Battleground Wisconsin

We welcome Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski to discuss the functions of the SOS office and the MAGA Republican attacks on her appointment and the office. Are their smears another example of the fraying of democratic norms? We review Boss Vos’ continued disingenuous and deceptive push for an Iowa-style redistricting scheme. What does this say about his threat to impeach Justice Janet? We discuss the historic UAW strike which came to Wisconsin this week as President Joe Biden took Priscilla’s advice from last week’s show, becoming the first President to join a union picket line. Is this fight a landmark in the fight to restore the right to form unions and the tattered American middle class?

The gerrymandered GOP Legislature continued to force its extreme and unpopular agenda down the throats of Wisconsinites. This week the groundless impeachment drive continued with a cynical embrace of a fake nonpartisan redistricting plan, yet another refusal to address the growing child care crisis, and an escalation of attacks on the UW System’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs. To top it all off, Speaker Vos announced the worst possible Brewer stadium public funding plan, which once again sticks it to Milwaukee. We close with a discussion of the UAW strike and the false tension between good union jobs and fighting runaway climate change, Chicago’s breakthrough on the minimum wage, and President Biden’s executive order creating the Climate Corps that was stripped from his legislative plans by wannabe third party presidential candidate Sen. Joe Manchin.

Huge news from Planned Parenthood on Thursday morning, they are announcing the resumption of abortions in the state.

We welcome national baseball stadium expert Neil deMause, from Field of Schemes, to discuss the on-going conspiracy of billionaire baseball owners to grab public money they don’t need. We discuss lessons for Wisconsin political leaders about the critical role they play in fighting and supporting the public interest instead of well connected ultra rich owners. Robert updates the political situation in Madison, and we discusses the important role teachers unions are playing in opposing a Nevada plan to give away public money for Las Vegas MLB stadium.

House leader McCarthy formally pursues a quixotic impeachment of President Biden as the MAGA wing threatens to shut down the government and overthrow McCarthy. All of Wisconsin’s Republican members of Congress supported the impeachment scheme. Meanwhile Senator Tammy Baldwin was busy actually leading, visiting rural Wisconsin talking to voters about the issues they care about. Wisconsin Republicans continue to struggle to find an opponent for Baldwin other than arsonist David Clarke who this week is busy setting the national Republican Party on metaphorical fire.

The Republicans in Wisconsin continue to work to funnel more money to the rich, while Donal Trump proposed a huge new corporate tax cut on top of the largest corporate tax giveaway in American history contained in the first Trump tax package.

We start with the GOP threat to lawlessly impeach Justice Janet Protasiewicz in a desperate attempt to hold on to gerrymandered maps. Will the latest Republican attack on democracy succeed? We dig into the latest GOP attempt to secure massive tax cuts for the wealthy, and freeze them in place with a constitutional amendment. Meanwhile, new GOP child care bills show their inability to address major social problems due to their anti-government absolutism.

We review the latest MAGA Republican power play in Georgia, the RICCO indictments by the State Attorney General of social justice advocates opposing the building of the giant Cop City police training complex.

Finally, we have a news maker interview with award-winning sportswriter Dave Zirin, the sports editor of The Nation Magazine. Dave discusses the public shakedown by the Brewers to get over half a billion dollars in public money for stadium repairs, without anything in return for the public benefit. Zirin explains how what is happening here is part of an orchestrated effort by Major League Baseball and other major professional sports leagues to extract significant public dollars with few or no concessions. Ziren reminds us that community organizing is the secret to cutting a much better deal with teams that center on protecting the public’s interest, not the windfall profits of billionaire owners.

Dave Zirin, the sports editor of The Nation Magazine and an award winning journalist, joins the show to discuss the current effort by the owner of the Brewers to get half a billion dollars in public money for stadium repairs with nothing in return other than the privilege to have the team stay in Wisconsin. Zirin explains how what is happening here is part of an orchestrated effort by Major League Baseball and other major professional sports leagues to extract significant public dollars with few or no concessions. Dave notes that the leagues and teams have stopped even trying to seriously argue that the huge investments are good for states and municipalities. Instead, teams try to cut sweetheart deals with politicians and move quickly with little public debate. Zirin lays out how community organizing is the secret to cutting a much better deal with teams that protect the public’s interest.

We welcome economist Dr. Michael Rosen to discuss ReThinking Brewers ownership and demanding public equity in the team in exchange for public tax revenue.

Another climate change-induced category 4 hurricane hits Florida and yet another week of tragic shootings on college campuses. We talk about the response from the University of North Carolina student newspaper.

In Wisconsin, Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Dallet writes an excellent letter to Justice Ziegler exposing her scheme to create a media firestorm and overturn another democratic election.

We welcome Milwaukee Teachers Education Association President Amy Mizialko back to the show to talk about the devastating news about a huge expansion of a private religious voucher school the former Cardinal Stritch University campus. The school’s owner said the expansion is the direct result of the historic increase in voucher school funding from the terrible shared revenue deal negotiated by Governor Evers. Is this the beginning of a massive expansion of unaccountable and discriminatory voucher schools?

We debrief the circus-like Republican Presidential debate which hit Milwaukee Wednesday. What does the “debate” say about the current state of the party and who stood out?

Next, we assess the news that Republicans filed motions in an attempt to force recently elected Supreme Court justice Justice Protasiewicz to recuse from the gerrymandering case. Does this latest power grab have a chance to succeed?

Following last week’s appearance by Wausau Pilot and Review publisher & editor Shereen Siewert on the Battleground Wisconsin Podcast, Legislative Democrats proposed anti-SLAPP lawsuit legislation on Wednesday.

Priscilla reminds us that this week was the 3 year anniversary of the Jacob Blake shooting in Kenosha, only a month following the wrongful arrest of an innocent black man by Kenosha Police with his family at an Applebees.

We start with a major threat to the 1st Amendment in the Northwoods that has made national news. Shereen Siewert, the editor and publisher of the Wausau Pilot and Review, joins us to discuss how her newspaper is being bullied through a bogus lawsuit by state senator Cory Tomczyk. The paper broke a story on a public incident where the Senator shouted an anti-gay slur at a young person who was testifying in favor of equity and inclusion at a public hearing. The lawsuit, which is costing the small newspaper hundreds of thousands of dollars, is clearly an effort to suppress free and independent media.

President Biden visited Milwaukee on Tuesday on the one year anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act. We discuss what the historic legislation means for Wisconsin and the country, and what remains to be done. We update the hostage taking by Major League Baseball (MLB) and the billionaire Brewers owner. It was revealed this week that owner Mark Attanasio spent more than half a million the last 6 months, more than any other group lobbying the state legislature. We evaluate the latest threat by Boss Vos and Republican leaders to threaten the impeachment of Janet Protasiewicz if she doesn’t recuse from redistricting cases. Who is really abusing power? Finally, Robert asks if the huge Biden investment in rural broadband will be handled well by the Evers Administration, or will it be yet another unaccountable infusion of money into the telecom industry?

In this week’s episode we welcome new In These Times magazine executive director Alex Han to discuss the vital role of independent progressive media, and the cutting edge journalism the historic magazine provides. We encourage our listeners to read and support In These Times.

Priscilla Bort joins us from the Wisconsin Public Education Network Summer Conference to announce the 2nd Movement Politics Academy, which trains tomorrow’s movement leaders to run for office.

We dive into the hypocrisy of Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Annette Ziegler’s media tour the past week, where she whined about changes to the court that will bring more transparency and accountability. Apparently the end of the lawless reign of right-wing politicians in robes acting as a super-legislature is too much for the disgraced Chief Justice to endure.

Resident economist, Dr. Micheal Rosen, returns to the show to talk about the state of the American economy, public perception of the economy, and who benefits when the Federal Reserve increases interest rates.

We discuss the Wisconsin flavor to the historic Trump indictment this week where the role of fake electors is central. We talk about the decades-long work that military sexual trauma survivors have done and what it all means in terms of President Biden's new Executive Order updating the Military Justice Code.

We welcome State Representative Kristina Shelton to discuss the introduction of her BadgerCare Public Option bill expanding access to affordable healthcare for Wisconsinites and her attendance at the ALEC convention last week. We are also joined by Teamsters Local 662 Business Agent, Dan Boley to discuss the strike at Leinenkugels, how it is part of a broader national anti-union effort by Molson Coors, and how the Teamsters Local 662 will be calling for a boycott of Molson Coors products.

Janet Protasiewicz is sworn in this week! We discuss whether it will be a new era of a progressive Wisconsin Supreme Court, as Law Forward immediately files a critically important gerrymandering case. Minnesota marijuana legalization has begun, leaving Wisconsin a weed revenue island. MAGA Rep. Van Orden bullies kids at the Capitol and Sen. Tammy Baldwin still has no serious GOP opponent.