Wisconsin GOP Donor at Center of Saudi-Veterans Scandal at Trump DC Hotel

Jason Johns, former registered agent of
Saudi Arabia and Republican-linked
donor and Gov Scott Walker appointee,
is at the center of a scandal at
the Trump International D.C. hotel.

Scott Walker-appointed official, GOP pol and registered Saudi agent defends Saudi Arabia scheme funneling $100,000s to Trump

Madison, Wisconsin — A Wisconsin Republican Party-linked lobbyist was a chief organizer of the Saudi Arabia-funded scheme to fund Donald Trump's D.C. hotel by inducing veterans to front for an effort to indemnify Sandi Arabia in its role in the 911 attacks against the United States, the Wisconsin State Journal reports, (Verburg, Wisconsin State Journal). [See also Daily Kos.]

The Wisconsin State Journal contacted Johns after news of the scheme broke in a piece published by the Washington Post on Dec. 5.

Johns, of Oregon, Wisconsin, has donated $1,000s to numerous Republican officeholders, data at the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign reveals. [Enter "Johns" to generate Jason Johns and Jason E. Johns of Oregon, Wisconsin.]

Johns also donated some $1,000 to the Wisconsin State Senate Democratic Committee, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign website shows.

Reports the Wisconsin State Journal:

A Wisconsin veterans advocate and former appointee of Gov. Scott Walker was near the center of a Saudi Arabian lobbying effort that has raised eyebrows for its heavy use of the Trump hotel in Washington, D.C.

But Madison-based advocate Jason Johns said in an interview with the Wisconsin State Journal he did nothing wrong in overseeing the Saudi-funded program, which flew veterans to Washington and put them up at President Donald Trump’s hotel while they spoke out against a law the Saudis wanted overturned.

Jason Johns was appointed by Gov. Scott Walker (R) as deputy secretary to the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs (WDVA) in 2011 after a Republican-backed law gave Walker the sole authority for hiring and firing executive-level WDVA political appointees, (Stein, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel).

Johns is listed as founder and president (2005-present) of Wisconsin Legislative Strategies, Inc. lobbying firm in Johns' LinkedIn webpage.

"Johns said he registered as an agent of the Saudi government when he started working for  Qorvis/MSLGroup [Saudi lobbying group] and let the registration lapse in 2017 after the program ended," reports the Wisconsin State Journal.

Johns defended the Saudi Arabian scheme. Reports the Wisconsin State Journal:

Johns said Thursday he wasn’t involved in booking the Trump property, and he didn’t buy the implication that it was wrong.

'The undertone here is that Qorvis purchased all of the hotel rooms at the Trump Hotel in order to curry ‘favor’ and/or ‘influence’ with President Trump as he was coming in to office,' Johns said.  

Nothing to see here, may become the new Republican Party slogan.

Wisconsin's Scott Walker Refuses Listening Sessions

Scott Walker has left
his suit

Scott Walker's effort to rebrand himself fades like a cottonwood seed blowing across a park as public disapproval numbers persist.

The spectacle of Scott Walker blaming everyone from protesting Wisconsinites to the corporate media for his failure in job creation, comes with Walker's assurance he's now hearing "positive things" from his numerous "listening sessions" held around the state, (Opoien, The Capital Times).

Scott Walker lied.

A problem with this claim by Walker, (contra Gov. Chris Christie), is the fact Walker has held zero listening sessions as defined by answering unscripted, townhall-style questions posed by Wisconsin citizens unvetted for political loyalty to Scott Walker as the price of admission.

Used to be in Wisconsin citizens did not have to declare political loyalty to anyone before they could ask questions of public officials. Now, we live in the age of blacklists and Republican corruption, (Door County Pulse), (Mal Contends).

Walker's definition for a listening session is invitation-only, no press, and no dialogue,(UrbanMilwuakee).

It was no surprise to read a heavily polluting industrialized ag. factory owner John Pagel was invited by Walker to a February 'listening session' propaganda event in Kewaunee and Pagel pronounced himself "impressed" with Walker.

Some of the questions from Walker-vetted guests at the listening session:

What’s good about Wisconsin and your community?

What do you want your community to look like seven to 10 years from now?

And what can be done to ensure that vision? (DeFour, Wisconsin State Journal)

Tough room.

As gleamed from Walker's aborted presidential campaign last year, when Scott Walker offers a non-sequitur as a response to the rare question to which he replies in public, it means Walker has just tried to think on his feet.

Facing rising disapproval numbers, the last thing Walker can deal with now is being seen as incompetent on top of corrupt.

When Walker lies about listening sessions, it would help Wisconsin for the corporate press to report the fact Walker is lying.

Rebecca Bradley's 'Apology' Strains Credulity

One Wisconsin Now's report on the vile rants of Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley has resulted in an apology from the candidate up for reelection on April 5.

No longer, Bradley says, does she regard AIDS victims as "degenerates," "abnormal" people who "kill themselves" and deserve no "compassion" and "sympathy."

Now Bradley after One Wisconsin Now's report, says her writings are "not reflective of my worldview."
 
Bradley was appointed by Scott Walker three times in three years, the same Walker who surrounds himself with anti-Semitic, homophobic, repellent individuals cut from the same cloth as Bradley, (The Progressive).

"To those offended by comments I made as a young college student, I apologize, and assure you that those comments are not reflective of my worldview. These comments have nothing to do with who I am as a person or a jurist, and they have nothing to do with the issues facing the voters of this state," said Bradley in a statement.

Bradley did not elaborate on the self-examination and analysis in which she engaged, leading her to a new and different conclusion on 'abnormal degenerates'.

Wisconsinites should be aware of the type of person running for election on the state Supreme Court. Her strangely worded explanation strains credulity, and is unconvincing.

Consider if Bradley had mocked Jews, the disabled, "blacks" and Mexicans—as Scott Walker's aides did, (The Progressive)—would it be credible to accept that Walker and his aides really don't retain this 'worldview'? Bradley is not credible, and hate and bigotry have NO place on the Court.

Wisc SC Judge's Hate-filled Rants Should Disqualify Rebecca Bradley

The hate and wisdom of Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley;
Bradley was appointed to the Court to fill a vacancy by Gov. Scott Walker

Gov. Scott Walker has appointed an ideological and unqualified Rebecca Bradley three times to Wisconsin courts since 2012, most recently to the Wisconsin Supreme Court last October.

Under Walker's extremist tenure, Wisconsin has become a model of corruption and failure in too many ways to enumerate as an insidious, hateful ethos marking the Republican Party of Wisconsin has become the hallmark of the gerrymandered legislature, a benighted governor and the Wisconsin Supreme Court that has lost credibility as an impartial top appellate state court.

The Court is worse than even the most rigorous detractors believed.

Yesterday, One Wisconsin Now exposed Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley penned a series of hateful and venomous attacks on gay people and others living with HIV.

Bradley published her writings in the Marquette Tribune in 1992, referring to the LGBTQ community as "queers" and "degenerates," and mocking the AIDS epidemic. It gets worse, see One Wisconsin Now's press release below.

"The hate and vitriol for others Rebecca Bradley displayed in her writings was repugnant and unbecoming for a university student then and it is absolutely unacceptable for a justice of the Wisconsin State Supreme Court today. She is unfit to serve on our high court, and if she has a shred of decency or integrity she will resign immediately," concluded Scot Ross, One Wisconsin Now's Executive Director.

Bradley is up for election on April 5, [2016 Spring Election and Presidential Preference Vote (Presidential Primary)], and Wisconsin voters should and likely will reject Bradley's bigotry, and her corruption as a judge who views her position on the Court as a means of furthering the special interests now holding sway in the Republican Party.

Judge JoAnne Kloppenburg who is running against Bradley released a statement reading: "There is no statute of limitations on hate. Rebecca Bradley’s comments are as abhorrent and disturbing today as they were in 1992 as people were dying in huge numbers from AIDS. Her career since that time includes being appointed three times to three judgeships in three years by Scott Walker who is against gay rights. Rebecca Bradley’s alliance with conservative causes and Scott Walker speaks louder than any apology she tries to make." 

Walker said he was not aware of Bradley's views when he appointed her as a circuit, appellate and Supreme Court judge, then asserted Bradley's views had changed in the same sentence, (Marley, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel).

One Wisconsin Now's press release is reproduced below:

Rebecca Bradley’s Published Writings Reveal Opinions That Cross Line Into Hate Speech
 
One Wisconsin Now Uncovers State Court Justice’s ‘Venomous’ Homophobia, Calls for Her Resignation 

MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley wrote a series of hateful and venomous attacks on gay people and people living with HIV, according to articles obtained by One Wisconsin Now. The hate speech in the articles disqualifies Bradley from continuing to hold office and should result in her immediate resignation from the state Supreme Court, according to One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross, who released the records at a news conference this morning with a representative of national civil rights group People For the American Way.

“Rebecca Bradley has revealed such a depth of hatred and contempt for people that she cannot be trusted to uphold the most basic tenet of our judicial system, that all are equal before the law,” said Ross. “She denies people their dignity because they are different than her and condemns people that hold political beliefs other than hers.”

In writings published in the Marquette Tribune, Bradley, in multiple instances, derisively referred to members of the LGBTQ community as “queers” and “degenerates”, claimed “homosexual sex kills,” mocked the AIDS epidemic and declared the nearly 45 million voters who supported President Clinton were, “either totally stupid or entirely evil.”

Scott Foval, the Madison-based Regional Political Coordinator for the national organization People For the American Way, also criticized Bradley’s statements, calling them “demeaning.”

Foval commented, “As a gay man and long-term survivor living with HIV, Rebecca Bradley’s hateful diatribes against people like me while at Marquette are shocking and deeply disturbing. I question how anyone in the LGBTQ community, or anyone living with HIV/AIDS feels they could get a fair decision from her. The demeaning statements she authored gravely undermines her ability to continue to serve on the state Supreme Court.”

The thinness of Bradley’s legal resume left her referencing things like a college term paper she wrote in applying for one of the unprecedented three appointments in three years by Gov. Scott Walker. And while disclosing other articles she authored, she specifically failed to make any mention her newspaper writings.

Ross noted there are numerous issues regarding Bradley’ trustworthiness, from her position that judges ought to be able to lie in their campaigns to a string of dishonest and misleading statements about her partisan political inclinations and work with the outside groups in her campaigns. But the deep seeded hatred and contempt Bradley revealed in these writings rises to a new level, displaying such bias she cannot be counted on to fairly judge cases that might come before the court that involve discrimination issues.

“The hate and vitriol for others Rebecca Bradley displayed in her writings was repugnant and unbecoming for a university student then and it is absolutely unacceptable for a justice of the Wisconsin State Supreme Court today. She is unfit to serve on our high court, and if she has a shred of decency or integrity she will resign immediately,” concluded Ross.
#

Wisconsin Senate Republicans Ban Voter Registration Drives

Update: See GOP Still Tampering with Our Democracy by State Senator Julie Lassa.

Wisconsin Republicans really, really would like it if you would not vote. Leave voting to the Republicans.

Republicans' latest anti-voting rights bill is Senate Bill 295, passed along a party-line vote yesterday.

The bill would "(eliminate) the position and responsibilities of special registration deputies," halting voter registration drives of disfavored citizens, (Legislative Reference Bureau).

SB 295 is being fast-tracked to the state assembly for passage and eventual signing into law by Scott Walker.

Both Wisconsin legislative chambers are gerrymandered to elect Republicans.

Since gaining power in the 2010 mid-term election, Republicans have passed numerous anti-voting laws designed to obstruct minorities, the poor and younger voters from casting votes, and reshaping Wisconsin elections to benefit Republicans.

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

Dee J. Hall has the story at Wisconsin Watch.

GOP's AG Joins Cover-up of Scott Walker, Corrupt Court

Wisconsin Is Turing into Corrupt Banana Republic

Update: See also Opoien, The Capital Times.

To no one's surprise Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel (R) has said 'yes, destroy or return all seized material related to the investigation of Scott Walker campaign's illegal collusion.'

In a polemical Dec. 8, 2105 press release Schimel maintains the pretension the Wisconsin Supreme Court, the Wisconsin Attorney General, the Wisconsin gerrymandered legislature and Scott Walker are all independently reaching the same conclusion that investigating Scott Walker is a "long, unfortunate chapter in Wisconsin's history."

The reformist and now repealed John Doe statute was used to expose misconduct in public office in Scott Walker's office while serving as Milwaukee County Executive.

A subsequent John Doe investigation found Walker was at the center of a criminal scheme, (Marley, Bice and Glauber, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel).

Schimel like other Republicans does not want more public exposure of the criminal scheme, or federal litigation of the Court's John Doe decision protecting Walker to blow back on the partisan Court and Walker's allies and donors who happen to be the same special interests.

The Wisconsin DoJ press release is reproduced below:

AG Schimel: John Doe II Should End 

Tuesday, December 8, 2105

The Wisconsin Supreme Court has issued yet another decision in John Doe II, the protracted and secret investigation into whether a political group exercising free political speech rights improperly coordinated with Governor Walker during the recall election. For the second time this year, the Wisconsin Supreme Court directed that the John Doe proceeding be halted based upon the Court’s conclusion that prosecutors did not have a legal basis to investigate these political groups when they commenced John Doe II. The Court found that campaign finance statutes upon which the prosecutors relied violate free political speech rights guaranteed by both the United States Constitution and the Wisconsin Constitution. 

Thus, the Court said that the matter is closed, and the evidence seized through subpoenas and search warrants issued as part of the investigation must be returned. That has not yet occurred, and the owners of that property are understandably upset. 

The special prosecutor has indicated that he intends to appeal. The only level of appeal left is to the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS), but it is very unlikely SCOTUS would take the case. In the unlikely scenario that SCOTUS were to accept the case, it would more than likely uphold the Wisconsin Supreme Court's decision. 

I write because I have indirectly been asked as Wisconsin Attorney General to intervene on behalf of the John Doe targets. The Wisconsin DOJ played a role in the proceedings before the Wisconsin Supreme Court, although it was not a leading role. DOJ represented the judge who was assigned to John Doe II after the initial judge recused herself. The new judge quashed subpoenas issued in the John Doe proceeding, finding that the special prosecutor's theory of the case was not supported by Wisconsin law. The special prosecutor appealed that ruling, and DOJ represented the judge in the Wisconsin Supreme Court. 

Last week, the Wisconsin Supreme Court again ordered that the seized evidence be returned to its owners. Given that DOJ represented the judge who first found that the John Doe proceeding was invalid, DOJ certainly has no intention of standing in the way of those orders. The Supreme Court’s order should be carried out forthwith. DOJ has no authority to represent those individual property owners in their effort to enforce the Supreme Court’s order. 

This has been a long, unfortunate chapter in Wisconsin's history. The courts have unequivocally rejected the John Doe investigation, both in the manner in which it was carried out, as well as the legal arguments brought by the prosecutors. The Wisconsin Supreme Court has now ordered that the property seized be returned. For everyone involved, the special prosecutor should end the case, and the property seized from the individuals in this case should be returned immediately. 

Wisconsin Supreme Court GOP Majority—Venal Corruption Rules

Judicial Act of Corruption Protects Scott Walker and GOP Court Bloc from Scrutiny

The corrupt Republican Party bloc on the Wisconsin Supreme Court—Chief Justice Patience D.Roggensack, Justice David T. Prosser, Jr, Justice Annette Kingsland Ziegler and Justice Michael J. Gableman—removed any doubt the Wisconsin Supreme Court is simply an extension of the Republican Party this week.

Wisconsin's top appellate court has become a lawless institution, unconstrained by ethics and acting to protect Wisconsin's most corrupt governor and political machine in the state's history.

The text of an unsigned [per curiam] opinion (and Justice Shirley S. Abrahamson's dissent and opinion) is linked ahead: John Doe Proceeding State of Wisconsin ex rel. Three Unnamed Petitioners, Petitioner, v. the Honorable Gregory A. Peterson, John Doe Judge, the Honorable Gregory Potter, Chief Judge and Francis D. Schmitz, as Special Prosecutor, Respondents.

Brendan Fischer has a keen analysis at PRWatch.

Writes Fischer:

On Wednesday, the Wisconsin Supreme Court's majority contorted itself to find a new way to protect both Scott Walker and the Court's biggest supporters--not to mention itself--following its decision in July rewriting the state's limits on money in politics and ending the 'John Doe' investigation into Walker's campaign coordinating with dark money groups.

Wednesday's ruling was supposed to be a straightforward decision on a motion to reconsider, in light of additional evidence that Walker and his allies had violated the campaign finance laws that the Court upheld in July.

The Court denied that motion, but then (in a lengthy unsigned [per curiam] opinion) went further, rewriting its July decision to fire the Republican Special Prosecutor who had led the investigation, Francis Schmitz, making it harder for him to challenge the justices' conflicts-of-interest by appealing the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. [per curiam pp. 1-29]

In a different era, such a decision would bring bipartisan outrage. Today, the Republicans and Scott Walker's corruption is blatant, openly displayed as temporary political power has gone to the heads of the mediocrities holding it.

Writes Justice Shirley S. Abrahamson in dissent: "In terminating the authority of the Special Prosecutor, the per curiam unfairly leaves the prosecution and the State unrepresented from this date forward and deprives the Special Prosecutor, prosecutors, and law enforcement of the opportunity to preserve materials from destruction," (p. 47).

The Wisconsin law enforcement officials who routinely back Court and other political candidates during campaign season in an unsavory practice will not object to the Court's naked overreach decimating the public integrity check by Wisconsin Constitutional law enforcement officers.

Of note, to call out Roggensack-Prosser Jr.-Kingsland Ziegler-Gableman bloc as corrupt would be an ethical breach for a Wisconsin attorney, violative of (Wisconsin Supreme Court Rule) SCR 20:8.2 Judicial and legal officials.

Nothing in Wisconsin, no institution, no agency, no commission is safe from the corrupt and power-mad Republican Party of Wisconsin's corruption.

No time for lay officials to be silent.

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 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.

DNR Selling LakeFront Property to Scott Walker Donor

We know Scott Walker is auctioning off state property to help close the massive deficit Walker bestowed upon Wisconsin.

Today, reports the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Walker's donors are buying.

There is no listing of this transaction or any other on the DNR's Real Estate sale site.

Reports Lee Bergquist:

A major donor to Gov. Scott Walker, has reached an agreement with the Department of Natural Resources to buy 1.75 acres of prime lakefront property in Vilas County — a deal that gives her direct lake access to another property she now owns.

The agreement calls for the DNR to sell Uihlein 765 feet of frontage on Rest Lake in the Town of Manitowish Waters for $275,000. She currently owns an adjacent 11-unit condominium complex without lake access.

[Elizabeth] Uihlein and her husband, Richard, have donated nearly $3 million to Walker in recent years. ...

The lakefront land is one of a series of large-scale property sales now underway by the DNR. They were prompted by the Republican-controlled Legislature, which in 2013 ordered the agency to put 10,000 acres up for sale by June 30, 2017. ...

The DNR has so far identified 118 properties totaling 8,300 acres for possible sale. As part of that process, field staff are called in to study the ecological significance of the land.

Last month, trout anglers criticized a DNR decision that identified more than 1,000 acres for potential sales in Langlade County that contained spring ponds with native brook trout populations.

Walker is selling out Wisconsin. If you want to reach him, Walker is likely in Iowa or South Carolina these days.

Scott Walker's Corruption Problems Have Staying Power

Joel Bleifuss at In These Times pens a piece today serving as a reminder that no matter what Scott Walker and his four allies on the Wisconsin Supreme Court want, the Republican partisans halting a criminal investigations into criminal activity by Walker is in itself a stain on Walker's run for the presidency.

Because the probe into Walker's criminal scheme is headed for the federal court system, Wisconsin's top criminal in the governor's office cannot wish away the "provision [of the criminal code] that prohibits coordination between candidates and advocacy groups."

Both politically and legally, the John Doe probe is here to stay during Walker's time in the national spotlight.

John Doe special prosecutor Francis Schmitz asked the Wisconsin Court to stay its corrupt decision in a procedural move that is a sure sign Schmitz will pursue his case through federal district court, the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, and ultimately the U.S. Supreme Court.

Walker may ultimately wish he took the deal his campaign's attorney cut last year, until Walker's bosses killed the idea. (Mal Contends) (Stein, Marley and Glauber, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel) (Wall Street Journal) (PRWatch)

Scott Walker's Voter Obstruction Efforts Highlight Anti-democratic Sentiments

The Republican Party and Scott Walker in particular have long made voter obstruction a major policy objective.

Through cutting early voting, photo voter ID, gerrymandering, and other work on behalf of corporations funneling anti-democratic bills through ALEC, (NBC News) Walker has become a front-man in Wisconsin to stop those politically opposed to him from voting, with a particular animus for ethnic minorities. (McGillis, TNR)

The Republican Party's war against voting is a nation-wide effort, but Walker has taken the lead in Wisconsin for years using public policy and campaign appeals as a means to divide and conquer disfavored citizens.

A grotesque effort, but conquering citizens has a long and sordid history known in the 20th century as fascism.

Walker's political allies are featured in yesterday's New York Times Magazine in a cover piece on the 50-year campaign to roll back the Voting Rights Act. (Rutenberg, New York Times)

Stopping black and brown folks from voting, this is the America Scott Walker wants, where Walker with his hands out to special interest money is considered among the few proper activities.

In 2012 the stakes were high, in 2015-16 the stakes are higher and Walker remains an inadequate personality, and a pathological liar still in fear of facing the Wisconsin people, but scheming to rob them of their rights.

Judicial Oblivion: Wisconsin Supreme Court Ignored Legal Precedent to End the John Doe Investigation

"In short, the Wisconsin court cited the wrong precedents and wholly ignored the right ones. It is difficult to reconcile its holding with Buckley or McConnell, as a dissenting opinion by Justice Abrahamson pointed out—and perhaps this is why the majority made no attempt to do so," notes Tara Malloy of The Campaign Legal Center.

A must-read by Malloy of the Wisconsin Supreme Court that is corrupt and no longer deserves respect.

Wisconsin Supreme Court's Legitimacy Is Gone

Readers will not find Wisconsin attorneys blasting Justices Roggensack-Prosser Jr.-Ziegler-Gableman as a bloc for rightwing special interests following the Court's decision shutting down the John Doe probe—creating a Wisconsin-GOP-only interpretation of campaign finance law and the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.

There's a compelling reason for silence among Wisconsin jurists, and it's not based on sentiment or position.

To call out Roggensack-Prosser Jr.-Ziegler-Gableman as corrupt would be an ethical breach for a Wisconsin attorney, violative of (Wisconsin Supreme Court Rule) SCR 20:8.2  Judicial and legal officials.

So it's up to some 20 writers or so across that the state to note, as does Lincoln Caplan in The New Yorker, that the four Republican members of the Court "substituted the misrule of politics for the rule of law."

Justice Roggensack, Prosser Jr., Ziegler and Gableman are corrupt and ruled according to whom the litigants are.

Photo ID

Back before League of Women Voters of Wisconsin v. Walker and Milwaukee Branch of the NAACP v. Walker reached the Wisconsin Supreme Court, I asked around: Did Wisconsin Act 23, the GOP-crafted photo voter ID law, have a chance at the Court in light of the Wisconsin Constitution, Article III, Section 1 reading: "Every United States citizen age 18 or older who is a resident of an election district in this state is a qualified elector of that district," an expansive guarantee to vote that has been under attack since Governor Scott Walker and the Republicans assumed control of the executive and legislative branches of Wisconsin government in 2011. (Mal Contends)

No jurist contacted said, 'yes.' The Court would lose all credibility.

Corruption

Today is different than a few years back. The Roggensack-Prosser Jr.-Ziegler-Gableman bloc is corrupt and the rule of law is gone.

There should be no public confidence in the administration of justice from the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Even Wisconsin's Legislative Reference Bureau is partisan now as a reading of Wisconsin's Constitution, Article III, Section 1's new language demonstrates.

The Republican Party's ideal of representative democracy is a One-Party state with unrecognized individual rights and unrealized protections for vulnerable members of society, it's called fascism and should be so stated.

GOP Court Halts Law Enforcement Probe of Scott Walker and Criminal Scheme

Republican justices stepped up aggressively for Scott Walker today, and stomped on the rule of law

Update: Alice Ollstein notes the four GOP justices ordered that those working on the case "permanently destroy all copies of information and other materials obtained through the investigation." (ThinkProgress)

See also Wisconsin Supreme Court Ends Walker Investigation, Eviscerating State’s Campaign Finance Limits and Raising Questions about Judicial Impartiality (Brennen Center for Justice) and Corrupt Wisconsin Supreme Court kills John Doe Investigation. As well the Capital Times John Doe ruling dangerous for democracy and the Center for Media and Democracy's analysis.
---
How about those not working on the case? This information belongs in the public record. One can hope for a leak in the tradition of Ellsberg to hold up Walker's illegal actions to a public light.
 ---
The Wisconsin Supreme Court is a corrupt institution on which state Republicans and Scott Walker rely to give a judicial imprimatur to unconstitutional and lawless action.

Today, as expected the Supreme Court halted a law enforcement probe of Scott Walker and rightwingers through numerous consolidated cases (Beck, Wisconsin State Journal).

The latest and long-predicted decision by the Court halts the bipartisan John Doe probe investigating what court documents have shown to be a criminal scheme by Scott Walker and an array of rightwing groups to illegally coordinate fundraising (Marley, Bice and Bill Glauber, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel).

"The expected decision in the case, ... before the state's highest court, [took] a blowtorch to what remains of Wisconsin's post-Watergate campaign finance rules," writes Mary Bottari in PRWatch in a piece run the day before today's decisions were announced.

Wisconsin Republicans are nothing if not consistent in protecting each other, no matter that an entire branch of government—the judiciary branch—has lost credibility as an impartial institution and now reaches "pre-determined conclusion(s) not based on the facts and the law," as noted by former Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson in Ozanne v. Jeff Fitzgerald, Scott Fitzgerald, Ellis and Suder (2011) that gutted Wisconsin's Open Meetings law. (Mal Contends)

There are other law enforcement bodies that can still investigate Walker's clear criminal behavior, and the John Doe judge can release court documents at his discretion under the John Doe statute. Perhaps Scott Walker will call for the release of the probe's records if Scott Walker has nothing to hide

No surprises, just corruption

In recent years, the four GOP justices have voted against rule-of-law justices to enact Court rules favorable to the Republican Party and to outright promote corruption.

In July 2010, the four GOP justices enacted a rule reading in part, "a judge shall not be required to recuse himself or herself in a proceeding based solely on any endorsement or the judge’s campaign committee’s receipt of a lawful campaign contribution, including a campaign contribution from an individual or entity involved in the proceeding." (p.2)

Republican special interest groups petitioned the Court to change the recusal rule.

"In 2010, the Wisconsin Supreme Court's four-justice conservative majority voted to adopt new rules stating that the fact of a campaign contribution alone would not require recusal -- but the rules were literally written by none other than (Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce) WMC, as well as the Wisconsin Realtors Association, which gave over $1 million to Wisconsin Club for Growth in its 2010-2011 fiscal year. In other words, WMC wrote the rules requiring that the justices WMC has elected not recuse in a case involving WMC's election activities." (PRWatch)

Each of the four Republican justices on the Court—Justice David Prosser, Justice Michael Gableman, Justice Annette Ziegler and Justice Patience Roggensack—were elected with money by the same groups now appearing before the Court.

"Wisconsin Club for Growth (WiCFG) and Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) played a key role in electing the four justices in the majority, in most cases spending more than the candidates themselves."

A bipartisan group of prosecutors allege that the Walker campaign illegally coordinated fundraising and expenditures with WiCFG and WMC (and perhaps other groups) during the 2011 and 2012 recall elections. Representatives of the Walker campaign, WiCFG, and WMC could face criminal liability if prosecutors find that they conspired to evade campaign finance disclosure requirements and contribution limits." (PRWatch)

Republican justices stepped up aggressively for Scott Walker today, and stomped on the rule of law.

Scott Walker Asks Donors for More Money, Following Appeals to God

Ready for Scott Walker? - Give Money, New Site Says
(Gold, Washington Post)

Scott Walker in January laughed off suggestions he might be running for president, saying, "We'll see about what God's calling is for the future." (Opoien, Capital Times)

Either God gave Walker the go-ahead, or the higher power intervened and directed Walker who formed a presidential exploratory committee and a new website—Ready for Walker?—asking for still more guidance in the form of money in a new email urging readers to participate in The Race to 270 [Electoral Votes]. (Gold, Washington Post)

The new Walker website cannot be entered unless the user first donates or creates an account, so it's not so user-friendly, though it does feature a silhouette of Scott Walker apparently deep in thought with his hands in his own pockets.

God may speak often with Walker, it appears money speaks louder and with greater authority. (Opoien, Capital Times)

Walker leaves behind a disaster in this northern Midwest state that Walker has been laboring to transform into a Southern state (Cognitive Dissonance), emphatically so in jobs lost, families targeted and the environment abandoned. (Jake's Econ FunHouse)

If God is really calling for Scott Walker, the Big Guy may be saying: Come home and get Wisconsin's fiscal house in order; you messed it up, clean it up. (Spicuzza, Stein, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel) (Political Environment)

And quit trying to kill the University of Wisconsin, and help and commit no further harm onto Wisconsin families. God hates this, the Bible so commands.

"It is clear what we have accomplished in Wisconsin can be replicated across the country," Scott Walker's website states. (Gold, Washington Post) That's crazy talk, perhaps sent by the Devil.

"Let’s stipulate up front that Scott Walker, the governor of Wisconsin, is an odious politician whose ascension to the Presidency would be a disaster," [the New Yorker's John Cassidy] writes in the opening paragraph of his February column in The New Yorker, "The dangerous candidacy of Scott Walker." (Slinger, The Capital Times)

Cassidy's statement is something on which most people in Wisconsin can agree, if only they would show up and vote.

NYT's Account of Scott Walker and a Lie

Dan Kaufman's exposé in the
New York Times of Scott Walker
and his lies to workers, and Walker's
concerted attack on working families.

I looked ... at [Scott Walker], and I said, ... 'If you can tell me that right-to-work will not come on your desk, then I will take you for your word.' He looked me in the eyes, and he said, 'It will not make it to my desk.'

Updated - A prominent Scott Walker flaw is Walker's condition of a pathological liar, a man without a conscience. (John Dean, Verdict) [Another illustration of Walker's pathological tendency to lie: Prime Minister David Cameron disputes an assertion by Scott Walker Cameron spoke ill of U.S. President Obama, after Walker made up a story about Cameron in his overheated talk to a roomful of Republican donors (Miller, Time Magazine]

In Dan Kaufman's explosive and ominous exposé in the New York Times Magazine of the betrayal by Scott Walker of the Wisconsin working class, Walker's deceit and lack of a conscience come to life.

The ease with which people as Nixon and Scott Walker lie and deceive is breathtaking, and is now on record as fact for the 2016 presidential campaign.

Kaufman's description of Walker stands out with an implicit warning that Scott Walker wants to take national the Koch brothers and ALEC's rightwing legislative agenda that Walker used, deceitfully, against the people of Wisconsin:

Writes Kaufman:

Last fall, [Terry McGowan, the president of [International Union of Operating Engineers. Local 139], a statewide union of 9,000 heavy-­machinery operators] met with [Scott] Walker, who was seeking a contribution and another endorsement for governor, at a small campaign office in Wauwatosa, outside Milwaukee. "I looked across the table at him, and I said, ''We are both God-­fearing men,'" McGowan told me. "'If you can tell me that right-to-work will not come on your desk, then I will take you for your word.' He looked me in the eyes, and he said, 'It will not make it to my desk.' He was looking for a contribution, and I was looking for a commitment. We both got what we came for. He kept his, and I lost mine." ...

In early March, I visited Dave Poklinkoski, the president of Local 2304, an electricians’ union, at his office in Madison, where he was drawing up a right-to-work-­compliant union contract. "Divide and conquer, it works," Poklinkoski said. "It works real well." He dug out his iPad from under a pile of papers and pulled up an editorial cartoon by Mike Konopacki that showed a bloodied Terry McGowan, the Local 139 president, with a sword in his back, the hilt and handle in the shape of Walker’s head, labeled "R-T-W."

Scott Walker to DA: Don't Read Audits of Failed Jobs Agency

Scott Walker, Chair of embattled WEDC jobs agency, looks
like a pay-to-play scandal, another betrayal of public integrity
by Scott Walker who now calls any suggested probe a
"witch hunt" after promising in 2012 to take dramatic and
aggressive action to address massive failures.

As the national press notes Scott Walker shying away from the press again (Cogan, New York Magazine), back home in Wisconsin Scott Walker's flag ship 'jobs' agency has fallen apart amid calls for federal and state law enforcement investigations after a new, critical audit and a series of news reporting from a right-leaning Wisconsin newspaper. (DeFour, Wisconsin State Journal)

As Walker is still seeking God's will to run for the presidency, Walker doesn't want the national political press poking around, asking questions, amid the debris of Walker's failed jobs agency.

The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) is almost universally recognized as a trainwreck, but the announcement yesterday that Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne will review a recent audit of the WEDC to determine whether to open a criminal investigation has Walker's office fuming.

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)

Since when is reading an audit gamesmanship?

Since it embarrasses and might ultimately reveal more criminality from Scott Walker, busily traveling out of state dodging the press.

Even as fellow Republicans say they are "troubled" by WEDC loans and tax credits being dished out to Walker donors and the lack of any responsible oversight by Walker as WEDC Chair (Hall, Wisconsin State Journal), Walker through a spokesperson says to District Attorney Ozanne: Don't read the nonpartisan audit.

Walker's allies are also trying to kill a different law enforcement probe with the help of corrupt justices on the Wisconsin Supreme Court (Levy, Mother Jones).

Now the Walker administration is criticizing a state constitutional law enforcement officer for even reading an audit after virtually unanimous bipartisan criticism of WEDC, after even Walker called for an end to WEDC loans and after the powerful GOP-led legislative committee called for Walker to be removed from the WEDC Board—essentially fired from his own flagship jobs creation agency.

Any objective observer, anyone who has ever watched Scott Walker operate, should be asking: What is Scott Walker hiding now?

Answers from Scott Walker are not forthcoming who was in D.C. yesterday at a no-press-allowed rightwing conclave attended by the likes of: Jerry Boykin with the Family Research Council, Morton Blackwell with the Leadership Institute, Tim Goeglein with Focus on the Family, Charmaine Yoest with Americans United for Life, Jeanne Monahan with the March for Life, Brian Brown with the National Organization for Marriage, Grover Norquist with Americans for Tax Reform, Brent Bozell with For America, Phil Kerpen with American Commitment, Chuck Cunningham with the National Rifle Association (NRA), former NRA president David Keene, and activist Ginni Thomas.

Scott Walker Fired as Chair of State Jobs Agency

Epic failure at Scott Walker-created jobs agency as powerful legislative
committee removes Walker from position as Chair.
From Scott Walker's 2011 Budget Address

Updated - Amid the burgeoning pay-to-play scandal showcasing Scott Walker's epic jobs failure, Wisconsin legislative Republicans did Scott Walker a big favor yesterday: They fired Scott Walker as Chair of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation [WEDC], Walker's failing jobs-creating agency.

Walker has long promised a laser-like focus on jobs that backfired as the Republican-led Joint Committee on Finance called for removing Scott Walker from Chair of WEDC, admitting failure on the foundation of Walker's campaigns: Jobs. (DeFour, Wisconsin State Journal) (Cognitive Dissonance) (Democurmudgeon)

In Scott Walker's 2011 Budget Address, Walker intoned, "During our special session on jobs, we created a public-private agency, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation [WEDC] that will focus solely on job creation."

Since its inception in 2011, WEDC has engaged in the shady practice directing public monies to private Scott Walker donors, uncovered by state audits, creating few jobs with recipients of WEDC largesse shipping many jobs overseas. This prompted a bill authored by State Sen. Dave Hansen (D-Green Bay) that would ban companies receiving WEDC money who off-shored jobs, now blocked by Wisconsin Republicans

The shady practices at WEDC is recently highlighted by a series in the Wisconsin State Journal and in a piece by national political writer, Michael Isikoff who broke a blockbuster story in March about a secret $1.5 million contribution to a GOP front group made by a Wisconsin billionaire, John Menard Jr., who subsequently received $1.8 million in special tax credits from WEDC and the virtual dismantlement of the Wisconsin DNR in Walker's proposed budget.

The DNR is long criticized by Menard whose operations were fined for violating Wisconsin environmental laws and illegally dumping hazardous wastes.

Make no mistake, the Republican-led Joint Committee on Finance did Walker a political service by removing him from Chair of the failed jobs agency, as the putative candidate for the presidency is increasingly tainted.

Meanwhile, Walker campaigning on Oklahoma yesterday is posing new national energy policy as back home in Wisconsin, the abandoned people are suffering from Walker's lack of leadership on jobs and the corruption of public office for the benefit of big political donors to Walker.

But Walker feels free to spend most of his time outside Wisconsin. Walker's allies on the Wisconsin Supreme Court are expected to soon issue a favorable and a nakedly corrupt ruling on a criminal probe into Walker's illegally directing dark money from political donors to fight off the 2011-12 Recall movement.