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.

Kamala Harris Needs Unscripted Town Halls — No Preapproved Questions, No Preselected Audience

Remarks by President Biden in Press
Conference, July 11, 2024

Update: Make that Kamala Harris.
Madison, Wisconsin — President Joe Biden's reelection campaign can win confidence from the electorate by appearing in a series of unscripted, unvetted, town hall-type, question-and-answer events in swing states.

No preselected questioner pools, no campaign-approved questions. Scripted press conferences won't do the job.

In town hall-type, question-and-answer events, campaigns honor people asking questions, by not engineering questions, vetted by the campaigns.

Readers attending speakers in rooms 2650, 3650 of the Humanities building on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus know, for example, what unscripted questions-and-answer sessions are.

Questioners should ask, probe, and challenge political candidates who should be seeking mandates.

Political campaigns now-a-days treat unscripted people-centered events as unnecessary risks, akin to trial attorneys asking questions of witnesses, without knowing testimony.

Campaigns looking to win a mandate from the people for whom we have a country should avoid fake campaigns, such as what we see almost daily, like the plague.

Jacqueline Marie Captain, 1957 - 2024

Jacqueline Marie Captain, 1957 - 2024

Happy Life, Happy Memorial Day

Fitchburg, Wisconsin — Jackie Captain passed away May 15, 2024. I love her, and long before we married.
It's Memorial Day weekend, Jackie's favorite holiday.

Jackie is a late convert to beer, brats, hot dogs, and burgers dipped in beer, butter, garlic pepper and onions that I made for us every Memorial Day weekend. Often, I would venture to Dane County's Brat Fest to throw em in the concoction, with some corn on the cob  on the side.

Perhaps because of her father, World War II veteran, Wesley Captain, Jackie was a patriot and anarchist, and an aesthetic.

One of Jackie's favorite quotes is from RFK's Statement on Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., Indianapolis, Indiana, April 4, 1968.

Said RFK, "My favorite poet was Aeschylus. He wrote: 'In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.'"

Catholic agnostic Jackie would substitute the Universe, perhaps, for God. To a moral certainty, Jackie believed in human healing power and celebrating life through everyday acts of standing up for others.

Jacqueline Captain's Obituary from the Wisconsin State Journal is below.

Jacqueline Marie Captain, wife, neighbor, sister, daughter and friend to many passed Wednesday morning, May 15, 2024.

Jackie died of a long series of illnesses related to Sepsis, kidney disease and Crohn's Disease.

Jackie loved our neighborhood, now more than ever full of happy children welcoming Summer. Jackie loved kids running, biking down the street with dogs and wagons in tow.

Jackie loved her family, her community, her work and the giant family of which we and all life are members, Jackie believed.

Said a nephew of Jackie's this morning: "When I was a kid she was the funny, goofy aunt that always made time for family. She always had time for birthdays and came bearing cool gifts. She had a beautiful smile and laugh. I remember her knowledge of all music and movies and she would break into a verse of song lyrics often."

Jackie worked for peace, love and justice, trying, as Bertrand Russell wrote, using passion "making the world as a whole happier, less cruel, less full of conflict between rival greeds, and more full of human beings whose growth has not been dwarfed and stunted by oppression."

Jackie did PhD work on anti-fascist artists, Ben Shahn and Eugene Higgins before accepting positions that included a consultancy with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum before it opened; editorships; Professional Project Manager at American Family Insurance; and Administrative and Research Assistant to Dean, School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Jackie Captain did her graduate work under U.W. Prof. Jim Dennis, renown art history U.W. scholar, and Madisonian.

Jackie was born in Wisconsin Rapids August 29, 1957 to Wesley and Helen Irene Captain, a beautiful World War II family determined to spread peace.

Jackie is predeceased by Wesley Captain (Father); Helen Irene (Mother); Jan Captain (Sister); and Allen Braund (Brother- in -Law).

Jackie is survived by her husband, Michael Leon; her siblings; Jean (Sharon) Duluth, Minnesota; Joe (Margitta) Gulfport Mississippi; Pete (Sally). Wisconsin Rapids; Judy (Kate), Stoughton; Mary (Allen Braund, deceased) Wisconsin Rapids; John (Joanne) Antioch. Illinois; Jim (Mary), Plain, Wisconsin.

Jackie passed, saying she missed joking with her Aunt Sweet Loraine Weaver of Wisconsin Rapids who turned 103 last year, still spreading sweetness.

Jackie's husband is Michael Leon of Fitchburg, Wisconsin. Leon said of Jackie that he "has never seen a more beautiful soul betrayed to her core by injustice. I think Jackie sometimes suffered because of her commitment and sensitivity, but Jackie was not alone."

Jackie is survived by many cousins, nieces, nephews, and even larger numbers of other family members.

Jackie had many friends, and loved working at American Family Insurance, and missed seeing her friends after retirement.

Jackie's family and friends would like to thank the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics, especially folks at the ER, and Trauma and Life Support Center (TLC) units; as well as Ingleside Nursing and Rehab Center (Mount Horeb) and Nazareth Health and Rehabilitation (Stoughton). We would like to thank Bristol Hospice Madison for all their love.

Most of all Jackie was blessed by two forces of nature, family friends, So and Tina, whose reservoirs of love and intelligence appears endless.

Jackie loved them all.

Family and friends are welcome to bring outdoor plants to Jackie and Mike's front lawn to create an oasis of peace at 5767 Monticello Way, until June 15.
#

Macklemore's Defiaint Song Against Genocide and Joe Biden

Palestinian girl Hind Rajab poses for photograph in this
undated handout picture obtained by Reuters on February 10,
2024 [Palestine Red Crescent Society/Reuters]

Genocide Machine and Joe Biden Under Fire

Singer-songwriter Macklemore just released a powerful opus against Israeli-American genocide in Gaza and the West Bank.
Macklemore's song, Hinds Hall, is named after Hind Rajab joined in song title with Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall.
The six-year-old Gazan girl's family was slaughtered by Israeli Defense Forces, trapping the girl in a car begging for help in her cell phone to the Red Crescent Society.
Israel proceeded to slaughter the rescue party sent by Red Recreant, then murdered  Hind Rajab in a horrid act much of which is caught on audio.
Macklemore's Hinds Hall is below.