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:

Wisconsin Early Voting Gets Surprise Boost from Ballot Mail-in Case, Watson v RNC

Molly McGrath (left), a voting rights attorney with the ACLU, 
works with Madison residents to get IDs they need to vote under 
Wisconsin’s strict voter-ID law. Early voting efforts by election 
clerks in metro voting districts increased voter turnout following
a pro-voting rights win in federal district court in One Wisconsin 
Institute v. Thomsen (2016) that swept away Wisconsin Republican 
voter-obstruction legislation. Today, early voting received another 
boost from the U.S. Supreme Court in the election law case that 
rejected Republicans' legal theory that federal law requires 
states to reject absentee ballots received after election day. Early 
voting was not at issue in Watson v Republican National Committee,
and came up in oral arguments in March 13, 2016.
(Photo courtesy of Molly McGrath) 

Republican Legal Theory Limiting Voting Is Rejected by U.S. Supreme Court

MADISON, WIS. — A  major front in Trump's war against voting was dealt a 5-4 defeat Monday in the closely watched election law case, Watson v. Republican National Committee.

The U.S. Supreme Court majority opinion is authored by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, and brought together Chief Justice John Roberts and the Court's three liberal justices.

Trump, the U.S. DoJ and national and state Republicans had decided states should only count mail-in ballots received on or before Election Day, federal law requires states to reject absentee ballots received after election day. Both propositions were rejected.

Republicans challenged a Mississippi statute that allows ballots postmarked by Election Day.

Mississippi is one of roughly 30 States that count some absentee ballots mailed by election day but received afterward, Barrett noted.

Republican Legal Theory Rejected

The Republican position is soundly rejected in Watson v. Republican National Committee, in which Justice Barrett concludes, "The question today is not whether requiring ballots to be received by election day is a good or bad idea; the question is whether the idea has made its way into the United States Code."

Early Voting Gets Explicitly Affirmed

Early voting efforts, especially in Wisconsin that has substantially utilized early voting efforts by election clerks in metro voting districts the last eight years, were given an unexpected affirmation by Watson v. Republican National Committee, after years of state partisan battle with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, (2011-19).

The issue of early voting is not of issue in Watson, but arose in oral arguments and in briefing, in which litigants and the Court argued whether federal election-day statutes prevent states from counting mail-in ballots that are postmarked by Election Day, but arrive up to five days later, as in Mississippi.

In oral arguments justices frequently push lawyers to apply their legal theories to hypothetical situations. Both the Republican National Committee and U.S. Department of Justice attorneys agreed in oral arguments federal election-day statutes permit early voting, Barrett pointed out.

Paul D. Clement, Alexandria, Va.; and D. John Sauer, Solicitor General, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, D. C. (for United States, as amicus curiae) argued the RNC's case at oral arguments as respondents.

Early Voting in Wisconsin

In federal district court in One Wisconsin Institute v. Thomsen (2016) a landmark voting rights win swept away much Wisconsin Republican voter-obstruction legislation, 2013 Wisconsin Act 146, that included curtailing in-person absentee voting, early voting, aimed at minorities in Madison and Milwaukee.

In One Wisconsin Institute v. Thomsen, (2016), U.S. District Judge James Peterson writes:

Plaintiffs (voting rights advocates) have adduced evidence that weekend and evening voting is particularly important for socioeconomically disadvantaged voters, and that, in Wisconsin and nationwide, African American and Latino voters have made particularly good use of various forms of early voting. 
Early voting in groups on Sundays—including church-supported “Souls to the Polls” efforts—is a widespread practice among African American voters, in Wisconsin and nationwide.
But again, a disparate impact, without more, does not prove intentional discrimination.
But plaintiffs have more. Statements by legislators show that Act 146 reduced the hours allowed for in-person absentee voting specifically to curtail voting in Milwaukee, and, secondarily, in Madison. [State] Senator Grothman made repeated statements objecting to the extended hours for in-person absentee voting in Milwaukee and Madison, indicating that hours for voting needed to be “reined in.” On the floor of the senate, he said, “I want to nip this in the bud before too many other cities get on board.” 
Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald made similar comments. As he put it, “But the question of where this is coming from and why are we doing this and why are we trying to disenfranchise people, I mean, I say it's because the people I represent in the 13th district continue to ask me, ‘What is going on in Milwaukee?’ ...
The legislature's ultimate objective was political: Republicans sought to maintain control of the state government. But the methods that the legislature chose to achieve that result involved suppressing the votes of Milwaukee's residents, who are disproportionately African American and Latino. The legislature did not act out of pure racial animus; rather, suppressing the votes of reliably Democratic minority voters in Milwaukee was a means to achieve its political objective. But that, too, constitutes race discrimination.

Many Wisconsin cities did get on board promoting early voting in response to the District Court's 2016 evisceration of 2013 Wisconsin Act 146.

Now, the U.S. Supreme Court has given One Wisconsin Institute v. Thomsen precedent protection in a case that will control expected Republican legal and state counter offensives.

Notes Jacob Knutson on early voting in Watson v. Republican National Committee in Democracy Docket:

In the case, [Watson] the RNC argued that Mississippi’s law offering a grace period for late-arriving ballots mailed by Election Day violated the election-day statutes: a set of federal laws that designate 'the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November… as the day for the election' for federal elections. ...

[T]he Court disagreed, ruling that the states 'do not set a deadline for ballot receipt' and therefore 'do not prevent Mississippi from counting ballots postmarked after election day yet received afterward.'

Barrett added that if the Court adopted the RNC’s legal theory in the case, 'early voting would also be at risk.'

'At bottom, plaintiffs’ theory is that because we are governed by 19th-century election-day laws, we are also governed by 19th-century voting practices,' she wrote. 

Going further, Barrett warned that, 'Carried to its logical conclusion, this theory would call into question the way modern elections work.'

Barrett noted in the opinion that the RNC and Department of Justice (DOJ) —  which joined the RNC in challenging Mississippi’s law — both agreed in oral arguments earlier this year that the election-day statutes permit early voting.

'Although the election-day statutes refer to a particular ‘day’ for the election, plaintiffs do not contend that everything must occur on that day,' Barrett wrote. 'For instance, they do not object to early voting or dispute that officials may count votes and certify a winner after election day."

Though he dissented from the Court’s decision on late-arriving mail ballots, Justice Samuel Alito agreed with the majority that the election-day statutes permit early voting.          

Thus, we see a Supreme Court voting rights case deciding the issue presented—affirming states can allow one class of voters to be counted, those whose absentee ballots arrive after Election Day while being postmarked by Election Day—and explicitly protecting a different class of absentee voters, early voters, after discussion in oral arguments.

There will a reckoning from Republicans in Wisconsin, and across the nation.

Republicans Eye Social Security Phase-out, Seek to Gut Earned Income Program

Republicans' Warrant to Destroy Security Security, SSA Trustees Are Trump Loyalists

Commentary

Scariest fourteen words in politics are: I'm from the Republican Party and I'm here to save Social Security and Medicare.

Republicans have for decades expressed desire to phase out Medicare and Social Security, and call it, entitlement reform, (Krugman, New York Times) (Krugman, New York Times).

Now, Republicans are squealing, again as they have for many years, they want to save Social Security. They call it reform again.

Writes Paul Krugman in June:

Whatever you may have heard, Social Security isn’t in danger of going bankrupt.

What we’re facing, instead, is potential political crisis. Congress and the White House could easily take action to sustain America’s retirement system. But given the current state of our politics, there’s no guarantee that they will. ... 

So don’t believe Republicans’ gaslighting that it will be necessary to cut Social Security benefits. All that is necessary to preserve Social Security is political will to raise taxes on the wealthy and a sensible immigration policy.

Today, "Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) call for Republicans to act on Social Security reform if they keep control of Congress in 2027 is getting pushback from Senate Republicans who warn it’s a bad political message heading into November."

"Yet, a trustees’ report that the popular retirement program will become insolvent sooner than expected has lit a fire under lawmakers in both parties to call for reforms such as raising the cap on payroll taxes, 'means testing' beneficiaries, raising the retirement age, and creating personal accounts to invest in the stock markets," reports Alexander Bolton.

First, the Social Security trustees are all Trump loyalists, extremists who will follow any and all of Trump's dictates.  

Trump and Republican-led Congress are intentionally trying to bleed and starve the Social Security Trust Funds, and then tell you they have no choice but to gut the most popular earned-income, social program in history.

It's like choking and starving someone to use a sick metaphor, and then declaring this person is unsustainable, insolvent and cannot live, so sorry.

From the Social Security Administration:

The Board of Trustees is comprised of four members who serve by virtue of their positions with the federal government: Scott Bessent, Secretary of the Treasury and Managing Trustee; Frank J. Bisignano, Commissioner of Social Security; Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Secretary of Health and Human Services; and Keith E. Sonderling, Acting Secretary of Labor. The two public trustee positions are currently vacant.

Means testing means the government will investigate all of your assets and determine whether you get benefits from Social Security system that you paid into all of your life. 

Implementing means testing would usher in a radical, new attack on the Social Security system.

Republicans also advocate raising the retirement age before you can accept Social Security benefits.

Corporate media remains a hostile force against Social Security.

By law, Social Security has its own dedicated revenue streams (payroll taxes) and legally distinct trust funds from the U.S. Treasury. 

Any politician, such as Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson (R) who says we need to cut Social Security benefits, which has funded the rest of government spending for decades, is lying.

"The argument being used to cut Social Security is that because we have a significant deficit problem and a $14 trillion national debt, [in 2011] we just can’t afford to maintain Social Security benefits. This argument is false. Social Security, because it is funded by the payroll tax, not the U.S. Treasury, has not contributed one nickel to our deficit," warned Bernie Sanders back in 2011. "In fact, according to a very recent study by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Social Security has a $2.5 trillion dollar surplus and can pay out every penny owed to every eligible American for the next 27 years until 2038." 

As Paul Krugman noted in 2015, "[N]o, Social Security does not face a financial crisis; its long-term funding shortfall could easily be closed with modest increases in revenue." (New York Times)

But our money is looked upon as potential windfalls by predatory Wall Street, and the media corporations who do Wall Street's bidding, want our money, your money.

Republicans surveilling your money should frighten the hell out of you. 

I have no idea if Democrats are up to the challenge of stopping the Republicans.

Wisconsin Gov Primary—Mandela Barnes Took $250,000-plus from Israel Lobby in 2022

Mandela Barnes accepted $251,415 from the Israel Lobby
as the 2022 Democratic Party nominee for U.S. Senate.
Barnes is a candidate for the 2026 Democratic Party
nomination for governor. Election Day is Aug 11.
Barnes' 2022 campaign gifts are tracked by Open Secrets.

Israel Lobby Gifted Barnes Campaign in 2022 Senate Run, Will Doom Electability as Pro-Genocide Blood Money Shows Character Problem

Commentary

Madison, Wisconsin—The campaign for the Democratic nominee for Wisconsin governor is off and running.

Mandela Barnes, whose supporters are dropping dishonest 'electabililty-concern' social media posts about Barnes' opponents, has taken to dead silence when asked about his accepting $251,415 from the Israel Lobby as 2022 Democratic Party nominee for U.S. Senate, (see Open Secrets).

During the 2022 U.S. Senate election in Wisconsin, Mandela Barnes was gifted substantial pro-Israel money from Zionist donors and conduits.

Barnes explicitly declared in 2022, "It's important that Israel remains a strong ally and a strong partner in the Middle East," in June 2022, just before absentee voting began, as reported in Jewish Insider as Barnes sought to highlight his pro-Zionist commitment.

Barnes told the Jewish Democratic Council of America forum in June 2022 that he opposes the global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement (BDS) that seeks to highlight and stop Israeli human rights atrocities, (Washington Free Beacon).

The Mandela Barnes campaign is a top U.S. Senate candidate recipient of pro-Israel money during the 2022 federal elections.

Barnes has paid lip service to Wisconsin's peace movement, but has run from associations with anti-Genocide groups, (Washington Free Beacon).

But Israel-committed Genocide, Israel-sanctioned rape, torture and massacres of children play less well among the Democrat-voting electorate in 2026, and appears to be determinative in Michigan primaries to be held in early August, signaling a similar campaign dynamic in Wisconsin.

Top candidates for the 2026 Democratic Party nominee for Wisconsin governor include: Mandela Barnes, Francesca Hong, Sara Rodriguez, David Crowley, Kelda Roys and Missy Hughes. See analyses at Bill McCoshen in Dairyland Sentinel.

Barnes campaign was contacted by email asking: 

What is your comment on accepting $251,415 from the Israel Lobby as 2022 Democratic Party nominee for U.S. Senate?

Do you renounce this blood money?

As of Saturday, no comment from Barnes has been received.

Absentee voting for the Wisconsin Aug 11 elections begins June 26.