Author Archives: dave cieslewicz

Emmanuel Macron has been an excellent leader of France. To quote the New York Times, “Economic reforms during his presidency have led to a sharp drop in unemployment. Job creation and foreign investment have surged. The French tech sector has grown exponentially.” They say the French work to live while Americans live to work. IContinue reading “Anybody Feel Sorry For The French?”

Doug La Follette left public office in the same way he held it: strangely.  La Follette resigned last week without warning, after just being reelected to yet another four-year term as Wisconsin’s secretary of state last November. He offered no real explanation and Gov. Tony Evers responded by immediately appointing former State Treasurer Sarah GodlewskiContinue reading “La Follette Leaves Question Marks”

Pres. Joe Biden’s first veto speaks awful volumes about the current state of the Democratic Party. The topic at hand may seem like an arcane issue. It’s called ESG. That stands for Environment, Social and Governance. As applied to investments, it means that money managers can take these things into account when making decisions. ThatContinue reading “ESG: Not For Me”

Why are liberals so unhappy? In a March 9th oped in the New York Times, David Brooks tries to understand why studies show that liberals are much less happy than conservatives. He has three theories. First, liberals tend to over-react, to see every bad thing as not just bad, but as the end of theContinue reading “It’s My Fault, It’s My Success”

Early voting started in Madison yesterday and we’ve gotten reports of voters showing up at their voting site, staring blankly at the ballot, and mumbling, “what would YSDA do?” Because we want to speed up the voting process for everyone, as a public service we’re offering our recommendations below. Feel free to take this toContinue reading “YSDA Ballot Recommendations”

The school district is the most important institution in Madison. Yet, the “race” for the one contested seat on the seven-member board has been, to be charitable, somewhat low-profile. Two people have stepped up to run for Seat 6, Badri Lankella and Blair Mosner Feltham. Anyone who comes forward to offer to do these difficult,Continue reading “Badri Lankella For School Board”

Downtown Madison is in for a big change. The Evers administration is proposing the sale of GEF 2 and GEF 3 on Webster Street, and the old State Office Building that houses the Department of Human Services’ central office at 1 West Wilson St. If it happens it would represent a dramatic, historic reduction inContinue reading “A New Downtown”

I’ve been watching a lot of basketball this weekend. I like to watch the tournament on my iPad because it’s easy to swipe between games. Also, I avoid the big screen because Dianne finds the whole thing annoying, especially the guys on the analysis shows during the breaks. Me, I love Charles Barkley! In fact,Continue reading “All The Way With Marquette”

I like Joe Biden. I think he’s been a fine president. And I wish he wouldn’t run again. The problem can be summed up in one word: age. Biden has had stubbornly low approval ratings for most of his term, despite tremendous legislative successes in a split Congress, despite a resilient economy and despite slowlyContinue reading “Drop Kamala Harris”

I’ve emerged from my daily eight hour darkness retreat to find the Packers still trying to come up with a deal with the Jets for Aaron Rodgers. My advice: take anything you can get and move on. The YSDA Sports Bureau up on the 39th floor has put together the following observations on the RodgersContinue reading “Get What You Can for Rodgers”