A Liberal Lives In Wisconsin

     May 27th, 2022, was a significant day in the fight to combat violent domestic extremism, which has been a priority of this project since the Capitol insurrection on January 6th. The conservative whining over the attack on a pro-life group's office is as amusing as it is hypocritical. Charlie Kirk, in the same tweet he downplayed the Capitol insurrection in, asked why "the Left" was "allowed to firebomb" the building. Hard to believe the guy who thought a dolphin fetus was a human being isn't the sharpest tool in the shed.      On May 27th, white supremacist Timothy Louis Hale-Cusanelli was convicted of a felony and four misdemeanors for his actions during the insurrection on January 6th. While not accused of any violence or property destruction, he could face a maximum of 23.5 years in prison. He has already spent more than 16 months in custody and will remain in custody until his sentencing date, likely this autumn. His defense was that he didn't k...

     From the moment he got into office, President Biden laid out a vision for rebuilding America's economy and building it back better. An economic aid package to restore full employment and the largest investment in our nation's infrastructure have already been achieved while Congress works to pass the Bipartisan Innovation Act, which we be a massive accomplishment on par with the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and, now that the confirmation of Ketanji Brown Jackson is over and the finishing touches are being put on BIA, the Build Back Better Agenda, the final part of President Biden's economic push.      The Build Back Better Act that fizzled out in December 2021 had three main components: expanding the social safety net, fighting climate change, and raising taxes on the wealthy and corporations to pay for it. With the Russo-Ukrainian War, a war that Russia is losing badly thanks to the bravery of the Ukrainian people and Volodymyr Zelenskyy as ...

       The nonpartisan CBO released a positive report delivering two pieces of good news for America's economy. After record growth in 2021 and a brief shock in 2022 owing to inflation, it appears that America will still see its economy grow at least 3.1 percent in 2022, bringing the total to 8.8 percent in two years and allaying fears of a recession for now. The second piece of good news was the revelation that the worst of inflation is likely behind us and America's inflation rate should hit a comfortable low of two percent by 2024.      This backs up the evidence shown in the April 2022 CPI (Consumer Price Index) Report. Inflation hit a 40-year high of 8.6 percent in March 2022 before dipping slightly to 8.3 percent in April. Core inflation was reduced from six percent to four percent, which means that inflation should continue to decline in the months to come. This was before Congress confirmed President Biden's nominees to the Federal Reserve and ...

     The Russian government and Russian army is filled with murderers, war criminals, rapists, and all the other forms of scum that walk the Earth. Every Russian soldier killed, every Russian family ripped to shreds is a small victory for the rule of law, for democracy, for prosperity, and for humanity. We've already seen their actions contrasted against the compassion of the Ukrainian people, military, and legal system in a court of law. Within the past 10 days, one man pleaded guilty to war crimes for shooting a 62-year-old man riding his bike in a Russian-occupied city and was sentenced to life in prison while two more pleaded guilty to shelling Ukraine from Russia and face up to 12 years in prison when sentenced.      Since the war began, Russia has had an estimated 30,000 troops killed and 30,000 more injured, deserted, or captured, effectively taking 60,000 troops off of the battlefield out of their initial invasion force of roughly 175,000. This repr...

     I'd like to make one thing clear: the Build Back Better Agenda is not dead; Senator Ron Johnson's latest ad takes pride in his continued opposition to "Senate liberals' reckless reconciliation bill." President Biden has already signed into law the American Rescue Plan Act, which is set to restore America to full employment in a matter of weeks from now. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act represents the largest investment in our nation's infrastructure since the Eisenhower administration and the most comprehensive such law in the history of the United States. This new and improved infrastructure, which will employ two million people in its repair, sets the perfect stage for the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act, which will create or retain three million jobs by countering China, restoring American leadership in science and technology, strengthening our supply chains, fighting climate change, and much more, lowering costs for American families. Th...

     Since that fateful day on January 6th, more than 800 people have been arrested and charged with serious federal crimes. Of these, 300 have pleaded guilty, while four have been convicted of numerous felony charges each at jury trials and men were convicted and acquitted of misdemeanor charges respectively at two separate bench trials. I have already compiled a tracker for the statuses of all the January 6th cases based on who has been sentenced, who has been found guilty, and who has been acquitted or died. (The federal government has a conviction rate of well over 99 percent as of today, which is quite impressive.) However, a similarly fluid tracker of settled and upcoming trials is just as important. Trials will be far fewer and gather much more attention than guilty pleas, and the people who fight every day to bring these marauders of America's most sacred space to justice need to know and make sure America never forgets: Done: Guy Reffitt (Texas): convicted by a ...

     Last November, I made the announcement that President Biden had appointed his first two nominees to be U.S. marshals, the chief federal law enforcement officers in their districts, the same districts that U.S. attorneys serve as chief prosecutors. These nominees, like President Biden's nominees to be U.S. attorneys, have been historic, overwhelmingly people of color. In my opinion, appointing marshals is just as important as or more important than appointing U.S. attorneys. The DOJ is working to systematically overhaul its policing protocols: the U.S. Marshals Service is the largest law enforcement agency in the country, making nearly 100,000 arrests every year, and it has been involved in some of the more high-profile instances of police brutality in the United States. Appointing qualified nominees committed to building trust in the communities they serve and implementing reforms to keep everyone safer is crucial in helping law enforcement and people of color alike...

He comes from a little town called Braddock. Located in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, this town has one of the highest violent crime rates, worst poverty levels, and longest continuous declines in population in U.S. history, from 20,000 to 2,000 over the course of 65 years. He was elected mayor by a single vote , his own, but he won reelection twice for his efforts to create opportunity for youth and bring business back to the town. His approach was so innovative and progressive that he even gave multiple TED Talks ( Video 1 / Video 2 / Video 3 / Video 4 ) on his work as mayor. During his 13 years as mayor, he had Braddock's area code as well as the dates of all five murders tattooed on his arm; thanks in part to his work, he didn't have to add any during his last five years. Braddock is full of history. Named after Edward Braddock , who was killed in his first engagement in the French and Indian War, an engagement that launched the military career of George Washington, Fetterma...

     On May 20th, 2009, President Barack Obama signed the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act in response to the housing crisis brought about during the 2007-2008 recession. Part of this law was the Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing (HEARTH) Act, which mandated the United States come up with a strategy to combat homelessness and created new vouchers to help homeless people.      Under this law, on June 22nd, 2010, President Obama announced the Opening Doors Initiative, which sought to reduce homelessness by focusing on veterans and families as well as collaboration between the Departments of VA and HDU and state and local governments. This was further bolstered on June 4th, 2014, when First Lady Michelle Obama launched the Mayors Challenge to End Veteran Homelessness. By 2016, nearly 1,000 mayors, governors, and county executives joined the challenge.      It worked, and better than anyone could have ever imagine...

     There were a lot of positive results from the May 17th, 2022, primaries in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Idaho, Oregon, and Kentucky. In Pennsylvania, Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman won the nomination for Senate; Fetterman, the former mayor of Braddock, was hospitalized just days before the primary with a stroke, joining the current Democratic senators from Maryland and New Mexico who have suffered strokes this year. The shorts-wearing, swearing giant gained notoriety for taking on Trump and for his mix of progressive values and blue-collar mannerisms. The GOP primary is too close to call: I hope Dr. Oz wins, as he is the easier target in spite of his Trump endorsement.      In North Carolina, Representative Madison Cawthorn was defeated not because of his support for Nazis or the January 6th insurrection, but because of the images and videos showing him wearing a lingerie and humping his cousin as well as his "cocaine orgy" remarks. I predicted l...

     The shooting in Buffalo made me indescribably sad. Today, it's made me mad. Nothing ever can and ever will bring back those ten poor souls who died or those who were wounded, those in the city of Buffalo and New York state who are mourning, and those millions around the world who feel a lot less safe today. However, we are not powerless to act: we need to turn our anguish into action. The mass murderer wanted to serve as an inspiration for future violence. Instead, we can achieve the opposite and make sure future acts of race-based violence are prevented: Hold the bastard accountable. Payton Grendon murdered 10 people and wounded three others in one of the worst hate crimes in American history. He needs to be federally charged for his actions, and, while the death penalty is off the table at the state or the federal level, he needs to spend the rest of his worthless life in solitary confinement at a maximum security federal prison.  Fill New York's federal benc...

     Nearly half of Republicans believe in the Great Replacement Theory. It's a sad realization that has hit many Americans, but the GOP is no longer simply a political party on the opposite side of the aisle: it is a cesspool of hate and domestic extremism. Earlier this week, my seven-year-old niece, who splits her time between the home of her father and her mother, told me about her grandpa's "Fuck Joe Biden" sticker on his truck. In the same breath, she told me about a close friend of hers who said he "hates black people." He's also seven. This was at her father's: her mother, upon being told, tried to pin the blame on "phone time," not on the fact that she, like her friend, is a Trump supporter, and that's what Trump supporters believe: just a few blocks away from her home, there is a sign comparing Governor Tony Evers to Hitler for his COVID safety measures. We can do what we can with the limited time we have her, but still I worry...

     Over the past few days, I've been highlighting the historic 23 tie-breaking votes cast by Vice President Kamala Harris, including six over the period of 60 hours. Part of the reason is that, as work on a new Build Back Better Act as well as the Bipartisan Innovation Act and 2023 Consolidated Appropriations Act (Biden's Big Budget) continues, the Senate has focused on confirming President Biden's nominations.      Just this week, the Senate secured Democratic majorities on the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Reserve, the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors , the Federal Labor Relations Authority, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission while confirming dozens of other nominees, including ambassadors and judicial nominees. However, in terms of solely nominees to the executive branch, President Biden has now had 350 confirmed out of the 757 tracked positions.      The Senate, meanwhile, still has 184 executive nominees to consi...