FREE WHITEWATER

Author Archive for JOHN ADAMS

Daily Bread, Herrenvolk, Never Trump, Politics, Press, Trumpism

Daily Bread for 10.15.22: For the Press, a Duty of Conduct as Though a Free Society Still Matters

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Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 53. Sunrise is 7:09 AM and sunset 6:11 PM for 11h 02m 15s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 70% of its visible disk illuminated.

There will be a Lakes Project Community Meeting at 10 AM. 

On this day in 1956, FORTRAN, the first modern computer language, is first shared with the coding community.

 An armed insurrection in a representative democracy is the violent effort of a horde claiming falsely to represent a majority to overthrow a constitutional order that does, in fact, represent the majority. That’s January 6th: a violent minority committed to preventing a constitutional process representing the majority. That’s Trump: the leader of a self-declared herrenvolk, inciting violence against the peaceful majority who rejected Trump at the polls.

This malevolent ilk would transform a free and prosperous continental republic into a stifling and stagnant European autocracy. 

The press in this free country will have to decide how to cover a third Trump campaign should there be one. (Those of us in other walks of life already know how to describe Trump: he aims to destroy this Republic and replace it with a herrenvolk state.) For her fellow journalists, Margaret Sullivan writes about how to cover Trump in If Trump Runs Again, Do Not Cover Him the Same Way [as Before]: A Journalist’s Manifesto: 

Now, six years later, we journalists know a lot more about covering Trump and his supporters. We’ve come a long way, but certainly made plenty of mistakes. Too many times, we acted as his stenographers or megaphones. Too often, we failed to refer to his many falsehoods as lies. It took too long to stop believing that, whenever he calmed down for a moment, he was becoming “presidential.” And it took too long to moderate our instinct to give equal weight to both sides, even when one side was using misinformation for political gain.

It’s been an education for all of us — a gradual realization that the instincts and conventions of traditional journalism weren’t good enough for this moment in our country’s history. As Trump prepares to run again in 2024, it’s worth reminding ourselves of the lessons we’ve learned — and committing to the principle that, when covering politicians who are essentially running against democracy, old-style journalism will no longer suffice.

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From this new vantage point, it seemed self-evident that the mainstream press was too often going easy on Trump. Well into his presidency, journalists didn’t want to use the word “lie” for Trump’s constant barrage of falsehoods. To lie, editors reasoned, means to intend to be untruthful. Since journalists couldn’t be inside politicians’ heads, how were we supposed to know if — by this definition — they were really lying? The logic eventually became strained, given that Trump blithely repeated the same rank mistruths over and over.

Too many reporters and their editors didn’t seem to want to figure out how to cover Trump properly. From the moment he descended the golden escalator at Manhattan’s Trump Tower in June 2015 to announce his candidacy, the news media was in his thrall. Journalists couldn’t stop writing about him, showing him on TV and even broadcasting images of the empty stage waiting for him to arrive at a rally. Trump had described himself as “the ratings machine,” and for once he wasn’t exaggerating.

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Those who deny the outcome of the 2020 election certainly don’t deserve a media megaphone for that enduring lie, one that is likely to reemerge in the presidential campaign ahead. But the media should go one step further: When covering such a politician in other contexts — for example, about abortion rights or gun control — journalists should remind audiences that this public figure is an election denier.

That’s exactly the model pursued by WITF, a public radio station in Harrisburg, Pa., which decided to remind its audience on a regular basis that some Republican state legislators and members of the Pennsylvania congressional delegation had opposed the transfer of power to Joe Biden, despite the lack of evidence to support their claims of election fraud. A story on the station’s website about a state legislator’s efforts to get Pennsylvanians vaccinated was accompanied by a sidebar of text about his behavior after the election. On-air stories have used a tagline to accomplish the same purpose. The decision wasn’t easy, one editor told me, “because this is not the normal thing.”

These are not normal times, and Trumpism is not a normal movement.

We who are rightly Never Trump, who have seen our much in own traditions of libertarianism (as mine) or principled conservatism infected by the lies and depredations of Trumpism, know how we are to write, speak, and conduct ourselves.

It would serve the press in this beleaguered free society to write and speak as though a free society still matters to them as much as it does to us.

Watch Martian moon Deimos pass in front of Jupiter & its moons:

Conspiracy Theories, Crackpots, Daily Bread, Politics, Sen. Ron Johnson, U.S. Senate

Daily Bread for 10.14.22: Ron Johnson, Conspiracy Theorist, Leads in U.S. Senate Race

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Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 53. Sunrise is 7:08 AM and sunset 6:13 PM for 11h 05m 05s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 77.4% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1912, Theodore Roosevelt is shot in Milwaukee:

Roosevelt was in Wisconsin stumping as the presidential candidate of the new, independent Progressive Party, which had split from the Republican Party earlier that year. Roosevelt already had served two terms as chief executive (1901-1909), but was seeking the office again as the champion of progressive reform. Unbeknownst to Roosevelt, a New York bartender named John Schrank had been stalking him for three weeks through eight states. As Roosevelt left Milwaukee’s Hotel Gilpatrick for a speaking engagement at the Milwaukee Auditorium and stood waving to the gathered crowd, Schrank fired a .38-caliber revolver that he had hidden in his coat.

Roosevelt was hit in the right side of the chest and the bullet lodged in his chest wall. Seeing the blood on his shirt, vest, and coat, his aides pleaded with him to seek medical help, but Roosevelt trivialized the wound and insisted on keeping his commitment. His life was probably saved by the speech, since the contents of his coat pocket — his metal spectacle case and the thick, folded manuscript of his talk — had absorbed much of the force of the bullet. Throughout the evening he made light of the wound, declaring at one point, “It takes more than one bullet to kill a Bull Moose,” but the candidate spent the next week in the hospital and carried the bullet inside him the rest of his life.

 FREE WHITEWATER has a category dedicated to U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, as someone so conspiracy-driven merits vigilance. Below is Johnson from his debate with Lt. Gov., Barnes, when the audience laughs at Johnson’s nutty claim that he was the victim of an FBI conspiracy. (Johnson, by the way, leads in the FiveThirtyEight‘s projection.)

Melting Swiss glacier reveals wreckage of WWII plane:

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City, Film

Film: Tuesday, October 18th, 1:00 PM @ Seniors in the Park, CODA

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Tuesday, October 18th at 1:00 PM, there will be a re-showing of CODA @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin Community Building:

Comedy/Drama/Music

Rated PG-13; 1 hour, 51 minutes (2021)

As a CODA (Child of Deaf Adults), Ruby is the only hearing person in her deaf family. When the family’s fishing business is threatened, Ruby finds herself torn between pursuing her passion at music college and her fear of abandoning her parents. Winner of 3 Oscars, including Best Picture, Supporting Actor and Screenplay.

One can find more information about CODA at the Internet Movie Database.

Daily Bread, Politics, State Government, Wisconsin, WISGOP

Daily Bread for 10.13.22: The Appointed Squatters on the Technical College Board

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Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 51. Sunrise is 7:06 AM and sunset 6:14 PM for 11h 07m 53s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 85.8% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Finance Committee meets at 5:30 PM. 

On this day in 1903, the Boston Red Sox win the first modern World Series, defeating the Pittsburgh Pirates in the eighth game

Fred Prehn, a repulsive WISGOP holdover beyond his term on the Natural Resources Board, has compatriots on the Technical College System Board. (Of Fred Prehn, see Tiny Fred Prehn and Fred Prehn, the Most Self-Aware Man in All History.) Kelly Meyerhofer reports 18 months after terms expired, GOP appointees to Wisconsin’s technical college board continue to serve and deny Evers’ picks:

Mary Williams isn’t budging.

The former GOP state representative from northern Wisconsin who was appointed by former Republican Gov. Scott Walker to the Technical College System Board continues to serve despite her term expiring in May 2021 and Gov. Tony Evers naming her replacement months ago.

“All you have to do is see what the Supreme Court did,” she said. 

Williams and two other holdovers on the board whose terms expired in May 2021 — Associated Builders and Contractors vice president Kelly Tourdot and Rio dairy farmer Becky Levzow — are emboldened to stay since the state Supreme Court ruled this summer that it’s OK for political appointees to continue serving beyond their terms. The court said the expiration of a term doesn’t create a vacancy until the state Senate holds a confirmation hearing. 

The actions of Williams, Tourdot and Levzow mirror Fred Prehn, a Wausau dentist and Walker appointee to the Natural Resources Board who has similarly disregarded his term’s end date, remaining on the board to prevent a Democratic majority from forming.

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Asked why so many other political appointees over the years step down when their terms expire as opposed to taking her approach, Williams said, “Because everyone’s an individual. Now I’m going to hang up, and I don’t want you to call me again.”

Russians fleeing draft sail in yachts to South Korea:

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Daily Bread, Education, Politics, UW System

Daily Bread for 10.12.22: The Florida Affirmative Action Hire and Wisconsin’s Own Educational Politics

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Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will see scattered showers with a high of 61. Sunrise is 7:05 AM and sunset 6:16 PM for 11h 10m 42s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 92.1% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Police and Fire Commission meets at 6:30 PM. 

On this day in 1810, the residents of Munich hold the first Oktoberfest in celebration of the marriage of Crown Prince Louis of Bavaria and Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen.

Writing at the Washington Post, Jennifer Rubin describes the candidacy of U.S. Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE) to lead the University of Florida as an affirmative action hire. See Ben Sasse: An affirmative action hire if there ever was one. Rubin explains:

Conservatives have long bemoaned the politicization of higher education, accusing faculty and administrators of catering to “wokeness” and engaging in cancel culture personnel policies. Now, we will see how deep their concern about academic freedom really is, thanks to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse.

DeSantis is seeking to install Sasse as president of the University of Florida, which many students, faculty, administrators and donors perceive as an assault on academic independence. And for good reason: DeSantis makes no bones about his contempt for free speech and academic freedom.

The governor has championed an anti-protest law and a measure attempting to bar teachers from talking about race in classrooms, both of which were blocked in state court. He also backed the infamous “don’t say gay” bill, suspended a state attorney for speaking out against the state’s abortion restrictions and, most ominously, changed Disney’s tax status after the company criticized his LGBTQ policies. And he’s routinely tried to exclude the media from events.

With regard to higher education, DeSantis is widely suspected to be behind the University of Florida’s attempt to bar professors from testifying against the state’s voter suppression bill. He also supported legislation that created an exemption to the state’s open government laws, thereby allowing the University of Florida to conduct its president selection process behind closed doors.

Given that the governor’s chief of staff reportedly helped guide Sasse through the selection process, the ensuing outrage that DeSantis is attempting to put a Republican flunky atop the state’s flagship institution was hardly unexpected. Sasse’s vocal opposition to same-sex marriage and support for right-wing Supreme Court judges who disposed of nearly 50 years of abortion precedent naturally don’t sit well in a diverse university setting.

Sasse provided a lame defense of his views during a recent student forum. “The fact that I’ve had political positions and policy positions that reflect the views of Nebraskans, it’s a different job than president of UF.”

No one here credibly thinks that Jay Rothman, longtime attorney and now UW System president, has an ideological record like the one Rubin describes. (It is fair to wonder why the System couldn’t find an academic as its leader, and to wonder more so whether Rothman will be able to overcome demographic and budget constraints at the System.)

Nonetheless, here in Wisconsin, there are legitimate concerns about the politicization of education. James Henderson of UW-Whitewater abruptly left his position as UW-Whitewater chancellor with stated complaints over politicization, and Republican legislators habitually seek control over UW System decisions about which they know nothing. (The Republicans contend that they habitually intervene only to prevent additional politicization, but that approach is more retributive than corrective.)

Wisconsin isn’t Florida, but evolving even a bit closer to Florida seems more curse than blessing.  

This Mach-5 engine will do what no other can:

City, Daily Bread, Local Government, Politics, Reasoning

Daily Bread for 10.11.22: Identifying Types and Spotting Issues

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Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will see afternoon showers with a high of 74. Sunrise is 7:04 AM and sunset 6:18 PM for 11h 13m 32s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 96.6% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater will have a Finance Committee meeting at 4:30 PM, a Referendum Information Session (Fire & EMS) at 5 PM, and a Public Works meeting at 6 PM.

On this day in 1968, NASA launches Apollo 7, the first successful manned Apollo mission.

Critical to any analysis is an accurate understanding both the whole and also the elements into which one divides it. So, if someone is studying badgers, he’s not supposed to mistake them for skunks, and he’s supposed to understanding something of a badger’s anatomy. He cannot credibly, for example, confuse a badger’s foot with its ear.

This needn’t require a degree in badgerology, but at least someone shouldn’t make basic mistakes of identification.

And yet, and yet, in these overwrought times, mistakes of identification and issues are common.

Mistakes of identification: not knowing one species from another. Skunks, badgers, stoats: getting them all mixed up. 

In Whitewater, this would be ignorance about how many political orientations there are in this small city, or failing to discern the size of each. For political groups and their respective sizes in town see FREE WHITEWATER’s category Whitewater’s Local Politics 2021.

Whitewater does not have, for example, a leftist/communist/socialist/globalist cabal. YMBFKM. Whitewater has a tiny number of progressives who are too few in number to shape policy in this city. One doesn’t have to be a progressive (as I am not) to be able to count their numbers accurately. 

Whitewater does not have, for example, a powerful trade union. It doesn’t matter whether Whitewater should or shouldn’t have a powerful trade union — the city doesn’t have one.  Those holding up the local teachers’ union as a powerful trade moment have no idea what the concept of power means. Our local unions, of whatever kind, are politically inconsequential in this city. (Someone might believe, even insist, that rabbits eat people, but as it turns out they don’t.) 

Mistakes of issue spotting: failing to determine which concerns reasonably arise from a given action. If there’s a badger attack, for example, a relevant and material issue would be treating animal bites. A badger attack would not, however, suggest a concern over whether badgers might be anabaptists.  (They’re not.)

In Whitewater, failing to issue spot correctly often involves seeing too much or too little in a policy choice. For some professions, especially law, failing to issue spot is a fatal career liability. From a given set of facts, a lawyer must be able to identify the relevant and significant legal issues that arise. (This skill is so fundamental to the profession that someone who cannot issue spot accurately should not be graduated from law school. There are other careers, enjoyable and fulfilling, for would-be attorneys who lack this ability; the law would not be among them.) 

As there is a torrent of ideological discussion in America, it’s too easy, deceptively so, to apply national types and topics to Whitewater. Our local problems, and we have them, are not identical to a common set of national problems, either in nature or number. (In Whitewater, it would be a risible error to think, for example, that defunding the police was truly a possibility. It never was, and never will be.) 

There are problems in town, and risks waiting in the shadows, but so far we have escaped the worst ideological struggles that grip other parts of the nation. Keeping local conditions that way — and avoiding worse political conditions — is a social obligation.

Avoiding worse for Whitewater, however, begins with seeing the city with clear and dry eyes.

Fundamental to this task: identifying types and spotting issues. 

 Ukrainian Woman Reunites With Her Dog Who Fled During Russia’s Invasion: 

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Business, CDA, City, Conflicts of Interest, Daily Bread, Ethics, Michels, Regulatory Capture, Special Interests

Daily Bread for 10.10.22: He Won’t Divest — He’ll Only Say He Has

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Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 67. Sunrise is 7:03 AM and sunset 6:19 PM for 11h 16m 22s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 99.4% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Planning Commission meets at 6 PM. 

On this day in 1492, the crew of Christopher Columbus‘s ship, the Santa Maria, attempt a mutiny. 

The Journal Sentinel’s Corrinne Hess and Laura Schulte report that Tim Michels says he will divest from his family business if he’s elected governor. Experts say that will be a difficult task:

Tim Michels, Wisconsin’s Republican candidate for governor, is pitching himself as a successful businessman who can turn around state government.

But if he gets to the governor’s mansion he’ll have to figure out how to untangle his interests from his family’s construction business, which has received more than $1 billion from state road contracts and has ties to a pipeline project that is awaiting a key environmental study.

Michels, co-owner of Michels Corp., the state’s largest construction company, has said he’ll divest himself from the business but has not provided any details.

Experts say his task won’t be easy.  

State records show the Brownsville-based Michels Corp. has received more than $1.1 billion from Wisconsin for construction projects since 2014. 

When Tim Michels entered the governor’s race in April, he said he hoped the company would continue to compete for state work if he won the race for governor. 

He estimated his company had made about $1.3 billion in state road contracts since 2008, during an April 25 interview with conservative host Jay Weber on WISN-AM (1130). 

(Emphasis added.)

The story highlights two points about Michels. First, Hess’s and Schulte’s reporting shows how Michels’s business has been dependent on, if not parasitic of, government spending.

(Admittedly, Tim Michels is not merely a landlord in Whitewater whose business has been dependent on, if not parasitic of, a public university. Michels has worked on a bigger scale.)

Second, Michels talks about the primacy of private industry over public spending (he’s right!) but if he should take office, there’s likely to be finagling about the separation between public and private. Worse, he still wants his hand in the till for more publicly-funded contracts.

(In Whitewater, this would be like a councilman insisting that the city’s Community Development Authority should operate as though private when it is, in fact, a public body organized under state law and local ordinances. These landlords, bankers, and public relations men like to talk private while serving on public bodies.)

Public or private: pick one. Failing to choose leads too easily to regulatory capture — private business interests dominating public bodies in self-interested, anti-market directions.  

 Inside the Final Days of the Doctor China Tried to Silence: 

City, Daily Bread, Reasoning, Rhetoric

Daily Bread for 10.9.22: Trolls and the Exclamatory, Interrogatory, or Declaratory Response

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Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 67. Sunrise is 7:02 AM and sunset 6:21 PM for 11h 19m 13s of daytime. The moon is full with 99.9% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1812, in a naval engagement on Lake Erie, American forces capture two British ships: HMS Detroit and HMS Caledonia.

 As cities of all sizes find themselves with Facebook and Twitter trolls, a few words about managing that ilk. (Whitewater has Facebook trolls, but really nothing similar from Twitter, as Twitter’s not a significant medium for this small town. Statewide, yes; locally, no.) 

A portion of my time at FREE WHITEWATER these days includes moderating against comment trolls, who come to a post from near or far depending on the topic. All posts here go through moderation, so nothing hits this site that has not been approved. That’s a simple system. It involves no more than deleting unworthy remarks that sit in queue. This is a private publication, and so is private property: no troll will ever pass moderation here. 

What’s regrettable is how local political discourse in Whitewater has its own trolls, across more than one Facebook forum. Facebook is designed to be an easy-to-use platform, and that ease of use allows trolls to make a start: they need neither reason nor write well. (It’s common among them that they praise their own work, no matter how ill-composed or ill-considered. In a pinch, they’ll settle for their own praise but they truly crave others’ emotional injuries.)

There is no greater demonstration of how our society has failed to educate properly than to watch native-born trolls misuse the English language and abuse principles of reasoning. (Strong skills do not require a college education. A sound K-12 education should equip a student with all that he or she needs to speak, write, and argue soundly. Most of the trolls one sees, by contrast, write and reason as though they slept soundly past middle school.) 


A word about USDA Grade A trolls: by their nature, they write or speak to illicit an emotional reaction. They’re not in the game for the discussion, for the claims or counter-claims; they’re in the game for others’ emotional response to the discussion. If they can elicit discernible upset, shock, or anger in others, they’ve achieved their goal. While praise satisfies them, they find it not half so enjoyable as seeing that they’ve unsettled or wounded others.

Although a serious man or woman advances (and responds) to arguments with sangfroid, the troll is, at bottom, an emotional man or woman: beginning emotionally and seeking an emotional response. They begin with treacly neediness and end with repulsive malevolence. 

So, how should the serious approach trolls?  

Having watched people struggle with trolls in Whitewater, a few suggestions. 

Not with the exclamatory. One could respond to a troll with exclamations of shock (Oh my! or How awful!) but that’s a troll’s food supply. These repulsive few are undeserving of what they crave. In any event, those of us who are not easily shocked would have no reason to answer this way. 

Seldom with the interrogatory. One could ask a troll a question (If that should be so, then how do you explain…), but then they’re in the game for attention-seeking and emotional-wounding, not a solid discussion. They are not interested in answering responsively for discussion; they’ll answer responsively to prolong the conversation to wound others, get attention, or praise themselves.  

If at all, respond with the declarative. One answers coldly to a troll, in direct, terse statements (point by point, nothing too much, nothing emotional). Argument is wasted on trolls, rhetoric is wasted on them, electrons are wasted on them.  The troll wants a fraught conversation with serious people; serious people should want a quick dispatch for the troll. 

How Silk Is Made From Silkworm Cocoons:

 

Daily Bread, Foreign Affairs, Putin, Russia, Ukraine, War

Daily Bread for 10.8.22: The Kerch Bridge

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Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 57. Sunrise is 7:01 AM and sunset 6:23 PM for 11h 24m 55s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 97.9% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1871, the Peshtigo Fire devastates a Wisconsin community: 

On this date Peshtigo, Wisconsin was devastated by a fire which took 1,200 lives. The fire caused over $2 million in damages and destroyed 1.25 million acres of forest. This was the greatest human loss due to fire in the history of the United States. The Peshtigo Fire was overshadowed by the Great Chicago fire which occurred on the same day, killing 250 people and lasting three days.  

The Kerch Bridge to illegally-occupied Crimea has partially collapsed following one or more explosions. See Blast damages Crimea bridge central to Russia war effort. Retired Australian Gen. Mick Ryan offers a careful initial analysis in a tweet thread:

Can’t emphasize enough how, on Twitter or elsewhere, one should rely on serious and grounded analyses like Ryan’s. Ryan’s Twitter account, @WarintheFuture, is a valuable resource on military analysis. 

As a matter of rhetoric, not military science, Jessica Berlin, @berlin_bridge, a Germany-based internationalist and supporter of Ukraine, had a well-crafted response when the news first emerged about damage to the Russian-built Kerch bridge: 

Clever, very clever. 

If you’re on Twitter, both @WarintheFuture and @berlin_bridge are well-worth following. For more on Ryan, see https://mickryan.com.au. For more on Berlin, see https://www.jessica.berlin. 

Ukraine war: Fire engulfs bridge spanning from Crimea to Russia after explosion:

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America, Daily Bread, Economy, Employment

Daily Bread for 10.7.22: National Jobs Numbers Still Strong

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Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 53. Sunrise is 6:59 AM and sunset 6:24 PM for 11h 24m 55s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 94.5% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1774, Wisconsin Becomes Part of Quebec:

On this date Britain passed the Quebec Act, making Wisconsin part of the province of Quebec. Enacted by George III, the act restored the French form of civil law to the region. The Thirteen Colonies considered the Quebec Act as one of the “Intolerable Acts,” as it nullified Western claims of the coast colonies by extending the boundaries of the province of Quebec to the Ohio River on the south and to the Mississippi River on the west.

U.S. Job Growth Cools but Remains Solid:

The labor market remained strong in September, showing its resilience. But the persistent strength in hiring also underscored the challenges facing the Federal Reserve as it tries to curtail job growth enough to tame inflation.

Employers added 263,000 jobs last month on a seasonally adjusted basis, the Labor Department said Friday. That was down from 315,000 in August. The unemployment rate fell to 3.5 percent, from 3.7 percent a month earlier.

“If I had just woken up from a really long nap and seen these numbers, I would conclude that we still have one of the strongest job markets that we’ve ever enjoyed,” said Carl Tannenbaum, chief economist at Northern Trust.

Labor participation was little changed in September, at 62.3 percent, around where it has hovered for the duration of the year but still below where it was before the pandemic. Wages rose 0.3 percent, matching the prior month’s gain.

The Federal Reserve’s next rate decision is scheduled for Nov. 2, and officials have emphasized that the central bank is watching the jobs data closely as they determine how aggressive to be. They are eager to see evidence that interest-rate increases are cooling off a frenzied labor market, but not enough to tip the economy into a recession. For months, job growth defied expectations, as employers continued to add workers despite increased borrowing costs.

Ukraine rights group learns of Nobel Peace Prize win:

Animals, Bad Ideas, Carnivores, City, Coyotepocalypse, Laws/Regulations

Friday Coyoteblogging: In Whitewater, People Won’t Feed Coyotes — Coyotes Will Feed on People

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I’ve warned Whitewater more than once about the probability of a coyote invasion. See Coyotes Begin War Against Humanity, Cat Defends Arizona Home Against Coyote, Coyotes abundant, troublesome in Rock County — GazetteXtra, Cat Defeats Three Coyotes in Combat, and Cat v. Coyote.

(Ludicrously, Whitewater last year passed a ban against feeding wildlife on homeowners’ private yards — including feeding chipmunks and squirrels, honest to goodness. All the while, the city took no action in the face of the looming coyotepocalypse. That’s a case of over- and under-regulation. It should have been obvious to Whitewater’s last council president that there was a greater threat facing this city. Some people simply can’t see the forest for the trees.

Alternatively, perhaps that gentleman was aware of the danger, and thought that banning squirrel feeding would reduce the supply of food for marauding coyotes. Oh, no, not at all! By banning the feeding of harmless squirrels and chipmunks, Whitewater’s ordinance will force ferocious predators to move up the food chain: pets, small children, then finally slow-moving adults.)

Even those generally sympathetic to coyotes, if not duped by them, unwittingly reveal where this trend leads.  David Drake, et al. write that Coyotes are here to stay in North American cities – here’s how to appreciate them from a distance  [emphasis added]:

Coyotes have become practically ubiquitous across the lower 48 United States, and they’re increasingly turning up in cities. The draws are abundant food and green space in urban areas.

At first these appearances were novelties, like the hot summer day in 2007 when a coyote wandered into a Chicago Quiznos sub shop and jumped into the beverage cooler. Within a few years, however, coyote sightings became common in the Bronx and Manhattan. In 2021 a coyote strolled into a Los Angeles Catholic school classroom. They’re also appearing in Canadian cities.

People often fear for their own safety, or for their children or pets, when they learn about coyotes in their neighborhoods. But as an interdisciplinary team studying how people and coyotes interact in urban areas, we know that peaceful coexistence is possible – and that these creatures actually bring some benefits to cities.

‘From a distance’ connotes to as far away as possible.

In parts of this country now overrun, if not truly dominated, by coyotes, pet owners have turned to private industry to protect their companion animals from depredation. CoyoteVest (‘Not Today, Coyote’), for example, equips small pets to face the dangers lurking outside:

In Whitewater, people won’t feed coyotes — coyotes will feed on people.

Yet, for it all, I am confident that we can prevail, if only we would focus on the true challenges facing us.

City, Film

Film: Tuesday, October 11th, 1:00 PM @ Seniors in the Park, Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris

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Tuesday, October 11th at 1:00 PM, there will be a showing of Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin Community Building:

Comedy/Drama

Rated PG, 1 hours, 55 minutes (2022).

A widowed cleaning lady in 1950s London falls madly in love with a couture Dior dress and decides that she must have one of her own. After she works, starves, and gambles to raise the funds to pursue her dream she embarks on a Paris Adventure, to the House of Dior.

One can find more information about Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris at the Internet Movie Database.