Spend Less, Have More
“You load sixteen tons, what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt.
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store.”
(Traditional folk song)
There are two ways to get ahead financially. One is to have more income. The other is to spend less money. Since most of us have limited ability to generate more income, it would make good personal financial sense to spend less. But shop-til-you-drop consumerism is ingrained in our modern American culture. Too many of us owe our souls to the company store, or the credit card ...
PENSIONS ARE THE BEST BET FOR WISCONSIN MENTAL HEALTH WORKERS
This month is Mental Health Month and I wanted to take some time to thank my fellow mental health workers throughout Wisconsin for their service. I feel truly honored and fortunate to work closely with a dedicated group of public employees across many disciplines, including nursing, social work, psychiatry, psychology, and occupational therapy.
Currently, I am a psychiatrist at the Mendota Mental Health Institute (MMHI) in Madison and at the Waupun Correctional Institution (WCI) in Waupun. At both locations, I work as part of a team to treat mentally ill patients, and ...
ANOTHER LOOK AT 2016 ELECTION
While we await developments on a number of critical fronts — Will the Republicans running our state ever agree on transportation funding?
Will the US Senate stumble as it tries to formulate a healthcare bill that can pass both the Senate and the House? Will the Supreme Court issue a stay in Gill v Whitford? Will James Comey's testimony on Thursday offer the bombshell the national press is hoping for?
You might want to have a look at an analysis of How And Where Trump Won Wisconsin in 2016. Malia Jones at the UW Applied Population Laboratory has run the numbers and ...
WHAT MOTIVATED 2016 VOTERS?
Professor Katherine Cramer Walsh, author of The Politics of Resentment: Rural Consciousness in Wisconsin and the Rise of Scott Walker (March, 2016), finds the split between rural and urban voters' choices to be rooted in what she calls "group consciousness." In an article published years before her book, she concludes that rural voters, at least in Wisconsin, perceive themselves to be deprived and attribute "rural deprivation to the decision making of (urban) political elites, who disregard and disrespect rural residents and rural lifestyles."
But there appear to be ...
Eating Our Seed Corn
“Science has always been at the heart of America’s progress. Science cleaned up our air and water, conquered polio and invented jet airplanes. Science gave us the Internet, puts food on our tables and helps us avoid pandemics. Science and technology are widely considered by economists to be responsible for at least half of American economic growth since World War II. Defunding science is the intellectual equivalent of eating our seed corn.” Denis Hayes, LA Times editorial.
Knowledge based, rational public policies are good for everyone. It is good for the ...
AUDIT: WEDC Cannot Be Certain of Any Jobs Created or Retained
Our state spends a great deal of money on economic development. The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) is responsible for overseeing much of the taxpayer money that goes to job creation.
A recently released audit by the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB) found that “WEDC cannot be certain about the number of jobs actually created or retained as a result of any awards that ended.”
By law, WEDC is required to report jobs created or retained. The agency meets the requirement through reports posted on its website. However, auditors found these ...
EDUCATION BILLS IN THE STATE BUDGET
Education bills will probably come up before the Joint Finance Committee by the end of May. Once the budget bill passes through the Joint Finance Committee, it goes to the Assembly and then the Senate for floor debates and votes.
Then it goes to the Governor who has veto power but cannot make additions at that point. The governor has suggested he will fund transportation needs from the general purpose revenues, the same source that funds school aid. Assembly leaders have introduced a tax/transportation funding plan that could diminish funds for public schools.
AB 267 ...
PROTECT THE U.S. CONSTITUTION
The Constitution needs your help. A Wisconsin legislative committee will decide on Wednesday whether to advance an unproven method of amending the U.S. Constitution that could result in unintended consequences with the potential to threaten basic freedoms.
Use this tool to contact your state lawmakers and tell them the U.S. Constitution deserves to be protected in its current form.
The U.S. Constitution has served our nation well for more than 200 years. But now, a national movement is pushing states to approve a resolution that would open the door to drastic changes ...
ON LEGALIZING DRUGS
(You can read more of Denele’s writing at www.denelecampbell.org)
Americans must confront the reality that we are the market,” Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said this past Thursday. “We Americans must own this problem.”[1]
Meeting with his Mexican counterpart, Tillerson acknowledged the role of American drug consumption in the proliferation of violent Mexican drug cartels. Citing the enormous demand for heroin, cocaine, and marijuana by Americans eager to get high, he argued that “drug trafficking had to be addressed as a ‘business model,” attacking ...
CHANGE OF HEART?
The other day I was reading Krista Tippett’s blog ON BEING. I was surprised that she interviewed Glenn Beck who says he has had a change of heart. Beck has acknowledged his role in the damaged state of our nation.
Krista Tippett spoke with Glenn on May 11, 2017 as part of her Civil Conversation project. They talked about what it will take to heal the divisions in our nation.
Glenn Beck now broadcasts on The Blaze, a multi-platform news and entertainment network that he founded.
Beck is concerned that Donald Trump could go totalitarian, but he may be a “decent ...
