A Liberal Lives In Wisconsin

     The availability of vaccines for children five to 11 has ramped up America's vaccination campaign by giving tens of millions of young Americans an opportunity to get vaccinated. If the five to 11 age group follows the trends for others, the majority will be vaccinated by the end of the year. This is already producing results in the most liberal and most conservative states, highlighting how vaccines, and coronavirus as a whole, should not be a political issue.      Americans have been wondering why the pandemic was not over in August when the nation hit a 70 percent rate of vaccinations. The answer? The media has, quite frankly, done a terrible job covering the pandemic and the vaccine. August saw the United States hit a 70 percent rate of Americans over 18 getting their first dose. Aside from the fact that this implied the U.S. would not hit 70 percent full vaccination of this age group until September, we needed to get 70 percent of the TOTAL populat...

     Nobody will ever surpass George Washington's impact on the federal court system. As America's first president, he appointed 39 federal judges, a number that would not be surpassed until the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant. However, because he was the first president, these judges represented the entirety of America's federal judiciary, including 11 Supreme Court justices.       Other presidents are notable for their impact on the federal courts: as I said, Ulysses Grant; but also Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Harrison, Grover Cleveland, William Howard Taft, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and, unfortunately, Donald Trump.      I am grateful that President Biden has recognized how imperative it is that he join these men. His impact on the judiciary, however, goes far beyond his current work as president and his role as vice president under Barack Obama. As a senator, Biden was the chair of ...

     On February 5th and March 4th, 2021, Kamala Harris cast her first three tie-breaking votes in the United States Senate, securing congressional passage of the American Rescue Plan Act.       On April 21st, 2021, Harris cast her fourth tie-breaking vote to confirm Colin Hackett Kahl to be Under Secretary of Defense for Policy.      On June 22nd, 2021, Harris cast her fifth and sixth tie-breaking votes to confirm Kiran Arjandas Ahuja as Director of the Office of Personnel Management.      On July 20th and 21st, 2021, Harris cast her seventh and eighth tie-breaking votes to confirm Jennifer Ann Abruzzo to be General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board.      On September 30th, 2021, Harris cast her ninth tie-breaking vote to confirm Rohit Chopra to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.       On October 20th, 2021, Harris cast her 10th and 11th tie-breaking votes to conf...

       Waukesha has been through a lot. In 2014, the community was home to the internationally-infamous "Slenderman stabbings" in which two girls attempted to murder their friend to appease the fictional horror character and were given lengthy terms in mental hospitals. Now, Waukesha is home to the 2021 Christmas parade tragedy, celebrating its 125th anniversary and holding a Christmas parade (after COVID cancelled the 2020 parade) with a message of joy. That was put to an end when a monster named Darrell Brooks, Jr., plowed into the parade and killed six people, an eight-year-old boy named Jackson Sparks and several of the "Dancing Grannies," a marching group involved in charitable causes in their community. Sparks fled and took advantage of a stranger's kindness, using said stranger's phone after claiming to be homeless and even having a sandwich made for him by the homeowner, who, seeing Brooks in a t-shirt and without shoes or socks in 30-degree weather,...

     The Build Back Better Act is the most wide-reaching, liberal bill in American history. It will make the largest investment in fighting climate change in American history, essentially provide universal childcare, lower the cost of prescription drug prices, expand healthcare for 10 million Americans, cut child poverty in half, fund care for millions of older Americans, make the largest investment in housing in American history, and overhaul the nation's immigration system, among countless other provisions. It will also invest in America's education system.      The Build Back Better Act is a racial justice bill through and through. It will reduce the high black uninsured rate, end the black maternal health crisis, give 40 percent of clean energy benefits to disadvantaged communities, and more. Its biggest education benefits, therefore, will also go to communities of color. Specifically, the Build Back Better Act will fulfill President Biden's promise to ...

     Everyone was disappointed by the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict. However, as I stated yesterday, we need to use this anger to continue to pursue justice instead of growing pessimistic or otherwise negative. At the same time, we must also recognize that we scored some major victories in the fight to eradicate racism and white supremacy across the United States.      On November 15th, the same day as the Rittenhouse verdict, noted white supremacist and conspiracy theorist who made a living as the host of Infowars (basically the predecessor to the modern mainstream conservative media) Alex Jones lost a fourth lawsuit related to his conspiracy theories claiming that the Sandy Hook shooting was staged and that the victims and their families were crisis actors. This rhetoric led to violent harassment and stalking of the already-grieving families, and Jones' knowingly-false words will cost him after he failed to produce evidence and default judgments were entered i...

       Two very different cases, two very different legal processes, and two very different verdicts. On November 15th, Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted for his psycho vigilante murder of two men and attempt to murder another in my home state of Wisconsin after an inept (at best) prosecutor argued before one of the most crooked, racist judges in the country, Judge Bruce Schroeder.      On November 24th, Travis and Gregory McMichael and William "Roddie" Bryan were convicted of a combined total of 19 of the 24 counts of malice murder, felony murder, and aggravated assault. When their attorneys tried to call Ahmaud Arbery a man with "khaki shorts and dirty toenails," asked for a blanket ban on black pastors in the room, and tried to hide the Confederate flag plate the McMichaels had, the judge in that case tolerated zero bullshit.       Still, the two cases share one thing in common: the fight for justice is far from over. In the case of...

     I would have given her longer. Niviane Petit-Phelps, a Florida nurse, was sentenced to a year and a day in prison after pleading guilty in September to a felony indictment. Phelps has been in custody since April, which means she will likely be released in February. The charge? Threatening to kill Kamala Harris! That one, the sitting vice president of the United States.      In February 2021, she recorded a series of videos saying she had accepted $53,000 to carry out a hit on Harris and sent them to her incarcerated husband. She also sent him images of herself at a gun range after applying for a concealed carry permit. Why the judge decided to have mercy on her I have no idea. Sure, she's now a felon. She'll never work as a nurse again, federal prison isn't easy, she'll be on probation and get counseling after her release, and this will forever be her legacy. However, she bought a gun after threatening to kill an elected official.      ...

     President Biden's approach to COVID has included not just furthering America's recovery, but expanding it to areas his predecessor ignored. For example, President Biden announced tens of billions of dollars in funding to prevent most Americans from having to shut off their heat this winter, put the U.S. on track to fully restore employment by mid-2022, protected the solvency of retirements for millions of Americans, boosted wages, surged funds to combat domestic violence, and more. Now, we can add fortifying America's supply chain to this list.      The media whipped up a frenzy with images of cargo ships in Los Angeles and Long Beach last month, enough of a frenzy that the likes of Judge Schroeder brought it up after his racist comment about Asians and before letting a neo-Nazi get away with murder. They weren't so keen on talking about what happened afterward, though.      America's supply chain was disrupted in 2020 as well as 2021 be...

     Joel Greenberg is most noted for being a human trafficker and an associate of U.S. Representative Matt Gaetz, with whom he had drug-fueled parties with teenagers across the United States. However, this was just the tip of the iceberg for Greenberg's activities. He pled guilty to six charges in May and faces 12 years to life in federal prison, but he was initially charged with 33 crimes. Among these were theft, SBA loan fraud, cryptocurrency fraud, and aggravated identity theft. Furnishing his despicable lifestyle required despicable acts of fraud, I guess.      Greenberg was initially scheduled to be sentenced in August but asked for his date to be pushed back until October. Now, Greenberg has succeeded in getting his sentencing pushed back until March 2022. Let's get one thing clear: this is bad news for his co-conspirators, potentially including Gaetz. Greenberg was, without dispute, the ringleader, and they are letting him push back his sentencing a...

     From cradle to grave, the Build Back Better Act is an investment that will directly improve the lives of tens of millions of Americans and reduce the cost of being a member of the middle class by more than 10 percent. However, those who stand to benefit the most from this bill are children. Passed by the House, the Build Back Better Act must go to the Senate for a tie vote that will be broken by Vice President Kamala Harris before heading to President Biden's desk to be signed into law. If we can do this, we will be able to look our kids in the eyes and tell them that we can, and, when we can, they can.       This bill invests in maternal care, including the Black Health Momnibus Act, a bill that will end the black maternal health crisis and provide funding for prenatal and postnatal care for babies that need it most.       This bill will secure universal pre-k for three- and four-year-olds across the country, a major victory f...

     The United States is on track to surpass 70 percent of its total population partially vaccinated by the end of the month and fully vaccinated by the end of the year. This is the milestone we have been waiting for. Those who were wondering why the pandemic was not over in August failed to see that it takes more than 70 percent partial vaccination of those over 18 to end the pandemic. 70 percent of ALL Americans need to be FULLY vaccinated, and that included waiting for vaccines to be approved for kids ages five through 17. 99.9 percent of elderly people and 83.33 percent of people 18 and older should be fully vaccinated by the end of the year.      This is huge, but even this in itself is not enough to end the pandemic. To do this, the progress needs to be national; that is, each and every state needs to surpass 70 percent vaccination of its residents. There have always been a few states that have been leaders in vaccination: Hawaii, Maryland, Rhode Isl...

     When people think of housing, they probably think of FDR, Harry Truman, and Lyndon Johnson, the former passing the Housing Acts of 1934 and 1937 that created the model for the modern 30-year mortgage and launched the first housing vouchers as part of his "New Deal," the middle passing the Housing Act of 1949 that created 800,000 news homes as part of his "Fair Deal," and the latter passing the Civil Rights Act of 1968 that banned housing discrimination as part of his "Great Society." Modern Democrats, however, deserve more credit than they get.      During his administration, Bill Clinton secured tens of billions of dollars in additional funding for the Department of Housing and Urban Development to build hundreds of thousands homes, the largest housing investment to date, while also achieving the largest home ownership rate of any president in U.S. history, nearly 70 percent. President Obama focused on homelessness, cutting the overall rate by 15 per...

     Appalachia is a beautiful region spanning 13 states with some of the most industrious people in the nation: 25 million of them. However, as America's economy continues its transition away from coal, among other factors, Appalachia has been left behind.      The Appalachian Regional Commission is a government body founded in 1965 tasked with changing that, and it has seen tremendous success over the years. It has reduced the number of counties below the poverty line from 295 to 91, cut the infant mortality rate by nearly 70 percent, doubled the percentage of high school graduates, and created hundreds of thousands of jobs by leveraging private funding to bolster its annual budget. In recent years, it has increasingly focused on the drug and alcohol overdose crisis.      The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, better known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, makes the largest single investment in Appalachia in U.S. history. It inclu...

     Today is a landmark day in the fight to end COVID-19. 80 percent of Americans over the age of 12 have now officially gotten the first dose of the vaccine, which means 80 percent of Americans over 12 will be fully vaccinated against the virus by Christmas. 70 percent of Americans over age 12 already are. What a gift to the American people!      There are some notable numbers within this broad categorization of vaccination rates, each of which gives us some more hope that we will see the end of the deadliest event in American history. The rate of seniors (65+) who have gotten vaccinated is now 99.9 percent, which is the highest rate of vaccination we can get and will leave the population of seniors with near-full immunity by the end of the year.      Boosters are also significant, especially for these seniors. The first round of booster shots is available for more than 60 percent of Americans, including for those above 50 and with certain ...

     President Biden has announced his goal of making America carbon-neutral by 2050, starting with the goal of cutting America's emissions in half by 2030. This has involved a whole-of-government approach in addition to collaboration with the private sector and nations around the world to combat the crisis of a generation.      Executive actions taken include restoring environmental protections gutted by Donald Trump; halting the Keystone XL Pipeline; announcing a goal of protecting 30 percent of America's land in federal hands by 2030 while beginning the phaseout of coal on these lands; proposing halts to oil and gas exploration and fracking on this territory; restoring and strengthening America's car emissions standards; and more.      The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, signed by President Biden on November 15th, 2021, includes nearly $150 billion in funding for climate-specific projects over the next eight years. From overhauling...

     I cannot make clear enough that, while it is the lynchpin of the Black Lives Matter movement, police reform is far from the only issue essential to black Americans. President Biden's American Rescue Plan Act included a $4 billion payment to black farmers, something they had sought for years to compensate for a century's worth of being essentially excluded from USDA lending and losing 90 percent of their farms as a result. He launched a nationwide initiative to help resolve issues of racial discrimination codified into centuries-old laws for black landowners, launched the largest initiative against redlining in American history, and formed a HUD task force aimed at ending the practice of underpraising homes owned by black Americans. He signed the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act to prevent these crimes against Asian-Americans, signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act to make Juneteenth a national holiday, and restored diversity to the federal executive and judicial...

     There are dozens of human rights and regional stability concerns that have made Myanmar this project's foreign policy focus. One of them and certainly the one that has, unfortunately, been able to garner the most attention in the global media is the detention of two American journalists in Myanmar. I say unfortunately because, as horrific as what these two men faced is, the reason they have been covered more than any other aspect of the coup is because they are American. I say this as an American: it's time for us to step up for the people of Myanmar and for the stability of Southeast Asia as a whole.      Freedom of the press is the most fundamental of freedoms aside from perhaps the freedom to vote; while the former is so sacred that it is enshrined by the principle of democracy itself and not in any constitutional amendment, the latter is featured alongside speech, religion, assembly, and petition in America's first amendment. Press gives people the...

       The U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) is, without question, the most famous federal law enforcement in the nation. Like U.S. attorneys, they are appointed by the president to fill 94 positions around the country. While President Biden has nominated 60 federal judges and 37 U.S. attorneys to date, Friday saw the president announce his first two nominees to be U.S. marshals. This list will continually be updated to reflect both the nomination of more marshals and the confirmation of nominees: Eddie Frizell would be the first black man to be the U.S. Marshal for the District of Minnesota. LaDon Reynolds is another black man who would be the U.S. Marshal for the Northern District of Illinois.

     Steve Bannon is a joke. This felon who scammed America with his fundraiser to "build the wall" and went to prison got pardoned by Donald Trump only to face state charges in New York. An early adviser to the twice-impeached, one-term former president and failed blogger, Bannon fell out of favor with the Great Pumpkin in 2017 before returning as an informal adviser to the two-time electoral loser at the end of 2020. Bannon is the host of a little-known podcast, and he happened to be talking about Latino support for President Trump while MSNBC announced some news in the background: Bannon had been indicted by the Department of Justice for contempt of Congress.      Bannon was involved in planning the insurrection on January 6th. The January 6th Committee, a bipartisan group of House lawmakers tasked with investigating the attack on America's Capitol, held Bannon in contempt in October after he refused to comply with a subpoena to testify before them, and ...

     Derek Chauvin's misery has just begun, but it's safe to say he'll get what he deserves. In 2020, he was fired after killing George Floyd. The day before his arrest, his wife, with whom he had no children, did the smart thing for herself and filed for divorce, which included changing her name back to her maiden one; this divorce was finalized in February 2021. Then came his April 2021 conviction and June 2021 sentence of 22.5 years in prison; he'll be eligible for release in 2035. Meanwhile, he is also facing state tax evasion and federal civil rights violations charges; the latter stems from both his killing of George Floyd and a 2017 incident in which in kneeled on a black child's neck until he went unconscious. Floyd has pleaded not guilty in both cases and faces decades more in prison, with trials set for spring 2022. Meanwhile, the other three officers who killed George Floyd (J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane, and Tou Thao) are set to go on state and federal...

       Created by the Federal Reserve Act in 1913, the Federal Reserve is America's central bank. It maximizes employment, stabilizes prices, and moderates long-term interest rates. With the Great Depression and numerous other financial disasters in the past century, its importance in America's economy has continued to grow. The Senate is tasked with confirming presidential appointees to this critical institution's Board of Governors. We've talked a lot about undoing Trump's damage to the federal judiciary, U.S.P.S. Board of Governors, and countless other federal agencies, but Donald Trump also had a greater opportunity than most to shape the Federal Reserve: he promoted Jerome Powell to chair it and appointed four more members of the seven-member board. There are currently five Republicans and one Democrat.       Now, President Biden needs to get to work reshaping the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. On February 5th, 2022, Powell's term as cha...

     Donald Trump had three major pushes during his administration: tax cuts for the rich, the repeal of Obamacare, and his COVID stimulus bills. The tax cuts for the rich and COVID stimulus bills passed, but he failed at his repeal of Obamacare. There were, of course, other promises he broke, including building a border wall with Mexico and building the Keystone XL Pipeline, both of which are now dead thanks to President Biden's executive action.       Compare the two successful major pushes during the entire Trump administration with the three major pushes President Biden is on track to pass in his first year in office. The American Rescue Plan Act passed and, combined with executive action to put public health over politics, helped vaccinate well over 70 percent of Americans in just 10 months and created more than 6 million jobs in the same period of time. Donald Trump, meanwhile, the "jobs president," created 6.7 million jobs in his first three yea...

     The Build Back Better Act contains a huge portion of President Biden's agenda and provides a launchpad upon which to base all of his future initiatives as president. To clarify some of the confusion and misunderstanding around the bill, I have included a partial list of its historic provisions below. We need to pass this bill (like we did the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act) by Thanksgiving so that we can build back better from this pandemic and continue pushing on to issues like police reform, voting rights, etc. The bill will: Implement fines of $100,000 for illegal union busting, the first penalties for employers in history. Allow up to four weeks of paid and medical leave. Allow Medicare to negotiate lower prices for prescription drugs. Cap the cost of insulin at $35 per month. Impose a tax penalty if drug companies increase their prices faster than inflation. Place a cap of $2,000 per year for drug costs for seniors under Medicare Part D. Reduce premiums ...