Wednesday, February 12, 2025

RIP Blogging Blue and Thank You Capper and Cog Dis!

 

For many of you reading this you are certainly aware that back in the golden era of political blogs, Blogging Blue and Cognitive Dissidence were the big men on campus of the liberal Wisconsin political blogs. And like Cog Dis, Zach W, the founder of Blogging Blue asked a number of area pundits to join and contribute to the blog. He asked me in 2010 and I immediately leapt at the chance and eventually took on the role of publisher from 2017 through 2020 as well. I felt a bit overwhelmed at that point and handed the reins back to Zach. Something I kinda regret but...

Anyway, I continued as a contributor through the 2024 elections but then something odd happened. During the weekend of November 9/10 2024 the website crashed and crashed hard. I have never been told exactly what happened but I am suspecting a hack since the vendor said that the site couldn't be recovered. So sadly, we could never give the site a good send off and let our readers know what happened.

But Capper reached out to me recently and asked if I was still interested in writing about politics. I am! So I jumped at the chance to join Cognitive Dissidence. I still have a bit of burnout and I am not getting any younger...but I still have some things to share. I may not post as often as I did at BB and maybe not as in depth...take some pot shots instead of writing treatises...but I will share when the mood hits!

So thank you again Capper!!!  And thank you readers of Blogging Blue and Cog Dis who have supported me all of these years!

Thursday, February 6, 2025

GOP: Don't Blame Us For What We Did To Education!

State Rep. Joel Kitchens gave this week's GOP propaganda, er, I mean, radio address, in which he laments about what the GOP has done to the state's education system:

I want to take a little bit of your time today to discuss the disappointing results released by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Assessment of Educational Progress test. This test is usually referred to as the “Nation’s Report Card.”

Fourth and Eighth graders are tested based on proficiency in math and reading. According to this study, only 31% of our fourth graders are proficient in reading. That’s down from both pre and post-pandemic test results. It’s not just reading scores that are troubling. Our fourth graders are only testing at a 42% proficiency in math.

Sadly, our eighth graders are not any better. It was reported that only 31% of eighth graders were proficient in reading and only 37% were proficient in math. Wisconsin has the largest gap in reading and math scores between Black and white students of any state in the United States. The scores are horrific for minority students. Our black students are ranked worst in the nation in 4th-grade reading and math. Only 8% can read and only 5% are proficient in math.

OMG! How did it get things get so badly when the GOP controlled the legislature for the past 15 years?   Where did we go so wrong?

The answer to those questions is just a matter of following the money. The Bradley Foundation, which is located right here in Milwaukee, is one of the biggest sources for dark money in the state and they have bought many politicians, almost all of them Republicans.  But the Bradley Foundation wasn't interested in just their tax cuts.

The Bradley Foundation has a long, long history of spending tens of millions and thousands of millions of dollars just in Wiscconsin just for the purpose of destroying education, especially public education and the teachers union

In an effort to do a reverse Robin Hood - robbing the poor and giving to the rich - the fascist oligarchs at the Bradley Foundation paid for a study called The Bell Curve, which came to the conclusion they wanted::

The Bell Curve's key educational policy recommendation dovetails with the Bradley Foundation's top education priority: support for school choice, including public funds for private and religious schools. This bolsters the case of those who argue that despite the rhetoric of choice, many voucher advocates have abandoned the vision of a quality education for all children. Says Robert Lowe, associate professor at National Louis University and an editor of the journal Rethinking Schools: The Bell Curve is a smoking gun. It maintains that the poor—including the majority of African Americans—are generally incapable of benefiting from education....

So, there you have it.

The Bradley Foundation pours money into the campaign coffers of the Republicans.  In returrn, the Republicans dutifuly and systematically destroy public education and push privatized education, from which members of the Bradley Foundation profit greatly.

And for those poor kids who get the cold shoulder from this privatized education system, well someone's gotta keep those privatized prisons full, amirite?

At the end of Kitchen's propaganda spiel, he begs the Superintendent of Public Instruction to just focus on fixing the damage the Republicans have done on the behalf of the Bradley Foundation and others like them, and to stop holding them accountable.

No wonder the GOP is so deadset against teaching history.  They always end up being held accountable.

One Door Closed, Another Door Opens

 At the end of last year, sad news hit the Cheddarsphere with the demise of Blogging Blue:


Sadly, with Blogging Blue's end also meant another voice lost, just when we need as many voices as we can get to fight the tyranny in Washington, D.C. as well as prevent the tyranny from returning to Wisconsin.  

After seeing the news, I reached out to Ed Heinzelman, who was the chief cook and bottle washer over at Blogging Blue.  I am pleased to announce that Ed's voice won't be lost after all as that he has agreed to add it to this here blog, along with little old me.

Now, if only I can get the rest of the gang back together too...  

Paging folkbum, Illy-T and grumps.  It's time to get back to work.

Tuesday, January 28, 2025

Channel 58 Fires Meteorologist For Being A Good American


The United States has a long history of opposing fascism.  Our country was founded by people looking for freedom of religion.  We had a bloody civil war to end slavery.  We fought in WWII to stop the Nazis because they were killing Jews, homosexuals and anyone else that didn't meet their approval. That is why we call the brave people that fought against the Nazis The Greatest Generation.

But this country has now lost its way.

Last week, during the Orange Felon's inauguration (note to MAGA - it was an inauguration, not a coronation), his puppet master, Elmo Musty, deccided to do a Nazi salute, not just once, but twice.  And yes, it was a Nazi salute.  To make sure everyone knew that he was a fascist pig, Elmo then went on to crack jokes about the Holocaust and spoke to a neo-Nazi party in Germany, telling them to let go of past guilt for killing millions of people.  

Like millions of other Americans, CBS58's then meteorologist Sam Kuffel, expressed her outrage on her private social media account on Instagram.  That is what true Americans do.  It's what our parents, grandparents and great grandparents would have done.

But like I said, the country has lost its way.

Right wing squawkere Danny Boy O'Donnell got wind of Kuffel's posts, and being the Nazi collaborator that he is, squealed like a pig about it, calling her posts "vulgar" and "lies."  If O'Donnell was alive in Nazi Germany, he would have been the guy who ratted out Anne Frank.


O'Donnell and his other Nazi sympathizers raised such a stink that CBS58 removed their own spine and fired Kuffel.

Yes, you read that right.  Kuffel was fired for condemning a Nazi salute.  

Apparently, CBS 58's news director, Jessie Garcia felt that their ratings were too high or something.  

From what I've seen on the various social media platforms, Garcia might have her wish come true.  Thousands of people have been barraging the "news" station with angry emails and phone calls.  And a lot of people have said that they are done with CBS "news" and maybe even the station entirely.  

When people can get elected besides being a convicted felon and an adjudicated rapist but get critized for a Nazi gesture, well, our grandparents and great grandparents that fought in WWII must be rolling in their graves right now.  

If we allow this to continue, we will become known as the Least Generation.

ADDENDUM: This is O'Donnell showing his white supremacy for the world to see:



Thursday, January 2, 2025

Welcome To 2025

 I don't think that anyone could come up with  anything more symbolic for the new year than this:


Buckle up. It's gonna be a bumpy ride.