News
No political policy but revenge: How the Big Lie and its acolytes threaten the survival of our democracy
Conservative pundit William Kristol wrote in “The Bulwark” on March 1 what a number of us have been saying for a while now, and it dovetails cleanly with the current Republican attempt to suppress voting. Kristol warns that our democracy is in crisis. For...
From GOP to POT: The Party of Trump officially supplanted Republicans to become a political cult
Donald Trump formally anointed himself head of the Republican Party at the Conservative Political Action Conference on February 28. The Grand Old Party, founded in 1854 in Ripon, Wisconsin, is now dead. What is left is a dwindling number of elected officials who have...
The American Empire: Destabilizing countries and wrecking their economies under the guise of liberty
Instead of opening doors for American big business or supporting America’s diplomatic position in the world, the U.S. war machine has become a bull in the global china shop, wielding purely destructive power to destabilize countries and wreck their economies. In 2004,...
MKE It Back: More than 70 small business owners to get financial assistance with grant from Downtown BID
Milwaukee Downtown BID #21 launched the “MKE It Back” Grant program in February to assist downtown small businesses in their recovery from the pandemic. More than 70 restaurants, bars, salons, barbershops, and retailers will be the recipients of the grant,...
Partisan paralysis has torn Wisconsin’s safety net and left the jobless struggling to survive the pandemic
Brandon Cacek filed for unemployment insurance in mid-March last year after losing his substitute teaching job due to the pandemic. He is still waiting for that crucial aid 11 months later. “I keep leaving out hope that I’m going to get some kind of assistance...
FDR’s principal intention for a “living wage” was to protect workers from abuse by employers
By Felix Koenig, Assistant Professor of Economics, Carnegie Mellon University The US$1.9 trillion pandemic relief bill that the House of Representatives passed included a gradual increase in the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2025. While its chances in the...
Tiffany Krihwan: Longtime S/V Denis Sullivan captain departs Milwaukee to command 127-year-old Schooner
The Massachusetts Maritime Academy (MMA) announced on February 22 that Tiffany Krihwan would be the new Captain of the historic Schooner Ernestina-Morrissey, a renovated tall ship which is expected to arrive at the Cape Cod campus in the Fall of 2021. Captain Krihwan...
Is the pandemic here to stay? How viral mutations are pushing SARS-CoV-2 into becoming endemic
By Grace C. Roberts, Research Fellow in Virology, Queen’s University Belfast Endemic viruses are those that have constant presence within a geographical area. Such viruses are all around us, though they vary by location. Examples in Europe and North America...
Americans continue to face serious hardships even after the trillions already spent on coronavirus aid
By Mary G. Findling, Research Associate at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University; and John M. Benson, Senior Research Scientist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University; and Robert J. Blendon, Richard L. Menschel...
Unifying against racism: “Freedom Together” advocates demand Congress take action on Immigrant Rights
Voces de la Frontera held a “Freedom Together” Press Conference on February 27 on the steps of the Federal Courthouse downtown, outlining demands for Immigrant Rights. A collection of community advocates spoke about expectations from the White House and...
Conspiracies and Extremism: How the Wisconsin GOP lost its credibility over the turmoil of 2020
From the early days of the pandemic to the fever-pitched and riotous last days of the Trump presidency, Wisconsin’s conservative movement was swept up in conspiracies and extremism in 2020. Over the past year, online provocateurs, fringe lawyers, Republican lawmakers,...
Documenting Hate: A look back at 2017 when the Proud Boys established their first Wisconsin Chapter
In May of 2017, eight men met at Mackesey’s Irish Pub in downtown Madison to drink beer and talk politics. The men, all of them White and most in their 20s, had met online and were getting together for the first time. The meeting would establish the Wisconsin chapter...
