No more saving for a rainy day

Posted on August 21, 2018 by

We’re inundated with too much weather 

The white lab coats are wearing hip boots at Stately Blaska Manor today. Our sensitive instrumentation (an ash pail left outside) recorded 9 inches of precipitation Monday, four of which settled in the subterranean caverns below the manor where the vast right wing conspiracy holds its satanic rituals.

Seemed like every time we looked at the weather radar, western Dane county was one roiling red blob. It rained long and it rained hard. The indentured servants report hearing emergency vehicles throughout the night. A Madison fire truck stopped outside the manor at 1:40 this morning to check out the lake that had grown from the small pond on the south side of the Beltline, across from Odana Hills golf course. Water was gushing up through their basement drain like Old Faithless.

At that, Orchard Ridge was lucky. The basement seems to be draining and, given a few months, will flow past the French Quarter in New Orleans after flooding several states along the way. We got out easy.

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Mazomanie appears to be underwater; there’s no way in or out. A hundred people are sheltered in the fire station. The Highway 14 bridge at Black Earth is washed out. Cars are stranded in Middleton. 

An automobile dealership in Cross Plains is flooded. 

Mineral Point Road between Grand Canyon Drive and Gammon Road on Madison’s far west side is under water. 

To make matters worse, the global climate change scolds are making clucking sounds.

Our gay liberal friend Greg Humphrey decided to “experience” the flooding and is lucky not to become a casualty. His account is here.

Indict John Brennan

What’s this? The New York Times actually permitted a Trump supporter to weigh in on the eternal Russian meddling investigation that has managed to ensnare actual Russians but no Trump figures.

One Chris Buskirk writes that  former chief CIA spook John Brennan, “and a self-declared supporter of the Communist Party candidate for president in 1976 …”

claims that he knows that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians. To my mind, in making this claim, he provided ample evidence of why he should not possess a security clearance. Because if he does actually know this — and if his knowledge is based on information gained through the use of his clearance — then he is guilty of a grave security breach. If not, well, then he’s just a windbag. … Perhaps Mr. Brennan will describe for us, under oath, the source of his information about the alleged collusion. That would be interesting. 

The news media wants us to think for ourselves?

No good deed goes unpunished

We reported that local government’s experiment with permanently housing “wet” alcoholics on Tree Lane was attracting fights. The contracted social services agency operating the housing tried to counter by restricting visitors. In stepped Brenda Konkel to assert all kinds of rights without, of course, any responsibility. So the fighting continues.

Sunday, August 12, 3:24 p.m. Police officers responded to Tree Lane for a disturbance and located two juveniles/suspects involved (15-year-old AAF and 16-year-old AAF). The 16-year-old complied with officers’ orders but the 15-year-old attempted to walk away/resisted contact.  The 15-year-old’s behavior escalated – she kicked at officers, pulled away from officers, refused to ID herself, etc.).  She was placed under arrest and conveyed to the Juvenile Reception Center for resisting.  Investigation continuing.

Tuesday, August 14, 1:06 p.m. Police officers responded to Tree Lane for a vehicle parked in the lot that was reported stolen.  Officers observed a juvenile/suspect (13-year-old AAM) walk towards the stolen vehicle.  The juvenile was instructed to stop and he did not.  The juvenile fled on foot.  The juvenile was apprehended.  A second juvenile/suspect (15-year-old AAM) was also located/identified.  Both juveniles were transported to the Juvenile Reception Center on multiple charges (13-year-old charged with operating a motor vehicle without consent, resisting and possession of marijuana; 15-year-old had a pending capias/warrant).

Saturday, August 18, 11:05 p.m. Multiple callers were reporting a fight occurring in the 7900 block of Tree Ln (Madison Supportive Housing), involving approximately 30 individuals.  During the fight, someone possibly got pepper sprayed by other people involved in the fight.  Subjects had fled as officers arrived on scene.  Those remaining on scene did not want to speak to officers and anyone who may have been pepper sprayed did not come forward.  Officers remained on scene thereafter in order to ensure stability.  Investigation continuing.

Remember this when you see Brenda Konkel’s name on the ballot for mayor of Madison.

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Our tax dollars financed ban on cops from Madison Gay Shame Parade

Posted on August 20, 2018 by

‘Simply pathetic’

Still waiting for that first elected official to denounce the cop hate

The City of Madison, Dane County, and the State of Wisconsin are major funders of Outreach, the organization that caved to the International Socialist Organization and Freedom Inc. to ban police from Sunday’s Gay Pride Shame parade (08-19-18).

The Blaska Policy Werkes will endeavor to determine the exact amount of taxpayer dollars each governmental unit wastes to support bias, hatred, and division. In addition, these local businesses support Outreach.  They include Alliant Energy, American Family Insurance, Dane County Credit Union, Goodman’s Jewelers, Gordon Flesch, SSM Health St. Mary’s, UW Credit Union, and MG&E. 

Outreach parade

We quote ismthus resident and Out gay man Greg Humphrey at Caffeinated Politics: 

It irritates me to read that taxpayers, through the city, county, and state, are major contributors to Outreach! And then OutReach turns on our local police and sheriff departments, along with UW-Madison officers.   Read who OutReach has for corporate sponsors, too.  This is YOUR money being used to allow OutReach to cozy up with the International Socialist Organization, who has as its mission, the undermining of faith in our local law enforcement. 

The Gay Shame parade went beyond the mere absence of police in the parade into outright, full-throated police bashing. Again, Greg Humphrey:

Today OutReach allowed anti-law enforcement banners and chants in the parade. And, they allowed on stage for their rally, T Banks who spewed all kinds of hateful rhetoric against law enforcement and many of their allies, including our fire department. T Banks is rude and far afield when it comes to understanding our history. OutReach has proven they will get on their knees for anyone. Simply Pathetic!

[ This T. Banks, btw, is described as a community organizer, mental wellness advocate, poet, and playwright … Black Trans, Queer person with a disability, T.  who  “believes the movement for Black Lives must be intersectional and deeply connected to the struggle to end Patriarchy, specifically as it manifest as violence against Black Trans folks.”]

Community Shame

Since last year’s parade, two “activists” hosted monthly forums hosted by OutReach. The International Socialist Organization crows about its success:

madison-pride.png

After last year’s Pride, [activist Shawna] Lutzow says the forum “was all about if cops should be allowed to march in Pride. …

The ongoing anti-racist work within the Madison queer community, the Black Lives Matter movement and the dominance of people seeking solidarity since Trump’s election all contributed to OutReach working on keeping a police contingent out of Pride.

Initially, OutReach compromised with police, planning on the contingent being limited to plainclothes cops, still carrying their sidearms, marching without squad cars. Knowing that this was not enough, activists — including Lutzow, … members of the International Socialist Organization and others — came together to discuss organizing an alternative “Community Pride.”

Our man Gary Kriewald was on the parade route Sunday:

Just got back from the Pride Parade. I couldn’t locate David Clarenbach. No one I spoke to even seemed aware that he was one of the official emcees. I’m wondering if maybe he decided to bow out quietly as a way of protesting the ban on cops.

However, I did have a swell time shouting epithets (e.g., “Your True Colors Are Hate”) at OutReach and a contingent carrying a banner that identified them as being behind the ban on cops. My first encounter with them was on State Street while they were waiting for the parade to start. The looks on their faces were priceless; it was clear that no one had EVER dared to call them haters or probably to call out their bigotry in any way. I then followed along the route and did the same thing two more times.

The final time was on the Square where there happened to be three cops guarding the intersection at W. Wash. After t finished shouting, I said to them, “You should have called in sick today instead of guarding a bunch of bigoted assholes.”

They just laughed and shook their heads. They were talking to two (young!) people decked out in rainbow garb, who, it turned out, were letting the cops know that they condemned the whole cop-hating theme. A small but encouraging sign.

The other encouraging sign was that a couple people in the crowd came up to me wanting to engage in a serious, civilized discussion of the issue. I’m not sure I changed anyone’s mind, but they both thanked me for sharing my views. My main regret is not locating anyone from the local media. All three channels, I’m sure, were covering the event. It was quite a spectacle to see all those “Love Is Love” banners at an event that excludes a group based on employment status. The hypocrisy was so thick you could cut it with a knife — in other words, tailor made for Madison.

A good many of the contingents were sponsored by local businesses, including American Family Insurance. I plan to write them tomorrow cancelling my policies and explaining that I’m not in the habit of patronizing businesses that engage in blatant displays of bigotry. Never realized that protesting could be so therapeutic!

An alternate universe

This is socialist dogma: “The Cops and the Klan go hand in hand.”

This is reality: “Madison police adopt policy on treatment of transgender, gender non-conforming people.”

Madison’s policy codifies practices such as using preferred pronouns and names, even if they are not legally recognized, to address an individual and when writing reports. It also defines terms such as cisgender, gender expression and identity, sexual orientation and sex assigned at birth.

Meanwhile, in socialist Venezuela, “Crisis escalates.”

Blaska’s Bottom Line: Gary Kriewald is right: Protesting IS therapeutic! Support the police one week from today, Monday, August 27, by attending the Madison Board of Education meeting. Starts at 6 p.m. at the MMSD administration building, 545 W. Dayton Street. 

Posted in identity politics, Madison city government, Socialism, War on Police | Tagged , , , , | 24 Comments

Guilty white liberals are their own parody 

Posted on August 18, 2018 by

New York Times gets pranked!

‘I’m riddled with shame. White shame. …
I feel like my literal existence hurts people …’ — Whitey

This is a letter to an actual advice column published August 14, 2018 by the terminally Trump-deranged New York Times. The actual advice column is called “The Sweet Spot.” This exercise in journalistic masochism is managed by two white people — themselves suffused with race shame — who call themselves “The Sugars.” They specialize in incredibly “woke” advice to the liberal-progressive-socialist in need of a weekend at the re-education camp.

The letter, on the other hand, is without question a splendid hoax, on a par with Piltdown Man and the Hitler Diaries. A savage send-up of the cult of white privilege, implicit bias, and intersectionality, exposed by a cisgendered white woman with a wicked sense of humor.

(We get this via Ann of Althouse who channels Tom Maguire at JustOneMinute. That’s how social media works.)

As it appears in the New York Times:

 

Sweet Spot

By Cheryl Strayed and Steve Almond, aka: The Sugars

 

Dear Sugars,

I’m riddled with shame. White shame. This isn’t helpful to me or to anyone, especially people of color. I feel like there is no “me” outside of my white/upper middle class/cisgender identity. I feel like my literal existence hurts people, like I’m always taking up space that should belong to someone else.

I consider myself an ally. I research proper etiquette, read writers of color, vote in a way that will not harm P.O.C. (and other vulnerable people). I engage in conversations about privilege with other white people. I take courses that will further educate me. I donated to Black Lives Matter. Yet I fear that nothing is enough. Part of my fear comes from the fact that privilege is invisible to itself. What if I’m doing or saying insensitive things without realizing it?

Another part of it is that I’m currently immersed in the whitest environment I’ve ever been in. … I don’t talk about my feelings because it’s hard to justify doing so while people of color are dying due to systemic racism and making this conversation about me would be again centering whiteness. … Instead of harnessing my privilege for greater good, I’m curled up in a ball of shame. How can I be more than my heritage?

— Whitey

Maguire asks “Is this for real, or has the NY Times flipped the keys to The Onion? You know what? Go with your gut and bet ‘The Onion’. As best I can tell, the Times writers and editors are serious.”

Up steps someone named Titania McGrath to respond that she is the “Whitey” who wrote the letter and warned, “Do not deny my lived experience!” Ms. McGrath’s social media identifies her as “Activist. Healer. Radical intersectionist poet.” That only fuels speculation that she is the merriest prankster since the late comedian Andy Kaufman. From Ms. McGrath’s Twitter feed:

Period Poverty

Indisputably, Titania McGrath is a live-wire, anti-P.C. whoopie cushion. But Sweet Spot columnists Strayed and Almond are (we think!) playing right into the trolling farceur’s game:  

Almond: Your letter describes your place as a kind of prison cell of privilege. What you really feel is trapped within an identity that marks you, inescapably, as an oppressor. This feeling is especially acute right now, I suspect, because you’re suddenly immersed in a milieu that reflects your privilege back to you. We do live in a culture steeped in white supremacy and class bigotry, as well as patriarchal values. ….

Strayed: You don’t have to relinquish your heritage to be an ally to people of color, Whitey. You have to relinquish your privilege. And part of learning how to do that is accepting that feelings of shame, anger and the sense that people are perceiving you in ways that you believe aren’t accurate or fair are part of the process that you and I and all white people must endure in order to dismantle a toxic system that has perpetuated white supremacy for centuries. …

GOODFELLAS-PESCI laugh

Blaska’s Bottom Line: Ms. McGrath (if THAT is your real name), we hear there is an opening for principal at Madison’s Sherman Middle School. Hellz Bellz, run for school board! You would be a cisgendered cinch!

 

 

Posted in identity politics, Progressives, Race | Tagged , , , , , | 43 Comments

Madison justice is one big joke: ‘Joking, laughing teens arrested for auto theft’

Posted on August 17, 2018 by

Quick, more Restorative Justice!

Q. Why did 4 teenagers steal a car? A. It beats walking

Excerpting freely from this week’s Capital Newspapers account headlined: “Joking, laughing teens arrested for auto theft.”

Four Madison teens — two 14-year-old girls, a 14-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl — were arrested Wednesday afternoon for driving recklessly around town in a stolen car, Madison police said. …

“One of the 14-year-old girls said her arrest “Didn’t matter,” and the GPS bracelet she was wearing because of a previous stolen car arrest didn’t mean anything, said police spokesman Joel DeSpain.

“She said she would be released soon without any consequences.”

An officer told the juveniles during the booking process at the Juvenile Reception Center they should seek employment so someday a car could be purchased.

“The other 14-year-old girl said they don’t steal cars due to the lack of money, they just don’t like to walk,” DeSpain said.

“The son of the car’s owner showed up to get the car, and he wanted to know if there had been any arrests,” DeSpain said. “He was told yes, and that some of those involved had been arrested in the past for the exact same offense.

“The son indicated he didn’t like how people were just let go by the system.”

Blaska’s Bottom Line: If sonny boy don’t watch it, he just might be called a white supremacist. Paging district attorney Ismael Ozanne!

Posted in Madison city government, Progressives, War on Police | 23 Comments

Socialist Marxist-Leninists are driving Madison’s war on police

Posted on August 17, 2018 by

Who will be the first Democrat to denounce them?

More silence from Mayor Soglin, Joe Parisi, et al

Time to connect the dots.

From Derail the Jail, through No Cops in Schools, on to disinviting police from this Sunday’s Gay Pride parade in Madison, the War on Cops is waged on behalf of imposing socialism. 

By weaponizing identity politics, the socialists have pre-empted the Democrat(ic) Party. The good Madison liberal fears nothing more than being called a racist, sexist homophobe. No matter that an anti-democratic revolutionary outfit is doing the name calling.

Madison Pride

The Degenderettes describe themselves as “a coalition of trans- and queer-identified activists on the radical left which exists to provide both aid and mutual-care, and to fight for the liberation of all marginalized people.”

Driving much of the harassment and intimidation of this movement are the cadres of the International Socialist Organization, Madison chapter.

When the social justice warriors demand “community control of the police” they want their control of the police. When that day comes, the mother of the West H.S. student would be charged with assault, not the Freedom Inc. Youth Squad thug who smashed her smart phone.

ISO Lenin

“We stand in the Marxist tradition, founded by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, and continued by V.I. Lenin, Rosa Luxemburg and Leon Trotsky.”

Socialism is all about coercion. The socialist knows for absolute certain who has too much and who has not enough. Not enough/too much house, not enough/too much money, and — most dangerously — not enough/too much speech.

‘The power to bring the system to a halt.’
— chapter heading of the International Socialist Organization creed.

In order to redistribute, the socialist must expropriate. To expropriate they must intimidate. Police, as currently constituted, stand in the way of their organized theft. (No, Denmark is NOT a socialist country. It has a capitalist economy supporting generous social services. Venezuela, Cuba, and North Korea are socialist.)

ISO Ocasio

The victory of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the Bronx of New York is the most glaring example. Like Bernie Sanders, she is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, whose platform, former Senator Joe Lieberman laments, “is more socialist than Democrat(ic).”

Once his party’s vice presidential nominee, Lieberman warned: “Her dreams of new federal spending would bankrupt the country or require very large tax increases, including on the working class. Her approach foresees government ownership of many private companies, which would decimate the economy and put millions out of work.”

JOB OF COPS.png

Blaska’s Bottom Line: Kudos to the Madison Fire Department for refusing to kow-tow to the socialist War on Police. The Stately Manor is reaching out to Sen. Tammy Baldwin and U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan to determine whether they, too, are willing to throw Madison’s police under the bus or whether they will be a profile in courage and boycott Sunday’s parade.

Lisa Subeck? Chris Taylor? Mo Cheeks? Marsha Rummel? Paul Soglin? Joe Parisi? Anybody home?

ISO Cop haters

In other words, the only good cop is a …

[ UPDATE: Open Madison, an “Out Professional Engagement Network,” issued a statement disapproving of the cop ban that concludes:

Over the past several years, our Pride Parade has become a source of joy, love, and kinship. As such, we feel withdrawing support from OutReach or the Pride Parade is unproductive in furthering the goal of improving the relationship between our community and police officers. Our community deserves the joy of Pride, and the work that needs to be done will last long beyond this upcoming Pride Parade.

We need longer tables, not higher fences. We’re ready to get to work. ]

A communique from Community Pride, a front group for the International Socialists and the Degenderettes:

Fellow community members and organizations,

The Community Pride coalition, formerly known as Alternate Pride, would like to share its appreciation and thanks with OutReach LGBT Community Center for their decision to not allow police contingents at this year’s Pride.

Through their newly released statement, OutReach has chosen to take this important, first step to give a meaningful apology, a promise to repair harm done to the most marginalized in our community, and an effort to engage in concrete actions that foster full inclusion and liberation for all LGBTQ+ individuals.

To our friends, supporters, collaborators, and comrades, we want to make it crystal clear that we have earned an important victory. We took a stand and demanded that OutReach rescind their invitation to the Madison Police Department, the University of Wisconsin Police Department, and Dane County Sheriff Mahoney, and we won.

In light of OutReach’s decision, Community Pride will march as a contingent in this year’s parade. We will continue our call to oppose police at Pride in future years and across the nation. We also will schedule an organizing meeting for all who want to join us next week. We know there will be backlash to this decision, and that is part of why it is important to march in the parade and defend this victory.

Following the parade, we will be celebrating our victory and pride at an after party at the Goodman Community Center from 6 pm – 8 pm. We invite all in our community to join in on this Community Pride celebration. But there is so much more work to be done.

… The police drove a divisive wedge into our vulnerable community. Now is the time for celebration of our victory, pride, and moving towards collective community healing. 

In solidarity, Community Pride

 

Posted in identity politics, Socialism, War on Police | Tagged , , , , , | 42 Comments

A Vietnamese woman was too diverse for Madison

Posted on August 15, 2018 by

Ald. Thuy Pham-Remmele checked the wrong box: conservative

Who knew inclusionary would be so exclusionary?

We have been saying that identity politics divides and separates — unlike the Maidenform brassiere — without lifting.

Madison is seeing that play out with the Gay Pride Parade this weekend. (Soon to be renamed the Gay Paranoia Parade.) The group governing the parade disinvited the police from the march, bowing to the insistence of the Most Woke among the identity politicians that police are using LBGTQs for target practice (or something). So now the Madison fire department says count us out, too. 

In light of the disappointing decision by OutReach to rescind the invitation to the Madison Police Department to participate in this years’s Pride Parade, the Madison Fire Department, in solidarity with our women and men in blue, must respectfully and regretfully decline to participate in this year’s parade.  

This is the Madison Fire Department in which Mahlon Mitchell serves — he being a person of color and second-place finisher out of eight candidates in Tuesday’s Democrat(ic) gubernatorial primary.

The conformity of diversity

CIMG0109small

Ald. Thuy Pham-Remmele

In his last prize-worthy blogge, your Squire praised former mayor Dave Cieslewicz for breaking from Democrat(ic) party dogma on identity politics, for questioning its slavish devotion to Capital D Diversity in such ephemera as skin color and gender while demanding lock-step uniformity in political thought.

 

At his current roadside stand, the former mayor wrote:

The essence of being a liberal is to be open to different ideas and perspectives — ironically, even conservative ones. So, I would like to see at least one strong, articulate classic conservative in the [mayoral] race. Someone who would make a principled and impassioned case for smaller government, less regulation and more personal freedom.

In Mr. C’s eight years at the helm of The Emerald City, however, we could recall no conservative appointed to any commission, committee, task force, or special panel. We had forgotten, in fact, the May 2009 defenestration of the Stately Manor’s former alder, Thuy Pham-Remmele. (H/T to Cornie Gotchberg for reminding us of “The Exile of Thuy Pham-Remmele.”)

Now here is a woman and Vietnamese, to boot. Sadly, she is happily heterosexual but no one is perfect. But she is also conservative!

Mayor Dave had booted this diminutive spit fire from the consequential Community Development Block Grant Commission. That’s the body that doles out dollars to experiments like the “wet” homeless apartments at Tree Lane and Rethke Avenue. Knowing Thuy (the Squire was a principal in her campaigns) she would have pulled the emergency brake on that one.

Thuy’s defenestration was payback for forcing Cieslewicz to abandon his folly with trollies. With the mayor and police chief Noble Wray in attendance, Thuy had packed a parochial school auditorium with 900 angry constituents demanding more police instead.

Thuy was exiled to the food cart committee. Vietnamese, y’know.

A totalitarian ‘us versus them’

The white lab coats in the Research Department stumbled upon the delightful byline of Froma Harrop, a syndicated columnist who captures this point of light in the great beer bottle of truth:

The problem with left-wing movements isn’t so much “the left-wing” as it is the “movements.” Movements sometimes have a totalitarian edge that cannot abide dissent, or even a hint of it. They’re “us” versus “them.” In the case of left-wing movements, the “them” is often fellow Democrats.

Harrop (harrumph!) recalls Ralph “Recall” Nader and his ilk siphoning enough votes from Al Gore to elect George W. Bush.

… Here is how Barbara Ehrenreich put it in The Nation: “What I fear most about a Gore victory — yes, I said victory — is its almost certainly debilitating effect on progressives and their organizations.” Celebrity agitator Michael Moore was bouncing on and off stages in liberal cities urging audiences to vote for Nader. “A vote for Gore is a vote for Bush,” he bellowed. He BELLOWED! ♥♥♥

33303255_1775615112499814_4573063069751574528_o_640x345_acf_cropped

Vermont’s visionary progressive

That’s why Stately Blaska Manor encourages socialist provocateur John Nichols in his work  of purging moderates like congressman Ron Kind, D-La Crosse. On the Pages of The Nation, our Comrade salivates over the ultimate prize of identity politics:

 

Christine Hallquist Isn’t Just the First Transgender Candidate for Governor — She’s Also a Visionary Progressive!

And a breath mint, too! This particular Chris is also expected to lose to the Republican incumbent. In Vermont, possibly the bluest state in the Union. To a Republican.

Party of crazy, your table is ready

Under the pen name of “David Blaska,” your Squire writes in the upcoming September issue of InBusiness magazine  that “Republicans would be their own worst enemies if it were not for Democrats.”

We had in mind the upset victory earlier this year of socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez over an incumbent Democratic centrist in NYC.  The party of JFK, Bill Proxmire, and Clem Zablocki is now the party of Bernie Sanders, Maxine Waters, and Tammy Baldwin. More Comrade Nichols:

The Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Effect:
The Democratic party’s new rock star is storming the country
on behalf of insurgent populists.

We quote Sen. Chris Coons, D-Delaware, as lamenting his party’s “relentless race to the left.” So Mark Pocan moves to abolish immigration enforcement. Wisconsin Democrats vow to empty out half the penitentiaries.

“If the next two years is just a race to offer increasingly unrealistic proposals … it’ll be difficult for us to make a credible case we should be allowed to govern again,” Coons cried.

 

Posted in identity politics, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 58 Comments