NEWSPEAK
(Denele blogs from Arkansas. You can read more at www.denelecampbell.com)
Newspeak is the language of Oceania, a fictional totalitarian state and the setting of the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), by George Orwell. To meet the ideological requirements of English Socialism (Ingsoc) in Oceania, the ruling Party created Newspeak, a controlled language of restricted grammar and limited vocabulary, meant to limit the freedom of thought — personal identity, self-expression, free will — that threatens the ideology of the régime of Big Brother and the ...
PUBLIC BANKING UNIT VI: TOWARD A BRIGHTER FUTURE
“I am opposed to the United States Government, which possesses the sovereign and exclusive privilege of creating money, paying private bankers for the use of its own money. These private bankers do not hire [lend] their own money to the Government; the hire [lend] only the Government’s money to the government, and collect an interest charge annually. I insist it is absolutely wrong for this committee to permit this condition to continue and saddle the taxpayers of this Nation with a burden of debt that they will not be able to liquidate in a hundred years or ...
WE HAVE A BILLION DOLLAR DECISION TO MAKE
It is clear that Green Bay Correctional Institution (GBCI) is nearing the end of its useful life. On May 3, 2019, the Legislative Audit Bureau reported that many believe its antiquated design is not conducive to the efficient operation of a modern prison. The report said also said that, among Wisconsin’s prisons, GBCI is the best candidate for closure. The Allouez Village Board voted unanimously for the distribution of a petition supporting the decommissioning of GBCI. After 121 years, GBCI is nearing the end of its useful life.
That means that Wisconsin’s ...
TEN TALKING POINTS TO END GERRYMANDERING IN WISCONSIN
The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign is playing a key role in the Wisconsin Fair Maps Coalition, including writing up a handy toolkit for activists. Here’s an excerpt:
The Founders of our country fought the War of Independence over fair representation. Gerrymandering deprives Wisconsinites of fair representation.
The health of our democracy depends on the integrity and fairness of our election system. The more rigged the system is, the more cynical and apathetic the citizenry will become.
Wisconsinites believe in fair play. Wisconsi...
FIXING RETIREMENT
"The reason they call it the American Dream is because you have to be asleep to believe it." George Carlin, comedian
Being able to retire with dignity and financial independence was once an anticipated and expected reward for a lifetime of work. But for many people this dream is not going to come true. Many people will not have enough to retire comfortably. Some people will not be able to retire at all. This decline in secure, adequate income for older persons will affect us all. It will have a negative impact on states, like Wisconsin and Minnesota, which have ...
PUBLIC BANKING UNIT V: THE BANK OF NORTH DAKOTA PRESENT
In 2009, in the midst of the greatest economic recession since the Great Depression of the 1930’s, only one state ran a large budget surplus, cut personal and business taxes, and had the lowest unemployment and foreclosure rates in the nation. North Dakota.
Quoting from the “Public Banking Legislative Guide” by the Public Banking Institute in 2011, during some of the worst times of the Great Recession:
“While lawmakers across the country struggle with difficult, even heart-breaking budget dilemmas, the North Dakota legislature debates whether to cut taxes or ...
MORAL LEADERSHIP
What do Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Jesus, Apostle Paul and Pierre Teilhard have in common? They all maintained that love is the highest value of life.
Martin L. King wrote, “What is the highest good of life? It is love. He or she who love is a participant in the being of God.” (Christian Century, June 1957).
Gandhi wrote, “Truth and nonviolence are, to me, faces of the same coin. The law of love will work, just as the law of gravitation will work, whether we accept it or not.” (All Saints by Robert Ellsberg, p. 53.)
Jesus ...
ANDROMEDA IN THE NOVEMBER SKY
Astronomers estimate that the presently observable universe contains about one hundred billion galaxies. These are very large groups of stars (see the 10/07/19 article by James Lewis) held together by gravity. They exist in difference shapes and can be spiral, elliptical, lenticular, or irregular.
Our own galaxy, the Milky Way, and its nearest full-size neighbor, the Andromeda galaxy, are both spiral galaxies. We used to think that the Andromeda galaxy was two to three times as large as our galaxy, but recent (2018) radio astronomy data shows that they are ...
PHARMACEUTICALS AS A PUBLIC UTILITY UNIT III: PRIVATE PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY – HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH
“Following the lead of pharma-friendly Rep. Richard Neal, Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee this week crushed several progressive amendments to a House drug pricing bill that would have expanded the number of medicines covered by the legislation and extended lower costs to the nation's tens of millions of uninsured.
The Intercept reported Wednesday that Neal, a Massachusetts Democrat and chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, warned his Democratic colleagues against offering any amendments to the Lower Drug Costs Now Act of 2019 (H.R. 3) during the ...
FAIR MAPS FOR WISCONSIN SUMMIT
Marshfield will be the host of a statewide summit on nonpartisan redistricting on Nov. 9, 2019. Leading national speakers will be addressing the summit, as well as Wisconsin movement leaders and activists. The Fair Maps for Wisconsin Summit will run from 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. at the Hotel Marshfield, and is sponsored by Common Cause Wisconsin, the Fair Elections Project, League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, The Madison Institute, Oregon Area Progressives, Our Wisconsin Revolution, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, Wisconsin Farmers' Union and Wisconsin United to Amend....