MADISON, Wis. -- Wednesday marks the start of Hispanic Heritage Month, a celebration of the rich and diverse Hispanic and Latin American cultures that have shaped our country and state.

In partnership with President Biden, Governor Evers, Sen. Baldwin, and Reps. Kind, Moore, and Pocan, WisDems will continue to advocate for the Build Back Better agenda which is delivering for Hispanic families across Wisconsin by providing essential pandemic relief, investing in our state’s infrastructure, and protecting the right to vote. Our Wisconsin Legislative Latino Caucus and WisDems Latino Caucus continue to inspire the next generation of Latino leaders in Wisconsin and remind us of the importance of uplifting Latino voices in Wisconsin politics.

Democratic Party of Wisconsin Interim Executive Director Devin Remiker released the following statement:

“This month, and every month, we recognize the achievements and contributions of Wisconsin’s Latino and Hispanic community. We must continue to work towards a more inclusive and equitable future. Our diversity is our strength and this month is another reminder to stop and recognize the accomplishments of our Latino friends, neighbors, and community leaders.

“Members of the Wisconsin Latino and Hispanic community represent the very best of Wisconsin’s values -- from business owners to activists, doctors, servicemembers, and dedicated community members. We recognize your profound impact on our state and know your successes will continue to benefit Wisconsin."

Attorney has appeared in a conspiracy theory-fueled film, falsely claimed a million ballots were destroyed in Massachusetts and recently linked his election doubts to a science-fiction novel.

MADISON, Wis. -- In case you were wondering whether the Wisconsin GOP’s sham election review could get any more outrageous: the answer is yes, it can.

Michael Gableman, Robin Vos’s handpicked special counsel, has been consulting with election conspiracy theorist Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai. Ayyadurai is known for:

• Starring in MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s election conspiracy film;
• Helping Arizona with their Cyber Ninja election review circus;
• Claiming he was the victim of election fraud; and
• Concocting a conspiracy theory about the 2020 election related to the science fiction novel “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.”

It’s no wonder Gableman is seeking advice from Dr. Shiva - Gableman has already said, at a Trump rally no less, that he believes the election was rigged. Gableman also attended Mike Lindell’s QAnon bonanza and visited Arizona’s “investigation.”

While these ludicrous claims make it hard to take the Wisconsin GOP’s election sham review seriously, voter rights are at stake. Robin Vos has admitted that the real motivation is justifying radical changes to Wisconsin’s election laws. Wisconsin Republicans attempted to pass several laws earlier this year limiting absentee voting, sparking backlash from the disability community. The bills were vetoed by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.

Read more about the Wisconsin GOP’s ongoing circus below.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Gableman talking to conspiracy theorist Shiva Ayyadurai as he reviews Wisconsin's election

The attorney heading a partisan review of Wisconsin's presidential election has been consulting with a losing U.S. Senate candidate who appeared in a conspiracy theory-fueled film, falsely claimed a million ballots were destroyed in Massachusetts and recently linked his election doubts to a science-fiction novel.

Shiva Ayyadurai since he lost a 2020 primary for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts has been spreading untrue claims about elections — suggesting last month without credible evidence that more than 4% of Donald Trump’s votes were shaved off his totals. Now, he’s talking to former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman for Gableman’s review of the presidential election.

Ayyadurai’s exact role is not clear.

"They’re indicating they’re going to bring in Dr. Shiva as well to help on the forensic audit," Reince Priebus, Trump’s first chief of staff, said last month on former Trump advisor Steve Bannon’s podcast.

Ayyadurai and Gableman "have had a lot of conversations," according to Harry Wait, president of the conservative watchdog group Honest Open Transparent Government. Wait said he speaks to Gableman frequently, including last week.

Biden beat Trump in Wisconsin by about 21,000 votes, or 0.6 percentage points. Recounts in Milwaukee and Dane counties confirmed his victory, as did a string of court decisions.

[...]

Ayyadurai in 2018 lost to Democratic U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and in 2020 lost the Republican primary for Senate in that state. In October, he falsely tweeted "Massachusetts Destroys Over 1 MILLION Ballots in US SENATE PRIMARY RACE committing #ElectionFraud." (In that tweet he also complained of images of ballots being deleted and at other times he has focused on images of ballots, rather than the ballots themselves.)

In February, Twitter suspended him. Ayyadurai sued state election officials over the issue but dropped his lawsuit last month.

Ayyadurai, who is helping Arizona Republicans with a review of ballots in their state, this year appeared in "Absolute Proof," a film by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell that argued the 2020 election was rigged. Fact-checkers have repeatedly debunked Lindell’s claims.

In the film, Ayyadurai maintained that voting machines had been engineered to wipe out a third of his votes in the Massachusetts primary race.

"No one has rebutted my mathematical explanation showing that they multiplied my votes by .666 and the other guy's by 1.2," Ayyadurai said in the film.

Barry Burden, the director of the Election Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said Ayyadurai's claim can't be taken seriously.

"His statements about Massachusetts seem completely implausible," Burden said. "These sort of artificial multipliers and things that he latches onto seem completely detached from reality."

Ayyadurai in August appeared at an election forum Lindell hosted in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Theory based on 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'

During an appearance on Bannon’s podcast while he was there, Ayyadurai said figures cited at the forum suggested 4.2% of Trump’s votes had been stripped away. Ayyadurai said the reduced figures were either a part of a disinformation campaign to discredit Lindell or a sign that "a bunch of nerds" had subtracted votes from Trump based on "The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy."

“The Hitchhiker’s Guide” is a 1979 comedic science-fiction novel by Douglas Adams that features a supercomputer that spends millions of years pondering the question of “life, the universe and everything.” It determines the answer is 42.

"Every state was subtracted by 4.2%," Ayyadurai told Bannon last month. "Forty-two. Do you remember 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'?”

Burden said Ayyadurai seemed to be taking as fact a faulty analysis by election conspiracy theorist Seth Keshel that contends Democrats should have done worse than they did in 2020 because they saw their vote margins slip in the 2012 and 2016 presidential elections.

"It's totally bananas and it ignores inconvenient facts like that the 2018 election was a midterm but very good for the Democrats," said Burden, who called Keshel an amateur who didn't understand the electorate or election administration.

Gableman, who attended Lindell’s event in South Dakota, has a taxpayer-funded budget of $676,000. He plans to spend about half that amount — $325,000 — on a contractor to perform data analysis related to voting machines.

[...]

Madison, Wis. -- As Wisconsin hospitals face nearly full ICU wards as COVID cases surge, Ron Johnson has continued his crusade to prolong the pandemic by discouraging Wisconsinites from getting vaccinated as well as pushing dangerous and unproven treatments such as Ivermectin. Doctors and other health care professions have pleaded with Senator Johnson to stop undermining their efforts to get the pandemic under control.

• Despite unvaccinated people accounting for over 99% of COVID hospitalizations and deaths, Johnson continues to sow doubts about the effectiveness of vaccines.
• Johnson has used faulty and incomplete data to discourage vaccinations and push dangerous alternative treatments like Ivermectin, which is a dewormer medication for livestock that has put numerous people in the hospital.
• Johnson, who for months complained that the vaccine was under Emergency Use Authorization by the FDA, is still disparaging the vaccine even though the FDA has fully approved it. 
  • Johnson previously stated: “if we have an effective vaccine and a safe one, and that's the only one we'll release. But if you are out there undermining that possibility, that will cause people's deaths."
• Johnson claimed that ventilators, which keep critically ill COVID patients alive, are doing more harm than good.

WisDems launch website highlighting Kleefisch’s record that’s radically wrong for Wisconsin.

http://newiprogressive.com/images/stories/S5/john-macco-88-s5.pngGreen Bay area politician John Macco, who has filed paperwork to run for governor, questions the science behind vaccines, touts ivermectin, which has poisoned 17 Wisconsinites, as a potential cure.

MADISON - Wednesday, Wisconsin parents Chelsea Powell, Dr. Jennifer Milosavljevic, and Lora Zimmer demanded that Ron Johnson stop endangering the lives of Wisconsin’s children with his crusade to discourage people from getting vaccinated while spreading dangerous disinformation about ineffective alternative treatments.

You can watch the full event here and see what the speakers said, in part, below:

Chelsea Powell: “We need to get to a place where our elected officials are telling the truth about COVID, being honest about the risk of COVID and encouraging us to protect ourselves, our families, and our communities. We do not have that with Senator Johnson. So I’m here to ask that he and others do the right thing: tell the truth about why the vaccine is so important, talk about the risk that we are all facing as parents in this pandemic, and work harder to keep our kids safe.”

Dr. Jennifer Milosavljevic: “Senator Ron Johnson has undermined our pandemic response at every single step. Despite what we are seeing as cases surge in Wisconsin, Senator Johnson is still out there discouraging people from getting an FDA approved vaccine and pushing unproven treatments like Ivermectin -- it makes no sense to me as a physician. Senator Johnson has said repeatedly he’s not a doctor: so please take the medical advice from physicians. We are telling you that you need to come up with a better strategy to fight this pandemic so that our kids can stay in school. It’s just appalling, these are our children’s lives.”

Lora Zimmer: “I question what reality Senator Ron Johnson is living in when we see in our own community that ICUs are at full capacity. We’re seeing kids going on ventilators across the country, but Ron Johnson seems to think everything we’re doing to keep our kids safe is a hoax. How many kids in our community are going to have to end up in the hospital before Ron Johnson listens to the medical community and urges his constituents to listen to the medical community too? Our kids deserve better.”

http://newiprogressive.com/images/stories/S5/evers-speaks-dairy-mo-s5.pngUSA Today: State Democratic Officials “Doing All They Can to Increase Participation and Turnout”

State Senator Jeff Smith writes about everything that he, and his office, can do to serve residents of the 31st Senate District.

Rebecca Kleefisch has tossed aside her “nonprofit” the 1848 Project like yesterday’s trash in preparation for her gubernatorial run, move surprises no one.

MADISON, Wis. -- Just days before a “big announcement,” Rebecca Kleefisch has tossed aside her “nonprofit” the 1848 Project like yesterday’s trash in preparation for her gubernatorial run. Kleefisch filed paperwork to run for governor this week, and abruptly stepped down from the 1848 Project today.

Over the last year, Kleefisch has used the 1848 Project to hide her donors, abuse the tax code, and dodge the scrutiny that comes from being an announced candidate. The 1848 Project did little to hide its true purpose - Kleefisch hired political operatives from the Republican Party of Wisconsin for key roles in the organization, ran radio ads directly attacking Gov. Tony Evers, and released a self-described policy “manifesto” that reads like a far-right campaign platform.

An IRS complaint was filed against the 1848 Project earlier this year.

“Rebecca Kleefisch’s resignation from the 1848 Project is too little too late - Wisconsinites still deserve answers about who funds this organization, how much money the nonprofit spent on raising Kleefisch’s profile across the state, and whether the project will still exist as a dark money group to support her candidacy,” said Democratic Party of Wisconsin Rapid Response Director Kayla Anderson. “With her upcoming ‘announcement,’ it’s even more obvious that this group only existed as a holding place to pay her campaign staffers, promote her campaign platform pre-announcement, and avoid media scrutiny. We look forward to holding Kleefisch accountable for her lack of transparency and her radical agenda in 2022.”

MADISON - Ron Johnson has spent months discouraging Wisconsinites from getting the vaccine while pushing controversial and unproven COVID treatments like ivermectin, a dewormer drug that has hospitalized people across the state and country. See more below:

Wisconsin State Journal: ICYMI: US Sen. Ron Johnson doubles down on controversial early COVID-19 treatments, including ivermectin

U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson on Wednesday doubled down on touting early treatments for COVID-19, including the much maligned use of the anti-parasitic drug Ivermectin, even after federal health authorities warned against unauthorized use of the drug to treat COVID-19.

[...]

Johnson for months has advocated for the consideration of drugs unproven to treat COVID-19 — such as the anti-parasitic medication Ivermectin or malaria treatment hydroxychloroquine — as potential therapies for people who have contracted COVID-19.

[...]

In a health advisory last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned clinicians and the public that ivermectin is not currently authorized or approved by the FDA for treatment of COVID-19, and that the National Institutes of Health has also determined there is currently insufficient data to recommend ivermectin for treatment of COVID-19.

Even so, there has been a 24-fold increase in ivermectin prescriptions compared to before the pandemic, according to the CDC.

[...]

Physicians in Wisconsin and across the nation have criticized Johnson and others for touting the use of ivermectin and other unproven treatments for COVID-19, especially given the existence of safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines.

Dr. Scott Walker, a family medicine physician in Prairie du Chien, said whether for veterinary or human use, the underlying ivermectin drug is still the same.

"It’s approved range of uses is very limited," Walker said. "It’s not demonstrated to have any effect on COVID-19, and it is known to be dangerous, especially at higher doses."

Walker said Johnson should be promoting safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines instead of unproven treatments. Despite no evidence showing ivermectin as a treatment for COVID-19, Walker said he's recently heard from a pharmacist who received a large shipment of ivermectin.

[...]

Dr. David Gummin, medical director of Wisconsin Poison Center, said the center has received a slight uptick in the number of calls regarding ivermectin. He said the center has received 17 calls regarding potential ivermectin poisoning so far this year, compared to 10 by this time last year, and 11 the year before that.

Gummin said some people may feel the medical community is trying to withhold information on the use of ivermectin and other unproven COVID-19 treatments. But he said the reality is that there simply isn't sound evidence to indicate people should use such drugs to treat COVID-19.

Dr. Jeff Pothof, UW Health chief quality officer  and an emergency medicine physician, said ivermectin in humans is typically used to treat parasites, such as roundworms and nematodes, and also can be effective against lice. He said the medication is more frequently used in countries with lower standards of sanitation and food safety. In the U.S., he said the medication is more often used in livestock and pets to treat conditions such as heartworm.

Pothof said misinformation over the use of ivermectin may stem from early in the pandemic, when some suggested ivermectin could be used to treat viruses.

[...]

Studies so far indicate there's no benefit to using the drug for COVID-19.

"Anything you take has a risk, so if there's no benefit, and only risk, we shouldn't be doing that to people," Pothof said. "Doctors do not experiment on their patients in the U.S."

He said ivermectin can cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. At higher doses, the medication can cause low blood pressure, seizures, coma or even death. Pothof said that while there are new antibody therapies that may help prevent severe COVID-19, the best course of action for people without COVID is to get vaccinated.