A Liberal Lives In Wisconsin

     Donald Trump has repealed an environmental regulation every week of his presidency, a dangerous and unprecedented attack on natural resources that threatens America's future. His targets are far-reaching and impactful. He has worked to repeal the Endangered Species Act, which has saved 99% of the species on the list, and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which has protected dozens of bird species for 100 years. In the battle for climate change, he has made America the only country not party to the Paris Climate Agreement and repealed methane and coal plant regulations. Despite the renewable energy industry going on the up, up, and up, he has placed tariffs on solar panels, opposed wind farms, and given subsidies and approvals to controversial and dangerous pipeline projects. He has lifted the ban on bear baiting and gassing in Alaska's national parks, allowed for increased plastic and hunting in wildlife refuges and national parks, and opened Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Es

           Despite President Trump's election promise, Chester Alan Arthur , the 21st president of the U.S., is a real tough guy when it comes to "draining the swamp." He served from 1881 to 1885, promoted to the office after the assassination of president James A. Garfield. Nobody better represented the broken system of government patronage than he, for he spent nearly a decade controlling the port of New York. Despite doing very little work, he made $1 million a year with salary on top of his personal commissions and his successful law practice. His promotion came for his work with boss Roscoe Conkling, who controlled the Stalwart faction of the Republican Party, for Arthur had led the New York branch of the party. When he became president, however, his former boss's insistence on promotion and the fact that Garfield's assassin was a disgruntled office-seeker led him in 1883 to sign the Pendleton Civil Service Act, and he also made the application of the law exp

     James Buchanan is frequently ranked as one of the worst presidents in history, and one cannot help but notice the similarities that mark the presidencies of he and Donald Trump: 1. The Economy-- Buchanan dealt with the Panic of 1857 in his first year in office. To be fair, the crisis was quite some time coming, and Buchanan served in an era when the president could do little more than offer solutions involving little government intervention. Trump mishandled the COVID-19 crisis 3 years into his term, resulting in 50 million Americans filing for unemployment, the worst economic quarter in a century, and medical facilities being overworked. 2. The Utah War And BLM-- In 1857, Buchanan dealt with the Utah War, a conflict in which Mormons in Utah murdered an American agent and dozens of settlers. Buchanan mobilized the military, but in the end his cabinet officer resolved the issue peacefully with Brigham Young, although this didn't prevent him from taking credit for handling the

           Trump's history objectifying, violating, threatening, mocking, and otherwise harassing women is long, ugly, and speaks for itself. A nation that has not had a female leader in 230 years deserves a leader who, if not a woman, at the very least regards them as equals to be respected and relied upon.      Instead, Trump has repeatedly engaged in sexual assault. More than 30 women, sometimes minors at the time of the incidents alleged, have claimed he aggressively molested or even penetrated them without consent. Among those are his former wife Ivana, whose rape Trump defended by insisting that spousal rape is impossible. Several children have also alleged statutory rape, a high probability given his oft-overlooked relationship with Jeffrey Epstein even after the latter was convicted of sex offenses.      This is merely the tip of the iceberg. He admitted 15 years ago to "grabbing women by the pussy," and with the evidence straight from the horse's mouth women

     Donald Trump's commercials for the past month or so have dealt exclusively with the issue of police funding. Rather than addressing the reality of police brutality, they portray a world in which the police are cancelled and citizens are left to their own devices in a world of anarchy and violence. This is only made more ridiculous by a clip of Joe Biden saying, "Yes," to an unrelated question, an unethical tactic of blatant falsehood that should not be allowed.       The fact is, "defunding" the police has nothing to do with cutting efforts to prevent crime. It merely calls for gradually transitioning larger portions of funds to preventative efforts rather than reactive ones. In historically-impoverished communities, crime is a way of life, a cycle that can only be broken by those who are shown the benefits of a law-abiding life. Many crimes are also drug-related, and a program that focuses on treatment rather than prison would reduce crime drastically.    

     On July 17th, 2020, my 18th birthday had a distinctly sour note with the passing of the icon John Lewis . In 1961 he became one of the original Freedom Riders. As the chair of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, he helped organize the March on Washington in 1963 and the Selma To Montgomery Marches in 1965, during which he was tear-gassed and had his skull fractured on "Bloody Sunday." He later served on the Atlanta City Council and represented Atlanta in the U.S. House of Representatives for 33 years. During this time, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He is set to lie in state in the the Capitol, and the past week has felt like a new era minus a very powerful figure.       Already, Marco Rubio and Dan Sullivan have shown their racist tendencies by tweeting photos of the late Elijah Cummings in their remembrances of Lewis. The photos were later taken down, without an apology, of course. These men have taken the morning process and sullied it.

     One single graphic shows an astonishing source of America's national debt: 36% of our budget goes to the military. Considering that is more than the next 15 nations put together, most of which are allies, it is obvious that no major threat to America's national security warrants this extravagant level of spending. Granted, Democrats are mostly in favor of maintaining the current spending. However, the Republicans tend to favor an increase in spending. In 2012, in fact, Mitt Romney advocated giving the military billions of dollars that they did not request, citing the state of the Navy while ignoring the fact the nature of warfare has changed drastically toward aerial and special-ops work. This came at a proposed cost of crucial funding for Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and other programs.      This is not the only display of the Republican Party's fiscal recklessness. Despite claims that Joe Biden is in bed with China (he is actually in favor of cutting reliance

       It looks like Fox News had flirted with fire after host Ed Henry was terminated  for sexual assault that occurred several years earlier. The host of "America's Newsroom" and Chief White House Correspondent lost his job less than a week after the report was received. While it is commendable that Fox has taken such swift action, it proved not to be the last time that an employee was fired for vulgar behavior in July of 2020.      A week later, Tucker Carlson writer Blake Neff  resigned after it was discovered that he had posted a slew of racially-charged and misogynistic thread comments on a popular legal site called AutoAdmit. It has been common knowledge for years that Fox is a cesspool of racist scum, and now it is difficult to deny. As a man who was officially responsible for Fox's stances on various issues, it is almost amusing to see them condemn his behavior. As a matter of fact, he probably deserves a promotion for demonstrating behavior representative of

           Wisconsin, despite the growing population of people in the state who would disagree, has always been a fundamentally liberal place. When brought into the nation as a state in 1848, it was a state that banned the institution of slavery. During the Civil War, Wisconsin provided nearly 100,000 men in 72 regiments to fight for the Union.      In 1853, Wisconsin became the first state to abolish  the death penalty. Only one man was ever executed in Wisconsin, John McCaffary, whose gruesome 20-minute hanging fueled the movement for abolition.      During the late 1800s and early 1900s, Wisconsin was the launching pad of progressivism and even socialism nationwide. Emil Seidel was elected the first socialist mayor of Milwaukee and the U.S. in 1910, along with many alderman and judges. He created an eight-hour workday and a higher minimum wage, established among the best park systems in the U.S., and established the Milwaukee Area Technical College. Socialist Victor Berger was ele

           Let's get one thing straight: Woodrow Wilson was not perfect. He held opinions that at the times were falling out of favor and nowadays are considered downright atrocious. While partially a result of his roots in pre-Civil War Georgia, he was a college man who was educated enough to grow, and he failed to do his part in advancing civil rights and suffrage. His policies regarding sedition and Central America were flawed. However, he contributed to the foundation of modern America and the modern world, and his accolades have earned him the spot as America's most underrated president: 1. The Adamson Act created the eight-hour workday. 2. The Clayton Antitrust Act regulated unfair business acts, including price fixing. 3. The Federal Trade Commission Act created the FTC to protect consumers. 4. The Seventeenth Amendment instituted the popular election of senators by residents of states. 5. The Revnue Act instituted estate and income taxes on the top 3% of people and redu

     When this nation was founded, every president came from an impressive background. George Washington, John Adams, Thomas, Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe were founding fathers. John Quincy Adams was John Sr.'s son and a diplomat and secretary of state who negotiated the purchase of Florida, drafted the Monroe Doctrine, and later became a leading abolitionist. Andrew Jackson, William Harrison, Zachary Taylor, and Ulysses S. Grant were war heroes, and Martin Van Buren founded the Democratic Party.      Unfortunately, a later trend has been one of electing men of questionable morals and beliefs who come from sensational backgrounds on sensational platforms. Barack Obama , while surely not on the level of the Founding Fathers, has a fairly impressive background.      Born to a senior economic analyst for the Kenyan government, he was the only president born outside of the continental 48 states. A graduate of Harvard, he became the first black editor of the Harvard Law Re

           Joe Biden has, self-admittedly, "had a target on his back" since the outset of the campaign, but with a sole nominee, we can take time to examine more closely his political platform. Here are some positions on various key election issues: 1. He supports 2 years of free community college, free public university education for anyone whose household brings in less than $125k a year, doubling of the maximum Pell Grant value, halving the max amount of income garnishment for loan payment, and complete forgiveness after 20 years. 2. He supports carbon neutrality by 2050; a ban on offshore oil drilling, coal, pipelines, and other forms of fossil fuel exploitation, first on government land and then nationwide; and the protection of 30% of the nation's wilderness in national parks. 3. He supports a ban on assault rifles; a ban on online weapons sales; a system of universal background checks; and an ability to hold weapons companies civilly liable. 4. He supports increase

           Recently, Linkin Park ordered Trump to stop using their music, issuing a cease and desist order after he used a cover of "In The End" without their permission, a legal right that they have and that other artists have used. I decided to answer a few common complaints of the social media harpies, as a huge fan of Linkin Park: 1. Celebrities shouldn't get involved in politics. Answer: Celebrities are people who actually have a duty that can only come with millions of people watching your actions. Linkin Park wrote "Minutes To Midnight" and "A Thousand Suns," two full albums that were both number one sellers, to criticize the Bush administration and call for peace. 2. As a victim of sexual abuse, Chester would be proud of Donald Trump. Answer: I've never understood why people say this, as Trump has never taken a stand against sexual assault. He has, however, raped at least 30 people, including children; befriended Jeffrey Epstein; called his

             Another  victory  this month for the LGBTQIA+ community, this time coming out of Colorado. The governor signed a number of laws, the first of which increases access to HIV prevention medications by mandating they be covered by insurance. The second makes it easier for minors to change their gender on their IDs, requiring only statements from medical and mental health professionals and not surgery. The third creates a fund with rebates from HIV and AIDs prevention.      The fourth law bans the so-called "gay panic defense" in legal proceedings. The best part? This bill had 2 Democratic and 2 Republican sponsors, demonstrating that while the latter may be misguided when it comes to providing equal rights, they certainly have enough decency to know that being gay doesn't mean you should be murdered. The measure is mostly symbolic, as the defense is rarely used. However, it is a welcome move that topped state activists' agenda this year.       What is this od

     A recent poll revealed Joe Biden is taking the lead in key states such as Wisconsin and Pennsylvania by as much as ten points, and that Trump's disapproval rating is now nearly 2 out of every 3 people in the country. People will claim that 2020 will be a repeat of 2016, cynics who don't see the dramatic change our country has undergone in the last 3+ years: 1. We now see exactly what Donald Trump is capable of, from his mishandling of the coronavirus to his work against the environment and the LGBTQIA+ community. 2. Nearly half of all states are pledging to give their electoral votes to the popular vote winners and the Supreme Court has determined that they have the right to do so. Among these states are those who got Trump elected. 3. We are seeing a revolution with regards to race relations. The deaths of George Floyd, Breonna, Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and others have led to unprecedented calls for reform and increased public conscience not seen with the deaths of Eric Ga

           A brief history of the last few decades is quite revealing when it comes to America's presidents. Ronald Reagan is considered by conservatives to be the patron saint of their modern-day cult. Why is it that, while extolling the utility, popularity, and practicality of his platform, the Republicans have yet to meet any real success?      Riding on his coattails came George H.W. Bush , his former vice president and a Texas oil man and CIA director, UN ambassador, and congressman. He was far more worthy of the executive mansion than his Hollywood-built predecessor, yet managed to make Reagan look like a competent executive. His 1,000 Points of Light were a slap in the face to hardworking people who possessed none of the millions that Bush had, and the insult to injury was his increase to taxes on the middle class. His appointment to the Supreme Court, Clarence Thomas, was an absolute disaster.        Bill Clinton was elected in 1992 and 1996 and presided over the largest p

           At long last, the Redskins are going to change their name ! As the official NFL team for Washington, D.C., they have a staggering amount of options to name their team, so why they needed to use the name "Redskins" is beyond me. The argument that the Redskins did not ring of any racism is fabrication, given that the definition of the term is a racial slur on par with the n-word and the c-word. Were either of these used, there would be unanimous agreement that the names should be changed, and rightfully so. However, we as a country have apparently not yet come to a point of respecting those whose land was stolen from them in a brutal and genocidal matter.       Another interesting development has been the responses of the Atlanta Braves, Cleveland Indians, KC Chiefs, and the Chicago Blackhawks. The Indians are very likely to change their name, as they retired their racist mascot, Chief Wahoo, in 2018. The Chiefs have not commented, and the Braves issued a very vague

     No, the Republican Party is not the party of Lincoln. This seeming attempt to prove Republicans can't be racist not only ignores the Confederate flag-waving, white cloak-wearing Trump supporters that primarily habituate the South, the only solid red portion of the nation.       The Republican Party was founded in 1854 in Ripon, Wisconsin, which not-so-coincidentally, was once a very liberal state that elected socialist mayors, governors, and presidential candidates, whose exploits are worthy of a later post.      Lincoln was, in fact, a Republican. He fought vehemently and often extended government power, famously suspending the writ of habeus corpus and announcing the Emancipation Proclamation while calling for constitutional reform that shepherded the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments through Congress. Lincoln also created the first income tax, strengthened the federal banking system, and used federal funds for the Transcontinental Railroad and the settlement of Western farms.

A few replies to some common claims I've heard from Trump's cult following recently: 1. You're a libtard. Response: I've heard that word far too often. Putting its politically-incorrect origins aside, I have the facts rather than playground insults on my side. 2. The media is biased. Response: Did you hear that on Fox News? 3. Joe Biden is guilty of nepotism. Response: I'm honestly surprised you knew that word. Did Ivanka or Jared Kushner tell you what it means? 4. Liberal America is trying to burn the country down. Response: I know. How dare people demand equality and justice? 5. People go to college and learn socialism. Response: So, essentially, you're saying that educated people avoid your party. 6. Hillary was crooked. Response: You're a sexist and you don't even know it. His fraud university, fraud charity, mishandling of Hurricane Maria, use of political blackmail against Ukraine, work to oppress voting, executive order banning social media fact-c

            Spain  has just announced the closure of 11 of its 15 remaining coal plants, or 73%. The country currently has no mandate to close its coal plants, a testament to the dirty industry's impending death.      There, is, however, no lack of a mandate in other European countries . Austria, Belgium, Sweden, Albania, Cyprus, Estonia, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, and Switzerland have no coal plants. The United Kingdom, Slovakia, Portugal, the Netherlands, Italy, Ireland, Hungary, Greece, Germany, France, Finland, and Denmark have all announced phaseouts in the coming years, and such moves are being discussed in Czechia, North Macedonia, and Spain. Therefore coal is in its death throes in 27 European nations.      Even in the US, coal is dying. More than a dozen  coal plants have already been slated for retirement this year, bringing the total to nearly 300 closures in just ten years. Despite Trump "digging coal" and working to lift environmental rest

     Joe Biden has dedicated his entire life to public service, and his track record speaks for itself.       A graduate of Syracuse University in 1969, he began practicing law and was elected to the New Castle County Council in 1970. In 1972, he became the sixth-youngest senator in American history, and, by the time he left office in 2009, was the fourth-oldest. While a senator, he chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, led efforts to pass the Violent Crime Control And Law Enforcement Act and the Violence Against Women Act, introduced the first climate change legislation, and launched presidential campaigns in 1988 and 2008.      From 2009 to 2017 he served as Obama's vice president in an administration that legalized gay marriage, normalized relations with Cuba, provided affordable healthcare to 25 million people, pulled America out of a recession and passed reforms to prevent another, created more protected wilderness area than any other in history, committed to fight

     It has been eight months since Mark Rutte, Boris Johnson, Justin Trudeau, Emmauel Macron, and Princess Anne were videotaped mocking President Donald Trump . Many were surprised at the video, and some even outraged, but in truth there could be no genuine surprise. Trump earned his family name firing people for ratings, and his failed Trump University and Trump Foundation were certainly no boon to his credibility. A man who openly brags about the size of genitials and resorts to Twitter rants and alliterative Kindergarten insults is a man whose mental state must be taken into serious consideration.      Earlier this year, a  report indicated that in dozens of nations across Europe and the Americas, Trump is viewed as, quite frankly, a joke. His failed foreign policy with Mexico, Iran, and North Korea earned him few friends as his disastrous domestic policy grew near-infamous. Trump cannot be blamed entirely for this. He admittedly ran for president to boost his businesses, and one