Remember when the Left also ignored the Tea Party?
The New York Times has noticed the incipient rebellion of public school parents against creeping progressivism. They’re manning the ramparts with a hit piece that identifies the true villain:
“Republicans today, including many denizens of Trumpworld, are working overtime to keep their base spun up over critical race theory.”
The Times spot checks a few school board meetings scattered around the country but uncovers only a lot of shouting and fist shaking. The headline:
‘America’s school board meetings are getting weird — and scary.’
The Werkes counters that America’s schools are the ones getting weird — and scary. Parents are noticing. Here in Madison WI, the Head Groundskeeper asks his wife if she’d like to accompany him to the school board meeting. She exclaims “Are you kidding? After what happened to me the last time?!” Which her husband did not witness because he was being physically accosted himself.
BLM and Freedom Inc. use bullhorns to F-bomb the Latino school board president’s home, her private residence, late at night. Her children present. They vandalize the district administration building. Shut down the 2019 annual budget meeting, sending school board members scurrying into the night.
Freedom Inc. at a Madison school board meeting
Their demand: Cops Out of School. That is the sine qua non of critical race theory: that police are modern-day slave catchers. Millions of Derrick Chauvins killing innocent Michael Browns. That Javon Freeney gets gunned down in a drive-by shooting is “Institutional Racism”? That the reason only 7% of Milwaukee’s black eighth graders are proficient readers is because “White Privilege”?
If you’re going to San Francisco
Does Nancy Pelosi know that “many denizens of Trumpworld” populate San Francisco? Because they are forcing their school board members to a recall. Only needed 51,000 signatures; the (apparently) closet Republicans have collected 70,000. Opinion polls indicate 69% of San Francisco’s parents are ready to recall.
“While students stayed home, the board seemed determined to outwoke everyone else,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Earlier this year it resolved to change the names of 44 schools because the figures they were named after were deemed guilty of racism or oppression. The offending schools included Abraham Lincoln high and Dianne Feinstein elementary. The school board also ended the competitive entrance exams for the system’s crown jewel, Lowell high, in the name of race equity.
Former Madison mayor Dave Cieslewicz cites Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-SC. to say that rhetoric like “defunding the police” is “cutting the throats of the party.” “Crime, homelessness and wokeness are Democratic afflictions,” Cieslewicz warns.
Blaska’s Bottom Line: The NY Times wants “weird and scary”? How about drag queen story hour?
Blaska Policy Werkes 
30 responses to “Weird and scary in the elemen-tary (school)”
Defunding the Madison Police is not such a bad idea.
The behavior described in the above article by BLM and Freedom, Inc. are criminal acts in violation of ss 947.01(1). Yet MPD rarely steps in to stop communist political terrorism or any other political criminal activity.
in 2020, Madison communists defaced the Wisconsin Veterans Museum with written and drawn vulgarities. It remained there for months. Remind me, did MPD arrest anyone for that? The vulgarities on the wall were criminal on there own. Did MPD try to paint over it? Or did they just keep walking by as children were exposed to sexual drawings?
MPD is more of an arm of the Madison communist party than a neutral law enforcement agency.
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MPD depends for its funding on the Madison Common Council and Mayor Satya’s budget. I, David Blaska, have filed complaints on some of the activities you list; the district attorney refused to prosecute. If he did, the judges would not convict. But I take your larger point, MPD should have arrested Bianca Gomez and Brandi Grayson numerous times.
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“But I take your larger point, MPD should have arrested Bianca Gomez and Brandi Grayson numerous times”
They also shouldn’t have stood back during the riots last year or allow demonstrators to block roads and streets. They lost a lot of respect for that.
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“MPD is more of an arm of the Madison communist party than a neutral law enforcement agency.”
I have a lot of respect for police officers in general, but command staff failed us last year when they stood back during the riots and tolerated blocking of streets.
Also pathetic:
About 20 MPD officers kneeling over George Floyd. If they’re going to kneel, let it be for crime victims, troops dying in Afghanistan, and cops getting killed by thugs.
And this from Captain Mike Hanson. Looks like someone wants to be chief one day.
“The environments are complex as some youth battle trauma, abuse, education deficiencies, systemic racism, family evictions, unemployment and substance abuse that affect their daily lives, Could you imagine such a life? Could you imagine such a life, right here in Madison?” Hanson said in the post. “It exists and it will not get better and we will not feel safer until we drill down to these root causes.”
ROOT CAUSES. How about bad parenting??
https://www.channel3000.com/madison-police-to-meet-with-nonprofits-juvenile-judges-to-find-ways-to-prevent-repeat-arrests-among-local-teens/
Please.
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MPD trips over itself to get in good graces with their antagonizers. It’s sickening to watch.
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Indeed and obviously Liberty, but to promulgate how *self-defeating decisions* by the players involved lead to virtually all the maladies that Capitan Hanson describes undermines the convenient, vogue, and profitable, root cause being systemic racism and white privilege.
What a phony who only has eyes for his paycheck, pension, and continued dinner invitations, from his woke friends and colleagues. Gotta stay popular in Madison, right?
Taleeb Starkes has a tale to tell Capitan Hanson:
https://www.prageru.com/video/the-top-5-issues-facing-black-americans
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“What a phony who only has eyes for his paycheck, pension, and continued dinner invitations, from his woke friends and colleagues. Gotta stay popular in Madison, right?”
Indeed. It’s obvious to anyone with a brain. And I’ll tell you, it feels like a betrayal.
What he and other woke cops haven’t figured out yet apparently is that the people they’re trying to hard to appease with never be appeased. All they do by pandering is kick the can down the road, and lose respect for themselves and their cops from both their antagonists AND fans.
“Could you imagine such a life”, Hanson asks.
How about this? Can you imagine being robbed at gunpoint, raped, attacked on the street, or have your home invaded? SMH.
I suspect Captain Hanson already knows what Mr. Starkes has to say.
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I think that people are reacting to liberal policies. The mask mandates drive people nuts and I’m not entirely sure why. It doesn’t take much to wear a mask. The antics at our own school board were outrageous. I stayed away lest I be called a racist for thinking that police should remain in the schools. I’m sure that many others did too.
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And in doing so, you empowered the racist ideologues of BLM and other race hustlers for whom silencing critics or potential critics is an integral part of their plan. Madison progressives are so terrified of being called racists that they’re willing to sacrifice the education of their own children on the altar of “equity” (i.e., favoring one group over another based solely on skin color).
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“The mask mandates drive people nuts and I’m not entirely sure why.”
For one, because the story keeps changing. “Masks don’t work. Yes, they do. No they don’t. Wear two masks. No, that’s not right.”
According to at least one study, those cloth and paper masks don’t really do anything. I only wear them inside businesses when I’m required, out of courtesy.
Plus,
A year and a half later after “two weeks to slow the curve” we’re still here.
“The vaccine is effective. Get the vaccine. Once enough people get it, we can get back to normal and won’t need masks.” When will that be exactly?
“There will be no vaccine passport.” Right.
Trump rallies, church events, sporting events, etc. are “super spreader” events. Parties for “high class” people, high priced Democratic fundraisers, after-parties when Biden won, and riots all last summer were fine.
Last summer, Madison Police ticketed people holding parties, while rioters and demonstrators were allowed to block streets and tear down the city.
Several things never made sense and were contradictory, yet we’re not allowed to even ask questions, just to blindly obey.
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Sums it up quite well, Liberty!
Wait till the smug a–holes who think they are “fully vaccinated” and superior to others find out they have to get a 3rd shot to maintain that status, then a 4th, then maybe they finally start asking questions and saying “hey wait a minute, the vaccines do not appear to be working nor do masks” and they can’t work or go anywhere and are looked down upon as criminals.
Too late! You stood by and egged on the crazy authoritarianism. The experts lied about the source of the vaccine, about the timeline to normal, about what would work to stop it. Because the experts don’t know and/or are profiting from dragging this out as long as possible.
And YOU, obedient minion who worships incompetent bureaucrat and frequently wrong experts, stood by and attacked ANYONE asking questions.
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Excuse me! CORRECTION obviously needed above: “Experts lied about the source of the VIRUS”
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Right again, Adam. Except that I think some people are either too stupid or too trusting to ask questions. I bet that five years from now we’ll still see people wearing masks while walking along down the street.
Another thing that doesn’t make sense are the one-size-fits-all vaccine mandates some employers and schools are requiring. Doesn’t matter to them if say, you have an enlarged heart or viral antibodies.
What’s especially sickening are the people, including smug celebs, who are saying the unvaccinated should be denied medical care. From the party of “caring, tolerance, and inclusion.” Right.
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In red state Iowa, the school board of Iowa’s second largest city is likewise determined to toss cops from schools. This, even though a full 75 percent of city residents, and 72 percent of students surveyed, continue to favor cops in the schools.
In her reasoned response to the board’s own surveys, one school board member resolutely states, “This is not necessarily a majority-rules sort of thing.”
If competitive elections happen in order to take down this nonsense, would the New York Times call out those fist-shaking Republicans?
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Is that person a left leaner?
This stuff is spreading unfortunately, even in red states.
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Let’s hope Clyburn is right about anti-cop rhetoric being responsible for “cutting the throats of the [Democrat] party.” A pity the job wasn’t done earlier and more thoroughly on Jan. 6th.
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All’s I know is that when Dave posted past VID excerpts of the MMSD conflict he had, it was bigly clear that Freedom Inc, and it’s Milwaukee thug cohorts were dominant, disgusting and… downright scary. Not many of us would be willing to experience that threatening abuse. David didn’t, earning their perpetual scorn. The Board? “Let’s move along”… Of course! Woke, white guilt/fragility, CRT are much more important than serenity (sorta) in our schools that may result in actual education…
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Woops… “David DID”, not “David didn’t”. While we may/may not see more violence in MDSN schools, we’ll certainly see the results when the WI DPI stats come out….
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Cieslewicz warns about defunding police narratives?
As mayor, he prioritized street cars over hiring more cops. Please.
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Choo Choo. It was funny when the comrade on 1st street complained about train horns and then found out 1 would come by every 5 minutes
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Interesting hostility to equity…
If I stole lots of money from Bob he could gain recourse from the legal system to get his money back. If the legal system didn’t accept Bob’s claim, that doesn’t mean that I didn’t steal, it means the legal system didn’t recognize it as stealing. Suppose that is the case, as it was indeed for a huge chunk of the history of the US.
This money I stole is invested, grows, and is handed down through generations. In theory, Bob’s kids could perhaps sue my kids claiming that their inheritance is ill-gotten. But again, the law must permit that claim. And after a generation or two the paper trail is muddled, and even if the law is changed to recognize the prior theft as theft, there’s no way to figure out where all the stolen money ended up.
This is just the truth. There was theft. There was never any righting of the wrong. And the balance sheets are too deep to ever right the wrong in a fully justified manner even if we wanted to. Some people are irritated by this, some are not.
So what to do about this? Herein lies the birth of the concept of equity. People who are bothered by this truth try to figure ways to remedy it. People who are not bothered by this truth do not wish to remedy it.
Is anyone here bothered by this truth, even if we recognize that a fully justified remedy has been made impossible by time? If yes, what remedy other than equity shall we pursue? If no, why are you not bothered by this truth? I would like this truth to not bother me as well and I want to learn how to keep that truth from conflicting with other truths.
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Rollie,
Ultimately you are bothered by the nature of man. Humans have been exploiting each other for a very long time. Good luck going back in time attempting to essentially undo the results of human nature. One can switch the skin color or sex of the players and it will ultimately all play out the same.
“So what to do about this? Herein lies the birth of the concept of equity. People who are bothered by this truth try to figure ways to remedy it. People who are not bothered by this truth do not wish to remedy it.” Not true.
What do you think all the laws, regulations, and safety nets, that are now in place to level the playing field are all about?
If it wasn’t for corrupt avaricious politicians passing laws/rule/regs that benefit corporations and the rich, capitalism would be operating just fine without so much economic disparity.
Does not matter what system is in place or how much one tries to equalize outcomes (which is stupid btw) corrupt, unethical, humans, will gum up the works but at least capitalism works with human nature while socialism/communism works against human nature.
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Well said, Batman!
People are under the false belief that communism / socialism is about kindness and sharing. Yeah, it’s about sharing whatever’s left over after the tyrants grant their permission. What good is equity if we’re all sharing miniature portions of the the same rotten pie that we didn’t want in the first place?
Also would add that humans are motivated by financial gains. Capitalism is built around this concept and if not manipulated by tyrants, works quite well. Financial gains spur everything we enjoy in this country, including medical advancements, fashion, and gizmos. It not only works with human nature, but it accentuates it.
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I’m not a communist or capitalist or an anything-ist. I don’t have a goal to kill the free market, but I do have a goal of minimizing exploitation and immorality. I want to find ideas anywhere they are and not be dogmatic.
You’re right that I am bothered by things that are eternal moral struggles, but I don’t think the nature of man is evil. I could be wrong, this is just a belief. I think we all have both sides in our nature, good and evil, that angel on one shoulder and devil on the other. In religious terms, we have free will to choose the path of god or satan. I interpret that our system of capitalism (not to say the concept itself, I’m not an economic scholar just a regular guy) works more with the the evil side of human nature (I’m not calling anybody evil! I’m using the religious metaphor, I do not call anyone names). To deliberately foster and reward the evil part of human nature in an economic system or society, or to throw up our hands and just say that humans are evil and so we have to accept selfishness and exploitation is following the path that all religions advise against (just from my limited knowledge – I’m not a theologian either). If someone commits a crime I don’t just write it off as human nature, I seek justice. I don’t expect that crime, evil, etc. will ever be extinguished but I want to work to minimize it as best I can, and certainly don’t wish to incentivize it. I think our structure incentivizes it.
Maybe you’re right that a lot of the social engineering in our government is some attempt to address past injustice, but no doubt it isn’t fulfilling that goal if that’s the case. It would be cleaner to just be more direct, like the way the Germans paid reparations to Israel after WWII. But I don’t think I have the answer, it’s way too late for reparations, I’m just trying to illustrate that this idea of equity does arise out of a real place where justice hasn’t adequately been served. No black person I know feels like all the historic injustice is washed away because there are food stamps and unemployment insurance.
I think we probably have some common ground. I’m not against a free market of individuals and cooperative, non-exploitative teams. I want to see the amazing things people can create and see them rewarded for making things that other people like and need. I don’t want that work to be co-opted, where the profits of that effort are funneled away from the talent that created the value. That’s not to say that managers and leaders are not valuable and that type of work isn’t needed. They should get paid for their work as well and share in the profits that are made.
I’m still trying to figure out a path, but we probably agree that the corporate and financial structures we have are corrupt. My best thought so far would be to only allow employee-ownership companies. People with great ideas could still start businesses, but the size of the business will be naturally limited by the need to treat everyone hired as a partner rather than employee. Larger teams of talented people might get together and create great wealth for themselves, but it would be for the whole team not just a few and not for Wall Street. This maybe could keep these large corporations from consolidating economic and political power? I’m sure that’s not the ultimate answer and welcome critique. I enjoy thinking about these things, and call me an idealist all you want. I bet we all are or we wouldn’t be so passionate about our ideas. Thanks,
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Rollie, I do not mean to be ad hominem, but your last paragraph concerning employee-ownership is naive. It belies common-sense, and also shows a deep need for research. In order for a business to be viable, it needs capital, to generate sustainability & long term profit.. Employees typically do NOT have capital, nor any personal financial risk. Why should they benefit from capital risk? Increased wages seems equitable to me: work hard, get more.
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Rollie,
Employee owned businesses already exist and have for quite some time now.
Who is stopping people from creating and running employee owned businesses?
“No black person I know feels like all the historic injustice is washed away because there are food stamps and unemployment insurance.”
Why would they, since one cannot change the past.
The laws/policies intended to level the playing field go just a wee bit beyond “food stamps and unemployment insurance.”
Once people whose ancestors were brutally exploited put it all in the context of man’s inhumanity towards each other and every other living thing on planet earth, all happening globally for thousands of years by all races, the idea of trying to un-ring the bell of historical injustice begins to fade and one focuses more on the future and one’s spiritual fitness.
Rollie says:
“I interpret that our system of capitalism (not to say the concept itself, I’m not an economic scholar just a regular guy) works more with the the evil side of human nature (I’m not calling anybody evil!” ~NOPE~
What system works more with our altruistic side?
I linked to one of the 33 five minute video lectures about capitalism from prageru you may find illuminating.
https://www.prageru.com/video/if-you-hate-poverty-you-should-love-capitalism
https://www.prageru.com/search?query=capitalism&page=1&configure%5BhitsPerPage%5D=20
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Sure, I can see that people would see me as naive. I don’t claim to have all the answers unlike most loud voices on the right and left. I wish more people would be ok talking things over and searching instead of acting like all the answers are found already if-only-people-listened-to-me. Our world is totally messed up, so obviously the answers are not here yet and we have to discover them for ourselves the best we can. I think talking to people with different ideas is a good start to that.
I do know employee owned companies exist, my HVAC service company is one – that was my first time thinking about that concept. As far as access to capital, I suppose the banking system would be the place to get it in that situation. Even though I don’t like modern banking and investment practices I don’t advocate eliminating banking or anything.
I don’t know if there is a system that works on altruism. As someone who you can probably tell is very interested in questions of morality that’s something I’ll probably ponder my whole life.
Thanks for the videos, I’ll check them out. I’m not convinced yet that capitalism doesn’t operate on the parts of human nature I’d prefer avoided, but maybe those videos will give more ideas.
I hope I wasn’t too much a bother crashing this blog, but hopefully it was a nice change of pace from preaching to the choir 🙂
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Here is an example of human exploitation over thousands of years right up to today that also explains how whitey ain’t as ugly and depraved as the MSM and demonrats would have people believe.
https://www.prageru.com/video/a-short-history-of-slavery
Please do not hurt me or kidnap my children; I’m just the messenger.
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Definitely slavery has existed in all cultures, but you have to give some props to the Europeans for taking it to a level that generated more capital than the world had ever seen. Perfect storm of technology (boats, guns) and opportunity (new world, new crops like tobacco, an addictive drug / yes lots of colonists were drug growers not unlike Afghan opium farmers).
Not much comfort in “we aren’t the only ones!”
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Nothing you said matters to the enslaved now does it Rollie.
Regarding your last sentence; this is the second or third time you have missed the primary point of one of my comments. Do not have time for obtuse.
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