The common foe; the common solution
We are done being divided by the elites. We are done being distracted into hating one another. This is both a challenge and a hope.
My family, my wife and I, our children, their spouses, and our grandchildren over the age of 18, probably canceled one another’s presidential votes this past election. Some voted for Biden, some for Trump. These are all intelligent people, they all have formal education beyond high school, and they all have the same concerns. They want a better life and a brighter future for themselves and their families. When Bernie Sanders, who to my ...
Look for Auriga on February 21
In the deep midwinter, gaze overhead in the middle latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere in the late evening and you will see the constellation we call Auriga the Charioteer. The six brightest stars can form either an irregular hexagon, or an irregular pentagon with one outlier star. The brightest, Capella, lies to the northeast. Capella is actually a combination of two binary systems. What we see as one star is a close association of one of these binaries, two bright yellow stars that revolve around a common center. These are only about 43 light-years away from Earth. ...
The time for Fair Maps is now
After the 2010 census, the Republican party that controlled the governorship, the state Senate and the Assembly hired a private law firm, Michael Best and Friedrich, to redraw with precision and in secret the legislative and congressional district maps to favor the party in control at that time. Keith Gaddie, a political science professor at Oklahoma University, was hired to engineer the district maps. Wisconsin taxpayers paid the law firm $431,000 to gerrymander the districts.
A poll done by the Marquette University Law School (NPR, January 16-20, 2019) found: 72% of ...
Journalism, politics and the scientific method
I have justifiably been called tangential. It comes from my ability to make seemingly random, sometimes obscure, connections between ideas. While this allows me endless hours of amusement it does not always help me communicate well with others. Please stick with me while I introduce myself by developing the connection between politics, the scientific method and why I support independent journalism.
I grew up in rural California, far away from the beaches that many people associate with that state. Instead I grew up in the dry foothills around what I considered a small ...
FOXCONN: BREAKING UP IS HARD TO DO
(Mr. Jeff Smith is the State Senator from the 31st District of Wisconsin.)
Over time, relationships can go sour. When it happens in one’s private life, the breakup can be agonizing; so much of two people’s lives can be intertwined in a short time. When it’s a public or business relationship, the breakup can be painful and even more complicated. Most likely, there are legal contracts or properties linking the two parties.
Take the relationship between Wisconsin and Foxconn, for example.
It started in 2017 with so much promise, glamour and, of course, a ...
TAURUS THE BULL – THE CONSTELLATION FOR JANUARY 2021
Taurus the Bull, the star constellation for January 2021, is pretty hard to beat. For me, it has about everything one would want: the remnants of an exploding star, two beautiful star clusters and an attractive giant orange star.
Taurus is easy to find. First, find Orion the Hunter in the southeast sky. (You may want to go to www.skymaps.com to help you locate features in the night sky for each month.)
Locate Orion’s belt stars, create an imaginary straight line connecting the stars, then follow the line up and to the right. You will come to a prominent “V ...
BOOKS TO READ
How would you describe 2020? Alarming, chaotic, enraging or all of the above? Here are some books to help you make sense of it all. Editors of YES magazine chose these books.
All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis
”A splendid offering of wisdom, warmth, and inspiration to reshape our vision of climate futures, All We Can Save is a skillfully curated collection of essays, poems, and illustrations that is decidedly feminine in its character and feminist in its approach. In her essay, “Sacred Resistance,” ...
OUT OF THE LONG SHADOW
During this time of year, we take time to reflect on the previous year and try to focus on the good things that happened. Even in 2020 there must have been some good things, right?
We all know it’s difficult to focus more on the good moments, than the bad. I often think about knocking on doors or holding mobile listening sessions in the district. I’d have a great day of conversations with folks who were friendly and respectful. It’d be just one conversation that didn’t go well, that would continue nagging at me. That may be why most of us ...
FIRE AND ICE
FIRE AND ICE
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To know that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
(Robert Frost lived from 1874 to 1963.. He lived and taught for many years in Massachusetts and Vermont.)