Early last evening we were having a light meal at a nearby hotel before hearing the Minnesota Orchestra in Minneapolis. (Magnificent concert, as always.) Our server, Mindy E., took my credit card to ring up the bill, and on return asked me “are you a teacher?” She had seen the imprint on the credit card; […]
The bizarre drama that is Wisconsin continues to play itself out. It is a very high stakes and scary game, where an ideological fringe has, for the moment, managed to seize control of the government and is asserting its will. In the end the ultimate victims of this power play, the working middle class, will […]
The document which makes up the title of this post is 48 pages and was written by Dick Bernard between September, 2008, and July, 2012. It speaks for itself, including, especially, the word “Uncomfortable”. Uncomfortable Essays 2008-2012 It consists of 17 Essays on assorted topics which could generically be considered thoughts on more effective organizing […]
“Dropping in on Madison” was a no-brainer for me on Friday. I was enroute to Chicago, and the car would have steered itself towards the Capitol at the Hwy 151 exit. (Click on photos to enlarge them.) It was a gray afternoon, in the low 40s, when I parked near the Capitol about 1:30 p.m. […]
NOTE: This series began on February 17, 2011, and at the beginning I had no plans to continue it to its current extent. I can envision at least one more post before I conclude this thread. Please check back. When I was a kid in North Dakota, winter offered new and different opportunities for play. […]
Earlier this week I was writing some letters and having an afternoon cup of coffee at my local hangout. The place was quite busy, as usual, and behind me I heard some chatter among three women who were having an animated visit. They appeared to be financially comfortable. They were obviously of the age where […]
Pretty clearly, the Rich have won, at least temporarily. Not the ordinary rich, but the Filthy Rich. Take a moment to look at what “rich” means, thanks to a series of charts published in Mother Jones magazine. Then, there’s an interesting commentary entitled “Koch Dreams” which refers to a David Koch piece in the Wall […]
Before the 2011 MN Legislature had convened, and the new MN Governor sworn in, the news concerned the burden of a $6 billion deficit in the MN state budget. At the time I did some simple arithmetic, dividing $6 Billion by 5 Million residents of the State of Minnesota. The result was $1,200 deficit per […]
An unplanned trip took me out of town most of the last three days. I had planned to write this post about how money ends up in collective bargaining agreements; specifically about supposedly “free” money for Pensions given for Public Workers (a false charge). I don’t have to write that commentary. David Cay Johnson of […]
Feb. 22, as the debate continued to rage about Wisconsin public employees and the right to bargain, I got an e-mail from a 41 year old man, a good friend who is one of those loyal employees who make corporations succeed. He was responding to my blog post of February 21. I know this young […]