Scott Walker Criminality Seen in Black and White

Penokee Hills in northern Wisconsin -
Gogebic Taconite LLC shelled out money
to Wisconsin GOP candidates and the GOP
to gain permission to rip a massive
open pit mine in this pristine region.

Gogebic Taconite LLC (GTac) wants to build the largest open iron ore pit mine in North America, ripping a 1,000-foot pit in the center in the lush Penokee Hills in far-northern Wisconsin in Iron and Ashland counties, and Scott Walker illegally coordinated with at least one group to help GTac inflict this environmental catastrophe onto this region that would "fill in pristine streams and ponds with mine waste" (Kaufman, NYT).

Scott Walker and the Republican Party allies want the GTac mine to proceed for the money, their money--their monetary gain.

Wisconsin law enforcement documents released by court
show Scott Walker illegally sought millions of
dollars in campaign financing
[see Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel].

"According to documents released [August 22, 2014]in a John Doe probe, Wisconsin Club for Growth bank records indicate that Gogebic Taconite LLC gave $700,000 to [R.J.] Johnson's [of the Scott Walker campaign] group in 2011-12. Shortly after the recall elections, Republican lawmakers and Walker approved legislation that will make it easier for Gogebic to construct an iron-ore mine in northern Wisconsin." (John Doe documents released Friday also show a secret $700,000 donation from Gogebic to a pro-Gov. Scott Walker group (Marley, Bice and Bergquist, Milwaukee-Journal-Sentinel)). ...

"The Governor is encouraging all to invest in the Wisconsin Club for Growth," said an April 28, 2011, email from Kate Doner, a Walker campaign consultant, to R.J. Johnson, an adviser to Walker's campaign and the advocacy group. "Wisconsin Club for Growth can accept corporate and personal donations without limitations and no donors disclosure."

In the email, Doner wrote to Johnson that Walker wanted Wisconsin Club for Growth exclusively to coordinate campaign themes. "As the Governor discussed ... he wants all the issue advocacy efforts run thru one group to ensure correct messaging," she wrote.

These documents demonstrate the prosecution's theory of illegal campaign finance coordination committed by the Walker campaign and by Walker himself. This is the smoking gun.

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel has been all over this story from the beginning as probes by Wisconsin Constitutional law enforcement officers looking into possible criminality have caused panic in Wisconsin GOP circles. See Wisconsin John Doe I (2010-2013) DA: Scott Walker's stonewalling and stalling caused John Doe probe (Bice); and John Doe II: Secret probe spreads to five Wisconsin counties - Possible violations during recall elections among issues (Bice).

Scott Walker refuses to engage any facts or released documents, leaving spokespersons to state: Scott Walker is not a target—a non sequitur since no one is a target in a Wisconsin John Doe probe that is empowered by Wisconsin stature to determine if and by whom (the nature and the extant) crimes may have been committed.

I asked a well-informed law enforcement jurist if anyone ever becomes a "target" in Wisconsin John Doe probes. "Sure, [the jurist said], if that someone is charged with a crime."

Then the criminal justice system begins, and the John Doe probe closes.

Being subpoenaed in a John Doe probe is indicative of nothing, other than the fact that a John Doe investigative team, overseen by a judge, wants sworn testimony or evidence that assists an investigative team into looking at possible criminality.

In the John Doe II case, Scott Walker appears to be at the center of possible criminality in illegally coordinating contributions in violation of Wisconsin campaign finance law.

So, a corrupt federal judge and member of the Federalist Society, Rudolph Randa, halted the John Doe probe in May 2014 (Marley, Bice, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel) in a stunning move, ordering the destruction of all evidence gathered to shield Scott Walker and his campaign funding team from being exposed in an election year. Randa's destruction-of-evidence order was stayed by a Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit's panel's order of May 7, 2014.

"We hereby stay the return-and-destroy portions of [Judge Randa's] injunction and order defendants not to disclose or use the information they have gathered, and that is within the scope of the injunction, pending further order of this court," reads the opinion and order (footnote omitted).

The Seventh Circuit's panel is composed of Diane Wood, William J. Bauer, and Frank Easterbrook.

Judge Randa is a frequent attendee of privately-funded all-expenses paid trips for judges at Koch-backed judicial junkets (Fischer, Center for Media and Democracy). Randa has also made corrupt rulings protecting the Archdiocese of Milwaukee from survivors of molestation and rape, shielding $10s of millions from bankruptcy proceedings, (Goodstein, NYT) after the archdiocese sought to shield their assets when Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan (now Bishop of New York) was Milwaukee's archbishop.

The Seventh Circuit's panel has set a September 9 hearing date for oral arguments after which Randa's incredible ruling is expected to be overruled, and the Club for Growth will then ask for a hearing (en banc) before the full Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit members or appeal directly to the U.S. Supreme Court asking for a continued injunction of the Wisconsin Consitional law enforcement official doing their jobs [see Question and Answer on John Doe Probe in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, (Patrick Marley) for more background].

The case is Eric O'Keefe and Wisconsin Club for Growth Inc. v. John T. Chisholm, Bruce J. Landgraf and David Robles et al.

---

A reader asked who represents the area targeted by the GTac mine in the Wisconsin legislature.

The answer is: In the Wisconsin State Senate, an election is being held this November featuring state Rep. Janet Bewley (D-Ashland) and Dane Deutsch (a typical rightwing Republican Party nominee from Rice Lake who refuses to take a public position on the proposed GTac mine) for the 25th Senate District [to fill the seat of the retiring State Sen. Bob Jauch (D-Poplar) who complained that special interests and lack of transparency now define the Wisconsin Legislature under Republican control, so naturally Jauch is taking his pension and quitting, instead of fighting right in the middle of the battle against GTac].

In the State Assembly, an election is being held to fill the seat for Assembly District 74 held by State Rep. Janet Bewley (D-Ashland) who is running for Jauch's seat. The race features Beth Meyers (D-Town of Russell, Bayfield County Board Supervisor), and a shady character named Jamey L. Francis, Republican City Councilman from Hurley, Wisconsin, and chair of the Iron County Republican Party.

Be very afraid, the sparsely populated Iron County is rife with political and judicial corruption. More on this Jamey Francis to come.

Implausible Deniability by Mining Company in Wisconsin

Microscopic image of asbestiform grunerite, one of the most dangerous
forms of asbestos, from the site of GTac’s proposed iron mine.
Image is from a scanning electron microscope (SEM) made at
UW-Madison by the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey.

There came to northern Wisconsin a mining company that did not know

Mike Simonson of Wisconsin Public Radio reports the confirmed presence of dangerous asbestiform grunerite at the site of the proposed open pit mine in the Penokee Hills range in northern Wisconsin has resulted in a new company strategy: "Gogebic Taconite (GTac), the company behind the proposed iron ore mine in the Penokee Hills, says it won’t take rock samples from an area where asbestos-like fibers were found."

Out of sight, out of mind.

So, asbestiform grunerite is present, but GTac simply will go somewhere else and pretend this dangerous toxin does not exist.

Writes Simonson: "The fibers are in grunerite deposits, but in a letter last week to the DNR [Department of Natural Resources], GTAC continues to deny its existence, saying: 'Our position remains that asbestosform material is unlikely to be present in the reserve.'"

This position is a lie, a bald-faced lie, already disconfirmed multiple times.

The United States Geological Survey warns about the danger of naturally-occurring asbestiform:

According to the U.S. EPA and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry potential health effects of exposure to asbestos can include asbestosis, mesothelioma, and lung cancers. In the past, most medical research and regulatory focus has been on the health effects of asbestos used industrially or commercially. However, there have been increasing concerns recently regarding the potential health effects of naturally-occurring asbestos (NOA), which occurs as an accessory mineral in some rocks ... .

A Wintery Hike Along the Tyler Fork River in the Penokee Mountains
- Photo by Greggory Jennings at
Citizens Concerned about the proposed Penokee Mine

You never wish mesothelioma onto anyone, not for the worst of humanity, not even for the sick, dangerous sociopaths who would inflict this horrible disease onto others.

In light of the fact of the confirmed presence of asbestiform grunerite at the GTac mining sight, here's a phone conversation that will never take place between Bill Williams, president of the Gogebic Taconite LLC (GTac) and Christopher Cline, billionaire CEO of Cline Resource and Development company, the father conglomerate of GTac.

Bill Williams: 'Hey Chris, we gotta shut down our proposed open pit mine up there in Wisconsin. Multiple independent analyses have confirmed the presence of dangerous asbestiform grunerite, and we know this will adversely affect the habitat of Native-American treaty-protected species, for starters. We close, or I resign and go to Spain to face justice for our arsenic leak.'

Christopher Cline:—'Geez, Bill, no way did I know the GTac mine would adversely affect the habitat. You are so right. We are pulling up stakes and leaving—today. You put out the word, and issue an apology to the folks up in Iron County and Ashland County in Wisconsin. All we care about are the environment and jobs; and I don't care how much money leaving today costs us, we are out, if I have to come up from Palm Beach and do this myself.'

Gogebic Taconite ore samples contain: "a highly concentrated form of asbestos fibers...it is the most dangerous." From Wisconsin Public Television Here and Now's reporter Mike Simonson:

Iron County Remains Eye of Storm

Martin Lipske - What will
Wisconsin's most corrupt
District Attorney do next?

Updated - In isolated Iron County with a population of 5,900 in far-northern Wisconsin, elements of 21st century American social trends are playing out.

The rule of law is under siege by corruption and prosecutorial misconduct as Iron County DA Martin Lipske gins ups charges against environmentalists, while protecting the interests of Gogebic Taconite LLC and the rightwing fringe Bulletproof Securities.

As the environment is under attack by a predatory $multibillion mining conglomerate lacking a gram of consideration for Wisconsin citizens, the water or the land, federal action in the courts and from the U.S. Dept. of Interior are on the horizon.

Many more prominent story lines dot this phenomenon including the imbecilic local corporate media parroting the fact-free line of the corporations, the Republican Party and the local officials bought off.

DA Lipske is a story of corruption and misconduct in himself.

Throwing an innocent man in prison. Taunting an innocent man in prison on official stationary. Does Lipske believe he is beyond the reach of professional misconduct? Is he unconstrained by the any regulatory apparatus? Not if I have anything to say about it.

What's Lipske's next move? What act of retaliation will Lipske pursue against political opponents?

Stay tuned, check back here, and in the StellaReport, Anatomy of a Wrongful Conviction, WoodsPerson and the Iron County News for developments from Iron County Wisconsin.

Martin Lipske taunts innocent man he threw in prison in this fax sent in July

Scott Walker Is in Way over His Head

Governor doesn't mention illegal corporate armed guards; Native American tribe calls for peaceful opposition to huge open-pit Iron mine, and the Republican Party's granted license to dump waste into water

Reckless and infantile is an accurate description of Scott Walker's ill-considered statement on out-of-state billionaire's Christopher Cline's mining operation, Gogebic Taconite LLC.

Even as Native-American leaders and other citizens of northern Wisconsin call for non-violent protests in the face of military-style corporate militias [since removed because they are illegally operating without a license], Walker did not take the occasion Friday to talk to all parties involved in the manner of a responsible public official.

Instead, Walker stuck to his playbook, dismissing the viewpoint of the Wisconsin people whom Walker has repeatedly failed to consult since ramming through unwanted mining legislation passed on a party-line vote after some $15 million was contributed by mining interests to Wisconsin Republicans, with one dissenting vote—Sen. Dale Schultz (R-Richland Center).

Can Walker recite the objections to the mining operation held by millions of Wisconsinites to their satisfaction?

Does anyone wish to go fishing after the mining company leaves the waters of northern Wisconsin.

No and No.

Walker refuses to try to talk, to engage, and simply speak to the concerns citizens have for their land and water.

An adult would realize that a heavily armed corporate, militarized force presents a clear and present danger, especially when acting illegally, as has been discovered after, not Walker and law enforcement, but rather Jason Stein of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel began asking questions, specifically, don't these guys need a license to walk around with semi-automatic weapons out of a stated purpose to provide 'security.'

Walker postures in the manner of an agent provocateur, attempting to inflame the very situation Walker and has party has created for the benefit of the mining operation for whom he fronts in Wisconsin.

One would think a sitting governor would front for, represent, the citizens of Wisconsin.

Even the GOP-leaning Wisconsin State Journal today runs a sub-headline in its print edition reading, "Governor doesn't discuss armed guards; tribe calls for peaceful opposition."

The local broadcast television 'news' coverage, exemplified by WISC and WKOW, was as usual not recognizable as news. Rather, the seconds resemble a short, free spot for corporate interests.

Compare the statements of Mike Wiggins, Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Chairman and Scott Walker. Wiggins' statement is statesmanlike, Walker's is petulant.

I think we understand now why Scott Walker chose as his closest and longest-serving associates the likes of the criminally convicted Tim Russell and Brian Pierick, among several other Walker aides now serving criminal sentences.

At his essence, corrupt work for Cline Resource and Development Group; acting criminally, and associating himself intimately with the likes of Russell, Pierick and Kelly Rindfleisch (felony misconduct in public office); this is who Scott Walker is.

Perhaps behaving likes a statesman and responsible public official is too much ask of Scott Walker who has shown himself repeatedly not up to the job.

From left to right: Tim Russell, Scott Walker and Brian Pierick

Wisconsin Atty Asks DA, State Agency about Criminality of Bulletproof Security's Private Army

Before raping our land, poisoning our water, and further corrupting our political system, all agents and contractors involved with Christopher Cline's mining enterprises ought to at least follow Wisconsin law, as attorney Anthony J. Stella, Jr. is asking Wisconsin public officials.

That goes triple for those patrolling the Wisconsin north woods with militarized, semi-automatic weapons.

We know Gogebic Taconite LLC and Christopher Cline do not like Wisconsin citizens, but killing citizens is premeditated murder.

Killing, that's what these weapons do.

Firearms training instructs:  You don't take weapons out, unless you plan to shoot them. And you never point a weapon or use it threateningly towards another person unless you are ready to kill him or her.

Circumstances created by these out-of-state, corporate right-wing militias (and Wisconsin Republicans) need to be stopped.

Wisconsin law enforcement ought to consider these private, corporate terrorists are violating the safety and peace of Wisconsin citizens, as well as breaking the law; and take appropriate action towards Bulletproof's militia now.

If one of these corporate idiots kill someone, it's also on the hands of the Republican Party, and Wisconsin law enforcement which to this point has done nothing to rid Wisconsin of this out-of-state corporate terrorism.

[Thank you Blue Cheddar.]

To be used by Bulletproof's militia to massacre whom exactly?

Okay Mining Co, You're Planning on Killing Whom Exactly?

Used by Adam Lanza to massacre 20 children and six school staff members

To be used by Bulletproof's militia to massacre whom exactly?

Private Military Displays Anti-public Attitude of Mining Mogul and Scott Walker

Rightwing militia, armed against
citizens of northern Wisconsin. Mercs
are paid by rightwing corporations,
for whom the Wisconsin GOP works.

Update: A Teamsters writer asks of "Bulletproof" militia: What are you contemplating, a Ludlow Massacre (1914)? Are folks in northern Wisconsin really that threatening?

Nobody has any business walking around illegally we now know armed with the type of paramilitary weapons used in the Connecticut massacre of 20 children, not in this society.

Not even municipal police officers who risk their lives have any business turning into such an quasi-military force.

News that Gogebic Taconite's armed militia is being kicked out of Wisconsin for the time being is welcome news indeed.

But the private military parading in northern Wisconsin reveals something else that the Gogebic Taconite and Scott Walker have in common: A fear and disdain of the people of Wisconsin.

The GOP's mining legislation written by and for Gogebic Taconite enabling the massive open-pit mine of course also demonstrates the contempt the Republican Party has for the citizens and the democratic processes.

This is not the our parents' Republican Party.

This is an extremist band of social engineers, attempting to remake our country without consulting the citizens of our union and obtaining their consent, and the GOP endeavors to destroy the formal processes of democracy itself as it continues its attack against voting.

That this group of violent-minded social engineers have no regard for the people of Wisconsin is a vast under statement.