Wisconsin Black Lives Matter Routs Democrat State Senator

State Sen. Tim Carpenter faked a collapse in front of WKOW-TV
at the Capitol, and then began his campaign demonizing Black
Lives Matter. This fake collapse was preceded by Carpenter's hollered
conversation as the Democrat spoke with several protest medics and
peacekeepers in an eight-minute conversation captured on audio,
Pittman/WORT News. Audio shows Carpenter declining medical
attention before his fake collapse.

Madison, Wisconsin — Not one Wisconsin elected Democrat stood up for Black Lives Matter and two innocent women pursued by an unhinged Democrat, State Sen. Tim Carpenter (D-Milwaukee).

Via Medium.

Black Lives Matter don’t really matter, not here.

And BLM liberation protesters enjoy no presumption of innocence when protesting police violence, not while the Democratic Party has power.

In massive demonstrations during the 2020 Summer supporting George Floyd and demanding police end their war against the community, human rights workers irked one State Sen. Tim Carpenter (D-Milwaukee) — a drug warrior and self-proclaimed “reactionary” Democrat.

Forget Chicago, Minneapolis, Milwaukee and Kenosha, Madison police have it in for black folks, and Wisconsin Democrats back the police, diligently defend wrongful convictions, harassment, police and prosecutor misconduct, amid a permanent low-intensity war against the darkly complected.

It’s SOP in Wisconsin.

Tim Carpenter is the perfect Democrat, a narcissistic corporatist so self-involved and malicious he would embarrass Joe Biden.

Carpenter is renown in some circles for single-handedly blocking doctor-prescribed marijuana in 2009, the better the State has weapons to imprison black and brown people in the drug war.

So, it was no surprise that Carpenter drove to Madison in late June 2020 and started a melee against a couple of hundred protesters rallying next to the Capitol near Midnight during the height of the George Floyd protests.

Carpenter, (later claiming he was making a late-night Capitol visit on official business), grabbed his phone and started recording the BLM group, a provocative action to which the group took offense.

Protesters explained to Carpenter that rightwing doxxers were recording BLM rallies, increasing fear that night that someone was going to get hurt on a night during which the marchers had to contend with gun shots and cars trying to run the group down.

The melee ensued, after which Carpenter unconvincingly played the victim.

But the group was easy prey for Carpenter and his political campaign, backed by the police, the district attorney and corporate media.

After lecturing the crowd that he was an ally of Black Lives Matter, a laughable proposition, a traumatized Carpenter performed a collapse on the Capitol grounds in front of a WKOW-TV (Madison) crew.

Carpenter did not fall uncontrollably to the pavement; he gently set himself down to a sitting position and laid down on the soft manicured brush. The media dutifully reported he collapsed. It was a charade.

Before and after his performance, Carpenter refused medical treatment.

Carpenter then enlisted the Democrat Dane County District Attorney to press charges against someone, anyone, at the Capitol that night.

The DA picked two local socially conscious women with no criminal records, Black Lives Matter protesters Kerida O’Reilly and Samantha Hamer, whom even Carpenter and the police could not identify as so much as laying a finger on the precious state senator.

The two women were each charged with multiple felonies and a misdemeanor — felony crime of Substantial Battery with Intent to Cause Bodily Harm, felony Party to a Crime, and misdemeanor Disorderly Conduct.

Both women faced years in prison in a Court presided over by a Gov. Scott Walker appointee, Dane County Circuit Court Judge Josann M. Reynolds, (R) appointed to the bench in 2015.

Charge stacking like what was endured in these cases serves two purposes. One, to coerce innocent protesters into pleading no contest to charges of which they are innocent; and two, to deter protesting of unlawful police behavior in the streets.

The Democrat-led Dane County District Attorney’s office changed its charging standard for this one case to accommodate Carpenter and the paucity of evidence against the defendants. The conventional evidentiary standard for the Dane County DA is case can be proven to a reasonable doubt, changed to: Reasonable inference. [(See, for example, WISC-TV 2018; Madison . com).

At a probable cause hearing in August 2020, Asst DA William Brown, known for over-the-top prosecutions and Manichean court posturing, admitted, “We don’t know exactly what happens [at the rally] … other than we have a witness that says various people began kicking and punching. There is a reasonable inference that those two people who are aggressively running at him are the ones involved in the exact same incident,” (Rickert, Wisconsin State Journal).

Judge Reynolds is corrupt against defendants’ rights, a status that draws few objections in Dane County.

At the prosecution’s behest, in early Sept 2021, Reynolds issued a radical ruling that compelled the appearance of three, then two area journalists covering the protests though none of these three could identity the defendants as touching Carpenter.

The rationale behind the forced Court appearance of journalists was to establish there was a large rally and ralliers were passionate.

Armed with the testimony that the rally was passionate, the prosecution argued in court that Ms. O’Reilly was passionate and near Carpenter, so it was reasonable to infer she assaulted Tim Carpenter.

Thus, we see the Wisconsin judiciary join the bad faith, logical fallacy and ill will on the part of the police and prosecutors who face little recrimination in this political culture wired to give these same police and prosecutors free reign.

After the two women were arrested, Carpenter went on a public relations spree to demonize Black Lives Matter; sponsored a bill to criminalize damaging statutes out of Carpenter’s spite; and accosted and harassed a black candidate for the State Senate, before being forced to apologize after the intercession of the state Democratic Party Chair and the Senate Minority Leader criticizing Carpenter, (The Capital Times, WTMJ — July, Fox News — June 30, Spectrum News One — Aug).

Carpenter was unhinged and petulant.

That the two women were not implicated by any direct evidence was of no apparent concern to Carpenter, the police, and the media who toed the police line all the way.

Bowing to the ridiculous lack of evidence, the DA in April 2021, offered a deal that featured no jail time and a deferred prosecution, that would have wiped the protesters’ record clean, WKOW-TV, (Galli).

No deal, we’re innocent, replied O’Reilly and Hamer.

O’Reilly declined another deal last month that would have dropped all three criminal charges in exchange for pleading no contest to the equivalent of a parking ticket. No deal, said O’Reilly.

BLM protester Samantha Hamer took the deal, fearing she was gambling her life on the whims of a jury.

On Oct. 19, after a two-day trial, the jury verdict was delivered to the remaining defendant: O’Reilly: Not guilty on all counts. The jury deliberated for just three hours.

This was an are-you-kidding verdict, but the resultant local coverage, with the exception of Tony Galli and Peter Culver at WKOW, barely mentioned the verdict.

Instead, overwhelmingly, the not-guilty local coverage is a rehash of the accusations, omitting entirely the fact noone saw the two women touch Tim Carpenter.

O’Reilly told WKOW that she will continue to support Black Lives Matter.

O’Reilly said she also felt relief that the truth came out. She was scared.

“I did not make physical contact with him, [Carpenter],” Kerida O’Reilly testified at trial, a statement even Tim Carpenter was forced to acknowledge in the face of aggressive questioning by defense attorney, Jessa Nicholson Goetz.

So, why this bogus prosecution? Because police and prosecutors want to.
That’s it.

Police face no recrimination for their arrest of the Black Lives Matter protesters. The DA faces no consequences, and Tim Carpenter, beyond burnishing his reputation as an asshole, faces no backlash from the Democratic Party of Wisconsin.

Tim Carpenter is running for reelection in 2022. Progressive and pro-Black Lives Matter forces want a candidate to run against him in the Democratic Primary.

But Wisconsin also needs DAs and a criminal justice system that function as a check for deceitful politicians, and guard the rights of citizens against these same politicians and police who pose a threat to a peaceful community.
#

(Michael Leon is a writer living in Madison, Wisconsin. His stories have appeared nationally in The Progressive, In These Times and CounterPunch. He can be reached at: malleon @ live.com .)

Not Guilty — State Senator's Racist Crusade Against Black Lives Matter Beaten Back

State Sen. Tim Carpenter faked a collapse in front of WKOW-TV
at the Capitol, and then began his media campaign demonizing Black
Lives Matter. This fake collapse was preceded by Carpenter's hollered
conversation as the Democrat spoke with several protest medics and
peacekeepers in an eight-minute conversation captured on audio,
Pittman/WORT News. Audio shows Carpenter declining medical
attention before his fake collapse.

Carpenter Faces Tough Campaign for Reelection in 2022

Madison, Wisconsin — Wisconsin State Sen Tim Carpenter's (D-Milwaukee) crusade against Black Lives Matter suffered a big set-back today, Tuesday. Oct 19.

Not guilty on all counts, a Dane County jury said to a Black Lives Matter protester on trial against a racist state senator who calls himself "rash and reactionary" for his conduct against another Black Lives Matter supporter.

"I did not make physical contact with him," Kerida O'Reilly testified, a statement even Carpenter was forced to acknowledge in the face of aggressive questioning by defense attorney, Jessa Nicholson Goetz.

Ms. O'Reilly faced two felony charges and a misdemeanor for an unspecified act that noone says she committed at a June 23-24, 2020 Black Lives Matter protest. It bears repeating: The State was charging the woman for no acts they can identify her as committing.

The racist Tim Carpenter is running for reelection in 2022. Progressive and pro-Black Lives Matter candidates want a candidate to run in the Democratic Primary.

The reactionary Carpenter is renown in some circles for single-handedly blocking doctor-prescribed marijuana in 2009, the better the State has a weapon to imprison black and brown people in the drug war. Under heavy criticism, eight years later, Carpenter reversed his public stance, but the damage was done.

Though Carpenter admits to being rash and reactionary, progressives view the white Democrat as petulant, conniving, narcissistic and wedded to an outdated anti-drug era.

O'Reilly testified to Carpenter as an angry, aggressive presence at the Black Lives Matter rally, Galli/WKOW.

The Democrat-led Dane County District Attorney's office changed its charging standard for this one case to accommodate Carpenter and the paucity of evidence against the defendants.

In the instances of Kerida O’Reilly and Samantha Hamer, the District Attorney had dropped its charging standard in these cases from can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, (See, for example, WISC-TV 2018; Madison . com), to the much lower standard, (and newly employed as a charging standard):  Claimed reasonable inference.
 
At a probable cause hearing in August 2020, Asst DA William Brown, known for over-the-top prosecutions and Manichean court posturing, admitted, "We don’t know exactly what happens ...  other than we have a witness that says various people began kicking and punching. There is a reasonable inference that those two people who are aggressively running at him are the ones involved in the exact same incident," (Rickert, Wisconsin State Journal).

No deal, said the jury, which took just three hours to deliver its not guilty verdict.

Racist Wisconsin State Sen's Crusade Against Black Lives Matter Protester at Trial Oct 15

State Sen. Tim Carpenter faked a collapse in front of
WKOW-TV at the Capitol, and then began his media
campaign demonizing Black Lives Matter. This fake
collapse was preceded by Carpenter's hollered
conversation as the Democrat spoke with several
protest medics and peacekeepers in an
eight-minute conversation captured on audio,
(Pittman/WORT News). Audio shows Carpenter
declining medical attention before faking his collapse.

Dane County Asst DA William Brown: 'We don’t know what happened.'

Madison, Wisconsin — You have to give credit to Wisconsin State Sen Tim Carpenter (D-Milwaukee). 

The reactionary state senator hates Black Lives Matter, and nothing will get in the way of his racist crusade.

So, all credit for his determination to destroy a young Black Lives Matter protester's life, Kerida E. O'Reilly: No criminal record, a socially conscious Madison woman who believes police should not kill black people.

Ms. O'Reilly faces two felony charges and a misdemeanor for an unspecified act that noone says she committed at a June 23-24, 2020 Black Lives Matter protest. It bears repeating: The State is charging the woman for no acts they can identify her as committing.

Welcome to the Democrat Party and the criminal justice system.

And Dane County District Attorney, Ismael Ozaane. Shame on you, you should know better.

The case is being heard by a reliable prosecutor's judge, Dane County Circuit Court Judge Josann M. Reynolds, appointed to the bench by Gov. Scott Walker (R) in 2015.

Carpenter traveled to Madison to a June 2020 Black Lives Matter protest for whom the drug warrior maintains an apparent hatred, and started a melee, where Carpenter took a beating that he highlighted over the next year, though he twice refused medical treatment that same night.

"I had no idea I had walked into a hornet's nest," claimed Carpenter to WTMJ, playing the victim in July 2020. "All of a sudden two women, white women, started coming towards me. I had three seconds to react." 

Carpenter insinuated two woman somehow hit him, but Carpenter admitted to police he cannot identity anyone as touching him.

Carpenter went on a rant after the June protests during which Carpenter performed a fall on the Capitol grounds in front of a WKOW-TV crew; went on a public relations spree in the Summer to demonize Black Lives Matter; sponsored a bill to criminalize damaging statutes out of Carpenter's petty spite; and accosted and harassed a black candidate for the State Senate.

Following the June protests, the racist Carpenter went apoplectic against a black woman running for State Senate, resulting in a multi-day rant that concluded with the intercession of the state Party Chair and the Senate Minority Leader criticizing Carpenter who eventually apologized, (The Capital Times). Carpenter said he was  "rash and reactionary" in his apology.

The reactionary Carpenter is renown in some circles for single-handedly blocking doctor-prescribed marijuana in 2009, the better the State has a weapon to imprison black and brown people in the drug war. Under heavy criticism, eight years later, Carpenter reversed his public stance, but the damage was done.
---
Today, not even cops state O'Reilly can be identified as doing anything that night, a fact that did not stop the district attorney from charge-stacking.

Madison police detective Linda Trevarthen who led the investigation of the melee acknowledged that there is no evidence the O'Reilly specifically touched Carpenter in any way, much less a felony battery contact, (Rickert, Wisconsin State Journal).

Not one witness claims Kerida O’Reilly can be identified as so much as laying a finger on the precious state senator. No video evidence implicates O'Reilly.

Carpenter ridiculed Black Lives Matter, and in July 2020 said he's also "being criticized on the left in a blog suggesting he's somehow a traitor stating that he 'was against the liberators of the Black Lives Movement,'" (WTMJ), in an apparent reference to Mal Contends.

 Carpenter wants to get Black Lives Matter. So does the Dane County District Attorney. So merely being present at a protest is enough for a criminal prosecution.

Bowing to the ridiculous lack of evidence, "The two people charged with the beating of a state senator have been offered a deal by prosecutors that would include no jail time and deferred prosecution," WKOW-TV (Galli, Madison) reported last April.

No deal, we're innocent, replied O’Reilly. O'Reilly declined another deal last month that would have dropped all three criminal charges in exchange for the equivalent of a parking ticket. No deal, said O'Reilly.

Corrupt DA Changes Charging Standard in These Cases

In the instances of Kerida O’Reilly and Samantha Hamer, the District Attorney had dropped its charging standard in these cases from can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, (See, for example, WISC-TV 2018; Madison . com), to the much lower standard, (and newly employed as a charging standard):  Claimed reasonable inference.
 
At a probable cause hearing in August 2020, Asst DA William Brown, known for over-the-top prosecutions and Manichean court posturing, admitted, "We don’t know exactly what happens ...  other than we have a witness that says various people began kicking and punching. There is a reasonable inference that those two people who are aggressively running at him are the ones involved in the exact same incident," (Rickert, Wisconsin State Journal).

We don’t know exactly what happened? That's reasonable doubt.

Why the change for these cases? Because this is a political prosecution.

Tune in here for coverage beginning Oct 15.

Folks can contact State Sen Tim Carpenter (D-Milwaukee) to ask why he rejects decarceration, decriminalization, police defunding. As we work with our historic movement, Carpenter instead sponsors a bill expanding criminal code to protect statues and works to persecute two innocent Black Lives Matter workers.
(608) 266-8535
Sen.Carpenter@legis.wisconsin.gov

Plea Change from Innocent to No Contest in Tim Carpenter Trial

State Sen. Tim Carpenter faked a collapse in front of WKOW-TV
at the Capitol, and then began his media campaign demonizing Black
Lives Matter. This fake collapse was preceded by Carpenter's hollered
conversation as the Democrat spoke with several protest medics
and peacekeepers in an eight-minute conversation captured on audio,
(Pittman/WORT News). Audio shows Carpenter declining medical
attention before faking his collapse.

Madison, Wisconsin — One of two Black Lives Matter workers accused — with no direct evidence — of having been in a fight with a racist state senator during protests over deadly police violence in 2020 pleaded no contest this week to a vastly reduced non-criminal citation charge.

The plea highlights a brutal part of the criminal justice system where prosecutors charge-stack felonies and force innocent defendants to either gamble with a trial and years in prison or cop a plea to a reduced charge with the promise of erasure from the defendant's record.

"Samantha Hamer, 27, of Madison, does not face any jail time or fines as a result of her plea to disorderly conduct, a county ordinance violation, but will have to pay court costs that are to be determined. The ordinance violation is akin to a ticket and is not a criminal conviction," reports the Wisconsin State Journal.

The plea marks a change from last April when Ms. Hamer refused a different plea offer, while affirmatively acclaiming her innocence.

The state senator involved in the melee is Tim Carpenter, a controversial and reactionary Milwaukee Democrat.

The case is being heard by a reliable prosecutor's judge, Dane County Circuit Court Judge Josann M. Reynolds, appointed to the bench by Gov. Scott Walker (R) in 2015.

Reynolds is corrupt against the rights of defendants, a status that draws few objections in Dane County.

Reynolds has already issued one radical ruling in this case that compels the appearance of three area journalists covering the Black Lives Matters protests though none of these three can identity the remaining defendant as even touching Carpenter.

Tim Carpenter

After the melee at the protest that Carpenter instigated, he is heard in a recorded conversation sounding agreeable.

Carpenter did not phone 911 for medical help, after he was asked by a medic.

Then, Carpenter walked to his car, spotted WKOW-TV crew members, walked towards the TV crew, and performed an unconvincing 'collapse' in an apparent bid for the TV station's attention.

Carpenter did not fall uncontrollably on the pavement. He gently set himself down to a sitting position, and then laid softly in the comparatively soft decorative brush on the ground next to the sidewalk and WKOW staff.

Carpenter then began a four-week media blitz dramatizing his victimhood.

• WTMJ - July 15 -Still Recovering
• Fox News - June 30 - Recovering
• Spectrum News One - Aug 12 - Opening up about Attack
  
  

While Carpenter tended to his I-hate-Black-Lives-Matter crusade, the veteran racist then signed on to a bill criminalizing defacing of statutes, making the protesters' point that this guy cares more about statutes than black lives.

Nothing from Carpenter about decarceration, decriminalization, police violence and police defunding.

But Carpenter was not finished.

Nada Elmikashfi 

Nada Elmikashfi is a candidate for the Democratic Party nomination for State Senate District 26 in Dane County.

Elmikashfi criticized Carpenter's proposal to make criminal felons out of anyone defacing a statue, an initiative echoing Donald Trump's protect-the-statues crusade. 

Writes Elmikashfi on July 16, 2020 commenting on Carpenter's co-authorship of his Senate initiative seeking sponsors.

"Get me in the senate so I can block this absolute bullshit. You shouldn’t have been assaulted Senator Carpenter; but that doesn’t mean you get to block our civil rights movement. If this is passed on a bipartisan basis; @GovEvers needs to veto it. #BlackLivesMatter."

Carpenter went apoplectic, resulting in a multi-day rant that concluded with the intercession of the state Party Chair and the Senate Minority Leader criticizing the unhinged Carpenter who eventually apologized.

Reports The Capital Times:

Wisconsin's Democratic leaders are denouncing 'online bullying' perpetrated by Sen. Tim Carpenter, D-Milwaukee, after he targeted Madison Senate candidate Nada Elmikashfi in a flurry of Twitter posts over the last few days that eventually led to the brief suspension of his account for harassment.

Both the state Democratic Party and Senate Minority Leader Janet Bewley decried Carpenter's actions in statements Monday morning, noting the Milwaukee senator's behavior 'crossed the line.'

'Nobody should be subjected to online bullying, which disproportionately harms women and people of color — not during this moment of long-overdue reckoning with racial justice, and not ever,' party officials wrote in their statement.

Carpenter is silent now.

As is the district attorney's office which has not even attempted to explain why it feels justified in charging two women with no criminal records with multiple felonies for non-specific acts that merit a non-criminal citation.

But local media typically does not ask this sort of question.

National Democratic Party Looks to Sabotage Blue Wave — Targets Progressives, Sanders and New Voters

Democratic Party opposition to Bernie Sanders is
bizarre, and like Hillary Clinton is a disease from
which there is no cure.

Madison, Wisconsin — Lessons learned for the Democratic Party's 2016 elections for 2018 appear to include 'engineer Hillary Clinton clones, and attack Bernie Sanders and progressives.'

This is not a winning strategy.

In Texas, national Democrats are backing an anti-worker Republican, Joseph Kopser, against a popular ex-math teacher and grassroots activist, Mary Wilson, in the May 22 primary election, (Jilani, The Intercept).

If it seems crazy for national Democrats to be backing Republicans in a Democratic primaries, we should consider it's not much crazier than rigging the 2016 Democratic Primary for Hillary Clinton who promptly lost to the lunatic now in the White House.

Hillary Clinton trumpeted her amassed superdelegates in August 2015, telling Democratic Primary voters the race is over, (Halperin, Epstein, Aug. 28, 2015; (BloombergPolitics)), months before the Iowa Caucuses and 11 months before the July 2016 Democratic Party Presidential Convention.

In New York, Hillary Clinton this weekend has endorsed the odious Andrew Cuomo against Cynthia Nixon, endorsed by Our Revolution, in the Sept 13 primary election.

National Democrats are pushing a message progressives must be stopped at the party primary level.

Yesterday, NBC's Meet the Press featured a long interview with Bernie Sanders, reported on by Cameron Cawthorne in the Washington Free Beacon.

Sanders was interviewed by Chuck Dodd who ask about the progressive-Democratic Party divide:

'What do you say to national Democrats who say be careful of this nominating folks who are too progressive.'

'I think that they are wrong, and I think they are misreading where the American people are at,' Sanders said. 'You know, Chuck, many of the issues that I campaigned on two years ago—issues like Medicare for All, raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, taking on the pharmaceutical industry, making public colleges and universities tuition free, legalizing marijuana—a few years ago those were seen as radical, fringy ideas.'

Sanders, who caucuses with the Democrats in the Senate, claimed that a majority of the American people now support those ideas, including an 'overwhelming percentage of Democrats.'

'I think what candidates all over the country are now beginning to understand is that it is more important to reach out to the people in your community, working people, the middle class, lower-income people, rather than just worry about what wealthy campaign contributors want you to say,' Sanders said.

'I think that's not only good public policy; I think that's good politics, and I think many of those candidates will win, because you are going to see voter turnout go up and a level of excitement that conservative Democrats don't raise,' Sanders added.

The DCCC has come under scrutiny from progressives and even more centrist Democrats during the 2018 election cycle for meddling in Democratic primaries across the country and choosing establishment Democrats for their 'Red to Blue' program. The organization has also come under fire for pressuring progressive candidates to drop out of highly contested races.

In particular, the DCCC targeted Texas Democratic congressional candidate Laura Moser by publishing opposition research against her on its website. While the DCCC received backlash from members of the media and Democratic activists, including former Obama administration staffers, the group stood by its strategy. That strategy backfired in March when Moser qualified for a May 22 primary runoff.

No messages from national Democrats saying, 'you know what? Bernie Sanders is right and we should listen.'

From Meet the Press:

ICYMI: @SenSanders joins #MTP to discuss "electability" for progressive candidates in 2018 and why he thinks they encourage voter turnout. https://t.co/GNj8blk9Bg

— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) May 21, 2018

See the video of Bernie Sanders at Meet the Press here.

Transcript of Bernie Sanders May 20, 208 appearance on Meet the Press here.

On Defeating Wisconsin Republicans

2018 is the year Wisconsin Democrats hit the target or
the year democracy perishes in the Progressive State.

Madison, Wisconsin — On June 30, 111 days from now, absentee ballots will be mailed for the Aug. 14, 2018 Wisconsin Fall Primary.

Wisconsin voters will choose a candidate for the Democratic Party nominee for governor.

One hundred-and-eleven days in statewide-campaign time is a sprint.

On March 10, absentee ballots will be mailed for the April 3, 2018 Wisconsin Spring General Election featuring two candidates for Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Twenty-four days is a sprint.

The gubernatorial and this Supreme Court race are nearly equal in importance.

Advice for Democrats, progressives and those with a passing interest in the health of Wisconsin:

Repeat over-and-over the message, the fact, Republicans oppose democracy. Republicans work for special interests, against you.

Any voiced defect or criticism in messaging by Wisconsin Democrats should be given a hearing by Wisconsin Democrats.

Now is not the time for Wisconsin Democratic Party tribalism, for Party hacks, for careerism, group-thing, political malpractice, badly performing consulting firms, and all-around fuck-abouts who have exhibited campaign incompetence so potent Wisconsin's Lost Decade under Republican rule, (2011-2019), will take years to recover from.

Wake up. See what the city of Madison is doing in facilitating voting: Badger your municipality to replicate it.

See what Patty Schachtner did in the January 2018 State Senate special election pushing local control and clean water: Learn from it.

Have someone willing to blanket a critical voting area with signs and lit: Give him or her what she needs now.

Don't fuck this up.

Bernie Sanders Should Stay and Fight

Bernie Sanders for president because our country and
our future are worth fighting for.

The failure of the corporate political press, emphatically MSNBC, to report Debbie Wasserman Schultz and the DNC crafted the Democratic Presidential Primary to coronate Hillary Clinton ought not deter Bernie Sanders' run for the presidency.

Nor should the fact that the DNC has stacked the deck against Sanders at the Democratic National Convention by installing Clinton loyalists in key committees, (US Uncut).

Nor should the fact that the DNC employs Party commissars, aka superdelegates, precisely to halt progressive political campaigns like Bernie Sanders'.

Hillary Clinton has publicly trumpeted her amassed superdelegates since last August, effectively telling Democratic Primary voters the race is over, (Halperin, Epstein, Aug. 28, 2015; (BloombergPolitics)), months before the Iowa Caucuses and 11 months before the July 2016 Democratic Party Presidential Convention.

Bernie Sanders' supporters decided they would cast their preference in this republic anyway, the heck with Clinton's insiders and myriad Party careerists' support. Suckers for democracy are we.

Let's assume the Democratic Party's nominee against the lunatic Donald Trump is a genuine general election, and not prearranged theater like a wrestling match where the bad guy makes a lot of noise and throws the match to the good guy.

If Debbie Wasserman Schultz and the DNC decide large swaths of American voters are neither welcome nor relevant to the Convention, and the evidence is such a decision has already been made, then Bernie Sanders, denied a fair shot at the nomination, should bolt in late July and make an independent or third party run for the presidency.

It's a democratic thing, and a welcome frack-you card to a corrupt and anti-democratic Democratic Party.

Sanders Wins WV, Party Commissars Look to Correct Voters at Convention

Bernie Sanders won West Virginia last night as Clinton surrogates on MSNBC stood ready to downplay Sanders' latest victory.

That voters for Bernie Sanders will deny Hillary Clinton the 2,383 pledged delegates to secure the nomination before the convention is a fact blacked-out by the corporate media, especially MSNBC.

Clinton was anointed by the DNC in a rigged primary front-loaded for Clinton by DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz who advocates the abolition of open primaries, (The Hill, The Washington Examiner,, Bloomberg Politics, U.S. Uncut, Mal Contends).

In service to Clinton, the Democratic Party commissars, aka superdelegates who will cast delegate votes at the convention, are tabulated by the corporate press as already voted and been won by Hillary Clinton. In reality-land, the Democratic National Convention is held July 25-28 in Philadelphia.

The latest Clinton loss to Sanders exposes Clinton's weakness among actual voters, and assuming no deal has been made between allies Clinton and Trump, highlights the weakest potential Democratic Party nominee in recent history as Clinton alienates younger voters, (TruthDig).

There is an explanation for Clinton's weakness.

"There exists nary a war of aggression, a corporate privilege, a privatization of public services or an act against the common good that Mrs. Clinton has factually opposed in her years of public self-service," notes Rob Urie in CounterPunch.

These are inconvenient facts about Hillary Clinton that must be ignored.

DNC's Chair Sounds Positively Soviet

The New Democratic Party

DNC-Clinton Alliance Spells Doom

Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Florida) has solidified her personal commitment to running an already corporatized political party like an old Soviet Union commissar.

Reports Lisa Hagen from The Hill: "DNC Chair "Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) said if it was her decision, she would scrap open primaries and only allow voters registered as Democrats to participate in primaries.

"'I believe that the party's nominee should be chosen — this is Debbie Wasserman Schultz's opinion — that the party's nominee should be chosen by members of the party,' the Florida Democrat said during an interview with 'MSNBC Live' on Monday, according to The Washington Examiner,, [Anna Giaritelli]." See also Bloomberg Politics and U.S. Uncut.

Wonder how Wasserman Schultz' stated position plays with Wisconsin Democrats and Wisconsin's historical commitment to an open primary, first enacted by Robert M. La Follette in 1904 as a progressive Republican, (Wisconsin Historical Society).

In late March President Obama personally endorsed Wasserman Schultz against her progressive primary challenger, Tim Canova, (The Intercept).

Bernie Sanders has made clear he intends to contest the nomination of Hillary Clinton whom Wasserman Schultz has attempted to engineer as the Democratic Party nominee for the presidency.

Listening to Wasserman Schultz, it is easy to understand why.

Yesterday a poll showed Clinton losing to Donald Trump in a general election match-up, (Rasmussen Reports), though the predictive power of polls in May is weak.

Still, a Clinton nomination would depress turn-out sufficiently so Clinton's wished-for grand bargain with House Republicans is necessary, Clinton would say.

We need Bernie Sanders, and one hopes he fights until even the mopes at the Democratic Party see the folly of Hillary Clinton and her intended destruction of the FDR-Ike-LBJ-enacted social insurance, and Clinton's neo-con foreign policy.

If you live in Wisconsin, Myron Buchholz is fighting an entrenched Clintonesque jobs-killing New Democrat in Wisconsin's third congressional district.

Go Bernie Sanders and Myron Buchholz.

Country Will Lose If Insiders Coronate Hillary Clinton Against Wish of Voters

Being elected to Congress can be a heady thing.

It's also inherently corrupting, and the monetary and political inducements can make almost anyone defame, smear and do almost anything.

Witness John Lewis who acting for Hillary Clinton swiftboated Bernie Sanders. John Lewis should be ashamed of himself, but Congress has a way of deflating the capacity for shame.

Lewis infamously insinuated 1960s civil rights worker Bernie Sanders was not a civil rights worker. He did this in service to Hillary Clinton.

See Douglas Williams at In These Times for an important rejoinder.

Writes Williams in his open letter to Lewis:

The movement that you, my grandmother, Senator Sanders and countless thousands were a part of was the largest grassroots movement for social, political and economic change that this country has ever seen. It was a movement that was bigger than any one participant in it; a movement that, at its best, was unapologetically radical and driven by the Black working class. We should live every moment in awe and praise of all of those people and not sweep them under the rug when it is politically expedient.

Hillary Clinton ain’t worth that. Not to me, and not to millions of others ...

Our country, our democracy are also not worth that.

A Koch brothers Congress and a rightwing president await America should voters go along with Hillary Clinton, the sell-outs, and the smug sycophants that brought Hillary Clinton victory in the New Hampshire primary, overruling the voters who gave Bernie Sanders a voters' victory, 151,584 votes to 95,252 votes, (60% to 38 %), (WMUR).

A Hillary Clinton-Democratic National Committee (DNC) scheme is attempting to rig the Democratic Party election for the nomination to the presidency, a foolish enterprise that will not escape the notice of voters and the Republican Party.

If Clinton and the DNC succeed, the Democratic Party will have blown a historic opportunity for the benefit of Hillary Clinton's ego to tragic consequence.

The nation will not be the same, and insiders will enjoy their inducements safe in the knowledge their futures are acceptable even if the great majority of American citizens will suffer.

If you believe this is hyperbole, I suggest you look at the state of Wisconsin for insight into what the nation would look like under Republican, One Party rule.

GOP Gains Modest in 2010, Say Political Insiders

A desperate Republican Party base that wants it country back from the black man elected president won't get much good news from next year's election.

The 2010 off-year elections, generally presenting a loss for the Party in power, will feature tiny gains for the GOP at most, a majority of political insiders in the National Journal say in a new poll.

The poll was conducted by James A. Barnes and Peter Bell.

All U.S. Representatives and one third of U.S. Senators are up for election every two years.

As the worst recession since the Great Depression perhaps subsides next year, the Democratic Party is seen by most as suffering minimal losses.

Ninety-nine percent of Democratic insiders and 94 percent of GOP insiders polled see no chance to a moderate chance of the GOP taking control of the House of Representatives.

Eighty-six percent of Democratic insiders and 55 percent of GOP insiders polled see either a net Democratic gain or a GOP pick-up of only one to two seats in the Democratically controlled U.S. Senate.

As a political brand, the Republican Party remains damaged.

It is seen as shrill, paranoid and out-of-touch as more scholarly conservatives scramble "to disassociate themselves from Birthers, WorldNetDaily, and other objectively crazy people," in the words of Ed Kilgore.

Obama and Progressives

President Obama was elected as an agent of change with the energetic support of the peace-and-justice, civil-liberties-loving, Constitution-following, reality-based community.

So it comes as a disappointment to see Obama bow to those who are opposed to change and hostile to civil liberties.

What's going on?

Mike Madden in Salon says, "Obama's just not that into you," asking if progressives and the president are really meant for each other.

Paul Krugman says, "So there’s a growing sense among progressives that they have, as my colleague Frank Rich suggests, been punked. ... So progressives are now in revolt. Mr. Obama took their trust for granted, and in the process lost it. And now he needs to win it back."

Obama needs to make a decision: Cater to Sarah Palin and her off-the-wall, white GOP or make good on the shiny, progressive promises of the last campaign that saw Americans break all manner of new ground in their thirst for real change.