“Brewing up Democracy at State Supreme Court” Battleground Wisconsin Podcast Robert is away from the show this week so we are joined by long time show producer, Brian Wooldridge, to get his perspective on producing over a decade of Battleground Wisconsin Podcasts. We discuss Citizen Action’s release of state survey data this week that found 59% of Wisconsinites experienced at…
We discuss Citizen Action’s duel endorsement of Judge Janet Protasiewicz and Judge Everett Mitchell as we head towards the critical February 21st Supreme Court Primary Election. After debriefing Governor Evers’ State of the State speech and the Republicans’ cynical response, we welcome back our in-house economist Dr. Micheal Rosen to discuss Republicans’ scheme to create a phony “debt crisis” and…
We are joined by State Senator Jeff Smith to discuss the first week of the gerrymandered State Legislature. Seeking to influence the State Supreme Court race, the session opened by Republicans placing on the Spring ballot a cynical political referendum asking voter opinion on a BadgerCare work requirement and a constitutional amendment on cash bail. The top priority of this…
We are joined by Tobita Chow, the director of Justice is Global to discuss the new House committee aimed at the Chinese government and has Republicans warning of a “New Cold War”. We discuss why a cold war is disastrous to progressive governing and unnecessarily stokes anti-Chinese hate in America. We debrief Citizen Action’s excellent State Supreme Court progressive candidate…
This week host Matt Brusky is on vacation, and we have as a special guest panelist State Senator Chris Larson. Chris and Robert Kraig dig into the latest revelations from the January 6th Committee documents which putt more of Senator Ron Johnson’s fingerprints on the insurrection; the constitutional impasse in the House over the next Speaker, Trump’s obsession with overturning the results…
We welcome Connie Smith, president of the Wisconsin Federation of Nurses & Health Professionals and Jamie Lucas, executive director, to discuss Ascension’s profit-maximizing closure of St. Francis Hospital’s Labor and Delivery unit, creating a new healthcare desert for women and their families on Milwaukee’s south side. We discuss the economic forces driving Ascension’s decision, and the leverage public mobilization and…
We start by reflecting on some rare good news from Washington, the historic signing this week by President Biden of the Baldwin-Collins marriage equality bill, the Respect for Marriage Act. We then turn to the storm clouds looming over the next two years, the Party of Trump’s dysfunction on a spending bill needed to keep the Federal Government open. Is…
We discuss the political implications of Sen. Raphael Warnock’s win in Georgia. What are the new opportunities that a larger Senate majority present? We talk about President Biden’s push to move the first Democratic Presidential primary to South Carolina in 2024. Does it create a more equitable process? What does it say about whether Biden will run for a second…
We discuss growing tensions within the illegitimate Republican Legislature between the old Scott Walker and Trumpist factions. Speaker Vos finally testifies on Trump’s efforts to overturn the Wisconsin 2020 election, becoming the last witness to be interviewed by the historic January 6th Committee. Meanwhile the Wisconsin Election Commission deadlocks and blocks (for now) MAGA Republican Representative Janel Brandtjen’s scheme to…
We are thankful for our listeners this holiday season. We appreciate your support for over a decade. This week the gerrymandered leaders of the State Legislature said they wanted to cut taxes for the wealthy, including Republican Senate Majority Leader Devon LeMahieu calling for a regressive flat tax that economists found will cut taxes for the top 3% and raise…
