Battleground Wisconsin

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. Baldwin calls for rejecting Purdue Pharma’s bankruptcy plan.

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 Commission on safety and policing.

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?