A space for civil discussion of Wisconsin (and national) politics. People who do not maintain a civil tone or who are threatening will be removed from this space. In this context consider politics in a wide sense - not just inter-party squabbling.
More videos of speeches from the Families Belong Together event in Eau Claire. Today's video is speeches from Andrew Werthmann, Ann Francis, and Zoe Roberts.
Redistricting is right around the corner in 2021. New legislative and congressional district maps will be drawn up after the census by the political party in charge. Gerrymandered maps will give the party in charge a secure advantage for the next 10 years.
This morning Governor Evers signed the budget forwarded from the legislature, but added 78 partial vetoes. The end result is a budget that is a compromise between Evers' budget proposal and the bill passed by the Republican-controlled legislature. The entire veto messages is included below, but some of the primary items of interest include
This speech is by community organizer Mareya Sigala Valdez as she spoke about the detention camps at the border and her experience working at them. I apologize for the fact that we only have audio of this speech, but due to the heat at the event we were having some problems with the video cameras overheating in the sunlight. With or without the video, this is worth listening to.
Cable and phone companies are getting a big windfall in the state budget and taxpayers are
going to pay the bill for the next ten years. Wisconsin Community Media can think of a lot
of better ways to spend tax dollars than subsidizing large telecommunications companies
like Charter Communications, Comcast and AT&T that are making a lot of money here in
Wisconsin through their cable TV, broadband and telephone services. We are asking
When we think of the 4th of July, we often think of parades, fireworks and gatherings throughout our community. It’s a day of remembrance and pride for our country. It’s the day we officially recognize that our forefathers declared our independence as a separate nation.
A Families Belong Together rally was held in Eau Claire in 2018 when the family separation policies at the Mexican Border first became apparent. This was well-attended, and a second rally was held today in Owen Park in Eau Claire. As several of the speakers pointed out, it is disappointing that not only does this policy still exist, but it has become severely worse in the past year.
Yesterday, the House caved in and passed the Republican Senate version of “supplemental emergency” funding for the Department of Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, and the U.S. military to use in border enforcement. The bill’s backers said it was necessary to meet humanitarian needs at the border. That’s a perversion of the term “humanitarian.”
The state budget has gone to the Governor's desk, and at this point, he has a choice of signing it, doing a full veto of the budget, or doing a partial veto. The partial veto in Wisconsin is much more powerful than in most states. This article, originally published at WisContext, explains how the Wisconsin Governor has ended up with peculiar veto power (though somewhat less peculiar than it used to be).
The decision by the U.S. Supreme Court today on two gerrymandering cases was disappointing but not surprising. And for the vast majority of Wisconsinites who want to ban gerrymandering in our state, this is not the end of the story. Not by a long shot.
