Tom Becka

Pillen Guilt, Or Lack Thereof

Published by maggie@omahadai... on Mon, 09/21/2026 - 12:00am

I wonder if Governor Pillen ever feels any guilt.

Does he feel any guilt when he sends fellow human beings to the Cornhusker Clink whose only crime is coming into the country illegally, while knowing at the same time that he committed crimes when his Pillen’s Family Farms hired all those undocumented workers in the first place?

On September 9th, the Flatwater Free Press and the NY Times published an extensive, well-researched and documented story on all the illegal immigrants the Governor’s hog farms have employed over the years.

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Fix The Game

Published by maggie@omahadai... on Wed, 09/16/2026 - 12:00am

Don’t hate the playa’. Hate the game.

I’m not an expert on 1980s hip hop by any stretch of the imagination. But I know that phrase has its roots in an Ice-T song and has been popularized in other forms of pop culture as well.

For those unfamiliar with the vernacular of the street, it means you should blame the system and not the person involved for how things work out.

That phrase perfectly describes the state of our current political environment. Don Bacon is a case in point.

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The 71%

Published by maggie@omahadai... on Mon, 09/14/2026 - 12:00am

I wonder how those 71% of Nebraskans will feel in November. Will those who voted for medical marijuana in 2024 remember who worked hard to nullify their vote? Do they care about elected officials honoring the will of the people as much as they cared about legalizing a medicine that can help people suffering from numerous different ailments?

Or will they just look at the R after the person’s name when they cast their ballot?

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A Longshot Candidate In A Real Horserace

Published by maggie@omahadai... on Fri, 09/11/2026 - 12:00am

I drove to Grand Island to watch the Pete Ricketts-Dan Osborn debate. I like to go to these things in person whenever possible to get a feel for the room.

The venue where the debate was held was next to the Grand Island casino and racetrack. A fitting metaphor for a longshot candidate who has made this a real horserace.

You rarely see two politicians with such a different visual style on stage. With the senator in his blue blazer and the worker in his blue-collar informal apparel. It set the stage for an evening that was long on disagreements but short on fireworks.

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Fair Sports In Schools

Published by maggie@omahadai... on Thu, 09/10/2026 - 12:00am

I have written about my support for trans people and how I believe that the argument over which bathrooms a person uses is nothing more than a hyped-up argument used by conservative politicians to garner votes and reinforce fear of people different than them.

I don’t know if I’ve ever been in the men’s room at the same time as a trans person, but if I had, I wouldn’t have cared. When you got to go, you got to go.

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Memes And Tweets And TV Ads, Oh My

Published by maggie@omahadai... on Wed, 09/09/2026 - 12:00am

Memes, tweets, and political TV ads: if you spend any time online or in front of a television, you can’t avoid seeing them.

Even if you don’t spend any time online, there’s a good chance someone will send them to you anyway.

I have had a love-hate relationship with memes for years. They can often be humorous. But all too often they can also be misleading or flat-out lies.

Tweets can do the same thing, only with words instead of pictures.

Both memes and tweets can be used to replace critical thinking.

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We Are Now Talking About Real Money

Published by maggie@omahadai... on Mon, 09/07/2026 - 12:00am

When I read the news the other day, I was reminded of something I heard when I was younger.

I was about fourteen years old and had just started to pay attention to the news when I heard the adults at the kitchen table talking about something former Illinois senator Everitt Dirksen supposedly said.

“A billion dollars here and a billion dollars there and pretty soon you’re talking about real money.”

At that time, the national debt was about 352 billion dollars. That’s Billion. With a B.

When you factor in inflation, that’s only 3.2 trillion dollars today.

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An Epiphany In Nebraska Politics

Published by maggie@omahadai... on Fri, 09/04/2026 - 12:00am

Watching all the political ads on TV these days, I had an epiphany.

Well 2 epiphanies, really, and the first one isn’t very deep or insightful.

My first epiphany is that polling must show Pete Ricketts is really trailing Dan Osborn. Ricketts and his surrogates have got to be running at least twice as many commercials as the Osborn campaign. And we are still over 60 days from the election. It almost smells like desperation.

Speaking of political commercials, my second epiphany has to deal with that topic as well.

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Let’s Talk About Minimum Wage

Published by maggie@omahadai... on Tue, 09/01/2026 - 12:00am

I’ve always thought the minimum wage topic was really a non-issue. The people that benefit from this discussion are not the minimum wage earners, but the politicians and the political consultants who make it such a big deal.

And it’s because of those folks that I now find this non-issue an interesting subject to talk about.

By now you know that the voters voted to increase the minimum wage in Nebraska. The Unicameral in their infinite wisdom decided the voters didn’t know what they were doing so they modified the voters decision.

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Is This Paranoia?

Published by maggie@omahadai... on Mon, 08/31/2026 - 12:00am

Some might say I’m paranoid. To that I say, just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.

Yes, I am worried, concerned, and, some might even say, paranoid about what might happen in Nebraska if we elect Scott Petersen as Secretary of State this November.

Scott Petersen is an election denier who would oversee our elections. Scott Petersen was just endorsed by Seth Keshel, a man who travels the country casting doubt and fear in the safety and security of our elections.