“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 […]
Tuesday afternoon I went over to the Minnesota State Capitol to join the demonstration in support of public workers. I’ve been to lots of demonstrations and gatherings in that rotunda. Never have I felt as much pride as I did yesterday. There was energy in that space as I have rarely felt. I didn’t hear […]
Yesterday the combination of a snow-blocked driveway and Presidents Day led to an unusual amount of television viewing by myself. Being President’s Day, the History Channel had some interesting programs about the U.S. Presidents. I watched some of the programs, and they were fascinating. Being President of the United States is a complicated job. It […]
For 27 years between 1972 and 2000 my full-time job was to advise and represent public school teachers in matters relating to collective bargaining and grievance processing ending in arbitration. My work was completely in the public sector. You learn a great deal in 27 years. For instance, I pay very little attention to how […]