Independent News
Drama once again in white nationalist Joe Kent's campaign as more text messages are released
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Are we even surprised that a candidate endorsed by Donald Trump is up to some shady business? A congressional campaign has denied text messages that indicate plans to commit election fraud after they were leaked by a fired former campaign manager. Congressional candidate Joe Kent’s team claims the texts are fabricated, but a former campaign manager insists they were not.
The texts were first published by right-wing blog Red Voice Media, which posted screenshots of the texts on Thursday. While the article did not specify how the texts were received, it noted that “the allegations against Kent are both heavy and concerning.”
The texts were then confirmed to be authentic to The Dispatch by former campaign manager Byron Sanford. Sanford was fired by Kent in December. He told the outlet that days before being let go, Kent sent messages to current Campaign Manager Ozzie Gonzalez via the secured app Signal, alleging he would buy the votes of less fortunate folks.
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According to Sanford, Kent planned to use cigarettes and pizza to bribe homeless people and undocumented immigrants to register to vote. He then planned to sort through their ballots to ensure they chose him as their desired candidate.
When asked about the texts, Kent told The Dispatch that his campaign has “been through this before … This is why I got rid of the guy—I just simply couldn’t trust him,” he added, speaking of Sanford.
Kent maintained the claim he made to the outlet in September that his campaign was dedicated to “election integrity”—an odd claim from someone supported by Trump who has cried about a stolen election without evidence for almost two years.
But here’s the plot twist: When investigating the issue, The Dispatch found that there was more drama to the campaign than shared. Sanford admitted to falsely accusing the Kent campaign of creating other Signal messages meant to hurt his reputation. That false accusation tarnished Sanford’s credibility, raising questions on whether these newly published texts too are false. However, through weeks of consistent investigation, The Dispatch verified they were from Gonzalez’s phone.
One text read:
“I’m 1000% down to register homeless people for cigarettes. I’ve been looking for nonprofits or existing orgs that will let us piggyback off their infrastructure but we’re just going to have to do it on our own. Should not be hard. Show up at a camp with 30 dominoes pizzas. Same with every ethnic minority. The stupider the better. Central Americans are perfect”
Another indicated the campaign’s intention to illegally secure votes:
“I’m also down to take all the trash bags of ballots back to my place to make sure they voted the correct way by shining a flash light through the envelope.”
And following in the words of Trump the intent of another text couldn’t be more clear:
“I’m literally going to steal the election. I’ll collect every ballot I can with some trust worthy [sic] Patriot prayer guys and then we will sort through them in my basement and burn the bad ones.”
Gonzalez defended himself, telling the outlets that not only was Sanford lying, but he “was found with my cell phone several times when it went missing at events throughout the summer.” He added: “Most media was captured on my phone and it got passed around frequently.”
To further tarnish Sanford’s credibility, Gonzalez shared screenshots with The Dispatch that he allegedly had of Sanford’s texts in which he claimed Sanford used offensive and ignorant language, including saying “fucking kikes,” “heil fucking Kent,” and “allah fucking akbar.” According to The Dispatch, the same verification process used to confirm Gonzalez’s texts was used to confirm the messages came from the Signal account associated with Sanford’s phone number.
While he initially denied the claims, Sanford later admitted to sending the antisemitic texts.
“I’ve donated to Jewish causes and I’m a staunch supporter of a one-state solution with Israel annexing the West Bank. I used a poor choice of wording to Ozzie but that’s how you work on Joe’s campaign with his current staff,” he told The Dispatch. “The reason Joe’s people are using this is because I told the truth about his campaign.”
Whether or not Kent was involved in this attempt to “steal the election” is not clear, but what is clear is that this campaign is a hot shady mess.
But of course, it comes as no surprise because this isn’t the first time Kent has made headlines. Kent has faced criticism for being connected to not only white nationalism but supporting the neo-nazi conspiracy of “replacement theory.” The conspiracy theory suggests that white people native to their countries are being replaced by non-white immigrants.
During appearances on conservative talk shows, Kent expressed anger towards people who label those who talk about “replacement theory” as racist.
“[Democrats] are elite whites who have no issue whatsoever bringing in that unskilled cheap labor from country—you name the country, you name the ethnicity, that’s going to displace, a working-class white, a working-class Hispanic, or working-class Black African American,” Kent said. “And you know, they’ll say oh if you even mention that, then you’re some sort of neo-Nazi, white nationalist. That’s the replacement theories.
“Well no, you’re literally trying to replace an American—but you’re not, you’re doing it because you want cheap labor,” Kent added.
The outlet Salon even included Kent in their list of dangerous Republican candidates, noting that the candidate for Washington’s 3rd District was backed by the “Insurrection Caucus,” including Trump allies like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, Madison Cawthorn, and Matt Gaetz.
Trump dooming Republicans in Wisconsin with his ongoing scheme to decertify 2020
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Wisconsin Republican House Speaker Robin Vos just can’t get out from under the sham 2020 election investigation he created to placate Donald Trump.
The taxpayer-funded probe, with an estimated price tag of $680,000, has turned up exactly no evidence of fraud but it sure has fueled a movement of deluded election deniers. Vos originally tapped former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman to run what has evolved into a total debacle. Now Gableman’s contract with the state Assembly is up, and Vos is seeking to end the probe and cut his losses.
Enter Donald Trump, who is threatening Vos with a primary challenge if he shuts it down, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
“Anyone calling themselves a Republican in Wisconsin should support the continued investigation in Wisconsin without interference,” Trump said.
“I understand some RINOs have primary challengers in Wisconsin. I’m sure their primary opponents would get a huge bump in the polls if these RINOs interfere,” he added, wielding an acronym for “Republicans In Name Only” that’s synonymous with traitor in Trump circles.
Trump didn’t name Vos, but he didn’t have to. Controversy over Vos’ costly, unproductive, and ongoing investigation has been raging since last year.
Vos originally announced the probe to appease Trump—a fool’s errand. The investigation served only to stoke false hopes among election deniers and give political opportunists a toehold.
Vos was left desperately trying to disabuse election deniers of the notion that state lawmakers could vote to decertify the 2020 election, part of an ongoing plot being pushed by Trump attorney John Eastman, author of the Jan. 6 scheme to deny congressional certification of Joe Biden’s win.
Gableman, who’s being compensated $11,000 per month, has missed several deadlines to file his report. He also seems to be terrorizing mayors, election officials, and others by targeting them with overly broad subpoenas, then asking a judge to jail them for noncompliance. Gableman’s targets dispute his characterization that they are violating the law. They are also insisting that he interview them in a public setting rather than privately, according to the Journal Sentinel.
Vos is pressuring Gableman to close out his daily duties this week. But a hearing on those subpoenas is set for July and a favorable ruling for Gableman would result in several weeks or months more of deposition work. Gableman has also graced the airwaves of Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast to lobby for an extension.
Gableman’s cause has been taken up by some GOP state lawmakers, too.
“If Speaker Vos shuts down the Office of Special Counsel’s investigation now, not only will he be condoning cheating, he’ll be legalizing it,” said GOP Rep. Janel Brandtjen, who chairs the Assembly Committee on Campaigns and Elections.
In the meantime, Vos and Gableman have been embroiled in several lawsuits related to cases filed by the liberal watchdog group American Oversight.
The drip, drip, drip of Wisconsin GOP drama comes amid a midterm effort that historically should favor Republicans. But a Marquette Law School poll in late February posted some daunting numbers for Republicans.
President Joe Biden’s job approvals (43% approve/52% disapprove) aren’t exactly great, but Trump’s favorability rating has plummeted to 36% favorable/57% unfavorable.
The favorables for incumbent GOP Sen. Ron Johnson, who’s up for reelection, are similarly dismal, with just 33% of Wisconsin voters viewing him favorably, while 45% view him unfavorably—his worst numbers in 10 years of Marquette polling.
At the same time, incumbent Democratic Gov. Tony Evers is faring relatively well in this polarized environment, with 50% job approval to 41% disapproval.
Oh, and Vos’ bottom-of-the-barrel favorables sit at 13% favorable, 28% unfavorable, and 50% who “hadn’t heard enough.”
Please proceed, Trump. Wisconsinites need to feel your continued presence in the state.
—>>Later today, we will be hosting Ben Wikler, chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, on The Brief, from 4:30 PM ET to 5:30 PM ET. You can catch it below!
In case you're not over Chauvin's claim that murderer was wronged: Here's latest try at new trial
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The attempts to get ex-cop and convicted murderer Derek Chauvin out of jail after he kneeled on George Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes just keep rolling in. This time, they’re coming in the form of an 82-page brief filed on Monday to detail Chauvin’s believed grounds for an appeal.
Chauvin filed a notice of appeal last September and argued in that document that the “District Court abused its discretion when it denied Appellant’s motion for change of venue or a new trial.” In the recent brief, attorney William Mohrman expounded.
RELATED STORY: Derek Chauvin files for appeal after murdering George Floyd
“The threat of violence here was real in the extreme,” he wrote in the brief. “The courthouse was surrounded by barbed wire and soldiers during the trial. Prior to jury deliberations, National Guard troops were deployed throughout Minneapolis, businesses boarded up their buildings and schools were closed ‘bracing for a riot’ in the event Chauvin’s acquittal. The jurors, because they were not sequestered, saw this every day.”
Mohrman claimed pre-trial publicity was “more extensive than in any trial ever in Minnesota”; that “every potential juror and seated juror admitted detailed knowledge of both Floyd’s death, Chauvin’s involvement and the riots”; and prosecutorial misconduct was overlooked.
Despite this, Dr. Tobin did mention the report in his testimony.Q. Would you tell the ladies and gentlemen why that statement [Dr. Fowler’s opinion] is not reliable?A. I base it on the arterial blood gas that was obtained when Mr. Floyd was in Hennepin County.
Other issues Mohrman submitted for review in the appeals brief:
- Whether “a police officer can be charged with felony-murder with assault as the predicate offense.”
- Whether “allowing seven witnesses to testify on reasonable use of force is cumulative evidence justifying reversal.”
- Whether “not allowing Chauvin to present a complete defense justifies reversal.”
- Whether “failure to record sidebars resulted in a violation of fair trial right.”
- Whether “upward departure in sentence was justified.”
Read the full appeals brief:
Many of them aren’t exactly new elements of the defense’s attempt to get a murderer out of jail. They were laid out in the notice of appeal. In that document, attorneys accused the state of committing “prejudicial prosecutorial misconduct” and abusing its discretion when it didn’t sequester the jury throughout the trial.
Attorneys also accused the court of failing “to make an official record of the numerous sidebar conferences that occurred during trials,” and not giving due consideration to an earlier motion for a new trial due to alleged “juror misconduct.”
The integrity of a particular juror in Chauvin’s trial was called into question just days after Chauvin was sentenced because that juror attended a march for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., CBS-affiliated WCCO reported last May.
Rachel Moran, a law professor from the University of St. Thomas, told WCCO then that an important consideration in the case is whether lawyers did their job in investigating jurors. The juror, Brandon Mitchell, said in a questionnaire WCCO obtained that he never took part in a protest about police brutality and that the phrase “Black lives matter” simply means Black people “want to be treated as equals and not killed or treated in an aggressive manner simply because they are Black.”
“If he had been asked about it and he tried to hide it, that could be an issue,” Moran said. “But at this point, I don’t see anything, any evidence that he tried to hide it.”
RELATED STORY: Derek Chauvin murders George Floyd in broad daylight, but Black juror is called into question
Another repeated defense refrain laid out in the appeal brief is this belief that Chauvin was sentenced too harshly.
Well, the prosecution pushed for an upward departure from sentencing guidelines, and Judge Peter Cahill agreed with four of five of its claims that there were “aggravated sentencing factors” to qualify a longer sentence for the ex-cop in a pre-sentencing court document filed last May. Cahill found that Chauvin abused a position of trust and authority; was particularly cruel; committed an act of crime in the presence of children; and committed a crime as part of a group of at least three other people.
The one aggravating factor Cahill parted with the prosecution on was that Floyd was “particularly vulnerable” in comparison with other murder victims.
RELATED STORY: What to expect when Derek Chauvin is sentenced: Attorneys weigh in
Chauvin, who’s being held at a maximum security prison, was sentenced to 22.5 years last April. He pleaded guilty of depriving Floyd of his rights in the federal case against Chauvin late last year.
RELATED STORY: Derek Chauvin changes plea to guilty in federal case against him
Ukraine update: Balancing desperate needs and uncomfortable reality
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Over the course of the now more than two-month-long invasion of Ukraine, kos has written several times about the difficulty of integrating unfamiliar weapons systems into an army—especially when that army is already engaged in a life-or-death struggle. Every single one of these systems comes with its own training requirements, not just for the person whose finger is on the trigger, but for all the mechanics, electricians, and support crews needed to keep it operating in the field. For some systems that training can be done in days. For others it extends into months.
Then there were issues with the supply chain. Even if the U.S. or some other NATO country shipped additional weapon systems into Ukraine, they had to come with a steady stream of parts and ammo to keep them running. Why Russia has been unsuccessful at shutting down that supply chain is going to be a subject of debate for decades, but there’s no doubt they’ve tried. To a large extent, the push that Russia is making toward the town of Barinkove, southwest of Izyum, is about cutting supplies to Ukrainian forces in eastern Ukraine.
The more different systems a military is using, the more different calibers and types of ammo they require, and the more parts and varied training are required, the less likely something is to work when it’s needed. A piece of artillery may be just in the right spot, but it’s no good without shells. A tank may be prepared to breech the enemy lines, but it won’t operate if it blows an engine gasket and there’s no spare. An anti-aircraft system may be the shiniest thing on the planet, but if no one on site understands how to operate it, it might be literally worse than nothing.
As the weeks have passed during Russia’s invasion, the floodgates on heavy weapons have opened—as kos predicted they would weeks ago.
Part of the reason for that is simple enough: Time. It doesn’t make much sense to train someone on a system that takes six weeks to learn if the war is expected to be over in days. When it became clear that Russia wasn’t going to roll into Kyiv and put on those parade dress uniforms, it suddenly made a lot more sense to introduce weapons and systems that took more time to learn and more time to integrate with Ukraine’s existing systems.
In almost all cases, it still makes the most sense to give Ukraine more of what they already have—mostly variants of Soviet-era systems that match up well with the Russian opposition. They know how to operate these systems and how to repair them. Where they need to be modified to bring a NATO-spec vehicle into line with Ukrainian standards, Ukraine already has shops set up to make those changes. As long as a stream of T-72 tanks, S-300 air defense systems, and Mi-17 helicopters can be kept flowing, it needs to flow.
However, there are already a wide variety of systems being sent to Ukraine. As Oryx records, new deliveries include a wide variety of drones, six different radar systems, three new types of APVs, five kinds of howitzers (using at least two new ammunitions), and three different kinds of artillery (again, with at least two different types of ammunition).
As desperately needed as some of this equipment may be on the front lines, and as gratifying as seeing these systems in operation may be, particularly to the nations sending them, there is a real chance of helping Ukraine to death. Every truck that’s bringing 155 mm howitzer ammo is not carrying 122 mm. Or 152 mm. Every mechanic who spends a few weeks in Poland learning to repair an M198 is not learning to repair a D-30. Just shooting one round out of these things is not a cakewalk.
Watching the round-robin of calls between allied nations looking into what to send next can be extremely frustrating, and must be 100 times more frustrating in Ukraine. But coordination, cooperation, and those all important logistics have never been more vital than they are now.
Almost from Day One, the supply chain going into Ukraine has been “remarkable.” Ukraine earned the time to integrate all those new systems by fighting back against Russian forces in those first few days. They didn’t just prove Russia wrong, they proved everyone who thought that by now we’d be in the “Russia takes all the cities, while Ukraine is reduced to partisan warfare” stage was way off base.
They earned a chance to not just survive, but to win, and now NATO is doing what they can to bring in a steady stream of not just older weapons, but some so new that we honestly don’t know much about them.
It would be easy for NATO nations to treat the invasion of Ukraine like an opportunity to clean out the closets and empty the hangers of everything they want out of the way anyway. But the best thing to do for Ukraine is still what kos said back on April 8: Give them what they know, or things that—like a Javelin anti-tank missile or Switchblade drone—are essentially disposable.
It would be very easy to place an additional burden on Ukraine even while trying to help them, which is why all those meetings that are happening outside Ukraine, like the one chaired this week by the United States, are so important.
The more time Ukraine gets, the more it will be possible to replace older Soviet-designed systems with newer, more powerful, more effective systems. But they have to buy that time, and we have to help them.
Criminal appeals court halts Melissa Lucio's imminent execution, orders look at new evidence
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The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Monday halted Melissa Lucio’s execution, just hours before the mother of 14 was scheduled to be killed by the state for the accidental death of her baby daughter. Lucio sobbed when she was told the news by a state lawmaker, one of the many who rallied for a stop to her execution.
“I thank God for my life,” Lucio said in a statement released by Innocence Project. “I have always trusted in Him. I am grateful the court has given me the chance to live and prove my innocence.” She said her daughter Mariah, who was just two when she fell and died in 2007, “is in my heart today and always. I am grateful to have more days to be a mother to my children and a grandmother to my grandchildren.”
RELATED STORY: Texas board to make recommendation on Melissa Lucio’s case as advocates rally for her life
Lucio’s advocates had been anxiously awaiting word from an entirely different entity when the criminal appeals court handed down its decision. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles was to issue a recommendation to Gov. Greg Abbott by Monday afternoon, who would then decide if the execution would go forward or not. But following the appeals court ruling, the board said it would not be voting on her case.
“In a three-page decision ordering a stay to the execution that had been set for Wednesday, the Court of Criminal Appeals found that several of the claims raised by her lawyers needed to be considered by a trial court, including that prosecutors may have used false testimony, that previously unavailable scientific evidence could preclude her conviction and that prosecutors suppressed other evidence that would have been favorable to her,” The New York Times reported. KVUE shared the moment Lucio found out she would not die:
The petition submitted to the criminal appeals court by Lucio’s advocates earlier this month said the harsh interrogation technique used by investigators against the mom has contributed “to nearly one-third of all known wrongful convictions underlying the nation’s DNA exonerations.” One of the at least five jurors who has since regretted their decision sentencing her to death said they were never made aware of harsh techniques used against Lucio, or that she was a survivor of both childhood sexual abuse and domestic violence, which made her particularly vulnerable to such tactics.
Tivon Schardl, Capital Habeas Unit chief of the Federal Defender for the Western District of Texas and attorney to Lucio, said the mom is now entitled to “a new, fair trial.”
“Texans should be grateful and proud that the Court of Criminal Appeals has given Melissa’s legal team the opportunity to present the new evidence of Melissa’s innocence to the Cameron County district court,” Schardl continued. She noted, and thanked, the broad state and national support that urged a halt to the execution. In her statement, Lucio also said that she was “deeply grateful to everyone who prayed for me and spoke out on my behalf.”
“At last, Lucio will get her chance to mount a full and proper defense guaranteed to her by the U.S. Constitution,” the Houston Chronicle editorial board said. “Even as we celebrate this moment, we have to wonder how many others on Death Row deserve the same chance.” The Innocence Project pointed to a recent report noting that in the cases of the 161 people exonerated last year, misconduct by officials played a role in more than 100 of those cases.
“So thankful that a court finally stepped in today and stopped Melissa Lucio’s execution,” tweeted Sister Helen Prejean, the noted anti-capital punishment activist. “The death penalty is always horrific, but executing a mother for a crime that never even happened? Melissa was coerced into making a false confession 15 years ago. May the truth come out now.”
And may the truth come out for the untold number of Melissa Lucios across the nation. Innocence Project said the mom deserves justice, and that it will continue to fight to prove her innocence in court. The organization urged advocates to take a moment and send a message to Lucio letting her know that they will continue to stay in her corner.
RELATED STORIES:
Melissa Lucio, Texas mom facing execution for baby’s accidental death, asks court to spare her life
Melissa Lucio, Texas mom facing execution for baby’s accidental death, asks court to spare her life
DeSantis signs voter bill officially authorizing Gestapo-like election police force
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Despite the fact that it’s been nearly impossible to find actual cases of voter fraud in the 2020 election, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis found a way to give credit to the Big Lie—complete with legislation authorizing an election police force.
DeSantis signed a bill Monday devoted to the GOP’s ongoing and dishonest allegations that former President Donald Trump’s presidential loss was the result of a stolen election.
“We’re taking a very strong stand against ballot harvesting. I think it’s justified and I think that people can have confidence that if someone’s voting absentee they actually got the ballot and they actually sent it in,” DeSantis declared at a news conference at Rookies Sports Bar & Grill, before signing Senate Bill 524 into law.
RELATED STORY: DeSantis out-Orwells Orwell with proposed $6 million police ‘election integrity unit’
According to CNN, the new law creates an Office of Election Crimes and Security in Florida’s Department of State with a price tag of $3.7 million; the originally proposed bill had a $6 million cost.
Under the law, DeSantis can hire 10 law enforcement officers dedicated to investigating election-related crimes. The measure also increases the penalty for submitting more than two vote-by-mail ballots from a misdemeanor to a felony, with a fine ranging from $1,000 to $50,000 for violating voter registration laws, CNN reports.
Democratic Rep. Tracie Davis told CBS News that DeSantis’ “so-called election reform legislation is a continued attack by the Republican Party to generate public distrust in the integrity of our elections,” adding that the bill is “unnecessary and a waste of taxpayer funds.”
According to a poll by the Associated Press taken in December 2021, only 475 cases of voter fraud were discovered related to the 2020 presidential election; 158.4 million Americans voted.
And perhaps DeSantis should be looking at his own party when it comes to voter fraud.
It hasn’t even been two weeks since we reported that Mark ‘Big Lie’ Meadows, Trump’s former chief of staff, was removed from voter rolls in North Carolina after it was discovered he was registered in both Virginia and North Carolina. Then yet another state popped up: South Carolina.
It’s widely assumed that DeSantis will run for reelection and could be a 2024 presidential candidate. In preparation for election season, the governor appears to be making it extremely difficult for Democrats to have a fair shot.
On Friday DeSantis presented a congressional map so gerrymandered that it was almost laughable, except that it wasn’t funny.
The Florida House voted 68-38 in favor of DeSantis’ map and sent it to the governor’s desk for his signature. The state Senate signed off on the map Wednesday; both voted along party lines.
Though the map will likely be challenged in court, it offers four more GOP-leaning districts, virtually erases Democrats’ gains in redistricting, and splits Florida’s 10th Congressional District held by Rep. Val Demings, a Black Democrat who’s currently running for Senate.
If the map is upheld, it would all but end Rep. Al Lawson’s congressional role by slicing up a district that extends through North Florida and merges Black neighborhoods in Jacksonville and Tallahassee, The New York Times reports.
“It’s so blatantly partisan,” Matthew Isbell, a leading Florida-based Democratic data consultant, told NBC News. “The only way you can create a 20-and-8 map … was to basically say, ‘Screw Black representation.’”
Wisconsin Dems held their own in recent local elections. Ben Wikler's here to talk 2022 takeaways
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Contrary to conventional wisdom in Washington, not everything is coming up roses for Republicans out there in the states. Take Wisconsin, where Donald Trump and his allies are pushing an ongoing scheme to decertify 2020 that is ripping apart the Wisconsin GOP.
A February poll from Marquette Law school also held some bracing news for Republicans.
President Joe Biden’s job approvals (43% approve/52% disapprove) aren’t exactly great, but Trump’s favorability rating has plummeted to 36% favorable/57% unfavorable.
The favorables for incumbent GOP Sen. Ron Johnson, who’s up for reelection, are similarly dismal, with just 33% of Wisconsin voters viewing him favorably, while 45% view him unfavorably—his worst numbers in 10 years of Marquette polling.
At the same time, incumbent Democratic Gov. Tony Evers is faring relatively well in this polarized environment, with 50% job approval to 41% disapproval.
In April, thousands of Wisconsinites went to the polls for local elections. And in this supposed red-wave environment, Democrats held their own.
Today’s guest, Ben Wikler, chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, recently wrote, “In a 50/50 state, during a tough year for Democrats, we won more than we lost. Out of 276 races where WisDems actively engaged, investing in organizing, digital, and/or mail to voters, we won 147 of the races.”
Here were some key takeaways from Wikler’s post:
- Democratic performance in conservative Milwaukee suburbs—relative to 2018 numbers—looked strong.
- Right-wing candidates in school board races in blue and purple areas—like La Crosse, Eau Claire, Appleton, Beloit, Fond du Lac, and Oshkosh—fell flat.
- Pro-democracy poll worker Pamela Gantz beat Kelly Ruh, a fake elector subpoenaed by the Jan. 6 commission who was running for reelection as a De Pere alder.
- Cavalier Johnson won in a landslide, becoming Milwaukee’s first elected Black mayor.
- Pheng Thao makes history as the first elected Hmong member of the Appleton school board.
Wikler also noted that despite some GOP successes, Republicans had failed to find a message that appeals to anyone beyond their base. And that’s where we will pick things up with Wikler. What issues and messages worked for Democrats, what didn’t work for Republicans, and what lessons should Democrats carry into November?
You can watch the show live right here on Tuesdays at 1:30 PM PT/4:30 PM ET, while the podcast version goes live Wednesday mornings at all the usual places, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. A full list of places to download the show is available here.
Sen. Rand Paul on Russia's military attacks: 'The countries they've attacked were part of Russia'
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I’ve said this before and I’m going to keep saying it until it becomes the theme of every story that so much as touches on the antics of Sen. Rand Paul: Rand Paul is a contrarian opportunist. That’s his schtick. Whatever anyone else has got, Sen. Rand Paul will come up with a reason why he’s against it, and if you stumble into agreement with something Rand Paul previously believed then Rand Paul will declare that now he’s against that thing and the nation will unravel if people like you support it. All of this is constant, cynical experimentation by Paul as he tries his hand at creating the latest Viral Fundraising Moment, some brief moment in time when equally contrarian Americans see Paul saying something and are willing to reward his gadfly nature with five American dollars. Possibly 10, if Paul can wedge the word “filibuster” in there somewhere.
Right now the nation’s attention is focused on Russia’s military attack on Ukraine, so that is where Rand Paul’s own attention lies. Rand Paul is vaguely aware that under Donald Trump, Republicanism drifted from perennial hawkishness to international nihilism, a new belief that America owes nothing to anybody and even our closest allies are treating us like “suckers.” Rand Paul has inherited a mailing list of longtime conspiracy cranks, more than a few of them raging racists, thanks to his father’s long career as contrarian opportunist. And Rand Paul is quite certain that the Trumpian wing of Republicanism likes Vladimir Putin, does not like Vladimir Putin’s enemies, and that Ukraine is bad because they wouldn’t turn over Hunter Biden’s secret DNC server holding Italian satellite-controlled Jewish Space Laser data even though Donald Trump asked them super nicely to do that.
And that is how we get this. Keep in mind: Rand Paul is a contrarian opportunist. He does not have principles; he merely puts on little one-man plays to see what reactions might net him the most fundraising cash.
If you watch that whole clip you’ll notice a few little details, like Paul having to correct himself after saying “Russia” to say “Soviet Union,” and most notably Paul’s determination to not take full ownership of the argument he himself is making. Paul’s anti-NATO stance is one he’s actually stuck to for a while now, since it plays exceptionally well with a base forever worried about things like the United Nations coming to indoctrinate your kids or NATO being a secret conspiracy aimed at creating a “one world government.” It’s also gotten him, like numerous other House and Senate Republicans, in some tight spots as he ends up regularly being one of the American lawmakers that “coincidentally” keeps landing on the same talking points Putin’s allies are trying to sell in any given moment of time.
But Paul is arguing that the United States shouldn’t respond to a new war of conquest because the authoritarian government doing the conquesting is, after all, focusing its campaign on annexing territories that fled from their rule after their last authoritarian government ended in crisis and collapse, which is … a very odd argument! And one that, according to Rand Paul himself, he’s, uh, not making! Unless you like it, in which case he is! He’ll look at the Internets later and decide which parts to run with.
I dunno, senator. This sounds a bit like if you called the police because your neighbor got tired of you talking smack, jumped the fence and broke a few of your ribs, then when the police came they just looked at you and said, “This guy has owned the property next door for an awful long time, so we can kind of see where he’s coming from on this.”
And, scene. Once again Rand Paul has used one of the most critical issues of the day to Rand Paul-up a Senate hearing with Rand Paulisms that none of us are going to remember a few weeks from now, but which he’ll use for a new fundraising drive just as soon as his staff can clip the footage. (For the record, as I write this Paul’s Twitter feed still consists mostly of anti-mask statements, including one that claims masks to be “ineffective” and another claiming he has been “vindicated” by a far-right judge deciding that nobody’s gotta wear masks on planes anymore because FrEEdOmZ.)
Contrarian opportunism: A political tactic in which you claim to have a grievance with absolutely everything anyone else says, use that ostensible disagreement to tie up government in such a way that practically requires reporters to flock to him to have him speechify, you solicit donations based on the publicity, and then move on to the next thing. Sometimes it does require you to get rather close to Putin’s own theories that Russia is justified in invading any nation that Russians have ever had historic claims on, so it requires more courage—or at least fewer principles—than you might think.
Devin Nunes makes an appearance on Fox News, begging hosts to sign up for Trump's failed social site
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I don’t know if you heard: Elon Musk has spent—checks notes—$44 billion on the social media application Twitter. Where Musk is leveraging this extraordinary amount of money is predictably shrouded in mystery. That’s how our economic system works! This is something of a bummer as Musk has a long history of being like every other oligarchical wealthy person in the history of the world in regards to his intense interest in himself. The South African Musk, born and raised during the height of apartheid, has a history of running a successful avant-garde electric vehicle business you may have also heard of. That business has a very troubling history of allegedly being run like an archaic white supremacist plantation.
The fact of the matter is that our media, social media, and general forms of news and communication mediums have been consolidated into the control of a few extremely wealthy and powerful hands for some time now. Musk’s acquisition of Twitter isn’t the end of the world in any specific way—just an omen of what has been happening and what will continue to happen without general intervention in our marketplaces by government.
There is a silver lining here: Musk’s continued flirtation with the libertarian-cum-conservative misguided free speech warriors has the potential of stifling an enormous swath of the consumer base that Donald Trump’s Truth Social app was hoping to pull away from the blue tweeting bird. Do I care what happens to Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s assets? Only insofar as it would be nice to see those assets distributed back into the pockets of people who need it more. Other than that, I’m here for Truth Social CEO and GOP thin-skinned lapdog Devin Nunes begging for Fox News on-air personalities to join Truth Social.
RELATED STORY: Top executives jump ship, numbers down, Trump sad, Truth Social is a disaster
Nunes came on Fox News to try and remind viewers that Truth Social is still a thing and definitely not a disaster where two of the technological architects of the application have quietly resigned after the launch was a nightmare and faktriots were complaining of being “censored” within days of signing on. The CEO of Trump Media & Technology group (TMTG) told Fox host Brian Kilmeade that he was happy that Kilmeade had signed on to Truth Social, “but you need to send out some truths if you want to get more people.”
It seems that while many right-wing media celebrities like Steve Bannon have yet to even sign up, the ones who have are not using their accounts—or likely even looking at Truth Social ever. In fact, a big problem over at Truth Social seems to be fake right-wing accounts that Truth Social keeps verifying in the hopes of finding out that they are real accounts. This happened with a fake Fox News account on Truth Social a week or two ago.
RELATED STORY: So much for free speech: Trump’s ‘Truth Social’ Twitter rip-off already banning and censoring users
In the clip below, Nunes even references the sad state of affairs over at Truth Social, attempting to jokingly-not-jokingly implore Kilmeade to both use the app more and post things. “We’re so excited that you’re on Truth—you’re getting followers very very quickly—but you need to send some ‘truths’ out if you want to get more followers.” You see what he did there? He is pretending that Kilmeade is a big part of Truth Social while also saying Brian clearly isn’t using Truth Social. Also, if your business model is based on Kilmeade sending out “some truths out,” you’re in big trouble.
Nunes then transitioned to some MacGuffin about how now that they are on Rumble “cloud servers,” Truth Social cannot be “canceled by any tech tyrants.” This, of course, remains to be seen, as tech billionaires like Musk’s buddy Peter Thiel have spent a lot of money to support Rumble.
Circling back, Nunes reminds Kilmeade to use the app and also puts in a plea for help getting at least one of the Doocy dunces onboard. “But also, Brian, you’re on Truth, we need you to truth, but Doocy—I gotta talk to him. So, he’s got to turn his phone on and click on the app, he’s been let in. Either that or he may be a bot.”
Is there a difference?
RELATED STORY: Don’t buy a Tesla unless you’re okay with Black workers being brutalized by racist managers
Biden grants clemency to 75 nonviolent drug offenders to mark 'Second Chance Month'
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President Biden today announced he would commute the sentences of 75 nonviolent drug offenders, part of a “Second Chance Month” meant to call attention to the failures and systemic racism of the war on drugs. Three pardons were announced, including the pardon of the first Black American to ever serve as part of a presidential Secret Service detail: Abraham Boldon served several years in prison after he was accused in 1964 of trying to sell Secret Service information, but witnesses later recanted their testimony and Boldon himself always maintained the charge was retaliation against him for exposing racism in the agency.
These are the first pardons of Biden’s term. Criminal justice advocates have been hopeful that Biden would use his powers to more broadly grant clemency for those caught in the transparently racist supposed “war on drugs” that resulted in hyperaggressive policing of non-white neighborhoods while ignoring drug use in white ones, but so far Biden’s team has shied away from that sort of boldness. Seventy-five commuted sentences is still a good start, though.
Turning slightly to a media critic role: There are two bits in the reporting on this that are a bit odd and worth calling out. In The Washington Post‘s write-up, we are told:
“Biden’s use of his sweeping clemency powers appears more targeted on righting injustices than his immediate predecessor, Donald Trump, who was known for granting pardons to celebrities and political allies who had broken the law.”
That looks conspicuously like a Post attempt at snark, but it’s probably lost on most readers. A more accurate phrasing would note that Trump notoriously used his pardon powers to immunize political allies who were involved in probes of potentially criminal behavior by Donald Trump. Trump’s pardons were not merely magnanimous attempts at celebrity toe-kissing or rewards to allies but often appeared to be squarely aimed at rewarding close associates who lied or refused to talk to federal investigators about his own acts.
As for CNN, their write-up commits the Trump-era sin of granting anonymity to a “senior administration official” who tells us that Biden is “committed to using his clemency power to provide relief to individuals who are serving long sentences that they could no longer receive today, because of changes in the law, including the First Step Act, which reduced mandatory minimum sentences for certain nonviolent drug offenses” and these are … not statements worth granting anonymity for! Did the reporter simply forget to ask probably-Jen-Psaki to go on the record, or some similar flub that needed to be papered over a bit?
Please, please do not continue the Trump-era habit of granting top administration officials anonymity to provide administration-flattering information that directly and 100% mirrors what the administration itself is saying, even if such information is harmless. During the Trump era it was used by gutless officials to slather Trump with implausible praise and to stovepipe ridiculous talking points without having to take responsibility for saying such intelligence-insulting things. It was essentially a method of dodging public blowback for spouting falsehoods. We don’t need to hear “anonymous” officials giving us the exact same information the White House officially wants to put out. Anonymity is meant to protect sources willing to give information their peers do not want the public to know.
This person is not going to get fired if anyone ever learns that they spilled the beans that Biden “believes that there (are) too many people serving unduly long sentences for nonviolent drug crimes.” We know that. He’s said it. Please have an editorial meeting and hash out what statements deserve anonymity and which statements are just someone in power trying to bend a story to their will without taking public responsibility for their statements. Please.
Now that we’ve gotten my intractable crabbiness out of the way, what should we make of Biden’s use of his powers here? It’s good! The pardons are meant to reward a small set of individuals whose post-conviction lives have been devoted to the public good. The commuted sentences send another clear message reminding the nation that there is a sin here that needs to be corrected. It’s a sin that destroyed American lives for no better reason than a past spate of public paranoia that, as it turned out, served much the same purposes as other race-based paranoias before and since. Let’s do this again next month, and the month after that, and so on. You’re never going to run out of people who deserve clemency when it comes to past drug possessions. Not ever.