Author Archives: dave cieslewicz

On the surface it looks like a win for Democrats, so why are they rejecting it? A few weeks ago Assembly Speaker Robin Vos shocked everybody by suddenly endorsing something he’s fought for almost two decades. Vos introduced a bill that would adopt what is essentially the nonpartisan redistricting process that has been used inContinue reading “Fair Maps Rely On Fair People”

Welcome to Monday. I spent yesterday doing something I enjoy (splitting and stacking firewood) while doing something unpleasant (listening to the Packers-Vikings game). Speaking of Minnesota, in 1968 a little known pol from that state toppled a sitting president because of his showing in the New Hampshire primary. Could it happen again next year? Rep.Continue reading “Is Dean the Gene of 2024?”

This week’s quote goes to New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy who, according to a story in the New York Times, Tweeted (sorry, Xed): “Seriously? We can’t let kids celebrate Halloween? Give me a break.” A) A decision by a New Jersey school district to ban the celebration of Halloween in its schools due to diversity,Continue reading “The Quote & Quiz for 10/27/23”

Part of me is relieved that House Republicans finally got their dysfunctional caucus functioning well enough to elect a new Speaker. The other part of me laments that it’s a radical conservative. Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana was instrumental in working behind the scenes against certification of the free and fair 2020 election. In normalContinue reading “What Did GOP Moderates Get?”

Here’s pretty much all you need to know. Wisconsin’s school choice programs were started in 1991 by then-Gov. Tommy Thompson. The initial program had 337 students. Today the expanded programs have a total of 42,000 students. Those are votes just as clear as any vote cast in a ballot box. Tens of thousands of WisconsinContinue reading “Choice Is Not a Cancer”

Here’s something you might not expect. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr,’s independent bid for president hurts Donald Trump more than Joe Biden. That’s the conclusion of a new poll conducted by USA Today. In fact, Kennedy, who gets 13% in the poll, gets two-thirds of his support from voters who would vote for Trump if RFKContinue reading “RFK Jr. Hurts Trump”

Happy Monday. Well, as happy as any Monday can be. We’ve been appropriately focussed mostly on the Middle East over the last couple of weeks. So, today let’s catch up on a bunch of stories that have developed over that time. Billionaires win again. As predicted, the billionaire owners of the Milwaukee Brewers extorted $546Continue reading “Catching Up”

This week saw yet another failed attempt by Republicans to elect a Speaker. This time the candidate was Rep. Jim Jordon who unleashed a hard-right intimidation campaign that Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Iowa said involved, “credible death threats and a barrage of threatening calls” that law enforcement officials were investigating. Rep. Miller-Meeks gets the quoteContinue reading “The Quote & Quiz For 10/20/23”

This week has been a study in contrasts. Which group do you want to lead in a crisis? Which group is populated by relatively more adults while the other is dominated by the kids who were at the back of the class throwing spitballs? Pres. Joe Biden has handled the most recent crisis in theContinue reading “Statesmen and Clowns”

Last week I danced (probably prematurely) on the career grave of Ibram X. Kendi. A demagogue not unlike Joe McCarthy, Kendi’s intolerance for any ideas not his own has resulted in the cancelling of speakers, the ending of careers, the trashing of reputations and an intellectual terror in the academy, the media and corporations thatContinue reading “The Implosion of the Hard-Left”