OUR CHERISHED FISH
Despite the fact that scientists from around the world warn us, almost daily now, that we are witnessing the unraveling of the climate we depend on, their message hasn't turned our heads in sharp alarm. If you're thirty or less you might have an excuse because it's been that long since we've had a year with normal temperatures.
The earth is heating up. But for the rest of us, well, we just ought to know better. We sure didn't grow up in Wisconsin with regular winter rains, or growing seasons that went past Labor Day weekend. Now we're eating fresh tomatoes from our ...
Questions on the “Markets”
The stock market had a crazy year in 2018. Several times there were huge swings in the market indexes. Any good investment adviser will tell you to ignore the daily ups and downs of the markets. But people are worried. Somehow Wall Street speculation has the power to crash the real economy. When the bubble bursts, like in 2008, severe problems result. Main street businesses go under, people are laid off, and retirement “nest eggs” disappear overnight. The economy can take years to recover.
Why does this happen? How can speculation crash the whole economy? Why do we ...
MAKING THE WORLD WORK FOR EVERYONE – A PALE BLUE DOT – PART II
Planet Earth from a distance of 4 billion miles. Photo by Voyager I. Source: NASA/JPL Feb. 1990 (Just below middle of page in orange/brown color band on right)
“Whether you will or not, you are a king, Tristram, for you are one of the time-sifted few that leave the world, when they are gone, not the same place it was. Mark what you leave.” - - Edwin Arlington Robinson writing of the legendary knight Sir Tristram
One could easily imagine Robinson was speaking to all of us when he wrote the lines above. Because, whether we will or not, each and every one ...
A BRIEF HISTORY OF OUR WISCONSIN RETIREMENT SYSTEM
I have just checked WREA.net (Wisconsin Retired Educators Association) website and learned some interesting things about the history of our Wisconsin Retirement System.
Did you know?
In 1950 there were more than 85 public pension funds in Wisconsin and most of them were poorly funded?
In the early 1950s, the average monthly annuity for a retired teacher was $35?
In 1966, Wisconsin and Tennessee had the two worst public pension funds in the nation?
Wisconsin now has one of the best retirement systems in the country?
The Wisconsin Retirement System is ...
Looking at ACA
Remember the high-gloss campaign mailings? The non-stop TV and radio campaign ads from last year about protecting people with pre-existing conditions? I bet you heard more than you ever wanted about pre-existing conditions, right? Well, the number one issue from last fall’s election is coming home to roost here in the Legislature.
When I left office as State Representative in 2010, bipartisanship was at an all-time low. The biggest political football at the time was the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare. Democrats knew it would be a political liabil...
Singing for Justice
“Have you sung a song for freedom? Or marched that picket line? Have you been to jail for justice? Then you're a friend of mine”
excerpt from “Have You Been Jailed for Justice” by Anne Feeney
In Madison, Wisconsin people have been singing for freedom and justice at the state capitol every business day since March 2011! For over 2000 days people have come to the Solidarity Sing Along. As Governor Scott Walker, the object of this extraordinary protest, exits the political stage I think it is appropriate to honor these singers.
This tour de force began in March of ...
Make America America Again
Like nearly all Americans, I am the offspring of immigrants. The peasant farmers whose family name I inherited came from Ireland. They left a homeland savaged by famine, trading a grim reality of financial ruin and starvation for the promise of a new and better life. They were part of what might be described today as a massive caravan that took incalculable risk to make its way across a vast ocean seeking refuge and comfort from the Mother of Exiles.
My immigrant ancestors settled first in New Jersey before journeying to northern Illinois and eventually Wisconsin. ...
HAVE THE TAX CUTS TRICKLED DOWN TO YOU?
HAVE THE TAX CUTS TRICKLED DOWN TO YOU?
By Jeanne Larson
In December 2017, the Republican majority rushed tax-cut legislation through Congress before the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis of the 505-page bill could be properly scrutinized.
On April 9, 2018, reuters.com reported that the CBO estimates the immense tax cuts signed into law -- which Republicans said would pay for themselves -- will balloon the deficit for years to come. In just one year, 2017 to 2018, the deficit expands from $665 billion to $804 billion.
On September 28, 2018, forb...
MAKING THE WORLD WORK FOR EVERYONE – A PALE BLUE DOT PART 1
It is now the year 2019. Twenty-nine years since Voyager I sent the above photo of our planet. In a world seemingly bent on a path of self-destructive madness, when human-induced global warming and the quickly growing threat of nuclear war threaten the very existence of life on Earth, it is worth it, perhaps critically so, to recall the words of astronomer Carl Sagan in his 1994 book, “Pale Blue Dot.”
“Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, ...