Pipeline Expansion: Their Gain – Our Risk
Enbridge Energy is expanding the capacity of its pipeline through Wisconsin. You may ask, “What is the big deal?” Pipelines run over the state and most of the country.
There are many good reasons to be concerned discussed by the Sierra Club, 350.Org, and the National Resources Defense Council. These include concerns over accidents, spills, higher risks associated with tar sands oil, lack of regulations, the poor safety record of Enbridge, and the threats to water resources in the state. Middle Wisconsin News highlighted some of these in the article The Dangers of ...
The Future’s so Bright I Gotta Wear Shades!
The future’s so bright, I gotta wear shades!
by David Arey
“I study nuclear science, I love my classes
I got a crazy teacher who wears dark glasses
Things are going great, and they're only getting better
I'm doing all right, getting good grades
The future's so bright I gotta wear shades.” 1
If you replace “nuclear science” with "solar energy technology," the lyrics suffer. But the reality is that the future for solar energy is blindingly bright.
And it has to be if the U.S. and the world are going to kick our addiction to carbon-based fuels. ...
Wausau Move to Amend in the Wausau Daily Herald
A group of Wausau citizens are working to protect our democracy. They are looking to get the money out of politics and having our government more accountable to the citizens, not to whoever gives the most money. Super PACs and lobbyists are drowning out the ordinary person’s voice and putting our representatives in a difficult position. These representatives find it difficult to listen to the people when the “big” money speaks louder. With a Constitution amendment regulations again can be put on campaign finances and all citizens will have a voice.
Read ...
Who’s Helped By Raising The Minimum Wage?
The minimum wage struggle is an issue which affects so many individuals and families
Corporate Tax Dodgers . . . Citigroup
This is the third in a series on corporate tax dodgers that will be presented over the next several weeks. These summaries are taken directly from the report on Corporate Tax Dodgers by Americans for Tax Fairness and the Institute for Policy Studies
It isn’t enough that Citigroup was among the Wall Street banks whose fraudulent and predatory “exotic financial instruments” caused the collapse of our economy. It isn’t enough that they were bailed out with hundreds of billions of public tax dollars. It isn’t enough that Citigroup’s tax dodging is driving ...
Demand a New Approach in Iraq
President Obama's decision to sent 300 special forces “trainers” to Iraq is taking us back to war and the same mistakes of the past. It will not help the situation in Iraq. We spent 11 years “training” the Iraqi police and military. Why do we think 300 can do now what 150,000 could not do before?
The deteriorating situation in Iraq proves that our intervention and occupation failed. It did not build a stable country. It did not promote democracy. It did not defeat extremism or curb terrorism. It only killed people and wasted money. Why do we continue to throw ...
Moral Monday – – – The Immorality of “Rocketship Education”
The educational immorality called “Rocketship Education” being imposed on the children of Milwaukee is the product of years of deliberate, calculated transfer of wealth out of inner-cities all across America. It is a well-researched fact that poverty is the single most important factor in any failure of our public schools. As stated in a report from the Economic Policy Institute:
“Decades of studies have affirmed that the single most important factor affecting educational achievement are inequalities of wealth and poverty. Since the inception of testing under No ...
Move To Amend Comes To Wausau
Volunteers are knocking on doors this month in Wausau, asking people if they wish to sign a petition to bring a nonbinding resolution to the November 4 ballot. This resolution will call for a constitutional amendment stating that money is not speech.
Move to Amend seeks a 28th Amendment saying that corporations are not people and that money is not speech. In 2010 the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of Citizens United which allows corporations to give unlimited amounts of money to politicians. This has made our democracy available to the highest bidder.
People across ...
Corporate Tax Dodgers . . . Bank of America
This is the second in a series on corporate tax dodgers that will be presented over the next several weeks. These summaries are taken directly from the report on Corporate Tax Dodgers by Americans for Tax Fairness and the Institute for Policy Studies
Bank of America is one of the "too big to fail" "to big to jail" Wall Street banks whose unethical practices led to the economic collapse in 2007-2008. Bank of America received billions of public tax dollars to keep it afloat during the recession. Because of the bank's abusive lending practices, hundreds of thousands of ...
Pale Blue Dot
The following quote is from the book Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space by Carl Sagan. The Pale Blue Dot is a photograph of planet Earth taken in 1990 by the Voyager 1 space probe from a record distance of about 6 billion kilometers (3.7 billion miles, 40 AU) from Earth. The Voyager 1 spacecraft, which had completed its primary mission and was leaving the Solar System, was commanded by NASA to turn its camera around and to take a photograph of Earth across a great expanse of space, at the request of Carl Sagan.
“Look again at that dot. That's ...
