News Items You May Have Missed
Citizens United at 13
This year marks the thirteenth anniversary of Citizens United. This decision by the U.S. Supreme Court ended a century of restrictions on donations to political candidates. It allowed, corporations, other groups, and individuals to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence elections. The only limitation was they couldn't coordinate directly with a candidate's campaign. The result was an avalanche of $4.5 billion dollars in the decade following the 2010 decision to buy elections. Most of this money was donated by a few super wealthy individuals....
THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF OFFENSE
With almost unanimous bipartisan support, the U.S. Congress now spends nearly a trillion dollars a year – repeat that – a trillion dollars a year, on the Department of Defense. If one includes the Department of Homeland Security and the care of disabled veterans, it is actually more than a trillion. This represents the lion’s portion of the U.S. discretionary budget.
What this “defense” budget means in real terms is that all of the physical resources, all of the knowledge, all of the science and engineering, all of the development, all of the jobs, that ...
League of Women Voters
Are you aware that Marathon County has a League of Women Voters once again? This is such great news because we have not had a group in Marathon County for some time! Want to know how to get involved? Email Kay at kaypalmer@42llc.com.
Meanwhile, here is an upcoming event they are having for National Voter Registration Day:
Join us on the high seas of civic engagement for an unforgettable virtual event on National Voter Registration Day (which also happens to be National Talk Like a Pirate Day)! Mark your calendars for 6:00 p.m. Tuesday, September 19 and ...
THE COMMUNITY CHURCH OF BOSTON
On June 10, 1963, President John Kennedy gave the commencement speech at the American University in Washington D.C. Titled “A Strategy of Peace,” it is considered one of the greatest speeches in modern history. It was given after Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev had, through negotiations, resolved the Cuban Missile Crisis, and not long before Kennedy was assassinated.
The Community Church of Boston, in conjunction with the JFK Peace Speech Committee, has been doing a series of videos centering around Kennedy’s speech and how it applies to international ...
Healthy Climate WI Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 12, 2023
Media Contact:
Laura Lane
Healthy Climate Wisconsin
whpcacomms@gmail.com
(608) 215-0112
Doctors and Nurses Join Sierra Club Wisconsin and 350 Wisconsin in Urging the Public Service Commission to Reject Madison Gas and Electric and Alliant Energy's Net Metering and Rate Increase Proposals
Doctors, nurses, and health professionals from Healthy Climate Wisconsin (HCW) are calling on the Public Service Commission (PSC) to reject Madison Gas and Electric (MGE) and Alliant Energy's new net metering proposals, which ...
Ayn Rand, Narcissism and Democracy
Ayn Rand (Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum) was an influential fiction writer. Her best sellers were “The Fountainhead” (1943) and “Atlas Shrugged” (1957). She was a Russian who reacted to the crushing uniformity under communism in Russia. She also saw the same dangers in the right-wing fascism of Hitler’s Nazism in Germany. The protagonists in her novels found freedom through the expression of their individualism.
Determined to forge their own way, they not only rejected the conformity of totalitarian regimes, but also, the values of living in a community. If one is ...
Ignoring the Lessons of Past Mistakes
Wars are a sink hole for tax dollars. This is well known and one would think Congress would take steps to prevent waste, fraud and corruption with spending on Ukraine. But this is not the case. In July, Senate Democrats blocked creating an inspector general to oversee spending for the war in Ukraine.
Congress has so far authorized $113 billion in spending for Ukraine. John Sopko, the former Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, says “If that much money is coming in, you know some of it is going to be stolen...” Even more of it is going to be wasted ...
Everyone Benefits From Unions
"Where free unions and collective bargaining are forbidden freedom is lost." President Ronald Reagan.
“United we bargain. Divided we beg,” Service Employees International Union slogan.
“We all do better when we all do better,” the late Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota.
Everyone doing better involves collective action and win-win solutions. This is what collective bargaining by unions is all about. It is democracy applied to the workplace. Ronald Reagan's statement is true even if spoken disingenuously by a union busting politician.
We are all better off ...
Rights of Nature
Since we kicked off the Rights of Nature Wisconsin effort in late 2022, we have made some significant progress. When you join the call (link below), you can see our video, the website and other materials, hear about local resolutions and more. More importantly, you will learn what comes next and how we can all be part of building this movement and restoring our proper relationship with the natural world.
What exactly is Rights of Nature?
We envision a world where the inherent rights of nature are respected and protected, and where the natural world is ...
DEAR LEGISLATORS – SEPTEMBER 4, 2023
Dear Legislators,
Please, for your own wellbeing, but more importantly for the wellbeing of your children, your grandchildren, and for all Earth’s children, spare two minutes to watch the following video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YX3aAnGwmLo
https://youtu.be/YX3aAnGwmLo?si=5hW0fHP_3gV9Amlw
Dear Legislators, let us repeat the closing words of the video taken from the book The Green Zone: The Environmental Costs of Militarism by Professor Barry Sanders:
“Here’s the awful truth: even if every person, every automobile, and every factory ...