Wisconsin Voter Results

I. Wisconsin Vote Results
"A University of Wisconsin study found that, in 2016, nearly 17,000 residents of Dane and Milwaukee counties were discouraged by the law [photo ID] from voting -- but in retrospect, Trump's victory may have paved the way for Walker's [Scott] defeat in 2018." "In 2014, Walker defeated Democrat Mary Burke, 53 to 46 percent, among white-college educated voters; in 2018, he lost among the same voters by 52 to 47 percent." "Walker got most of the Trump vote, but in an election where a significant part of the electorate had been alienated by Trump, an identification with the president ensured Walker's defeat." [1]

II. The Price of Austerity in England
"Since 2010. UNISON [a public-sector union] estimates the cost of living has increased by 27.6 percent [in England]. During that time, however, county employees received only 5.5 percent in wage increases, translating into a huge decline in living standards for workers who weren't paid much to begin with." [2]

"From 2009-10 to today, the foundation [Resolution Foundation] estimates, spending on day-to-day public services has fallen by 9 percent. As a percentage of GDP, such government spending has fallen by 23 percent..." "Resolution estimates that since 2010, per-person spending on housing and communities has decreased by 55 percent, and spending on transport by a whopping 77 percent."

III. The War Machine
"While it's notable that support for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has waned, polls show that Americans have consistently preferred diplomacy to military 'solutions,' both before and even shortly after the 9/11 attack. Nonetheless, US soldiers and mercenaries are currently active in 80 countries -- nearly half the planet." [3]

Both Seymour Melman and George McGovern took notice of this disconnect between belief and practice, and they proposed a plan that through comprehensive government planning, defense workers could be retrained and defense companies shifted to commercial manufacturing. They both believed that local communities thrive if they are no longer exclusively dependent on the defense industry; and that federal investment in civilian work would provide unemployed defense workers with opportunities to address environmental problems like pollution, and to contribute their labor to "peaceful uses."

IV. Plastic Leaks
"No one knows exactly how much plastic leaks into the oceans every year, but one dump truck load per minute -- 8 million tons per year -- is a midrange  estimate. Plastic waste usually begins its journey on land, where only 9 percent of it  is recycled ." [4]

"Across Texas in recent years, more than 5,000 miles of pipeline have been laid down to carry oil, gas and natural-gas liquids (which includes ethane) from the Permian Basin and the Eagle Ford Shale to the coasts, where dozens of new petrochemical projects are in the works."

According to the International Energy Agency, the single largest source of plastic demand is packaging.

V. ICE Monitoring Projects
"While it is not known whether the [ICE] spreadsheet was a stand-alone document or part of an ongoing effort to monitor protests -- or how it fits into HSI's mission of investigating 'cross-border criminal activity' -- it provides evidence that ICE, for a brief period at least, has kept track on left-leaning political events in New York City." "ICE's spreadsheet isn't the only evidence that the agency has been heavily attuned to left-leaning political activity in New York, [more evidence] comes after immigrant rights groups filed a federal lawsuit against the agency in February 2018." [5]

VI. Calling Out Israel
Phillis Bennis, a well-known writer on peace and justice issues, concedes that in the Beltway, "the illusion persisted that Congress's annual gift of $3.8 billion of our tax money to the Israeli military could not be questioned; that Washington must shield Israeli officials from international accountability for their war crimes; and that criticizing Israel or its supporters is political suicide." She believes that "those days are over." [6]

Footnotes:
[1] John B. Judis, "What Happened to Wisconsin?" The Nation, April 1, 2019.

[2] Sasha Abremsky, "The Price of Austerity," The Nation, April 1, 2019.

[3] Peter Christian & G. Michael Brenes, "From the War Machine to the Green Dream," The Nation, April 1, 2019.

[4] The Nation, April 1, 2019.

[5] Jimmy Tobias, "Exclusive: ICE'd Over," The Nation, April 1, 2019.

[6] Phillis Bennis, "Calling Out the Israel Lobby," The Nation, Apri1 1, 2019.