Can Elon Musk Buy A Wisconsin Supreme Court Case?
On April 1 we will find out!
Just how much influence can that skipping dipshit of outer space Elon Musk buy? He got a whole president for $277 million, but will an extra $11 million get him a Wisconsin supreme court seat too? We shall see. Thanks, Citizens United!
Just two years ago, the Wisconsin supreme court flipped 4-3 to progressive, finally, after 15 stank, crusty years of conservative rule. At the time it was the most expensive supreme court race ever, at $51.06 million. Before that, the state was the most gerrydiddled in the country, labor bargaining rights were getting chewed up by a rabid badger, and voting rights were getting held face-down in a dell and hit in the back of the head with a rusty shovel. But all that changed, and sanity began to bloom again like a meadow of violets.
And, but, now progressive Wisconsin Justice Ann Walsh Bradley is retiring, and there’s an election for her replacement on April 1 that will either keep the court majority-progressive with Democrat-backed Susan Crawford, or flip it back with Brad Schimel, a guy who went to Trump’s inauguration with (metaphorical) kneepads on, and has lamented that the Wisconsin supreme court “screwed” Trump over when it did not let him steal the 2020 election, had no problem with him pardoning January 6 rioters, and promised canvassers that he would serve as Donald Trump’s “support network.”
Spending on this race has already broken the previous record and is over $58 million, and Musk, through his PACS Building America’s Future and America PAC, has dumped $11 million into the race to back Schimel and attack Crawford, flooding the zone so hard that his PAC even spent thousands on an ad with a picture of the wrong Susan Crawford. BIG BALLS, YER FIRED!
You can understand the mistake, because it’s the same cut-and-paste song-and-dance in every Republican ad everywhere. A vote for her is a vote for George Soros! Crawford wants illegal aliens to vote! She dreams of having pedophiles romping in the street! You know, the usual.
Meanwhile, as a prosecutor, Schimel once asked a judge for no jail time for two guys who raped 15-year-olds, because the victims had “very bad judgment to put themselves in the bedroom alone” with their rapist, to give you a sense of what kind of a guy he is.
So Musk’s PACs have been barraging voters with text messages, Turning Point Action is paying doorknockers, and Musk himself has been a-Xitting away. “Very important to vote Republican for the Wisconsin Supreme Court to prevent voting fraud!”
It’s a consequential race for a lot of reasons. Nationally, because it’s the first opportunity voters will have since last November to express their feelings about the president they elected and his weirdo little-buddy sidekick who they didn’t.
And there’s some big cases in the hopper. Voting rights issues! Drop boxes, disability access, and many more surely to come. Labor rights! A 2011 law called Act 10 took away collective bargaining rights from most public service workers in the state, and last December a court ruled that the act was unconstitutional, and that ruling is now being appealed.
Then there’s the bonkers 1849 abortion-ban law. When Roe v. Wade became law in 1973, Wisconsin’s 1849 law prohibiting abortion and making it a felony with a 15-years-in-prison penalty was nullified, but it was never repealed. And so now Republicans would like to enforce that 1849 law, with no exceptions for rape or incest, of course. And Democrats would like the court to say that abortion is a right in the state constitution. Two cases are pending before the court about it, and the court has yet to rule.
It disgusts Brad Schimel that emotional justices get to rule on such things! He watched the abortion arguments and told a talk show host all about it last November:
“I noted, there were times that when that camera went on several of the liberal justices, they were on the brink of losing it. You could see it in their eyes, and you could hear it in the tone of their voice. They are being driven by their emotions. A Supreme Court justice had better be able to set their personal opinions and their emotions aside.”
All four liberal justices are women, by the way.
Also the election is important for Musk personally, because in addition it will determine who might rule on Tesla’s lawsuit against the state’s rule that prohibits car manufacturers from also owning dealerships.
Do people still like the Trusk and Mump show in Wisconsin? Trump won there, but by less than 30,000 votes out of almost 3.5 million cast. And since then, he’s quickly fucked over two of the biggest sectors of their economy, manufacturing and farming, with his tariff game of chicken and also freezing funds at the Department of Agriculture, stopping a program that paid farmers to grow food for local food banks, and laying off dozens of Wisconsin-based agency workers at the Natural Resources Conservation Service.
There was a debate last night, and it’s a pretty decent watch! When’s the last time you saw judicial candidates debate? And if you’re from elsewhere, everyone from the upper Midwest sounds like they’re in a sequel to Fargo. Schimel even looks sort of like Gaear Grimsrud, though that guy had better manners than to smirk, make faces and interrupt other people while they are trying to talk.
Ugh, bringing up his adopted daughters as the reason he is against abortion is revolting. Women should be forced to birth babies, or maybe die of sepsis, so that creeps like Schimel can have a supply of babies to adopt.
Do you think if Schimel’s 15-year-old daughter had “very bad judgment” and got pregnant by an older guy, Schimel would imprison her and force her to have the baby? If she were dying of sepsis, would he reject medical treatment for her, and just stand there and watch her die? If she kept the baby, would he be okay with his grandkid spending custody time overnight at their father/her rapist’s house? Sure sounds like it.
Somehow the latest poll shows the race is a dead heat, 47 percent to 47 percent, and 5 percent undecided. So turnout will be everything. Tell all your cheesehead friends!
[Wisconsin Examiner / Mother Jones/ Washington Post archive link]
"Meanwhile, as a prosecutor, Schimel once asked a judge for no jail time for two guys who raped 15-year-olds, because the victims had “very bad judgment to put themselves in the bedroom alone” with their rapist, to give you a sense of what kind of a guy he is."
GOP: Galaxy of Perverts
Could that date BE any more appropriate?