“A Wisconsin Elections Commission discussion of uncounted ballots in Madison devolved into a shouting match Thursday, with the Democratic chair threatening to kick a Republican commissioner out of the meeting. The commission is investigating former Madison City Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl after she failed to count 200 absentee ballots in the November election and didn’t tell the commission about the oversight until after election results were certified. Witzel-Behl resigned this week. … Republican Commissioner Bob Spindell said that he was fine with the Madison investigation, but the commission needs to pay more attention to what he said were even more serious problems with election administration in Milwaukee. As he attempted to detail his concerns, Jacobs began screaming at him that how elections are run in Milwaukee wasn’t on the agenda. She ordered him to stop talking or she would kick him out.” (04/17/25)
“In 1966, at the height of the labor movement’s postwar power, Walter Reuther, then president of the United Auto Workers, helped establish the first four ‘World Auto Councils.’ Workers at General Motors, Volkswagen-Daimler-Benz, Fiat, and Chrysler (now Stellantis) could now meet across borders and, it was hoped, establish common international contract expiration dates. The plan fell short of an international bargaining agreement, but the unions hoped it would ‘strengthen the hand of each union in the contract negotiations of its own country’, said World Auto Councils coordinator Burton Bendiner in 1978. In 1971, French GM workers who supplied gearboxes and transmissions for the company’s European operations went on strike. They coordinated with their counterparts in Germany’s IG Metall and the UAW to pressure GM management. They refused work that management had diverted from a struck plant and created a common strike fund.” (04/17/25)
“Shattered by a war with Israel last year and a six-year depression, Lebanon recently opened a new wing in the National Museum of Beirut. Yes, amid both war and economic destruction, the tiny Mediterranean country decided that showcasing Lebanese modern art was one way to create a common identity in a religiously diverse and torn nation. The new exhibit serves as ‘a reminder that there is something healing about remembering what is still good, what we still have,’ said Juliana Khalaf, co-director of the Beirut Museum of Art, which collected the works for the new space. Lebanon is now in the midst of an urgent identity-building process ever since a Nov. 27 ceasefire between Israel and the Iran-backed militia group Hezbollah that dominates the minority Shiites.” (04/16/25)
“What is it about politicians in Washington that they just can’t stand progress or the thought of anyone getting rich? That’s the attitude of many Democrats in Congress as they try to cripple the private equity and venture capital industries with higher tax rates. These financers are some of the most dynamic risk-takers on the economic playing field. They are disrupting the old stodgy banking and Wall Street financing networks. The PE and VC track records in funding small businesses and turning them into the future gazelles is almost a uniquely American success story. But now, thanks to the industry’s winning track record in saving companies and jobs and making people rich, Washington thinks they are doing TOO well and wants to raise the tax rate on the industry by nearly 50%..” (04/16/25)
“This week was the week that our 2024 taxes were due in order to fund the fiscal year 2025 federal budget and thus our nation’s priorities. This year’s budget represents the final Biden budget. It comes at a time when our country is in a deliberate state of chaos instituted by the current administration. Under the non-elected efforts of the Department of Government Efficiency and current cabinet, we find punitive and seemingly random disjointed cutting of essential services and vital programs in addition to international aid that cuts to the core of who America is. U.S. Congress has just passed a budget resolution requiring $1.5 trillion in savings to be realized over the next 10 years. Ultimately, budgets are moral documents. How do the current cuts, in addition to planned cuts in entitlement programs such as Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security, address our needs and follow a moral compass?” (04/16/25)
“A university student and Palestinian activist [abducted] by US immigration authorities was worried that an American citizenship interview was a trap. Mohsen Mahdawi, who has permanent US residency or ‘green card’ status, was detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) when he turned up to the appointment on Monday. One day before his arrest he told CBS News that he believed the interview could be a setup. ‘It’s the first feeling of like, I’ve been waiting for this for more than a year,’ Mr Mahdawi said. ‘And the other feeling is like, wait a minute. Is this a honey trap?’ Mr Mahdawi, a philosophy student at Columbia University in New York City who was due to graduate next month, was [abducted] in Colchester, Vermont. Mr Mahdawi’s lawyer, Luna Droubi, said he was arrested ‘in direct retaliation for his advocacy on behalf of Palestinians and because of his identity as a Palestinian.'” (04/16/25)
“China’s playing hardball, and it’s not just about tariffs and the global economy: Our lives could be on the line. Soon after President Donald Trump announced his first round of tariffs on Chinese goods this month, China hit back by totally suspending its exports of rare-earth minerals and magnets, a key strategic monopoly. Those materials are essential to manufacture automobiles and electric vehicles, as well as America’s fighter jets, drones, robots — basically the next generation of war-fighting weaponry. China’s move puts a stranglehold on these industries, and threatens our national defense. Its next logical step is to cut off our medical supplies. China has a death grip on America’s generic-drug market, as well as on basic medical equipment that every hospital and doctor’s office relies on.” [editor’s note: When you pick a fight, don’t whine about losing – TLK] (04/15/25)
“New York Attorney General Letitia James has been hit with shocking allegations by the Trump administration, accusing her of mortgage fraud. In documents obtained by Fox News Channel’s ‘The Ingraham Angle,’ the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) sent a criminal referral to the Department of Justice on Tuesday, accusing James of mortgage fraud. FHFA Director William Pulte said in a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi that James appears to have falsified records to meet certain lending requirements and receive favorable loan terms. Pulte cited a property in Virginia that James allegedly claimed as her principal residence and a property in New York she claimed as a four-unit structure instead of five, which he said could mean she was able to get a different and more favorable loan.” (04/16/25)
“Iran confirmed Wednesday that the next round of nuclear talks with the United States this weekend will be held in Rome after earlier confusion over where the negotiations would be held. The announcement by Iranian state television came as Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian formally approved the resignation of one of his vice presidents who served as Tehran’s key negotiator in its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. The head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, Rafael Mariano Grossi of the International Atomic Energy Agency, also arrived in the Islamic Republic on Wednesday. His talks may include negotiations over just what access the IAEA inspectors can get under any proposed deal. The state TV announcement said Oman will again mediate the talks on Saturday in Rome. Oman’s foreign minister served as an interlocutor between the two sides at talks last weekend in Muscat, the sultanate’s capital.” (04/16/25)
“For the past couple of days, Mark Zuckerberg has been inside a D.C. courtroom reviewing more than a decade of email communications about his company, Meta. This is the last place Zuckerberg wanted to be; he literally visited the White House to lobby to get out of it, and offered $1 billion to settle. The effort failed, and we now know plenty about the ruthless tactics that Zuckerberg used to build his sprawling social media empire. And this exposure has already had a preventive effect: It’s why Meta’s control of public attention is likely to shrink over time, as competitors rise up that Meta won’t be able to buy. In a world without this aggressive antitrust enforcement, for example, Meta would have likely bought TikTok by now.” (04/16/25)
