STOP Shopping Til THEY Drop! Family Values Weekend: A new tool for change.

STOP Shopping Til THEY Drop! Family Values Weekend: A new tool for change. By Philip Anderson Progressives are often frustrated by the overwhelming odds against building a better society. Money rules elections. Corporate lobbying trumps public opinion. Voters are apathetic and vote against their own interests. Crazy reactionaries succeed and common sense reforms go nowhere. We organize, march, write letters, contact our legislators, sign petitions, and advocate for the common good seemingly to no avail. Perhaps we need a new tool. A new protest that will demand attention and, perhaps, get better results. A tool that even huge multinationals ...

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 as a misnomer. Most dictionary references define misnomer as follows: Misnomer ...

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 we hate. We need to be thinking and talking about what we love and what we hope ...

MIDDLE WISCONSIN FROM BEND, OREGON

Middle Wisconsin has always been a state of mind, not a location. The values of fairness, respect, and community are universal. They live in the heart of caring, concerned citizens throughout America, throughout the world. The following letter from Baruch Zeichner of Bend, Oregon, verbalizes what many of us fear, what many of us know, but have hesitated to say. Follow Baruch on his Podcast at http://paradigms.bz/ on http://wbkm.org/ radio, and visit his Blog at http://baruchzedblog.blogspot.com/ “We are now literally dismantling the state government, and people need to think long and hard about what they want for a future in our state.�...

Economic Development $$$ Grow – Public Oversight Shrinks – By Senator Kathleen Vinehout

Senator Kathleen Vinehout “I’ve heard about the cuts,” the Buffalo County man said. “But this budget spends more. Who’s getting more money?” Folks are concerned about big cuts to the UW; cuts to local schools; scaling back of health programs for the disabled; public radio and TV losing state support. But the new budget spends $3 billion more than the last. Where is that money going? One place to look is the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC). Despite its name, WEDC is a part of state government; in fiscal year 2012-13 it received over $62 million from the budget (including about $4 million in federal funds) ...