Republican Plan to Destroy Sacred Ho-Chunk Burial Mounds: Stop them!

This goes hand in hand with my previous post about the sale of the Manitowoc County Fair Grounds land.

Where is the bottom to all this?


See more local examples on this post. None so horrific though.

Government For Sale! The Looting of the Commons

Printed at htrnew.com 1/21/2016

HTR Gannett photo

We've seen this before both here in Manitowoc County and City and then across the State.  The story is always the same.  Government is broke and needs cash so we must - must - sell off publicly owned property to expand the tax base and reduce debt.  They say there is no choice.  I disagree.

We saw it in the sale of the Manitowoc County Health Care Center which in the end reduced no debt at all while squandering a fifteen million dollar investment.  In Sheboygan Herb Kohler wants to grab part of Kohler-Andrae State Park for yet another golf course.  State wide Walker passed an agenda to sell off 10,000 acres of public land including prime hunting land and parks.  At City, dual office holder Jim Brey attempted to sell off our 100 year investment in our public utilities system to cover losses that occurred on his watch.

Now we see a proposal to sell off a major chunk of the Manitowoc County Fair grounds to Meijer Foods which again is supported not only by Brey but Mayor Nickels who apparently see only dollar signs.  As always, this and nothing else should be considered.

What ever short term gains there might be, the money will quickly disappear into the general budget while the land, its institutions and traditions will be lost forever. When its all gone what will be left?  We are witnessing the systematic looting of the public commons.  Its time to make your choice while there is still something left to choose.

Tax revenue apparently trumps everything...

HTR story: Nickels approves

"The location is not in a TIF district, meaning all taxing entities will directly benefit, (including) Manitowoc County, Manitowoc Public School District, City of Manitowoc, Lakeshore Technical College and the State of Wisconsin," the pair wrote. "This land is not currently assessed, meaning no tax dollars are generated by it....

Nickels Op Ed reinforcing the same thing

 If we applied this same logic to all public properties, what would be left?

This late addition:

Yet another example of the State Wide looting of public property.

Milwaukee County Exec wants to give away the County War Memorial!

Cog Dis Image

From the Cog Dis blog: "Abele sent his Director of Administration, Teig Whaley-Smith, to the board meeting and told them outright that Abele was looking to give - not sell, but give - the ownership of the War Memorial Center and O'Donnell Park to the Milwaukee Art Museum (MAM).  In exchange, the art museum would pick of the cost of maintenance and repairs for the two buildings as well as their own.

Needless to say, this is not sitting well with the veterans.  They were comfortable with the county - a public entity - being their landlord.  They are not comfortable at all with a private agency assuming that role.

If MAM were to become the owners of the War Memorial Center, they would have the last say on what could and couldn't be done.  If they didn't like a statue on the grounds, they could have it removed.  If they decided to double or triple the rent, they could without needing anyone's permission."

And now we see that absolutely NOTHING is sacred!

Dr. Deer Gives us the Wrong Prescription

After having a very successful deer season on my private land I thought it might be worth re-printing my letter to the HTR editor.  It seems that the rest of the state didnt fare so well.  Could it be that the hunters are simply not being allowed to hunt?

While running for Governor in 2010 Scott Walker made a number of assertions that somehow the drop in the deer harvest from the record high of the 2000 hunt was somehow the result of DNR mismanagement under then Governor Doyle. Now, for the third year in a row since the “Dr. Deer” changes were implemented the harvest has plummeted to below thirty year lows, down three fifths from the high in 2000. This despite the introduction of more lethal means of taking deer like statewide use of rifles and crossbows. If the goal was to increase hunter's chances of taking a deer this does not sound like success.

The rise of harvest over 90 years.

At the same time licenses have gotten more complicated, expensive and discriminatory. We have gone from a simple universal $2.00 antlerless tag to a $12.00 tag that is only good in one county and then either on public or private land severely limiting hunter mobility. Public land tags were sold out early in most counties. All the more disturbing is Walker's plan to sell off 10,000 acres of those public lands. Not surprising since “Czar” Kroll described public land hunting as “Communism”.

Drop in harvest continues under Walker. 

With all the waling and gnashing of teeth Republicans made a great deal of political hay when the harvest fell below the 2000 high of a half million shouldn't we expect a better outcome? With fewer hunters having family connections to private lands it is not the herd that is dwindling it is access to the herd. The Kroll program has accelerated that and the frustration has resulted in more and more people giving up the sport. The Legislature's response has been to allow women to wear pink while hunting. They may find themselves all dressed up and no place to go.

Read it online

At the same time, the Legislature is considering a bill to reduce regulations on  game farms.  This when a new outbreak of CWD has occurred at yet another canned hunt emporium in Three Lakes.  The discovery will not radically alter hunting in the affected counties as baiting will now be banned in order to stop the spread of the disease and baiting is the primary method of hunting in the unpopulated woodlands there.

See jsonline artice here:

Three Lakes Game Farm is the same sort of operation run by Deer Czar Kroll in Texas and imported deer from Canada and the west which brought the disease to our state.  They charge between $5000 and $7500 for the "experience" of shooting a trophy buck in a fenced enclosure....

Apparently shooting Canadian genes is a bigger rush than Wisconsin genetics offer.

After three years of gross mismanagement the legacy of Walker and his quack doctor will affect the hunt for decades.  When will we begin the walk back to sanity and science and the public interest?

Collin Bruanel: I Don't Need No Stinking Badges!

Did the Manitowoc County GOP chair just cop to a felony?

"Collin Braunel Bernie Starzewski, while I was on council what would you have thought of me carrying? I carry a hangun every day at work yet I am a civilian. I also am heavily trained. Interestingly enough I carry no license. [...]

December 13, 2015 Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter facebook page 

 facebook post by the Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter 

941.235  Carrying firearm in public building.

 (1) Any person who goes armed with a firearm in any building owned or leased by the state or any political subdivision of the state is guilty of a Class A misdemeanor.

 (2) This section does not apply to any of the following:

[a-d police former or current]

(e) A licensee, as defined in s. 175.60 (1) (d), or an out-of-state licensee, as defined in s. 175.60 (1) (g).

941.23  Carrying concealed weapon.
 (2) Any person, other than one of the following, who carries a concealed and dangerous weapon is guilty of a Class A misdemeanor:  [a-c again police former or current]

[...]

(d) A licensee, as defined in s. 175.60 (1) (d)

In other words... No license = ILLEGAL 

Maybe Mr. Braunel does not understand that a State issued permit is required for concealed carry?  Yet he claims he has been fully trained.  One would expect that training might include information about the governing law.

Then too when he first took office in 2010 concealed carry was not legal anywhere in Wisconsin and only became legal in 2011 after the Republicans took over and passed it so it might depend on when he carried in city hall too.

Mr. Braunel appears to be laboring under the illusion that his job as a security guard alone entitles him to carry his weapons anywhere he likes.  Unfortunately, the reverse is true. 

Mr. Braunel is REQUIRED to have a permit for it gun at work!

Linkedin page

Wisconsin Statute 440.26 clearly states that a license is in fact required and in particular as it relates to "dangerous weapons" used on the job by security guards.

(3m) Rules concerning dangerous weapons. The department shall promulgate rules relating to the carrying of dangerous weapons by a person who holds a license or permit issued under this section or who is employed by a person licensed under this section. The rules shall meet the minimum requirements specified in 15 USC 5902 (b) and shall allow all of the following:

(a) A person who is employed in this state by a public agency as a law enforcement officer to carry a concealed firearm if s. 941.23 (1) (g) 2. to 5. and (2) (b) 1. to 3. applies.

(b) A qualified out-of-state law enforcement officer, as defined in s. 941.23 (1) (g), to carry a concealed firearm if s. 941.23 (2) (b) 1. to 3. applies.

(c) A former officer, as defined in s. 941.23 (1) (c), to carry a concealed firearm if s. 941.23 (2) (c) 1. to 7. applies.

(d) A licensee, as defined in s. 175.60 (1) (d), or an out-of-state licensee, as defined in s. 175.60 (1) (g), to carry a concealed weapon as permitted under s. 175.60.

Mr. Braunel is not a current or former law officer.  With no license to carry he is NOT permitted to carry a weapon on the job.

Be that as it may, Mr. Braunel was asking what I would have thought if he was carrying a weapon in Manitowoc City Council chambers with no license.  My answer is, that if he did so he was in violation of the law as even under the most liberal reading of the statute it at least a misdemeanor.

At the same time violations of the licensing requirement for security guards carry some hefty penalties:

 (8) Penalties. Any person, acting as a private detective, investigator or private security person, or who employs any person who solicits, advertises or performs services in this state as a private detective or private security person, or investigator or special investigator, without having procured the license or permit required by this section, may be fined not less than $100 nor more than $500 or imprisoned not less than 3 months nor more than 6 months or both. Any agency having an employee, owner, officer or agent convicted of the above offense may have its agency license revoked or suspended by the department. Any person convicted of the above offense shall be ineligible for a license for one year.

Mr. Braunel has a lot of explaining to do.

The Political Environment: NE WI media covering DNR manure pollution fail

Just a brief post today.

I thought that this update on the sorry events in Kewaunee County should not go un noted.

The Political Environment: NE WI media covering DNR manure pollution fail

See my original piece  "Scott Walker's Shit Storm of Outrage!

Kerry Trask - Messenger of Doom

"Bernie, you are the conscience of the Democratic Party!"  Kerry Trask to me

"Kerry, if your conscience isn't bothering you then it isn't working."  Me to Professor Trask

A shrinking parade
Manitowoc County Dems PR photo: Trask at left

Professor of History (Emeritus) Kerry Trask has many credits to his name.  He was a fine lecturer of early American History.  He can use his stentorian voice to deliver a stirring speech on Democratic and Progressive values.  Together his image and communicative skills should add up to great leadership and electoral success.  As it turns out, not so much...

 While on the right side of all the issues his own political career has been marked by abject failure.  For starters he is Canadian and when he ran for Assembly had only just become a U.S. citizen after being in the country for decades.  This did not go down well with a suspicious working class electorate but his ego told him that all he had to do was show up and impress.

Also, as a UW Professor he has developed a persona of talking down to people and although he is considered a rock star among the party faithful he is utterly unable to talk to ordinary people.  In fact he was remarkably uninterested in doing so.  Though I had set aside my own desire to run that year in order to support him with his higher name recognition he refused my offer to assist him in campaigning in the rural areas.  He lost by more than 3000 votes.


Trask is quite capable of explaining the ironies and moral ambiguities of Andrew Jackson or the Black Hawk Wars but when it comes to the sins of contemporary politicians his insight has been painfully lacking.   In practice, his judgement in sorting out the less than faithful from the hanger-ons and merely ambitious has been non-existent preferring instead to practice an insular form of cronyism leaving most of the Progressiveism for the speeches.  In reality he takes his advice from those he sees as important and successful rather from the moral underpinnings of the party platform he claims to adore.

His management skills are equally non-existent using his volcanic temper to intimidate rather than make his case or solicit support, a particularly problematic approach when in the role of party chair.  Trask's inability to assess people as anything more than obedient students or differentiate between political power and political goals has enabled a train wreck in the county party.  Party policies and constitutional rules have been subject to his own individual interpretation and accountability be damned.  Any opposition to his edicts immediately evoke a scowl.  Dissenters need not apply.

The most obvious case was his allowing lobbyist Todd Holschbach to sit on the executive committee while not so much as applying for party membership.  Though the son of former Dem Legislator Verne Holschbach and working for Nature Conservancy Todd was actively working against Democratic interests by supporting Right To Work Republican Mike Howe for office.  Apparently the pedigree was more important than rules.  Holschbach is still listed as a Democratic office holder on the Manitowoc County Dems website.

Brey campaign photo
(cropped)

I've already documented the Brey debacle and Trask's efforts to undo the election of at-large committee members at Brey's and Holschbach's behest.  According to Trask I had to be held accountable for subjecting Brey to public ridicule.  It is equally interesting to note than when a deliberately and deeply personal attack on me by Brey and the allegedly Liberal Mayor Justin Nickels appeared on the web no such equivalent censure was brought.  In fact Trask dismissed both Brey and Nickels as "... not intellectual giants." and seemed to say that Nickels was not a player in the party at all.  Nickels is currently vice chair here and the apparent golden boy chosen by Mike Tate to prove that his program was working.  Obviously, both cannot be true.

Trask's stories have a strange way of morphing depending on the occasion.  When he sanctioned elections of at-large members he wrote in the newsletter that it was for two year terms.  A year later after being dissatisfied with the results wrote that the terms ended at one year and sent letters of termination to the elected members.

In the end, you have to look at the results.   According to the blog "Jakes Economic TA Fun House" Manitowoc County had the largest pro-Walker swing of any other county in the State - 22.1%

Swings between 2012 Presidential election and 2014 Gov election 
Lafayette- Dem +15.4 to GOP +3.3 (18.7 swing)
Trempealeau- Dem +14.1 to GOP +6.0 (20.1)
Manitowoc- GOP +2.8 to GOP +24.9 (22.1)
Buffalo- Dem +2.9 to GOP +16.4 (19.3)
Richland- Dem +16.1 to GOP +1.7 (17.8)
Forest- Dem +5.4 to GOP +15.1 (20.5)
Kewaunee- GOP +5.4 to GOP +25.5 (20.1)
Jackson- Dem +15.0 GOP +2.6 (17.6)
Crawford- Dem +20.0 to Dem +2.8 (17.2)
Shawano- GOP +10.0 to GOP +30.9 (20.9)

Most disturbing is the fact that Trask ran unopposed.  What this says about the general condition of the Democratic Party should be raising great alarm.  The fact that it hardly raised an eyebrow should have everyone filled with a pending sense of doom.

Fifty Shades of Brey

The following is a letter to the editor published at www.htrnews.com by ex Assembly candidate, Alderman and County Board Chair Jim Brey.

Brey Campaign photo

As the Wisconsin Assembly starts to debate the Right to Work legislation being proposed, I recall the candidates forum between District 25 Rep. Paul Tittl and myself that was held Oct. 4, 2012, at City Hall in Manitowoc. I quote the Herald Times Reporter article which was published the next day:

“The candidates were asked if they would support so called “right to work” legislation, which usually means laws allowing workers to skip paying dues but receive the benefits of union-negotiated contracts.

Brey said he would oppose any such legislation and Tittl said the government shouldn’t step into labor relations in the private sector.”

I am not going to debate the issue here. You know my position from the quote above. But I do encourage Rep. Tittl to follow through on what he said in 2012. It is not unreasonable to hold our representatives accountable for statements made during a campaign. If Rep. Tittl is going to support this legislation, please tell us why. The residents of the 25th Assembly District deserve nothing less.

Jim Brey

Manitowoc

What Jim Brey actually said during the campaign...

Brey Campaign Website - jimbrey.org (currently defunct)

Listen to the man himself..

My response:

It is a rare thing when I find myself in agreement with Jim Brey so when I do I must take note. He points out quite correctly that during the election now State Rep. Paul Tittl claimed not to support Right To Work legislation and has seemingly changed his mind. In any other circumstance I might be impressed by this but I find it more than cynical to see the alderman and county board chair now trying to claim the pro-labor high ground.

Brey's anti-labor record is every bit as bad as Tittl's. Despite the cuts to the city and county he represents he openly supported Walker's Act 10 which did much worse things to public sector unions. He publicly mocked Madison protester's chant of “Shame!”. If Brey is now upset with Tittl for supporting his boss maybe he should consider his own support for Walker. The place to stop it was in the recall. By openly opposing it and (ostensibly) voting for the governor he enabled more harm than Tittl ever could.

Tittl's allegiance to Walker was never in doubt nor was Walker's intent to implement Right To Work. In the end their flip was little more than a well understood fib. In 2012 Brey's campaign was less flip than flop, commencing a campaign of blurred lines hardly any different than the Republican's. Why that should have afforded him any more credibility defies explanation. Few voters if any are going to split these hairs but they know pandering when they hear it.

Tolerance of Brey's serial undermining of Democratic principles continues to confound the local party. Unless and until that can be corrected the failures will continue. At least there would be a discernible choice.

What I previously said about Mr. Brey.

I have to say that I found Bill Lueders June 18^th commentary about the divergent Democratic and Republican party platforms rather interesting. Without getting into the relative merits of each it is clear that we are at a crossroads in choosing a direction for the country. What I found particularly interesting are the quotations attributed to Professor Joe Heim who states that Democrats are beginning to understand the importance of enforcing party discipline, something that as a Progressive Democrat I have found remarkably lacking.

While Republicans have done an admirable job of purging the “RINOs” from their ranks Democrats have been back on their heels desperate to love any candidate who has the audacity to put a “D” after their name. In the 2012 Democratic primary self described Democrat Jim Brey said out loud that “Liberals can't get elected in this county anymore.” and proceeded to enumerate his disagreement with nearly the entire Democratic platform. In a stunning rejection of that strategy voters delivered an epic fail with Brey losing by a far wider margin than any other Democrat on the same ballot.

Since then the party has been split over that failure while still demanding rote unity. It

Denial of Dem values is not a virtue

would be a thing of wonder if the Democrats found the spinal material to put their money where their collective mouths are. But locally at least, the party has chosen cronyism over values which has come from some rather surprising corners.

Political unity is derived from unity of purpose. This is why we have political parties and why those parties have platforms. Governing is not a pro sport with its non-consequential allegiances where players change colors to get the best contract. We are deciding the nature and direction of our nation. For good or ill, people deserve a real choice delivered by leaders who lead from unambiguous positions.

 Other articles about Brey.

2012 letters to the editor

The Candidate from Hell