The Milwaukee Independent

1 week ago | milwaukeeindependent.com | Heather Cox Richardson

On April 18, Heather Cox Richardson was invited to speak at the anniversary of the lighting of the lanterns in Boston’s Old North Church, which happened 250 years ago. Here is what she said on that day. Two hundred and fifty years ago, in April 1775, Boston was on edge. Seven thousand residents of the town shared these streets with more than 13,000 British soldiers and their families. The two groups coexisted uneasily.

2 weeks ago | milwaukeeindependent.com | Heather Richardson

Flatbed train cars carrying thousands of tanks rolled into Washington DC on June 8, in preparation for the military parade planned for June 14. On the other side of the country, protesters near Los Angeles filmed officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) throwing flash-bang grenades into a crowd of protesters. The two images make a disturbing portrait of the United States of America under the Donald J.

2 weeks ago | milwaukeeindependent.com | Heather Richardson

“These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.” – Thomas Paine, “The American Crisis” These were the first lines in a pamphlet that appeared in Philadelphia on December 19, 1776, at a time when the fortunes of the American patriots seemed at an all-time low.

3 weeks ago | milwaukeeindependent.com | Todd Richmond

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has decided to fast-track permits for building a protective tunnel around an aging Enbridge oil pipeline that runs beneath a channel connecting two Great Lakes, stoking environmentalists’ fears that the project will escape scrutiny, damage the sensitive region, and perpetuate fossil fuel use. The move comes after Donald Trump issued an executive order in January declaring that the U.S. has become too dependent on foreign energy sources.

4 weeks ago | milwaukeeindependent.com | Thom Hartmann

Trump is starting to lose big, from courtrooms, to the press increasingly calling him out, to millions of Americans showing up in the streets every few weeks. As anybody who has ever lived or worked in an autocratic state can tell you, a strongman or wannabe dictator is most dangerous when he’s on his back foot.