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Q&A with Michael Bloomberg: On Milwaukee’s role in the national political landscape

This is a special year for Wisconsin, with Milwaukee hosting the Democratic National Convention. As the city takes its overdue step onto the world stage, the world will learn about Milwaukee’s ongoing “renaissance.” Closer to home, it provides an opportunity for local residents to reflect on the challenges that continue to exist in the majority-minority city. The 2020 U.S. Census and approaching national election also shines a light on Milwaukee’s struggles with segregation, income inequality, and homelessness, just like many other cities. Therefore, it is important to understand the policies and positions of those individuals who are running for...

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Popular Sovereignty and Party Polarization: A lesson from the Kansas-Nebraska Act on political fortunes

In the short term, Trump and his supporters appear to have won their fight to remain in power. The initial position of his defenders in his impeachment trial was that he had neither abused the power of his office by withholding military aid to Ukraine in exchange for help smearing his rival Joe Biden, nor obstructed Congress by covering the scandal up. But the House impeachment managers’ masterful presentation, along with the leaking of material from former National Security advisor John Bolton’s forthcoming book saying that Trump himself had tried to rope Bolton into the scheme kiIIed that argument....

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A willfully subservient cult of Senators exposes the moral failure of American Exceptionalism

The impeachment trial was never going to produce a conviction, of course, but it could have at least served to shore up even a few of the nominal pillars of democracy yet intact. Decades of erosion by chief executives, packed courts, congressional (in)action, and general malfeasance have weakened protective mechanisms in areas from voting and campaign finance to government transparency and individual rights. Now, with the short-circuited process and inevitable outcome of the impeachment hearing, there is another nail in the coffin of a fractured system that still sits on an idealized pedestal. American exceptionalism, when it’s considered at...

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America’s Self-Inflicted Wound: The War on Drugs has been a 100 year War on our Neighbors

We live in a time of change, when people are questioning old assumptions and seeking new directions. In the ongoing debate over health care, social justice, and border security, there is, however, one overlooked issue that should be at the top of everyone’s agenda, from Democratic Socialists to libertarian Republicans: America’s longest war. No, not the one in Afghanistan. I mean the drug war. For more than a century, the U.S. has worked through the U.N., and its predecessor the League of Nations, to build a harsh global drug prohibition regime – grounded in draconian laws, enforced by pervasive...

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Forming the Narrative: A lack of diversity plagues newsrooms with an implicit bias in reporting

By Danielle K. Kilgo, Assistant Professor, Indiana University The new decade is just days old, but in one respect it is already shaping up like the last one: with mass protests around the world. Rallies for democracy overseas and anti-war demonstrations in the U.S. come on the back of a year that saw people take to the streets over issues including human rights abuse, corruption and climate change. Yet, despite the popularity of movements like the global climate strike and the massive women’s marches around the globe, most people don’t actually attend these events. The general public’s opinions about...

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StoryMaps

A vision for Transformational Journalism that inspires social engagement in Milwaukee, and connecting to the world. The Milwaukee Independent is an award-winning and advertising-free daily news magazine that advocates for inclusive social understanding in Milwaukee by publishing positive news content that covers a wide range of topics as a catalyst for community development. As part of the altered conditions for reporting news during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, Milwaukee Independent expanded its editorial coverage as a result of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and the occupation of Milwaukee’s sister city of Irpin. That war experience produced the first of...

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