Today’s read is from Dan McLaughlin, a senior writer at National Review Online. here’s an excerpt:
On this 234th Constitution Day, conservatives — indeed, every American — should reflect on our great Founding.
Bonnie Snyder has written a new book, Undoctrinate: How Politicized Classrooms Harm Kids and Ruin Our Schools―and What We Can Do About It.
Here’s an excerpt from an excerpt of the book:
For years, schools have had “anti-bullying campaigns” to stop kids from picking on each other. But what if the bullying is coming from the teacher and school administrators?
Our nation has a problem. Recently, in both urban and rural communities, young children are being indoctrinated, bullied, and harassed by their fellow students and teachers for not falling into line on various topics.
Many of you don’t want to think about this, and I understand. You’d rather send your kids to school and trust implicitly in the system, as your own parents probably did. After all, it worked out okay for you. However, this fight will come to you, whether or not you want it. It doesn’t matter if you live in a city or the rural South.
Read the entire column here.
The headline was at the top of a news release issued today:
Today, Republicans on the Assembly Committee on Education held a public hearing on AB 562 which would create a system for parents to opt students out of programming related to sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or gender expression. The bill was only circulated for co-sponsorship on Tuesday, September 14th. Republicans have rushed the bill through the process, already giving it a bill number, and now a public hearing. Senator Melissa Agard (D-Madison) released the following statement:
“This bill suppresses the voices of our LGBTQ+ community and makes our schools less safe and less inclusive. Rushing through homophobic legislation like AB 562 sends the exact wrong message to our kids. My Republican colleagues who are supporting this bill should be ashamed of themselves for spreading these hateful, closeminded ideas born from harmful rhetoric.”
Hateful? Homophobic?
Here’s now the nonpartisan WI Legislative Reference Bureau describes Assembly Bill 562:
This bill requires each school board of a school district and each operator of an independent charter school, before providing any program related to sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or gender expression to a pupil in the school district or attending the charter school, to give notice of the program to the pupil’s parents or guardians. This notice is required with respect to a pupil in any grade before such a program is provided to the pupil. A “program” is defined to include instruction and materials as well as any test, survey, questionnaire, or other activity. A pupil may not be required to participate in a program related to sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or gender expression if the pupil’s parent or guardian submits a written request to opt out of the program.
Heaven forbid parents should know what’s going on in their childrens’ schools.
Make no mistake. Milwaukee County Board Supervisor Patti Logsdon who represents part of Franklin HATES The Rock complex in Franklin, one of the most popular destinations in Milwaukee County.
A comment she made to the contrary at a meeting of the County Board’s Audit Committee was completely disingenuous. More on that in a bit.
The Audit Committee met online Wednesday as county auditors presented a review of the three main agreements between the county and the Rock. The audit is here and it’s nowhere near sexy reading. If you’d prefer your brain not bleed suffice to say the review found “the county’s monitoring of the agreements” needs improvement and the Rock needs to do a better job of keeping records about their community benefits goals. Hardly scandalous findings.
At the committee meeting, Logsdon who is not a member of the committee opened her remarks complaining she was “appalled” that a committee she sits on that has data on this issue should have received the audit to discuss and not just the Audit Committee. Not exactly going for the jugular.
Logsdon then said that if the Rock has financial obligations and owes the county money, then the Rock is liable. She quoted a figure of $1 million not being collected that could be used for county purposes. Other than mentioning “youth sports” Logsdon failed to specify what kind of government spending and specific programs could/would be the recipients.
The Rock’s popular The Hill Has Eyes sold so many tickets in 2020 that the Rock had no reason it couldn’t fulfill their county obligations, Logsdon asserted as she mentioned a total of more than $600,000 in sales. But the self-proclaimed 35-year accountant didn’t take into account expenses.
Oh this is a good one. The audit title: “Between The Rock and a Hard Place.” Logsdon said that was an insult to people in the community. If this was an argument when I was a kid in elementary school someone would bring out “Sticks and Stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.” At least Logson didn’t say she was “appalled.”
Logsdon wasn’t through. Her pleas to have the audit referred to her own committee were falling on deaf ears and she knew it.
“We (she and other members of the Economic and Community Development) aren’t doing this against anything with the Rock. We’re happy they’re a successful entity. What we’re doing is if they have monies owed to Milwaukee County we want to rightfully collect our monies. We need this money.
“My district had to close one of my pools down because of lack of funds.”
That’s the Hales Corners Pool. One of Logsdon’s vocal opponents, former Supervisor Steve Taylor who she defeated in 2018 has been applying the heat because the pool was a popular project when he represented the district. Logsdon has done little, if anything to resurrect the pool, and is now trying to scapegoat the Rock for her lack of success.
“We (she and other members of the Economic and Community Development) aren’t doing this against anything with the Rock. We’re happy they’re a successful entity.”
That’s a crock. Logsdon has always opposed the Rock.
From my blog of March 30, 2018 when Logsdon ran against Taylor:
Two years ago I endorsed Patti Logsdon in her race against Taylor. At that time we did talk about the project and she was not all that thrilled about it.
A few weeks ago on March 15 (2018) in an e-mail to Logsdon I asked about her position.
When we had our lengthy discussion the last time you ran you said you’d have an open mind. I’ve heard that you are vehemently opposed. To be fair I’ve not written anything about this issue as it pertains to the race but I might. So, did you oppose the project while it was being deliberated? Did you voice opposition in any discussions or meetings with neighbors who are opposed? Now that’s it been approved what are your feelings about the project?
Logsdon responded.
Kevin, I have an open mind about the project, which, as you note, is already approved. Any opposition you heard that I held for the project is directly related to the dissatisfaction that the residents living near to it have shared: they feel like elected officials are not listening to them and their quality of life is affected in the end. It is easy to support economic development, but a division has been caused in our community that I think could have been largely avoided if those closest to the project had earnestly worked to appease many of the concerns raised by the citizens. Instead, they feel run over and I have compassion for that. I have spoken up, specifically at Steve Taylor’s town hall meeting. I respectfully asked a question about why other options proposed by John Weishan in a county board meeting were not considered, and Taylor’s response was to attack me publicly, saying that I was being a liberal and was against the project. I didn’t attack the project, I asked a question; and Steve Taylor doesn’t know the difference.
I wrote back.
Thank you, but you didn’t answer my questions.
On March 22 I offered Logsdon another opportunity to respond and have not heard from her.
Finally this from the 66-page audit on the Rock released this week:
One unfortunate byproduct of the Ballpark Commons project has been the outsized influence of a handful of individuals who protested the project from the beginning who have transferred their protest to any other project that Parks seeks to accomplish in this area such as rebuilding our roads or operating our trail system. Parks needs to continue to provide services in this area and the complaints that have been generated from some constituents are beginning to impair our ability to do so…and while receiving and responding to complaints is a necessary part of providing good customer service, we must also use judgment in assessing complaints and make decisions that positively impact the most people.
As of May 2021, we had received directly or forwarded from another County entity, 63 complaints regarding the Rock. Those complaints were from 12 individuals in total with one individual being responsible for 34 emails alone.
The Audit Committee voted to refer the audit back to the committee next month for further discussion.
The following is a follow-up to my blog this week, “Franklin pushing SEL, which is code for CRT.”
By way of introduction I’m very proud of Judy Steffes who runs the Washington County Insider website. In the 1980’s she was a part-time member of my news team at WUWM Milwaukee Public Radio. Judy has developed into an accomplished writer and reporter.
This week she reported extensively on a West Bend school board meeting attended by parents upset with the inclusion of Critical Race Theory in the district’s curriculum.
Take a look.
I only wish my ho-hum district in Franklin filled with far too many residents who refuse to get involved and depend on others to do the heavy lifting would be as active and concerned as west Bend.
Judy’s article was the topic of conservation on Mark Belling’s program Wednesday on Newsradio 1130 WISN around the 50:00 mark.
EVERY WEDNESDAY NIGHT THROUGHOUT THE SUMMER, I’M RE-POSTING SOME OLD BLOGS I THOUGHT WERE INTERESTING AND WORTH A SECOND LOOK, OR A FIRST GLANCE FOR MY MANY NEW READERS.
I’ve known WI Assembly Speaker Robin Vos a long time. I like and respect him…a lot, and feel much of the negativity he gets even from the right is unfair.
Vos is the subject of a lengthy piece in the left-leaning POLITICO that is sympathetic to Gov. Tony Evers who whines he can’t get anything he wants done because of Vos.
There are enough slings and arrows in the POLITICO piece but Vos gets some positive notes:
And despite Vos’ reputation for hardball politics, he comes across as friendly and engaging in person. He seems eager to answer tough questions, and he never seems at a loss for words
“He’s very sharp, very savvy,” says Tim Storey, the executive director of the National Conference of State Legislatures. “He’s one of the most savvy political thinkers that I’ve ever worked with. And he sees the world through that lens.”
“He’s a skilled conversationalist,” Storey added. “He’s sharp with facts, and he doesn’t just skim along the surface. He’ll get down in the weeds.”
Vos said one of the things that sets him apart from other politicians is that he is not interested in any higher office. It’s a point he made several times, unprompted, during an hourlong interview.
“When I made the decision to be speaker, I thought long and hard about it: Is this something where I’m going to want to run for Congress or for governor?” he said. “I am very much at peace with saying: This is the last elected job I am going to hold. So I feel like my perspective as a legislator is dramatically different than everybody else’s.”
Can’t wait to hear Vos’ reaction to the POLITICO piece.
Home of the Milwaukee Milkmen.
For the Coolest Thing Made in Wisconsin.
It didn’t make the final list.
But something from Franklin is on there.
First Lady Jill Biden will visit Marvin E. Pratt Elementary in Milwaukee on Wednesday.
MPS will roll out the red carpet. The media will fawn all over her.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.
President Dementia has been an unmitigated White House disaster. And Jill Biden is complicit.
Douglas Andrews recently wrote in The Patriot Post:
We should stipulate here that we believe attacking a sitting first lady of either party is bad form — although Hillary Clinton certainly deserved all the opprobrium she received during her eight years in the White House. Jill Biden, though, seems different. She seems to have coveted this role for decades, even more than Joe Biden coveted the presidency — and that’s saying something.
Fox News host Rachel Campos-Duffy, herself a mother of nine and the wife of a former congressman, appears to have broken with the pack on this line of questioning: “When you look at what’s hurting America, when you look at this lack of leadership, and you wonder, who are the people responsible for putting someone this incompetent and frankly this … mentally frail in this position? I’m sorry, as a political spouse, I can’t help but look at Jill Biden. … No one knew better his state of mind than Dr. Jill Biden.”
Campos-Duffy, whose husband Sean served for eight years as the U.S. representative of Wisconsin’s seventh congressional district, said that the most “patriotic thing Jill Biden could have done was … to love her husband, and not let him run in this mental state that he’s in.”
There. It needed to be said. But Jill Biden’s press secretary, Michael LaRosa, wasn’t happy about it. “Rachel Campos-Duffy and Fox News know better,” he tweeted. “They can do better and their viewers deserve better. I hope they’ll apologize to the First Lady and leave this kind of talk in the [trash] where it belongs.”
LaRosa can carp all he wants about what should and shouldn’t be said. But Joe Biden is as close as this nation will ever come to a Weekend at Bernie’s president, and Campos-Duffy has done us all a service by asking the toughest of questions: Did Jill Biden care more about becoming First Lady than she did about her husband’s health and well-being?
That leads us to another column published Monday in the same Patriot Post by Burt Prelutsky. Here’s an excerpt:
Everybody seems to think that someone, possibly Barack Obama, George Soros or Susan Rice, is Joe Biden’s puppet master.
I’m guessing it’s far more likely to be his wife. After all, she was aware of the fact that her husband was in a bad way and yet she pushed him to seek the nomination. Why?
I am convinced that Dr. Jill, as she insists on being called, wanted to be the First Lady more than Biden wanted to be the President.
For fear of just about everything, no journalist in America , let alone Milwaukee will have the guts to ask the good doctor about this.
WARNING: Today’s read is much like the apprehension folks had about going to the beach after seeing “Jaws.”
It’s from humor columnist Tom Purcell. Although there’s not all that much that’s hilarious here. Check out a brief excerpt:
If you’re like me, you enjoy few things more than a long, hot shower.
Unfortunately, the Biden administration intends to re-enact a federal regulation that will limit my ability to enjoy my daily hot shower in the name of water conservation.
What does that mean?
Click here for details.
