Author Archive for JOHN ADAMS
City, Daily Bread, History, Photography, Technology
Daily Bread for 2.12.23: A History Of The World According To Getty Images
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Sunday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 43. Sunrise is 6:54 AM and sunset 5:23 PM for 10h 28m 14s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 60.7% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1924, George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue received its premiere in a concert titled “An Experiment in Modern Music,” in Aeolian Hall, New York, by Paul Whiteman and his band, with Gershwin playing the piano.
A History of the World According to Getty Images:
Japan will allow self-driving delivery robots to roam its streets to combat labour shortages:
Whitewater could have these robots, too. ATVs and UTVs are good transportation options for Whitewater, but we can expand yet further. Closer to home, Madison has delivery robots:
What’s the matter, all you smooth-talking heels development gurus?
You gentlemen don’t look like you’re getting any younger. Here’s your chance, finally, to develop something useful.
Bad Ideas, Business, Daily Bread, Dog-Crap Company, Foxconn, Labor, Wisconsin
Daily Bread for 2.11.23: Foxconn Accused of Stealing from Its Own Wisconsin Employees
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Saturday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 43. Sunrise is 6:56 AM and sunset 5:21 PM for 10h 25m 34s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 70.9% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1812, Massachusetts governor Elbridge Gerry is accused of “gerrymandering” for the first time.
Trump has called Foxconn in Wisconsin the ‘eighth wonder of the world,’ and so one can surmise that he considered a world wonder includes allegations of stealing from employees. Honest to goodness, what a dog-crap company. (Most companies are never accused of wage theft.)
Evan Casey reports Former Foxconn Employee Alleges Company Commits Wage Theft (‘Company is alleged to be altering time sheets’):
A new lawsuit claims employees working for Foxconn at its Mount Pleasant facility were underpaid because the company routinely shaved time off timesheets.
The federal class action lawsuit was filed this week by Scotty Allen, a former employee of FII USA, Inc., or Foxconn Industrial Internet U.S.A. The lawsuit alleges Allen was fired because he complained to his bosses that the company was changing the “clock in” and “clock out” times for him and other employees.
….
Foxconn initially planned to invest $10 billion on a large flat-screen manufacturing plant in Mount Pleasant and employ 13,000 people. Those plans never came to fruition, and a far smaller manufacturing facility now operates on the site.
A person of normal ability should have seen from the beginning that Foxconn in Wisconsin’s entire premise was dodgy. One might say, confidently, even mega, ultra, uber dodgy. In Whitewater, the ‘Greater’ Whitewater Committee (a business lobby) once hosted a state employee flacking for the project during the Walker Administration. No one ever made a place greater with lesser ideas.
Foxconn was a dumb idea when the project was proposed, when it began, and ever since.
FREE WHITEWATER has an entire category dedicated to the Foxconn fiasco.
Puppy Turns Shift Around For Starbucks Baristas:
Daily Bread, Putin, Russia, Ukraine, War
Daily Bread for 2.10.23: Russia One Year Later
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Friday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 29. Sunrise is 6:57 AM and sunset 5:20 PM for 10h 22m 55s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 80.2% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1861, Jefferson Davis is notified by telegraph that he has been chosen as provisional president of the Confederate States of America.
2.10.2022:
2.10.2023:
The vast Russian dictatorship was so certain of itself a year ago…
[spacer height=”625px”]Cats
Friday Catblogging: Sigrid Rides through London
by JOHN ADAMS •
City, Film
Film: Tuesday, February 14th, 1:00 PM @ Seniors in the Park, Tár
by JOHN ADAMS •
Tuesday, February 14th at 1:00 PM, there will be a showing of Tár @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin Community Building:
Biography/Drama/Music
Rated R (Language, brief nudity); 2 hours, 38 minutes (2022)
Lydia Tár (Cate Blanchett), the principal conductor for the Berlin Philharmonic, is one of the most respected artists in the world. She has composed music for stage, film and television. What happens when a world renowned artist becomes overwhelmed by fame, responsibilities, society and her own personal expectations?
Nominated for Golden Globe Best Film, Screenplay and Actress.
One can find more information about Tár at the Internet Movie Database.
City, Culture, Daily Bread, University, Wisconsin
Daily Bread for 2.9.23: Whitewater as the Most Collegiate City in Wisconsin
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Thursday in Whitewater will see a mix of rain and snow with a high of 35. Sunrise is 6:58 AM and sunset 5:19 PM for 10h 20m 17s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 87.5% of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Alcohol Licensing Committee meets at 2 PM.
On this day in 1870, President Grant signs a joint resolution of Congress establishing the U.S. Weather Bureau.
The Washington Post has a 50-state survey of which town in each state has the most college students as a percentage of the city (where the examination was among cities). The Post calls those places the ‘collegiest‘ towns in each state. (The most collegiate places would have worked well enough.)
UW-Whitewater, unsurprisingly, has the most college students in Wisconsin as a percentage of its home city. Whitewater, Wisconsin ranks high — 8th — on the Post‘s national list.
The high percentage of students has not, however, aided efforts to overcome town-gown conflicts. On the contrary, the non-student population includes a fair number of residents who’d rather Whitewater had no campus at all. Those who have worked on bringing campus and town closer have mostly failed. They’ve tried hard, some of them, but their efforts have produced little. Whitewater has a faction that deprecates college life, ridicules a college education, and insists that this town would be fine with no campus. (This hostility is a deflection: the level of child poverty in Whitewater shows that our problems begin at home, so to speak, not on campus.)
Bridging the town-gown divide requires more than wearing royal purple or renting apartments to college students. (Those who see the campus mostly as a money stream, notably the town’s landlords, are among the least insightful about what makes a college a vibrant place, let alone how to bring diverse student and non-student groups together.)
Andrew Van Dam reports The collegiest college town in every state, and more:
A college town for every state
The urban area in each state with the highest share of college students
Table with 5 columns and 52 rows. Currently displaying rows 1 to 52. Sorted descending by column “College students” New York Alfred 4,500 $42,917 Texas Prairie View 6,161 $25,714 Pennsylvania Slippery Rock 6,550 $39,091 Ohio Cedarville 4,204 $55,114 Colorado Air Force Academy 2,833 $67,454 North Carolina Boone 22,323 $31,803 Vermont Middlebury 5,563 $61,181 Wisconsin Whitewater 14,346 $38,957 Washington Pullman 32,940 $31,953 Mississippi Raymond 2,689 $38,321 Georgia Dahlonega 5,588 $43,613 Virginia Lexington 9,435 $66,727 Iowa Ames 65,684 $54,285 Indiana Upland 3,372 $65,000 Kentucky Morehead 6,678 $29,344 Michigan Big Rapids 12,544 $35,086 Oklahoma Stillwater 46,611 $37,189 New Hampshire Plymouth 3,337 $48,274 Missouri Maryville 11,950 $41,913 California Davis 75,447 $79,445 South Dakota Vermillion 11,037 $47,644 Idaho Rexburg 33,423 $44,461 Maine Farmington 3,598 $43,639 Nebraska Wayne 5,545 $45,625 Kansas Manhattan 54,923 $51,735 Wyoming Laramie 31,999 $47,053 Utah Ephraim 5,258 $54,183 Arkansas Arkadelphia 10,124 $34,597 Alabama Troy 15,384 $32,782 Louisiana Ruston 27,098 $32,017 Tennessee Martin 9,765 $37,695 Oregon Corvallis 67,430 $60,401 Illinois Macomb 16,014 $34,986 Arizona Flagstaff 81,904 $62,396 Minnesota Northfield 22,057 $75,417 West Virginia Shepherdstown 4,129 $71,292 South Carolina Denmark 2,730 $32,533 Florida Gainesville 209,103 $49,450 Maryland Princess Anne 10,881 $34,898 Montana Bozeman 52,801 $68,004 Hawaii Laie 14,905 $93,750 Massachusetts North Adams 17,905 $53,470 Connecticut Willimantic 28,564 $48,263 North Dakota Grand Forks 66,770 $53,729 New Mexico Socorro 8,555 $45,982 Puerto Rico Mayagüez 93,482 $16,471 Alaska Northeast Anchorage 29,269 $114,442 Delaware Dover 124,530 $64,464 Nevada West Wendover 4,953 $52,250 Rhode Island Providence 1,237,933 $71,923 New Jersey Browns Mills 37,685 $78,508 District of Columbia Washington 5,083,261 $112,148
Curiosity discovers evidence of water on ancient Mars with ripples and landslide debris:
Congress, Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 2.8.23: The Countess of Georgia’s 14th Congressional District Was Refined as Always
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Wednesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 44. Sunrise is 7:00 AM and sunset 5:17 PM for 10h 17m 41s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 93.32% of its visible disk illuminated.
The Whitewater School Board’s Policy Review Committee meets at 8 AM, and Whitewater’s Police and Fire Commission meets at 7 PM.
On this day in 1950, the Stasi, the secret police force of East Germany, is established
Here are a few photos of Marjorie Taylor Greene from last night’s State of the Union address:
There will be some who will cheer her on as a conservative populist heroine. Some, but not enough: she acted, and dressed, like a mobster’s wife. Her antics remain repulsive to key (that is, normal) constituencies the GOP needs to win.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy is reported to have said of Greene that “I will never leave that woman…I will always take care of her.” (McCarthy was speaking politically, not romantically. Candidly, there is no skepticism of McCarthy deep enough, even from this libertarian blogger, that one would assume McCarthy was describing a romantic connection.)
Best wishes to the 118th Congress.
Cheers erupt as rescuers save family in Syria after deadly earthquake:
Courts, Daily Bread, Elections, Wisconsin
Daily Bread for 2.7.23: A Possibility for the Wisconsin Supreme Court Primary
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Tuesday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 40. Sunrise is 7:01 AM and sunset 5:16 PM for 10h 15m 07s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 97.2% of its visible disk illuminated.
The Whitewater Common Council meets at 6:30 PM.
On this day in 2013, Mississippi officially certifies the Thirteenth Amendment, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment was formally ratified by Mississippi in 1995.
However improbable an outcome, Bill Lueders (writing in the subscription-required Bulwark) observes that the Wisconsin Supreme Court primary on 2.21.23 might produce two winners of the same ideology:
Along with 37 other states, Wisconsin has its voters elect justices to its high court; as in 13 other states, its contests for the seats are nonpartisan. The February 21 primary election for the Wisconsin Supreme Court will decide which two of four candidates will advance to the April 4 general election. There are two conservatives, Daniel Kelly and Jennifer Dorow, and two liberals, Janet Protasiewicz and Everett Mitchell, on the ballot. All are serious contenders: It’s possible the vote will split evenly enough that either the two conservatives or the two liberals are the top two vote-getters.
That means the all-important question of the Wisconsin court’s ideological balance could be settled in the primary, when turnout can be as low as a third of the general election vote. This sliver of the electorate could decide whether liberals or conservatives have a majority as the court heads into a critical moment in its history.
See also The Wisconsin Supreme Court Race.
Possible, but improbable. It seems more likely that one conservative and one center-left candidate will break through, leaving the April 4th election as a right-left contest. For the primary to be so closely contested between the candidates that one ideological faction wins both seats would be quite the shock.
Lueders hits on a probability, however, when he writes that
If either liberal candidate makes it to the April 4 ballot, he or she will be targeted with a wave of attack ads. For Protasiewicz, these will likely focus on decisions she’s made in a quarter century of being a prosecutor and nearly nine years as a judge. Mitchell, meanwhile, has said some dicey things, like arguing, when he was a University of Wisconsin official and not a judge, that people who shoplift from big-box stores should not be prosecuted. There are also allegations of abuse his ex-wife brought forward during a custody dispute over their daughter in 2010; he denies the allegations, and she says she wants to leave them in the past.
A spring campaign between right and left would be expensive and ferocious. (More ferocious, although not more expensive, than 2022 gubernatorial race.)
‘I’ll Keep on Dancing’: Shooting Survivors Return to Ballroom:
Conspiracy Theories, Daily Bread, Elections, Mendacity, Presidential race 2020, Wisconsin
Daily Bread for 2.6.23: Trump Campaign Knew It Lost Wisconsin in 2020, So It Prepared to Lie
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Monday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 41. Sunrise is 7:02 AM and sunset 5:15 PM for 10h 12m 33s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 99.5% of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Equal Opportunities Commission meets at 5 PM.
On this day in 1778, in Paris the Treaty of Alliance and the Treaty of Amity and Commerce are signed by the United States and France signaling official recognition of the new republic.
Scott Bauer reports Trump campaign staff on 2020 election lies: ‘fan the flame’:
A newly released audio recording offers a behind-the-scenes look at how former President Donald Trump’s campaign team in a pivotal battleground state knew they had been outflanked by Democrats in the 2020 presidential election. But even as they acknowledged defeat, they pivoted to allegations of widespread fraud that were ultimately debunked — repeatedly — by elections officials and the courts.
The audio from Nov. 5, 2020, two days after the election, is surfacing as Trump again seeks the White House while continuing to lie about the legitimacy of the outcome and Democrat Joe Biden’s win.
The Wisconsin political operatives in the strategy session even praised Democratic turnout efforts in the state’s largest counties and appeared to joke about their efforts to engage Black voters, according to the recording obtained Thursday by The Associated Press. The audio centers on Andrew Iverson, who was the head of Trump’s campaign in the state.
“Here’s the drill: Comms is going to continue to fan the flame and get the word out about Democrats trying to steal this election. We’ll do whatever they need (inaudible) help with. Just be on standby in case there’s any stunts we need to pull,” Iverson said.
Emphasis added.
See audio with quoted remarks at https://www.nbc15.com/video/2023/02/03/audio-trump-campaign-staff-2020-election-lies-fan-flame/
For this crowd, I’m-just-askin’-questions has become I won’t accept what I don’t want to accept.
How odd: all these big tough people who melt at a mask, shriek over a proven vaccine, and squeal over a mail-in ballot.
Truth be told about Andrew Iverson, head of Trump’s 2020 Wisconsin campaign: he knew his constituency, a faction eager for flame-fanning and stunt-pulling.
See also The Conspiracy Capital of Wisconsin (It’s Not Whitewater), and How Election Conspiracies Took Over the GOP.
Mesmerizing murmuration of starlings flies across UK sky:
Music
Monday Music: Talking Heads, Life During Wartime
by JOHN ADAMS •
Animals, Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 2.5.23: Million Dollar Koi Fish
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Sunday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 37. Sunrise is 7:03 AM and sunset 5:13 PM for 10h 10m 02s of daytime. The moon is full with 100% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1907, Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland announces the creation of Bakelite, the world’s first synthetic plastic.
Japan’s King of Carp Breeds Million Dollar Koi Fish:
Cat Opens Apartment Door for Owner Who Got Locked Out:
Adventure, Daily Bread, Faraway Places
Daily Bread for 2.4.23: Antarctica for 70 days, 922 miles
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Saturday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 37. Sunrise is 7:05 AM and sunset 5:12 PM for 10h 07m 31s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 98.8% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1789, George Washington is unanimously elected as the first President of the United States by the U.S. Electoral College.
View this post on Instagram
How video game music got to the Grammys:
Daily Bread, Economy, Employment
Daily Bread for 2.3.23: National Job Hiring Stays Strong
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Friday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 5. Sunrise is 7:06 AM and sunset 5:11 PM for 10h 05m 02s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 95.8% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1959, rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson are killed in a plane crash along with the pilot near Clear Lake, Iowa, an event later known as The Day the Music Died.
The American economy continues to perform well:
The American labor market unleashed a burst of hiring in January, producing another wave of robust job growth even as interest rates continue to rise.
Employers added 517,000 jobs on a seasonally adjusted basis, the Labor Department said on Friday, an increase from 260,000 in December.
The unemployment rate was 3.4 percent, the lowest since 1969.
Even as hiring surged, wage growth slowed slightly to 0.3 percent compared with December.
The hefty hiring figures defied expectations and underscored the challenges facing the Federal Reserve, which is trying to cool the labor market in its effort to tame rapid inflation. By raising interest rates — on Wednesday, Fed officials did so for the eighth time in a year — policymakers hope to force businesses to pull back on their spending, including hiring.
Yet the labor market has remained extraordinarily tight. In addition to the report on Friday, the government released data this week showing that the number of posted jobs per available unemployed worker — a measure that policymakers have been watching closely — rose again in December. And despite a cavalcade of layoffs in the technology sector, the overall number of pink slips has stayed extremely low.
In a big country like America, the national economy is not a single state’s economy, as it is not a single city’s economy. States and cities that repeat the same economic mistakes of the last several years will not enjoy the nation’s level of success. They’ll lag behind.
Worse, of course: states and cities that refuse to admit that they’ve been repeating the same economic mistakes of the last several years.
See astronauts work outside space station in 2nd spacewalk of 2023: