Lori Lightfoot is the ultimate victim

Posted on March 2, 2023 by David Blaska

of voters unaccustomed to feeling the touch of violence!

The entire liberal, progressive, Woke enterprise can be understood as an oceans-deep trawl for victims. To the original victim class, black folk, the Linnaeus classification has been enlarged to include every woman — no longer do we hear them roar! Taxpayer-subsidized college students also wear the victim’s sackcloth (designer tho it be).

Father, forgive their debt, for they have borrowed.

We’re old enough to remember singing “We Shall Overcome.” Today’s cadres sing “We Shall BE Overcome.” Victimhood conveys status and 15 minutes on the bullhorn at the street rally. Just ask Jussie Smollett and Madison’s own Althea Bernstein.

So it came to pass that the mayor of America’s third-largest city is (fanfare please!) a victim! Lori Lightfoot is black, female, gay — and DEFEATED! By the cis-gendered white male establishment! The city that overwhelmingly elected the lady four years ago, gave her every precinct, is (it can now be revealed) MAGA country just like Juicy Smo-lee-ay said all along!  Lightfoot plays the race card face up to an appreciative Charles Blow in the New York Times: 

Lightfoot told me she understood that as a woman and as a person of color, “I’m always going to be viewed through a different lens.”

Paul Vallas, who led a nine-candidate field with 34% of the vote, ran a tough-on-crime campaign and promised to “take back our city.” Lightfoot called the remark “the ultimate dog whistle,” proving again that the lady has fleas.

“You’ve got the only white candidate in the race who’s acting like he’s going to be a great white savior on public safety.”

— Charles Blow, New York Times

Only racists fear flying bullets

Stir your cafe au lait over this statement from Lori Light in the Foot: “People who are not used to feeling the touch of violence, particularly people on the North Side [Now THERE is a dog whistle!] of our city, they are buying what [Vallas] is selling.” Get it?! Its their fault that, under her watch, homicides in Chicago rose to their highest numbers in 25 years. 

Lori, if you want to play the race card, play it for the victims, 75.3% of whom were black (as were 70.5% of offenders).

Blow asks: “Are black mayors too quickly and easily blamed for rising crime, and if so, why? Because of an unwillingness to crack down on criminals or because of a more insidious, latent belief in ineffectual black leadership in times of crisis?” (Guessing voters who elected Eric Adams mayor of New York City would choose the “crack down on criminals” option.)

→ All 8 of Lightfoot’s challengers vowed to fire the police superintendent. Today, he quit. (Read & Cheer!)

Blaska’s Bottom Line: The progressive, big gummint enterprise needs victims as its feedstock. As Barack Obama lectured, You Did Not Build That. Big Gummint did. Sure enough, John Nichols is flacking for a “savvy” Chicago teachers union organizer who promises to tax the remaining billionaires out of town and further defund police. 

When will YOU get used to feeling the touch of violence?

Posted in Crime, Critical Race Theory / Identity politics, Uncategorized | Tagged | 24 Comments

Will Mayor Satya go down like Lori Lightfoot in Chicago?

Posted on March 1, 2023 by David Blaska

Only if Gloria Reyes fires her cruise missiles!

Gloria Reyes should permit herself a sip of Prosecco today (preferably after 4 p.m.) before vowing to go all Bakhmut on Mayor Satya Rhodes Conway.

Because Lori Lightfoot lost her bid for re-election as mayor of Chicago Tuesday 02-28-23 BIG-TIME with only 17% of the vote. That tells the Madison mayoral challenger she’s still got a chance. Gloria (G.L.O.R.I.A. GLORIA!) badly trailed Mayor Satya in Madison’s own 02-21-23 primary, 28% to 60%. But she’s still got an F-16 fighter jet waiting in the hangar, if she chooses to deploy it. That being: CRIME! Public Safety! Safe neighborhoods! The ultimate Equity and Equality issue!

Crime is the issue that nuked Lori Lightfoot in Chi-town. It’s got to be a better issue than Satya’s Indy 500 buses.

Reyes is a former cop and school board president. One of the victors in Chicago is Paul Vallas, who ran its public schools. He ran on a pro-police, tough-on-crime message. But he must overcome the other primary election survivor, Brandon Johnson, on April 4. Johnson is backed by the disruptive Chicago Teachers Union. Vallas took 35% of the vote; Johnson 20%.

Vallas “has called for adding hundreds of police officers to patrol the city, saying crime is out of control and morale among officers sunk to a new low during Lightfoot’s tenure.”  

It’s a trend, albeit one that Madison WI could well buck. Eric Adams won by emphasizing public safety in New York City. San Francisco recalled soft-on-crime district attorney Chesa Boudin (but failed in Los Angeles). 

Reyes is endorsed by Sheriff Kalvin Barrett, former Madison police chiefs Noble Wray and David Couper, and former UW top cop Sue Riseling. Add to that moderate alders Sheri Carter, Barbara Harrington McKinney, and candidate Ike Knox, who are endorsed by the Madison Area Safety Connection.  

Reyes should publicly endorse police body cameras — an issue that seems to frighten Satya into muteness.
  • Too much “Equity & Justice” has resulted in less “Safety for All.”
  • Three of these — Jael Currie, Juliana Bennett, and Nikki Conklin (upper right) were elected in 2021. All 3 endorse Satya.

Reyes also gets the nod from Nino Amato, who is trying to unseat cop-hater Nikki Conklin in aldermanic district #9. (District Nine, District Nine, District Nine …)

Conklin votes against all things police, even body cameras and federal grant money to help police. At election time, Conklin pretends to be policing’s best friend. But who do we see on this “Defund the Police” campaign mailer from a third-party advocacy group two years ago: That’s right! Nikki Conklin!

Who does Nikki Conklin endorse? That’s right! Satya Rhodes Conway. So do Cop Defunders Jael Currie and Juliana Bennett!

Blaska’s Bottom Line: If Gloria Reyes is smarter than the average bear, she will form a coalition of like-minded candidates for a unified message and outreach.

Cops or buses?

Posted in Crime, Election 2023, Madison city government, Satya Rhodes-Conway, Uncategorized | 27 Comments

The science is settled (again)!

Posted on February 27, 2023 by David Blaska

Until it isn’t.

We were told the science was settled. (And that we could play our radio at a reasonable volume.)

• The U.S. Department of Energy has concluded that Covid-19 probably did, after all, originate at a Chinese lab in Wuhan. Wooo hooo! 

• After reviewing 65 studies, The Lancet medical journal concludes that immunization caused by prior infection is at least as good as two doses of mRNA vaccines. (“Three years late!“)

• Now for your platinum subscriber bonus: masks do little good! 

• Only for you platinum+  plus subscribers (invisible to everyone else!): Closing schools did more harm than good.  

The Werkes has its own baseball pitch/basketball shot clock. We try to keep each individually wrapped blogge to 600 words or fewer. This one is 517 words.

Democracy dies in Groupthink

More disturbing is the groupthink capitulation of the news media to experts. Yes, quote them. But don’t canonize them! Time was when news reporters were a skeptical bunch — cynics like the Front Page’s Hildy Johnson. If the candidate says his mother loves him, check with the mother. (Did George Santos even have a mother?)

“As late as May 2021, the New York Times’ science and health reporter … was calling any mention of the lab theory as “racist.” She embodies the model of the new “advocacy journalism” at the Times, law prof Jonathan Turley reports.

When Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) suggested a lab leak and raised doubts about Beijing’s claim that it had originated in an animal wet market, the media conformity caucus immediately derided Mr. Cotton for peddling a “conspiracy theory” that had been “debunked,” as the Washington Post put it at the time.

— Wall Street Journal

→ Someone tell the Pointy-Haired Boss! Last week’s Rasmussen Reports survey finds that 53% of black people agree “It’s OK to be white.” What’s up with the other 47%? At least 66% agreed that “black people can be racist, too.” (More here.)

‘Wisconsin values’

John Nichols defends a certain candidate for WI Supreme Court for “speaking frankly about her Wisconsin values.” Those values being, abortion up to and during birth, reversing court decisions upholding legislative district maps, vetoing Act 10 from the bench, killing school choice, restricting the 2nd Amendment, and riding the left’s “bail reform” bandwagon. (Janet Protasiewicz gave no jail time to rapist who abducted teenager. Read & Weep.)

We’re talking more than over-arching judicial philosophy. State AG Josh Kaul filed a lawsuit in June 2022 that WILL get to the state supreme court.

Wisconsin Eye reports “State and national Planned Parenthood political groups say they expect to spend in the seven figures to support Protasiewicz.” Check out how Comrade Nichols decries “out of state money” and judicial activism when the court candidate was Brian Hagedorn. Irony is, Hagedorn has kept his promise to rule on the law and not legislate from the bench. Even ruled against Tr•mp.

Blaska’s Bottom Line: “Nothing Protasiewicz was saying was radical,” John Nichols avers. Odd getting lectured on Wisconsin values from a socialist, Madison-based Bernie Sanders publicist.

If YOU value judicial independence
do you admire Justice Hagedorn?

Posted in Coronavirus, Election 2023, Race, Uncategorized | 16 Comments

The great Republican shake out

Posted on February 26, 2023 by David Blaska

Out with ‘The Establishment’

Three counties contribute the most Republican votes statewide: Waukesha, Milwaukee, and Dane (in that order). All three are in the throes of The Great Republican Shake Out. That happens after a disappointing election, and 2022 was a disappointment here and nationally.

Grabins, Maly

Here in Dane County, two relative newcomers who ran as a ticket have taken over as chairman and vice chairman. Brandon Maly, a slight 23-year-old with one year of experience in Dane County, defeated the chairman of the county Republican party for the last 10 years, Scott Grabins. 275 to 133. Running for vice chair, Chrissi Illgen (active here since 2009) defeated Rolf Lindgren, an awarded party volunteer, 290 to 116. Not even close.

“What’s going on?” Jessica McBride asks. She is co-editor of Wisconsin Right Now. “Some convulsions and change are good when times call for new innovations … but I would say everyone should set aside their internecine feuding for a month.”

The stakes are high: control of the state supreme court in April and unity for the national GOP convention in July 2024.

Put the blame on Dane, boys

Dane County is being blamed for the party’s loss to Gov. Tony Evers. Tim Michels got only 20.7% of the Dane County vote. Evers emerged from Dane County with a 174,277-vote head of steam. Hard to make that up in Forest County. Ron Johnson, by contrast, campaigned here and got 6,000 more votes, helping him win statewide. (Much of it engineered by Brian Schimming, which paved his elevation to state chairman.)

Same story in Waukesha county. Michels emerged from that Republican powerhouse with a margin of votes 22,000 fewer compared with Walker/Kleefisch in 2018. In a state senate district that included parts of all three WOW countries surrounding Milwaukee, Scott Walker won by 20.5 points but Michels carried it by only 4 points.

Back in Dane County, Maly and Illgen recruited maybe 200 new members requiring the annual party caucus to be moved to larger quarters at the Marriott convention center in Middleton — same venue as the state party convention a year ago. Many of those new members looked to be college-age. The young duo put on a well financed campaign; they even mailed full-color campaign cards to members. (Illgen did give the best speech of many fine speeches. If you do politics, you listen to speeches.)

Kewl!

Whereas past leadership had day jobs, young Brandon Maly is, in effect, a full-time political organizer. He’s paid by Turning Point USA, founded ten years ago by wunderkind Charlie Kirk to rally conservatives on college campuses. Kirk has become a national superstar and confidante of the Trump family. Politico calls Turning Point USA, the largest, wealthiest student group in the country and Kirk “the frat-boy handsome fundraising savant who has made it his mission to make the GOP cool.”

Unfortunately, Kirk is a virulent election denier. TPUSA sent 80 busloads of kids to Trump’s 01-06-21 rally. The group crosses swords with Scott Walker’s Young America’s Foundation. Kirk tried to unseat Ronna McDaniel as chair of the national GOP earlier this month but failed. All three Wisconsin delegates voted for the incumbent.

Turning Point USA also claimed another scalp in Milwaukee County. There, Republicans went with a 22 year-old. Hilario DeLeon succeeds longtime chair David Karst (who did not seek re-election). McBride reports a “coup” going on in Waukesha County to unseat chairman Terry Dittrich. That caucus was also scheduled Saturday 02-25-23 but a last-minute legal challenge derailed it. 

Blaska’s Bottom Line: Tim Michels’ backers needed a scapegoat and found him in Scott Grabins, who has built the Dane County party the strongest this dues-payer has seen in 32 years. Hard feelings is the day-after residue among many of the Grabins/Lindgren supporters to what amounts to a hostile take-over. How much and how long, you tell us.

Mr. Maly and Ms. Illgen promised Saturday to get Republicans 30% of the total vote as compared to an average 23% in the November mid-terms. The two conservative candidates for supreme court got only 17.3% combined Tuesday 02-21-23. It’s probably unfair to see what the two new guys can do in just five weeks.

But then, when is politics ever fair?

Posted in Republicans, Uncategorized | Tagged | 9 Comments

Funnier than Night Court

Posted on February 23, 2023 by David Blaska

Judge Judy in the sky with diamonds

We live in strange times. The Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives turns over security footage taken of the J/6 insurrection to a cable TV entertainer. The foreperson of a grand jury investigating Donald Tr•mp works the news talk shows like a starlet flogging her latest Netflix release.

"Love is kinda crazy with a spooky little girl like you"

The last time a grand jury foreman did a sit-down interview was never. Grand juries are secret for a reason. Worse, the young lady comes across as a ditz. A flibbertigibbet. Evicted from the trailer park. We learn that Ms. Emily Kohrs held a Ninja Turtle popsicle while swearing in a witness. Not exactly Martin Balsam playing Juror #1 on Twelve Angry Men. If this is whom they chose as foreman, the jurors must have resembled the cast of Lil Abner.

Is Madison next?

Woke cities across the nation are using federal pandemic funds to pay reparations. Providence RI is in for $10 million in pandemic relief. San Francisco reparationists demand $5 million per eligible black resident. The State of California’s reparations task force has presented a bill for $569 billion. Never mind that slavery was never legal there.

Boston reparations will cover not just slavery but more “recent” housing and economic inequities, law professor Jonathan Turley reports. 

In the U.S. Senate, Cory Booker introduced a new federal reparations bill that would create a new federal commission similar to those of states like California. It is supported by Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI).

Madison alders will consider enacting “a truth and reconciliation process.” Sponsoring Ald. Brian Benford says it would “address past wrongs” and “acknowledge the horrific racial disparities within our midst.” (His proposal here.)

Incompetent hires killed Tyre

Heather Mac Donald makes the case that the war on cops killed Tyre Nichols in Memphis. 

The Nichols beating is not the product of racism; it is the tragic culmination of the very narrative being offered to explain that beating. The idea that policing is racist, both in its treatment of black suspects and in its hiring of black officers, has led to manpower loss, a lowering of standards, and a drop in proactive enforcement. The resulting increase in crime then puts more downward pressure on hiring standards in order to try to replenish the depleted ranks. Unable to compensate for officer attrition, police departments are left without enough well-trained sergeants and lieutenants to supervise officers who maybe should never have been hired in the first place.

— “What killed Tyre Nichols?“

Blaska’s Bottom Line: Another example of the Left news media “Republicans pounce” syndrome, from CNN: “GOP sees vulnerability for Democrats in wake of toxic train wreck”

Did Georgia’s case against Tr•mp just go POOF?

Posted in Donald Trump, election challenges, Uncategorized, War on Police | 28 Comments

Trump takes more lumps in Wisconsin nice

Posted on February 22, 2023 by David Blaska

In Tuesday’s primary election.

The Blaska Policy Werkes decision desk was right on the money predicting Tr•mp-endorsed election denier Janel Brandtjen would lose big to Speaker Robin Vos’s man for state senate in suburban Milwaukee. We had it at Dan Knodl 60%, Brandtjen 30%, Van Mobley 10%. Final score was 57% to 28% to 15%. Must be a lot of RINOs in Waukesha, Washington, and Ozaukee counties!

Forecasting liberal Milwaukee judge Janet Protasiewicz to win Tuesday’s primary was a no-brainer. (Our specialty!) We wrongly predicted Jennifer Dorow would also emerge from the four-way (sounds like a 1970s porno) but the Waukesha judge lost to conservative nominee Dan Kelly, who got our vote. More concerning, adding votes of the two liberals totals 53.9% of the total statewide vote.

Protasiewicz and hometown judge Everett Mitchell ran up the score in Dane County, getting 82.7% of the vote. Our county votes heavily and gave the two liberals a 91,527 vote head of steam over the two conservatives. If Kelly loses on April 4, Republicans who gave us Tim Michels will blame Dane County but not Kelly’s tie-in to Tr•mp.

There’s hope for Madison WI!

Satya Rhodes Conway blew away the field for Madison mayor, besting Gloria Reyes and Scott Kerr 60% to 28% to 12%. We predicted 48% to 42% Reyes over Mayor Satya. That’s a real surprise! (!!!) Especially since Reyes won a who’s who of local endorsees. Got to think G.L.O.R.I.A. (GLORIA!) will find it more difficult to raise the oodles it will take to overcome Mayor Satya. For Common Council, five of the six Madison aldermanic candidates Madison Safety Council endorsed survived Tuesday’s winnowing. 

• But Colin Barushok faces an uphill battle in the UW campus-dominated District #2, losing 71% to 22% to incumbent radical Juliana Bennett. 

• Former alder Paul Skidmore was eliminated in District 9. If Nino Amato can marry his 28% to Paul’s 22% they can bring down incumbent cop-hater Nikki Conklin, who took an even 50%.

• Although Ald. Sheri Carter was redistricted into District 10, her 54% looks good against Woke incumbent Yannette Figueroa Cole’s 38%. 

• In open District 12, pro-safety Amari Latimer Burris is within striking distance of Julia Matthews, 31% to 34%. Interim alder Barbara Vedder did not run.

• In #14, Ike Knox posted a strong 41% of the vote against the survivor of that three-way, Noah Lieberman, at 30%. That’s Sheri Carter’s old district.

• Barbara Harrington McKinney is another pro-safety alder redistricted to new territory. She posted 40% to incumbent Matt Phair’s 41%. 

George Orwell, call your office

Pecksniffs are laundering Roald Dahl’s children books to expurgate words of un-Wokeness. The author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is being bowdlerized. In solidarity with Dahl, Dr. Seuss, and Mark Twain, Blaska is going back over his last thousand blogges to amp up the offensive triggering. 

Devil in the details

Flush with play money, WI Gov. Tony Evers wants to mandate 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave benefits for public and private sector workers alike.

Minnesota Democrats are considering a similar program. “As with any “free” money offer, the proposal enjoys broad popular support,” a Minnesota think thank found. However, no one knows how much this new benefit will cost taxpayers and employers. Estimates of just the start up costs exceed $2 billion, and the program will require more than 300 additional bureaucrats to administer, the American Experiment said.

More fools’ gold

Roger Stone/Sidney Powell/Pillow Man zombies rejoice the imminent arrival of  the Rapture! Kevin McCarthy is giving Fox News host Tucker Carlson access to all of the US Capitol security footage from January 6, according to CNN. (But what do they know?)

Friar Tuck will finally validate the Trumpbot theory that Nancy Pelosi held open the doors to the Capitol on J/6 but forgot to tell Ashli Babbitt. If that were anything more than a wet dream, wouldn’t the Speaker hold a press conference and announce it himself? Big news! New sheriff in town! and all that?

Meantime, the Proud Boys want to subpoena Tr•mp to testify that he ordered them to storm the Capitol on J/6. Watch him hide behind executive privilege.

Blaska’s Bottom Line: Instead, the Speaker is telling Tucker: You want the video? You can have it! If you can find evidence of the greatest conspiracy since the faked moon shot, be my guest! Your failure will be on you, not me.

Do RINOs vote?

Posted in cancel culture, Election 2023, election challenges, Gerrymandering, Madison city government, Uncategorized | 17 Comments