Blaska is unimpeachable

Posted on January 22, 2020 by

Random short-circuits from Ol’ Sparky

Adam Schiff was powerful in opening the Senate impeachment trial Tuesday (01-21-2020). Give the man his due. Instead of merely arguing the rules of procedures, he used his time to lay out his case, rightly figuring that Day One would be the most-watched day of the trial. The President’s lawyers were caught flat-footed.

His special trick was burrowing so deep into the ant hill that the farm got lost in the maze. Who knew that denying the Ukrainian president a meeting in the White House was an impeachable high crime?

mr-smith-goes-to-washington.3

How about putting that stupid boy’s camp somewhere where they don’t need a dam that will prevent flooding and provide much needed electricity? 

I half expected Mitch McConnell and his lackeys to haul baskets of letters from “low information voters” to the dais condemning Senator Jefferson Smith.

Blaska’s Conspiratorial Bottom Line #1: So far, the only people Lev Parnas has not implicated in the Ukraine imbroglio is the House sergeant at arms and Rachel Maddow’s camera crew.

Mitch McConnell is “crooked” for acknowledging that he is working with the President. At least he’s truthful. In the Orwellian language of The Capital Times: “Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is a crooked senator who admits to coordinating with an impeached president and his cabal of defenders.”

(“Cabal” — “a small group of secret plotters; as against a government or person in authority.” Hmm, that would be the Democrats, would it not?) If you don’t think Chuck Schumer is working with Pelosi’s impeachment managers you are a special sort of naive, stupid, or hypocrite. We’re not ruling out the trifecta!

What you want to bet that when this thing comes to a final vote — God willing and the river don’t rise — a couple Democrats vote to sustain the President? That said, we’ve already O.D.’d on impeachment and so, we suspect, has most of America.

Blaska’s Divisive Bottom Line #2: In this impeachment trial, Senators are forbidden information devices. Are the Senators also sequestered overnight in a Motel 6 on the edge of town?

Is Bill Barr a monk?

The New York City Bar Association is demanding Attorney General William Barr be investigated for political bias. … The New York Times has noted that the attorney general had “reprised his role as a vocal defender of President Trump.”

Seriously? You must be a special kind of naive, stupid, or hypocrite if think JFK appointed his brother Bobby because he wanted an independent attorney general.

Article II, Section 1, Clause 1 of the U.S. Constitution states that “(t)he executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.” “The power is vested not in numerous sources, but solely in the president,” legal counsel at First Liberty Institute observes.

“Perhaps none of these media outlets recall the time when then-Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. famously described himself as President Obama’s ‘wingman.’”

Blaska’s Snarkey Bottom Line #3: Barr stands accused of being a Trump appointee and Adam Schiff can prove it!

The race card is becoming frayed

Jason L. Riley

Jason Riley

Jason L. Riley is one of the essentials, to borrow a term from cable TV’s TCM. He posits that Kamala Harris and Cory Booker are O.U.T. because their campaign resorted to race baiting. Booker supported slavery reparations and called for drug legalization to keep a “racist” criminal justice system from targeting black people. 

Riley writes: “The only reason anyone will even remember that Ms. Harris ran for president is because of her confrontation with Joe Biden over segregation and forced busing during the first Democratic debates.”

This is identity-politics campaigning in the mold of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, and we know how their presidential bids turned out. Moreover, it’s close to the antithesis of how Mr. Obama ran.

But did not govern. (Remember how he scolded white America after the riots in Ferguson, Mo.?) Riley recalls a Gallup poll reporting that 62% of respondents were dissatisfied with the state of race relations in the country in 2015 —up from 40% in 2008. 

Blaska’s Low Information Bottom Line #4: Want to tidy up the public square? Hold a 2nd Amendment rally.

What do YOU think?

Posted in Election 2020, Impeachment | 9 Comments

School cop at West high seizes student’s loaded gun

Posted on January 21, 2020 by

A Madison West High School student was arrested after a loaded gun was found in his backpack, says Madison Police.

Tyrese T. Williams was arrested on Jan. 21 after police say a loaded gun was in his backpack. (Source: Dane Co. Sheriff’s Office)

Police department spokesman Joel DeSpain said a school resource officer was notified Tuesday morning that a student may have a gun in the building.

DeSpain said the gun was found in Tyrese T. Williams’ backpack. The 18-year-old was arrested for possessing a firearm in a school zone.

According to Tim Lemonds, the school district spokesperson, in an interview with NBC15 News: “The way the principal and her team and especially our educational resource officer — the way they were able to respond quickly and isolate this student and make that area safe for other students, to address the issue — was exactly the way we train.”

More from WMTV-15.

15-year-old car thief ‘arrested multiple times’

From the Madison police blotter: 01-18-2020 — Mother Nature assisted in the apprehension of a teen, who is well known to the MPD, Saturday afternoon.

Officers had been sent to Birch Hill Drive (in Meadowood) after a community member noticed a SUV with its rear windows open. It had been that way all night. The witness knows the area to be one where car thieves have dumped vehicles in the past, and saw the situation — in the middle of a Wisconsin winter — as potentially suspicious.

As officers arrived, they saw a 15-year-old near a stolen Honda Pilot.

The teen has been arrested multiple times in the past for offenses like operating a motor vehicle without owner’s consent, entry into locked vehicle, burglary, and battery.

At the moment, the suspect was asking a homeowner, who was out clearing snow from his driveway, if he (the teen) could borrow a scraper to clear the windows of the Pilot. Officers sneaked up on the teen. He tried to run, but did not go far. He was taken to the Juvenile Reception Center.

Officers receive information on a daily basis from the M-P-D’s Criminal Intelligence Section regarding vehicles that are currently stolen that officers should attempt to locate. Currently there are 17 vehicles on what is known as the “Hot Sheet.”

The MPD works hard to find and return vehicles to their owners; however, per MPD policy, officers very infrequently engage in a pursuits out of concern for community safety.

⇒ Dylan Brogan is up on Isthmus with “A rotten semester; Madison school district says it has ‘hit the reset button’ at Jefferson Middle School.”

⇒ What’s the priority of Madison city government? The Common Council tonight (01-21-2020) accepted the report of the Police Policy & Procedure Review ad hoc committee with only Ald. Skidmore voting no.

⇒ Madison’s public schools need a no-nonsense reformer, a wise man writes in The Capital Times.

What do YOU think?

Posted in Uncategorized | 16 Comments

Madison’s war on police on tonight’s agenda

Posted on January 21, 2020 by

It’s all over but the shouting. The Madison Common Council is poised tonight (01-21-2020) to endorse the 180-page (!!!) report of its Police Policy & Procedure Review ad hoc committee. (The Council agenda here.) That committee began picking nits three-plus years ago after the City hired an outside boutique to study Madison police, which in turn followed the fatal police shooting of a young black man, Tony T. Robinson Jr. in 2015.

We blogged it here.

51qqgbyu13l-_ac_us218_The report makes a staggering 177 recommendations. The capstone recommendation has already been budgeted — $200,000/year to create the position of a police “monitor.” That monitor would report to a civilian review board. Monitor and civilian board would compete, it seems here, with the statutorily sanctioned Police & Fire Commission.

Blaska Policy Werkes again warns that monitor and review board will either deal itself endless hands of Solitaire like the Maytag repairman or — this being Madison — hobble police with scores of petty complaints.      

Monitor and review board would have:

  • full access to all MPD records
  • subpoena power
  • investigative powers
  • the authority to make policy recommendations.

That review board would — get this —  be populated  “not only along typical race and gender lines, but also by requiring a critical mass of individuals with lived experiences of the types most salient to police-community relations, including mental illness, drug and alcohol abuse, poverty, and arrest and incarceration experiences.” In other words, Blaska need not apply.

⇒”Troublemakers should sit in review of police.”

Hasn’t worked elsewhere

The report actually admits that “other communities have attempted civilian oversight through an independent auditor and civilian review board, with notably mixed results.” 

Ominously telling is the degree to which Amelia Royko Maurer’s  Community Response Team influenced the final report, even placing one of its few members, Greg Gelembiuk, on the 12-member committee. The Mauer-Gelembiuk special interest group is referenced a whopping 44 times in the report. That group was one of the constituents of the Cops Out of Schools, Derail the Jail efforts, along with Progressive Dane and Freedom Inc. and the local Black Lives Matter franchise.

Is Robert Mueller available?

Another excerpt:

When MPD receives a complaint against the Chief of Police or high-ranking MPD command staff, the Independent Monitor should review the complaint and decide whether an outside investigator should be appointed and produce a transparent public document about that decision-making process. If the PFC receives a complaint against the Chief of Police or high-ranking MPD command staff, it should consider retaining an outside investigator to conduct an independent investigation.

The city should institute protocols calling for a performance evaluation process that includes members of the community, prioritizing socio-economic diversity among those members, for the Chief of Police at fixed intervals, with the evaluation being a potential basis for a finding of “cause” should the Chief’s performance fall significantly below community expectations. This evaluation should not be conducted by the PFC.

The ad hoc committee also suggests encouraging scofflaws not to pay their tickets or fines on annual “Unpaid Ticket Resolution Days.”

What do YOU think?

Posted in Freedom Inc., identity politics, Mike Koval, Progressives, Race, War on Police | 9 Comments

What the hell was going on out there?

Posted on January 20, 2020 by

… in San Francisco (actually Santa Clara) Sunday?

Everybody’s grabbing, no one tackling!

Sunday’s NFC championship game was painful to watch. Not as close as the 37-20 score might indicate years from now. About the 2019 Packers we can only say they may very well have over-achieved. Their 14-4 record (including post-season) was better than they played, meaning next year’s schedule will be tougher, the way the NFL schedules. Their draft position will be worse.

Deflated footballBeyond Davante Adams, who catches passes? Marques Valdes Scantling was last seen on a milk carton. Jake Kumerow gets thrown to only once per outing. Jimmy Graham is no George Kittle. Remember Geronimo Allison? Who is this Sternberger cat? Alan Lazard looks real enough.

The defensive cornerbacks are great and running back Aaron Jones is a load. Did anyone run on B.J. Raji like this Mostert guy did Sunday (01-18-2020)?

How many miles does Aaron Rodgers have left in the tank?

What a waste was general manager Ted Thompson and his horrible drafts. (Justin Harrell?) His refusal to go after free agents wasted Rodgers’ best years. Can’t get out of my head how a truly excellent team blew the 2014 NFC championship game it had won in Seattle in one of the biggest collapses in NFL playoff history. Rodgers’ MVP year. Capped off when an idiot named Brandon Bostick, instead of blocking like he was supposed to, tried to catch the Seahawks’ desperation on-side kick intended for Jordy Nelson’s sure hands.

At this point, the Packers’ most valuable players are head coach Matt LaFleur and general manager Brian Gutekunst, who eschewed fan sentiment and allowed used-up Clay Matthews and Mike Daniels to walk in favor of the Jones “brothers.” 

Couch Coach Blaska’s playbook: Packers’ greatest need? Another Jordy Nelson. And a capable, experienced backup at QB just in case. Another Ray Nitschke wouldn’t hurt, either. Can coaches even bark at players any more?

What do Monday morning QBs think?

Posted in Uncategorized | 10 Comments

Shame is a many splendored thing

Posted on January 19, 2020 by

‘Senate Republicans are bathed in shame’

 Or, so writes New York Times columnist Frank Bruni.

How in God’s name — and it was in God’s name — can the Republicans who have already decided to acquit President Trump take a solemn oath to administer “impartial justice”? They’re partial to the core, unabashedly so …

Mitch is bathed

Whereupon Bruni unleashes the dogs of Stalinist invective:

The majority of the party’s senators have said outright or clearly signaled that they have no intention of finding the president guilty and removing him from office. Yapping lap dogs like Lindsey Graham and obedient manservants like Mitch McConnell …

Not even Frank Bruni can ignore his own hypocrisy:

Democrats, too, have made up their minds, and that would be equally upsetting but for the mountain of actual evidence on which their judgment rests.

Oh, well, THEN! If you say so. No bias there! Except that … 

Ukraine really IS corrupt 

And shameless. Elsewhere, the NY Times acknowledges:

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky needs to demonstrate to Ukraine’s Western creditors that he is serious about prosecuting large-scale fraud in order to secure billions of dollars in sorely needed loans from the International Monetary Fund. In the impeachment proceedings in Washington, Ukraine has been tarnished by corruption accusations by Republicans and Democrats alike.

Perhaps Mr. Zelensky’s biggest challenge lies with his erstwhile patron, Ihor Kolomoisky … the man [the first deputy governor of Ukraine’s central bank] believes is responsible for trying to intimidate her and her colleagues. … Mr. Kolomoisky advanced Mr. Zelensky’s career by putting “Servant of the People” on his TV channel. …

The new prosecutor general … [has] not brought such charges against Mr. Kolomoisky. That has led to accusations that Mr. Zelensky is giving his media ally and former business partner special treatment. 

For shame, Democrats

U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, voted with the late John McCain to uphold ObamaCare and voted against impeaching Bill Clinton. But she voted to confirm Brett Kavanaugh — at her peril.

That confirmation vote … generated millions of dollars in donations to be used against her and a lengthy period of harassment and intimidation by critics, including numerous death threats. There were so many hostile calls targeting her that a 25-year-old employee in one of her Maine offices quit. One day, her husband texted Ms. Collins a photo of himself in a hazmat suit; someone had sent a threatening letter to their Maine home — where protesters gathered eight Sundays in a row — that claimed to contain ricin. (More here.)

Have the Bidens no shame?

The U.S. Senate can only act on the impeachment articles forwarded it by the House. Those articles are impossibly vague and allege no crime. President Trump’s call to Zelensky was far from “perfect.” Asking for an announcement rather than an actual investigation into the Bidens’ corruption is damnable. (If you really want something of value, the Bidens raked it in.) But that’s not enough there, there, to end Trump’s presidency.

Blaska’s Bottom Line: If Republicans should recuse, so should Chuck Schumer and the four Democrats running against Trump.

 

What do YOU think?

Posted in Impeachment | 8 Comments

Trump stumbles to victory

Posted on January 18, 2020 by

‘Few thought it possible’

Trump you're firedA truism of the mainstream news media: If you are forced to admit that Donald Trump may have succeeded, you must attribute it to pure, feckless happenstance. Because all right-thinking progressives know — it is received wisdom — that Donald Trump is a dunderhead, remote-controlled by Vladimir Putin. Given to wild mood swings. Hears voices. Tweets.

Rather than give credit, a news analysis in The Atlantic brays:

“Donald Trump stumbles into
a foreign-policy triumph”

Notice how The Atlantic sprinkles ants on Trump’s picnic table in this sentence:

Although Trump’s foreign-policy strategy (if one even accepts that there is such a thing) has many limits, his unpredictability and, most critically, his willingness to escalate a crisis using the United States’ military and economic strength, has turned the tables on Iran in a way few thought possible.

Certainly, no one on a Democrat(ic) debate stage thought possible!

When the Ayatollah lays a big American flag down on Iranian pavement and its citizens respectfully refuse to desecrate it, that’s pretty much proof the strike on Soleimani was a master stroke, a game changer. 

 

Gosh, Beav, we can’t kill the guy that is killing Americans and indigenous freedom fighters throughout the Middle East! His country might get mad at us. The Washington Times inventoried some of the chicken littles: 

  • “Is the U.S. headed for World War III?” (McClatchy News)
  • “Five places World War III could start in 2020” (The National Interest)
  • “People are debating whether it’s OK to joke about World War 3” (The Independent).
  • “Will Americans let Trump start World War III?” (Salon)

This president doesn’t bow and scrape

The Atlantic admits that “The air strike that killed Qassem Soleimani was a reminder that the U.S. remains the one indispensable global superpower. Iran, or indeed anyone else, simply cannot respond in kind.” Must have been pure luck.

The president’s erratic behavior might be doing something else as well, something even more fundamental. Through a combination of instinct, temperament, and capriciousness, Trump may be reminding the world of the reality of international relations: Raw military and economic power still matter more than anything else — so long as those who hold them are prepared to use them. [Barack Obama. Joe Biden]

Whether by accident or design, Trump creates chances to solve long-running international problems that a conventional leader would not.

Trump Heights

  • Like making prosperous Europe live up to their NATO defense obligations.
  • Like fulfilling an old American promise to move our embassy to Jerusalem.
  • Like cutting off aid to countries that oppose us.
  • Like reckoning with China and getting a better trade deal. 

Indeed, rather than defend Obama/Biden’s Iranian-bound cargo planeload of cash, Boris Johnson is now calling for a new ‘Trump deal.”

Blaska’s Bottom Line — It is better to be lucky than good but no one can be Trump lucky without being pretty damn good. The problem with previous leaders wasn’t that they weren’t lucky. They were too conventional. Then again, so are the commentariat. Which is why “few thought it possible.”

What do YOU think?

Posted in Donald Trump, Iran Middle East, Uncategorized | 6 Comments