“Recent water tests at elementary schools in Flint have found an increase in samples showing lead levels above the federal action limit.” That’s the opening line in an article in The Detroit News less than one month ago. Despite this, the state of Michigan, just days after turning control over the city back to local elected officials, declared the Flint […]

If we can afford to give the Kochs $1 billion a year, maybe your kid’s teacher shouldn’t have to drive an Uber at night Around 125 teachers and their supporters marched from Oklahoma City to Tulsa this week to demand the state restore funds to the state’s starved schools. The Guardian’s Mike Elk reported that the marchers were met with […]

Before I get started today, I’d like to thank our loyal readers for their patience as I have worked through a rather extended saga of diverticulitis. It started in late January and involved two stays in the hospital as well as an outpatient surgical procedure. It also featured me having a nearly-lethal anaphylactic allergic reaction after the installation of a […]

I first met Elissa Slotkin a few months ago when we sat down to chat about the potential of her running for Congress to replace the corporate shill Mike Bishop in Michigan’s 8th Congressional District. I came away VERY impressed. I have written about Bishop’s desire to “create an environment [in Michigan] where…labor costs are low”, how he has been […]

As Republicans in the U.S. Senate are considering their last ditch, hail Mary attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act, there’s one aspect of it that should be truly concerning to everyone and that’s the concept of giving healthcare dollars to the states in the form of block grants to spend largely as they wish. Here in Michigan, our Republican-controlled […]

The bad news is that Betsy DeVos and her corporate pals are spending incredible amounts of money to convince parents that public schools are “failing”. The good news is that it’s not working. A new poll out this week shows that, despite efforts by corporatists like Sec. of Education Betsy DeVos and others to push for-profit charter schools under the […]

Gutting ACA outreach will raise costs and cost lives — but it’s also a chance to prepare for the 2018 election Trump has never been less popular as president and Obamacare has never been more popular — ever. But in this gerrymandered, electoral college-d reality, popularity does not equal power. Trump is using every tool at his disposal to try […]

Dear Gov. Snyder, It’s no secret that I have been highly critical of you and your administration since you took office in 2010. However, I have lauded your decision to take advantage of the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion and, because of it, hundreds of thousands of Michiganders now have health insurance that they wouldn’t have otherwise, most of whom […]

It took bringing a man with a fresh diagnosis of brain cancer (for which he receives government-paid healthcare to fight) back to Washington, DC from 2,300 miles away in Arizona to do it but Mitch McConnell managed to open debate on Trumpcare this afternoon. It’s a bill that’s got only 12% support in counties that Trump himself won in 2016 […]

The rise of the tea party was, according to their rhetoric, a response rising taxes and a government that had grown too big, too corrupt, and too bloated. Their very “freedom” was at stake, they claimed, because regulations, what the rest of us call “protections”, were strangling our collective American Dream. Donald Trump was never a tea party candidate. That […]

The overwhelming opinion of respected political thinkers across the country since the 2016 elections has been that Democrats need a better message. And now comes the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee trying out this new slogan: “I mean, have you seen the other guys?” Like many others, when I saw it I had to double check that I wasn’t reading a satirical […]