Political Heat

Clarke could play loose with the definitions of terrorism, setting a dangerous precedent I share my thoughts on my Twitter account (through video) about Donald Trump possibly appointing Milwaukee County Sheriff Clarke to a position within Homeland Security. It was announced today that the president is considering this appointment, despite the troubled history Clarke has within his own department. #Trump may appoint @SheriffClarke to a post in #HomelandSecurity , and I have some thoughts on that. #wiunion #wipolitics #Wisconsin pic.twitter.com/vFVoGNLi6k — Chris Walker (@thatchriswalker) April 28, 2017 One more thing I'd like to add: if Clarke, who considers Black Lives Matter to be a terrorist organization, gets any position of power, it's likely he'll play loose with the definition of what "terrorism" actually is...which could set dangerous precedent for Trump to follow as well.

A change in leadership is needed in the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Department Testimony in Milwaukee this week seems to suggest that there’s a cover-up going on at the Milwaukee County jail. The jails are administered under the direction of Sheriff David Clarke. Earlier this week, I suggested that Clarke ought to be removed from his position by Gov. Scott Walker because four individuals had died under his watch at the county jail. One of those deaths included an infant who was born to a woman who was in the jail. The mother’s pleas for help went unanswered, and the child died before medical attention was given to either. Another of the deaths, involving 38-year-old Terrill Thomas, came about as a result of dehydration. Thomas was not given a sip of water for seven days while in solitary confinement. A Milwaukee PD commander testified in court this week that it was “unconscionable” that members of the sheriff’s department had viewed video of Thomas but failed to let the cit...

David Clarke should be removed from his position as sheriff Prisoners have rights. That statement shouldn’t be so profound. But too often, many in our society tend to forget, purposely or not, that prisoners have legal rights that must be adhered to. Even if prisoners have committed a heinous crime, if these rights are violated an injustice has occurred. The founders of our nation recognized this fact. They enshrined, within the Eighth Amendment , that “cruel and unusual punishments [shall not be] inflicted” on those serving time behind bars. So when an injustice is performed upon a member of the prisoner population, who’s to blame? It depends on a variety of factors: who issued the order, and who allowed it to happen; who carried out the action, and who turned a blind eye. In Milwaukee County’s jail, which is overseen by the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s department, a prisoner died because he was not allowed to drink water while in solitary confinement. From the Journal Se...

Three electoral reforms could help Dems get support This weekend’s beautiful weather allowed me to grill outside, and to contemplate some ideas that had been brewing in my mind for a while. Among them, I got to thinking about what is and what isn’t working in the messaging against President Donald Trump and conservatism in general. For starters, it’s important that we recognize a takeaway from this past election that not too many Democrats are going to embrace easily: that Trump’s rhetoric (though brash, crude and at times dog-whistle racist) was similar in some respects to what Barack Obama channeled in 2008. Obviously Obama and Trump have different visions for what the nation should be, and for what government’s role in our lives should become. I'm not saying their ideas are similar, nor even that their rhetorical styles are the same. On messaging, however, there is a sliver of similarity. Trump, like Obama, promised significant change in DC. In that respect, we have to...

But don't worry, vasectomies are still covered for men Wisconsin Republicans are aiming to make it so that state employees cannot have their abortions paid for through insurance plans offered to them — even if the abortion is a necessary medical procedure that could save their lives. Besides being absurd on its face — the right to choose is a natural right — this bill seems to be a solution in search of a problem . The Beloit Daily News reports that the bill, if it does indeed become law, wouldn’t have much impact at all. That's because the state currently requires health plans to cover only therapeutic abortions for its members. How those are defined is left up to the health plan, but they generally are only those considered to be medically necessary, said Nancy Ketterhagen, spokeswoman for the Department of Employee Trust Funds, which administers state worker benefits. It’s unclear right now whether the proposed bill would make the exception for the health of the...

Complaints with Trump have to have deeper meaning In the first few months of Donald Trump’s tenure as president, we have seen quite possibly the worst first 100 days of any modern U.S. chief executive. His administration’s foibles and gaffes have demonstrated that the president and his underlings weren’t prepared for the job on day one; his failed policies and unpopular positions among the citizenry show that he’s set to lead this country in a direction it doesn’t want to take. The “resistance” movement against President Trump has picked up considerable steam since January. Protests, some of them larger in stature than Trump’s own inauguration ceremony , are indicative of a true grassroots movement coalescing among the American populace. But the resistance cannot choose a message that is simply “we are against Trump.” That line of thinking is appealing to a good chunk of Americans, to be sure, but if we want to go beyond “preaching to the choir” about why Trump’s policies a...

Legalizing medical marijuana would help combat the opioid crisis in the Badger State Gov. Scott Walker is planning to sign into law a bill that would allow families to possess cannabidiol (CBD) oil for use in the treatment of seizures. Walker opposes marijuana legalization Good on him. This bill is a commonsense approach to the issue, and allows individuals to treat their conditions without fear of committing a crime. CBD oil doesn’t produce a high, but it has shown promising results for many who are afflicted with epilepsy. Walker should be given credit for signing the bill into law that allows patients to seek this treatment if it is an option their doctors have laid out for them. This should be just the first step, however, and we should allow further use of marijuana to treat medical maladies in Wisconsin. Medicinal marijuana is helpful in treating all sorts of ailments, and it’s crucial that those suffering from debilitating diseases and other conditions be given th...

My crudely-drawn interpretation of the superhero we all need... President Donald Trump recently sent a tweetstorm of whining (not winning) about the media and a special election in Georgia. This tweet in particular grabbed my attention: The super Liberal Democrat in the Georgia Congressioal race tomorrow wants to protect criminals, allow illegal immigration and raise taxes! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 17, 2017 So, being the comic book nerd that I am, I decided the world deserved, nay, needed to see pictures of this Super Liberal in action. Here's my crude drawing: Happy Monday. UPDATE: I had some more time on my hands: Jon Ossof: Super Liberal.

Is anyone in the Republican Party courageous enough to say they reject hate? A woman was harassed and beaten this week in Milwaukee, simply for being Muslim and wearing a hijab. This woman did nothing to provoke her attacker (not that it matters). Instead, a white male who was driving past her on Monday morning simply ordered her to take her garment off. The woman, who was just leaving a prayer service, refused. So the man got out of his car, and proceeded to beat her. From Wisconsin Public Radio : Milwaukee Muslim Women's Coalition President Janan Najeeb said she met with the women after the attack. Najeeb said the attack should be treated as a hate crime. "He grabbed her scarf and tried to take her scarf off of her head," Najeeb said. "She was holding on to it but then he started beating her on her head and he pulled the scarf off. Then she fell to the ground and he began kicking her." It is disgraceful and gut-wrenching to hear about this attack. ...

Brad Schimel has shown an inability to run the DOJ properly While they may be lacking a significant candidate for governor still, Wisconsin Democrats seem to have found a strong candidate for Attorney General. But Josh Kaul, 36-years old and a Stanford graduate, isn’t just another political firebrand: his credentials demonstrate his capacity for the office. Kaul previously worked as an assistant U.S. attorney in Baltimore where he “served in the narcotics section and prosecuted cases involving homicides, gangs and racketeering,” according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel . His work undoubtedly put some very bad people behind bars. Still, the Republican Party of Wisconsin took a shot at Kaul earlier this week, suggesting that he works only for special interest causes. “Josh Kaul has built his career as an attorney for liberal special interests and Washington insiders like Hillary Clinton,” the party’s statement read . While it’s true that Kaul was an attorney who repr...

Events across the nation demonstrate that there is a gun crisis Tonight, a family has been dealt an unfathomable loss. A gunman entered an elementary school in San Bernardino, California, with one thing on his mind. He was there to confront his estranged wife. He shot and killed her, and then killed himself. In doing so, he also shot two schoolchildren. One of them, an eight-year-old, passed away shortly after. --- I can only imagine what heartbreak this family is going through tonight. But this isn’t the only tragedy that occurred today — on average, seven children die from gun violence daily . That means that six other families likely are also grieving tonight as a result of guns. Their loss is also devastating, beyond what any words here could describe. --- And right now as we speak, a man is traversing southern Wisconsin with a deranged mission on his mind. This man stole a cache of weaponry, and is by all accounts planning something that can only end in more trage...

Trump’s hypocrisy highlights how he won’t hold himself to account on any issue Before Donald Trump won the presidency in November, and before he began campaigning for the Republican nomination, he was a frequent critic of President Barack Obama. Time and time again, he’d take to Twitter to vent his frustrations with Obama, who Trump doubted was even an American citizen. While Trump was proven wrong — several times over — his “birtherism” wasn’t the only thing that he attacked Obama on. He also attacked the president on his vacation time. Obama actually took less vacation time than his predecessor George W. Bush. But that didn’t matter to Trump, who unleashed a barrage of critiques against the president for taking time off with his family and going golfing. Can you believe that,with all of the problems and difficulties facing the U.S., President Obama spent the day playing golf.Worse than Carter — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 14, 2014 President Obama pla...

A review of articles I wrote for this week This week was an interesting one. Here’s a few things I wrote about. I took a hard look this week at a proposal in Wisconsin to remove permit requirements for concealed carry. On my blog Political Heat, I looked at concealed carry itself, and noted that since it has been implemented in 2011, crime actually went up in Wisconsin , completely busting the notion that conservatives have that arming the populace would deter criminals. I wrote about the same subject this week at the Capital Times in an op-ed piece titled, “Permitless concealed carry wouldn't make us safer.” I re-explained my position, and further explained that other states that took this direction have actually also seen a rise in crime since doing so. “Permitless concealed carry may not be directly responsible for the rise in crime rates,” I wrote. “But it also didn’t make these states safer, and there’s no reason to believe that eliminating the requirement to ge...

Did Trump express real compassion, or is he trying to redeem his poor start as president? The chemical attacks perpetrated by the Syrian government on its own people should not be ignored. An action so heinous like this needs an appropriate response. Yet for a president so obsessed with his own image and perception, the assumption that Donald Trump's motivations behind the attacks in Syria are due partly to his own failures so far in the White House cannot be dismissed so easily. This evaluation of the Trump presidency isn't entirely fictional. Already administration officials are doing their best to create a positive image of the president, as part of a so-called “leadership week” demonstrating his tough stances against Syria and other foreign powers. That doesn’t sound like policy making that is based on restraint and weighing facts when making tough decisions. Rather, it sounds like the president is trying to use the Syrian missile strikes to his advantage, to...

History of black oppression an important lesson every American should hear After almost a decade of being “online only," the Black Holocaust Museum is set to break ground and have a physical address once more in the city of Milwaukee. From Wisconsin Public Radio : Lynching survivor James Cameron founded the museum 30 years ago, to look at hardships faced by African Americans, dating back to the first slave ships. The building closed not long after Cameron passed away in 2006. The reopening of the museum is important. The terrifying history of black oppression in the United States — from slavery, to Jim Crow, lynchings in the south, and more — needs to be documented. Future generations need to know what happened in order to prevent history from ever repeating itself. Indeed, that is part of the screed of the Black Holocaust Museum itself: [The American Black Holocaust Museum] builds public awareness of the harmful legacies of slavery in America and promotes racial repa...

Craig ignores statistics, court cases, in his push for a questionable gun law A Wisconsin lawmaker says we should allow anyone with a gun the ability to carry it concealed, without requiring a permit or safety classes beforehand. Republican State Sen. David Craig of Vernon says that he understands the negative reactions to his bill, but tells naysayers they have to “look at the facts” before saying no. “If other states are doing this without ill effect, and we’ve had the level of permitless carry in Wisconsin without ill effect, why would we not break down that barrier?” he recently asked rhetorically . Craig may want to heed his own advice, and look at the facts. He totally ignores the facts, for instance, when it comes to Wisconsin’s track record instituting concealed carry. Wisconsin became the 49th state to do so in 2011, and since then violent crime and murder rates have skyrocketed . But Craig asks us to look at the facts from other states. If they’ve enacted...