FREE WHITEWATER

Author Archive for JOHN ADAMS

City, Coronavirus, Culture, Education, Public Health, School District, Science/Nature

Wise Words for Whitewater from Steak-umm

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There’s a thread on Twitter from Steak-umm (an American brand of thin-sliced frozen steaks) that does a better job (truly) discussing the role of science and skepticism about the pandemic than much of what’s published online. The full thread is available at Twitter, and excerpts are imediately below.

It’s spot-on for Whitewater.

(Note: the thread intentionally uses homophones related to food, e.g. steak for stake and meat for meet.)

ok it’s time to talk about societal distrust in experts and institutions, the rise of misinformation, cultural polarization, and how to work toward some semblance of mutually agreed upon information before we splinter into irreconcilable realities

….

science the *term* has been politicized—not the *process* of it. as that process has evolved on issues, both public and private institutions have taken inspiration from it, but those decisions are still driven by economic and political interests which muddy how the term is used

….

distrust in institutions is complex. it’s accelerated by people’s access to infinite information, credible sources being paywalled, corruption, honest misteaks, or propaganda, but underneath it all is a cultural polarization dating back decades that won’t be solved overnight

….

experts need to earn trust back by acknowledging misteaks and being transparent about their processes, what’s known, and what’s still being learned. they need to address valid concerns. they need to meat people where they are and deliver tangible benefits to improve their lives

….

laypeople need to hold both their skepticism and trust of experts in an open hand. they need to acknowledge their limitations in accessing or interpreting fields or resources outside their expertise. they need to keep learning media literacy and grappling with empirical evidence

….

the shortcomings within experts and institutions don’t make fringe sources equally credible or trustworthy. if a doctor gets something wrong, you try another doctor, not a plumber. if a study gets something wrong, you don’t rely on anecdotes for truth, you rely on better studies

….

the usefulness of skepticism in experts and institutions is strongest within competing experts and institutions, not outsiders. an outsider may have certain insights worth engaging, but they can’t be weighed as equally credentialed as a relevant expert or institutional consensus

….

an institution may have structural biases that need to be acknowledged, but alternative sources in media are littered with their own biases and have little to no accountability, so no matter where you get information from you’re still extending a degree of trust in something

….

you can maintain healthy levels of skepticism while also extending trust where it’s earned by empirical evidence and expertise. use critical thinking. work toward solutions with one another. and remember, this whole thread was an ad so please buy our frozen meat

steak-umm bless

See also Whitewater’s Local Politics 2021 — COVID-19: Skepticism and Rhetoric.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 7.29.21

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Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with scattered showers and a high of 86. Sunrise is 5:44 AM and sunset 8:18 PM, for 14h 33m 43s of daytime.  The moon is a waning gibbous with 69.4% of its visible disk illuminated.

The Whitewater Unified School Board’s Policy Review Committee meets at 9 AM.

On this day in 1958, President Eisenhower signs into law the National Aeronautics and Space Act, which creates the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Recommended for reading in full — 

Michael Wilson reports How a Respected N.Y.P.D. Officer Became the Accused Capitol Riot #EyeGouger:

The F.B.I. agents showed Thomas Webster a wanted flier with a picture taken during the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol. In the photograph, a middle-aged man is shouting angrily across a metal barricade with a pole in his raised right hand.

“That’s a picture of you, right, Mr. Webster?” an agent asked, according to a transcript of the interview.

He was a former New York City police officer, a decorated member of the force who once worked as an instructor at the firing range and with a detail that protected the mayor at public appearances and at Gracie Mansion. But on this afternoon in February, sitting across from two agents in an interrogation room in Lower Manhattan, he found himself on the other side of the law.

He looked at the picture. “Yeah,” he said, and tried to explain how it all began.

“I kept on saying to myself, ‘All right, Tom, this is your first protest’ — I’ve never been to one before,” he told the agents. “I said, ‘Stay behind the freakin’ barrier, don’t threaten anyone and keep the flagpole away from everyone.’”

This plan would not last long — not more than a minute or two. Mr. Webster, in fact, quickly did the opposite, prosecutors said — starting a brawl that stood out, even amid the many hours of video from that day. Then he drove back home, to his wife and three children and his landscaping business in Florida, N.Y.

Over the weeks that followed, a manhunt for the protester with the flagpole played out — the authorities did not know his name, but had plenty of pictures, and Twitter gave him a nickname based on what he appeared to be doing to a Capitol Police officer who had been knocked to the ground: #EyeGouger.

The New York Times editorial board writes Trump and His Allies Still Aren’t Telling the Truth About Jan. 6:

There are two stories about Jan. 6, 2021. One is based on the facts and events that the world saw at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. The other is a sprawling work of collaborative fiction by supporters of former President Donald Trump who refuse to admit what happened.

Despite the arrest of nearly 600 people allegedly involved in the attack, a poll taken earlier this year found that 73 percent of Republican respondents placed at least some blame on “left-wing protesters trying to make Trump look bad.” That kind of collective mythmaking would not be possible to sustain without powerful public figures insisting that up is down and convincing others of the same.

The chasm between facts and mythology couldn’t have been deeper on Tuesday when the House of Representatives held a hearing into the realities of what transpired.

Is this the world’s oldest animal fossil?:

Aside


IF PUBLIC OFFICIALS DON’T WANT TO READ DISCUSSIONS ABOUT PUBLIC HEALTH POLICY, THEN THEY SHOULDN’T RUN FOR PUBLIC OFFICE.

 

City, Culture, Education, Liberty, Populists, Right-wing Populism, School District

Jane Jacobs with Useful Advice on Responsibility (for Whitewater, Richmond Township, Delavan, Etc.)

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In Jane Jacobs’s Death and Life of Great American Cities (describing large cities, not small towns), she writes of business owners’ sense of responsibility for the sidewalks near their shops:

First, there must be a clear demarcation between what is public space and what is private space. Public and private spaces cannot ooze into each other as they do typically in suburban settings or in projects.

Second, there must be eyes on the street, belonging to those we might call the natural proprietors of the street. The buildings on a street equipped to handle strangers and to insure the safety of both residents and strangers, must be oriented to the street. They cannot turn their backs or blank sides on it and leave it blind.

….

storekeepers and others small businessmen are typically strong proponents of peace and order themselves; they hate broken windows and holdups; they hate having customers made nervous about safety. They are great street watchers and sidewalk guardians if present in sufficient numbers.

Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities 35, 37 (Vintage Books ed. 1992).

Jacobs here addresses large cities, from a time long passed.

Still, there is a lesson to learn about matters closer and dearer than city sidewalks: if an able-bodied, gainfully-employed businessperson can watch a mere street, then shouldn’t able-bodied, gainfully-employed parents assume at least as much responsibility for raising their own children?

In Whitewater and other small towns, bold and brash populists sometimes talk about private liberty only moments later to insist that public institutions owe them and their children the teaching of virtues and habits (hard work, personal responsibility, fortitude) these very parents have sadly left untaught.

To mention this simple truth is more than these right-wing populists can bear, and throws them into fits: arms raised, heads shaking, crying out what, what, what? 

(This could be a dance number, if they had the desire: raise arms, shake heads, sing out what, what, what? Repeat to a catchy melody.)

Conservatives weren’t always like this; too many are like this now.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 7.28.21

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Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 89. Sunrise is 5:43 AM and sunset 8:19 PM, for 14h 35m 51s of daytime.  The moon is a waning gibbous with 78.6% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Pedestrian and Bicycle Committee meets at 5 PM.

On this day in 1854, USS Constellation (1854), the last all-sail warship built by the United States Navy and now a museum ship in Baltimore Harbor, is commissioned.

Recommended for reading in full — 

Shane Goldmacher reports Hooked on Trump: How the G.O.P. Still Banks on His Brand for Cash (‘Trump pint glasses. Trump T-shirts. Trump memberships’):

Even in defeat, nothing sells in the Republican Party quite like Donald J. Trump.

The Republican National Committee has been dangling a “Trump Life Membership” to entice small contributors to give online. The party’s Senate campaign arm has been hawking an “Official Trump Majority Membership.” And the committee devoted to winning back the House has been touting Mr. Trump’s nearly every public utterance, talking up a nonexistent Trump social media network and urging donations to “retake Trump’s Majority.”

Six months after Mr. Trump left office, the key to online fund-raising success for the Republican Party in 2021 can largely be summed up in the three words it used to identify the sender of a recent email solicitation: “Trump! Trump! Trump!”

The fund-raising language of party committees is among the most finely tuned messaging in politics, with every word designed to motivate more people to give more money online. And all that testing has yielded Trump-themed gimmicks and giveaways including Trump pint glasses, Trump-signed pictures, Trump event tickets and Trump T-shirts — just from the National Republican Senatorial Committee in the month of July.

 Nate Blakeslee reports ‘An abomination’: the story of the massacre that killed 216 wolves:

The woods were full of the sounds of snowmobiles and baying hounds. A group of perhaps a dozen hunters had gathered to give chase to big game along a frozen creek in north-eastern Wisconsin.

Hound hunting, chiefly for black bear and coyote, is a popular pastime in this part of the state. But the houndsman who emerged from the hemlocks onto a snowy road around twilight held a different kind of trophy.

Flanked by a half-dozen of his buddies clad in ball caps and snow boots, the man hugged an enormous gray wolf to his chest, its head lolling against one shoulder and its tail nearly touching the ground.

….

As it happened, the hunt earned far more attention than either the houndsmen or their nemesis could have anticipated. State regulators set a quota of 119 wolves out of an estimated statewide population of 1,000, but they issued an unusually high number of permits – 1,548 of them – and allowed hound hunters to participate on the first day, rather than requiring them to wait until the far less efficient rifle hunters and trappers had taken their share.

The result was astounding. After just two and a half days, hunters were already approaching the limit. Before regulators could shut down the hunt, 216 wolves had been killed – overshooting the quota by 83%.

The unprecedented media coverage and public outcry that followed not only called into question the state’s ability to properly regulate its wolf population, it has also drawn attention to the practice of hounding, a traditional method of hunting celebrated by an insular subculture in the northern Great Lakes region that has lately become hi-tech – and far more deadly.

Walter:

Culture, Law, Liberty

Thin-Skinned in Whitefish Bay (and Places Nearer and Farther)

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There’s a story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about complaints against public speech in Whitefish Bay that’s illustrative of threats to free speech in small towns, including Whitewater. In Whitefish Bay, a group called Bay Bridge placed an anti-racism sign in a designated space at the public library.

The sign drew the ire of some Whitefish Bay residents, including former Bucks player and current Bucks analyst Steve Novak:

WHITEFISH BAY – A sign addressing systemic racism was recently removed from the Whitefish Bay Public Library grounds following vocal criticism from some in the community — including former Milwaukee Bucks player Steve Novak.

The sign, which was placed in a rock garden display outside the library by Bay Bridge Wisconsin — a group that focuses on “raising awareness of racial and cultural bias in our community” — described its vision for the North Shore suburb.

“Whitefish Bay will be a welcoming community that recognizes systemic racism, and actively works to address and dismantle it,” the sign read. “How will you be a bridge in helping to repair and build a more equitable community?”

Emails sent to library staff, which were obtained by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel through a public records request, show some residents were offended by the sign and its message. About a half-dozen residents, including one who said she was a library benefactor, wrote to complain. Others complained in person at the library, records show.

….

“There is an offensive sign posted in front of the public library that incorrectly generalizes our community. It says that Whitefish Bay recognizes systemic racism,” Novak, who works as an analyst for the Bucks on Bally Sports Wisconsin (formerly Fox Sports Wisconsin), wrote in a June 8 email to Nyama Reed, the library’s director. “What group has taken the liberty of speaking for our community in such a hateful, damaging and inaccurate way?”

One can leave aside the overwrought – absurd, really – contention that the sign is somehow ‘hateful.’ (If Novak thinks the Bay Bridge Wisconsin message is hateful, he either thinks anything is hateful or knows nothing of the meaning of the word.)

Novak’s particular politics don’t matter here, but his response exemplifies how many traditional conservatives and how almost all right-wing populists see the world. It’s not the same. The populists are even more extreme.

The small-town traditional conservatives (among others) often want to use government to limit speech they don’t like. They’re quick to argue that something shouldn’t be said, and that the government should stop it from being said. When I began publishing FREE WHITEWATER, traditional conservatives predominated, and had this sort of view: isn’t there some way to stop this speech?

Time has been cruel to the traditional conservatives in Whitewater – they’re mostly old, tired, spent.

There’s a more vigorous conservatism that has supplanted these traditionalists in places across America, including Whitewater – right-wing populism. Their views on speech depart from the traditional conservatives’ views, and are more restrictive: they’d prefer government stop private publishers’ speech that they don’t like, but also demand government insist that private publishers carry the speech that they, the right-wing populists, want.

Note well: if the conservative populists want to express themselves, they can do so with their own sites. They have no rights in others’ private property.

The conservative populists advance no doctrine of law, and show no understanding of legal precedent; they show every sign of discarding any law or right that runs counter to their own appetites.

In these conditions, council members, school board members, city officials, and school district administrators superintendents will be pressured to discard individual rights to mollify a rightwing horde.

There are times one thinks that places like Whitefish Bay or Whitewater would have been better off without any officials than with appeasing, placating ones.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 7.27.21

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Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 91. Sunrise is 5:42 AM and sunset 8:20 PM, for 14h 37m 56s of daytime.  The moon is a waning gibbous with 86.5% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Finance Committee meets at 4:30 PM and the city’s Police and Fire Commission meets at 6:30 PM.

On this day in  1894, a fire destroys Phillips: “On the afternoon of this day, a forest fire swept over the Price Co. town of Phillips from the west, destroying nearly all the buildings and forcing 2,000 people to flee for their lives. When the sun came up the next morning, 13 people had been killed, the entire downtown was in ashes, and exhausted survivors were wandering through the ruins in a daze. The fire ultimately consumed more than 100,000 acres in Price County. Much of the town was rebuilt within a year.”

Recommended for reading in full — 

Heather Long and Andrew Van Dam report States that cut unemployment early aren’t seeing a hiring boom, but who gets hired is changing:

The 20 Republican-led states that reduced unemployment benefits in June did not see an immediate spike in overall hiring, but early evidence suggests something did change: The teen hiring boom slowed in those states, and workers 25 and older returned to work more quickly.

A new analysis by payroll processor Gusto, conducted for The Washington Post, found that small restaurants and hospitality businesses in states such as Missouri, which ended the extra unemployment benefits early, saw a jump in hiring of workers over age 25. The uptick in hiring of older workers was roughly offset by the slower hiring of teens in these states. In contrast, restaurants and hospitality businesses in states such as Kansas, where the full benefits remain, have been hiring a lot more teenagers who are less experienced and less likely to qualify for unemployment aid.

The findings suggest hiring is likely to remain difficult for some time, especially in the lower-paying hospitality sector. The analysis also adds perspective to the teen hiring boom, revealing that more generous unemployment payments played a role in keeping more experienced workers on the sidelines, forcing employers to turn to younger workers. It indicates teen hiring could slow further in September, as unemployment benefits are reduced across the country and young people return to school.

Luke Broadwater reports Shunned by G.O.P., Cheney and Kinzinger Seek Answers on Jan. 6 Riot: 

It was only months ago that Mr. McCarthy himself said that President Donald J. Trump “bears responsibility” for the mob violence; Senator Mitch McConnell, the top Republican, warned that following Mr. Trump’s lies about a stolen election would lead democracy into a “death spiral”; and scores of Republicans called for an investigation of what had happened on Jan. 6.

But despite the injuries, blood and death of that day, which threatened to end the United States’ streak of peaceful transfers of presidential power, Republicans quickly fell into line behind Mr. Trump. Some denied or downplayed the violence, others embraced conspiracy theories about who was to blame and many simply pushed to stop talking about the riot.

Republican lawmakers who had once demanded answers voted against forming an independent bipartisan commission to investigate, with only 35 in the House supporting its creation. Even the 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Mr. Trump have mostly stayed silent.

Only Ms. Cheney and Mr. Kinzinger, who have continued to be vocal in denouncing the former president and the violence he inspired, supported the creation of the select committee. It is to hold its first hearing on Tuesday, when several police officers who battled the mob are scheduled to testify.

Newborn Babies Wear Hand-Crocheted Olympic ‘Uniforms’:

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 7.26.21

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Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 92. Sunrise is 5:41 AM and sunset 8:21 PM, for 14h 39m 59s of daytime.  The moon is a waning gibbous with 92.9% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Urban Forestry Commission meets at 4:30 PM and the Whitewater Unified School District’s board meets in closed session at 5:30 PM and open session beginning at 7 PM.

On this day in 1948, President Truman signs Executive Order 9981, desegregating the military of the United States.

Recommended for reading in full — 

Bruce Vielmetti reports A former deputy who crashed into and killed an MPS lobbyist was serving his 6-month sentence at home until the victim’s family checked:

Joel Streicher’s sentence for fatally striking another driver while on duty for the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office didn’t sit well with the victim’s family in April.

Streicher was to serve just six months in jail, with work release, as a condition of two years’ probation.

So imagine how Ceasar Stinson’s loved ones felt when they learned last week Streicher wasn’t serving any time in jail at all but was spending his nights at home, on a GPS bracelet.

They reached out to the sentencing judge, Circuit Judge Michelle Havas.

Chipo Stinson said she was “shocked, offended and disappointed.”

“In light of the fact I lost a husband and father to my children, 6 months behind bars is a paltry price to pay,” she wrote to Havas. “The fact he managed to circumvent this shows how little remorse he has and what little respect he has for the life of my husband that he took and for the lives of those impacted by his callousness and recklessness.”

….

But Havas, as it turned out, may not have known Streicher was not serving any time in jail. She held a hearing on Monday, revoked his Huber privileges, ordered he serve the six months as straight time and set a 5 p.m. Friday deadline for Streicher to surrender.

By Tuesday, Streicher, 52, was residing at the Milwaukee County House of Correction in Franklin.

His attorney, Michael Steinle, did not return multiple messages, but in a court filing, he argues that Havas cannot overrule a sheriff’s discretion to put Streicher on home confinement without violating separation of government powers principles. He wants Streicher released on bail pending an appeal, which could take longer than six months.

 The Associated Press reports Alabama police officer stayed on payroll for two months after murder conviction:

An Alabama police officer who remained on his city’s payroll for two months after being convicted of murder has resigned from the Huntsville police department.

Officer William Darby left of his own accord, the city told WAAY-TV on Friday. He had been on paid leave since his 7 May conviction for shooting a suicidal man who was holding a gun to his own head.

The city said placing Darby on paid leave was normal until its personnel policies and procedures could be completed. Huntsville’s Republican mayor and police chief publicly disagreed with the jury’s murder verdict.

A lawyer for the family of victim Jeffery Parker said allowing Darby to resign instead of being terminated either immediately after the 2018 killing or after his murder conviction was unacceptable and “a bizarre and unnecessary distraction”.

Ingenuity reaches record height on 10th Mars flight:

Art, Cartoons & Comics, Education, Science/Nature, Technology

From Comic-Con@Home 2021: The Science of Art

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How is STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) used to inspire and create our most beloved popular arts? What do portrayals of science and scientists in popular media get right and wrong? From world-building to special effects and cosplay, IF/THEN ambassadors (www.ifthenshecan.org) Sydney Hamilton (aerospace engineer), Myria Perez (paleontologist), Dr. Samantha Thi Porter (archaeologist), and Dr. Erika Hamden (astrophysicist) are here to discuss the STEM behind the fandom with moderator Xyla Foxlin (mechatronics engineer).

Download your free copy of the IF/THEN Real-life Superheroes of STEM! https://drive.google.com/drive/folder…

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 7.25.21

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Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 90. Sunrise is 5:40 AM and sunset 8:22 PM, for 14h 42m 00s of daytime.  The moon is a waning gibbous with 97.3% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1965, Bob Dylan goes electric at the Newport Folk Festival, signaling a major change in folk and rock music.

Recommended for reading in full — 

Kelly Meyerhofer reports UW System launches tuition scholarship raffle to boost student vaccination rate:

In what is likely the broadest vaccination incentive program for Wisconsin to date, the System announced Sunday that it will award $7,000 scholarships to 70 students who get the shot and attend a campus that reaches a 70% vaccination rate.

 Sheera Frenkel reports The Most Influential Spreader of Coronavirus Misinformation Online:

The article that appeared online on Feb. 9 began with a seemingly innocuous question about the legal definition of vaccines. Then over its next 3,400 words, it declared coronavirus vaccines were “a medical fraud” and said the injections did not prevent infections, provide immunity or stop transmission of the disease.

Instead, the article claimed, the shots “alter your genetic coding, turning you into a viral protein factory that has no off-switch.”

Its assertions were easily disprovable. No matter. Over the next few hours, the article was translated from English into Spanish and Polish. It appeared on dozens of blogs and was picked up by anti-vaccination activists, who repeated the false claims online. The article also made its way to Facebook, where it reached 400,000 people, according to data from CrowdTangle, a Facebook-owned tool.

The entire effort traced back to one person: Joseph Mercola.

Dr. Mercola, 67, an osteopathic physician in Cape Coral, Fla., has long been a subject of criticism and government regulatory actions for his promotion of unproven or unapproved treatments. But most recently, he has become the chief spreader of coronavirus misinformation online, according to researchers.

An internet-savvy entrepreneur who employs dozens, Dr. Mercola has published over 600 articles on Facebook that cast doubt on Covid-19 vaccines since the pandemic began, reaching a far larger audience than other vaccine skeptics, an analysis by The New York Times found. His claims have been widely echoed on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

The activity has earned Dr. Mercola, a natural health proponent with an Everyman demeanor, the dubious distinction of the top spot in the “Disinformation Dozen,” a list of 12 people responsible for sharing 65 percent of all anti-vaccine messaging on social media, said the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate. Others on the list include Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine activist, and Erin Elizabeth, the founder of the website Health Nut News, who is also Dr. Mercola’s girlfriend.

The Associated Press reports Wisconsin state sturgeon biologist resigns following investigation:

CHILTON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin’s former top sturgeon biologist has resigned after he was accused of lying to investigators looking into the illegal processing of sturgeon eggs into caviar.

Ryan Koenigs earlier pleaded no contest to resisting a conservation warden in Calumet County. He was fined $500 in court Thursday.

How The World’s Oldest Hat Shop Has Stayed In Business For Nearly 350 Years:

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 7.24.21

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Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be hazy with scattered thunderstorms and a high of 89. Sunrise is 5:39 AM and sunset 8:23 PM, for 14h 43m 59s of daytime.  The moon is a waning gibbous with 99.5% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1974, the Supreme Court unanimously rules that President Nixon did not have the authority to withhold subpoenaed White House tapes and orders him to surrender the tapes to the Watergate special prosecutor.

Recommended for reading in full — 

Martin Pengelly reports Tennessee radio host doubted and mocked vaccines – now he has Covid:

A conservative radio host in Tennessee who urged listeners not to get vaccinated against Covid-19 has changed track and called on listeners to get the shot, after contracting the virus and ending up in hospital in “very serious condition”.

In a statement posted to social media, Phil Valentine’s family detailed his condition and said: “Please continue to pray for his recovery and PLEASE GO GET VACCINATED!”

The family also said the WTN host had “never been an ‘anti-vaxer’”, but “regrets not being more vehemently ‘pro-vaccine’ and looks forward to being able to more vigorously advocate that position as soon as he is back on the air, which we all hope will be soon”.

Valentine, 61, did, however, play down the need for vaccines and perform a song called Vaxman, to the tune of Taxman, George Harrison’s Beatles number against government taxation.

“Let me tell you how it will be,” he sang, “and I don’t care if you agree, ‘Cause I’m the Vaxman, yeah I’m the Vaxman. If you don’t like me coming round, be thankful I don’t hold you down.”

Marvin Kalb writes of The shaky pillars of American democracy:

There are, he believed, two essential pillars of American democracy: one the “sanctity of the law” and the other the “freedom of the press.” If either pillar is shaken, damaged or undermined, he warned, then so too is our democracy.

This was the judgment of Edward R. Murrow, the iconic CBS newsman who hired me in 1957. It was the subject that absorbed him, that both fascinated and frightened him—the “fragile” nature of American democracy. Time and again, he would return to it, always with questions, one building on another.

….

That was why former President Trump’s early and repeated attacks on journalists as “enemies of the people” who “poison” the public well with “fake news,” represented such a powerful and enduring blow to democracy. Wittingly or not, he played on the fact that American journalism was experiencing serious problems anyway, and he exploited them.

Evan Frank reports Some local Chick-fil-A locations, including Pewaukee, are offering a drink in honor of Giannis Antetokounmpo:

The morning after winning the championship, Giannis — with the Larry O’Brien Trophy and the Bill Russell Finals MVP award — recorded his trip through the drive-thru at the Brookfield location on Capitol Drive for an Instagram Live audience.

He ordered 50 chicken nuggets — “50 exactly. Not 51. Not 49.” — in honor of the 50 points he scored in Game 6 on Tuesday night to secure the NBA Finals championship over the Phoenix Suns. Milwaukee’s 105-98 win also happened to clinch the franchise’s first title in 50 years.

But he also wanted a beverage.

“Let me have a large drink, no ice, half Sprite, half lemonade,” Giannis said to a Chick-fil-A employee.

 “We all know this drink by now … and it officially has a name!” the Pewaukee Chick-fil-A Facebook page stated. “The 50-50 (half sprite & half Chick-fil-A lemonade) is the official drink of CHAMPIONS! Stop by today to snag this winning blend!”

Rare footage of African Wild Dogs (Painted Wolves) returning to their den to feed puppies:

Aside

 

NOTHING SAYS SIMPLETON QUITE LIKE A CONFEDERATE FLAG BUMPER STICKER.