Solved.
Month: May 2019
Meryl Streep Decries Toxic Masculinity
Well, the phrase. Welcome to Friday. I’m just going to sit over here and agree with Meryl Streep.
“Sometimes I think we’re hurt. We hurt our boys by calling something toxic masculinity. I do,” Streep said. “And I don’t find [that] putting those two words together … because women can be pretty f***ing toxic.”
“It’s toxic people,” the Suffragette star said. “We have our good angles and we have our bad ones.”
Streep added that she thinks labels can be “less helpful” than direct communication when calling out detrimental behaviour.
“We’re all on the boat together. We’ve got to make it work,” she said.
Abele Wants to Tear House Down
It’s his house. He owns it. He can do what he wants with it and all of these other folks can butt the heck out.
Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele has always been one to do his own thing.
And he’s doing it again with his plans to tear down a historic mansion at 3534 N. Lake Drive in Shorewood — over the objections of the family that sold him the house late last year for $2.6 million.
“This was not shared with us in any way,” said Sarah Hambrook, whose parents, George W. and J. Ann Hambrook, moved out Dec. 31 after Abele purchased the 9,762-square-foot home on a 2.5-acre site along Lake Michigan.
[…]
Robert Dean, head of the Shorewood Historical Society, said the house is considered an extremely important residence in his community. The property was advertised last year as having eight bedrooms, five full bathrooms and a four-car garage
“This is a bombshell,” Dean said of the demolition permit application. “I don’t think this is going to fly well in Shorewood.”
Obama Still Doesn’t Know How Gun Laws Work (or Don’t Work)
Wha!?!? You can buy a machine gun online without any regulations? Where? Perhaps if Obama knew our nation’s actual gun laws he wouldn’t be so hellbent on passing more.
Former president Barack Obama has claimed US gun laws ‘don’t make sense’.
[…]
He added: ‘We know that in some states we have gun laws that do not make sense. It’s even possible to buy even machine guns online without any regulation.’
Obama’s comments come just months after Brazil passed laws making it easier for people to buy and carry guns.
Failure is Not Tolerated in North Korea
Just in case you thought that the Evil Dictator was anything other than an evil dictator.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reportedly ordered the execution of several top officials in March after they were unable to reach an agreement with President Trump at a second summit between the two leaders earlier this year.
Bloomberg News reported Thursday citing a South Korean newspaper that Kim Hyok Chol, North Korea’s special envoy to the U.S., was executed in March along with four other North Korean foreign ministry officials involved in the Hanoi, Vietnam, summit.
Only One Agency Complies with Law
Appropriately, it’s the Ethics Commission.
Ahead of an approaching July 1 deadline and in the midst of legal uncertainty surrounding the Wisconsin Legislature’s lame-duck laws, just eight out of an estimated thousands of guidance documents across the state’s agencies have been submitted for publication as required.
Those eight guidance documents, which instruct individuals or entities how to comply with state agency rules, all came from the state Ethics Commission, a body that oversees campaign finance and lobbying laws, among other things.
The December laws, in addition to targeting the authority of the incoming governor and attorney general, required each guidance document to receive a public hearing and undergo certification by agency heads. The documents also have to be reviewed by the Legislative Reference Bureau and placed in the Administrative Register under the laws.
But provisions surrounding guidance documents and other parts of the laws are still on hold stemming from a suit brought by five different unions that alleges the changes unlawfully limited incoming Gov. Tony Evers’ and AG Josh Kaul’s powers.
The state Supreme Court has taken over an appeal that was filed in that case, and it’s poised to rule on a second case from the League of Women Voters that also challenged the constitutionality of the laws.
As the state awaits decisions in those cases, many agencies have adopted a wait-and-see approach in terms of implementing the guidance document provisions of the laws.
Gas Tax Increase DOA
This would be welcome news indeed.
MADISON, Wis. — A gas tax hike now appears to be dead on arrival.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos apparently put the final nail in the gasoline tax increase earlier this week, telling a group of conservatives an increase to the state’s gas tax to fund Wisconsin’s transportation projects is off the table.
Legislature Gives UW Spending by $58 Million
But it’s never “enough,” of course. Here was one reaction from a spender:
“It’s beyond disappointing,” Rep. Chris Taylor, D-Madison, told Republicans. “It’s perplexing. It doesn’t make any sense. It’s negligent. And what you’re guaranteeing is that campuses will close.”
GOOD. We all see the demographic trends and the declines in enrollment coming. We SHOULD be consolidating campuses. Throwing more money into a system to keep underutilized buildings open is not responsible budgeting.
Lawsuit Filed Against NY Education Department Over Racist “Equity” Plan
It ain’t just New York. Social Justice superseded education a long time ago in far too many government school systems.
Three white female executives in the New York Education Department were demoted in favor of less-qualified people of color, a $90 million suit launched by the women claims.
The longtime officials say they were unfairly targeted as part of the department’s crusade against ‘toxic whiteness’ through its controversial racial equity plan.
Lois Herrera started at the DOE in 1986 as a guidance counselor and worked her way up to lead its Office of Safety and Youth Development.
In the suit filed Tuesday, she claims she saw the culture shift when Mayor Bill de Blasio appointed Richard Carranza as the chancellor of NYC‘s public schools in April 2018.
Lois Herrera is one of three women suing the New York Education Department for $90m over claims they were demoted in favor of less-qualified people of color
By June the Harvard graduate – who was recognized in 2017 for contributing to the ‘safest year on record’ in city schools – was abruptly removed from her position and demoted three levels.
[…]
Herrera was never given any reasoning for her demotion but claims she was told, ‘If you’ve been with the DOE for more than 20 years, you are responsible for the problem,’ by LaShawn Robinson, the then executive director of the DOE’s Office of Equity and Access.
[…]
Department insiders say that under Chancellor Richard Carranza, who was appointed by Mayor Bill de Blasio, administrators are subjected to endless lectures and workshops critiquing ‘whiteness’ and attempting to root out ‘white supremacy’ in the workplace.
Government Violates the Rules. Taxpayers Pay.
No accountability whatsoever and the taxpayers get the bill.
LODI, Wis. – Water utility customers in the city of Lodi will see their water bills increase by 35 percent in the next month or so.
This is happening because the City of Lodi went through with plans to build a $1.8 million project that was never properly approved by the Wisconsin Public Service Commission, which resulted in a reprimand from the PSC and a referral to the Department of Justice. Now, water utility customers are left to foot the bill.
[…]
When asked why the rules existed if the board can just override them later, Esser said the PSC has asked the City of Lodi to follow the rules in the future and that they increased the approval rate from $299,000 to $364,000 for any new applications in the future.
China Threatens US Over Rare Earth Metals
It is not impossible, but it is very difficult to win a trade war against a totalitarian regime. Their leaders can withstand decades of a down economy because they never have to stand for election. That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try for vbetter terms and look for alternative trade partners. China only controls about a third of the known rare earth metal deposits, but that’s mainly because they are willing to take on the high cost and negative environmental consequences to mine them. If China pulls back, it opens the market for other countries to get in. Unfortunately, that will take years.
A Chinese state-run newspaper has warned the U.S. not to underestimate Beijing’s capabilities with its resources of rare earth minerals during a trade war between the two countries.
People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of China‘s ruling Communist Party, hinted serious consequences to the Trump Administration using a diplomatic term usually reserved by Beijing to signal the start of an armed warfare.
‘Don’t say we didn’t warn you!’ The newspaper said in a commentary today as it commented on the possibility of China suspending its exports of rare earths to the U.S.
SCOTUS Leaves Transgender Bathroom Policy In Place
Washington (CNN)The Supreme Court on Tuesday left in place a lower court ruling in favor of a Pennsylvania school district policy that allows some transgender students to use bathrooms that match their gender identity.
This case is a challenge to a Pennsylvania’s school district’s policy that allows some transgender students to use bathrooms that match their gender identity. The plaintiffs are students who say the policy violates their privacy rights and constitutes sexual harassment in violation of Title IX, a federal law that bars discrimination based on sex in educational institutions that receive federal funds.Tuesday’s ruling was issued without comment.In court papers, lawyers for the plaintiffs argue that “forcing a teenager to share a locker room or restroom with a member of the opposite sex can cause embarrassment and distress.”
We don’t need, or want, the courts to decide every societal disagreement. This is a cultural issue that people can work out for themselves. If the folks in that Pennsylvania school district want to let people pick their own bathroom, fine. If the folks in Colorado have a different opinion, that’s fine too. The court should just leave some things alone for people to decide.
Texas Senate Approves Gun Carrying for Week After Disaster
The Texas Senate on Sunday approved a bill that would allow any Texan who can legally own a firearm to be able to carry it either open or concealed for seven days after the state declares a natural disaster, The Dallas Morning News reported.
[…]
The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Dade Phelan, a Republican, said earlier that he doesn’t “want someone to feel like they have to leave their firearms back in an unsecured home for a week or longer, and we all know how looting occurs in storms. Entire neighborhoods are empty and these people can just go shopping, and one of the things they’re looking for is firearms.”
Texas’ carry laws are actually a bit more restrictive than Wisconsin’s and a bit nonsensical, at times. Generally, open carry is not legal in Texas like it is in Wisconsin. Many years ago when Texas passed concealed carry, it was actually a big deal that a CHL holder would get in big trouble for “brandishing” if anyone saw their weapon. It was a goofy restriction that Texas lifted 2016. So now a Texan CHL holder can carry openly or concealed.
What this law would do is say that anyone who can legally own a gun – no felons, etc. – to transport that weapon, concealed or open, for a week after a natural disaster. The rationale is that it would enable people to protect their property and to legally transport their weapons away so that they don’t get stolen. The downside is that police won’t be able to easily tell who can legally carry a weapon or not, but they can’t do that today. The police would have to do what they do anyway… react to behavior instead of just randomly checking people.
EU Lurches to the Edges
It’s going to be an interesting time in Europe.
For the first time the big centrist blocs no longer have a majority. The European Parliament elections boosted nationalists, the Greens and liberals.
It leaves the EU more fragmented, so finding consensus may be harder than in the past.
The high price of liberty
My column for the Washington County Daily News is online and in print. Here you go:
In a bit of serendipitous timing, I found myself in the nation’s capital last week. With Memorial Day looming, I took the time to spend several hours in Arlington National Cemetery, reflecting on the terrible price that liberty collects from each generation of Americans.
There are over 400,000 men and women buried in Arlington. To walk among the dead is to walk through our nation’s history of bloody sacrifice for the cause of liberty. After paying my respects to two family members near the McClellan Gate, I walked through every section. The dignity and respect of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier set an example that we should all follow when honoring our heroes.
While some parts of the cemetery were loud with swarms of schoolchildren on their year-end field trips, some areas were peaceful, as one would imagine eternity to be. The silent Argonne Cross standing watch over our fallen heroes of World War I; the crypt at the top of the hill where 2,111 unknown Union soldiers gathered after the Civil War in northern Virginia; the silence of the stones for those killed battling communism in Vietnam was only disturbed by the whir of the electric wheelchair of one of their brothers still watching over his comrades.
Two thoughts imprinted themselves on my mind as I left the cemetery that day. First, we all have a responsibility to honor their sacrifice by protecting our liberties and fulfilling the responsibilities that go with those liberties. Exercising our liberties responsibly is not only respectful of the sacrifices made to protect them, it is a sure way to protect them from oppressive impulses to restrict them in the name of civil order.
We have a right to speak freely, but we have a responsibility to do so with respect for one another. We must not use our voices to lie, slander, or disparage. Instead, we must use our voices to educate, advocate, and debate.
We have a right to keep and bear arms, but we have a responsibility to do so safely. To own and carry the means to end someone’s life carries with it the responsibility to maintain the weapons, learn how to use them, store and handle them safely.
We have a right to vote, but we have a responsibility to know what we are voting for. We must educate ourselves on the issues and cast a vote for a candidate in accordance with our conscience. A vote cast in ignorance is not an act of self-governance. It is an act of disrespect to those who died to guarantee our right to vote.
When we exercise our rights in a responsible manner, we rob tyrants of excuses to infringe on our rights.
The second thought that lingered was that death humbles all. Under that grass and marble, great commanders who led legions into war lie yards away from the simplest private who never made it through his first battle. All of them are part of the same dirt now. Arlington reminds me of a missive penned by Stephen F. Austin that life is just a “speck between two eternities.”
While we all took some time on Memorial Day to reflect on the ultimate price paid made by so many American heroes for our liberty, it is what we do on the other 364 days of the year that truly honors their sacrifice. Make those days worth their sacrifice.
Some Gave All
Leftist Judicial Candidate Pledges to Be an Activist Leftist Judge
LOL.
Judge Jill Karofsky announced her candidacy Thursday. She said she feels America is on the “wrong track” because the judiciary is becoming increasingly politicized and the rule of the law is being ignored for partisan reasons.
“The American judicial system is built on independent judges, not a system in which you decide what political team you’re on,” Karofsky wrote in the announcement. “We can see the corroding effect of big money on our judicial system, and it’s time to restore a sense of justice and honor to our legal system. I will follow the law, and I will protect our Wisconsin values.”
So she decries the politicization of the judiciary and vows to follow the law, but in the SAME STORY we get this:
“We will serve the needs of crime victims, we will stand up for racial justice and civil rights, we will protect the right to marriage equality, and we will never allow for the rights of women to be rolled back,” Karofsky wrote.
Um, I thought the courts were about following the law? Where is all of this “stand up for [insert liberal cause here]” stuff come from?
Nobody Wants a Surveillance State
A rare show of bipartisan unity broke out in Washington Wednesday as Republicans and Democrats on the House Oversight Committee expressed concerns over the rapid spread of facial recognition software used by technology companies.
“I don’t want to see an authoritarian surveillance state, whether it’s run by a government or whether it’s run by five corporations,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said in reference to Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, Google and Facebook.
Assembly Republicans Agree to Waste Slightly Less Money than Evers
Ugh. Remember that throwing more tax dollars into the government school system isn’t about improving education. It’s about appeasing politicians’ egos.
Assembly Republicans say they support an education budget that would spend an additional $500 million on schools, an amount about $900 million less than Gov. Tony Evers proposed.
Evers called for a $1.4 billion increase in state spending on K-12 education, driven in large part by a $606 million increase in special education funding.
The budget unveiled Wednesday by Assembly Republicans would spend considerably less, setting aside an additional $50 million for special education over the next two years.
Republicans said that was still substantial, noting the state had not increased special education funding for more than a decade.
They also said under the Assembly GOP plan, the state would fund two-thirds of the cost of K-12 education statewide, a benchmark that was written into law in the 1990s but repealed in the 2000s.
“I don’t do cover-ups”
If I were a Democrat, I’d be pretty ticked at the stupidity of my own party. Perhaps more than any other modern president, Trump loves to make a deal and isn’t guided by an overriding ideology. The Democrats could actually isolate the Republican Senate and push some of their own initiatives through if they would actually try to work with the president. Instead, they crap all over him and don’t get anywhere.
President Donald Trump abruptly walked out of a meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., at the White House on Wednesday, telling reporters moments later that he would not negotiate on legislation with Democrats while he was still under investigation by several committees.
Wednesday’s meeting was supposed to be the second official sit-down between the president and Democratic congressional leadership specifically focused on infrastructure.
“I walked into the room and I told Sen. Schumer and Speaker Pelosi, ‘I want to do infrastructure’ … but we can’t do it under these circumstances,” Trump said at a last-minute Rose Garden event.Trump’s anger appears to have been sparked by comments Pelosi made earlier in the day when she said, “We believe the president of the United States is engaged in a cover-up” by blocking White House aides from giving testimony and responding to document requests from ongoing congressional investigations.
“I don’t do cover-ups,” Trump insisted Wednesday.