Folks, there is a huge dichotomy between the January 6 committee holding criminals accountable at the national level and Wisconsin’s lawbreakers getting a free pass.
Once we unpack it all, we’ll realize that we gotta start pushing our Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul to find his spine, but first let’s unpack…
Congressman Adam Kinzinger, famous along with Liz Cheney for being censured by the Republican National Committee for holding a mirror to the Trump Cult, went on CNN last week and said it’s time to start worrying about a Civil War.
He is on the January 6 committee and is privy to all the evidence compiled thus far, has basically been disavowed by his party, and announced he won’t run again, knowing he killed his career as a Republican by telling the truth. He’s already screwed, so what reason does he have to exaggerate?
Finally joining Kinzinger and Cheney, Republican Senators Lisa Murkowski, Mitt Romney, Bills Cassidy, and wait for it…even Mitch McConnell rebuked the RNC for lying about Jan 6 being “legitimate political discourse.” We understand that spinal muscles atrophy after not being used for 5 years, so we hope after exercising them a bit, these Senators will start actually flexing theirs to stop taking the U.S. over a cliff.
Additionally, it appears this evidence of sedition is starting to leak its way into the Senate and House, making our modern day “Benedict Arnolds” nervous.
Comically awful Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson is secretively trying to dismantle the Wisconsin Elections Commission, the only body that could remove him from the ballot in Wisconsin if it was proven he committed sedition last year.
And we heard from reliable sources that our own #upnorth member of the sedition caucus, Tom Tiffany, has deleted many of the tweets he made directly before January 6th. Sorry bro, whitewashing sedition doesn’t make it go away.
Perhaps the tide is turning among Republican U.S. Senators who may finally be coming to the realization that telling the truth will keep them out of jail, and our own Looney Tune WI Reps who walked the sedition tightrope are getting paranoid.
Why? Because they are BEING HELD ACCOUNTABLE BY LAW ENFORCEMENT. It seems that although we barely hear a peep from U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, he is on the case, and we are constantly hearing about Jan 6 commission subpoenas going out.
How do you stop traitors from “traitoring?” HOLD THEM ACCOUNTABLE
Now let’s look at Wisconsin, where it has become politically expedient for our top law enforcement officer to bury his head in the sand, and our partisan Supreme Court to give the farm away to their Republican donors.
First, 10 Republicans committed fraud in Wisconsin three weeks before January 6th by submitting a false document claiming Donald Trump won the election. A complaint was filed over a year ago to the Wisconsin Elections Commission and the District Attorney of Milwaukee.
Why file the complaint in Milwaukee when this happened at the state capitol in Madison? Probably because Attorney General Josh Kaul has proven he can’t be counted on to do his job so folks began complaining to someone they thought might listen.
Result? The WEC has yet to do anything after a year and the Milwaukee DA, together with the AG, punted to the feds.
Second, Assembly Leader, aka Mafia Don Robin Vos, starts a sham investigation costing over $600K taxpayer dollars into the fairly-won presidential election that members of his own party disavow. A non-profit group out of D.C. called American Oversight sues Vos to hand over any emails, texts, or documents related to this sham investigation and lo and behold, they win!
Result? Vos refused to comply FOR OVER A YEAR. Why? Because he knows that our Attorney General WON’T HOLD HIM ACCOUNTABLE, and he’s got the Wisconsin Supreme Court in his back pocket.
Third, Natural Resources Board member Fred Prehn, appointed by Republican Governor Scott Walker in 2015, continues to refuse to vacate his seat even though his term was up last May. He has allegedly been in communication with the pollution lobby, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, to stay on the board so that he can be an extra vote to defang the DNR from forcing corporate polluters to clean up PFAS chemicals in our water that cause cancer and deforms babies.
Result? Although our friend Josh Kaul filed a lawsuit to force Prehn to vacate in September, the judge rightly punted, saying only the Wisconsin Supreme Court could decide this case. As usual, as far as we know, Kaul has yet to appeal AFTER 5 MONTHS, which has allowed Prehn to unethically sit on this board 9 MONTHS after his term ended.
Why is Prehn so brazen? Because he is allegedly being told by both the Republican Majority State Senate and Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce that he’ll get away with it…because THEY ALWAYS GET AWAY WITH IT.
What is the moral of this story?
As we said in the beginning, Attorney General Josh Kaul needs to find his spine because even though he would prefer to look in the mirror everyday and say hi to a winning politician, the job he was actually elected to do requires him to HOLD LAWBREAKERS ACCOUNTABLE.
Please contact his office here and tell him our state and country depend on him having the courage to do his job.
And while leaning on Kaul should be our top priority, we can’t forget that it is vitally important to VOTE in WI Supreme Court elections, because Wisconsin’s democracy can no longer afford to have partisan hacks deciding its fate.
And last but not least, although I’m extremely frustrated by Kaul’s inaction, and by a bought-and-paid-for state Supreme Court, we have to remember that involvement of neither our AG nor the Top Court would be needed if Republican politicians in our state stopped actively subverting the rule of law and our democracy at the behest of a cult leader.
Folks, this was a long and fact-filled post today, but it’s important to read, even if you don’t live in Wisconsin.
We know a lot of you reading live in blue states that are relatively safe from anti-democratic thuggery, so please keep up your interest in ours because we’re one of only 9 states that effectively elects the president. If our state’s democracy falls, that means the US has slid approximately 11% further towards authoritarianism.
Thanks for reading, and thanks for your support.
Together, we can “Make Wisconsin a Democracy Again, One Beer at a Time.”
– Bangstad is owner of Minocqua Brewing Company.
