Though the real news was that Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke had just been endorsed by the largest police union in Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s online headline said, “Mary Burke stumbles when asked to define plagiarism”. As if the… Read More ›
progressive
Anti-War Democrats Begin to Emerge
It turns out there is a slight anti-war reaction emerging in the Democratic Party, for 85 House Democrats said “no, thanks” to President Obama’s request for a formal authorization to train and arm the “good” Syrian rebels in the fight against the… Read More ›
Sharing Some Intellectual Property
Sometimes property can get too intellectual, if you know what I mean. According to Wisconsin’s lieutenant governor, Rebecca Kleefisch, one of the state’s rising industries is something called “agricultural tourism.” Says Kleefisch, “Visitors from all over the world are coming to Wisconsin… Read More ›
Pres. Obama’s 2015 Budget: Less for Great Lakes, more for Prisons and still too much for Defense
There is for the progressively compassionate much to like about Pres. Obama’s newly released federal budget: more for the poor, less for the wealthy for instance. A raise in the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. $300 billion to maintain what… Read More ›
Weekend Rebuttal: The War Hawks on Ukraine
Today we can confirm that Russia has sent troops into the Crimean Peninsula of Ukraine. President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry had warned Russia not to invade Ukraine, and Putin decided not to obey. Of course, it doesn’t… Read More ›
Heed Sen. Elizabeth Warren on War’s Civilian Casualties
(Photo by Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (Community Banks Roundtable) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons) It is safe to say that every major war over the last few centuries at least has brought great harm and suffering to innocent civilians (or non-combatants),… Read More ›
Gov. Walker as Captain Ahab
The Wisconsin conservative spin machine (call it the whitewashing machine) has been rotating wildly today, making itself dizzier than normal, after yesterday’s release of some damaging email records that seem to confirm that Walker, as Milwaukee County Executive, had at least some knowledge of… Read More ›
Cesar Chavez, a Living Wage and Bipartisan Tax/Debt Pandering
(By USGov-DOL (USGov-DOL) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons) Two apparently radical, left-wing proposals were discussed in Madison last week, one of which is supported, sort of, by our Republican governor and one which is opposed by Milwaukee County’s Democratic County Executive. And what Democratic… Read More ›
A “Farm Bill” that Denies Food to the Poor
(By Sr. Maria Ludgera Haberstroh (Kloster Reute bei Bad Waldsee) Photographer: Horst F. Freudenberger (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons) Because farms grow food, and some Americans need help purchasing food, SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), more commonly known… Read More ›
Weekend Rebuttal: Gov. Walker’s Tax Surplus Plan is a Gift to the Suburbs
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has a plan for our nearly billion dollar tax surplus: give everyone in the state, even the wealthy, a quite modest tax cut. Which means, in real terms, that the richest in the state, the top 20%, will… Read More ›
Collins & Brooks together again
The published conversations between NY Times columnists Gail Collins and David Brooks are always witty and enlightening, thanks mostly to Collins’ wit and political enlightenment. More mutual debate of this kind would be both more useful and entertaining than the… Read More ›
Creating local peace economies
(Photo by Samweller2 (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons) How can states like Wisconsin that are now heavily dependent on federal defense spending transition to a more peaceable (and thus sustainable) economy? It’s a good question for the… Read More ›
“Peace on earth and mercy mild”
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays to all from The Afternoon Journal.
Friday Rebuttal: Sen. Ron Johnson says U.S. can’t afford sympathy for the unemployed
Here’s Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson talking on Wisconsin Public Radio about why he won’t vote to extend unemployment benefits: “You can always take a look at every one of those spending programs and have a great deal of sympathy and… Read More ›
Milwaukee County should join 140 other enlightened communities and pay a living wage
Milwaukee County supervisors, led by David Bowen, have put forth a “living wage” ordinance for county workers and the employees of certain county contractors and developers that would mandate a reasonable living wage of $12.45 an hour for some 8,000 working people… Read More ›
Speaker Boehner ends the “Tea Party”
House Speaker John Boehner finally spoke aloud what we progressives and most of the rest of the nation have been thinking for a while now, “Are you kidding me?” Boehner told off the conservative re-activists behind the “Tea Party”, saying they were “misleading their followers”… Read More ›