“ELKHORN—A woman who son was shot and killed by a Walworth County sheriff’s deputy in 2012 has settled her lawsuit against the county and deputy for $1.1 million.
Nancy Brown, mother of 22-year-old John Brown, filed suit in U.S. District Court in Milwaukee in May 2013 alleging Deputy Wayne Blanchard used excessive force when he shot her son a year earlier at her town of Lyons home, according to court documents.
She had called police because her bipolar son was suicidal and had locked himself in his room with a knife, according to the complaint she filed.
The settlement, signed Jan. 23, brings the case to a close with the county and Blanchard denying any misconduct, according to a copy of the settlement document obtained by The Gazette.
The payment “is being made for the sole purpose of avoiding the substantial expense of further litigation,” the settlement states.
The settlement will be paid by the county’s insurer, Wisconsin Municipal Mutual Insurance, County Administrator Dave Bretl said Monday.
The shooting is among seven fatal shootings by law enforcement in Walworth County since 2010….
Phil Koss, the district attorney at the time of the shooting, said Blanchard’s actions were justified as self-defense.
[Plaintiff’s attorney Antonio] Romanucci said he and Brown were glad the legal matter was resolved.
“We’re very pleased with the conclusion of this matter, and that we were able to avoid trial with a very substantial settlement,” he said.”
Whitewater’s midweek will be unseasonably warm with a high of sixty-nine. Sunrise is 6:39 AM and sunset 5:36 PM, for 10h 57m 01s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 17.2% of its visible disk illuminated. Today is the {tooltip}one hundred sixth day.{end-texte}Days since Trump’s election, with 11.9.16 as the first day.{end-tooltip}
Whitewater’s Police & Fire Commission is scheduled to meet tonight at 6:30 PM.
George Washington was born on this day in 1732. On this day in 1922, Wisconsin experiences one of the worst ice storms on record, experiencing “ice accumulations of 1-2″, with a few reports of around 4″, built up on trees, poles, and wires. Property damage was a staggering $10 million in Wisconsin.”
Recommended for reading in full —
Annysa Johnson reports that Tony Evers, Lowell Holtz easily advance out of Wisconsin DPI superintendent primary: “Incumbent state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Evers easily placed first in Tuesday’s primary election, earning the right to defend his seat in the April 4 election against voucher advocate Lowell Holtz. Evers, who is seeking a third four-year term, had about 69% of the vote. Holtz, a retired Whitnall School District superintendent, had 23%. And former Dodgeville administrator-turned-part time-consultant John Humphries was third with 7%. The state’s top education post, which pays $120,111 annually, is officially nonpartisan. But Tuesday’s primary sets the stage for a quasi-partisan battle over the direction of education in Wisconsin. It pits a longtime public school advocate favored mostly by Democrats and teachers unions against a pro-school-choice, anti-Common Core candidate backed primarily by Republicans.
Michael Shear and Ron Nixon report that New Trump Deportation Rules Allow Far More Expulsions: “WASHINGTON — President Trump has directed his administration to enforce the nation’s immigration laws more aggressively, unleashing the full force of the federal government to find, arrest and deport those in the country illegally, regardless of whether they have committed serious crimes. Documents released on Tuesday by the Department of Homeland Security revealed the broad scope of the president’s ambitions: to publicize crimes by undocumented immigrants; strip such immigrants of privacy protections; enlist local police officers as enforcers; erect new detention facilities; discourage asylum seekers; and, ultimately, speed up deportations. The new enforcement policies put into practice language that Mr. Trump used on the campaign trail, vastly expanding the definition of “criminal aliens” and warning that such unauthorized immigrants “routinely victimize Americans,” disregard the “rule of law and pose a threat” to people in communities across the United States. Despite those assertions in the new documents, research shows lower levels of crime among immigrants than among native-born Americans.”
Jenna Portnoy reports that The women got up in Brat’s grill, and then some: “BLACKSTONE, Va. — Rep. Dave Brat (R-Va.), who drew national notice after complaining that women were “in my grill” because he was reluctant to hold a town hall meeting, finally relented and came face to face with those women — and plenty others — at a raucous public event Tuesday night. [“The women are in my grill no matter where I go,” Brat says ] Brat held the meeting in a tiny town in Nottoway County, a rural community carried by Trump in November. It’s about an hour south of where most in Brat’s district live, but that didn’t stop a stream of people from driving into town and filling up the town hall, with scores shut out on the sidewalk. For a little more than an hour, Brat was heckled nonstop as he fielded questions on health care, President Trump’s policies and the border wall. His answers seemed to antagonize most in the crowd of 150, who yelled back at him, at points drowning him out and prompting a few of his supporters to leave early in disgust.”
Roger Cohen describes The Russification of America: “For me, the most troubling thing was finding myself unsure who was more credible — Pence or Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister. The Russification of America under Trump has proceeded apace. Vladimir Putin’s macho authoritarianism, disdain for the press, and mockery of the truth has installed itself on the Potomac. Putin is only the latest exponent of what John le Carré called “the classic, timeless, all-Russian, barefaced, whopping lie” and what Joseph Conrad before him called Russian officialdom’s “almost sublime disdain for the truth.” The Russian system under Putin is a false democracy based on a Potemkin village of props — political parties, media, judiciary — that are the fig leaf covering repression or elimination of opponents. Russia runs on lies. It’s alternative-fact central (you know, there are no Russian troops in Ukraine). But what happens when the United States begins to be infected with Russian disease?”
On November 18th, I posted on a National-Local Mix, that combination of topics that a blogger might consider under Trump. The need to think about a national-local mix was obvious enough: “Trump is a fundamentally different candidate from those who have come before him. Not grasping this would be obtuse. Writing only about sewing circles or local clubs or a single local meeting while ignoring Trump’s vast power as president – and what it will bring about – would be odd. Someone in Tuscany, circa 1925, had more to write about than the countryside.”
To say I’m opposed to Trump, if it had to be said, would be an understatement.
How, though, does one go about deciding what to write about politics, sometimes national, sometimes local?
I’d say there are three steps: (1) be clear about one’s own political beliefs, and find the challenges to those beliefs in (2) national and (3) local policy.
(In this method, finding the challenges is actually a sign of optimism, as it assumes the more easily enumerated group is what’s wrong; if the smaller, more easily counted items were what’s right, then a community would be in truly terrible shape. Most matters in life are not political, and Whitewater in particular would do well to abandon a failed political culture. See, An Oasis Strategy.)
Here’s how those three steps look, in my (libertarian) case —
Political beliefs: individual liberty, limited government, free markets in capital, labor & goods, sound reasoning, peace.
National challenges: authoritarianism, nativism, mendacity, conflicts of interest, poor reasoning, government intervention for businesses, subservience & admiration of Putinism (this last being both a matter of domestic and foreign policy).
Local challenges: closed government, self-interested leadership, grandiosity, conflicts of interest, poor reasoning, government intervention for businesses, and factionalism & lack of community-based enforcement.
Other people would start with different beliefs, and so find different challenges. From the concerns they listed, one would have topics to address that derive from these concerns.
That some officials might have trouble making a list of their own principles (where principles mean more than self-interest) is much to their detriment.
Here in Wisconsin it’s election day in the Spring Primary; two (Holtz, Humphries) of the state superintendent candidates call each other liars. Well done, candid politicians, well done. In Whitewater, we’ll have a day of morning clouds and afternoon sunshine, with a high of sixty-two. Sunrise is 6:41 AM and sunset 5:35 PM, for 10h 54m 12s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 25.6% of its visible disk illuminated. Today is the {tooltip}one hundred fifth day.{end-texte}Days since Trump’s election, with 11.9.16 as the first day.{end-tooltip}
On this day in 1885. the Washington monument is dedicated. On this day in 1918, the Wisconsin Assembly rejects (by a 76-15 margin) a denunciation of Sen. Robert LaFollette and the nine Wisconsin congressmen who refused to support World War I.
Recommended for reading in full —
Jason Stein reports that Scott Walker’s budget would shrink parole agency to 1 employee: “MADISON – The state’s parole system for roughly 3,000 long-time state inmates would drop from eight employees to just one, under Gov. Scott Walker’s budget proposal. As a lawmaker in the late 1990s, Walker championed the state’s truth in sentencing law to ensure tough sentences on convicted criminals. Now as governor, Walker wants to sharply downsize the system for handling the potential release of state inmates who are still subject to the rules that were in effect prior to the debut of truth in sentencing in 2000. The move is in keeping with other actions of the governor, such as his decision not to issue pardons. If the state loses some of its staff experienced in judging the risk of paroling inmates, the effect will likely be more people remaining in prison for longer, Madison attorney Lester Pines said.”
Michael Rosenwald reports on Trump’s dislike for Camp David in Mar-a-Lago 3, Camp David 0. With Trump as president, is the rustic Md. retreat doomed?: “THURMONT, Md. — Dwayne Snurr, a janitor and lifelong resident of this rural, working-class town 60 miles from the White House, was eating chicken wings in a cafe off Main Street last week when he began chewing over a locally important subject: President Trump’s taste in vacations. “I guess he’s got that place down in Florida,” Snurr said, referring to Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Palm Beach resort. “When you have a place like that, I have to assume you prefer the beach and nice weather.” Trump’s Florida compound and his other gold-laden properties have been top of mind lately in Thurmont, where just a few miles up a winding mountain road presidents have vacationed and cajoled world leaders at Camp David — deep in the woods, in cozy cabins, a total anathema to Trump. “Camp David is very rustic, it’s nice, you’d like it,” Trump said in an interview with a European journalist just before taking office. “You know how long you’d like it? For about 30 minutes.”
Peter Baker and Sewell Chan describe the process From an Anchor’s Lips to Trump’s Ears to Sweden’s Disbelief: “….in that moment was born a diplomatic incident that illustrates the unusual approach that President Trump takes to foreign policy, as well as the influence that television can have on his thinking. After watching the program, Mr. Trump threw a line into a speech the next day suggesting that a terrorist attack had occurred in Sweden the night before. Just like that, without white papers, intelligence reports, an interagency meeting or, presumably, the advice of his secretary of state, the president started a dispute with a longtime American friend that resented his characterization and called it false. The president’s only discernible goal was to make the case domestically for his plans to restrict entry to the United States.The Swedes were flabbergasted.“We are used to seeing the president of the U.S. as one of the most well-informed persons in the world, also well aware of the importance of what he says,” Carl Bildt, a former prime minister of Sweden, said by email on Monday. “And then, suddenly, we see him engaging in misinformation and slander against a truly friendly country, obviously relying on sources of a quality that at best could be described as dubious.”
Greg Jaffe describers For a Trump adviser, an odyssey from the fringes of Washington to the center of power: “[Sebastain] Gorka is a deputy assistant to the president. He reports to Stephen K. Bannon, Trump’s chief strategist, and is a member of his Strategic Initiatives Group. Bannon has spoken in similarly apocalyptic terms of a “new barbarity” that threatens the Christian West. Most counterterrorism experts dismiss Gorka’s ideas as a dangerous oversimplification that could alienate Muslim allies and boost support for terrorist groups. “He thinks the government and intelligence agencies don’t know anything about radicalization, but the government knows a lot and thinks he’s nuts,” said Cindy Storer, a former CIA analyst who developed the agency models that trace the path from religious zealotry to violence. Religious scholars are equally withering. “I can’t overstate how profoundly dangerous this is,” said Omid Safi, a professor of Middle Eastern studies at Duke University. “This is music to the ears of [the Islamic State]. This is what they seek.”
We’re in the early days of Trump, and we’ve likely a long and difficult way to go. (My daily count runs from 11.9, so it’s not as early from my vantage.) Even now, however, a solid resistance is forming across the country, including in red states that Trump supporters might otherwise consider unshakably Trump’s. (There is little, in the end, that will prove unshakably Trump’s.)
Last week, videos went viral of people expressing anger and dismay over the possible repeal of the Affordable Care Act during the town hall in Tennessee, a state Trump won by a double-digit margin. So did footage of an angry crowd yelling “Do your job!” at Republican congressman and House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz at a town hall in Utah….
In the end, GOP lawmakers will likely be more motivated to act if they believe the demands are coming from a significant number of their constituents. Aguirre, who said he never attended a protest before the election, noted that Utah Indivisible is composed of Democrats, Republicans and Libertarians. “We’re a group of people who are all extremely pissed off,” he explained. Amanda Gormley, a 34-year-old Arizona Democrat and spokesperson for PN Tucson, which formed in opposition to Trump’s election, said her organization is “open to talking to conservatives.” But she clarified that’s not the group’s first priority. Instead, members will focus on encouraging people who voted against Trump to step up their civic engagement.
A few quick points about all this:
For some who oppose Trump (myself included) opposition has nothing to do with being a Democrat, but rather with independent views. Opposition will require a grand coalition from among many, regardless of party.
Foran’s article describes one method of active opposition – one that looks like the Tea Party protests in some respects – but one method is only one method. For every person who attends a rally, there may be many others who write letters and emails, who walk door-to-door, publish posts, etc.
Local, small-town politicians often assume that how they have done something is how others should do something. So, if there’s never been a rally, they react with alarm to a rally (“this can’t be!”) and if no one nearby has ever written a blog, they insist that it’s simply impermissible to do so. (For an aspect of the latter from here in Whitewater, see An Anecdote About an Appeal to (but not of) Authority).
Very few human events move in a straight line; resistance to Trump can expect setbacks and significant losses along the way. One should be Neither Shocked Nor Awed.
Significantly, this leaves unaddressed the problem of local officials who are, in effect if not avowedly, Trump surrogates. A resistance to Trump nationally that lets local officials carry on as Trump does is a half-resistance. Forming principles for opposition both nationally and locally is necessary.
Monday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy, with a chance of afternoon & evening showers, and a high of sixty-three. Sunrise is 6:42 AM and sunset 5:34 PM, for 10h 51m 24s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 34% of its visible disk illuminated. Today is the {tooltip}one hundred fourth day.{end-texte}Days since Trump’s election, with 11.9.16 as the first day.{end-tooltip}
On this day in 1792, Pres. Washington signs the Postal Service Act, establishing the United States Post Office Department. On this day in 1863, Company A of the 10th Wisconsin Infantry began training as sharpshooters in Madison, Wisconsin.
Recommended for reading in full —
Annie Armstrong interviews Ex-Neo Nazis [to] Explain What’s Driving the Alt-Right: “Do you feel like if that hadn’t have happened, your old self could have identified with the alt-right? Frank Meeink: Oh, absolutely. It’s the same movement. It’s just cleaned up; it’s well-spoken. They preach exactly the same stuff that I used to preach. Exactly the same stuff. Angela King: The alt-right does not exist. It’s nothing more than white supremacists who have repackaged the hate and served it up in a more palatable form for human consumption.”
Josh Marshall describes The American Experiment in Exile: “The historic oddity of this situation points to a common dynamic Americans now face at home and abroad. Our partners in the international order we created – some of whom we conquered to make it possible – are now seeking to defend it from us. Let’s say that again, Defend it from us. How do we now as loyal Americans look at the warnings of the French and the Germans, as well as the British and our other erstwhile allies’ warnings? This is a complicated question which different people, depending on their professions and governmental responsibilities and personal dispositions, must answer in different ways. But we cannot ignore the fact that the American experiment is now in a kind of exile – taken refuge elsewhere – and the executive power of the American state now under a kind of, hopefully temporary, occupation. We face a comparable dynamic at home. I have been thinking for weeks that the central challenge and reality of the Trump Era is what do you do as an institutionalist when the central institutions of the state have been taken over, albeit democratically, by what amount to pirates, people who want to destroy them? To put it another way, do the institutions and norms which Trump and his gang are trying to destroy become shackles and obstacles in the way of those trying to defend them? There’s no easy answers to these questions.
Kristina Rizga explains Why Teaching Civics in America’s Classrooms Must Be a Trump-Era Priority: “In 2011, all federal funding for civics and social studies was eliminated. Some state and local funding dropped, too, forcing many cash-strapped districts to prioritize math and English—the subjects most prominently featured in standardized tests. A study by George Washington University’s Center on Education Policy found that between 2001 and 2007, 36 percent of districts decreased elementary classroom time spent on social studies, including civics—a drop that most affected underfunded schools serving working-class, poor, rural, and inner-city kids.*
Charles F. Gardner reports on the NBA All-Star Game: West prevails; Giannis leads East: “NEW ORLEANS – The Greek Freak put on a show in his all-star debut. Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo scored a team-high 30 points and pounded home some crowd-pleasing dunks, but the Western Conference all-stars pulled away in the final quarter for a 192-182 victory over the East in the NBA All-Star Game at the Smoothie King Center. New Orleans forward Anthony Davis set an NBA All-Star Game record with 52 points to lead the West, beating the mark of 42 points set by Wilt Chamberlain in 1962. Russell Westbrook just missed beating Chamberlain’s mark, scoring 41 points. Antetokounmpo was impressive with 14-of-17 shooting on layups and dunks. He attempted a single three-pointer and missed it. He scored in the last second to reach the 30-point mark, the most scored by a Bucks player in an NBA All-Star Game. He also had six rebounds, three steals and one assist while playing 23 minutes.”
Sunday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of sixty-three. Sunrise is 6:44 AM and sunset 5:32 PM, for 10h 48m 36s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 42.8% of its visible disk illuminated. Today is the {tooltip}one hundred third day.{end-texte}Days since Trump’s election, with 11.9.16 as the first day.{end-tooltip}
On this day in 1473, astronomer and mathematician Nicolaus Copernicus is born in Toru?, Poland. On this day in 1863, photographer Edward S. Curtis is born near Whitewater.
Recommended for reading in full —
Patrick Marley reports that Wisconsin gives cash to Lincoln Hills guards fired for excessive force (on juvenile inmates): “MADISON – For the second and third times, Gov. Scott Walker’s administration has given cash settlements to guards who it determined had used excessive force on juvenile inmates, state records show. The payoffs — including one totaling $9,000 — were reached as the FBI continues a criminal investigation of Lincoln Hills School for Boys and Copper Lake School for Girls, which share a campus 30 miles north of Wausau. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel last year reported officials at the prison complex trained staff improperly, failed to preserve video evidence, didn’t document serious incidents and often shirked their duty to report matters to parents, police and social service agencies. State Sen. Jon Erpenbach (D-Middleton) said he wants the Walker administration to explain why it is cutting deals after disciplining employees. “Either they had a weak case going in or they had a strong case but they suddenly lost their backbone,” he said. “Neither one is good.”
Darren Samuelsohn and Annie Karni report on a Leaked Trump tape: ‘You are the special people’ (Exclusive audio shows how Trump lets loose at his clubs — inviting guests to join him on staff interviews): “President Donald Trump, living alone inside the White House, often hungers for friendly interaction as he adjusts to the difficult work of governance. At his clubs, he finds what’s missing. That showed last November at a cocktail and dinner reception celebrating longtime members of his Bedminster, New Jersey golf club. Deep into the process of meeting potential Cabinet nominees, the president-elect invited partygoers to stop by the next day to join the excitement. “We’re doing a lot of interviews tomorrow — generals, dictators, we have everything,” Trump told the crowd, according to an audio tape of his closed-press remarks obtained by POLITICO from a source in the room. “You may wanna come around. It’ll be fun. We’re really working tomorrow. We have meetings every 15, 20 minutes with different people that will form our government.” “We’re going to be interviewing everybody — Treasury, we’re going to be interviewing Secretary of State,” he continued. “We have everybody coming in — if you want to come around, it’s going to be unbelievable….so you might want to come along.”
The New York Times editorial board fittingly describes President Trump, White House Apprentice: “It’s with a whiff of desperation that President Trump insists these days that he’s the chief executive Washington needs, the decisive dealmaker who, as he said during the campaign, “alone can fix it.” What America has seen so far is an inept White House led by a celebrity apprentice….“Everything he rolls out is done so badly,” Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian, marveled recently. “They’re just releasing comments, tweets and policies willy-nilly.”
Saturday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of sixty. Sunrise is 6:45 AM and sunset 5:31 PM, for 10h 45m 49s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 52.4% of its visible disk illuminated.Today is the {tooltip}one hundred first day.{end-texte}Days since Trump’s election, with 11.9.16 as the first day.{end-tooltip}
Rebecca Carballo reports that Cooperative mergers reduce options for dairy farmers in Wisconsin: “The number of dairy cooperatives in Wisconsin continues to shrink, leaving dairy farmers in the state with fewer options for selling their milk, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s most recent cooperative statistics reports. The number of agriculture cooperatives headquartered in Wisconsin dropped from 180 in 2000 to 113 in 2015. Of those, dairy cooperatives headquartered in Wisconsin dropped from 31 to 21 in that same period. The explanation for the shrinkage is simple but problematic for smaller dairy farms: Cooperatives across the agricultural industry are consolidating. Darin Von Ruden, Westby dairy farmer and president of the Wisconsin Farmers Union, finds the increasing number of cooperative mergers worrisome, noting consolidation was especially prevalent in northwestern Wisconsin. “We have fewer and fewer places we can sell our products to,” Von Ruden said. “We’re lucky in southwest Wisconsin we have a few different places, but it’s a different story in the northwest.” He added that cooperatives such as Dairy Farmers of America have become “marketing giants” in the southwest part of the U.S. “If that’s the way they’re going to carry on their business around the rest of the country, that is a scary thought for the 50- to 100-cow operators,” Von Ruden said.”
Emily Guskin and Scott Clement interview independent voters for ‘What the hell is he doing on Twitter and watching cable TV all the time?’: Eight independents talk Trump: “Tom Barnett, an independent from Binghamton, N.Y.,said he disapproves of Trump but not strongly, feeling the newly elected president is acting too quickly on some policies. “Sure you make promises, but he’s moving way too fast,” Barnett said. On the travel ban, Barnett said: “I think it’s too quick; he should have looked more into it. And deporting a lot of these people; I don’t think that’s right. Even if they did make a mistake in their lives.” The 51-year-old Barnett also has problems with Trump’s media habits and temperament. “What the hell is he doing on Twitter and watching cable TV all the time?” he asked. “I don’t want a president watching cable TV all the time! That’s my job!” “He’s got very thin skin,” Barnett said, “He can dish it out, but he can’t take it.”
Erin Gloria Ryan sees The Downfall of Kellyanne Conway: “As Kellyanne’s once-forceful cable news denials have disintegrated into whimpers, I can’t say I feel anything for her at all. I don’t mind when people point out how tired she looks. I simply cannot dredge up any sympathy for a person who has acknowledged the structural problems most women face only when she is personally facing them, or used them as derailing tactics when she’s losing an argument. I can’t mourn the downfall of a fair-weather feminist, a woman who has used her power to hurt other women. Ms. Conway made her bed. And now it’s time for her to get some sleep.”
David Frum asks How High Does Russia’s Influence Reach?: “Nobody would care if an incoming national security adviser had confidential conversations with an ambassador of a hostile foreign government before Inauguration Day, if it were believed that the conversations served a legitimate and disinterested public purpose. But that is exactly what is doubted in this case. To put the story in simplest terms: 1) Russian spies hacked Democratic Party communications in order to help elect Donald Trump. 2) Donald Trump welcomed the help, used it, publicly solicited more of it—and was then elected president of the United States. 3) President Obama sanctioned Russia for its pro-Trump espionage. 4) While Russia considered its response, its ambassador spoke with the national security adviser-designate about the sanctions 5) The adviser, Flynn, reportedly asked Russia not to overreact, signaling that the new administration would review the sanctions; Russia did not respond. 6) As president-elect and then president, Donald Trump has indicated that he seeks to lift precisely those sanctions caused by Russia’s espionage work on his behalf.”
It’s a battle between an octopus and a crab, until (at around :55) someone else shows up:
Friday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy and mild, with a high of sixty. Sunrise is 6:47 AM and sunset 5:30 PM, for 10h 43m 03s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 62.2% of its visible disk illuminated. Today is the {tooltip}one hundred first day.{end-texte}Days since Trump’s election, with 11.9.16 as the first day.{end-tooltip}
On this day in 1801, the House of Representatives breaks a tie on the thirty-sixth ballot, and chooses Thomas Jefferson to be president.On this day in 2002, West Allis native Chris Witty wins a gold medal in speed skating’s 1000 meter at the Salt Lake City Olympic Winter Games.
Recommended for reading in full —
Tracy Jan reports that The biggest beneficiaries of the government safety net: working-class whites: “Working-class whites are the biggest beneficiaries of federal poverty-reduction programs, even though blacks and Hispanics have substantially higher rates of poverty, according to a new study to be released Thursday by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Government assistance and tax credits lifted 6.2 million working-class whites out of poverty in 2014, more than any other racial or ethnic demographic. Half of all working-age adults without college degrees lifted out of poverty by safety-net programs are white; nearly a quarter are black and a fifth are Hispanic.
The result does not simply reflect the fact that there are more white people in the country. The percentage of otherwise poor whites lifted from poverty by government safety-net programs is higher, at 44 percent, compared to 35 percent of otherwise poor minorities, the study concluded.”
David Rothkopf describes The Fog of Trump(Come for the chaos, stay for the consequences. The Flynn debacle is just the tip of the iceberg): “Disgraced former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn’s 24 days in office is by almost half a year the shortest tenure of any national security advisor in history. The scandal that brought Flynn down is almost certainly the earliest of real consequence to hit a fledgling presidency. From Flynn’s apparently illegal communications with the Russian government to Trump’s conducting of what should have been secret business in the middle of a dinner party at his Florida club, no White House has ever shown such contempt for the norms of operational security. Trump’s approval rating is the lowest for a new president in the modern era. His disregard for the Constitution has not only gotten him in trouble with the court system earlier than any president in recent memory, but it quite likely gives him the record for being the earliest serial violator of his oath of office ever. No president has ever been enshrouded by anything remotely like the web of conflicts of interest that envelops Trump, who has made being above the law a foundational principle of his presidency. He has done more to shake the confidence and earn the opprobrium of America’s most important allies — from the U.K. to EU and Mexican leaders to Australia — than any president since the United States became a world power.”
Sari Horwitz and Adam Entous report Flynn in FBI interview denied discussing sanctions with Russian ambassador: “Former national security adviser Michael Flynn denied to FBI agents in an interview last month that he had discussed U.S. sanctions against Russia with that country’s ambassador to the United States before President Trump took office, contradicting the contents of intercepted communications collected by intelligence agencies, current and former U.S. officials said. The Jan. 24 interview potentially puts Flynn in legal jeopardy. Lying to the FBI is a felony offense. But several officials said it is unclear whether prosecutors would attempt to bring a case, in part because Flynn may parse the definition of the word “sanctions.” He also followed his denial to the FBI by saying he couldn’t recall all of the conversation, officials said.”
Julie Hirschfeld and Eric Schmitt report that Trump’s Pick to Replace Flynn Turns Down the Job: “Current and former national security officials familiar with the situation, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment, said Mr. Harward had harbored strong reservations from the beginning about taking the post because of Mr. Trump’s unpredictable style and the level of chaos that has engulfed his White House. Those were only underscored this week in the politically charged aftermath of Mr. Flynn’s ouster, despite the attempts of Mr. Trump’s inner circle to allay his concerns. One person briefed on the discussions said that Mr. Harward, who had been interviewing for a different administration post when he was tabbed for the N.S.C., had been startled by media accounts of Mr. Trump telling the deputy national security adviser, who was close to Mr. Flynn, that she could stay in her post. It added to his concerns about working for a mercurial president.”
A Japanese man’s persistence has been rewarded, and after ten years’ time, he’s solved a puzzle that perplexed him. Well done —
I’m libertarian, not liberal, but a quoted remark from some conservative teenagers about liberals caught my attention. In an essay in the New York Times (Why Rural America Voted for Trump), Robert Leonard describes how two conservative eighteen-year olds think of liberals. Here’s the essay’s introductory paragraph, containing the quote:
Knoxville, Iowa — One recent morning, I sat near two young men at a coffee shop here whom I’ve known since they were little boys. Now about 18, they pushed away from the table, and one said: “Let’s go to work. Let the liberals sleep in.” The other nodded.
Perhaps some liberals find this unfair or irritating, but I’ll leave them to their own assessment. Here’s what matters about the teenagers’ remark: they’re assuming their ideological opponents are lazy, and there are few greater mistakes than assuming weakness in one’s political opponents.
On the contrary, the better approach is to assume strength, skill, and tenacity in one’s opponents, and to prepare oneself to face capable adversaries.
Although one’s opponents might be lazy – and should be called out accordingly if that should prove true – one should prepare to face them as though they were industrious, relentless, insatiable. I’ve never prepared for any exchange in my life as though the other side were weak; one prepares as best one can under the assumption that a political adversary is formidable.
A liberal might look at the boys’ remark and take umbrage, but anyone (conservative, liberal, or libertarian) should look at it and notice instead the risk of underestimating others.
A candidate for state superintendent offered an opponent a taxpayer-funded $150,000 job if he dropped out of the race and sought the same for himself if he were the one to drop out, his challenger alleged Wednesday.
Candidate John Humphries said in an interview with the Wisconsin State Journal that during discussions between him and opponent Lowell Holtz, Holtz proposed in writing that either he or Humphries should drop out in exchange for the guaranteed three-year job with the Department of Public Instruction should one of them defeat incumbent Tony Evers in the general election.
But Holtz said in an interview with the State Journal that the proposal — including a driver, benefits and sweeping control over several urban school districts, including Madison — was a “rough draft” of ideas assembled at the request of business leaders he declined to name of how the two conservative candidates could work together instead of running against each other. Both candidates said the proposal went nowhere.
Holtz said the proposal was intended for consideration after the primary, but Humphries said Holtz meant for it to be weighed before the race even began and contemplated scenarios under which one or the other candidate would drop out.
Each sought to make his case with dueling documents released Wednesday, although it was impossible to ascertain whether either had been altered.
“ELKHORN—A woman who son was shot and killed by a Walworth County sheriff’s deputy in 2012 has settled her lawsuit against the county and deputy for $1.1 million.