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.

Disgraced Wisconsin District Attorney Wants NYT v. Sullivan 'Overturned' Following Legal Defeat for Cop

Goya Here Comes the Bogeyman,
plate three from Los Caprichos.
Bogeyman do not like criticism
from citizens.

Crooked Cops Fly Together

Commentary

Madison, Wisconsin — Disgraced Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz resigned in 2010 following allegations Kratz sexually harassed several women, including a sexual assault claim alleging Kratz "had forcible sex with an emotionally vulnerable woman after previously prosecuting the woman," (Wisconsin Office of Lawyer Regulation v. Kratz (In re Disciplinary Proceedings Against Kratz)).

Kratz is also notorious for his crooked prosecutions of less than two years earlier from Kratz' harassment and assault, a time during which Kratz corruptly prosecuted two innocents featured in the Emmy-winning Making a Murderer (Netflix) docuseries. Kratz termed himself a "dick" for the assaults, not for the crooked prosecutions.

The "dick" blamed his narcissistic personality disorder and multiple drug addictions, after being driven from the district attorney's office after the allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault came to light, after which he was driven from the Wisconsin legal profession altogether in 2019.

Steven Avery and his nephew, Brendan Dassey, were convicted of first-degree homicide by Kratz for the 2005 murder of a young photographer, Teresa Halbach. Both men are serving life sentences in spectacular miscarriages of justice, supported by Wisconsin Democrats, the better to look tough on crime.

Now, a retired cop, Andrew Colborn, whom Wisconsin citizens say helped frame Steven Avery just lost a civil suit for defamation against Netflix. The case is Andrew L  Colborn v. Netflix, Inc,, et al,, case No. 19-cv-0484-bhl); and the case was dismissed on summary judgement.

The crooked prosecutor Ken Kratz has raised his head again after being driven from office, the law profession and the state of Wisconsin.

Kratz wants the landmark First Amendment case, New York Times v. Sullivan (1964) overturned.

"Shifting the burden to the defamed person to prove he didn’t plant evidence is, of course, an impossible standard. Courts continue to protect big media against any accountability for outrageous claims made in the name of entertainment. It’s time to overturn the NY Times vs Sullivan’s actual malice hurdle and recognize that real people, and their reputations, are being crushed in the process," the Wisconsin Law Journal quoted Kratz last week.

Kratz' statement follows plaintiff Andrew Colborn request to gut NYT v. Sullivan in a legal filing in 2019, a maneuver widely seen as Hail Mary call.

The core holdings of Sullivan protect rights of people in communities to criticize and hold accountable crooked public office holders Kratz and cops in east-central Wisconsin who routinely view with suspicion those citizens who fervently object to their conduct.

Colborn and Kratz are crazy.

Kratz lies whenever he speaks. He lost his career & reputation long before MaM, when he sexually harassed victims in cases he prosecuted & 15 women came forward. MaM just revealed his true character & his wrongful prosecution of innocent BD & SA. #Ibelieve15women #MakingAMurderer https://t.co/e7tGSnFJw6

— Jerome Buting (@JButing) March 16, 2023

New York Times v. Sullivan

In 1964, the New York Times and civil rights workers prevailed over tyrannical Montgomery police and its odious City officials at the United States Supreme Court, New York Times v. Sullivan .

Justice William Brennan writing for a unanimous court authored a defense of the liberty of the people against government tyrants, a principle that today stands as both an inspiring statement for liberty and a landmark declaration of the power of citizens over public officials.

Writes Brennan:

The First Amendment, said Judge Learned Hand,

presupposes that right conclusions are more likely to be gathered out of a multitude of tongues than through any kind of authoritative selection. To many, this is, and always will be, folly, but we have staked upon it our all. United States v. Associated Press, 52 F.Supp. 362, 372 (D.C.S.D.N.Y. 1943).

Mr. Justice Brandeis, in his concurring opinion in Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357, 375-376, gave the principle its classic formulation:

Those who won our independence believed . . . that public discussion is a political duty, and that this should be a fundamental principle of the American government. ... Believing in the power of reason as applied through public discussion, they eschewed silence coerced by law -- the argument of force in its worst form. Recognizing the occasional tyrannies of governing majorities, they amended the Constitution so that free speech and assembly should be guaranteed.

Thus, we consider this case [New York Times v. Sullivan] against the background of a profound national commitment to the principle that debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open, and that it may well include vehement, caustic, and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks on government and public officials. (New York Times v. Sullivan).

Parable of Racist Police

To understand the power of Sullivan today, consider a recent example of racist Wisconsin police in which the DeForest, Wisconsin Police Chief Daniel Furseth was caught on video surveilling and mocking a group of black teenagers dressed for their high school prom, and stopping by an area restaurant, as was reported by a former police intern on YouTube in June 2018.

DeForest, Wisconsin Police Chief Daniel Furseth is a racist
cop who surveiled and mocked five young black men
in some faux black slang with a demeaning, racist and
derogatory narrative caught on video. Furseth was widely
criticized, resigning under fire before joining like-minded police
at the Town, not the City, of Madison, Wisconsin. Prior to
the holdings in New York Times v Sullivan (1964), public
officials like the Furseth could prevail in libel actions, pleading
libel per se against those such as the police intern who
published the video on YouTube. Wrties the whistle-
blower: "This is what the stupid, ignorant, and imbecilic Village
of  DeForest elects to be their 'Top Cop.' This is the racist
Chief of Police Daniel Furseth, who is much like the rest of
DeForest, poorly educated, socially intolerant, and completely
incompetent when it comes to federal law (you know
the one that trumps state and local law when it’s in conflict
with it). Only a redneck and backassward community like
DeForest would want someone like this as a Chief to keep the
black man out."

Observing the youths and commenting in mocking accent, Furseth said: "Okay, we is out on our dates. We got the bitches, we gonna get them, and we gonna give them food. I got my cane, I’ve gots (sic) my suit. Oh baby … Okay, boys, let’s go in. This is the fanciest restaurant we ever been to and it’s called the Steak ‘N Shake. (Laughter) Unbelievable."

A reader should listen to the 36-second clip on YouTube to get a full accounting of the malice and racism that most small-town Wisconsin cops know to keep under wraps. Furseth and his all-white police force really do not like black people.

In August 2018 came reports of four new counts of misconduct by Furseth, (WISC-TV).

Chased out of office, the racist Daniel Furseth was never heard from again, right? Wrong.

Furseth was quickly hired by the town of Madison, not the City, in October 2018.

An official with the town of Madison police department, not the City, confirmed by phone on August 14, 2019 that Furseth is still employed with the Town police, locally notorious for racism, harassment, bogus citations and misconduct.

Pre-New York Times v Sullivan (1964), or had American jurisprudence taken another direction, the Town, DeForest and Furseth may have enjoyed cause for civil action for my opining that Daniel Furseth and Town and Village officials are racist, ignorant pig-fuckers who should have their teeth kicked out.

The former police intern who blew the whistle on YouTube similarly might not enjoy protections for his commentary about the character of the DeForest, Wisconsin Police Dept in which Furseth rose through the all-white ranks to become chief in 2015.

The judiciary over the last 60 years has risen to become a refuge for civil pleadings from social movements working for those persecuted by the State — often the repository of lurid souls like Daniel Furseth and L.B. Sullivan who, one may believe, should be anomalous is a classical liberal society.

Liberties Prevail

The United States Supreme Court of the 1950s, 60s and 70s in significant areas made it appear individual rights prevailing were a dynamic as inevitable as the triumph of reason over racism and liberation over atavistic taboo.

Landmark legal rulings after rulings were won and each victory seemed a fulfillment of long-denied liberties as the civil rights and peace movement flourished.

Brown v Board of Education (1954), New York Times v Sullivan (1964), Loving v Virgina (1967), Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969) and United States v. United States District Court (1972) and dozens more Court holdings promised to buttress citizens against routine incursions of liberty by State actors and law enforcement.

Sullivan under Attack
 
Many today fear an epic backlash, and the challenges to Sullivan are emblematic.

 There are now at least three cases in three different appellate circuits — Second, Sixth and Seventh — in which rightwing plaintiffs appear intent on revisiting New York Times v. Sullivan.

• Sixth Circuit - Nicholas Sandmann v. WP Company LLC, d/b/a [doing business as] The Washington Post (2:19-cv-00019). Plaintiff says he will appeal the dismissal decided in jUly 2019.
• Seventh Circuit - Andrew Colborn v. Netflix, Inc (1:19-cv-00484). Likely to be dismissed in a  Dec 19, 2019 hearing in District court. An appeal is possible.
• Second Circuit - Sarah Palin v New York Times Co, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 17-3801. Case will be heard on the merits in U.S. District Court.

 Political rightwingers and disgraced cops. Yuck.

Ketanji Brown Jackson for Justice? Nay

Rise of Punishment Democrats Must Be Halted

Joe Biden is flanked by woke corporatists as he hypes endorsement
of hate group, Fraternal Order of Police.

So, Ketanji Brown Jackson wants to be an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court?

What color is she? Gender, sex, Y-chromosome status, testosterone level?

Just kidding, we already know.

Brown Jackson doesn't have these qualifications, and she would never even be under White House consideration, no matter what the unwoke American people may want.

Welcome aboard.

She has the right skin, she's in, for Democrats.

A leading racist organization, Fraternal Order of Police, loves Brown Jackson.

This is hyped by Joe Biden and Black Democrats, leading racist cheerleaders for slavery and involuntary servitude, prime objective of punishment Democrats who created the modern prison-slave state under the Clintons, Obama and Biden.

This is not good enough for me, though Senate Democrats won't give it a thought, likely.

Identity politics is an effective cloak for punishment Democrats like Biden to hide another pro-police, corporatist politician in the federal judiciary.

Until the Bidens and Clintons and other punishment Democrats like Wisconsin Attorney General Joshua Kaul and Kamala Harris stop defending wrongful convictions, police misconduct and the ludicrous notion that the criminal justice system is reliable, their Party's judicial nominations ought not be taken at face value.

No, Ketanji Brown Jackson is not the embodiment of 500 years of slavery and racism. And being black and female does not help in ascertaining foundational rights of human beings in America.

Consider, we have six women of seven justices serving on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. 

Judicial policy-making in the sphere of wrongful convictions and police misconduct, for example, did not suddenly get more intellectually honest.

Corrupt judicial politicians who are black and female are every bit as destructive as white and male corrupt politicians.

Ketanji Brown Jackson is the embodiment of the modern police-prison state, and a demented Democrat Party that trades black and brown people in prison for political power under cover of woke cultism.

Further, Brown Jackson seeks confirmation to a lifelong position in a branch of government that believes the judiciary is a super legislature and super presidency that rightfully issues edicts authored by entitled politicians.

Ketanji Brown Jackson is psychologically incapable of accessing what the federal judiciary has become. She is a politician in deep with the Democrat Party and Joe Biden.

I don't want her, I don't trust her.

Joe Biden's Vacant Comment on Rittenhouse Verdict Comes as Protesters Demand Fed Civil Rights Probe

Biden Responds with Platitudes
'Whole Damn System Corrupt as Hell'
'Kenosha Racist as Hell'

Madison, Wisconsin — A Kenosha jury gave its imprimatur to vigilantism against black liberation protesters, finding killer Kyle Rittenhouse not guilty of five charges related to firing his AR-15 at Black Lives Matter protesters in Aug 2020, killing two and grievously wounding another.

The verdict was announced November 20, 2021.

Joe Biden's statement on the verdict offered insult to injury to a shocked Wisconsin community that watched Rittenhouse gun down two people in cold blood in videos, only to have a Kenosha County jury call it self-defense.

The verdict comes as the Wisconsin Judiciary and Wisconsin criminal justice system have become widely regraded as corrupt institutions dominated by fiefdoms, political parties and myriad bad actors such as the buffoonish Judge Bruce Schroeder who presided over the Rittenhouse trial with a mixture of narcissism and pettiness.

Furthermore, the Blake family stated the Biden administration has "sold out" the black and brown communities, in reaction to the verdict. (ABC7, Chicago; Channel 5, Chicago).

Reports ABC7, Chicago on the Jacob Blake family speaking for Rittenhouse's victims:

'They chose to represent themselves and come out here to march in peace for Jacob Blake - it led to their death.'

Blake is a Black man who was shot seven times by a white Kenosha police officer last summer, which sparked demonstrations that drew the then 17-year-old Rittenhouse to the Wisconsin community.

Blake's uncle, Justin Blake, said he was in 'shock and awe' after hearing the jury acquitted the Antioch teen on all counts, including in the fatal shooting of two men.

'How many cases do you need to see of Caucasian cops or other people walking out the door after murdering people that are either African American or supporting African Americans,' Justin said.

Rittenhouse fatally shot Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, Anthony Huber, 26, and wounded demonstrator Gaige Grosskreutz, now 28.

'This attack on these two young men who had no weapon to defend themselves against an AR-15. They chose to represent themselves and come out here to march in peace for Jacob Blake - it led to their death,' Justin Blakd said.

Justin Blake repeated his call for the U.S. Dpt of Justice to launch a probe of Rittenhouse and law enforcement's conduct leading to the Rittenhouse's killings.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden's statement on the verdict rang hollow.

Biden's statement is reproduced below:

While the verdict in Kenosha will leave many Americans feeling angry and concerned, myself included, we must acknowledge that the jury has spoken. I ran on a promise to bring Americans together, because I believe that what unites us is far greater than what divides us.  I know that we’re not going to heal our country’s wounds overnight, but I remain steadfast in my commitment to do everything in my power to ensure that every American is treated equally, with fairness and dignity, under the law.

I urge everyone to express their views peacefully, consistent with the rule of law.  Violence and destruction of property have no place in our democracy.  The White House and Federal authorities have been in contact with Governor Evers’s office to prepare for any outcome in this case, and I have spoken with the Governor this afternoon and offered support and any assistance needed to ensure public safety.

 ###

The ACLU also issued a long statement which is reproduced below:

Kyle Rittenhouse Didn’t Act Alone: Law Enforcement Must Be Held Accountable

The massive show of force from 40 law enforcement agencies in Kenosha didn’t make anyone safer.

By Leah Watson , Staff Attorney,
ACLU's Racial Justice Program

For two weeks, we’ve heard trial testimony and seen evidence of the events that occurred on August 25, 2020 — the night that Kyle Rittenhouse shot and killed two people and injured another during a Black Lives Matter protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin. While Rittenhouse was not held accountable, he was not the only one whose conduct on that deadly night should be scrutinized. The actions — and inaction — of the Kenosha Police Department and the Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department in the preceding 72 hours played a critical part in the tragic events that took place.

As we reflect on that night, we must remember what ignited these protests. Two months after the murder of George Floyd, on August 23, 2020, Kenosha Police shot a Black man, Jacob Blake, in the back multiple times, paralyzing him. Faced with this latest manifestation of law enforcement’s systemic mistreatment and disregard for the lives of Black and Brown people, people took to the streets of Kenosha. Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth oversaw law enforcement’s response to these protests, including the coordination of over 40 local, state, and federal agencies.

The day after Kenosha Police shot Mr. Blake, former city alderman and self-proclaimed commander of the Kenosha Guard Kevin Mathewson wrote a racially charged “call to action” inviting armed civilians to protect Kenosha from “evil thugs” the following day. The comments on his Facebook invitation, corresponding Reddit threads, and Infowars degenerated into racist threats to kill and maim protestors.

On the night of August 25, law enforcement not only failed to protect protestors calling for police accountability and more humane treatment of Black people, but actively put them in harm’s way. Officers enabled and encouraged predominantly white, right-wing armed civilians and militia groups that night, creating a situation in which tensions escalated and people were killed.

Following the violence in Kenosha, an investigative team at the ACLU filed approximately 40 public records requests to local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies; reviewed more than 800 records and 50 hours of video footage; and conducted over 40 in-depth interviews with community members to better understand what happened in Kenosha and how we can avoid these tragedies in the future. Here is what we found:

Kenosha law enforcement was aware of the threats that these armed civilians and militia groups posed to protestors exercising their First Amendment rights. Mathewson asked Sheriff Beth and Kenosha Police Chief David Miskinis to deputize these armed civilians and militia groups, noting that more than 3,000 people accepted the online invitation to “protect” the city. In addition to this correspondence, community members in Kenosha contacted law enforcement with concerns for their safety after reading this online vitriol. Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security told local law enforcement that the Boogaloo Bois, a right-wing group with a history of violence, were planning an event in Kenosha on August 24. The Federal Bureau of Investigation also warned that the conflicting ideologies of protestors and these armed civilians and militia groups could “potentially be a flashpoint for violence” the next day.

Despite the obvious safety threats, law enforcement embraced the incendiary presence of armed civilians and militia groups. In a widely seen video, law enforcement thanked and even offered water to the armed civilians and militia groups attending the protests, as they instructed those protesting police brutality to leave. In text messages retrieved through our public records requests, after someone circulated a video of the Rittenhouse shootings, a Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department officer commented “nice video” in a message to colleagues and added that he was “[l]istening to gunfire. Such a nice night.”

In fact, it appears Kenosha law enforcement coordinated an effort to push protestors south on Sheridan Road, towards armed civilians and militia groups. Ryan Thomas Balch, an armed civilian affiliated with the Boogaloo Bois, was recorded saying on the night of the shootings, “Do you know what the cops told us today? They were like, ‘We’re gonna push them down by you, because you can deal with them, and then we’re gonna leave.’” In an August 26, 2020 written statement, Balch added, “K[enosha] P[olice] D[epartment] made a conscious decision to abandon the people of Kenosha to people they felt justified in using machines and weapons of war against. And were going to piss them off and drive them at us and let the chips fall where they may.”

The Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department, led by Sheriff Beth, commanded law enforcement agencies to clear Civic Center Park and push protestors south towards the danger that lay multiple blocks from the park at the intersection of 60th and Sheridan. Multiple law enforcement officers documented their knowledge that armed civilians and militia members were concentrated in that direction, near 60th and Sheridan. Officers from various law enforcement agencies described the use of armored vehicles, foam bullets, tear gas, and flash bangs to herd protestors from the park toward the intersection, and to prevent the return of protestors to the park. After pushing the protestors south for over an hour, Kenosha law enforcement took a strategically timed break, consistent with Balch’s description. These efforts were well documented in the records our investigative team obtained:

• 9:43 pm: The Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department documented “gas being deployed in front of the courthouse, goal to push crowd south.”
• 10:32 pm: Kenosha Police Department dispatched patrol to 58th and 8th to “keep crowd moving south on Sheridan.”
• 10:40 pm: Three bearcats moved south from 56th on Sheridan.
• 10:44 pm: Law enforcement continued to push protestors down the road.
• 10:57 pm: Law enforcement took a break.
• 11:12 pm: The Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department reported that protestors “have been pushed south and we are holding our position at the park.”
• 11:40 pm: Bearcats from Racine, Walworth, Waukesha, and Sauk Counties held protestors at 60th and Sheridan, and noted a loud crowd at the gas station.
• 11:44 pm: An Oneida County bearcat moved to 60th and Sheridan.
• 11:50 pm: Rittenhouse shootings begin at 63rd and Sheridan.

The West Allis Police Department also described its actions:

At the request of tactical command, the armored vehicles and crowd control [o]fficers would direct the protestors south and hold or move the protestors south and back away north. Tactical command requested several times for this process to occur which led to the protestors being directed as far south as 60th St. & Sheridan.

Three important lessons emerge from this tragedy.

First, entrenched racism contributed to the events that unfolded. Make no mistake, the shooting of Jacob Blake and the related protests and fatalities stem from the deep-seated white supremacy that pervades our criminal legal system. Police officers brutalizing people of color who are protesting that very brutality and leaving people of color and their supporters at the mercy of armed white vigilantes is a pattern that recalls the origin of American police in slave patrols. These patrols sought to capture and return formerly enslaved people to the violence of enslavement, and their later connections to white supremacist agitation during the Civil Rights movement are echoed in the violence seen in Kenosha. In today’s world, Black and Brown people are not only targeted by police and frequently treated as presumptively guilty, but white people brandishing weapons of war are given the benefit of the doubt and even encouraged by officers of those same police agencies.

Second, law enforcement must not be permitted to weaponize the presence of armed civilians and militia. Jacob Blake’s shooting and the subsequent tragic, fatal shootings by Rittenhouse should usher in a significant wave of change, not only in Wisconsin but across the nation. Kenosha is not even the latest example of this pattern of police ignoring (at best) or facilitating (at worst) white mob violence: Following the January 6 insurrection, it was revealed that over 30 off-duty police officers attended the rally, and several joined the mob that stormed the Capitol. We must reexamine the roles and powers of police in American society, and listen to the communities of color in Kenosha and elsewhere that are calling for new approaches to public safety that protect all people, regardless of the color of their skin.

Finally, more officers and weapons do not increase safety. Law enforcement should play no role in protests, unless it is to protect our First Amendment rights, and they should not use violence to control the crowd or silence those they disagree with. Beyond the context of protests, there is little evidence that police effectively prevent or reduce violence, while there are many alternatives to policing that do make communities safer.

As our investigation illustrates, approximately 40 local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies responded to the protests in Kenosha, utilizing various forms of force against protestors. This massive show of force failed to keep people safe — and in fact facilitated grave harm by pushing protesters into close proximity with Kyle Rittenhouse and other armed white civilians. The violence that night is a further reminder that well-resourced law enforcement agencies are failing to protect and even harming the communities they are sworn to serve. It’s time to acknowledge this failure and invest in measures that actually keep communities safe.

Kyle Rittenhouse Is a Mixed-up Vigilante Facing Hostile Headwinds

Madison, Wisconsin —  An anti-vigilante, anti-crime ethos predominates in Kenosha County, the site of the Kyle Rittenhouse vigilante trial.

Kenosha is steeped in racism and stupidity, but put that aside. 

The same sometimes mad-dog, don't-upset-the-herd fear that views black folks with suspicion, that abhors Black Lives Matter, [in Wisconsin, black lives most certainly do not matter], will see the jury return guilty verdicts. 

Rittenhouse deserves it.

Rittenhouse is guilty, this affair is a slam-dunk, and not even the corrupt Judge Bruce Schroeder can save Rittenhouse, though he is trying.

Prosecutor Thomas Binger has successfully portrayed the killer, Kyle Rittenhouse, as unreasonable, pathetic, a tragic child whose cognitive failings, myriad lies, absurd judgments and lack of character led him to become an active shooter and killer. 

On the witness stand this week, Rittenhouse said he "didn’t do anything wrong," and was not trying to "kill," rather only to "stop" those in the streets whom he judged worthy of shooting, in self-defense.

You see among a certain class of self-defense nuts, stopping, as in firing a bullet into another human being, is the same as killing, but one doesn't say that.

Binger asked Rittenhouse if, "[he] knew that when you pulled that trigger, that bullet was going to go right into his chest."

Replied Rittenhouse, "I can’t say — I don’t know where the bullet would have went exactly."

Fool. Liar.

Rittenhouse was not reasonably acting out of fear of great bodily harm or killing. He can rationally be seen as the person who was injecting reasonable fear on the Kenosha streets on August 25, 2020.

Reads the Wisconsin Self Defense statute: "The actor may not intentionally use force which is intended or likely to cause death or great bodily harm unless the actor reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself." (Wisconsin Statute 939.48(1))

But reason was nowhere to be found in the mixed-up and deadly Kyle Rittenhouse.

"If I would have let Mr. Rosenbaum take my firearm from me, he would have used it and killed me with it and probably killed more people if I would have let him get my gun," Rittenhouse testified.

Not reasonable. Harm was not imminent.

A death warrant is not granted onto anyone just because he has armed himself.

Rittenhouse feared for his life when Rosenbaum tried to touch the barrel of his AR-15-style gun, and now still trembles with terror and tears 15 months later, but imagine the fear instilled in the witnesses of the slaughter of Mr.  Rosenbaum, when Rittenhouse fired point-blank into his face. 

And Anthony Huber, and Gaige Grosskreutz. Their families. the Communities.

I don't believe Kenosha County lets this killer off.

The jury is expected to soon enter into deliberation in the coming days, after Monday, Nov 15, on which closing arguments and jury instructions are expected.

Voting Rights Appear Doomed; Our Country Remains Ours', If We Want It

Voting Rights Act of 1965: "To enforce the
fifteenth amendment of the Constitution of the
United States, and for other purposes."

Madison, Wisconsin — The United States Supreme Court demonstrated anew the institution is a naked political force intent on ending protections for Americans' foundational right to cast their vote.

The Roberts Court did well for itself this week in Brnovich v Democratic National Committee.

Voting rights, our voting rights, fared poorly, as the Court makes clear that legal claims that our rights are violated, per the Voting Right Act protections, will be met with great skepticism, even judicial hostility.

Rights? Liberties, you say, in federal court? Ha.

Chief Justice John Roberts is a veteran political operative.

No doubt this Summer he is all smiles after a milestone of his political campaign, eight years after five Republican justices on the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated critical sections of the Voting Right Act in Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder in 2013, and other cases contriving the end of racism has arrived in America, Ricci v. DeStefano (07-1428 & 08-328).

Let's not forget how we arrived here.

Identity politics in all of its madness bequeathed to us this ridiculous Court, a legislative-executive branch creating law made-up by nine people, or in Brnovich, six.

After the Democratic National Committee rigged the 2016 Primary, Hillary Clinton won the nomination as the most unpopular nominee in recent history. You see, Democrats would rather virtue-signal than win.

That's three nominees to the high court delivered to a White House lunatic, including Ruth Bader Ginsberg who made the idiotic decision to stay on the Court, as liberals celebrated her "obstinacy as a sign of female empowerment," as noted by Shant Mesrobian.

The evisceration of the Voting Rights Act by our country's supreme branch of government towering over the other two branches, now forces field and policy work despised by the Democratic Party.

The Democratic Party three main constituencies are corporate largess, law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

All three interests make exorbitant claims their interest alone should predominate over the American government.

Now, a branch of government, the judiciary, that declares itself supreme in its holdings nullifies even the ratification rights of the peons whose liberty interests lurks in the shadows of the powers that be.

Happy Independence Day 2021.

Woke Critical Race Advocates Preach Dogma, Division and Taboo Morality

Updated - Madison, Wisconsin —  I am a "racist," "white supremacist," "Trumpist," "sheep," "rightwinger," wearer of "white hoods" who wants America to return to the 1950s, amid a "white patriarchal" commitment of my writing — a redolent, damning "choice of words" marking me an accredited racist.

I didn't know about any of this before I posted few comments about Critical Race Theory, (CRT) and "(m)y problem with sprawling iterations of CRT is it preaches whites are per force racist, wokists address me as 'white man' and so on."

But it turns out a less-than-courageous band of woke critical race theory zealots, who hide behind pseudonyms on Twitter, have divined the truth about me. 

Not big readers, my suggestions to wokists to read my actual writing on racism elicited no commentary on how evidence tracks with defamation.

No, evidence is about as popular a concept as suggestions to read Norman Cohn's work on blood libel, myth and racism.

My request for evidence did bring further accusations of my being "racist," and assertions that evidentiary requests show how "fragile" and "fearful" I am of the coming end of my "reign."

It's funny how none of your responses disprove your white privilege and your racist heart. You just keep digging your own grave. Keep it up.

— Queenisis74 (@queenisis74) June 14, 2021

My initial post on Twitter, replying to an exchange on CRT, again, reads: "Not Marxist. My problem with sprawling iterations of CRT is it preaches whites are per force racist, wokists address me as "white man" and so on. In my city, school district instruct 'whites over here, colored over here' in discussing current events like Floyd murder."

But this next post seemed to elicit no comment: "CRT history is mostly correct, but CRT veers into nonsense in other fields. When I read a wokist, I think of my neighbor, WW II vet, walking his his dog past my home. A man of honor, I listen; he can't stand long these days, so chats are shorter. Bob is white, Bob is no racist."

In any event, the wokists attempted to brand me racist, and cancel me.

"The cancel culture, a witch hunt by self-appointed moral arbiters of speech, has become the boutique activism of a liberal class that lacks the courage and the organizational skills to challenge the actual centers of power — the military-industrial complex, lethal militarized police, the prison system, Wall Street, Silicon Valley, the intelligence agencies that make us the most spied upon, watched, photographed and monitored population in human history, the fossil fuel industry, and a political and economic system captured by oligarchic power," notes Chris Hedges.

Then there's e.m. lake, apparently dispossessed of rational thought, but always ready to shout out, 'you're a racist.'

& you're way too deep in white supremacy. You're Dr. King's "white moderate"-- more interested in "order" than justice. Your reign is ending. Enjoy being on the wrong side of history while you can.
You're no different than republiKKKans.
Just not brave enough to be as open.

— e.m. lake (@intelligentfilm) June 13, 2021

It's the way it is now with wokists, CRT zealots, and cancel kooks.

Well I've just seen your wife... pic.twitter.com/s6PzLa1tK2

— Caffeinated Rob 🇺🇸😷☕🏳️‍🌈 (@Caffeinated_Rob) June 14, 2021

You get the picture. The CRT/woke bunch are malicious, petulant, and damaged psyches.

Stay tuned. Most American voters who have worked their lives to become decent, principled people may not like being termed "racist" because of their color.

I agree. If I were a member of the GOP, I would be running ads on this BS. Also, wait until next year and you will see even more stuff on gender identity and trans issues. Woke activists are playing to GOP strength: crafting a brand or narrative.

— Norman Kelley (@NormanKelley) June 13, 2021

Then again, one can find solace in Norman Kelly, an independent thinker who won't drink the Kool Aid.

Well, yeah, it's BS. Any ideology that doesn't allow you to challenge its precepts through dialogue, form your own opinion via debate is totalitarian. CRT is essentially the curse of Ham transferred to whites. "White fragility" is classic propaganda.

— Norman Kelley (@NormanKelley) June 13, 2021

Imagine sitting in this room (for a course u prob paid for) & being told that, if you’re white, ur a #racist, will always be a racist, ur not #human, and u were born into being a demon. This…is #CriticalRaceTheory #CRT. I dare anyone to defend this sh!t. https://t.co/OpbLK3Yvqx

— Me (@FactsOvrFeelngs) June 14, 2021

For @BarackObama @JoeBiden @DNC , CRT nonsense, (all whites are racist), is politically toxic. Dems know this, keep it qt. Consider my neighbor, Bob, WW II POW; walks his dog, Cody, shares stories. We love this man. Bob is white; Bob is not a racist. CRT is crazy and toxic. See?

— Michael Leon (@mal644) June 14, 2021

Diversity Idiocy Is Rearing Its Head, Looking for Big Money Following Chauvin Verdict

Vicki McKenna is a heretic and radio
personality in Madison, Wisconsin.

Update: Madison West High School principal apologizes for email scheduling racially segregated meetings

Madison, Wisconsin — Diversity consultants look to ramp up their snake oil sales in the wake of important legal victories against racism, especially George Floyd.

Race consultants are making out like bandits sermonizing their fallacious drivel to corporations, police departments, universities, and all manner of education.

Here in Madison, Wisconsin local radio personality Vicki McKenna has had enough.

Vicki McKenna blew the whistle on the Madison Metropolitan School District's politically correct-identity politics tripe in the wake of the verdict against the killer cop Derek Chauvin.

The School District featured Zoom links for "white parents" and for "parents of color," in strict accordance to the ridiculous way liberal dogma describes race and racism.

This idiocy was too much. Writes McKenna:

Jim Crow 2.0, courtesy of the Madison School District. pic.twitter.com/qMKwHu4mMp

— Vicki McKenna (@VickiMcKenna) April 23, 2021

McKenna is right. Her tweet was picked up by Glenn Greenwald who added his own experience with the separate-by-color, identity politics practice.

For the last (and actually only) diversity session I attended before leaving The Intercept, the highly-paid outside consultant emailed everyone before saying employees would be divided by race into different rooms (white room & POC room) and it was shocking. Now it's standard: https://t.co/0c6YmFMCX0

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 23, 2021

Near the start of the session, before we were segregated by race, one employee of mixed race -- one white parent, the other parent Indian-American -- nervously and earnestly asked which room she should go into. This dividing people up this way is going to have long-term impact.

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 23, 2021

Most of us have had our own experience with diversity consultants.

At one well-meaning company, (though the diversity consultants were cynical), a week-long diversity training seminar feature consultants explaining that we all have biases, a comment on human nature that we are just empty vessels to be filled somehow with prejudices, with no mention how critical reasoning and independent thinking played into who we are.

On the last day, each of the seminar participants confessed to her bias. Some mentioned Italian people, some mentioned black people, and so on.

When it my turn, I announced I had no biases and I was disappointed that everyone had jettisoned rational thinking to adopt bigotries. It's idiocy.

A friend at the company asked how the seminar went and I told her. She said, her admission of people against whom she had a bias was, 'Germans of a certain age."

Diversity consultants are good for a laugh, but this swindle is taking our country by storm.

Matt Taibbi too had a good laugh, but these corporate-consultant hucksters rake in a lot of money from credulous liberals.

Writes Taibbi in his scathing review of Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility last year:

A core principle of the academic movement that shot through elite schools in America since the early nineties was the view that individual rights, humanism, and the democratic process are all just stalking-horses for white supremacy. The concept, as articulated in books like former corporate consultant Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility (Amazon’s #1 seller!) reduces everything, even the smallest and most innocent human interactions, to racial power contests. ...

DiAngelo isn’t the first person to make a buck pushing tricked-up pseudo-intellectual horseshit as corporate wisdom, but she might be the first to do it selling Hitlerian race theory. White Fragility has a simple message: there is no such thing as a universal human experience, and we are defined not by our individual personalities or moral choices, but only by our racial category.

If your category is “white,” bad news: you have no identity apart from your participation in white supremacy ('Anti-blackness is foundational to our very identities… Whiteness has always been predicated on blackness'), which naturally means 'a positive white identity is an impossible goal.'

DiAngelo instructs us there is nothing to be done here, except 'strive to be less white.' To deny this theory, or to have the effrontery to sneak away from the tedium of DiAngelo’s lecturing – what she describes as 'leaving the stress-inducing situation' – is to affirm her conception of white supremacy. This intellectual equivalent of the 'ordeal by water' (if you float, you’re a witch) is orthodoxy across much of academia.

Greenwald too has been bashing this hokum for years:

The diversity and inclusion consultancy industry is creepy, authoritarian, cultish and toxic, with a painfully cramped and stilted understanding of how people interact with each other and the rules they must obey. There's a reason - several reasons - the corporate world loves it.

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) June 29, 2020

Radical, independent thinkers lead the most recent movement against American racism. 

Let's foster young intellectuals, and not suppress their minds with dogma.

Criminal Injustice — Lies, Deception Stain Law Enforcement

Penny Brummer was wrongfully convicted
of murder in Wisconsin because she is a lesbian.
Brummer is also a victim of preposterous
false confession in 1994. See Penny Brummer,
Brummer-Mal Contends, Lueders-Isthmus,
Ricks-The Advocate, and the
Huffington Post, Wisconsin State Journal.

Madison, Wisconsin — Police routinely lie when they testify in court; it's called testilying. 

Police cook police reports, and omit exculpatory information.

Police lie in court declarations.

Police lie in interrogations.

Police lie to protect other cops' dishonest and crooked conduct, the infamous blue omertà known as the blue shield or the blue wall of silence.

Police lying is so institutionally pervasive that it's astounding anyone, much less courts and prosecutors, believe anything cops say and write.

Throw in malice, racism and other base motivations that those who become police commonly harbor and it's clear your local municipal police force resembles nothing so much as a pathological occupying gang.

But the cult of the police remains strong. 

Politicians and media forever triumph the noble intentions and alleged virtues of "officers." The Democratic Party is 100-percent behind the police as exemplified by events in Kenosha County concerning the racist cop Rusten Sheskey; and the racist killer, Kyle Rittenhouse, for example.

Police unions supportive of any crooked and dishonest action taken by police have turned into rightwing local political forces. 

In Madison, Wisconsin, the local police union rates the City Council members, based upon how Council members aid police in their dishonest and hostile conduct.

But with the growth of a new generation of human rights attorneys and activists like Black Lives Matter, along with the scientific exposure of the junk pseudoscience police often use to prop up their lies, there are success stories that hold police to conduct themselves as non-criminals.

As false confessions and wrongful convictions are revealed across the nation, some honest prosecutors fight back against crooked prosecutors and police.

While actual prosecutions against crooked prosecutors and police remain rare, at least some innocent people are being exonerated.

The New York Times reports this morning on the "a wide-ranging inquiry by the Bronx district attorney into whether the detectives’ tactics had tainted guilty verdicts in 31 homicide cases that relied on confessions."

Police interrogations are not about searching for the truth.

Police interrogations are about getting the police victim to utter words that can be falsely presented as a confession, as in the Wisconsin case of Brendan Dassey, grotesquely targeted by Mark Wiegert, (current Sheriff of the Calumet County (Wisconsin) Sheriff's Office), Tom Fassbender (Wisconsin DoJ, Division of Criminal Investigation investigator (ret)), sex offender and disgraced ex-prosecutor Ken Kratz and dozens of other police collaborators. Or, to take another Wisconsin case, the wrongfully convicted Penny Brummer, who was arrested and convicted because she is a lesbian, a problem for many bigoted Wisconsin hicks. Police and prosecutors portrayed a nod to a vague question during an interrogation as a confession to a murder.

In the Times piece, Jan Ransom writes:

The [police misconduct] inquiry highlights how a new generation of prosecutors in New York and elsewhere is delving deeply into whether deceptive police interrogation tactics might have warped the criminal justice system through false confessions and wrongful convictions.

The examination comes after the emergence of hundreds of cases across the country in which people were sent to prison only to be exonerated later through the use of DNA or the discovery of new evidence.

In case after case, even after innocence and police misconduct are proven to a moral certainty, prosecutors often oppose freedom for the wrongfully convicted.

Standing in the way of freedom of the wrongfully convicted is sick, to most people.

But this demented pursuit is an enterprise taken up by prosecutors, police and cowardly politicians such as Wisconsin Gov Tony Evers (D).

What's wrong with these people?

Tales of Wisconsin Police Chiefs

Madison, Wisconsin — The future of policing in America seems as bleak and hopeless as the Vietnam War in 1969.

That's because police presented as reformers still abstain from recognizing and publicly characterizing the most vicious acts perpetrated upon the citizenry, and thus our republic.

Madison, Milwaukee and Minneapolis instruct.

The Madison Police and Fire Commission decided to reject the advice of human rights groups, and instead selected a new police chief in open defiance of community concerns of racism, and perceived adversarial posture of cops and police unions (The Capital Times, Community Response Team, Madison Wisconsin (Facebook)).

In Milwaukee, a corrupt judge, Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Christopher Foley, reversed the Milwaukee Police and Fire Commission's decision to demote an authoritarian Police Chief, Alfonso Morales. 

Morales is threatening federal litigation to get as much money out of Milwaukee tax-payers as possible, a pursuit joined by police political forces bleeding the beleaguered city best known for segregation and criminal police (Racine Journal-Times).

In Minneapolis, the new police chief, Medaria Arradondo, says he want to build trust between cops and the very community that cops have abused, but says nothing about making the department worthy of that trust (Minneapolis Star-Tribune).

Arradondo calls the George Floyd suffocation murder at the hands of racist cops, "tragic," writing "in the wake of the tragic death of George Floyd ... ." 

This passive-voice noting of a police killing reads as though George Floyd died at the hands of benign, third-party circumstances, and not the murderous organization Arradondo has led since 2017.

Arradondo does not take responsibility for what these cops did or acknowledge his own role in cultivating the human garbage in blue.

Meanwhile, in Madison retired Madison Police Chief Noble Wray has been picked by the Democrat Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul to determine if the racist Kenosha cop Rusten Sheskey's shooting Jacob S. Blake seven times in the back merits criminal charges, after reviewing the Dept of Justice investigation by cops, for cops, (Wisconsin DoJ).

Not one of these administrative cops have any moral authority. Not one has accurately described what police have become in American society: Murder clubs, and right-wing political machines feasting on the community with violence.

The time for reforming police is over. 

One step away from the unacceptable status quo is a new policy mandating that cops will not administer cops locally, and will not investigate cops for the simple reasons that cops cannot be trusted, should not be trusted.

Only civilians with records of human rights and civil liberties work are capable of stopping this brutal and violent force that tries to emulate a military organizational force and views citizens as objects.

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.

Trump Escalates Republican War Against Voting in Cuckoo Recount Effort

Jacob Lawrence - from the Migration Series (1940–41)

Updated - Madison, Wisconsin — In modern America, the Republican Party's war against voters is waged as a full-spectrum assault against liberty, accelerating in the last ten years.

Destroying black and brown lives, stripping human beings of dignity and liberty, have long been sport for white folks here. But Republicans have escalated  systemic destruction of the foundational right to cast votes (see Article III, Wisconsin Constitution; Ballotpedia).

Trump's new effort to ultimately convince courts to declare that 100,000s of voters' ballots are illegal is the latest of this anti-human project.

Trump's campaign gives County Canvassing Boards names of disfavored voters and says, throw out these ballots.

Extreme action for certain, but business as usual in a broader sense.

I worked as a Wisconsin election inspector (poll worker), for some 60 shifts between 1998 and 2016.

It used to be funny — because it was pathetic — to witness the sudden chill in the room, uncomfortable shifting in chairs, worried expressions of white poll workers morphing into grimaces bordering on disbelief as young black men entered the polling place in the morning shift at the old Fire Station Number Two in Fitchburg, Wisconsin (Alder Dist One).

Well, who can blame the white folks? 

You should have seen the voters' black hair, dark-brown skin, often adorned in golden jewelry and tight dark tee-shirts of I don't know what. You know what they do, who they are. 

And our white votes get cancelled out by these guys?

It's the way it is.

White poll workers and the Fitchburg City Clerk's office were not amused by black folks. In fact, they were hostile to anyone who reported Fitchburg racism. I know. [By the way, anecdotal reports from the 2020 presidential general elections indicate the voting experience is getting better now.]

This is Wisconsin, so it may surprise readers what one becomes inured to, but from a first-person stand-point, I can say I tried to alert the political world about Fitchburg. See also Kaleem Caire, president and CEO of One City Learning Centers, and his experience with Fitchburg.

Nothing surprises me here.

Trump's latest absurd forays into obliterating swaths of voters can be seen as a continuation of white efforts to troll black and brown folks, ongoing Republican work to transform election law to stop non-Republican voters and a heightened operation against entire jurisdictions such as Dane County and Milwaukee County. (See Beck, Glauber and Marley, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Nichols, The Capital Times).

In 2016, in the voting rights litigation, One Wis­con­sin Insti­tute v. Thom­sen, much Repub­li­can vot­er-obstruc­tion leg­is­la­tion was swept away, opening up metro voting districts to help voters vote and have those votes count.

Of course the Republican legal empire struck back.

In June 2020, Judge Frank Easterbrook, from the Seventh Circuit, using his propensity to play loose with facts, penned Luft v Evers; One Wisconsin Institute, Inc. v Jacobs, (Nos. 16-3003, 16-3052), (Marley, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel).

Easterbrook reinstated most of the Republican-enacted restrictions on early voting.

Easterbrook sees no racism in Republicans' Wisconsin election law, as long the Republican Party's animus toward minorities includes an animus toward Democrats. A bizarre judicial doctrine.

Crazy is the order of the day.

You hear about the Trump campaign attorney heading up the stop-the-ballots effort here? 

Trump's lead attorney, Jim Troupis, and his wife's votes would be invalidated, were Trump to prevail in his current recount-and-stop ballots efforts in Wisconsin (see Beck, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, and Law and Crime). 

This is because Trump wants early voting, (in-person, absentee), votes invalidated in Dane and Milwaukee counties. 

One can think of a few Due Process and Equal Protection problems with Trump's sought-after remedy for an imagined injury at the hands of Dane and Milwaukee counties.

Bear in mind, limiting early voting and racial intent and effect in Republican efforts to halt voting in jurisdictions where black and brown people live is fine, [no Constitutional problems], with Easterbrook.

But even Easterbrook, were this case to reach the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, would recoil.

It's crazy time in Wisconsin, but crazy is pretty much standard-going the last ten years, and is consistent with Wisconsin's secular religion: Most white folks really don't like black and brown people very much.