316 results for author: Phil Anderson
Inflation Isn’t Biden’s Fault
"Inflation is when you pay fifteen dollars for the ten-dollar haircut you used to get for five dollars when you had hair." Sam Ewing
Sam Ewing is a former baseball player and not an economist. But he provided a good definition of inflation. Inflation is the overall increase in prices for goods and services over time. We don't need economists to tell us inflation is occurring. It is pretty obvious when you go to the grocery store.
Why pieces are going up is a more complicated story. Despite inflation being a well defined phenomenon with known basic causes, economist disagree about the specific reasons for today's price increases.
This article ...
Ukraine: An Opportunity for Peace
“War is always a choice and it is always a bad choice.” World Beyond War in their publication “A Global Security System: An Alternative to War.”
The war in Ukraine is both a wake up call about the folly of war and rare opportunity to move toward a more peaceful world.
War is not the answer whether Russia is invading Ukraine or the United States is invading Afghanistan and Iraq. It is not the answer when any other nation uses military violence to pursue some political, territorial, economic or ethnic cleansing goal. Neither is war the answer when the invaded and oppressed fight back with violence.
Reading the stories of ...
Walk a Mile in Russia’s Shoes by Phil Anderson
Walk a mile in Russia's shoes
by Phil Anderson
I like to read historical novels. I also like a category of historic novel called counterfactual or alternative history. This is a way of looking at history that asks “what if” questions and postulates different outcomes than actually occurred. The mental exercise of counterfactual history can provide a broader perspective on world events.
This genre of fiction is often futuristic. In this article I ask the reader to imagine a fictional story about the United States in the near future. This story illuminates current events happening today.
Image that the United States – the world's last ...
The Cost of Gerrymandering By Phil Anderson
The Cost of Gerrymandering
Phil Anderson
Democracy does not exist in Northwest Wisconsin when it comes to congressional representation. Because of the extreme gerrymandering of the district people essentially have no choice. Republicans are virtually assured of winning any election for the House of Representatives in the 7th Congressional District.
This is not just a problem for Democrats. It is not that Democrats are sore losers who don't have the support of the people in the district. Gerrymandering produces “safe” districts that allow minority control regardless of what the overall majority of people want. ...
Folly in Ukraine by Phil Anderson
Folly in Ukraine
Phil Anderson
“Today we face an avoidable crisis between the United States and Russia that was predictable, willfully precipitated, but can easily be resolved by the application of common sense.” Jack F. Matlock, Jr., U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1987-1991
Once again, our government is meddling in another conflict on the other side of the world. Given we just got out of a disaster in Afghanistan, one would think we might be a little cautious about jumping into another no-win situation in Ukraine. But we are actively “precipitating” an “avoidable crisis.”
Our government and corporate media insist ...
Some Facts About the Ukraine “Crisis” by Phil Anderson
Some Facts About the Ukraine “Crisis”
Phil Anderson
There is much Americans need to know about the conflict in Ukraine but are not being told. The public gets the biased propaganda intended to justify the desired Washington establishment agenda. There is certainly no “fair and balanced” information coming from the corporate media.
To begin with the United States has no “vital national interests” in Ukraine. If Ukraine disappeared tomorrow, it would have zero impact on the vast majority of Americans. A couple of facts make this abundantly clear:
There are only about 1 million, or 0.3% of our population, ...
Sanctions kill
Instead of killing people with weapons of war, we now plan to kill them with economic sanctions.
Keeping on the sunny side
This week I am setting aside my usual curmudgeon style in search of some more positive stories.
Pearl Harbor and American militarism
Many times in our history we have failed to see how our actions contribute to conflicts.
Doing redistricting right
We know that gerrymandering is undemocratic and antithetical to good governance. We know leaving redistricting to the politicians of either party is a mistake.