The following post is from my friend Stuart Dowty of Washtenaw County. Stu is the Chair of the group Reclaim Our American Democracy (ROAD) and is a fierce warrior in the effort to get money out of our political system and to eliminate the corrosive impact of corporate personhood. The post is in response to law professor Lawrence Lessig’s recent […]

Today I’m reposting something my wife Anne wrote during our last fundraiser. It helps folks see why their contributions to Eclectablog are so important. Information on how you can help follows her short essay. We are not unlike a lot of other Americans. We have no savings, two older cars pushing 200,000 miles, and we rarely vacation. I mean we’ve […]

Donald Trump’s “Let Detroit go bankrupt” moment? Donald Trump has something to say to Detroit autoworkers: you make too much money. Talking about U.S. vehicle manufacturers moving production to Mexico in an interview with The Detroit News, Trump said this: He said U.S. automakers could shift production away from Michigan to communities where autoworkers would make less. “You can go […]

Over the past couple of days, Todd Courser has been releasing screenshots on his Facebook page of the texts he’s gotten from “the blackmailer” who has been threatening to expose him if he doesn’t resign. You can view the texts HERE and HERE, as well. This morning at 1 a.m., Courser took to Facebook againwith a bizarre, disjointed statement saying […]

The past few months have been a whirlwind in Michigan (and national) politics and Eclectablog has been there providing you with ongoing coverage of the Courser/Gamrat scandal, giving you front row seats of the #BlackLivesMatter protest at the 2015 Netroots Nation conference, and even getting former Congressman and Dean of the House John Dingell to read his “Greatest Hits” tweets […]

If we learned anything about Emergency Management in a major urban city here in Michigan (i.e., Detroit), it’s that it’s very expensive and some companies make a windfall, all paid for with our tax dollars. Now Atlantic City, NJ, which is under emergency management like Detroit was, is getting a taste. Since Gov. Chris Christie appointed Emergency Manager Kevin Lavin […]

Photo by Anne C. Savage. “Great way to build a political movement. Those of you who defended the Netroots Nation takeover by #BlackLivesMatter need to explain this.” I’m on a number of private national listservs for progressive activists, bloggers, and organizers. This demand was thrown at those of us on one of them who defended the BLM protest at the […]

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 […]

Just five days after 8th District Congressman Mike Bishop was added to the National Republican Congressional Committee’s “Patriot Program” for their most vulnerable incumbents (joining Tim Walberg in MI-07 and Dan Benishek in MI-01), Bishop has picked up a major opponent. Democrat Melissa Gilbert, who moved to Michigan two years ago, threw her hat into the ring this afternoon. Yes, […]

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 […]

Rather than facing the music directly and holding a press conference to answer reporters’ questions, at 4 a.m. this morning Todd Courser issued a 27-minute response to what he called a “hit piece” by The Detroit News. In it, he acknowledges his long-term affair with Rep. Cindy Gamarat and issues an apology. He also admits to sending the “false flag” […]