Showing posts with label wisconsin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wisconsin. Show all posts

Jul 3, 2026

McCarthyism Comes Back to Wisconsin, Dem Primary Race for Governor Goes Rancid

Wisconsin Sen. Joe McCarthy (R) led a national descent 
into madness as the infamous 'Red Scare' champ lied and
 defamed his way into the leading anti-communist, ruining 
lives and families along the way. McCarthy-lite is the 
order now-a-days, as anti-Semitism charges are thrown
about like fireworks and confetti by inheritors of this 
putrid man who stood for nihilism and lies as values.
Democrat-launched Slurs Do 'Gunner Joe' Proud, to Wisconsin's Shame

Commentary

Madison, Wisconsin—Wisconsin's political class has been clamoring for a split among Wisconsinites in the race for the Democratic Party nomination for governor.  

They got their wish.

 Zionist liberals in the Wisconsin media and allied candidates share a desperation to keep Wisconsin State Rep. Francesca Hong from running away with the Democratic Primary.

War, genocide and a shaky economy see an emergence of pro-working class, anti-war candidates across the nation whom corporatist liberals are working to stop.

Corporate and establishment Democrats falsely accuse candidates such as Francesca Hong of virtually everything, as Party establishments continues to alienate the working class, right as progressive strategists point to new data showing workers overwhelmingly support progressive economic policies—including raising the minimum wage, expanding Medicare, and higher taxes on corporations.

Faux Scandal


Now, corporatists have discovered what they believe is a campaign sandal involving Francesca Hong: Nothing Hong has said or done, rather Hong's public appearance with a social media streamer/content creator named Hasan Piker on social media sites, Twitch, and Youtube, is is the asserted scandal.

Nothing Hong has said or done on Piker's show either. Just hostility towards the mere fact of Hong's appearance with Hasan Piker is presented as scandalous, because bad-faith effort to silence legitimate anti-Zionist dissent and progressive policy advocacy for working class Americans.

The issue is Piker is a critic of Genocide, torture, slaughter of children and rape by israel in the occupied territories, among Piker's other moral condemnation of atrocities, such as war; bombing girls' schools, so on, therefor Francesca Hong must be held to account for each and every statement, formulation of statement and others' intentional misrepresentations of statements Hasan Piker has ever made on social media, including all slurs and lies that 'critics' have hurled towards Piker for appearing on a live-stream show with a Piker.

Piker has also mads statements echoing U.S. intelligence on the danger of blow-back when various geniuses in the White House decide to start a war or three.

Who is running for Wisconsin governor: Piker or Hong? 

It's the way it is now. Hong even appeared on another social media show in late June. 

The Wisconsin State Journal republished the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel's absurd hit piece on Hong, (authored by Hope Karnopp and Molly Beck) though most of the piece is about Piker who is defamed, and then falsely presented as having relevancy to Wisconsin's gubernatorial campaign, in a display of third-rate McCarthyism by Wisconsin's two largest dailies. 

Hong's social media appearance is presented by Journal-Sentinel's Karnopp and Beck as somehow defining Hong, and uses the polemical device, 'critics call,' 'critics have called,' (references to Piker), as a method to portray this dishonest hit piece on Piker and Hong as objective reporting.

Hope Karnopp, Molly Beck and most corporate 'journalists,' including Wisconsin State Journal editors, are just shoveling slop, lies and misrepresentations. 

And Karnopp and Beck know fully well what they're doing.

Karnopp's colleague, Molly Beck, at the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel ran an even more absurd piece on the governor's race in the Spring featuring a Trump flunky, Tom Tiffany claiming Francesca Hong is a Satanist who wore a hat bearing the mark of the devil—three sixes. Sincerely.

Molly Beck ran the absurdity as a he-said, she-said piece, not bothering to report the lack of evidence of satanism, the falsity of what Republicans said, the utter ridiculousness of the charge, or the fact that the Republican attack is not true. 

This is what passes for modern journalism. 

If you subscribe to Wisconsin State Journal and Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, dump the trash.

Hong campaign opponents, David Crowley and Kelda Roys, facing little pathway to the nomination on Aug 11, issued critical statements that this writer will not bother posting here because of the pure inanity of the comment; see Heartland Post.

Ann Jacobs, Political Mania

Meanwhile, the unhinged Ann Jacobs, former Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) Commissioner, and a supporter of David Crowley, blasted Francesca Hong in a fit of Hypomania and falsehoods, calling for banning of speech and speakers such as Piker whom Jacobs views as hateful for opposing Genocide. 

Reports Urban Milwaukee on Jacobs' incoherent and defamatory rant:

[Jacobs] tweeted that Hong was "willing to sell out the Jews of Wisconsin for a few bucks."

"Why are those people you want to be in conversation with? Is it just for the money? You’re willing to sell out the Jews of Wisconsin so that you can raise money? That’s disturbing," said Jacobs, who also co-chairs the Jewish Caucus of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, in an interview with Wisconsin Public Radio.

"I don’t think we should tolerate all forms of opinions," Jacobs added. "I don’t think that we should tolerate antisemitism, Islamophobia, and all these other hate groups that are rampant right now on social media."

Jacobs reposted on X, posts by David Crowley and Molly Beck.

In the political atmosphere today, anyone objecting to israel-committed Genocide, slaughter of children and rape are asserted to be per force anti-Semites.

Absurd, but the McCarthyite defamation helps the Democrat Party to smash candidates who stand with working class families, always a frightening prospect for the Democratic Party establishment.

History repeats.
 
McCarthyism

In the 1940-50s, Truman, Democrats and Joe McCarthy ushered in an era of suppression, working to squash labor-led effort to help out working class folk, as McCarthyism ruined lives to counter the "energizing effect of the war and the depression in mobilizing the population, and causing them to challenge the- to reveal the mysteries of government, and do all these bad things," noted Noam Chomsky, (Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media. Delivered at University of Wisconsin – Madison, March 15, 1989). ... "Wars, depressions, and such things, they have a way of arousing people from apathy, and making them think, and sometimes even organize."

Progressives and working-class advocates thinking, organizing and running for office have caused Democrats to veer into political hysterics.

As Trump, delving into lunacy extreme even for him. declares prominent politicians opposing him as a 'communist' and 'anti-Semitic' and 'terrorist,' those who either have lived through McCarthyism or are students of the political mania, see history repeated in many Democrats and media propaganda led by the Wisconsin State Journal and the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.
 
McCarthyism is alive and well in Wisconsin, though the conventional slur today is anti-Semite, not communist, unless you're the president.
---
Top candidates for the 2026 Democratic Party nominee for Wisconsin governor include: Mandela Barnes (the top Zionist), Francesca Hong, Sara Rodriguez, David Crowley, and Kelda Roys.

Election Day is August 11.
#

Francesca Hong Could Change Socialism in Wisconsin and America
See video below:

Mar 30, 2026

Democrats, Zionism Target Liberty in Wisconsin

Over 850 people hit the streets in Ashland, Wisconsin
No Kings march. (Image from Ros Nelson, Facebook). 

Democrats Give Up Ship to Zionists

Commentary

Madison, Wisconsin — Wisconsin remains peace-and-liberty-minded. Peace movement flourishes here as exemplified in No Kings protests across the state last Saturday, seeing Jewish Voice for Peace and Vets for Peace folk, for example, as well as 1,000s of anti-ICE folks.

But elected Wisconsin Democrats in the state Capitol and Congress don't get the message of the people

In fact, Wisconsin Democrat politicians reject peace-and-liberty commitments of the people whom they represent, and Zionist work abounds among elected officials.

Wisconsin Democrat Pols Equal Zionists

The day before the No Kings demonstrations, Gov Tony Evers (D) signed into law Zionist-pushed legislation, (Assembly Bill 446; 2025 Wisconsin Act 143). 

The Zionist Act adapts absurd political definitions of anti-Semitism to further anti-liberty, thought-control purposes of aiding criminal sanction, codifying Zionist tenets, right as Zionist movement commits Genocide and annexes land, ala Nazi Germany, South Africa, and other totalitarian movements, (Wisconsin Examiner; The Capital Times; The Progressive Magazine).

The anti-Semitism definitions were adopted by the ironically self-defined International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, a project advocating punitive criminal sanction worldwide for voicing thought at variance with Apartheid-Zionist thought. 

For example, the anti-Semitism definition would bring criminal sanction for, "drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis," (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance), if a legal claim is made of discrimination, or prejudicial action.

Some 37 states adopt some manner of Zionist thought control, as countries across the Western world even criminalize slogans calling for peace and human rights.

In practice, the new Zionist codification of alleged hate speech would empower Wisconsin municipalities' police, for example, to walk up to a citizen holding a sign condemning Israeli Apartheid, or torture, or rape, or Genocide, write a citation for disorderly conduct or some other bullshit municipal ticket, then under color of, and with aid of anti-Semitism statute, pursue hate-crime enhancer charges.

Notes Howard Schweber, UW-Madison First Amendment scholar, "But they’re [Wisconsin speech-code advocates] saying in all the contexts in which we already have laws that … target racist or prejudicial actions, where the claim is that the action is anti-Semitic, this is the definition we’ll use to test that claim," (Jacobs, The Capital Times).

And the hell with the First Amendment. Wisconsin already has a hate crime statute on the books.

In Wisconsin, municipal citations are first litigated in municipal courts, kangaroo courts in which Due Process rights are virtually non-existent. [See an illustration of mass politically motivated police actions and adjudication in action when 1,000s of citations from 2011-12 at the Wisconsin Capitol were written for singing or walking by and listening during anti-Gov. Scott Walker thought actions. All citations, after years of litigation, were thrown out and found violative of the First Amendment.]

All criminal prosecutions of lawful speech require is a dishonest cop and a crooked district attorney. As a lifelong Wisconsinite, I can assure such people exist.
Zionist work is about crushing dissent and liberty, just as Gov Scott Walker did.

UW-Madison Takes Aim at Anti-Genocide Student Government

The University of Wisconsin at Madison last week officially condemned a student government resolution advocating a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions action against the Apartheid entity of Israel.

Reports the Badger Herald daily student newspaper: 
"The University of Wisconsin said Wednesday that it is disappointed with the passage of an Associated Students of Madison (ASM) resolution, according to a UW press release. The resolution issued a number of flawed, unrelated and illegal demands, according to the press release."

The ASM resolution, introduced by Students for Justice in Palestine, calls for the Universities of Wisconsin to divest from BlackRock index funds, which contain holdings in weapons manufacturers that supply weapons and military technology to the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan and the Israeli Defense Force, according to the resolution."

Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D)

Tammy Baldwin offers her Zionist perspective on a recent PBS Wisconsin interview, by omitting mention of Israel altogether in her discussion of the Israeli-U.S. war against Iran.

Sen Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin) leads 
the Wisconsin congressional delegation in 
accepting Israel Lobby funds. Baldwin is a
reliable vote for the Israeli Lobby, and is
known as calculating and mealy-mouthed.
This apes a recent trend in which writers absurdly minimize or obscure Israeli involvement in the Israeli-U.S. war against Iran, (Foreign Policy; Jewish Currents; CounterPunch; ScheerReport). 

Iran War? Who? Israel?

From social media, to columns in weekly newspapers such as the Mount Horeb Mail, Baldwin takes the Zionist line on anti-Semitism and Israeli wars. [Full disclosure. I wrote in a reply to Baldwin's PBS Wisconsin interview: "Typical Baldwin. Not one word about Israel (Baldwin took $700,000 from Israel Lobby), national security state, a moral assessment. Baldwin was vacuous and clueless. How can you address the Israeli-U.S. War against Iran, and not mention Israel?"]

Meanwhile, fellow Zionists in Congress such as Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla) work with the police to target anti-Zionist thought, lest the American people put a stop to American support for the Zionist entity, Israel. 

In Miami Beach, police visit the homes of those citizens who dare voice disapproval of Israel.

The aim is intimidation. Now, one woman is suing. 

Wasserman Schultz and similarly-minded Zionists will not stop.


---
Wisconsin people remain tied to best traditions, but we face a time when virtually all state and federal elected representatives are First Amendment illiterates and pro-Zionist cowards, preferring passive compliance over active thought. 

The country witnesses Zionist attempts to criminalize lawful public dissent, disregarding liberty and open discussion of governments—human work that remains not just personal liberty but an essential part of our free society, and simple decency.

But not if  Zionists and allies get their way.  #
MICHAEL LEON is a writer living in Madison, Wisconsin. His writing has appeared nationally in The Progressive, In These Times, and CounterPunch.

May 14, 2025

Jacqueline Marie Captain, 1957 - 2024

Jackie Captain, one-year anniversary of her passing — One full year has passed since my wife, Jackie, died.
What a life; man, did Jackie love people.
I do not know if I could have made it this far without the showering of love and good will that came my way.
From our neighborhood alone, Jamestown, powerful emissions of peace arrived like explosions.
We are going to have a great Summer.
If folks ever feel down, I can tell you the basic decency of humanity is so immense, decency is axiomatic.
Count on it.
Happy Summer!

Oct 14, 2024

Wisconsin, Race and Election Time

Sauk County Wisconsin is pictured above. I love Sauk County,
and it's only real sin is not voting for neo-lib, corporatist
Democrats enough to assuage corporate media.
Madison, Wisconsin — Reporting from Baraboo, (Sauk County), Dionne Searcey has a fine piece on racism, rural Wisconsin and the 2024 elections in the New York Times this morning.

"No Politics and No Religion," read prominent notes in the Square Tavern in Baraboo (Facebook), reports Searcey.

Topics leave too many bad feelings; like hitting on a man's girlfriend, or drinking someone's beer.

The problem with Ms. Searcey's reporting, like every corporate-liberal politicos', is a fundamentalist embrace of identity politics and the Standard Social Scientific Model of human nature that is almost Skinnerean-Behaviorist in its hidebound smugness.

Identity politics are what the progressive heretic, Matt Taibbi, derides as dogma that human beings are the walking "embodiment" of every contrived aspect of their identity, as imposed by the liberal priests of academia, corporate media and the Democratic Party.

You think you know who you are, readers? No. You are what the liberal elites say you are. Forget your character, it's your skin color.

Identity politics, as nonsensical as it is, serves a purpose. It's a cover for the Democratic Party's embrace of war (and Genocide), and long-term abandonment of the working class. And this does cause resentment.

Searcey touches on this:

Jerry Helmer, the Sauk County Republican Party chairman, said what voters in Sauk County are worried about is the economy, and they think Democratic elites such as Ms. Harris do not care about the middle class. 'I hear more and more that nobody knows what her policies are,' said Mr. Helmer, who lives outside Baraboo in Prairie du Sac and is a candidate for the state legislature. 'She comes off like a ditz.'
Mr. Helmer is right on all counts. But his brand of heresy is heard as imprecation by today's Democratic Party elites.

And when Helmer and Wisconsin, deliver Wisconsin to Donald Trump, identity politics will be a big factor; along with that whole Genocide thing that elected Democrats pretend is not happening.

Mar 23, 2021

Fitchburg, Wisconsin Malarkey — Kierstin Huelsemann and Dorothy Krause

Identity Politics Goes Down the Sewer

Update: Dave Herbst upsets five-term incumbent Ald Dorothy Krause - 375 votes - 323 votes.

Fitchburg, Wisconsin — There was a time not long ago when sticking up for neighbors against home invasions, break-ins, and vehicle thefts was politically axiomatic. 

Everyone was for the sanctity of the home, it didn't matter your politics, beliefs or commitments.

No more, not in Fitchburg.

The Fitchburg, Wisconsin. Spring elections have begun, and a Common Council race for Fitchburg alder district one is drawing attention on this score. 

The candidates are Dorothy Krause (inc) and Dave Herbst.

Herbst is a popular former youth coach, a hard-working old-school guy who helps neighbors all over the district with problems and advice.

Raised on a farm, now a general manager with a utility services company, Dave seems to know a lot about just about everything.

A branch had fallen down over the Winter, and when the snow thawed, I asked Dave if he had a saw I could borrow. Two mornings later before I even had my coffee, I saw Dave outside. He had cut up the whole branch, ready for pick-up.

This exemplifies who he is, and I want this guy on the Fitchburg Common Council, because Dave Herbst really likes to solve problems. 

Last weekend, after a big old couch was dumped on the neighborhood park-basketball court, Dave calls up neighbors and says, let's take an axe to this thing, break it up and get rid of it. Problem solved.

One of the problems Dave is working on now is building strong neighborhoods to defend against the vehicle theft and home break-ins in Dane County. It's bad; Google vehicle thefts Dane County WI.

Turns out the Fitchburg Council incumbent, Dorothy Krause, and her campaign, refuse to criticize the criminals terrorizing the region, and when pressed actually identity with the criminals against the victims.

Check out Fitchburg Politics - Facebook. A recent dialogue instructs.

A Dorothy Krause supporter wrote a pro-Krause piece, and I wrote in reply that the alder was out-of-touch with her constituents and unresponsive to crime victims in the district.

In sum, the families of criminals should be paying their victims, not the other way around.

So, one Kierstin Huelsemann writes in part, "What is funny to me is how you continue to claim to be progressive in your politics while championing inequitable solutions, out dated (sic) narratives, as well as solutions that continue to fail to actually change things in any meaningful way."

This is in reply to my criticizing criminal terrorizing homes. 

I tried again. "You again express no empathy for my neighbors whose homes have been attacked," I write.

The reply: "
I really do feel sad that that is where your mindset is. Hopefully one day you will be willing to shift and build your analysis/understanding a bit more," and comprehend "transformative solutions" to the criminals' invasion of homes.

Krause just waves a flag and the Democratic Party comes running.

April 6 is Election Day. If Krause is where the Democratic Party is heading, there is a bad storm brewing.

Writes Fitchburg resident, Steven Karlin, after being sent to links spelling out "transformational politics.":

Kierstin Huelsemann,

Holy crap, it looks like those articles were written by a random text generator. As far as the chart goes, when the strategy is to create a strategy, you lose me. 
 
Is there a candidate who favors a social change model where the a-holes who stole my kids' bikes out of the garage in broad daylight have to give the bikes back and then go to jail where they can't steal anyone else's bikes? Because that person would get my vote.

Mar 21, 2021

Fitchburg Residents Defend and Clean Up the Park, Neighborhood

Fitchburg residents, Eric Podell, Dave Herbst and Alan Craig,
take an axe to old couch despoiling their neighborhood. On a
Saturday morning, they picked up garbage, trash and refuse
left on residents' and City property in an ongoing battle.
Update: Dave Herbst upsets five-term incumbent Ald Dorothy Krause - 375 votes - 323 votes.

Fitchburg, Wisconsin — In Fitchburg's Jamestown neighborhood, an enclave of beautiful homes with immaculate yards and gardens dot King James Blvd in this city bordering Madison.

The families love their homes and take the interested on tours around the neighborhood with obvious pride. Lovely homes and community though, have become a point of contention.

This is because a small, unorganized group of folks in the same neighborhood adamantly believe in their right to dump garbage, litter in these same lawns and leave old couches and other trash in a nearby park. Outcasts and hooligans, right? Wrong.
They have support from a sitting City Council member and other supporters who regard complaints about the garbage as per force racist is another illustration of how deranged identity politics have become. 

Neighborhood residents have had enough. One resident, Dave Herbst, is running for alder against the pro-garbage-in-your-lawn incumbent, Dorothy Krause.

On a beautiful Saturday morning, Herbst and three neighbors canvassed the neighborhood picking up litter, and breaking up an old, very heavy couch dumped in a neighborhood park next to a basketball court.

The residents expressed disgust with Alder Krause, seen as perpetually defending the vandalism and destruction of a neighborhood she was elected to defend.

Dave Herbst is no stranger to complex municipal policy questions, but he is making this simple fight for clean and safe neighborhood a major plank of his campaign.

Fed-up, these residents literally took an axe to an old couch, and broke it up for the City to pick up, after taking away the bulk.

The pictures and video below chronicle the events of Saturday morning and the larger fight to defend a neighborhood, homes and a way of life. 







 












A job well-done, and the fight continues as Dave enlists new help for the future:



Dec 17, 2020

The Progressive: Fucking Garbage, Piece of Shit Pig, Socialist, Tyrant, Woman, Say Callers to Wisc Supreme Court Judge Who Noted Racism in Trump Election Case

Madison, Wisconsin — Invective and hysteria describe several phone messages left to a Wisconsin Supreme Court justice following her characterization of a Trump campaign lawsuit as "racist," "shameful" and "un-American" in Dec 12 oral arguments.

The case, decided on Dec 14 against Trump's attempt to overturn the Wisconsin election, is: 2020AP2038 Donald J. Trump, Michael R. Pence and Donald J. Trump for President, Inc.,Plaintiffs-Appellants,v. Joseph R. Biden, Kamala D. Harris, Milwaukee County Clerk c/o George L. Christenson, Milwaukee County Board of Canvassers c/o Tim Posnanski, Wisconsin Elections Commission, Ann S. Jacobs, Dane County Clerk c/o Scott McDonell and Dane County Board of Canvassers c/o Alan Arnsten,

In recordings obtained by Bill Lueders, editor of the The Progressive Magazine, through an open records request, voicemails message left for Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Jill Karofsky are sometimes hysterical and hostile, accusing the "socialist tyrant bitch" judge of protecting voter fraud, among other imagined crimes.

The Republican Party has become openly racist for the last several decades, and now works against the rights of minorities in policy, the judiciary and political rhetoric.

Writes Lueders:

In the days following her astringent questioning and subsequent vote against an effort by President Donald Trump to subvert the will of the electorate by tossing out hundreds of thousands of Wisconsin votes, state Supreme Court Justice Jill Karofsky has received a flurry of angry voicemail messages on her official court phone line.

'You got a lot of guts,' one caller stated, as recorded in an MP3 file released Wednesday [Dec 16] to The Progressive in response to an open records request. 'You refer to Trump as a king? Yet you are the tyrant bitch. You are the tyrant bitch who allows cheating and fraud to put a socialist puppet of China in the White House. Trump is not a king. Trump is a President legally elected by the people, not the fraud you allow, you fucking bitch. You’re the socialist tyrant bitch. Trump is an American patriot. And you’re fucking garbage, you fucking piece of shit pig.'
The racist Trump campaign has been virtually shut out in the judiciary, and President Biden-elect Biden will assume office on Jan 20, 2021.

Aug 24, 2020

Tony Evers' Cold-blooded Response to Police Attempted Murder of Jacob Blake

Kenosha police attemepted to execute Jacob Blake, a peacemaker
If police shot your friend seven times in an attempt to murder him in front of his three children, would you send a sympathy card reading: 'I offer you my empathy following police engaging with you. I hope earnestly you will not succumb to your injuries. Hope action follows my empathy.'

If you did, anyone reading the card would ask, what in the hell is wrong with you?

This is Gov Tony Evers' reaction to the latest police attempt to kill a black man.

Kenohsa police followed a man, Jacob Blake, walking to his car Sunday night and then shot him seven times in the back. The attempted murder is caught on video.

The reaction of the Wisconsin Democrat to this latest police outrage is causing that skin-crawling sensation one gets when encountering a psychopath, someone incapable of empathy and the realization that human beings are inherently worthy.

When you encounter a mal-formed human being such as a psychopath or a child molester, you want to slap the freak, and tell him to get the hell out of here.

Who witnesses cold-blood attempted murder and then writes a statement,
'I offer you my empathy. I hope earnestly you will not succumb to your injuries. Hope action follows my empathy.'

This is the low-life Evers trying to impersonate a human being.

Tony Evers. Wisconsin is now ground zero in the social justice movement and we are treated to this lunatic who is pathetically out-of-touch with the concerns of human beings.

Watch the next days, Wisconsin Democrats will not criticize Evers.

Evers' full statement sent on Twitter last night is reproduced below:

 Video of the would-be police execution is below. Don't look away,

Jul 28, 2020

Gov Tony Evers on Defensive Again as He Dithers on Mandatory Masks

A Facebook message speaks for many across Wisconsin.
Madison, Wisconsin — The push against Wisconsin Gov Tony Evers (D) for his refusal to issue executive orders mandating masks in public is mounting.

Tony 'Mush' Evers will hesitate, dither, wobble, anything but act.

This Evers' failure to act will cost lives.

Evers' tendency to hesitate played out in the run-up to the April 7 elections in which Evers ignored public health officials, local elections officials and the Wisconsin people until he finally bowed to the national ridicule to which the state was subjected.


Just out from The Capital Times:

Gov. Tony Evers has yet to issue a statewide mask order.

The governor says that, in the face of a surge in coronavirus cases, a statewide mask mandate is 'something we’re considering.' To our view, it is time for Evers to stop considering and start acting.

Evers cannot allow himself to be constrained by shortsighted partisans who oppose everything he does. Wisconsin is now the only state in the country with a Democratic governor that does not have a mask mandate. It is time for Evers to call the bluff of Republicans when it comes to matters of public health and safety. The governor has the power to take action to save lives and the economy, and Wisconsinites want him to use it.

Apr 3, 2020

Sign of the Times — Wisconsin's Bucky Badger in Mask over Nose and Mouth

A van delivering lifesaving oxygen
supplies displays Bucky Badger
wearing a cloth face-covering over
his nose and mouth this weekend.
Photo: Michael Leon
Madison, Wisconsin — Coronavirus COVID 19 is rampaging the human world, (CDC, World Health Organization, Madison, Wisconsin-Dane County Public Health).

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just issued a recommendation for use of cloth face coverings, "especially in areas of significant community-based transmission."
 
At a delivery here of an oxygen concentrator — that takes oxygen from room air, and filters this vital gas to people for respiration — a local medical supply business manages to be both lifesaving and funny.

On the sides of a UW Health Home Medical Equipment and Supplies (Chartwell Midwest Wisconsin) van is the iconic Bucky Badger.

This truck (above-right, and below) features Bucky wearing a yellow cloth mask to display solidarity with public health and active measures by fellow citizens keeping us all safe.

A van delivering lifesaving oxygen supplies displays
Bucky Badger wearing a cloth face-covering over his
nose and mouth this weekend.
Photo: Michael Leon

Nov 13, 2019

Wisconsin Veteran Was Awarded 70 Percent of Benefits for Which He Was Criminally Convicted of Receiving

Updated - "Despotism is a plan alone, without law and without rule, leading all its will and caprices," wrote Montesquieu, an Enlightenment political philosopher preceding the American Revolution.

The wrongfully convicted Navy veteran, Keith Roberts, is the victim of caprice and an orchestrated scheme to criminally target this veteran for fraud though Roberts' Claims file or C-file abundantly documents his claim for disability benefits for his diagnosed PTSD condition.

A legal argument advanced by Roberts concerns the U.S. Dept of Veterans Affairs and U.S. Dept of Justice's disregard of laws and rules that govern the conduct of federal agencies towards citizens applying for services and benefits, such as military veterans.

Laws and rules in place guide the adjudication of claims, though these legal processes are superseded by the caprice of men and women, in Roberts case.

Like 100,000s of veterans, Roberts engaged in the convoluted process of the VA bureaucracy seeking disability benefits in what is supposed to be a non-adversarial process under the Veterans' Judicial Review Act (1988) that empowers veterans the right to judicial review of decisions involving their benefits under the exclusive authority of the legislatively created VA adjudication procedures.

Roberts’ benefits claim — related to his PTSD that was diagnosed as occurring because of the in-service stressor event of witnessing and trying to prevent his friend (Airman Gary Holland) from being crushed to death by a C-54 airplane while stationed at a Naval air base in Naples, Italy in 1969, and an unrelated assault by the Navy Shore Patrol — was granted at the 100 percent disability level in May 1999.

But Roberts became a target when the VA and U.S. DoJ hatched their plan to probe and prosecute Roberts, as indicated in emails obtained by Roberts' attorney, Bob Walsh.

Former VA General Counsel attorney and VA national Director of Compensation and Pension Services, Renee L. Szybala, authored the VA’s response to a Robert's letter to the VA, and, evidence suggests, engineered the 2005-06 prosecution of Roberts by U.S. Atty Biskupic.

As Roberts’ attorney Robert Walsh states in his CAVC (U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims) Supplemental brief filed in July 2007: "Ms. Renee Szybala, who responded to the letter for the Secretary, then appears to have had a direct involvement in orchestrating the efforts to commence criminal proceedings against the appellant in Federal District Court when she knew his appeals were pending at either the BVA (Board of Veterans' Appeals) or this Court (the CAVC)."

Szybala, who moved on from her position as VA Director of Compensation and Pension Services, was responsible for managing the network of VA Regional Offices across the country.

In an e-mail of January 27, 2005 from Debi Bevins, Special Assistant to the (VA) Secretary Jim Nicholson, Bevins asked Szybala: "Is there any truth to what Keith Roberts alleges in this e-mail?" referring to Roberts’ allegations of fraud and violations of his due process rights, and Roberts' declarations of his rightful entitlement pertaining to his experiencing what the VA calls "stressors."

In the same e-mail, Bevins asks: "Have we heard any news on the prosecution of Keith Roberts?"

Szybala replies in part in an e-mail dated January 27, 2005 that: "Of course not (there is no truth to Roberts’ allegations). But he (Roberts) may be confused and believe it. I have known of and been dealing with Mr. Roberts’ complaints for several years now, dating to my time at OGC (VA Office of the General Counsel) as explained in the message below. … In the interest of full disclosure, I also have a letter on this case from the American Legion, dated October 15, 2004 (asking for Vasil’s report), to which I have not yet responded. The fraud for which Mr. Roberts’ service connection was severed was uncovered, investigated, and reported by the OIG (Office of the Inspector General). To respond to the Legion’s letter, we need to confer with the OIG and have had trouble connecting. When we do we’ll ask them the question about the prosecution, too. My guess is, however, that this case would not interest a U.S. Attorney … ."

Several points made in this and subsequent e-mails obtained by the defense and not presented at the criminal trial by a young attorney (though successfully made part of the record of appeal at CAVC (U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims) after efforts by Roberts' subsequent atty, Robert Walsh) are critical and raise questions about the propriety of the prosecution instigated by the VA.

No testimony or evidence was presented at Roberts’ trial pertaining to Ms. Szybala’s statement that Szybala had been dealing with Roberts’ allegations and complaints for several years and that Szybala stated that "… he (Roberts) may be confused and believe it."

This is significant because if Roberts believed the VA claim that he was pursuing and Szybala assumed Roberts’ believed his claim, this discredits the principal allegation of the government’s criminal case that Roberts devised a "scheme" to formulate misrepresentations with the intent of defrauding the VA, the alleged crime for which Roberts was imprisoned for almost four years.

[In fact, the government in the person of Barbra Nehls of the Milwaukee VA Regional office wrongly claimed at trial that Roberts’ benefits were reduced based upon the VA’s determination that Roberts’ statements of facts from 1969 formed the basis of the VA decision to grant or deny benefits. This is a material misrepresentation of VA procedure: The determination of PTSD-related benefits relies upon medical evidence (such as being diagnosed by five different medical professionals that a vet has PTSD) and the existence of an in-service stressor (such as the reality that a man was crushed to death by a C-54 aircraft while an Airman was on duty), per 38 CFR (Code of Federal Regulations) 3.304(f). All a veteran has to achieve in first-person testimony is corroboration, not verification. The Code defines Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as Service connection for post-traumatic stress disorder; (PTSD) requires medical evidence diagnosing the condition in accordance with 38 CFR 4.125(a); a link, established by medical evidence, between current symptoms and an in-service stressor; and credible evidence that the claimed in-service stressor occurred (38 CFR 3.304(f))].

Officials from the Milwaukee Regional Office and Special Agent Raymond Vasil’s Inspector General’s (OIG) office were included in the series of e-mails including one e-mail from the OIG's Vasil dated January 27, 2005, stating: "The U.S. Attorney is interested in prosecuting. He is not 100% yet and wanted me to interview any additional persons I could find that were present when the original accident happened in 1969 … ."

Commander Robert Don Hathaway (USN) and officer-in-charge was present when the original accident happened, and was not interviewed by the Inspector General’s (OIG) office.

Seems they wouldn't have liked what Comd Hathaway had to say. After a four-hour deposition conducted in early 2019 by atty Walsh, Hathaway's April 2019 affidavit is an exoneration of Keith Roberts from the ludicrous indictment that Roberts lied about his role trying to save his friend from being crushed to death.

Everyone near the C-54 acted to save a man being crushed to death, some more effectively than others.

The engineering of the prosecution evident from the e-mails and the rushed, extraordinary prosecution itself were challenged in Roberts’ supplemental brief filed at the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (CAVC) in July 2007.

"As detailed in the brief, the conduct of the (VA) Secretary has been contrary to law, in bad faith, highly adversarial. There is an inference of impropriety by any number of senior officials in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs," reads the brief filed by attorney Robert Walsh.

And it bears repeating from the brief: "Ms. Renee Szybala, who responded to the letter for the Secretary, then appears to have had a direct involvement in orchestrating the efforts to commence criminal proceedings against the appellant in Federal District Court when she knew his appeals were pending at either the BVA (Board of Veterans' Appeals) or this Court (the CAVC)."

Two VA e-mails include.


A reader following this story may have noted the jumping back and forth between Roberts' VA claim and Roberts' fight against his criminal prosecution.

Reads Roberts’ Court of Appeals for Veterans claims (CAVC) July 2007 brief:

The referral of this case directly from the VA OIG’s Chicago office to the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin for criminal proceedings is contrary to law, justice, equity, and fair play.

When the Court rules to restore the benefits of the Appellant, we shall have arrived at an absurd 'Alice in Wonderland' result. A veteran will sit in prison for accepting the wire transfer of funds to which he was legally entitled. … This extraordinary rendition of a veteran from a VA administrative dispute directly into Federal District Court on criminal charges is unprecedented.
We are here; it is Alice in Wonderland.

Keith Roberts is now back to receiving 70 percent of his 100 percent VA benefits, and his new start date is two years earlier than it had been awarded previously.

Perhaps Keith Roberts can have 70 percent of his days in prison back?

Roberts' next step is to get this 2006 criminal conviction vacated or overturned.

Veterans' advocates estimate there have been some 5,000 cases where the VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) or other VA officials have targeted veterans with criminal prosecutions while the VA is still adjudicating claims.

One problem is the OIG does not probe VA employees who ignore the law and regulations to target innocent veterans. Rather, the OIG is simply a hammer used to pound veterans into submission.

But Roberts and his attorney, Bob Walsh, will not give up as they push for full benefits restoration as prelude to vindication and exoneration.

Other attorneys in the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims bar agreee a time of reckoning is upon us.

Kisor v. Wilkie 139 S.Ct. 2400 (2019), and Monk v. Shulkin, 855 F.3d 1312 (Fed. Cir. 2017) may provide the legal precedent to end the abuse of veterans accused of benefits fraud.

Walsh's March 4, 2019 letter to U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs General Counsel, Mr. James M. Byrne is reproduced below.
--
March 4, 2019


U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Mr. James M. Byrne
General Counsel
810 Vermont A venue, N. W.
Washington, D.C. 20420

Re: Demand for a Hearing in accordance with 38 C.F.R. §§ 42.1-42.47 (1988)
Keith A. Roberts, VA Claim Number C 28 353 461

Dear Mr. Byrne:

In 2005 I was asked to assist Mr. Keith A. Roberts in the adjudication of the allegation of benefits fraud made against him by employees of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General. Fourteen years later a final agency decision has still not been made in that dispute.

By a letter dated October 15, 2004, Mr. Phillip R. Wilkerson of the
American Legion wrote to the Director of the Compensation and Pension Service
of the Veterans Benefits Administration demanding a hearing regarding the
benefits fraud allegations made against him in accordance with 38 C.F.R. §§ 42.1-
42.47 (1988). (Exhibit 1.) That hearing has never been provided.
During the pendency of his recent appeal before the U.S. Court of Appeals
for Veterans Claims in docket 16-1219 a motion to intervene as amicus curia was
filed on behalf of Veterans for Due Process, Inc., (Mr. Philip Cushman). (Exhibit
2
Congressional mandated due process protections set forth in 38 C.F.R. §§ 42.1-
42.47 and the unlawful policy of the Veterans Administration (now U.S.
Department of Veterans Affairs) to circumvent them since 1986 is highly relevant
to this demand.
Keith A. Roberts, 38 C.F.R. §§ 42.1-42.47
In 1986 Congress completed an extensive effort aimed at improving
contract and benefits fraud adjudications by the federal government. See United
States. Cong. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary. Overview of False Claims and
Fraud Legislation. Hearing, Jun. 17, 1986. 99th Cong. 2nd Sess. Washington:
GPO, 1987. A copy of the legislative history is attached. (Exhibit 3.)
The Congressional effort was to end the Balkanized procedures found
throughout the federal government so as to protect the rights of those accused of
benefits fraud and also to protect the interests of the taxpayers.
The Veterans Administration promulgated regulations in accordance with
the 1986 legislation. The regulations were amended in 1988 to reflect the creation
of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and have not been amended since.
See 38 C.F.R. §§ 42.1-42.47 (1988).
In 2005 I made requests to your agency under the Freedom of Information
Act (FOIA). The responses supported my conclusion that the U.S. Department of
Veterans Affairs has never complied with the regulations for benefits fraud
adjudications. The Veterans Benefits Administration and the Office ofinspector
General make use of an ad hoc system which deprives veterans and other
beneficiaries of proper notice, a meaningful opportunity to be heard, and any
opportunity to confront evidence being used against them. Not only is the current
procedure devoid of fundamental fairness and due process, but unfounded
allegations of benefits fraud are placed in the veterans benefits claims file.
Thousands of employees of the Veterans Benefits Administration can lawfully
access the computerized claims file. The response to a recent FOIA request dated
August 10, 2018, indicates that since May 11, 1988, 4,163 VA benefits fraud cases
had been referred to the U.S. Department of Justice. These cases have been
referred by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General
(VA OIG) directly to United States Attorneys around the country. (Exhibits 4.)
A response from your office confirms that the due process protections found in 38
C.F.R. §§ 42.1-42.47 have never been afforded to any of these veterans accused of
benefits fraud.
Page 2 of 6
Keith A. Roberts, 38 C.F.R. §§ 42.1-42.47
One of the most troubling aspects of my involvement in the adjudication of
benefits fraud allegations by your agency has been the litigation position adopted
by your office. In Roberts v. Shinseki, 23 Vet.App. 416 (20 1 0), counsel for the
Secretary argued in supplemental briefing that your office had no role to play in
the adjudication of benefits fraud matters. During oral argument before the three
judge panel and later the en bane Court the position of the Secretary was that the
Office of General Counsel had no role to play in the adjudication ofbenefits fraud.
Counsel further stated that the reference to claims in 38 C.F.R. § 14.561 only
referred to claims by or against contractors. Since the agency had over 1 million
active claims for disability benefits pending at that time I found that position to be
rather remarkable. The ad hoc process employed by the VA OIG is devoid of due
process, fundamental fairness, and any reasonable degree of competence.
Veterans are denied access to the procedural due process afforded the recipients of
other federal benefits accused of fraud. The review of fraud allegations by your
office found in the regulations along with the preparation of a detailed complaint
to be served on the accused would have resulted in hundreds of the cases referred
to the United States Attorneys for prosecution being resolved administratively.
The recent case of U.S. v. Monkemeyer, 2:17-cr-10-PLM, U.S. District
Court for the Western District of Michigan, is illustrative of the hazards inherent
with the current "sand lot" procedures used to process benefits fraud allegations
by your agency. Mr. Monkemeyer was accused of altering his DD-214 by
employees of the VA Regional Office (RO) in Detroit, Michigan. His benefits
claims had been adjudicated by employees of the RO in West Virginia. His
unemployability determination was made by the Maine RO. Several years later he
was accused of benefits fraud. His disability compensation benefits were severed
and that decision is pending review by the BV A. He was indicted for theft of
government property under 18 U.S.C. § 641. After months of motions, discovery
and investigation a three day jury trial was held in 2018. Mr. Monkemeyer was
acquitted. His disability benefits have not been restored, nor had the damage to
his reputation. In addition, the unfounded allegations against him can still be
found in his VA benefits file. The economic harm to the taxpayers and Mr.
Monkemeyer have been significant. The personal damage to Mr. Monkemeyer has
been even more egregious. Had Mr. Monkemeyer been afforded his due process
rights under 38 C.F.R. §§ 42.1-42.47 much of the harm could have been avoided.
Page 3 of 6
Keith A. Roberts, 38 C.F.R. §§ 42.1-42.47
The United States Supreme Court raised the standard for fraud pleading in
civil matters in Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 127 S. Ct. 1955
(2007) and Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 129 S. Ct. 1937 (2009). Mr. Roberts
was deprived of any meaningful notice of the allegations against him. The VA
refused to provide Mr. Roberts or his American Legion representative a copy of
the report of the VA OIG which made allegations of benefits fraud against him.
That report had been placed in his benefits claims file. Both he and his American
Legion representatives were also denied access to his VA benefits claims file at
his hearing in Washington D.C. before the Board of Veterans Appeals (BVA) in
2005. It has since been determined that his appeal was adjudicated using an
incomplete photocopy of his claims file as the original was in the possession of the
employees of the VA OIG Chicago office.
As a former staff attorney for your agency I find the adjudication of a quasicriminal
allegation in what was intended by Congress to be a non-adversarial and
claimant friendly benefits system to an affront to logic and contrary to common
sense. As discussed in the amicus curia brief attached, an allegation of benefits
fraud should be closely held. Such an allegation is the province of the Office of
Inspector General and the Office of General Counsel. Unfounded allegations of
fraud have no place in a veterans benefits claims file. With the new national work
queue hundreds if not thousands of employees of the Veterans Benefits
Administration can access a file and review allegations that may or may not have
any basis in fact.
In the event a veteran is found innocent of any wrongdoing there is no
process or procedure available to remove fraud allegations from a benefits file.
Such allegations and related evidence should be restricted to files maintained by
your office and the Office of Inspector General in accordance with the procedures
mandated by 38 C.F.R. §§ 42.1-42.47. This is the exact issue now confronting
Mr. Monkemeyer. How do you un-ring a bell?
Some insight into the convoluted and unlawful procedures now being
followed by the VA OIG are set forth in the affidavit of Mr. Roberts dated March
9, 2007. (Exhibit 5.)
Page 4 of 6
Keith A. Roberts, 38 C.F.R. §§ 42.1-42.47
Since 1986 veterans and their family members accused of benefits fraud by
your agency have been deprived of due process of law that the recipients of
benefits administered by other departments of the government are routinely
afforded. In many cases veterans and other beneficiaries have been subjected to
premature criminal prosecutions and federal collection efforts without ever having
been afforded notice and an opportunity to be heard as mandated by the
Administrative Procedures Act 5 U.S.C. §§ 551-559, 701-706, 1305,3105, 3344,
4301(2)(E), 5335(a)(B), 5372, and 7521.
In this case Renee Szybala, then the director of compensation and pension
service of the Veterans Benefits Administration, was actively participating in the
effort to have Mr. Roberts indicted. At the same time she was assuring both Mr.
Roberts and his American Legion representative that his appeal was being
processed. Documents obtained in criminal discovery indicate that she had
authored the response to a letter sent by Mr. Roberts to then Secretary of Veterans
Affairs Principi concerning the loss of his benefits and the allegations against him.
Even more disconcerting is the questionable practice of employees of the
Office of Inspector General taking cases where allegations of benefits fraud are
being actively adjudicated by the Veterans Benefits Administration directly to
United States Attorneys for prosecution. The absurd outcome from this practice is
that a federal criminal conviction is obtained, a sentence served, damages
specified by the trial court are being collected, and then years later the benefits in
question are restored. That is what has happened in this case. Mr. Roberts has
had 30 percent of his benefits restored. And that decision is on appeal. So after
more than a decade a final agency decision as to benefits and damages has never
been issued.
Page 5 of 6
Keith A. Roberts, 38 C.F.R. §§ 42.1-42.47
We demand that the disability benefits of Mr. Roberts be restored in full. In
the alternative we request that a proper review of the file be made by your office
and that a complaint issue and proceedings before an administrative law judge be
convened in accordance with 38 C.F.R. §§ 42.1-42.47.
Sincerely, ~
PI'~
Robert P. Walsh
Enclosures: Exhibit 1., Letter, American Legion, Philip B. Wilkerson, to Renee
Szybala, Director of Compensation and Pension Service, October 15, 2004, 6
pages; Exhibit 2., Motion and Brief Amicus of Phillip Cushman, Roberts v.
Wilkie, CAVC 16-1219, motion to intervene denied by order dated October 27,
2017, 57 pages; Exhibit 3., United States. Cong. Senate Committee on the
Judiciary. Overview of False Claims and Fraud Legislation. Hearing, Jun. 17,
1986. 99th Cong. 2nd Sess. Washington: GPO, 1987, 176 pages; Exhibit 4.,
Freedom of Information Act response, August 10, 2018, 3 pages; Exhibit 5.,
Affidavit of Mr. Keith A. Roberts, March 9, 2007, 12 pages.
Page 6 of 6
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