A Liberal Lives In Wisconsin

     As the nation collectively and rightfully panicked on January 20th, 2017, Donald Trump made some lofty promises. One that would become a thorn in his side would be a promise to "rebuild our roads and bridges." He got to work while he held full control of Congress from 2017 to 2019, holding his first "Infrastructure Week" in 2017 and continuing to do so every year through the end of his time in the White House. In spite of years of negotiations with the GOP in the White House, he never passed a significant piece of legislation on infrastructure, leading to "Infrastructure Week" becoming a running joke.      As President Biden and a bipartisan group of legislators negotiated a bipartisan bill for nearly $600 billion in new infrastructure repairs and more than $1.2 trillion in total spending over eight years, including universal broadband access, the largest investment in electric vehicles and transit in history, and the funds to completely repair Americ...

       On July 30th, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Social Security Amendments of 1965 in the presence of former president Harry S. Truman, stricken by poverty in his twilight years. The most significant piece of healthcare legislation between Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1935 creation of Social Security and Barack Obama's 2010 passage of the Affordable Care Act, this legislation created Medicare and Medicaid and would prove to be one of the defining moments of Lyndon B. Johnson's "Great Society."      The difference, by the way, is actually pretty simple: Medicare is designed to provide health insurance to people 65 and older, while Medicaid is designed to assist people with little means to pay for their own care. The latter also includes assistance for nursing home and personal care services.

     2021 has been a record year in the fight against coal in Europe. It is a fight that began with the signing of the Paris Agreement in 2015. That year, the UK became the first country in the world to announce a coal phase out, setting a goal for 2025. In 2016, Belgium closed its last coal plant, France announced a plan to ditch coal by 2023, Austria by 2025, and Finland by 2030. In 2017, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Portugal announced coal phase outs by 2030 while Sweden announced one by 2022 and France moved its date forward a year to 2022. In 2018, Ireland committed to phasing out coal by 2025. In 2019, Slovakia and Hungary announced plans to phase out coal by 2030, Greece by 2028, and Germany by 2038 while Austria and Portugal moved their dates up to 2020 and 2023 respectively. In 2020, Austria and Sweden became the second and third countries in Europe to close down their coal plants while Portugal and the UK moved their dates to 2021 and 2024, respectively.  ...

      Greta Thunberg will, without question, be among the most consequential activists in human history. I don't think enough people truly grasp how devastatingly dangerous climate change is. Aside from the fact that this anthropocentric threat will cause and is causing the sixth major extinction event in the history of the planet by destroying habitat, it has also been deemed a national security threat by, among other sources, the Pentagon. Climate change is causing water to rise in small island nations, which in turn causes refugees to flee to nearby countries; fewer resources increases poverty, which increases crime and conflict in developing countries; climate change is melting the poles, opening up a dangerous new frontier in military conflict. I usually make this argument to those who question why she deserves a Nobel Peace Prize.      “How dare you?” is a meme for many and a joke for the most stubborn asses among the global population, but ...

     Last month, I wrote commentary urging Mandela Barnes to run for U.S. Senate. I knew that both history and the modern political scene demand he do so. Warren G. Harding was the lieutenant governor of Ohio before becoming a U.S. senator and then the 29th president of the United States. His VP, Calvin Coolidge, was a former lieutenant governor of Massachusetts who became president when Harding died two years into his term. The Senate is, undoubtedly, the more powerful body in our bicameral legislature. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were both U.S. senators (and both have now served as vice president). If Democrats want to keep the Senate and the House in the 2022 midterms, they need to endorse younger, progressive candidates in key swing states like Wisconsin and Pennsylvania; this is a belief Mandela Barnes himself has espoused. John Fetterman is currently the lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania who earned a reputation for staring down the GOP-controlled legislature and ...

       On July 26th, 1948, Harry Truman essentially launched the modern civil rights movement in the political arena when he signed Executive Order 9981, which banned discrimination in the military based on race, color, religion, and nation of origin. This language was later replicated in civil rights legislation signed by Eisenhower, Johnson, Obama, and other presidents.      The military has often served as a launching point for oppressed peoples, including women, being able to prove themselves, which has contributed to expansive rights being granted. The executive order is considered one of Truman's greatest achievements and the official beginning of the civil rights movement as the first chief executive opposed segregation.

     Some more good news has come out of the Balkans as it relates to climate change. Earlier, I reported on Croatia's setting of an 80 percent carbon neutrality goal by 2050 along with a coal phaseout date. Now, we have similar news from a second country in the region: North Macedonia.      North Macedonia's government announced a few weeks ago that the nation would phase out coal by 2028, which is well within the timeline provided by the European Union and most environmentalists, who see the right end date for coal as 2030. The reality in Eastern Europe is different because almost all of their energy comes from coal, so the dates in which coal is phased out and carbon neutrality are achieved are much closer together.      The government also announced a plan to reduce carbon emissions by 67 percent by 2050. This is not the 2050 carbon neutrality goal we need. However, it is only the second such goal set in the Balkans and is more than the U...

       More than any governor in American history, Andrew Cuomo has made life wonderful for his LGBTQ constituents in the state of New York. It's been a long list of achievements. He banned conversion therapy harmful to LGBTQ youth as well as the gay panic defense used to defend the murders of citizens because of their sexual identities or orientations. He expanded New York's anti-discrimination and hate crime laws to include transgender people, ended a ban on commercial surrogacy, and legalized same-sex and joint stepchild adoption for LGBTQ couples. He restored salary and rank to New York veterans who were discharged because of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," offered a third gender option on birth certificates and IDs, and granted the right for state residents to change their legal gender without sex reassignment surgery. Transgender inmates and same-sex inmates were granted medical care and conjugal visits, LGBTQ youth were legally protected from bullying, and the...

     The defining moment of Joe Biden's presidency could come by the end of this year. He has the opportunity to keep up to 20 percent of his promises, partially keep several others, and otherwise make major changes to benefit the middle class. There is still uncertainty as to which parts of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework, if any, will become law, and the Budget Bill is setting up a showdown. Here are some pieces that could (and, in my opinion, should) make it into the bills. 1. Raise the minimum wage to $10.10. Senators Manchin and Sinema have expressed support for a wage increase, if not $15. President Obama signed an executive order making the minimum wage for federal employees $10.10 in 2014. President Biden raised this to $15 in April. He should codify President Obama's executive order, which would also allow   2. Guarantee seven days of paid sick leave. This has been receiving increasing support among Democrats and Republicans, especially with the...

     The Paris Agreement was more complex than most people realized at the time or realize today. The initial commitment included reducing carbon emissions by roughly a quarter, but it also included nations updating their carbon reduction goals and checking progress every five years in alternating conferences. Since the agreement went into effect in 2016, the COP26 conference in Glasgow, Scotland, will see nations increase their pledge.      Originally ratified on April 22nd, 2016, the Paris Agreement hit a rough patch when President Trump announced U.S. withdrawal in 2017 (completed in October 2020), and the loss of such a visible leader on most global issues prevented any real collaborative progress on climate change. However, since then, we have seen the European Union, Canada, the United Kingdom, Brazil, South Korea, Japan, and numerous other nations commit to going carbon neutral by 2050 while China pledged to do so by 2060. Greta Thunberg first came t...

     Croatia has taken several important steps to fight climate change in brand new legislation. The nation has decided to take a carbon reduction rather than neutrality approach, aiming for an 80 percent reduction in emissions by 2050. This is not ambitious enough for the crisis at hand, but it is more ambitious action than the United States and China are currently taking and also sets the stage for improvement.      Croatia is the first nation in the Balkans to set a target of this nature. The region was beleaguered by war and instability at the end of the Cold War that culminated in genocide and NATO intervention in the 1990s, and in many respects the region has yet to recover. As such, Eastern Europe as a whole relies heavily on coal as well as lignite, another disgusting fossil fuel referred to as "brown coal." The new legislation includes provisions for a total phaseout of coal by 2040; the EU wants coal gone by 2030, but this is an Eastern European n...

     Paul Allard Hodgkins is a typically odd case among the nearly 600 people facing charges for violently storming the United States Capitol in an attempt to subvert democracy on January 6th, 2021. He worked as a mechanic from a poorer part of Tampa in the poor state of Florida; his status as a former Eagle Scout couldn't keep him from a trailer park lifestyle. Nor could it keep him from going to prison.      Hodgkins became infamous in his own right for his actions on January 6th. He was the man with the goggles, Trump flag, and Trump shirt pictured mounting the Senate dais. He spent a total of ten minutes in the Senate, and, unlike most of the people charged in this event, he does not have a criminal history, he did not conspire with others to commit the act, he did not assault police, and he did not damage property (most defendants fit at least one of these categories). Still, he boarded a bus almost all the way up the East Coast, attended the "Save Ame...

     Jim Jordy is a shorty, shorty who thinks he is a man. His wife is older than he and she has known him since they were kids. It can be all good and well but in this case I can tell it's a matter of convenience and cowardice, not of love. Who could love this guy? What makes him attractive? Is it the fact that he covered up sexual abuse as a wrestling coach, a profession where this sort of story is not a surprise. Is it the fact that he only wins elections because his seat is among the most gerrymandered in the nation? Is it the fact that he is one of only two members of the House of Representatives to not introduce a successful bill? Is it the campaign fraud he is under investigation for? Either way, the fact that his biography was written by an admirer who says he has, "a height of six feet, the perfect body mass, and eyes and blonde hair that benefit a politician " is pathetic. I mean, seriously? If you take one look at Jim Jordan, the one problem you'll find is ...

     Bhutan is famous as a carbon negative country, and rightfully so. This peaceful nation, which measures its economy in Gross National Happiness, constitutionally mandates that 67 percent of its nation be forest, and mainly exports renewable energy, is paradise.      Less known but equally deserving of attention is Suriname, a nation of 600,000 people on the northern shores of South America. Enjoying both the aquamarine waters of the Caribbean Sea and the lush jungles of the Amazon, Suriname, like its neighbors, is easily among the most beautiful nations in the world. This beauty is more than superficial; it also demonstrates the power nature has when humans leave it alone. The nation is not immune to the greater threats facing both of these megadiverse ecosystems, but it has a much smaller population density, and, as such, has kept its wilderness areas fairly pristine.      A huge carbon sink with a populace producing minimal carbon emiss...

     The United States is beginning to see justice against the Capitol rioters as the first House Select Committee hearing is expected to meet on July 27th. We have seen dozens of misdemeanor and felony cases result in guilty pleas, we've had numerous misdemeanor sentences, and the first felony sentences and first sentences of notable insurrectionists will be seen in the coming weeks.       Today, we have another misdemeanor sentence, but certainly a notable one because of the simply vile subject in question. Michael Thomas Curzio, of Florida, entered the Capitol on January 6th and ignored the directions of law enforcement to the leave House of Representatives side of the building. He was arrested on January 14th and held without bail. Because he did not destroy property, pleaded guilty, and was only charged with a misdemeanor, he received the maximum sentence allowed under the law, six months in jail, and was released on July 14th, after serving the f...

       Back on September 18th, 2020, I wrote a post that was published on November 30th, regarding the election. It was a sort of guess at the future, entitled "The Sun Is Merely Setting." I decided to try it again. With the 2022 midterms approaching, it is worth reminding Ron Johnson that he made a promise not to run for reelection.      Considering his opposition to election certification, blocking of coronavirus aid, and opposition to the Biden cabinet, among other loony tweets and statements, it appears Racist Ron wants to run for president. In no way would he have a chance to win, and that's why I'm all for him running.      Just remember this, Racist Ron. You made a promise to Wisconsin. I know you have dedicated your career to fattening your prospects and pockets, but could you find it in your heart to keep a promise you made?

       President Harry Truman, the ultimate opponent of socialism, had perhaps among the most ambitious agendas of any Democratic president in history. However, in terms of his proposed "Fair Deal," only the Housing Act of 1949 was ever passed.      This landmark legislation, however, was a worthy legacy. It launched slum clearance efforts while constructing public housing for millions of lower-income Americans. The law also nearly doubled the home ownership rate by reforming mortgage insurance and researching new housing concepts.      The act was signed on July 15th.

     CNN's YouTube channel, which has 13 million subscribers (nearly double the number of subscribers Faux News has), just hit another milestone well before FOX did: 10 billion views on YouTube. FOX likes to spend their days making pathetic little videos with AK-slinging "gurus" about how "woke culture" and "cancel culture" are killing the United States while stoking the flames of racial division, misinformation, and disinformation, but it doesn't appear to be working.      What's especially worth noting is their progress since they began actively posting on YouTube nearly 13 years ago. Their first videos only got a few hundred views and had a 49-51 split of likes to dislikes. Even their first video, an interview with General David Petraeus, was only viewed 7,000 times. This is abnormal because the first video on a YouTube channel is usually well-viewed thanks to curious people sorting the videos as such years later. Nowadays, a video getting 1...

     Earlier this year, we celebrated Kazakhstan's abolition of the death penalty. Now, Malawi has joined them, becoming the 107th of 195 countries to abolish the death penalty, not to mention the dozens of other countries that have abolished the death penalty except for war crimes and/or have not executed people in decades.       The Southern African nation has a checkered history in certain aspects of human rights law but has taken marvelous steps towards reform in a continent few Europeans or Americans see as moving much (Africa has the fastest-growing economy in the world, to be clear). Malawi's Supreme Court struck down the death penalty in a landmark ruling brought by Charles Khoviwa, a man who has spent decades on death row and turned himself into an upstanding citizen. Until the beginning of the 21st century, Malawi had a mandatory death penalty for certain crimes, a statute that was struck down in 2007 for being incompatible with Malawian valu...

     Let's get one thing clear: I do not trust Jair Bolsonaro as far as I would have to go to make him either frown or only smile in a creepy, threatening way. The man is guilty of ecocide and genocide against the Amazon and the Amazonians, and he was a convicted criminal before he took office. That's without mentioning his handling of COVID-19. I merely have an interesting observation to make that highlights American diplomacy has a unique role in the world, and that, for the first time, it can be used in earnest to fight climate change.      It took the oil spill and fire surge in 2019 to force Brazil to reckon with the reality of climate change and garner enough outrage to force Bolsonaro to take action. This right-wing nutjob had defunded and rolled back Amazon protections and other environmental rules for years, and suddenly he announced a plan to make Brazil carbon neutral by 2060 in December 2020. Carbon neutrality is good, but our species would be f...

     Honestly, I don't know when the Arizona "audit" is going to end, and I don't think the people there do, either. The audit was scheduled to end in May, and then in June, but has been extended until the middle of this month. They were considerate enough to clear out for a high school graduation in between "defending democracy," though. This place is a circus, and I mean that literally: the auditorium is located in an AZ fairground. A lone Trump supporter with a flag bigger than a truck and a handgun in a leather holster stands guard at the rear entrance in case ANTIFA tries to storm the audit like Trump supporters did the U.S. Capitol. They are checking for every manner of bizarre conspiracy theory, even trying to figure out if bamboo ballots were flown in from China. I didn't know that all paper in China was made from bamboo, probably because it's just a racist stereotype and not true at all.       It may look funny, but this audit worries me. Th...

     January 6th, 2021, will, without a doubt, be considered the low point of Donald Trump's life. He paid not nearly enough of a price for sending a violent mob to attack the U.S. Capitol, but he received more consequences for this action than just about any other crooked or wicked scheme of his: a two-year social media ban that spawned the embarrassing failure he called a blog, the cancellation of his contracts with New York City, his impeachment for the second time by the U.S. House, his being ranked among the worst presidents in American history, the PGA cancelling its plan to host the tournament at Trump's New Jersey golf course, and the removal of his names from numerous properties. Trump used to be a boon to businesses when he put his name on their buildings, getting a percentage of the increased profits for doing nothing in particular. After the insurrection, numerous properties, especially in Canada, voted to remove his toxic brand from their assets.   ...

     The presidency of Barack Obama was a bright spot in modern presidential history; this was proven true when his position in presidential rankings rose from 12th place to 10th, which makes him a "great" leader rather than an "above average" one. Ironically, Donald Trump, who based his entire campaign off Barack Obama "going down as the worst president in American history," debuted in 41st place, or fourth worst. Obama is a Nobel Peace Prize recipient set to be the most admired American man of the 21st century and named as a contender were Mt. Rushmore to ever be expanded.       Still, his second term, which saw the GOP control the House from 2013 to 2015 and both houses of Congress from 2015 to 2017, while productive, saw several initiatives of his fail to be taken up. Biden is helping to cover these issues as well as numerous others from the Obama presidency early in his administration.       President Biden was a public defende...

       On July 8th, 1946, Jimmy Carter married Rosalynn Carter. Today is their 75th anniversary, a milestone that furthers their record as the longest-married presidential couple in American history. The former cited marrying the latter as his greatest achievement in life. On this day, let's wish these two sweethearts 75 more long, happy years.

     President Biden has made the judiciary a priority. With President Trump having appointed more than 230 dangerous right-wing white guys as federal judges, President Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer are doing their part to fill all vacancies in the federal courts. Instead of mostly white, mostly male corporate attorneys and prosecutors, Biden is appointing civil rights attorneys, voting rights activists, and public defenders with a special focus on racial and gender diversity.      Reform has already come into play. In his first 100 days, President Biden appointed a bipartisan commission of academics to study potential reforms to the Supreme Court, including the possibilities of expanding the court to include 13 justices and instituting term limits, among other things. However, the Supreme Court is not the only judiciary at the federal level that could use reform.      One notable example was in 1978, when President Jimmy Car...

     "A patriot who loved our country and those who served to protect our freedom" was among the gushy praise given to Joseph Barnes, a 35-year-old Capitol rioter from Texas who became a relatively famous figure not for what he did or what he wore, but what he said. In one of the more viewed clips from inside the chaotic scene, he can be heard saying, "This is our house," while searching for police to assault and members of Congress to murder.       For his role in the January 6th insurrection, Joseph Cable Barnes was charged with numerous federal felony charges and released on recognizance. Facing several years in prison, he pleaded not guilty back in March. I say "guts" and not "brains" because I doubt there is much going on this guy's head... well, was. His obituary described him as a "Renaissance man" who "stood up for the underdog" and "enjoyed painting flags." More accurately, he was a high school graduate ...

       On July 6th, 1935, Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the National Labor Relations Act, which gave workers the right to organize into unions and use collective bargaining and striking to secure improved working conditions and wages. It also created a National Labor Relations Board to handle complaints of  companies violating workers' rights.      The act would later be amended in 1947 with the Taft-Hartley Act, passed in spite of President Truman's veto. This act legalized unfair labor practices and allowed states to pass right-to-work laws taking power away from unions and giving it to companies, also known as helping those who already have the means to help themselves.       The only way to restore the NLRA in full is to pass the PRO Act!!!

     In 2020, President Biden won in Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Nevada, six of the swing states of that election (the others being Texas, Ohio, Florida, and Alaska). Each of these ten states will also be important in 2022, and I have done extensive commentary on Wisconsin, Georgia, Ohio, Texas, and Pennsylvania, in particular. However, one cannot underestimate the importance of the state of Arizona in 2022 and survive politically.      Arizona was the home state of Barry Goldwater and John McCain, and perhaps it was that latter fact that made Arizona hate Donald Trump so much. John McCain was the popular senator and 2008 nominee for president, and Trump made it his mission to say McCain wasn't a war hero, among other vulgar claims. As retribution, McCain sank Trump's "America First Healthcare Plan," and Trump still decided to show up at McCain's funeral, even though he wasn't welcome, as one final insult.      Th...

     It's just sad at this point. When the election was called in favor of President Biden in November 2020, Trump and his lackeys declared that it had to be a result of widespread election fraud, which Attorney General Bill Barr confirmed was not the case in December. They still tried the case in legal courts and the court of public opinion, having dozens of cases before state and federal judges, including the U.S. Supreme Court (many of whom Trump appointed), dismissed, being laughed out each and every time. Rudy Giuliani, the man in charge, farted at a hearing, held a press conference at a landscape shop he thought was a hotel (conveniently located between a crematorium and an adult toy store), and had his hair dye run while Sydney Powell claimed a Venezuelan socialist president long dead shipped in ballots. They  tried the recounts in key states typical of an election before deciding to challenge the Electoral College certification in Congress (ending in insurrec...

     Evangelical Trumpism has been flawed from the start. The man who has split up from women at least three times, paid hush money to a porn star, has been accused of sexual assault by dozens of women and girls, had his charity and university shut down for fraud, and is currently facing criminal investigations while dozens of his close associates rot in jail (not to mention his racist, violent, and incompetent conduct as president) is not exactly the epitome of Christian values.      Joe Biden further complicated things for them. Unlike Trump, he is a devout religious man. The second Catholic president after John F. Kennedy, he attended Catholic school in Delaware from ages 12 to 18. He grew even closer to his faith when his wife and young daughter died (leaving him a single father of two young boys), when he suffered a brain aneurysm after the 1988 presidential campaign that nearly ended his political career, when one of his sons (Beau) died of brain canc...

     Derek Chauvin and Tou Thao are fucked, quite simply. Derek Chauvin has been convicted and sentenced to 22.5 years in prison for the state murder charges in Minnesota. He is preparing a guilty plea in federal court for the civil rights charges related to George Floyd's death and the severe injuries he caused to a black child he assaulted; this will land him 30 years and make him spill the beans on his history of violence. He also faces state tax charges. Thao had six police brutality investigations in six years, was Chauvin's partner that day, had the only view of the life literally leaving Floyd's eyes, and was mostly responsible for people not being allowed to save Floyd in his role in crowd control. I believe he will be convicted and face anywhere from 10 to 20 years in prison. I have written commentary on these cases ( here and here ), and it has proven relatively accurate thus far.       J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane were both much newer...

     In the ranking of presidents, a bipartisan process by historians who use a scale of 1-10 to rate the job performance of these men (and hopefully, someday, women) in a number of areas to get an overall score, Donald Trump debuted at 41st of the 44 rated (Grover Cleveland was the 22nd and 24th president). Lincoln, Washington, the Roosevelts, Eisenhower, Truman, Jefferson, Kennedy, Reagan, Obama, and Lyndon Johnson made up the upper quartile. Along with Trump at the bottom were men like William Henry Harrison, who died a month into office, and Warren G. Harding, the most corrupt president up to that point in history. Those beneath Trump were Franklin Pierce (although listed as 42nd, Pierce and Trump actually tied), Andrew Johnson (a fierce opponent of the 14th and 15th amendments), and James Buchanan (the policies of Pierce and Buchanan directly led to the Civil War). Factors that led to this are obvious, but include his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and BLM protest...