Author Archives: dave cieslewicz

Yesterday, Milwaukee’s new mayor Cavalier Johnson announced a comprehensive plan to reduce gun violence and reckless driving in his city. Over 200 people were murdered in Milwaukee last year and 65 were killed as a result of traffic crashes. One of Johnson’s initiatives is to maintain Milwaukee’s current police staffing strength. That’s important because 180Continue reading “Madison Needs More Black People”

If Pres. Joe Biden and Vice Pres. Kamala Harris went down to Georgia yesterday to shoot themselves in the foot, well, mission accomplished. They can hobble around Washington now because they came back weaker than when they left. The campaign swing through Georgia was designed to show their base that the administration is fired upContinue reading “The Voting Rights Mess”

On the merits of the case, it’s a close call. On the politics it’s a no-brainer. I’d go with the politics. I speak here of decisions to open schools or force teaching online due to the latest virus surge. The decision pits parents (also known as voters) against teachers unions (also known as THE sacredContinue reading “Open the Schools”

Yesterday Ron Johnson announced his candidacy for reelection. Did he make his announcement in Wisconsin or in his hometown newspaper at least? Nope. He announced on the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal — while decrying “the mainstream media.” Johnson has a way of saying things he doesn’t actually believe. For example, shortly afterContinue reading “RoJo, Annotated”

Good Sunday morning. Baby, it’s cold outside. This week we’re going to hear from one of our favorite center-right (but center-left outside of New York or Madison) columnists, David Brooks. I thought Brooks did an exceptionally good job analyzing the Democrats’ voting rights bill. It has no chance of passage, but even if it didContinue reading “Dems Misunderstand the Threat”

Press reports this morning indicate that Sen. Ron Johnson will announce his bid for a third term next week. This doesn’t surprise me… though if he had decided to hang it up, that wouldn’t have surprised me either. Truth is, I had no idea what the guy was going to do. Johnson is the oddestContinue reading “Beware Ron Johnson”

Aaron Rodgers will almost certainly win most valuable player honors in the NFL again this season. He will win, but should he? That question was raised by one the 50 sports writers who will vote on that decision at season’s end. Hub Arkush called Rodgers “the biggest jerk in the league” and vowed not toContinue reading “Should Rodgers Be MVP?”

It feels like we’re in the interim, a tense time when we’re waiting to see what happens next. January 6, 2021 was one of those days when people needed to stand up and be counted. It was like December 7, 1941. Leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor there was a robust isolationist movementContinue reading “1/6/21 – 11/5/24”

Well, so much for that. Despite our repeated urgings here at YSDA, few candidates have stepped up to run for Madison School Board. At yesterday’s filing deadline only four candidates had filed to run for three seats. That means two seats will go uncontested. Four other board seats are not up this year. Board PresidentContinue reading “Disappointing School Races”

Last week I listed my 10 favorite books of 2021, but I didn’t count local writers in that list. Over the course of the next month, I’ll look deeper at a handful of books by Wisconsin writers that I enjoyed last year. Let’s start today with Dead Lines by George Hesselberg. One advantage of havingContinue reading “Last Words”