Mary Bottari

Mary Bottari is the Director of the Center for Media and Democracy's Real Economy Project and editor of their www.BanksterUSA.org site.
Articles by this author
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Views Friday, March 22, 2019 Boom! Wisconsin GOP’s Lame-Duck Power Grab Ruled Unconstitutional A Wisconsin judge ruled on Thursday that laws passed by the Republican-controlled legislature in December to limit the powers of newly elected Democratic Governor Tony Evers and Attorney General Josh Kaul were unconstitutional. The lame-duck bills limited early voting, stopped the newly elected... Read more |
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Views Wednesday, February 06, 2019 Koch Kumbaya: The Billionaire Industrialists Appropriate Frederick Douglass, Pledge to “Do Right” The billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch, and their network of donors gathered last week at a swank Palm Springs resort for their annual confab of millionaires and billionaires who have committed to funnel at least $100,000 annually to the Koch political operation, which rivals the... Read more |
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Views Wednesday, January 23, 2019 ALEC’s New Union-Busting Toolkit Illustrates the Goal Is to Bankrupt Unions Not Protect Workers It’s becoming an annual ritual. The Koch-funded cluster of groups, which has long abused their 501(c)3 IRS “charitable” designation by working to destroy political enemies, has concocted another “union busting” toolkit, giving ammunition and guidance to Republican politicians on how to attack and... Read more |
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Views Friday, December 07, 2018 Wisconsin Schools the Nation on Hypocrisy and Partisan Power Grabs Wisconsin elected the state's respected school superintendent as governor on November 6. Now a disgruntled GOP leadership is schooling the nation on hypocrisy and partisan power grabs. After an all-nighter Wednesday, Speaker Robin Vos and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald succeeded in passing... Read more |
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Views Thursday, November 08, 2018 A Public School Teacher Just Beat the Pants Off Scott Walker State School Superintendent Tony Evers defeated incumbent Governor Scott Walker 49.6 to 48.4 in a late night finish that kept supporters of both candidates on pins and needles. Evers won by 1.2 percentage points, which did not meet the standard for an automatic recount, and Walker was hoisted by... Read more |
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Views Wednesday, August 15, 2018 Wisconsin GOP Just Nominated ALEC’s “Iron Lady” to Take on Tammy Baldwin The Kochs have exercised a lot of influence in Wisconsin, working with Governor Scott Walker to crush wages, bust unions, gut school spending, and promote vouchers. But the Kochs may have had their biggest victory of all handed to them last night by another billionaire couple. Koch loyalist and... Read more |
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Views Monday, August 13, 2018 ALEC Is Pushing a New Slate of Viciously Anti-Worker, Pro-Corporate Laws When the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) convened its 45th annual meeting of legislators and corporate lobbyists at the swank Hilton New Orleans Riverside hotel on August 8, it served up a veritable banquet of union-busting, gerrymandering, pro-fossil fuel, and school privatization... Read more |
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Views Wednesday, June 27, 2018 Trump’s Supreme Court Strikes Blow to Government Workers, Good Paying Jobs In a major blow to organized labor and good paying government jobs, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled today that government workers who choose not to join a union cannot be charged fees to reimburse the union for the cost of representing them in collective bargaining. The decision was 5-4 in the Janus... Read more |
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Views Tuesday, June 19, 2018 ALEC’s Deadly Asbestos Agenda Benefits Koch Industries, Nationwide The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) named Missouri Republican state Rep. Bruce DeGroot as a “Legislator of the Week” in June. Why is ALEC so fond of DeGroot? Because he has cheerfully championed ALEC legislation to restrict the right of terminally ill, asbestos victims to sue over... Read more |
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Views Tuesday, November 28, 2017 Koch Latino Front Group Instructs Arizona Moms About School Vouchers A full year in advance of a historic showdown on school vouchers in Arizona, the Kochs are already ladling on the cash. Through their Latino front group, Libre Institute , they have launched a six figure ad campaign targeting Arizona moms on one of the Kochs’ favorite topics, school vouchers. The... Read more |