Commentary
Why I wrote 500 toe tags during a pandemic
This column first appeared in the Kansas Reflector, our sister news outlet in Kansas. Huascar Medina is the current Poet Laureate of Kansas. The Undocumented Migration Project’s Hostile Terrain 94 art exhibit will be on display in Milwaukee on Sept. 24 at the UW-Milwaukee. I recently completed the task of filling out more than […]
What Trump’s collapse means for America
Reality is finally catching up with our reality TV star president. Faced with an unprecedented economic collapse triggered by his own clear failure to contain the COVID-19 pandemic (something other industrialized nations have managed to pull off) the Donald tweeted hopefully last week that the November election might need to be rescheduled. No one really […]
Trump’s troops in Portland and the march to martial law
President Trump’s use of federal officers to conduct law enforcement operations in Portland —and his threat to bring them to other U.S. cities, including Milwaukee — is just a taste of things to come. As he showed in Lafayette Square, Trump has no compunction about calling on federal forces to further his political ends. And […]
The coronavirus crisis shows now is the time to demand more from our government
America has blown past every country in the coronavirus pandemic, with almost 4 million cases and more than 140,000 deaths. If you want to know why the most medically advanced country in the world ended up here, look no further than the malfeasance and conspiracy-mongering of President Donald Trump. The New York Times this weekend ran a devastating tick-tock […]
Robin Vos and Scott Fitzgerald have continually lied about partisan gerrymandering
Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald have long opposed any and all attempts to bring even an iota of fairness and impartiality to the redistricting process of state legislative and congressional districts in Wisconsin. Indeed, their fear of a fair system that would provide Wisconsin voters with legitimate competitive […]
Vice President Mike Pence’s unreality show
Mike Pence loves us. He really loves us. The Vice President came to Wisconsin for the fifth time this year on Friday, making stops in Oshkosh, Ripon and La Crosse and delivering an uplifting speech about “freedom” the history of the Republican Party and the soul of America to a group of about 50 socially […]
What a year! The Wisconsin Examiner turns one year old today
Today marks the one-year anniversary of our mighty little news outlet. We launched last summer in the middle of the budget battle between Gov. Tony Evers and the Republican-led Legislature, and have been covering the power struggle in the Capitol and the issues that matter around the state ever since. The big news when we […]
Don’t let the utilities shut off people’s power
On June 11, the Public Service Commission (PSC) made a terrible decision: It allowed utilities in Wisconsin to start disconnecting power, as of July 25, from people who’ve fallen behind on their payments.Gov. Evers, to his credit, in March urged the PSC to issue a moratorium on such shut-offs, which it did, until July 25, […]
Trump’s broken promises to farmers
Just over a year ago, Trump came to Wisconsin in the midst of his trade wars and declared that farmers were “over the hump,” but that wasn’t true then and it certainly isn’t true now. Since he became president, Trump’s disastrous policies have contributed to the more than 2,000 dairy farms that have had to […]
Disruption, denial and the urge to ignore the pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has been going on for way too long, and with case numbers going up again, it doesn’t look like it’s about to end any time soon. So you can’t really blame people for getting impatient, even despairing, about getting back to work, school and life as it was. There is a powerful […]
National parks – even Mount Rushmore – show that there’s more than one kind of patriotism
July 4th was quieter than usual this year, thanks to COVID-19. Many U.S. cities canceled fireworks displays to avoid drawing large crowds that could promote the spread of coronavirus. But President Trump spoke at a celebration at Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota on July 3. It’s easy to see why an Independence Day […]
Here’s another statue that needs to come down
I nominate James K. Polk. We seem to be in the mood of late to reexamine our “great men.” Certain statues are coming down or there is a clamor for them to tumble. Polk, our 11th president, has long been in need of such scrutiny. What better time than July 4, when we are supposed […]