A Liberal Lives In Wisconsin

     Today is an important day in the fight against the deadliest event in American history. I've long been a proponent of #FightForFive, or a goal of getting five out of six Americans fully vaccinated and boosted against coronavirus. As of today, more than five out of six Americans over the age of 12 have been at least partially vaccinated against coronavirus. Meanwhile, nearly 79 percent of Americans over five and 74 percent of all Americans, which also includes those under five who are not eligible to be vaccinated, have at least gotten the first dose, which means they will be fully vaccinated within a matter of weeks and boosted in the months to come; as of today, the majority of Americans over 50 and one in three of all fully vaccinated Americans have received their booster doses. 86 percent of Americans over 18 and virtually all Americans over 65 have been vaccinated.      Vaccine hesitancy is melting. More than 60 percent of the total population has ...

     Virginia was an important state for Democrats for one big reason: it was a testing ground for progressive policies in the South. Between 2020 and 2022, Democrats, with full control of the legislature and the governor's mansion, saw Virginia become the first Southern state to abolish the death penalty, legalize marijuana, raise the minimum wage to $15, cap the cost of insulin, mandate carbon neutrality by 2050, pass landmark LGBT2SQIA+ protections in line with those of states like California and New York, and on and on and on, from animal welfare to criminal justice reform, voting rights protection, and police reform.       When Republicans gained control of the executive branch and the Virginia Assembly, it appeared all was lost. That is not the case. With two special elections, Democrats have managed to maintain a slim majority in the Virginia Senate. With this, Governor Glenn Youngkin will be unable to roll back worker rights, restrict reproduct...

Education: Restored Wisconsin's two-thirds funding commitment for public schools. Secured the first increase in special education funding in a decade, $95 million. Increased funding for Wisconsin's technical college system by $25 million, the largest amount in nearly 30 years. Provided $45 million in funding for capacity building in the UW System. Secured the largest general aid increase in 15 years, with numbers one through four combined representing an additional $600 million+ for Wisconsin's schools. Distributed $110 million in federal funds to Wisconsin schools. Secured $1 billion in bonding authority, the largest amount in Wisconsin history, to repair Wisconsin's college buildings. Signed legislation expanding the definition of "minority student" to be more inclusive and modifying eligibility criteria for the minority teacher loan program. Extended the state college tuition freeze for four more years. Signed legislation requiring that state schools provid...

     Tens of millions of workers across the country will be getting raises over the next few years. With the labor movement at its strongest in nearly half a century, millions of workers will be going on strike. At the same time, states continue raising wages either as part of prior legislation incrementally working toward a $15 minimum wage or because their state minimum wages grow with inflation. Meanwhile, companies have felt the pinch and corporations with countless millions of employees are gradually working toward a $15 minimum wage. At this rate, 2022 will be the year that America's effective minimum wage, or the average minimum wage for American workers, hits $15. This would send a powerful message that $15, compared to 10 years ago, is no longer a "radical left idea," but the standard in business today.      Below is an incomplete list of some of the biggest companies that raised their minimum wage in 2021: Hobby Lobby: $18.50/Hour (43,000 Employe...

     In spite of all the setbacks, President Biden is on track to have one of the most successful first years of any president in U.S. history. Nearly 7 million jobs created, unemployment cut in half, unemployment rates reaching record lows in some states, and what is on track to be the best two-year economic growth in U.S. history, all thanks to the American Rescue Plan Act, as wages go up by historic amounts. The first major infrastructure legislation in 50 years. A record number of federal judiciary confirmations with record professional, racial, gender, and religious diversity. Nearly 80 percent of the nation vaccinated against COVID-19. Now, we must pass the Build Back Better Act, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, the Freedom to Vote Act, the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, and the Raise the Wage Act.       Another historic victory, in spite of what some might say, is the end of the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. America went to war for 20 ye...

       President Lyndon B. Johnson's administration was the most productive in terms of civil rights in U.S. history. He signed the Civil Rights Acts of 1964, 1965, and 1968, which banned discrimination based on race, religion, gender, and, later, age and disability status, in education, employment, transportation, housing, and voting. He appointed the first African-American cabinet member; Robert C. Weaver; the first African-American ambassador, Patricia Roberts Harris; and the first African-American Supreme Court justice, Thurgood Marshall. In 1967, the Supreme Court ruled in Loving v. Virginia that bans on interracial marriage were illegal, a day celebrated for 54 years since as Loving Day.       Therefore, it comes as no surprise that the first Kwanzaa would also be celebrated during this time. The first celebration occurred in 1966, from December 26th of that year until January 1st, 1967, the span of a week it has been held every year since. ...

       Literally dozens of instances of political violence have been planned or executed in the past few years by thousands of GOP operatives. This is not some small, deranged minority. The majority of Republicans either participate in or publicly or silently support it. From state capitol buildings to party headquarters and campaign events, no Democrat is safe from this domestic terrorism, but we will not back down. Instead, we will revel in the perpetrators getting the prison time they deserve. It is estimated that right-wing terror makes up about 70 to 80 percent of all attacks in the United States, compared with five to 15 percent each for Islamic and left-wing terror. This list, one that is far from complete and includes only the more high-profile cases, makes that fact pretty evident: February 2017 NYU Riot/Reporter Assault March 4 Trump 2017 Assaults June 2017 Islamberg Terrorist Plot August 2017 Unite The Right Rally August 2017 Oklahoma City Bombing Plot Aug...

     Republicans love their made-up crises. Supply chains, inflation, and unemployment: these are all real issues that were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and they were no worse in 2021 than in 2020. So, why all the media attention on these issues now? In 2020, our president took to Twitter on the daily to spread conspiracy theories, spout racist rhetoric, and otherwise shake the world's faith in America. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that these things don't happen with Joe Biden in the White House.      In terms of unemployment, Joe Biden has made more progress in a year than any president in history. Between January 2021 and January 2022, it is projected that nearly seven million jobs will have been created. Unemployment will return to pre-pandemic levels by mid-2022, unemployment claims are at their lowest level since 1969, and states around the nation are seeing record lows in unemployment. On the supply chain front, President Biden ...

     For all the rage I feel with the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict, especially knowing that the jury was in the right with the evidence they were allowed to see and that the judge was in the wrong with the evidence he allowed them to see, I have to have faith in America's criminal justice system. The Crumbleys have all been charged for the mass shooting in Oxford, and we must continue pressuring the United States Department of Justice to file additional charges against them as well as new charges against Kyle Rittenhouse and his mother.      At the same time, the system has worked in other cases. Derek Chauvin was convicted and sentenced to 22.5 years in state court for the murder of George Floyd and pled guilty with a presumptive sentence of 20 to 25 years in federal court while still facing state tax evasion charges. Gregory McMichael, Travis McMichael, and William Roddie Bryan were convicted of a combined total of 23 felony charges for the murder of Ahmaud A...

       At the height of right-wing hatred, in the 1990s, the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy was passed to statiate those who sought to ban gay people from serving in the military. It stated that gay people could not be fired from their military positions if they kept the fact that they were gay a secret.      The Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act, signed into law by President Barack Obama on December 22nd, 2010, and implemented the following year, allowed openly gay, bisexual, and lesbian people to serve in the military. Although Obama signed an executive order allowing transgender people to serve in 2016, it was repealed by the Trump administration via another executive order, and the status of transgender military service remains in legal limbo.

       A "Millionaire White Boys' Club." That's how Representative Cori Bush of Missouri accurately described the United States Postal Service Board of Governors back in 2019. This little-known board responsible for an agency so important that it was once a cabinet-level office first became a source of controversy back in 2006, when George W. Bush signed legislation that left the Post Office drowning in debt. Barack Obama appointed several members to this nine-person board but, after his loss of the Senate in 2014, was unable to get nominees for much of anything past Mitch McConnell. As a result, the board went a full five years unable to reach a quorum, or the minimum number of members needed to conduct business of any kind.      Unfortunately, the man responsible for filling these vacancies was Donald Trump, and he filled it with rich white men who wanted to sabotage the board. Under the Bush legislation, the highest number of governors any political...

     Between September 12th, 2001, and March 19th, 2003, President George W. Bush made more than 260 false statements about Saddam Hussein having weapons of mass destruction and being linked to al-Qaeda, the most of the core administration officials who made a total of nearly 1,000, galvanizing public opinion toward a war under false pretenses. In 2007, Bush decided to surge the number of troops in the country in spite of Hussein having been executed, and the nearly decade-long war killed more Americans than 9/11 did. The only difference is that the blood of these troops fell on America's president.      On December 15th, 2011, the United States, under President Barack Obama, officially ended the War in Iraq, although the troops would not leave the nation until four days later. The peace would not last long. The weak, corrupt Iraqi government and military of the time combined with the Syrian Civil War caused enough destabilization for al Qaeda's remnants (I...

       After a blockade of President Biden's ambassador appointees by Senator Ted Cruz, the Senate confirmed dozens of nominees Saturday night when Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer reached a deal. A total of 120 ambassador positions exist for foreign nations, international organizations, and at-large global issues. Confirming these men and women is critical for America's foreign policy, and last night saw a major victory in the continued fight to recover from the statutory neglect the State Department saw during the Trump era and the foreign policy fallouts that became of it.       Unlike President Trump, President Biden is focusing on appointing career diplomats over political donors and personal friends. Trump only appointed 56 percent career embassy officials; Biden is aiming to appoint at least 70 percent, which is the norm for presidents past. Keep track of the nominees and their confirmation status below: The Americas: Ambassador to Arge...

     One of the most lasting impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic will be, hopefully, the dismissal of the myth that protecting public health is somehow both fascism and socialism; those two political systems are diametrically opposed, but never mind that. We haven't had a pandemic of this scale since the beginning of the last century, and the Supreme Court ruled over and over back then that measures to stop disease through vaccine mandates were not unconstitutional, most notably in the 1905 case Jacobson v. Massachusetts , and that individual liberty is not absolute. Saying that someone can do whatever they want without consequences is anarchy and neutering the ability of states to implement measures like this is a slippery slope, something the highest court in the land noticed nearly 120 years ago in a seven-to-two decision.       Sure, the senators had their little symbolic vote last week. Only two Democrats joined all 50 Republicans and voted in f...

     President Biden has done more to prevent gun violence as a public figure than any person in U.S. history. As a senator, he was involved in passing the Brady Act, the Assault Weapons Ban, the Domestic Violence Offender Gun Ban, and other pieces of gun control legislation. As vice president under Barack Obama, he helped the president issue the most comprehensive executive orders on gun violence in history while working to pass legislation, coming close to an agreement but ultimately never reaching one in the wake of the devastating shooting at Sandy Hook.      Obviously, gun violence advocates have reason to be hopeful. Since he took office, President Biden has taken more executive action in his first year than any president in history to fight gun violence, combating ghost guns and firearms trafficking among numerous other actions. There are currently several bills before Congress, and we need to ensure at least some gun control legislation is passed in...

     Two very disturbing incidents of racism in Texas have concluded with two very different but very satisfying outcomes.       Let's start with Joey Derek Christian, a drunk man who went viral in April 2019 after hurling abusive language at a Muslim employee in an AT&T. He called the man, who went by Mo, a "fucking Arab" and said that people "like him" were the reason America was going to "what it's going to." Most disturbingly, he said, "I've been killing his kind." That was probably a reference to America's military activity in Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq, and numerous other Muslim-majority countries across the Middle East and North Africa. Thankfully, it appears he was not a veteran. Had he served in the military, this would have raised questions about potential violent conduct against civilians overseas. This phrase may have been a reference to the fact that he is a taxpayer and therefore co...

     On December 14th, 1995, Bill Clinton achieved landmark success with the signing of the Dayton Agreement, which brought an end to the Bosnian War. A result of the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991, the war resulted in ethnic cleansing and rapes being committed by Serbian forces against the Bosnian ethnic minorities, forcing NATO and the United Nations to intervene. Although initially successful due to Serbian support, the numerous proto-states involved were all eventually defeated. Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and dozens of other Serbians would later be deposed and convicted of war crimes, and the Dayton Agreement (which got its name for being signed in Dayton, Ohio) secured the independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina and relative regional stability for Eastern Europe while bringing an end to among the worst humanitarian disasters in European history.

     On December 13th, 2016, Barack Obama signed a piece of legislation with overwhelming bipartisan support that would prove to be the most significant investment made by the federal government into the research and prevention of disease in modern history. The 21st Century Cures Act provided a total of $6.3 billion in federal funding to numerous areas, mostly the National Institute of Health.      The law built upon the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, which was the first federal investment in addiction treatment in 40 years, by providing $1 billion in grants to states toward increasing monitoring of prescription drugs, expanding access to treatment programs, and hiring addiction-trained healthcare professionals.      The law also sped up FDA approval of prescription drugs and introduced targeted funding for rare diseases. Informed consent was eased to allow more people to receive healthcare treatment, $1.5 billion was given to fund...