When GOP legislators instantly shelve Evers' policing reforms today...

The only question facing the partisan Do-Nothing Duo of Fitzgerald and Vos is:

When they officially disregard Gov. Evers' package of police accountability measures can they beat their earlier mark of less than the single minute which the chambers they 'lead' devoted when shelving Evers' package of gun safety measures?

Context for the Republicans' predictably partisan dismissiveness - it goes hand-in-hand with predictably partisan power-grabbing - 

Keep a timer handy and don't step over to the coffee pot, because GOP power-grabbers  have a record measured in seconds of opening and shutting down special sessions without debate or action on life-and-death matters called by Gov. Evers. 

- was posted earlier, here:

Better summary: WI GOP flips off Milwaukee Bucks players, others. 

In the wake of the near-fatal fusillade of gunshots fired point blank into Jacob Blake's back by a Kenosha police officer, WI Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has asked the GOP-controlled State Legislature to convene in special session to take up a package of police reform measures. 

Don't look to Republicans to do anything with this offering unless that means kicking him really hard underneath the table.

The instant adjournment will also accomplish two GOP legislative priorities:

1. Remaining on their months-long-taxpayers'-paid vacation - of particular interest to Fitzgerald as he goes through the motions campaigning for Congress in a district he helped make safe for Republicans through gerrymandering;

2. Allowing Fitzgerald, Vos and other Republican 'leaders' to join Trump when he photo-ops Tuesday in still-grieving Kenosha tomorrow and dutifully report that once again, WI Republicans did their bit in our swing state to sow fear and division.

Add 'vigilantism' to things not clear to Ron Johnson

Ron Johnson is battling brain fatigue again. This is getting distressingly repetitive.



Of course RoJo doesn't know for sure if people playing sheriff, stalking Kenosha streets with battlefield guns and leaving two civilians dead and one wounded are vigilantes - 

11:15 a.m. 'I’m not for vigilantism,' Johnson tells CNN. 'I’m not sure that’s what was happening' in Kenosha 

- is condemnable.

Johnson won't say the word even when asked repeatedly to condemn it.

Many things are unclear to our senior US Senator who's uncertainties should definitely disqualify him from approving US judges, voting on the Federal budget, sitting as a juror during a Presidential impeachment trial and chairing the Homeland Security Committee, including:

* Law and order at the highest level  - and that breaking the law is definitely grounds to remove an impeached President;

* Sexual assault by a legislator against a staffer - and that notifying the police was the proper response when Johnson was directly told of the assault by the victim;

* Foreign interference in US elections - and that calling Russian interference in the US 2016 presidential election "overblown" after his visit to Moscow raises more red flags that move through Red Square during a Red Army parade;

* Mass pandemic death - and that framing his estimate of more than 11 million US deaths from COVID-19 as acceptable is absolutely not acceptable.

* Science and facts - including what is causing climate change (no, it is not sunspots) - and environmentalists are not Stalinists. He could have gotten that cleared up on his now-infamous trip to Moscow but he's been too busy never explaining what the heck he and seven of his closest GOP colleagues were doing there over the July 4th, 2018 holiday:

“What does July 4th mean to me? Freedom,” Sen. Ron Johnson chirruped on Twitter on Independence Day.

For the Wisconsin Republican, it meant, specifically, the freedom to spend July 4 in Moscow with seven other Republican lawmakers posing for propaganda photos with Russian officials. 

On the same day it was reported in Britain that two more people had been poisoned by a Russian nerve agent British officials say came from Vladimir Putin’s regime. 

On the day after the Senate Intelligence Committee affirmed the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia interfered in the election to help Donald Trump.

The Milwaukee Bucks are defining leadership in the public square

We are grateful for the extended teachable moment about leadership which the Milwaukee Bucks' are providing - 

Milwaukee Bucks players put GOP pols on notice

- as they further communicate a bigger picture view of what failed leadership in the GOP-led WI Legislature looks like:

'We just need action, action, action': Milwaukee Bucks players say Wisconsin Republicans must seriously discuss police reform

"We've heard in the past that they just gavel in and gavel out without really discussing anything or trying to really make change," Bucks forward Khris Middleton told reporters Saturday about the team's decision to speak out last week.  

"On our end, we want to speak to that. We wanted to make sure that they listen to us and they really talk about this police reform bill that needs to be passed through the Senate," he said.

Again, the state and whole world are watching both the maneuvering of GOP Senate Majority Leader Scott (Quick-Gavel & No-Mask) Fitzgerald 

A recent photo of WI GOP Sen. Majority Leader, Trump devotee and immovable opponent of progressive WI  legislation Scott Fitzgerald. He said late last week that the State Senate will not take up any of Gov. Evers justice and policing reform bills next week.

and the emergence of a powerful political force with the Milwaukee Bucks in the lead: 

The NBA Is the Opposition Party

...the NBA, led by the Milwaukee Bucks and with LeBron James quickly joining in, went on strike. The players were walking out of their carefully rescheduled pandemic bubble playoff games to protest Kenosha, and to protest the months and years of police brutality and impunity that had led up to Kenosha, but their message was something even larger: This can’t go on. This won’t go on. We won’t go on with it. 

Gov. Evers seeks policing-reform special session; WI GOP prefers its 'sabotage-Evers' agenda'

8/29/2020 update (from 8/26/2020): WI State Senate will not take up Evers' proposals. Says Fitzgerald's Chief of Staff: 

The state Senate won't take votes Monday on the special session bills introduced by Gov. Tony Evers following the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha.

"It is just a skeletal session where the special session is gaveled in," said Fitzgerald chief of staff Dan Romportl. "Senators do not need to be present, and no bills are being taken up."

Better summary: WI GOP flips off Milwaukee Bucks players, others. 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the wake of the near-fatal fusillade of gunshots fired point blank into Jacob Blake's back by a Kenosha police officer, WI Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has asked the GOP-controlled State Legislature to convene in special session to take up a package of police reform measures.

Don't look to Republicans to do anything with this offering unless that means kicking him really hard underneath the table.

In fact, a GOP State Senator had already dumped on Evers' call for legislative action on policing reforms that predated the Kenosha shooting.

The WI GOP's obstruct-evers strategy imitates the reflexive "no" laid down by GOP US Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell against anything Barack Obama tried to do.

WI GOP Assembly Speaker and lead Evers' saboteur Robin Vos put it this way -  #never - when blocking Evers' call for accepting Medicaid funding which would have helped low-income Wisconsinites obtain routine medical care, access opioid treatment and deal with sudden gaps in medical insurance caused by the pandemic's attack on employment.

For another thing, GOP Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald is busy with his 'campaign' in a safe seat he helped preserve through gerrymandering, and GOP Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has already announced a classic do-nothing-diversionary move to cripple Evers' pitch that is as old as representative government itself: the formation of a task force.

That's the spineless politician's equivalent of giving a packet of 'plant-next-year' seeds to a person starving to death right before your eyes.

A few reminders on this matter of the GOP-led Legislature refusing to concede through any action that Gov. Evers is the legitimate Wisconsin Chief Executive who beat Scott Walker, the once-and-former-Governor-for-Life who is still behaving with the help of fawning media as if he hadn't actually lost the 2018 election:

* In late July it was noted that it had been 100 days since the GOP-controlled Legislature had met.

Well, another month has gone by, and, you guessed it: there still have been do-any-business sessions. 

I guess that's because nothing much is going on that might interest normal, problem-solving legislative problem-solvers - except that there have been 71,493 confirmed Wisconsin cases of COVID-19 and 1,094 deaths in just a few months.

* And remember when GOP legislative leaders bellyached that mean ol' Gov. Evers wouldn't give them a seat at the COVID-19 policy-making table?

LOL. 

They didn't want a seat at the table. They wanted to kick back in their recliners with a sneer and a beer and heckle amid the chaos they caused, as Matt Rothschild had written:

When they petitioned the Wisconsin Supreme Court on April 21 to hear their challenge to the extension, Vos and Fitzgerald wrote that “the Legislature, through its Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules,” should have “a seat at the table.” 

But they aren’t just seeking any old seat. They want the throne! 

As they put it, they want “the opportunity to review Emergency Order 28 and suspend it.”

* Also: A month ago, Evers called the Legislature into special session to consider a package of gun safety measures which have broad public support, like expanded background checks. 

The only thing special about that session was the speed measured in seconds with which GOP legislative leaders closed the meetings and took no action.

* The same GOP leaders also had no interest in meeting in special session to adapt the April election to then-emerging COVID-19 hazards.

* After all, the GOP legislature did not respond to Evers' invitation last winter to work on funding for homeless assistance, had hurriedly cut Evers' powers after he defeated GOP incumbent Gov. Scott Walker - 


- and successfully petitioned the right-wing dominated State Supreme Court to overturn the Evers' administration's data-and-public-heath-driven extension  emergency COVID-19 prevention plan.

* Note also that the same right-wing law firm which argued the Legislature's case against Evers' emergency 'Safer-at-Home' order's extension has just filed another suit to overturn Evers' statewide order that masks be worn inside buildings - even though science shows that, worn correctly, masks are proven a method of stemming virus transmission.

You'd think demonizing the wearing of simple masks that prevent deadly viral particles from being coughed or sneezed on innocent bystanders could not possibly move send right-wingers on another virus-enabling litigating errand, but then you can't must grasp how strongly the far-right here vilifies science and  prioritizes partisan power over preventative medicine:

...the GOP campaign against Evers' legitimacy...began with the lame-duck power grab after Evers beat GOP Gov. Scott Walker fair-and-square.

And because Senate Majority Leader Fitzgerald has refused to schedule a confirmation hearing for still-acting Department of Health Services Secretary Andrea Palm - - and after already firing Evers pick for Ag Secretary for refusing to kiss Fitzgerald's ring - - these unprincipled GOP 'leaders' misfits are now further undermining Evers and Palm by openly talking about firing her - - in the middle of an unprecedented public health disaster....

Vos even called her a "lackey." Look at her credentials.

Given all this history, anyone who thinks the GOP-run Legislature has any interest in meeting now about policing reform - or any other Evers' initiative - still doesn't understand that the WI GOP's overriding goal is to obstruct and humiliate Evers, not validate him through meaningful cooperative.

WI GOP continues shrugging off COVID death and disease

To its willful dismissal of policing reforms, criminal justice repairs, homelessness, social equities and gun violence you can add vacationing GOP Wisconsin legislators' stone-cold tolerance for COVID-19 daily-death-and-disease: 

Wisconsin sees 878 more COVID-19 cases, 11 more deaths 

Regardless, GOP State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald had called for killing Gov. Evers masked-while-indoors order, and, surprise, surprise, the same right-wing law firm which got Evers' extended 'Safer-at-Home' order overturned has gone to court in lightly-populated Polk County in Northern Wisconsin  seeking the very outcome Fitzgerald had sought.

With about 44,000 people, Polk County has roughly the same number of residents as one Milwaukee's 15 aldermanic districts.

Milwaukee Bucks players put GOP pols on notice

I addressed in a Wednesday post the predictably partisan GOP-led Wisconsin Legislature's 


repetitive refusals to tackle many of our state's obvious and systemic policy-making failings - from gun safety to justice system repairs to policing reforms - and thereby deepening the decay in an undeniably undemocratic status-quo.

But Wisconsin legislators should pay greater attention to the heartfelt and on-point words which Milwaukee Bucks players spoke directly to them in a powerful and unprecedented call to action Wednesday evening. The whole state is watching:

“The past four months have shed a light on the ongoing racial injustices facing our African American communities. Citizens around the country have used their voices and platforms to speak out against these wrongdoings.
“Over the last few days in our home state of Wisconsin, we’ve seen the horrendous video of Jacob Blake being shot in the back seven times by a police officer in Kenosha, and the additional shooting of protestors. Despite the overwhelming plea for change, there has been no action, so our focus today cannot be on basketball. 

“When we take the court and represent Milwaukee and Wisconsin, we are expected to play at a high level, give maximum effort and hold each other accountable. We hold ourselves to that standard, and in this moment, we are demanding the same from our lawmakers and law enforcement. 

“We are calling for justice for Jacob Blake and demand the officers be held accountable. For this to occur, it is imperative for the Wisconsin State Legislature to reconvene after months of inaction and take up meaningful measures to address issues of police accountability, brutality and criminal justice reform. 

We encourage all citizens to educate themselves, take peaceful and responsible action, and remember to vote on Nov. 3."

WI has COVID-19 traced to Sturgis, SD biker rally

Though how many cases in Wisconsin is not clear, Wisconsin is now among states with COVID-19 cases traced to the massive motorcycle rally this month in Sturgis, SD where little mask-wearing was reported and social distancing in bars was ignored.

Reports emerged last week confirming several cases in connection with the 10-day motorcycle gathering — 103 in total so far.

In addition to North and South Dakota, states seeing COVID-19 cases linked to the Sturgis event include Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Montana, Wyoming and Washington.

I have been tracking this eventuality for days on my blog, here:

8/24/20 update: Sturgis rally linked to more cases, as biker-attendees return to 61% of US counties: 

Revved by Sturgis Rally, COVID-19 infections move fast, far

Health departments in four states, including South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska and Wyoming, have reported a total of 81 cases among people who attended the rally. South Dakota health officials said Monday they had received reports of infections from residents of two other states — North Dakota and Washington. The Department of Health also issued public warnings of possible COVID-19 exposure at five businesses popular with bikers, saying it didn't know how many people could have been exposed.

8/21/update - Sturgis rally related cases now found in MN, NB and S. Dakota, including a tattoo artist at the event.

8/19/20 not-surprising update:

A person who spent hours at a bar during the Sturgis motorcycle rally in South Dakota last week has tested positive for Covid-19, state health officials said Tuesday....

The bar-goer visited One-Eyed Jack's Saloon in Sturgis on August 11 from noon to 5:30 p.m. while able to transmit the virus to others, health officials said.... South Dakota Department of Transportation officials tracked over 462,000 vehicles entering Sturgis during the rally, according to CNN affiliate KDLT/KSFY. That total is a 7.5% decline from the previous year but still represents one of the largest gatherings since the coronavirus pandemic began. 

Many of those gathered did not wear masks or keep distance from others, most notably at a concert for the rock band Smash Mouth. 

---------------------------------------------
From an August 7th posting:

Wisconsin citizens and public health officials should be paying close attention to the massive motorcycle gathering now underway - visual, here - through August 16 in Western South Dakota.

Yes, that's hundreds of miles to the west, but in COVID-19 terms just a sneeze away.

An estimated 250,000 - and perhaps more - motorcycle enthusiasts are expected to descend on the small community of Sturgis, SD for the 80th Harley-Davidson ride and reunion.

Also a matter or regularity is Milwaukee-based Harley-Davidson's key sponsorship, as its bikes are the event's official motorcycles.

Media across the county are heavily reporting on the rally and noting that South Dakota's far-right GOP Governor Kristi Noem has disparaged mask-wearing and instituted few COVID-19 restrictive measures.

And she welcomed the mask-free Sturgis gathering, while nothing remotely its size has been held in the US for months, and far-smaller gatherings have been cancelled nationally - including an annual charity bike rally next month in Tomahawk, WI - because there's an out-of-control viral pandemic underway spreads easily in large groups that has killed over 160,000 Americans and sickened nearly 5 million in a mere five months.

Said Noem:

As we get more and more data about this virus, it’s becoming increasingly clear that most of us aren’t at high risk. This virus has a clear vulnerable population; we know that elderly folks are far more likely to get seriously ill, especially when paired with certain pre-existing health conditions. That leaves about 95% of the population that is not at risk for serious infection. For these folks, we can continue getting back to normal, while making the best decisions for ourselves and our loved ones.

Noem's science-free/data-distorted dismissal of life-and-death pandemic realities - she's still doing Trump's bidding by pushing his favorite but useless treatment -

...a study out of Michigan’s Henry Ford Health System indicates that hydroxychloroquine may cut mortality rate for COVID-19 in half.

-  dubbed "flawed" by actual lifetime disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci  underscores the rally's dangerous masking snub -  

No Masks Required...

- that will put rally attendees - and later, their families, random on-the-road business customers and total strangers back home - at risk for the virus and its further transmission.

And with poor countries and hard-pressed US communities struggling with the outbreak while resources and medical supplies are short, South Dakota is forced to provide testing materials and even a temporary 172-bed ICU should cases there spiral.

Talk about priorities skewed!

Wisconsin already with its stiff share of COVID-19 cases and dismissive right-wing 'leaders'


needs to pay special attention to these possibilities because Wisconsin is among the national leaders in motorcycle ownership - #7 - and Harley-Davidson bikes have been estimated as high as 90% of those on-the-ground at the Sturgis annual rallies.

And, still, Saturday's news brought more ugly news - a record number of positive COVIDS-19 cases reported, and deaths approaching 1,000.

That's a huge number of families and friends freshly suffering.

In the same state where just a few days ago, the GOP's Senate Majority Leader and guaranteed winner this year for a US Congressional seat said his mission to overturn a statewide gubernatorial indoors-only masking order was based on the COVID-19-enabling premise of 'let people comply if they want.' 

So, regrettably, there is a good chance that even if attendance at the rally falls to 250,000 - earlier allies have had hundreds of thousands more - plenty of riders without even knowing it could bring the virus back to Wisconsin homes and businesses - and beyond.

The StarTribune's editorial board in Minnesota which borders both Wisconsin and South Dakota laid it all out pretty succinctly four days ago on the eve of the rally:

'Utter disaster.' Allowing Sturgis rally to go on puts nation at risk 

Failure of leadership at multiple levels allows event to go on during pandemic. 

Waukesha activist seeks further PSC review of water diversion plan

We're about to learn whether Wisconsin still will allow a single citizen to take on several levels of government to which that citizen pays the taxes or fees that underwrite the whole citizen-government democratic compact.

Former Waukesha school board member and water policy activist Steven Edlund has filed a petition with the Wisconsin Public Service Commission that formally asks the PSC to grant him the status challenge arrangements between Waukesha and New Berlin that will facilitate the distribution of a precedent-setting diversion of water out of the Great Lakes basin from Lake Michigan 
 
through the City of Milwaukee Water Works.

Those arrangements and some of the issue's complex history were extensively  recounted in a Waukesha environmental newsletter, (begin on p. 7): 

Edlund and other Waukesha County residents have been objecting to the project's rising estimated cost and the water data and assumptions behind it for years:

The city claimed the groundwater table was dropping as much as 5 to 7 feet each year. Based on U.S. Geological Survey monitoring data and Water Utility well reports, the deep aquifer stopped declining around the year 2000 and has now risen to levels not seen since the 1980s.

Never the less, Waukesha is proceeding with its long-delayed, $286 million diversion plan, having recently received a low-cost federal loan guarantee worth more than $137 for a project which has more than tripled from its initial estimated cost of $78 million:

Big gov't OK's 'crazy' low-cost Federal millions in Waukesha water diversion funding

The precedent-setting $286 million diversion plan has unfolded over years, is far behind schedule and way above initial cost estimates as low as $78 million - some history, here - and only recently cleared yet another hurdle - this time with New Berlin....

It's fashionable on the right to call government spending 'bailouts' or 'socialism' or wasteful, or election-year-incumbency handouts, whatever.

I doubt you will hear any of that from the situational ideologues. 

For the record: I've been writing about the diversion possibility for more than 14 years, here - and that's before I began this blog which has scores of posts about it accessible through key words in the index box at the upper left. 

Big Sturgis biker rally could boost COVID spread in WI

8/24/20 update: Sturgis rally linked to more cases, as biker-attendees return to 61% of US counties: 

Revved by Sturgis Rally, COVID-19 infections move fast, far

Health departments in four states, including South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska and Wyoming, have reported a total of 81 cases among people who attended the rally. South Dakota health officials said Monday they had received reports of infections from residents of two other states — North Dakota and Washington. The Department of Health also issued public warnings of possible COVID-19 exposure at five businesses popular with bikers, saying it didn't know how many people could have been exposed.

8/21/update - Sturgis rally related cases now found in MN, NB and S. Dakota, including a tattoo artist at the event.

8/19/20 not-surprising update:

A person who spent hours at a bar during the Sturgis motorcycle rally in South Dakota last week has tested positive for Covid-19, state health officials said Tuesday....

The bar-goer visited One-Eyed Jack's Saloon in Sturgis on August 11 from noon to 5:30 p.m. while able to transmit the virus to others, health officials said.... South Dakota Department of Transportation officials tracked over 462,000 vehicles entering Sturgis during the rally, according to CNN affiliate KDLT/KSFY. That total is a 7.5% decline from the previous year but still represents one of the largest gatherings since the coronavirus pandemic began. 

Many of those gathered did not wear masks or keep distance from others, most notably at a concert for the rock band Smash Mouth. 

---------------------------------------------
From an August 7th posting:

Wisconsin citizens and public health officials should be paying close attention to the massive motorcycle gathering now underway - visual, here - through August 16 in Western South Dakota.

Yes, that's hundreds of miles to the west, but in COVID-19 terms just a sneeze away.

An estimated 250,000 - and perhaps more - motorcycle enthusiasts are expected to descend on the small community of Sturgis, SD for the 80th Harley-Davidson ride and reunion.

Also a matter or regularity is Milwaukee-based Harley-Davidson's key sponsorship, as its bikes are the event's official motorcycles.

Media across the county are heavily reporting on the rally and noting that South Dakota's far-right GOP Governor Kristi Noem has disparaged mask-wearing and instituted few COVID-19 restrictive measures.

And she welcomed the mask-free Sturgis gathering, while nothing remotely its size has been held in the US for months, and far-smaller gatherings have been cancelled nationally - including an annual charity bike rally next month in Tomahawk, WI - because there's an out-of-control viral pandemic underway spreads easily in large groups that has killed over 160,000 Americans and sickened nearly 5 million in a mere five months.

Said Noem:

As we get more and more data about this virus, it’s becoming increasingly clear that most of us aren’t at high risk. This virus has a clear vulnerable population; we know that elderly folks are far more likely to get seriously ill, especially when paired with certain pre-existing health conditions. That leaves about 95% of the population that is not at risk for serious infection. For these folks, we can continue getting back to normal, while making the best decisions for ourselves and our loved ones.

Noem's science-free/data-distorted dismissal of life-and-death pandemic realities - she's still doing Trump's bidding by pushing his favorite but useless treatment -

...a study out of Michigan’s Henry Ford Health System indicates that hydroxychloroquine may cut mortality rate for COVID-19 in half.

-  dubbed "flawed" by actual lifetime disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci  underscores the rally's dangerous masking snub -  

No Masks Required...

- that will put rally attendees - and later, their families, random on-the-road business customers and total strangers back home - at risk for the virus and its further transmission.

And with poor countries and hard-pressed US communities struggling with the outbreak while resources and medical supplies are short, South Dakota is forced to provide testing materials and even a temporary 172-bed ICU should cases there spiral.

Talk about priorities skewed!

Wisconsin already with its stiff share of COVID-19 cases and dismissive right-wing 'leaders'


needs to pay special attention to these possibilities because Wisconsin is among the national leaders in motorcycle ownership - #7 - and Harley-Davidson bikes have been estimated as high as 90% of those on-the-ground at the Sturgis annual rallies.

And, still, Saturday's news brought more ugly news - a record number of positive COVIDS-19 cases reported, and deaths approaching 1,000.

That's a huge number of families and friends freshly suffering.

In the same state where just a few days ago, the GOP's Senate Majority Leader and guaranteed winner this year for a US Congressional seat said his mission to overturn a statewide gubernatorial indoors-only masking order was based on the COVID-19-enabling premise of 'let people comply if they want.' 

So, regrettably, there is a good chance that even if attendance at the rally falls to 250,000 - earlier allies have had hundreds of thousands more - plenty of riders without even knowing it could bring the virus back to Wisconsin homes and businesses - and beyond.

The StarTribune's editorial board in Minnesota which borders both Wisconsin and South Dakota laid it all out pretty succinctly four days ago on the eve of the rally:

'Utter disaster.' Allowing Sturgis rally to go on puts nation at risk

Failure of leadership at multiple levels allows event to go on during pandemic. 

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...it doesn't take a medical degree to understand that allowing 250,000 or more motorcyclists to jam into the small city of Sturgis during an out-of-control COVID-19 pandemic is downright reckless.