manchurian candidate

Dear Friends,

I’m writing today simply to share a May 17th fakebook post by Unicameral Watch over our weasel of a governor who happens to like kissing up to Trump so he can be in the limelight. Here’s what UW had to say about Piglen:

MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE: Its time for Republicans to confront Governor Pillen on his abysmal public safety record.

When we talk to Republicans, many are unaware of how Governor Pillen has convinced many weak Republican State Senators to team up with Progressive Democrats to enact some of the most sweeping and dangerous criminal justice reforms in the nation.

For instance, the Republicans we've talked to don't understand that under LB 50, a convicted felons sentence is almost immediately cut in half, and from there Good Time credits are applied. The reality of LB 50 is violent offenders could only serve about 40% of their sentence. So as an example, if an individual is sentenced to 50 years, he could only serve 20 years with Good Time. That's what Jim Pillen signed into Law and many Republicans are shocked when we tell them the details of LB 50.

Senator Mckinney and other Democrats often brag in speeches that the prison population is about to be drained, that's because it is. Nebraska is about to be flooded with non rehabilitated felons. And of course many will reoffend and cause a lot of harm to Nebraska families. It's going to be Nikko Jenkins on steroids, because we are going to see a lot of crime, much of it violent.

But if you ask the normal Republican voter about LB 50, they have no idea that Governor Pillen did this. It's because he did it in secret. The debate was open, but Pillen held onto the bill till the last minute, signed it in private on a Sunday night and quietly delivered it to the clerk. The next day, after Sine Die, Governor Pillen celebrated all the laws he signed and posted about them, missing of course was LB 50. UW were the only ones posting about what Pillen was doing at that time.

Republicans need to understand that Jim Pillen does not really believe in prison. His approach is restorative justice. So after LB 50 was passed, Jim Pillen had to work to get the most violent and dangerous offenders a chance at getting out of prison. He's doing it with LB 215, which allows for murders and child murders and rapists, and others who committed crimes so vile that they were sentenced to Life, a chance at parole. Pillen found the perfect messenger in Bellevue’s Senator Holdcroft, who has an absolutely bizarre infatuation with those sentenced to Life for murder, child rape and other vile crimes. Quite frankly the infatuation with them by Holdcroft is weird.

UW has attached a list of Senators who voted to send LB 215 to select, if your Senator is on it, understand they stand with Pillen and Holdcroft on giving murders and child rapists second chances.

What Pillen and others plan to do with LB 215 is quickly pass it at the last minute and hold onto it, like they did LB 50. And quietly sign it in the middle of the night. Governor Pillen could threaten to Veto, but won't, because he wants LB 215 to pass.

Governor Pillen is doing this because at his heart he's not a Republican, at his heart he's a Pro Life Democrat and a political coward. He doesn't want to tell Nebraska Republicans what he's doing with criminal justice because he knows how unpopular it would be. So, like he did during the campaign, he's hiding it and not answering questions like a coward.

Of course this all ends in tragedy for Nebraska families and reversing LB 50 and LB 215 will be almost impossible. The Good Time Law wasn't even reviewed after Nikko Jenkins and the same will be the case with these two bills.

As Republicans we have some work to do. The first is finding an actual Republican to primary and defeat Pillen, the second is to get very vocal with your State Senators on LB 215.

Jim Pillen has put the public safety of Nebraskans is serious jeopardy, and he's doing it quietly. It's time to expose and confront him on it.

Nebraska “leadership” is weak on crime. Has been for a very long time. The last death penalty execution was 2018. He (Carey Dean Moore) spent 38 years on death row. That’s not justice.

The last execution before that was 1997. Robert Williams sat on death row for almost 20 years. That’s not justice either.

These days, people commit crimes because they WANT to be incarcerated. Incarceration means they get to force taxpayers to foot the bill for their medical expenses. THAT is a crime in itself.

Below are some facts from an AI query. Ultimately it all falls on We, the taxpayer.

* State Spending: The Nebraska Department of Correctional Services (NDCS) spends a significant amount annually on inmate medical services. A 2024 audit found that NDCS spends roughly $70 million annually to provide medical services to incarcerated individuals, averaging over $12,000 per inmate.

* Medicaid and Cost-Sharing: Nebraska has expanded Medicaid, and many individuals transitioning into and out of incarceration are eligible. The state has been working to enroll inmates in Medicaid prior to release to help share costs between federal and state governments. However, federal law generally prohibits the use of federal Medicaid funds for individuals while they are incarcerated, unless they are treated in a hospital or other medical institution outside the prison for 24 hours or more. This "inmate exclusion" means that state-funded correctional systems bear the majority of healthcare costs for incarcerated people.

* County Jails: County jails are also responsible for providing medical care to those in their custody. The state does provide some reimbursement to counties for individuals ordered to the care of the Department of Health and Human Services for competency treatment.

In essence, while efforts are made to leverage other funding sources like Medicaid when possible, the ultimate responsibility for providing and funding inmate medical care in Nebraska largely falls on the state and its taxpayers.

I hope you’re angry. And I hope you get even angrier. We do have the means to turn this around, if we really wanted to.

Robert J. Borer