Wisconsin Open Season — Always a Good Time to Shoot at the Lac du Flambeau

Madison, Wisconsin — "We know Flambo [Lac du Flambeau Ojibwe] men who are shot at every year gathering food for their families," writes Nick Vander Puy, citizen of Earth in far-northern Wisconsin.

That's up north from the standpoint of Madison — Ashland, Iron and Vilas counties, for example, (see map at right).

Vander Puy is writing about conduct in the region inhabited by descendants of the Lac du Flambeau Ojibwe [LDF] tribe and residents on the Lac du Flambeau Ojibwe reservation in Vilas and Iron counties.

The Ojibwe's right to fish and gather food is protected by federal treaty, and the sight of brown-skinned people fishing, for example, has long provoked rage from local racists. The sight of an Ojibwe breathing isn't such a gratifying scene either.

Can you, the reader, imagine a dark-skinned Native boating or walking around like he's a human being? No wonder whites want to kill them.

James Alan Kelsey didn't like the sight of a Lac du Flambeau Ojibwe tribal member fishing last May, so naturally Kelsey fired his shot-gun at Greg Johnson (Biskakone).

After initially filing hate crime and other charges, the corrupt Vilas County District Attorney Martha Milanowski and Kelsey agreed to a plea deal that includes a minor fine and other community service action performed by Kelsey, (Wisconsin Circuit Court Access).

Reports Frank Vaisvilas in the Green Bay Press-Gazette (USA Today Network) in an important piece of reporting:

Vilas County District Attorney Martha Milanowski said hate crime and use of a dangerous weapon charge modifiers were dropped because Kelsey pleaded no contest to possessing a firearm while intoxicated and interfering with Ojibwe fishing rights, which is a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources ordinance violation.

Kelsey's sentence also bans him from entering Lac du Flambeau tribal lands.

Kelsey can have the charge of possessing a firearm while intoxicated removed from his record if he accomplishes certain criteria over the next year, which include 80 hours of community service, no drinking or possession of alcohol and no possession of firearms.

He also must write a letter of apology to the victims, which must include an acknowledgement of the right of Indigenous people to exercise their treaty rights. The letter must be published in local newspapers.

Vilas County Sheriff Joseph Fath previously said Kelsey had not meant to frighten tribal harvesters and Kelsey claimed he was shooting at a squirrel.

A squirrel. 

The Ojibwe face a corrupt and racist Sheriff Joseph Fath, a corrupt District Attorney Martha Milanowski, and a good chuck of white racists. 

Kelsey's plea to Interfering with Hunting/Fishing/Trapping (29.083(2)(a)) should rightfully be attempted murder.

A reader can imagine what would happen if a black man fired a shotgun at a white person whom he didn't like, in Kenosha, for example.

But in Wisconsin, and not just Wisconsin, there is one set of laws for whites, and one set of laws for black and brown.

We don't hear about these outrages from up north in Madison except for a few good reporters like Frank Vaisvilas and amazing human beings on Facebook, which is a good argument for the social utility and the multiplicity of voices on social media.

Protesters outside the Vilas County Courthouse called for stiffer criminal charges
against a racist for firing his weapon at tribal spearfishers exercised their treaty
rights to fish near his home. Photo by Zachary Allen.

Pro-Human Thinking Against White Supremacist Administrations

Otto Dix. The Wounded Man. Dix, (1891–1969) was an
anti-fascist, anti-war German artist whose work is known
for brutal depictions of the madness of war and oppression

Banding together against the toxic combination of belligerence and hate from white supremacists, Trump and Walker

The Trump adminstration is preying on people systemically and capriciously, partnering with the most anti-human, authoritarian forces of American society.

As Trump and Scott—"Divide and Conquer" families—Walker work against people, a nugget of wisdom comes from cj bakken in some 60 words:

As a Native American I just had an epiphany about undocumented DACA people. How big of a coronary would trump and ryan have if the tribes welcomed the DACA folk onto the reservations, affording them protection under the sovereignty of the tribes......

— cj bakken (@Eaglewoman4) January 24, 2018

Great idea. See also George Pyle, Salt Lake Tribune.

The Trump and Walker adminstration are clear and present dangers to our Republic and the state of Wisconsin.

Notes Charles Pierce commenting on the 2016 Republican presidential primary that featured Trump and Walker, both of whom were leading the Iowa primary at one point before Walker was "called" away by god and sub-one percent approval ratings in September 2015:

[A]lone among the crowd of candidates, Walker most clearly is running on his record of being a complete prick to the right people – which include teachers and nurses and the people who clean up after Alzheimer's patients in group homes. Running against the right people is a staple of all campaigns, right and left, but it's rarely as clear the raison d'etre of one as it is the raison d'etre of the Walker campaign. It is a toxic combination of belligerence and aggressive victimhood. 

Innovative ideas in launching a United Front against fascism are critical.

Wisconsin Gets Win Against Proposed Gtac Mine

Wisconsin needed a win, and Friday we got a big one.

The proposed massive open-pit Gogebic Taconite (Gtac) Iron ore mine that would destroy pristine habitats and waters and fill in wetlands looks dead in the wake of a statement issued Friday by Gtac President Bill Williams announcing the firm will close its Hurley office in Iron County effective Sunday. (Rick Olivo, Ashland Daily Press)

Amid Scott Walker's assaults against the Wisconsin environment and University of Wisconsin System, the news spread quickly across social media.

The closing of the mine was predicted two years ago by an attorney in Iron County, Tony Stella.

The proposed mine attracted national attention with New York Times writer, Dan Kaufman, calling the fight against the mine, The Fight for Wisconsin's Soul.

Professor Charles Wilkerson, Distinguished Moses Lasky Professor of Law at the University of Colorado Law School, also said Native American Treaty Law would doom the mine. (Mal Contends)

At the site of the citizens group, Citizens Concerned about the proposed Penokee Mine (Facebook), people expressed joy and determination to fight again should Gtac decide to move on another front in this massive con game.

Writes Wisconsin environmentalist, Jim Rowen:

GTac says it is shelving its plan to blow up, dig up and mill the Penokee Hills in the Bad River watershed for low-grade iron ore already in surplus supply - - because, it says it found too much water in the wetlands in the watershed at the edge of Lake Superior.

Sure, it took the mining company four years to make this discovery.

The uproar the plan caused in state politics helped force the moderate GOP mining opponent Dale Schultz from the State Senate and it seems as if the company wasted $700,000 in thank you money in routed to a Scott Walker advocacy group for his getting a sweetheart enabling bill that is still on the books through the Legislature.

A mining protestor, Katie Krow Kloth, is still facing a criminal charge from a corrupt Iron County District Attorney, Martin Lipske, who fronts for the Gtac mine and the Iron County sex industry, including sex trafficking of minors.

Maybe the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin or the FBI will look into this one day. I would not hold my breath.

In the mean time, those on the front lines in Iron and Ashland counties should be feeling good about themselves this weekend.

Said Wisconsin environmentalist, Barbara With: "I am glad that people are being realistic about GTac closing their offices, having intelligent discussions, etc etc but for this moment, can we please just be happy they are leaving? No it doesn't mean the stand is over, no, it doesn't mean they aren't coming back. But for now, thousands and thousands of people stood long and strong to protect our water, and GTAC is closing their offices and leaving. For now. So for now, we celebrate. It doesn't mean we are naive or stupid or don't understand the bigger picture. But for god's sake if we cannot savor a moment we have long dreamt of, what's the point? This effort has been exhausting. I don't know about anyone else, but I personally gave up my life for several years to take this action. So for now, please, just let me be happy. that is all."

Motion Granted for New Judge in Gtac Protester Case

Katie Krow Kloth

Update: Per order, assigning judge/judicial assignment order, Price County Circuit Court Judge Douglas T. Fox will preside.

Katie Kloth, an environmental and Native American activist who is facing four criminal charges for alleged actions at a 2013 political protest, made a motion for a new judge today, approved by Iron County Judge Patrick J. Madden.

The proposed Gogebic Taconite (Gtac) mine site is the source of widespread political opposition in Wisconsin, that in turn has seen the Koch brothers getting involved in local Iron County races over the mine.

Kloth's motion for substitution follows repeated public assertions made by citizen environmentalists and activists that Kloth would have trouble getting a fair trial in Judge Madden's courtroom because he is biased in favor of the proposed mine, (GTac), longtime Iron County residents note.

No rationale for the motion by Kloth has been made public, and the source for this development is the Wisconsin Circuit Court Access system.

A perception of bias is often the basis for seeking motions for judicial substitutions in criminal cases, and in itself implies nothing about the presiding judge.

The Iron County Circuit Court is located in the Ninth Judicial District, Wisconsin.

A friend of the Kloth family reports that the family is not returning media calls.

The Iron County DA, Martin Lipske, has a disturbing history of corruption, including overcharging politically disfavored defendants.

- Piece is updated to reflect the fact that seeking judicial substitutions in criminal cases does not in itself imply bias on the part of the presiding judge. There is a multiplicity of reasons for a defendant to move for a judicial substitution. In this case Judge Madden is in the tank for the mining company. -

Racists in Hurley, Wisconsin Bar: Mother-f***ing Indians, Get Out

William Brown

Scholarship and activism come together in Wisconsin following an ugly racist incident

Updated—Racism is thriving in Hurley, Wisconsin, specifically  Freddie's Old Time Saloon and Hall of Fame where "fu**ing Indians" are not welcome.

The rightwing is active in Hurley, Wisconsin: Koch brothers, Americans for Prosperity and GTac make quite the unholy trinity, or if you like, half a six-pack of a**holes.

They are supported by racists and corrupt local officials, including Iron County District Attorney Martin Lipske and Iron County Circuit Court Judge Patrick "Madman" Madden.

Racism and corruption when combined make a combustible compound.

William Brown is a Native American and he and three friends were visiting Freddie's Old Time Saloon and Hall of Fame Saturday night in Hurley (in Iron County) on Silver Street,  a quarter-mile-long stretch of road with some 20 bars and half a dozen strip clubs.

Mr. Brown describes what happened next (see also Mr. Brown's Facebook page):

So. Pardon the rant. But me and three others were just chased out of this establishment [Freddie's Old Time Saloon & Hall of Fame] and called 'fucking Indians.' In the owners words.... you mother fucking Indians get the fuck out of here....we paid our bill after we noticed their policy on supporting mining. I asked the owner how they felt about mining on ceded territory and she said fuck you Indians...and this owner put her hands on me. Being the better man I walked out of the establishment and we are well down the road. Please make this aware and do not support this establishment. The owner called 911 and reported a gang of drunk and disorderly Indians because I asked a service and or business......for those that doubt....racism is alive and well in the world and it apparently resides strongly in Hurley, WI. I will tell all those reading this that this only Strengthened the Ogichidaag resolve..... I have never felt more like a warrior than today...by resisting the urge of my Dna to react in a negative way. For ourselves, for my children, for your children..... For all...... I say burn the fires! No mine, no disrespect.... one love! !!!!!!!

Appropriate an activist with the spirit of Brown runs into extraordinarily vile racism, just after I just sent some fellow activists up north an email I received last Summer from Charles F. Wilkinson, Moses Lasky Professor of Law at the University of Colorado Law School.

Katie Kloth - Environmental Activist

I had been corresponding with these folks on the eve of the arraignment of Katie Krow Kloth, a woman whom the corrupt Iron County district attorney is trying to have thrown in prison for her action at a political rally. [Point of fact, Ms. Kloth is an environmental activist who deserves a civil citation for disorderly conduct at a political rally, but the DA who has a history of this kind of crap is charging her with four criminal offences.]

I first met Charles F. Wilkinson on April 20, 1990, covering a symposium for the Capital Times he and human rights activists, scholars and jurists were giving on racism and spearfishing up north in 1990 (Rundell Lecture Series, sponsored by the Oliver Rundell Fund and the UW-Madison Law School's Institute for Legal Studies).

Wilkerson said the hunting and fishing rights controversy in northern Wisconsin at the time is "an epic case study in race relations, a symbol of the age-old threshold between the majority society and racial minorities.''

Among those in the audience were Wisconsin's most distinguished jurists and Native American rights activists, all coming together to denounce repulsive developments up north.

Charles Wilkinson

"Racism is detestable and virulent,'' said Wilkinson. "My guess is the people of Wisconsin will not allow it to continue in this vicious and senseless fashion for many more years.''

On the eve of Katie Kloth taking on the same forces of corruption, hate and racism, Wilkinson may not know it, but his good will and scholarship live forever in northern Wisconsin.

And the spirit and resolve of William Brown has already won the war for peace against vicious, senseless racism, though I suspect Brown knows this.

Monday, many will stand in solidarity with Katie Kloth, a warrior for peace not even the lies of Martin Lipske can slander.

Lipske can be certain many people and I will be monitoring these legal proceedings closely.

Scott Walker Is Naked to the World—Deceitful and Premeditatedly Criminal

Watching Scotty Blow - Esquire
Photo Illustration by DonkeyHotey
via Flickr/Special to The Politics Blog

Reading the machinations of Scott Walker and his close aides in some 27,000 documents is evidently what it took to kill the fiction Walker has a future as a national leader in even the contemporary Republican Party that has off gone off the rails of rational political discourse.

Scott Walker is every bit the Tea Bagger and corrupt bigot so many Wisconsin folks have long regarded him; not just a poor steward of the economy and environment, but a premeditated disaster operative—mean-spirited, petty, hateful and a crook.

"Communication between Walker's campaign and his office was 'very common,' according to a top investigator," reports Sean Sullivan in the Washington Post, in violation of Wisconsin law.

New pieces in Mother Jones, Blogging Blue, The Nation, Democurmungeon, The Political Environment, The Progressive, Slate, Uppity Wisconsin, Isthmus, Caffeinated Politics, The New York Times, Milwaukee Shepherd-Express and of course Charles P. Pierce at Esquire. A second racist email has also been reported in Buzzfeed.

That repulsive bigotry is common in the culture of Scott Walker intimates is no big surprise; this is a guy whose personal friends and appointees embezzle from military veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, but hate has a way of continuing to shock the conscience.

Also, breaking is news that Scott Walker's mining terrorirst friend, Gtac's Bill Williams has been indicted in Spain for willful poisoning and breaking of environmental regulations. And the Bad River Band Asks EPA to Stop All Mining Activity in Penokees, a crucial first step in the mandatory analysis of Native American treaty rights.

From Uppity Wisconsin comes an email authored by Scott Walker on the secret e-mail system directing that this illegal medium be used for an official statement:

Scott Walker himself urging the use of non-official accounts to coordinate a
campaign statement #WalkerDocs

Newly-released e-mails show that the Wisconsin governor may have more of a Chris Christie problem than even Chris Christie. Ruth Conniff and MSNBC have great video on the fall of a sleaze.

Indian Treaty Law Expert: Adverse Effect on Treaty-protected Species Dooms Mine

Getches, Wilkinson, Williams and Fletcher's
Cases and Materials on Federal Indian Law

Charles F. Wilkinson, arguably the leading legal expert on native American treaties who literally wrote the book on Federal Indian Case Law, and wrote and edited numerous other treatises on federal Native American law, offered his comments on the Lac Courte Oreilles' efforts to halt the proposed Gogebic Taconite mine in an e-mail received moments ago.

Professor Wilkerson is the Distinguished Professor, Moses Lasky Professor of Law at the University of Colorado Law School, and most recently primary author of the Cases and Materials on Federal Indian Law, (6th ed. 2011) (with David H. Getches, Robert A. Williams, Jr. and Matthew L. M. Fletcher)

Wilkerson's brief e-mail appears to indicate that because Republicans have admitted they expect environmental damage in the very text of bill, the mine likely will have to be revised or abandoned when challenged in light of Native American treaties.

[See Charles Pierce's Wisconsin INC: "The bill reflects the reality of mining. There are going to be some impacts to the environment above the iron ore body," said (Sen. Tom) Tiffany, R-Hazelhurst.]
 ---
Reads Prof. Wilkinson's e-mail:

This iron mine complex cannot go ahead without a full analysis of the treaty rights of the Lac Courte Oreilles (LCO) band. More than a century and a half ago, the LCO negotiated treaties that guaranteed tribal members the right to hunt and fish on their former lands. The transfer of those lands by the tribes has been of great benefit to the non-Indians of northern Wisconsin but the courts have squarely recognized that, in return, those promises must be honored. Earlier this year a federal judge in Washington State ruled, under similar circumstances, that the treaties require more than just allowing tribal members to hunt and fish—the treaties also require healthy habitat so that the species can thrive.

And, so, the question is: 'Will this mining complex adversely affect the habitat of treaty-protected species?' If so, the proposed mining project will have to be revised or abandoned.

Charles Wilkinson
Moses Lasky Professor of Law
University of Colorado Law School
#