My county commissioner sent us a questionnaire soliciting input that would enable him to represent constituent views effectively. One question in particular nagged at me because it was more specific than all the others, had not appeared on any of the other dozens of political questionnaires I receive in a political season, and was not a topic du jour in […]

It’s difficult to get Republican candidates to provide straight talk about Social Security and Medicare during an election year because both programs are immensely popular with voters and the candidates would rather not be too specific about possible reforms. They remember the dismal failure of George W. Bush to build support for privatizing Social Security in his second term. These […]

This year will have many challenges, not the least of which will be comparing and contrasting Bernie and Hillary while sifting through the Frank Luntzian messages coming from the dozen or so remaining GOP presidential candidates. You might wonder why Progressives would even want to spend time inviting blood pressure problems by trying to decoding right-wing messages? For one thing, […]

The teaching profession is steadily being transformed into a “gig job” on the model of Uber, Lyft and AirBnB wherein customers are paired with independent providers via Smart Phone apps. The model grew out of human desperation during the bleakest days of the Great Recession. As teacher shortages roll out across the nation we can count on Republican legislatures to […]

Remember when the Democratic Party was the party of the “big tent?” As of today it seems to have become a two-candidate party. But it certainly didn’t happen in an organic way, that is by voters hearing what each candidate envisions for the U.S. and why, and then winnowing out the candidates that lack vision, leadership skills, or more importantly […]

Just as it’s always cocktail hour somewhere, it’s always fundraising season somewhere, too, right? Now that our underfunded schools are back in session kids are on the move raising funds for special class projects by peddling goods and services (candy, greeting cards, car washes, etc.). Public radio and television have just finished their fund drives. The flurry of mail requests […]

Most of the GOP candidates are aligning themselves with those who find themselves “appalled and disgusted” by what they’ve seen or claim to have seen in doctored and intentionally deceptive videos produced to re-energize a key GOP wedge issue. They are equating the legitimate transfer of embryonic and fetal tissue with trafficking in “baby body parts.” This is a new […]

Governor Snyder persists in his feelgood announcements about Michigan job growth, but he does hedge his enthusiasm because too many of us observe the realities of what is now passing as “job growth.” Yes, reality rains on Snyder’s parade every time. Most of those non-automotive jobs are low paying part time jobs that keep people zigzagging back and forth across […]

There is no legal or moral obligation to be a child-centered society. Most of U.S. history largely ignores children because, well, they don’t make much history until they become adults. Up until the middle of the last century children were expected to be “seen and not heard.” They went to school and then took jobs, the key to transitioning into […]

Now comes a strange request from the newest “traitor to his class,” Peter Georgescu, former chairman of Young and Rubicam, the ad and media agency. In Sunday’s New York Times, Georgescu, himself a classic American success story, makes the case for taking action to ameliorate income inequality. He warns that a failure to address the problem will result in one […]

Round Island Lighthouse in the Straits of Mackinac, photo by Anne C. Savage The aspiring but unannounced 2018 gubernatorial candidate Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette appointed a Task Force to address the increasing public concern about Line 5, Enbridge’s pipeline that runs under the Straits of Mackinac. That was last year. Since then new voices and new media outlets have […]