Government
NO HISTORY ALLOWED
“Stories of the Nakba still harrow us and live in us, giving us hope of return. Palestinian Nakba survivors have not forgotten their homeland 73 years on.” “Our village resisted the Jewish militias with what little we had. But the well-armed Zionist gangs were singling out unarmed civilians and butchering them in hundreds.” - Omar Abedelal, 82, was only 9 years old when he, along with his family members and neighbors, was displaced from his village, Burayr.
Every year on May 15th, millions of Palestinians around the world commemorate the Nakba, the ...
Funding Public Libraries Crucial to Diverse, Free Society
I am writing this letter in support of, not only maintaining, but increasing, the 2024 budget for the Marathon County Public Library. It seems strange that the budget of such a valued community resource should be threatened. We live in a complicated age where diversity of people and ideas should be celebrated, not condemned.
The public library system makes all kinds of books and ideas available to everyone. Public libraries are one of the safe places where people of all backgrounds, economic class, race, gender and ideology can gather and quietly go about their ...
Update on the Golden Rule Voyage
In September 2022, Duluth was the kickoff of an extraordinary voyage for peace and the abolition of nuclear weapons. Three members the Golden Rule crew came to Duluth to hold the first public events in an 11,000 mile journey to raise awareness of the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The trip began in Minneapolis and ended on September 17, 2023 in Chicago.
The Golden Rule is a 34 foot sailboat which, in 1958, attempted to sail to the South Pacific to oppose U.S. nuclear weapons testing. The voyage was unsuccessful (the crew members were ...
UNPROVOKED! UNPROVOKED!
The following is an October 7, 2023 article, reprinted with permission, by Australian/American author Caitlan Johnston:
The illusory truth effect (also known as the illusion of truth effect, validity effect, truth effect, or the reiteration effect) is the tendency to believe false information to be correct after repeated exposure. This phenomenon was first identified in a 1977 study at Villanova University and Temple University. – Wikipedia
We’re seeing the western political/media class bleating the word “unprovoked” in unison again, this ...
It’s 1933
Why would I be surprised by some of what goes on in our county government? I am referring to Supervisor David Baker's proposal to not only pull funding from the Marathon County Public Library but to assemble a “Library Standards Alignment.” Supervisor Baker's ideas go as far as a possibility of abolishing the county library system altogether. Supervisor Tony Sherfinski also buys into this ideology by saying that adding pressure by pulling on purse strings is a good idea.
I will be the first to say these people terrify me. This is government over-reach at its finest. ...
This is Not a Credible Offer
For more than a decade, Wisconsinites have been asking for a transparent, independent, nonpartisan redistricting process to create voting maps. No amount of claims by Robin Vos that he has finally seen the wisdom of our request will make these most recent GOP shenanigans credible.
AB415 is a ploy to manipulate the system and have folks believe that it is the solution to Wisconsin’s extreme partisan gerrymander.
The evidence of their contempt for the people of Wisconsin is in the biennial budget and other bills that have passed this session that DO NOT address the ...
Anniversary of the Crandon Mine
It will be an honor to attend the 20th anniversary event of the Crandon Mine. Although this is the twenty-year anniversary of the end, the battle of the Crandon Mine itself started decades earlier when I was still in high school.
Even though I was barely old enough to be an activist at that time, something stuck within me hearing those words Crandon Mine every day on the radio news.
Last year those words took hold when I learned at our Earth Day rallies of the potential for drilling at the Reef Deposit in Marathon County where I live. Gathering forces with those who ...
No More Weapons
The world's leading weapons dealer, the U.S. government, urgently needs to hear from the people of the United States and the world.
President Joe Biden has told the U.S. Congress that he will ask for funding to send huge piles of free weapons to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, to prolong two wars and help start a third -- and possibly the world's last. Biden reportedly intends to combine weapons for these three wars, plus additional weapons for further militarizing the U.S. border with Mexico, all in one piece of legislation. The strategic thinking is that various ...
A TRIP TO CAPITOL HILL
Last week I traveled to Washington D.C. with my fellow union retirees in AFSCME. We had a wonderful week of camaraderie and learning to craft our own message to take to our representatives regarding the Social Security Fairness Act (S. 597 / H.R. 82).
H.R. 82 would repeal the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO) that deprive more than 2.5 million public employees of Social Security benefits they have earned.
How the Government Pension Offset (GPO) Works – Social Security pays benefits to the spouse of retired and disabled ...
THE TOTALLY AVOIDABLE TRAGEDY
In 2014, then U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, and then U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt, with the approval of then Vice President of the United States Joe Biden, orchestrated the violent coup that overthrew the democratically elected President of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, because Yanukovych wanted to keep Ukraine neutral, out of NATO, and on friendly terms with Russia.
The following 5-minute video is the intercepted phone call between Nuland and Pyatt as they plan and choose the people to replace Yanukovych after he is overthrown. Nuland...