Former Big Ag Atty Is Wisconsin Supreme Court Candidate

Sauk County Directory, p. 37

Scott Walker, Big Ag and Judicial Corruption

Updated — When Michael P. Screnock filed a petition for judicial review on October 17, 2014, Screnock represented a massive industrialized factory farm and heavily polluting corporation, MS Real Estate Holdings LLC (formerly MilkSource Holdings LLC and Tidy View Dairy) headquartered in Kaukauna, Wisconsin in Outagamie County.

Screnock was awarded by Gov. Scott Walker with a judicial appointment some seven months later on April 10, 2015, approximately a month before Screnock withdrew from the case.

Now, Screnock is a candidate for the Wisconsin Supreme Court which is deciding a case that could rewrite property rights law and local control in Wisconsin, Golden Sands Dairy LLC v. Town of Saratoga. [Note: For legal updates on the case before the Wisconsin Supreme Court, enter 15ap1258 in the Appeal Number.] Oral argument was heard in Golden Sands in January 2018.

The Golden Sands case hangs over Wisconsin communities like a Sword of Damocles which will could eviscerate local control in favor of Big Ag operations and real estate developers.

The Republicans' Wisconsin DoJ filed a Friend of the Court brief on Nov. 17, 2017, effectively giving the justices marching orders. The Wisconsin Realtors Association and Wisconsin Builders Association, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce also filed briefs in Nov. 2017.

The Screnock appointment demonstrates again the massive work accomplished by the Scott Walker administration on behalf of polluters known in politics and the public culture as graft and corruption.

Screnock is also one of the attorneys who represented Scott Walker during the 2011-12 Recall campaign, (WisPolitics, PDF, p.4).

Screnock is a former attorney of Michael Best and Friedrich LLP, aka in-house counsel for Scott Walker and the Republican Party of Wisconsin), (Elbow, The Capital Times)).

In New Chester Dairy LLC and MS Real Estate Holdings LLC v. Wisconsin Dept of Natural Resources, Outagamie Circuit Court Judge Mark McGinnis ruled the state Department of Natural Resources doesn't have the authority to monitor high-capacity wells at this factory farm in central Wisconsin, (Wisconsin Public Radio).

This ruling, for the time being, insulates New Chester Dairy LLC and MS Real Estate Holdings LLC and other factory farms from state efforts to protect the region from the toxins and pathogens vectored from the New Chester Dairy LLC CAFO sited in Adams County in central Wisconsin.

Protecting polluters remains a high priority of the Walker administration, (Isikoff, Yahoo News), (Pierce, Esquire).

Screnock filed the petition for judicial review on behalf of MS Real Estate Holdings LLC on October 17, 2014, according to court records.

Screnock officially withdrew from the New Chester case on May 18, 2015 a month after Scott Walker appointed Screnock to a circuit court judgeship in Sauk County on April 10, 2015.

Walker and the Republican Party special interest groups fund judges who will rule in their favor, and Walker appoints judges who do him political favors such as helping polluters in Screnock's case.

Michael P. Screnock awarded with judgeship by Scott Walker for representing Big Ag polluter

Fitchburg, Wisconsin—Creating a Slush Fund in the Scott Walker Era

Fitchburg, Wisconsin is a freak show.

Corruption in Plain Sight in the Rats' Nest of Dane County Wisconsin

Fitchburg, Wisconsin—This isn't about the money; it's about making a "better way" to fund community non-profits, said Fitchburg ald. Tony Hartmann in an October email to Mal Contends.

It is about the money.

What Hartmann calls media "misinformation" about a proposed Common Council scheme to fund nonprofit groups draws laughter, anger and the start of a recall-the-Mayor initiative in this politically progressive community with the Republican-dominated City Hall, police department and elected municipal government.

With growing minority and young populations here, Fitchburg civil and elected officials have accelerated a Republican program to consolidate political power as this city becomes a flashpoint as Gov. Scott Walker kicks in 2018 reelection mode.

In Fitchburg, Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker has been defeated at
the ballot box. Above are the results for Fitchburg in the 2014
general election. First column is the total votes, second column is
Dem. nominee Mary Burke's votes, and third column is Walker's.

Gov. Scott Walker, (R), made numerous public visits to Fitchburg since becoming governor in 2011. At the ballot box, though, Walker was clobbered here in the 2014 general and 2012 recall elections. In ald dist one, (one of four voting districts composed of 19 wards), Mary Burke defeated Scott Walker with 1,528 votes for Burke and 410 votes for Walker out of 1,966 votes cast for a 77 percent to 20 percent defeat of Walker in the 2014 general election. Since 2014, incidents of voter obstruction and harassment of voters by white poll workers and white Fitchburg City Clerk staff, Patti Anderson and Tracy Oldenburg, have increased in wards one-four, district one, as has been documented and stated publicly at municipal civic trials by former Fitchburg poll worker, ((2007-2016), Mal Contends).

On the Fitchburg Common Council, Hartmann, Ald Julia Arata-Fratta and Mayor Jason Gonzalez, (after amassing a wide coalition in his 2016-17 campaign), have thrown in with Republicans on the eight-member Council, and are eyeing money in the city's Community Development Grant Program, (CEDA), to be used as a slush fund [information describing the city's CEDA including how to apply, was posted on the city website Aug. 18, 2017 some five weeks before Mayor Jason Gonzales posted his proposed 2018 budget calling for the "removal" of $110,000 in non-profit funding, (The Capital Times)].

We want that money

"Fitchburg Alds. Julia Arata Fratta, Dan Carpenter and Dorothy Krause are sponsoring an amendment to the proposed 2017 budget that would remove club funding from the city budget and put it under the control of the Community Economic Development Authority, whose eight members would decide how to allocate it," notes The Capital Times in 2016.

Many Fitchburg residents are watching whether Arata Fratta-linked non-profits have become new applicants for the slush fund, if the budget proposal gets passed.
---
Meanwhile recall alders and mayor efforts continue as political observes gaming out scenarios fish around for mayoral candidates in a possible 2018 recall election, including perennial mayoral candidate Jay Allen, a supporter of several Republican Party congressional nominees, including John Sharpless, Dave Magnum and the far-right fringe candidate, Ron Greer. 

Wisc AG Considers Probe of John Doe Leak Exposing Republican Venality

Stung by a blockbuster report exposing lies, deceptions, criminal schemes and corruption throughout Wisconsin Republican state government, Republicans in the Dept of Justice are considering investigating the sources(s) of the embarrassing revelations, reports Molly Beck in the Wisconsin State Journal.

I bet Republicans are very curious.

Email after email shows Walker and his campaign aides coordinated with the independent group, Wisconsin Club for Growth.

Walker is "flying around the country collecting money from billionaires and corporate interests to protect himself," notes Democracy Now this morning.

Top Scott Walker Aide Ordered Cabinet: Avoid State Email, Phones in Official Communications

Dee J. Hall has the story at Wisconsin Watch.

Scott Walker Appointed Atty to Judge During Case Banning DNR from Monitoring Polluters

Sauk County Directory, p. 37

Scott Walker, Big Ag and Judicial Corruption

When Michael P. Screnock filed a petition for judicial review on October 17, 2014, Screnock represented a massive industrialized factory farm and heavily polluting corporation, MS Real Estate Holdings LLC (formerly MilkSource Holdings LLC and Tidy View Dairy) headquartered in Kaukauna, Wisconsin in Outagamie County.

Screnock was awarded by Gov. Scott Walker with a judicial appointment some seven months later on April 10, 2015, approximately a month before Screnock withdrew from the case.

The Screnock appointment demonstrates again the massive work accomplished by the Scott Walker administration on behalf of polluters known in politics and the public culture as graft and corruption.

Screnock is also one of the attorneys who represented Scott Walker during the 2011-12 Recall campaign, (WisPolitics, PDF, p.4).

Screnock is a former attorney of Michael Best and Friedrich LLP, aka in-house counsel for Scott Walker and the Republican Party of Wisconsin) (Elbow, The Capital Times)).

In New Chester Dairy LLC and MS Real Estate Holdings LLC v. Wisconsin Dept of Natural Resources, Outagamie Circuit Court Judge Mark McGinnis ruled the state Department of Natural Resources doesn't have the authority to monitor high-capacity wells at this factory farm in central Wisconsin, (Wisconsin Public Radio).

This ruling, for the time being, insulates New Chester Dairy LLC and MS Real Estate Holdings LLC and other factory farms from state efforts to protect the region from the toxins and pathogens vectored from the New Chester Dairy LLC CAFO sited in Adams County in central Wisconsin.

Protecting polluters remains a high priority of the Walker administration, (Isikoff, Yahoo News), (Pierce, Esquire).

Screnock filed the petition for judicial review on behalf of MS Real Estate Holdings LLC on October 17, 2014, according to court records.

Screnock officially withdrew from the New Chester case on May 18, 2015 a month after Scott Walker appointed Screnock to a circuit court judgeship in Sauk County on April 10, 2015.

Walker and the Republican Party special interest groups fund judges who will rule in their favor, and Walker appoints judges who do him political favors such as helping polluters in Screnock's case.

The New Chester Dairy LLC and MS Real Estate Holdings LLC case is likely to reach the Wisconsin Supreme Court where its future is uncertain.

Michael P. Screnock awarded with judgeship by Scott Walker for representing Big Ag polluter

Judge Mark McGinnis Defies Science, Constitution

"Groundwater in the humid Midwest, here in Wisconsin, almost always discharges to nearby surface water," said Dr. Madeline Gotkowitz of the Wisconsin Geological Survey," (Chase, Ashland Daily Press)

Dr. Gotkowitz presented her findings to the Bayfield County Large-Scale Livestock Committee on Nov. 12.

Gotkowitz' truism eludes Outagamie (Wisconsin) Circuit Court Judge Mark McGinnis who defying precedent, law and the Wisconsin Constitution's Public Trust Doctrine is carrying out the Republican Party's effort to block state protection of surface and ground water from polluters.

To understand how groundwater, streams, and lakes are connected, examine images below from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

U.S. Geological Survey image shows flow of groundwater, streams, and lakes
Image: U.S. Geological Survey; January 14, 2008

Figure showing potential sources of groundwater contamination
Image provided by USGS; January 14, 2008

Only a child or somewhat willfully ignorant or corrupt does not understand groundwater and surface water interact. What you put into the groundwater is vectored into surface water, and when you drain groundwater, you drain lakes and streams.

Judge Gives Big Ag License to Pollute, Ignores Wisconsin Constitution

Rightwinger Judge Mark J. McGinnis Does Job for Political Allies—Big Ag, WMC, Scott Walker and GOP

The Republican Party's attack on the Wisconsin Constitution's Public Trust Doctrine protecting the peoples' water received a boost from the rightwing jurist, Outagamie Circuit Court Judge Mark McGinnis.

McGinnis is an ethically challenged judge who does the bidding of Republicans and rightwing interest groups, (Wisconsin Watch).

Mcginnis ruled "the state Department of Natural Resources doesn't have the authority to monitor high-capacity wells at a large dairy in central Wisconsin. The New Chester Dairy [an industrialized, polluting factory farm] plans to install two [more] high-capacity wells that will each pump 500 gallons a minute to provide water for more than 8,600 cows), (Wisconsin Public Radio) (WPR).

The mission of the DNR and the Wisconsin Constitution's Public Trust Doctrine say differently, no deterrent for McGinnis, just another corrupt Republican judge.

The New Chester Dairy is in Adams county in central Wisconsin.

Outagamie County where McGinnis serves as circuit court judge is located in northeastern Wisconsin. The New Chester Dairy is owned by MS Real Estate Holdings LLC (formerly MilkSource Holdings LLC and Tidy View Dairy) located in Kaukauna, Wisconsin in Outagamie County, hence the court filing in Outagamie County.

McGinnis has been promoted by rightwingers as a judge who will rule for the GOP special interests for years, (Mark Rahmlow, WisOpinion;) (Rahmlow is a rightwinger currently working as Vice President of Public Policy for the Fox Cities Chamber of Commerce and former aide to the anti-environmentalist, current U.S. Rep. Reid Ribble (R-Wisconsin)).

The case is New Chester Dairy LLC and MS Real Estate Holdings LLC v. Wisconsin Dept of Natural Resources (Outagamie County Case Number 2014CV001055).

Elizabeth Wheeler, of Clean Wisconsin, said the ruling prevents the DNR from adequately protecting groundwater resources, notes WPR.

James Ostrom

James Ostrom, the registered agent of MR Real Estate Holding LLC, has been calling for more industrialized factory farming for over a decade, (Glauber, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel).

Ostrom and Big Ag own Gov. Scott Walker who has worked diligently to gut the Dept. of Natural Resources and stop the DNR from protecting Wisconsin's waters from polluters like Ostrom's operations.

Big Ag and Judicial Corruption

Walker and the Republican Party special interest groups fund judges who will rule in their favor.

In New Chester Dairy LLC and MS Real Estate Holdings LLC v. Wisconsin Dept of Natural Resources, one of the attorneys representing the co-plaintiffs is Michael P. Screnock (formerly of Michael Best and Friedrich LLP aka In-house counsel for Scott Walker and the Republican Party of Wisconsin) (Elbow, The Capital Times).

Screnock officially withdrew from the case on May 18, 2015 a month after receiving his payoff from Scott Walker who appointed Screnock to a circuit court judgeship in Sauk County on April 10, 2015. Screnock made the petition for judicial review on October 17, 2014, according to court records.

The case is likely to reach the Wisconsin Supreme Court where its future is uncertain.

NYT Slams Walker, GOP Justices over Killing Public Integrity Law

Those wondering how a low-life politician like Scott Walker could ascend to the governorship of Wisconsin need note the silence after Walker and his Party killed the John Doe law last week.

Silence is in large part what allowed Walker to squeak out electoral wins.

The John Doe law was used to investigate Walker twice: During his tenure as Milwaukee County Executive (2002-10), and in the period when Walker fended off the 2011-12 Recall campaign when Walker coordinated $ millions in independent expenditures and his campaign funds in violation of campaign finance law.

So, naturally Walker caught acting at the center of a criminal scheme colluded with state legislative Republicans to gut the law.

As today's New York Times notes:

Only weeks after giving up on his lackluster presidential campaign in the face of national indifference, Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin is back to making mischief in his home state. Last Friday, Mr. Walker signed a bill to protect public officials like himself from an effective and well-established tool for rooting out political corruption.

The tool, known as the John Doe law, lets prosecutors conduct secret investigations into possible crimes by executing search warrants and compelling people to testify.

It wasn't just the Republican legislature that gave Walker a pass.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court's four Republicans, [they pretend to be non-partisan], issued an infamous decision last summer corruptly protecting Walker from criminal investigation, making up law as they did, the Times notes:

[A] deeply split Wisconsin Supreme Court — several of whose justices were backed by the same groups in their election campaigns — shut down the investigation, adopting an unprecedented reading of the state’s campaign-finance laws to find no problem with the activities in question. Mr. Walker was not charged in either case.

Silence is not the best strategy at this point.

To understand the Republicans on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, note this piece on David Prosser representing well Court's abdication of judicial ethics.

Scott Walker's Coup in Plain Sight

Scott Walker's codifying Republican rule through Republican legislation in Wisconsin is unprecedented.

This legislative project was attempted in secret, until Walker backed down last July in his effort to kill Wisconsin's Open Records law, a law he broke (Mal Contends). So Walker is attempting his efforts through Republican legislators in broad daylight (Truthout).

The reaction to this series of Republican power grabs and killing of corruption protection won't be like the firing of Archibald Cox, though it should be.

Walker and the Republican legislators are engineering the destruction of Wisconsin clean government:

• The end of Wisconsin's century-old Civil Service law replaced by Republican-vetted hiring, ultimately of some 30,000 state workers
• 'Republicans' dismantling the Government Accountability Board (GAB), a nonpartisan panel of former judges that investigate campaign finance and ethics violations
• Per the Club for Growth, Republicans' destroying law enforcement tool to fight political corruption and protect public integrity in public office, because Walker would likely would face misconduct in public office charges after the likely vacating in federal court of the corrupt Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling on consolidated John Doe cases decided in July 2015, (PRWatch). [B]ill would prevent district attorneys from using Wisconsin's John Doe law to investigate crimes like bribery and misconduct in public office (WPR)
• Republicans' funneling more money into political campaigns

John Doe Exemption of Public Misconduct

[Note: Wisconsin owes a note of thanks to Marcus J. Berghahn at Hurley, Burish and Stanton S.C., in Madison for its background work on the John Doe statute. Berghahn notes, "[John Doe] proceedings are also designed to protect innocent citizens from the fallout of frivolous prosecutions. (2, State ex rel. Reimann v. Cir. Ct., 214 Wis. 2d 605, 621, 571 N.W.2d 385, 390 (1997))]

Writes Berghahn:

As the Wisconsin Supreme Court stated in 1889: 'When [the John Doe] statute was first enacted the common-law practice was for the magistrate to issue the warrant on a complaint of mere suspicion, and he was protected in doing so. This was found to be a very unsafe practice. Many arrests were made on groundless suspicion, when the accused were innocent of the crime and there was no testimony whatever against them. This statute was made to protect citizens from arrest and imprisonment on frivolous and groundless suspicion.' [(3) State ex rel. Long v. Keyes, 75 Wis. 288, 294-95, 44 N.W. 13, 15 (1889).]

Readers would not know about the reformist function and roots of the John Doe law from Walker and Attorney General Brad Schimel (R) who routinely trashed the law when bi-partisan Constitutional law enforcement officers uncovered widespread Republican corruption, criminality and misconduct in public office.

Back in 2009, then Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen (R) wanted to change the John Doe statute saying fiscal and separation of powers concerns drove his proposal, (Wisconsin DoJ). This was before John Doe I (2010-2013) began, caused by Walker administration stonewalling.

This week, (after documents filed in federal court in 2014 show Scott Walker to be at the center of a criminal scheme), legislative Republicans suddenly discovered a new objection saying the law curbs free speech. This is not credible.

Judges routinely issue gag orders but legislative Republicans have not objected to curbs on free speech as a matter of judicial policy until after Walker and other subjects were questioned in two separate John Doe probes. In fact Republicans never had a problem expressed publicly with the John Doe secrecy codicils until the probe centered around subjects and events concerning Scott Walker.

John Doe at work stopping venal criminality of Scott Walker
and his aides. From left to right: Felon Tim Russell, Scott Walker
and Felon Brian Pierick, Four other Walker associates
were convicted in a Wisconsin John Doe probe (2010-13).

Criminal scandal from John Doe I, such as Walker's long-time aides and appointees embezzling from a military veterans' fund after being personally appointed by Walker (Milwaukee County Executive (2002-10)), and Walker's office running interference are shown in the 1,000s of pages of court documents made public, are enough to destroy Walker politically (WisconsinWatch) in future national campaigns.

Last year a visibly nervous Walker refused  to acknowledge he had used his own email on an illegal system, in violation of Wisconsin's Open Records law that Republicans tried to kill earlier this year before backing down, (Clark, Columbia Journalism Review) (Marley, Stein and Gabler, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel).

As for Walker, having failed to kill Wisconsin's Open Records law and caught lying about his effort to kill the law, new reports showing he violated it criminally and repeatedly should keep Gov. UnIntimidated's criminal defense attorneys busy the rest of Walker's term, (Mal Contends).

Wisconsin's reformist institutions and citizens should voice their concerns objecting to the GOP assault on representative government before Wisconsin's reputation of great beer, a stellar public university system, clean and open government and achievements in abolitionist, civil rights and progressive movements is displaced by the vague determination that it's all corrupt up there and you can't trust the drinking water; let's to go to Minnesota.

Scott Walker Lied, Hid and Misused Personal Email System, WKOW-TV Reports

Scott Walker lied again, concealed official communications again, apparently criminally broke Wisconsin's Open Records law again, and now is running away from comment to the press again.

Wisconsin Capitol Bureau Chief Greg Neumann of WKOW-TV broke an investigative piece updated today demonstrating Scott Walker knew of and concealed official public records on a series of private email accounts as well as conducting political business between public and private email systems.

This is an echo of Walker's email scandal during his tenure as Milwaukee County Executive when he and his staff installed a secret router and email system in the County Executive's office, (the 'inner circle'), and points to repeated violations as governor of the clear language of Wisconsin's Open Records law.

"According to a 'compliance outline' written by [former] Wisconsin attorney General JB Van Hollen, a Republican, public records include "e-mail sent or received on an authority's computer system" and "personal e-mail sent by officers or employees of the authority," as well as "e-mail conducting government business sent or received on the personal e-mail account of an authority's officer or employee," [noted John Weishan, a Democrat and a critic of Walker on the Milwaukee County board]

It is a felony to violate Wisconsin's Open Records law. 'Whoever with intent to injure or defraud destroys, damages, removes or conceals any public record is guilty of a Class H felony,' the Wisconsin statutes say. And the penalty for a Class H felony is 'a fine not to exceed $10,000 or imprisonment not to exceed 6 years, or both.' (Rothschild, The Progressive).

The Wisocnsin DoJ compliance outline also notes:

e. Electronic records and communications.  ...
ii. E-mail sent or received on an authority’s computer system is a record.  This includes personal e-mail sent by officers or employees of the authority.  Schill, 2010 WI 86, ¶ 152, 327 Wis. 2d 572, ¶ 152, 786 N.W.2d 177, ¶ 152 (Bradley, J., concurring); Id., ¶ 173 (Gableman, J., concurring); Id., ¶ 188 (Roggensack, J., dissenting). 
iii. E-mail conducting government business sent or received on the personal e-mail account of an authority’s officer or employee also constitutes a record. (Wisconsin Public Records Law Wis. Stat. 19.31-19.39 COMPLIANCE OUTLINE September 2012 DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE ATTORNEY GENERAL J.B. VAN HOLLEN.)

Political-campaign work done on state time to coordinate public policy also appears to present Walker and top staff in violation of misconduct in public office.

Writes WKOW-TV's Neumann:

[A] 27 News investigation into the use and disclosure of personal emails by the Governor's office is raising questions about just how those records are handled.

On May 28, 27 News asked Gov. Walker if he knew whether former Chief of Staff Keith Gilkes, former Department of Administration Secretary Mike Huebsch or other members of his administration had used personal email for government business.

'I don't know,' said Gov. Walker. 'I mean, not that I'm aware of.'

But we now know the Governor was aware of it at the time that exchange took place.

Just a few days before we asked those questions, 27 News requested all of the emails sent to or from the personal email addresses of Gilkes, Huebsch, and Walker's second Chief of Staff Eric Schutt - that contained official state business communications.

Their personal email addresses were provided to 27 News by a tipster. ...

Much of it [the emails] dealt with planning and strategy. A March 2011 email sent from from Gilkes to other senior staffers, included a memo detailing the self-prescribed weaknesses of the Walker administration's first 100 days in office - mentioning Gov. Walker's overexposure to the media and long winded speeches.

Personal email was used to discuss big policy moments as well. One thread showed a discussion among senior staffers on the day after the State Senate passed Act 10. It includes the statement Secretary Huebsch ultimately released to the media on it being published and becoming law.

Others dealt directly with the strategy surrounding Act 10 and the concern caused after Judge Mary Ann Sumi blocked the law. ...

But dozens of the emails 27 News received were never sent to an official state account until they were forwarded to the government email address of Gov. Walker's Chief Legal Counsel Brian Hagedorn on July 31, 2015. That date comes four years after the emails were originally written and two months after our open records request.

'Yeah, I think it's an issue to be sure and apparently and potentially a serious one,' said [director of the UW-Madison Center for Journalism Ethics,] who believes that delay and lag time raises questions about whether 27 News even got all of the personal emails that ever existed, or if some were permanently deleted from personal accounts long ago.'

As for the identity of the tipster helping Neumann's piece, it is likely should a criminal probe and prosecution follow, Wisconsin will be hearing more about this tipster.

WKOW 27: Madison, WI Breaking News, Weather and Sports

Scott Walker Hit Probe of Jobs Agency as "Witchhunt," Warrants Sworn Out and More Coming

Scott Walker hates audits, investigations and probes of government operations for which he is responsible.

In May 2015 Walker—the former chair who resigned/was fired from his own flagship and embattled 'jobs' agency—through a spokesperson blasted Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne's decision to review a recent audit of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) to determine whether to open a criminal investigation.

Walker called the probe of WEDC a "political witchunt." (DeFour, Wisconsin State Journal) (Mal Contends)

Walker spokeswoman Laurel Patrick said, "This is clearly political gamesmanship by legislative Democrats and others more interested in playing politics than in helping improve economic development in Wisconsin," (DeFour, Wisconsin State Journal) (Mal Contends).

Don't look, nothing to see here. This is the tip of the iceberg (Oneida Eye).

Today, Matthew DeFour reports in the Wisconsin State Journal that:

A Green Bay businessman is under criminal investigation for allegedly defrauding the state’s job creation agency of more than $1 million, according to search warrants obtained by the State Journal.

Ron Van Den Heuvel has not been charged with a crime, but he is suspected of committing theft and securities fraud against several parties, including the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., according to six search warrants the Brown County Sheriff’s Office executed at Van Den Heuvel’s home and businesses in De Pere and Ashwaubenon in July.

Even clearer now why our hopelessly corrupt governor didn't want anyone looking too closely at what he does in office.

Business Insider: Burn Rate and Policy Ignorance Doomed Walker, Not God

Maxwell Tani at The Business Insider offers a redux of the Scott Walker collapse.

Tani paints a picture of the grandiosity of Walker's ego, a stunning lack of policy knowledge leading first the donors and then the staff and Republican voters to abandon Gov. Lightweight.

Tani notes without comment Walker's line in his I'm-quitting address last week: "Today, I believe that I am being called to lead by helping to clear the field in this race so that a positive, conservative message can rise to the top of the field. With this in mind, I will suspend my campaign immediately."

So god moonlights as a Republican Party strategist and calls out Republican candidates for the nomination as they injure the Party with their candidacies?

It wasn't god, it was the burn-rate of money and Walker's lack of knowledge that drove Walker to get out ASAP.

Tani is easier on Walker's know-nothingism than other national political writers:

But regardless of campaign-staff problems, Walker wasn't helped by his own demeanor on the trail. He stepped into several high-profile gaffes that critics and some analysts say showed his shakiness on policy issues and his naïveté as a governor.

Walker struggled to answer questions about whether he supported birthright citizenship, an issue on which he took three different positions in a single week, and the renewable-fuel standard, an ethanol subsidy that is a significant campaign issue in Iowa. He was also criticized for refusing to answer if he would accept more Syrian refugees as president, after saying that he didn't answer 'hypothetical' questions.

It wasn't Walker's "demeanor," the guy didn't know anything. The fact Walker was elected governor in GOP-friendly elections, (midterms and Recall), is a mark on the Wisconsin political culture.

The truth about Walker is he is a crooked former Milwaukee County Executive (2002-2010) who has built a disreputable public legacy playing on the worst of racism and misogyny, while too many Wisconsin people who should speak up, (or at least vote), remained silent.

So Walker is back in Wisconsin.

Scott Walker Aims at Wisconsin's Century-old Civil Service System

Governing by Deceit

Scott Walker never campaigned on eliminating Wisconsin's century-old civil service system before or during his five-year tenure as governor.

No one did.

Fresh from a humiliating 'campaign' for the presidency, Walker discerned (from god apparently) he has been called to eliminate the anti-corruption system (DeFour, Wisconsin State Journal).

Scott Walker in 2011 turned civil service state positions into 37 new Walker political appointees just a month after declaring, "we're broke," (Stein, Marley, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel).

Poor Scott Walker.

Scotty's a sad, little man who wants to stack myriad levels of state government with Scott Walker cronies.

Wisconsin is mobilizing by this latest ambush by Walker.

Noted by DeFour is the fact Walker said the civil service system is a critical part of the public labor system in Wisconsin when he deceived the Wisconsin people in 2011:

The move comes more than four years after Walker swept away collective bargaining for most public-sector employees, a proposal he defended by saying the civil service system is 'the protection that workers have that’s the most important in the state of Wisconsin. … It was there long before collective bargaining, it’ll be there long after.'

One surmises god has a different take now, more plausibly Walker is an inveterate liar.

Maybe Scott Walker will be called in the future to propose legislation mandating allegiance to Scott Walker as a condition of state employment, maybe that's what Walker is doing now.

Scott Walker Postmortems Echo Wisconsin Critics

The big, the bold and the benighted, that's our governor.

The vast majority of Wisconsin citizens who did not vote for Scott Walker regarded him as one part corrupt, one part dishonest, one part dense and one part deluded.

Writers across the state bashed Walker for fun and profit since 2009.

The national political press is having some fun now with Walker as well.

From The Politico (Allen, Isenstadt):

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker pulled the plug on a bloated campaign that was headed into debt and was being undermined by furious donors, a warring staff and — at the root of it all — a candidate who was badly out of his league.

From the New York Times (Bruni):

There’s so much we’ll never know [about Walker], such as how far he was willing to take his single issue. ... I feel certain that he was mere weeks away from a big speech advocating the deployment of ground troops to stamp out collective bargaining among the Sherpas in Nepal.

I feel certain, too, that his best gaffes were still to come, though he gave us several gems. In an era lacking visionary leadership, he envisioned a great wall along our northern border to keep out the tides of Canadians fleeing the tyranny of free health insurance. And we learned that years back, he mangled an intended 'mazel tov' in a letter to a Jewish constituent, instead writing: 'Thank you again and Molotov.'

And I wonder: Was it his shallowness that undid him? Just how little learning will Republican voters abide in a candidate?  ...

Walker evaded foreign policy questions, apparently petrified of being tripped up. He bungled domestic policy questions, seemingly unable to cling to a sturdy position.

Wisconsin, the some 74 percent who didn't vote for Scott Walker can take it all in now, this pathological lightweight is exposed for what he is.

Perhaps those Wisconsin rural citizens who care about thriving school districts and livable wages can do a rethink on Scott Walker.

Scott Walker Exits with Petulance

Scott Walker—exposed as a lightweight and humiliated on the national stage by uninformed responses to simple policy questions— has the Wisconsin people concerned, concerned he may take his frustrations out on Wisconsin (Mal Contends).

Scott Walker is not a normal, healthy person.

Rejected, Walker will do whatever is in his power to vandalize, toxify and inflict injury onto the Wisconsin people.

These are the actions of a sociopath.

Scott Walker—Your Homeland Is Calling

Hey Scott Walker,

You lied to us, repeatedly.

You stole from us.

You conned whole swaths of the Wisconsin citizenry.

You attacked educational institutions that took generations to build.

You attacked and still attack the Wisconsin Idea.

You bragged about diving and conquering the Wisconsin people.

You've attacked women, our black and brown fellows, the right to vote, our shared environment.

One can go on.

It's past time, and I'm not alone in this sentiment, you consider leaving Wisconsin and going back to your native Iowa, though any other place than Wisconsin will do.

Scott Walker Called by God to Quit

Scott Walker read the writing on the wall

Scott Walker announced he is leading by quitting, with God's "calling" him to step aside.

God reportedly spoke nine weeks after Scott Walker emailed supporters: "This is God’s plan for me and I am humbled to be a candidate for President of the United States," (AmericaBlog).

Disappointed campaign donors called the shots, and not God, though it is possible Walker was told, "You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting."

A coward to the end, Scott Walker took no questions at his press conference late Monday afternoon in Madison.

"Today, I believe that I am being called to lead by helping to clear the race so that a positive conservative message can rise to the top of the field. With that in mind, I will suspend my campaign immediately," said Walker (TPM).

NYT Report: Scott Walker Is Quitting

Easily intimidated

Scott Walker is quitting the presidential race for president, barely nine weeks since he officially declared, report Alexander Burns and Patrick Healy in the New York Times.

Walker is holding a press conference at 5:00 p.m. Central time, today.

Scott Walker Melted Down Because of Rational Fear

Craig Gilbert in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel ponders what caused the sudden implosion of Scott Walker's run for the presidency in light of the favorable ratings Walker has among GOP voters in his policy positions.

Gilbert has been around and knows the campaign game, and what's odd is why he doesn't see the obvious cause of Walker's demise.

Republican and Tea Party voters are concerned that were Scott Walker the presidential nominee for the Party, Walker would be at the top of the ticket, he would be humiliated and risk a landslide in November 2016.

Scott Walker is not an ideas guy, is not a policy wonk, cannot think on his feet, and has no center.

Among Wisconsin political writers familiar with Walker, Walker has earned the moniker, 'the hollow man.'

Republican Party primary likely voters are bigoted, benighted and misogynistic.

They are not suicidal, notwithstanding recent bizarre events in the 2015-16 Republican Party campaign for the presidency.

Scott Walker Imlodes with a Whimper

Scott Walker flounders

The new presidential poll is out.

Mr. Walker, Zero.5 percent, less than .5 percent.

Corrupt, dumb and sleazy is no way to go through life, son.

You have wreaked havoc in Wisconsin, can't think on your feet, and you're ignorant of public affairs.

You're out, expelled, we do not want you in the process by which we elect a president any more. No more fun of any kind.

In July Walker emailed supporters: "This is God’s plan for me and I am humbled to be a candidate for President of the United States," (AmericaBlog).

God's mean.