A Liberal Lives In Wisconsin

     The story of Aaron von Ehlinger, I'm ashamed to say, was one I had not even heard of until the guilty verdict made national headlines. It's not really his story, but that of a teenage female intern who asked to remain anonymous, a Jane Doe who was brave enough to speak up and speak out against one of the most atrocious things that a human being can do in spite of being terrified. Ironically, the scandal coincided with Denim Day, which seeks to support sexual assault survivors, in both 2021 and 2022.      On March 9th, 2021, von Ehlinger asked Doe to go on a date with him. The young woman, who was living out her ambitions as an intern at the Idaho State Capitol, presumably aspiring to have a political career of her own someday, agreed. von Ehlinger picked her up a block from the Idaho Capitol and took her to dinner, after which they returned to his apartment. He asked her if she wanted to have sex (with a man old enough to be her father) but she said no. That didn't sto

     Kamala Harris made history when she was sworn into office as vice president on January 20th, 2021. She was the first woman, first black person and black woman, first Asian person and Asian woman, and first HBCU graduate to hold the second-highest office in the land, among numerous other historic firsts. However, breaking down barriers doesn't just mean attaining office: it means demonstrating that one can perform well in that office, regardless of race and gender. Vice President Harris has done just that.      Let's start with the only two duties given to the VP in the Constitution: breaking ties in the Senate and taking over if the president dies. The latter hasn't happened and hopefully never will, although Harris has been temporarily given the powers of the presidency on multiple occasions while President Biden has had routine medical procedures. Since taking office, Harris has also cast 17 tie-breaking votes. In 2021, she broke the record set by John Adams for tie-

       Many traditionally conservative states have elected Democratic governors over the past few years: Louisiana, Kentucky, and Kansas being among them. The results have been spectacular in all three states, especially in that lattermost state. In each of these three cases, the state has gone from being part of the journey to a destination for businesses small and large. Under Governor Laura Kelly, Kansas has enjoyed its best economy ever. Here are a few highlights: Cut property taxes for Kansans while also cutting taxes for teachers, farmers, and veterans. Restored full funding for the Kansas Water Plan for the first time in 15 years as well as full funding to the state's evidence-based juvenile justice, prevention, and rehabilitation programs and full funding to the state's schools every year of her administration. Closed KDOT and balanced the state budget. Made a $500 million deposit in Kansas' Rainy Day Fund, the largest in state history, which left its value five tim

     The Sedition Caucus is getting punished pretty badly this 117th Congress. Last month, Marjorie Taylor Greene, who was expelled from her committees last year and is currently facing a very real possibility of being prevented from running in the midterms for her support for "Marshall law," reported a fundraising loss last quarter, continuing a long decline in her hauls over the past year or so. Lauren Boebert's district was redrawn from solid red to competitive in the state's latest redistricting process. Matt Gaetz is still facing an active investigation for sex trafficking. Then there's Madison Cawthorn.      The young punk who advocates political violence came to increased public attention this year when he claimed that he had been invited to multiple "cocaine orgies" by fellow members of the GOP. The "constitutional conservative" and "Christian" who has been accused of sexual misconduct by 20 women and was called unfit for offi

     60 judges. In 10 months, 60 judges have been confirmed to the federal bench by the United States Senate, a rate that is likely to continue through the end of the year; 33 more judges are awaiting Senate action while dozens more vacancies remain to be filled in courts from California to Alabama. President Obama appointed 62 judges in his first two years; President Trump appointed 85; President Bush appointed 100. However, the president to beat is Bill Clinton, who appointed 128 judges in his first two years. I think President Biden can get closer to 150 judges confirmed in his first two years, which would be a record pace. I've already highlighted how these judges are incredibly diverse and are reshaping the federal judiciary. However, today I'd like to take a moment to highlight their unique qualifications.      Of these more than 90 judges, roughly 40 percent have been public defenders, the highest rate of any president in American history. His latest slate of five federa

       Securing peace and prosperity would prove to be the ultimate aim of President Bill Clinton's foreign policy, and his arms control policy was among the most successful in American history. He implemented the START I and START II Treaties negotiated between Russia and the United States during the Bush administration (these would later be superseded by President Obama's 2011 NEW START, renewed by President Biden in 2021).      On April 25th, 1997, Clinton secured Senate ratification of the Chemical Weapons Convention, which banned chemical weapons in all form and resulted in more than 99 percent of all chemical weapons in existence being safely destroyed with international collaboration. It was only the second treaty in world history, after the Biological Weapons Convention in 1975, to ban an entire form of WMD globally.      Clinton set his sights on a total nuclear test ban, building on the partial ban signed by President Kennedy in 1962, in September 1996. However, as of

     Alex Jones is one of the most despicable human beings to ever exist. Infowars has been around since well before Trump's name was mentioned as a presidential candidate because of his activity on Twitter. They took advantage of the surge in right-wing white supremacy that emerged after the election of Barack Obama in 2008 and brought much of that sentiment into mainstream conservatism alongside movements like the Tea Party. The man is a traitor who spoke to the crowd at the Ellipse on January 6th, a speech that helped rile up far-right extremists who served as the cover for militant groups like the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys to attempt to overthrow the government.      He claimed that free speech got crucified when he failed to show up to court and a summary judgement against him was granted in not one, not two, not three, but four separate cases. He could have had his day in court and instead decided to make a mockery of civil procedure and then cry foul when he had to pay

     Between Texas and Florida, it's a tight race for which one has more of a zeal for anti-business authoritarianism. Greg Abbott cost the nation billions of dollars, much of which will be felt by Texas taxpayers directly, with an expensive border inspection stunt that turned up zero illegal immigrants and not even an ounce of any illegal substance; Ron DeSantis gave the state of Florida a $1.6-billion annual tax increase by stripping Disney of its special tax status, shifting the burden for security and other costs onto the taxpayers.      Florida has a pretty good name for itself in the race to see which state can turn toward violent white supremacy most quickly, as well: Ron DeSantis couldn't bring himself to condemn Nazis that are multiplying like rabbits in the state, and his attempt at gerrymandering will take black Floridians right back to the era of Jim Crow. Both states are on track to surpass 100 arrests related to the Capitol riot relatively quickly. (Florida, howev

     Today is another historic day in the fight against COVID-19 for five reasons. First, Wyoming has become the 50th state to reach a partial vaccination rate of at least 70 percent in adults. On August 2nd, 2021, the nation as a whole reached a 70 percent partial vaccination rate among Americans over 18. The national rate is now well above 89 percent; a national rate of 90 percent vaccination for those over 65 in every state across the nation was reached long ago. However, leaving a single state with a subpar vaccination rate leaves the nation as a whole more vulnerable, which is why my #NinetyForNormalcy campaign has focused on states that have been more hesitant to get vaccinated. It also gives anti-vaccine morons fewer talking points when even the most conservative states are overwhelmingly vaccinated: South Dakota, for example, recently hit a partial vaccination rate of at least 90 percent for adults.      Secondly, New York has hit a partial vaccination rate of 90 percent for it

     Part of what made Taylor Hawkins' death so tragic was that it not only happened so unexpectedly, but at the pinnacle of his career. Hawkins, longtime drummer of the Foo Fighters, looked up to Queen drummer Roger Taylor, and the influence is obvious. Hawkins went above and beyond what most drummers do, working in tandem with lead vocalist Dave Grohl to serve as the backbone of the band, its personality, a relationship similar to the one Roger Taylor shared with Freddie Mercury. Hawkins even performed the vocals for "Somebody to Love," with Dave Grohl reprising his role on the drums, during their final tour in South America.      In the year or so immediately before Hawkins' death, the Foo Fighters were perhaps the busiest they had ever been. They performed at the inauguration of President Joe Biden in January 2021; released their tenth studio album, Medicine at Midnight , in February 2021; were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in their first year of el

     In 2016, when he announced that he would not be seeking the Democratic nomination for president that year, then-Vice President Biden said that his only regret was that he would have liked to have been the president who cured cancer. He had seen the War on Cancer launched 45 years prior and had even seen the cancer death rate fall by roughly 25 percent over the prior 25 years as smoking grew rarer. sex grew safer, the environment grew cleaner, and other risk factors declined. President Obama took notice and put Joe Biden in charge of the Beau Biden Cancer Moonshot, which, as part of the 21st Century Cures Act, secured $1.8 billion in cancer research funding at the NIH. Even after retiring between 2017 and 2019, President Biden worked to kill the cancer that killed his friend John McCain, his son Beau, and so many others, establishing a cancer charity that raised more than $400 million for research and treatment in less than two years.       Therefore, it's no surprise that he h

     The Space Council was established by an executive order signed by President George H.W. Bush in 1989. However, within a few years, friction between several high-ranking White House officials led to the Space Council being disbanded in 1992. Presidents Clinton and Bush chose not to reestablish it. President Obama ran on reestablishing the Space Council, but he never did. I was glad when President Trump reestablished the Space Council in June 2017.      I'm no fan of President Trump's: he ranks among Presidents Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, and Andrew Johnson as among the worst presidents among American history. However, I shun idealism in favor of pragmatism, and I don't care who gets credit for programs I support: I just want to see them get done. Space research makes up a tiny percentage of American spending and an even tinier portion of its GDP, yet has been responsible for most of America's significant scientific and technological breakthroughs as well as ser

     I'm trying to make this point clear to people: the Build Back Better Agenda is not dead. Whether it is delayed by a few more months or passed in two separate bills this summer and this autumn, it is going to happen. When the American Rescue Plan Act, Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, U.S. Innovation and Competition Act, Build Back Better Agenda, Honoring Our PACT Act, and action on student loans and Made-In-America are taken into consideration, President Biden is on track to have the most impactful economic agenda passed in a two-year period by any American president since Lyndon B. Johnson.      The Omnibus Appropriations Act for 2023 will be among these; there's a reason it's called "Biden's Big Agenda" or "the Other BBB." This bill would: Make college more affordable by doubling the Pell Grant and investing billions of dollars in HBCUs, TCUs, and other MSIs. Drastically increase national security funding in virtually every government de

     Donald Trump, with the exception of his corporate tax cuts, built his presidency on a lie. In his inaugural address, he pledged to rebuild America's roads and bridges, balance the budget, and build a new healthcare system, none of which occurred. In November 2021, President Biden delivered what Trump talked about one week each year for four years and secured a $550 billion boost to American manufacturing, the most comprehensive investment in America's infrastructure ever and the largest since Eisenhower was in the White House.       Now, it's up to President Biden to get to work on the second of those three issues. President Biden often gets called a deficit spender, but the fact is that the opposite has proven true. The American Rescue Plan Act, Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Honoring Our PACT Act, and Bipartisan Innovation Act, if and when the final two are passed, should increase spending by a combined total of roughly $3.1 trillion dollars. With the confir

     The Sarbanes-Oxley Act was passed in the wake of the Enron scandal to close evidence tampering law loopholes by defining the law broadly and making it a crime to hinder or obstruct an official proceeding. Since the January 6th insurrection, nearly 800 people have been charged, including nearly 300 who have been charged with corruptly obstructing an official proceeding, a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison. This is a novel new use of the law and has been upheld by all but one of the judges who reviewed its use; this judge is currently considering reversing his previous ruling.      Another rare charge being brought against Capitol rioters is civil disorder, a felony punishable by up to five years in prison. Codified in the Riot Control Act of 1968, it was rarely used after Nixon left the White House until the Trump administration, which charged nearly 30 individuals with civil disorder. To date, the Garland Justice Department has charged dozens of individuals with civil

     With the American Rescue Plan Act creating the demand necessary to bring unemployment to a 55-year low and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act spurring an increase in demand for the materials needed for America's historic $1.2 trillion infrastructure investment, which will have the snowball effect of making this type of economic activity even easier once the projects are completed, it's clear to see why America is experiencing such a historic economic recovery in nearly every sector, including those that have been languishing and declining for decades. The economy is set to get another boost within the next few weeks, one that will also help combat inflation and secure supply chains, with the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act. It's not just legislation, either: President Biden has taken executive action increasing the threshold for a product to be considered "Made-In-America" from 55 percent to 75 percent and launching a major Made-In-America export

     The world of music on YouTube is a strange one, but it is certainly one worth following, especially when gauging how well some of our favorite artists from decades past fare in the modern era. Just last week, for example, Guns 'N' Roses hit 10 million subscribers; the band has also made headlines in the past few years as the songs "November Rain" and "Sweet Child O' Mine" each surpassed a billion views. Bands like Nirvana, whose song "Something in the Way" was recently featured in the box office hit The Batman , and Linkin Park have encountered similar success.      Compared to these two groups, Audioslave's YouTube channel is relatively young in spite of the fact that the supergroup's three albums all came out in the 2000s. All of the music videos and audio were uploaded to YouTube via VEVO roughly a decade ago, but the dedicated YouTube channel was not created until Thanksgiving in 2020. Since then, it has exploded, garnering 380

     Since taking office in January 2021, President Biden has signed 13 major pieces of legislation: American Rescue Plan Act PPP Extension Act COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act Juneteenth National Independence Day Act Capitol Police Congressional Gold Medal Act RENACER Act Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act Capitol Police Emergency Assistance Act Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act National Defense Authorization Act, 2022 Omnibus Appropriations Act, 2022 (including Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act) Emmett Till Antilynching Act Postal Service Reform Act      There are several laws passed that come close to being landmark but are not: there was the suspension of permanent normal trade relations with Russia and Belarus, a retroactive ban on forced arbitration of sexual assault claims, the reform of the Victims of Crime Act Fund, the HAVANA Act, bills supporting law enforcement and veterans, and much more. There are several such bills pending, most notably the Ocean Shipping Reform Ac

       Jimmy P. Anderson is a Democratic lawmaker in the Wisconsin State Assembly. Aside from being paralyzed from the waist down after being hit by a drunk driver,  he lost both his parents and his younger brother. Rather than being accomodating, Robin Vos decided to not allow Anderson to phone into a legislative session when he was unable to make it to the state capitol.      The only paralyzed lawmaker in the state was effectively prevented from participating in the roles of the office to which he was elected because the Assembly Speaker, that being you, Mr. Vos, decided to discriminate based on his disability. 

     Between 1994 and 2000, President Bill Clinton, who signed the FACE Act into law in May 1994, arrested 60 individuals for violating it; a total of 71 individuals were prosecuted in 46 cases and 17 civil suits were filed between 1994 and 2005. This law, signed to combat violent crimes against abortion providers and attacks on clinics, makes it a crime punishable by up to a year in federal prison to obstruct or attempt to obstruct an abortion clinic. Most often, it is accompanied by other, more serious felony charges, like conspiracy or communicating terrorist threats. During the Bush administration, less than 20 were indicted, and the rate during the Obama administration didn't get much better; by the time Trump took office, only a handful would be indicted over the course of four years.      President Biden served in the U.S. Senate during the Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush Sr., Clinton, and Bush, Jr. administrations before serving as VP under Barack Obama. Carter and Clinto

     Criminal justice reform will be a priority this 117th Congress, especially this spring. Already, private prison contracts with the federal government have resulted in 5,000 inmates being transferred while the implementation of the First Step Act has provided early release for thousands more. Nearly 200 judicial nominees are on track to be confirmed this session, more than virtually any in United States history, including the completed confirmation of Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first black woman and the first public defender to serve on SCOTUS. Hate crimes laws have been drastically overhauled with the signing of the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act and the Emmett Till Antilynching Act. The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act needs to be signed into law, but, whether or not it is, executive action on police reform will be taken.      This spring, the focus will be on drug policy, in particular. Just last week, it was brought to light that the EQUAL Act has 10 Republican cosponsors, which