Tweet

Maybe Scrolly?

Ben Wikler

Follow @benwikler

31 Jul, 25 tweets, 11 min read

On the road to Wausau for the Hmong Wausau Festival

Huge line for the Hmong Wausau Festival!

@WisDems

Yee Leng Xiong runs the Hmong Wausau Festival, the Hmong American Center, and serves in multiple elected offices—as well as on the administrative committee of the @WisDems. An extraordinary leader in our state!

@GovEvers

Our great @GovEvers greeting Marathon County Board member William Harris at the Hmong Wausau Festival

Mine-za Thao and Mary Thao are tremendous leaders in Wisconsin politics—so great to meet in person and not just on Zoom! And great to meet Corrie Norrbom

The speaking program of the opening ceremony of the Hmong Wausau Festival is live-streamed by 3 Hmong TV News here:

youtube.com/hbctelevision
Facebook.com/3hmongtvnews

@GovEvers

The parade kicks off with a welcome from @GovEvers, who then lights the torch to mark the start of the games. Tons of athletic competitions will run all weekend!

After the national anthem, elected officials and other leaders file past Hmong Lao veterans standing at attention.

Lit torch, waving flag

@GovEvers

Lt. Nao Shoua Xiong, president of the Wisconsin Lao Veterans of America, addresses the opening ceremony, flanked by his fellow veterans, thanks @GovEvers at the opening ceremony, as @GovEvers, Mine-za Thao, and Yee Leng Xiong watch from the seats of honor.

Read more about Lt. Nao Shoua Xiong, the Hmong Lao veterans who fought for America, and their work for recognition in Wisconsin in this great story: wausaudailyherald.com/story/news/201…

@GovEvers

This spring, @GovEvers signed A.B. 154 into law designating May 14 as Hmong-Lao Veterans Day, commemorating the final day of the 1975 airlift evacuation of Hmong-Lao soldiers and their families from Long Tieng, Laos—with Lt. Nao Shoua Xiong by his side.

wsaw.com/2021/05/14/gov…

@katierosenberg

Mayor @katierosenberg is introduced with an enthusiastic “holy balls!” (Google it) and delivers a warm and bold speech celebrating the festival and the Hmong community—and calling on the city and county to be a community for all, despite political differences.

Katie’s speech touched on a controversy that roiled the county board this spring. Read about that here: nytimes.com/2021/05/18/us/…

@katierosenberg

After the board of Marathon County fell short of declaring the county a Community for All, Mayor @katierosenberg made the declaration on behalf of the city of Wausau. Today’s event reflects that spirit. wpr.org/after-county-v…

@GovEvers

Our great @GovEvers takes the stage! Much to celebrate—AB154, Suni Lee’s gold medal, and the effectiveness of vaccines. Also condemns racist attacks against Asian-Americans. Expresses his gratitude to the Hmong leaders here and to the whole community.

@GovEvers

May yer (“mine-za”) Thao is the Assistant Deputy Director of Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority—the first Asian-American woman appointed to executive office in Wisconsin, and a key partner for @GovEvers in ensuring that Wisconsin’s economy lifts up everyone.

May yer notes that when Suni Lee won her gold medal, people started searching for info about the Hmong—and CBS posted an article drawing on info from Wausau’s own Hmong American Center. The Olympic gold has lifted up the whole community!

@LGMandelaBarnes

Our Lt Gov @LGMandelaBarnes is here too! It’s the first Hmong Wausau Festival to welcome both the Gov and Lt Gov.

Festival Executive Director Yee Leng Xiong closes out the morning with a hearty round of thanks for the many, many people who made today possible.

@GovEvers

A beautiful day for a visit to a wonderful festival by @GovEvers

@WisDems

A delight to see renowned @WisDems leader and Marathon County Board Supervisor Ka Lo!

There are more than 50,000 Hmong Wisconsinites—the third largest population of any US state. After English and Spanish, Hmong is the third most common language spoken at home in Wisconsin. This community is an essential part of what Wisconsin is all about.

There’s a Hmong tradition of hand embroidery showing stories of village live in Laos. Kaoly Lo used to make them—and now designs them on computers and prints them on umbrellas and other objects. My mom, here with me, bought a bunch; you can buy one at Moonlighthmongdesigns.com!

@WisDems

The @WisDems booth here at the Hmong Wausau Festival has our Hmong language literature! Thanks to Tou Chue and team for staffing the booth!

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

More from @benwikler

Ben Wikler

@benwikler

1 Aug

You guys: my mind is blown. I’ve been hearing about the ten-month-old Bernese, Sasha, who lives one block over. Today, Pumpkin met her… and we discovered that Pumpkin and Sasha are FIRST COUSINS.

Pumpkin’s mom is Tommy. Sasha’s mom is Peach. Tommy and Peach are sisters.

Pumpkin and Sasha were both born outside Kansas City, within 7 months of each other. They’re both growing up in Madison, Wisconsin. About eight houses apart. My kiddos are thrilled about it too.

Read 4 tweets

Ben Wikler

@benwikler

30 Jul

MONTH-END DEADLINE—Ron Johnson is the ONE incumbent Senator likely running in 22 whose race is ranked a toss-up. He’s got a pure Trump strategy: say anything; rile up his base. We're scaling up to win. Help WisDems hit 99 new monthly donors by midnight Sat:wisdems.org/defeatjohnson

It might seem like Ron Johnson is shooting himself in the political foot. His unapologetic extremism almost seems designed to repel swing voters in an evenly divided state like Wisconsin. But he’s got a strategy, and it’s not dumb.

We know from first-hand accounts that Johnson thinks a *lot* about the huge number of voters who turned out for Trump in 2020—the highest number of Republican voters in state history. The previous record was held by Johnson himself.
thebulwark.com/my-call-with-r…

Read 30 tweets

Ben Wikler

@benwikler

26 Jul

Wisconsin Republicans, who took off more than half the year last year in the height of the pandemic, are calling an extraordinary session tomorrow to attempt a veto override on as-yet-unspecified legislation.
postcrescent.com/story/news/pol…

@GovEvers

This is a political stunt. Last year, @GovEvers, @WisDems, and the WI state Senate and Assembly Democrats joined forces for a campaign called Save the Veto, to prevent GOP supermajorities. It worked. The GOP's dream of gerrymandering its way to veto-overriding power failed.

The fact is, Wisconsin voters have chosen Democrats over and over, statewide. The Republican Party doesn't have an agenda or a vision for the state, and voters have rejected it.

Read 5 tweets

Ben Wikler

@benwikler

19 Jul

@POTUS

Last week, roughly 39 million Americans started seeing expanded #ChildTaxCredit payments in their bank accounts, including parents of nearly 1.2m Wisconsin children—thanks to @POTUS & @TheDemocrats and NO thanks to Republicans. Find out what this tax cut means for your family. 1/

The expanded Child Tax Credit was part of President Biden’s American Rescue Plan, the historic legislation that passed thanks to Democrats in Congress, and no thanks to Republicans who *unanimously* opposed the relief plan. whitehouse.gov/child-tax-cred…

This tax cut will provide additional relief to working parents across the country, increasing the existing tax benefit from $2,000 up to $3,000 per child ($3,600 for children under age 6) and returning up to half of families’ spending on childcare for those under the age of 13.

Read 12 tweets

Ben Wikler

@benwikler

16 Jul

https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1415019500085317632

On Tue, President Biden laid it out: “We are facing the most significant test of our democracy since the Civil War.” Watch his speech! But I want to add one note: the GOP’s plan to rig or steal the 2024 presidential election has a math problem.

https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1415019500085317632

The Republican strategy is simple: amp up the Big Lie—denial that Trump lost—and take away voter freedoms to help the GOP win the White House in 2024 and, if they don’t win, to overturn the results. It’s hideous. But it’s got a hole in it… so far.

For the GOP’s plan to work, they would either have to pass bad laws nationally (which they can’t do under Biden) or in enough states to win the Electoral College. But they can only pass them in states where the GOP has trifecta control of state gov't. There are 23 such states.

Read 19 tweets