Latest / The Mark Belling Podcast / Mark Belling Podcast #139: Even a Democrat admits if we pass rules to stop cheating, her party can't win an election. The Wisconsin Democrat Governor race is in shambles as a Marxist frontrunner sees her opposition collapse in scandal. And a Waukesha County jury refuses to convict of attempted murder a guy who pointed a gun at his boss and fired.

Transcript

Mark Belling Podcast #139: Even a Democrat admits if we pass rules to stop cheating, her party can't win an election. The Wisconsin Democrat Governor race is in shambles as a Marxist frontrunner sees her opposition collapse in scandal. And a Waukesha County jury refuses to convict of attempted murder a guy who pointed a gun at his boss and fired. · The Mark Belling Podcast

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0:26
Speaker 2: Sometimes people let the truth slip out without intending to
0:31
Speaker 2: do so. We have an example of this Alyssa Slotkin.
0:36
Speaker 2: She's one of the two United States Senators from Michigan, Democrat.
0:41
Speaker 2: She just came out and said that if we pass
0:45
Speaker 2: the Save America Act, she's not sure any Democrat can
0:50
Speaker 2: win an election anywhere. The specific quote is, it would
0:59
Speaker 2: be hard for any Democrat to win an election. Now,
1:07
Speaker 2: her intent in saying this was to continue to fire
1:12
Speaker 2: up the Democrats to try to stop this thing from happening.
1:16
Speaker 2: But what she actually did is, I think prove the
1:20
Speaker 2: point of those of us who support it. If indeed,
1:25
Speaker 2: putting in place basic securities to try to guarantee fair
1:31
Speaker 2: elections means no Democrat to win. Is she not acknowledging
1:36
Speaker 2: that they're only winning because A they're cheating and B
1:39
Speaker 2: ineligible voters are voting, whether deliberate or not. The Save
1:47
Speaker 2: America Act as two big provisions. One photo ID for
1:51
Speaker 2: voting is universal everybody in all fifty states has to
1:54
Speaker 2: do it. And second, you have to prove citizenship in
1:58
Speaker 2: order to be a legal registered voter. The Democrats have
2:05
Speaker 2: so far blocked this. The Republicans have not been remembered
2:09
Speaker 2: to pass a bill to the Senate. You need sixty votes,
2:12
Speaker 2: not just the fifty. You need sixty votes to end debate.
2:17
Speaker 2: There are a couple of Republicans that have been wobbling.
2:19
Speaker 2: But in addition to that, so far the Republicans have
2:22
Speaker 2: not been willing to abandon the filibuster rule in order
2:24
Speaker 2: to force this bill to a vote. President Trump is
2:27
Speaker 2: hammering at it. Now, let's deal with what Slockin had
2:30
Speaker 2: to say, the photo ID for voting provision. Well, we
2:39
Speaker 2: certainly know that we've had photo I D for voting
2:42
Speaker 2: here in Wisconsin and Democrats have won under that. What
2:48
Speaker 2: about the other one, the proof of citizenship. Which of
2:52
Speaker 2: the two are they more afraid of? We don't know.
2:55
Speaker 2: We know that in California you don't have to show anything,
2:58
Speaker 2: and California has some of the most dubious elections of
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Speaker 2: anywhere in the United States. Are they more afraid of
3:04
Speaker 2: requiring photo IDs for voting so as to limit the
3:09
Speaker 2: potential for people to go in and vote and claim
3:11
Speaker 2: to be somebody that they're not, or are they more
3:14
Speaker 2: concerned that Indeed, many non citizens currently are voting, most
3:20
Speaker 2: of them are voting for Democrats, and if they can't vote,
3:24
Speaker 2: it will tilt the margin to Republicans. She didn't get
3:27
Speaker 2: specific on this, but her statement I think proves the
3:33
Speaker 2: urgency of doing this. President Trump is addressing the nation
3:40
Speaker 2: on election security tomorrow night, Thursday night. I want to
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Speaker 2: talk about that in just a moment. Have you ever
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Speaker 2: Line believes service is essential, not an option. President Trump,
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Speaker 2: thanks to the classifying of a lot of information about
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Speaker 2: the twenty twenty election, is going to present evidence that
4:27
Speaker 2: indeed foreign interests were influencing the twenty twenty election, the
4:30
Speaker 2: one he lost. And I think that the purpose of
4:35
Speaker 2: this is to continue to push to pass the Save
4:39
Speaker 2: America Act, the legislation, as I say, currently stalled in
4:42
Speaker 2: the Senate that would put in place minimal security protections
4:50
Speaker 2: for elections. This thing is supported by almost every Republican
4:56
Speaker 2: in America, and polls show by a lot of de
5:00
Speaker 2: Democrats across the board, the majority of Democrats support Photo
5:04
Speaker 2: I D for voting. In fact, interestingly, in many elections
5:10
Speaker 2: it's just Democrats running against Democrats. I think some of
5:14
Speaker 2: these Democrats recognize the potential for fraud there as well.
5:20
Speaker 2: Take for example, a big city that has a mayoral
5:22
Speaker 2: election where three four to five Democrats are running in
5:25
Speaker 2: a primary. My guess is that some of those Democrats
5:28
Speaker 2: that aren't cheating would like to have photo ID as well,
5:30
Speaker 2: for fear that their fellow Democrat over here that that
5:33
Speaker 2: one is pulling off cheating by getting any illegal voters.
5:38
Speaker 2: As for the citizenship requirement, I still remember, I don't
5:43
Speaker 2: know how many people do. Do you remember when you
5:45
Speaker 2: got your Social Security card? Jason, No, it's not mailed
5:52
Speaker 2: you when you're born. You have to well, I don't know,
5:54
Speaker 2: maybe they've changed it. When I got my Social Security card,
5:57
Speaker 2: I believe that Woodrow Wilson was the President of the
5:59
Speaker 2: United States States. I got it the first time I
6:01
Speaker 2: got a job, which was what was when I was
6:04
Speaker 2: sixteen and you had to come in with the berth.
6:08
Speaker 2: You went into some county office, was it register of deeds, whichever, whatnot.
6:13
Speaker 2: I'm sure this has changed for the longest time. If
6:20
Speaker 2: you wanted to take a cruise that left the United States,
6:22
Speaker 2: you had to have a birth certificate or a copy
6:27
Speaker 2: with a raised seal. The raised seal means that it
6:30
Speaker 2: was an authentic government issue, not just the xerox that
6:33
Speaker 2: you came up with. Now to leave the United States
6:35
Speaker 2: you have to have a passport. But prior to the passport,
6:38
Speaker 2: I'm not I did the passport requirement come in after
6:41
Speaker 2: nine to eleven or another I don't remember, might have
6:44
Speaker 2: been another event. In any event, to leave the United States, now,
6:48
Speaker 2: to go to Canada, go to Mexico, you have to
6:49
Speaker 2: have a passport. It used to be that some of
6:51
Speaker 2: the closing countries like that you didn't need one. But
6:53
Speaker 2: to go on a cruise that leaves the United States,
6:55
Speaker 2: if you have one that doesn't leave the United States
6:57
Speaker 2: at all, you don't need it. But to have one
6:59
Speaker 2: that leaves the United States, you have to have a passport,
7:01
Speaker 2: but the past you had to get a birth certificate.
7:03
Speaker 2: I never once heard anybody say that that was a
7:05
Speaker 2: hardship to get it. And the birth certificate, of course,
7:09
Speaker 2: is the ultimate proof of citizenship, because, as the Supreme
7:13
Speaker 2: Court just ruled only a few days ago, if you're
7:15
Speaker 2: born in the United States of America, that means you're
7:18
Speaker 2: a citizen of the United States of America. So was
7:20
Speaker 2: the sati de facto proof of your citizenship. Your passport
7:26
Speaker 2: indicates what your citizenship is. Now I acknowledge not everybody
7:30
Speaker 2: has a passport. That a lot of people who only
7:33
Speaker 2: have a passport when they find out that they need one,
7:35
Speaker 2: and by the way, the big one is going on
7:37
Speaker 2: a cruise. Also, people who live in the southern part
7:41
Speaker 2: of the United States that go on vacations in Mexico,
7:43
Speaker 2: and then a lot of people who go on these
7:45
Speaker 2: Canadian vacations hunting and fishing trips. They now have to
7:47
Speaker 2: have passports in any event, to get a passport, I'm
7:52
Speaker 2: pretty sure you have to have a birth certificate, and
7:54
Speaker 2: I'm not even sure anymore. But the point that I
7:57
Speaker 2: make approving citizenship is it's not much of a hardship.
8:02
Speaker 2: I don't recall in all the years, and I hosted
8:04
Speaker 2: twenty eight cruises, some required the passport and before that's
8:07
Speaker 2: the words date of I don't remember once anybody saying
8:10
Speaker 2: that this is too much trouble to get my birth
8:12
Speaker 2: certificate and I'm not going to go on the cruise.
8:14
Speaker 2: That's not to say that somebody, oh, I'm not going
8:16
Speaker 2: to go on the cruise. I have to go get
8:18
Speaker 2: a burst of it. It was just really easy to do.
8:20
Speaker 2: I don't even know how you do it anymore, but
8:22
Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure that I had to present that in
8:24
Speaker 2: going to get my Social Security card, and I don't
8:27
Speaker 2: even know what people get them anymore. You have to
8:30
Speaker 2: have one by the time you first work, but I
8:32
Speaker 2: don't know if they're issuing and people that earlier than that,
8:35
Speaker 2: or they mail them to you when you're board automatically.
8:40
Speaker 2: Are you sure of that? Are you just saying this?
8:44
Speaker 2: But you have three children they just mail them out.
8:46
Speaker 2: So there was somewhere in between when I was born
8:48
Speaker 2: eighteen hundred years ago and now that they just automatically,
8:51
Speaker 2: But they didn't automatically issue them back when I was younger.
8:57
Speaker 2: All right. The point that I make is the Democrats
9:00
Speaker 2: who try to claim that this is good to disenfranchise somehow,
9:03
Speaker 2: they think the only people who don't know how to
9:06
Speaker 2: get a purcificate or don't know how to prove citizenship
9:08
Speaker 2: are Democrats. Why do they think that? Are they saying
9:13
Speaker 2: that the only people that are incapable of functioning in
9:16
Speaker 2: today's society are their people? Are they acknowledging Republicans are
9:22
Speaker 2: smarter than I don't know? The real thing, obviously, is
9:26
Speaker 2: they know damn well that there are non citizens voting.
9:30
Speaker 2: And everybody thinks when I say that I'm referring to
9:32
Speaker 2: illegal immigrants. There are zillions of non citizens who are
9:37
Speaker 2: here legally, they're just not citizens. And the Democrats clearly
9:44
Speaker 2: think the vast majority of them are voting for them,
9:46
Speaker 2: which is why they were against it. And unlessa Slocket
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Speaker 2: is apparently saying that if we put in place the
9:51
Speaker 2: most minimal of requirements for voting, her side's never going
9:55
Speaker 2: to win an election, I would argue that that's all
10:00
Speaker 2: the more reason for we don't even know if Mitch
10:04
Speaker 2: McConnell is alive or not. I mean, people are questioning
10:06
Speaker 2: this video that was put out of the statement and
10:08
Speaker 2: all of this thing. But he's been one of the
10:10
Speaker 2: ones that's been holding this thing up, and I just
10:12
Speaker 2: think it's all out of spite over Trump. All Right,
10:17
Speaker 2: I'm going to read you something. Then I'm going to
10:22
Speaker 2: tell you who it comes from. If you believe crime
10:28
Speaker 2: is down in Milwaukee, I have a bridge to sell
10:31
Speaker 2: you before I tell you who wrote that. I just
10:38
Speaker 2: encountered this when I wrote a newspaper column a couple
10:42
Speaker 2: of months ago. My column appears in the GM today,
10:45
Speaker 2: their website and the papers of Conley Media, walk Ashore,
10:48
Speaker 2: Framan among them, and others. Anyway, and I wrote the
10:52
Speaker 2: column about the fact that the crime problem is worse
10:56
Speaker 2: in America everywhere the Democrats are in charge. There's no
11:02
Speaker 2: inherent reason why big cities should have more crime than say,
11:07
Speaker 2: small towns. And we certainly know that the crime rate
11:19
Speaker 2: is much higher now than it was, say seventy five
11:21
Speaker 2: years ago, in a city like Milwaukee, where we had
11:24
Speaker 2: lots of middle class neighborhoods that were relatively safe. Anyway,
11:28
Speaker 2: somebody sniped in and said, oh, murder rate is down.
11:31
Speaker 2: And I grant you that the murder rate is down
11:33
Speaker 2: from the nineteen nineties, there was the year that Jeffrey
11:35
Speaker 2: Dahmer killed all those people that hadflated adult. The murder
11:38
Speaker 2: rate is down, but nobody thinks overall crime is down,
11:44
Speaker 2: particularly when you consider the crimes that intend not to
11:48
Speaker 2: be reported, like soolen vehicles anymore, street intimidations, shoplifting the
11:57
Speaker 2: stuff for you know, dog on well that the cops
11:59
Speaker 2: aren't I probably aren't even gonna respond, and secondly they're
12:02
Speaker 2: never gonna catch anybody anyway. There is a sense of
12:05
Speaker 2: unsafe almost everywhere in Milwaukee. And when I say a
12:09
Speaker 2: sense of unsafe, I would say that that goes everywhere.
12:13
Speaker 2: But some of those areas that I said there's a
12:15
Speaker 2: sense of unsafe are still safe enough for the vast
12:20
Speaker 2: majority of people in daytime hours to function Downtown, east Side,
12:25
Speaker 2: Third Ward and so on. But there's been crime in
12:28
Speaker 2: those areas, including street crimes. So anyway, this if you
12:32
Speaker 2: don't believe crime is down in Milwaukee, I have a
12:34
Speaker 2: bridge to sell you. So this is somebody that's debunking
12:36
Speaker 2: this notion of what some of the crimes had say,
12:39
Speaker 2: here's a vote. James Causey, columnist for js Online Milwaukee
12:44
Speaker 2: Journal Sentinel, This is like clockwork. Last week I shared
12:51
Speaker 2: with you that he wrote a column saying his car
12:53
Speaker 2: was stolen. I'm just telling you this thing holds up
12:57
Speaker 2: again and again and again and again and again. In fact,
12:59
Speaker 2: there's a saying for this saying is decade. I think
13:01
Speaker 2: I first heard this when I was in my twenties,
13:03
Speaker 2: maybe earlier. A conservative is a liberal who was mugged.
13:10
Speaker 2: I'm not saying it's good when a lefty is a
13:13
Speaker 2: victim of crime. What I am saying is it often
13:18
Speaker 2: opens the eyes of these people who get up there
13:21
Speaker 2: and pontificate about all we shouldn't do anything to punish anybody,
13:24
Speaker 2: that the crime problem is overstated, blah blah blah blah blah.
13:28
Speaker 2: When they're on the receiving end, it does change their perspective.
13:33
Speaker 2: So Causey writes a long, long, long piece about the
13:36
Speaker 2: crime problem is real, and we have to take more
13:38
Speaker 2: responsibility in the central city, and people have to snitch
13:41
Speaker 2: and this, that and the other thing. This is the
13:45
Speaker 2: least surprising column in the world. I'm not saying that
13:49
Speaker 2: all lefties who are crime victims change their tune, but
13:54
Speaker 2: often they kind of shut up about their opposition and
13:57
Speaker 2: cracking down on crime. They may not actually come out
14:00
Speaker 2: change their position for fear of being attacked by other lefties,
14:04
Speaker 2: but it is an instructive situation. Now this two big
14:14
Speaker 2: topics now here in segment one. First one this Janesville. Jamesville,
14:22
Speaker 2: for those of you outside of Wisconsin, is a really
14:26
Speaker 2: industrial town, middle class. Janesville is I don't know, thirty
14:33
Speaker 2: miles south of Madison. Janesville is like halfway between Beloit
14:39
Speaker 2: and Madison. It's actually a little bit closer to Beloit.
14:44
Speaker 2: It's been a factory town forever, and for the longest
14:48
Speaker 2: time it housed a major General Motors planted long since closed.
15:00
Speaker 2: Because Jamesville is essentially a blue collar type, middle class town,
15:09
Speaker 2: that economic base was based on factories and so on,
15:12
Speaker 2: the complete opposite of Madison, their neighbor some miles to
15:16
Speaker 2: the north, which is a government county, university town. So on.
15:20
Speaker 2: Janesville has really struggled economically because of the loss of
15:25
Speaker 2: these big factories. GM has closed factories obviously in a
15:30
Speaker 2: lot of places, moved some of the production to Mexico,
15:33
Speaker 2: some of it overseas. There's been changes in the auto
15:36
Speaker 2: industry companies all that stuff that GM site remains essentially
15:44
Speaker 2: sitting there. Talk about a vestige of the rust belt,
15:48
Speaker 2: literally rusted. I've done a segment or two on the
15:55
Speaker 2: following and written a column about it. These areas former
16:01
Speaker 2: industrial sitess sites in urban and james Is not I
16:05
Speaker 2: don't know what's Jainsill forty thousand and give or take.
16:09
Speaker 2: It's a medium sized city, but it has a lot
16:12
Speaker 2: of the characteristics of larger cities and being you know,
16:15
Speaker 2: blue collar, factory town, et cetera. These places are perfect
16:21
Speaker 2: sites for data centers. A. The land is available and
16:30
Speaker 2: be not very expensive. See the area is already urbanized, loud,
16:38
Speaker 2: and so on. You're not talking about disturbing pastoral settings.
16:43
Speaker 2: The areas that are around there were areas that were
16:46
Speaker 2: formerly neighbors to a factory. The water lines and a
16:51
Speaker 2: lot of the other infrastructure was in place because there
16:54
Speaker 2: used to be massive, major industrial production going on there.
17:06
Speaker 2: The problem is the same people that are opposing data
17:09
Speaker 2: centers in suburban areas like or ex surban areas like
17:13
Speaker 2: the one that's proposed for Port Washington, are now rearing
17:16
Speaker 2: their ugly heads in Janesville. There are some people that
17:22
Speaker 2: are just against data centers. Well, here's the thing about
17:25
Speaker 2: being just against data centers. It is an absolute certainty
17:28
Speaker 2: that the data centers are going to be built, and
17:30
Speaker 2: there's going to be a zillion of them. The only
17:32
Speaker 2: question is where they're going to be, and the places
17:37
Speaker 2: that have them will become boom areas and boom states
17:42
Speaker 2: because these things are huge and they're going to have
17:44
Speaker 2: all the ancillary development that occurs when any other big,
17:49
Speaker 2: large kind of employer or facility comes into place. There
17:59
Speaker 2: are clearly downsides to data centers some of them. The
18:04
Speaker 2: big ones use a lot of water, the little ones don't.
18:09
Speaker 2: There is some noise, and there is increased demand for electricity,
18:18
Speaker 2: particularly at the data centers that don't have their own
18:20
Speaker 2: power plants built, which, by the way, is a big
18:22
Speaker 2: trend right now. Companies simply coming in and building a
18:26
Speaker 2: power plant on the site of the data center so
18:28
Speaker 2: that the data center doesn't have to rely on the
18:30
Speaker 2: electricity that's out there on the grid. Well, it's a
18:33
Speaker 2: good investment investing opportunity. But everybody knows about it. The
18:36
Speaker 2: company's stocks are the companies that build these power plans.
18:39
Speaker 2: They've all exploded, and in fact they're correcting now. This
18:42
Speaker 2: is like, if you're think that this is an insight.
18:44
Speaker 2: People were onto this two years ago. So Janesville's got
18:50
Speaker 2: a decision. Make up the story on js online about
18:52
Speaker 2: this today. Now here's the question that the Janesvills of
18:57
Speaker 2: the world have to confront if not this what we
19:03
Speaker 2: had the same situation in Milwaukee, the Midtown Center, which
19:07
Speaker 2: used to be like an old version of a shopping center,
19:14
Speaker 2: kind of the ones the winds that came up in
19:16
Speaker 2: the fifties and the sixties, and then it became a
19:17
Speaker 2: Walmart site. Now it's nothing just sitting there. In Milwaukee,
19:24
Speaker 2: it was proposed for a mini mini is the right term,
19:28
Speaker 2: a miniature data center. Data centers can be huge that
19:31
Speaker 2: they can be small like anything else. It's just like
19:34
Speaker 2: some grocery stores can be huge, some can be mier,
19:37
Speaker 2: and some can be Trying to think of a small
19:40
Speaker 2: grocery store chain, nothing comes to me, Well, like quick Trip,
19:43
Speaker 2: I guess it's a small grocery store. Well, then I
19:47
Speaker 2: can't think of the name of right now that I
19:48
Speaker 2: used to go to. Anyway, I clearly aggress like some
19:51
Speaker 2: of the pigly wigglies, They're not that big, are they?
19:55
Speaker 2: Are there any sentry stores left? I ruminate people are
19:58
Speaker 2: going to try to respond to this. This is the
19:59
Speaker 2: great thing about doing a podcast and not being on
20:02
Speaker 2: the air, because when we're on the air, people without
20:03
Speaker 2: call up my old producer Paul and give him all
20:05
Speaker 2: of the answers to this. But now if people try
20:07
Speaker 2: to call, say the old radio station I'm at like,
20:10
Speaker 2: they're gonna be listening to this, like Dan o'donald's producer
20:12
Speaker 2: is gonna answer. They'll be calling at three o'clock in
20:14
Speaker 2: the morning, and they're gonna be a human being within anyway,
20:20
Speaker 2: the small data center it had almost none of the
20:24
Speaker 2: environmental ramifications that the larger ones did. The one in
20:27
Speaker 2: Milwaukee would have used five gallons of water a day.
20:32
Speaker 2: It's in the middle of an urbanized area, separated from residential,
20:38
Speaker 2: relatively high crime area. There's nothing it could have done
20:43
Speaker 2: to make the area worse because the air is really struggling.
20:46
Speaker 2: Milwaukee rejected it. It's gonna go somewhere else now, Janesville.
20:52
Speaker 2: If they don't go forward with the data center proposal there,
20:55
Speaker 2: what do they think is going to be the employment
20:57
Speaker 2: base for the future in their community. Our economy is
21:02
Speaker 2: rapidly changing because of technology. It's enormous change robotics, AI space.
21:14
Speaker 2: All of these things require massive computing power, data and storage. Now,
21:23
Speaker 2: if people say, well there's these downsides, Okay, there are downsides.
21:27
Speaker 2: I just acknowledge there's downsides, which is why I argue
21:31
Speaker 2: that where you cite them is the thing that makes
21:34
Speaker 2: more sense. It's the same play with everything the debate over.
21:38
Speaker 2: For example, there's nothing to do with data centers, but
21:40
Speaker 2: it's a good comparison. There's this sports and entertainment complex
21:46
Speaker 2: in Franklin called the Rock Built Unweather. It used to
21:50
Speaker 2: be the old ski Hill. The people who live next
21:54
Speaker 2: door to door can't stand it because of all the
21:56
Speaker 2: noise in the commotion. The people who live a mile
21:58
Speaker 2: and a half away love it because they've got all
22:00
Speaker 2: these great opportunities so close to their community that enough
22:03
Speaker 2: to come into Hawaii, et cetera. The key is whether
22:07
Speaker 2: or not the site was sufficiently removed from residential area
22:10
Speaker 2: for all the commotion that goes on, and unless you're
22:13
Speaker 2: going to put the thing where nobody is, there's always
22:16
Speaker 2: going to be somebody nearby. Likewise, with regard to the
22:20
Speaker 2: data centers, it seems to me that we've got lots
22:24
Speaker 2: and lots and lots and lots of property here in
22:27
Speaker 2: the United States of America. It has to be close
22:29
Speaker 2: enough to people because you need employment, but that will
22:34
Speaker 2: not disturb the pastoral countryside and so on. And I
22:38
Speaker 2: would say that a lot of these areas that used
22:40
Speaker 2: to be shopping malls or industrial facilities in large and
22:45
Speaker 2: medium sized cities would be the perfect places for them.
22:51
Speaker 2: But there's downsides. I want you not to think about this,
22:57
Speaker 2: think about the community and the types of sites that
22:59
Speaker 2: I'm talking about. Is there more downside to a data
23:06
Speaker 2: center or a paper mill? Oh, I can speak with
23:12
Speaker 2: authority on this. Northern Wisconsin is dotted with paper mills.
23:17
Speaker 2: You're from Illinois. You didn't have any, you know, there
23:19
Speaker 2: never has been anything in Illinois, has there? I mean,
23:21
Speaker 2: what do they make in Illinois? Nothing? Right? What moving vans?
23:26
Speaker 2: Do they make? Moving vans in Illinois? Chrysler had Chrysler
23:29
Speaker 2: had that plant in Belvety or is that even still?
23:32
Speaker 2: That's not there anywhere? Is it? They're trying to reopen
23:35
Speaker 2: it as a car plant or something else. Oh, as
23:41
Speaker 2: an electric vehicle plan again, that would be just off
23:43
Speaker 2: the top of my head that if that doesn't happen,
23:45
Speaker 2: that would be again in my mind another candidate for
23:47
Speaker 2: a data center anyway, Northern Wisconsin paper mills and why
23:51
Speaker 2: there because we had this forest then in northern Wisconsin,
23:53
Speaker 2: a lot of trees and logs and so on. I
23:56
Speaker 2: grew up in a town that had a paper bill.
23:58
Speaker 2: The paper mill is still there. It defied the community.
24:02
Speaker 2: I've told the story a million times. Okay, here's a
24:04
Speaker 2: million in one. For the first seven years of my life.
24:06
Speaker 2: We moved when I was seven. I lived in this
24:10
Speaker 2: area of Kakana called the Island. I'm not going to
24:14
Speaker 2: explain why they called it the island, but it was
24:15
Speaker 2: the island. If you can't figure out why it's an island,
24:18
Speaker 2: they called it the island because God of the island.
24:21
Speaker 2: Fox River kind of splits in there at the canals
24:24
Speaker 2: of the island. The other there are two main things.
24:27
Speaker 2: There are three main things that were other than me
24:30
Speaker 2: that were on the island. The high school, the junkyard,
24:35
Speaker 2: and the paper mill. I lived right across the river
24:42
Speaker 2: from the paper mill and the Fox River there is
24:44
Speaker 2: not wide. In fact, that's where there's the locks and dams.
24:47
Speaker 2: They branched it off into two things there. The mill
24:50
Speaker 2: was the Kakana Paper mill is famous. Any of you
24:55
Speaker 2: that have ever driven on now Interstate forty one heading
24:58
Speaker 2: into Green Bay, when you get like twenty miles in
25:01
Speaker 2: Green Bay, you might notice a smell. Say, eh, what's that?
25:07
Speaker 2: That was a city. I crep it what people from
25:14
Speaker 2: the area say, Oh, yeah, you're from the city that smells. Yes,
25:16
Speaker 2: it smelled not always, but the smell is is pulp.
25:21
Speaker 2: The mill was a pulp and paper bill. And pulp
25:23
Speaker 2: is you know, the what what down the wood In
25:26
Speaker 2: the process of making paper, they got to soak up
25:29
Speaker 2: the wood to soften it up. And what pulp is.
25:32
Speaker 2: So imagine like soggy wood. Now imagine a day that's muggy,
25:37
Speaker 2: or the wind drifts in a proper way, it can
25:40
Speaker 2: build up a stench and kicks it off. Oh compared
25:49
Speaker 2: to a data center, I mean the paper bill cranking out.
25:53
Speaker 2: And I'm telling you, the smell was like all the time.
25:55
Speaker 2: I'm you have. If you're gonna live in a place
25:59
Speaker 2: like a corner, you just get you to I know,
26:02
Speaker 2: this is weird. I actually liked the smell. It wasn't
26:05
Speaker 2: a rotten egg smell. It had a deeper cut anyway.
26:07
Speaker 2: But most people would say that it's stung. Not all
26:12
Speaker 2: paper mills did pulp, so they didn't all have smell,
26:14
Speaker 2: but they're all noisy. They all had lots and lots
26:17
Speaker 2: of trains because the overwhelming majority of the logs that
26:20
Speaker 2: come into a paper bell were brought in by rail.
26:25
Speaker 2: They were noisy, they were loud. Most of them operated
26:28
Speaker 2: twenty four hours. Some of them are still around. How
26:35
Speaker 2: about a steel mill. You ever see a steel mill?
26:41
Speaker 2: I mean, let's go back to the sixties and the
26:43
Speaker 2: seventies and the fifties. Remember when I I remember the
26:49
Speaker 2: first time I saw the US Steel plant in Gary, Indiana.
26:53
Speaker 2: There's two ways to go east on the interstate system.
26:55
Speaker 2: I think I always mix up which one was which.
26:58
Speaker 2: I think it's Eye ninety that skims and I think
27:00
Speaker 2: it's ninety four that goes a little bit south. One
27:02
Speaker 2: of them is the Frank the Frank Borman Expressway. They
27:05
Speaker 2: named an expressway after Frank Borman, who is one of
27:07
Speaker 2: the astronauts that went to the moon. What all I
27:10
Speaker 2: recall about the Frank Borman Expressway is for forty years
27:12
Speaker 2: when I drove on that thing, it was under construction.
27:14
Speaker 2: It was never not under construction. It's still I'm just
27:19
Speaker 2: assuming it still is. You were there a month ago
27:21
Speaker 2: they had still under construction. I think it's ninety that
27:27
Speaker 2: skims the lake rather and kind of curves up. Am
27:30
Speaker 2: I right about that? Yeah? I mean I should know
27:32
Speaker 2: that because, yeah, it was when I lived in Saint
27:34
Speaker 2: Joe Bett in Harbor, Michigan. Was it ninety I don't remember.
27:38
Speaker 2: I it was ninety or ninety four. I think it
27:40
Speaker 2: was ninety. Oh, so it's ninety. So anyway, they angle over.
27:49
Speaker 2: You're right, And anyway, why am I bringing up this story?
27:53
Speaker 2: I remember the first time I drove piss it. It
27:55
Speaker 2: was on the Gary plant was still I think, oh
27:58
Speaker 2: my god. It was smoke. It's right up Lake Michigan.
28:02
Speaker 2: And you know, Gary was an industrial atmic crime froblems.
28:06
Speaker 2: There's this huge metal like smoke stacks and smoke billowing
28:10
Speaker 2: in the air, and then you had this stench of it.
28:12
Speaker 2: It was like oil in the smell of oil in
28:15
Speaker 2: the air. This is what industrial America was. And again
28:22
Speaker 2: the steel mills, I know, the average idiot has no
28:27
Speaker 2: idea how we even make steel. Steel comes from iron.
28:32
Speaker 2: They melt that stuff. Oh my god. Steel mills Pittsburgh,
28:39
Speaker 2: the industrial United states. This is what industry was. Everything
28:46
Speaker 2: is made in a certain way, and data is processed
28:49
Speaker 2: in a certain way as well, but it is nothing
28:52
Speaker 2: in comparison to all of the stuff that we had
28:54
Speaker 2: that built this country. And by the way, all of
28:57
Speaker 2: this stuff still exists somewhere in the world. Now we
29:02
Speaker 2: have these Winys liberals in Milwaukee who say that the
29:05
Speaker 2: whole reason that cities like Milwaukee struggle is the big
29:08
Speaker 2: employers like all the factories they all left. Well that's true,
29:12
Speaker 2: they did all leave for lots of reasons economic, primarily
29:15
Speaker 2: make the stuff cheaper overseas and so on. But these
29:18
Speaker 2: same liberals would have opposed those factories going in if
29:21
Speaker 2: they were around to the day. So areas that have
29:28
Speaker 2: a history of being industrialized I think are ideal for
29:31
Speaker 2: the data centers, because, if anything, the data centers are
29:34
Speaker 2: far less intrusive and far less of a pain in
29:36
Speaker 2: the ass, and present far fewer downsides than the old
29:39
Speaker 2: industry that we had there in the first place. And again,
29:44
Speaker 2: if Jamesville doesn't take it, somebody will. My own guess
29:47
Speaker 2: is that the majority of the data centers are going
29:49
Speaker 2: to occur in red states, which are going to become
29:52
Speaker 2: even more economic boom towns, which create even more money
29:55
Speaker 2: to go over to those areas. They're going to attract
29:58
Speaker 2: both high end employees, the high smart people who run
30:01
Speaker 2: the tech centers, along with all the mid and low
30:03
Speaker 2: level employees, the kind of people that have, you know,
30:06
Speaker 2: service large giant facilities like this. Just think, for example,
30:11
Speaker 2: of the landscaping and the warehousing and all the materials
30:14
Speaker 2: and the cafeteria supply for some of these centers, et cetera.
30:19
Speaker 2: So the lifties that want to keep saying no, no, no, no, no,
30:22
Speaker 2: no no to all of this stuff are simply guaranteeing
30:25
Speaker 2: that they're going to be impoverished and will continue to
30:27
Speaker 2: have decline. And I grant you there's downsides the data centers,
30:34
Speaker 2: there's downsides the damn near anything that's any good. There's
30:38
Speaker 2: downsides to building the new a new stadium for the
30:40
Speaker 2: Brewers back in the nineties that opened an all one
30:42
Speaker 2: American family field. We had a credit tax board. We
30:46
Speaker 2: didn't do it. We weren't have baseball here, not things
30:48
Speaker 2: that open. And there are arguments against that. There's always
30:51
Speaker 2: arguments for and against things. All right, now, let's get
30:55
Speaker 2: to this. I have to admit I'm amused by this.
30:59
Speaker 2: How can you not what a train wreck of a
31:01
Speaker 2: campaign the Democrats have for governor. On the podcast Monday,
31:08
Speaker 2: we alluded to the Sarah Rodrigaz campaign finance scandal. Later
31:13
Speaker 2: that day, she held a news conference and said she's
31:16
Speaker 2: not going to drop out of the race. I know
31:18
Speaker 2: most of you know the background, so I cover it briefly.
31:22
Speaker 2: Turns out Sarah Rodrigaz's campaign was not raising anywhere near
31:27
Speaker 2: as much money as they were claiming. Now, the key
31:30
Speaker 2: is it is not against the law to lie to
31:33
Speaker 2: your own candidate about how much money you have. You
31:35
Speaker 2: can't lie in your campaign finance statements. And the newest
31:40
Speaker 2: campaign statement is out imminately, I think just Vetteran now.
31:46
Speaker 2: So in preparing it, some of the staffers were taking
31:48
Speaker 2: a look at it, and they realized that the numbers
31:50
Speaker 2: were fudged. Multiple donations were reported. They took donations and
31:57
Speaker 2: reported them multiple times. In others, somebody gives five hundred dollars,
32:01
Speaker 2: it might show up eight times as four thousand, rather
32:04
Speaker 2: than the one time five hundred. It clearly was deliberate.
32:11
Speaker 2: Now you may wonder why in the world would you
32:13
Speaker 2: do this, Why would you lie to yourself. Well, I
32:20
Speaker 2: think the answer the obvious answer is this. Her campaign
32:24
Speaker 2: manager is Kara Spencer, who may have been in over
32:27
Speaker 2: her head her LinkedIn profile, she said, Oh, she's run
32:31
Speaker 2: a political consultancy firm, has done a lot of that crap.
32:34
Speaker 2: I don't see her as being the front woman for
32:36
Speaker 2: any major candidate in a major racist might have been
32:39
Speaker 2: her biggest gig, And my guess is that nobody was
32:42
Speaker 2: giving any money to Sarah, and to save her own ass,
32:47
Speaker 2: she was lying to Sarah about how much money they
32:49
Speaker 2: had been raising by stacking these donations on top of
32:53
Speaker 2: one another. So anyway, Sarah finds out fires. Kara Spencer
33:01
Speaker 2: holds a news conference and says she's gonna stay on
33:04
Speaker 2: the race. But acknowledge is she only has two hundred
33:06
Speaker 2: thousand dollars in the bank. Two hundred thousand dollars in
33:09
Speaker 2: the bank one month before the primary election in a
33:11
Speaker 2: contested race. Is she's broke? She thought she had a million,
33:18
Speaker 2: it's two hundred thousand. Now this raises a lot of questions.
33:24
Speaker 2: The biggest one is this, I made this point in
33:32
Speaker 2: a post. I made an X a couple of days ago.
33:35
Speaker 2: Somebody put it out to me that Jeff Wagner had
33:37
Speaker 2: made the same point. When I did my old radio show,
33:39
Speaker 2: Jeff Wagner would steal all my topics. I'd do a topic,
33:41
Speaker 2: he'd do one the next day. In this insan, Wagner
33:44
Speaker 2: did post his thing first, but I wasn't stealing the
33:46
Speaker 2: post from him, because why in the world it'll been
33:48
Speaker 2: checking out Jeff Wagner's post. But somebody did point it out.
33:51
Speaker 2: And again many people have made this point. But here's
33:53
Speaker 2: what it is. I've known a zillion politicians in my life.
33:58
Speaker 2: I'm telling you, they all know who's giving them money.
34:02
Speaker 2: First of all, that's the biggest job the candidate has.
34:05
Speaker 2: Well they do. They put him on the phone and
34:07
Speaker 2: work the phones, calling donors, calling donors, calling donors, calling donors,
34:10
Speaker 2: and they take this very very personally. Who gave me
34:12
Speaker 2: money and who didn't. Aside from favoritism and all this,
34:16
Speaker 2: they want to know who's in. They're obsessed with knowing this.
34:23
Speaker 2: You give fifty bucks to a cant and to Alderman
34:26
Speaker 2: in the city of Milwaukee in their campaign contribution, they
34:29
Speaker 2: will know it. I don't think Sarah didn't do this
34:38
Speaker 2: because I don't even think she was looking at her donors.
34:42
Speaker 2: What the hell? I have been making fun of Tony
34:47
Speaker 2: Evers for eight years because I don't think he does anything.
34:50
Speaker 2: I think he delegates governing the state to Maggie Gows,
34:53
Speaker 2: chief of staff. I think he's clueless in almost everything,
34:57
Speaker 2: which is why he simply does what the staff tells
34:59
Speaker 2: him to do allway. But Sarah's making everrs look engaged.
35:09
Speaker 2: How can you not know how much money your campaign
35:12
Speaker 2: actually hasn't How can you be off by a factor
35:14
Speaker 2: of five times? Well, my manager was lying to be.
35:20
Speaker 2: Wouldn't anybody else paying any attention to this? My guess
35:22
Speaker 2: is that somebody in the campaign took a look at
35:24
Speaker 2: the books and told Sarah, hey, our numbers aren't right.
35:28
Speaker 2: And then Sarah looked at the books herself and said, Caara,
35:30
Speaker 2: what's the deal? And Kara Spencer probably started to cry
35:32
Speaker 2: and then she fired it. But I guess it's how
35:34
Speaker 2: it came down. But it makes Sarah Rodriguez look pathetic.
35:37
Speaker 2: First of all, it means this She's been unable to
35:42
Speaker 2: raise hardly any money so far. She announced a one
35:45
Speaker 2: million dollar ad buy before she realized she only is
35:48
Speaker 2: no undergrad. How can you govern the state if you
35:55
Speaker 2: can't even take keep track of how much money is
35:57
Speaker 2: in your own campaign coffers and not be off by
35:59
Speaker 2: a buck, be off by five times the amount. It
36:04
Speaker 2: means she's a terrible manager, detached, is not somebody whose
36:07
Speaker 2: hands on on anything, as I said in my ex
36:10
Speaker 2: post empty Pansuit. But she's not dropping out of the
36:14
Speaker 2: race to make matters worse for the mainstream Democrats. She's
36:17
Speaker 2: one of the candidates in the race that is well,
36:20
Speaker 2: very liberal, not Marxist. The regular Democratic establishment is freaked
36:26
Speaker 2: out at the notion that Francesca Hang is going to
36:29
Speaker 2: win the governor primary. Francesca Hong is at the very
36:35
Speaker 2: least a socialist. I think clearly a Marxist by her positions.
36:38
Speaker 2: She has said she's an anti capitalist. This is the
36:41
Speaker 2: candidate who says she doesn't want to have any prisons.
36:45
Speaker 2: She's radical on top of radical, on top of radical
36:47
Speaker 2: on everything. She's also a personal train wreck, doesn't pay
36:51
Speaker 2: her bills, had a thirty thousand dollars credit debt, that
36:53
Speaker 2: credit card debt that she didn't pay until she got
36:56
Speaker 2: sued by the credit card company a few weeks ago.
37:00
Speaker 2: So the Democratic bosses, first of all, they're realizing that
37:03
Speaker 2: they're losing their party to the radicals. I'm talking the
37:05
Speaker 2: old line of regular Democrat bulls that have been around
37:08
Speaker 2: forever and ever. You know, Evers bear all of those
37:12
Speaker 2: people they're seeing right and left their party being taken
37:16
Speaker 2: over by radicals, so clearly are not Democrats. Secondly, they
37:22
Speaker 2: fear that somebody as radical as Hong will lose to
37:25
Speaker 2: Tom Tiffany. So they've succeeded in getting some of the
37:30
Speaker 2: other Democrats that drop out of the race. They got
37:33
Speaker 2: David Crowley, the Milwaukee County executive, to quit the race.
37:36
Speaker 2: Prior to that, they got Missy Hughes, who was a
37:39
Speaker 2: member of Evers's cabinet, to quit the race. They haven't
37:44
Speaker 2: gotten Joel Brennan to drop out yet. The reason they
37:47
Speaker 2: were doing this is they wanted to rally all of
37:48
Speaker 2: these candidates and their supporters behind Sarah Rodriguez, who they felt,
37:52
Speaker 2: of the non Marxist was the most the one who
37:55
Speaker 2: had the greatest chance of beating Hang and equally unelectable
38:00
Speaker 2: Mendela Barns, who seems to be running number two in
38:02
Speaker 2: the polls. So the Democrat bosses and when Sarah right
38:05
Speaker 2: before they found out that Sarah can't run a campaign
38:08
Speaker 2: and didn't have any money in the bank. How'd you
38:11
Speaker 2: like to be David Crowley right now? I dropped out
38:13
Speaker 2: for this morn. I can't fathom that she can now
38:20
Speaker 2: win the Democratic primary. A. She doesn't have any money. B.
38:25
Speaker 2: She looks like an idiot. And now you face the
38:30
Speaker 2: potential of the candidate who they felt would be the
38:33
Speaker 2: best chance of beating Tiffany if she was the nominee.
38:36
Speaker 2: Tiffany's got an open are you how can she run
38:39
Speaker 2: the state? She couldn't even run a campaign, to which
38:42
Speaker 2: there's no answer to that. I don't know even know
38:45
Speaker 2: how you She tried to babble out some answers at
38:47
Speaker 2: this press conference, but she didn't drop out of the race. Interestingly,
38:52
Speaker 2: Joel Brennan, another non Marxist candidate, is steal of the race.
38:55
Speaker 2: Although he's polling terribly. Brennan doesn't appear to have raised
38:58
Speaker 2: much money at all either, So I mean it looks
39:02
Speaker 2: and then you have killed de Royce, who's a state
39:04
Speaker 2: senator from Madison who's somewhere between the mainstream of the
39:07
Speaker 2: Democrats and a Marxist. She's also I call her crazy Kilda.
39:12
Speaker 2: She has had some very nutty views the Madison She's
39:16
Speaker 2: a Madison Leftist, that is what she is. It looks
39:20
Speaker 2: to me like this thing is going to be won
39:22
Speaker 2: by hang or bards. How did the Democrats let this happen?
39:29
Speaker 2: How did normally the Democrats? They just do what they're
39:31
Speaker 2: told and some strategist figures out who's got their best
39:34
Speaker 2: chance of winning an election. That person gets annoyed, and
39:37
Speaker 2: everybody else falls by the wayside. That's how it normally works. Well,
39:41
Speaker 2: they had a campaign. They had a state Democratic Party
39:45
Speaker 2: chairman in Wisconsin for a number of years named Ben Wickler.
39:49
Speaker 2: He quit a year ago, and I'm telling you, since
39:52
Speaker 2: he's quit, they look incompetent. Now, Wickler was a big
39:57
Speaker 2: time lefty, but he was really really good his job.
40:02
Speaker 2: They took great advantage of the changes in election law
40:05
Speaker 2: that occurred with COVID. They mastered marshaling the absentee vote
40:10
Speaker 2: and the mail in vote and getting voter turnout juiced
40:13
Speaker 2: and all of that stuff. Wickler's gone, and they doesn't
40:16
Speaker 2: need to repair to be anybody in charge. End, they're
40:23
Speaker 2: just a mess. So if you're a mainstream Democrat who
40:25
Speaker 2: wants to win, who do you vote for? Sarah looks
40:28
Speaker 2: like a train wreck. Mendela Barnes has a closet full
40:32
Speaker 2: of skeletons. I still don't know if he has a
40:36
Speaker 2: driver's license. His social media posts in the past are embarrassing.
40:44
Speaker 2: Nobody ever brings this up, so I'll bring it up again.
40:47
Speaker 2: He hosted a party in which women were invited but
40:52
Speaker 2: no ratchets were allowed. That was the term he put out, ratchets.
40:56
Speaker 2: Do people know what a ratchet is? Do you know
40:59
Speaker 2: what a ratchet? It is? What you know from a tool?
41:05
Speaker 2: A ratchet is like an unattractive, unwanted type of woman.
41:11
Speaker 2: As I'm saying, well, that's the term he use. This
41:14
Speaker 2: is not you know it. I don't think a Republican
41:17
Speaker 2: get away of saying this. This is the Democrats saying it.
41:20
Speaker 2: So that's Barns. And then you have Mousey, you know,
41:24
Speaker 2: Francesca to see toong over there running somebody to the
41:29
Speaker 2: left of chairman. Mao, you're gonna vote for kel de Royce.
41:33
Speaker 2: She was the woman who said that everybody needed to
41:36
Speaker 2: stockpile their abortion pills because Trump was coming for them.
41:39
Speaker 2: She put that out the day after Trump was elected
41:41
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty four. I haven't seen Trump round up
41:44
Speaker 2: a single abortion pill since then, and I haven't seen
41:46
Speaker 2: Trump particularly show any interest in the issue of abortion.
41:49
Speaker 2: But that's what kill de Royce, who was living in
41:50
Speaker 2: a fantasy. So he's supposed to vote for you could
41:53
Speaker 2: vote for Brennan, but he hasn't shown even a pulse
41:55
Speaker 2: in terms of an act of political campaign. So that's
42:01
Speaker 2: where they are right now. We have more political developments
42:07
Speaker 2: to talk about, and just by coincidence, a particular emphasis
42:11
Speaker 2: on Wakershaw County coming up on the Mark Belling podcast.
42:18
Speaker 2: This is the Mark Belling Podcast. By total coincidence, we
42:22
Speaker 2: have several stories here that come from Waukershaw County, the
42:25
Speaker 2: first two political. With the passing of Paul Farrow, the
42:30
Speaker 2: Waukershaw County executive, the campaign is underway to replace him.
42:38
Speaker 2: There's some confusion and I had to clarify it myself
42:41
Speaker 2: on when the election is. The media keeps reporting December fifteenth,
42:45
Speaker 2: technically yes, but in fact the election is actually November seventeenth.
42:49
Speaker 2: Excuse me, yes, November seventeenth. If there's a primary, which
42:53
Speaker 2: there will be if there's more than two candidates, there's
42:55
Speaker 2: a primary that will be November seventeenth, and then the
43:01
Speaker 2: two leading vote getters in that primary advance to the
43:03
Speaker 2: general election December fifteenth. State law is very precise on
43:09
Speaker 2: how these special elections are held when someone dies, and
43:11
Speaker 2: that's the calendar associated with it, so they can't do,
43:15
Speaker 2: by law the most logical thing, which is to schedule
43:18
Speaker 2: the primary to coincide with the regular November election when
43:21
Speaker 2: people are going to be voting anyway. So this means
43:23
Speaker 2: that voters at Walkershawk County, two weeks after we elect
43:26
Speaker 2: a governor and attorney general and the state legislature and
43:29
Speaker 2: so on, are going to have to trudge out and
43:30
Speaker 2: vote for the county executive, which is of course a
43:33
Speaker 2: huge job. And as I say, there will be a
43:36
Speaker 2: primary because it's just a lock, I think it's possible
43:40
Speaker 2: there will be more than ten candidates. First of all,
43:45
Speaker 2: it's a huge job. The county executive does run the county,
43:51
Speaker 2: an initiative that is political jobs go. It's about the
43:53
Speaker 2: greatest in the world because almost never does a county
43:57
Speaker 2: executive in any county lose real life. It I'm not
44:03
Speaker 2: saying it doesn't happen, it's very rare, very rare, and
44:09
Speaker 2: in Waukeshaw County, each county executive going back, I think
44:14
Speaker 2: at the beginning when I came here, Dan Finley was
44:16
Speaker 2: the county executive for a number of years. He quit,
44:18
Speaker 2: and the cycle has just continued to go forward where
44:22
Speaker 2: county executives would serve until they chose not to serve it.
44:25
Speaker 2: In the case of Paul Ferroll, he served obviously until
44:29
Speaker 2: he passed away. I speculated on the podcast on Monday
44:38
Speaker 2: it might have been the last one of the week
44:39
Speaker 2: last week. I think it was Monday that Chris kappinga
44:42
Speaker 2: the president of the Wisconsin State Senate Republican member of
44:45
Speaker 2: the state Senate from western to Waukashaw County, would run,
44:47
Speaker 2: And indeed he has announced that he's running. He appeared
44:49
Speaker 2: on dadd' donald show and says he's in. So Kapping
44:52
Speaker 2: has the advantage of being the first guy to get
44:55
Speaker 2: his name out there. Nobody else to mind now has
45:00
Speaker 2: publicly said I'm in arrested. But names are floating around
45:05
Speaker 2: like crazy. I mean, and it would be everybody that
45:08
Speaker 2: you would expect. It's a predominantly Republican county, so any
45:11
Speaker 2: Republican of note in Waukershaw County would be speculated on
45:15
Speaker 2: Amanda Payne, who runs the Walkershaw version of the Chamber
45:17
Speaker 2: of Commerce. Her name's been thrown out. Other members of
45:22
Speaker 2: the legislature have had their names thrown out. I threw
45:25
Speaker 2: out the name of former Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Clayfish. The
45:28
Speaker 2: problem is she doesn't live in Waukershaw County anymore. She
45:30
Speaker 2: lives in Jefferson County. It would be a problem, I think,
45:36
Speaker 2: to run for the job before you've moved back into
45:38
Speaker 2: the county, so that probably excludes her. Otherwise, she would
45:41
Speaker 2: have been a logical person to consider for this. As
45:43
Speaker 2: I say, it's a very big governmental job. Capping his
45:54
Speaker 2: profile will come as he would position himself. I think
45:58
Speaker 2: as a mega type Republican. He has not been part
46:01
Speaker 2: of the Madison establishment, even though he owns the title
46:04
Speaker 2: of President of the State Senate. It's kind of an
46:05
Speaker 2: odds that some of the Senators on some issues, and
46:08
Speaker 2: he's often bucked what the majority has wanted to do.
46:13
Speaker 2: There would be other more Republican, more mainstream Republican candidates.
46:16
Speaker 2: And also if you've got nine or ten candidates running,
46:19
Speaker 2: trust me, there's going to be two or three Democrats
46:21
Speaker 2: that are going to run, and we'll hope that if say,
46:25
Speaker 2: and it's a nonpartisan election, but people know what people
46:28
Speaker 2: are that if a number of the Republicans cancel one
46:31
Speaker 2: another out and all get twelve fourteen percent, the Democrat
46:34
Speaker 2: hoping that maybe that maybe two Liberals could run one
46:37
Speaker 2: two win that election. All of that will play out.
46:39
Speaker 2: But it has to happen very very fast, and it
46:43
Speaker 2: has to happen under the backdrop if we're going to
46:47
Speaker 2: have a race for governor, the national elections are going
46:49
Speaker 2: to be going on congressional racist state legislative races. All
46:52
Speaker 2: the while these candidates are trying to get their names
46:54
Speaker 2: out there as plausible candidates for county executive and raising
46:58
Speaker 2: money along the same time. In the meantime, I want
47:02
Speaker 2: to talk about an election that's happening now. Another position
47:08
Speaker 2: that rarely changes hands sheriffs. Sheriffs sometimes lose reelection, but
47:12
Speaker 2: not a lot. The Walkershaw County Sheriff, Eric Severson is
47:16
Speaker 2: not running for reelection. The election to replace him is
47:21
Speaker 2: in one month. Because it's a Republican county, the winner
47:24
Speaker 2: of the Republican primary will be the sheriff. We haven't
47:28
Speaker 2: talked about this race yet. And I probably only am
47:32
Speaker 2: going to be able to talk about it in one
47:33
Speaker 2: or two podcasts because we have so many other elections
47:35
Speaker 2: to cover. This one, though, is interesting because you have
47:38
Speaker 2: an insider and an outsider. Nick Olinger is a captain
47:43
Speaker 2: in the Sheriff's department and is endorsed by the outgoing Sheriff,
47:47
Speaker 2: Eric Severson. John G. Schmeider is a longtime former police
47:55
Speaker 2: officer in Glendale and Milwaukee County and for the last
47:59
Speaker 2: twelve years has been in business. I think he's been
48:01
Speaker 2: in real estate and a number of other things. So
48:02
Speaker 2: he has a law enforcement background but is not currently
48:05
Speaker 2: in the Sheriff's department. But he was a trainer in
48:08
Speaker 2: law enforcement, he was a high level cop and so on.
48:12
Speaker 2: So you have two qualified candidates running. A number of
48:16
Speaker 2: members of the political establishment are backing the inside guy,
48:19
Speaker 2: Alan Joe, and of course he has the backing of
48:21
Speaker 2: the outgoing sheriff. The Union of Waukeshaw County Sheriff's Deputies
48:27
Speaker 2: is overwhelmingly voted to back the other guy, Geschmeider. That's
48:34
Speaker 2: not all that surprising. Union Usually the union doesn't like
48:37
Speaker 2: the police chief. Union didn't like the sheriff or whatever.
48:39
Speaker 2: So if this guy is part of the command structure,
48:42
Speaker 2: it may be that for a number of reasons, and
48:44
Speaker 2: deputies have problems with them and so on. But I
48:48
Speaker 2: can't say that I know much about either of them
48:50
Speaker 2: other than the backgrounds that they put up. But there
48:52
Speaker 2: is one issue that I think is the highest profile
48:58
Speaker 2: issue for that department right now, and that is that
49:02
Speaker 2: I think it is a disgrace that an apartment of
49:06
Speaker 2: this size, this is one of the largest law enforcement
49:09
Speaker 2: agencies in the state of Wisconsin, does not yet have
49:13
Speaker 2: body cams. Walker Shaw, Coney's Sheriff's deputies don't have body cams.
49:19
Speaker 2: I mean, you've got like Pipsqueak, Idaho cops have body cams.
49:23
Speaker 2: They're not everywhere. One of the reasons why when you
49:28
Speaker 2: see police videos with body cams there almost all of
49:31
Speaker 2: them seem to come from Floyda or Texas or places
49:33
Speaker 2: like that is those states, the ones that are proactive
49:36
Speaker 2: with regard to being pro law enforcement, have made sure
49:39
Speaker 2: that almost all the jurisdictions have bodycams. Here in Wisconsin,
49:44
Speaker 2: it's hit and miss. Some agencies have them, some don't.
49:47
Speaker 2: When bodycams first the technology first came out, it was
49:51
Speaker 2: the The movement for them was all from the anti
49:53
Speaker 2: cop crowd because they were convinced that every cop was
49:56
Speaker 2: brutalizing someone and therefore we need to have the body
49:59
Speaker 2: cams to catch them at to keep them to behave
50:01
Speaker 2: on the up and up. Now this is completely flipped.
50:05
Speaker 2: Criminal defense attorneys and civil libertarians are freaked out of
50:08
Speaker 2: her body cams because the body cams are not only
50:11
Speaker 2: exposing that the cops almost always behave properly, the criminals
50:16
Speaker 2: are being caught in the act of their misbehavior and
50:19
Speaker 2: their interaction with the cops. The things are being placed
50:21
Speaker 2: on YouTube. People's lives are being destroyed because we get
50:24
Speaker 2: to see how they behave when like, it's still that
50:27
Speaker 2: I'm still fascinated by the fact that people act like
50:30
Speaker 2: jackasses the cops. It's one thing if they don't know
50:33
Speaker 2: the cop is a body cam on. But those body cams,
50:36
Speaker 2: they're right, they pour them right in the middle of
50:38
Speaker 2: their chest and there's like most of them have a
50:40
Speaker 2: little bit of a light indicator that indicates that it's on.
50:44
Speaker 2: Why in the world you would act like a goof
50:46
Speaker 2: to a cop knowing they're worrying a body cam and
50:48
Speaker 2: that things if you act like enough of a goof
50:50
Speaker 2: it's going to end up on YouTube, but they do.
50:56
Speaker 2: The Walkershaw County Sheriff's Department does not yet have body
51:00
Speaker 2: so if we have an interaction between a suspect or
51:03
Speaker 2: anybody and a sheriff's deputy, we don't get to see it.
51:07
Speaker 2: The body cams have turned out to be tremendous tools
51:10
Speaker 2: for law enforcement because it's becomes the greatest people you know.
51:14
Speaker 2: Suspects claim things all the time. There are in many
51:17
Speaker 2: instances of women saying, oh, the cop groped me. Well,
51:20
Speaker 2: they can't claim it now because the body cam is on. Also,
51:24
Speaker 2: you can tell if the cop would turn off the bodycam.
51:27
Speaker 2: They've shown that in the overwhelming majority of cases, the
51:30
Speaker 2: cops show incredible patients in dealing with suspects who are resisting,
51:34
Speaker 2: slug and doing everything imaginable. They are a very pro
51:38
Speaker 2: law enforcement tool and can help aid in convictions because
51:41
Speaker 2: they can be used as evidence. The Wakshaw County Sheriff's
51:48
Speaker 2: Department don't happened yet and they don't have them because
51:52
Speaker 2: the outgoing sheriff, Eric Severson has said, I'm not going
51:56
Speaker 2: to take money out of my budget. That would be
51:58
Speaker 2: used for personnel for this he's claiming, and he's been
52:01
Speaker 2: arguing forever, that he's underfunded by the county board, and
52:06
Speaker 2: he says he doesn't have the funds for it. My position,
52:11
Speaker 2: you figure out how to get the funds if you're
52:14
Speaker 2: going to be an effective sheriff. When you see tiny
52:17
Speaker 2: little communities in the middle of nowhere that figured out
52:19
Speaker 2: how to equip their officers with bodycams, there's no excuse
52:22
Speaker 2: for a community the size and affluence of Waukeshaw County,
52:25
Speaker 2: which is a pro law enforcement county, to not have them.
52:28
Speaker 2: So I directed questions today to both of the candidates
52:31
Speaker 2: for sheriff, both via email, and I'm going to provide
52:35
Speaker 2: a response on tomorrow's podcast if I get one now.
52:39
Speaker 2: Gi Schmeider, the one candidate, has said in his website
52:42
Speaker 2: he supports body cams, with the question I have asked
52:44
Speaker 2: him is will you commit to having every patrol officer.
52:48
Speaker 2: I don't think somebody's sitting behind a desk has to
52:50
Speaker 2: have a body cam on, but anybody that's out there
52:53
Speaker 2: on patrol or doing investigative outside type work have a bodycam.
52:58
Speaker 2: Will you commit to that by the end of twenty
53:00
Speaker 2: twenty seven with none of these hedges if I get this,
53:02
Speaker 2: or I get that or the other thing. And I've
53:04
Speaker 2: asked that question of j Schmeier and Nickologer, now g
53:07
Speaker 2: Schmeider's campaign spokesman. I said, well, he supports bodycam. I've said,
53:10
Speaker 2: I want a specific answer to my question, and well,
53:18
Speaker 2: I think Eric Sieverson's done an outstanding job as sheriff.
53:20
Speaker 2: There's been a couple of week spots in there on
53:22
Speaker 2: one of them is his inability to prioritize what has
53:27
Speaker 2: become I would say the most important pro law enforcement
53:30
Speaker 2: tool of this current century we're in. With the one
53:34
Speaker 2: exception of the advances in DNA technology, that's number one
53:38
Speaker 2: that started to overlap in the last century, but really
53:41
Speaker 2: now bodycams being the other. The following story actually relates.
53:51
Speaker 2: This is a case of a West Alice police officer
53:55
Speaker 2: who is being charged with misconduct in connection with excessive
54:00
Speaker 2: force in Waukershaw County, an unusual story. West Alice is
54:06
Speaker 2: not in Waukashaw County. It's in Milwaukee County. West Alice
54:10
Speaker 2: is the second largest city by population in Milwaukee County,
54:12
Speaker 2: behind the city of Milwaukee. It runs all the way
54:16
Speaker 2: to the Wakashaw County line and the eastern edge runs
54:20
Speaker 2: all the way over to the erie and near the ballpark.
54:27
Speaker 2: In this instance, and this is quite the quirk, the
54:30
Speaker 2: officer is being charged because his actions were caught on
54:33
Speaker 2: his body cam, because West Alice police have body cabs.
54:37
Speaker 2: So you actually have the Waukershaw County authorities charging somebody
54:42
Speaker 2: with inappropriate conduct in terms of use of force based
54:46
Speaker 2: on his body cam evidence. If this had been a
54:49
Speaker 2: waka Shaw County Sheriff's deputy, we wouldn't have known what
54:51
Speaker 2: they would have done because they don't have body cams.
54:54
Speaker 2: I'll share the story and you can make of it
54:56
Speaker 2: as you will. A West Alice police officer has been
55:00
Speaker 2: place that administrative suspension following allegations that he used excessive
55:03
Speaker 2: force during the arrest of a man in Brookfield last January.
55:06
Speaker 2: Now why would a West Alice police officer being Brookfield?
55:09
Speaker 2: Little bit covered here? The story's from the Waukeshaw FreeWin Anton.
55:13
Speaker 2: Best thirty two was charge Friday in Waukeshaw County Circuit
55:15
Speaker 2: Court with account of misconduct and public office in acting
55:19
Speaker 2: in excessive lawful authority a fellowy punishable up to three
55:22
Speaker 2: year a half years in prison. A criminal complaint said
55:26
Speaker 2: Best was among the officers who responded when a subject
55:30
Speaker 2: fled from newb From Elmgrove Police in a car with
55:33
Speaker 2: front end damage with two men entering a gray Honda SUV.
55:39
Speaker 2: West Alice Police chased the vehicle to the eleven hundred
55:42
Speaker 2: block of South one hundred and twenty fourth Street. Let
55:44
Speaker 2: me interject one hundred and twenty fourth Street is the
55:48
Speaker 2: county line between Wakshaw and Milwaukee Counties. Elm Grove, It's
55:52
Speaker 2: on the one side of the street and West Alice
55:55
Speaker 2: is on the other side of the street. So you
55:57
Speaker 2: can see why there would be responses some agents sees
56:00
Speaker 2: from multiple jurisdictions, especially if they're on that street, which
56:04
Speaker 2: is one side of the streets in one community, on
56:06
Speaker 2: one side of the streets in the other community. Also
56:10
Speaker 2: New Berlin, Brookfield, all of those cities that run you know,
56:13
Speaker 2: one hundred and twenty fourth Street is the county borderline.
56:17
Speaker 2: So this is an instance of there were multiple law
56:19
Speaker 2: enforcement agencies responding. So getting back to the story, West
56:21
Speaker 2: Ellis Police chased the vehicle eleven hundred block of South
56:23
Speaker 2: one hundred and twenty four street, where the men fled
56:26
Speaker 2: that car on foot. Victim A was found in the
56:29
Speaker 2: nine hundred block of South Parkway Drive in Brookfield, so
56:32
Speaker 2: right now on the Wakshaw County side of the county line.
56:36
Speaker 2: The man was subdued by three West Alis officers and
56:39
Speaker 2: was faced down on the ground with his hands be
56:42
Speaker 2: it behind his back when Anton Best forcefully landed with
56:50
Speaker 2: his left knee on top of Victim A's right neck
56:53
Speaker 2: and right shoulder area. The complaint in the case said,
56:56
Speaker 2: as he was being walked to a squad car, the
56:58
Speaker 2: man asked one office, did you make sure your foot
57:02
Speaker 2: was on my neck good at that time? The defendant responded, no,
57:06
Speaker 2: that was me, buddy. Probably wishes he hadn't said that,
57:11
Speaker 2: so he's taken credit for it. But again, this is
57:13
Speaker 2: on the body cam. Victim May then asked, oh you,
57:19
Speaker 2: the defendant responded. The victim May then asked, so you
57:23
Speaker 2: take pride in that, right, and the defendant replied, sure do.
57:27
Speaker 2: Bodycam or footage warned by Best showed the man was
57:31
Speaker 2: on the ground as he was being taken into custody
57:34
Speaker 2: when Best came over from about twenty feet away and
57:37
Speaker 2: dropped out on the man's head and neck area, causing
57:40
Speaker 2: the man to grunt as Beck landed Best landed on him,
57:43
Speaker 2: the complaint said. Another officer reported later that the man
57:46
Speaker 2: later complained of neck pain and appeared to have difficulty
57:49
Speaker 2: holding his head upright. The complaint said that officer reported
57:52
Speaker 2: the man was prone and handcuffed when Best struck the man,
57:56
Speaker 2: and he later reported his concern to a supervisor of
57:59
Speaker 2: the complaint said, so, in this instance, one of the
58:02
Speaker 2: officers did tell on the other. I personally have not
58:07
Speaker 2: seen the body cam. It's obviously evident, so I can't
58:09
Speaker 2: pass judgment as to whether or not this is excessive
58:11
Speaker 2: force or not. Certainly, chasing a suspect and the suspects eluding,
58:17
Speaker 2: sometimes the suspect, sometimes a high speed chase, etc. The
58:21
Speaker 2: cop may want to get a shot in. I don't
58:24
Speaker 2: think there was anything of that nature in this other
58:26
Speaker 2: than the fleeing component of it. But every law enforcement
58:32
Speaker 2: officer wearing a body cam now knows. This is different
58:36
Speaker 2: from the old days in which we didn't have body
58:38
Speaker 2: cams on, which is I say. I think has turned
58:42
Speaker 2: out to be a good thing for cops because it's
58:44
Speaker 2: kept some of them who might have gotten in trouble
58:47
Speaker 2: from getting in trouble. Not every law enforcement agency in
58:54
Speaker 2: Waukesha County even as them. But as I say, if
58:56
Speaker 2: the West Allie Police Department somehow find the cash to
59:01
Speaker 2: equip their officers with body cams, the Sheriff's department ought
59:06
Speaker 2: to be able to do so as well. And if
59:07
Speaker 2: you can't get these two candidates for sheriff to both
59:09
Speaker 2: commit to this, I think that we could decide which
59:11
Speaker 2: one of them is demonstrating by his rhetoric what which
59:16
Speaker 2: one has the greatest administrative skill, which of course doesn't
59:19
Speaker 2: mean that they if you can say you're going to
59:21
Speaker 2: do it, which is why I put a time period
59:23
Speaker 2: on it the end of twenty twenty seven. And if
59:25
Speaker 2: one of them wins and vowed that they would get
59:27
Speaker 2: this done and they don't, you better believe I'll be
59:29
Speaker 2: riding their keyster when that happened. Another story I want
59:33
Speaker 2: you to think about this one because this one bothers me.
59:39
Speaker 2: There was an incident at a Monominee Falls FedEx facility
59:46
Speaker 2: in which an employee who was working comes in the
59:50
Speaker 2: middle of the night, fired a gun and a supervisor.
59:57
Speaker 2: He was charged with the tempted homicide but was not
1:00:03
Speaker 2: convicted of that charge. He was convicted of the far
1:00:07
Speaker 2: less severe punished crime of first degree recklessly endangering safety.
1:00:16
Speaker 2: I'm going to share the report from the Walkshaw Freeman
1:00:18
Speaker 2: of this and read the detail based on the criminal complaint,
1:00:25
Speaker 2: because it certainly seems to me that this jury is
1:00:32
Speaker 2: a bunch of dumbasses. And again I was not there
1:00:35
Speaker 2: for the trial, but the information here is very straightforward.
1:00:42
Speaker 2: De Anthony Leffleur was convicted Wednesday, with a jury deliberating
1:00:45
Speaker 2: for about eighty minutes before finding him guilty of a
1:00:48
Speaker 2: charge of first degree recklessly endangering safety. They did not
1:00:52
Speaker 2: find him guilty of the greater charge of attempted homicide.
1:00:59
Speaker 2: Lafleur was charged following a June second, twenty twenty five
1:01:01
Speaker 2: incident at the Federal x FedEx facility on County Line
1:01:05
Speaker 2: Road and the numbers around here, I won't give it you.
1:01:07
Speaker 2: It's Yemenomine Falls, where security staff reported to police he
1:01:10
Speaker 2: pulled a gun on another employee. Other callers said Lafloor
1:01:14
Speaker 2: allegedly discharged the gun but around didn't hit anyone. Lafloor
1:01:19
Speaker 2: ran away on foot. The criminal complaint in the case said,
1:01:22
Speaker 2: according to the complaint, a female manager arrived for her
1:01:25
Speaker 2: shift at one thirty am, and Lafloor arrived at two
1:01:28
Speaker 2: thirty am, one hour before his shift was supposed to start.
1:01:32
Speaker 2: The manager was called the security shack, where employees use
1:01:36
Speaker 2: a badge to gain access to the facility. She was
1:01:39
Speaker 2: called due to Laflor's badge not working, and it was
1:01:43
Speaker 2: requested that she give laflora access. Due to work rules,
1:01:46
Speaker 2: he wasn't allowed to start work earlier. She told the
1:01:50
Speaker 2: floor to go home. All right, now, this is curious
1:01:54
Speaker 2: to begin with. The guy shows up early for work.
1:01:58
Speaker 2: I'm guessing that this is not the nose. He's way early.
1:02:04
Speaker 2: There's probably I don't know if there's union or anything here,
1:02:06
Speaker 2: but there's probably rules on employees not starting until their
1:02:09
Speaker 2: shifts start. So the manager said, no, I'm not gonna
1:02:13
Speaker 2: put you in yet. And my guess is his badge
1:02:15
Speaker 2: didn't work because he's only authorized to be there at
1:02:17
Speaker 2: certain hours. And I think that a lot of this
1:02:20
Speaker 2: has to do with FedEx being a delivery facility. They
1:02:22
Speaker 2: don't want people steal in anything. So therefore, you're authorized
1:02:25
Speaker 2: to be there at certain times, and you're not authorized
1:02:27
Speaker 2: to be there you're not supposed to be there. So
1:02:29
Speaker 2: the manager is following the rules and being a rules
1:02:32
Speaker 2: are rules thing. And then you're here too early, go home. Well,
1:02:35
Speaker 2: this apparently frosts Lafloor. And again this is all so weird.
1:02:39
Speaker 2: It's the exact opposite of she's not telling him to
1:02:41
Speaker 2: start working, she's telling him, no, you can't work yet.
1:02:45
Speaker 2: Back to the story, the manager was called to the
1:02:52
Speaker 2: security check where employees use the badge to gain access
1:02:55
Speaker 2: to the facility. She was called due to Lafloor's badge
1:02:58
Speaker 2: not working. Due to work rules, he was allowed to
1:03:00
Speaker 2: start work earlier. She told the food to go home.
1:03:02
Speaker 2: Picking up Lafloor allegedly swore to her and said, I'll
1:03:06
Speaker 2: up on you. You didn't know what a ratchet was.
1:03:11
Speaker 2: How was your street slaying on this? What do you
1:03:12
Speaker 2: figure I'll up on you means I have Jason was
1:03:18
Speaker 2: apparently very very white in here. I'll up on you, Well,
1:03:21
Speaker 2: I would have guessed just in my general set. First
1:03:24
Speaker 2: of all, I watched The Wire like nineteen times, the
1:03:27
Speaker 2: best show in the history of television, so I can
1:03:31
Speaker 2: get all up on you is taken to me and
1:03:34
Speaker 2: I'm gonna kill you getting back to the story which
1:03:38
Speaker 2: the manager took to me and the floor was going
1:03:40
Speaker 2: to shoot her. The manager told security to not let
1:03:43
Speaker 2: la Floor in as his behavior was escalating. Well, now
1:03:46
Speaker 2: this does seem reasonable. He's barking at her making threats,
1:03:49
Speaker 2: so she tells the others don't let him in three am.
1:04:01
Speaker 2: And again this is now an hour later, the same
1:04:04
Speaker 2: manager received another call from security about Lafleur. As she
1:04:08
Speaker 2: got there. Lafloor's access was granted by a male manager
1:04:12
Speaker 2: who was unaware of the previous confrontation. So now somebody
1:04:15
Speaker 2: else's as a boss, comes in and lets the guy
1:04:17
Speaker 2: in after she told him to get lost. Lafleur then
1:04:23
Speaker 2: exited the facility. Once outside, laflor got into an argument
1:04:27
Speaker 2: with the first manager. So this is the woman that
1:04:29
Speaker 2: told him before that he can't come in, So now
1:04:31
Speaker 2: they're arguing outside the facility. She told him he had
1:04:37
Speaker 2: to leave because of his behavior. Lafleur allegedly said let
1:04:41
Speaker 2: me know if I'm fired or not, then stated I'm
1:04:47
Speaker 2: finna force it. I understand if none of you know
1:04:52
Speaker 2: what that means. I'm finna force it. Then reportedly punched
1:04:57
Speaker 2: her in the left eye. Now we're getting serious. Now
1:05:02
Speaker 2: the guys slugged her. Another manager was able to separate them,
1:05:08
Speaker 2: but Lafloor took off toward a fence. Lafloor picked up
1:05:12
Speaker 2: a handgun and aimed it at the manager. She noticed
1:05:17
Speaker 2: a blue laser sight a fix to the handgun, which
1:05:22
Speaker 2: was on her chest. Now again, many guns have laser
1:05:28
Speaker 2: pointers that are on them. It assists people in firing
1:05:32
Speaker 2: at a target. And the manager noticed, Oh my god,
1:05:35
Speaker 2: this guy's got a gun and the laser pointer is
1:05:37
Speaker 2: right at my chest. So she books. She starts scrambling.
1:05:42
Speaker 2: Lafloor said, bleep, I'll pop you. I think everybody knows
1:05:47
Speaker 2: what pop means, and the woman heard two gunshots while
1:05:51
Speaker 2: she was running back to the main building and fear
1:05:53
Speaker 2: for her life. The complaint said a spend shell casing
1:05:57
Speaker 2: was found where the physical altercation took place. Security worker
1:06:00
Speaker 2: corroborated what happened. Surveillance footage showed the altercation, so all
1:06:05
Speaker 2: of this is on video. Laflora allegedly picking up the
1:06:08
Speaker 2: gun and pointing it at the manager. The complaint said,
1:06:16
Speaker 2: one of the problems of the criminal justice system is
1:06:18
Speaker 2: we are at the mercy of juries, and juries are
1:06:21
Speaker 2: like everything else. There are some great ones, there are
1:06:24
Speaker 2: some terrible ones, and there are some in between. Again,
1:06:28
Speaker 2: I wasn't there for the whole trial. If this isn't
1:06:31
Speaker 2: attempted murder, what the hell is? First of all, the
1:06:35
Speaker 2: act was continuous. It started with him slugging her. Then
1:06:39
Speaker 2: it's unclear to me who's gun this was, but there
1:06:41
Speaker 2: was a gun within his reach. He picked it up,
1:06:44
Speaker 2: and this corroborated evidence that he pointed at are given
1:06:47
Speaker 2: the fact that the laser sight was on her chest
1:06:49
Speaker 2: and then he fired. The fact that he missed means
1:06:54
Speaker 2: to me that's attempted homicide. In any event, the lesser
1:06:58
Speaker 2: charged conviction means that this guy will be out way
1:07:02
Speaker 2: earlier than he would have been eligible for. The one
1:07:06
Speaker 2: thing that we don't know is what the sentence from
1:07:08
Speaker 2: the judge will be without regard to what he's convicted of.
1:07:11
Speaker 2: Judge's consentence far less than the max. But the max
1:07:15
Speaker 2: for attempted homicide is sixty years. The max for reckless
1:07:20
Speaker 2: endangering safety is twelve years, and again he might not
1:07:23
Speaker 2: even get the full twelve So if you wonder why
1:07:30
Speaker 2: it is that some people who've done really terrible things
1:07:33
Speaker 2: are back there on in the students, and well, twelve
1:07:35
Speaker 2: years is a long time now until it's up, and
1:07:38
Speaker 2: let's imagine the twelve years becomes nine, et cetera. And
1:07:44
Speaker 2: the jury, i think, is not allowed to learn these things.
1:07:46
Speaker 2: But there's more implicating evidence on this guy because he's
1:07:50
Speaker 2: been causing trouble in the jail. Lafleur also has two
1:07:54
Speaker 2: other matters pending in Wakashaw County Circuit Court, both involving
1:07:57
Speaker 2: charges of battery by an inmate stemming from an altar
1:08:00
Speaker 2: in case she he allegedly had while awaiting crial in
1:08:01
Speaker 2: the county jail. Those matters remain open for now, but
1:08:05
Speaker 2: will be addressed at a sentencing hearing. Court records show
1:08:09
Speaker 2: so it sounds like they're not going to pursue those charges,
1:08:12
Speaker 2: but the judge can consider them a sentencing. We obviously
1:08:20
Speaker 2: have a problem with difficult prosecutions in urban areas, and
1:08:24
Speaker 2: there are reasons why prosecutors often strike plea bargains, and
1:08:28
Speaker 2: they strike plea bargains often because they're afraid of taking
1:08:31
Speaker 2: the case to a jury, knowing that there could be
1:08:33
Speaker 2: a bunch of dopes or criminal sympathizers on juries. Did
1:08:38
Speaker 2: the DA's office consider having the guy take a plea
1:08:42
Speaker 2: on a charge that would have resulted, say in less
1:08:45
Speaker 2: than the sixty years, say twenty five, and pass on it.
1:08:48
Speaker 2: Now he's going to get even less than that, maybe
1:08:50
Speaker 2: so so you can see in some instances why instance
1:08:54
Speaker 2: is why there may be a plea bargain entered for
1:08:56
Speaker 2: fear that even if the evidence seems to be overwhelming
1:08:59
Speaker 2: on the most serious charge, you might have some blackheads
1:09:05
Speaker 2: on the jury who can't understand what attempted homicide is
1:09:12
Speaker 2: and what it is. Some guy says he's gonna finish
1:09:15
Speaker 2: me off through his slang, and I'm going to pop you,
1:09:18
Speaker 2: and then I see the laser on my chest and
1:09:21
Speaker 2: the fires. I'm pretty sure that that guy was trying
1:09:25
Speaker 2: to kill me. Thankfully the woman started running and there
1:09:29
Speaker 2: was a struggle going on, or he would have killed her.
1:09:33
Speaker 2: I wonder if you would have killed her with a
1:09:34
Speaker 2: jury have convicted him of murder or would they still
1:09:36
Speaker 2: have said that this was just recklessly and endangering. We
1:09:39
Speaker 2: don't know who that jury is. If any of them,
1:09:42
Speaker 2: the members of that jury are listening to me, you've
1:09:45
Speaker 2: got some expining to do. You're listening to the Markpelling podcast.
1:09:53
Speaker 2: This is the Mark Belling Podcast. All right, let's update
1:09:56
Speaker 2: the situation on the war with a Rain. I want
1:10:02
Speaker 2: to deal right now with what the Iranians are doing
1:10:04
Speaker 2: because I think there's a very interesting component to it.
1:10:09
Speaker 2: We continue to hit military targets in Iran with the
1:10:15
Speaker 2: implicit threat that we're going to go after the power
1:10:17
Speaker 2: plants and the bridges next week. In the meantime, Iran
1:10:22
Speaker 2: continues to lob missiles, some via drones, at the Gulf States.
1:10:30
Speaker 2: Yesterday they hit Kuwait, and now they've hit excuse me, Vahrain.
1:10:33
Speaker 2: And now they've hit Kuwait. They hit an oil storage
1:10:37
Speaker 2: facility in Kuwait, the big fire there. I want you
1:10:42
Speaker 2: to think about this for a moment. It's sometimes pretty
1:10:45
Speaker 2: easy for people to analyze what has happened. It's harder
1:10:50
Speaker 2: to analyze what has not happened. What do you note
1:10:55
Speaker 2: about Iran's response? All right, I'll help you out the obvious.
1:11:01
Speaker 2: They're hitting these Gulf states and I'll give you what
1:11:05
Speaker 2: I think their goal is. They're hoping that these oil
1:11:08
Speaker 2: rich Gulf states will apply pressure on the United States
1:11:11
Speaker 2: to back off and stop hitting Iran. Figuring if we
1:11:14
Speaker 2: take these really, really rich rich nations in the more
1:11:19
Speaker 2: civilized portion of the Middle East, and we keep hitting them,
1:11:24
Speaker 2: that's going to inflict pain and terror on them. And
1:11:26
Speaker 2: maybe they will lobby and pressure the United States to
1:11:29
Speaker 2: back off and let us go back to building nukes
1:11:33
Speaker 2: and so on. So that's their strategy. But I'm taking
1:11:40
Speaker 2: asking you to go beyond that. We just discussed what
1:11:43
Speaker 2: they have been doing. What have they not been doing.
1:11:51
Speaker 2: Don't worry, I'll tell you they have not been hitting Israel.
1:11:58
Speaker 2: They're hitting Kuwait, they're hitting Bahrain, they may hit Qatar again.
1:12:05
Speaker 2: They're not hitting Israel. They're also not hitting Saudi Arabia,
1:12:08
Speaker 2: but in particular, they're not hitting Israel. Why if you
1:12:18
Speaker 2: haven't gotten to that conclusion yet, I'll help you on
1:12:21
Speaker 2: that one as well. Right now, who's hitting Iran? The
1:12:24
Speaker 2: United States? Who isn't hitting Iran? Israel? Iran knows if
1:12:32
Speaker 2: they launched just one piddly drone at Israel, Israel's gonna
1:12:37
Speaker 2: join us in this attack and they're going for blood.
1:12:41
Speaker 2: Israel clearly did not want the war to end what
1:12:44
Speaker 2: it ended a couple of months ago. In that temporary
1:12:47
Speaker 2: in that pause, the seats fire, Israel wanted to keep going.
1:12:52
Speaker 2: We convinced Israel to stop as we're going to try
1:12:55
Speaker 2: to negotiate this settlement. Now the settlement is all, but
1:13:01
Speaker 2: Israel's not firing yet. I think Iran realizes that if
1:13:10
Speaker 2: they actually fire one of these things at Israel, they
1:13:13
Speaker 2: will really pay. What's the downside for them of hitting Kuwait?
1:13:17
Speaker 2: What is Kuwait gonna respond with? Are they gonna throw
1:13:20
Speaker 2: a bucket of oil at him? What's brain gonna do?
1:13:25
Speaker 2: Their biggest askset is money. They're gonna shoot at it
1:13:27
Speaker 2: with money. They're picking on targets that can't militarily fight back.
1:13:36
Speaker 2: I think that this demonstrates a strategy from Iran be
1:13:41
Speaker 2: a weakness. They're clearly terrified of Israel coming in and
1:13:46
Speaker 2: trying to finish this off, which is why they're not
1:13:51
Speaker 2: hitting Israel. Also, they're not really hitting us. They've hit
1:13:56
Speaker 2: a few commercial tanks and so on, but there haven't
1:13:59
Speaker 2: been any direc wrecked hits aimed at any of And
1:14:02
Speaker 2: part of this is there are distance away. You know,
1:14:04
Speaker 2: a lot of our ships are off at sea, but
1:14:08
Speaker 2: there are some that are in the Strait of Hormuz.
1:14:12
Speaker 2: I think that what they are trying, what they are
1:14:14
Speaker 2: banking on, is they can withstand what we are doing now,
1:14:18
Speaker 2: hitting a bunch of military sites and so on. Iran
1:14:21
Speaker 2: has shown a willingness to be bombed and bombed and
1:14:25
Speaker 2: bombed and bombed and not give a crap. But we
1:14:30
Speaker 2: have limited our bombing so far too. We knocked out
1:14:33
Speaker 2: a lot of the leadership, We locked out a lot
1:14:34
Speaker 2: of the signists, we hit the nuclear sites. We haven't
1:14:38
Speaker 2: gone after the things that cripple the economy. We haven't
1:14:41
Speaker 2: knocked out their power plans. And by the way, you
1:14:44
Speaker 2: think it's been hot around here lately, check the temperatures
1:14:47
Speaker 2: in Iran in the middle of summer. We've knocked out,
1:14:49
Speaker 2: not knocked out, the bridges. We haven't knocked out the
1:14:52
Speaker 2: major portions of their other infrastructure. I think they believe,
1:14:59
Speaker 2: just as they were, we're able to withstand the first
1:15:01
Speaker 2: few weeks of the bombing that we did, in which
1:15:02
Speaker 2: we knocked out massive military targets. They think that they
1:15:07
Speaker 2: can ride this out so long as it doesn't go
1:15:09
Speaker 2: beyond where it is now. So we hit them. They're
1:15:12
Speaker 2: gonna throw this at Bahrain, They're gonna throw this at Kuwait.
1:15:15
Speaker 2: They're probably something at Qatar and hope that it doesn't
1:15:19
Speaker 2: go beyond that. My guess is that it is going
1:15:24
Speaker 2: to go beyond that, because my belief is is that
1:15:27
Speaker 2: what we are doing right now is not sufficient to
1:15:30
Speaker 2: fully deter Iran. Whether or not that's a good thing
1:15:32
Speaker 2: or not. Do we want an all out massive war
1:15:34
Speaker 2: in which we turn around into the Stone Age and
1:15:37
Speaker 2: blow everything up? Is that productive or not? My mind
1:15:42
Speaker 2: is open on this. But I think the key to
1:15:45
Speaker 2: following the story is not so much to see the
1:15:48
Speaker 2: shift in Trump's strategy once he's realized that negotiations were
1:15:51
Speaker 2: going nowhere, but to try to figure out what the
1:15:54
Speaker 2: Uranians are do, what the Iranians are doing, because more
1:15:57
Speaker 2: than more so even than Russia, I think the Iranian
1:16:01
Speaker 2: leadership has a tolerance for great pain and great suffering
1:16:06
Speaker 2: on the part of its people. And that's because these
1:16:09
Speaker 2: are immoral people who don't give a crap even about
1:16:14
Speaker 2: what's in the best interest of their own people. That's
1:16:21
Speaker 2: it for to day's program. As I say, hopefully I'll
1:16:27
Speaker 2: get some responses from the two Wakashall County Sheriff's candidates
1:16:30
Speaker 2: and I can nail them down. When you enter the
1:16:34
Speaker 2: sentry that we're going to get body cameras on all
1:16:36
Speaker 2: of your duty deputies, on duty deputies who are on
1:16:38
Speaker 2: patrol by the end of next year, and now I
1:16:41
Speaker 2: willing to say yes, I don't think you ought to
1:16:43
Speaker 2: be the sheriff of that county. Talk to you tomorrow bybe.
1:16:47
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