"It looked more like a repurposed Pride rally than an anti-Trump rally, really, and that’s because it was."

"Boston’s Pride parade got repurposed into the 'No Kings but Drag Kings' parade. This was smart in terms of boosting the crowd size — there were a lot more people present than attended the rather pallid anti-Elon protest I attended in Boston a few months ago, which drew numbers in the dozens. This event definitely drew thousands. But while there was plenty of anti-Trump stuff, I’m not sure there was any more than a regular Pride parade would have featured...."

Glenn Reynolds reports — with photos — from the Boston "No Kings" event.

Makes me kind of wish I'd walked downtown to get some pictures of the Madison march. I was wary of violence. You never know.

But here's David Blaska covering the Madison event, with photos. Text: "'No Kings,' like many a partisan demonstration, was a BYO punch bowl of Leftist causes: End the War on Drugs. No Public Land Sales. Trans rights. My Body, My Choice. And, unforgivably 'Free Gaza.' No outward support for the Ayatollah, at least. Our favorite placard: 'Local Unpaid Agitator.' Note this well: at least nine of 10 signs were home made. My fellow Republicans will dismiss this as the work of George Soros and his checkbook at their peril...."

"Have you read a less sincere 'apology' than that uttered by Madison WI public schools for its Whites Only and Blacks Only policy?"

Asks David Blaska. 

“This message did not convey our intention in a manner that supports our core values. Our wording in the communication we sent lacked clarity,” said Madison West high school principal Karen Boran. (More here.) 

No, your wording was very clear, madame principal. What’s more, it perfectly conveyed your core values — troubling though they be. You segregated by race school-sponsored discussions of “all the police brutality and violence that is going on in our country and or [sic] communities and even after the verdict on Derek Chauvin and the murder of another young Black female.” 

Further, you indoctrinate political views and woe be any voice raised timidly in dissent.... Madison’s public schools take as a given that America is racist, police are “brutal,” and the police officer who likely saved two black girls from being stabbed to death in Columbus OH is a murderer. 

You “apologized” (if that is what it was) only when threatened with a federal civil rights lawsuit by the WI Institute for Law & Liberty....

"This is clearly about making sure private schools aren’t allowed to show up the [unionized] MTI teachers in the public schools."

Said lawyer Andy Cook, quoted in "Catholic schools will sue Public Health to open as scheduled," (Blaska Policy Werkes).

Shortly after normal office hours on Friday (08-21-2020) Madison/Dane County Public Health issued an order closing down in-school education for students above second grade at private schools for the upcoming school year — matching the voluntary stance taken by area public schools.

"Organizers of an effort to recall Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes Conway began today with the filing of required paperwork with the city clerk."

David Blaska reports, linking to the petition that's now on a 60-day deadline to get 36,203 signatures.

Here's an article in the Wisconsin State Journal about the recall effort:

[Recall petitioner Jon] Rygiewicz said Rhodes-Conway did not keep the city safe when groups of demonstrators tore down statues, beat up state Sen. Tim Carpenter, D-Milwaukee, and another man, and threw a Molotov cocktail into the City-County Building on June 23.

“The sheriff said it was unsafe because of rioting and looting and senators getting beat up and things getting trashed and (the City-County Building) getting firebombs thrown in them,” Rygiewicz said. “And nothing was done to stop that at that time.”

"These iconoclasts appeared on the Capitol Square to cover over the hate graffiti inspired by the fire bombers, looters, and window smashers."

"Their target was the WI Veterans Museum on W. Mifflin Street, which had been vandalized by the Free Yeshua Musa/Mayor Satya anarchists. The message of this motley group ran counter to the anarchists who toppled the statues of Freedom Fighter Hans Christian Heg, who gave his life fighting slavery and secession, and of Miss Forward, exemplar of strong womanhood 20 years before female suffragism. Or the beatdown of State Sen. Tim Carpenter, D-Milwaukee. Or the fire bombing of the City County Building.... Let’s just say the small gaggle of contrarians who posted signs declaring 'We Support Our Madison Police' were confronted with F-bombers worthy... As soon as the signs supporting police went up, many were torn down...."

Writes David Blaska, about his counter-protest activities in downtown Madison. Photos at the link.

"A serious recall effort is about to begin to remove Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes Conway from office...."

"A tall order but the people of Madison are tired of the wanton destruction, physical violence, and harassment and general kowtowing. They are sickened by a Progressive Dane mayor who apologizes to the mob for apologizing to the police. Who demanded the immediate release of accused shakedown artist and convicted felon Devonere A. Johnson. Who will yank four minority race police from our four troubled high schools despite surveys showing at least 75% of parents WANT school resource officers. Tonight, with the connivance of the mayor, an intimidated school board [ended] the popular program...."

Writes David Blaska (with an update, in brackets, added by me).

"[S]ome miscreant(s) erected 50 signs declaring 'We Support Our Madison Police' on the lawn nearby the 'Forward!' statue’s base, that being on the State Street side of the Capitol."

"The mischief-makers, it would appear, do not believe that Madison police are institutionally racist. (In contrast to the folks who put up this ugliness on the boarded-up window of the State Historical Society directly across Carroll Street. We will not blot an otherwise beautiful blog post but you can see it here. Parental discretion advised. N.S.F.W.)"

Writes David Blaska, displaying a picture of the "We Support Our Madison Police" — which were gone this morning when we drove by — and declining to display this:



I'd been meaning to get a picture of that for you adults, so thanks to David for doing the dirty work.

"This is liberal governance for you: Miss Forward, the seven-foot statue of a strong and proud woman standing at the prow of a boat as if to direct Wisconsin into the bright future, toppled...."

"Here are your civil rights: A liberal state senator, Tim Carpenter, D-Milwaukee, pummeled for trying to record the carnage. All because a petty criminal with a lengthy rap sheet resists arrest — an arrest for harassing and threatening with bullhorn and a baseball bat) at point-blank range innocent restaurant-goers? Accusing random diners of unproven racism? This is your hero? This is your George Floyd?... If Tony Evers does not call in the National Guard today he should be removed from office. It is too late for Mayor Satya Rhodes Conway, the mayor of Madison who apologized for sympathizing with Madison’s tormented police. Who has directed the police innumerable times to stand down. She must, herself, stand down.... Where is Dane County Executive Joe Parisi? The City-County Building was firebombed Wednesday night? Why hasn’t Sheriff Dave Mahoney deployed his deputies? Madison is burning. Where were the Capitol Police? The police union must declare a vote of No Confidence in the mayor.... It is the Broken Windows theory of crime; give an inch and they take a mile. There is no way to satisfy the anarchists’ demands. Madison is doing its best to re-elect Donald Trump. How long before The Proud Boys, the Boogaloo Bois, et cetera show up in town?"

Says David Blaska in "Resign, Mayor Satya. Declare martial law, Gov. Evers!"

That last question is chilling, and isn't that what the protesters want? No one who opposes the chaos should hope for the right-wing crowd to add to this discord. Our own government should protect us, but it is displaying its unwillingness to do so. This is completely unfair to those of us who are peace-loving.

UPDATE: "Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers says his administration is prepared to activate the Wisconsin National Guard to protect state buildings after statues were toppled in Madison and buildings were damaged" (WBAY). Prepared... after.

"Day 10 of protests ends with 'defund police' painted on road leading to [the Wisconsin] Capitol."

The Wisconsin State Journal reports.

Protesters painted "defund police" in giant letters on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard Monday night. The street leads from the state Capitol to Monona Terrace, passing between the Madison Municipal Building and City-County Building, at top.

We're told this was "without city permission," but I think that has to be read to mean without explicit city permission. Something that conspicuous — taking that much effort, in that location — is actively condoned. It had the tacit permission of the city.

Also at the link are other photos of the 10th day of protests. Based on the photographs, I would say that the protesters are overwhelmingly white and overwhelmingly female.

If I were still the sort of person who roams around inside protests and talks to people, I would ask them how they would harmonize the #MeToo movement with defunding the police. A year ago, there was so much of a push to get men arrested for things that used to be ignored. Then, the slogan was "Time's up." We were never going back. Is time up on Time's Up?

I remember when it was a big feminist goal to force the police to take domestic violence so seriously that they were required to arrest someone when they answered a call. It became the statutory law here in Wisconsin. I'd like to ask the female protesters whether they ever supported that law and if they did whether they will now declare it to have been a mistake — a racist mistake.

ADDED: In "If they can, why can’t we?," David Blaska muses about painting over the "u" in "DEFUND THE POLICE." Changing the "U" to an "E" would flip the message: "Call it a little editing. Call it vandalizing the vandalism. Call it free speech. Call it civil disobedience. Call it a profile in courage or social suicide in the super-heated atmosphere of progressive Madison. Call a lawyer."

"Did it say, oh, you need thanks also? Sorry, I forgot you. I want to tell you thanks..."

I attempt to answer Meade's question whether I got his texted link to something about Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway. Meade said: "You got it."

Here's the thing — a blog post by David Blaska, "Mayor Satya tries to make nice with police."

"What was Sheriff Mahoney’s reward for being sufficiently 'woke'? The social justice warriors stormed his home Tuesday..."

"... his private residence, where he lives with his family — to pretty it up with their anti-cop doggerel. Those included demands that all black jail inmates be released forthwith. At least they did not vandalize his house. But it is trespassing."

Writes David Blaska.

"On Sunday, both Republican and Democratic lawmakers singled out umbrella groups including 'Antifa' and 'Boogaloo' as playing a role in the violence nationwide...."

"According to the Anti-Defamation League, 'a variety of extremist and fringe movements and subcultures have adopted the word "Boogaloo" as shorthand for a future civil war,' and that 'white supremacists are particularly apt to use' the term because 'they seek the violent collapse of modern society in order to bring about a new, white-dominated world.' Antifa, short for anti-fascists, is a 'loose collection of local/regional groups and individuals,' including anti-police anarchists, whose 'presence at a protest is intended to intimidate and dissuade racists' and white supremacists, according to the ADL. Antifa tactics 'can create a vicious, self-defeating cycle of attacks, counterattacks and blame,' the ADL says. President Donald Trump singled out Antifa on Sunday, tweeting that he was designating it a terrorist organization. 'This is being driven by Antifa,' national security adviser Robert O’Brien said... 'This is a destructive force of radical — I don’t even know if we want to call them leftists. Whatever they are, they’re — they’re militants who are coming in and burning our cities, and we’re going to get to the bottom of it. And as far as our foreign adversaries, look, we always have foreign adversaries who are on Twitter and Facebook and other places trying to sow discord among Americans...."

The Chicago Sun-Times reports.

I'm eager to get the real facts on who's doing what. There's a tendency of people on the left to say that the right-wing extremists are behind this and the people on the right to say it's Antifa. That's unfortunate, but it's the way we live now. It's not helpful to select and spread rumors and theories based on who you want the enemy to be.

ADDED: In my town: "Madison lefties blame Trump supporters for Madison riots" (David Blaska).

"Wisconsin’s decade-long partisan war will once again be on display Friday, as right-wing protesters prepare to mass outside the State Capitol in Madison to assail Mr. Evers and the restrictions he put in place to curb the spread of the virus...."

"Thousands of people have indicated on Facebook that they will attend, making it potentially the largest gathering so far in a nationwide series of protests against stay-at-home restrictions.... 'This seems to have become a proxy war for the state Republican Party and it does have a zombie Tea Party feel to it,' said Charlie Sykes, a longtime conservative talk radio host in Milwaukee who left the airwaves at the end of 2016 and has since turned against Trump-era Republicans. 'This will energize them to think that they’re back on the offensive. They didn’t miss a beat from losing that Supreme Court election and this all seems about mobilizing and firing up the base.'... The organizers of the Madison rally and the two others held last weekend have gone to great lengths to describe themselves and their events as nonpolitical, despite ample evidence that the state’s Republican leadership is intricately involved. They are also trying to prevent the gatherings from becoming a platform for other conservative causes, or from appearing like de facto Trump campaign rallies....  'All indications are that these are manufactured protests,' [Madison Mayor Satya] Rhodes-Conway said. 'They are seeking attention. I think they are getting more attention than they deserve.'"

The NYT reports.

Madison's David Blaska writes:

This just in from the good folks at the New York Times: ‘Reopen Wisconsin’ is FAKE!

Ersatz. Astroturf. Piltdown Man. Hitler’s Diary. Jussie Smollet. No one really thinks America should begin to reopen from the novel coronavirus lockdown! Why, it’s only good common sense that Chicago and Detroit should open a full month before Wisconsin’s North Woods — May 26 for Wisconsin; April 30 for Illinois and Michigan....

Here’s how you know higher powers are NOT behind Friday’s Reopen Wisconsin rally: the dumfuks — a minority of a minority to be certain — will cater to the news media’s biases. They will hoist battle flags, show off their firearms, display placards of Tony in an SS uniform, and eschew face masks. A well financed and managed rally would stay on message. This one will not....

"We took on this campaign to offer a different voice in Madison political life. To quit the blame game. To stop playing identity politics."

"I think we did that but the headline in this morning’s WI State Journal suggests we’ve got a ways to go: 'Winners secure all-female board.'... Fair enough, but the real story is it’s an all-status quo school board. The shocker is that education reformer Kaleem Caire did not make it despite running a textbook campaign.... The teachers union got their endorsements elected. No change for Progressives! Madison will continue to turn behavior issues into racial grievances, will continue to blame the man behind the tree instead of demanding individual accountability. [School superintendent] Jen Cheatham will keep blaming white privilege and shaming her hard-working teachers.... Madison even turned out Paul Soglin in favor of a mayor anointed by Progressive Dane.... Let’s face it: Madison went all Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Tuesday.... We offered real-life solutions rather than blaming nebulous, macro socio-economic conditions, Act 10 or various Koch brothers. Returning control of their classrooms to teachers was, Tuesday’s results show, a bridge too far.... I hope I showed the way. Praying that someone picks up the torch next year. I do believe it will have to get worse before it gets better. Me? I’ve got two motorcycles that need riding, bad. (Which is pretty much how I ride.)"

Writes David Blaska, who lost his bid for a seat on the Madison school board.

"It's been really hard because I have been an ally for a long time and to be rejected this way is very painful."

Said Rob Mueller-Owens, quoted in "In interview, former Whitehorse staffer speaks publicly for the first time since altercation with student" (Capital Times).

"The most painful thing about this besides being betrayed by the school district, the people I worked with — I believed in the agenda that [Madison school superintendent] Jennifer Cheatham and (district administrators) Alex Fralin and Nancy Hanks established for us, and I promoted it and worked toward it as hard as I could — is the leaders in the community who have jumped on the bandwagon that I'm a racist c---, and have said that in their political messaging, their campaigning, their Facebook feeds and all of social media," Mueller-Owens said.... "I never thought my career would end in disgrace, and it didn't have to end that way," Mueller-Owens said.

David Blaska (who is running for a seat on the school board in tomorrow's election) has this blog post on the Cap Times article:

And where were our putative school board leaders? Ducking for cover, as always.

• School Board President Mary Burke declined to comment for this story.
• School Board member TJ Mertz declined to comment
• Cris Carusi, declined to address the claims
• Seat 4 candidate Ali Muldrow [and Blaska’s opponent] was critical of Mueller-Owens’ claims
• Kaleem Caire, who is running for Seat 3 on the board, said he would be open to talking with Mueller-Owens. “(Mueller-Owens) shouldn’t have engaged that young lady like he did,” Caire said. “I think he should feel lucky and thankful that he was able to get a severance and move on with his career.”

"Madison’s school superintendent broke down in tears today (03-20-19) addressing Madison Downtown Rotary."

Writes David Blaska (who is running for a seat on the school board).

God knows, Jennifer Cheatham has walked through the valley of disruption. Three of the last six monthly school board meetings have broken down in chaos — the school board and its administrators driven from the meeting auditorium by raucous social justice warriors wielding the race card. Again this Monday (03-18-19), school district leadership retreated behind closed doors. Main topic on the agenda (irony alert): the overly legalistic behavior education plan — a plan that is more cause than symptom.

The school board that can’t keep order at its own meetings? No wonder the school classrooms erupt in chaos. Then again, when you throw your specially trained “positive behavior coach” under the school bus when he tries to restore order, what do you expect?...

This noon at Rotary (Blaska and the other school board candidates were invited guests), Jen told how her Chicago-born father “came from nothing.” How her parents instilled in her a love for reading, how she drove 2,000 miles cross country to take her first teaching job in the racially mixed East Bay area of California. Inspiring stuff, and I can believe Jen Cheatham was a wonderful teacher. She is a great speaker, with a sprinkling of humor.

Then she spoiled it. Supt. Cheatham attributed her success to “white privilege.”... She told of an African-American mentor at Harvard who told her that female white teachers were “a dime a dozen.” The doctoral candidate apparently internalized that to prove to the professor who controlled her advanced degree that the quaking white girl was as “woke” as any professional grievance monger....

ADDED: The Wisconsin State Journal also covered Cheatham's speech:

"Their message is simple — destructive but simple: Madison schools have a racial achievement gap because Bernie Sanders-loving Madison hates black children."

"[School Board candidates Ali] Muldrow & [Ananda] Mirilli peddled their bilious message during a candidate forum Saturday (03-10-19) at Badger Rock middle school. The event was sponsored by the Freedom Inc. Youth Squad — the same outfit coordinating disruption at the Madison Board of Education these last two years. (On October 29 and February 25.) Their top of the page goal is getting rid of Cops in Schools; their bottom line replaces classroom discipline with race shaming."

Writes David Blaska, another school board candidate, who participated in the forum, and has the video of the entire event. Here's what his opponent, Muldrow, said about him:

“My opponent would like to do all kinds of things to black students: punish them, humiliate them, hurt them, silence them, suspend them, expel them— pretty much anything but teach them. That is theme in Madison: how we blame black children, how we hurt black children, how we get rid of black children, how we do not listen to black children. A lot of people are afraid to have a real conversations about race. We are a society that has always thought black children are unfit for education.”

Blaska transcribes his answer:

"No charges against the positive behavior coach at Whitehorse middle school, says district attorney Ismael Ozanne...."

David Blaska says he's "not surprised," and...

Neither are the mother and grandmother of the black 11-year-old girl who was supposedly manhandled by that white Madison educator. For different reasons.

In a press conference closed to all but accredited news media, Ozanne stated: “I am aware of public narratives about this incident. Some members of our community have coupled this information with their own experience, drawing conclusions that are simply wrong.”...

Afterwards, mother and grandmother told the assembled news media and this blog that Ozanne’s decision was just another cover-up of white racism in Madison, even though the district attorney himself is of mixed race....

We talked about this incident a week ago, here.

Blaska is running for a seat on the school board, and his main issue is maintaining order in the schools. As a citizen trying to speak at school board meetings, he's been shouted down by protesters who characterize him as a racist.

Here's another Blaska post from a couple days ago:

I do pity Jennifer Cheatham, superintendent of Madison schools. Try as she might, she will never be able to bow and scrape low enough to satisfy the social justice warriors.

In the wake of a disciplinary incident at Whitehorse middle school that may well have gotten out of hand, Ms. Cheatham announced a new round of racism re-education camps and a report-your-teacher racism hotline, among other burnt offerings to the goddesses of identity politics....

"Ann has taken note of our travails here in the Madison school district because it resonates nationally."

"Madison is by no means the only town in thrall to identity politics and its culture of victimhood. But we’ve got an especially toxic case," writes David Blaska (who's running for the school board here in Madison).

As of this writing 24 hours later, Ann’s post had generated 149 comments. We excerpt from that commentary here....

Go to the link to see which Althouse commenters got front-paged chez Dave.

"As activists chanted, the Madison School Board left its usual meeting place in the auditorium of the Doyle Administration Building Monday night and finished the rest of its session in a conference room down the hall..."

"... and away from the public and reporters. The rest of the meeting was broadcast via live-stream video in the auditorium of the Doyle Administration Building. Security guards blocked entry into the conference room until the meeting ended and School Board members left the building.... Protests were led by Freedom Inc., the local social justice advocacy group that has been calling on the Madison Metropolitan School District to not renew its contract to have police officers in the city’s four main high schools.... The public comment period during Monday’s meeting was dominated by speakers responding to an incident at Whitehorse Middle School where a staff member allegedly pushed an 11-year-old girl and pulled her braids out.... Rob Mueller-Owens, the staff member facing accusations in the Whitehorse incident, is a positive behavior support coach.... Tensions rose during Monday's public comment period as School Board candidate David Blaska took to the lectern urging the audience to not rush to judgment before the police report was released. 'I think we should see what the situation is,' Blaska said as several members of the audience attempted to shout him down by yelling 'this is white supremacy,' as he spoke.... 'A black baby was brutalized,' said Brandi Grayson, co-founder of the Young, Gifted and Black Coalition...."

From "Madison School Board finishes meeting in private room, broadcasts video, after disruptions," by Negassi Tesfamichael in The Capital Times.

Here's Blaska's blog post, "Madison school board takes cover." Writing about himself in the third person:

... Blaska was speaking heresy to the apostles of the Cult of Victimhood who have indicted an entire school district, its elected school board and its teaching staff of racism most foul here in liberal-progressive-socialist Madison....

Blaska agreed with the idea of accountability and ran with it when it was his three minutes to address the school board. He further suggested that parents and students should also be held accountable. This drew loud opprobrium from the masses behind me, to the effect that such a sentiment evinced white supremacism.