The way the Affordable Care Act helped her family transformed her attitude — and led to a touching interaction with former President Obama. Annette was not always a fan of President Barack Obama. In fact, in 2009 she went to a Tea Party rally protesting the Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare. She and her entire family were conservative Republican […]

In his inaugural speech, the newly installed President of the United States made the following comment: “An education system flush with cash, but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of all knowledge”. Incensed, I immediately wanted to share my thoughts about these mean-spirited, belittling words–but I couldn’t. Because I was in Grand Rapids at the Michigan Music Conference […]

Not unless we fight like hell Here’s a tweet I think most of us can relate to: We need a Michelle Obama TV show — only needs to be 30 minutes each week — where she gives people hugs and tells us it's going to be ok. — Daniel Bentley (@DJBentley) January 13, 2017 Sounds like it would be a […]

Untreated mental health issues can prevent people from working and leading full lives. This woman worries about her future if she can’t afford the right care. Bipolar disorder has been in the news a lot lately following the death of Carrie Fisher, who was very open about the challenges she faced living with this mental health condition. A mood disorder, […]

“That wouldn’t have been true, but I would have said it anyway.” Donald Trump’s greatest asset is our good intentions. It may be his only asset that he hasn’t mortgaged. Who knows? We haven’t seen his tax returns. The latest example of Trump benefiting from the media’s fixation on the wrong hand in the sleight of hand trick is the […]

Over the past month and a half since the election, LOLGOP and I have been exhorting folks listening to our podcast to activate and be present in the lives of their state legislators, members of Congress, and their U.S. Senators. In fact, the cold open to our last podcast is a recording of us calling Senator Debbie Stabenow’s office to […]

Racism hurts everyone and until we start pointing that out, we can’t fix the economy Donald Trump isn’t going to give up “identity politics” — but some on the left think Democrats should about a “post-identity liberalism” in order to focus on winning over those 70,000 mostly white voters who gave Trump his narrow wins in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, […]

Having access to health insurance has saved this young woman’s life. Her mother doesn’t know how she will survive without it. When I saw the subject line on the email, my heart dropped to the floor: “Please don’t let my daughter die.” Jean had seen my call for stories about the difference the Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare, has […]

If you think our biggest problem is that the super rich aren’t super rich enough, the GOP is fighting for you Take a look at this: Watch the income distribution in America change pic.twitter.com/WS80BT2UlT — Conrad Hackett (@conradhackett) December 18, 2016 If you look at this, you’d think that one of the biggest problems in our economy — if not […]

Another #fakenews story is being promoted by the Great Lakes Education Project (GLEP), Betsy DeVos’s personally founded and funded school privatization guerrilla organization in Michigan. The mother quoted here, Maria Salazar, has been writing a version of this article for Betsy-DeVos-funded organizations since at least 2013: this one, from the American Federation for Children–a DeVos voucher front group–introduces us to Maria’s […]

With the bombshell news yesterday that two former Flint Emergency Managers are being charged with felonies in their connection to the ongoing tragedy known as the Flint water crisis, the calls to repeal Michigan’s anti-democratic “financial martial law” are rising again from around the state. The corporatists that see Emergency Management as a key to accomplishing their dual goals of […]