims that the four liberal justices went along with remanding the case so plaintiffs, voters, can establish incontrovertible standing and harm inflicted by the Republican redistricting scheme in Wisconsin.

The concurring opinion by Kagen, joined by the three liberal justices, makes clear Kennedy as well is looking for a precedent-setting opinion that applies nationwide, not statewide in Wisconsin.

Writes Kagen, (p.2 of concurring opinion):

Partisan gerrymandering, as this Court has recognized, is  'incompatible  with  democratic  principles.'   Arizona State   Legislature v.   Arizona   Independent   Redistricting  Comm’n,  576  U.  S.  ___,  ___  (2015)  (slip  op.,  at  1)  (quoting  Vieth v.  Jubelirer,  541  U.  S.  267,  292  (2004)  (plurality  opinion); alterations omitted).
More effectively every day, that practice enables politicians to entrench themselves in power  against  the  people’s  will.  And  only  the  courts  can do anything to remedy the problem, because gerrymanders benefit those who control the political  branches.  None  of  those  facts  gives  judges  any  excuse  to  disregard  Article III’s (United States Constitution and standing to litigate) demands. The Court is right to say they were not met here. But partisan  gerrymandering  injures  enough  indi­viduals and  organizations  in enough concrete ways to  ensure  that  standing  requirements,  properly  applied, will  not often or long  prevent  courts  from  reaching  the merits  of  cases  like  this  one.  Or  from  insisting,  when they do, that partisan officials stop degrading the nation’s democracy.  

Liberty-loving voters just have to wait another year, and hope Kennedy does not retire.

Wisconsin Legislative Districts Will Likely Stay Same for 2018 after Gerrymandering Case

Molly McGrath (left), a voting rights attorney with the ACLU,
works with Madison residents to get the IDs they
need to vote under Wisconsin’s restrictive voter-ID law.
(Courtesy of Molly McGrath). From In These Times.

The Wisconsin congressional and state voting districts will remain the same for the 2018 elections, no matter the decision of the gerrymandering case before the United States Supreme Court, (Gill v. Whitford, Mal Contends), (Gill v. Whitford, Cornell, - Gill v. Whitford, MortizLaw, - Gill v. Whitford, U.S. Supreme Court).

Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act (MOVE)

This is because in part the 2018 voting process for the mid-term general elections will begin on June 28 one month from today, in accordance with federal law pertaining to military and overseas voters, (Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act (MOVE)).

MOVE mandates states transmit ballots for federal elections "to absent uniformed services and overseas voters no later than 45 days before federal elections." The manner of transmission of ballots in Wisconsin is absentee ballots, including for military voters the use of electronic absentee ballots, if requested.
---
June 1 is the deadline for congressional and state candidates to submit nomination signatures and other paperwork to qualify for candidacy.

To change the voting rules of the 2018 Wisconsin mid-term elections in the middle of the election process would present Due Process and Equal Protection violations inflicted on voters and candidates.
---
In the 2016 presidential general election, 819,316 voters cast absentee ballots, a figure likely to be approached in this year's mid-term elections because of increased voter access in defiance of Republican voter suppression efforts, and in accordance with residents' right to vote under the Wisconsin Constitution.

Wisconsin Gov Scott Walker Set to Kill Popular SeniorCare by Year's End, Fear Advocates

Gov. Scott Walker, foe of SeniorCare RX, after announcing
2018 reelection bid said he's a converted supporter. Walker's
conversion is not trusted by Wisconsin senior advocates.

Get a move on, Scott Walker

Madison, Wisconsin — Old people in Wisconsin with their prescription drug-savings needs are almost as bad as teachers and staff.

That's the message Scott Walker is sending as Walker's Department of Health Services (DHS) and Walker maintain political and campaign silence on requesting the SeniorCare Prescription Drug Assistance Program extension through 2028. Many Wisconsin residents see advocacy for SeniorCare as one basis on which to select a candidate for the Democratic Party nomination for governor to meet Walker in the general election.

In 2015, Walker called for massive cuts to SeniorCare that would have resulted in a $66 million loss for the senior program.

In 2018, after announcing his campaign for reelection, Walker said he actually wants permanent operation for SeniorCare, but remained silent on his previously proposed cuts.

Senior advocates do not trust Scott Walker's evolving positions, slashing and subsequently voicing approval for the popular senior RX program.

Notes AARP-Wisconsin:

SeniorCare helps more than 92,000 Wisconsinites age 65-plus with their prescription drug costs. The current waiver that allows Wisconsin to offer SeniorCare as a creditable alternative to Medicare Part D is currently set to expire on Dec. 31, 2018.

Advocates for seniors are urged to contact the Department of Health Services (DHS) and call for the continuation of this popular and critical senior program by June 7, the end of the 30-day public comment deadline. The Health Service email is: 

DHSSeniorCare@dhs.wisconsin.gov.

Contact info is:

Wisconsin Department of Health Services
Division of Medicaid Services
Attn: Tiffany Reilly
1 W. Wilson St., P.O. Box 309
Madison, WI 53703

Email: dhsseniorcare@dhs.wisconsin.gov

Fax 608-266-1096

Below is an email to friends from one senior advocate from central Wisconsin, and an email from AARP-Wisconsin, both of which urge comments to the Walker administration by the June 7 deadline.

Friends,

My Mom spent the last several years of her life working with AARP to get SeniorCare passed to help the senior citizens of Wisconsin. She considered it one of her greatest accomplishments.

Many older Wisconsinites on fixed incomes are struggling to make ends meet each month. And the situation is getting more and more dire with rising costs of living and the soaring costs of medications. With SeniorCare, Wisconsin has set the bar high for not only creating a very accessible and affordable program for seniors but one that is also an extraordinarily cost-effective use of taxpayer dollars.

SeniorCare helps more than 92,000 Wisconsinites age 65-plus with their prescription drug costs.

SeniorCare is a great program for Wisconsin and its participants. The costs of the program are largely managed by the state’s ability to negotiate discounts and pricing. Enrollees pay an annual $30 fee and deductibles are based on their average income. After the deductible, SeniorCare has a co-pay of $5 for generic drugs and $15 for name-brand drugs.

Wisconsin's SeniorCare has proven to be a great program and could very well be a model for the nation to help senior citizens.

The current waiver that permits SeniorCare as a creditable alternative to Medicare Part D expires on Dec. 31, 2018. Please allow the waiver to be extended for another 10 years. 

From AARP-Wisconsin:

June 7 is the deadline to provide comments about the value of SeniorCare.

SeniorCare is a win-win program for Wisconsin.

Click here to send an email adding your voice to Wisconsin’s request to extend a waiver for this program by 10 years.

Now is the time for Wisconsinites to take action if they want the nation’s most innovative and cost-effective state prescription drug savings program for seniors to be extended for another decade.

SeniorCare helps more than 92,000 Wisconsinites age 65-plus with their prescription drug costs. But the current waiver that allows Wisconsin to offer SeniorCare as a creditable alternative to Medicare Part D is currently set to expire on Dec. 31, 2018.

That’s why we need your help. Send your comments directly to the state Department of Health Services (DHS), which will include them in its submission to the federal government, requesting that SeniorCare be extended through 2028.

By any measure, SeniorCare is a win-win program for Wisconsin and its participants. The costs of the program are largely managed by the state’s ability to negotiate discounts and pricing. Enrollees pay an annual $30 fee and deductibles are based on their average income. After the deductible, SeniorCare has a co-pay of $5 for generic drugs and $15 for name-brand drugs.

Many older Wisconsinites on fixed incomes are struggling to make ends meet each month with rising costs of living and soaring costs of medications. With SeniorCare, Wisconsin has set the bar high for not only creating a very accessible and affordable program for seniors, but one that is an extraordinarily cost-effective use of taxpayer dollars.

We encourage all Wisconsinites to provide comments about the value of SeniorCare before the June 7 deadline.  Learn more and provide comments to DHS.

Lots of supportive comments from the public about the program will go a long ways towards helping the waiver to be extended by 10 years.

We’ll be in touch soon with more ways you can make your voice heard as we fight for the future of SeniorCare. Thanks,

Sam Wilson
State Director
AARP Wisconsin

Many Wisconsin residents see advocacy for SeniorCare as critical to respecting and loving seniors who comprise the backbone of the state community.

Bernie Sanders Calls for Progressives' Election as Means to Defeat Trump

Will the Democratic Party establishment wake up and work for progressives in this Blue Wave year?

Democratic primaries in the coming weeks will tell, including in key states Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Ohio

In Ohio, Dennis Kucinich (with Tara Samples) is running for the Democratic Party's nomination for governor. The election is May 8.

Kucinich is backed by Our Revolution, a non-profit progeny of Bernie Sanders' 2016 run for the presidency. In a rational political culture, Our Revolution's endorsement would give the primary election to Kucinich.

The failed War on Drugs has destroyed communities, filled prisons and cost taxpayers millions.

More and more states are doing their part to restore sense, compassion and fairness to their criminal justice systems. It's time Ohio did the same. #OHGov https://t.co/ggMQ0dnEjr

— Dennis Kucinich (@Dennis_Kucinich) May 1, 2018

Tune in next Tuesday night at MSNBC to watch the results come in.

Pennsylvania

In Pennsylvania, Bernie Sanders has made three endorsements—John Fetterman for Lieutenant Governor, Greg Edwards for Congress, and Jess King for Congress. (The race for governor is widely seen as a likely win for Democratic incumbent Tom Wolfe).

The Pennsylvania election is May 15.

From a fundraising email from Bernie Sanders:

If we are going to defeat right-wing Republicans in 2018 and 2020, we need to win in states that Trump won, like Pennsylvania. And, in my view, the only way we win in those states is by supporting progressive candidates who have the guts to defend working-class families - white, black, Latino, Asian American, Native American - and take on the power and greed of the billionaire class.

Here's some very good news. In Pennsylvania there are three strong progressive candidates who can win their primary fights and win the general election.

As you know, Donald Trump represents something we have never seen before in the history of the United States. It is not just that he represents the interests of the wealthy and powerful. It's that we have never had a president with more authoritarian tendencies than him.

The 2018 midterm elections will be long remembered as a pivotal moment in American history because, if we are successful, we can put an end to the disastrous Trump agenda. If we are not, we will have at least two more years of a rapid shift toward authoritarianism, the further normalization of corruption and the continued rise of oligarchy.

But we cannot defeat Trump and the Republican Party with the same playbook, or by supporting the same kind of candidates long favored by the political establishment and financial elite. That is how we got to where we are today.

That is why I am traveling to Pennsylvania later this week to support three strong progressive candidates: John Fetterman for Lieutenant Governor, Greg Edwards for Congress, and Jess King for Congress. Their primaries are on May 15, and they need your help now. So here is the part where I ask:

This is our chance to elect three great progressives who will help lead the fight against Donald Trump and the dangerous Republican agenda. They need our help to win in Pennsylvania.

Our job in 2018 is to take on and defeat Trump's authoritarianism, xenophobia, racism, sexism, homophobia and religious bigotry. But we can only do that if we run candidates who can rally the American people around an agenda that works for them, not the billionaire class.

For more than a decade now, John Fetterman has been an outstanding progressive leader in Pennsylvania. From early in his career he has stood with the working families of the state as he advocated for a $15 per hour minimum wage, Medicare for all, marriage equality and ending the failed war on drugs. He has been an outspoken defender of women’s health, immigrant rights, racial justice and LGBTQ equality.

For the past 25 years, Greg Edwards has worked tirelessly to organize for justice in health care, education and economic dignity. The powerful grassroots movement behind Greg Edwards is championing Medicare for all, universal pre-k, debt-free college and raising the minimum wage, and he is living his values of unwavering inclusion by building the diverse coalition Democrats need to win in his district.

Jess King has seen firsthand how the biggest corporations have hurt workers and squashed competition. In Congress, she will work to pass Medicare for all, rein in Wall Street, break up corporate monopolies, and support the real job creators: small businesses in our local economies.

These are three great candidates you can be proud to support. Candidates like John, Greg and Jess will help us stop Trump while ushering in an era of strong progressive change in this country. Thank you for supporting them. They need our help.

In Solidarity,

Bernie Sanders

Central Wisconsin Clean Water Group Endorses Rebecca Dallet for Supreme Court

Proposed Golden Sands factory farm in central
Wisconsin could turn rural paradise into an
industrial wasteland. Don Ystad of Adams County
Wisconsin who has been promoting tourism
and recreation for years writes:
"Take a step back from the politics of this
situation and ask yourself, 'what is best
for the state of Wisconsin? Another CAFO sited, or the
preservation and growth of an existing, vibrant area,
poised to be the 'golf mecca of the Midwest?'
Unfortunately, the Wysocki CAFO has the
political support of local State Rep. Scott Krug,
(R-Nekoosa, Wisconsin) and State Sen.
Patrick Testin, (R-Stevens Point). These pols
have already chosen Big Ag over everything else,
including a new Sand Valley Golf Resort,
multi-generational families and entire communities.

Rebecca Dallet is our Supreme Court candidate, says Saratoga Concerned in Republican-dominated central Wisconsin

"Rural America once had strong communities. It would have been very difficult for anyone who built a CAFO facotry farm in a rural area in earlier times. It wasn’t socially or morally acceptable for one person in the community to benefit at the expense of others."
 —John Ikerd, Rural Communities of Necessity
 --
The communities of Saratoga and Rome, in central Wisconsin say the Wisconsin Supreme Court race is personal.

The April 3 race featuring candidates Rebecca Dallet, (a mainstream rule-of-law Milwaukee County judge), and Michael Screnock, (extremist rightwing Sauk County judge) will determine if rightwingers control the Wisconsin Supreme Court for the next nine years.

The stakes are high, but even more so for central Wisconsin where Republican interests and Big Ag are trying to use a local case awaiting decision from the Supreme Court to obliterate local control and codify corporate property rights in a radical and novel interpretation that is dreaded by families.

In Golden Sands Dairy, (Wysocki corporation),  LLC v. Town of Saratoga case, the Wisconsin Supreme Court will decide whether some 1.7 million Wisconsin citizen, some 30 percent of the state living in towns, can act locally to protect local conditions, property values, families, drinking water quality, and local character.  [For legal updates on the case before the Wisconsin Supreme Court, enter 15ap1258 in the Appeal Number field.]

The case was argued Jan 11, 2018.

It's personal because 1,000s of families in Wood, Adams and Juneau counties who have spent generations building lives, security and opportunity for future generations will see dreams shattered and security gone if the Wysocki corporation's badly polluting factory farm begins operations.

The proposed massive factory farm, a CAFO or Confined Animal Feeding Operation, would leave the region an economic moonscape.

That's fine with Wisconsin Republicans, and Supreme Court candidate Michael Screnock whose campaign runs for and is funded by Republican special interests. Screnock in fact is a former attorney for Big Ag against virtually everyone else in Wisconsin.

A major group fighting for entire communities and central Wisconsin families just came out for Supreme Court candidate Rebecca Dallet, and against Screnock.

The group, Saratoga Concerned, is awaiting word from the Supreme Court on Golden Sands Dairy. They are nervous and frightened. Who came blame them?

Today, according to an email, Saratoga Concerned endorsed Rebecca Dallet over Michael Screnock.

From Saratoga Concerned:

As we are all aware, politics are dirty. It doesn't matter the party or the platform, each side spins false innuendos and statements at the other in the hopes of having you simply dislike the other candidate more. The race for Supreme Court is no different even though it is supposed to be a nonpartisan position.

We encourage everyone to vote on Tuesday, April 3rd but instead of voting by your political party leaning, we encourage you to vote the issues. Let's face it, the Wisconsin Republican and the Democratic party are not what they used to be years ago. Voting the issues is the only way to get folks in office who are going to truly represent your interests. We all need to be willing to put our political partisanship aside and vote on the things that are important to our fight.

Saratoga Concerned leadership team has identified our issues  1) Clean water  2) Protection of our Natural Resources and 3) Protecting local control. When looking solely at these three topics we feel strongly Rebecca Dallet is our candidate. Her challenger, Michael Screnock, has repeatedly represented CAFO owners in court against the average citizen and denies their civil right to clean and plentiful water. Not to mention his work with the Michael Best and Friedrich law office that is retained by Wysocki. We cringe just thinking about what may happen if he earns a seat on the bench.

We encourage you to vote the issues on April 3rd.

Our Saratoga fights need a Justice like Rebecca Dallet on the bench.

Scott Walker Is Malignant and Not too Bright

Madison, Wisconsin — Scott Walker may be the most foolish, certainly the most malicious governor in Wisconsin history.

Walker left Marquette University in 1990, then moved to a Milwaukee suburb and was elected to the state assembly in 1993.

Walker has been living on the public dole ever since, inflicting incalculable damage to Wisconsin:

Scott Walker turned down $500M in Medicaid expansion only to propose spending $200 million more on health insurance.

Walker turned down $810M in fed stimulus for CHI>MKE railroad and now wants to spend $195M on CHI>MKE rail.

Hasn't Walker's bad business sense hurt WI enough?

— Wisconsin Resistance (@WI_Resistance) February 14, 2018

Wisconsin Democrats Screwing Up on Toll Roads, Opposition Is a Winning Ticket in November

Pictured above is the Illinois tollway, (ABC-7 TV-Chicago).
For the edification of Wisconsin Democrats tolls are not
what people are calling for. No one, no one comes home
from a commute and complains, 'I wish we had tolls like
Illinois.' C'mon, what is wrong with unified opposition to
this horrible Republican idea for Wisconsin?

Wisconsin Republican legislative leaders are launching their latest Con against Wisconsin with their newest push for toll roads, (Bauer, AP).

Toll roads.

It's a stupid idea about as popular as snow in June.

I mean no one in the real world is calling for toll roads.

So naturally Wisconsin State Assembly minority leader, Gordon Hintz, (D-Oshkosh), is on the record saying "I'm in" for this unpopular idea from Wisconsin's Lost Decade, 2011-2019, (cited in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, adding the Hintz' quote to Scott Bauer's AP piece,).

It's the same misdirection Republicans have been pulling since they took power, gerrymandered their way into keeping power, and turned their back on the Wisconsin people.

And we have Rep. Gordon Hintz leading the loyal opposition?

The Republican state Senate majority leader said tolling is the "only" way to go forward after Republicans and only Republicans made a fiscal mess of future budgets, and our roads.

Of course Scott Walker offers this beauty of a statement in Walker-weasel fashion, saying on Wednesday that while he would be "open" to tolling ... he’s "not in any way suggesting support" for it.

So, Mal Contends phoned Gordon Hintz' office, (608 266 2254) and Hintz' office took a page from Walker's playbook, with the legislative aide saying she was not in the meeting with the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel from which the Hintz quote on proposed toll roads was taken, the representative is unavailable because he is a meeting, the aide did not have the position paper on toll roads in front of her ... blah, blah, we can have someone call you back.

Somebody needs to give the Democratic Party a kick in their collective ass or we will get stuck with Scott Walker for another four years.

Toll roads. Only Wisconsin Democrats could screw this issue up.

Wisconsin Clean Water Supporters Score First Major Electoral Victory

Communities in central Wisconsin await the decision of
the Wisconsin Supreme Court in a case that would
effectually halt a massive factory farm from beginning
operations with the consequences being economic
devastation for an entire Wisconsin region. Clean
water activists fear the decision will be corruptly
decided by five Republican-linked judges on the
seven-member court.

Madison, Wisconsin — Families and communities fighting for fresh water have scored their first electoral victory over Republicans and the industrial polluters for whom the GOP is transforming Wisconsin statutory and administrative law to make it easier to poison water without accountability.

Water is necessary for human life, but the Republican Party dismissive of this fact has not faced an electoral reckoning to this point, (Ecological Economics, Principles and Applications, Water, Mayo Clinic).

A special state senate election from northwestern Wisconsin signals a change that sent political newcomer State Senator-elect Patty Schachtner, (D-Somerset, Wisconsin) into the gerrymandered state legislature this week.

Notes Matthew DeFour this morning in the Wisconsin State Journal:

Some [political observers and environmental activists] ... said voters were tuned into local issues and angered by [defeated the Republican] Jarchow’s sponsorship of bills that have reduced environmental protections and local zoning control.

'We absolutely believe local issues motivated people in this race. All of our communications were very positive about Patty and the impact she can have on the local environment. We heard a lot from our members about Jarchow’s anti-conservation background,' said Staush Gruszynski, political director for the Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters.

Jeff Smith, an organizer for liberal advocacy group Citizen Action of Wisconsin, said efforts to clean up the Red Cedar Watershed have been hampered by bills Jarchow has championed limiting local zoning control.

'There is a lot of angst toward Jarchow because of his anti-environment/pro-corporate stance,' Smith said.

Angst and anger because multi-generational families have children rushed to the hospital after bathing in water poisoned by factory farms vectoring manure into the environment. Consider this, children poisoned from bathing.

The Republican Party has become so pathologically removed from the health of families and communities that its office-holders are willing to see children poisoned in exchange for Big Ag's money.

Writes John Ikerd in Rural Communities of Necessity:

Rural America once had strong communities. It would have been very difficult for anyone who built a CAFO, (factory farm), in a rural area in earlier times. It wasn’t socially or morally acceptable for one person in the community to benefit at the expense of others.

A Wisconsin state senate district signals a return to the days when it mattered if you poisoned your neighbor.

From a piece here from May 2017 on the work of Wisconsin Republicans to methodically vector manure into rural communties, while depelting groundwater for the sole benefit of Big Ag:

Clean water activists in Saratoga, Wisconsin fight for
water and oppose the siting of a proposed factory farm

An impressive feat the last six years during Wisconsin's lost decade is the organization of citizen groups around the state to defend clean and abundant water.

The citizens' worst enemy are the state representatives who should be working for citizens.

In central Wisconsin, local representatives run political interference for Big Ag which pollutes and depletes ground and surface waters. [State Rep. Scott Krug, (R-Nekoosa), threatened this site with a libel suit in 2014 when I noted Krug running this "political interference," a threat Krug dropped after I advised him truth is an absolute defense against defamation actions, among other defects in Krug's threat with respect to libel law, (Mal Contends), (Capital Times), (Crooks and Liars).]

Defiling Wisconsin's waters has the political support of local State Rep. Scott Krug, (R-Nekoosa) and State Sen. Patrick Testin, (R-Stevens Point) who represent the gerrymandered districts drawn to elect Republicans. These legislators also lend their support to the proposed Wysocki factory farm. 

Wysocki and his family bankrolled State Sen. Testin with $10,000 in contributions for his successful 2016 run. Krug's 2016 campaign received heavy funding from Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Ron Vos Gov. Scott Walker and other Republican interests aligned with Big Ag, (Wisconsin Democracy Campaign),

After Krug and Testin helped ram through the Big Ag-supported Senate Bill 76 last week, Krug complained in his current constituent newsletter that, "The misinformation campaign by several area groups make this sound like a massively different bill than it is. I am happy to sit down with anyone and walk through the actual bill."

The groups Krug complains about include: Rome-Saratoga Friendly, Protect Wood County and Its Neighbors, Central Sands Water Action Coalition, Sustain Rural Wisconsin Network, and the Citizens' Water Coalition of Wisconsin.

Wisconsin Senate Bill 76 "is good only for the handful of really large growers, [Big Ag], who have as much concern for their fellow farmers as they have for others who need access to clean and abundant water - none!," notes Saratoga (Wisconsin), Concerned last year, (Facebook).

Of note is the fact clean and safe water groups increasingly work in concert statewide. As noted by Criste Greening in the Green Bay Progressive in late April, clean water citizen groups include the following:
Citizens' Water Coalition of Wisconsin
Sustain Rural Wisconsin Network
Wild Rivers Chapter Trout Unlimited
Friends of the Central Sands
Frac Sand Mining Awareness
Crawford Stewardship Project
Protect Wood County & Its Neighbors
Save The Hills Alliance
Kewaunee CARES
People Empowered Protect the Land (PEPL) of Rosendale
Green County Defending Our Farmland
Central Wisconsin Nature Foundation
Citizen Action Organizing Cooperative
Facing Forward Vernon Our Wisconsin Revolution
Inland Sea Society
From the Earth
Indivisible Fond du Lac
Protect Our Water
Friends of the Kinni
Concerned Rome Citizens
Rome Saratoga Friendly
Indivisible Winnebago
Central Sands Water Action Coalition
Forward Kenosha
Rinehart Lake Association
Farms Not Factories
Spirit Creek Water Protectors
Indivisible Milwaukee ~ South Side
Bad River Watershed Association
Frac Sand Sentinels
Indivisible Solon Springs
Indivisible DeForest
Concerned Citizens of Princeton
Citizens for a Better Environment Lake Mills
Emerald Clean Water For All
Penokee Hills Education Project
Penokee Hills Light Brigade
Water Protectors of Milwaukee
Friends of the Eau Claire Lakes Area
Citizens for Environmental Stewardship
Indivisible Ashland
Heartland Land Creations
League of Women Voters of Ashland and Bayfield Counties
LCO/Sawyer County Dems
Preserve Waupaca County
League of Women Voters Upper Mississippi RIver Region
Crystal Lake Club
Friends of the Tomorrow /Waupaca River
Waupaca Commoners Caucus
Constituents Only
Defending Our Ixonia Countryside
Vernon County Democratic Party
Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger
Gaia Coalition
Concerned Citizens of Easton
League of Women Voters/Greater Chippewa Valley
Clean Water Action Council of Northeast Wisconsin
Organic Consumers Association
Blue Jean Nation
Wisconsin Resources Protection Council
Echo Valley Hope
Madison Action for Mining Alternatives
Reedsburg Area Concerned Citizens

Wisconsin Special State Senate Election May Signal Blue Wave

Wisconsin state senate special election signals backlash against
Trump and malice. Winning candidate stressed decency, (Twitter)

Wisconsin Dem Flips State Seat Win by Trump by 17 Points in 2016

Updated - Madison, Wisconsin—AP writer Todd Richmond's lede this morning on a special state senate election in Wisconsin points to a possible blue wave in 2018 directed against Donald Trump, the Koch brothers and many candidates with a R next to their names.

Writes Richmond:

A surprising Democratic upset in a conservative Wisconsin Senate district where voters overwhelmingly supported President Donald Trump just 14 months ago has raised liberal hopes of more election success coming this fall.

Patty Schachtner’s victory over an incumbent Republican state representative in Wisconsin’s 10th Senate District follows a series of Democratic wins across the country. Republican Gov. Scott Walker, who is up for re-election to a third term in November, took note, posting on Twitter minutes after Schachtner’s win calling it a 'wake up call for Republicans in Wisconsin.'

Democrat Patty Schachtner defeated Republican Adam Jarchow, (Facebook), in state senate district 10 in northwestern Wisconsin.

The district borders the northern Mississippi River and is known for stunning landscape and surface waters, (Wisconsin Senate District 10).

During Wisconsin's Lost Decade of Republican rule, 2011-2019, Republicans supported by billionaire-funded dark money have run slash-and-burn campaigns appealing to racism, engaging in massive voter suppression, and handed over the legislative and administrative policy agenda to rightwing special interests.

The Schachtner campaign which ran on relatively apolitical, be-decent, people-over-Party messages has the national political world taking notice, (Talking Points Memo).

Schachtner's winning campaign stressed being nice.

She told journalists she beat the Republican Jarchow because of mean-spirited, nasty mailings from special interest groups outside the district.

"It wasn’t nice. It was mean. People just said, ‘You know what? We’re nicer than that,’" (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel).

Next up in national political tea reading is a special congressional election in southwestern Pennsylvania between Democrat Conor Lamb and Republican Rick Saccone, (Reuters). This Pennsylvania district is overwhelmingly Republican.

Madison Mayor Paul Soglin Says He's in Wisconsin Gov Race—The Bernie Sanders Delegate Bets on Broad Reach

Madison, Wisc Mayor Paul Soglin

A Paul Soglin-Scott Walker race would be epic clash not seen since Feingold-Neumann, 1998

Updated - Madison, Wisconsin—Madison Mayor Paul Soglin says he'll enter the race for Wisconsin governor, making a formal announcement the second week of January, AP writer Scott Bauer reports, (Twitter).

Soglin's comments to Wisconsin media this week follow public statements made in June 2017 in which Soglin cited the success of Bernie Sanders' candidacy in Wisconsin's 2016 presidential primary as evidence independent candidates can win statewide office against the Democratic Party establishment.

Soglin was a Bernie Sanders delegate in 2016.

Sanders' performance with young, independent voters combined with appeal in the northern two-thirds of the state is cited by political observers as a formula for defeating the incumbent Scott Walker.

The right to vote is key in elections, a truism that escapes notice in much of Wisconsin's political culture.

Under Soglin's administration, Madison has recognized the right to vote, as Walker has worked to obstruct the right to vote.

This sets Soglin apart from the field where support for the right to vote is not a defining feature in stated policy objectives or campaign commitments thus far.

Candidates for the Democratic Party nomination are lining up fast as Walker is seen as a vulnerable incumbent.

Soglin will become the ninth major candidate declaring against Gov. Scott Walker, (R), who formally announced on Nov. 5.

"The other highest profile Democratic candidates for governor are: state Superintendent Tony Evers; state Sen. Kathleen Vinehout, of Alma; state Rep. Dana Wachs, of Eau Claire; former state Rep. Kelda Roys, of Madison; statewide firefighter union leader Mahlon Mitchell; former state party chairman Matt Flynn; Milwaukee businessman Andy Gronik; and political activist Mike McCabe," reports the Wisconsin State Journal.

In the 2014 Democratic Party primary campaign, the state Democratic Party successfully discouraged candidates from running for office, a strategy that failed.

Today's AP report by Scott Bauer was augmented by the State Journal with silly facts.

Soglin is counting on social media to reach Wisconsin voters who care about public policy more than the fact Soglin has a mustache.

Writes Soglin this week:

I need your help. In a few weeks I plan to formally announce my candidacy for governor of Wisconsin. Social... https://t.co/2PagvkqBhs

— Paul Soglin (@Paulsoglin) December 26, 2017

Reports Abigail Becker in The Capital Times: "Soglin said Wednesday he will make an official announcement in the second week of January."

As noted in Mal Contends, a Paul Soglin-Scott Walker race would be an epic clash of cultures pitting an intellectual pragmatist with genuine vision in municipal policy, and roots in the Civil Rights Movement against a religious fundamentalist who is vindictive against swaths of the state opposing authoritarian rule, and has worked to transfer public resources of the Badger state to billionaires and special interests.

Soglin brings a large base of support to the 2018 race, critical to winning in a large field in the Primary.

In June, Republicans ridiculed Soglin's work for citizen action in the Civil Rights Movement, the environmental movement and anti-war movement as "left-wing."

Voter turn-out in the 2014 general election was some 57 percent.

Republicans and Tax Scam to Face the Nation in 2018

House Speaker Paul Ryan looks to
destroy Social Security, Medicare
and Medicaid in 2018.

From Bloomberg:

Now, Pelosi and her party will try to turn the tables, targeting the GOP’s main achievement of 2017: tax legislation that, so far, rates poorly with the public. Republicans are pitching its middle-class benefits and potential economic growth to win over wary voters, but Democrats have united in labeling it a "tax scam" that benefits the wealthy and corporations.

"The American people will see through what this is, which is a scam," said Representative Ben Ray Luján, who chairs the House Democrats’ campaign arm. "This bill is terribly unpopular across America," he said, adding that the party’s internal polling shows it to be unpopular "especially in swing states."

House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican, says he’s utterly untroubled by Democrats’ threats.
"No concerns, whatsoever," Ryan said Tuesday during a news conference. He added: "Results are going to make this popular."

Once American wage earners see their paychecks in February 2018 -- after employers have adjusted withholding -- they’ll start to appreciate what a boon they’ve received, he said. He and other GOP leaders also cite what they say will be a major boost to the economy, pushing annual growth to 3 percent.
---
After Republicans engineered their latest tax scam, Dana Duncan, an attorney in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin, writes:

The Republican tax is corporate welfare. I don't hire because I have more money. I hire when I can make more money.

— Dana W. Duncan (@danawduncan) December 20, 2017

Meanwhile, a campaign fight beckons in 2018, and Republicans are off to a lying start.

Paul Ryan was asked how the tax scam would affect the deficit, and lying Ryan said he didn't know the answer to that question because "that’s in the future."

"Are you living in a fantasy world?" - @SavannahGuthrie asks House Speaker Paul Ryan the morning after the Senate passed the GOP tax bill. pic.twitter.com/uu8frcPNdC

— NBC News (@NBCNews) December 20, 2017

Erin Brockovich Hails Wisconsin Groundwater-Contamination Scholars, Notes UW Is Fearful of Republicans

Erin Brockovich hits Wisconsin water researchers
for fear of Republicans

Updated - Madison, Wisconsin—What has Gov. Scott Walker done to Wisconsin?

Now, researchers at the University of Wisconsin System reportedly are so fearful, (and rightfully so), of retaliation for their work on the toxification of groundwater, that researchers here keep their heads down for fear of pursuing an "agenda" like empirical science which might lead to public policy to protect water.

Writes Erin Brockovich on Facebook today:

It's time to shake things up in the Wisconsin groundwater contamination debate.

Coal ash is the primary suspect because it’s gone into landfills in the area and into construction fill "under roads, buildings, parks and schools... yes schools.

Here's the thorn for me... the Duke team’s involvement also got around the issue that a lot of professors in Wisconsin are trying to keep their heads down and avoid "doing anything that would get them seen as having an agenda," (Jon Drewson, Clean Wisconsin’s chief spokesman), said, alluding to the fights between Walker’s administration and the University of Wisconsin system. 

There is a solution. Vote out Scott Walker in 2018.

Republican Push to Limit HealthCare Hits Wisconsin's Tammy Baldwin

Madison, Wisconsin—An out-of-state organization seeking to repeal ObamaCare to benefit health insurance corporations took out a half-page ad in the Wisconsin State Journal, (Madison, Wisconsin), this week to blast Sen. Tammy Baldwin, (D-Wisconsin), for backing people over insurance companies.

The ad is part of an early multi-state TV blitz in an effort to target Democratic senators up for reelection in 2018, (The Hill). 

One Nation is a massive SuperPac, affiliated with Republican senate SuperPacs and funded heavily by the health insurance industry.

Thirty-three U.S. Senate seats are to be contested in 2018 and the Democratic Party has to defend a whopping 25 of those seats, (Red State).

Republicans think they can flip Wisconsin's first-term Democratic senator, Tammy Baldwin, but they know it's a fight.

Here's their strategy:

Republicans excite their base by repeatedly messaging their healthcare is earned, as opposed to the blacks' healthcare which comes out of your pay-check. [Sure it's crazy, but so is racism.]

Blacks and browns are making your healthcare rates soar, (by some manner too mysterious to note with no mention of, or accountability by health insurance companies): Fucking Obama catered to these people with Obamacare and made your life bad. White folks just don't have a chance. 

This is what One Nation is accomplishing, and they want to reach white swing voters.

This appeal is of course ludicrous. But the idea is to tie every issue to race with the compelling message that some manner of The Other is taking yours and getting paid for it no less.

In Wisconsin, appeals to race work and have for many decades. Whether the race-baiting politicians are natives like Tommy Thompson or transplants like Scott Walker and Donald Trump, the ole-time religion of blaming the black and browns is home-cooking in the Badger State.

The Tammy Baldwin v. Republican 2018 race will offer a leading indicator showing if Democrats have figured out how to prevail on an issue they should own: Healthcare.

Shouldn't be that hard and Baldwin is better than most Dems as witnessed by her defeat of Tommy Thompson in 2012 that saw Baldwin successfully define Thompson as what he is: An opportunistic hack who turned his back on Wisconsin. Baldwin won 51 percent to 45 percent.

The turnout in 2018 will be in the 55-percent range. Republicans have worked hard to suppress that urban vote in Milwaukee.

What's the early prediction on the Baldwin reelection race? There is none, Wisconsin folk are utterly unpredictable.

I'll make one observation that will inform the race.

Baldwin was first elected to Congress in 1998.

Magic 98

In 1998 I worked as a poll worker at the then Gordon Commons on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus at a voting precinct serving the southeast dormitories, (mostly freshmen and sophomores). The city-wide turnout wildly exceeded predictions, and the southeast dorms led even these turn-out numbers.

At the polls we ran out of ballots about 5:00 P.M, as students were coming to vote and being told to come back. I personally sprinted to a polling site at a Dayton Street school about a half-mile away and was told they too were out of ballots and to try the Memorial Union polling site. Sprinted to the Union. I picked up about 100 or so ballots, sprinted back to Gordon Commons and was shaking too much to counter-sign the ballots. Serious fun.

Baldwin defeated one Josephine W. Musser, 52 to 46 percent. It was a race many recall with fond memories. [That same 1998 race saw Sen. Russ Feingold narrowly defeat a rightwing Evangelical Mark Neumann by some 37,000 votes. Neumann blamed the Dane County turnout, so did many in Dane County, especially Madison's Isthmus neighborhoods. Read one homemade sign on an East Dayton Street house months later in the heart of the Isthmus in the spring of 1999: "one neighborhood" beat Mark Neumann. Milwaukee County with all those urban types also gave Feingold electoral breathing room.]

What happened in 1998? Baldwin captured the public imagination who saw in her candidacy the hopes and possibilities of people. It was that vivid. Everyone doing field work saw the same thing, but political consultants didn't see the throngs of people turning out as they did. This phenomenon was electoral magic—something that cannot be explained or predicted.

Twenty years later the 2018 race will feature Baldwin against a Republipuke who will run a campaign asking in effect, 'are you gonna let the niggers win and take your healthcare?'

Rightwing thinks anti-healthcare message is a winner in 2018
U.S. Senate races. Who needs healthcare?