A Liberal Lives In Wisconsin

     Over the course of the next week, the Proud Boys who organized and led the January 6th Capitol attack will be sentenced for their actions. The DOJ will be requesting 33 years in prison for Joseph Biggs and Enrique Tarrio of Florida, 30 years in prison for Zachary Rehl of Pennsylvania, 27 years in prison for Ethan Nordean of Washington, and 20 years in prison for Dominic Pezzola of New York. All of these sentences would be record-breaking, and I hope the judge will give at least close to what the DOJ is requesting. As of right now, however, here are the 12 longest sentences for the insurrection: 1. Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the Oath Keepers militia, was sentenced to 18 years (216 months) in prison for seditious conspiracy. 2. Peter Schwartz, a career criminal who assaulted law enforcement with pepper spray and a wooden stick, was sentenced to over 14 years (170 months) in prison. 3. Daniel Rodriguez, a longtime proponent of political violence who assaulted police ...

       On August 12th, 1968, President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed the historic Architectural Barriers Act, which mandated that any structures built with assistance, funds, or permits from the federal government be accessible to people with disabilities. While not fully comprehensive, it paved the way for wheelchair ramps, handicapped parking spots, handicapped stalls, and automatic doors allowing the disabled the same quality of life as all of their peers. It would later be amended in the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 to be more inclusive. 

     On August 10th, 1993, 30 years ago today, President Bill Clinton signed the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993. Introduced on May 25th, passed by the House on May 27th, passed by the Senate on June 25th, and amended by the bodies on August 5th and August 6th, the bill was ultimately passed via budget reconciliation, allowing President Clinton to sign the bill with Vice President Al Gore breaking the 50-50 tie in favor.      By implementing a tax increase on corporations, the wealthy, gasoline, Social Security, and Medicare while cutting the budget by $255 billion over five years, President Clinton was able to balance the budget, which occurred in 1998 for the first time in over three decades. Over the next three years, $500 billion of the $4 trillion national debt was paid off; had the Clinton budget continued, the debt would be nonexistent by now.       Instead, George W. Bush decided to abandon "fiscal responsibility" and g...

     On August 10th, 1993, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was confirmed to the United States Supreme Court as an associate justice, a position she would hold for 27 years until her death in 2020. Appointed by Bill Clinton and confirmed in a hearing led by Joe Biden, she was the second woman to sit on the Court and the first Jewish woman, merely the culmination of a lifetime fight against prejudice.      Despite losing her mother and older sibling as a child and her father's wishes for her not to pursue a career of her own, Ginsburg, the child of Russian Jewish immigrants, graduated James Madison High School. After her husband, Martin, transferred to an ROTC base, she worked as an administrative assistant, where she was demoted and fired for getting pregnant.      After earning her bachelor's degree at Cornell and leaving Harvard (a professor inquired why she was taking the place of a man at the school), she received her law degree from Columbia Universi...

       On August 5th, 1963, the United States signed the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, alongside the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union, in Moscow. The agreement banned nuclear testing on the ground, in the water, and in the atmosphere. It did not cover the seabed, space, or underground. While the former two would be added to various other nuclear agreements, underground nuclear testing remains legal. This agreement, however, was the first successful negotiation limiting nuclear proliferation, and it would pave the way for an end to nuclear weapons production in all but a handful of nations. Coming amid a series of tense conflicts between the United States and the Soviet Union, the agreement would be one of the defining achievements of John F. Kennedy's presidency.