On April 25th, 2014, with its government run by the latest in a series of Emergency Managers appointed by Republican governor Rick Snyder, the city of Flint, Michigan switched its water system over to the Flint River, ending a decades-long purchase agreement with the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) which draws its water from Lake Huron. Within a few […]

James O’Keefe, the “film” producer who spends his life trying to take down any organization valued by progressives with heavily-edited videos of “stings” he orchestrates has been spending time in Michigan this year trying to bring down the American Federation of Teachers. Fortunately, a combination of an O’Keefe operative’s stupidity and the intelligence of the AFT’s staff resulted O’Keefe’s crew […]

It’s no secret that Donald Trump and his administration have been playing politics with the Affordable Care Act, trying to kill it by the death by a thousand cuts: They won’t commit to the cost sharing reductions to help stabilize the markets, forcing many if not most insurers to raise their premiums. They decreased the budget for healthcare “navigators” who […]

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 […]

Testimony in the first day of the preliminary examination for Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon, facing felony charges in the Flint Water Crisis, revealed that health experts believe the switch to the Flint River was the cause of the huge increase in cases of Legionnaires’ Disease in the beleaguered city: “My opinion is the most […]

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 […]

It’s the billionaire donors, of course Graham-Cassidy — the latest version of Trumpcare — looks to be within one or two votes of passing the Senate with 50 votes by the September 30th deadline mandated by the budget reconciliation process. There’s a momentum and urgency to the bill that suggests that this really could happen, though no Republican can make […]

The only evidence backing up its wild claims are racist innuendo What’s the difference between David Duke and Donald Trump? If you’re a liberal, you’ll probably say, “Nothing” and high five a fellow vegan. But the difference is crucial and needs to elevated beyond subtext; it’s the difference between white supremacist policies being laughed out of polite company and them […]

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 […]

Trumpcare is the worst possible Obamacare sabotage, and it could happen in less than two weeks The Senate is closer than it has ever been to finalizing a bill that reportedly includes a series of small fixes to Obamacare — if Democrats can convince Republicans not to throw out the “guardrails” that protect consumers. These slight adjustments have historically followed […]

Buried in a Washington Post article about Resident Trump’s meeting with Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi this past week was this nugget: At one point, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross asked, “What exactly does the president get out of this deal?” As Pelosi, the only woman at the table of 11, tried to make her […]