Author: Wisconsin Examiner

Wisconsin State Senator Patrick Testin (R-Stevens Point) proposed a bill on February 24 that would require the national anthem be played before sporting events taking place in facilities that have received taxpayer funding. This would include the Green Bay Packers’ Lambeau Field, the Milwaukee Bucks’ Fiserv Forum and the Milwaukee Brewers’ American Family Field. Testin’s “Star Spangled Banner Act” is targeted at a “small but vocal group of activists” who object to the playing of the anthem. This year, the Dallas Mavericks quietly stopped playing the anthem before games and the decision went unnoticed for 13 games. The Mavericks...

Legislation introduced on February 25 would require the Veterans Administration to assume responsibility for treating U.S. service members who became ill after being exposed to cancer-causing toxic materials nearly 20 years ago at a former Soviet air base in Uzbekistan. The bipartisan legislation, introduced by Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CN) along with Reps. Stephen F. Lynch (D-MA) and Mark Green (R-TN), follows news media reports as well as a Congressional investigation into the extensive contamination at the K2 Air Base, which the U.S. leased from the Uzbek government from 2001 to 2005. Some 15,000 service members...

From the early days of the pandemic to the fever-pitched and riotous last days of the Trump presidency, Wisconsin’s conservative movement was swept up in conspiracies and extremism in 2020. Over the past year, online provocateurs, fringe lawyers, Republican lawmakers, wealthy donors, militias and right-wing media created a feedback loop that poisoned politics in Wisconsin and the country. This web became a mechanism of radicalization, starting with Facebook groups formed to organize protests against coronavirus lockdowns and culminating in the violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6. Anti-government sentiment, mistrust of experts, racial dog whistling and flirtation...

It did not take Wisconsin Republicans long to try to capitalize on the Big Lie. On February 22, State Senator Duey Stroebel (R-Saukville), along with State Senator Alberta Darling (R- River Hills), and State Representatives Cindi Duchow (R-Town of Delafield) and Ken Skowronski (R-Franklin), circulated a batch of bills that would make it harder for Wisconsinites to vote. Cynically noting that Americans are “skeptical about the integrity of our elections,” Stroebel failed to mention the huge role that Donald Trump and his GOP accomplices played in ginning up that skepticism with their bogus claims. Piling on the cynicism, he...