Why I’m supporting Dennis McBride.

To be brief, my support for Dennis McBride comes down to three things: character, competence and experience.

I’ve known Dennis for many years and I understand that personally and professionally he has worked to support progressive values; his work at the EEOC, for example, has demonstrated a commitment to fairness in the workplace and the rights of under-represented people.

As a civic volunteer, Dennis has played a large role in rescuing and revitalizing Hoyt Pool and the wildly successful The Landing – whose benefits are enjoyed by people well beyond our city’s borders. He played a similarly important role in the founding of Support Our Schools and the rescue of Wilson School, one example of his long-standing commitment to public education in Wauwatosa. Visit Dennis4Tosa.com to learn more about his unparalleled contributions to the life and welfare of our city.

When considering our concerns about the city, it is important to understand the constitutional, legal, and financial constraints that city officials must operate within.

One example is policing, which has been a source of concern for many of us. People believe that the mayor of Wauwatosa has the power to hire and fire officers and the chief of police. In fact, that power lies with the police and fire commission. But under Dennis’ leadership the city has begun the hiring of social workers to do the public safety work that sworn officers are not trained to do (something that is best described as re-funding, not “de-funding” the police).

Another example is that, while the mayor chairs Common Council meetings, the sole legislative power exercised by Wauwatosa Mayors is the ability to break ties in Council votes. Beyond that, the strength of the mayor lies in lending her or his experience and advice to alders who must consider and enact policy.

I urge voters to contact the alders they have elected to learn about their experience with the two mayoral candidates, and who they think has the qualities and experience a mayor needs to serve the interests of the entire community.

A word about our unelected city officials. As a citizen and alderman, I have found our city staff to be unfailingly transparent, respectful and patient in explaining the complexities of the issues before them, and sharing their best judgment as to how to address those issues, from public safety, water, roads, and more. They make themselves available to alders, and to citizens, as time allows. Two of the city’s most nettlesome problems – housing and transportation – are being dealt with about as well as can be expected, given the lack of support from the state legislature.

Every American city has significant problems, but under Dennis’ experienced and competent leadership, Wauwatosa is addressing those problems with uncommon success.

An useful measure of that success is the recent growth of the city’s population after years of decline. This growth is driven in large part by an influx of young people coming to raise their families in one of the most successful municipalities in the state.

Another sign of that success is the eagerness of our partners to the east – Milwaukee Mayor Chevy Johnson and Country Executive Dave Crowley – to partner with Wauwatosa in a variety of initiatives. And that goes for other municipalities in the region, as well.

I will close with a very personal observation. As a parent of a child with Down Syndrome, I am aware of Dennis’ support of efforts to provide supportive housing to people with special needs – part of the city’s broader commitment to address housing concerns in Wauwatosa. There have been setbacks, but I have complete confidence in Dennis’ – and city staff’s – commitment and competence to address housing concerns in the city.

This confidence stems from Dennis’ long-demonstrated competence and commitment to the welfare of Wauwatosa and its residents and visitors.

We all want progress. I’m supporting Dennis because I know he can make it happen.

Let’s start with the basics:

The debt ceiling is a fundamentally absurd law. It doesn’t affect how much debt the government INCURS, but merely sets a limit on how much of that debt we PAY.

In recent years the GOP has used the debt limit to use past spending in an attempt to lower future spending. Currently, the Congressional Republicans are threatening to throw the world economy into chaos — creating unimaginably vast human suffering — because they lack the political power to cut government spending.

Analogy time: A farmer incurs debt, and, regretting how much he spent, threatens not to pay his debt. If he follows through on that threat, he loses his farm, and he and his family suffers. Moreover, since the lender’s balance sheet depend on the farmer honoring his debt, the lender’s solvency is put at risk, so our farmer’s default threatens his neighbors, who may no longer be able to get loans from the lender that the farmer reneged on. The entire community is thrown into chaos.

Of course, what happens in the real world is that the farmer and the lender work out a plan to control spending, increase revenue and increase the farmer’s debt limit to make those things possible.

A more sensible approach, of course, is a combination of future spending reductions and/or revenue increases to lower the debt the nation incurs. Instead, the GOP has historically lowered the tax burden of the wealthiest Americans, while avoiding the spending reductions that would anger most Americans, who rely on “safety net” programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. In other words, the GOP;’s tax cuts for the wealthy are the cause of the increase in deficit spending (the source ofd the federal debt).

Democrats would like to target defense spending, a variety of tax breaks for the wealthiest persons and corporations — e.g., the financial industry, energy corporations, and giant agricultural businesses, but have often lacked the political nerve to do it.

As it stands, as the economy and population grow, government spending and debt will increase, and just as Americans increase their credit card limits as their income and spending grows, the debt ceiling needs to be increased so that the nation can pay its debts.

In any case, until congressional appropriations and tax policy are brought into line, we will need to increase the debt ceiling to meet our obligations — or lose the farm.

Bear in mind, the GOP is prepared to tank the world economy because they don’t have the votes to give more tax breaks to the wealthy and take Social Security and health care from millions of Americans.

Think of it as as global Fort Sumter.

Bear in mind, the GOP is prepared to tank to world economy because they don’t have the votes to give more tax breaks to the wealthy and also take Social Security and health care from millions of Americans.

Think of it as as global Fort Sumter

Whenever Ron Johnson makes a statement, ask yourself how what he’s saying benefits his constituents (as opposed to his donors).

There’s hardly a problem this country faces that can’t be fixed by voting Republicans like Johnson out.

Republicans now have a platform that calls for raising taxes $1 trillion on people who make $100,000 a year or less. Ron Johnson is crowing about reducing health care for people. Republicans generally want to get rid of Medicare and Medicaid. They want to get rid of social security. They’re happy to screw young people on student loan debt.

If the past 20 years have shown us anything about the Republicans, it’s that while most Americans work hard to grow the economy and enrich the nation, the Republicans are on the side of people who want to take and keep that wealth for themselves. That’s why we have the income disparity we have.

When you hear republicans complain about social programs redistributing wealth, ask them about the massive redistribution of wealth from working Americans to the hyper-wealthy since Reagan was president.

The Republicans like to complain about deficits, but with Ron Johnson’s help they gave a $1.7 trillion tax cut for the very wealthy in this country — and of course, the deficit soareed. Ron Johnson himself slipped in a provision that got a $200 million tax cut for his wealthy donors and for himself. That’s not fiscally responsible, that’s not fair, that’s not just.

Let’s get rid of Ron Johnson.

Today I saw this photo of a man weeping at the news of the Derek Chauvin verdict. 

The conviction of the Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd, coupled with that photo, put me in mind of a watershed moment in American history, VE Day. 

Like VE Day, this joyous moment in history is tempered by the realization that is is also associated with enormous suffering, violence, and injustice — in this case, hundreds of years of it for Black Americans.

We’d do well to remember, too, America’s post-war commitment to rebuild nations brought to ruin by the insane violence inspired by leaders whose power was built on lies and evil ideology.

As we did in 1945, Americans must conceive and execute the equivalent of a Marshall Plan to right the wrongs of racism, and progress toward the vision of equality and justice that we find in our founding documents.

Let us meet this moment with a commitment to match the boldness of Marshall Plan, face our past, and work for a better future for all Americans.

Tomorrow, Milwaukee District Attorney John Chisholm will release his findings in the investigation of the shooting death of Alvin Cole by Wauwatosa Police office Joseph Mensah.

Whatever his findings, some segment of the community will likely be upset. Without knowing what the judgment will be, I’d like to suggest of few things to keep in mind.

First, I highly recommend that, before coming to any conclusions, you carefully read the evidence upon which Chisholm made his decision, if that is available.

Second, this needs to be viewed as a tragedy. Alvin Cole was a seventeen year-old who brought a gun to a shopping mall; this was a grievous error, but not a capital crime. I think most of us can remember ourselves as 17 year olds and candidly admit that we made serious errors in judgment, or at least knew people who did. It’s easy for me to imagine Cole, like me, maturing and becoming a responsible citizen contributing to society. Sadly, he will not have that opportunity.

Third, an important difference between the seventeen-year-old me and Cole was that when I was his age, society was not awash in guns. I urge you to consider that the ubiquity of guns designed, manufactured, sold and purchased because they can kill human beings is a serious problem that we need to address, the Second Amendment notwithstanding.

Fourth, whether or not you believe that Joseph Mensah rightly feared for his life, or rightly discharged his weapon, consider the possibility that the Wauwatosa Police Department might learn from this tragedy and put a greater emphasis on de-escalating future events so that rash young people with guns might have the opportunity to grow into responsible adults. The decision to immediately apprehend Cole played a big part in his death. Perhaps a delayed arrest, if possible, would have saved everyone a lot of grief.

Finally, let’s not lose sight of the reality that people of color have long been treated unfairly, cruelly, and violently by individuals, groups and institutions in our society, and continue to suffer discrimination and injustice. Policing plays a significant role, as the deaths of Breanna Taylor and George Floyd make plain. But all white Americans have a responsibility to consider how they (we) can recognize and work to eliminate the everyday injustices suffered by our fellow citizens and human beings.

As Pope Paul IV wisely said, “If you want peace, work for justice.”

I now believe Trump will lose the election in November.

I just came to this conclusion after I received an offer to buy a “Keep America Great” hat from the Trump campaign.

Anyone who’s been paying any attention knows that leaving the government in Trump’s hands is a preposterously unlikely way to keep America great.

Our economy is in shambles; our health care system has been mishandled in the COVID-19 pandemic (we have more deaths  from the virus than another other nation); once the world leader, our country is a now a laughingstock, more despised than admired.

Trump has done the opposite of keeping America great.

So now he’s trying to steal Joe Biden’s campaign message.

Several years ago, I came to the conclusion that I was only interested in two things, both of which I view as existential threats.

The first was climate change, which is pretty obviously real, and pretty obviously a threat to human civilization.

The second was income inequality, which I view as an existential threat to American democracy (problematic though it may be).

Around that time, I asked myself how we could mobilize the country to address the threat posed by climate change at the same scale we mobilized the country to win World War II.

I didn’t come up with an answer to that question, but I see the outlines of an answer in the Green New Deal.

Back the ’80s, it struck me that we should be developing renewable energy sources and infrastructure and selling it to the world. We’ve lost our huge lead since then, but I believe we’re still in a position to do it, if we devote ourselves to the problems of ordinary citizens of this country, and not donors from the carbon economy.

The Green New Deal is hardly a complete set of answers to the two problems I identified those years ago, but it is a laudable framework in which we can develop the answers and save not just ourselves, but our children, our grandchildren, and our nation.

Mary and I were discussing the proliferation of automatic voter registration laws around the country.

She thought it made eminent sense: “Everyone has to register for the draft, why not voting.”

I shut her up by pointing out that there’s just no way to know how many people are fraudulently registering for the draft multiple times.

It’s a relief in so many ways to see Doug Jones pull out a win:

• Trump repudiated
• Added pressure on the GOP in the U.S. Senate
• Alabamians, it turns out, are more like the rest of America than many supposed
• Broadly, a ray of hope electorally for Democrats and fellow progressives

At the same time, though, it troubles me that the election probably turned — and barely, at that — on the allegations of sexual impropriety on Moore’s part. It’s not that I don’t take that seriously, but that many Alabama voters didn’t take seriously Moore’s lawless homophobia and racism. It seems straightforward to me that Roy Moore isn’t temperamentally, philosophically or intellectually fit for public office, his weird sexual proclivities aside. But nearly half of last night’s voters didn’t see that, apparently.

This, of course, isn’t a problem only in Alabama. Donald Trump won in Wisconsin, where I live, despite being every bit as unqualified as Roy Moore. And, by the way, I personally view Trump’s behavior and attitude towards women as much worse than Moore’s (which seems to be as much an issue of arrested development as misogyny).

One lesson coming out of Alabama seems to be that for Democrats to win, they have to work hard to mobilize urban voters.

But another lesson is that for the country to win, Americans, rural and urban, need to speak to one another, rather than simply listening to their favorite talking heads on TV. Rural Alabama and rural Wisconsin aren’t 100% Republican, nor are their urban areas 100% Democratic. We need to recognize the values and aspirations we hold in common with our neighbors, and give more weight to them in others, as we surely do in ourselves. We can disagree on means, but I’m sure we mostly share our hoped-for ends.

Only with respectful conversations among citizens will we achieve civil comity and sensible, acceptable solutions to the problems that confront us.

Remember “voodoo economics?”

It’s baaack!

James Sensenbrenner and Paul Ryan have voted for a “tax reform” bill that actually hurts the middle class and threatens large cuts to Medicare.

Ryan says the cuts, which will cause a $1.5 trillion deficit, will create a million jobs. That’s $1.5 million per job. Ask a small business person how many jobs she can create with a million extra dollars. I’ll bet it’s more than one.

Meanwhile, Ron Johnson is holding out for more breaks for “pass through” corporations that would benefit people like himself. The average taxpayer? Not on Johnson’s radar. And not a peep about the destruction of the Individual Mandate for healthcare, which will take healthcare from 11 million Americans and jack up premiums for the rest of us.

The corporate tax cuts will benefit CEOs and shareholders, but no one else. The GOP is writing bills in secret and ramming them through without discussion — to help the 1% not, ironically, most of the people who voted for them.

As someone pointed out, Paul Ryan has one plan: Sometimes he calls it “healthcare reform,” sometimes he calls it “tax reform.” But whatever you call it, it’s a gift to folks who don’t need it, at the expense of those who do.

The view from Shawnee National Forest. (Thanks, Tom)

Click on the image to view the animation. (Give it a bit of time to load.)

Are you in favor of taking health insurance from 20 million Americans? If so, you’re in a distinct minority: the Senate healthcare plan — what little we know of it —  is supported by a mere 15% of Americans.

So why did it even come to a vote in the Senate? Distressingly, it appears that the answer is that Mitch McConnell and his GOP colleagues really don’t care what Americans think.

Leaving aside the irresponsibility of voting for a bill without knowing its contents contents — would you buy a house without going inside? — there’s the question of repealing a healthcare bill without properly replacing it, which Americans clearly oppose.

This is part of a larger assault on American political institutions by Republicans. Consider the outrage of denying a sitting president the opportunity to have his Supreme Court nominee considered. Or the outrageous gerrymandering that has effectively given Wisconsin Republicans 10% more voting power than their fellow citizens who are Democrats.

Sure, I’m partisan. But I’m also an American, and I am outraged by the disregard of our democratic institutions and traditions by leaders of the GOP.

You should be, too.