YES, GET OVER IT…..CONSTRUCTIVELY
(Denele Campbell blogs from Artkansas.)
Yesterday I attended a town hall meeting sponsored by Rep. Steve Womack (Republican) of our 3rd Congressional District (Northwest Arkansas). The room would comfortably hold thirty people. Over 200 showed up. With the hallways and doorways and standing room thronged, half the people ended up standing outside in the parking lot for the 1.5 hour event.
Womack could have taken charge of the situation by reconvening five blocks away in the much larger community center. He chose not to do so. He could have opened the meeting by ...
OPEN LETTER REGARDING POTENTIAL SELF-INSURANCE PLAN
OPEN LETTER TO WISCONSIN JOINT FINANCE COMMITTEE
REGARDING POTENTIAL SELF-INSURANCE PLAN
POWRS (Protect Our Wisconsin Retirement Security), February 19, 2017
Dear Joint Finance Committee Members:
POWRS has closely followed events leading to the Wisconsin Group Insurance Board (GIB) approval of the self-insurance program proposal. We have been and continue to be deeply skeptical of this proposal. We believe that since the health insurance marketplace is already in turmoil due to dismantling of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), conducting such a radical change ...
12 THINGS YOU CAN DO TO RESIST TRUMP AND DEFEND DEMOCRACY
Protest nonviolently. The women’s marches and the spontaneous rallies at the airports were great examples. Be creative and visual: Greenpeace’s “resist” sign behind the White House is a good example.
Join organizations that are under assault. Planned Parenthood. Council on American-Islamic Relations. Standing Rock protesters. Labor unions. Environmental groups. Immigrant rights groups.
Join organizations that are strategizing on how to resist. ACLU, Voces de la Frontera, Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, interfaith groups, and others.
Sign ...
WEALTH AND MONEY PART XXIX: PUBLIC BANKING AND INFRASTRUCTURE
The last edition of Wealth and Money discussed how Public – Private investment schemes were likely to be used under the Trump administration to finance the rebuilding of America’s infrastructure. Due to 40 years of tax cuts for the rich and corporations, along with deregulation of the financial industry, our federal and state governments have been defunded. This massive transferal of the nation’s claim to wealth, money, to the richest .01 percent has left government in debt and opened the door for complete predation on the people of America. Rather than paying for ...
The Great Bamboozle Begins
If you read or listened to President Trump’s inaugural address you may have been surprised by what he had to say. At first blush it sounds progressive! He calls for returning power to the people. He says “a nation exists to serve its citizens.” He expresses concern for working people and calls for broadly sharing the wealth.
“For too long, a small group in our nation's Capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost. Washington flourished -- but the people did not share in its wealth. Politicians prospered -- but the jobs left, ...
C’mon Now – Let’s Work Together
Pledging to "drain the swamp" during a presidential campaign is an effective metaphor which captures the widespread frustration people have with our current political system. Now we’re all mad because our government is broken. Everyone sees that the big-money corruption in our election system is not serving us well. What has happened?
The Supreme Court has given constitutional rights meant only for individuals to artificial entities such as corporations and unions and has ruled that money spent to influence the political process cannot be limited. Thus, our government ...
IT’S ABOUT MORE THAN MONEY
Public education in Wisconsin should provide high quality learning for ALL children no matter who they are or where they live,” Eau Claire School Board President Chris Hambuch-Boyle recently told me.
Chris and education leaders across the state read with interest details of the Governor’s plan for our next state budget. Governor Walker gave money to a number of new initiatives and reaped the praise of some education leaders.
The plan picks and chooses among various proposals advanced over the last few years. Some new programs are funded and some existing programs ...
A SWORD CUTS BOTH WAYS
For decades, the religious right has gained access to tax dollars by filling a niche in the education system. In addressing an ‘at risk’ population among children, these religious activists have made great strides toward the use of tax dollars for religious instruction.
It’s a clever end-run around the law. In Arkansas until 2012, a quietly growing swarm of such preschools illegally utilized millions of tax dollars for programs that began each day with prayer and Bible study. (Which they have never been required to pay back.) Classroom activities included coloring ...
NARCISSISTIC PERSONALITY DISORDER
From the White House we hear the incessant lies, and subsequent views from those who try to explain them away as “alternate facts.” This is sufficient if you live in an “alternate universe.”
However, the world of the alt-right is the golden ring for S. Bannon and S. Miller. It is a very dark, neo- fascist word view envisioned by these individuals. For them the “ends justify the means.” This end goal leads to a world ruled under an Alt-right ideology, which would manifest the most despicable realities that our country and the civilized world fought to stop ...
WEALTH AND MONEY PART XXVIII: THE WRONG WAY TO FINANCE INFRASTRUCTURE
On June 29th, 1956 President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 and the U.S. interstate highway system, the greatest public works project in world history, was born. This occurred only a few short years after America had invested millions upon millions of dollars in World War II and government debt was at an all-time high.
But dollars and wealth are not the same thing. Following the war America was the unquestioned industrial leader of the world. We had unprecedented capacity to produce true wealth – the products and services of an ...