Category Archives: Uncategorized

Republicans want to end the supplemental $300 per week unemployment benefits. Democrats say it’s not what’s keeping workers from going back to a job. I think they’re both wrong. In Wisconsin, the maximum $370 per-week benefit plus the additional Federal money brings the payment to $670 a week. That’s the equivalent of $16.75 an hourContinue reading “Work Only Brings Dignity When It Pays Enough”

A dozen or so Wisconsin Democrats voted for a really stupid bill. They did the right thing. Last week the Wisconsin State Assembly voted 74-22 to require that the national anthem be played before every sporting event at every venue supported by tax dollars. About a dozen Democrats joined the Republicans in voting for itContinue reading “Oh Say, Can You See the Pandering?”

This month marks 10 years since I’ve been writing a blog. That one, called “Citizen Dave,” is on the Isthmus website. Isthmus is Madison’s feisty alternative weekly and it’s only thanks to the determination of its editor, Judy Davidoff, and its veteran staff that it lives to fight on today. Like all alt weeklies, IsthmusContinue reading “Why Am I Doing This?”

Hard-left Democrats are apoplectic about Israeli attacks on Hamas, but they don’t have a thing to say when Islamic militants murder school girls. Last week in Afghanistan, dozens of school girls were killed in an attack that targeted them for the offense of getting an education. You could hear crickets on the left. Later inContinue reading “The Hypocrisy of the Hard-Left”

The intolerance of the hard-left will go out of fashion soon enough. Identity politics is not as bad as insurrection and it’s not as bad as undermining faith in our entire electoral system by telling lies about it. So, let me stipulate upfront that the transgressions of the hard-left are not nearly as bad asContinue reading “How Woke Might End”

Tom Nelson led the fight to save a paper mill in his home county. By Spencer Black The cities and regions of Wisconsin go by various monikers. Some are geographic: Minocqua is the Island City and southwestern Wisconsin is Coulee Country. Many are known for their agricultural products (cheese, rutabagas, sausage, etc.). Milwaukee is CreamContinue reading “No Paper Lion”

As new takers for the COVID vaccines decline, it’s time to do stuff that creates incentives for demographic groups that are hesitant. Other states have gotten creative, so why not Wisconsin? Here are some ideas. A vaccine lottery. Ohio just announced “Vax-a-Million”, a special one million dollar lottery drawing for each of the next fiveContinue reading “We Vax, Rodgers Stays”

It could be that the pandemic that made so many people sick could have a healthy side effect on American politics. Here’s what we know. For obvious reasons, COVID drove people out of big cities. The very people who were the most willing to accept public health advice to socially distance were living in theContinue reading “Could COVID Fix Our Politics?”

This morning House Republicans did what we knew they’d do: they shot themselves in the foot — but of course it’s the right of every law-abiding American to shoot themselves in the foot, or both feet, because shooting up everything and anything is protected by the Second Amendment. So there. You have to ask yourselvesContinue reading “Cheney Reaction”

Afghan school girls were targeted in a weekend attack that killed 80. Pres. Joe Biden’s withdrawal means there will be a lot more of this in the future. When the Taliban controlled Afghanistan in the 1990’s they were brutal to women. As the U.S. and its allies withdraw their troops toward a September deadline forContinue reading “More Of This To Come”