A Liberal Lives In Wisconsin

     The most infamous politically-motivated attack in the increasingly-infamous state of Texas is the attack that occurred just a week before the 2020 presidential election, when a group of cars and trucks filled with Trump supporters tried to run the Biden-Harris campaign bus off the road, forcing Biden to cancel his last two stops in the state. Local authorities initially refused to intervene while the Texas GOP and the entire Trump family officially praised this felony act of reckless endangerment. The Biden campaign played their cards right, suing the Trump supporters under the 1871 KKK Act designed to prevent political violence by gangs while the FBI investigates.       In November 2020, the Travis County Democratic Party's headquarters, which are located in the major metropolitan area of Austin, were vandalized, windows smashed and exterior walls sprayed with graffiti. It was this attack that caused local party leaders to install cameras in the ...

     Ohio is home to Jim Jordan, one of the chief supporters of the disgraced former president and one of the men I believe to be most responsible for the January 6th insurrection. It's no surprise, therefore, that Ohio had quite a few participants in the attack. It's not right to single out Ohio, though: these men and women ranged in age from 17 to 77 and came from all but a few states.       The number of rioters charged is rapidly approaching 700; for context, it is believed up to 1,200 may have stormed the Capitol building. These cases are split roughly into two groups: nonviolent people who trespassed in the Capitol and violent people (some former military and dozens involved in militias like Oath Keepers and Proud Boys) who destroyed property and/or assaulted police and/or threatened members of Congress. The two men sentenced yesterday fell into the former group.      While members of the violent group deserve years behind bars, I ...

     Maurice Robert Gravel, better known as "Mike," is a lion of American history. Born in Massachusetts to French-Canadian immigrants during the Great Depression, he spoke only French until age seven and suffered from dyslexia that held him back in his education. He served in the military from 1951 to 1954 infiltrating spy rings in Germany and France, leaving the Roman Catholic faith in which he was educated soon after he returned to the U.S. In 1956, he moved to pre-statehood Alaska. He soon made a name for himself in local politics while going bankrupt because of financial misdeeds by his partner. In 1963, his luck turned around and he began two two-year terms in the Alaska House of Representatives, becoming the Speaker from 1965 to 1967. He established the Alaska State Commission for Human Rights and was the chief architect of the law creating the state's regional high school system, which proved especially beneficial to Alaskan Natives. He even toured 44 states as Pa...

     In 2019, Governor Northam signed a law codifying the legalization of commercial surrogacy for gay men in Virginia. It was technically already legal with the marriage and relationship equality ruling at the federal level in 2015 ( Obergefell v. Hodges ), but this law ensured it was implemented properly at the state level.      In 2020, Governor Northam signed a law instituting anti-discrimination protections in employment, the provision of goods and services, and all other areas involving sexual orientation and sexual identity. The law, significantly, included protections in hate crime laws.      On April 7th, 2020, Governor Northam signed two bills. The first allowed Virginians the right to change their legal gender without sex reassignment surgery, and the second allowed IDs to include a third gender, or "gender X," option.      In 2020, Governor Northam signed a bill banning medical and religious "gay conversion therapy"...

     LGBTQIA+ rights have been a topic of discussion in Switzerland for longer than they have been in many countries. Switzerland first legalized homosexuality in 1942 as World War II raged around them. The age of consent was equalized in a May 1992 referendum. LGB individuals were also allowed to serve in the military beginning in 1992, while the right to change legal gender was established the following year. Anti-discrimination laws in the provision of goods and services and in employment were passed in 1999 and there has been nationwide recognition of same-sex couples since 2007.      The past five years have seen more progress than the previous 50. There has been a de facto  ban on conversion therapy since 2016. The ban on MSMs donating blood was relaxed to a one-year deferral period in 2017. In 2018, laws allowed for the adoption of children by a single LGBT person and stepchild adoption by same-sex couples. In 2020, anti-discrimination laws for ...

     Some progressives are saying that the Build Back Better Act doesn't go far enough to address the roots of income inequality, and I agree; we could take some $10 trillion from America's billionaires and they would still live in luxury. However, I am proud of President Biden, who was largely dismissed in the early days of the 2020 primaries as an old dog unable to learn new tricks. $4.1 trillion is the largest investment in America in history (the Build Back Better Act and the Investment In Infrastructure And Jobs Act); it will create millions of jobs, provide millions of Americans broadband and clean drinking water, set America on track to cut carbon emissions in half by 2030, spare America the embarrassment of being the only developed nation without paid leave, address the black birth mortality and uninsured crises, and ensure racial justice in all of its provisions. The nearly $3 trillion tax increase for the wealthy and corporations is the largest in American histo...

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