Blaska Policy Werkes

A rainy night in Georgia

Posted on December 7, 2022 by David Blaska

‘A red state now has two blue senators because of one orange man.’ — Erick Erickson

Herschel Walker’s loss in the Georgia’s runoff election Tuesday 12-06-22 gives Democrats a one-seat pickup in a previously even-steven U.S. Senate. Georgia is now the fifth high-profile, swing state that repudiated Donald Tr•mp’s hand-picked candidates for senate or governor in the mid-term cycle that supposedly favored Republicans against an underwater Joe Biden. (The other states being Arizona [both], Pennsylvania [both], New Hampshire, and Michigan.)

GEORGIA! Where Gov. Brian Kemp defeated nationally financed, progressive new media darling Stacey Abrams by 7.5 percentage points last month despite Tr•mp’s opposition. Or, should we say, thanks to his opposition. Yes, that’s better. Thanks to his opposition.

The Werkes defers to Erick Erickson, a nationally known conservative commentator based in the Peach State. He puts the blame squarely on Mame, boys:

Every Tr•mp candidate except one lost in Georgia, and the one who won underperformed all the others who won. … Walker was a bad candidate. Anyone without a burning passion for MAGA knew it. … a man with multiple personality disorder is not someone anyone should advance to the political stage. … Now everyone can see the results. … Warnock spent the campaign tying Walker to Tr•mp, including running an ad that had nothing but Tr•mp talking up Walker with the text under Tr•mp speaking: TO STOP TR•MP / DEFEAT WALKER. They ran that ad everywhere.

[Walker] is now most likely going to go back to his home in Dallas TX.
— Erick-Woods Erickson

‘Low-energy Tr•mp’

[Tr•mp] publicly encouraged his old USFL pal Herschel Walker to run for Senate and helped to clear the field with his endorsement, ensuring that the GOP would have a hapless, incompetent and morally suspect candidate in one of the year’s most important Senate races. And then he forced Walker to stagger through the runoff against Raphael Warnock in the shadow of Tr•mp’s own low-energy campaign announcement, which was succeeded by Tr•mp’s dinner with anti-Semites, which was succeeded by Tr•mp’s call to suspend the Constitution in order to restore him to the presidency.
— conservative columnist Ross Douthat

Erickson’s Bottom Line: “You want to win? Move on from an angry old man with nothing left but a knockoff Twitter feed.”

How soon before Tr•mp calls asking Brad Raffensperger
if he can find him 100,000 votes?

Posted in Donald Trump, Election 2022, Uncategorized | 5 Comments

Get your crayons out, kids!

Posted on December 6, 2022 by David Blaska

Remember connect the dots? Growing up in the 1950s (we’ll pause here while you do the math) we had an entire soft-cover book of them. And we liked it that way!

In the spirit of Christmases past, the elves at the Werkes crafted a connect the dots game that is fun and instructive! For academic honors, schitz & giggles: Connect the dots on these headlines — the first three in today’s Wisconsin State Journal:

• “Madison schools Board debates honors classes”
• “Madison schools: Renaming Jefferson middle” school
• “Enrollment numbers to continue declining”
• “Board should give principal his job back”
• “What happens at fight club stays at East high school”

PARENTAL WARNING: This is going to be difficult. And depressing as hell! The Madison Metropolitan School District says so itself. Our public schools are experiencing “an increase in students open enrolling* [a new gerund?] out of the district — a complex set of factors that board members said will require complex solutions.” (* Open enrollment allows Madison residents to send their kids to another school district willing to accept them.)

Crayons ready? GO!

No Tr•mp Today!

• Those who followed Fauci in demanding our schools and restaurants be shut down are now praising the Chinese for rebelling against their authoritarian state Covid lockdown.

• California governor Gavin Newsom says he will not challenge Joe Biden if the President wants re-election. Neither would Bobby Kennedy challenge LBJ in 1968 — until Gene McCarthy had the moxie. Who will have the moxie this time around?

• Does anyone doubt that Herschel Walker is going to lose the Georgia senate race today? (Technically, not Tr•mp.)

• Badger QB Graham Mertz is entering the transfer portal into another dimension. Mertz was brilliant in his very first game against Illinois. Ohio State and other bigs wanted him. Is it possible Paul Chryst f-‘d him up?

• Best thing for Jim Leonhard: Be like Mertz — move on to a new opportunity to grow!

• If it’s called “cryptocurrency” doesn’t the name itself say it’s fake?

Blaska’s Bottom Line: The indentured servants at the Stately Manor might tune in soccer on their b&w Philco if the soccer gnomes of Zurich would lower the pitcher’s mound and move in the fences to produce more runs.

If Elon Musk isn’t the man of the year, who is?

Posted in Madison schools, Uncategorized | 24 Comments

But what about Hunter’s laptop?

Posted on December 5, 2022 by David Blaska

Does Twitter’s full disclosure justify a do-over?

Platinum subscriber Kooter asks: Do the recent Twitter revelations alter your opinion about the veracity of the 2020 election?

The short answer is NO. What counts in an election is HOW they voted, not WHY they voted the way they did. An election cannot be overturned because voters are stupid or were “misled.” They usually are!

That many voters were, indeed, misled about the dirt on Hunter Biden’s laptop is undeniable. A cynic would say that’s what elections are all about, misleading the voters. (There was no “missile gap” in 1960, contrary to JFK’s assertion.) Then again, who trusted our news media in the first place?

Hunter Biden’s laptop could yet prove that Papa Joe can recite Mao’s Little Red book from memory in fluent Mandarin Chinese. Doubtful that would sway many of his voters over to the hated Trump — just as #45’s voters would excuse their hero from shooting that man in the middle of Times Square. (He’d have to wait his turn.)

Would Trump have won in 2016 without James Comey’s foolishness over the Hildabeast’s secret server? If active FBI agents tamped down the story on Hunter’s laptop it was Trump’s FBI. For certain, retired Obama/Biden spooks led by James Clapper and John Brennan called it Russian disinformation. Those two, along with Hillary Clinton, belong in jail.

On whose authority would a do-over election be conducted? It is nowhere provided in the Constitution (which Trump wants to override, anyway). If one were held, how many of those voters would be turned off by Trump’s January 6 insurrection? Reversing the 2020 election is just as impossible (Janel Brandtjen, Timothy Ramthun, Adam Steen, and the My Pillow Guy notwithstanding). What is the precise number of voters who would have switched if Hunter’s laptop was cablecast in primetime? We don’t know either.

→ Do something unique to put Trump back in the White House.

Blaska’s Bottom Line: Who decides? What judge, which jury if not the greatest jury of all — voters themselves? Which is why we have presidential elections every four years.

For schitts and giggles,
how would YOU overturn the 2020 election?

Posted in Election 2022, election challenges, Uncategorized | 21 Comments

‘Do something unique’ to put Trump back in the White House

Posted on December 5, 2022 by David Blaska

Like overturning the Constitution?

The January 6 (2021) insurrection wasn’t unique?

Election untruther Janel Brandtjen, exiled from the Republican Assembly Caucus as Wisconsin’s Marjorie Taylor Green, is running for the state senate seat vacated by the retirement of the honorable Alberta Darling in Milwaukee’s country club suburbs.

Cannot improve on Facebooker Karen Mayhew who posted, “I swear to God, Republicans in this state must love stepping on rakes. Clown show Janel!”

Brandtjen is one of the few Republicans among the 65 in the Assembly (after the November election) to swallow whole Trump’s stolen election lie. Along with Rep. Tim Ramthun, who racked up an impressive (Snark Alert!) 6 percent in the Republican gubernatorial primary. Brandtjen chaired the Assembly’s election committee! The 6 percent are in thrall to the Insurrectionist-in-Chief who, in just the past week, invited Hitler admirers to his table before advocating tearing up the Constitution. (But but but … Nancy Pelosi tore up his State of the Union speech!)

"A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution." — Donald Trump, a defeated former President.

→ But what about Hunter Biden’s laptop?

Who will be Trump’s die hard Baghdad Bob?

The Werkes is sponsoring a World Cup event to determine who will keep defending Dear Leader down to the last days in the bunker. Our Round of 16 includes these Republicans In Trump Only (RITOs) responding to a rare statement of sanity posted on social media:

Donald Trump is such a patriot he directly called for us to break the constitution to reinstall him president. Kinda sounds like every dictator. They have some special reason to change the law to stay in power. Donald Trump is a sad and disturbing man.
— Matt Ahmann

Now the RITO blowback:

Enjoy the denials, the what-aboutisms, the reinterpretations, and out-of-ammunition name calling!

Mark Steven Zuelke: “No, YOU are a “sad and disturbing man.”

Josh Aura: “The democrats are domestic enemies and you don’t even bat an eye. You hate trump more than you love the country.”

Joe Scheibinger: “Matt, that didn’t happen. You are a slanderer.”

Jeff Kirschmann: “We are very highly suspicious that President Trump would declare such a thing. The ‘elephant in the room’, is, with plenty of evidence of fraud, and millions of ppl aggrieved, why is there no court case yet!?” [BLASKA: 61 court cases aren’t enough?]

Josh Aura: “Notice how he has no issue with the fbi lying to subvert the election and install bjden by telling Twitter to suppress very damaging material against Biden and his bagman son. They literally threw a US ELECTION, and all this beta does is scream ‘but Trump’.” [BLASKA: Despicable, possibly criminally actionable, but no grounds to overturn a Presidential election.]

Diane Kennedy: “What I think he intended to mean is that the apparent fraud that installed the current administration necessitates drastic action to correct. Rather than follow the chain of succession which would lead to another complicit person being installed, we should suspend THAT aspect and do something unique to fix the problem. Resulting in putting him back in the WH.”

Lee Showalter: “He’s not wrong. we should abolish our Republic and the entire government with it.”

Blaska’s Bottom Line and Impertinent Question: Wm. F. Buckley revivified conservatism by calling out the John Birchers, anti-Semites, and other kooks. Can Republicans afford to lose Ramthun/Brandtjen’s 6 percent or will they more than compensate by gaining disaffected Republicans and independents encouraged by the party’s return to sanity? Especially after our under-performance on November 8?

Or is regaining our self-respect it’s own reward?

Posted in Donald Trump, Election 2022, election challenges, Uncategorized | 7 Comments

Re-imagine there’s no courage

Posted on December 4, 2022 by David Blaska

It’s easy if you try!

Like any blowhard congress … person, Blaska reserve the right to revise and extend his remarks — those being published in today’s Wisconsin State Journal.

If Madison’s next mayor is chosen on the volume of virtue-signaling, Woke buzz words, challenger Gloria Reyes has taken the early lead.

In Ms. Reyes’ op ed of Sunday 11-27-22, G.L.O.R.I.A. (GLO-REE-AH!) promises to “reimagine public safety.” How? With “a collaborative approach,” is how! She would incorporate “best practices” through “an equity lens” to “uplift communities” so they don’t suffer “unintended consequences.” She will be “innovative,” “inclusive,” and “equitable.”

What she will not be is courageous. In the absence of real leadership, Madison has been spinning its wheels for years on two of our most pressing public safety issues. Reyes will not venture an opinion on our community’s need for more humane jail space despite a $180 million price tag or whether Madison police should wear body cameras. But neither will our equally timorous incumbent mayor, who has managed alienate police AND social justice warriors.

Lacking courage, Gloria Reyes cowers. As president of the Madison school board Gloria Reyes caved, surrendered, stood down, and capitulated to the vandals demanding school resource police officers — black, brown, and female — be expelled from our public high schools. She allowed superintendent Jennifer Cheatham to railroad Mr. Rob out of Whitehorse middle school, a pattern that led to this semester’s three-month defenestration of principal Jeffrey Copeland at Sennett — both for trying to restore order in the classroom.

Blaska’s Bottom Line: Incumbent mayor Satya Rhodes Conway is already “reimagining” public safety. Some of us still remember what actual public safety looked like.

You might say I’m a dreamer.
Am I the only one?

Posted in Madison schools, Uncategorized | 6 Comments

Sennett’s principal does not need re-education

Posted on December 3, 2022 by David Blaska

Jeffrey Copeland needs to be promoted to district superintendent!

Riddle me this: What black educator would take a job with the Madison Metropolitan School District after it dragged Jeffrey Copeland through the muck? Why would any disciplinarian remain at MMSD?

Are we supposed to rejoice that the board of education 12-02-22 unfired the principal of Sennett middle school? How generous! What tender mercies! After three months of banishment and besmirched reputation, Principal Copeland must endure further punishment.

• A letter of reprimand in his P file.
• Docked three weeks pay.
• And most humiliating of all — forced to endure re-education camp. Or, as the district calls it, “undergo professional development.”

Who administers this “professional development”? Probably some recent critical race theory graduate. And for what? For questioning whether the district hires based on superficial identity characteristics rather than teaching competency. That is what it comes down to: identity politics. Jeffrey Copeland called them on it and he is being punished for it.

Re-education? For an educator who, for 27 years, served as interim principal, lead administrator, leadership support specialist, instructional leader, asst. principal, and educator in an urban K-12 environment. A doctorate in education.

Copeland had backbone

The teachers at Sennett spent all summer coming up with policies to improve behavior at the school. But Copeland had the “backbone” to enforce them, [the teacher] said. He commanded respect from students when they talked with both staff and parents. … He enforced a bathroom escort policy and the school’s dress code. … Copeland was also firm on the school’s cellphone policy, even though parents didn’t like it.

“It’s just been many years since we had an administrator who was willing to take on that fight.”
— Wisconsin State Journal

Blaska’s Bottom Line: As with Mr. Rob at Whitehorse, as with the black security guard fired at West high school (even the singer Cher thought it was ridiculous): Message Sent and Received. Accost the wrong student in the hallway, say the wrong thing — you better post your resumé online because the Board of Inquisition will ruin you if it can.