Battleground Wisconsin

We discuss this historic week where the U.S. Supreme Court surprisingly reversed Wisconsin’s redistricting maps in its scandalous shadow docket. What is going on and where do we go from here? Next, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson appeared before the U.S. Senate for ground-breaking confirmation hearing and faces shameful tactics from the Trump wing of the GOP. Will she survive the awful politics of the U.S. Senate? The panel reviews the Congressional Progressive Caucus’ new blueprint for executive action that includes 55 different items President Biden can implement without Congress. In Wisconsin, Speaker Vos hints that his GOP sham investigation may end soon. Will former President Trump let him get away with it? The Affordable Care Act (ACA) turns 12 this week and early voting has started for the April 5th Spring Election..

Our panel discusses Speaker Robin Vos’ meeting with conservative conspiracy theorists who are urging illegal decertification of the 2020 presidential election. Will Trump be returned to power via midterm coup? The Wisconsin Election Commission does not pursue charges against Wisconsin's fake electors. What does it mean? We review the implications of Gannett closing its West Milwaukee printing plant where it prints the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and numerous other Wisconsin newspapers. Is there any future for corporate-owned newspapers? Finally, the progressive firebrand brewer Kirk Bangstad from the Minocqua Brewing Super PAC joins us to talk about the PAC’s lawsuit alleging U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson and U.S. Reps. Scott Fitzgerald and Tom Tiffany are barred from holding public office by the post Civil War 14th Amendment. Will they suffer the fate of confederate leaders?

From the conservative leaning WI Supreme Court making up the new “least changes” redistricting criterion to the Republican attempt to funnel public dollars to private schools, it seems the Sith Lords of the WI GOP are embarrassing the dark side…again! We delve into the new political maps for Wisconsin and give some political insider perspective of the new districts pros and cons. Our eye-rolling won’t stop with the newly released "Gablegate" records showing Gableman’s massive spending of public money on himself, while continuing to drive his big-lie partisan election review into the toilet. And the hits keep rolling as we call out RoJo’s past pro-Putin support and how he continues to show his unworthiness to be in office (don’t forget to Vote Nov 8th!). Speaking of terrible leadership…did you hear about the one where a bunch of white people who don’t live in Milwaukee want to dismantle the multi-racial Milwaukee School district? Join us as we try to find the punchline.

Public option, what? A sweeping BadgerCare Public Option Bill was announced this week in the Legislature, which does more than any bill introduced in over a decade to make health care more affordable and accessible in Wisconsin. We hit on the top details of the BadgerCare Public Option Bill and why it’s so important that legislation like this gets a fair hearing. In the weird and dangerous news of the week, disgraced ex-judge Michael Gableman is back in our chatter-box telling an Assembly committee that he was joining the circus. Okay maybe not, but he did give a clownish performance that spewed anti-democracy propaganda and bizarre conspiracy theories. Will Gableman succeed in nullifying Biden’s 2020 victory in Wisconsin and selling Donald Trump’s Big Lie? We also cover the latest Marquette Law School Poll and wonder, despite the media hoopla, if we really learned anything all that valuable. We wrap it up this week with a quick yap about the stellar pick of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson by President Biden for the US Supreme Court. Go Badgers!

We open the show with immediate reactions to the full scale invasion of Ukraine by Vladimir Putin, and the odd split on the conflict in the Trump-era GOP. Is the backing of Putin by Tucker Carlson, Donald Trump himself, and others the new normal in Republican foreign policy? We welcome new WEAC president Peggy Wirtz-Olsen for her first interview on Battleground Wisconsin to dig into what is behind the record number of teachers who want to leave their profession. Is conservative scapegoating of schools and educators making the professional unlivable? Turning to the State Legislature, we evaluate a series of historically bad bills that gut public education, expand a separate private education system, and break up Milwaukee Public Schools without any consultation from the parents and school board members of Milwaukee. Claire updates us on Senate Republican attacks on BadgerCare by GOP legislators. Congresswoman Gwen Moore, and community and labor leaders continued a push for Build Back Better and the jobs it will create this week with a media event. Finally we close by encouraging our listeners to attend a Solidarity Rally @ Noon Saturday in support of UAW Oshkosh Co. workers’ effort to land the USPS truck contract, and introduce Sulma Arieas, the new Executive Director of People’s Action.

We welcome Courtney Hayward and Tanya Atkinson from Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin to the show to talk about the impending threat to reproductive healthcare in Wisconsin. In addition to the looming threat to Roe v. Wade by a lawless right-wing Supreme Court, the State Legislature introduced a Texas style ban, which could end reproductive freedom even if Roe is not overturned. Next, Ben Wilson, Citizen Action Driftless Coop Organizer, joins us to urge you to attend the virtual, In The Wash: A Virtual Workshop About Wisconsin Water Quality, where you can learn how to help protect Wisconsin water. We discuss Republican state legislative attacks on BadgerCare and public education, Robert raises concerns about an anti-Asian hate bill in the legislature targeting the UW System, and we shout out state Sen. Jeff Smith for speaking truth telecom corporate conspiracy against universal broadband in Wisconsin.

We expose a series of GOP bills that will take lifesaving health care away from thousands of Wisconsin working families in the middle of a pandemic to appease the big business demand for poverty wage workers. We welcome Wisconsin Election Commission commissioner Mark Thomsen to discuss his experience fighting to protect democratic and fair elections and his call to all of us to speak out against the right wing assault on democracy. Citizen Action Organizing Director, Kate Beaton, joins us to talk about the critical role organizing plays in creating the the transformative changes we are seeking. Kate calls on listeners to join a Citizen Action Organizing Cooperative near you.

We discuss what’s next for the Build Back Better agenda and breaking news on Citizen Action’s upcoming Congressional Week of Action. The panel talks about a bombshell New York Times report that Wisconsin was at the epicenter of the plot to send fake electors, a key piece of Donald Trump’s insurrection plot. In the Legislature this week Republicans introduced a series of bills to rig future elections, while Senate Minority Leader Janet Bewley announced her retirement. We close with an interview of Marina Dimitrijevic, Citizen Actions’ newly endorsed candidate for Milwaukee Mayor.

We welcome State Senator Chris Larson for an extensive conversation about revelations he and Rep. Brostoff dug up this week about the direct role of Wisconsin Congressman Scott Fitzgerald in sending forged Trump electors to Congress. Will Fitzgerald and his conspirators in the Wisconsin GOP be investigated by Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul? The panel also comments on the big news that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer will retire this year, setting off speculation about the nomination of the first African American woman on the high court. We also discuss the continued fight for the Build Back Better agenda, Vice President Kamala Harris’ visit to Milwaukee to promote federal infrastructure money for lead pipes, and the smear campaign of corporate Democrats targeting President Biden’s Chief of Staff Ron Klein for daring to empower the progressive wing of the Democratic Party.

Our panel reflects on the 1 year anniversary of the Biden Administration, taking stock of his governing successes and failures trying to manage a global pandemic, economic disruption, and an on-going right-wing insurrection. We review the record COVID case rates in Wisconsin last week, as the City of Milwaukee passes a new mask ordinance and Ron Johnson holds a Washington, DC event packed with medical quacks and other vaccine deniers. We welcome Shawn Phetteplace from Wisconsin’s Main Street Alliance to discuss the latest effort by Legislative Republicans to cut worker unemployment Insurance, access to healthcare, and food stamps in the name of putting people back to work. Shawn tells us what policy changes would actually help small businesses and workers in Wisconsin.

Wisconsin hits a record number of COVID hospitalizations as Legislative Republicans push bills to undermine public health precautions and efforts to distribute free N95 masks finally pick up. Next, our panel dives into a discussion of the 2022 elections. Finally, Senator Ron Johnson announced his bid for reelection, and many are surprised when Wisconsin’s longest serving Governor, Tommy Thompson, floated another run. Will Johnson win a 3rd term in the Senate and Thompson a 5th term in the Governor mansion? President Biden makes a big public push for voting rights leading into MLK Jr. Day with a fiery speech in Georgia. Can he and the Democrats make it happen or will he again be undermined by Senators Manchin and Sinema (and their big corporate backers pulling the strings) In Wisconsin, Legislative Republicans continue their nationally coordinated effort to rewrite the 2020 election and pull apart democratic institutions, making a legislative maneuver to end secure ballot drop boxes and to allow partisan politicians to nullify elections when they don’t like the results. We ask the question, does anyone trust Speaker Robin Vos’ promise that the Legislature will not name Wisconsin electors in 2024? We close with an interview of Citizen Action Field Director Zoe Roberts on Citizen Action’s volunteer Tuesday night phone banks, which are calling critical swing voters in key legislative districts.

Welcome to 2022, as COVID rages through Wisconsin and the country, we discuss escalating infection and hospitalization rates, as our deranged U.S. Senator draws national ridicule (again) for his bizarre comments on the vaccine and religion. Our panel talks about the ongoing tragedy of the stalled TRIPS vaccination waiver at the WTO, which is putting Big Pharma windfall profits over vaccinating the world. Is Ron Kind one of the Democrats siding with Big Pharma against public health and safety? We reflect on the 1 year anniversary of the January 6th insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and President Biden’s blistering critique of Trump and the Republicans for their conspiracy against democracy. Congressional Democrats look to finally pass a voting right bill, can they get through the objections of Senator Manchin and Sinema? Meanwhile, Wisconsin Republicans introduce a bill to nullify elections, and continue to double down on their sham election investigation. Green Bay mayor Eric Genrich is pushing back and asking a judge to punish disgraced election investigator Michael Gableman for his bullying and lies.

We debrief and look forward following Sunday’s bombshell announcement by West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin that he would not support the president’s signature Build Back Better. Where do we go from here? With a new even more transmissible COVID variant spreading fast, the panel reviews the state of the seemingly endless global pandemic. Wisconsin Assembly Democrats are under new leadership following the election of Greta Neubauer as Minority Leader this week, but Rep. Jimmy Anderson reminds us of how far we have to go when it comes to providing people with disabilities equal opportunities, even in the Democratic Caucus. Wisconsin is in the news, yet again, leading the GOP effort to extinguish democracy. Robert reminds us of the great lengths Republicans in Wisconsin went in November 2020 to try to steal the election for Donald Trump, and what’s ahead in 2022.

We lead this week with the passing of the latest COVID milestone of over 800,000 deaths. Is this an omen of human toll that awaits us in the coming Omicron surge? There is no doubt that Republican politics are making the pandemic much worse. This week, shamelessly playing to the know-nothing Trump base, Assembly Majority Leader Robin Vos blamed Wisconsin hospitals for the bed shortage because they are requiring their workers to be vaccinated. Next, our panel updates the Build Back Better debate in the U.S. Senate. Is the most sweeping social and economic reform in half a century dead or merely stalled? Also, as the Senate Parliamentarian prepares to strip the immigrant rights provisions of Build back Better, Voces de la Frontera and allies stage a series of protests. In a rare showing of Republican courage and regard for the truth, State Sen. Kathy Bernier makes national news by taking a stand against Robin Vos and his “big lie” henchman, disgraced former Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman. In Democratic Party news, State Representative Gordon Hintz announces he will step down as Assembly Minority Leader. Who will replace him and what are the implications for 2022 and beyond? Finally, we shout out the UW-LaCrosse students and community leaders who held a successful event Monday urging serious university action on the climate crisis.

This week the panel digs into the unprecedented partisanship of the COVID pandemic, which is driving another major surge and threatens (AGAIN) to overwhelm Wisconsin hospitals. We also discuss the shocking new numbers that living in a red county dramatically increases your chances of death. Next we delve into the growing GOP conspiracy to undermine the basic mechanisms of democracy, and guarantee domination of Congress, the Legislature, and a Trump victory in 2024. Next we discuss another threat from the right wing takeover, the likely end of Roe vs. Wade. Finally we recognize the eventful career of State Senator Jon Erpenbach, who announced his retirement earlier this week.