Michael Johnson of Boys, Girls Clubs of Dane County Confers Legitimacy onto Leading Wisconsin Racist

Updated - Madison, Wisconsin — Shame on Michael Johnson, President and CEO of Boys and Girls Clubs of Dane County.

Johnson has been back on the job for two years, but this is plenty of time for him to sell out and self-deal.

Johnson breathlessly posted in social media the news he is meeting with Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R) this week. 

Then the Johnson-Vos summit was close, Johnson wrote. 

Then Johnson emerged with secret "immediate action steps" to protect black and brown youth. What are these action steps; Johnson didn't say, (WISC-TV)?

But Johnson did get his headlines, and the man who goes by the handle, MJohnsonCEO on Twitter, has met another objective, getting his name in the news and upping his profile.

The problem is Johnson in the process is legitimizing a leading Wisconsin racist, Robin Vos, as Republican police have morphed into sadism and open allegiance with white power citizen groups, as Republicans cheer them on.

Two lives taken by GOP-supported racists, Jacob Blake's spinal cord severed, organs eviscerated, and Johnson plays for headlines?

Johnson calls himself a "change agent."

 

But Vos is not a good-faith player, and we are going to long for the days that Republicans committed mere petty acts of juvenile spite and mass incarceration.

 

What drives Johnson conferring legitimacy onto Vos? 

 

It's the monarch syndrome, a delusion of royalty. 

 

The narcissistic belief of Michael Johnson's is that he is a king, and, indeed, his highness is hostile to public criticism of his public performance, which Johnson sees as seditious libel, or being "disrespect(ed)," in his description.

I have news for Michael Johnson. This is a classical liberal democracy and a semi-free country, though political speech of public figures is one aspect in which we do lead the world.

Conferring legitimacy onto racists for headlines is a betrayal. Johnson was wrong to do it for cheap headlines to up his profile.

 

But I look forward to reading all about these "immediate action steps" from the increasingly narcissistic and dishonest Michael Johnson.

Vos, police and Republicans are not seeking dialogue. As Scott Gordon writes, "people [are] exploding in fury against racist policing" that kill and maim.

And Republicans in black and blue and gerrymandered offices are cheering them on. Johnson giving these people cover in their lies should be challenged repeatedly.

Madison, Wisconsin Turnout Rises Past 50 Percent — State Casualty Numbers Expected in Weeks

Wisconsin elections thrust on the people in the middle
of a deadly pandemic may have solved the Milwaukee
turnout problem for a generation. Republicans
don't care how people die as a result of their reckless acts.
Photo: Patricia McKnight of Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

Update: "It was just absurd," Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell said, referring to the April 7 elections Republicans imposed upon an outraged Wisconsin public. "I mean, first of all, why would you think it's appropriate to hold an election when you have to dress that way as a poll worker? But two, the haves and the have-nots. I guess, if you're the speaker (dressed in personal protective equipment), [Rep Robin Vos (R-Rochester, Wisconsin)] that's what you get. If you're everyone else, you get what you get."(WKOW-TV, (Madison))

Madison, Wisconsin — The Madison city clerk reports turnout surpassed 50 percent at 4:00 Wednesday morning.

That figure is expected to climb.

Considering the risk and massive voter suppression work of the Republicans Party at multiple levels and branches of government, 50-some percent is a miracle.

Local officials expressed outrage at state leaders for not postponing the dangerous elections.

An election casualty list is not expected until two weeks.

Unofficial @CityofMadison turnout numbers (with additional absentees pending until 4/13): 87,552 ballots. 50.3%

Absentees counted today: 61,279

April 2016 turnout: 66%#MadisonVotes2020 #MadisonWI

— Madison WI Clerk (@MadisonWIClerk) April 8, 2020

Outrage at Republicans who thrust Wisconsin citizens into the coronavirus COVID 19 storm may have created a "Vos effect," a determination to vote against Republicans.

Rep Robin Vos (R-Rochester, Wisconsin) is the Speaker of the gerrymandered state assembly who successfully worked to kill efforts to postpone the April 7 elections.

Wisconsin Republicans Take Water Polluters' Show on the Road

Huge sand deposits in Central Wisconsin guarantee
environmental and health catastrophes if millions of
gallons of liquid and aerial cow manure are to
be dumped into the environment by Big Ag.

Madison, Wisconsin — The Republican Party continues its work this Summer to facilitate factory farms and other big ag operations in their deliberate poisoning and depleting of surface and groundwater.

But a traveling roadshow, the Speaker's Task Force on Water Quality, led by State Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R) claims to be looking for solutions to the same industrial-sized degradation to water quality for which Vos and his Party implement polluter-friendly policy on the Wisconsin Supreme Court and state legislature.

Vos' expensive sham is a political necessity for Republican lawmakers working for industrial polluters thanks to the work of citizen groups.

Even in the gerrymandered state districts drawn to elect Republicans, the polluters' lobby in the state legislature is forced to engage in propaganda campaigns claiming Republicans too believe in protecting clean and safe water.

Republicans run political interference for big ag polluters across Wisconsin. Without the gerrymander, the Party would have been run out of office by angry voters.

As the newest water polluters' political campaign, the Speaker's Task Force on Water Quality hearings are well-conceived as propaganda campaigns go, including luminaries such as George Kraft and U.S. Department of Agriculture microbiologist Marc Borchardt — academics whose findings on the grave danger big agriculture presents to water and life are ignored by every single Wisconsin Republican officeholder.

Republicans don't care about water quality anymore than they care about women's health.

The next stop on the traveling roadshow is in Tomahawk and Steven Point, July 23, 24. At the Stevens Point public hearing, the polluters' lobby will be met by many central Wisconsin residents whom big ag proposes to run out of their own, multi-generational homes.

PUBLIC HEARING
Speaker's Task Force on Water Quality
Wednesday, July 24, 2019
12:00 PM
Dreyfus University Center
1015 Reserve St.
Stevens Point, WI 54481
Laird Room North

A July 16, 2019 email from Saratoga Concerned, a central Wisconsin citizens group fighting for clean water and specifically against a proposed massive [Wyscoki] factory farm, urges residents to speak:

For 7 years our community has fought against the Wysocki's resisting their efforts to establish their toxic CAFO [Confined Agricultural Feeding Operations or factory farms] and polluting business practices within our township. Throughout this fight many of us have become incredibly aware of just how precious our ground and surface water is to us locally and statewide. We have learned the naked truth of how our State Legislature, controlled by deep political donors, continuously allows for the exploitation of our resources and turns a blind eye to water contaminating business practices running rampant in our state. Our beautiful Wisconsin waterways are quickly becoming toxic and our groundwater resources contaminated beyond repair. Wisconsin water resources are too precious and contamination is hitting too close to home for us to sit back and think our fight to preserve our water here in Saratoga is over. Please read the information below, then mark your calendars and plan to attend, or SPEAK, at the upcoming public hearing.

"Water quality has become a buzz phrase in Wisconsin. During his first state of the state report, Gov. Tony Evers declared 2019 'the year of clean drinking water.' Weeks earlier Assembly Speaker Robin Vos began setting up a task force to determine the key sources of water contamination and ways to remedy them," notes WUWM.

The 2020 general election will demonstrate how much damage and degradation big agriculture and its Republican allies can inflict on water before a critical mass of voters overwhelms the gerrymandered legislative maps Republicans drew to protect their party against the will of the Wisconsin people.

State Journal's Dee Halls Blows John Doe-GAB Piece

Wisconsin John Doe Statute

Update: Further knockdown of Wisconsin discredited rightwinger, subject of State Journal stenography. From Marley, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:
"The attorney for the state's ethics and elections board on Saturday said he will soon file court papers disputing claims that the agency had violated Wisconsin laws in pursing a campaign finance investigation of Gov. Scott Walker's campaign and conservative groups."

The Government Accountability Board will present evidence that 'will refute and disprove specific allegations as well as the general hyperbole of the plaintiff's complaint,' said a statement from the board's attorney, Paul Schwarzenbart."
---
What is the Wisconsin State Journal (Madison, Wisconsin) newsroom doing to its reporter Dee Hall?

Hall is typically a solid and occasionally brilliant journalist but errs and misreports badly in today's Page One piece, "GAB didn't OK secret inquiry, records say."

Hall's reporting is uninformed, contrived and is constructed in the manner of a GOP operative's.

In fairness to Hall, uninformed reporting in Wisconsin on the John Doe probes of criminality associated with Scott Walker and his former staff is on a par of the low-grade journalism put out by Gannett Co. and Wisconsin's rightwing propaganda mill, the Wisconsin Reporter and other GOP organs.

The piece reports on the release of Government Accountability Board (GAB) documents, ordered by a Waukesha County judge at the request of rightwinger Eric O'Keefe of the extremist group, Wisconsin Club for Growth.

Writes Hall:

The state Government Accountability Board’s top officials proceeded with a secret probe into coordination between Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign and conservative political groups for months without authorization from the six retired judges who run the board, court records unsealed Friday allege.

The documents filed by a target of the investigation also allege that the board voted to end its involvement in the probe in July but that staff continued to work on it.

The records add ammunition to Republicans in the state Legislature seeking to overhaul or abolish Wisconsin’s elections and ethics watchdog agency.

Some corrections:

Target

There are no targets (ala federal grand juries and many other state grand jury systems) in Wisconsin John Doe proceedings until a probe determines individual(s) are to be criminally charged and served with a probable cause warrant.

Wisconsin John Doe probes investigate if and by whom crimes may have been committed when conflicts of interest, practical difficulties (such as stonewalling) and protection of privacy is judged imperative by a district attorney(s) and a supervising judge, per Wisconsin statute, who determine that reasonable suspicion of criminality merit further investigation in the above circumstances.

For Hall to refer to Mr. O'Keefe as a "target of the investigation" is an error in reporting, and one which furthers the GOP PR line that the John Doe probe is a "witch hunt" though the fact is the John Doe probe that has determined Scott Walker is at the center of a "criminal scheme" is being run by Wisconsin constitutional law enforcement officials who are publicly proclaimed to be Republican and Democratic, and who are sworn officers of the sovereign state of Wisconsin.

Knockdown

In the ninth graf, readers are treated to the knockdown by "David Deininger, the retired appeals court judge who chaired the board during the launching of the John Doe investigation, defended Kennedy and the GAB staff Friday."

"Deininger was skeptical about the assertions made in the complaint. He said he didn’t recall exactly when the board was made aware of the investigation, 'but something of this magnitude would have been brought to our attention at the earliest opening.'"

'They would know this would have been something the board needed to be up to speed on from the get-go,' Deininger said.

He also vouched for Kennedy and Becker, saying impartial administration of election laws was their 'modus operandi.'"

Deininger's quote demolishes Hall's piece and should have killed it.

Omission

Hall quotes Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) and another Republican without mentioning that Vos and the Republicans have already insisted publicly on direct gubernatorial appointments to the GAB, a partisan power grab of which Hall is certainly aware.

Hall opines "The records add ammunition to Republicans in the state Legislature seeking to overhaul or abolish Wisconsin’s elections and ethics watchdog agency," as though the proposed dismantling of the non-partisan agency has not been part of Republican machinations in the manner of Walker's appointments to the Wisconsin Judicial Commission in 2012, picked by a corporate lobbyist (Millhiser, ThinkProgress).

Tell me Hall could not get a jurist or elected officeholder to describe Vos' nonsense as a power grab on the record. Hall omits what is common knowledge of the GOP's aversion to the GAB or any independent agency that would hold GOP officials to account for criminality and corruption.

There's more, but Hall blew this piece, and the Republican Party of Wisconsin can celebrate the news columns of the Wisconsin State Journal once again.

New GOP Assualt on Voting in Wisconsin Began Mere Days After 2012 Elections, Records Reveal

The right to vote belongs to all Wisconsin citizens who are
qualified electors, under the Wisconsin Constitution.

Sweeping Effort to Suppress Wisconsin Voters Began Two Days After the 2012 Election. Never before has Wisconsin seen
this sustained attacked on voting.

One Wisconsin Now Uncovers Heavy Influence by Top Assembly Leader; Milwaukee Singled Out for Early Voting Restrictions. Milwaukee blacks have long been a target for obstruction, intimidation as the GOP views African-Americans as not full members of society.

You won't see any Wisconsin Republicans renounce this voter obstruction effort and say, 'My God, what are we doing?'

It would be appropriate for every Wisconsin newspaper to advocate the political disqualification of every Republican candidate to the legislature and governor's office who works to prevent the right to vote belonging to all Wisconsin citizens who are qualified electors.

This Republican efforts to erect barriers to vote are an assault against the foundation of the state of Wisconsin's democracy, and every citizen.

From One Wisconsin Now
Madison -- A review of legislative drafting records by One Wisconsin Now has uncovered that Republicans began work to attack state election laws mere days after the November 2012 election and that an omnibus bill on the legislative fast track, introduced by Rep. Jeff Stone, was developed under the close supervision of Assembly Speaker Robin Vos.

One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross commented, “The Republicans were so obsessed that they failed to win Wisconsin’s Electoral College votes for the seventh election in a row that they started drafting this voter suppression scheme before all the votes in the November 2012 election were counted.”

The legislation, Assembly Bill 225 (AB 225), was announced late in the afternoon on the Friday before Memorial Day and is being rushed through the legislative process while much of the public and media attention is focused on the biennial budget. Among the provisions of the bill are:

• Re-imposition of a voter ID requirement found to be Unconstitutional by lower courts and still subject of state and federal lawsuits
• Measures making it easier for ballots cast by legal voters to be discounted due to minor clerical errors;
• Restrictions on early voting hours and essentially eliminate weekend voting in large urban areas;
• Repeal of the state policy that allows voters to use electronic copies of qualifying documents to verify their residency;
• Increased partisanship of election regulators at the state Government Accountability Board and in local polling places; and
• Repeal of campaign transparency requirements and repeal of the 100 year-old-plus ban on corporate contributions.

 “This bill is a massive, across the board assault on voting in Wisconsin. Government ought to be protecting and expanding our right to vote,” said Ross. “But Gov. Walker and top Republican leaders are going in the opposite direction, making it harder and less convenient to vote and easier to toss out votes cast by legal voters.”

Drafting records indicate that work began on one of the more egregious measures included in the package -- limits on early voting hours that effectively ban weekend voting in larger municipalities and eliminate nonpartisan “souls to the polls” drives by churches --- on November 8th 2012, just two days after the November 2012 general election.

A handwritten note associated with the draft of the provisions noted that Milwaukee allowed early voting on weekend and the intent of the bill was to eliminate it.

The work on the omnibus assault on voting was carefully overseen by Assembly Speaker Robin Vos’ office. Despite the drafting request being made by Assembly Campaigns and Elections chair Rep. Bernier and being introduced by Rep. Jeff Stone, Vos was given explicit permission to review preliminary drafts and correspondence between requesters and drafters. In addition, there is extensive correspondence between Vos staff and legislative attorneys drafting the language of the bill, giving directions and making modifications to the legislation.

Ross concluded, “The real fraud in Wisconsin elections today is politicians like Gov. Walker, Speaker Vos and their partisan underlings manipulating the rules to try to give themselves an unfair political advantage. And Assembly Bill 225 is exhibit A in the case against them.”

Scott Walker's Dismal Failure on Jobs

Lie, lie and deny.

Some call it spinning.

Scott Walker's continuing failure on jobs is met with celebration by Republicans and Tea Baggers.

Reports Rick Romell:

'These are exciting times in Wisconsin,' Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) said in a statement. 'Our economy is back on track and jobs are being created across the state.'

Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca (D-Kenosha) and other Democrats pointed to Wisconsin's job-creating record compared against other states - 44th by the most recent data available.

'If Republicans spent half as much time creating jobs as they do spinning lackluster job numbers, Wisconsin might not be falling so far behind in job creation,' Barca said in a statement.

Wisconsin's economy is back on track?

Right, and Scott Walker's friend, Tim Russell, is an avid veterans' advocate.

Cognitive Dissidence has the story, and it's not so "exciting," if a healthy economy is considered stimulating.

The following two graphs illustrate Scott Walker and the Republicans' dismal jobs reality—reality, that liberal, empirical world so frightening to the minds of the GOP.

GOP to Wisconsin Women: GOP Will Decide on Your Bodies

Rape is ALWAYS wrong, Scott Walker!

Republicans cheat, lie and mislead voters, and when they get political power in individual states they pounce upon women like a molesting priest of the Catholic Church

There is something pathological about the political Party (Republicans and Tea Partiers) that wants to decide whether a woman ought to have a child, and force that Party's choice onto women.

Scott Walker says even in cases of rape and incest, women should be forced to conceive, and should be subject to criminal sanctions if women decide on birth control or abortion.

This is Walker's outlandish and misogynistic position, though he keeps this crazed view down low because 'legitimate rape' and other such GOP folly such as Walker's don't play well politically.

Walker has, during his past tenure as a Wisconsin legislator, engaged in a "an all-out assault on abortion rights," as Andy Kroll at Mother Jones notes.

We know what's best for you, GOP tells Wisconsin women

Now, Walker is governor.

And the assault continues.

The Republican Party and Tea Party do not openly run on anti-choice campaign promises.

But they do make anti-choice legislation a "priority," once in office.

They cheat, lie and mislead voters, and when they get power in individual states they pounce upon women like a molesting priest of the Catholic Church.

Actually, without the "specific support" of the Catholic Church, the anti-choice movement would be virtually toothless in America, as Faye Wattleton, former president of Planned Parenthood (1978–1992) told this writer in 1990. The Church is getting worse.

The Catholic Church hierarchy and GOP want abortion gone; they can't use persuasion so they use duplicity; and now the two stained institutions are staunch allies.

Witness Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) who actually worked in 2010 before his election against the Wisconsin Child Victims Act, allowing victims to seek redress for rape and molestation suffered as children and inflicted by the Catholic Church.

Johnson, like Walker, did not campaign on his crazy, rightwing social policies. He stressed jobs and the economy. Sounds familiar.

"Faced with a looming re-election bid in 2014 and near-to-last place in job growth, Governor Walker promised us that from here on out he would 'be focused like a laser on job growth,'" notes Jud Lounsbury. "With this laser-like focus, Gov. Walker and company have a promising lead in their search for jobs: Wisconsin women's vaginas! Of course, to actually find those jobs, you need a really long probe to really search for those jobs. They're in there somewhere and by golly the Wisconsin Republicans are going to find 'em!"

Walker's legislative cohorts—Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald—have decided that forced rape, also known as mandatory "ultrasound" for women seeking abortions is a long overdue, legislative "priority," Jessica VanEgeren reports.   From the Cap Times:

Rep. Chris Taylor, D-Madison, is the former public policy director for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin. She says requiring an ultrasound to be performed before all abortions would mean an invasive procedure for women who are less than 12 weeks pregnant.

At that stage in a pregnancy, she said, the uterus may be blocked by the pelvis, preventing a traditional ultrasound from picking up the image. Thus, a vaginal ultrasound would need to be performed in order to provide an image for a medical professional to discuss with a woman.

From NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin:

NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin today denounced yet another anti-choice effort to focus on divisive attacks on women instead of the jobs and healthcare needed for Wisconsin. Anti-choice leadership in the legislature has indicated they consider forced ultrasounds for women to be a "priority,” a move that would put politicians between women and their doctors. The proposed measure is Wisconsin Right to Life’s agenda, and legislators’ comments in support followed Wisconsin Right to Life’s lobby day.

Wisconsin Right to Life and other anti-choice organizations claim their proposal would not require a trans-vaginal ultrasounds for women seeking abortion care. However, the medical reality is that for women early in pregnancy, a trans-vaginal ultrasound is likely the only technology that can comply with the proposed law’s requirements.

"Either Wisconsin Right to Life and anti-choice politicians do not understand the medicine involved or they are misrepresenting the impact of this legislation. Either answer is unacceptable,” said Jenni Dye, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin. "Decisions on whether any medical procedure, invasive or not, is needed should be made between a woman and her medically trained provider.”

"Politicians know that forced trans-vaginal ultrasounds would be met with public outcry, as we saw in Virginia last year. Voters across Wisconsin sent a clear message in November that they are tired of divisive attacks and ready for the Legislature to work together to focus on jobs and the economy. Speaker Vos and Majority Leader Fitzgerald apparently missed the memo that it is time for them to do their own job, not our doctor’s job.”