BARBED WIRE AND ACRES OF HOPE
BARBED WIRE AND ACRES OF HOPE is a collection of essays reflecting on the gifts bestowed upon us by our American forebears, and how the Republican Party has been systematically attempting to take those gifts from us and our children. The brief vignettes remind us that we are not only the beneficiaries but also the stewards of those gifts. Please consider recommending the book to your personal network and asking them to do the same.
Barbed Wire & Acres of Hope is now available in eBook form on Amazon and will be there in paperback form soon.
Barbed Wire & ...
HOW MANY LIVES WILL WE LOSE IN THE WAR AGAINST COVID-19. . .
HOW MANY LIVES WILL WE LOOSE IN THE WAR AGAINST COVID-19...
...because somebody wants to drink
or eat, in a crowded bar or restaurant?
By mid-October, Marathon County had 3,531 confirmed cases of Covid 19 and officially registered 38 deaths to this virus! By the time you read this, the number of cases, and the number of lives lost to this deadly virus will have increased. To find the effect of Covid-19 on your friends, family and neighbors in your county, go to: dhs.wisconsin.gov/covid-19/county.htm.
Like many of you, my family and I ...
CURRENT STATUS OF COVID-19
Statistics:
**U.S: 8,301,250 confirmed cases—up 52,638 since yesterday
**223,250 deaths—up 428 since yesterday
**Wisconsin: 183,177 confirmed cases an increase of 7,525 new cases.
Deaths: 1,624 with an increase of 36 new deaths
The total number of deaths from Covid-19 in the U.S. exceeds the deaths from Vietnam War, Iraqi War and Korean War combined.
Statistics: A total of 100,215 Service Men and Women died in the line of duty in the three wars.
**Vietnam War—1954-1975: 58,220
**Iraqi War—2003-2018: 4,550 service members and 3,793 ...
MARS IS HERE AGAIN
I am really excited to be writing about Mars. I grew up in the days when it was widely believed that Mars had canals which carried water to many places on the planet. There were creatures, maybe even people on the planet, which had a culture older than any on our Earth.
The Mars creatures in the public’s mind were vastly more intelligent than Earth dwellers. They used the canal water for agriculture, manufacturing and drinking.
In October 1938, Orson Welles and other radio actors presented a radio drama which pretended to cover, in a fake ...
MONEY IN POLITICS TOPS LIST OF VOTER CONCERNS
Numerous polls show that government corruption is the top issue on the minds of voters.[1] Over 90% of Americans think special interest money has too much influence in American political campaigns.[2] It’s no surprise that Americans' job approval rating for Congress hovers near single digits.
The non-partisan citizen-action group, Wisconsin United To Amend, contacted all 200+ state Assembly and Senate candidates numerous times, via email, Facebook and phone calls, to determine their level of support for a U.S. Constitutional amendment ...
WHO WILL CARE FOR YOU?
We live our lives with much uncertainty. We can never be sure our plans will work out perfectly, and we may have to adjust due to unforeseen events. It could be weather changes, mechanical problems, an illness or accident that may change our entire life. But, even with uncertainty hanging over us like a cloud, we plan and move ahead.
Most of the time, plans are kept and we live another day healthy and free of worry. If things go as we plan, we will live a long and healthy life. But even as we approach our later years we won’t be able to do the things we once ...
MOURNING RGB
Here at the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, we remain in mourning at the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Among the many causes she championed in her career dedicated to equality and justice, two are right at the heart of our work here.
The first is reducing the influence of money in our politics. She told The New Republic back in 2014 that the worst decision of the Roberts Court was Citizens United. “The notion that we have all the democracy that money can buy strays so far from what our democracy is supposed to be,” she ...
CLIMATE VOTERS NEEDED NOW
A recent news feed brought the likelihood that summer sea ice in the Arctic will be gone in 15 years. Almost a lifetime ago I remember reading dramatic, sometimes horrific, stories of hardy explorers trying to find the legendary Northwest Passage and the North Pole. These were the stories of men like Franklin, Nansen, Peary and many more who wrestled with blinding snow, frigid winds and treacherous ice sometimes struggling to their achingly cold deaths.
Soon, I can almost see it now, someone will be the first to water ski the Arctic Ocean. What ...
UNDER PRESSURE: A CALL FOR CIVIC ENGAGEMENT
Vote as if your life depends on it because it literally might. This week, as a self-proclaimed pro-life nominee to the Supreme Court avoids answering questions about her past comments on the Affordable Care Act, I have had to begin taking medication for hypertension. I had low blood pressure for my entire adult life, but then Apollo Global Asset Management, while accepting half a billion dollars from the federal government according to a June 2nd article in Bloomberg, decided it would be to their financial advantage to downsize its Verso paper mills.
The ...
HERCULES
It’s October already. Nights are getting longer. You don’t need to wait so long after supper to get out to star-gaze. When it’s dark enough and the skies are clear, you must go outside to see the stars.
This month we are featuring the constellation Hercules, well-placed above the horizon in the western sky. There are many interesting things about this Constellation, but we’ll mention only a few highlights.
Hercules is one of the strong men in Greek and Roman myth. Hercules was fathered by Zeus, the chief god and the mortal woman was ...