Wisconsin, We Can Do Better Than Derrick Van Orden (Part 2)

After Charlie Kirk assassination, Wisconsin Rep. Derrick Van Orden fans the flames

As soon as the news broke that Kirk was shot while on stage at Utah Valley University, Van Orden began a stream of increasingly unhinged social media posts blaming Democrats and the media for the murder and declaring “the gloves are off.”

“The leftwing political violence must stop now,” Van Orden tweeted. In another post he wrote, “The left and their policies are leading America into a civil war. And they want it. Just like the democrat party wanted our 1st civil war.”

Pocan holds town hall in Van Orden’s district, calls GOP budget the worst he’s ever seen

“Is Derrick here?” asked U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, the Democratic congressman representing Wisconsin’s 2nd Congressional District, which includes Dane County. Pocan was in Eau Claire, the 3rd Congressional District represented by Derrick Van Orden, a Republican, on Saturday, May 31, at a town hall organized by Opportunity Wisconsin, a coalition of grassroots groups, at the Pablo Center at the Confluence, Eau Claire’s performing arts center.

Van Orden was invited to attend the event but declined.

Van Orden has said he prefers telephone town halls where the meeting isn’t dominated by people he describes as leftwing critics, and he also has said that his family has received death threats and is vulnerable in an in-person setting.

Also see:

Wisconsin, We Can Do Better Than Derrick Van Orden

This Is A Trump Problem

Recent comments from Keith Olbermann:

This is the America Trump wanted. This is the America Trump got. He was shot at by a gun-obsessed MAGA kid, with Trump signs in the front yard of his home, in a MAGA world in which stochastic terror threats are Trump's only campaign, only belief, only religion.

Republicans! Stop shooting at Trump!

This wasn't an MSNBC viewer and it wasn't a Democrat and it wasn't the fault of the corporate media and Biden's oratory didn't impact him and this didn't happen because I keep saying Trump is a Hitler. TrumpIS a Hitler. The Republicans trained the weapon on Trump and they fired.

And shame on Biden and the other Democrats and the eternally gullible media for falling for the promises of a Trump pivot. He said we need to unite the way the extraterrestrials put "To Serve Man" on their Twilight Zone cookbook. The moment the Democrats took the bait, he explained what his demands were: as part of "unity" he expects all criminal charges to be dropped against him immediately. He probably secretly hopes the Democrats will also nominate him.

Same fraud. Different con.

ALSO: Anybody see those photos of him as he screamed "Fight!" like a giant rabid rodent? When he let his true soul out? They were chanting that as the GOP convention yesterday. There is no joining of hands here. As always, when the Republicans mean unity, they mean everybody has to agree...to do what they say. Nice timing on delaying the Documents case, "Judge" Cannon, until the morning the GOP Convention opened, and dismissing it.

Bluntly, Biden should take presidential immunity and use it. What would Trump do in the mirror image of the assassination attempt? Less than four months before the election and the guy ahead in the polls gets shot at. And the Secret Service clearly screwed security into the ground. And we don’t know WHY a kid registered with the same party as the candidate would try to kill the candidate. And we don’t know WHY a local police officer confronted the shooter moments before the shots only to back away. And we don’t know why, most insanely of all, the kid had a cameo in a Black Rock commercial for retirement plans. And we DO know it is being investigated as an act of domestic terrorism. And you know, you KNOW, a Trump in charge would look at this and say ‘good enough excuse for me! I am declaring a national emergency and invoking the insurrection act.”

Do it, Joe.

AND: please, stop with the "violence has never had a role in America." Our politics is a river of blood. 20 of the 45 presidents have either been shot and killed in office, shot and wounded in office, shot and wounded while seeking to regain office, or the subject of shooting plots averted at the last minute or last hour. If we stopped lying to ourselves about how peaceful we are, maybe we could begin to fix our bloody story.

B-Block (27:52) SPECIAL COMMENT II: The conventional wisdom of the electoral effect of the assassination attempt against Trump is - as always - wrong. The attempted murder of a Republican gun nut by a Republican gun nut using a weapon Democrats tried to ban is no longer even the lead Republican story. It may have no impact on the election at all. Candidate victims in the past have always lost.

C-Block (41:30) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: So many fascists said so many stupid things before the truth came out about who the shooter was, that the list today is literally EIGHTEEN PEOPLE LONG, climaxing with Chuck Todd, Lester Holt, Mike Johnson, Elon Musk, Mike Lee, Mike Collins, and J.D. Vance - who once compared Trump to Hitler (those Biden ads are gonna be lit)

Midweek Reading

Top economist Mohamed El-Erian says we’re not just headed for another recession, but a ‘profound economic and financial shift’

Gerrymandering Wins In 2022 Election

Republican Proposal Cuts Taxes On The Wealthy

Dan Bice Undermines Elections Commission

How Much Do U.S. Cities Spend On Policing?

The Blue Budget: What Cities Spend on Police

Police Funding Trends in Wisconsin

Laura Ingraham's Question About Violence Gets A Brutal 'Daily Show' Supercut

National Geographic names Milwaukee a top global travel destination for 2023

Yes, Texans actually pay more in taxes than Californians do

50 years of tax cuts for the rich failed to trickle down, economics study says

Scathing New Supercut Exposes Right-Wing Hypocrisy Over Biden's Fascism Warning

Will RNC Have $200 Million Impact on City?

Robert Reich debunks inflation myths

Republicans Say Economy Is In Recession After It Added Half A Million Jobs In July

Growth of US economy under Trump was worst since Hoover

Reduce The Number Of Guns

The Danger They've Created

 

Our Misplaced Priorities: Doctors & Nurses Can't Get PPE, But Local Police Have Tanks

Problem Solved

Walmart Removes Violent Video Game Displays After Shootings, Still Sells Guns

Vicarious

Taking Real Action Against Gun Violence

'What Real Action to Stop Gun Violence Looks Like': New Zealand PM Announces Ban on Assault Rifles After Christchurch Massacre

Just six days after a white supremacist gunman killed 50 people and injured dozens more at two mosques in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced Thursday that the country will ban all military-style semi-automatic weapons, assault rifles, and high-capacity magazines.

WOW!  Acting expeditiously with common sense, a government actually getting something done, in the interest of the people.

Not All Conservatives Are Filled With Rage, But Most Of Those Filled With Rage Are Conservative

The Power of Petty Personal Rage

The point is that demented anger is a significant factor in modern American political life — and overwhelmingly on one side. All that talk about liberal “snowflakes” is projection; if you really want to see people driven wild by tiny perceived slights and insults, you’ll generally find them on the right. Nor is it just about racism and misogyny. Although these are big components of the phenomenon, I don’t see the obvious connection to hamburger paranoia. 

Just to be clear: To paraphrase John Stuart Mill, I’m not saying that most conservatives are filled with rage over petty things. What I’m saying instead is that most of those filled with such rage are conservatives, and they supply much of the movement’s energy. Not to put too fine a point on it, pathological pettiness almost surely put Donald Trump over the top in the 2016 election.

Donald Trump & The Republican Party: The True Enemy Of The People

A Minority Faction Is Ruining The Country

Safety, Guns and Opportunists

As our media continues to sell fear to our increasingly consumerist culture, we are allowing a militarized mindset to rule our emotions, policies and initiatives. More guns and more police has been the rallying cry.

As Politico found, "Mass public shootings are roughly as common now as they were in the 1980s and ’90s. What has changed? The death toll."

And, as CNN discovered, this is primarily and American problem:

From 1966 to 2012, nearly a third of the world's mass shootings took place in the United States. A 2016 study looked at 292 incidents in which four or more people were killed. It found 90 of them occurred in America. Put another way: While the United States has about 5% of the world's population, it had 31% of all public mass shootings.

An odd aspect in all of this, as Five Thirty Eight detailed, is that although mass shootings have become more common in the U.S., overall gun homicides have declined.

New York Magazine looked at FBI data from 2000 to 2013:

"Yes, there’s an upward trend. But the fact is that these incidents remain exceedingly rare," declares Jesse Singal.

Singal concludes:

While there’s been a short-term increase in one very specific, narrowly defined kind of violence, the overall homicide rate in the U.S.(the purple line) is on a long-term downward trend that includes the period covered by the FBI report. Mass shootings account for a tiny, tiny percentage of the total murders in the country — in 2012, the worst recent year for mass shootings, just 0.6 percent of total murders, according to the FBI’s 2012 homicide numbers. 

Overall, when it comes to violence the country is safer now than it has been in decades. Obviously there’s still much vital work to be done when it comes to gun control, understanding why violent people snap, and so on. But talk of “sharp increases” in terrible, shocking, but extremely rare crimes promotes an alarmist view of the world that doesn’t quite match the facts.

City of Milwaukee Alderman Tony Zielinski has been banging the police and safety drum lately. In his view, police are the answer. Mayor Barrett has proposed eliminating some police and fire positions in his latest budget. Zielinski has taken every opportunity he can to get in front of the camera and to issue press releases pleading for more police.

Here, again, what we think we know is false. The tripe Zielinski is peddling is false.

As Alex S. Vitale proclaims, We Need Less Policing. His research into the issue concludes:

Any real agenda for police reform should not look to make the police friendlier and more professional. Instead, it must reduce their role and replace it with empowered communities working to solve their own problems. We don’t need community control of the police. We need community control of services that will create safer, more stable neighborhoods and cities.

In We Don't Just Need Nicer Cops. We Need Fewer Cops Vitale continues:

We have to take steps to dial back our reliance on the police as the primary tool of resolving neighborhood crime and disorder problems.

And, not only do the police and fire departments take up over 87% of the entire City of Milwaukee budget. The cost of police misconduct in Milwaukee is growing.

Police misconduct has cost Milwaukee taxpayers at least $17.5 million in legal settlements since 2015, forcing the city to borrow money to make the payouts amid an ever-tightening budget.

That amount jumps to at least $21.4 million when interest paid on the borrowing and fees paid to outside attorneys are factored in.

Milwaukee Adlerman Zielinski's willingness to keep increasing the police force (and departmental budget) will do nothing for the safety of Milwaukee, but will surely crush the City budget with ever-increasing police costs. And, as the police costs continue to increase, less and less money with be available for any other programs or projects. This is ill-informed, misguided and suicidal public policy from a public servant seemingly more concerned with personal attention than with City efficiency and a responsible budget.

For those pundits and politicians that keep proclaiming more police is the answer to safety concerns, it really just shows that they haven't done their research or looked very hard at the issue.

The answer isn't more police, it's less guns and more community-oriented policies and programs.

For Further Reading:
What Does It Mean To Be Anti-Police?
Why Police Are Rarely Indicted For Misconduct
No, Protests Against Police Brutality Are Not Increasing Crime
Barrett Versus The Backdrop Boys

Guns Matter

For Further Reading:
The American Impulse to Equate Guns With Freedom and Masculinity With Violence Is Killing Us

If Newtown Wasn't Enough, Why Would Las Vegas Be Enough?

Sheriff Super-Douche

If one were to attempt to intervene to protect a woman and child from a drunken, tire-iron wielding doofus, for most sane and civil people, this would not elicit ridicule and insults. Many would probably even say it was an act of courage or bravery, or, at least, the right thing to do considering the circumstances.

Milwaukee Mayor's Alleged Attacker Faces 40 Yrs-Plus In Prison

But in the self-serving, opportunist, know-nothing, faux-cowboy world of Sheriff David Clarke, trying to defend a woman and child, and being unable to withstand body blows form a tire iron, makes a person a wimp.

“The last time Tom Barrett showed up at a crime scene he got his ass kicked by a drunk, tire-iron-wielding man who beat him within inches of his life," Clarke said in the lengthy post. "The milquetoast mayor trying to play cop foolishly thought he could simply talk the man who beat him senseless into backing down. Bet he won't try that again!" [source]

Barrett, in response to a reporter's questions, stated a couple a facts about Clarke. Clarke has been more interested in being a right-wing, talking-point parrot than in doing his job as the Milwaukee County Sheriff. Barrett also mentioned that he has never seen Clarke at a crime scene. I guess reality really pisses Clarke off.

Barrett set Clarke off when he said in a TV interview earlier this week that the sheriff has a “great gig going right now: He’s fighting crime one conservative cable TV show at a time.” He said everyone knows that Clarke “rode his horse out of town a long time ago.” [source]

Just like his idol, Donald Trump, Clarke doesn't like the real world. If things don't comport with Clarke's distorted world view, something is wrong with the world, not his perspective.

So this is where we are at now. When presented with facts, the right-wingers and Trumpsters hurl insults and threaten violence. Forget using your brain. When the truth doesn't fit into your political paradigm, time for pitchforks and torches.

Are we interested in actually electing public servants? Or do we just want cartoonish caricatures of Wild West buffoons?

Clarke not only ridiculed Barrett (for an act of bravery), he then did what all Wisconsin Republicans love to do - he took shots at Milwaukee. According to Wisconsin Republicans, Milwaukee is a crime-ridden hell-hole. Maybe if Clarke actually set foot back in Milwaukee one of these days (instead of doing the conservative talk show circuit) he would see all the activity and development taking place. And, as Bruce Murphy recently pointed out, Milwaukee Subsidizes The State.

The city gets only 66 cents in state spending for every dollar in state taxes paid.

So while the Republican playbook has been bankrupting states and cities across the country, Democratic places, like Milwaukee, are on the ascent. While Scott Walker's policies haven't done anything near his campaign promises, Mayor Barrett has overseen a boom in Milwaukee jobs and development.

Let's also not forget that Republicans are supposed to be the party of morals, family values, honor, country, dignity, blah blah blah. Yeah, it's all just a facade. There are no principles underlying any of their proclamations. Their opinions morph as needed. And, the saddest part is all the people that support and parrot the rhetoric. Still towing the party-line and supporting these ever-changing opinions and policy prescriptions. Just look at the faces of their party - Donald Trump, Jeff Sessions, David Clarke, Steven Bannon, KellyAnne Conway. All lying, racist, sexist, self-serving, know-nothings only concerned with maintaining power. How can honest, America-loving conservatives look themselves in the mirror and believe any of this rhetoric or that these opportunists are good for the country?

Wake up, people! Time to see past the smoke, mirrors and vitriol. Sheriff Super-Douche and his band of destructive deplorables are not interested in you or your well-being. Please help us make this a functioning democracy again. Democrats are not perfect, but truth, reality and governance still mean something to them.

This is all so fucked up it's flabbergasting.

Misogynistic Gear Spotted at Trump Rallies

Oh the humanity.

The Most Misogynistic Gear Spotted at Trump Rallies

Wingnut Sheriff Encourages More Violence

Fox's Favorite Wingnut Sheriff Encourages More Violence At Trump Rallies

Gun Homicides Are Down 49 Percent Since 1993

Gun homicides are down 49 percent since 1993

Clarke's Wild West

No Longer Fit For Service

Time to relieve this man of his duties as a law enforcement & public safety official.

Sheriff's radio ad says 911 not best option, urges residents to take firearms classes