Politics
CAN YOU IMAGINE CLOSING ALL NEIGHBORHOOD PUBLIC SCHOOLS?
CAN YOU IMAGINE CLOSING ALL NEIGHBORHOOD PUBLIC SCHOOLS?
By Joyce Luedke
Can you imagine closing all neighborhood public schools in a city and replacing them with 40 different privately managed charter schools, a Recovery School District, funded by taxpayers?
Can you imagine no centralized oversight of these 40 different entities to guarantee that the needs of all students are met?
Can you imagine firing 7,000 school personnel and replacing 4500 teachers with unlicensed personnel holding alternative certificates who have no training in child development, ...
Protect Our Outdoor Heritage
Looking at the budget debates going on in Wisconsin and nationally it is hard to understand the conservative positions. Their destructive, short- sighted, and counter-productive agendas are simply “penny wise and pound foolish.” Why are they obsessed with cutting successful programs that cost pennies in comparison to the social and economic benefits?
I am a member of the North Country Trail Association (NCTA). This non-profit organizes volunteers to build and maintain the North Country National Scenic Trail which runs across Northern Wisconsin. The work we do as ...
A LETTER TO THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE
A LETTER TO THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE
By John Spiegelhoff
John Spiegelhoff sent this letter to the Democratic National Committee in response to their fundraising request. Mr. Spiegelhoff is the Staff Representative for AFSCME Minnesota Council 65.
Dear Democratic National Committee:
First, permit me to introduce myself. My name is John Spiegelhoff and I am a middle- class voter in the Midwest. I think it is appropriate to inform you that I have voted Democratic as long as I have been a registered voter. I have financially supported Democratic candida...
A Business Owes Nothing in Taxes & Gets a State Check?
A Business Owes Nothing in Taxes & Gets a State Check?
"Why doesn’t the press cover what’s happening with refundable tax credits?” I asked the journalist. We were chatting about what I found in the state budget. “Because the press doesn’t understand them,” she told me.“Doesn’t understand them?” I thought. “There has to be an easy way to describe what’s happening...”Imagine if you had no state tax taken out of your paycheck. You filed your tax return but you owed nothing. Now imagine the state sent you a refund check. Wow!
This is like ...
Corporate Colonization of Wisconsin – Part VII: Policing the Colonies
This is the seventh in a series of articles by Dr. Keith Roberts discussing the corporate colonization of the state of Wisconsin. In this segment Dr. Roberts discusses how police and National Guard forces in Wisconsin have been manipulated to support the colonization of the state. Previous articles in this series can be found archived under the author’s name.
ALL DICTATORS AND COLONIAL GOVERNORS NEED THE SUPPORT OF THE POLICE AND MILITARY TO KEEP THE LOCAL CITIZENS INTIMIDATED AND SUBMISSIVE.
The Wisconsin State Patrol
Immediately after assuming control of the ...
WORKERS’ MEMORIAL DAY – APRIL 28TH
Unless you are a labor historian, you probably wouldn’t know who Mary “Mother” Jones was. But her legacy in the labor movement is immense.
Mary Mother Jones was born Mary Harris in 1837 in Cork, Ireland. She moved to Toronto, Canada at ten years old due to the potato famine in Ireland. In her early adulthood she moved to the United States, married and had four children. In 1867 yellow fever struck her entire family leaving her a widow. She moved to Chicago where her small dressmaking shop eventually burned in the 1871 Chicago fire.
In her later years, Mary ...
ON THE BOOKSHELF…..THOMAS PAINE AND THE PROMISE OF AMERICA
Thomas Paine and the Promise of America was written by author Harvey J. Kaye. Kaye is the Ben and Joyce Rosenberg Professor of Social Change and Development at the University of Wisconsin—Green Bay. He is an award-winning author and editor.
“These are the times that try men’s souls.” I say this often in our hectic and uncharted times. However, Thomas Paine first said those words to the colonial soldiers fighting for independence from England.
Thomas Paine (1737-1809) is a symbol of patriotism. For the past 240 years, Americans have claimed Paine as the figure ...
Worker Exploitation Laws
A group of people decide to go out to eat. Everyone in the group knows that they will receive a bill when they finish eating. Two people in the group decide that the others will need to pay their dinner bill despite partaking in the benefits of the meal.
After reading this hypothetical situation did you perhaps say to yourself “I would never think about doing something like that!”
This hypothetical situation is similar to what people commonly and unfortunately call “Right to Work” laws. “Right to Work” is a name or slogan that can be accurately described ...
Blue Jean Nation
American democracy is caught on the horns of a dilemma. Most Americans are feeling fed up with the Republicans and let down by the Democrats — with good reason — as both major parties are failing the country. Yet a third party isn't the answer. Like it or not, America has a two-party system.
Ours was not set up as a parliamentary democracy, where competing factions can join forces and form coalition governments. We don't have fusion voting, or instant runoff voting, or proportional representation, or any of the mechanisms that would allow third parties or independ...
RE-PURPOSING GOVERNMENT
REPURPOSING GOVERNMENT
This commentary is a distillation of Mike McCabe’s keynote speech at the Wisconsin Grassroots Network festival in Mazomanie on March 28. It was first published as an opinion column by the online news site Wistopia on April 3. It is reprinted from the Blue Jean Nation website at: http://www.bluejeannation.com/commentary04-13-2015/
It’s easy to be consumed by what or who we are against rather than what we are for. But if we are going to get Wisconsin and our nation out of the rut we are in politically, we cannot afford to dwell on what ...
