Battleground Wisconsin

We welcome Citizen Action of Wisconsin endorsed Lt. Governor candidate Mandela Barnes to talk about his race. We review the latest Marquette Law Poll and take a deep dive into the Democratic Governor’s primary. Robert tells us about the news conference this weekend with Congresswoman Gwen Moore and Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi about the GOP’s continued sabotage of the Affordable Care Act. Join us Saturday, 7/21, at 10: 45am, at Independence First (540 S. 1st St. in Milwaukee.) And of course, as we do most weeks, we have more Foxconn revelations.

We do a deep dive into Donald Trump’s latest sabotage of the Affordable Care Act and its political implications for the 2018 election. We look at Trump’s new arch-conservative Supreme Court nominee and how Democrats are turning to healthcare as the center of their strategy to defeat his appointment. We welcome Citizen Action Organizing Cooperative member and Milwaukee County Board Supervisor, Sylvia Ortiz-Velez, to talk about her resolution opposing Trump’s zero tolerance immigration policy. We close by discussing WEDC failure to collect a $1.1 million loan from a jailed DePere businessman convicted of bank fraud and Foxconn’s sleazy effort to lower wage requirements for the jobs it has promised to create with our public money.

In a special episode of Battleground Wisconsin State Senator Chris Larson and Lt. Governor candidate Mandela Barnes join regular panelists Rebecca Lynch and Robert Kraig for an in-depth conversation about the progressive upsurge in Democratic primaries. Are the victories of strong progressive candidates a threat to Democratic election prospects in 2018, or are they a sign of a new reform politics that can change America? In addition, the panel digs into the question of what it means to be a progressive, and how we can create a movement grounded in empathy and love which both breaks structural racism and sexism, while also inviting in working class voters who have turned away from Democrats in recent elections.

We welcome Candice Owley, President of the Wisconsin Federation of Nurses & Health Professionals to discuss this week’s Janus ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that seeks to gut union and worker power. Will these right wing politicians in robes succeed, or will their rigging of the system backfire by sparking a new era of labor activism and protest? We also talk over the implication of Justice Kennedy’s decision to step down from the Supreme Court. Will it make the Supreme Court even worse? Luz Sosa, lead organizer for Citizen Action Latino Co-op Caucus, Accion Ciudadana, joins us from Thursday’s Milwaukee protest of President Trump, who is in Wisconsin for the Foxconn groundbreaking. Luz tells us more about a media event led by Citizen Action on Saturday at the Federal Building opposing family separation, indefinite internment, and the many Trump/GOP human rights violations on the border.

Family Separation Issue - Excerpt from Battleground Wisconsin Episode #348

Citizen Action Organizing Cooperative member Erica Flynn, who is running for state assembly, discusses her trip to Texas this past weekend. Erica was part of Citizen Action of Wisconsin and People's Action delegation that attended a vigil at the Ursula Border Processing Center, where hundreds of children are still incarcerated in detention centers under Trump's brutal family separation policy.

Our panel analyzes in depth the latest MU Law poll that was released this week. We welcome Citizen Action Organizing Cooperative member Erica Flynn, who is running for state assembly, to discuss her trip to Texas this weekend. Erica was part of Citizen Action of Wisconsin and People's Action delegation that attended a vigil at the Ursula Border Processing Center, where hundreds of children are still incarcerated in detention centers under Trump's brutal family separation policy. We also review the Supreme Court gerrymandering decision and Robert talks about new disturbing UW research showing showing a 20% rise in Wisconsin child poverty last year, despite Walker's claim that the economy is doing great.

We dig into the results from Tuesday’s special legislative elections in Wisconsin and the ramifications for the general election. Next, we welcome Lindsay Dorff, Northeast WI Organizing Cooperative Steering Committee member, to discuss gerrymandering in Wisconsin and the pending Supreme Court verdict for the Gil v Whitford case. Lindsay also tells us about the Citizen Action Northeast Cooperative’s member assembly this Saturday and their Governor candidate forum next Saturday, June 23rd. Our panel also talks about Attorney General Brad Schimel’s lawsuit to sabotage the ACA, Lake County (IL) Board unanimous resolution calling for the state of Wisconsin to reconsider waiving of environmental regulations for Foxconn, and a new study finds Wisconsin's poverty rate rising dramatically in spite of low unemployment.

In the wake of her retirement announcement, we thank Justice Shirley Abrahamson for her decades of distinguished progressive leadership on the State Supreme Court. Robert debriefs Battleground Wisconsin's dust up with the Walker Campaign the Republican Party, and the Vukmir Campaign, over our image from last week’s show, which made state and national headlines. We also dissect Scott Walker’s new TV ad that attempts to put pants on his pig of a health care record. Robert also analyzes a new report that suggests Medicare is at risk and educates us about a new Trump administration Medicaid transparency plan that may unintentionally document that conservatives are taking health care away from millions of people. We also discuss the news that Wisconsin will receive $86 million less than sought to upgrade I-94 for Foxconn and discuss a new study finding Wisconsin's arcane expungement laws are keeping thousands of potential workers from employment.

With the deadline for election nomination papers passing Friday, we welcome special guest Senator Chris Larson to dig into the official opening of the Wisconsin political season. We bat around the races for Governor, U.S. Senate, and the critical special election the the 1st State Senate District in Northeast Wisconsin. In addition, it turns out that Scott Walker's election year pivot to a constructive position on health care was only that, as his administration took new steps this week to sabotage the ACA. Also more "blame the workers" for the lack of economic opportunity rhetoric from conservative politicians, and the latest on the Foxconn scandal.

We discuss the release of police body-cam footage showing the use of a stun gun on Milwaukee Bucks player Sterling Brown after police unnecessarily escalated an encounter over a parking violation. We review a news report that Foxconn is already changing the production plans at its yet to be built Wisconsin factory, again calling into question the long term sustainability of an environmentally threatening project that will create far fewer jobs than progressive alternatives. We review the terrible 5-4 Supreme Court decision that greatly restricts worker legal rights in the workplace. In yet more bleak economic news for Gov. Walker, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistic reports that Minnesota had more total jobs than Wisconsin in 2017 for the first time in recent history and added more jobs each year for the last 10 years. We also talk about state representative Leon Young’s sudden decision not to run for reelection, and the latest Dem Governor's race scuttlebutt.