Micah Leavitt files to run as a write-in for WI CD 4
Micah is passionate about standing with working class families to end wealth inequality, to increase political accountability, for public servants to be responsive to constituents. He is working to stop the forever wars and restore the world to a just peace. Micah also fights to end the war on drugs and release those charged with petty drug crimes.
Goals
slash the Pentagon budget by 75%
immediate ceasefire in Gaza | #noceasefirenovote
restore civil liberties: right to privacy; jury trials; right to protest outside of so called free speech zones
support freedom of speech/press/Internet; whistleblowers
global nuclear de-escalation
abolish the CIA and military-industrial deep state
restore state department diplomacy — make negotiating peace its main objective
stop the war inflation
reform big pharma: reform CDC, FDA, HHS, NIAID
raise the minimum wage to $25/hour
legalize marijuana; use tax revenue for free rehabilitation centers to attack the opioid crisis
invest in renewable energy
stop NATO expansion
not one more penny for war in Ukraine
address unacceptable wealth inequality
End the Cuba blockade and take Cuba off the international terrorist list
County Candidates:
In service to the GMGP’s goal of political education, here
are some candidate summaries for citizens wishing to participate in
the February 15, 2022 primaries in Milwaukee County. None of
the candidates are Green endorsed, but we tried to give these
candidates more context than simply a line on a page for voters to
weigh records and issues.
District 1:
Karen
Gentile – retired Sheriff who works
with children at the YMCA and other after school programming, and
at church. Running to better the sheriff’s office and to roll
back covid-era mandates in order to restore public
education:
https://www.karen-gentile.com/
Liz Sumner– incumbent since 2020, owns SHOP boutique in
Shorewood, running again to continue working towards carbon neutral
and implementing recycling programs
Peter M.
Tase – Will appear on ballot
but left the race 2 weeks ago after “African shantytown” comment
according to JS reporting
District 3:
Jennifer
Current – landscape architect who says
she wants parks to be prioritized and not treated as commodities. https://www.currentmke.org/
Sheldon
Wasserman –Incumbent 2016-present; Assembly Member, Wisconsin State
Assembly, District 22, 1995-2009and an
OBGYN at Ascension Medical Group Milwaukee
Josh Zepnick- Democrat who
served in the State Assembly since 2003. Was not re-elected
after 2017 admission (after allegations) that he kissed at least 2
women without their permission. In a JS article he claimed he
has changed with his commitment to sobriety, and plans to add a 1
cent sales tax to fund public services, and focus on reckless
driving through the sheriff’s department.
Mayor’s race candidates: The following is from a discussion of the
candidates at the last GMGP meeting. Some issue stances have
been added for context as well as campaign websites. None of
these candidates are Green endorsed, but the GMGP takes political
education seriously, and therefore talked about the field of
candidates that made it past the truncated ballot access season for
the special election
Marina Dimitrijevic,
on the Common Council (Working Families Party) favored by three of
our Green elders for her work on behalf of Milwaukee County –
violence prevention, endorsed by Citizen Action and Voces de la
Frontera, supported by organized labor, may need to be bolder if
she gets the job
https://www.marinaformke.com/platform
Ieshuh Griffinindependent candidate
for the people – politically inexperienced – into increasing home
ownership opportunities and fairness in politics. She charged
that Lena Taylor and Ernell Lucas had unattended petitions at
restaurants on the north side, and that there are disparities in
treatment for truly independent candidates which those enmeshed in
partisan machinery do not have. https://mobile.twitter.com/IeshuhG
Lena Taylor State
Senator – into helping seniors and raising income, shows up at
community brainstorming, active with Get the Lead Out:
https://www.golenataylor.com/issues
Earnell Lucas one term
Sheriff – not running for reelection – into getting Milwaukee
Public Works Dept. up to full speed:
https://lucasformayor.com/issues/
Cavalier Johnsonthe Head of the
Common Council is the acting mayor but still retains his position
as Head of the Common Council. Cavalier Johnson was very close to
Mayor Barrett and will probably follow in his vein. Supported by
former County Exec. Abele
https://www.cavalierjohnson.com/issues
Michael Sampson –
event entrepreneur, business friendly, seeks to get back to a
prosperous local economy after the detrimental covid
shutdowns
https://www.michael4mke.com/milwaukee
Stance V
Candidate Initials >
MD
IG
LT
EL
CJ
BD
MS
Green Endorsed
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
Endorsed/Works with Green activist
community
Y
Y
Y
N
N
N
N
Independent of 2 Party
System
N
Y
N
N
N
N
Y
Peace through public programs/
community policing
Y
Y
Y
Y
N
N
Urgently Address Lead
Crisis
Y
Y
Y
Y
N
N
N
Environmental
sustainability
Y
ok
N
N
Mass Surveillance
N
N
Y
Y
Y
Housing
Y
Y
ok
ok
N
Red: Signifies a non-Green stance
or refusal to address the issue
Blank: signifies unknown
Green: Signifies a fairly Green
friendly stance at least on the issue
Y/N – indicates Yes or No on issue,
ok indicates attention to the issue with a more moderate stance.
For example, if the candidate agrees that climate change is
important, but their stated solution is mostly symbolic, ok is used
to notate that.
*For those politicians who have
served in office already, their political records were also a
factor in these determinations.
Phi Runkel, Catholic Worker Archivist and I were convicted of trespassing on the Volk field military base in Juneau County, Wisconsin on November 12, 2019.
The corporate-controlled mainstream media have become a cornerstone of the Military-Industrial-Congressional-Intelligence-Media-Academia-Think-Tank complex, MICIMATT, if you will.
Project Censored will help you find stories not covered by the MSM.
Join us Sunday 11am – 12:20pm Chicago time for a live zoom forum on the on “The Trial of Julian Assange and its Implications for Press Freedom.” with Nils Melzer and Ray McGovern.
This event is presented by First Unitarian Church of Milwaukee – more …. I’m forwarding this for the event organizer – thanks for your work Ann!
Nils Melzer, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture; and Ray McGovern, former CIA Russia analyst, presidential daily briefer for George H.W. Bush and current peace activist (who is growing his beard in solidarity with Julian Assange), will discuss this unprecedented extradition trial of this Walkley-award-winning publisher and seven times (including 2020) nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize, Julian Assange. Notably, Mr. Assange said:
Amnesty International, the ACLU, Rebecca Vincent of Reporters without Borders, Laura Poitras writing in the New York Times, Barton Gellman writing in the Guardian, Alan Rusbridger former editor of the Guardian, Glenn Greenwald now on Substack, editor Marty Baron of the Washington Post and editor-in-chief Dean Baquet of the New York Times have all described the threat to press freedom posed by this extradition trial. It is time that the public also understood what is at stake.
Please join us at 11am Sunday for this live zoom forum with Nils Melzer and Ray McGovern, moderated by Ann Batiza.
Please share this email and the flyer with your peace and justice networks. Thank you for caring about press freedom and truth.
The Ecuador president-change from Rafael Correa to Lenín Moreno in Ecuador lead to the brutal British emprisonment of Assange; this disturbs me — is morally wrong, and a threat to journalists and freedom of the press worldwide — the Hawkins campaign agrees..
This post was triggered by a Milwaukee researcher,a retired academic who covers the Assange situation daily.
I’m familiar with all the sources (except for Charles Glass). The content was finalized by me, but largely written by this researcher.
I introduce you to high integrity, writers and websites that counter the legacy media propaganda.
Shadowproof managing editor Kevin Gosztola woke up every morning for four weeks in September to report on WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s extradition trial at the Old Bailey Criminal Courthouse in London.
UN Special Rapporteur on Torture; Human Rights Chair, Geneva Academy; Professor of International Law, University of Glasgow; Vice-President IIHL, Sanremo
In 20 years of work with victims of war, violence and political persecution I have never seen a group of democratic States ganging up to deliberately isolate, demonise and abuse a single individual for such a long time and with so little regard for human dignity and the rule of law.
Assange was accused of sexual misconduct by the Swedish authorities by two women — in fact there have been no charges, and there is evidence of a “setup” to smear him. Nils Melzer, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on torture, walks us through a detailed timeline:
A made-up rape allegation and fabricated evidence in Sweden, pressure from the UK not to drop the case, a biased judge, detention in a maximum security prison, psychological torture – and soon extradition to the U.S., where he could face up to 175 years in prison for exposing war crimes. For the first time, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Nils Melzer, speaks in detail about the explosive findings of his investigation into the case of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.
cruel and unique punishment | illegal privacy violations should invalidate the hearing
Daniel Ellsburg’s case was thrown out for illegal privacy violations; Assange’s treatment
is similar. Listen to Charles Glass interview by Scott Horton:
https://dissentradio.com/radio/20_10_09_glass.mp3
Ellsberg interviewed by Kristina Borjesson | his case vs Assange’s
In the above @DEAcampaign video, Assange’s father, John Shipton; Assange’s friend and former U.K. Ambassador Craig Murray; Assange’s lawyer, Jen Robinson, current WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson: and WikiLeaks ambassador Joseph F. discuss the trial just after the end of the 4 weeks of witness testimony. This 40-minute video is worth the time spent to review key aspects of the testimony presented and key moments in the trial.
Joe Lauria | Editor Consortium News
Joe Lauria, editor-in-chief of Consortium News | 9 minute video summary
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and Rebecca Vincent
Rebecca Vincent | “Reporters Without Borders” (rsf.org)
Reporters without Borders (RSF) was the ONLY journalistic and humanitarian agency that monitored the trial.
After monitoring four weeks of evidence in the US extradition proceedings against Wikileaks publisher Julian Assange, Reporters Without Borders (RSF.org) reiterates concern regarding the targeting of Assange for his contributions to journalism, and calls again for his release. Expert testimony highlighted the political nature of the case against Assange, the US government’s lack of evidence for alleged harm caused, and urgent humanitarian concerns related to Assange’s physical and mental health. RSF also documented extensive barriers to open justice, which marred proceedings. The extradition decision is expected on 4 January 2021.”
Daily Hearing Updates
Reporter access to the hearings was unreasonably difficult — too few in-person slots; burdensome remote access hoops; poor technical implementation.
Craig Murray – Daily Summaries
Craig Murray (@CraigMurrayOrg) – former U.K. Ambassador to Uzbekistan – provided the most literate, informative daily summary by far with his blog posts that start with “Your Man in the Public Gallery.” To see this series of posts search his site for Assange Hearing — searching directly in the search box on his site is also good. Craig was in the courtroom each day along with Julian’s father from 10 am to 4 pm. He went home each day, ate, slept at 7 pm, awoke at 11 – midnight, reviewed his 30 or so pages of notes each day, researched as needed, and then showered dressed and wrote his summary that he posted at 9:30 am each day before walking to the courtroom, up 132 steps. His summaries are magnificent. Here is testimony from “Day 21” by Craig, which is Day 17 or 18 for others (Craig covered the trial in February and just kept counting.) Notice that the URLs are predictable, as in https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2020/10/your-man-in-the-public-gallery-assange-hearing-day-20.
twenty minutes sufficed for the reading of the “gist” of the astonishing testimony of two witnesses, their identity protected as their lives may be in danger, who stated that the CIA, operating through Sheldon Adelson, planned to kidnap or poison Assange […]
provided detailed, daily blow-by-blow descriptions of the case they were observing and tweeting out remotely in real time (Select one of the days to open the detailed description.)
I found them to be the most complete. But I would encourage one to read reports from multiple “observers.” — Ann B.
The blog is a “Guide to Testimony in Julian Assange’s Extradition Hearing”.
Here we recap the major arguments and revelations from expert witnesses who testified in Julian Assange’s extradition — and why they matter legally. Topics range from the dangerous threat Assange’s indictment poses to journalism, to the abusive conditions Assange would face in the United States’ prison system, to the politicized nature of the Trump administration’s prosecution.
Green Party | Margaret Flowers commentary on Assange Hearing | Oct 5
My notes from her 10min talk: hearing is: unfair to Assange; no privacy; atty-client talks snooped on; no crime; 175 year sentence; political case; will not release his sources; Assange spied on 24/7 for months. His rights have been violated / not enough time or resources to prepare.
“The evidence is overwhelming and clear,” Melzer said. “Mr. Assange has been deliberately exposed, for a period of several years, to progressively severe forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, the cumulative effects of which can only be described as psychological torture.”
This mistreatment took it’s toll on Assange. I’ve heard several reporters talk about a “rubber head” torture effect. I think he has recovered somewhat, but I understand at one point he was having trouble speaking — even his own name.
Automated cell phone pop up alert at 6:30pm warning us of 7pm Kenosha curfew.
Powerful chanting— on mic and off, good energy, clearly a mix of locals, Milwaukee people, and Chicago people, including Frank Chapman. FRSO banner there, Chapman’s CPAC people there, also NAARPR. Perhaps 130 people?
The (national guard?) pulled up in 3-4 hum-vees/troop carriers at the end of march just before 7pm. One tall thin older white guy positioned himself in from of the convoy — the demonstration organizers artfully defused the situation. These were canvass covered troop carriers with perhaps 4-6 troops per truck — men visible through the open to air back ends. I went home, honoring the impending curfew — the bulk of the crowd seemed to be gathering in front of the Municipal building again.
Many boarded up windows at gas stations, small biz, and major gov blgs. A couple of burned up blgs. Some artful graffiti on the particle board. We had passed a used car lot filled with entirely burned up cars!
My hunch or impression is that Kenosha is damaged and vulnerable. The protestors quieted down as we past the burned out used car lot — sobering. I left there inspired by the effort, unity and young spirit.
