Jean Kiernan

💙 tinyurl.com/449uz82r

"This is precisely the time when artists go to work.

There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear.

We speak, we write, we do language.

That is how civilizations heal.”

Toni Morrison

A group of Epstein survivors just formally demanded that the DOJ Inspector General open an investigation into how the heavily redacted Epstein files were released. They’re demanding action now to release the files and we stand with them.

"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob."

—FDR, 1936

#NotGreat

How disinformation threatens Wisconsin's democracy Coordinated campaigns, including foreign and domestic actors, are using bots, trolls and fake accounts to target voters, institutions and public trust

"In Wisconsin, narrow margins make disinformation a real threat to democracy itself."

‘60 Minutes’ Pulled a Segment. A Correspondent Calls It ‘Political.’

Sharyn Alfonsi, a “60 Minutes” correspondent, criticized the network’s decision to remove her reporting from Sunday’s edition of the show.

Poverty is a policy choice. Concentrated wealth is a policy choice. Inequality is a policy choice. None of it is natural or inevitable. Remember: We have the power to build a system that serves the many, not the powerful few.

Wisconsin hospitals face both rising strain and financial risk Hospital Sisters Health System (HSHS) closed Sacred Heart Hospital in Eau Claire and St. Joseph’s Hospital in Chippewa Falls in 2024. Labor and delivery units have shuttered in multiple rural counties...

Wisconsin’s hospital system is under real strain - and the impact is already reaching families, EMS crews, and rural regions. Closures, staffing shortages, and rising uncompensated care are reducing access to services people depend on. Here’s what you need to know, and what 2026 may bring.

Inhumane conditions ripple from federal detention to Wisconsin communities, straining courts In Wisconsin, legal aid organizations report a surge in calls from family members trying to locate loved ones in custody.

This should never be okay with anyone. Please read. www.dairylandpatriot.com/inhumane-con...

Musk’s Wealth
2012: $2 billion
2025: $493.8 billion

Bezos’ Wealth
2012: $18.4 billion
2025: $240.9 billion

Zuckerberg’s Wealth
2012: $17.5 billion
2025: $226.9 billion

Federal Minimum Wage
2012: $7.25
2025: $7.25

It’s not the start of an oligarchy. — We’re in the thick of it.

Critical professions at risk after new federal rules limit loans for advanced degrees nationwide Federal borrowing limits for graduate students now depend on whether their program is designated a 'professional degree.' Students in approved fields can borrow up to $50,500 per year with a $200,000 ...

I've been digging into the impact of the new federal loan rules, and what I found is troubling. www.dairylandpatriot.com/critical-pro...

"Never spread the lie in the headline" should be a hard rule of 21st century journalism.

Research shows that repeating lies helps to spread them, and people read headlines more than they read stories.

No more pretense or excuses. Trump and his team have made the white supremacist foundations of this project explicit and clear.

If you enable this you need to face who and what you are. But you can always choose another way.

Choose humanity. Decency. Equality. Democracy.

Despicable

To all those “Let them go without food for a month, maybe they’ll get a job” people: Most SNAP recipients have jobs. Exploitative jobs that keep them living just below the poverty line. — Should they starve to death? And then what?

Diagram of a slave ship with people packed on their backs for the middle passage with the text "I don't remember Southern states complaining when undocumented workers came over like this."

Unkown creator, but smart political art:

There is simply no equivalent, not even close, of this anywhere on the center or far left. There is no ‘both sides’ here, media.

Emotional collision alert: From the dystopia of The Handmaid’s Tale, to the apocalypse of The Last of Us, to the doomsday prepping of Joe Pera… all I want is Somebody Somewhere with bottomless teeny 'tinis and every noshable delight from The Bear.

Inside Stephen Miller’s Secret Plan to Normalize Trump’s Dictator Rule He wants to supercharge searing civil tensions to get low-information voters to embrace their inner authoritarian. Exactly two Democrats appear to fully grasp this.

JB Pritzker and Gavin Newsom are doing something new and important: They understand Stephen Miller's theory of fascist power politics, and they've developed a theory on how to combat it. More Dems need to reckon with Miller's understanding of the moment.

New from me:
newrepublic.com/article/2014...

Abe Lincoln: the original punk - anti-slavery, tore up the playbook… and yes, technically a Republican. ~ Confused Americans, 2025

When the POPE (!) calls their actions "inhuman," the White House’s denial is the confession. Their "prayers" are propaganda.

He wanted a rally, they gave him a morgue. May their oath be stronger than his threats.

So let me get this straight… 47's pushing Bibles missing half the Constitution, slashing drug prices by 1600%, and hawking miracle MedBeds. Next up: MedRx - because reality is now out of network.

Give every opinion a mic, and suddenly your science fair features flat-earthers, lizard-people fan clubs, and a booth teaching how to sun your bum hole for cosmic energy.

Silence isn’t a shield; it’s a surrender.

They support free speech the way hangmen support gravity.

So Tyler Robinson, Charlie Kirk’s killer, is neither a Democrat, nor transgender, nor an immigrant, but instead a 22-year-old white guy from a Republican family in Utah who loves guns and wore a Donald Trump costume on Halloween. — Did I get that right?