Wisconsin Right Now

In a mirror of national politics, California Republicans followed former President Donald Trump’s lead by proposing to end taxes on tips. While Vice President Kamala Harris, who formerly represented California in the U.S. Senate, embraced the measure, California Democrats said no, shooting down the proposed amendment in the California Senate. “Even Trump and Harris both say we should eliminate the ‘tip tax,’” said the California Senate Republican Caucus in a statement. Soon after Trump announced his proposal to a crowd in Nevada, which has the highest percentage of tipped workers in the nation, Harris also came out in favor of the proposal. The Budget Lab at Yale University reports there are approximately 4 million tipped workers — 2.5% of all workers nationwide. Many tipped workers earn less than the minimum wage, and thus earn the lion's share of their income from tips. Some higher-paid tipped professions such as barbers and hair stylists would also benefit from this rule ...

Vice President Kamala Harris was once anti-fracking and opposed to former President Donald Trump’s tough immigration policies. Now, it’s apparently a different story. In an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash this week, Harris was asked about the change in her stance on fracking. Fracking is a major industry and economic driver in the swing state of Pennsylvania, a state where Harris is up a slim 0.8%, according to Real Clear Politics’ polling average. Harris said during a town hall in 2019 that there is “no question” she supports banning fracking. During the CNN interview, Harris said she does not want to ban fracking and that she “made that clear on the debate stage in 2020.” “As vice president I did not ban fracking, and as president I will not ban fracking,” Harris said. Harris has previously said she supports a ban on fracking, offshore drilling, and plastic straws. She also said she supports passing the Green New Deal, which includes a treasure trove of far-left energy po...

A new Emerson College poll of likely voters reveals some changes in Midwest swing states. Former President Donald Trump has a slim lead over Vice President Kamala Harris in Wisconsin, 49% to 48%, while Harris slightly widened her lead over Trump in Michigan at 50% to 47%. Independent voters are largely veering towards Harris, with 46% of Michigan Independents choosing Harris, versus 43% for Trump. In Wisconsin, the divide is starker, with 52% choosing Harris and 43% Trump. Defying previous trends , Republican U.S. Senate candidate for Wisconsin Eric Hovde has improved to 48%, only 1 percentage point behind incumbent Sen. Tammy Baldwin, his opponent. “We’ve had huge movement in the last 30 days,” Hovde said in a video on X following the poll’s release. “Wisconsin is the number one battleground. Whoever wins Wisconsin will control the White House, and if I win, we’ll not only take control of the U.S. Senate for the next two years, but potentially for the next four years.” Sup...

Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook is actively censoring criticism of Vice President Kamala Harris's CNN interview in the key battleground of Wisconsin just 66 days before the presidential election. That's despite the fact that Zuckerberg admitted that the Biden-Harris administration and FBI pressured Meta (Facebook) to censor posts and expressed regret over how Facebook handled such censorship. Why is he saying one thing to Congress while his platform does another? What Facebook did: In the hours after Harris's widely-panned interview, the platform has repeatedly removed posts of our critical analysis piece, which criticized Harris's performance. The headline on the removed piece - a rather tame column which has been inexplicably given the New York Post-Hunter Biden laptop treatment by Facebook - reads, Yes, Kamala Harris’s CNN Interview Was a Total Train Wreck [VIDEO] Read it here. Facebook notified us that the story violated its community standards on ...

Kamala Harris and her emotional support governor, Tim Walz, sat down for her only interview during the campaign. We watched all 26 minutes or so of the pre-recorded CNN interview so you don't have to, although, if you want to, we've put the full videos at the end of this story. Was it a train wreck? Yes, because the interview gives Harris's foes a lot of legitimate fodder, reminds voters that, oh yeah, she's currently in office now, and didn't help her overall. So that hurts her. Harris, the vice president in an unpopular administration, wasn't able to sever herself from the Biden-Harris agenda in the interview (because it's the Biden-HARRIS administration). She called it "transformative" and essentially supported "Bidenomics." This also hurts her. She's been able to dishonestly reposition as the "change agent" when she's not asked questions about the past four years. That changed tonight. https://twitter.com/Plane...

A new poll by Emerson College/The Hill shows that Senate Democrat Tammy Baldwin's lead over Republican businessman Eric Hovde is in a free fall - she leads by only 1.2 percent. In July, the same pollster had the incumbent Baldwin with a 6-point lead. In the U.S. Senate race, 48.9 percent now say they are planning to vote for Baldwin. 47.7 percent are planning to vote for Republican Eric Hovde. 3.3 percent are undecided. Boosting Hovde: The largest percentage of Wisconsin voters say the economy is the most pressing issue facing the state, and they're more likely to choose Hovde. Baldwin's bread-and-butter issues - like abortion and healthcare - just aren't the most pressing issues to voters right now, according to the poll. The poll was conducted August 25-28, 2024. The results fall within the margin for error. Baldwin has also been hit with conflict of interest questions. https://twitter.com/EricHovde/status/1829255680995594322 The poll has some observers...

State Sen. John Jagler is frustrated Milwaukee Public Schools seems to be ignoring the state law that requires police officers in the city’s schools. But, he doesn’t expect any changes either. Jagler, R-Watertown, last week wrote a letter to the MPS board, asking when the city’s schools plan to follow the law and return school resource officers to their buildings. Republican lawmakers included the school resource officer in 2023’s shared revenue deal. It required MPS to add 25 officers by Jan. 1. That didn’t happen. “Now, I know it didn't get done fast enough last year. And to be honest, I kind of, to be fair, just kind of assumed it would be done in August of this year,” Jagler said on News Talk 1130 WISN on Tuesday. Jagler said he realized that Milwaukee Public Schools may never return the officers to their buildings after hearing MPS school board vice president Jilly Gokalghandi dismiss a question about officers in schools during a question-and-answer session last mont...

By: Sen. Dan Knodl “The law is crystal clear,” exclaimed Ann Jacobs, chair of the six-member Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC), at a special meeting this past Tuesday. This does not seem like an ironic statement on its face, but my eyes rolled to the back of my head hearing these words from Ms. Jacobs; more about this later on. WEC convened to vote on which presidential candidates will appear on our ballots this November. Seven political parties will have presidential candidates on the ballot. Much to the chagrin of Chair Jacobs, Jill Stein of the Green Party and Cornel West, an Independent, will be on the ballot this fall. Why the angst? Because these candidates and parties may take away votes from the Democratic nominee. In the same twisted logic, she felt it was essential to keep RFK Jr on the ballot because it is thought he will take votes away from the Republican nominee for President. It must be hard for this “objective” commissioner to say she is a defender of democra...

The California legislature passed a bill allowing undocumented immigrants to make use of the state’s $150,000, $0 down, 0% interest home “loans.” The bill now goes to the governor’s desk, where he must either veto or approve the bill by the end of September. California has one of the worst home shortages in the nation, with an estimated 4.5 million home shortage and a nearly $1 million median home price. "Many generational Californians can’t afford to buy a house in their home state thanks to Democrats’ unsustainable economic policies,” said State Senate Minority Leader Brian W. Jones, R-San Diego, in a statement urging California Gov. Gavin Newsom to veto the bill. "This policy is not only unfair but also sends a dangerous message: ‘Come to California, whether legally or illegally, and claim your $150,000 home loan.’" California’s Dream for All Shared Appreciation Loans program allows applicants to secure “loans” of up to $150,000 or 20% of the home’s purchase p...

Tennessee conservative activist Robby Starbuck has continued to impact corporate policies on diversity, equity and inclusion and donations to pride events, most recently at companies such as Lowe’s, Jack Daniel’s, Indian Motorcycle and Polaris. Starbuck previously made public policies at Harley-Davidson , John Deere and Tractor Supply that led to corporate statements on how the companies would shift policies to limit or eliminate DEI priorities. This week, Lowe’s made a statement that it would stop participation in the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index along with stopping donations to pride events and ending its employee resource groups, which separate employees with specific characteristics such as sexual orientation or gender to provide corporate resources. On Wednesday, Starbuck said that Ford did the same, ending involvement in HRC's index, pride donations and vowing that ERC groups will be focused on business. Ford also said that it does not have suppl...

The U.S. Department of Defense is under scrutiny for refusing to release records about exactly how spending on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion helps with national security. The Center to Advance Security in America in May filed with the DOD a Freedom of Information Act Request, the legal pathway to obtain government documents. The FOIA sought to find out what DOD officials estimate is the real impact on national security of DEI spending, for which Congress approved $86.5 million in fiscal year 2023. However, James Fitzpatrick, an Army Veteran who leads CASA, told The Center Square that the DOD has confirmed it received the FOIA request but still has not released any documents more than 100 days later. “The Department of Defense has stated that diversity, equity, and inclusion is the American military’s greatest strength but has rarely detailed how,” reads the FOIA, which was obtained by The Center Square. “Given the recent hiring freeze on DEI related positions, it must follow ...

There is another lawsuit over another race-based program from the Biden Administration with a Wisconsin tie. The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty on Wednesday filed a lawsuit challenging the McNair Post Baccalaureate Achievement Program. The McNair Program is a $60 million scholarship program open only to certain minority students. “The government says that these groups are underrepresented. That may be, but that doesn’t give the government a right to discriminate against our clients and other students on the basis of race. Any attempt to balance the races – or create equal outcomes – is a dangerous and illegal policy,” WILL attorney Dan Lennington told The Center Square. WILL is representing Young Americans Foundation, a college-based program that teaches conservative values and thoughts. Its president is former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. “Denying a student the chance to compete for a scholarship based on their skin color is not only discriminatory but also demean...

The Democratic National Committee has had a horrible, very bad week. The DNC's bad stretch started with a polarizing, angry Trump-obsessed speech by Kamala Harris that Democrats and the liberal media largely loved, but the days since then have been absolutely brutal. As they say, a month is a lifetime in politics. In the case of this insane election cycle, revise that to a day. There's evidence the dishonest media bubble propping up Harris is starting to burst - even a Washington Post columnis t doesn't like her Soviet-style price controls, the New York Times is taking shots at her (yes, "joy" is not a policy), and her flip-flopping has escalated to the point of ludicrousness (seriously, she's for the border wall?) Axios is no conservative outlet, and even they wrote the story this way: "Harris flip-flops on building the border wall." The DNC might end up regretting its decision to prop up the exceptionally flawed Harris - who has to own t...

This is an opinion piece by Wisconsin state Rep. Ty Bodden At the DNC, Kamala Harris stated that in 2020, “Donald Trump tried to take away your vote.” How ironic that Democrat voters did not vote for their nominee for President this year. The Left has been saying for years that Donald Trump is a threat to democracy, but the record shows that Democrats need to take a good look in the mirror. Kamala Harris never received a single delegate in 2020 because she was so unpopular. Joe Biden's cognitive decline has been known for years, but the Democratic Party and the mainstream media covered for him and let him run until the very end so the Democratic elites and operatives could select their candidate. How is that democratic? How is that not a threat to democracy? Michelle Obama’s speech at the DNC was full of hypocrisy. She said, “We don’t cheat others to get ahead. We don’t get to change the rules so we always win.” Democrats, you have to realize that you are being played. O...

A federal judge on Monday temporarily paused a Biden administration program that would grant a path to citizenship for the spouses of American citizens. District Court Judge J. Campbell Barker paused the new Biden administration effort until a final ruling is made. The program in question allows illegal immigrants who have married an American citizen to avoid deportation and start the path to citizenship. The halt comes after a coalition of 16 states filed a lawsuit to challenge the program. Proponents of the policy say it helps repair the immigration system and helps the migrants in limbo in the U.S. Critics say it incentivizes illegal immigrants even more than they already are and that the policy violates the U.S. Constitution and breaks federal law. “Under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, the federal government is actively working to turn the United States into a nation without borders and a country without laws. I will not let this happen,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton...

In a series of stunning admissions, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has admitted that the Biden administration pressured Facebook to censor Americans' posts, including "humor and satire" - and Facebook did so. Zuckerberg also confessed that Facebook suppressed a story about Hunter and Joe Biden's alleged corruption before the 2020 election after being contacted by the FBI, and he asserted that he's not going to fund "election infrastructure" anymore - spending which has been dubbed "Zuckerbucks" and much-criticized by conservatives. Zuckerberg wrote that he wished he had been more outspoken about the government pressure at the time, and he promised to do better. However, despite Zuckerberg's comments, Facebook has still been censoring accurate information that hurts Democrats. For example, in April,  Facebook censored a Wisconsin Right Now news story that reported accurately that former President Donald Trump was leading President Joe B...

There was surprise the Wisconsin Supreme Court kept the Green Party on the state’s election ballot. Lawyer Lane Rhuland told New Talk 1130 WISN on Tuesday she was surprised by the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s decision on Monday not to remove the Green Party from the ballot. “I would like to think, non-cynically, that the DNC was just so wrong on the law, it was such an extraordinary relief sought by the DNC, that it was just a bridge too far for this Supreme Court,” Rhuland explained. “Others have theorized that they saw the implications for the more right-leaning parties that might take votes from Trump like the Libertarian Party, or the Constitution Party. And how if they ruled that the Green Party should be kicked off the ballot, then these parties should be as well. And that might not help the Democrats.” The court ruled the Democratic National Committee “is not entitled to the relief he seeks.” Rhuland, however, said the court didn’t explain just what that means. “The rul...

Since the primary election runoff in late May and ahead of the November election, the Texas Secretary of State’s Office has been prioritizing cleaning up the voter rolls and issuing guidance to local jurisdictions about election law. On Monday, Gov. Greg Abbott announced the result of a statewide effort: more than 1.1 million people were taken off the Texas voter rolls, including 6,500 noncitizens who were illegally registered to vote. Among them, documentation about 1,930 with a voting history was handed over to the Attorney General’s Office for a potential criminal investigation. The announcement comes after Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson issued warnings and guidance to local authorities about following state and federal election laws. One guidance directs elections officials to implement measures to ensure registered voters’ privacy rights. It was issued after complaints were filed about ballot information being publicized reportedly for political purposes. It direct...

A Wisconsin lawmaker wants this to be the last school year that begins with cell phones in the classroom. Sen. Dan Knodl, R-Germantown, released a column that outlines what he says is the need for a cellphone ban. “There is a push in several states to push cellphone restrictions in the classroom. From red to blue states, legislatures across the country are coalescing around the idea that too much screen time is a negative mental health outcome. More succinctly, they are a significant distraction in the classroom and lead to a loss in learning,” Knodl wrote. Currently, local schools set their own rules for cellphones in schools. Some school districts have district-wide policy, while others allow principals in individual schools to set their own rules. Green Bay Schools, for example, allow some high school students to use their phones when they are not in class. Waukesha Schools allow students to bring phones to school, but say they must be "stored out of sight" d...

This week will mark the three-year anniversary of President Joe Biden’s chaotic and deadly withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. Biden committed on the campaign trail to withdraw U.S. troops, a move supported by his predecessor Donald Trump, but the process left 13 U.S. service members killed and the country within the hands of the Taliban. The Taliban also received billions of dollars in U.S. military equipment because it was left behind. Federal officials have pointed to an effort to render that equipment unusable, but the rapid collapse in the country left little time to actually finish and accomplish that destruction of equipment. The Taliban held a military parade featuring U.S. military equipment earlier this month. “What added insult to injury to all of this was the way in which it was conducted, the unnecessary impetus behind it which led to the … collapse” and even “armed our adversaries,” Robert Greenway, a former top intelligence and national security offic...

RFK Jr., independent candidate and scion of one of the nation's most prominent Democrat political families, announced Friday that he is throwing his support behind former President Donald Trump in the November 2024 election based on the causes of "free speech, the war on Ukraine and the war on our children." He accused the Democrat Party of trying to "dismantle" Democracy by "rigging" its primary and attempting to throw Trump in jail. The Democrat Party has "become the Party of war, censorship, corruption, big pharma, big tech, big ag and big money," said Kennedy, in a speech that absolutely shredded the party of his forebears. “Three great causes drove me to enter this race in the first place, primarily, and these are the principal causes that persuaded me to leave the Democratic Party and run as an independent, and now to throw my support to President Trump,” he said, announcing that he is suspending his campaign. “I am not terminat...