Battleground Wisconsin

We welcome back former panelist Rebecca Lynch to the show to fill in for Claire who is on vacation. The panel updates the latest on Build Back Better legislation in Congress, including next steps now that Speaker Pelosi has delayed a vote in the House until the end of the month. Michael Gableman issued subpoenas in his phony election investigation to 5 Democratic cities this week, and he shamefully admitted he does not understand how elections work. This week 4 years ago Donald Trump and Scott Walker broke ground at the Fox con. We welcome U.S. Senate candidate Steven Olikara to discuss his campaign in our continuing effort to interview Democratic candidates willing to challenge Ron Johnson.

Our panel updates us on the titanic Congressional battle to overcome a handful of Corporate Democrats standing in the way of the most sweeping reform in half a century, President Biden's Build Back Better Act. We then welcome Kirk Bangstad, the founder of Minocqua Brewing SuperPAC, to discuss their emerging plan to file federal lawsuits against school districts that don’t protect kids and educators from COVID. Finally, for two full segments we have Alex Lasry, Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, to discuss his campaign and the kind of Senator he hopes to become.

We update the grim surge of COVID in Wisconsin that has state health officials pleading for mask use and vaccinations while the Milwaukee Teachers Education Association and some local elected officials called for indoor mask mandates. We discuss the internal Democratic Party battle against corporate Democrats who oppose the Build Back Better Act. We have two public events next week in Milwaukee and Eau Claire to support Congressional action on the president's entire physical and human infrastructure agenda. We are joined by Fair Elections Project director Sachin Chheda to review the latest legal maneuvering on redistricting Federal court and the State Supreme Court. We close with Republican efforts to promote the “Big Lie” in Wisconsin. Disgraced right-wing judge Michael Gableman, who is leading the State Assembly's 2020 election fake-investigation, attempted this week to shift the burden of proof to local clerks to prove they committed no crimes or election fraud.

We discuss the escalating and human-made COVID pandemic here in Wisconsin and across the country. New state data shows that in August the unvaccinated are 11 times more likely to die. Robert highlights a new In These Times Magazine story revealing the US is not really pushing a COVID vaccine patent waiver at WTO, despite an official policy earlier this year. We discuss the Gableman/Vos election probe, which is getting national news in an embarrassing Arizona kind of way. Next, the panel updates the latest developments in Congress on the Build Back Better agenda. Finally, we welcome U.S. Senate Candidate Tom Nelson, the County Executive of Outagamie County, in our continuing series of interviews with Democratic U.S. Senate candidates. We learn more about his views on Medicare For All and other progressive issues.

We reflect on the 20th anniversary of 9/11 and the destructive 20 year “war on terror” that ensued. Our panel discusses the cost of the war and the American “police state” that followed. We update the latest situation in Congress with the effort to pass the historic $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package. We close with Wisconsin’s concerning COVID surge that finds over 1000 people in state hospitals for the first time since January as students head back to school.

We are joined by Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin president and CEO, Tanya Atkinson, to discuss the U.S. Supreme Court court’s midnight assault on Roe v. Wade, which rendered abortion illegal in the second largest state and may reach Wisconsin in 2022. We head into Labor Day Weekend with guest Laura Dresser, the lead researcher for the Center On Wisconsin Strategies (COWS) on their annual State of Working Wisconsin report released this week. Our panel also discusses WEAC’s call for vaccine and mask mandates in Wisconsin schools in the face of a wave of violence against educators and public health leaders by anti-mask and anti-vax protesters. Finally the empire is striking back in Congress, as a united corporate America unleashes a massive lobbying and advertising blitz against President Biden’s visionary Build Back Better agenda. Can the newly united Democrats stand up to the pressure?

Our panel provides perspective on the big week in the U.S. House with Democrats agreeing to move forward on President Biden’s infrastructure and budget reconciliation bills next month. We update the surging Delta COVID variant in Wisconsin and the nation and our collective response to the pandemic, including Sen. Johnson pushes Ivermectin and vaccine conspiracies while local officials look for help on infrastructure. We congratulate the Colectivo workers who won their union this week, the largest union of coffee workers in America. We welcome Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Dr. Jill Battino and discuss her serious and smart healthcare proposals as part of our continuing series of interviews with the U.S. Senate candidates.

We welcome the Fair Elections Project's Sachin Chheda to discuss the breaking news on redistricting. The 2020 census data has just arrived from DC, the lawsuits have begun, and a new Harvard report ranks Wisconsin the least democratic state in the nation, classifying it a “democracy desert”. Our panel also talks about worsening COVID infection and hospitalization rates, and the controversy over the Biden Administration's decision to authorize a third dose when big Pharma is still denying it to most of the world. Robert updates us on the dramatic and historically significant Congressional battle over the President’s Build Back Better agenda.

This week we take on huge issues: the threatening new scientific consensus on the faster than expected warming of the climate; the biggest social legislation since the New Deal advances in the Senate; and the COVID pandemic escalates at an alarming rate among the right-wing anti-vaxers. We also touch on the escalating threat to democracy, the retirement of Wisconsin Congressman Ron Kind, and the latest on America's worst Senator, Wisconsin's own Ron Johnson.

This week we welcome yet another U.S. Senate candidate, State Treasurer Sarah Godlewski, to discuss her primary campaign. This is our second in a series of interviews with the crowded field of Democratic candidates vying to face off against incumbent Senator and Trump sycophant Ron Johnson. Our panel also talks about the explosion of COVID and the return of masking for some businesses and local governments, while the Legislative Republicans move this week to bar the UW System from enacting COVID safety rules, endangering young people, university staff, and the communities in which they live. We also look at the eviction crisis, the important role of movement leaders like U.S. Rep. Cori Bush cutting through traditional political gridlock, and the hard path ahead to real structural reform.

We discuss this week’s apparent breakthrough in the U.S. Senate on a $1 trillion bi-partisan infrastructure bill. What’s in it, and is it really on track? We then evaluate the progressives’ two track strategy on infrastructure, and the threat from moderate Senator Kyrsten Sinema to derail the entire Biden Build Back Better agenda. In the state Legislature the Wisconsin Manufactures and Commerce reveals their hand behind this week’s failed GOP effort to cut UI for workers with a veto override vote. Q Anon caucus member and Election Committee chair Rep. Janel Brandtjen embraces conspiracy theories and the “Big Lie” as she launches an Arizona-style fishing expedition of the 2020 election in Wisconsin. We review the CDC’s new recommendation for indoor masking where infection rates remain high and Sen. Johnson’s incorrect statement calling it a mandate and saying the CDC should stop making recommendations to end the spread of COVID. Finally, we celebrate Medicare and Medicaid’s 56th birthdays on Friday and Sen. B

We welcome U.S. Senate candidate Chris Larson to the show to discuss his campaign in the crowded Democratic field. This is the first in our series of interviews of the major Democratic candidates to unseat Sen. Ron Johnson. How will Senator Larson differentiate himself from the other candidates? The panel updates listeners on the status of the important bipartisan Infrastructure bill, the $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package, and the filibusterer. The White House and many communities are considering a return to mask guidelines and mandates for the vaccinated and unvaccinated alike as the delta variant rampages through the unvaxed population.

We debrief our disappointment with the state budget and the Democrats embrace of regressive and permanent state tax cuts. We look at the role we all play in creating the progressive political future we want to see in Wisconsin and that Governor Evers is only one (admittedly important) player in the Democratic Party universe we seek to change. Citizen Action’s Movement Politics Director, JoAnna Bautch, joins us to discuss the new Movement Politics Academy she is launching this October for people who are considering running for office to pursue structural change in their community and our state. We review major federal news that Senate Democrats have agreed to a $3.5 trillion budget package that includes significant climate, child poverty, healthcare, and education investments. Claire also provides the details of Sen. Tammy Baldwin’s new legislation to expand Medicaid in the 12 states currently refusing to accept federal money.

We continue to discuss the fundamental failings of the Legislature’s State Budget, which at the time of recording, was awaiting Gov. Evers’ action. We look at the latest vaccination rates in Wisconsin and remind listeners that Wisconsin still has low rates of vaccination in many areas and demographics that must be addressed if we are going to put the pandemic beyond us. We educate our listeners about the new federal child tax credit and its importance in reducing poverty and stimulating the economy in every community and discuss Senator QAnon Ron Johnson calling climate change science Bull**it. We review a Wisconsin Examiner story about the Kenosha Police’s friendly attitude towards armed militias during the Jacob Blake protests and how Republicans are trying to make “law and order” the top issue in midterm elections.

We discuss the disastrous Republican State Budget that cleared the Legislature this week. After digging into the budget's many failings, we ask: why did 7 Democrats vote yes? We continue our call for the Governor to veto the state budget, although the signs are not promising. Next we turn to the looming presence of Donald Trump on Republican politics, and the panic he engendered this week among Wisconsin Republicans. It got so bad that State Senator Chris Kapenga bowed to him in a "dear leader" letter worthy of the most authoritarian leaders in the world, drawing national ridicule. Meanwhile U.S. Sen Ron Johnson's reckless anti-science crusade which reached new lows this week. Robert tells us about the launch of an “End Child Poverty” campaign with news events in Eau Claire, Milwaukee, Appleton and Wausau, next week. We close with a special guest, Angela Lang, Executive Director of Black Leaders Organizing for Communities (BLOC) to discuss their campaign to induce Gov. Evers to call for an Executive Commissio

We discuss Citizen Action’s call for Governor Tony Evers’ to veto the partisan GOP State Budget that completely fails Wisconsin. Also this week: Legislative Republicans ram through voter suppression bills; slash state aid to cities that cut police funding; and eliminate yet another business tax, threatening local revenue. Meanwhile, the State Senate passes an author-less legislative scheme to keep the 2011 gerrymandered maps for 2022 elections. Next, the panel reviews the threatening trend of Walker appointees staying on key boards and committees after their terms expire. We close with discussion of this week’s failed U.S. Senate vote on For the People Act and ask the key question on the minds of all democracy-loving people: what’s now?

The panel learns the news that the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed the latest attempt overturn the ACA just as we are beginning to tape this week's episode. Listen to our immediate reactions and analysis. After digging into the ACA decision, our panel reviews the dreary final week of the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee state budget process, including terrible healthcare decisions and the rejection of bipartisan criminal justice reform compromises. The state's 5 largest school districts tell Republican leaders they're halting 2021-22 school year planning because of funding uncertainty caused by the draconian state budget cuts to education. Meanwhile Assembly Republicans find time to to target trangendered teens, passing legislation banning transgender athletes from competing in women's sports. We close with a look at the increasing power of the QAnon caucus within Assembly Republicans, including a new push to bring the Arizona vote audit to Wisconsin as part of a plot to declare Donald Trump President. Is

New blockbuster ProPublica research finds the wealthiest Americans pay a true tax rate of only 3.4%. Is America finally ready for a wealth tax? Next, the panel asks on the big question of the day: Can U.S. Senate Democrats get their act together and pass pass bills to protect American democracy? As infrastructure talks with Republicans stall, the only bi-partisanship Congress can muster is behind a nationalist anti-China agenda. Meanwhile horrendous racial disparities in health care access and vaccination access continue despite all the of the lip-service payed to health equity. Does any level of government have the courage to intervene? In the WI Legislature, Republicans look to delay local redistricting a year; and to give back federal Unemployment Insurance money. Meanwhile, a revised estimate of Legislative Republican's cuts to schools finds it will cost the state $2.3 billion in federal revenue. We close the show by welcoming Peter Rickman from the Milwaukee Area Hospitality and Service Workers union (MA

We discuss Legislative Republican’s scheming with their corporate patrons such as Wisconsin Manufactures and Commerce (WMC) to gin up a fake “worker shortage” to punish the unemployed. Does Robin Vos really believe Wisconsinites are lazy and irresponsible or is he just trying to exploit the working class? In a clear effort to mobilize a 2022 off-year election base of anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists, Legislative Republicans are supporting bills to make anti-vaxxers a protected category and pumping life into the “Big Lie” with bogus “Arizona style” voter fraud investigations into the 2020 election. Meanwhile new data from the Wisconsin Election Commission demonstrates minuscule voter fraud in Wisconsin elections, most of it generated by Jim-Crow still disenfranchisement of released prisoners. We close with a discussion on the centrality of the Senate filibuster in the success of the Biden agenda, addressing the nation’s major challenges and needs, and the survival of democracy itself.

We welcome Citizen Action’s Movement Politics Director, JoAnna Bautch, to discuss Citizen Action's new podcast, This is NOT that, which premiered this week on the 1st anniversary of George Floyd's murder. The panel reviews the BadgerCare legislative Special Session that came and went quickly due to Republican intransigance. Depite refusing even to debate BadgerCare, legislative Republicans found time to attack transgendered kids and to threaten massive cuts to public school funding. Robert discusses the latest exodus of teachers in Wisconsin. Meanwhile, America's premature reopoining threatens million with pre-existing conditions and suppressed immunity. Who sounded the "all clear" siren in the middle of a global pandemic? Chris Larson enters an already crowded U.S. Senate race to take on distraced WI Senator Ron Johnson. The GOP snipes at another U.S. Senate candiate, State Treasurer Sarah Godlewski. Why is Godlewski their early target in a multicandidate field? National Democrats and mainline pundits increa