Trump's Misogyny Draws Mere Tweet from Scott Walker

Wisconsin GOP Display at August
State Fair Echoes Trump Misogyny

Republican candidates can't figure out why or how to challenge their fellow misogynist and his latest rant against Fox News anchor, Megyn Kelly.

Scott Walker—in a profile in cowardice—could only manage a weak and vaguely-worded tweet of objection to Donald Trump (Martin, Haberman, New York Times).

After disinviting Donald Trump to a forum this weekend, RedState's Erick Erickson featured 10 of the Republican candidates in a rightwing gathering and of this group only Jeb Bush mentioned Trump, saying Trump's attack on Fox anchor Kelly is not good politics because it offended 53 percent of voters, women.

Following last Thursday's debate, Trump had said of Kelly, "You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever" in an interview on CNN Friday night (Martin, Haberman, New York Times).

Erickson had questioned Trump's "decency" in explaining his disinvitation of Trump, later saying Saturday at the Atlanta gathering that "I don't want my daughter in the room with Donald Trump tonight, so he's not invited. If our standard-bearer has to resort to that, then we need a new standard-bearer." (CNN)

Decency.

That's one quality lacking in Scott Walker, and is not prominent in the Republican Party's field for the presidency.

Catholic Church, GOP Double Down on Misogyny, Protection of Predator Priests

Cardinal Timothy Dolan transferred church funds
into a separate trust in order to protect them
from clergy abuse lawsuits

Update: "Let's see if I got this straight about the Hobby Lobby decision. The owners are Christians who have certain religious beliefs. If I, as a Jew, were to apply for a job at Hobby Lobby, would they have the right to deny me a job because my religious beliefs are different from theirs? Would Hobby Lobby deny me the right to not work on Saturday or take off for the Jewish holidays? No, they would not be able to do that because it is discrimination. So why can they deny me access to birth control that I believe in? Whose religious rights are being denied?" (Lisa Cass, The Capital Times)
---
In the wake of the Hobby Lobby decision attacking contraception coverage, the Catholic Church hierarchy and Republican Party are moving to block pro-women legislation in the U.S. Senate and maintaining Church policy of protecting predator priests. (Rachel Zoll, AP)

Weeks back, Pope Francis met with six victims of abuse, comparing the abuse of children at the hands of Catholic priests to the performing of a satanic black mass.

"Before God and his people, I express my sorrow for the sins and grave crimes of clerical sexual abuse committed against you," Francis said during his homily, according to a text released by the Vatican. "And I humbly ask forgiveness I beg your forgiveness, too, for the sins of omission on the part of church leaders who did not respond adequately to reports of abuse made by family members, as well as by abuse victims themselves." (Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests]

Talk is cheap.

A leading advocate for survivors of Catholic priests, Patrick J. Wall of Jeff Anderson and Associates of St. Paul, Minnesota, expressed a show-me attitude towards the Pope's stated commitment to holding bishops accountable for covering up crimes against 1,000s of children.

"If the Holy Father does not fire the Bishops and Abbots who have been complicit in covering up child sexual abuse by the Cardinals, Bishops, Priests, Deacons and Religious, then he simply is a Jesuit using roman tactics of smoke and mirrors," said Wall in an email.

Wall is a former priest and monk from Saint John’s Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota.

Meanwhile, yesterday it was reported a, "canon lawyer alleging a widespread cover-up of clergy sex misconduct in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has made her most detailed claims yet, accusing archbishops and their top staff of lying to the public and of ignoring the U.S. bishops' pledge to have no tolerance of priests who abuse"

Jennifer Haselberger, who spent five years as Archbishop John Nienstedt's archivist and top adviser on Roman Catholic church law, also charged that the church used a chaotic system of record-keeping that helped conceal the backgrounds of guilty priests who remained on assignment." (Zoll, AP)

Archbishop Timothy Dolan (2002-2009) is not shaking with fear about being held accountable for his cover-ups and attacks on survivors in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, aided by a corrupt federal judge, Rudolph Randa, and a sitting U.S. Senator, Ron Johnson who lobbied for Republicans in 2010 blocking a proposed Wisconsin bill that would have abolished time limits on civil lawsuits over child sex abuse by Catholic priests.

Senate Republicans are likely to filibuster the bill overturning Hobby Lobby, a decision by the five rightwing Catholics on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Pope Francis Could Order Listecki to Open Archdiocese of Milwaukee Operation to Its Victims

U.S. Senator (R-Wisconsin), Ron
Johnson Opposed
Wisconsin Child Victims Bill
giving legal protection
against Predator Priests

Update: See also piece on the now-retired Twin Cities Archbishop Harry Flynn, " one-time head of the US bishops child sex abuse panel called police about admitted, proven or credibly accused predator priests."
---
One would believe that children raped and molested is a horrendous crime that both major political parties would agree merits holding the perpetrators to account and pay the victims restitution, such as restitution can be.

Not in this life.

The Catholic Church hierarchy is maintaining its hostile stance towards rape and molestation victims, knowing the Republican Party [see Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson and his work against rape victims for example] and judges such as Rudolph Randa have the church's back as both operations inflict a shared misogyny and absolute prohibition against a woman's right to choose what to do with her body.

If anyone needs to see more evidence that the Republican Party and the Catholic Church hierarchy have fallen deep into nihilism and organized criminality, the latest out of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee should awaken decent Americans.

In the federal case, Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors v. Listecki, a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit questioned attorneys this week for defending a $60 million cemetery trust fund crafted by New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan when he was the archbishop of Milwaukee to shield money from victims of priests in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.

A federal bankruptcy judge ruled in January 2013 that efforts by Listecki to insulate the $60 million from victims did not, as the church claims, violate "the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 ... and the First Amendment." [Case No. 11-20059-svk, Chapter 11, Adv. Proc. No. 11-02459  UNITED STATES BANKRUPTCY COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF WISCONSIN
485 B.R. 385; 2013 Bankr. LEXIS 200; 57 Bankr. Ct. Dec. 119]

Judge Rudolph Randa disagreed and overruled the federal bankruptcy judge in defense of  Listecki in July 2013.

Randa's decision, a corrupt decision, drew derisive criticism across the nation from survivors and their advocates. (Goodstein, NYT)

Writes Goodstein:

The ruling reversed an earlier decision by a federal bankruptcy judge and was a victory for Archbishop Jerome E. Listecki of Milwaukee, and for his predecessor, Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, now the archbishop of New York, who established the cemetery trust in Milwaukee in 2007. Documents made public in July revealed that when Cardinal Dolan sought the Vatican’s permission to move nearly $57 million into a cemetery trust, he said it would help protect the money from legal claims.

This week a panel of the Court of Appeal for the Seventh Circuit excoriated the machinations of the slippery church and its defenders such as Randa and questioned Randa's conflict of interest, calling it "troubling."

Randa won't lose any sleep over the accusation.

As reported by Annysa Johnson of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

Judges at the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday appeared to challenge a key argument in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee's efforts to protect $60 million it holds in a trust for the care of cemeteries from being used to pay creditors in its bankruptcy.

The three-judge panel questioned whether the archdiocese needs that entire $60 million to maintain its cemeteries. And one of the jurists, 7th Circuit Judge Ann Claire Williams, said she found issues related to U.S. District Judge Rudolph T. Randa's decision not to recuse himself from the lawsuit over those funds 'troubling.'

The panel — Appellate Judges Williams and Joel Flaum, along with U.S. District Judge Robert Dow of the Northern District of Illinois — heard oral arguments Monday on several issues related to the bankruptcy, including First Amendment questions that could be of national significance as religious liberty cases make their way through courts around the country.

In that lawsuit, filed by Archbishop Jerome Listecki as sole trustee of the cemetery trust, the church maintains that forcing it to turn over even $1 in cemetery funds to the bankruptcy estate would substantially burden its free exercise of religion under the First Amendment and the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Proceeds from the estate would go to finance a settlement with sex abuse victims and the archdiocese's reorganization.

Randa is more than troubling.

And Pope Francis could settle this matter in a Vatican minute, if his conversion to decency and humanism were more than a slick PR job.

Lay Catholics face a decision on what to do about the Catholic Church hierarchy, a historic decision.

SNAP - Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Media Minimizes Bill Kramer's Sexual Attacks

After one victim of State Rep. Bill Kramer (R-Waukesha) promised in 2011 to file criminal charges if Kramer ever assaulted another woman, Kramer sexually assaulted more women.

The GOP stripped Kramer of his majority leader position he held for eight months, and GOP and Democratic party official called for his resignation, but stopped short of calling for his expulsion.

Today, Rep. Bill Kramer (R-Waukesha) in his initial Court appearance got off with a signature bond and pled not guilty to two counts of felony sexual assault.

Kramer reappeared from an undisclosed location for "treatment" after a February "fundraiser in Washington, D.C., (where) observers say they saw Kramer make crude remarks to a Wisconsin lobbyist and touch the breast of a legislative aide. That led to Kramer's removal from his leadership job and a personnel investigation. (Luthern, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and the Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault exist as an advocate for victims of sexual assault.

If Scott Walker, the GOP and the go-along, too-often complicit Democrats in the Wisconsin capitol refuse expulsion of Kramer, advocacy and other citizen groups like the Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault will be needed more than ever in this high-profile case.

Meanwhile the Wisconsin media is minimizing the graphic police report and District Attorney criminal complaint as against today's AP report that the victim's allegations are "groping" as opposed to terror, trauma and fear of rape and battery.

Kramer is due in Court again on May 15 for a preliminary hearing.

If you have not read this piece on Rep. Bill Kramer's (R-Waukesha) misogyny by Kristin Hansen (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, March 30, 2014), check it out.

Ms. Hansen's voice describing the misogyny of Bill Kramer is also needed, critically.

In honor of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, here is Rachel Maddow's brilliant work on Bill Kramer, Ron Johnson and the look-the-other-way GOP that enabled Bill Kramer's rise to political power in Wisconsin Republican politics.

Whitewashing Bill Kramer's Sexual Assualts Is Underway; Signature Bond, Not Guilty Plea

Update II: Kramer to plead "not guilty," and is ordered released on signature bond. Guess that "treatment" center at an undisclosed location must have really helped Kramer; now, he's innocent.

Kramer's attorney said he trusts the judge will not allow the case to "become a circus- or carnival-like atmosphere." (Luthern. Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)

Yes, we would not want the experience to be unpleasant for Kramer.

Update: Recall Scott Walker hedging days ago advising caution on expulsion proceedings. "I think the concern that some have had, and that they’re trying to look at, is if they took action to expel him, that might actually require the victim to have to testify and could have an impact on the court case," Walker said. (WRN) Walker's statement is of course ludicrous.

A preface today noting the Prosecutor's Sexual Assault Reference Book, "dedicated to all the courageous survivors of sexual assault and to the tireless advocates and prosecutors that join them in seeking healing and justice." (From the Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault (WCASA)).

This bears mention as the AP report prior to Rep. Bill Kramer's (R-Waukesha) initial court appearance in 10 minutes is a whitewash of the graphic police report and criminal complaint.

Bail Hearing Monday for Wisconsin Rep. Bill Kramer; Republican, All-around Human Garbage

"I oppose placing sex offenders in our
communities and helped lead the fight
against the placement of one of
Wisconsin's most violent offenders
in our community," Rep. Bill Kramer
(R-Waukesha) in his 2012 reelection page.

Updated: If any Republican (or enabling Democrat) tells you they want to refrain from expulsion proceedings out of their concern for the victim(s), know they are bought-and-paid-for, dishonor among politicians. Any Democrat protecting Bill Kramer should be held as accountable as the GOP leadership for shielding Kramer. Stay tuned.

State Rep. Bill Kramer (R-Waukesha) will make his first court appearance Monday morning in which the presiding judge will set bail and formally deliver the criminal complaint of two felony sexual assaults to Kramer's attorney.

Scott Walker and the GOP Assembly Republicans still refuse to hold expulsion proceedings, effectively shielding the Waukesha Republican who continues to draw his tax-payer salary, health care and pension benefits, a public expenditure Walker apparently does not mind if the recipient is Republican.

Sitting state representative.

This bears repeating, and as Kramer and his Republican clique protecting him have become national news, it will be repeated.

Mary Burke, Walker's Democratic opponent for governor, issued another of her eloquent soliloquies of silence on the issue.

One can only hope clients of this owner and president of Kramer Financial Management take their business elsewhere as a protest against this dangerous misogynist.

How high will bail be for the serial sexual assaulter and sexual harasser the Assembly Republicans made majority leader in 2013 replacing former Republican majority leader Scott Suder before his scandal broke?

We'll find out Monday.

Personally, no bail seems just to me.

This bastard has hurt a lot of people, and has a demonstrated hatred of women.

A couple of items worth noting in the meantime:

• April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Maybe if someone points this out to the Republican Party of Wisconsin, it will stop coddling Rep. Bill Kramer (R-Waukesha)
• Perhaps the most eloquent piece on Rep. Bill Kramer's (R-Waukesha) misogyny is by Kristin Hansen (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, March 30, 2014)

Republicans Tried to Expel Independent in 2009, GOP Protects Sexual Predator Today

Update III: April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Maybe if someone points this out to the Republican Party of Wisconsin, it will stop coddling Rep. Bill Kramer (R-Waukesha).

Update II: "Protects" in title is more descriptive and accurate than 'won't touch.'

Update: Perhaps the most eloquent piece on Rep. Bill Kramer's (R-Waukesha) misogyny is by Kristin Hansen (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, March 30, 2014).

Writes Hansen, "As I left the meeting, Kramer followed me into the parking lot and yelled to me as I got to my car. He got within inches of my face and started yelling about the smoking ban again, and telling me that I needed to listen to him so he could 'educate' me about it. I was shocked. I was the president of the organization he had been invited to speak to and he was screaming at me in the parking lot. I thought he was going to hit me.  It got so bad that one of the male members of the club came over and pulled him away from me. When I got in my car I was trembling."

Bill Kramer is a misogynist. I am convinced that is what is at the root of his sexual assault and harassment problems. He cannot handle a woman being his equal, much less his superior. It is why he touched Kelda Roys inappropriately, so she was put in her place, and why he attempted to turn professional staffers into sexual playthings. Does he have even one respectful, healthy relationship with a woman?"
---
Bill Kramer is whom the Republicans are protecting because Bill Kramer is a Republican.

Wisconsin GOP Expulsion Hypocrisy Outrageous Even for Them

In 2009, State Rep. Jeff Wood (R-2002-08; Independent-2008-2010) was convicted of his third-offense OWI in 20 years and possession of drug paraphernalia.

State Rep. Stephen Nass (R-Whitewater) authored a resolution to expel Wood in 2009 that ultimately failed, and Nass demanded Wood be expelled in a hurry before any convictions of Wood's third charge were obtained. Wood was censured in April 2010.

Assembly Speaker Mike Sheridan (D-Janesville) (2008-2011) pushed Nass' resolution forward in October 2009, appointing an ethics committee to consider Nass' expulsion resolution.

Nass' resolution reads in part:

Whereas, the Wisconsin Constitution, under article IV, section 8, envisions the need of each house of the legislature to address 'contempt and disorderly behavior. ...

Whereas, continued service by Representative Wood is no longer compatible with his oath of office and the reasonable social norms of expected behavior for a member of the assembly, as he continues to deal with his personal conduct issues that frequently lead to dangerous behaviors that jeopardize his life and the life of innocent citizens; now, therefore, be it

AR14,4,2

---

Resolved by the assembly, That Representative Jeffrey Wood is hereby expelled from membership in the Wisconsin state assembly.

What motivated Nass' expulsion resolution: Wood left the Republican Party in 2008 to become an independent.

That Wood had two OWIs in 2001-2002 did not bother Nass when Wood was a member of the Republican Party.

Now, we have sexual predator, Bill Kramer (R-Waukesha) facing two felony charges of 2nd Degree Sexual Assault/Use of Force this-coming Monday, and Nass, Scott Walker and the Republican State Assembly leadership won't do anything.

Nass, the fake moralist, does not mind sexual felonies, as long as they are perpetrated by Republicans.

Not one word from Nass, and certainly not an expulsion resolution.

Expulsion proceedings for serial sexual predator? Kramer is a Republican you see, so normal rules don't apply.

Or, perhaps sexually assaulting women is not, in Nass' mind, incompatible with his oath of office and the reasonable social norms of expected behavior for a member of the assembly, nor does sexual assault jeopardize the life of innocent citizens

Scott Walker, GOP Did Not Run on What They Are Doing to Wisconsin

Republicans are pouring out their extremist legislative agenda that ought to concern all Wisconsin citizens just now learning about it.

Did you ever hear Scott Walker and the Republicans say a top priority is limiting women's choice what to do with their bodies which Republicans assert should be used according to its Party's dictates; mandatory ultrasound for women seeking abortions; restricting access to contraceptives; and creating a new pretend issue stopping women from obtaining abortion that calculates sex selection?

Did you hear Republicans campaign on Wisconsin adopting an ALEC-Supported, for-profit Bail Bonding bill slipped into the budget?

Republican do not believe in accountability.

Their conception of government is authoritarian, disdainful of civil liberties, and misogynistic.

Who wants to run on that?

Wisconsin's War on Women escalates:

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Another Republican Excuses Rape; What's Wrong with These People?

Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss blames "hormones"
and "nature" for rape and sexual assault in the U.S. military

Will Republican Scott Walker meet with a rape victim, and explain why the government should force her to carry her rapist's fetus? He should, because the GOP has gone crazy.

"Gee whiz, the hormone level created by nature sets in place the possibility for these types [rape and sexual assault] of things to occur. So we’ve got to be very careful how we address it on our side," said Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga) at a U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Monday, addressing the epidemic of rape and sexual assault in all the military branches of the United States.

What is it about the Republican and Tea Party and their aversion to stopping rape? Consider the Party of Scott Walker and Paul Ryan and its misogyny:

• Todd Akin's "legitimate rape" craziness (in U.S Senate campaign, 2012)
• Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga) defended Akin's comments
• Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Il) stated that abortion is no longer needed, hence should be outlawed
• Rep. Steve King (R-Ia) supported Akin's comments
• Richard Mourdock (R-In) says rape is God's will

But as William Saletan wrote last October, these people represent the mainstream of the Republican and Tea Parties.

As do Scott Walker, Paul Ryan, and other anti-choice Republicans who—like the majority in Republican world—call for instituting the government forcing rape victims to bear their rapists' children.

In fact, this is the GOP's official position on rape and abortion.

And no Republican can be elected GOP nominee for the presidency with a pro-choice position.

President Obama won the women's vote by 12 percent in 2012.

Here's what Chambliss said:  "The young folks who are coming into each of your services are anywhere from 17 to 22 or 23. Gee whiz, the hormone level created by nature sets in place the possibility for these types of things to occur. So we've got to be very careful how we address it on our side."

Men don't rape women, Nature does, in the Republican world view.

I guess we should not be surprised when the likes of Richard Mourdock call rapists impregnating their victims "something that God intended."

Mourdock, and his supporters like Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan for example, sounds like he walked out of an episode of Criminal Minds in which a serial rapist confronted by a FBI profiler tells the agent his rape victims should be grateful, just before the enraged FBI agent shoots him to death. (Criminal Minds; Season 5, "The Aftermath")

In the political realm, reasonable people have profound differences of opinion, but when politicians would force rape victims to carry rapists' children, there is something wrong with these people. It's called Misogyny.

On one positive note, Amanda Terkel reports, "Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has called military sexual assaults a 'scourge' and promised to make addressing them a top priority. A recent Pentagon report estimated that as many as 26,000 service members were assaulted in 2012."

From a political perspective, if the Republican Party ever wishes to narrow the gender gap, it must abandon the lunacy that women ever bear any responsibility for rape and sexual assault, and it must refrain from placing the blame on God's will or nature's plan.

Defending a women's right choose is also a good place to start for the White, Over-60 Male Party (aka GOP) that only gets elected outside of Appalachia and the south by appealing to misogyny and racism, gerrymandering political districts, and obstructing the right to vote through GOP-crafted voter IDs.

From the Rachel Maddow Show:

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