Author Archives: dave cieslewicz

Yesterday Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Machado stopped by the White House to drop off her Nobel Peace Prize for Donald Trump. The Nobel people said that the prize was non-transferable. What they didn’t say was what they meant: that they wish they had never given it to a nut like Machado in the first place.Continue reading “Trump Now Accepting All Trophies”

What’s going on in Minneapolis right now — and less dramatically across the rest of the country — is the very face of the Trump Administration. This is exactly who these people are. Masked men in fatigues carrying overpowered weapons dragging people from their cars. Demanding to see their papers like Gestapo agents at GermanContinue reading “Trump’s Thugocracy”

In my last blog I made the assertion, quoting the center-right columnist and editor Jonah Goldberg, that the rich were already paying their fair share in taxes. Goldberg claimed that the top 10% of income tax filers paid three-quarters of federal income taxes. An alert reader took issue with my overall assertion and provided dataContinue reading “More Redistribution Needed?”

One line from Zohran Mamdani’s inaugural address from a couple of weeks ago has been getting a lot of attention. It goes like this: “We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism.”  Does he mean the communal warmth of Stalin’s work camps in Siberia? Or maybe he means the literalContinue reading “In Defense of Rugged Individualism”

I’m one of about three Americans who hasn’t rushed to judgement on the shooting of Renee Good by an ICE officer in Minneapolis. The other two are expected to emerge from their comas soon and will pass judgement some moments later. What I have are a lot of questions and zero faith that this JusticeContinue reading “Don’t Trust the FBI”

I guess it’s better than nothing. I had expected that, per usual, the two incumbents up for reelection to the Madison School Board would face no opposition. So, I was pleasantly surprised that both Blair Mosner-Feltham and Nikki Vander Meulen will have opponents. The trouble is that their opponents are not raising the issues thatContinue reading “Some Choice For Madison School Board”

The field for the Democratic nomination for Wisconsin governor is set and it’s lacking a key ingredient. There is no one looking to occupy the moderate lane. What we’ve got are six candidates cramming into the main liberal-activist lane, one candidate looking to be the Badger Mamdani and one candidate who has a sailboat inContinue reading “Where’s the Moderate in Dem Primary?”

Only fools try to predict the future. Okay, so let’s get started then. This should be a good year for Democrats. Not because anybody is excited about them (the party’s approval ratings are at an all-time low), but because it’s a mid-term election with an unpopular Republican in the White House. Moreover, people continue toContinue reading “Will Blue Collar Voters Be Back in Play?”

This year I was in despair. For the first time in years I couldn’t come up with enough material to fill my annual list of words and phrases that are so over-used or pretentious that I want them destroyed. But then I asked Isthmus staff for suggestions and associate editor Linda Falkenstein came through withContinue reading “These Words Must Be Destroyed”

I write this morning from a place I wasn’t supposed to be at. For the second time in about a month a blizzard tore through the Upper Peninsula, shut down the power to our cabin and threatened our plumbing. So, for the second time in a month I hopped in the car and drove theContinue reading “Closing Out the Year in the Cold”