Today’s read is from nurses around the Philadelphia region who share stories from the front lines of the pandemic — and a major staffing shortage. Here’s an excerpt:
Nurses quite literally have their fingers on the pulse of patient care — and we’re sounding the alarm: There are not nearly enough of us at the bedside. What this means in ERs and on hospital floors in our area, throughout the state and even across the nation, is that nurses, already physically and emotionally drained from a year and a half on the front lines of a pandemic, are being asked to care for more patients than is safe for either the patient or the nurse.
When this happens — when nurses are routinely required to care for more patients than is safe — it’s called chronic nurse short-staffing, and care suffers. Nurses suffer, too. These are our stories.
When I worked at WTMJ Milwaukee in the 90’s I had the pleasure of associating with some very talented, dedicated individuals. One of them was Sean O’Flaherty who was honored by the station back in June.
Here’s just one of the many memories I have of this hard-working guy. O’Flaherty would come to the station mid-afternoon to help out at the assignment desk for the afternoon and evening newscasts. He’d continue to man the desk after 10:00 pm news and listen intently to the various scanners. If word came through about a fire or shooting he’d strap on a camera and dash out of the building into a new car to get video of the spot news. Sometime early the next morning he’d call it a day and finally head home. I’m told he slept with earphones connected to a scanner.
During those 90’s O’Flaherty kept a map of the city of Milwaukee on the wall at the assignment desk where he’d place a red tack at the street location of Milwaukee’s latest homicide. While there some markers on the near south side there was a sea of red on the north side of the inner city, bounded roughly juts north of downtown to north of North Avenue, and 6th street west to about 28th street.
The political editors of The Patriot Post published a piece on how we should concentrate our efforts on crime. Based on his experience, O’Flaherty may tend to agree. Here’s an excerpt from the Post:
An outsize share of lawbreaking occurs at certain places and times, perpetrated by a small group of people. Though academics, the media, and politicians can’t seem to agree on much when it comes to crime in the United States, three stubborn facts generally apply. First, crime is heavily concentrated by place.
Police advocates say the “Defund Police” movement is responsible for the nearly 30% increase in murders in 2020, the largest single-year jump since the FBI began recording crime statistics six decades ago.
The change in murder was widespread — a national phenomenon and not a regional one. Murder rose over 35% in cities with populations over 250,000 that reported full data.
It also rose over 40% in cities with 100,000 to 250,000 people, and around 25% in cities under 25,000.
Police advocates note that 372 police officers were killed in the line of duty in 2020 compared with 151 the previous year, a 146% increase.
Local units of government around the country engage in an extremely foolish and futile exercise wasting time and productivity lobbying Congress to pay attention to them. It’s been going on for years and years, including here in the Milwaukee area.
Last week when the Milwaukee County Board met there were three resolutions on the agenda that were to be sent to federal officials in Washington. They were:
1) A resolution calling upon the United States Senate to pass and the President of the United States to sign into law House Resolution 1280, the George Floyd Act of 2021, legislatively reforming policing in the United States
2) A resolution calling upon the United States Congress to pass and the President to sign into law House Resolution 842, the Protect the Right to Organize (PRO) Act of 2021
3) A resolution opposing nuclear war and calling upon federal policymakers to never use nuclear weapons first, end the President of the United States from being the sole decision maker in a nuclear launch, remove US nuclear weapons from high alert, cancel the replacement of the US nuclear arsenal, and pursue a policy of complete global nuclear disarmament
Supervisor Sheldon Wasserman, a lefty, was actually a rare voice of reason on these measures:
“We’re spending a lot of time going through these resolutions, and being a former state legislator I’d get these resolutions from all over the state on different issues from farm bills and all the rest. Point blank, most of these people, they take the farm bills, all these other bills, these pieces of paper you get from these clerks and we throw them in the garbage.
“NO ONE CARES! Elected officials above us don’t care what Milwaukee County government does.”
Wasserman’s common sense fell on deaf ears. All three of the above resolutions were approved.
Supervisor Patti Logsdon who represents part of Franklin voted correctly on two of the three when she was in opposition. I want to focus on #2 of the above where Logsdon voted yes on what is essentially a pro-union resolution. From the resolution:
House Resolution 842, the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act of 2021, would generally improve the rights and protections of workers in the American workplace and, among other things, do the following:
Increase the number of people subject to federal fair labor standards
Allow labor organizations to encourage their members to strike concurrent with employees of a different labor organization striking (also known as secondary strikes) and subsequently not allowing employers to issue a claim against any labor organization for a secondary strike
All employees represented by a bargaining unit must contribute fees to the labor organization to cover the costs of representation, regardless of any contradictory state law
Prohibits employer dismissal or discrimination against striking workers
Lists as an unfair labor practice the requiring or coercing of employees to attend meetings which discourage union participation
Prohibits employers from punishing employees for union participation, participation in protected worker activities, or giving employees management responsibilities or forcing employees to sign agreements waiving the right to join collective or class-action litigation
Establishes penalties for violations of these requirements and allows for greater enforcement action by the National Labor Relations Board
Logsdon voted in favor. In doing so she aligned herself with the resolution’s main sponsor, Supervisor Ryan Clancy. From Clancy’s own website:
Supervisors Joe Czarnezki and Tony Staskunas also represent parts of Franklin. Czarnezki voted to approve all three. Staskunas voted in support except for the nuclear war/weapons resolution.
One of my readers attended the Oak Creek-Franklin School Board meeting Monday night and informs they allow 30 minutes for community comments. In addition a gentleman from South Milwaukee was allowed to speak without any concerns or issues raised about his residency.
Here is the Oak Creek-Franklin rule:
Speakers will be limited to no more than 3 minutes. The Board President will end the time for public input no later than 30 minutes after it begins and any remaining speakers will then be requested to submit their comments to the Board in writing or return at the next Board meeting.
Also they have this option: “Note, you may submit a written comment to the Board through the District Website.”
Clearly the Oak Creek-Franklin process is far more reasonable and responsive to the taxpaying public than the petty and personal policy recently enacted by the Franklin School Board.
Out of spite the Franklin School Board is now censoring folks because they had the audacity to disagree with and/or question the school district.
Daniel Craig poses for photographers upon arrival for the World premiere of the new James Bond film ‘No Time To Die’, in London. Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP
Today’s read is from columnist Derek Hunter. Here’s an excerpt:
Liberals ruin everything they touch, and like Joe Biden at a shampoo convention for teenage girls, they will try to touch everything. One target they’ve had their eyes on for a while is James Bond – problematic because he’s a straight white male who fights for what’s right, all of which are things the left cannot stand.
James Bond is a man, he’s a white man, if you really want to get technical. And he’s popular with the ladies, not interested in men. These are just a few of the reasons the left is seeking to destroy him.
“F*** Joe Biden’ chants ring out in college football stadiums: Southern chant spreads north as Mets and Yankees fans join in to slam the President.” —The Daily Mail
Today’s read is from Kylee Zempel, an assistant editor at The Federalist. Here’s an excerpt:
It’s the same thing millions of Americans say every day in their small acts of protest. OK, maybe you’d throw in a “screw you” instead of the French, but your message is the same: You might have the White House, but you don’t have my respect.
The NY Times reported last year and again this past June:
Under a new recommendation to Congress by a national commission, all Americans ages 18 to 25 — not just young men as currently required — would have to register with the government in case of a military draft.
The recommendation represents the final stage in a divisive debate that has been simmering for decades: Should the United States have a military draft, and should it include women?
“The biggest piece of opposition was, we are not going to draft our mother and daughters, our sisters and aunts to fight in hand-to-hand combat,” said Dr. Joseph Heck, chairman of the commission, which held dozens of public meetings and considered more than 4,000 public comments.
But as women have increasingly taken on a larger presence in military life and culture — making up about 17 percent of active-duty troops — commissioners concluded that expanding the registration process to include all Americans in the event of a draft was a “necessary and fair step.”
“Women bring a whole host of different perspectives, different experiences,” said Debra Wada, a former assistant secretary for the Army who served on the commission.
“If the threat is to our very existence,” she said, “wouldn’t you want women as part of that group“Women have proven themselves since 9/11 as pilots, medics, military police, engineers, and as part of the special operations and intelligence communities,” said Phillip Carter, a former Army officer and veteran of the Iraq war who is now a scholar at the RAND Corporation. “If America resorts to a draft to mobilize for war again, the experience of the past 18 years shows that the nation can and should rely on women to fight too.”
Emmy Griffin of the Patriot Post has an opposing view. Here’s a brief excerpt from her column:
If we ignore the fact that women are generally weaker physically than men — and this is a biological fact — then drafting our girls is akin to a death sentence. Their chances of survival on the battlefield are much lower as a result.
The signs sits on S. 76th Street on the east side of the street, just south of Rawson Avenue.
Hateful Leftists on a hard Leftist FB forum in Franklin, not surprisingly, have their noses out of joint.
Their first extremely petty objection was that it somehow violates the city’s sign ordinance. Ooh, now that certainly would be outrageous. Can you imagine a mob of angry citizens storming Franklin City Hall in protest?
After awhile the haters discovered something else to whine about. They claim the sign is political.
You see the sign is paid for according to the disclaimer clearly displayed at the bottom by No Better Friend Corporation. That’s a 501(c)(4) working to implement and advocate for solutions to problems while also proactively reaching out and bringing new voices into the conservative movement.
Kevin Nicholson, a decorated U.S. Marine, is the Volunteer President of No Better Friend Corporation who has not decided yet if he will run for WI Governor or the U.S. Senate.
The sign is NOT political. It is not advocating for any political candidate whatsoever. And the Back the Badge crowd does not belong to any political party. Suggesting the above sign is political is absurd.
Here’s the deal. This hateful bunch doesn’t give a rat’s posterior that someone might be violating the city’s powerful sign ordinance. The message on the sign, promoted on a very busy Franklin street, is what they can’t stomach.
Now toss in the fact it’s funded by a conservative Republican and their heads are exploding.
Here’s hoping the city doesn’t cave and allows this glorious sign to remain.
This Just In... From Franklin, WI 
