16 results for month: 05/2025

Don’t Let Fear In

Our American society is a big house. There is room for MAGA, Woke, liberals, conservatives, non-political, but not for the plutocratic oligarchic kleptocratic authoritarians now in charge of our government. We, as the people of the United States, are not in favor of a small group of billionaires taking over the government and mining it for our data and taxpayer money. What was it that Willie Sutton said when asked why he robbed banks? “That’s where the money is.” Why are Musk, Zuckerberg and Bezos, and other one-percenters congregating around this administration? That is where the money and power are. Plutocracy is government by the ...

Devastating Cuts

Congress is proposing $880 Billion in cuts to the federal budget. The proposed cuts to Medicaid and the SNAP (food assistance) Program will be devasting for so many. The population hurt the most will he Children and our seniors.  It will have a catastrophic impact on Medicaid. Medicaid goes by many names here in Wisconsin, IRIS, Badger Care, PACE (elderly) to name a few. These cuts hit home. Medicaid has over 1 million members, covering 20% of all Wisconsinites. It includes vaccines and prescriptions. Medicaid also covers 40% of births, that’s two of every five children. SNAP benefits cover formula and baby food items. How can we have a ...

Return of The New Age Robber Barrons or Connect the Oligarchical Dots

The Wisconsin Supreme Court Election presented us with some interesting developments that tell us about the state of our democracy and especially the role of money in our elections. And the developments are troubling at best. It’s as if the major political parties have abandoned the notion of establishing good public policy positions and instead rely on misleading and or exaggerated dark money advertisements that appeal to emotional “red meat” sensations of low information voters. In the uptake of the Citizens United decision by the United States Supreme Court during the Obama Administration, the “Money is Speech” ruling opened the ...

Wisconsin’s Budget

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers has released his proposed 2025-2027 budget. In what has become a legislative tradition, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos declared Evers’ proposal “dead on arrival.” The next step in the biennial battle is for the Republican controlled Joint Finance Committee to write their own budget ignoring most of Evers' work.   Gov. Evers' budget proposes a $119 billion plan for investments in education, healthcare, public health, cleaning up environmental problems and tax relief for the lower tax brackets. There are a number of improvements for social services and policy issues that will be good for most Wisconsinites. &n...

HEAD START

Right now, Congress is working on a budget proposal that includes eliminating the Head Start program nationwide. For Wisconsin children, this could be devastating. In St. Croix County alone, Head Start funded preschool enrollment for over 9,000 children in 2023.   Head Start promotes school readiness for children from birth to age five who live in low-income households. Families also benefit from participation in the program, as it also provides prenatal care, housing support, job training, and education both for parents and staff.   Starting in 1965 as part of the “War on Poverty” program, Head Start has always received ...

The Environmental Cost of Computers

There is an old saying, “Whenever you light a candle you also cast a shadow.” There are always downsides to any choices, changes or innovations. Computer chip technology, computers and the Internet have transformed everything and improved many things. But are we looking at the inevitable shadows? The Minnesota Center for Environment Advocacy (MCEA) recently had a webinar on the environmental impact of data centers which run the online world. They explain the environmental shadows many of us are not seeing. You can watch the MCRA webinar, or read a transcript, by searching for “Minnesota’s Digital Dilemma: examining the environmental costs ...

139th Anniversary of the Bayview Massacre

Wisconsin’s most historic and bloody labor incident occurred on May 5, 1886 on the shores of Lake Michigan in the Bay View area of Milwaukee. That day dawned after four days of massive worker demonstrations throughout Milwaukee on behalf of the creation of eight-hour day laws. As some 1,500 workers marched toward the Bay View Rolling Mills (then the area’s biggest manufacturer) urging the workers there to join the marches, the State Militia lined up on a hill, guns poised.  The marchers were ordered to stop form some 200 yards away; when they didn’t, the militiamen fired into the crowd, killing seven persons. (WI Labor History). Today Randy ...

Tom Tiffany Empty Town Hall

A Tom Tiffany town Hall was held at Wausau Infused on Thursday, April 24. As constituents living and working in Wisconsin’s wonderfully diverse 7th Congressional District, we believe it’s more important than ever for our members of Congress to have an open and honest conversation with the people they represent. Whether it’s rising costs, economic uncertainty, or the future of programs like Medicaid, Social Security, and SNAP, the decisions made by Congress are impacting the lives of all Wisconsinites, including children, aging populations, disabled community members, generational farmers, tribal members, and small businesses here in central ...

Attacks on Freedom

Funding for institutions of higher learning, including the University of Wisconsin’s campuses in Wausau and Marshfield, is being used to coerce them into following philosophical mandates issued by the Trump Administration. Attempting to coerce universities to change admission and administrative policy is an assault on academic freedom and on the First Amendment to the Constitution. The First Amendment is written for the express purpose of allowing people to speak in opposition to government policy without recrimination. The Trump Administration has been abducting and deporting foreign students accused of speaking against US foreign and domestic ...

Tariffs and Oligarchy

What is a tariff? It is a tax placed on items imported from another country. Does the other country pay the tax? No, the American importer pays the tax and then passes the increased cost of the product on to the consumer. Who benefits? If tariffs become the major way of collecting taxes it is the wealthiest members of society. People with lower incomes spend most of their salaries or hourly wages on their daily needs. When prices rise, because of the across the board tariffs, they will pay taxes on most everything they buy. Wealthier people make money they don’t need for their subsistence, that surplus would then go untaxed.   I traveled ...