317 results for author: Phil Anderson

Supreme Politics

The recent big news story is the Supreme Court's leaked draft of the upcoming decision to overturn Roe vs Wade. This should be no surprise. It has long been expected. Obama was outrageously denied an appointment and Trump made three appointments to the Court. These three judges were deliberately chosen for their opposition to abortion and their extreme positions on other issues. The current Supreme Court is a glaring example of a “packed” court dominated by extreme right wing ideologues. These judges are not impartial arbiters of the law. Jim Hightower devoted the March “Hightower Lowdown” to the Supreme Court (https://hightowerlowdown...

Down Ballot Wisconsin Elections

Voters also need to pay attention to the “down ballot” statewide offices. In Wisconsin, the Attorney General, State Treasurer and Secretary or State are independently elected offices. The Attorney General is obviously an important office and gets some voter attention. But most people know nothing about the other two. This year ignoring these obscure offices could have serious ramifications. Republicans have spent years weakening and underfunding all three of the these elected offices. This has included trying to abolish both the Treasurer and Secretary of State positions. Recently, Republicans have flip-flopped on the Secretary of State. Since ...

Mining Jobs Mirage

Mining in northern Wisconsin  back in the news. A Canadian company wants to do exploratory drilling for copper and gold deposits in Marathon and Taylor counties. Advocates for mining claim it will be a boost for rural economies and create jobs. Other people dispute these claims. Too often the number of jobs promised don't pan out. The long term environmental damage can cost more than the economic gain. There are many studies that show mining does not improve local economies. There are better ways to create jobs and prosperity for northern Wisconsin. Mining, like any business activity, can temporarily increase employment and thus help the ...

Mining in Wisconsin

A Canadian mining company has an exploratory license and is moving ahead with plans to drill for gold and copper in north-central Wisconsin. Green Light Metals believes the Reef in eastern Marathon County and the Bend deposit in Taylor County have “economic interest” that warrant further exploration. The company says the Bend deposit, located within the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest contains 4 million tons of copper and gold. They say the Reef deposit contains about  454,000 tons of gold reserves. This sounds impressive but it is misleading information. These figures are estimates of the expected available ore and are not the actual ...

New Thinking Needed – Not More Pentagon Spending

In our country the endless increases in military spending are only matched by an equally endless propensity for wars and military conflicts. Biden’s fiscal year 2023 budget proposes $813 billion for the Pentagon. This is a 4% increase over the bloated $782 billion approved by Congress for 2022  – which was a 5.6% increase from 2021. Every year “defense” spending increases. It makes no difference which party is in control. It doesn't matter what the the real threats are to the country. It makes no difference how much of this money is unaccounted for, lost to fraud or otherwise wasted. The military industrial complex must be fed. Since ...

Truth and Consequences in Education

“Teaching kids about frogs isn't grooming them to become amphibians. It's helping them learn about the world around them,“ a social media meme. “If you think education is expensive consider the cost of ignorance,” unknown It is well known that an educated, well informed electorate is necessary to a well functioning democracy. Citizens need to have accurate information on issues. But they also need to have more than data and more than competing arguments or opinions They need context. They need understanding and not just sound bites. They need some basis for sorting through the lies, spin, attack ads and fake news. In last week's ...

The Fruits of Faulty Judgment

“I'm just a miner in the mother lode of misery, where the fruits of faulty judgment meet the spoils of bad luck.” From the song “King of Junk” by Eddy Lawrence This humorous song is about a junk yard owner who's good fortune is the result of others' faulty judgment and bad luck. He finds a “hidden trove of riches mid the mangled and the maimed” wreckage of cars. I like the poetry of the song. To me it speaks (out of context) to much of the current craziness in our society. Politics has always been ugly and partisan. But the angry divisions are getting worse. The decline in civil, democratic norms of behavior and the abandoning of ...

Victories for Justice

We have two victories in the struggle for justice and social progress to celebrate. I am referring to the confirmation of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court and the enactment of the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act. Martin Luther King claimed the “arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” But too often it has been hard to find much evidence for his optimism. Reading the news is more likely to bend one toward drink, cynicism and misanthropy than hope for the future. As a society, we have a long way to go to achieve liberty and justice for all. But these two events are landmarks in the 400-year struggle for a ...

Guns Are Not the Answer

Over the weekend of March 19-20 there were nine mass shootings across the country. Eight people were killed and 60 wounded including children and unlucky bi-standers. These incidents happened in diverse locations and a variety of social settings. The usual reasons given for gun violence – a mentally ill “lone wolf”, “bad guys,” drug gangs, ethnic or religious hate – don't seem to apply. From the limited information available, there appears to be only one common thread to these incidents – the presence of guns. Milwaukee, Wisconsin: 4 shot at a party Dumas, Arkansas: 1 killed, 27 injured at car show Norfolk, Virginia: 2 ...

Making Money From Medicare

Medicare was created in 1965 to provide affordable basic healthcare for senior citizens. At the time half of seniors did not have any hospitalization insurance. One third of seniors lived in poverty and couldn't afford any medical care. Given the obvious need and the fact that the private insurance companies were not interested in sick, old people (unless they had money) Medicare became a vital government program for seniors. Medicare has been successful in improving the health and well-being of seniors. It has been extremely popular with the public, despite its faults and limitations. Medicare has also contributed to reversing the poverty statis...