Commentary
The Republicans’ Marie Antoinette moment
As the November election approaches, there is reason to believe the Republicans have gone too far. That’s hard to imagine, I know, in the era of Donald Trump. It shakes your faith in democracy when the President of the United States retweets racist rants and promotes his own cockamamie medical theories — prompting the makers […]
Make a resilient, localized food system part of the next stimulus
From wasted food, to the exploitation of farmworkers, the COVID-19 pandemic has made it painfully clear that this country’s food system must be changed. Politicians must pass further stimulus legislation that includes policy to reform our inflexible, consolidated system and to prepare for future crises. Consider the many problems in the meat industry. Workers ill […]
Memorial Day: Time to reflect on the true costs of war
Today is a subdued Memorial Day, with virtual ceremonies and fewer, smaller gatherings. Perhaps the pandemic will give Americans some extra time for reflection and help add some perspective to the observance. It is appropriate that we honor and remember those who died while serving the United States in wartime. But the Memorial Day celebration […]
Why euthanize 600,000 pigs?
A New York Times article on May 14, 2020 noted that Iowa hog farmers would be euthanizing an estimated 600,000 hogs over the next six weeks, while Minnesota farmers already had killed 90,000 hogs. For these farmers, this pencils out roughly to losses of $96.85 million and $14.53 million respectively in Iowa and Minnesota (at […]
Bullies in charge
Wisconsin has been re-opened for business. Forcibly reopened, it turns out, by Republican legislative leaders and four state Supreme Court justices. In a messy decision filled with incendiary language and spurious claims, the court overturned Safer at Home by “torturing the plain language” of a state statute, as Justice Rebecca Dallet put it in her […]
Brother, can you spare a stamp?
Conservatives used to be fond of saying that government’s purpose should be limited to defending the shores and delivering the mail. Those passing themselves off as conservatives today seem intent on crossing delivering the mail off that short list. The U.S. Postal Service is bracing for a $13 billion loss in revenue because of the […]
Arbery case’s true horror is safe harbor given for modern lynching
Only in recent years has white American culture become willing to stare the horror of lynching in the face, or at least glance at it sideways. It has done so only because time’s passage has made it feel safe to do so, allowing us to pretend that it was perpetrated by people utterly unlike ourselves. […]
The GOP tests 2020 campaign theme: ‘Some of you will have to die’
Republicans appear to be going all-in on the idea that some of us will have to suck it up and die in order to get the economy restarted. Can they win in 2020 with this message? Party leaders at both the state and national level seem to think so. President Donald Trump made his pitch […]
That this system would fail was entirely predictable
As we face empty grocery shelves the fragility of our highly consolidated food system has become clear during the crisis of COVID-19. We see a market that lacks the resiliency to shift supply lines and fill those shelves, but also a food system that does not provide (and in most cases never has provided) fair […]
Pandemic temper tantrums
People are sick and tired of staying at home. That was the message about 30 protesters brought to Gov. Tony Evers’ residence on Friday afternoon, gathering in the street outside the wrought-iron gates of the white, columned mansion, and shouting through bullhorns “Come out Tony!” “Government is nonessential!” and “Tony the tyrant!” “Hey, better stay […]
Vos and Fitzgerald’s flimsy case against ‘Safer at Home’
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald have presented a flimsy and dangerous case for overturning the Department of Health Services’ extension of the “Safer at Home” order to May 26. Vos and Fitzgerald somehow feel they’re better equipped to make this determination than the public health experts at the Department of […]
We appreciate the thank-you, but frontline workers need your help
As someone on the front line of this pandemic, I know first-hand: The coronavirus is real, in many cases life-threatening, and it’s the janitors, security officers and more who are putting our lives on the line to keep our city and state clean and safe. I secure an essential facility in downtown Milwaukee where people […]